The Ninth Commandment

Grace Reformation Bible Church

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May 5, 2024

Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Exodus 20:16

00:01: Well, I was hoping we would be able to finish the 10th commandment by this time, and unfortunately we'll take a little detour and have a couple extra weeks before we come back to finish the 10th, but this morning we want to consider the 9th commandment.
00:18: And so the 9th commandment in Exodus 20, verse 16, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
00:28: Now, question 83 in our catechism, as far as what the commandment requires, the answer is this, maintaining and promoting truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbor's good name, especially in witness bearing.
00:49: So you see there, we have the promotion of truth and the maintaining, even the promoting of your own as well as your neighbor's good name.
00:56: In other words, your neighbor's reputation. So this is what the 9th commandment comprises.
01:03: Now, the limited time we have, I want to consider how we can keep the 9th commandment.
01:09: How can we keep the 9th commandment? This is a way of sort of opening up, I think, some of the essential points of the 9th commandment.
01:17: And the three points are, we keep it first by having no partiality, no partiality.
01:24: Secondly, we keep it by having no piercing words, no piercing.
01:33: And then third, rather than these things, we promote peace. We have peace. We speak words of peace.
01:40: So no partiality, no piercing, but peace. That's how I'm going to approach the 9th commandment this morning.
01:48: Now first, as far as having no partiality, in the 9th commandment, partiality is held very close to deception.
01:57: It's not enough just to simply say that the 9th commandment is against lying, but it's lying in a certain context, and it's lying in a certain manner.
02:05: And sometimes the very mechanics that lead to lying are at the very heart of this commandment.
02:11: In other words, lying would come out because of prejudice or bias or being partial. And so as this commandment is opened up in God's Word, we see that deception is held right next to partiality.
02:23: In other words, being biased or having a sort of prejudgment or predisposition toward one party over against another.
02:31: And this we see, for example, in Deuteronomy 19, where the 9th commandment is elaborated.
02:38: One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits.
02:43: By the mouth of two or three witnesses, the matter shall be established. So first we have this sort of method for justice that the accusation must be corroborated by the mouth of one or two additional witnesses to the accuser.
03:01: And so no man can, or woman, we have to say that in the days of Me Too, can rise up and simply say this is what happened if there's not corroborating witnesses to establish the facts.
03:13: So one witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or sin that he commits. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, the matter shall be established.
03:21: Now since we're speaking of judgment, and here's where the 9th commandment applies, if a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the
03:35: Lord, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days, and the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed if the witness is a false witness who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother.
03:55: And so you shall put away the evil from among you. And those who remain will hear, and they will fear, and hereafter they'll never again commit such evil among you.
04:05: So you see what God is establishing. Where there is a witness, it must be established, the accusation must be established by one or two additional witnesses.
04:17: So that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, everything has been established. Where there's the possibility of a false witness, that's what the 9th commandment is prohibiting, when the judges make careful inquiry, and it's established that indeed this witness is making a false accusation, then the punishment is whatever the punishment would have been if their falsity was not discovered.
04:41: That is the justice of God. Now I would say we would do well as a society to get back to that as our standard of justice.
04:50: Again, the unfortunate thing is everyone loses when witnesses are false. Everyone loses.
04:58: Those people who have actually been victims of crime are no longer believed. And so they lose out on justice, or those who are innocent that have been falsely accused receive misjustice.
05:09: They answer for a crime they didn't commit. And we're living in the middle of that. Me Too is just one of many examples of that.
05:16: But one of the things that went with the sort of buzz, the hashtag of Me Too, was believe all women, right?
05:24: Believe all women. The idea was a woman could never lie, right? A woman could never lie.
05:30: What kind of standard for justice is that? Just as long as an accusation is made, judge, just believe it.
05:38: Don't establish it. Don't make inquiry. And by the way, if she was kind of fudging the facts, don't worry about it.
05:44: Just let her go. There's no punishment. Right now, as far as our DAs are concerned in many places, there's no punishment for bearing false witness.
05:52: Accusations are made against powerful men and women. And if they're shown to be false, if they're shown to be hollow, if they don't stand, there's no consequence to it.
06:00: And so we're seeing misjustice, injustice all around. Now we see some concern for this commandment even 2 ,000 years ago in Jesus' day.
06:09: And all of the Gospels narrate that the high councils, the leadership in Jerusalem was seeking to entrap
06:17: Jesus. They wanted to put him to death. They were looking for a reason to do it.
06:23: Yet even they, in some way, had to walk according to the heart of the ninth commandment.
06:29: And they were aware of that. These are the things that we read right past. You think, well, they have the power, they'll just make up a charge and have him crucified.
06:36: But you see them actually struggling to establish things with the mouth of credible witnesses. And so, for example, we see this in Mark 14.
06:45: The chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death. Right?
06:50: That's what they're looking for. We need witnesses to come, give us a reason to crucify him.
06:56: But they found none. Yet many came and they bore false witness against him, but their testimonies did not agree.
07:04: Do you see what's taking place? People are coming and are saying, oh, well, he said this, he did this.
07:10: This is worthy of death. And they're not like, good enough for us, let's send him to the cross. They actually do what
07:16: Deuteronomy 19 says they have to do. They make inquiries. They recognize, no, that won't stand because this witness's testimony contradicts this witness's testimony.
07:29: So they're looking for a false witness, but still in some way they're seeking it to be credible.
07:35: In other words, this is not kangaroo courts, not in the way the Soviets used to do that, where they'd sort of harangue people by marching them through the court under false pretense.
07:46: Others rose up and bore false witness against him, saying, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands.
07:53: Within three days, I will build another made without hands. But even then, their testimony did not agree.
08:00: And so the high priest stood up. You recognize this, again, false witnesses have come, and the high priest, the council that's looking to crucify
08:07: Jesus, they won't proceed based on these false witnesses. At least in that respect, they're keeping the ninth commandment.
08:17: So then the high priest himself stands up, faces Jesus directly, and says, don't you answer anything?
08:23: Don't you see these charges against you? We read, Jesus kept silent. He answered nothing.
08:31: And then again, when the high priest continues to prod and poke, he gets
08:36: Jesus to explain from Daniel 1 that he is the son of man who's coming on the clouds of glory. And that's when the high priest tears his robes and says,
08:43: I've heard it myself. You're a blasphemer. So the ninth commandment we see here concerns partiality and the things that lead to partiality, lying, slander, deception.
08:58: And we see the ninth commandment give us a window into a world full of malice, full of evils, full of gossip, lies, slander, hatred, bitterness.
09:10: We see a window into a world where man stands against man, neighbor against neighbor.
09:16: The world is dog eat dog. We're living in the days of show trials. We don't have to look to the 1950s in Cuba or other communist republics to see show trials.
09:27: We're living in the middle of them. We see a world full of false witnesses, a world full of lies, a world full of deception.
09:34: We understand that the people of God live in this world, and therefore the people of God will face lying, will face slander, will face deception, are living through partiality.
09:45: You don't have to look far and wide, and I don't think it's unfair to say that our society is very partial against Christians.
09:57: Some say, oh, you Christians, you always cry out persecution, and that may be true.
10:04: You have to be careful. We haven't faced the kind of intense suffering that so many of our brothers and sisters face throughout the world.
10:11: But at some point, that charge has to stick. At some point, there is injustice. At some point, there is partiality against Christians.
10:19: At some point, we are being mistreated, maltreated. And the thing is, we need to expect that. It's on the increase, and we can expect that to increase.
10:28: David wrote Psalm 52 when he was in great distress because of Doeg the Edomite, and he wrote this, verses two and four, your tongue devises destruction like a sharp razor working deceitfully.
10:43: You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness. You love devouring words, you deceitful tongue.
10:51: What's David up against? An opponent, an enemy, someone who's slandering him, someone who has a tongue like a razor that's looking to cut him down, destroy his life, his livelihood.
11:03: This is a norm, generally speaking, this is a norm for the people of God. We see increasingly that slander is something
11:11: Christians are facing. We see increasingly slander is something that we all must face.
11:18: Our Lord himself faced slander. He was lied about constantly throughout his ministry. He promised us that no servant is greater than his master.
11:27: This is how the world had treated him who was seeking to speak truth and love. How will the world seek to treat us when we speak truth and love?
11:37: Woe to you, Jesus said, when all men speak well of you. There's huge factions of Christianity who
11:46: I think their only operating principle is that the world would speak well of them. Everything they do, every decision, every strategy they adopt is so that the world will somehow countenance them.
11:57: And Jesus would say to those factions, to those well -doers, woe to you that men speak well of you.
12:05: In other words, you're not speaking the truth. However much you're seeking to do works of love, you're not speaking the truth if all men speak well of you.
12:14: Jesus spoke perfectly the truth, perfectly in love, and they hung him on a cross to die.
12:20: Woe to you when all men speak well of you. Augustine said, when a Christian has begun to think of spiritual gain, he begins to suffer the tongues of adversaries.
12:31: Whoever has not yet suffered from them has not yet made progress, you see.
12:38: Whenever you're seeking to actually stand on your faith, to actually walk in the way of the Lord, you're going to begin to suffer bywords, gossip, slander, prejudice, words against you, words huddled apart from you, about you.
12:53: You're going to walk in and all these eyes are going to kind of shuffle around. You're going to walk past conversations that are being had about you.
13:01: Look at Ned Flanders. Here he comes. Here comes the holy roller. What a hypocrite he is. Let me tell you what
13:07: I saw the other day. You have to manage walking in this kind of environment.
13:13: Otherwise, you're just not making progress as a Christian. Whoever does not suffer them, Augustine says, is not even trying to improve.
13:22: Does he wish to know what we mean? Let him experience what's reported of us. Let him begin to improve, in other words, to grow in this
13:29: Christian life. Let him begin to hold worldly happiness for nothing, to think of God alone, never rejoicing in gain, not pining at his losses, wishing even to sell all of his substance and give it to the poor, simply to follow
13:43: Christ and let us see how he suffers from the tongues of his enemies. Augustine was no foreigner to that kind of treatment.
13:53: No Christian that's doing mighty work in the kingdom of God will be able to do so without warts and wrinkles and blemishes being cast on their character.
14:05: To the degree that we find this foreign, when we open the book of Psalms, we can't relate to half of the
14:10: Psalms. Half of the Psalms presuppose some opponent, some enemy, some adversary that's lying and seeking to destroy, seeking to devour.
14:22: And so if you can't relate to that, you're not relating to something that God expects to be normal in a
14:27: Christian's life. Now that may be that, I mean, for me, I can experience that.
14:32: I certainly was slandered and manipulated and used when I worked in a factory setting seven years in a plastic factory, working on the docks and long haul truckers kind of coming and going.
14:45: And I experienced all sorts of lies, I'd kind of walk into the middle of a lie about me or all of a sudden management was on my case for no reason.
14:53: Just little annoyances here or there, but it's just like, man, I'm just trying to get through the day, do my job honestly, like, why is everyone trying to just pinch what they can off of me, you know, manipulate me, use me, you know, make themselves look better at my expense knowing
15:09: I'm not going to retaliate or do the same to them. But now being in ministry, essentially
15:15: I can go a month at a time without ever interacting with many non -Christians at all in any meaningful way.
15:22: And so maybe my world has become too small. Maybe your world is a little too small. Maybe you're not interacting with enough unbelievers in a way that you're seeking to speak truth and love, seeking to let your line shine before men such that you have to walk through the things that David had to walk through, which is why he wrote so many psalms on this very theme.
15:42: He's being slandered against. He's being lied about. He's being gossiped about. He's being held in contempt.
15:49: He's being derised. Hear my voice, he cries, O God, preserve my life from any fear.
15:55: Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked. Do you have anyone that pops into your mind reading that?
16:05: Jesus would have, David would have, Paul would have. They would have had names under their tongue when they were reciting psalms like this.
16:15: Do all men speak well of you? Keep me from the rebellion of workers of iniquity who sharpen their tongue like a sword, bend their bows to shoot their arrows, bitter words that they shoot in secret at the blameless.
16:34: So they're bending their mouth like this compound bow. Some of you have seen the power of that, unless you shoot it at a cyber truck, apparently.
16:43: You see the power of a compound bow, how it punctures and pierces through a man. And David says, that's what it's like for me,
16:50: I'm trying to walk in a way that's pleasing to God and these arrows are whizzing by me every step of the way.
16:56: Where does that come from? What have I done to them? Well, you've exposed their rebellion against the most high
17:01: God. You've exposed the darkness in their life. Darkness does not like light.
17:07: And men love the darkness rather than the light. And that's why they shoot arrows. That's why their tongue is sharpened against you.
17:14: Think of that imagery. This is what the ninth commandment is holding out to us. If the second table is about loving your neighbor, the ninth commandment says that our sword -like tongue seeks to devour and destroy our neighbor.
17:30: And we're never to use our speech, never to use our regard, our communication, even our own thoughts about our neighbor to his undoing.
17:41: You shall not bear false witness, according to Paul in Romans 13, is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
17:48: If you would have men speak well of you, make good reports of you, then you should seek to do the same for them.
17:57: If you would have men promote your reputation, your good name, then you should seek to do the same for them.
18:03: Love does no harm to a neighbor. Oh, how we harm our neighbors with our tongues, thoughtlessly, carelessly, effortlessly.
18:13: We cannot manifest our love to God clearly, publicly, consistently in the way that we can manifest our love to our neighbor.
18:22: If we find it so easy to wield our sword against our neighbor, how can that reflect a love for God?
18:31: What does a man who breaks the ninth commandment look like? Proverbs 25 says, a man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club.
18:41: A sword, a sharp arrow. How can you love your neighbor if you're a club?
18:48: All that you do is club -like if you're a club. How can you love your neighbor if you're a sword?
18:54: All that you do is sword -like to your neighbor. Bearing false witness, not speaking things honestly for the good, for the health, for the promotion of your neighbor is essentially being like a sword or an arrow.
19:08: And so this is what partiality concerns. And again, partiality and deception are connected.
19:13: Another place the ninth commandment is exposited for us, Exodus 23. You shall not circulate a false report.
19:20: So again, the ninth commandment, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. So here is the elaboration of that in Exodus 23.
19:27: You shall not circulate a false report. Notice it's not just you shall not pronounce a false report.
19:35: You shall not handle, circulate, sort of perpetuate a false report.
19:42: You didn't hear this from me, but word on the street is, right? The ninth commandment forbids that.
19:48: I can't verify it. I can't ascertain whether this is true or not. This is hearsay. It wouldn't stand up in the court.
19:54: It won't stand in my mouth. I'm not going to circulate a false report, a report that could well be false.
20:01: I'm not going to be partial just because of who I heard it from and how I regard them. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
20:12: This all sounds very formal, very legal, sort of law court setting, but this comes down just in the way we regard and speak about our neighbor, even in the most informal settings.
20:23: You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall testify in a dispute, nor shall you testify in a dispute, so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.
20:37: You shall not show partiality. Do you see how partiality and deception are held together in the ninth commandment?
20:44: You shall not be partial. You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute.
20:53: Oh, I feel so bad, you know. I'll give him a break. God says it's not just being partial toward the wealthy, toward the elite.
21:01: Don't even be partial to the poor. I feel so bad for them. You know, they've had a hard time. They deserve this.
21:07: You won't be partial even to the poor. You won't be partial out of sympathy. When Sir MacLachlan starts singing, you know, the eyes of the angels and your tears rolling down your cheek, you still won't be partial.
21:19: If you meet your enemy's ox, notice now you have an enemy. Isn't that interesting? God presupposes his people will have enemies.
21:26: Isn't that striking? If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
21:38: You shall not be partial. Here's your enemy. He's out to get you. He's maligning you. He's maltreating you.
21:45: But you notice something that belongs to him. Maybe he just cussed you out.
21:51: And as he got in his car and slammed his door and flipped you off, his wallet fell out. You just walk away.
21:58: What would Exodus 23 say you do? You dropped your wallet. Have a nice day.
22:05: See, even when your enemy is against you, you don't show partiality. You have a perfect love for your neighbor.
22:12: If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.
22:20: In other words, God recognizes there's going to be this tension, this person who hates me.
22:26: I don't even know why. Out of the blue, this person hates me and they've lied about me and they've made my life miserable.
22:33: But I see that they're struggling with something. And now there's this tension. I would refrain from helping them.
22:39: I don't want to help them. God says you shall surely help them. You shall surely help them.
22:48: What does that sound like to you? And we're going to be there when we get to the summit on the Mount. That sounds like loving your enemy.
22:55: It's not some new radical, you know, discovery that Jesus had. You know, actually, this has never been here before.
23:02: Love your enemy. It's right here. That's what loving your enemy looks like. And so God is concerned, the central concern.
23:13: You will not show partiality because partiality is not properly loving your neighbor to say,
23:19: I would help this person, but I'll definitely not help that person is being partial. The Ninth Commandment forbids that kind of partiality.
23:27: James 2, 8 and 9. If you really fulfill the royal law, according to Scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
23:33: You do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin. Loving your neighbor means you're impartial.
23:43: It's a travesty that in so many law courts, we have a sort of embodiment of justice who's blindfolded and she's just weighing the scales of justice.
23:52: It's like, what a mockery where we see such bald and transparent injustice.
24:00: The Christians are those who understand the concept of blind justice, complete impartiality, showing no favoritism, taking no brimes.
24:09: That's what it means to be a Christian. And the context of James 2, of course, partiality is shown in the poor man being kind of pushed off to the margin so that the wealthy man, the fine -dressed man, can be seated in a place of honor.
24:24: And James says, you're showing partiality. It shouldn't mean nothing. However a person appears or how they come, they're an image -bearer of God.
24:33: They all get the same treatment. I think I've shared this story before, but I love sharing it.
24:40: One of my seminary profs who did a missionary stint in Fiji for a number of years, teaching at a school there.
24:45: And the church that he would attend, there was a very important guest,
24:52: I think maybe a diplomat from a foreign nation. And was a believer, basically had a security detail and a whole sort of retinue.
25:01: And he called the church in advance of the Sunday worship and said, I'm going to need my security team to go over where I'm going to sit.
25:09: I want to be up front, kind of have some access and good vantage points. And the pastor just said, nope, nope.
25:15: You come to worship, you come like everyone else. I'm not speaking to your security detail.
25:21: I'm not giving you preferential treatment. You come and you worship as everyone else, or you don't come. Don't expect special treatment from us.
25:27: We're Christians. We're worshiping the living God. We show honor to him. We don't show honor to any man when it comes to the worship of God.
25:37: The Holy Spirit applies the gospel to our hearts and this transforms the way that we think.
25:42: And therefore, it transforms how and what we say. How and what we don't say.
25:50: That is the effect of the gospel in a person's life. When we bear false witness against our neighbor, when we're out to get our neighbor, when we're impartial against our neighbor, we're bearing false witness about God.
26:01: When we circulate, much less produce gossip against a brother or a sister against our neighbor, we're unwittingly saying that God doesn't care about purity.
26:13: God doesn't care about honesty. God does not show charity. God is biased. God is partial.
26:19: In short, God is unjust. God's a liar. You see how important the ninth commandment is.
26:26: Romans 2 -11, as well as Colossians 3, everywhere we see there is no partiality with God.
26:32: Therefore, there must be no partiality with the people of God. So first, how can we keep the ninth commandment?
26:38: No partiality. Secondly, no piercing. No piercing words.
26:46: That's what I'm getting at. Proverbs 12 -18, He who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness deceit.
26:56: There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword.
27:02: But the tongue of the wise promotes health. Again, so often throughout
27:08: Scripture, you get the image of the tongue being like a sword. And here, I think sometimes we think of careless speech as sort of wildly waving a sword around.
27:20: But here, it's very specific. It's not the sort of waving of a sword and there's some collateral damage off to the side.
27:27: This is a very intentional act. It's piercing someone with the sword. Have you ever seen that harrowing scene from Saving Private Ryan, where one of the soldiers toward the end in this battle they have in the town,
27:44: I think Private Mellish is the character's name, and he's in this scuffle with a German soldier. He's pulled out his bayonet and they're sort of rolling around fighting, both desperately trying to survive.
27:54: And unfortunately, that soldier, that German, gets on top and he has the bayonet and he begins to slowly press it down, bearing all of that weight down.
28:04: And here, the private is doing everything he can, straining every muscle, every fiber that he can muster to try to prevent that tip from breaking into his chest.
28:12: But the weight just prevails and it's a horrific scene to watch.
28:19: The sort of slow, agonizing, inescapable piercing of that bayonet.
28:28: And that's what your speech is like when you carelessly speak against or slander your brother or your sister.
28:38: You might as well pull that bayonet out of your mouth and press it with all of your weight right into their chest.
28:49: We have a shallow view of the power of words, don't we? With the power of speech,
28:56: God created the world out of nothing. And with the power of speech, the ancient serpent brought the world into ruin.
29:04: We have a very shallow view of the power of speech. From beginning to end,
29:10: Scripture constantly reinforces the weight, the gravity, the importance of our words.
29:17: By our words, we will either be justified or condemned. We see that with words, with speech, with communication, our very purpose as human beings, all of our relationships in society, even our own souls will either be made by speaking the truth or destroyed by speaking lies.
29:42: We see in our own lives how quickly our speech can go from worship and devotion on a
29:47: Sunday morning around the lunch table to gossip and slander on the car ride home.
29:54: And if we understood the power of our speech, we would constantly be praying to God, bridle my tongue, bridle my tongue.
30:02: James says in James 1 .26, if anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart, his religion's worthless.
30:15: Think of a man who's doing all that he can to walk in the ways of God, all right?
30:21: He's got all the outward pomp and show. He looks the part. He attends to the things of God.
30:27: He's always with the people of God. He's held in good respect among the people of God. He seems to have this real vital nerve of religion down in his life.
30:36: People want to emulate his walk. And James says, that's all fine and wonderful. That's good fruit to have in a person's life.
30:43: But if that man doesn't know how to bridle his tongue, all of that's worthless. It's all in vain.
30:49: It's all for nothing. It's window dressing on a house that's burning. It doesn't matter. You see the importance of the tongue.
30:58: If that wasn't enough, James goes on to devote practically a whole chapter to the importance of the tongue in James 3.
31:06: If anyone does not stumble in word, he's a perfect man. In other words, he's a mature man. Able also to bridle the whole body.
31:17: Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.
31:23: Look also at ships, although they're so large and are driven by fierce winds. They're turned by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires.
31:34: You'll notice this is all corporate imagery. You have a bit that's able to bridle, as it were, turn the whole body.
31:45: You have a ship. What's that? A ship is full of people, as it were, conveying cargo and sailors and whatnot, and that ship turns by a very small rudder.
31:57: This is all very corporate imagery, which makes sense at the beginning of James 3. Be not many teachers, brethren. In other words, he's primarily talking about those who are speaking in the context of the congregation and assembled worship.
32:10: He's saying if you're able to bridle that tongue, you can actually turn the body. And even when fierce winds are blowing against you, you won't lose all the people on the ship.
32:20: They won't drown and perish. You're able to turn because you have bridled that rudder. You've carefully and very patiently and prayerfully learned how to bridle the tongue, bridle the act of speech, use wise words at wise times in wise places, so that the whole body can be preserved, turned away from danger.
32:41: Even so, the tongue is a little member, boasts great things. See how great a forest, a little fire kindles.
32:48: And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. What a phrase that is.
32:57: The tongue is a world of iniquity. Think of all the complexity of the world.
33:05: James doesn't say, well, the tongue is iniquitous in three ways. He says, who can plumb the depths of the iniquity of the tongue?
33:14: It's a world of iniquity. As varied as there are places and terrains in the world, so also with our speech.
33:28: The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body. Do you see that? See, whatever else you have going for you, if you don't have control over your mouth, if you don't have a certain sobriety and watchfulness over your words, you're defiling everything else.
33:47: It sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.
33:55: So James is gonna talk, and he's doing this throughout the letter of those things that are above versus the things that are beneath.
34:01: The wisdom that comes from above are the good things that come from above and those things that are on the earth, those things that consist of things from under the earth, from infernal places, and here we have that as well.
34:11: Does our speech reflect the wisdom that comes from God? Or is it set on fire by hell?
34:18: Are we just spewing, as it were, the fuel and hell is lighting the flame? And now we're going through the congregation like flamethrowers on Iwo Jima, just burning everything that we turn to.
34:30: That's the power of the tongue. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.
34:38: Again, huge theme in James. The doubling, the sort of fracturing, the partiality, if you could put it that way, stands against what
34:48: God desires for His people to be whole, to be one. A double -minded man is unstable in all of his ways.
34:54: What about a double -tongued man? One who's able to speak blessing and cursing, speaking, as it were, words from heaven and words from hell.
35:03: And rather than being whole, being one, having their identity comprised purely, honestly, with integrity in Christ.
35:10: My brethren, he says, these things ought not to be. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
35:17: Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives and a grapevine bear figs? So James concerned about duality.
35:26: And what he's arguing, especially as we come off the heels of chapter two in the letter, our speech will either demonstrate or falsify our faith.
35:35: How we use our words, how we speak of one another will either demonstrate our faith in God or falsify it.
35:43: Remember, one who's not able to bridle their tongue, their religion is worthless. Their faith is a mockery. So what does a wise use, a proper use of speech look like according to the ninth commandment?
35:58: I think the Westminster larger catechism gives about a good a definition as can be given.
36:04: So this is 144 from the Westminster larger catechism. This is just in part, I'm adding on to what our own shorter catechism said.
36:14: A charitable esteem of our neighbors. That's wonderful. A charitable esteem of our neighbors.
36:20: Loving, desiring, rejoicing in their good name. Sorrowing for, covering their infirmities.
36:30: Freely acknowledging their gifts and graces. Defending their innocence. Ready receiving of a good report.
36:38: Unwillingness to admit an evil report concerning them. That's marvelous. You see all the facets of that?
36:46: What does a ninth commandment look like in practice? If you would avoid your speech being set on fire by hell?
36:53: Well, you begin with this charity, this esteem, this regard for your neighbor. You think the best of them.
37:01: Even when they've given you ample reason to think the worst of them, you press on and persevere in thinking the best of them.
37:08: You have a unflinching charitable esteem for them. Loving, desiring, rejoicing in their good name.
37:17: When you meet someone and they say, oh, do you know so and so? Do you know so and so? Say, yes, hooray,
37:26: I do. I rejoice in their good name. Or do you give the old eye roll? Yeah, you know them too?
37:33: We got a lot to talk about, don't we? No, you rejoice in their good name. You think the best of them.
37:40: You, where they are falling short, you don't look down on them with contempt.
37:46: You don't sort of draw back and say, I don't want to be a part of this. You're actually really sad. You're sorrowing for their weaknesses.
37:54: You're finding, is there a way I can actually cover over some of that infirmity? This is what loving a neighbor looks like.
38:02: It's not, you know, as soon as something goes wrong or they fall short in some area, you don't bang the drum and then put the floodlight on them, everyone look.
38:10: Is there a way I can kind of cover? Nothing to see here, keep moving. Trying to cover them. I feel sorry for them because I love them.
38:19: I want what's best for them. I want to protect their good name, defend their innocence. When something good is circulating about them,
38:25: I amplify it. When something evil, when something ill or against them is circulating,
38:32: I nip it in the bud. It dies with me. This is what the ninth commandment requires.
38:39: There's this marvel, Germans have a knack for compound words and schadenfreude is one that, is our own terminology.
38:49: Schadenfreude is taking pleasure in another's misfortune. Christians can never entertain schadenfreude.
39:03: Someone's writing that on their bulletin there, how are they gonna explain this, right? This was said during the service?
39:10: Christians can never take pleasure in bad things happening to another.
39:17: This is hard, right? I was watching our victorious triumph over the
39:23: Toronto Maple Leafs. And of course, the prejudice, the partiality is so evident when the ref always does wrong against you and always does right against your opponent.
39:39: And so, you know, someone loses their edge and they fall and all the fans go, is the ref blind?
39:45: And then they show the replay and there was three feet distance between the two players. It's partiality.
39:51: And when the call goes against our opponent, we derive this sort of pleasure. Things are going our way.
39:57: When we're in a workplace or maybe one of your siblings, you know, gets in trouble for something and you're just happier.
40:05: Isn't that great? Sometimes we've noticed some kids are all too happy to report something that deserves a correction.
40:12: Oh, daddy. Guess who gets to have a correction now, can I watch?
40:18: Right? Schadenfreude, taking pleasure, enjoying someone else's malfortune.
40:26: These things the Lord hates. Proverbs 6, six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to him.
40:34: This is a sort of roundabout way of saying these are the things the
40:39: Lord hates. You know, six, yes, even seven. It's a way of emphasizing all seven. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart devising wicked plans, feet that are swift to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.
40:59: Now, we should not look at that list and think these are all seven disparate features.
41:06: You might have one of the seven, another person has this one from the seven. This is just the same person.
41:11: All these things flow together. It begins somewhere and it ends somewhere. Where does it begin?
41:20: A proud look, a proud look, a looking down, contempt.
41:27: I can't believe they're like that. I would never be like that. What comes next?
41:33: A lying tongue. Do you see what they did? You know, they're always like that.
41:41: Then what happened? Now, it's gone from the look to the mouth to the hands and the feet. Now, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart devising wicked plans, feet running to evil, false witness speaking lies.
41:56: Where does that all end? What's the sort of final product of this? One who sows discord among brethren.
42:02: That's the outcome of all of that. Where does it begin? A proud look, coming out of a lying tongue.
42:09: How you're regarding and what you're communicating. Where does that always end? It always ends with discord, fracture among the brethren.
42:21: And so if we would understand what James is warning against, we would put a watch over our eyes in the way we regard and we would say,
42:27: God, bridle my tongue because I know that it is an abomination for me to somehow in any way be a factor of the fracturing of a congregation, to sow discord among the brethren.
42:41: Whether those seeds grow and blossom or not, the Lord hates it. That's what the ninth commandment requires.
42:49: A charitable esteem. This word charity, it's such a marvelous word. Charity means you're assuming the best.
42:57: It doesn't mean you're naive. You're not willfully blind. You see warts and blemishes, but you're charitable.
43:04: You assume the best. You cover the worst. Not because you're naive, but because you're charitable.
43:10: You have love. That's the old Latin term for love, caritas, where we get our word, charity. 1
43:16: John 3 maintains this is how we know we've passed from darkness into light, because we love the brethren.
43:23: That's an active tense verb, because we are loving the brethren. John does not say because we have loved, sometimes, some of the brethren.
43:34: We know we've passed from darkness into light. John doesn't say because we love most of the brethren, most of the time.
43:43: We've passed from darkness into light. No, he says because we are loving the brethren, all of the brethren, we know that we've passed from darkness into light.
43:56: Do you have a charitable esteem of your neighbor? Do you have a regard for them, a right regard for them? Speaking of hockey, when
44:02: I watch a game, as soon as I find out, you know, I could be rooting against someone, and just, you know, you wanna see their team go down, and everything go wrong for them, and then as soon as you find out one of the players on the opposite team is a
44:15: Christian, it's like, ah, now I kinda wanna root for them. I remember that with Mark Stahl in playoffs some years ago.
44:23: I was just like, ah, come on, you know, beat him up, Luchich, come on, take him down, and then it's like, NHL did this whole
44:28: Pride Night thing, and Mark Stahl was like, I'm not doing that, I'm a Christian, you know, scripture is very clear. I'm like, go,
44:34: Mark Stahl, I'm your biggest fan, you know. This is what happened, that when someone's a brother, it shouldn't be hard to love them in this way.
44:44: The ninth commandment, like many of God's commands, it's very easy until it's not.
44:51: It's very easy until it's not. It's so easy to have a natural love for brothers and sisters in the
45:00: Lord, until one brother or one sister somehow speaks against you, or maybe passes on something that's unfair or untrue about you, and that gets back to you.
45:13: And now all of a sudden, what had been very easy is one of the most painful and difficult commands to keep.
45:21: And you can be in a church, and months can go by where their countenance has fallen, and what once was gleaming and radiant is now like this dark cloud that won't pass.
45:30: Even their love for the Lord begins to sort of denigrate all because of the power of a careless word, all because of a misuse of the tongue, all because a word pierced like a bayonet into someone else's chest.
45:45: We know that it's from the chest that our speech begins. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, proud looks, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy.
45:56: It's coming out of that heart. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
46:01: So what are you filling your heart with? What are you filling your heart with as it's mounting up, because that's gonna be what spills out of your mouth.
46:11: It's out of the abundance of the heart. So what are you filling your heart with?
46:17: What are you filling your mind with? How are you looking? How are you regarding the people around you? It's very hard to be the person that stops gossip rather than be the person that passes it on or perpetuates it.
46:31: Some people receive a report or notice something, and they might as well do this as soon as they see it.
46:36: I can't wait to tell someone about this. The ninth commandment crashes down on that kind of instinct, that kind of pleasure.
46:45: What is amounting in our mind and our heart will always find its way into speech. So the ninth commandment is warning us.
46:52: There's many traps and pitfalls that surround our regard, our conversations we have, however informal, however unwitting they may be.
47:02: Do you contain this razor that you have in your mouth?
47:08: Do you view it in that way? Another thing about this is we rarely think that we're the offenders.
47:15: We always exonerate ourselves. We almost never think that we're the aggressors, especially when we're the ones that we are convinced we've been sinned against.
47:25: It's only right, it's only fair that I set the record straight, and I go and trace this down, and I go and pursue and sort of grab by the collars and say, what did you say about me?
47:37: We always think we're getting the raw end of the deal, that things have been unfair against us. It's what the serpent tried to convince
47:44: Eve of. God hasn't been fair to you. He must not be very good if he's withholding. And even in the times when we have genuinely been sinned against, it's just like, it's there.
47:55: There's no two ways about it. We have been wronged. We have been sinned against. There's a constant danger of sinning in return.
48:01: Christians do not revile in return for reviling. You know how hard that is if you've been in that situation.
48:09: Be careful who your friends are when you're in that situation. Misery loves company. You might say, well,
48:15: I haven't said anything, but I don't have to because all my friends are saying it for me. They're all in my ear saying, yeah, let's talk about them.
48:24: I can't believe they're like this. I can't believe they would say this about you. When you have a cheering section in that way, nothing will go well for your soul.
48:32: Be very careful that you have wise friends that will always encourage you never to return a curse for a curse or reviling for reviling.
48:41: So how should we react when we become aware of gossip or slander, when words are used against us, when speech hurts, how do we respond?
48:51: I thought Thomas Watson did a great application on this. He said, for those whose lot it is to meet with slander, if you stumble into slander, if you're being spoken against, if you're being used, he says, labor, work to make a good use of it.
49:08: Don't waste your slander. Don't waste the gossip that's being passed about you. Make a good use of it.
49:15: Well, what would that look like? He says, well, first examine yourself. See if there's any sin you haven't repented of.
49:22: Because God may suffer you to be reproached because of how you've spoken of others.
49:27: And so examine yourself, see if you should lay your hand on your own mouth and confess that the Lord has been righteous in allowing the punishment to fall on you.
49:36: Or if you are slandered or falsely accused and you know that you're innocent, don't be troubled by it.
49:43: Let your rejoicing be the witness of your conscience. Yeah, that was a lie or that's not fair.
49:51: They don't know the whole story, but it's okay, my conscience is clean before God. Essentially, Jesus had to walk most of his ministry according to that principle.
50:04: Whatever men are saying about me, my conscience is clean before my heavenly Father. A good conscience,
50:12: Watson says, is a wall of brass. It can stand against every false witness. One day the truth will be established and your conscience will only continue to rejoice in that day.
50:24: So don't be too troubled in this life. It's passing like a vapor. A reputation is worth more than silver and gold.
50:33: You get older and you learn the truth of that statement. A good name is to be desired more than riches.
50:39: That's true. Better to be a poor man with a good name than a very wealthy man with a bad name.
50:44: That's true. But in this life, as God's people, we'll often have a lot of people that are against us.
50:51: A lot of people that speak ill of us, manipulate us. Don't be troubled by it.
50:57: Use it. I think Watson's right to say, use it. Make sure your conscience is clean. Examine yourself and then use it.
51:04: Recognize that this is part of what it looks like to walk like your master. No servant's greater than his master. And then recognize
51:11: God will eventually clear the names of his people. The antidote to a poisonous tongue is really right there in James 3.
51:20: Who is wise in understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
51:26: You know, wisdom is a meek virtue. Wisdom is not some belligerent, parading kind of assault.
51:33: Wisdom is a very meek thing. Wisdom is shown in meekness. But if you have bitter envy and self -seeking in your heart, in other words, if the brackish water that's pouring out of one side of your mouth is actually from this bitter wellspring in your heart, don't boast and lie against the truth.
51:51: So again, you have this speaking, this lying, this deception that's at the heart of James 3. Don't boast.
51:57: Don't use your tongue in that arrogant way. Don't lie against what is true. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.
52:08: For where envy and self -seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruit.
52:23: That's the antidote to a poisonous tongue. That is a cement case over a sharp razor.
52:31: One of God's answers to our distressing cries about slander is that he keeps us fixed on him.
52:36: He gives us wisdom from above. And we recognize that because our eyes are fixed on him and not on our own reputation or how people are perceiving us, because we're fearing
52:46: God in this way, we desire to be, first of all, pure in our conduct. We won't revile, we won't return slander.
52:53: Peaceable in that way, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy. That's the antidote.
53:02: Speaking the truth in love, not boastful, not puffed up, but meek and gentle. Remind them,
53:09: Paul tells Titus, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility.
53:28: Why? Well, he goes on to say, because we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
53:48: Pulling up into the driveway, hey. Living that way.
53:56: But when the kindness and the love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.
54:05: And when he saved us, we became peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, because that's how he saved us.
54:15: We had a kind regard toward man in the way that God, in his salvation, had a kind regard toward man.
54:21: And so that's the third and last point. No partiality, no piercing, but peace, all right?
54:27: Speak evil of no one, but be peaceable. In other words, desire peace. Peace, that great picture, it's so much more than the
54:38: English word conveys. Shalom, wholeness. It's what
54:45: James is after, right? Not double -tongued, not double -minded, but made whole, brought to peace.
54:56: And wisdom is sown in peace by those who make peace, James says.
55:01: And so peace is about this wholeness, this unity. We're peaceable, gentle.
55:07: That's why we don't speak evil of any man. That's why we keep the ninth commandments and put a watch over our tongues.
55:14: Ultimately, this peace is something we can only grasp at in this life. It's yet to be fully consummated.
55:20: Peace, in other words, the ultimate wholeness is a future prospect. And so we long for that day.
55:29: Don't you long for that day? Don't you long for a day when no lie is ever uttered ever again?
55:36: You just look at the news feeds. It doesn't matter if it's left or right. It's all rhetoric. It's all based on manipulation and deceit.
55:43: It doesn't matter if it's MSNBC or Newsmax. It's all rhetoric based on manipulation, wanting ad clicks, ad revenue.
55:53: There's not really a concern for parody, for justice, for truth. Don't you long for a world where all lying tongues are cut off evermore?
56:02: I long for that day. When you can speak to a neighbor and never have to second guess their motive?
56:10: When every word comes out of a pure regard? When what's mounting up in your heart is sinless?
56:17: Don't you long for that day? David in Psalm 120, and we open the whole service with this. He's longing for that day.
56:24: In Psalm 120, if David wrote it, I think there's a good case to be made that he wrote it. He's again, as was always the case, he's facing slander.
56:32: He has enemies. And so he says, woe is me. I'm dwelling in the house of Meshach, in the tents of Kedar, this sort of barbarous people, this ruthless and cruel.
56:45: He said, I'm living in the middle of it. Woe is me. And he says in verse six, my soul has dwelt too long with those who hate peace.
57:01: I'm for peace, he says. I'm for peace. But when I speak, they're for war.
57:08: As soon as I open my mouth and I'm trying to be the one who's promoting peace, the warfare, the ruthlessness, the malice comes out.
57:17: Can you relate to David in that way? Can you say, my soul has dwelt too long with those who hate peace? On both sides of the political divide, in every corner of life, they're all for war.
57:32: They're all bloodthirsty men. They're all throwing arrows. They all have bayonet tongues. God's people cannot descend to that kind of vitriol.
57:45: The wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable. Speak evil of no one.
57:51: Be peaceable, Paul said. That's how the early church conquered the
57:57: Roman Empire. Following that, not by having the right puppet, the right talking head, to just spew toxicity into the airwaves.
58:11: Speaking evil of no one. Being completely impartial. That if a self -professed
58:20: Christian was shown to be in the wrong, we would give the verdict.
58:26: We would give the support. We would be on the side of even the most abject enemy of God.
58:34: That's how the Roman Empire got turned upside down. It wasn't with a mob of red hats that Christianity conquered the
58:41: Roman Empire. Please hear me as we approach November. Don't put your trust in princes. Do you long for that day?
58:53: We ought to long for that day. If we're not longing for that day, we're probably putting our hope in this world. We're living in a world of malice and lies.
59:00: Do you long for a day? Can you, like David, say, I've been here too long with those who hate peace.
59:07: I'm for peace. And when I speak, they're for war. And Paul recognizes why he gives this command to Titus.
59:15: Because he says, Titus, I want you to have beautiful feet. And beautiful feet are those who run with this gospel of peace.
59:29: Only then can you have the satisfying comfort. You can say with the psalmist in Psalm 27, teach me your way,
59:35: O Lord. Lead me in a smooth path because of my enemies. Don't deliver me to the will of my adversaries. False witnesses have risen against me.
59:42: And they breathe out violence. I would have lost heart unless I believed
59:47: I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Notice what the psalmist doesn't say.
59:53: He doesn't say, God, please don't hand me over to my adversaries, false witnesses that have risen against me, breathing out violence, but they're getting what's coming to them.
01:00:03: And by the way, I know how to give some punches even as I take them. He doesn't do that. He says, in fact,
01:00:10: I would have lost heart if I didn't believe that I was going to see the goodness of the
01:00:15: Lord in the land of the living. Peace on that coming day, peace as a future prospect, laboring for, realizing that peace as Christians in the here and now.
01:00:28: Only a Christian can even attempt to keep the ninth commandment. If you don't believe the
01:00:37: Lord and you don't believe His word, your whole life is based on a lie. You have no reference beyond yourself.
01:00:43: You're lying just in the way you conceive of yourself and conceive of the world around you.
01:00:49: You're a liar. A Christian can only begin to keep the ninth commandment.
01:00:58: And therefore, in this way, we are those who can speak truth in a world of lies that can use a tongue with peace and purity when everyone else's tongue is a world of iniquity.
01:01:11: Do you see? This is what the Holy Spirit would do in our lives. We should remember, and I say this as an encouragement, as some of you go off to work and increasingly as you're outed as a
01:01:23: Christian, which will eventually be the new way to be outed, and words are spoken against you, and maybe you're poorly treated or maltreated, you need to remember that the day that you long for is a fixed day, it's a sure day.
01:01:40: It's a day when all the traps of the wicked close on themselves, when all the schemes of the unjust entrap them, when slander returns to the slanderer.
01:01:50: This is the kind of world that God created, and even if temporarily justice is not achieved, on that day, it will be.
01:01:58: The day is fixed when God himself will cut off every lying, slanderous tongue, every mouth that speaks lies, deceit, and blasphemy will be silenced forever.
01:02:09: Consider that. Every lying tongue silenced forever. What a glorious day that will be, but you will not be there to enjoy that day in that way if you don't learn how to silence your mouth here and now.
01:02:28: Every mouth must be stopped at the law of God. The ninth commandment says, close your mouth, put a guard on your tongue.
01:02:38: If you don't learn to silence your mouth before the law of God here, your mouth will be silenced on that day at the judgment of God.
01:02:46: That, I can promise you. So the question is, as we come to a close, have you ever, as it were, come to the conclusion that your mouth has been this world of iniquity?
01:02:58: Have you examined yourself? Have you considered the way that you regard the proud looks that you give, the way that you communicate and speak, however carefully manicured and camouflaged it may be?
01:03:09: Have you come to the place, in light of the law of God, in light of the glory of the Lord, that you put your hand over your mouth like Isaiah and say, woe is me,
01:03:19: I'm a man of unclean lips. Unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
01:03:28: That's what God would reveal to His people. Has the commandment brought you to that level of awareness?
01:03:34: Has the law stopped your mouth? Have you felt the tension, but the law, the prospect of judgment, the glory, the prospect of grace, has that muzzled you?
01:03:47: Has that stopped your tongue? Has that put the sword back in its scabbard? Whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped.
01:03:59: That's what Paul says in Romans 3. Has the law stopped your mouth? Martin Lloyd -Jones, in his exposition on Romans 3,
01:04:08: I mean, his whole exposition of Romans is tremendous, but in Romans 3, 19 through 21, he says, when you realize what the law is truly saying to you, when you realize what the ninth commandment is telling you this morning, the result is every mouth shall be stopped.
01:04:25: You're rendered speechless. You're not a Christian unless you've been made speechless,
01:04:31: Lloyd -Jones says. How do you know whether a man's a Christian? The answer is his mouth has been shut.
01:04:39: I like this forthrightness of the gospel, Lloyd -Jones says. People need to have their mouths stopped.
01:04:46: The law of God goes forth, and people just keep babbling and exonerating themselves, and oh, yeah, but you
01:04:52: Christians, and you and that just keep babbling and babbling and babbling away. Lloyd -Jones says, you're not a Christian.
01:04:57: You haven't even begun. You don't even understand the issues. You're a Christian when, for the first time, God's law goes forth, and your mouth is shut.
01:05:06: You're defenseless. You've got nothing to say. I'm guilty. Woe is me.
01:05:13: How shall I escape the just judgment of God who shows no partiality? Will you recognize this?
01:05:23: Jesus never blasphemed. Jesus never lied. Jesus never cast a single proud look, not even once.
01:05:34: Jesus never had an iota of malice toward even his worst offender.
01:05:42: If you knew that one of your closest friends that you devoted constant prayer toward and ceaseless love toward for three years of your life, if you knew that he was going to hand you over, kiss you on the cheek, and watch you be torn apart on a
01:06:01: Roman crucifix, would you eat your last meal with him? Would you break bread with him?
01:06:08: Would you have wine with him? Jesus never cast a proud look, never had a hint of malice toward a neighbor.
01:06:17: But when they crucified him, they said, he's a liar. He's a blasphemer. Why aren't you answering?
01:06:24: Why aren't you opening your mouth? Don't you hear what all these liars and false witnesses are saying against you? So why did
01:06:31: Jesus not open his mouth? Why did he remain silent? Even the high priest says, what man won't defend himself?
01:06:37: The law is being thrown at you. You're a blasphemer. You're about to be crucified. Why won't you open your mouth?
01:06:46: Because he was standing in our place. And the law of God was coming upon him in all of its furious condemnation.
01:06:55: And because he was standing as you and as me, he could not open his mouth. He could not make a plea against it.
01:07:02: He had to receive that judgment and fall upon the cross. And so his mouth, his life was muzzled out, was silenced under the condemnation of the law of God, taking the place of a liar and a blasphemer and someone who casts proud looks, someone who looks with scorn and contempt on neighbors, someone who thinks the best of himself and the worst of others, so that God could show mercy to someone like me and someone like you.
01:07:40: And let me tell you, when you become a Christian, because your mouth has been stopped by the law, as soon as you become a
01:07:45: Christian and receive that mercy, your mouth cannot stay shut for long. The law silences you, but the gospel opens your mouth to sing.
01:07:54: And then you're like Wesley saying, oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. I want a thousand mouths to sing because of what
01:08:02: God has done to me. Recognize that Jesus' mouth was stopped before the law when he took our place in judgment and God showed him no partiality.
01:08:14: And he was pierced and he brought us peace. He was pierced for our transgressions and the chastisement that brought us peace was laid upon him.
01:08:27: And so as we long for that day, we long for the day when we'll be with him who received the condemnation for the ninth commandment, do the us, who saved for himself a people who had been full of malice, envy, spite, haters of one another.
01:08:46: And by his own spirit is transforming us from one degree of glory to the next to be first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield full of mercy and good fruit.
01:08:59: This is why we keep the ninth commandment. We long for that day when the one who alone can say, I am the truth, will finally forever sever the life of the murderer from the beginning, the father of lies, who speaks lies because he speaks out of his own character.
01:09:16: This is why, brothers and sisters, we must be men and women who speak the truth. Men and women who have a charitable esteem for our neighbor, men and women who will promote our neighbor's good name.
01:09:27: When gossip comes, when slander, however well manicured, comes our way, it ends with us.
01:09:32: It's not cycled, it's not circulated. We put a guard over our mouth because we know we have a flamethrower.
01:09:38: We know we have a bayonet for a tongue and we would run it right through someone we're sitting next to. This is why we keep the ninth commandment.
01:09:46: We wield our speech, we wield our regard toward peace. Let me close just with this challenge since we'll be there in a few weeks time when we get to Matthew 5, 37 and following, where Jesus teaches on the ninth commandment.
01:10:01: Let me issue this as a challenge. Go and learn what this means. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God, amen?
01:10:12: Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.
01:10:19: Lord, we're amazed to consider your sacrifice.
01:10:26: We're amazed to consider, Lord, that when all of our mouths should have been stopped, your righteous, pure, and holy mouth was silenced because you were standing in our place doing what we should have done, but we could have never done.
01:10:46: We praise you, Lord. We magnify your grace. We thank you for this gospel of peace that has reconciled us to God.
01:10:53: We pray, Lord, that we would live worthy of this gospel, that we would put a watch over our mouths,
01:10:59: Lord. I pray that there would be no discord sown among the brethren here, but Lord, that you would answer ceaseless prayers for unity and peace in our body,
01:11:11: Lord, for we know that the enemy will seek to disrupt and set one over against another.
01:11:17: This is his way to pillage and destroy, to set back or distract, to prevent us from growing and bringing glory to you and accomplishing your work in this world.
01:11:28: And so preserve us, Lord, I pray. For those who are maligned, whose name has been trampled on,
01:11:34: Lord, may they rejoice in a clean conscience, Lord. Even where their own failures,
01:11:41: Lord, weigh them down, their own shortcomings, Lord, are grievous to them, may they recognize that there is a fountain filled with blood where they can purify their conscience from dead works.
01:11:54: We thank you for that fountain. Help us fly to it. Even this morning, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.