{"id":29774,"date":"2025-09-21T17:55:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/?post_type=cpl_item&#038;p=29774"},"modified":"2025-10-01T14:13:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:13:22","slug":"nothing-but-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"cpl_item","link":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/es\/sermons\/nothing-but-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing but the Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Nothing But the Truth<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Matthew 5:33\u201337<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When Pilate stood before Jesus, he asked a question that has echoed through the ages: <em>\u201cWhat is truth?\u201d<\/em> It\u2019s a question every human wrestles with because truth is at the very core of life. Nothing is more important than truth. Why? Because truth defines what is real. It defines reality itself. That\u2019s why Jesus said, <em>\u201cYou will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.\u201d<\/em> Notice He didn\u2019t say love will set you free, or hope will set you free\u2014only truth has the power to liberate. Truth is fundamental to the essence of life.<\/p>\n<p>Think about it. Imagine sitting in a doctor\u2019s office, and the doctor has just discovered that you have cancer. What do you need in that moment? Do you need love? Not first\u2014because you wouldn\u2019t even understand why the doctor is showing you compassion. Do you need hope? Not yet\u2014because without knowing the truth of your condition, you don\u2019t know what to hope for. Do you need faith? Faith without truth is undefined. What you need most is truth. Only once the truth is revealed can love, hope, and faith have meaning. All our faith in, hope in, and love of God is built on the foundation of truth!<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why this passage is so crucial. At first glance, it seems that Jesus is only concerned with oath-taking. But when we look more closely, we see that His real concern is truth-telling. Oaths exist for one reason: because our words are not naturally trustworthy.<\/p>\n<p>So the aim of Jesus in this passage is simple and searching: <strong><em><u>Kingdom citizens are truth-tellers<\/u><\/em><\/strong>. In other words, Christ\u2019s disciples are to be people who tell the truth no matter the circumstance. To unfold this, I want us to consider three movements in the text: <em>the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Truth\u2026for the Ancestors (v. 33)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In this passage, Jesus introduces the second triad of antithesis statements. He is clarifying what the Law truly intended. In the first triad, He addressed the value of the neighbor: do not hate, do not be unfaithful, do not trivialize others. Now He turns to the rules of engagement once the value of life, faithfulness, and covenant commitment have already been established.<\/li>\n<li>To make His point, Jesus exposes the state of truth in their society. He says: \u201cYou have heard it said, \u2018You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord.\u2019\u201d<\/li>\n<li>This statement is not a direct quotation from the Old Testament but, as scholars note, a rabbinic paraphrase of passages like Leviticus 19:12, Numbers 30:2, and Deuteronomy 23:21\u201323. The problem is that this paraphrase created loopholes. It demanded honesty in a courtroom oath or when a vow was made directly to the Lord, but it implicitly excused dishonesty in other settings\u2014so long as it wasn\u2019t perjury or a vow \u201cto God Himself.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>At the heart of every true oath was the Lord. An Israelite who swore an oath was binding themselves before God. But by swearing \u201cby heaven,\u201d or \u201cby earth,\u201d or \u201cby Jerusalem,\u201d or \u201cby one\u2019s head,\u201d people thought they could sidestep this binding nature.<\/li>\n<li>As one commentator notes, \u201cIn rabbinic law, none of the oath formulas mentioned in verses 34\u201336 were legally binding since they did not use approved substitutions for the divine name. Such oath formulas gave the impression of sincerity, but in reality, they masked deception.\u201d These technicalities created a socially acceptable way to lie.<\/li>\n<li>In other words, truth for the ancestors had become a convenient truth\u2014a malleable, bendable truth. Oaths were tools to manipulate. Someone could say, \u201cI promise you by heaven I\u2019ll take buy your house for 350k,\u201d and yet, since it wasn\u2019t \u201cby the Lord,\u201d it wasn\u2019t legally binding.<\/li>\n<li>Oaths as they were employed back then are not as prevalent now, but something similar is at play in our day and age. We still make promises and commitments, but truth-bending is alive and well. We may not swear by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or our heads, but we deceive in subtler ways. We cloak dishonesty with vague intentions:\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cLet me think about it,\u201d or<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI\u2019ll pray about it.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>These phrases sound spiritual and respectful, and they are if in fact we are going to think about it or pray about it, but often they are evasions\u2014ways to avoid giving a clear yes or no because we fear the cost of commitment.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>As Christians, we can become experts at masking our true intentions. We hide behind what\u2019s often called \u201cChristianese\u201d\u2014language that sounds holy but lacks real devotion.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus will have none of this. As citizens of His Kingdom, He cares about even our casual conversations and insists that we be known as people who tell the whole truth. But what does \u201cthe whole truth\u201d mean for Jesus?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Whole Truth\u2026for Jesus (vv. 34-36)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Notice what Jesus says in vv. 34\u201336.<\/strong> He warns that the objects people swore by\u2014heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or even their own head\u2014were all so closely tied to God that such vows were actually irreverent. To swear \u201cby heaven\u201d was essentially saying, <em>\u201cMay heaven be destroyed if I don\u2019t keep my word.\u201d<\/em> But heaven is God\u2019s throne. To swear \u201cby earth\u201d was to invoke God\u2019s footstool. To swear \u201cby Jerusalem\u201d was to invoke the city of the Great King, which is God himself. Even swearing \u201cby your own head\u201d was blasphemous, because it implied, <em>\u201cMay I be decapitated if I fail.\u201d<\/em> Yet no one can control their own aging\u2014young people cannot stop their hair from turning gray, and the elderly cannot make their hair turn black again. If we cannot control something as simple as the color of our hair, how much less can we control the timing of our death? To swear this way is to claim authority that belongs to God alone.<\/li>\n<li><strong>For Jesus, the whole truth means abandoning empty formulas.<\/strong> Stop hiding behind promises \u201cby heaven,\u201d \u201cby earth,\u201d \u201cby Jerusalem,\u201d or \u201cby your head.\u201d Or, \u201cLet me think about it,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ll pray about it.\u201d If you know that you are not even going to think or pray about it since you have already made up your mind. Instead, simply speak the truth.<\/li>\n<li><strong>We often miss the broader implications.<\/strong> Just as last week we saw that God\u2019s teaching on divorce is not simply \u201cstay married\u201d but \u201cpursue a thriving marriage,\u201d so here, oath-taking is not the fundamental point. Fundamentally, Jesus is concerned with truthfulness.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The truth for Jesus is oathless.<\/strong> Oaths exist only because our words are untrustworthy. To require an oath presupposes that our normal speech cannot be trusted. But citizens of the Kingdom are to be different\u2014our word must be reliable, our speech full of truth, our lives a consistent witness to reality as God defines it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In essence, Jesus is saying:<\/strong> Stop lying and pretending your words carry truth just because you attach an oath to them. Instead, let your life itself demonstrate truthfulness. And that\u2019s why He concludes in verse 37\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Nothing but the Truth (v. 37)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jesus\u2019s disciples are called to be consistently and completely honest. They should never affirm what is false or deny what is true. When this kind of honesty marks our lives, there is no need for oath formulas.<\/li>\n<li>The defining mark of a Kingdom citizen is truth-telling. Some may object and say, \u201cWait\u2014I thought love was the fundamental characteristic of the Kingdom. Didn\u2019t Jesus say, \u2018By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you love one another\u2019?\u201d That\u2019s true, but love cannot be separated from truth. Love must be defined by truth; otherwise, it becomes empty sentiment. That\u2019s why Paul exhorts us to speak the truth in love, not simply to speak love in vague terms. Jesus Himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life\u2014meaning that the way to life is always through truth. At His very core, God is a truth-teller. He reveals reality as it is. In Him there is no deception, no shadow, no falsehood. If God did not speak truth, reveal truth, and show truth, we would be the most pitiable of all people.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus concludes by warning that anything beyond simple honesty comes from the evil one. Satan is the \u201cfather of lies\u201d (John 8:44). The practice of deception, even if dressed up with oaths, belongs to his influence.<\/li>\n<li>This takes us back to the Garden of Eden. The serpent deceived Eve with half-truths, twisting God\u2019s word to produce doubt and rebellion. When we rely on half-truths or manipulate words to mislead, we are imitating the serpent himself. To tell less than the truth is to join in the devil\u2019s work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em><u>Main Point: Kingdom citizens are truth-tellers<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em><u>\u00a0<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Why? Because God gives us Nothing but the Truth<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Numbers, we read that \u201cGod is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind\u201d (Num. 23:19). God always gives us nothing but the truth\u2014nothing but what is real. The apostle Paul echoes this in 2 Corinthians when he declares that all of God\u2019s promises find their Yes and Amen in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20).<\/p>\n<p>Oaths, God, and Us<\/p>\n<p>Jesus is not forbidding oaths in absolute because then you wouldn\u2019t be able to sign a contract, say to rent or buy a house. All of God\u2019s covenants are oaths, we could say promises. He is forbidding oaths in your day-to-day relationships and he is saying that our words should be trustworthy enough that we shouldn\u2019t need legal promises indicating that we will abide by what we said. Let your word be yes or no, and that is it. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Application \u2013 Live the Truth<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How then do we live the truth? Hear Paul\u2019s words in <em>Ephesians 4:25<\/em>: <em>\u201cTherefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.\u201d<\/em> For a community to thrive in trust and confidence, truth is essential.<\/p>\n<p>Paul shows us what this looks like:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong> Speak the Truth<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Why do oaths exist? Because we are untrustworthy. We have to promise because doubt is our natural response in a world filled with broken words. To live as truth-tellers, we must guard against three dangers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Careless words.<\/strong><br \/>\nToo often we make empty promises\u2014not always maliciously, but carelessly. We promise more than we can deliver, sometimes to look good or gain praise. Even the promises you make to yourself matter: if you don\u2019t keep them, you\u2019ve lied to yourself. Let\u2019s not pretend to know more than we know or commit to more than we can do.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cowardice.<\/strong><br \/>\nOur goal is not to be \u201cnice,\u201d but to be faithful. Yet we often shrink back from truth because we want to be liked. We dance around it like we\u2019re at a wedding reception, afraid to offend. But Jesus never dealt in flattery\u2014he spoke the truth plainly. Sometimes truth-telling will cost.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Redefining truth.<\/strong><br \/>\nDon\u2019t twist words to justify broken promises. If you said, <em>\u201cWe\u2019ll meet at 9,\u201d<\/em> but later insist you meant <em>\u201c9 past 10,\u201d<\/em> that is not clever\u2014it\u2019s dishonest. Avoid secrecy, distortions, exaggerations, or theatrics that mislead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><strong> Live Not by Lies<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>We also live in an age that denies truth altogether. The mantra of our generation is: <em>\u201cThere is no absolute truth.\u201d<\/em> But that is a self-refuting claim\u2014because if it\u2019s true, then truth exists!<\/p>\n<p>Paul describes truth as a <em>belt<\/em> in the armor of God (<em>Ephesians 6<\/em>). A soldier\u2019s armor is useless without the belt holding it together. So it is with us: truth girds us up for spiritual battle.<\/p>\n<p>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, on the day of his arrest in 1974, left his people one final exhortation: <em>\u201cLive not by lies.\u201d<\/em> He knew he could not overthrow the Soviet regime, but he could refuse to be its loyal subject. He urged ordinary people:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not say, write, or distribute anything that distorts truth.<\/li>\n<li>Do not attend rallies or meetings where lies are forced.<\/li>\n<li>Do not vote for candidates or proposals you know to be false.<\/li>\n<li>Walk out when propaganda is spoken.<\/li>\n<li>Do not support journalism that hides facts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Solzhenitsyn\u2019s call remains ours: if we cannot shout truth from the rooftops, we can at least refuse to affirm what we know is false.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><strong> Know the Truth<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Finally, we cannot live the truth unless we know the truth. That\u2019s why doctrine matters. Article 2 of the Belgic Confession reminds us that God makes himself known in two ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Through creation.<\/strong> The universe is like a beautiful book, with every creature a letter pointing to God\u2019s eternal power and divine nature (<em>Rom. 1:20<\/em>).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Through Scripture.<\/strong> God reveals himself more clearly by his holy Word, giving us all we need for his glory and for our salvation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Whatever you think about Charlie Kirk, the reality is that he was killed because he spoke truths his attacker despised. Truth can be costly, but it is never optional. We can never live by lies, which means we must be willing to die for the truth!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Truth is not only a moral duty but a gift from God. To live it, we must know it\u2014and knowing it, we must speak it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li><strong> Believe the Truth<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Why must the citizens of the kingdom speak truth? Because God speaks truth. There are no lies in Him. Jesus said, \u201cI am the way the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This passage implicitly invites us to trust our God who is perfectly trustworthy. His promises are never empty platitudes; His warnings are never careless threats. What He says is always reality\u2014both His word of promise (salvation) and His word of warning (judgment against sin).<\/p>\n<p>That leaves us in an awkward position: God is absolute truth, and we are constant liars. Jesus\u2019 command feels impossible. And it is\u2014apart from the gospel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Need for the Gospel<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This contrast exposes our desperate need for Christ. God is trustworthy; in Him there is no deception. But we are corrupted by our sin and hounded by the father of lies, Satan himself. This alone shows us our need for forgiveness in Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the good news: God does not lie. He speaks hope and forgiveness in His Son. What then must we do? We must believe the words of the gospel: repent of our lying ways and trust that Christ offers full pardon.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To those who believe, His word brings life.<\/li>\n<li>To those who reject it, His word brings judgment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And here is the wonder of grace: Christ\u2019s forgiveness not only covers our past but gives us new life in the Spirit. By His Spirit, we are empowered to put away falsehood and live not by lies.<\/p>\n<p>So let us cling to this promise today\u2014believing the truth, resting in the gospel, and living as people made new by the God who never lies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em><u>Main Point: Kingdom citizens are truth-tellers<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We are being challenged to speak the truth\u2014no matter the circumstance. Let\u2019s do it! Not in our own strength, not in self-reliance, but in the confidence that we have been born from above and empowered by the Spirit to speak truth, even when it is hard, even when it is costly.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s do it for the sake of our families, for the flourishing of our Christian community, and for the good of our society. Let us be countercultural in our truth-telling\u2014imitating our Father and our elder Brother, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Spirit. Our triune God is ever faithful, ever speaking truth, and never lies.<\/p>\n<p>So let us remember the main point: <strong>Kingdom citizens are truth-tellers.<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nothing But the Truth Matthew 5:33\u201337 When Pilate stood before Jesus, he asked a question that has echoed through the ages: \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d It\u2019s a question every human wrestles with because truth is at the very core of life. Nothing is more important than truth. Why? Because truth defines what is real. It defines [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","cpl_scripture":[70],"cpl_season":[],"cpl_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29774","cpl_item","type-cpl_item","status-publish","hentry","cpl_scripture-matthew"],"blocksy_meta":[],"cpl_transcript":"","cmb2":{"item_meta":{"audio_url":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Nothing-but-the-Trurth.mp3","audio_url_id":"","video_url":"https:\/\/youtube.com\/live\/tF2swimcBSk","video_url_id":"","message_timestamp":"","podcast_exclude":"","downloads":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cpl_item\/29774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cpl_item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cpl_item"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cpl_scripture","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cpl_scripture?post=29774"},{"taxonomy":"cpl_season","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cpl_season?post=29774"},{"taxonomy":"cpl_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immanuelfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cpl_topic?post=29774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}