is where we'll find our reading tonight. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5. We're in the Sermon on the Mount, and we are reading the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew, chapter 5. And we want to begin reading in verse 33, and we'll read down to verse 37. Just a short reading this evening. Matthew, chapter 5, and verse 33, where we read, Again you have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil we trust the lord will bless the reading of his word tonight now i'm sure all of us as children can remember encountering friends who would tell you some story or other, or they promised you something or other, and then they would say this, I cross my heart and swear to die. Do you remember that? I don't know if children still do that. I cross my heart and swear to die. And the interesting thing is, as far as my friends went anyway, none of them ever died. None of them died, which might suggest that I'm mixed with an impeccably honest group of children. However, over a period of time, I discovered the children who crossed their hearts the most, who would sometimes even swear on their mother's graves, and sometimes swear to God, were often lying through their teeth. You know, it's difficult sometimes to know who to believe. Our society now sits in a stage where people believe there's no such thing as absolute truth. That you have your truth and I have my truth and both are truth. You heard this in the interviews with the Duchess, Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they were complaining about their treatment in the royal family. They said they were sharing their truth, as though somehow or other there was another truth. And even if things were at odds with what they said, they would hold to their story because that was their truth. You know, we can no longer believe it would seem much of the mainstream media. We're often bombarded with false or slanted information in the news, so much so that we now have a name for it, don't we? We refer to it as fake news. You can hardly believe a politician these days, or a lawyer, and if you haven't figured it out by now, much of what you read on social media and online is absolutely peppered with falsehood. Sadly, we're living, friends, in a world of dishonesty. We sign contracts for goods, for insurance, and holidays, all of which is fine until things go wrong. And then they put out this small print, and they say, oh, but that didn't mean this, and that doesn't mean that, and no, we won't pay for this, or we won't cover you for that. Oftentimes we buy into advertising and we look at things that we see on television or read in papers and magazines from creams that tell us that you'll look much younger if you apply them. I mean, honestly, you think those things work? Look at me. You know, people are slapping that stuff on thinking it's going to make a great deal of difference to their lives. Not at all. Or the batteries that are said to last longer than other batteries, when in fact it's proven they don't. Or yogurts that are marketed as being clinically and scientifically proven to boost your immune system, when they do no such thing. We've been lied to again and again and again. And it's hard to know who to believe anymore. In fact, it's always been hard to know who to believe anymore. And this is the very issue that the Lord Jesus is addressing in our little reading this evening. He's revealing to us God's standard for truth-telling. Now, remember, He's addressing Pharisaism, and He's talking to those who are gathered around Him for this sermon, and He's telling them that unless their righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees, who were the most detailed and meticulous of lawgivers, and yet failed with respect to God, He says, unless your righteousness goes beyond their righteousness, unless your efforts stretch far beyond their efforts, you're not going to enter into the kingdom of heaven. In other words, if you're going to be saved, you're going to have to out-Pharisee the Pharisees. And we see already in this passage, as we've read down the previous verses, how that we fall short of the glory of God and of God's high standards. Well, in verse 33, again, the Lord Jesus states the basic concept. He says, again, you have heard that it has been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord Jesus or unto the Lord thine oaths. Now this thought brings us to the third commandment. The third commandment says, You know, over and over again, the law of God states that when you make a promise, and particularly when you invoke the name of God in that promise, that you are honor-bound to keep that promise. In the book of Leviticus it says, you shall not deal falsely, neither lie one to another, you shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God, I am the Lord. In the book of Numbers chapter 30 in verse 2 it says, if a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth, out of his mouth. You know I got in trouble one time because of the latter part of that verse. He shall do all that proceeds out of his mouth. I was out with some ladies in England who were part of a knitting group that we had in the church. It was an outreach And so there was a bunch of ladies, they were going out to a garden center for lunch, they were short of transport, and so I offered to come along and give them a lift and to help out, and I went out with them. And we were walking around the garden center, and one of the ladies says to me, Pastor, would you ever consider taking us to Ireland? And I said, aye, no problem. Now, you know what that means. If you're from Belfast and somebody says, aye, no problem, that means there's not a chance. But it didn't occur to me that these English women wouldn't catch the nuance. And so, to my surprise, I discovered that these dear women had begun saving for the trip to Northern Ireland that the pastor apparently had promised them, because he said it would be no problem. And before I knew it, I was in Liverpool Airport with eight elderly ladies, taking them on a flight to Belfast, and having to spend four days with them, traveling around the province, showing them the sights, which I enjoyed thoroughly, I hasten to add. but because my testimony depended upon it, because I had said and they'd understood that I'd made a promise, I came back to the Word of God and I realized that a man who makes a promise must do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth, and so I kept my word for those ladies. You remember how in the Old Testament, the book of Joshua. Joshua is conquering the land of Canaan. He's been instructed by God, because of the moral and spiritual filthiness of the native people, to cleanse the land of everyone and to inhabit the land as the promised land to the Hebrews. And so he's in the process of doing that. He's conquered the mighty city of Jericho. They've conquered the village of Ai, and word of their victory and success is going through the various tribes and groupings that live in the land. And a particular group called the Gibeonites come along, and they realize that they're about to be conquered, and so they come up with a scheme. They dress themselves in old clothes, and they bring old moldy bread, and they tell the Israelites and tell Joshua, that they're actually foreigners, that they're strangers to the land, and they ask if they could be under the protection of the Israelites, and that they could join themselves unto them. And Joshua very graciously permits that. But what he doesn't realize is that in permitting that, he's been lied to, and yet he makes a vow to them, he makes a promise to them, that he will protect them. So even though they've deceived him, Joshua allows them to continue with the Israelites, and he doesn't do anything to harm them. Years later in the Scriptures, we find that King Saul comes along, and King Saul slays a number of Gibeonite people, and as a consequence, God judges the land with famine. And when David asks why the land is suffering famine, he's told by the Lord, it's because that Saul didn't keep the promise that was made to these people under Joshua. You see, God expects you to keep your word. He has a very high standard when it comes to truth-telling. Now, is the Lord then telling us here that we ought not to make oaths at all? Because if he is, that places us on the horns of a dilemma. For many times in society, we are asked to enter into covenant. We're asked to sometimes make an oath even in God's name. You may appear in a courtroom and be a witness and be asked to say something along the lines of, I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Or you may be asked to serve on a jury sometime, and in which case you'll be required to stand and put your hand on the Bible and invoke God's name and promise to do your best. When we marry, we invoke God's name in a vow. We call God to be a witness. We call the couple being married that they're going to give their oath before God in this company. That's what makes marriage so serious. Marriage isn't just a covenant between two people. It's a covenant between two people and God. You're making a promise unto God. You know, we join together in churches as members. We covenant one with another. You know, the Old Testament is very serious, and we've seen that it allows for the making of oaths, and there are plenty of examples of that throughout the Scriptures. Remember, Jesus had come, and we've said this every night in this little series, He came not to abolish the law, but to accomplish the law. He didn't come to take the law apart. He came to show you the extent of the law, and to what degree it causes us to stand guilty before God. So we find, for example, that Jesus himself submitted himself to an oath. Look in Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. In Matthew chapter 26, in verse 63, the Lord Jesus is standing before Caiaphas, and the high priest says unto him, in verse 63, the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Now when he says I adjure thee by the living God, he's doing essentially the same thing that happens in a courtroom. He's saying, I want you to swear by almighty God that you are the Christ, that you are the Son of God. And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast said. In other words, he was willing to be a Jew. He was willing to be covenanted in what he was about to say. He was willing to be held to it before God, that he was indeed and is indeed the Son of God. He says, Thou hast said. Nevertheless, I say unto you, how hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hands of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy. What further need have we of witnesses? The apostle Paul likewise subjected himself to oaths. Look at Acts chapter 18. In the book of Acts, in chapter 18, where we read about the ministry of Paul and his church planting throughout Europe. And in the process of this narrative, we read in verse 18 of chapter 18, that Paul had made a vow. It says, and Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Centuria, for he had, notice, a vow he had made an oath of some kind in chapter 21 of the same book the book of acts in chapter 21 and verse 23 paul is asked to join four men in a nazirite vow and he is instructed do therefore this that we say unto thee we have four men which have a vow on them them take and purify yourself with them and be at charges with them. In other words, make the same oath that they have that they may shave their heads and on and on it goes. Even God himself at times affirms his word with an oath. Look in Hebrews chapter 6 for a moment and verse 13. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 13. It says, for when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater He swore by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so God, recognizing there was no higher authority than himself, when establishing the Abrahamic covenant, did so unconditionally and unilaterally, and swore by his own character to uphold that covenant. You see, the Lord in Matthew chapter 5 is not speaking against making oaths. He's speaking against breaking an oath. He's talking about dishonesty. He's talking about making promises that you have no intention to keep, or making a promise that you may not have the ability to keep. Look at the broadened concept in verses 34 down to verse 37 of Matthew 5. He says, what I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black, But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Now, when you look at the basis upon which these oaths and these promises were being made by the people of their day and by the Pharisees in particular, there is a glaring omission. You see, if you notice that early verse there, verse 34 and verse 35, the Lord talks about those who swore by heaven, those who swore by earth. those who swore by the city of Jerusalem, those who even swore by their own head, by their own life. But what they avoided doing very carefully was swearing in the name of the Lord. You see, in Pharisaical thinking, as long as you didn't use God's name in the oath, you could be a little bit flexible as to how you carried out its promise. It's something akin to what we would call A little white lie. You see, they made promises they couldn't keep, but in order to gain the confidence of others when they made those promises, they would swear, much like the child who crosses his heart and hopes to die. No child hopes to die. No child hopes his mother is going to die when he says that, even though some children are clearly lying when they perform that exercise. But unlike the childish oath, the Pharisees understood that if a man invoked God's name, he made a promise and then failed to keep it, he placed himself under the direct curse of God. You see, the Pharisees interpreted the law this way. Do not purge yourself by an oath which you know to be false or place yourself under a curse to do that which you know to be untrue. In other words, they say that if you're going to promise something to somebody, but you know you're not going to be able to keep that promise, or you're going to somehow or other commit yourself to something, and you know it's untrue, don't put yourself under the authority of God. Swear by heaven, swear by Jerusalem, swear by the earth, swear by your own head, but don't swear by God. Don't invoke God's name, because if you do that, you'll put yourself in a very precarious position. Unfortunately, the Apostle Peter perjured himself when he made a false oath as he warmed himself by Caiaphas' fire on the night of the Lord's arrest. Look in Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26 again, and let's pick up the reading now in verse 69. Matthew chapter 26 and verse 69. It says, Now Peter sat without in the palace, that is, in Caiaphas's house. And a damsel came on to him, a young lady, saying, Thou also was with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him and said unto him, or said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again, notice, he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them, for thy speech bereath thee. I want you to notice the progress of Peter's sin here. First of all, he denied that he knew the Lord. He said, I don't know the man, I don't know who you're talking about. But then we read in verse 72 that he denied with an oath. In other words, he called someone else to witness. He may have called upon God to be his witness, in all likelihood he called upon John to be his witness. John was present, we know that from the Gospel of John. John was there when this event took place. So he might have said something like this, tell them John, I never knew him. He's calling upon John. But then he places himself under a curse in verse 74. You see, when it says there that he began to curse and to swear, it doesn't mean that he was using profanity. That's not what that verse is teaching. What it is saying is that he began to call upon the name of the Lord. He began to invoke the name of God. And he was saying, I swear by God, I have no knowledge of this man. I don't know who he is. What a mess Peter got himself into. Well, in order to avoid this kind of situation, and to allow themselves a little bit of wriggle room in their promises, the Pharisees swore by these other standards besides God's name. They swore by heaven, they swore by earth, and they swore by the city of Jerusalem, and they swore by their own heads. That way they could be safe enough that if things didn't turn out as they hoped or as they said, they wouldn't be somehow under the curse of God. They would raise their hands and swear to heaven and raise their hands and swear to the earth and raise their hands and swear to the city of Jerusalem. They did much like Abraham did in Genesis 14. You remember in Genesis chapter 14, Abraham had gone to war to salvage Lot and his family from destruction, the four kings against five. And in so doing, he had won the battle. And the king of Sodom came to thank him for securing all of his possessions and offered an offering unto Abraham. And here's what Abraham said to that king. I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, even to a shoe latchet, that I will not take anything that is thine. lest I should say, I have made Abraham rich." So whereas Abraham raised his hand unto the Lord, the Pharisee raised his hand. If he promised you something, he says, listen, I swear by heaven, I swear by the earth we stand on, I swear by the city of Jerusalem, I swear by my own head. But Jesus taught them that heaven is God's throne. that the earth is his footstool, that Jerusalem is his city. You know, life is his gift. And whatever way you look at it, when you're touching on sacred things in that way, whether you swear by this or swear by that, you're just as honor-bound as if you had invoked the name of God himself. So this passage isn't about oaths per se. It's about honesty. That's what it's about. Jesus is teaching us that our word should be our bond, and that we should speak truthfully, and that should certainly, if we're a Christian, be a matter of habit. It shouldn't be a rare occasion that requires us to substantiate our word by means of an oath. So this passage isn't about making promises in court or promises elsewhere. It's about keeping promises. It's about doing what you say. It's about truth-telling. Now, let's be honest tonight. Not all of us are honest all of the time. In fact, very often, all of us would have to admit that we're sometimes dishonest. We withhold information that could have a bearing upon another person's opinion or view or understanding of a situation. We engage in half-truths. We tell outright lies, we gossip, we flatter, we slander, we exaggerate. You see, here's the problem that we have, and this is what exposes us. We have an issue with our tongues. Look in James chapter three for a moment. James chapter three. James chapter three, and let's look at verse five. Notice what the writer says, And the tongue is a fire, a whirl of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire, notice this, of hell. James says the tongue is set on fire of hell. Why so? For every kind of beast and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. In fact, James says, if a man can console his tongue entirely, he would be a perfect man. No wonder the Bible then says, let God be true and every man a liar. Do you ever see people get upset when somebody suggests they're lying? You know, if you stood up in parliament and accused another parliamentarian of being a liar, it's very likely the speaker is going to shut you down. And he's going to say, no, I want you to apologize. That's unparliamentary language. You're not allowed to call anyone a liar in this house. You can phrase it in other ways, but you certainly aren't allowed to use the term liar. And sometimes even in life, you'll hear somebody say, are you calling me a liar? Are you calling me a liar? Well, the Bible says, yes. Let God be true and every man a liar. So Jesus comes along in Matthew chapter five and he's refuting the pharisaical interpretation of the law. Remember, he's not revising the law. He's not reviewing the law. He's reviewing their interpretation of the law and refuting their interpretation. And he says to them, rather than swearing by heaven or swearing by the earth or swearing by the city of Jerusalem or swearing by your head, why don't you just let your yea be yea and you're nay be nay. Why don't you just say what you mean and mean what you say and show yourself to be an honest person. No more double talk, no more dishonesty, no more half-hearted promises. Let your word be your bond. Let there be no ambiguity. Let your yes be a yes. If you said yes, you mean yes. Let your no be a no. If you said no, let it mean no. Anything other than that, he says, is sin. Now, that's an incredibly high standard to attain onto, isn't it? I mean, let's face it, none of us can reach that standard perfectly. We may aspire onto it, we may wish to live in a way where we're impeccably honest, but such is our nature and the nature of our tongues that we will find ourselves in situations and circumstances where we're bending the truth, or telling a half-truth, or entering into other areas of sin with our mouths. You see, even in the best of us, if we're honest, we're guilty of breaking God's law when it comes to truth-telling. And all of us have a history of broken promises. And this poses a huge problem for us. Because remember, Jesus said, if you're going to gain an entry into heaven by means of your own righteousness, you're going to have to do better than the Pharisees did. You're going to have to go beyond what they have done. You see, they knew, as well as he did, that the Pharisees were not always entirely honest in their business. So Jesus says to them, you'd better do better than that all of the time. In other words, no lying, no exaggerating, no twisting the truth, not ever. But we do lie, all of us at one time or another. A number of years ago, I took a youth group away to Belgium on a missions trip. And we were out with the lads. We were playing some football. And I was in the shower, having my shower after the game. And this was a thing they did. I don't think young people do this anymore. But this is what we did. This is what we did for fun before the internet came along. I was in the shower, having my shower. And a boy came behind me. And he slapped me on the back as hard as he could. And he shouted, red hand of Ulster. And he thought it was the funniest thing ever. And he says, you'll get me back, won't you? And I said, no, no, no. No, not at all. Don't worry about it. First opportunity. Ran on the bolster. I got him back. But you know the thing that disturbed me at that moment? He looked around and there was complete hurt in his face. And he looked at me and he said, you're my pastor. He says, you're not supposed to lie. And I said, well, it's better to trust in the Lord than put confidence in men. But he was clearly upset that I had lied in that moment. And I felt bad about lying in that moment. But all of us lie at some point. And those lies reveal who we really are. You know, you think about Cain. The Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? Genesis chapter four. And what did he say? He said, I know not. even though he'd only murdered him in a field. He said, I don't know where he is. I don't know what happened to him. I don't know why he's not here. It was a lie. You go to the book of 2 Samuel and you read about a man called Amnon and how he asked his father David to allow his half-sister Tamar to come by. He says, let Tamar, my sister, come and make me a couple of cakes in my sight that I may eat at her hand. You know, he wasn't interested in eating at her hand. He was lusting after her. He was desirous to lie with her. He lied in order to have his own way. You see, Cain lied to stay out of trouble, and Amnon lied to have his own way, and sometimes men will do that. Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, told the Syrian commander Naaman, My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from Mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. Give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver and two chains of garments. You remember the story of Naaman, how that he was covered in leprosy, and yet withal God was gracious to him, and the man was baptized seven times in the muddy waters of the Jordan, and came up clean as a baby. He was so thankful that God had graced him in that way, that he offered a gift unto Elisha. And Elisha says, I don't want your gift, I don't need your money, this is between you and God. But Gehazi heard that conversation, and he runs back to Naaman, and he says, listen, my master has changed his mind, give us the money. Why did he lie? He lied for financial gain, people do that all the time. King Herod, in the nativity story, told the wise men, go and search for the young child, and when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. He lied to retain power. The psalmist said, Psalm 116 and verse 11, all men are liars. You say, you calling me a liar? No, no, no, God is calling you a liar. I'm just telling you what God says. God says all of us are by nature liars. You know, we've all sinned with our tongues. We've all lied. We've all exaggerated. We've all slandered. We've all gossiped. You know, look at Romans chapter 3 for a moment. You see in Romans chapter 3 you have a detailed account or a detailed record of the sinfulness and the depravity of man. It leads us to that point where the Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and you have this damning indictment upon human nature in Romans chapter 3 from the very outset of that chapter downwards, just showing how unfit we are for the kingdom of heaven by nature. And in Romans chapter 3, there's that verse in verse 4, it says, but every man a liar. Now run your eye down the chapter to verse 13, and notice what it says about the human heart. It says their throat is an open sepulcher. The things that come out of your mouth are deadly. They're decayed. They're rotten. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. That's us, friends. That's you tonight. You know, we say, oh, butter wouldn't melt in our mouth. No, butter wouldn't melt in our mouth. Butter will fry in your mouth. Because your tongue is setting fire of hell. You know, we get together and we gossip with one another. What do we do? We tell stories on one another and we add to those stories and we somehow glamorize the story and we make it more than one. That's a lie. We're telling stories about ourselves. We exaggerate. We do it with artistic license. We try to make a thing sound far more exciting and interesting than it actually was. It's a lie. It's a deceit. We have an enemy, we slander them. We say things about them that simply aren't true. We want to paint them in a certain way. You see, we're lying constantly, lying before God. And you don't have to hold your hand up to heaven and say, I swear to God. No, listen, whether you swear to God or don't swear to God, his standard is absolute truthfulness. Not one word of a lie. And that places us really in great difficulty. Look in Matthew chapter 12 for a moment. Matthew chapter 12, verse 36. Notice the words of the Lord Jesus. When he says this, and think about this now, think about this in relation to the things that you have said, the lies you have told, the gossip you've entered into, the exaggerations, the slander, the flattery, He says, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, every single idle word, every useless word that men shall speak, they shall give a count thereof in the day of judgment. See the trouble you're in? Look with me in Revelation now in chapter 21, and I want to bring you to that chapter which is dealing with eternity. and the eternal state, and it says an interesting thing about the heavenly city. It says this in verse here. Revelation 21 and verse 8. It says, but the fearful and the unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters. I sat down with someone this week who was reminding me that I had led them to the Lord some years ago. And they said, I remember speaking to you. And they said, do you remember that conversation? Well, to be honest, I didn't remember the conversation. I knew I'd led the person to the Lord, but I couldn't remember what was said precisely. And so I said, I don't remember. And he said, well, you read Revelation 21 in verse 8. And you were showing me that I was a sinner. And you were showing me that I was in trouble with God. And as you read out each word, I thought, well, I'm OK. The fearful, he thought, I'm not fearful. I'm believing. He says, I believe. The abominable, he says, I'm not abominable. The murderer, I'm not a murderer. The whoremonger, that's not me. The sorcerer, the idolater, he says. Then the next line came, and all liars. And he said to me, you said, at that point, have you ever told a lie? And he had to confess that he had told lies. And what's it say? All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. You see, we talk about a little white lie bending the truth. And my friends, every lie, any lie, all lies, are leading you to the lake of fire, the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Look at verse 27 of that chapter. Speaking of the heavenly city, it says, And there shall in no wise or no way enter into it anything that defileth. You see, God is completely holy. Neither whatsoever worketh an abomination, not those who commit themselves to idolatry or to adultery or fornication. He says, Neither those that worketh abomination or maketh a lie. Or maketh a lie. Have you ever made a lie? Have you ever constructed a lie? I've constructed lies. You know, I remember as a boy coming home from school one lunchtime with my brother. We were locked out of the house. We didn't have a key to get in. We were in trouble, because we weren't going to have any lunch, and we had to go back to school. And I said, I'll tell you what we'll do. I said, you see that wee bathroom window there? I said, well, throw a brick at that. I says, well, break that wee window. It won't matter much. My daddy won't mind. He won't mind. It's just a little bit of glass. I says, and then we'll get in and we'll open the bigger window, we'll break into your own home and make our lunch and we'll go out and explain it to dad later on. Good idea, he says. So we launched a brick at it, missed it, hit the bigger window. The window, the brick went through the window, hit the sink, hit the bathroom sink, cracked the sink. And we were in terrible trouble. We knew we were in terrible trouble. And so I says to him, listen, we're going to have to tell Daddy something else. We can't tell him we did this. We'll just tell him that this is how we found it when we got home. That somebody must have broken in. And so we told that lie. But Dad said, hey, what happened to the bathroom sink? What happened to the window? I said, I don't know, Dad. It was like that when we got home. Somebody must have broken in. He says, it wasn't you boys. I said, no, it wasn't us. No, definitely wasn't us. He says, right. He says, I've got this brick here. I'll go and phone the police and we'll get some fingerprints and see who it is. Well, I don't know if you can get fingerprints off a brick, but I'll tell you this, that was enough to get us to confess because we didn't want the RUC coming around and investigating. But we constructed a lie. We made a lie. And in making that childish lie, we revealed our devilish hearts and we actually excluded ourselves from the city of God. Look at chapter 22 and verse 15. It speaks of those who are without, those who are outside of the city. Again, without it, on the outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Here we are in the last book of the Bible, and three times over God is telling you that lies are a huge problem. And you're falling short of his perfect standard of truth-telling. You see, what you need to make it into God's kingdom is not your truth or my truth, it's absolute truth. And the truth doesn't always come from our mouths, it doesn't always arise out of our hearts, but the truth did come from heaven. The truth came in the form of a person. The Lord Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And He is absolute truth. There is no falsehood in Him. There is no flaw in Him. He is above this sin. Nowhere in all of the Gospels will you find the Lord Jesus twisting the truth, or turning the truth, or bending the truth, or doing anything with the truth, other than telling the truth and revealing the truth. You see, he's God's standard. Your tongue, my tongue, is set on fire of hell. That's what James said. Your lies and my lies condemn us. They place us beyond heaven's gate. They put us outside of the realm of salvation. But the truth, who is Jesus Christ, who is a person, came from heaven to earth in order to save us and to set us free. You know, as Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator said this, what is truth? And yet there was truth standing right in front of him. Winston Churchill once said, men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. Friends, that's what Pilate did. He was standing before the Lord Jesus, who is the truth, and he said, what is truth? He didn't recognize truth when it was quite literally on the end of his nose. He stumbled over him and picked himself up and went on with his business as if nothing had happened. Now, here's what I want you to see. On the cross, Jesus, who is the truth, became sin for us. He became dishonesty. He became our gossip. He became slander. He became flattering. He became outright lies. He became half-baked promises. He became half-hearted commitments. In His own person, He suffers for our sins. He comes and He bears our sins. upon his own shoulder and he steps into our place and he exchanges and offers us his truth in exchange for our sinfulness, for our lies and our dishonesty and our broken promises and he says, listen, give me your sin and I'll set you free, you can have my truth. What an offer. What an offer. What an exchange. and salvation comes when we realize that Jesus as the truth cannot lie, did not lie, and would not lie. I love what the Apostle John wrote concerning him in 1 John chapter five. When he said this in verse nine, he says, if we receive the witness of men, if we believe what men tell us, and men are liars, the witness of God who cannot lie is greater For this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son. This is what God has told us of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believes not the record that God gave of his Son. Well, what is this record? And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. In other words, tonight, you can take God I'm not asking you tonight to trust me. Heaven forbid you should trust me. I'm not asking you tonight to trust the elders of this church, or the deacons of this church, or the Sunday school teachers, or the members, or anybody else for that matter. I would understand if you had your doubts about me or others. You'd be perfectly reasonable to do so. But I'm asking you to trust Him. Take Him at His Word. Believe upon Him, and He will grant to you eternal life. I wonder, will you do that tonight? A number of years ago, I was preaching in a church service in Belfast. And I was preaching not the gospel, I was preaching actually on the subject of the Christian and alcohol. And as I was teaching on this particular topic, I referenced Middle Eastern culture and custom with respect to alcohol. I pointed out, and it's quite true actually if you think about it, in three and a half years of his ministry, Jesus never met a drunk. He met all kinds of people who were sinners. He never once met a drunkard. Why is that? Because drunkenness isn't a thing in the Middle East. And the Middle Eastern people have ways in which they would dilute their drinks so as not to become intoxicated in the way you see people are oftentimes in our society. And one of the things that they would use and they would drink would be palm vinegar. They would take palm vinegar and they would dilute it and treat it in a certain way, and they would use that as a drink. Well, sitting in the congregation that night was a man who was an older man. He was a lot older than me. He was a man who was well known in the neighborhood. He was a man who was a paramilitary, had a strong paramilitary background, but he was an illiterate man. Couldn't read or write. He had moved up the ranks of his particular organization. He was a man who carried a lot of clout in that particular community, but he was somehow always in doubt of the gospel. But he had been a mercenary soldier in Libya during the war in the, I think it was 1950s or something, there was a war in Libya, and he had gone and fought in that war as a mercenary soldier. And in his travels, he had encountered palm vinegar. And as I told this story, or as I gave this illustration to the congregation that night, this man suddenly became very attentive. And he listened in because he thought to himself, now, that preacher is telling these people something that they couldn't possibly know whether it was true or not. So I'm going to listen and hear how he describes it and see whether or not what he says is actually true. And as it turned out, thankfully, my facts were right, and I accurately presented how palm vinegar was made and how it was drank in the Middle East. And then he reasoned out this way. He thought to himself, well, now, If the preacher told these people the truth when they couldn't possibly have verified that was the truth, then whatever else he says, even though I cannot verify it because I cannot read, I will accept as truth. And that night at the end of the meeting, I turned the message toward the gospel, and I encouraged people to trust Christ. And you know, that evening, that man gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and was gloriously saved, went on and lived for the Lord. In fact, he was so happy to be saved, get this, that he came back the next night and he brought me this huge tapestry of a peacock. I mean, it was the ugliest thing you ever saw in your life. Huge tapestry. And he says, I picked this up in Libya, Pastor. I want you to have it. And he gave me, he also gave me an old goatskin rug that had been lying somewhere in his house all those years from that war. And I came home to Hazel and I had this big giant tapestry under one arm and an old goatskin under the other arm. And I said, Hazel, I've got something for the wall. Well, I was nearly the thing on the wall when she took a look at it. But here's the thing. That man was delighted to know the truth. He was delighted to know the truth. Listen to me tonight. I'm telling you the truth. I'm speaking to you honestly. I'm speaking to you not from my own opinions or thoughts, but from the word of God. Jesus, who is the truth says, you must be born again. Jesus, who is the truth, says, you need to be saved. You say, but I'm a good person. Listen, every lie you've ever told states otherwise. Every lie you've ever told, every story you've exaggerated, every piece of gossip you've entered into, every juicy tidbit that you've cared to share with others tells me that you're not a saint. It tells me that you're a sinner, and a great sinner at that. But thank God tonight, he sent to us from heaven Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life, and he can save our sinful souls. Listen, tonight I'm gonna call upon you to do something really honest. I'm gonna call upon you, if you haven't already done it, to admit yourself a sinner before God. To come and say, God, that's exactly who I am. I am a liar. I am untrustworthy with my words. I do have broken promises. I do say things I don't mean. My yea is not always yea and my nay is not always nay. Lord, I'm condemned before you, but I believe. I believe that Jesus is the truth. I believe that He died for me on the cross of Calvary. And I believe that He's willing to have me exchange my sin for His righteousness, my dishonesty for His truth. And tonight I will come and call upon Him and confess Him as my Savior. I wonder will you do that this evening. May God bless you if the Spirit of God is dealing with your heart tonight.