Matthew 5:33-37

Speaker 1: Hey man, thank you so much for that song, Mr. Chris and Offertory for Maguire. Appreciate all of those who have a part in the Music Ministry and great songs to sing today. I enjoyed all singing all of those, and you guys did a great job as well. Let me say a couple of things before I get going, because I'm afraid I'll forget if I don't see him now. Number one, there is a meeting today after the morning service. I would rather cam younger, the non-singing younger. And he is going to be talking about the Grand Prix, the one two Grand Prix, which is a pine car derby race that be going on here at the church next Saturday. And if you have signed up to help with that or you would like to help with that, please meet with him right here by the keyboard as soon as the service is over this morning. Also, as many of you would have probably heard by now, Miss Mary Brouwer passed away this last week, and they're going to be having her funeral here at the church tomorrow at 10 a.m. The fair will be here. She will be buried over in Collinsville Cemetery there. But then there will be a meal here at the church for the family after the service and the graveside. And so, as is our custom, the church will handle purchasing the meat for that. But we do need some help with salads, sides and desserts. And so if you would be willing to help by bringing one of those tomorrow, Miss Kathy. Kate, we'll be down here near the front or you can catch her before she makes it here and let her know that you'd be willing to help with that. And that would be a big blessing, not only to the church, but also to the family. And then one other thing. I know it seems like a long ways away, but camp is coming and South and Christian Camp has let us know that our week is closed to new groups, which means they're getting close to being full. And so the spaces are being taken. If you have a either a junior camper or a teen camper that might be interested in going just might be interested in going, please sign them up as soon as possible so that we can at least reserve their spot. We can always let the spot go later. But if you think there's a chance that they might go talk to Clarence, see Brother Matt, let them know that you would like to get them signed up so we can get their spot reserved. Because if we wait too long, then there won't be any spots. And we want all of our kids to go that want to go. And so please help us out with that. All right. Matthew, chapter five. Matthew, chapter five is where we're going be this morning. No surprise to you. That's where we've been for a little bit now, Matthew, chapter five, verse number 33. And I'm looking forward to getting into the passage here this morning. I think it'll be a help to all of us. I've already benefited from it and so excited to share these things with you. Matthew Chapter five, verse number 33. If you have found your place, you wouldn't mind. Join me in standing in honor of reading God's Word. Matthew. Chapter five, verse number 33. The Bible says again. You've heard that have been said by them of old time. Thou shalt not first, swear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord Thy notes. But I say unto you, swear. Not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. Neither shout out swear by thy head. Because Thou can't not make one hair white or black. Let your communication be. Yay, yay, nay, nay. Whatsoever is more than these come out of evil. Let's pray. Emily Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity. We have to be together with your people. Laura, pray that you would bless us now as we spend the next moments looking into your word. I pray that you would give me the words you'd have me to say. You love the folks that are here to listen and apply it here to their lives. Sports in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Thank you, ma'am. You may be seated. I don't assume that a lot of you guys are friends with me on Facebook. If you want to be friends with me, send me a friend requests. I'll be friends with you. But last last week, Thursday, we showed up to work and I had on a blue Heather Polo and Matt had on a blue Heather Polo and Clarence had on a coat and I saw his collar sticking. I was like, Look, Clarence, what color is your shirt? You unzipped his coat. And sure enough, guess what? Blue Heather Polo. So I don't know what's going on there if we're just sinking up in our minds. But it was it was kind of funny. But then this morning, even further evidence of something weird going on. I've been thinking for the last couple weeks we've talked about Clarence, see if he thinks there might be some teenagers that would be willing to sit up front. And every Sunday. I think that and and then all throughout the week, you know, we don't see each other that much. That's a joke. We see each other all the time. I just wouldn't say anything. And then I come in this morning and look at all these teenagers up here, teenage boys. You know, that's Britney, poor thing. She's surrounded by these young men. But but you guys look great. I appreciate you sitting up close. And I didn't I didn't say anything there. Just Clarence picked up on it and ah, they picked up on it, I don't know. So anyway, it's Praise the Lord for it. I love when the teenagers sit up front. The only the place that teenagers should be sitting in church is with their family. Instead of here where I can see you and get on to you, or you sit with your mom and dad who can thump you on the back of the head. All right. Enough of that. As we were reading, I don't think probably there's a whole lot of confusion as to what this message is going to be about. It's very obvious about very obviously going to be about our speech and the things that we say, the words that we use specifically when it comes to this matter of swearing. And I know that word brings up a lot of different connotations in your mind as to what this might be talking about. And there's a little bit of all of that in here. But I was trying to think of an illustration that might be able to help us understand what's going on here in this passage. And the best one I could think of was this Jake is right here on the front aisle. Jake, if I told you that I have a Lamborghini and I'm willing to give it to you, would you buy me? Why not? Do you not think that I have a Lamborghini? Well, you're right. But furthermore, do you think if I had a Lamborghini, that I'd actually want to give it to you? No, I wouldn't. You're right. No. See, when it comes to me making a statement like that, I am neither capable or willing to actually carry through on what I've said. Now I can try to make Brother Jake, believe me, by, you know, making some really just weighty promises, like I can say this. But, Jake, I swear on the life of my mother that. That I will give you this Lamborghini. Now, do you believe me more? I already told you I don't have a Lamborghini, so? So you shouldn't believe me. What if I said this? Well, Jake, may. May I be struck by a falling star if I don't give you this Lamborghini? Not easily. Why not? Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I don't have one. And if I did have one, I'm certainly not giving it to him. I don't even know him that well. I'm sorry. You seem like a nice guy. I don't know you that well. I'm not going to do it. And so me swearing and saying, yes, I'm going to do this, it really means nothing because I don't have the ability to do it and I'm not willing to do it, even if I had the ability. Now, that's kind of a trivial little illustration, but it does speak to the truth of what was taking place in Jesus's time. It's still it's given us a little bit of a glimpse into the way people were talking during this period. And so you may think, well, this is a little bit of a departure from the subject matter we've been looking at. I mean, we're talking about killing people and committing adultery. Now we're just talking about making empty promises. That seems like a little bit of a letdown. Well, it may feel like it's not as big a deal as, say, killing, adultery or divorce. But doesn't the fact that Jesus includes this topic right alongside those other topics kind of help us realize that maybe the the words that we use and the promises that we make, maybe it's a bigger deal than some of us are willing to admit. I mean, there's a reason why the term has become tell a little white lie. Jesus includes this in his discourse on what it means to be a true disciple of his. And so I think we have to be careful that we do not try to devalue this issue of being honest, of letting our character speak for itself, that our word means something. And so we must see this issue on the same plane as the other issues with which Jesus included it. And as you saw, this is a matter of swearing. So Jesus once again starts with the same format that he's been using in the previous topics that we've discussed by calling everyone's attention to the Pharisees teaching on this issue. He wants them to see the the way that that this has come about. He wants them to understand what they have been conditioned to accept as an end is scary sometimes what we are conditioned to accept in our lives. I mean, at first, some things really just smack us in the face. We're like, Oh, I don't like that, you know? It's like smoke in your eyes. You're ever smoke in your eyes? I don't like that either. I've been working on that great, wonderful little Grand Prix car, you know, and I'm like grinding away at it. And I saw this going up in my eyes and I'm like, you know, we don't like those things, but eventually we start to get used to things that used to bother us. I mean, you know, that was probably at one time there were some things that really just bothered you when you saw it on TV or at work or maybe even in your family or in yourself. The longer you allow it to stick around, the longer you're exposed to it, the more accustomed you get to it. And so then it's just not that big a deal. It's just the way things are. Well, that's what's happened here in Jesus's time. The words that Jesus ascribes to the Pharisees teaching this this thing is where He says, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shall perform under the Lord dying oaths. You know, in the previous issues that we talked about with adultery and killing, we were able to go back to the Old Testament, say, you see right here, this is what it said in the law and this is what they had twisted it to be. But don't you and don't you know that here in verse number 33, the words that Jesus points out are really nowhere to be found in the Old Testament. There are bits and pieces that kind of say things similar, but when it looks like the the Pharisees were doing is they were taking a little portion of the law here and a little portion of the law here and a little portion here and just kind of smashing them all together and saying, oh, look, we've got a new law. This is how you should act and talk as we may have come to expect. The Pharisees were under a false assumption about the need for performance. You have to perform if you're going to be godly. Now, let me ask you this. Was the law supposed to be a path to salvation? Could the law save anyone? Could you be made righteous by the law? No. The law was given to us. To show us and prove was that we are unrighteous. It's the exact opposite. But righteousness would require keeping the rules. And if you take the law to mean this is a path to righteousness, is a path to salvation and standing with God. Then, then and then you also think, well, the law is incapable. There's no way you could observe to do all law all the time. You've got a conflict here. We've got to observe the law in order to be. Righteous, but we can't observe the law because we're sinful. What do we do? Well, from our standpoint, you say you need a savior. You need someone to to fulfill the the requirements for you. But they said, now let's take the law. Let's let's dumb it down a little bit and let's make it so that, you know, the common man could keep the law. Doesn't that strike you as odd that throughout the gospels, there are people who come up to Jesus and say, I have kept all the law from my birth. Really? You've never lied. You've never told a lie. My two year old. Well, he's not going. Where is he? My three year old can lie. Well. I guess not really. If you change the meaning of what a lie actually is, if you move the goalposts up, then yeah, sure, anybody can kick a field goal from the 50 yard line. That wasn't a good analogy. What would. Hit home here. I mean, anybody can shoot a deer if it's standing right in front of you. That didn't work either. Anybody can beat the video game if you turn the settings down low enough and make it easy. You know, if you can't die, then yeah, sure, you're going to win. You guys get the picture? The Pharisees were simplifying the law to make it easier to observe all the rules. And in this case, they were trying to help people avoid telling an actual lie. They were trying to help people add weight to their word while also giving them a way out from keeping their word. And so if somebody foolishly said to Jake, I'm going to give you a Lamborghini, I swear by the stars. Well, that's really not a promise that, according to the Pharisees, I have to keep. I mean, I just know I have to do it now if I swear by the Lord that I will keep my promise to you. Well, then I better come through or it's sit. And they would start to make these exceptions. For example, if I said to Jake, Jake.

Speaker 3: Where?

Speaker 1: I swear. By the temple that I will give you that car. Do you think I have to keep that? Or do you think I'm. I've got an out. Or you think I swear by the temple? Do I have to keep my promise? No, I don't. That'll be great if I did. But I don't have to. But it sure sounds nice, right? I swear by the temple. Sounds pretty heavy. Now, how about this? I swear by the gold in the temple that I will give you that car. Now, what do you think? Let's keep that one. I mean, think. Yes, I mean, they know. I see y'all. Bunch of liars. You have been guilty of breaking the law. You can't. You can't swear by the gold of the temple and not keep. Keep the promise. Okay. You know, I. This gold is that it's God's. The temple is just a building, but that gold belongs to him. Okay, how about this one? I swear by the altar, I will give you that car. You think? Yes, I got to keep it. I mean, think no, I don't have to keep it. So you guys are catching on now. Don't have to keep that one. Got an out. Even though you'll come through, it's no big deal. No saying I didn't break the law. Yeah, but you promised. Yeah, but I promised by the altar. So, you know, it's like prophesying with your fingers crossed behind your back. Last one, I promise. Jake. I swear by the sacrifice on the altar that I will give you that car. What do you think? Let's keep it. Yeah. Why? Because you sacrificed that. It's gods. And so they come up with these tricky little things to try and, you know, give people a way to make a promise to add weight to their speech. But then, if it doesn't work out, then they didn't really break the law. How many of you and your kids, you know, your friend used to tell you something and you just didn't really believe them. And so you would say something like this. Do you promise? Yes, I promise. Do you pinky promise? Yes, I pinky promise. Cross your heart. Hope to die. 6000 needles in your. I really wanted them to keep the promise. You said stick a billion needles in your eye. What is that? Well, they've proven to be untrustworthy. And so you're trying to add weight, add some seriousness, some soberness, some gravity to what they're saying. But this weird prioritizing of promises actually just led to more lies and more deceit among the people. Of course, this led to more distrust for people's word, a person's words saying that they would do something. Began to be devalued until if somebody said something you didn't know. Are they going to do it or are they not going to do it? Is I can I can promise you something. And as long as I'm careful about what I swear to, then that I can or cannot keep it. And it's not a sin. And so as distrust grew, so did their attempts to add weight to their word. And their culture. You never knew who you could trust because a man's word was no good. They were swearing by all of these different things that did nothing to reveal their inability to keep their word. As everybody tried to make their words mean something. This matter of swearing grew to become more and more of an issue. So of course, Jesus is going to counter this teaching by directing his disciples to to live a different way, to live in a different way than the world around them. God is always trying to change his people to be different from the world. Right. I mean, you're here today. How many people that don't believe in Jesus are actually in church today? And it's one of our problems with reaching people is we just think, okay, well, you know, I mean, if they're lost, they'll come to church and they'll get saved. That's not usually the way it works. Usually you've got to go out and find them to go create a relationship with them in order to invite them to church. But Jesus wants his disciples to to live differently. And so so what he says in verse number 34 is we're not at all. So we're not at all. Now, some people have taken this a little bit too far and they won't even, you know, like promise to tell the truth when they're in a court of law. That's not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is talking about is when you and I are talking and we're making plans for something or we're going to do some business together. Jill says, Hey, don't make a bunch of, you know, promises and swear to try and make your your your business partner or your your your acquaintance or your friend. Believe you more. Don't. Don't do all of these swear greens sorts. Elsewhere. And so he lists several common appeals that were made during that time, he says. When at all. Neither by heaven nor by the earth. Neither by Jerusalem. Neither shall swear by that I had. Now, the reason he lists all of these things, the basis for Jesus, including them, is partially founded on the fact that anything we would swear by already belongs to God. It belongs to God. If somebody drove a Lamborghini on the park parking lot. Nice. I'm going to give you this Lamborghini. That's not my Lamborghini. So why would I swear by it? If I swear by heaven, that's not my heaven. That's God's throne. If I swear by the earth, the earth is not mine. It's God's footstool. I can't even whereby Jerusalem, because that's God's city. And you said, well, that's only three examples, but yeah, but he's making a point. You see anything that we would swear by belongs to God. So why would we use it? The other part of this prohibition, which we can see on the on the fourth example, is the fact that they cannot control any of the things that they are swearing by. So what right do they have to appeal to the. Can I control heaven? No. Can I control the earth? No. Can I control what goes on in Jerusalem? No. Well, yeah, but you're not you know, you're not a deity. You're not you're not a construction worker. You're not a political leader. I mean, if you were those things, then, then maybe you could swear by them. All right, well, how about this? I have hair on my head. Now. Not all of you can say that, but I do have hair on my head. Alisha told me when we got married, she thought I was going to go gray early. Proven or wrong. Look at my dark hair mostly. In fact, my brother is ten years younger than me, has more gray hair than I do. So it's a clean living. I'll get you. Let's get. Do I have? Okay, now, remember in the day that Jesus is talking, did they have just four men? Some of you were already thinking that. No. Maybe they had some kind of dies. But naturally speaking, do I have any control over when my hair goes gray and when it doesn't? No, not really. I've had friends who were in their early twenties and their hair went gray. You know, they look all wise and seasoned. Really. They're just a punk kid. I can't control when my hair goes gray. I can't control what color my hair is. You know, really when you think about our body and some of you would know this better than I do. Much of what my own body does happens without my knowledge and really without my consent. You know, so much of my body works on its own, so why would I even swear by my own body when there is so much about my body I can't even control? So if this is the case, if I don't own it and I can't control it, then why would I swear by it? I don't own a Lamborghini, and if I did, I wouldn't be willing to give it to you. So I say it. I promise it. I can say if I'm lying, may a star fall on me. But that means nothing because I don't control the stars. I can say if I don't come through on this, may all my hair fall out. But that's that's neither here nor there, because I can't control that either. You see, these statements do not add weight to my word. So some of you are going to know this a lot better than I do. But I have worked in the secular world before. I worked in a warehouse. And man, some of those guys were profane. The words. Every other word is vulgarity. Some of you know exactly what this is like because you are slapped in the face with it. You are you are in it every day. They can't hardly say anything without using a swear word. What are they trying to do? They're trying to add weight to their word. If something bad happens and they swear, what are they trying to do? They're trying to help you understand just how bad this was. If they see something startling and they swear they're trying to help you understand just how startling that was. Why? Because just saying, wow, that was bad. It carries no weight. You know, because for some people, everything is bad. Wow. That was really surprising. How surprising was it? Well, everything surprises me. I'm really jumpy. So we had to put a couple of swear words on there so that I can add some weight to what I'm saying, so that you will believe me, right? It's all a matter of believing people, trusting people, taking their word to mean what they say. Jesus's desire is that the words of his disciples would not be weighted down or backed up by swearing and cursing, but by their character. He says that true disciples of Jesus will exchange unnecessarily inflated conversation for simple conversation. Says Ledger communication. B Yay, yay, nay, nay. Whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. If you have to go beyond simple conversation to make your point, then it is revealing something about your character. I don't think people are going to believe me if I tell them this, and so I've got to swear so that they will believe me. Logically. This logically makes sense to me. It's making sense to you. Not that the subject matter of a disciple is simplified, but the need to add artificial weight is removed. Jesus disciples who are living by the Beatitudes, who are living a life that is increasingly instructed by the Holy Spirit, will have a character that carries its own weight. And they won't have to artificially pump it up by swearing. See, I don't have to swear in order for people to listen to me. Then my conversation can be simple. Yes and no. If I say yes, I will do something. People will trust it. If I say no, I'm not going to do this. They'll trust me. If my character can back it up. In order for this to happen, my life has to prove my honesty. I can't control, nor do I own anything that I might swear by. But I do own my actions. I can control to a large extent whether or not I follow through on my word. You might hear on social media. Just a few. My wife and I at the end of day, always sitting there on the couch. Sometimes we scrolling through, catching up on some of the things that have happened. And I follow a few parenting accounts. One of them is called Death by Diapers, and I can relate. Okay. And I'll ask you something. I'll and I'll think it's really funny when I'm laughing. So I'll walk over. I say, Look at this. She doesn't laugh. You know, I just did. I hurt my comedic credibility. So that the next time I say, Hey, Alicia, this really funny look at this, you know, like, okay. And eventually she's like, None of your stuff is funny. Quit showing me. If you have a character that fails to follow through on what you say, eventually people are going to stop trusting you. See, we may look at this and think it's somehow secondary to some of the other topics that we have talked about. But Jesus shows that he is very concerned about the speech of his disciples. He proves this by the fact that he deals with this topic at the same time he deals with the other heavier topics. Jesus is just as concerned about our swearing or our speech as he is about adultery and killing, that maybe we should be a little more concerned about it, too. Jesus wants the words of his disciples to be backed up by the character of the disciple, not by the swearing that we add into our speech. I wonder if it could be this morning that more of us struggle with our speech than we are ready to admit. Are you trying to artificially add weight to your word through swearing whether that be in response to something that has happened and you want people to really understand how how crazy it is that this just happened or is it in the making of a promise? And you say, I swear by that today that I will do this. Why can't you just say, I'll do this and they believe you? Or probably because you or someone else has already broken that trust. Are you trying to make up for a lack of character by using swearing to make people take you seriously? Maybe Jesus is trying to get all of us to examine our speech this morning. If you look at your life, you look at your conversations and you look at your use of swearing, and you see that it is a real issue in your life. Jesus isn't just trying to convict you over your words. There's a deeper issue here. And if I can say this to. Because, look, I was I was homeschooled and I loved being homeschooled. I had a great time with all of that. My mom would have known. If I was swearing at school. Right. So we come up with other ways of doing it. Right. Those those those replacement words. I remember I discovered one. I won't say which one. If I figure one out, I discovered a replacement word that I thought was acceptable. And so, man, it became a big part of my vocabulary. And so my dad said, Stop it. Yeah. I thought I was cool because I'd found this swear word made me sound more weighty than I really was. But I might as well have been using the real thing because that's what everybody knew I was saying. We used to have TV guardian. I heard the TV guy. We had TV guardian. And at first, when we got it, it takes all the swear words out of the movies and stuff. It would put a replacement word at the bottom. Well, then, guess what happens with me and my three little brothers? It becomes a game of trying to figure out what is the replacement word replacing. So. So you mean. Well, I don't say this word or this word or word or any of these other things, but you've got your replacement words. It's the same thing. Okay. Well, if that's true, then I didn't think I have an issue, but maybe I do have an issue. Jesus isn't just trying to convince convict you over your use of words. He is trying to convict you. He's trying to convict his original listeners about their need for a relationship with him. Because remember, all of this goes back to and stems from the fact that they were trying to make the law something that you could follow and actually be righteous. And, you know, you cannot perform your own righteousness. You need someone that will infuse you with righteousness. So you have to go to the root of the issue. If swearing is an indication of poor character and poor character is an indication of distance from God, then why would we just treat the symptom? I've done, you know. Good. If today I stand up here and say, Don't swear, and you all say, okay, I'll stop swearing, and you go out of the door and you have taken no steps towards your savior. If your relationship with him is not brought closer together, we have wasted our time. So if we're going to have speech that is backed up by character, it is only going to come as we have Jesus righteousness infused into our life. And so what we need to do is, number one, we need to get to know Jesus better. For some of us, it may just be that we need to be introduced to Jesus for the first time. Maybe you've never accepted Jesus your Savior. You're still in your sins. You've never asked Him to forgive you of your sins based on what he did for you on the cross. If that is the case, that is the ultimate root issue in your life and you need to have it addressed. For those of us that are saved. How much time are we spending with our savior? How much time are we spending in worship in the presence of Jesus? Your own personal devotions and then meeting with your your Christian community to corporately come together in Jesus presence to worship him together. Both are essential, private and corporate worship. You know, if we would spend more time with Jesus getting to know him, I believe we would watch as he helps our character improve. Your character can improve as you spend time with Jesus. Your character will improve, not because you pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps, but because you spent time with Jesus and you allowed him to change you. You have the Holy Spirit in your life, don't you? If you're a Christian, you do. What's he doing? Just hanging out, kicking his feet up? No, he's trying to work. You commit to spending more time with Jesus and let's let's gather back in in a week, maybe next Sunday. How about that? Is a date cool? Okay, good. How about in a month or even a year? If you're consistently spending time with Jesus, allowing him to change you. Do you think that might have an impact on the way you're talking? I think it would. Do you think it might have an impact on how serious people take you? I think it would. I mean, we know we're not under any delusions here that swearing is as big or bigger of an issue today as it was in Jesus time. Right. Well, the answer. The treatment is the same. If we have the character to back it up. We can exchange swearing for simple, trustworthy speech. The only way our character will ever improve is as we allow Jesus Christ to change us to do the work that we have so often failed a proven that we will fail to do ourselves. But Jesus never fails. He will perform the work they started in you until it is completed. This morning. Your words indicate a need for a closer walk with Jesus. Do your words indicate a need for him to do some work on your character? Can you speak? Yay! Yay! Nay, nay. People actually believe you? Or are you having to make empty promises just so that someone might take you seriously? This morning. Jesus wants to address all parts of our life, including the use of our time. Let's pray. The Holy Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the folks that are here and their good attention. Or thank you for this practical lesson that you provided for us from your word or on how we are to speak and how we can be taken seriously. Lord It's not through swearing. It's not through using words that artificially inflate the weight of our speech. The Lord is through a relationship with you, through a righteous character that only you can give us. God, if there's somebody here this morning that has never made that decision to come to you for forgiveness of sins, I pray that today would be the day that they would come. We can take a Bible and show them how they can know for sure that they're on their way to heaven. God for the Christians that are here this morning. Who have found themselves more and more using swearing and swear language to try and make people take them seriously. God, I pray that today they would be convicted by your Holy Spirit, not by me. By you, God. They would commit today to drawing closer to you, allowing you to change them and change their character to a trustworthy, honest person. Or we love you so much. Thank you for all you do for us. Thank you for what you'll do now in this time of invitation. It's in Jesus name, I pray. Amen

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