The Scriptures read, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. May God add a blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word and let's pray together. Lord, we thank you once again for the truth of your word. We thank you for these principles that you have embedded into human life and wherever we can go on this planet, in cultures that have the Bible, in cultures that only have natural revelation. We can find evidence that you have printed these These principles upon the hearts of men and so we are we are not without guilt We we know these commandments and yet Lord we have transgressed them Lord teach us your truths and and teach us how that our only hope for keeping them is through Christ, the perfect law keeper. We ask this in His name. Amen. You may be seated. Thomas Watson, in his comments on this ninth commandment, said this, he said, God has set two natural fences to keep in the tongue. The teeth and the lips. And this commandment, he says, is a third fence about it. That it should not break forth into evil. Perhaps our teeth and lips ought to be enough to restrain the tongue. And they can physically. But the Lord has been so gracious as to give us this commandment as well, hasn't he? To guide us in the proper use of our tongues. If we think about these commandments, the second table of the law, once again to do a little review, the sixth commandment, you shall not kill or murder, set a hedge of protection around the individual's life, The 7th commandment set a hedge around marriage and family, you will not commit adultery. The 8th commandment put a hedge around personal property, you shall not steal. And now the 9th commandment guards a man's tongue or his speech. And we can notice again that there is a movement in the second table of the law from things that are done in the physical realm to hear things that are done with words. So it's not just what your hand does, the hand can steal. It's what's done with your words. And we're really going to see the epitome of this in the next study with the last attempt, the crowning commandment, which is about covening. And this is something that cannot be seen and cannot be heard. But it's internal. It's in your heart and in your mind. And so, we're moving in that direction. But here, a commandment that governs our speech, our words. We all know the little children's rhymes. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Well, that's false, isn't it? Because sometimes, unkind words can hurt more than any blow, physical blow. And so the Lord knew this. The Lord knew our sinful tendency to use speech and language to hurt and to harm our neighbor. And so he had a provision to protect us. We look at the text and want to start out as we have been doing with a little exposition of the text. This commandment is perhaps a little more complex than the previous several because the previous several were in Hebrew just two words. You know murder, you know committed adultery, you know steal. This one's a little more complex, there's a little bit more to it. It does start out, as the previous ones had, with the Hebrew negative word, lo. The word order is a little bit different in Hebrew. In Hebrew, the word order is literally, you shall not bear or you shall not witness against your neighbor a false witness or a false testimony. It puts the word neighbor right in the middle of the sentence. The language in this commandment is from the law court. And in Israel, Old Testament Israel, they were not only a church, a religious spiritual entity, but they were also a civil entity. And so they had government and courts In Exodus 18, there's an account of the people bringing their difficulties to Moses, and he's burdened with it, and he consults with Jethro, and he gets a group of elders to help him in the judgments. And so Israel is a legal entity, a civil entity, and so there has to be justice. And here is a law that at face value is for the court. And in the Old Testament, and particularly in the Torah, the first five books, the law takes this idea of not bearing false witness so seriously that it requires two witnesses for any charge to be considered valid. There have to be at least two witnesses or more. So you can look at Numbers 3530, Deuteronomy 17.6, Deuteronomy 19.15. And then if there were a capital case, if there were a case where the punishment was murder, they also required that the witnesses who had condemned the man would be the first to have a hand in the punishment. Look at Deuteronomy 17.7. So, for example, if the condemned was to be stoned, Perhaps the person committed adultery, which is a capital offense. Two or more witnesses who had a direct testimony to the transgression, they were to be the first ones to pick up stones and throw them at the condemned. One point of debate about this commandment has been the question of what is meant by the neighbor here. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Was the word neighbor meant to mean fellow Israelite? That the Israelites were not to bear false witness against their fellow Israelites? Or does this word extend to all human beings? If you look at Jesus' teaching particularly in his parables and stories, he certainly expanded the sense of the term neighbor, perhaps most notably in the account of the Good Samaritan. Remember, the man who was on the road to Jericho, fell among thieves, He was beaten, left for dead. A priest comes by. A Levite comes by. They walk by the other side. But then it's a Samaritan, a non-Jew, a man with mixed ethnic heritage is the one who stops and helps. And at the end of the story in Luke 10.36, Jesus says, So which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And so, I think we can, with some certainty, take the sense here that to bear false witness against your neighbor, the neighbor means against any of your fellow human beings. There's a negative and a positive we've noted in all the commandments. The negative prohibition in this commandment is the forbidding of perjury. And that is offering false testimony in a court of law. And then this law becomes expanded to forbid all false and injurious speech against one's neighbor. The positive side of this law is that it promotes honesty and truthfulness in speech. Maybe you know Ephesians 4.15. Paul writes to the Ephesian believers and he talks about speaking the truth in love. And that's sort of the benchmark that flows out of this commandment on the positive side. We are to speak truthfully and in love. And it seems that we can err on one side or the other, can't we? On one hand, we can speak the truth, but do it without love. And so we come across as harsh. On the other hand, we can be so afraid of offending that we can not speak the truth in the name of being loving, and what that leads to is licentiousness. That's not really loving. That's being permissive and allowing someone to persist. And what we're supposed to do, Paul says, is strike this golden mean where we speak the truth, but we do it lovingly, with love, with charity. What about the literal and the fuller sense of this commandment? Let me go back to A.W. Pink. He wrote this about the Ninth Commandment. He said, Take these words at face value, and they prohibit only the horrible crime of perjury or giving false testimony in a court of law. But, as with the previous commandments, so here, much more is implied and inculcated than is specifically stated. He continues to add that the wider meaning of this commandment is that it represents any words of ours which would injure the reputation of our neighbor, be it uttered in public or in private. So the wider meaning is any injurious speech against our neighbor is comprehended in this commandment. Along the way we've been looking at Spurgeon's Catechism, as it explains the Ten Commandments. And question 62 asks, what is required in the Ninth Commandment? And the answer comes back, the Ninth Commandment requires the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbor's good name, especially in witness bearing. This commandment is about promoting truth between man and man, guarding our own reputation and the reputation of our neighbors. If we were to expand this commandment, as many Christian interpreters have before us, As you know, I've been reading Thomas Watson's commentary on A.W. Pink and also more modern Ernie Resinger's book on whatever happened to the Ten Commandments. And here are some of the things that are summed up in some of these Christian interpretations of the Ninth Commandment. First, it forbids falsehood in our speech generally, that is, lying. And this includes everything from outright lies to exaggerations. It's very easy to exaggerate the truth, isn't it? We can exaggerate the faults of others. We can exaggerate our accomplishments. It seems like every couple of years there's some scandal of some athletic coach or some academic or government person. It turns out they padded their resume. They listed a degree they didn't have. they were bearing false witness. They were exaggerating. There's a scandal going on right now on the blogs on the internet about a well-known evangelical speaker who was a former Muslim who became a Christian and it's turning out that he had exaggerated a lot of the details about his childhood and young adulthood and he had made some things sound more dramatic than they actually were. And now it's being exposed and so he's being caught in a very difficult situation. Secondly, this commandment addresses slander. It forbids slander. Slander is malicious speech against our neighbor in order intentionally to ruin his character and reputation Here are a few quotes from Thomas Watson. He uses such picturesque language Here I hear just some selected quotes. He says the scorpion carries his poison in his tail the slanderer carries his poison in his tongue and He says, the wounds of the tongue no physician can heal, and to pretend friendship to a man and slander him is most odious. As it is a sin to raise a false report of another, so it is to receive a false report of another before we have examined it. He says, we must not only we must not only not raise a false report, but not take it up. He that raises a slander carries the devil in his tongue, and he that receives it carries the devil in his ear. Finally, last quote from Watson, he says, The slanderer wounds three at once. He wounds him that is slandered. He wounds him to whom he reports the slander. by causing uncharitable thoughts to arise up in his mind against the party slandered. And then third, he wounds his own soul by reporting of another what is false. He concludes, Watson does, you may kill a man in his name as well as in his person. Third, wider application of the Ninth Commandment. It forbids even sharing things that might have some truth in them if we do so uncharitably and indiscreetly. And I found this is a recurring theme in these Puritans and Pink and Christian interpretation. A.W. Pink says we violate this commandment even when we speak the truth if we speak it unnecessarily and from improper motive. Sometimes in churches, prayer request times become questionable. When we're sharing, are we really sharing because we have a heartfelt interest? Or is it because we know a little something juicy that might be shared? Pink quotes another theologian named John Dick, who said this, We injure the character of our neighbor when we retail his real faults without any call to divulge them, when we relate them to those who have no right to know them, and when we tell them not to promote any good end, but to make him lose his estimation in society. Fourth wider application of the ninth commandment. It forbids failing to speak up on behalf of a person who is unjustly attacked. Again, pink quotes John Dick. Nay, we transgress this precept when we do not speak at all, for by holding our peace when something injurious is said of another, we tacitly give our assent by concealing what we know to the contrary. And Thomas Watson adds, a man may wrong another as well by silence as by slander when he knows him to be wrongfully accused, yet does not speak in his behalf. A fifth wider application of the ninth commandment, it forbids flattery. If slander is saying false things about our neighbor, Flattery is saying false things positively in order to manipulate or win the good graces of our neighbor. We all have a tendency to this, don't we? This is Norman Vincent Peale, How to Win Friends and Influence People. They did something that was good, tell them it was good, but then add a little panache to it. And so the ninth commandment forbids sycophants, those who would try to butter someone up by using praise that's really false in its content. And again, that undermines truthfulness with our neighbor. when we're trying to work against him, use our speech against him. Sixth application, wider application, this commandment forbids rumor-mongering, tail-bearing, and gossip. I remember when Llewellyn and I were living in Eastern Europe, in the post-communistic society we were in there, first of all, rumor was rampant there. Because for 45 years, people had not been trusting at all of their media. The government-run media, the newspapers, the radio and television. So there was a lot of information that circulated. No telling, well, that communism is over, but they didn't have the internet. So there's just a lot of wild, word-of-mouth rumors that would circulate. We would hear them from some of our friends, and sometimes it was just crazy stuff. But I remember one time in particular, there was a There was a particular brand of shampoo that was being advertised, and there was a lot of suspicion at the time that Western companies were dumping a lot of garbage on the Eastern European market to try to take advantage of them and make money, and the rumor circulated that this particular brand of shampoo made your hair fall out. It was completely untrue, but it was a persistent rumor And it was so persistent, in fact, that the company that produced that shampoo ended up taking it off the market. Because the rumor had broken. One of the other crazy rumors they had was that the Coca-Cola that they sold in Hungary was not the same as Americans drank. They were convinced that what they had was some sort of knockoff of the real thing. And no matter how many times I told them, it tastes the same here as it does at home, they didn't believe it. It's easy for rumor and gossip to spread, and we have a sinful tendency, and this commandment is a barrier. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. If you don't know something to be true, don't pass it on. Because you could be passing on a falsehood. Think about the scriptures that speak to this. Leviticus 19.16. You shall not go about as a tail-bearer among your people, nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. Proverbs 11.13. A tail-bearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals the matter. Proverbs 20.19, he who goes about as a tail-bearer reveals secrets. Therefore, do not associate with one who flatters with his lips. Proverbs 26.20, where there is no wood, the fire goes out, and where there is no tail-bearer, strife ceases. We could apply that in our homes, couldn't we? Sometimes there's an argument or a controversy. Do you have a tendency to stir the pot? and throw another log on the fire and keep it going for a few more days, a few more hours? Or is your sense to guard your tongue and let the fire go out? Let's transition to a few helpful directions to preserve us from this sin. And as I did, I think the last commandment, I'll borrow some of these from A.W. Pink, five helpful directions to preserve us from this sin. First, he says don't be swayed by a party spirit. In other words, beware of storing up prejudices that don't allow you to see the good in others, but promote always believing the worst about them. Avoid a party spirit. Second, Pink says, be not busy in other men's affairs, attend to your own business, and leave others for God to attend to. Third, reflect much upon your own sinfulness and weakness. Rather than trying to take the speck or the moat out of your brother's eye, take the plank out of your own first. Fourth, Pink says, shun the company of tail-bearers and tattlers. Idle gossip is injurious to the soul. And fifth, he says, if others slander you, see to it that you have a conscience void of offense. Even if you are slandered, make sure you have a clear conscience, that there isn't anything lurking or hidden for which you should be ashamed. We can also consider some of the other guidance that we have from the scriptures and probably the most notable passage I think in the New Testament that parallels the ninth commandment is in James 3, verses 1 through 12. So if you want to look over at the book of James, James chapter 3, verses 1 through 12. And James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has an admonition for the proper use of the tongue. He starts out with talking about teachers who use the tongues in teaching doctrine. My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships, although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder whenever the pilot, wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. It would only take one little match struck and thrown in the wrong place can burn a forest down, can burn acres and acres of woods down. And so one bit of injurious speech can cause huge amounts of damage. James 3.6, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the whole course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Tell us, James, what you really think. We have domesticated all kinds of animals, but this tongue, he says, is one beast that man has not been able to domesticate and rule. And so, in verse 9, he says, With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. What does he relate injurious speech toward our neighbor to? I think he relates it to murder. What's the reason that is given after the flood in Genesis 9 as to why man shall not commit murder? Because their fellow men are made in the image of God. And to strike down a fellow human being is to strike at the image of God. And here, James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is applying that to our speech. To speak with injury to our neighbor is to strike at one who is an image-bearer of God. Verse 10, Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh." So he's pointing to the hypocrisy of one moment using our tongue to bless someone or to praise God, and the next moment using it to injure and insult someone. I think we should remember that when God converts a man, He saves not only his spirit, but also his body. And this includes his tongue. Our tongues must be converted to righteous uses. And we must give up unrighteous uses of it. And I think this is the heart of this ninth commandment. Let me invite you to stand together. Let's pray. Lord, we all, to a man, woman, and child in this room, we all can confess sin in this area that we have been guilty of violating this commandment. We've lied outright sometimes. We've justified it by saying it was a white lie or a fib. We have sometimes flattered. We have sometimes slandered. We have sometimes been quiet when we should have corrected a wrong that was said. Lord, we have violated this commandment in many, many ways. And Lord, it just becomes one more example of our sinfulness. But Lord, it also becomes one more demonstration of what Christ has done for us, because He bore on the tree He bore at Golgotha in His body all of our sin. And He bore the ill uses of our tongue. He even had insults and slander heaped upon Him, literally, by the mockers and the priests and the soldiers. And Lord, more important spiritually, He took upon Himself On that cross, all of our sin, including our violations of this ninth commandment. Lord, help us to be changed by that. Help us to be transformed by that. And to realize that you have given our tongues to praise you, to build up and edify others. And when we must correct, let us speak the truth in love. regard us from error with our tongues and lead us toward right uses. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen.