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EP 119: Tell the Truth! (Matthew 5:33-37 – Sermon on the Mount Series)

byMarci Ferrell
Jesus calls us to be people of the truth and people who keep their word. @thankfulhomemaker

We’re on the fourth of Jesus’s illustrations of what true morality looks like to those that are in Christ. We talked about the sin of anger in EP 113 and dealing with our adulterous hearts or sexual purity in EP 115. Divorce and remarriage or better put our faithfulness in marriage in EP 117. Today in EP 119, we’re going to work through telling the truth, and in the next couple of episodes, we’ll get to the fifth and sixth illustrations of true morality as we’ll work through selflessness and love.

We have Jesus telling us again, “you heard that it was said, but I say to you statements.

Everything we do as believers matters—our actions, responses, and words. We have spent quite a few episodes here on the podcast speaking about our speech; it should be kind and gentle and not sinful like gossip or slander. God’s Word has much to say about how we should be speaking to one another.

Our speech affects others, and it matters what we say and how we say it. So we begin this next section dealing with the issue of lying.

Jesus calls us to be people of the truth and people who keep their word. We need to be people whose yes is yes and whose no is no.

Jesus calls us to be people of the truth and people who keep their word. We need to be people whose yes is yes and whose no is no. Click to Tweet

Ever since the Fall, man has been prone to lying.

As we continue on in our series on the Sermon on the Mount we’re working through in EP 119 on the sin of making oaths or promises that we don’t intend to keep in our text today of Matthew 5:33-37:

Let me read our text 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.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Listen to the Podcast Below:

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Resources:

Sermon on the Mount Podcast Series @thankfulhomemaker

Sermon on the Mount Podcast Series & YouTube Series

On the Mount: A Ladies’ Bible Study of the Sermon on the Mount by Susan Heck

The Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom by R. Kent Hughes

Show Notes:

Kent Hughes illustrates the desire for truth in the prayer of the chaplain of the Kansas Senate: 

“Omniscient Father: Help us to know who is telling the truth. One side tells us one thing, and the other just the opposite. And if neither side is telling the truth, we would like to know that, too. And if each side is telling half the truth, give us the wisdom to put the right halves together. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

This prayer highlights what we all know to be just as true in America as it was in Israel in Jesus’ day…truth is a vanishing breed.

Today there is an urgent truth shortage! There was a time when western culture was distinguished from other cultures by at least a conventional outward sense of obligation to tell the truth. But now there is a pervasive indifference to truth-telling, and this has not only infected day-to-day conversation but the most solemn pledges of life. 

Perjury under solemn oath is epidemic. The sacred vows of marriage are broken almost as often as repeated. God’s name is invoked by blatant liars who purport to be witnesses to the truth. There is, indeed, a crisis, but we must not make the mistake of thinking it occurs only out there because it happens among us too. 

It is difficult to always tell the truth. The great preacher and writer George Macdonald wrote to his son on December 6, 1878, “I always try – I think I do – to be truthful. All the same, I tell a great many lies.” 

I identify with that. I am speaking to someone and suddenly realize that what I am saying is not the truth. Perhaps you have experienced the same. The difficulty comes from the combination of my own deceitful nature and the pervasive deceptiveness of the surrounding culture. 

~ R. Kent Hughes, Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom

Vows were assumed, even encouraged. But once made, they were not to be broken under any circumstances. The Bible taught that they were very serious business. 

~ R. Kent Hughes, Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom

“A vow is binding irrespective of it’s accompanying formula”

~ John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount

Oath taking is permitted, but it is not encouraged. In civil life oath taking, as in the courtroom, is permitted, and when one does so, he does not sin against Christ’s teaching. Also, on rare occasions, it may be necessary, as it was for Paul. However, oaths are not to be a normal part of our everyday conversation. In normal relations oaths should never fall from our lips. Kingdom men and women do not need such devices. Their commitment to truthfulness should be evident to all.

~ R. Kent Hughes, Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom

Rarely a day or week goes by that we don’t make a promise to a friend, or our husband, or our children, but do we keep that promise? For example, we might say to our friend, “I promise I won’t tell anyone what you just shared with me,” and then you call one of your other friends to tell her the piece of juicy news. Or you promise the kids that you will take them out after school for a special treat, but then you don’t fulfill your promise for one reason or another. Or you tell your friend that you will meet her for lunch at noon, but you don’t show until 12:15, or even worse, you don’t show at all! Or you tell your husband that you will iron his shirts while he is at work, but you find something better to do with your time. And we justify these broken promises by saying, “To err is human.” But God says to lie is a sin.

Susan Heck, On the Mount: A Ladies’ Bible Study of the Sermon on the Mount

I always try—I think I do—to be truthful. All the same, I tell a great many petty lies, things that mean one thing to myself though another to other people. But I do not think lightly of it. Where I am more often wrong is in tactile pretending I hear things which I do not, especially jokes and good stories, the point of which I always miss; but, seeing everyone laugh, I laugh too, for the sake of not looking a fool. My respect for the world’s opinion is my greatest stumbling block I fear.”

George MacDonald

6 ways to “Be” from Susan Heck from her study in the Sermon the Mount.

1. Be Sensitive to the deception that lying is not a sin, especially “little white lies.” Not only is it a sin, but a heinous sin. Do not desensitize yourself to the truth. I know people whose habit of lying is to the point they don’t even recognize it.

2. Be reminded of Matthew 12:36-37: “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned.” 

3. Be filled with God’s spirit and sensitive to His leading in your life in this area. If you are not walking with the Lord, His spirit has been grieved and His voice is dull. 

4. Be asking God to make you aware of the way you deceive yourself and others. You might be surprised how deception plays out in your life. Also, ask your husband if he sees any form of lying in your life. One year my husband and I held each other accountable for exaggerations, and that exercise was extremely profitable. 

5. Be feeding on the Word of God. When you feed your mind on the Word—the Truth—and obey it, it will produce what God desires, which is truth in the inner woman or man. A truthful inward spirit is bound to produce truthful outward speech. 

6. Be careful what you say—Think before you speak. If you have said something that is not true, go to the person and correct it. Believe me, after you do that several times, hopefully, you will be humbled enough to guard your words more carefully. 

~ Susan Heck, On the Mount: A Ladies’ Bible Study of the Sermon on the Mount

There is only one person that I know in the whole universe who has kept every promise He has made, and that is our model, our example, the Lord Jesus. One of the promises that He has made to you and me is that He will return. He will keep His Word, and so must we keep our word as well lest we fall into judgment!

~ Susan Heck, On the Mount: A Ladies’ Bible Study of the Sermon on the Mount

“Accustom your children constantly to this—telling the truth: if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from the truth will end . . . It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.”

~ Samuel Johnson

Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. - Matthew 5:37 Click to Tweet

Scripture References:

  • Matthew 5:33-37
  • Exodus 20:7
  • Leviticus 19:12
  • Numbers 30:2
  • Matthew 23:16-22
  • James 5:12
  • Matthew 26:63-64
  • 2 Corinthians 1:23
  • Romans 1:9-10
  • James 4:15
  • Matthew 5:37