I've looked over over the years of preaching my sermons on the ninth commandment and I haven't really treated here the one of the great questions of the ninth commandment looking at the story of Rahab and the Hebrew midwives of of whether Rahab lied it's amazing how much literature has been written on that so we're going to look at that story and sort of frame it around that to look at the intention of the ninth commandment tonight. So I invite you to turn to Joshua chapter 2. Joshua chapter 2, that's found on page 210 in your Bibles. We'll read that story. Maybe we'll confess together the ninth commandment first. If you have your prayers and forms book, on page, just one question answer on page 250 that gets to the heart of what the Ninth Commandment is after, coming to a close of our study in the Ten Commandments, and tonight we come to Lord's Day 43. It's found on page 250 in those Prayers and Forms book. I'll ask the one question, question 112. Please respond with the answer. What is God's will for you in the Ninth Commandment? That I never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one's words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone rashly or without a hearing. Rather, I should avoid, under penalty of God's wrath, every kind of lying and deceit as the very works of the devil. And in court and everywhere else, I should love the truth, speak it candidly, and openly acknowledge it, and I should do what I can to defend and advance my neighbor's honor and reputation. It's an excellent question and answer on the ninth commandment. This is Joshua chapter 2. And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, Go, view the land, especially Jericho. And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land. Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land. But the women had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords, and the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. But the men lay down. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted. For there was no spirit left in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God, in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord, That as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death. And the men said to her, Our life for yours even to death. If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you. Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way. The men said to her, We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father's household. Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear. And she said, according to your words, so be it. Then she sent them away and they departed. She tied the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned. And the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua, the son of Nun. And they told him all that had happened to them and they said to Joshua truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands and also all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us and there is the reading of God's word in June of 1555 there were four five reformed pastors who were sentenced to death by burning in France. And during the trial, as they were put on the stand, they were asked about knowledge of Reformed worship services in a valley in France. And while they were in custody, they wrote a letter to the pastors of Geneva, one of which was Calvin. And in the letter they explained how during their trials they had lied about these services because they knew that if they told the truth, a large number of persons, including women and children, would be exposed to persecution and to death. Calvin responded, writing back to them. They didn't have email, so this took a while. Responding back to them with assurance that they did what was right soon after they wrote another letter expressing at this time was a letter of great agony over the fact that the worshipers whom they sought to protect were killed according to them they thought it must have been a judgment from god for wrongdoing because if they suffered this kind of persecution then how could it be right they went to their death feeling that what a difficult scenario living in a sinful world isn't it on situations like this and i think that example like the example of rahab is instructive to help us tonight sort of unpack the meaning of the ninth commandment and think through a little bit what the ninth commandment is all about and and it sort of begs the question does does in this particular circumstance, the ninth commandment require that those pastors tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth and simply leave the consequences up to God? It's a good question, isn't it? Or did these pastors actually do what was in accord with the ninth commandment by seeking to maintain and preserve the life of their neighbors? God is definitely sovereign. Surely could have prevented that but did they tell the truth and that's the sort of thing i want to wrestle with tonight we'll circle back to that here in a moment but there's so many issues regarding uh the ninth commandment i think you see how important a commandment this is and how challenging it can be living in in a sinful world and an evil with so much evil in the world and we want to wrestle a little bit tonight with what does this commandment require of us what does this commandment require us to to do with our words and what is the intention of the commandment that's really the heart of this this message tonight and something that the heidelberg is really helping us well with and when you hear this great commandment you see how important it is for the maintenance and society of people so that they would get along and that there would be truth among people the commandment is so clear You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And when we hear that, boys and girls, what immediately comes to mind? What do we think of when we think of bearing false witness? Well, I think it's always interesting with the commandment that it comes in terms of sort of a judicial nature. It's a witness. It's a court scene that is immediately presented to us. And the goal of the commandment is really clear. That we would want to see justice among neighbors. That we would want to see preservation of our neighbor's life and their reputations. I love studying the commandments because they really show us the character of God, don't they? I mean, this is so contrary to how the world operates and contrary to how we function and how we treat one another. But the goal of the ninth commandment is to see justice and truth maintained. It's so beautiful when you think about it. Truth. What is truth in our day? And how do we maintain truth? And you'll notice in this particular commandment that he puts alongside of murder, theft, adultery, covetousness, idolatry, gossip. Speaking against our neighbor and listening to reports about our neighbor that we shouldn't. So you have this sort of immediate imagery here of a courtroom that's really given to us in the commandment itself that we're not to give false testimony against our neighbor that would be harmful to them or unjust and cause unjust suffering against our neighbor. The word witness is being used here to highlight that and to have us think a little bit about that when accusations are brought against somebody. Today, court cases we know are long and arduous and complex. In Bible times, it was a little bit different. You see the wisdom of God and how he dealt with this. There weren't lawyers and there weren't fingerprints and they didn't do DNA checks. They didn't have any of that. How in the world do you preserve truth in a society like that? In ancient Israel, a person's guilt was established upon the testimony of two or three witnesses. And to make sure this whole thing operated properly, if anyone was found guilty, the two or three witnesses who testified against the person were to perform the execution, Deuteronomy 17. So you see there that it's really testing. you want to be really careful before you bring any kind of accusation against anyone and it's going to check your motivations and if a false witness if they testified falsely against somebody their neighbor then the very punishment that would have been meted out on the person had they been found guilty would then fall upon the one who made the false witness so you see the wisdom and how the lord handled this that's found in deuteronomy chapter 19 verses 16 through 19 if you want to look that up they were strong deterrents in israel against corruption and false witness and and speech and it shows here as i said that god is very concerned with preserving truth so that civil order and and kindness is maintained among people that's huge for our day well they got to make that case that effectively today there are all there's a whole alternate universe that's going on right now and i want to encourage parents to really guard their children from and watch over social media and the apps and the things that are said on the awful one is tick tock today to to guard them and to understand that these are exercises in constant breaking of the ninth commandment we're living in a time where what everyone seems to want to do is drag out the sins of everyone and expose them right out into the open to ruin the reputation of people for whatever is the agenda of the day and that is something that's flatly against the ninth commandment you'll notice here um that it says i don't that i should never give false testimony against anyone twist no one's words gossip or slander nor join in condemning anyone rashly or without a hearing um i think it's it's uh really something to i don't know how many of you have ever felt slandered or had your reputation run under the under um over by the bus by somebody it's an awful thing to go through. I think James strikes at that strongly when he says don't speak evil against one another brothers. The one who speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law you're not a doer of the law but a judge. There's only one law giver and judge who is able to save and to destroy but who are you to judge your neighbor I think that gets to the heart of the commandment that what we effectively love to do when it comes to speech is take the judicial stand and become judge and jury over somebody's life one of the most comforting things in this life is that your neighbor is not the one determining your guilt the lord is and the lord stands over us and if he announces forgiveness and pardon so kindly and mercifully to the ends of the earth as he does who are we to condemn in this kind of way and trash our neighbor and run him over you'll notice here to avoid the spread of gossip is one of the things that's said here. That love requires that even if we're sinned against, we would go to our brother rather than to expose him. We would go to him and talk to him to preserve him. We live in a culture of much abuse today. And it is interesting that one of the judgments of God seems to be the uncovering of what's hidden today unlike previous periods but there are proper ways and I think the heart of the ninth commandment tonight is helping us and telling us that there really should never be a desire to drag everyone's sins out in social media or in the church or in society that should never be the desire. God has not done that with us. There's church courts to deal with sins. There's, if somebody's outside the church, there's civil courts to deal with abuse and sins. But not everyone has the right to become judge and jury. Not everyone. And the heart of this is to say that God is very concerned with how we treat one another. He has called us to love our neighbor as ourselves to care for our neighbor so obviously the implications of the ninth commandment are far greater than than we realize it's it's greater than simply not telling a lie before i get to the rahab story here it's greater than simply not telling a lie you have to say that it's that there's many ways we break this prejudice prejudicing the truth and the good name of our neighbor it's what our catechism says giving never giving false testimony against anyone twisting words or condemning without a just cause just cause speech is guarded in this commandment the lord cares a lot about what we speak i think of ecclesiastes 5 2 do not be rash with your mouth nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before god for god is in heaven and you are on earth therefore let your words be few what a what a great verse for our day where everyone's speaking most news reports you're listening today are exercises in gossip so it's important to stress intention here when you look at the commandment you may you may tell a material truth you may tell something that's absolutely true um with an intention to harm your neighbor here's what where i think we strike at the the spirit what you say the the letter of the commandment don't lie the spirit of the commandment that gets to the heart in the commandment i could say something completely true about somebody else and still break the commandment if i told you something true but with wrong intention and leave out the things that are important for somebody to know or to provide information to the harm of my neighbor, then we've hurt our neighbor. So you see the justice of God here. Wrong intention expresses itself in many ways. This is broken when we slander. Slander is a terrible sort of sin that is an action or crime in law of making a false spoken statement with the goal of damaging somebody's reputation so this commandment forbids that it forbids that it's easy to do we do it all the time hey did you hear what so and so did did you hear what so and so said i always think when something's presented that way the intention's really a never never a good one the words presented are almost always twisted and rarely presented accurately and then we arouse the curiosity of people and when they hear the report you know what we do we begin to begin to look at people differently did you hear that so-and-so has an alcohol problem is that good to run around saying about people did you hear that someone's a drunk what's your goal in saying that if it's your brother what are you doing about that what are you doing about that see when we do that really that's where it stops and we've left painted in the mind of somebody now, a description of someone that now is always filtered when we see that person. The word stick. Everyone knows how damaging this is. Paul was once told about these people, the Cretans, who were, listen to his testimony in Titus. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. I don't think I'd ever want that said about me. Liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Paul got that report. He said, that testimony's true. That's a true testimony about the Cretans. So you know what you should do? You should go to them and rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. See, there was always a goal when a report was given if it were true and false to discern it and then to go and help the person to cover that person and to help them out of the sin. I always found it interesting that some of the old writers would translate from the Hebrew, the ninth commandment, you shall not answer a false witness against your neighbor. So there's the other dimension of the commandment that's not even to receive a false witness, not even to answer it without knowing the facts. Proverbs 17, an evildoer gives heed to false lips. a liar listens eagerly to a spiteful tongue. I'll see that all over today. So I think you see here that the commandment is motivated by a deep love for one another, a love for preserving that we don't rashly listen to a report or condemn somebody without a just cause and rumors to not listen to them because they're so devastating to the person's name without the goal of helping them. It's really what drives the golden rule, doesn't it? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. How would you feel if somebody were talking that way about you? And by the way, if you're doing it, somebody else is doing it about you. It's one of the things to remember. One of the greatest principles of love is that it thinks no evil. It doesn't want to think evil. It doesn't desire to think evil. The type of love that does not believe evil without a just cause. If we have love, we won't accept the report without that cause. But would rather say, as one preacher said, let's go see that brother together before I'll form and express my judgment against him. That's love. That's what drives, you know, that's the heart when Jesus gave the summary of the law and he says what really drives all the commandments is love for God and love for neighbor. And one of the greatest ways you show love for God is the way that you love your neighbor. Such a beautiful thing. We should hate to hear an evil report about a dear brother. We should hate it. Because this is one whom the Lord loves. This is one whom the Lord cares for. The results are devastating for the character of the person. Now, obviously, speaking truthful statements is the major focus of the commandment. And that's why I read the account tonight of Rahab the harlot to show this very interesting account where we typically argue about whether she lied. But did you see how much justice was preserved in speech in all of Joshua 2? The intention to show the preservation of life and the intention to preserve your neighbor's good life and to care for your neighbor. I think that's what's so beautiful about this particular passage. So when someone asks me, can you ever tell a lie? Is there ever an appropriate time to tell a lie? We have to remember there's three kinds of lies in the Bible that are spelled out for us and that many theologians and pastors and those who've written on this have noticed. First is the pernicious lie. The pernicious lie is motivated by the evil heart. It's blatant falsehood employed for the end of harming somebody. It has the goal of slandering and hurting our neighbor, and that's what we've just looked at. It's like the father who comes to the child to just steal today from the store, and the child says, no, dad, and in his pocket is the candy, right? The second type of lie is what's called the jacose lie. That's the lie for purposes of amusement. Proverbs 26, 18. Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and then says, Ah, I was just joking. Never done that. I've done that all the time. I guess I'm a madman. The Jocose lie. You know, easy it is to commit. There's a third type of lie that concerns us tonight. And it's known throughout history as the beneficent lie. The lie designed to protect your neighbor. The lie designed to preserve your neighbor's life. And I think that's what we get to with the Reformed pastors in France and the issue tonight with Rahab. Let's look at this briefly tonight. Joshua had sent spies into the land, especially to Jericho. And we read that they came to the house of Rahab the harlot and she gives them lodging. The spies are sent out and they're lodging in Rahab's house and the news spread from the king that men from the children of Israel had come and that Rahab had taken these people in and that Rahab was feeding them and caring for them. So you read in verse 3 that the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying, Bring out the men who have come to you who have entered your house for they have come to search out all the country. And this is the point where you stop and you say, What was Rahab to do? had she had the law in front of her she would have read this ninth commandment you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor so what was she to do tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth are they in your house bring them out she knows what's going to happen to them they're going to be killed on the spot verse four then the woman took the two men and hid them so she said yes the men came to me but i don't know where they're from another lie and it happened at the gate as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out where the men went i don't know another lie pursue them quickly that you may overtake them. So she then sends them on a hot pursuit. But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords. And as soon as those who had pursued them gone out, they shut the gate. Now I think this is important because there's been so much, as I said, ink spilled on this to get to the heart of the commandment. That's why I raise it tonight and it helps us with that um was she wrong was she right should she have said the lie um not only did she hide the men but when she's asked she sends them on a who knows how far journey go pursue them lest they get away and she watches them take off on their horses did she break the ninth well many say that she sinned and that god overlooked the sin because of the good that was done. John Murray said that we can never take the deceptive aspect of Rahab's actions as praiseworthy. Calvin wrote, Rahab also does no wrong when she falsely declares that the messengers were gone and yet the principal action was agreeable to God because the bad mixed up with the good was not imputed. On the whole, it was the will of God that the spies should be delivered but he did not approve of saving their life by falsehood that's pretty close remember the hebrew midwives they were commanded by pharaoh to kill the babies all the baby boys and when pharaoh's servants came to them remember what they said because the hebrew women are not like the egyptian women for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come do they just pop them out? Clearly, nobody just pops them out, do they? Clearly, it was a bearing of false witness, wasn't it? Were they sinning? Well, in this case, we read immediately that God dealt well with the midwives because they feared him, that he provided. He provided for their households, gave all kinds of blessings to them for this. So were we to say that these actions were wrong, but since they did God's will, that he commends them. I raise these issues tonight because it really helps us with, I think, the intention of the commandment, the heart of the commandment. This is what we read about Rahab in the book of Hebrews. By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. Likewise, was not Rahab, James 2, the harlot, also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. To separate the actions from the heart doesn't seem to be in view here. I think it would be wrong to say that, as one pastor said, the principal work upon which this entire thing rested is not in view when the Bible commends Rahab. The Bible doesn't just praise Rahab. It doesn't just praise the Hebrew midwives. It commends them for what they did. I think that's the whole point of James. That faith, if it's not accompanied by actions, in demonstrating true faith, is dead. what was at the heart of that action love in an evil sinful world what is in view is that Rahab deceived them by doing that showed as is celebrated and the Hebrew midwives that they feared God her actions demonstrated faith now can we say that it's right Well, look at the nature of the commandment itself. And the nature of the commandment is the maintenance of justice between neighbors. It's so beautiful. If I were hiding Ukrainians tonight and Putin knocked on my door, I wouldn't give that guy the time of day. I'd send him on a hot pursuit right to Iran. And I wouldn't feel bad about it. You see, truth really would not have been spoken in a way that preserved my neighbor's life. Sure, it's a sinful world. And it's a mess in this world. And we run up against things like this that are rare. But the midwives and Rahab did what was morally correct because they spoke the truth in love out of fear of God. and their neighbor the whole desire of the heart was to preserve the neighbor's life when you understand the commandment is seeking to maintain justice between neighbors you can begin to understand why ahab's actions are commended in the bible that's the heart of the commandment so what you've just considered is the rare circumstance of the lie of necessity or the beneficent lie, a lie that must be told in extreme situations. But the mere fact that we have the permissive lie versus the beneficent lie says something, doesn't it? The point is that we rightly understand the commandment. We appreciate the commandment when we're showing love for our neighbor when we're seeking to advance the good name of our neighbor to preserve life this is what the commandment itself is designed to do and when we follow this i think it's so important to say that's why the positive dimension of the commandment in life is so important it's reinforced in the new testament you'll notice that ephesians 4 goes through a lot of the law and expounds on that and it gives the positive dimension of the law that says when we speak the truth, what motivates all speaking? Love. Speak the truth in love for your neighbor. Speaking the truth in love promotes those things that uplift our neighbor to guard and advance and preserve my neighbor's good name. That's the positive dimension of the commandment. That's the heart of the commandment, to promote my neighbor, to want to see my neighbor flourish in society, to want to help them, and as I said, to love them if they're struggling in sin, not to publish their sins everywhere. Again, there's appropriate times that things have to be exposed. But you see how damaging this is in society. You see how damaging this is to people. When we have our neighbor's best interests in mind, we speak those things that promote their well-being, speak those things that promote their preservation of life and caring about them, that demonstrate that we love God and love neighbor as the heart of what we're doing. Some might say, like Calvin, it was wrong to do that, but God commends the intention. And that's fine too. But the point is, at the heart of this commandment is the desire to preserve truth, to preserve your neighbor, to preserve his life. As the catechism says so beautifully, I should love the truth, speak it candidly, openly acknowledge it, and do what I can to defend and advance my neighbor's honor and reputation. That's at the heart of this tonight. That's what the ninth commandment is all about, doing those things that promote his name. And that's what God loves. So in our speech of one another in the church, think about how we're building up one another, how we're encouraging one another. And think about how when we hear reports, we're helping our neighbor. And we're not in a day where anyone likes to have anyone come to them and point out sin in their life. But I can promise you, those people who are most respected in life are those who have the courage to do it. it's not love to stay silent and just listen to reports. It's love to go shepherd and care for your neighbor. The kind of love that's demonstrated for you every week where Jesus has his law read to you, searches and tries your hearts. And can you imagine if God gave me, I'm so thankful he doesn't, omniscient knowledge of all your sins and then I started pulling them out here. You're so thankful. no what does he do he reads the law has the law read david search and try my heart show me what offensive way is within me and then he puts his spirit into you that convicts you of your sin and you bow your head in private before him he doesn't openly shame you you bow your head in private before him and you confess your sins and then the minister says your sins are forgiven and he covers your sins in the righteousness of Christ and casts them as far as the east is from the west. What love he's shown to us and that's the kind of righteousness and character of God's people, that he wants us to demonstrate in this world. God is the judge. God will judge. And the way that we demonstrate true love is to preserve the honor of the good name of our neighbor. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for helping us with the ninth commandment tonight, and thank you for giving us your truth and guiding us, as the psalm said, in your righteousness. And we live in a day where, Lord, so much, so much gossip and slander and terrible things are said, and there is serious abuse. And you know it, and sometimes you do. Sin finds itself out, and you do drag it out the open of the world so that people would be humbled. But with your people, how tender and kind you have been to not bring us to that place. But instead, your great desire is to cover us, to not shame us, and love covering a multitude of sins sets us free. You've been so good to us in that way, so give us wisdom and let us preserve our speech, for out of the mouth comes whatever is in the heart. May what is in the inside then be pure, that we might speak the truth to our neighbor. In Jesus' name, amen.