Let Your �Yes� Be �Yes�

I don't know if kids today still do this, but when I was a youngster and somebody
wanted to make a promise, they had no intention of keeping or if they wanted to
tell a whopper of a lie, they would cross their fingers behind their back. Any of
you remember that? And then when they had you believing their promise or buying
into their lie, then they would triumphantly pull their arm from behind their
back, hold up their crossed fingers and go, aha, I had my fingers crossed. It
doesn't really count. And that then was in those days a socially acceptable way of
not having to keep your promises. I said, I don't know if kids today still do
this, but I see enough of our generation nodding our heads and that we know how
it happened back then. Well, I find it very interesting that the Pharisees
here and the teachers of the law had their own way of keeping their
fingers crossed behind their back while they were trying to lie their way
through life. And they did it interestingly enough by a misinterpretation and
a misapplication of the Old Testament teaching as it relates to the taking of
oaths. And that's what Jesus talks about in this passage when he says, again,
you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not break your oath,
but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord. Do not break your oath but keep the
oaths you have made to the Lord. Now interestingly enough, that verse is not
found in the Old Testament in that way. The closest you can come to it is to
make a compilation of two verses, Deuteronomy 6, 13, fear the Lord your God,
serve him only and take your oaths in his name. And Leviticus 1912 did not
swear falsely by my name. And so profane the name of your God, I am the Lord. So
very likely that verse that Jesus is quoting is part of the teaching of the
scribes and the Pharisees to the people of Israel. Do not break your oath, but
keep the oaths you have made to the Lord. Now an oath, as you may well know, is a
solemn appeal to God that you are speaking of the truth. It rests under the
realization that God is witness to all our interactions, all our words. Nothing
is hidden from Him. And when you take an oath, you're appealing to God to judge
whether or not you are speaking the truth and you're giving him the right to
judge you if you are not. That's why even today when you go to court, you are
asked to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Now the Pharisees added their own particular twist to this business of taking
oath. As a matter of fact, they did three things. First of all, they used oaths
frivolously. They lived in a culture where lying was very common and just like
a bunch of little kids who don't believe each other. They would frivolously
swear and take an oath. I swear that I'm telling the truth. You know, I swear
by my grandmother's grave. I swear by the golden the temple. I am really
telling the truth. They swore frivolously as opposed to the biblical concept of
using oaths only under the most extreme and severe of circumstances. So they
cheapen the concept of oath, not only that, but much as they believed in
observing the letter of the law, they did have a conviction that oaths to the
Lord had to be kept as a matter of fact. They made a very big deal out of that,
which is why the verse that Jesus called says, "Do not break your oath, but keep
the oaths you have made to the Lord." They were extremely, extremely
determined that if you were going to swear an oath to the Lord, you had to keep
it. And so now you're saying, "Well, you know, that's pretty good. What's the
problem with the scribes and the Pharisees?" Well, never underestimate the
ingenuity of a fallen human heart. And they were clever enough to figure away
that they could tell a lie by crossing their fingers so to speak behind their
back and yet not be in violation of this oath making business. And you know how
they did it, they did it by distinguishing between categories of oaths. That is to
say some oaths were binding, but other oaths were not binding. For example, if
you swore by the temple, you didn't have to keep your promise. But if you swore
by the gold of the temple, then you did. Or if you swore by the altar, you didn't
have to keep your promise. But if you swore by the gift on the altar, you had to
keep your promise. And so you can see the clever ingenuity if I cross my
fingers behind my back, that I can make any promise that I want to make and I
don't have to keep it because it doesn't really count. Well, you can imagine
Jesus was not too terribly impressed. In fact, in Matthew 23, he puts it this way,
he says, "Wold to you blind guides." You say if anyone swears by the temple, it
means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by
his oath. You also say if anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing. But if
anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath. Pretty ingenious. But
obviously a fallen human attempt at being able to have your cake and eat it
too. You want to be able to lie and not have your lie count against you. And so
as always, what Jesus does in this passage is he takes us back to God's original
intent in giving us those commandments in the first place. You have heard that
it was said to the people of old and not break your oath, but keep the oaths that
you have made to the Lord. But I tell you, I tell you, do not swear at all. Either by
heaven, for it is God's throne, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, and do not swear by your head. For
you cannot make even one hair white or black, simply let your yes be yes and
your no. No. Anything beyond this comes from evil. Now note, in that passage,
there is a twofold argument that Jesus develops that we need to understand,
twofold critique of why what the Pharisees are doing is so terribly wrong. First
of all, he says, your distinctions are false. Your distinctions are false. He says,
heaven is God's throne. The earth is his footstool. Jerusalem is the city of the
great king. You cannot make a separation between God and the things of God. You
can make a separation between the temple and the gold in the temple. You can't
make a separation between the altar and the gift on the altar. That is a human
device to try to cheat and to lie your way through life. And that's why again in
Matthew 23, Jesus goes on to put it this way, you blind fools, which is greater.
The gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred, you blind men, which is
greater. The gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred. Therefore he
swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it. And he swears by the
temple, swears by it, and by the one who dwells in it. And he swears by heaven,
swears by God's throne, and by the one who sits on it. You cannot make this
distinction between this oath you've got to keep. And this oath doesn't really
matter because you can't make that kind of separation. Says Jesus, that's the
first argument that he develops in these verses that we have read together. And
then the second one is this, that oaths in order to be valid had to be in the
name of God only one of the ways in which the Pharisees got around swearing
oaths and breaking them was to swear by created things, you know, like in the
story of the little pigs by the hair of my chinny chin chin, by the temple, by
the gold of my temple, by my hair, by my grandmother, by my grandfather. And Jesus
says you can do that because do not swear by your head for you cannot even make
one hair white or black. And the whole point then, that Jesus is developing
here, is that we ought not to be looking for ways to be able to falsify truth
and still feel good about ourselves. What God is looking for is an integrity of
character that makes our word true and faithful. That's why he concludes this
passage. Then with the words like your yes, be yes, and you're no, no. Anything
beyond this comes from the evil one. God doesn't want us devising clever
ways of crossing our fingers behind our back to see what it is that we can get
away with. No, God is looking for speech that flows from a heart of integrity so
that our promises, our promises we make and we keep. Our yes means yes and our
no means no. Any attempt beyond that to try to confuse other people into
obliterate the truth. Jesus says does not come from the Father, but it comes from
the evil one. That's why Psalm 15, with which we began our service today, says
Lord, who made well in your sanctuary? Who may live in your holy heal? He who's
walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his
heart and keeps his oath even when it hurts. He who does these things will
never be shaken. So it's a severe criticism of the way the Pharisees and the
scribes have not only been conducting themselves but have also been
teaching the children of Israel. Jesus says don't swear at all like your
yes be yes and you're no be no. Now that immediately raises of course two
questions. The first question that it raises then is the question is it wrong
for Christians to take an oath? When you go to court or when you become a
citizen of this country or find yourself at other legal situations and you're
asked to raise your whatever hand and swear an oath. So help you God. Is that a
right thing to do or is that an violation of this scripture? After all the
scripture says do not swear at all. And there are Christian groups who
interpret that quite literally in that fashion. And when they go to court or
they find themselves in that kind of ceremony that I was talking about on
conscientious ground they refuse to swear an oath and they base it on this
scripture. I admire their courage. I admire their convictions. I think they're
wrong. Why are they wrong? Well they're wrong because the issue that Jesus is
dealing with here is not whether it's right or wrong to take oaths. The issue
that Jesus is dealing with it is wrong to take oaths frivolously and to use
them in a way to perpetrate a lie. And I say that because when you look at
scripture you find three very interesting things. The first is that God
himself makes an oath. Psalm 110 verse four. The Lord is sworn and will not
change his mind. You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. The Lord
Jesus he submits to an oath we read in Matthew chapter 26. He's on trial for
his life before Caiaphas to high priest. And he refused to answer any of his
questions until the high priest came and said I charge you under oath by the
living God. Tell us if you were the Christ the son of the living God and
scripture goes on to record then that in response to that demand. And Jesus said
yes it is as you say. In other words he responds to the demand to speak the
truth before the face of God. And then of course we have the example of the
Apostle Paul. He says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 23 I call God as my
witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth calling
God as your witness is taking an oath may God do so and so and more to me if I do
not fulfill the promise that I made that by the way is why it's so important to
compare scripture to scripture you can take any scripture verse twisted in a
direction that suits you but it has to fit the overall emphasis of all of
biblical revelation. Are oaths wrong? No they are not provided they are a last
resort and are not taken frivolously and are observed scrupulously. Second
question then that also arises out of this passage does that mean we just say
everything that we think must we be utterly and absolutely truthful in every
said show it gets a little tricky hey I mean your friend says how do you like my
outfit and you say to yourself woman where in the world did you ever dig that up
and how did you ever deceive yourself into thinking that looked good on you now
what are you going to say you know she's going to be devastated you know that her
ego won't be able to handle truthful speaking how do you handle this
situation well it's very important to understand that the biblical emphasis
always lies on speaking the truth in love and even Jesus himself said to his
disciples there's a lot more that I want to tell you but you cannot bear it now
well Jesus critiques in this passage is lying out of a desire for self
advancement and self protection and I find it very helpful to try to figure out
what that balance is biblically in terms of speaking the truth and love to
each other by remembering three things let me just walk you through that very
quickly as we bring this to a close this morning the purpose of speech is to
build each other up and so we read for example in Ephesians chapter 4 do not
let unhold some talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for
building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who
listen and so whenever you're inclined to speak into somebody's life and you
feel the truth needs to be told then you ask yourself the question first of all
is it true then you ask yourself the question is it loving that is to say is
it geared to help somebody become better in Christ now the lady with a bad
choice of address or the man with a you know whatever his bad choices are
may need all the help in the world to be straightened out so they can see
themselves the way that other people see them and if that's your motivation by
all means speak the truth but you know how often we are sarcastic how often we
have an underlying agenda to try to get that poke in there because we want to
build ourselves up at somebody else's expense that's wrong the purpose of
speech is to build up so is it loving and is it necessary you know there's a
lot of things that a lot of us can see and a lot of people's lives that are
not the way they ought to be and there's a lot of things the Lord sees in your
life and in my life at any given point that is not where it ought to be not
every thing needs to be addressed all the time some things are just a function
of growth and part of learning to walk after the spirit and part of learning to
walk in community is to recognize that our mouths have to be you know the
vehicle the instrument of God's Holy Spirit so that in his time and in his
way we can help somebody grow up and become all they need to be in Christ
Jesus we need to build each other up and we need never to lie or to
exaggerate love the story to Arctic explorers they're trying to outdo each
other concerning the cold they had endured on their trip to the Arctic and one
guy sister you know it was so cold it was so cold that the candles froze and
we couldn't blow them out and the other guy says that's enough it he says when
I went there it was so cold the words that came out of our mouths froze his
pieces of ice and we had to fry them to hear what we were talking about that
would be exaggeration and it's easy to fall into exaggeration and God wants us
to be very careful that our yes be yes and our no be no I've been around long
enough to know how gossip works in community and you know gossip almost always
has a grain of truth but then a whole substructure is created on this that
that feeds into people's own fencies and that often becomes a distortion of
the truth and becomes extremely harmful and dangerous to the people who are
subject to that gossip don't ever let yourself be found in that situation
and then of course we ought never to make promises that we know ahead of time
that we cannot keep and if we've made promises that we cannot keep and all of
us will sooner or later find ourselves in those situations our response to
that has to be our request to be released from the promise or the vow that we
have made so that we can continue walking through life with integrity why are
these things so important why is Jesus so adamant about raising this issue with
the disciples I'll tell you why the well-being of community the well-being of
society hangs on this if you've ever had a child lie to you if you've ever had
a spouse that deliberately deceived you if you've ever had a friend that
betrayed you then you will know how irreparably relationships can be
damaged if yes is not yes and no is not no it may take years for trust to be
regained sometimes cannot be regained because the damage is too great and the
hurt too extensive and that's why Jesus says to us here if we're going to be his
disciples if we're going to be the followers of the Lord Jesus then our
righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees our righteousness
must be a heart-righteousness our righteousness that isn't always looking for
how much can I get away with but a righteousness that says let me do
everything that I can to walk in integrity before God and before each other will
we fail yes we will will there be times when we don't live up to the
standard that Jesus requires of us yes we will that's why we have Jesus that's
why he invites us to confess our sins to him and to each other and that's why
he invites us to share in the power of the Holy Spirit so that more and more we
can be men and women for whom yes is yes and no is no for the glory of God
fill that my life full of my God in every part of praise
that my hope in every part of it by being in my ways
now for a repraise of glory for praising God I ask for a life meal of praise in every
part praise in the common words that speak love tall and good and tall in fellowship
and joy and hope in our beloved ones and joy and glory for our joy and joy for our first race that must well for it ain't really goes to it we turn in the glory of God
each village can be turned into a song and every pointing out the way be a God shall come out so shall the world be born and the sacred best be free
but all I love in every part of it by the fellowship with me