This sermon is a continuation of a sermon series on the ten commandments. The rest of the messages were preached by Brian Ivey from July 17th - August 21st, 2022 at Highland Baptist Church in Vicksburg, MS.
Introduction
Last week Bro. Brian continued his sermon series on the Ten Commandments by expounding on the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments. In case you weren’t able to hear the message, or are unfamiliar with the Ten Commandments, those are the commands given by God against murder, adultery, and theft. Now those may seem pretty straightforward, but as we learned last week, the scope and meaning of those commandments goes much deeper and wider than we might have imagined.
This morning I am going to be preaching on the ninth commandment, which is found in Exodus 20:16:
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Exodus 20:16, ESV
Lying, or bear false witness, is a sin that I’m sure we are all familiar with. King David bluntly declares in Psalm 116 that, “all mankind are liars” (Psalm 116:11, ESV).
For many of us, lying was the first sin we ever knowingly committed. If you have ever raised children, or just spent a significant amount of time around young children, then you know that the gap between learning how to talk and learning how to lie is not very long.
So why are we such natural liars? I think it’s because we learn at a very young age that lying is easier than being honest. I also think many of us have convinced ourselves that dishonesty isn’t really that big of a deal, even if we wouldn’t admit this out loud. We would probably agree that honesty is a good thing, but most of us don’t see a little dishonesty as being all that bad.
I bet that if I were to conduct a nation-wide poll and ask people to rank the commandments from most to least important, I feel like the ninth commandment would be towards the bottom of most people’s list. In fact, I would suggest that dishonesty has become so widely accepted in our modern times, that many of us don’t even recognize it in all the many forms it takes.
There Are Many Faces of a False Witness
Two lies that have gotten a foothold in our culture, is the idea that a lie can be harmless and the idea that we can escape the guilt of our lies on a technicality.
Some people have this idea that as long as most of what they said was true, they didn’t do anything wrong. If there is some truth mixed in with the lie, they assume, then it wasn’t really lying. The problem with this thinking is that the Bible doesn’t have a category for half-sins.
Others own up to their lie, but argue that “it was just a little white lie.” They didn’t want to hurt someone’s feelings or start an argument. What these people might not realize is good intentions can never make a wrong into a right.
Still, there are some who might try to say that they had no choice but to lie. Now I don’t deny that many of us find ourselves in circumstances where telling the truth is extremely difficult, but difficult circumstances will never make sin acceptable.
I think our social media age has only elevated this problem. There are multi-billion dollar social media platforms that seem to thrive almost entirely on lies, gossip, and slander. There are people who get paid a full-time salary just to fact-check the stuff that gets circulated by social media users. But even with professional fact-checkers on the payroll, a lie can still go viral before the truth gets verified. All it takes is someone making claim, usually a claim that makes someone else to look bad, and before you know it and millions of people will share it with no way of knowing whether or not it is true.
Make no mistake, the person who starts a rumor is guilty of sin, but so too are those who spread rumors to others.
Some people who spread lies and rumors will try to cover their bases by saying something like, “but that’s just what I heard.” Yes, it is what you heard, but you chose to repeat it.
Then there are really sneaky gossips who never come out and say anything, but they know how to hint or insinuate. They think they can get away with gossip on a technicality, but God knows your heart, and gossip is gossip no matter how you choose to spread it.
The hard truth is that God’s commandment doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for our excuses. God doesn’t say “you will try not to bear false witness” or “whenever possible, don’t bear false witness.” No, it is as clearly spelled out as the commandments against murder, adultery, and theft.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”
Exodus 20:16, ESV
I think the reason that we don’t think of lying in the same category as a sin like murder is because dishonesty is a slow acting poison. Every couple of decades we discover that something we thought was safe ended up being dangerous and a health hazard. Asbestos insulation, lead based paint, and alkellyne compounds in textiles were commonly used until people realized that they were slowly us. Since then they have all either been banned or are heavily regulated. That’s the way dishonesty works. Sometimes a lie may blow up in our face, but the real damage is the slow death it brings.
When we combine all the many faces of dishonesty that we see in or day to day lives, the end result is a culture of dishonesty. We live in a culture that has grown so accustomed to lies that we are no longer surprised by them. We expect our leaders to make promises that they won’t keep. We expect businesses to rip us off and mislead us. Even on a person to person level, it’s getting harder and harder just to trust that when a person says yes or no, that they really mean it.
Dishonesty inevitably breeds distrust, and without trust how can we build strong families, strong friendships, or stable communities? If we can’t trust one another to say what we mean and do what we say, how can we function? God understood this, and this is why the ninth commandment is foundational to just about everything we do.
God Expects The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing but The Truth
If you have ever been called to testify in a court of law then you may be familiar with the following oath “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” That might sound a little redundant, but that phrase is actually a carefully constructed phrase used to forbid deceit and lies in any form.
a) “the truth” – i.e. that everything they say will be true
b) “the whole truth” – i.e. that they will not leave anything out. This is to prevent the witness misleading the court by the things they choose not to say.
c) “and nothing but the truth” – this is to prevent someone telling all of the truth, and leaving nothing out, but then adding something untrue on top of it. In other words, lying by adding a lie to what would, otherwise, be the truth.
This is how God commands Christians to speak regardless of the setting or occasion. When writing to the Christian church in Colossi, the Apostle Paul described telling lies in any form as symptoms of the old-self (the pre-Christian self) lingering on. These lies are symptoms that need to be cast aside in light of our new identity in Christ:
“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
Colossians 3:9-10, ESV
He reiterates this same idea when he writes to the church in Ephesus:
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
Ephesians 4:25, ESV
It should go without saying, but Christians should be a people that are known for their honesty. I wish it were the case to say that Christian politicians were always known for keeping their promises. I wish it were true that Christian business owners were always known for dealing fairly and honestly with their customers. I know there are cases where that is true, but unfortunately it is not always a guaranteed thing.
I think we too easily to buy into the lie that you have to bend the truth to succeed in today’s world, but what does that say about our faith? We may not realize it, but when we lie or deceive others to get ahead, we are showing that we do not trust God to provide for us and that we do not love our neighbor in the same way that we love ourselves.
Remember how Jesus summarized the heart of the law:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:36-40, ESV
Lying does not demonstrate a strong faith in God’s provision, nor does it demonstrate love for your neighbor. This sin is far more serious than we might realize. In fact, God’s word describes the use of our words, whether we choose to live by truth or by lies, as a spiritual war being fought day by day.
Do We Follow the Father of Lies or the God Who Cannot Lie?
The Apostle James devoted a good portion of his letter to the subject of controlling our “tongue”, by which he meant controlling the words we say. He argued that the words we speak may start small, like the spark of a matchstick, but they have the power of “setting on fire the entire course of life, [as if] set on fire by hell” (James 3:6, ESV). That’s pretty intense imagery.
Our words have the power to build up or tear down, the same mouth that could speak the gospel that saves souls is the same mouth that might speak lies that destroy people. This shouldn’t be the case, but it is. James would later point out how absurd this reality is when he wrote, “does a spring pour fourth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?” (James 3:11, ESV)?
What James is trying to get his readers to understand is that our words are very powerful, whether we realize it or not, and if we claim to be followers of Christ then we ought not to live by lies as though we are still under the dominion and authority of Satan. If that sounds harsh then listen to the words of Christ himself:
“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Matthew 12:36-37, ESV
When addressing the lies of the Pharisees, Jesus warned them:
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 8:44, ESV
Scripture tells us that Satan is the father of lies. To speak and act deceptively and dishonestly is consistent with his character. Why then would we, who have been brought out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God, continue to walk and talk in the ways of our former master. If we have trusted Jesus as our Savior and Lord then we belong to God, who is the source of all truth.
Unlike Satan, who speaks in lies and deceptive half-truths, our Heavenly Father is incapable of lying.
God is not man, that he should lie,
Numbers 23:19, ESV
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
The Apostle Paul, when writing to his dear friend Titus described our faith as the “hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began” (Titus 1:2, ESV). In a very real sense, our entire faith is built on the idea that God is trustworthy and true.
Satan’s first temptation and man’s first sin happened because Satan successfully tricked Adam and Eve into doubting God’s goodness. After Adam and Eve sinned, God appeared before them and the first thing they did was lie to God, just as Satan had lied to them. But we do not have to live by lies.
The good news is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy. Jesus never lied, but he took the guilt of our lies upon himself and paid our guilt price upon the cross, to free us from sin’s bondage. He only asks that we repent, turn from our sin, and follow Him. God has declared it so in His word, and He doesn’t lie.
Of course, we can’t believe the good news about salvation in Christ and then do nothing with it. We are called to be witnesses to God’s goodness wherever we go, and what does a witness do? A witness tells others what they know to be true. In one sense, the mission of the church is to tell the truth about God to everyone we meet.
Remember that this entire preaching series has been based on Christ’s teaching that all the laws and commandments go back to loving God and loving our neighbor. What better way to express our love for God than to tell the truth about his goodness, and mercy, and love! What better way to love our neighbors than to tell them about what Jesus accomplished for them upon the cross!
While dishonesty takes on many forms, we know that none of them are harmless and all lies originate from the Father of Lies. We, who are in Christ, no longer live by lies, but we live by truth. We call others out of darkness into the light of truth and in doing so we demonstrate that we truly love God and truly love our neighbors.
Before we conclude our message this morning I feel there is one more point that we need to address.
Wounds of a Friend
We all know someone who says mean and hurtful things under the excuse of “I’m just being honest.” Sometimes there’s no getting around it, the truth just hurts, but that doesn’t mean we should go out of our way to be harsh or ugly when we speak the truth. I am a firm believer in gentle honesty. The Apostle Paul, when writing to the church in Ephesus encouraged them to “speak the truth (to one another) in love” (Ephesians 4:15, ESV), adding this encouragement just a few verses later:
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:31-32, ESV
I think the heart of the matter always circles back to love. If we Love God, we will want to obey His commandments and honor Him by telling the truth. If we Love our neighbors as ourselves, we will be honest with them, not with the goal of hurting them, but with the intention of helping and healing. I don’t believe it is always possible to avoid offense, even Jesus himself had people walk away from him upset. Sometimes, people do not want to hear the truth, but they need to hear the truth. There are times when people will be hurt by the truth we speak, no matter how gently and lovingly we speak them. At the same time, we need to remember the words of the author of proverbs:
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Proverbs 27:6, ESV
We shouldn’t set out with the goal of wounding or offending, but better to be wounded by the truth spoken in love than to be told sweet lies that will softly and tenderly lead you to hell. The great Scottish theologian William Barclay famously taught all of his students to ask three questions before the said something that might cause offense.
- First, they were to ask themselves “is what I am about to say true?” After all, if what we want to say it isn’t true then we shouldn’t say it all.
- Second, they were to ask themselves “is what I am about to say necessary?” Sometimes things just don’t need to be said and we can politely just let the thought go. However, if it would be wrong not to say something then something must be said.
- And finally, they were to ask themselves “is what I am about to say kind?” Another way of thinking about this is to ask “is what I am about to say coming from a place of love?”
If what you said is true, if it needs to be said, and if it is said in love then you have done right by God and by your neighbor regardless of how they respond. Be gentle but not cowardly. Be bold but not harsh. Show them love that doesn’t sacrifice the truth.
God, through the prophet Jeremiah, condemned the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day because they preached, “’Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 8:11, ESV). The people were far from God, but people who claimed to know God only preached peace. Let’s not be condemned by the same charge. If we say that all is well, knowing that it is not, we are liars.
If anyone has ever undergone surgery, they know that the surgeon must make a wound in order to heal, but the healing that comes far outweighs the temporary pain of the surgeon’s scalpel. If we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should love them enough to tell the truth when we see things in their lives that are hurting them and hindering their walk with the Lord. If we love our neighbors, then surely we should love then enough to tell the truth of where life without Christ inevitably leads. If we love them then we will risk offense to tell them the good news of salvation that Christ offers to them here and now.
Conclusion
There is so much more that could be said this morning, but I will leave you with these words of Jesus.
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32, ESV
May we all live in the freedom that comes from living and abiding in the truth of Christ.
May our hearts be so filled with the love of God, that we cannot help but boldly declare God’s saving truth to those who are still living under the lies of darkness.
May God’s Holy Spirit within us equip us to be bold in our faith, gentle in our speech, and honest in all that we say and do so that our words and our actions would glorify our Heavenly Father.
As the Psalmist prayed,
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”
Psalm 19:14, ESV
Let this be our prayer as we depart this morning
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