Our scripture reading tonight is from Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy 6. Hear the word of God. Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commended to teach you. that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. In these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things, which thou fillest not, and wells dig, which thou diggest not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantest not. When thou shall have eaten and be full, then beware, lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of Bonnage. thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you, for the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you. Lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him at Massah. Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord. that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good lamb which the Lord swear unto thy fathers, to cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord has spoken. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, what mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you? then thou shalt say unto thy son we were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and the Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt upon Pharaoh and upon all his household before our eyes and he brought us out from thence that he might bring us in to give us the land which he swear unto our fathers And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us. May the Lord bless this very important chapter to our hearts and lives. The words of our text tonight you can find in Exodus 20, verse 7. In Deuteronomy 6, verse 13, though we'll be referring to a number of other places as well, but let me read those two verses. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. And then Deuteronomy 6.13, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name. In conjunction with these texts, we look at Lord's Day 37 of our Heidelberg Catechism, questions 101 and 102. 37. May we then swear religiously by the name of God? Yes, either when the magistrates demand it of the subjects or when necessity requires us thereby to confirm fidelity and truth to the glory of God and the safety of our neighbor. For such an oath is founded on God's word and therefore was justly used by the saints, both in the Old and New Testament. May we also swear by saints or any other creatures? No, for a lawful oath is calling upon God as the only one who knows the heart, that he will bear witness to the truth and punish me if I swear falsely, which honor is due to no creature. So our theme this evening with God's help is this delicate subject, swearing religiously by God's name. I want to look at that with you in four thoughts. First, in history. Second, in Scripture. Third, in our own life experience. And fourth, in our practice of life. So in history, in scripture, in experience, and in practice. Lord's Day 37 is a doubling up with 36 of two messages on one commandment. There's eleven Lord's Days on the ten commandments. So one extra for the third commandment. The subject of God's name is a very important one. Last week we saw what it means, how it is to be used, how it can be abused. But today, Tonight, we're to focus on a tangential subject, which is, can we use that name to swear religiously? That is to say, to take an oath in the name of God. Now, that question has a historical background. that you have to understand if you're going to understand what the Bible says about oath-keeping, but also what our forefathers meant in Lord's Day 37. In the time of the Reformation, there were differences with regard to this question between the Roman Catholics, the Reformed, and the Anabaptists. So the Roman Catholics believed that the Pope should be the head both of the church and of the state. The staff, because the Pope was the Bishop of the Universal Church, and the scepter, because he was also ruler over the princes and the kings of this earth, both, they said, belong to him. The Reformers in the 16th century, being good readers of the Bible, reacted negatively to this doctrine of the pope being the head. Being head of the church, yes, they rejected that as well. Of course, that's a whole other subject. But they also rejected him being the head of the state. And they spoke out against these things. And that's why Some of the political leaders of the day throughout Europe actually showed sympathy to the Reformers because they wanted their political power to themselves and not have the papal interference that they were experiencing. Others showed sympathy, like Frederick III, who's the one who arranged the writing of the Catechism, because they really believed in the Reformed faith and the Reformed interpretation of the Bible. And so the Reformers said there must be a separation of church and state to some extent here in which the state has different leaders than the church. I'll come back to that in just a moment. Now, the Anabaptists entered into this question later on in the 16th century. Ana means again, and baptist means, of course, to be baptized. So these are people that all believed you get baptized again as an adult if you were baptized covenantally as a child. But they went beyond the Reformation teaching in several areas that impacted the believer's relationship to the state. And they taught that since a Christian belongs to an entirely new order of things through regeneration, he ought to have nothing more to do with this world. The Christian is free from the laws of both state and society and has only to bind himself to the laws of the church. The tendency of the Anabaptists, therefore, was to escape all societal obligations. Now we have some of their stepdaughters in our nation today, the Amish, the Hutterites, some of the Mennonites, all of which date back to the 16th century Anabaptists. And their position you see, was it's forbidden for a Christian to enter into anything to do with the state because his citizenship is in heaven, he belongs to a different culture altogether. And so you couldn't become a politician, you couldn't become a policeman, you couldn't serve in the army, you couldn't defend your country with a sword, and you are forbidden to swear an oath before a worldly judge. And against all of these beliefs, you see, the Reformers reacted. And they said, the Anabaptists are misinterpreting Jesus when he said in Matthew 5, Now the Reformers said, The Anabaptist theology here seems to be pious, but actually it's contrary to the Word of God. This radical separation from the world in which you extract yourself from the world itself, and you live in communes, and you have nothing to do with the world, flies in the face of Jesus' other teachings that we are to be, though not of this world, we are to be in this world. So the Christian is not to move into an isolated community, but is to be a stranger, but in the world, serving as lights on the hill and as salt in the earth. One of the colloquialisms the Reformers used was, the boat must be in the water, but the water must not get into the boat. That's the challenge of the Christian life. We are in the world like a boat is in the water, but we're not to let the world come into the boat of the church or into our lives and make us worldly. Not to let the water into the boat. So Jesus, the Reformer said, prayed in John 17 that his father would not take his people out of this world, but that he would preserve them from evil in this world. So a Christian is not placed in this world to live in isolation from the world, but he has a task in this world. Jesus says, you're the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world. Don't hide your light under a bushel. Don't go off into some little commune, in other words, and keep the light hidden. But let your light so shine that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Now this reform view was spelled out in detail in our Belgic Confession, Article 36, and it advocates the basic reformed idea, if I could put it as an illustration, that church and state are to live like twin brothers together. Both getting the grounds of their operation and how to work out their obligations and the law of God and how the gospel fits in by the Word of God. And they're to operate side by side in their separate spheres. So the Reformers advocated not a radical separation of church and state, Like Anabaptists, by which you go off into a commune. But what they called a limited separation of state and church. Each of which have their own area of rule and yet each are designed to hold up each other. To live in this world as brethren and not to be alienated from each other. So what does that mean in practice? Well, it means, first of all, that the church must pray for the state. It must be, in a loving way, instructing governmental leaders about the word of God. Church must inform the government. When the government doesn't rule according to scripture, it must do it respectfully, but must admonish the government, must call the state to return to God's ways and God's word. And the church must do that in love, not with the sword, as some of the radical Anabaptists did. They differed from the more Irenic Anabaptists who said you can't even take up a sword. But they must do it in love with the pen, writing to the state, showing them what the Bible teaches. On the other hand, the state has a duty to the church. The state must protect the true church. It must assist the church in the advancement of the kingdom of God. The state must seek to remove and prevent all idolatry and false religion. So the church and the state must assist each other. Now in Europe, of course, what happened was that each government, Reformed government or Lutheran government, or Roman Catholic leaders, they would determine what the religion in that area should be. So denominations that sprang into being in the Reformation would then govern a certain area in conjunction with the state. So if your state leader said, the state religion in Germany, for example, would be Lutheran, and you were Reformed, you'd pick up and you'd move over into another country where it was Reformed. And in the Netherlands, they had the Reformed State Church, and the state got involved in paying the ministers their salary and all kinds of things. So in America, when our government said, we believe in the separation of church and state, What they meant by that was that this government in America would not just promote one denomination. Washington, D.C., according to our laws, will never say, we believe that everyone should belong to the Reformed Church or to the Lutheran Church. Now, what's being interpreted in our secular day today is something very different. Most people on the street today, if you ask them, what does separation of church and state mean, they think it means separation of the state from all religion, even from Christianity. So that you can't have Ten Commandments posted somewhere, or you can't preach on street corners, or you can't promote religion in any way. That's not what any of the forefathers meant in this country. They just meant the state does not promote one particular brand of Christianity. Now, the church then and believers are involved in this world. They are to be biblical examples. The reformers said, Daniel, didn't hide in Babylon, but was the number two man in the entire kingdom. He stayed in the world, but did not become Babylonian in his heart. Cornelius was a God-fearing soldier, and no one told him it was wrong to serve in the army. So you Anabaptists, you are wrong. And beside, if we're not allowed to swear an oath in society, how can you confirm in really important cases what is true and what is not true? Society cannot function if you don't cooperate, at a certain level at least, with the state. And it's out of this context you see then, point two, we get the scriptural data and the scriptural answer that swearing is an oath when it's done rightly, that is a form of worship. Deuteronomy 6.13, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him, and shalt swear by His name. So the Reformers said, God actually commands us to swear in His name as a way of expressing our holy fear towards Him. It's an act of serving Him, an act of worshiping Him. And this is abundant all throughout Scripture. Abraham made his servant swear an oath that he would never influence his son Isaac to take a Canaanite woman as his wife. Moses and David swore an oath as they were installed in their respective offices. That's true not only in the Old Testament, Jesus himself swore oaths, did he not? Every time he said, verily, verily, that was the form of oath-taking of that day. You could translate it, amen, amen. Or you could translate it, I swear by my father. And then what he would say? Verily, verily. Paul swore oaths in the New Testament epistles. He wrote in Romans 1 verse 9, God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son. That's a form of oath-taking. God is my witness, so that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Philippians 1 verse 8, 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 5, And Paul invokes God in his epistle, swearing an oath to confirm his word in 2 Corinthians 1, 23, 11, 31, 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 10. So, many times we see it in Paul's writings. Well, how do we understand then those words, swear not at all of Jesus? Doesn't that seem to contradict everything else? that the Bible says about swearing an oath. Well, not really. You see, you've got to understand this in its context. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, is giving us broad principles. He's saying things like this, a pluck out your right eye, or cut off your right hand when you battle against sin. No one. No one thinks that as you struggle against sin you should actually gouge out your eye or cut off your hand. This is just a very strong way of saying that you must hate sin and you must repent of sin and you must mortify sin. A few verses later, just after Jesus says, Swear not at all, He says, Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn him not away. So does that mean we're to give to every beggar we see, everyone applying for a loan, regardless of their character, their credit history, every phone call, letter we get in the mail, soliciting a donation for any cause, including ungodly causes? We're to give to them all, it's what Jesus says, give to him that asketh of thee, of course not. You see, Jesus was attacking our self-centeredness in the Sermon on the Mount. He's calling us to self-denying generosity. So he's giving us general principles to shake us out of our complacency. So when he says, swear not at all, neither by heaven nor by earth, he's saying, put an end to your frivolous and irreverent oath-taking. And learn to honor God with your mouth, for he's a sovereign king who sits enthroned in heaven. You see, in Jesus' day, people were swearing oaths by all kinds of things. Easily, lightly, needlessly. Sometimes they swore by their head. Sometimes they swore by heaven and earth. Sometimes they swore by the temple. Sometimes they swore by its gold, and by its altar, and by its sacrifice. And Jesus says, don't do this. Don't do this. Swear not at all. Don't swear by all these things. He's not saying that there's never a situation where you need to swear by God's name. And only by God's name. Because He's a sovereign King who sits enthroned in heaven. And He's present with His church and He rules over every hair of your head. So what are some examples then today? Well, you swear an oath when you enter the army, don't you? To uphold the welfare of this country. To be a soldier is a serious thing. You could turn so-called friendly fire into killing your compatriots as an enemy if you didn't take that oath. You swear an oath in the presence of God you'll support and defend the nation of which you're a citizen. That's entirely proper in the biblical context. Or when you take up public political office, you swear an oath that you will serve to the well-being of the nation or the city or the state. You likewise swear an oath sometimes in personal, serious cases, don't you? where two people have a strong disagreement and there's no witnesses. There's times when it's actually advantageous to have people put their hand on the Bible and swear an oath in the presence of Almighty God that they're going to tell the truth as a mediator tries to resolve the case between them. Or when you come into a secular courtroom and you belong to a jury, you're asked to take an oath you will judge righteously. These are all important cases, but practically we have more cases in our lives as Christians. Jordan and Hope swore an oath right here, Friday night, that they would live centered upon Christ and upon each other. Several weeks from now, the Confession of Faith class is going to stand up in the front. They're going to swear an oath before Almighty God that they will walk in His ways and live in a Christian way. You as parents, when you brought your children for baptism, you swore an oath you would do all and the utmost of your power to bring them up in the doctrines of the Scriptures. You office-bearers, all of us as office-bearers have sworn an oath that we would engage in our offices to the glory of God, to the utmost of our ability. You see, when you wipe away all that oath-taking, you're breaking down society itself. And that's why the Reformers were so opposed to the Anabaptists. Opposed on the one side to the Roman Catholics, because they wanted all power in the hands of the Pope. and opposed on the other side to the Baptist who just kind of wanted a free-for-all in society and no oaths of any kind so that no one was bound to anyone. Now, the clincher of all this is that God Himself swears oaths, and he is truth itself. His word is always reliable. God says in Isaiah 54 verse 9, I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. Now why would God, who never lies, who never changes, swear oaths? It cannot be just only to confirm fidelity and truth, because God is fidelity and God is truth. What is God doing over and above confirming His fidelity and His truth? Well, the Bible says two things. First of all, God's oath-swearing is an act of condescension to our fallenness. When the triune God, or Christ Himself, while on earth, swore an oath, it's God condescending to us, to our fallenness, to say, as surely as I'm speaking, I want you to know that what I'm saying is absolute truth. God didn't need to do that. God doesn't need to do that. He is truth. But He's reassuring us, you see, how humbling it is to know that God is willing to subject Himself to our doubts and fears and frailty and say, I swear an oath that I will not desert you or forsake you. But secondly, God also swears an oath to comfort His people by underscoring His attributes and His promises. To comfort His people by underscoring His attributes and promises. When God takes an oath, He is actually adding to His promise. It's like giving another layer on top of His promise. His promise is sure. But God is adding to it. As surely as I am who I am, dear believers, he's saying to his people, as surely as I'm a God of faithfulness, a God who does not lie, so I swear by myself that my promises will always be true. I am absolutely unchangeable in all my promises. Now that's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing in a world that's full of changes. Boys and girls, Maybe you don't realize this as much as your mom or dad does, but everything changes in this life. Your clothing changes. You probably wear different clothes this year than you wore last year. Your height changes. Your vocabulary changes. Your health changes. One day you're sick, the next day you're healthy. Every day there are changes. Also in the life of God's people, some days, They're full of faith. Other days, they've got some fears, perhaps, or doubts, or they feel like they're in darkness, or it feels like the sweet testimony of the Holy Spirit is withdrawing, at least somewhat, from them. And so they cry out with David, Lord, by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. But now thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. You see, a child of God, children, has to learn that he cannot rely on all his own feelings because they're so changeable. He cannot rely on the circumstances of life around him because they're all so changeable. Loved ones can die, they can get cancer, whatever. So many changes going on in life, and life is so short. And so there's something beautiful about this. God takes an oath and he lays it on top of his promises and says, as surely as I promise, I now swear by my own name, I, the Lord, change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And therefore, I will keep you in the palm of my hand forever and ever in Christ Jesus. And so when we take an oath upon the name of God, we are surrendering ourselves to the faithfulness of our God, who is faithful in His character, faithful in His promises, and on top of that, faithful in His oath-taking. So that when it comes to swearing an oath by God, we are relying on someone, God Himself, who is absolutely foolproof. God cannot lie. God cannot change. And so Hebrews 10.23 says, And if you go back to Hebrews 6, In that same book, the writer states that those promises are buttressed now with the oaths of God. For men verily swear by the greater, we read, by the greater. And who is greater than God? And an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. So let's say you have a very serious matter and you have a mediator between two people And you both lay your hand upon the Bible and you swear to tell nothing but the truth. You see, that oath helps to confirm an end of all strife so that both people believe each other. Well, the author of Hebrews goes on and says, but that's all the more true with God. God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise, that's His own people, the immutability of His counsel, that's the unchangeableness of His counsel, confirms that by an oath, that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, we who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. and which enters into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus." So you see, what God is saying here is something just absolutely amazing. When we say, but Lord, thou didst hide thy face, And I was troubled. Lord, thou knowest my changeable frames and feelings. God says, remember to rest in me. Remember the word upon which thou hast caused me to hope, says the psalmist. Remember that I am the Lord, I change not. Remember who I am. Remember my promises on top of that. And remember my oaths on top of that. It's impossible for what I say to fail. Now what is that oath of God that's on top of his promises, on top of his character? It's Jesus. That's what we heard this morning. Christ is the promises of God personified. God's oath is Jesus personified. He's the forerunner who's entered into the veil. God swears by himself in Christ. Jesus is his visible oath, and God can in no way change his mind to his own than he can change his heart toward his only begotten Son. That is overwhelmingly comforting. Can God change his love to his Son? Well, of course not. Can He change His love to you, dear child of God? No! Because you're in Jesus, you see. So every time we fail in our oaths, We must take our sins against the third commandment directly to the Oathmaker and the Oathkeeper, which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is the propitiation of our sins, who is our Advocate in heaven, as we heard this morning, who does turn away the wrath of God for us. And because we're in Him, you see, we're accepted in the Beloved, and therefore, in the oath of God, we flee for refuge to lay hold upon Jesus. who is the very oath of God. God swears by Himself in Christ that He will not leave us and not forsake us. And so, that raises the question, of course, have you and I fled by spirit-worked faith? Have you and I fled to this promising, oath-taking God, also with all our oath breaking, And if you entered in Him, whose oaths can never fail. And you see, that becomes an experiential reality in the heart and the life of a believer. Because, you see, we are prone to swear falsely. We're prone to break our oaths. Question 102 tells us that God will bear witness to the truth and condemn us if we swear falsely. And by nature, we have all sworn falsely. What Adam and Eve did when they fell, really, was they were entering into a false oath with Satan that they would serve him. And God happily interrupted that covenantal scheme that Adam and Eve were making with Satan. And God broke off that covenant, broke off that oath-making that they were about to engage in or just had engaged in. And God said, I'll put enmity between you and the serpent. And you see, that's what needs to happen in our lives experientially. And what does that mean? Well, it means there's an oath that we've taken that we must break. And there's an oath that we don't take by nature that we must make. An oath we must break and an oath we must make. What do I mean by that? Well, the oath we must break is, of course, The allegiance that we show with our walk and our talk and our attitudes and our words and our thoughts that coalesce with Satan. Everything we do that's wicked, everything we do that's sinful, everything we do that's contrary to the Bible is in line with the oath we made by nature. And how we come into this world by nature, conceived in sin, born in iniquity, as making oath allegiance to Satan. And we must break that oath. We must cut it off by the grace of God. We must make a new oath. And the new oath must be to serve the Lord our God only. A new oath must be to live according to His Word that He's given us, the way to live. And you see, when God begins to work in a sinner savingly, that's exactly what happens. You want to say farewell to the devil, to the world, but you discover to your horror that as much as you make an oath to live according to God, And you want to live as holy as the angels in heaven. And you want to stay with Zacchaeus, don't you? Anything I've taken from any man, I'll restore fourfold. You want to live uprightly. You wish that all sinning you were dead. It's also what we heard this morning. I don't want to sin. I've taken a new oath. But you feel yourself sinning again and again and again. So what do you do? You say, oh well, all this oath-taking is fruitless. I might as well just give it up. I had a believer say that to me one time. I'm just gonna give up trying to live godly, because I fail every time, so God must be so tired of me. I'm just gonna give it all over. No, no, no. No, no, no. What you do when you sin is you flee to that oath-maker, that oath-taker, Jesus, who never sinned, who never broke his oath. And you cast all your sins at His feet, the feet of that Savior who was bedraggled and spat upon and naked and bleeding and crucified and filled with soul sorrow to fulfill His oath for you. And you rest in Him. You see Him with the eye of faith who promised to love His own and to love them to the end. You see, you were acquitted, as we heard this morning. In Him, and only in Him, He is your propitiation. He is your advocate. He is the one whom the Father looks upon when the Father pronounces the judgment, deliver this sinner from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom in my well-beloved Son. So you fly to Him. And you'd listen to His voice, come, come, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, you who are weary of breaking your own oaths, you who are weary of falling into sin again, come, poor sinner, throw yourself on Me, believe, believe by faith in My finished oath-keeping. Cling to Me, the Alpha and the Omega, the lovely Jehovah who promises and who buttresses these promises with His verily, verily, is amen, amen, it shall certainly be. This is obeying the third commandment. Fleeing daily, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, He's the Alpha. He's the Omega. He's our forerunner, says the Apostle. He's entered into the veil of heaven with us. He's the anchor of our boat. Our boat may be tipsy-turvy. I got that wrong. Topsy-turvy. And there may come water in the boat. Yes, against our will. But you see, the boat is anchored. on the bottom of the ocean floor. And Jesus is that anchor. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying. We find a way, you see, to go to Him. by faith and through repentance. And He has entered into the veil. He's the anchor of the believer. And we come into the holy presence of the holy God, united with Him by faith in Jesus Christ. We rest. We rest with all our crimson stains, also against the third commandment in Jesus. And they're washed away. They're paid in full. Because He says, My Father, I am the oath-keeper and the oath-maker for this sinner. I have paid the price for all his sins. And what a price it cost the son. And what a price it cost the father to give his son. But God himself, God himself, you see, has so loved his people from eternity past. that He cannot forsake them. He's even willing to give His Son, to swear that oath already in Psalm 40, Lo, I come from eternity past, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O my God. Thy law is within my heart. That's why Christianity is real. That's why Christianity saves, because there's an oath establishing, oath-decreeing, oath-making, and oath-keeping, Son of God, for poor, needy sinners. Now, that has practical fruits, and we'll look at that in our last thought. A few years back, I was in an airport and had some time and got my shoes shined by a man who said he was a Christian. And as I talked to him, he said something that I hope I will never forget. He said to me, Jesus Christ has become everything to me. He's my Savior. He's my Lord. And I made an oath to God, so help me God, that I will give everything back to him out of gratitude. It was beautiful. Does that mean that man never sinned again? No, no, no, of course not. But you see, what happens experientially spills out practically into our lives this way. When God works a love for our heart for Him and works also a hatred for sin, we are prone in those early days of conversion to make many oaths to God that we're going to patch up our life, we're going to live perfectly before Him. But we learn we can't. And we learn to come to a cul-de-sac, a dead end as it were, with ourselves, And we take refuge into Christ to be our oath-maker, our oath-keeper. And when we're in Him, you see, then we make another kind of oath. Not an oath to merit something, because then we're always going to fail. Only He could do that. Only He could fulfill that. And He did. But then we make an oath out of gratitude to live, like this shoeshine guy, to live entirely for Christ. That is the way to live as a Christian. And you see then, As we fail again and again, yes. But we're living in Christ. We're living out of Christ. We're living through Christ. We're living to Christ. We're loving Christ. We go back to Him with all our sins and we grieve again and we get forgiven again. We keep short accounts with God. Day after day, every night, before we get into our bed, we say, forgive my sins again this day, Lord. Help me to live wholly for Thee tomorrow. This is an oath taken as the trajectory of my life, knowing I will be imperfect to my last breath, but just longing to live gratefully to God and longing for that day to come when I will never sin again. Because in heaven, my constant oath in glory, I will be able to fulfill. Christ, and I'll never have to ask for forgiveness again because I will be perfect in Him. That's so overwhelming. I'll never have to say with Paul again, evil is present with me. Oh, to be with Jesus, sin free, in Emmanuel's land. but also, oh, to be with him here on earth, the constant, sin-forgiving Savior, and to renew these vows day by day. Help me to live to thy glory today, Lord, today, Lord, today, Lord. Help me to say yes to all thy promises today, Lord. Help my life to be one continual amen to thy truth. You see, then I want to give everything, don't I? my will, my mind, my affections, my heart, everything, soul and body, surrendered to His service like Deuteronomy 6 says, thou art to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might. Then I know experientially in my soul what it means to swear an oath to God that He has me. I'm His property. This is my comfort in life and death. I don't belong to myself. Everything I am, I owe to Thee." Jesus' entire life was an oath to His Father, to do His Father's will. And when we are in our right place our entire life, out of gratitude is an oath that we surrender our lives to Him. So help me God, I want to give everything away to Thee. See, then we say with the psalmist, we come with offerings to his house, and here we pay the solemn vows we uttered in distress. To him are all we dedicate. To him we wholly consecrate the lives his mercies bless. You see, then, reverently speaking, whatever the Lord Jesus does with us is right and good, because we're willing to give everything over into his hands. You can never do that in your own strength. That is only possible to do out of the oath-keeping Savior who makes and preserves us as an oath-keeping people. And this, dear young people, this is the only way to live. You've got a lot of plans ahead of you. College, perhaps. Work. Marriage. Family. And you wonder, how am I going to navigate life? How am I going to live through life? Well, here's one way, and this is the only way. Don't waste your life by taking water into the boat. Look to Jesus. Surrender to Him. And come to Him out of gratitude. Like Caleb, follow God fully. Live a life of gratitude, a life of service, a life of surrender. A life in which, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, you find that only comfort in life and death, all throughout life, that I don't belong to myself, but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, the older I grow, the more I find myself praying in the morning when I get up, Lord, just help me to live wholly and solely for Thee today. It's really what it boils down to. Out of gratitude, for thy great salvation. Make me useful and fruitful today by living wholly and solely for thee. That's the way to live. You see, then you can sing with all your heart the words of Francis Havergal. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days. Let them flow in endless praise. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee. Take my voice and let me sing, always, only for my King. Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee. Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. Take my intellect and use every power as Thou shalt choose. Take my will and make it Thine. It shall no longer be mine. Take my heart, it is Thine own. It shall be Thy royal throne. Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store. Take myself, and I will be ever only all for Thee." Ask God to give you grace, young people, children, parents, to break your oath with Satan, to make an oath of gratitude to the faithful triune God, and the foundation of your oath-making Savior, who from eternity past to eternity future and throughout time loves His people and redeems them and washes them in the blood of the Lamb. That's the only way to obey the third commandment. And what a joy that way of life is. Amen. Lord God, forgive all our shortcomings, all our selfishness, our unbelief, our pride, all that comes in the way, hidden sins, known sins. Oh, wash it all away. and conquer us, and let us live wholly and solely and exclusively for Thee. Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee. Show us the joy of living a life of gratitude to our great oath decreer, Oath Establisher, Oath Maker, and Oath Keeper, the Lord Jesus Christ. And help us to live that way tonight, tomorrow, and throughout this week, day by day, hour by hour. Use me, Lord. Use everyone in this audience to live wholly, solely for Thee. make us useful and fruitful, serving Thee with joy and gladness, and not taking Thy name in vain with frivolous oaths, but laying down our lives out of gratitude for our Master's sake. In Jesus' name, amen.