Jeff Schreve - To Tell The Truth
Our world is just overrun with lies, and written in stone by the finger of God is commandment number nine, «You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor». You shall not lie against your neighbor. Well, why is it a big deal? If there’s lying all around us, why is this commandment in the Ten Commandments? What’s the big deal about lying and bearing false witness against your neighbor? Three reasons why this is written in stone. Reason number one, why is lying such a big deal? Why is bearing false witness such a big deal? Because it’s an abomination to God, it’s an abomination to God. That word abomination in Hebrew means disgusting, abhorrent, abominable, repulsive. It’s something God cannot tolerate.
Proverbs 6, verses 16 and following says this, «There are six things which the LORD hates. Yes, seven which are an abomination to him: Haughty eyes,» a proud look, number one on the list. Number two, «A lying tongue». Number three, «Hands that shed innocent blood». Number four, «A heart that devises wicked plans». Number five, «Feet that run rapidly to evil». Number six, «A false witness who utters lies,» and number seven, «One who spreads strife among brothers».
Seven things the Lord hates and two of the seven deal with lying. A lying tongue, number two, and number six, a false witness who utters lies. God is screaming to us, so to speak, and saying, have I told you how much I hate lying? Now, why is it that the Lord hates lying? Why is that an abomination to him, utterly repulsive to him? Well, because the Lord is the God of truth. He is the God of truth. When he met Moses in Exodus 34, Moses wanted to see his glory, and the Lord says, okay, I’ll show you the backside of my glory, but you can’t see my face, no one can see my face and live. So he put Moses in the cleft of the rock, he hid him there with his hand, and he passed by, and he declared the name of the Lord.
«The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding, overflowing, in lovingkindness and truth». That is who God is. His nature is to overflow with both lovingkindness and truth. When we go into the New Testament, we see, «In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things came into being by him, and apart from him, nothing came into being, that has come into being,» John chapter 1. «And the Word,» John 1:14, «Became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth». Truth is essential to his being, to who he is. It says of God, Hebrews 6:18, that it’s impossible for him to lie.
Jesus said of himself, John 14, verse 6, «I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me». Jesus said, in John 17:17, in his great high-priestly prayer, he prayed to his Father, and he says, sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth, is truth. And and it’s impossible for God to lie. In Romans chapter 3, verse 4 says, «Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar». I love how it states in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 19, at the battle of Armageddon, that’s when the Lord comes back to deliver his people at the battle of Armageddon. Revelation 19, verse 11, John says, «And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse, and he who sat upon it who is called faithful and true».
Because in the Lord’s nature, in his character, there is truth. There are no lies. God is light, and in him, there is no darkness at all. So lying is an abomination to God, because it is so foreign to his character, his nature. Now, on the other side of the coin, is the devil. And God is altogether truth, and the devil is the father of lies. Jesus, when he was speaking to the Pharisees and the religious leaders in John chapter 8, «You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies».
That’s the devil. A liar and the father of lies, no truth in him. Couldn’t be more opposite from the Lord, as far as the Lord is all truth, and the devil is all deceit and all falsehood and all lies. And every time he opens his mouth, he opens his mouth to deceive. He is the deceiver who deceives the whole world. Lying, bearing false witness against your neighbor, that’s an abomination to God. Second reason that this is in the Ten Commandments, that this is such a big deal, lying and bearing false witness: because it’s destructive to any society. You can’t build a society and a nation, a marriage, a family, a business, a church. You can’t build that on lies. You have to build it on the truth, and a society built on lies as a society built on sinking sand. It is not going to last.
Proverbs chapter 16, verses 12 and 13 says this, «It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness. For a throne is established on righteousness. Righteous lips are the delight of kings. And he who speaks right is loved. A throne, a government, is established on righteousness». That word in Hebrew is tzedakah. It means honesty, justice, truthfulness. That’s how you have to establish a throne. And when a society is not established on truthfulness, that society is in serious, serious trouble. See, truth is the foundation, it’s foundational for society to flourish. You think about it in marriage. If you have a marriage that is built on deceit and falsehood, that marriage is never gonna get off the ground. And if you still try and lie and cover up, it’s never going to work. Counseling doesn’t work if you’re not willing to look in the mirror and say, well, this is where I am, this is what I’ve done.
So many people aren’t willing to do that, and if you try and build on lies, it’s gonna come crashing down. Not only is truth foundational for society to flourish, but truth is critical to maintain law and order, so that you don’t just fall into chaos as a society. Now, if you notice the ninth commandment, Exodus 20:16, «You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,» that is given in the context of a courtroom, false witness. So we’re talking about witnessing because it doesn’t say you shall not lie against your neighbor, it says false witness, which sounds, you know, like it’s in the legal realm. It’s a courtroom type of context. That doesn’t mean that God is saying, well, you know, when you’re in court, you better not lie, after you get out of court, you can do whatever you want, you can bear false witness all you want.
We know that’s not the case, and we know that Jesus took the commandments and he went deeper with them. You have heard it said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you, everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And the people that hadn’t committed the act of physical adultery, yeah, that’s right. You shall not commit adultery, he said, if you committed adultery in your heart, ooh, pierce to the place in your heart that’s like, oh, I’m guilty of that. And so the Ten Commandments are just not surfacey, they go down. And so when he says, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, he’s not saying, well, just in court, you better tell the truth, you better tell the truth all the time.
But here’s the thing, in ancient times, in a court of law, the way that they determined outcomes was based on witnesses, and on the testimony of two or three witnesses. You didn’t have DNA evidence, you didn’t have fingerprints, you didn’t have video surveillance, you just had witnesses. And here’s what the Lord says in Deuteronomy 17, verses 6 and 7, «On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst».
Do you see how he put those together? If you’re tempted to bear false witness in a court of law against your neighbor that’s going going to result in his death, then you’re the first one that has to grab a stone and throw it at him. You would be guilty if you’re a false witness, not only of breaking the ninth commandment because you bore false witness against your neighbor, you lied about him in court, but you’d also be guilty of breaking the sixth commandment, you shall not murder. You know, Jezebel did that with Naboth, when her husband Ahab wanted to have Naboth’s vineyard, and he was all upset 'cause Naboth wouldn’t sell it to him. And Jezebel, the wicked queen, she said, are you not the king of Israel? I can get you Naboth’s vineyard.
So what does she do? She gets two worthless fellows and they’re gonna have this big day to honor Naboth, and at the feast, they’re honoring Naboth, and these two worthless fellows say, well, we heard him curse God and the king, and they had two witnesses there, and Naboth ends up being executed for the crime of cursing God and the king, and it was all a lie. Truth is critical to maintain law and order. And as you know, we’re losing that in our country. You know, the government’s job is to punish evildoers. Our government doesn’t seem to punish anybody anymore except people that are trying to do right. They’ll come after you, they’ll come after me, but if you do wrong, they seem to applaud you and let you out of jail. I mean, this is just insanity, but it’s all based on lies and dishonesty, bearing false witness is destructive to any society.
And then thirdly, reason number three, bearing false witness is a violation of the second greatest commandment. The second greatest commandment. Jesus said, when he was asked was the greatest commandment, he said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind, this is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, on these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. Everything hangs on these two. And as we’ve said in this study, the Ten Commandments were written on two tablets of stone, and the first tablet, the first four commandments, they’re all vertical. They deal with our vertical relationship with God.
The next six commandments, all horizontal, starting with honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise: that it may go well with you and that your days may be prolonged on the earth. And so from that, everything goes horizontal, and it’s loving God on the first tablet with all your heart, and loving your neighbor as yourself for the second tablet. The apostle Paul put it this way in Galatians chapter 5, «For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another».
Hey, God hates lying, it’s against his nature. It’s an abomination to him. It destroys society when you build it on lies, and from a personal standpoint, we’re called to be the Lord’s representatives. You shall be holy, for I am holy, the Lord says. And we are to love him with all our heart, we’re to love people, and when you lie to people, you don’t love people. And so it’s incumbent upon us to tell people the truth. See, we’re called as God’s representatives to speak the truth in love. Ephesians 4:15, «But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up into all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ,» speaking the truth in love.
Now, we’re getting squeezed in the Christian community. Pastors are feeling the squeeze in the pulpit to go along with what is popular. They don’t want to step on a land mine anywhere, they wanna just say things that everybody can agree with. They don’t want to tackle subjects that would be considered controversial. Well, listen, we’re called to be faithful to the Lord. We’re called to speak the truth in love, and we’re called to speak into the culture, and our culture is going to hell in a hand basket and we desperately need some preachers to stand up and say, thus says the Lord in this situation. You know, if we’re not speaking about the things that everybody’s speaking about and giving a biblical response to those issues, then then we’re being derelict in our duties, because when the fire is the hottest and wherever the enemy is attacking on the wall, that’s where we need to come and engage the enemy.
I think it was Martin Luther that said, hey, if you’re not engaging the enemy where he’s attacking on this side of the wall, and you’re saying, well, I’m gonna go over to this side of the wall, you’re a coward. You have to stand in the gap and you have to face that head on, and speak the truth in love. And we’re called, secondly, to watch what comes out of our mouths. So there’s one thing to stand up for the truth, I mean, that’s a body of truth, I’m standing up for what the Lord says. Thus says the Lord, and we stand up for that. What is right. But then we watch what comes out of our mouths, that gets real personal. That’s like, well, okay, or do you break the ninth commandment when it comes to maybe playing a game, when you’re on the golf course? I’m not good enough to lie on the golf course. It’s just like, yeah, I got an eight. Really, got an eight, all right.
I think so, I don’t know, I lost count. You know, the par three, I lost count, but when it comes to your own life, when it comes to your marriage, when it comes to your family, when it comes to your home, do you speak the truth? I remember as a kid, I was a brand new Christian and my dad, this was before we had Caller ID, and so you’d get all these phone solicitors, and you didn’t know, and you’d answer the phone, hello? And this person called in, and I remember my dad doing this. I never understood why he did it, but he started talking in a real high voice. He goes, oh, you must wanna talk to my father. He’s not here, bye. I was like, what is that? He goes, well, yeah, they wanted to talk to me, I didn’t want to talk to them.
I said, well, why did you lie to the guy? He goes, it wasn’t a lie, it was a mental reservation. I said it was a lie, just tell the guy I don’t wanna talk to you, I’m busy. Well, that might be a lie too, but just tell him I can’t talk to you right now. Why not? 'Cause I don’t want to. I mean, just be honest with them. He didn’t want to do that. So we have to watch what comes out of our mouths. Now, sometimes we say, well, I didn’t lie about stuff, but we have problems with gossip. The words of a whisperer, the words of a gossiper, it says in the book of Proverbs, are like dainty morsels. They go down into the innermost being of the heart.
Here’s what the Lord says: Don’t spread harmful rumors or help a criminal by giving false evidence, Exodus 23:1. Don’t spread harmful rumors. Lots of times people will gossip, they’ll spread rumors, and they’ll say, well, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but so and so told me this, so I just feel compelled to tell it to everybody I meet. We tell people in the membership class, listen, listen, when you join the church, the church is a family, we’re the family of God, and just like in any family, you can get frustrated and upset with people in the family.
I said, you need to always go to the person. We don’t talk about the pastor if we have a problem with him, we talk to the pastor, or to the staff member, or to the person in your Sunday school class, or whoever it might be. You go to them, that’s the biblical way to deal with things. The non-biblical way, the devil’s way, is you get mad at me over something and you talk to ten people to try and build a coalition to come up against me. Let’s work it out. Let no one unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word is as good for edification according to the need of the moment that it may give grace to those who hear.
Remember the acronym: THINK, T-H-I-N-K. THINK before you speak. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, the Bible says in James 1:19. THINK: is it true, «T,» is it true. If you don’t know if it’s true, don’t say it. Is it helpful? This isn’t helpful in the conversation, don’t say it. Is it inspiring, «I»? Is it necessary «N»? Is it kind «K,» and if it doesn’t pass that test, don’t say it. Hey, we gotta watch what comes out of our mouths. We have to watch for the gossip, and listen, moms and dads, it’s really important for you to teach your kids not to lie. Why, because they’re bent, it’s part of the sin nature to lie. I love what Adrian Rogers said, in his family, this is what he did. He said, we had swift discipline when our kids were little if they did one of three things.
Number one: deliberately, defiantly disobeyed, swift discipline with that. Kids are gonna disobey, but if they deliberately disobey, defiantly disobey, boom. Disrespect, number two. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, if you’re disrespectful to mom or dad, boom, you’re gonna get the the rod of discipline on the seat of understanding, you’re gonna feel it. Number three, if they’re dishonest, if they’re lying. Serious business, we have to watch what comes out of our mouths, and number three, we are called to be his witnesses and walk in the light.
Why is it so important to tell the truth? Why does God say you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor? Because if we love our neighbor, we’re not gonna lie about our neighbor, and we’re called by God to be his witnesses, to be his ambassadors on the earth. You shall be holy, for I am holy, and we reflect God. And what do we say about God, God is overflowing with lovingkindness and truth. The devil is a liar and the father of lies, we can’t be like him, we have to be like God. Now 1 John chapter 1 says this, «God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth».
You know, just 'cause you say you’re a Christian doesn’t mean you’re a Christian. Just 'cause you say you have fellowship with God doesn’t mean you have fellowship with God. Just 'cause you say you walk with God doesn’t mean you walk with God. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. «But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin».
Listen, we lie with our lips, but we can also lie with our lives, when we say we’re walking with God and we know we’re not. One of the greatest things that I have learned in the last ten years of my Christian life came from Sudheer Jayaprabhu, when he shared in his own testimony, every person has a public life, has a private life, and has a secret life, and satisfaction in life comes when your public life, your private life, and your secret life all line up together in the light with Jesus. Because if your public life and private life look good, but your secret life, the life that you know and God knows is in the darkness, you lie and do not practice the truth.
We got to get that in the light. But if we walk in the light, to see himself as in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, listen, Christians can get involved in some terrible things. We can do some terrible things. We can fall into terrible sins that destroy our lives and affect our families. But God’s grace can change us from the inside out as we turn to him. Listen, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor or against yourself. God wants to do deep work in everyone’s heart, but it starts by getting honest with him.