Honor Your Word And Let Yes Be Yes And No Be No

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Today we are talking about a great message. For example, if you say, “Sure, I will share that” and then you do not, you are not honoring your word. Your word is a very, very powerful thing.

And a lot of people, they say, “Oh, we have to handshake” or with kids, a very popular thing is “Cross your heart hope to die.” Those types of deals. Do you swear? Oh, a lot of people swear on a grave; “Oh I swear on my mother’s grave, hand to God.”

There are a lot of sayings that people use to kind of affirm their oath or to affirm or back up their word. A pinky promise if you will. All of these extra affirmations are really not needed. They are not of God.

In fact, they are really of the world and as the world is led by Satan, he rules this world; he roams to and fro throughout it, as we have learned in The Book of Job, and he is the prince of this world. This is his domain. We know that as well he is out there roaming around, seeking to lead us away from God and that is one of the ways of doing it.

You say, “Wait a minute, that is not really a big deal, is it? I mean whether you are affirming an oath or swearing on something, is it really that big of a deal?” James 5:12. All of these verses will be referenced below, so I encourage you to look them up at a later time and read them. You can share them with others, talk about them, etc.

But if you have your Bible now, turn with us. James 5:12 [says], “Above all my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ Otherwise, you will be condemned.”

All right so two things on this verse. We are going to kind of break it down. Do not swear. What does that mean? Does that mean do not say any swear words? Is that what James is talking about here? No, it is not. Although, you should not say swear words because that is filthy language, unwholesome talk and the apostle Paul says do not let any of that come from your mouth.

Do not let any filthy language, or unwholesome talk come from your mouth because it is what is in your heart; it is a reflection of what you say. So if you are speaking trash, you got trash inside. Do not do that.

James is saying do not swear, as in do not swear by Heaven or Earth or anything else. “I swear on this or I swear on this”—do not do that, just say yes or no. That is it. Otherwise, you will be condemned. Why will you be condemned? Keep reading in James to find out more and you will also learn by the rest of this and as you study the New Testament and learn more you will know why.

But simply why will you be condemned? It is because you do not have the power within you to make anything happen, as in the holy power like Jesus. Jesus could make something happen instantly. He can speak and stuff happens.

We do not have that ability so why are we speaking on something else? We do not have that so we are essentially doing a false deed. It is like a lie and that is why it says you will be condemned. You are commanded to live by honor—your word. You are to let your yes be yes and your no be no. That is it.

There is no swearing on your mother’s grave or crossing your heart and hoping to die because if you hope to die guess what? You are gonna die. All of that extra nonsense comes from the devil. Need more proof? Let’s go to Matthew.

This is a great section, Matthew Chapter 5. Turn with me there, Verses 36 and 37. “And do not swear by your head, for you cannot even make one hair white or black. All you need is a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

And who is the evil one? The devil. So anything beyond that, you are swearing by something, you are crossing your heart, you are affirming some type of an oath. Anything beyond yes or no comes from the evil one. That is pretty serious business.

As a Christian, you are to be like Jesus, a person of integrity. A lot of people say things they do not mean or they agree to things they do not do and that is bad. If you say something, you need to do it. If you say you are gonna do something, you say you are gonna be somewhere, you say you are gonna call someone, text someone, any of that, if you say it you must do it.

So therefore, this is again, the tongue is a fire—a world of evil among men, in itself set by hell. We have learned that in James. We had a whole sermon on it. You can check it out in a card here if you are watching on YouTube, otherwise, check it out by going to our YouTube channel. It is called “Reign In Your Tongue.”

The tongue can get you in all kinds of trouble, and of course, in today’s world with texting and emailing and all of that, you could be sending stuff that could get you into trouble. You could be agreeing through your fingertips, but really you are speaking that. Whether it is on paper and you write it out or whether it is vocally audible, you are still speaking it.

The tongue is a fire. You could be saying things and agreeing to things, “Sure, I will be there. I will get that done. I will have that to you on Tuesday.” Whatever you are saying, if you say that, you must agree to it. So be careful what you say. Be careful what you say.

Write it down. Be careful what you say, and write this down too: whatever you do say, you must do. You have to do what you agreed to. Your word as a Christian—your word is your bond. Remember as Christians we are Christ-like. We are of Christ-like.

If you live in Egypt, you are Egyptian. If you are a Christ follower, you are a Christian. You are of Christ. You cannot be going around making promises you cannot keep or agreeing to things that you do not do, or saying you will do things and not doing them. That is all lies, maybe not a direct lie but it is a lie by the fact you said you are going to do it and you did not do it. You broke your word.

Maybe you did not say, “Oh but I promise.” You still said you’d do it. I do not care if you swore on it. You promised. If you said you would do it, you need to do it. This is a very very big deal. I cannot stress it enough. Your word is who you are. It is who you reflect. It is really everything inside of you. You must abide by and honor your word as an example of Christ. It is very very important.

Jesus was a person of integrity. If He told someone He would heal them or told them to be clean or said “Go and wash here and you will be clean,” if they did not go and wash and nothing happened they were clean. Jesus was a man of His Word. Anything He said He did, even if He did not want to do it, He still did it. As long as He said, He did it.

When you say yes or no, you must mean it. If you do not mean it, do not be saying it. Whatever you say, is done. You must do it. You are supposed to be honest and sincere as a Christian. That is how you are built. We are of this world which is filled with lies. Before you became a Christian, you were a child of the devil and his native language was deception, lies, that would be your native language.

When you became a follower of Christ, you crossed over from lies into truth. You got the truth, the Holy Spirit is within you. You can make it grow of course, but once you crossed over from darkness into light you have a new set of rules. You are a new creation. A new being. Literally, your old self is dead. It is gone. You have risen anew just like Christ who rose from the grave. You have conquered it through Christ.

That means you need to be a good example. You got to change your habits. If you are saying you swear or even phrases like, “To be honest with you,” or “Honestly” or “I am not gonna lie,” those types of extra phrases that are reinforcing your sentences, they are of this Earth. They are of the world. “Honestly, I am gonna tell you this.” Okay, so what? Normally you are not honest.

“Hey to be honest with you, this verse is really good.” Well, what about the other verses? “To be honest with you this verse”—so you were lying about the other stuff? “I am not gonna lie but you look really good.” Okay so wait a minute, normally you are lying when you tell me?

You see what I mean? Those phrases, those extra reinforcements, they are of this world. They are not something you should be speaking of. They are extra reinforcement that is not needed. Just like saying a pinky promise or “I promise I will do this.” Just do it. Just say yes.

Now of course you can make promises because that is kind of important. In kids with their pinky promises, sure, but things like crossing your heart and hoping to die or swearing on some grave or putting your hand to God—that kind of stuff is not of God. It is of this world and you should not be doing it.

Let your yes be yes and your no be no. If you start catching yourself saying these things or those around you are saying those things, talk to them about it. Say, “Hey, why don’t we just forget about that and say yes and no?” If they put up an argument, you could share something like this. Most people will probably be like, “Okay no problem” and then do it.

Just say yes and no and when you say it, mean it. If you have to do a little double, yes and no that is fine. Maybe you have a good habit of saying yes and no. If you say, “Hey, can you take out the trash?” Yeah okay. Is that a yes? You will make sure it is doubly confirmed so that both you and them know that that is what is being agreed upon at that time and it must be done to be of your word.

There is no need for you to swear any oaths because your yes is already standing on the basis that you are a person of God. Therefore as a Christian, that Christianity within you is already backing up your word. God holds the power, not you. You do not hold the power, God does. God has the power within Him, and like He said, “You cannot make even one hair on your head white or black.”

Let’s check out a couple more verses that say it is by swearing, also saying these things we are not supposed to do it. It is a misuse of God’s name. Leviticus 19:12 says, “Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of the LORD your God. I am Yahweh.”

Do not swear by God’s name. That is the hand to God or “I swear on this” or you take that oath. You are not to do that because you are misusing the Lord’s name. You are profaning His name. What is profane? Profanity—that is a swear word. Where do we get the linkage?

Biblically, do not say those words. Do not say that stuff. Do not misuse God’s name, Deuteronomy 5:11, this is part of the 10 Commandments: “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”

Now this goes two ways and we will have another sermon on using God’s name inappropriately in the future. But it goes two ways. Number one is swearing by it. For example, do not swear on the Bible. Just say yes or no.

Now in the courtroom and other things, they put their hand on the Bible to take the oath or they are sworn in, that kind of thing. That is different. That is a formality. It usually goes with some type of an office.

But in reality, as Christians, everything we do, everything we agree to, everything we say we are going to do is really being sworn upon already with our yes and no as a result of our faith. Our faith, the power that God has, is within us. It is backing our word. If we fail to uphold that word, we will be condemned. We are made out to be liars. We will sin. We fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. It is not good.

So the two things on misusing the name are, do not use it for swearing because it is already being used, and the second one is, do not use it as a curse word. A lot of people, when they get frustrated, they step on a Lego or something, they say God’s name or they say Jesus’ name inappropriately. That is worse than saying a swear word. Be conscious of that.

It is worse than saying a swear word because it is misusing a holy name. A swear word is an earthly word. Now that does not mean that you want to start replacing all of them with swear words. How about just replacing them with ouch or some other word?

But keep that in mind when your children are around, people who say those words or if you are saying those words or if you guys are watching TV shows or movies that say those words, as in the Lord’s name in vain, because that is not a good practice to be teaching. Not good at all. You have to trust in God that when you agree to something, He will help you do it.

Therefore do not agree to everything. You have to let your yes be yes and your no be no and your yes stands on its foundation. Not some earthly oath. We have the power of Heaven behind us. The power of the Holy Spirit. Our word is based on more than this world, that is why you have to be careful of what you say.

Ecclesiastes 5:2, “Do not be quick with your mouth. Do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” This is Solomon, the wisest man ever. Do not be quick with your mouth. Do not start speaking like crazy, agreeing to all kinds of stuff.

We have had another sermon you can check out before, a couple weeks ago about how it is very very important to be quick to listen and slow to speak, and slow to become angry. So you can check that out as well. It is very very important. We have two eyes, two ears, one mouth. Use them in that proportion.

Do not be quick with your mouth. Do not be hasty in your heart. Do not be trying to agree to everything. Do not take on more than you can, because guess what? If you cannot do it, then you become not of your word which really reflects poorly on the Christian standing that you uphold.

Do not utter anything before God. God is in Heaven and you are on Earth, so let your words be few. Everything you say, God knows. So if you are agreeing to a bunch of stuff, God knows whether or not you can handle it and He knows ahead of time whether or not you will get it done.

So every time you agree to something that you do not get done, God knows you are lying right then and there. That is bad. That is a problem. Then when you do not do it, you are letting someone else down and you are probably causing other issues and maybe you are even lying. Again, that is another bad thing.

God knows it all. Be careful what you agree to. Make sure that when you say “yes” and you say “no” that you follow through. It is especially important when you say “no.” If you tell your kids something about a punishment that is coming, if you say, “[If] you do that one more time this is what is going to happen” and then they do, and [then] you need to follow through, no matter who you say it to.

I remember one time I was in elementary school and I said slang words once in a while like heck and one kid said “If you say that one more time I am going to tell the teacher.” That was a very good warning for that kid.

Rather than just being a tattletale right away, he said “Hey please do not say that.” I had said it quite a few times, “Oh what the heck” or “Oh geez,” and I was saying some of those slang words. I was probably in first grade.

“If you say that one more time I am going to tell a teacher,” and of course I said it one more time, not intentionally, but maybe a little later. Oh no whatever, I said “Ah geez,” and then he told the teacher. What word did you say? I said “Geez” and of course, then it was explained that that word was a slang word and we should really try not to say them.

But it is not as bad because it was not Jesus. When it gets to that point, then it is a misuse of the name. In my opinion, we should not be saying it anyway if it is close. I was in the wrong there, even though it was not really wrong in terms of what was going on. But the point is, any of those words that you are saying, that is filthy language and we should not be saying that anyway.

Remember your word is your bond. Your word is based on who you are and who you are is a Christian. That means your yes needs to be yes and your no needs to be no. Anything else is from this world, which is from the evil one.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank You for each and every person out there. Please help them to start realizing that the words they say have great meaning and power. That they need to be careful of what they agree to and what they promise and what they say they are going to do.

When they say those things, Lord, please help them do it and if they agree to too much, make them get it all done so that they do not do it again. Have it be a teachable moment. Make them work their butt off so that they uphold everything they have agreed to and that they know like “Man, I cannot do this.”

Then they need to reevaluate and agree to less. If they agree to too much and they cannot get it done, then Lord, we know you are just. Do not withhold that justice. Give the consequence of whatever it is so that they do not continue to live that way.

Lord, I ask that they would have ears to hear. When they start saying these words of swearing upon things of this world that they would know that they are not to do that. That it would start to ping in their mind and when their children start saying those things and when those around them start saying those things, that they would be able to take that corrective action so that we can rise up in righteousness.

Lord, I ask that they would be conscious of their words and that they would be conscious of what they agreed to, and that they would really really make the effort to be men and women of their word. In Your name we pray. Amen.

Get out there and be a person of your word. Let your yes be yes and your no be no and forget all that extra nonsense. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Have a great week. God bless.