Turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's letter to the Ephesians. We're going to read from chapter 4, verses 17 through 32. That's 17 to the end of the chapter. We're reading these verses in light of what it is that we confess concerning the ninth commandment in the Heidelberg Catechism. And you know, of course, as is so often the case in Paul's letters, the first half or the first portion lays before the people the glorious work of salvation in Jesus Christ, and then very quickly Paul turns to applying that in our daily walk, how we are to show something of that glory in the way that we live, and that's also the case here. and in particular our concern is with the way that we speak, with the truth that we speak to one another and of one another. So Ephesians 4, we'll begin at verse 17. Hear the word of God. So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in their hearts, or that is in them rather due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught of him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. That's for the reading of God's holy word. Now we'll turn to the catechism and together recite the words of Lord's Day 43. Lord's Day 43 in your forms and prayers books, page 250. We're dealing with the Ninth Commandment, and you will remember that the form of the Ninth Commandment is a legal setting, a legal context. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. That's, of course, something that we would do in court. We would have to bear witness before the judge. And the catechism works out in the light of God's word, what that means for us, when it asks and answers the following question. What is God's will for you in the ninth commandment? That I never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one's words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone rashly or without a hearing. Rather, I should avoid, under penalty of God's wrath, every kind of lying and deceit as the very works of the devil. And in court and everywhere else, I should love the truth, speak it candidly, and openly acknowledge it, and I should do what I can to defend and advance my neighbor's honor and reputation." This the church does believe. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is not hard to hear each of the ten words of God's law. and immediately realize how modern technology has influenced the application of these words in our unique historical setting. And that's especially true of the second table of the law, the commandments 5 through 10. whether it is how we relate to those in authority, how we think about our sexuality, how we view wealth and material benefits, or now in the ninth commandment, how we speak about each other and to each other. Modern technology is like gasoline being poured on a flickering flame. I'm sure many of us who didn't grow up with social media and with the ubiquitous cell phone can be heard to say at various times, I'm glad that there was no Twitter when I was young. We've all done and can recall foolish things, and so with David are inclined to say, remember not the sins of my youth, Yet thankfully for some of us, our foolishness was not captured and recorded for posterity on social media, something today's generation, with its careless recording of every thought and activity, will have to suffer through. And yet for all of that, of course, the problem, as we've seen repeatedly, isn't the technology. The flame of sin was lit long before cell phones came along and made it more accessible and easy to express. Social media is just the fuel that allows our sin to burn more brightly. Think about how easy it is to send a text or an emoji that expresses some derisive, some negative thought about someone we know. Think about how easy it is to talk about others without them ever finding out. Talking behind their back, making fun of them. In the olden days, you might have overheard someone gossiping, or maybe caught them passing notes in class. Now you can type into your phone anything you want, and even Snapchat will forget what it is you said. Although even if you found out, would it really even matter anymore? Listen to the way politicians speak about each other, or the way the public speaks about even our politicians. Look at how much of our so-called news is concerned with the daily activities of the celebrities of our world, with the breathless wonder with which such foolishness is reported. And in all of this trite and vacuous madness, truth has very little place or significance. Whether or not the report is accurate is not important. What is important is that it was reported here first. What is reported today is so often contradicted by tomorrow's facts, but that's not an issue because capital T, truth, does not exist within the public discourse. For all of his flaws and issues, Donald Trump isn't so wrong when he identifies so much as fake news. And why shouldn't it be that way? For we live in a world where truth isn't really a reality. What is truth? Maybe that's too deep a philosophical question for us. And maybe it is. And maybe our failure to think about these things is just another example of how effective the devil has become at distracting us. We don't think deep thoughts anymore because they're too hard. They're too divisive or too mentally draining. And besides, there's this great YouTube video about cats you should see. But even so, truth is a vital issue, and not just in philosophy class, but in our relationships, and especially our relationship with each other, but above all else, our relationship with God. For our faith, surely, is only meaningful if it is capital T truth. To think about that, and to think about why that's so important, imagine that you're sitting down for a job interview. And the interviewer says, tell me about yourself. Maybe it's not you being interviewed, maybe it's a friend. And an HR rep has called you as a reference and said, can you tell me about this person? Why should we hire him or her? Now, you need to tell the truth about your neighbor. But what is the truth? Is it only the truth if you tell them both the good and the bad? Is it the truth only if you tell them everything you know about them, running through your history in your relationship with them moment by moment? Is it true if you give your impression, your idea of what this person is like, a basic summary that you have of them? What is truth? What is your truth? That's a modern phrase, isn't it? Your truth, my truth. That's usually how you hear it these days. I'm just speaking my truth. It's a phrase that manages to both give and take at the same time. It gives the impression that what someone is saying isn't objectively true. It's just my opinion. It's not absolutely capital T true. It's a perspective, an experience, a thought. But it takes that very same impression back at the same time because try to disagree with someone who's just speaking their truth. Such a person does not need to argue. There is no room for debate. There's no room for disagreement. When such a person speaks, we all just have to listen. That's why hashtag believe women trends on Twitter every so often, because you have to believe their truth. We don't want to go too far down this trail, as worthwhile as it would be, but it is important to understand that truth within our context, especially within our social media world, is malleable and completely personal and completely your own. Understanding why some in our culture will always believe a woman's claim of abuse, even if the evidence doesn't stack up. Just as it's possible to accept the transgender and trans-ethnic debate that rages within our society. Because not even there can capital T truth exist. You cannot tell me that I'm a male. My truth is entirely my own. You may not impose your restrictions on me. If I choose to be a man, great, but if that's not my truth, that's fine too. And not just in terms of gender. Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren may have science on her side to justify her self-identification as Native American. Now to be sure, her DNA only suggested it was her great-great-great-grandparent that had some native blood in them. But at least she could say, it's true, I'm native, and promote herself as a native speaker. That's at least more than Rachel Dolezal could say. She was the leader of the NAACP, that is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The only problem being, Rachel isn't colored. Well, she's not naturally colored. A bit of sun here and an application of makeup there, and she presented herself as colored. She identified as such. And despite being exposed for her lie, There were many who defended her and said, that's her truth. The truth, you see, is no longer out there. It's now in here. It's what I say and what I want it to be. In Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Humpty Dumpty says, when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, nothing more, nothing less. That's the world we live in. And it's not difficult then to understand why we, as Christians, might lose our grip on what is true, too. Of course, this is something of our enemy's goal. Our enemy wants to overwhelm us, so flood us with lies and deceit that soon enough even we don't know what's the truth anymore. And we're not just talking about the devil in the world, we're talking about our own flesh, too. You don't need to teach a child to lie. Catching them doing something wrong produces in them a more remarkable ability to concoct on the spot justifications for why they're allowed to do what they want to. Just think of that video of the three-year-old boy who justifies his attempts to get a cupcake. You know, the one that says, Linda, Linda, listen, Linda. That's all of us in some way or another. As we get older, we just get better at it. We instinctively and automatically know that more words, more distraction, more arguments will probably get us out of trouble. Have you never noticed that? If you confront someone, if you accuse someone of something, whether it's a co-worker, whether it's a friend, whether it's a teenager, and the accusation doesn't have to be severe, it can just be something like, hey, don't do that, that's not right. But an hour later you find yourself defending a decision you made three months ago that has nothing to do with this matter because you have been overwhelmed by accusations and lies and distractions because in the end truth is hard. But deception is easy, because truth is unnatural, but dishonesty is our native air." You need to start there. That's where we need to begin if we're going to understand the call to truth speaking in the ninth commandment. If we're going to see why we can cling to a God who speaks the truth to us. and can have certainty not only in our relationships with others but in our relationship with the Lord. We need to start by understanding that lying is an act of rebellion against God and always has been. The first lie in history was told by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. We know, of course, that it was the devil who prompted the serpent to lie. That's why Jesus can say to the Pharisees in John 8, verse 44, you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. And that's where we all need to start when we think about how we speak and especially how we speak about each other. To borrow some other words from Jesus, from the overflow of our heart, the mouth speaks. And by nature our hearts are filled with many dark things. Our hearts are filled with dishonesty and deceit. Our hearts rebel against the Lord and refuse to submit to His will and word. And then when it comes to our words that means we without any difficulty lie. When we fell into sin, we became children of the devil, and since the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, the reason you don't have to teach a child to lie, the reason we can come up with the most intricate and developed lies at the drop of a hat is because it is a most natural part of who we are. And it is this intimate connection between being a sinner and lying that needs to change the way that we approach this question. There are, of course, very sticky situations that we can imagine or recall in which telling the truth would be very difficult. The easiest one, of course, is the hiding of Jews in World War II. Was it a lie to tell the Nazis that there were no Jews in your home if you knew that there were? This is one of those ethical conundrums that people have wrestled with since those dark days. And different answers have been offered to explain why lying to the Nazis was okay. And far from being an intellectual exercise, it's becoming an increasingly pressing matter for us as Christians in our work, in our workplaces, in our relationship with the world around us. We are being asked questions, sometimes very difficult questions, in our jobs and in our jobs interviews that we may want to massage the truth in responding to. When Andrew Scheer was asked during the last election whether he thought homosexuality was a sin, what was the answer? Well, we know the simple answer, of course. We know the simple answer he would have given, but that hardly offers a fulsome understanding of his position. What is more, the reporter asking the question was not actually asking about Scheer's theological convictions or interpretation of scripture. She was just employing gotcha journalism, trying to expose and embarrass Andrew Scheer on the campaign trail? So what does he answer? How does he, in that moment, speak the truth? I mean, the simple answer is yes, but not in the way that she thought, not in the way that it was going to be misinterpreted by the culture. And as our country continues its descent into irrationality, As we continue to live in a world where mocking the things of the faith is entirely acceptable and preferred, it's challenging for us to answer these kinds of questions. On the one hand, the answer can be to us very obvious, but on the other, it's not so easy to say. So what is the truth? I suppose the answer to that question depends on who decides what the truth is. That's one of the questions we hear on the playground, don't we? Or in our homes when our children are playing together? Maybe one says, you have to give me the ball, to which the reply comes, says who? And for good reason. Every child knows that words require authority. Statements need authorization. Says who? It's a basic question, but one so vital in all of our relationships. And if truth is that which corresponds to reality, then who decides what corresponds? Who decides what is reality? I mean, it's easy enough if we're saying the sky is blue, but what if we're saying something more profound, something more deep? What if we're talking about a kid from school? What if we're making fun of someone on Snapchat? What if we're lying about what the teacher said to us? Then the question says, who becomes so very, very important? And that's where any discussion of truth in our world ends up hopelessly lost. Because our world has decided that God has no place in life and that God cannot speak to us, that the world should throw off the shackles of our God so that we need no longer be oppressed by His will and word. But the net result, you understand, has been that our world can no longer find truth, can no longer determine truth, because where there is no God, everyone is a God. And if everyone's a God, then everyone can decide what truth is. That's why we've descended into that morass of, it's my truth, because in the end I'm my own God. When truth, or where truth is utterly relativized, so completely weakened and made meaningless, then there is no hope for truth in any way. There's no arguments, no reasons, no appealing to some objective fact, no solid foundation, no basic agreement on what is true. Without God, there is no truth. Which means no one can win an argument with words. Indeed, you can only win arguments with power. That's why we want to beat people up that disagree with us. That's why our world riots and rebels when it doesn't get its way. That's why the government so quickly folds against any public outcry. Because power is the currency, not truth. And then it's just survival of the fittest, isn't it? But all of that changes dramatically when we recognize the place and priority of God within all of life, when we see the God who is revealed to us on the pages of Scripture. Indeed, when we see the God who is made known to us most clearly in Jesus Christ. When God is acknowledged, there can be truth. There is truth. And not just religious truth, by the way. There is only truth. Years ago, one of the schools required students to write a paper on why math was Christian. It was a challenging question for the students. After all, math is just math. It's not religion or religious. Yet as they came to discover, even math needs an Archimedean point, a position from which truth can be understood and anchored. Otherwise, 2 plus 2 equals 4 just because we say it does. And tomorrow, 2 plus 2 can equal 20 if we all decide it wants to. And we can make it equal blue if that's what we decide as well. But we understand, of course, that's not how reality works, is it? That's not how math works. And no one seriously believes that it does. Math only works because the world is ordered, maintained, and regular, and only the Christian religion provides a perspective that can understand why this is. To borrow language from Greg Bonson, math only makes sense in a Christian worldview, in a world where Jesus is king. Now let's leave off math for a moment. Let's get back to those more profound truths that so often trouble us. Let's think about matters like sin and salvation, and what does it mean to be redeemed, and who is God, and what has He done, and all of those vital, eternal questions. We could pick up just about any deep truth and make the same point, but let's start with just the ones that are so vital to our eternal well-being. How do we know that they're true? How do we know that we're sinners? How do we know that we're saved? Are we sinners because we feel it? Because dad and mom have told us we are? Because we compare ourselves to other people? How do we know that we're saved? Is it because of something we've done? Is it because of something someone's told us? Is it because we think we are? What's the truth? The answer to both of these questions, of course, comes down to Jesus Christ. Any answer except those that rest in Jesus Christ are sinking sand. What we experience today, we will not experience tomorrow, and our parents sometimes get it wrong. It happens every so often. And what do other people know who tell us things about ourselves? I mean, after all, if you just hang out with a different group of people, you'll get a different perspective, even on yourself. Our truth, if it is not anchored in something unmovable, something persistent, something beyond the reality of this fallen world, will always be shifting, always be dependent, always Always change. But when we recognize the centrality and the authority of Jesus Christ, when we understand Him who died on the cross for our sins, that He's more than just a moral leader or a voice among the many other voices of the world, that He is our incarnate God, that He, along with the Father and the Spirit, is the One who has always been and will always be, when we recognize that it's His creation we live in, it's His law that we break, and it's His grace that we rest in, When we understand our God as He's revealed to us in Jesus Christ, then we understand the anchor of all truth, because He is truth. He is the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Maintainer of truth. What He says is true. And we know this most clearly precisely because of the cross. A long time ago, God gave His Word, told us the truth. when he said that a son would be born of a woman to deliver us from Satan's snare. And then think about all of those Old Testament promises, all of those Old Testament passages that fulfilled this promise of God in the beginning. Along the way you discover that if ever there were a people to renege on, a people that you could walk away from and no one would blame you. If there was ever a people worthy of condemnation, it was the people of God. They were so unfaithful, so dishonest, so deceitful. And yet despite all of that, God kept His word. Because He's the God of truth. He is the God who maintains truth. And in Jesus, we see just how deep and profound that truth is. For in Jesus, God keeps His word perfect and sacrificially pouring out His own wrath upon His Son. Which means when we view life in the light of Jesus, then we see life in the light of Him who is the way, the truth, and the life. And we learn the incontrovertible truth. We learn what is real instead of what we think to be real. We learn what the sovereign declares, the creator of life, the sustainer of life, the redeemer of life. The one who is defined by the truth. The one who spoke the truth and who calls us to speak the truth. To live in fellowship with this God through faith in Jesus Christ is to live in the truth. To embrace Jesus by faith is to embrace the truth. Not only the truth of who He is and of who we are, but the very source and definition of truth. You cannot know if you do not know Him. Now for some that's too big a statement. Are we saying that unbelieving scientists or artists know nothing of the truth? Are we saying that every unbeliever is always and forever lying? No, thankfully not. God in his preserving goodness does not allow sinners to plunge to the very depths of sin. We are totally depraved, but we are not utterly depraved. So even an unbelieving scientist or student can identify truth. What they cannot do is place that truth in its proper context. They can't make sense of it. The biologist can accurately describe or explain some fascinating aspect of creation, but instead of glorifying God for it, they twist it away from God and interpret the data in a way that rejects God. They can see something of the truth, but they cannot see it in the light of who Jesus is. Because only when you stand in the light of Christ and submit to his authority as the Lord and giver of life can you begin to make sense of the world around you. Can you begin to understand the truth. Which is so vital that as believers we be a truth telling people. in Christ and by the indwelling Spirit, we who believe, know the truth. We know, for example, what is right and wrong, not because we've surveyed our culture and come to a consensus on the truth, but because we know the King of kings and Lord of lords. To deny this truth, to twist it or reject it, is a fundamental denial of Jesus Christ. Telling a lie may be easy and it may be convenient and it may get us out of trouble for a moment, But it requires that we live as though Jesus is not king. To be sure, that's what the devil wants us to do. He wants us to act like Jesus is not sitting on the throne and that he hasn't spoken to us the truth, the truth of his love and of his grace and of our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Well, the devil wants us to shape reality as we'd like, define truth as we wish. That's his advice. And our response must be to forever lay hold of Jesus Christ and resist this demonic impulse and say, I know the truth and will tell the truth. To tell the truth is to confess Jesus as Lord. And to tell a lie is to live as though he isn't. And this is especially true in relation to our neighbor. Who is our neighbor? What is true about our friends, our parents, our teachers, our politicians? It's easy to shape our reality based on our own perspective. But who are they in truth? Who are they in the light of God's Word? Who are they in the light of Jesus Christ? Are they an object of ridicule or scorn? Are they an object of our judgment and our condemnation? We know, of course, that they're not perfect and without fault. But if we define them solely on the basis of who we are and of what we think and what they've done to us, then we have failed to understand what it means to be a Christian. Now does that mean that we can never say anything critical or negative about someone? Of course not. Although our mother's advice remains still valid, if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. Or if you prefer my father's version of things, you must always tell the truth. But the truth does not always need to be told. Yet if there is something critical to say, let it be criticism rooted in Christ. Let their failures be defined not so much against us, but against the Lord. And if we have something critical to say to a brother or a sister, let it be for their encouragement and building up. Let's say it to them so that they can live more clearly in the light of God's truth. Now to be sure, to tell truth in this way requires patience and practice, requires graciousness and kindness. Our speech is, says the apostle, to be full of grace, seasoned with salt. We need to be gentle and winsome in the way that we speak to each other. And learning how to do that may require more apologies than we'd like. but it's better to fail in serving Jesus Christ than to succeed in living for the devil. It's better to speak the truth in love, knowing that we're not perfect and we'll get things wrong, knowing that we may need to be corrected, and that maybe our decision was made without all the information. It's better to speak the truth in love than it is to deny the reign of Jesus Christ in this life. To be sure, living out this principle may be more demanding than we realize. It is so easy and so common to gossip about each other and to say things carelessly and cruelly. And as is so often the case, once we've said something we regret, it's really hard to undo. Maybe you've heard the story of the woman who was shown the impact of her gossip when her pastor took her to the top of a bell tower and emptied a feather pillow into the wind, telling her then to pick up each feather. She said, that's impossible. And he said, I know. But that's what happens when you start gossiping about someone. You can't undo it. Or if you prefer something more biblical, remember the words of James 3, when he writes, Those are some graphic words. And that's some passionate condemnation of our tongue. Do we share it? Do we understand it? And do we cling to Jesus to address it? For Jesus is the answer to this pernicious evil. For we must be born again by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And if we are born again, then must live in the newness of life in Jesus Christ by speaking the truth to one another. Not my truth, not your truth, but truth as it's understood in the light of Jesus. understood in the light of Jesus in the midst of our own failings, with our own caution and patience and willingness to apologize, but truth as it's seen in the light of Christ. And surely that's what our world needs to hear and see too. We can go out into a world filled with social media, filled with personal versions of the truth, filled with relativity, and we can stand out. We can be a light in this darkened world that is hopelessly lost in the morass of postmodernism. we can stand up and say, I will speak the truth. Speaking the truth to our neighbor, keeping our word, keeping our promises, speaking the truth, recognizing our own failings and flaws. Being a people that does not give in to the temptations of this world, using our mouths to demonstrate the brokenness of our lives, but instead using our words to glorify God by speaking the truth. Not just the gospel, not just preaching the gospel, though to be sure that's a wonderful thing to do. But when we're asked about someone, asked about our employer, asked about a fellow worker on the job, not using our words to put them down, to cut them up, to expose their failings. Using our words to speak the truth. Speak about what we're going to do when we make a promise, keeping it, when we say we'll do something, doing it. So that increasingly the world around us sees that we are a people of truth. Indeed, that we will tell the truth even if it hurts us. We will keep our promises even if it costs us. because we are committed so deeply to living in the light of Jesus the King who is the way, the truth, and the life. Social media has made keeping this commandment more challenging. It's easy to send off a Snapchat and speak a lie. But we have to recognize the problem isn't with the app, it's with our heart. And we need to see that, confess it, and seek the Lord's help daily in overcoming it. We are not of the devil, a people who live by the power of the lie. We are of the Lord, of Jesus Christ. Let our words declare the truth. Shall we pray? Gracious God and Heavenly Father, you have called us to speak the truth in love to one another, to speak that truth in a way that builds each other up. You teach us to put off falsehood and to speak truthfully to our neighbors because we are all members of one body, to not let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen. Now we pray, Heavenly God and Father, that you would help us be such a people. For we know that we are not by nature. It is so easy to say something mean about someone, to say something negative, to say something cutting and critical. It is easy to whisper behind their backs and tell others about the bad things they've done. But we pray, Heavenly God and Father, that you would help us to show that we've been redeemed. because our words say more about what lives in our hearts than in the hearts of anyone else. We know that we live amongst sinners who will fail and who will make mistakes. Help us to be a people that will speak the truth in love, showing that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, in whose name we do pray, amen.