Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to serve as your Bible teacher every day on this great radio station. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. Proverbs 22 verse 1 says, A good name is to be more desired than great wealth. And that's why it is so important that we take extra precautions to guard the reputation of others.
How do we do that? By refusing to bear false witness against our neighbors. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. Sure, everybody tells little white lies now and again, right? I mean, what's the harm in bending the truth just a bit if nobody gets hurt?
Well, the Bible clearly states that God takes our lies seriously, the big ones and the small ones. And today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains why this serious infraction made God's list of top 10 commandments. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. In just a matter of days, we'll conclude one of the most compelling teaching series ever broadcast on Pathway to Victory. I believe our in-depth study on the Ten Commandments has surpassed our expectations for exposing the truth about these time-tested principles. You see, God didn't create these laws to oppress us.
He gave us the Ten Commandments to bless us. For just a few more days, you're invited to request my brand new book titled The Ten. How to live and love in a world that has lost its way. This isn't a pamphlet or a booklet.
It's more than 200 pages in length. And each chapter shows you the relevance of God's guardrails and how to apply them in a world that's become hostile toward Christian values. My new book, The Ten, will help you understand, in terms the whole family will grasp, how to know the difference between right and wrong.
So while there's still time, be sure to get in touch with us today. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'll make sure that a hardcover copy of my brand new book is sent to your home right away. Well, Benjamin Franklin once said, And while his statement rings true, I'd like to suggest one slight modification. It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation and only one lie to ruin it. Today, we're going to look at the serious consequences of breaking the ninth commandment, especially in terms of how it affects other people.
I titled my message, Safeguard the Reputation of Others. Exodus 20, verse 16 says, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. This is a very specific kind of lying that we're going to get to in just a moment. But first, let's look at what the Bible says about lying. Turn to Proverbs, chapter 6, verses 16 through 19. Solomon said, Now that ought to cause our spiritual ears to perk up. Whenever the Bible said, here are seven things God hates, we better take note of them.
What are they? Verse 17, Haughty eyes, that is pride, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers. Will you notice that two out of these seven things involve lying and deception? God hates lying. Remember in our series on the book of Acts, we saw that the very first sin that God openly judged in the church was not blasphemy, it wasn't heresy, it wasn't adultery, it wasn't murder, it was lying.
Remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira? They wanted the praise of people for being generous, and so they sold a piece of land and they swore to everybody. They were going to give all the proceeds to the church, but they secretly held back some of it.
And what happened when it was discovered? Acts 5, 3, That's a great understatement of the Bible. The church was terrified when they saw God and how he dealt with lying in the church. By the way, I've often thought Peter missed a great opportunity to take an offering here. He could have passed the collection plate right then and had the highest offering in the history of the church. He didn't do that, but he did demonstrate how serious God takes lying.
Now, some people say, well, if God's so serious about lying, doesn't the Bible commend lying? We all think about the story of Rahab, the prostitute. She's mentioned in Hebrews 11 as being a part of God's hall of faith. And yet, remember, she was a prostitute living in Jericho. She believed that God was going to give the city of Jericho to the Israelites that he has promised. And that's why when Joshua sent two spies to scope out the city before they attacked it, these spies found harbor and safety in Rahab's home. And when the king of Jericho heard about it, he sent word asking, Rahab, do you have two spies with you?
She said, oh no, they've already left when in fact they were there. Now, that's a case of lying. Why does God allow that and praise that? Well, you know from the Bible, God wasn't commending Rahab for her lying.
He was commending her for her faith in believing that God was going to do what he has promised to do. Why does God hate lying so much? First of all, because of the origin of lying. Where does lying originate?
Hint, not with God. Titus 1, 2 says very clearly, God cannot lie. On the other hand, Satan cannot not lie.
He is the originator of lies in the universe. In John 8, 44, Jesus describes Satan this way, Satan does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and he is the father of all lies. It is in Satan's nature to lie and here's why God hates lying so much. When we as Christians lie, we are behaving more like children of Satan than we are children of God. God hates lying because of its origin. It's in keeping with Satan, not with God. Secondly, he hates lying because of the outcome, the results of lying.
Look at Proverbs 6, 19 again, that list of seven things God hates. Notice what he says in verse 19, a false witness who utters lies and who spreads strife among brothers. There's a relationship between lying and causing division among brothers, that is, among believers. Well, how do we lie? You know, just as there's more than one way to commit adultery, we saw there's more than one way to kill a person, there's also more than one way to lie.
Now, the most obvious way we lie, first of all, is by contradicting the truth, by just saying something that is absolutely false in light of truth. Remember in Genesis 2, God told Adam from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you may not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Apparently, Adam passed that instruction to Eve because in Genesis 3, Satan in the form of that serpent slithered up into Eve's ear and said what?
You shall not surely die, Genesis 3, 4. That's a lie, contradicting what is absolutely true. And we do that, we do that for a variety of reasons. Sometimes we lie, we tell lies in order to seek revenge against people. Sometimes we lie because it's more convenient to lie. I remember years ago preaching to my church about the subject of lying and different ways we lie, and so on the way home from church, my daughters were in grade school at the time, I thought I'd try to impress the message upon them a little more, and so I talked about different ways that we lie, and one of my daughters, who remained nameless, spoke up and she said, oh dad, is that like when somebody calls our house and you tell mom to say you're not at home?
But enough about me. Contradicting the truth. Secondly, another way we lie is more subtle, it's twisting the truth. It's making sure we're not technically involved in telling a lie, but the truth is we're deceiving people. Calvin Miller, a great writer, tells about when he was in seminary, he had a part-time job at a factory at nights to make ends meet, and one night he realized he couldn't go into work, he really needed to study for an exam, but he knew that would not be an acceptable excuse with his employer, so he asked his wife what they were having for dinner. She said fish.
He went in the bedroom, got flat on his back, and he told his wife, now bring the package of fish to me, so she brought the package of frozen fish to him, and while in the prone position, he threw that package of frozen fish into the air, caught it, and said, now call my employer and tell him I'm flat on my back and I just threw up my dinner. Technically, that was true, but it was a deception, and the same thing is true when we twist the truth to suit our own purpose. A third way we are involved in breaking the ninth commandment is by neglecting the truth.
That is, allowing falsehoods to go unchallenged when we know the truth. That's the same as lying, Paul says. In Ephesians 4.25, he says, lay aside falsehood, speak truth to each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. You know, Moses went on to elaborate on that in Leviticus 5.1. He said that if you're in a court of law, and if you are called to testify about something you have seen or know about, it is sinful to refuse to testify, and you will be punished for your sin. I remember years ago talking to a friend.
We were talking about a staff member from another church who had recently left, and my friend said, I understand it was because of immorality. Well, I happen to know about this situation. I said, you know, that's not true. He could have remained silent and said, well, okay, no big deal. But instead, he called the person who gave him that wrong information and said, you know, I've just come upon some facts about that.
That staff member was not involved in an immoral relationship. He felt he had a duty, which he did, to correct error by speaking the truth. Fourthly, inflating the truth. That's another way that we lie, inflating the truth.
Trying to make a good story or a situation sound better by embellishing it. I remember hearing about two pastors who went to a pastor's convention. They were standing in the hallway, and one said, how many are you running in your worship service every Sunday? The other pastor said, between 400 and 500. This pastor said, well, that's great. Later that next week, he received a bulletin from that church. He looked down at the attendance, and it said 87. So he called this friend. He said, you told me you were running between 400 and 500, and your attendance report says 87.
The pastor said, well, 87 is between 400 and 500. Now, that's what you call inflating the truth. And before you laugh too much, we've all done that before. Have you ever inflated your resume, perhaps by exaggerating your educational experience or your work experience? Have you ever exaggerated a relationship with somebody by saying, oh, he or she, they're great friends, when in fact you barely even know them? That's what you call inflating the truth. Now, I know what you're probably thinking.
Pastor, aren't you being kind of nitpicky about all of this stuff? I mean, after all, we're from Texas. We're known for creative embellishment.
Here's the problem. When we engage in that, it hurts our credibility, because if people can't trust us in everything we say, how can they trust us in anything we say? Years ago, I was preaching a sermon, and I told a story, a personal story that I will admit sounded improbable. But it actually happened, even though it sounded improbable. I was told later about a little boy at lunch who said to his dad, do you think that really happened to Pastor Jeffress? The father said, son, no, that's just preacher talk.
And when that story came back to me, I thought to myself, now what's that little boy going to think about other things I say? Is he going to write them off as preacher talk? That's why it's important that people learn to trust everything we say. James said it this way in James 5-12, but above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by oath or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment. This verse isn't saying you never put your hand on a Bible and take a no.
That's not what it's saying. It's saying be such a person of truth that when you say yes or no, people automatically believe you. You don't have to say I swear on a stack of Bibles or I swear on my children's lives or on my wife's life. You don't have to engage in all of that because you are a person of credibility. Look, you and I have been charged with sharing the most important truth in all the universe. It's Jesus' truth when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me.
We are to share that message with other people, but we need to be sure people trust what we're saying because we are credible people. God hates sinning because of its origin and its outcome. God says it's not just an outright lie, but it's any shade of the truth that counts as a lie, but I want you to notice a special category of lying that is the focus of the ninth commandment. Exodus 2016, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You are not to lie about another person. Why does he mention this as the sin that makes God's top ten?
Two reasons. First of all, bearing false witness about another person perverts justice. It perverts justice.
Now stay with me on this. Remember Israel was a theocracy, and that means these moral laws were not just moral laws. They were laws for how society was conducted, and two of these ten commandments had capital punishment assigned to breaking them, adultery and murder. If you were guilty of breaking either of those commandments, you would lose your life, and so it was very important that before somebody was executed that reliable witnesses be consulted, and there were two safeguards to make sure that witnesses told the truth and didn't succumb to any outside pressure to declare an innocent person guilty or a guilty person innocent.
What were those safeguards? First of all, there had to be a multiplicity of witnesses. You didn't put anybody to death on the basis of one witness. Deuteronomy 17 says, on the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. He shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
By the way, Paul took that principle, and he applied it to the church in 1 Timothy 5.19. He said, do not accept an accusation against an elder, a pastor. Accept on the basis of two or three eyewitnesses.
Now, I know that goes against our culture today. We're supposed to say, oh, one accuser is to always be believed. The accuser is always to be believed.
No, the Bible says you don't always automatically believe every accuser. There needs to be evidence. There need to be witnesses.
The same thing is true here. There need to be a multiplicity of witnesses. Now, here was the second safeguard in Deuteronomy 17, verse 7. The hand of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. If somebody was found guilty on the basis of two or three witnesses and was sentenced to be stoned to death, guess who got to throw the first stone? They were ordered to throw the first stone, those two or three witnesses.
They were the ones who inflicted the death blow. In other words, you better be careful what you testify to because you're going to be the one to carry out the execution. And if you're lying in what you said, you're guilty not only of breaking the ninth commandment, you're guilty of breaking the commandment, you shall not murder.
You're the one responsible for taking another life. God hates lying about other people because it perverts justice. But secondly, bearing false witness robs reputations.
Look at Colossians 3.8. But now, also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Circle that word slander. You know, to understand what he's saying when he's saying lay aside slander, you have to look at slander's first cousin, gossip. Gossip in the Bible is the Greek word systhoris. It's what we call in English an onomatopoeia.
It describes by its sound what it is defining. Systhoris, gossip. That's what a gossip does. He's always involved in secret communication. He doesn't want it traced back to him. He's whispering secretly accusations against another person.
That's gossip. But the word here, slander, you know what that means? It means to strike out against. It means to openly judge another person. A person who commits slander doesn't even try to hide what he's doing.
He is so sure he's right and the other person is wrong, he doesn't mind killing somebody's reputation. James has a word about that in James 4, 11 to 12. Do not speak against one another. Slander one another. Brethren, for he who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and the judges. Verse 12, for there is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy, but who are you to judge your neighbor? What he is condemning is making a judgment about another person that you're not qualified to make. It means being so certain you're right and they're wrong that you serve as both judge, jury, and executioner of another person's reputation.
It is a serious thing to do. The fact is, words we speak about somebody else, words that we use to destroy somebody's reputation, can never be retrieved. When I think about that truth, I think about a man named Raymond Donovan. You may remember him.
In the 1980s, he was the Secretary of Labor under President Ronald Reagan. He was accused of several crimes. He was indicted by a grand jury, but later he was acquitted of any wrongdoing. And I'll never forget watching the press conference he had after the acquittal came. Somebody asked him, Mr. Donovan, what are you going to do next? He answered, Does anybody know what office I go to to get my reputation back?
There is no such office. Once you've lost your reputation, it is lost forever. The truth is, the most valuable thing any of us possesses is a good name. Proverbs 22 verse 1 says, A good name is to be more desired than great wealth.
Favor is better than silver and gold. We live and we die with our name. And that's why it is so important that we take extra precautions to guard the reputation of others. How do we do that? By refusing to bear false witness against our neighbors.
Just as we go to great lengths to protect our own reputation, we must also safeguard the reputation of others. That's the overarching message of the Ninth Commandment. And now we're ready to tackle the tenth and final commandment of God. Be sure to join us when we conclude this brand new series together. It's also important that you get in touch with Pathway to Victory right away because time is running out to request your copy of my brand new book on the Ten Commandments. It's called The Ten. The subtitle is How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way.
A hardcover copy of The Ten is yours when you include a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. As we wrap up today's program, I wanted to share a note from Kathy in Texas. She wrote, While flipping through the channels, I heard you say something that made me stop and listen. I knew beyond all doubt that the Holy Spirit was speaking to me. You showed me that even though I was saved, I was not walking with the One who saved me. But that day, while listening to you, I rededicated my life to Jesus. Immediately, I felt peace pour over me and a joy that I had not felt since childhood entered me. Well, Kathy, we rejoice with you and your newly rededicated life to the Lord. And friends, thank you for making moments like these possible. God is using your faithful support of Pathway to Victory to bring light and life to those who desperately need Him.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you invest in the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, we'll say thanks by sending you the brand new book by Dr. Jeffress called, The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way. Call 866-999-2965 or visit our website, that's at ptv.org. And when your gift is $100 or more, we'll also send you the complete collection of audio and video discs for The Ten teaching series.
Plus, we'll also send you a study guide to use on your own or with a small group. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Here's that mailing address, P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Wishing you a great weekend, then join us again next time for the final message in our series on the Ten Commandments. That's Monday, here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. The Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska with Dr. Robert Jeffress set sail from Vancouver, British Columbia on June 15, 2024. Join me along with musical artists, Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien and comedian Dennis Swanberg for a vacation you'll never forget. I promise you will come back spiritually, physically and emotionally refreshed. Book your spot on the 7-day Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska at ptv.org.
