May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we continue our meditation in the Sermon
on the Mount, which of course is recorded in Matthew's Gospel,
Chapter 5. And this evening we'll read from
verses 33 to 37. It's the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter
5, from verse 33 to verse 37. Again, you have heard and it hath 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 shall 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. And so in these verses, the Lord
continues to explain the truth that is to be followed in quoting
the Old Testament law and yet signifying how much farther it
goes and what a right spirit we need to have in fulfilling
the truth of God's Word. And therefore, he comes and he
says, again, ye have heard that it hath been said of them of
old time. The truth is that the Lord is
referring now once again to the book of Exodus and the Ten Commandments
and he's speaking about the command which tells us the third commandment,
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. The problem is that so many people
do take the name of the Lord in vain and they speak in a very
casual and careless way you know sometimes we hear many people
say well for God's sake do this or do that and of course that
is such a blasphemous statement and yet how easily we hear it
and how many people today do speak of things lightly when
they mention the name of God. Well, the apostle here, sorry,
the Lord here shows us very clearly the importance of being directed
in a right way. So having said again, ye have
heard that it hath been said of them of old time, thou shalt
not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine
oaths. He goes on to say, but I say
unto you, swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne."
And so he goes on. Now we might say, well what does
it actually mean by swearing? And it really is swearing is
really to take or to declare on oath. That means that we really
believe and we really trust and we really are speaking the truth
from our heart. We have an example that, because
in our law courts, when people are called to testify, they have
to make a statement, and they say, I swear by almighty God
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And how important that is in
all our lives. There should not therefore be
the necessity to swear an oath because we should always be speaking
the truth and there should never be any doubt about us speaking
the truth and what this means to is to take or declare an oath
it really means an affirmation it really means we're affirming
that we will come and we will speak the truth and therefore
there's not the need therefore to speak in in other ways really
and uh... we're told in the book of Leviticus
which of course has so much instruction to us and direct us in so many
ways in Leviticus chapter nineteen and verse twelve we read and
ye shall not swear by my name falsely neither shalt thou profane
the name of thy God I am the Lord well We have a great God
to stand before. And therefore we should not take
the name of the Lord in vain. And we should not take the name
of the Lord in vain when perhaps we want to, as we might say,
qualify our statement when it's not really necessary. We should come and speak truth
from our heart. There should not really be that
need that we do have to make such an oath or swearing to take
or declare an oath and that's really the Lord is therefore
speaking to our hearts again as he was in the previous verses
to direct us to the great and wonderful simplicity of being
honest in the things of God and being honest in our life being
honest to those we meet with to always be found telling the
truth and so the Lord says but I say unto you swear not at all
whether 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 and that really is a reference that we can read of in the prophecy
of Isaiah not the chapter that we read but there is a great
truth in the Word of God that directs us to the Word of God
and how important it is to observe that we do things in a right
way. And the 66th chapter of Isaiah
tells us, thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne and the
earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build
unto me and where is the place of my rest so that's really the
Lord is quoting from Isaiah in these words which we have before
us as he directs us to this situation and tells us that we are not
to swear by these things now we know of course that the Lord
indeed he swore by himself that means he affirmed by himself
that the things which he spoke and speaks to us today are true
there's nothing false with them at all they are true and what
a favor it is to know that we have such a God and you know
if we say things sometimes we may even make a vow to confirm
that we really mean things and we really believe things and
in numbers we're told if a man vow unto the Lord or swear an
oath to bind his soul with a bond he shall not break his word he
should do accordingly to all that proceedeth out of the mouth
out of his mouth well how necessary it is you see we perhaps read
this little passage here and perhaps we don't really appreciate
or haven't appreciated what it really means and further on in
this same gospel we read of the direction which we are given
as the Lord speaks to us in the 23rd chapter and he directs us
in this way and he says and whosoever shall swear by the altar it is
nothing but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it he
is guilty. Ye fools and blind, for whether
is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift. Whoso
therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it and by
all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the
temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven,
sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereupon. Well, there's some very straightforward
statements and the word of God goes on to say, woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees. You see, hypocrites, because
they were desiring really to follow the wrong way. They were
concerned about small things and yet were passing over great
things. They didn't really have a right
understanding, a right appreciation of the great truth of God. What a mercy if the Lord comes
and blesses us with the right truth, the real truth. And so the Lord says, neither
shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one
hair white or black." See, all these things that we read of
is God's provision. They're all in God's hands. We
cannot change things, we cannot alter things, and therefore we
should not take oaths of things, trying to really affirm things
by turning to things that we cannot change or do ourselves. We should have that humble, confidence
in God that he will help us to do that which is right and therefore
as we speak we should not therefore make reference to the situation
which we have here in these words that thou shalt not swear by
thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black
and he tells us very simply having gone through these statements
he comes and says but let your communication be yay yay, nay
nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. And so, if we're in a situation,
if we're asked a question, we ought not to need to affirm it
by an oath. We ought to be able to say an
answer as to yes, or an answer is no and if it needs perhaps
further force or strength as the word says here we can answer
and say to a question yes yes just to make sure people really
understand what we mean or no no well this is a simple form
isn't it but how good it is if the Lord gives us then that ability
to do that you know all things all things are in possession
of God and not to be sworn by and the Lord Jesus refers indeed
to himself in so many ways and turning to the Old Testament
and the book of Deuteronomy where we're in Moses book and we read
in the sixth chapter and I think it's the 13th verse the instruction
which the Lord gives us thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and
serve him and shalt swear by his name that's referring of
course to the Lord God we shall fear the Lord God and swear by
his name as he is the Lord and then following on and the 10th
chapter and the 20th verse we read this thou shalt fear the
Lord thy God him shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave
and swear by his name that surely means turning to the Lord and
not turning away to needs to have an oath of this or an oath
of that and the Lord also refers to his own situation, where in
the chapter that we read in that 45th chapter of Isaiah, and right
towards the end of that chapter, we read in the 23rd verse, I
have sworn by myself. You think of that, I have affirmed
by myself. The word is gone out of my mouth.
righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall
bow every tongue shall swear so the Lord you see speaks of
himself affirming by himself no greater is that than our God
our God is the ultimate our God is the ruler our God is the creator
and therefore to realize that in these things we need to come
and to turn to the Lord our God and similarly in the prophecy
of Jeremiah the Lord makes a very similar reference to himself
in the fourth chapter and he speaks these words in the fourth
chapter and in the second verse he says and thou shalt swear
the Lord liveth in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness. And the nations shall bless themselves
in him, and in him shall they glory." And then perhaps turning
to the New Testament when the Lord again refers to himself
through the Apostle Paul when he writes the great truths in
the sixth chapter and he tells us this for when god made promise
to abraham because he could swear by no greater he swore by himself
saying surely blessing i will bless thee and multiplying i
will bless thee and so after he patiently endured he obtained
the promises well it's good to realize how we should operate
today in our life and recognize that we should not therefore
be found really speaking and desiring to confirm things by
an oath, but that we should be able to grant a very simple affirmation
by just saying yes or no and not leaning to other things because
how dangerous they are and how wrong they can be and how easily
we can be led into such difficult situations. And so remember then
what we read in that fifth chapter of Matthew where the Lord finally
confirms in that 33rd 37th verse where he tells us but let your
communication be yay yay nay nay for what's there is more
than these cometh of evil amen