And if in your Bibles you would look with me to. Matthew chapter number five. Matthew five, if you would find your place in God's word this morning. We're going to be reading verse 21 down to verse number 26. And if you would honor God's word as we stand to read those verses this morning, Matthew chapter 5.
Our Lord is giving this great sermon known as the Sermon on the Mount. This is the launch of his public ministry. It says in verse 21. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill. Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.
But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Whosoever shall say to his brother Rakah shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him. Lest at any time the adversary deal deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost Farthing. Father, we thank you again for your word today.
so humbling and such a joy to carry such a weight in our hands. the weight of the word of God. This is the truth, and I pray that your word would come alive to our hearts. May your Holy Spirit Grant freedom and grace and clarity to the truth of God's Word. Give us ears to hear, a heart to receive.
Calm our minds from the busyness of this world, and may we cast our eyes and our hearts upon the truth of God. We need to hear from heaven. We need your word for today. We pray that your truth would come alive to us. I pray today, if anyone's lost, that today you would bring salvation.
And Redemption to that soul. God, we pray your blessing in Jesus' name, and God's people said. Man, you may be seated this morning. Matthew chapter 5, verse 21, down to verse number 48, which is the conclusion of this chapter. directs his attention to six specific topics that he begins to teach and preach on.
He deals with murder, adultery, divorce, oath-making. retaliation and hatred toward our enemies. He starts by dealing with two commandments from God found in the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not commit adultery. Then two general principles in the law of Moses, divorce and oath. And finally, two broad principles he deals with, such as are at the end of Matthew 5, which are forgiveness and love.
Jesus had just said in verse 20 that for his listeners to enter into heaven They had to be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees. If you notice verse 20 once again, he says, I say unto you that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, he says, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. The problem is the scribes and Pharisees among the Jews in their eyes were the best, most righteous people in their society.
So, Christ is declaring here that you have to have a righteousness that is true. true righteousness. And the Bible tells us there's a problem because Romans 3.10 says, there is none righteous, no, not one.
So we can't gain righteousness. We need an alien righteousness, a foreign righteousness to be applied to our account. And he says it has to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees who were the elites of that day. The scribes and Pharisees knew the Old Testament law, they read it, they memorized much of it. But their problem was that they were interested In the external observances, but they were not focused on the internal reality.
they became self-righteous In reading the Bible because they began to think that they could fulfill it through their own efforts. It's amazing to me for someone to be able to study the Bible and walk away prideful. How do you read the Bible? and become more arrogant. I can tell you, by the end of this sermon, you're not going to be more prideful.
No problem. You say, Preacher, you beat up on us enough. I never intend to beat up on anybody. No, that's the case. That is never my desire.
My desire is to reveal the Word of God, and it should bring us off of our high horses. Every time you you know when I went to the church in Bethlehem back in 2011? The the door was only about this high, and I thought, oh, that's great. You know I Yeah. My wife walks right in now, I'm teasing.
But I, you know, I, you know You really got to bend down, and really about anybody that gets in the door. I don't know, is it four foot high or something?
Somebody here probably knows the dimensions, but you have to bend down to go in. And they had built it that way hundreds of years ago because they wanted everybody who entered to first realize there's a bowing and a humbling of yourself before you enter into God's house. I thought, wouldn't that be a good thing to do on all of our doors?
Some of you guys would be like, preacher, I can't get down that bar. Come on now.
Okay, don't send me a letter on that one, all right? But I think there is an act of humility that we need to come to God and in our hearts and sincerity be broken and humbled by the truth of God's word. It should not make you feel like you're righteous. It should make you appreciate the righteousness that God's given you. Every Sunday, you should leave saying, Thank God that Jesus saved me.
Thank God for mercy. You should never leave saying, Thank God that I'm good. Thank God that I'm a good person. You should leave saying, thank God God saved a sinner like me. And so Jesus comes and he has to dismantle their self-righteous system.
And one thing that happens in a self-righteous system is it always makes you arrogant and it makes you in the same manner to be very critical of other people. Because as you lift yourself up, the consequence of that is always a lack of mercy toward other people. You are judgmental, self-righteous, and condemning of other people. And Jesus comes here and exposes the inadequacy of the spiritual leaders of their day. He literally confronts and dismantles their self-righteous system.
Our Lord's message was one of repentance. Back in Matthew 4:17, just a chapter back, his message was repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's the idea of you need to turn from your ways, you need to turn away from wickedness and turn to righteousness through Christ. You cannot do this on your own. It was a message for people to humble themselves under God's truth.
But the most tragic thing that was going on in their day was their leaders would never repent because they didn't think they had anything to repent of. I don't do any wrong. I don't have any wrongs in my life. If you in your life can't find any sins in your life to repent of on a daily basis, I can tell you, you're playing with some self-righteousness. You know the two sins you and I sin every day in?
Let me tell you two of them if you struggle with finding and exposing sins in your life. You don't love God enough, and you don't love others like yourself. I don't love God enough, and I don't love others like I do myself. I know I love myself more than others, and I know I don't love God enough. Just follow me around for a week, and you'll be like, You may not always see, but I know my own heart.
And I try to love others as myself. I try to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, but I just miserably fail. And it convicts me. I feel like Paul many times, wretched man that I am. And then I read the Bible, I'm like, ah, I did fall short again.
You know, I'm just not where I need to be. And you strive forward. And so, just so, just so nobody's arrived. Nobody at Lighthouse has arrived. Jesus is the standard.
And if you ever feel like you've arrived, you just brought Jesus down to earth. You've lowered Jesus down to a standard that is a sinful standard. And so. Jesus comes and he exposes the errors of this group. And notice he calls them by name in verse 20.
I mean, you get 20 verses deep in his first sermon. He's already naming the religious leaders of their day by name, the groups. The scribes and Pharisees. I mean, if you th I I said last Sunday The Jews believed in their day that the two people that would get to heaven were the scribes, the second would be the Pharisees. Or vice versa.
Those they said were the two classes of people that would make it to heaven. And Jesus comes along and says: unless your righteousness is more than the scribes and Pharisees, you're not even going. You know what that said? Number one, none of you guys are righteous enough to get to heaven, and you need righteousness to get to heaven. And number two, the scribes and Pharisees aren't going.
Did you hear that? Did you hear that message in the in verse 20?
So If their righteousness isn't enough to get to heaven and you need a greater righteousness than them, What he just said in verse 20 is: all you scribes and Pharisees are going to hell. In other words, that's what he was saying. You think that was offensive? I've been preaching through Malachi on Wednesday nights, and the problem in that day was the spiritual leaders, the priests. We were failing the people.
Instead of leading the people to God, they were leading the people away from God. The problem in the nation of Israel was its spiritual leaders.
So goes the priests, so goes the people. And the reason I have preached over the years on false teachings from the false churches and false preachers in our country is to expose error.
Some have said, you shouldn't point out faults in other churches and groups. They're on our same team. They thought that scribes and Pharisees were on the same team, but Jesus comes and says they're not even on the team. They're not. You know why there's false preachers?
Because they're not saved. You know why there's false churches? Because they're filled up with unbelievers. You know what the greatest tragedy in America? The greatest tragedy is not from a political party.
The greatest tragedy is from churches who don't preach the truth. That is the great downfall. That's how a society decays. Just read Malachi this week. You ever read Malachi?
Go back and read that four-chapter book that precedes 400 years of silence. They distorted the Word of God. Judgment must begin at the house of God. Jesus, the Old Testament prophets, Paul, John the Baptist, Peter, they and the New Testament writers constantly had to assault the false teaching that was infiltrating the church in the first century. It was already being corrupted.
Let me ask you: Is it not loving to reveal error in the world so people are not destroyed by the sins of the world? That's a loving thing to do. Hey, don't go down this road. Don't listen to that person. Don't go here because that's going to mess you up.
How much more loving than to expose error in a church that can not only hurt your body, but can separate you from God forever? That's the most loving thing to do to protect people from spiritual Hair. heresy and false teachings. I think it's hateful not to say anything. I think it's self-loving to never tell anybody what can destroy them.
Would you agree? If I know something would destroy your life and I don't want to say something because I want you to like me better, then I'm loving myself more than you because I would be willing to hide the truth from you. Jesus wasn't willing to do that. He spoke up and exposed the error in the religious leaders.
Now, verse 21 through 48, Jesus begins to highlight. between the teachings of the religious leaders of that day and what God really expects. Because their teachings were focused all on the external, and Jesus shows that God is more concerned. with what goes on on the inside of a person. The religious leaders of the day were more worried about eating with their hands clean, and Jesus says, You don't even care if your heart's filthy.
Listen to what Luke 11, verse 37 says. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him, and he went in and said, Down to meat.
Somebody asked me in the early service, they said, Shouldn't it be spelled with two E's? But the idea there is not meet like to sit down and meet each other, but sit down to eat meat is the idea. Verse 38. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. Yeah.
They had a Tradition of the elder ceremony, not to cleanse your hands from like germs and stuff. Which cleaning can do that, obviously, and they understood that even in the Old Testament. But what they did was they had hand-washing ceremonies that they had applied, such as in this setting, you would have to put your hands out. With somebody else pouring water over your hands with fingers pointed up, the water would run over and it'd have to drip off the wrist. After that's done, you had to point them down with fingers down, water runs over them, and then after that's done, you have to rub your hands, your fist into each hand, vice versa, and then your washing was done properly, and then you could eat.
Well, that's no found nowhere in the Bible. That's a tradition of the elders placed on. And all they're worried about is, oh, Jesus didn't wash his hands. Oh, he's violating the tradition of the elders. And they're like, and Jesus did this intentionally.
You think Jesus knew this would upset them? You know what we would have done? You know what we would have done, Tom? We'd have gone in there and we'd have washed our hands, right? Because we would have been like, I don't want to offend him.
Jesus, like, I'm going to go in there and light them up. He's like, I'm going to show them the truth. Because you know what? There's times where you say, hey, I want to be gracious, and I don't. And Jesus did that long enough, and then he just came and he said, you know what, I'm going to cut right through this.
I'm going to expose your error, and he would rebuke them, and he would do things intentionally. He would heal somebody, knowing that you're not allowed to carry a burden on the Sabbath according to their traditions. And he's like, I want to heal you on the Sabbath, and then I want you to take up your bed and walk through town to your house. Knowing that everybody who saw him carrying his bed would be like, ah, who did that? Can't carry your bed.
And he's like, the man who healed me told me to do this. And then they'd be mad at Jesus. And what he's doing is he didn't come to destroy the law. He came to purify the reality of it in the system of that day. He's showing the truth.
And he says to that religious group in Luke 11, 39, he says, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Boom. I mean like mic drop nailed the point. I mean, what would you say in response? I mean, this is heavy preaching right to them.
I mean, it's not like somebody saying, I felt like you were preaching at me today. The Pharisees, like, he was preaching at me. He named me, called me out. And the Pharisee was thinking it in his heart. But you know what?
He never said anything to Jesus. You see here where Jesus judges people's hearts, not just their actions. Amen?
So Jesus publicly on the spot would rebuke these guys. External religion is hypocrisy, internal religion is insincerity. God said in Jeremiah 17, 10, I the Lord searched the hearts. There's two key reasons Jesus highlights these six different truths as we work through Matthew 5, 21 through 48. The first is to show the truth of God compared to the error of the religion of that day, of what Judaism had molded into under the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.
Secondly, the reason he does this is what verse 16 says. What does the Bible say in verse 16? It says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your what? Your good works, and then what would they do? Glorify your Father in heaven.
So he wants them to say, Okay, I want you to show you the truth versus the error of this day, and I want you to show you how you can do good works to glorify God and bring glory to Him in the eyes of other people.
So let's look at today's. Verses. Verse 21 and Matthew 5, he says, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not kill. That phrase, ye have heard.
that it was said by them of old time, there's a couple questions I would ask. Who are they of old time? And who are they of old time questioning? or quoting, I should say. Who are the people of old time and who are these people of old time quoting here?
Well, Acts 15, 21 refers to them of old time as those who taught since the time of the synagogues. The synagogues were birthed. Out of the Babylonian captivity, which was 500 years before Jesus.
So Acts 15:21 says, For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogue every Sabbath.
So in Acts, when it referred to the old time, it referred to the time since the synagogues were around and Moses was being taught.
So so what you find is the idea here is in the last hundred several hundred years. Last four to five hundred years is kind of the idea that's being portrayed when it says of them of old time. Again, Jesus also makes a strong contrast at the beginning of verse 21 from himself. Verse 21 says, You have heard that it had been said by them of old time, but look at verse 22. But I say unto you.
So what he's doing is he's not setting himself at odds with the Bible. He's setting himself at odds with what they have taught that the Bible says. How they have turned the scriptures. He doesn't come to destroy the law and the prophets, as he said in verse 17, 18, and 19. He didn't come to destroy it, but to fulfill it.
So he's not setting himself at odds with the Bible here.
So when it says, ye've heard that it had been said by them of old time, he's quoting, he's talking about people who were quoting the Bible, but then misinterpreting it. You need to understand that.
So, uh Also the phrase here When it says, you have heard that it was said by them. That lets us know that the people that are listening to Jesus in this day were not, in most part, those who read the Bible for themselves. You said, why didn't they read the Bible for themselves? Because many of them didn't have the scriptures. A copy for themselves.
to read on their own. This was the case in much of the world for most of humanity. Without the printing press, you didn't have everybody r renting off hundreds and thousands and millions of Bibles.
So they in that day they wrote on papyrus, which was uh rolled up in scrolls. It was bulky, it was expensive, it was not easy to to to to do. It was A timely task. And so they had these in the synagogues, and some families that were wealthier could have a copy of certain portions or part of the Torah or so forth. And so what they did was they would come to the synagogue and they would just have to trust the scribes and Pharisees.
It was a very big trust system.
So, whatever they read and they taught, they were like, well, that must be what it is because I can't study it for myself to verify whether they're lining up with the Bible or not. Does that make sense?
So it's like you had never had the Bible and I was the only one with the Bible and I read it and I told you what it meant, then you would be like, well, I got to trust him because I don't have to, I can't read back over that to verify if that's what it really meant. And I can't compare scripture to scripture.
So Martin Lloyd-Jones says the condition of Judaism at the time of Christ was remarkably like that of the church in the early 16th century. The scriptures in that day was not translated into the language of the people. The liturgy, prayers, the scripture reading, and even most of the hymns and anthems were in Latin, which none of the common people knew or understood. When a priest gave a sermon or homily, the people had nothing by which to judge what it said. They had no idea to whether or not the message was scriptural or whether it needed to be scriptural if that was important.
The Bible taught what the church said it taught. The church, therefore, placed its authority over that of Scripture, and that's what you find in the 16th century. If you ever went to a Roman Catholic church where they taught or read in Latin, you didn't know what they were reading or what they were saying. You just had to sing along or read along or pray along, and it was just, it was mindless speaking without really engaging your mind because there was no identification of understanding for that.
So, one of the greatest blessings of the Reformation was it put the Word of God back into the hands of the people. Amen. And so we tell people, bring your Bible. You ever talk to somebody who goes to a a a certain kind of church and they say, You bring your Bible? They're like, We never bring our Bible to church.
If you grew up in a Catholic church, very likely you never rush your Bible to church. Anybody know what I'm talking about? I'm not trying to beat up on any certain groups, but I'm just telling you that's the case. And many of the people who grew up in those settings, they didn't study the Bible. When you come to Lighthouse, do we challenge you to read the Bible?
You challenge to study it? You convicted when you don't? Yes. Yes, good. You should feel bad.
You should say, oh, I need to read the Bible. I need to understand it. Why? If I wanted to deceive you, I wouldn't tell you to read it. I wouldn't tell you to study it.
I wouldn't put verses up here on the screen. We put our outlines online so people can get those and have the whole outline of the sermon.
So you can read this, you can study this.
So you know what it says and means what it says.
So he says, You've heard said by them of old, thou shalt not kill.
Now, what does this mean? The Bible clearly says in Exodus 20 verse 13, it's the Sixth command of God, thou shalt not kill. The word kill comes from a Greek word. Spelled P H. O in E U O Fonuo, and it means to kill a person unjustly.
Murder someone is the meaning of it. To kill someone unjustly, to murder them. There's a different word in the Greek. Appo can And it means to condemn someone to death, to put them to death under judgment.
So you can see a s a word used as kill here in the English and kill somewhere else, but I can tell you there's two different Greek words being used in places in the New Testament. And so The King James renders this verse in Matthew 5, verse 21. Thou shalt not kill, but the meaning is not just killing, it's specifically referring to murder. Because you can kill somebody both justly, as we'll see, as well as injustly. unjustly.
So we see here that the idea is thou shall not murder. The statement thou shalt not kill is, again, quotation from Exodus chapter 20, verse 13, where the word kill is the Hebrew word ratzak. And it means the unjust killing or the murdering of somebody. There's another Hebrew word for kill, and it's mut, mute. It means to put to death.
To die. You know the first time the word mute is used is in Genesis 2.17? But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat thereof, for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Mute. That's the idea that you will be justly put to death for your crimes against God.
It's not the Rotsak, which is I will murder you. Unjustly, it's it's it's the death penalty for your crimes of sin. And so this This command includes premeditated killing of others, not accidental killing. Or death due to judgment. This is deliberate, intentional murder.
That's the idea of. Both m uh m Matthew 5:21, and the quotation that's taken out of in Exodus 20, verse 13, there. And so. I find it interesting. That Jesus begins with an emphasis on the sanctity of human life because the command of premeditated murder includes.
killing someone that you premeditate to kill. It also includes self-murder, which is suicide, right? It also includes abortion, which is premeditated murder of the unborn. All of those include this. And I think it's interesting that the very launch of these, Jesus elevates.
The the command about the sanctity of human life. That every human life is valuable because they're made in the image of God. I think if there's one thing that we as God's people should stand up for in our society, it's the innocent. It's the killing of innocent life. If there's anything you should stand up for, it shouldn't be killing innocent lives.
You say, hey, that's wrong. You can't do that. I mean, if you drove down the road and you seen a little four-year-old child getting beaten to death, anybody here think you would stop and try to do something? Yes. Yes, I wouldn't call 911.
I would run out and be 911 while I. told somebody else to call 911.
Somebody get the law here, but in the meantime, I'm going to save this child's life. This that because there's something in you that's wired to say Justice has to be applied. This is wrong. Innocence is being assaulted. I can't handle that.
And that's the right response. You know, that's a God-put-in-you response. God wired you that way. We have We oppose abortion because God opposes it. The Bible teaches innocent life is from the womb.
God creates that image of God in the womb at conception.
Now who determines the value of man's life? Does God determine the value of man's life, or does man determine the value of man's life? Because murder is ultimately a devaluing of man's dignity. Devaluing man's worth and value. It's saying, man is not worthy.
Man has no value. But our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence understood this. They said, we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed not by their government. Not by the Supreme Court, not by a president, but we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
No matter how a Supreme Court judges, no matter what a president says, no matter what government officials say, life is valuable because God made it. We're made in the image of God. Value is from the Creator. The Bible teaches there are no superior races. You know, all of us are the same race.
We're all humans. I'm so sick and tired of how this nation tries to use racism for their political power. It is disgusting to me. And it should be abhorrent to you. It should gross you out.
Stop talking about those things. If you really cared. You you know what made me want to throw up? Just in grotesque language. They're like, you know, this stopping of abortion is going to hurt the black communities more than anyone else.
So you're telling me unless the black community Unless those little babies can be killed, you're not going to be, you feel like that's going to hurt a black community.
So you want more black babies killed, Governor? President? It is such wickedness, they can't even see it. They're given over to, we live in a country with a reprobate mind. Our leaders have a reprobate mind, a conscience that doesn't function.
They don't even get it. They're so blind to reality. The Bible says in Acts 17, 26, He hath made of one blood all nations. We're all one race. It's called the human race.
Romans 2:11, there is no respect of persons with God. None. He doesn't care where you're born, what your ethnicity is. And that's what the Bible says. It's not different races.
It's one human race, just different ethnicities. Compare that to Charles Darwin, who devalued women and who Charles Darwin was a severe racist. Most know Darwin's famous book, The Origin of Species by Natural Selection, which was written and published on November 24th, 1859. It was published then. But the real title of Darwin's book, he always wrote like a paragraph for titles.
It was weird. But the real title of the book is The Origin of Species by Natural Selection or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Favored races? Who are the favored races? You know who the favorite races are?
According to According to Darwin, it's the people that that are most distant from his view of what Where well we came from monkeys. Charles Darwin assumed as well as uh Francis Gould, who was like his they called him his bulldog, his cousin. That they said the the African savages are closest to to the monkey race and they are not even human. Do you think it would be important for our school systems to rise up and say, what that man produced is wickedness? But you know that book literally sits like this inside of little things, inside of our schools, while they say get rid of the Bible and let's let oh, well, we have to re remove the second half of the title because that's offensive, but the teachings are in there.
Listen to what evolutionist Marcus and Marxist Stephen Jay Gould said. Again, this is an atheistic guy. He says biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1850, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of the evolutionary theory. Evolution. Assaulted.
other races, oth other ethnicities. Douglas Kelly, who's written on the subject with great insight, said this, there's no doubt that the biblical vision of man as God's creature, whom he made in his own image, has had the most powerful effect on human dignity, on liberty, on the expansion of the rights of the individual, on political systems, on the development of medicine, on every other area of culture. How different, he writes. You know where the scientific revolution came from? All of them were Christians.
Science was birthed out of Christianity. Do you know that? All the great minds, Newton, all these guys were brilliant scientists. I've preached on this in the past, I don't have time now to expound on it. But he says, How different from the humanistic viewpoint of man as merely an evolved creature not made in God's image because there is no God?
Such a premise has enabled the Marxist totalitarian states conveniently to liquidate millions of their citizens because the assumption that there is no transcendent person whose image that you're made in No being to give that citizen a dignity and a right to exist beyond what the state determines. Listen to me very closely. You need to get what I'm saying. This is so important in the day we live. You've got to get this.
What is happening in America when it comes to abortion is exactly what happened with guys like Hitler and Stalin and other guys. You say, why would you say that? Because they believed that Hitler and Stalin and their people could determine what life was valuable and worth living and what life was not worth living. When you allow a human being To determine the value of another human being, that is going to end in millions of people being killed. You're not valuable because somebody says you're valuable.
You're valuable because God made you in His image. You know why it doesn't red, yellow, black, and white, doesn't matter what color you are, what level of melon you have, that's so ridiculous. It doesn't, none of that matters. You're made in the image of God. Your value is from God.
You know why Christians are the ones who helped liberate slavery in America? because they understood this. The liberation of slavery came from Christianity. That's where value came from. But they don't ever want to talk about that.
It's evolution that took humanity out of the out of the black person. And this should be assaulted in our community. This should be, people should rise up against this stuff. But no, they'll keep teaching that. They'll let the evolutionists have their day.
Because they don't want any God to stand in judgment before. But I can tell you, God's coming back, and He's going to bring justice with Him.
Now what does this mean, what does this thou shalt not kill mean? This is not speaking against every form of killing a human. From the many counts and teachings of Scripture, it's clear that capital punishment is okay. I've talked to Christians before who said, Oh, I'm against capital punishment. The Bible says, Thou shalt not kill.
I just have to graciously show them like that's not what it means. You need to understand what that means. It it literally means thou shalt not murder is the idea. The Bible tells us in Genesis 9:6, God says, Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. Exodus 21, 14.
This is written right after Exodus 20, which says, don't kill. It says, but if a man come presumptuously, that's a premeditated murder, upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar that he may die. The word there is mut, mute. The word in Exodus 20, 13 is ratak. It's to premeditate.
Kill is mute. Or the Rotzak is premeditated murder where mute is just. justly putting someone to death. Does that make sense?
So So Paul affirms capital punishment. Also in Romans 13, he says they don't bear the sword in vain. People say, why would you agree with capital punishment? That just seems so severe. What does it help when you put the guy to death?
Well, a 2003 study by Emory University researchers of data. from more than 3,000 counties from 1977 through 1996, nearly a 20-year study, found that each execution, on average, resulted in 18 fewer murders per county. Every person that was put to death in those counties saved, they had 18 less. people murdered in each one of those counties. In another examination based on data from all 50 states from 1978 to 1997, Federal Communications Commission's economist Paul Zimmerman demonstrated that each state, out of all 50 states over this other 20-year study, that each state execution deters an average of 14 murders annually.
Fourteen murders. Stop from you say why? Because they saw there's a consequence for their murdering. And the murder's like, well, I don't want to do that. I wanna be put to death.
Also, you need to understand: thou shalt not kill doesn't speak against. Warfare, just warfare. This is another instance of acceptable killing that which is done during times of war under the command of a superior. I've spoken to people in our church multiple times, different folks. I remember specifically last year, a gentleman in our church who was in his nineties So one of the most gentle men you'd ever meet.
He said, you know, I s I've served in in war for many years. He said, and I when I was in war, he said, I took the life of many men. You would never, I mean, he was one of the nicest guys. He had passed away since then, and we had his funeral last year, but. Um he said I just need to know that like Like Was that wrong?
Like, was I You know, who we were fighting against was just so wicked and so forth. And I was able to take the word of God and show him: listen, you need to understand that the Hebrew word rat soak, which is for Premeditated murder of Exodus 20, 13, that word is never one time used in all of scripture in the time of warfare. It's never called that. God's God even allows for the just killing in in in times of warfare. We see remember when Abraham's nephew Lot was taken?
Abraham armed 300 of his servants, and they went out and took off after them and rescued Lot. And I can tell you, some people would have died from that. We read about God allowing killing and just warfare in 1 Samuel 11, Judges 6 and 7, Deuteronomy 20.
So I think that's important for us to hear. Also, accidental homicide is not meant here. In Numbers 35, it speaks about premeditated murder versus non-premeditated murder. accidentally killing somebody.
Sometimes this happened when people got into conflict and the guy died, and he's like, I didn't mean to kill the guy. The guy died, or some they may be out working, and somebody ran over somebody, or something happened. And maybe you had an oxen, and that oxen killed that man, and it wasn't known to be a violent ox before. And it was just, these were the kind of things. And so, in the Bible, they gave them cities of refuge.
You remember that? They would run off to those cities.
So, again, there was a consequence. Like, if somebody killed somebody, there's a consequence. Like, you had to move and stay in that city of refuge and stay away from your hometown and so forth. But it wasn't, God didn't apply the same punishment because you didn't premeditate. That wasn't your intention.
Also, self-defense is not meant here. You need to understand this. The Bible makes provision that you have the right to defend yourself. I know in our day they want to strip the guns from everybody and I always find it interesting that they never one time stripped the guns from their own people that are protecting them. Does anybody else find that odd?
Take the guns from everybody and then their own soldier their their own bodyguards are Yeah. Hack to the hilt with their guns, right? Hey. That's how you know they're lying. When they say wear a mask and then they go to a party without a mask, it's like you know they're lying.
You know, there's no what you call heart of conviction, no sincerity. It's a power trip. I tell you, there's other countries who've surrendered all their guns to their leadership. And it didn't end well for the people that way. Self-defense is not meant here.
The Bible gives provision for that. Didn't Jesus even say, if you don't have a sword, get one? That's what he said in Luke 22. The Bible says in Exodus 22 and 3 that if a man breaks into a home, you need to hear this. God says in Exodus 22 verses 2 and 3 if a man breaks into a home to steal something at night.
and you feel like your life is in th in danger, that you have the right to kill them. It's what the Bible says. In self-defense, you don't know what they're doing. They come into your house and you don't know what's going on. You're afraid, you feel your life's in danger.
God says you have a right to kill them. But it goes on to say if the daylight comes And the homeowner sees that that person's there to steal something, but they're not there to hurt you, and you recognize that your life is not in threat. that you are not allowed to kill them. And if you do kill them, then you'll be under judgment. And you know why the Bible says that?
Because Your property is less valuable than their humanity. Does that make sense?
Even if they're a thief. They don't they're they're still made in the image of God. And sometimes thieves would break in because they need some bread or they're grabbing a sheep or a chicken or something. You don't go out there and kill them for it. God's saying they're made in the image of God.
And so we need to understand that. You say, well, you say the Bible says it's okay for self-defense. What about turning the other cheek, Pastor Josh? Wait for somebody to write me a note on that. You ever write me a letter, put your name.
I never get upset. Like, I never read something like, how dare they disagree with what I preached? I'll never do that. But but I get a letter this week, but feel free to like um like just say, Hey, I'd love to sit down and talk with you about that so that I can expound on that. You always have to remember when I preach a sermon, I could I'm preaching literally an hour and 15 pages on two notes, okay, two verses.
There's so much that could be expanded on. I can't hit every nth degree of every side of something.
So I'm trying to make this as clear as possible so to answer the questions before they come. But if you ever have questions, always feel free. I'm always glad to sit down as time's able to talk.
So But people say, what about turning the other cheek?
Well, let me answer that. Look at Matthew 5. Look at verse number. Thirty something. 39, yeah.
It says, But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Where is self-defense found there?
Well, you need to understand Jesus here, and we'll get to that here in the next few weeks. But Jesus here is not talking about like protecting yourself from physical violence. A guy's trying to beat you down to death. What he's saying is a smack on the cheek among the Jewish culture was like spitting in somebody's face. It was an assault upon your dignity.
It was it was assaulting your um Your reputation. It was. Your pride. And so Jesus says, if somebody assaults your pride, just turn the other cheek. Let that go.
It's like somebody bad-mouthing you or saying something that really offends you. Just turn the other cheek. That's the idea. It's not saying if somebody is fighting you and beating you on the face, like, hit me on the left, ah, hit me on the right. You know, that's not what he's saying.
If somebody goes to injure you, you are made in the image of God. You are to protect the image of God because your value reflects the value that God's placed upon you. And so how does God feel about murder? How does God feel about premeditated murder. Proverbs 6 16 says God hates certain things and one of them he lists here.
He says in verse number 17, it says, these six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination. He goes on in verse number 17, it says, hands that shed innocent blood.
Now the vile nature of murder is seeing that God eternally judges those who commit murder. He will bring judgment upon them. Revelation 21:8, but the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers. And it goes on to say they'll have their place in the lake of fire. Revelation 22:15, talking about those outside of God's kingdom that are not going to be in the kingdom.
It says, for without our dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers. You know who the originator of murder was? John 8, 44 says Satan. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth. He says, You're of your father the devil.
And the devil was a murderer from the beginning. He didn't remain in the truth. But do you know who the first murderer was? In scripture? You're the first person who committed murder?
It was Eve. Followed by Adam. In Genesis 3, you find what could be in all literal sense an act of suicide committed by Adam and Eve. God told them in Genesis 2, 16, and 17, he said, If you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he said, you shall surely die. It's like putting a gun to your head and saying, you will surely die.
And Satan says, no, you won't. You pull the trigger.
Well, you've just committed suicide. It doesn't matter. You've been warned, you've been told. And God says, you shall surely die. Remember when Satan said, why don't you eat of every tree?
And Eve said, if we eat of that knowledge of the tree of good and evil, if we even touch it, we will die. She understood the death penalty death was the consequence of that. And Satan said, You shall not surely die. And so she began to look upon the tree, saw it was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, treated with desire to make one wise. She took of the fruit thereof, ate, gave also to her husband with her.
He did eat. That was an act of suicide. They understood what God said. And do you know what happened as a result? Chapter four, it says.
In chapter 4, verse 8, and Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass as they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. Isn't it shocking that the first child ever born into the world was a murderer? Incredible, isn't it? Adam and Eve's, the disease of murder found in their veins filtered through to their children. And they rose up and Murder.
I can tell you, we live in a world filled with murder, don't we? I thought about giving you some stats and all this stuff. There's so much murder going on that I just didn't want to fill this place with the filth of the. Conversation of how many murders of Uvalde shooting and and Chicago shootings every week that are killing 30 some people. I mean, it's just.
Murder's everywhere. And that that doesn't even count for the people who who've who've tried to kill somebody. or the suicides or the self which is self-murder or all the abortions which we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
So Jesus says this. In verse 21, you've heard it that have been said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment. The command, thou shalt not kill, was scriptural, but the statement, you shall be in danger of judgment, was a part that the. People have added. The word danger there was a legal term of the judgment court.
It referred to their lowest court of seven people in smaller communities, and it would have twenty three people in larger towns. And from there they could appeal to the higher court or their supreme court, which was known as the Sanhedrin. Their command, though, fell short of God's standard. They focused just on the external act. They only focused on the killing on the outside, but Jesus comes to show that God isn't just worried about the external, He's worried about the heart and the motive.
And so they warned, you kill, you'll stand in judgment on a human court. And Jesus comes along and says, you kill, and you'll stand before God. Like, there's a higher court that you have to answer before. And so he comes to raise the standard from which they had brought it down. And secondly, he says, not only do not kill, but do not be angry, verse 22.
And so here the Lord gives three examples to highlight. The in and examine The reality that God looks on the inside of a person. He looks at the heart of a person past the external actions, that you can violate. Exodus 20, verse 13, without ever having physically done the act. He's showing us Uh the the the the the spirit of the law, not just the letter of the law.
And so, verse 21, he says, You've heard that it had been said by them of old, thou shalt not kill. But I say unto you, notice what he says, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. You think they'll just be in danger of judgment for killing? I'll tell you, they'll be in danger of judgment for being angry. This is where we all get pulled in and we're real silent because we're like, uh-oh.
You know, when we say to people, we've said it before, haven't we, Tom? We ask people, hey, if you stood before God, would you go to heaven? And they say, well, I haven't killed anybody. And Jesus comes along and says, you think it's just external? You think it's just something you have to physically do?
This is where he cuts right to the heart. The word anger there means this: filled with anger, to be furious, wrathful, enraged. It is a simmering under the skin of a person with a desire to be, you're filled with resentment and you refuse to be reconciled. Charles Spurgeon said anger is to kill with desire. It is to kill with intent.
And it uses a statement without a cause. Whodsoever be angry with his brother without a cause. I would ask the question, is anger always sinful? Is it always sinful? And the answer to that is no.
No, it's not. It is not always sinful. Anger in itself is not a sin because God can be angry. Psalms 7:11 says, God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked how many times? Every day.
He's angry with the wicked every day. Did Jesus ever get angry? Mark 3, listen to what the Bible says here. And he entered into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had a withered hand. And they watched Jesus.
They wouldn't know if he was going to heal the guy. And the Bible says in verse 3, And he saith unto the man who had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good? on the Sabbath days or to do evil, to save life or to kill. But they didn't they wouldn't say anything.
They don't know that Jesus knows what they're thinking. But he's like seeing their heart. And look what it says in verse 5. And when he looked around on them with what? What did he have?
Jesus is an angry preacher right now. He's preaching this. He's not going to be like, you know, does anybody here hear what? It's not like this is how Jesus preached. I mean, Jesus is fired up.
He's worked up right now. And why is he worked up? What's he so upset about? Look what it says. Being grieved for the hardness of their heart.
Anybody ever been upset because of somebody's hardened heart? I know I probably upset my parents when I had a hardened heart. Not probably. I know I did. Probably upset my youth pastor, my preacher.
And and any Any person we harden our heart against, that could be very upsetting. But he was upset because our heart was hardened against the things of God, and he heals the man. Jesus was angry in John too when he cleansed the temple. That was at the beginning of his ministry. You know what he does at the end of his ministry?
He cleansed the temple again, he made a court of whips. I mean, you have to sit down and take time. I've heard estimations of like a couple of hours to make the whip he made. I mean, he's sitting down, he's braiding this thing together, he's putting it. I mean, what are you doing, Jesus?
I'm making it with it. Give me a moment. You're gonna see what I'm gonna do with it. I'll be like, it's gonna be good. Yeah.
Wouldn't you like to be in heaven and be like, I want to see what this thing looked like? I mean there's There's like thousands of people in the temple. This is not like some small gathering. I mean, this is a massive courtyard. I've been up on the Temple Mount, it's the size of 11 soccer fields.
Jesus goes around, flips over tables of money changers, the corrupt system, he just overthrows it and takes a whip. What do you think he hit? Maybe smacked somebody on their tail or ran out the animals. I mean, he's cleaning the house. BY HIMSELF!
I mean the authority and the power that would have just Beamed from his presence. Everybody's like, oh, he's serious, man. I mean, what kind of guy could have pulled that off? I tell you what, it was a sobering day in the house of God, wasn't it?
Sometimes we need to be serious about the things of God.
Sometimes we need to say this is really serious. Be sober-minded and Jesus was angry. There is a righteous kind of anger. There's a right reason to be upset. Paul said in Ephesians 4:26, be angry and sin not.
Be angry and sin not, he says, Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. I believe there are some things Christians should be upset about and angry with. This type of anger hates injustice, it hates immorality, hates ungodliness. When such anger is unselfish, when it's based on love for God and love for others, not only is it permissible, but God commands it. God commands that anger.
Should it get us angry when people blaspheme God? Yes. Should it cause us to be angry when prom when abortion is promoted in society and the slaughter of the Innocent life? Yes. Should it anger us at the hardness of people's heart against God's word?
Absolutely. If Christ's. Was upset, if Christ was upset and angry at those things, if His Spirit dwells in us, should not we also be angry?
Now listen to me. It's hard for Christians to practice righteous anger. This is the problem. Because we have a sin nature that can quickly turn righteous anger into unrighteous anger. Mm.
Aristotle said, Anyone can become angry, but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, at the right way, is not easy to do. It's not easy to do. Anger. can be either good or bad based upon the motive. And the purpose.
But listen to me. Even anger toward the right thing for the right purpose must be limited in its extent. Ephesians 4.26 says, Be angry and sin not. He says, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. You know what God's saying?
You need to Get that anger dealt with before the sun goes down. Any 24-hour period is long enough for you to be angry about something. You need to release that. God did not save us to be a bunch of angry people. He saved us to be those who would go and proclaim the gospel.
To see souls saved and to exalt Christ and to glorify Him with our inward and outward man. Warren Weersby said, The fire of anger, if not quenched by loving forgiveness, will spread and defile and destroy the work of God. Even righteous anger can turn into bitterness. We must set it aside at the end of each day. You have to do this.
And you know what the result of un Resolved anger. Look what the next verse in Ephesians 4:27. Look what the next verse says. Neither give place to who? You know who you allow into your life whenever you hold on to anger?
Even anger for the right reason, for the right things? You you get you allow Satan to get a foothold in your life. The biblical principle is that we are to hate the sin, but to love the sinner. We we love the lost. They are our mission field, but we despise their sin.
I despise the wickedness of our culture. But you know what I despise even more? I despise the wickedness in my own heart. I I make my own self sick. I'm so frustrated on a weekly basis with the struggles that I have.
That you and I should be so burdened and angry with the sin of our own life, it should infuriate us. We should be those who cry out, O wretched man that I am. And before we get so upset outside of us, we should be upset with what's inside of us. Just read Romans 7. And if you don't find anything in your life that you can get upset about, well, I don't really feel like I have anything that I should be upset about.
I can tell you two sins that you will commit every day. Every single day, use use do these. I do these. You do not love God like you should. You don't.
Well, I think I do.
Okay, so let me ask you this. Paul, so Peter left his job. went and followed Jesus for three years. Lived and slept on the ground with him, preached everywhere, was willing to even lay his life down at one point, but then betrayed and fell back. And at the end of his life, in John 21, Jesus says, Do you love me?
And Peter says, I just really like you. He says, Do you agape me, Peter? And Peter says, No, Lord, you know I file owe you. It's a word that means I have a fond affection for you. It's like a brotherly love, but I don't love you to death.
I don't love you like I thought I did. And if you think you love Jesus more than Peter, then then there you go. You're deceived.
Okay, I'm deceived if I think that. We don't love God like we should, and we don't love each other like we should. We don't love others like ourselves. You know who I love most in life? Myself.
It's gross. I hate it every day. I like it. And if you don't think you do that, I mean, I'm just telling you, just examine your life for a while. Why do you think you get impatient with people?
You know what impatience is? It's self-love. It's the only reason you're upset. Get out of my way. Don't you know I gotta be somewhere?
Who are you loving? Yourself. You know why you get frustrated and speak out in anger and all these things most of the time? It's because we love ourselves. Stop loving yourself.
That's why Jesus said that, and that's how corrupt our culture is. The culture says, oh, you just need to love yourself more. Are you kidding me? You're blind leaders of the blind. The problem is the loving of self is the problem.
We need to love others as ourselves.
Some have such hate. In the world, and they may look good on the outside, maybe never have hurt anybody in their life, but they have been filled with so much hate and anger that if they weren't afraid of the consequence or they weren't afraid of the person, they would have killed them. You know what hate says? I wish that person were dead. I wish that person were dead.
You know what 1 John 3.15 says? Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. God comes along and says, If you have hate in your heart towards somebody, you're a murderer and you cannot be truly saved. Do you hear that? You cannot be a true believer and have abiding hate.
No, I can tell you, you can struggle with hate. You can struggle with anger. But if you hold on to that. That's an evidence that you're not a child of God. Because that's what Satan does.
You gotta release that. And if you said, I've been hating somebody for a long time, now that you've come to the truth of this, it should cause you to be broken on the inside and say, God, forgive me. I didn't realize this.
Now that I've been exposed to the truth, I gotta get my heart clean. All of us know what it's like to hate somebody. Amen. Raise your hand if you've ever hated somebody before. We've all done this, and we've all been guilty of murder before.
We've all hated someone. I've told people, I remember growing up, I wish you were dead. I hate you. I mean, you know, you start yelling this stuff. I told my brothers that stuff.
You did? Yes! Couldn't stand them at times. I'd fight them, and it's really not funny. I mean, I'd just be so wrathful.
I would fight him with a bat. I remember my oldest brother beat me up. I finally took a bat to him, man. I just. And then my parents took him to my backside, man.
It's the only time I could ever hurt him, you know, with a bat. I don't know why I tell you that stuff.
So, the first example he gives here on the inside of a man, he says, You guys are worried about just killing. He says, God says, if you. If you have anger in your heart, The second example is slandered. He says, And whosoever shall say to his brother, Rakah, shall be in danger of the council. And you're like, Yes, I haven't committed this.
I've never called somebody a Raka. We're all clean, amen.
So let's just go on to the next one.
Now the word rakah is a transliteration of an Aramaic word. And and a transliteration is basically there's no English equivalent, so they just they just write an English word that's spelled like it sounds in the original language.
So it's spelled like Raqqa is the Aramaic word, and so we spell it R-A-C-Hay. And it just means It's been translated different ways. There's no direct translation of it, but it's a derogatory slander, is the idea. It's like you blockhead, you emptyhead, you good for nothing. It devalues a person, it slanders them.
Hate and anger produce. Hate and anger always produce slandering somebody. Spurgeon said to call a man Raqqa or a worthless fellow is to kill him in his reputation. And to slander one who has been made in the image of God is to slander God himself. And Jesus says, You shall be in danger here of the council.
The word council was the. Greek word to send hedron. This is the Supreme Court of the Jews that you would be in danger of standing before and that judgment could put you to death. Friend, have you ever slandered someone?
sought to ruin their reputation, calling them worthless good for nothings. Notice Jesus doesn't say the problem is external to you. He's not saying the person who's wronged you is the problem. He's saying it's internal to you. The problem's inside your heart.
Do you see that? That's massive truth. When we get angry and we slander people and we get bitter and all that stuff, the problem's not outside of us. The problem is. Sewing we have a heart issue.
Now again, there's righteous things to be angry for, but we're angry for the glory of God. We're angry when life and people and things are assaulted that are dishonoring to the word of God and the truth of what he says. But even that must be limited. And then thirdly, a third example and we'll be done Is assaulting man's character. He says this: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire.
The word fool there, you ready for this, comes from the Greek word moros, and we get the English word moron from it. It means stupid, dull, godless. It didn't mean simply somebody lacked wisdom. It meant that you were calling someone a stupid, godless, like idolater. You godless person.
You you you fool. You And And anger is that internal sin that, again, bubbles out in the defamation of a man's character.
Now the Bible, you need to know this. calls people fools at times. The Bible says in Psalms 14 verse 1, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God, right? Jesus even called people fools. Luke 24, 25, on the road to Emmaus.
He said, O fools and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken. What he's saying is, you're acting like a fool. There is nothing wrong, listen to me, to warn people if they are living in opposition to God and to his truth, to say what you're doing is very foolish. You're acting as a fool would act. This is what a godless person would do.
It is a warning to them, and there's nothing wrong with that. But to Do it because you hate them. to do it because you want to destroy them. You see, like if I was talking to Ryan and Ryan, praise God, he's saved, living for Jesus. But if me and him were buddies and we were working and I saw him going down the wrong road, and I'd say, listen, man, what you're doing is very foolish.
You could die from that, man. You could really get your life messed up before God, and you want to be clean before God. And what my purpose and motive is, is not to destroy him, it's a motive of love, and I want to help him and say, I want you to live right for God. And so you have to examine your motive. But Jesus is saying, when you have anger and hate in your heart and you're coming to somebody and you're laying it down on them, you fool, you, all these things.
Jesus said this. Notice what he says. He shall be in danger of hellfire. That word hellfire is Gehenna. It is from the word hennom, which is the valley just southwest of Jerusalem.
Just to give you a little bit of history of this, the valley of Hinnom is where King Ahaz had built a pagan idol to the god Molech, and they would offer children in fiery sacrifice to those deities, those pagan gods. 2 Chronicles 28, 3 says, Moreover, he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnnom and burnt his children in the fire after the abomination of the heathen before the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. God called this place the Valley of Slaughter in Jeremiah 19, 6. It was during the revival under King Josiah that Josiah turned that place where little babies were burnt into a trash heap to desecrate it. He would bring trash and refuse down there, and there was always a fire burning down in that valley, and they said there were worms that lived there that were very hard to kill.
Jesus used the word gehenna to describe eternal punishment 11 times in the Bible. To show them, this is just a small picture of the eternal flame and the fire that never goes out and the worm that dieth not. You read the Old Testament, it says, The worms are under thee, and the worms cover thee. That's talking about hell. The fire never is quenched.
It's this eternal place of torment. And Jesus says, to call someone a fool to assault their character out of anger puts you in danger of going to Gehenna forever. To stand before God and be judged as a criminal who violated his law, and you're equal to a murderer.
So, as I conclude, does anyone feel like we should be filled up with pride after this sermon? You understand what Jesus is saying here now? Like how on earth can you walk away self-righteous after that? Like after you examine the Word of God, how does the Word of God make you feel like you're so wonderful? How you are, you know what we should do when we leave Lighthouse?
We should leave saying, God, thank you that you're so merciful to a sinner such as I. Thank you for grace. Thank you for covering my sins. It should make us at the end of a service to either come to the altar at our seat and say, God, forgive me for the hate and the anger and the unforgiveness and bitterness. I should never hold onto that stuff.
God, if you were so gracious to forgive me, I must forgive other people. That should be what it draws us to. Because the Word of God is the purifier to our life. Jesus comes and raises the bar. Let me ask you, friend, do you have anger in your heart toward others?
Maybe an ex-spouse? You hate your ex-spouse. You hate him. Wish they were dead, you just You can't wait till they die, so you'd have to pay. Support.
Sick of them.
So bitter Do you hate your parents, kids? You hate your children? You hate your current spouse? What about a coworker? You can't stand him, you hate him.
You hate your boss, you hate him, you'll say, I hate my boss. You hate your neighbor, so sick of them and their dogs. Can't you? I can tell you another one, friends, that we're all guilty of at times. You hate some political leader?
Can't stand that guy. I hate that person. I hate that past president, the future president, the current president, or whatever. I can tell you, friends. God says, there's murder in your heart.
God didn't call you to be a murderer. He called you to be a life giver, to proclaim the gospel that brings salvation. Stop treating the lost world like the enemies and start treating them like the mission field.
Next week, we're going to look at one of the most important messages Christ gives on reconciliation. And you need to hear this. It's so important.
So important.
So, what should I do with my anger? Give it to God. Repent of holding on to it. Don't let Satan have a foothold in your life. When you hold on to anger and the sun goes down upon your wrath, I can tell you.
Husband and wife. That's Satan in the door. Let me say this also. When you have Things that come in your life that can make you angry, stop and say, God, thank you for the challenge. Thank you for the difficulty, because you're now testing me to see if I will obey you more than I'll obey my flesh.
Will I love you more, or will I obey my anger? Which one will I obey more? Today is a time for us of self-examination. Amen. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, friend, if you stood before God, you don't know if you're going to make it to heaven.
I'll be right down front with men and women stand at both these doors to my right and my left. You could come and say, Pastor, I'm not sure if I'd even make it to heaven. I want to make sure when I die I go to heaven. Why don't you come today? And you could talk with somebody.
They'll pull you aside in the room and show you from the Bible how you can know when your life's over, you'll be in heaven. Most important thing you could ever do in your life. Maybe you got saved this week and you need to come and make it public. Maybe you need to be baptized. Whatever your decision today, why don't you come?
Let's all stand this morning. With heads bowed and eyes closed, the altars open friend Examine your heart. Today's a great day to come and say, God, cleanse me, God, wash me, God, examine me. Maybe you don't even know of something in your heart, but you say, God, just search me. God, know my heart.
Is there anything in me that needs to be cleansed?
Sometimes there's those deep things we think we let go, but then Hate and bitterness and anger and vengeance comes up in us. Father, I thank you for this time. Your word is enough. It does its work. What more can be said than what you have said?
We pray that your word would be like a refining fire, cleansing your people. God, how can you work to bring revival to a city when there's not revival in a church? God cleansed first that which is within the building, that that which is without could be cleansed. Let us walk through these streets shining the truth of God. Let us Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, having the mind of Christ, forgiving as you forgave, being merciful as our Father is merciful, to love as you loved.
Help us not to be angry and bitter and revengeful. Lord, may we treat others as you've treated us. And when such wrong has been done, Done, Lord. May we cast that burden on you, for vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord, and may we entrust you with the outcome of that.
Thank you that you can take that judgment and that you can hold it. And you can bring justice according to your timing. We ask your blessing now. Save the lost. Sanctify the saved in Jesus' name.
Amen.
