Matthew 5, verses 33 to 37.
And Jesus says this,
Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old,
You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.
But I say to you, do not take an oath at all,
either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
or by earth, for it is His footstool,
or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
And do not take an oath by your head,
for you cannot make one hair white or black.
Let what you say be simply yes or no.
Anything more than this comes from evil.
This is God's holy word.
Tonight, we are carrying on with Jesus as He preaches His sermon on the Mount.
The last few weeks, we've been saying that Jesus is preaching,
He's speaking in a day when people are trying to minimize the reality of human failure.
And we're on these six commands that Jesus picks up on.
We're on the fourth tonight.
And we've said before, our idea maybe, just maybe,
is that these are just sets of rules.
Rules and more rules.
Or on the other side of that,
maybe perhaps we obsess over them,
and we'll say, you know, I'll be more Christian.
I will be more spiritual if I just keep these commands down to the letter.
Jesus comes to these two extremes, we've said the last few weeks,
evasion and obsession.
And He says it's neither.
This is just, for you, Christian, He says,
this is just about living the life that you have been given.
In a world full of disorder,
in a world full of, you know, what we said the last few weeks,
anger and lust and wrong desires,
broken relationships,
tonight a lack of trust.
In that world, God's ongoing work is to undo that.
And He will undo it at the new creation.
And you, if you are a Christian,
have been called to take part in that work.
We are called to support life,
to illustrate true, beautiful life,
as it's meant to be.
And tonight we're thinking especially about integrity
and keeping your word and being honest.
And with that, again, perhaps we stray towards evasion
rather than staying in the middle where Jesus wants us to be.
With the last three commands,
with the last three sections on anger and wrong desires
and having a correct view of marriage and relationships,
relationships, and tonight, meaning what we say all of the time.
The question is surely, surely we can relax a wee bit.
That's the story in the Screwtape Letters,
this book that Cody was mentioning earlier.
Satan comes and he says,
a little bit of bad is okay.
You don't need to do as Jesus says all the time.
It's attractive.
It's appealing.
Just a wee bit of bad is okay and you'll get by.
If you're a Christian,
you have been called to live this restored life.
And the only reason you have this life
is because Jesus kept his word.
I know some people here are Gavin Orland fans.
He's an American pastor and theologian
and he's got a great podcast.
And on his podcast he says,
you know, as Christians,
we are allowed to have happy thoughts.
We have been given happy thoughts.
And one happy thought is this,
that Christ, before time,
before creation,
the Son of God,
he knew your name.
He thought of you specifically
and he said he would go and die for you.
The plan of the triune God from before time
was to save sinful, broken people
and give them real, true life.
If you're a Christian,
you're called to that.
And the reason you're called to that
is because Christ kept his word.
He fulfilled what he said he would
and he saved you.
So, how do you support life?
How do you,
how do we fulfill our purpose in the world?
We do it by imitating Jesus.
We do it by keeping our word
and being people of integrity.
So, just two points tonight on that.
Two points from these verses that we read.
Firstly, we are,
every single person,
we are all in the presence of God
all the time.
And the second point,
how to mean what you say.
In light of being in the presence of God,
how to mean what you say.
So, firstly,
we all,
every single person,
all of us tonight
are in the presence of God
every single time we speak.
Jesus in this section is,
he's picking up on a serious issue in his day
and we read it there.
It seems like quite a foreign issue to us,
I think,
perhaps more so than the last three commands.
We don't usually swear oaths
or make vows
apart from in court
or at our wedding.
It's a pretty foreign idea.
Jesus is speaking in a day
when it's a big deal
and it's a big problem,
he says.
So, in verse 33,
he follows the same pattern
that we've seen the last few weeks.
You have heard it said,
he says,
you shall not swear falsely
but shall perform to the Lord
what you have sworn.
But I say to you,
do not take an oath at all.
Jesus is again,
for the fourth time in a row,
correcting this idea
that we can minimize
the reality of our human failure.
He tells him,
you know,
you think you can
but you can't.
You've been trying to make it
really difficult
to mess up.
You say you're going to take oaths,
well, I'm telling you,
don't take any at all.
Why?
What's the problem
with taking oaths?
What's the point Jesus is making?
The practice of taking oaths properly,
according to the Pharisees,
is not built around any one command,
but it's a pulling together
of loads of different commands
in the Old Testament,
and you don't need to turn to them,
but I'll read just two or three.
Leviticus 19,
you shall not swear by my name falsely
and so profane the name of your God.
Numbers 30, verse 2,
If a man vows a vow to the Lord
or swears an oath to bind himself
by a pledge,
he shall not break his word.
Ecclesiastes 5,
When you vow a vow to God,
do not delay paying it.
There are so many more,
but the one common feature
that you'll have heard
in each of these commands
is swearing an oath
in the name of the Lord.
You make a vow to God,
and Jesus is summarizing,
in this verse,
Jesus is summarizing
their interpretation.
Of the commands,
when he says,
You shall perform to the Lord
what you have sworn.
They're meant to be a sign
that your word is binding.
Vows were a sign
that in your heart
you really, really meant
what you said.
Swearing was a sign
that you were going to,
without question,
tell the truth
and stick to it.
And what did the Pharisees do?
They took all of these commands
and they said,
Well, only if you swear
in the name of the Lord
is your word binding.
Only if you use his name
when you say something
are you going to have
to follow through on that.
Documents and tracks,
loads and loads
have been found
outside of the Bible
from the time
that Jesus was speaking in.
And there are these reports
that oath-taking
was a part,
it was a big part
of day-to-day life.
So you could take an oath
publicly in front of many people,
you could take an oath
or make a vow privately
with just one person.
Swearing was the same
and books and tracks,
pages and pages
were written
by these religious rulers
to offer people loopholes
when they made these vows.
Formulas,
sets of rules
were created
by taking Leviticus 19
and Numbers 30
and saying that,
you know,
there are things
that you can say
that will mean
you don't really
have to keep your word.
You don't really
have to follow through on this.
If you follow this chart
and you read the verses there,
if you swear by heaven
or by Jerusalem
or by the hairs on your head,
then you're fine.
You don't have to keep your word.
Just as long
as you're not swearing
in the name of the Lord,
you don't have to
keep your word.
We see the problem.
I think God is identifying
a problem of the heart
in the Old Testament
when he gives these commands.
He says, you know,
people are deceitful.
But what do the Pharisees say?
What do they say?
We can work around it.
If we are deceitful
and that's an issue,
we can work around it.
Oaths are meant
to promote truthfulness.
Let's use them
to give us an opportunity
not to be truthful.
And so,
Jesus says,
if you swear
in the name of the Lord
and that's the only time
you're going to tell the truth,
don't swear an oath at all.
Don't make a vow at all.
That's Jesus' point.
Don't take them at all.
Why?
Why not take oaths?
You are always,
Jesus is saying,
in the presence of God,
whether you say it or not.
Heaven is his throne.
The earth is his footstool.
Jerusalem is the city of the king.
Even your head is not your own.
It's God who changes
one black and one gray.
He does that.
From the most public speech
to a relaxed conversation,
to the most careful language,
to the most careless,
flippant language
that someone really believes.
He hears it all.
You are always,
Jesus is saying to them,
in the presence of God
when you speak.
And every word you speak
is before him.
By his name
or by the hairs on your head,
you are speaking
before God.
And again,
we don't take oaths.
We don't make vows daily.
And we read these words
that Jesus is saying
and we think
that's a detached problem.
That's a foreign problem to us.
In verses 34 to 36,
Jesus is saying,
no,
this is a problem
for everyone.
This is a problem
for the heart,
for every person.
You might not swear
by heaven
or by your head,
but God hears
every word you say.
Do we speak well?
Do we mean everything we say?
We are always
in the presence of God.
Every word is before him.
We can put it another way.
This week,
the next seven days,
when you think about
the people
that you're going to meet with
and the things
that you'll probably say to them,
you will not be able
to measure
the truthfulness
of your words.
There are no levels
to truthfulness,
one preacher says.
whether you
really,
really mean something
or you just say it flippantly
and the person believes you,
there is no difference.
You know,
you could be in a court,
you could be swearing
that you'll tell the truth.
You can say to your friend,
yes,
I'll be there.
Do you tell the truth
about the most serious things
and relax a bit
on gray areas?
Do you tell
your friend
or your flatmate
or your husband
or your wife
or your child
or your parents
that you'll do something
for them,
that you'll buy them
this gift
or whatever it might be
and never do it?
Do you speak
with people
in confidentiality
and you know
it's confidential
and they ask you
not to say anything
and yet you go out
and speak about it
anyway?
Jesus says
there are no levels
to integrity.
There is no level
whatsoever to truthfulness.
You can't swear
by the Lord
for one thing
and your head
for another.
It's not at all
about sticking to your word
in one sense
and not in another.
No,
everything you say
is before God.
Everything you say
is by His name.
you can think
about any crime
or police drama
that you watch on TV
or Netflix
or wherever it is
and in almost all of them
one key character
has all the vital information
about this case
that's being investigated
and they say
yes,
I will tell you the truth
as long as I'm not
on the record
and so they meet
in some dim,
shady lit street
or they go to the station
and the cameras
are turned off
and maybe whatever
is said is true
in the program
but it's not
a recorded truth.
It's not under oath
and so,
you know,
it usually means
you get five more episodes
out of this show
because the police
have still got to prove it anyway.
Jesus is making the point
that,
you know,
we can look at it
in the same way.
Jesus is making the point
that
recorded or not recorded truth,
the meaningfulness
of your words
he is saying
does not depend
on the situation.
Your words
are always meaningful.
Your words
outside the court
are as real
and as binding
as your words
in the court.
The Pharisees,
you know,
they can't use formulas
to escape that
and nor can we.
One more thing here
and we'll go on
to the last point.
Words are a big deal.
Jesus makes that point
over and over
and over again
in Matthew
and in the other Gospels.
Paul and James
constantly bring us
back to that
in their letters as well.
Words are a big deal
and
you think,
okay,
you think,
you look at the news
and you think
on an international level
there is constant scrutiny
between countries
or between a leader
and his country
or his people
today
and throughout history.
bring that down
to a personal level.
Bring that down
to you and your sibling
or your parents
or your family
or social group.
Where does tension
come from?
Does it come from
your words
to one another?
Promises maybe
that you don't keep?
Good things
that you speak about
but never follow up on?
Not being honest?
Why?
Why is there such a breakdown
on a social
and an international scale?
Because words
are important.
Words
are deep
and we don't
always mean what we say.
We hide the truth
and we're dishonest.
Jesus says,
don't
treat your words lightly.
There is no level
to integrity.
You are always
before God.
You are constantly
in his presence
and everything you say
is before him.
everything you say
leads to joy
or leads to breakdown
in your relationships.
Do we mean
what we say?
Will we be people
of honesty?
He's asking.
Will we be people
of integrity
with his kingdom life
that we've been given?
Secondly then,
in light of that,
in light of being
in God's presence
all the time,
how to mean
what we say?
Jesus doesn't
complicate it
at all
in this passage.
Let what you say
be simply yes
or no.
Anything more than this
comes from evil.
Mean what you say,
Jesus says.
You don't need oaths.
Just think about
what you're going to say
and mean it.
It's probably
helpful
at this point
to give a couple
of situations
where we don't
follow up on this.
There are quite a lot
but just a couple.
There are
circumstances
where you can't
keep your word.
You know,
emergencies come,
things happen
and you can't
follow through
on what you're
saying you'll do.
Other factors
impact on what
you've said.
Altogether,
apart from the
99% of the time
that you can keep
your word,
there are genuine
reasons why we
can't follow through.
And we know that.
Another thing,
we take oaths
in the courtroom.
And this has
historically been
where a lot
of Christians
come and they say,
well,
Jesus says we
can't take oaths
so we're not
going to be in
the court.
When Jesus says
take no oaths
and simply let
your yes be yes
and your no be no,
he's not saying
you can't take oaths
at all.
The whole reason
oaths exist is
because humans
are prone to
dishonesty
and the world
knows it.
So, you know,
telling the truth,
telling the truth
in the court
is a serious
issue.
And unfortunately,
you know,
you can't just
walk into the
court and say,
can you just
believe me?
Here, I'm a
Christian.
You know,
I'm going to
tell my truth
all the time.
No, you shouldn't
need an oath
as a Christian,
but the external
world asks that
you would take
one.
He's only
telling you,
Jesus is only
telling you
not to use
them for
loopholes.
It's simply
a case of
being truthful
or not.
There are many
more,
but Jesus'
point is
not to
throw them
out.
You know,
he takes one
before he dies.
Paul takes
them in his
letters.
Jesus doesn't
throw them
out, but he
just says,
you're meant
to be honest
all the time,
no matter who
you're speaking
to.
Okay,
apart from
that,
apart from
that,
Jesus says,
let your
yes be
yes and
your no be
no.
Are you
speaking to
your children
and you
promise them
something?
When you
say yes
and you are
completely within
your power to
follow through
in that,
are you
serious about
that,
Jesus asks.
You know,
when you phone
into work sick,
and you
say you
can't come
in,
is that
really a
yes?
Or are you
fit for
everything else
in the day?
When you
say to
someone,
I'll be
praying for
you,
will you
be praying
for them?
What's the
difference?
Your child,
your boss,
your friend
in church,
you know,
it feels
like keeping
your word
has more
or less
impact in
each of
these situations.
No,
no,
Jesus says,
there are
no levels,
there are
no levels
to
integrity.
There's
no point
in swearing
by heaven
or by the
earth or
Jerusalem
or your
head.
Your words
are always
serious.
It doesn't
matter who
you're speaking
to.
All your
words are
before God.
They're all
binding,
like your
yes,
be yes,
and your
no,
be no,
he says.
Be a
person of
truth,
be a
person of
integrity,
and fulfill
your purpose
as a
Christian
in the
world.
One more
thing,
and then we
can finish
more positively,
I think.
To mean what
you say,
to speak with
integrity,
to be upright
and honest
about what
you're going
to do.
It's about
bringing joy
into other
people's
lives.
joy and
not hurt
into your
relationships.
In Hebrews
6,
the writer,
he's reminding
us what God
has promised
to Abraham,
and what he's
promised to
his offspring,
that they
would be
blessed.
And it
says,
God swore
this would
happen.
By
myself,
I have
sworn,
God says.
And,
you know,
we've said
that taking
an oath,
saying I
promise,
making a
vow is a
signal that
us humans
aren't always
good at
keeping our
word.
And so,
if God
cannot lie,
why swear?
Why swear by
his own
name?
When we
swear,
you know,
we're saying
that we're
dishonest.
We're saying
that our
words are
weak.
When God
swears,
he's saying
that our
faith is
weak,
not his
words,
but our
faith.
And in
pursuit of
our
encouragement
and joy,
even this
week,
in pursuit
of building
you up in
your faith,
in pursuit
of our
hope that
we will one
day be with
him forever
and ever,
God says,
I swear,
I swear that
will happen.
He knows
our faith is
weak,
and he says,
you can
really believe
the promises
that I've
made.
to all of
Abraham's
descendants,
to us,
to the
church,
you can
really believe
these promises.
He keeps
his word,
he swears,
God means
what he says
to us.
We mentioned
at the start
this covenant
that was made
by the triune
God before
time,
the covenant
of redemption
has been called.
God promised
before time
to save
his creation
and the
people who
would reject
him.
In John
10,
Jesus speaks
about this
charge that's
been given
to him by
the Father
to die
and rise
again.
It was an
agreement.
It was a
word that
Jesus kept.
Tonight,
if you are
wondering why
telling the
truth and
being people
of integrity
is such a
big deal,
if you are
not a
Christian
and you
wonder why
honesty is
so important,
it was
because of
the integrity
of Jesus.
It was
because of
him keeping
his word
and leaving
his perfect
home and
living out
this life
of tears
and loss
and mocking
and abandonment
and death.
It was because
of that.
It was because
he kept
his word
that you
can be
saved.
Knowing
God,
knowing God
tonight and
being forgiven
for every
broken word
or promise
you've made,
having real
joy in
your soul
is possible
because Jesus
kept his
word.
Truth,
honesty,
integrity
is at
the heart
of God's
relationship
with man.
Will you
believe in
him?
Will you
trust him?
And if you
have done,
do you
believe tonight
if you're a
Christian that
God keeps
his promises
every single
day?
I wasn't
sure if I
had time
at this
point,
but this
afternoon I
just looked
at a list
of all
God's
promises,
or not all
of them,
but many
of them
in the
Bible.
And there
are so
many.
I'm just
going to
list a
few here
that were
helpful to
me as I
look to
this.
1 John
1,
verse 9,
if we
confess our
sins,
John says,
he is
faithful and
just to
forgive us
our sins
and to
cleanse us
from all
unrighteousness.
This week,
think about
Matthew 11,
Jesus'
words,
come to
me,
all who
labor and
are heavy
laden,
and I
will give
you rest.
Take my
yoke upon
you and
learn from
me,
for I
am gentle
and lowly
in heart,
and you
will find
rest for
your souls.
Matthew
11,
verse 9,
if you
then,
though you
are evil,
know how
to give
good gifts
to your
children,
how much
more will
the Father
in heaven
give good
gifts to
those who
ask him?
Revelation
21,
verse 4,
one day,
he will
wipe away
every tear
from their
eyes,
and death
shall be
no more.
Neither
shall there
be mourning,
nor crying,
nor pain
anymore,
for the
former things
have passed
away.
2 Corinthians
1,
20,
for all
the promises
of God
find their
yes in
Christ.
God
pursues
your
encouragement
and your
joy and
faith every
week.
He will
do it
this week
by keeping
his word.
He brings
lost people
home and
he keeps
them there.
He means
what he
says.
His promises
are all
yes in
Christ.
A few
things just
to think
about this
week and
we'll be
done.
Just four
things you
can ask
yourself.
Do you
treat your
words more
or less
seriously
depending on
who you're
talking to
or what
the situation
is?
Is your
speech
flippant
or idle
in some
place and
more serious
with someone
else?
Do you
make the
effort to
really mean
what you
say?
If you
say you'll
do something
for your
boss or
your friends
or your
children,
will you?
If someone
asks you to
pray for
them,
will you?
Is your
yes a yes
and no
no?
Will you
remember that
keeping your
word and
being honest
and being
a person
of integrity
is about
building up
joy in
other people's
lives?
No matter
how young
or old.
Will you
remember that
it's about
being a
faint picture
of Jesus
and helping
others see
him?
Will you
remember
that God
is a God
who keeps
his promises?
promises.
We are
all oath
breakers,
the Bible
says,
but Jesus
will never
cast any
out.
We heard
that at
the start.
There is
forgiveness
with him
for every
broken word
said to
all who
trust in
him.
He will
never turn
any away.
Will you
this week
hold on
to his
promises?
Let's
pray.
Lord,
we ask
that you
would help
us to be
people of
our word.
Help us
as we
think about
this kingdom
life that
you've
given us.
Faint
pictures of
Jesus.
Help us
to be
people of
integrity,
people who
keep our
word and
mean what
we say.
Help us
above all
Lord to
hold on to
your promises
to us.
That even
tomorrow as
we get up
we will
know that
we are in
the arms
of a loving
Father.
Help us
and be
well as
we ask
for Jesus
sake.
Amen.