again to go to Matthew's Gospel as we're making our way through this blessed
book.
We're still in the fifth chapter,
and we're still in the section of what is known as a Sermon on the Mount.
All of Matthew 5 and 6 and 7 is one section of Scripture, and it's the Lord's
Sermon to his disciples there on the Mount of Beatitudes and mostly followers,
but the religious leaders were gathered there as well listening to him. And today
our text we pick up in verse 33. And Jesus said, and you have heard that it
was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform
your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven,
for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you swear by your head, because
you cannot make one hair white or black, but let your yes be yes, and your no be
no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. Let us pray. Oh Father
God help us this morning Lord. Lord we hear from the King about life in his
kingdom. Lord lead us to grace to make this a reality in our lives. Oh bless God
Lord we pray for your Holy Spirit and the aid and help of your spirit. Lord would
you grant that this morning. Speak, give eyes and open hearts to behold the beauty
and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we
pray. Amen. I don't think it comes to a surprise to anyone to hear today that we
live in an age of deception and dishonesty. I mean if we think about it,
deception it's ubiquitous. I mean you see it in ads and you see it online. There
are products that always over promise what they can actually do. This is the
advertiser's secret, right? I mean if you just use this cream and you can
erase years from your face it's not happening. This year for Christmas my
kids have asked for a particular teddy bear it's called Thready Bear and I have
told them as they're sitting right here laughing because they are asking this
for Christmas and they really believe that Thready Bear will come to life as
advertised. Don't worry I've already let them down they just don't believe me
they believe the advertisers. So they think a bear is going to come to life. We
also hear if you will just take this pill you can lose weight without having
to diet or exercise. If you've ever traveled and you've got a brochure one
thing for sure brochures over promise what the resort will actually look and
be like. And then of course we all are familiar with high-pressure sales pitches.
You hide high pressure high-pressured salesmen using flattery to make us make
a rash decision. I don't know if you've ever sat through a timeshare presentation
or not but this is what they do. But also we see it in the political world. We're
coming out of an election cycle and we've grown accustomed to this we've
grown numb to it. Candidates on either side constantly going to over promise
what they will do. On day one here's what I will do. On day one I promise to do.
That's not going to happen not everything that they said is going to
happen. And it used to be that a man's word and the handshake were all that was
needed for a man who was expected to fulfill his word. But think about today
no one just uses a handshake. We have contracts that we have to have notarized
in the presence of witnesses also signed usually in the presence of lawyers if we
are going to have any type of business. But why why do we need all those things?
Because people and companies are going to try to find some loophole to get out
from under their contractual obligation. But I wonder about the people of God.
When people hear your name what comes to their mind? Are you an honest person who
consistently speaks the truth? Are you a person who consistently follows through
on your commitments and promises? Or on the other hand are you known as someone
who exaggerates or embellishes to make stories appear better than they are? Let
me ask you this. Have you ever told someone I will pray for you and then
don't do it? We often do that don't we? I mean that's one of the most probably
common forms of lying in the church. Oh we'll pray for you but do you do you
pray for that person? What about this do you tell others hey I'm leaving the
house in 15 I'll be leaving the house right now and yet you know you're not
going to leave for at least another 15 minutes? See today as we come to our text
in Matthew 5 as a central premise Jesus puts forth truthfulness and integrity. As
I said a moment ago this is the Sermon on the Mount and we have our Lord who
is the King and he's sharing with his disciples what life in his kingdom looks
like and he wants them to know something. Life in the kingdom of God is radically
different from life in the kingdom of man. If we look at the kingdom of God we
find integrity, honesty, purity both internal and external. It's not just that
you're simply abiding by a set of ethics but there's an internal purity as well
that leads you to do so. In the sermon the Lord is also exposing the hypocrisy
of the religious leaders. So really the sermon is twofold it's an exhortation to
his disciples. He's informing them and exhorting them of what life as a follower
of Christ looks like but at the same time it serves as a rebuke to the
religious elite of his day. You might say well how is he rebuking the religious
elite? Well in Matthew 5 he will give six examples of what these leaders have done,
how they've taken the law of God and they perverted it, they've twisted it to
their own benefit. I mean that's what their masters at. They take the law, they
mishandle it, they reduce the standards of the law to things that they felt more
manageable and that they could keep until, until Christ the divine Son who is
the great lawgiver, he came on the scene and he gave the true interpretation
which exposed these men, these leading religious officials as hypocrites.
Suffice it to say they were not happy with our Lord. For example we looked a
few weeks ago in the Sixth Commandment. There the Lord showed it was not simply
murder that was forbidden by the Sixth Commandment, not simply homicide, the
anger in the heart also breaks the Sixth Commandment. Then a few weeks ago we also
looked at the Seventh Commandment, the act of adultery. It wasn't just simply
the physical act of adultery that broke the Seventh Commandment. The Lord said
lust that lie in the heart of man is also a violation of God's commandment.
But these religious leaders, keep in mind they were very sly. They had designed an
elaborate system that allowed them to technically, and I put those words in
quotes, keep the law but that also allowed them to do what they wanted to
do. Now the leading religious officials were Pharisees and Sadducees. The
Pharisees were the purity gatekeepers. They were the one who fastidiously kept
the law. They would never dream of committing adultery. So how are they going
to get around this commandment when they wanted another woman? Well they developed
a system where they could willfully divorce their wife and then marry
another so technically they're not committing adultery. They divorced and
remarried and Jesus said you hypocrites, you are committing adultery through the
divorce and subsequent remarriage. Do you see what they've done? They're taking
God's law and distorted it to justify their own lust. But our Lord's not
finished. Today once again he's going to show the hypocrisy of these corrupt
leaders and their perversion in God's law because once again you find them
developing an elaborate system this time dealing with oaths and vows. They said
some oaths, some vows are binding, yeah others well they're permissible to break
and a law had to be fulfilled if if it was a public vow and it invoked God's
name the name of Yahweh or Jehovah. However if the vow was made in the
course of everyday conversation, private speech, and it didn't reference the
divine name but maybe reference heaven or earth or Jerusalem, well now
technically you're not using God's name so it's not really binding. It was
considered to be less significant and since it's less significant it did not
demand the person to be so conscientious about keeping that particular vow. So do
you see what they're doing? These false shepherds had allowed a loophole where
they could lie or exaggerate in their conversation but it would lend them an
air of credibility because they would swear or take an oath. Now again how they
do that? Because if it was a public vow well you had to keep it but these
private vows that did not invoke God's name well they're not held to account.
Kent Hughes in his commentary speaks of this. The Mishnah, by the way that's the
oral tradition of the rabbis. They devote a one whole section I'll just call
oaths to an elaborate discussion of when oaths are binding and when they're not.
The swearing of oaths had degenerated into a system of rules as to when you
could lie and when you could not. There was an ongoing epidemic of frivolous
swearing. There was an inevitable trivialization of everyday language and
integrity. It became commonplace practice to convince another that you're telling
the truth while lying by bringing some person or imminent object into reference.
Let me give you an example of the hypocrisy and this literally happens
found in the Mishnah. One rabbi said if you swear by Jerusalem you are not bound
to keep that oath but if you swear while facing Jerusalem now you were bound to
keep that oath and that's what they were doing. They had all this religious
this sophisticated system to allow them to get out from what the law said. It's
similar to what children do when they're convincing you they're telling the
truth while fingers crossed. So technically I don't have to tell the
truth because my fingers are crossed. Our Lord comes and he says this is absolute
hypocrisy and he's going to warn against this. Look at verse 33. This is our first
verse. You have heard that it said to those of old do not swear falsely but you
shall perform your oaths to the Lord. Well that's correct that's a correct
saying you have heard the law required the law of Moses required not only that
you would not swear falsely but once you did make an oath you had to keep it.
Where do they get that? Well number 30. If a man makes a vow to the Lord or
swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement he shall not break his word
and he should do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
Verse 23. Now that's an oath to the Lord though right? That which has gone from
your lips you shall keep and perform for you voluntarily vowed to the Lord your
God what you've promised with your mouth. Now let me just say it's not wrong then
to make a vow it's not wrong to swear an oath or even an oath in God's name but
once you did it you were bound to it. It was finalized. You had to fulfill it. Now
so the law of Moses allowed for this but the Lord the one who gave the law he's
going to take us beyond just a letter and reveal the true intention. Now first
of all Jesus never does say that oaths or vows are inherently evil. He doesn't
say it. His point is they should be unnecessary. Not that they're evil they
should be unnecessary for the people of God. Why? As children of the kingdom I
think we should be so solid that there be no need to add some other affirmation
that we are telling the truth. You're simply supposed to tell the truth at all
times and you don't have to swear by something that you're doing it. Now the
law of Moses did restrict those as well. They were really reserved for serious
important matters but that changed through time. The people started using an
oath or a vow for trivial and mundane matters. They used them in everyday
speech. It was very commonplace at the time of Jesus. Even the religious leaders
participated in this and they were also trivializing the law of God. But Jesus
has had enough and he shows her hypocrisy and verses 34 through 36 and he
tells you don't swear at all and he tells you what not to swear by. So here's
again I want to make sure we understand this. If you swear by God or you swear a
reference to his name they said you have to fulfill that. But if you swore by
heaven or earth, your own head or Jerusalem, well that's not a solemn as
the divine name so there's really no penalty if you would break that vow. Now
keep in mind how ridiculous this sounds. You have devout, supposedly pious Jews.
They had respect for the divine name. They didn't even like to write it. That's
how we got Jehovah and Yahweh. But so if you would invoke that name, the divine
name, the covenant-keeping name of Yahweh or Jehovah is the sovereign one, that has
to be kept. If you did not keep that vow then you were considered to have taken
God's name in vain. That's a violation of the third commandment. So they didn't
want to do that. So what do they do? They begin to use surrogates. They begin to use
substitutes. No longer am I swearing by God. I swear by Jerusalem. I swear by
heaven. I swear by the hair on my head. I know that would not do well for me. I
understand. I'll get the joke for you today. So this is what's happening. They
believed the further the oath was removed from the name of God, then the
less binding and the less danger was involved if they broke it. This is crazy.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, he said this, they had so construed the meaning and so turned
and phrased it in a legal form that they allowed themselves ample scope to do
many things that were utterly contradictory to the spirit of the law.
Yet they felt they were free because they had not actually broken the letter.
To commit perjury, lying under oath of God, was to them a very serious and solemn
matter. A terrible sin and they denounced it. You could however take all kinds of
oaths and do all sorts of things, but as long as you never committed perjury, well
then you were innocent before the law. You were not guilty. The Lord says you've
got to be kidding me here. He said even if you don't swear by God, but you
swear by heaven, you still have to keep that oath. Why? Because when you swear by
heaven, you're still calling God the witness. How? Heaven belongs to God. You
swear by earth, you're still calling God the witness. How? The earth belongs to God.
To swear by Jerusalem, is to still calling God the witness. How? Jerusalem
belongs to God. You swear by your own head with the hairs on your head, you're
still calling God to witness. Why? You belong to God by right of creation. Psalm
24 verse 1, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and all
those who dwell therein. Anything you swear by, think of anything that you
swear by, belongs to God, thereby you are calling God to witness in the vow you
are making. And that's a true statement. But the Pharisees are rife with
hypocrisy and it justly angered our Lord. I mean what were the religious leaders?
What was their duty? They were shepherds. They were to be leading people to God and
yet he said you were making them twice the sons of hell. You're taking them away
from God. In Matthew 23, these same people, the Lord is pronouncing a woe upon.
Listen with open ears to our Lord here this morning. But woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites. For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. This
next phrase is terrifying. For you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow
those who are entering to go in. You're excluded from the kingdom, you hypocrites.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you devour widows' houses and
for pretense you make long prayers. Oh, you will receive the greater condemnation.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you travel land and sea to
win one proselyte and when he has won you make him twice as much a son of hell as
yourselves. Woe to you blind guides who say whoever swears by the temple is
nothing but whoever swears by the gold of the temple he's obliged to perform
it. Fools and blind. For which is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies
the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, well that's nothing but whoever swears
by the gift that is on it he is obliged to perform it. You fools and blind. What's
greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? So you want to swear
by the altar? Well then when you do you swear by it and by all the things on it.
You swear by the temple, you swear by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever
swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it. Just stop
for just a moment. Could there be anything more terrifying and dreadful
than to have the Son of God pronounce a woe upon you? There's nothing. Anguish,
affliction, wretchedness, calamity, trouble, eternal destruction will be theirs at
the last judgment. It's a serious thing we're talking about. You feel the
righteous anger of our Lord because these corrupt leaders were leading his
people astray. They perverted the law of God who is all truthful to allow for
some form of lying. Yes the law did allow you to use an oath but it was done to
show the seriousness of what was taking place. It was never meant to justify
lying nor to get out of one's commitment. But again what about you? Do you ever
have to give an affirmation to certify that you're telling the truth? I promise,
and I promise you now, I promise on my mother's grave. People say things like
that to show that now I'm really speaking the truth which calls into
question every other time they have spoken. Friends if you and I have to
convince someone that we are telling the truth by promising or swearing by
something, our integrity has already been tarnished. It's gone. I loved what J.
Vernon McGee he said, when a man tells me I would swear on a stack of Bibles a
mile high, he said that is a fathom I do not believe because I think the lie he's
telling is a mile high. Absolutely true. And by the way, why if you swear on one
Bible versus a sack of Bibles? But this is what we do, right? The Pharisees had
taken the law of God and they reduced it like they did the sixth and seventh
command to perjury only, lying while invoking the name of God. And yet at the
same time they're missing the entire point which is designed to have
truthfulness at all times. What is the answer? Verse 37, you citizens of the
kingdom just say yes and no. For if you want to go beyond that it comes from the
evil one. Jesus is the one who gave the law and he corrected those religious
leaders. He said I tell you, I say to you don't swear at all. Now stop right there.
Some groups like Quakers and others have taken this at any oath or any value
is bad or evil. So they said you should never do it. Well no, we have to
interpret scripture by scripture. We see Abraham took an oath from a servant when
he went to find a wife for Isaac, right? Jacob took an oath from Joseph that his
bones would be leaving Egypt. Joseph took an oath from his relatives.
Jonathan asked for an oath from David. Jesus when he was asked by the high
priest who adjured him by the living God to answer if he was the Christ the Son
of God while under oath he answered. Paul in many of his letters calls God the
witness. Second Corinthians 1 23, listen to Paul. I call God as witness against my
soul that to spare you I came no more to Corinth. Paul swearing by God but he's
doing so because the Corinthians have doubted his integrity and sincerity and
he's trying to regain that. So it wasn't wrong for Paul to do that. In Hebrews we
read and it records that God himself took an oath when he could swear by no
greater he swore by himself. So friends it's not that if you ever take an oath
you're in violation of this passage. The oath can add a solemn authority that
nothing else can give. For example if you're married you took sacred vows.
Marriage vows that's a solemn oath that you swear before God and gathered
witnesses. If you go to court you will take a public oath to tell the truth and
nothing but the truth so help you God with your hand on a Bible it adds to
the seriousness of what is taking place in the courtroom. But what is Jesus then
calling for? He's calling for an end of this in everyday speech. Just say yes
just say no. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Just tell the whole truth and
there's no need to invoke an oath or swear by anything. By the way this also
helps us and protects us from irreverently taking God's name in vain.
If you use oaths in everyday speech people will take God's name irreverently
even without knowing it. They're just speaking and there is just a film. Well
God knows. Well God knows. May God strike me dead or if I'm lying God help us. But
there's no thought of the God that they are invoking. The one true living God who
dwells in unapproachable light who does not take lightly that his name is used
in vain. We don't use the name of God flippantly nor irreverently. When we
gather there ought to be a holy reverence about us. This is worship of the one true
living triune God. Friends there ought to be a seriousness of sobriety about us. Once
again I quote Kent Hughes. Today there's an urgent truth shortage. There's a time
in the Western land where which was distinguished from other cultures by at
least a conventional outward sense of obligation to tell the truth. But now
there's a pervasive indifference to truth-telling and this is not only
infected day-to-day conversation but the most solemn pledges of life. Perjury
under solemn oath is epidemic. The sacred vows of marriage are broken almost as
often as repeated. God's name is invoked by blatant liars who purport to be
witnesses to the truth. The message that our Lord is communicating here is that
his kingdom is a kingdom of truth. It is a kingdom of light and he doesn't desire
simply truth externally but in the inner man. Friends I don't know how to say it
any differently. Citizens of heaven ought to be people of integrity who will only
speak the truth. J. Dwight Fennacost says let your character, your reputation for
honesty, your word be so obviously true and undefiled and without duplicity that
no man would think it necessary to put you under an oath because he he does not
suspect that you are deceiving him. Parents let me just say this. Do your
children have to make you promise? Are we're going to do something? Mom promise
me? We're going to do it. Promise me mom. If our children are having to
invoke that it's because somehow we've not been fully truthful with them. They
know just because mom or dad says yes doesn't mean it's going to take place.
Which is why we better be careful before we speak right? Don't make rash valves.
Don't say you're going to do it and then not do it. Again I quote Pentecost. He
said there's only one way to interpret yes. Yes does not mean no. There's only
one way you can interpret no. When you say yes it means yes. When you say no it
means no. The Lord demanded that one speech be so trustworthy that men would
not have to debate what was meant and interpret it. Interpret what was said.
They would know what was meant because he was an honest man. I think several
years ago and you know when our presidents debated the word is. What do
you mean by is? That's the type of loophole our Lord is downcing. See life
in God's kingdom is kingdom of honesty. But life in the kingdom of man in which
we don't hear on this earth have truths, white lies, exaggerations, embellishments
and all those come from Satan who is the father of lies. But you and I are
children of light not of the darkness and we should be known for our impeccable
honesty and integrity. More than that friends you bear the Imago Dei. You are
an image bearer of God and you're called to reflect the character of our Father
in heaven. There should be no need to invoke God's name or swear by something
to have any other person believe us. That shows the lack of character. That people
aren't going to believe you unless you swear. But let me make this a little
practical too. What about when you tell someone you'll do something? Are you
honest in your answer and do it? Do you fulfill your vows? Do you fulfill your
obligations? What if something better comes along? Do you then seek to wiggle
out of your prior commitment? Are you faithful to perform the duties you
volunteered for? What about your commitment to the nursery rotation or
to toddler church to teach Sunday school? Some of you with faith promise giving.
Are you faithful to give as he said you would if the Lord gave it to you? You
said that. See Psalm 15 I think it's so helpful as we start to close. The psalmist
asks, Lord who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy
hill? The answer, he who walks uprightly and works righteousness, speaks the truth
where? In his heart. He does not backbite with his tongue nor does evil to his
neighbor nor does he take up or approach against his friend. In whose eyes a vile
person is despised. But he honors those who fear the Lord. But look at the latter
part of verse 4. He who swears to his own hurt and does not change. What's that
mean? The man is going to keep his promise even if it hurts him. Even if it
costs him. This is life in the kingdom. By the way I think this has wonderful
wonderful implications for marriage and the divorce culture in which we live.
Christian, I don't know how to say any more succinctly than this. You stood
before God and witnesses to take this spouse for better or worse and God
intends you intends for you to fill that vow. There's no wiggle room. You said you
would do it right? Keep it. That's integrity. Don't wiggle out of it.
Keith Hughes says when people know that you do not lie your testimony have more
effect than all the theology you could ram at them. What a difference a truth
will life makes. Children of the kingdom right? You wear his holy name in baptism.
When you were baptized the name of God was placed upon you right? When we
baptized we baptized you in the name of the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit.
You were baptized into that holy name. We saw in Ephesians 4 you have a calling to
walk worthy. There's a high calling to walk worthy of this noble calling that
you and I have received in Christ. You and I are to reflect his faithfulness
and you and I are to reflect his truthfulness.
Charles Simeon he said let all of every class and every degree remember this. If
you are Christ indeed you will remember him in whose lips there was no guile
found. Let truth be in your inward parts and let it ever be dear to your souls.
This last part was so instructive he's quoting scripture. For of every idle
word you will give account in the day of judgment.
Yea by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned.
It's a sobering thought for me as a man of many words. Every idle word God will
cost account for. So you say okay we're done so so what how what do we do
pastor? Well we just heard from the King, King Jesus and he's issued a high
calling to his kingdom of truthfulness. That means dear Christian you are to
keep your promise, you are to measure your word and you answer unequivocally
with either yes or no. You and I are to call to be people of such character and
integrity that no one's going to even think of asking you to confirm to
confirm that you're telling the truth by taking a vow or a promise. But alas as
much as we make progress and as much as we strive toward that lofty goal none of
us fully masters the tongue. James tells us the tongue is an unruly member in our
bodies. No man can tame it, no man can master it. So what's today? I hear the
lofty standards of Christ and I look at this impossible standard of purity that
he demands. Lord I can't do this. We hear it. We hear the word of the law in our
ears and we see our failure. What do we do? We moan that, we decry it. Why? Because
we fall short of the goal. So what do we do then? Do we just sit here as failures
and losers? Let us confess our sin. Confess it today. We'll do that before you
come to the table. Agree with God what it is and agree with God what it deserves.
The bloody death and shed blood of Christ is a reminder of this. And then
let us repent of it. Hate it, forsake it, not justifying it, not
excusing it. Then church in faith let us go to the one who gave the law and ask
him for forgiveness for having broken his law. So we confess it and we can ask
him to forgive us and then we go to Christ and we see the one who perfectly
kept the law of God and we ask him in faith would you clothe us with
your righteousness. Mine will suffice and Jesus does and then let us rest in the
promise of God that he has forgiven all our trespasses, all of our violations of
his holy law in Christ Jesus. That's what the table of the word does. You and I
come today limping, halting, weak, maimed and we see Christ and God has made
promises and you're going to take them today. You're going to take in these
promises of God as the forgiven people of his kingdom. What a great God we serve.
What a glorious God. But if you're here today and you have never bowed the knee
to King Jesus, you've never confessed your sin and repented of it, you have
never bowed your knee to him asking him to be your Savior, you have never
submitted to him in the waters of baptism. Today I remind you there is a
Savior, there is a fountain. All the cleansing is deep and it is forever. If
you will come to Christ, he will receive you. If you want to know more what it
means to follow the Lord Jesus Christ or what it means to be a son or daughter of
God after the service, I want you to immediately come to me and this is the
greatest thing that we get to do as pastors and ministers is point people to
the risen Christ. Let us prepare our hearts for the table as we then prayer
and the deacons if you'd come forward.
Father, I thank you this morning that Lord God we have a witness of your holy
desire and your calling upon us Lord so that we're not