Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Matthew chapter 5 to the Sermon on the Mount? As we're working our way through the second section of this great Sermon of Jesus Christ, we're looking at Kingdom Ethics. How the people of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, are expected to live in this world, and in this particular section, Jesus is correcting a lot of the misconceptions of the rabbis or the popular teachers of his day. And as he comes to this section on oaths and vows in chapter 5 verses 33 to 37, he reminds us that you and I live in a world of spin. It's not a new thing, although it's an only present, a overwhelming thing in our day. Spin began, believe it or not, a long time ago, and found its way into the mainstream of our culture. Primarily through advertising. In fact, a man named Edward Bernays, who lived at the end of the 1800s, beginning of the 1900s, he was an advertising executive hired by a number of major corporations of his day, and he began the practice of spin. He would use innuendo in his advertising, some glibonal messages that were not cognizantly picked up but entered into the subconscious. He told half-truths, he slandered competitors, he got famous people to endorse products that they've never used, and all of the things we consider to be natural and normal advertising techniques shocked the American public when Bernays first introduced them to the corporate life in the world. Now Spin has found its way into everything from politics to medicine, even I'm ashamed to say in the church. Spin has given birth to a whole genre of words, for example, a spin doctor. Is someone who makes a living getting people elected, or promoting some cause, or selling some product in less than genuine manner. Spin rooms are now the rooms in the White House, and in the major corporations where they concoct the ideas they want to promote, half of the story, to capture public support without giving them all of the facts. They selectively present facts and quotes that support their own position called cherry picking. They give non-denials. They phrase things in a way that assume unproven truths. They use euphemisms to disguise or promote one's agenda, and they bury the bad news by announcing one popular thing while they slip something in on the side that's unpopular. All the while, it goes by us in a blur, and we're to the point where it's difficult for us to determine what is true and what's not. I think perhaps the most glaring example of this are the supposedly called documentaries of Michael Moore, which are not documentaries at all. They're just propaganda for his own agenda that the American public by and large believes. Spin has become much worse because of the internet, because the proliferation of voices in our culture who either don't know what they're talking about or don't care. And there are many, many blog sites where after I spend just a few moments on them, I have to stop because I feel dirty. All of the slander and the gossip and the false accusations and the cheap shots on these blog sites where people are pontificating upon things they really have no knowledge of. It's an opinion that's supreme on the blog site, not truth. We can look at information sites and internet websites and find out that a lot of people make things sound very authoritative that are quite frankly either incorrect or patently false. And I'm afraid that even my space and Facebook and LinkedIn can become venues where gossip and slander finds a hearty and welcomed hearing. The fact of the matter is it makes preaching more difficult. There are other ministers in the congregation here this morning who would probably verify this fact that it's more difficult to preach the congregations now than it was 20 years ago. You know why? Because I have to deprogram your thinking from spin before I insert the truth all week long. You've heard what they say. You've heard the experts. You've had innuendo and gossip and slander and subliminal messages pumped into your sacred brains and your precious souls so that sometimes when the unadulterated truth of God's word comes, it feels rather foreign. That's not a new thing. Jesus Christ faced it as well, long time ago. It was the spin of the rabbis, the scribes and Pharisees, that Jesus Christ was attempting to pull out of the people in order to insert the truth. So he says repeatedly, six times in this section, you have heard it said, but I say, you've heard the line of spin. You've heard the half truth. You've seen God's word manipulated for someone else's leverage in your life, but I say this is what God really wants. This is what the Bible really means. He says it here because he's kind of debunking the spin of the two great schools of the rabbis. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. The School of Halal, the liberal, pre-flowing, easy use of the law. I told you before, and I believe it's true that when Jesus Christ adresses anger and contempt and lust and divorce, he's really speaking against the ideas of the great teacher Halal. Now he turns to the second great school of rabbitical teaching, the School of Shamai. And here he begins to talk not about what a left-wing view of the law is, but more of a conservative, ultra-conservative, right-wing view. As he talks about Oson Val's revenge, how you treat your enemies. Jesus Christ is tightening up God's law on one side and loosening it up on the other. He's giving the correct interpretation here about telling the truth. Matthew chapter 5 verse 33, Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not square falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all. Either by heaven or 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. Do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil or literally comes from the evil one. What Jesus is addressing here is the need for us to have truth in our hearts. Remember he would say later on in this gospel, the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. If a mouth is going to be truthful, the heart has to be truthful. Keep your finger in Matthew chapter 5 and turn please to the Old Testament, to the Psalter, to the book of Psalms to Psalm 15. Where Christ in a different venue speaks through the great Psalmist, David, and talks about what a person of truth sounds like and acts like in his relationship, Psalm 15. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart. Listen to how truth in the heart sounds when it comes out the mouth. Who does not slander with his tongue, nor does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against a friend? In whose eyes a vile or reprobate person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord? He swears to his own hurt and does not change. He does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved or shaken or disturbed it. God echoes the same sentiments in Psalm 24, who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord and who will be able to stand in his holy presence? He who has clean hands and a pure heart who has not lived up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. So what Jesus Christ is striking at here is one of the most important things, perhaps the most important thing in life, and that is the truth. He's after people who play fast and loose with the truth, which is quite frankly all of us, speaker included, and he's going to tell us what the Bible does not teach before he tells us what it does teach. First he talks about the false perspective of oath and vows that were promoted by the rabbis. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely but you shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. Here he's simply saying what you heard from Moses is right. Moses said, you shall not swear falsely but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. Where did Moses say that? In Leviticus, chapter 19, verses 11 and 12, you shall not steal, you shall not deal falsely with your neighbor, you shall not lie to one another, you shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God because I am the Lord. Moses said in the book of numbers, this is what the Lord has commanded. If a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Deuteronomy, chapter 23, verse 21, if you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it. For the Lord your God will surely require of you what you have said and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth. Moses taught quite simply that people should not take a frivolous oath or vow if they took one it should be deliberate and that they should stop and think and pray before they swear an oath but whatever they swear they must fulfill. By the way neither Moses nor Jesus said it was a sin to take an oath or vow. Moses would say in the book of Deuteronomy. It is the Lord your God who you shall fear him only shall you serve and you shall swear by his name. You shall fear the Lord your God you shall serve him and hold fast to him and by his name shall you swear. Jeremiah in chapter 4 of his great prophecy told Israel that if they swore by the name of God and kept their oath they and generations after them would be blessed because they honored the truth. Jesus Christ himself when he was put on trial had the high priest said him I assure you by the living God tell us whether or not you are the Christ the Son of God. He said I put you under oath to tell us whether you are the Son of God or not. Jesus said I am just as you say. In fact my friends it cannot be a sin for us to take an oath or vow because God does. The author of Hebrews in a wonderful passage to give us assurance of our salvation says from when God made a promise to Abraham since he had no greater one by whom he could swear swore by himself saying surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham having patiently waited to obtain this promise for people swear by something greater than themselves and in all their disputes and oath is a final confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the errors of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose he guaranteed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things namely God's character and God's word is oath. So that by two unchangeable things in which is impossible for God to lie we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope that is set before us. It is not a sin to take an appropriate oath or vow you do not do wrong when you go to court of law and they ask you to place your hand on the Bible and say I promise to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God. That is a serious oath. And for the person who does not purge himself that oath is fulfilled in his honest and straightforward uncomplicated unnuanced testimony. We took oath this morning vows of church membership. We won't always keep them perfectly but if the intent of our heart is delivered before God the Father of sinners to trust and rely in Jesus Christ to rely upon the grace of the Holy Spirit to work and worship and struggle together to be holy and to promote the work of the church and the mission of Christ then we have completed our vow. We take marriage vows and baptism vows both for adults and for their children. We take an oath of office if we become a lawyer or a policeman or a soldier or an officer in the church. These things are legitimate acts of worship. Our confession of faith says has a whole chapter on oaths and vows. A lawful oath is part of a religious worship wherein upon justification the person swearing solemnly calls God to witness what he has asserted or promised and to judge him according to the truth of falsehood of that which he swears. The name of God only is that by which men ought to swear and therein it is to be used only with holy fear and reverence. Therefore to swear vainly or rashly by the glorious and dreadful name or to swear at all by any other thing sinful that is to be appored. Yet as a matter of weight and moment and oath is warranted by the Word of God under the New Testament as well as under the old so a lawful oath being imposed by lawful authority in such matters should be taken. Jesus Christ again is not correcting Moses. Moses had it right. He said you have heard it said of what Moses said and that is what he's correcting. Namely again that we cannot play fast and loose with the truth. Now what is it that the rabbis taught? That's what Jesus is correcting. We'll look again at verses 34, 35, 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 the footstool or by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head if you cannot make one hair white or black. Here's what the rabbis taught. The more glorious and great the thing or person by which you swore, the more valid and important your oath was. The least great and glorious thing by which you swore, the less important your oath or vow was. What is the most important vow? I swear to God. Second to that. I swear to heaven. Third. I swear by the earth. Fourth. I swear by Jerusalem. Fifth. I swear by my own head. Sixth. My dog's back. My mother-in-law's grave. If I'm lying I'm dying. That's the favorite one in Mississippi. If I'm lying I'm dying. That whole state should be dead along with all of North Carolina and Georgia and every place else in the United States. The gist is the lower we go away from God and invoking our oath the less important it will be and the less binding the promise we make. We do it when we say, hey, trust me. You know me now. Would I lie to you? Hey, I swear on our friendship. And you know what? We don't realize it. But those are oaths. You say, pastor, that's not true. We didn't use God's name. Jesus is going to show us in just a moment that everything we swear by is implicitly swearing by God's name and character. Everything including the hairs on our head. When we lead people to think that what we're saying is true, we've taken enough. Now here's why we like to play this game. Later on, when we don't do what we said, we come back and said, hey, you know, I know that's not what I said. Well, it is what you said, but that's not what I meant. How many times have you heard that? In and outside. That's not what I said. Well, here's your sermon notes, pastor. Well, that's not what I meant. How do we know what you mean if you don't mean what you say? And that is Jesus Christ's point. Here's the true perspective of the oath and vows. Again, look at verse 34, but I say to you, this is Jesus Christ correcting our misconceptions and our malpractices, 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 the footstool of God, or by Jerusalem, it is the city of God, or by the hairs of your head, you belong to God. Jesus says every oath of vow is made to God. Now, where does he get this idea? Well, he's quoting Isaiah 66, verse 1. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What is in the house that you would build for me? That is a place for my rest. God says heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. If I swear by heaven, Jesus says I swear by the throne of God. If I swear by the earth, I swear by the footstool of God. If I swear by Zion by Jerusalem, it is the city of God. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. He also says great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Jerusalem in the far north, the city of the great God and King. What about the hairs of our head? Well, Paul says you were not your own. You have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. When I say I swear by the hairs of my head, what that means is that if I'm lying, you can have my head like you'd want it. In other words, if I swear by my hair on my head, and I lie, I'll kill myself in ransom from my false pledge. But my life has never been my own. I can't kill myself or anybody else. Life belongs to God. I can't even determine when this hair was red and when it's white. God does that. So God ultimately, the sovereign of everything by which we would swear, becomes the one whom we take these oaths. And therefore, I don't care if it's the hairs on the back of your dog, or the name of Jesus Christ, when you say by such and such, I tell you the truth. You are invoking the God who made us all. William Hendrickson says, Jesus points out that nobody is able to change the intrinsic color of his hair. It is God. He alone, who determines whether at any given moment a hair is to be white or to be black. Since this is true, even swearing by one's own head is not as innocent as it seems. It is really swearing by God and thus binding as a different type of both God as your witness. Jesus didn't just deal with this here. Turn if you will to Matthew 23. Here's another time, just like we looked last week at a couple times, he had to talk about divorce and what Moses really meant by that certificate of divorce. He had to talk about false oath and vows a number of times. In a Matthew 23 verse 16, he says, If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. You blind fools, which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred. And you say, if anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath, you blind men, for which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred. So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it, and whoever swears by the temple swears by it and him who dwells in it, and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it, and I would add whoever swears by anything created by God swears by the God who made it. Because you're asking God always, always to bear witness to your truth, such swearing violates clearly. The commandment you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold Him guiltless who takes His name in vain. Now why? Why is this an issue with Jesus Christ? I'll tell you why. Because as in any one of the commandments, and that's what Jesus is doing here, loved ones, he's reinterpreting for us the ten commandments, or at least six of them. All the commandments of summarized Jesus says, and these two great truths, you shall love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you will love your neighbor as yourself. Why does playing fast and loose with the truth bother Jesus Christ so much number one? It abuses God. It blasphemes His name. Can you imagine how many times, whether willingly or inadvertently, we as Christians have brought disparishing comments and great distrust and even disdain for the church and the things of Christ by the way we have spoken and acted falsely in His name. Jesus is saying, we are trying to use God to get something illegitimate, and by way of falsehood, that we know He would not give us if we told the truth. We are profaning His name for our selfish motives. It violates not only the first table of law, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and mouth, but also the second table of law, it's not loving your neighbor as yourself. Because what you're really doing is you're using people. You're using people and trying to bypass their minds, their understandings, their wills, and their honest assessments of facts in order to get them to agree with you knowing only part of the truth and getting your way at their expense. The reason you say these things I swear by my mother, I swear to God, is because you know that if you told them all the truth, they tell you no. No, I won't agree with that. No, I will not do that. I will not buy that. I won't vote for you. And so you know what you're doing? You're leveraging them, and you're using them. You are abusing their most sacred part, their minds and wills. We owe people the truth, because they will be responsible for what they do with the information they receive. And spin is telling people part of the truth in order to get them to agree with you, to consent to your will, to give you what you want knowing that if you told them the whole truth, you wouldn't get what you want in. That's why we do it. Is lying a problem in our culture? We give you a few statistics. Half of all students and parents lie on their application forms to schools and universities. Half. 70% of all high school and college children regularly cheat on exams and homework assignments. Personnel managers estimate that 25% of the information on resumes is what they call gross misinformation. In other words, lies. Two million Americans have illegal offshore bank accounts they used to evade taxes, mostly in Grand Cayman Island, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Millions of Americans pirate cable TV every year. They steal for free TV they should pay for. Time Warner Cable and others estimate that they lose 6 billion dollars a year in paid television stolen by Americans. Many parents take their children diagnosis shopping. Now this is unbelievable but it's a fact. You know what diagnosis shopping is? I hate to tell you because you may do it. You go to one doctor after another doctor after another doctor saying my child has a learning disability until finally the 7th of the 8th one says you know you're right and he writes it out. You know what that gives your child? Anybody know? Extra time on the ACT and SAT exams to get a better mark and to get leverage in a school. It's called diagnosis shopping. This may be the most staggering of all. Half of Americans cheat the IRS every single year. And is estimated that 40 billion dollars per year is paid in all the repairs that are fraudulent and unnecessary. 40 billion by people who lie. What is Jesus Christ's solution? The solution is truth and the heart. Look at verse 37. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more or we might add less. Anything more than this comes from the evil one, the devil, Satan. Yes and no. Leon Morrison is commentary on Matthew says the conclusion of the matter is that it is never necessary for Christ people to square an oath before they utter the truth. Their words should always be so reliable that nothing more than a statement of yes or no is needed from them. St. Clair Ferguson reminds us that the impetus of this is that we live quorum dayo. We always live in the presence of literally before the face of God in front of God. So it doesn't matter what other people think we said or what we really said that we didn't say or didn't say what we should have said. The fact is that God knows God sees. Dr. Ferguson says we're always in the presence of God. Would you then live in full view of God's face and live a lie in his presence? Well the fact is we do. But Jesus is saying not in my kingdom. My people live by a higher standard of truth. They say what they mean. They mean what they say. They never mean when they say it. Spin is forbidden in the kingdom of God. My citizens speak truth in their hearts and therefore it's found on their lips. My people need not swear by anything because their yeses mean yes. Their nose mean no and it says clear as a bell. I've told you before in my personal Bible on the fly leaves on front back 15 life principles by which I remind myself what a Christian and a minister is supposed to do in the second principle is this. The cause of truth is always more important than its consequences. The cause of truth is always more important than its consequences. Brothers and sisters, we don't need to lie. We don't need to leverage partial truth. We don't need spin because we belong to Jesus Christ. And if we tell the truth and the consequences are perhaps immediately and temporarily unpleasant, Christ owns us and controls our lives and in the end things will turn out okay. We lie out of fear but the apostle John reminds us that it's the perfect love of Christ that cast away all fear. We simply need to say yes and no. Yes, I voted for Barack Obama and I know you're disappointed. Yes, I'm going to leave my wife because she's been unfaithful to me. No, we do not approve of sexual immorality in this church. Yes, we do practice church discipline and no, we do not ordain women to office. And yes, that's how we think. Now you know, some people are going to like that and some are not and a lot are going to be miffed off. But that's the truth. And they need to know that. They have a right to know that. And we have a duty to say that. That's who we are. That's what we believe. That's how we think the Word of God plays itself out in our interpretation life. And our yes is yes. And our no is no. Let me make quickly. Just five applications of this. You say, well, you know, pastor, I'm not, I'm not taking a whole lot of oaths and I don't perceive myself to be a liar. Oh, really. The Bible says that all men are liars. Not one of this is truthful. It is not just when you say, well, I promise you are I swear or God is my witness that we violate this principle. It's whenever we use truth, listen to me to manipulate someone else. So let's start where it's most obvious emails. My favorite thing emails. You're disappointed with somebody with the pastor, with the teacher, with your mother-in-law, with the guy who just bought something from at Walmart. And so you fire this email if I will never be able to live again. This is the most horrible thing that happened to me. I will hate you for the rest of my life. And it goes on and you want to say, whoa. Is that what you really mean to say? Is that what you really mean? Is that the truth? Rule number one for emails. It's the 48 hour rule. I practice this. Because you send me an ugly one, mine's even more ugly on the way back. But you never get it. You know why? I have a 48 hour rule. I type it out. I vent all that vitriolic, vile stuff that comes out of my soul. I read that thing and say, I got them. They'll never send another email. And then I wait 48 hours and I give it the Bernie Lawrence. Isn't that true? And he reads it and says, Michael, do you want to keep your job and go to heaven when you die? And I don't send it. Then I send one that says, dear brother, I realize you're disappointed. But let me try to explain myself. Emails can be one of the easiest ways to abuse the truth known to us. Be careful. Application number true. We are because of the internet because it makes it so much easier. We will say things about people on the internet that we would never say to their face. Especially when we're doing some investigation or some expose on somebody. I get emails all the time. Did you quote? You quoted Dallas Willard. You quoted Soren Kirkgaard. You quoted Martin Luther. Are you aware that this thing goes on and on and on and on and you know, half the stuff. I don't know where it came from. But here's how it happened. They've never read this book by Dallas Willard or this thing that Martin Luther never know the they go to a internet. They pull up Google and type in Dallas. Willard. And up comes all the people who hate Dallas Willard and they tell you all these horrible things about. He's a universalist. He's trying to take us back to Roman Catholicism. He's renouncing the reformation. I'm not making this up. I'm not going to read it because it would be embarrassing but that's an email I got from several of you forwarded on from five different. What do you call them? Generations of emails. Well, I'm not a big Dallas Willard fan, believe it or not. I happen to quote him a few times in this sermon series because he's got a wonderful commentary on the sermon on the mount called the divine conspiracy. But I've only read in 34 years of life, three books by Dallas Willard. I haven't seen any universalism. I haven't seen a renunciation of the reformation. I don't see him wanting to go back to Roman Catholicism or justification by works righteousness or praying to Mary in the saints and all these things that I've been told he believes you know it's easy to do that. But you know what you should do. If you hear that, you can just email Dallas Willard. I did. He responded. It's not true. You know, when you say in your little emails, you know, he said such and such, but here's what he really means. You don't know what he really means. You can't read a man's heart or conscience. Well, he implies you don't know what implication he's trying to make. You don't. You only know what a writer or speaker in front of you says. And if what he says doesn't ring true with you. The first biblical response is to ask him, what do you mean by that? And every time you don't do that, pass on to someone else what a third or fourth party implied. You lied. I just got back from General Assembly. I've said to say that our denominations full of this. This hysterical fear of somebody else. That somewhere there's some liberal in our church that wants to suck us down into universalism and ordained women and make us all root for the Buckeyes. Just horrible things. Well, you know what? When they want to do that, they'll tell us. They'll tell us straight up. And we don't need somebody else to tell us what they really mean. I think 1 Corinthians 13 says that loves believes all things which means that we give our brethren the benefit of the doubt. And you know we have a God in heaven, the God of truth, who's able to unveil falsehood and eventually tell us what people are really after. Amen? Number 3. The way we form an opinion and judge another people can often be disingenuous. I'd like you to turn very quickly to Proverbs 18, verse 17. I'd like you to memorize this proverb. I call it the proverb for the 21st century American. Proverbs 18, 17. Proverbs 18, 17. Look at this glorious truth from Solomon's pen. The one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him. The one who states his case first seems right until the other person comes and begins to examine him. Your child gets upset with the teacher and he tells you something about the teacher. Do you automatically take your child's word for it or do you call the teacher? Someone says you won't believe what these pastors at Christ have done to me. Did you ask the pastors? Did you cross examine? You see if all men are liars and everybody plays a spin game to some extent, then you know what? You need to hear both sides of the story before you make a judgment and enter into the practice. If you remember Psalm 15 it says he does not slander with his tongue, take up a reproach against a friend and honor people who are vile. Make sure whether it's your wife, your child, your best friend, make sure you get both sides of the story before you make your judgment. Fourthly and very quickly when your friend runs to you or emails you all about what such and such person did for them do not immediately become their defendant say to them this. I understand your disappointment. Here's what I will do. I will pray with you about this situation and I'll even go with you to this other party and reconcile. But I'm not going to enter into this practice on your behalf until I hear the whole thing. And if they get mad and are not your friend anymore, you know beloved they weren't your friend in the first place. The Bible talks about the wounds of a faithful friend who makes us face the truth. Lastly, perhaps this is more for teachers and preachers than anybody else. Be sure that when you're trying to be nuanced you're not being disingenuous. Newance is one step away from disingenuous, disingenuous is a half step away from a lie. My friend Ligand Duncan says he said this is a general assembly. We need to make what we believe so crystal clear to people that they can disagree with us, dislike us and reject what we believe. We have to make it so clear. I was an a seminar at General Assembly with a young minister from Iowa. It was a seminar about ministering to homosexual people. He asked this man who had been a homosexual has been redeemed and rescued from that, man who worked with harvest ministries. He said I have a problem. I said what is it? He said here it is. My wife and I are planning a church in this town in Iowa. We've befriended this lesbian couple that each have a daughter, their children play with our children, our children play with their kids, their kids stay over, our kids stay over. And I have been trying to be their friend to kind of broach the subject with them and talk to them about Christ. And now they have come and said you know you are so nice to us we want to join the church. And now I have to tell them that a homosexual, any sexually immoral lifestyle, heterolomal is incompatible with our standards and until you repent of that, you can't join. And I don't know what to do. And the man leading this seminar said you should have told them the truth on the front end. But now you've leveraged your friendship and they'll probably walk away from you for good. And you are a minister of Christ who did not tell them the truth. We don't have to be mean about it. But I'm telling you they deserve the truth. It's the truth Jesus said that will set them free. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to God except to the way of Jesus Christ, the truth of Jesus Christ, and the life of Jesus Christ. And when we play the spin game we rob people of I believe the most precious possession God is given to us which is the truth. If you abide in my word then you are my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free, free from spin, from leverage, from abuse and manipulation. And if the sun shall set you free, free indeed you shall be. Brothers and sisters please I beg you. Let's learn how to win some lead become people of yes and no. And we'll leave the rest to a God who was sovereign and gracious. The gospel has set us free from spin, given us the freedom of liberty to just tell the truth. Amen. Let's pray, Father. We want to thank you for the fact this is one thing we often take for granted that you never spin us. You always tell us the truth. And sometimes it hurts. And often times it offends even angers us but we know that you do it because you love us. We would be shattered. We would be free to find in your character in the word of God on the lips of Christ or His apostles one half truth, one nuanced piece of spin. That's why we come here, that's why we look into this word, that's why we love Jesus Christ because He's been truthful with us. Truth about our sin and repentance and faith and ring the kingdom of heaven. Truth about His standards and His way of life and His Lordship also about His tender mercies His grace and forgiveness. And He is always reliable. He never lets us down. I've prayed, Lord, for the people here today who need to come to that man of truth, Christ, to come clean with Him, to confess who they are and what they've done and to trust Him for who He says He is and what He's done, to embrace that truth of the gospel that will set them free now and in eternity, to a life with you here and beyond. And I pray for us who profess to know Him that we would become people of truth, people who mean what we say and say what we mean but are never mean when we say it. People of a humble and simple yes and a definite and gracious no, whatever the situation may demand. We can only do this by this indwelling person and grace of the Holy Spirit. But we do so in obedience to your word that commands us to be such people and we ask for your help in this. For your glory and for people's sake and for our own freedom as we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.