(6/8/16) Jesus said he (the devil) was a liar from the beginning and that when he lies he is simply speaking his native language.

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1 19. Exodus 20:16-26 (6/8/16) The Ninth Commandment Exodus 20:16 (NKJV) 16 "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. We are living at a time when, as Jesus accused the Pharisees, people are lying so frequently and fluently that they are demonstrating as never before that they are of their father, the devil. Jesus said he (the devil) was a liar from the beginning and that when he lies he is simply speaking his native language. Lying has become so common place in our culture that, if someone refuses to lie, they are considered weird and others look at them with suspicion. I mean lying in business to make the deal or sell the product is simply looked at as being a shrewd business person only losers tell the truth. In politics, does anyone really believe that all or even most of the promises candidates make to us to get elected they re really going to keep? I mean, it s gotten so bad that if they only kept half of them most of us would be tickled. But when it comes to telling the truth we re all guilty of violating God s ninth commandment. 1

2 In fact, as a nation, when it comes to obeying God and keeping His commandments, we have pulled away from our Judeo-Christian roots and now we are a very conflicted society. We still think lying, cheating and stealing are bad but most people still do these things when it benefits them in some way. As one author wrote We all know that lying is wrong. Yet we are so used to massaging the truth for personal advantage that we have trouble holding the line against falsehood. A columnist for Time magazine wrote: The injunction against bearing false witness, branded in stone and brought down by Moses from the mountaintop, has always provoked ambivalent, conflicting emotions. On the one hand, nearly everybody condemns lying. On the other, nearly everyone does it every day When it comes to the ninth commandment many people think that it s directed only at a person who would lie or bear false witness against an innocent person in a court of law (perjury) and certainly that was a big part of it. Let me give you some context about ancient justice so you can see why God instituted the ninth commandment another commandment for the preservation of society. In ancient cultures around the world when a person was charged with a crime they had almost no rights mostly they were not presumed innocent until proven guilty they were pretty much seen as guilty until proven innocent. Ancient courts often had little or no standards for a fair trial including procedures for presenting evidence. Often the accused couldn t afford an advocate (defense attorney) to represent him and sometimes they wouldn t even be given the opportunity to present their defense at all. 2

3 Furthermore, most ancient courts were willing to convict someone on the strength of a single witness. One commentator put it this way In the days before forensic evidence, almost everything depended on the witness. Usually it came down to one person s word against another s, and since many crimes were treated as capital offenses, often the defendant s life was at stake. The words of a false witness could be fatal. Obviously, many ancient legal systems were rife with corruption and subject to abuse which explains why God stated the ninth commandment the way that he did: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor (Exod. 20:16). When God established Israel as a nation and gave them His civil law He made sure that everyone accused of a crime had access to a fair trial. First of all, they had to be judged by a group of elders living in the community which gets into the idea behind the statement you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. These communities were looked upon as covenant communities a kind of extended family which meant the elders were the community fathers and wanted justice for all members of the community family which meant they wanted to be fair in their rulings. Second, there had to be more than one witness, for God commanded in His law Deuteronomy 19:15 (NKJV) 15 "One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. This was especially important when a person was charged with a capital offense 3

4 Numbers 35:30 (NKJV) 30 Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. Deuteronomy 17:6 (NKJV) 6 Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Another important protection against someone lying under oath in a capital case causing the execution of the person on trial was his accuser had to throw the first stone (Deut. 17:7). As one author said, This was a significant safeguard because it is one thing to accuse someone, but quite another to put him to death. Furthermore, and probably the greatest deterrent to committing perjury in a capital case was the punishment if you were found guilty of lying in court to cause another man to be put to death Deuteronomy 19:18-19 (NKJV) 18 And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, 19 then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from among you. Now even though a courtroom is the most important place where someone must never give false testimony it s not the only court where a person s character can be lied about and their life destroyed it most often takes place in the court of public opinion. Hosea the prophet gives us insight into how the ninth commandment wasn t just against committing perjury in a court of law it forbids every kind falsehood against another. 4

5 In Hosea 4:2 Hosea is accusing the Jewish people of swearing falsely in court, lying to and against one another, murdering, stealing and adultery (Hos. 4:2a). It s obvious that Hosea was clearly referring to the Ten Commandments but rather than using the Hebrew term for false testimony (shaqar) when speaking of the ninth commandment he used a more general word that refers to any kind of lying (kachash). As one pastor put it The ninth commandment means You shall not lie. It is not just about the false testimony that people give in court, but also about the lies they tell their neighbors over the backyard fence and the rumors they whisper between the pews at church. And so the ninth commandment also prohibits gossip and slandering people Exodus 23:1 (NKJV) 1 "You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Proverbs 19:9 (NKJV) 9 A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who speaks lies shall perish. 2 Corinthians 12:20 (NKJV) 20 For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults; Ephesians 4:31 (NKJV) 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. Revelation 21:8 (NKJV) 8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." This seems like an air-tight case against lying that all lying is sin and will be punished. 5

6 But when we studied Exodus 1 we saw how the Hebrew mid-wives were commanded by Pharaoh to kill all the newborn Hebrew babies that were boys but to save all the girl babies. However, the mid-wives feared God and so they didn t obey Pharaoh s command but instead spared the baby boys. When Pharaoh asked them about it they lied Exodus 1:19 (NKJV) 19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them." Then we read Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. (Exodus 1:20) If the mid-wives lied to Pharaoh, then why did God bless them I thought we just got done talking about how lying is a sin that God punishes? Others point out how Rahab the harlot lied to the soldiers of the king of Jericho who came to arrest the two spies that Joshua had sent to spy out the city (finish). And so this seems to be a contradiction that s not easily answered how God calls lying a sin that He will punish and yet there are those in the Bible who lied and God blessed them for it. How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction is lying good or bad; okay or not okay? To answer that question you ll need to listen to our first study in Exodus chapter one! 6

7 The Tenth Commandment Exodus 20:17 (NKJV) 17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." The word covet means to lust after or strongly desire what belongs to someone else (or simply what you don t yet possess). I believe that God included this sin in the Decalogue because strongly desiring or lusting after another person s spouse leads to adultery; their possessions to stealing and possibly murder it also produces lying and other sins. This sin seems to be at the heart of so many other sins that it made God s Top 10 list of prohibitions. And yet covetousness is a sin that we don t take very seriously it kind of slips under our moral radar. In fact, it s such a part of the American mindset that most people don t even think of it as a sin let alone one God considers so serious and that is exactly why Satan is able to use it so effectively against us. Our whole economy is built on the concept of coveting or lusting after people and things. These desires are being fueled by the advertising industry which has spent millions of dollars on research to study human nature in an effort to capitalize on man s basic unhappiness by trying to get us to covet what they re selling. 7

8 This has led to commercials whereby they try to sell us on the idea that their product will enrich our lives and make us happy. They do this by getting you to fantasize yourself behind the wheel of their sport or luxury automobile... Or imagine yourself at that party with a bottle of their beer in your hand and all the pretty women are around you... But that s the problem it s nothing more than a fantasy, a lie and one that comes from the god of this world to deceive people and take them down the wrong path in life a path that will lead them away from God. This is especially true when it comes to pornography the lusting (coveting) of another person s body for sexual gratification. I read an article some time ago written by a woman who used to be in the porn industry. She was saying how it s all an illusion designed to create a fantasy world where men (and now a lot of women) can enter into through pornography to find sexual fulfillment and happiness. (In a recent study I read it showed that more sex doesn t make people happier it actually makes them unhappier in life) But she was saying how depressing the life of a porn star really is (many women commit suicide or end up as alcoholics or drug addicts). Covetousness is a mind game that Satan plays on us to get us to buy into a fantasy life that doesn t exist that things or sexual encounters will fill the void and make us happy. 8

9 Jesus warned us about this when He said, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses (or experiences)." (Luke 12:15) We would do well to listen to Jesus after all He made us and knows what will make us happy which He went on to tell us in the Beatitudes ( Blessed is really O how happy ). And through the Beatitudes He is basically saying that it's pure foolishness to think you can fill up the void in your soul with the junk of this world and yet how many people are feverishly trying to do that very thing. And on and on it goes as so many are pursuing so feverishly the elusive concept of happiness when all the while true happiness is not found in a possession or in a pleasure it s found in a Person Jesus Christ! Because true happiness is the filling up of an empty heart and you can t fill an empty heart with anything this fallen world has to offer only Jesus can fill up an empty heart. Now getting back to the tenth commandment I believe it was the commandment that God used to save Saul of Tarsus. Romans 7:7-12 (NLT) 7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, You must not covet. 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. 9 At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, 10 and I died. So I discovered that the law s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. 11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12 But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. 9

10 Some scholars suggest that Paul s own personal revelation of his sinfulness may have taken place at about the time of his Bar Mitzvah when he became, a son of the Law which is what Bar Mitzvah means in the Hebrew. Around that time, he began to seriously reflect on the Ten Commandments which would have been customary (I personally think this happened during his three days of blindness after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus Acts 9). He no doubt found that he did pretty well until he came to the tenth commandment which dealt with coveting or lusting in the heart after material things or another person s spouse or servant. As he began to reflect on this he began to realize something about the Law that he had not seen before the first nine commandments dealt with outward actions: You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make a carved image of anything to bow down and worship You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. "Honor your father and your mother "You shall not murder. "You shall not commit adultery. "You shall not steal. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 10

11 All of these Paul had been faithful to keep outwardly he was a righteous man. But when he came to the tenth commandment, You shall not covet Paul realized that this commandment didn t deal with the outward actions of a person s life but the inward attitudes of a person s heart. He reasoned that if God judges a person s life, not just by outward actions but also by the thoughts and attitudes of the heart then Paul realized that he was guilty of breaking many of God s laws inwardly and was therefore guilty before God. He had never stolen but he had coveted what belonged to another. He had never committed adultery but he had lusted in his heart for women. He had never murdered anyone but in his heart he knew he had hated many people over the course of his life and on and on it went. So that even though he had considered himself a righteous man his whole life, for the first time he began to see himself as a sinner, one who had kept the Law outwardly but who had broken it many times in his heart. This is exactly what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:21-22; 27-28). It wasn t until God really began to work in his life by using the very Law he thought was making him righteous to be the instrument that revealed his sinfulness and that caused him to begin to see the true purpose of the Law. Romans 3:20 (NKJV) 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 11

12 Galatians 3:24-25 (NKJV) 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Now listen, we are no longer under the Ten Commandments as laws that carry with them punishments if violated (Rom.8:1). That doesn t mean, because we re under the New Covenant of grace, we can be lawless in the way we live our lives. Jesus said, If you love Me keep My commandments. (John 14:15) But under the New Covenant God has written His laws in our hearts and our obedience is not from external laws written on tablets of stone but from a new heart given to us by God at the moment of salvation. At that moment God put His Spirit in us and we became partakers of His divine nature (2Peter 1:4) And now we keep His commandments because in our hearts we don t want to lie anymore or hate or steal but these acts of obedience are the fruits of righteousness (Phil.1:11). In other words, they are the result of our new birth, our new heart and the nature of God inside of us all these things are producing a changed life resulting in obedience to God s righteous standards (Rom.7:12) But once again, we are no longer under the law Jesus fulfilled the law (Matt.5:17) and because we are in Him God sees us as having fulfilled the law for righteousness also For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Rom. 10:4) 12

13 Exodus 20:18-21 (NKJV) 18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." 20 And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin." 21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. So terrified were they as God spoke to them directly as He gave them the Ten Commandments that they begged Moses to become their mediator (go between). Exodus 20:22-26 (NKJV) 22 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 You shall not make anything to be with Me--gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. 24 An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. 25 And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. 26 Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.' As God instructs them on how they are to properly worship Him He makes the point of telling them how He wants the altars constructed that were going to be used in Israel s worship of Him. You see, God wanted these altars to be very simple made out of earth (dirt) or plain field stones (both creations of God). The Lord forbid them from using any tool to cut or carve the stones in any way for if they did they would profane the altar and make it unusable and anything offered on it unacceptable to God. Now why was the Lord so definitive about this I mean what s wrong with trying to beautify something used in the worship of God? 13

14 I ll tell you what s wrong with it God didn t want the altar to become so ornate that it would draw attention away from Him. God never wants anything used in the worship of God to become an object of worship itself. And that s why He wants to keep things simple because He knows how prone man is to beautify and decorate the objects used in the worship of God so that they actually begin draw attention and glory away from God Himself. We have all seen examples of this either in person or in picture of these great cathedrals built for the worship of God consisting of incredibly beautiful architecture, expensive stained glass windows, artwork painted on the ceilings and walls along with beautifully carved statues everywhere. And when you walk into one of these cathedrals your attention in immediately drawn to all of the man-made beauty and away from the One these things were actually made to worship. In so many of these old Cathedrals, especially in Europe, they are massive structures but when you go inside there are only a handful of people that still go to church there. They are dead churches where the Presence of the Holy Spirit has long since departed but these people still go because they are in love with the building they worship the building, and this was the very thing God was wanting to prevent His people from doing when He gave this command in Exodus 20. So God forbid them from making ornate altars to Him He wanted their attention (and ours) to be drawn to Him in worship and not the work of man s hands. God even applies this principle to us 14

15 2 Corinthians 4:7 (NKJV) 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. God didn t want the vessel taking glory and attention away from the treasure within. The earthen vessel would be the believer (God made us out of the dust of the earth) and the treasure is the gospel and the Holy Spirit ( power may be of God ) and what s in view here is evangelism. Some of these TV evangelists are so flashy and flamboyant, so theatrical in the way they present the gospel that they become the focus and not God. They re like celebrities and showman that take glory away from God by drawing attention to themselves and away from Him. Anything or anyone used in the worship of God must never take attention away from God if so He will leave that building or put that person on a shelf. Remember this principle God will not share His glory with anyone or anything used in His service or worship. 15