Sunday, July 15, 2012

Sunday, July 15th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 2 Chronicles 28; 2 Kings 16-17
Today's scripture focus is Matthew 5:33-37

33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’;anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

In his sermon The Spiritual Credibility Gap, John MacArthur summarizes the passage this way...

If you're a non-Christian, what it's saying to you is that you may think you're OK, but you're not. God is a holy God; to be in His Kingdom, He demands righteousness. You can't be righteous. You may think you tell the truth, but you shade it; you cheat, you dodge here and there, you tell half-truths, you make excuses, you betray a confidence. We all have that lying in us from our sin nature, and Jesus is saying to them and to you today, "If you see it there and know it hasn't been dealt with, you need to come to Jesus Christ, who alone can give you the righteousness you must have but can't gain on your own." if you come and put your faith in Jesus Christ, then Christ will give you His righteousness and you'll be as perfect as God is perfect, as His righteousness is imputed to you. By simply receiving Christ, His righteousness becomes yours.
What does it say to Christians? If you're a Christian and a child of the King, you should live like one. He is the Father of truth, so when we open our mouths, the truth ought to come out. On those solemn occasions when we vow a vow to God, we ought to keep that vow. On those other occasions, in the daily matters of life, our 'yes' should be 'yes,' and our 'no' should be 'no.' Anything more than that reveals an evil, untrustworthy heart.
Beloved, let's start a new movement in the world, a truth movement. Wouldn't it be great? Let's keep the vows we've made that demanded an oath before God; let's keep them for our lifetimes. In our daily conversation, let's speak the truth, the real truth, and live it. Let's be an oasis in the midst of the evil of this world of lying. 

"When we open our mouths, the truth ought to come out."  It's that simple.  We need to be people of our word, whether that's in our every day conversation, or in serious matters where vows are necessary (i.e. marriage).  Speak the truth, mean what we say and live it out.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 5:38-42
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Isaiah 13-17

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