So, have you ever taken a risk? Ever done anything risky? Most of us have done something a little bit risky. Uh, maybe not anything major, maybe something minor. Uh, you know, maybe we jumped into the pool with our swimmy. Not on after only one swim lesson. You know, we decided to take a, take a risk. Maybe it's more like we asked that girl out to go to the tasty freeze and, and we knew she was out of our league. But hey, we took a risk. We did it anyway. Maybe we sold everything that we had so we could go start a wedding cake bakery off the coast of Antarctica. Yeah. Or maybe we were a little risky by trying the chicken livers peanut butter milkshake. Yeah. I, I think that's a real thing. I really do. I think it's philosopher David Wooderson who said hard work never killed anyone. But why take the risk, right? You know that one? But why be risky? Why even go there? But there is one kind of risk that's guaranteed to change your life and not just your life, there's one kind of risk, risk that's guaranteed to change. The lives of the people around you. And it's a risk that by the very nature of what you have to do doesn't require a lot. It's, it's kind of minor effort and major risk. So what kind of risk is that while we continue our series, 10 ways to change the world where we're looking at the ultimate laws of the universe known as the 10 commandments. And what we're doing is we are walking through the 10 commandments is asking this question or wanting to really find some answers for the question. How would the world be different if we really obeyed the 10 commandments? We've arrived today at the ninth commandment and it is in the ninth commandment that we find this unique risk, this life changing, life altering risk. And let's see what that risk is. The title of today's sermon is tell the truth. We're looking in Exodus 20 in the Bible. God is giving a message to Moses to give to the people. And this is the next next part of his message. In verse 16, you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. One of the greatest and most dangerous risk that we can take in life is to give false testimony. One of the greatest risks that can change your life and change the lives of the people around you is the risk of giving false testimony. A testimony is an account of, of what you saw and what you heard you are bearing witness to something that you've seen and something that you've heard. So to give false testimony to bear a false witness is to not tell the truth about what you saw and what you heard. Many years ago, I was involved in a, in a car accident, a very rainy day at a, at a traffic light and there were three or four people that were at the light as the accident happened. And they stuck around to give their testimony when the officer arrived. And I was, I was glad they did because someone got hurt and I, I wanted there to be truth into what was happening in that accident. So they gave true testimony. Their testimony was for real. They did not give false testimony hours before Jesus was arrested. He was with his closest friends and and he was teaching them about the Holy Spirit, the helper. And he said the helper was coming to testify about him. In other words, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to give us touchy feelings. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to direct us and testify about Jesus. And then Jesus turned to his friends and said this in John 1527 and you are testifying as well because you have been with me from the beginning. This church exists because those men did not give false testimony. Granted there are people in the world that say, hey, they were a bunch of liars to begin with. But the reality is those men told the truth about Jesus. They gave true testimony about Jesus testimony that was affirmed by other people who followed Jesus testimony that was affirmed by people who did not believe in Jesus and testimony that was affirmed by people who hated Jesus. The reality of their testimony has already been put to the test and it is faithful and it is true. So how important is it for us to not give false testimony? King Solomon put it this way in Proverbs 1821 death and life are in the power of the tongue. Life and death can be found in the the words that we use. So it is extremely risky to not use true words to not to tell the truth. I saw a statistic years ago that said that 91% of Americans say they tell a lie, that's not us, right? We're part of the 9% that never tell a lie, right? We don't even know the reality is if we're honest with ourselves, we all know we all must confess that in some way, shape or form. We give false testimony against our neighbor. We bear false witness, we lie whether it's exaggerating fishing stories, whether it's getting too creative with our work reports, whether it's hiding habits from our spouses, many of us can't make it a week without telling some kind of lie. But the Ninth Commandment is not just a call to not lie. It's a call to run to the truth. First John 18 says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So the first lie we need to deal with is the lie that we don't lie. That that's the first lie. We need to do it because we're tempted to say, hey, I'm, I'm a pretty good kid. You know, I'm a, I'm a pretty nice guy. I'm a pretty, fairly nice woman. But the truth is I'm a liar. And so are you? That's encouraging, right? But, but if, if you're tempted to say no, that's not me. I, I don't lie. Questions. Have you ever broken a promise to someone? Have you ever gossiped about someone this morning when someone walked by you in the hall or out in the parking lot? Said, hey, how are you doing? And you said fine knowing that in your mind and your heart, life is falling apart. See, see, we all lie. You know, e even, even if we say, oh, it's no big deal in our hearts. We are liars but God is not a liar. God is perfect. He is holy, holy, holy. He is other other, other, there is absolutely no one like him a few months or maybe even a few years before God gave Moses the 10 commandments. He, he gave him a, another commission. He said, I want I want you to go to the Hebrew slaves and I want you to tell them that that you're going to lead them out of slavery by going before Pharaoh Moses is a sheep herder. So he said, well, who am I supposed to tell him, sent me to do this impossible thing? And God said, when you get there, this is what I want you to tell him. This is what he said. Exodus 314, I am who I am. This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel. I am has sent me to you. I Ann has sent me to you just to be clear in our world of famous politicians, in our world of famous athletes and musicians in our world of famous entertainers in our world of, of kings and queens and dictators. None of them are I am. They will die. They will one day not be in power, but that'll never happen with. I am the one true God always reigns never leaves his power. J Packer said this. God declares himself to be self existing, self determining and sovereign. We are not self existing, we are not self determining and we are not sovereign. Only God. Only God is the I am. He alone is God and there is no other and He is holy. He is perfect. His love is perfect. His law is perfect. His ways are perfect. Everything about God is perfect. So if we are going to claim to be his Children or as the old hymn says, we are part of the family of God. If we're going to be in the family, shouldn't there be some family resemblance? If God is not a liar, shouldn't we kind of every now and then look like Him? Should we not strive to embrace and obey the ninth commandment? Proverbs 30 verse seven says this two things I have asked of you. O Lord do not refuse me before I die. 22 things before I die. God give me these. That's what he says. Keep deception and lies far from me and give me neither poverty nor riches, a great prayer before I die. God protect me from being rich and protect me from being poor. But by all means, protect me from being a liar. There was some emphasis in this wisdom from years ago that still rings true. God keep me from lies. King Solomon said this in Proverbs 1222 lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. Abomination is a big fancy word that means God hates it when there is false testimony. God hates when we bear false witness. In the New Testament. James says this and James three and the tongue is a fire. The very world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our body parts is that which defiles the whole body. In other words, your mouth can get you in lots of trouble, get your whole body in lots of trouble. And then James says this and it sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell, life and death. And, and hell can be found in the words that we are using when I was a kid went to the, the circus and saw Gunther Gable Williams and he, he was the lion tamer. And I, and I watched him inside that cage with all those lions and tigers. He, he had them tamed. See we can tame a lion, we can tame a tiger. We can, we can tame a killer whale. We can tame our time management. We can tame our bank account. We can tame our bodies with diet and exercise. But we can't seem to tame the tongue. Can we, we just, we just can't, we can't grab the reins. Someone said it's not hard to tell one lie, but it's hard to tell only one. It's hard to just tell one. The ninth Commandment is not a confusing commandment. It's, it's simple in this language. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. The the ninth commandment is a, a mirror for our souls. It shows us that the things that we say, ah, it's just a little white lie. It's just a, it's just a half truth. It's just a little bit of gossip. It's just a little bit of a rumor. It's just a little bit of a broken promise. We say, oh those things, they're just shortcomings. But the commandment says that it is a rebellious action against the Holy God. So giving false testimony is a sin. Lies are, are sin and, and the mirror of the ninth commandment, the, the mirror of this truth shows us that we are even just in this one commandment. We're sinners in need of a savior. And Jesus is that savior. He longs to be that savior. He longs to rescue you right now. So if you've never turned to him, turn to him now, don't, don't keep living a lie. Don't keep bearing false testimony to yourself. If your heart has never truly repented and turned to Christ, let that moment be now. And just in case we are tempted to wear our, our religious robes, it might be helpful for us to go a little deeper on this because there are people in the world that love obeying laws more than they love obeying God's law. There are people in the church that will lose their minds over obeying the, the church bylaws but will not even care about the 10 commandments. See, the reality is, it's easy for us to say, hey, you know what I don't drink. I don't cuss, I don't dance. I don't go to restaurants after church on Sunday. But ladies, what did you say when you were on the phone earlier this week? Talking about that one person, gentlemen, what did you say? To your wife that you had overheard about. So and so at dinner the other night, see we could say, thou shalt not bear juicy rumors that that falls into the category, you know, and someone might say well, but what if the rumors are true? All right, thou shalt not bear true reports that slander other people. You see our, our, our words matter and look, I wanna be cautious. We're not perfect. Ok. We all do this from time to time. But I think what the Ninth Commandment does for us is it helps us to look in the mirror and go, that's not right because it's easy for us to say our politicians lie all the time. Guess what? You lie all the time. And so do I it's just we're not on TV, doing it. So it's important for us to, to see that it's not OK. We're not perfect. We're not always going to get it right. But it's not ok. And we don't need to say it's OK. Not for other people. We don't need to say it. It's OK even for ourselves. Proverbs 2518 says this like a club, a sword and a sharp arrow is a person who gives false testimony against his neighbor like a club, a sword or a sharp arrow is a person who gives false testimony against his neighbor. We may not go to someone's house, knock on the door and beat them senseless with a bat but if we slander them in the kitchen at our house or slander them through a text message or heaven forbid slander them in a social media post. God says it's the same thing. There's, there's no difference in his eyes. Ray Orland really kicks this up a little bit. He says the ninth commandment means that a person has a right to his good name. God makes a person's reputation a sacred thing. God listens to every whisper, watches every like on Facebook notes, every retweet and comment reads, every email hears every phone call. Our discourse about one another matters to God above. It matters to Him so much that He included this in the 10 commandments that somebody I can say, ah come on, God's not reading my email. He is self existing, self determining and sovereign. Nothing is outside of his eyes. And he did give us a commandment many years ago because he kind of knew we were going to break it. He, he knew that this is one we would struggle with. We all need to watch the words that are coming from our lips. We need to keep looking into the mirror of God's truth, the mirror of God's law because it is that mirror that ultimately will set us free. It is the truth of God that will set us free. But why do we do it? But why, why do we lie? Why do we gossip? Why do we spread rumors? Why do we exaggerate? Why do we slander people again, Jesus was teaching his friends and he said this, he said whatever comes out of your mouth, it started in your heart. So the ninth commandment is not just a, a law of the lips. It's the law of the heart. It's the truth of God for, for who we are even in our heart. But why do we do it? Well, here's a few reasons in, in no particular order. Ok? We lie to gain someone's attention or to win someone's favor. Sometimes we lie because we're jealous of something or someone. Sometimes we lie because we're angry, upset about something that's happened to us or just something that's happened. Sometimes we lie to cover up our mistakes. Sometimes we lie to get revenge on someone. Sometimes we lie because we're afraid of something or afraid of someone. Sometimes we lie because truthfully we're just prideful. We're just selfish and we, we just think about ourselves and in our own circumstances and there's more, there's a lot more. But what do, what do we do? How do we not give false testimony? How, how do we, how do we not lie? How do we respond to the truth of the knight commandment? Well, the letter of the Hebrews says this in Hebrews 12 1. Let's rid ourselves. Let's, let's get rid of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us and let's run with endurance. The race that is set before us looking only at Jesus. How do we run away from gossip? How do we run away from slander? How do we run away from lying? How do we run away from being a drama queen or a drama king with all our exaggerating? How do we run away from lying? How do we run away from giving false testimony? We run away by running too. It's, it's, it's not difficult math. I'm so glad because I, I need simple math. It's running away from sin and running to Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus, fixing our attention on Jesus, fixing our affections on Jesus. That, that sounds nice. But, but what does it mean? Well, it, it means some simple things like we do read our Bibles and we do pray, we do stay engaged with other Christians. We stay engaged in the community of the church. And then sometimes we, we just think more deeply about Jesus. You know, as our church has experienced this, just crushing tragedy this week, the one thing that, that has kept my heart all week long is that when I don't have answers for questions in life, I do have Jesus and, and that's, I'm not, I'm not trying to be silly. The reality is because of the person and the character and the nature of Jesus because what he has done, what has been proven that he did and who he is as God's son, everything about him is trustworthy. We can turn to him, we, we can look to him and whatever question I can't answer, I can always use Jesus as my ultimate answer because whatever the, the culture brings up that says, well, well, this, this doesn't match. Well, the Bible says this and then it says this or what about this? Or it's an outdated book or what about this? And what about this person? All of that can be discussed and debated and argued about. But ultimately, you have to do something with Jesus. And every time I find myself in a crisis of belief, the one thing that helps my crisis the most is the person of Jesus. I can't shake Jesus, I can't explain him away. And if I were an atheist, I still have to do something with who he claimed to be. CS Lewis has famously said he's either a Lord, he's either a lunatic or he's a liar, which is he to you for me in the hardest moments of life. When I feel like I cannot fix my eyes on Jesus, I am so thankful that he has his eyes fixed on me. Brown chapel said this since God has secured his love for me completely through my union with Jesus. Don't, don't miss that since God has secured his love for me completely in union with Jesus. My own attitude should change about my performance of the duties. God requires my attitude should change about the 10 commandments. I should recognize that doing my duty cannot secure any more of the love that he offers. Since that love and the means of securing it are complete in Christ's work, complete to be a follower of Jesus, to be saved and rescued and redeemed by Jesus means that when it comes to the love of God in Jesus, everything has been made complete. Listen, this is not about you being a better law keeper. This is about you being a better Christ worshiper. It's not about us trying to keep law, although we are called to honor and keep the law. But it's about us loving Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus. 207 years before Def Leppard created their hair brand version of the song. The original True Rock of Ages was written by Augustus. Stop Bloody. How about that? For a name Augustus Top bloody. Top lady. I I It's great and this is what he wrote. Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. You can't bootstrap your way to heaven. It ain't possible. And he says this could my zeal, no respite know could my tears forever flow. You know what that means? That means you can be the most zealous Christian in the world. You can go out in the middle of the most unreached people group in the world and, and you can scream and shout and preach the name of Jesus or you can sit in a worship service and raise your hands and cry. Do you have no more tears left in you? And none of that will save you? None of it. And he says this, all of that for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone the 10 commandments are not a list of things that if you do, you'll make it to heaven. The 10 commandments are a reminder we can't do it. We need to be saved. This is not about completely obeying a law. This is not about completely disobeying a law. This is about being complete in Christ. And when we are complete in Christ, our attitudes change. We're not perfect, but we actually desire to honor God's truth. Brian Chappell says this, this awareness takes the energy, sapping heart mutilating, striving for God's affection from my life. Have you ever felt like your energy is sapped, man? My energy has been sapped this week. Have you ever felt like your, your heart is, is mutilated with the sense that, that you're not good enough that you'll never get it right or something you do will never be good enough. I'll be honest, this has been my life for the last 30 years. It seems the harder I try to pastor and shepherd it, it seems the less it's enough. Guess what? You can't be good enough. You can't. But Jesus is good enough. He, he's perfect. His salvation is perfect. His power is perfect. His authority is perfect. His strength is perfect. His love is perfect and, and that matters, you know why? Because my guess is I'm not the only one in the room that's had a moment where you went and does, does God really love me? Does God really love me? You know, one way to answer that question is with a question and the question would be this. Do you truly know Jesus? Do you know Jesus? Have you believed? And look, let's be honest. It's a crazy story. We're getting ready to really celebrate the craziness of it over the next couple of weeks. It's, it's a crazy story. But if you believed in the crazy but true story of Jesus Christ, his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, its promise return. Have you turned from sin? Have you been rescued by Jesus? Have you received his salvation? Is he your ultimate truth and your ultimate hope and your ultimate confidence? If so then listen to this, this is what it means to be complete in Christ. Brunch. Apple says this, I need never doubt that I am fully loved even as the husk of my sin cling to me if you are in Christ, not because of you, but because of him, you are fully loved that that that can never change to be in Christ means that you have the completeness of Christ in you yesterday at Lohan's funeral. I I used a quote from 1629. And it was a quote that said, even though someone may be lost to us, they are not lost when they are found to Christ friend. If, if you have repented of sin, if you've received salvation, you are found, you are loved and you never have to doubt it. You will doubt it. I will doubt it. But in that moment, that's when we preach to ourselves. This is who Jesus is. This is who Jesus was. This is who Jesus will always be. And this is who he is for me. I am found in Christ and I am found to Christ and nothing can ever change that. I am fully loved even in the husk of my sin. And one of the most dangerous, most risky husk of sin you can ever find yourself in is in the ninth commandment. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor, even in that sin. Our motivation to not engage with that sin is that we are fully loved. We don't have to lie. We don't have to be a bully. We don't have to boast. We don't have to give false testimony because we have nothing to prove. We are fully loved. We are complete in Christ and that's the best motivation we can ever have. 461 years ago, an explanation was written about the ninth commandment. It still rings true. It goes like this God's will is that I never give false testimony against anyone. Twist no one's words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone without a hearing or without a just cause rather in court and everywhere else. I should avoid lying and deceit of every kind. Who's this? These are devices the devil himself uses and they would call down on me. God's intense anger. Remember lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. And then it says this, I should love the truth, speak it candidly and openly acknowledge it and I should do what I can to guard and advance my neighbor's good name. How would the world change if we did that? Why don't we find out, why don't we find out?