Scripture Reading
Exodus 20 verse 16. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
And then Ephesians chapter 4 beginning at verse 17 through the end of the chapter.
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feelings, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your formal conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, putting away lying, that each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer. but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Again, may the Lord bless this reading of His Word.
Opening Prayer
O gracious God and heavenly Father, we do rejoice and give thanks that you have given us your holy word, that it is our only infallible rule for faith and life to lead us, to guide us, to instruct us.
And as we come to these passages, as we consider the ninth commandment, we pray, O Father, that you would give us understanding and insight, and especially that you would pierce our own hearts. that we might see the need to speak the truth and to live out the truth all to the praise of your glorious name and so we ask now for your blessing upon your holy word in the name of the lord jesus christ we pray amen
Introduction: A Call to Transformed Living
Well here in ephesians chapter four we find the apostle charging his readers to live truly transformed lives that they should no longer live the way that they formerly lived as unbelievers because that’s not how they learned Christ.
For in coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, they’re now to walk as He walked in truth and righteousness.
Therefore, they must put off all these old ways of living and put on the new ways of living in Christ Jesus.
And Jesus has set before us the way of truth.
And part of walking in this way of truth is to speak the truth and indeed guard our tongues in all ways so that our speech is uplifting and encouraging to the hearers.
Paul says here in verse 25 that this includes putting away lying.
And then verse 29, not letting any corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
And then verse 31, let evil speaking be put away from you.
Our speech of anger, malice, bitterness, clamor, and all evil speaking is to be put away as we seek to bless those around us, not only in deed, but also in words.
We know that guarding the tongue, and thus our speech, has always been a great challenge.
And there’s many, many passages in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that challenge us on this very point.
You can think about pretty much the whole book of Proverbs, the book of James, and other places calling us to guard our tongues.
But we also know that, so it’s always been a great challenge and a problem, but we know in our age of technology and social media that it’s important to be all the more vigilant, to guard our tongue.
And this, not just in what we actually speak with our lips, or even expressed by our fingers on the keyboard, but maybe even in our likes and reactions.
Because we know that even in one brief moment of carelessness, we can easily bring undue offense to others.
We can stain our witness before a watching world, and most of all, we can dishonor the holy name of our Lord and God that we bear and confess.
And so, we see Paul’s charge in Ephesians 4 then, is nothing new.
And what Paul is setting forth is essentially a call to uphold the ninth commandment.
As he says even here, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
And so we shouldn’t be surprised at this point that bearing false witness entails a whole variety of sins and offenses as we’ve seen with the other commandments.
So not just in word or action, but also the sins of the heart from which all words and actions flow.
But there’s hope.
Even as Paul highlights in this passage, that when we’re renewed by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ, we’re enabled to obey God’s commands and to speak the truth with words of blessing and advocation, rather than cursing and destruction.
What Is Truth?
But if we’re charged to speak the truth, it’s important that we must first know what the truth is.
And so before getting into the ins and outs of what it means to speak the truth and fulfill the ninth commandment, we first want to begin with a very important question.
And it was one, a question that has been asked previously, even in the scriptures.
Remember when Jesus was on trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
And Pilate famously asked Jesus, what is truth?
Pilate was responding to what Jesus said in the previous verse, when Jesus said, for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth and everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.
And Pilate asked, what is truth?
Well his question is certainly worthy of consideration.
What is truth and how is it defined?
And how do we know truth?
Well, simple definition of the term is that truth is the content of that which is true and thus really in accordance with what actually happened.
In other words, it’s reality tied to facts.
But that’s just the definition of the word.
And we know that Pilate likely knew some definition of the word.
But what is the content that the truth describes?
What is it that actually happened?
What is the reality?
Well, this, of course, is what investigators and lawyers and judges and juries seek to discover when a crime has been committed, right?
They ask witnesses to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
And then through a process of examination and cross-examination, they seek to discern the truth beyond a reasonable doubt.
And so again, truth is a reality.
But whether or not that reality is acknowledged, well, that’s a very different question.
The reality of truth, we know, has been under fire for really now many decades as the claim is made that truth is relative.
That is, it changes depending on the situation or the circumstances or even depending on the individual.
And of course, this has led to, again, this very individualistic approach to truth.
That what’s true for you may not be true for me and vice versa.
But you know what, that’s okay.
We’re both right in our own eyes.
So the individual becomes the determiner of truth.
And of course we know that this has been taken even one step further with the outright rejection of reality itself as people create a reality outside of objective facts and truth. even going so far as to mutilate their own bodies in an attempt to conform themselves to an alternate and a false reality.
And so we run into a serious problem then when we’re challenged to speak the truth and yet there are many people around us who are lying to themselves, who are denying the reality even of who they truly are.
Friends, we know and confess against whatever the culture tells us, we know and confess that truth isn’t relative.
Truth doesn’t change.
It remains.
We know this because the truth has been revealed to us, and because it’s been revealed, we know, or we can know what it is.
Now science tells us that we can know the truth by observation with our senses and testing data using the scientific method.
And this certainly helps.
And we know that much truth about what we know in the created world has been discovered this way.
But it’s important to remember that science clearly has its limits.
Because sometimes our senses can be tricked.
The reality we see may not be a reality at all.
Maybe it’s just a reflection.
For example, if you’ve ever been in a hall of mirrors at a carnival or something, it can be difficult to know which image that you’re looking at is the real image because of all the different reflections.
And even today in our world of artificial intelligence, And you see pictures and different things.
It’s hard to know.
Is this real?
Or was it something fabricated and generated?
And so we can discover some truth through science, but it doesn’t reveal to us all the truth.
All truth, even absolute truth, we know comes from the One who created all things.
It comes from the Lord God.
Because in His being, God is all truth.
Indeed, Paul reminds us in Titus 1 that we can have full assurance of God’s promises of eternal life because He cannot lie.
Lying is contrary to the nature of God’s being.
And so God is the source of all truth because God himself is truth.
And the truth we can know is the truth that he has revealed to us through his word.
The psalmist says in Psalm 119 verse 160, the entirety of your word is truth and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever.
But we know it’s not only through his word given through the prophets and the apostles and written, But most especially, God has revealed His truth to us in His Son, Jesus Christ.
John 1 verse 14, And the Word became flesh unto all among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
And then this same Jesus would later boldly declare in John 14,
I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And so, to know Christ, then, is to know the truth.
And indeed, this is what Paul says here in Ephesians 4.21.
He says that the truth is in Jesus.
Jesus is the supreme standard of truth.
He’s the fullest expression of God’s truth.
And if you know the truth, then Jesus declares in John 8, the truth shall make you free.
Freedom not only from sin and the curse of death, but free in the grace of God to both speak and then live out the truth.
And of course this then connects us to the 9th commandment and what it calls us to.
That we would speak the truth in all situations and that we would live our lives in conformity to the truth that God has revealed.
Speaking the Truth
And so first we must speak the truth.
The Lord through the prophet Zechariah 8.16 charges that these are the things you shall do, speak each man the truth to his neighbor.
We’re called to speak the truth.
Speaking the truth involves, again, telling the facts.
Telling the facts of what is known and the reality of what happened or what is.
And we often think of this when, again, there’s a witness giving testimony in court.
And again, this is actually the language of the way the ninth commandment is written there in Exodus 20.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
But is it restricted to the courtroom?
I mean, what would be the point of only speaking the truth on the witness stand and yet not speaking the truth to your neighbor when you’re at home?
Surely the Lord intends that we speak the truth all the time.
Whether we’re on the witness stand, or out in the store, or wherever we might be, that we are called to speak the truth.
And this means that we not only speak the truth to others, but also we speak the truth about others.
And so if we make a compliment, well it better be sincere and truthful.
If we make a promise, we must keep that promise.
In fact, when we make a promise and keep that promise, well then it helps to establish our own truthfulness, our own trustworthiness.
When we’re true to our own word, when we’re going to actually do what we say we’re going to do and keep our promises.
And as Paul notes here in verse 429, he says,
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary advocation, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
So again, not only are we to refrain from corrupt speech, like lies and cursing and profane language that often tear down and destroy, but positively we’re to then speak what’s good, what’s true, and what’s edifying. so that we might actually build up, so that we might actually encourage others with our speech.
Speaking the truth also includes then ultimately speaking the truth and bearing witness to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel that he accomplished for undeserving sinners, even us.
In Proverbs 14, Solomon says, a true witness delivers souls, but a deceitful witness speaks lies.
Beloved of God, it’s the truth of the gospel that delivers souls to the power of the Holy Spirit when it’s faithfully proclaimed and shared by those who know it, by those who know Jesus Christ and the salvation that He has secured for us.
And Jesus charged the apostles and he charged the church to go forth and bear witness to this good news.
And ultimately, that is the greatest fulfillment of the ninth commandment, is obeying Christ’s command and fulfilling the great commission.
Because we’re going forth and we’re speaking the truth, even the truth that will save souls.
Speaking the Truth in Love
But it’s important to keep in mind as we think about positively speaking the truth, there’s also a manner in which we’re to speak the truth.
Whether that’s to our neighbor, whether it’s in court, or even in sharing the gospel.
You see, we’re not to just throw truth bombs out there, right?
Throw these hand grenades of truth that actually have behind a desire to humiliate and destroy.
No, we must speak the truth in love.
And Paul asserted this earlier in Ephesians 4, verses 14.
He says
that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ.
Too often people speak bluntly or they’ll say, well I like to tell it like it is.
But we need to be truthful.
And so even in our truth speaking, we need to have wisdom and discernment so that we can convey the truth.
So that it’s not a bludgeon over someone’s head.
But it can actually be, even if it’s a hard and difficult truth, It can be something that can encourage them, build them up, and in a way, by the power of the Spirit, convict them and bring their souls to life.
And so I’m going to speak the truth in love and out of love for the spiritual state and encouragement of others.
And so friends, let’s be diligent to do so.
Living the Truth
Well, not only must we know and speak the truth, but also our actions and the way we live our lives should be marked by truth.
1 Kings 2, David reminds Solomon as he’s beginning the transition to have Solomon reign in his place. He reminds his son Solomon of God’s promise regarding the establishment of David’s throne. He says, And keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do, and wherever you turn, that the Lord may fulfill His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, If your sons take heed to the way, to walk before me in truth, with all their heart and with all their soul, he said, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.
To walk in the ways, the statutes, the commandments, the judgments, the testimonies, and the law of God is to walk in truth, to walk uprightly with honor and integrity and in faith.
This means that we must strive then to live our lives consistent with God’s truth, with His revealed will.
To conform ourselves to His truth and Godliness.
To reflect in how we live our lives the truth and the faith that we profess and confess as true.
To be consistent in talking the talk and in walking the walk.
Now we know in reading through the Gospels, one thing becomes very clear that Jesus, one of the things that He often called out and condemned, especially among the religious leaders, was the hypocrisy.
The inconsistency.
Hypocrisy is basically inconsistency between what you say and what you do.
And the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were masters at hypocrisy.
And Jesus condemned them for it.
And so, for example, in Matthew 23, Jesus says, therefore, he’s warned them about, he’s warned the people about the hypocrisy of the religious leaders.
And he’s saying, therefore, whatever they tell you to do, observe. That observe and do. Right?
Because they’re the teachers of Israel.
They know the word.
They know the law.
And so if they tell you to do something, well, and they’re teaching you to do something, well, you should observe that.
But then Jesus continues, but do not do according to their works.
For they say and do not do.
For they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Our words and ultimately what’s in our hearts And our actions should be consistent without hypocrisy.
And so in the grace of God we should strive to live and walk in truth that you might be a witness to the transforming power of the gospel grace.
Shun hypocrisy.
The Cost of Truth
But there’s something to keep in mind. seeking to fulfill the ninth commandment by both speaking the truth and living out the truth.
We need to remember that there are times when speaking the truth will come at a cost.
In our fallen and sinful world, we know that speaking the truth, especially when it’s the gospel truth, it can be unpopular and even dangerous.
the prophets, the Old Testament, John the Baptist, and of course Jesus.
And then after Jesus, many of the apostles and many faithful Christian martyrs down through these centuries have all paid with their lives the cost of speaking and living out the truth.
But remember Jesus’ words.
If you’re worried then about being bold, and speaking and living out the truth, and one is, I’m not so sure about this, well, remember the blessing that Jesus also reminds us of in the very last of the Beatitudes.
And this is often, it’s interesting, this is often one of the Beatitudes that is overlooked for whatever reason.
Well, maybe for this very reason, because it’s uncomfortable.
Matthew 5 verse 10, Jesus says, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
And then later Jesus will say, that they, what they have done to me, they will also do to you.
And so beloved, you ought not to then fear. to speak and live out the truth as you seek to glorify God in your lives.
What the Ninth Commandment Forbids
Well, we’ve considered the definition of truth and the revelation of truth and the positive charge of the ninth commandment to speak and to live out the truth.
But what’s the negative charge?
What does the ninth commandment forbid?
Well, chiefly it forbids lying.
And this includes not just the whopping big lies, but also the seemingly innocent, yet still deceitful, the little white lies.
Now it’s true that the consequences may be greater for a whopper of a lie, but a lie is a lie no matter how hard we try to soften it by relabeling it as a white lie, as a fib, as telling stories, or exaggerating the truth, or stretching the truth.
It’s all lies.
They all violate the ninth commandment.
Now, other violations of the ninth commandment include not just lying and bearing false witness, but also speaking profanely or with corrupt words and foul language, all of which again destroy and offend rather than build up and encourage.
And we looked at that already in Paul’s words there in Ephesians 4.29.
Also condemned would be the spreading of gossip and slander.
Gossip is talking about someone behind their back, usually, but not always, in a very negative way.
And slander is purposely seeking to destroy someone’s reputation or character.
All these, God hates.
In fact, out of the six, yes even seven things that God hates, in Proverbs 6, The ninth commandment violations comprise four.
- A lying tongue,
- a heart that devises wicked plans, so evil plotting,
- a false witness who speaks lies,
- and one who sows discord among brethren.
Because how do you sow discord?
You gossip, you spread rumors, you slander.
Why God Hates Lying
Now, this may raise a question, though.
Why does God, then, hate lying so much?
In fact, for some of us, it may even be surprising to us that God hates anything at all.
But, friends, we know that God hates sin.
All sin is an affront to God’s holiness.
And so, He truly is good and just to then hate sin and, again, lying is a sin.
But why does this one sin seem to especially stir God’s just anger and wrath that He would mention it four times in this list of things that He hates?
Well, this goes back to where we started in relation to truth.
Because truth is a perfect attribute of God.
He is all truth.
And in Him there is no deceit or darkness.
And so lying, which is a perversion of the truth, lying then is contrary to God’s very being and character.
Indeed, we could say even that lying then is basically a rejection and a denial of God Himself.
Because it’s a corruption of one of His perfect attributes.
Those who reject and pervert the truth reject and pervert the reality of God’s being, which is truth.
This is why God hates lying.
But something else becomes clear to us, even as we read about these things that God hates in Proverbs 6.
And note carefully that it’s not only the lying tongue and the heart that devises wicked plans.
So these would be particular sins of the heart and of the tongue.
But note carefully, God also hates the false witness.
And he also hates the one who sows discord among his brothers.
God hates not only lying and lies, but He hates liars.
We know that lies deceive and lies destroy and corrupt.
Liars aren’t to be trusted because they blatantly oppose all that is good and right.
And of course the chief liar that God hates is Satan.
Jesus in condemning the scribes and the Pharisees, because of their hypocrisy, demonstrates this in John 8.
He says,
you are of your father the devil. And the desires of your father you want to do. And 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 it.
And here we see this, we can see then the dramatic contrast between the holy God and Satan.
God is truth.
Satan is lies and deception.
And Satan truly is the father of lies.
Indeed, it was Satan who spoke the very first lie. in God’s newly created world.
In Genesis 3, then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.
What did God say to Adam in Genesis 2.17?
You shall surely die.
If you eat of this tree, you shall surely die.
But Satan says, no, you will not surely die.
For God knows that on the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
And friends, this was the biggest whopper of a lie that there ever was.
And because Adam and Eve bought into this lie, that is they believe Satan over believing God, they fell into sin.
And then all their descendants born from them through ordinary generation now bear the guilt of that sin, the consequences of that sin.
So friends, this becomes a real problem for each and every one of us.
Again, knowing how much now God hates lying and that he was a righteous hatred, hates Satan, the father of lies.
What does that say about us?
What does that say about us who have been born of Adam and Eve?
It reveals that because of our corrupt sinful nature with which we’re born, we’re all liars.
David states this truth quite plainly when he sings in Psalm 58,
the wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they are born. Speaking lies, we come forth from the womb, speaking lies.
We’re born liars.
And God hates liars as much as He hates the lies that come from the lips of liars.
What will become of us then if we remain in our fallen sinful state?
What will become of us if we remain liars speaking and living lies?
David again declares it simply and plainly as he sings in Psalm 63,
…but the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.
Liars will be silenced.
They’ll be silenced by the eternal wrath and just judgment of the Most Holy God who is perfect truth.
God hates lies and liars.
And He will silence them forever.
Hope for Liars
Friends, don’t despair.
Because there is hope, even for liars.
There is hope for liars in the truth that God has revealed.
Indeed, there’s hope to not only know this truth, but to be set free by this truth.
To be set free from the condemnation of sin and death that lies and deceptions bring.
And this truth is only found in the only begotten Son of God, who became flesh and dwelt among us.
And who did what we could not do in living a perfect righteous life.
And who gave Himself as the once for all perfect sacrifice for our sins on the cross.
Dying the death that only we deserved because of our lies.
Because of our corrupt nature.
Because of our guilt before God.
But we know that death did not hold Him.
And that this Son rose again from the dead on the third day so that we might have a sure and certain salvation in Him.
Beloved of God, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is this truth.
He is this truth that we must know.
That God has revealed. to undeserving sinners, even those of us here.
And by grace through faith in Christ alone, you will find freedom and deliverance from all lies, deceits, falsehoods, and the judgment and the curse that they all bring.
Believe then on this truth.
Believe on Jesus Christ and you will not be disappointed.
Not now in this life. nor forever to the glory of God alone.
Closing Prayer
O gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do rejoice and give thanks for this great reminder and challenge to us from the ninth commandment, that you call us to speak the truth And to know the truth, who is Jesus Christ?
The fullest revelation of you and your truth, you have revealed in your beloved son.
And that you have sent your son.
That you might save your people from their, from their sins.
That those who were once liars condemned to a righteous curse of death are now free in Christ Jesus by grace through faith.
What a glorious gift that you have given.
Surely there is no greater gift than what you have provided in your Son the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that he accomplished for us.
And so we pray, Father, that as we would consider this great truth that you have revealed, that your spirit even now would be working in each of our hearts, drawing us to acknowledge, to know that truth, but not just to know it, but to proclaim it and to speak it.
And even to live it out in our lives.
That we would not be found as the hypocrites. but that what we profess and believe to be true is demonstrated in how we live our lives.
All to the praise of your glorious name.
So Father, we pray that your spirit would impress these truths upon each of our hearts, drawing us all closer to yourself.
All to the praise of your glorious name.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.