The Ten Commandments: False Witness (War With Eurasia)

Text:

Exodus 20:16 (ESV) — 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Intro:

The Law reveals God’s nature

Christ is the fulfillment of the Law - Romans 10:3–4 (ESV) — 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Christ is Righteousness, Rightness. He is pure Light and pure Truth.

And that’s what we are dealing with today, primarily the aspect of Truth.

Here’s how scripture frequently describes God:

Titus 1:1–3 (ESV) — 1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

Psalm 12:6 (ESV) — 6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.

John 14:6 (ESV) — 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 1:14 (ESV) — 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17–18 (ESV) — 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

1 John 5:20 (ESV) — 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Pilate famously asked Jesus, “what is truth”?

God is truth. Jesus is truth. They hold our universe together with rightness and fact and accuracy.

And to take part in a lie is the quintessential sin. It was Adam and Eve’s sin from the very beginning - the believing of a lie. It was the serpent’s first tactic, and Jesus’ condemns liars as satan’s children:

John 8:44–47 (ESV) — 44 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. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

To lie is to void our image-bearing.

False Witness

This condemns outright false accusation.

If you are called to bear witness to an event or court and you use your testimony falsely to hurt, or cover up, or to escape personal trouble, then you are guilty of the great sin of bearing false witness. It is corrupt, deceitful, villainous.

Deuteronomy 19:18–19 (ESV) — 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.

Exodus 23:2 (ESV) — 2 You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice,

Proverbs 25:18 (ESV) — 18 A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.

Deuteronomy 19:15 (ESV) — 15 “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 witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.

Matthew 18:16 (ESV) — 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

It is better to a guilty man to escape prosecution than to accuse him on the testimony of one person.

Lying

Deception in the courtroom of our lives and relationships.

There can be no community without trust, and trust comes with a commitment to the truth. There can be no church where there is no truth.

Examples:

Did we tell mom and dad that we cleaned our room when we only shoved things under the bed and in the closet?

Did we accurately report what we spent on the shopping trip?

Do we try to cover our internet history or where we were when we came home late?

Do we accurately report our income?

Do we withhold some of the details that would make us feel ashamed?

Do we cover our nakedness with the fig leaves of our words?

“We rarely sin without a backup plan in case we get caught: “I can always lie my way out of this.” (Peter Leithart, The Ten Commandments, p. 107)

Proverbs 12:22 (ESV) — 22 Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

Psalm 119:29 (ESV) — 29 Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!

Slander

The sin of Tale-Bearing

As it is a sin against this commandment to raise a false report of another, so it is to receive a false report before we have examined it. "Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to slander others or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends." Psalm 15:1-3. We must not only not raise a false report—but refuse to hear it. He who raises a slander—carries the devil in his tongue! He who receives a slander—carries the devil in his ear!—Thomas Watson

“Love is a lovely grace; love "thinks no evil." 1 Cor 13:5. It puts the best interpretation upon another's words. Love is a well-wisher, and it is reluctant to speak ill of him, whom we wish well to. Love is that which cements Christians together; it is the healer of division, and the hinderer of slander.” —Thomas Watson

Gossip — a good way to stop this is to say “Really? He said that? Let’s go talk to him about it.” If they won’t go, then they were only interested in telling a tale.

Believing/Promoting Falsehood

Social media, vaccines, politics, your enemies, etc.

Our age moves so fast, that you can utterly bear false report, slander someone, and then move on like it didn’t even matter what your posted, or said, or promoted.

Hearsay, speculation, conspiracy, etc.

We are not like the relativists who have “their truth”. We must be committed to THE TRUTH.

If you are disappointed that something said about your enemy, or some person you don’t like, isn’t true, are you sad about it?

“Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, 'Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything -- God and our friends and ourselves included -- as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

How does one determine the truth? That question comes up a lot these days.

C.S. Lewis helpfully says we determine what is true based on 3 factors: Reason, Authority, and Experience.

To follow this thread is a sermon for another day, but I believe mentioning it can be helpful as we navigate a sea of information every day. What is true? What is right? What corresponds to reality?

Scriptural Survey:

1 John 4:20–21 (ESV) — 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Matthew 15:19 (ESV) — 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Proverbs 6:16–19 (ESV) — 16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Christ

Jesus was condemned on a false report

Matthew 26:58–61 (ESV) — 58 And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward 61 and said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’ ”

Matthew 11:19 (ESV) — 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

Jesus speaks the truth

1 Peter 2:22 (ESV) — 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

Isaiah 53:9 (ESV) — 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Jesus is the Truth

John 3:19 (ESV) — 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

John 14:6 (ESV) — 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Preach - Bring it home: Come to Christ. Come to the Truth.

Repentance

Isaiah’s vision

Isaiah 6:3–5 (ESV) — 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Reassurance of Pardon

Isaiah 6:6–7 (ESV) — 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Christ was that burning coal from the altar - a sacrificial lamb that burned on our behalf. And he has cleansed our lips, our shame, and all of our sins.

Communion