BROADCASTS.com

Honor the Truth: The ninth command of the Ten Commandments is, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." There is a battle for truth in many areas of life. Truth produces justice, trust, and transformation. Christians ought to be people of integrity, who speak honestly about themselves and others and refuse to distort the truth or hide the truth or even exaggerate the truth, even and especially when it’s costly. Recorded on Mar 26, 2023, on Exodus 20:16 by Pastor David Parks. Ten Commandments: Learning the Law of Love is a sermon series on the most influential legal code in human history. Why should we learn about the Ten Commandments today? Because they reveal God’s will for how human beings ought to live: to love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. Ultimately, the law of love points us directly to Jesus. Sermon Transcript So, all year, the theme of our preaching ministry is Learning the way of Jesus. And today, we’re almost at the end of a sermon series we’ve been doing on the Ten Commandments. And we’ve said that the Ten Commandments, as part of God’s moral law, reveal how God wants people to live. Ultimately, this way of life can be summed up as learning to love the Lord your God, heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to love your neighbor as yourself — this is a law of love. We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating that obedience to the law is not the way of salvation. Remember: being a good person is not what makes you a Christian. Faith in the person and work of Jesus is what makes you a Christian. We’re saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus and not by our works as good as they might be. However, once you’re saved by grace, learning obedience to the law, learning to do God’s will God’s way, is the way of Jesus. This is the kind of life that God wants for his people. So today, we’re considering the ninth command, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” (Ex 20:16). And this command deals with being honest and telling the truth, particularly in a court of law, but this is just one example of what God wants for all of life — that we would think and speak and walk in accordance with the truth. And this is needed today more than ever. There is a battle for the truth in many areas and industries of life, including politics, education, healthcare, finance, science, and of course, religion. People are encouraged to create their own truth and then constantly share it on social media. You can’t just have beliefs and friends; you have to be an influencer or activist, promoting/marketing your truth. As a result, truth has been personalized, relativized, distorted, and devalued. We are surrounded and sometimes barraged by claims of truth going in every possible direction. And we know that all these claims can’t all be right. So what even is the truth? Well, if you have a Bible/app, please open to Exodus 20:12. We’ll read through the second half of the Ten Commandments and then unpack the ninth together today, looking at three vital things that are produced when we are people who honor the truth: 1. justice, 2. trust, and 3. transformation. Exodus 20:12-17 (NIV), “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” As we’ve said, the book of Exodus was written about 4,300 years ago by Moses, the great prophet and leader of ancient Israel. And Exodus describes a key turning point in history when God rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and entered into a covenant relationship with them, which included giving them the Law.