Maybe today we will come with the last of our heart-to-heart talks on this 9th commandment.
I'm not sure.
When I left your home last time, I never dreamed we'd be having another heart-to-heart talk
regarding this 9th of God's 10 rules, Fuldery.
It's so simple, only nine words.
Thou shalt not lie about thy neighbor.
Now that's the way I would say it.
That's exactly what it means.
The word of God says, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
But if I were talking to you or you were talking to someone else, you'd say, Thou shalt not
lie about thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not lie about anyone.
In so doing, you besmirch his reputation.
Every time you tell a falsehood against someone else, you are breaking this God's commandment.
And something that is so amazing is the fact that there are people, thousands of people,
people whom I'm talking to right now, who would not think of taking one thing that does
not belong to them.
You wouldn't think of stealing for any new world.
To even mention the fact of killing, that's the furthest thing from your mind.
Thou shalt not kill, oh, the horror of it all.
You shudder to think of it.
And yet, you think nothing whatsoever of breaking this ninth commandment.
And it's just as important as any one of the other nine commandments, as important as any
one of the other nine of God's rules for the being.
Thou shalt not lie about thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not lie about anyone.
Life is precious.
A human being is the most important thing in the whole world to Almighty God.
I don't care who you are.
You may be a street sweeper.
You may be a garbage collector.
You may be, you may have the most menial job in the whole world.
And yet, in the sight of God, a human life is important.
You may be the very least of all humanity.
Yet, in God's sight, you are more important to Him than anything else in the whole world.
A human being, human life, is important to Him.
You are important to Him.
Therefore, He has given a commandment whereby He protects the reputation of every man and
every woman.
Now, I left you and a little heart-to-heart talk about this thing of the tongue.
It's a world of iniquity, the Bible says.
It's a fire.
It can cause more destruction than all the bombs that were ever dropped, all the guns
that were ever fired.
It can do more damage than the Air Force, the Navy, the artillery all combined, believe
me.
Oh, it's a world of iniquity.
The most destructive weapon in the world this very hour is the human tongue.
That's right.
I left you with a portion of the Word of God as found in the seventh chapter of Matthew.
Judge not.
In other words, in breaking this law, you are going to be punished.
You'll find the same thing on your own doorstep because there is an inescapable law of God.
It's the law of life.
Judge not that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.
And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again.
There it is.
You can't get around it.
It's God's inescapable law.
It's what we call the law of life.
It is absolutely as inescapable, as unchanging as the law of gravity.
I mean that, this law of retribution, impersonal, unchanging, it is as solid as inescapable
as the law of gravity.
And nobody would ever think of trying to break the law of gravity.
People accept it because it's inevitable, it's inescapable, and so they shape their
conduct accordingly.
And the law of retribution is even as the law of gravity.
Water finds its own level sooner or later, and our treatment of others returns at last
upon ourselves.
And when I left your home the last time, we saw that every unkind word, every unkind deed
that you do, every unkind thought is returned to you again sooner or later.
But remember something, it's a poor law that does not work both ways.
And so it's equally true that every good deed that you do.
And for every kind word that you speak, you will in the same way, at some time or another,
get back an equivalent.
You know, people often complain about ingratitude on the part of those whom they've helped,
upon whom they have conferred favors, and too often with truth.
It is true.
We've gotten to the place where we don't know what the word gratitude means anymore.
This generation has gotten the idea that the world owes them a living, that there isn't
such a thing as a kindness, not really.
Everybody's out to get as much as they possibly can for nothing.
And someone does them a kindness, well, the attitude is they should have done it so hot.
You know, kind of like that.
The whole thing is upside down and topsy-turvy.
And you want to know why?
Because we've gotten ourselves into this mess, this wrong thinking and wrong living.
Our morals have dropped so low that we don't know what is truth anymore.
We scarce they know right from wrong, because we're going against God's laws for living
and God's commandments just as hard and fast as we can possibly go.
We forget that these laws and his commandments are inescapable.
Chickens do come home to roost.
Papa said so.
They do, sooner or later.
These things do come back.
I know people after doing a kindness are going out of their way to do something for someone
else, often come back and complain of the ingratitude on the part of those whom they've
helped or upon those that they have conferred favors.
And this complaint shows a false attitude of mind, which is very important to correct.
When you feel hurt because someone has been ungrateful for your kindness, it shows that
you're looking for gratitude.
And this is a mistake.
I want to say that right here and now.
If you get your feelings hurt because you felt that someone did not show their proper
gratitude for a kindness that you did, then you had the wrong motive in doing the thing.
And that's not right.
That's wrong.
I have something that I keep on my desk.
I've had it for years and years and years.
It was made especially for me.
The artist in the bottom has designed a basket because those who know me well know that now
for years and years I've always carried, most preachers carry a briefcase.
I carry a basket.
I don't tell anybody, but if you come to Pittsburgh and you say to someone, how will I best know
Miss Kuhlman if I see her on the street?
They'll say she'll be carrying a basket.
And so an artist from the University of Pittsburgh designed, made me this metal plaque.
And in the Conner, he has designed a basket, which is so characteristic of me.
And these are the words that are engraved on this piece of metal.
You will soon learn that charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the kettle of
soup and the basket of brand.
But you must keep your gentleness and your smile.
It is not enough to give soup and bread.
This the rich can do.
You are the little servant of the poor, always smiling and in good humor.
They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting, as you'll see.
But the uglier and dirtier they are, the more unjust and bitter.
And the more you must give of your love of his love.
For it is only because of this love that the poor will forgive you for the bread that you
give them.
You know, if I always waited for gratitude for everything that I did, I wouldn't be
doing.
I never think of the gratitude.
That's when you can give and forget it.
Do the kindness, forget it.
Forget it, don't think of it again.
Don't expect anything.
If you give because you expect something in return, then you had the wrong attitude.
If you do a kindness because you expect something in return, that's not the right kind of giving.
You're not going to get it back.
You'll only get hurt feelings because people can hurt.
Oh, they can be cruel.
If you can do, if you can give because you love, because you expect nothing in return,
you do it because, like the word of God says, for me to live is Christ and Christ is love
and you do it in his name.
You do it because you want to.
You do it out of the abundance of your heart.
You do it because you love doing it.
Even at the moment that you're giving and that you're doing, really, you're getting
a greater joy, a greater thrill, a greater pleasure out of it than the one who's receiving.
Even at that moment of doing it, you're the one who is really profiting by it.
When you do it in the right spirit, after the deed has been done, you can forget it
as though it never happened.
Then I'll promise you, it shall be returned unto you again.
That's God's word.
Yes, sir?
When you get your feelings hurt because someone has been ungrateful for your kindness, it
shows that you've been looking for gratitude, and this is a great mistake.
The true reason for helping another is that it's our duty to help others insofar as we
can do so wisely.
It's an expression of love.
That's it.
It should be an expression of something that's inside of us, not expecting anything in return.
Let me ask you, is it not a beautiful and encouraging thought that all the prayers you've
ever said in your life, all the good deeds, all the kind words for which you've ever been
responsible are still with you, and that nothing can ever take them away from you?
Indeed, our prayers and our words and our acts of kindness to others are really the
only things that we do keep, because all the rest must sooner or later disappear.
But the things that go on and on forever, the things that are eternal, are not the paychecks,
not the house that you've just now built, or the new grass that you've just sown, or
the new car that you just bought.
You're not going to take your business along with you.
You're not going to take those stocks and bonds along with you.
Not really.
That's right.
The only things in the final analysis that you are going to take with you are those prayers
that you've prayed, those kind deeds that you've done in the name of the Lord, those
kind words that you spoke to make somebody's burden a little lighter, the things that you
have said and you have done in the name of the Lord.
Those things and those alone are the things that go on and on forever and ever and ever.
Isn't that something?
Oh, my friend, let's just sum the whole thing up in the next minute or two.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not lie.
Against that commandment, we have that member of the body, the tongue, that is a world of
iniquity.
Now, in between the two, we have human beings, not a perfect one among us, not one.
I can tell you so many faults that I have that, oh, really, I have no right to talk
about anyone else because there's so many things wrong with me.
When I get to know you as you really are, there's so much good about you that I should
never find fault with anything that you do.
Therefore, I think it's a pretty good plan to do just like mama did.
Right by her telephone, she had a little motto and Belle painted little forget-me-nots all
around it.
These were the words that were on that little motto.
There's so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that it hardly
behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.
Amen.