When we look at the word of God, we understand that the principal difference between God and men is this, that both parties enter into a covenant, and men, every man, is a covenant breaker, and God is a covenant keeper. The word of the Lord is true. The difference between God and me is that when God says he's going to do something, he does it. Covenant breakers. That's who we are. Hello and welcome to Renewing Your Mind. I'm Lee Webb. Today and tomorrow, we're going back to the early years of RC scroll with messages from his series, Meaning for Men. Here's RC now on the importance of keeping our word. This evening, I would like to read from the New Testament, from the book of James, from the fifth chapter, verses 11 and 12. Behold, we count them happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. But above all things, my brothers, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath. But let your yea be yea, and your nay nay, lest you fall into condemnation. And he who has ears to hear the word of God, let him hear it. Suppose if right now, our Lord himself came in the back door and walked on the aisle, and you had a chance to ask him one question, what would you ask him? Or perhaps we could look at it from another way. If we could all put this question to Jesus, if Jesus came up here and we said, Lord, we know there are many things that you require of us and much that you would have us to do, that you said that if we love you, we ought to keep your commandments. But Lord, give us the priority. What do you think is the most important thing that we should do? What do you think he would say? Or remember what he said in the most famous sermon ever preached? When he said to those assembled on the Mount, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. At that moment, Christ gave a priority, seeking first the kingdom of God. But there are other occasions in the New Testament where different priorities are set forth for us. At our home church in Orlando, we had an evening program that was a film produced by the organization that's based out in San Francisco that goes under the name Jews for Jesus. I think most of you have some knowledge of that organization. And part of this film included singing by these young people who called themselves completed Jews or Messianic Jews. And as I listened to the style of their singing, I was immediately taken by the fact that their method of singing was not at all like the traditional Scottish Presbyterian form of singing. They were sort of freewheeling it. They had a sort of Jewish spirit to it. They had tambourines. And there was a kind of a lively beat to the music. And as I watched that film, I said to myself, self, self said, I, I wonder how much of what God has given to us in this book gets filtered through our own traditions and our own cultures and our own priorities. I wonder if the things that we think are super important are the same things that God thinks are super important. And so when we meet those occasions in the Bible, where God underlines in red something of great urgency, we don't want to miss that. Well, the text that I read this evening is one of those places. And before I treat that text, I want to put another question before you. The question is, who wrote the lines that I read a moment ago? Who is this James whose name is associated with this book? Well, we don't know for positive, but the best historical research that I know of identifies the book of James with a man in the first century church who was known as James the just or James the righteous one. He was known for his personal integrity. He was known as a Christian leader whose word was eminently trustworthy. He was the man selected to moderate the first council of the Christian church, the council of Jerusalem that is recorded in Acts 15. But his most distinguished credential is that this man is identified in church history as the earthly brother of Jesus. Imagine a man emerging and saying, Hey, I grew up with him. I learned from him in my father's shop. He taught me how to use a lay. He showed me how to swing an axe. And yes, I know him from the inside out, not simply his public image. If we read carefully the book of James, we will hear little phrases, little aphorisms that sound almost exactly like some of the statements that Jesus makes in his earthly ministry. We can almost say with certainty that he's quoting his brother. Now, I stress all of that because the passage that I read a moment ago begins with these words. Let's look at it again in verse 12, but above all things. Think of it. The brother of Jesus comes in here and he said, you want to know what the Christian life is all about? I want you to know that you need to learn how to control your tongue because the tongue is a mighty weapon. He gives a whole chapter on controlling the tongue. And he said, faith without works is dead. And he tells us that the essence of true religion is to take care of widows. And he gives us all this instruction. But after going through chapter after chapter of godly admonition, then the brother of our Lord says, but above all, do not swear. Now, if we took 2000 Christian men and said, what's the single most important thing that the New Testament says that we are supposed to do or not to do? How many men would say above all, do not swear? Who in the world would make that a top priority? That's that startles my senses when the brother of Jesus says above all things, don't swear. Well, what's he saying when he says, don't swear? He's not saying here above all things, don't cost. That's not the kind of swearing he's talking about. He's not talking about the kind of language that you might occasionally hear on a naval vessel. To be sure, the Bible tells us that our speech ought to be pure. Season with salt, to be sure. Some of us put Tabasco and pepper and a few other things in there to season it. And we know that Christian gentlemen are supposed to be careful about their patterns of speech but that's not the priority that God has in mind. When James says above all, don't swear, he's really echoing something that his brother taught much earlier in the sermon on the mouth. And let me go back and refresh your memory on what Jesus said. Again, you have heard that it has been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear yourself but shall perform unto the Lord your 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 footstall, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your communication be. But whatsoever is more than these comes of evil. There it is again, prominently found in the midst of the sermon on the mouth. This Presbyterians we have in our heritage, the great Westminster Confession of Faith. And there we have great sections on the sovereignty of God, on the efficacy of his grace, on the atonement of our law, of the kingship of Christ, of justification by faith alone. But our fathers saw fit to have an entire chapter in the Westminster Confession of Faith, entitled On Lawful Oaths and Vows. Because what this text is concerned about is not cursing, but the taking of sacred vows, the uttering of holy oaths, and the making of promises. How God says, when you take an oath, when you make your vow, you better not ever take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth, nothing but the truth? So help you the altar? Is that what we say? Do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? So help you the hairs on your head? That's not what we say, gentlemen. Is do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and the truth? The whole truth and nothing but the truth? So help you God when we take a vow to speak the truth in the bearing of solemn witness and testimony in a legal courtroom. We swear not by the earth, for it is the Lord's footstool, not by the altar, but by God himself. Why? Our Father's understood, gentlemen, that a sacred vow uttered in the name of God is not only a human promise of great seriousness, but it is an act of worship. How is that? The Jew understood that. That it is an act of worship, because whenever we come together and we make promises to one another in the name of God, we are recognizing, first of all, God's authority over us when we make the promise. Most of you are married, and at some point in your life you came into a public assembly before all of the authority structures of your life, before your friends, before your family, before the institution of the state, and before the institution of the church. And as you came there, you heard the words of the ministers, he said, dearly beloved, we are assembled here in the presence of God and of these witnesses to unite this man and this woman in the holy bonds of matrimon. We took vows, we made a promise, not in the backseat of a car and a drive-in movie, but we made a promise in the presence of God and in the name of God. We stood there and we exchanged vows and we said, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, did we not? And in that act, we were acknowledging God's authority over our vows, over our marriage. When we were teenagers, we went to youth fellowship at our church, and we had a tradition in youth fellowship, but at the end of each meeting, we joined in this great circle around the fellowship hall and we all held hands and we recited together the Misspah benediction. Do you remember it? How many of you remember the Misspah benediction? Anybody? What is this, Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Anybody? Let me see those hands. Say it with me. May the Lord watch between me and the while we are absent one from the other. Now do you remember it? Jacob and Laban. And I got the idea and the impression from that that this was just a nice benediction that we said to each other, may the Lord watch over you and take care of you and protect you while we're away from each other. That's not at all what that thing meant originally. Laban and Jacob were stealing each other blind. Finally, they met and they negotiated out an agreement and then they said to the other, now look, as soon as I ride my mule down the street, I'm going to have to guard my back from you. You've crooked me every time we've made a deal. And so I'll tell you what, may the Lord watch between you and me while we are absent one from the other. That's the historical context of the Misspah benediction. They call upon God as the witness to their agreement. When a covenant was made, gentlemen, the covenant by which you're redeemed was sworn with sacred promises that recognized the authority of God over those promises that were made. And also that is implied in that is the omnipresence of God. Not just his sovereignty, but the acknowledgement that wherever Laban goes and wherever Jacob goes, there's nowhere that they can escape the eye of the Almighty who monitors the terms of those promises. Marriage vows are broken every night in secret in our nation. But there is nowhere you can go to escape the eye of God who watches the keeping of your vows. If you don't take your vows seriously, he does. Have you ever stopped to think how much of your life has been affected by promises? How much pain you have experienced in your life because somebody broke a promise to you? Every child hurts when the father breaks a promise to the child. You know what it feels like when the kids say, but daddy, you promised. And pretty soon the kids get to learn that there are promises and then there are promises. And they know what maybe means. That's a polite way of saying, don't bother me now. Every one of us has borrowed something from our neighbor and forgot to give it back. We've promised that we would send the check this week. We didn't send the check this way. There are men in this room right now who owe people money and they haven't paid what they owed. Their yay has not meant yay. But when we look at the word of God, we understand that the principle difference between God and men is this, that both parties enter into a covenant and men, every man, is a covenant breaker and God is a covenant keeper. The word of the Lord is true. The difference between God and me is that when God says he's going to do something, he does it. He keeps his promise. 2,000 years ago, there were Jewish people all over Palestine that had long forgotten the promises of God they had given up on God. And an angel came to a peasant girl and said, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And this poor little girl was terrified. What can this mean? And the angel said, Mary, behold, you will conceive and you will bring forth a son and his name shall be called Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin. And she said, well, how can this be since I know no man? And Gabriel said to her, Mary, relax. The power of the Almighty will come upon you. The Holy Ghost will overshadow you and that sacred thing within you will be called Holy unto the Lord. And she said, be it so unto me, even according to thy will. And then she began to sing under the inspiration of God, the Holy Spirit, my soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit doth rejoice in God, my Savior. And then she said, he is considered my low estate. And then she said, he remembered his promise to our Father Abraham. That's why we're here. Because God's yay is yay. And his nay is nay. And he wants the man of God to reflect that, to be a mirror. So don't promise it. Unless you are prepared to move heaven and earth to do it. For thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. A convicting message today from RC Sproll. This is renewing your mind. And you just heard a message from Dr. Sproll's series, Meaning for Men. When you give a donation in support of renewing your mind at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343, you will unlock lifetime digital access to this series. Plus, we'll send you a copy of Richard Phillips book, The Masculine Mandate, God's Calling to Men. So give your gift now at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes. And let me thank you in advance for your generous donation. Today we learned about the importance of our word. Tomorrow RC will discuss the importance of trust. So I hope you'll join us Tuesday here on renewing your mind. you
