You're listening to Migito Radio. Migito Radio is a radio ministry of Migito Media. For more, visit our website at migitoradio.com. That's migitoradio.com. Welcome everybody. This is Paul Flynn with Megiddo Radio for Friday, the 5th of August, 2022. Thank you all for tuning in on today's program. We're going to be returning to the Westminster Larger Confession. We're on question 140, and I hope to get to the end of the Ten Commandments. We're basically on the Eighth Commandment now, and probably get to about question 150, I'm hoping to. We'll see anyway how things go. Hope you're all doing well. And yeah, we're gonna be looking at a few things here, the Eighth Commandment, Ninth Commandment, and the Tenth Commandment, Lord willing. I suppose what it means to stand for the truth, the Eighth Commandment, very much about truth in terms of our material things and being fair and having justice when it comes to contracts and things like that the ninth commandment to do with Truth in terms of information, not lying about people, not slandering them, things like that, but there's also other things involved. And also then coveting over what doesn't really belong to you and what God has not deemed fit to give to you. It's very important that we are content. Content, speaking about contentment. Prayer for me as I wait on a call. I think people a couple months ago probably realized that I've been waiting for a call since May 1st, I think it was. Yeah, May 1st. And so it's like, how long is a piece of string? I have no idea. So pray that the Lord will present somewhere for me to serve in the not too distant future. We have seven vacancies in our denomination at the moment. However, having said that, a lot of them, a number of them are fairly new vacancies and anybody who is just, you know, their pastor has just left or whatever, it's very hard to think about the next person coming in. It is very, very hard. So a lot of these places are newly vacant, so it's not, Who knows? Who knows? But the Lord knows and I pray for myself and my family and that we would be just content. And look, the Lord has blessed me with a lot of contentment. But also, yeah, just trying to use the time as profitably as possible. Next month, I will be, there probably won't be much in September. I'm not sure how many programs will be done in September. Feel free to email me, magedogradio at gmail.com. That's M-E-G-I-D-D-O. radio at the gmail.com next month I have put myself into I finished college, I finished training, I finished everything, but I'm going to go back and do the, what essentially is like the beginner intensive course that they do in college for Hebrew. And, uh, I'm looking forward to doing that. It'll be a bit of revision for me and, uh, certainly could do with going back over a lot of things. in the Hebrew language, which is a real, real blessing. Just opening up now, in case anybody's listening and has emailed me, somebody has emailed me, I'm going to have a look at that. I'll do my best. I don't cover everything, albeit I'll acknowledge that. I try to be wise in what I cover and what I do critiques of. You know, there's things where it's wise to give it more coverage than it's really worth. Some people online are very, very divisive and probably should be ignored more than anything. And then there's some people who are doing a lot of damage and it would be beneficial to the wider church and everything else to do a critique on these things, or perhaps have already covered it. It's very, very similar to another critique that I've done, but I will have a look at it. I think the person's emailed me recently there, six days ago. I will have a look at that and see what I can do with that. Okay, so question 140 of the Westminster Large Catechism. starting in the 8th commandment. And it's a very, very simple question. Which is the 8th commandment? The 8th commandment is, thou shalt not steal. Now, as we've seen with the other commandments, that is not the entirety of it. This is a summarization of this commandment. and there's more there's look this is summarizing in a negative way but there's also positive things that we are commanded to do because of this commandment and it says question 141 what are the duties required in the 8th commandment because we are being called in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1 to be imitators or followers of God And that brings, that would be duties. We are to be like God in his moral character, in his, what are called communicable attributes. God is good. God is love. God is wisdom. So just taking those three perfections of God, we are to be good. We are to be wise. And we are to be loving. following and imitating God. So what are the duties required in the 8th commandment? The answer is the duties required in the 8th commandment are truth. And that should make a lot of sense. Jesus said in John 14 6, I am the truth the way and the life. So returning to the answer again, the duty is required in the Eighth Commandment. I'll read out the whole thing and then we'll go through it. Truth, faithfulness, and justice in contracts and commerce between man and man, rendering to everyone his due, restitution of good unlawful detained from the right owners thereof, giving and lending freely according to our abilities and the necessities of others, moderation of our judgments, wills, and affections concerning worldly goods, a provident care and study to get, keep, use, and dispose these things which are necessary and convenient for the sustenance of our nature and suitable to our condition, a lawful calling. and diligence in it, frugality, avoiding unnecessary lawsuits, suretyship, or other alike engagements, and an endeavor by all just and lawful means to procure, preserve, and further the wealth and outward estate of others as well as our own. Let's go through this answer. So truth, and very, very simply is again, we're supposed to be, we're supposed to be imitators of God. And Jesus said, I am the truth, the way and the life. So we are to him, he is God is truth. God is faithfulness. We are to be true and faithful in our dealings with others and justice in contracts and commerce between man and man. We are to do what is right. And again, we are to model it based upon God. We are to, you know, just take a little side, but we're to love our enemies, aren't we? And what's that modeled on? Well, God has rain and sunshine on the unbeliever. He shows his, what theologians in the past have called common grace. He shows, or going back even further, benevolent or beneficent love toward creatures who haven't, you know, he shows this toward all. All who are not in hell. In hell there is only pure justice and the pouring out of his wrath. But we, God shows love to his enemies. We are to show love to our enemies as well. We are to do what is right. We are to do what is just. And we are to uphold truth in our dealings, be that in businesses, and talking about contracts and commerce here. If we are to think that our Christianity does not come into our businesses. What a poor testimony that is before the world. And it really denies that Jesus is our master, that he is our Lord, that we wish to follow him, that we wish to be like him. Because if we do wish to be like Jesus, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, we will seek to be truth, to require things that are truth, faithfulness, and justice, and contracts and commerce between man and man, rendering to everyone, it says, his due, giving what is due, giving what is owed, what has been agreed to, and not breaking those promises either in contracts or in other things. That could be paying people on time, that could be all sorts of things. And also there is, you know, it's not just the boss in terms of work, it's also the person who is working. You're giving to what is due. The person is paying you. So if you're working a job, you may not have the nicest boss in the world, but it is your due to respectfully give your work and your labor And that ties in with the Fifth Commandment as well. It talks about restitution of goods unlawfully detained from the right owners thereof. So, look, hopefully this is obvious that you can't just, if you find something valuable, and it's got the name of the person written on it, and you know where it is, and you give it back to its rightful owners, and you keep it for yourself, well, that's in the form of stealing. And there's other forms, there's lots of forms of stealing. Sometimes they're maybe legal according to the laws of the land, but we've got to be, as Christians, submissive to the law of God. So, it says restitution of goods unlawfully detained from the right owners thereof. So basically bringing it back to the person who actually owns it. Giving and lending freely. So, you know, we are, you know, if it's within our powers to do so, it says according to our abilities and necessities of others, because we have, don't we? According to the law of God, we have a responsibility towards others. It's not just me, myself, and I. We have a very individualistic way of looking at society around us, but we have a responsibility toward a neighbor. The Bible is Samaritan, for example. It's not just enough for you to just say, well, no, it doesn't matter. No, they're image bearers of God. Now, wisdom plays a part in this, of course. You know, we don't give it to somebody who's going to just waste it and use it on evil things, things like that. But there were people who need it. So give and lend freely. We're not to be stingy. based really upon our ability, you know, we may not have the money so we can't do it or whatever, or based also on the necessity of others. There's some people whose great gift in the church often is their generosity and their great at business and they're great at all sorts of things and not many people know that they are so generous in their giving. And there's times maybe in churches where a quarter or maybe even a half of the money that goes in can sometimes come from one person. Now, returning to our answer again, this is still question 141. So moderation of our judgments, wills and affections concerning worldly goods. moderation of our judgments, wills, and affections concerning orderly goods. So we're not completely ruled by them. It says a provident care and study to get, to keep, use, and dispose these things which are necessary and convenient for the sustenance of our nature. So we take care of our health. We don't rob our health. And suitable to our condition, it says. There's, you know, there's a lot of overlap sometimes with other ones, but we can rob even from our own life. And we should make, we should prioritize spiritual life, of course. But at the same time, the most important thing We shouldn't be thinking that in order to be spiritual we massively, always massively, there might be times when we have to in extreme circumstances, but we have to massively... curtail our health. I mean, you see, we saw since 2020 the other extreme, or at least in the name of the other extreme, which was from 2020 to 2022, we clearly placed our physical health above that of our physical health, which was wrong. Even if the science was right, proving that day by day as more and more reports come out, that not only have they been wrong, some of them well-meaning, but people are willing to admit that they were wrong. And own up to the fact that those people who are silenced and mocked and ridiculed and everything else were the people who actually should have been listened to in the first place. And I'm talking now about not people on radio programs or anything like that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people with expertise in the area. who knew what they're talking about, the Jay Bhattacharyas of the world, you know, people with epidemiological and economic backgrounds. Actually, he has, I think he's got degrees in both from Stanford University. Anyway, that's a bit of a rabbit trail there. So we have to put our spiritual health above that. of our physical health, but at the same time we have certain responsibilities to take care of ourselves in order that it's a means really to help and bless the work. Also talks about, and the next thing it says, a lawful calling. We shouldn't do work that's unlawful. And by the way, I was involved up until about, I was saved about six months, I was involved in an unlawful calling myself. What I mean by that is, you know, a job, that was wrong, an industry that was wrong. I used to work in a betting office and which is really just involved in theft and waste and preying upon the weaknesses of others. Horrible industry. Horrible, horrible industry. Worked in it for four years, was never into betting myself, but I saw some horrible things that I'll never be able to forget, honestly. So we should not be in a job that is contrary to the law of God. Diligence in it. When we're in that job, or whatever we do, we're diligent in it. Now, it's amazing too, when you think about it. There's all the excuses in the world for us to be sit-down tools and not give our very, very best. But especially when it comes, sadly, in the ministry. There are men who work incredibly, incredibly hard. And the people who should work the hardest are those providing spiritual meals. Now, a lot of time you won't see men, how much work they do. Or you'll have no idea. Well, actually, probably will, knowing by the quality of the sermon that they produce. If they're getting worse, they're probably not doing much. But we should work hard with whatever God has given us and to do the best we possibly can, not making an idol out of it, but doing it with all our might to the glory of God. Frugality, being frugal, that's a word that's not used much anymore. We have a proof text here. for the catechism, when they are filled, he said, this is from John 6, 12, unto his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. And then Proverbs 21, verse 20, there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up. You know, in times where things are good, We should not be just blowing our money. And use what you need. Do not waste it. Silly things that you don't need. And you know, spending more than you have to and all that, being frugal, being wise with your, with not just money, but the things that God has given you. And look, we all fail in different points, but there's always things we can work on. Avoiding, it says, unnecessary lawsuits. I don't think that's anything too controversial. It says unnecessary lawsuits. Not all lawsuits are Not allowed, it's not a prohibition against every single lawsuit ever in the courts, but they should be avoided. There can be circumstances where they are needed, but those are rare and those should be avoided because of what it says in 1 Corinthians. Insuritieship and other like engagements and an endeavor by all just and lawful means to procure, preserve and further the wealth and outward estate of others as well as our own. So it's not about, you know, we shouldn't make an idol about stuff. And we should There's nothing wrong with, with all just and lawful means, to get, you know, to work hard, to keep, maybe to save, save money, you know, if you're a young person, start saving money, you know, and be ready maybe when, I don't know, the right woman comes along to marry her or whatever, to preserve and further the wealth of the outward state of others as well as our own. Again, I think we've taken that to an extreme probably in the West. We probably we have way more than we need. This is all to do with things that we need. But. We should have certain, you know, savings and use wisdom with the wealth and to. To leave a legacy, there's a balance, isn't there? You know, if we're just laying out money here and here and here, and all we're doing, we just want to be richer and richer and richer, and we're trying to be like one of those guys who are multi-billionaires or something like that. Obviously, that's, you know, not that many people get into that position, but having what is needed. And there's nothing wrong with having things, it just depends what we do with it. if we're having things for the sake of having things and loving, or if we do so discreetly and using whatever money we have in order to bless people. Now, I'll say to people who have things, maybe you fall upon hard times. And this isn't really in here, but I always find with people, either people are great at giving help, but not very good at receiving it, or vice versa. And really, people should be both. Allow yourself to be helped, because really, it's an opportunity for the other person to be blessed in serving whatever need that you have. and gives them an opportunity to show love. And if you need help, I mean need it, allow others to help you. So I find some of us, the more independent among us, and I would probably lean more in this direction, you know, maybe you find it harder to receive help or whatever, but we all have weaknesses is what I'm saying. Or maybe we're stingy and we don't like to help others. And I'm talking about necessities here. And there's not as much of them in the West, but if you see somebody in need, necessity, and you can help somebody, do. Use wisdom, of course. Now, and I say use wisdom as well, sometimes people are constantly in debt, and no matter how much money you give them, they'll be in trouble. And it would be often, sometimes, it's unwise to give it to them. So it really just depends. It really just depends. Question 142. What are the sins forbidden in the Eighth Commandment? The sins forbidden in the Eighth Commandment, besides neglect of the duties required, are theft. I think that's pretty self-evident, I think. You know, we shouldn't steal. Robbery. I'm not exactly sure how these are in... Is there a difference? There probably is. Man-stealing? Man-stealing has to do with slavery. And in the Bible... If you're thinking, well, in the Old Testament, they're slaves. Yeah, they did. But man-stealing across the board, the practice of going into another nation and rounding up people and taking them for their homes and all that, that has always been condemned. It's in 1 Timothy 1.10, and this is the commonality. The slave trade has always been evil, but when you have things like indentured servitude, if, for example, somebody was paying back a debt or something like that, that's something different. Could be called slavery, somebody's made a servant for a certain amount of time or whatever, But man stealing. Is another form of theft, a very evil form of theft. And receiving anything that is stolen, so if we something was stolen and whatever and you get you benefit from it, well, let's break at this break of the eighth commandment as well. Fraudulent dealing. You know, look, and by the way, I'm not coming here as somebody who's never broken. Can you give me one example? I think we don't realize, especially in the digital age where we really struggle with this. I remember it was, I'm going to be brutally honest here. It was about 20, 2019, 2009, 2010. And I Back in 2009, I was getting into making movies and things like that, and I didn't know much about software, and I was learning from the internet. There was a bit of naivety there and stuff like that, but I remember, I think it might have been 2008, 2009, and I didn't have any software, and I was like, I think I conveniently just ignored the fact. And I was a Christian at the time, I was newly saved and all that. You know those things where you can download things and you can get unlocked keys? I barely remember how to do it anymore, but I remember not really thinking anything of it. And I remember when my pastor at the time, I think it was back in 2009, and him asking me, how'd you pay for that? That looks like really good software. And I remember just being really, felt really convicted about it. I was saved maybe a year, I can't remember. And as soon as he said that, I was just like, hmm, it just bugged me for the rest of the day. And you know what? I deleted the software off my computer and then went and bought it. And, you know, repented of that, I was wrong. I was wrong to do that. But, you know, I was so used to doing it, I remember years ago people would give you whole hard drives of movies and you know like the movies that would be um just hollywood movies or whatever you know the the days of vhs and tapes and all that kind of stuff going to dodgy dealers was kind of gone it was everybody downloaded and then it was you could watch the movies for free and all that's kind of it wasn't for free was theft same with music by the way i guess what i'm saying is in this digital age We can think, you know, I'd never steal anything, but there's a lot of things we do. Make sure if you've got like, for example, if you got somebody's book and you're using it, make sure you've got permission. You know, if you've got it on a PDF, maybe somebody shouldn't have the PDF on their website. And I'm sure we may have done it innocently and at times, I'm sure I've done it innocently as well. I'm sure if I went through everything on my computer, maybe, you know, sometimes we're not aware of something is, we shouldn't have it on our computer. Things have changed a lot. So I think from now on, Because when things aren't physical copies, we are in a state where we don't really see it as theft. So one of the challenges is when you buy things or just somebody gives it to you or whatever, we need to be careful. I think we need to be careful. Look, whoever may see it or not see it, God is seeing it. If the copyright owner gives you the permission of it, it's a whole new world. Things have changed a lot in the last 10 years. And look, most people who produce videos and stuff like that don't really care. I mean, I've done, what, three, four movies or whatever. And if you want to copy and share my movies, knock yourself out, do whatever you like. I'm not going to charge any money for it. That's great. But that's different. I'm giving you permission to do that. Although there is the first one, which I did in 2010, and it's probably not a great movie. Probably been it, but apart from that, you can work away. All right, let's get back to this. So receiving anything that is stolen, and again, the fact that we have the old digital age, that makes that a lot harder now. Fraudulent dealing. Just not being honest. And that can be a problem if you're involved in sales. Be truthful, be truthful. False weights and measures. And when we think about false weights and measures, people would deceptively maybe charge more than they actually should. Be honest and truthful in all your dealings. Remember, removing landmarks. Again, that's being dishonest in a different way. Injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man. We've kind of dealt with that before. Or in matters of trust, oppression. That's interesting. Or in matters of trust, oppression, mistreatment. And that's a violation of the Eighth Commandment as well. X X extortion. I can become more of an issue in the future now. So. people don't really think about because of, you know, there's worse things in the world like communist China and North Korea and other things like that and horrible places around the world. And we think, well, we're not experiencing any oppression and mistreatment and things like that. And yes, the things with the whole, you know, masking and all that kind of thing over the last two years has been divisive and not based on any degree of science at all at any point along the road. But to be rem- well, having said all that, it is not as worse as some regimes around the world, and there's times when I will wear a mask just for the sake of a few minutes of peace going to the hospital or whatever, but we should not be joining in with the kind of covering of people's faces, especially when you think of children and their ability to be able to communicate has been robbed away from them. And not just children, it's worse with children because it's really impactful on them. We should think about that. We should think about how we treat people. And just because it is commanded by the powers that be of the day, is it right? Is it actually to do with our health at this point? I mean, everybody's talking about the next crisis of monkeypox or whatever. And then today, let me dig it up here. 98% of persons infected with this monkeypox thing were gay and bisexual men, New England Journal of Medicine. These people, there's... It's not about science anymore. It's about terrorizing the people, scaring them out to death. I know we think we're going to nod our heads and this is all going to go away. This is, sadly folks, this is going to get worse. Because what's around is just fear, fear of everything. And it's when people are afraid and desperate is when you get extortion. It's when you get predatory lending, usury as it talks here, bribery and other things. You get more corruption, you get more all sorts of things in public life. Vexation, vexatious lawsuits as it talks about in this commandment as well. Unjust enclosures and depopulations. engrossing commodities to enhance the price. unlawful callings, and all other unjust and sinful ways of taking and withholding, this again is question 142, from our neighbor what belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves, covetousness, again we'll be dealing a bit more with the 10th commandment, inordinate pricing and affecting worldly goods, distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them, you know, if we're absolutely obsessed with these things, envying at the prosperity of others, you know, if we're jealous, rather than just being thankful for other people, as likewise lazy, prodigality, wasteful gaming, in all the ways thereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate and defraud ourselves of the due use and comforted estate which God hath given us." So, in our mismanagement of things, we can be very, very wasteful, and that is a form of theft. We call it self-theft. But you see, a lot of the time, it's not about how much money you give. Sometimes people just need an opportunity and all that, but a lot of times, a lot of people are poor around the world. Not everywhere, by the way, but a lot of times, especially in the Western world, it's because of mismanagement, because of really breaking of the Eighth Commandment in this way of wastefulness and a certain degree of idleness. It's not this case in every way. It's not. Not for everybody, no. It can be a lot of unwise decisions and the lack of frugality, a lack of being frugal in certain areas. Question 143, which is the ninth commandment? The ninth commandment is thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Basically, we're not to lie or share untruths. Question 144. By the way, in case I don't mention it, this does include the internet. We've got to be very careful. And it includes the people we don't agree with. And it includes even our enemies. Question 144, what are the duties required in the Ninth Commandment? The duties required in the Ninth Commandment are the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbor as well as our own, appearing and standing for the truth and for the heart, sincerely, freely and clearly and fully speaking the truth, and only the truth in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever, a charitable estate of our neighbors, loving, desiring and rejoicing in their good name, Sorrowing for uncovering of their infirmities, freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocency, a ready receiving of good report, an unwillingness to admit of an evil report, concerning them, discouraging tail-bearers, flatterers, and slanderers, love of care of our own good name, and defending it when need requireth, It also says, when need requireth. It's not always needed. Keeping of lawful promises, studying and practicing whatever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report. So let's go through this question 144 with the duties required in the ninth commandment. So we should be people of truth. We should be people who stand for the truth. Now, sometimes We don't understand the truth as well as we think. Sometimes we need to study to know what the truth is. Promoting the truth between man and man. We promote the truth and the ultimate truth is God and the good name of our neighbor. We're not to slander our neighbor. You know, sometimes, you know, on the internet it will be under the name of standing for the truth. that we spread falsehoods against whoever that's not the truth that's spoken about here in the ninth commandment as well as our own so our good name of our neighbor as well as our own appearing and standing for the truth and from the heart and we shouldn't just hide away from the truth we should stand for the truth Sincerely freely clearly and fully speaking the truth and only the truth in matters of judgment and justice and in all other things whatsoever a charitable esteem of our neighbors loving desiring and rejoicing in their good name Sorrowing so you know if We should think better of others than we do of ourselves, is the best way you can think about it. And we shouldn't be, you know, somebody's got some bit of gossip, a bit of juicy gossip, and you're immediately in there. And sometimes we can be like that, myself included, unfortunately, all of us can, with various different people. We shouldn't think the worst of people, we should try and think of the best of people. It says, sorry for uncovering for covering all of their infirmities. Sometimes you'll hear people getting into different... falling into sins and... I think it does depend on the situation. We should try and be gracious where possible. We shouldn't take it too far though, you know, there are people... who demonstrate over a period of time a pattern of sin, we should seek to be gracious, of course. We should sorrow over sin, never rejoice in it. We should, you know, if somebody does fall into sin, we should be kind of going, you know, well, I could easily fall into that or whatever, you know, we should be gracious in that. We should point out, like, for example, There will be times we disagree with brothers and sisters in Christ, and there are times we should acknowledge their giftings and the graces and stuff like that. And it may be, sometimes it may require defending somebody's innocency if a bad report is being spread around already receiving a good report. You know, it's like we do the opposite typically. We typically receive the bad reports before we receive the good reports. You know, if we hear the good reports, we almost talk it down. If we hear the bad reports, we're almost like, ooh, tell me more. Oh, I knew it. I knew it all along. But that's unfortunately, friends, that's our hearts. and an unwillingness to admit an evil report. We think of the middle part of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 when it talks of love, or charity as it is in the AV. Concerning them discouraging tailbears, we should discourage any kind of gossip. And by the way, you can't just say, well, I'm just passing it along. Think of sharing on gossip as if you're passing around a live grenade or spreading fuel somewhere else. Number one, you shouldn't even, if it's without truth, unsubstantiated gossip, whatever, shut it down. Don't let it get into your mind and corrupt how you view that person. You know, we should be discouraging, it says here, tailbears, flatterers. You know, some people are going to say, oh, you're amazing. No, just discourage or whatever. You know, I just discovered over the years sometimes when people are. A bit too complimentary. And it's not really sincere sometimes. I'm talking about people, you know, when it's over the top, doesn't happen that often. But I think the best thing is just, well, we praise the Lord for whatever, you know, any gifts we have are from the Lord. So we should discourage and maybe change the subject or whatever, or slanderers or whatever. Love and care of our own good name. Because we're standing for Christ. I know it's not all about us, but we should defend our own good name when necessary. A lot of times it's not necessary. A lot of time, trying to defend your own good name, you end up in the same error that Job entered into from about Job chapter 3 all the way up to, was it Job 31? And then he's rebuked by Elihu. Elihu is not said to be wrong in his assessment. Job then, in Job 38 onwards, is rebuked. His so-called three friends are rebuked on Elihu. So we can fall into that trap of defending ourselves when it really would be best if we didn't. when need requires. And sometimes it is necessary. Sometimes it is necessary. Keeping of lawful promises, studying and practicing of whatsoever thing are true, honest, lovely, and of good report. So that's where we should fill our minds with good. honest, positive truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and His law and His commandments and good things from His word, good food from His word. Question 145. We'll see how we get. I'm not going to go past the hour mark, so we'll see how far we get. What are the sins forbidden in the ninth commandment? The sins forbidden in the ninth commandment are prejudicing the truth and a good name of our neighbor, as well as our own, especially in public. Judicature, sorry I really struggled saying that one, giving false evidence. I'm not really going to go through this because this is really similar to what has just been said. There might be, I might stop once or twice going through it, but really, I think a lot of it we've kind of already covered. You know, judicature, you know, in courts, anything to do with giving false witness, any false evidence, whatever. Suborning false witnesses, wittingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause, outfacing and overbearing the truth, passing unjust sentence, calling evil good and good evil, rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous and the righteous according to the work of the wicked, forgery, concealing the truth, undo silence in a just cause, sometimes we should speak up. And sometimes we don't, and that is also a pierce to give consent. And it says, and holding our peace when iniquity calleth for either reproof from ourselves or complaint to others. Just a little side, usually we speak when we shouldn't, and usually we don't when we should. It takes wisdom. Continuing on with this here, speaking the truth unseasonably or maliciously to a wrong end. We can weaponize the truth. Look at that part again in question 145. Speaking the truth unseasonably or maliciously to a wrong end. What you're saying may be true, but that person doesn't need to know it or that's not the wisest time to share it or whatever. Um, you know, with a certain things, you say somebody has just suffered a bereavement. Try to show wisdom in what you talk about. If you're at somebody's funeral, you're not, I don't know. Let's say you have a situation where, um, You're not exactly sure if somebody was a believer. The other person thinks he's a believer, especially if he passes away or whatever. There's nothing really going to be gained by it than showing, trying to prove that their last loved one or the loved one is definitely in hell or something like that. That would be... There's nothing to be gained by it. You hope you're wrong and you hope that person is in heaven, you know, just given an example like that. So sometimes we use. The truth maliciously, we can dig up things from people's past, we can it depends on the end as well, isn't it? And it can happen online. happens online quite a lot, especially on places like Twitter. Or in doubtful and equivocal expressions to the prejudice of truth or justice, speaking untruth, lying, slandering, backbiting, detracting, tail-baring, whispering, scoffing, reviling, rash, harsh, and partial censuring, misconstructing intentions, words and actions, flattering, vain, glorious, boasting, thinking, or speaking too highly or too meanly of ourselves or others, even of ourselves, you know, we can Think of Moses and I can't speak and God was angry. And basic responses, who made your mouth? You know, so we can deny the gifts. It says here, denying the gifts and grace of God. If God has given you a gift, don't deny it. We shouldn't flatter ourselves either, but don't deny. you know, maybe be humble, you know, somebody says, Oh, you're very good in this area. And then you're thinking, well, praise God for that. And I've got a lot of where is the work in, you know, in other areas, aggravating smaller faults, hiding, excusing, or extenuating of sins when called to a free confession, you know, like rather than confessing, you continuing them unnecessarily discovering of infirmities. And there's a lot of movements online that are really suffering with this. They think they have to dig up every single fact on everything that they can dig up. Unnecessary discovering of infirmities, raising false rumors, receiving and counseling evil reports. One good example of this I can think of off the head is a lot of the fallout of the Me Too movement. you know, people digging up cases from decades ago, from various places, rulings and things that were done decades ago, and it's very hard to get the full context unless you were there. And then spreading rumors Based upon a little bit of information here, a little bit of information there, basically, you know. And there's some people. And I and I think I sympathize with them for a certain I do sympathize a lot of these people, because I think some of them have hurt themselves in the past and they're just desperate out there just to make sure nobody else has this horrible thing happen to that happen to somebody else that happened to them. I get that feeling. I get it to a degree. I mean, I wasn't abused or anything like that, but I suppose, like, I hate bullying because I was bullied when I was a kid. So if I see somebody else do it, it makes me extra, you know, much more, it makes me more mad than something else, you know, because you've been through it, you hate it even more. You know that the horrible, it's a horrible thing and you just, you want to stop, you know, bullies or whatever. So, um, Not everything should be stuffed up on the internet. Not everything... really, what's the end? Some things should be dealt with privately. Oh, by the way, as well, you know, ministers when... ministers of the gospel don't There may be times it might be appropriate, maybe. Not as much as people think, but when it comes to exposing people and all that kind of thing, especially when people are just members of a congregation, maybe made a mistake on Facebook, don't out them to be blocked and all this kind of stuff. And I've seen this kind of stuff from one or two preachers and stuff. It's just not a good look. We've got to make sure that we hope for the best, even if somebody has fallen the sin, we don't spread that around everywhere. We try to keep it, quote unquote, in-house, I suppose. Again, it depends on the situation. This isn't always the case, but sometimes, I'm not talking about abuse cases or anything like that in this situation, but I'm talking about certain embarrassing sins, and hopefully the person repents, and they'll repent before the session, their elders or whatever. That way it doesn't have to be something that everybody knows about or whatever. You know what I mean. A certain degree of wisdom. We're all sinners. And no, I'm not talking about criminal cases and all that. That should be reported straight to the police. I completely understand that. But in the failure of other people doing their job, we shouldn't think that we can There's a lot of, I don't know what you call it, vigilantism online at the moment. You know, that's maybe a spin-off of the Me Too movement. Some of the Me Too movement has come up with Some good things not that not a lot of it has been good But it's been good in certain areas certain people have been treated horribly over the years some of the truth of their horrendous things have Come out in the open. That's good. And and there's certain things have happened that have been talked about and that's good but the problem is Again, you get you get this whole following around certain people who've gone through this, and then they start speaking about theology. And the reason that they're well known is not because they're great theologians or anything. It's because they're an advocate for, say, abuse victims or whatever. But it doesn't mean that they're good on theology. you know, to certain people who go through certain things, and you can read about their experience, and you can learn from their experience, absolutely. And you can be blessed by seeing how they got through it. But you have to realize that they're not necessarily, it doesn't mean they're bad theologians either, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're good theologians, or that they are the ones who's going to reform the church. This is kind of where some of it goes. They think they're the ones who are going to reform it. And that can be dangerous places to go. So when we think of raising false rumors, we've got to be very, very careful. We are in an information age. We're just swimming in information. And we don't know what to do with a tenth of it, a hundredth of it. And because of that, we misread things. We misunderstand things. And I'm sure people are genuinely... What's the word? They're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong. And sometimes they are dragging good institutions. Now, maybe there's, for certain times, there's cases to be answered and all this kind of stuff. Yeah. but we shouldn't be trying to dig up dirt. I'll give one other example. Remember the whole, the horrible situation Ravi Zacharias? And I can understand the temptation for everybody to want to dig up and try to find similarities between Ravi Zacharias and other people so that Ravi Zacharias never happens again. One of the major problems with him was he had no real church oversight. And there was too much of a cult of personality around them, and you know, things like that. There's going to be. And this is a reason to really focus on your local church. To not think that these people who are conference speakers mainly and they go from place to place doesn't mean they're all bad. It's just that you don't know them. You know, they may have read somebody and then certain things, certain horrible truths have come out about a certain somebody. The response is not to be suspicious of everybody. The response, really, how should we respond as Christians? Fasting and prayer. thinking the best of each other, not raising evil reports. Even with people you disagree with, if you have an area of disagreement, do it on, show it in the word of God or whatever it is, and then move on, and then move on. So, and even talks about it here in question, what was it, question 145. Evil suspicion. Evil suspicion. Envying or grieving at the deserved credit of any. Endeavoring or desiring to impair it. Rejoicing in their disgrace and infamy. scornful contempt, fond admiration, breach of lawful promises, neglecting such things that are of good report and practicing or not avoiding ourselves or not hindering what we can in others such things as procure and ill-name. Again, we should think the best of others. Again, it doesn't mean naivety either. I'm not saying be naive. You know, when it comes to certain ministers, there are certain men who have a godly track record for many, many years of service. And, you know, the people, the Joel Beekes of the world, the JV Fescoes, a lot of men like that, if you hear a rumor or something, you think the best possible, and you don't actually think any ill. But compare that with somebody like, who's got a checkered past, somebody like Mark Driscoll. I'm not saying that you immediately believe every bad thing, but the man is disqualified and should not be back in ministry because of his past. So, you know, we have to not be naive, but often, sadly, we think the best of men we shouldn't think the best of. And we don't speak against men who've diligent service over many, many years. So hopefully that's been helpful. Okay, question 146, which is the 10th command? The 10th command is thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. basically don't desire something that doesn't belong to you. It's easy to want what your neighbor has and be all dissatisfied with it and be angry really with God because of that. Question 147, what are the duties required in the 10th commandment? The duties required in the 10th commandment are such a full contentment. See, if we're not content, We're not happy with what we have. We're really annoyed with God. This is why I've, at the beginning of the program, asked you for contentment, because it would be easy for me to go, oh, you know, there's other guys in the ministry and all this kind of stuff. No, no, no, I've got to be thankful for what I have. You've got to be thankful what you have, because we've all received more than we deserve. full contentment in her own condition and such a charitable frame. Now this is not a sinful condition but just what we've been given. And such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our neighbor as that all our inward motions and affections touching him and tend unto further all that is good which is his. Question, basically, having a loving disposition toward a neighbor, I suppose is another way of putting that. Question 148, what are the sins forbidden in the Tenth Commandment? The sins forbidden in the Tenth Commandment are discontentment with our own estate, envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor. It makes us sad when our neighbor does well. Rejoicing for them. together with all inordinate motions and affections to any thing that is His. Inordinate motions and affections, we want that so badly. And we're miserable with it. That's covetousness and it's a kind of a theft from the heart, I suppose you could say. Now, we also have to remember at the end of this We've gone through this, you know, standing for the truth, standing for the truth in our estate and our things that we have, standing for the truth in our words, our thoughts, and our deeds and what we promote about ourselves, about others, especially about God. Standing for the truth in being content with the reality that God has given us what he's given us so we should be thankful for that because we don't deserve the least of God's mercies but also realizing when we look at that we all fall short of the glory of God every single last one of us all of us are sinners We all fail at this. Question 149 says, is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? Because that's what it looks like. It looks for perfect conformity to this law. No man, the answer says, is able either of himself or by any grace received in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God. But doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed. That's another truth. If we're going to stand for, we also have to realize while we, yes, we promote the keeping of the law of God, we promote the standing for the truth. And we, we, we, we endeavor not to make any excuse in this matter, but at the same time, there's a truth of who we are. So in promoting the truth, we don't become Pharisees thinking, Hey, you see, you got to listen to that. Not me. We vote. I was convicted of reading those things. I hope you are. And we've all got areas to work on. But also don't deny God has given you gifts. That's not for the preachers. That's for anybody within the body. Don't deny the gifts God has given you. Bless the church around you and use it as the Lord leads you. This has been Paul Flynn. Thank you so much for listening. Talk to you again soon.