For scripture reading, we turn to the book of Revelation. We read both from the beginning and from the end of the book, the first six verses of chapter one. Take note of the fact that the coming of Christ is the coming of the faithful witness. Man by nature is a liar. Christ is the faithful witness. And our calling is to imitate him. And that's what we consider today as we consider the ninth commandment. We read first six verses of chapter one. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bear record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace, from him which is and which was and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And then we turn to the last chapter. Where again, there is a reference to the fact that what Jesus says is true. And there's also a reference to the judgment upon those who love and make alive. Revelation 22. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on every side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face. and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun. For the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. And he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. And I, John, saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, see thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book. Worship God. And he saith unto me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega. the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters. and whosoever loveth and maketh alive. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come. and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. So far we read from the Holy Scriptures, passages that we've read, and the rest of Scripture, the basis for the teaching of our Heidelberg Catechism in Lourdes Day 43. There we read. What is required in the ninth commandment? That I bear false witness against no man, nor falsify any man's words, that I be no backbiter nor slanderer, that I do not judge nor join in condemning any man rashly or unheard, but that I avoid all sorts of lies and deceit as the proper works of the devil. unless I would bring down upon me the heavy wrath of God. Likewise, that in judgment and all other dealings, I love the truth, speak it uprightly, and confess it, also that I defend and promote as much as I am able the honor and good character of my neighbor. Dearly beloved, in our Lord Jesus Christ, we sang a moment ago, who fears the Lord must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from wrong, must do the good from evil cease, and ever seek and follow peace, fearing the Lord, keeping our tongue from evil, our lips from speaking wrong. By nature, we're inclined to all wickedness, and we see that in our use of the tongue. and the struggle that we have to use our tongue rightly. We read these commandments, and as has been mentioned, we read them from the viewpoint that we've gone through how great our sins and miseries are and how we are delivered, and now we're in the third section, how we express our gratitude to God for our deliverance. We go through the commandments that way. as those we look at it from the viewpoint that Christ has saved us, we are in Christ, he has redeemed us, washed away our sins, and we desire to glorify him, which we do. Now when we go through these commandments as to how we express our gratitude, we also grow more to know our Our sinful nature, as we see, we're inclined to do the opposite of this. Judging, condemning rashly and unheard. Not promoting the neighbor's honor, but backbiting, slandering. And we constantly come to our God and ask for forgiveness for our many violations. of this commandment. Who speaks the truth? Where do you find someone who speaks the truth? Looking at it from the viewpoint now also of the truth of the word of God. How do you know what the truth is? We're here in in the Church of Jesus Christ, where the gospel is taught, we hear the word of God, we have it summarized in our confessions, and we say, well, we have right here an accurate summary of what the scriptures teach. The scriptures is the revelation in the word of God. It's accurately summarized, and we have an accurate summary. what the good news of the gospel is. Yet now if you look at it from the viewpoint of how out in the world there are so many that speak different things, saying that they know what the Bible teaches. They claim that they're what they say is true and yet they speak falsely. And that there are many, many that would wonder, now how do you know who's really right? Who really speaks the truth? How do we know where the truth is proclaimed? Where the truth is found? Man by nature is a liar. But we know that Jesus is the faithful witness. And the book of Revelation speaks of that, that he is the one who came and spoke the truth. And plan to look at some verses on that subject, that first talking about it from the viewpoint of what man is like by nature and that we grow to know our own sinful nature. And then look at it from the viewpoint that Christ is the faithful witness. as was referred to in verse 5 of Revelation 1, which we read. He is called the faithful witness. And as you get to the end of the book, it says what he has spoken is faithful and true. It speaks of the judgment upon the liars. Christ is the faithful witness. And men rejected what he said. And still today, many reject what he says. He comes, he came, he spoke the word of truth, and many reject it. They don't receive his testimony. And Jesus himself pointed that out. He spoke what he had seen and heard. He spoke the word of the father, yet many, many reject it. Rejected him then and they reject him today. Our calling is to imitate him, both from the viewpoint of speaking the truth regarding God, bearing witness to the truth from the viewpoint of speaking the truth of the gospel, even when it's opposed, but also speaking the truth regarding ourselves, and what we've said and done, and what our nature is like, and also speaking the truth with regard to others, imitating our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness. We consider this Lord's Day under the theme, the faithful witness. We consider, first of all, the false witnesses. Secondly, the coming of Christ, who is the faithful witness, And thirdly, the calling to imitate him. Ever since the fall of man, man has been a liar by nature. God created him good, didn't create him that way, but after he fell, then sinful man would lie. He would not speak the truth. Sinful man speaks falsely about God. He speaks falsely about himself. He speaks falsely about others. Sinful man is constantly lying. Oh, granted that they will say some things that are factually accurate, unbelieving man will. In their dealings with one another, in order to communication with one another, they recognize that they need to speak things that are factually accurate with regard to various things. Yet at the same time, we recognize what the scriptures say is true. They reject the word of truth, and they will speak falsely about God, themselves, and others. Man, by nature, is a liar. Now, what a lie is, what it means to lie is to make an untrue statement with the intent to deceive. That's the definition of the English word to lie. And we recognize that. A person may say something that's not accurate, but he thought it was concerning say something that happened. And he makes a mistake. And he says something and somebody corrects him. No, that's not the case. It was actually someone else. And oh, and then he recognizes that and says, sorry, but he wasn't intending to say something wrong when we don't usually refer to that as that he was lying. He wasn't intending to deceive. He thought that was the case and somebody else corrected him. To lie is to make an untrue statement with that intent, with the intent to deceive. Another word that means to deceive, one of the meanings of that word is to cause somebody to believe what is false, to delude. So we have different words in English, lying and deceiving. This confession, our confession here speaks of all sorts of lies and deceit as the proper work of the devil. Now the word proper there, you may wonder why the word proper is there when it says the proper work of the devil. Well that English word proper can have the idea of belonging to one or belonging characteristically to one. And lies and deceit are said to be the proper works of the devil. That's what the devil does. And you children may have heard that before. You may have heard even your parents perhaps say that, but they catch you when you have spoken that which is not true, say, you know, that's what the devil does. The devil's a liar. We are not to do the same. And yet we see that by nature, We're inclined to do that. We're inclined to lie. And we're forbidden to. We are forbidden to make an untrue statement. Now, it's not correct. Some have said that there are times when you can deliberately make an untrue statement, but do it with a good motive. Well, that's not correct. Scriptures do not speak that way. When it speaks of like the Hebrew midwives or Rahab, they're not commended for making an untrue statement. It isn't the case that we can make an untrue statement with the intent to deceive somebody. That would be a lie. And we are not to do that. We can't say, well, in this situation, it was good. Because if we would have told them the truth, then this would have happened. Maybe somebody would have been harmed. So it was good in our situation to lie. That's not correct. We are not to make an untrue statement with the intent to deceive. And we recognize it's the commandment reads not simply thou shalt not lie, although that is forbidden in the ninth commandment, but that's not the actual wording of the ninth commandment. The wording is thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. So it looks at it from the viewpoint of our calling with regard to our neighbor, and that we're not to speak falsely about him. Bearing false witness against him is what is forbidden by this commandment. Slandering. Slandering involves speaking evil of someone falsely. And that is forbidden. by this commandment, also backbiting. Now, when we refer to backbiting, there can be times where a statement that is made is accurate from the viewpoint of factually accurate, and yet it is not said in love. It's not said with a desire to promote the neighbor's honor. but it's said out of hatred of someone, and we backbite. That is forbidden. That is a violation of this commandment. And just simply saying, well, it's true, doesn't mean that it's not a violation. It still is backbiting when we are doing it out of hatred. It's one thing that sin needs to be dealt with, and it does. And there are times when we have proper conversations about sin and about disciplining with regard to a sin. Yet to be backbiting and delighting to speak evil of someone out of a hatred for that person is a violation of the, of this commandment, falsifying someone's words. We're quick to recognize when someone does that to us, where they change the wording of what we said, or they change the stress of the wording, or they change the way that it was said, or they leave out the context. to give a wrong idea, and then we would be quick to respond and say, I didn't say that, or I didn't say it that way, or you're taking me out of context. We would be quick to respond when it's done to us. Yet, we can be doing it to other people. which is a violation of this commandment and is forbidden by the word of God. Condemning someone rashly, unheard, quickly condemning them, not hearing them, how easy it is for us to do that. We hear somebody else give a report of something and we quickly condemn and we haven't actually heard the person trying to obtain and spread bad reports. The scripture speaks of somebody who's a tail bearer or a whisperer. The desire to find out bad things about someone and then to go and tell others. Or when one finds out something about someone else, looking forward to getting on the phone, or looking forward to meeting with someone, because you have something to tell, something to tell bad about another person. We can see that tendency, that tendency in sinful man, in ourselves. And it's important we confess it. And it says, I avoid all sorts of lies and deceit as the proper works of the devil unless I would bring down upon me the heavy wrath of God. We are not to hear what's forbidden and then disregard what God says and walk in the sin of violating this commandment. Our creeds are accurate when it says, unless I would bring down upon me A person can be talking about others, desiring the judgment to come upon them, condemning people rashly and unheard, slandering. And then this says, unless I would bring down upon me the heavy wrath of God. We're to confess our sins with humility. We've all violated this commandment. There's times that we've heard the word of God. There's times when we've perhaps told somebody else the word of God. There's times when perhaps we've corrected somebody else for speaking what they ought not and turned around very quickly thereafter and been doing the same thing ourselves. And we're to confess our sins. with humility, with sorrow, thankful that Christ has come and has suffered and died for us to redeem us. And we confess our sins. God says he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. And we're to bridle the tongue. We ask God to forgive us, and we hear the word of God saying, now bridle the tongue. If we don't, our religion is vain, James 1 says. There's warnings in scripture about speaking too much, which can apply to Verbal speech, face-to-face, over the phone, electronically, there's all sorts of ways to communicate. We are to be on guard when we communicate concerning the things that we say. Our desire is that we might imitate our Lord, and now we turn we turn to consider Christ who is the faithful witness, who speaks the truth. And in this connection too, as we turn to our calling, we look at it also from the calling to speak the truth about God. Jesus is the faithful witness. He's the one who speaks the truth. Jesus spoke of that. In fact, he said, when Pilate asked him, aren't thou a king? He said, thou sayest that I was a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice." And that's when Pilate responded and said, what is truth? That I should bear witness unto the truth. bears witness to the truth. He is the faithful witness that God said would come. Moses had spoken about the fact that there would be a prophet who would come who would speak the word of God. and that everyone was to hear what he had to say. What he would say is he would speak the word of God. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee. And I will put my words in his mouth, God said. And he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. So God spoke that. And then Moses By the inspiration of the Spirit wrote this down, that there would be a prophet and God would put his words in that prophet's mouth and he would speak all that God commanded him and whoever would not hearken unto the words of God, the words of God which he would speak God says I will require it of him. Now that language is what Jesus then, he spoke of that when he was, during his ministry, before his death, he made a number of references to the fact that he spoke the word of God. Even as he said to Pilate that he would bear witness to the truth, he spoke of the fact that he knows the Father, He speaks what he has seen with his father, that a doctrine he taught was not his but the one who sent him. He declares what the father says. When he judges, he says his judgment is just. He seeks his father's will. One makes a just judgment who is seeking his father's will. the faithful witness. And of course, we have here the inspired scriptures, which are all about Christ. We have here a record of the word of God. The scripture is the word of God. And the spirit of Christ is called the spirit of truth who guides us into truth and works in us faith. so that we confess the truth. We know the truth and confess the truth. And by nature does not. Jesus said about himself, or the scriptures say, there's a reference to John the Baptist speaking, and it speaks about Christ, and it says about Christ in verse 32 of John 3, and what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. that Christ came, the faithful witness. He testified what he had seen and heard, he who knows the Father, what he had seen with his Father. He's the prophet that God said he would put his words in his mouth, he would speak the truth. No man receives his testimony. They called him a liar. They rejected what he said about himself when they asked him if he was the Christ, and he answered. Honestly, he was asked about himself. And he said he gave the correct answer. He spoke honestly. And they decided he was worthy of death for blasphemy. He bears witness to the truth. He's the prophet who reveals the secret counsel and will concerning our redemption. Many people don't want what the Word of God says. You know, at the end of the Bible, there was this warning about adding to the Word of God or subtracting from the Word of God. People don't want what God says. They reject his testimony. There are many that teach wrongly about salvation, wrongly about the covenant. They deny what the scriptures say. And it was the case when Jesus was on earth, and it's still the case today. People speaking wrongly about the return of Christ and what's going to happen. Now granted, there are difficulties under, you know, we struggle to understand certain things that are said, like in the book of Revelation. And in all of scripture, we're constantly learning. But it's important for us to confess what is clearly set forth, and as we come to understand the truth, for us to confess that truth concerning the coming of Christ, concerning the bodily resurrection, the fact that he comes quickly, and what's going to happen when he comes, and the final judgment that's spoken of in the word of God. And the judgment that's going to come upon liars, without our dogs and sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, and idolaters, whoever loves and makes a lie, the impenitent, we've all violated the commandments. Those that come unto God and ask for forgiveness, believing the gospel, sorrowing for sin, God comforts us that we are forgiven. He washes us, cleanses us, whiter than snow. But those that do not turn from their sin outside are sorcerers, whoremongers, idolaters, et cetera, murderers, those that love and make a lie. That's the truth. Jesus is the faithful witness. He has spoken the truth. He has borne witness to the truth. Even though it is the case that people reject his testimony, that doesn't mean that what he said isn't true. The fact that popular opinion rejects it. Our Lord spoke the truth and he was crucified. And Jesus has said to us that if they persecuted him, if they came against him, they would persecute anyone that confessed the same truth that he taught. Christ came, the faithful witness who spoke the truth. He also works graciously in his people working in us a sorrow for sin so that we confess our violations of this commandment, and also working in us repentance, which is a gift. He comforts us with the truth of forgiveness, and he works in us so that we strive to bridle our tongue and to use our tongue rightly. He works in us to bear witness to the truth, even though it's going to be the case that there's going to be those that will speak against what we say. We are not to deny the truth. We know Peter denied his Lord three times. We look to God for the grace that we would confess the truth even when there's opposition, even when we know that there will be those that will speak against what we say. And we recognize if we're in a situation where the ones that are with us go and speak against the truth that we confess, then we're inclined not to say anything. And yet, it is our calling to be a faithful witness. Jesus is the faithful witness. We are in Christ Jesus. He dwells within us by his spirit. And we are called to use our tongues in such a way that his name is praised. To speak about what God says about the judgment upon the impenitent, and about the forgiveness of sins, about the unconditional covenant, unconditional election, limited atonement, Irresistible grace, total depravity, faithfully to bear witness to the truth that God has made known to us. Speaking the truth regarding God and His work, regarding Christ and His work, and regarding others, that is our calling. And it is of note that the passages we often quote about the image of God speak about the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new. We often look at that passage in Colossians 3, 9 and 10 and Ephesians 4, 24. It speaks of the old man and the new man. It speaks of the fact that when you're talking about burying the image of God, that's talking about us from the viewpoint of the new man. Why bring it up here? Because in both of those passages, there is specific reference to us not lying. but speaking the truth. And that's of note. That we manifest our, that we express our gratitude. One putting off the old man, putting on the new man, that he expresses gratitude with regard to the way he uses his tongue. Colossians 3 says, lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and hath put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Lie not one to another. Ye put off the old man with his deeds. That's the Colossians 3 passage. And the Ephesians 4 passage has something similar. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. In both passages, when it speaks of the putting off of the old, and the putting on of the new. It speaks of us not lying, and then by implication that we speak the truth, that we are a faithful witness imitating our Lord. Our Lord and Savior. We say, the scriptures say, we delight in the law of God after the inward man. We're to bear witness to the truth about God, about ourselves. We're to confess our sins. We're to confess not only that we are sinners, but also we are to confess our sins. And when a subject is brought up to us that we have done wrong, we are to confess that. With sorrow, we confess our sins and our violations of the commandments. And we are to speak the truth, bear witness to the truth concerning others. We're to promote the brother's honor. As much as we are able, it's true that we have to deal with sin. And there are times when we have conversations that have to do with what somebody has done that is wrong. And yet we are to do that in a way that is to the glory of God. We are, as it says here, to defend and promote as much as we are able the honor and good character of our neighbor. When somebody has sinned, we're to go to the brother We desire that a person turn from their sin. A person has been walking in a sin for a time. We go to him and we talk to him and there's a desire that the brother turn from his sin. We think of our own sins. We come in humility. We're to talk to a brother about his or her sin. We're to speak what's edifying. what builds up, what's beneficial. So that when we speak, it's important that we, that the words that we speak are truly edified. That we use our tongue to the glory of God when we speak. The scriptures speak of promoting learning. We're to seek to grow in our ability to be able to confess the truth concerning the doctrines that we hold to when we talk about bearing witness to the truth of the gospel. We desire that we might learn and grow in being able to express the truth of the gospel. We're to work at that. We learn. trying as we seek to do that, both verbally and in writing. You recognize how there's a benefit in not only reading and studying and hearing, but expressing, whether verbally or in writing, and striving to improve on how to express it. Sometimes you can think you know something, but then when you try to express it, you run into difficulties. And then you may go back and study some more, some aspects or learn how to express it. I mean, you make progress as we look to God for the grace, make progress in expressing the truth and being able to show it and prove it, show it from scripture. Or say, if you're talking to someone that you want to not only just say, this is what the Bible says, but you want to be able to show them from scripture that it's so. But also when we talk about one another, that we speak words of praise regarding one another, that we say positive things about one another. Instead of looking for opportunities to speak something bad about someone, that we promote someone's honor. to strive to do that and to encourage that. As we hear the word of God, we know this is the truth of the word of God. We know that what our confession says here is accurate. As we hear this scripture and as we think on Christ, the faithful witness, and that we are in him and he directs us by his spirit, may we, as we go forth today and in the days ahead, Let us have our mind on the faithful witness, Jesus Christ. We are members of his body. We are called to put off the old and put on the new. We have put off the old man and his deeds. You think of how we have life everlasting in Christ. The new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of the one who created us. May we use our speech rightly, praising our God in song, praising Him in our prayers, praising Him as we bear witness to the truth to others. And may we speak rightly about one another, about ourselves and one another, to the honor and the glory of our God. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God and our Father, we confess, O Lord, our sins. We are so thankful that Thou dost forgive us. We have violated this commandment in many ways. Lord, forgive us. Lord, cleanse us of unrighteousness. We're so thankful for the sacrifice of Christ, the faithful witness who bore witness to the truth and was crucified. We know he died for us. We know he suffered the punishment that we deserved for all of our violations of the Ninth Commandment and of the other commandments. We thank thee for his perfect sacrifice. Grant us grace to use our tongues rightly to the honor of thy name. May we on this day, the Sabbath day, and always May our tongues be used in such a way that we speak words that are edifying, imitating our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.