LET YOUR “YES” BE “YES” AND YOUR “NO” BE “NO”
Matthew 5: 33-37
A month or so ago in the news a senator from Chicago was facing corruption charges and he spent the weekend huddling with his lawyers preparing for his grand jury testimony. As I saw that I thought it was a little odd. If your goal in going before the grand jury is to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, why does it take hours and hours to prepare for that?
- Why not just simply tell the truth? Why not just be honest?
Now it would be foolish to think that lawyers and politicians are the only people who like to play games with the truth.
- A recent survey found that most Americans think it is wrong to lie under oath, but in other situations telling a lie is only a minor problem if it is a problem at all.
- And about the only time that it is wrong to lie is when you promise that you are not lying.
What about us? As God’s people do we have a problem just being honest?
Let’s look at this passage that was read because Jesus is going to deal with this very thing.
- First, let’s go back to verse 20. Jesus says in vs. 20:
“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees (most Americans…Lawyers and Politicians), you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
- That is a pretty strong statement!
- The scribes and Pharisees were considered to be the most spiritual men of their society…most people thought that if anyone was going to go to heaven…it would certainly be these guys.
- They looked good…and they sounded good…
- But from what Jesus says here, they fell way short of entering the kingdom of heaven.
- You see, just because some act religious…and look religious doesn’t mean that they are right with God.
- So what was it that the scribes and Pharisees were doing? And what must we do to exceed their righteousness?
Well, Jesus gives us 7 examples to help us understand what we need to do to exceed the scribes and Pharisees in righteousness…
- And as He gives us these examples He contrasts what the scribes and Pharisees were doing with what they should have been doing.
- He will say, “You have heard that it was said…then He will say…”but I say unto you.”
- He will point out that righteousness is not just about keeping the letter of the law….but it is also about keeping the spirit of the law as well.
Now, we have already covered the first three examples or situations…
- The first one dealt with murder and anger.
- The Pharisees and scribes would say, “We haven’t committed murder…we have kept the letter of the law…but Jesus would say, “Keep the spirit of the law…“Don’t even be angry!”
The Pharisees then would say, “We haven’t committed adultery…we have kept the letter of the law…but Jesus would say, “Keep the spirit of the law…Don’t even lust after a woman that way!”
And the Pharisees would say, “I gave my wife a certificate of divorce…we have kept the letter of the law….and Jesus says, “Stop making your marriage so cheap! Concentrate on making your marriages work instead of justifying reasons to dissolve them! Keep the spirit of the law.
Now we come to the 4th example…look again at verse 33:
“Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’
- Now, the truth of the matter is, this statement here in vs. 33 is not an accurate quotation of any of the laws of Moses.
- But at the same time this statement is a pretty good summary of several Old Testament precepts which requires people who make vows to keep them. (Numbers 30:2; Lev. 19:12; Deut. 23:21)
- So this is what the law said.
Now, when you look at this it is not hard to see what the scribes and Pharisees were doing.
- They were masters at finding loopholes…finding ways to get out of keeping their promises.
- Here is what they were doing…look at the end of what Jesus says:
“You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.”
- They ignored the first halve of the command but stressed the second half.
- And what they said was, “The only vows that were really binding were those where you invoked the Lord as grounds for keeping that vow.”
- If you said, “I swear by the Lord…or I promise before God”, that vow was binding…you had to keep it.
- But if you swore by something else…that vow wasn’t binding…and you didn’t have to keep it.
- So basically what they did was they had devised a way to renege on their vows…they devised a way to justify lying!
Here is another passage that shows you what they were doing. This is Matthew 23: 16-18. Jesus says:
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ 17 “You fools and blind men; which is more important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 “And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering upon it, he is obligated.’
- Whether you had to keep your word or not all depended on what you swore by.
- So, they had devised a way to justify not keeping their word.
Now, go back to Matthew 5. Look at what Jesus says in vs. 34: “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
Here is what Jesus is saying to them?
- Jesus is saying that no matter what they swear by they can’t help but swear by God…
- The whole world is God’s and everything in it is God’s and they can’t leave Him out no matter what they swear by.
- Therefore, all of their oaths or vows are binding.
Look again at Matthew 23:19: “You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? 20 “Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21 “And he who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 “And he who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.
- They had come up with this idea that only those vows that were sworn to “in the name of the Lord”, were binding…thus they provided for themselves a way to not keep their word.
- And Jesus says, “It makes no difference what you swear by you cannot help but swear by God…and therefore, all of your vows are binding.”
But Jesus goes farther than that. In fact, He is going to get to the literal “heart of the matter”. Look back in Matthew 5 at the beginning of verse 34, where Jesus says, “…make no oath at all.”
- Jesus is saying, “Don’t swear by anything.”
- If you promise to do something or not do something…then just simply keep your word!
- Your honesty, your integrity, your reputation should be such that when you say you will or won’t do something…people can take you at your word without all this “swearing on something”.
In fact, look at verse 37:
37 “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; and anything beyond these is of evil.
- It is that simple…if you say “Yes”, then keep your word.
- And if you say “No”…then keep your word.
- Don’t play word games to try and get out of doing what you said you would do.
- Don’t try to use some technicality to keep from doing what you promised to do.
For example, let me show you some things we do to get out of keeping our promises:
“Anita, I am going to take you Houston as soon as school is out.”
- When the end of the year comes Anita says, “Are we going to Houston?”
- “No.”
- “But you said you would take me.”
- “I did…but I didn’t promise.”
- We think that just because we didn’t say, “I promise” that we don’t have to keep our word.
- We do this kind of thing a lot with our kids.
- We tell them we will do something…then renege because we “didn’t promise.”
Or I tell Anita that I am going to take her to Houston…but I have justification for not doing what I said I would because I have my fingers crossed.
And let me tell you another popular excuse that is used for not keeping our word today.
- It is the “I don’t like it excuse.”
- We buy something on credit…we start the payments…but then we decide that we don’t like what we bought…so we quit paying for it…and we break our word…the promise we made when we bought it.
- We think sometimes that because we don’t like something it is ok to break our promise.
- This same excuse is used a lot when it comes to marriage.
Jesus says, “Don’t play word games…don’t use technicalities to void or affirm your promises.
- Instead, just be honest…keep your word….and if you say you are going to do something then do it.
Let me mention one more…this is one I ran across just last week. I was talking with a funeral director and I asked him, “What do you do when people won’t pay? After all, you can’t repossess the casket?
- He said, “We just lose. There is nothing we can do.”
- And he told me that I would be amazed at the number of people who have promised to pay, they sign on the line, and then don’t pay.
Some of you have had this done to you…and it may be that some here this morning have done this to others.
- Listen, when you order something…when you sign on the line…when you tell someone you will pay…when you enter into an agreement…you keep your word!
- Be honest! Have some integrity…do what is morally right…and if you agree to something then do what you agreed to do.
- If you don’t pay what you owe…not only do you prove to be dishonest…but it is also a form of stealing!
- And to do it while claiming to be a Christian is to damage the reputation of Christ.
Look at verse 37 again and notice specifically the last part of the verse. Jesus says, “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; and anything beyond these is of evil.
- Why does He say that anything beyond “Yes, yes” or “No, no” is of evil?
The reason He says this is because the need to swear by something…or to make an oath…comes from our untruthfulness…our dishonesty.
- We feel this need to swear by something because we know that our simple word is not likely to be trusted.
- And the reason why it may not be trusted is because in the past our word was not trustworthy.
Jesus is saying here that we are to “Let our statement be “yes, yes” or “No, no”…and be so trustworthy that we don’t need to swear on anything.
- As God’s people our reputation should be such that when someone asks us to do something…and we say “yes”…that is all they need to hear.
- In short, our word should be as good as gold.
A bunch of politicians were traveling down the road in an old bus…when they ran off the road and crashed into a tree. Well, an old farmer that was working in his field ran over to see what happened…and after he checked on the politicians he got his shovel and buried them. A few days later the sheriff came out and the farmer told him what had happened. The Sheriff asked him, “Did the coroner come out? Are you sure they were all dead?” The old farmer said, “Well, some of them said they were still alive but you know how them politicians lie!”
Sadly, some people have a reputation for not being honest…for not meaning what they say…but it must not be that way for us as a child of God because Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes, and the Pharisees…you shall not enter the kingdom of God.
If you need to repent…you can’t change the past…but you can start today.
Some may have done this…not only do you need to repent….but you also need Christ because in Him and through Him you can be forgiven.