Theological term
Perjury
12 sermons · All terms
The Ninth Commandment: Part 2
The Ninth Commandment forbids not only perjury in a criminal court but all forms of lying, backbiting, slander, and gossip — sins Paul identifies as grieving the Holy Spirit within the church. The positive duty of the commandment requires active preservation of a neighbor's good name, charitable restraint of the tongue, and a settled love of truth grounded in the nature of God himself, who is the Lord God of truth, in contrast to the devil, who is a liar from the beginning. The threefold use of the law applies directly: the civil use restrains society from complete moral collapse, the pedagogical use exposes the sinner's need for Christ, and the normative use directs the redeemed — justified freely by grace through faith — in godly conduct toward one another. Every idle word will be accounted for on the day of judgment, making disciplined speech not optional but integral to the Christian life.
The Ninth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment — 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Deuteronomy 5:20) — addresses first and foremost the crime of perjury in a judicial context, then extends by implication to every form of falsehood: lying, slander, backbiting, gossip, and tailbearing. Working through Deuteronomy 19:15–21, the study examines the biblical lex talionis applied to false witnesses, where the perjurer receives the same penalty he sought to bring upon the accused, and draws out the retributive and deterrent logic of Old Covenant judicial law. The positive requirement of the commandment — the sanctity of truth in all areas of life — is traced through Leviticus 19, Proverbs, Romans 1, and the Westminster Larger Catechism's exhaustive treatment of sins against the ninth commandment. Hearers are called to active and passive faithfulness: neither speaking falsehood nor lending an ear to those who do.
The Third Commandment
The Third Commandment — 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain' (Deuteronomy 5:11) — carries far greater weight than mere avoidance of profanity, because the divine name is not an arbitrary label but a revelation of God's very being, perfections, works, and decree. The sermon examines three aspects: the theological significance of God's name, the breadth of the prohibition (spanning blasphemy, frivolous speech, euphemisms, unlawful oaths, magic and sorcery, misapplication of providence, and maintenance of false doctrine), and the positive duty to use God's name reverently in prayer, praise, theological discourse, and the keeping of solemn oaths. The closing application presses hearers toward an 'answerable conversation' — a profession of faith matched by a life that gives no occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.
2LCF Chapter 23 - Of Lawful Oaths and Vows
Second London Confession of Faith chapter 23 treats the doctrine of lawful oaths and vows, distinguishing Reformed Baptist practice from the Anabaptist rejection of oath-taking and from Roman Catholic monastical vows. The sermon argues that swearing by God's name is itself an act of religious worship — acknowledging his omniscience, omnipresence, and vindictive justice — and that Scripture warrants oaths in matters of weight and moment while condemning their careless everyday use. Matthew 5:33–37 is shown to address the abuse of casual, trivial oath-making rather than solemn oaths before lawful authority, as confirmed by Christ's own oath before the Sanhedrin, God's oath to Abraham, and Paul's repeated appeals to God as witness. The sermon closes by exposing popish monastical vows of celibacy, poverty, and obedience as superstitious devices of men that contradict Scripture's positive assessment of marriage, honest labor, and just remuneration.
The Things God Hates
Proverbs 6:16–19 presents a numerical list of seven things God hates and finds abominable — a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. This sermon works through each item in canonical order, grounding the list in its immediate context (the portrait of the son of Belial in vv. 12–15) and in the broader testimony of Proverbs, the Psalms, and the New Testament. The abominable members (pride, lying, murder, the cunning heart, swift feet) and the abominable actions (perjury and discord) are each exposed and applied. The sermon concludes by urging hearers to pursue the opposites of each vice — humility, truth-telling, protection of innocent life, guarding the heart, swift pursuit of good, faithful witness, and peacemaking — and to rest in Christ, whose perfect obedience is the righteousness that covers remaining corruption in the believer.
The 9th Commandment, Part 1
The ninth commandment, 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Exodus 20:16), extends far beyond the courtroom to govern all speech — forbidding perjury, lying, slander, gossip, and talebearing. Drawing on the Mosaic law, the Wisdom literature, the Gospels, and the Epistles, this study traces how Scripture consistently condemns every form of false speech as an assault on the image of God, the stability of society, and the character of God himself, who is truth and cannot lie. The passive reception of gossip is indicted alongside its active propagation, and hearers are called to close their ears to talebearers as firmly as they close their mouths to speaking falsehood.
December 15, 2021 - Wednesday Night Bible Study - Exodus 20:7 & 3rd Commandment
The third commandment — 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain' — is examined through its prohibition, its rationale, and its positive demands. The names of God in Scripture are not arbitrary labels but revelatory vehicles disclosing his being, perfections, and covenant faithfulness; to misuse them is therefore to assault God himself. The sermon surveys specific violations — blasphemy, unlawful oaths, the manipulation of God's name for personal ends, misapplication of providence, and doctrinal heresy — before turning to the positive uses Scripture requires: reverent prayer, lawful oaths, proper worship, and a life of sincere profession that does not give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.
The Ninth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment—'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Deuteronomy 5:20)—extends far beyond courtroom perjury to govern every word spoken about another person. This sermon works through the prohibition in two directions: first, the specific offenses the commandment forbids (perjury, lying, slander, gossip, and tailbearing, including both their active propagation and their passive reception); second, the positive duties the commandment requires (truth-telling under oath, honest speech in all of life, charitable restraint, and the active discouragement of slanderers). Because no hearer perfectly fulfils Psalm 15's portrait of the righteous man, the sermon closes by directing the conscience to Christ, whose active obedience and atoning death cover the very sins of the tongue that the law condemns.
The Third Commandment
The Third Commandment — 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain' (Deuteronomy 5:11) — grounds its prohibition and its positive demands in the theological weight of the divine name itself: God's name is the vehicle by which He reveals His nature, being, and attributes to His creatures, so every misuse is a direct offense against God. The sermon works through five concrete violations (blasphemy, false oaths, magic and sorcery, misapplication of providence, and misinterpretation of Scripture) before turning to the positive duties of reverent use, worshipful fear, and a sincere profession of faith matched by answerable conduct. Throughout, the law-gospel distinction is maintained: no sinner is accepted by God on the basis of keeping this commandment, but on the basis of Christ's perfect obedience rendered in the sinner's place; those united to Christ by grace through faith are then pointed back to the law as a rule of grateful living.
The Ninth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment forbids bearing false witness, and this sermon works outward from its primary application — perjury in a judicial setting — to the full range of sins committed with the tongue: lying, slander, backbiting, and gossip. The reason God demands truth-telling is rooted in his own character as the God of truth, in man's nature as his image-bearer, and in the stability of the social order, which collapses wherever deception is tolerated. Positively, the commandment calls God's people to speak truth in all areas of life, to exercise charity toward others in thought and speech, and to actively discourage those who would sin with their tongues — while finding in Christ the only sufficient remedy for a history of lies.
The Ninth Commandment
The ninth commandment, 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Deuteronomy 5:20), governs far more than courtroom testimony — it encompasses every form of lying, slander, backbiting, gossip, hypocrisy, and doctrinal heresy. Three grounds obligate God's people to truth-telling: God himself is truth, man bears God's image and his reputation is inviolable, and the stability of every social order depends on trust. The positive demand of the commandment calls believers to speak truth in all spheres of life, to discourage slander, and to resist the co-opting of humanist language that obscures biblical categories.
Deuteronomy 19
Deuteronomy 19 addresses three domains of civil and judicial justice under the Mosaic law: the cities of refuge for accidental homicide, the prohibition against moving a neighbor's landmark, and the law governing witnesses and perjury. The cities of refuge reveal that God's law is concerned equally with punishing the guilty and protecting the judicially innocent — unexecuted murder and the execution of an innocent man both bring blood guilt upon the land. The law of witnesses, culminating in the lex talionis applied to the false witness, demonstrates that God does not take perjury lightly, and that biblical judicial procedure builds in structural safeguards against abuse.