Introduction

I read a story about a woman of wealth and social prominence. She wanted to have a book written about her genealogy, her history. She got a well-known author to look into her background and write a book about it. When he came back for his first report, he was a bit chagrined, because in his research he found out that one of her great grandfathers was a murderer who had been electrocuted in Sing Sing. When he said this would have to be included in his report, she pleaded with him not to put that in there. She was so socially conscious. And she said, "You have to find a way of saying that that hides the truth." So this is what was in the book. "One of her great grandfathers occupied the chair of applied electricity in one of America's best-known institutions. He was very much attached to his position and literally died in the harness."

People will go to great extremes to protect their image. We know that deceit and dealing with less than the full truth is very much a part of our culture. Our society has gotten to the place where it doesn't even expect the plain truth anymore. It's almost a lifestyle. Lewis Smedes said, "In our society the plain truth often puts one at a distinct disadvantage."

In the PBS special The Truth about Lying, Bill Moyers reported that the seven astronauts who died in the Challenger space shuttle disaster were never told of the dangers of launching in cold temperatures. A behind-the-scenes debate was going on between the engineers of Morton Thiokol on one side and the company's managers and NASA on the other. To bolster NASA's public image, information about the dangers of the launch was suppressed. When Morton Thiokol's engineers refused to give the go-ahead, they were removed from the decision-making process in spite of their serious objections. The Challenger was launched, and millions witnessed the disastrous consequences. Once the private debate became public, the world learned of NASA's deception and cover-up. Lives were lost because the truth was not told.

Intentional deception is now commonplace in almost every arena in which we move. We carefully tailor information. Politicians want the public to think certain things, and they put a spin on the truth. Executives put a spin on the facts, and a style of candor becomes more important than truth itself. We live in a world where truth and honesty is not a part of everyday life.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey ran a help wanted ad for electricians with expertise at using Sontag connectors. They got 170 responses, even though there is no such thing as a Sontag connector. The Port Authority ran the ad to find out how many applicants falsified their résumés.

Before you get too pious, take this little test:

As a part of trying to move up the career ladder, you're updating your résumés. You've heard the smart thing to do is to beef up the record a bit, give yourself a higher degree than you actually have, inflate your past salary and achievements. It won't hurt anyone, but it will increase your chances of getting a better job and a higher pay. Would you do it?

At a big warehouse store, you pick out a dozen items. In the checkout line, the clerk at the register overlooks a $55 power saw you didn't move from the shopping cart onto the counter. If you say nothing, she probably won't notice it as you leave. Even if she does, you can say you hadn't realized she missed it. Would you keep quiet about it or would you report it?

You'll soon be moving across the country. Somebody you know says if you leave without paying your rent, telephone, fuel, oil, and lighting bills, none of the companies will spend the money necessary to collect from you clear across the country. You could save a lot of money if you just split. Would you do it?

Jesus cuts right through all this stuff. He gets to the heart of the matter. It's like he knew all the things we were going to be facing in our culture. Six different times in his sermon, Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said, but I say to you …" Sometimes people think Jesus is reinterpreting the law. No, he's just giving the law its real interpretation. What he's saying is: You have put a spin on the truth by saying if you do it outwardly it's okay, but I want to tell you the core of the truth. It goes much deeper than outward performance. It goes to the very heart of your obedience.

There are two key points here. The first four verses talk about sinful duplicity, and the last verse talks about simple honesty. They're played off against each other—sinful duplicity, simple honesty.

Jesus calls us to avoid sinful duplicity

The proud Jews who were listening to Jesus as he gave this message had impeccably observed the third commandment and the ninth commandment. The third commandment is, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain," and the ninth is, "You shall not bear false witness." But like other commandments the Jews ritualistically observed, they had devised a system of getting around the truth of the commandment. In other words, they wouldn't take an oath, but they would swear by all sorts of things. They couldn't use the name Yahweh because that was a sacred name. If they swore by Yahweh, they would be bearing false witness, taking the name of the Lord in vain. So they took Yahweh out. You can get an idea of some of the other things they were swearing by as you read the text, for it says, "Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King." Obviously the Jews had found a way to take an oath and leave out the name of God, thus keeping the commandment of the Old Testament; but still using the oath to get their point across. Jesus said: You shouldn't swear at all because heaven and earth are the same to God. The earth is his footstool; Jerusalem is his city. There isn't anything or anyplace you can use as an oath that puts God out of the picture. He's going to be in the center of it no matter what you do.

The point he is making is that your yes should be yes and your no, no, and an oath should not be necessary in order to verify the veracity of your statements.

Apparently truth was as rare a commodity in the day of Jesus as it is today. They had this complex system of rationalizations they developed as Pharisees to shield people from the truth. They would cleverly use precise wording to get across that something was true. And then behind closed doors they would say, "You heard what we said out there, but you need to understand because of this part of the oath and that part of the oath it isn't a solemn oath, so we can change it if we want to. We can put a spin on it if we want to." The Pharisees were masters at it. They used the oaths of their day to drive home whatever point they wanted to make. And then they'd go on their merry way, living their pharisaical lifestyle.

Stephen Westerholm wrote a book called Jesus and Scribal Authority. He said at the time of Jesus, the name Yahweh was carefully avoided in ordinary speech to ensure it was not taken in vain. Substitutes were employed in oaths, using anything thought sacred or special. But the matter did not stop there. Rabbinic literature witnesses the widespread use of the most capricious oaths to attest even trivial statements. These oaths gave the scribes and the Pharisees a distinct advantage, because they would use these oaths on those who were not schooled in the Old Testament Scriptures, and they would fool them with their statements.

Jesus was tired of it. He got to the heart of the sinful duplicity, saying it ruined personal fellowship with God and man. Jesus was concerned about words, and he cut to the core of the major cause in the breakdown in communication. He attacked this duplicity. Jesus said, "I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter," (Matthew 12:36 NRS).

What would happen if we weighed our words as carefully as the Lord does? We use words to manipulate, to massage, to create pictures we know are not true.

Jesus calls us to practice simple honesty

Jesus gets past all this sinful duplicity and cuts to the heart, and I love the simplicity of it. "Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and let your 'No' be 'No'". Jesus is saying: Just tell the truth. Be who you are. Say what you mean.

In The message, Eugene Peterson paraphrased this little section like this:

Don't say anything you don't mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smokescreen of pious talk saying, "I'll pray for you," and never doing it, or saying, "God be with you," and not meaning it. You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious it becomes less true. Just say yes and no. When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

How often do we say things like, "What I honestly mean" or "frankly" or "what I really mean" or "If you want me to shoot straight from the shoulder" or "As God is my witness" or "Honest to God" or "now let me really be truthful with you for a moment." Like everything up to that point, you have no responsibility to believe, but from here on comes the truth. Then somewhere along the way the truth ends and the lying starts. In the middle is this little part where you're going to be honest. Jesus calls us to develop a reputation so committed to integrity you never have to preface anything with an oath or a statement that says this is really true, because your lifestyle, your testimony, is such that whatever you say is true. Wouldn't it be refreshing to live in a world like that?

Jesus calls us to develop a reputation that is so committed to integrity that you never have to preface anything with an oath or with a statement that says this is really true, because your lifestyle, your testimony is such that whatever you say is true. Wouldn't it be refreshing to live in a world like that?

And yet here we are in the body of Christ, and the hour between 11 and 12 in most churches is the hour when more posturing goes on than during any other time in the week. We walk in here all cleaned up and shaven and looking great, when our lives are falling apart. And when our brothers and sisters ask, "How are you doing today?" we answer, "I'm fine." You're not fine. You know you're not fine. Well, what do you want me to do? Tell them I'm terrible? No, just say "I'm doing okay. Things could be better." You need to learn how to deal with the truth. That's the point Jesus is making. Simple honesty. Whether you're taking an oath in court or talking on the telephone at home, your yes should be yes, and your no should be no. In other words, you shouldn't have to take an oath to tell the truth. If the court says you need to do this for the sake of perjury, do it, because it has nothing to do with this passage of Scripture. All this is saying is, your truth should always be truth. Whatever you say, whenever you say it—at the office or at home, in church or in the car—in every situation, be transparently honest. Be as honest as you would be if you were on the witness stand facing perjury if you did not tell the truth.

The Lord uses an illustration to remind us that truth is double edged. There's the yes and there's the no. I'm a yes man. Don't you like to say yes? How many of you are not real fond of no? Life says no to you a lot, doesn't it? As Christians, we ought to be willing to say yes as often as we can within the revealed will of God. But having said all that, there are some times to say no. In the church growth movement there's this whole thing about when you go to church you've got to have positive affirmation. Don't preach about sin because that turns people off. You know what? It turns God off, too. That's the reason why God put in his book some noes. A preacher who only tells you yes is not honest, because he's not dealing with the integrity of the Word of God. The Word of God tells it like it is—the good, the bad, and the ugly. And if we're going to represent God as his people, we need to be that kind of a spokesman. Truthfulness is double edged. I want to talk about how we develop this in three areas.

First of all, it's important that we deal with honesty within the church. If there's any one place where truth ought to prevail, it's in the church. But it doesn't always, and it hasn't always. I want to tell you a story about a situation in the early church where truth did not prevail.

Barnabas was a man of great wealth. In the early church, according to the Book of Acts, Barnabas had some property, sold it, and brought all the money to the church. He said: God laid it on my heart to sell this property, and I want the church to have the proceeds from the property I sold.

Barnabas got a lot of press, and people were pretty excited about it.

Now we fast track to the home of a couple by the name of Ananias and Sapphira. They're sitting around the kitchen table talking about old Barnabas. Ananias says: You know, dear, we've got a lot of property too, and we can sell some of ours and give the property to the Lord and give the money to the Lord.

So they decided to put their property on the market, and it sold quickly. They got all the money back from it. Here's where the hitch comes. Isn't it easy to give something when it's not in your hands? But when you've got the cold hard cash in your hands, and you're looking at it all, you think, Maybe I was a bit rash in that whole thing I was talking about doing. It's easy to give it when you don't have it; it's hard to give it when you have it. And that's what happened. Ananias and Sapphira got home from the sale, and they had all this money in their hands they were promising to give to the church. But then they got to thinking about some needs they had around the place. Maybe the walls hadn't been painted in a while. So Ananias said: Why don't we just keep a little of it? The Lord wouldn't want us to have a house that's shabby like this.

There wasn't anything wrong with that. They could have done anything they wanted.

But they brought the money they siphoned off to give to the church, and they brought it with the impression they were giving the whole thing. Here's what happened:

Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men, but to God," (Acts 5:3-4).

What the Bible says is this: You had the money. You had the land. You could have done anything you wanted to with it. But you said one thing, and you did something else. You said you were going to give it all to God, you kept back part of it for yourself, and you have lied to the Holy Spirit.

They had a little church discipline right there. It's pretty scary. The Bible says after that whole thing got out in the open, Ananias died just like that. And while they were wrapping him up to carry him out, his wife, Sapphira, came in. And they said: Sapphira, tell us about the house and the sale. She said: It's just like my husband said. We're giving all this to God. And I love this statement. It says: The guys who wrapped up your husband are just finishing, and they'll be coming to get you in just a moment. And they buried him here, and they buried her there, and two people died because they didn't deal honestly with God.

This was the beginning of the church, the birth of the church, and it was clean and pure. When you have a white sheet of paper, and it's clean and pure, a little tiny piece of ink in the middle of that paper shows up a lot. Have you left a pen in your white shirt pocket, and when you take your coat off, on your white shirt there's this ink stain? It's not much ink, but it sticks out on a white shirt. In the early days of the church, when there was cleanliness and purity and godliness, this sin was such an offense to God. The punishment was given in such a severe way to send a message to the whole church down through the ages. Jesus Christ cares about the truth, and he wants us to deal with each other in integrity, honesty, and with credibility. In the church, the truth matters.

It's true also, number two, in your marriage. The marriage relationship is the most important place for honesty to prevail.

Walter Wangerin wrote it this way.

There is no greater laboratory for learning how to communicate with care than in the marriage relationship. Truthfulness hides nothing in lying. It neglects nothing important. It distorts nothing either consciously or unconsciously. It communicates as accurate a picture as possible of anything it chooses to offer, whether of the world or of yourself or of your spouse. Such watchfulness of talk takes work, not only to resist the impulse to keep things to yourself, but also to train yourself in choosing what to say and how to say it more effectively for the sake of your spouse. Though God gave us tongues, we are a race lazy at speech. Though he gave us eyes, we are lazy in observation. And though he gave us hearts, we are inclined to be self-centered.

Now watch this. In a marriage relationship what is the goal? Intimacy. Not just in the physical realm, as important as that is. But everyone who's been married for even a short time knows that the physical intimacy is dependent upon deep interpersonal intimacy. Where those two aren't together, the joy God intended a couple to have is lost. What destroys personal, interrelational intimacy? The one thing that destroys it is lack of candor and honesty between two people. Hiding. Posturing. Not bringing who you really are to the table. Sometimes people say to me, "Pastor, I can't be who I really am, because if I am who I really am, I will not be accepted." If you married somebody who loves you and you love, and that's the way you really feel, you will never know the intimate joy God intended you to have until you come together in total candor and honesty with each other—o be in front of that one person God has given you, to whom you can be who you really are. God, help me to be open and transparent and honest with my fears and with my joys and with all that there is of me.

That's hard for us as men—true candor, especially about our fears and our weaknesses. Nothing fixes that like a good dose of cancer. You realize how vulnerable you are. The macho you has been put down on the level of absolute vulnerability. In that regard, it's not a bad thing in our marriages.

I don't know why I felt constrained to say this. I do know we've got a lot of marriages in stress, a lot of couples having problems. But the one thing you can do to make your marriage more like what God intended it to be is to cultivate integrity and honesty between you.

Honesty in our churches, honesty in our marriages, and then honesty starts in our own hearts. We aren't born honest. Only those who have forgotten how their little children acted would discredit what I'm saying. Honesty is a learned response, and it needs to be a discipline. When we come to Jesus Christ and receive him as Savior, he comes to live in our heart. And what does the Bible say about him? He is the way, the truth, and the life. When you get Jesus, you get the truth. But it still isn't easy. Even after Christ comes to live within your heart, if you don't live under the power of the Holy Spirit, you have all the same propensities to shade, color, and veneer the truth. We all know we do it, but we need to catch ourselves doing it. And we need to have people who will hold us accountable, so that personally we develop a greater and greater core of absolute honesty and integrity as we deal with each other, and as we relate to the Lord.

One of the great things God has been teaching me is to be honest with him in prayer. When you're having a sorry day, and when you don't even have a spiritual motivation in your body, and when you're feeling lousy, and you don't really want to read the Word of God, and you don't want to pray, it's all right to say, "God, this is how I feel and this is why I feel this way. I know it's not right, but I want you to know this is where I am." He already knows that, but it's good for you to say it to develop honesty with God in your own life.

Honesty is built one truth upon another. Dishonesty is built one fib upon another. Wesley Pippert writes, "One of the most effective disciplines I know is not to do something for that very first time. Don't ever do it for the first time, for repetition will come far easier. Not doing something for the first time is a tremendous bulwark to not doing it later."

As the moral philosopher Sissela Bok wrote, "It is easy to tell a lie, but it's hard to tell only one." Discipline will help us avoid the guilt we often experience by dabbling in things we shouldn't.

When you catch yourself shading the truth, when you catch yourself not being totally honest, stop and think, That probably isn't going to hurt anybody, and it may not hurt me now, but it might hurt me later. If you teach yourself to traffic in untruths, it's not long before the deception is beyond your control. I know some folks who live like that so much, they don't even know what the truth is themselves. They've taught themselves to live in such a deceptive way that the truth no longer registers in their heart. We must never be careless with the truth. This has been a strong word to my own heart, and I trust to yours. Let your yes be yes and your no, no.

When you get saved, God puts within you an automatic sin alarm system. One guy came to me and said, "You know what, Pastor? I got saved. It's like to ruin my life." He was saying that in a positive way. I knew what he meant. It's like your conscience. Somebody said your conscience is a little square wheel that goes around in a round hole down here, and the corners hurt. When you do something that you shouldn't do, it goes off. Unless you are jaded, and unless you've built calluses that are really deep, when you start down the road toward something less than total honesty, that thing goes off. And when it does, ask God to give you the guts to stop right there and say, "You know what? That's not exactly the way it happened. Let me start this thing over." You do that enough times, and you will start to build the strength of integrity. But if you go on allowing the little inaccuracies, the little lies, the things you know aren't true, if you just keep allowing those to happen, it's not possible just to tell one. You tell another little one to support the little one you told, and then they get a little bigger, and then it's a whole lifestyle that's displeasing to the Lord.

The Lord wants the best for us. The reason he preached this message is to tell us how to really live. Let me tell you how to wake up every morning and have peace and joy in your heart. Just live so wonderfully honest that your yeses are yeses, and your noes are noes. You are never looking over your shoulder to make sure nobody caught up with the last thing you said that wasn't quite the way it should be. You live in that constant peace of knowing there's nothing about me that's not already out there. I am who I am, and what I say is the truth.

For Your Reflection

Personal growth: How has this sermon fed your own soul? ___________________________________________

Skill growth: What did this sermon teach you about how to preach? ____________________________________________________________________________

Exegesis and exposition: Highlight the paragraphs in this sermon that helped you better understand Scripture. How does the sermon model ways you could provide helpful biblical exposition for your hearers? ____________________________________________________________________________

Theological Ideas: What biblical principles in this sermon would you like to develop in a sermon? How would you adapt these ideas to reflect your own understanding of Scripture, the Christian life, and the unique message that God is putting on your heart? ____________________________________________________________________________

Outline: How would you improve on this outline by changing the wording, or by adding or subtracting points? _____________________________________________________________________

Application: What is the main application of this sermon? What is the main application of the message you sense God wants you to bring to your hearers? ____________________________________________________________________________

Illustrations: Which illustrations in this sermon would relate well with your hearers? Which cannot be used with your hearers, but they suggest illustrations that could work with your hearers? ____________________________________________________________________________

Credit: Do you plan to use the content of this sermon to a degree that obligates you to give credit? If so, when and how will you do it?