You Shall Not Bear False Witness (Exodus 20:16)

Introduction

Thanks for having me back.

I have been hoping to participate in Youth Ministry a lot more but due to my work schedule, I have been prevented from doing so.

I currently work at a chemical plant and some of the things I do there are load liquid chemicals into trucks, and railcars, and pump them throughout different parts of the plant.

One of my main responsibilities is maintaining the quality of the chemicals that I deal with.

It was about three years ago when I made a big mistake in that area.

I had accidently opened a valve that caused a tank of one of our chemicals to reach a temperature above 280 degrees when the chemical is naturally supposed to stay at 180.

The result of this was that the chemical had been cooked so bad that it was no longer usable.

This wasn’t just a small error because there was about 160,000 pounds of product in this tank.

I realized it was me and that I had made a mistake but what happened next is where the biggest mistake was.

I went over to my bosses office and told him somebody keeps opening the bypass valves and now one of our tanks are completely useless.

He was upset and began thinking of ways to prevent this from happening again while I went back to my office.

When I got back to my office, I realized the degree of what I had done.

There was no way he could ever find out it was me, but I realized that I had just lied to his face and my conscience struck me for the lie.

I had the option of continuing in the lie and moving on or risking my job and going to tell him the truth.

I wrestled with it for about a half an hour and then decided I had to go and tell the truth.

I found him outside and told him that I lied, that it was actually me who ruined the product in the tank.

He said that’s okay, I’m sure you didn’t know at the time it was you.

I said no, I knew the whole time it was me and tried to lie about it but my conscience called me out.

I apologized and said that I am sorry and I will not do it again.

The Result: I Still Work There Today!!

He said, I appreciate your honesty and forgave me for the lie.

I am now very careful about the way I tell him things now so that I do not have to go through one of these cringe moments again.

We will see how this fits today’s message in a moment but first lets take a look at our scripture for today.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

The text we will be looking at today is Exodus 20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

This is the 9th of the 10 commandments and it seems fairly simple.

During these ancient times in Israel, court cases were decided primarily on the the testimony of the people that witnessed the crime.

In today’s courts, they can draw from video evidence, phone records, forensics, and many different other areas but in this time of the ten commandments, all of these resources weren’t available.

It was simply based on the evidence of not one person, but Deuteronomy 19:15 says that it must be on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

It is one thing to have somebody who doesn’t like you lie against you and say something but two or three conspiring against you in lies was a whole different story.

Why is this the case?

Deuteronomy 19:16-20 “If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you.”

Its one thing to bear a false testimony when the consequences of lying aren’t very severe but when the consequences are the same as the crime you are accusing the person of, people would be a little more hesitant to break this commandment.

If I were to bear false witness about someone committing murder, and the punishment for murder was death, I would be punished as a murderer by death if they found out I was lying in my accusation of somebody for this crime.

This is a great way to generate honesty in their courts.

Not only did the person, if caught lying face the same charge, but the witnesses were also to be the first in carrying out the punishment.

Deuteronomy 17:7 “The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.”

Its one thing to lie about their crime but its a lot deeper when you have to put somebody to death by your own hands whom you know is innocent.

The Proverbs tell us more about a false witness:

Proverbs 19:5 “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.”

Proverbs 21:28 “A false witness will perish, but the word of a man who hears will endure.”

So you are probably thinking to yourself right now, I have never been a false witness in the court of law nor will I probably ever get the opportunity to do so, so this commandment doesn’t apply to me.

I think its safe to say that every single one of us here today have broken this commandment and I will tell you why.

Philip Ryken in his commentary on Exodus points out that regarding the 9th commandment, “The underlying principle is that God forbids every form of falsehood.”

Similar to how Jesus in the sermon on the mount says that if you even hate your brother you are guilty of murder, so the 9th commandment is not only bearing false witness in court, but extends to all kinds falsehood.

Types of falsehood

To quote Ryken again, he says, “Its not just about the false testimony that people give in court, but also about the lies they tell their neighbors over the backyard fence and the rumors they whisper between the pews at church.”

This lie that I told my boss in the story earlier was a violation of the 9th commandment.

I presented a false story to him in order to make myself look better and in the end, it proved me to be a liar and a lawbreaker of Gods holy commandments.

How easy it is to tell a lie without even really noticing you have done it?

If you are exaggerating a story to make yourself look better you are telling a lie.

Me telling people that when I played football, I scored like ten touchdowns in one game when I only scored two would be a clear example of me exaggerating the truth.

Its not just you and I that are guilty in this commandment, but our very culture is made of it.

If you watch a news story from multiple different news outlets, you would be surprised how different their stories can be of the same event.

Our culture tells us that gender is a choice and we are what we feel like whereas the Bible tells us we were made in the image of God, either male or female.

Our culture tells us that’s okay to murder, as long as its in the womb of a mother.

That is a lie!

Our culture tells us the Bible is outdated in its views on marriage between one man and one woman.

That is a lie!

What we must understand is that God is always true and wherever man or culture disagree with God, it is clearly evidence of a falsehood.

Consider Satan, who is called the Father of lies whereas Jesus Christ, is called the truth.

The father of lies presented falsehood to Adam and Eve in the garden.

Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? If you eat of it, you will not surely die whereas God said the day you eat of it you shall surely die.

As a result of Adam and Eve believing this lie and eating the fruit, they died, and now we are born sinners and lying is in our very nature.

What about gossip?

Gotquestions.org says: “The Hebrew word translated “gossip” in the Old Testament is defined as “one who reveals secrets, one who goes about as a talebearer or scandal-monger.” A gossiper is a person who has privileged information about people and proceeds to reveal that information to those who have no business knowing it.”

This is something that our culture is also full of and is also something that is prohibited by the 9th commandment.

You turn on the TV and you can flip through multiple channels that are showing you the newest juicy celebrity gossip.

In the line at the grocery store, you can turn to the tabloids to hear of the most recent affair from Hollywood’s elite.

You pull up your Facebook and we can see that it is full of gossip.

Bearing a false witness against your neighbor injures his reputation, even if there is no punishment for what he did.

This is the same thing that gossip does.

Gossip is also very easy to do.

You go and sit down at work and somebody comes and tells you? Hey, did you hear what Corey did? He ruined a tank of product and tried to lie to the boss about it. What a terrible person.

What they have just told each other, although it is true, is still injurious to someones reputation and can therefore be considered gossip.

What did any party gain from that conversation other than the feelings of being better than the person that made the mistake?

It would also be just as much of gossip if they said that I ruined multiple tanks of product by doing the same mistake when in all actuality, I only ruined one tank.

Whether you are doing the gossiping or the one listening to the gossip, you are in someway participating in falsehood or injury to your neighbor.

Pursue Truth

English Standard Version Chapter 4

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

The commandment forbids that we should speak any falsehood but the opposite of falsehood is truth, and this is what we should pursue.

What is truth?

The word of God is truth and this truth is also sanctifying. (John 17:17)

Since Gods word is truth, let us examine Gods Word to see what it says about truth.

Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth. (John 1:17)

The Holy Spirit is known as the Spirit of truth. (John 16:13)

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. (1 Cor 13:6)

Knowing the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

No lie comes from the truth (1 John 2:21)

Finally, Jesus says that everyone on the side of the truth listens to him. (John 18:37)

In a world that is full of falsehood, we must look to God and His Word for the truth.

Application

In short, stop telling lies and stop gossiping.

Lies

Are you one that often lies or are you being convicted of some lies you may have told in the past?

These lies we tell are breaking Gods commandment against speaking falsehood.

His Word tells us the truth will set us free.

When I told my boss I lied to him, it was as if a giant burden was lifted off of my shoulders.

He also now trusts me a lot more because I told the truth even when it was a hard truth to tell.

Now whenever something comes up and I tell him my side of the story, he takes me at my word because he knows how I feel about lying.

This is what we as Christians have to do if we lie.

We must put away falsehood and speak the truth, confessing our sin if we lied to the one we lied to.

I challenge you to clear up any lies that you may have told by telling the truth even if it is hard to do and makes you look bad.

And to stay consistent, if you make the mistake of lying in the future, to repent and and tell the truth.

Otherwise you will be burdened with the fact that you have broken Gods 9th Commandment.

Gossip

Both ends, the hearers and the speakers are guilty in the sin of gossip.

The good news is that the Bible gives us the answer on how to combat this.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

If your conversation is corrupting of another, we should not be having that conversation.

If our conversation is not good for building up but instead is tearing someone down, we need to find something better to talk about.

Finally, does this conversation give grace to those who hear? If not, we are probably guilty of breaking the 9th commandment.

If our friends are corrupting one another, not building up, and not giving grace in their conversations, we must not participate in this sin.

A good way to change the conversation is when you hear them speaking bad, think of something good about that person to talk about.

I myself am convicted of gossiping preparing and preaching this message and will be applying this message in my own life.

The good news is that if we fail, which we will, we can confess our sins to God who is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

If we have learned anything so far from these ten commandments, we have probably seen how far we come up short in keeping Gods commandments.

But.....There is hope for us in Christ.

Although our sins are many, his mercy is more.

He has paid for all the sins of those who believe in him on the cross.

If you believe in Jesus Christ, he has given you His Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to help you put away falsehood and pursue what is good.

How do we know that we really believe in him?

English Standard Version Chapter 2

By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

May we all walk in the way of Christ.