The Ten Commandments - Sins of the Tongue - Life of Moses Part 44

You know, we have been allowing God to speak to us the last few weeks from the Ten Commandments. In Commandment No.

6, God spoke to us about bitterness and hatred in our heart. In Commandment No. 7, God spoke to us about inward sexual purity as well as outward sexual purity. In Commandment No. 8, God spoke to us about civilized stealing.

And today in Commandment No. 9, God is going to speak to us about the sins of the tongue. And so we're going to do what we've done for the last few weeks to really plumb the depths of what is all in this commandment. We're going to ask and answer some questions.

We have four to go through today. And so let's begin. Number one, the question is, what exactly is Commandment No.

9 talking about? Well, first, let's see what it says. Exodus Chapter 20, verse 16, the King James Version translates it, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. The NIV says you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. And many people tend to connect, therefore, Commandment No. 9 with the act of perjury. That is, going into a courtroom and giving false testimony. And certainly the idea of perjury is included in Commandment No. 9. But, folks, when we look at the literal Hebrew translation of this commandment, we find that God's true intent here in Commandment No.

9 goes way beyond just committing perjury. Let's translate it literally. From the Hebrew it says, You shall not speak to or about your fellow man.

The preposition can be taken either way. In a way, literally in Hebrew, that is false, that is deceitful, that is disloyal, or that causes injury. Now we can see from this literal translation of Commandment No. 9 that what God is confronting here is not just perjury, but the full spectrum of the sins of the tongue. That is, every treacherous use of our tongue, every malicious use of our tongue, every false use of our tongue, and every use of our tongue that hurts people, damages people, and tears down people. Now as followers of Christ, this is where suddenly we come into Commandment No.

9. Most of us are not ever going to go into a courtroom and perjure ourselves, but there are still a lot of ways that in our everyday life we as followers of Jesus can violate this command. And that leads me to our second question, and that is how can we in our everyday life, how do we often violate Commandment No. 9?

I've got three ways to tell you about. Number one, we often violate Commandment No. 9 by lying. As we saw, one of the acceptable ways to translate Commandment No. 9 is you shall not speak to your fellow man in a way that is false.

Commandment No. 9 is rooted in the fact that our God is a God of truth. So much so, truth is so much a part of who God is, so foundational to His character and His nature, that the Bible actually says, Titus chapter 1 verse 2, that God cannot lie. It is impossible for Him to lie because it would be a violation of everything He stands for and everything He is. Now, in the same way, God says that He wants us as His followers to be committed to truth in the same way that He is. He doesn't want us lying either. Proverbs chapter 12 verse 22, lying lips, the Bible says, are an offense to the Lord, but He delights in people who are truthful.

In the New Testament, Colossians chapter 3 verse 9, Paul says, Do not lie to one another because you have laid aside your old self that used to do that with all of its evil practices. I don't know about you guys, I love old westerns. You guys like old westerns, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, oh yeah. And you never remember watching these where the Indian chief will say something like, white man speaks with forked tongue.

You know what I'm talking about, right? Well, the point here is that God is not looking for forked tongue Christians. Do you understand what I'm saying? God is looking for us to be men and women of integrity when we speak, men and women of truthfulness, of transparency, of candor, of full disclosure, where what you see is what you get.

But let's be honest and admit that to live like this, definitely goes against the natural bent of our sinful human nature. I don't know if you know the name Robert Feldman, Dr. Robert Feldman. He is a social psychologist at the University of Massachusetts. His field of expertise is how and why people lie in everyday living. Now according to an article in the Washington Post from February of 07, Dr. Feldman in his research found that ordinary people lie on average two times every ten minutes. Some folks he found lie as many as twelve times every ten minutes. You say, yeah, I know some of those people.

Well, okay, whatever. Dr. Feldman found that in America today, people lie without even giving it a second thought anymore and they do it for all kinds of reasons. People often lie to puff themselves up in the eyes of other people.

No, you go to Aspen Skiing, I do too, isn't it heavenly? People lie often to avoid hurting other people's feelings. You haven't gained an ounce since college. People lie sometimes to protect their friends. It really was my fault. It wasn't her fault.

Blame me, it really was my fault. Dr. Feldman says lying, and I quote, is simply the way the social world operates here in America. And of course, as we know, sometimes people lie for a lot more sinister reasons as well. You say, well, Lon, this is all marginally interesting. What is the point? Well, the point is that in the conclusion, let me tell you what the conclusion of all of this was. Dr. Feldman says that number one, since trust is what lubricates every human relationship, and number two, since honesty is what produces trust, here you go, here's his conclusion, and I quote, we're better off, he says, if honesty is the norm, it's like the old saying, honesty is the best policy, end of quote. Now, how amazing is this?

After untold thousands of dollars of research and countless man-hours of time, Dr. Feldman ends up concluding that what the Word of God has been telling us for 3500 years has been right the whole time. Very interesting, huh? Listen, is it always easy to tell the truth in every circumstance? No. Is the truth sometimes awkward and even offensive?

Yes. I mean, this is why people boo Simon Cowell on American Idol every week, because he tells people the truth and because it offends people. Now, I admit Simon maybe could be a little nicer sometimes when he does it, but the point of commandment number nine, first of all, is that God wants us as followers of Christ to be kinder, gentler Simon Cowells. He wants us to tell people the truth in as least offensive way as we can, but always to tell the truth. Number two, the second way we often violate commandment number nine, number two is by breaking our word.

Another acceptable way to translate commandment nine from Hebrew is you shall not speak to your fellow man in a way that is deceitful, that is disloyal. Paul talked about this in Second Corinthians chapter one, verse 17. He said, Do I make plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say yes, yes and no, no?

You say, what's he talking about? What Paul's saying is that people in our world often make promises. He refers to it in a worldly manner, meaning that they say yes and they turn around and they do no, meaning that they give us their word and then they turn right around and they break it. Friends, as followers of Christ, God calls us to be different in this regard. Jesus said, Matthew 537, simply let your yes be yes and let your no be no. Mean what you say and back it up, Jesus said. This is a really big issue with God keeping our word. In fact, this is one of the great things about God himself, that God is faithful when God makes us a promise, God keeps his word, period, period, period. That's one of the great things about God. I mean, just imagine what it would be like if after we died as followers of Christ and we showed up at the pearly gates and God met us there.

Imagine if he came there and said, Well, yeah, I know I promised that if you would trust Jesus, I'd let you into heaven. But you know, some things have come up in the meantime. It's a lot more crowded here than I thought it would ever be.

We're sort of out of room. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

I misspoke. And so God bless you. But it's off to hell you go. I mean, folks, listen, we are basing our entire eternal destiny on the single fact that God tells the truth and God keeps his word.

And thank God he always does. The point is, God expects us as followers of Christ to do the very same thing. This is why Ecclesiastes 5 says, Don't be a fool by making rash promises. Keep all the promises you make. For it is better to say nothing than to promise something that you don't follow through on. And don't defend yourself by trying to say, Oh, my promise was a mistake.

Instead, stand in awe of God and fear Him. You say, Well, Lon, what if my promise was a mistake? I mean, what if I made a promise? And then when I got all the facts and I really saw the way it was really going, I was sorry I ever made it. I had I mean, I got I had temporary amnesia. I had temporary insanity when I made this promise. And now I'm stuck with this promise. You know what? I mean, can I get out of it?

I mean, what do I do? Well, David commented to this. Psalm 15, David said, A godly man or a godly woman, listen, is a person who keeps his or her promises even when it hurts. I didn't tell you were going to like what David said. I just said David commented to this. David said, Hey, you make a promise, you keep it.

I don't care if you're sorry you made it, you keep it. I think all of us here know who James Brown is, not the singer, the sportscaster, formerly on Fox Network, now on CBS, doing the NFL games. What you may not know about James Brown is that in high school, he was an unbelievable basketball player. As a matter of fact, he played between the years of 1966 and 1969 in high school. And then when he was a high school senior, he had over 200 scholarship offers from colleges. In fact, the process of recruiting got so hectic and so crazy and so onerous for him that his mother, with his permission, called up Harvard and said, Hey, if you'll grant my son early admission, he said he's willing to come.

So Harvard did it. They granted early admission to James Brown. James Brown was non-binding, but he still gave him his word, he's going to Harvard. Well, two weeks later, John Wooten of UCLA called up James Brown and offered him the opportunity to come play basketball in 1970 for UCLA.

James Brown wanted to go play basketball for UCLA so bad he could taste it. He said, What did he do? Well, listen to what James said, and I quote. He said, My mother taught me a lesson. She said, You gave your word.

You stick by your word. And so James Brown went to Harvard. Now, just FYI, you should know that UCLA went on to win the national championship all four years that James Brown was at Harvard.

70, 71, 72 and 73. If James Brown had gone to UCLA, he'd have had four championship rings for his hand. But instead, James Brown had something better. Friends, he had integrity.

Integrity. I've actually had the privilege to get to know James Brown personally, become friends with him. We met the very first time on an airplane years ago. Brendan and I were flying out to Hume Lake one summer to speak, and we were going through L.A. and all of a sudden we're sitting there, the plane's getting ready to leave, and on walks James Brown. Sits down in the middle seat right across the aisle from me, and I hadn't seen him much. This was years ago.

He wasn't, like, known on television as much as he is now. And I wasn't 100% sure it was him, and I said to her, I think that's James Brown. She said, Shush, be quiet. I said, No, no, no, I think that's James Brown.

But, you know, the plane took off. He opened up his briefcase. He took out his Bible.

He started studying his Bible. I said, I know that's James Brown. So I got up, walked over to him, and I said, Mr. Brown, I said, You don't know me. My name's Lon Solomon. I'm pastor of McLean Bible Church.

And he goes, Hey, not a sermon, just a thought. I'm serious. How cool is that?

Right? How cool is that? So we struck up a friendship, and we've become friends over the years. James Brown is one of the finest followers of Jesus Christ I know.

And one thing about JB that he is known for in the sports world, that he's known for in the entertainment world, is when James Brown gives you his word, you can take it to the bank. Now, friends, my point is that's how you and I need to be known in our worlds. As followers of Christ, when we give our word, it's good as gold. Number three, third way in which we can violate commandment number nine is by committing verbal assassination against other people. Remember, the third way that's acceptable to translate this commandment from Hebrew is you shall not speak about your fellow man in a way that causes injury.

In commandment number nine, God's telling us not to make negative comments about other people, not to destroy other people's reputations with our words, not to plant evil thoughts about them in other people's minds, not to pass on information about them that can only hurt them and destroy them. Did you hear what happened to their son? Why, it's positively scandalous. He got arrested for DUI. Is that awful or what?

If I was them, I'd be so embarrassed I wouldn't know what to do. You know what I heard? I heard they had to get married. Mm-hmm, I did.

You know, she's not home much at night anymore if you know what I mean. Mm-hmm. And I heard this and I heard that and I heard the other thing. Did you see what he did?

Did you see what she did? Did you hear about this and I ought to tell you about that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You can call it whatever you want, my friend. You can call it gossip. You can call it slander. You can call it tail bearing. You can call it negative criticism. I don't care what you call it.

It's the same ugly thing. And as followers of Christ, we got no business doing it. And God comments to this kind of stuff, not just in commandment number nine. Listen, Leviticus 19, 16, God says, don't go around spreading slander among people.

In Psalm chapter 15, David asked the question, Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary and who may live on your holy hill? And then he answers the question and says, in part, it's a person who has no slander on his tongue and who casts no slur on his fellow man. And in the New Testament, James chapter three, James says the tongue is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it, we bless God. And with it, we curse men who are made in the image of God.

Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing, James says. My brothers, these things ought not to be. Remember what we tell our children. If you can't say something nice about somebody, finish it. Don't say anything at all. You know, that's just not good children's advice.

That's good adult advice. Well, let's summarize. In commandment number nine, God is talking to us about the sins of the tongue. And we've seen there are three primary ways we can use our tongue to commit sin. Number one, by lying. Number two, by breaking our word. And number three, by committing verbal assassination, slander against other people.

And that leads us to question number three. And in question number three, I just want to focus on one of these three areas, and that is the area of slander. And I want to ask the question, why is slander, why is talking bad about other people such a big deal to God? Why is it such a deadly sin? And the reason I've chosen it to talk about is because, friends, it's a sin we hardly ever talk about in church. And yet, my experience has been that church is one of the places where this sin proliferates the most, where it breeds. So we need to talk about it. Let me tell you why slander is something that is such a big deal with God, why it's such a deadly sin.

Two reasons. Number one, because slander causes tension and conflict and hostility between people that God hates. Proverbs 16, 28, the Bible says a slanderer separates intimate friends.

Proverbs 26, 20 says without wood, a fire goes out, and without evil talk, contention between people dies down. You look at any family where there is tension, where there is hard feeling, where there is dissension, where there is strife, and you will find somebody in that family talking bad about somebody else in that family at the root of the whole problem. You look at any church that has this kind of dissension and strife and bad feeling going on. Look at any office, any neighborhood, any school organization, any business project, any athletic team where there is dissension and where there is bad feeling, and every single time you will find people speaking evil of people, using their words to keep the pot stirred up, using their words to fan the flames of hatred and ill will every time.

You know what? After 36 years in full-time ministry, I've learned that professing Christians are often some of the worst offenders in doing this. I've come across professing Christians who pride themselves that they never cuss and they never speak profanity, and yet these very same people I watch as they go around and slaughter people.

I mean slaughter people with slander and gossip and evil comments on a regular basis. Listen friends, this kind of stuff, God hates it with an awful hatred. Proverbs 6 19 says that one of the seven things God hates, and believe me, you don't want to be one of these seven things, one of the seven things God hates, watch, is a person who stirs up strife between people. And God will never bless your life and my life if we're doing this. He will never honor our lives if we're doing this, and that's why this is such a deadly sin.

It robs us of the richness and the blessing of God on our life. God hates this. You say, well, Lon, I mean, you know, God bless you up there, man, you need to chill for just a second. I mean, you know, all right, I understand what you're saying, but you know the person that I'm talking bad about, they're never going to find out.

They're never going to hear about it. You know, no, I'm not talking to anybody that even knows them, so what's the big deal? I'm not causing dissension, the people I'm telling about this don't even know this person, all right. That leads to the second reason why this is such a deadly sin, and that is that slander destroys people's reputations. It damages people's character in a way that is almost impossible to ever go back and fix. When we talk bad about another person, we poison the minds of innocent people who are listening. We poison their minds about the person we're talking in a way that is virtually impossible to ever go back and correct. Proverbs 18, 8 says the words of a slanderer are like dainty morsels that go down into a person's innermost being. What this means is that our sinful human flesh, we love to hear evil things about other people.

We love it. That's how all these magazines make such a fortune, and why people buy them, and these negative talk about other people, this verse says, are like dainty morsels that go down into the inner recesses of our spirit, our heart, and there, once they're there, they color forever how we feel about that person, how we think about that person in a way that is virtually impossible to ever purge out or expunge. To do this, my friends, to another person's character, to do this to another person's reputation, whether you do it when they hear about it or they don't hear about it, doesn't matter. It is evil, it is sinister, it is wicked, and this kind of behavior has no place in the life of a follower of Jesus. You say, but, Lon, I never say anything.

I just stand there and listen. Well, if someone's slandering another person in our presence and we say nothing to register an objection, then as far as I'm concerned, by our silence, we've condoned their slander. We need to speak up, and we need to say, you know what, it's not right for us to be talking about her like this. We shouldn't be talking about him like this. This is not right.

And if people don't stop, then at least we need to walk away in protest and say, we're not going to stand here and listen to this. You say, but, Lon, aren't there times where you need to say something negative about another person? I mean, like in a performance review or when you're given a reference or in some other evaluation context.

I mean, you can't be Paula Abdul your whole life. I mean, sometimes you've got to say something bad about somebody. Well, that's true, but let me just say, when that has to be done, if possible, we need to say it to that person in their presence or to their face.

And even if we can't, we need to keep it short and simple and not dwell on the negative and always balance it with something positive that we say so people don't walk away feeling entirely dirty that they participated in the conversation. Now, all that leads us to question number four. And you know what question number four is. So are you ready? Three of you are. Okay, good. Are you ready? Here we go. Nice and loud.

One, two, three. So what? Yeah, you say, Lon, so what? You know, last week I said that if the Word of God steps on our toes, it's because our toes are in the wrong place. Well, I got to tell you, God stepped all over my feet in preparing this message last week and said to me, you know, Lon, this is for you, son. You need to listen to what you're preparing right here.

And maybe he stepped on your toes, too. So if he did, I've got three action items, three suggestions to give about how we can keep from violating commandment number nine the way we do so we can violate it less. Are you ready? Three action items. Here we go. Action item number one is talk less.

That's it. Talk less about other people, talk less in general. Proverbs 10 19, when words are many, sin is unavoidable. Haven't you ever been in those conversations where we're going, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, and then all of a sudden somebody goes, yap, and everybody goes, oh. Golly, I wish we hadn't have said that.

You ever been in one of those conversations? Well, one of the ways to keep from doing the last yap is to do a little bit yes to the intermediate yaps, just talk less. The verse goes on to say, but he who holds his tongue is wise.

That doesn't mean take your fingers and stick them in your mouth and walk around holding your tongue. It means talk less. I love what the Greek sage Publius said. He said, I've often regretted my speech, but never my silence. And I read in a magazine a while back that one time, President Dwight Eisenhower asked one of his advisors whether he as the president should comment on some issue publicly. And his advisor said to him, Mr. President, he said, never miss a good opportunity to keep your mouth shut. That's good advice.

You know that? And I read that and I thought, Lon, that's good advice for pastors. Never miss a good opportunity to keep your mouth shut. Talk less and we will violate commandment number nine less. Number two, action item number two is when we do talk, we need to deliberately dedicate our tongues to saying only those things that glorify God. This is not going to happen by accident.

This is not going to happen by coincidence. This is something you and I are going to have to decide, commit ourselves to and volitionally, consciously dedicate ourselves to doing if it's going to happen. Ephesians four, verse twenty nine. Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building other people up so that your words may benefit those who hear them. You know, friends, we need to dedicate ourselves that every time we do open our mouth, we're going to say something that edifies people. We're going to say something that builds people up. We're going to be a breath of godly fresh air in every conversation we participate in so that when we walk away from that conversation, the words we've spoken will leave behind the sweet aroma of peace and harmony and the presence of Christ.

That's got to be a commitment we make each and every day. And finally, action item number three is we need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to help us keep action items one and two. See, if you and I think that we're going to control our tongue in the energy of the flesh, if you and I think that we're going to walk out and just go, I won't speak bad, I won't speak bad, I won't speak bad, I won't speak bad, if you think that's going to work, you're crazy. Listen to what James chapter three says, all kinds of animals, birds and sea creatures have been tamed by man, but no one can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. God's point is in our own energy and strength. You and I cannot control our mouths the way we need to. It's like trying to control a wild lion with a pea shooter.

It can't be done. This is one of the reasons why when we gave our life to Christ, God put the Holy Spirit and His power right inside of us so that we would have the supernatural power we needed to override our fleshly impulses and desires and live in a way that pleased God and that benefited us. If you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus in a real impersonal way, let me say that this is one of the great benefits you get when you trust Christ. You don't just get eternal life. You don't just get a place in heaven. You also get the power of the Spirit inside of you to overcome your human impulses and allow you to live the way God asked you to live.

Not perfectly, but consistently. And friends, you need that power. I need that power. We all need that power. Especially when it comes to our mouth because our mouth is a cesspool that you and I are not able to control on our own. And if you're a follower of Christ here today, let me say that even though the power of the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, if you and I don't walk out every day depending on His power to keep our tongues under control, it won't stay under control. And it's not just about what we do outside of our house, friends. Some of the worst damage we do with our tongue is inside our house with our wife, with our children, with our husband. We need to wake up in the morning before we roll out of bed and say, Lord Jesus, I'm relying on you. Control this little instrument in my mouth today.

It'll do more damage than the rest of me put together. And then as the day goes on, we need to say, Lord Jesus, help me. You know, I was at dinner the other night and we were all talking and whatever. And the conversation was this opportunity, you know, to say this really funny thing. I mean, I got this stroke of genius to say this really funny thing. But just as I was ready to say it, the Holy Spirit said to me, Lon, don't say that.

And I'm like, what do you mean? He said, don't say that. And I said, but Lord, it's funny. He said, it may be funny, but I'm telling you, don't say that. You got no business saying that.

I said, but Lord, it's hysterical. Don't say that. Don't say that.

You remember that message you're going to give Sunday? Don't say that. I said, but Lord, I want to say it. Don't say it. I'm warning you, don't say it. So you know what, friends, I mean, I was like, you know, needing a cold shower when I got up from the table. I wanted to say this so bad. But I will say, by God's grace, I said, Lord, if you'll help me, I won't say it. And I didn't say it. And you know what, I went back up to my room later.

We were at a hotel up in Canada. And I walked in and I sat down and I said, you know, Lord Jesus, I'm so glad I didn't say that. If I'd have said that, I'd be so embarrassed right now when I walked away from the moment. I'd have been embarrassed.

I said that, I'd have had to go back and apologize. Thank you, Lord, for helping me not say that. Friends, that's what the Holy Spirit will do for us if we just give Him a chance.

The problem is most of us never give Him the chance. And so what I'm here to do today is to challenge you. I'm always challenging us to surrender our lives in general completely to Christ. But today I want to challenge us in particular to surrender our tongues to the Lord Jesus Christ 100%.

And I hope you'll do that. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, indeed it's true. We agree with James that our tongue is a restless evil, full of poison and left to itself. It will defile people everywhere that we let it go. Lord, help us, help us, Lord. Control this thing in our mouth.

Control what we say and how we say it. Lord, forgive us for so many times saying things that disgrace You, that disgrace us, that hurt our witness for Christ. Lord, give us a passion to speak those things that edify people and that honor Christ. Lord, help our tongue every day be something that we surrender to the control of the Holy Spirit and change the very way we talk because we were here today and the Word of God impacted our life. Thanks for talking to us, Lord. We commit ourselves to You and our tongues to You. In Jesus' name we pray. And God's people said... Amen. .