Men, let's turn over to John chapter number eight.
We're going to come back to Deuteronomy chapter 19,
but I want to pick up where we left off in John chapter eight.
This morning we went over the famous story
about the woman taken in adultery.
And after Jesus deals with that whole situation,
he continues preaching to the people.
And as he's preaching to good people,
as he's preaching to people who want to hear
the word of God, who love truth,
who are interested in actually hearing the word of God,
there are also just Pharisees and people
that are just kind of heckling him and fighting with him.
And that's we're going to look at.
And I want to preach this evening
on the subject of Jesus, the faithful and true witness.
Jesus, the faithful and true witness.
So look at verse number 12 of John chapter eight.
This is where Jesus begins to preach once again.
And Jesus spake again unto them saying,
I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life.
And isn't that the truth that in this world of darkness,
if we follow Jesus Christ,
we're not going to walk in darkness,
we'll have the light of life.
God's word is a lamp unto our feet
and a light unto our path.
And without Christ,
we're just kind of going through life blind.
And you see people just kind of stumbling through life.
They don't know what is right.
They don't know what decisions to make.
And they end up doing so many foolish things,
especially when they're younger.
You know, it's nice to have the Bible as a guidebook
telling you exactly what is right, what is wrong.
And, you know, even with the Bible as our guide,
life could be a little bit confusing sometimes
and we struggle sometimes.
But at least there are certain things
that we know for sure,
some anchor points that we have,
a rock that we can be founded on,
that, hey, as long as I know
that I'm following the Bible
in all my ways, if I acknowledge him,
he'll direct my paths.
And that gives us assurance
that as we walk through this world,
we can have the light of life guiding us
if we're following Jesus.
And make no mistake about it,
to follow Jesus is to follow the word of God, right?
Jesus is not gonna physically appear to you
and say, all right, follow me,
you know, and you're literally gonna,
you know, get in your car
or follow him on foot or something like that.
No, the idea here is that we have the word of God,
we have the words of Jesus Christ.
And if we follow these words,
our path will be illuminated.
He'll lead us where we need to go.
But as Jesus begins to preach this positive message,
he's trying to help people.
He doesn't want people to be in darkness.
He wants to shine the light of the knowledge
of God's word and the glorious light of the gospel.
The Pharisees, you know, they jump in
and they begin to challenge him and heckle him.
And the Pharisees therefore said to him,
well, thou bearest record of thyself,
thy record is not true.
Now, why are the Pharisees saying this to him?
What they're actually doing is they're taking something
that Jesus has already preached to them previously
and throwing it back in his face,
but they're taking it out of context.
So back up just a couple of pages,
keep your finger there and go back to John chapter five.
And this is what people will often do.
They'll often latch onto something in the Bible
and they'll throw it in your face as a Christian,
especially even people who don't even claim
to believe the Bible, atheists and agnostics
and people will, well, doesn't the Bible say X, Y, and Z?
And they'll pull something out of context
and throw it in your face.
These people don't even believe the words of Jesus Christ,
but they're gonna try to use his own words against him.
And of course, Jesus, you know,
is able to outmaneuver them as always.
But look at verse number 31 of chapter five.
Here's what they're referring to.
Jesus said, if I bear witness of myself,
my witness is not true.
Okay, so this is a statement Jesus is making.
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
They're misunderstanding this foolishly
because they are spiritually blinded people.
They think that what he's saying,
hey, whatever I say about myself,
you can't trust what I say about myself
because, you know, if I talk about myself, I'm lying.
Now that's obviously a stupid way to interpret this,
but that's basically how they're using,
oh, you're bearing witness against yourself.
Your witness isn't true.
But look what it says in context.
Back up one verse to verse 30.
Jesus says, I can of my own self do nothing
as I hear I judge and my judgment is just
because I seek not my own will,
but the will of the Father which had sent me.
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
There is another that bear witness of me
and I know that the witness
which he witnesses of me is true.
What Jesus is actually saying is,
if I am the only one who's bearing witness of myself,
then my witness is not true.
He's not saying I can't bear witness of myself.
He's saying, well, no, if I'm just all by myself
and I'm the only one bearing witness of myself,
then my testimony is not true.
He said there's someone else,
there's another person that is bearing witness of me
as well and that is God the Father.
So God the Father and me are the two witnesses.
Now look, the Pharisees should have comprehended this
in John chapter five
because it's not that complicated, is it?
I mean, we just look at it there in verses 30 through 32.
It's pretty clear what Jesus is saying,
but it went right over their head.
And so Jesus is gonna have to explain this again
in chapter eight.
Now, this is such an important point here.
Don't miss this because the doctrine of the Trinity
is often under attack.
And when we say the doctrine of the Trinity,
here's what we mean is that we believe
that God eternally exists as three persons,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
So we do not believe that Jesus is God the Father
or that God the Father is Jesus.
These are distinct persons of the Godhead,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
The Father is God, the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God, okay?
But they are not each other, they are distinct entities,
they are distinct persons.
And we also know that there's only one God.
So some people would point to this as a contradiction
saying that there's only one God,
but that God consists of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
But here's the thing, that's what the Bible says.
And there's no other God to compare him to
because there is only one God that has ever existed
or ever will exist and that one and only God
eternally exists as three persons,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
And this is called the Trinity, which means three in one.
So it's three persons, one God.
And not only that, but the Father and the Son
are co-equal, the Holy Ghost is co-equal meaning
that one of them is not like more God
than the other or something like that.
But they're all equally divine.
They are all equally eternal, right?
It's not that the Father created the Son.
No, Jesus Christ has always existed and always will exist.
And so that's why we say God eternally exists
as Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Now you say, well, how do you prove this from the Bible?
Well, it's very easy to prove this from the Bible.
People will try to come at you like
this is some super difficult, complicated doctrine
or that it took hundreds of years
for people to figure this out or something like that.
But really it's not complicated
because all you need is just a few basic facts.
And really they're all found in the Gospel of John.
And you could go to the rest of the Bible
and support this, but even if all you had
on a desert island is just the Gospel of John,
you could still easily derive the Trinity.
Okay, and here's how we know the Trinity is real
because over and over again,
the Bible states that there's only one God.
So we can kind of take that to the bank, one God,
not two gods, three gods, multiple gods.
No, there's only one God.
So we know that, that's clear, okay?
We also know that Jesus is God.
That's also very clear because we go through
and we find all these verses like in John 1-1.
You know, in the beginning was the word,
the word was with God and the word was God.
And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us
and we beheld his glory.
The glory is that the only begotten of the Father
full of grace and truth, Hebrews 1-8 unto the Son he saith,
thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
Oh, whoops, we're only restricting ourselves
to the Gospel of John.
Well, how about when Thomas actually is confronted
by the resurrected Jesus Christ
and he tells him to check the holes in his hands
and check the hole in his side
and Thomas calls Jesus, my Lord and my God.
And he says, blessed are you, Thomas,
because you believed.
So he praises him for making that confession
that Jesus is his Lord and his God.
In the beginning was the word, he was with God
and he was God.
How could he be with God and God same God?
Because he's with the Father
and he also is God himself
because the Father is God and the Son is God.
So there's really three facts
that you need to derive the training.
Not complicated, folks.
Fact number one, there's only one God.
Fact number two, Jesus is God.
And fact number three is Jesus
and God the Father are two different persons.
They are not the same person.
Okay, and this is where sometimes
people will get into heresy
is they'll think that Jesus and God the Father
are the same person.
And they think that God the Father sent himself
to be the savior of the world
or that the Father became the Son.
This heresy is known as modalism
or oneness Pentecostalism
because out of the Pentecostals of this world,
75% of them believe in the Trinity
but there is a faction called oneness Pentecostalism
that believes in this foolish
Jesus only oneness doctrine.
And it is heretical.
Here's one of the powerful pieces of evidence
right in front of your face here.
He says, if I bear witness of myself,
my witness is not true.
There's another that beareth witness of me
and I know that the witness
which he witnesses of me is true.
Now here's the thing.
If Jesus were just alone bearing witness of himself,
he says, well I'm lying then.
But I don't know, there's somebody else
bearing witness of me
and that someone else is God the Father.
If Jesus and God the Father were the same person
then how is that another?
How is that someone else?
If I went to court and gave testimony
and said, okay, we got another witness now.
Don't worry, it's not just one witness,
it's not just Stephen Anderson the pastor,
it's gonna be Stephen Anderson the husband
is gonna testify.
And then Stephen Anderson the father is gonna testify.
And then Stephen Anderson the son is gonna testify.
And then Stephen Anderson the friend is gonna testify.
That would be absurd because it's all the same person.
But the Bible clearly states that Jesus and God the Father
are two witnesses like in a courtroom
kind of an analogy here
that you got the father testifying
and you got the son testifying
and this gives credence to what is being said.
Look at chapter eight now with that in mind.
So in chapter eight, verse 13,
the Pharisees said unto him,
thou bearest record of thyself,
thy record is not true.
Jesus answered and said unto them,
though I bear record of myself,
yet my record is true,
for I know whence I came and whither I go,
but you cannot tell whence I come and whither I go,
ye judge after the flesh, I judge no man,
and yet if I judge, my judgment is true,
for I am not alone,
and we're gonna come back to the other things he said,
but I wanna focus on this now.
I'm not alone, but I am the father that sent me.
Now look, if modalism or oneness Pentecostal type doctrine
were true, then he is alone, it's just him.
They call it the Jesus only movement.
Well no, it's not a Jesus only movement,
it's Jesus and the father that sent him.
And this would be extremely disingenuous
for him to invoke a second witness of God the Father
if he and God the Father are the same person.
That would make no sense.
Look what he says, it is also,
and this is where modalism just goes
all the way out the window.
It says in verse number 17,
it is also written in your law
that the testimony of two men is true.
I'm one that beareth witness of myself
and the father that sent me beareth witness of me.
So he's saying just as two separate men going into court
and giving corroborating testimonies,
two witnesses are coming and testifying,
well, there's me and there's God the Father.
If they were the same person, that's not two witnesses.
And by the way, the most famous verse on the Trinity,
first John chapter five verse seven,
it says there are three that bear record.
And if you say the context there of that passage,
bear record is used synonymously with bearing witness.
Testifying, it says there are three that testify,
there are three that bear witness,
there are three that bear record.
If we receive the witness of men,
the witness of God is greater.
And so it's a courtroom, kind of an analogy being used.
And he says there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost
and these three are one.
So the actual context of first John five, seven,
is that it's not just three that are in heaven,
it's three witnesses that are in heaven bearing record,
three that are testifying and those three are one,
meaning that they agree in one,
they're giving the same testimony, they're united.
And so yes, there are definitely three persons,
one God and people will make fun of biblical doctrine
and sometimes by saying,
oh, you mean Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane,
praying to himself?
He's absolutely not praying to himself.
Jesus is praying to God the Father.
It's that simple.
So people are making fun of something
that isn't even taught in Christianity
other than this offshoot of the oneness Pentecostal cult.
When it comes to actual mainstream evangelical Christianity,
Baptist churches, independent Baptist churches,
they teach the Trinity and so they don't believe
that Jesus is praying to himself,
that he didn't send himself.
And he even says,
I came not to do my own will,
but the will of him that sent me.
That would be an extremely disingenuous statement
if he is the one who sent himself.
That would make no sense.
And so notice what Jesus is saying here.
You know, I wanna break this down for you
because sometimes it's easy to get lost
in the language here of what's being said.
He says in verse 14,
though I bear record of myself,
yet my record is true,
for I know whence I came and whether I go,
but you cannot tell whence I come and whether I go.
He said, look, I am a truthful, accurate,
faithful, reliable witness.
He's saying, I know what I'm talking about.
If I bear witness about myself,
I can actually give accurate information about myself
because I know where I came from
and I know where I'm going.
Whereas if you guys testify about me,
you guys don't know anything about me.
You don't know where I came from.
You don't know where I'm going.
Later on he's gonna tell me,
you guys don't know the father either.
You see, in order for a witness
to bring something valuable to the table,
they have to know what they're talking about.
A bunch of people just saying things
isn't what we're talking about.
We need people to bear witness or testify
that actually have firsthand knowledge,
that actually have something to bring to the table
and that are actually reliable.
I mean, if you were to walk into a courtroom,
hearsay is not allowed.
Repeating rumors, or I heard this person say that
and this guy said this and everybody's saying it.
No, no, no.
What happens is the testimony that counts
is the actual firsthand knowledge that people have.
Jesus is saying, well, I, testifying of myself,
actually makes sense
because I actually know about myself.
I know what's going on.
Now, if I were all by myself, I could be lying.
But I'm not lying.
I'm telling the truth
because the father is with me.
He's backing me up.
The Bible's backing me up.
Search the scriptures for in them
you think you have eternal life
and they be they which testify of me.
They bear witness of me.
And so he's like, I'm not alone
because the Bible is backing me up.
God the father is backing me up.
So that's why he says, though I bear record of myself,
yet my record is true
for I know whence I came and whether I go
but you cannot tell whence I come and whether I go
because remember in the previous chapter,
they're confused.
They don't even know that he's born in Bethlehem.
They're confused about where he's from
and they're confused about where he's going in this chapter.
He says, you judge after the flesh, I judge no man
and yet if I judge, my judgment is true
for I am not alone, but I am the father that sent me.
Now this could seem contradictory on the surface.
Again, if you're not paying attention
and if you're not listening to the context
when he says, well, I judge no man
but then in the next breath he says, yet if I judge.
So which one is it?
Does he judge no man or does he judge?
Because in the next breath he says, well, if I judge,
here is what's going on.
He's saying here, I judge no man
because all he's really doing is just coming
and just repeating or relating the judgments
that have already been laid down in God's word
before he was even born.
And I'm talking about humanly speaking.
Obviously Jesus eternally exists
but as far as his human existence,
the Old Testament was already completed
and 100% written before Jesus Christ was born
in Bethlehem's manger.
And so here's the thing, people will often accuse us
as Christians of judging people and say,
oh man, Pastor Anderson, I heard your sermon
and it was super judgmental.
But here's the thing, in the sermon
I was preaching Bible verses that condemned various sins.
And I'm like, hey, the Bible says here
that this sin is wrong
and the Bible says over here that this is wrong
and the Bible says over here
that we need to stop doing this.
Oh, Pastor Anderson, you're super judgmental.
You know what?
I could get up and say, I judge no man.
I'm not judging anybody.
I'm literally just repeating the judgment
that was made by the judge.
For example, if you go to court,
ultimately the final verdict,
the final judgment is typically passed down
in the United States by the jury, right?
The jury is the one who delivers that verdict
of guilty or not guilty.
But are they the ones who actually read the verdict?
No, typically the verdict is handed to some kind,
and I hope I'm getting this right,
but I believe it's like the bailiff or something, right?
It's some kind of an officer of the court
that will read the verdict that says,
we the jury find so-and-so guilty
or we find him not guilty, right?
Now, would you say that that bailiff
is the one passing judgment
because they're reading what the jury found?
No, the ones who actually passed the judgment
are the jurors.
Even if the jurors aren't the ones doing the talking,
all the bailiff is doing, or whoever that is,
is just reading what conclusion the jury came to.
And here's the thing, the preacher of God's word,
if he gets up and says,
thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt do no murder, all he's doing
is just reading the verdict
that God has already pronounced.
You know, and if he gets up and reads the verdict
that God pronounced, thou shalt not print any marks
upon your body, you know?
And then he's like, oh, there it's so judgmental of tattoos.
It's like, well, bro, I'm just reading what God said.
God said don't do it.
God said it's a sin.
God said it's wrong.
God said don't fornicate.
God said don't be drunk with wine.
God said not to covet or bear false witness.
And so Jesus Christ, what did he say?
He said, you know what?
I didn't come into the world to condemn the world.
I came that the world might be saved.
So Jesus said that he did not come to condemn the world
but that the world through him might be saved.
But then in the next breath, he said,
he that believe it not is condemned already.
You know, the reason Jesus didn't come to condemn the world
is because the world's already condemned
because before Jesus was born in Bethlehem's major,
the Old Testament scripture already existed.
It already proclaimed what is right and what is wrong
and every single human being on the planet
was coming short of the glory of God because they've all sinned.
All Jesus did was show up,
point out the obvious of the sinfulness of mankind
and then provide salvation and provide a way to be saved
and say on the light of the world, you know,
he's trying to preach a message of hope here
but of course the Pharisees want to fight him
and heckle him and so forth.
So that's what he means when he says I judge no man
and yet if I judge my judgment's true,
why is my judgment true?
Because I'm not alone, I am the father that sent me.
You know, it's like if I judge somebody up here
with the Bible in my hand as a preacher
and I'm not saying me personally any preacher gets up
and uses the Bible to pass judgment
on some wicked action or sin,
he can say, hey, I'm not alone.
It's God the father that's with me.
It's the Bible and the word of God that's with me.
This is all stuff that God has stated in his word.
So he says, yet if I judge, my judgment is true
for I'm not alone, but I am the father that sent me.
It's also written in your law
that the testimony of two men is true.
I'm one, the bear witness of myself
and the father that sent me,
bear witness of me, powerful proof here
that modalism or oneness is wrong
and that we must come to the conclusion of the Trinity
because of those three facts
that there's only one God, Jesus is God
and Jesus is clearly not God the father.
Because you say, you know, can you count to two?
You know, ideally you can count to three,
then you can get the whole Trinity.
But at least if you can count to two here,
you can figure out I'm one, that's one
and then the father is two, right?
Now I wanna kind of home in on this verse here
where he says it's written in your law
that the testimony of two men is true.
Again, this is one of those things
that if taken in isolation, if taken out of context,
could easily be misunderstood to mean
well if two people testify of something
it's automatically true
and obviously that's very silly to believe that, isn't it?
What Jesus is referring to when he says
it's written in your law that the testimony
of two men is true is Deuteronomy 19.
So go back to Deuteronomy chapter 19
and let's look at that.
And what Jesus means when he says
it's written in your law that the testimony
of two men is true, true there means faithful,
reliable, trustworthy, right?
That's what true means in this context.
And so he's saying, you know what?
You can rely on the testimony of two people
whereas the testimony of one person is dubious, right?
If one person comes forward
and accuses someone of a crime
then the veracity of that is dubious
because a lot of times people
can just make things up out of thin air
or even if they're not making things up
they could just remember things wrong
and the human memory is a very fallible thing
and a lot of times years go by
and even just short periods of time go by
and people become confused about timelines
and facts and details.
And so it's easy for one person
to screw up and bring the wrong evidence.
And if we're talking about serious crimes
that involve the death penalty
you don't wanna accidentally execute the wrong person
and then later, oh whoops, that guy wasn't even guilty.
The real criminal is still running loose
and we've accidentally executed the wrong man, right?
This is a horrible miscarriage of justice.
We don't want that to happen.
So the Bible has this safety that says,
hey, no one witness is gonna cause someone
to be put to death.
You know, you're not gonna declare someone guilty
and put them to death on the mouth of one witness.
It's gonna be in the mouth of two or three witnesses
that those kind of judgments would be pronounced.
But the Bible also warns us
that even when there are two or three witnesses
that sometimes they're still lying.
It doesn't mean 100% that, oh, if two people say it,
it's guaranteed to be true.
That's not what Jesus is saying.
Jesus is basically just giving a short,
just quick version of the concept
that you need two people in order to have
a reliable witness.
So he's saying, I'm one, the father's the other,
there's your two witnesses.
He's not actually going into like a big dissertation
on criminal justice,
because that's already in Deuteronomy 19,
and that's what he's referring back to.
And so go back to Deuteronomy 19,
and what you'll see is that the Bible is very clear
that a lot of times, even with two or three witnesses,
people can still be lying,
which is why you still have to investigate
and prove all things and make diligent inquisition.
Now I'm gonna show you right now,
we're gonna look at Deuteronomy 19,
and then I'm just gonna show you just
an absurd number of Bible verses that prove what I just said.
Because a lot of people, they just think,
well, two or three witnesses, okay, it's closed.
Here's the thing about that,
is that I'm about to show you just a massive number
of Bible verses that show how absurd that conclusion is
to think that two or three witnesses
automatically equals guilt, because it doesn't.
And it frequently doesn't.
And again, this is not like some really rare thing.
Wow, there could be these really rare situations.
Super rare situation where there's two or three witnesses
and it turns out to be false.
No, no, no, this is a frequent problem,
which is why there's scripture after scripture
after scripture, that's why this made it
into the Ten Commandments.
I mean, look, the Ten Commandments
are only giving you the big ones.
Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy God in vain.
And it's interesting that in the top 10,
what did we get?
We got, thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor.
Now look, it does not say thou shalt not lie.
And unfortunately, people constantly quote this as
thou shalt not lie.
One of the Ten Commandments is thou shalt not lie.
Now of course, lying is bad, lying's a sin.
But we want to make sure that we get this right.
The Ten Commandments is,
thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor.
That's pretty specific.
That's a specific kind of lying.
And for me, if I look at that,
I'm gonna think to myself,
well this must not be some super rare thing.
Is killing rare?
Is stealing rare?
Is adultery rare?
Is covetousness rare?
Is taking God's name in vain rare?
Is idolatry rare?
No, these are things that billions of people
in this world are doing.
Billions of idolaters.
Billions of people with another God before the Lord.
Billions of people taking the Lord's name in vain.
Billions of people dishonoring their parents.
Billions stealing, billions killing,
billions committing adultery.
Well, you know what that tells me?
That there's probably millions and billions of people
bearing false witness against their neighbor.
Or is it just the only obscure commandment
that isn't happening en masse?
It makes a lot more sense to think,
yeah, there's probably a lot of people
that are false witnesses.
Jesus is a true faithful witness we can rely on.
God, the Father is a true witness.
Jesus and the Father, I'm sold, I'm convinced, right?
I'm done.
But let's see what the Bible actually says.
Look at Deuteronomy 1915.
It says, one witness shall not rise up against a man
for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinned
at the mouth of two witnesses
or at the mouth of three witnesses
shall the matter be established.
And then right away it's if a false witness rise up.
So as soon as he finishes saying,
yeah, you need two or three witnesses,
he says, if a false witness rise up.
So this is something that you need to watch out for
right away.
So that's why Jesus made the point of saying,
well, first of all, I'm reliable.
And second of all, it's me and the Father.
He didn't just jump in and say,
oh, I'm not alone, it's me and the Father.
He said, first, let's establish the fact
that I'm reliable.
He's saying, if I bear witness, I'm telling the truth.
I know what I'm talking about.
I know where I'm from.
I know where I'm going.
I know the Father.
So he's saying, I'm reliable.
And then he doesn't spend a lot of time explaining
that God's reliable because that's obvious
that God the Father is reliable.
So notice it's not just, oh, it's me and the Father.
It's I'm reliable and it's me and the Father.
That's important because there's a big if here
if a false witness rise up against any man
to testify against him that which is wrong,
then both the men between whom the controversy is
shall stand before the Lord,
before the priests and the judges,
which shall be in those days.
And the judges shall make diligent inquisition
and behold, if the witness be a false witness
and a testified falsely against his brother,
then shall you do unto him
as he had thought to have done unto his brother.
So shall to put the evil away from among you
and those which remain shall hear and fear
and shall henceforth commit no more
any such evil among you.
So here's the thing.
Do you go to court and falsely testify today
and bear false witness in court
and you lie under what is that called today in America?
Perjury, right?
And the Bible actually uses that word.
Also in the New Testament, perjured persons,
people who've perjured themselves.
This is a biblical term.
This is a term in America.
But here's the thing.
Perjury, yeah, it's a crime.
Perjury, yeah, you're gonna get a punishment
but you're probably gonna get a fairly minor punishment
for perjury.
You know, I mean, yeah, it's a serious crime
but are you gonna get put to death?
No way.
Are you gonna get life in prison?
No, you're not.
You're gonna be punished.
But here's the thing.
In God's law, he was so serious about perjury
that he says, hey, we need to have a punishment
for perjury that is super scary
so that people will be really afraid to do this.
So that's why he says, those which remain, verse 20,
shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more
any such evil among you.
He said, people should be scared and terrified
just hearing about this happening to people
and being like, dang, I will not perjure myself.
I'm not gonna bear false witness
because, dang, what's the punishment?
The punishment is whatever the person is being accused of,
you get that punishment.
So therefore, if someone is being accused
of first degree murder and you bear false witness,
you'll be put to death for perjury.
Or let's say it's stealing
and the person has to pay fourfold
and they have to pay quadruple what they stole
or quintuple what they stole
then imagine you make up some testimony,
you plant some evidence, you fake some evidence
or bear false witness, now all of a sudden
you're paying fivefold, right?
Or let's say that the person was supposed to be whipped
and they get beaten or flogged for the crime
and then you bear false witness,
you're getting the beating or flogging.
So these are serious punishments
and that's why the Bible says in verse 21,
by an eye shall not pity, but life shall go for life.
So he's saying that this thing of giving them
whatever punishment they wanted for you,
it goes all the way up to the death penalty
because he says, your eye shall not pity
but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, foot for foot, I mean he's saying
whatever it is, that's the punishment.
And he's saying don't pity, don't be like,
yeah, I know that she lied, yeah, I know that he lied
but you know, it seems a little crazy
that the death penalty would be the result
or that they would have to pay a $50,000 fine
or that they would have to be flogged and whatever.
And God's saying, no, no, no, don't have mercy on this.
If somebody is bearing false witness, man,
they need the book thrown at them
so that people will hear about it and be scared
and an example will be made, do not bear false witness.
Because it should mean something
when people walk into a courtroom
and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth will help me God,
that should mean something.
Or even if they just affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth,
hey, that should mean something.
People should take that seriously.
Now I told you I was gonna read you a whole bunch of verses
and that's what I'm gonna do right now
because I wanna show you that this is not just some minor,
oh, what if, here's a wild scenario,
here's something that you can't possibly imagine,
what if one of the witnesses is a false witness?
That would never happen.
Hey, it's in the Ten Commandments
because it's happening billions of times.
Murders happening billions of times,
stealing, all the rest of them are happening
over the course of human history
millions and billions of times, they just are.
So let's look at some scriptures
and you don't have to turn to all of these
because I'm gonna rattle through them pretty quick
but I do want you to turn to Exodus chapter 23.
So I'm just gonna have you selectively turn to these
but I'm gonna read a whole bunch of them, okay.
Obviously we already talked about the Ten Commandments,
Exodus 20 verse 16,
thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor
but look at Exodus chapter 23 verse one.
It says, thou shalt not raise a false report
but here's the key part I don't want you to miss.
Put not thine hand with the wicked
to be an unrighteous witness.
Now let me ask you this,
if you are putting your hand with the wicked
to be an unrighteous witness,
do we have one witness or at least two?
This is a minimum of two false witnesses
because here's the thing,
how can I put my hand with the unrighteous
to be a false witness
except that that person's already lying
and I'm going to join them in the lie
so now we have how many liars minimum of two
but possibly we could be grabbing three, four, five people
and getting them all to lie
but we have a minimum of two false witnesses
in Exodus chapter 23 verse one.
Flip over if you would to Psalms
and look at Psalm 27
and while you're turning to Psalm 27
of course, Deuteronomy 5 20 says,
thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
The Bible says in Proverbs 6 19
a false witness speaketh lies.
Right, Proverbs 12 17
he that speaketh truth showeth forth righteousness
but a false witness deceit.
Proverbs 14 5, a false witness will not lie
but a false excuse me, a faithful witness will not lie
but a false witness will utter lies.
Proverbs 19 5, a false witness shall not be unpunished
and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
Same exact thing in verse nine,
a false witness shall not be unpunished.
He that speaketh lies shall perish.
Proverbs 21 verse 28, a false witness shall perish
but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
Let's come back to that one, that one's so good
we're going to turn to that one
but let's look at Psalms
did I ever turn to Psalm 27?
Look at verse 12,
deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies
for false witnesses are risen up against me
and such as breathe out cruelty.
Are we talking about one false witness here
or are we talking about multiple?
Talking about two, three or more
false witnesses risen up against me.
Look at chapter 35 verse 11
and look I want you to just
I want you to appreciate the sheer volume
of verses that I'm showing you right now
about bearing false witness
that this is not a small problem.
This is a big problem.
This is not a rare occurrence.
This is a frequent occurrence
because we're just looking at a whole bunch of verses
and I'm rattling off to you
others that you're not even turning to.
Look at Psalm 35, 11,
false witnesses did rise up, notice the plural.
They laid to my charge things that I knew not.
I mean they're telling stories
and I'm like I don't even know
what they're even talking about.
I don't even know what this is even a reference to.
Crazy things that are just wow
where'd you come up with that one?
Now look at Proverbs 21 verse 28.
I already read this one to you
but I wanna stop and look at it
because it's a powerful truth here
in Proverbs 21, 28.
It says a false witness shall perish
but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
Now the idea here with the man that heareth
it means that this guy actually witnessed something.
Cause when we witness things
we might hear something first hand,
we might see something first hand
and when we say hear we're not talking about hearsay
we're talking about like actually hearing something
like I heard this guy say that
or I heard the car smash into the other car
or I heard the gunshot
or I heard tires screeching or whatever.
A lot of the testimony is gonna be hearing and seeing
and so the man that heareth is
compared to the false witness who's lying
the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
Now what does that mean?
Constantly we would use in our modern vernacular
the word consistently, right?
The man who actually saw something
the man who actually heard something
the man who actually has first hand experiential knowledge
the man who's actually telling the truth
about what happened he speaks consistently.
That's why the police will sit there
and ask people to tell them a story
then they'll get another officer in there
and be like oh I just start from beginning
and tell it to me all over again.
And they're like what in the world
I already told you this whole story
why do you want me to tell it again?
And people get irritated
why do you want to keep hearing the story?
Cause here's what they're looking for
they want to see if you speak constantly.
They want to see are you speaking consistently
or is your story changing constantly?
Right because the person who's telling the truth
they're not making it up
and here's the thing when you make things up
it's hard to keep track of your own lies.
And so you get confused about the details
cause it's a fictional story
that you're making up on the fly
and then next time you tell it
it's going to be a little different.
And the next time you tell it
it's a little different pretty soon
all these holes in your story
and contradictions and things that don't add up.
Whereas the truth fears no investigation, you know
and if you're actually speaking truth
the story is going to stay consistent.
You're going to speak constantly.
Chapter 25 verse 18
you don't have to turn there
but if you would flip over to Malachi chapter three
toward the end of the Old Testament
but Proverbs 25 18 says
a man that beareth false witness
against his neighbor is a mall
and a sword and a sharp arrow, right?
And again, you know
these are weapons that harm
and you know, they harm up close
they harm far away
they harm brutally
they harm in various ways
I already preached about those three weapons
in particular the mall, the sword and the sharp arrow
but look at Malachi chapter three verse five
it says I will come near to you to judgment
and I will be a swift witness
against the sorcerers
and against the adulterers
and against false swears, right?
These are people that would maybe go under oath
or swear that something happened
and they're lying, they're bearing false witness
and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages
the widow and the fatherless
and that turn aside the stranger from his right
and fear not me, say it the Lord of hosts
so that you know, there are a couple of things here
that I wanna point out is that
you know, false swarers abound, right?
Just as we've seen so many verses
about false witness so far
but not only that
we can contrast that with the swift witness, right?
What does it mean to be swift?
Swift means that you're quick
you're Johnny on the spot, right?
We in the United States of America
and also in the state of Arizona
we have enshrined in our constitution, bill of rights
the right to a speedy trial, a speedy trial
and that is defined in the state of Arizona as 180 days,
right, so you know, six months
that's considered a speedy trial
they always find a way to violate that
and drag it out and make things go on for years or whatever
but in theory, supposedly we are supposed to get
a speedy trial, now why do we need to get a speedy trial?
Because you know what, it's a lot easier
to defend yourself about something
that just happened recently
than to defend yourself about something
that happened 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago
this is why a lot of crimes have a statute of limitations
where they'd say, hey, you can't be accused
of something because it's too long ago
because the idea is how can you defend yourself?
So think about this, what if I were,
you know, you think about the kind of proverbial
or kind of cliche, you know, detective show
on the radio in the 1930s or something
where someone's being interrogated
and it's like, where were you on the night
of May 17th or whatever?
Now here's the thing about that
is that if somebody asked me where I was
last Tuesday, you know, I would have to think
for a second, but then I'm like, oh, well,
and I could tell you exactly where I was last Tuesday,
I could give you kind of a blow-by-blow
of what I did last Tuesday.
Now if you asked me about the Tuesday before that,
it'd be a little harder, but if I thought really hard
about it, I could figure it out.
The Tuesday before that though,
I don't even have the foggiest idea.
You know, because last Tuesday I was in Leavenwork
with my wife on vacation
and then the Tuesday before that
I was soul winning on an Indian reservation
in Nevada, the Tuesday before that
I have no idea what I did that day.
I don't have a clue.
So then I would have to start getting out
like my email and I'd have to start going
into my text messages and start going
into my phone log and figure out what was I doing
on Tuesday, you know, less than three weeks ago.
Okay, now it's like, okay, well,
where were you six months ago on this Tuesday evening?
Where were you on this Tuesday in 2016?
Where were you on this Tuesday in 2009?
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
How can you defend yourself?
It's gonna get harder, right?
It's gonna be easier to defend yourself sooner
rather than later.
Memories are fresh in everybody's mind.
Everybody's got a fresh memory.
Whereas years and years and years go by,
everybody's getting confused.
People are forgetting things, but you know,
that's why it's good sometimes
when major events happen to document them right away.
You document things right away, write it down,
make a video or whatever sometimes to just refresh
like if something major happens, some kind of a crime.
That's why the police are there.
They're taking statements right away.
They're not gonna just, well, let's wait six months
and then take statements from the witnesses.
They wanna get statements on the scene.
They want you talking to them right now.
They wanna bring you in for questioning tomorrow.
They wanna deal with it this week
because the longer that goes by,
the harder it is to establish truth claims, right?
And so here's the thing.
It's shady and dubious
when people start pulling out accusations
from 10, 15, 20, 25 years ago.
You know, the faithful witness
tends to be a swift witness.
Basically, it's like, hey, this happened
and I'm gonna talk about it now.
Not like, oh well, I saw this thing 15 years ago,
first hand, but first hand isn't really me.
Because it's first hand or second hand
and first hand is me or my wife.
Saw this thing 15 years ago
and didn't say anything to anybody,
didn't talk to anybody, didn't confront anybody,
didn't call anybody, didn't give the person
being accused a chance to defend themselves,
didn't bring it to their attention or whatever
because here's the thing.
15 years later, you can just say anything
and it's like, well, how can you prove something?
Right back then, you could have easily proved
the false accusation to be lies, right?
If somebody's claiming that someone had injuries
that they didn't have, you could just be like,
well, it isn't there, buddy.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
But what happens is you fast forward years
and years later these lying false witnesses,
because that's what they are,
what they do is they pull out stuff
from a long time ago.
You know, if you really did get violated
or if someone really got violated
or attacked or robbed or whatever,
it's not like, hey, I'm calling the police.
Someone stole this tool out of my garage six years ago.
I need to file a report about this missing drill
from six years ago.
Do you think that the police
are gonna take that seriously?
But what if I said, hey, these tools
were taken from my garage six hours ago?
Doesn't that make a little more sense?
Like, who would you trust?
Who would you believe if they're calling
the insurance company and say, hey,
I need to file a homeowner's insurance claim?
I was robbed three months ago
and I'm just now calling you.
Or I was robbed three hours ago and I'm calling.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
And so the faithful witness tends to be a swift witness
and the lying false witness will often just pull things
out and just things that we know not.
Strange accusations from the distant past.
And again, it's unjust
and our criminal justice system acknowledges this,
which is why there is a statute of limitations
on a lot of things.
Now, a lot of things they don't put
a statute of limitations just because they don't wanna let
really heinous criminals get off the hook.
They don't want somebody to commit first degree murder
and get off on a technicality
because the statute of limitations or something like that.
But here's the thing.
If they're trying to prove a murder
from 10 years ago, 15 years ago,
20, it's gonna be a lot harder
to convince that jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
They're gonna have to have some really hard evidence
much harder than if it were recent.
Because again, it's harder to defend yourself.
It's harder to prove guilt.
People can say whatever they want 20 years later
about conversations and events
that are so far in the past
that nobody can really prove anything.
And it's just, it's stupid and wrong.
That's why I like this term.
I will be a swift witness, right?
I'm gonna be one who brings the testimony right away
because I'm telling the truth.
Not pulling something out years later.
Oh, I saw this thing 15 years ago.
I just didn't say anything.
It's like, that's just stupid, right?
You know why you didn't say anything 15 years ago
is because you knew it was a lie.
You knew it was stupid.
You knew your wife's a liar
and you didn't believe your wife.
That's why you didn't say anything.
Your wife told you a bull crap story
like she tells all kinds of bull crap stories.
And your wife told you a lie.
You didn't believe it,
which is why you didn't say anything to anybody.
And why you got up and said,
hey, I had no reason not to believe Pastor Anderson.
Pastor Anderson has been 100% truthful, 100% honest.
I had no reason to believe
that he was guilty of anything.
But oh, by the way, my wife told me 15 years ago
that she observed him spank his kid
or his wife spank the kid too hard or whatever.
It's like, bro, you didn't believe her.
That's why for 15 years you had no reason not to believe.
Everybody understand?
I mean, I don't know.
I feel like I've been explaining this too many times,
but some people don't get it anyway.
Let's go to Matthew chapter 15.
Matthew chapter 15.
The Bible says in Matthew chapter 15 verse 19,
you're already in Malachi.
There's just a few pages to the right in your Bible.
Matthew 15, 19, for out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
You know, these are the things
that come out of the evil heart of man.
Unfortunately, they're common.
They're frequent.
Jesus is not giving us a list of every possible sin.
He's just giving us the big ones.
Look at chapter 19 verse 18, same thing.
He's giving us synopsis from the Ten Commandments.
He saith unto them, which Jesus said,
thou shalt do no murder,
thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness.
Okay, now look at Matthew 26.
Matthew chapter 26, say,
I don't know, I'm getting tired
of these false witness verses.
Well, you know, there's just a lot of them.
You know, I'm trying to make a point here,
showing you that there are all kinds
of false accusers and false witnesses.
And here's what you're gonna notice
about false witnesses, they don't speak constantly.
You know, that's why the Bible says
when false witnesses rise up,
you gotta make diligent inquiry
and figure out who's telling the truth.
And what you're gonna find
is that the false witness,
he doesn't speak constantly,
he doesn't speak consistently.
And there are holes in his story,
and there are gonna be inconsistencies
and things that don't match up.
So look at Matthew chapter 26 verse 59.
Now the chief priests and elders
and all the counsel sought false witness
against Jesus to put him to death.
But found none, watch this,
yay though, many false witnesses came.
So look, did they have a hard time
finding people that would bear false witness?
Is bearing false witness super rare?
It's just a super rare thing.
So anytime two or three witnesses,
you just take it to the bank, it's true.
Is that what the Bible is teaching?
Because I'm seeing that false witness is frequent.
And so it says that many false witnesses came,
yet they found none.
Now, how does this work?
Stop and think about this.
If many false witnesses came,
how did they find none?
You know why?
Because what it is,
is that a bunch of false witnesses came
and their stories aren't adding up,
their stories aren't matching.
They're inconsistent with one another.
So even though they have tons of people
bearing false witness,
oh look, Jesus must be guilty of something.
There's just so many people making accusations,
but the accusations are totally different.
Accusation A is different than accusation B,
C, D, they're all contradicting one another.
That's not two or three witnesses.
Well, we got two or three witnesses.
Yeah, but if they're dramatically contradicting each other
and found to be lying, then it's zero witnesses.
Because the Bible is counting for us.
We counted to two earlier, we counted to three.
Now we're gonna count to zero.
It says here, they sought false witnesses
against Jesus to put him to death,
but found how many?
How many did they find?
None, zero that were legitimate,
that were credible.
Though many false witnesses came yet they found none.
At last came two false witnesses, right?
And they finally find two whose story vaguely agrees.
And they're like, okay, we got it.
Here we go.
Two people saying that Jesus said
that he was able to destroy the temple
and build it in three days.
Obviously Jesus never said that.
This is a twisting of the truth.
Jesus said to them that if they destroyed this temple,
he would raise it up in three days
and he'd spake up the temple of his body.
He didn't say he was gonna destroy the temple.
He said they were gonna destroy his body,
which is the temple, okay?
And so they're twisting the truth
and they're false witnesses and they're lying.
Look at Mark chapter 10.
Few pages to the right in your Bible.
Mark chapter 10, I gotta hurry for sake of time here,
but Mark chapter 10, verse 19.
Again, we have the 10 commandments.
Actually go straight to 14, sorry.
Mark 14, because Mark 10, 19 is just
do not bear false witness to fraud not
honor the father and mother, et cetera.
Look at Mark 14, 56 for many
bear false witness against him.
And this is what I was saying about Matthew,
but their witness agreed not together.
Do you see that?
Their witness agreed not together.
So think about this.
If what if we have, let me give you a scenario.
Let me just give you a super hypothetical scenario.
Let's say that you have witness A comes along
and bears witness.
Then witness B comes along and says,
actually witness A is lying.
It happened totally different than that.
And yeah, he's exaggerating.
He lied and he goes and tells seven different adults
that witness A lied.
So witness B tells seven different adults
that witness A lied and then he gives
his own different version that contradicts
witness A's on a whole bunch of points.
Everybody following the story right now?
So you have witness A and witness B.
Then witness C comes along and just puts a rubber stamp
and says, everything that witness A and B said is both true.
I mean, this sounds super reliable, doesn't it?
You have witness A telling one story.
Witness B telling a dramatically different story
and quote saying, witness A is a liar.
What witness testified is lies, okay?
Then witness C comes along and says,
every single thing that both of them said is true.
I'll just stamp all of it, right?
Case closed, super reliable, right?
Three witnesses, but see the false witnesses,
their witness agreed not together
and there arose certain and bear false witness
against them and it's the same accusation.
You don't have to turn to Luke, but Luke 18, again,
do not commit adultery, do not kill,
do not steal, do not bear false witness.
Look at act six.
This is the last place we'll turn, act six.
And then Romans 13, again, you know, quotes,
take commandments, that's not bear false witness.
So how many verses do we have that specifically use
these exact words, false witness, false witnesses,
bearing false witnesses, those exact words,
we have one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24 separate scriptures talking about this.
And that's not even all of them
because we could find other ones
that just don't use that exact word
but they still talk about the concept of false witness.
Because we didn't even go to the Naboth story
where two witnesses rise up against Naboth
and falsely testify and get him put to death.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
This is just any chimpanzee can just type in false witness
into a Bible search and they're gonna get
20 some scriptures just right out of the gate,
let alone all the verses that use different wording
and different language to talk about people
bearing false witness.
Is this a small subject?
Is this a rare sin?
Is this something that rarely occurs?
No, it isn't.
Look at Acts chapter six verse 13.
The Bible says they set up false witnesses.
This is against Stephen.
They set up false witnesses which said
this man sees as not to speak blasphemous words
against this holy place and the law.
Of course, that was a lie.
They didn't do it.
So go to John chapter eight.
Let's wrap up in John chapter eight
now that we took that little rabbit trail
through all the false witness.
So again, just to bring you up to speed here.
Jesus is preaching the gospel.
Jesus is preaching truth.
Jesus is preaching a positive message.
Try to help people.
But the Pharisees heckle him,
accuse him of being a liar.
They say, well, you're bearing witness of yourself.
Your testimony is not true.
He answers by basically saying,
well, first of all, I'm reliable
because I know what I'm talking about
and you don't, you don't have the facts I do.
I was there, you weren't.
So number one, I'm reliable.
Number two, it's not just me bearing witness.
It's also God the Father that is bearing witness.
And if I judge or bear witness,
what I'm saying lines up with the Bible.
It lines up with the word of God.
Therefore it is true.
Then if we jump down to verse number 19,
let me get there myself.
He says in verse number 19,
then said they unto him, where is thy father?
Cause he said, you know,
hey, the father bears witness of me.
They said unto him, where is thy father?
Jesus answered, you neither know me nor my father.
If you'd known me,
you would have known my father also, right?
And so again, this goes to show
that people who don't believe in Jesus,
they don't know the God of the Bible.
So Jews are not worshiping God the Father.
Jews are worshiping a false God, false religion.
They're the synagogue of Satan
because the Bible says, you know,
the only way to get to the Father is through Jesus.
No man come unto the Father,
but by me Israeli soldiers kneeling down
and praying to God,
they're not praying to Jehovah God of the Bible.
They're praying to a fake God of their own imagination,
the fake God of Judaism,
which is not the God of the Bible.
How do I know that?
Because the Bible says if you don't have the son,
you don't have the father.
If you don't have the son, you don't have,
well, they have the same,
no, they don't have the same God
because if you don't have the son,
you don't have the father.
No man comes unto the father, but by Jesus,
he says, you don't know me or my father.
If you had known me,
you would have known my father also, right?
So those of us who know Jesus,
we also know God the Father through Jesus.
Whereas those who don't have Jesus,
they don't know God or Jesus.
They know neither.
So it says in verse number 20,
these words spake Jesus in the treasury
as he taught in the temple
and no man laid hands on him
for his hour was not yet come.
Then said Jesus unto them,
I go my way and ye shall seek me
and shall die in your sins.
Whether I go, you cannot come.
Then said the Jews, will he kill himself?
Because he saith, whether I go, you cannot come.
Really, where he's actually going is going to heaven
and they're not going because they're not saved.
He said unto them, you're from beneath.
I'm from above, you're of this world,
I am not of this world.
I said therefore unto you that you shall die
in your sins, for if you believe not
that I am he, you shall die in your sins.
Then said they unto him, who art thou?
And Jesus saith unto them, even the same
that I said unto you from the beginning.
I have many things to say and to judge of you,
but he that sent me is true
and I speak to the world those things
which I have heard of him.
They understood not that he spake to them of the father.
Then said Jesus unto them,
when you've lifted up the son of man
then shall you know that I am he
and that I do nothing of myself
but as my father had taught me,
I speak these things.
And he that had sent me is with me.
The father had not left me alone
for I do always those things that please him
as he spake these words, many believed on him.
And so Jesus here, although he's being heckled
by the Pharisees, although he's arguing
with the Pharisees and what's he telling the Pharisees?
He's not really given the Pharisees
much of a message of hope here.
He's just like, I'm from above, you're from beneath.
You're of this world, I'm not of this world.
You're gonna die in your sins
because if you don't believe that I'm he,
you should die in your sins.
But remember before the Pharisees showed up,
he's teaching all the people in the temple.
There's a huge crowd that he's teaching all the people.
And so this part tends to confuse people a little bit.
So I wanna make sure we understand this correctly.
It says in verse number 31,
then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him.
So not the Pharisees who are heckling him,
telling him he's a liar.
He's saying, you don't know me.
You don't know the father.
You guys are gonna die in your sins.
You guys are rot, you know.
He tells the ones who believe on him.
Because a lot of people in the crowd,
just the average people in the crowd,
they do believe in Jesus when they hear this preaching.
And so he says to those Jews which believed on him,
if you continue in my word,
then are you my disciples indeed
and you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free, right?
So he's saying, look, it's great that you believe on me.
Obviously, virtually all of us in here believe on Jesus Christ.
That's the beginning of our Christian life
believing in Jesus, getting saved.
But after we get saved,
we wanna continue on to become disciples of Jesus.
We wanna follow Jesus.
We wanna be studying the Bible, going to church,
preaching the gospel, following the commandments,
living right, now look, in order to get to heaven,
you only have to do one thing and one thing alone
that is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shall be saved.
Whosoever believe in him should not perish
but have eternal life.
But here's the thing, in order to be a disciple of Jesus though,
you gotta take up the cross daily and follow him.
Not every saved person's a disciple.
How many disciples did Jesus have?
12 disciples, right?
Later, he has more disciples,
but even after three and a half years of ministry
in the early church in Acts chapter one,
there's only 120 people that are really disciples,
that are really die-hards,
that are really following Jesus.
It's not a huge number.
But the Bible says thousands of people
got saved and baptized.
So you have thousands and thousands and thousands
of people getting saved and baptized,
but the church is only running 120 in Acts chapter one.
You've got all kinds of people
hearing Christ preaching and believing in him,
but you got 12 disciples.
Later, you have maybe 70 other apostles
being ordained and so forth.
So he's saying, look, if you continue in my word,
then you're really my disciples,
you're my indeed disciple.
He says, and you'll know the truth
and the truth will make you free.
The more you know the truth of God's word,
the more liberty you're gonna have, right?
The more freedom you're gonna have.
Why?
Because sin brings bondage into our life.
Sin drags us down and enslaves us into addictions
of drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling, whatever.
But this is where people get confused.
He says to the ones who believe on him,
if you continue in my word,
and then it says, they answered him,
we be Abraham seed.
These people that are answering him
are the hecklers again,
not the actual good saved people in the crowd that believe.
And that's why pronouns can sometimes be confusing
in the Bible of what they're referring to,
but it's obvious if you read this
that they here are the bad guys again
because they're denying Christ in the coming verses,
and he's ultimately just gonna tell them,
you guys are of your father, the devil,
you guys are of Satan,
he's a liar from the beginning,
and you all are just like him.
So obviously we're not talking to the believers.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
People would try to twist this like,
oh, well he's telling people to believe in him
that they're of the devil.
You know, you just have to understand
that sometimes the Bible will switch pronouns,
deal with it, it's real, it's life.
You can prove it in many places.
Says they answered him, we be Abraham seed,
and we were never in bondage to any man.
Now is that true that Abraham seed
was never in bondage to any man?
Because I thought that the children of Israel
were in bondage in Egypt for 400 years.
So you notice how these people,
they're not reliable, they're not trustworthy,
they're not being faithful to the word of God,
they're not true witnesses, they're full of baloney.
Everything they say is baloney.
We were never in bondage to any man.
We're Abraham seed.
Yeah, Abraham seed went to Egypt
for 400 years as bond servants.
Jesus answered, them verily, verily I say unto you,
whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin.
And the servant abided not in the house forever,
but the son abided forever.
If the son therefore shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed.
I know that you're Abraham seed,
but you seek to kill me
because my word has no place in you.
I speak that which I've seen with my father
and you do that which you've seen with your father
and ultimately he tells them, your father is the devil.
He's clearly talking to the hecklers, the Pharisees,
when he says, you guys are trying to kill me.
He's not talking to the ones who believe in him.
The ones who believed in him, he's trying to encourage them.
You know what I see here,
and I'm gonna close on this thought.
What I see here is Jesus
is constantly trying to preach to the good people.
He's trying to edify sincere people.
He's telling them, hey man, I'm the light of the world.
If you follow me, you'll have the light of life.
And then the Pharisees are constantly jumping in
and basically turning it into an argument,
turning it into a fight, heckling him
and trying to drag him into all these other conversations.
Do you notice that?
You know, he's like, hey guys,
if you continue in my word, you're my disciples indeed.
You know the truth, the truth.
And then just some bozo,
well actually we were never in bondage city, man.
What do you mean?
It's like, shut up, bro.
I'm not even talking to you.
But here's the thing, what you do see though,
is you do see that when these hecklers are piping up
with these false doctrines, lies,
railing on Jesus, false accusations,
you know, Jesus does respond to them
and he does spend time refuting them
because it becomes a teaching opportunity for everyone.
So here's the thing, I kind of feel the same way
as a pastor in my ministry too.
You know, my desire is to get up
and preach to people that want to hear the truth.
I'm not interested in preaching to hecklers and railers
and all the critics and all the haters
and all the people that are just here
to tear me down or something like that.
You know, I'm interested in preaching to good people
who love truth, who want to learn the Bible,
who want to do right.
Like that's who we enjoy preaching.
When we go soul winning, that's who we're looking for.
Sincere people who want to hear the truth.
When I'm up here preaching, you know,
I'm preaching to the choir.
I'm preaching to the saved.
You know, I'm preaching to the good people
that want to hear it, right?
But here's the thing, the haters are listening too.
The wicked are listening too.
And they will try to gain say and dispute
and try to fight truth, you know?
And it's obviously we want to preach to the receptive,
but then the gain sayer comes along and argues
and here's the thing,
rebuking the gain sayer is profitable.
Otherwise Jesus wouldn't be doing it.
Cause Jesus could just be like,
all right guys, I'm not talking to you.
All right, back to those of you that believe on me.
He does take the time to refute them
because there's the thing.
If I get up here and refute liars and refute railers
and refute false religion
and I get up here and refute the Roman Catholic church,
refute Mormonism, refute Buddhism, refute Hinduism,
refute the Mormons and the JFWs
and the Seventh-day Adventists and whatever.
If I get up and rebuke those things,
it's a teachable moment for everyone.
Like even though Jesus is trying to teach positive things
over and over again
and then they keep getting him on the negative stuff,
he takes the bait and he goes off on the negative stuff.
He goes off on the synagogue of Satan.
He tells them they're of their father the devil
and you know what?
I don't know about you, but I like all those verses.
I'm glad Jesus argues with them.
I'm glad Jesus straightens them out.
I'm glad that Jesus proves his point.
I'm glad that he shuts down their false accusations.
I'm glad that he points out that they're of the devil
and that they're gonna die in their sins
cause it ends up just being good preaching.
And so yeah, pastors, we wanna preach positive stuff.
We're like Jude.
Hey, I wanna write to you about the common salvation,
but you know what?
We gotta contend for the faith, so let's go.
And then Jude ends up being a book of super hard preaching
cause he says, hey, I wanted to preach something nice,
but there's too much garbage out there that needs rebuke.
So here we go.
So don't ever get frustrated with hard preaching
against sin, hard preaching against railers and enemies
because you know what?
As long as we're learning the Bible,
that's all that matters.
Sometimes current events, sometimes battles,
sometimes rebuking a false religion,
can just give us like a vehicle for learning the Bible.
We had a controversy in our church about nine years ago
where there were certain evil people crept in unawares
that denied the Trinity.
Now this is a tragedy.
This is not fun.
I didn't wake up that morning and go swim laps
down at the Salvation Army and come out
and my wife picked me up and told me,
oh, by the way, you know,
one of your employees is denying the Trinity.
You know what?
That wasn't a fun thing.
That wasn't like, yes.
That was a tragedy.
That was horrible.
That was upsetting.
This was uncomfortable.
This was discouraging.
This was, you know, embarrassing.
This was horrible, but here's the thing.
But looking back, it's like, well, yeah, but man,
we were really able to really tighten things up
on the Trinity and preach a bunch of sermons
on the Trinity and everybody got super solid on the Trinity.
So at the end of the day, is it really a bad thing?
If a bunch of important preaching comes out of it,
you know, it's a good thing.
And so again, the title of the sermon tonight is,
Jesus is the faithful and true witness.
He's reliable.
He's trustworthy.
He's telling the truth.
He's right.
It's in accordance with the Bible.
And you know what?
False witness abounds.
Liars abound.
You know, we want to be like Jesus.
We want to be faithful and true witnesses.
We want to testify truth.
We want to talk in accordance with the Bible
and we want to talk in accordance with reality
and not make up stories.
And you know what?
People who make up stories all the time
and lie all the time, you know what?
That's a horrible attribute and shame on you
if that's you.
Because you know what?
I bet you that there are a bunch of people
in this room even that are habitual liars.
Why?
Because that's just human nature.
I'm not accusing anybody.
I'm not thinking of anyone in particular.
I'm just saying in a crowd this size,
it's probably a bunch of habitual liars.
There could be little kids, teenagers,
just in the habit of lying.
Adults in the habit of lying.
You know what?
That's a rotten attribute to have.
Love, truth and your personal life.
Don't go around lying to people and telling tall tales.
You know, my dad used to joke around
because you'd say something
and then someone would always one up you.
Have you ever known these people?
Like I remember we were talking about knee boarding
behind a boat and my uncle asked me,
how many 360s did you do behind the boat?
And in one shot I said 15, he said I did 16.
And basically my dad would always,
whenever someone would one up him like that,
when he would say a number and then the person would come in,
oh, and it was always more,
he would say this joke,
oh the first liar never stands a chance.
Joking that they were both lying.
But he would say, oh the first liar never stands a chance.
It was just a joke though.
But have you known people who are always telling tall tales?
Always exaggerating and often they're the hero
of these stories that are super exaggerated tall tales
and they tell you about all their feats
behind the wheel of the car
and they tell you about all their feats
in sports and everything
and it's just kind of like bro,
this is so unrealistic, this is so exaggerated.
That's a scary attribute when you're constantly lying,
constantly exaggerating.
Be a truth teller.
Don't be that guy.
And look there are people, relatives that we had
that were like that and people would just tell you,
don't believe anything this person says.
There was this guy, Uncle Patterson.
And this guy's been dead for like 30 or 40 years
so I don't think he'll mind me using him in the sermon
but he's been dead for like literally 30 or 40 years.
But this guy Pat Patterson would just tell all these lies
and it just became known as,
oh it was a, we would say it's a Pat Patterson type story.
So if anyone told us a weird story,
it was a Pat Patterson type story.
You can tell the guy's Irish or whatever, it sounds like it.
Bro kissed the Blarney Stone.
But this guy, he would tell all these wild stories
about how, oh I was going up this ladder
and I was carrying four 100 pound bags of concrete
while I was climbing the ladder
and you're just like, bro, no.
That didn't happen, it's just annoying.
You know, he told this story about how he got mugged
and this guy stabbed him in the side of the head
and blood was just shooting out of the side of his head
10 feet while he fought the guy off.
He ended up fighting the guy,
carrying the guy to the police station
and while he was carrying the police station,
blood was shooting out the side of his head 10 feet.
And it's just like, so one time my grandfather
got so angry at Pat Patterson.
He was just sick of it.
Because it's knowing when people just lie to you
and tell these lies to you.
He got so mad that he basically told Pat Patterson,
I'm gonna kick your butt, let's go outside right now.
You're telling all these stories about how tough you are
and you're just beating everybody up in every story.
You're just doing all this kung fu
and blood shooting out the side of your head.
Come out in my driveway right now
and I'm gonna beat the living crap out of you
and we'll see if your stories are true.
Because obviously this wasn't right.
My grandpa was unsaved at the time
and so it's totally the flesh talking.
And he said, you come out in the driveway
and I'm gonna beat the living whatever out of you.
Because he just finally just couldn't take it anymore.
So he's out in the driveway waiting for Pat Patterson
to come out and face him.
Pat doesn't show up.
He goes back into the house
and all the ladies in the family
are all surrounding Pat as he's on the floor
because he's had a heart attack.
So Bro was saved by the bell.
He had a heart attack.
How many of you think that he actually
really had a heart attack?
And this guy, he was telling stories.
He told a story about how he was sitting in a diner
or a coffee shop and he overheard two cops next to him
describing his car about how he's constantly driving
down I-5 at 120, 130 miles an hour.
And now they were talking to each other.
Oh, don't even try to catch that guy.
You'll never catch him.
He's too fast for us.
We just let him go because it's impossible to catch him.
He also told the story that he was pulled over by the police
just so that the police could tell him
that he was the best driver that they'd ever seen
and that he was checking his mirror exactly
every 11 seconds as the handbook recommends.
And I mean, I could go on and on.
I mean, this is, Bro's burning in hell, man.
I'm just telling you, like, it's wicked.
Okay, all liars shall have their part.
Now, obviously, if he believed in Jesus Christ, he'd be saved,
but he didn't, so he's in hell.
Okay, so again, he doesn't mind me telling the story.
All right, I'm out of time.
Let's bards in order of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Thank you for a faithful and true witness
that we have in Jesus Christ.
Thank you for the faithful and true witness
of the word of God.
Thank you so much, Lord, for Christians who love truth
and tell the truth and are honest, Lord.
Help us to remember that honesty is the best policy.
And Lord, help us not to become a Pat Patterson,
telling all kinds of stupid wild stories
and insulting people's intelligence
by telling outrageously tall tales.
Lord God, help us not to be deceived
by the liars of this world,
because as Brother Segura mentioned in his sermon
on Wednesday night,
being deceived is you're in the transgression
when you're being deceived.
And so help us not to be deceived.
Help us to be lovers of truth and believers of truth.
And in Jesus' name we pray amen.
Amen.