Ninth Commandment: Safeguard the Reputation of Others – Part 1

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. 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. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. Benjamin Franklin wisely said once, it takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, but only one bad one to lose it.

But in some cases, people lose their good reputation through no fault of their own. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress describes the serious consequences of breaking the ninth commandment. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. I know, I know it's only October 26th, but I want to give you a great idea for a Christmas gift. Why not present your marriage partner or perhaps your entire family with a vacation experience they will never forget? Next June 15th through 22nd, I'll be hosting the 2024 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. Behind the scenes, we have been putting together the details for an experience your loved ones will treasure forever. You'll have plenty of time to see the majestic beauty of Alaska, but you'll also be treated to a full week of luxury when all the meals are prepared for you.

And when you'll be treated to rest, relaxation and times of spiritual renewal. We're taking with us renowned recording artist Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien. Comedian Dennis Swanberg will keep us in stitches along the way, and I'll be opening God's Word together most evenings. Check out the fabulous itinerary for the trip by going to ptv.org.

And most importantly, reserve your prime spot today while there's still room. By now, you've probably heard about my latest book. It's about the Ten Commandments, and it's titled The Ten. How to live and love in a world that has lost its way.

I truly believe this is one of the most important books you'll read this year. A copy of my new book, The Ten, is yours for a limited time when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Now, everybody tells little white lies, right? Well, the Bible clearly states that God takes our lies, the big ones and the small ones, seriously. And today we're going to see why this infraction made his list of top ten commandments.

I titled today's message, Safeguard the Reputation of Others. Politicians lie. Now, they'll not admit to it. At best, they'll phrase it like Winston Churchill did.

They are engaged in what he called terminological inexactitude. But any way you measure it, it's a lie. Now, I know that's not news to you. And the point today is not do politicians lie, but do you lie? Now, before you say, oh, pastor, I'm not guilty of that, I want to take a moment and I want you to voluntarily hook yourself up to a mental lie detector. Okay? It's provided for you in the pew rack in front of you. Get your lie detector out.

Put it around your right arm, if you would. And I want you to answer eight questions to see how much of a truthful person you really are. Question number one, do you have a secret life you don't want others to discover? Number two, would you agree to answer any question your spouse asked you if you were hooked up to a real lie detector? Number three, do you often say things you don't mean for the sake of politeness? Number four, have you ever lied about your age, education, or income? Number five, would you tell a close friend that he or she had bad breath?

Don't look at your neighbor right now. Number six, have you ever said I love you without meaning it? Number seven, do you love and respect your in-laws? Number eight, did you lie on this test?

How did you do? I imagine all of us realize we may be engaged in terminological inexactitude, or what the Bible calls lying, which is the subject of the ninth commandment we're looking at today in our series on the 10. 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. You know, there's a connection between the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth commandment. The sixth commandment involves taking something that doesn't belong to you. You shall not take your neighbor's life. The seventh commandment, you shall not take your neighbor's wife or husband. The eighth commandment, you shall not take your neighbor's goods. And this commandment, the ninth commandment, you shall not take your neighbor's good name. All four of these commandments involve taking something that really doesn't belong to you. And there's a relationship between murder, adultery, theft. They all involve taking something that doesn't belong to you.

The Bible treats lying very seriously. We don't. We treat it flippantly.

It's a part of everyday life. I think about the father that was taking his six-year-old son to the movie. The theater allowed children under the age of six in free. And so the ticket taker looked at the boy and said, how old are you? And obeying his father's instructions, he answered, five. The ticket taker looked at him and said, and when do you turn six?

The boy said, probably right after the movie is over. Now we kind of treat that as harmless kind of lying, but the Bible takes it very seriously. If you really want to know what God says about lying, turn to Proverbs chapter 6 verses 16 through 19. Solomon said, there are six things which the Lord hates, yes seven, which are an abomination to Him. 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 gonna 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, Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? Verse 5, and as Ananias heard these words, he fell down and he breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it. 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 and he 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 and believing that God was going to do what he has promised to do. Why does God hate lying so much? Why is this a commandment of the 10 and why is it that two of the seven on the list in Proverbs deal with lying? There are two reasons God hates lying. First of all, because of the origin of lying.

Where does lying originate? Hint, not with God. James 1 17 says, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, that is God, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. We talked today about people who shade the truth. There is no shading with God.

He is light. There is no untruth in him at all. Titus 1 2 says very clearly, God cannot lie.

Do you remember that little question people used to ask you when you were a child? It was a trick question. Is there anything God can't do? And we're supposed to say no. But then the question is, well, could he make a rock so heavy he couldn't lift it? I don't know the answer to that, but I do know the answer to this. There's one thing God cannot do. 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. The late theologian J.I. Packer says there is no godliness without truthfulness. Listen to Paul's words in Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 22.

Lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit. The imagery when he talks about lay aside and put on is of grave clothes. In Paul's day, in Jesus' day, you would take a corpse and before you put him in the sepulcher, you would wrap it in cloths, grave clothes. And those grave clothes, just like the body, would disintegrate.

Those were grave clothes. Paul said when we become a Christian, we die to our old self. We don't want to wear the garments of a dead, rotting corpse. That is, we don't want to engage in behavior that is a part of our old nature, that was crucified on the cross of Christ. He says lay aside your old behavior and put on new behavior. Put on new garments.

Put on new clothing that is in keeping with the new person you are in Christ. Lay aside the old self, verse 24, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. Therefore, lay aside falsehood.

Speak truth instead, each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 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.

I had a deacon in the first church I pastored. He never could quite get this verse right. The King James says, those who sow discord among the brethren, he would always talk about sowing discourse among the brethren.

But we knew what he was trying to say. God hates division among Christians and lies further those division among Christians. Now, Paul is not saying that we shouldn't divide between non-Christians. Speaking truth will always divide people, Christians from non-Christians. We're not to seek after some false unity that is built on lies.

Christians are going to be divided from non-Christians when they speak truth. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 10, verse 34 to 36? He said, do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but to bring a sword.

When's the last time you saw that on a Christmas card? But that's what Jesus said. He wasn't here to be Mr. Peacemaker, to bring peace to the whole world. No, he came to bring a sword, to divide people.

That sword is the Word of God. Jesus is the living Word of God, and speaking Jesus' truth is going to cause division. Friday, a reporter from the Associated Press called me and said, what do you think of these pride events that are being conducted all around the country in order to bring unity among Americans?

What do you think of those pride events? I said, do you really want to know what I think? He said, yes. I said, we should not be celebrating what God has condemned. God absolutely abhors anything that is contrary to his nature. Jesus said in Matthew 19, here is God's principle for sexual behavior. God created male and female, Matthew 19. He said, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

God said, here's my design for sex. One man and one woman in a marriage relationship, and any deviation from that, transgenderism, homosexuality, adultery, incest, those are all violations of God's perfect standard. We should not be prideful of sin. We ought to be repenting from sin. That's a Christian stand on what's happening. So trust me, when you speak that truth, you're going to divide people. That's okay, Jesus divided people.

But what the word of God is condemning here is the vision among Christians that are caused not by speaking the truth, but by speaking lies. I just want you to think about any Christian you have had a break in your relationship with. It might be a mate. It might be a friendship.

It might be with a parent or a child. I imagine if there was a break in a relationship you've experienced, somewhere in that breakup was deception, lying. Lying divides people, and that's one reason God hates it, because it causes division among the brethren, among believers. Well, how do we lie? 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 do it to impress people.

Sometimes we do it in order to keep from hurting somebody's feelings. We tell something that's just not true. 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 Knights 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.

There was no immorality involved in it at all. This is why he left. Now, my friend could have remained silent. I said, well, okay, no big deal. But instead, he went the extra step. 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. 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. There's more I need to share with you about the ninth commandment, so please make plans to join me again next time for part two of this message.

Now, before I turn the microphone back over to David, it's important that I remind you about a special offer that will expire soon. For just a few more days, you're invited to request a hardcover copy of my brand new book titled The Ten. It's the one I wrote while preparing this teaching series on the Ten Commandments. Again, the title is The Ten.

The subtitle is How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way. Many people consider the Ten Commandments to be an oppressive code of behavior from a bygone era. You see, in our country, people are obsessed with the freedom to believe and do anything they want.

The result is anarchy. But God's plan is to protect us and bless us. His Ten Commandments are like guardrails that keep us on track. My book is perfect to read along with your family or to share with your grandchildren or to inspire conversation with your small group Bible study. And a copy of The Ten is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. When you respond today, I'll be sure to include an exclusive collection of ten encouragement cards. Each card features one of the commandments along with a practical point of application.

And they're conveniently designed to fit into your pocket or handbag. Thank you very much in advance of receiving your gift. I'm the voice you hear every day on Pathway to Victory. But I couldn't fill this role without friends like you who stand alongside me with your support.

David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request your copy of the brand new book by Dr. Jeffress called The Ten, how to live and love in a world that has lost its way. Plus, you'll also receive a set of ten encouragement cards. Call 866-999-2965 or even easier, go online to ptv.org.

And when you give $100 or more, you'll also receive the complete collection of audio and video discs for this month's teaching series, The Ten, along with the corresponding study guide. One more time, our phone number 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could send your request by mail to P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Join us again next time for Part 2 of the message, The Ninth Commandment, Safeguard the Reputation of Others, right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.