False witnessing – a common problem  

a)      There are many times in life when someone “bears false witness about us.”

b)      Someone may say we believe something that we do not believe.

c)      It might be said that we went somewhere that we never were.

d)     Or, someone may say we “did something” but there is no truth to the statement.

e)      People often do “bear false witness” against others. 

2)      We were asked to keep our Bibles open to Mt. 26 and we now want to look at a verse in this chapter.

3)      Our opening text is towards the end of this chapter – verse 60 – READ 

4)      Jesus knows what it is like to face false accusations as well as many false accusations.

5)      The false witnesses in Mt. 27 were not effective because they told contradictory stories.

6)      False witness is a type of lie.

7)      When we speak about things and people, we want to strive for accuracy.

8)      We do not want to pass along information that would ever make us “false witnesses.”

a)      The world is often very careless in this regard.

9)      As human beings we have three basic choices as we go through our daily lives.

10)  We can be as correct, factual and precise as possible (we speak the truth) day by day.

11)  Choice # 2 is making something things sound or seem better than it really is (we are a false witness).

12)  Choice # 3 is making something sound worse than it really is and this is also being a false witness.

13)  We must live in this way because it is characteristic of the God we serve.

a)      In Prov. 6:16-19 we find that God “hates false witness.”

b)      God’s character (nature) is such that He cannot be associated with false witnessing.

c)      Paul told Titus in Tit. 1:2 that God “cannot lie.”

14)  The Hebrew writer picks up with this same theme in Heb. 6:17-18.

15)  We have seen scores of people who have “hope” in something, but the hope was a lie.

16)  A “false witness” created a false hope.

17)  Perhaps a false witness promised a job.  Maybe it was some type of investment scheme.

18)  We live in a world of shattered dreams because of false witnesses.

19)  God says to people:  Your hopes are safe and secure with me because I will not be a false witness.

20)  Thanks be to God that we serve a deity who will never be untrue or unfaithful to people.

 WHILE GOD CANNOT BE A FALSE WITNESS, WE FIND PLENTY OF FALSE WITNESSES IN THE WORLD (IF THE EXAMPLES OF FALSE WITNESS ARE NOT DALY OR WEEKLY, THEY ARE CERTAINLY MONTHLY).

 a)      Prov. 21:28 says a “false witness will perish” and this is true.

2)      False witnesses are usually caught and sometimes punished.

3)      This is one of the reasons why Paul said in Eph. 4:25, “speak the truth to your neighbor.”

4)      Because of the way technology now is, it is very important to be careful about bearing false witness.

a)      We can say something in an electronic format and instantly ship that information around the world.

b)      We should be guarded in the communication we send.

c)      Some Christians have ruined a fellow Christian by something as simple as an e-mail.

5)      We need to realize that we can utter a lie that will literally reverberate across the world.

6)      When we choose to engage in false witness, we become a tool of the devil.

7)      We want to be people of truth.  Are we?