Book of James, Ch. 5 - 10/10/2021

Good morning. This morning we're going to do one more verse in chapter 5 for James, the book of James.

James is in the process of winding down his letter. He has three more tests to reveal and he only has nine more verses in which to reveal them.

So he's going to pick up the pace. So to balance that out, we're going to slow down our pace.

Chapter 5, verse 12. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay, lest you fall into condemnation.

That's only one verse and Dr. MacArthur describes that verse as the test of truthfulness.

And in a phrase or a short sentence, what that's saying is swearing is a serious thing.

It's not something to be done lightly. And if you read the last of that, it will say, let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay, lest you fall into condemnation.

Simply taking an oath will not make you fall into condemnation.

But when you take an oath, when you swear an oath, you're taking a chance that you may fall into condemnation.

So taking an oath is a serious thing. Now the world we live in is fallen.

And being fallen, it's filled with liars. Children lie to their parents.

Not all children all the time, but most children some of the time.

And parents lie to their children. Husbands lie to the wives, and wives lie to their husbands.

People lie to their employers who in turn lie to them. Politicians lie to get elected, and they continue to lie once they're in office.

People lie to the government. A lot of people lie on their tax forms, and the government lies to the people.

Educators lie to their students, and their students lie to them.

This has got to be my favorite. Scientists lie to gain notoriety, and they continue to lie once they've got it, so that they can keep it.

But perhaps the most odious liar of them all is members of the news media.

The one segment of our society that our Founding Fathers envisioned as being a bastion of truth.

That's why we have the First Amendment, the freedom of speech, which is beginning to get a little shakier as we go.

Though we've got the First Amendment, we're beginning to lose our protection of the freedom of speech.

There are places where you can't speak, even if you're speaking the truth, and where others can speak, even if they and you and we all know they're lying.

But that's what the First Amendment was all about, the protection of free speech.

But what we see now in the news media are partial truths, and outright lies opposing this truth, and that from all sides of the political spectrum.

There is no position in the political spectrum where someone is not guilty of lying about what is true.

Our society is built on a framework of lies. Leads one to wonder whether our social structure would survive if everyone were forced to speak the truth, or even one day.

There is a movie that was popular a few years ago, name was Liar Liar. And it was about a man who continually told lies to his son.

And his son asked for his father to be forced to speak the truth all the time.

And the whole movie was about all the bad things that happened to him as a result of him telling the truth.

Because if his wife said, doesn't this look good? What he wanted to say is yes.

But what he actually wound up saying is, you're look, you look a little fat in that one. There are things that he would have been better off not saying, the little white lies.

We kind of justify them, we cross our finger and say, we're just a little white lie, it doesn't really matter.

Okay. The fact that we live in a world full of lies, should not surprise anyone who is familiar with the scriptures.

The written Word of God, the Bible, designates unregenerate humanity as children of the devil.

The devil, who is the father of all lies. Jesus said, in John 8, 44, ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you 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 the father of it.

I could have stopped there with that period, verse 44, but I decided to put on one more verse out of that chapter.

This is still Jesus talking. He is talking to the Pharisees, the ones he has just said, ye are of your father the devil, and then he goes on to say, and because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

They're in a position where they believe lies and can't believe the truth. When the truth is presented to them, they won't believe it.

That's what God said about humanity and lies. We live in a society that at its roots is dishonest, and the prevalence of this dishonesty has led men to impose oaths on others in a futile attempt to force them to be truthful and to keep their promises.

All oaths, from the simple oaths of children to the most sophisticated oaths required, those by cults and other organizations, all oaths are manifestations of this futile attempt to extract truth from others.

For example, if you're called to be a witness or to be on a jury for a court trial, you're required to repeat an oath.

The oath is, I do solemnly swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me

God. That's as best I remember it. And of course, that keeps lies from being ever told in court.

No, lies are still submitted as evidence. Everything from legal contracts to peace treaties, oaths are necessary because we are aware of mankind's basic dishonesty.

But at the end of the day, there is nothing that unregenerate man can do that will be able to make a liar tell the truth or hold fast to what he claims to be the truth.

However, for a redeemed man, there is hope. Not hope that the liar will keep his word, but that with the help of the

Holy Spirit, the redeemed man can keep his. And that's important.

Now back to James chapter 5 verse 12.

It begins with, but above all things. That's his way of saying, of all the things that I've told you so far, this is probably the most important, or among the most important.

He says, 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, lest you fall into condemnation.

That sounds awfully strange to me. Why would he say all of that?

Swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your nay be nay.

The issue James is focusing on here is that of swearing. Now, there are two ways in the

English language that we use the word swear. And the Bible condemns one way and doesn't exactly condemn the other way, but says be careful when you take the word the other way.

It doesn't mean to use dirty language. That's not what it's talking about.

Illicit speech, double entendre, filthy jokes, or four -letter words, that's what it means.

This type of unwholesome, not edifying speech, the

Apostle Paul condemns in Ephesians in two different verses.

One he says, Ephesians 4 29, Paul says, let no corrupt communication, that's it, that's what he's talking about, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.

But that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

So he's saying don't say things that are not useful in building other people up, in building the membership up.

Don't speak anything to tear things down. He doesn't leave it at that, though.

You go on to verse 5 of Ephesians, chapter 5 of Ephesians, verse 4, then he sets out specifically the points that I just made.

Neither filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor jesting,

I would say, nor dirty jokes, which are not convenient, but rather giving thanks.

So why should you speak? Why should you say? You should say good things that build people up, that edify the brotherhood, not things that are filthy, not things that are foolish talking, not jesting, not things which are not convenient, but use your voice to give thanks.

Now, when he's talking about swearing in this passage, that's not what he's talking about.

Paul is very clear in saying don't do any of that. That's all bad.

But what James is referring to is not filthy talk, bad language.

It is the taking of oaths. Now, the

Jews of James's day had developed a complex system of swearing.

That's why James structures his sentence the way he does, and the influences of this complex system, which the

Jewish Christians brought with them into the church, it's against abuses of that system that James wrote.

Now, where did this system of swearing begin? It began in the

Old Testament, in a time when written contracts did not exist, and oaths served to bind agreements between people.

To take an oath was to attest to these things, that what one said was true, to call

God as a witness to that, and to evoke God's punishment if one's word was violated.

So, when you swore an oath in the Old Testament, what you were doing is you were calling God, you're saying, what

I'm saying is true, as God is my witness, what I'm saying is true, and if I don't tell you the truth,

God should punish me for it. Now, to call

God to witness the truth of one's promise, and to evoke judgment if one defaulted on that promise, was a very serious matter.

You don't want to do that. Brother Myron Goldman tells about an oath that Abraham swore.

I'm going to get to that later, but just kind of let it filter through your mind, the oath between not

God and Abraham, God and himself.

We'll get to that in a minute. It's important to note that the Bible does not forbid taking oaths.

In fact, it acknowledges that in a world filled with liars, there are times when oaths are necessary.

Now, I'm going to give you three times when I know for certain that taking an oath is not wrong.

When you're testifying in court, when they ask you to swear an oath, it's not wrong for you to swear the oath when you're offering testimony.

When you're offered a position in the church, when you're being ordained, we swear an oath.

It's not wrong to swear an oath when you're getting married. Any other times when you know that it's not wrong to swear an oath.

Joining the military is not wrong to swear an oath. Becoming an officer of the court is not wrong to swear an oath.

Being a police officer is not wrong to swear an oath. It's not the swearing of the oath that James is even talking about here.

Oaths are wrong when they are misused with the intent to deceive others or when taken rashly or flippantly.

There was a story in the Old Testament. I didn't look this one up. I did, but I didn't put it in my notes of a man who promised the

Lord, swore an oath to the Lord that says, if you give me victory, when

I get back, the first person that comes out to meet me, I'm going to sacrifice to you. Guess who was the first person to come and meet him?

His daughter. That's an oath that I'm sure he wanted to take back.

The Bible gives us many examples of godly men. That's the reason

I didn't put this one in. I'm not sure how godly this man was, because I don't remember whether he backed out of the oath or not.

Either way, it's bad. God gives us many examples of godly men who took oaths.

The Bible lists God's commandments that oaths be taken, and the

Bible records instances of God himself taking oaths.

The first recorded incidence of a man taking an oath is in Genesis 21. It will be in 21 beginning at 25, and it will tell the story of Abraham and Abimelech, and Abraham chiding

Abimelech because Abimelech's people took possession of a well that Abraham had dug.

So, here's how he begins, and Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water.

So, Abraham has dug a well, and there's water in it, and he waters his animals with it, and so Abimelech and his army, his people, are taking water from the well and driving

Abraham's people away. Abraham reproved

Abimelech because of the well, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away, and Abimelech said,

I know not who hath done this thing, neither did thou tellst me, neither yet heard

I of it, but today. I only just now knew about this. This is the first I've known about that, and Abraham took sheep and goat and gave them to Abimelech, and both of them made a covenant.

They swore an oath, and Abimelech set seven ewes of the flock by themselves, and Abimelech said to Abraham, what mean these seven ewe lambs, and why hast thou set them by themselves?

And Abraham said, for these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me that I have digged this well.

Wherefore he call that place for Sheba, because there they swear, both of them, both

Abimelech and Abraham, swore that Abraham dug the well.

Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech rose up and Fechol, the chief captain of his host, and they returned unto the land of the

Philistines. So that's the story of Abraham and Abimelech swearing an oath as to who was the possessor of the well that Abraham dug.

They both agreed that it was Abraham's well, and that Abraham's flock should be watered from the well, and Abimelech's people should leave him alone, and apparently they did.

In Genesis 24, verses 2 through 4, Abraham required his servant to take an oath.

Abraham made his servant, the person that was he was in charge of, he made his servant take an oath.

He said to, and said Abraham to his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all he had, put

I pray thee thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord the God of heaven, and the

God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the

Canaanites among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go into my country, and take my kindred, and take a wife unto my son

Isaac. So what did Abraham make his servant say?

I started to name his servant, but you know what? We don't have that servant's name. We just know that he was the servant.

There's reason that we can guess who it might be, but I'm not going to attempt to guess.

I'm just going to say it didn't tell us what the servant's name was. It just said the eldest servant of his house that ruled over all he had, he put him in charge of going getting his son

Isaac a wife. In Revelation, we have an instance of an angel making an oath.

In Revelation 10 verse 5, we have, and the angel which

I saw stand upon the sea, and upon the earth, lifted up his head to heaven, and swore by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and things that are therein are, and the sea, and the things that therein are, that time shall be no more.

Now, understand this about everybody that's sworn an oath so far that we've read about.

What did they swear by? The angel swore by him that liveth forever and ever.

Who's that? That's God. Abraham made his servant swear by the

Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth. It didn't say who

Abraham made Abimelech swear to.

He being a Philistine, an oath to the God that created everything may or may not have been very important to him.

It may not have offered any more. You can rest assured that Abraham, when he took his oath, he was swearing to the

God of heaven, the God who had given him the land. Now, in the

Old Testament, the phrase, as I live, was a way of declaring that God was swearing by himself.

In Romans 14, chapter 11, Paul is going to quote something.

He's going to say, for it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

So who is he swearing by? He's saying, as I live by myself, saith the

Lord, I am swearing that every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

Of course, we have God's covenant with himself concerning Abraham.

That's the one I alluded to a while ago. There's a lot of he's and him's here, and he said to him, the first he is

God, and the second him is Abraham. We're in Genesis 15, chapter 7.

Genesis 15, verse 7. And he, God, said to him,

Abraham, I am the Lord that brought thee out of the Ur of the Chaldeans, to give thee this land to inherit it.

And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, take me a heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.

And he took unto him all of these, and he divided them in the midst. He cut them in half, and lay each piece one against the other, but the birds he divided not.

And when the fowls came down upon the carcass, Abraham drove them away. Now, that's the total of everything that Abraham did in this passage.

And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.

Now, I thought this verse was interesting. And he, that's God, said to Abraham, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them for 400 years.

He's talking to Abraham. What's Abraham doing? He is in a coma.

He's sleeping. Can God communicate to him while he's asleep? Obviously, he can.

And what did he tell them? Know for sure. Know with this as your assurance,

I am telling you this. Your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs.

He's talking about Egypt. And shall serve them, and they shall be afflicted, and they shall afflict them 400 years.

Then he goes on to say, and also that nation whom they shall serve will

I judge. And afterwards shall they come out with great substance, and thou shalt go to thy father in peace.

Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the

Amorites is not yet full. And now for the rest of the story.

This is where Brother Goldman had a, had a mind, had a, he divided, he divided the sacrifice up, and he said, now what happened is you walk around and figure eight, and you're telling

God while you're making this oath, if I don't keep promise, if I don't keep my promise, then make me like these animals that are dead and on the altar being sacrificed.

Make me like them if I don't keep my word. Well, was

Abraham a party to that oath? Abraham is laying over on the side.

I, I suppose he, he had to, he had to be hearing, but he's not a party of the oath.

And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between these pieces.

And the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying unto thy seed have

I given this land from the river Egypt unto the great river, the Euphrates, the

Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Raphaelites, the Amorites, the

Canaanites, the Gershiites, and the Jebusites. I gave all of this to you. This all belongs to you.

Now who swore that oath? Who was it between? That was between God and Jesus.

Jesus and God, an oath between them about Abraham.

And what Jesus was saying to God as he circled the offerings,

I will take on myself the punishment for Abraham if he doesn't keep his word.

And that promise goes out to us all. And that's why we have someone that will pay our debts.

I wish I could do that the same way that Brother Goldman did. That was just a fascinating thing.

And I, I think everybody in here maybe has seen and heard

Byron do that particular passage.

And then we go down to Genesis 22, 16. And this is

God talking. And he says, by myself I have sworn.

Okay, there it is. You don't have any question on who's, who's doing it now. By myself I have sworn, saith the

Lord. For because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing

I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore.

And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemy. And in thy seed shall all of the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.

What better oath can you have than one that's coming from God, sworn by himself, because there is none better to swear by.

Okay, I could go on and on and on, but if I did, we wouldn't get through. In the light of all of this biblical evidence and much more,

James, James's commandment, do not swear, cannot be viewed as a blanket prohibition of all oath -taking.

Oaths were permitted on serious occasions, but only in the name of God. Now that's important.

Oaths were permitted for serious occasions, but only if made in the name of God.

Only with God is the witness. James, in order to forestall oaths taken with devious intent, does not forbid swearing in the name of the

Lord. In fact, we had examples of oaths being sworn in the name of God, but he does forbid swearing by heaven or by earth or by any other oath.

So let's take a little bit closer look. This is Jesus speaking in Matthew 5, 33.

Matthew 5, 33. Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the

Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is

God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is God's footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it's the city of the great

King. Neither canst thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair black or white.

But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh evil.

So if you go ahead and swear an oath, you've got to remember that bad things can happen if and when you betray your oath.

Now, one other thing that I need to tell you. Jesus is not speaking of anything that was written in the

Old Testament. When he said, you have heard, I'm going to read that again. You have heard that it had been said by them of old time.

Now, he didn't say, you have read in the scripture. Notice that?

You have heard that it had been said by them of old time. What that refers to is not the teaching of the

Old Testament, but to the rabbinical tradition. Now, it seems like the declaration, you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vow to the

Lord, appears on the surface to be in harmony with the Old Testament teaching regarding the sacredness of taking oaths.

But there was a hidden loophole. Rabbinic teaching held that only vows to the

Lord were binding. In their thinking, God was only a party to an oath if his name were invoked.

You didn't call his name? He's not a party to the oath. All other oaths they taught could be, and in fact were intended to be, violated without committing perjury.

Attempting to deceive others, many Jews would swear by heaven, by Jerusalem, by the temple, by the altar in the temple, by the veil of the temple, by their own heads, anything.

They would swear by anything but the name of the Lord. Now, when you go back and look at James's statement, you can see why he says what he said.

I'm far down. I have to go back and do it. I'm not going to look it back up. But you don't swear by the temple.

Don't swear by anything else. Swear by God only. That's what it says. Anything but the name of the

Lord. Such evasive swearing was intended to hide their hearts.

Now, who could they hide their hearts from? Each other, but not from God.

That's why when they called God into the oath, they knew that God knew that they were lying, and they'd be held accountable for it.

So they say, well, we won't call God's name. We won't call God's name, and therefore God's not a party to the oath, and so we just lie as we wish.

Now, it seems to me that there is a parallel between this evasive swearing in James's day, used to validate false promises, to the use of signed gifts in today's church, in some of today's churches, to validate false claims that I am a special messenger of God.

Jesus condemned the Jewish religious leaders for their hypocritical practice, and I suspect he would do the same for this modern -day practice as well.

Here's what he says. This is Matthew 23, 16, and this is going to finish my lesson off for today.

Matthew 23, verse 16. Understand who he's speaking to.

Woe unto you, you blind guides. He's speaking to the leaders of the church.

Woe to you, you blind guides, which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing.

What they say, if you swear by the temple, it doesn't count, but whoever shall swear by the gold on the temple, he is a debtor.

If you swear by the gold on the temple, you have to honor that. If you swear by the temple, you don't have to honor it.

That's what you're saying. If you swear by the temple, it's nothing, but if you swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.

You fools and blind, for whether is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold, and whosoever shall swear by the altar, it's nothing.

That's what they said, but whoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.

If you swear by the gift, you have to hold true to your oath, but if you swear by the altar, you don't.

You fools and blind, for whether is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift.

Whosoever, therefore, shall swear by the altar, swears by it and by all things thereon, and whosoever swears by the temple, swears by it and by him that dwelleth therein, and there we go.

If you swear by the temple, you're swearing by who dwells in the temple, and he that shall dwell by the heaven swears by the throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon.

So, if you try to take your loophole and you say, well, this counts and this doesn't count, this counts and that doesn't count, you just understand this, it all counts.

You're responsible to uphold your oath. So, James is saying it might be better if you don't make an oath.

If you're going to be responsible to have to uphold your oath, it may be better not to make one, but if you make one, understand that you are bound to uphold it because you drew down the judgment of God upon yourself when you said, if I fail to fulfill my oath, then as God is my witness,

I will accept and receive the punishment of the judgment that he has put upon me, regardless of the intent of the oath.

Okay, that's it for me. Any questions or comments? Yes, sir. I think you're totally 100 % right.

Don't let your yay be yay, let yes be yes, let no be no, and don't embellish that by bringing

God into the picture to say, if I ever make a mistake, then God punishes me for it.

You're just adding to the problem, not resolving it. I think you're 100 % totally correct, yet let your yes be yes and your no be no, and a righteous man should endeavor to do that, shouldn't he?

Now, we're all in here, I think, righteous because God made us righteous, but that doesn't mean that we don't sometimes make mistakes, and I'd hate to have to bear all my punishment for all the mistakes that I make.

Oh, I don't. Somebody has done that for me. Isn't that great?

That is great. Anything else? Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all the many blessings that you have given to us.

Thank you for bringing us into church today so we can meet and fellowship and worship you, mostly worship you, worship you by studying your

Word, worship you by praising you, worship you by honoring your

Son. Bless us and keep us, go through all the services today.