Let Your Yes be Yes and Your No Be No
The following is a sermon delivered on the Lord's Day, April 26, 2020, at First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, KS. The text was from Matthew 5:33-37 on the subject of making oaths.
33 "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' 34 But I say to you, 'Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or No.' Anything more than this comes from evil."
There's a story of legend that goes like this: A wealthy man from London was driving his Rolls-Royce through the Swiss Alps. As he traveled the winding road at high altitude, he heard a startling twang in the front of the automobile. His front coil spring had broken. Stranded, the man called the Rolls-Royce headquarters in London, unsure they'd be able to help him.
Now, in case you aren't familiar with Rolls-Royce, they are a luxury automobile made in the United Kingdom and owned by BMW. Their cars can range from a $300,000 sedan to the $13 million dollar Sweptail, the most expensive car ever built. But a car worth that much money comes with a no-mileage-limit warranty.
Where this man had broken down, it took very little time before a plane swooped in and landed on the road. Now, this plane wouldn't have come from London. They have dealerships in many places throughout Europe. But still the wealthy man was impressed by how quickly they arrived. The mechanics brought their tools, put in a new spring, and got the wealthy car owner on his way.
Weeks later, when he was back in London, he expected to find a bill for the stellar road-side assistance, but he did not see one. So he called their London offices again. "How is your car running, sir?" they asked him.
"Oh, it's running great," he replied. "I haven't had another problem. I was just calling to inquire about the bill for the roadside assistance you gave me."
"I'm sorry sir, a bill?" the representative asked him.
"Yes," the man replied. "What do the repairs on my Rolls-Royce cost?"
"There must be some mistake, sir," the representative said. "Our cars don't break down."
Now, maybe the story is true, or maybe it is just the stuff of legend. But I think it serves to illustrate that when you make a commitment to produce quality work, you stand by your commitment. This is understood in the business world. A good reputation is everything. If you buy a product, or you pay for other goods or services, you expect to receive what you paid for. If a manufacturer or a tradesman providing a service cannot do the job that they say they're going to do, they're quickly going to lose business and fold. If you have a good reputation, you make money. If you have a bad reputation, you lose money.
If we understand this principle as it applies to good business, how much more should we understand this principle as it applies to good behavior? There's a word we use for upstanding moral character—it's integrity. A person with good integrity is someone who does what they say they're going to do. They have strong moral principles, and they're known for keeping and living by those principles. They are undivided. Consistent. Ethical. If you are known for good integrity, you have a reputation as a quality human being.
A good reputation is achieved over time. I think we all know in our heart of hearts what it takes to develop a reputation for good character—know what is right, and do it. Are you impressed with anyone who says something like, "I swear I'm a good person!" Or, "I swear on my mother's grave, I would never do such a wicked thing"? Are you convinced by these qualifications that they're good people? On the contrary, most of us tend to be a little suspicious when a person has to make such qualifications of their character.
Here in Matthew 5:33-37, Jesus tells us, His disciples, quite plainly not to swear by anything. Know what God has said, and do what He says. Mean what you say, and say what you mean. Say what you're going to do, and do what you say you're going to do. If you think that swearing by anything is going to make you, your thoughts, and your actions more righteous, Jesus straight-up says what He thinks of this. He says it's evil. Let us consider the word of Christ today that we may know what is good and pleasing in His sight.
I'm going to divide this into two parts. We're going to first look at this text in the context of everything else we've studied up to this point, and then we'll look at the text itself and understand the instruction our Lord Christ is giving to us. Along the way, we'll be picking up practical implications as we go.
PART 1
So first of all, let's do a brief recap and understanding rightly the placement of this instruction in the Sermon On the Mount concerning oaths. As I've said to you, so much of the Sermon On the Mount is ripped out of context and misapplied. This is not one of the more popular sections of the sermon. In fact, in most of my study Bibles and commentaries, there were fewer notes on this section of Matthew 5 than any other section. It tends to be one of those parts we quickly brush past.
Nevertheless, we have a tendency to break all this stuff up and lose the focus. When Matthew was compiling this discourse, giving us in brevity the teachings of Jesus there in Galilee, Matthew wasn't piece-mealing this all together. This wasn't, "Okay, here I'm going to talk about hate, and here I'm going to talk about divorce, and here I'm going to talk about oaths." There is a deliberate flow to all of this. If you can imagine that the chapters and verses and subject breaks aren't there, it might be easier to grasp how this all fits.
Jesus is speaking the message of the kingdom, and the kingdom has laws. In verse 17, He said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." No one is permitted to relax even the least of these commandments or they are demonstrating that God's laws do not matter to them.
What follows from here is Jesus' address regarding particular laws, and He demonstrates the intention of the law. The law is not merely something external, but it is meant to demonstrate the righteousness of God's character and reveal to us that we are not righteous. Romans 3:20 says, "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." Romans 7:7, "If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is o covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'"
How were the Pharisees using the law? They believed that they could be made righteous by it. And so, they would twist and reduce the law of God to a level that was attainable, which is a slander against God's holiness.
Let me give you an example of this. Just two months ago, twenty-year-old Armand Duplantis of Louisiana set the world pole-vault record by clearing 6.17 meters on the pole vault at the Copernicus Cup in Poland. In English measurements, that's nearly seven yards high, or about as tall as two basketball goals stacked on top of one another. The thing about pole vaulting is, yeah, I'm impressed you can get up there, but now you have to come back down.
Let's say you decided, "I'm going to beat Duplantis's record. But I'm no athlete, I don't know anything about pole vaulting technique, and I'm kind of scare of heights. So I'm going to lower the bar to two feet. At that height, I don't even need a pole. I'm just going to jump over this bar on to the mat, and boom! I will have just beaten Duplantis's pole vault record."
That would be absurd. No one would even let you down on the track to compete under such a ridiculous and subjective standard. You have literally lowered the bar to beat the pole vault record, which is to set no record at all. That's kind of a crude example of what a person does when they twist God's law in order to make it more attainable so that they can appear more righteous. They lower the bar. They bring God down to raise man up. They lessen God's standards, and that is a slander against God's holy character.
Perhaps that helps you better understand what Jesus meant when He said, "Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven." We have to see the Law for what it is so that we understand we could never ascend to the height of God's righteous standard. We need someone who can get us there. And that someone is Jesus. Jesus did not lower the bar—rather, Jesus kept the Law perfectly, and if we are in Christ, then He raises us up to be seated on high in glory with Him.
Colossians 3:1, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Jesus goes on to say, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." And if you are a follower of Jesus, you do have a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the pharisees. You have the righteousness of Christ.
From here, Jesus goes on to explain, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." If a person has hatred in their heart for another, it's the same as if they have murdered in their heart. Once again, Jesus is saying, "Don't think that just because you haven't murdered someone that you've never broken this law. You've missed the point of the law. Loving your neighbor is the fulfilling of the law. So if you hate your neighbor, you are not keeping the law. You are breaking the law." Again, you cannot bring the law down to your level in order to make yourself righteous.
In verse 27, Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." As with murder and hatred, this is a heart issue. Just because you haven't slept with another man's wife doesn't mean you have kept the seventh commandment.
Last week, we looked at verses 31 and 32: "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
You can probably see how we went from talking about murder to talking about adultery. Jesus went from the sixth commandment to the seventh commandments, using both commandments to expose the sinful heart. Then in going from talking about adultery to talking about divorce, in both places Jesus addressed the covenant of marriage—indirectly with regards to adultery, and directly with regards to divorce.
So now we get to talking about oaths, and you should see how this naturally flows from having talked about marriage. Marriage is a covenant union. An oath is taken—a solemn promise before God and before witnesses, to have and to hold to this person and no other, 'til death parts you. And even hear, with regards to oaths, Jesus is still confronting heart issues.
PART 2
Now that I hope I've helped you establish the context, let's look at the text itself. In verse 33, Jesus begins this section the same way He's begun every topic on the Law. He says, "Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform to the Lord what you have sword.'" Where was this said to those of old? In Leviticus 19:12, we read, "You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord."
Now, Jesus is not saying here that you should not ever take an oath or sign your name to a contract or set your hand on the Bible and say, "I swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God." Oaths and vows show up in both the Old and New Testaments. Rather, you should not swear by anything thinking that it makes you or your oath more holy. And do not be hasty to swear an oath in God's name. If you take an oath in his name and do not keep it, you swear falsely. You have taken the Lord's name in vain and have now blasphemed God.
The Pharisees, the scribes, the teachers of the Law, and everyone following their teaching were attempting to validate the sincerity of their oaths and promises by swearing upon sacred things, believing that such swearing made their commitments more genuine or more holy. But it doesn't add anything to the commitment at all. On the contrary, it makes the commitment less sincere.
Consider more broadly the context of this law in Leviticus 19. I'm going to start in verse 9 and read through verse 18:
"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after you harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner: I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."
Our understanding of this instruction can surely change when we look at the context, right? What are the people of God being instructed to do here in this section of Leviticus 19? Love your neighbor. That's the context—love your neighbor. Everything is with regards to loving your neighbor:
So understand then the implication of this—If you think you must swear by God, by Jerusalem, by your own head to validate your commitments, you are not considering the needs of your neighbor. You're more concerned with yourself than you are with your neighbor. Your focus is on you—not on God by whom you have sworn, and not on the person to whom you have sworn.
Again, what's happening here is you are lowering the bar to make righteousness more attainable, which you cannot do. Consider what Jesus goes on to say in verse 34: "But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God." Can you bring down the heavens, or bring God's throne to your level? That's even more absurd than lowering the pole vault bar so that you can break the world record!
Verse 35, "or by the earth, for it is His footstool." In case you need to be told, the world does not revolve around you. "Or by Jerusalem, for is the city of the great King." The implication here is not that Jerusalem is in and of itself holy, but rather than God makes Jerusalem holy. So you're not making yourself more holy by swearing upon this, that, or the other. God is the one who sanctifies. Stop trying to leverage your own righteousness—you don't have any! You and I need the righteousness of Christ.
Psalm 48:2 says, "Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great King." That is a reference to Jerusalem. The reason Jerusalem is holy is because God is there. So likewise, my friends, you are made holy because God is within you. If you are a follower of Jesus, He has given you His Spirit, and you have been made a temple of the Holy One.
Look now at verse 36: "And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black." Notice that as we're progressing through this list here, we've started high and come down lower and lower. Jesus started this by saying, "Do not swear by heaven, do not swear by the earth, do not swear by Jerusalem, you can't even swear by your own self, for you cannot even determine your own hair color."
Now, I know that we live in a modern industrial commercialized age where you think you can make your hair a different color, but you can't. You're just hiding the truth. That's fine—if you want to look younger and not like you have gray hair, that's up to you. Just don't think you can actually reverse the fact that you are getting older.
James 4:13-16 says, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this our that.' As it is you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil."
Who are you to swear even by your own integrity? I talked at the start of the sermon about knowing what is right and doing it. You know what is right because of what God says is right, not what the culture says is right, and especially not by what you think is right. We know what is right when we study—gasp—the Law of God. Yes, we are not under the law but under grace (Romans 6:14), meaning that we will not be judged by the Law. It doesn't mean the Law no longer has any application. We know what is good and pleasing and acceptable to God when we study His Law.
On Thursday evening, in our Old Testament Bible study, we just started going through Psalm 119. Verse 9 says, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes!"
Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Discern the will of God how? By studying His law, which is good and acceptable and perfect. Paul said so back in Romans 7:12, "So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good."
You cannot be righteous by your own standard—that's called self-righteousness. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I've had someone call me "self-righteous" because I said to them what God has said is right or wrong according to His word. I am not the self-righteous one here. I have acknowledged I have no righteousness. I must appeal to the word of God. If you reject God's word for your standard of goodness, it is you who is the self-righteous one.
Yet who are you to determine righteousness? You can't even determine the color of your hair! James 4:14 again, "You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." And that's about as good as your subjective morality is worth. Even the culture's sense of moral uprightness changes with the wind.
The Me Too movement declares, "Believe all women!" until a woman has stepped forward accusing the liberal presidential candidate, Joe Biden, of sexual assault. Suddenly their moral standard is gone. But don't think this is just the pattern among liberals. Conservatives excoriated Bill Clinton for his adultery, and rightly so, but then turned a blind eye to Donald Trump's adulterous character.
When we try to establish moral standards by human precepts, things go bad. We have to be fixed on something permanent and unchanging. And that someone is Christ. Jesus is going to close the Sermon On the Mount by talking about being built on the rock of Christ. And when the storms beat against the house, the house stands firm. Our culture is in absolute turmoil right now. Why? Because Christ is not our foundation.
When the pandemic hit, and things started getting shut down, we started naming what was essential and what was not. Right at the top of the non-essential column was "church." That is the number one indicator, my friends, that we are a thoroughly secular culture—when church is considered non-essential. This culture swears upon itself. And God is saying, as He did on a mountain in Galilee two thousand years ago, do not swear by your own head, "for you cannot make one hair white or black."
Job 14:1-5 says, "Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. Since man's days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass."
And so finally in verse 37, Jesus says, "Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil." Remember, who is Jesus talking to? His audience, according to Matthew 5:1, is His disciples. Yes, the crowds are there, but He's teaching those who are there to learn. Those who follow Jesus, where does their righteousness come from? As we've already understood, their righteousness comes from Christ. If you are follower of Jesus and you have the righteousness of Christ, why would you ever commit your way by any other standard?
If Jesus is the ultimate good—and He is—then of course swearing by anything else would be evil! Jesus says simply let your yes be yes and your no be no. And again, the standard is not yourself. This is being said to a disciple of Jesus who understands, especially by this point in His teaching, that God is the standard.
Consider James again, chapter 5 verse 12: "But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by heart or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation." Let your word be enough because you believe God's word is enough.
As I said in the beginning, you know how important it is to have a good reputation. You trust in companies that have good reputations, so how much more important is it for us as followers of Christ that we reflect the righteousness of Christ? Proverbs 22:1 says, "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver and gold."
The Lord Jesus Christ is the name that is above every name. He died on the cross for your sins and was raised from death. He ascended into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He will forgive you of your sins and lead you in paths of righteousness for His namesake. By grace you are saved through faith and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—not a result of works so no man may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
He has prepared you for good works that you may walk in them. Know what Jesus has said, and do what He has said—to the glory of God above. As Jesus said earlier in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
I shall close with the words of Obadiah Sedgwicke, seventeenth century English clergyman addressing the parliament at Westminster. He said the following:
"It is not in vain, nay, it is very good to draw near to God. Not one prayer that gets to heaven is lost. Sometimes divine wisdom doth take respite, but at this time divine goodness made haste. You had scarce begun your prayers, but God prevented you with answers. Our work on earth is done best, when our work in heaven is done first. You plainly see that God can (and which way He can) provide for His own glory, His peoples' safety, and His enemies shame. It is a superlative wisdom to interest our persons in God, and God in our actions. When we have once gained and engaged Him, we are then above all the world."
33 "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' 34 But I say to you, 'Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or No.' Anything more than this comes from evil."
There's a story of legend that goes like this: A wealthy man from London was driving his Rolls-Royce through the Swiss Alps. As he traveled the winding road at high altitude, he heard a startling twang in the front of the automobile. His front coil spring had broken. Stranded, the man called the Rolls-Royce headquarters in London, unsure they'd be able to help him.
Now, in case you aren't familiar with Rolls-Royce, they are a luxury automobile made in the United Kingdom and owned by BMW. Their cars can range from a $300,000 sedan to the $13 million dollar Sweptail, the most expensive car ever built. But a car worth that much money comes with a no-mileage-limit warranty.
Where this man had broken down, it took very little time before a plane swooped in and landed on the road. Now, this plane wouldn't have come from London. They have dealerships in many places throughout Europe. But still the wealthy man was impressed by how quickly they arrived. The mechanics brought their tools, put in a new spring, and got the wealthy car owner on his way.
Weeks later, when he was back in London, he expected to find a bill for the stellar road-side assistance, but he did not see one. So he called their London offices again. "How is your car running, sir?" they asked him.
"Oh, it's running great," he replied. "I haven't had another problem. I was just calling to inquire about the bill for the roadside assistance you gave me."
"I'm sorry sir, a bill?" the representative asked him.
"Yes," the man replied. "What do the repairs on my Rolls-Royce cost?"
"There must be some mistake, sir," the representative said. "Our cars don't break down."
Now, maybe the story is true, or maybe it is just the stuff of legend. But I think it serves to illustrate that when you make a commitment to produce quality work, you stand by your commitment. This is understood in the business world. A good reputation is everything. If you buy a product, or you pay for other goods or services, you expect to receive what you paid for. If a manufacturer or a tradesman providing a service cannot do the job that they say they're going to do, they're quickly going to lose business and fold. If you have a good reputation, you make money. If you have a bad reputation, you lose money.
If we understand this principle as it applies to good business, how much more should we understand this principle as it applies to good behavior? There's a word we use for upstanding moral character—it's integrity. A person with good integrity is someone who does what they say they're going to do. They have strong moral principles, and they're known for keeping and living by those principles. They are undivided. Consistent. Ethical. If you are known for good integrity, you have a reputation as a quality human being.
A good reputation is achieved over time. I think we all know in our heart of hearts what it takes to develop a reputation for good character—know what is right, and do it. Are you impressed with anyone who says something like, "I swear I'm a good person!" Or, "I swear on my mother's grave, I would never do such a wicked thing"? Are you convinced by these qualifications that they're good people? On the contrary, most of us tend to be a little suspicious when a person has to make such qualifications of their character.
Here in Matthew 5:33-37, Jesus tells us, His disciples, quite plainly not to swear by anything. Know what God has said, and do what He says. Mean what you say, and say what you mean. Say what you're going to do, and do what you say you're going to do. If you think that swearing by anything is going to make you, your thoughts, and your actions more righteous, Jesus straight-up says what He thinks of this. He says it's evil. Let us consider the word of Christ today that we may know what is good and pleasing in His sight.
I'm going to divide this into two parts. We're going to first look at this text in the context of everything else we've studied up to this point, and then we'll look at the text itself and understand the instruction our Lord Christ is giving to us. Along the way, we'll be picking up practical implications as we go.
PART 1
So first of all, let's do a brief recap and understanding rightly the placement of this instruction in the Sermon On the Mount concerning oaths. As I've said to you, so much of the Sermon On the Mount is ripped out of context and misapplied. This is not one of the more popular sections of the sermon. In fact, in most of my study Bibles and commentaries, there were fewer notes on this section of Matthew 5 than any other section. It tends to be one of those parts we quickly brush past.
Nevertheless, we have a tendency to break all this stuff up and lose the focus. When Matthew was compiling this discourse, giving us in brevity the teachings of Jesus there in Galilee, Matthew wasn't piece-mealing this all together. This wasn't, "Okay, here I'm going to talk about hate, and here I'm going to talk about divorce, and here I'm going to talk about oaths." There is a deliberate flow to all of this. If you can imagine that the chapters and verses and subject breaks aren't there, it might be easier to grasp how this all fits.
Jesus is speaking the message of the kingdom, and the kingdom has laws. In verse 17, He said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." No one is permitted to relax even the least of these commandments or they are demonstrating that God's laws do not matter to them.
What follows from here is Jesus' address regarding particular laws, and He demonstrates the intention of the law. The law is not merely something external, but it is meant to demonstrate the righteousness of God's character and reveal to us that we are not righteous. Romans 3:20 says, "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." Romans 7:7, "If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is o covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'"
How were the Pharisees using the law? They believed that they could be made righteous by it. And so, they would twist and reduce the law of God to a level that was attainable, which is a slander against God's holiness.
Let me give you an example of this. Just two months ago, twenty-year-old Armand Duplantis of Louisiana set the world pole-vault record by clearing 6.17 meters on the pole vault at the Copernicus Cup in Poland. In English measurements, that's nearly seven yards high, or about as tall as two basketball goals stacked on top of one another. The thing about pole vaulting is, yeah, I'm impressed you can get up there, but now you have to come back down.
Let's say you decided, "I'm going to beat Duplantis's record. But I'm no athlete, I don't know anything about pole vaulting technique, and I'm kind of scare of heights. So I'm going to lower the bar to two feet. At that height, I don't even need a pole. I'm just going to jump over this bar on to the mat, and boom! I will have just beaten Duplantis's pole vault record."
That would be absurd. No one would even let you down on the track to compete under such a ridiculous and subjective standard. You have literally lowered the bar to beat the pole vault record, which is to set no record at all. That's kind of a crude example of what a person does when they twist God's law in order to make it more attainable so that they can appear more righteous. They lower the bar. They bring God down to raise man up. They lessen God's standards, and that is a slander against God's holy character.
Perhaps that helps you better understand what Jesus meant when He said, "Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven." We have to see the Law for what it is so that we understand we could never ascend to the height of God's righteous standard. We need someone who can get us there. And that someone is Jesus. Jesus did not lower the bar—rather, Jesus kept the Law perfectly, and if we are in Christ, then He raises us up to be seated on high in glory with Him.
Colossians 3:1, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Jesus goes on to say, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." And if you are a follower of Jesus, you do have a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the pharisees. You have the righteousness of Christ.
From here, Jesus goes on to explain, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." If a person has hatred in their heart for another, it's the same as if they have murdered in their heart. Once again, Jesus is saying, "Don't think that just because you haven't murdered someone that you've never broken this law. You've missed the point of the law. Loving your neighbor is the fulfilling of the law. So if you hate your neighbor, you are not keeping the law. You are breaking the law." Again, you cannot bring the law down to your level in order to make yourself righteous.
In verse 27, Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." As with murder and hatred, this is a heart issue. Just because you haven't slept with another man's wife doesn't mean you have kept the seventh commandment.
Last week, we looked at verses 31 and 32: "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
You can probably see how we went from talking about murder to talking about adultery. Jesus went from the sixth commandment to the seventh commandments, using both commandments to expose the sinful heart. Then in going from talking about adultery to talking about divorce, in both places Jesus addressed the covenant of marriage—indirectly with regards to adultery, and directly with regards to divorce.
So now we get to talking about oaths, and you should see how this naturally flows from having talked about marriage. Marriage is a covenant union. An oath is taken—a solemn promise before God and before witnesses, to have and to hold to this person and no other, 'til death parts you. And even hear, with regards to oaths, Jesus is still confronting heart issues.
PART 2
Now that I hope I've helped you establish the context, let's look at the text itself. In verse 33, Jesus begins this section the same way He's begun every topic on the Law. He says, "Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform to the Lord what you have sword.'" Where was this said to those of old? In Leviticus 19:12, we read, "You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord."
Now, Jesus is not saying here that you should not ever take an oath or sign your name to a contract or set your hand on the Bible and say, "I swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God." Oaths and vows show up in both the Old and New Testaments. Rather, you should not swear by anything thinking that it makes you or your oath more holy. And do not be hasty to swear an oath in God's name. If you take an oath in his name and do not keep it, you swear falsely. You have taken the Lord's name in vain and have now blasphemed God.
The Pharisees, the scribes, the teachers of the Law, and everyone following their teaching were attempting to validate the sincerity of their oaths and promises by swearing upon sacred things, believing that such swearing made their commitments more genuine or more holy. But it doesn't add anything to the commitment at all. On the contrary, it makes the commitment less sincere.
Consider more broadly the context of this law in Leviticus 19. I'm going to start in verse 9 and read through verse 18:
"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after you harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner: I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."
Our understanding of this instruction can surely change when we look at the context, right? What are the people of God being instructed to do here in this section of Leviticus 19? Love your neighbor. That's the context—love your neighbor. Everything is with regards to loving your neighbor:
- Leave the gleanings of your harvest for your neighbor.
- Do not steal or deal falsely with your neighbor.
- Pay what is owed to your neighbor.
- Do not mislead your neighbor.
- Do not unfairly judge your neighbor.
- Do not speak slander against your neighbor.
- Do not hate but reason frankly with your neighbor.
- Do not hold a grudge or take vengeance out on your neighbor.
So understand then the implication of this—If you think you must swear by God, by Jerusalem, by your own head to validate your commitments, you are not considering the needs of your neighbor. You're more concerned with yourself than you are with your neighbor. Your focus is on you—not on God by whom you have sworn, and not on the person to whom you have sworn.
Again, what's happening here is you are lowering the bar to make righteousness more attainable, which you cannot do. Consider what Jesus goes on to say in verse 34: "But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God." Can you bring down the heavens, or bring God's throne to your level? That's even more absurd than lowering the pole vault bar so that you can break the world record!
Verse 35, "or by the earth, for it is His footstool." In case you need to be told, the world does not revolve around you. "Or by Jerusalem, for is the city of the great King." The implication here is not that Jerusalem is in and of itself holy, but rather than God makes Jerusalem holy. So you're not making yourself more holy by swearing upon this, that, or the other. God is the one who sanctifies. Stop trying to leverage your own righteousness—you don't have any! You and I need the righteousness of Christ.
Psalm 48:2 says, "Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great King." That is a reference to Jerusalem. The reason Jerusalem is holy is because God is there. So likewise, my friends, you are made holy because God is within you. If you are a follower of Jesus, He has given you His Spirit, and you have been made a temple of the Holy One.
Look now at verse 36: "And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black." Notice that as we're progressing through this list here, we've started high and come down lower and lower. Jesus started this by saying, "Do not swear by heaven, do not swear by the earth, do not swear by Jerusalem, you can't even swear by your own self, for you cannot even determine your own hair color."
Now, I know that we live in a modern industrial commercialized age where you think you can make your hair a different color, but you can't. You're just hiding the truth. That's fine—if you want to look younger and not like you have gray hair, that's up to you. Just don't think you can actually reverse the fact that you are getting older.
James 4:13-16 says, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this our that.' As it is you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil."
Who are you to swear even by your own integrity? I talked at the start of the sermon about knowing what is right and doing it. You know what is right because of what God says is right, not what the culture says is right, and especially not by what you think is right. We know what is right when we study—gasp—the Law of God. Yes, we are not under the law but under grace (Romans 6:14), meaning that we will not be judged by the Law. It doesn't mean the Law no longer has any application. We know what is good and pleasing and acceptable to God when we study His Law.
On Thursday evening, in our Old Testament Bible study, we just started going through Psalm 119. Verse 9 says, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes!"
Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Discern the will of God how? By studying His law, which is good and acceptable and perfect. Paul said so back in Romans 7:12, "So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good."
You cannot be righteous by your own standard—that's called self-righteousness. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I've had someone call me "self-righteous" because I said to them what God has said is right or wrong according to His word. I am not the self-righteous one here. I have acknowledged I have no righteousness. I must appeal to the word of God. If you reject God's word for your standard of goodness, it is you who is the self-righteous one.
Yet who are you to determine righteousness? You can't even determine the color of your hair! James 4:14 again, "You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." And that's about as good as your subjective morality is worth. Even the culture's sense of moral uprightness changes with the wind.
The Me Too movement declares, "Believe all women!" until a woman has stepped forward accusing the liberal presidential candidate, Joe Biden, of sexual assault. Suddenly their moral standard is gone. But don't think this is just the pattern among liberals. Conservatives excoriated Bill Clinton for his adultery, and rightly so, but then turned a blind eye to Donald Trump's adulterous character.
When we try to establish moral standards by human precepts, things go bad. We have to be fixed on something permanent and unchanging. And that someone is Christ. Jesus is going to close the Sermon On the Mount by talking about being built on the rock of Christ. And when the storms beat against the house, the house stands firm. Our culture is in absolute turmoil right now. Why? Because Christ is not our foundation.
When the pandemic hit, and things started getting shut down, we started naming what was essential and what was not. Right at the top of the non-essential column was "church." That is the number one indicator, my friends, that we are a thoroughly secular culture—when church is considered non-essential. This culture swears upon itself. And God is saying, as He did on a mountain in Galilee two thousand years ago, do not swear by your own head, "for you cannot make one hair white or black."
Job 14:1-5 says, "Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. Since man's days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass."
And so finally in verse 37, Jesus says, "Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil." Remember, who is Jesus talking to? His audience, according to Matthew 5:1, is His disciples. Yes, the crowds are there, but He's teaching those who are there to learn. Those who follow Jesus, where does their righteousness come from? As we've already understood, their righteousness comes from Christ. If you are follower of Jesus and you have the righteousness of Christ, why would you ever commit your way by any other standard?
If Jesus is the ultimate good—and He is—then of course swearing by anything else would be evil! Jesus says simply let your yes be yes and your no be no. And again, the standard is not yourself. This is being said to a disciple of Jesus who understands, especially by this point in His teaching, that God is the standard.
Consider James again, chapter 5 verse 12: "But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by heart or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation." Let your word be enough because you believe God's word is enough.
As I said in the beginning, you know how important it is to have a good reputation. You trust in companies that have good reputations, so how much more important is it for us as followers of Christ that we reflect the righteousness of Christ? Proverbs 22:1 says, "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver and gold."
The Lord Jesus Christ is the name that is above every name. He died on the cross for your sins and was raised from death. He ascended into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He will forgive you of your sins and lead you in paths of righteousness for His namesake. By grace you are saved through faith and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—not a result of works so no man may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
He has prepared you for good works that you may walk in them. Know what Jesus has said, and do what He has said—to the glory of God above. As Jesus said earlier in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
I shall close with the words of Obadiah Sedgwicke, seventeenth century English clergyman addressing the parliament at Westminster. He said the following:
"It is not in vain, nay, it is very good to draw near to God. Not one prayer that gets to heaven is lost. Sometimes divine wisdom doth take respite, but at this time divine goodness made haste. You had scarce begun your prayers, but God prevented you with answers. Our work on earth is done best, when our work in heaven is done first. You plainly see that God can (and which way He can) provide for His own glory, His peoples' safety, and His enemies shame. It is a superlative wisdom to interest our persons in God, and God in our actions. When we have once gained and engaged Him, we are then above all the world."
