Verbal Integrity

Numbers chapter 30 verse number 2 says this, if a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes 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. I believe that. When a man makes an oath before the Lord, he gives someone his word, he is to fulfill his obligation because he gave his word. God is serious about what we say and God holds you accountable for the words that you speak. Jesus addresses the issue of the integrity of your speech when he records these words in our text for this evening, Matthew chapter 5 verses 33 to 37.

Again you have heard the ancients were told you shall not make false vows but you 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 a 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 and anything beyond these is of evil or literally from the evil one. Verbal integrity is what the Lord God addresses in these series of verses.

Our outline is the same. We're gonna look first of all at the rabbinical teaching or excuse me the rabbinical tradition and then the biblical teaching and then your personal transformation.

What was the rabbinical tradition? What was so important about what they did that the Lord God would have to address it? What did they do that was so bad that when Christ said unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall have no part of the kingdom of heaven. What did this mean? What was their rabbinical tradition? It falls into two categories. Number one it was the perversion of the law of God and number two it gave them permission to lie.

That's the rabbinical tradition. First of all it was it was a perversion of the law of God. Christ says again you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not make false vows but you shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.

Now that sounds pretty good doesn't it? We read that and we say well man that sounds good. You should not make a false vow. Okay no false vows but you shall fulfill your vow to the Lord. They're saying be truthful. Fulfill your vows. But is that really what the Old Testament taught? Is that really what was spoken in the Old Testament? What they say or what Christ says and what their tradition said was a combination of several verses in the Old Testament.

But this specific statement which is recorded in verse number 33 is nowhere recorded in the Old Testament. They did something wrong and so Christ himself had to specifically address it in order to make them understand the error of their way. Their perversion was based on two things. Number one was that they would make vows indiscriminately.

Everything they said was a vow. Someone would say are you coming to my house for dinner tonight? Yeah I'll be there. How do I know you're gonna be there? I swear by heaven I'll be there. I swear by the throne in the temple that I'll be there. I swear by the altar in the temple that I'll be there. You see they were throwing out vows and oaths indiscriminately. Everything they said was a vow. Everything they said was was some kind of oath or some kind of promise that they would hold on to. I swear by Jerusalem that I will be there.

The point being it never said when you were to perform your oath to the Lord. So the religious leaders would would be swearing right and left about everything under the Sun. And if every time you opened your mouth you have to swear by something in order for people to believe you there's something wrong with your integrity. But more than that their phrase unto the Lord was the key. You see as long as you swore unto the Lord you had to fulfill your vow. But if you swore unto anything else you didn't necessarily have to fulfill it.

You can't indiscriminately compartmentalize what you will do and what you won't do based on the vow that you make. You have to realize that your word is your bond. And so it was a perversion of the Old Testament law and number two it was really a permission for them to lie you see.

It was a permission for them to lie. They were of their father the devil. That's what Christ said in John 8 44. And of course he is the the father of lies. But to make them look good and to make them look righteous they concocted their own system that would allow them to say something yet not be held to what they said. Little kids do that today don't they? I had my fingers crossed. I had my legs crossed. My eyes crossed. I really didn't mean it. See that's what they would do. Except instead of the King's X instead of crossing their fingers or crossing their eyes or or crossing their legs they would swear by Jerusalem or they would swear by the the temple or they would swear by by the altar.

They would swear by the hair on their head. They would swear on their mother's grave. But you see they didn't have to fulfill it because he didn't swear to the Lord you see. And so they would get people to to believe them but would give them an opportunity to lie. It would give them an opportunity a way out of whatever it is they said or or made a vow about because it wasn't really to the Lord. The point being is that God's standard of absolute truthfulness was contradicted. They lowered the standard of God's truth to a level that would accommodate their sinful selfish capacities.

They wanted to lie. So they invented a system of religion that would allow them to lie. Christ says you have heard that it was said by the men of old by the men of old that if you or you are not to make false vows but you shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.

But that's wrong he says. Let me give you the biblical teaching. That's point number two. But I say to you make no oath at all. Make no oath at all. Now what does that mean? Is Christ forbidding us to make an oath? Is Christ forbidding us to swear by anything at all? What exactly is Christ saying? The Anabaptists, the Moravians, and the Quakers have taken this as a prohibition against taking any kind of oath in any kind of circumstance whatsoever. And if any of you remember George Fox who was the uncompromising founder of the Quakers, he gave that famous rejoinder to the judges of Lancaster who sentenced him to prison for refusing to swear over a Bible that he was telling the truth.

He said these words, you have given me a book here to kiss and to swear on and this book which you have given me to kiss says kiss the Son and the Son says in this book swear not at all. Now I say as the book says and yet you imprison me. How chance you do not imprison the book for saying so. End quote. Because of George Fox was uncompromising standard on the Word of God, no one puts their hand on the Bible in the court of law anymore. They just ask you whether or not you're going to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God.

But you don't put your hand on the Bible anymore. In fact a couple years ago when I was given a testimony in court I was surprised that they didn't have me put my hand on the Bible and swear that I was telling the truth. They just have you raise your right hand and repeat the words. What is Jesus saying? No oath at all. He's simply saying you stop swearing like the Pharisees are swearing. Don't do what they do. And the biblical teachings centers around three areas. Number one, Jesus reinforces the scripture.

He rebukes their system and it requires total sincerity. First of all he reinforces the scripture. He's not forbidding swearing. Why? Because God himself swore. God himself made an oath. Jesus Christ himself performed an oath. Old Testament saints gave oaths. Even the Apostle Paul gave an oath. So what Christ is saying is not that you should not make any oaths whatsoever. To define an oath or to define swearing it's making a statement and calling God to witness to the truth of that statement and to avenge that statement if it's a lie or to avenge you if it's a lie.

When you make an oath, when you make a vow, when you swear to God that something's going to take place, you're calling God to witness to the truth of that statement and to avenge it if it's a lie. Over in Matthew 26 Christ even made an oath before Caiaphas. Caiaphas was so upset that Christ wouldn't answer any accusations that he says I charge you under oath are you the Christ the Son of God and Christ said it is as you have said. Christ made an oath to Caiaphas and that's when Caiaphas tore his robes because here was Christ swearing, making an oath, giving his word that he was the Son of God and to Caiaphas that was absolute blasphemy so he would rip his robes in the presence of the Lord God.

Old Testament Saints made oaths. God himself made an oath. Christ himself responded to an oath and the text says in Matthew 5 that Jesus Christ came not to abolish the law but to fulfill the law. So the biblical teaching reinforces the scripture. It does not say something contrary to what the Old Testament said. Quite the contrary. It emphasized the fact that when you give your word you are to keep your word. So Jesus would reinforce the scripture. Number two, Jesus would rebuke their system.

It says in in verse number 34 the latter part these words 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 a city of the great King nor shall you make an oath by your head for you cannot make one hair white or black. What they were trying to do was compartmentalize God. Jesus says you can't do that.

The reason you can't do that is because God is everywhere. God is not only in Jerusalem or God is not only in Jerusalem. He's in the temple. He's on the throne. He's even on your head. He is the creator of all things. He is all in all and because he is everywhere you can't separate him from the things you swear by. Whenever you give your word you give your word to God whether you recognize him or not. That's the point. Whenever truth is profaned God's name is profaned. To dishonor and compromise any truth is to dishonor and compromise God's truth.

Their appealing to heaven and their appealing to earth and and their appealing to Jerusalem would make their word less binding and as great as those things were and as grand as they were it allowed them to be untruthful unless of course they were swear to the Lord but they were lowering God's standard of absolute sincerity, absolute truthfulness with everything that comes out of one's mouth. A godly person will always tell the truth. For him a simple yes, a simple no is sufficient because his virtuous character is his bond.

You should not have to say I swear to anything because if you have to swear or make an oath for someone to believe you it implies that the rest of the things you say are not true. The question is are your words true? Is the oath you made the day you got married truth? The vow you made before God to honor, to love, to cherish your wife till death do you part. If you compromise that aspect in your marriage vows you will compromise those marriage vows again. Did you know that? If you marry someone who's been married once before and they have compromised those vows the chances of them compromising those vows with you are almost 100%.

So you got to be careful. You got to make sure you can trust the one you marry. You got to make sure you can trust the one you live with because if they broke their word once what makes them keep from breaking their word twice, right? Or what makes them or what keeps them from breaking their word in other areas of business? If you break your vow to the wife, the one you are to be committed to, the most intimate of all relationships if you break that vow what's going to stop you from breaking your vow in every other aspect of your life?

That's not near as intimate. That's not near as important as that one is, right? God is serious about what people say. So what we do? So what's your personal transformation? That's point number three.

Number one is this. Acknowledge the lies that you have told. Acknowledge the lies that you have told. If you want to go back on the right path, if you have had a pattern of going back on your word, if you have had a pattern of lying in the past, you've got to acknowledge all lies because you see if you don't keep your word you are a liar, right? Matthew 12 verse number 34, for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. That's why Jesus says, especially in the book of James, the third chapter, that your speech is the clearest indicator of the condition of your heart.

If you are a liar, you have aligned yourself with the father of lies and you give reason to believe that you don't believe in the God of truth, but serve the father of lies. The speech is the clearest indicator of one's spiritual condition, for out of the outflow of the heart the mouth speaketh. The mouth only speaks what's true on the inside. So God makes that very clear. Psalm 51 verse number 6, God desires truth in the innermost being. God just doesn't want you to speak truth, he wants you to live truth, he wants you to be truth.

Proverbs 6 verses 16 to 17, God hates a lying tongue. Proverbs 12 22, they are an abomination to God. Lying lips are an abomination to God. He wants people who are totally honest, totally true, brutally honest, brutally true. That's what he wants. He wants you to speak the truth. And so the first step in your transformation is to acknowledge every lie that you've told, that you can remember that is.

Maybe you've told so many you can't remember them all. Maybe you've given your word to so many people and you've broken your word so many times you can't remember all those things. But boy, believe me, ask God to help you remember them and he will. He'll bring them back to your memory and you get those things right. And you know what? Boy, what a cleansing feeling that is. What a burden that's relieved off of your shoulders. That you can live truth and start anew and start afresh, purposing in your heart that day to live truth in your inmost being.

Number two, appropriate the life of Christ. You've got to appropriate the life of Christ. Listen very carefully. It may be that you don't keep your word because you're not saved. Did you know that? That's the way it was with the Pharisees. I mean, they were lying right and left. They had developed a system that would allow them to lie. They had developed a system that would make them feel good that they didn't have to give the total truth. They didn't have to keep their word, you see. If you have concocted some mechanism in your life where you really rest at ease thinking, you know what?

I don't really have to keep my word on this issue. Then what you have done is the exact same thing the Pharisees did. And you know better than they are. And Christ says that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven.

You'll have no part with me. It's got to go beyond there. Why? Because I want heart attitude. I want heart change. That's what he wants. It says in Isaiah 53 verse 9 of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Titus 1-2 says that God cannot lie. His words need to become our words. And so I ask this question for those of you who are here, for those who might listen by way of tape or by radio, have you appropriated the life of Christ? Does his life reign in you? Only you can answer that question.

Only you know for sure. Only God knows for sure. Does he live in you? Does he speak through you? Number three, activate the language of love.

It says in Ephesians 4 verse number 15, speaking the truth in love. It says in Ephesians 4 verse number 25, therefore laying aside falsehood, speaking truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. It says in Ephesians 4 verse 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. None, but only that which is good. Only that which will bestow grace upon those who hear it. That's the language of love. And it was David Webster who wrote these words. There is nothing as powerful as truth and often nothing as strange.

Truth. Truth. Come clean. Live a life of integrity. Mean what you say and say what you mean. And lastly, apply the lessons of Scripture. Apply the lessons of Scripture. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? Acts chapter 5? They weren't people of their word. They lied. They concocted a scheme whereby they would lie. They would cheat. They would deceive. Their yay wasn't yay. Their nay wasn't nay. They tried to pull the wool over the early church. And God sent a message very loud and clear, you can't do that.

He killed them because of it. James speaks of it in James 5, 12. I believe that James was there. James knew. James knew, man. He says, man, let your yay be yay, let your nay be nay, or you will incur the judgment of God. I was there in Acts 5. I saw it happen. So make sure you speak truth. Now, that doesn't mean God's going to strike you dead every time you lie. God's a God of great mercy. But I would not stretch the patience of God if I were you. I would honor him today. You will one day be held accountable for every idle word that you speak.

So make sure you speak truthful words. Make sure you speak honorable words. John 17, 17, Christ said, sanctify them by truth for your word is truth. We need to feed on the word of truth progressively. And as you feed on God's truth, we begin to speak truth. You can't feed on the truth of God's holy word and continue to speak lies. You can't do that. It's biblically impossible, says in Revelation 21, 8, that the destiny of all liars is the lake of fire. The destiny of everyone who habitually tells lies is the lake of fire.

Let me ask you, can people take you at your word? When you say something, do people know for sure that what you say is absolute truth? If you say you're going to be someplace at a certain time, are you there or are you late? If you're late, your word's not truth. If you're late, you can't be trusted. Now, that might be a small thing, but let me tell you something, small things make big patterns.

So if you say you're going to be someplace at a certain time, you better be there or you can't be trusted. You lack integrity. But if I lose the testimony and credibility of my word, I lose everything. And so do you. God knows that. So God says, let your yea be yea, your nay be nay.

Every word that comes out of your mouth, let it be truthful. Never lower my standard of absolute truth.