LAW HOMILY: HIDING HATRED IN THE SHADOWS

The Shepherd's Church

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Every week we look at one of the commands from the Ten Commandments in our law section, and today we're gonna be looking at the

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Ninth Commandment, which is Exodus 20, verse 16. This is what it says. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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Now, the Ninth Commandment is not just about lying in court, but it's about the courtroom of everyday life where reputations are either protected or dragged through the mud.

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And one of the most common and most tolerated and most deadly violations of this in church culture is the sin of gossip.

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Gossip is not merely saying something false, but it's saying something damaging. It's saying something half true that may be kind of accurate, but if it's spoken in a way that wounds someone behind their back or ruins their reputation, or that it would grieve them if they heard it repeated, then it is a sin.

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The Ninth Commandment demands that we guard our neighbor's reputation and their name as our own.

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Gossip does the opposite. It lays their name on the table like a carcass and invites others to take a bite.

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And let's be clear, this is not a harmless sin. It's one of the chief assassins of a healthy church that leads to splits and breakups and ruin.

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It splits congregations. It turns friends cold. It turns sessions against each other.

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It breaks women's ministries apart over almost small things.

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It pits men against one another behind false smiles and it gives Satan exactly what he wants, a body of Christ that devours itself with its own mouth.

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Proverbs 26 20 says, for lack of wood, the fire goes out and where there is no gossiper, strife dies.

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But where gossip lives, division lives. Where gossip is starved, however, peace returns.

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And yet how casually we treat these things and we often cloak it in concern.

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We say things like, I just needed to vent or I thought you should know about this.

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But if you would be ashamed for the person that you're talking about to walk in the same room hearing what you're saying, then you ought not say it.

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If your words bruise, accuse, assume or degrade, then you're not speaking as a

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Christian, you're reflecting Christ. Remember, it was the Lord who said, if you have a sin against your brother, go to him, not to others, at least not at first.

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Today, all of us have spoken carelessly. We've spoken careless words about someone that we shouldn't have said.

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So let us repent. Ask the Lord if you don't know what those words are to reveal those words to you.

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And if you have been perfect in this area, well, congratulations, repent of another sin because I'm sure you have one.

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Let's pray. Lord, it's not something that we often think about.

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Yeah, we think about not gossiping the negative, but we often don't think about the positive of the command that we ought to protect our neighbor and protect their name and protect their reputation.

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How as a matter of loving our neighbors, we love ourself, we also protect them. And if there's something that we believe is going on in their life that ought to not be happening or if there's a sin, or even if it's just a preference, that we would have the maturity to go to them and to not speak with loose lips.

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Lord, guard our hearts and guard our mouths. Lord, forgive us as we fall short of these things.

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Forgive us as we've said things that we shouldn't have said. Help us to repent, help us to love each other as Christ loves us.

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And Lord, help us when we sin to remember that we have a true and faithful advocate for us,

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Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, who buried our sins, and who rose to give us new life.

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It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. For all of us who have sinned,

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Isaiah 12, two through three is good news. Behold, God is my salvation.

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I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation.

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Therefore, you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. This is the same guy who said, woe is me when he saw

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God. He thought his own body was gonna be ripped apart because God's holiness was that concentrated, and yet here he is saying, behold,

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God is my salvation. And the only way that's possible is if Isaiah was covered by something, because the pure, holy presence of God is so strong it would have ripped him apart.

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So Isaiah is looking forward to Jesus Christ that we now look back to to say he is our covering.

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He's what makes us holy. He's what purifies us. He's what brings us salvation so that we may have joy.