Introduction:
The Trustworthiness Test (Matthew 5:33-37):
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Do I Need to CONVINCE OTHERS of the TRUTHFULNESS of what I say? (Matt 5:33–34a)
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Do I Look for LOOPHOLES to GET OUT of what I say? (Matt 5:34b–36)
Matthew 23:22 – And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
1 Peter 2:22 – He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
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Do I Always FOLLOW THROUGH on what I say? (Matt 5:37)
James 5:12 – But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
John 8:44 – You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:33-37
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How can you strengthen your reputation when it comes to honesty and trustworthiness? How can you weaken it?
Do you ever make excuses or look for loopholes to get out of what you say?
Do you struggle with being a “yes or no” person? How do you fail to be reliable and follow through on what you say?
What does it look like to truly repent of deception and make things right with those you have lied to?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
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Return your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 verses 33 through 37.
Matthew chapter 5 verses 33 through 37.
Is it safe to say that trust is in short supply in 2025?
We are constantly bombarded with lies, conspiracies, fraud,
lame excuses, propaganda, cover-ups.
With each passing year, we become less and less trusting
as others seem less and less trustworthy.
I was going to use an object lesson to prove this point,
but for the sake of unity, which you'll see in a minute
why I'm not doing this, I'm going to have you use your imaginations instead.
Imagine with me that a bunch of images are from the screens behind me
of famous individuals, politicians, billionaires, tech gurus, celebrities,
social media influencers, world-renowned doctors,
and popular preachers who you see pop up on Spotify, YouTube, and television.
And with each image, with each person, I ask this very simple question,
is this person trustworthy?
And with some of these famous people, the answer would be a decisive yes,
while others would be a resounding no.
But some examples may prove to be a bit controversial and divisive.
It may be a bit of a mixed reaction, which could lead to some frustration,
heated debates, and strained relationships.
Hence my unwillingness to show these images in service today.
What if I were to close out this slideshow with a picture of you?
And for the final time, I ask this very simple question, is this person trustworthy?
What would be the response?
What would your family members, friends, and fellow church members say about you?
Maybe you don't want to play along with my made-up scenario,
because you're afraid of what other people would say about you.
But you cannot be oblivious in this area of life, because your reputation,
when it comes to honesty and trustworthiness, is not a throwaway issue.
Your credibility with others on the outside speaks to your integrity before the Lord on the inside.
We've been studying the Sermon on the Mount for the past few months,
and now this is the fourth week of our latest section, "The Heart of the Law."
And throughout Matthew chapter 5, Jesus doesn't lessen the Old Testament law.
He elevates it. He doesn't abolish it and throw it away.
He digs down deep into our hearts to show how it applies at the deepest levels of who we are.
Jesus proves that obeying God's commands and displaying true righteousness are matters of the heart.
Jesus cares way more about the internal than the external,
because who you are internally shapes all that you say and do externally.
So far, we have covered what Christ commands and expects when it comes to anger,
sexuality, and marriage.
In Matthew chapter 5, verses 33 through 37,
the Lord turns your attention to what he has to say about making promises and keeping your word.
To help you gauge your own personal credibility, Jesus assigns an important test
that you cannot afford to skip or to fail.
And this test is the trustworthiness test.
Before we dig into the first question, let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Please pray that I will faithfully proclaim God's word.
While I pray that you will faithfully and joyfully receive God's word.
Father, we thank you for the gift of your word.
It is a mirror that you hold up to our hearts to show us what means to change.
Lord, this morning you're going to show us some very challenging and difficult things about ourselves
that we do not want to see,
but we must recognize them and we must make changes by the power of your Holy Spirit.
So may you do the work that only you can.
We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, who is ready for the trustworthiness test?
Well, we're going to take it anyway. So the trustworthiness test, question one.
Do I need to convince others of the truthfulness of what I say?
Do I need to convince others of the truthfulness of what I say?
Let's read verses 33 through 34.
Jesus says, "Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old,
'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.'
But I say to you, do not take an oath at all."
This is the fourth time in Matthew chapter 5 that Jesus repeats the same verbal pattern.
"You have heard that it was said, but I say to you."
So let's cover what was said in the past.
"You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn."
You will not find this exact sentence word for word in the Old Testament
because it is a mashup of three different passages about keeping oaths.
With the Nicos 19-2, Numbers chapter 30 verse 2 and Deuteronomy 23-21.
In the Old Testament, oath taking was serious business.
It wasn't something to be entered into lightly or carelessly.
Vows were reserved for important matters.
And God put them in place as a first line of defense against dishonesty.
I find it helpful to view Old Testament oaths like spiritual speed bumps.
Why do speed bumps exist?
To cause you to slow down and keep pedestrian safe.
Let me ask you, do speed bumps always do that?
No, we've all seen maniacs treat speed bumps like challenges and jumps instead of warnings.
And maybe you've been that maniac from time to time.
Oaths were set up by God to curb the natural tendency to be deceitful and unreliable.
They were like speed bumps.
By taking an oath, you were saying,
"God, you can bring judgment and cursing upon me if I do not keep my side of the bargain."
But these spiritual speed bumps could not stop all dishonesty.
It couldn't do away with people being deceitful.
So vows help provide accountability, but they could not change the human heart,
which is seen most clearly in the lives of the religious leaders of Jesus' day.
The rabbis, the scribes, the Pharisees misinterpreted the Old Testament commands about vows
and twisted God's word to advance their own dishonest agenda.
They believe that you shall not swear falsely, only spoke to perjuring yourself in a court of law.
We'll talk about this in even greater detail in a few minutes,
but they also believe that the instruction you shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn
left some room for coloring outside the lines when it came to keeping your word.
If you weren't in a court setting or you didn't make vows directly to God
and in His name there was some wiggle room to tell some lies.
It wasn't ideal, but hey, not a big deal.
As long as you said the right things and as long as you kept their man-made rules.
Once again, the religious leaders are taking God's word, taking His commands
and putting it into their own man-made box.
Their standards were shallow and their righteousness was phony.
But Jesus calls His followers to a greater righteousness, to a higher standard
when He says, "But I say to you, do not take an oath at all."
This command brings up an important question that we have to answer.
Is Jesus saying that it's always sinful to make a promise or a vow of any kind at any time?
Well, some Christians, some scholars and pastors certainly think so,
but that's a really hard stance to defend from the rest of Scripture.
The Apostle Paul kept and he made and kept a vow in Acts 18-18.
In Revelation chapter 10 verses 5 through 6, the Apostle John records an angel swearing enough.
In the Old Testament, God made oaths to show the seriousness of His covenant promises.
God didn't do that because he had a shaky reputation.
He lovingly did that to give His people a rock-solid confidence in His trustworthiness
and the certainty of His purposes and His plans.
God's vows were like exclamation points that highlighted His credibility
because we so often do not trust Him even though His track record is flawless.
The Lord established the Old Covenant with Israel and He has established a new covenant with all who believe
in the life, death, and resurrection of His Son.
And at its core, a covenant is an oath-bound relationship that is built upon promises being kept
and the Bible is crystal clear that God always keeps His promises.
And speaking of covenants, the Bible describes marriage as a covenant relationship
which means that as a good and godly thing, you swear your devotion to your spouse.
You know, 11 years ago, Pastor Jeff married my wife and I
and when he asked me to repeat my vows to Kate after him, I didn't say, "Whoa, wait preacher boy,
I don't make promises or take vows. Don't you study the Bible for a living?
Shouldn't you know that? Pass." Did I do that? Jeff, do you remember that? I don't think I did that.
Let's move from the marriage ceremony to the courtroom.
I'm called to testify in a very important case and the judge tells me to raise my right hand
and he asked me, "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?"
What should I say?
Sorry, judge. I'm a Christian. I can't do that. You may as well call the next witness. I'm out of here. Deuces.
Is that going to go very well with the judge?
Listen, Jesus is not condemning vows in the context of a courtroom or a wedding ceremony.
Jesus is forbidding the practice of taking frivolous oaths and making pointless promises in everyday life situations.
He's saying, "Do not be the kind of person who needs to swear on something or someone to be believed.
Do not be the kind of person who needs to clarify that you're not lying.
Who needs to clarify that you're telling the truth.
Be so trustworthy that your word can be taken at face value without jumping through hoops.
As a follower of Christ, you shouldn't need the spiritual speed bumps of promises, oaths, and vows to be taken seriously.
You should be a person of such great integrity that promises are unnecessary because your past performance speaks for itself.
Others should trust you implicitly because you have proven yourself explicitly.
Your heart should be so full of the truth that lying doesn't even register as a valid option to choose or path to take.
For the Christian, honesty is like breathing.
You inhale the truth of God's word and then you exhale the truth in every situation.
You don't tell white lies because you understand that there are no such thing as white lies.
Every lie, no matter how small, is a huge deal to the Lord.
You don't embellish your stories or add on extra details to impress people because who cares what other people think about you.
What matters most is what God thinks about you.
And He knows what you're saying is not true.
You don't cut corners at work because you ultimately serve the Lord of all creation who sees everything,
not the human boss across the hall who cannot see into your heart.
You cannot control much in this life, but you do have the ability to deepen your credibility or destroy it,
to strengthen it day by day or to willingly weaken it.
You have no right to be offended when someone doesn't believe you if you have a shady history of saying things that are not true
and making promises that you didn't keep.
You are simply reaping the consequences of what you have sown.
You are receiving the label of untrustworthy, which is a title that you have repeatedly earned.
The trustworthiness test.
Move on to the second question.
And it will not be easier than the first.
Do I look for loopholes to get out of what I say?
Do I look for loopholes to get out of what I say?
So Jesus pulls the rug out from underneath the religious leaders and exposes their ridiculous schemes in verses 34 through 36.
But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
or by the earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.
And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
As I said earlier, the scribes and Pharisees were experts at looking for loopholes and creating escape patches to get out of what they said,
especially if what they said wasn't made in a court setting.
So instead of swearing in God's name, they would swear by heaven, they would swear by the earth, the city of Jerusalem, or even their own heads.
In their minds, swearing on these things was not binding like swearing in God's name.
This is the verbal equivalent of crossing your fingers behind your back whenever you make a promise.
They thought they were so clever. They found their own get out of oaths free card.
But Jesus shows them that this line of thinking is childish and dumb.
He destroys their loopholes and he closes their escape patches.
Let's follow his logic.
Jesus says, "Do not swear by heaven because who does heaven belong to?"
All right. I know it's early. I'm going to ask that question again.
Who does heaven belong to?
It is His throne.
And Matthew actually reinforces this later on when Jesus says,
"And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it."
He also says, "Don't swear by the earth because who does it belong to?"
Once again, I'm going to try it again. Who does the earth belong to, everyone?
It is His footstool. God is so awesome. He is so big.
The earth is like a teeny tiny ottoman where He puts His feet up.
The earth belongs to God, so don't swear by it.
It's also not a great idea to swear by Jerusalem because who does it belong to?
Great job, everyone.
The king of Jerusalem, the king of the earth, and that is God.
You swear by Jerusalem. You swear by the one who created and rules over Israel.
And He also says, "Don't swear by your own head."
It seems kind of weird, right? What does that even mean?
Well, it means this. "If I don't keep my word, let me be decapitated."
A modern day equivalent of this would be, "Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my..."
These words mean nothing and they control nothing.
Jesus says, "You cannot make one hair white or black."
Back in those days, people could not control their hair color with hair dye like we can today.
Once your hair started going gray, there was no going back.
But even today in 2025, you can't speak a change of hair color into existence, right?
You can't say, "Let my hair be black. Let my hair be blonde again."
You cannot do that.
So Jesus is saying, "If you cannot even control the color of your hair with your words,
your words definitely cannot control if you're decapitated or not."
God is saying, "My words certainly control that."
Which means, "I own you. I own your head. I am the one who controls all things.
So do not swear by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem, or your own head."
Jesus even exposes the other things the religious leaders swore by in Matthew chapter 23 verses 16 through 22.
They would swear by the gold of the temple instead of the temple itself.
They would swear by the gift on the altar instead of the altar itself.
Jesus doesn't actually commend them for their shrewd thinking and their creative brainstorming.
He calls them blind fools who cannot see the stupidity of their own actions.
He labels them as blind guides who have fallen into a sinful pit
and are calling the rest of Jerusalem to join them in the darkness.
I know what you may be thinking at this point.
Taylor, this is an interesting history lesson at all.
I just don't see how this relates to me.
I haven't sworn by anything or anyone for a long time.
I haven't said, "I swear on my mother's life. I swear on my grandma's grave.
I swear by my life that I'm not lying."
So how does this relate to me? I haven't done that for many years.
Well, here's how the text relates to you.
"Don't be a sneaky word ninja like the scribes and Pharisees.
Do not be a sneaky person.
Do not look for escape hatches and loopholes to get out of what you say,
because that does not honor the Lord."
Let me give you some examples that may hit close to home.
Husbands, you're supposed to carry out a task for your wife, but then you forget.
Yeah, stretch your imagination because that never happens, right?
Then your wife calls you on it and to save face you say, "Oh, I was just about to do it.
You didn't give me enough time. That's sneaky. So don't do it."
You commit to a small group, but on one particular night, you don't really feel like going.
So you call your small group leader, "Oh, man, I'm really under the weather.
I don't want anybody else to get what I have. So I'm not going to make it tonight."
That's sneaky. So don't do it.
Someone texts or calls, someone texts or emails you
and really annoying message that you do not want to respond to.
So the next time you see that person, you pretend like you accidentally missed it.
That's sneaky. So don't do it.
You get invited to an event that you desperately do not want to go to.
So what do you say? "Yeah, maybe that might work. Let me get back to my calendar and get back to you."
You ain't getting back to them about nothing. You are going to ghost this person.
That's sneaky. So don't do it.
Unfortunately, you do get sucked into that event that you do not want to go to.
Instead of biting the bullet and attending, you call that person the day of,
"I really wanted to come, but something came up."
But nothing came up.
That's sneaky. So don't do it.
And I know what some of you are saying to yourselves right now.
"Taylor, this seems like really small potatoes in the grand scheme of things."
Shouldn't we move on to something a bit bigger?
I mean, come on. These kinds of excuses are harmless and they hurt no one.
Actually, these kinds of excuses are harmful and they hurt everyone, including you.
You are numbing yourself to the deceitfulness of sin.
And you are paving the way to lie in bigger and bolder ways moving forward.
Listen, no one starts out as a pathological liar.
It starts with one compromise that you get away with.
And then it's way easier to make another compromise.
You cross the line, you get away with it,
and then you make a habit out of pushing boundaries and testing the limits.
If you keep this up, you will end up saying and doing things that you never thought you were capable of.
Sneakiness is a way of slipping into your heart and taking over if you're not on guard against it.
But most importantly, these kind of devious excuses are sinful and sinning against the Lord.
And that alone should give you pause and cause you to cut this behavior out of your life.
It is not wise, it is not right to walk in the sneaky footsteps of the scribes and Pharisees
who rejected and murdered the Son of God.
Instead, walk in the footsteps of the one who committed no sin.
Neither was deceit found in his mouth.
Jesus always told the truth even when it cost his own life.
Jesus never made excuses to get out of his mission of dying on the cross.
You must always tell the truth even when it gets you into trouble.
Never make excuses even when it seems like everyone else around you is.
The final question of the trustworthiness test.
Do I always follow through on what I say?
Do I always follow through on what I say?
Jesus wraps up by showing the alternative to being an undependable and sneaky person in verse 37.
Let what you say be simply yes or no.
Anything more than this comes from evil.
Well, according to our Lord, being an honest person is not a complex concept.
Say yes if you'll do something. Say no if you will not do something.
That's super easy, right?
Not really.
It is so simple, but it is also so hard to live out.
It isn't convenient to be a yes or no person, but it is the freest way to live.
It is so stressful to not keep your word.
It is so stressful to have all those deceitful plates spinning in your mind
because at some point one will come crashing down and you will have to deal with the consequences.
It is exhausting to put on a mask and pretend to be someone who you are not.
It is painful to not be the person who you project yourself to be.
It is embarrassing to be unreliable
and to have the reputation of being a constant flake and not an unshakable rock.
When I am closing things down in my office for the day and packing things up,
I often text my wife to let her know that I am on the way home.
But sometimes I get distracted with other things after I send that text.
Writing down a sermon thought that I don't want to lose,
wrapping up a task that I forgot to complete, or talking to Pastor Jeff.
That never happens, right Jeff?
Several months ago I arrived home way later than I told Kate that I would.
And I profusely apologized and I will never forget her blunt response with a loving smile on her face.
"Oh, that's okay. I always add an extra 15 minutes to your arrival time when you text me."
Ouch!
That loving burn really stung my conscience.
My wife gave me some extra wiggle room
because she was aware that I often missed the target of my stated arrival time.
Do people need to give you wiggle room because they know that you often missed the target of keeping your word?
They know you'll be somewhere off on the board but way off-center,
or maybe you'll miss the board completely.
You mean well, you have good intentions but your follow-through fall short.
Maybe you feel very discouraged by your unreliable reputation.
You're thinking to yourself, "I don't want to be this way. I want to help everyone.
I want to be there for everyone but I can't seem to keep all of my commitments."
Well, it sounds like you have a no problem.
You say yes to everything because you don't want to let anyone down.
But in the process, you let everyone down because you cannot equally serve everyone.
If you say yes to everyone, your word will not carry weight with anyone.
And to be clear, saying no can be wrong and sinful.
Some of you in this room say no way more than you should at home, at work, and even in this church.
God may be calling you to step up more, not step back less.
But at the same time, saying no can also be right and productive.
Because you have to recognize that you are not God.
You cannot be everywhere all the time and you cannot do everything at the same exact time.
You are a limited person.
You need to count the cost of what you are committing yourself to before you say yes or no.
It takes great wisdom and discernment to say no to good things.
So that you can say yes to the best things.
And Jesus is so direct at the end of verse 37 and says that anything beyond being a yes or no person is evil.
It is wicked.
And this is recapt in James 512.
Some translations of Matthew 537 say that this kind of behavior beyond being a yes or no person is from the evil one.
Meaning if you live this kind of deceitful lifestyle, you are way worse off than just being like the scribes and Pharisees.
You are also like their spiritual father, Satan.
Listen to what Jesus says to religious leaders in John 844.
You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires.
He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.
My kids bear a family resemblance to Kate and me.
They have my eye color and thankfully they have her good looks.
After service, you see them running around.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that they belong to Kate and me because they look just like us.
There are two spiritual families and it's obvious which one you belong to based on which father you resemble the most.
Do you resemble Satan who lies, cheats and steals or do you resemble God who tells the truth, does the right thing in the right way and selflessly serves?
Which father do you resemble the most?
We've reached the end of the trustworthiness test.
How did you do?
Did you pass or did you fail?
Did you stick the landing or did you crash into the runway?
Maybe the Lord has encouraged your heart and revealed to you that you have a strong and solid reputation that is well deserved.
If that's you, keep up the good work, keep your foot on the gas pedal and keep moving forward by the grace of God.
Maybe you're convicted that yes, you are in the family of God, but you sure aren't acting like it right now.
Instead of hiding away and keeping your lies a secret, be honest about your dishonesty to God and to those you have betrayed.
It is not enough to just stop lying from now on. You also have to uncover the lies that you've already told.
I know that's hard. I know that feels shameful.
But remember, if you are a true believer in Christ, there is no condemnation for you.
You can be honest about your sin and ask for forgiveness from others because the penalty has already been paid by Jesus Christ.
We can share openly about our failures because they're no longer held against us.
Maybe you've come to the realization that you resemble the evil one and belong to the wrong family.
For years, you've unapologetically told bold-faced lies. You've shared half truths.
You've led people on. You've been underhanded and you've covered your tracks so you can avoid getting in trouble.
You may feel crushed under the weight of your own dishonesty right now.
If that's you, please do not try to do better or be better on your own.
Do not try to clean up your act because that will not solve the problem.
Self-improvement and self-help are fools errands that lead straight to hell.
Those worldly methods will not solve the problem that is truly within you, which is the problem of your heart.
Please come clean and confess your sins to the Lord.
Turn from your deceptive ways and throw yourself at the mercy of Jesus Christ who died on the cross and rose again to save liars like you and me.
If you do that, the Lord will give you a brand new heart that loves the truth, that desires the truth.
A heart that is overflowing with a desire to share the truth with everyone.
Only the most trustworthy one in all of existence can truly turn you into a trustworthy person.
Let's pray.
Father, I am a man of unclean lips who dwells among the people of unclean lips.
Lord, we have sinned against you with our deception and our lies and our half truths.
Lord, on our own, we are so helpless. We are so hopeless.
But we thank you for your redeeming work.
We thank you that you have cleansed us.
You've cast our lies away from us as far as the east is from the west.
Lord, help us not to be sneaky anymore.
To not be deceptive anymore. To not make untrue excuses.
Lord, help us to be people of our word who don't need to make promises.
Help us to be people who have a solid reputation because our reputation impacts your reputation in this world.
Lord, there's someone in this room who does not know and love you.
May today be the day where they finally make the most important decision of their lives
and are transformed and changed forever.
We thank you for your goodness. We thank you that you are unchanging even though we're constantly changing.
We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.