Yea, Yea; Nay, Nay

[00:00:00] All right, let's get our Bible and go to the Book of Matthew, chapter five. [00:00:10] Matthew, chapter five. And if you want to take a, just get a little bit ahead of the game, you can go to Leviticus and numbers. We're going to look at a couple of verses there as well. [00:00:21] Matthew, chapter five. [00:00:28] Now, I'm aware that we are, we're going slowly through Matthew chapter five. And I asked myself, you know, the Sermon on the Mount, why is the Lord going through these things? These five, five, maybe six, depending on how you count these five subjects. [00:00:56] We talked about anger and murder and lust and adultery and which included in that was also divorce. And then we talked about, this morning, we're going to talk about swearing oaths. You think, what in the world does that have to do with anything that we do in this world? The only time we ever think of an oath is in court, right? That's the only practical instance. But there's more to it than that. There's more to it than that. But anyway, and then after that we have eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth, and Lord willing, we'll look at that tonight. And then finally loving one's enemies. [00:01:35] And the question is, the question I had is I've been thinking on this and been thinking about these, the truths that are being taught here and, and how we can apply them to our lives. [00:01:51] Is it seems to me that the Lord, you know, in his first sermon, right, he's in the Beatitudes, he's kind of giving the an overview of what it means, how the people in the kingdom of God are different, how their outlook and their thinking, their values and their worldview is different. [00:02:13] That's the beginning of chapter five. And then he goes into the law and he describes how faithful the law is and how that all of the law, every jot, every tittle, will be fulfilled. And then he goes into these five things. And I got to thinking to myself, it seems that the Lord is laying the groundwork for something, for something coming. In other words, I know we want to go, we want to turn everything into a one sermon kind of bite sized piece of truth. But I honestly don't think that's what the Lord is doing. Although, you know, in his message, this is probably all spoken at one time, but for our purposes, he's laying the groundwork for some truths that are going to really, really matter in the big scheme of things later. [00:03:00] And he's undoing a lot of the traditional and false ideas that had been common in his day. [00:03:08] Let's read the Text. And then I'll read you one other example before we look at Leviticus and numbers. Leviticus 19 and numbers, chapter 30, if you want to look there. All right. Verse number 33. The Bible says, again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time. Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. [00:03:34] But I say unto you, swear not at all. [00:03:38] 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. [00:03:49] Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. [00:03:57] But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay. [00:04:05] For whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. [00:04:11] Let's pray together. [00:04:13] Our Father, Lord, we first of all want to acknowledge and recognize that this is your word, not ours. [00:04:21] And it is not something that we should take lightly, but take seriously. [00:04:26] Help our hearts, Lord, to be focused in a way that is consistent with that truth. Help our hearts to be focused on what you have said. [00:04:35] Lord Jesus, you had. [00:04:37] You had good reason to explain these things. And Lord, help me to help your people and help us all to understand these issues. [00:04:47] This subject. [00:04:50] I pray that your glories would be seen as we study your word this morning. [00:04:55] I pray that your gospel and your truth would be evident. [00:05:00] Lord, help me to say what you would have me to say and not say the things you don't want me to say. And I pray that you help your people to hear the word with good and honest hearts and open hearts, like the Scripture says in Matthew 13. And I pray that you would guide us, Lord, and help us to know and understand the truth and to respond to it in a way that is right, Lord. Thank you for teaching us the truth, Lord. [00:05:27] Without you doing that, we would not know up from down, black from white, right from wrong at all. [00:05:34] Thank you for that. [00:05:36] So guide us all into the truth, we pray as we study it. This morning, in Jesus name we ask. Amen. [00:05:45] Verse number 33. Before we look at Leviticus, Numbers says, again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time. Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. Now, again, this is not intended to be a direct quote of Scripture. Okay. Notice he does not say it is written. He says, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old times. So again, this is roughly related to what the scripture says, as we'll see in a minute, but this is a. And essentially, and I repeat myself some, because the Lord repeats himself here, that these are traditional sayings, traditional teachings that had been taught in the religious community of the Lord at that time. Some of those traditions were right, and some of them were not so right. [00:06:33] And that's what the Lord is addressing. But either way, even if these traditions were right, they were not. [00:06:41] The people did not respond and obey the Lord because of what he said, but because of what the tradition said. So the authority had been switched out. The authority was no longer God's word and the text of Scripture, like the Lord's authority was, but it became the traditions of men, which is good, because then they can be. The people, can be easily manipulated by those who teach the traditions. And some. And some of these traditions are pretty old. Now, I'm not against tradition. I like tradition. We were having a discussion with one of our kids about that in relation to weddings and the way a wedding should be done and the way it should. Yeah, I like tradition. How many of you like tradition? Tradition is not bad, as long as in the case of scripture, especially the scripture itself is the authority and not just tradition. [00:07:35] So tradition is good. But what had happened is that this traditional saying did not capture the whole and the truth and the essence and the heart and intent of what God had said in the Bible. [00:07:50] And the Lord is going to address that, because what had happened is because of verse number 33. [00:07:57] Apparently in this society, as religious as it was, there had developed quite a problem of dishonesty. [00:08:07] Guile. Now, how do we know that? Now, this is just a little tidbit. In John, chapter one, in verse 47, the Lord Jesus meets Nathanael, one of his disciples. [00:08:21] And in this verse, the Bible says Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. That's interesting. [00:08:35] So the Lord goes out of his way to take time to express his surprise that there was a Jew. A Jew. You remember, Jesus was a Jew. There was a Jew that came who was not full of guile. [00:08:49] He was a man who was a sincere and honest man, Nathaniel was. And that surprised the Lord Jesus. That tells us something about society. [00:08:59] Tells us something about society. [00:09:02] So apparently in this society, there was a major problem with dishonesty. And here's the problem. That their own traditional teaching had provided the pretext, the conditions that allowed dishonesty and guile and deceit to flourish among them. [00:09:27] Now, let's look Back at Leviticus, chapter 19 and Numbers, chapter 30, if you would. [00:09:36] Leviticus 19. [00:09:38] And then hold your place in Matthew because we will come back to this. Leviticus 19. [00:09:54] Look at verse number 12. Now remember what, I'll read the verse again just to remind you. It says thou back in Matthew 5, 33, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oath. That's the traditional saying. Okay, Leviticus 19, verse number 12 says this. Well, pick up at verse 11 because verse 11 is relevant as well. Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. [00:10:27] That seems pretty clear, right? And ye shall not swear by my name falsely. [00:10:34] Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord. [00:10:40] All right, so we have swearing by God's name falsely. Okay, let's go to numbers, chapter 30. [00:10:54] And these laws that God gave to Israel, he gives specific laws regarding oaths and swearing. [00:11:03] Verse number two of Numbers 30 says this. 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. [00:11:18] He shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. [00:11:25] So let me ask you a question. [00:11:28] Is it important to the Lord that we do what we say? [00:11:35] Yeah. Now, I know this is. I know this is. And this is one of the struggles with this portion of Scripture, because this is all pretty. Pretty elementary stuff. This is not deep theology or anything. We're not talking about anything super complicated. However, what happens is the truths that we read here, the same conditions and problems that existed in their society with deception, start to weave itself into our society, into ourselves, because we are no different than they were. Humankind, mankind, men, women, boys and girls, have a tendency to set up rules and laws that are easy to follow and then go around them and to make ways that they can get around the intent. As long as they can keep the letter. They keep the letter, but not the intent of the law. And this is what the Lord is describing back in Matthew chapter 5. [00:12:33] So let's look at verse number 33 once again. Back in Matthew 5 again, you have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself. What does that mean? To forswear oneself. Now, again, as I said, oaths and swearing and vowels are not something that is super common in our world. It was very common from the reading I was doing. It was very, very common. In other words, they would make it. They would swear by this and swear by that to confirm whatever they were saying. Very commonly in conversation, you know, and you hear people do it, you know, like, you'll hear kids just pardon the phraseology, but you'll hear kids especially, or even adults occasionally say, I swear to God, you know, and they just flippantly say, that's sort of like what's happening here is they're kind of flippantly saying this in their regular conversation, but that's not the whole of it. You say, well, that's not that big of a deal. But Notice what verse 33 says. Thou shalt not forswear thyself. To forswear oneself is essentially to commit perjury. That means you swear to a fact that it is true and that fact is false. [00:13:48] That thing you have sworn to is false. So it's perjury, what we would call perjury in a court of law, you call it perjury, but it also says, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oath. So you have kind of two different things going on. You have swearing to the veracity and the truth of a statement. That's one thing. And then you have an oath whereby you verbally make a commitment that you will perform a particular task or thing and then fail to follow through. So both of these. Both of these things are in play here. [00:14:26] Now, a lot of people, when they read verse number 34, but I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne. Some people get hung up on that because we do. We say, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help you God? That is. That is a solemn oath, right? [00:14:45] When you get married, you say vows. That is an oath, right? That's a vow, that's an oath. And that's actually scriptural, right? That's a scriptural principle, giving vows when you get married. Did you know that God himself gave oaths in Scripture? So what's being described here? There was one time when Jesus had been arrested and he was at the mock trial before he went to the cross. And one of, I think was the high priest said, I adjure thee by God to tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of the blessed. He's demanding an oath of Christ. And you know what Christ did? [00:15:24] He answered. He said, I am. Essentially, he said, I am. So the issue here is not whether when the Bible says, but I say unto you, swear not at all. The issue is not do we involve ourselves in a court or do we save marriage vows. That's not what's being described here. Because there are other scriptures that talk about that. Just to kind of put that to rest. Because I want to move on to the main. The main thing here. Look at verse number, verse 34 again. But I say unto you, swear not at all. Neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool. Neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. [00:16:12] This is interesting. [00:16:15] Generally, this is not. These are not words and terms that we use. [00:16:20] So let me just give you a little bit of background about the way these people would swear. So what they would do is they would divide up an oath, right? Like, for instance, in the verse we read earlier in Leviticus and in Numbers, it says, thou shalt perform unto the Lord all thine oaths. So here's this idea. So they had this idea that if I were to. If I were to give my word using an oath, using swearing to a fact by God, in other words, that means calling God as a witness that what I'm saying is true. If I were to do that, then the thing would have to be true, right? Would you agree with that? And they say, well, see, because thou shalt not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But if, on the other hand, if I were to swear to something by heaven or by the earth, again, I know this is not. These are not things we say. But they would say, I swear by heaven. That. And you can actually find portions of Scripture that have this language. But if we were to say, I swear by heaven that this is true, or I swear by the earth, or I swear by my head, which is kind of like saying, I swear by my life. We say things like my mother's grave, or, you know, we say things like that, or people do anyway. And so we're swearing that we're going to do something. We're swearing that a thing is true. [00:17:49] What the Lord is saying here is. So they would say, I didn't swear by God. I swore by heaven or earth or my head or Jerusalem or some other object. [00:18:01] And therefore, it's not binding. [00:18:04] If you swear by God, it's binding. But if you swear by something lower, like heaven and earth and that kind of thing, it's binding, but it's not binding. Rather. But what the Lord says here is, what are you talking about? [00:18:19] You're swearing by heaven, but it's God's throne. You're swearing by the earth, but it is his footstool. You're swearing by Jerusalem, but it's his city. You're swearing by your own head, but it's God's. You yourself belong to God. [00:18:32] So the idea behind this is I promise or I vow or I swear that I will do a certain thing. And if I don't do that thing, then I will give this thing. This will be the payment that I make. We have something similar to that. You know, I think there's a plumber in town, not Sam, there's another plumber in town, one of his fierce competitors, that promises that they make an oath, if you will, a commercial oath, we can call it that. That if they show up late to your house for every, I think, 30 minutes that they're late, they pay you $50 or whatever. Right. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Don't name it. We don't want to give any advertisement. [00:19:15] That's kind of like what we're talking about here. Okay. [00:19:20] But here's what they did. They would make a nice little distinction between one kind of oath and another kind of oath. So they would say, oh, I swear by heaven, this is true, or I swear by the earth, or I swear by this or I swear by that. But as long as they didn't swear by God, it wasn't binding. In other words, they could stretch the truth, twist it a little bit, exaggerate, maybe alter it a little bit, and it was okay. Because, after all, they weren't swearing by God because it says, thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. So if the Lord's not involved in what I say, then it doesn't matter. [00:19:58] That's the first thing they said. Oaths to the Lord had to be kept. But oaths to other things, we're not binding. So that's the first thing. [00:20:10] The second thing is this. Well, let me say one more thing about that first one. [00:20:16] You know, when you do this. Now, think about again. I know this is kind of foreign to us, but follow along. Cause the Lord's going somewhere with this. All right? [00:20:26] But if you neatly divide the oaths that you make in one situation to another situation, you know what you're doing? You're providing the pretext to lie. That's what you're doing. If you say, I swear by heaven. But it's not, you know that it's not binding, you can say whatever you want. It's not binding as long as you don't say I swear, I swear to God or I swear by God. As long as you don't say that, it's. Hold on. I think we're missing the point of God's law. [00:20:58] You see the problem? [00:21:00] All right, let me add another block to that. [00:21:04] The second thing they did is they used oaths in general. It was so common that they used oaths as a cover for dishonesty. You should not. We should not get the impression that because this is biblical society, this, that it was good because it wasn't. It was vile, it was wicked. [00:21:30] Remember that. [00:21:32] You mean there were people who were dishonest and cheated each other and told lies and manipulated and twisted the truth and exaggerated. That's exactly what I'm saying. [00:21:42] And you know what they would do is they would use. Whenever they wanted to say something that they really, really wanted you to believe, they would call God as a witness. They would swear to it. Conversation. [00:21:56] You know what that does? What about every other time you're speaking? [00:22:02] What about every other time you're speaking? So it's okay to bend the truth. It's okay to be. To swindle. It's okay to be deceptive and to have guile as long as you don't involve an oath in your normal speech. [00:22:20] Well, that's a problem. You see, they had. Whenever a binding oath was used, they had to speak the truth or they had to fulfill their word, otherwise they didn't have to. [00:22:30] What does that do you know what it does that provides. Listen now, and this is where it gets really ugly, really nasty, is it provides a religious framework and cover to lie. [00:22:44] You know how we do it here? Not here, I trust, but you know how we do it around here? [00:22:51] We're not supposed to lie in church. Now, I know that's a joke. I know it's a joke, but it betrays something. It betrays that we have a double standard and sometimes we must be absolutely honest and other times we can be something less than absolutely truthful and honest. It's the same thing. [00:23:11] Exactly the same. I'm going somewhere with this. Hang tight. All right. [00:23:17] The third thing they would do is they focus on the legal obligation regarding oaths rather than the moral obligations before God. So what does that mean? What does that mean? When they swore an oath in the presence of other people, they were then legally, not just morally or ethically, but legally bound to what they said, said. [00:23:38] But if they didn't, they had no legal obligation and they didn't even bother with thinking about. In fact, remember the religious Teaching, the traditional teaching. In verse 33, does it say anything about lying? No, it's only talking about oaths, you see. So they didn't even focus at all or pay attention at all to what the Lord thought about their dishonesty. [00:24:02] If there were no legal implications, it didn't matter. [00:24:06] And you know what? This is the again. Now, these are five subjects that the Lord is hitting on, right? How is this related to the anger and murder and lust and adultery? It's very, very closely related. Indicate. Remember last week we talked about adultery. In the case of adultery, as long as I didn't touch the woman, there was legal implications to that. There was a criminal element to that, right? But as long as I didn't touch her, I'm good. Without any regard to what God saw in the heart, right? [00:24:37] Or in the case of divorce, as long as I give her the paper and send her away, I'm good. Without any implication to what God's purpose in marriage was? Without any thought toward that. Or in the case of anger and murder, as long as I don't raise my sword or discharge my weapon at them, I'm good. But God sees the heart of murder. You see the heart of anger. [00:25:00] But they didn't pay attention to that. [00:25:03] They focused only on the outward legal obligation rather than the way that God viewed them. They were concerned only with the criminal penalty and not the fact that they had lied and that their lying was a sin in the sight of God. [00:25:23] What's more is they devised means to evade criminal penalties, all the while ignoring their guilt in the sight of God. I didn't swear by God. I swore by heaven. I'm good. [00:25:44] But the reality is truthfulness. [00:25:48] This is what Jesus is teaching in the sight of God is of greater importance than any legal obligation. [00:26:00] Look at. Take a peek at Mark, chapter seven, if you would. [00:26:04] Just one book over. I want to show you something because this deals with tradition. [00:26:09] Mark chapter seven, verse number nine. [00:26:29] This is our Lord speaking. He says verse nine. And he said unto them full, well, ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition. See this. [00:26:42] For Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother, and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die to death. Don't you love the Lord quotes what? He quotes the Bible, right? He quotes the Bible. What did Moses say? What does the scripture say versus the tradition? [00:26:58] Verse 11. But ye say, if a man say to his father or mother, it is Corban, that is to say, a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me. He shall be free. Now, I'm not gonna get into all the details, but basically, if you had some money that you could help your mom and dad when they were in a bad way, but you had dedicated that money to God for the offering, say, as a church. No, I've already told God, I give that money to God. [00:27:24] But God's word says to honor your parents. [00:27:29] And by the way, that's still something that the Lord wants us to do. Even in 2024, the Lord still wants us to honor and take care of our parents. [00:27:41] That's still what God's will is. [00:27:45] But what they did is they said, well, you know, well, I have money, but I've already dedicated to God. So, you know, it's dedicated. It's a gift. So mom and dad, sorry, sorry, can't help you. [00:27:59] You see how they take. And this is what's so wicked about it. They take religion, right? They take religion itself and use it as the excuse to violate God's commandments. [00:28:15] So now tradition, the traditional teaching and the commandments of God are now in contradiction. [00:28:22] Now, what does this have to do. [00:28:25] Because this is the kind of thing that we do, human beings do, that we find religious ways to get out of being absolutely truthful and honest. This is what they were doing, and religion was the tool used to do it. [00:28:48] Now, back in Matthew 5, after looking at verses 34 through 36, I want to ask you a question, thinking about the way they used oaths. [00:29:09] Is it acceptable to the Lord to keep one oath but not another? [00:29:17] No. Is it acceptable to the Lord to speak the truth? Only when you're bound by an oath. [00:29:26] Is it acceptable to the Lord to speak the truth and to do what you said only when it's technically and legally obligated to do so. [00:29:35] And I just wanted to tell you something, and this is honesty, integrity, truthfulness, forthrightness, all of those things are of high value to the Lord, right? [00:29:49] If you or I, if we ever hear ourselves saying something like, well, it's not technically a lie, you better watch out. [00:30:01] Anytime that we're trying to. We're trying to weasel out of what is a plain fact, we're in danger, maybe not in danger of violating a letter of the law, but the intent of the law. That's what the Lord Jesus is getting at. [00:30:22] Listen to some of these verses here. [00:30:24] Proverbs 26, verse 19. So is the man that deceiveth his neighbor. Notice it doesn't say lie, it says, deceive, deceiveth his neighbor, and saith Am I not in sport? Oh, I was just joking. [00:30:38] You see how we take something that is a serious matter, that is speaking the truth, and because it didn't go well, and this is old as a scripture, because it didn't go well, we kind of retract it and say, well, I was just kidding. But you weren't. [00:30:53] Mark 7, verse 21. Listen to this. For from within the Lord says, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness. Notice this. Deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and defile the man. Notice deceptions there. Romans 1:29 says this being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate. Here it is. Deceit, malignity, whispers. Romans 3:13 says this. Their throat, speaking of mankind, their throat is an open sepulchres. Open sepulchre. With their tongues have they used deceit. [00:31:48] Here's what I want to bring down. Bring down to what is the Lord doing in this passage? Before we get to the positive side, here's what the Lord is doing in this passage. It's very simple. [00:31:58] In the case of murder, they said, listen, I haven't put my hand on him. I haven't broken God's law. I'm good. I'm a righteous person. I haven't broken God's law. And Jesus says, but you're angry with your brother. Without a cause, you hate your brother. You are guilty. [00:32:19] You are guilty. [00:32:22] You think God's law is just the letters. You're forgetting the intent of the letters. [00:32:28] You are guilty even though you did not, because in your heart you thought it. In your heart, you did it. In the case of adultery, what does he say? He says, I didn't touch that woman. But Jesus said, if a man look upon a woman with lust, he hath committed adultery with her artist's heart already in his heart. No, you might not have violated the letter, but you're guilty because the crime is in your heart. Right now we come here. [00:32:59] Well, I didn't lie. [00:33:02] I didn't swear an oath to it. [00:33:06] But every day of your life, you're manipulating the truth. [00:33:11] You're exaggerating the truth. You're twisting the truth, right? You're altering the truth. You're leaving out relevant, important parts of the truth. You're playing fast and loose with the truth. You're not being forthright. You're not being absolutely honest. And you say, but I didn't swear to it. I mean, I didn't lie. [00:33:35] And the Lord says, you're guilty because you have violated the intent of the law. Because the intent was not. Just don't speak these specific words. The intent was that we're to be honest and absolutely honest at all times with everything that comes out of our mouth. But listen, there are people. Listen. There are people that live their life and fancy and imagine themselves to be righteous and upright because they have convinced themselves, just like these Jews, that they don't tell lies. [00:34:13] And they lie on their tax forms and they lie in their vows to their husband or to their wife. [00:34:21] They constantly twist the truth. [00:34:24] They give flattering compliments that they don't mean to people to puff them up. [00:34:32] They back out of things that they said they would do. [00:34:37] They don't keep their word. [00:34:40] They say one thing and do another. They're dishonest in their business dealings. And yet all the while, the person says, I didn't lie. [00:34:50] I didn't lie. [00:34:52] And the Lord says, but you're missing the intent of the law. [00:34:58] Here's what I think the Lord is trying to do. He's trying to get them to understand that even if in some way they can create a system that allows them to escape the guilt of being a liar, technically God still holds them guilty. [00:35:19] That's. That's what's happening. [00:35:22] You know, the Bible says this. [00:35:25] Revelation, chapter 20. [00:35:29] No, it's chapter 19. I think it is. I've got the chapter wrong. It says. It says that all liars will have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. And we can listen. We can say, well, listen, I'm not a liar. Listen. [00:35:46] Lying and deception and guile, twisting the truth, withholding the truth. Listen, those are all in the same. All in the same ball of wax. The Lord is going to hold people accountable. So if we have this fantasy that somehow we're righteous because we don't technically lie on a regular basis, we're deceived. That's the thing. This is what the Lord is trying to tell these people. [00:36:15] This is what he's trying to tell them. [00:36:18] And I'll tell you one thing. [00:36:20] You're talking about oaths and vows. [00:36:23] There's one oath that we violate more than any other oath. You know what that is? And most of us, most of us in this room have taken it. [00:36:32] It's the oath and the vow that we made to our spouse. [00:36:37] You know what that has. We think Well, I haven't cheated on my wife. I haven't cheated on my husband. Well, good. But did you remember the rest of the oath? [00:36:47] All the other things that you swore in the presence of God and those witnesses that you would do? Not a one of us in here has kept it. [00:36:59] Not a one of us in here has kept it down on me. Well, I didn't keep it. Well, might as well forget it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not that easy to get out of a vow. [00:37:09] No, you pay that thing. I remember when I joined the Marine Corps. I joined the Marine Corps out of the will of God, right? [00:37:17] The gym. [00:37:19] I joined the Marine Corps out of the will of God. I remember being at the MEPs, the entry where they do all the tests and everything before you actually go to recruit training. And I remember. I remember I had just gotten saved, like, a month before, and it was the first time where I remember the Lord, because I was just a new Christian. I mean, I didn't know all of these things. It was the first time. Specifically, I remember the Lord saying, do not do this. Do not do this. Do not do. He was warning me, like, you know those red lights that flash, you know, as you grow as a believer? You say, okay, that's God. He's trying to tell me something. Well, I didn't understand all that at the time. [00:37:56] And the Lord is warning me, don't do this. Don't do this. Red lights are flashing. [00:38:01] You know what I did, right? I did anyway. But here's the thing. [00:38:07] When I went into that and I went through that process, I set an oath. [00:38:11] Now, as I learned later, when you say that init, there's two oaths you take. You take an initial oath when you join, and then right before you go into recruit training, you take an oath that is binding, where if you run off, as you say, I'm going to the bathroom, you leave, they're going to send the MPs to pick you up and put you in the brig, right? [00:38:34] I didn't know that. All I knew is that first oath that I had taken, the time I'm referencing that I made a vow to God regarding my service. [00:38:44] It didn't matter if they let me off or not, because I made it to God in the sight of God. You understand? You know what? After that, I realized, man, I made a mistake. [00:38:56] I made a mistake. You know, I wanted to back out. [00:39:03] I wanted to back out because I felt like I messed up. [00:39:06] There's no backing out. [00:39:09] Because when you say when You. And it doesn't matter if an oath is attached to it or not. If it comes out of your mouth before God, you and I are obligated to keep that thing, right? [00:39:22] It doesn't matter if it hurts you, if it costs you money, it doesn't matter the cost. You and I are obligated to keep it. This is what God's law says, and this is what our Lord is describing now. Going back to that marriage vow. [00:39:41] Not one of us in this room has kept it completely. [00:39:46] That doesn't mean you shouldn't try. [00:39:50] And when you mess up, that doesn't mean you shouldn't get that thing right. And it's a whole lot more than just being faithful, forsaking all others. [00:39:57] It's the love part, right? [00:39:59] It's the submitting part, the obeying part. [00:40:04] It's being there whenever. Whenever they're. Whenever they're sick and they're down and having a good attitude. See, that's the spirit of the vow. Here's the thing. We make ourselves liars all the time. [00:40:15] I think anybody who's married and thinks themselves not a liar is just. Not is just deceived. [00:40:27] It's an important vow and it's a vow that we all take at some point. [00:40:35] So what is the Lord saying then? Because he says something in verse number 33 that's very interesting. He says this, but let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay. For whatsoever is more of thee more than these cometh of evil. [00:40:50] I'll give you a few things and we're done. [00:40:56] Notice. Yea, yea, nay, nay. [00:41:00] Our words should be simple. [00:41:04] The Lord is describing the way we the intention of the law of God regarding lying and deception. Our words should be simple. [00:41:15] Yes and no are simple words. They can't listen. The moment that we add complexity and exceptions and rules and all these other things around. What should be a simple answer, a simple statement is where we get into trouble. And this is exactly what they were doing. The Lord wants our words to be simple. He wants our words to be direct. Yay, yay. Nay, nay. What I take that to mean is this. If yes, say yes. If no, say no. Should be simple, should be direct. [00:41:47] And then our words should be truthful. [00:41:51] Even if there is no vow, no legal obligation, no. [00:41:58] Even if nobody will know that it was not true or that we did not keep our word. [00:42:05] You know what? You could submit your taxes and you could take off a few hundred few thousand dollars off of your income. [00:42:14] Especially if you're self employed. [00:42:16] You can right now it's a little bit harder if you get a W2, right, because it's reported. But if you're self employed and you're getting receipts in and that kind of thing, you can alter that number. [00:42:29] And in all likelihood, unless it's egregious, IRS is not going to pick up on it. [00:42:34] But the Lord picks up on it, you see. So do I have to be exactly punctilious and accurate? Yeah. [00:42:44] This is exactly what our Lord is saying. [00:42:47] Simple, direct, truthful. [00:42:51] 4 Whatsoever is more than simple, direct and truthful. Notice the source cometh of evil. In other words, the source is evil. So the moment that we are, the moment that we're scheming, the moment we're trying to weasel out of it, the moment we're trying to alter it or stretch it or twist it or anything like it, you see how the Lord's addressing the heart at that matter. He's addressing the inside. The moment the thought comes in our mind, how can I get out of this? How can I not follow through? How can I weasel out of what I've said? The moment we do that, we're already, we're already over the line. The Lord, you see what I'm saying? This is what the Lord's saying because we're beyond, we're in the area of cometh of evil. [00:43:44] First Peter 2:1 says this wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, he says, notice all guile. That's deception scheming. [00:43:59] 1st Peter 2:22 Speaking of our Lord says this. He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. [00:44:09] First Peter 3:10 for he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. [00:44:19] In the New Testament the Lord doesn't spend a lot of time talking about lying, but he does spend an awful time, awful lot of time talking about deception because we like to say, well, I'm not lying. [00:44:33] But he says, search your heart. [00:44:36] Now listen, I struggle with this message. [00:44:42] I could have come in here and just said, don't lie and you ought to already finish your lunch. [00:44:52] But obviously the Lord has a message. And those verses I just read are in the New Testament written to churches, to church people. So there is obviously there's obviously the Lord knowing the heart are issues with people being less than honest among God's people in churches. [00:45:12] That is not God's will. If there's anybody in this world that ought to be absolutely honest in all their matters and all their words. It ought to be one of God's people, even if it hurts us, even if it costs us. [00:45:32] Because this is what our Lord has said to do. [00:45:35] This is what it means to say, yay, yay, and nay. Nay, let's pray.