The sermon 'Truth in the Inward Parts' by Jason Dohm discusses the importance of truthfulness as espoused in Psalm 51 and Matthew 5. It critiques the Pharisees and scribes for reducing righteousness to a set of external, mechanical rules, emphasizing that true righteousness exceeds this by requiring truth in the inward parts. The sermon explores the biblical concepts of vows and oaths, differentiating them as vows being promises to God and oaths as promises to men, both invoking God as a witness. Jesus' teachings in Matthew 5 are interpreted not as a blanket prohibition of oaths, but as a corrective to the Pharisees' practices, urging believers to embody truthfulness. Biblical examples, notably from Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the epistles of Paul, are used to highlight the rightful place of oaths. The sermon underscores the necessity of truthfulness in all aspects of life, encouraging believers to reflect Jesus' character and to apply these teachings in personal, familial, and societal contexts.

So the title of the sermon is Truth in the Inward Parts. And it's from the Psalm that Gary just read, Psalm 51, where David says, Behold, You, O God, desire truth in the inward parts. And this is really a psalm of confession and a psalm of repentance after Nathan the prophet has come to David to confront him in his sin about his adultery and his murder. And so really, David is the poster child. He's the example in a very negative way of these things that Jesus has been bringing before our eyes so far in his exposition of the law.

Murder, adultery, and now lying. David in that episode was guilty of some whoppers in terms of lying. But when he comes in this psalm of repentance, he is before God acknowledging that God desires truth in the inward parts. This is fundamentally what our text is about in Matthew 5. Not just making good on certain kinds of declarations.

This is what the scribes and the Pharisees have shrunken it down to, making good on certain kinds of declarations. But Jesus comes and says, no, God desires truth in the inward part. And this fits into Jesus' ongoing cross-examination of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Really the interpretive key for this whole section is verse 20, where Jesus says, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So the scribes and the Pharisees are putting forward a system of righteousness and Jesus says that will not get you into heaven.

And then he begins to explain through six representative case studies how the Pharisees had shrunken down, whittled away the law, skinned it down to something that was very manageable, very doable with a little self-discipline. And he says, this will not get you to heaven. There must be a righteousness that exceeds this if you intend to be part of the kingdom of God. And it demands repentance. It demands that we would be those who are poor in spirit, that we mourn over our sin, that we're meek, that we hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Of course, these were qualities that the Pharisees were without. You could do the religion of the Pharisees without having any of these qualities in your heart, because their religion was very mechanical. It was very transactional. It was very external. So Jesus is destroying all that, and he's driving it back into the heart with murder, saying it's not just an act of murder that results in a single sanction, but that murder also includes anger towards your brother without a cause.

It also includes having disdain for your brother and saying, you fooled to him. That is wrapped up in the law of murder. And adultery is not just a single act that results in a single sanction, But adultery includes lust for a woman. It includes what happens in your mind and in your heart, not just what happens in your physical actions. And that it also results from a wrong view of divorce.

Adultery was being caused by how the scribes and the Pharisees were practicing divorce. And Jesus, so he is attacking this outward structure that they've erected so that they could say that they're righteousness. And he is piling up condemnation on them, but not just them, but also on us. So we would understand who we are before God. Last week, we saw something, a very shocking image that Jesus brings to us, and that's this.

If there's something that causes you to sin, though it be your right eye, you should pluck it out and cast it from you. If there's something that would cause you to sin, though it be your right hand, you should cut it off and cast it from you. Because it's better, it's more profitable for you to be without that member than for your whole body to be cast into hell. So I just want to pause there and say, brothers and sisters, did you just listen last week or did you apply? Is there anything that God brought to your mind that was a cause of sin?

And if so, did you pluck it out or cut it off and cast it from you? We can't just come and listen to the sermons and nod and smile and appreciate them and then go home and not be any different. The book of James tells us about that. We cannot be that kind of people. So when Jesus says, if your most precious eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, that means when God begins to put his finger on things as a cause for sin, There need to be very concrete things that we go home and do, and do immediately before the time passes and it stops being top of mind.

We must apply the things that we're hearing. This week we tackled the third representative case study, which has to do with swearing oaths. And so Jesus is continuing to evaluate the system of righteousness brought forward by the scribes of Pharisees and how it pertains to their practice of swearing oaths. And we'll see that the form is exactly the same as with murder and as with adultery. And then there will be three more times that the form will be the same.

And the form is this. You have heard that it was said to those of old. In other words, the scribes and the Pharisees are representing that what they're teaching you is the law. You've heard that it was said to those of old. They're saying, this is the law, and giving a very whittled down version of it.

But I say unto you, So he comes with a contradiction to the interpretation of the scribes and the Pharisees of the law. And he's helping us to set our minds straight and understand what God always meant through the law. And that it's actually The letter of the law is important, but what's more important is the spirit of the law. There's always something behind the law that helps us to understand it at a whole other level, besides just a physical arranging of our lives so that we find ourselves to be acceptable in our own eyes and in the eyes of our neighbor. Here's the outline of our time for today.

We're going to be doing four things. The first is we'll go and look and see what the Old Testament has to say about vows and o's. The second thing we'll do is we'll see how the scribes and Pharisees were actually practicing vows and o's. And we get a front seat view of that in Matthew 23. So we'll go to that text and see how the scribes and Pharisees were practicing this.

And then thirdly, we'll come back to our text in Matthew. We'll see what Jesus says, and we'll see how that relates to what the Old Testament has taught about vows and o's and the current practice. And so that'll merge those first three things together. And then finally, we'll end with modern application. What does that mean in our culture?

What does that mean in our country, our church, our home, and individually? So the Old Testament teaching, here's why we're starting here. I found this text to be a very difficult text to approach because it's very fuzzy in my mind what the Old Testament actually teaches about vows and owes. So when we read, you have heard that it was said to those of old, I found myself asking, yes, what does it say to those of old? I'm not really sure what the Old Testament has to say about vows and owes.

I felt much more equipped to tackle murder, because I was more familiar with what the Old Testament said about murder, and with adultery, because I was more familiar with what the Old Testament says about adultery. But when we come to vows and o's, I'm thinking, this is just a morass of things that I really understand I've never taken the time to dig into. And during the course of the week I just found the fog clearing away. I was so thankful to say, oh, this is what the law says about vows and owes. And now I can understand what Jesus is actually saying in Matthew chapter 5 in a better way.

So I want to run us through a number of representative passages from the Old Testament to help us hone in and understand exactly what the law teaches about vows and owes. And we'll begin in Numbers 30, which is a chapter that talks from beginning to end about vows and owes. But I want to focus on Numbers 30, verses 2 and 3, which says this, if a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds from his mouth. So one of the things that we learned from Numbers 30, verses 2 and 3 is that vows and oaths are distinct.

They're different. They're not exactly the same thing. Now We use them interchangeably today, but I just want to register this right off the bat that in biblical terms, vows are one thing and oaths are a different thing. If you go to Webster, you won't find that to be true. Webster uses them interchangeably, And so the Bible actually uses the terms differently than we are used to using them today.

We talk about wedding vows. Actually, in biblical terminology, it would be a wedding oath. And so here's the distinction. A vow is to God. The other party, when you make a vow, is God.

And you're making some promise to God as part of your worship. An example of that would be the Nazirite vow, where if you took a Nazirite vow, that you would identify a period of time where you would be to set aside completely for the Lord, and you wouldn't cut your hair, You wouldn't have anything to do with anything related to the fruit of the vine. And there's some other requirements. But that was not between you and another man. That was strictly between you and the Lord.

And oath, on the other hand, the other party is man. You're making an agreement with someone. So a vow is to God, and an oath is to man. But they do share this in common. And that is that God is the guarantor of both.

God is the witness and the judge and the executioner of both of these things. So with a vow, obviously he is. But with an oath, when you make an oath with someone, it was to be with God as witness of it. So that you share that in common. But the other party with a bow is God, and the other party with an oath is man.

You're making an agreement with someone. And there are actually, as you survey what the Old Testament teaches about oaths, there's two kinds of oaths. The first is you're affirming the truth. In other words, you're swearing to the truth. You're swearing that something is true.

And often those words go together. You'll see in the verses that have the word oath, you'll see that someone is swearing. So you're swearing to the truth. It's an affirmation of the truth. The second kind is that you're making a promise.

And both of these oaths survive today, don't they? When we're affirming the truth, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? What? So help you God. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

So help me God. This is an oath. God is being called as the witness, and you're affirming that what you're going to say is the truth. How about making a promise? Yes.

Before God and these witnesses, I take this woman to be my wife in sickness and in health. So help us God. Before God and these witnesses, I take this woman to be my wife. That's an oath that survives today. God is being called as a witness and there's an agreement with a person.

So that is our wedding oath according to biblical terminology. So the second passage that will help us understand vows and oaths is actually 2 Chronicles 6, verses 22 and 23. 2 Chronicles 6, verses 22 and 23. Here's what that passage says. If anyone sins against his neighbor and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants.

So God is actually the recipient of what's being said here. He's being called on to hear from heaven and act and judge your servants." So God is actually the recipient of what's being said here. He's being called on to hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. So you can see in 2 Chronicles 6, God is being called to be the witness of this and to judge the matter whether the oath has actually been fulfilled or not and actually to be the enforcer of it. If it isn't made good, then God is being called upon to bring retribution.

And if it is made good, God is being called upon to bless the one who's righteously fulfilled the oath. And so when a person takes a lawful oath in the Old Testament, He's calling God to witness and saying, God bless me if I make good on this oath, if I fulfill my oath, God curse me. God give retribution to me if I don't make good on this oath. So that's what 2 Chronicles 6 is saying. The next verse from the Old Testament is Deuteronomy 6.13, which says, You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.

You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. What we see in this verse is that oaths are based on the fear of the Lord. If you have no fear of the Lord, then anyone can say, God, judge me. God, bless me.

God, curse me. God, whatever to me. Because if there's no fear of the Lord, then you can just say that flippantly. And so oaths are only good in terms of having a contract that something legitimate is behind, to the extent that there's a fear of the Lord between the parties. The second thing that we learn is that oaths in the Old Testament are always, always, always, always, always, always to be taken in the name of God.

It's always in the name of the Lord. Listen, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him, and shall take oaths in his name. Now this isn't a commandment to take oaths. What it is, is a commandment whenever you take an oath, to have it be in the name of the Lord. That is the purpose of that phrase.

And Deuteronomy 10-20 says almost exactly the same thing. You shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him, and to him you shall hold fast and take oaths in his name. You don't find any instances in the Old Testament where people are taking oaths except in the name of God. Now this is going to be very important and significant when we get to Matthew 23, when Jesus begins to pronounce condemnation about how the scribes and the Pharisees are taking their oaths. So keep that in mind.

Oaths are only to be made in the name of God and not in any other name. Next, I'd like you to turn to Ecclesiastes 5. Ecclesiastes 5. So little ones, Ecclesiastes is right after Psalms and Proverbs. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes.

We're big ones who are a little rusty. Ecclesiastes 5. The first five verses here teach us a lot about vows and ohs. Ecclesiastes 5, starting in verse 1. Walk prudently when you go to the house of God, and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools.

For they do not know that they do evil. Do not be rash with your mouth, and do not let your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes through much activity and a fool's voice is known by his many words.

When you make a Vow to God, do not delay to pay it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed. Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. So there are actually many things that we learn that are very relevant to the subject in Ecclesiastes 5. The first is that it's not sin to not vow.

No one ever sinned by not taking a vow. You're not required to take a vow. There's not a commandment to take a vow. But it is sin to vow rashly or hastily. And it is sin not to fulfill your vow once you've taken it.

And the council of Ecclesiastes 5 is let your words be few. Let your words be few. Vows are not something in the Old Testament that ought to be taken on your lips every day, or every week, or every month. The council of Ecclesiastes is that we're not hasty, we're not rash, our words are few, And our vows are fewer. And Leviticus 5 actually says the same thing about oaths.

Leviticus 5.4 says, Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath. And he is unaware of it. When he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in all of these matters. So Leviticus 5 takes this principle of letting your words be few, not rashly, not hastily, and then applies that to oaths as well as vows. That speaking thoughtlessly with your lips actually brings guilt on you.

So here's a summary of where we are so far. Vows are to the Lord. He's the other party. Oaths are to man. There's another person who's another party.

And in both cases, God is called to be the witness, the judge, and to act according to whether the vow is fulfilled or not. Secondly, that they're based on the fear of the Lord. They're meant to be done in the fear of God, knowing that there is a God in heaven who sees and hears and can act, a sovereign God. And thirdly, that they're to be done in the name of God and only and always in the name of God. And fourthly, that our default position should be shut up.

Let your words be few. Don't be rash. Don't be hasty. Don't be thoughtless with your words because God is being called to witness and to act. This is the Old Testament teaching.

I want to add one other thing which is just a survey of what you see in the Old Testament. Who takes vows? Who takes oaths? God and others. But God takes oaths.

He doesn't take vows. He doesn't vow to himself. He takes oaths. And it's not because he might not be truthful about it, so he wants to add a little extra weight to something he's saying. It's actually for our benefit that we would be assured that he will keep his promises.

That's why God takes O's, not because he needs a little extra oomph in his statements. God takes them. Abraham takes O's. Isaac takes O's. Jacob takes O's.

Jonathan takes O's. David takes O's. Nehemiah takes O's. And Many of these actually comply with the principles that the Old Testament has laid down and that we've just reviewed. They're in the name of God.

They're done in the fear of the Lord. And they're not rash or hasty or thoughtless. A few of them in the Bible actually don't comply with those. And we'd say those were unlawful oaths by the standards of the law. A couple.

Saul wanted to pursue his enemies. So he says, if anyone eats before the end of the day, they'll be put to death. Before the sun goes down, they'll be put to death. Jonathan, not knowing that, his son Jonathan, not knowing that, dips into the honey and eats some. And it almost cost him his life.

That was a rash oath. That was a hasty oath. That was a thoughtless oath, and it ended up in a really bad place. So Saul wasn't complying with what the Old Testament was teaching about oaths, and it almost cost his son his life. Herod in the New Testament.

Herod takes an oath based on being pleased with his step-daughter's dancing. And though he was sorry he did it, it cost John the Baptist his head because he has to fulfill his oath. So that was done rashly, hastily, thoughtlessly, and it cost John the Baptist his head. I'd like to do one other thing before we leave the Old Testament in vows and oaths, and that is to apply the filter that we've been talking about for the law, the structure of the law. That love is the fulfillment of the law, and that love of God and love of neighbor explains that, and that the Ten Commandments explain love of God and love of neighbor, and then that all the other laws help explain the Ten Commandments.

And they roll up. So this is just an opportunity to apply that filter to vows and O's. Jesus says there's two great hooks upon which we hang all the law and the prophets. And that's that we would love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind, and the second is like it, that we would love our neighbor as ourselves. So how does the taking of vows and oaths relate to that?

Well, the third commandment 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. To take an oath rashly or hastily or thoughtlessly or not to follow through on the oath is to take up the name of God, calling him as a witness in vain. That's a violation of the third commandment. And that means that we're not loving God with all our heart, mind, and strength. How about an oath that is rash or hasty or thoughtless or that we don't follow through on.

That's the ninth commandment. You shall not bear false witness. It's lying. It's lying to do that. And that's not loving your neighbor as yourself.

So We need to train our minds to think about the law that way. When we find one of these commandments, one of these categories, we run it all the way up the chain to the two things that Jesus says, all the law and all the prophets hang on, so that we understand how it relates to our love for God and our love for our neighbor and how it relates to these Ten Commandments that help explain that. The practice of the scribes and the Pharisees. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 23. We know what the Old Testament teaches.

Now what are the teachers of the people actually practicing and advocating? And Jesus does not have nice things to say about them. This is sandwiched in eight woes that Jesus proclaims or pronounces on the scribes and the Pharisees. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. There are eight of them.

And what we're getting ready to read pertains to the taking of oaths. Matthew 23 starting in 16, woe to you blind guides who say whoever swears by the temple it is nothing, But whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind, for which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold. And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing. But whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is obliged to perform it.

Fools and blind, for which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift. Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it." Now this is really helping us get to the heart of the matter of what Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mouth in chapter 5. The scribes and the Pharisees had a form of righteousness.

They had created a form of righteousness that was based upon a distinction in oaths. Not all oaths in the name of God, but many distinctions between O's. And there's levels of it being binding. And this is exactly what you see. You swear by the temple, It's nothing.

You swear by the gold of the temple, you're obligated to perform it. That's what you see, right? I'm interpreting this right. There are levels of it being binding. And actually, how it worked was they recognized that o's in the name of God were binding.

And so they said, the closer it is to the name of God, the more binding it is. And so that's how you determine, do I have to do it, or do I really have to do it, Or do I really, really have to do it? Or do I really, really, really have to do it based on the object of the oath and how close it was to the name of God? It doesn't sound very much like the Old Testament teaching on vows and o's, does it? Doesn't sound like reserving these for times when you come in the fear of the Lord to invoke God as witness and judge and the one who would act and enforce.

But these things had proliferated. So now, oaths were being taken in everyday life for the smallest reasons. And they were binding, or sort of binding, or really binding based on how close it was to the name of God. The Talmud is what the Jews developed to write down The traditions of the rabbis, all these rabbis and all of their teachings that have been passed on from rabbi to rabbi orally, now written down about 200 years after Christ. But they were being said all along.

It was an oral tradition. It was being passed from rabbi to rabbi. And they finally wrote it down two years after Christ. Here's the section on laws and oaths. 81 pages, 12-point font.

Laws and oaths. What's binding? What's not binding? What's the penalty? This is what the scribes and the Pharisees did about laws of O's.

About the fact that God wanted truth in the inward parts. They needed 81 pages of 12-point font to talk about the nuances of tell the truth. God desires truth in the inward parts. And This is the culture that Jesus is coming into and speaking into. They had developed this very mechanical, transactional, manageable set of rules, all 81 pages, that could tell you everything you wanted to know about how binding it was, and whether it was binding, and to the point where if you swear by Jerusalem, it's not binding, but if you swear toward Jerusalem, it's binding.

Just an insane amount of minutia had developed around laws and oaths. So now, we actually go to Matthew 5 to see what Jesus is telling us in the Sermon on the Mount, starting in verse 33, about laws and oaths. Verse 33. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord." The Old Testament is not being quoted here. You won't find anywhere where that exact thing is said in the Old Testament.

Now, you can pull from here, here, and here, and get really close to that. And so it is a synthesis of things that the Old Testament teaches, but we'd have to say that it's an insufficient pulling together of what the Old Testament teaches. It's true, but it's not complete. Just like what the scribes and Pharisees were saying about murder was true, but not complete. Just like what the scribes and Pharisees were saying about murder was true but not complete.

Just like what the scribes and Pharisees were saying about adultery was true but not complete. Same with oaths and with vows. It's true but it's not complete. As we learned in Matthew 23, the emphasis had become to the Lord in this. Do not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord.

In other words, these oaths that you take to the Lord, make sure that you fulfill those. Now that's not what the Old Testament was teaching at all. I mean, is it true that you should fulfill your owes to the Lord? Absolutely. But they were emphasizing that to say, there must be other owes then that we can take, and they'll have various degrees of whether we have to perform them or not.

It's just like last week when we saw that the scribes and Pharisees had a form of divorce that skipped over the basis for divorce and focused on the paperwork. Make sure you give her a certificate of divorce where The basis, finding a legitimate grounds to actually divorce your wife is completely passed over in favor of the paperwork. It's the same thing with oaths here. They're saying make sure you fulfill your ones to the Lord. But, you know, we have an 81 page manual that can help you understand whether you should fulfill the other ones or not.

The spirit of the law behind O's has always been truth telling. Not that there's a certain kind of declaration that you should fulfill, and then there are others, but that people ought to be telling the truth. That was always the spirit of the law. But another system had been developed that had technicalities that you could work in your favor. That's not the spirit of the law.

The spirit of the law is tell the truth, not look for a loophole. Verses 34 through 36. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King, nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. These three verses must be understood in one of two ways. Either It's a categorical prohibition against and a condemnation of all oaths.

Or it's a corrective which condemns the practices of the scribes and the Pharisees and directs the people back to the true teaching of scripture, back to the spirit of the law as opposed to the letter of the law. It has to be one of those two. Now, the weight of history says it's the second one. It's a corrective. And the reason we know that is we took one when we went to the altar to say that we would be married forever.

So whether we understood the theology behind it or not, we believe in oaths because we took one. When we go to the court, our society believes in oaths. You'll have to take one to get on a jury and swear that you'll tell the truth. So history is on the side of the second option, was that this is a corrective. But You know what?

History is a lousy measuring stick. Sometimes history favors things that are completely wrong. So we need to look at these two options to see what does the scripture say. The Quakers believed the first, that it's a categorical prohibition against and a condemnation of all oaths. In fact, if you've got a Bible with headers, chances are the header on this section in your Bible says, Jesus forbids oaths.

I have multiple Bibles on my shelf at home that have a header that say, Jesus forbids oaths. And the Quakers believed that. And So the Quakers won't take an oath and are often excluded from being on juries based on that. There are actually some changes to the law that will allow them to participate. But for many years, a Quaker couldn't be on a jury for that reason.

And today, many of those who advocate new covenant theology won't take an oath because they believe That's what Jesus is doing in this passage. And these are vocal minorities. But you know what? We also shouldn't be down on vocal minorities. I'm pretty sure we're a vocal minority.

Family integrated brethren, isn't that what we are? We're a vocal minority. And so we don't want to just throw them out. We actually want to evaluate their arguments and bring our arguments and see which hold the test of scripture. There are Three reasons why I believe option two is the correct interpretation.

Three reasons that I believe that the second option, again, that the second option is that this is a corrective that brings us back to the spirit of the law. The First is the immediate context. That what is actually happening here is a striking down of this system of secondary oaths. In other words, an oath that was never lawful in the first place. All oaths are supposed to be only to God.

If you make an oath, God is the witness, not heaven or earth or Jerusalem or your head. God is the witness. And so the argument from here and from Matthew 23, the argument that Jesus makes is all these secondary things, they all roll up to God anyway. Heaven is God's. Earth is God's.

Jerusalem is God's. Your head is God's. The temple is God's. The altar is God's. The sacrifice is God's.

And so there are no secondary oaths. They all roll up to God because it's all his and so the context would tell us that. It says don't take oaths neither by and enlist four things that aren't God. Don't take oaths like this. Don't take oaths that are about secondary things as if God isn't behind all oaths because he is.

And this takes on exactly what the Old Testament was taking on, which was swearing rashly, swearing hastily, swearing thoughtlessly. Otherwise, the list here makes no sense. If Jesus wants to say, don't take oaths, then say don't take oaths. And if the first interpretation is right and our interpretation is wrong, then the list, not only is it not helpful, it's very confusing. But the list here, when you look at the list, would actually point you back to what would have been a violation in the Old Testament.

That oaths aren't to be taken rashly or hastily or thoughtlessly, and that they're always to be taken in the name of God and only in the name of God. James 512 says almost exactly the same words. But above all my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven, or by earth, or with any other oath. But let your yes be yes, and your no, no, lest you fall into judgment." The first time you read that, you'd say, that is a categorical condemnation of all oaths. That is the plain language of this text.

But as you read the whole verse together and you begin to consider how the parts relate to each other, you say that there's something in the context that would actually take you away from that, which is this. He says, again, he gives a list, either by heaven or by earth. Here's more oaths being taken, not in the name of God, but in something else. And here's more of these secondary oaths that were always unlawful. And then it ends this way, lest you fall into judgment.

Not lest you fall into judgment for taking the oath, but lest you fall into judgment because you have called Almighty God as a witness, as the sovereign agent in universe to Make it right if you don't follow through on your oath. There are times that we ought to put ourselves in jeopardy of judgment. When you walk down to the altar and you look that girl in the eye and promise to be with her forever, you ought to put yourself in jeopardy. When you go to a courtroom and somebody's life hangs in the balance, you ought to put yourself in jeopardy. You should look at this phrase, lest you fall into judgment and say, I'll sign up for that.

I will sign up for that. This is one of those moments where I am willing to put myself in harm's way, because the truth and the gravity of the moment requires that we in the fear of God call God as witness to see the oath that we're taking and to judge between us whether we have fulfilled what we're saying that we will do and to curse us if we do not follow through and to bless us if we do. There are times in life for that. And it stands the test of Matthew 5 and it stands the test of James 5. In James 4, this sets the context for James 5 12.

In James 4 verses 13 through 16 are this, Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we shall live and do this or that.

But now you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting as evil. This goes to the heart of the matter. When we take one of these secondary O's, and we're making it secondary because it's not really that grave of a moment like getting married or standing up before a judge and asserting that you're telling the truth. It's not one of those moments, but we make it secondary so we can sort of mean it on a moment that's not quite so grave. And then we don't call God to witness, but we say it's by the earth or by heaven or by our head.

Do you realize what boasting that is? Do you realize how little we control in this world? This is the argument that's being made both by James here and James 4 and by Jesus. You can't make one hair on your head black or white. I remember now, I intended to Google how many hairs are on the human head so I could say, you have x hairs and you can't even make one of them black or white without the help of chemicals.

What is being called into question here is a mode of operating that leaves God out of the picture. Have something secondary that doesn't acknowledge that God is the primary cause of everything that happens in this world. And that we control so very little, but God controls everything. It's arrogance. It's a boasting against God.

Turn your Bibles to Hebrews 6. So reason number one was the immediate context, both in Matthew and James, I think bears the test of this second interpretation, that Jesus is actually correcting but not overthrowing What is taught in the Old Testament? Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6 says this, starting in verse 13. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.

And so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. Hebrews 6 tells us why God takes oaths. It's so that we will know with great certainty that he is immutable, that he is unchangeable, and that when he gives a promise it cannot fail.

That's why God gives oaths. And it says here that this is why men give oaths as well. There are certain solemn circumstances in life, like a wedding, where it is of the utmost importance that we put all the chips on the table to say we will be unchangeable in this. We'll be like God in this. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.

Actually, oaths have a function in our lives. And they ought not to be taken rashly. They ought not to be taken hastily. They ought not to be taken thoughtlessly, as we learned in the Old Testament. They ought always to be followed through on.

They ought to be taken in the fear of God, in the name of God, and almost never. Our words should be few. And yet there are occasions in life where we ought to take an oath, because it ends all dispute. And it communicates that on this point, we are as immutable and unchangeable as God. It strikes me how that even sounds to say that we would be immutable like God.

Don't you have the sense of how few oaths we ought to take in this life if that be true? The third reason. The first reason was the immediate context. The second reason was what Hebrews 6 says about why God takes an oath. And it says that will be unchangeable.

The third reason is that Paul regularly swears oaths in the epistles. Regularly swears oaths in the epistles, seven times, although I can't swear that there aren't more. Pun intended. Romans 1, 9, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers." Romans 9, 1. I tell the truth in Christ.

I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit." 2 Corinthians 1, 23. Moreover, I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth. If that isn't an oath of the Old Testament style, what is? I call God as witness against my soul. Galatians 1.20.

Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed before God I do not lie. Philippians 1.8. For God is my witness how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 2, 7, For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness. God is witness.

1 Thessalonians 2.10. You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe. In each of these seven instances, these are things undoubtedly done in the fear of the Lord, done explicitly in the name of God, not done rashly or hastily or thoughtlessly, but part of the scripture, inspired words of God, Paul giving us a pattern that the oaths that we saw in the Old Testament are still appropriate in the new. And that Jesus is actually bringing a corrective to say, we have to go back to the spirit of the law. This is about truth in the inward parts.

Verse 37, but let your yes be yes and your no, no for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. Now we get to the heart of the matter, the spirit of the law, truthfulness, Truthfulness. One thing that we get from verse 37 is that we should be affirming and denying things. The message of this text isn't don't commit. You might read this text and say, I have to stop committing.

I have to stop committing to things. This is getting me in trouble. That's not the point of the text. Jesus is not saying stop committing things lest you not meet your commitments. He's saying, meet your commitments.

Say yes and then let it be yes. Say no and then let it be no. Here are the different translations and I bring this up because the new King James is different than the other good translations and is really deficient compared to them. And I love my new King James. It's great.

But in this one, I think they missed the boat because they skip a word that all the other good translations maintain. The King James and the Geneva both render it this way, but let your communication be yay, yay, nay, nay. Whereas the new King James said, but let your yes be yes. They skipped the part about communication altogether. But the King James and the Geneva preserve the word, the Greek word, logos, which is there.

That's lost in the New King James. They don't even bring the word forward. It's in their base text, but for whatever reason, they don't bring it forward. But the King James and the Geneva do. So does the NASB.

But let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no. The ESV, let what you say be simply yes or no. This is not so that we don't have to follow through, but because an oath is unnecessary. This isn't designed to tame down our speech so that we're OK if we don't follow through. Do you understand that?

That's not why this is being said. We're not trying to dampen things to bring them down to a level where it doesn't matter anymore if we don't meet our commitments. Don't read it that way. It's being said because we ought not to need an oath. An oath for a follower of Jesus Christ ought not to be necessary, ought not to be required, ought not to be expected.

We ought to be filled with truthfulness because we belong to Jesus. Here's what Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 21 and 22. For to This you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps, who committed no sin nor was deceit found in His mouth. This is the reason why our yes should be yes and our no should be no. Because Jesus came to leave us an example and no deceit was ever found in His mouth.

We ought to be truthful because we belong to Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. John 14 verse 6. Jesus doesn't tell the truth. Jesus is the truth.

It is part of His character, so much so, so deeply ingrained that it said that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He doesn't tell the truth, He is the truth. And so those who belong to him ought to be characterized by truth. They ought to be swearing to their own hurt. And when they commit something, their yes is yes, and their no is no.

Psalm 15, Psalm 15, it's the Psalm of David. Verse 1, it says, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Verse 4 says, He who swears to his own hurt and does not change. Right back to Hebrews 6. The one who will abide in the tabernacle of the Lord is the one who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

He's immutable. He does not change. When he says it, he will do it. And then verse 5 in Psalm 15. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Do you know the blessing of God on the people whose yes is yes and their no is no? He who does these things shall never be moved. They will be established by God because they are reflecting the nature of Jesus Christ. By contrast, the devil is a liar and the father of lies. John 8, 44.

Anything else comes from the evil one. The devil is the father of lies. Modern application. We're going to start at a high level and then we're going to bring it right into our own kitchen. At a high level, think of the societies where deceit is built into the fabric of the culture.

Many places on this earth where deceit and deception is actually kind of a badge of honor, It's built into the fabric of the culture, and they're places that are characterized by poverty and corruption. And the rule of law is no good there, because people will swear up and down, very literally, and they'll be looking in the eye and they will swear that they're telling the truth and the seat is built into the fabric of that culture and they don't mean it they'll go back on it in a heartbeat And they're just using it as a lever point to get their way. And that brings poverty on a people. That brings, this kind of corruption brings a people to the ground. And I just want to observe that as the fear of the Lord declines here.

This is where we're headed. Wherever the fear of the Lord declines, corruption and poverty are soon to follow. Here's the silver lining to that. If there was ever a place for the people of God to be salt and light in this world, it's when the fear of God is declining and people will say anything to get their way and yet the people of God say, We belong to Jesus, we're not like that. Our yes is yes, our no is no.

And they're careful with their words. They're not hasty, they're not rash, they're not thoughtless, but when they say it, they will do it. We have an opportunity as our culture drifts away from God to be salt and light like we've never had the opportunity to be before by letting our yes be yes, by letting our no be no. Let's think about this in the different spheres of life. Business, business where we shave the truth, shave the truth, not exactly a lie.

We have to stop thinking in those terms. We have to stop talking in those terms. We have to purge our vocabulary from the phrase, not exactly a lie. The people of God are not like that. They don't talk like that.

They don't think like that. We have to stop being like that. We cannot shade the truth to get the business, to book the order. What about those of you in school? That's your business.

Do you shave the truth to get out of the assignment or to be done with the work? Sort of be honest about the work that's gone into it. We have to stop talking like that. We have to stop thinking like that, students. That is your business.

It's not just the salesmen that's in jeopardy here. All of us have a business of life where there's temptations to be sort of honest about things. In order to be viewed a certain way or to have to do or not have to do certain things. Jesus is the truth, we're His. We have to tell the truth.

Not sort of the truth, but the truth. What about church? What about here, where we're brothers and sisters? Do we have to keep checking up? Are you really going to be there?

Can we count on you for this one? I'm not saying that because I've observed a culture that's like that. But I know there's a tendency to have two levels of yes, the sort of yes and the yes. And I think Jesus is telling us here we have to stop having those different levels. That it's fair game to say when you're not really committed and it depends on other things, but we should say so, so the other person knows.

And that most of the time we should just make a commitment and then let our yes be yes. Even if it's to our own hurt. That's what Psalm 15 says. He who swears to his own hurt and does not change. We change too much.

We'd rather swear to someone else's hurt than our own. What about parenting, Where we have a commandment not to exasperate our children. This is one of the main ways. We lecture them seven ways to Sunday on truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. So help you God.

And then our yes is not yes. Our no is not no. My brethren, this ought not be. We need to raise the level of our truthfulness in our relationships with our children. Because if not, we're teaching them to be hypocrites.

Do you understand that? We're training hypocrites. What about in our marriage where trust is so essential? But you know, that's Also the most familiar relationship where, you know, I said I'll be home then, but she knows I get busy. Is this acceptable in our marriages and our closest relationship?

That really is the definition of familiarity breeds contempt, isn't it? That we would be the least truthful to the one that we're close to, because we understand these things about each other. This is not right. We need to raise the level of truthfulness in our marriage relationships and start acting like Jesus Christ who is truth. Here's what D.

Martin Lloyd-Jones says, I'll close with this. Men on political platforms have waxed eloquent on the sanctity of international contracts. But at the very time they were speaking they were not loyal and truth to their own marriage vows. Now you have something in mind, he wrote this in the 70s. This has not changed.

When Hitler lied, we all held up our hands aghast. But we seem to think it is somehow different when we tell what we call a white lie in order to get out of the difficulty. It is terrible, we think, to lie on the international level, but not apparently when it comes to a matter between husband and wife or parents and children. Is that not the position? It is the old fallacy.

The temple, nothing. The gold of the temple, everything. The altar, nothing. The gift on the altar, tremendous. And so D.

Martin Lloyd-Jones says the old fallacy from Matthew 23 is not just piling up guilt on the scribes and the Pharisees. It's us as well. We have different levels of truth, and we need to stop. We need to repent. We need to become like the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose mouth no deceit was ever found.

Let's pray. Oh God, thank you for your word. God, I thank you for piling up the condemnation, for pointing your finger into our self-righteous chests and breaking down all of our pride and our self-righteousness. I thank you for a text like this week where maybe it's been one of the little understood texts as it has been for me. And yet, you open your words to us and you illuminate and you help us to see our sin so that we can confess and repent and at times of refreshing may come from the Lord may it be so God may we be a repenting people who see how we've had two levels of truth in our life, one that we thought was important and one that we thought was so insignificant.

Oh, God, I am guilty before you. I pray that you would forgive me, Lord. I pray that your Holy Spirit would fall upon this place to bring conviction upon your people, that we would repent and turn and be free, that we would be conformed into this image of our precious Lord Jesus Christ, that we would be like Him in thought, in word, and in deed. We ask it in Jesus name.