You heard us here, Greg's doing
some better. Is he going back to work tomorrow? He's going
back to work next week. Remember him and Greg. Do you remember the Parks family?
He's got to talk to Kathy Robinson today and she's, she had a scan
on them where they put those pellets in those cysts in her
liver and no new spots have showed up. And the doctor says the gums
are still working. She's awfully tired, which is
a result of radioactivity in the body. It causes people to
get tired. And I remember Stan and Teresa,
they were going on about the love of it. Down to Turks and
Caicos and vinegar. I hope we don't go fluke on them
after you've adopted some foreign boy from Alabama. Okay, let's forget our worship
service tonight. We have number 186, The Church's
One Foundation. Jesus Christ, Lord. The Church's
One Foundation with his own one. one. ? Let's do our day to one holy
thing ? ? And to one hope she presses ? ? We give thee thanks
in due ? ? Little and brief inflation ? ? And to love done before ? She waits the consummation of
peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious,
where longing eyes were blest, and the great church victorious
shall be the truth. Oh. In number 212, nothing but the
blood of Jesus. God can wash away my sin Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O gracious is the flow that makes
me white as snow. nothing but the blood of Jesus
nothing but the blood Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. Oh, what a cloud I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing great or small at all,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. I know. This is all my righteousness. Chapter 3 verse 16. false witness against thy neighbor. Our Father in heaven, we thank
you for mercy and grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. We are thankful as we look at
these commandments that you have given to your people and our
Lord fulfilled them perfectly. Set aside this old covenant,
instituted the new covenant, the covenant of grace, the eternal
covenant, In doing so, offered himself
the perfect sacrifice to you, to satisfy your law and justice,
to die the dead of these Jewish people, to redeem them, and save them. We thank you,
Father, that such a thing is so. I mean, we can believe this. We know that as we were born
into this world, we had no faith. These things were strange to
us and meant nothing to us. But you, by your grace, have
given us faith. Look at these things and rejoice
that we can understand them. You give us faith to believe,
even what we can't grasp and understand. and mercy toward us. Father, we pray for those who
seek those lost loved ones. Pray that you continue to pray
for them. Pray that you cover their sins
with this new medicine that is taken from them. Thank you for
this promise. Thank you that Greg Pinder is doing better.
Kathy is also doing better. Ask the Lord to be helpful. Watch
over us, Lord. We know that you care for very
cast their cares upon you. Help us now as we worship you.
We seek to worship you in the spirit of truth. Make it to be
so, O God, that you give good pleasure to your great Christ.
Amen. If you hold your finger there, it's Exodus 20. Turn over
to Deuteronomy chapter 19. Moses, and a few days before
the children of Israel entered the promised land, detailed this commandment that
we just read in a little more detail. He said in chapter 19,
verse 15, one witness shall not rise up
against any man for any sin that he sinneth. At the mouth of two
witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter
be established. If a false witness arises against
any man to testify against him of that which is wrong, then
both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before
the Lord, before the priests and before the judges, which
shall be in those days. And the judges shall make diligent
imposition. Behold, if the witness be a false
witness, Then shall ye do unto him as
he hath thought to have done unto his brother, and so shall
thou put evil away from among you. And those which remain shall
fear and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more in excess to evil
among you. And thine eye shall not pity,
but thy life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, and foot for foot, as you can see. The shorter version
of this didn't add to the consequences of being a false witness as did
Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the second law.
It's not the second law, it's the second reading of the law. In particular to the situation
they're about to encounter when they go to live in a land that
the Lord is going to give them. and so that law was set forth.
Now I'm sure when I read verse 16, chapter 20, and if you've
been in religion any length of time in your life, you've probably
heard numerous interpretations of this commandment. Generally
the meaning has to do with telling a lie, at least that's what religion
says. Most, if not all, politically
speak, the lies of All propagandists throughout
history hope that a lie told often and continually becomes
the truth to the mind of the hearers. Among the Navajo tradition,
a lie is reasonable but can only be told three times. If it is
told the fourth time, the liar is bound to the tail and cannot
but live with the results of his life as if it were the theme
of his life. If he tells it the fourth time,
he survives. and he's treated as such by his
people. Paul said, let God be true that
all men be liars. Stories and even songs have been
built around the theme that it's a sin to tell a lie. I was told
that when I was a child. I'm sure you probably was too. But all men are liars and God
is true. This is an encompassing truth,
because the scriptures declare man to be a liar, and to be a
lie, and to be lighter than vanity. So he's really in bad shape. So that's a general, we're taking
that as a general thing, that God be true, and all men be liars,
it would be an encompassing truth. But it was spoken in reference
to those who had slandered Paul for the preaching of the gospel,
and for the gospel he preached. saying that the preaching of
grace alone, which he preached, was asserting that we ought to
sin so God could show more grace. That was what they got out of
the message of grace alone. That's what every actual man
would get out of the message of grace alone. It would be the
idea that, well, if God's going to show grace, let's sin so God
can show grace. That's a natural, logical thinking
along those lines. or they said that such preaching
would open the floodgates to sin. Now these are lies, scandalous
lies, and brought about the same. What I'm preaching, Paul said,
is the truth. Let God be true. And all these
who oppose the gospel prove themselves to be liars. They're the ones
lying, and I'm the one that's telling the truth. Now God himself
may use a lie. He has used lies in his book. As he did when he instructed
Rahab the harlot to lie about the spies having been at their
home. And she did. She was honored for it. She was
Rahab the harlot, called that throughout life, but she was
Rahab the saved sinner. She was a sinner saint, she was
what I said in the previous message, a whore saint, which we all are,
because we are still flesh, and we are spirit. Save for when
the Lord employs the life where its purpose lies, or generally
not permitted. The commandment covers that,
this commandment does, being false witness, So a bearing false
witness also may be applied to slander, or gossip, or backbiting,
and we don't usually talk about those things, because when we
talk about those things, they say, preachers stop preaching
and start meddling. And that may be the case, but
slander, gossip, backbiting, these all fall under this commandment. Now what is important to realize
is that bearing false witness is not done in a vacuum. This
commandment is not in effect. It's not really about you telling
a lie or just telling a lie, because we can all tell lies
to protect ourselves. My wife said, does this dress
make us look bad? You're not going to say yes.
You're simply going to do that. That's what you're going to do,
wouldn't you? It wouldn't be good. So we all
lie when it's convenient for us. But Barrington Falls Witnesses
don't necessarily mean protecting myself. very involved witness
is inherently wrong, no doubt. Our Lord, however, includes a
victim to the false witness. It is not to be exercised against
your neighbor. Thou shalt not follow a very
involved witness. This book is commanded squarely
in what our Lord called the second great commandment in Matthew
22 when He said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. We know
beginning with verse 14 in the commandments, all the rest doesn't
have to do with that commandment to love God, to love your neighbor
as yourself. Now, this makes a general application
of this commandment in the area of jurisprudence. That's where
you read the Jewish writers, you read Gil or Calvin or Zwingli
or any of the great historians, you'll find that they dealt with
this matter not about lying about somebody, bearing a false witness
in a situation where there is a court or judges involved. You
saw in Deuteronomy that Moses said, when this happens, you're
to bring them before a judge. Then a judge is to decide whether
it's a false witness or a true witness. We know that disagreements
among believers, we know this, they are never to be brought
before a public court. There'd never be done that. This
is a slam against the gospel of peace. We believe the gospel. We believe that our brother may
sin, and he will sin. And he may even sin against us
and may harm us. But we also know that our brother,
even if he does that, is washed in the blood of Jesus Christ
and stands before God as a righteous man. We're to consider first. That's the case. And generally
speaking, we need to be like David. When he was confronted
with his sin by Nathan the prophet, he didn't say it was somebody
else's fault. It wasn't like Adam who blamed
it on his wife. It wasn't like Adam's wife who
blamed it on God. David said, I am guilty. This is the mark of the child
of God. He's confronted with sin. He doesn't point at somebody
else. He points his finger at himself. Now, the Greeks loved
the idea of public courts. It was a big deal with them.
They were often held in arenas. The courts were outside. They
were akin to the Roman gladiator games without the swords, but
they were complete with raucous fans and thumb up and thumb down
in these trials that were held public. Sadly, in the early church,
the church fell victim to this practice. And they see a brother
start taking brother to these arenas and courts and openly
displaying. And here they were, they were
saying, we believe and preach the gospel of peace. And we're
all exactly the same. We've all been forgiven of our
sins. We all stand righteous before God. And yet I want you
to do something about this guy. We're saying that to the public.
And so Paul had something to say about that. And he had some
real serious things to say about that. In first Corinthians chapter
six, 1 Corinthians 6, he says, dare
any of you, dare any of you having a matter against another go to
the law before the unjust and not before the saints. Go after
people who don't know God and have no interest in the gospel
and make judgment between you and the world. Do you not know
that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall
be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
You're going to judge the world. Why can't you take care of the
problems in the church and the church? That's what he said. Know ye not that we shall be
judged angels? How much more things that pertain
to life. If then we have judgments that
these things pertain to this life, set them to judge who are
the least distinguished in the church. the ones that don't stand
out, the ones that aren't the big dogs of the church, the ones
that are the most recognizable, the ones that are the most visible.
Find those who are the quietest and the meekest. Whatever the
situation is, you take it from there. Let them judge what's
right and wrong. That's what he said. He said, I speak to
your shame. Is it so that there is not a
wise man among you? No, not one. shall be able to
judge between his brethren. But brethren, goeth to the ball
with brethren, that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there
is utterly a fault among you, because you go to the law one
with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why don't
you just take it? Why don't you just take wrong?
Why do you not rather suffer yourselves than be defrauded?
Nay, you do wrong and be fraud. and that is your brother. What
he said is pretty simple. Your brother does you wrong.
The ideal thing to do is to say, well, that's probably better
than I deserve. It is better than I deserve.
Take it. Take it. My dad used to say that
I'd get in a fist fight and come home with a bloody nose. He'd
take it like a man. And I did. I took it like a man.
That's what he said. If your brother wrongs you, take
it. This, however, is the primary
arena. This idea of the court is the
primary arena in which this commandment is generally and historically
applied. A false witness is not to be
born against your brother or in a court of law. There are
examples of people bearing false witness against their neighbor
in Scripture. In order for Jezebel to acquire Naboth's vineyard
for her whiny husband, It was necessary that Mabeth and his
family be dead so she could legally obtain the land. She couldn't
do it as long as Mabeth lived or any of his children lived.
It's found, if you want to read that, in the 21st chapter, 1
Kings. Now after Mabeth was killed because
of her false witness, she had people write letters to the judges
and the higher authority in the The neighbor was blaspheming.
So then they believed the lies that she told. She bore false
witness against him. And they took him out and stoned
him. Well, the man still couldn't be bought because he had two
sons. He had two sons. The issue of
the two remaining sons must be dealt with also. She hired two
false witnesses to testify, of course, that these brothers were
blasphemers. Consequently, they were put to death. That's found
in 2 Kings chapter 9. The Lord saw the murder. He said, it's a murder. The murder
of Nath and his two sons in 2 Kings 9 verse 26. And by using false
witnesses, she was able to freely steal the vineyard for her husband. Another example is found in Acts
chapter 24, if you want to turn there. This was against Paul
the Apostle. The early church suffered disagreeably.
The Apostles were always coming up and accusing the brethren
of doing things they didn't do. In Acts chapter 24, when the
high priest hired a poor minister, They brought him before the judge,
before the priest, before the governor. It says in Acts chapter
24 verse 1, it says that after five days Ananias, who was the
high priest, descended with the elders and
with a certain orator named Tertullius, that's a great orator, he's an
orator, who informed the governor against Paul. They informed the
governor against Paul. So not only did they hire a priest,
they came down to the synagogue. They hired this real good speaker,
probably a lawyer, to deal with him. Since then, when he was
called for torturious, he began to accuse Paul, saying, well,
he didn't really begin to accuse Paul. First, he flattered the
judge. First, he flattered the judge,
seeing that by the enjoyment And that very worthy deeds are
done unto this nation by thy providence. We accept him of
all things, all places, most noble and free, with all thankfulness. That's how he started his business.
His name was Houston Paul. He started, he had asked me,
first thing does he the ladders to the king? notwithstanding
that I not further be tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou
wouldst hear us of thy clemency. A few more words. You always
see this smarmy dude doing this. He said, for we have found this
man, Paul the Apostle, a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition,
which is a threat to the government, among all the Jews throughout
the world, and a ringleader of the sect or cult of the Nazarenes,
who also have gone about to profane the Temple, whom we took and would have judged
according to our law, but the chief Captain Lister came upon
us, and with great valence took him away out of our heads, commanding his accusers to come
unto thee, by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge
of all these things, The Jews also assented saying that these
things were so. Their accusations were sedition,
a ringleader of the sect of Nasserism, which is Islam against Christ
and his people and his gospel. He was a pest, that's what a
pestilence means, like a maggot, just as he probably does. And
a profaner of the temple. Now that's important that they
use that because they said he's a heretic. He's a heretic. And all of them were entirely
false witnesses. All of them, every witness against
him was a false witness. What Paul had been doing in that
time was preaching Christ, preaching that Christ had fulfilled the
law. that all who were under the law were guilty before God,
and that Christ had saved His people from their sins by His
perfect sacrifice. He preached that circumcision
nor uncircumcision may have been a thing. He preached that salvation
was by grace alone. This is what Paul was guilty
of. He did not preach in the synagogues, and did not preach
at the temple. He had preached in the street
and in people's houses, but not, he did not enter into the temple
of the Son of God in Jesus' place to dispute with the men who spent
their days doing just that. They went to the Son of God,
over to Solomon's porch, and they sat, and they blessed about
Scripture all day long. So Paul answers them in verse
10, and Paul, after the governor had beckoned him to speak, answered,
For as much as I know, Paul said, that thou hast been many years
a judge of this nation, I do more cheerfully answer for myself.
Because thou mayest understand that there is yet but twelve
days since I went up to Jerusalem for worship, and they neither
found me in the temple dispute with any man, neither raising
up the people, neither in the sin of God, nor in the city.
Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me."
Their false witness against him could not be proved. which must
be done in the face of two or three witnesses according to
Deuteronomy. A witness is one who has personally
witnessed something. That's the point. The verb creates the noun. If you have witnessed something,
that makes you a witness. If you ain't witnessed something,
and you witness it in your head, you're a false witness. These liars have witnessed nothing
of what the accused called and presented only hearsay. When
any part of a testimony is found to be a lie, the entire testimony
can be discounted. Do you know what that number
will give you in gold? One, if a person can be found
to be a liar on a witness stand, then his whole testimony can
be discounted. Because he's a liar. He's a liar. Now Paul's answer was prosperous. Verse 14 he said, but this I
confess. This I confess, I mean, Felix,
that after the way which they called heresy, so worship I the
God of my fathers, believing all things. that are written
in the law of the prophets, and have hope toward God, which they
themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the
dead, both of the just and the unjust. And herein do I exercise
myself to have always a conscious void of offense toward God and
toward men. All I'm doing is preaching the
gospel. Now here's the way it works.
He said, if preaching the gospel is heresy, Then I will wear the
accusation as a badge of honor. After the way which men called
her, she said, that's how I worship God. That's how I worship God. Many years ago, a fellow emailed
me. Back when I did emails back and
forth to people, I almost did that in the morning. I'd get
texts and that sort of thing. I didn't have to email anything.
But he emailed and he called me and fought me. He really read
me over the cover. I wrote back a short sentence. I said, you don't know half the
story. You don't know half the story. Answer food according to its
body. That's what the scriptures say. And many such false prophets
have risen through the ages. Flames have consumed the flesh
of martyrs under the accused finger of falsehood. During the
Roman inquisitions, people were actually hired and taught how
to bring forth a false witness. And they needed to get solved
in the memories of the Roman church. Those false accusations
will continue and will be the transgression of the law for
everyone. For the word of God says, thou
shalt not bear false witness. That means, Father bless us to
understand and pray for Christ. We'll see you later.