False Witness

The 9th commandment forbids bearing false witness. What does that mean? Why do we do it? Pastor Jeff dives into the details...

 

Transcription (automatically-generated):

We're diving back into our study of the Book of Exodus, and we've been camped out in the Ten Commandments for a while now, known as the Law of God, the 10 Commandments are timeless moral laws that instruct us in how to live in relation to God and each other. There is much wisdom in these commandments as they lay out God's design for you and I. And the closer we live to God's design for us, the more of his goodness we experience because we experience life closer to the way he intended us to.

I have to tell you that one of the horrible things about teaching the Bible is that you constantly find yourself having to teach things that you have not yet mastered in your own life.

You find yourself having to teach things that you are guilty of and that you're being actively convicted of by the Holy Spirit. And it tends to make you preach more passionately because you're actually preaching to yourself.

And this is one of those subjects. And I feel the need to to say that just to remind you that I do not teach the Bible from a position of mastery, but from the position of student God's gifted me as a communicator, but I am under the word and convicted by the word as much as you are. And I'm a sinner just as much as you are. Look at that. We're only one page into the studystudy study iI es so far. And already you're probably feeling better about yourself because your opinion of me is a little bit lower.

So, you know, it's going to be a good Bible study today. We're going to be taking a look at commandment number nine.

It's found in Exodus, chapter 20, verse 16, where we read this command from the Lord.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor at the time this command was given. It would have been generally understood to relate to legal proceedings and the justice system of the day. It meant.

Do not accuse someone of a criminal offense. You know, they did not commit. Do not lie about someone before a judge at this time. Criminal cases were based almost entirely on witness testimony. And this command was to let people know that God wanted his people to be true witnesses, not false witnesses. So write this down. God wants his people to tell the truth about each other. God wants his people to tell the truth about each other. The Bible's legal standards require two or three witnesses in order for a charge to be considered legitimate.

And the Bible also prescribes a brilliant deterrent against false witness.

If you were found guilty of intentionally lying in a legal proceeding, you would receive whatever penalty would have been ascribed to the defendant. Had he been found guilty. So if you falsely charge someone with murder, they would have received the death penalty. So instead you will receive the death penalty. Can I tell you that her society desperately needs this kind of godly wisdom in our justice system? I could get into a rant about that, but I won't because I think it's just so glaringly obvious.

How many problems would be solved if there existed appropriately serious consequences for bearing false witness in our legal and justice systems, as we've mentioned repeatedly in this series. When Jesus preached his famous message known as the Sermon on the Mount, he took some examples from the Ten Commandments and he used them to explain that they actually went much deeper than anyone had realized.

They went all the way down to the heart level, to our motives. So what is the command to not bear false witness look like when we take it down to the heart level? We apply it to our motives, to put it another way.

What are the motives that lead to the action of bearing false witness? Let's talk about that. One of the primary motivations that I think drives the bearing of false witness make a note of this is the desire to enrich ourselves. The desire to enrich ourselves. We're told that when we interview for a job, we have to sell ourselves. We have to explain what sets us apart and makes us better than everybody else who is applying for that job. And so we try to get ahead by building ourselves up in the eyes of the interviewer.

But we all know intrinsically that there are. Two ways to get ahead. There are two ways to climb the ladder. We can build ourselves up. And we can also tear others down. And that's one of the things that makes a job interview so tough, right? We don't know enough about the other applicants to be able to tear them down. But once we get into a job, once we get to know people, we learn their names and opportunities come up in the flow of a career like 360 degree reviews where an employee gets anonymous feedback from their co-workers.

And suddenly we have the chance to anonymously maybe bring them down a notch.

Or perhaps there's a co-worker we know we're in competition with for an upcoming promotion.

And so we take advantage of opportunities to disparage their character and competency, because if someone is above you and you can't overtake them by being better than them, we all know that you can overtake them by bringing them down. And some of us have done this. Some of us have built careers by damaging the reputations of those who were in competition with us. By any means necessary.

Why? Because deep down, we're motivated by a desire to enrich ourselves.

People lie in court all the time. Why? Because they want to escape justice and because they want to enrich themselves. They want to take out a competitor. They want to get a slice of a class action lawsuit. They're not actually qualified for or get money they don't really deserve from someone who has it. People lie and business all the time. They double bill, they overcharge y to make the sale, earn the commission to enrich themselves. Politicians lie in order to stay in power so that they can, what, enrich themselves.

If you're observing the mainstream media today, hopefully from a distance, then you should have realized by now that they have almost no regard for the truth. They are only in it to enrich themselves for the most part.

I heard somebody explain why we see so many wild and crazy claims made by the media. Why we see so many mistakes and inaccuracies reported by the media. And seemingly so little concern among the media about this phenomenon. You see, every news company is online in some way, whether its articles or video. And if they publish articles, they make money from ads that are on the same page.

If they publish video clips, they make money from every view because there's ads that play before or during the video.

And so what's the goal of these companies, these businesses? The goal is to make money. And how do they make money? By getting as many people as possible to read or watch their content.

It's very simple. And how do they do that? Well, often it's by offering what's called a hot take.

A view, an opinion or perspective that generates elicits a strong emotional response because it's shocking or controversial in some way, or it gives people what they want, which is generally reinforcement of the views they already hold, because we love being told that we're right.

And so these media companies are working all the time to figure out how they can put stuff out there that will generate a strong emotional response from you and I something that will outrage, frustrate Sadan, appal or make us go. I knew it. That's exactly what I've always believed.

But here's where it gets really messed up. We see the media today will intentionally lie.

They will flat out invent things if they believe it will create the desired response, because it's going to get them a ton of views, which is going to earn them more money.

And if someone disproves it, if it becomes obvious that it was a lie, all they have to do is run a little retraction in some far corner of their Web site.

But guess what? They get to keep all of the money they made from the advertising revenue they generated from that content. They get to keep it all. In fact, they might even double down and say, well, let's make a follow up video.

What really happened? And then they can keep all of that ad revenue as well. You see, this is the way the media establishment is set up today. The media is financially incentivized to create false, divisive, extreme content because it enriches them. They're willing to bear false witness if it will enrich them. It's evil, it's wicked. I'm sure there are many other examples I could give of ways that we bear false witness. Out of the desire to enrich ourselves.

But we got to keep moving. Another motive that drives the bearing of false witness is our desire to boost our own self-esteem. Would you write that down? We have a desire to boost our own self-esteem, as we talked about a few minutes ago, if I can't get ahead by being better than you. I can get ahead by dragging you down until you're lower than me.

Perhaps my self-esteem isn't doing that great as a Bible teacher. Maybe I'm feeling a bit down, a bit sorry for myself because it's been a tough season. And so I choose to make myself feel better by hopping on line and watching some other Bible teachers and just criticizing them to death.

What the heck is that guy wearing? Boring. Does this guy even read the Bible? I mean, what is he talking about? Perhaps I read some Internet blogs that are making accusations about the guy.

And I think to myself, I love that this blog is saying what I would love to believe is true.

And so I just assume that it is true, because the worse I make him out to be, the better I feel about myself, because I say, you know what, I'm not actually doing that bad fact. I'm pretty great. Those other guys are terrible, though, man.

And before you judge me, some of you were already starting to feel better about yourselves because you were thinking what a terrible human being.

I am.

So what's more like Jesus than he is? Now, we don't actually do those things, but that was just an illustration to make a valid point. I mean, we do this right. We criticize other people to bring them down so that we can boost our own self-esteem.

It's way harder to be happy for someone when they're doing well, isn't it?

It's much easier to be supportive when they're having a hard time, because perhaps I'm feeling like a failure as a parent. Deep down, am I genuinely happy for my friend when they tell me about the great and godly things their children have been doing recently? It's hard, right? Because I usually let it add my own feelings of failure as a parent. You know, it's easier, though, when they share how their kid's been a total little demon recently and they have no idea what's going on and nothing seems to work.

It's easy to be supportive because it's easy. Deep down to think, wow, you know, they are.

They probably don't discipline them correctly.

It's probably a problem of their own making. Well, you know, perhaps I'm a better parent than I give myself credit for. But sometimes those moments don't arrive. Sometimes people don't share problems that they're having that we can distort to use and make ourselves feel better. Sometimes those stories aren't given to us. So. So we just make them up. We assume that we know things that we don't. We assume that we have all the facts, that we know the whole story.

And then we pass judgment on it. Did you see what they did? Did you hear about what happened? I mean, this is the only explanation, right?

We assume that we know their thought, their heart and their motivations when we when we don't. Oh, you just know they were doing that for the attention. You just know there's something else going on. But we don't. Or how about this? We intentionally leave out pieces of information that are important and would give context. We don't intentionally lie.

We just omit a few key facts and exaggerate others.

Perhaps we're in a group and the group is tearing somebody down and we recognize there's an opportunity to join the group as they elevate themselves above this person by tearing them down.

And so we join them because it feels good boosts or self-esteem. There's a Jewish parable that's told about the subject of bearing false witness by slandering a person's reputation. It tells of a man who who came to a rabbi and he said, I've done a terrible thing, Rabbi. I've slandered a man.

I've lied about him and trashed his reputation all over town town.

And I realize now that I have sinned. What do I need to do? And the rabbi said, meet me tomorrow morning at sunrise at the top of that hill over there and bring a feather pillow with you. The man thought this is a little weird, but shows up the next morning, got his pillow in the hand and sure enough, there's the rabbi on top of the hill waiting for him. And the rabbi passes him a knife and says to him, I want you to cut open your pillow and then shake it until all of the feathers have fallen out.

The man did, as instructed, and the breeze picked up the feathers and scattered them far and wide. Then the rabbi looked at the man and he said, now go and collect all of the feathers and put them back in the pillowcase. The man's heart sank as he realized the point the rabbi was making, just as it would be impossible to collect all of those feathers. It is impossible to reverse or make up for the damage that is done when you bear false witness against a person's character.

The damage lingers in the air. Often for the rest of their life. When we bear false witness in the form of gossip, it is insidious because the person that we are accusing doesn't even know that they're being accused. They have no opportunity to defend themselves. All they know is that something has changed and people view their reputation and character and credibility differently. They have no idea why. When Charles Spurgeon was horrifically slandered by some of the British press, he described it as trying to fight against the mist.

That's what it's like. But we'll happily engage in low key character assassination when our own self-esteem needs a boost. Write this down, sometimes our motivation is bitterness. It's just bitterness. Someone's hurt us in some way and so we want to hurt them. And we set out to hurt them by damaging their reputation, filing false legal charges against them.

Whatever the case may be.

Make a note of this, too. Sometimes we bear false witness because we want to cover up our own sins. This kind of obvious. Some of us have been doing this since we were kids, right? Well, my brother made me do it. It wasn't my idea. I had to do it. It was them. They were the ringleader. We bear false witness as a means of deflecting attention away from our own sin. We've looked at the heart level motivations behind bearing false witness, and I think it's important to note that this sin assumes that malice is present if you bear false witness unintentionally or innocently.

It's not sin. It's a mistake if you say, oh, that house is 10 miles down the road. But it's really 11 miles. But you thought it was 10. That's not sin. OK. If you say let's hang out on Friday, but have to cancel at the last minute because something unavoidable comes up, you're not bearing false witness because there's no malice behind your actions.

And I feel the need to clarify that in case any legalists are watching this and they're thinking, oh, this is awesome.

Now I can use the proper theological definitions when my spouse doesn't do the thing that they said they would do. Oh, you didn't get the law on today.

Maybe you should think twice next time before you bear false witness snort it if there's no malice involved.

It's not bearing false witness if you tell a joke about a fictional event. It's also not bearing false witness when you don't tell the truth for a valid reason. What? We'll give you a couple of examples. Was it sin when the Egyptian midwives didn't abort the Hebrew boys, claiming instead that the Hebrew woman were giving birth too quickly for them to get there?

Oh, it wasn't sin.

Was it sin when Ray have lied about which direction the Israeli spies went in order to protect them?

No, it wasn't. Make a note of this bearing false witness requires the presence of malice in the motivation. Bearing false witness requires the presence of malice in the motivation. In Proverbs five twenty five. Solomon writes. A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club. A sword and a sharp arrow. Jesus himself was the victim of this sin in Matthew's gospel, it's on your outlines. It says now the chief priests, the elders and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but found none.

Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none.

But at last, two false witnesses came forward and said, this fellow said, I am able to destroy the Temple of God and to build it in three days.

So the guys who wanted to have Jesus put to death, the religious leaders, they looked for false witnesses, they brought a whole bunch of them forward, but none of their testimony was found acceptable. It was contradictory until two guys showed up and testified that the same thing that Jesus had publicly stated. I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.

Had Jesus actually said this. Yes, he had. Well, so then why does Matthew's gospel refer to them as false witnesses? It's because they're referring to an incident recorded in the second chapter of John's Gospel. Let me read it to you. So the Jews answered and said to him, to Jesus, what sign do you show to us since you do these things? Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple. And in three days, I will raise it up.

Then the Jew said it has taken forty six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days. And here's the key.

But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Do you see the problem? These false witnesses were sharing the right information, but with the wrong implication, they were massaging the details until it corroborated their desired narrative.

Write this down. It is sin to share the right information with the wrong implication. It's sin. Don't play games with the truth. Don't think you're clever because you technically told the truth, but you communicated the wrong thing. Nobody is fooling God. That's sin, that sin. Satan did something similar in the Garden of Eden when he asked Eve, has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And then he followed that up by directly bearing false witness about God and saying, you will not surely die for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

And you know that right now Satan is engaged and bearing false witness against you and I. It's true. In Revelation 12 10, we're told that Satan is the accuser of the Brethren. That's you and I who accused them before our God.

Day and night. And you know what? Satan is telling the truth. He's saying, look at that guy, Jeff. Look at his heart. Look at that thing he was just thinking about. Look at that selfish decision he just made. He's terrible. He is an awful sinner. True story. But not the whole story. Because in the whole story, my sin is graciously covered by the blood of Jesus. As John wrote, if anyone's sins.

We have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous Zakharia. That Old Testament prophet had a vision of this exact scene playing out in the life of Joshua.

Let me read that scene to you from Zachariah three, the first five verses it says. Then he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the Angel of the Lord. That's Jesus and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan, the Lord who is chosen Jerusalem rebuke you? Is this speaking of Joshua? Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?

Now, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel standing before Jesus. Then he answered and spoke to those who stood before him. This is Jesus speaking, saying take away the filthy garments from him and to him to Joshua. He said, See, I have removed your iniquity from you and I will clothe you with rich robes. And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and they put the clothes on him.

And the angel of the Lord stood by. That's the truth, the whole truth about your situation and mine. If you've placed your faith in Jesus right now before God, Satan is sharing the right information with the wrong implication. He's telling part of the truth, but not the whole truth. The religious leaders behind the nefarious trial of Jesus would later bribe the soldiers who had guarded his tomb. What Matthew describes as a large sum of money to bear false witness to the lie that the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus while they slept.

All of this is why Jesus spoke to those same leaders earlier in his ministry and told them, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of.

This is the reality here. You can fill us in on your outline. The Lord hates it. He hates it when we bear false witness because we are acting like Satan. We are partnering with Satan in birthing lies and false witness about people. The Lord hates it. In contrast. John described Jesus as being full of grace and truth. And in the Book of Revelation, Jesus called himself the faithful and true witness. So write this down, too.

When we tell the truth. We're acting like Jesus when we tell the truth. We are acting like Jesus, we are partnering with Jesus. In being truth on the earth. Do we tell the truth about our neighbor, about our brother and sister in Christ? What is the truth about them? They're loved by the Lord. They are precious to him. They've been purchased by the blood of Jesus, forgiven by the blood of Jesus, made righteous by the blood of Jesus, and are sustained by the blood of Jesus.

The Lord desires good things for them. He likes them. And he wants good for them. That's the whole truth. We're very good at sharing part of the truth about each other. We're not always so good at sharing the whole truth about each other. Here's what's amazing about all of the Ten Commandments.

When you get down to the heart issues and the motivations behind each of these sinful actions, they're all stemming from motivations and issues of the heart that are meant to be satisfied in our relationship with God. That's your last fill in.

Write it down. The motives that drive us to bear false witness. Are all intended to be satisfied in relationship with God. Let me show you what I mean. When I bear false witness to enrich myself, to get ahead in my career, to earn more money, to accumulate more wealth. Jesus said after all these things the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father knows that you need all these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added on to you.

Jesus says, trust your heavenly father to provide what you need. Don't bear false witness to try and get it yourself. I bear false witness to boost my self-esteem and Jesus says, I died for you. I gave my life so that you could become my brother, my sister. Part of my family, Sharon, my inheritance and rule and reign with me for eternity. That is how valuable you are. And nothing on earth will ever provide a greater statement of your worth.

There does not exist a greater reason or motivation to feel like you're worth something than what Jesus has done for you and the way he has valued you.

I bear false witness because I'm bitter.

And Jesus says justice has been served. Punishment has been meted out for everything everyone has ever done wrong to you. But that punishment was poured out of me. Now come to me and find healing for your hurt. I bear false witness to cover up my own sin when the truth is that none of my sin is ever hidden from the Lord. But he didn't hold it up and use it to shame me. He took it upon himself and he received the punishment for my sin.

And in return, he gave me as perfect righteousness from heavens perspective, I'm perfect. The apostle Paul said it like this. He the father made him who knew no sin. That's Jesus to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus says, stop trying to cover up your sin. I've already paid for it. Now, let me set you free from the power it's had over your life. Whatever motivates us to bear false witness can be rightly satisfied in relationship with God.

And when we come to him, the cycle of destruction stops instead of moving on and creating more damage in our relationships with people.

We find healing. Find rest when we come to the Lord, and as with all sin issues, the solution is not trying really hard to not sin. The solution is not. I'm going to really focus on not bearing false witness.

The solution is Jesus. It's Jesus.

The solution is coming to him. Whatever condition you're in. Taking your needs to him, allowing him to meet them and walking with him through whatever you're dealing with. He loves you. Do you know that? I mean, do you really know that Jesus loves you? He cares deeply about you. And here's the great news. He's also powerful enough to help you. So let him. Let him. And with that, let's pray together. Wherever you are, would you just by your head and close your eyes?

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the practical help of your word in our lives. Father, we asked that you would forgive us for the times that we have borne false witness against other people. Intentionally or unintentionally, Lord, even. Would you forgive us, Lord, when we've sought to satisfy desires and needs and urges? By sinning, instead of coming to you, the one who loves to meet all of our needs. We ask that you would help us to speak the whole truth about each other, the truth of your word.

To speak about each other the way that you speak about us. Lord Father, we also ask that you would help us to speak about ourselves the way that you speak about us, that we would not bear false witness about ourselves or our reality.

And then lastly, Lord, help us to not bear false witness against you. Help us to talk about you with accuracy and honesty and describe you as the wonderful father that you really are. Thank you, Lord, that you are what we really need, help us to look to you, to turn to you, to meet every single one of those needs, Lord, because you love to meet our needs. Thank you. That you're a good and faithful father.