9-4-22 - The Value of Truth

In your Bible, if you would look with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter five, when you find your place, we will honor God's word as we read and stand and read verse thirty three down to verse number thirty seven. Appreciate Braden doing such a great job preaching in my stead and love to listen to him preach as I was away and I always had to make sure he didn't tell any jokes or stories on me, too.

A couple of reasons you need to listen in. But Matthew five thirty three, the Bible says, again, you have heard that it had been said by them of old time, thou shall not forswear thyself, but shall 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.

Let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Father, we pray your word would be revealed to our hearts. Give us the humility to receive the engrafted word, which is not only able to save, but to sanctify.

We ask it in Jesus name. And God's people said, man, you may be seated this morning. Today we return to the greatest of all sermons that has ever been preached, which is the Sermon on the Mount, which expands from Matthew Chapter five to the end of Chapter seven. We've already looked at nineteen sermons in Chapter five alone as we've examined the glory of our Lord's words. Here we have the very one who is the word of God preaching God's word to us. And the wealth of scripture is that God has given us his truth. God has brought heaven's truth to earth, and he's revealed to us ultimate reality.

He's revealing to us what really is. The Bible tells us that God is a God of truth. The Bible says in Psalms thirty one verse five into thine hands, I commend my spirit. Thou has redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. I would ask you, who could you entrust your soul to at the end of your life when you're breathing your last breath?

Is there anyone other than God that you could entrust your soul to the one who has given eternal life? The God of truth alone is able to be entrusted with that time and our soul. Deuteronomy thirty two verse four says he is the rock. His work is perfect for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is he.

Here, Moses declares that God is a rock. He is stable, steadfast in a world of fickleness and a world of men who build sandcastles with their truths. God is stable.

He is also perfect. God alone declares the word of God is perfect in comparison to a world where man is universally corrupt and no one is perfect. God's ways are judgment. The Bible says in his perfection, he produces judgment that is perfectly just. And here we see rooted in the God of truth is stability, is perfection, is judgment.

They all proceed out of the reality of God who is truth. And God doesn't simply speak truth. Rather, God is true. Truth is not simply information. Truth is a person.

Jesus declared, I am the way, the truth and the life. God emanates truth. Moses declared that God is also without iniquity here in Deuteronomy thirty two verse number four, that in God there is no sin. How incredibly wonderful in a world drowning in sin. There is one who stands, who alone is without sin.

And he is the one who is alone. God, the one who has eternally been, has eternally been without any sin. How long can you go without sinning? How long does it take before you and I commit some kind of a sin? How long does it take before we allow something to take God's place in our heart and our mind in our life? How long does it take before we love ourselves more than we love others? How long does it take before a wrong thought, a wrong action, a wrong word, before it comes out of our mouth? And we think that, think of God who's eternally been, has eternally been without sin.

How wonderful. It is only in God we find untainted perfection, sinless righteousness. In chapter four of Matthew's Gospel, we find that Jesus was tempted for forty days by Satan, and Satan could not cause him to commit even one sin. How quickly Satan could cause Adam and Eve to sin, who were our representatives in the garden, to commit sin and cause us to be eternally infected with the sin nature. But Jesus Christ, who represented us in the wilderness, never committed any sin.

Adam fell when he had everything in the garden. Jesus stood even when he had nothing in the wilderness. Who today does not need the grace of God? Who would not need God's mercy applied to their life? Who could stand before the eternal God of truth and say, I don't need your forgiveness?

Then all of us today would need to humble ourselves before the eternal God of truth and call out for divine mercy. And what you find, friends, in this great Sermon on the Mount is the God of truth. The word made flesh coming and bringing heaven's truth to a world groping in darkness. Jesus brought right side up truth to an upside down world. He came to seek and to save the lost.

But the problem is the lost never seek to be saved until they realize they're lost. And the great tragedy of our Lord's day, the great barrier that the Lord had to cross in dealing with people was twofold. One is this man was inherently and is inherently prideful. We universally think that we are better than we are. Naturally, we think we are OK with God. Proverbs 16 two says all the ways of man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits. Proverbs 21 verse two says every man, every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord ponder at the heart. That's why we defend ourselves. That's why we justify our sins.

We say things aren't as bad as they really are. We like to sanctify, if you would, our sinfulness today in our world instead of people repenting of their sin. They call people who hold to God's truth the ones who need to repent. You and I would be the ones the world says need to repent and get our hearts right with the cultural standards. But Isaiah five twenty says, woe unto them that call good evil and evil good that put darkness for light and light for darkness, to put better for sweet and sweet for better.

Today, we live in a world that has caved into the desires of men. And as we have become more sinful, we have now justified our sins. Today, sin is being promoted and legally protected and righteousness is fast becoming illegal in our country. Preaching on certain sins is becoming both a violation of cultural standards and soon to be a violation of legal standards. Proverbs 30 verse 12 says there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, but yet are not washed from their filthiness.

It was no different than in our Lord's day. The Jewish people believe they are OK with God. They believe that because of their nationality, because they were Jewish people, they were descendants of Abraham. They believe that that's what made them children of God.

They believe their nationality saved them. And then one called the voice in the wilderness that Isaiah forty prophesied of Micah chapter four also declared came and proclaimed to them repentance. In Matthew three to said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He said in verse eight and nine of Matthew's gospel chapter three, he says, bring forth therefore fruits, meet for repentance and think not to say within yourselves.

We have Abraham to our father freezes. I say to you that God could raise up the stones to be children of Abraham, the forerunner of our Lord, who prepared the way for the Lord, prepared the way and paved that path through preaching repentance. Do you understand what prepares people to meet God is preaching that calls people to repent. They must recognize their sin.

Bob Kane was right when he says, I read the word of God and I saw that I was a sinner and God is not OK with sin. We must know that when I came to Zinnia 13 years ago in this month, we're celebrating 13 years literally to like this day. Yeah, 13 years ago today was the first Sunday sermon that we had. Let's give the Lord a hand for his mercy.

Amen. And God God called us to come here. And you know what the message was? Tell people that they are not right with God, that they are sinners in need of a savior and without Christ, they would be separate from God forever in hell. Does that sound like a very palatable message that a good sales message? OK, there's a lot of things that the customer would not approve of in that message.

Right. But we're not here to please men. We're here to please God. And God's the one who builds his church.

We just proclaim the message he brings in the harvest. Repentance is what always allows us to be prepared to meet the Lord. Repentance, friends, is turning, turning away from our sin and turning to the Lord. It's it's seeing sin as God sees it. It's like God gives us the clarity of what our sin is. It's gross.

It's detestable. And the sin that we once loved, we now hate because we see how God feels about our sin. And we turn from our sin and turn to God.

It's an inward change that always produces an outward change. Sometimes people say, oh, I've been saved, but there's been no change in their life and there's been no salvation in their life. People struggle to see their sin in the days of our Lord. Jesus said in Luke 16, 15, he told the people, Ye are they which justify yourself before men, but God knows your hearts. And Jesus had to preach repentance to them. He he started his message that way in Matthew 4 17. It says Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The only way to enter into heaven is through the door of repentance.

You must repent to be saved. The first obstacle the Lord had to deal with with was man's inherent self righteousness. He viewed himself as being OK with God. The second obstacle that Jesus Christ had to deal with in this day, in Matthew five, in this in the purpose behind this sermon is is was religion. Religion was the greatest obstacle that Lord Jesus Christ had to overcome. You say I thought religion was a good thing. Religion is great, if not corrupted by man's pride. Religion is pure if it's only through what the word of God teaches. But there are two two realities to religion. There is the religion of divine accomplishment, which is the true and pure gospel that salvation is only by the grace of God who reaches down and saves the sinner. And God is all glorified from that. And then there's the religion of man's accomplishment, where man seeks to produce righteousness through his own actions that are observance of ordinances or are going to taking the Eucharist and being baptized and holding to sacraments and such things. Such things damn people souls.

They don't save them. Those who should have been in Jesus' day, the representatives that should have preached light to the people, to call them to repentance, to call them to be made right with God, were the very one standing in the way and keeping people from heaven. Jesus said of the Pharisees in his day, he said they proselyte people and make them a twofold child of hell than themselves.

Don't be deceived. The greatest of all assaults against God and his truth is religion. Nothing has sent more people to hell than religion. Religion is man's attempt again to make himself right with God.

It is man making standards that he can live up to. It's bringing God's holiness down to where man can live up to it. Religion dethrones God's holiness. Religion is not man racing toward God in some admirable way of saying, Oh, look how look how devout they are.

Look how sincere they are. It's not man running toward God. Religion is man running away from God and creating a satanic counterfeit. Religion at its core is satanic. That's why Jesus said to the people of his day, the religious leaders of his day of Judaism, he said, You are of your father, the devil in in John 8 44.

How offensive was that? You know, Jesus would walk into some churches even in our cities and say, You are of your father, the devil. Do you realize that? You know, when Jesus came in Revelation two and three, he didn't march on the government. He didn't march on city official situations.

He marched on the churches. The problem in America is not in the White House. It's in the pulpits of America. And until God's preachers start preaching the word of God, there will never be a revival in a transformation. We're not looking to the White House to save us. And God's people said, I can tell you that's not going to happen. Aren't you thankful our hope is not in the White House?

Anybody thankful for that? Whether this president, the next president, the previous president, our hope is not there. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's going to set a pure and righteous kingdom up that will never be tainted by any Republican or any Democrat. And all God's people said.

If you want to write me a letter, keep it to yourself. You need to understand religion was what chanted crucify him, crucify him. It was religion that killed the early Christians and persecuted the church. Those most influential leaders of religion among the Jews in that day were the scribes and Pharisees. There were also a group called the Essenes who were more esoteric.

They were out in the wilderness. And then there were a group called the Sadducees who were more political. And they used religion as a way to have power politically. But the main influential group among the people of Jesus Day were the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes were the copyists of the law.

They they copied the law down on papyrus. And they also wrote commentaries on the word of God. Then you had the Pharisees. They were strong believers in the word of God, as were the scribes. These were devout readers of the Bible. Many of them would have memorized much of the Old Testament, some of them, even all of it. They were very devout in reading. They would have put most of us to shame in how they studied the Bible, if not all of us. And though both groups were serious about the word of God, they had some major flaws that kept them in the dark.

And in their zeal for God's word, they mixed one poison that destroyed the whole system. And do you know the one poison that will ruin you if you read the word of God as insatiably, is if you mix in pride with it. When you read the word of God, if you become inflated about yourself thinking you can actually fulfill this, and that you are somehow feeling better about yourself as you read the Bible, I'm a pretty good person. I think I can do this. I really think I can love others as myself. I really think I can forgive as God forgives.

I really think I can do this. I don't even really... I don't have any sin. We had some guys preach a couple years ago on the corner of our church who said, Lighthouse is a church of heresy because we don't believe that those who God saves, God keeps. We believe that when you're saved, you're always saved. That who God saves, He keeps. And they say, no, you'll lose your salvation if you don't maintain good works. And your good works are what keep you saved. And so He stood there and said, He is without any sin. So you're without any sin?

I didn't say this, but I thought, why do you have this? Did you know gluttony is a sin? Do you have no evil thoughts ever?

Do you share the gospel with every single person you come in contact to? You know, sin is not simply the things we're not supposed to do. Also, when we know what we're supposed to do and we don't do it, those are sins as well.

But such a mindset has to create some kind of false dichotomy that they can be sinless, yet be saved. Instead of being humbled by God's law, the people in Jesus, they were being swelled up with pride. God gave the Ten Commandments. He gave the Old Testament. He gave the sacrificial system to show men their need for divine mercy and grace. But in this day, the scribes and Pharisees, they codified the laws of God in the Old Testament to 613 commands that were to be followed. 248 positive commands and 365 prohibitions.

They believe they could keep them all. But God's word is clear. The law of God was never designed to save anyone.

It was designed to show men their need of a savior. That's why Galatians 3 24 says, But the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. When you come to the law of God, it is to point you to Jesus. That's why when people came to Jesus and said, Good Master, what good thing could I do that I may have eternal life? He always pointed them to the law because the law is designed to show you your sin. So then you would see your need of a savior. And until you recognize how sinful you are, you'll never realize how much you need the savior. And there's people throughout our country, throughout even churches today, if you ask them, If you stood before God and he said, Why should I let you into heaven?

What would you say? And they say, Well, I'm a pretty good person. Well, you must never have gone to the law. You must be blinded by your pride. You must not understand reality. You must be groping in the dark still, because when you understand God's standard, you realize how far we have all fallen short of such a standard.

Friend, nothing will blind you more than pride. Secondly, the people of that day, their pride caused them to add to God's word. They added their own man made traditions.

They thought they were so good. They began to add things to the Bible. You know, people still do that today. Well, if you're a pastor and you don't have a tie on, then you're just not really a good pastor. If you're a pastor and you don't have a certain this or certain that if you're a church member and you, you know, there was a day if a woman wear jeans and she's not really a Christian.

If a guy's hair touches the end of his head, back of his shirt, and he must not really be safe. And they begin people begin to add stuff to the Bible and that corrupted the church. Those kind of things corrupt the church.

Amen. Do you really think this handkerchief makes a pastor of more faithful pastor? Do you understand hypocrites can dress and look good?

Anybody can dress and look good on the outside. God searches the heart and he rebuked them severely for such things. Mark seven, verse 19, he says, full well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition. He said in verse 13, making the word of God of none effect through your tradition. The scribes and Pharisees externalized everything, and that's what false religion does. It makes it all external. It makes it all.

How is it looking on the outside? But hypocrites and atheists can look good on the outside. But only true believers could have a humble spirit before God, broken repentance, a true love for God and a true love for others. As God's called us to. That's what God is looking for.

And when you get right on the inside, it flows to the outside. That's why when you come to the Beatitudes in Matthew five, notice where Jesus starts. Matthew five, verse three. The first thing he says is blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You don't you don't get to heaven by by some external thing. You get to heaven by being poor in spirit.

You say, what does that mean? Well, poor in spirit means that you recognize you're spiritually bankrupt on the inside. If if righteousness is the currency that brings salvation, you recognize you have nothing in your account. You have no righteous currency. You have nothing to pay God with. On my own, the Bible says there's none righteous. No, not one. Romans 310.

None doeth good. Romans 312. Jesus said the only one that's good is God. For somebody to say they think they're good enough to get to heaven, they're equaling themselves to God.

What a delusion. And so Christ has to undermine the whole system. If you want to know what the purpose of Matthew five through seven, the Sermon on the Mount is, it's to show man their sinfulness so they would see their need to repent and come to the Savior. And until and listen, nobody will ever repent who doesn't believe they're a sinner. And the only way they see they're a sinner is you have to preach the holiness and righteous standards of God. So Jesus does that. He brings to them the righteous standards of God as opposed to what they were seeing and hearing. So so Jesus pits himself against the false teachers of the day. Look what he says in verse number 20. He said, For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. All the people of the day would have gasped. They're like the scribes and Pharisees.

We have to be better than them. Oh, I mean, these scribes and Pharisees, they fasted twice a week, two days a week. Every week they didn't eat food because they they wanted and they would let everybody know it, too. Oh, God, I'm I'm fasting today and they would everybody would see that they were fasting and they did it to please men. They wanted men's favor and they they gave tithes and they made sure everybody knew it. They made sure everybody knew when they had long prayers, they would stand in public places to pray so everybody could see it. Hypocrites are deficient in the duty of private prayer because it's no benefit to them. They always have to pray publicly.

They always have to do nothing wrong with praying publicly, nothing wrong with fasting those things. But to be seen of men is the problem is Matthew six will get into. And so the Lord keeps it. He says this six times in verse twenty one down the verse forty eight of Matthew five. He says, You have said you have heard that it had been said of them of old. But I say unto you, you've heard that it's been said by then of old.

But I say to you, he says it six times. We've seen the first three where he dealt with with murder, adultery and divorce. They thought they were good because they didn't murder anybody. Jesus said, If you have anger in your heart towards someone, that's murder on the inside is that, well, we didn't commit any adultery. We're good before God. And they said, Jesus says, If you have lust in your heart towards someone, he said, that's you've committed adultery with them already in your heart. They they had an easy divorce system built off the teachings of Rabbi Hillel in those days that you could easily divorce anybody for anything. And and he says, you're you're creating an entire culture of adulterers.

And we looked at that for the last few weeks. And so he was showing them their sinfulness, not to simply make them miserable, but to allow that misery of sin to point them to their need of repentance and salvation. And so his desire is to see them saved and understand this. You'll never come to the joy of salvation until you go through the valley of misery of your sin. Until you are broken over your sin, you mourn and you're grieved by it. I never want lighthouse. I would never want the 600 some people here to leave feeling great about themselves.

I would rather you feeling worse about yourself. Because if we're here to preach the divine standard, which is so high, we can't even reach it. How could we come and hear about God's perfection and the divine standard and how far we fall short of that and leave feeling great about ourselves?

How could we do that? If we could leave feeling great about ourselves, we're no different than the scribes and Pharisees. And there's churches plastered across this landscape of this nation that only want to make people feel great. Your best life now, how you're so wonderful, you just need to realize your true potential, how great you are. Believe in yourself, really.

Vomit that out. You find the same thing on Oprah Winfrey, Joel Osteen and the rest of that. What you find in the word of God is God setting a standard so high it leaves men naked, destitute and broken. And they come and say, Oh, God, my desire is not that we leave feeling great about ourselves, but we leave feeling great about the mercy and grace that spanned us from the pits of hell up to the glories of heaven. And what we could not reach to grace and mercy brought us to.

We should leave here rejoicing in Christ, our savior, overwhelmed by the goodness of God, easily forgiving others because we're like, well, God has given forgiven me so much sin. How could I not forgive them? How could I not be merciful to them? How could I hold grudges against this person when God's been so gracious to me?

That's what we want to have, not where we're so inflated about ourself. How dare you say that about me? How dare you do that to me? Get off your high horse. People say, Oh, I can't believe they said that about me on social media.

Praise God that they don't know everything about you. Amen. That's the truth. So with that is the introduction. Let's jump into this this morning. I've been gone for a week. There's a lot bottled up in here.

All right. Just a few thoughts here. First of all, the misconstrued teachings of the day. Verse 33, it says again, you have heard that have been said by them of all.

Thou shall not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord of thine oaths. Jesus here is referring back to what they've been taught for the last 500 years under the synagogue teaching of the rabbis. The synagogues were birthed out of the Babylonian captivity when they rebuilt the temple and they built synagogues all over the place.

There was over 400 synagogues in Jerusalem. Whenever you had 10 Jewish men, you would have a head of a synagogue and you would have you would have a place where the word of God could be taught. And Jesus would teach in synagogues. And so would Paul and so forth. There were places to learn the word of God and be taught it. And much of what you see in churches today is really formulated after that.

What Jesus was also a part of. And so they would stay. They would read the word of God.

Then they would teach it and then they would apply it. So you have here, he says, you've heard that have been said by them of all time. Jesus is is referring to the teaching of the rabbis, which some of the things they taught were right. But many of the things they taught had misconstrued God's truth. And so he says in one of the teachings he's dealing with here, the fourth one of these teachings in verse 21 through 48 is a teaching on oath taking and really being honest.

They had devalued truth. And so there are three passages in the Old Testament that they built their oath taking off of. Leviticus 19, Numbers 30 and Deuteronomy 23.

I want to read these three verses to you because I want you to see what they're they're taking this from Leviticus 19. It says, And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, God says. Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord or I am Yahweh. So he's saying, do not falsely swear by my name.

Don't don't swear something and then be dishonest about it. You're blaspheming God's name when you do that. Numbers 30, verse two. If a man vow a vow unto the Lord or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. So if you do make a vow, you do swear unto God.

Make sure you follow that. You've bound your soul to that. Deuteronomy 23, 21. When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack the pay it for the Lord thy God will surely require of thee. And it shall be sin unto thee. The sin is not making the oath. The sin, he's saying, is breaking the oath.

So these are the three main texts they built their teachings off of. And Jesus says here. Again, you have heard it been said by them of all, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. The word forswear there means to swear falsely.

It's just forswear. It's kind of a confusing old English word. It's just the idea that you're swearing something, but you're not going to hold to it. Don't swear falsely. Don't make an oath and you know you're not going to fulfill that. By doing so, you're perjuring yourself. Perjury is basically lying intentionally in a setting of a court when you know that that's false.

You're intentionally being dishonest. And the word forswear here and the word oath is actually from two different Greek words. The word oaths is is horkos in the Greek.

It means to enclose, as with offense, to bind together the truth of an oath or vow is enclosed, bound and then strengthened by whatever you're building the oath upon. In this situation, the name of God. So you make an oath and you pull God's name into it. Hebrews 6 16 explains oaths.

It says for men, verily swear by the greater. So when you make an oath, you always go up the ladder. You don't make an oath based on something less than yourself. That would only weaken your statement.

You would go up. You would you would promise or make an oath on something greater than yourself. And it says for men, verily swear by the greater. And an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. And the idea there is that when you make an oath, it would it would call God to be a witness. When you're when you're like like when somebody says, I I swear to God that this is the truth. They're calling God as being a witness of that and that he would testify that you're right.

And then he would hold you accountable if you were not right. And so he says in Hebrews 6, it's used to end all strife, meaning the oath was generally taking at taken as the absolute truth and it would end the argument because of that. So in the Bible, you find that Old Testament saints, they made oaths before God. And this happened regularly throughout the Old Testament because making oaths or swearing to God is not wrong. According to scripture, as we'll see, they did this throughout the Bible. Abraham swore to God and made an oath when when he rescued his nephew Lot. When Shaddam Leer, king of nations, took over Sodom and Gomorrah and and he came and delivered Lot and Abraham had like 300 some armed soldiers in his own house and they rescued Lot. They also rescued the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and the king of Sodom said, hey, we're going to repay you. And he says, I have lifted up my hand to God, the God of heaven.

I will not take anything from you, lest you say I've become rich through your own hands. He also made the steward of his house, where in Genesis 24, verse three says, I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of Earth, that thou shall not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell. He says, don't you swear, Eliezer, that you will not take a wife for my son Isaac from from the Canaanites, but you'll go to my homeland and bring somebody from my my extended family there. Joseph made the children of Israel swear to God that they would bring his bones out of Egypt into the promised land, and they carry them out 400 years later. David and Jonathan made a covenant together before God.

David swore to the Lord that he would bring the tabernacle into Jerusalem in Psalm 132. Ruth swore to Naomi. She swore to God before God to Naomi that she would stay by Naomi's side. Joshua swore an oath before God to the people of Gibeah, therefore he would not destroy them.

Rahab made the two spies that she hid swear to God that they would come and not destroy her, but they would be gracious to her and her family. So you find many Old Testament saints doing that. You also find in the Bible that God swore on his own name. When God tested Abraham's faith to offer Isaac, God stopped him, and in Genesis 22 16 it says, And he said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou has done this thing and has not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee. God says, I swear to you on myself that I will bless you because you've been faithful.

The author of Hebrews recounts this in Hebrews 6 13. It says, For when God made promises to Abraham, notice what it says, because he could swear by no greater. He swore by himself. You know why? Who else is God going to swear by than himself?

There's no one else up the ladder. When God had to swear, he had to swear by his own self. I swear by myself that this is going to happen is literally what happened there.

And that was validating this. And God swore to give the promised land of the Jewish people in Deuteronomy 31 verse 20 says, For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swear into their fathers. Now God did not make an oath and swear upon himself because other things he said was were not as trustworthy or truthful. Rather, he swore upon himself to bring special attention to what he was saying. It was no different than when Jesus said, Verily I say unto you or verily verily I say unto you. And he would say this to bring special attention to what he was saying so that you would realize this is something that you need to hear. You need to know that this is extremely valuable, extremely important. Notice what God swears to in Isaiah 45, 23.

This is very fascinating. He says, I have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth and righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear. It's not cursing swearing when you hear all this word swearing today. That's always what it's saying is they're swearing to God. And what he's saying here is in the idea that every tongue shall swear is the idea that people would swear allegiance to a monarch. God says, I swear that this will happen one day. Every knee will bow to me and every tongue will swear allegiance.

Then who are they going to swear allegiance to? Well, that verse is quoted in Romans 14 and Philippians Chapter two, Romans 14. It says, for it is written the phrase as I live literally means I swear to God.

That's that's that's swearing. Sayeth the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. And Philippians two, it says every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.

You know what God swears? He says, I swear to you this will happen. I swear to you by myself, by my own name, that every knee will bow to me and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. They will swear allegiance to him. I swear this will happen.

You think that's going to come to pass? I bow my knees now before the Lord Jesus Christ confess he is Lord. I swear to you, Jesus is Lord.

I mean, that's that's the idea. We swear when you get saved, you're swearing your allegiance to Christ. God, I swear to my soul unto you. You are my God.

I confess you alone is Lord. God says, I swear that's going to happen in the New Testament. Again, Jesus used the word barely, barely. So in the Old Testament, based on Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 23 and Numbers 30, as well as Old Testament making vows and God making vows, we learned God gave permission. For vow making and oaths under two conditions.

First of all, they were only to be made under extremely special circumstances. And secondly, they were only to be made in the name of the Lord. In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy Chapter six, verse 13, it says, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him. Thou shalt swear by his name. He warned against swearing by false gods in Jeremiah 12, 16. The problem of that day was they twisted the Old Testament scriptures that said to make sure that you keep your promise if you swore in the name of the Lord. But if you swore in something else, then you really didn't need to keep your word. So what the Jews did was they were like they held to the when it says anybody who swears by the name of the Lord, you better keep your oath.

They said, well, if you swear by something that's not to the name of the Lord, then if you just say, I swear you don't use God's name or you use something else, then then then those are optional to keep. And so they swore by all kinds of things. They swore by heaven. They swore by Earth. They swore by Jerusalem. They swore by their beard, by their hair. Instead of regulating oaths to vows to be very important circumstances that you would make those vows and oaths in very important settings, they were they were just flippantly and in everyday circumstances, just making oaths and making vows towards silly things.

I swear upon my beard that this is the case. And they would wonder, I said, if you looked if you said you swear by Jerusalem, you know, that was not a binding oath. But if you look toward Jerusalem, then it was very binding and you had to fulfill it. This inside the Jewish Mishnah they had, which is the oral tradition of the Jews. They have whole large segments about writing about oaths and there was oath taking. And you just need to understand this was a big deal in that day. People were and what it did was it created a culture of lying deception.

A bunch of liars and deceivers and twisting the truth. And so here we see the clarity of Christ in verse thirty four through thirty six. Our Lord rebukes this and shows them their sinfulness. Verse thirty four, he says, But I say you swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it's God's throne, neither by the earth, for it's his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it's the city of the great king. Neither shalt I swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black. William Barkley insightfully writes, The principle which Jesus lays down is quite clear. In effect, Jesus is saying that so far from having to make God a partner in any transaction, no man can keep God out of the transaction because God is already there. You say, well, I'm swearing by heaven.

You know, I'm not swearing to God. Well, heaven's his throne. Well, I'll swear by the earth. Well, that's his footstool. I'll swear by Jerusalem.

Well, that's the city of the great king. Well, I'll swear by my hair. You don't own your hair. God does. Some of you say God sold my hair.

It's all gone. But Jesus is highlighting the fact that God is the creator of all. He owns everything. So when you ever make a promise, you ever make an oath or swear, you're engaging God into that transaction. He's already preceded your words. In the midst of a world of lying and deceiving, broken promises, false swearing, the Lord was calling for truthfulness, for people to hold to their promises, to be sincere and uphold the truth in everyday speech. Now, I do not believe that Jesus is saying all oath taking is to be stopped. For God not only approves of oath taking in the Old Testament, he does it himself. But also, you see, in the New Testament, Paul swore by the name of the Lord repeatedly. And Romans 1 9, Paul writes, For God is my witness.

You know what that's saying? I call God to witness. This is literally I'm bringing God into a witness. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit and the gospel of his Son, that I make mention of you, that without ceasing, I make mention of you in my prayers. And he's saying, basically, I'm swearing to God.

I call God as my witness that I pray for you. And he says in Romans 9, verse 1, I say the truth in Christ. What's he mean by that? I'm saying this truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. He's calling Christ and the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to what he's about to say.

This is a this is a vowel making, swearing type of of language. So when Jesus says, swear not at all, he's opposing the lying system of oath taking in their day, specifically. Verse 37, he says, let your communication, let your words be yes. The word yay just means yes or nay nay or no.

What he's saying there is when you speak, make sure you mean what you say and you say what you mean. Let your yeses mean yes and your nos mean no. You know, the people who constantly have to swear, make oaths and promise. Oh, I promise to God and I I swear and and they they say that kind of language. You know, the people who have to do that are the people who are not trustworthy. Well, I promise. No, I promise I I put my hand on my promise.

Why do you have to do that? Richard Sipp says the life of an honest man is an oath. You have somebody who has integrity, who upholds their word, whatever they say, their word is their bond. You're like they don't need to say anything else when they say it. I know that's the truth.

I can trust them. You know who has to constantly swear. And you know, the people who don't have to constantly swear, the ones who have integrity. Spurgeon says if we cannot be believed on our word, we are surely not to be trusted on our oath. Jesus also taught here that evil will be produced when your conversation has to constantly involve swearing throughout your casual life. People say, oh, I swear to God, I promise to God as God is my witness, I'm telling you. Let me let me ask this.

How often are such conversations in a setting where there's debate filled with pride? Trying to argue your point into being where anger and frustration cause you to begin to swear and the promise. And do you really want to invoke and to call the eternal God of truth, whose holiness consumed Mount Sinai in a fiery flame to come and and sit in on that conversation? And you want to call him the witness who searches the reins of your heart? You really want to do that? Secondly.

Just to. Call God's name in such a whimsical manner needs to be understood as sinful. Listen, God's name is holy. We should never use God's name in a flippant way. The only name only time God's name should come out of our mouth is when we give great weight and value to God's name. People say, oh, mine, they use God's name or or they see something. Oh, and they use the Lord's name. You know, they they burnt the biscuits and, you know, they they just throw God's name out. You know, you know what it means when it says don't take the name of the Lord in vain.

It doesn't mean don't take it without like don't cuss and use God's name, which is blasphemy. But the word vain is from a Hebrew word that means without any weight. It's without any weight.

It's to say God's name. You don't give any weight to it. You've had somebody who said like, man, what that what that guy said was really heavy.

That was a heavy what you're saying is it was there was there was weighty, it was heavy, it was valuable. You ever had somebody say, you know, they just they're taking me very light. Well, what's that mean? They're not giving you any reverence. And the idea of taking God's name in vain is the idea of saying that, God, your name is without any weight.

And just you you don't do that when you've burnt the biscuits. You don't do that when somebody stops in front of you in traffic and you're irritating, you use God's name. So that's blasphemy. And God says, I will not hold him guiltless who takes my name in vain. You know, God said that in the Ten Commandments.

It made his top ten list and it landed at number three. The serious stuff with God. Never write OMG. What is that saying? You're just throwing the name of God. Well, it's just a letter.

What's it representing? We need to we need to elevate the name of God to such a way to where it should. We should feel the weight of his name when it comes out of our mouth, even in songs.

Sometimes I'm always I have to engage my heart and mind. I think about what are we going to sing, because I don't want to just rattle off words about God without any thought in them. And you need to make sure you're here on time to where you can sing unto the Lord. Right.

If you can show the work on time or you can show up 15 minutes early to a ball game, we need to show up early to church and say, let's greet one another and let's sing praises to the king who's worthy of my Sunday mornings. Amen. Well, I was up late watching the Buckeyes win, baby.

Yeah, that's a side note there. That'll get you excited. Like, hey, man, that's the best statement we had all day.

I even know what I got. It's too late for me. I woke up this morning. I said, oh, come on. Don't don't let our church be filled with grumpy people today. Oh, good.

You know. Now, I do believe there are times that making oaths and taking oaths are acceptable. When I stood on a platform years ago, 20 years ago, actually, I made a covenant before God and before witnesses that I will be bound in a relationship till death do its part with my wife. I made that vow before God. And as a preacher, I call people to that when they're married.

You are making a covenant before God and before these witnesses, you're making this vow not only to people, but before God, that you'll be faithful in your marriage. I made a vow to God that I would be faithful to preach his word as a young man. I said, God, I promise to you, I I make an oath before God that I will not seek to deceive people through the preaching. I will faithfully preach your word. I will not seek to to make people happy with what you what I think they should hear and cut out other parts of the Bible.

I think are offensive, but I'll preach the whole counsel of God and God do so to me and more if I don't preach the word of God faithfully. I still call God to record that that witness to what I preach is the most important thing I do every week. It's what I give the most sincere time to is the study of the word of God, because there's nothing heavier than this. It's heavy every week.

We close with some some application thoughts. First of all, listen, friends, you can have the word of God read it, study it, even memorize it and be as lost as anyone. If you can read the word of God and walk away thinking you are worthy that you can live up to God's standard, then your heart has been deceived with pride and it will keep you in the dark. But if you are humble, if you are inwardly broken and even devastated by God's word, if after a sermon you may even feel worse or your toe stepped on, if you feel you cannot live up to God's standard, then you are blessed with humility to receive the engrafted word which can save your soul, that we are sinners in need of God's grace and mercy, that you would agree with God that sin is evil, as God says it is, that you would be grieved by your sin, turn from your sin, turn to God and confess he is Lord, that you might be saved. Listen, truth is not always comfortable, but when you come to the truth, God will comfort you. If you're not saved today, well, if men and women stand at that door and this door, you could come today and say, I need to be saved and they'll pull you aside in a private room, sit down with you and show you from the word of God just like Bob Kane, and that you could be saved today.

Wouldn't it be good knowing today when you go home that you would be with the Lord no matter what would happen? Secondly, to make an oath to God is not wrong if done in a serious manner, to recognize you're binding your heart and your life in that commitment. Do not make whimsical oaths. Do not inject God into some whimsical flippant conversation.

Such things are evil. Also, thirdly, be a man or woman of your word. What you say needs to be truthful. Do not be a liar.

Make sure you speak the truth and keep your word. There's a book that came out called The Day America Told the Truth. It surveyed thousands of people in 50 different locations, and it showed that 91 percent of Americans said that they lie regularly. Eighty six percent of the people say they lie to their parents. Seventy five percent say they lie to their friends. Seventy three percent lie to their siblings. Sixty one percent lie to their boss. Fifty nine percent lie to their children. It was stunning when you read through that, just all the statistics showing how when people really get honest, when people don't know what sins are attached to them, how much sin there is.

The question I would ask is, how does God feel about lying? Proverbs six, verse 16. This is tremendous. Says these six things doth the Lord. What's the next word?

Pretty strong word, isn't it? Yea, seven are an abomination to him. A proud look, which we've already looked at the devastation of pride. The second thing on the list that God hates is a lying tongue. God hates lying tongues. And he lists his hatred for lying tongues before hands that shed innocent blood.

It's incredible in a heart that divides the wicked imagination, feet that are swift to running the mischief. Then he says a false witness speaks lies. He landed liars twice in six things. There's the Lord hating the seven are abomination and those that list of seven, two of them have to do with lying. God hates lying.

And what's the result of lying? Well, the Bible tells us liars will be separated from God. Revelation twenty one eight.

Listen to what the Bible says. This is the last book of the Bible. The last judgment says, but the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters. And the only one that God puts the word all in front of is what word? And all liars and what would be the consequence, friends, according to the word of God, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Should that make us leave here today feeling great about ourselves? You understand what happens when you preach faithfully the word of God? It should cause us to be humbled to examine our soul in light of the heaviness and weightiness of God's word.

Revelation twenty one fifteen. He says this seven verses later, for without our dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. He's talking about who is outside of the kingdom of God in one of those, he says, are people who make lies. The Bible tells us Satan is a liar and the father of lies. You know, in Genesis three, it was a lie that Satan used that caused Adam and Eve to fall into sin.

You shall not surely die if you eat of this fruit of the tree. Today, people do the same thing as Satan. Did they downplay sin? They speak of it as not being that bad. Oh, there's nothing wrong with it.

And people use a silly phrase like this. You know, God understands my sin. God understands it. All that is a deceitful, lying, dishonest, misrepresentation of God, bringing the holiness of God down to the sinfulness of man, bringing God's righteousness into the mire of our filth. God is not like us. The Bible says in him is light and in him there is no darkness at all there. He is untainted with sin.

Praise God for that. In Genesis twenty seven, Rebecca had Jacob lie to Isaac to receive the blessing. That lie produced bitter fruit in the family for many decades. In Genesis four, Cain lied to cover up his murder. In Genesis thirty nine, Potiphar's wife lied to make Joseph look bad. She sought to frame him for her own sin. Ever told a lie about someone that you knew was not true just to get them in trouble?

That is a wicked thing. Peter lied in the garden for self-preservation. You know what Peter did in the garden? He swore that he did not know Jesus. He was saying basically, I swear to God that I don't know Jesus. And when it says that he began to swear and to curse, it doesn't mean he cussed. It means that he was calling down curses from God if he was lying. He was literally saying, I swear to God and may God curse me if I do know Jesus.

I don't know the man. That's how wicked that conversation was. No wonder he ran out and wept bitterly. You know, sometimes we can be dishonest for self-preservation. Have any Christians in the room?

People don't typically ask that at work, but when it comes lunchtime, do you ever bow your head and unashamedly pray and thank God for the food? Do you ever stand up for righteousness when wickedness abounds? In Acts five, you have Ananias and Sapphira lying for the purpose of looking good. They lied to the Holy Spirit and the Bible says God took their life for that.

Today, people can intentionally exaggerate things to make themselves look good. That is a sinful thing. Instead of lying, Christians must tell the truth. Ephesians four twenty five says, wherefore put away lying, speak every man to truth with his neighbor. And as I close, I ask you, do you speak the truth? Are you a truthful person?

Let your yeses mean yes and let your nos mean no. You know what Jesus said in John fourteen six? He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. Jesus declared himself to be the truth.

And before Herod and in John eighteen, he said, everyone who hears the truth hears my voice. Do you know why you're sitting here today? You're drawn to this. This draws you to itself like like water does to our thirst. You become thirsty in your soul for the truth.

You're sick of the lies and deceits of the world. And you want something that is pure, the unadulterated truth of God's word. Even if it stings, that's what I want, God. I want the word of God. I want the truth of God. Jesus said, everyone that's of the truth follows me. Do you follow this? There's people who say, oh, I'm saved and they don't want anything to do with the Bible, nothing to do with church, nothing to do with Christianity. They've deceived themselves. Today, friend, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior, we'll have men and women stand at these doors.

You can just come up to one of them and say, hey, I want to know what my life's over, how I can be in heaven. I agree with the rest of the people in this room. I'm not perfect. I've sinned in my life.

I know I've told lies. I don't want to be separated from God. I don't want to go to hell today.

Friend, you could be saved. Wouldn't that be great? The greatest thing in the world. The greatest thing. Bob Kane is so happy because he's saved now. What a joy.

Well, you can lay your head on your pillow at night. And one day when you breathe your last, you can say, I commit my soul unto you. Oh, God, who has redeemed me? Oh, God of truth.

What a joy. Let's all stand this morning. With heads bowed, knives closed, if God's spoken to your heart, friend, you're welcome to come.

Even at this time, the altar is open. Father, we do thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your grace. We thank you that when we could not ascend. To where you were, that you descended to where we were. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory. The glories of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and full of truth. And we have come to your truth today, and it has slain us once again, showing us on our own.

We have no righteousness. And so today we leave not downcast, but we leave rejoicing in the mercy and the grace that you have so freely bestowed upon us through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We gladly bow our knees to you. And I pray today, if anyone doesn't know Christ, that today they might be saved. Be glorified in this day. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.