Word of Salvation – Vol.33 No.22 – June 1989
God’s Law And My Neighbour’s Reputation
Sermon: by Rev. John W. Westendorp on Exodus 20:16
Reading: James 3:1-3, Lord’s Day 43, John 8:31 – 47.
Singing:
H 204 BoW, 251(after the law) H 13 BoW, 20 (after sermon) H 808 BoW
Introduction
Boys and girls,
I wonder if you can tell me one of the first things that a doctor often tells you to do when you visit because you’re sick? Something that at other times wouldn’t really be all that polite. What does he tell you to do…..?
Yes, he tells you to poke out your tongue! Why? Well because it tells him something about your health.
Sometimes he may not even have to look much further than your tongue.
That tongue of yours can tell a doctor something about your health.
But our tongue can tell us a lot more than whether we are physically healthy or not.
We can even tell whether things are right between God and us.
And whether things are right between us and other people.
Of course we can’t just tell that by looking in someone’s mouth.
But people can tell that by the way you use that tongue of yours.
Our words – the things we say – can tell us a great deal about our spiritual health.
A) THE DESTRUCTIVE TONGUE AND MY NEIGHBOUR.
In fact God considers the tongue so important that he even gave us one special commandment about it. One out of the Ten Commandments is devoted just to the tongue. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.”
In the widest sense that has implications for all the sins of the tongue.
It deals with little white lies boys and girls tell to get out of trouble.
Don’t bear false witness!
And it deals with the exaggerations that parents are guilty of.
When they want themselves to seem more important to other people.
Big lies and little lies… untruths and half-truths…
and they all make us guilty of breaking this commandment.
All of us have broken this commandment in one way or another.
There’s an interesting little story in the book “Beyond Doubt”:
A minister met up with two boys and a dog in his neighbourhood.
The boys were arguing loudly.
The minister asked them, in a fatherly way, what the problem was.
“Well,” said one of the boys, “We found this dog.
And now we’re having a contest for him.
Whichever of us can tell the biggest lie gets to keep the dog”.
The Minister was horrified!
“Boys!” he said, “That’s not the way to do things. You must not lie!
Why, when I was your age I never told any lies.”
There was a moment of silence!
Then one of the boys shrugged and said, “Well, I guess he gets the dog!”
Actually lies and half-truths have become am accepted thing in society.
Today we could rightly apply this commandment to many situations:
The half truths that have become part of the political scene.
The dishonesty that is so very common in advertising
– where everyone’s brand of soap powder washes brightest…
– and the benefits of some brands of toothpaste
makes the mind boggle
and somehow even we as Christians swallow it hook, line and sinker.
HOWEVER – we want to understand this commandment correctly.
And that means looking at it in the context of the book of Exodus.
God gave this commandment to his people Israel.
He did that at a time when many sins were punishable by death.
Capital punishment was a reality in Israel and it had God’s approval.
So we must keep in mind that this commandment is given in a situation where one man’s testimony against another could ensure that person’s execution. That is a very serious matter.
Bearing false witness before a court – and it could lead to the death penalty.
That makes us realise that there is more at stake in this commandment than just the sins of the tongue…. than just our lying and our deceiving.
This commandment does not read: You shall not lie!
But it reads: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.
So it’s fine to talk about the sins of the tongue.
But this commandment is especially concerned about the results of those sins.
It’s all about the damage the tongue can do to a neighbour.
The very life of our fellow man may be at stake.
Today we still take that matter very seriously.
We call it PERJURY!
Giving false witness in a court of law.
Today that is a crime that carries a hefty sentence, and rightly so.
Because it can lead to the condemnation of the innocent…
or to acquittal for the guilty.
In the O.T. there is a very clear example of perjury.
An instance where we see the terrible effect of a false witness.
On one occasion King Ahab wanted to extend his gardens.
Only trouble was: The land next door belonged to a guy called Naboth.
And Naboth wasn’t selling! He based his refusal on the law of Moses.
Well Jezebel, Ahab’s evil wife, decided to take a hand in things.
She wouldn’t see her husband stopped by an upstart like Naboth.
And the law of Moses about land ownership? She didn’t care about that.
So they hired some fellows who would do anything for a price.
Men who didn’t care too much about the ninth commandment.
They gave evidence before the elders that Naboth had cursed God.
A crime for which the law of Moses had decreed the death penalty.
Naboth died – an innocent man executed because of false witnesses.
In the N.T. we have an even greater example.
Again vested interest groups wanted to get rid of someone.
So they hired false witnesses. People who didn’t care about God’s law.
And they accused that man of blaspheming God.
Then they carried out the death sentence against him.
And Jesus, the sinless Son of God… was executed because of false witnesses.
So this particular commandment is specifically aimed at PERJURY.
It is a law to protect the life of our fellow man under the legal system.
It guards the wellbeing of our neighbour.
However, let’s not for a moment think that the only way in which we can destroy our fellow man with our tongue is by false evidence in a court of law. The result of a lying tongue can be just as devastating outside a courtroom. False witness against my neighbour is also my slander of him.
It is false witness when I pass on half-truth in gossip.
That may not result in destroying his physical life.
But it destroys his reputation – his good name.
When I join in judging someone – condemning someone…
without hearing their side of the story – without covering it with love –
then I assassinate his character, I drag his reputation through the mud.
I can really make life impossible for that person whom I slander.
It can have devastating results that last for years.
That leaves emotional Scars that a lifetime will not remove.
Sometimes we are particularly guilty of this in the church.
It is often especially in our close knit community…
that tongues begin to wag when they should be silent.
We here today have never been guilty of perjury.
Most of us have never even been inside a law court.
But we’ve at times painted a pretty dark picture…
of a brother in the church.
Or spread some juicy bit of gossip about a sister in the Lord.
God has given us this command as a call for us to watch our tongues.
To be careful that words don’t slip out that we can never retrieve.
A man once went to a priest to confess his slander of another.
The priest made him do penance by placing a goose feather on every doorstep in the village. He came back and asked whether there was anything else he should do. The priest told him to go around again, now to collect the feathers. But the wind had taken them all away.
We don’t accept the idea of penance. Jesus has paid for our sins.
Yet that story does show that it’s like that with so much of what we say.
What we say is carried away and spreads to others like wildfire.
And the trouble is that we cannot take it back. It does its damage.
God says: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.
B) THE DEVIL’S TONGUE AND THE HONOUR OF GOD.
There is something even more important to remember about this command.
It’s not just our fellow-man’s reputation – or even his life that is at stake.
There is a lot more at stake in this commandment.
It is also a commandment where we touch on the very glory of God.
Our Father in heaven’s honour is involved in this commandment.
And then I am not even thinking about lying directly to God.
Like Ananias and Sapphira did.
I want to draw your attention to this very important point:
That whenever we lie…
whenever we tell half-truths…
whenever we bear false witness…
then we are playing right into the hands of Satan.
Every lie and every falsehood puts us on his side.
The Heidelberg Catechism reminds us:
that our sins of the tongue are a sharing in his wicked works.
We gossip – and the devil smiles.
We slander – and Satan laughs.
We spread a lie – and he rubs his hands with glee.
If you think that’s far-fetched then turn with me again to John 8.
READ VERSE 44 of JOHN 8.
The Scriptures call Satan a liar.
In fact Jesus called him the father of lies.
And Jesus meant that “the lie” has its source in the evil one.
We could even interpret the whole of history in these terms.
History is a battle between the God of all truth and the lies of Satan.
Ever since Eden Satan has been spreading his lies.
So the serious thing about all our lies
– whether that be little white lies or big black lies m
is that they dishonour our Father in heaven
because our lies put us on the side of Satan.
Let me repeat:-
God’s honour and glory are very much at stake in this commandment.
Earlier I mentioned the destructive results of the sins of the tongue.
That it can even lead to the death of our fellow man.
Isn’t that just the whole aim of Satan? – To destroy?
We see the destructiveness of the lie already at the dawn of history..
Satan said to Eve: “Has God really said…?
“Of course you won’t die – you’ll become like God”.
And man became an exile from Paradise…
even worse – God’s anger came upon this world…
all of creation was plunged into ruin and decay.
Man listened to the devil’s lying tongue and the world became a place where people prefer to believe the lie rather than the truth. Untruth and half-truth has now invaded every area of life.
– In advertising where the most exaggerated claims are made…
– In politics, where promises are easily made and easily broken…
– In science, where evolution is taught as fact and not as theory.
Satan successfully continues to promote his lies in order to destroy.
That has always been his goal – to destroy the work of God.
And so God comes to us in the ninth commandment not only to warn us that falsehood can destroy our neighbour but also to remind us that untruth is imitation of the father of all lies.
Now if it is true that the lie is from Satan…
and if it is his way of destroying the work of God…
then we should especially be on our guard as Christians…
for it is especially the church of Jesus he seeks to destroy.
I wonder whether there is anything else in the church that has caused as much damage from within the Christian community as the giving of false witness – whether that be by gossip, or slander, or unjust accusation?
We need to pray with David the prayer of Psalm 141:3
“Set a guard over my mouth O Lord
Keep watch over the door of my lips.”
Let us strive not to allow Satan to destroy us by the sins of the tongue.
C) THE REDEEMED AND RENEWED TONGUE.
Perhaps you are beginning to think this command leaves us with a grim picture.
So many shortcomings!
So often we fail and side with Satan!
Well, it’s true! It IS a grim picture.
And the apostle James paints a grim picture too.
Let’s just read again what he had to say about it…
READ JAMES 3:6-8
Strong language isn’t it?
A fire – a restless evil – full of deadly poison.
We know that from experience and here the Word of God confirms it.
He asks: Who can possibly tame the tongue?
And he gives the answer: No one!
The grim reality is this:
That you and I cannot possibly control our tongues.
You cannot keep this commandment.
I cannot keep from hasty words that destroy my fellow man.
No man can tame the tongue!
By nature it always sides with the “father of lies”.
Except for one thing!
There once walked on earth one who never broke this commandment.
He called himself the Truth was well as the Way and the Life.
True! He was executed as the result of false witnesses.
But God ordained that his death be a penalty paid in my place.
He died also for that wagging tongue of mine.
– for my sins of speech.
– for all my lies and half-truths.
God can now forgive me!
The penalty has been paid also for my sin against this commandment.
But the saving work of Jesus goes further than just my forgiveness.
If it was only that it would be wonderful enough. But there is more!
His work was also to make possible our renewal.
To make us new creations.
He does what no one else can do! He tames that tongue of ours.
When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives we not only receive a new heart.
We also receive a new tongue that is able to speak the truth.
And to speak that truth in love.
It is as we are renewed by the Spirit of Christ
that we can bring our tongues under the Lordship of Christ
and use our tongues not only to promote our neighbour’s reputation
but also to honour and glorify God.
True! As Christians we still fail our Lord time and again.
That old self in us still wants to exaggerate and tell lies.
But as we walk by faith and trust in Jesus
then the Spirit enables us to speak…
with a tongue that has been tamed by Jesus Christ.
And because of him we can also look forward to that new age when there will be no more need for the ninth commandment because we will be there where no more lies can ever enter in.
Conclusion
In the ninth commandment God is saying to us:
Show me your tongue!
I want to have a look at your spiritual health.
Is your tongue one that revels in gossip, white lies and slander?
Then you had better go the Lord Jesus,
the only one who can tame the tongue.
Is that tongue of yours already touched by His saving work?
Then keep on striving every day to use it in the service of the truth.
For your neighbour’s wellbeing! And for God’s glory!
AMEN