I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Matthew, chapter
5. Matthew, chapter 5. This portion of scripture, this
is the Sermon on the Mount, and what makes this so refreshing.
So wonderful. This is a message that the Lord
preached. Always feel safe. You take what
He said and just repeat it. That's what I want to do this
morning. I'd like to read verses 33 to 37. And I've entitled this message,
Thou Shalt Not Take The name of the Lord in vain. He said
in verse 33, again, you've heard that it hath been said by them
of old, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto
the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not
at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the
earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it
is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy
head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black,
but let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever
is more than these cometh of evil. Now the Lord's been teaching,
dealing with the spirit or the spiritual meaning of the law. He said that murder was more
than the physical act, it's the very anger against a brother
without a cause. Adultery, more than the physical
act, it's the lustful look. Now today he's dealing with the
subject of taking the Lord's name in vain. Now this is what he was saying. This is what he was dealing with. You may have a marginal reading
in the middle of your Bible. If not, one of the references
is to Leviticus 19.12. This is the scripture he was
dealing with. Here's what Leviticus 19.12,
and ye shall not swear by my name falsely. You shall not promise
allegiance or bind yourself by an oath, is what he's saying. Neither shalt thou profane, pollute
the name of thy God, I am the Lord. In Exodus chapter 20 verse
7, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
You shall not lift up the name of the Lord thy God in a useless
false lie. That's what he's saying. For
the Lord Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his
name in vain. Let me tell you what the vast
majority of people think when they say, you shall not take
the name of the Lord in vain. Let me tell you what you're thinking.
You're assuming that that means to take the name of our Lord,
use his name in some form, adding some curse word to it. And let me say this, that's the
most repulsive language that anyone could ever It's disrespectful. It's completely inappropriate. Coming out of any mouth. But
let me tell you what else I hate to hear somebody say. I hate
this. Something will happen and they'll say, oh my God. Oh my
God. And they'll finish their sentence.
But that's filthy language. That's filthy language. But that's
not what the Lord is talking about. What our Lord is teaching
here is that the name of the Lord is taken in vain, it's spoken
of in a way that is vanity, falsehood, when we make a promise to Him
that we cannot keep. Now the Lord is faithful. I am the faithful and true witness. There's only one faithful man
that's ever walked this earth. And no one else is faithful.
God is true and we're alive. That's the truth. Therefore,
whenever we make a promise with an oath, He's going to deal with
this, but I'm telling you this is what He's saying. Whenever
we think that we can promise God something and give Him reason
to hear our prayer because of something that we can do, when
He's already said, He's the true and faithful witness. We're not.
He is. Whenever we think we can promise
God something to do something by our own ability, This is the
difference of works and grace. This is what He's talking about.
Whenever we say we can do something, we're taking His name in vain. What we're saying is, your word
can't be depended on. Your word is vanity. And we promise God something.
Almighty God is faithful to His word. We're not. is to say by
making a promise to the Lord that his word is insufficient,
that his declared promise of faithfulness to his people for
Christ's sake is perjury. That's what he's saying. He's perjured himself. He is
declaring, don't add any of your works to my word. thou shalt not. You know, we're
we're prone by nature to make promises to God when we find
ourselves in trouble, find ourselves in physical, emotional, some
kind of trouble. Lord, if you'll get me out of
this spot, I promise I give you my word based upon my good intention
to keep My promise, I promise you I'll never do that again. Promising him something based
on our supposed ability, our supposed good intention. The only problem with that, our
good intentions are fickle. and they won't stay, they won't
maintain. The Lord said in verse 33, again
you've heard that it had been said by them of old, thou shalt
not forswear thyself. Don't perjure yourself against
God. Don't lie to him. Don't forswear,
but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. You make a
promise to God, He said, you better keep it. Ecclesiastes 5.2, Be not rash
with your mouth. Let not thine heart be hasty
to utter anything before God. For God's in heaven and thou
upon earth, therefore let thy words be few. Now I will say
this, there are some promises that are appropriate. There are
some promises that, you know, one would be when we get married.
We make a promise. I promise to be faithful to you. I promise to be true to you.
My partner in marriage, one, would be a strange situation. Somebody asks you, do you promise
to be faithful to your wife? No. We get into a courtroom. Do you
solemnly swear, promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth? I do. What do you think about somebody
would get up and say, no, I'm not going to promise that? Well, the judge
is going to just tell you to sit down. I can tell you right
now. But now, when these promises are made, we're making these
to each other. And we're trying to be faithful. And that isn't appropriate, I
promise. It'd be better to say, I truly
desire, I want to be true to my word. I want to be faithful
to my word. I'll do the best I can, at least
you're honest about it. But when it comes to promising
God concerning our faithfulness to Him, to never deviate. We're warned in the scripture,
do not come to Him thinking that we need to establish our faithfulness
that we can be counted upon for God and accepted by a promise
because we can add something to it that'll be like additional
collateral. Let me show you what I'm saying.
Look at verse 34. You've heard he said, he said in verse 33,
thou shalt not perjure yourself, don't forswear yourself. But
I say unto you, 34, swear not at all, don't you promise God
anything. Now this is what he's saying,
don't you forswear, don't you promise God anything. Swear not at all, neither by
heaven, For it's God's throne. Don't promise something that
God has already revealed in His Word to His people that they're
unreliable. This is just the way it is. We
are not reliable. Job 4, behold, he put no trust
in his servants and his angels. He charged with folly. Listen
to this, let me just read Job 15. 1516. Behold, he put no trust in his
saints. The heavens are not clean in
his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh
iniquity like water? Here's the bottom line. We would
want to be dependable to each other. I would want to be faithful
to you. But I'm going to just tell you
right now. I'm fallible, and you are too. We're liars, all
of us, all of us. Don't swear or promise faithfulness
to him and try to validate that promise with something that doesn't
belong to us. Here's what he's saying. Swear
not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne. I promise by heaven. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. Now, what right do we have to
promise God something and use something that isn't ours as
a bargaining tool? We try to, something just came
to mind, I heard, I've heard, I don't know, some people, I
don't know, they say, I swear by my mother's eyes. What does
that mean? I swear on my mom's grave. What,
is that going to make it more liable? I mean, reliable? Don't
promise, you know, if I go to the bank and I'm using somebody
else's property as collateral, I'm going to go down there and
I need to borrow $100,000 and I'm going to put up Carl Bowen's
house property as collateral. Well, how are you going to do
that? It doesn't belong to you. It's not yours. I'm being presumptuous. Did Carl give you permission
to do that? Well, no, but I think he will.
Well, that's a mockery. You're a fraud. That's deceit. I'm presenting myself as a thief. The Lord said in verse 35, nor
by the earth. It's His footstool, neither by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. I promise as the earth is stable,
as the earth doesn't move, as the sun is going to come up tomorrow,
I promise you as surely as fall is here. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. I don't have anything to bargain
with. Verse 35 again, neither by Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem,
the church, as the church will never be forsaken by the Lord. This is the Lord's church. He
loved the church. He chose the church. He died
for the church. It's His bride, it's not ours.
We have no stability in Making any promises, it's not ours to
bargain with. Verse 36, neither shalt thou
swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white
or black. We don't have the right or the
ability to even swear by our life. Here's what he's talking
about. Your ability, your will, your
means of thinking and reasoning We have nothing. We're weak and
frail creatures of the dust, unable to guide our steps, our
circumstances. I'm giving you this promise based
on the best that I can possibly do. And I don't know what tomorrow's
going to hold. I don't know what today's going
to hold. There may be, in a moment, somebody
just flops over, and they're dead. My brother. last Friday. And his wife, Mary, they went
to see the grandchildren in Arlington, Texas. Mary started feeling, she didn't
feel good, just didn't feel good. He didn't go away, so he brought
her over to the hospital. He said, well, I'll just go over
to the emergency room. Let's just see how, you know,
we'll wait. And, uh, here, Howard, you sit out here in the waiting
room. We'll, uh, let us check her out, see how she's doing. Pretty soon her doctor walks
out, and he said, I'm sorry. Your wife went into cardiac arrest.
We tried to revive her for 30 minutes, and we couldn't. That's
how he found out. You think he figured that he'd
be walking out of that hospital a widower? Of course, you don't
swear by your head, by your ability, by your thinking, by your best
intentions. You can't even stop your hair
from turning gray. We're just weak creatures, unable. Matthew 26. Here's one, swore
by His head. I'll read this, Matthew 26, verse
31, 35. Then saith Jesus unto them, all
ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written,
I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I
will go before you into Galilee. And Peter answered suddenly to
him, and here he is, he's going to swear by his head, by his
thinking, by his reasoning, by his best intentions, though all
men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be
offended. Jesus saith unto him, verily
I say unto thee that this night before the cock crow, thou shalt
deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, though I
should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. I swear to you I won't. I give you my word. And likewise
said all the disciples also. They said, we won't either. Look
at verse 69, same chapter. Now Peter sat without in the
palace and a damsel came unto him saying, thou also was with
Jesus of Galilee, but he denied before them all saying, I know
not what thou sayest. When he was gone out into the
porch, another maid saw him, said unto them that were there,
this fellow, was also with Jesus of Nazareth, and again he denied
with an oath, I do not know the man. After a while came unto
him they that stood by and said to Peter, surely thou also art
one of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee. You sound like you're not
from around here. And began he to curse and swear,
saying, I know not the man. And immediately they caught crew,
and Peter remembered. the word of Jesus was said unto
him before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he
went out and wept bitterly. Don't swear. Don't swear by heaven. Don't swear by the earth. Don't
swear by the church, heavenly Jerusalem. Don't swear by your
head. Thou shalt not Take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. God has said, you're unreliable. You are unreliable. I put no
trust in you. For us to say, I am reliable,
is to take His name in vain. Let me ask you this. Is our hope of glory and salvation,
is it based on God's promise? or our promise? Is it established
upon the promise of Almighty God to say, I will never leave
you, I will never forsake you, or is it ours? We promise our
continued faithfulness after He has set forth clearly. We
don't have any. What we're trying to do is base
our salvation upon works so that we can boast. Swearing or promising
God something when we have no ability, no will to actually
make good on it, to perform it, that is the foundation of all
false religion. That's it. I can do something. I can perform something. I can give him my heart. I can
be baptized. I can speak in tongues. I can
walk down the aisle. I will never forsake him. I will never forsake him. The
Lord said, don't do it. Verse 37, but let your communication
be yea, yea, nay, nay. For whatsoever is more than these
cometh of evil." Our Lord set forth in His Word
the stability and the truthfulness of the Gospel. He said, when
the Gospel is preached, there is no yea and nay. And I'm going to tell you what
He meant. The Apostle Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 1.18, but as
God is true, our Word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and
Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea." Now what
did he mean? This is what the Lord was teaching. concerning taking his name in
vain, that we cannot promise him anything and make good on
it. He said, you let your answers be yay, yay, nay, nay. All right, let me ask you something. Does God's word declare that
man is totally depraved? Yes. then what would a yea and nay
answer be? Well, man will say, man is depraved
and sinful, but he still has a free will and he can exercise. So is man totally depraved? No. I believe he's sinful. I believe he has got some depravity
about him. But no, he's not totally depraved. Your answer is yay, yay. Is man
a totally depraved sinner? Yes. If God Almighty doesn't do something
for him in spite of himself, is he going to perish? Yes. Does God declare that God chose
a people in Christ? Yes. Was his choice totally according
to his good pleasure without any goodness? found in the vessels
of His mercy. Was His choice totally according
to His will, His purpose, not looking at them for any good?
Was His choice according to His mercy and compassion? Yes. Well,
what would yea and nay be? Yes, God chose the people. But
no, it wasn't according just to His right to show mercy and
compassion. He looked down in time and saw who would choose
Him and therefore He chose them. So was His choice of His people
based totally on only His good pleasure? No. He saw who would
choose Him. Did Christ die on the cross to
redeem sinners? Yes. Was it only for His elect? Yes. What does yea and nay say? Did Christ die on the cross?
Yes. But did he die for only his elect as he said he did? I lay down my life for the sheep. Did he die only for his elect?
No. False religion says he died for
everybody. Will the Spirit of God effectually
call dead sinners out of the darkness of unbelief? Yes. Will those that he called be
only those that were given to the Lord? Yes. How do you know
that? He said that. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. What does yes and no say? You
know what it says. Yes, he died, but no, it wasn't just for a
certain amount. He died for the sins of the whole world, and
your decision is what makes the final change or makes it effectual. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord in vain. What the Lord is saying is, you
shall not say anything that's contrary to my word, adding your
works of grace. Brethren, let your communication
be yea, yea, and nay, nay. For whatsoever is more than these
cometh of evil, cometh from the devil. cometh from the prince
of lies. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. What does that mean? Don't you
try to add your ability to it. Salvation is by the grace of
God. May the Lord bless this word
to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.