“You shall not give
false testimony against your neighbour” –
Exodus 20.16
Preached at Gateway on
11th November 2012.
Last
week, the top boss at the BBC resigned, because of allegations made on a
‘Newsnight’ report about a named politician being linked with abuse in Care
Homes in north Wales back in the 70’s.
This has proved to be untrue about the politician, with significant consequences hitting the BBC. Journalistic standards have declined.
It’s
easy to judge others and not examine our own hearts and lives. Sometimes we are very economical with the
truth, or we manipulate or we lie – in order to get our way or protect our
reputation. A Gallup morality poll
discovered that 10% lie to the Taxman and 30% lie to their Spouse!
“You
shall not give false testimony”. This is
a positive command of God expressed in a negative form – it’s God’s way of catching your
attention. These 10 Commandments show us
the real God and they reveal the true you and me. We read elsewhere in the Bible,
“God
is not a man, that he should lie”, Numbers 23.19
“the
Glory of Israel does not lie”, 1 Samuel 15.29
“God,
who does not lie”, Titus 1.2
“it is
impossible for God to lie”, Hebrews 6.18
The
fact that the ninth commandment says, “You shall not give false testimony
against your neighbour”, reveals more of God’s standard. God is a person of Truth. There is nothing false about God. He has complete integrity. He does not manipulate, he does not spin a
tale, he does not stretch the truth, he does not try to pull the wool over your
eyes. He’s not devious or
conniving. He does twist the truth, or
cover up. He does not exaggerate.
God
says what he means and he means what he says.
He has told us so in a book – the Bible – God’s Word. Why do you think every working day across the
nation, and across the world, people in courts of law, who are giving
testimony, place their hand on the Bible and promise to tell the truth, whole
truth, and nothing but the truth?
But
because we have broken fellowship with God, falsehood and lying is an everyday
occurrence. Rather than being in league
with the living God, so many people are in league with the Devil. This is how Jesus described a bunch of
religious people, “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” (John 8.44).
So
when you lie, you speak the devil’s native language. J.John once said, “Honesty is: everything we
say is true, but not everything true must be said”. Discretion and wisdom is needed to know what to say in every situation.
The
apostle Paul writing a devastating critique, described humankind in Romans 1.25
like this, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie”. This ninth Commandment is there to pull us
back from committing falsehood. Telling
lies ruins relationships, it causes chaos, it sparks conflicts. Whereas truth builds trust, a stable society
is established upon the foundations of integrity.
Remember
the original context of God’s commandments.
God had miraculously brought the Israelites out of captivity, the horrors
of slavery in Egypt. He had set them
free, they were his chosen people. Here
they are in the book of Exodus on their way from Egypt to the promised land, a
land flowing with milk and honey. But
God knowing the reality of human nature delivers these 10 commandments and many
more laws for his people, because he wants to protect them. It’s like, if we never teach our kids about
crossing the road safely, they are more likely to be hurt. My own children know my commandment of
crossing the road safely, looking and listening and not running. It is for their well-being and because they are
loved. So likewise, on a much bigger
scale, God’s 10 Commandments. They are
there for your protection and well-being, because you are loved.
God
actually and factually wrote these 10 Commandments – just 10 – in stone. They were set in two tablets of stone,
inscribed by the finger of God, which Moses took down from the top of Mount
Sinai. These 10 are absolute, not
obsolete, and they were to be lived out by the people of God – the Israelites.
We are
the church today – the people of God - and these 10 should shape our lives. The church of God in Barnsley, this local church
Gateway need to have a distinctive character.
If a report was carried out on the people of Gateway – it should hopefully
read, they are content with what they have, not coveting, rather are generous
in their giving (reference to the tenth Commandment). They are a people who speak the truth, who
stand up for truth, who can be trusted to the max, who ooze integrity out of
every pore, who shun and form of deviation from the truth (reference to the ninth
Commandment). That’s what we’re to aim
for.
But
the thing is this...let’s get this straight...as we move to preparing for the
baptisms taking place today. You are not
a Christian because you keep the tenth Commandment, "You shall not
Covet". You are a not a Christian
because you keep the ninth Commandment, "You shall not give false
testimony".
Keeping
the 10 Commandments do NOT make you a Christian. Yes, they are very admirable achievements if
you seek to hold to them, they may make you religious, but they do not make you
a Christian. Remember the true way to
read the Bible – it’s not a case that there are good people and there are bad
people – rather it’s the case of there are bad people and there is Jesus, One
who was and is perfectly good.
The
sobering truth is you have broken the ninth Commandment in some form
or way at different points in your life.
In fact a lot more times than you are ready to admit or recall. There are different kinds of false testimony –
gossip, flattery and slander, not forgetting the silent lie. James reminds us, “For whoever keeps the whole
law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2.10).
The
10 Commandments show us our need of Jesus. Because of God’s amazing love, He comes
himself into our world in our image – as one of us. Jesus Christ – the Son of God. If you want to know what God is like, look to
the person of Jesus in the gospels. He
kept the 10 Commandments perfectly, and though he experienced temptation, he
was without sin. What God the Son
accomplished for you and I, was he died on the cross in your place, for your
sin. He took the blame instead of
you. On this Remembrance Sunday, Jesus puts
it so well, “Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his
friends. You are my friends if you do what
I command” (John 15.13-14). The judgement
of the Father fell on the Son, and if you put your trust in Jesus, the
judgement of God will be lift from YOU.
Like the Israelites, you’ll be free, not from literal slavery, but the
slavery of sin. God, by his Holy Spirit
will come into your life. He will give
you new desires. What makes you a
Christian is putting your life into the hands of Jesus who was good
enough. You will be clothed in his
righteousness. So when God looks upon
you, he’s see you as holy and pure, not because of your record, but because of
the spotless record of Jesus that is transferred to you.
You’ll
find as a new Christian, you will want to obey the 10 Commandments, you’ll have
God’s power available to resist falling into sin. “Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully
to his neighbour” (Ephesians 4.25).
Today
we rejoice that four people, there may be more, wish to publically declare that
they have put their trust, not in their own righteousness which is never good
enough, but in the righteousness of Jesus.
By baptism, they are identifying their lives with the living God in
Jesus, who died and rose again. So they
too, by baptism will die to sin and rise to new life.
In
Jesus, trusting him, trusting God, their sins, their shortcomings, past,
present and future are washed away by the death of Jesus, symbolised by the
waters of baptism. They are also
declaring commitment to serving the risen Jesus in their local church - Gateway
Church. As I finish, God is Truth, we
have lied, Jesus saves us from our sinfulness and the father of lies, the
devil, by us being baptised into his perfect death and resurrection, transformed
to live like him our Lord and Saviour.
As I
finish, on this note of Baptism, with the ninth Commandment ringing in
our ears, ‘You shall not give false testimony’, which you can further explore
in your mid-week Growth Groups with plenty of application – let me say this:
We are
the church, and because we are clothed with Christ, as Colossians 3.9-10 puts
it, ‘Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its
practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in
the image of its Creator’.
