Truth or Consequences | Part 1

From the Love Worth Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler.

Here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love Worth Finding. Kerry, happy Thanksgiving. Tomorrow, I believe, is Thanksgiving. Absolutely. At least here in America. If you'll bring the gravy, I'll bring the turkey.

I love the cranberry sauce, too. Don't forget that. Well, you know, there is an alarming decline today as we talk about a message from Adrian Rogers, Truth or Consequences.

This is part one in this message. But there is an alarming decline of basic honesty in our nation, sadly. You know, we know more facts and believe less truth than ever before. I agree. And I think it's one of these things where, you know, we're coming out of 2020, Byron, and we are now more distant socially than ever before. And yet we have to turn around and love our neighbor and not bear false witness against our neighbor.

Right? That's right. There's a couple friend of mine here. In the Mid-South area that moved into a neighborhood, they loved on their neighbors. They led the whole neighborhood or cove to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And once that was done, they picked up, they moved to a new neighborhood and did the same thing. Now, you know, when I listen to this message, Truth or Consequences, and I'm thinking about we have a responsibility to witness. We have a reliability of a faithful witness. A cross witness.

Man, think about that. That I would move into my neighborhood, point everybody to the cross, then move to a new section of town to repeat it. I love that, Kerry. What a great story. What a great truth there. Proclaiming the truth through the neighborhood witness. Well, Kerry, we always love hearing from our Love We're Finding listeners.

This one from Missouri. That's amazing. It's amazing to me that people would take time to write that and to send that back in. That is wonderful. That is an affirmation of why we do what we do. And we just praise God for that.

Amen. Well, Thanksgiving season, Love We're Finding is sharing God's love in a special way, Kerry, through Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday is a wonderful way to give. This year, it's a very unique way to give. Your gift of $15 to our Love We're Finding campaign will allow us to provide life changing and life giving gifts to people all across the country. So for $15, right, instead of a cup of coffee or maybe a sandwich, donate that money to Love We're Finding and we will spread the word of God across the nation.

Well, for part one of Truth or Consequences, here's Adrian Rogers. Take, if you will please, your Bible and be finding the book of Exodus chapter 20. And today we look at verse 16. Exodus chapter 20 and verse 16, it simply says this, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Something tragic has happened in America. We have gotten away from the very basic standard of morality that has rooted in the Ten Commandments. There was a time when almost all Americans took for granted that the Ten Commandments are the standard and the basis of morality.

But we have seen one absolute after another not primarily with the older generation, but heartbreakingly, it has happened with the younger generation. In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that voluntary prayer in the classrooms, the public classrooms of the United States is unconstitutional. Quickly, they followed that in 1963 when they said we could no longer read God's word, not publicly, in the classrooms. It didn't take them long to go to the next step that said the posting of the Ten Commandments on classroom walls is illegal. It is unconstitutional. And then in 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that we cannot teach that we were created by Almighty power. The teaching of creationism was ruled to be unconstitutional against the principles of this country.

And from that time on, something terrible has begun to happen in America today. Yes, we can't post the Ten Commandments, but I'll tell you what a child can do. A child can go into a school-based clinic today and receive birth control devices without his or her parents' knowledge of that. Now, they can't get an aspirin without parental advice and consent, but they can be given counseling concerning an abortion without parental advice, consent, or knowledge. In America, our boys and girls can be given birth control devices without parental advice and consent, but they can be given birth control devices and counseled about an abortion and the parents completely oblivious to it. And yet, in America, we cannot post the Ten Commandments on the classroom walls. Our boys and girls are being taught what is called now a values-free education.

That is, we're not going to take a stand on values. Now, since that time, the suicide rate has gone up. The suicide rate among teenagers has soared astronomically. Since that time, illegitimate births have become pandemic. Promiscuity is rising.

The problem is this. We in America have lost the concept of absolute God-given truth. I was reading in a news magazine, U.S. News and World Report, and this is what it said. A nation has become a nation built on falsehood. Governmental officials dissemble. That's a fancy word for telling a lie. Scientists falsify research.

Workers alter career credentials to get jobs. And then this magazine asks this question, what's going on here? The answer, a growing number of social critics fear is an alarming decline in basic honesty.

This is so-called God-blessed America. Now, we know more and believe less than ever. We're drowning in a sea of facts. In the last 30 years, we've produced more information than in the previous 5,000 years.

Nearly 50,000 books and 10,000 magazines are published in America every year. And a newspaper that reads a newspaper like the Los Angeles Times gets more information in that one newspaper than people who lived in the 16th century would get in a year. And they tell us this information is doubling every 5 years. Those are facts.

But facts are no substitute for truth. And we're becoming roadkill on the information superhighway. While the information is coming and truth has been given to us, we're becoming roadkill on the information superhighway. While the information is coming and truth has been given to us, we're becoming roadkill on the information superhighway. And truth standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter. What is the picture here? It's the picture of a traffic jam. Here's equity, justice, and judgment.

And they're all backed up. Why? Because truth has fallen. And because truth has fallen, judgment, justice, and equity cannot get through by professors of philosophy. She has been tripped up by dishonest politicians.

She has been chloroformed by liberal preachers. And there is truth. Truth has fallen.

And what is wrong in America? Judgment, justice, and equity cannot get through because truth has fallen in the streets. What is our job? Our job is to set truth back on the streets. And truth has fallen on her feet. The Bible says, Thou shalt not bear false witness. I want you to listen today as we think today about truth and consequences. Now, our truth or consequences. The first thing I want you to notice is what I'm going to call the liability of a false witness. The liability of a false witness.

That's what a false witness is. He's Satan himself. John chapter 8 and verse 44, Jesus, speaking to the unsaved Pharisee, said, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust that is the desire of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. There is no truth in Satan.

Listen. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he, Satan, is a liar, and he is the father of it. Every time you tell a lie, you're acting like the devil. Do you know what the word devil means? The very word devil means slanderer. That's the meaning of the word devil. When you bear false witness, when you slander, you're like the devil.

When you tell the truth, you're like the Lord Jesus whose name is truth. I want you to see how Satan, who is a slanderer, I want you to see what he's done. For example, he used slander to corrupt a good man. Who was the good man he corrupted?

Adam. Adam was there in the Garden of Eden and Satan came and he slandered the character of God before Adam. He slandered God's honesty because God said in the day that you eat, you'll surely die. He slandered the character of God. He made God a liar. And any man who puts a question mark after the word of God is doing the work of the devil.

Never forget it. He slandered the honesty of God. He slandered the goodness of God. He said, God doth know that in the day that you eat thereof, you'll be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil. That is, God really doesn't care about evil. He doesn't care about you. God just has a monopoly on being God.

He wants to keep this all to himself. And he's really slandering the goodness, the righteousness, and the honesty of God. And the slanderer did his work and Adam sinned. He corrupted a good man. Then I want you to see, not only did he use slander to corrupt a good man, but he used slander and false witness to criticize a godly man. If you were to turn to the book of Job, chapter 1, you would find there that Satan appears before the throne of God and he begins to slander Job. Job was a perfect man, an upright man who loved God with all of his heart. God the Father says to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? He's a good man. And Satan said to God the Father, well, he doesn't really love you, God. The only reason that he serves you is because you have bribed him.

You bought him off. You've given him all these good things. He's never known any heartache. He's never known any trouble.

He doesn't really love you. The only reason he serves you is for what he can get out of it. You see, he corrupted a good man through slander. He criticized a godly man through slander. You find him coming against the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. When Jesus was in the wilderness and Satan came to Jesus and he began to slander the Lord Jesus by his accusations and by his temptations, the truth of the matter is that Satan bears false witness against the Lord Jesus Christ today and he has been doing that for a long time. When Jesus was taken by the Pharisees and they wanted to crucify him, listen to Matthew chapter 26 and verse 59. Now all the chief priests and the elders and all the councils sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death.

Now what am I saying? I'm saying from the Garden of Eden to the time when they hung up Jesus on that cross to this day, Satan is in the business of slander. Every time you slander someone, you are acting like Satan. Now he is the father of it and being the father of it, he has a family. And who are these children of Satan?

You know, children are like the father. If you ever appear in a court and you perjure yourself, you break this commandment that says, thou shalt not bear false witness. Exodus chapter 23 verse 1 says, thou shalt not raise a false report. Put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shall not follow a multitude to do evil.

That's what people think. You speak the truth and tell the truth. And if you perjure yourself ever in a courtroom, one day you will stand in God's courtroom and the one who sets the murderer free will be condemned of murder.

And the one who accuses the innocent will suffer the penalty that that innocent person suffered. The murderer is the child of his father, the devil. The rumor monger is a child of his father, the devil. It was rumored that Jesus was going to destroy the temple. Jesus did not say he was going to destroy the temple that was built there in Jerusalem.

He was talking about the temple of his body. But rumors got started about that. Exodus 23 verse 1, thou shalt not raise a false report. If you're one that is given to rumors, that is to spreading rumors, well, you say it's not really, I'm not the one who starts all these things.

It's the one I tell them to that does that. The devil clearly forbids the carrying on of a rumor. I heard of a new pastor who came to church. And you know pastors are vulnerable to rumors just like anybody else. He came to church and people didn't know him very well. And some of the ladies got a little rumor going that they were having a ladies meeting. And the pastor had come to that meeting and the pastor had rudely told his wife she must leave the meeting and he almost snatched her out of the meeting. And the ladies began to talk about this, how rude the pastor was to his wife. And this was rumored all through the church. He was new. People didn't know him very well. And for a while he got news of the rumor and he had to talk about it from the pulpit.

He said, I want to say several things about a rumor that's going around. He said, first of all, I never tell my wife what meetings she cannot attend. Number two, my wife did not attend the meeting in question. Number three, I never appeared in the meeting in question.

Number four, I don't have a wife. It's so easy for rumors, unfounded rumors to get started. Now, the perjurer breaks this commandment. The rumor monger breaks this commandment. The flatterer breaks this commandment. Did you know that flattery is forbidden in the word of God?

Did you know that? Proverbs 26 verse 28, a lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. Now, I'm not talking here about giving encouragement. You ought to give encouragement. I'm not talking about giving thanks. You ought to give thanks. You ought to give honor.

Encouragement, thanksgiving, and honor, that's the oil that just lubricates life. If somebody has done a good job, tell them so. Encourage them if they need your help. Flattery, however, is a way of using people. Psalm 55 verse 21, the words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. Have you ever met anyone like that? Oh, they flatter you to your face, but when you don't have your face toward them, it's an amazing thing what they will say about you. Do you know why a flatterer and a hypocrite are so much alike?

The flatterer will say to your face what he will not say behind your back. The hypocrite says behind your back what he will not say to your face, and both are really heads and tails of the same coin. And God's word forbids it. You can break this commandment by mere insinuation. The Bible speaks in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 20 about whisperings. When Jesus Christ was teaching, the Pharisees insinuated that Jesus Christ was an illegitimate child. And they said in Acts chapter 8 and verse 41, we be not born of fornication. What's the implication?

You are. You know that you can bear false witness just by insinuation, just by the tone of your voice, just by the arching of the eyebrows. I've told you before about something that God convicted me of when I was a young preacher. I was driving down my little country church. I was aware that one of the sealed beams of my car had burned out, and I was driving with one headlight, hoping I could make it and get it fixed back to school. The highway patrolman stopped me.

I got out, tried to be courteous and respectful. He said to me, Son, do you know you only have one headlight? Do you know what I said to him? I only have one headlight? I told him the absolute truth.

I only have one headlight. But you see how I said it. I insinuated that I didn't know that. He said, get that thing fixed, young man. I said, yes, sir, I will. When I got back in the car, the Holy Spirit tore me up and said, Adrian, you lied to that man. I said, I didn't lie. I told him the truth.

I only have one headlight. I said, you told a lie. And I did tell a lie. By mere insinuation, we can lie, I say, with the tone of our voice. The Bible says in James 4, verse 11, speak not evil, one of another, brethren. Speak not evil, one of another, brethren.

It doesn't say whether it's true or whether it's not true. We are not to slander. We're not to speak with an evil spirit. The Bible calls this in Jeremiah 18, verse 18, smiting with the tongue. Many people are smitten with the tongue.

You know what A.B. Simpson said, the great Christian and Missionary Alliance pastor? Listen to this, quote, I had rather play with forked lightning or take in my hands living wires with their fiery currents than to speak a reckless word against any servant of Christ or idly repeat the slanderous darts that thousands of Christians are hurling on others. When you listen to slander, you're as guilty as the person who gives it.

It's a small compliment to you that people want to use your ears for garbage cans. You can even break the spirit of this commandment that says, thou shall not bear false witness by simply being silent because the negative always implies the positive. And when the Bible says, thou shall not bear false witness, it implies you will bear true witness. And if you're quiet and don't speak when you ought to speak, you've sinned. Leviticus chapter 5, verse 1, and if a soul sinned and he had seen or known it, if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. That is, if you simply say it's none of my business and you keep silent when a criminal deed is done, or when you fail to speak up when a good man is criticized, you break the spirit of this command. A few things you could do more foolish and more hurtful than to bear false witness.

It is so hurtful to people and it is so hellish before God. And what a convicting word to end on today. We're going to hear part two of this powerful message coming up tomorrow. But maybe as you've listened today, there's a prayer request that's rolling around your soul and you'd like to share it with us. It's one of our greatest honors here at Love Worth Finding to come alongside you and pray with you and for you.

Go to our website homepage at lwf.org slash radio and scroll down. You'll find our prayer wall there. You'll find an option to either submit a prayer request or pray for others. This resource is one of our favorite ways to keep the ministry and the community praying continually.

We can't wait to hear from you again. Go to lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to our prayer wall. Well, are you living a life of honesty? If you want your home to win and your children to obey God, it starts with you. Take these commandments one at a time. Measure your life by them and teach them to your children. And we hope you'll join us next time for the conclusion of truth or consequences right here on Love Worth Finding.