Matthew chapter 5, and tonight
we'll be looking at verses 33 through verse 37. 33 through
verse 37 of Matthew chapter 5. And the title of the message
tonight, The Oath of God. The Oath of God. The Scripture says in verse 33
of Matthew chapter 5, Again, you 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 own. 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 the 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, as we've been looking in
this Sermon on the Mount, we have been seeing that Jesus is
systematically exposing the true nature of the law. That the law
of God is not just physical actions, but it has to do with the thoughts
and the intents of the heart. It has to do with the motive
of the man. In other words, he was saying
that murder is not only the act of killing a man, it is the act
of the inward hatred of a brother. He said that adultery is not
just the physical act of adultery or fornication, but it is the
thought of the thing that Jesus said is just as evil as the act
itself in the eyes of God. And now we have come to the law
of swearing, the law of the oath, to God, the law of oaths. In verse 33 again, as you have
said it, it has been heard of them of old time that thou shalt
not forswear. That word forswear means to swear
falsely. You're not to swear falsely,
but you should perform unto the Lord what you have promised. What you have promised. Now the
law did not forbid swearing. And Jesus here is not forbidding
us to take an oath or to swear unto the Lord. You see, if a
man disagrees with another man, this is how we arbitrate arguments
in a court of law, is it not? When someone stands up and he
puts his hand on the Bible and he says, I swear to tell the
whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. You see,
then if there's no evidence against what that man says, then that
man's word is taken at his oath. And we know it's not wrong to
take an oath because many men in the Scripture, the patriarchs
and all the men of Scripture have taken oaths to God, have
vowed to God. If you remember in Genesis when
Abimelech went to Abraham. And he said to Abraham, you swear
unto the Lord your God, swear unto the living God that you
will not deal falsely with me. And what did Abraham do? He said,
I swear. I swear unto God that I will
not deal falsely with you. So taking an oath, Jesus here,
I want us to first see that that's not what he's forbidding. He's
not forbidding oaths. The Scripture is clear that a
man should take an oath in some solemn, serious occasion. We
must understand that there are times to take an oath and there
are times to make vows to one another. And God does not forbid
a vow. Friend, the sin is not vowing. The sin comes when we do not
carry out what we have promised. Therein lies the sin. Therein
lies the sin when we break the vow. Now friends, when Jesus
said this, the Jews understood what He meant. And the Jews even
agreed with this. They would agree with this first
statement that Jesus was making, that if you make a vow to God,
you should keep it. But you see, as all natural men
do, they made a loophole in the law. They made a loophole in
it by taking this in the strictest sense, that if you made a vow
to the Lord, you had to keep it, but... if you made a vow
to heaven, or if you made a vow to the earth, or if you made
a vow to Jerusalem, or even the hairs on your head. If you said,
I swear by the hairs on my head. They said and believed that you
were not under obligation if you could not keep that vow. You see, they made a loophole
in the law of vows. They said, you were free from
your oath if you swore by anything lesser than God. But Jesus here
again, exposing sin. That's what He's doing. We must
still continue to understand what He's doing. He is exposing
sin in this. He's exposing the sin of these
that have made vows to lesser things than that of God. And
he says, don't swear at all to heaven, don't swear at all to
earth, and don't swear at all to Jerusalem or even your own
hairs on your head or your life. Why? Because all these things
belong to God. He said, all these things belong
to God. When you're swearing to these things you call lesser,
you must understand that you are still swearing to God. You're making your vow to God. He is expressing here the truth
that when we swear by anything, we swear and are bound to our
vows no matter what. The Scriptures reveal to us That
swearing is sometimes necessary in some causes, but Jesus tells
us that when we are to swear, we are to be very careful when
we make a vow. Don't be quick to make vows. That's what he's telling us.
These men would make vows at the drop of a hat. They would
come and they'd just say, oh, I swear, I swear, and then they'd
never think twice about it. Jesus said, when we make a vow
before God, we must understand that it is very serious. God
takes these things very seriously. Illustrate this, when I was a
little boy, it was popular for us to say, I swear on my mother's
life. If we really wanted some of our
friends to believe what we said, we'd say, oh, I swear on mama's
life. But there was nobody greater
than mama. Mama was it. And if your friend swore on his
mom's life, then hey, you knew he was telling the truth. He
had to be. Because he swore by somebody
greater than himself. He loved his mother. And he had
a boy that didn't love his mom, I guess I wouldn't really pay
him too much mind. He probably wanted his mom dead
or something, I don't know. But then he would say, I crossed
my heart and hoped to die. Well, now, if he did that, then
I'd say, okay, that boy must be telling the truth because
he loves himself a lot. He doesn't want to die. I know
this. We all have done this kind of swearing. We've all made these
silly promises. But my friends, we don't understand.
When we made that promise, we were making that promise to God.
Who owns our mother? But God. Who controls her life? But God. Who controls our life? But God. Can we make one hair
black and one hair white? No, only God can. And so God
is the instrument of all things. He created all things. He sustains
all things. And Jesus is saying, when you
swear by anything lesser than God, you are still swearing to
God because it's His. It's His. And so when we swear,
we must understand and make a vow. We make a vow to God. And this
is just what the Jews were doing by swearing to heaven and earth
and the temple. They were swearing to God and
they had no idea that they were doing so. So every time we promise,
every time we swear, every time we make a covenant, every time
we make a vow, let us understand it is lawful for us to make a
vow, it's okay for us to make a vow, but understand that we
are making a vow unto God. in every sense of the word. When
I promise you something, I am making a vow to God with you. I am promising you something. Be very careful how and when
we make a vow, because these things are to God. Friends, I
know this, that we have all made vows and promises that we have
not kept. We have all made promises that
we have not kept. We've all sworn something, but
no matter what, maybe it had been circumstances. Maybe it
was something that got in the way. Maybe I said, I promise
you, I make a vow to you that I'll be there at a certain time
and a certain place. But then something happened and
I couldn't get there. Does that unobligate me from
my vow? No. No, it does not. God never lets any mitigating
circumstances stand in the way of this thing called an oath,
or a vow, or a promise. We know that we've all done this.
And therefore, because we have all broken this, we have all
lied to God. We have all lied to Him. Friends, there is no excuse that
would ever free us from our vows. Everything we have ever promised
and everything we have ever sworn to do, if we have not done it,
then we have committed spiritual perjury. Spiritual perjury. This is the reason the Scriptures
tell us in Psalm 58, verse 3, that wicked are estranged from
the womb, and they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking
lies." Who here can testify to that? I can't. I know this is
talking about me. I know what I am by nature. Friends, I am a liar. I am a liar by nature. And we
all have been estranged from our mother's womb, speaking lies. Does this not expose us for who
we are? No doubt, when Jesus said this
in front of those Jews, they were exposed. And friends, when
I read this, I am exposed. I am exposed for who I am. I
am a liar. We have not kept the law of God
that was written on our hearts because every one of us, before
we even heard the gospel, knew that it was wrong to lie. God
placed that in our hearts. That's one of the base laws of
nature that we know to be wrong, is to lie and not tell the truth.
We know that's wrong. We know it's wrong not to keep
our promises. And therefore, we all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. What then is the penalty for
such perjury? Most men think it's the circumstances
of their perjury. Most men think it's the circumstances
of their lie. We all know this, that when we
lie or break a vow, there's always consequences, isn't there? There's
always something that's going to happen, some consequence to
our sins. And some men think, well, that's
my punishment. If I just lie, then it's just
going to be the circumstances. No, this is just the beginning
of the punishment. What God says about this is that
it deserves death, spiritual death. That's what lying deserves.
You see, we think nothing of lying, don't we? We think it's
very little on the scale of God's justice. We think lying is just
something that we can get by with, that it's really not that
bad. But God says it's evil and He will punish all sin. I want to show you this. Go to
Revelation 21. Flip over real fast. Revelation 21. I want you
to see that this is lumped in with all the gross, what we would
call grosser sins. Revelation 21 and verse 8, it says, "...but the fearful,
and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers,
and sorcerers, and adulterers." And we say, yes, they deserve
it. They deserve it. And look at this, "...and all
liars." shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death." Friends, God esteems lying as evil as any other sin. God has promised the second death
to all liars. Does anybody here see that in
themselves besides me? I'm a liar. Friends, I know I
am. I have broken God's law concerning
this and I have sworn to God things that I have not kept.
Is there any hope for liars? Is there any escape from this
great condemnation that rides over perjurers and covenant breakers? Well, I wouldn't be standing
here if there was. I wouldn't be here tonight if there wasn't
hope. If there wasn't hope, yes, there's hope. The One who's here
speaking concerning O's, He is the One in whom there's hope.
Jesus Christ. For He is the only Man that has
ever lived who has not lied. The only One. The only One. He is the only one in whom all
the promises of God are fulfilled in Him. He said, I came not to
destroy the law, but to fulfill the law, even all of the oaths
of God. I came to fulfill them all. It
is by faith that we look to Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment
of all the promises of God. The only hope and good news message
for sinners is found in this one thing, the oath and promises
of God. If there's any hope for any one
of us liars, it must be found in that God has made an oath. God has made an oath. And I want
us tonight to look at this oath of God. We've seen how we have
broken the oath. We've seen how we have broken
the law. But here it is that God Himself has made a covenant,
an oath, a promise. And so every time you read those
in Scripture, you can read them all as the same. His oath, His
promise, His covenant. And so I want us to ask three
questions concerning this oath. If this oath contains the hope
for sinners, what then is this hope? What is this promise? Second of all, I want us to see,
I want us to ask, to whom is this promise given? And third,
how sure is His promises? How sure is His promises? First
of all, what is the promise or oath of God? Flip over to Genesis
chapter 22. Genesis 22 and verse 16. Genesis chapter 22 and verse
16, this is the oath that God had promised to Abraham. And
you remember that Abraham is a type of every believer. The
Scripture says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
for righteousness. So then Abraham is a type of
every believer and here's the promise to Abraham. He said then
in verse 16, I'm sorry, verse 16, And He said, by Myself I
have sworn, saith the Lord, for because Thou hast done this thing
and hast not withheld Thy Son, Thine only Son, that in blessing
I will bless Thee, and in multiplying I will multiply Thy seed as the
stars of heaven and as the sand that is upon the seashore, and
Thy seed shall possess the gate of His enemies. And in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou
hast obeyed my voice." The promise of God is found in
this text in one word. The seed. Seed. Seed. This seed that is spoken of here
is the same thing that Paul mentions in Galatians 3.16 when he says,
not as unto seeds, plural. Notice every one of those seed
is singular. Not unto seeds, plural, but unto
thy seed, one which is Christ's. He is the promise and the oath
of God. He is the promise and oath of
God that He would bless sinners. How? By the promise of the seed. This is how we can be saved. This is how we liars can be made
whole and righteous and good. Only by the seed. You see, when
man was created, he was created upright and holy, but when he
sinned, God gave him a promise, didn't
He? He gave the promise to the woman.
What was the promise? He said that the seed... There it is again. God is very
consistent throughout time, isn't He? Thy seed, the seed of the
woman, shall bruise the head of the serpent. Crush his head. And the serpent shall bruise
his heel." And then God gave them a picture by slaughtering
the animals to cover their nakedness. You see, God is picturing and
testifying that He has promised to send a Redeemer. He has promised to send one who
would fulfill what we could not fulfill. Friends, we have sinned and deserved
God's wrath. I know this in my heart, that if I were to stand before
God and what I have in myself, I deserve His wrath. I take God's
side against myself and recognize that if I only had one sin and
it was a lie, that God would be just to send me to hell forever. And yet God, in His own free
grace, determined within Himself to make a new covenant. And not
one that's new in time. It's not one that came about
in time. The new covenant was something
that's very old. I just experienced it in time,
in order. You see, we were born under an
old covenant, a covenant of works. And it was in time that I learned
of a new covenant. And this is the covenant of grace.
God has made a covenant and has sworn that He would send someone
to redeem His people. You see, God the Father in this
eternal covenant elected a people that He would save. God, out
of the fallen race of Adam, out of the same lump of filthy liars,
God said, I will choose some. And He took some unto Himself. He chose some of them unto Himself. And Jesus Christ, in this oath,
He agreed with the Father that He would come and be their Redeemer,
to be their ransom and pay their ransom price. That He would come
and honor the law of God that they could not do for themselves.
And the Holy Spirit in this covenant agreed that He would in time
come and show them what Christ has done for them and give them
life. This is called the covenant of grace. It's here we see the
promise of God to sinners. Surely, in blessing, I will bless
you. God has determined to bless us
who believe on His Son. God is determined to bless those
who are in Christ. And in Him alone is the blessings
of God. And all that come to Him are
forgiven of their sins. And all who believe on Him have
their part in this covenant. Which is clearly expressed to
us in Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31 and verse 31 through
34. The Scripture says, Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according
to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land
of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was an husband
unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my law in their inward
parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God,
and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more,
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord, for they shall all know Me, from the least of them
to the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive
their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." Friends, behold, in the days
that this was written, the days were coming, but now the days
are even now. The time is now. Salvation is
today. God has already sent His Son. And in that day that He sent
His Son, He revealed and manifest to everyone His oath, His promise. Here He is, Jesus Christ. This
is my promised one. This is the only hope for sinners. Behold Him. Look to Him. He's the only hope. He's God's
promise. And it's by Him that God writes
in our hearts His law of love and life and faith. How is it
that you came to Christ? How is it that you know Christ?
How did you come to Christ? Was it not the Spirit of God
that came and gave you life and faith? It was. How did that come
about? The promise of God. God promised. God promised this. And His Holy
Spirit, when He comes and lives inside of us, He teaches us about
God. When you came to Christ, did
you know everything about God? What about now? You got everything?
You know everything about God right now? No. The Spirit of
God is constantly teaching us concerning Christ. Constantly
telling us to conserve Christ. And friends, God's promise concerning
Christ is that I will forgive your sins. I will forgive your lies. That's
something. And He not only will forgive
us, He won't remember it. How many times we forgive somebody
and can't get it out of our heads? God says, I will not remember
them anymore. This is His promise. This is
the covenant of grace. This is His oath that He took. This is God's mercy and grace
and forgiveness and pardon by His Son, Jesus Christ. And in
Him, in Him alone, is the promise of God. Number two, who was this
promise made to? I told you that God has elected
a people. The elect of God is to whom this
promise is revealed. The Scripture calls them heirs
of promise. Go to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews
chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6 and let's start
in verse 17. It says, Wherein God willing
more abundantly to show unto... Who? The heirs of promise. The immutability of His counsel
confirmed it. How? By an oath. You see, God
is willing to show to the heirs of promise. The heirs of promise. The elect of God. Ephesians 1,
4, "...according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace." Just as there were two in the
womb of Isaac's wife, just as there were two, Jacob and Esau,
in her womb. Yet God, before they were born,
having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand. For it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. You see, God has an elect people
that He has set His love upon. And it's to those people alone
that God has given the promise. The promise of God is given to
all His elect people. To those whom He loves. In 1 Kings 8, verse 56, it says,
Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto His people Israel,
according to all that He has promised." Now friends, God at
the nation of Israel, we know that the nation of Israel is
only a type of the church. We know that the national Israel
was just a type and a shadow of the true elect of God, because
Paul says, not all of Israel are of the seed of Abraham. Israel was a type of the church
and it is only to the elect, to the church that God will give
His rest to. That's it. Just to them and no more. You
see, Israel thought that it was a certain race of people that
these elect were. No. This elect spans the globe. Out of every tribe and kindred
and tongue and people, God has chosen His elect people. It's not a certain race, a certain
nationality, a certain creed, a certain place on the earth,
but God has chosen men from out of every nation to be His elect
people. to be His Israel. Friends, God
has promised rest and forgiveness of sins only to His elect people
because those are the only ones for whom Christ died. And that begs the question, who
are the elect? I mean, that's really important,
isn't it? Who are they? Am I one? Are you one? You see, I don't
know. I don't know. I don't know about
you. I'm sorry. I just can't say it.
I can't tell you anything about that. I don't know. I don't know
who the elect are, but I know this. Everyone that the father
has given the Lord Jesus Christ will come to him and all that
come to him. Who's going to come? all those
that the Father gave Him, all those that He died for, they
will come and they will bow themselves down before Jesus Christ. They
will believe that He is their only hope and righteousness to
stand before God. They will believe God. Thousands of people believe in
God. Billions of people believe in God. But only God's elect
believe God. You see, I believe the promise
of God. Don't you? I believe the promises
of God. I believe that they are found
only in one person, and His name is Jesus Christ the Lord. He
is my righteousness. He is my hope. Have you come to Jesus Christ,
apart from your religion, your will, and your works? Have you come to see that He
is the only forgiveness for your lying tongue, adulterous heart,
and murderous hatred for your brother? Do you see that His blood established
the atonement for your sins? Do you believe that? Do you rest on His unchanging
grace as you're only standing before God? If Christ is your only hope,
then I can only say this to you, you are the elect of God. That's the only way I can know.
That's the only way I can know. He said, if I believe on Jesus
Christ, if God has given me the grace to believe, it is because
He has promised to give it before the foundation of the world.
You know, my time of love was appointed to me before the foundation
of the world, and God promised it. And in time, God brought
it to pass. Has He brought yours to pass?
If He has, then you may rejoice, because all of the oaths of God
are yours. They're yours. The promises of
God are yours in Jesus Christ. He has promised us forgiveness.
If you believe, that's yours. Hang on to that one. Don't let
that one go. I need that every day, don't
you? He has promised us eternal life. Scripture says, God who cannot
lie has promised us eternal life. Titus 1, verse 2. And He has
also promised us Himself. Genesis 15, verse 1. What was
the promise to Abraham? He says, I am thy exceeding great
reward. If we have Christ, what else
do we need? Is there anything else? Is there
anything greater than that? Not to someone who's a lying,
cheating, adulterous murderer who needs forgiveness of sins.
There's not one more thing I need. I need Him. You can have the
world, but give me Him. He's mine. And in Him, I have
the promise that God has given me Himself. I love this thought. A man and I were speaking about
this, and he said to me, he said, you know, God loves you as though
you are the only person on the face of the earth As though there
was nobody else. God tends to your needs just
like you were the only one. And He does that for all of His
children. He does that for all of us who believe. Why? Because
He has promised to do it. He has promised to do it. Second
of all, how sure is this promise? You talk about forgiveness of
sins, preacher. You talk about eternal life and all of that.
Many times I feel doubtful. Many times I don't feel saved. But in these verses here in Hebrews
chapter 6, I believe that the grace of God and the love of
God is shown immensely in these verses. wherein God willing more
abundantly to show. When God says something and he
cannot lie, how many times does he need to say it? Now, we talk to each other and
I tell my wife, I say, baby, I love you. And, you know, sometimes
she don't believe me. I know that surprises everyone
here. I'm sure that just surprises you that my wife don't believe
me. But sometimes she don't. So what I have to say, baby,
I promise, I swear, I love you. And she says, OK. You see, God
understands that we are liars in the midst of lying people
and we are always doubtful. Are we not? Are we always skeptical
about stuff like this? That's just too good to be true.
That's just too good to be true. So God says, I am willing, not
just to tell you of My love, not just to give you My Son,
but I'm also willing to make an oath to you. Wow! God is willing to make an
oath. And when God looked around, who
could He swear by? Who could He swear by? He said
when He could find none greater, He swore by Himself. He said,
I swear by my deity that I will bring you to Me. He not only told us His purpose,
but since when has God not purposed and promised something that has
not come to pass? Scripture says there had failed
not ought of any of His promises in Joshua. And that verse in
1 Kings, it says that not one word failed. Where then is there room to doubt? You see, friends, our feelings
don't have anything to do with it. Isn't that glorious? Isn't that wonderful? That my
feelings have nothing to do with this matter of salvation. That
it all rests in God and not in me. You see, if it was in me,
I could understand. I could understand doubting.
But you see, it doesn't rest in me. It rests in God. God has
promised. God, in His willingness to show
His promise of His unchangeable purpose, swore to Himself Therefore, all who have fled
to Christ for refuge have an anchor for our souls, even the
blood of Christ and the promise of God's oath. What then can move us from the
salvation of God? What then can take us away from
Him? Christ said, you are in My hand.
And I am in the Father's hand, and no man, no man shall be able
to pluck you out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. Jesus Christ, we are in His hands,
and God has promised, oh, the surety of our salvation. Friends,
our salvation is more sure than anything else in this entire
universe. It has, it shall, and it will
happen. God will bring you to Himself
if you're anchored in Christ, if you're anchored by the blood
of Christ. Friends, if there is one person, understand this,
if there is one person that God has elected and that
Christ has died for. If one person is missing, then
God has lied. You see, God has a lot more to
lose than we do. Isn't that right? You see, He
would cease to be God if He did not save all who are in Christ. This is how sure our salvation
is. Friends, do you think for one
minute God is going to lose His deity? Do you think for one minute
that God is going to go back on His promise? Never. Never. Never. Believers, when the storms of
doubt arise, when the waves of fear roll over our souls because
of our sins. When our lives have been brought
to our face and we feel downcast and oppressed, let us then look
to the oath of God and it should comfort our souls. My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare
not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. His oath, His covenant, His blood
support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ, the solid rock, I
stand. All other ground is sinking sand." Friends, let us remember the
oath of God. I know that we have broken our
oaths, but God will never break His. And this should teach us
as believers in Christ that we should be people of our word. If we're people of God, shouldn't
we be following our God? When He makes an oath, does He
not keep it? So should we. So should we. Let our speech
be yes, yes, and no, no. Anything else is evil. Anything
else is evil. I pray that God blesses to us.
Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.