Now of course we just read the famous passage containing the Ten Commandments and the one
that I would like to focus in on tonight is in verse 16 where the Bible reads,
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Now a lot of people will wrongfully quote this as thou shalt not lie, you know and that's
not what the Bible says here.
The Bible says thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor and that's what I want
to preach about tonight is bearing false witness.
Now a false witness would obviously be anything where we are testifying that we saw something
or know about something and we're not telling the truth about it.
But notice that in this commandment what is emphasized is bearing false witness against
thy neighbor.
For example, if I were to go into a courtroom I could theoretically lie to get someone off
the hook, right?
I could lie and basically cause someone to be found not guilty who was truly guilty.
As I studied the Bible on this and as I looked up every instance of bearing false witness
in the Bible, you know the Bible emphasizes over and over again that when people are bearing
false witness usually it's the other way around.
Usually it's always to condemn the innocent as you go through the Bible.
And it's usually not bearing false witness in favor of your neighbor but over and over
again it's bearing false witness against your neighbor.
Now why would a person do that?
Why would a person bear false witness against their neighbor?
A lot of people are naive and think, oh, nobody would do that.
And when people testify in court or when people tell them something in a one-on-one conversation,
they just assume that it's true.
And the Bible says the simple believe every word.
And it's a very simple, naive person who believes everything that they hear.
And often they say, well, I looked into so-and-so's eyes and I just knew they were telling the truth.
You know, there are so many people who can lie through their teeth and they can lie with
a straight face and you'd never think that they were lying, but they are.
So here are some motives, and a lot of these are biblical.
We're going to see some of these as I go through the sermon.
Here are some motives that I came up with for bearing false witness.
First of all, revenge.
You know, you just have them in for somebody.
You want to punish somebody.
One way to do that would be to lie about them and get them in trouble and to bear false
witness against them that they've committed some kind of an offense or crime.
Another reason that people bear false witness is to cover up for their own sins.
Maybe accusing someone else of doing something wrong could basically get the heat off of
them.
Or, for example, let's say someone's arrested and they're brought to court.
The reason that the police would have a motive to lie would be because they have to basically
justify why did you arrest this person?
Why did you beat them up?
Why did you put them in jail?
So they have a motive to lie there to basically cover up for things that they did that were
wrong.
Another reason why people bear false witness is because they're being forced to bear false
witness.
Throughout history, people have been imprisoned and tortured that they might bear false witness
against their neighbor and told, hey, you're going to accuse this person or else, and somebody
could be forced to bear false witness.
Or similar, someone could be bribed to bear false witness, and all of these things occur
in the Bible.
Someone could be paid off to bear false witness and given money to do so.
Fifthly, some people bear false witness just because they're a busybody.
Just because they like to just be the one to tell the latest scuttlebutt and just to
be in on.
You know how some people just like to be involved in everything and they're a busybody?
They just like to be right in the middle of stuff.
So oh yeah, well let me give my piece of information, my witness.
Another reason, sixthly, that people would bear false witness is to get attention.
Some people just like attention, so they just want to be up there in front of everybody
on the witness stand in court or just in a conversation in a group and just make things
up to get attention.
These are all real reasons that people bear false witness.
And then the seventh reason, and I'm going to show you this right now, go to Exodus 23.
You're in Exodus 20, just a few pages to the right.
Another reason that people will bear false witness is because they are just following
the crowd or they're repeating things that they've heard.
Now notice, the Bible says thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
What does the word bear mean?
What does it mean?
Who said?
To carry.
Like for example, when you hear people talk about the right to keep and bear arms, it's
saying to own them and to carry them.
And so to bear something, and you hear people say, hey, I hate to be the bearer of bad news.
It's someone who's carrying the message.
And so to bear false witness, it doesn't necessarily have to have originated with you.
Sometimes you're just repeating something that you've heard, and then you're bearing
false witness.
Not that you originated the lie out of your own heart, but you heard the lie, maybe you
even thought it was true.
But it's false, and you carry that on and repeat that.
This is what is called in the justice system hearsay.
Hearsay.
You hear something and repeat it, but it's not really your testimony.
It's not really something that you witnessed.
You're just repeating something that you heard someone else say.
Look down at your Bible there in Exodus 23 verse 1.
The Bible reads, thou shalt not raise a false report.
Put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
So here we see, again, joining in with someone else, carrying their false testimony.
Look at verse 2.
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline
after many to rest judgment.
So sometimes we might hear something that's said, some kind of an accusation against someone,
and because a bunch of people are saying it, we say, well, if a lot of people are saying
it, it must be true.
So I'm going to go ahead and start saying it, I'm going to go ahead and start repeating
it.
And in many cases, we might be very false witness.
We might be following a multitude to do evil.
Just because we hear other people making an accusation, and there are a lot of them, it
all might have started with just one person, and then it gets repeated, and then it gets
repeated, and then it gets repeated.
And look, obviously the primary application here is talking about when you're going to
court or whatever.
But honestly, this can be something that just occurs in a church or at a job or at a school
where false accusations get repeated over and over again, and innocent people can so
much be slandered, have their reputation tarnished, or be punished even for things that they did
not do because of people bearing false witness.
This is important.
This is one of the Ten Commandments.
This is one of the major things that God emphasizes that we should stay away from.
We want to be very careful that we don't bear false witness and just repeat things that
we've heard.
For example, I've been in court before, and one time I had to write up, I think it was
called an affidavit, maybe it was called a deposition, but I had to write up a summary
of events that took place, and I had to write up my side of the story, a narrative of what
took place.
I was told by my attorney, he said, be sure that you only write things that you know from
first-hand knowledge, because you never want to just repeat something that's not your first-hand
knowledge.
Even if you know it's true, he said, this needs to be your testimony, and if you've
ever been in court before or maybe seen court proceedings, you'll often hear them say, objection,
your honor, hearsay.
You know how they'll say, objection, leading the witness, objection, your badgering?
One of the objections you'll hear is, objection, hearsay.
That is not his first-hand knowledge.
If he's going to repeat what someone else saw, we need to get them on the stand.
But you can't just take hearsay as evidence.
And when I was writing up this narrative, there were a lot of things about the event
that I learned later from other people.
I didn't include that, because I was only supposed to include my first-hand knowledge
of the events.
Now let me read you some scriptures on bearing false witness, you don't have to turn there.
Go to Proverbs 14, because that's where we're going to end up.
Proverbs 14, right in the middle of the Bible, is Psalms.
Right after Psalms is Proverbs.
But the Bible says in Deuteronomy 5, 20, neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy
neighbor.
And so bearing false witness against your neighbor, you might just be carrying it.
You might just be repeating unverified information, and it might later turn out to be false witness.
Even though in your heart, you repeated it in the goodness of your heart, believing it
to be true, if you don't know for sure that something is true, don't repeat it.
Now I have people come to me and say, hey, did you know that so-and-so did this?
And look, when you're a pastor, this happens to you probably more than if you're not.
People come to you with negative things about other people, okay?
And tell you, hey, did you know that so-and-so, this and that, and the other, okay?
And we haven't had a big problem with that in our church, of course not.
But honestly, just in my life though, even before I was a pastor, I had people bring
a lot of railing accusations against a lot of people to me, and say, hey, did you know
that so-and-so has done this, and so-and-so has done this?
And I always say, I don't believe it, or where did you get that information?
Well that's what I heard.
I just push it out of my mind, and sometimes I literally forget about it, because I just
push it out of my mind, because I don't just accept accusations that are just thrown out
there for people that are not verified.
And that's how we ought to be.
But some people's tendency is that when they hear an accusation about somebody, they just
instantly believe it.
And I mean, look, if you want to find accusations about me, just Google me.
And I mean, I'm sure you're going to find every accusation under the sun about me, okay?
And when I was a young person, people, every pastor that I looked up to, every preacher
that I listened to, people were always telling me all the bad things about that preacher,
and it was just a lot of unverified stuff.
You know what I mean?
And it wasn't really true.
Okay?
Now look, if something's true, then it's true.
You know what I mean?
If there's evidence, there's evidence.
If it's a fact, it's a fact.
But a lot of people make a lot of accusations that aren't true.
And we need to get out of this mentality that just says, if we hear an accusation that's
probably true or else, why would they be saying it?
Well I gave you seven reasons.
If somebody hates your guts, they might just bear false witness.
Or one of the other six reasons that I gave, why people lie about other people and bear
false witness.
Listen to what David said in Psalm 27, 12, deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies,
for false witnesses are risen up against me and such as breathe out cruelty.
See your enemies will often bear false witness about you just in order to punish you, just
in order to get revenge.
David said the same thing in Psalm 35, 11, false witnesses did rise up.
They laid to my charge things that I knew not, stuff I'd never even heard of, they're
accusing me of.
Proverbs 6, 19 talks about one of the things that the Lord hates and things that are an
abomination of the Lord and it says, a false witness that speaketh lies and he did sow
a discord among brethren.
Proverbs 12, 17 says, he did speak a truth, showeth forth righteousness but a false witness
deceit.
You're in Proverbs 14, look at verse 5.
A faithful witness will not lie but a false witness will utter lies.
And then down to verse 25, a true witness and this is really, this verse is really the
crux of the entire sermon.
This verse was actually the inspiration for the sermon.
The Bible says, a true witness delivereth souls but a deceitful witness speaketh lies.
Now again, notice, the true witness is delivering souls.
What that means is that basically, someone's being falsely accused of something.
The true witness steps in and sets the record straight and says, hey, this isn't true.
You know, somebody's in court for example and they're being accused of crimes, you know,
the true witness might get up and tell the truth and they can be found not guilty because
the true witness will deliver their soul whereas the false witness will lie.
And again, this verse really drives in the fact that the Bible is emphasizing that usually,
usually the false witness is trying to condemn the innocent.
Now there could be a false witness that's trying to justify the wicked or get them off
the hook but over and over again, we see the true witness delivering souls, the false witness
condemning the innocent.
That's what we see more and so we need to be very careful and watchful of that phenomenon.
Now I think there's also a spiritual application of this verse because first of all, we could
look at this as, hey, somebody's being falsely accused, the true witness delivers their soul,
the false witness will lie and get them put behind bars or publicly maligned and defamed.
But also, you know, you could give this a spiritual perspective and say, you know what,
we are witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are we not?
And the Bible calls us that over and over.
He said in Acts 1a, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you
and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and
under the uttermost part of the earth.
He said we would be his witnesses and the Bible says that a true witness delivereth
souls and when we go out soul-willing and we are witnessing the gospel of Jesus Christ,
we are testifying of the words of God.
We are delivering souls.
The Bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that wineth souls
is wise, whereas the deceitful witness speaketh lies.
You know there's a false religion out there that calls himself the Jehovah's Witnesses,
but the Bible talks about those that are false witnesses, false apostles, false teachers,
deceivers, and today, let me tell you something, the Jehovah's Witness should be called the
deceitful witness, because he speaks lies.
Now the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, you don't have to turn there, it says ye and we
have found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up
Christ whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
He said there, we have gone about preaching that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from
the dead and he said if that were not true, we'd be a false witness, but it is true.
The Jehovah's false witnesses, the deceitful witnesses, they have an opposite problem.
Jesus really did raise from the dead, they're going around saying that he did it.
And don't you be deceived by these Jehovah's false witnesses even for one moment, because
what they believe has nothing to do with biblical Christianity.
Let me tell you some of the things that they believe.
Number one, they do not believe that Jesus died on the cross.
You say, what are you serious?
Fact, ask them, did Jesus die on the cross?
That's number one right there, I mean that should be a red flag.
Number two, they don't believe that he rose from the dead.
Because this is what they say, oh yeah he rose spiritually, they don't believe in a
bodily resurrection.
Of course Jesus said destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up and he spanked
up the temple of his body.
He said I'll raise this body up, he said handle me.
The Bible says that they handled him, John said it again in 1 John, tell us in the Gospels
they handled him.
And then in 1 John, he said our hands have handled the word of life.
They literally handled him and felt the holes in his hand, they felt the hole in his side.
That was not a spirit, that was a flesh and bone, bodily resurrection.
Why does the Bible tell us over and over about him eating?
Seems like he ate more after he rose from the dead than we read about him eating his
whole life.
Did you notice that?
Whenever you read the accounts in Luke and John where Jesus rose from the dead, he's
always asking for food.
And remember they fed him fish, they fed him a honeycomb, they fed him food, you know,
why?
Because the Bible is emphasizing that hey that was a bodily resurrection, not a spirit
leaving the body.
The body without the spirit is dead and Jesus was not dead, he was alive and he showed himself
alive under his apostles whom he had chosen and then over 500 brethren at one time.
He ate and drank with them the Bible says and he showed himself and they handled him.
So the Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe he died on the cross, they don't believe he rose
from the dead.
They don't believe that if you're saved you'll go to heaven, they don't believe that.
And they believe that if you're not saved you're not going to go to hell.
So when you don't believe in people going to heaven and hell and you don't believe in
Jesus dying on the cross and rising again, can somebody explain to me how that's Christianity
in any shape or form?
It's a total false religion, it's a deceitful witness, it's a cult.
And they show up and say, oh students of the Bible, I want to study the Bible with you.
Don't get sucked in by that.
If you want to study the Bible, why don't you show up to church and sit down and listen
to a leather long preacher preach the Bible to you.
Bring your Bible to church and you'll learn a lot more than these bunch of liars that
will come to your door, the Mormons, the Jehovah's false witnesses.
You know, thank God if some Baptist ever knocks your door with the gospel, but unfortunately
it's few and far between these days.
It's usually the cults that are knocking your door and we need to get out there and rebuild
that reputation that we're the ones that are going to go out and preach the gospel.
We're the ones that are going to knock the doors and we're going to have a true witness
and a faithful witness, we're going to deliver souls, we're not going to condemn souls with
lies and heresy.
Now that was kind of a little departure from the sermon, but I think that verse has that
spiritual application.
Look at Proverbs 19, let me tell you something.
Those who bear false witness have a punishment associated with bearing false witness.
It's not like, oh, whoops, sorry, I lied.
No, you're going to be punished.
Bearing false witness is a serious sin and it carries with it a serious punishment from
God.
Look what it says in Proverbs 19, 5.
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.
You say, why is the Bible so redundant and repetitive to repeat that twice?
You know, whenever God repeats something, it's because he's trying to emphasize it.
And if you remember when Pharaoh had the dream of the seven skinny kind and the seven fat
flesh well favored kind, and then he had the dream about the seven withered ears of corn
and then the seven full and good ears of corn, the Bible said that the thing was doubled
unto Pharaoh because it was certainly come to pass.
It was an emphasis there and this is being emphasized that a false witness will be punished.
You're not going to get away with it.
He says in verse 28, an ungodly witness scorneth judgment and the mouth of the wicked devoureth
iniquity.
Look at chapter 21, verse 28.
More talk about the punishment associated with being a false witness.
It says in Proverbs 21, 28, a false witness shall perish, that means die, but the man
that heareth speaketh constantly.
You say, okay, what's the punishment for a false witness?
Well, go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 19.
I'm going to show you the punishment for a false witness.
Deuteronomy 19.
Fifth book in the Bible, Deuteronomy, look at chapter 19, the Bible reads in verse 15,
one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin and any sin
that he senteth at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the
matter be established.
If a false witness, everybody there in Deuteronomy 19, 16, 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 have testified falsely against his brother, then shall ye do unto him as he had thought
to have done unto his brother.
So shall thou put the evil away from among you, he says the punishment for a false witness
is that whatever they were accusing someone else of, that's the punishment they give.
So for example, according to biblical doctrine here, if I go to court and testify against
somebody in court and I'm lying, I'm a false witness.
Let's say the punishment for that crime is going to be six months in prison, right?
Well, according to Bible, I'm going to prison for six months because that's what I tried
to do too.
Or let's say I'm actually accusing somebody of murder and the punishment is dead and I
go in and testify and say, you know what, this guy has committed the murder.
I saw this evidence and I lie or stretch the truth to try to get him condemned to something
that I have no knowledge that he did.
If it's found out that I'm a false witness, I'm going to be put to death.
And so it's whatever the punishment was that I accused.
So what if my child comes to me and tattles and it's a false witness and says, hey, so-and-so,
my sibling, my brother, my sister did this trying to get them spanked, it's not a much
milder scale of punishment, but trying to get them spanked.
And then I find out that now the spanking that they would have got, you're going to
get that same spanking.
You're going to get that same punishment.
That's biblical justice.
Now today people, they go into courtrooms, they lie and they bear a false witness and
there's no consequence.
It's true all the time.
I've seen it in my own life.
I've seen people get behind the stand, lie through their teeth, no consequence.
And then if there is a consequence, it's this separate charge of perjury and it has its
own punishment associated with it.
We need to get on this biblical doctrine that says if you go in there and swear to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God, and then you lie
about it to try to condemn the innocent, you should get whatever punishment you wanted
them to get.
That's what the Bible says.
Look what it says in the next verse, verse 20.
It says, and those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more
any such evil among you.
He says when people see that punishment carried out, it's going to make them think twice about
bearing false witness.
And that's why I say this, if I ever find out that somebody in our church or in my sphere
of influence is bearing false witness about someone else, and often in a church what it
could be is basically destroying someone's reputation by accusing someone in the church
of doing something that they didn't do.
You know what?
If the biblical punishment is for that, that that person should be publicly humiliated.
If they're trying to publicly humiliate others, because whatever they're trying to do under
someone else, that's what should happen to them.
And often times instead it's like, oh, let's just not talk about it.
Well no, if somebody's going around spreading lies about other people, they're going to
be publicly humiliated.
And I will do it, you know, because then others will fear to just go around telling scuttles
about lies and maligning people's good name and character.
Now go to 1 Timothy chapter 5, and it's interesting because 1 Timothy 5 is a good New Testament
passage that ties in perfectly with Deuteronomy 19.
If you compare these two passages, the similarity is striking.
The first thing that we saw in Deuteronomy 19 was that one witness was not enough to
condemn somebody today.
It had to be two or three witnesses, right?
Now let me emphasize this for Deuteronomy 19.
Just because two witnesses testify to something, that does not make it true.
The Bible says that if two or three witnesses bring the accusation, then you make diligent
inquiry.
It doesn't say two witnesses, automatic guilty.
It says if there are two witnesses, you make diligent inquiry.
If there are not two or three witnesses, you don't even receive the accusation.
Basically, there shouldn't even be an indictment, you know, if I'm using the proper term there.
Because there isn't enough evidence if it's just one witness.
That's what the Bible says.
Now look at 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 17.
The Bible says, Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially
they who labor in the word and doctrine.
For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the
laborer is worthy of his reward.
Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses, sound familiar?
Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.
I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou observe
these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
And isn't that the essence of justice?
Not preferring one before another and doing nothing by partiality.
That means not just, well, since it's him that, you know, since it's Brother Richard
that's saying, I'm just going to believe it, because it's him.
No, the Bible says we shouldn't be partial like that.
We shouldn't have preference, or preference, well, if it were someone else I would expose
it, but you know what, because it's you, we're just going to sweep it under the rug.
No, that's not biblical.
Now if you look at verse 20, them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear,
the first word there, them, is a pronoun, right?
Now pronouns have an antecedent, okay?
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun, okay?
So whenever we see a pronoun, he, she, it, they, them, the question is, what is that
pronoun referring to, okay?
So if I see the word he in the Bible, I can ask myself, who is the he here?
Is it God?
Is it another person?
So what do I do?
I back up and I see who was mentioned previously, the antecedent, antecedent means the word
that comes before telling us what that pronoun is referring to.
Now there's been a lot of question through the years, I've heard a lot of people preach
this passage, and there's different interpretations or questions about who the word them is referring
to when it says, them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.
Now let's go backward and look at verse 19.
The Bible says, against an elder receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses.
Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.
So let's analyze this and figure out who the them is.
First of all, is them plural or singular?
So that's our first hint right there, okay?
Is that in the verse before we had an elder, singular, and then we have two or three witnesses,
plural, okay?
So the them that sin, probably since it's plural, it's referring to the plural.
The witnesses, not the elder, okay?
But you could make the argument and say, well, but this is talking about in general, this
could be more than one occurrence of an elder and then another elder, that could be plural,
okay?
Still, the evidence leans a little more toward the witnesses just based on whether it's plural
or singular.
The next thing we could go by when we're looking for an antecedent of a pronoun is that when
you're writing a sentence, you should always try to put the pronoun closer to that antecedent
and not further away from the antecedent if you're listing more than one thing.
Obviously, the closest antecedent would be the witnesses, again, another check in that
column.
But what I think is the strongest evidence that the them is referring unto the witnesses
is when you compare this with Deuteronomy 19.
Now, if you have your finger in 1 Timothy 5, go back to Deuteronomy 19.
What does the Bible say we should do with the false witness?
Look at Deuteronomy 19, 19.
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 what's the result in verse 20?
Deuteronomy 19, 20.
I'll give you a chance to get there.
I want everybody to see this.
Those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil
among you.
Now look back at 1 Timothy 5.
What's the result of the them being rebuked before all that others also may what?
So if we go to the original passage that taught the concept of two or three witnesses, because
that's what this is referring back to, the Bible said in Deuteronomy 19 that the reason
why they need to be punished, the false witnesses need to be punished, is that others also may
hear and fear, then here we see that against an elder received not an accusation but before
two or three witnesses, then that sin rebuked before all, why?
That others also may fear.
All of these things all stack up to make it very clear that what needs to happen when
there's a false accusation made is that that person needs to be rebuked publicly.
I mean, remember what it says?
Then the sin rebuked before all that others also may fear to blow off their mouth and
to bear false witness and to repeat scuttlebutt that they do not know to be true.
And you see, if that were carried out, it would solve the problem, but in so many churches
and schools and workplaces and places in our world, lies and gossip and hearsay abound
and are repeated and they're just indiscriminately just believed and assumed to be true when
really there's no basis for it.
It's just something that just keeps getting repeated.
Why?
Because people aren't facing any consequences for it.
You know, I remember one time, and pretty much everybody I've ever known, if I talk
to anybody I've known who's been in church for a really long time, if I talk to people
who've been in church for decades, pretty much every single one of them could bring
up an example where they were lying about it.
You know, I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands, but if I ask for a raise of hands
right now and say, how many of you have had someone spread lies about you that had no
basis in truth at all in church, at school, at work, hands would be going up all over
the room.
And even if I just said, okay, just at church only in your life.
Now those that have only come to this church, hopefully that company never happened.
But, you know, if you've been in other churches for a long time and if you've just been in
church in general for decades, you know what, it's probably happened to you.
I think about people that I know where this has happened.
This is a very common thing, where there are bad people in churches.
And look, you say, you don't look bad whenever you come to our church, but the Bible says
that there will be bad people that will come to our church.
The Bible said that there will always be tares amongst the wheat, growing with the
wheat, that look like the wheat, talk like the wheat, but they're weeds, they're tares.
The children of the wicked one.
The Bible says that there will be false prophets among us who would creep in, unaware.
Even the first church with Jesus as the pastor had a wicked person.
Judas Iscariot, a false brother, an infiltrator.
And I guarantee you that if there's not a wicked person in our church today, there will
be one tomorrow.
Or there was one yesterday.
Because, you know, I'm not saying that we have one in this service, you know, we're
not leaving until we find out who it is, we're not saying that at all.
But the bottom line is, the Bible warned us they would be amongst us.
And we just need to realize that there are bad people, and what happens is, wicked people,
what do they do?
They utter lies, the Bible says.
They bear false witness.
They spread an evil report.
They tell lies.
And it happens all the time.
I can think of a ton of examples right now.
I'll take an example from my own life.
When I was a teenager in a church that I went to, somebody started spreading lies that basically
I had committed fornication with a certain girl.
Now here's the funny thing.
I had never even been on a date with this girl, I had never even seen this girl, except
at church.
The only time I'd ever even had any interaction with this girl was at church.
It was just a complete lie, it was a complete fabrication, and in fact, thank God, when
I got married, guess what, I've only been with one woman in my life, and that's the
woman that I married, and I thank God for that.
I was a virgin when I got married.
But this lie was nonetheless spread about me, and later on the lie was found out, of
course, to be false, because the truth came out, the facts came out that this person had
basically concocted this lie in order to cover up, you know, we got the motives of false
witness, it was actually to cover up their own actions, and to get the emphasis off of
them, they basically accused me of things.
And this same person didn't just accuse me of things, they actually accused a lot of
people in the church.
They accused several other teenagers, I found out later, of committing wicked sins and so
forth.
Well, you can imagine how I felt, right?
I mean, how would you like to be going to a church and somebody spreading that lie about
you?
Would you be pretty infuriated?
Somebody's accusing you, and that's a pretty serious thing to be accused of, fornication.
That's a big sin.
Somebody's accusing you of fornication, that's going to really make you mad and upset.
And I went to the pastor and I said, hey, this lie has been spread about me, and I found
out about it.
I went straight to the pastor, you know, he's the one who's supposed to be in charge, and
I said to him, this lie is being spread about me, it's a total lie, there's no evidence,
it has no basis in truth, I don't even hardly know that girl, I've never even seen her outside
of this building, you know?
And here's what he said, he said, you know what, he said, yes, I know it's a lie, and
basically here's what they did to the liar, they sent the liar off to a brat camp.
You know, does anybody know what I'm talking about?
It's like when people can't handle their kid, they send it off to like some other, does
anybody know what I'm talking about?
It's like these places where they straighten them out, no, not military school, there's
a place in Missouri that's like that, and it's like agape school, boarding school, anybody
ever heard of that?
And it's a place where they send basically Christian kids who are bad, and they're going
to straighten them out, okay?
And then there's another, I think like the Roloff homes, I think they have like a thing
for teens that are bad, or I don't know.
But anyway, they send these kids to these so-called brat camps or whatever.
And by the way, I know I'm deviating from this argument, but let me tell you something,
these brat camps never work, never.
I've known several teens that have been sent to these places, and they go there, and when
they go to these places, the people who work there, they spank them, just like parents
spank their kids.
And they're only in a few states, because in most states, in every state, parents are
allowed to spank their children.
But in certain states, like a school can spank your children, you know?
And so basically, they only exist in certain states like Missouri, Texas, or whatever.
And in these places, they basically, they'll physically discipline them.
I mean, they'll spank these teens, and they have really strict discipline.
I mean, they run it like a prison, literally.
No one can come and go as they please.
And they're forced to memorize mass amounts of scripture.
I mean, they're memorized in chapter and chapter and chapter.
They're listening to preaching like three times a day.
They're being forced to go to these chapel services like three times a day, hearing hard
preaching.
They are just literally just, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, you know, I mean, they have to just
do everything perfect.
It's like being in boot camp or something.
I mean, it's really, they can't have any contact with their family for the first several months.
And you know, these kids, they come out of there, and it's like a miracle.
I mean, because when they went in, they're on drugs, they're drinking, they're partying,
they're disrespecting their parents, they're getting into all this trouble, they're failing
at everything.
And they come out, and they're just super ultimate Christian.
I mean, the guy, one guy that I knew, he's a good friend of mine, okay, he came out of
this thing.
And I mean, I only knew him after he came out, I didn't know him before he went in.
This guy came out of this thing, and I made friends with him.
And I mean, this guy came to church, he's like 17, he's wearing a suit, his haircut
was perfect.
And I mean, he's carrying a big Bible, and he was just, I mean, he was on fire for God.
But you know what, never, I've never seen it last, ever, never, it never works.
You can't force people to do, you know, what's right like that in an institution like that.
It just doesn't work.
Because they come out, and just shortly after they get out, they go back to their old ways.
Because there was never a change in their heart, okay.
It's just, they were just going through the motions, okay, because that's what they were
brainwashed to do at this place, basically, okay.
And then, girls that have gone to these, they have them for girls and boys, and these girls
come out, and I mean, they're just perfect.
And today, again, they're strung out on drugs, you know, I'm thinking of a specific example.
The guy that I knew, my mom, my mom's in the service today, my mom, just seen him at the
grocery store, he was sitting outside the grocery store, he was a homeless, drug-addicted
bum.
When I knew him, he was wearing a suit, he had a Bible, let's go, so many, you know.
But it was all just something that had basically been forced upon him.
And once he got out of there, he went back to his old ways, now he's homeless, on drugs,
whatever.
And he's my age, this is the way he was 17, 13 years later, he's still a derelict, okay.
Why?
Because parents have to raise their own children, and if the parents have failed, guess what,
somebody else isn't going to fix it for you.
You as a parent, if you take a, and I don't understand, why are you going to send your,
ship your kid off to some place to fix them, why don't you fix them?
You can't spank, you can't preach the Bible, you know, why do you have to send them off
somewhere?
Because the people who are sending them off, guess what, they don't love their kids.
That's why they're sending them away, and that's why it's going to fail, because you
have to bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and love your children,
and teach them and guide them.
And you say, oh, it's too late, I screwed up, well then you screwed up, sorry.
But anyway, this lying false witness was sent onto a brat camp, and they said, oh, we sent
so and so to this brat camp, and they lied about everybody and whatever.
And that's going to fix the problem, you know, of course it didn't, the person is still
a wicked person to this day.
But here's the thing, I told the pastor, I said, well pastor, I said, you know, my reputation
has been maligned here, I said, I want you to get up and state under the church that
it was a lie, and that this person has been found a liar, and that this person's been
shipped off to a brat camp for all the lies that they told.
And he said, oh no, because it was somebody important in the church's kid, so he didn't
want it to be exposed.
And I said, no, I said, I said, you know, I deserve to have my reputation protected,
this has no basis in truth, we both know that.
And here's what he said, he said, well Steve, he said, just live your life, he said, and
people will see your good works, and they'll see that you're a good guy, and eventually
everybody will realize that it was false, you know, when they see your testimony.
Eventually they'll know that it wasn't true.
Fine, there is some truth in that, obviously, but at the same time, is that the right way
to handle it biblically?
No, he should have got up and said, hey, so-and-so's a liar, there's no evidence, this is totally
unconfirmed, in fact, here's the evidence that it didn't happen, here's the evidence
that it was false, and I'm here to set the record straight that brother Steve Anderson
did not do that.
It's got to be the right way to handle it and publicly humiliate them, okay?
Now I'm not holding a grudge about it, it's something that I don't really even care about,
you know, 13, 14 years later, who gives a rip?
But the bottom line is, though, it's a great illustration, isn't it, of what should have
happened and didn't happen.
And I like to use a personal illustration just because it's personal to me, but I can
give illustrations about other people, okay?
And here's the thing, whenever an accusation is made, it's damaging, because even when
it's proven false, there are all these people thinking like, I wonder if that, you're even
thinking that right now, aren't you?
Is pass your answer really guilty of that?
You know, whenever there's an accusation made, that's always in the back of people's minds.
That's why I'd rather use an illustration about myself than about someone else.
The thing is, because I don't want to, you know, malign somebody else's character, because
people will always think, hmm, I wonder if there was any truth in that.
And here's what people will say things like this, well, whenever there's an accusation,
there's always a little bit of truth in it.
But is that really biblical?
Because look at the two witnesses that condemned Naboth.
Remember Naboth's vineyard where they have?
Remember the two witnesses that rose up and condemned Naboth?
Was there any truth in that?
What about the two witnesses that rose up and condemned Jesus to death?
Was there any truth in what they said?
Total fabrication.
What about the two witnesses that condemned Stephen?
So if two witnesses were always telling the truth, that would make Stephen, Jesus, and
Naboth all guilty.
Of course we know that they weren't.
And so we need to be careful not to bear false witness, repeat things that we don't know
for sure are true.
And especially when it regards an elder, a pastor.
Because people have come up to me and told me, oh, you know, did you know that so-and-so
the pastor beats his wife?
Did you know that so-and-so the pastor, you know, preached this and said this?
I always just say, where's the evidence?
Where are the two witnesses?
Where's the evidence?
And if they just say, well, I don't know, that's what I heard, you should just immediately
say, well, I don't believe it.
Because there should be some kind of evidence there.
Because you don't want to get messed up into this, mixed up into this business of bearing
false witness.
Because then now you're going to be punished.
And you say, well, you know, nobody's going to punish me.
The pastor's not going to punish me.
Just like that pastor didn't punish the false witness in the story that I told.
Or, you know, the court's not going to punish me.
I mean, look, you know, you can lie in court these days and usually get away with it, right?
Remember Bill Clinton?
I mean, didn't he just tell a bold-faced lie in court, under oath, swearing before Almighty
God to tell the truth?
He told a bold-faced lie, and here's what people said.
Well, it's okay to lie about that stuff, too.
You know, if it's the bedroom.
If it's adultery, you can lie about it.
You know, so did he get punished for perjury or whatever?
No.
And so what I'm saying is that people today, they think they're going to get away with it.
But we, as God's people, we know better.
Because we know that the false witness, remember when we read in Proverbs over and over,
shall not be unpunished.
So whether you get publicly humiliated, as the Bible says you should and is not,
as the Bible says, to rebuke them before all for telling lies, okay?
Not only does the Bible say it's going to be unpunished.
So we might think, okay, well, you know, I'm going to get away with it.
Nobody's going to rebuke me publicly.
The pastor doesn't have the guts to rebuke me publicly.
The courts aren't going to prosecute me.
I'm going to get away with it.
But you know what?
God doesn't let you get away with it.
See, God can bring your sins back upon you.
Ahab thought that he got away with it.
When he paid off, remember that was one of the motives for bearing false witnesses?
He paid two false witnesses to testify against Naboth.
Did he get away with it?
Nope. Decades later, the dogs lift up the blood of Ahab in the field of Jezreel.
He died. He was punished.
Be sure your sins will find you out, the Bible says.
And so when you bear false witness, there are always going to be consequences to you.
And if it's not carried out by the justice system,
if the pastor of the church doesn't rebuke you publicly,
God is still going to make sure that you reap what you sow.
And so we need to be very, very careful that we don't bear false witness.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you for your word and thank you for this teaching tonight
that can save us from a lot of trouble.
Help us, first of all, when we hear accusations,
help us to make diligent inquiry
and not just automatically believe things when we hear them
without actually making sure that that information is really true and verified.
But secondly, God, help us never to be participating
in being the one bearing the false witness.
Help us not to be on the receiving end of it
by listening to it and repeating it.
And help us not to be the originator of false witness.
Help us to realize what a grievous sin this is
and to take it seriously and to learn these things
and to have a sense of justice that comes from your word
and to not just be so naive as to think that every accusation is true.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.