The Ninth Commandment

Introduction

Psalm 130:1–4 says, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”

During our series through the 10 Commandments, I have felt somewhat like the psalmist here… I have felt an overwhelming sense of the depths of my sin.

From that perspective, the series has been brutal… And yet, from another perspective, our study of the 10 Commandments has been amazingly glorious.

We have seen God’s grace at every turn… And we’ve thrown ourselves upon God’s promise to save in and through Christ alone.

We have also seen much of God’s own character revealed here.

God is our good heavenly Father… He’s the divine designer of human life in His image… He’s the faithful promise-keeper… and He’s the God who generously provides.

Today is going to be more of the same… Lord willing, we will learn the meaning of the 9th commandment… we will see something of God’s character revealed… we will feel our sin exposed… and we will cling to Jesus as our only hope.

Let’s turn now to Exodus 20 and read our passage for today… Page 57 in the hardback black Bibles.

Scripture Reading

Exodus 20:1–17 (ESV)

1 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Main point

Lying is no small sin, but the God of truth has shown grace, and He calls liars like us to honesty.

Message outline

What is the Ninth commandment?

The God of Truth & the Great Deceiver

How bad is our lying… really?

A true word of grace for liars like us

Message

1. What is the Ninth Commandment?

The 9th commandment is another straightforward prohibition… “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (v16).

Like the 6th, 7th, and 8th commands, it’s pretty short and direct… But unlike the few before, the 9th commandment seems more specific… I mean, doesn’t “bearing false witness” or “giving false testimony”? … refer to something you do in court? …I think most of us will probably never be in that situation.

Indeed, the 9th commandment is specifically talking about lying in a courtroom… or more specifically about lying as a dishonest witness in a legal case… falsely accusing someone of breaking the law.

As a matter of fact, the Bible offers a somewhat unique perspective of jurisprudence in the ancient world.

Throughout human history, it was-and-is common for societies to operate on the basis of assumed guilt, rather than innocence…. People were NOT innocent until proven guilty, but guilty until proven innocent.

The Bible, however, teaches a legal philosophy that is grounded in the fact that there is an ultimate judge who will always mete out perfect justice.

If there is no all-knowing and all-powerful judge, then it’s better to punish 100 innocent men than to let a single guilty one go free… But, if there is an ultimate judge… one that sees everything… one who knows the heart and mind of every man… and one who cannot be bribed or fooled… then we may rest assured that no guilty criminal will ever truly go free.

In fact, Deuteronomy 19 calls for a heavy burden on accusations… turn there with me for a moment… Page 152 in the hardback black Bibles.

v15 says, “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two… or… three witnesses shall a charge be established.”

Here we see the necessity in OT civil law to have at least two witnesses to establish any charge… This way, it’s not just your word against mine… but at least one other person is available to corroborate the testimony of the accuser.

Again, this was somewhat unique in the ancient world… A higher burden of proof made accusations harder and false convictions less likely… And the principle is carried over in the NT.

Incidentally, the high burden of proof in biblical legal philosophy has had a big influence on legal thinking in the western world… and we can see it on display in American legal theory.

But a dishonest person can always find at least one more… And false accusations are not uncommon… so, verses 16-21 address that.

“16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.” …The priests and the judges were those Israelites of good character who were set aside with the responsibility of applying God’s judgments among the people… To “appear before” them was ideally to bring your case to those who knew God’s word the best… and those who could apply it most faithfully to your specific case.

“18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” …The idea here is that a false accusation was so detrimental to societal peace and justice that anyone who bore false witness against another must suffer whatever penalty he or she was willing to wrongly bring on the accused.

Verses 20-21 teach that there is to be no “pity” on false accusers… and that their punishment was to be public… so that “the rest shall hear and fear.”

Everyone was to understand that a false witness was a horribly bad thing.

But, is that all the 9th commandment is saying? …Are we simply to avoid telling lies on the witness stand in a court of law?

No… One pastor wrote, “Remember how the Ten Commandments work. What they forbid is the most extreme form of any particular sin.” In other words, it is as though God was listing the most extreme example in order to condemn the thing as sin… in all its forms.

The pastor went on, “Murder is the worst kind of hatred, adultery is the most destructive sexual sin, and… the 9th commandment forbids the deadliest lie: one that condemns an innocent man for a crime he did not commit.”[1]

Indeed, the deadliest lie is the one that condemns and innocent person to suffer unjustly… but the implication is: ALL LIES ARE SIN.

Once again, we are confronted by a commandment that exposes our wickedness far more than we’d like to admit… and we also learn something amazing about God.

Let’s consider what we might learn about God from the 9th command… then let’s probe our own wickedness a bit… and then let’s find hope in God’s true word of grace.

2. The God of Truth & the Great Deceiver

What do we learn about God when He commands His people to avoid telling lies? …I argue: We learn about God’s own delight in the truth… He loves it!

The Bible is full of contrasts… literary tools to help the reader gain a better understanding of the message.

For example: the Bible contrasts light and dark (John 1:4-5; 1 John 1:5)… righteous and wicked (Malachi 3:18)… obedience and sin (Romans 6:16)… good and evil (Romans 16:19)… and the wise and the foolish (Proverbs 3:35).

But I think one of the most dominant contrasts… (maybe the chief contrast of Scripture)… is the contrast between the true and the false… truth and lies.

God and the devil are not opposite equals… God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, the ultimate sovereign over all things… and the devil is part of creation, one subordinate being among many others.

As R.C. Sproul used to put it… “Even the devil is God’s devil.”

But the Bible teaches us that the devil is opposed to everything God is and does… The devil is in direct conflict with God… God is the protagonist (or hero) in Scripture’s storyline, and the devil is the antagonist (or villain).

This seems no more obvious to me than in the biblical contrast between truth and deception.

The Bible introduces the devil in Genesis 3, and the very first thing we see or hear from him is a lie… he told Eve, “You will not surely die…” (3:4).

This was a flat out lie! …God had warned Adam that disobedience would lead to death, but the devil wagged his lying tongue and promised otherwise.

2 Corinthians 11:3 says that “the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning…”

In fact, the last book of the Bible teaches that the “ancient serpent, who is called the devil” is “the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).

Scripture teaches that the devil has “blinded the minds of [all] unbelievers [i.e. he has deceived all natural/unregenerate humans], to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

This is why Jesus spoke with such striking words to some of the unbelievers during His earthly ministry… He said, “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:43–44).

The Bible plainly portrays the devil as “the deceiver”… “a liar”… “the father of lies”… and one who is opposes truth… because there is no truth in him.

But… the Bible also emphatically reveals God as completely true and trustworthy!

The Bible says that Yahweh is the “true God” (John 17:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 John 5:20)… His “ways” and His “judgments” are “just and true” (Revelation 15:3, 16:7).

When God speaks, His words are “trustworthy and true” (John 17:17; Revelation 21:5)… In fact, the sum total of God’s words is the very definition of ultimate “truth” (Psalm 119:160).

God “never lies” (Titus 1:2)… Indeed, it is “impossible for God” to do so (Hebrews 6:18).

Only the biblical God is the “God of truth” (Isaiah 65:16)… He rules over truth… He defines truth… He IS truth.

Truth is a divine attribute or feature which is shared among the three persons of the Godhead… God the Father is true… God the Son is true… and God the Spirit is true.

God’s Spirit is called the “Spirit of truth” (John 15:26; 1 John 4:6)… and He guides God’s people “into all the truth” (John 16:13)… And, of course, Jesus Christ – God the Son – said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6).

All of this is to say that God loves truth… He is truth personified… and the 9th commandment reveals or at least highlights this fact.

When God forbids lying, He is calling His people to live in keeping with His own honest character… He is no liar, nor should any of His people be.

But humans are, in fact, natural liars… and we can all testify.

Anyone who’s ever had kids knows that you don’t have to teach a child to lie… the little sinners figure it out all on their own.

But some of us might be thinking, “If everyone lies… then can it really be that bad?” Or maybe you’re thinking, “I know I’ve not been perfectly honest all my life, but surely this sin isn’t a huge issue for me today.”

Well, that leads me to point number 3…

3. How bad is our lying… really?

We would all probably do well to spend some time thinking about lying… examining our own sinful tendency to lie… to deceive… to be like the devil.

I’d like to do that today… and I’m going to do that by considering the different target audiences of our lies.

Who hears us lie? …And what do they hear us lying about?

Here is my answer to the question I’ve posed in point 3 (“How bad is our lying… really?”)… and also my 3 subpoints to unpack the answer:

How bad is our lying? Our lying is really bad… it’s bad because it’s wicked (We’re most like the devil when we lie)… and it’s bad because it’s pervasive (We are probably more comfortable with lying than we realize, so it shows up nearly everywhere)… (1) We lie to the world around us; (2) We lie to ourselves; and (3) We lie to other Christians.

Let’s go through each one in turn.

(1) We lie to the world around us. This is true for both Christians and non-Christians alike… We lie to others because we want them to think we’re better than we truly are… or because we don’t want them to really know us.

We want to seem smarter, or more successful, or prettier, or wealthier, or better organized, or more disciplined, or less sinful than we truly are… So, we lie… we exaggerate… we hide the truth.

We lie by cheating on tests or by padding our resume… We lie about how important our job is or how significant our contribution was to some project or another… We lie by concealing our blemishes and by posting our glamour shots on social media… claiming, “Oh, that’s just me on a random Tuesday.”

We lie by wearing jewelry or clothes, or by driving cars or indulging in luxuries that we can’t afford… We lie by spending 6 hours to clean the house before guests come… or by comparing our strengths to others’ weaknesses.

We lie to the world around us because we want to be liked by those around us… And we imagine that if they ever knew the truth about us, then they would never respect or appreciate or admire us… So, we lie.

Friends, do you lie like this? …Do you exaggerate often? …Do you hide the truth… so that you can make yourself appear better?

What does this say about your relationships with others?

What does this reveal about your fear of God… or your fear of man?

(2) We lie to ourselves. Again, both Christians and non-Christians do this.

It seems to me that the Bible teaches that self-deception is fundamental to living as a child of Adam… I see this especially in Romans 1… Turn there with me for a moment… Page 883 in the hardback black Bibles.

Romans 1:18 says, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” …Do you see that?! …Unrighteous people – that’s everyone, apart from Christ; every human after Adam – suppress the truth.

Natural/fallen/sinful humans aren’t neutral when it comes to truth… We are naturally truth-suppressors… truth-restrainers… truth-hinderers.

And what is the central focus or aim of our common truth-suppression?

Look at v19… “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

What a horrifying passage! …Natural, unconverted people suppress or hinder the truth… ABOUT GOD!

This passage should terrify anyone here today who might feel no sense of urgency about God’s judgment or about clinging to God’s grace in Jesus.

Friend, are you at ease in sin today? …Don’t you realize that your own heart is your enemy?! …Trust God’s word over your own lying desires!

Romans 1 is talking about non-Christians in particular, and Christians are those who have received new minds… new hearts… a new love and affection for the truth about God… But Christians are not completely free from the old tendency to suppress the truth.

When we read a Bible passage that strikes against our current beliefs or practices… what are we likely to do? …Immediately confess our error and adopt a new way of thinking and acting? …Not likely!

When a Christian brother or sister points out some untrue idea or unbiblical habit of ours… We are probably far more likely to treat them as an enemy than as a friend… We are likely to lie to ourselves about how confident we are to keep right on believing and practicing our error.

Brothers and sisters, we are naturally truth-suppressors.

In fact, James 1 warns us that we are liable to “deceive ourselves” (v22)… It is not uncommon for people to “look intently” at their errors, exposed by God’s word, and then “go away and at once forget” what they saw (v23-25).

We naturally lie to ourselves… May God help us understand this tendency and may He help us to war against it.

Friends, do you live like self-deception is a real threat to you?

Do you invite good friends to help you assess or evaluate your perspective of anything?

Has your Bible-reading ever changed your mind on a subject?

If you never welcome constructive criticism or give others an opportunity to offer you helpful correction, how will you ever learn to see your blind spots?

(3) We lie to other Christians. Here I’m thinking especially of Christians.

In Colossians 3, “slander” and “lying to one another” are listed among those things that mark the life of an unbeliever… but in the same passage, Christians are instructed to stop doing these things (Colossians 3:8-9).

Now… the only reason you might have to tell anyone to stop doing something is if they are currently doing it… Therefore, we can conclude that Christians are not totally free from the sinful practices of slander and lying.

“Slander” is a word spoken with malicious or harmful intent… the range includes both false accusations as well as true statements that put a person in undue negative light.

The most common situation in which slander occurs is gossip… In fact, the two concepts are closely related in the Bible (Romans 1:29-30).

Ephesians 4:30-31 teaches us that slander and gossip among local church members “grieves the Holy Spirit of God” …There certainly are few diseases that will infect a church more devastatingly than slander and gossip.

Malicious and unloving chatter among local church members will destroy unity… it will extinguish the fire of real/authentic relationships… and it will smear the reputation of the church… sometimes for years or even decades.

Friends, when we hear gossip or slander, coming from our own mouths or the mouths of others, we should stop it immediately and pray for God’s help.

But even those of us who avoid gossip are still prone to lie to one another by pretending that we’re fine… when, in fact, we all know that we’re not fine.

Churchgoers seem to have bought into the devilish lie that Christians are the “good” people… But that’s ridiculous… and naïve.

Christians are not “good” people… at least not in the biblical sense of goodness… We are all bad people… sinful people… We are sinners who know what it feels like to have Jesus cleanse us from our guilt and shame.

We do strive to live as “good” people in the world… but we understand that Jesus was the only truly good person.

Why, then, should it surprise you that I sin? …Why should it surprise you that I would ask you about your sin? …Why should you avoid asking each other about sin?

Clint led us in a prayer of confession this morning… and we all confessed along with him… We are sinners in need of God’s grace again today.

But even if we do admit that we’re sinful in general… many of us are still reluctant to speak honestly to one another about specific sin.

So often, we act like our sin is nobody’s business… But, that’s not true!

To be a church member is to relinquish the right to any “off-limit” conversations… If you’re a church member, then you are promising to “strive towards a life of holiness, righteousness, and Christ-likeness…” and to “participate in biblical discipline and accountability” (7 and 8 of our MC).

We all know we’re still sinful… and we know that we need help to expose our sin and also to war against it… That’s a major part of the benefit of local church membership! …We join up with a bunch of Christians in the same effort to no longer live as slaves of sin but as slaves to God (Romans 6:20-23).

An important side note here… is that we should always “speak the truth IN LOVE to one another” (Ephesians 4:15)… We are just as prone to sin by legalistically accusing one another as we are prone to sin by lying about our sin struggles and keeping our distance.

Only when we speak the truth in love… neither harshly judging one another nor avoiding authenticity with one another… will we all “grow up in every way into him who is [our] head… [Jesus] Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

Brothers and sisters, you ought to have at least a few people in your life who know the worst stuff about you… and who love you anyway… Who are those people in your life? …Who will you invite into this kind of relationship?

4. A true word of grace for liars like us

God has commanded us not to “bear false witness” (Exodus 20:16)… which includes a prohibition against lying in all its forms.

And the truth of the matter is… that we have all broken this command… lots and often… We have lied to others, we have lied to ourselves, and we have suppressed the truth of God in numerous ways.

So, what do we do now?

Well, I’ve already called for us to stop lying… and I’ve even offered specific ways for us to identify our tendency to lie… I’ve also offered some ways for us to strive for greater truth… in our everyday speech and in our relationships.

But all of that content is based on the more important reality that there is hope for liars like us.

It can be both wonderful and dreadful to think about God’s truthful character… God doesn’t pretend that we are not liars… and He doesn’t withhold the truth from us, no matter how much it hurts.

As a matter of fact, the truth of the gospel… the ground of any hope we have… starts with some hurtful words of truth.

During our time in the 10 Commandments, 1 Corinthians 6 has been a wonderful New Testament passage to consider… because it refers to at least 4 of the 10… and also because it directly offers gospel hope to those who’ve broken God’s commands.

I spent a little time there a couple of Sundays ago, when we were focusing on the 7th commandment… adultery and sexual immorality… and I’d like to revisit that passage this morning.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6:9… Page 897 in the hardback black Bibles.

In a seemingly miscellaneous list of pastoral instructions, the Apostle Paul was telling the church members in Corinth how they were to live… primarily how they were to conduct themselves as a church.

In chapters 5 and 6, Paul was especially addressing the differences between church members (i.e. Christians) and the world of unbelievers outside… In short, Christians in the church are to live with humility and holiness.

But their holy living is supposed to spring out of what God has already done in Christ to make them holy… The Christian doesn’t (indeed, the Christian cannot) earn the status of “holy” by way of his or her actions in life.

v9 says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

These two verses speak God’s offensive words of truth to us… Indeed, the good news of the gospel begins with God’s true words about our wickedness.

Those who break the 7th commandment… the “sexually immoral,” “adulterers,” and those “who practice homosexuality” will not “inherit the kingdom of God” …That is, when they die, they won’t enter into eternal glory, but eternal damnation.

The same is true of those who break the 8th commandment… “thieves” …and those who break the 2nd commandment… “idolaters” …and those who break the 10th commandment… “the greedy” or “the covetous.”

The 9th commandment is not explicitly listed among this sin-list… but it is listed elsewhere… For example: Revelation 21:8 says, “the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, [the] murderers, the sexually immoral, [the] sorcerers, [the] idolaters, and all liars… their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Friends, you will never be able to hear God’s true word of grace until you first hear God’s true word of condemnation against you.

You and I are sinners, and we deserve God’s wrath, not His blessings.

But look again at 1 Corinthians 6… this time at v11… It says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

These words were originally written to Christians whose lives had been marked by all of those sins! …The kind of sin that damns people to hell was exactly the stuff they used to do and be.

The beauty of the gospel is that God loved and saved guilty sinners… not deserving “good” people!

And, the profound wonder of the gospel is that God “washed” and “justified” guilty sinners… liars like us… “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”!

This is referring to the person and work of Jesus, which is the beating heart of the gospel message.

God’s true word of grace comes by way of His own sacrifice… God the Son, Jesus Christ, suffered the penalty for sinners like us… and in so doing, He washed and sanctified and justified all those who would trust in Him.

As we will sing in just a moment… “For my life He bled and died…” God’s “justice has been satisfied…” And we can know for certain that “He will hold us fast!”

Friends, let us acknowledge our tendency to lie… to exaggerate… and to hide the truth.

Let us confess our sins before the Lord… He is faithful to forgive.

And, brothers and sisters, let us strive to be more like our heavenly Father… who is the God of truth… God help us to live honestly.

Bibliography

Alexander, T. Desmond. Exodus. Baker Books, 2016.

Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. W.W. Norton, 2004.

Blackburn, W. Ross. The God Who Makes Himself Known: The Missionary Heart of the Book of Exodus. IVP Academic, 2012.

Dever, Mark. The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made. Crossway, 2006.

DeYoung, Kevin. The 10 Commandments: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them. Crossway, 2018.

Duncan, Ligon. Does God Care How We Worship?. P&R Publishing, 2020.

Hamilton, James M. God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology. Crossway, 2010.

Henry, Matthew. Commentary: Volume 1: Genesis to Deuteronomy. Hendrickson Publishers, 2006.

Luther, Martin. The Large Catechism. Translated by F. Bente and W.H.T. Dan. Published in: Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921.

http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-boc.html

Ryken, Philip. Exodus: Saved for God's Glory. Crossway Books, 2015.

Sailhamer, John. The Pentateuch As Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary. Zondervan Publishing House, 1992.

Sproul, R. C. Truths We Confess: A Layman’s Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith. Volume 2. P & R Publishing, 2007.

Endnotes

[1] Ryken, 615.