Word-Keeping Through the Gospel of Grace

“Word-Keeping Through the Gospel of Grace”
Matthew 5:33-37, 7/30/06, Kevin P. Larson, Grace Church of Columbia

One of the first things that made me sure I wanted to marry Amy was when I found out she was a huge fan of The Brady Bunch. Now that may make you laugh, but it made me happy. You see, I grew up watching the Brady Bunch. No, I don’t mean that I grew up in the 70s and saw the shows when they originally aired. I mean that I saw them on reruns and on reruns and on more reruns in the 80s. When I was a kid, my parents let me watch way more TV than Hadley and Melia will ever watch, and The Brady Bunch was on TBS and WGN and every other channel looking for something to fill up time. Consequently, I think I’ve seen every episode. I almost have some shows memorized. I was raised with the Bradys.

Those of you deprived of such a childhood may not remember one key episode. Greg, their oldest son, learns a lesson on honesty and legalism. He gets excited about getting these tickets to some hip rock concert. Bobby, the youngest son, squeals on him for bad driving and his parents ground him from the car for a week. He can’t get any other friends to help him get the tickets. They’re selling out fast. He calls one friend who would like to help but is sick. Greg borrows that kid’s car, gets the tickets, and gets ready for the show. His parents, however, find out, and they’re really mad. They told him he was not to drive for a week. Greg, however, points out that, no, they didn’t tell him he couldn’t drive—they told him that he couldn’t drive their car. Those were their exact words. Mike and Carol relent and let him get off the hook. But they have a plan. They want Greg to learn what it is like to truly live with exact words.

So Greg goes on with his week. He quickly finds out how loose he is with his words and how much grace his parents have been showing him. He ends up washing the car and doing dishes at midnight one night, because he had told family members he would do that. It reaches a boiling point when he realizes that he had already promised before he had gotten the concert tickets that he would take his two brothers, Peter and Bobby, to a frog-jumping contest. He is livid, but his parents, as well as his brothers, remind him that those were his exact words. Those of you that have seen the episode will remember that Greg ended up deciding to take his date to a movie after the frog-jumping contest. His brothers forget to take the frogs out of the back seat of his car, and they jump all over his date, even hopping right in the middle of their pizza. Greg learns the hard way that loose words and legalistic thinking are not fun.



We know from Matthew 5:33-37 that the Pharisees were using words much like Greg Brady. Rather than using their words honestly, they were using them manipulatively. But unlike Greg, they didn’t learn their lesson at the end of the program.

Let us read Matthew 5:33-37 and begin with prayer.

Matthew 5:33 "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil.

Let me begin this morning by reviewing from where we have come. Back in Matthew 5:17-20, we saw that Jesus is the one to whom the Old Testament law points, the one who is eminently qualified to interpret the law and clarify its true meaning. Jesus then speaks of those that would violate the heart of the law through their practice and encourage others to do the same through their teaching. Finally, in verse 20, Jesus says that they who do this, the Pharisees, have a righteousness that must be surpassed by those in God’s kingdom; that is because their righteousness is no true righteousness at all. It is exterior only and extremely shallow. That which is on the outside is insufficient and ultimately quite ugly.

Put in reverse order, and worded positively, the one transformed by grace is changed inwardly, given a deep righteousness of the heart. He displays this outwardly and teaches others to do the same. He follows the teachings of Jesus who is the focus of the Bible and our right guide to understanding its teachings. This is the way of the Christian, the one transformed by grace.

Matthew 5:17-20 introduces and leads into verses 21-48. In those teachings of Jesus, we see that the way of the Pharisee differs greatly from the way of the Christian. The Pharisee teaches, as we saw in verses 21-26, that committing murder with the hands is all that matters and holds anger in the heart that slips out as insults on the tongue. He also teaches, according to verses 27-30, that committing adultery with the body is all that matters and holds lust in the heart that evidences itself in roving eyes and careless hands. He also teaches, we learned last week in verses 31-32, that abandoning one’s spouse is not that big of a deal, finding even a Bible verse to support adulterous desires fed through repeated divorces. According to Jesus, the way of the Christian, the one transformed by grace, pursues reconciliation, purity, and fidelity.


In the coming weeks, we’ll see ways that Jesus corrects the teaching and practice of the Pharisees regarding personal retaliation and interaction with enemies. This morning, we’ll examine how the Pharisees dealt with oaths. Jesus says here that the Christian is to teach and live in a way consistent with one transformed inwardly by grace. That reality of salvation should affect the way that we use our words. This morning, we’ll look at “Word-Keeping through the Gospel of Grace.” First, we’ll look at the “way of the Pharisee.” Second, we’ll look at the “way of the Christian.”

First, what were the Pharisees teaching and practicing? Here, as we have seen so far, in verses 21-32, Jesus summarizes their teaching. He then follows with a condemnation of their practice of that teaching.

What was their teaching regarding oaths? Verse 33 reads, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’” This, just like last week’s passage, is not an accurate quotation of any Bible verse. Unlike last week, however, it’s not really a bad summary of what the Bible says. Listen to these verses which form the basis of what the Pharisees taught.

Exodus 20:7, in the Ten Commandments, says, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

Numbers 30:2 says, “If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”

In Deuteronomy 23:21-23, God says this:

Deuteronomy 23:21 "If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth.

Finally, Leviticus 19:12 says something similar. It reads, “You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.”

The Pharisees summed up those verses saying, as Jesus quotes them, in verse 33, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’” The problem was that they were teaching that what was to be performed to the Lord was only what was sworn in the name of the Lord.
In other words, if you took an oath in his name and didn’t do it, it was a problem. If you swore in other ways and did not do it, it was not a problem.

It is as if they had taken Leviticus 19:12—“You shall not swear by my name falsely”—and emphasized certain words to their own advantage. Instead of reading it like this: “You shall not SWEAR by my name FALSELY” they read it like this: “You shall not swear BY MY NAME falsely.” As John Stott has pointed out, they shifted the emphasis from the vow itself and the need to keep it to the formula used in making it.

It’s just like Greg Brady was doing, as I began. His parents said, “You can’t DRIVE the car for a week.” Greg said, “No, you said I couldn’t drive THE CAR for a week.” It’s moving the emphasis from the POINT of the statement to the FORMULA of the statement. Like Greg, the Pharisees were manipulating words to justify their dishonesty.

We see this in the elaborate legal code built by the Pharisees around oaths. The Jews had this book of religious law called the Mishnah which contained an entire, lengthy section dealing with oaths. In this text, there was much discussion over when an oath was binding and when it was not. Scholar D.A. Carson mentions that one Rabbi taught in that book that, if you swore by Jerusalem, you were not bound, but if you swore toward Jerusalem, you were.

The key point was that if you swore by God’s name, you were definitely bound to keep your oath. However, if you swore by other things, whether or not they were binding or not was uncertain. What happened was the Pharisees taught others to use oaths in deceitful, manipulative ways.

This was their practice, as well. They would swear by things we see in this passage at hand—by “heaven,” by the “earth,” by “Jerusalem,” or by their “head,” and not keep their vows, because either they didn’t call specifically on God’s name or they were a loophole in their cute little oath-word-game. They would say, “I wasn’t bound to keep that. Didn’t you hear my exact words?”

As you can see, this was quite child-like. They had this complex system of swearing where no one was exactly sure, except the initiated, what the rules were and what would actually be kept. It’s like it is on the playground. What is the difference between swearing and “pinky swearing” and “swearing on a stack of Bibles?” Do you have to say, “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a million needles in my eye?” Did they have their fingers crossed behind their backs? Did they double or triple swear? Were they really being honest? Who really knows?!

The problem is that the Pharisees were not using oaths, as designed, to guard truthfulness, but for the opposite: to practice deceit. The Pharisees were proud of their oath-keeping, but they had violated the heart of the law because of their wicked hearts, by teaching and modeling oath-breaking. They had used oaths to aid them in wickedness rather than in righteousness. They had again lowered the standard of the law to something manageable, had lived up to it, and had taken pride in it—all the while their hearts were full of wickedness. They lived up to what they thought was the letter of the law, but they totally missed the spirit of the law.

Oaths were given to encourage veracity and gravity when making agreements. Regarding veracity, people swore to ensure that they would tell the truth. Regarding gravity, people swore to ensure that they would see the seriousness of what they were doing. They were standing before the God of truth. He was their witness. So they had better keep their word.

You should be able to see how today’s passage relates to last week’s now. You have all heard, “I Joe, take you, Judy, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy will.” When couples marry, they make vows. They gather in God’s presence and the presence of others to share this promise. Friends and family are called to witness the vows and hold them accountable to keeping them. But, more importantly, God is called to witness the vows and hold them accountable for their oaths. The oaths express the gravity of what is taking place.

But they also encourage, once again, veracity. Those that ignorantly say, “Why can’t we just have our own vows in our apartment? Why do we need a church and a minister and all these other people?” are misguided. We don’t just have weddings to take pictures and have great warm and fuzzy feelings. It’s not just about sharing the love. It’s about protecting from sin. It’s about the wickedness deep within the bride and the groom. They’re sinners. They wouldn’t stick together if they didn’t make these vows. It’s hard enough when they do. But the vows are taken to ensure they’ll be true to their word. Hebrews 6:16 says, “For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.” You see there both aspects: gravity—someone greater is present, and veracity—people are bound to the truth.

Oaths were given as a concession to sinful hearts that have a tendency to lie. We don’t naturally stay committed to one another. We don’t by our fallen nature do what we say we’re going to do. As John Stott puts it, “Swearing is really a pathetic confession of our dishonesty.”
Oaths were being used by the Pharisees to promote deceit, but originally they were used to promote truth. God set up marriage as one man and one woman for one lifetime, but hearts became hard from sin, and divorce got out of control, and Moses gave legislation to curtail it.

In the same way, God’s original desire, it seems, was for people of truth with no need for oaths. But due to the fall and the resulting hardness of heart, people got good at lying, and God provided for oath-taking to curtail it.

The Pharisees used God’s word on divorce to justify an improper use of divorce. And, as we’re seeing this morning, they used God’s word on oaths to justify an improper use of oaths. They were being used to obscure truth rather than protect truth. They didn’t see that they needed oaths, because they were poor, needy sinners. They were proud of the fact that they kept their vows, all the while they were using those vows to evade the truth. Their hearts were dark.

What does Jesus, then, say about the way of the Christian? Jesus says three things here that I want you to notice this morning. Listen again to Matthew 5:34-36.

Matthew 5:34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

First, Christ tells us not to swear by any of those things because everything still comes back to God. Swearing by “heaven” is still swearing to God, because it’s his “throne.” Swearing by the “earth” is still swearing to God, because it’s His “footstool.” Swearing by “Jerusalem” is swearing by God’s city, and therefore to God. Lastly, he says that swearing by one’s “head” or one’s life is swearing in God’s name because He is the creator and sovereign over life. How can we put our life on the line when God rules over our life? We can’t change the color of the hair on our head, much less control whether or not we live tomorrow or die.

Jesus’s point is that oaths sworn by other things than God are still binding because, first, God is still present and still will hold men accountable for their oaths. If you’re not calling on God as a witness, He is still there as a witness. And, secondly, the objects or places sworn by belong to God. God rules over the things you’re swearing by. One couldn’t get around God with such evasive oaths. God is omnipresent. He is sovereign.

Jesus makes this same point over in Matthew 23. Listen to verses 16-22.



Matthew 23:16 "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

Here Jesus is making a statement about the absurdity of their oath-taking. He points out how ridiculous the distinctions they are making really are. But he ends by making the same point of our text for today. Whatever you swear by, you’re still really making an oath to God because He is everywhere present and everywhere ruling. Christians are to be careful making promises. God hears.

Second, Christ states that oaths should be unnecessary for the child of God in daily conversation. He calls us to not only keep our oaths, but to be the type of people who don’t need to take oaths in order to be believed. Jesus says, in verse 37, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’” A simple “yes” or “no” will suffice. He doesn’t want us to couch our everyday speech with a constant “I swear” and “I promise.” He wants us to be men and women of credibility and integrity. He wants our hearts to be transformed so that they pour out truth rather than falsehood.

Man one could walk into his boss’s office and be requested to do a task. He could answer, “You have my word. I promise I’ll do it. I swear. Don’t doubt me a minute.” Man two could walk in and simply say, “Sure” and walk out. God wants us to be like the second man. There should be no need for babbling oaths. We are the children of God.

You may have heard the fable about the “boy that cried wolf.” The boy ran in, I think to his parents’ house, but I can’t remember, crying, “Wolf! Wolf!” He did that over and over until no one believed him when a wolf really came. Those transformed by grace are not the type of people that need to say, “I double-pinky swear by my Grandma’s grave that there’s a wolf out there.” Yes or no must be enough.

Swearing is needed by those that don’t keep their word. Only dishonest, unreliable people need to fight for their credibility through vows. God wants us to be people whose simple words “yes” or “no” are believed by all we come in contact with.

Third, Jesus teaches that such swearing results from evil. Jesus says here, according to the ESV, “Anything more than this comes from evil.” If you open up an NIV, it reads, “Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
It says “evil” versus “evil one.” The reason for this is that the construction in the original language could be taken either way. This dishonesty characterized by such oaths either flows from the evil from within our hearts, or it flows from the evil one himself, Satan. Listen to John 8:43-45.

John 8:43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

Why do we, in an unbelieving state, manipulate with our words? It’s because, as Jesus says, “[our] will is to do [our] father’s desires.” Our hearts want to do what our father wants to do. He is “a liar and the father of lies.” This manipulative oath-taking of the Pharisees, and any dishonesty, comes not from God but from His enemy, the devil. This is why unbelievers lie and don’t care unless they get caught. This is why we as believers lie, as well. We succumb to the temptation of our enemy. We give in to remaining sin within.

The book of James has much in common with the Sermon on the Mount. In James 5:12, it reads, “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.” Not only does this dishonesty flow from evil. It also leads to the fate of those evil. It leads to “condemnation” or eternal judgment.

Now a couple of questions result from this teaching. First, some would say, does this not mean that we should never take any oaths at all? Should we take oaths in a courtroom? What if we run for public office? Are we defying our Lord? The historic movement called the Anabaptists, as well as the modern-day Quakers refuse to take oaths of any sort.

First, godly saints in the Old Testament used oaths and were approved by God. If there is any key, godly figure of the Old Testament, it’s Abraham. In Genesis 14:22-23, Abraham confirmed promises to Sodom’s king with an oath. He said,

Genesis 14:22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich.'

Just a few pages over, in Genesis 21, Abraham gives an oath to Abimelech. Abimelech said,

Genesis 21:23 Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned." 24 And Abraham said, "I will swear."
In Genesis 24:1-4, Abraham, when he sent his servant Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac, made him promise under oath.

Genesis 24:1 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh, 3 that I may make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, 4 but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac."

Abraham is an example of one in the Jewish Scriptures who on solemn occasions called on God to witness to and hold parties accountable to an agreement. We also know, of course, that the passages we began with this morning allowed for oaths, only stipulating that one not break them, taking God’s name in vain.

Second, godly saints in the New Testament also made vows. If there’s one key character of the New Testament, other than Jesus, it’s Paul. In 2 Corinthians 1:23, he wrote, “But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.” Over in Galatians 1:20, Paul writes, “In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!” Paul used oaths, and he is a key model of godliness for Christians.

Third, Jesus even spoke under oath. In Matthew 26:63-64, the high priest Caiaphas said to him,

Matthew 26:63 "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." 64 Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."

Jesus had the opportunity to refuse speaking under oath, but He didn’t. Jesus didn’t say, “I swear,” but it was understood that he was speaking under oath before God.

Fourth, God the Father, throughout Scripture, uses oaths. He, of course, doesn’t use them to establish truthfulness or gain credibility. He uses them to build faith in us. A beautiful example of this is found in God’s covenant promise to Abraham in Genesis 22. It reads, in verses 15-18, like this:

Genesis 22:15 And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, "By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."

In Hebrews 6, what Brandon read earlier, this same oath is mentioned. Hear once again verses 13-18.

Hebrews 6:13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

Again, verses 17-18 say that the purpose of His oath was to make it clear to us the “unchangeable character of his purpose.” He wanted us to believe it. And it says that through His oath we might “have strong encouragement.” God wanted us to trust His promises in our hearts.

Note also here verse 16 again. The writer of Hebrews assumes that oaths take place and makes no negative statement regarding them. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament affirm oath-taking through explicit teaching, as well by clear example.

So, the point here isn’t that if my friend Richard Hicks becomes a judge that he shouldn’t take an oath of office. It’s that, for him, as well as for us, oaths shouldn’t be a necessary part of our everyday speech.

It seems interesting to me that one could focus on Jesus’s negativity toward oaths here and miss the point just like the Pharisees. One could have a mouth that never says, “I swear,” but still overflows with dishonesty. So, no, I don’t think Jesus is condemning all oath-taking here.

Second, some would ask, what’s the big deal about honesty? Why should we be so concerned? Let me argue that it’s related closely to what we believe about God and what we believe about the gospel.

God, we know from the Bible is a God of truth. Isaiah 65:16, itself a passage affirming the taking of vows, says, “So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes.” The Father is called the “God of truth.” In addition, the apostle John repeatedly refers to the Spirit as the “Spirit of truth.” Twice in his gospel, in 15:26, as well as 16:13, the apostle, quoting Jesus and speaking of His sending of the Spirit, calls the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of truth.”
Of course, a familiar passage to many of you will be another text in John, in chapter 14 and verse 6. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

We worship a triune God who is truth. Made in the image of God, we were also made to image truth. Now, living in a fallen world, as believers we are being restored to that image. 2 Corinthians 3:18 speaks of us “with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” We are being made once again to bear His image rightly. And one way we display Him is by being people of truthfulness.

Rather than look like our previous father, the devil, the father of lies, we are now called to look like our heavenly Father, the Father of the truth. Anytime we as human beings in general, as well as redeemed humans in particular, lie or deceive, we tell a lie about God’s nature. God is not a liar. We, as His children, can mislead those around us about what our Father is really like.

The gospel is a gospel of truth. The Bible speaks of becoming a Christian numerous times as “coming to a knowledge of the truth.” A couple of good examples are in 1 Timothy 2:4 when Paul says that God desires “all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth,” as well as 2 Timothy 2:25, where Paul speaks of God granting unbelievers “repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.”

Once we embrace the truth of the gospel, we begin living in truth. We walk in a way consistent with that truth, and obviously, one way we do that is by being truthful people. This connection is made in Ephesians 4. Let’s read together verses 17-25.

Ephesians 4:17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!- 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Now notice what that passage teaches. We were taught, as verse 21 puts it, the truth “in Jesus.” We are therefore, to put off the old self and to put on the new, and one key way we do this, as verse 25 states, is by putting away “falsehood” and speaking “truth with [our] neighbor.” Why are we to do this? Because “we are members with one another.” We are one body, the church.
If the key way that we display the fact that we have come into a love relationship with God is by loving our brothers and sisters, then being dishonest is the exact opposite of that. It is a very unloving thing to do.

Think of the gospel. God revealed Himself to us. He did it in His word. He has done it in His creation. He revealed Himself ultimately in His Son. He gave us the gospel. He lovingly revealed Himself to us, and He revealed to us truth. Therefore, if we reveal false things about our self or about the world, it is an incredibly unloving thing to do.

Why do we speak truthfully? God is truth. We worship Him as truth, and we image His truthful character to the world. If we don’t speak honestly, we lie about who our Father is. And in the gospel, God revealed truth about Him in love. As we extend the gospel, we love our brothers and neighbors by speaking truth. By not keeping our word, we spread lies about the transforming work of the gospel.

Third, you might ask, how do I respond to this text? The Pharisee, again, dumbs down the demands for honesty and keeps those lowered standards, being prideful of His accomplishment. The pagan or irreligious person, at worst, disregards God’s commands and lies freely, only experiencing guilt when caught. At best, he strives to live as an honest person in his own strength and for his own glory. What is the right response?

It’s important to remember that the God of truth demands perfect truth, and no less. In Psalm 51:6, David teaches us that God delights in “truth in the inward being.” In addition, Psalm 15:1-2 teaches this: “O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.” Psalm 24:3-5 adds even more. Writes the Psalmist:

Psalm 24:3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

God requires us to have “truth in the inward being.” Only a person who “speaks truth in his heart” and “does not swear deceitfully” can ascend the hill of the LORD in worship. In other words, to be with God, we have to be word-keepers.

But who among us never lies? Who among us never deceives? We are fallen sinners, each of us, who dishonor God and keep ourselves from the “hill of the Lord” through our disobedience.





How can we ascend that hill? Both the Pharisee and the pagan answer, “By my own effort!” But the Christian answers, “By the effort of the Son.” Jesus, who again calls Himself the “truth” in John 14:6 is also spoken of in 1 Peter 2:22 as the one who “committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.” Jesus never sinned, and He certainly never deceived. And he went to the cross, dying for people that struggle with word-keeping.

Our only hope is to run to Him in faith, pleading for His righteous life of honesty to be applied to us. Our only hope is that His sacrificial death for dishonest people would be applied to us. In faith, we cry out to Him. His life and death are given to us, and we stand as sinners declared righteous by His grace before the Father. We can “ascend the hill” through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Now, as Hebrews 4:16 puts it, we can “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.” Because of Jesus, we can worship the Father. That is the gospel.

Although God has declared us as righteous, seeing us as holy thanks to Christ’s life and death, we still look at ourselves and see much unrighteousness. We have been justified, but we have not been fully sanctified. We look in the mirror and don’t see someone who acts consistently like Jesus. We must ask the Father to work that righteousness in us. That is our only hope of having hearts of good, not evil, of being people who don’t need oaths, of being people that speak to others conscious of God’s omnipresence. We need to ask ourselves tough questions, searching our hearts, praying that the Father would sanctify us by His Spirit. Christian, let me leave you with some questions this morning:

Do you frequently make commitments to serve at church or otherwise and “drop the ball”?

Do you often make promises you know you can’t keep in order to make a good showing for yourself?

Do you sometimes say you’re going to be somewhere and fail to show up?

Do you frequently renege on commitments, calling back to cancel?

Do you often fudge on details in order to make a point?

Do you ever exaggerate stories to get a good audience?

Do you ever say things like, “we ought to have dinner sometime,” and have no intention of doing it?

Do you ever catch yourself bending the truth and then bending it again to cover yourself?



Do you manipulate others through excessive, dishonest flattery?

Do you fail to provide an authentic portrait of yourself to others in order to impress them or protect pride?

Do you often get around the truth by appealing to your “exact words?”

Do “yes” and “no” suffice in your daily conversation or do you constantly have to adorn your sentences with “I swear” or “I promise” or “believe me!?”

Do we “say what we mean” and “mean what we say?”

Or do we often act too much like the world around us? The Tribune again had a story this week about the Vertical Group investments scandal. Columbian Mike Trom was cheated out of $175,000 by a man he thought was his best friend, Nate Reuter. Reuter and his friend Daryl Brown swindled people all over America out of millions of dollars. Trom went hunting with his next-door neighbor Reuter, but he found out later that his best friend was really hunting for his bank account. Brothers and sisters, this is the way of the world. Will we live as people transformed by grace?

The Jewish sect known as the Essenes was known for their honesty. The Jewish historian Josephus spoke of them like this:

They are eminent for fidelity and are the ministers of peace. Whatsoever they say is also firmer than an oath. But swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it worse than perjury, for they say that he who cannot be believed without (swearing by God) is already condemned.

The Essenes had their faults, the chief being that they didn’t embrace Jesus as the Messiah. But they also hid in the caves around the Red Sea, calling themselves “sons of light,” while keeping it under a basket. Let us have the honesty they exemplified, and take it public, and make it all about what Jesus has done.

Daniel Webster once said, “There is nothing as powerful as truth and often nothing as strange.” In an age when honesty is seen as “not that big of a deal,” let us be strange. Let us be a dynamic counter-culture in Columbia that uses its words honestly, and therefore, lovingly. Let us be transformed people in our conversations with others, attracting lost people to Jesus.

All of life, as the Reformers put it, is lived coram deo, or “before the face of God.” We live in the presence of God, under the authority of God, for the glory of God. He hears our every word. Let us live in a way consistent with that truth, showing a dying world that the God of the universe is near.