Bearing False Witness
Series: The Sermon on the Mount
June 13, 2021 - David Stockton
We’re going to pick up another thing today. We’re going to talk about oaths. Say that word. It’w impossible to say without feeling weird.
Basically, Jesus has been equating anger with murder, harkening back to those days when the command was Thou shalt not murder. What people had done with that command, they’d kind of make it say whatever they wanted. But Jesus is saying, “No, this is the true intent of that, that God doesn’t even want to see anger towards brothers and sisters in your heart.” Then he says, “You’ve heard it said you should not commit adultery, but basically if you’re lusting after someone, then in God’s eyes that’s adultery. You’re breaking that commandment.”
Then he goes on a little further and says if you’ve divorced someone without the specific caveats that are given in scripture, that deal with the covenant you made before God and that person, that actually your divorce has created an adulterous situation for you and your divorced spouse.
Some heavy stuff. And now, today what he’s doing is taking us to another commandment. I believe, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I really think that Jesus is equating this whole dealing with oaths with kind of our word, with what we’re saying we’re going to do, with what we’re saying we want to do, with all of this with “Thou shalt not bear false witness. Or Thou shalt not lie.” I think he’s equating the way that we make promises and break those promises with lying.
So I titled the message today, “Bearing False Witness.” Let’s read Matthew Chapter 5:33.
“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath 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. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Now, it took me a long time to dig into this. I was trying so hard to figure out culturally what this meant. Did these kind of words really ring true? They’re like they know exactly what Jesus was talking about. But it did take me a while to figure out what was going on. There are some commentaries that led me to believe — I think it makes sense, but don’t quote me on this stuff — but basically there was probably some sort of practice within the church at that time that the Pharisees had set up, or the religious leaders had set up, where you could come to the church and you could make some sort of vow. You could make some sort of promise or covenant or commitment. And the way that you would do that commitment, whether you would swear by one thing or swear by another thing was really showing how sincere and serious you were about it.
So there were levels of commitment. So this person would come and he’d be like, “I swear by the goat I have, because it’s pretty much all I’ve got.” And they’d go, “Oh, that’s a cute little covenant.”
And then some guy would come and he’d be like, “I swear by God in heaven.” They’d be like, “Now this guy really means it.”
So there was this hierarchy being created. There was this greater righteousness and lesser righteousness being created in their minds, which was not true in the kingdom of heaven.
Then some people would not just commit certain things, but it was the way that they would do it. The language that they did it. It would kind of evoke these different type of things. Basically, what it was in God’s eyes, it was all deceit. It was bearing false witness. It was not pleasing to the Lord for you to say, and kind of conjure up with a bunch of religious words, some seriously intense commitment. That didn’t move God’s heart. It didn’t change anything for him. Because he wasn’t interested in what you were doing externally, or what your words were saying. He was looking at your heart. That’s what Jesus ultimately saying. Just let your yes be yes and your no be no.
When I think about the way that we spin things as a culture these days, the way we use words to try and cover or garner some sort of power in a relationship, or to make things seem better than they are, I started to really feel like God was starting to speak to me in regards to this.
There’s a guy named Jon Forman, who is my hero when it comes to words. And he wrote a song and he says this about basically our culture and our situation with bearing false witness:
Opinions are easier to swallow than facts
The great instead of the whites and the blacks
If you shoot it too straight it won’t come back
We’re selling the newsAmerica listens as the story is told
With the eye on the truth as the story unfolds
But the ratings determine which story was sold
We’re selling the newsBegging the question, mongering fears
Stroking the eyes and tickling ears
The truth is seldom just as it appears
We’re selling the news……Substance, oh, substance, where have you been?
You’ve been replaced by the masters of spin
Who make good looking books and write history in
We’re selling the news……When nothing is sacred, there’s nothing to lose
When nothing is sacred, all is consumed
We’re still on the air, it must be the truth
We’re selling the news– Switchfoot’s “Selling the News” by Jon Foreman
Ouch. Some of you are like, “Yeah. Down with Fox News and CNN.” Jesus isn’t talking to them. He’s talking to you. He’s talking to them, too. Don’t get me wrong. But he’s talking to us. In our litigious society these days, there are so many connections being made, contractually, to make sure no one ever has to actually do anything they said they would do. There is so much protection in all the contracts today. You can’t even buy a dishwasher without having to buy insurance from Home Depot just to make sure the manufacturer will do what they said they would do! Sorry about that. I mean, the layers of litigation, the layers of contracts, the layers of signing and documentation, it has created a society where there is actually no skin in the game for anybody, because, if you can find the loophole, you have negated any possibility of deceit. You are no longer a liar because you found a loophole. That’s where our society lives. And that’s the way Christians have the decision if they’re going to live that way or not. “They’re doing it. So if I don’t do it then I’m going to be taken advantage of.”
Look at Jesus’ life. It’s serious in here. And I’m not talking trash on lawyers or media people. I’m begging lawyers and media people to really try and walk out the kingdom of heaven in their industry.
“But, no. If I make this sale I will use so much of the money for the good of other people.” Is your yes yes? And is your no no? Are you telling it like it is?
I’m telling you, the reason I’m preaching this one isn’t because someone else couldn’t do a better job. This is one I needed to preach. Because for a Stockton, exaggeration is a family trait. We are masters of spin. We can make such a boring experience sound like it was awesome. We’ve been Instagramming with our mouths for generations. And we have the justification. My grandmother was born in Belfast, Ireland, so you know, it’s like an Irish thing for us to totally exaggerate and make you think we’re way better than we are so that we can have more authority or power in your life, if you really want to be honest.
But it’s fun! It’s not a big deal. Until it’s a big deal. And we have to walk that out. Figure out where we’re crossing lines. And it’s not a big deal until it’s a big deal. And it happened to become a big deal in my life one moment. I’ve always tried to teach my kids to tell the truth. I named my daughter Alethea Reese, which means Strong in the Truth. I talk to her all the time about lying, when they lie. I didn’t teach them to lie, but they’re so good at it.
On Christmas Eve we have all the candles in the sanctuary. We turn off all the lights, but everybody’s holding a candle. And it’s this beautiful glow and there’s so much light you can see everything. But there’s a soft, beautiful glow. And I say, “Every time we tell a lie it’s like we’re blowing out a candle. Every lie that’s told another candle goes out. Another candle goes out. Another candle goes out. Until, ultimately, enough candles go out where you can’t see clearly and then the devil can have a heyday.
I don’t know what happened last year. I don’t know if more people told lies, or if they just got louder, or if we were all just shaken, but man, last year it got hard to figure things out. It was hard to see the way. I’m like a preacher man and I was having trouble seeing the way. Because a great wind of deceit blew through our nation. And a lot of lies came and blew out a lot of light.
But, by the grace of God, the light never went out. And the light can never go out. His truth is always and will always be marching on. And we need to be people that are so careful with our words that we are not blowing out the light or bringing out some sort of strange light. Even if that means we just need to be silent before our accusers sometimes like Jesus was. Our yes needs to be yes. Our no needs to be no. We’ve got to be telling the truth.
One day I was having an argument with my wife. We’ve had like one or two … billion. And I’m seven years older than her. I’m a preacher, pastor guy. I’ve got a master’s degree. I’m a Stockton. So I have a license to exaggerate that my grandmother gave me, that the Irish gave her, that the world gave to Irish people. You want to keep going? I’ll take you back to the beginning. See? I’m exaggerating.
We were arguing and we had just been married for a few years. And I was telling her what I thought. And she looked at me with a new look in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before. She said, “I need you to stop talking.” She’d told me to shut up before, but this was, “I need you to stop talking.” And it was different. And she said, “Because if you keep talking I know you’re going not convince me that what you’re saying is right. But I know it’s wrong.” And she was right. And I was just spinning away. Spin, spin, spin.
I was using whatever the Lord has given me, the ability to put some words together. I was using to, in an altruistic way, make her think and see everything exactly the way I wanted her to. So that, ultimately, I could get my way.
I wasn’t covering some deep, dark secret — just in case you’re wondering. It was literally just everyday interactions. It was just every day telling her just the way it was. I was telling her everything the way I wanted her to hear it so she would come to the same conclusions as me. And I was lying to my wife. I was deceiving her. I had gotten her mind so twisted that she could not even think straight. And I was starting to lose her. She was starting to wonder if there was anything at all that I had ever said that was true, including what I say up here.
I had to repent before God and before her. And I had to try and learn how to unlearn a lot of things. That temptation is always there with me. But by God’s grace, and thanks to my wife, I’m winning that battle. And I can even be honest before you and let you in on a little secret I have, that I have to be careful, that I have to show restraint, submit myself to God all the time. I have to drive home from this every day and remember what Proverbs says: “In a multitude of words there is much sin.”
How’s that for a preacher? Oh, that’s fun. I just spoke a multitude of words. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. sin. The very next thing I do is say, “God I know that’s true. And I plead your blood over thing I said, that you would please wash away all the filth, anything that was just of me. Please, Lord Jesus.”
And it’s a practice I’ve had to continue to foster in my life. And now, when people say to me, “Eh…” they don’t even have to say, “Stop talking.” I can see the look in their eyes when I’m doing it. And I have to stop and say, “I’m sorry.”
Now, if you’re wrong and I’m talking to you, don’t use this against me. Okay? Because I still sometimes get it right. But anyway, that was this change that needed to happen. And I was so sophisticated in my language. I was so clear on my religiosity. Basically I had convinced myself that I was just doing what’s best. And really, I was just lying. I was bearing false witness and it needed to change.
When Jesus says here, “And you have heard it said ‘Don’t break your oaths and promises..” Again, what we’re talking about, Jesus is not trying to abolish the old way. He’s not saying, “Don’t worry about that.” He’s saying, “No, that is good. You should not break your promises. If you make an oath you should fulfill your oath.” No doubt about it. But he’s saying, “But I want to take this deeper. And I want you to not even make oaths.” He says, “But I say do not make oaths at all.” Don’t even make promises.
Now, again, he’s not referring to things like, you know, a promise you make to your wife and all those type of things, marriage vows, or those things. But he’s saying, “What matters more, the greater righteousness is not what you promise to do, it’s when it shows up.” So this virtue signaling concept that we have, where it’s like, “I’m saying all the right things. I’m talking so woke. I’m Instagramming or posting all the right stuff.” But if my life does’t match that, if nothing’s showing up, in God’s eyes it’s deceit. It’s lying.
And this is what God says about lying, by the way, just in case you were wondering. Jesus said this to some people who were doing this. He said:
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. – John 8:44
So when we’re doing this, when we’re spinning things, we are doing the devil’s work. No other way to put it. Anything else is from the devil.
I remember a friend of mine was in town. He runs an organization that’s doing a lot of good for minorities and people who are in poverty. And he was telling me about this business man who wanted to give him a big chunk of change. He was really excited about it. The more he talked with the person, he was beginning to feel like, “You know what? I think the reason this person is doing this is for the photo shoot. It’s for the press that he’ll get from this.” And he had to come to this point where he actually said, “No, thank you.” And it made the person super made. But he said he had to walk away from it because he was getting the sense that something wasn’t right here. And he didn’t even want to take the money because it ultimately was somehow going to be connected to the devil’s work.
I was so proud of him that Living Streams gave him a big chunk of change. But we didn’t tell anybody about it. I just told you about it! I think it’s okay. I don’t know. You don’t know who it is. It’s okay.
But I just loved his heart in all of that, just making sure there is no guile. It says of Jesus there was no guile in him at all. He desires truth in the innermost being. That’s what this person was hungering for. The greater righteousness even though it was going to cost him. I love that. No virtual signaling for followers of Christ.
Then he says, “Don’t swear by…” and he starts to list these type of things. And we’ve talked about that. Don’t use religious language or, “The Lord told me…” and that kind of more emphasizes what you’re committing or what you’re saying to this person. Ultimately it helps you get more power over someone. He’s saying, “Don’t use that type of stuff. Don’t do that thing.”
I remember a young woman when I was younger, we knew each other a little bit. But I remember she was being mentored by this lady. And this lady that I trusted told me that I should meet with this girl. So I was like, “Okay, I’ll do that.” And I met with the girl and she told me in the meeting that we had that the Lord told her that we were going to be married. And by God’s grace, I was not convinced that the Lord had told her that. And I was able to reply to her, “Well, I will let you know if the Lord tells me anything like that. Because he’s not saying anything like that to me.” I don’t know what the Lord was doing in her life, but obviously, it wasn’t what the Lord was doing in my life and all of that.
But we’ve got to be careful when we say things like, “The Lord said…” We are a church that really emphasizes and long for the kind of listening prayer, or prophetic prayer, where, as we’re praying we really think that maybe God is speaking so sometimes we should be quiet and listen. And when God does speak to us, we want to share that with the others. Kind of like what we’ve been doing with the VBS prayer. Like, we’re listening and we’re speaking those things. But we always need to speak that with some humility and say, “This is for you to process between you and God and see if it’s something the Lord is saying.”
That doesn’t mean God doesn’t sometimes speak to people. I know people who said, “The Lord told me I was going to marry her and I married her and we’ve been married twenty years.” Okay. Two decades, I’ll give it to you now. Not nineteen years. Two decades. Bam. Now I believe you.
Then he said everything else is from the devil. We’ve talked about that, how the devil is just so at work. He’s a deceiver. That’s what he’s done. That’s what created the fall of humanity in the first place. And he’s continuing to mix truth and lies to cause us to miss out on what God has for us. And we’ve got to wake up to it. We’ve got to see it for what it is. And we’ve got to run in the opposite direction — especially for us who are in the Church, who are followers of Christ. We’ve got to be about the truth.
And then, to close I want to talk to you about Jesus, if that’s okay. Anybody want to hear about Jesus? So Jesus spoke these words and they heard his words and said, “He’s one who has authority.” He was speaking in a way that the people who heard him were like, “Oh, snap. This guy knows what he’s talking about. Oh my goodness, this guy actually lives this way. And this guy actually believes that we can live this way.”
And John, who sat there and heard Jesus’ words as he spoke in that Sermon on the Mount, he writes a book later called Revelation, and he calls it The Revelation of Jesus Christ. So he saw Jesus in this incarnate, earthly kind of babe — he didn’t see him as a baby — but a fleshly form. Then he saw Jesus in this resurrected, glorified form. Then, later on, towards the end of John’s life, he was in exile on the Isle of Patmos, and he sees another revelation of Jesus Christ. He sees his old friend, the one who rescued him and taught him how to live, the one that washed his sins away, the one that filled him with his Spirit and empowered him to win the battles that he had been losing his whole life.
And he sees him. In Revelation 19, this is the way he describes him. After all the tribulation, after all the chaos of what he saw, he says he saw heaven opened and there was a white horse that was standing there. On that horse was a rider and his name was Faithful and True, for he can judge fairly and he wages a righteous war. Never gets it wrong. In the midst of all the chaos of Revelation 6 through 19, where literally hell is breaking forth on earth, we get a glimpse into the throne room of God. There in that throne room the angels are gathered and they’re crying out, “Righteous and true are your judgments, O God. Every single thing you do, whether it hurts or whether it helps, we know it is absolute righteousness and it’s accomplishing the good that ultimately everyone longs for.”
Jesus is the Faithful and the True. I am not. The government is not. Sports people are not. Your spouse, your husband, your heroes, they’re not. Jesus is Faithful and True. When it comes to Jesus, he doesn’t give you any spin at all. It’s nothing but truth that will set you free. Sometimes easy and helpful to hear. Sometimes it hurts. Jesus is faithful to every promise he has ever made and will ever make forevermore. He’s not done with Israel, just so you know. He’s faithful.
When I was thinking about the opposite of all of things that I have known and I’ve been complicit in, I think opposite, obviously, is faithful and true, but also humble and vulnerable. And Jesus was humble. He didn’t think more lowly of himself than he ought. He didn’t think more highly than himself that he ought. Even though he was equal with God. He made himself of no reputation. And he’s asking us to not write checks that we can’t cash. Not make promises that are too big. Not use words to try and make ourselves look like something we’re not, or can do something that we can’t. But just to shut our mouths and let who we are be enough, because God thinks it is. To not try and garner relational capital, financial capital, whatever it might be, with these words and this exaggeration. But just trust God that who you are and what you have is enough for today. And let him decide what comes and what goes. And you just keep blessing the name of the Lord.
Jesus was vulnerable. To be truthful you’ve got to be vulnerable. And Jesus was truthful with us. He came in the full reality of who God was, fully God and fully man. He became vulnerable as a baby. He became vulnerable as a poor man. And he became vulnerable even to the point of death on a cross. He showed us the truth of who God is and we murdered it and said, “We will not have this man rule over us.” And he died for us, so that he could rise for us. And though we’re so sinful he could lead us to life forevermore.
Will you bow your heads?
Lord Jesus, we thank you that you’re near to us. We pray you would come by your Spirit and you would speak to our hearts, speak to our minds and bring your truth.
It’s the most dangerous safe place, to be in the presence of God.
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