title from Matthew chapter 5 and verse 37. And the message this morning is, just say yes or no. Now in this third section where Jesus has divided His words by the words, you have heard that it was said of them of old time. We've looked at murder and anger, adultery and divorce. If you take those two together, this would be the third section in which the Lord prefaces His comments about the law and about what the scribes and the Pharisees were teaching that His audience has heard primarily because they were an illiterate culture. And the educated alone, the scribes and Pharisees, could read. They had never read. And so they accepted what they had heard by the rabbis, what had been passed on by oral tradition, in which the scribes and Pharisees had placed on par with the very Word of God. It's this that Jesus is addressing and exposing when He counters or contrasts what they said with what the Lord of Glory says, the truth of the law, both its purpose and intent. Now, beginning here, he deals with oaths. Next, he deals with retaliation. And then lastly in this chapter, he'll deal with our enemies. Oaths. Now, this may not have made the top ten list for you and things you think Jesus ought to put in the Sermon on the Mount with regard to importance, but apparently it did with Him. You may say, I don't really make oaths unless I go to a courtroom, a court of law, where an oath is given. That's not really applicable to me. But we're going to see that Jesus moves from oath-taking to our communication. He uses the word logos. Let your speech Let your words be yes, yes, no, no. Because whatever else more you have to say comes from evil. And so it's very much applicable as we move from oaths to our communication. We hope to see this morning the connection the Lord wants us to make with the Mosaic Age set about oaths, what the rabbis and scribes and Pharisees were saying about them, and then what Jesus, the Lord of Glory, says to us about them and about our words. Our words. First of all, what is an oath? Jesus says in verse 33, again, you have heard that it was said of them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself and shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. Now, the people had heard this many times from the scribes and Pharisees. What is an oath? If you take two words, two Greek words in this verse, one is a verb, one is a noun, we put them together, we start to see what the Bible tells us the meaning of an oath is. First, the word forswear, that's a verb. It means to swear falsely or to perjure oneself. Now, not all lying is perjury. To perjure oneself, you have to be under oath, like in a courtroom in our society today. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God, with a hand placed on a Bible? That's an oath. That's a voluntary swearing to tell the truth. And then to willfully lie would be to perjure oneself. Or, in the context of making a vow, to make a vow and then forsake that vow and not to follow through what one committed to do is to forswear oneself. Secondly, The word oath is a noun. It means to enclose, to fence, to bind together. So the truth that is to be kept with forswearing is now enclosed, it's fenced, it's bound together and strengthened by the object that is invoked on its behalf, namely Jehovah. Perform unto the Lord thine oaths. What strengthens the truth in a court of law? It's hand on the Bible, and it's before God the oath is made. You can see this clearly in Hebrews 6.16, where the writer is referencing the Old Testament and how they engaged in oaths, for swearing oneself, and the parameters that were placed around it. The verse says this, "...for men verily swear by the greater, and an oath of confirmation is to them an end of all strife." First, the who of an oath. They swear by the greater. Sometimes men swear on their mother's grave. In the courtroom, we swear on the Bible. In the Old Testament, they swore by the name of God. So the who, there's the object that's invoked in the swearing, in the oath. For men verily swear by the greater an oath of confirmation. When was an oath made? When it was necessary to give confidence to what was said because there was strife in a relationship. And they couldn't settle the strife. An oath was only to be made when necessary because of the sinfulness of man and the fall of Adam. Men speak lies as they come forth from the womb, the psalmist says. Just take our culture, for example. From media to politicians, how confident are you that truth is being spoken? God permitted a way, because of the sinfulness of man in the law, to give confidence that what was said was true and would be kept based on God's name and based on only when necessary. It wasn't to be done flippantly or routinely, just when necessary. So there was an oath of confidence that brought an end to all strife. So the when, the who, the why, and then the what. What happened? It brought an end because the name of God was invoked in such a way that all parties knew when an oath was made, they were saying, I'm calling God as a witness to what I'm saying. And if what I'm saying is not true and not upheld, may God avenge my false oath, my false swearing. So that's what an oath is. And the name of God was brought in because of the sinfulness of name of man to put an enclosure to strengthen it, to give credibility to the one making an oath. Now, consider just for a few moments that oaths were permitted in the Old Testament and God himself would swear an oath. For example, in Deuteronomy 6, chapter 13, or chapter 6, verse 13, when Moses is restating the law to the generation that had been raised up in the wilderness and the old generation had died. He's going to take what's in Exodus and Leviticus and condense it, summarize and restate certain portions of the law. In verse 13 of chapter 6, he says, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve Him, and you shall swear by His name. You shall not run after other gods, the gods of the people that are around about you, because the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you." Now the fact that Moses refers to the jealousy of God clues us in that he's talking about the first three commands of Exodus 20, right in the center. The basis for what God says in the Ten Commandments is, the Lord thy God is a jealous God. His jealousy is an unswerving commitment to honor the glory of His own name. His jealousy is the guardian of His perfections and His holiness. And He places that right in the first tablet. Moses references that, which tells us He's giving a counterpart In Deuteronomy 6, to what is stated negatively in Exodus 20, like this. The first command of Exodus 20. You shall have no other gods before me, the counterpart in Deuteronomy 6. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God. That's the counterpart. The negative in Exodus 20, the second command. You shall not make into thee any graven images, any likeness of anything in the heaven above, earth below, or the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down and serve them. Negatively, don't serve them. Positive counterpart, Deuteronomy 6, serve him. There's the counterpart. And then the third one, negative. You shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Counterpart, you shall swear by his name. So we find that the third commandment in Exodus 20 verse 7 is not just about, it is taking God's title, His name, God, Jesus Christ, and using it in a flippant, belittling, God demeaning way, will not be held guiltless, but also to make an oath, to bring God as a witness, to swear, to make a commitment to truth, to make a vow, And then to break that is a breaking of the third commandment. So it gets its basis, what Jesus is talking about, in the Ten Commandments. But God Himself swears also. In Psalm 89 verse 35, God says these words through the writing of the psalmist. Once have I sworn by my holiness, and I will not lie unto David, that his seed shall endure forever, and his throne before me as the sun. Now, why does God need to swear? He doesn't. He doesn't lie. Titus 1 tells us. Hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began. Why then is He swearing by His holiness, that's His name, His glory, and will not lie unto David? Often in the Old Testament, God would swear to emphasize a particular promise and to highlight His unswerving passion and resolve to keep the promise. Not that He needed to, but He did so to highlight that to David. David, your seed shall endure forever, and your throne before me like the brightness of the sun. Or Isaiah 45, 23, where God says through the pen of Isaiah, I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear." One day, beloved, every knee in this room will buckle, every knee on the planet will give way, and lips will start moving. Universally, every single mouth that has ever existed will swear to the Lord in one of two ways. In terror, calling on the mountains to crush the life out of them. Isaiah chapter 2. Or in great joy and willingness that Jesus is what? Lord to the glory of God the Father. How serious does God want you to know? How determined is He? I have sworn by my own name. He highlights. He wants to emphasize for us the reality and His resolve. And then back in Hebrews 6, you can see God does this often to accommodate our weakness. He swears to accommodate the weakness of His people. Back in Hebrews 6, where He said, For verily men swear by the greater, and an oath of confirmation is to them an end of all strife, wherein God is willing. What's he willing to do? To swear, as he did Abraham. The writer brings in Genesis 22, 16, where God said, I swear by myself, because you've not withheld your only son from me, your seed shall be as the sand of the seashore. Numerous. The writer brings that swearing in and says, why did God do that? Not just for Abraham, but for his seed. wherein God, willing more abundantly to give to the heirs of promise, is that you, if that's you, he swore for this reason, to give it to the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, which means cannot change, he confirmed it by an oath, that we through that oath would have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Now, all that means this. In a time of suffering as they were, in a time of doubt, in a time of being discouraged, God goes on record and says, I've confirmed my promise with an oath I have sworn by my own name to accommodate your weakness, your doubts. When you think, does God really love me? Is God really for me? He's gone on record to swear when he didn't have to. What more does He have to say than to say, this is what I'm going to do. But He was willing to do so to give you a strong confidence and consolation. Fleeing for Christ for refuge. So Old Testament saints swore. They were permitted to swear under the law. God Himself swore and then finally Jesus swore. He made an oath in Matthew 26. just prior to his crucifixion. The high priest had brought Jesus into the palace and had gathered together several false witnesses, but none of them could agree. You can imagine the frustration. They wanted to put Jesus to death. They needed eyewitnesses. None of them could agree until finally two men could say the same thing. I heard him say, I will destroy this temple and raise it up in three days. The high priest said, what answerest thou to the charges? Jesus was silent. Then the high priest rose up and said, I adjure you by the living God, translated, I am exacting an oath upon you. And Jesus knew very well what he was doing. Are you the Christ, the Son of God? Jesus said, thou sayest, Mark 16, translates that, I am. When Jesus is put in a position to make an oath to swear in the name of the living God, He goes on record. He is the Son of the living God. Now don't miss the paradox here before we leave this point. The validity of swearing when necessary because of the sinfulness of man with great solemnity and seriousness because God is brought to bear as a witness. at the very moment or within the same hour when Jesus is in the palace making an oath, Peter's outside the palace making an oath. They both are swearing. Jesus swears to the truth of who He is. He honors Exodus 20 verse 7 perfectly. But Peter swears and he breaks the command. Because he swears with an oath. I tell you, I don't know the man. He calls on God as a witness, and he lies for self-protection or self-advancement. Do you know that's where all lying comes from? You will lie for self-protection or self-promotion. So Peter lies. Why then is Peter held guiltless? He goes free. And the Christ who honors the Ten Commandments perfectly, God does not hold him guiltless. He's charged with blasphemy. He's taken to the cross. And we know that the cross was not an afterthought. The cross was the plan of God to execute His own Son. Why? So that Peter, who's guilty of swearing falsely, is let go free while Christ takes his swearing to the cross and pays the price. Now, beloved, this may be a good place to stop in the Sermon on the Mount. and ask this question. Are you approaching this sermon as if Jesus is saying, look, don't do the righteous thing of the scribes and Pharisees, do it my way. Live right my way. You've missed the entire sermon. It went way over your head. That is not what he's saying. He's saying, come to me and trust me. Throw away your righteousness. You don't have any. Quit thinking. You can do something, say something, think something, be something to please me. You cannot. I paid the price. In your place condemned he stood for all your swearing falsely and all your false words and all your lies. Jesus was charged with guilt, not his own, your guilt. That we may live freely in the presence of God. So Jesus is inviting us not to the law to go do it. He invites us to himself. The law giver, the law keeper. And by trusting his righteousness, now we walk with him. As we just sang, we walk with him. in obedience, struggling against sin, seeking to honor our Savior Jesus Christ. So, the Mosaic Age permitted oaths. God swore, Jesus swore, Old Testament saints, Paul swore on occasion. What then is the problem with what they said of old time, the ancients? Jesus says, again, in verse 34, But I say unto you, Swear not at all, neither by heaven, because it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King, neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or one black. So, what is Jesus saying about the problem with what the scribes and Pharisees were saying? Now, before we look at what He's saying about the problem, first of all, the question is, why does He say, swear not at all, when the Old Testament allowed it? That's a question we should be asking. Some would charge Jesus with rewriting the Old Testament. He did away with the law and he's going to make his own law. Well, Jesus said, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Why is he speaking in absolute terms? Should we assume that Jesus is speaking absolutely? There are people to this day that will not make an oath in a U.S. court because of that text. Jesus said, do not swear at all. So, is this an absolute? By absolute, I mean something taking independently, not in relation to anything else. So, we lift it out of the context and say, Jesus said, don't make an oath. Therefore, if you make an oath anytime, anywhere, you're wrong, you're sinning. Well, that would contradict the fact that Jesus made an oath, and God made an oath, and Paul did, and the Old Testament saints, number one. Secondly, Jesus then would be redundant if He's speaking absolutely. Do not swear at all, neither by heaven. That's like a dad telling his children, don't eat any cookies at all. Not chocolate chip, not sugar, not Oreos. That's redundant. That's unnecessary. You and I are redundant all the time. Jesus never, he will never turn to his disciples and say, I don't know why I said that. I really didn't need to say that. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is using a figure of speech called antithesis, which simply means he's contrasting ideas. If we don't understand that, we lift something out of context without the other idea that he's contrasting, and we don't make oaths when in fact we can on occasion. Take, for example, what he says later. Give to anyone that asketh of you. Now lift that out of context, and very soon you're gonna be bankrupt. In fact, there was a young man in Cambridge, a student, a Christian man, who took the verse just that way. And all the poor people heard that he took it that way. And they prayed on the soft hearted. And eventually they lined up at his home, and they asked him, and he gave them money. till finally he was bankrupt. He didn't help them. He didn't help himself. He took the text as an absolute rather than an antithesis, which is comparing ideas. What is Jesus saying? He is saying, don't swear at all like you've been told. And he's unpacking now the way that the scribes and Pharisees created a theology of swearing by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem and by their own head. So, if we don't understand that, we walk away assuming Jesus is speaking one way, when in fact He's not. Now, here's the counter to that. Beware of approaching the Bible with assuming that He's not speaking absolutely, and then not confirming it. You may come to it and say, well, that can't be what it means, because that would mean I give away everything. And you walk away from the text and never confirm. Is that true? Is your assumption right? Or is your assumption wrong? Because what do we do? We bring what we want to the text. I don't really want to give much of my things away. Therefore, I say to myself, well, that can't be what He means. When if we think that can't be what He means, what do we do? We go to the context. We go to the words. We go to everything in the science of biblical interpretation. There's a way to interpret the Bible. And then we pull out of the text what's there. Now, we know Jesus is not speaking absolutely. Both of them are dangerous. And maybe we're prone to be guilty of the latter. Just telling ourselves, well, that can't be what it means, because that would mean this, when how many times has a verse in the Bible so jarred you, and you really didn't want it to mean exactly what Jesus says and meant to say. So, he's speaking, contrasting ideas. The idea is, they say this, I'm saying we're not at all like that, which is what? Three things here about what Jesus was saying about the way they mishandled the law and the way they reinterpreted and distorted it with their own traditions. Number one, they devalued oaths. I mean, by heaven? Earth? Jerusalem? Your own head? They had a whole system of oath-taking that devalued oaths to be so commonplace. Everyone was skeptical. They meant nothing. I would liken that to the time when the President addresses Congress every year. And he can say three words and people give him a standing ovation. I think he could sneeze and they would stand up and clap. A certain party has their man in the office that they're going to stand up and give a standing ovation. Beloved, the meaning of a standing ovation is extraordinary things. Not just a sentence, not just saying something. They have devalued a standing ovation and made us what? Skeptics. Why are they standing? What are they after? What do they want us to think? What do they want us to believe? This theology of oath-taking was so prevalent, so mundane, so non-serious, that one could even swear by his own head. And the scribes and Pharisees taught that. So devalued oath-taking. When you devalue oath-taking in the name of the Lord, you devalue God. In some sense, what God had said in the Old Testament about oath-taking was being devalued and thus God was being belittled. Exodus 20 verse 7. Secondly, they were dishonest. They were dishonest. Now, every Jew knew if you made a vow or an oath in the name of God, you better keep it. So how did they get around that? We just won't use his name. We'll use heaven. Was the earth. We'll use Jerusalem. And hey, you can use your own head. Matthew 23, we'll use the temple. We'll use the altar. We'll use the gold of the temple. We'll use the gift of the altar. They simply thought, don't use God's name. And why would anybody do that? Because they were dishonest in heart. the whole problem that Jesus is unpacking and confronting with the scribes and Pharisees and everything they said, it was a system of theological oaths that were designed to preserve their dishonesty. And why were they so dishonest? Look at Matthew 23, where Jesus is going to speak about oaths again as He delivers several woes to the scribes and the Pharisees, and He repeats The same idea, but he uses this time the temple and the altar whereby they were swearing. Matthew 23 verse 16, Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it's nothing. You don't have to keep it. That's not a big deal. But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, well now you're a debtor, which means you're bound. You have to keep that oath. Why the dissecting of oaths here? Verse 17, Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies or sets apart the gold? Rhetorical answer, well the temple is. The next one, verse 18. And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing. Again, you're not bound. You don't have to keep that oath. He swears by the altar. But, whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. He's a debtor. He's bound. He's enclosed. He's fenced. He's strengthened it because he uses the altar. Here's Jesus' conclusion. Whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it and by all things thereon. And whosoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon." Again the question, why would anybody concoct an elaborate system of swearing, of oath-taking, down to your head, the gifts, the gold, the temple, or the altar? And the reason, according to Jesus, is because the scribes and the Pharisees wanted to bind men by the gold of the temple and the gifts on the altar, so that the gold would keep coming into the temple and the gifts would keep coming to the altar. Because the expectation is they would gain from the gifts and from the gold. Why did they think the gold had more value than the temple? Or the gifts had more value than the altar? Because the gold and gifts had more value to blind people than the glory of God. So they detached God from the vow, which then secured for them The praise that they wanted, verse 5, but all the works they do, they do to be seen of men. They love the uppermost seats at feast and the chief seats in the synagogues. They love greetings in the market and they love to be called rabbi, rabbi, teacher. The whole system of oath taking for these legalists was to secure what they love, the praise of men and to secure the gold and the gifts. So they bound men to oaths about the gold and the gifts, because that was their gain. Jesus said, you're blind. In Matthew 15, he says, they're the blind leading the blind. Later in Jesus' ministry, it comes clear to us, although he knew all the time, the people loved what they said. They loved to have it so. The lying and the false swearing. Some were duped, but others were just as blind as the Pharisees and the scribes. And what were they blind to? They were blind to King Jesus. They were blind to His words. They were blind to the glory of God. They were blind to the person of God, and therefore they could easily detach God and make an oath that seemed pious. Imagine somebody saying, I swear by heaven. Well, that seems kind of religious, doesn't it? They could secure the praise of men. And then they could so bind with their oaths, the gold and the gifts upon the altar and the gold that comes in to the temple. They were dishonest. So Jesus says, don't swear at all, contrasting their devaluing oaths and their dishonesty of the heart. Third thing, they are double-minded men. When you try to detach God from an oath, it's vain. Because Jesus says what in Matthew 5? It's God's heaven. It's His throne. It's God's earth. That's His footstool. Now, how can you swear by earth and somehow detach God from it? It's His footstool. Jerusalem is God's city. He owns it. Just because you don't say His name, Means nothing. You're duping yourself. And your head is God's head. And the reason your hair color is what it is, is because God willed it and determined it. And your hairs are numbered. and not one hair shall fall to the ground without your Father." The absurdity of thinking that just by not saying God's name in an oath, somehow you've detached God and now you're free from any obligation to keep the oath. What does Jesus do? He brings back the supremacy of God, the presence of God. Whether it's the temple, the altar, the head, the city, He brings back an awareness of God for the people that had been duped into dichotomizing and separating and compartmentalizing God in life. William Barclay comments on this verse in this way, Here is a great and eternal truth that life cannot be divided into compartments, in some of which God is involved and some of which God is not involved. There cannot be one kind of language in the church and another in the shipyard, or factory, or the office, or I would add it, on the college campus. There cannot be one kind of conduct in the church and another kind in the business world. The fact is that God does not need to be invited into certain departments of life and kept out of others. He is everywhere. all through life and in every activity of life. He hears not only the words that are spoken in His name, He hears all words. And there cannot be any such thing as a form of words that evades bringing God into any transaction. We will regard all promises as sacred if we remember that all promises are made in the presence of God. And that's what Jesus is doing, the intent of the law. is to bring an awareness, which happened when you took an oath. It brought an awareness to the majesty and the glory and the holiness of God and what was about to be said. And Jesus says the point of the whole law is to bring an awareness of God in every activity. We sometimes try to divide the secular from the sacred. And so church life on Sunday is altogether different than church life or secular life in the rest of the week. Work, factory, college, activities, entertainment, vacation. What is that? Double-mindedness. Psalm 12 asks the question to God. Help, O Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. He's vanishing. The faithful fell among the children of men. And what is the condition? that the psalmist sees where godliness is failing. They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor, and with flattering lips and a double heart does he speak. What is the failing of faithfulness and ungodliness? It's when men speak flattery and with a double heart. The literal rending is a heart and a heart. One man said, a man without a heart is a wonder, but a man with two hearts is a beast. He's a monster. James would bear that out, wouldn't he? James takes these very words and deposit them in James chapter 5 about swearing in the context of a double-minded man. Why does a double-minded man swear with dishonesty? Because he's after something else than the glory of God. So James says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth liberty to all men and abradeth not, but let him ask in faith. The double-minded man can't ask in faith because he's duplicit with intentions. He has mixed motives. With one heart, he speaks, God lives. With the other heart, God is far from him. His lips say one thing, His mouth speaks one thing, but Jesus says about these duplicit men in Matthew 15, but the heart is far from God. He says no, but in His heart it's really yes. He says yes, but in His heart it's really no. Why? Because of gold, gifts, and gain. So James says when the double-minded man prays, he will actually go and speak to God the Father. He prays amiss because he wants to receive from God to consume it upon his own lust. That's what makes him a monster. There's fighting, there's warring, there's no peace, there's no rest, there's tension and contention. Because he's saying one thing, but at the heart he wants something altogether different. Now, this is the context of religion and the scribes and the Pharisees. And James is addressing his Jewish brothers and sisters who are now Christians. And he speaks about oaths in the greater context of double mindedness. A heart and a heart. Do you speak with a heart and a heart? Do you live a double life? Are you double minded? Or do you struggle against such duplicity? So Jesus says they devalue oaths, they're dishonest and they're double-minded because at the heart of who they are, the reason they speak what they speak, the reason for the whole system of oath-taking is the heart is detached from God. So it's very easy to detach the name of God from what they say. To protect what they've secured, self-protection, and to advance what they want. Because all the people thought about the scribes and Pharisees, what? They're such religious, pious men. And Jesus exposes their hypocrisy. Which brings us now to the last point. In verse 37. The power of God's presence. Now, if Jesus Just said, it's God's heaven, God's earth, God's city, God's head. That means God cannot be detached. He is present. He is near. He's as near to you as it takes to count the hairs on your head. Yes, I know He doesn't have to do that. I know He can be billions of miles away. It's hard to even express God like that because He's omniscient, omnipresent, right? But He doesn't need to be close to you to count your hair. But the imagery suggests that's just how close He is. So rather than being distant from God, in heart, which produces a double-mindedness from heart to words, be single-minded in heart, so that a yes in the heart is a yes in the mouth. How freeing is that, beloved? How freeing is it? Yes, in the heart. Yes, in the mouth. When there's a no in the heart, there's a no in the mouth with regard to truth, the God of truth. Now, Jesus brings the supremacy of God back to its rightful place in oaths and now in communication. Logos, we said communication, but let your speech, let your words. Yes, yes, single-minded, single-minded intention for the glory of God. There's a yes in my heart for glory. There's a yes coming out of my mouth. Imperfectly. We still struggle with sin. We still at times have a yes and say no. But single-mindedness produces what David prayed for. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart come in alignment. Unite my heart to fear your name. Bring them in alignment. Oh, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. What's David after? Guarding against double mindedness. So what's in his heart then is reflected in his life and in his words. Because, Jesus says, whatsoever is more than these comes of or from evil. Now, what's he saying here? Evil, some suggest, could be the evil one. or evil intention, those are very closely related, evil motives. Why do you need to say more than yes? Why do you need an oath? No, granted, oaths were allowed and necessary occasions they were okay to use. Why does a man need to give an oath this much? Because it comes from evil. His character, first of all, is not so good. He would be known for being a man of yes and no. You didn't have to question Him further. This person is just known for telling the truth. You don't need to swear. You don't need to promise. You don't need to grovel. I believe you. Why? Because you're a truth teller. So, when you have to add words upon words to convince someone, and again, because of the sinfulness of man, there may be a place to bring in some strong language, like in a court of law, How many people lie in that courtroom just regularly with no conscience? That's a place you bring it in. So that's okay. But anything else that we have to say on a regular basis means there's something wrong with our character. The second thing, the evil one, John 8, 44, bears this out. You of your father, the devil, who the scribes and Pharisees and the lust of your father, you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning. He abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. He can't even tell the truth. Without what? A bad motive. Now the devil can say truth. He did to Jesus. It is written. Is it not written in your law? He was absolutely telling the truth with a lustful motive. So his yes was no and his no was yes because his heart, if we could say he has a heart, is not with God. There's no truth there. So everything he does is out of the lust of his own heart. They, the scribes and Pharisees, are just like him. They murder Jesus. Why? No truth in their heart. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. When he lies, it comes from himself and it comes to advance his own lustful desires. If you have to say more, if you have to give an oath like the scribes and Pharisees with any regularity, that's coming from an evil intention. You wouldn't have to do that. And then finally, the evil intention, if it's not the evil one, surely Jesus is saying it's coming from a motive that separates from God. But when you bring your life all under the presence of the God that loves you, and you live with that awareness, why do you need to make an oath with regularity? Why do you need to lie? Is the question, since Jesus applies it to all of our words. See, it's the God of heaven, the God of Jerusalem, the God of the earth, the God of your head, your God is present. Now, when God is occupying that throne of your life with recognition and awareness, all that the Pharisees and scribes needed, you don't need, so you don't need to lie. You don't need the approval of men. Why not? You have the approval of King Jesus. If you're in Christ, you have His approval. You don't have to lie to get their approval. You ever lied to get somebody to like you? Yes, you have. Yes, I have. You don't need their approval. The God who's present, the God who's in you, the God that's with you, the God that died for you. You're accepted in the beloved. You don't need the honor of man. You don't need the approval of man. You don't need the lie to get the gold of men. Because the Father that's with you, that's present, has said, I will supply all your need according to my riches and glory. If you need it, if you need it, you got it. Keyword need, not if you want it. If you need it to serve God, if you need it for joy. If you needed to trust God, it'll be there promised. You don't need to lie to get money. You don't need to lie to get gifts. God is causing everything to serve his purpose in Christ to make you like Jesus for your joy. What a gift is that? Beloved, you don't need to lie for the approval of man, for the honor of man. You don't need to lie when you're guilty, do you? You ever lied when you were guilty out of fear? You ever not told the truth when you were dead guilty because you were afraid, or you were protecting self, or you still wanted to advance your own kingdom? The King of glory that's with you, that's present, that died for you. You don't need to lie when you're guilty because he's there to take your guilt. He's already taken it. And confession cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And the Lord of glory embraces us while he's present. See, when we detach God from our everyday life, the words that flow from the heart that's not seeking fellowship and communion with God will be words that are yes, no, no, yes, and the words of the dishonest Pharisees because we're protecting ourself to secure something. We're promoting ourself to gain something when Christ is our gain. He is our gain. So Jesus says, let your communication be yes, yes, no, no, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Just say yes or no. Let's pray. Father, thank you for