11/19/17-Eph 6:2-3; The 10 Commandments, Pt. 28

The 9th Commandment, Pt. 2

Lesson #17-124

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDdAtHHfKxY

Grace Fellowship Church

Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard

www.GraceDoctrine.org

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Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, (If You have - Trusted in Him for Eternal Life), it is important to prepare yourself to: Take-in God’s Word and/or Participate in a Communion Service, so take a moment to name, cite, or acknowledge your sins privately, directly to God the Father. This will assure that you are in fellowship with God the Father & the Holy Spirit’s convicting ministry will then be able to teach you as the Holy Spirit is the real teacher.

1 John 1:9 says— “If we confess [simply name, cite, or acknowledge to God the Father] our sins [known sins], He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins [known sins] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [all unknown & forgotten sins].”

For those of you who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord & Savior, please see: The Salvation Message @ the end of this document.

2 Pet 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

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The Doctrine of the Ten Commandments Related to the Church Age, Part XXVIII.

Eph 6:2-3; Ex 20:16; Deut 5:20; 17:6; 19:15-21; Jer 42:5; 29:23

The 9^th Commandment, (continued)... Ex 20:16; Deut 5:20:

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” 

Cf. Ex 23:1-3 in the Sundry laws.

The 9^th Commandment calls for sanctity of truth in all areas of life, especially in a court of law. As the 6^th C. protected and honored your neighbor’s life, the 7^th his marriage and sexuality, the 8^th his property, so the 9^th does for his reputation. Therefore, the 6th through 9th Commandments acknowledge a person’s right to his life, home, property, and reputation.

Under Jewish law, more than one witness was required to find the accused guilty, particularly with respect to a capital case, Deut 17:6; 19:15-20. This would make it much more difficult to convict someone based on false testimony, as it would take two or more liars to convict.

Deut 17:6, “On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.”

In the case of the Law of Jealousy, Numb 5:13, as noted above under the 7^th Commandment Adultery, if there was no witness of the wife’s adulterous act, she was brought to the Temple before the Priest and God Himself for judgment.

ED or “witness” is also used in the stories of the kinsman of Boaz and Jeremiah, where witnesses were necessary to purchase back the land, which were typology for Jesus Christ purchasing our sins upon the Cross., Ruth 4:9ff; Jer 32:10-25. Jeremiah’s action was also prophetic in that Israel would return from exile, Jer 42:45.

YHWH alone is the true and faithful Witness, Jer 42:5; 29:23; Mal 3:5. The Lord is a God of truth; His words are true, Psa 119:142, 151. He loves truth, because He loves Himself, and He “hates every false way,” cf. Psa 119:104, 128; Prov 6:17-19. Lying is a denial that truth is always right. It is a denial of God’s character and of His attributes.

Therefore, this Command forbids:

1. Speaking falsely in any matter, lying, equivocating, and any way devising or designing to deceive your neighbor.

2. Speaking unjustly against your neighbor, to the prejudice of his reputation; (i.e., gossip and rumor).

3. Bearing false witness against him, accusing him of things that he does not know, either judicially, upon oath, (by which the third commandment, and the sixth, as well as this, are broken), or extra judicially, in common conversation, slandering, backbiting, tale-bearing, aggravating what is done wrong and making it worse than it is: Exaggeration. It includes any endeavor to raise our own reputation upon the ruin of your neighbor’s.

In the Decalogue, the lie or false testimony in view is “against your neighbor,” BE REA.

The Preposition BE means, “against,” among other things, and REA means, “kinsman, fellow countryman, friend,” or as we call it, “neighbor.”

In general this word falls into three categories:

1. A friend, or someone belonging to an inner circle of close companions.

2. A neighbor, or someone who lives in close proximity or is simply a fellow human being.

3. Someone with whom no intimacy is intended (usually denoted by the pronoun “another”), but who is in the community fellowship of the people.

Therefore, the prohibition is not limited to slander of a fellow Israelite, because REA can refer to an Israelite, Lev 19:18, an alien, (GER), Lev 19:34, or even a pagan, Ex 11:2.

The root word for REA is RA’A that means, “to feed, shepherd, pastor, keep, a companion, company, etc.” So, the root for neighbor means, “one of the herd or flock, a fellow sheep.”

This is the first commandment to use the word REA and underscores the horizontal commandments that affect one’s “neighbor.” Here it is the general juridical sense of “anyone else you happen to come in contact with,” rather than the more narrow sense of “someone living near you,” Cf. Ex 3:22; 11:2; 12:4. In laws and formal rules, “neighbor” has nothing to do with proximity or familiarity; your “neighbor” connotes any other human being you may have dealings with, actually or potentially.

The first time this word is used in the Bible is in Ex 11:3, 7 for the account of the Tower of Babel regarding their fellow man, “one another.” We will see this word again in the 10^th Commandment, where we are not to covet our neighbor’s property.

Principles:

1. The immediate concern of this command is fairness and honesty toward those with whom we may appear at a court action or legal investigation of any sort. It is directly connected to the idea of legal testimony and the witness. Rather than providing false testimony, the individual should give truthful and honest testimony. 

2. Keeping this law helps maintain stability in a society by protecting individuals’ reputations. Speaking the truth and honoring promises is the cement that holds society together. A decent society requires a reliable court system and court processes. Because crimes and disputes do occur, it must be the case that they can be adjudicated and the criminal behavior or unfairness thereby stopped. If witnesses in a trial, whether civil or criminal, do not tell the truth, it is extremely difficult for judges to render proper decisions. In other words, the court system of a nation depends on the honesty of its people.

3. This also involves maintaining integrity before the Lord, Who of course does know the truth about the matter under investigation and will ultimately hold accountable before His judgment throne those who have resorted to falsehood to protect themselves from harm or in order to maliciously injure the other man in the court action.

“Not only false oaths, to deprive a man of his life or of his right, are here prohibited, but all whispering, tale-bearing, slander, and calumny; in a word, whatever is deposed as a truth, which is false in fact, and tends to injure another in his goods, person, or character, is against the spirit and letter of this law. Suppressing the truth when known, by which a person may be defrauded of his property or his good name, or lie under injuries or disabilities which a discovery of the truth would have prevented, is also a crime against this law. He who bears a false testimony against or belies even the devil himself, comes under the curse of this law, because his testimony is false.” (Adam Clarke's Commentary.)

4. To tell lies in court is to undermine the very law itself, which explains why Moses required the witnesses to be the executioners in capital crimes, Deut 17:6-13. It is one thing to lie, but quite something else to kill in order to protect your lie.

5. The basic issue at stake is personal integrity in all interpersonal relationships, as we see in Lev 19:11, were stealing, the 8^th, dealing falsely and lying to one another, the 9^th, are linked together.

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A PERSONAL NOTE FOR YOU

John 6:47 says: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.”

Notice again what John 6:47 says, “he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.” It doesn’t say, “will have;” it says, “has.” Therefore, the very moment you believe Jesus Christ’s promise of everlasting life, you have it, and it can never be lost or taken away from you [John 10:28-29]. Furthermore, the gift of everlasting life [also called eternal life in Scripture] is available to every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.

John 3:14-18 says: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Eph 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am here to tell you that Jesus loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His life for you. God the Father also loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His only Son for you by sending Him to the Cross. At the Cross Jesus died in your place. Taking upon Himself all of your sins and all of my sins. He was judged for our sins and paid the price for our sins. Therefore, our sins will never be held against us.

Right where you are, you now have the opportunity to make the greatest decision in your life. To accept the free gift of salvation and eternal life by truly believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins and was raised on the third day as the proof of the promise of eternal life. So right now, you can pause and reflect on what Christ has done for you and say to the Father:

"Yes Father, I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ,
died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins."

If you have done that, I Welcome You to the Eternal Family of God !!!

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Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher: James H. Rickard
23 Messenger Street, Unit 3
Plainville, MA 02762

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