Matthew 5: Oaths Liar, Liar, pants on fire!

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Piers Gallagher
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1 Matthew 5: Oaths Liar, Liar, pants on fire! Prayer: please join me in prayer Introduction: When Ronald Regan ran for president the first time he said, Read my lips, no more taxes. Within two years he signed new taxes into law. Did he keep his word? No! Are we surprised? No! This is because we expect politicians to not keep their word. Lying is so common in our culture that we are not surprised when it happens. Billboard of Obama Liar, Liar, pants on fire in Spokane this week!!! One author writes, Some years ago UPI reported this prayer by the Chaplain of the Kansas State Senate: Omniscient Father, Help us to know who is telling the truth. One side tells us one thing, and the other just the opposite. And if neither side is telling the truth, we would like to know that, too. And if each side is telling half the truth, give us the wisdom to put the right halves together. In Jesus name, amen. (Hughes, 124) Again we are not surprised when people lie and fail to keep their word. Maybe your thinking Those evil politicians I m glad I always keep my word!!! Are you sure. When you say to someone I will pray for you do keep your word? When you say to someone I will call you next week for lunch do you keep your word? When you commit to meeting someone at 6:30 am for breakfast do you keep your word? Or do you show up at 6:50am??? This brings us to Matthew 5:33-37 this morning. The main point of this passage is that citizens of God s kingdom must always keep their word. Matthew 5-7 describes the citizens of God s kingdom. In Matthew 5:20 Jesus says that citizens of God s kingdom must have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Then he gives six examples of what he means by this. We are on the 4 th example this morning. God wants the citizens of his kingdom to exhibit a righteousness that comes from a changed heart. This includes keeping our word no matter what!!! Moses on keeping our word Pharisees on keeping our word Jesus on keeping our word Matthew 5:33 (ESV) 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. Matthew 5:33 (NIV84) 33 Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord. In Matthew 5:33 Jesus summarizes several verses from the OT that discuss oaths or swearing.

2 What is an oath? When someone made an oath in the OT they promised to do something with God as their witness. If they did not fulfill their promise they expected God to punish them. Oaths were a way to ensure the truthfulness of s statement. The OT encouraged the practice of taking oaths recognizing that we live in a sinful world where people don t always tell the truth (Deut. 10:20, Jer. 12:16-17). Here is a summary of the Law of Moses on Oaths- You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God (Lv 19:12). When a man vows a vow to the Lord, he shall not break his word (Nu. 30:2). When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not be slack to pay it (Dt. 23:21). The Law of Moses was very clear if you promise to do something before God you need to do it. Oaths are rare in our culture but we still make them. When we recite wedding vows we recite them publicly with God as our witness. When we testify in courts of law we swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (so help me God). People used to do this with their hand on a Bible. Furthermore, when we say we swear we will do something we are technically taking an oath. I swear to God I swear on my mother s grave Do you remember being on the playground in sixth grade? My friends and I would often make audacious claims I can bench press 100 pounds no you can t you weigh 80 pounds. I swear to you I can bench press 100 pounds. whatever, your arms are in inch thick I swear on the Bible. I still don t believe you. I swear on a stack of Bibles. Maybe he is telling the truth (BTW swearing to anything but God is forbidden in the Bible- Deut. 6:13). Illustration: Why do we have to swear or promise that we will do something? Because we don t keep our word! Lets say a father says to his son, If you finish all your home work this week I will take you to Captain America this weekend. The son responds by saying, do you promise? Why does the son say, do you promise? because the father has not kept his word in the past The very insistence on a promise means we are not reliable. In an ideal word a father s word should be so reliable that the child never has to insist on a promise. In the OT God allowed for Oaths because it was a way to ensure the truthfulness or the reliability of a statement. If you made an oath or swore to do something you had better keep your word.

3 Second, Pharisees on keeping our word Matthew 5:34 36 (ESV) 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. Because the Pharisees, like all of us, wanted to avoid keeping their word at times they developed an elaborate system of taking oaths. They taught that one was only held to their word when they actually invoked the divine name of YHWH. So they invoked all kinds of other things in their oaths so that they could back out of them if they wanted to. When they did not want to keep their word they would say, well I did not swear by God that I would do this, I only swore by the temple, so I m not bound to my word Jesus gives four examples of these non-binding oaths used by the Pharisees. He makes the point that no matter what you swear by it is related to God in some way. Therefore every oath is implicitly in God s name. We can t avoid this Matthew 5:34 (ESV) 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, Matthew 5:34 (ESV) 34a either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, (I swear by heaven, but Jesus says that heaven is the throne of God) Matthew 5:35 (ESV) 35a or by the earth, for it is his footstool, (I swear by earth, but Jesus says that earth is God s footstool) Matthew 5:35 (ESV) 35b or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. (I swear by Jerusalem, but Jesus says that Jerusalem is the city of king Jesus) Matthew 5:36 (ESV) 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. (I swear by myself, but Jesus says I m the one who created you. You can t even change your hair color). The Pharisees thought that the further away their oath was from God the less binding it was. For example it was one thing to swear by Jerusalem but you should not swear towards Jerusalem (this was much more binding). When all is said and done the Pharisees had all these laws about oaths so that they could avoid telling the truth. It was like a little child who crosses his fingers behind his back while he tells you something. Here is the point No matter what the Pharisees did they could not avoid invoking the name of YHWH in their oaths since he is related to everything. This is his world. So instead of taking an oath just tell the truth. The Pharisees did not keep their word! We don t keep our word. Illustration:

4 My sons recently discovered air softs guns, which are quite possibly the coolest toys to be invented since the Lego. When I was a child we played guns but nothing came out of the guns so we had to pretend that we shot each other. This created all kinds of problems. I shot you, no you didn t, yes I did, no you didn t, etc A week or two ago my wife and I had a conversation and agreed that the boys could buy airsoft guns but they could not use them until they also bought eye protection. So on Friday the boys came to me and said can we shoot our airsoft guns? Mom was not around with out thinking much about it, I said sure. You can go in the woods and shot your air soft guns but just not at each other. When my lovely wife arrived home she found out that the boys were in the woods shooting their airsoft guns. At this point she graciously reminded me that we had agreed no air soft guns until the boys bought eye protection. I did not say to her, we did not sign a contract, I did not swear on a Bible, I did not take an oath, instead I had to apologize for breaking my word. Why did I break my word? Probably because of fear of child Application: When are we tempted to break our word? Maybe you run a business and keeping your word to your customers is sometimes costly. What will you do? If you re a contractor and you say that you will have the job done by this Friday, will it really be done by Friday, or are you just trying to land a sale? Don t promise what you can t fulfill. What about promising your child that you will play catch after dinner? What about telling your roommates you will mow the grass on Saturday morning? Are you going to do what you said you would do? Now to get real personal What about a nursery commitment What about committing to be at discipleship group? What about committing to be on the greeting team? We often break the less visible commitments and keep the more visible ones like leading a meeting But I forgot??? This is a lack of love or pride (thinking this person is not really worth keeping your word to). Last week I doubled booked myself on Thursday night I pride myself on being organized and paying attention to detail. Obviously God wanted to humble me. Sometimes stuff comes up (sickness, car problems, etc ) but usually this is not what causes us to not keep our word. Why do we break our word? Sometimes we are so consumed with what other people think about us that we lie, shade the truth, or tell a half truth, to preserve our image. We break our word because we over commit? Why do we do this??? We break our word to Joe because we are more concerned about pleasing John Maybe we make promises we never intend to keep because we want others to think well of us. When we don t keep our word we are communicating to others;

5 you are not that important to me, my time is more important than your time, my priorities are more important than your priorities, What would happen if every Christian kept his or her word? In their businesses (everybody would want to do business with Christians) In their wedding vows (everybody would want to have a Christian marriage) Second, Pharisees on keeping our word Third, Jesus on keeping our word The Kingdom alternative to taking oaths is to keep your word no matter what! Matthew 5:34 (ESV) 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all,. (then he discusses the pharisaical abuse of oaths) Matthew 5:37 (ESV) 37 Let what you say be simply Yes or No ; anything more than this comes from evil. This literally reads in the Greek let your word yes be yes and your no be no James 5:12 (ESV) 12 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. Matthew 5:34 (ESV) 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all,. Does this mean we should never take an oath? This is the interpretation of our Anabaptists, Moravian, and Quaker friends. But Jesus is not prohibiting all Oaths just frivolous ones. We know this because Jesus was under oath when on trial before Caiaphas (Matt 26:63-64). Not only did Christ take an oath, Paul made oaths (Romans 1:9, 2 Cor 1:23, Gal 1:20). Furthermore, God the father takes oaths (Heb. 7:20-22, 28). Here is the point Jesus says that we must keep our word and we should not rely on an oath to do this. In the kingdom of God, the king wants his subjects to keep their word no matter what. Illustration- Some of you probably remember the heroic story of Robertson McQuilkin. At the peak of his career he quit his prestigious job of seminary president to care for his wife full time who was diagnosed with Alzheimer s ten years previous. He went from leading board meetings, preaching sermons, overseeing a large budget, and writing books, to vacuuming, cleaning, changing diapers, and cooking for his wife. He stepped down in Three years later his wife no longer recognized him. For the next ten years he cared for her through thick and thin. She died in 2003 at the age of 81.

6 One reporter asked him what a typical day was like and he said- I would fix breakfast and then go in and turn on the lights, and she would awaken, although in the last year or two she didn't open her eyes much. Usually in the morning she would open her eyes and then I would feed her. And then of course, after that I had to change and clean her up... Then lunch. She had to be changed every four hours. In the evening we would again have supper, and after supper about 9:00 I'd start working on the bedtime routine. Once, though, I completely lost it. In the days when Muriel could still stand and walk and we had not resorted to diapers, sometimes there were "accidents." I was on my knees beside her, trying to clean up the mess as she stood, confused, by the toilet. It would have been easier if she weren't so insistent on helping. I mopped frantically, trying to fend off the interfering hands, and contemplated how best to get a soiled slip over a head that was totally opposed to the idea. When Robertson is asked why he cares for his wife so extravagantly he refers to the fact that he promised to love his wife in sickness and in health. He should be honored as a man who keeps his word. We have looked at three things Second, Pharisees on keeping our word Third, Jesus on keeping our word Dave, what is so unique about Christianity? All religions tell us to keep our word!!! When we don t keep our word it makes life difficult. Why did I get out of bed and come to church to hear this? Conclusion: God always keeps his word! Numbers 23:19 (ESV) 19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Titus 1:2 (ESV) 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began If we could not count on God to keep his word we would have no hope of salvation God makes some staggering promises that he will keep. God promises to forgive our sins God promises to supply our every need (Phil 4:19) God promises that his grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor 12:9) God promises that he will help when temptation comes (1 Cor 10:13) God promises us victory over death (1 Cor 15:57) God promises to work all things for good (Romans 8:28-30) God promises to return to the earth someday and judge the world God promises eternal life to all who believe. God promises that he will defeat the powers of darkness. God promises to help us grow in Godliness (which means he will help us keep our word) These promises only apply to those who admit that they don t keep their word and need forgiveness and help. It is only when we humble ourselves and admit our need that these promises apply to us.

7 Jesus always kept his word! But how do we know that God will keep his promises? We have a history of god keeping his promises in the Bible. God kept his promise to send his son, he kept his promise to have his son crushed in our place, he kept his promise to raise his son from the grave. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus proves that God keeps his promises. If you re a promise breaker like me there is hope. Lets pray

You have Heard... But I say to You... 4: Swearing

You have Heard... But I say to You... 4: Swearing Introduction Once again Jesus confronted the lax teaching of their scribes and teachers. These teachers were not demanding the self-control over anger