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Mrs. Brown was shocked to learn that Junior had told a lie.

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Taking the youngster aside, she wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk with him about

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the sin of lying.

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So she graphically explained the consequences of lying to him in the following way.

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She said to Junior,

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A tall man with red fiery eyes and two sharp horns grabs little boys who tell lies and

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carries them off at night.

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He takes them to Mars, where they have to work in a dark canyon for fifty years.

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Now she concluded, being somewhat satisfied,

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You won't ever tell a lie again, will you dear?

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Junior looked up and said, No, Mom, you tell them better than I do.

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Lying is sort of like potato chips.

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I bet you can't tell just one.

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Because when you tell one, it leads to another, and often to another, and another, until fact

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and fiction are somewhat blurred.

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I remember a young lady who was in a youth group that I was taking care of a number of

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years ago now in the ministry, who had gotten to that point in her own life as a teenager.

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She had told so many lies that she did not know any longer what was true and what was

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false.

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You could catch her in a lie, and she was so smooth that she would lie herself out of

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that lie, and not really know that she was lying.

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Her conscience had become seared to that sin.

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Well did Sir Walter Scott write when he wrote these words,

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Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

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When you and I live in a world that is used to falsehood, from politics to advertising,

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from religious charlatans to used car salesmen, lying has become a way of life for many, and

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not just the occasional slip of the tongue.

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It is the mortal sin of some of the media, making all of the media suspect of it.

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Lying destroys, it destroys not only the individuals who practice it, their families, their associates,

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but lying ultimately destroys society.

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No relationship, no business association, no society can long exist which is constructed

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on deceit and lies.

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That is why God says in his word, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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Because God knows that integrity and honesty in all of one's relationships are absolutely

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essential if those relationships are going to remain healthy, and if society is going

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to remain strong.

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God says you shall not bear false witness.

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In Exodus 20, 16 those words are found.

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He says you shall not lie about or lie to your neighbor.

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What is a lie?

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Some people are rather confused about that.

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But simply put a lie is the use of words or actions to deliberately mislead.

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Augustine put it this way, a lie is a voluntary speaking of an untruth with an intention to

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deceive.

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That last phrase is important.

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Satan is the fountainhead of all lying.

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Satan is a liar and he is the father of lies said Jesus in John 8, 44.

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Bernard Schneider reminds us that Satan is the god of this world and goes on to suggest

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that his fingerprints are found all over it.

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Whether we are talking about so-called little white lies or whoppers on the other hand,

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all dishonesty is a transgression of this commandment which is aimed at protecting the

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truth.

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Again in Deuteronomy 5, 20 this same command is quoted.

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Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 5 begins to elaborate on the law.

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He interprets it somewhat.

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There he uses a slightly different word for the word false witness.

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He says literally you shall not bear hollow witness, an insincere witness.

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That is you shall not bear a witness against your neighbor which is void of reality and

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truth.

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Douglas Byers in his book tells about a man who went on a fishing trip that ended in total

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failure.

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And so on his way back into the city the fisherman stopped at a fish market.

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He called out to the dealer and said just throw me five of the biggest trout you've

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got.

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The dealer said throw them to you.

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Five four.

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He said so I can tell my wife I caught them.

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He said I'm a poor fisherman but I'm no liar.

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Well, that's what he thinks.

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Perhaps you've been caught in a situation like one minister's family I heard about.

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A lady in the church brought over a mince pie for Christmas and she was good hearted

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but her good heart didn't always get into her cooking.

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On this particular occasion the pie was dry and a little bit over spiced and so they had

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to throw it out.

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They couldn't eat it.

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And so he wanted to be truthful and yet be kind to the woman.

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So when he saw her he said we all appreciated your gift and let me assure you that a mince

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pie like yours never lasts long at our house.

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You see that's what Moses is really getting to.

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Don't let your witness to your neighbor be hollow.

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Be void of reality.

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How easy it is to use words that can deceive.

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In Proverbs 12-17 it says he who speaks truth tells what is right but a false witness deceit.

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God's main point here in this command is that our neighbor's most precious possession is

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his name.

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So God says do not steal your neighbor's reputation, his name, by deceitful untrue remarks.

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The most obvious application of course is in the court of law where we are asked at

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least in our society to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the

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truth.

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So help us God.

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And usually a little truth gets in.

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But the command goes beyond the law court.

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It incorporates and encompasses any relationship that we have.

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It includes any conversation that we carry on.

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Honesty is the bedrock of a strong society.

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God provided for it in Israel through this commandment.

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This commandment includes also a variety of sins of the tongue.

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I think it might be important to point out that it would not include certain figures

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of speech such as hyperbole or exaggeration.

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Now exaggeration if it's intended to deceive is a lie.

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But exaggeration can be an employment of speech to make a certain point.

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In using it that way there is nothing in transgression of this commandment.

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Nor is sarcasm for example, which is a legitimate figure of speech necessarily the breaking

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of the ninth commandment.

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Even the apostle Paul in writing the inspired words of God in 2 Corinthians uses sarcasm

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rather liberally.

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Nor is the telling of jokes or humorous stories which may not be factual the breaking of this

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commandment unless they are intended to mislead or deceive a person.

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Nor are methods of teaching like the use of parables the breaking of the ninth commandment.

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A parable may not have actually happened, Jesus told many parables.

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But he wasn't lying because he wasn't intending to deceive.

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Indeed his intent was to make a point, it was to clarify.

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But the following things are included in the ninth commandment.

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The telling of half-truths or for that matter untruths in order to deceive and lead another

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person astray in his thinking.

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Douglas Byers said a complete lie is easily killed but a half-truth has nine lives.

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It is far more deceptive because it is more believable.

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One doesn't have to be a youngster or even a teenager to know how to twist the facts

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and turn the truth to one's own advantage.

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Any of you who have small children know how children are wont to tell their side of the

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story but leave out a pertinent fact or two that might be important to get the whole story.

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We adults are equally skilled at doing the same thing.

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Gossip and tail-bearing would be included in the ninth commandment.

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A number of times in the book of Proverbs, especially in chapter 26, the misuse of the

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tongue and bearing tales and gossip is condemned.

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Do you realize that the most untamed animal, the most vicious animal in all of the world

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is caged in your mouth through suggestion, through innuendo?

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We can destroy our neighbor.

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I was interested this last week to hear one of the U.S. representatives who was a potential

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candidate for president in 1988 denying again that he had a homosexual relationship.

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Why is he going to the point that he is to deny the relationship?

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Because someone somewhere suggested that he had.

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Whether he did or didn't, I wouldn't know.

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But I know that just that hint in the media can destroy a man's hope for a higher office

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and his denying it so frequently may only speed up the process.

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How easily through gossip and tail-bearing, using of half-truths or untruths, we can bear

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false witness against our neighbor.

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I think two included under the ninth commandment would be misleading advertising.

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Have you ever noticed the kind of people that do alcohol advertisements or cigarette advertisements?

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Do they look like the drunks that you see down on Skid Row?

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No.

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They don't show the end product of their advertising.

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They don't show where it leads.

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They don't show the broken homes, the children that go hungry.

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They don't show the misery that it causes.

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They don't show the accidents where innocent people are killed.

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A couple of weeks ago, a whole family of five, a father of 27, a mother of 25, and three

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children, eight, five, and four, were all killed in one accident in Kansas because a

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drunk went over center line.

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A whole family wiped out.

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They don't show that kind of thing in the advertisements.

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Do you ever see a fellow with a cigarette who's got the tobacco stain in his fingers?

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They scrubbed that out pretty well.

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Are his teeth ever yellowed?

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Does his breath smell?

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Do his clothes stink?

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Oh no, because you see their advertising wouldn't be very effective if they showed the real

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results of the cigarettes.

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So you see, advertising can be misleading.

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Any item that claims to provide perfect happiness and security in terms of material things,

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anything that promises to completely satisfy is a lie because there's nothing that materially

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can completely satisfy.

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Only Jesus can satisfy.

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And then the ninth commandment embraces hypocrisy.

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Hypocrisy is a lie that is simply lived out.

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It is to play a role that does not represent the truth about oneself.

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That is hypocrisy.

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A person, for example, who comes to church on Sunday morning and lives like the devil

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the rest of the week is a hypocrite.

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But a person who denies God and lives morally through the week is likewise a hypocrite.

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It doesn't represent what he really is on the inside.

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Hypocrisy is the living out of a lie.

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I wonder how many of you this morning would say that one should always tell the truth.

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Do you believe that?

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Would you lift your hand?

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I believe one should always tell the truth.

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Now come on you chickens.

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Now some of you, how many of you say, no I don't think one should always tell the truth?

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Let's see.

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How many of you are not really sure?

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You're scared to lift your hand.

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That's what I figured.

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Let me remind you of Rahab.

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Remember her?

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The spies of Israel came into Jericho as they were spying out the land.

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They went to the only place they could find lodging, to the inn that was run by a harlot.

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But the king of the city got wind that they were there and so he sent some soldiers to

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look for them.

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Rahab knew that so she hid them up on the roof under a pile of stuff.

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When they came to the door to get them, she said, well I didn't know who they were and

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they went that way.

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And once the soldiers had taken off that direction, she went upstairs and let the fellows out

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the window down the wall and they escaped.

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She lied.

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Now if you read in the New Testament James chapter 2 verse 25, you will find that it

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seems to say there that the works that proved her faith were exemplified not only in her

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receiving the spies, notice, but also in her sending them away.

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Let me bring to your mind a more contemporary example.

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What about Cory Ten Boom?

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And the brave people in World War II who hid Jews from the Nazi murderers.

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And when they were asked if there were Nazis there, they lied.

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What would you do in a case like that if one should always tell the truth?

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Of course we don't live in World War II.

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We live today in our age of medical technology.

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You know today we can keep people alive.

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My grandmother has been alive now for four weeks in intensive care, desiring to go home.

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We can keep people alive almost indefinitely.

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What do you do when a grandparent, for example, is critically ill near death and a child,

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let's say a child, is killed in an accident?

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Do you tell the grandparent?

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What do you do if the grandparent says, where's Bobby?

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What are you going to say?

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You tell her the truth and make kill her.

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I believe I'm correct in saying that Joseph Kennedy never knew about the death of Bobby.

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I believe that that was kept from him.

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Does love ever make telling an untruth preferred over telling the truth?

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If you'd like to investigate that question a little further, let me give you a couple

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of books to read because I'm not going to answer it for you this morning.

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I would encourage you to get a hold of a book by Norm Geisler called Options in Contemporary

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Christian Ethics or a man who would take a little different position than Geisler, Urban

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Lutzer, pastor at Moody Church in Chicago, his book Morality Gap.

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These are questions that the philosophers and Christian ethicists think about and it's

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good for us to think about them from time to time as well because they do touch our

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lives.

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They do touch our lives, these questions.

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But apart from questions like these, there is obvious application of this commandment

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to our lives which cannot be debated.

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I'd like you to turn to the New Testament to Ephesians chapter 5 where we have it stated

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a little differently.

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Excuse me, Ephesians chapter 4.

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We'll look at two verses in the chapter that deal with the subject that's before us this

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morning.

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First verse 25, after reminding us of the new person that we are in Jesus Christ, the

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apostle Paul says, therefore, in light of the new person that you are in Christ, laying

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aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members

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of one another.

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And so here the Holy Spirit causes Paul to write the ninth commandment in the positive

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mode.

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He doesn't say don't bear false witness, he says speak truth, every man with his neighbor.

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We are members one of another.

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To do that we must put away falsehood, whether it be falsehood of our lips, falsehood of

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lifestyle.

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We must remember that both lying lips and a lying life are an abomination to the Lord.

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And then we are to cause our lips to speak the truth to our neighbor.

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Why?

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Because we are members one of another.

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And if we lie to another person, we are actually undermining ourselves.

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We are undermining the trust that the other person has in us.

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My little boy has a book that teaches this.

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It is a book that features the barren-stained bears.

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Are you familiar with them?

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And the lesson of the book is that once trust is broken, it cannot be easily restored.

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That's not good for children to know only.

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It's good for all of us to remember.

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Wives and wives, employees, employers, friends, partners, roommates.

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When we lie to another person, we are undermining ourselves as well as that person.

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It is a dangerous thing to do.

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And that's why the New Testament says speak truth.

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Oh, may God enable us to put a guard upon our mouths so that we speak what is true and

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what is honest.

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But then a few verses before this, back in verse 15, he includes an additional thought.

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He says speak the truth in love.

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In other words, we are to not only speak truth, but we are to speak it out of a heart of love

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– a heart of love.

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Warren Wiersbie has said, truth without love is brutality.

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Love without truth is hypocrisy.

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That's a good statement.

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Gentlemen, it's possible for you to be brutal to your wives by just speaking the truth.

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That breakfast may have tasted like a morning burnt sacrifice, but don't say it that way.

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She wants to know how it tastes.

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Speak the truth in love.

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You're going to have to grapple with that ethical question we were talking about.

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Speak the truth in love.

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On the other hand, it's possible to be so loving that we compromise the truth.

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And we dare not do that.

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Speak the truth in love.

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All of us, every one of us, has the capacity to be a deceiver.

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And all of us have broken this commandment not just once, but many times.

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And it may be this morning that you, sitting right there, have become aware through the

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Holy Spirit's work in your heart of a lie that you have told, that you're living out,

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and you know right now you're going to have to deal with it.

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What do you do?

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There's only one thing you can do with it, and that's face it and confess it to God.

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Because if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse

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us from all unrighteousness.

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You need to face the reality of the lie.

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And say before God, I have lied, and I acknowledge what I've done.

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Deal with that sin.

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If you're practicing a lie today in relation to God, you're lying to God.

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You realize that the first judgment of the church age came upon a husband and wife who

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were lying to God.

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They were lying about what they had given to the Lord.

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You say, what's the matter?

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Did they bring a tithe?

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No, they didn't bring 100%.

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They were pretending to bring 100% and were lying about it.

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And so God slew them, and He said to them, you have not lied to men, you have lied to

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God, you have lied to the Holy Spirit.

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They were dead and buried.

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That was it.

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Thank God in His grace He doesn't strike all of us when we lie.

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Or there wouldn't be anybody here this morning, including the person behind the pulpit.

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We have to realize how lying offends a holy God, a God who is truth.

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We have to realize that.

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That's why God pointedly in the book of Revelation says that no one who makes a lie will enter

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into heaven.

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He says that liars have their place in the lake of fire.

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Lying is offensive to God.

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Oh, thank God for His grace.

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Thank God for the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ through which we can find forgiveness

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for all of our lives.

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We have to deal with lying.

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You may be a college student or a businessman or a homemaker.

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If you find yourself today involved in a lie, it may be a lie that has been thrust upon

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you by the boss at work.

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He has said to you, you will do this or you'll lose your job.

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May I encourage you, ma'am, sir, lose your job before you sell yourself to a lie.

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We have to deal with our lying.

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Confess it.

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I want to encourage you to do that today before you leave here.

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But I want you to do something else.

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I want you to join me in committing ourselves to truthful tongues.

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David prayed, set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth.

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Keep watch over the door of my lips.

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He also prayed, I will guard my ways that I might not sin with my tongue.

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He opened himself before the Lord and said, let the words of my mouth and the meditations

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of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength in my Redeemer.

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Would you today pray that to the Lord?

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Say, Lord, set a guard over my mouth.

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Lord, let the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth that come out of my

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heart be acceptable to you, the God of truth and the God of love.

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Perhaps the most tragic example of a false witness is found in Luke chapter 22.

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I'm looking beginning in verse 54 of this 22nd chapter of Luke where it says,

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And having arrested Jesus, they led him away and brought him to the house of the high priest,

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but Peter was following at a distance.

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And after they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had set down together,

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Peter was sitting among them and a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the

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firelight and looking intently at him, said, This man was with him too.

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But he denied it, saying, Woman, I do not know him.

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And a little later another saw him and said, You are one of them too.

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Peter said, Man, I'm not.

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And after about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, Certainly this

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man was also with him, for he is a Galilean too.

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Peter said, Man, I do not know what you're talking about.

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And immediately while he was still speaking, a cock crowed.

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The first sentence in verse 61 is absolutely electrifying.

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And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

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Can you see that?

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Can you bring that scene up to your mind?

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Jesus is there in the judgment hall.

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Peter was able to watch what was taking place.

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Peter is denying out here around the fires, even knowing Jesus, undoubtedly hoping that

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Jesus won't hear these words.

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But immediately when the cock crowed, Jesus turned and their eyes met for an instant.

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And in that instant there was total devastation in the heart of Peter.

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It says that he remembered the word of the Lord and he went out and wept bitterly.

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As we sit here this morning, I wonder if the Lord hasn't turned and looked at someone

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here.

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And right now in your heart, you feel that look.

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You can see his eyes and you feel the need to weep, to repent.

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Will you do the same thing Peter did?

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He wept his way into confession and out of it and got back into fellowship with the Lord.

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I admire the young lady who this last year was willing to go before the nation and admit

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her sin.

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Not only the sin of immorality, but the sin of having lied about it.

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At some point a few years ago she came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior.

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And Jesus turned and looked at her too.

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And she remembered a man who was in prison in Illinois, whom she had falsely accused

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of assaulting her.

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She was willing to go to the state of Illinois and make things right in order that she might

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be forgiven and make restitution for a lie that had cost a man years of his life.

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She was willing not only to publicly testify of what she had done, but she was willing

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to be mocked by an incredulous media, judge, and public.

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They could not get a hold of the fact that a person would come forward like that.

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The world cannot understand the work of God in the heart of this child.

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But God is working some hearts here this morning.

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God is talking to you about your witness.

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Where it has been false, will you talk to the Lord about it right now?

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Gracious Father, as James said, in many ways we all stumble and we all have stumbled in

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the use of our tongues.

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I thank you for the cleansing that you give from guilt and the cleansing that you bring

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to the conscience when we honestly own up to our transgressions.

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Thank you for reminding us how important honesty and integrity are.

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This morning, Father, some of your dear children have seen Jesus turn and look at them.

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Like Peter, they are under great conviction.

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Help them to do what is right now.

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Enable them, I pray, to take the steps of confession and, if necessary, restitution.

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Father, we pray together that you would this week set a guard over our mouths.

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Deliver us from the abomination of lying and deceiving.

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Teach us, we pray, to walk in the truth.

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In Jesus' name, amen.