TEN 9: The Ninth Commandment
TEN: A Look at God's Unwavering Commands • Sermon • Submitted
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B: Exodus 20:16
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Opening
Opening
Welcome to those in the room and online. Thank the band.
God Loves You Tour Christian Life & Witness Course by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Expo NM this Thursday from 6-9 pm. Calvary Church Saturday, August 21 from 9am-noon. Register for the training at GodLovesYouTour.com.
Pray for teachers and students in this new school year.
We’re in our last two weeks of our series on the Ten Commandments. Last week, we considered the Eighth Word: Do not steal. Today, we will look at the Ninth. Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we read our very short focal passage this morning and pray:
16 Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.
PRAYER, including prayer for Shia Muslims and the Gospel: that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God will shine in the hearts of Shia women.
How many of you have had to serve on a jury? I can’t remember how long ago I was asked to serve on a jury, but my pool was called up for two trials during my time of service. The first trial we were to be called to adjudicate never took place, at least not during our time. This is because of something that happened in the hallway outside of the courtroom. The bailiff came and escorted us down to the courtroom while some preliminary motions were being taken care of prior to the start of the trial. Unfortunately, the motions weren’t resolved before we actually arrived at the courtroom, and so our jury pool was asked to stand against the wall in the hallway for a moment as the bailiff when in to the check on the status.
As we were standing there, just a little ways down the hall were three people speaking very excitedly, very passionately, very loudly in Spanish. I don’t speak or understand much Spanish (I’m working on it), but one thing I can do is read faces. Not the faces of the people speaking. The faces of two of my fellow jurors, whose eyes got very big and who started looking around worriedly. I asked them if they understood what was being said. They nodded. I asked if the people down the hall were talking about the trial we were about to be jurors for. They said yes. The jury, or at least anyone on the jury who could understand Spanish, was tainted.
So I walked into the courtroom while things were still being discussed. The judge looked up, noticed my juror badge, and asked, “Excuse me, can I help you?” I apologized for the interruption, and informed her that there were witnesses in the coming trial out in the hallway talking very loudly about the case within the earshot of the jurors. To say that she was not happy would be an understatement. Through clenched teeth, and red in the face, she told both attorneys to get everyone in the room immediately. She then thanked me for letting her know, and asked me to step back out into the hallway.
After a couple of minutes of additional waiting, we were asked back in to the courtroom, where the judge thanked us for our time, but that we would be sent back up to the jury room to await being used for a different trial, as the conversation in the hallway had apparently included some inadmissible statements, and so the only way to guarantee a fair trial was to reschedule for a different jury pool. Because of the witnesses’ irresponsibility and (perhaps) falsehood, justice would have to wait for another day.
Language is such a powerful thing, isn’t it? Language is an essential part of our social fabric. Therefore, truthful language to and about each other is critical. In the context of the time and people to whom the Ten Words were given, adherence to the Ninth Commandment was very often a matter of life and death, as we will see in a moment.
The Ninth Commandment is connected to many of the others. The Third, because both relate to the use of a name: in the Third, God’s name; and the Ninth, God’s image bearer’s name. The Sixth, because it is doubtful that we would have a desire to kill a fellow human if we did not first speak falsely about them in to at least ourselves. The Seventh, because when we commit adultery, we declare that we gave false testimony at the marriage altar. The Eighth, because usually our stealing something comes with some form of deception.
But of course, it is (as all of the Ten Words are) connected directly to the First Commandment. The Ten Commandments each reflect on some character of God, and thus to violate one of them violates the first, because we ultimately decide that what we want is most important, and so we should be able to take God’s place by making our own rules.
This morning, we will look at seven different ways we violate the Ninth Commandment according to Scripture. The first is the one that the Ninth Word most directly speaks to:
1: The sin of perjury.
1: The sin of perjury.
Perjury is the act of giving false testimony in a court action. Even today, eyewitness testimony is a critical component in legal cases, especially criminal ones. Since the Ten Words are the giving of the Law of God, it makes sense that this is really the initial focus of the Ninth Word. Just to repeat it:
16 Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.
Given that many things in the Law of the nation of Israel were capital crimes, God made it clear that for a witness to testify was a serious matter, and one that should not be trifled with. No one could be condemned to death on the testimony of a single witness: at least two were required by Law:
6 The one condemned to die is to be executed on the testimony of two or three witnesses. No one is to be executed on the testimony of a single witness.
Not only that, but being a witness in a capital case held a grave responsibility. If you were one of the witnesses who gave testimony that condemned a fellow Israelite to death, you had to be one of the first to take action to execute them, as a means of reaffirming the truth of your testimony: You could not simply testify against someone and let the government deal with them:
7 The witnesses’ hands are to be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from you.
So truthfulness in the courts of those who received the Ten Words first was vital, and so God gave a clear command to the people that they were not to falsely testify about one another.
Interestingly, there are two instructions given regarding the ramifications for violating the Ninth Commandment for the people of Israel. The first is when someone intentionally lies in court:
16 “If a malicious witness testifies against someone accusing him of a crime, 17 the two people in the dispute are to stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges in authority at that time. 18 The judges are to make a careful investigation, and if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, 19 you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you. 20 Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.
So whatever the false witness hoped would happen to the person they were lying about was to happen to them instead, so that first, the evil of lying would be purged from Israel, and second, so that everyone else would be afraid to try the same thing in the future. That’s a good reason to not testify falsely.
The second instruction was for what was basically perjury by silence: a person could be held accountable for not testifying in a case when they knew that they should:
1 “When someone sins in any of these ways: If he has seen, heard, or known about something he has witnessed, and did not respond to a public call to testify, he will bear his iniquity.
Yes, we can violate the Ninth Commandment by silence as well. Consider what James said:
17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
So if the courtroom was likely the initial central focus of the Ninth Commandment, why can’t we just stop the sermon here and now? I mean, we’ve considered the Commandment and it’s application in context. Let’s do the invitation and go home? Why do we still have six more ways that we violate this Commandment? I can say that after the last two weeks of messages on murder/anger and stealing, it would be nice to say that this was it… If we’ve never lied in court, then we’ve never violated this Command. But we all know that’s not the case. Philip Ryken, in his commentary on Exodus wrote:
Exodus—Saved for God's Glory Liar! Liar!
A courtroom is not the only place where someone can give false testimony. Remember how the Ten Commandments work. What they forbid is the most extreme form of any particular sin. Murder is the worst kind of hatred, adultery is the most destructive sexual sin, and so on. Similarly, the ninth commandment forbids the deadliest lie: one that condemns an innocent man for a crime he did not commit.
Since each of the Ten Words point back to God’s character and greatness, and thus violating any of them ultimately violates the First Commandment, then we can apply the Ninth much more broadly than just in the realm of the courts. Our God is the God who speaks, and when He speaks, He does so in alignment with His character. God’s character is absolutely true, and therefore God cannot lie (as stated in Titus 1:2 and Hebrews 6:18). Since God does not lie, His people who bear His name should not lie either.
In contrast, Jesus calls Satan “the father of lies,” in John 8:44, and thus when Satan lies, he speaks in alignment with his character as well:
44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out 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 tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
So the same question can be asked that I asked last week. Who do you want to be more like: God or Satan? Again, I’m sure that most, if not all of us, would answer “God.” Then we are going to have to deal with our tendency to lean away from the truth in other ways that just perjury.
Then there is the side of the Great Commandment, which we considered in the first week as well. The first four Words deal mostly with loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The Fifth connects the God-given authority of parents with the way we act in society and thus treat other people. The Sixth through Tenth Commandments are all about how we love our neighbor as ourselves.
Taken in a more positive light, we could reframe the Ninth Word as: “Always speak truthfully.” Not speaking truthfully violates the fabric of our relationships with one another. So let’s consider six more ways that we might violate the Ninth Commandment:
2: The sin of deception.
2: The sin of deception.
The blatant, bald-faced lie is the clearest violation of the Ninth Commandment. We deceive when we tell someone something that is just patently untrue, with the intention that they rely upon that false statement either to our advantage or to their detriment (or both). We tell lies in order to make ourselves look better, to get out of trouble, to avoid a possible conflict, or to gain an advantage over someone else. Well, the simple way to put it is that the Lord hates lying:
16 The Lord hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to him: 17 arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil, 19 a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.
In a list of seven things that the Lord hates, lying shows up not just once, but TWICE. The problem with deception is that its a reflection of our lack of trust and/or our submission to God. He is the God of Truth. Jesus said that He is the truth. When we deceive others, we show that we care more about ourselves than we do about God’s truth or His command. If God hates something, and that is the thing that we do, then we must think that we are more important than what God says. God hates a lying tongue. And His condemnation of those who live by lies is severe:
8 But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
15 Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Obviously, lying is a serious issue to God. If you find that you live by lies, then you should be concerned. The person who claims to follow God should put lying away, and be honest in their speech, not in order to be saved, but because they have been saved and have a responsibility to their neighbor:
25 Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another.
Now, whenever I would teach on lying when I was the youth pastor, I always expected (and usually had) a student ask the “exception” question. Is there an “acceptable” time to deceive someone? Yes. I can think of three. All of them come down to a question of motive.
The first is when you deceive someone for a truly positive purpose. Deceiving someone you’re throwing a surprise party for is acceptable. Hiding a gift that you bought for someone isn’t sinful. In these cases, there is every intent for the truth to come out, and the deception actually is a part of maximizing of the blessing, because it brings the surprise.
The second is this: It’s not deceptive to keep a secret that should be kept from someone who has no right to know the information. You don’t need to tell everyone your social security number, your PIN to your debit card or to unlock your phone, or your home address just because they ask for it or want it. Also, if someone tells you a secret, and that secret is something that no one else needs to know or has a right to know, then it is not deceptive to keep that secret, even if someone asks about it.
And finally, and most seriously, it is not sinful to lie in order to preserve someone’s life? Consider Rahab, who lied to the Jericho leaders about the Israelite spies. Or Jonathan, who lied to protect David from Saul. Or people like the Ten Boom family in Holland who hid Jewish refugees from the Germans in the second World War. If you were placed in a situation where telling the truth would mean the wrongful death of another person, then the requirement to preserve innocent life takes priority over the requirement to always speak truthfully.
But before we think we’ve found a loophole, and that we can lie “for someone’s own good,” understand that that these are questions of motive. If we have to talk ourselves into believing that our lying is ok, we’re really just lying to ourselves. Any “exceptions” that we might want to have to the spirit of the Ninth Commandment should be weighed very, very heavily.
3: The sin of insult.
3: The sin of insult.
The sin of insult is when we speak in a way that is damaging to someone else in order to build ourselves up. This violation of the Ninth Word definitely goes with the Sixth: that lashing out and calling people names or disparaging their character in a vicious manner not only is us putting them to death spiritually (remember Jesus’ statement in the Sermon on the Mount?), but it is also destroying their reputation as well. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten really good at insults, and in fact, we might even pat ourselves on the back for a particularly witty or sarcastic one. I’m preaching to myself here, believe me. But this isn’t what should identify us as followers of Jesus:
29 No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.
We should only speak what is good for building up someone in need, so it gives grace to those who hear it. Both to the one we are speaking to and anyone else in earshot. Just to be clear: this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t call sin sin, or that we shouldn’t hold someone accountable to what it right, or that we shouldn’t bring correction when that is necessary. Those things are good for building up someone in need. The question is how and why we do those things.
If our words are consistently insulting, then there is something wrong in our hearts. Jesus said that what we say comes from the overflow of our hearts:
34 Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. 35 A good person produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil person produces evil things from his storeroom of evil. 36 I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak.
Our words are to be used to be a blessing to others, not to bring them down so that we can bring ourselves up. The two don’t go together:
9 With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. 10 Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.
If it shouldn’t be this way, then what way should it be? It should be that we use our tongues to bless other people and bless God whenever possible.
If you only ever feel better when you’ve made someone else feel worse, this is a big problem. We will look at James 3 more closely during our series through James during October and November. One thing we need to make clear is that this sin of insulting can be to the person directly, or to someone else. And when it’s to someone else, then it gets into our next category of violating the Ninth Commandment:
4: The sin of gossip.
4: The sin of gossip.
Earl Wilson once said, “Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t.” J. John wrote that: “Gossip is repeating private information to someone who is neither part of the problem nor part of the solution.” We may dress it up however we want: “Maybe I shouldn’t mention this, but...” or “Have you heard about...” or “I’m really concerned for him, because...” We share the story because it’s juicy and exciting, not because we want to be a blessing.
8 A gossip’s words are like choice food that goes down to one’s innermost being.
When we gossip, we poison the mind of the hearer against the person we are speaking about, and the poison can never really be extracted…it’s gone down to the hearer’s innermost being, and they won’t look at the person you’ve gossiped about the same again.
But again, we look for a loophole: “What if the gossip we are telling is TRUE? I’m not violating the Ninth Commandment then, right?” While the words might be true, damaging someone’s reputation behind their backs to someone else shows that the part that’s false is your motive for sharing it. Again, I’ll quote Philip Ryken:
Exodus—Saved for God's Glory Liar! Liar!
before we open our mouths and start talking about someone else, we need to ask ourselves some hard questions: Is what I am about to say true? If so, does it really need to be said to this person in this conversation? Would I put it this way if the person I’m talking about were here to listen? If our words fail these simple tests, then it would be better for us not to speak at all.
Gossip also needs a recipient, and where there is no recipient, the gossip can go no further.
20 Without wood, fire goes out; without a gossip, conflict dies down.
Dwight Moody wrote about a woman named Hannah Moore who had a method for dealing with when gossip came her way. She would say, “Come, we will go and ask if it be true.” He went on to write:
Weighed and Wanting: Addresses on the Ten Commandments How to Overcome
The effect was sometimes ludicrously painful. The tale bearer was taken aback, stammered out a qualification, or begged that no notice might be taken of the statement. But the good lady was inexorable. Off she took the scandal-monger to the scandalized to make inquiry and compare accounts.
It is not likely that anybody ventured a second time to repeat a gossipy story to Hannah Moore.
5: The sin of exaggeration.
5: The sin of exaggeration.
Before we get too far, let me be clear: Not all exaggeration is sin. My story earlier contained no exaggeration. But I know that I use exaggeration for comedic effect often in every day life. When Melanie wants to say that something happened alot, she has a favorite number that she uses: 852. She doesn’t mean 852, and I don’t think any of us would assume that she means 852. It’s hyperbole. But the point of saying 852 isn’t that someone believe that it was 852 times when it wasn’t.
The sin of exaggeration is that sometimes we exaggerate in an attempt to deceive. We exaggerate the amount of traffic there was in order to get out of being late. We exaggerate how far we ran or walked, or how many hours we worked, or how much money we spent so that we can look better in someone’s eyes. Or the big one for pastors: we exaggerate how many people were in the pews on Sunday morning to other pastors so we can seem more important or something.
There’s a great example of this in Scripture: Ananias and Sapphira. Perhaps they wanted a cool name like “Barnabas (Son of Encouragement)” like Joseph from Cyprus was called, and he had sold a field and get the proceeds to the church (see Acts 4:36-37). Anyway, they sold a field, and kept some of the money back for themselves. This was actually just fine for them to do. But they came and exaggerated what they had brought, saying that it was the whole amount when it wasn’t. The Spirit of God knew what the truth was, and He revealed that to Peter, who confronted Ananias with it. And Ananias dropped dead. Then his wife came by later and Peter checked with her as well:
8 “Tell me,” Peter asked her, “did you sell the land for this price?” “Yes,” she said, “for that price.”
She also died. See, both of them wanted some sort of reputation gain from their exaggeration, and it failed miserably.
We really should just speak what is true. We don’t need to add to it or embellish it so that others rely on it.
37 But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.
I’m going to have our sixth one be what might be a subset of exaggeration, but it’s common enough to let it stand on its own.
6: The sin of flattery.
6: The sin of flattery.
Have you ever watched the tryouts of American Idol? Invariably, there is someone who is brought in before the judges who is just absolutely terrible. They can’t sing well enough for any form of public consumption, much less well enough to compete on the show. They are victims of the sin of flattery. Someone in their life told them that they sing really well. Maggie sings beautifully, and tried out for American Idol when the tryouts were here. You don’t just get to go sing for the TV judges. You sing for other people first. Those people flattered as well: they congratulated them for being sent through to the TV judges, when they only did it for one purpose: so that they would look foolish on national television as they got crushed by the judges, which makes for great clips for commercials for the show. They put cringeworthy performances through to TV because it gets them ratings.
Proverbs says this about flattery:
28 A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.
Flattery is just manipulation through compliment. Jen Wilkin said it this way in Ten Words to Live By:
“When is a compliment not a compliment? When it is offered to cajole or control… It is manipulation masked as praise, often employed to artificially enhance trust or secure favor.” (p. 129)
Ultimately, flattery is false. And the neighbor you are giving the false testimony to is your neighbor themselves.
7: The sin of blameshifting.
7: The sin of blameshifting.
Probably one of the methods of violating the Ninth Commandment that most of us has employed in our lives is blameshifting. We blame someone, something, anything else for our shortcomings and sin, rather than just owning it ourselves. It’s a tale nearly as old as time, going all the way back to our first parents:
10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
“The woman...” it’s her fault, God… “That YOU gave me...” it’s kind of YOUR fault, in a way, God. “The serpent...” it’s that thing’s fault, God…
If there’s a part that you can put in your account, in a conflict, then put it in your account and own it. Don’t pass it to someone else, or make an excuse for it. Just confess it, ask for forgiveness for it, and go down the road. We don’t need to make excuses for our sin: everyone else is in the same boat with us. We sin because we are broken, and our flesh hasn’t been fully crucified, and we fail.
The wonderful thing about the Gospel, though is that the ultimate shifting of blame happened about 2000 years ago. The blame for our sins was shifted over to the blameless One, who took the punishment for us and died so that we could live. That’s why we can honestly own our sin: because it’s already been paid for, so we’ve been set free. We don’t have to hide behind fig leaves like Adam and Eve did: we can come to God because He has made the sacrifice of His own Son to cover the nakedness of our flesh. Jesus was perfect, and didn’t deserve to die. We aren’t perfect and do deserve death. So Jesus took our punishment on Himself, the perfect for the imperfect, so we could be saved if we trust in His sacrifice, and not our performance, to save us.
Application
Application
This application of the Ninth Word does not, however, mean that we can just wield truth like a club, bashing everyone over the head. Truth in love.
15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.
But this also doesn’t mean that we don’t speak the truth. Warren Wiersbe is quoted as saying, “Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.” We should be loving as we bring correction, as we engage in conversation, as we do life together.
Basically, we should always “THINK” before we speak. I first heard this from Sam Swann back at Winter Retreat a long time ago, but have heard it in a couple of other ways since then. Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? Is it kind?
This includes our typing in emails and on social media.
Closing
Closing
The old saying is that “honesty is the best policy.” The Ninth Word shows that that is the case. Because God is the God who speaks, and because He always speaks what is true, then we as His children should strive to be truthful in everything we say, even as we do so in love.
Invitation to respond to the Gospel.
Invitation to join the church.
Invitation to confession and repentance.
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading: Isaiah 4 today, then continuing one chapter per day.
Instructions (Invite visitors to come meet you)
Benediction
1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, 3 if you have tasted that the Lord is good.
