February 23, 2025 • 34 mins
Jesus teaches in Matthew 5:33-37 that honesty should be straightforward—no need for oaths or elaborate promises. Say what you mean, follow through, and let your life reflect your faith. #SimpleHonesty #SermonOnTheMount #LiveYourFaith
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(00:00):
Well, this morning if you have your Bibles we'll be in Matthew chapter 5.
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We've been going through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and looking at what that means for us today.
And just so you're aware, I believe that every word that is written in the Scripture is just as important for us today as it was when it was given.
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Now, sometimes that text is encouraging to us when we're going through hard times.
Sometimes it's offensive to us because it goes against what we feel is best and the best way to live our lives.
But I believe that it is still living and active.
It is still useful in leading us to abundant life.
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And so I would always encourage you to have your Bible with you.
Always encourage you to read it.
And if you don't have a Bible, we would love to give you one today.
Just let us know.
These words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is the first time that we know that Jesus spent time with his disciples and giving them a better understanding of why he came and what the heart of the law is.
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This morning we're going to be looking at Jesus' teaching on honesty.
Now, when I was growing up I did not understand, probably really still don't understand the legal system very well.
I didn't understand what perjury was.
I didn't understand the difference between a jury and a grand jury.
I remember when I got my first jury summons I was disappointed that I got stuck on a regular jury and not a grand jury.
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I mean grand juries seem to carry a little more gravitas with it.
I mean would you rather just take a stand or a grand stand?
Right?
Would you be a master?
Would you rather be a master or a grand master?
I mean that's how much I knew about the legal system.
I didn't know that politicians lie all the time.
I remember wondering as I was watching the news, when I was growing up, I remember watching the news wondering why does Bill Clinton have to spend hours upon his day gathering with his lawyers to try to figure out what the truth is.
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I mean he seemed pretty believable to me when he stood at that news conference waving his finger and saying he didn't do anything.
But then a few weeks later he admitted the wrong that he had done, right?
Why is lying not a big deal?
But lying under oath in front of a grand jury is called perjury.
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I mean why don't we just call it what it is and call it lying?
A recent survey found that most Americans think it is wrong to lie under oath but see failure to tell the truth as only a minor problem in many situations and as not a problem at all in most other situations.
In other words, sometimes it's okay to lie but other times it's not, especially if you promise you're not lying, right?
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We live in a society today that's not much different than Old Testament times when it comes to telling the truth.
This morning Jesus is going to address the practice of taking oaths and once again is going to call us as his followers to a higher standard.
I'm going to invite Erlyn, sitting in the back on the floor, a lovely girl, she's going to come read our passage this morning.
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She's going to read verses 33 through 37 of Matthew chapter 5. If you're able and willing, we'd love for you to stand as we honor the Lord's word together.
Again you have heard that it was said to those of both, you shall not swear falsely but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.
I pray to you do not take an oath at all either by heaven for it is the throne of God or by the earth for it is his foot, so or by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king.
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And do not take an oath by your head for you cannot make one hair white or black.
But what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil.
Good job. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the words of Jesus given to his disciples.
I pray, Father, that we will understand it, that we will apply it, that it will change us.
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I thank you for Erlyn and her willingness to read your text in front of all of us today.
Pray you honor and bless her for it. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Good job.
Alright, so Jesus so far throughout this message has said several times the phrase, you have heard that it was said.
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He said that many times already what Jesus is doing is he's telling the disciples that what they have heard and what they have learned so far up to this point in their lives was incomplete.
He wasn't saying the law was stupid. He wasn't saying the law was outdated, but that it was important that they understood the heart and the meaning behind God's intention and giving it to us.
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So when that phrase comes up throughout the Sermon on the Mount or other passages in Scripture, we need to take a look at the old command.
We have to understand it. Now we know the Ten Commandments. From the Ten Commandments we know we're not supposed to lie.
The Ninth Commandment says that we are not to bear false witness against your neighbor.
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Now the Jews believed that command. They liked that command, but once again they believed that they needed to help God out and explain it so that everyone could understand exactly what he meant.
And so they're going to throw their own commentary into this text. The Pharisees taught that some o's were more binding than other o's.
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So what they would do is put emphasis on their promise so that people would be more confident in what was being said.
So when it ended up happening is that people didn't believe one another unless an oath was placed on the word that was given.
So I might tell you that I would like to buy your field for X amount of dollars and you wouldn't take me seriously.
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But if I say something like, I promise I want to buy your field for X amount of dollars, then you would know that I was serious.
Now some people have taken this text to mean that Jesus is saying that we shouldn't take any o's, but that isn't quite right either.
In fact in Deuteronomy chapter 10 it reads, you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear an oath.
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That law in Deuteronomy was to encourage truthfulness.
But the people did what sinners tend to do and they used the fact that o's existed as an excuse to lie when they didn't swear an oath.
Oh I said I'd buy that field for that amount, but I didn't swear that my word was binding.
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And then people developed this elaborate system of o's.
One rabbi wrote that if you swear by the city of Jerusalem, you don't have to keep your oath.
But if you swear toward Jerusalem, you are bound by your vow. You understand what that means?
So I could swear by Jerusalem whatever that I'm going to buy your field and that's not binding.
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But if I turn east and I say I'm going to buy your field for X amount of dollars, now that's binding.
It was this elaborate system that they used to deceive people.
And so instead of strengthening the cause of truth like o's were intended to do, it actually weakened it.
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You could learn to swear in a very evasive way to deceive people.
So this is the issue that Jesus is trying to fix.
He says that's the old command. The way they've perverted this is not right, but Jesus is going to give us a new command.
And it isn't as much new, but it does shed some light on what God's intention was when it came to honesty.
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He said in verse 34,
Now people in his day would take oaths by lesser things than God.
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Like I swear by heaven that I'll do this.
Or I swear by all the earth that I'll do that.
And they thought that by swearing to something less than God, something that was below God,
that they wouldn't have to answer to God when they broke their oath.
But Jesus masterfully relates everything back to God.
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He says, do you think you're being tricky? Do you think you're confusing him that you swore to heaven that you pay for that lumber?
You think you're deceiving him in some way? Everything is his. Heaven and earth are his.
This is what the Lord says in Isaiah 66. This is what Jesus just quoted.
It says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
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So what Jesus was saying when he quoted Isaiah 66 is that everything that we swear by is God's.
He owns everything.
So you might swear to something, swear an oath to something thinking that it's going to keep you safe.
Because technically you didn't swear an oath in the name of God.
So they weren't breaking the law in Deuteronomy 10 in their mind because they kept the Lord's name out of the oath.
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There isn't anything on this earth that God isn't sovereign over.
Your mother's life. I swear on my mother's life.
Your life, your paycheck and everything else is ruled and controlled by God.
Then Jesus reminds them of Psalm 48, 22 that reads, Jerusalem is God's city.
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You can't swear by Jerusalem because once again God is in control of what happens in that holy city.
It doesn't work. What about swearing by your own head?
God owns your head too, deciding when to make every hair white or black.
Even the ones that we have left.
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Now some of you might be able to fool us with your just for men or your hair color.
But the reality is God knows what you're trying to cover up.
He knows.
So what Jesus is saying is don't think that you can use your oaths to be a liar.
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Because no matter what you swear by, no matter what you promise to,
you are swearing by something over which God has control.
Everything is His.
Jesus is saying that truthfulness is not dependent on oaths.
It's not dependent on it. Just be truthful.
In other words, as believers, everything that we say should be an oath.
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If you are a follower of Jesus and He said that He is the way and the truth and the life,
we as His children should speak the truth.
And sometimes that means that we get put into uncomfortable situations that are to our detriment in some way.
For example, there have been times when I was trying to sell something.
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Now I'm not talking about like little, piddly stuff that my wife thinks is worth $5 that we put on Marketplace.
You know, that stuff you just take to good will and be done with it.
That's my opinion. Don't judge me.
But there's been many times I've been trying to like sell a car.
And I would list it and then the calls would start coming in.
And I would agree to sell it to one particular individual and they would then go to the bank to get the cash
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or they would have to go get some things in order and then they were going to come back to me.
But I made an agreement that I would sell it to them.
It never fails. Every time that's happened to me, it never fails that after I make the agreement with somebody,
someone else will come by with the cash ready and actually offer me more money than I agreed upon with the other person.
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Now I think, I always think in those moments that the enemy, he's trying to test me.
He's trying to test me. So then I have this predicament.
Do I honor the commitment I made to the first person or do I take the extra $500 that this second person is offering me?
I mean, we don't have a contract. I'm probably never going to see him again.
It isn't illegal for me to sell it to someone else.
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But as a Christian, my word shouldn't be dependent on contracts.
It should be dependent on the truth.
And I think we do this stuff all the time and maybe not even realize it.
Like we have pinky promises. You ever do those?
We ask the question, well, do you promise? Do you promise to do that?
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I had a roommate in college and he had this girlfriend. She was a nice girl.
They seemed to have a good relationship. I'm pretty sure they're married now.
Hopefully still married. I don't know. But they had this weird thing that they would do.
One of them would commit to something and the other would ask, do you promise?
Yeah, I promise. And then they would ask, well, do you promise, promise?
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And sometimes that was a yes. Other times it was a no.
A promise was binding. But if they didn't ask each other the promise promise, the double promise,
then it was understood that it could be broken.
I don't know if they're still married. I don't know how that's working out for them.
Maybe they're on triple promises now. I don't know.
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But those types of things are similar to how the Jews operated.
And that's not the intention of an oath. If you say something, mean it.
We are called to live beyond the law, not to try to skirt our way around it.
Jesus then wraps up this teaching by telling his followers that honesty should be simple.
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Everything we say should be an oath. When you say, yes, I'll do something,
whether you had a contract or not, you should do it.
When you're speaking, whether you swore on a Bible or not, you should tell the truth.
Everything we say is just as solemn as if we said, may God strike me down if this isn't true.
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It's just as solemn. The fact that we swore an oath should never be what makes us as believers truthful.
The fact that we're Christians should make us truthful.
The fact that we are sons and daughters of the true and living God should make us truthful.
We don't need legal restraints to be truthful. If we say something, we should do it.
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Jesus says, let what you say simply be yes or no.
Anything that goes beyond that is evil.
Let what you say simply be yes or no. Anything that you say beyond that comes from evil.
So just so that we understand that Jesus' words are meant for all Christians, these words are repeated in James chapter 5.
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He says, above all my brothers, do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything else.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no or you will be condemned.
Some of you remember the Dr. Seuss story? Horton hatches an egg.
If you have kids, you might remember that. If you're still a kid, you might remember your parents reading that to you.
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But this is the tale of this elephant who promises to sit on an egg until it hatches for this bird friend of his.
Now I remember reading that thing and I was like, I have no idea how that works.
In my logical mind, it's like, well, the elephant would crack that thing, but somehow it worked.
So he sits on the egg and weeks go by and all of his friends encourage him to forget his promise and just come play with him.
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Forget what you said and just come play with us.
And his response, Horton's response is, I meant what I said and I said what I meant.
An elephant is faithful 100%.
Jesus' command to us is similar.
Don't worry about making vows.
Just say what you mean and mean what you say.
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When we open our mouth, the only thing that should be coming out of it is truth.
Honestly, it doesn't have to be complicated.
We shouldn't need legal contracts to honor a deal.
We shouldn't need to gather with our lawyers to figure out what the truth of the situation is.
We should be men and women of truth.
If you commit to being somewhere, then people should be able to count on you whether a better option comes along or not.
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That ever happened to you?
You get invited to a party and you commit to it, but then a better party you get invited to?
Happens all the time.
Not here. Not here.
I mean this has proven to be a little more difficult for me and parenting.
I mean if anyone can sniff out a liar, it's a kid.
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How many of us have committed things with our kids just so they'll leave us alone and then they hold us to it?
Or how many of us have threatened a punishment if they do that again?
There have been many times that we threatened to do something to our kids if they do it again,
but then we backtracked once the opportunity came back again.
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It seemed like that might have been a little aggressive.
It might not do that, right?
What that tells our kids and what that tells others is that our word can't be trusted,
which I've had to realize that we shouldn't commit to things that we're unsure of.
We shouldn't commit to things that we're unsure of.
James helps us again in understanding what we should commit to.
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In James chapter 4, start in verse 13, it reads,
Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will travel to such and such a city
and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.
You don't even know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be.
Or you are a bit of smoke that appears for a little while and vanishes.
Instead, you should say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
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But as it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil.
We should never say we'll do anything we're not sure of.
We should always qualify unsure things with unsure words like,
like, Lord willing, Lord willing I'll do that. I can't control everything about my circumstances.
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But as long as it depends on me, I will do this.
But also remember, oaths were being used so people could lie.
James says, don't even swear an oath so you can lie.
You'll fall under judgment for that.
When you say something, mean it.
It seems to me that James is clearly talking about the oaths that were used to try to deceive.
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He's saying, don't swear an oath. Just be honest.
Don't try to use legalese to justify a lie.
When you say something, mean it.
Don't try any of this. I swear by something less than God.
I swear by heaven. I swear on my mother's life.
So you don't have to answer to God. You're going to be judged for that.
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Just mean what you say.
There have been many times, I'm sure for all of us,
that we've just been unable to keep a commitment.
Life happens and things prevent us from being able to keep our words at times.
A few weeks ago I had to reschedule a few meetings because I just got sick.
Sometimes planes are delayed because of weather so we can't make it on time and we break a commitment.
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We try our best but things happen.
What James is saying in this text is that we need to live our lives in such a way that we are aware
that we don't control our situations.
God does.
There is a chance that we don't wake up tomorrow.
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And if that happens, we're going to be unable to keep the commitments that we've made.
When we fail to live with the mindset that I make the plans but the Lord determines my steps.
When we fail to understand that God is in control of everything, James calls it evil.
Because what happens is we're boasting in our own abilities.
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We're boasting in what we can get done.
We're boasting in our ability to keep our commitments.
We don't have ability outside of God's control.
What Jesus is challenging us is to live a life of honesty.
Live a life of honesty.
To once again live above the law and not just to the letter of the law.
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We shouldn't need to take an oath to keep us honest.
We should just be honest.
There is a saying that says, I can tell what you love by how you spend your money.
I can tell what you love by how you spend your money.
In the same way our lives should reflect what we believe.
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I tell people all the time that are going through a difficult time.
Multiple times a week.
That this is an opportunity.
This situation is an opportunity to show that you trust in the Lord.
If you come to a church on Sunday and you say you believe in the Lord,
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you sing about who he is, you declare that we are here to worship,
then our lives should reflect that.
If we are going to be people of honesty, then when hard times come,
we should live out what we believe.
If you are sick or if you get sick, is your faith more in the Lord
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or more in the hands of the doctors?
When you face what seems like an overwhelming circumstance,
do you sit there and just stress about it and dwell on it and it just messes everything up?
Or do you trust that the Lord has a plan for your life?
When your marriage is a little rocky,
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do you trust that the Lord can work on the heart of your spouse?
Or do you take up the role of the Holy Spirit in their life?
Start handing them books and all those other things.
Each and every day, we have an opportunity to trust that the Lord is sovereign overall.
And anytime that we take things into our own hands and rely on our own abilities,
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we are doing evil.
Now, I don't see them as often anymore,
but the Jesus fish used to be a popular thing to put on the back of your car.
Do you remember that?
If you had one on your car, maybe you had one on your car.
I don't mean for this to be offensive.
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But I always struggled with that because nobody drives good enough
to be representing Jesus on their car.
I mean, there's nothing like getting cut off in traffic,
being thrown the bird,
and then seeing a Jesus fish on the back of your car.
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In reality, they should just have a middle finger bumper sticker plaster back there, right?
Because when I do see those, I'm sure you've seen those as well,
when you see those on the back of a car, I'm like, yeah, that makes sense.
It makes sense to me. That's how they drive. Yeah, I get it.
I'm less offended that way.
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But does your life reflect what you believe?
Your outward expressions in front of others might,
but what about the internal reality?
We are really good as Christians of putting on a mask at times
and saying the right things,
but inside we're in turmoil because of how we act
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and what we believe in our hearts are two different things.
I went to a small Christian university to get my undergrad degree.
I was in classes with future pastors and future ministry leaders
and future missionaries and in that environment,
just so you're aware, in that environment,
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there's this unspoken competition with who is the smartest person in the room.
And I fell for it.
I could go toe to toe with any of them
and probably win any theological argument,
except for this one guy, Aaron Kaler.
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He always got me and what made it worse is that he was always so nice about it.
Like he never rubbed my face in it,
but we just both walked away knowing you got me, right?
Here's the problem. Here's the problem that I have.
I would argue that God was sovereign over everything.
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I would argue that God saved me and I didn't do anything to deserve it,
which is absolutely true.
I would argue that he knows the number of my days and he directs my footsteps,
which is absolutely true.
But inside, inside I was trying to control every aspect of my life.
If I take this class and I get this grade,
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then I'll be able to get this degree quicker.
If I take this internship at this church,
then that would give me an opportunity to get a role at this particular church.
And if I check all of these boxes,
all of these boxes of what I think I need to be able to do,
then I'm going to be this far along in my career
and then once I get there, I'm going to write a book and tell everybody how awesome I am.
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Throughout all of that,
I never once prayed for the will of God for my life.
I never stopped to consider what his ways, what his plans were for me.
I saw a path that I'd seen others take
and assumed that that was his plans for my life.
I could argue that God was sovereign over all,
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but I did not live it.
So I had to learn to live out my faith,
and you do too.
The plan I had for my life, 20-something years ago,
is not what my life looks like today.
I ran from God for a season of my life,
and it was miserable for me.
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Things got hard,
and I remember thinking there's no way,
there's no way that this is what God had intended for me.
People in church were mean.
Christians were hard for me to deal with.
I saw corruption and denominations,
and I can remember thinking that I don't want to be a part of this anymore.
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I don't want to have anything to do with it.
So once again, going with my feelings instead of trusting in the Lord's plan.
Now I would go to church on Sundays,
and I would sit in chairs just like you're sitting in,
and I would be listening to the preacher,
and I would sing the songs just like we did earlier,
and I would nod along when the pastor made a good point.
But what I realized is that I'm just going through the motions of church.
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I wasn't living out my faith.
It had no impact on my life during the week.
I'd go to church on Sunday, and we had Sunday Daniel,
but then Monday through Saturday was a completely different side of me.
Not trusting in the Lord, trying to control things,
not loving my family well, all those things.
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But then somehow, because he's faithful, the Lord didn't give up on me.
He led me and our family to a small town in West Texas,
and out of nowhere, what felt like nowhere,
this small group of people came looking for somebody to lead them.
Seeing they didn't want to do it,
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she told me, run as far away as you can.
This is not who we want to be associated with,
but I just knew in my heart I was tired of running.
I was tired of running, and it was hard.
People were still critical, that didn't change.
I think of the 20 people that were there when I got there,
10 left in frustration after my first three months.
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It wasn't fun, but at the same time,
it was because I understood my calling, wasn't in my abilities.
It was in the one who sent me.
Every week, I had to remind myself that God had called me there,
that he was going to be faithful, he was going to sustain me,
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he was going to fight my battles in the rooms that I wasn't in.
We just trusted the Lord's plan, and he blessed us abundantly.
Every week, since February of 2012,
I still remind myself to live out my faith,
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to remember the calling that God has on my life,
that even in difficult times, when it seems like everybody is against me,
God is going to lead me where he wants me to go.
Theological knowledge means absolutely nothing.
If I don't trust in the one in whom it teaches.
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This week, you are going to be given opportunities to prove your faith in the Lord.
And there is going to be temptation, I'm just warning you this week,
there's going to be temptation to take matters into your own hands.
There's going to be temptations to worry and fret over a situation,
but my challenge to you is to live out your faith.
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If you believe the Bible to be true, then live it out.
Be quick to forgive.
Be slow to speak.
Be quick to listen.
Be kind.
Love God and love people.
Because if you don't, you're not living an honest life.
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Honesty is simple.
At the same time, it's not sometimes, isn't it?
And so I don't know how the Lord wants to end this service with you.
But I'm going to pray for us.
Again, I'm going to invite our worship team to come and lead us.
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My hope and my prayer for you is that as we sing and as we respond,
you'll just ask God to reveal any dishonesty in your life.
Those times that you're relying on a pinky promise or a spit shake
or whatever we used to do back in the day,
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that what you say is what you mean.
And that we will be men and women of truth at all times.
That you will live out your faith.
If you believe that what we're doing here
and what you're experiencing here every single Sunday is true,
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then that should change our lives.
Romans 10 says, how are people around us going to know if nobody tells them?
How are people going to come know the Lord if nobody tells them?
We need to live lives of honesty.
Let's pray.
Father, I pray that as we close out the service,
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as we sing one more song, I pray, Father, that your spirit will just reveal to us
the areas in which we have been untrustworthy,
the areas where we have not been honest.
I pray, Father, that as we sing that your spirit will just move in this place,
just like it has been all service long.
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And I pray, Father, that you give us the courage to be obedient to you.
Help us be men, women.
Help us be a church that stands on your truth,
that declares your truth,
that does not feel the need to take any sort of oath
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because what we believe and what we say is true.
And so, Father, I pray that you move however you want to.
We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, this morning if you have your Bibles we'll be in Matthew chapter 5.
(00:27):
We've been going through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and looking at what that means for us today.
And just so you're aware, I believe that every word that is written in the Scripture is just as important for us today as it was when it was given.
(00:48):
Now, sometimes that text is encouraging to us when we're going through hard times.
Sometimes it's offensive to us because it goes against what we feel is best and the best way to live our lives.
But I believe that it is still living and active.
It is still useful in leading us to abundant life.
(01:10):
And so I would always encourage you to have your Bible with you.
Always encourage you to read it.
And if you don't have a Bible, we would love to give you one today.
Just let us know.
These words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is the first time that we know that Jesus spent time with his disciples and giving them a better understanding of why he came and what the heart of the law is.
(01:39):
This morning we're going to be looking at Jesus' teaching on honesty.
Now, when I was growing up I did not understand, probably really still don't understand the legal system very well.
I didn't understand what perjury was.
I didn't understand the difference between a jury and a grand jury.
I remember when I got my first jury summons I was disappointed that I got stuck on a regular jury and not a grand jury.
(02:07):
I mean grand juries seem to carry a little more gravitas with it.
I mean would you rather just take a stand or a grand stand?
Right?
Would you be a master?
Would you rather be a master or a grand master?
I mean that's how much I knew about the legal system.
I didn't know that politicians lie all the time.
I remember wondering as I was watching the news, when I was growing up, I remember watching the news wondering why does Bill Clinton have to spend hours upon his day gathering with his lawyers to try to figure out what the truth is.
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I mean he seemed pretty believable to me when he stood at that news conference waving his finger and saying he didn't do anything.
But then a few weeks later he admitted the wrong that he had done, right?
Why is lying not a big deal?
But lying under oath in front of a grand jury is called perjury.
(03:03):
I mean why don't we just call it what it is and call it lying?
A recent survey found that most Americans think it is wrong to lie under oath but see failure to tell the truth as only a minor problem in many situations and as not a problem at all in most other situations.
In other words, sometimes it's okay to lie but other times it's not, especially if you promise you're not lying, right?
(03:31):
We live in a society today that's not much different than Old Testament times when it comes to telling the truth.
This morning Jesus is going to address the practice of taking oaths and once again is going to call us as his followers to a higher standard.
I'm going to invite Erlyn, sitting in the back on the floor, a lovely girl, she's going to come read our passage this morning.
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She's going to read verses 33 through 37 of Matthew chapter 5. If you're able and willing, we'd love for you to stand as we honor the Lord's word together.
Again you have heard that it was said to those of both, you shall not swear falsely but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.
I pray to you do not take an oath at all either by heaven for it is the throne of God or by the earth for it is his foot, so or by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king.
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And do not take an oath by your head for you cannot make one hair white or black.
But what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil.
Good job. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the words of Jesus given to his disciples.
I pray, Father, that we will understand it, that we will apply it, that it will change us.
(04:48):
I thank you for Erlyn and her willingness to read your text in front of all of us today.
Pray you honor and bless her for it. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Good job.
Alright, so Jesus so far throughout this message has said several times the phrase, you have heard that it was said.
(05:12):
He said that many times already what Jesus is doing is he's telling the disciples that what they have heard and what they have learned so far up to this point in their lives was incomplete.
He wasn't saying the law was stupid. He wasn't saying the law was outdated, but that it was important that they understood the heart and the meaning behind God's intention and giving it to us.
(05:35):
So when that phrase comes up throughout the Sermon on the Mount or other passages in Scripture, we need to take a look at the old command.
We have to understand it. Now we know the Ten Commandments. From the Ten Commandments we know we're not supposed to lie.
The Ninth Commandment says that we are not to bear false witness against your neighbor.
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Now the Jews believed that command. They liked that command, but once again they believed that they needed to help God out and explain it so that everyone could understand exactly what he meant.
And so they're going to throw their own commentary into this text. The Pharisees taught that some o's were more binding than other o's.
(06:23):
So what they would do is put emphasis on their promise so that people would be more confident in what was being said.
So when it ended up happening is that people didn't believe one another unless an oath was placed on the word that was given.
So I might tell you that I would like to buy your field for X amount of dollars and you wouldn't take me seriously.
(06:49):
But if I say something like, I promise I want to buy your field for X amount of dollars, then you would know that I was serious.
Now some people have taken this text to mean that Jesus is saying that we shouldn't take any o's, but that isn't quite right either.
In fact in Deuteronomy chapter 10 it reads, you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear an oath.
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That law in Deuteronomy was to encourage truthfulness.
But the people did what sinners tend to do and they used the fact that o's existed as an excuse to lie when they didn't swear an oath.
Oh I said I'd buy that field for that amount, but I didn't swear that my word was binding.
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And then people developed this elaborate system of o's.
One rabbi wrote that if you swear by the city of Jerusalem, you don't have to keep your oath.
But if you swear toward Jerusalem, you are bound by your vow. You understand what that means?
So I could swear by Jerusalem whatever that I'm going to buy your field and that's not binding.
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But if I turn east and I say I'm going to buy your field for X amount of dollars, now that's binding.
It was this elaborate system that they used to deceive people.
And so instead of strengthening the cause of truth like o's were intended to do, it actually weakened it.
(08:28):
You could learn to swear in a very evasive way to deceive people.
So this is the issue that Jesus is trying to fix.
He says that's the old command. The way they've perverted this is not right, but Jesus is going to give us a new command.
And it isn't as much new, but it does shed some light on what God's intention was when it came to honesty.
(08:52):
He said in verse 34,
Now people in his day would take oaths by lesser things than God.
(09:16):
Like I swear by heaven that I'll do this.
Or I swear by all the earth that I'll do that.
And they thought that by swearing to something less than God, something that was below God,
that they wouldn't have to answer to God when they broke their oath.
But Jesus masterfully relates everything back to God.
(09:39):
He says, do you think you're being tricky? Do you think you're confusing him that you swore to heaven that you pay for that lumber?
You think you're deceiving him in some way? Everything is his. Heaven and earth are his.
This is what the Lord says in Isaiah 66. This is what Jesus just quoted.
It says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
(10:03):
So what Jesus was saying when he quoted Isaiah 66 is that everything that we swear by is God's.
He owns everything.
So you might swear to something, swear an oath to something thinking that it's going to keep you safe.
Because technically you didn't swear an oath in the name of God.
So they weren't breaking the law in Deuteronomy 10 in their mind because they kept the Lord's name out of the oath.
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There isn't anything on this earth that God isn't sovereign over.
Your mother's life. I swear on my mother's life.
Your life, your paycheck and everything else is ruled and controlled by God.
Then Jesus reminds them of Psalm 48, 22 that reads, Jerusalem is God's city.
(10:56):
You can't swear by Jerusalem because once again God is in control of what happens in that holy city.
It doesn't work. What about swearing by your own head?
God owns your head too, deciding when to make every hair white or black.
Even the ones that we have left.
(11:19):
Now some of you might be able to fool us with your just for men or your hair color.
But the reality is God knows what you're trying to cover up.
He knows.
So what Jesus is saying is don't think that you can use your oaths to be a liar.
(11:41):
Because no matter what you swear by, no matter what you promise to,
you are swearing by something over which God has control.
Everything is His.
Jesus is saying that truthfulness is not dependent on oaths.
It's not dependent on it. Just be truthful.
In other words, as believers, everything that we say should be an oath.
(12:05):
If you are a follower of Jesus and He said that He is the way and the truth and the life,
we as His children should speak the truth.
And sometimes that means that we get put into uncomfortable situations that are to our detriment in some way.
For example, there have been times when I was trying to sell something.
(12:31):
Now I'm not talking about like little, piddly stuff that my wife thinks is worth $5 that we put on Marketplace.
You know, that stuff you just take to good will and be done with it.
That's my opinion. Don't judge me.
But there's been many times I've been trying to like sell a car.
And I would list it and then the calls would start coming in.
And I would agree to sell it to one particular individual and they would then go to the bank to get the cash
(12:56):
or they would have to go get some things in order and then they were going to come back to me.
But I made an agreement that I would sell it to them.
It never fails. Every time that's happened to me, it never fails that after I make the agreement with somebody,
someone else will come by with the cash ready and actually offer me more money than I agreed upon with the other person.
(13:17):
Now I think, I always think in those moments that the enemy, he's trying to test me.
He's trying to test me. So then I have this predicament.
Do I honor the commitment I made to the first person or do I take the extra $500 that this second person is offering me?
I mean, we don't have a contract. I'm probably never going to see him again.
It isn't illegal for me to sell it to someone else.
(13:40):
But as a Christian, my word shouldn't be dependent on contracts.
It should be dependent on the truth.
And I think we do this stuff all the time and maybe not even realize it.
Like we have pinky promises. You ever do those?
We ask the question, well, do you promise? Do you promise to do that?
(14:07):
I had a roommate in college and he had this girlfriend. She was a nice girl.
They seemed to have a good relationship. I'm pretty sure they're married now.
Hopefully still married. I don't know. But they had this weird thing that they would do.
One of them would commit to something and the other would ask, do you promise?
Yeah, I promise. And then they would ask, well, do you promise, promise?
(14:34):
And sometimes that was a yes. Other times it was a no.
A promise was binding. But if they didn't ask each other the promise promise, the double promise,
then it was understood that it could be broken.
I don't know if they're still married. I don't know how that's working out for them.
Maybe they're on triple promises now. I don't know.
(14:57):
But those types of things are similar to how the Jews operated.
And that's not the intention of an oath. If you say something, mean it.
We are called to live beyond the law, not to try to skirt our way around it.
Jesus then wraps up this teaching by telling his followers that honesty should be simple.
(15:21):
Everything we say should be an oath. When you say, yes, I'll do something,
whether you had a contract or not, you should do it.
When you're speaking, whether you swore on a Bible or not, you should tell the truth.
Everything we say is just as solemn as if we said, may God strike me down if this isn't true.
(15:48):
It's just as solemn. The fact that we swore an oath should never be what makes us as believers truthful.
The fact that we're Christians should make us truthful.
The fact that we are sons and daughters of the true and living God should make us truthful.
We don't need legal restraints to be truthful. If we say something, we should do it.
(16:13):
Jesus says, let what you say simply be yes or no.
Anything that goes beyond that is evil.
Let what you say simply be yes or no. Anything that you say beyond that comes from evil.
So just so that we understand that Jesus' words are meant for all Christians, these words are repeated in James chapter 5.
(16:34):
He says, above all my brothers, do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything else.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no or you will be condemned.
Some of you remember the Dr. Seuss story? Horton hatches an egg.
If you have kids, you might remember that. If you're still a kid, you might remember your parents reading that to you.
(16:55):
But this is the tale of this elephant who promises to sit on an egg until it hatches for this bird friend of his.
Now I remember reading that thing and I was like, I have no idea how that works.
In my logical mind, it's like, well, the elephant would crack that thing, but somehow it worked.
So he sits on the egg and weeks go by and all of his friends encourage him to forget his promise and just come play with him.
(17:22):
Forget what you said and just come play with us.
And his response, Horton's response is, I meant what I said and I said what I meant.
An elephant is faithful 100%.
Jesus' command to us is similar.
Don't worry about making vows.
Just say what you mean and mean what you say.
(17:43):
When we open our mouth, the only thing that should be coming out of it is truth.
Honestly, it doesn't have to be complicated.
We shouldn't need legal contracts to honor a deal.
We shouldn't need to gather with our lawyers to figure out what the truth of the situation is.
We should be men and women of truth.
If you commit to being somewhere, then people should be able to count on you whether a better option comes along or not.
(18:11):
That ever happened to you?
You get invited to a party and you commit to it, but then a better party you get invited to?
Happens all the time.
Not here. Not here.
I mean this has proven to be a little more difficult for me and parenting.
I mean if anyone can sniff out a liar, it's a kid.
(18:32):
How many of us have committed things with our kids just so they'll leave us alone and then they hold us to it?
Or how many of us have threatened a punishment if they do that again?
There have been many times that we threatened to do something to our kids if they do it again,
but then we backtracked once the opportunity came back again.
(18:53):
It seemed like that might have been a little aggressive.
It might not do that, right?
What that tells our kids and what that tells others is that our word can't be trusted,
which I've had to realize that we shouldn't commit to things that we're unsure of.
We shouldn't commit to things that we're unsure of.
James helps us again in understanding what we should commit to.
(19:15):
In James chapter 4, start in verse 13, it reads,
Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will travel to such and such a city
and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.
You don't even know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be.
Or you are a bit of smoke that appears for a little while and vanishes.
Instead, you should say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
(19:39):
But as it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil.
We should never say we'll do anything we're not sure of.
We should always qualify unsure things with unsure words like,
like, Lord willing, Lord willing I'll do that. I can't control everything about my circumstances.
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But as long as it depends on me, I will do this.
But also remember, oaths were being used so people could lie.
James says, don't even swear an oath so you can lie.
You'll fall under judgment for that.
When you say something, mean it.
It seems to me that James is clearly talking about the oaths that were used to try to deceive.
(20:26):
He's saying, don't swear an oath. Just be honest.
Don't try to use legalese to justify a lie.
When you say something, mean it.
Don't try any of this. I swear by something less than God.
I swear by heaven. I swear on my mother's life.
So you don't have to answer to God. You're going to be judged for that.
(20:48):
Just mean what you say.
There have been many times, I'm sure for all of us,
that we've just been unable to keep a commitment.
Life happens and things prevent us from being able to keep our words at times.
A few weeks ago I had to reschedule a few meetings because I just got sick.
Sometimes planes are delayed because of weather so we can't make it on time and we break a commitment.
(21:14):
We try our best but things happen.
What James is saying in this text is that we need to live our lives in such a way that we are aware
that we don't control our situations.
God does.
There is a chance that we don't wake up tomorrow.
(21:37):
And if that happens, we're going to be unable to keep the commitments that we've made.
When we fail to live with the mindset that I make the plans but the Lord determines my steps.
When we fail to understand that God is in control of everything, James calls it evil.
Because what happens is we're boasting in our own abilities.
(22:00):
We're boasting in what we can get done.
We're boasting in our ability to keep our commitments.
We don't have ability outside of God's control.
What Jesus is challenging us is to live a life of honesty.
Live a life of honesty.
To once again live above the law and not just to the letter of the law.
(22:21):
We shouldn't need to take an oath to keep us honest.
We should just be honest.
There is a saying that says, I can tell what you love by how you spend your money.
I can tell what you love by how you spend your money.
In the same way our lives should reflect what we believe.
(22:44):
I tell people all the time that are going through a difficult time.
Multiple times a week.
That this is an opportunity.
This situation is an opportunity to show that you trust in the Lord.
If you come to a church on Sunday and you say you believe in the Lord,
(23:06):
you sing about who he is, you declare that we are here to worship,
then our lives should reflect that.
If we are going to be people of honesty, then when hard times come,
we should live out what we believe.
If you are sick or if you get sick, is your faith more in the Lord
(23:27):
or more in the hands of the doctors?
When you face what seems like an overwhelming circumstance,
do you sit there and just stress about it and dwell on it and it just messes everything up?
Or do you trust that the Lord has a plan for your life?
When your marriage is a little rocky,
(23:48):
do you trust that the Lord can work on the heart of your spouse?
Or do you take up the role of the Holy Spirit in their life?
Start handing them books and all those other things.
Each and every day, we have an opportunity to trust that the Lord is sovereign overall.
And anytime that we take things into our own hands and rely on our own abilities,
(24:13):
we are doing evil.
Now, I don't see them as often anymore,
but the Jesus fish used to be a popular thing to put on the back of your car.
Do you remember that?
If you had one on your car, maybe you had one on your car.
I don't mean for this to be offensive.
(24:34):
But I always struggled with that because nobody drives good enough
to be representing Jesus on their car.
I mean, there's nothing like getting cut off in traffic,
being thrown the bird,
and then seeing a Jesus fish on the back of your car.
(24:56):
In reality, they should just have a middle finger bumper sticker plaster back there, right?
Because when I do see those, I'm sure you've seen those as well,
when you see those on the back of a car, I'm like, yeah, that makes sense.
It makes sense to me. That's how they drive. Yeah, I get it.
I'm less offended that way.
(25:19):
But does your life reflect what you believe?
Your outward expressions in front of others might,
but what about the internal reality?
We are really good as Christians of putting on a mask at times
and saying the right things,
but inside we're in turmoil because of how we act
(25:42):
and what we believe in our hearts are two different things.
I went to a small Christian university to get my undergrad degree.
I was in classes with future pastors and future ministry leaders
and future missionaries and in that environment,
just so you're aware, in that environment,
(26:03):
there's this unspoken competition with who is the smartest person in the room.
And I fell for it.
I could go toe to toe with any of them
and probably win any theological argument,
except for this one guy, Aaron Kaler.
(26:24):
He always got me and what made it worse is that he was always so nice about it.
Like he never rubbed my face in it,
but we just both walked away knowing you got me, right?
Here's the problem. Here's the problem that I have.
I would argue that God was sovereign over everything.
(26:46):
I would argue that God saved me and I didn't do anything to deserve it,
which is absolutely true.
I would argue that he knows the number of my days and he directs my footsteps,
which is absolutely true.
But inside, inside I was trying to control every aspect of my life.
If I take this class and I get this grade,
(27:08):
then I'll be able to get this degree quicker.
If I take this internship at this church,
then that would give me an opportunity to get a role at this particular church.
And if I check all of these boxes,
all of these boxes of what I think I need to be able to do,
then I'm going to be this far along in my career
and then once I get there, I'm going to write a book and tell everybody how awesome I am.
(27:34):
Throughout all of that,
I never once prayed for the will of God for my life.
I never stopped to consider what his ways, what his plans were for me.
I saw a path that I'd seen others take
and assumed that that was his plans for my life.
I could argue that God was sovereign over all,
(27:57):
but I did not live it.
So I had to learn to live out my faith,
and you do too.
The plan I had for my life, 20-something years ago,
is not what my life looks like today.
I ran from God for a season of my life,
and it was miserable for me.
(28:20):
Things got hard,
and I remember thinking there's no way,
there's no way that this is what God had intended for me.
People in church were mean.
Christians were hard for me to deal with.
I saw corruption and denominations,
and I can remember thinking that I don't want to be a part of this anymore.
(28:41):
I don't want to have anything to do with it.
So once again, going with my feelings instead of trusting in the Lord's plan.
Now I would go to church on Sundays,
and I would sit in chairs just like you're sitting in,
and I would be listening to the preacher,
and I would sing the songs just like we did earlier,
and I would nod along when the pastor made a good point.
But what I realized is that I'm just going through the motions of church.
(29:05):
I wasn't living out my faith.
It had no impact on my life during the week.
I'd go to church on Sunday, and we had Sunday Daniel,
but then Monday through Saturday was a completely different side of me.
Not trusting in the Lord, trying to control things,
not loving my family well, all those things.
(29:26):
But then somehow, because he's faithful, the Lord didn't give up on me.
He led me and our family to a small town in West Texas,
and out of nowhere, what felt like nowhere,
this small group of people came looking for somebody to lead them.
Seeing they didn't want to do it,
(29:47):
she told me, run as far away as you can.
This is not who we want to be associated with,
but I just knew in my heart I was tired of running.
I was tired of running, and it was hard.
People were still critical, that didn't change.
I think of the 20 people that were there when I got there,
10 left in frustration after my first three months.
(30:11):
It wasn't fun, but at the same time,
it was because I understood my calling, wasn't in my abilities.
It was in the one who sent me.
Every week, I had to remind myself that God had called me there,
that he was going to be faithful, he was going to sustain me,
(30:33):
he was going to fight my battles in the rooms that I wasn't in.
We just trusted the Lord's plan, and he blessed us abundantly.
Every week, since February of 2012,
I still remind myself to live out my faith,
(30:54):
to remember the calling that God has on my life,
that even in difficult times, when it seems like everybody is against me,
God is going to lead me where he wants me to go.
Theological knowledge means absolutely nothing.
If I don't trust in the one in whom it teaches.
(31:15):
This week, you are going to be given opportunities to prove your faith in the Lord.
And there is going to be temptation, I'm just warning you this week,
there's going to be temptation to take matters into your own hands.
There's going to be temptations to worry and fret over a situation,
but my challenge to you is to live out your faith.
(31:39):
If you believe the Bible to be true, then live it out.
Be quick to forgive.
Be slow to speak.
Be quick to listen.
Be kind.
Love God and love people.
Because if you don't, you're not living an honest life.
(32:08):
Honesty is simple.
At the same time, it's not sometimes, isn't it?
And so I don't know how the Lord wants to end this service with you.
But I'm going to pray for us.
Again, I'm going to invite our worship team to come and lead us.
(32:29):
My hope and my prayer for you is that as we sing and as we respond,
you'll just ask God to reveal any dishonesty in your life.
Those times that you're relying on a pinky promise or a spit shake
or whatever we used to do back in the day,
(32:50):
that what you say is what you mean.
And that we will be men and women of truth at all times.
That you will live out your faith.
If you believe that what we're doing here
and what you're experiencing here every single Sunday is true,
(33:11):
then that should change our lives.
Romans 10 says, how are people around us going to know if nobody tells them?
How are people going to come know the Lord if nobody tells them?
We need to live lives of honesty.
Let's pray.
Father, I pray that as we close out the service,
(33:37):
as we sing one more song, I pray, Father, that your spirit will just reveal to us
the areas in which we have been untrustworthy,
the areas where we have not been honest.
I pray, Father, that as we sing that your spirit will just move in this place,
just like it has been all service long.
(34:00):
And I pray, Father, that you give us the courage to be obedient to you.
Help us be men, women.
Help us be a church that stands on your truth,
that declares your truth,
that does not feel the need to take any sort of oath
(34:21):
because what we believe and what we say is true.
And so, Father, I pray that you move however you want to.
We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
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