You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching, we may present everyone mature in Christ. Father God, we are so blessed that we can join our hearts together as a church family tonight to Open up your word together. I pray for clarity of thought and speech. I pray that as we go through your word, that we would hear what you want us to hear, and that you would just bless this time as we fellowship over the word together in Jesus' name. Amen. So, I'm hoping that there's lots of interaction. I'm hoping that we can discuss this. As Bob said, it is kind of an easy commandment, but there are, as I've gone through study, there's a lot of things to think about. So what's, I like to, reference the Stephen Covey, beginning with the end in mind. So tonight we're looking at the ninth word, the ninth commandment. So what's the point? What are we going to go over? What are we going to talk about? So tonight's commandment is bearing false witness. So I'm going to define it. We're going to talk about what does it mean to bear false witness? Then I'm going to explain why it matters not to bear false witness. And then we'll have some discussion at the end on examples. So I'm going to start off by reading. I'm going to start in Deuteronomy 5, 16 through 20. Exodus 20 is pretty much almost exactly the same for this commandment. So Deuteronomy 5, 16 through 20. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder, and you shall not commit adultery, and you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. So, I guess let's start off. What questions do you have about this verse? When we hear, do not bear false witness against your neighbor, What kind of questions do we have? Go ahead, Bob. Okay. Go ahead, Bob, say it again. Okay. Yeah, that's very good. Go ahead, Grace. Who is your neighbor? Okay. All right. Anybody else? Go ahead, Andrew. Yeah, I didn't cover that one. Yeah. The sense of the word bear. All right. OK. Go ahead, Mandy. Yep. Okay, yep, it absolutely is, and we will cover that for sure. Not there, but legal terms, yes. Yeah, this is Mandy. Yeah, Mandy and Bob. I'll take it under consideration. Any other questions, anything else that we, All right, so this is the ninth commandment or the ninth word that we've gone through and the themes are gonna be kind of similar to what we've done with some of the other commandments, defining what does it mean to bear false witness. So can somebody remind us what the two commandments, the main commandments are that we've been looking at over that define the 10 commandments? Go ahead, Luke. Yep. And? Love your neighbor as yourself. That's right. So what does this fall under? Yeah, loving our neighbor. That's right. This falls under loving our neighbor. So the definition of false witness as predictionary.com is knowingly state as fact that which is untrue, begin or perpetuate a rumor by lying about a person, thing, or event. Also knowingly give untrue testimony as in a court of law, which is to commit what? Perjury. Very good. Miriam Webster defines to lie, the verb, as to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive or to create a false or misleading impression. So how would you guys define bearing false witness? What ways would we define bearing false witness? OK, making up a fake story, right? OK, Mandy. OK, all right. All right, so in a way of like gossip or perjury, slander. OK, all right. What else? Go ahead, Bob. I'll get to slander. It does, yeah, I do have that later on, but yeah, yeah. So slandering, okay, that's an aspect of it. Anybody else? Go ahead. Withholding or adding to information. Withholding or adding to information, yeah, absolutely. I call those half-truths. Okay. Is a half-truth a whole untruth? Yes. A whole lie? Anybody else? So Van Til describes it as, we may sum up the meaning of this commandment by saying that it requires of us that we respect, maintain, and develop the good name of ourselves and of our neighbors. So his way of stating it is that, almost in the positive, like Luke did in Sunday school this week, that we are to protect our neighbor, that not bearing false witness is a way of protecting our neighbor. The Heidelberg Catechism states, what is the aim of the ninth commandment? The answer is that I never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one's words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone rashly or without a hearing. Rather, in court and everywhere else, I should avoid lying and deceit of every kind. These are the very devices the devil uses, and they would call down on me God's intense wrath. I should love the truth, speak it candidly, and openly acknowledge it. And I should do what I can to guard and advance my neighbor's good name. So I wrote down that one of the key points of this verse is that the ninth commandment is given to us to protect the reputation, integrity, and property of our neighbor. In the positive sense, it allows us as God's image bearers to bear truth about others. So, in what ways can we bear false witness? Okay, so the first I had was lying. speaking things that are not true. So I kind of looked at this as how many of us that are parents, how many of us have had to teach our kids how to lie? Don't raise your hand, Isaac. None of us have had to teach our children or teach others how to lie, right? There's just, It's not something that's necessary to do. So, you know, why do we lie? Right. Why would why would we tell lies to somebody? Why would we bear false witness in that way? Sound better than you are. OK. All right. I have exaggerating. That's a little bit farther. Go ahead. Self-preservation. Self-preservation was one of the big ones that I had. Go ahead, Mandy. Okay, yep, to get what you want, right? To make, go ahead. Manipulate others, sure, yeah, absolutely. How about getting out of trouble? So I do have, like at the end we may go through a few examples of some things, but those are definitely You know, reasons to lie. I mean, even parents lying to their kids, lying to their parents or trying to get out of something, trying not to get in trouble. OK. What if you are seen as untrustworthy or do you know people that are seen as untrustworthy? You know, how do you how does that make you feel about that person? Right. I had a friend that was a habitual liar. I walked into the place where they worked and one of their friends came up to me and was like, Gary, how's your mom? My mom's fine. You know what? Why? Oh, well, so-and-so told me she was in the hospital. So roundabout, I found that this person was untrustworthy, told lies to try and build themselves up and, you know, for whatever reason, but habitual liar. None of us wants to be around that person or be that person because they are not trustworthy. Second thing I had was giving false testimony. So what is giving false testimony? It's different in a way. Can anybody tell me how? Go ahead, Bob. Yeah, absolutely right. There are. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead, Mandy. What were you going to say? OK. All right. So what I have is false testimony is a criminal offense primarily called perjury that involves knowingly and intentionally lying under oath during a legal proceeding. This can include making a false statement on a material issue or failing to correct. That means omitting or not saying something about a previous false statement. Okay, so like we talked about inside of a courtroom, saying that you saw someone do something that they didn't do, or saying that you didn't see something even when you did. Okay. Does anyone wanna add to that? All right, so the next thing I had was twisting words. What does twisting words mean? How do you see twisting words? Bob again? No, hey, that's why we have a scoreboard. Well, I mean, now that you've, now that you've offended an entire career. Yeah, I mean, the homeschool Defense League of America is there a bunch of lawyers. Yep, understood. Stereotypical lawyer is somebody that's giving false testimony, like that movie with Jim Carrey. Liar, liar. Yep, yep. He says he can't lie, and the judge is like, you're not supposed to. Right? So I have written down, to repeat what someone said in a way that distorts the original meaning, often to misrepresent their intent or create a different, often negative narrative. So for example, this is one that I see a lot. making something that somebody said mean something very negative. Oh, how many of us Christians are called hateful because we disagree or call sin, sin. Homosexuality is wrong. Okay. That doesn't mean we hate those people that commit that, right? Lying is wrong. There's 10 commandments in here. Okay. We're all guilty of breaking them. We don't hate people that break commandments. We love them. We want them to know Christ as their Savior. But that's a way of twisting our words to make us look in a negative light. Right. Okay. That was the very next thing I had. So yeah, twisting scripture to say things that it doesn't say. Right. I can do all things through a verse taken out of context. Sure. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. The prosperity gospel. Yeah. Yep. I had a friend that was a friend, Facebook person that I went to high school with that was posting all kinds of things about prosperity gospel. And, you know, I called her out on it and it was like, well, the Bible says this. Right. And like, yeah, but look at the context. Look at Paul. Paul lived in poverty. So, yeah, absolutely. That's great. Thanks, Matt. All right. Gossip and slander. All right. So. I'm going to divide these two into two separate things. What is gossip? OK. All right. Anybody else? Isaac, did you have your hand up? OK. Yeah. Yeah. Yep, yep. Go ahead, Mandy. You could say that, like, Christians sometimes say things like, I'm telling you so you can be praying about this thing. Right. Really, we don't need to know the details to be praying for somebody. Yeah. Go ahead, Luke. I think another aspect would be actually telling people something that is true that will tarnish someone's imitations in a negative way. Yeah. Did you hear about what happened? You can pray for them. But did you really know, did you really need to know about that? Go ahead, Grace. Slander is not necessarily, they're close, gossip and slander are close. Maybe even brother and sister. I have written down casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true. It doesn't mean it's not true, but it's not confirmed. You know, we heard quite a few examples, but, you know, many times people don't think that they are gossiping, but what really is gossip? What if you, in confidence, of course, tell somebody something about someone else that they're going through, right? Is that gossip? So we need to be careful, right, of the things that we tell others, even if they are true. Is this something, ask yourself, and I have to thank Ben for some of these questions, is there something that I should share with my wife or kids? Is the person that I'm talking to part of the situation or part of the solution of the situation that I'm in? Okay. So slander, I have the action or crime of making a false statement damaging to a person or business's reputation. So this is an outright, I have it as an outright false statement with intent to damage somebody's reputation, okay? I have 1 Peter 4, 1 through 5. So if we turn to 1 Peter 4, Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the flood of debauchery, and they malign you." Okay? Speaking evil about somebody with intent to try and harm their reputation. And we can do it too, right? Some of us, oh, this corporation, they give money to Planned Parenthood. Do we know that for sure? Not always. I've heard people make statements about other politicians or businesses without actually knowing the facts about them and with intent to malign them. So, slander. All right, condemning someone rashly. Condemning someone rashly. So what do you, what do you think this is? What does this stand out? Condemning someone rashly. Quickly. Condemning someone quickly. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean they did wait seven days till they jumped all over him, but you know, They were probably thinking it right away, possibly, or is that slander? I don't know. But you must have sinned, you know, or, oh, that person, you see somebody and you immediately, oh, I don't like that person. I saw him do something. Go ahead, Andrew. Right. Yep. Yep, exactly. Thank you. Yeah? Yeah, so I've written down forming an opinion quickly without adequate information. It should be innocent until proven guilty in some sense. For example, the media says this person is guilty of whatever they did, so they must be guilty. You know, immediately believing, jumping to conclusions without actually understanding the situation. I'm not knowing their motives. They could have really good motives. Goes back to twisting words, right? Makes it hard to know what the actual truth is. Okay. Jesus says, Judge not lest ye be judged. Matthew 7.1. Is that what this means? What does it mean? OK, well, so rather than quickly making a judgment and or not judging anyone at all. Right. That's not the intention of condemning. Condemning someone rashly is incorrectly judging. But we are called. Jesus was saying that with the measure that you use, you will be measured by it. Right. So if you're judging people quickly, you're, you know, better be careful. Go ahead, Bob. Absolutely. Yeah, we need to be called to rightly divide the word, that's for sure. Yep. All right, next I have omission. So what is omission? Bob? Okay, half truths. Okay. Okay. Anybody else? Go ahead, Luke. Yep, intentionally leaving, intentionally not saying things. Go ahead. Yep, yep. You are lying by not saying what you should. So not saying something when we should, okay? If you're in a court of law, remember the no snitching? You know, nobody should be, you shouldn't snitch on somebody so you don't say something when somebody's guilty of a crime. I'm not snitching, I'm not gonna say anything. That's not biblical. You're lying by omission when you know the truth, okay? And the last one I had down was exaggeration. Man, that's a tough one, right? As Votie Bauckham used to say, if you can't say amen, you gotta say ouch, right? So what do you have, what do you think exaggeration means? Okay, embellishing, I'm gonna give that point to Sue then. Okay, yeah, embellishment. You know, I have my kids tell me how they didn't sleep at all last night. So obviously they can't do their schoolwork or do it well because they didn't sleep at all last night. Zero hours of sleep, right? Yeah. Yeah, all or nothing statements. But what's the intent behind it? I mean, what do you think about, what is the intent of exaggeration? Go ahead, Bob. I see a hand back there that you can't see. That's Ben. Go ahead. Yes, very good. Go ahead, Bob. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. Not in every case, but it is. Yep, yep, pride, trying to get, trying to, you're trying to make people's emotions move in a direction towards you, right? Whether it's, you know, what was that? Yeah, okay, all right, all right. Yeah, I know. I know I do that all the time. Right, okay. Anything? Go ahead, Mandy. I'm going to start a Mandy column. No, you don't need to. OK. Just careless speech. I feel like sometimes we just get into the habit of hearing people, for example, exaggerate. And then we use that in our conversations. And it's just like, did you really think about how you said that, what that actually means? Right. Right. Absolutely. And I think twisting words falls into that. There's a lot of a lot of pieces of that for sure. Right. Every careless word. All right. All right. Anything else? Does anybody want to add to the section of what is false witness? Go ahead. Oh, you're getting ahead of me. You're getting ahead of me. Hang on. Hold that thought. Put a pin in it. All right, so that is what I had for the definition. So my point in that section was to define Probably not exhaustively, but for the most part, a lot of what we can see as bearing false witness. Definitely a court of law is a big part of this, but it's also an attempt to protect our neighbor. God wants us to protect our neighbor, to love our neighbor as ourself. So why does the truth matter? Why do we care about not bearing false witness? Why does it matter? Go ahead, Greg, what were you gonna say? Okay, you're not supposed to lie, okay. Because you would be what? Okay, untrustworthy, right? Go ahead, Judith. Wow, Judith, this is great. Okay, hey, no, that's fine, that's great. Go ahead, Mandy, then Luke. You don't have to have a column. Okay. That's right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Point A, God is truth and abhors falsehood. Okay. That is my first point, actually. Second point is God cannot lie. And I'm going to go over this and more. I like to start with beginning with the end in mind. So God is truth and abhors falsehood. God cannot lie. And from that, the doctrine God is truth. So we must believe that the Bible is inerrant and infallible. and we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, and there are consequences for lying and deception." Okay? So God is truth. God can't lie. The Bible is inerrant and infallible. We are called to love our neighbor, and there are consequences for lying. So, God is truth and abhors false adieu. So, if you look at Proverbs 6, verses 16 through 19, There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. So God is the ultimate standard. He created truth and is truth. All false doctrines call God a liar since it distorts his truth. Point two, God cannot lie. He's not able to lie because God is the truth. He does not and cannot lie. Titus 1, 1 through 2 says, 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 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began, and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior." Why does it matter that God cannot lie and is truth? Go ahead, Judith. That's right. That's absolutely right. That's absolutely right. We cannot, I mean, how can you trust in, if you think about Greek mythology, the gods from Greek mythology were just men with superpowers. They lied, they were deceptive. How can you believe in that? How can you trust that, right? Who was the first liar? Satan, that's right. Genesis 3 says, I had it marked and then my bookmark fell out. Genesis 3, 1 through 13, I'll try to be quick. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. So she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman whom you gave me to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. Okay, so the serpent was the first liar. Why was this lie so difficult to recognize? Why was the lie so difficult? Yeah. Right, he mixed some truth in with the lie. Yeah, it's a half-truth. Very good. Go ahead, Judith. Okay. That's right. You know, we need to know God's Word in order to know the truth. The woman believed the lie by misrepresenting what God had actually said, whether she did it on purpose, through exaggeration, by adding to it, or by not remembering it. Okay. So what were the consequences? This, right? You got to stand here and listen to me. Yep, kicked out of the garden. Yep. Cursed. The ground was cursed, right? Difficulty in getting food. All right. Pain and childbearing. Death. Yep. That's right. All these awful things. Go ahead, Bob. Okay. So God is truth and abhors falsehood. God cannot lie, and because God cannot lie, the Bible is God's truth to us. So I actually looked up the BFC articles of faith, and Andrew was kind enough to supply me with our statement on our website. So the BFC articles of faith, article one, in fact, states the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, are the inspired, infallible Word of God, a divine revelation, the original writings of which were verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit. They are the supreme and final authority of faith and conduct. Inspiration is a special act of the Holy Spirit by which he guided the writers of the scriptures so that their words would convey the thoughts he wished conveyed, would bear a proper relationship to the thoughts of the other inspired books, and would be kept free from error of fact, doctrine, and judgment. And then our own website states, We believe that the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are the all-sufficient, authoritative, inspired, infallible, inerrant, and complete Word of God. They are the final authority of faith and practice. So we believe and know that Scripture is completely free of error. 2 Timothy 3, 15 through 17 says, And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Peter 1.21 says, So I am going to define inerrant and infallible because I had that question. I spoke to Pastor Andrew, I spoke to Pastor Tim as well. So we believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible. Inerrancy is the doctrine that the original writings were written down by human authors without error or mistake. So we received God's revelation free from human error. Infallibility is the doctrine that God's word cannot be wrong because he is always good and true and right all together. So everything that God says must be correct. Together these two doctrines mean that God's word came out perfectly and correctly to and through the humans who who recorded it perfectly, or God's infallible word was recorded without error. Okay, does anybody need me to repeat any of that guy, Bob? Okay. Okay, in the context of God's Word, we believe that infallibility is the doctrine that God's Word cannot be wrong. Okay. Any other questions? So why does this matter? Why does it matter that God's Word is free of all error? Does it matter? Why? Okay, so we can trust that it's true all of it. Okay, even the genocide parts. Yeah, absolutely. God's Word was written down correctly without error. So it's important because if we're going to stake our eternity on it, it better be right. Okay, if go ahead, Andrew. That's right. That's right. So if any bit of it we believe is untrue, or we can throw away that little bit of it, where do we start throwing away at? OK, yeah. Go ahead, Bob. Okay. Yeah, understood. Yeah, absolutely. The the there are always going to be people that try to get you to believe that there are there's something wrong with what we believe. OK. Any other comments? All right. So my next point, we are called to love our neighbor. Okay, so God is truth. God cannot lie. The Bible is God's truth and is infallible and inerrant. And the Bible is, I'm sorry, and we are called to love our neighbor. In this commandment, in order to love our neighbor as ourselves, we are called to protect the integrity and property of our neighbor by upholding his reputation and property. So How does not bearing false witness protect our neighbor? Bob, come on. Help me out here. Well, it can keep him from harm, right? In a court of law, if we bear false witness, our neighbor could be hurt. If we slander our neighbor, we're not protecting his reputation. Okay. Go ahead, Judith. Okay. All right. Right. Right. We are called to love our neighbor, and that means that we protect them by not listening to false witness or bearing false witness about them. And then there are consequences for bearing false witness. What are some consequences if you bear false witness to you? What are some of the consequences to others if you bear false witness? If you bear false witness, what are the consequences to others? Yes. They might be unjustly punished. The idea of the witness in Scripture is very important. Why would the idea of the witness be important in Scripture? I have some Scripture references to share with you, but why do you think that it would be important? Go ahead, Bob. Okay. Okay, to show what is factual and not factual in what sense? Okay, the sense of the judicial system, right? Right. Right. Deuteronomy 17, six through seven, on the evidence of two or witnesses or of three witnesses, the one who is to die shall be put to death. A person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. " Okay, those that are witnessing against and agreeing on false testimony or on true testimony would be the first to kill the person that they're witnessing against. Deuteronomy 19.15, 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 three witnesses shall a charge be established. Okay, so the idea of the witness in scripture is huge because they didn't have the same things that we have nowadays, right? They didn't have DNA evidence. They didn't have fingerprinting. They didn't have, you know, forensic pathologists and other ways of determining crimes. It was the evidence of two or three witnesses that said, yep, I saw that guy kill that other guy. Go ahead, Ben. Right. Right. Absolutely. Can you think of any stories in the Bible with consequences to others? I remember there was one just this past Sunday, in fact. Go ahead, Bob. It was about Naboth. That's right. What happened with Naboth, Bob? He did. That's right. So the consequences to Naboth was that he died, right? Again, because of the false witness of others. Can anybody think of any other ones? Go ahead. Ananias and Sapphire was the next one I had. Yeah. Oh, no, that's not the one I had. That's for a different one. Different situation. Hold that thought. Put a pin in it. Go ahead, Andrew. Potiphar's wife. Okay, yep, Potiphar's wife lied about Joseph, and so Joseph was put in prison for many, many years because of it. Now, that was ultimately part of God's plan, but not cool. Okay, Joseph's brothers, yeah, very good. I had Micaiah, the son of Imla, asked by Ahab and Jehoshaphat about going to battle. Go ahead, Isaac. Jesus. They tried to, that's true, but they couldn't get people to agree amazingly. Anybody else? What about the man of God from Jeroboam? A man of God confronts Jeroboam and then leaves, and he's told by an old prophet, Hey, come inside and eat and drink. And he says, no, no, the Lord God told me I may not eat. Well, he told Ahab that he could not eat or drink in the land or, you know, or Jeroboam. He tells Jeroboam that he can't eat or drink anything and he must leave right away. And the old prophet lies to him and tells him, no, no, no, God told me that it'd be fine. Right. And so he's like, oh, all right. God told you, I guess I'll believe you. You're no prophet. And then he gets killed by a lion. So don't believe old prophets or you might get killed by lions. All right. Anything else to add? Go ahead, Bob. Right, the priest gave him the sword and a consecrated bread. Yeah. And what happened to that priest? Yeah, all the priests. That's right. Okay. So now I'm going to talk about consequences for ourselves. If we lie, there are not only consequences for others, but there are consequences for ourselves. What do you think the consequences for yourself of bearing false witness would be? Go ahead, Bob. You'd be untrustworthy. People won't believe you. You're right. You're right. I know we all, we all, we all struggle, right? We're all, we're all sinful, but it can just take one time. Go ahead, Judith. Okay. You lose fellowship in a sense of the Lord. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Go ahead, Andrew. Agreed, yeah, absolutely. Okay. It breaks relationships, yeah, absolutely. God, man. Continue, yep. Snowballs. That's right, that's right, that's funny. How many of us, I don't know about you, but I don't sleep very well. I can't really live with myself if I knowingly have committed falsehood against others. I also have, you could be guilty of perjury and go to jail. I mean, there are actual legal consequences for perjury. There's legal consequences for slander. And in some cases, there are people that forfeited their lives because of it. Ron Casper, can you tell me if there's an example in the Bible of people that forfeited their lives because they lied? Ananias and Sapphira. Very good. What happened with Ananias and Sapphira? They lied. That's right. They lied about a field. And why did they lie, though? Like, what were they trying to get out of it? No, they had that. Prestige. They wanted prestige. They wanted people to be like, man, you guys are so spiritual, which is very ironic. Exodus 23, one through three and six through seven, you shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 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, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit. You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor, the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. Keep far from a false charge and do not kill the innocent and righteous for I will not acquit the wicked." So there are consequences for ourselves. Proverbs 19.5, a false witness shall not be unpunished. And then Deuteronomy 19, 16 through 21. Those the judges shall inquire diligently and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst and the rest shall hear and fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. All right. And then I also had Jezebel and Ahab. The end result that Ahab and Jezebel had were that they were ultimately put to death. So their wickedness did not go unpunished. They were exceedingly wicked too. So as I wrap up here, what do you think about lying to save a life? Can anybody think of a scripture where we see that? OK, what was that, Travis? Rahab. What happened with Rahab? She lied to protect the spies, right? So if she would have told them the truth, then they would have been killed. So she lied to save a life, and the lineage of Jesus comes through Rahab. Right? Go ahead, Mandy. Midwives? That's right. Very good. Right. And what happened with them? Were they judged for their lie? That's right. They had children. That's right. Absolutely. What about lying about your faith in Christ to save your family? You believe that lying about your faith in Christ. That's right. Right. All right. So the ending. Yeah, I did. I just addressed them. What do you think, Bob? Were there consequences to Rahab? OK. So Rahab was blessed, right? Right. Yes. Right. It's not the norm. It is a special situation. Think about, you know, I had an example of if in Nazi Germany and you had people hidden in your basement. But if you lie, if you didn't lie, then you would in effect be murdering them because they would be killed because of you. OK. Say that one more time. Yeah, Travis said you owe truth. Say it one more time. You owe truth to those who truth is owed to. That's good. I like that. Hang on, Bob. OK. It's what you said, protecting your neighbor. Maybe that's the exception, though, to protect your neighbor. You are protecting your neighbor's good name. Right. Yeah. Yep. Unjust. So, I can't not end on the gospel. The application of all this is the gospel. If you've been out with Ron or myself, one of the ways that, one of the questions I typically ask people is, how many lies have you told? Right? And when people typically will say either, well, I don't lie, in which they just lied to you. or too many to count, and you say, what does that make you? And they'll usually say human, right? But all of us are accountable to God for every sin that we've done, and what can we do with that sin but trust in Christ as our Savior? Without the forgiveness that Jesus offers us through his word, through his atoning death on the cross, we would have no way to pay for even the little half-lie that we've told. So, all of us are accountable to God for every word that we say. So, the gospel is that we trust in Christ for our salvation because He died the death that we couldn't die for ourselves, lived the life that we could never live as a perfect, sinless man. We are all accountable for every lie that we've told, and the only way that we can be forgiven of our sins is by trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. All right, I'm gonna pray right at eight o'clock here. So let's pray. Father God, we want to be those that are trustworthy. We want to be those that protect our neighbor. We want to love you first and to love our neighbor as ourselves, not because that's what saves us, Lord, but because we do love you and that we need you. We need the salvation that Jesus offers us. We pray, Lord God, that we would be trustworthy. We pray that as we go throughout the rest of our week, that we would glorify you and that you would give us all opportunities to share the gospel. We thank you for the things that you've provided for us in the name of Jesus. Amen.