Every Word Before God

Call to Worship

As we come together to worship this morning, we come before a God who is not satisfied with outward appearances alone. He is a God of truth, and He desires truth in the inward parts. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Christ has been showing us that true righteousness reaches beyond what can be seen by others and exposes the condition of the heart before God.

So as we prepare to worship, let us come asking the Lord not merely to correct our actions, but to cleanse our hearts, renew our spirits, and make us a people who walk before Him in sincerity and truth.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from Psalm 51:6–12

Psalm 51:6–12 LSB

Behold, You delight in truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have crushed rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.

Introduction

This morning our labors in the book of Matthew bring us once again to the side of the mount as Jesus continues His discourse dealing with the true nature of our issue and pressing us beyond a simple outward obedience to the law. Up to this point we have seen Christ provide several examples that expound upon His words in Matthew 5:20 ““For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Each of those examples which have been set before us so far go about the business of correcting false and shallow interpretations of the law that actually reduced the effect and provided an appearance of true righteousness. Again as we approach this text, just as we have approached the previous three examples, we are reminded that proper understanding requires us to ground our approach in Christ’s earlier words in verses 17-20. It may seem redundant and unnecessary to continually refer to this truth, however, if we do not continue to do so then we risk falling into the same trap as the scribes and pharisees. Returning to this anchor point helps define the guardrails that God has given us for use in the proper understanding of His word.

This brings us to our text for today, please turn in Your copy of God’s word to Matthew 5 where we will be reading verses 33-37. Once you have found your place, I invite you to...

Text

Please stand for the reading of God’s holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, complete and certain word...

Matthew 5:33–37 LSB

“Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of the evil one.

Almighty Father, we give thanks and praise for Your word. May it’s truth search us this morning and by the power of the Holy Spirit illuminate all that is within us that is dark. That we be strengthened by grace to mortify that within us that is sinful. Father, we pray that Your word would grant us comfort even as it brings to light what wretchedness that remains. Grant us, by the power of the Spirit through the reading of Your word, a firm and sure foundation upon which to rest even in the midst of our constant wavering. We are thankful that as You have promised, so you will accomplish and complete the good work that you began in us, ultimately bringing us to glory through faith in Christ alone. Remind us that we are not the way, we are not our own salvation even when it is our own hearts that proclaim this to us. We thank you that there is no other name given under heaven by which we might be saved except that of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is in His name that we ask all these things, Amen.

You Have Heard, But I Say

Our passage this morning opens with Christ returning to the formula we have seen Him using in this portion of the discourse to draw attention to the teachings that have already been given. The word again at the beginning of the passage ties it to what has already been spoken showing us that while this appears to be a different subject, at its core it still drives us back to the main point that Christ has been making. That point is the insufficient nature of our righteousness due to a serious heart problem. Once again, by way of reminder it is imperative that we understand that Christ is in no way contradicting the moral law given to Moses on Sinai, nor is he correcting the law itself, what He is doing is correcting the false interpretations and mishandlings of the revealed law.

On the surface it may seem that Christ is not pointing to a specific commandment in the strictest sense. However, when we recall that the decalogue (or the Ten Commandments if you prefer) are categories of sin where each sin listed represents the worst of that specific category, then we can quickly see how this does, in fact, point us back to those commands, in particular the 4th commandment and the 9th commandment. The 4th prohibiting the action of taking the Lord’s name in vain and the 9th that prohibits bearing false witness. However, scripture has more to say to us on this specific point: Leviticus 19:12

Leviticus 19:12 LSB

‘And you shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.

Numbers 30:2 LSB

“If a man makes a vow to Yahweh or swears an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

Deuteronomy 23:21–23 LSB

“When you make a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it will be a sin in you. “However, if you refrain from vowing, it will not be a sin in you. “You shall be careful and do what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to Yahweh your God that which you spoke with your mouth.

and other passages such as Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20. Each of these examples corrects a false and shallow interpretation of the law that allowed the appearance of righteousness without its reality. Therefore, as with the previous examples, verses 17–20 must remain our interpretive anchor. Christ has not come to abolish or correct God’s law, but to fulfill it and expose the false interpretations that diminished its true demand.

As in the previous examples, the Lord Jesus then goes on to expound on the teaching already given and expose the truth of our nature. The text begins with Matthew 5:34 ““But I say to you, make no oath at all...”. The plain reading of this command of the Lord Jesus Christ has created some disagreement regarding the extent of its force, even within our Reformed Baptist or Particular Baptist traditions. There are those who see this in the strictest of sense, for example Charles Spurgeon had this to say:

The Gospel of the Kingdom: A Commentary on the Book of Matthew Chapter 5:21–48: The King Corrects Traditional Law

Notwithstanding much that may be advanced to the contrary, there is no evading the plain sense of this passage, that every sort of oath, however solemn or true, is forbidden to a follower of Jesus. Whether in court of law, or out of it, the rule is, “Swear not at all.”

The great thing about this viewpoint is that it refuses to remove the teeth from the word, the problem that arises is when we look at all of scripture for a deeper understanding. As we do so we find other places that scripture speaks of taking oaths or making vows. This brings us to the second viewpoint on this passage, one that is inline with the majority of the Reformed and Particular Baptist world. That is that the prohibition is against sinful and ordinary oath taking that serves the purpose of making something false seem true, demonstrating irreverence towards the name of God, or simply seeking to manipulate others through this oath or vow.

We have already seen two examples from Deuteronomy that speak of swearing God’s name. Hebrews 6:13-18 refers back to the oath that God made to Abraham whereby God swore by Himself. It was not that God needed to be held to this oath but rather that in our sinful condition he condescends to us, in this case specifically to Abraham, for our reassurance. Paul in his letters to Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Philippi and Thessaloniki calls God as a witness to the truths professed there. In the verses that follow here in Matthew, Christ does not proceed to name no swearing but rather to list what not to swear by and in Matthew 23 Christ again deals with the manner in which the oaths were sworn, not the fact that they were. All of this led the writers of the 1689 LBCF to this conclusion found in chapter 23:

Confessing the Faith: The 1689 Baptist Confession for the 21st Century XXIII. Lawful Oaths and Vows

23:1 A lawful oath is an element of religious worship in which a person swearing in truth, righteousness, and judgment solemnly calls God to witness what is sworn and to judge the one swearing according to the truth or falsity of it.2

23:2 People should swear by the name of God alone and only with the utmost holy fear and reverence. Therefore to swear an empty or ill-advised oath by that glorious and awe-inspiring name, or to swear at all by anything else, is sinful and to be abhorred. Yet in weighty and significant matters, an oath is authorized by the Word of God to confirm truth and end all conflict.4 So a lawful oath should be taken when it is required by legitimate authority in such circumstances.

At the end of the day, this becomes a matter of conscience to the individual believer because in both of these cases the end result is the same, a transformed heart that does not swear false oaths, will not take God’s name in vain, perjure themselves, nor bear false witness against a neighbor because they understand that what is truly at stake here is the integrity of the believer.

Heaven, Earth, Jerusalem and Your Head

Continuing forward from Christ’s command to make no oath He list that we are not to make an oath by heaven, earth or Jerusalem. One of the first things that we need to do at this point is to define very specifically what is meant by oath. In the English language we often use the word interchangeably with vow or even promise. While in a sense these are interchangeable and we will focus in on that shortly. An oath is defined as

An American Dictionary of the English Language OATH

OATH

ŌATH, n. [Sax. ath; Goth. aiths; D. eed; G. eid; Sw. ed; Dan. œed.]

A solemn affirmation or declaration, made with an appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed. The appeal to God in an oath, implies that the person imprecates his vengeance and renounces his favor if the declaration is false, or if the declaration is a promise, the person invokes the vengeance of God if he should fail to fulfill it. A false oath is called perjury.

When we read Romans 1:9 “For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how without ceasing I make mention of you,” or Philippians 1:8 “For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” we get a clearer understanding of what is meant when we use the word oath and in the case of some translations the word swear, in both cases what is happening is that we are calling on God as a witness.

As in the previous examples that Christ uses to expose the heart of the matter as it were, there has been a focus on adhering to the letter of the law as opposed to the intent of the law. As we look at the context of Christ’s words here it would seem that there had been distinctions drawn with regards to oaths and the legal consequences based on exactly what was invoked, in other words if you swore by earth or yourself then and the oath was broken then it was much less serious than if you swore by heaven. Calvin is helpful here when he writes:

Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke Matthew 5:33–37

The Jews had circuitous or indirect ways of swearing: and when they swore by heaven, or by earth, or by the altar, (

Consider this encounter with the Pharisees: Matthew 23:16-22

Matthew 23:16–22 LSB

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is obligated.’ “You fools and blind men! For which is more important, the gold or the sanctuary that sanctified the gold? “And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.’ “You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering? “Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. “And whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears both by the sanctuary and by Him who dwells within it. “And whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.

Again we see this same distinction being made where there are different levels of oath making. A true examination of Matthew 5, however, should help to remind us that this is not the case at all. When we read this passage we should notice clear delineations that are being made in regards to each of the items mentioned.

Notice that Heaven is defined for us in this instance, by Christ, as the throne of God, Earth as the footstool of God, Jerusalem as the city of the Great King, your head (or life) of which you have no control over. This places everything at the feet of God, everything under the authority and sovereignty of God. Isaiah 66:1 “Thus says Yahweh, “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is the footstool of My feet. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest?” but heaven is not heaven apart from the presence of God. It cannot replace Him because it cannot exist apart from Him. All of the earth exists before the face of God - Coram Deo. God witnesses all words all speech comes before Him on His earth. He is the creator and the sustainer, apart from Him there is no earth for us to live upon.

Psalm 48:2 “Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion in the far north, The city of the great King.” again, the city is great not because of the city, but because of the King, the Great King. Each of these first three sound solemn because they derive their significance from God. An oath that invokes these places is done so because they appear to lend credence to the oath without having to actually invoke God as witness as we saw in Paul’s writings.

Then there is the matter of an oath on our own head. Although not invoking something that immediately stirs the mind towards God, it is a much more personal oath, a solemn oath sworn by ourselves, I swear upon my own life that no harm will come or that I will do this or that. The problem however, is that the life is not ours, it again is God’s. This is the meaning of Christ’s statement regarding our inability to even do some thing as simple as command a hair to be a specific color. We live as creatures under the providence of God. Once again, Calvin is helpful:

Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke Matthew 5:33–37

Christ, therefore, meant nothing more than this, that all oaths are unlawful, which in any way abuse and profane the sacred name of God, for which they ought to have had the effect of producing a deeper reverence.

Psalm 24 is helpful in thinking through these things as it reminds us: Psalm 24:1–2 “The earth is Yahweh’s, as well as its fullness, The world, and those who dwell in it. For He has founded it upon the seas And established it upon the rivers.”

Yes, Yes and No, No

After establishing that any oath made is made before God, regardless of if you are swearing by the gold or the temple, by heaven or earth, all is before God and we cannot hide any deceit, Christ makes an interesting statement, “but let your statement be ‘yes, yes’ or ‘no, no’;” the transition here shows that in opposition to these oaths that even though they seem to have a deeper reverence to them, there is a different way that we should speak. In fact, the words “let your statement be” are a positive command from Christ where he is commanding a specific kind of speech from His people. If you will recall the greater context of Christ’s teaching thus far began with a listing of the characteristics of kingdom citizens followed by Christ’s assurances of His purpose and the truth that the righteousness required had to be greater than what would have perceived as the epitome of righteousness. Since that point each of the examples that Christ has given have been for the express purpose of demonstrating what that righteousness has to look like and this example is no exception.

Christ’s words have been bringing us to the point that the integrity of His people should be such that they should not need anything beyond their simple and ordinary speech to be trusted. In other words, as the old saying goes, our word should be our bond. The repetition of the words yes and no are simply there to describe for us that our yes must be a genuine yes and our no a genuine no. Christ is not merely demanding that we remove certain phrases from our vocabulary, because if that were all we did, we would once again fall into the very error He has been correcting throughout this section. We would reduce the command of God to an outward boundary and convince ourselves that because we had changed our vocabulary we had somehow satisfied the righteousness that God requires. Christ is pressing us deeper, calling His people to become the kind of people whose ordinary words are true because of a transformation of the heart from which these words come.

Marked by Truth

This expectation is woven throughout Scripture. Returning to Psalm 24 we see in verses Psalm 24:3–4 “Who may ascend into the mountain of Yahweh? And who may rise in His holy place? He who has innocent hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to worthlessness And has not sworn deceitfully.” The prophets carry that expectation forward as Zechariah commands the people of God to speak truth to one another, while Zephaniah looks forward to a purified remnant in whose mouth deceit will not be found. That expectation reaches all the way to Revelation, where those who belong to the Lamb are described as those in whose mouth no lie was found. From beginning to end, Scripture presents God as gathering, redeeming, and sanctifying a people who reflect His own character by becoming a people of truth.

That is the theological foundation beneath everything Christ is saying here. God is true. Scripture tells us that God is not a man that He should lie. Titus speaks of the God who cannot lie, and Hebrews tells us that it is impossible for God to lie. His very nature is truth. Therefore, when God commands His people to speak truth, He is commanding them to reflect the character of the God whose name they bear. Every lie, every half-truth, and every attempt to create a false impression contradicts God’s character.

This also helps us understand the final phrase in verse 37 when Christ says that anything beyond this is of the evil one. There is a contrast between the God of truth and the father of lies. In John 8 Christ says of the devil that he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. That takes us back to Genesis 3, where deception enters the biblical story through the twisting of God’s Word. The kingdom of darkness is marked by deception, while the kingdom of Christ is marked by truth. The question, then, is not simply whether we have avoided certain phrases, but whether our speech increasingly reflects the character of the God of truth.

The Impossibility

Once again, just as we have seen in each of the examples Christ has given, the command brings us directly back to the problem of the heart. If we are listening carefully, none of us should walk away from this passage congratulating ourselves. Who among us has always spoken truth? Who has never omitted a detail because that detail might change the way someone understood what happened? Who has never promised something because saying yes was easier than giving an honest no? Our words can easily become tools for protecting our pride, preserving our image, avoiding consequences, and controlling the way other people see us.

Deception does not even require that every sentence be technically false. We can speak words that are factually accurate while intending to produce a false conclusion. We can tell only the portion of the story that serves us and still convince ourselves that we have not lied. But Christ will not allow us to hide behind verbal technicality. If kingdom righteousness is a righteousness of the heart, then the issue is whether our intention is to communicate what is true before the God who already knows the whole matter.

James tells us that if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, and then adds that no one can tame the tongue. Jesus tells us why when He says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The tongue exposes what is within us. The anger of verses 21 through 26 comes from the heart. The lust of verses 27 through 30 comes from the heart. The selfishness that can hide behind legal treatment of marriage comes from the heart. Now the falsehood and manipulation that Christ exposes in our speech come from that same place.

By this point we should see the impossibility of the words of Matthew 5:20 ““For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Christ continues to remove every place where self-righteousness might hide. When the law is allowed to speak in its true spiritual breadth, there is no room left for us to stand before God and boast.

Christ Fulfills

Which is why we must return again to the words that have been our anchor throughout this entire section. Christ said in verse 17, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Christ who exposes the righteousness required by God, perfectly fulfilled that righteousness. He is not standing on the mount merely telling sinful people to do better. He is revealing the holiness of His kingdom while standing before them as the only man who has ever lived in perfect conformity to that holiness.

Consider His speech. Never once did Christ lie. Never did He exaggerate for His own advantage, manipulate someone with half-truths, or make a promise that He failed to keep. 1 Peter 2:22 says that Christ “...did no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;” Jesus did not merely teach the truth; He is the truth. Revelation calls Him the faithful witness, the faithful and true Witness, and finally the One who is called Faithful and True. Everywhere that we have been false, He has been faithful, and everywhere that our words have shifted according to convenience, His Word has remained sure.

Paul captures something beautiful about this in 2 Corinthians when he writes that as many as are the promises of God, in Christ they are yes. Our yes so often fails to be yes, but God’s never does. When God promises a Redeemer, the Redeemer comes. When He promises that the Seed of the woman will crush the serpent, Christ goes to the cross and rises from the grave. When Christ says, “It is finished,” it is finished, and when He says that He will come again, He will come again. Our salvation rests not upon the reliability of our promises to God, but upon the absolute reliability of God’s promise to us in Christ.

That distinction is everything, because if entrance into the kingdom depended upon whether our words had always been perfectly true, none of us would enter. But Christ has done what we have not done. He fulfilled the law inwardly and outwardly. He possesses the righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees because His righteousness is perfect from the heart to the hand to the mouth. Then this perfectly righteous Christ went to the cross. The Faithful One died for the faithless. The One in whose mouth there was no deceit bore the guilt of liars, deceivers, promise-breakers, and hypocrites. He bore our sin, and through faith His righteousness is counted as ours.

This is why the answer to the Sermon on the Mount can never simply be, “Try harder.” The law exposes us, Christ saves us, and the Spirit begins to produce in us the righteousness that the law requires. Grace does not make truthfulness unnecessary; grace makes true obedience possible. Ephesians 4:22–25 teaches us “to lay aside... the old man, ..., and to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.” New creation produces new speech. A new heart produces a different mouth.

Christ is not merely forgiving the lies we have already spoken; He is redeeming a people whom He intends to make holy. We are not yet what we will one day be, but neither are those who are united to Christ left exactly as we were. By His Spirit He teaches us to confess rather than conceal, to speak plainly rather than manipulate, and to value truth more than the appearance of righteousness. The righteousness Christ describes can never be the ground of our justification, but it will increasingly become the fruit of the salvation He has accomplished.

Until that work is complete, may our yes increasingly be yes and our no increasingly be no. And when our words fail, may we be quick to repent and return to the only foundation upon which sinners can stand. Our hope is not ultimately in the reliability of our own words, but in the unchanging Word of our King, the One who is Faithful and True and whose promises can never fail.