Keeping Your Word

Matthew 5:33-37 New King James Version

Scenarios: What would you do?

1. You told a neighbor that you would help them load their moving truck on Saturday but then your best friend invites you to do something fun at the same time?

2. A friend keeps inviting you to ______ and you know that they will keep asking you, so you say yes to get them off your back.

3. You stood before God and witnesses and promised to love and cherish your spouse for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health but your marriage has fallen on hard times.

Issues with Oaths

1. Objectives of Oaths (Matthew 5:33).

a. Matthew 5:33

i. “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old,

1. Six Antithesis (Matthew 5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43)

ii. ‘You shall not swear falsely,

1. Summary Statement of Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:2, Deuteronomy 5:11.

iii. but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’

1. Summary Statement of Deuteronomy 23:21-23 and Ecclesiastes 5:5.

b. The purpose of an oath is to guarantee honesty and the fulfillment of a promise made.

i. God received and made oaths.

1. Matthew 5:33 “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.’

2. Hebrews 6:13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,

3. Hebrews 6:14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”

4. Hebrews 6:15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

5. Hebrews 6:16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.

6. Hebrews 6:17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,

7. Hebrews 6:18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

2. Outs for Oaths (Matthew 5:34-36).

a. Matthew 5:34-35

i. (v.34) But I say to you, do not swear at all:

ii. neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne;

iii. (v.35) nor by the earth, for it is His footstool;

1. Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool.

iv. nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

1. Psalm 48:2 Beautiful in elevation, The joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, The city of the great King.

b. Matthew 5:36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.

c. Jesus’ objection to oaths was that people were making oaths but looking for loopholes to not keep their word while involving the Lord.

i. Matthew 23:16 “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.’

ii. Matthew 23:17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

iii. Matthew 23:18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’

iv. Matthew 23:19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

v. Matthew 23:20 Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.

vi. Matthew 23:21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.

vii. Matthew 23:22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

viii. Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

3. Honesty over Oaths (Matthew 5:37).

a. Matthew 5:37

i. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’

ii. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

b. Choose carefully before making a commitment.

i. When I say yes to one thing, I am saying no to another thing.

ii. When I say no to one thing, I am saying yes to another thing.

Conclusion

1. We need to keep our word.

a. Psalm 15:4c He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;

2. God keeps His Word.

a. Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

b. Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

c. Matthew 5:18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.