A LAWFUL OATH
Sermon by: Rev. Steven R. KeyL.D. 37
Scripture: Psalm 139 (note vss. 1-4)
In the previous Lord's Day, Lord's Day 36, we considered together the significance of the third commandment. We saw not only that we are forbidden to abuse the holy name of Jehovah our God by cursing and swearing, but that we are required positively to use His holy name in fear and reverence, so that He may be rightly confessed and worshipped by us, and be glorified in all our words and works. Because God reveals Himself and His attributes to us by His name, He expects His name to be held in the same honor that is His due as the Triune God. And especially does that hold true for us to whom He has revealed Himself in that very special name, the name that is above every name — JESUS. In that name He has revealed Himself to us as the God of our salvation! He has made Himself known as Jehovah Who saves, bringing us out of the land of death and the bondage of sin. We, therefore, are called to live as those who sanctify the name of our God.
And especially among those who go by His name, there is no sin greater or more provoking to God than the profaning of His name. That was exactly, as we saw last Sunday afternoon, the reason Elijah had to challenge the Israelites to decide whom they would follow. By claiming God's name, and yet living contrary to His Word, they were profaning His name and provoking His just wrath. To claim the name Christian and then to live contrary to His Word and in violation of His precepts, is to bring one's self into damnation for the abuse and gross misrepresentation of Jehovah God. That is why, as we proclaimed last Lord's Day, if you will not walk in the truth, then don't continue your membership here. Don't claim by your membership in Israel, or in this Christian Church, to be one with us in the truth, while walking or talking in opposition to that truth. Such hypocrisy is abomination to the Holy God. Make no mistake, you must honor His name. You must walk in the truth. You may not forsake God's truth. But make your choice.
As with the bold challenge issued by Elijah to Israel, and by God's faithful servants to the Church today, such is the proclamation of the third commandment. Even apart from the Word of God in I Kings 18:21, which we considered last Lord's Day afternoon, that is what we also proclaimed in our consideration of Lord's Day 36. For God's name's sake, Scripture places great emphasis on the calling to live godly, lest the name of God be blasphemed. When we walk in sin, when we fail to confess the name of Christ and choose instead to walk with the world, when we show indifference toward the things of God, or even abuse those who are His, we blaspheme the name of God! And God will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. We must recognize that the name of Jehovah our God is not to be taken lightly. God's glory and His holiness are weighty matters. In honor of Him, we who are the redeemed in Christ Jesus are to live unto Him. Christ is the fulfillment of the law to every one who believes. And in Him we receive this Word of God. In Him we find our freedom to walk in His love, confessing His name with reverence and holy fear.
Now the Catechism, recognizing the importance of God's name, continues its discussion of the third commandment in Lord's Day 37. In doing so, it focuses on a particular use of God's name. The authors of the Catechism recognized that there are times when men take an oath. They confirm their own words by calling upon the God of all truth as their witness. And because no sin is greater nor more provoking to God than the misuse of His name, the question must be asked: "May we then swear religiously by the name of God?" And if so, "May we also swear religiously by saints or any other creatures?" Those are the two questions we face today, as we conclude the Catechism's treatment of the third commandment. There are several passages which we must take into account as we consider these questions. Not only is there the truth expressed in the opening verses of Psalm 139, that God's knows perfectly all that we stand for and testify to; but we have to consider also two passages in Scripture, from Matthew 5 and James 5, which seem to disallow any use of God's name in an oath. So looking at the Catechism's exposition of Holy Scripture, we take as our theme this morning:
A LAWFUL OATH
I. ITS BIBLICAL USE
II. ITS SPECIAL PLACE
TO SWEAR AN OATH IS TO MAKE A STATEMENT OR PROMISE WHILE APPEALING TO GOD AS OUR WITNESS.
An oath calls upon the name of God, Who serves as witness that we are speaking the truth or that we intend to speak the truth in that which we are about to say. It can also take the form of calling upon God as our witness that we fully intend to fulfill a vow. The most familiar use of the oath today is found in a court of law, where it is used to confirm that a person is speaking "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." And it is confirmed by the plea, "so help me God." That is a serious proclamation. And the increasing evidence of perjury, lying on the witness stand, that is seen in our day, ought to be alarming. I think for the most part it isn't. Because lying is so taken for granted in our day, it seems that perjury is counted a little thing for the most part. But to take an oath in God's name, only to lie on the witness stand, ought to be held equivalent with the most heinous crimes, and punished with the most severe penalty. For there is no sin greater or more provoking to God than the use of His name in vanity, as if He didn't even exist.
Another use of the oath in our day is seen in the oath of office. That is an oath sworn by those who are installed into a public office of some sort, usually an office of government or of justice. All government officials, as well as judges, are sworn into office. That swearing in ceremony takes the form of a vow. One confirms under oath that he will exercise his calling in office faithfully in harmony with the regulations and rules of law that govern that office.
Not to be overlooked in considering this use of the oath by those who take office is the promise made by a minister of the Word and by elders and deacons, when they are installed into their offices. Ministers who are about to take up their labors in a Church, are asked to answer three questions, the third of which is this: "Whether thou dost promise faithfully to discharge thy office, according to the same doctrine as above described, and to adorn it with a godly life: also, to submit thyself, in case thou shouldest become delinquent either in life or doctrine, to ecclesiastical admonition, according to the public ordinance of the churches?" And elders and deacons, also must answer three questions, the third of which is this promise before God and His Church: "Whether ye promise, agreeably to said doctrine, faithfully, according to your ability, to discharge your respective offices, as they are here described? ye elders in the government of the Church together with the ministers of the Word: and ye deacons in the ministration to the poor? Do ye also jointly promise to walk in all godliness, and to submit yourself, in case ye should become remiss in your duty, to the admonition of the Church?" To take those vows, being vows before God and His Church, and vows to perform service to God and to His Church, involve all those taking those vows in an oath before God.
Still more, in a sense — even though we do not take the name of God upon our lips — when we stand in the midst of His Church and take a vow, by the very nature of the case we call upon Him as our witness. Before the body of Christ, and therefore before the living and exalted Christ Himself, we take an oath that we fully intend to fulfill our vows whether that be in the pledge made during public confession of faith, or during the promise made when we present our children for holy baptism. That makes those occasions, not only joyful occasions — for that they are indeed. But it makes them also very solemn occasions.
When we proclaim before God and His congregation of saints that we have "resolved by the grace of God to adhere to" the doctrines taught in this Christian Church, "to reject all heresies repugnant thereto, and to lead a new, godly life," we recognize that in making that pledge we are in effect calling upon God as our witness. And when we add that we will "submit to church government, and in case we should become delinquent (which may God graciously forbid) to church discipline," we are calling upon God as our witness that we will fulfill that vow. And we recognize as well, that if we would deny that pledge by our actions, by that very sin we call for God's heavy judgment to fall upon us. For we have taken His name in vain! And as we saw in the third commandment, God will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
The same holds true with the vows we make at baptism. Particularly that holds true with the promise we make in answering the third question presented to us as parents. Before the very face of God in Christ, and His body the Church, we answer "yes" to the question, "Whether you promise and intend to see these children, when come to the years of discretion, instructed and brought up in the aforesaid doctrine, or help or cause them to be instructed therein, to the utmost of your power." What a solemn vow that is! And then should we forsake that vow, what we do is to profane the very name of God. And there is no sin greater or more provoking to Him than the profaning of His name. To us who are in Christ Jesus, the fear of God in our hearts causes us to tremble at the very thought of such provocation of Him. In our deep love for Him, we are afraid to offend Him by departing from the least of His commandments. So we take our vows seriously.
WE READ FREQUENTLY IN SCRIPTURE OF THE OATH.
Also in Scripture the oath was an act of calling upon God as the One Who knows the heart. It is rooted in God's own revelation of Himself as the all-knowing or omniscient, and everywhere present or omnipresent, God. That is why we read this morning from Psalm 139. We didn't see anything about the oath in that passage, did we. But the very basis for speaking an oath was found in the first four verses of that Psalm. The Lord God knows all things. He not only knows our actions, which can be seen by men; but He knows the very thoughts of our hearts. There is nothing that escapes His knowledge! And so David sings of God being acquainted with all his ways, "For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether." When we speak, bearing testimony to the truth, or making a promise while laying hold of God as our witness, we are testifying that we are willing to subject ourselves to the all-knowing God as our witness. We cannot forget, God is the God of truth. He hates the lie! And therefore the biblical use of the oath is to be recognized as a most serious act. We utter the same truth that Hannah had included in her prayer (I Samuel 2:3), "For the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed." The implication of the oath is, even as our Catechism states, that He will bear witness to the truth and punish me if I swear falsely.
Because an oath is an appeal to the God of all truth, Who is powerful to execute judgment upon all those who take His name in vain, it is intended to be the end of all strife. In Solomon's prayer of dedication, lifted up to Jehovah at the dedication of the temple, he called attention to the biblical place of the oath and the seriousness with which Israel takes the lawful oath. Listen to his prayer (I Kings 8:31,32): "If any man trespass against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house: Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge the servant, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness." Do you understand? Oh God, grant that we may take the oath with such seriousness! Also in the New Testament we are told that the place of the oath is to testify to the truth of a matter, and to serve as the settler of all dispute. Hebrews 6:16: "For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife."
But a lawful oath, as Scripture reveals to us, is also an act of worship. That is something that the world completely overlooks. That is something that we also tend to overlook. But we must not. Especially we to whom has been given the revelation of God as Jehovah, the Holy, all-knowing and everywhere present God of truth and righteousness — especially we ought to remember that, when we take God's name upon our lips, we are to do so none otherwise than with fear and reverence. Also taking His name in the oath is to be, for us, an act of worship. That also is the biblical use of the oath. It is to recognize that we, as members of the fallen race, are sinners, liars, by nature. And in the consciousness of the redeemed in Christ, we now dare to call upon God as our judge, that when we make an oath, we speak the truth and lie not. So we read in Jeremiah 4:1,2: "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory." So He tells Jeremiah to prophecy. And such is the biblical place of the oath among the redeemed, an act of holy worship.
THE REASON THE CATECHISM EMPHASIZED THE LAWFULNESS OF THE OATH IS BECAUSE THERE WERE THOSE, AND PARTICULARLY THE ANABAPTISTS, WHO CONDEMNED ALL USE OF THE OATH.
They did so on the basis of the Bible. They pointed to Matthew 5:33-37 and James 5:12, and said, "Look, we are forbidden all use of the oath!" Let's look at those passages a moment. I think you can see why they took the position they did. In Matthew 5, Jesus said this in verses 33-37: "Again, 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 his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy heard, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." Swear not at all! Are not all oaths forbidden then? Then they pointed us to James 5:12, where something similar is written: "But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let you yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation."
To those who would condemn all use of the oath, it may first appear on the surface of it, that they have the texts to back up their position. But those texts call for further examination. Not because they are not clear. But because the application of those texts may legitimately be questioned. On what basis? On the basis of those many other portions of Scripture that show a proper use of the oath. For one thing, right within the Sermon on the Mount, in that same chapter of Matthew 5, we have Jesus' instruction that He did not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill. We have seen from many references in the law and prophets of the Old Testament Scriptures that the Lord considered it a matter of honor when His people took oaths in His name, doing so in the proper spirit of holy reverence and truth. Why then would He suddenly turn around and condemn all use of the oath? Furthermore, when we read on in the gospel account of Matthew, we find in Matthew 26 that Jesus Himself permitted Himself to be placed under oath by Caiaphas. And we read many places in the New Testament of the oath being used, even by the saints. All of these references indicate that we can hardly interpret Jesus' criticism of oath swearing to mean a complete prohibition of every oath.
The text of Matthew 5 indeed tells us what Jesus meant. He is clearly condemning the common and superficial swearing by the church of His day. The Jews were using the oath, not in glory to God, nor in reverence of Him, nor in a spiritual way at all. They were using the oath in a very superficial way and even clever way, and by so were taking God's name in vain! Recognizing that an oath which uses the name of Jehovah is binding and must be kept, they were swearing by other things in order to escape the stringent requirements of a proper oath. So people swore "by heaven," "by the earth," "by Jerusalem," or "by my head." And they imagined that in doing so, they had found a loophole for the lie. They imagined that if they swore in this way, and didn't tell the truth, they could get away with it! Furthermore, they used the oath so frequently, that for every trivial occasion they would swear, thinking that if they didn't use God's name, but swore by heaven and earth, then they were not touching God's name. They were dead wrong! By this sin they were blaspheming God's name! And our Catechism explains why, in answering the question: "May we also swear by saints or any other creatures?" "No; for a lawful oath is calling upon God as the only One Who knows the heart, that He will bear witness to the truth and punish me if I swear falsely; which honor is due to no creature."
THE OATH MAY INDEED BE USED BY THE CHRISTIAN, WHEN GIVEN ITS PROPER SPECIAL PLACE.
But there is one other point that must be made in connection with those texts in Matthew 5 and James 5. Also emphasized by those inspired words is this, that when Christians speak one to another, there ought not be a need for the oath. It is sin that makes the oath necessary. But when two men stand together in Christ, when we seek our life in Christ Jesus, and walk in the light, then we have no need for the oath. Then our "yes" means exactly that, and our "no" also means "no." And that is how we must live. Speak the truth one with another, that the name of our God is not blasphemed.
In the course of our daily life we easily forget God. We forget that He is always present, always recording our thoughts and words and actions. One thing after another occupies our attention, and we live in the things of the moment, forgetting that God is with us. But when we speak, beloved, we must know that He is our witness. Psalm 11:4: "The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." The God of all glory, the sovereign Lord, seated upon His heavenly throne, possesses perfect knowledge of you and of me! How wondrous is such a God! We must live in that consciousness. And when we take Him as our witness, we must never forget that He is the God of truth.
This God is also the God of our salvation. Let's remember that, shall we. We continue our consideration of the Ten Commandments as the rule for a life of thankfulness to God. That is how we receive them, when we are in Christ Jesus by a true and living faith. To those outside of Christ, the Ten Commandments are an unbearable burden. They will not have them. They do not desire to walk in obedience. But to you who know the riches of salvation, the hearing of this law is the word of life to you. And that means with respect to the name of God, that all that you say and all that you do is a reflection of that glorious name. Then we will not swear in our common speech. Oh yes, there will be times when we may be called to take an oath. The reality of the presence of sin makes the oath necessary even among believers, especially by the magistrates, who cannot know that we, of all people, will tell the truth. And even, as we said, among the Church, in baptisms and confessions of faith, and also marriages, God's people on those special occasions make vows before God and His Church. But we do so as before God's face, in loving service of Him, as an act of worship. For in Jesus His is the name above every name. And we love Him. He has redeemed us from our natural love of the lie, and given us a love for the truth. In that salvation, therefore, let us make our vows, truthfully, with sincerity, in holy worship of our great Redeemer. Amen.
Preached: Randolph PRC 10/5/97 (am)
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