"Embrace the Truth"
Pastor Paul Frey

READ Matt. 5:33-37

In our text, our Lord refers to the employment of oaths in the Old testament to handle relational matters. This was necessary to restrain from the lying tongue. Some examples of this are as follows:

1. To establish truth re: hurt to a man's property. Exodus 22:11 says, "Then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbor's goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good."

2. To see promises fulfilled - ie: restoration of property lost to greedy landowners . Nehemiah 5:T2,13 says, "Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise. Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the Lord. And the people did according to this promise."

3. To confirm fidelity in marriage. Numbers 5:19 says, "And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse."

4. To declare sincerity in Israel's return to the Lord. II Chronicles 15:12-13 says, "And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman."

5. To make an agreement binding as in the case of Joshua and the Gibeonites. Joshua 9:19-20 says, "But all the princes said unto the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel: now therefore we amy not touch them. This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them."

6. To end disputes. Hebrews 6:16 says, "For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to the an end of all strife."

The Pharisees, in order to have a loophole to escape perjury added the heaven, the earth, Jerusalem, even a man's head, upon which to take their oath's leaving a system of binding and non-binding oaths. Jesus responded to this in our .text and also in Matthew 23:16-22. Then in Matt. 5:37, our Lord states plainly what is to be the standard for those in the kingdom of God. "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." In other words, just speak the truth. This should be the number one character trait of those in the kingdom of God, our badge of honor to glorify.

If we claim God as our Father, every lie lived out or spoken will accomplish the following:

a: it profanes the Name of the Lord. Leviticus 19:11,12 says, "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord."

b: it glorifies the father of lies. John 8:44 says, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and father of it."

c: it opens the door to Satan... Ephesians 4:27 says, "Neither give place to the devil." And Acts 5:3 says, "But

Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land."

d: it always causes suffering in one form or another as in the case of Jacob's sons lying to their father about his favorite son, Joseph whom they sold for filthy lucre. -Gen.37

e: it breaks the unity within the body. Ephesians 4:25 says, "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another."

There are at -least five different ways of telling a lie and I believe to some extent, Christians are sometimes guilty of all five. Exaggeration is a pitfall for many. Whether it is to impress the listener or to attract attention it is a very common form of lying. A lie like this can be very costly as in the case of the exaggerated majority report brought back by the ten spies sent out by Moses to spy out the promised land. They and all those of their generation died in the wilderness and never saw the promised land. If God wrote a book about us in our lies of exaggeration, it would be interesting to see what it cost us. Another common lie is to say things that we don't really mean. Sometimes it is in the form of flattery or well wishes that is not really meant. The word insincerity is the best word to describe this kind of lie. One of the best ways to determine what people really think about you apart from their words is to observe how their children respond to you. They hear at home how their parents really feel about a person and then they reflect that attitude. That is the wonderful thing about children, they are honest. An illustration from scriptures in this kind of lie is found in Acts 24 where Tertullius, an orator representing the high priest and the Jews, flattered the Roman Governor, Felix with words he could not possibly have meant, because the Jews had no love affair with the Romans; they hated them. How often are we guilty of nice pleasant talk when inwardly there are words formed with dagger points,

The third kind of lie is when caught in an unpleasant, or costly predicament, or even a business dealing the conversation becomes slanted and tailored to protect self-interest. It is the opposite of the Psalmist in Psalm 15, who swears to his own hurt. How wonderful to wear that kind of a badge of honor to speak the truth, no matter the cost.

The fourth kind of lie is to agree to something which betrays one's conviction about that matter.

Pilate was convinced that Jesus was innocent, but he betrayed his conviction because of expediency. In lesser degree, we as Christians are sometimes guilty of that same type of a lie.

The fifth kind of lie is a blatant falsehood. How wonderful it every child of God would have the spirit of the Psalmist who wrote in Psalm 119:128, "Therefore, I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way."

C. H. Spurgeon has written some gems pertaining to truth that bear repeating: ...truth needs nothing to help it out. ...truth seeks no corners and fears scorners.

. ..truth should not swim in the brain but sink in the heart.

...truth gives a short answer-lies go round about.

Our words that many times are thoughtless, sometimes careless, and sometimes coated with the fragrance of a lie are of the greatest importance as Scriptures sets forth in Matthew 12:36,37 which says, "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in th&.-da-y of Judgment. For by thy words, thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." And again in Proverbs 22:.20,21 which says, "Have not I written unto thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send you."

There remaineth yet one more kind of lie that Christians are often guilty of, maybe the worst of them all. The lie of attributing to the Lord something in which He had no part at all. For example, how many times have you ever heard a testimony where stated: "The Lord led me to do this or that when in reality the person was only following their selfish bent. Or when things don't go right, the Lord is blamed. How well Proverbs 19:3 addresses this profaning the Lord: "The foolishness of man perverteth his way; and his heart fretteth against the Lord." May our hearts be delivered from the snare of this foolishness. It is better to keep our mouth shut if their is any doubt at all about those things that we attribute to the Lord. We think of cursing as to what is meant in the third commandment about

taking the name of the Lord in vain... but to charge the Lord with anything that is not true, makes one just as guilty as the man with the foul mouth.

There are three ways that will enable a man to always embrace the truth. First, there has to be a love to hear the truth. Proverbs 7:3 emphasizes this so very well..."#eep My commandments and live; and My law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy. fingers and write them upon the table of thine heart." And again in Psalm 119:97 which says, "O, how love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.''' And again in Psalm 1 it says, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law doth he meditate day and night." And in Psalm 119:163 it says, "I hate and abhor lying, but Thy law do I love." If a person really loves the Word of God, he will spend a minimum, of at least 30 minutes each day in the Word, in quality time. And as you read, may your heart receive it as though it is speaking to you personally and in truth, this is what is happening every time the Bible is read.

The second way necessary in helping us to always embrace the truth is to always speak the truth. Psalm 15 is one of my favorite Psalms. It begins with a question: "Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?" Now notice the answer: "He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honoreth them who fear the Lord; he that sweareth to his own hurt. and changeth not." (Psalm 15:1-4) many times a Christian can learn the art of verbalizing his faith but oft times what is in his heart does not correspond with his words.

The following illustration will explain this. "A large family sat around the table for breakfast one morning, and as was his custom, the father returned thanks, blessing God for the food. However, as was his bad habit, he began to grumble about hard times, the poor quality of food he was forced to eat, the way it was cooked and much more. Finally, his daughter interrupted him saying -''father, do you suppose God heard what you said a little while ago?" "Certainly, he replied with the confident air of an instructor." And continued his daughter "Did He heard what you said about the bacon and the coffee?" "Of course," the father replied, but his confidence was quickly disappearing. His little girl then asked him the last question; "Father, which did God believe?" How many times have we ever imitated this father. This leads into one third way necessary to embrace the truth and that is to live the truth. To live the truth, we must needs be the salt and light that Jesus commanded from those in the kingdom of God. Matthew 5:13-16 says, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, sand to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven."

Sometimes, professing Christians who know how to use the right religious vocabulary, yet in many ways are living a lie, turn non-believers away from the gospel. A Christian who is living a lie is a phony in the world's eyes, and rightly so.... The church lives a lie when it imitates the world in carrying out its program as commanded by the Lord. Dr. Richard Halverson, former chaplain of the U.S Senate said, "The church today, in this generation had followed the world's .criteria for success." Adolph Hitler once said, "The way to succeed is to lie."- Whether lived or said a lie is always a lie regardless of it form. To live the truth is so important that in the last two epistles of John, II John 4, and III John 4, we read these words: "I have no greater joy than to hear my children are walking in the truth." In other words. our walk must match our talk. The number one character trait of one who is in the kingdom of God, is to always speak the truth and live the truth. As exhorted in Ephesians 4:25 "Put away lying [every form of it] and speak the truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. " A lie not only defiles the conscience but honors Satan, the father of lies and profanes the Name of the Lord, Whereas truth always honors the Lord who is the Truth and sets us free. Let us always, in every situation, embrace the truth.