You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

so that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth. And he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth.

And so to keep the ninth commandment would have been to recognize that Yahweh is the God of truth, which meant they were to love the truth and live in truth. So that's the first implication we see from this text. God is the God of truth. Now for the second, how did Jesus fulfill this command? How does he embody this character of God? Well, Jesus actually tells us this in the gospel of John. You'll remember early on in John's gospel, Jesus told his disciples,

if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

But what truth? What is the truth that will set us free? He answers in John 14, 6,

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

What an incredible statement. A completely unparalleled way to talk about yourself in any literature anywhere. What he's saying is, I am the truth that will set you free. I am the truth that will get you to the Father. He's claiming to be the very embodiment of truth itself, the source of truth, the standard of truth, which means he's claiming to be the manifestation of God himself. And our Lord is saying that if you know the truth, if you know him, he will set us free. You know, man has invented so many falsehoods, so many lies to how to be set free. There are those who deny God and live completely godless lives. They say that the freest you'll ever be is just following after your heart's desire, following after every passion, after every desire that your heart can conceive. Then there are those who say that if you're good enough, you can get to God. If you just work hard enough, if you're a relatively moral person, if you go to church, if you pray, if you read your Bible, if you follow certain traditions, if you're just generally a good person, surely God will let you into heaven. How wicked are such falsehoods? There is no better way to ensure the eternal wrath and judgment of God. No matter how hard we try, we cannot create a truth that will get us to God. He's already set his standard and it's unattainable for human beings. We're incapable of not sinning, let alone being able to achieve a righteous requirement. But praise God that he has provided the truth to set us free. You see, the only way for salvation is through the one and only truth which would manifest itself in our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he himself is God, took on the form of a servant to live a perfect life, tempted in every way we are, yet without sin, so that he could be our mediator, so that his perfect life could be counted as ours. He would be despised, beaten, mocked, spat on, and killed by the very same creatures he came to save. than though he himself committed no sins, this perfect Son of God, this second person of the Trinity, the object of the Father's greatest affection, who for eternity had been infinitely beloved by the Father, would endure the most unspeakable anguish at the hand of the wrath of his own Father that we deserved. This Jesus became a curse for us. so that we might become the righteousness of God, so that we could be set free, so that we might be able to enter the presence of the Father. So the ninth commandment, which was grounded in this first point that Yahweh is the God of truth, implied a second, that this truth would ultimately become embodied by a man to be the only true way of salvation. And this was all fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Now for the final aspect of this text, since Jesus fulfilled this command, what does it mean for us now? What does the ninth commandment mean for us now? Well, we know that because God's attributes remain unchanged, the New Testament is just as equally condemning of false witness. There's so many passages that just outright lists the sins that would fall under this category. commands against malice, commands against pride, commands not to lie or be deceitful or to slander or to gossip. But for the sake of positive instruction, let's go to Ephesians four. So if you could flip to Ephesians four and we'll finish our study of the ninth commandment by seeing how we ought to live. Ephesians chapter four, beginning in verse 21 and going through verse 25. God's word says,

assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

The Apostle Paul is saying that believers are now new creations in Christ. And as such, we reflect his character. So just as the Israelites were to reflect the character and nature of Yahweh, Christians are also supposed to reflect the character and nature of Christ. And Paul cites this as the basis for his first command in verse 25. The first command, the first characteristic of Christ he identifies is truth. He takes the attribute of God that we learned from the ninth commandment, that he is the God of truth, and now applies it to all facets of life, not just bearing false witness against our neighbor. Our whole lives are to be characterized by truth. And so we can see from verse 25, two instructions Paul gives to defeat the sin of falsehood. The first is refrain, put away falsehood, refrain from falsehood, mortify it, stop it. This is the first part of repentance. We refrain from doing it. I know we made a list earlier of ways that we can distort the truth, but I wanna highlight a few. These can be blatant lying, half-truths, omissions, like if someone thanks you for doing something that you didn't do, but you choose to remain silent. Breaking commitments or making promises you had no intention of keeping. Hypocrisy, in that you pretend that you have things together, whether they be financially, spiritually, emotionally, when in fact you actually don't. Flattery to gain favor, and probably the most difficult one of all, gossip. Just because something might be true doesn't mean you have to broadcast it. Now I want to reiterate, just like we talked about earlier, falsehood has much more to do with motive than action. Falsehood is anything that's done out of deceit, pride, or insincerity. So that's what makes it sinful. This means that genuine mistakes, they're not falsehoods. Estimates are not falsehoods. Joking is also not a falsehood as long as it's done out of love and not done to hurt or deceive others. So if you catch yourself engaging in falsehood, ask for forgiveness and correct yourself. It may be embarrassing, it may hurt, but it's better than sinning. My parents, they used to give me second chances and tell me,

you know, your punishment is gonna be a lot worse if we find out that you're lying.

Now, I still usually wouldn't come clean, but it's true. Lying only digs you into a deeper hole. It only makes things worse and messier. And here's the thing about God. We can't hide from him. We can't deceive him. So confess your sin, ask for forgiveness, put off falsehood, and refrain from doing it again. Don't continue to live in sin. The second instruction Paul gives is replace. Replace falsehood with truth. We are to now speak truth to our neighbors. This is the second part of repentance. But there are additional elements to this. You'll notice Paul supplements this command in verse 29, where he talks about speech. He says,

let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.

These additional caveats, they're especially useful for combating gossiping. Yes, our speech must be true and honest, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. So once you've determined if what you have to say is honest and true, then you have to ask yourself, is it helpful? Is it only such as is good for building up? Is it edifying? And if the answer is yes, then you also need to ask, is it appropriate? Does it fit the occasion? There is no such thing as the one size fits all type of speech. Sometimes you need to be firm. Sometimes you need to be gentle. It depends on the person. Sometimes it may not be the right place or time, and it depends on the context. So if at any point you answer no to any of those questions, here's a pretty neat little trick. Remain silent. Just offer a polite version of none of your business. If someone asks a personal question like, do you and your wife fight a lot? You can say, my wife and I don't talk about our relationship to others. If someone asks what you may think of your employer's clearly dumb idea, you can respond with, it's not for me to pass judgment on management's decision. You don't have to speak on it. You can just be silent. But if you answer yes to all of those questions, then speak freely. Speak freely that you may give grace to those who hear. That's your job description as a Christian. The Proverbs say that

gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

And that's how our speech ought to be. Slander, lying, gossiping, all other falsehoods, those aren't sweet things, they're all bitter. So put on the truth. You know, Christ modeled this perfectly for us while he was on earth. Peter said that while he suffered unjustly, he left us an example that we might follow in his footsteps.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

He never lied. He never engaged in falsehood. He always spoke the truth. And yet he was reviled and was killed. And he bore our sins on his body as he hung from a tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds, you have been healed.

So if you're an unbeliever, this is the most important truth you have to know. It's the only truth that matters. And if you are a believer, constantly be filled with this grace, with this truth, and you will spill that grace and that truth over in your speech. Please pray with me. Eternal Father, we thank you for these texts. We thank you that you have revealed yourself and your character through them, that you are the God of truth and from you all truth proceeds. And we thank you that you have also revealed yourself in your son, that he is the way, the truth, and the life, that by him we can now come before you. And so we pray now that you would cause your spirit to continue to reveal and apply your truths and your attributes in our lives as we meditate on what we just read in your word. Let it cause us to love Christ more and give us the strength to put off all falsehood and put on grace and truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's close our time together by standing and singing our benediction. ♪ Now unto the King eternal ♪ Go in peace.