A Truthful Kingdom: How to Tell the Truth Without Crossing Your Heart

Psalm 19:7-9—“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.”

In a world of lies, we gather to remind ourselves about the truth

In just a moment we’ll hear a reading from the text for today’s sermon in Matthew 5:33-37. Turn there now.

While you’re turning there, pay attention to 3 important announcements...

1) A word about PBC. We are servants.

In 15 years of ministry, I’ve repeatedly seen that those who are happiest and healthiest in the local church are those who are faithfully serving

Concerns about Covid-19 and serving

You get out of it what you put into it

One of the most important ways for you to serve is by your active involvement in our Members Meetings

4x a year

You’ll hear about areas to serve and people to serve

2) Members Meeting & Chili Cook-off

Tonight at 5

Bringing chili? Arrive by 4:45

3) One of the items on the agenda for this evening is...

something our constitution requires us to announce at two worship services prior to a vote...

Tonight we’ll be voting on hiring Sam Garcia as Student Ministry Leader

You can read more in one of the MM Packets, available at the blue flag

Now look in your Bibles at Matthew 5:33 as Lynne Jones comes to read for us.

Scripture Reading (Matthew 5:33-37)

Prayer of Praise (God is glorious)

Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me

Come Thou Fount

Prayer of Confession (Jeremy Collins), unthankfulness

Come As You Are

PBC CATECHISM #

How important is the Word of God?

The Bible includes within it the only way of salvation and has its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The Bible alone is our final authority for all doctrine and practice.

PASTORAL PRAYER (Mike Lindell)

SERMON

Thank Eli

Now let’s talk about lying...

When I was at the airport on my way to my brother’s wedding, I saw a man with a t-shirt that boasted, “Lying is 95% of what I do.”

Since I know that 73.6% of statistics are made up on the spot, I was skeptical that his shirt was really telling me the truth.

Besides, can you really trust a person who lies that much to honestly report how often he lies?

The truth is, lying is a bigger problem than most of us are willing to admit.

Researchers suggests we are lied to as many as 200 times a day. [1]

A study conducted by the University of Massachusetts found, “60 percent of people lied at least once during a 10-minute conversation and told an average of two to three lies.” [2]

Apparently lying isn’t a learned behavior either. Researchers have discovered that babies begin deceiving as early as 6 months old, before they even learn how to talk. [3]

But not everybody lies in the same way...

A recent study of Britons revealed that men tell an average of six times a day, while women lie an average of three times a day. [4]

This is just a guess, but one reason for the difference may be that men don’t ask women, “does this outfit make me look fat?”

That same study found that the most common lie told by both men and women is “Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine.” [5]

Just imagine what would happen if our pants really caught on fire every time we said that and it wasn’t really true?

We laugh about these things, but the truth is lying hurts.

It hurts those you lie to, sometimes tearing down trust that takes years to rebuild.

It hurts those you lie about, sometimes destroying reputations, careers, marriages, families, and more

It hurts the one telling the lie, as you slowly lose your grip on reality and constantly live with the fear of being found out.

Jesus cares.

Turn to Matthew 5:33

Jesus is preaching a sermon to His disciples about how to live rightly as citizens of the coming kingdom of heaven

He’s contrasting kingdom righteousness with the righteousness of the religious teachers

“You have heard that, but I say to you this”

1) vv. 21-26, Jesus looks beyond the prohibition of murder to the anger that drives it

2) vv. 27-30, Jesus looks beyond the prohibition of adultery to the lust that precedes it

3) vv. 31-32, Jesus looks beyond provisions for divorce to the Creator’s intent for marriage

In today’s text, Jesus looks beyond the common thinking about swearing oaths to God’s desire for His people to be truthful

Jesus cares about the truth because He cares about you.

In our text, we’ll see without a doubt that Jesus cares about the truth.

But one of the surprising reasons Jesus cares about the truth is because He cares about people.

Two Types of People Jesus Cares for:

Jesus Cares for VICTIMS of Lies

By victim of lies, I’m referring to those who are lied to and those who are lied about

If someone has ever lied to you or lied about you, I have good news for you. Jesus cares for you.

It is Jesus’ care for victims of lies that motivates His teaching on this topic

5:33-36—“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

To understand how these words are like medicine to the victims of lies, we need to understand the context...

6 Questions to understand the context:

What is an oath?

In an oath a person calls upon someone or something to bear witness to the truthfulness of what is said, while agreeing to certain penalties if the speaker isn’t truthful.

We actually talked about one oath a few weeks ago in Numbers 5. When a woman was suspected of adultery by her husband without any evidence, she would be brought to the priest and one of the things she would do is swear an oath that she had been faithful

Modern oaths:

“Cross my heart and hope to die”

Disney’s Robin Hood, Toby the turtle is told to swear an oath that he won’t tell anyone that Skippy the bunny is sneaking into the palace grounds to fetch his arrow. The oath goes like this: “Spider, snakes and a lizard's head. If I tattletale, I'll die till I'm dead.”

“I swear to God!”

Why is Jesus talking about oaths?

v. 33—“...you have heard that it was said to those of old...”

What follows is not a direct OT quote, indicating that again Jesus is dealing with a perversion of the law, not the law itself

What did the law say about oaths?

Leviticus 19:12—“You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.”

The law forbade irreverent oaths

Numbers 30:2—“If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”

The law forbade broken oaths

Why did the law talk about oaths?

In a fallen world, oaths encourage two things...

(1) the one promising to keep his word...

Example: Jonathan and David swear an oath of friendship to each other

(2) and/or the one receiving the promise to trust.

God swears oaths for this reason...

Psalm 132:11—“The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which He will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.”

Hebrews 6:17—“So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath”

Oaths are a helpful reality in a fallen world

If you make an oath you (hopefully) would think twice before breaking it because of its seriousness

Or if someone makes an oath to you, you are more likely to believe them

Example: Me signing a contract on a new roof

Why did Jesus condemn oaths?

If oaths were sometimes helpful in a fallen world, and if God Himself sometimes swore oaths to help His people trust Him, why does Jesus condemn oaths?

The religious leaders had concocted a sophisticated system where they could get away with lying on a technicality. They had a shifting standard of truthfulness

Some said they were free from the obligations of an oath as long as they didn’t invoke God’s name. So they’d swear by heaven, by earth, etc.

Others took it a few steps further and said oaths weren’t binding unless you said them in the exactly precise way

Swearing by Jerusalem wasn’t binding, but swearing towards Jerusalem was

Matthew 23:16-22—“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.”

Imagine the effect that this kind of oath-swearing would have on the average person

How many people were wounded by lies like these? How many careers were harmed? How much money was stolen? How many poor were mistreated? How many were cheated?

Jesus cares about the victims of lies like this, and any other lies!

So He speaks clearly against anyone and everyone who would play fast-and-loose with the truth

5:33-36—whether you swear by heaven, the earth, Jerusalem, or your own head, you’re always swearing in the presence of God. He made all of it!

A lie is a lie no matter what clever tricks you try to concoct to get out of it!

Does this mean that we cannot take any oaths today?

5:34a— “...Do not take an oath at all...”

Literalists like the first Anabaptists (and groups like the Quakers today) take no vows/oaths

They cannot serve in military, hold civic positions, etc.

If they’re right, you also probably shouldn’t pledge allegiance to the flag, agree to a church covenant, recite wedding vows, or sign contracts

One reason that’s NOT what Jesus means:

Jesus Himself takes an oath in Matthew 26 when on trial before the Sanhedrin

When the high priest asks Jesus to speak under oath, Jesus doesn’t refuse. He doesn’t rebuke the priest. He replies and He speaks the truth.

Luther/Calvin distinguished between public/private speech

In private, we shouldn’t need oaths. Our yes should be yes, our no should be no.

In public, or with weightier matters (like a contract, a wedding, a church covenant) we can and should take oaths

So Jesus isn’t saying “never take an oath,” He’s saying, “If you’re going to swear oaths like the Pharisees do, it’s better not to swear an oath at all.”

Have you been the victim of another person’s lies? Has someone lied to you or about you?

Jesus sees. Jesus cares.

Jesus will never lie to you.

You may have been lied to by parents, employers, friends, or even your spouse, but you’ll never be lied to by Jesus

You may have even been lied to by a religious leader.

Don’t swear off water because it sometimes flows through rusty pipes!

Jesus can identify with the pain caused by lies

Judas lied to Jesus for three years

Peter lied about Jesus three times

Jesus was condemned to die on a cross, partly because false witnesses lied about Him

Jesus can heal the wounds caused by lies

Early in our marriage, I caused great pain to my wife by living a double life, and sometimes even directly lying to her. But God used confession, accountability, and the grace of the Gospel to heal and restore our relationship.

Jesus commands liars to speak the truth

That’s the whole point of this passage!

Following Jesus doesn’t mean being a doormat who just takes it. It’s right and good to expect others to tell you the truth!

Jesus empowers you to forgive liars

You can, you must forgive those who lie to you

Colossians 3:9, 13—“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices . . . forgiv[e] each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

Jesus cares about the truth because He cares about you. He cares about victims of lies.

But also...

Jesus Cares for TELLERS of Lies

In one of America’s favorite legends about lying, a father teaches his son the importance of telling the truth. It’s the intro to the legend of George Washington and the cherry tree, and his father Augustine supposedly said, “Oh, George! my son! rather than see you [become a liar], dear as you are to my heart, gladly would I assist to nail you up in your little coffin, and follow you to your grave. Hard, indeed, would it be to me to give up my son, whose little feet are always so ready to run about with me, and whose fondly looking eyes and sweet prattle make so large a part of my happiness: but still I would give him up, rather than see him a common liar.” [6]

No wonder George admitted that he chopped down the cherry tree, after his dad told him he’d rather bury him than see him become a liar.

If that’s the way Jesus thinks about liars, then all of us would’ve been nailed in our coffins long, long ago.

Jesus cares more about the truth than Augustine Washington ever could. But Jesus cares more for liars than any of us could ever imagine.

6 Questions to understand our hearts:

Joke about 12 subpoints. Haven’t preached for two weeks!

What is a lie?

5:37a— “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’..."

This is the major takeaway from Jesus’ teaching: Don’t lie. Be so truthful you don’t need to swear oaths

Why would a kid regularly ask his parents “do you promise?” unless he/she had learned that parents couldn’t be taken at their word?

What’s your reputation? Are you someone who is trusted? Or are you known as someone who tells lies?

But what does it mean to tell a lie? Intentional deception

Intentional—trying to deceive someone. Not accidentally misspeaking

Your fellowship group has a party at Surf’s Up, and you mishear and tell someone it’s at Surf Rider

Deception—you’re trying to convince someone to believe something that isn’t true

Can happen with your speech, text, email, letter, body language, facial expression, etc.

Am I a Guilty?

5:37— “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

Literally, lying comes from “the evil one”

We aren’t liars because we lie. We lie because we’re liars. It’s in our nature.

John 8:44—“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

We were created to be truthtellers in a world without lies

Satan lied to our 1st parents, and dishonesty immediately infected all of us

Psalm 58:3—“The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.”

"Well that’s not true of me!!!””

Jeremiah 17:9—“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Am I guilty of lying?

By nature, yes. All of us have “gone astray from birth, speaking lies”

If your faith is in Christ, you have been declared righteous.

Jesus never lied. He never sinned. He didn’t just speak the truth, He was and is the truth.

And yet He died as if He had lied all the times and in all the ways we do.

Three days later He rose from the dead so that everyone who believes in Him can be forgiven and set free from this and every other sin.

And yet, even though you’re forgiven, you still battle against sin.

Why does Paul tells the Christians in Colossae, “Do not lie to one another” (Colossians 3:9)?

In Christ, you are a forgiven, recovering liar

If we’re going to put lying to death, there’s several more questions we need to ask ourselves...

How do I lie?

There are dozens of ways we tell lies. Let’s examine a few...

An outright lie

Satan in Genesis 3:4—“You will not surely die.”

Inference/insinuation: lying by insinuating something that isn’t true

Satan in Genesis 3:5—"God knows your eyes will be opened”

Satan is implying that God is withholding something good from Adam and Eve. He’s insinuating that God isn’t really good.

Imagine you run into a mutual acquaintance after church. The person asks, “how is your pastor doing?” You say, “He’s doing well. I spent an hour with him this morning and he was sober the whole time!”

True, but the inference you made was that I’m normally drunk, which is completely false!

Partial Truth: concealing the truth by purposefully omitting key details

Satan in Genesis 3 was right that Adam and Eve’s eyes would be opened, in a sense. But he concealed something massive. He knew that their enlightenment would lead to untold misery

Blame-Shifting: lying by shifting the responsibility for your actions.

Adam blaming Eve, Eve blaming the serpent

“Yes, I was wrong to call you that hurtful name but you know how I get when I’m hungry”

“I wouldn’t get angry if you wouldn’t nag me all the time.”

“I only snuck out because my parents don’t give me any freedom.”

“I Don’t Know”: It is legal to “plead the fifth” in a court room, but it is deceitful to do so in life.

Cain in Genesis 4:9 telling God he didn’t know where Abel is

Young people/teenagers this is lying!

Making commitments with no intention of keeping them

Child to Parent: “I’ll clean my room after I finish this video game”

Parent to child: “I’ll spank you if you do that again!”

Husband to wife: “I’ll fix it this weekend”

Church member to elders: “Of course I’ll be involved in Members Meetings!”

Hidden agenda: an ulterior motive beyond what has been expressed

King Herod telling the wise men he wanted to worship baby Jesus

When I was a kid I’d bring mom Oreo’s so she could have one

Flattery

Saying something to someone’s face that you would never say behind their back.

Gossiping

Saying something to behind someone’s back that you would never say to their face

Note: not all gossip is necessarily untruthful. But often it is.

Exaggeration: This is deception by magnification.

Unlike other forms of lying which seek to shrink or hide the truth, exaggeration makes truth larger than it really is.

Example – use of words like: always, never, only, just one time, a million times, etc…

Minimizing: the opposite of exaggeration; without directly falsifying information, you just minimize the truth

You talk about your sexual sin in coded language such as a “slip” or having a “bad day.”

“Little white lies”

Hypocrisy: presenting a version of yourself that isn’t true

The Pharisees

If you’re not a Christian, you’ll never overcome this sin without Jesus’ help. Repent and believe!

If you are a Christian, it’s helpful to know how you lie so you can fight against the sin

If you exaggerate, focus on giving accurate reports

If you conceal, focus on being forward and disclosing information

If you gossip, focus on being silent and/or encouraging others

If you blame others, focus on quickly owning up to your sin

If you are hypocritical, focus on being transparent about how you’re really doing

Why do I lie?

Usually we lie because we’re afraid of what will happen if we tell the truth

Afraid of consequences for actions

Afraid people won’t think highly of us if they know the truth about us

Richard Baxter—“Fear God more than man if you would not be liars! The excessive fear of man is a common cause of lying. It is what makes children so apt to lie, to escape the rod, and puts most people, who are overly sensitive to being hurt, in danger of lying in order to avoid the displeasure of others. But why do you not fear God more? His displeasure is unspeakably more terrible! Your parents or [employer] will be angry, and threaten to correct you; but God threatens to damn you—and His wrath is a consuming fire! No man’s displeasure can reach your souls, and extend into eternity. Will you run into hell to escape punishment on earth? Remember, whenever you are tempted to escape any danger by a lie, that you run a thousand fold greater danger, and that no hurt that you escape by a lie, can possibly be half so great as the hurt it causes. It is as foolish a course as to cure the toothache by cutting off the head!” [7]

If the Gospel has already delivered you from the worst possible consequences, you don’t have to be afraid of lesser

If we’re going to put lying to death, we need to ask ourselves another question...

To whom should I confess?

First to God

Repent/believe!

Rejoice in forgiveness!

Then to others (those we’ve lied to/about)

Any unconfessed lies should be confessed to the person you lied to/about

If/when you confess that you’ve lied to someone, they will be hurt

Remember, the truth isn’t what’s hurt them. You’ve already hurt them with the lie.

Telling the truth by confessing is like the doctor telling his patient they have cancer. It’s not creating the problem, it’s revealing the problem that’s already there so it can be treated.

Sometimes rebuilding trust is a long, hard process. Be patient.

How can I do this?

620 years before Jesus, a Greek man named Aesop became famous for using simple stories to convey powerful messages. One of those stories goes something like this...

A poor woodman was out chopping wood when he lost his axe in the pond.

To make matters worse, the axe was borrowed and the woodman could not possibly repay the debt, especially now that he had no axe with which to cut wood.

As he wept at the edge of the pond, a magical fish appeared and offered to retrieve the axe.

The woodman agreed, and the fish went to the bottom of the pond and emerged with a silver axe. “Is this your axe?”

The woodman was honest and admitted that the axe was not his, even though the silver axe was incredibly valuable.

So the fish returned to the bottom of the pond, and shortly after emerged with a golden axe. “Is this your axe?”

Once again, the woodman was honest and admitted that this axe did not belong to him either.

So the fish returned to the bottom of the pond and emerged with a plain axe with a wooden handle. “Is this your axe?”

The woodman said, “yes.”

The fish replied, “Because you have been honest, I will give you all three axes.”

The moral of the story is that it pays to tell the truth.

The truth is, that sometimes telling the truth hurts. Sometimes telling the truth means confessing how we’ve lied, cheated, or stolen. Sometimes it means we don’t get that promotion. Sometimes it means we pay more in taxes than we’d like. Sometimes it means losing a career, your reputation, or a relationship.

We need more than a simple belief that honesty pays to tell the truth in situations like this.

We need faith in a Savior who died on a cross, even though “there was no deceit in his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:9)

We need faith in a Savior who rose from the dead, and will return and keep every single one of His promises.

We need grace from a Savior who loves both the victims of lies, and the lying liars who tell them.

We need Jesus.

The Reformation Song

BENEDICTION (2 John 3)

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