Confessions of a Church: False Witness

The Psalm writer wrote:  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received.   This is the word of God.  It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.

Proverbs 19:1-10  Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity Than he who is perverse in speech and is a fool. Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, And he who hurries his footsteps errs. The foolishness of man ruins his way, And his heart rages against the Lord. Wealth adds many friends, But a poor man is separated from his friend. A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who tells lies will not escape. Many will seek the favor of a generous man, And every man is a friend to him who gives gifts. All the brothers of a poor man hate him; How much more do his friends abandon him! He pursues them with words, but they are gone. He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; He who keeps understanding will find good. A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who tells lies will perish. Luxury is not fitting for a fool; Much less for a slave to rule over princes.

The Ninth Commandment is “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”. The westminster shorter catechism, Q. 76, regarding the ninth commandment says this: “The ninth commandment requireth the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbors good name; especially in witness bearing.” Children, Fathers, Mothers, God hates lying lips. The proverb on this Lord’s Day says false witnesses will not go unpunished, and liars will not escape, but will perish. Fibs, deceptions, half truths, embellishments, omissions, exaggerations, and any other speech which distorts the truth, and paints our neighbor in any light other than the truth, amounts to bearing false witness and lying. Lying is a distortion of the image of God, because God is not a liar. In this brave new world of Tweets and Facebook Live, we have the ability to take our false witnessing and lying to new heights, with our lies and slander able to reach multitudes of itching ears instantaneously. How have you fared in this area of modern life? Are all of your words wholesome, truthful, and issuing from a pure heart? Children, when your parents ask you about the altercation between you and your sibling, is your answer a resounding “ Yes Mam” or “No mam”, or is it filled with a string of half truths and colorful stories meant to sway your parent one way or another? Brothers and sisters, how about your speech in the workplace, on the sidewalk doing ministry, in the quiet of your room at night with your spouse, are all of your words and thoughts truthful? The tongue is a flame of fire, the very world of iniquity, it defiles the entire body, sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell, and Liars will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. Let us repent, confess our sins unto the Lord, and rejoice not in iniquity but in the truth. Join me in kneeling, if able, as we confess how we have failed to keep God’s Law.

Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we cry out to You this morning for more of Your mercy and grace. We thank You that Your Son Jesus is full of grace and truth, because oftentimes we are full of lies. Lord, please help us to be slow to speak, help us to consider how we sin against You when we do not speak the truth. Heavenly Father, we know that to always speak the truth will bring us into conflict with the world and the schemes of Satan, please forgive us for taking the coward's path of lying to avoid this conflict, and give us courage to always speak the truth, regardless of the cost to us. Please forgive us for all the ways we distort Your image when lying, and please grant us repentant hearts, that we might live in light of the grace we have received. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

Listen now to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to all that believe: 

Romans 6: 4- 11 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Lift up your hearts!!!!

(From the 6-11-18 liturgy of Sovereign King Church.  Written by Aaron Sabie.)