Okay, now, if you'll turn to
Matthew 5, we're going to start reading in verse 33. This is
our Lord Jesus Christ speaking, and He says, verse 33, again,
You have heard that it has been said by them of old time, 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, what is it to forswear
thyself? What does that mean? He says
here in verse 33, You have heard that it has been said by them
of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto
the Lord thine oaths. It has to do with an oath. An
oath is an affirmation. You're affirming something or
you're declaring something with an appeal to God. That what you're
affirming, what you're saying is true. And if it's not true, it calls
for God's vengeance if it turns out to be false. A false oath
is called perjury. It's in this place called foreswearing. Now, those of old time said it's
okay to swear, but you must make good on it, on your oath. You
must be truthful to your oath. You must perform that which you
have agreed to perform. Now, the law says, you shall
not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the
name of thy God. I am the Lord. The Lord says,
don't forswear yourself. But the Lord Jesus Christ says
here in verse 34, but I say unto you, swear not at all. Now, you know when you go into
a courtroom and You see someone put their hand on a Bible and
they make an oath to tell the truth. Well, our Lord is not
forbidding solemn oaths such as that as required in such situations,
required by law. He's forbidding us from using
God's name in everyday speech because that is a lack of reverence. for God. It's a contempt of God's
name. The law of God forbids taking
the name of the Lord in vain. This is what the law says. Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the
Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Let me just point out this first
thing to you. We don't have to add a curse
word to God's name to use His name in vain. You don't have
to even use His name specifically to use His name in vain. Some
who wouldn't dare say God or Jesus in everyday speech will
say alternate versions like gosh, or geez, or my goodness, or lordy,
or holy cow, or something, the versions are endless. But all
these are taking the Lord's name in vain. All of those are. Now, our Lord is teaching us
something even more here. He says that an oath carries
an appeal to God whether God's name is named or not. Those of old time, like multitudes
in our day, just in everyday common speech, would say, Oh,
I swear by the temple that this is true. Oh, I swear by the altar
that this is so. I'll do this. They didn't use
the name, the Lord's name at all. But our Lord Jesus Christ
just says, swear not at all. And the reason is, is because
any oath, any flippant oath that's taken like that, carries an appeal
to God, whether His name's used or not. Why is this so important? Why is this such a Such a matter
of importance. Because the very essence of who
God is, the very foundation of the gospel is based on God who
is the Word. He is the truth. The heavens
were created by His Word. The earth was created by His
Word. They're held in place by the
Word of His power. The salvation of God's elect
is by covenant Word. Now, I said we'd be in Hebrews
6. Turn there with me. Hebrews chapter
6. Are you there? Hebrews chapter
6. Alright, verse 13. When God made promise to Abraham,
that's what has to happen to you in your heart for you to
believe God. He has to make His covenant promise
in your heart. When God made His promise to
Abraham, because He could swear by no greater He swear by Himself,
saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I
will multiply thee. Now look at verse 16. Why did
God do that? For men verily swear by the greater. In those solemn oaths that we
have to take from time to time, we swear by something greater
than ourselves. We swear by God. And when we
make an oath, it is for confirmation. It confirms that what we say
is so. It's to be taken very seriously. It's a solemn thing to take an
oath, to be under oath. And it's to them, it's to men,
the end of all strife. It means what you say is so.
Now, we have to swear by God. But there's none greater than
God. And He can swear by no greater.
He's the God of truth. In the eternal counsel, the three
persons of the Godhead entered into an everlasting covenant. God the Father, in order to justify
His people and to honor His own law, promised to give His Son
for His people. And He gave a people to His Son. And His Son, in honoring God's
law and in perfecting that people, in justifying that people, agreed
to lay down His life for them. And the Holy Spirit agreed in
this covenant to speak, to regenerate, to give life, to wash, to sanctify
those whom Christ redeemed, those for whom He was surety, that
they would behold Christ. And He promised to speak only
of Christ. And these three persons of the
Godhead fulfill everything they entered into covenant to fulfill. Look down at verse 17. Here's
why God did this. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise, that is, those that He promised
to give an inheritance with the saints, with the inheritance
with His Son, being joint heirs with Christ. He did this by the immutability,
the unchangeableness, of His counsel. He confirmed His promise
by an oath. His word by an oath, by a promise,
that by two immutable things, two things that cannot be changed,
in which it's impossible for God to lie. He's the word. He is the truth. It's impossible
for God to lie. And by His word and by His promise,
We have a strong consolation, a strong, a sure word of hope. Those who have fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Who's the hope set
before us? We have this hope as an anchor
of the soul. We have this hope that is sure
and steadfast. This hope is Jesus Christ, who
is entered into the holiest of holies into heaven, into the
presence of God Himself, who is our High Priest. God gave
His Son You hear men debate and kick around and argue about the
new covenant, the everlasting covenant. God gave His Son for
a covenant. His Son is the covenant. And
He gave Christ Jesus. Therefore, the Word of God, God's
Word, God's promise, God's covenant, His oath of salvation toward
His people is sure. He can't lie. It's steadfast. It's immovable. So then if you
and I flippantly take this thing of making oaths and swearing,
whether we mention God's name or we don't mention God's name,
the Lord Jesus Christ says it's making light of God himself. An oath is a serious thing. An
oath is of utmost seriousness. I've noticed lately. I think
this might have been something when I was young, real young,
but I noticed it's kind of coming back again. Pinky swear. Oh, I pinky swear. That seems
innocent enough, doesn't it? When he says, swear not at all,
that's the very kind of thing he's talking about. When he says,
swear not at all, he's talking about something that, what we
would regard as that harmless. There's nothing by which you
can make an oath that is not God's. Now look here in verse
34. Now those in the old time, they
would swear by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem, the altar, the
temple, by their own head. But listen to what the Lord Jesus
Christ says, verse 34. But I say unto you, swear not
at all, neither by heaven. What business do we have swearing
by heaven? That's God's throne. nor by the earth, for it is His
footstool." And the Lord told the Pharisees, He said, He that
shall swear by heaven sweareth by the throne of God and by Him
that sitteth on the throne. He says here in verse 35, 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. swearing by ourselves, that's
the most foolish of all. That's the most absurd of all.
You and I have no way of ensuring that we can perform an oath. And if God is attached to this
oath, if this oath has an appeal to God, whether we've mentioned
His name or not, and we'd have no way of ensuring that we can
fulfill what we say. then what's going to happen?
We're going to forswear ourselves, aren't we? Swearing by oneself. Listen now. He says, Which of
you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? Now,
verse 37, the Lord says, But let your communication be yea,
yea, And nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of
evil. Now here's the fourth thing.
First of all, you don't have to add a curse word to God's
name, but take his name in vain. Secondly, an oath carries an
appeal to God whether God is named or not. And thirdly, there's
nothing by which you and I can make an oath that's not God's. Now, the believer has great reason
for being true to his word without an oath even being involved.
The first one is this, when everything has to be confirmed by an oath,
evil prevails. He says, for whatsoever is more
than yes, if it's positive or no, if it's a no, whatsoever
is more than this cometh of evil. There's a corrupt nature. In
those who are not born of God, that's all they've got, is a
corrupt, defiled, depraved nature. And in those that are born of
God, there is still within us this old, corrupt nature. And
that old, corrupt nature would rather tell a lie. That's all
it is, is a lie. It's a liar. That's all it is. And if we have to make continual
oaths, or if we hear somebody making a swearing continually
to us, oh, I swear I'm going to do this or that, don't you
automatically suspect that they're lying to you? When somebody has
to constantly confirm their yes with an oath, you automatically
suspect them. I bet you they're lying. And I hear some tales of a long,
long time ago where folks could actually give you their word
and that was enough. They could say yes to a thing
and that was enough. Why is that not the case now?
This evil that our Lord speaks of is what we see all around
us. It's like a snowball effect.
You know how a snowball starts going downhill and it collects
more snow and collects more snow and it gets bigger and bigger
and out of control? And the next thing you know, it's just this
big giant thing? Well, because our yes is not
yes, and our no is not no, because we lie, Then, everything began to be,
we began to suspect when somebody would say something to us. We
began to think they're lying when they'd say something to
us. And we needed something more to confirm it. And so, oaths
come in. Contracts come in. Everything's
got to be with an oath or in writing. And then, the more that enters
in, the more then we begin to require that more. And the more
we get used to swearing and we get used to making oaths to where
now the oaths don't mean anything to us. Now you got to read the
fine print on everything because there's usually a loophole there
that the person that's making the oath can get out of it. Now
you got to watch when somebody goes under oath in a courtroom,
they might just well be lying. And so what begins to happen
is God and truth and reverence for God's holy name becomes nothing. It's like a snowball. Somebody
wrote this, the practice of going beyond yes and no and affirming
and denying. springs from that vicious root
of untruthfulness, which is only aggravated by the very effort
to clear ourselves of the suspicion of it. We're liars by nature. So we decide, well, a contract
will help, an oath will help me clear up that I'm not lying.
But then the oath just makes us suspect lies more. And it
diminishes the truth of God. It diminishes how holy and reverent
God is. And so the Lord tells us here
that just like He did when He spoke of the law, when He said,
don't think I came to destroy it, I came to fulfill it. Just
like he did when he said, except your righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you can't enter
into the kingdom of God. We've got to have Christ our
righteous. We've got to have the Lord our righteousness imputed
to us by the work He did for us and worked in us, imparted
to us by the work of the Holy Spirit and making us a new creation
that we might lay hold of Him by faith. We've got to have a
righteousness that far exceeds what the scribes and Pharisees
had. And then again, when he talked about the law of murder,
and he brings us to the place where we realize, how am I going
to make my adversary agree with me? How am I going to get my
adversary not to deliver me to the court of law? How can I be
reconciled to my adversary? And if I could be reconciled
to everyone that has aught against me, is that going to make me
right with God? and we're brought to see, I've got to be reconciled
to God in Christ. He's the one I've offended. I've
got to go to Christ and cast my care on Him and then come
to God through Christ my altar, worshiping Him and offering sacrifices
of praise to Him. Then I'll be accepted of God,
but not until then. Then I'll have a heart made new.
If I can do that, I've got a heart made new that He's made new wherein
I'll have a desire to be reconciled to my brethren. Then again, when
he talked about if your eye offends you, or your hand offends you,
pluck out the eye, cut off the hand. And we think, if I cut
off my hand, if I plucked out my eye, if I could get rid of
this hole, this hole, my leg, to where there was no members
about me. Lust is still in the heart that is the product of
Adam. Paul cried out and said, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And
he said, only God my Father through Christ Jesus can deliver me from
it. And so we see that the offending eye is plucked out, the offending
hand is cut off when the Spirit of God enables us to behold Christ
with the eye of faith. That's how the flesh is mortified,
through the Spirit beholding Christ. So in each one of these,
our Lord is showing us how far reaching into the depths of our
own corrupt hearts that this law speaks to and it causes us
to cry out to God for mercy and say, Lord, I can't come to God
anyway but in you. And this does too. Because you
know what the only thing is that will make your yes be yes and
your no be no? It's when God has made this covenant
in your heart. When grace has been cast into
the corruption of our hearts like the tree cast into the bitter
waters, then is it made sweet and then is it healed. The gospel, the truth of Christ
is our preeminent reason for always being true to our word
in everyday affairs. The only constraint that a man
has is the truth of God, the gospel of Christ. That's it. Turn over to 2 Corinthians and
I'll show you this one last thing. Paul said when he was going to
go to Corinth, He had said, if it be the Lord's will, I'll come
to Corinth. Well, it wasn't the Lord's will
and he didn't go to Corinth. And some in Corinth got puffed
up. They got upset and began to say
Paul wasn't true to his word. And they began to slander the
gospel he preached. But Paul says this, 2 Corinthians
1 verse 17, He says, when I therefore was thus minded, that is to come
to you, to bring the gospel to you, when I therefore was thus
minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose.
Do I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should
be yea, yea, and nay, nay? He's saying, did I act rashly,
unadvisedly, without consideration? Did I promise certainly I would
be there without saying, if it be the Lord's will, I'll be there?
He said, did I say yes and then not do it? like those of the
flesh do. And then the next statement,
the apostle gives the reason why truth and sincerity were
so important to him. Look at verse 18. As God is true,
our word toward you was not yes and then we did something else
on purpose. God is true. That's why we didn't
lie to you. That's why I had this desire
to be truthful to you, to say I would be there because God's
true. When you find out God is true,
you quit having to lie about things. When you find out God's
true, you can be honest with folks then. Look what he says
here next. For the Son of God Jesus Christ
who was preached among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timotheus,
it wasn't yea and nay. We didn't say one thing today
about Him and another thing tomorrow about Him. Why? Because we're
born of His Word. We're born of His covenant. We
understand by His covenant that God is true. In Him was yea. Because the promises of God are
in him, yes, and in him, amen. When God says something, it's
so. When God says it's amen, it's
amen. When God says it's true. He can't lie. It's impossible
for God to lie. He says, He which establisheth
us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God. This true
God. He's the one who's done this.
Who also hath sealed us and given us the earnestness of the Spirit
in our hearts. So you see, Paul is saying, this is why I didn't
just frivolously, just flippantly say, oh yeah, I'll be there.
This is why I made sure to say, if it's the Lord's will, I'll
come to you. And if it would have been the
Lord's will, Paul would have been there when he said he would
have. And that's no escape route to say, well, if it's the Lord's
will, then I'm just going to go do what I want to do. We say
it because God's word, God's true. I don't have to lie about
this gospel now. I don't have to try to twist
it around and say it just so it comes in there just under
the radar and you'll take it hook, line, and sinker. I can
just tell the truth because I know God is true. God's promised me
that if I tell the truth to you in this Gospel, He's going to
call out His elect. He's promised me that if I speak
the truth of this Gospel, He's going to make dead, depraved,
God-hating sinners willing in His power, desiring to bow at
the feet of Christ, to trust Him who is true and faithful.
So you know what I can do? I can be truthful. He's promised
me He'll protect me. He'll hedge me about. So no matter
what, no matter where I stand, no matter where I am, I can be
truthful. And then if He brings me into
a situation where it's so... I'm fearful I'm going to die
if I tell the truth. He's promised me for His name.
He'll give me grace. He'll strengthen me by His grace. And He's shown me in His Word
where He did it, where folks were hung at the stake and burned
at a stake and refused to deny Him. Do you believe Him? How
easy would it have been to say, I don't believe Him? That would
have been a lie. And God, in His promise, in truth,
gives more grace. It's given unto you to believe. Faith's the gift of God, but
not only that, it's given to you to suffer for His name's
sake. And if we bear up unto suffering faithfully, it's Him
that gets the glory because He gave us the grace to do it. He's
true and those in whom he dwells are truthful. They're truthful. They hate lying. They've been
lied to all their lives and they hate it. Finally got somebody
they can trust now. Trust God who's true. Let God
be true and every man a liar. Let's trust him and be truthful. All right.