Sermon Tone Analysis

Dear Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

What we have seen so far in the 10 commandments is God’s desire for us to live our lives in community and individually, both in how we worship and how we work with and treat each other - reflecting His character!

Incredible vision of honouring God and each other in various relationships - leadership and following; of valuing and promoting the life and name of each other, and of God, of promoting the work, property, giving of others, and making sure that we don’t make our work or our recreation #1 in our lives but God’s great work and our rest in Him.

Seen how relationship maximizers’s don’t take in lust, but give in love and protect and uphold and treasure purity; movement from inward attitude to outward action.

And the second to last before getting to one that summarizes them all, is the concerned with the most potent outward external influence we have on people - our words, our speech.

From inward honour, both those who lead those who follow; to hands that give life don’t take it, to how use our bodies and others with purity, to money and wealth in our hands, to now plain and simple how we use words!

Key Truth: Tenacious protectors & zealous promoters of truth, speak for God’s glory and their neighbour’s good!

A. This is Not Just a Simple “Moralistic” Command not to Lie

IN same way we saw 5th commandment is about all relationships, and wrongful killing involved more than just physical killing, and adultery goes beyond to fornication, to lust, that stealing is also about greedy hoarding or miserly withholding , so too when God wants you to reflect His character tot he world by using words the way he uses words, the first thing we must see is that this is not a simple command just to avoid lies.

If the focus is just on you or me, individually keeping moralistically and Pharisaical in the clear - didn’t technically give untrue information - moral smugness with both God and our neighbour out of the picture!

ie.

Jody Baxter - old no good dog - “My words were straight but my intention was as crooked as the Ocklawasha River.”

What are you going to do with Hebrew midwives, technically lied to Pharaoh but were saving babies lives.

Shiphrah and Puah, deceived Pharaoh in order to avert genocide.…

what are you going to do with Rahab - spies went go in a hurry - commend by God .

Or how about Corrie Ten Boom.

What are you going to do when you have information that someone else is going to misuse, house burglarized, where are the rest of your kids… is it bearing false witness to withhold this truth, God’s law of course has a moral command, but we must not interpret these moralistically with a focus on the individual and not first of all God and our neighbour!

What about times of warfare or persecution?

Is it okay to lie then?

Going back to Augustine, many theologians have said no.

However, there were a number of incidents in the Bible when deception was not condemned.

There were the Hebrew midwives, There was Rahab, who deceived the Canaanites in order to save Joshua's spies.

There was Gideon, who used concealment as a stratagem of war.

The Bible does not condemn these falsehoods.

However, each of those untruths was told to prevent evil men from committing even greater sins, such as murder.

We should not use these extreme cases to justify falsehood when we are in a tight spot or when we think the end justifies our means.

Even in those rare cases when a lie seems necessary to protect others, it is still wrong in itself.

The very words in and in are instructive here.

In untrue, in - insincere speaking to the deceitful purpose that breeds the lie.

Do you see that when a lie is sinfully told, what is going on is that heart is being governed by a base affection: There is a sin behind the sin, idol of the heart, - fear of being found out, fraud, not loving the truth but loving a lie for acceptance popularity.

We lie for many reasons,: fear, contempt, revenge, boasting, conceit, fraud, desire to shine!

But deep down in it all, in your mind, you don’t love the truth.

You aren’t exercising that truth and embracing it, you are being carried away by a lie before the words ever get to your lips.

The very words in and in are instructive here.

In untrue, in - insincere speaking to the deceitful purpose that breeds the lie.

Do you see that when a lie is sinfully told, what is going on is that heart is being governed by a base affection: There is a sin behind the sin, idol of the heart, - fear of being found out, fraud, not loving the truth but loving a lie for acceptance popularity.

We lie for many reasons,: fear, contempt, revenge, boasting, conceit, fraud, desire to shine!

But deep down in it all, in your mind, you don’t love the truth.

You aren’t exercising that truth and embracing it, you are being carried away by a lie before the words ever get to your lips.

You don’t always have and know all truth,, even when you do have truth, you don don’t need to share it with all all the time.

What bearing false witness is about is that when you are required to testify that you don’t speak, lie against the truth, and even in every day life that our testimony to the truth is for God’s glory and our neighbours good!

You don’t always have and know all truth,, even when you do have truth, you don don’t need to share it with all all the time.

What bearing fase witness is sabout is taht when you are required to testifying that you don’t speak, lie agianst teh tutgth, and even in every day life tath our testmiony to the trtuth is gfor God’s glory and our neighbours good!

We are to be like God with the truth and not like Satan.

In fact as one writer put it this commandment about our words is a uniwue one.

You break the other commandments and you become like an animal dead to God savage to neighbour; not relfecting the image of God!

But you break this commandment about words and tistiing the truth - you become like the devil.!

That’s what is at stake with this commandment:

That’s what is at stake with this commandment:

A. This is Not Just a Simple “Moralistic” Command not to Lie B. This is Spiritual & Moral Command to Reflect God, not Satan in all your Words!

Consider first how God is the God of truth: The Bible says, “Let God be true, and every man a liar” ().

God the Son is true.

The Bible says that he “came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (), “nor was any deceit in his mouth” (), for he is truth personified.

Jesus said, “I am the truth” () and “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” ().

God the Holy Spirit is also true.

In fact, the Bible calls him “the Spirit of truth” ().

If God is true — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — then he must be true to his word.

And so he is.

Everything that God has ever said — including every word on every page of the Bible — is absolutely, unmistakably, and entirely true.

Therefore, we can always take God at his word: “Your word is truth” ().

If God is true to us, then we must be true to him, and also to one another.

The Bible says, “Let God be true, and every man a liar” ().

God the Son is true.

The Bible says that he “came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (), “nor was any deceit in his mouth” (), for he is truth personified.

Jesus said, “I am the truth” () and “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” ().

God the Holy Spirit is also true.

In fact, the Bible calls him “the Spirit of truth” ().

If God is true — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — then he must be true to his word.

And so he is.

Everything that God has ever said — including every word on every page of the Bible — is absolutely, unmistakably, and entirely true.

Therefore, we can always take God at his word: “Your word is truth” ().

If God is true to us, then we must be true to him, and also to one another.

The Scripture says, “Do not lie.

Do not deceive one another.

Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God.

I am the LORD” (, ).

It also says, “each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body” ()

It also says, “each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body” ()

Do you get this.

Before this is a commandment about making life work well, or keeping pure, this is a commandment about practicing the truth as God practices the truth.

You need to be a person of and for the truth for God’s sake!

But also consider how the opposite of practicing the truth as God does, is practicing not just little un-truths - but it is actually practicing the big lie of the Devil!

This is how Jesus explained it

This is how Jesus explained it

You remember how Satan lied to us, by lying about God, Did God really say, his native language is lies, and to get us to live out of lies and avoid and runaawy from, God!

At the bottom of it, lying is denying the truth of God and everything he represents to get our own way, in the face of teh truth we owe to our neigbhours who probably don’t realize they are being hoodwinked, and in the face of God who always knows you are trying to hoodwink him!

It was so in the beingning, but also in the end.

What deceit and lies will people be living for in the End:

What happens when fallen men, push down God’s truth and just speak what their itching ears want to hear for their own purposes:

And look what God says will happen when we are so hardened in our own lies and pushing his truth away - Fine have it your way!

That’s the lie at the begining and also at the end.

But is also where we are living when we live by the lie and not the truth in our lives!

So having understood the heart of this commandment, let’s look at the most common ways we bear false testimony to the harm of God’s glory & our neighbours wellbeing.

So now understanding the heart of this commandment, let’s look at the most common ways we bear false testiony to the harm of god’s glory and our neighbours good

C.

The Ways We Bear False Testimony

B. The Ways We Bear False Testimony

i.

The most obvious prohibition is in a court of law - , we are not to judge without a trial, we are to seek the truth with testimony of two or three witness - Speaking of publically serving justice and truth, showing no partiality to rich or to poor.

This is the very basis for human soceity, not animals but in image of God - hoensty not just best policyy only basis - truth in our communication that reflects God!