Stop Swearing – 5/12/24

Good morning again, friends. Once more I want to greet everyone who’s watching online. I’m excited about continuing Jesus’s famous sermon, The Sermon on the Mount.

As I was prepping for today, I had this kind of odd thought. Our world contains a lot of locks. Cars have door locks, and some cars have a glovebox or a center console that also have locks. I think everyone’s home or apartment—that lives here—you have locks on your doors and on your windows. Those of you who travel for business, if you go to a hotel— key card, it locks, and some of those have a safe inside of them that locks. Banks have safety deposit boxes that lock. Post office boxes lock. There are those group mailboxes that you see at apartments. All of them have locks. Steering wheels on motorcycles and cars, they lock. Police have locks that lock tires if you’re parking illegally. Bicycles, chain locks. Luggage: they have those itty-bitty brass locks that lock the zippers together. Public paper towel and toilet paper dispensers lock. Thanks, Covid. That’s a holdover from Covid. We had to lock up the toilet paper.

Our church office building has a lock on the outside, a lock on the door to my office, and inside my office, I have a little green cabinet that also has a lock. The sound booth right there has a half-sized door, and it has a lock. I can vault into the middle of the sound booth, and yet we lock it. Vault might be a little bit of an exaggeration. I’m not built for vaulting, but you get the idea. I could flop in there.

Why is everything in the world locked? Apparently, brothers and sisters, none of us trust each other. Nobody trusts anybody. You might be here, and you might say that you believe people are generally good, but you live a locked life all the time. Locks are, in a way, a silly illustration of a serious idea: people aren’t naturally good. More specifically, people aren’t naturally truthful or reliable.

If we were inherently truthful and reliable, we wouldn’t need locks because everybody would know that your car, or your house, or the possessions within that belong to the owner. We wouldn’t need to lock anything, but instead, we have locks. Truth and reliability are not the air we naturally breathe.

The whole idea of truth is a big part of public discourse. It’s talked about a lot right now. I think the main theme is I have my truth and I should support you as you speak your truth. Then there’s the great big question of truth. Is there absolute truth? Many people believe there is absolute truth, but some believe there isn’t absolute truth, and they are absolutely sure that there isn’t absolute truth.

Truth is a hard word to define without using it. It’s like, truth is truth or truth is not lying. It’s a wide word. It means a lot. It can mean the idea of ultimate truth. It can mean the accuracy of a particular situation, or it can just be honest words. For this moment, as we talk about truth, I want to define it this way:

Truth is belief and speech that match God’s reality.

You should challenge that definition because I’ve just made it up. Let me tell you where it comes from, and let’s see if I can anchor that in God’s word. I use that definition because of three reasons: (1) God is truth and the source of truth, (2) God’s central message of love is truth, (3) the Bible defines truthful behavior. So, we’re going to go through all of those.

God is truth and the source of truth. When I say God, I mean all of whom God is truth. The way God displays himself to the world in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, three in one, the Trinity, all are truth. Let me show you. Let’s begin with God the Father.

Isaiah 65. God the Father is speaking of how he will rescue a remnant of his people. Notice one of their responses to rescue. Isaiah 65:16,

“He who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God truth.”

God is the God of truth. And in this moment, when God’s people take an oath or swear in gratitude, they do so in response to the God of Truth in the name of the God of truth.

What about Jesus? Let’s consider Jesus, God the Son. John, a friend of Jesus, writes a story of Jesus’s life and in John 1:14 he says this:

“And the word [John’s name for Jesus early in the book] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Jesus is full of truth. God the Son is full of truth.

Later, Jesus prayed for his friends. He was praying for them on the day that he was telling them he would have to go away. He was going to go build them a forever home. Thomas, another follower and friend of Jesus, was confused that Jesus was leaving because Jesus didn’t give him a map to the future forever home. So, Jesus says this to Thomas:

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus is full of truth, and Jesus is the truth that provides access to God the Father.

Jesus, again helping his friends when he was going to leave, introduces them to God the Spirit. John 14:16-17,

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

John later states (John 16:13),

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”

So, God the Spirit is the spirit of truth and the guide to all truth.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are THE truth, the creators of truth, and the guides to truth. All of whom God is, the way he displays himself, three in one is all about truth. The psalmist puts it in poetry and says this (Psalm 119:160),

“The sum of your word is truth”

If you add up everything God says, truth. God is truth and the source of truth. So again, truth is belief and speech that matches God’s reality because God’s the one who defines truth and reality.

Second reason for this definition: God’s central message of love is the truth. Earlier we read that Jesus declared, “I’m the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The truth and the way to God. Paul, another follower of Jesus, puts it this way (Colossians 1:3-6):

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel.”

In the church, the gospel (the good news about Jesus), got another nickname: it was called “the word of truth.” When you tell the story of Jesus, it is the word of truth. What is that? God’s the creator of everything. God is the one who establishes truth and reality. Man rebelled against his creator, not wanting God’s reality. But God loves man and his creation so much that he will save it by God becoming human, coming to earth, living, dying, resurrecting, and ascending back to heaven. He will bridge the gap between us and God to create a reality where we’re once again with God. That is a shorthand of the gospel, the word of truth.

Truth is belief and speech that matches God’s reality, which is: God is truth, and his story of Jesus is the truth.

Third reason for this definition: the Bible defines truthful behavior. What does it look like to live consistent with God’s reality of truth? The Bible is full of what this looks like. I’m just going to give you a sample.

Truth is not lying. Proverbs 12:19,

“Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”

Ephesians 4:25,

“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”

We’re going to come back to this in a little bit, but I want to say it twice. Here’s why truth and lying matter: if God is truth and defines truthful behavior and we lie, we are distorting the divine. He is true, so if we follow him and lie, we’re literally not participating in who he is. It’s not just that he likes truth. He is it.

Second, truth is accurate testimony and appropriate judgments. Proverbs 12:17,

“Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.”

Zechariah 8:16,

“These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace.”

Why does testimony and judgment matter? Well, if God is true and God is just, to go against that is now distorting not only God’s truth but his justice.

Truth is sincere speech not based on pleasing people. Jesus is the best example of this. Even Jesus’ enemies knew this about him. Matthew 22:16,

“And they sent their disciples to him [Jesus], along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.”

What came out of Jesus’s mouth wasn’t pandering. It was truth. Paul followed suit: 2 Corinthians 4:2,

“But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word [the truth], but by open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

Truth is loving speech that builds up. It’s always building up. Ephesians 4:15-16,

“Rather, speaking the truth in love”

Those are really important put together.

“we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

Loving true speech builds us up.

God is truth and the source of truth. God’s central message of love is truth. The Bible defines truthful behavior. Which leads me to that definition: truth is belief and speech that matches God’s reality. In order to know and experience truth at all, I must believe that God is truth. I must believe his central message of truth. Then to experience it, I must follow the way he tells me to live out that truth.

Now, that sounds like a wrap-up…and it is. This is not the shortest sermon in the history of North Hills. That’s just the intro. This is one of those two-for-one Sundays, kind of a two-sermon-for-one deal. We have to understand truth to understand what Jesus is going to talk about in the Sermon on the Mount. It is his assumed foundation. Jesus assumes that people listening are thinking about the truth.

This is Jesus’s message that we’re going to look at this week, Matthew 5:33-37,

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

So, let me give you the big idea and then we’re going to chew through all of this.

Here’s the big idea: kingdom people radically speak reliable truth. Kingdom people, people who follow Jesus, radically speak reliable truth.

Remember, Jesus is preaching this Sermon on the Mount to define who kingdom people are and what kingdom people do. Kingdom people, he describes at the beginning of chapter five, are the meek, the poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are persecuted. Lots of ways to describe who kingdom people are. The rest of his sermon is what those people do, and today Jesus is talking about how kingdom people radically speak reliable truth.

We need some additional background to understand what’s going on in this passage. We kind of have to Indiana-Jones it a little bit, a little of historical work to understand what Jesus is talking about. I want us to look at the past to understand the present moment Jesus is in. And then Jesus is going to want us to live like we’re in the future.

Let’s begin with the historic practice of God’s people. Matthew 5:33,

“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.’”

Who are the people of old? Israel, God’s people, anyone who has followed the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those are the people of old. What was said to those of old? Jesus here isn’t directly quoting one passage. He’s actually creating a singular thought that encompasses all the passages that Jay read a little bit ago. Jesus is cutting and pasting that together to make us think about a broad historical practice.

In summary, here’s what the law says to God’s people: tell the truth, don’t lie, do what you promise, or don’t promise at all. That’s what God’s people lived in under the law. Tell the truth, don’t lie, do what you promise, or don’t promise at all.

Within the law, God’s people could interact with the truth using methods to help establish the truth and establish the reliability of what they were saying. That’s why when Jay read those statements, he said, listen to the words swear and vow. They were able to interact with it.

The first way God’s people within the law could interact with it is they could swear. This swearing is not what we think of in our culture when we use the word swear. They would invoke authority or a symbol of authority to heighten the stakes of a promise. I’m going to swear by the king. I’m going to swear by whatever, some type of authority or symbol of authority to heighten the stakes of their promise.

God’s people would make a vow, an “if… then…” statement to God. If you give me victory here, then I will do this.

God’s people could make an oath, which is simply just a promise to do something.

I want you to think of these three things as the tools of truthfulness. God’s people within the law could use these tools to establish truthfulness and reliability. But we got to remember God was really clear: if you use one of those, you better do it. It wasn’t a toy. It wasn’t a game. You’re better off not doing it than to break it. So, the historic practice of God’s people using the tools of truthfulness was to tell the truth, don’t lie, do what you promise, or don’t promise at all. That’s the past.

If we understand that in the past, now we can come to the present moment that Jesus is in, and we’re going to call that the distorted practice of Jesus’ day. Verses 34 -36,

“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.”

These people were swearing all over the place. Oaths of all types just cascading over each other. So, if the tools of truthfulness were allowed for God’s people, then what’s the problem? Like, why is Jesus addressing this at all?

Kent Hughes is a pastor and author, and he describes this better than I can. He describes the distorted practice of Jesus’ day when it comes to those tools of truthfulness.

“The problem was that in Jesus’ time the traditional, Biblical teaching had come under massive abuse.”

The traditional biblical teaching of tell the truth, don’t lie, do what you promise, or don’t promise at all, that had become under massive abuse.

“Somewhere along the line, some rabbis (but not all rabbis) began to teach that an oath was not binding if it did not include God’s name or imply [God’s name]. Therefore, if you swore by your own [name] or someone else’s life or the life of the king or by some object, but did not mention or allude to the name of God, you were not bound [to your oath]. . .The swearing of oaths had degenerated into a system of rules as to when you could lie and when you could not. . .There was an inevitable trivialization of everyday language and integrity. It became common practice to convince another that you were telling the truth while [you were] lying.”

In Jewish practice, there’s a verbal tradition called the Mishnah. In the Mishnah, there’s a whole section that describes what are oaths that are binding and not. If you make an oath by Jerusalem, binding. But if you make it not facing Jerusalem, not binding. That’s the system that Jesus is coming into, the distorted practice. It’s flipping the historic tools of truthfulness on their heads, and now we’re using them to lie. Jesus steps in and says, that’s not the truth. That doesn’t match God’s reality. If that’s how you’re going to live, then don’t oath at all.

It also doesn’t matter what you oath by. Jesus says it doesn’t matter. Everything is God’s because God is truth and made reality. So, whatever you swear by and your oath—whether it’s earth, heaven, skies, a friend, your life, your name—it doesn’t matter. That’s God’s. It’s the same as swearing by God. Jesus goes so far as to say, don’t even use your hair as an oath. I cannot make my gray hair dark brown again just by saying something or thinking. Jesus is saying, if you can’t change reality, then don’t use anything to swear by because God is the only one who can make reality. Everything is his. If you swear by it, you’re bound. Jesus is looking at people and saying, you don’t have grammatical wiggle room within the truth. You don’t get to parse words when it comes to speaking radical and reliable truth. Kingdom people, people who follow Jesus, radically speak reliable truth.

So, we looked at the past, understood the historic practice so that we can understand the present moment Jesus was in to see how they were distorting the practice. Now we’re going to see how Jesus points us towards the future. He wants us to live like we’re in the future. What does speaking the truth look like in his kingdom? This is the kingdom practice of God’s people. The historic, the distorted, and now the kingdom practice. How does Jesus want us to live? This is what Jesus says,

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

This is a weird way to describe it, but I like how that verse feels. Like, Jesus—when he’s preaching and talking to people—he’s like, don’t take an oath at all. Don’t swear by this or this, don’t swear by this or this, don’t swear by this, don’t swear by this because you can’t do anything with it. In my kingdom, all I want you to do is say yes or no. Jesus’ way, even in his words, is very calming. You don’t need the tools of truthfulness. You just need a simple yes or no.

Truth doesn’t need extra tools to prove itself. Truth only needs a few words. A simple yes or no will suffice. Truth is reliable. If someone says something, it’s going to happen. You get an honest answer or a fulfilled promise. Kingdom people radically speak reliable truth. In Jesus’ kingdom, one simply needs to say, “Yes, that’s true.” “Yes, I will do that.” “No, that isn’t true.” “No, I won’t do that.” And as kingdom people, that’s enough to be believed.

Jesus raises the stakes on us. He says anything more than that comes from evil. Anything more than that is connected to the evil one. Why? Why is “yes” and “no” so important to Jesus? Remember, if God is truth, then to mess with the truth or parse words or add on to it or distort it or twist it for my own gain is distorting divine. The very nature of God we’re playing with and rejecting. And that plays right into the hands of the evil one because one of his nicknames is the father of lies. God is truth and the evil one is the father of lies. A world where we must convince others we are truthful is evidence that the world is broken. A world where a simple yes or no is always truthful is the unbroken, perfect kingdom of God. Additional oaths, swears, vows— that’s only needed where we’re inherently untruthful. They’re not needed in Jesus’ perfect kingdom. Only a broken world needs locks.

There’s a really fascinating picture of Jesus’ forever kingdom in Revelation 21:23-25,

“And the city [Jesus’ forever kingdom] has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.”

When are the gates locked in Jesus’ forever kingdom? Never. There’s no locks in the forever kingdom. Jesus’ forever kingdom. Everyone and everything is truthful and reliable. It’s a yes or no kingdom.

So, does that mean at any moment if I answer a question with more than the word yes or no, I’m evil? No. Jesus isn’t creating a new law. Jesus is using two words to try to show us how magnificent his kingdom is going to be. It’s a wildly amazing world where every yes or no is truthful and reliable. Can you imagine that? I’ll answer for you, no. You can’t, but try.

Try to imagine seven days in a row where every word that’s spoken to you, no matter where you go, you believe it. Every newscast. Put the imagination into overdrive. Give it a whirl. But imagine that, where whatever you hear, “Oh, that’s the truth.” What if everybody you interacted with did what they said when they said it? How much stress in your life would be gone if that happened? I want to be careful picking on certain occupations, but as a silly illustration, can you imagine that whenever the cable company says they’re going to come and fix your internet, they’re there? Construction is a wild world to live in. There are so many moving parts, but could you imagine everything happening right when they said? Can you imagine a marriage? Can you imagine being a kid and having parents? Can you imagine preachers telling the truth? Jesus is saying, that’s how I want you to live. That’s actually my forever kingdom, I’m going to go prepare that for you. He’s in prep mode. We’re going there. But he’s saying, while you’re here, live like that: yes, no. Live like you’re in the city with no locks today.

So, let me summarize and then see if we can engage Jesus’ teaching into life this week.

Truth is belief in speech that match God’s reality. I believe that definition because God is truth and the source of truth, God’s central message of love is truth, and the Bible defines truthful behavior. Jesus corrects a distorted practice of his day and raises the bar to his future kingdom practice. We live today like we’re in the forever Kingdom. With simple yeses and nos, God’s people speak honestly and do what they say they will do.

I want to work this out broadly, and then I want to work it out really specifically for us as a church.

Broad application. I want us to start with ourselves, not anybody else. What would happen if every kingdom person at North Hills Church radically spoke reliable truth? Like just our church, which means you’ve got to answer the harder question. That’s a fun question because then I can talk about what all you people need to do to radically speak reliable truth. It’s very different when I go, what do I… What would happen if Ryan spoke truth?

I was sitting in my office writing and trying to figure out what I was going to say, and this question popped into my brain, and I was like, that’s actually a pretty good application question. I think I’m going to put that in. And then I went—this is I think probably the Lord speaking—was like, you might want to give it a try first. So, I’m going to be the public guinea pig. I’m going to tell you what my answers are to the question, and I hope that you’ll actually interact with the question on your own and write out your answers. If Ryan Ferguson radically spoke reliable truth, this would happen. Those of you who know me, could you not laugh at number one? Okay.

If Ryan Ferguson radically spoke reliable truth, I would never exaggerate a story for dramatic effect or to make myself look better than I actually am. Hmhm. I would never make it better just so I’m better. I would never tell a story so that you think better of me than I actually am. How self-serving is that? And it’s not the truth. It’s not reality. But I love to tell a good story.

I would not provide general answers to specific questions in order for me not to have to deal with consequences or have additional conversations. Like, someone asked me a specific question. I can generalize it because I just don’t want to engage with that.

I would get rid of my own “tools of truthfulness.” I’ve made up some of my own and they’re weird. I found myself, since working through this passage, realizing I have two phrases I use fairly often: “Can I be honest?” Or “To be honest…” So, think of that. You decide to take me out to lunch. We head down to Sirin Thai and we’re having some Pad See Ew and we’re having a conversation. Halfway through, I look at you and I say, “Can I be honest?” I thought of that out loud and I was like, do you what the person across me should do? They should look at me and go, “Why? Have you been lying up until now?” It’s weird. There’s something about that moment where I’ve got to add something so that the reliability of what I’m about to say and the truthfulness of it is very serious. I’d rather just be able to go to lunch with you and you believe that I’m honest the whole time.

My wife Rebecca would never doubt my love, faithfulness, and commitment to her. My children would trust that everything I say to them is for their good and matches God’s reality, not my version of their life. I would keep the commitments I make, and excuses would disappear. Facts would be used as wisdom, not weapons. I would have to change how I listen to people so that the words coming out of my mouth following your words are full of truth because, I’m just going to be honest, sometimes when I talk to you (the general you), I’m already composing what I’m going to say in my brain as you talk, and therefore my words won’t always match the reality of the moment because I’m just busy thinking about what I’m going to say. I would speak to be truthful, not to win an argument. I would love all of God’s instructions when it comes to truth. I would know when to be silent and not say something that’s true because not everything that’s true needs to be said. There is a time for words. People outside of Jesus’ kingdom would see a man practice a way of life that is foreign to the kingdom of this world.

So, you see, friends, I’ve got plenty of work to do when it comes to radically speaking reliable truth. My hope is you’ll work through that question on your own, and maybe we can all get closer to the life of Jesus and the truth together. Let me apply this very specifically to our church.

It’s important for us to remember that each Sunday we’re coming in here and we’re looking at a section of Jesus’ sermon. I want to remind you of the flow of Jesus’ sermon. This is what Jesus has talked about so far: this is what kingdom people do in the realm of anger, then he talks about lust, then he talks about divorce, then he talks about saying yes or no and keeping your word. Anybody see a connection? Anger, lust, divorce, keep your vow. Let’s see what that could look like in marriage.

Spouses get angry with each other. Rebecca and I never have, but maybe you guys have. So, you get angry with each other. Jesus describes the outflow of anger in his sermon in two verbal ways: insults and name-calling. What happens when that enters into a marriage and creates anger and resentment and then it’s verbalized? Well, once you’re angry and treating someone else poorly, then you’re going to find this moment where you have a desire. That desire may go unfulfilled in your marriage, and guess what? Lust rushes in to provide you with a way to meet your desire. More than likely, the path of lust doesn’t overlap the way of truth. A partner in marriage acts on lust and now that unbreakable covenant of marriage is in trouble. The path of lust leads to desire for more, so the partner pursues their happiness, their significance, their meaning, their truth and what God brought together and said, don’t let anybody ever separate, they separate on their own and they find themselves before a magistrate in divorce. So, the vows spoken before God and men at a wedding are null and void and broken.

I recognize the complexity of marital issues and how all of that flows out, but I just want to be crystal clear as an elder of this church: we’ve had too many broken vows in the past year. One is too many. It’s got to stop. If you’re kingdom people and you follow the way of Jesus, keep your vow. God’s clear about vows. The historic practice and the future kingdom practice say the same thing. Breaking a vow or dishonoring marriage ends in judgment. Not my words, God’s words.

“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:3-5).

If you’re breaking your marriage vow, you should be afraid. You need the truth, the word of truth, the gospel. You need grace. You need forgiveness. You need to remember that it is God’s kindness that leads us to a change of direction in life. If you’re breaking your vow, I’m calling on you right now to change the direction of your life and stop it. Kingdom people are people that speak truth. That means what we say we’re going to do, we do. It’s yes or no.

Brothers and sisters, I believe with God’s help, we can be a place and a people that radically speaks and lives for truth, in our homes together in this church and the way we operate in our families. You can live this truth in your workplace. You can live this truth just walking through this world. If you tell the truth and do what you say you’re going to do, you will live a countercultural life because it’s the future forever perfect kingdom on earth. That’s what Jesus is calling us to. All we have to do is simply say yes or no. Let’s pray.

Spirit of truth, I ask that you would do what Jesus said you would do. Jesus said that you would guide his followers into all truth. Let us see God is truth. God, open eyes to believe your message of love for the world. It’s true. Empower us to live out the truth that you define in your word together. God, I pray that you would give anyone in this room struggling with keeping their vow. Would you give them courage? Would you remind them that there is no shame in repentance? Would you—as you’ve done with so many marriages in front of me that are together and lovely and beautiful, even through everything they’ve been through—would you protect marriages in this church from the lie and the breaking of the vow? God, allow us to speak the truth kindly. I pray this in your name, amen.