The 6 Hardest Things (you'll ever try to do) #4- Not Lie; Build your Life #17

Intro: Do you know the game, 3 Truths & a Lie? We’re going to play a modified version. I’ll tell you 3 truths & a lie about me, you write down which one you think is a lie, & I will reveal it at the end of the service.

• I used to ride a motorcycle.

• I play the trombone.

• I love chicken gizzards.

• I have an uncle younger than me.

I don’t even need to ask you, but I will- how many of you have ever told a lie? Unless you are like George Washington- Father, I cannot tell a lie… Then raise your hands, & if you don’t raise your hands, we know you’re lying. We are all guilty of lying. Why are we all guilty of it and what do we need to do about it? Jesus answers those questions for us today.

Matthew 5:33–37, Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. (Church will read the bolded part). Thank you, let’s pray…

Our series is called the 6 Hardest Things (you’ll ever try to do). The premise is that Jesus came to fulfill all the law, telling His disciples that unless their righteousness exceeded that of the scribes & pharisees then they could not enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus goes on to talk about 6 things the scribes & pharisees had down pat. They kept the letter of the law but missed the spirit of it completely- the heart is the problem.

We all know that it is hard not to lie- from little white lies (that dress looks great on you) to good lies (no one else is here, take what you want & go), to big, honking levels of deceit (e.g., Ponzi scheme). We can even lie with a look (fool someone with a gesture). Why is it so hard to not lie?

1. We make False PROMISES. Vs. 33 promises we don’t keep

Jesus is pulling several passages together to form His teaching here:

Leviticus 19:12, And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. PROFANITY

Numbers 30:2, If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. PERJURY

Deuteronomy 23:21–23, When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you. 22 But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to you. 23 That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth. PRETENSE

These are conflated into a single command, but wrapped up in it are THREE SINS: PROFANITY (taking the Lord’s name in vain); PERJURY (false swearing); PRETENSE (saying one thing but meaning another).

Swear falsely- to knowingly tell an untruth while swearing an oath, or to break an oath previously sworn. In vs. 34, Jesus will say to not swear at all, these are two different words; distinguishable in the KJV by the word “forswear” for swear falsely (Gr. combo of epi = against; & orkos = oath). To undo one’s oath describes perjury- deliberately giving false testimony

Oath- a solemn promise, usually invoking a divine witness regarding future acts or behavior, including penalties for not keeping the oath

Perform- to pay back, repay, i.e., to make good on what you said.

ILL: Jephthah’s rash vow- Judges 11:30-31, And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, 31then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering. He got the victory, but the first thing out of his house when he got home was his daughter, his only child, dancing out to meet daddy. And it was so at the end of two months that… he carried out his vow with her (11:39).

What was happening in Jesus’ day that He would use false swearing as one of the areas of exceeding righteousness for His disciples? People were taking oaths with no intention of keeping their promise. They had figured out a way to get out of it, made promises under false pretenses.

2. We make promises under False PRETENSES. Vss. 34-36

Matthew 23:16–22, Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ 17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ 19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 22And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

They had created an elaborate system of loopholes to get out of keeping their oaths. Jesus calls out 4 of those loopholes in vss. 34-36-

· Not swearing by heaven, because it’s God’s throne

· Nor earth, because it’s His footstool

· Nor Jerusalem, because it’s His City (the city of David, of the Messiah, the place where God put His Name).

· Or even your own head, you cannot change the color of your hair

E.g., but what if I dye it? Dyeing our hair is a form of deception, isn’t it? It may be harmless, just because you want a different look; but it could be malicious, couldn’t it? A way to deceive someone- the ancient church prohibited coloring one’s hair because of this verse.

A false pretense is when you lie about who you are, what you are doing, or what you intend to do, in order to get something. Have you ever told a child that if they behave, we’ll go get ice cream- when we didn’t intend to at all? If you let me go, I will clean my room when I get back? Only the room never gets cleaned but you get what you want.

ACTIVITY: turn to your neighbor & pinky swear- we promise we will not zone out in the last point of this message (don’t cross your fingers).

Making a promise but crossing our fingers is false pretense. Pinky swearing but not crossing our heart is false pretense. Giving our word but not keeping it, signing our name but not fulfilling it = false pretense.

False pretense is making a promise that manipulates people to get what we want. Why do we do that? natural tendency to falsehood

Did you ever have to teach a baby to cry when there is nothing wrong? Or to lie to get out of trouble? No way! We are so prone to falsehood! We have this tendency, proclivity, propensity to not tell the truth.

3. We have a PROPENSITY to Falsehood, vs. 37.

Jesus’ solution for our propensity to dishonesty is two-fold: (1) vs. 34- Do not swear at all; (2) vs. 37- Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’; i.e., say what you mean and mean what you say.

Let’s be honest- we’ve all broken our word. Sometimes we make promises we intend to keep but for some reason are not able to. Other times we say we will do things, but we don’t ever intend to keep our word- maybe to please someone or get rid of someone bothering us.

Daniel Doriani- We rarely take a blunderbuss & blast a hole through the truth. But we do slay the truth with a thousand paper cuts. However we try, flawed humans cannot always tell the truth just as it needs to be told. It is like trying to drink coffee with a fork. It can’t be done.

What does it say about us that we have to make a promise, or swear an oath to be believable? It says that we are not a person to be trusted, because we are not known to be a truth-teller.

ILL: Like the little boy who cried “wolf” one too many times. The last time he did it, no one believed him, & the truth ate him up.

Where do you stand in relation to the truth? Is there someone in your life who could look at you & say- you are fake news. You can’t be trusted. You don’t tell the truth. You hide it, exaggerate it, embellish it.

Where does that tendency come from?Well, it’s not from God, that’s for sure! Jesus says that if we go beyond the simple truth of Yes, or No, that comes from the evil one. The evil one is Satan, aka the devil.

John 8:44, …He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Let’s go back to the beginning. Genesis 2:16-17, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

The serpent “was more cunning” (crafty) than any other creature, & he said to the woman (not to Adam but to Eve), “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’? (Gen 3:1).You see what he did right, playing with God’s words, distorting the truth.

To which Eve answered (this is like a game of telegraph)- Genesis 3:2–3, … We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ Eve embellishes on God’s Word.

Whenever we lie, distort the truth, or embellish it, we do that because we have the same propensity to falsehood as that of the devil. It’s who he is and what he does. Jesus said there is no truth in him. Jesus said he does not stand in the truth. Jesus said he lies because that’s his thing.

The devil has no truth in him, but Jesus is full of Truth. John 1:14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and TRUTH.

When the devil lies, it comes from within him, but the Truth abides within Jesus. Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

The devil lies because that’s who he is, but Jesus is a truth-teller because that’s who He is- Jesus is the way, the TRUTH, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

If we are going to fight this natural tendency to falsehood We must KNOW the truth. Jesus IS the Truth.

We must be TRAINED in the truth. ILL: bank tellers are trained to spot counterfeit money by handling the real thing. 1 John 3:18-19, My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. Loving people is how we train in the truth.

We must TRADE in the truth. I.e., the truth must be the currency of our life. Ephesians 4:15 says it is by “speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ…”

If the truth is hard for you to discern or do, then you may not know the Truth- Jesus. Come to Jesus, be trained in the truth. Love it, Live it.