And the title of my sermon tonight is bearing false witness.
I want to home in particularly on one of the 10 commandments that we just read.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
What does that mean?
Well, the Bible talks a lot about that subject of bearing false witness against thy neighbor.
Let's start out by looking at a bunch of scriptures in the book of Proverbs flip over.
If you went to Proverbs chapter six, Proverbs chapter six, the Bible says, while you're turning there, I'll read for you.
Psalm 35, 11, false witnesses did rise up, they laid to my charge things that I knew not.
So the psalmist here is talking about being charged with things that he was totally unaware of, right?
He's being accused of things that he's not guilty of.
And when we think of charges or being charged with, we think of a courtroom, right?
You're arrested by the police and you're charged with a crime.
And then you go to court and you're judged whether you're guilty or whether you're not guilty.
And there are witnesses that take the stand and they testify against you or they testify on your behalf or they just give a neutral testimony about the facts of the case.
But when the Bible says thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor, what the Bible is talking about is someone who would lie or fabricate evidence against someone.
So they would go into court, for example, take the stand, swear to tell the truth and then say, yes, I saw him get in his car at this time and it never happened.
Or yes, he was there at the scene of the crime and they didn't really see anything.
Wouldn't that be a false witness?
That would be bearing false witness against your neighbor, lying about someone in order to get them convicted of a crime.
We talk about this in our modern vernacular in the United States as perjury when someone lies under oath.
And the Bible does also use that word, perjured persons in the New Testament.
Look at Proverbs chapter six, verse 16.
The Bible says these things, these six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations.
Feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among brethren.
So we see that bearing false witness involves lying, right?
It's not telling the truth.
It is actually getting up and telling lies.
Now, what is the difference between a lie and telling the truth?
Well, when you're telling the truth, you are telling what really happened.
The truth is reality, right?
Another word for truth is reality, you know, what actually took place.
Now, when someone lies, they are knowingly, willingly distorting reality, right?
They're not just mistaken.
If somebody is mistaken, are they lying?
No.
Lying is when you decide to say something that's not true knowingly and willfully, right?
And so the false witness is one that speaks lies.
Look at chapter 12, verse 17.
We're just going to go through a bunch of these in Proverbs quickly.
Proverbs chapter 12, verse 17.
He that speaketh truth showeth forth righteousness, but a false witness deceit.
So a false witness is a deceiver.
Look at chapter 14, verse 5.
While you're turning there, I'll read for you from Proverbs 25, 18.
A man that beareth false witness against his neighbor is a maul and a sword and a sharp arrow.
What the Bible is saying is when you bear a false witness against your neighbor, you are attacking them with a weapon.
Why?
Because if you go to court and testify against someone, there's a punishment that's coming.
And you are causing this person to be wrongfully or unjustly punished.
Now, a lot of people will justify doing this because they think to themselves, well, the person's guilty anyway.
So if I fabricate a little bit of evidence or bear false witness, it's okay because I know they're guilty anyway.
This is what the police will often do, where they arrest somebody and they're convinced that that person is guilty.
And they're afraid that some slick lawyer is going to get them off the hook.
So what do they do?
They plant a little bit of additional evidence just to sort of seal the deal and make sure that they get convicted.
You know what that is?
That is something that the Lord hates.
That is wickedness.
Or the police will lie about the facts because they say, well, this person's guilty and I don't want them to get off the hook.
Look, everybody deserves a fair trial.
Everybody deserves true witnesses getting up and speaking what they actually saw.
The ends does not justify the means.
So even if we are convinced that someone's guilty, that doesn't give us the right to tell lies about that person to try to make sure that they get convicted.
And that's what he's warning about there.
Look what the Bible says in chapter 14, where you are in verse 5.
A faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness will utter lies.
So it's pretty clear the difference between being a faithful witness and being a false witness, right?
You're either telling the truth or you're telling a lie.
Chapter 19, verse 5.
Go to chapter 19, verse 5.
The Bible's really clear about how God feels about this.
A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
Look at verse 9.
A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
What's he saying?
God's not going to let you get away with this.
If you're planting evidence, if you're lying about what you've witnessed and claiming to see things or hear things that you didn't actually see and hear, you're not going to get away with it.
You're going to be punished.
Look at chapter 21, verse 28.
It says a false witness shall perish, but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
See, the one that actually heard, okay, is different than the false witness who claims that he heard things that he didn't actually hear, claims that he saw things that he didn't actually see.
This is bearing false witness.
Let's jump to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 19.
Let's go into the law of God.
Deuteronomy 19.
While you're turning to Deuteronomy 19, I'll read for you from Exodus 23.
Thou shalt not raise a false report.
Put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to rest judgment.
He's saying don't jump on the bandwagon and just say, oh, yeah, I saw him do that, too.
Oh, yeah, I saw her do that, too.
I heard that, too, and just make things up, just kind of get in on the party.
That's bearing false witness against your neighbor.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 19, verse 15.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin, and any sin that he sinneth at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established.
If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong, then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days, and the judges shall make diligent inquisition.
And behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother, then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother.
So shalt thou put the evil away from among you, and those which remain shall hear and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
And then I shall not pity, but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Now, what does this mean?
The Bible is saying here that the punishment for being a false witness is simple.
Whoever they're testifying against, whatever the punishment would be if that person were declared guilty, that's the punishment you give to them.
And in some cases, it might seem like an extreme punishment.
And that's why he says, Thine eyes shall not pity, but life shall go for life.
So that means if there's a trial, and the charge is first degree murder, and death penalty is the punishment, and somebody rises up and says, yes, I saw him get in the car and drive down the street at this time, and he was leaving the house in a hurry, and he looked disheveled, and it turns out he wasn't even there, and the person willfully knowingly lied, that person would literally receive the death penalty for being a false witness.
Or the woman who says, I was raped.
Right? Well, what's the punishment for rape, according to the Bible?
Death.
You know, if some woman lied and said, oh, I was raped, then she would be put to death.
Okay?
Or let's say in the modern society, you know, what's the punishment for rape?
It's probably what, a certain amount of years in prison.
Then basically, according to this principle, it'd be like, okay, we'll put her in prison for that time.
Or the one who said that he saw it happen and it didn't really happen.
They go to prison for that amount of time.
Whatever.
Let's say someone claims that they saw someone stealing, and the punishment is to pay back fourfold.
And they stole $100 worth of merchandise, supposedly, allegedly, right?
And this false witness accuses them of that.
Turns out the false witness was lying, then that person would have to pay the $400.
So the punishment for being a false witness varies based upon the severity of the crime that's being accused.
So if it's, you know, on one end of the extreme of a first-degree murder, then it could be the death penalty for bearing false witness.
If it's, you know, just something like stealing or something more minor, you know, then that penalty is appropriate as well.
So this shows that God's very serious about this thing of being a false witness because he says, don't pity.
Don't feel bad and say, well, that's a little harsh.
No, it's pretty harsh to be a false witness.
You know, justice is a sacred thing.
And people have the right, if they're on trial, to have witnesses that will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
And someone coming in and lying and giving tainted evidence and planting evidence is a very serious crime in the eyes of God.
But let's get a spiritual application of this.
Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter 15.
So that's the literal primary application of this thing of bearing false witness, right?
Going to court and saying, hey, I saw him do this or I saw her leaving the scene of the crime or, you know, I saw that bloody glove or whatever the case may be.
But also, there's another kind of witnessing that the Bible talks a lot about, you know, when we preach the gospel, the Bible calls that witnessing.
You know, when we go out soloning, that's referred to as witnessing, right?
People will call it that.
And he said in Acts 1-8, you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and in all Sumerian and in the uttermost parts of the earth.
He's talking about preaching the gospel.
And there's even a false religion out there called the Jehovah's Witnesses.
And they are truly the Jehovah's false witnesses.
This whole sermon is for them because this is all they do, is preach lies.
And let's get into a spiritual application.
Look at 1 Corinthians 15 verse 12.
Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
I mean, how can you call yourself a Christian and not believe in the resurrection of the dead?
If there be no resurrection of the dead, verse 13, then is Christ not risen?
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
Yea, and we are found what?
False witnesses of God.
Why?
Because we've testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, year yet in your sin.
So according to the Bible, all of Christianity, all of the Gospel, all of our faith and salvation hinges on this one fact that Christ is risen from the dead, right?
This is the key thing where if we remove it, Christianity falls apart.
We have no salvation, our faith is vain, our preaching is vain.
We might as well all go home, if you're not going to believe in the resurrection of the dead.
Now I've got bad news for you, the Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now this may come as a surprise to you, and they might say, well sure we believe in the resurrection, but when they say resurrection, they don't mean what the Bible means when it says resurrection.
Now you say, Pastor Anderson, how many definitions of resurrection could there possibly be?
Well, let me just make it real simple for you.
When we say that Jesus rose from the dead, you know what we mean by that?
That means that he died, they took his body and buried it, and you know what happened three days later?
That body walked out of the tomb!
Now that's not very complicated, is it? Does anybody have any questions?
So, if you think about it, if I died, and somebody buried me, you know, in order for me to rise from the dead, what would have to happen?
I would have to come out of that grave.
Now what if just a ghost came out of the grave, and the body is still there?
Would you call that the resurrection?
That's not the resurrection.
That's what the Jehovah's Witness says, believe.
They don't believe that his body came out of the grave, they just believe, well his spirit.
Another word for spirit is what? Ghost.
His spirit or ghost came out of his body.
Well, there's a word for your spirit coming out of your body, death.
Because when people die throughout the Bible, it says they gave up the ghost.
So, the Jehovah's Witness's definition of the resurrection, oh that's his spirit rising,
well that's called dying.
I mean, if I die, my spirit is going to go upward, the Bible says.
My spirit is going to return unto the God that gave it.
But that's not the resurrection, friend.
Because my body will still be dead and in the grave.
Now, someday, thanks be to God, when the trumpet sounds, then my body will rise from the grave.
But until that day, I haven't resurrected yet.
And the fact that my spirit went to heaven is not relevant to whether or not I've been resurrected.
So, when the Jehovah's Witnesses try to say, well we believe in the resurrection,
here's the thing, they don't believe in the bodily resurrection.
And the bodily resurrection is the only kind of resurrection that there is.
The bodily resurrection in this context.
Because of the fact that it's the death, burial and resurrection.
Some people say, what's the significance of the burial?
The burial is to let you know we're talking about the body.
Because what do you bury? You bury a body.
The body died, the body was buried, and the body rose again.
And you know, here's the scriptural proof.
John chapter 2, verses 19 through 21.
John tells us in chapter 2, verse 19,
Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up.
And it says he spake of the temple of his body.
So Jesus claimed that he's going to raise up his body.
According to the Jehovah's Witnesses, that was a lie.
So that's why they're the Jehovah's false witnesses.
And there are a whole bunch of other reasons why they're the Jehovah's false witnesses.
But that's a whole sermon of itself.
But what we see here is that if we preach lies about the Bible, that makes us a false witness.
Now think about it.
Peter, James, John, they said that they were eyewitnesses, didn't they?
Of Christ's miracles, and of his death on the cross, and of his resurrection.
They're eyewitnesses.
The apostle Paul was an eyewitness of things that he saw on the road to Damascus.
Now the authors of the Bible, many of them, are eyewitnesses writing about what they've seen.
Telling the truth, a faithful witness.
Those who would lie about what they've seen and heard are false witnesses.
So if somebody were to say, hey, I had a vision, and this is what I saw, and let's say they just made up the whole thing.
An angel came and talked to me, and this is what they said.
That person's bearing false witness.
Paul is saying, look, if we claim to have seen the resurrected Christ and we didn't really see him, that would make us false witnesses.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of them which slept.
Why do people bear false witness?
Matthew chapter 15.
So we see, number one, bearing false witness against your neighbor.
That's in the Ten Commandments, and we talked about how that is to accuse them of a crime,
or to give evidence that would tend to prove their guilt, that is fabricated evidence.
It's been planted, it's been made up out of your own heart, it's being exaggerated or embellished,
and you're lying under oath in court.
That's bearing false witness.
But also, when you preach and say, hey, here's what the Bible says, and the Bible doesn't really say that,
you're bearing false witness.
If I say, well, the Bible says X, Y, Z, and it's not in the Bible, what have I just done?
I've lied and I've borne false witness.
Now someone could be mistaken and they think something's in the Bible and say,
hey, here's what the Bible says, and they could make an honest mistake.
But there are often times when people say, hey, the Bible says X, Y, Z, and they know it's not in there.
And that makes them a false witness, it makes them a liar, and so forth.
So look what the Bible says in Matthew 15.
Here's why people bear false witness.
It says in verse 18, but those things which proceed, this is chapter 15 verse 18 in Matthew,
but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man,
for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
So false witness is something that comes out of the wicked heart of man.
And that tells us it's a part of our sin nature.
This is something that any of us could do if we allow the flesh to take over,
if we allow the wickedness of our heart to lead us into this,
this is a sin just like adultery, murder, stealing, this is part of our sin nature to lie,
to bear false witness.
So we need to make sure that we walk in the Spirit and avoid these wicked sins of the flesh
bearing false witness being one of them.
Now flip over if you would to 2 Peter chapter 2.
And while you're turning there, let me explain to you what false witness is not.
We've spent a lot of time just now talking about what does it mean to bear false witness.
Now let's talk about what is not bearing false witness.
Let's say I look at the evidence in a certain case and I say,
this person is guilty.
That's my opinion based on the evidence and that is not bearing false witness.
And if that person turns out to be innocent, that is still not bearing false witness.
Why? Because I'm just interpreting the facts.
I mean that's what jurors do, right?
The jurors are there, the jurors see the evidence,
and if a juror looks at the evidence and say,
you know what, I believe based on the evidence that this person is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt
and they put in a guilty vote and let's say that person turned out later to be innocent,
that person has not borne false witness.
That person is just judging based on the facts or giving their opinion based on the facts.
Now why do I bring that up?
Because a lot of times people will give their opinion or their interpretation of a certain situation
and people will accuse them of bearing false witness.
Here's the most classic example.
When you say that somebody's not saved, okay?
For some reason, unsaved people really don't like being told that they're not saved.
And reprobates really don't like being told that they're a reprobate.
Now look, if somebody tells me that I'm not saved or that I'm a reprobate,
it doesn't bother me because it doesn't hit close to home.
It's just kind of water off a duck's back.
I just kind of laugh at that and it goes in one ear and out the other.
But you'll notice that when you actually tell unsaved people that they're not saved
or tell reprobates that they're a reprobate, they'll just keep bringing it up.
Pastor Anderson said, I'm not saved.
He doesn't think I'm saved.
Do you think I'm not saved?
Because he said I'm not saved.
Is that what you think too?
And it's just like, why is that bothering you so much?
Because if somebody told me I wasn't saved, I would literally forget about it.
I would have like the memory of a goldfish when it comes out because it wouldn't even matter to me.
You know, you forget things that don't matter to you.
Things that are important to you, man, you remember them decades later.
They stand out in your mind, right?
But people really don't like it, so people get really touchy about this.
Now look, let's say I get up behind the pulpit, right?
And I give a quote from a false teacher.
And I say, here's what this false teacher said.
He said that in order to be saved, you know, you have to be willing to turn from all the sin in your life.
If you're living with your girlfriend, you got to stop living with your girlfriend.
If you're drinking, you know, you got to be willing to give that up in order to be saved.
If I got up and said, hey, that guy's teaching work salvation.
That guy's not saved.
And then people say, oh, you're a false accuser.
Well, hold on a second.
Here's what would make me a false accuser if the guy didn't say those things.
You see what I mean?
Like, if I got up and said he said X, Y, and Z and he didn't actually say those things
or I'm misquoting him, maybe I've added or subtracted a few words to try to make it sound a little more damning,
then that would make me a false witness, right?
If I claim, hey, this guy said this and that's why he's not saved.
But if I get up and give a fact, here's exactly what he said,
and because of that, I believe him to be unsaved,
that doesn't make me a false accuser.
That's just me giving my opinion.
And I have every right to give my opinion.
And if people disagree with my opinion, that's okay.
Look, the thing is, you know, if you're planting evidence as the police, you're a false witness.
But if you look at the evidence and just say, you know what, O.J. is guilty.
Oh, you're a false accuser because you're falsely accusing O.J. of killing his ex-wife.
Look, anybody, let's pretend for a second that O.J. didn't kill his ex-wife
because we all know that he did.
You understand?
He even admitted it later, okay?
He wrote a whole book called If I Did It, and the if is faded out.
Who knows about the book that he wrote, If I Did It?
And he's like, well, if I did it, here's how I would have done it.
And he explains the whole thing.
Now, here's the thing.
Let's pretend for a minute that O.J. was totally innocent.
And somebody gets up and says, O.J. murdered his wife,
and the reason I believe that is because of all this evidence.
And let's say he's innocent, that person is not a false accuser
because that person is simply saying, I've examined the evidence
and here's what I believe to be the case based on the evidence.
Bearing false witness would be fabricating evidence
or claiming to have evidence to prove his guilt that isn't real.
You know, two people are going to sometimes interpret evidence differently, right?
All the same evidence could be presented before a jury,
and one juror could say, oh, man, he's guilty.
Another juror says he's not guilty.
Neither one is bearing false witness.
They are interpreting the facts.
So to get up and say, oh, you're a false accuser
because you said that that guy's not safe.
You know what? That's an opinion.
That's a judgment call based on available facts, based on the evidence.
Bearing false witness is producing evidence,
that is, does everybody understand the difference?
This is a really important difference.
This is a key difference that we need to understand.
And especially because I'm going to get into another subject here
that ties in with this, and that is the subject of what it means
to be a railer or a reviler, okay?
There's a term in the Bible, railing or reviling.
And this is a term that I hear being thrown around all the time
and it's constantly being misused.
So I want to make sure we understand
what does it really mean to be a railer or a reviler?
What does this actually mean?
Now, if we were to look up these terms,
and the reason I kind of couple these together
is they're used a little bit interchangeably in the Bible.
If you study these two terms,
you'll see that they're used in the same types of context,
and we're going to look at them in a moment.
But if you were to look up railing or reviling in a dictionary,
what the dictionary is going to tell you
is not really the same as the biblical definition.
Because if you look them up in a dictionary,
they'll just say, oh, to revile somebody
is just to really, you know, chew them out,
use harsh language to rebuke them sharply or whatever.
And if you look up railing, it says,
hey, to just speak really harshly towards someone.
Well, the reason that we know
that that's not what Scripture's talking about
is that there are plenty of examples
of John the Baptist, Jesus, all the prophets,
Apostle Paul, speaking harshly to people,
using harsh language and rebuking people
and strongly condemning people.
When you actually look up the instances
of railing and reviling that the Bible mentions,
here's what it is.
The people are bearing false witness.
The people are actually telling lies.
The people are saying things that aren't true.
You see, when you get up and speak harshly to someone
and you're telling the truth,
or if you speak harshly about someone
and what you're saying is actually true,
that's not what the Bible defines as railing or reviling.
Otherwise, all preaching would be railing.
Jesus' sermon in Matthew 23 would be a major railing.
Because you'd say, well, he's railing on the Pharisees.
He's railing on the Sadducees.
But we know that Christ was not a railer.
Christ is perfect in every way.
A railer is someone that we're not supposed to fellowship with.
A reviler is someone to be punished.
And so we have to get a biblical definition.
It's not just being mean that makes you a railer or a reviler.
It's when you're lying.
It's when you're bearing false witness.
Let's look at the biblical evidence.
Look at 2 Peter 2, verse 11.
First we're going to focus on the word railing.
2 Peter 2, 11.
Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might,
bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.
Now, notice railing is put next to accusation.
This is what I mean.
Railing is when you're making a false accusation.
What you're saying is not true. You're lying.
Now, in this exact context,
what we see in 2 Peter 2 and Jude 1 is talking about
speaking evil of the things which we know not.
Speaking evil against dignities.
And it's actually talking about accusing demons of things.
Now, do we really know all the ins and outs of what's going on
in the spirit world between angels and demons?
But yeah, we'll see people throw things out and say,
oh, the devil did this, the devil did that,
a demon did this, a demon did that.
That's actually a false accusation
because you don't really know what the devil or demons did.
So that's why the Bible says in Jude,
just go a few pages to the right in your Bible,
Jude, verse 9, it says,
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil,
he disputed about the body of Moses,
Moses durst not.
Now, what does durst not mean?
He dared not, he did not dare bring against him
a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee.
So even Michael the archangel,
who knows a lot more about what's going on in the spirit world
and is a lot more powerful and mighty than I am or than you are,
he didn't dare just bring a railing accusation against the devil
and start accusing the devil of stuff.
He just said the Lord rebuke thee, okay?
Keep your finger there,
or you don't need to put your finger there,
but go to Exodus.
Go to Exodus chapter 22.
Exodus chapter 22,
and we'll find something similar.
So 2 Peter and Jude,
what are they both saying?
Hey, look, don't speak evil of dignities.
Don't speak evil of these principalities and powers,
these demons and devils.
You don't know what's going on.
Don't speak evil of the things you know not.
Because, you know, it reminds,
I've told this story so many times,
I've run it into the ground,
but the story about where I was at a youth conference
and they were playing some cheesy Christian music
and the CD was scratched
and they said the devil scratched the CD
because he doesn't want you to hear this music.
Who thinks the devil really scratched that CD?
There's no way.
The devil invented CDs to get scratched so easily.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, that's an even more railing accusation.
But anyway, you know,
it's just as stupid for me to get up and say,
oh, the devil broke our CD player.
The devil broke our...
You know what?
I got up to preach in Vancouver, Washington.
As soon as I got up to preach,
the sound system went haywire.
I was like...
I was the devil.
I mean, isn't that stupid?
And not only is it stupid, it's a sin.
We shouldn't get up
and just blame this on the devil
and blame the demons and just...
It's a railing accusation.
So you can see that these accusations
don't have basis in reality.
They're made up and so forth.
And then the Bible uses the word revile
in the same way in Exodus,
chapter...
Let me get there myself.
Exodus, chapter 22, verse 28.
It says,
thou shalt not revile the gods
nor curse the ruler of thy people.
Now, whenever the Bible uses the word gods,
lowercase, little g,
these are only false gods
because there is only one true God, amen?
There are many that are called gods,
but to us, there's only one God, right?
And we know that before him,
there was no God formed.
Neither shall there be any God after.
So whenever we see this lowercase g,
god or gods,
we're talking about false gods.
And the false gods are the demons
because the demons are the ones
that basically are worshipped
by people who worship idols
because the Bible says
that when the Gentiles
sacrifice unto idols,
they're sacrificing unto devils.
And we know that one of the false gods
of the Old Testament
was named Baal
and specifically there was a false god
called Baal-Zebub
and we know that Jesus referred to Satan
as Beelzebub, right?
He used that term
to refer to the devil.
So we know that when it says,
you know, don't revile the gods,
what's he saying?
He's saying the same thing
that 2 Peter 2 is saying.
He's saying the same thing
that Jude is saying.
Do not speak evil
of things you don't understand.
Don't just mouth off
railing accusations
toward demons and devils
and talk about the devil
and so forth.
So, let me give you
some more mentions of railing here.
If you would,
just flip over to Mark chapter 15
and while you're turning there,
in 1 Samuel 25,
I'm going to read for you
1 Samuel 25, 14,
but one of the young men
told Abigail, Nabal's wife,
saying, Behold,
David sent messengers
out of the wilderness
to salute our master
and he railed on them.
Okay?
So, Abigail is told
that David sent messengers
to Nabal
and they railed on them.
Well, we don't have time
to read the whole story,
but here's what happened
in that story.
When the messengers of David
get to Nabal,
Nabal begins to falsely
accuse David.
He says that David
is rebelling against his master
and rebelled against King Saul
and all that.
You know, he makes up
all this garbage
and false accusation.
So, consistently,
when we see the word
railing, reviling,
people are being accused
of something that isn't true.
Okay?
People are being falsely
accused or lied about.
That's why that term
railing accusation
occurs a couple of times.
Mark 15, 20,
says, and they that pass by
railed on him,
talking about Jesus
on the cross,
wagging their heads
and saying,
oh, thou that destroys
the temple
and buildest it in three days.
Now, look,
that's not
what Jesus was saying.
He was talking about
the temple of his body,
but remember the two
false witnesses
got up in his trial
and they said,
oh, Jesus claims
he's going to destroy
the temple
and change the customs
of Moses,
but is that
what he really taught?
No.
He specifically said
think not that I'm come
to destroy the law
or the prophets.
I came not to destroy
but to fulfill.
These people
are railing on him
and they're repeating
that same false accusation,
oh, he said
he's going to
destroy the temple
or whatever.
Luke 23 says
the same thing.
They which were hanged
railed on him
and then it says
in Mark 15, 32,
let Christ the King
of Israel descend
now from the cross
that we may see
and believe in.
They that were
crucified on the cross
and they that were
crucified on the cross
and they that were
crucified with him
reviled him.
So one gospel says
they that were
hanged
railed on him
and then here it says
those that were
crucified with him
reviled him.
So those words
are being used
interchangeably.
Go to Matthew Chapter 5.
Here's a great verse
to help explain this.
Matthew Chapter 5.
So again we see
different gospels
saying they that passed by
railed on him,
they that passed by
reviled him.
They that were
hanged on the cross
reviled him,
railed on him.
Used interchangeably.
Both of them.
Look what it says
in Matthew 5-11.
Blessed are ye
when men shall
revile you
and persecute you
and shall say
all manner of evil
against you
falsely for my sake.
So the reviler,
the railer,
he's not telling
the truth about you.
He's saying
something false
about you.
So if I get up
and preach against
someone or something
or say hey
O.J. Simpson
murdered his ex-wife
or whatever,
you know,
that's not
railer.
That's not
railer.
But that's not
railing because
it's true.
That's not
reviling because
it's true.
Or if there's
a bunch of
damning evidence
and I interpret
that evidence and
say here's
the evidence,
here's why
I believe this,
and that's why
I believe that
he's guilty.
That's not railing.
That's not
reviling because
these accusations
have merit.
There's evidence
that has not
been fabricated.
There's true,
real evidence
that those things
of this,
you know,
they reviled
a man that
Jesus healed.
They said to
Paul,
you know,
revile us thou
God's high
priest.
Right?
And so on.
So anyway,
that's a word
that's used
a lot in the
Bible.
We need to be
careful that we
don't throw this
word around
because otherwise
when you start
throwing words
around they
lose all meaning.
He's a
railer.
Now,
look,
if somebody
gets up and
preaches against
a false prophet
and said,
that guy's
going to hell,
that doesn't
make him a
railer.
Because how
many times did
Jesus,
Paul,
Peter,
John,
preach against
people and
say that
they're going
to hell?
Did that
make them
a railer?
No,
that doesn't
make them
hell.
Did that
make them
a railer?
Absolutely not.
And,
you know,
if somebody
pulls out
preachers from
the past
and pulls out
some damning
quote from
your hero
from 200
years ago
where he's
teaching works-based
salvation,
where he's
teaching baptismal
regeneration,
or he's
teaching,
hey,
you've got to
repent of all
your sins
okay,
but then
somebody else
might say,
no way,
that's what
he said,
he's in hell,
he's burning
a,
oh,
you're a
railer.
No,
you're not.
People are
allowed to
have opinions
without being
called a
railer,
okay,
and when
there's
evidence of
someone's
guilt and
judgment has
been made
and
they're
not
revived
because
it's
true.
And
even if
it turned
out not
to be true
but there
was a ton
of evidence,
then that
would just
be an error
in judgment.
That would
just be an
error in
the interpretation
of the facts
of the case,
okay,
but railing
or reviling
would be
an error
in the
interpretation
of the
facts of
the case.
And
the
truth
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