Pastor Grant Brown's sermon, 'The Law of God (Part 16)', focuses on the ninth commandment, which forbids bearing false witness. He highlights the commandment's role in ensuring justice and societal stability, emphasizing that falsehoods lead to destruction, whether through slander, gossip, or any form of deceit. The sermon references biblical cases, such as Naboth's story and Ananias and Sapphira, to illustrate the severe consequences of lying. Pastor Brown warns against the ease of spreading falsehoods in the digital age and calls for a commitment to truth as a reflection of God's nature. He underscores the importance of truthfulness as an expression of love for one's neighbor and a foundation for a just society. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's unchanging truth and His call to live by it, reflecting His nature and love.

Exodus chapter 20 beginning in verse 1. Then God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery you shall have no other gods before me you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. May God bless the reading and now the preaching of this is word. Amen. Amen.

You may be seated. Amen, you may be seated. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Have you heard that before? That's what is asked of those sworn in to give testimony in court.

To tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Where does that line come from in our judicial system? That line comes from the law of God here in the ninth commandment. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. This, the ninth commandment, forbids false testimony.

If you love your neighbor, you don't say he did things that he didn't do. And if you love your neighbor, You tell the truth about those who are practicing evil against him. You testify to the truth when evil is done against your neighbor. So let me say that again. It's very obvious.

If you love your neighbor, you don't say things he... You don't say he did things that he didn't do. And if you love your neighbor, you tell the truth about those who are practicing evil against him. You testify to the truth when evil is done to your neighbor. So, as we begin examining this ninth commandment, what might be an example of bearing false testimony, false witness against your neighbor?

Can you think of one in the holy scriptures? Well, how about 1 Kings chapter 21? You don't need to go there, but do you remember the false testimony in 1 Kings 21? The king of Israel named Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard. Now that's a violation of the 10th commandment soon to come.

But Ahab wants Naboth's property. He can't get Naboth's property and so he goes home to his wife and whines. Now Men, don't do that. Don't go home whining to your wife. Don't make that the pattern of your life.

I mean Ahab was in the habit of doing this and now thousands of years later we're still talking about how much of a sissy he was. God writes stories like this. Don't let this be yours. We're talking about thousands of years later about how he whined to his wife. Don't do that.

Don't leave that kind of legacy. But that's exactly what Ahab does. He goes, the king of Israel, the king of Israel can't have a tiny vineyard. And so he whines to his wife, I want that. He won't give it to me.

And Jezebel, his wife said, oh, well, you're the king of Israel. I'll get it for you. I'll get it for you. And so what does she do? She plans a party.

She invites Naboth to that party. And she gets evil men to stand in the assembly of that party and testify, bear false witness that Naboth cursed both God and the king. And what happens? It's exactly what happens. Two worthless fellows, the scriptures say, I love how they describe those fellows, two worthless fellows bear false witness against their neighbor, Naboth.

They bear false witness against a man of their own people. And what happens? That man, Naboth, is taken out of the city and he's put to death, stoned. Capital punishment because of a lie. Do you see what happens when you don't take the truth seriously.

People die. Lies bearing false testimony destroys people and ultimately they destroy society. The ninth commandment protects justice. And it protects nations, society itself. The ninth commandment demands truthfulness.

It demands that you love the truth and that you hate lies. And when you give up on the ninth commandment, when you give up on loving the truth, do you know what you do? You give up on loving people. You destroy people and you will destroy your nation. The standard for putting someone to death according to Deuteronomy 17 verse six is that on the evidence of two or more witnesses, he who is to be put to death shall be put to death because there's two or more witnesses, but he shall not be put to death on the evidence of only one witness.

And that's why, it's one of the reasons why the Ninth Commandment is so crucial in the courtroom. If you bear false testimony, if you say something that isn't true, and then that falsehood is backed up by another man's disregard for the truth, if another man disregards the ninth commandment, a man might lose his life because of your false testimony. For some crimes, you condemn a man to his death by bearing false witness. And so sometimes when you bear false witness, what might be the result? At least in Nabat's case, murder.

Bearing false witness results in murder. Your false testimony in the case of capital punishment crimes might result in someone's death that doesn't deserve it. That's murder. So I hope you see here at the beginning that when you give up on the ninth commandment you give up on life. You give up on the sanctity of life that comes from commandment number six.

And ultimately when you give up on the ninth commandment, you give up on justice. I mean there can't be any justice where there is no truth. And when there is no justice and there is no truth embraced then society has to fall apart doesn't it I? Mean when nobody loves the truth anymore society has to collapse nations have to fall apart why? Because when the truth goes away all the second table of the law and the first, all of the law goes away.

Well why is hating your parents wrong? Why is murder wrong? Why? Why can't we all just commit adultery and be fine with it? Why is theft something that should be outlawed?

I wanted it. I should have it. By what standard? When you don't love the truth anymore, you end up living by lies. And you live by your own standard, which will be Satan's standard.

And when you exchange a truth from God for lies, you will live by lies. You have to live by something. And if it's not the truth, then it by necessity is a lie. And when you live by lies, do you know what you do? You die.

You die. You die, and your people die, and the nation dies. Because there isn't a foundation anymore for anything. It's just the book of Judges all over again, right? Everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

Because nobody loves the truth. Nations don't last very long when everybody does what is right in their own eyes. So lies are destructive. Forsaking the ninth commandment can only result in destruction. And in case you're like, yeah, but really it doesn't take very long in your Bible reading to see just how destructive for the ninth commandment for doesn't take very long in your Bible reading to see how long It takes for lies to destroy things Doesn't take very long.

It takes you getting to the third chapter in Genesis Every pain Every affliction every loss in your life can be traced back to what? A serpent in a garden whispering lies, bearing false witness about who God is and what God has done and what God will do. And a man and a woman believing those lies from the serpent instead of the truth from God. Lies. Death.

You live in a world full of misery and pain, suffering and affliction. You live in a world full of misery and pain, suffering and affliction. You live in a world full of death and murder. And all of it traced back to lies. Telling lies and believing lies.

John 8 44. The devil has been a murderer since the beginning. Why? Because there is no truth in him for when he speaks a lie he speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies. So who are you?

What is your nature this morning? Do you share a nature with the Father of Lies? Then you will do as He did. You will hate the ninth commandment and you will die in your sin. Or do you share a new nature?

Are you a partaker of the divine nature by grace through faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God? 2 Peter 1, 4. If you are a partaker of the divine nature, then you will love the truth because the truth has set you free and you will live. The father of lies or the father of lights in whom there is no lie. Whose child are you?

One from death to death, and the other from death to life. For in Jesus Christ, you love the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because it's the truth that has set you free as a child of God. So commandment number nine, Do not bear false witness. It begins in the courtroom, yes, but it doesn't stop in the courtroom. False testimony lies have been around since the fall in Genesis chapter 3 in those first whispers of that evil serpent Satan.

You cannot listen to those lies anymore. Beloved, you cannot listen to lies because they will kill you. That's where we start this morning. I had a clicker at one point. There it is.

Lies destroy people. Lies destroy people. Now we've already discussed how the innocent like Naboth are murdered by false testimony. But you might think, well, I mean is lying that big a deal? Is bearing false witness that big a deal?

I mean I know in some cases it can result in murder, that's not good. But lest you think that false witness really isn't a big deal so long as it's just outside of the court system, so long as it's not in the judiciary. If that's you, remember Acts chapter 5? Do you remember Acts chapter 5? Do you remember Acts chapter 5?

What happens in Acts chapter 5? Two names, Ananias and Sapphira. And they sell a piece of property. What do they do? They sell this piece of property and they hold back a portion of the sale and lay only a portion of the sale at the Apostles feet.

And what was the problem? The problem was not that they only laid half of the sale or a portion of the sale at the Apostles feet. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that they lied about it. The problem was that they said all of the sale is going to the church.

They lied to God and to His apostles. And do you know what God thought about that? You know what God thought about that? He killed them. He put them to death.

Both of them. It's not hard to know what God likes and what God hates. God tells the truth in the Garden of Eden. Satan tells lies. God puts to death Ananias and Sapphira because they lied to both God and to man.

He abominates false measures and false testimony. Lies literally kill people. But lies also destroy people without killing them sometimes. Lies also destroy a man or a woman's life without taking it sometimes. So what can lies do?

Well they can destroy reputations, destroy families, destroy churches, they can destroy people. And almost always lies make little children stumble. You're hearing this? Lies almost always make little children stumble. And it would be better for a man to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the crushing depths of the sea, then to make a little child stumble because of lies.

Lies can destroy without taking a life. And so you can do this through slander, you can do this through gossip. What is slander? Slander is saying something that is not true about someone, and gossip is saying something possibly true about someone that you don't have permission from God or those people to share. You wouldn't say it to their face, but you'll gladly say it behind their back.

That's gossip. You share something that might be true, and perhaps it is true, but you aren't part of the solution. But you think, it's so juicy, I've got to share it. God says slander is evil. God says gossip is evil.

Stop it. Stop slander and stop sharing things you weren't told by God you can share. And brothers and sisters, bearing false witness through slander and gossip is so easy to do. And it was easy to do 200 years ago. It was easy to do 2, 000 years ago.

But do you know how easy it is to do right now? You don't even got to leave your chair. You literally have to reach into your pocket, pull out your phone, and post something. You can do this through text messages, social media. It's so easy to declare falsehood.

In fact, it's actually encouraged. Declaring falsehood is encouraged and rewarded in our day. So you'll get a lot more likes and you'll get a lot more views online when you post something spicy. You know what I'm talking about. You gravitate towards the spicy stuff when you get online.

It might not be true, but you post it because it's spicy, and then the next day you post a correction. Which one gets more views? Nobody wants to read about the correction. That's because the truth tamed down the spice. False witness destroys people, it destroys reputations, it kills families, it kills churches, And of course you would hate it if someone did that to you.

Didn't Jesus say something about that? Luke chapter 6 verse 31, treat others the same way you want them to treat you. Matthew 7 verse 2, the standard of measure that you use will be used against you. If you bear false witness against your neighbor, what are you asking God to do to you? How are you asking God to measure you?

By lies? By what the devil says? Well, That's awful. Don't do that. Listen to Pastor David Mitz and Mocker on this.

He nails it. Especially when it comes to how we break the 9th commandment in digital spaces. I quote from him right now, quote, in a world dominated by screens, usernames, and algorithmic incentives, speech has been severed from accountability. Words are Fired off in comments, captions, or tweets without context, consequence, or even conscience. Half-truths go viral.

Outrage is rewarded. Reputations are destroyed in hours by mobs who will never meet their victims. This environment trains people to treat speech as performance, not as a moral act. It numbs the conscience and inflames the passions. Christians are not immune to this behavior.

Many have adopted the world's habit of spin, exaggeration, rumor, and insinuation, all the while telling themselves they're just sharing. They're just asking questions. But the ninth commandment was not suspended with the invention of the internet. It binds us in every medium, whether spoken across the table or posted on a screen. We are called to speak truth in every context, and that means resisting the impulse to weaponize words in anonymous, performative ways.

The goal of Christian speech is not ultimately to win arguments or gain followers. It is to bear true witness in a world addicted to lies. You are bearing true witness in a world addicted to lies." End quote. So brothers and sisters, Be wary of bearing false witness online, and also be wary of imbibing false witness online. Be wary of what you're ingesting, because if you willingly ingest false witness, you're going to live by lies.

And God would not have you live by lies. No. He would have you love the truth. And some of you have your P's wrong. You like podcasts so much, you like it more than your pastor.

Don't you put your podcast before your pastor. Who gave you permission to do that? God didn't. Get your P's right. Some of you need to take an honest look at what you're listening to and imbibing.

Maybe ask your pastors about it. Is this good for my soul, pastor? It might not be. Am I imbibing things that I don't know to be necessarily true? I do with it a lot.

Someone will do something in a podcast and it might be true. It might be something that is biblical, a biblical argument they make. And all of a sudden someone has made a huge theological shift because some podcasters said this is the way to quote the Mandalorian. You just did that without asking and counseling and visiting with the ones that are responsible for shepherding your souls. That podcaster doesn't know all your bent.

That podcaster doesn't know the ways in which you struggle, the ways in which if he might say this thing, he might manipulate you. I know Pastor Matthew knows you a lot better. That podcaster's never prayed for you, ever. Not responsible for you, but your pastors are. And your pastors labor for you.

Be wary. Get your peas right, please. And I say that with all the love in my heart. That wasn't in the notes. If you want a summary of the ninth commandment, here it is.

Live not by lies and love the truth. So live not by lies and love the truth. And so when someone tries to slander someone or gossip, when they do that with you, I want to encourage you right now, stop imbibing it, Stop encouraging it by thinking you're being a good listener. There are times to be good listeners. We should absolutely be good listeners.

That's not one of the times. Live not by lies and love the truth. So shut down slander and gossip. Shut the man or the woman who is doing those things down and it's not very hard friends, not very hard. So someone start sharing something juicy.

Hey before you go on is it cool if I share this with the person you're talking about right after this? Is it okay if I go talk to them about this afterwards? If it's slander or gossip, it'll shut it right down. Hey, before you go on, are you okay with me verifying with them that all this is true? Did they give you permission to share this with others?

Don't you put up with slander and gossip anymore. You don't need to do that. And if it happens in this church, if visitors come into our midst and they're trashing a previous church and they're bringing charges against elders from other churches that are Orthodox, trashing brothers in the faith, I don't care what kind of arguments they bring, God is not confusing on the matter. God is not confusing about what he thinks about people coming into our midst and trashing other brothers. Coming into our assembly and slandering and gossiping about other pastors.

God hates that. He says so in 1 Timothy 5 19, do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. So when someone comes into our midst doing that, we tell them, brothers and sisters, we don't do that here. We don't gossip, we don't slander, and it sounds like you're doing that. So you need to repent.

And if you won't repent, you don't need to come here anymore because that's not what we do. We here at Crossroad, we act like Christians who love the ninth commandment. We love the ninth commandment. And you're not going to come in here and take that away. So, lest you be confused, of course we pray for one another, of course we want to care for one another and bear one another's burdens and that absolutely requires sharing information.

But not sharing information in a way that shares half truths or potential truths that aren't yours to share. The Ninth Commandment forbids slander and gossip, but also forbids flattery. I don't think very many people talk about flattery. The ninth commandment forbids flattery. Telling people what they want to hear rather than the truth.

Brothers and sisters, that's lousy. That's lousy. That's the opposite of love. Don't flatter. Alistair Begg, Uncle Ali, he puts it this way, quote, if gossip is saying something behind a person's back that we would never say to his face, flattery is saying something to a person's face that we would never say behind his back.

In other words, if it is insincere and bearing false witness to flatter, and it is harmful to our neighbor, we dare not regard flattery as harmless. God certainly does not. Psalm 12 tells us that the Lord will cut off all flattering lips. When we cultivate flattery, it soon becomes apparent that we are superficial and that our words carry little weight. Our conversation should be full of grace and seasoned with salt, Colossians 4.6.

It was a mark of the preaching of Paul and his colleagues that they never used flattery." End quote. Proverbs 26, 28. A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin. Psalm 5, flattery destroys people. So of course you give compliments, of course you encourage one another, of course you give praise.

Where praise is due, you hear that? I don't want us all of a sudden become people that, man, he did something really great. Not going to say a word. No, God says you need to. You're commanded to exhort and to encourage one another.

That's not flattery when you're telling the truth. When you're encouraging. Those are good things to do. So of course you tell your little girl that she's beautiful. Why?

Because she is. Fathers, you need to be telling your little girls that they are beautiful. Right now. You can whisper right now if you want. Oh, wait.

You are beautiful. You tell her she's beautiful because she absolutely is. That's not flattering. But you also tell your little girl the truth when she doesn't do something very beautiful You also tell your little girl the truth when she acts ugly. That's not beautiful sweetheart.

That's ugly Some of you might not like fairy tales, shame on you, but we use Cinderella a lot in our house. When we start acting like the ugly stepsisters, we just bring that up. Does that look like Cinderella? Or does it look like Drizella? Nobody wants to look like Drizella.

I don't want my girls to look like Drizella. And so when she acts ugly, you call the ugliness for what it is, you don't flatter her then, you spank her. You spank her. You rebuke her in love. You tell her the truth because you love her.

You don't flatter people when they sin. You tell them the truth about their sin because you love them. Even when the truth isn't very pretty. Even when the truth doesn't seem very nice. That's a big one in our day, isn't it?

It wouldn't be very nice. It wouldn't be very nice to say this thing. I need you to listen to this, dear ones. This is huge. Probably if you go away with anything, I'd like you to go away with this.

If your children are running out into the highway, if they're headed out to I-80 to play, just think about that for a second, they're headed out to I-80 to play, what will you tell them in that moment? If you're a loving parent, you will not be entertaining any kinds of flattery to your child in that moment. No, you're going to tell them, child, you can't do that. You won't do that. That's foolish, child.

You will die when you play in a road like that with cars barreling towards you at 80 miles an hour. You will die. And you know what? One of your children might say to you in that moment when you tell them no, you can't go into the highway. They might say to you when you tell them they're being foolish, they might say to you, well, that's not very nice, daddy.

Doesn't sound very nice. I don't feel like you're being very nice to me, father, because you won't let me do what I wanna do. In that moment, it doesn't matter what you think is nice. I want you to live. I want you not to die.

There is, and hear this, There is no 11th commandment, thou shalt be nice. But there is number nine, tell the truth. And number nine, the ninth commandment is summed up in this One word, love. Love. The 10 commandments, love for God, love for neighbor.

How do you love your neighbor? You tell the truth. And so you love your child enough, you love your neighbor enough to tell them the truth. I love you enough to tell you what you need to hear far more than what you might want to hear. And so you and I, we must tell people the truth about their sin, the truth about the ways in which they are rejecting God, and that in their sins they will perish and be damned to hell forever.

But then we also tell them the truth that there is a Redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son, who went to a cross, suffered, bled, and died to take away your sin. And He rose victorious so that if anyone would turn from their iniquity and run to that Savior, confessing their sin, crying out for mercy, believing in His name. That Savior will save them. He will make you born again. He will cleanse you and make you new.

You tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's what we do every Lord's Day together. We adore Him who is thrice holy. We confess our sins. And we have not adored Him as we ought.

We have not treated Him as thrice holy as we ought. We have broken His law. We are sinners in desperate need of a Savior. And your pastors don't end the worship guide right there. Your pastors don't end the worship guide with confession of sin, that it only ends in you being Absolutely broken and absolutely without hope no there is hope we tell you the whole truth That there is assurance of pardon in Jesus Christ The Son of God So you tell your neighbor the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth You tell them of who is the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus the Christ.

You tell them the truth that no one comes to the Father except through Him, Jesus the Christ. No other religion gets to heaven except through the Son of God, Jesus. Jesus couldn't have been more clear. No one comes to the Father except through me. And I am the truth not one truth not a truth the truth You got tell them the truth Exhort your neighbor exhort your neighbor beginning with your children Do not live any longer by lies.

Instead, love the truth, named Jesus. So beloved, stop listening to the lies of this age that have redefined what true love and compassion is. You live in a day that has redefined what true love and compassion are. That to rebuke or to tell the truth to someone is somehow unkind and hateful. You hate women because you insist that they were made different than men.

You hate children because you insist on disciplining them to obey because God says so. You hate people because you won't let them carry on in their sins in the way that they want to. Well, that's bogus. And they know it. We love our neighbor, and so we tell them the truth.

The law of God is summed up in these 10 commandments, and it's captured in two tables, love for God, commandments one through four, and love for neighbor, commandments five through 10. And love for neighbor demands that you tell them the truth about God and the truth about their sin and the truth about a savior who can save them from that sin. But in our day, oh man, when you tell the truth to people, you're going to be labeled all kinds of words. Unloving, unkind, you might even be labeled abusive. I've been labeled that before.

Because in the world's eyes, tolerance is the new compassion. Tolerance is the new compassion. Now friends, that's just not true. Quote, this kind of compassion tolerance is counterfeit. It prioritizes emotional comfort over moral clarity.

It protects feelings at the expense of the person's soul. And it often masks cowardice with the garments of kindness. You hearin' that, men? You embrace this Tolerance? Cowardly.

It masks cowardness with the garments of kindness. When someone spreads a false accusation, repeats a lie, or embraces a delusion, the truly loving response is not silence, but truth spoken in humility. Love and courage. The ninth commandment reminds us that love and truth are not enemies. Love and truth are not enemies.

To bear false witnesses, to injure our neighbor no matter how tender our tone might be. Christians must recover the courage to speak truthfully even when it wounds. You hearing that? Christians must recover the courage to speak truthfully even when it wounds. You hearing that?

Christians must recover the courage to speak truthfully even when it wounds because faithful are the wounds of a friend. Proverbs 27, 6. And that's a quote from Pastor David Mitz and Macher of Founders Ministries. So I have been saying this a lot, and I will continue to say it. Don't live by lies, beloved.

Love the truth. And loving the truth means not deceiving your neighbor. Don't deceive your neighbor. Now, Just in case you get the wrong idea. I'm gonna go on a brief tangent.

When we say don't deceive your neighbor, when we say deception destroys people, now that's absolutely true. But we aren't talking here about a football team running a trick play. Okay? So we aren't talking here about a game or a sport played within the rules. We aren't talking about a fake handoff that deceives the other team to score a touchdown.

That kind of deceptive strategy is actually baked into the game of football and it's not the kind of deception forbidden in the ninth commandment. I think that some people might be tempted to hear what I'm saying and not thinking too carefully when thinking about deception and how it applies to all of life they might apply it incorrectly. So when you do a shot fake in basketball you're deceiving someone. Well I do this a lot because I'm short and every time I'm going to shoot that guy is going to stuff me to yesterday and so I do a pump fake and the guy goes way up in the air and I'm so sure I can just go right underneath his legs when you do that and you need dribble around the guy because he jumped up to stuff you, you deceived him, that's playing according to the rules of basketball. Rules that everyone agrees is not forbidden in the ninth commandment.

The rules make it plain that's not dishonesty. By playing the game of basketball you recognize that's not false testimony in a way that God hates. But what we are talking about here, the kind of deception we are talking about is the kind of action where you're playing Battleship. I wondered about this when I put it in my notes. Battleship.

Does anybody even play that anymore? Oh, I hear some... Yeah, okay, This is gonna be a good illustration that I'm gonna maybe change it to something okay So children when you're playing battleship and your your brother says to you be nine You look down at your board and one of your battleships is on be nine, but you say miss That's evil That's forbidden in the ninth commandment. It's not playing according to the rules agreed upon in the game. It's not baked into the system like it's baked into basketball and football.

That's false testimony. And children, if you did that, if you were to lie playing a game with your sibling, I need you to know that God hates that. There's something wrong in your heart there. But I need you also to know children, you can come to the Savior Jesus, who loves to take lying hearts and replace them with hearts that love to tell the truth. He did it for me when I was nine.

And if you could do it for Pastor Grant, oh, he can do it for you, most assuredly. So when it comes to loving your neighbor, what is required of you? Well, maybe I should have started with this, but you can't get any better than the Heidelberg Catechism. Heidelberg Catechism. What is required in the Ninth Commandment?

Quote, that I never give false testimony against anyone, that I never twist anyone's words, nor gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone rashly or without a hearing. Rather, in court and everywhere else, I should avoid lying in deceit of every kind. These are the very devices the devil uses, and they will call down on me God's intense wrath. I should love the truth, speak the truth candidly, and openly acknowledge it. And I should do what I can to guard and advance my neighbor's good name." End quote.

That's a good summary of what I've tried to put before you this morning. And perhaps in a sentence, live not by lies, but love the truth. And in doing so, you will love God, and you will love your neighbor. Now Christian, aren't you glad that you belong to the one who gave you this command? Do you realize, I hope you do, that the Ten Commandments are a demonstration of who God is.

They demonstrate to you His attributes. So that when you read this Ninth Commandment in verse 16, you are given an attribute of God Himself. He cannot lie. He will not bear false testimony. He cannot.

You are given a demonstration of who He is. He is the truth. He is the ninth commandment and flesh embodied. And so aren't you glad that this is the one you belong to, Christian? The one of whom Your name is graven on His hands.

Your name is written on His heart. The one who right now is interceding for you. The one who promises to never leave you nor forsake you. The one who promises to save you no matter how great your sin or your failure may be. He who cannot lie, he who cannot bear false witness, he who has given you the ninth commandment, he who is himself the perfection of the ninth commandment, He says to you, it is finished.

He says to you, no one will bring a charge against you because it is I who have justified you. It is He who has declared you righteous by faith. It is he who has himself being the perfection of the ninth commandment, declaring your sins pardoned. And he says to you, you're mine. And he says to you, come, come and be welcomed children here at my table this morning, where lies are torn down, and truth triumphs through the body and blood of Jesus the Christ, who is full of grace and truth.

You should be thankful this morning. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we belong to him who cannot lie. The one who cried it is finished. The one who cries, mine.

Oh, we thank you for the promise in Romans 14 that whether we live or whether we die, we are yours. And that nothing can separate us because you, God, you have said it, and you, God, cannot lie. Give us the grace we pray to trust you more. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.