I had a conversation with a man years ago.
In our conversation, at some point he made this comment.
He said truth fears no investigation.
I've never forgotten that phrase.
The way he said it, truth fears no investigation.
Our title this morning is God's People Tell the Truth.
Someone once wrote, If you always tell the truth, you can
afford to have a short memory. The problem with telling lies is
that you may need another lie to cover the lie that you just
told, and then you need another lie to cover that lie, and that
lie, and on and on it goes. There's an old saying that goes,
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to
deceive. Only the road of truth leads to
God. All other roads lead elsewhere,
not to God but away from God. There's only one way to God and
countless ways away from God. Living a life of truth is not
easy for our flesh. It means self denial and that's
why Jesus has take up your cross and follow me.
It can be very difficult and painful but in the end that is
the only living. That's that God wants us to
live, living the life of truth. Walking the road of truth is
often slow. It's hard, and sometimes it
seems there's not a lot of progress.
I read a quote one time that read while truth is still tying
its shoelaces. A lie will travel around the
world. The life of truth may be slow,
but it's steady. It is sure, it is solid and
contrast to that. A life of lies is quick.
It's flighty and shifty, chaotic and unpredictable, and in the
end just vanishes into nothingness.
Psalm 37, verse 20, The psalmist writes, But the wicked shall
perish, and the enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the
meadows, shall vanish into smoke.
They shall vanish away. We're continuing our sermon
series this morning in the Sermon on the Mount.
We've been learning in our previous sermons how Jesus
repeatedly drew the attention of the crowd from what they had
been taught to what actually the meaning of it was.
What was the meaning of what they had been taught?
He would say, You've heard it said, but I tell you.
And then he proceeded to explain what they had been taught, but
then drew the whole thing into a higher level, to a higher
standard. And I've said this before in our
sermon series, As human beings, as fleshly people, we're tempted
to kind of lower the bar, not only not keep it where Jesus had
it. We're seeing, well, can we maybe
compensate for this and can we make an allowance here and some
acceptance and tolerance there? And so because it's hard and we
want to make it lighter than what God commanded, less
demanding, more convenient. But that's not the way of Jesus.
The question is not what is lighter, what's less work,
what's more convenient? Those are not the questions.
The question is what is true. That's the question, what is
true. In this morning's passage, Jesus
deals with the swearing of oaths and about being truthful.
And we may wonder, why did Jesus make such a big deal about
oaths? What is it about us and our
language that Jesus wanted to address?
Obviously, what Jesus knew God's standard was and what he saw
people doing that was not matching up, that was not lining
up, and so we addressed it. Jesus taught the people the
importance of honesty and integrity in speech.
Jesus clearly teaches us not to use oaths and not to embellish
our comments, our phrases, and our commitments and our
promises. You see, when we make a promise
or a statement and then with words try to embellish it and to
reinforce it or short it up, so to speak, we hope to make it
more believable. Jesus says don't do that.
He says when we make a statement and then use for reinforcements
on that statement, we're indicating that something's
wrong. So instead of presenting our
words as strong and reliable, the more we add to them, the
more questionable the whole thing becomes.
We have a very interesting passage this morning in the
Sermon on the Mount. Let's read it.
Turning your Bibles to Matthew, chapter 5, verse 33 down to 37.
He says again, You've heard it said, heard that it was said to
those of old. You shall not swear falsely, but
shall perform your oath to the Lord.
But I say to you, do not swear at all.
Neither by heaven, for is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it
is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of
the great King. Nor shall you swear by your
head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.
But let your yes be yes, and your no, no.
For whatever is more than these is from the evil 1.
Not only does Jesus now elevate swearing or oath making into a
higher level, he says stop, stop, don't do it.
It's interesting. All the other standards he
raised him, he clips this one. Don't swear, don't make oaths.
Now this is the fourth time in the sermon that Jesus is using
the words you've heard it said. And then he says, I say to you,
he raises the standard, for instance, the law on murder.
He says, well, murder is sin, but if you get angry at your
brother, that's equal to murder. So he elevated anger to murder.
He said he did that with lust. He said, well, you've heard that
it said do not commit adultery. But I say to you, if you have
lust, you're already in the adultery level.
And he did it with marriage. He said he, he elevated the the
normal except the divorce principle and remarriage
principle says that elevates you into adultery.
Now he gets to swearing in oaths and he says simply let your yes
be yes and your no be no. Anything more than that is from
the evil one. Wonder who that could be?
It's not God. The evil 1 is Satan.
Think about that for a moment. Every time we make an oath or we
start really emphasizing and and using language to really
emphasize what we just said, it's not yes, yes and no, no,
not something more in Jesus. That's from the evil 1.
Let's go through this verse by verse again.
You've heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not
swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.
They had not heard that they should not swear or make an
oath. They had not heard that.
They had heard. Just don't do it falsely.
They had heard that. Now Jesus takes this old law and
he raises the bar. Yes, he raises the bar, but in a
different way. That's point number one.
You see, in ancient times, swearing oath was very common.
People would swear oaths to each other all the time, promising
loyalty, commitment, allegiance, peace, faithfulness, and so on.
And it was not against the law. In the Old Testament, we find
God did it himself. He would swear an oath by
himself, and he instructed his people, if you're going to make
an oath, be careful. In the book of Genesis we find
God swearing an oath to Abraham that he would bless him.
God had told Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac.
Take him to a mountain. I will show you.
And then I want you to sacrifice your son Isaac to me as an
offering. Well, Abraham, off he goes with
Isaac. Some servants go to the mountain
and he had Isaac up the mountain.
He's going to kill us and he's got him tied, bound on the
altar. He's going to kill him and then
God stops him. It says in Genesis chapter 1522
verse 15, it says then the Angel of the Lord called to Abram a
second time out of heaven, and said by myself, I have sworn,
says the Lord, because you've done this thing and have not
withheld your son, your only son blessing, I will bless you and
multiplying, I'll multiply your descendant as the stars of the
heaven, as the sand which is on the seashore, and your
descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
God says by myself, I have sworn there was no one greater than
God himself whom he could swear by.
Then later on in the book of the Law, there were very careful
rules laid out on how people were to make promises to God.
Leviticus 19 verse 12 reads and you shall not swear by my name
falsely, doesn't say don't do it, don't do it falsely, nor
shall you profane the name of your God.
I am the Lord. God was very serious about this
going on to Numbers chapter 30. Then Moses spoke to the heads of
the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This
is the thing which the Lord has commanded.
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.
Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by some
agreement while in her father's house in her youth, and her
father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound
herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows
shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself
shall stand. But if her father overrules her
on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her
agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand, and
the Lord would release her because her father overruled
her. It's an interesting dynamic in
the culture of Israel because a woman, if she made a vow, had to
do something, it would stand. Unless the man in her life, her
dad, her father, or her husband, would say, no, you can't do
that. He had the power to override her
vow. Other than that, it would stand.
But vows and oaths were binding commitments.
Using the name of God in speech was very serious to the people
they were They were to be very careful in how they used God's
name. There are commentators and
scholars who say that over time this became so serious in the
nation of Israel that they would actually stop just pronouncing
God's name. They would just use an alternate
name to address God versus his real name because they didn't
want to mispronounce it and irreverence or make a mistake
and so on. And they would, instead of say
God, they would, they would would change it to, to something
that you would say the Lord. For instance, God's name was
very much revered and they didn't want to, they didn't want
to misuse it. And so they would really be
careful instead of saying God or they would say the Lord.
It's kind of a different addressing God, but in a
different term. I have to say that and learning
that it was reminds me of some religious people claim to be
godly people, but then there's nothing godly about how they
live on Sunday morning and they go to church through the week.
Their lives don't line up with church or anything they profess
in church on Sunday. It's empty religion, but they're
sure careful about how they address God.
And then and I've heard phraseology, the man upstairs.
That's not right. And how would you like to be
referred in some other term than you are?
And the Pharisees especially fit that description.
They would engage in all kinds of religious activity and go
there. And a little bit later in my
sermon, they looked very good outwardly.
Jesus talks about them cleaning the outside of the cup, but the
inside's dirty. And Jesus would constantly focus
on, look, guys, you're not real. Your performance is a show.
It sounds good without being good.
And so it happens everywhere. It happened in the Old
Testament, it happened during Jesus time.
It happens today. But let's go back to the Old
Testament a little bit more. Exodus 20 verse 7 says 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?
You may wonder, well, how's that tied to making an oath?
Some I think, well did that not just mean don't take God's name
in vain as using it in a swear word and so on?
Of course, God's name should never be used as a swear word.
That is true, of course, and that's, that's, that's the way
it is. But this is much, much bigger
than that. We're not to use God's name as a
swear word. That is true.
But again, it's much bigger. And the Old Testament was not
wrong to use the name of God and swearing an oath as long it was
not done false as was truthfully done, it was good.
There's a Jewish radio talk show host, and some of you may know
this person. His name is Dennis Prager.
Actually, he's sick right now. He's in bed, he can't move.
He's a Jew. He's not a Christian, but he's
very friendly towards Christians and Christianity.
I've heard about many years ago and I've listened to some of his
stuff. He's also a teacher, has taught
in a Jewish university, and he's very, very knowledgeable, very
educated. Now mind, of course I have
differences with him because he's not a Christian.
I am. I believe in Jesus Christ.
He doesn't believe Jesus is the Messiah, but he knows the Old
Testament verse by verse. He's taught it and it's
interesting listening to him explain the third commandment.
He has a very interesting way of doing it and he makes this
comment. He says in modern Bible
translations in America, the commandment says do not take the
name of the Lord your God in vain, or do not misuse the name
of the Lord your God and so on. And while that is accurate, he
says there's a better translation or a deeper, deeper
meaning behind it then our English words convey.
He says the real meaning or the real intent of that commandment,
do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
The real intent is in the Hebrew is do not carry, do not carry
the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Then he goes on to interpret it. He says do not carry God's name
for the purpose of evil. In other words, do not use God's
name as a cover for something that is wrong.
But how often is that not done? That is deep.
He says this is the sin that Moses is talking about in the
commandment. The consequence is also given.
What will happen to the person who does carry God's name in
vain for evil? He says God will not hold them
guiltless and he believes that and I believe that too.
Prager then went on to explain that there are people who carry
out intentional evil and they do it behind a cloak or a religious
front. Think of old history, the
Crusades. If you Google the Crusades in
the medieval times, wasn't that the case?
Or even in modern times, nations will fight wars on based on
truth because God's for us. Really.
Is that why we go kill each other?
Because God's for us. We have to be very, very careful
what we're doing because so much of it's self motivated and
retaliatorial. And next Sunday we'll hear some
of that about should we take revenge?
Should we, should we get even and, and should we pay back
those who do wrong to us? Not speaking against justice,
but where's it coming from? What do we cloak it in?
What's the garb? People do this all the time.
It happens at all levels of life and politics and communities and
business and church and families and everywhere.
Children do it, people do it. Intentions appear good.
Read it. Just a cloak.
Dennis Prague is right in that he says God's name is used for
anything other than glory. It's the wrong reason.
And again, I have my theological differences with him as a
practicing Jew myself being a follower of Jesus.
But he's correct in that when people make a promise or a
commitment, but with ulterior motives, meaning that what they
say is not what they're going to do, that is wrong, then they add
a false front to it. Yet that makes it doubly wrong.
Hey, I'm doing this because I love God.
No, you don't, because you want to get away with sin or
something wrong. Just think for a moment, how
would you feel if your name got used as a false front for
somebody's nefarious, malicious activities?
How would you feel to carry out something that you knew was
wrong, but you know the person has ulterior motives or maybe
even evil motives, lying and deceptive, but uses your name?
We must be so careful how we use God's name.
Do we use it truthfully and honesty?
If we're a follower of Jesus, then everything we do must be
done with God in mind. As in, how will this represent
God's name to this person, to this case?
So when it comes to using God's name in our commitment promises,
how should we do? Well, let's go further.
Jesus says do not swear at all. Let's read verse 34 to 35.
He says, But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by
heaven, for it's God's throne, nor by the earth, for it's his
footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it's the city of the great King.
Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make
one hair white or black. He says, do not swear at all.
Meaning in God's name then he qualifies it.
People in Jesus, they were swearing by different things.
Someone might say, I swear by heaven.
They wouldn't swear by God the proper name, or I swear by the
temple or I swear by the state of Jerusalem or I swear by my
head. It's interesting what kind of
oath taking they did different levels of truth telling.
Jesus confronted the Pharisees at one point with this in a very
serious way. In Matthew 23, verse 16, he we
read, he says, 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's obliged to perform it fools and blind.
For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies
the gold? And whoever swears by the altar,
it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that's on it,
he's obliged to perform it fools and blind.
For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the
gift? Therefore, he who swears by the
altar swears by it and by all things on it, He who swears by
the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it, and he who
swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who
sits on it. He confronted these people about
that. Do we have levels of truth
telling, levels of honesty and levels of integrity?
We may not have a temple like they did or an altar like they
did, but nonetheless, we still do it in different ways.
And sometimes you hear absolute bad stuff.
I swear in my mother's grave. What's that about?
Or I swear in a stack of Bibles. That's a giveaway.
This person really has a truth issue.
All of this does not mean that swearing doesn't happen.
It does happen and and even in our government circles, for
instance, in the court of law, there's a swearing in process.
Someone has to testify and the statement is read that goes
something like this. Do you swear to tell the truth,
the whole truth or nothing but the truth to help you God?
And the person says I do. And then the proceedings begin.
And then of course, when it gets tough, the person's reminded in
between, remember you're underoath as if there's
different standards. Now you have to be more honest
if you're Underoath. And if you're not Underoath, I'm
not speaking here in judgment of our of our judicial system.
I kind of know where they're going at.
But when we get to the truth, we are not supposed to have
different levels of truth. And what I'm thankful for in our
country, we have a provision for people for whom swearing is an
issue. For me, it is.
And but a lot of churches, pastors, believers, it's not
that kind of swearing. They say it's not a problem.
I won't get into that here this morning.
I just want to say that in our government circles, I've had to
go to court and they say you can affirm to tell the truth, OK,
don't have to swear. So that's good.
But the whole point is we should not have different standards and
different levels and categories of truth.
The Jews in Jesus time would swear by this and that and the
other and then, OK, this swearing didn't really matter.
And that swearing was more important than this swearing.
That is not good. The whole idea was how true is
it? Well, he swore by that, so it's
more true than if he swore than if he swore by that.
Ecclesiastes writes about this Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse
one. The guy, the writer says walk
prudently when you go to the House of God and draw near to
here rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do
not know that they do evil. There was ignorance back in the
Old Testament time and there was ignorance in Jesus day and
there's ignorance in our day too, but our desire for truth
should rule all the time. He says in verse 2, do not be
rash with your mouth and let not your heart utter anything
hastily before the Lord, before God, for God is in heaven,
you're on earth, therefore let your words be few.
Some of us could really learn from that.
It's far better to be quiet and not speak than speak and wish
you'd been quiet, says in verse 3.
For a dream comes too much activity and a fool's voice is
known by his many words. Then in verse 4, when you make a
vow to God, do not delay to pay it, for he has no pleasure.
And fools pay what you vowed. Better not to vow than to vow
and not pay. He's talking here about Jesus,
what Jesus saying to to the Pharisees in Matthew and Jesus
raises the bar. He eliminates, cuts out all
different levels and categories of truth telling.
He says there's only one. Yes means yes and no means no.
Well, some here this morning, maybe this here sitting or
listening online. OK, well what if, what if I know
there's what ifs? What if you make a promise you
could not keep? You said you would visit on such
and such a day and you can't keep that promise.
Now what? What then?
Perhaps you promised someone you'd go for coffee.
An emergency happens. Now what?
Now you have to let the other party know you cannot keep your
commitment. That's not what Jesus is talking
about here. Or you make a promise to do
something only to learn if you follow through, it's going to
create serious hardship and then you need to go to ask the other
party if they're OK. If you renegotiate or make a
deal, that's fine. What it's driving at here is be
honest, be open, be transparent, be true.
No shady deal. I'll say this, but do that.
And I hope he doesn't find out I did this.
I hope he doesn't hear I said that.
That's what he's against. It's about open, transparent
truth, honest living. I had a conversation with a
businessman one day and he told me he had hired a secretary and
she was new at the job. And so he's sitting in his
office and a few cubicles down his secretary and the phone
rings. And it's her job to pick up the
phone. He hears her pick up the phone,
Hello. And and then he knows what's
going on through the one side of conversation, his response, her
responses. And then she said, well, the
boss named him. He's not in right now.
But and then she carries on. And he said, I heard that.
He said after she hung up, I said to her, don't ever do that
again. He said, when I'm in, you tell
them I'm in. I don't have time right now, but
I'm in. Don't lie to the people.
And she had been accustomed to wherever she had come from.
Just tell him he's out. Just tell him whatever.
That is so common in our time. It is absolutely sad.
And when I hear people say, you know, I just called in sick and
then they went and did something else, that's not truthfulness.
I found a cartoon many years ago and I was tempted to put it on
the PowerPoint slide through AI but decided not to.
But it's a very funny one. But interesting 1.
So man calls in sick that he can't come into work.
He's sick. And just as he's walking out
this door with this fishing rod and tackle box, guess who walks
up his front sidewalk? His boss.
I know you're sick in bed. You told me so.
But hey, I need the keys for the office.
You will get caught one day, and if you don't, your conscience
still will plague you because you were dishonest.
You're not truthful. These passes are dealing with
how we interact with people. Are we honest?
Are we truthful? Or do we say one thing but then
do another? Do we lie to people?
He says in verse 37. So clearly let your yes be yes
and your no no, for whatever's more than these is from the evil
1. You see, truth comes in only one
form, but lives come in countless forms.
You can. There's no end to the digit
number that lies can be told. There's only one way to tell the
truth. Now this does not mean that all
truth always has to be told. Years ago, the founding pastor
of this church, Peter Rhymer, made the comment once.
Always stuck with me. Says not everything true in this
life has to be told, but everything that is told must be
true. And he's right before God.
A statement is either true or it is not.
God knows our heart and sometimes we share information
that later we find is not true. So we have made a mistake.
We didn't lie because we were not aware, but we can then go
fix it. Jesus says let your yes be yes
and your no, no. Anything more than that is from
the evil one. We're only left with one thing
and that is honesty. There's no options.
Honesty and that's it, nothing else.
So #3 Be careful with your language in using God's name.
We must be careful that we respect God's name.
Not only do we use it in making promises, but in our
conversation. Not only do we not use it in
swearing and oath taking, but in our conversation and
interactions with people. We must never use God's name in
a way that will make people think less of God or lead people
to believe God is not that important.
How would you like if your name was thrown around as a swear
word or your name was in a derogatory way mentioned
casually in conversation? When someone uses God's name as
a swear word, that is sin. And this applies where Moses
says God will not hold him guiltless.
God's name should never use as an expletive or as a curse word
or an expression. Oh my God or God, that's
awesome. Or God, it's cold.
That's not right. Lying, swearing, foul language
is rampant our time, and we're getting desensitized to it.
In other words, we're getting used to it.
Remember many years ago reading a story of a prison warden that
was hired brand new on the job while they interviewed him for
his job as a prison warden? And he was a very sincere,
devout Christian man and he wanted so badly to do the job
well. He wanted to be a good godly
prison warden. Now, some people have to serve
time in prison for whatever reason.
And so he wanted to do his very best and be a God fearing man of
God in that environment. So he asked the person who's
interviewing and says, OK, what powers do I have or what,
where's my boundaries and what can I do?
And, and the guy who was talking to him said, well, you pretty
much can do what you want. You have a lot of power and
control in this place. Well, the new warden said that
one thing I want to do here is clean up the language in this
place. It's so foul and just swearing
and cursing while the other person in that case, well,
you're going to cut 1/2 the language in this place.
People had gotten so used to using foul language, almost
everything they said was mixed with with with rotten language,
God's name in it and all the rest.
This Christian prison warden wanted to make his prison a
clean place. No more swearing, no more foul
language. Don't know how it turned out,
but how? Is it where you work?
What language is there? Is it clean?
Is it edifying? Is it what builds relationships?
Is it healthy? Or is it rotten and foul?
Are you living a truthful life there?
But you know how rotten, foul language stops.
It stops when the heart changes. So let it begin with us as a
Christian community. Jesus says what the heart is
full of, full of the mouth will speak.
It behooves us as believers to be diligent and take note.
What do we feed ourselves? Because what we feed ourselves
conditions us. What conditions us will
eventually come out. Proverbs 2123 says Whoever
guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.
In the Gospel of Matthew, again, we repeatedly find Jesus talking
with the Pharisees and they were always on the lookout, trying to
trap him with what he said or what he did.
And sometimes Jesus would just speak out.
He says in verse 12, verse 35, Matthew 1235, a good man out of
the good treasure, out of his heart brings forth good things,
but an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil
things. But I say to you that for every
idle word that men may speak, they will be held give account
of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you'll be
justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
Jesus knew the hearts of these men were not right with God.
And it was later the religious leaders who did exactly that.
In the name of goodness for the nation, in the name of doing the
will of God the Lord, they arrested Jesus.
And it was their God-given duty to crucify this Nazarene, this
Galilean rabbi, and nail him to the cross, because that's what
justice calls for. In the name of God, they
crucified the Savior. Well, we would never go that
far. Maybe not, but let's not get in
that direction. What they portrayed themselves
to be was not true. It was wrong.
They were evil men. Later on in the book of Acts the
church started and these issues continued and James the Apostle,
he writes to the Christians and he says this.
My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we
shall receive stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many
things. If anyone does not stumble in
Word, he's a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
Indeed, we put bits and horses mouths that they may obey us and
return their whole body. Look also at ships, Although
they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they're turned
by a very small rudder, which wherever the pilot desires.
Even so, the tongue is a little member in both great things.
See how great a forest a little fire Kindles, and the tongue is
a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our
members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the
course of nature, and itself is set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird, or a reptile and creature
of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of
deadly poison. With it we bless you, our God
and Father, and with it we curse.
Men who have been made in the similitude of God out of the
same mouth perceive blessing and cursing.
My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
Does a spring send forth freshwater and bitter water from
the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren,
bear olives, or a Grapevine bear fakes?
Thus no spring yields both salt and freshwater.
By our fruits people will know us.
Do people know us by the truth, or don't they?
Do we tell the truth? Do we say it like it is?
Do we speak words that are up building and edifying?
James 512 he says. But above all, my brethren, do
not swear either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath,
but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, lest you fall into
judgement. When we think of it, so much of
A life is connected to words. Jesus told his audience, you've
heard it said do not swear falsely, but I tell you, do not
swear at all. Jesus raised the standard of
truth telling. He simplified it, took out
everything else except just left truth alone.
God wants open, honest, transparent relationships with
us. He wants us to have it with each
other. And again, as I said before,
Jesus raised the bar every time for the Jews at this point, and
it's for us as well. No swearing at all.
Jesus told him their oaths were of no value because they did not
have any power to impact any of what they were swearing on, not
even change the color of their hair.
Jesus reminded them that his this teaching but keeping their
oaths to God. Those promises are not what God
calls for. God's not asking oath of anyone.
He's just simply telling us tell the truth, be honest.
We don't need to emphasize it and buttress it up with all
kinds of things. So this week, are we going to be
honest people whose word can be trusted?
Are we going to be people who are honest with each other?
Are we going to be honest with our employers, our employees,
our spouses, our fellow workers? The Bible is very clear.
We need to be committed to being truthful, and we need God's
grace to help us. Maybe there's some here who have
not lived up to the standard we can do so today.
We've used the Christian label to do things we know are wrong
and we feel convicted. We can repent.
There's grace, there's hope, there's forgiveness.
And I would encourage us as believers to follow Jesus with
our whole being, our heart, soul, and mind, and everything
we say and do Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for Your word
to us that teaches us the importance of integrity in every
aspect of our lives. And I pray, Lord, that your name
will be honored by each one of us this morning and through the
day and through the week and the coming weeks and months and our
full life. May each one of us walk with
you, Be close to you. May it be when people get to
know us that it will be a bit more like getting to know Jesus.
Help us to that end. And your name we pray.
Amen.