prayer. O Lord our God, we give thanks to you for your kind mercy and grace that you have no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Therefore, we might come to you in good conscience and confidence to worship you as we will, but also to find instruction from you as our Heavenly Father. We ask therefore that you would give us wisdom that you would help us to understand and to remember, and so walk in your ways. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Today in our study through the Westminster Shorter Catechism, we come to the questions regarding the Ninth Commandment. The first of those is question 76, which is the Ninth Commandment. Which is the ninth commandment? Yes. That's right. Let's say the answer all together. The ninth commandment is, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. The next question is, what is required in the ninth commandment? What is required? Anyone want to recite that answer? Yes, yes, correct. Let's say it all together, the answer. The ninth commandment requireth the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbor's good name, especially in witness bearing. And lastly, question 78, what is forbidden in the Ninth Commandment? Luke, was that you raising your hand there? No, okay. Alfred, yes. Very good, yes. Let's say the answer all together. The ninth commandment forbiddeth whatsoever is prejudicial to truth or injurious to our own or our neighbor's good name. All right. So as we come to the ninth commandment, again, this is especially thinking of our duties before God, but most directly, you know, to our neighbor as we've looked at our neighbor's honor and life and his chastity and property. Here we come to his good name and also the idea of truth. And I think I've already just answered the first question. But as the first, as the Catechism points out, there are at least two aspects to the Ninth Commandment. Two things to be maintained and promoted. What are those two things? Can you think of two things? Yes. So truth is the first thing that we should maintain and promote. Truth between man and man. And what's the second thing? Of our own and our neighbor's good name. So those are two aspects to this commandment. Truth between man and man and of our own and our neighbor's good name. So that both fit with the idea of bearing false witness against your neighbor, because that involves lying, that's false, right? It's also an unjust injury to his good name, to his reputation, to his repute. Now, we ought to maintain these things in general, but the catechism also adds, especially in witness-bearing. Of course, that's the kind of case, if you will, where the commandment gets this principle or expresses this principle, especially in witness-bearing. In what context does witness-bearing typically happen in a formal sense? What context is that usually, where someone bears witness? Where do you have witnesses that get called to bear witness? criminal cases and contracts. So in court proceedings, judicial proceedings, where you have to decide whether someone broke the contract or is guilty, right, broke the law. And so you have people bear witness to the facts of the case. Did he do it? Did he not do it? What did you see? So yes, in the administration of justice, bearing a false witness undermines the whole administration of justice. That's why false accusations with malicious intent in court were so serious in the law of God that if a malicious witness bore that false witness, he would receive the penalty that the person he accused would have received. So this was recognized that such bearing false witness would undercut the ability to enforce the rest of the commandments, at least among human society. Now, what virtues are connected with maintaining truth? We're going to first look at that first of the two, truth, and then good name. What virtues, character qualities, habits, are connected with maintaining truth? I can think of at least two, but you could probably think of others. What would you call someone who tells the truth all the time? You would say he is Honest, yes. Honesty is what we call that virtue of not deceiving others, but telling the truth consistently that that person is an honest person. He doesn't defraud. He doesn't deceive. He is honest. And that's related to another virtue, that of faithfulness. faithfulness, because telling a lie is to betray the trust of your neighbor. To be faithful, and really in Greek and Hebrew, especially Hebrew, I'm pretty sure in Greek too, the words for truth and faithfulness are, well in Hebrew it's the same word. and can be different versions will translate it differently because it's a related concept there, that a person who is faithful is true. He's going to say the truth. He's going to follow through on his word. He is going to be true, not false, not one who betrays. And so we ought to be honest and faithful, being true to others by speaking truthfully. Now, where does the Bible tell us to tell the truth? We can deduce that as a principle here of the ninth commandment, but can you think of a Bible verse where it says to tell the truth and not speak lies in a more straightforward way? Yes. So in Ephesians 4, speaking the truth in love that the body might be built up, yes, we should be speaking the truth and with love. Also in Ephesians, Ephesians 4.25, Paul wrote, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Again, he's emphasizing that your fellowship with each other, you want to be faithful to each other. What's something you put away? Falsehood. What's something that you now practice as one who is in Christ speaking the truth with your neighbor? This is also found in the Old Testament, like in Zechariah chapter 8, verses 16 through 17, where it says, these are the things that you shall do. Speak the truth to one another. Render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace. Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another and love no false oath. For all these things I hate, declares the Lord. And so, you should speak the truth to one another. And not only should your words be true, but you should be true to your word. Psalm 15, 4 speaks of the one who swears and keeps his oath even to his own hurt. Matthew 5, Jesus says, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Now what's the opposite of maintaining truth? What does the Bible forbid? Lying, falsehood, deceit. These are words for that. speaking what is false, deceiving our neighbor. So, Proverbs 12.22 says, lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight. Again, notice what's contrast to lying lips is acting faithfully, being true, don't deceive, don't betray. But lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. Psalm 34, which we just sang before this lesson. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Both 1 Timothy 1 and Revelation 21 place liars among the ungodly with murderers, sexually immoral, etc. You don't want to be known as a liar. Now, how might even the truth be used wrongly? Is the fact that you're speaking the truth sufficient to know that what you're saying is pleasing in the sight of God? Can you think of the truth being misused? How might the truth be misused? To kill. Can you think of someone who spoke the truth to kill? What's that? Doeg the Edomite. He spoke the truth unseasonably, the wrong time, to the wrong person, to an evil end, because he had malice against David and those who had helped him. And so, when Saul was wondering, where's David? What's going on? Doeg says, I saw him go to the priest, and the priest helped him. And therefore, Saul went and And then with Doeg, slaughtered all those priests, even though they had done nothing wrong. So yeah, this duty does not justify speaking the truth unseasonably or to evil ends, evil purposes. As Proverbs 29, 11 says, a fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. Sometimes it's good to say nothing, to hold back your words. and not misuse the truth. Proverbs 26.20 says, for lack of wood, the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. Sometimes you might say something true, but it's going to cause quarreling, and that's unnecessary. Like where you start telling all your siblings that you got something that none of the others can have. That's probably going to cause a little friction. And you don't have to say that unless there's a reason to. There's a misuse of truth that is not good. Now, is there ever a time in which deception may be justified? And if so, what? Yes. Right. So in war and self-defense, like it's the battle of AI where they deceived the people of the city into thinking one thing and then they took the town by that strategy. And there's a number of occasions in the Bible where deception for a very narrow purpose is viewed in a positive manner. Examples that have traditionally been given are like the Hebrew midwives protecting the unborn children or the babies of the Israelites from slaughter by misleading the Pharaoh or Rahab, misleading the soldiers of Jericho trying to catch the spies Or Elisha, who misled the army of the Assyrians when they were going to Dothan to catch Elisha. And he's like, no, this is not the city you are seeking. Come and follow me. And brought him to the city of Samaria instead, where they were trapped. But they weren't killed. They were fed, and they were sent back home. He was like, nice try. But in those cases, they were protecting life from a hostile aggressor. Similar situations where one might kill in self-defense, and if one might kill, this would be a lesser way of affecting that same end. So there are times, it seems the Bible teaches, that deception may be justified when it's necessary to save life against a hostile enemy. Yet we must be careful not to abuse that exception, which is like the exception regarding taking life in self-defense. Knowing how we are prone to justify deceit when things get difficult, it doesn't mean as soon as things get difficult you can lie. Or You might suffer. You might suffer for doing something wrong. You should not lie to get out of that. This is, you know, for a just, innocent cause by an unjust aggressor. Our general duty is to speak only the truth and all things without deception. And there might be obligations to speak the truth, even when there is hostile force, as if you are called upon to confess Christ before men or else die. Well, you should confess Christ before men. when called upon to do so. Now, must you keep your word even to your own hurt? Yes, Psalm 15 verse 4 speaks of the godly man as one who swears to his own hurt and does not change. And so, he keeps his word, even if it's to his own disadvantage, that he has promised to do so, so he will be true to it. Now must we keep our promises and oaths to pagans, and to heretics, and to former enemies? We should. We should keep our oaths to them. Now, in church history, some Roman Catholics said, oh, you don't have to keep your oaths to heretics. And so they burned John Hus at the stake, even though they had gave him promise of safe conduct. But hey, you're a heretic, so now we can kill you. No, that's not what the Bible teaches. And some examples would be Joshua 9, where the Gibeonites get the Israelites to give an oath to protect them. And even though they found out later that the Gibeonites had used some deception in getting them to promise that, generations later, God was still holding the Israelites to keep that oath to the Gibeonites. When Saul started killing them, that judgment came upon them for that. So, even though they were not the people of Israel. Also, we might think of Ezekiel 17, 16 through 19, where God told Israel to keep their covenant with Babylon. that Babylon had conquered them, they had set up a king over Israel as a vassal of theirs, and that rebelling against Babylon to break that covenant was unlawful, even though Babylon was a pagan power, that they were still bound by their promise. The king especially was bound by his promise to serve him. And you should even keep your promises if they were made under the threat of continued war or captivity. If you're in a war and you make a peace treaty, you can't say, well, it was under duress. They were going to keep fighting if we didn't make it. Well, no, you made it. You chose to make that treaty. You're bound by it. Or parole in time of war. Now, you don't have to take parole. I think the U.S. Army says you shouldn't take parole. But if you do take parole and they release you on condition you're not going to fight against them, don't fight against them. Keep your word. Once a flag of truce appears, we must deal honestly. Now, must we keep our word if it binds us to sin? If you have promised to murder your neighbor, should you keep your promise? No. No. An oath promise cannot bind you to sin. Now, such a promise was a sin itself, and you should repent of it, but you should repent of it by not fulfilling it. Any further questions about the matter of maintaining truth between man and man? So the second part here is that of your neighbor's good name. Well, and your own good name, too. Is a good name a valuable thing? What is a good name? What is a good name? Are we just talking about your name? Like, my name is Peter. What do we mean by a good name? Yes, your reputation, what you're known as, what people think of you. Proverbs 22.1 says, a good name is to be chosen rather than riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. This is a great treasure to have a good name. First of all, well, not first of all, one reason is that you're more likely to then go ahead and make money if you have a good reputation, people trust you. But that applies to many situations where it's valuable to have a good name. A person's reputation is one of his most precious possessions, and to steal it from him is a grave injustice. If people do not trust you, they'll find many things difficult, and it's much more easy to destroy than to build. And so we should be very careful with the reputations of others. They're fragile, and they can be easily injured, even carelessly. So how should you, first of all, maintain and promote your own good name? How should you maintain and promote your good name? Gaining a good reputation. Living honorably, keeping God's commands. Yeah, earn it. Earn it by substance of good things. Yes. Not lying and being faithful, right? Being trustworthy, right? Maintaining truth. being reliable. If you say something that you're going to do it, people can be like, I know he's trustworthy, right? He keeps his word. So as Paul told Titus, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Think of how Daniel had a good reputation. People knew if we're going to trip him up, it's only going to be through the law of his God. He had a good name. We should adorn ourselves with good works, keep our conduct among the Gentiles honorable. And second, also by defending it as needed. They should prefer that other people praise your own name and not yourself. First of all, it's usually more effective, but also you don't want to become proud. But you can defend yourself as Paul did on many occasions where he was falsely accused on things and he made his case. No, I am not seditious. No, I am not rebellious. No, I am not a heretic, right? You can defend your name, preferring though others to praise you. Now, how should we maintain and promote our neighbor's good name? Well, think about what I just said. You should prefer other people praise your name. So, what do you want people to do to you and you do to them? Go ahead. Right, right. We don't want to flatter them and say false things that are truthful, but good things that are truthful about them, the best things that are truthful about them, to praise their name. We should freely acknowledge their gifts and graces. So if someone is really good at what they do for work, to say, to not resent that and begrudge that and be like, oh, I don't really want to say that, but say, yes, you're really good at that. Or someone writes really well that we're not reluctant to admit it, but delight to admit it. Wow, you write very well. to defend their innocency, so if someone accuses them falsely, to defend and stand up for them, which is what the priest did when Doeg led Saul to him and started accusing him of helping David, and he came to David's defense, right? David is one of your loyal servants, of course I would help him, right? being ready to receive a good report of others, but disinclined to admit an evil report. You don't want to hear bad things of others. You would delight in hearing good things of others. and discouraging tail-bearers, flatterers, and slanderers, avoiding evil and unjust suspicions of others. Evil suspicions is mentioned as a sin, a vice, that we ought to avoid in 1 Timothy 6, 4. And much here could be said, I don't know if we have time to go to every scripture passage, but Psalm 101 speaks of how he will discourage the slanderers Proverbs says much about turning away from those who would seek to cause trouble in that way. Claims of serious wrongdoing should not be ignored, but they should be investigated and validated before they are accepted. Even when Achen was found to confess that he had stolen some of the treasures from Jericho, what did they do next? They went and found what he had stolen, right? They verified what he had borne witness about. Is your head OK, Alfred? Yeah, OK. So yes, to validate, investigate. The righteous man is described as one who backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. We should promote our neighbor's good name also, that when we reprove them to do so privately and discreetly, ideally, Both to ensure that we are correct, so let's say it looks like they did something wrong. Well, if you do it privately, if it turns out they did something right, you're not embarrassing yourself and harming their name unjustly. And also makes them less defensive, they can correct it, and then correct it themselves. Only making things public as necessary. So of course we have Proverbs 18 that has that principle, but also in Proverbs 25, 8 through 9, it says, What your eyes have seen, do not hastily bring into court, for what will you do in the end when your neighbor puts you to shame? Argue your case with your neighbor himself, and do not reveal another secret, lest he who hears you bring shame upon you, and your ill repute have no end. Now there might be occasions where something that's very public has to be addressed publicly, like with Paul and Peter, but ideally it's best to, even if you don't have to, ideally it's best to begin privately and only be public as much as needed. Now, lastly here, we are told, you shall not spread a false report in Exodus 23.1. How should we keep ourselves from spreading a false report? So yeah, be careful what we receive from others. Be discerning. So part of what I want to emphasize here is that we should not only not lie, not slander, but we should also be proactive to prevent even accidentally promoting a false report. It's a very relevant command in our day where it's easy to share reports, right? And to share the news. It both requires you to be discerning in the reports you read and hear, and discerning with the reports you share. And also how you share them. Maybe you heard something and it said maybe this is the case, and then you pass it along as this is the case. That's adding credibility that's not justified. and to how you share them, whether you share them. It not only forbids slander rooted in malicious intent, but it also forbids negligence in the efforts to guard against falsehood and preserve the good name of others. By proactively guarding against false reports, you contribute to the well-being of society and of your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you. To dwell together in a society takes trust. We rely upon each other and we don't want to harm each other, even accidentally, not only physically, but also our neighbor's good name. And that applies to public figures as well as the people that are close to you. And all of them should have this care. All right, well next week we will go to the final commandment, the 10th commandment in the Shorter Catechism, but let's go ahead and close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your kindness to us in redeeming us, who had thoroughly deserved for ourselves a bad name, who had defiled ourselves in sin. we but yet you had mercy upon us to raise us up even unto glory that you might receive us in christ and our service as weak as it may be we ask that you would therefore strengthen us that we might likewise be charitable to others to maintain truth between man and man and our own and our neighbor's good name we pray this in jesus name amen