Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20130519.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing
Part IV: The General Call For Loyal Obedience, Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32
A. The Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 4:44-5:21
9. The Ninth Commandment: Avoiding The Sin Of Lying
(Deuteronomy 5:20)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Though Deuteronomy 5:20 commands, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," truth and trust is often hard to find:

    (1) The May 13, 2013 issue of Barron's, p. 14, ran several quick stories on the need for truth in the federal government:

    (a) House Speaker John Boehner, on the Benghazi attack, said: "(T)he White House has done everything possible to block access to the information that would outline the truth. Why?"

    (b) Another story, "IRS Apologizes" claimed: "An Internal Revenue Service official apologized for improperly targeting conservative . . . groups for extra scrutiny during the 2012 campaign."

    Nevertheless, foxnews.com on May 17, 2013 reported the "IRS official who oversaw unit targeting Tea Party now heads ObamaCare office," and Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader, responded to this news by stating, "Stunning. Just stunning . . . This is runaway government at its worst . . . The truth will come out. It always does."

    Still, the plot thickens: the "Mr. Obama's health-care law . . . gives the IRS" power "in collecting information on insurance coverage and administering penalties for people who lack it . . . [so] Rep. Charles Boustany (R., La.) said . . . How can we trust an entity like that?'" (Peter Nicholas and Colleen McCain Nelson, "Democrats Press Obama over IRS," The Wall Street Journal, May 17, 2013, p. A4)

    (2) We face questions on truth in evangelical circles: in The Coming Evangelical Crisis, 1996, p. 37, edited by John H. Armstrong, R. Albert Mohler, Jr. ("Evangelical': What's in a Name?", p. 29-44) cited J. R. Middleton and B. J. Walsh's work, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be as it claimed: " . . . any truth' we claim for our cherished positions must be kept strictly in quotation marks.'" (cited in David F. Wells, No Place For Truth: Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?, 1993, p. 133)

    (3) We face problems re: truth locally: one of our members once told me how he was once charged with pride by a Christian from another area church since he claimed he assuredly knew God's truth! I encouraged this member, citing John 8:32 KJV where Jesus said: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" as proof that it was not wrong for him to be sure that he knew God's truth!

    Thus, we ask, "What does God's command on not bearing false witness against our neighbor really mean for us, and why?!"

    Need: "What does the command, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor' really mean, and how must we apply it today?!"

  1. Moses' general Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32 call for loyal obedience to God in the suzerain treaty format of Deuteronomy repeats the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, and its CONTEXT reminds Israel of God's deliverance of her from Egypt's oppression (Deuteronomy 5:6), revealing WHY Israel should HEED the Lord.
  2. Thus, the NINTH commandment prohibiting bearing false witness against one's neighbor (Deut. 5:20) was given to guard Israel from oppression by the misrepresentation of reality in every form:
    1. Deuteronomy 5:20 in the Hebrew text prohibits one from answering a judge in court, or testifying (anah, B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 772-773) against one's fellow man, neighbor ( re'a, Ibid., p. 945-946; Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 271) a testimony (ed, Ibid., B. D. B., p. 729; Ibid., Kittel) of vanity, emptiness, worthlessness, or what is false ( shawe', Ibid., B. D. B., p. 996) to the unjust damage of the neighbor.
    2. Since this commandment is connected to the last five commandments by the repetition of the conjunction "nor" (the letter waw, Ibid., Kittel, p. 271-272), with all five commandments countering the intentional mistreatment of a neighbor, the ninth commandment prohibited one from injuring another person's reputation by giving false, damaging testimony against him in court, Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 273.
    3. However, Scripture elsewhere shows that applying this command counters all misrepresentation of reality in every form:
      1. To bear "false witness" against a "neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow" as it hurts the victim's relationships, and thus his dealings with others and his welfare, Proverbs 25:18 ESV.
      2. Even just a "lying tongue" itself does the same harm as it "hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin," Proverbs 26:28 ESV.
      3. Also, mere nonverbal deception is just as harmful, being like "firebrands, arrows, and death," Proverbs 26:18-19a ESV.
    4. 1 Samuel 20:1-21:9; 22:9-22 illustrates how a seemingly initially harmless lie can lead to great ruin for innocent people (as follows):
      1. When David fled for his life from evil king Saul, he stopped by the tabernacle to meet the high priest, Ahimelech, 1 Sam. 20:1-21:1a.
      2. Ahimelech suspected trouble as David was traveling without his military company, so he asked David to explain it, 1 Samuel 21:1b.
      3. David lied, telling the high priest Ahimelech that he was on a secret mission for king Saul, and he asked the high priest for emergency goods for him and his few associates, 1 Sam. 21:2-3, 5.
      4. Ahimelech believed David's lie, giving him the holy shewbread and Goliath's sword that had been stored in the tabernacle ever since David's defeat of the giant Goliath, 1 Samuel 21:4-9.
      5. Later, Doeg the Edomite who witnessed David's meeting with Ahimelech, informed Saul of the high priest's aid to David (1 Sam. 22:9-10). When Saul then charged Ahimelech with conspiracy for this, and the high priest tried to explain he had helped David in good faith, Saul did not trust him, but had Doeg slay Ahimelech, his family and his entire city of priests at Nob, 1 Samuel 22:11-19.
      6. David came to admit that his initial seemingly harmless lie to Ahimelech had led to this atrocity, 1 Samuel 22:22.
    5. Thus, Scripture elsewhere directs us to put away all lying, and thus all misrepresentation of reality, and to speak the truth with one another:
      1. In Ephesians 4:25a KJV, Paul directed believers in Christ to "lay aside" (apotithemi, Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 100) "lying" ( pseudos, Ibid., p. 900), and to heed Zechariah 8:16 and "speak every man truth with his neighbor," U. B. S. Greek New Testament, 1966, p. 673.
      2. Paul's reason for this command countered the selfishness behind lying that misleads others for one's own gain: he held that we who are positionally united in Christ (cf. Ephesians 3:13-22) are thus "members, parts" ( melos, Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 502-503) of "one another" (allelon, Ibid., p. 38-39; Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.) In the body of Christ, the Church, Ephesians 4:25b.
      3. Yet, Christians must love all men (Romans 13:8), and thus speak the truth with them and so not harm them, cf. Romans 13:10.
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ for salvation from sin to become part of the body of Christ, John 3:16; Ephesians 3:13-22. (2) May we then present true reality in every way to one another as members of one another in Christ (Eph. 4:25), but also (3) present reality in selfless love to all unsaved people, Romans 13:8, 10.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 Last Sunday in our Adult Sunday School Class, I taught in a part of the lesson on the Greek term, monogenes that is rendered "only begotten" in description of Jesus in John 1:14, 18 KJV. I explained that the lexical definition of this word had two meanings, "only, unique" and "only begotten," and I cited as my authority on these meanings the New Testament Greek Lexicon by Arndt & Gingrich (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 1967, p. 529).

I also taught that the context and manuscript evidence at John 1:18 argued strongly for the "only, unique [in kind]" meaning as opposed to the "only begotten" one, for the "only begotten" meaning reflects the ancient heretical Arian belief that Jesus is not the Eternal God, that He was created by the Father versus what John 1:1-3 claims.

However, since then, I have done extensive research on monogenes, and have come to realize the Greek lexicon I had cited was in error in adopting the "only begotten" definition! This particular definition arose due to influence by Origen of the errant Alexandrian school of Bible interpretation. His influence later led Arius and/or others to presume that the etymology of monogenes included the "only-begotten" definition though the word had been derived only from terms that mean "only kind," and this errant presupposition later influenced the Nicene Creed, the Latin Vulgate, the King James Version and the Arndt & Gingrich lexicon to render monogenes as "only-begotten" in regard to Christ's relationship to the Father.

Accordingly, applying this sermon on representing reality so as to do no harm to others, along with 1 Peter 4:11, I felt obligated to teach today's Adult Sunday School special lesson on monogenes that exposes and corrects this error so you might know God's exact truth!

Thus, today I gave a corrected copy of last week's lesson! I also today taught that monogenes in the New Testament writers' era meant "one of a kind, unique, only" exclusively, NOT "only-begotten." In today's lesson conclusion, I also affirmed that the Apostle John in his use of monogenes in John 1:14, 18 thus left no room for misunderstanding in his assertion in John 1:1-3 that Jesus is Eternal!

May we ALL represent reality in every way before all other people as God wants us to do, and may we function this way in the power and leading of the Holy Spirit of God, Galatians 5:16-23!