Sacrifices Part 5: Multiple Choice or True/False Christian Living
Scripture: Exodus 20:7-17; Matthew 5:13-7:27
Introduction
For the last couple of weeks we have been discussing how we live our lives as Christians as either as a multiple choice question or as a true or false question. The multiple choice person looks upon every situation as if there are multiple right answers to the problem. The true or false person lives as if every situation has only one right response for a Christian. The two groups often disagree and both have pretty good arguments as to why their way of living is the best way. This morning we will continue with the series and I hope that you are starting to understand which type of question best describes your way of living. Please turn to Exodus the twentieth chapter as we will deal only with swearing and making an oath in this message. (And to save a tree, I will not be utilizing the pre-test.)
I. Swearing / Making An Oath
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” Exodus 20:7
Swearing has two definitions that we will focus on this morning. The first definition is “to make a solemn declaration with an appeal to God to confirm it; to make a solemn promise or vow.” The second definition is “to use profane language; curse.” Both of these definitions will be appropriate for what we will look at pertaining to swearing an oath and swearing in general. So let’s begin with the swearing of an oath.
When you watch a court show on TV, when they bring a witness to the witness stand, they “swear” them in. One of the statements they make goes like this: “Do you swear/promise to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?” This question is used because in times past people would not lie after swearing to tell the truth in the name of God. However, today regardless of how the oath is given, people will still lie on the stand. Our society acknowledges God in this statement, even to the person who does not believe in God. But the problem is that this whole process causes us to violate what the word of God says. How many times have you been in conversation with someone and in the heat of the conversation someone questions whether or not you are telling the truth? The common response to this question is this: “I swear to you I am telling you the truth!” Using this statement is the acceptable “proof” that someone is telling the absolutely truth. We have perfected this statement to the point that our body language changes when we use this statement and often encourages the other person to believe us. We often give the shocked look of unbelief that what we are saying is even being questioned. During biblical times giving an oath was the strongest confession you could make as it was completely binding. People did not take these oaths lightly. When you swore to someone that you would do something it was binding. Oftentimes people would add additional credibility to the oath by putting God’s name in it. Again, this was done to convince the other person that they could believe what was being said or promised, even if the person making the promise knew they would not keep it.
In Exodus 20:7, God said that we should not take His Name in vain and punishment awaits those that do. Because of the commonality in which people made oaths and used God’s name to confirm or prove them, God told them stop doing it – period. At the time that Moses gave them the command, the multiple choice thinkers interpreted that it was okay to use God’s name in an oath as long as you upheld what you were saying or promising. In other words, if they used God’s name when they swore an oath and they kept it that was okay. They believed that it was only a sin if they made an oath using God’s name and did not keep it. If you used God’s name and did not keep the oath/promise, then and only then were you taking God’s name in vain; as in using God’s name with false oath, one that was not kept. Any promise made using God’s name had to be kept; there were no excuses for not keeping one. The practice of using God’s name in an oath continued throughout the Old Testament. However, when Jesus addressed this, He clarified what the true meaning of what God desired from us. Turn to Matthew the fifth chapter.
“Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or “No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.” Matthew 5:33-37
In these verses Jesus makes the statement that although it had been taught that you should not make a false vow, He said you should not make any vow/oath at all. This may sound strange, but you must understand the reason He said this. Ask yourself this question: “Why do we make vows and/or oaths?” We make them to validate what we want someone to believe. If we are making a statement or promise, we swear an oath so that the person we are interacting with will not only accept it, but believe us. On the surface this does not seem like a bad thing – but consider this. If your reputation was that you always told the absolute truth, would you ever have to make a promise/oath that you would do something? If you always told the truth, would ever have to prove to someone that the things you were saying were true? If you always told the truth, would anyone ever question you about telling the truth? If you always told the truth, would you ever have to swear that you were telling the truth? The answer to each of these questions is “No!” According to what Jesus said, the only people who would ever need to swear an oath are those who do not have the reputation of keeping them and therefore the act can have it root in evil. Jesus said that we should live our lives so that our word as given is enough and no additional oath or promise is necessary. This can be a hard pill to swallow especially since we live in a world that expects us to swear an oath. It is the acceptable practice that when someone tell you they are going to do something we respond with “You promise?” Our kids, even at a small age understand what it means to make a promise versus just saying you will do something. We have elevated the promise making to the point that we will only believe someone if they make a promise. When someone fails to do something, we do not say “But you said you would!”, we say “But you promised!” Our word alone is not good enough unless it is made with a promise. This is what Jesus was talking about – our lives should be such that when we speak, it is a given that it will be done. The implications here are vast. If every time you opened your mouth and spoke something that you knew would be done, can you imagine what we as Christians could accomplish?
We must decide if the expectation of the world is more important than God’s command. If we decide that God’s command out weighs the world’s then we can no longer ask someone “Do you swear…..or promise?” Once we all get to the point where we live our lives by speaking only the truth, then we will no longer have to swear in order to get someone to believe us. The ownership of this is on each of us. If people are constantly asking you to “swear” about something, then that is because either your history has proven that you do not keep your word or they treat everyone that way because of something in their past. Regardless of the reason, if we are going to change our walk, we must first start living the truth. Once we start living the truth, we must refuse to swear about something we are promising or speaking of as the truth. Our word should be enough – if our lives are evident of truth.
II. Swearing – Cussing – Using The Lord’s Name In Vain
Swearing in the making of an oath is just one type of swearing. The second type of swearing that most of us are very familiar with is what is known as “cussing”, using profanity. Using profanity is wrong whether or not you use God’s name or not.
Almost everyone in this room has cursed at some point in the past. We have spoken words that were considered profanity without even thinking about the overall consequences. We have mistakenly assumed that using profanity with or without God’s name was not the same thing as using God’s name in vain. So to address this, I want to give you a few examples. These examples are meant to be just that so that I can make this as clear as possible. As you listen to these, I am not judging anyone for many of these I have said myself in my youth. I remember as a child sitting around with friends and trying to see who could come up with the longest sentence using primarily cuss words. Yes looking back on it I can see the stupidity in it – but that was in my past. What I am talking about now, is what remain in some of our present. As I told you earlier, when we truly begin making sacrifices to God in our worship of Him, there are things that we will need to walk away from and this one, even though it feels goods to use the words, is one of them. Here are a few examples of swearing, cursing and “cussing” that we consider as being okay in extreme circumstances yet are all offensive to the God we serve. Because all of you reading this will know what the words are, you spare me from having to literally write then out and I will have to remember not to say them from the pulpit. If these examples offend any of you, let me apologize now. (I apologize that you seeing these statements in a sermon text offended you. I just hope and pray moving forward that you will continue to be offended if you hear them spoken.) Here are some examples that we deem okay in extreme circumstances (extreme circumstances being anytime we want to use the word.)
• You stump your toe and you say: “God d…. it!”
• You stump your toe and you’re a Christian so you just say “D…. it, or use several other four letter words.” But you make sure you do not say “God”.
• You get made at someone and say: “Just go to h…!”
• You turn on the news and see a shocking story and say “S_ _ _!”
• You see someone who has angered you and you call them a “Mother…….”
• Someone cuts you off in traffic and you call them an A….hole”
• Someone makes you angry and you say they “P…… you off.”
• A woman frustrates you or you’re just talking street slang and call her a “B……”
• Your kids are frustrating you and you yell “Jesus Christ, sit down!!!!!”
• Your spouse is nagging you and you say, “For the love of God will you please shut the …… up!!” (You can fill in the blank.)
We all recognize that most of these statements would be considered cussing, using profanity and/or taking the Lord’s name in vain. Some of the words people feel it is okay to say because they are in the Bible. For example, damned, hell, ass, and piss are all in the Bible but are not used the way that we use them. Some people believe that if you are just using profanity but you’re not using God’s name, although it is not good, it is not necessarily sinning – it is just words. Again, I take you back to the point I made earlier in this series, what you do and what you say matters. Consider what Jesus said in Mark the seventh chapter.
In the seventh chapter of Mark, the Pharisees and some of the scribes witnessed some of Jesus disciples eating bread with “impure” or unwashed hands. During this time, Jews became ceremonially defiled during the normal circumstances of daily life and were cleansed by pouring water over the hands. This was one of the “traditions” of the Jewish rabbis. After the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish rabbis began to make meticulous rules and regulations governing the daily life of the people. These were interpretations and applications of the Law of Moses handed down from generation to generation. By the time of Christ, these “traditions” out weighed everything else, included the Scriptures. It was a major sin to eat anything without first washing your hands, cups, plates, utensils, etc. So when the Pharisees saw them eating with hands that had not been washed, they questioned Jesus about it – actually it was more of an accusation. Jesus immediately told them that they placed their traditions above the word of God and that they were following God with their lips only while their hearts were far from Him. One of the things Jesus said to them is what we have been talking about in this series. He told them that their traditions were actually invalidating the word of God (Mark 7:12-13). But look at what Jesus said to the crowd in verse 15: “There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.”
Later Jesus explains what some of those things were that came out of the man. He said, evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, etc all come out of the man because they were things that originated in the man’s heart. It is the things within our hearts which defile us. When we choose to use profanity it originates within our hearts and thus defile us. Even though it may be there, we do not have to give in to the desire to speak the words – we can make different choices. Yes I know that saying “Gosh darn it” does not carry the same appeal, but it does help clean up what is in our hearts. Now when it comes to using God’s name in vain, not only are you being defiled, you’re really sinning against God. If you knew the things you were doing were defiling you, would you continue to do it. If you knew eating ice cream would kill you, would you continue to eat it a gallon of it a day? Yes I know some people would, but a physical death does not compare to a spiritual one.
So let me get back to my point. Even though it is acceptable in the world to use profanity and to take the Lord’s name in vain, it does not make it acceptable to God or for Christians. Jesus said that the things which come out of us – out of our mouth or through our actions are what defile us. Many of us are being defiled every other time that we open our mouths. Consider the following verses:
“But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak.” Matthew 12:36
“But now put away and rid yourselves (completely) of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!” Colossians 3:8
“Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word or unwholesome or worthless talk (ever) come out of your mouth, but only such (speech) as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God’s favor) to those who hear it. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God (do not offend or vex or sadden Him), by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin.)” Ephesians 4:29-30
“Let there be no filthiness (obscenity, indecency) nor foolish and sinful (silly and corrupt) talk, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting or becoming; but instead voice your thankfulness (to God). Ephesians 5:4
Now I do not profess to be any type of scholar, but I do understand from these verses that using profanity is not something that Christians should be doing. There are a lot of conversations that we are having that we should not be having as Christians, and yet for some reason, we are not troubled at all by them. We will curse and not give a second thought to it. We will call someone a name and keep right on going. We say things in private that only we can hear and through all of this, we are grieving the Holy Spirit of God. I told a family member once that he did not need to stop cussing around me just because I was a minister. He told me that he was trying to respect me. I shared with him that he should respect God more than me and if he was comfortable cussing in front of God and His Holy Spirit, he should feel fine cussing in front of me. This statement would not work for someone who did not consider themselves a Christian. But this family member did consider himself a Christian and I was trying to make sure he understood that he would not stand before me on the Day of Judgment, but before God. After he listened to what I said he told me that I was correct and he should not put me before God. With that being said, he started cussing again because he had no plans to stop because God “had not” told him he needed to. Does this sound like some of the conversations we have with Christians who are just waiting for God (and not man) to tell them to stop doing something? I want to impress upon each of you that what comes out of our mouth defiles us.
I will conclude this series next week. Although I could the rest of the year giving you examples of how we are invalidating God’s word, I think you have enough for your foundation – the rest is up to you. Next week I will close out this series on sacrifices by really explaining that we are called to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. That living sacrifice – the image you present to others, is what people will see as a reflection of the God you serve. You image means a lot. Before I close, I want to share with you something I witness on this past Thursday morning. I was at a breakfast meeting when I saw a young man come into the restaurant to fill out an application for a job. Although I do not know what he put on the application, I do believe that he will not be called for an interview. The image that he presented to the assistant manager was not one of someone who wanted the job. He was dressed in jeans that were sagging and barely hanging on his butt. He had on a sweat shirt jacket with a hood that was two sizes too large for him. Although his clothes appeared to be clean, he was not dressed as if he really wanted and expected to get that job. Young people, understand this, how you present yourself is how others will see and respond to you. If you present yourself as sloppy and not caring about how you look, that is what others will perceive. Adults, remember how you present yourself will be how others perceive you. If you present yourself as someone who cannot speak a complete sentence without using curse words, that is what others will see. If you only “cuss” when you’re angry, excited or injured, that is what others will see. You are a living sacrifice.
Until next week, may God’s blessings be yours.
