Good morning. Good to be with you all this morning on this Lord's Day. We are continuing our study on the law of God, and this morning we're taking up the subject of the Ninth Commandment. And yes, we have switched the order between the Eighth and the Ninth Commandment, but don't panic, because we will still get to the Eighth Commandment. We've just switched them around due to some scheduling matters, but we will do the Eighth Commandment after the conclusion of the Ninth next week. I wanted to teach on this commandment specifically. This one was a topic of interest for me personally, but I struggled, as I thought, to share with you why that is. I struggled to kind of put that into a definitive statement. Why is it that this command was of particular interest to me? Of all the commandments, all of the commandments should be convicting to us, and I think we've seen that as the men have expounded them. when rightly understood. And I can't say that the violation of the ninth commandment in particular is any more grievous or widespread than any of the others, or that it's more extensive or difficult to understand what it requires and what it commands. So what is it that was peculiar to me about this commandment? As I thought about it, I think what makes this peculiar, a peculiar commandment to me is that this commandment can be particularly easy for Christians to violate while believing that they're doing something good. And I think we'll see that over the next two weeks. And it's in this way breaking the ninth commandment has become, I think, one of the more respectable sins in the church of Jesus Christ. It can flow out of our mouths so quickly, just an unfiltered thought in an unguarded moment. We all have done this. And it can do great harm. Each of us, according to the Apostle James, has a little flamethrower hidden under our tongues. As James says, the tongue is a fire, setting on fire the entire course of life, set on fire by hell. It is easy for Christians to speak serpent language, as you see in the picture there. And this is why it's important for us to consider the ninth commandment carefully and to pray that the Lord would set a guard over our lips and watch over the doors of our mouth. but also to pray that God would use this command, and this is our goal today and next week, use this command by his spirit to transform our hearts to a high esteem of truth and to love our neighbor in their good name. And this is our goal for this week and next. But before we begin, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, it's commands like these that make us realize how much remaining corruption there is in our hearts. And as those who've been called out of darkness and into your marvelous light, we rejoice at the pain that commands like this bring to us, the conviction, the contrition, and we must say, Lord, we fall short, and who are we to stand before you? But we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ that has stood in our behalf, has never told a lie, and has walked in truth toward God and toward men. And he has died for us and has lived for us in this regard, upholding all of your holy word. And we thank you for this. And it's in the light of this that we open this command and we ask that you would build up your people through the contemplation of the ninth commandment. And we ask this for your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Just to show you where we're going this morning. Seem to have lost the screen here. Try to, there we go, okay. Just to show you a little bit where we're going today and next week, we will consider first the foundation. of this commandment, and that is that this command comes from the God of truth. The principle, what does this command principally teach? What is it mainly concerned with? And then we'll take up the affirmative, or what does this command require? And then next week we'll consider the negative aspect of the command. What does it forbid? That will be the majority of what we discuss next week. First, let's consider the foundation of this command, which is that it comes from the God of truth. He's called the God of truth in the book of Isaiah. He calls him the God of truth in Isaiah 65, 16. And this is something that is a term, truth, that is used to refer to all three persons of the Godhead. And it is even used as names to describe their nature and who they are. I mentioned Isaiah 65, 16, he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth. And then Titus 1, 2, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. And then in Hebrews 6, 18, it is impossible for God to a lie, and so I think it's been said by some that there's three things that scripture says God expressly cannot do. He cannot die, he cannot lie, and he cannot change. So God cannot lie. He is the God of truth. He's God the Father. But then God the Son, one of the ways that he describes himself in John 14. Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth. and the life. He calls himself the truth. And then God the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus says of the spirit, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. So truth is something that is used to describe each person of the Godhead as an essential part of their character. Had another slide, there we go. And even, and you see here, the name of, this is the covenant name of God, Yahweh. Some have translated, I am who I am. or I will be who I will be. And even the name of God, the covenant name of God testifies to the truthfulness and trustworthiness of our Lord. And this name is considered his covenant name and it's given specifically for use by the covenant people of God when he reveals himself to them. He gives him his name, the Lord, Yahweh. It's capital L-O-R-D in your Bibles. And this is because to his people, he is the one who is always faithful and true, the one who will always keep his covenant promises. One theologian says, the name Yahweh as such already expresses that he remains who he is. He is a God of faithfulness and without deceit, and this is why his people can always trust him. So even his very covenant name witnesses his absolute commitment and love for the truth flowing out of his very being. And this is why he's the faithful God, because God is always true. He is always faithful to keep his promises. Therefore, his people can trust in him. He will never lie, and he will always keep his promises. This is why he's called the Rock. Many times throughout scripture, he's called the Rock, specifically by Moses, here in Deuteronomy 32.4. The Rock. His work is perfect. For all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. And then in Deuteronomy 7, 9, know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. And then because God is truth, all of his words are true. Everything he says is truth. 2 Samuel 7, 28, and now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true. And then the Lord Jesus prays in John 17, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. And then there's this very common phrase that the Lord Jesus uses, particularly in the Gospel of John, but then he also uses it in the Synoptic Gospels as well, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in a different way. But you'll recognize this, he says it, I think, 25 times in the book of John by my count. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you. And this is literally, amen, amen, is what he's saying. He's testifying to the second degree of the truthfulness of what he's about to say. And he does that as well in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John as well. He says, truly, or verily, as the older translations say. Now this is important because this is the foundation for the ninth commandment. The ninth commandment flows out of God's very nature. And God is the God of truth and he loves truth. And it's his will that the truth be known, confessed, and upheld, whether it be about himself, his creation, our neighbor, or ourselves. He delights in truth. And he exhorts us to buy the truth and sell it not. And truth is to be the currency for men everywhere, of all time, of every place. And truth is really the environment of men. And that's why the creation around us, despite how much men, sinful men and devils try to suppress the truth and unrighteousness, the truth is on display all around us in the things that have been made, testifying to us the truth about the living God. So in a real sense, our environment is truth. And that's the picture you see there on the side, all the arrows pointing to truth everywhere. That's our environment because that is our God and he's the creator. despite the fact that we are full of lies as sinful men. So this is the foundation of the God of truth, the foundation of the ninth commandment. But now I want to consider what does the command teach? What is the ninth commandment and what is its plain meaning? The actual words of the command You see there in Exodus 2016, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. So let's just consider this just a little bit, just briefly today, so we don't take anything for granted. There is a few parallel passages within the books of Moses that give more light on exactly what this command is saying expressly, explicitly. Exodus 23 and one says, you shall not spread a false report You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness." And on its face here, it really expressly seems to refer to bearing witness in a judicial sense, being a witness in a false way to someone who is being judged. That's the bare express words seem to mainly refer to this. And we see this described further in Deuteronomy 19. Verses 16 and following, if a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. So the express explicit application of this command seems to be mainly judicial, bearing witness in a judicial sense. But as we'll see, this command is exceedingly broad, as the psalmist says, of the law of God. So it goes a little bit further than just that. Now, why is it such a bad thing to bear false witness to our neighbor? Perhaps it's obvious. Maybe we don't even have to ask the question. Of course, it's wrong. But why is it wrong? The scripture teaches, and it's important for us to take this into account, that a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. A good name is better than precious ointment. So, having a good name is more valuable by the testimony of scripture than anything else we could have possession-wise in this life. Our neighbors bear the image of God and if they are Christians they bear the name of Jesus Christ. And so if we tarnish the reputation of image bearers falsely or Christians for that matter, we are bringing reproach onto the image of God or those who are the children of God through Christ. We stay in the witness of Christians if we bring false accusations or false information to bear on someone else. And we stay in their witness and we bring reproach upon the image of God to their hurt. And what is specifically this word witness signifies every word whereby the credit and estimation of our neighbor is either impaired or diminished. And so this is not just a formal accusation, but even information brought to bear upon our neighbor that diminishes or somehow impairs their credit with others falsely, without warrant. So let's just go with this word credit. I think this is helpful to picture this in terms of a credit score. We all have credit scores, whether you have sought any credit or not, you have a credit score. If you don't have any credit, things to get credit, you probably have a very low credit score. But nonetheless, we have a credit score. Most of us understand how this works. Your credit score determines your ability to perhaps borrow to buy the things that you need, some of the essentials in life. And when you speak falsely of your neighbor, Maybe some of you have had this happen to you. Someone sends a false report. I have the same name as my father, and so there was one particular time where they sent the bill to the wrong place, and it just It got lost. No one had it. Well, it was ascribed to the wrong person. The bill was lost. We didn't know it existed, but the credit was sent to the wrong person. There was a lot of things that had to happen to rectify both the lost bill and also the fact that it went on the wrong credit score. This can be very costly if someone makes a false entry on your credit score, so to speak, of truth. It can immediately prevent a person from buying what they need and could be very difficult to scrub from their record even if it's false. So brothers and sisters, we are to have regard for the credit score of our neighbors and that we are not wrongly or maliciously associating them with a false report because bringing false reproach against someone is disregarding the image of God in this person and doing violence to their reputation with others, whether we do this on purpose or whether we do it incidentally with good intentions. This most often brings real consequences for a person that can only be overcome, if it can be overcome, at a great cost. Thomas Watson has this to say, I think this is helpful, associating the person's name with their person. He argues here we can We can kill and murder someone's name even if we don't kill their person. You may kill a man as well as his name as in his person, just as if you could kill his person. Some are loath to take away their neighbor's goods. That's the eighth commandment. Conscience would fly in their face, but better take away their corn out of their field, their wares out of their shop, than take away their good name. This is a sin you can never make them reparation for, a blot in a man's name being like a blot on white paper, which will never be got out. Surely God will visit for this sin. If idle words shall be accounted for, shall not unjust slanderers? The Lord will make inquisition one day as well for names as for blood. It should cause us to tremble. We'll get into more of this negative side, the negative side of the command next week, but this just shows What is at stake here when we are not speaking truth of our neighbor? So to sum this up, the ninth commandment, this is from William Perkins, the ninth commandment concerns the preservation of our neighbor's good name. This is the bare commandment is with regard to our neighbor's good name. The negative, you shall not diminish or hurt the good name and estimation of your neighbor. And the affirmative, preserve the good name of your neighbor, which we'll focus on this morning. So this command is primarily concerned with preserving and upholding our own and our neighbor's good name. But it also extends beyond this, as we'll see, to our representation of truth in general. It has a broader application than just testifying in court against someone, judicial witness. So now let's consider, what does the command require? And if you remember our time together in the introduction to this series, I stated that the commandments are synecdoches. That's actually from Thomas Watson. He calls them synecdoches, and that just means that the commands are stated very briefly and simply, almost kind of like simple index entries in a figurative way, and it represents a more extensive doctrine that is developed and expressed throughout the scriptures. So in a real sense, the ten are like an index of the moral will of God that are enlarged upon and commented on by later revelation by prophets and apostles applied in a more extensive sense. And so each index entry points to the hundreds of scriptures that flesh out the commandment in more detail. So we're not to limit the ninth commandment. Maybe some people have had this question. get certain applications from the ninth commandment when it just seems to speak of judicial witness. Well, it's not just the bare words that we must understand what the commandment affirms. It's not just the bare words. We must understand what the commandment affirms as well as what it forbids. If it forbids something, it also affirms the opposite. It means we should be truthful. And it also addresses the causes, as the Westminster Catechism says. It also speaks to the causes, the means, the occasions, and the appearances of the sin as well. Scripture not only requires us to make true testimony, true witness in a judicial sense, but to uphold truth in all of life and to hate every kind of misrepresentation of truth, regardless of the degree. Our Baptist Catechism summarizes the teaching of what is required in the Ninth Commandment throughout scripture by saying, the Ninth Commandment requireth the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbor's good name, especially in witness bearing. The Westminster Larger Catechism I'm not going to read this right now. I will unpack this in the slides that follow. But I encourage you to read this. And at some point, if you haven't already, take the Westminster Larger Catechism. What are they doing there? Some of them can seem like, where did they get that from this command? Well, it's like I said, they're using the 10 as an index to larger scripture teaching. It's just like I had said during our introduction, when the Apostle Paul, he expounds upon the Eighth Commandment, you shall not steal. And he expounds this in Ephesians by saying, let the thief who steals, steal no longer. negative, but it also implies an affirmative. Let him labor with his hands that he may have something to provide for those who are in need. And so this is what the catechism is doing. And I really encourage you to, if you haven't already, take some time to read through the Westminster Larger Catechism, particularly I believe it's somewhere in the 90s all the way down through the 150s. It's just expounding and opening up the application and summarizing the whole scripture doctrine found under those commands. And it's quite broad, it's quite convicting, and I think you will find it very edifying. But you can see here, some of us might be a little surprised at some of the applications of the ninth commandment. It's quite lengthy, quite long, and as we'll see, it doesn't just deal with necessarily the outward things that we say, but it tries to get, it gets effectively, as the scriptures do, to the heart. What is it that we're thinking about our neighbor? What is it that we're desiring about ourselves to set ourselves over our neighbor that's causing us to speak in this way? So I commend this to you. We'll expound this in further detail as we go. But I wanted to also remind you of two charts that I showed you in the introduction of this study to the law of God, which illustrate the depths to which these commands reach. I think this is a helpful A picture here, the commandment is not requiring of us only external duties and behavior control. This is important for our own souls. This is important for the souls of our kids and those we minister to or an authority over. We don't want to be those that just pluck fruit off the tree and not address the heart, what's going on in the heart that's causing us to sin in these ways. We want to get all the way down into the root and address what is wrong with the heart. This has a direct application to the deepest part of us and how we think and what we desire, this command. And so, there's this diagram here, fruit sense. Those are the ones we see. Those are easier to see. Other people see them. They can help us pluck them off. We can pluck them off and make the tree appear good, even though it's rotten fruit. We can say, well, I'll just pluck all the rotten fruit off and then I'll be left with a good looking tree. Well, that cannot be done. So our Lord Jesus says, if the root is bad, the tree is bad. And so then we have these root sins, which are underlying the sinful things that we do and say out loud. And these are the heart conditions, the thinkings, what we will deep inside, which is causing us to act in those ways toward others or toward truth. So we want the moral law to penetrate not just to those fruits and pluck off bad fruits, but we want it to penetrate to the heart because that is how the Lord sanctifies us. And then the second chart here, we see this represented in a different way, see the heart and the will, mind and thoughts, and speech and actions. You can see the heart and the will. What we are inside toward God, we think. That's what we think. That's the way we think. That's the way we process things. How we will. The will is at the center of our being. And then that is what comes out in our speech and actions. And we want the moral law not just to address those things on the outside, but get down to the deepest part of our will. Of course, this comes from Matthew 15, 18 to 20. What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And this defiles a person. The heart defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander, ninth commandment. These are what defile a person. So we have a problem with our heart in these matters. So we want to consider now what are the duties required? And there's certainly more that can be said. I'm going to cover what I think summarizes the major teachings in this regard. But it's under two categories. First is from the heart. These are these heart sins that are addressed by the command. And that is loving the truth. We are required to be those who love the truth. This requires, although the Westminster Larger Catechism doesn't say this directly. This requires that we humbly esteem ourselves, and we'll talk about that in a moment. And then we should have a charitable esteem toward our neighbor. These are all things that are going on within us. But then there's those things that proceed from the mouth, and that is we should be those who are promoting the truth, We should be preserving the good name of our neighbor. We should be keeping our promises. It's bound up in the ninth commandment. And we should be resisting gossip. So let's consider first those things pertaining to the heart. We are to be those who are loving first the truth from the heart. And the Westminster Larger Catechism in question 144 says, Summarizing the teaching of scripture, the duties required in the ninth commandment are the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and from the heart, listen to this language, from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully speaking the truth. And that's an important qualification there, from the heart, because we can just focus on, well, I'm only gonna say things that are true. but it has to penetrate to the way we even think and believe about others as well. That is key to this because we can't just speak things that are not true in our hearts either. That's dishonest. We need to not just pluck the bad fruit out and put duct tape over our mouths, although sometimes maybe we should do that, but we need to address where it resides internally. Zechariah 8.19 says that It tells the people of God to love truth and peace. God, according to David in his penitential prayer, acknowledges that the Lord delights in truth in the inward being. This is a good conscience that David is speaking about. The Lord delights in truth, a true assessment in the inward being. The Lord delights in this. And he who walks blamelessly, Psalm 15, and does what is right and speaks the truth in his heart. It's a right assessment of things in the heart that come out as we speak toward others. Abrakel says, if the heart is truthful and loves the truth, if the heart is truthful and loves the truth, it will bring forth truth and man will be prevented from lying. We will see no benefit in lying whatsoever because we love the truth. Now for Christians, of course, all of this comes through the Holy Spirit to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is called, as we saw earlier, the Spirit of Truth. The Lord told his disciples, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. So Christians indwelt by the Holy Spirit are those who are filled with the spirit of truth. And this should fill our hearts with a desire to speak truth, to think true things, to think good and right things. Our love for the truth, because of the Holy Spirit inside of us, should be greater than our desire to benefit from any false way that we can misrepresent it because that's what's at heart is we want to benefit from some wrong information that will essentially benefit us in some way, shape or form. So we need to be those who love the truth and by God's grace in the gospel we are, if we are Christians, we are changed and filled with the Holy Spirit to be people who love truth that is even in our very commission we are those who desire to preach the truth to others and so how committed should we be in seeking the Holy Spirit that he would fill us and lead us into all truth and not speak in the serpent tongue. Now then This is not explicitly mentioned in the catechism, but I think this is really important. As I was thinking through what are the reasons that we often will speak falsely, I think this is a really important one. I think when I have sinned in this way, this has been something of the heart of it, an overconfidence in my ability to discern what is right in this situation when I have incomplete information. And this is very important, as we'll see in the application of this. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 12.3, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. This is a very, very broad statement by the Apostle. Then we see this play out actually in 1 Timothy 1.6-7. I think this is very pertinent for the ninth commandment. The apostle says, certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either of what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. So they're more confident in their understanding than they are that they have true understanding, and this is something that we can all do. And that's because we, in pride, we tend to overestimate our ability, we tend to overestimate our own limited knowledge and our ability to know things with wisdom and discernment. We need to remember And of course, we're not speaking about things, thus says the Lord, where we have the word of the Lord. I'm not speaking about that, but I'm speaking about sometimes our knowledge of situations, assuming what someone means by what they said, assuming the truthfulness of some very complicated profession or news story that we don't quite have all the facts on. We can tend to be very overconfident in our ability to discern those things and to proclaim them as if we understand them. But we need to remember that our knowledge is finite and it's often tinged by sin, very often tinged by sin. This can lead us to make or share false claims about nature or about other people as well, even the people we love. This is of course a big problem on the internet and just an application of this principle. It implies the ninth commandment teaches that we should be very careful of what we share on the internet as truth, as though it's true. I'm not talking about asking questions about things, but I'm saying when we pass on things as truth without qualification, we should be certain that that thing is true. or be careful to make the necessary qualifications, because we should not be those who are, without knowledge, passing on false information to others that will cause harm to others in some way. We need to be careful not to do that. It may seem to advance the cause that we're passionate about, so there's a lot of short-term benefits to perhaps sharing something like this, but if it's not true, we should be careful not to certify the claim. But then there's an even bigger problem, when we assume that our judgment of others is right when it's really incomplete. And this is perhaps even more widespread and difficult for us in terms of our relationships, husband to wife, friend to friend. We can often make all kinds of errors with our spouses, our friends, our family, our coworkers, and our pastors, and so on, because we have incomplete information and we're very confident in the information that we have. This can cause us to really begin conflicts, take them in very sinful directions, because, well, I know what you meant by what you said, and I resent that. And you've taken this in a direction where the person had no intention to bring it. And we'll see more about this in the negative side of the command next week. Lord willing. So this should generally make us very careful when we make claims or accusations about others. And it's generally just better in light of the ninth commandment that if we're not sure of something, we can always ask in a way that doesn't assert something that's untrue, that someone now has to defend. We can always turn a statement into a question, and this always helps us to let the truth come forth rather than to make a false claim about someone or something. So we need to have a humble esteem of ourselves and our ability to discern things. The ninth commandment requires the humility to recognize when we have not understood or established the whole truth. But then there is a charitable esteem toward our neighbors. And this, the catechism says, charitable esteem of our neighbors the Ninth Commandment requires, loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name, sorrowing for and covering of their infirmities, freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocency, a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness to admit of an evil report concerning them. So the catechism teaches that we should be sincerely ready and willing to praise our neighbor for their gifts and graces, to protect their good name, and to rejoice in the preservation of their good name and the things that happen to them. Let's think about this just in a little bit more detail. We should have a readiness to rejoice in our neighbor. And we see in 1 Corinthians 13, 7, love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13, 7. And then Philippians 4, 8. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. And so what this teaches is we should have a desire to rejoice in our neighbor, in their good name. We should not have any desire to see their name trampled upon. It's not just the not doing it. If there's something in our soul that is antagonized by something good happening to this person or some favorable circumstance toward this person, that is a hotbed for sin. And it's a hotbed for you to go, what is some way that I can diminish this so that they don't get the praise that they deserve, so that I get the thing that they are getting instead of them, and so on and so forth. So this is something that even when we sense in our own hearts and souls, I don't feel like I want the best for this person. Even someone we're engaging with, perhaps, in a disagreement, someone who's been unkind to us, someone who's been wicked to us in some way, we should desire, we should be ready to rejoice if the Lord gives them, even if they've wronged us, repentance. And certainly for Christians, we should rejoice and be ready to rejoice in favorable things happening to a person from God. And that is the heart condition that leads to violation of the ninth commandment. Paul in Hebrews 6, 9, the apostle says, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things. So we are to hope the best in some sense. We are to hope the best for even in the appearance. If someone brings us some false report, as we'll see in a moment, we are to desire that this not even be true. That should be our hope and our desire for the person. So that's our readiness to rejoice in the person. But then there is a sorrowing for and covering of infirmities. This needs a little bit of explanation because we are obviously not speaking of covering over sin that needs to be confessed. That's not what we're talking about here, as we'll see. The psalmist says, my eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. And so it's the disposition of the psalmist here. He sees sin being done, but it's a grief to him, not an annoyance. It's a grief to him. He is truly sorrowing and grieving that someone is committing sin. And that should be the heart of a person who is sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit by the grace of God. We should be those who sorrow over the sin of others. and not just be angry or bitter or to be annoyed by those things. Psalm 15.3 says, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor nor takes up a reproach or I think this is best described as entertaining a a slander against his friend. He's not willing to receive a bad report. Someone comes to him with a bad report, he says, well, I don't want to just assume this is true. Has this been verified? Has the person acknowledged this? Have you talked to the person about this? because I'm not inclined to believe it, because I'm not hearing this from this person's own mouth. It's not speaking here of saying we're just going to ignore all sin. I'm unwilling to acknowledge anyone's sin. That's not what he's saying. He's just saying our disposition is we hope that that's not the case. And if it's a minor offense and something against us, we should be willing to cover over it with love if it's not something to the degree that needs to be confronted. It's a very small annoyance, something that It's just a minor thing. We should consider covering over that thing with love, out of charity toward others that they are like us and they sin in many ways. But this is in no way saying if there's grievous, serious sin that needs to be confronted, we should not confront it. It's just our hope for that person should not be, aha, you're guilty of that sin. That should not be our desire. It should be with sorrowing and unwillingness to acknowledge it. First Peter 4.8, of course, I talked about covering over. He says, above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. Those are just some heart conditions that the ninth commandment addresses and requires of us as believers in Christ. Then there's from the mouth. from the mouth, and we should be those who promote the truth. Because we love the truth, we should be those who promote truth. Westminster Catechism 144 again says, the duties required in the ninth commandment are the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man and the good name of our neighbor as well as our own. appearing and standing for the truth, and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever. This is how it summarizes the teaching of scripture. And you see some of those scriptures here, which are cited, actually, in, I believe, our Baptist confession, our Baptist catechism. Speak the truth to one another. Render in your gates judgments that are true, and make for peace. So of course we should, especially in witness bearing, we should bear the truth and render at the gates judgments that are true and make for peace. And then Ephesians 4.15 and 25 says, rather speaking the truth in love. We should be those who are speaking the truth in love. And it says in verse 25, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor." And then it was very important to the Apostle Paul throughout his letters to say that he proclaimed nothing but the unadulterated truth. And in his letter to the Corinthians, he says, we did not use underhanded, cunning methods of deceitfulness and trying to stir up certain responses. We just gave the open statement of the truth because for him the method of the communication of that truth must accord with the truth of the gospel. That was very important to the Apostle Paul, especially in the book of 2 Corinthians. And this is because as Christians and Christian ministers, we are entrusted with the gospel of truth. And it is literally our task to promote truth to the world through the gospel. We don't want that truth of the gospel to be adulterated with any falsehood or false method. We want it preserved in truth. That should make us zealous truth tellers. So we should be those who promote the truth from the mouth. We should also be those who preserve the good name of our neighbor. And this means that we should stand up and defend the innocence of others when it's warranted. And when we know them to be falsely accused or misrepresented in some way, the command teaches that it is our duty to speak up and to defend their innocency or ensure that they're being treated fairly. That's all of our duties. We see an example of this in 1 Samuel 19. We see Jonathan. putting himself on the line to defend David from the wrath of Saul. We should be those who do the same when we know the accusation to be false. But then sometimes preserving the good name of our neighbor involves confronting our neighbor and encouraging them to do what they ought to in order to preserve their good name and maybe ours as well. And one example of this is also in 2 Corinthians. Pastor Sam is in the midst of, or actually just completed preaching on this text. But we see the Apostle Paul doing this in the context of the church at Corinth. You made promises in a very gentle way. He says, you made promises. I boasted of them to people in Macedonia. And I think it would be pretty bad for both of us if you didn't follow through on your command. It would bring reproach onto us if you don't follow through with this. And I trust you will follow through on this. So he's here encouraging. that they carry through with their word. He's exhorting them, carry through with your word because otherwise it will reflect very badly on your name and mine as well because of being so confident in you. So we should be those who desire and take measures to preserve the good name of our neighbors. Lots of other examples of this, but for the sake of time, we'll move on. Keeping our promises, of course I just referred to this in the previous slide, but just to press this a little bit more, the catechism says, keeping of lawful promises. Of course this is something we see, that's why we base this in the attributes of God, that this is just, this command flows right out of the nature and character of God, that he is a faithful God because he's always true and we should be those, like God, who uphold our promises and take them very seriously. Numbers 30.20 says, if a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. And then Psalm 15.4 teaches that even if carrying through on a promise is going to be to our hurt, we should carry it through. He who swears to his own hurt and does not change. So we should carry through even if it's costly for us. We should be those, by the grace of God, who strive to keep our promises, the promises we make to one another, promises we make to the Lord. We should, in the fear of the Lord, strive to be those who can be called faithful because we do what we say we're going to do, and that is addressed by the ninth commandment. And then we're going to talk more about this on the negative side, probably a lot more extensively, but on the positive side, we need to be those who resist gossip. And this is perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to do on the affirmative side. Because sometimes, as I said in the beginning, it's hard to recognize when something is done for someone's good, someone thinks they have good motives for doing this, and when it's crossed the line now into, you've said something to me, you probably should talk to that person about it, not to me. This is very difficult. We'll talk more about this next week, because this afflicts, I think this afflicts all of us in some way, shape, or form, and we all have a duty to resist it, and to call it what it is, and encourage the person not to do this. The catechism says, an unwillingness to admit of an evil report concerning them, discouraging tail-bearers, flatterers, and slanderers. We should be those who resist gossip and slander. Let not the slanderer be established in the land. Let evil hunt down the violent man speedily. We should not be those who allow slander and gossip, tail-bearing, to thrive in this church, by analogy, in our homes. Proverbs 20, 19 says, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with a simple babbler, just a parallel way of talking about this person, the slanderer. And so in conclusion, Let us remember, brethren, that this is a high calling. These duties that we're required to do are high, and we fail in many ways, and we need the Lord to help us and to put into joint that which is broken and out of joint, and to strengthen us and give us what he commands. But this helps us to understand these requirements so that we might go and petition our God to help us. We can confess our sin and he is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And he is also faithful to give us that which we stand in need of, to help us to walk in the truth. So let us ask him to create in us a greater love for the truth and the preservation of our neighbor's good name. I don't think there, is there a hymn of the month? Okay, so I think there are maybe a couple minutes for questions or comments. I'm gonna go to James first. Thank you brother, that was very, very good. You mentioned, kind of in passing, that oftentimes what motivates us to break this commandment is some perceived benefit that we'll receive by either the propagation of a lie or et cetera. Can you flesh that out just a little more? I thought that was very insightful. I'd like to hear you just kind of expound on that. Yeah, very briefly, because I'll talk about this more when I talk about the negative side. But I think, I think. This might be an overstatement, but I do think that every lie comes from a desire. If I just look at children, why do they do this from the earliest of age without even seeing the example of this? There are times where perhaps all of you can relate to this. I don't even know where you came up with the idea to do that, perhaps with your older children. But I think it's a very primitive desire, a sinful desire, to have some advantage that you won't have by the nature of things working themselves out. As a child, I will not get this candy unless I tell a tale about something to get it in some way, or I'll get in trouble if I tell this, so I'm not going to do it, and they'll think it's someone else. So I think there's this very primitive, simple desire within all of us to benefit from misrepresentation. I think in every misrepresentation, we stand to gain something in some way, shape, or form. So I'll try to flesh that out more next week when we talk about the negative. Pastor Sam had his hand up. I think it confirms what I believe about that. We can't cover sin from ourselves if we already know it. We can't cover sin from the person who sinned. We can cover sin from other people, and that's what the texts are normally talking about, covering somebody else's sin and not repeating it or bearing a reproach against them. But covering the sin is not the opposite of rebuking sin. Yes. Yeah, thank you for making that explicit. Yeah, we're talking about You know, we've had this conversation with our children. You know, if there's something that's happened, some kind of disagreement, conflict, sin, you know, we have to be careful not to, after it's been repented of and there's been forgiveness given, that should not come up again. And that's just one way, and even minor things that we just know are common struggles and we can overlook them. We just don't want to glory in having them spread out to others. I think that's the point of what he's saying there. And along with that, it's the same, and you may have said this, I missed a little bit of the very first, that it's the same biblical principle for ourselves. We have to acknowledge our sin to receive the forgiveness. And so if the person has acknowledged their sin, that's when we should begin the covering because God is covering their sin at that point. Yes, thank you. Appreciate it. I think I've got a really short amount of time for Blake. Okay. Yeah, and don't ever get caught up in gossip because it's like a whirlpool. Once you enter in, it'll just pull you more and more and more and more down. So the best way to do it is to avoid it at all possible costs or else it will make, if I can put it this way, make your life a living hell. Thank you. All right, well thank you all for your attention. We look forward to being back again next week to consider part two, the Ninth Commandment.