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THE LAWS OF THE KINGDOM                           Lecture 9.

                    THE LAW OF HONESTY.
Matt. 5:33-37.

INTRODUCTION.

What really stands out in the sermon on the mount is the number
of times Jesus was recalling to the Jews what they already knew.

The Jewish teachers had already insisted on this obligation of
telling the truth. "The world stands fast on three things, on
justice, on truth, on peace."

At the time of Jesus, taking of oaths was unsatisfactory.

     1. One oath was frivolous swearing. In Jesus eyes it was
     sinful and wrong.
     2. Another was evasive swearing.
     The Jews had divided oaths into two classes,those which were
     absolutely binding and those which were not. Any oath which
     contained the Name of God was absolutely binding; any oath
     which succeeded in evading the Name of God was not held as
     binding. The result was that if a man swore by the name of
     God in any form, he would rightly keep that oath; but if he
     swore by heaven or by earth, or by Jerusalem or by his head,
     he felt free to break that oath. The result was that evasion
     had been brought into a fine art.

I. The Engraving of The Laws of God.

The Old Testament laws were engraved on tablets of stone. New
Testament laws are engraved on the heart. The aim of God to place
within the hearts fo His people the Laws of the Kingdom. Jesus
came to make this possible.

John 3:2. "We know thou art a teacher come from God."
Nicodemus acknowledged Jesus as a teacher = Greek = mind
engraver. Jesus is not just a mind engraver he is a heart
engraver.

II. Motive for putting Gods laws into practice.

That motive was graphically  presented  by the teacher of this
parable.Matt.13:45-46.
" Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man,
seeking goodly pearls: Who when he had found one pearl of great
price, went and sold all that he had, and brought it.'
Note the key words: seeking, great price,sold all. All of them
are relevant to our study.

     1. Seeking: Jesus calls desire. He gives us a choice. This
     entails knowledge of the price to be paid for involvement,
     and willing to pay it. Take a good look at the price tag and
     decide if we are willing to make the sacrifice necessary to
     execute the transaction. Embracing this law is going to
     cost you, no discount prices or partial payments!

     2. Sold all: this top priority . All of us have many
     desires,demands, interests,opportunities, Just like the
     pearl merchant has many precious gems. The possibility of
     attainment becomes overwhelming and we gladly seek, thus
     obeying Jesus command, "seek ye first the kingdom of God."
     matt.6:33.

III. Jewish Practice and Oaths.

Evidently the Jews were undergirding their vows to each other by
calling into witness the holy things of their day:  the heaven,
the earth , Jerusalem, their own heads. Today, vows made in
public are usually made by placing ones hand upon a Bible: or in
common parlance, we hear the phrase, " I sware on a stack of
Bibles."

Jesus is again aiming at attitude. All the swearing by things
holy will never make a mans's vow valid. It is the attitude with
which that man enters into contract. The idea behind was if they
swore by God they involved Him in the transaction as well. Of
course, if they swore by anything else they were then not
obligated with Him in the deal.

James 5:12  "But above all things, my brethren, swear not,
neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other oath:
but let your yea be yea; and your nay be nay; least ye fall into
condemnation."

There is but one standard of truth, we are to speak as if we are
on oath all the time.

IV. The importance of Honesty and keeping oaths.

(1) Psalms 15 begins with the question,"Who shall abide in the
tabernacle?" In reply, nine qualities of character are listed and
the conclusion is: "He that doeth these things shall never be
moved." The first three qualities are, "He that walketh
uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in
his heart" (v.2). This sounds like old-testament-Kingdom
teaching, doesn't it? David goes on to say,"He that sweareth to
his own hurt, and changes not" (v.4).

(2) Ecc. 5:1-6 has words of wisdom about making vows and the
weakness of man to keep them. It begins with a warning, "Be
careful when you go before God.' (We are paraphrasing and we hope
that you will read the words of Solomon the "Preacher," for
yourself.) "Don't be rash with your mouth, and don't hasty to
make vows to God. When you do, don't defer paying it, for God has
no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vowed. It is better that you
should not vow at all than that you should vow and not pay."

(3) James 5:12 answers this question What happens to the one
making the vow?
But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven,
neither by earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea by
yea; and your nay, nay; least ye fall into condemnation.
James's advise came some years later than that of Jesus, but
evidently men were still swearing by heaven and earth.

Satan will do anything possible to make if impossible for you to
keep your vows.

Paul said in Col. 3:9, "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye
have put off the old men and his deeds."

V. Truthfulness in :

1.   THE HOME LIFE

     - Our children get to know our word. We say not to
     something. They know if they grizzle and wimper and cry long
     enough they will get it.

     We promise them a belting if they do something again that
     you have told them not to. So they do it again and no
     belting.

     Then we wonder why they are disobedient and untruthful. We
     have taught them.

     Children are very quick to find out whether it is so or
     not.

2.   BUSINESS LIFE

     - Untruths in business life. Sincerity is important. In
     reality we can be down right lying. Many instances we can
     use to illustrate this.

     What about a visitor comes to see the boss. The boss tells
     the secretary to tell the visitor he's to busy. However when
     the pressed by the secretary he agrees to see the visitor.
     Coming out of his office and in front of the Secretary the
     boss begins to tell the visitor how nice it is to see him
     and sure he's got the time etc. The secretary knows his
     heart full well.

     Many other instances - Yea, Yea. Nay, Nay.

3.   SOCIAL LIFE

     - Society is honeycombed with that which is false and unreal

4.   RELIGIOUS LIFE

     - Sing, "Take my Silver and my gold, not a mite would I
     withhold".

     Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering
     far too small.

     Yet we search for the smallest coin to put in the plate.

VI. To Make an Oath or Not to Make an oath.

We find there were occasions when Paul took an oath, and as it
were, put himself up on oath.

2 Cor. 1:23, "I call God for a record on any soul."
Gal. 1:20, "Behold, before God I lie not."
On these occasions Paul was putting himself on oath.

Jesus himself did not protest at being put on oath. At His trail
before the High Priest, the High Priest said to Him, "I adjure
you by the living God" - ("I put you on oath by God Himself") -
"that thou tell us Whither thou be the christ, the Son of God"
(Matt.26:63).

What then is the situation?

Look at Matt.5:37 again, "But let your communication be yea, yea.
Nay, nay, for whatsoever is more that these cometh of evil." -
anything that goes beyond that has its course in evil.

This means:

a.   If it is necessary to take an oath from a man, that
     necessity arises from the evil that is in a man. If there
     was no evil in the man, no oath would be necessary. That is
     to say, that fact that it is sometimes necessary to make a
     man take an Oath as a demonstration of the evil in
     Christless human nature.

b.   The fact that it is necessary to put on oath on certain
     occasions arises from the fact that this is an evil world.
     In a prefect world, in a world which was the Kingdom of God,
     no taking of oaths would ever by necessary. It is necessary
     only because of the evil of the world.

The truly good man will never need to take an oath; the reality
of his promise need no such guarantee. The fact that there is
necessity of oaths is indicative of the proof that men are not.