Two passages of Scripture this Lord's Day evening. Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 5. Firstly then, Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 13. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 13. Hear now the word of the living God. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. And then turn over to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 33. Matthew 5, 33. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black, but let your yes be yes and your no, no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. Let's pray. Lord, tonight we pray that you would instruct our hearts, help us as we think further about your commandments, and how we might fear and reverence your name. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, for his sake. Amen. What are we to do with the seeming contradiction that we seem to find in the Word of God? In the law of old, Deuteronomy 6 verse 13, the Word says that we shall fear the name of the Lord and shall take oaths or swear by His name. But then we get to Matthew 5 and Jesus' famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, and it appears that Jesus contradicts the Old Testament. I don't know that this is one of them, but of course there are many unbelievers out there who love to point at the seeming contradictions of Scripture. This might be one of them. In one place, the Bible says, swear by the name of God, and in another, Jesus, your Savior, they would say, says, don't swear, don't take an oath. What are we to do about this seeming contradiction? And why are we even dealing with this contradiction? Before we move on to the next commandment in our study of the 10 commandments, because of the catechism that we're going through this year, we hover around the third commandment, which is a commandment about revering and keeping the name of God, His attributes, His being, His name, all that is said about Him, holy, that we don't take it in vain. But then rightly, I think the reformers, who put together these confessions and catechisms asked the next question, if we're to keep the name of God holy, if we're to keep it free from vanity, if we're not to misuse it, then are we allowed to swear by it? Heidelberg Catechism question number 101, it's on your bulletin there. But may we not swear by the name of God in a religious manner? Answer, yes. when the magistrate, that's the government, requires it, or it may be needful otherwise to maintain and promote fidelity and truth to the glory of God and our neighbor's good. For such swearing is grounded in God's word and therefore was rightly used by the saints in the Old and New Testaments. Question 102, may we swear by the saints or any other creature? Answer, No, for a lawful oath is a calling upon God as the only searcher of hearts to bear witness to the truth and to punish me if I swear falsely, which honor is due no creature. The catechism sums it up correctly, but let's look at these texts tonight to see how it is that we can honor and revere the name of God without breaking the third commandment and yet use the name of God as a source of grounding the statements that we make. Firstly then, a definition. What is the difference in the scripture between an oath and a vow. This occurs in various places in the text, and so we need to understand these two. The difference between an oath and a vow. An oath is made to men in the presence of God. An oath is said before men and women, but in the presence of God. Whereas a vow is a solemn promise to the Lord. which is why many of us refer to marriage statements as not simply marriage oaths, but marriage vows, promises that we make firstly unto the Lord. So as you walk through the pages of scripture, you'll notice this distinction between oaths and vows, and it occurs in various places. But our question tonight is, how do we deal with the seeming contradiction? Boys and girls, if you notice Pastor Ryan's words carefully, I keep saying seeming contradiction. because the Word of God does not contradict itself. We may not always understand it. We may not always, at first read, be able to put the pages and the pieces and the verses together, but the Word of God is written by the unchanging God, who does not contradict himself. So then we're forced to continue to wrestle with the Scriptures until, by the Spirit's grace, we understand it more and more. Deuteronomy 6.13, swear by the name of God. Matthew 5, beginning in 33, Jesus seemingly forbidding oaths, statements, promises, truths said in the presence of men, but also in the presence of God. Well, let's look at Matthew chapter 5 then, specifically Jesus' words. You need to know that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is dealing with a whole host of issues. Just like in our journey in Corinthians, Paul was correcting the Corinthians, here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is correcting the mis-teachings of the religious leaders of the first century Hebrew followers of God, of Yahweh. Often He says, you have heard it said, but I say to you. Now many have taken this to mean, you've heard the Old Testament say this, but the New Testament says this. But if we look more closely, it's not Jesus saying that the Old Testament is done away with. But rather, you have heard it said about these things. But I say unto you. One instance is necessary before we move on. Jesus in Matthew 5.43 says this, you have heard that it is said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you. Where in the law of God does it say love your neighbor and hate your enemy? I would submit to you that it doesn't. Jesus is correcting as he's teaching. He does so with oaths. So what's going on? Well, the Pharisees had taken the position that only oaths sworn in the name of God, Leviticus 19.12, Numbers 30.2, Deuteronomy 23.21 are some examples. Only oaths sworn in the name of God had to be kept. but not promises made by trickery of words. So they had kind of moved to the position that if I really want to tell the truth, if I really want to give an oath, I will swear by the name of God. Deuteronomy 6.13, our text for tonight. But often I might swear by lesser things, like heaven, the stars. And these things didn't necessarily always have to be kept. That takes us to our text. Verse 33 of Matthew 5. Again you have heard it said, to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make, only God can, one hair white or black. But let your yes be yes, and your no, no. Leviticus 19.12 reads this way, You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. This connects us to last week's text of the third commandment. Swearing falsely, In the name of God is a breaking of the third commandment. It profanes the name of the Lord. Jesus says in verse 34 of Matthew, but I say to you, do not take an oath. The Pharisees had begun to utilize a deceptive system of oaths. Turn over a few chapters with me to Matthew chapter 23. Matthew 23, you can see this more fully there. Matthew 23, verse 16. Listen to what Jesus says, Matthew 23, verse 16. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing. But whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. fools and blind. For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing. But whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind. For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple swears by it. and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it. See, Jesus is ultimately teaching this. The sincerity of an oath is based on the truthfulness set in God's presence. these religious leaders, these blind guides, as Jesus would call them, had created a system where the sincerity of an oath was judged based on how closely it could connect to God's name. The closer you got to God's name, the more important it was to keep it. For example, swearing by earth or heaven was not binding, nor was swearing by Jerusalem, but swearing toward Jerusalem was. An entire Jewish writing discussed this. An extant copy of this Jewish writing that discusses this whole system. Jesus' point is this, no matter what a man swears by, that thing is related to God in some way. You can see that in our text, verses 34-36. So if you swear by earth, whose earth is it? If you swear by the city of Jerusalem, whose city is it? If you swear by your own hair, your own head, whose head is it? Therefore, every oath is connected to God and His name. The point is that the ultimate interpretation of the Old Testament, of this law, is honesty and truthfulness. You don't get to get out of telling the truth because you use some other term to swear by. You don't get to say, well, I'm going to trick a person and say I swear by heaven because that's not God. But if I swore by God's name, then I would have to keep it. Honesty and truthfulness. Is Jesus then doing away with those? It appears that way on the surface. Is he contradicting Deuteronomy 6.13? No longer shall you take a vow. No longer shall you make an oath. No longer shall you swear in God's name. No, he's not. All throughout the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is correcting certain statements. For instance, two passages before in verse 27, Jesus is speaking about adultery, the seventh commandment there. And he says this in verse 29 of Matthew 5, If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. Now I ask you, does Jesus want us to mutilate our bodies? Certainly not. Dare. He's using exaggerated language to cause us to see the necessity to avoid lust. Here, Jesus is correcting, once again, to cause people to avoid lying. Listen to some passages of Scripture. Numbers 30 verse 2. If a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. It's pretty clear the Old Testament law says that vows and oaths are to be taken, but honored as if said in God's name. In fact, God swears oaths in order to help people believe. Genesis 9 verses 9 through 11. Acts 2, verses 27-31. And Hebrews 6. Turn to that one with me. Hebrews 6. I don't know if you remember that passage, but that's the one where God actually swears to keep His covenant. And do you remember what He has to swear by? If you're God, the infinite, unchanging, eternal One, what do you swear by? Hebrews 6, verse 13, For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. By two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to laid hold of the hope set before us. It's another sermon, but I'm tempted to preach it. Looking for assurance of faith, The very first place you go is not the way that you feel. It's not your works or lack thereof. It is God's promise. God has promised to save a people and He has sworn to keep His Word. God's promise to save, the oath that God has taken, is, according to the writer of Hebrews, our strong hope in the midst of struggles with doubt. God promises by an oath. to save his covenant people. Perhaps we'll deal more with that text in the coming weeks. But for now, see that the Old Testament law speaks of taking oaths. God himself swears oaths. And it appears by all account that early Christians took oaths. Let's just listen to a few examples. Romans 1.9, Paul writes, for God is my witness. He's telling something and utilizing God's name to back up the truthfulness of the statement. That would be a breaking of the third commandment, if he didn't mean it. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you. 2 Corinthians 1.23, he does it again. But I call God to witness against me. It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. He does it when writing to the Philippians. Philippians 1.8, for God is my witness. In other words, I swear by God's name. I'm taking an oath by the name of God. How I yearn for you all with affection of Christ Jesus. So we have two options. Either the Old Testament law and the New Testament Apostle Paul are out of sync with the teachings of Jesus on oaths. Or what Jesus is after is not a literal forbidding of taking oaths like we see in Paul's writings and like we see in the Old Testament, but rather a correcting of an understanding of what it means to swear something and utilize God's name. Some people through the years take literally what Jesus is saying here. The early Anabaptists, we did not come from them by the way, talk to me later on that if you like. The early Anabaptists, the Jehovah's Witnesses among others, say that what Jesus is saying here is that we literally can't ever take an oath, that things have changed, that God has changed His mind. But it appears that the thrust of Jesus' teaching in these two texts in Matthew is not about a doing away with oaths, but about doing away with deceptive practices. And showing the goal of God's law has always been honesty, integrity, and truth. So what does Jesus say in his summary statement in Matthew 5.37? Let your yes be yes, and your no, no. and realize that you don't get to get out of truthfulness if you invoke something slightly less than God's name. For whatever you swear by, it is God's. And so you need to make your promises in truthfulness. Friends, where do you and I, like the Pharisees, work to be dishonest? How is it that we create our own system of dishonesty? Maybe it's tax season. Maybe it's in certain relationships. Maybe it's clocking in and out of work. Maybe it's making up little white lies to avoid big black lies or vice versa. How do we work to be dishonest? And we need to hear Jesus's command. No, Jesus is not doing away with oaths. So if you're called to go to a courtroom and testify, Should you lay your hand on a Bible? Should you promise in the name of God? There, as you do it, you, among all people, Christian, need to know that what you're saying is calling down the name of God as an act of worship. God is a God of truth. And it is by this God of truth that I swear that what I am about to say is true. Jesus correcting, as He often does, the leaders of His day. I've said this before, but I like his treatment in this. Sam Waldron, writing about our confession of faith, gives eight reasons why oaths are biblically acceptable. I'll just read them to you. If you want this source document, see me later. I think they're helpful. Number one, the command not to swear vainly or falsely in God's name assumes that they are lawful. Exodus 20, verse 7. Number two, the command to swear only in God's name assumes that they're lawful. Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 6. Number 3, the example of God Himself indicates their lawfulness. We looked at Hebrews 6. Number 4, the example of many Old Testament saints indicates that they're lawful. Number 5, the law of Moses required oaths in certain situations. Number 6, the prophets predict certain things. And this indicates, as they swear these things, their lawfulness. Number seven, Christ's example indicates the lawfulness of oaths. Matthew 26, verses 62 to 64. And number eight, Paul's example indicates their lawfulness. You may say to yourself, I probably have gone my whole Christian life and never heard a sermon on how we should take oaths. And yet an ancient, or nearly ancient, catechism asks the question, why even ask? But is it so much that it's a strange topic? Or rather, is it that in most of our days we don't think about these things? Because we don't even give it a thought when we invoke God's name, or place our hand on the Bible. And yet, these here in the 1500s, took it as serious that anytime I invoke the name of God, I want to be clear that I am not breaking the third commandment. I want to have such a reverence for His name that I don't even want to make a promise in His name without being sure that it is lawful to do so. So as we close, five simple lessons for us. Five simple lessons. Number one, Swearing by the name of the Lord is an act of worship. Swearing by the name of the Lord is an act of worship. We could appeal to various texts, like Romans 12, for instance, among other places, that all that we do should be acts of worship. Yes. But more specifically, when we invoke the name of God In our oaths, in our promises, we are saying, God is the God of truth. And it is by this God, in this God's presence, before this God's face, that I am saying these things. And I don't ever want any action that I do to be out of step with the God who is, not has, but is truth. Swearing by the name of the Lord is an act of worship. But another lesson in this discussion is this. We need to consider only making promises in the name of the Lord with reverence before God. How often have we just casually thrown up the name of the Lord, or promised, or placed our hand on the Bible, or taken some kind of oath for work, without even thinking, I'm using the name of the Lord, the Scriptures of the Lord, This is an act of worship, yes, but I want to do it with reverence. For this is the God who most of the people in front of me don't believe in and don't see, but I know He's real and I know He's here and I know that it is His eyes and His name that I am before and that I use. So I want to do it with reverence. And I don't want to say anything. invoking His name that I don't intend to keep. A third lesson, I think, directly from Jesus' teaching. We need to be people who say things without trickery. We've all done it. We've all failed in this way. We've said things that are less than truthful, that are slightly deceptive. We've manipulated words in such a way that there's a trickery there. It doesn't make us unsaved. It just makes us ever so much less looking like who we're called to be. We need to be people who speak without trickery. Number four, when we speak an oath, a vow, a promise, we need to do it with a commitment to keep it and back it up. Boys and girls, we live in a day where many people make promises and they break them. They promise to be faithful to a spouse. They promise to love a child. They promise to do a job. They take an oath. They take a vow. They take an oath of office. And it doesn't really mean anything. It's just become a formality. But our Christ calls us to be people who have commitments to keep. We back them up. And sometimes, even if they will bring us negative consequences, but probably the final lesson and most basic. Are we a people who live lives of honesty, remembering that we live before the face of God? Do the words that come out of our mouth Do the promises that we make, do the oaths and vows that we make, do we do those things remembering at all times that we're doing them before the face of God? Quorum Deo, the Latin phrase is, before the face of God. Do we live our lives, but do our words come out of our mouths as if God is watching what I'm saying? So I want to be truthful. Because the reality is, I can say any manner of things and only a few of the lies will you be able to pick up on. It is not so with God. God is a God who knows truth. He is truth. And he calls us to live lives of simple honesty. The Dutch theologian, Willemus Abrakel, in the year 1700, wrote a long exposition of doctrine, which often the Dutch Reformed followers would use in addition to the Heidelberg Catechism. And taking up this question of, shall we swear by the name of God? He writes this, consider the third commandment attentively. The Lord shall not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Observe what is written in the following passages. Or shall he break the covenant and be delivered? Ezekiel 17, 15. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name. And it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof. Zechariah 5, 4. Hear therefore what the Lord says, and I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against false swearers." Malachi 3.5. Therefore, you who find yourself guilty ought to fear and make haste to repent before judgment is executed upon you. From now on, Observe your oath with diligence or let go of your office. It is better to be poor and beg for bread than to be guilty of perjury and have abundance. Be fearful of the oath. And if you are called upon to swear an oath, do not hesitate to bear witness to the truth. However, Give heed that you do it in a holy manner, lest you have remorse afterwards." So in the discussion of God's law, one of the practical things comes up. Because God's name is so holy and so to be revered, I don't even want to promise something by it, unless I'm absolutely sure that I'm allowed by the Word of God. And what does the Word of God say to this matter? Yes, just remember in whose name you make these pledges. And by His grace, only use His name for truth, because God is not a God of lies. Let's pray. And so Lord, breakers of the third commandment, and of the ninth commandment of telling the truth. Breakers of these commandments are we. And yet, by your grace, you have redeemed us and called us to see Christ's wounds, purging us of our sins and purging us of not keeping wholly your name, even in the way that we use it to promise something. And now by his wounds cleaned, we are and you call us henceforth to move out in truthfulness and to see even the use of your name is an opportunity to worship you and to remember you and to see your name is so holy. But only truth is associated with it. Lord, help your people to rightly understand your word. Help us, even in the day in and day out discussion of oaths and promises, to worship you, the God whose name is holy, holy, holy. We pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen.