Exodus 23 - Lies, Misinformation & Loving Your Enemy (Part 1)

The Law of God and the Danger of False Reports

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this evening. We thank you for Exodus chapter 23 and the commands that we see in it. We thank you for your law. And Father, even though salvation does not come through the law, there is great wisdom in the law.

So Father, as we look to your word this evening, may you open our eyes and open our hearts. May we receive a blessing from thy word, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, Exodus chapter 23 begins in verse one, says, you shall not circulate a false report.

And I just wanna stop there and spend some time on this. You shall not circulate a false report. So we've been looking at the law of God and how relevant it is. And certainly this commandment is extra relevant.

It's closely associated, obviously, with the ninth commandment, thou shall not bear false witness. And it's very relevant in our day, aside from all of the lying that you have in any generation, that's a constant.

The scripture says what? Let God be true in every man. A liar. A liar. So not only do you have those things, you have conspiracy theories that abound, misinformation, not only from individuals, but you have this from government and media sources as well.

And I think we need to make a distinction before we get too far into this. I think we need to make a distinction between talking amongst friends, trying to sort out what's true and what isn't. We hear so many different things.

We have to talk to people and try to figure out what's true. So I think there's a difference between talking amongst friends and family, trying to sort this out, and someone stating something as fact that you are to believe this.

Sorting through information, stating something as fact. So I think there's a difference between the two. I don't know when the term was first used, but we've certainly all heard by now of fake news. There's not a person in the nation, if not the world, who has not heard that term.

And lest anyone think that I'm trying to make a partisan point, let's just acknowledge the obvious. That kind of thing was going on long before anyone ever coined the phrase. So there's nothing new under the sun, the Bible says.

It's just that in our nation, or in the world maybe, things have reached epic proportions. So there's the typical political spin. There are the outright lies. Let's face it, there's a lot of religious misinformation.

Right, you have false prophets and false teachers saying all sorts of different things in Jesus' name, things that are not true and not accurate. There's the medical misinformation. And every government, we should know this, every government traffics in propaganda.

I mean, that's just true across the board. Now, it may be small, it may be minor, or it may be to a greater extent. And I don't wanna get too far off topic, but I think this is an important subject that we need to look at.

So again, the scripture says in Romans 3, verse four, let God be true and every man a liar. So anyone who is feeling just sick or confused or anxious or depressed about all of the things floating around out there, if you go to God's word, you're not gonna feel that way.

So that's a safe place, okay? The church should be a safe place to use that phrase. And the Bible is a safe book. Everybody on earth has lied. And I think everybody has probably circulated a false report at one point or another.

It might've been unintentional, it might've been intentional. But if we take the law of God seriously, and hopefully we all do, amen. If we take the law of God seriously, we need to be careful about these things.

Not only is it wrong to spread lies and to spread and to repeat propaganda, it can harm our credibility. We bear the name of Christ. We should not be known as the people who just willy nilly just spread false information.

And it can even affect the gospel ministry. If you lose your credibility in one area, are people gonna listen when you try to tell them about spiritual things? So here's my point and how I think about this.

I may suspect things. I may even be pretty well convinced about something. That doesn't mean that I should go around proclaiming it as true, certainly not saying that or repeating it from the pulpit. There are certain things that you might think that you don't necessarily proclaim in church.

So I need to be careful. We all need to be careful because false reports are being circulated like never before. So what's the danger there? It's easy to be swept up in it all. It's easy to be swept up in a movement where everyone around you is saying the same thing.

And that really emboldens a person when they think something and everyone around them agrees. So you gotta get swept up in the movement and then everyone gets all whipped up about it. And then someone says, we need to do something about this.

And then you find yourself tempted to maybe approve of things, actions, that you would never have approved of otherwise. So this is classic manipulation, things that are going on, demagoguery. And if a person buys into it, and this is what Moses is gonna continue with, if a person buys into it, they can end up becoming a partaker in their evil deeds.

So let me just read this again. You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. So it starts with the false report.

Everyone saying the same thing, get all worked up. We need to do something. And then you find yourself going along with things that five years ago, nobody could have convinced you that you would have gone along with such things.

So that's how I believe that the devil is working right now. So just think about this as an example. Many of us will look back in history at World War II and you think, how could something like that ever happen?

How could a population of a nation so turn against a certain people group of the Jews and either affirm what was going on or at least turn a blind eye to it? Have you ever wondered that? How could these people go along with this?

Some of them didn't know the full extent of it, obviously. But many did, and they went along with it, why? Well, during World War II, it started, you know what it started with? Circulating false reports.

There was misinformation and conspiracies spread about the Jewish people and the Germans bought into it. The Nazis said the Jews were carrying disease. There were conspiracies that they were trying to subvert and destroy the nation from within.

Now, were there some who are carrying disease? Well, yeah, I mean, there are people that carry disease. That's true, but to put it all on one people. Were there some even trying to subvert the nation?

Probably, there are probably some, but there's people of all walks of life who do that kind of thing. So there is misinformation to try to scapegoat this people group, and all of a sudden, everyone around them felt the same way, repeating the same thing.

We need to do something, something was done, and everyone kind of either went along with it, or they turned a blind eye. What is the saying, how does it go? Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.

So circulating a false report, this is very serious. Oh, oh, the law of God's not relevant to our life. Yeah, it really is, though.

Yes. Yeah, there's another saying that the first fatality of love and war is true. Amen.

So I just want to give a couple, address a couple areas specifically, because we are not to circulate a false report. Government officials and their supporters in the news media literally do this every single day, every single day, and if they continue to do it, and if we go along with it, and they remain unrepentant, what are they doing?

They are storing up for themselves wrath for the day of wrath. So I think most of us know this is happening. So pointing this out, I realize it's kind of like saying that, hey, the sky is blue, and the grass is green.

You might say, pastor, tell me something I don't already know. I think we all get it, but there's another side to this. When we see it happening, we can't succumb to the temptation to start doing it ourselves, to maybe even try to counteract some of the things that are going on.

So they might be declaring things to be true that are not true. The powers that be may be spreading conspiracies and misinformation. That doesn't give us license to do the same thing. Again, talking with friends and family about what's going on and trying to sort through complicated issues, that's one thing.

We need to be able to do that, but we need to be careful about what we say. And here's the thing, we need to be careful about what we say and who we say it to. So declaring theories and speculation, talking about it with your friends is one thing.

Declaring this as a fact is something very different. All right, any questions or comments so far? All right, so we're not to circulate a false report. I think the best advice that I could give is to try to categorize information.

The things that we know, the things that we think we know, the things that we just don't know, right? They're the things that we know from the word of God, right? We as Christians, we believe we can trust every word of the scripture.

Somebody once said that the Bible is full of lies. And you know, that's true. There are a lot of lies in the Bible, but it doesn't present lies as lies or as truth. It presents the lies as lies. In the first few chapters, chapter three of Genesis, the Bible contains a lie in it, but it presents it as a lie.

So the Bible never records lies as truth. So we need to take the things that we know are true, things from God's word, things that we have experienced with our own eyes and ears, those basic things like two plus two equal four, you know, that we know.

These are things that we know. Then we have the things that we are told, right? The things that we are told that seem plausible. I mean, this could be true, right? This seems like it's reasonable. But I think in our current situation, we have to take everything with a grain of salt because you don't really know.

Even if it, well, that's possible, you don't really know. And then there's the information that's just preposterous. And you can usually tell because last week they said one thing, this week they're saying the exact opposite.

One of the purposes of propaganda is not to convince, at least communist propaganda, the purpose said to humiliate, that they do things and they tell you things. They know it's not true. You know it's not true.

You know that they know that you know it's not true. And yet they say it anyways, just to say, hey, we can kind of do whatever we want and you need to go along with it. I think that's either we're at that level or we're really, really close.

So those things that are just preposterous, again, we need to have a healthy level of skepticism. But those things, you know, just tune it out. I think that's the best advice I could give, just tune it all out.

We need to do what? Focus on obeying God first and foremost, living lives of integrity before God. He's promised that he's going to work all things together for our good. You know, if we love him, and how do we show that we love him?

By keeping his commandments. So being faithful to God and obeying God, that's enough on your plate, okay? You don't need to worry about everything else. If you can focus on that, leave the consequences to him.

So just because the world seemingly has gone mad, it doesn't mean that you need to go mad, because you will if you just keep it coming in. So this is my advice from a few weeks ago, more Bible, less television.

And I'm not against television, maybe I should be. Maybe I'm going to change my position on that. You can understand how things are just getting crazy. So more Bible, less television. Let me add to that, more prayer, less social media.

How much time does the average Christian spend in church, reading the Bible, praying, you know, just doing those basic spiritual disciplines? I mean, I don't know. I mean, you can think about, add it up.

During the course of a week, how much time do you spend? How much time does the average Christian spend on their phone, sorting through things and watching television and just taking in all of that stuff?

If you had to guess, if you were to poll, honestly, all the professing evangelicals in the nation, which one do you think would be higher? I mean, just, it could be 10 to one. You know, I don't know. So more Bible, less television, more prayer, less social media.

Am I off base here or is this okay?

Why do you think the Wi-Fi is failed here?

Yeah. Imagine, imagine if we didn't have, that would complicate things because now we're so dependent on the internet to pay our bills and for all sorts of different things. But imagine if all of a sudden we didn't have that instant internet access.

If all of a sudden we didn't have television in our homes. Maybe that's what it would take to bring a spiritual revival. I don't know. If you knew that's what it would take, would you be willing to do it?

So verse one says, you shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Verse two, you shall not follow a crowd to do evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.

So when you hear a false report and you know it's false, because let's face it, sometimes we don't really know. We're skeptical and all the rest, but when you hear something that's false and you know it's false, what should you do?

You should say something. If you know it's false, then it's on you to speak up and hopefully put an end to it. So if you know something is false and you do nothing, or you try just to remain neutral, and that's kind of a temptation, I just want to stay out of it, but you risk becoming complicit in that thing.

Without getting into the specifics, this is why many Christians today are not going along with everything that we're told to go along with, because we don't want to become complicit. There's a lot of things that I don't do or wouldn't do because I feel, based on my conscience, that I would be complicit in the whole ordeal.

So notice Moses writes, you shall not circulate a false report. So the word circulate, the word in the Hebrew, it's not just spreading it, that hey, I'm gonna tell somebody something that's not true. It can also refer to receiving something and just, oh, okay, yeah, and you're just accepting what someone else says.

One commentator puts it this way. The inventor and the receiver of false and slanderous reports are almost equally guilty. So again, if we hear something that's being spread and we're not saying anything about it and we're just maybe trying to remain neutral, are we guilty or not as guilty as the one who started it?

Because you're still guilty. Yeah, going back to the World War II analogy. To be a soldier and to follow orders, were they guilty? Were they complicit? Yeah, they were charged with war crimes, weren't they?

Now, to be just an average citizen, I don't think average citizens were ever charged, but if they knew what was going on and they just let it happen and didn't raise a finger to do anything about it, would they be held accountable?

Maybe not in a human court, would they be held accountable before God? Am I my brother's keeper?

What's the answer to that? Yes, Marcus. If you are aware of a crime that has occurred and do not testify or report against it, then you are an accessory to that crime.

Now, I'm trying to leave this intentionally vague. I'm not getting into specifics and I'm not tying myself down because honestly, there's a lot of things that I suspect and I think, and some of you have heard what I think about certain things, but I don't really know.

So I'm intentionally leaving things vague so that the spirit of God can minister in each heart as he would. Because ultimately, I don't know that any of us in this room really know what's happening with a whole variety of different subjects.

So if, again, if this stuff worries a person or if you're just sick of it or you feel like everyone else is crazy, well, maybe I'm crazy. I woke up one morning, I said, and I felt like the whole world had gone insane.

And what does that do? It makes you question, well, it must be me because everybody else is, it must be me. Well, if you feel like that, tune it out, focus on God's word, the things that you know for certain, obey God, do what you can when those situations come up.

All right, moving on, unless anyone has anything else.

Yes, Dennis. An illustration that I remember somebody sharing with me once about bearing false witness. You've probably heard it before, but let's just say a person ran to their pastor and said, oh, I've done the most awful thing.

I've said false things about someone and now I know that it wasn't accurate and whatever. And so the pastor said, well, what I want you to do is go home and take one of the feather pillows from your room and rip it open and shake it outside the window on your second floor.

And so this person goes home and does it, comes back, okay, I did that. Now what am I supposed to do? He said, now go and find all the feathers and pick them up. Yeah, I remember when someone shared that, it was a real kick in the face.

It was so, yeah.

Justice for All: Partiality, the Poor, and the Rich

Yeah, anybody else? Okay, starting in verse three, we see the topic of showing partiality. Now in the New Testament, we see the book of James. James addresses, well, he talks about the law of God applied and part of what James talks about is showing partiality to the rich.

Okay, Moses here is talking about showing partiality to the poor. James talks about it, showing it to the rich. Which do you think is more common? Well, probably to the rich, most likely, right? Verse three says, you shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute.

So why are you to not show partiality to the poor? Well, this passage of scripture, chapter 23, at least in the New King James version, it's titled justice for all. So under God's system, and I think we've agreed, hopefully, that God's system is better.

God's ways are better. So under God's system, there is no class warfare under God's system. Under God's system, the same rules apply to everybody. No matter where you are, rich or poor, doesn't matter.

Same rules for anyone. Anything less than this, while people might try to use the word justice, it's actually anything but. So you cannot show partiality to the poor. Well, they need help. You know, they don't have the same advantages, so we need to show partiality to them just to kind of help them out.

We feel bad. What does the law of God say? That's unjust. So don't show it to the rich. Don't show it to the poor. When I read verse four, or verses four and five, it brings to mind what Jesus said about loving your enemies.

So we've talked about some things so far that might be relevant or controversial. This is going to be the really challenging part of this lesson, okay? So turn to Matthew chapter five, if you would. In Matthew chapter five, you remember what Jesus said?

You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. So that's how the Jews had distorted the word of God because some of them were saying, or the rabbis were teaching, yes, it is okay, it is just for you to hate your enemy, but the law of God says otherwise.

What does the law of God say? I need to look here, verses four and five. If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. So just because he's your enemy, it doesn't give you the right to not help him or not do the right thing.

So Jesus says, look at verse 43, you have heard that it was said, and notice those words. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Some people actually have the idea that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is correcting Moses.

Who believes that? Okay, good, because that's not what he's doing. So Jesus, you have heard that it was said. He doesn't say it is written. If he says it is written, then Jesus would be doing what? Yeah, referencing the scripture, but he says you've heard it said.

So this is what the rabbis were saying about the scripture. This is their interpretation of it. So yeah, again, Exodus 23, verse four, if you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.

What is this? Love your neighbor, love your neighbor. Just because someone is your personal enemy, and sometimes we have enemies. Do you have enemies? Some of you probably do, some of you probably don't.

But just because you have a personal enemy, it doesn't give you permission to hate that person. Instead, Jesus says, do the opposite. So we'll end here in just a moment. But this will be, so this will be part one of Exodus 23.

We'll, Lord willing, finish next week. But if you have a personal enemy, here's my challenge for you tonight. If you have a personal enemy, kind of envision who they are. Don't say it out loud, okay? Pray to God about it.

Maybe going back to what we discussed before, maybe they're your enemy because they circulated a false report about you. That's very common. So my challenge for you this week, and it's, I believe it's God's challenge because this is biblical.

Pray about it and ask God that he would give you an opportunity to do something kind for your enemy. Or maybe that person that you just dislike, maybe they dislike you, maybe you dislike them. Whatever it is, pray to God that he would give you an opportunity to do something kind for them.

You probably don't want to, right? But this is called spiritual growth. If you wanna grow spiritually, we need to do things like this. We need to allow God to kind of push us out of our comfort zone a little bit.

So pray that the Lord would open a door for you to do something kind for your enemy. You're probably not gonna come across his ox coming down the road. I mean, it'll be something different. But when God opens the door, look for it.

I believe he will. I believe he will. So wait for that door to open and then walk through it. Look at Matthew 5, 9, and 10. Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Maybe the person doesn't like you because you're a Christian. And you actually talk about Christ. Sometimes that's enough.

Verse 43, again, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you that you may be sons of your father in heaven for he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? So in conclusion, as Christians who have been born again by the spirit of God, why is it, ultimately, why is it that we need to love our enemies?

Because before we came to saving faith, we were enemies of God, and yet Christ loved us. Colossians chapter one says exactly that, that we were once alienated from God, that we were enemies of him in our minds by wicked works, yet Christ has reconciled us.

And then Romans 5, eight says, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.