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HIGHLAND Sorry, Sound is not acceptable SERMON "The Truth the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth" Exod. 20;1-17; Eph. 4:17-32. My friends, an old well told story tells of a minister who preached a sermon on the Ten Commandments. He had not been speaking very long before his eloquence moved a lady to whisper to her neighbor, "that's great preaching!" As the minister
proceeded to defend the values of the Lord's Day; the honor due to parents, she
found herself again moved to share, "that is what I call preaching!" However, her
mood and response underwent radical change when he began to talk about the ninth
commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Firstly,
the ninth commandment is unquestionably relevant. There is a story of King Ahab and his desire to obtain Naboth's vineyard. When Naboth declined Ahab's offer to purchase, Ahab's foreign born wife Jezebel moved in. Her God was not the God of the Hebrews, not Yahweh or Jehovah the Eternal, but Baal, a pagan deity. She had not been admonished by her God as to the necessity of the truth and so she quickly presented false charges against the luckless Naboth. With the ruthlessness of a modern day gangster she hired false witnesses and then had Naboth murdered to enable her husband to confiscate the dead man's property. Even today calling someone a Jezebel might provide someone with grounds to sue for slander. "Have you
ever seen a lie detector?" one man asked another. "Seen one,
I'm married to one!" Do any of us
remember the story of D. B. Cooper who hi-jacked an airliner in
1972. He parachuted from the plane together with the ransom of hundreds of
thousands of dollars. My friends, is
there no virtue today in being honest for its own sake? The Bible and the way of living that we have been called to, declare that there is something in the very nature of reality which says that we can only live decently and justly as we operate in terms of honesty, integrity and justice. "God hates lying," someone said, "because it destroys human society. Right relationships are possible only where there is agreement between language and reality, between words and facts." God's will for his children is stated quite clearly by the writer to the Ephesians 4:25, "Throw off all falsehood; speak the truth to each other, for all of us are the parts of the one body." In our day we have learned the power of a lie. Power mad leaders have been able to repeat a lie often and cleverly enough that thousands, millions have come to accept it as the truth. But the Psalmist tells us: "that God requires truth in the inward being." (Ps. 51:6). When men and
nations deny or ignore this fact, terror and tragedy ultimately follow. We may not
restrict giving false evidence to law-courts and law suits. My friends,
gossip is rejoicing in someone's weakness, or iniquity or folly. It may
seem like fun, but it is definitely no fun for its target. Gossip will
deeply hurt the person maligned; Jesus spoke out very strongly when he said: Because
finally this morning let us always remember the words of the Apostle Paul.
"Speak the truth in love." To bear the true witness to be honest in our judgments and in our dealings it may be helpful this morning to hear these words of Frederick W. Robertson: "From the trial hour of Christ, from the cross of the Son of God there arises a principle to which his life bore witness that the first lesson of the Christian life is this, be true! And the second this, be true! And the third, this, be true!"
AND TO GOD BE THE GLORY. AMEN.
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