DM 620468

Exodus 20, we will be reading just a single verse, which many of you have memorized. I will remind you that I challenged you to memorize the first 17 verses of Exodus back in August, and now you only have a few weeks left if you want to do it before we finish the sermon series through the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20 verse 16 you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor this is the word of God of all the of all the commandments of all the commandments if there was one commandment that I would guess that if I asked people what it said this is the one where I think people, notwithstanding some of the longer phraseology of the fourth and the fifth and the tenth commandment, but this is the one where I think people would possibly misquote it.

And so I think if you ask the average person, what is the ninth commandment by average person, I mean average Christian. Unfortunately, the average person probably would have no idea. but the average Christian I think might say and I probably would have said this myself for some time you shall not lie and that is not what the text says and so I think it's incumbent upon us to try to understand what does it mean to bear false witness and how is that either the same or different from not lying So I'm not going to tell you, well, it's okay to lie because that's not what this commandment says. In fact, most of today's sermon will be focused on the concept of lying.

But it is worth noting that bearing false witness has a little bit of a different connotation to it. And so this week, the goal is to look at what is truth, what is lying to some extent. And one of the primary ways that we bear false witness, the most egregious way, in fact, known to man. And then next week, I want to get into some of the hairy details, like, was Rahab sinning when Rahab lied?

Were the Hebrew midwives in sin when they lied? is do we have a quarterback for Ohio State? I was going to try to be contemporary. If the Ohio State quarterback fakes a handoff to the right and then he throws the ball to the left, thus misleading the entire defense about where the ball will be, did he lie and sin? So there's a number of questions that I think you should be able to come up with in your mind about what is actually lying and or what is actually sinful lying.

You know, when somebody comes to the house and says, where are the Jews back in the 1940s? Were people sinning if they lied and didn't tell the Nazis that they were hiding Jews? And so these are questions Christians have, and they are ethical dilemmas which I think are worth considering. And this week, though, if you turn to Hebrews 6, what I would like to do...

I feel like I'm too loud. The live stream is not working with the microphone. Really? That's why I'm sorry. Hmm. Yep, that was my fault.

I feel like I'm hearing it too much and that's too distracting if you don't mind that's a little better for me, thank you I felt like it was too much back to me this week the goal is to explain to you a way that we bear false witness that I will hopefully prove to you but I think it should be obvious to you that it's the most egregious way that we bear false witness. And it's when we bear false witness about who God is. So it's one thing for you to go to court and say, I saw Michael do this and maybe I didn't really do it.

But there's some advantage to you if you'll lie about me. And then I might go to jail or pay a fine. It's another thing if you lie to my friend about me. bear false witness about me. Basically tell somebody something that you're saying you witnessed that you didn't really witness. You skew the truth, you change it in some way, you make it in such a way that it seems like something's true that's not, or you make it so that that which is blatantly false seems true.

If you did that to one of my friends and it caused a rift in my friendship, maybe even a problem at church, that would be really, really bad. but to some extent your sin against me is finite and as a fellow sinner I actually deserve no better treatment under this curse that we're under but to bear false witness about who God is I think is reprehensible I think it's damnable and to some extent every single one of us prior to our salvation in Christ is in a constant state of doing that. So if you look at Hebrews 6, I want to excuse me, clear my throat. I want to go through a few verses to help us see that God himself doesn lie So although I told you the commandment says, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and if you're wondering who's my neighbor, it's everyone.

Okay, so I don't want to get into that today. And I pointed out it didn't say lie. I think it at the very least includes lying as a general concept. So look at verse 17, Hebrews 6. It says, So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. So God promised to Abraham that his children would be blessed. and in his seed all the nations would be blessed.

He'd have children more than the stars in the sky. And God decided to promise this with an oath. And then the apostle in Hebrews 6.18 says, So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. The goal of this verse is to explain why God would take an oath when he already doesn't lie.

So if God said to Abraham, your children are going to be more than the stars in the sky, and in your seed all the nations will be blessed, there was actually no need for God to give any further confirmation. Because God cannot lie. If you have posited or deduced somehow a God who can lie, You have now manufactured a God, in fact, in your own image, rather than you being made in God's image.

But God cannot lie is what the verse is telling us. And this is why when he gives an oath on top of his promise to Abraham, it is even more sure for us, the unfaithful ones, the distrusting ones, we have more surety than before when in fact there was already perfect surety. It's our imperfection that causes us to need these additional oaths and covenants.

But the point I wanted to bring up in this verse is which it is impossible, verse 18, for God to lie. There's a couple of fancy words. I don't know if fancy is the right word, but they're words some people might not care about. But they're doctrinal words, and these doctrinal words are peccability and impeccability. Peccability is basically the ability to do that which is imperfect.

Impeccability is the inability to do that which is imperfect. When we speak of God, there are people who will use the term impeccability. And I believe that actually applies to the man, Jesus Christ, as well. There are arguments within Orthodox Christianity about that. But I believe it was impossible for Jesus to sin. And I believe that what the Scripture says clearly here, it's impossible for God to lie.

And so we have a certain hope because of the Scriptures telling us things. because we believe that the Scriptures must be true because they're given by God. You turn to Titus 1, which is the other way. No, yeah, I went the wrong way in my Bible. Titus 1, back to the left a little bit after the Timothys. Titus 1, we have another proof text. Right now, just simple texts that just remind us God can't lie.

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness. He's writing this letter to Titus. Titus is on Crete. And he's trying to tell Titus, basically, here's how you start a church. Here's how you do church. Here's how you tell people to live the Christian life on the island of Crete.

He says, in the hope of eternal life, which God, he says, who never lies. promised before the ages began. So lest the believers on Crete, left maybe out in the middle of nowhere, under some sort of persecution, dealing with false teachers, infiltrating their church, dealing with difficulties and strivings and all the different things that will happen, even amidst a godly group of people who all still carry the sinful flesh that we have to drag around with us until the day we're glorified, God wants them to be assured that God who never lies has promised them eternal life. So while they're hanging out and suffering comes and difficulty comes they don't have to look at the circumstances around them and start to think to themselves, well maybe Jesus isn't really returning.

God never lies. Your hope is in the fact that God doesn't lie not in what you can see. The history of Christianity is filled with people who have died without Jesus having returned. If Jesus returning in your lifetime is your requirement for believing in it, then there's going to be a lot of problems. God doesn't lie. So we believe what he has told us.

Turn to 1 Timothy now, chapter 4. so the first point that I made was that God doesn't lie and we'll see by contrast who liars are 1st Timothy 4 couple of verses here now the spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons I like the old King James's doctrines of demons. I kind of like that. It just leaves the alliteration.

But then in verse 2, Paul tells Timothy, who through the insincerity of liars, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. So the Spirit says in later times there's going to be people who depart from the faith. Now we're a 1689 confessional Baptist church, and so I'd like to make a clarification that I will not prove to you, but those who depart from the faith are those who never truly held the faith.

So, obviously if we're going verse by verse, maybe I'd dig into that for you. But for now you have to believe that that's what I'm teaching. And if you want more information, the confession will help us understand that. But there are people who will leave the faith. They will leave the visible church of God by devoting themselves to what? To deceitful spirits.

Deceitful spirits and lying spirits. These are spirits who deceive, who lead people to believe something that is not true. This is why if you have any experience with an ex-Christian, which is what they call themselves, and I'm done arguing with them about, well, you were never truly a Christian. That's not that vital to argue, I think, with people. But any of these people, they call themselves ex-evangelicals.

They think it's real clever. They'll always tell you that there's something they used to believe that now they've become convinced they cannot believe. They've been deceived. And now they deny the faith. And they end up themselves following liars. One of the issues with chapter 4 in 1 Timothy is these false teachers, and all false teachers, they're just in it for themselves.

They're insincere. When a false teacher gets up and tells a group of people, this is what you must believe, basically everybody's always telling you what you must believe. Very few people legitimately aren't trying to impose their beliefs on you. It's actually an absurd thought. The mere fact that people tell you they're not trying to impose their beliefs on you is imposing their belief in that on you at the very least.

But anytime somebody gets up, I'm telling you what to believe right now. I'm trying to tell you this is what to believe. Lord willing, I'm doing it by the grace of God, through the Spirit of God, using the Word of God so that you actually believe truth, and not just my opinions or my fancies. But these people who get up and they try to teach people the deceptive things, it's insincere.

So they'll say things that sound good. Oh, I care about you. I care about your health. I want you to be wealthy. There's all sorts of things people say to get people to follow them and to basically put the money in the coffers, right? But they're insincere.

I just want to make that point because I think some people look at some of these false teachers, these guys that are making millions of dollars selling books that are filled with all sorts of heresies, and even if it's only filled with a couple, it's wicked. and people think, well, they mean well. They're just a little mistaken. The Bible doesn't give them that excuse.

And on the day of judgment, when false teachers stand before God, them thinking, well, I meant well, I just didn't understand the truth, that won't fly. It won't fly at all. In fact, again, this is one of those statements where if you don't agree, we can talk about it after. I'm afraid false teachers will suffer a worse punishment than some of the worst sinners that you know.

I think I can prove that scripturally. A couple more verses about how God hates liars. 1 Timothy 1.10. We'll start in verse 8. Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. So you should be very concerned actually when you try to teach the law.

I'm going through the Ten Commandments. And if you read verse 7, that's a pretty scary verse if you think you're going to teach about God's law. Verse 8 We know the law is good if one uses it lawfully understanding this the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient. So Paul is about to contrast those who are just who are right before God who are doing the right things people who have been justified by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ he's going to contrast those who are doing the right things with the lawless and disobedient.

And he says for ungodly and sinners. He says for the unholy and profane. And then it gets kind of interesting. He says for those who strike their fathers and mothers for murderers, the sexually immoral. It says men who practice homosexuality in the original it just says homosexuals. A lot of people twist the ESV here and try to mean, well, as long as you're just thinking it and dreaming about it, it's okay.

But you just can't practice it. Well, it's not what it says. That's one argument against the ESV is this verse. It says, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, and enslavers or man-stealers was before that. interestingly enough I think if you wanted to look through these verses you find all ten commandments the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient Okay so who are those people For the ungodly.

Oh, they're breaking the first commandment. And sinners. The ungodly would also, in a sense, be a description of the second commandment. But when I saw unholy and profane, well, the profane are breaking the third commandment. And what does Jesus call it when we break the Sabbath? Profaning the Sabbath, right?

And so I just, this is my own little hobby horse that I'm on for one day, I guess. But yesterday I had this guy trying to convince me that the New Testament doesn't even really mention the Sabbath. And in some ways, it doesn't have a sentence that says, Oh, by the way, the scripture is not all of a sudden broken. The New Covenant still includes the same Ten Commandments.

No, it doesn't say that. because God assumes that the people would understand that his word is one and that we don't break it up into two pieces, one for some other group and then one for us. And when Paul says that the law is laid down for profane, I'd argue that that includes Sabbath breakers. But he also includes in this list of really wicked sins, liars.

In Psalm 63, 11, we start to see God's disposition towards liars. Psalm 63, 11. Really good psalm. Well, it is a psalm, but a really good psalm to read. At the very end he says, But the king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars shall be stopped.

If you're... I mean, just imagine for a moment if all the lying around you ended. Just imagine for a moment. First of all, we wouldn't have any more TV and advertising, which would be wonderful. Political campaigns would be a lot easier when people stood up and said, by the way, I'm actually a pedophile. I just don't do it in public yet.

We'd be able to figure a lot more things out if people would be honest. Well, all who swear by him shall exalt, it says in Psalm 63, for the mouths of liars will be stopped. Who's going to stop the mouths of liars? Turn to Revelation 21.8. I'd say there is an application even to the Christian there, whereby Lord willing, through the grace of Jesus Christ, you don't lie anymore.

Your mouth has stopped lying since you got saved. And to the extent that you still find deceit within your own heart, you're asking God to remove it. Revelation 21.8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. so lest for a moment you thought hell was for people who are mean to others did slavery did rape stole a single lie is enough to damn you in some sense the first the first sin actually began with Eve being deceived right lying has always been a problem so turn to 1st John which is where we'll spend the rest of our time providentially God led our family there in family worship this week and as I was thinking, well, we're going to be there in a minute, I guess.

But in 1 John chapter 2, there's one verse I want to start with, verse 22. And this is what I thought of as I was contemplating liars and what God wants to do with liars if they won't repent and be forgiven by His Son's shed blood. In verse 22, John says, who is the liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. And so the focus is we bear false witness against the Lord himself when we lie about who Jesus is.

And I want to look at a few ways we will do that. For some additional reading, you can look at John 14, 15, and 16, where Jesus calls himself the way, the truth, and the life. If we wanted to do every verse that revealed to us that God loves truth, we might as well just read the Bible together. So we can't quite get that deep or that expansive. But we also see repeatedly the Spirit of Jesus Christ, called the Spirit of Truth.

And so the Spirit is the truth, we will see. So 1 John, chapter 1, let's take a look at this little book, and let's take a survey of the many verses in this book. Probably almost half the verses of the book have some reference to testifying to truth or to lying. And the lying is very focused on people lying about who Jesus Christ is. Before we begin, let me give you a thought. and then as we go through you can be thinking about this and I'll repeat it every person is a witness bearer so you're always bearing witness your testimony that which you say and your life either bear witness truthfully about God or they lie about God you are either faithfully proclaiming his goodness, grace and justice or you are misrepresenting it.

Even a child is known by his doings. It says that in Proverbs 20, verse 11. And your actions, you adults too, your actions manifest your heart's false or true notions about God. Although most lies do not have the same immediate devastating effect on our circumstances as many other more severe or damaging sins, bearing false witness against Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, is nefarious treason and worthy of damnation.

So in 1 John, most of the letters of the New Testament are actually written to confront false teaching. So when you read through the letters of the New Testament, you might not always know what the false teaching was, But to some extent, you can read them and think to yourself, well, why is he saying this to them? And a lot of times it's because they're starting to believe something falsely.

In the case of 1 John, it's said that he's battling the Gnostic heresy. The ultimate idea behind the Gnostic heresy is that all matter is evil. And that because Jesus Christ is supposed to be good, if you want to be a Christian, but you want to be a Gnostic, you cannot confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Because if he did, he himself would be evil.

Yet the Christian testimony is that Jesus Christ did come in the flesh. And yet, he was not evil. He was without sin. So, that's why Paul starts the letter this way. He says, that which was from the beginning, God, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. Jesus, the man, he says the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

Let me tell you something that should be a little bit scary but also give you a lot of hope too in God. If John was a liar, you're all dead in your sins, okay? A lot of what we know about God comes from John, Peter, Paul. if these guys were liars, we're mistaken. So he tells us we're going to testify to it. We're going to proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

Skip down to verse 6. He says, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. There's hardly a person in the world, we live in a severely seared conscience culture right now. There's hardly a person in the world who if you looked at him and said, you're a liar, wouldn't get mad at you. You look at someone and say, hey you fornicate.

They're like yep. I love it. Most people are proud of their sin. Nobody wants to be called a liar. Even if they habitually lie. John says to say you have fellowship with God while you walk in darkness is lying. you can't do it unless you think John has become irrelevant here we live in a culture of people who will tell you that they have fellowship with God through Jesus Christ while they are persistently and clearly walking in darkness it's all around us in verse 8 John says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

More words about deception and truth. John's going to write this letter that tells people not to practice sin, not to walk in darkness, and one of the responses is going to be, somebody's going to say, oh, I guess we have to be sinlessly perfect then, or we're not in fellowship with God. And John, in an effort to confront that false teaching, is going to tell people, if you say you have no sin, you're lying.

You're deceiving yourself. If you haven't met people like that, God bless you. But I have met people who actually believe they have attained sinless perfectionism in this life because they think that is the requirement that they have to achieve in order to be pleasing to God And the common theme that every one of them has is that they do not believe they can sin in their own heart They eventually turn it into only outward actions are sin.

And so they learn to control themselves outwardly just enough so that they can feel perfect. And they'll say things like, oh, it's by the grace of God, But by the grace of God, you're still clinging to him, although you're still a sinner. Simultaneously justified, yet sinful. And one day, your sinful flesh will be glorified. And then you will no longer have the ability to sin.

And that will be a fantastic day. Verse 10, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. and his word is not in us, bearing false witness against God would be calling him a liar when he's already told us he's not a liar. You don't even need the Bible to figure out that he's not a liar. There's nobody in the world that legitimately thinks God would lie.

If they thought God would lie, we wouldn't be offended when other people lie. We'd think, well, that's just a normal thing we do, remain in his image. So to say God's a liar is bearing false witness about God. This verse says that if you say you have not sinned, you're calling God a liar. There's people like that. Chapter 2, verse 4.

Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments, is a liar. And the truth is not in him. verse 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked we testify that we are not walking in darkness we testify that we actually agree that Jesus Christ was righteous when we live a life that follows him when we follow his example when we obey his commands when we regularly repent when we realize we're falling short we testify to the truth. Again, don't read sinless perfectionism into whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments.

In 1 John 2, 21 we get to some of the meat of this. John says, I write to you, not because you do not know the truth. So he assumes they already know truth. he says but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth so he writes to them to stir up what they already know and he says but who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ so he's basically calling the Gnostic heretics liars the people who may be in that church are believing these things he's calling them liars people who are teaching these kinds of things and it doesn't stop with the Gnostic heresy.

There's all sorts of lies in church right now. The one I always seem to have come to my mind is the Enneagram one. This idea that somebody who's in the last 30 years sat around who's not even a Christian and came up with a diagramming system where if you answer a few personality quiz questions, you get a number that then tells you how to figure out how to live your life and how to deal with others and how to raise your kids.

I want to go to everyone's house that has an Enneagram and say well can I have all your Bibles since you evidently don't use them I'll keep them in case I need them you have the word of God there's lies all over the place telling us this is how you do this this is how you do this you guys want a church growth book here it is you go to the bookstore right now and you can spend a thousand dollars on church growth strategies and all they are is ways to get people to fill a stadium it's the same books if you change it to how to get your NBA team more fans the same strategies is what they would use you feed people flesh they'll come it's that simple verse 23 no one who denies the son has the father oh well let's go back so lest you thought well lying is not that bad he says this is the antichrist he who denies the father and the son you can't have one without the other well he says that next no one who denies the son has the father whoever confesses the son has the father also so lest people want to split the son and the father and the spirit up and turn them into three different beings rather than one God expressing himself in triunity. Three persons, one God. That's how we understand him.

Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. It's not the best phrase, but they're a package deal. God is one. And there's a... I mean, there's all these controversies all the time. There's a controversy now where people are saying things that are effectively making them polytheistic and tri-theistic.

Because they want to separate the Father, Son, and Spirit so much in their description of the things that are attributed to them. That they've made three different gods. We believe in one God. Maker of heaven and earth. Verse 26, I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. More deception.

So if you're a Christian, just for a moment if all this is going over your head and you like why does he keep belaboring the same point over and over There people trying to deceive you Some of you have been to churches where you wonder if somebody was trying to deceive you. Some of you have family members. Some of you turn on the TV. There's people trying to deceive you. your protection against it, your prophylactic, to use a clear term, is that you understand the Word of God in such a way that when somebody comes along and contradicts it, you immediately know.

When the false teacher starts spewing nonsense, that's not the time for you to start digging into the Bible. You should know it as well as you can every moment, so you're ready when these things come up. When the ethical dilemma hits and you have to make a decision, what am I going to do right now? And you don't have time to open Proverbs and read through it to try to figure out, well, how should I handle this situation I'd never even thought of before?

That's when you already needed to have filled yourself with that knowledge and understanding and discernment that you get from the faithful, regular study of God's Word with prayerful contemplation of what it says. Some of you kids are waiting until you're older to start studying the Bible. You may not have a lot of time before it's just you and whatever knowledge you have.

I don't mean to scare you unnecessarily, but there's been times in history where children were taken from their parents. And any child that didn't have Scripture memorized at the time, that didn't understand truths about God, they were on their own in a way that I would not envy. Turning to chapter 3, John just wants to remind him of some things. Little children, let no one deceive you.

He says, whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. you look at the lives of others and of yourself and you don't be deceived by fancy talk. You don't be deceived by charts and even like philosophical ponderings and good writing and flowery speech and flattering speech. You look at the way people live their lives and you can try to figure out if that person is righteous.

And you know what? You don't do it from a thousand miles away. Like nobody in this room has actually any idea what Votie Bauckham's like. All you know is that he's a great preacher. And that you agree with a lot of things he's said. This isn't to disparage Votie Bauckham.

I trust he's a great guy. I don't know though. I know there was a guy in his church who was molesting a young lady. And he deceived even the other people in the church for a time. and so the way that you get to know people so that you can actually help people and be helped yourself is by living life with people this is what the local church is designed to do for you so that you're at someone's house having dinner once in a while and you're fellowshipping with them and you're seeing how they interact with their own children and how they interact with their spouse and you're trying to make time to do these kinds of things so it's not just everybody puts on a smiley face on Sunday and so you think everyone's good because, well, they sure were friendly and then you don't talk to them for six days.

And you have no idea what's going on at home because you don't even ask them half the time. It's because you don't care most of the time. So you live with people. You dwell with them. And yeah, if there's distance, you deal with it. You figure it out.

You find ways to be in each other's lives because you think it's not only important but a command of God. verses 18 to 20 little children let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth and the context it's about helping people financially but I think it means even more that we should just live a life that shows we love our brothers and sisters he says by this we shall know that we're of the truth and reassure our heart before him you want assurance? you want to go to bed at night sure that if you die you'll wake up in heaven? Love in word, or love in deed and in truth. Chapter 4, Beloved, do not believe every spirit.

Test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Why? For many false prophets have gone out into the world. I think in the history of time I'm not an expert, I haven't seen everything I don't think there was ever a man that got up to preach and had a shirt that said false prophet it's just not how it works you have to be discerning your job is to take the words that the people who are saying them say to you and evaluate it based on Scripture, when it's Scriptural teaching they're trying to give, or even if it's not Scriptural, evaluate it based on known facts, reason.

He says, by this you know the Spirit of God. And here's kind of his point of here, this letter is every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. the big controversy early on was that Jesus wasn't God that what Arianism was he was just a man he was begotten or made not begotten Excuse me He was begotten by the Father eternally Another controversy John's dealing with is people that say Jesus never really came in the flesh. It's really important that your Savior, your high priest who represents you as your mediator between you and God is an actual man.

Do you realize that? It's vitally important. if you did not have a mediator who is a man you'd be dead in your sins no angel could do it no other creature could do it had to be mediated by a federal head, Jesus Christ every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, more lying, bearing false witness about God we are from God verse 6 whoever knows God listens to us whoever is not from God does not listen to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error truth is just vitally important to this whole thing it's that it's that simple if you look at verse verses 6 through 8 in 1st John chapter 5 if you want to go research this these verses are questionable as to whether they're actually part of the canon. So I'm not going to get into all that, but we're going to read them as if they are right now.

And you can believe otherwise if you want. But he says there's three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. In the verse before that, verse 6 at the end, he says, And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. Whether that's actually supposed to be in 1 John or not, we know that that's confirmed by other scriptures.

In verse 20 of chapter 5, John, now closing things up and exalting the Lord Jesus Christ, says, we know that the Son of God has come. He's come into the world. He's a man. He came a man. Two natures. One person.

Two natures. Sinless. And he's given us understanding. So now Jesus has enlightened our minds, right? He's given us understanding. So that we may know him who is true.

So we may know God. That's who doesn't lie. You bear false witness about God when you don't proclaim the truth of who Jesus is to people, and even when you just live a life that denies him. It says, we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. That's the promise to Christians. So you actually have hope now.

As scary as it can be sometimes to try to live the Christian life, as much as some of the Christian life actually only invites suffering, you're in Christ. and your suffering is the indicator that you're actually identified with him and if you don't identify with him in his suffering you have no promise that you'll identify with him in his resurrection and glorification. He is the true God. There's a lot of false gods out there.

So he tells us Jesus is the true God and eternal life. And then he ends the letter as abruptly as can be. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. And that's it. Everything else is an idol. You may not think so.

You may not think, oh, I worship idols or I bow down to idols. You may just think, I just don't think Jesus is God or whatever you might think about it. But according to the Bible, you're an idolater. And you're bearing false witness against the God of heaven every time you don't proclaim Jesus properly, both in your life and in your testimony. So every person is a witness bearer.

Each and every one of you is. Each and every one of you is proclaiming to everyone around you what you believe by everything you say and do. By the way you act. By the way you dress. By the way you talk. Your testimony in your life either bear witness truthfully about God, or they lie about God.

You are either faithfully proclaiming His goodness, grace, and justice, or you are misrepresenting it. Even a child is known by his doings, and your actions manifest your heart's false or true notions about God. David prays, God, if there's any iniquity in me, just reveal it, take it away. When's the last time you prayed that? Most of us wait until after we've sinned, and then we hold on to it for a little while, and then once it gets bad or somebody corrects us and we're embarrassed, then we might ask forgiveness.

When's the last time you just asked God, God, remove this evil from me before it even starts to come beneath the surface? although most lies don't have the same devastating effect as some of the other more severe and damaging sins out there, bearing false witness against Jesus Christ, both by your words and actions, the King of kings, Jesus Christ is, and the Lord of lords, it is a form of treason and it's worthy of damnation.