INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• There are so many traps out there for us to fall into aren’t there.
• We have been spending the past 4 weeks looking at 8 ways we can be a bad Christian.
• I believe that the value of this series is that we can look at some of the mistakes of the past and learn from them so we do not repeat them.
• Today we will look at trap number five.
• Have you ever been around a person who always had a reason they did not do something they promised? You know what I am talking about, that person who makes big promises yet delivers very little.
• There is always some elaborate explanation as to why you were let down.
• This problem is nothing new.
• Today we are going to look back at a problem that the religious leaders of Jesus day were really struggling with. As we look at their struggle, we will see what the Lord had to say about it and we will then make an application for today.
• One of the things we need to do is to make sure that we are living well within the will of the God we serve.
• It is so easy for us to rationalize our deviations from God’s path.
• Let’s begin by looking at Matthew 23:16-22
• SLIDE #2
• Matthew 23:16-22 (ESV) 16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
• We will begin by looking at the way the religious leaders lived life in Jesus day.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. LIVING BY LOOPHOLES.
• Jesus was once again scolding the leaders for their lack of integrity in the area of keeping their word.
• Jesus calls them blind guides in verse 16, blind fools in verse 16, and blind men in verse 19.
• The ritualism of the leaders was blinding them to God’s ways. Their practices were both irritating and morally bankrupt.
• Apparently, the Pharisees “ruled” that an oath could only be made with something you could use as collateral. That way, if someone lied, there could be financial repercussions. Therefore, oaths made by the temple or its altar were not valid, but oaths made by the gold of the temple or the offering on the altar were valid.
• But their motive behind this hair-splitting was deception. Their application of principles to moral questions allowed them to rob people “religiously.”
• As you look at the text, it seems pretty ridiculous doesn’t it.
• In the Near East, people often would “swear by” something or make oaths. However, they would avoid making oaths using God’s name or a sacred object (such as the temple or the altar) because they believed that then the oath was binding. Moses’ law kept them from swearing by God’s name, so an elaborate system was created to make vows less binding.
• The closer the basis of the vow was to God’s name, the more binding it was. The Jew then would swear an oath by peripheral objects, like the temple or the altar in the temple, so he could break his oath if needed.
• The idea was that a person would be bound if he swore by something greater than himself; so there was an ascending scale of values and of binding power.
• If you swear by the Temple, it means nothing, but if you swear by the gold in the temple, then you have to keep your oath?
• If you would swear by the alter it meant nothing but if you swore by the gift on the alter, then it meant something?
• It kind of seems to me that these folks were always looking for an angle to get out of keeping their word.
• This says a lot about their character, these were people who claimed to be leading people in their relationship with God, they claimed to be the bastions of the truth about God, yet they could themselves be trusted.
• These folks were always looking for loopholes to keep from doing what they were called to do.
• Look at another example found in Matthew 15:1-6
• SLIDE #4
• Matthew 15:1-6 (ESV)1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
• Here is an instance were these people who “dedicate” their stuff to God in order to avoid having to take care of their parents.
• If you notice, when you are always looking for loopholes it will affect what you do for God and how you live for Him.
• I wonder how long it took the people to realize they could not trust the character of their leaders?
• Let’s look at what Jesus had to say about this practice.
• SLIDE #5
II. A LESSON FROM THE LORD.
• Let’s look at verses 19-22 again.
• SLIDE #6
• Matthew 23:19-22 (ESV) 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
• Jesus said that the purpose of oaths was not financial security but honesty. You keep your word, not because you might lose money by breaking it, but because you are answerable to a higher power, ultimately God.
• Jesus took it even one step further. When you swear by either the temple or its altar, you swear by him who owns them both. Even if you swear by heaven or its throne, you swear by him who dwells therein.
• This logic could be extrapolated to all the earth and its contents. Therefore, every oath is equally binding.
• Jesus told them they needed to quite splitting hairs to keep from keeping their word.
• It was time to quit looking for loopholes.
• We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
• SLIDE #7
• 2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV)10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
• In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said not to use oaths at all (Mt 5:33-37).
• SLIDE #8
• Matthew 5:33-37 (ESV)33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 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.
• The bottom line is that we are to be honest people. Any need for oaths, crossed fingers, or legal fine print is not what we are to be about.
• WE should not have to swear, our word should be all that is needed.
• Do many of you remember the days when your word was your bond? Life was a lot less complex then wasn’t it.
• Jesus tells us we should not live our lives looking for loopholes.
• SLIDE #9
• Let’s look at living without loopholes.
III. LIVING WITHOUT LOOPHOLES.
• We have seen what the religious leaders were up to again, and we saw that Jesus said we need to be people who keep their words and vows.
• Jesus was not teaching something new.
• SLIDE #10
• Psalm 50:14 (ESV)14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,
• Psalm 56:12 (ESV)12 I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
• It is significant that in each of those quotations the keeping of vows to God is directly related to praise and thankfulness to Him.
• I want us to go a bit deeper in our application.
• What does it mean to live a life without loopholes?
• It means that for one, we will be keepers of our word. When we say we will do something, we will do it. We will not look for ways of escape nor will we break our word because keeping it would cost us something.
• I know I have had Christians promise me things in the past only to see them not carry though with what they promised. It is one thing to get sick or injured and not be able to do something.
• I have had folks promise to help get a program going or help in some other way only to see them back off that promise when it got a little tough or things were not moving as quickly as one would want.
• Sadly it gets to the point where you start having to take it with a grain of salt when something is promised.
• I believe many Christians cheat themselves out of blessings because they do not perform their vows per se as the David proclaimed in Psalm 56:12.
• Secondly, we must also be people who take their commitment to Jesus seriously. We need to make sure we are not looking to walk in a thin line all the time.
• We need to make sure we are not a people who try to get away with as much as possible and still stay in God’s will. We should be looking to stay in the center of God’s will for us.
• We cannot always be looking for loopholes so we can behave badly.
• We need to keep the vows we made to God when we gave our lives to Him. We need to be faithful to the vows that we made to our spouses when we married them.
• WE cannot be people who break their word or their vows when we feel like it.
• We need to be faithful at work, when we go to school or when we are at home.
• We cannot take a break from being faithful to what we promised when we gave our lives to Jesus!
• When we fall short in this area, it will hurt our ability to reach people because we will be no different than those of the world.
• Think long and hard before you promise something, make sure you are willing to carry it out.
CONCLUSION
• What about you? Do you know that God is faith to all of His word? Are you ready to make a commitment to Him this morning?
• God promises salvation, new life, forgiveness of sin, the promise of eternal life for those who will come to Him.
• Are you ready?
