The Heart of Murder | Matthew 5:17-26

We're going to continue in Matthew

chapter five this morning. Um,

the other day Stephen said something

about I mentioned some passage in

Matthew. So, yeah, when we get there in

five years,

uh, I am not in a hurry to get through

the words of our Lord in the book of

Matthew. Uh, the sermon on the mount is

so practical. It's so needed. We all

need it. We need it in our heart. We

need it in our life. We need to be

formed by this and I don't want to hurry

through it. I want to take the time. I I

I intend to repeat myself. Uh hopefully

it's it's edifying to this body and we

grow as we go through it because this is

this is here the first teaching of our

Lord to his disciples was the sermon on

the mount. And this morning my title is

the heart of murder. We'll be in Matthew

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 starting verse 17.

The heart of murder. And the point of

this morning's sermon is murder begins

in the heart. To be right with God, we

must repent of the root sin of murder.

God doesn't just look at the results,

the outward actions. He looks at the

heart. And this isn't merely a New

Testament teaching. This is found in the

Old Testament. Motive is important. And

many times when we read about murder,

the motive is given. The murder of

hatred or envy or uh some some other

bitter jealousy is given for murder. And

so God sees the end from the beginning.

He sees what we would do if we could do

without consequences.

And and sometimes we'll say things about

ourselves, well I would never do fill in

the blank sin. Have you been tempted in

that sense? Have you been tried in that

way? Have you been in the same

circumstances as the people that commit

those sins. We don't really know what we

would do if we could do what we would do

without constraints. And we don't know

what we would do if we could do it if we

had the power to do whatever we wanted.

God knows our heart. Many times people

say that, "Well, God knows my heart."

And usually when people say, "Well, God

knows my heart." Is God knows I have a

good heart. I just do bad things. No,

it's actually the opposite. You have a

bad heart, you just do some good things,

right? The human heart in it fallen

condition is desperately wicked. Who can

know it? Jeremiah 17:9. And Jesus

Jeremiah 17:9

doesn't merely want to work on our

externals. He wants to change us from

the inside out. He wants to transform us

from the inside out. He wants to start

in in the core of our being, not the

outer of our being. He doesn't just go

to the individual in the sermon on the

mount. He goes to the heart of the

individual. He wants to transform the

way that we think. And if our hearts are

transformed, our community will be

transformed. We wouldn't we wouldn't

need coins. We wouldn't need judges. We

could beat our swords into plowshirts if

the heart of man was changed. And so

Jesus addresses the heart. The heart of

the issue is the heart of man. And we're

going to be reading about that this

morning in Matthew chapter 5 starting at

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

verse 17.

If you would stand now for the reading

of God's word. We'll read our text.

Do not think that I have come to abolish

the law or the prophets. I have not come

to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

For truly I say to you, until heaven and

earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot,

will pass from the law until all is

accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes

one of the least of these commandments

and teaches others to do the same will

be called least in the kingdom of

heaven. But whoever does them and

teaches them will be called great in the

kingdom of heaven. For I tell you,

unless your righteousness exceeds that

of the scribes and the Pharisees, you

will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

You have heard that it was said by those

of old, "You shall not murder." And

whoever murders will be liable to

judgment. But I say to you that everyone

who is angry with his brother will be

liable to judgment. Whoever insults his

brother will be liable to the council.

And whoever says, "Few, fool," will be

liable to the hell of fire. So if you

are offering your gift at the altar and

there remember that your brother has

something against you, leave your gift

there before the altar and go first be

reconciled to your brother and then come

and offer your gift. Come to terms

quickly with your accuser while you are

going with him to court. Let your

accuser hand you over to the judge and

the judge to the guard and you be put in

prison. Truly I say to you, you will

never get out until you have paid the

last penny. Lord God, we thank you this

morning that you came not to leave us

where we're at. You accept us where

we're at in our sins and our fails. That

you don't intend to leave us where we're

at. You want to transform your people.

And so we shall be transformed by the

renewing of our mind. Renew our mind

this morning, oh God. Deal with our

hearts. Deal with the bitterness and the

envy and the jealousy and the hatred,

the unforgiveness.

anything that defiles our prayers. God,

we would offer you pure worship this

morning. We want our songs that we lift

up when we lift up our voices to be a

sweet smelling favor to you. We want our

prayers to be heard on high. We we want

our communion remembrance to be truly a

communion of our soul with your spirit

for you are present. So God, I pray that

you would deal with our hearts this

morning. If there's anything that brings

a foul order to our worship before you,

God, I pray that you would deal with it.

That you would refine us and purify us

and cleanse us and purify your people

for your glory and for your honor. In

Jesus name I pray. Amen. You may be

seated. Well, last week I went through

17 to 20 and I'm not going to uh go

through that in depth again, but I just

want to remind uh you that last last

week's sermon dealt with this this text

of of Matthew 5:17-20, which is really

Matthew 5:17–20

like the core thesis point of the

sermon. He said, "I didn't come to

destroy it, but I came to fill it to the

full." And one of the ways he does that,

we talked last week, was by teaching the

true original intent, which you would

know because he's the author. Jesus is

the author of the Old Testament.

The spirit of Christ was was speaking

through the prophet. It's Christ who

speaks from the burning bush,

the son of God. It's he that instructs

Moses. Jude tells us it was Jesus who

led the children of Israel out of Egypt.

uses his name Jesus who led the children

of Israel out of Egypt. It was Jesus.

Everything in the Old Testament points

to Jesus. It directly comes to Jesus and

nothing in it is bad or evil or to be

ashamed of. If we're ashamed of anything

in the Old Testament to some degree,

we're we're ashamed of the words of our

Lord.

So, we don't throw it away, right? We we

interpret it in light of the new

covenant, in light of the cross, in

light of the grace of God, but we don't

throw it away and we don't dishonor it

and we don't mock it and we don't say,

"Well, that's a little embarrassing law.

I'm sure glad we don't live under that

anymore." With reverence, we must come

to the Old Testament and we look at it

through the work of Christ and what he's

accomplished and what he has done

because Jesus said, "I didn't come to

destroy. Not not an iota, not a jaw, not

a yod, not a tit, but he came to fill it

to the full came to teach it and teach

his true original intent. And that that

I believe is of the other purposes. He

did come to live an obedient life to the

law, to fulfill the requirements of the

law so that he could die for our sins

and give us the gift of righteousness.

We talked about that last week. But what

he's going to do throughout the sermon

is he's going to fulfill the law by

teaching its true meaning and intent.

He's not abregating it. He's not doing

away with it. He is teaching its

original intent. He's getting to the

heart of the law. And he's doing it so

that his disciples can obey it. The

emphasis of the sermon on the mount is

if you hear these things in mind and do

them, you're the wise man that builds on

the rock. But if you hear them and don't

do them, you're a fool building your

life on the sand. And when the judgment

comes, your life is going to be like the

house on the sand. It's going to just

fall down. It's going to be worthless.

So, we need to take heed to God's word.

I'm so grateful we're saved by grace.

I'm so grateful that on the day of

judgment, I don't have to go before him

in my sins, and my righteousness, with

my poultry works to offer. I'm so glad I

can come before his throne, the

righteousness of Christ, because without

it, I would surely be damned. Uh,

nevertheless, God's law is meant to be

learned, internalized, and obeyed.

We're saved by grace, but we're saved

under good works. How do you know what a

good work is?

Because sometimes what our common sense,

our own understanding tells us is a good

work is a bad work. Many people push

for, for example, euthanasia, which

means good bless. They say, "Well,

grandma's getting old. Let's give let's

give grandma a permanent sleeping pill

and put her out of our misery." And

they'll think they're doing them a

service.

Right? It sounds good to man, but God

doesn't murder. So, we need to look to

God's word to define for us what is good

and what is evil.

And so, um, here Jesus was going to

teach us about a very, very short

commandment. You shall not murder.

It's found in Exodus 20. It's found in

Deuteronomy 5:17. You shall not murder.

Deuteronomy 5:17

And he's going to the heart of murder.

And he's going to go beyond what his

audience thinks. Let's look at it in

Matthew 5:21.

Matthew 5:21

We'll start in verse 21 of our of our

text today. He says, "You have heard

that it was said of those of old to

those of old, you shall not murder, and

whoever murders will be liable to the

judgment."

He's saying, "This is what you've

heard." He said, So, what is he doing?

He's alluding to the Old Testament. He's

going to teach us. Okay, this is what

you've heard and and and uh I'm gonna

he's going to teach us the spirit of

this law goes far beyond what some

people have defined it as to to look at

the Old Testament's teaching on murder.

I want to go to arguably the second

murder. The first murder is Adam

partaking of the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil, bringing death upon

himself and all of his seed and

children. But the second Adam we f

second murder we find in Genesis chapter

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

4. It's a a very famous Bible account

that of Cain and Abel. It says in

Genesis 4 verse one, "Now Adam knew his

his knew Eve his wife and she conceived

and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a

man with the help of the Lord. And

again, she bore his brother Abel." Now

Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a

worker of the ground. In the course of

time, Cain brought to the Lord an

offering of the fruit of the ground. And

Abel also brought of the firstborn of

his flock and of their fat portions. And

the Lord had regard for Abel and his

offering. But for Cain and his offering,

he had no regard. So Cain was very angry

and his face fell. Very interesting.

We're going to hear about the first

murder here. And what happens is they

both bring a sacrifice to the Lord. Now,

uh, Abel is a keeper of sheep. He has

sheep and Cain, he's a farmer. And so,

uh, Abel brings what God commanded to be

brought, which was a picture of Christ.

A lamb without blemish is a blood

sacrifice. It's a picture of Christ. We

learn later on in Leviticus 17, without

the shedding of blood, there is no

remission of sins. And instead of

bringing a blood sacrifice, which is a

picture of Christ, Cain brings the work

of his hands, a product of the ground.

And Cain wants God to bless his idea of

worship. Cain has this idea of worship.

Well, these are beautiful vegetables. I

put a lot of work into these vegetables,

so I'm going to give them to God, and

God should just be happy with that.

Well, if God hadn't told him what to

bring, then I don't believe if it was

the had to offer. I I imagine God would

have accepted it. But God God told must

have told him that that's not what to

bring. So we read in verse six as the

Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry?"

He's angry. Why are you angry? Why is

your face falling if you do well? Will

you not be accepted? Will I not accept

you if you bring a lamb without blemish?

If you bring a picture of Christ, will I

not accept you? Will you not come before

my throne and receive a good word? Will

you not be accepted if you bring a lamb?

Right?

And if you do not do well, sin is

crouching at the door. The Bible says

that that um sin is the breaking of

God's law. To him that knoweth to do

good and doeth it not to him in a sin. I

don't believe Cain and Abel were left

guessing. God had told him back when

Adam and Eve sinned. He flew an animal

and he covered them in the skins of

those animals. And there was a precedent

set that the penalty the wages of sin is

death. This animal will die in your

place. as a picture of what Christ would

do for you when he died on the cross.

But he wants to bring his own work to

God. And he knows it's wrong. And Jesus

and God says to him, he says, "Uh, if

you do well, will you not be accepted?

If you do not do well, sin is scrouching

at the door. It's desire for you and you

must rule over it." Cain spoke to Abel

his brother. And when they were in the

field, Cain rose up against his brother

Abel and killed him. There we have the

first murder. And we have a motive. He

was angry first. He was angry at God.

But he couldn't kill God.

The side was off the table. So

Fratricside was on the table. Couldn't

kill God. So he killed Abel. Later on

God will show up. And what will they do?

They'll nail him to a cross.

And so the first murder is committed.

And then we have the first passing of

verdict, the first passing of judgment.

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is

Abel, your brother?" He said, "I do not

know. Am I my brother's keeper? In other

words, am I supposed to be the

micromanager, my brother's wife?" Which

is no, of course not.

And the Lord said, "What have you done?

The voice of your brother's blood is

crying to me from the ground." By the

way, the word here, blood, is in the

plural.

It's not actually blood. It's blood.

talked to a rabbi one time and he said

that the that the Jews have asked why

why is blood in the plural here and and

they and they've come to the conclusion

not only was Abel killed but all his

potential children were killed. God

created mankind to be fruitful and

multiply and fill the earth with

imagebearers.

So when Cain kills Abel, he kills all of

his potential blood, his potential

children blood.

He says, "And now you are cursed from

the ground which has opened its mouth to

receive your brother's blood from your

hand. When you work the ground, it shall

no longer yield you with strength. You

shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on

the earth." At this point in time, God

did not choose to put him to death. And

Cain will complain about this. He's

like, "This penalty is too much for me."

God says, "Well, I'll put a mark on you

and nobody will kill you and you'll be

okay." But he lived the rest of his life

in paranoia. He went and built a fortifi

fortification. I believe because he was

a paranoid man and because the earth no

longer bore its fruit for him and so he

went off and built the city. But but you

notice here's a pattern. Cain has an

anger problem. Cain murders his brother

and judgment is passed upon Cain. Well,

what happens? Since Cain is not put to

death, murder doesn't lessen it. It

multiplies.

Later on, God would say, "You shall put

the evil away from among you." But in

this case, God, it was very early in

humanity and God wanted children of Cain

and and uh so God did not at this time

give descendants of the death penalty.

But what happens? Well, we remember in

Genesis, what happens is the earth

becomes filled with violence. Everybody

starts killing each other. God saw that

the heart of man was only evil

continually and they were violent. The

earth was filled with violence. They

didn't put away the evil and The result

was evil proliferated. That's what

happens if you don't deal with sin. You

don't pull the weed early, you get lots

of weed. Oh, there's only one dandelion.

There's no harm. It doesn't take up much

ground. Not for long. You have a lot of

dandelions. If you get one dandelion and

you don't get rid of that dandelion

before the the seeds go, you're going to

have lots of dandelions.

If you don't deal with the sin, it's

going to multiply. If the church doesn't

deal with sin, it'll multiply. Because

what happens with the seed of murder,

the seed of lust, the seed of

bitterness, the seed of fornication is

if you don't deal with it, it multiplies

and the weed seed spreads. Well, the

earth becomes filled with violence. God

sends a flood to wipe out humanity. It's

a death penalty for the totality of

humanity. It's a death penalty. It's a

death sentence upon humanity and upon

creation. But Noah finds grace in God's

sight. And so because Noah finds grace,

God preserves through Noah and his son

and and their wives and his wife. Uh he

preserves humanity eight people on an

ark. And when he gets off the ark, he

makes the covenant with them. And in

order to keep this from happening again,

he gives them very clear instructions

about murder. Genesis 9 verse 5. And for

Genesis 9:5

your lifeblood,

I will require reckoning. It's talking

about if somebody takes away your blood

like like like Abel and kills you. I

will require a reckoning from every

beast I will require it and from man

from his fellow man I will require a

reckoning for the life of man. Whoever

sheds the blood of man by man shall his

blood be shed. For God made man in his

own image and you be fruitful and

multiply and increase greatly on the

earth and multiply in it. God said from

here on out, I'm talking to eight people

from which all nations of the earth will

come. To these eight people, from here

on out, if anybody kills an image

bearer,

I require man to deal with it by putting

that person to death. We're not going

for the pre flood policy here. The pre

flood policy was uh you can make him you

can you can just exile them or make them

be a vagabond. But from here on out, if

anybody murders a human being, a human

image bearer, that person is gonna be

put to death. And that is said to your

Chinese ancestors, your Anglo-Saxon

ancestors, your Peruvian ancestors, your

Viking ancestors, your African

ancestors. It's it's spoken to all of

humanity. This is the law for humanity.

Before Moses,

this is the this is the norm. If someone

murders an image bearer, they are to be

put to death. And is compassionate

because if you don't put the murderer to

death, you will have a proliferation.

The weed seed will spread and you have

communities that are wholly given over

to bloodshed and violence.

You will not be safe in your homes. You

will not be safe walking down the street

at night. You will not be safe wherever

you go because if you don't put away

evil, evil will spread like gang green.

It's a compassionate thing to do. In the

in the moment, you feel pity because

this person We just don't want to put

this person to death. They have so much

to offer. They're so young. They're just

a a child of 27.

And we make excuses, but God says, "No,

if you want to have the evil put to put

away the evil from among you, you must

put the murderer to death." And in the

end, if you if you do it, it's actually

compassionate because you preserve life

and you don't have the proliferation of

murder and you don't you can be safe in

your home. man comes along and wants to

be nicer than Jesus,

more compassionate than Jesus.

Oh, we've evolved beyond that.

Well, how's it working out for us?

How's it working out for our

communities? Turning a blind eye. God

specifically says, "Your eye shall not

put hitting him. You shall put him to

death, and so shall you put away the

evil from your men."

You know, somebody

somebody with a a toe

diabetic. Some of you have experienced

this. You got a diabetic toe. I got a

lot of pity on my toe.

I don't want to cut my toe off. Why? Why

would anybody cut their toes off? That's

just cruel. Well, because sometimes if

you don't cut the toe off, your whole

body will die.

And that's the point of putting the

murder to death. If you don't put it to

death, it will proliferate. Now, notice

I want I I need to talk about this. It

might be a little uncomfortable, but it

needs to be said. It's very interesting

to me that immediately following in

verse 7, he says, "You and you be

fruitful, multiply, increase greatly on

the earth, and multiply in it."

He reiterates Genesis 1:27, the first

Genesis 1:27

command of scripture is to be fruitful

and multiply and build the earth. That's

the very first scripture in the Bible.

The very first blessing and command was

to be fruitful and multiply. Why is it

here next to this death penalty? Well,

because I think that the most common

murder there is is the murder of

children and always has been.

Because as much as our society loves how

it loves children, our society does not

love children. And if you've got three

of them in diapers, you'll find people

they kind of make it try to sound like,

oh, you got your hands full. What they

really mean is what's wrong with you?

You got three children in diapers, but

you know you're supposed to put it too.

and little jokes like you know what

causes that dumpster you is not eating

watermel

but there's an antagonism to it you'll

feel it some of you haven't have have

children you got three three little ones

you'll hear those comments and you can

just feel a little bit of little bit of

condescension it don't be sensitive just

smile say yeah they're my blessing and

don't don't be angry at the person but

our study really doesn't like it really

don't

and and uh and here we have this command

to be brutal right after don't murder

why is that because throughout history

there have been people ready to offer

their babies in the brazen burning belly

of Baal

technically

human facets children are the first to

go and and uh to this very day we got

coming up here in a few days amendment

three

amendment three is some would say is an

attempt to stop abortion in the state of

Missouri but it's not has lots of

permission for killing certain

certain image bears and and it's not and

and sometimes providers will make it

feel like well you know at this point

they have a heartbeat you can't do it

after heartbeat or this this point I

feel pain and and and you know there's

no anesthetic and these children are

being burned and cut and dismembered and

tortured and all of that I mean those

are those are good to appeal to the

senses and the compassion of people but

the fact of the matter is life begins at

conception

it begins at the moment

The sperm and egg unite and form a new

life. An image bearer is on the way.

It's the beginning of life.

And it's not and and it's not just you

shall you shall uh not allow some

murders. All image God wants it put away

from us. Amendment three makes all kinds

of exceptions. I won't be voting in

favor of this. I I want to see abortion

ended. I do. But I can't say it's okay

to kill these children but not these

children.

I leave that to your conscience. But I

just want to I I I I for um I I I I

believe that this is clearly saying that

you know when we vote for something you

have to take it seriously, pray about it

very seriously because God holds us

accountable. We don't want to be like

Saul who was consenting to the death of

Stephen. Did he actually throw his

stone? That doesn't say Stephen threw a

stone to Stephen. It just says he

consented to it. He consented. He voted

for it, if you will. He was there. He

was nodding. He had an agreement. Maybe

he didn't vote. Maybe he's just there

collecting the clothes.

But God God says that murdering an image

bearer is an offense against him. It's a

serious thing. What we need to do is

that does that sound horrific to you?

Does that sound shocking to you? That's

because we're living in this little

Overton window where

even even the pro-life community, the

Christian community is only willing to

go so far in condemning abortion.

Well, God's word is over here. The

little the little window what's

acceptable to talk about is over here.

But God's word is over here. And it

says, "He that sheds man's blood, a man

shall his blood be shed."

And by the way, my dear Christian

brothers and sisters, check out if

you're on the pill, check out, do your

research. Those pills, my understanding,

are mortification. The morning after

pill is the murder of an image bearer.

Life has been conceived

and it's the putting away of an image

bearer. It's a serious offense. God

destroyed the earth because of it. The

blood of the innocent cries out before

God's throne.

And so this is this is where we get to

uh this is where God actually the death

penalty. Then it's reiterated in both of

the ten commandments. I'll read one of

them. Exodus 20 verse 13. It simply says

Exodus 20:13

you shall not murder. And that's what

Jesus is most directly referring to here

is you've heard it said you shall not

murder and whoever murders shall be

liable to the judgment. So the one

scripture comes from Exodus 2013 and

liar to the judgment comes from Exodus

21 12-4. Whoever strikes a man so that

he dies shall be put to death.

But He did not lie and wait for him. But

God let him fall into his hand. Then I

will appoint for you a place to which he

may flee. But if a man willfully attacks

another to kill him by cunning, you

shall take him from my altar that he may

die. He may come to the altar. It was it

was the custom in those days to plead

for mercy by holding on to the altar. We

see several people doing this Old

Testament. Joab being one of them. Joab

was a murderer and he went and he clung

to the altar like I'm in a holy place.

You know, I'm crying out to God. Don't

kill me. I'm asking God to forgive me.

And Solomon said you go bring him from

the altar. You kill him right where he

stands.

God says cleaning to the altar is not

going to save you.

It clinging to the altar could wash away

your sins before the court of God, but

it could not erase your crime. Jesus

died for our sins. He didn't die for our

crimes. If you stole, ask God to forgive

you and then make restitution.

If you lied, ask God to forgive you and

make restitution.

God God says but but for the the civil

in the civil sphere, not in the heavenly

sphere. There will be many I believe

there'll be many murderers and thieves

and adulterers, all sorts of sin sinners

in heaven.

But that doesn't mean that justice

shouldn't be done in the civil realm.

It's told in Romans 13, what what what

is what does the civil magistrate have?

He has a sword.

It's a sword. What's that sword for?

It's not for education. It's not to take

care of the elderly. is not to help out

the women and infants and children. The

sword is for punishing evil to earth so

that the earth isn't filled with

violence. That's what the civil

magistrate does. And this was God's idea

and this was God's teaching. And these

are the words of Jesus through Moses to

the children of Israel.

And if a person accidentally did it,

there's a distinction. There was a city

of refuge he could flee to. We read

about this in Deuteronomy 19:4.

Deuteronomy 19:4

The accidental homicide. What about when

Homicide is an accident. Deuteronomy 19

says this is a provision for the man

slayer that person accidental homicide

who by staying there may save his life

if anyone kills his neighbor

unintentionally without having hated

him. Why? Because hatred is the motor

motive for the murder. Okay, very

important to our text that we're getting

to

unintentionally without having hated him

in the past. As when someone goes into

the forces his neighbor to cut wood, and

his hand swings the axe to cut down a

tree, and the head flips from the handle

and strikes his neighbor so that he

dies, he may flee to one of these cities

and live. Let the avenger of blood and

hot anger pursue the manslayer and

overtake him because the way is long,

and strike him fatally, though the man

did not deserve to die since he had not

hated his neighbor in the past. What's

the difference between the accidental

homicide and the intentional homicide?

is the motive of hatred.

And what is Jesus calling to our

attention in Matthew chapter 5? Hatred.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Despising your brother. Envy for

brother. The difference between an

accident and a murder is the motive.

And this Jesus is picking up on is God

sees the motive even if the action isn't

carried out.

So even if you've never murdered

anybody, God sees a murderous heart if

it's a murderous heart.

So in the Old Testament, the solution

was if somebody accidentally killed

somebody,

uh there were cities that they could run

to and they could they could live there

and have a productive life with their

family, they could be a father to their

children. They could they could learn a

trade in the cities, become a city

dweller, and they could learn a trade

and they could provide for their own.

What's our idea today? They say, "Oh,

that sounds so silly and backwards. What

do we do today?" Well, we take people,

both accidental and non-accal homicide,

and stick them in prison with hardened

criminals where they learn about how to

commit crimes better next time, where

they're taken away from their families,

and the victims through taxes support

the murderers. This is a messed up

system. We got one I looked it up one

time, 1.3 million people in our prison

system.

at taxpayers's expense. There were no

prisons in the Old Testament. If they

were a murderer that deserved to die,

they died. If they were a if they if

they stole something, they made

restitution. And there's a whole host of

things that are crimes in our society,

which would have been foolish in a

biblical society, but not a crime. And

and people would have gotten help

instead of um just simply warehousing

them in buildings like like animals. Uh

where their children grow up without a

daddy in the home and their life is set

into utter chaos. Um, God's wisdom is so

much higher than ours.

So much higher than ours.

We don't have a better system than God's

law.

Let's get back to our text chapter 5.

That's the You've heard it has been

said. I just gave you some of what has

been said about murder. And I want you

to notice that the motive of anger, it

comes out in the pain story. It comes

out in the act. Anger is a key thing

here. Get back to Matthew chapter 5, our

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

text. It says, "You've heard it." So,

first we read, "You've heard it said,

you should not murder. Whoever commits

murder is liable to the judgment." Verse

22, "But I say to you." It's going to be

a repeating phrase. Jesus will say, "But

I say to you." You've heard it said,

"But I say to you." You've heard it

said, "But I say to you." Sometimes it

will be teaching the Old Testament civil

laws or what was required of the civil

society. And sometimes they don't he'll

be correcting a mis a misnomer or

something that people say not what God

says. Here he says, "But I say to you

that everyone who is angry with his

brother will be liable to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother will be

liable to the council and whoever says

you fool will be liable to the hell of

fire."

Jesus doing

the motive of Cain,

the the motive of the murderer.

And Jesus isn't merely saying I'm only

dealing with the external. He's saying I

want to get to the heart. I want to get

to the heart of Cain. I want to change

the heart of Cain. And that heart

appears in little children who cannot

carry out a murder yet.

And it's carried out in children and

their parents when they're angry with

their brother and they push and they

shove and they insult.

say, "Oh, well, children will be

children." No. Deal with the heart of

your children.

If your child is saying something mean

and nasty, you say, "Well, kids say mean

things." Jesus says it's the heart of

murder. Look at it.

He says, "Whoever insults his brother

will be liable to the council."

The council was where they they would

get their trial with two or three

witnesses and an investigation would be

made.

What we really saying is is is is I want

you to see that the heart is the issue

and I'm trying to deal I'm dealing with

your heart here and and that the the

insulting and the cutting and the the

the putting down the demeaning comments

is a heart of murder.

In recent years, we've had people

who got embarrassed on Facebook or

embarrassed on Tik Tok or whatever,

particularly teenagers who went out and

committed suicide

because somebody said something that

they thought was ending their just

running their lives.

That shows you how powerful words can

be.

Words, insults.

It's so easy to just like, oh, everybody

just take a little joke, little insult.

Well, there's a balance here. I Our

children need to be able to take mean

humor, but don't dish it out. Take it,

but don't dish it out. Don't raise

children so sensitive that everything

everybody says to them destroys them.

But on the other hand, we need to train

our children, our grandchildren to have

kindness, to have love, because it's the

opposite of hatred. It's the opposite of

envy. the opposite of the anger and

Jesus is dealing with the heart motive

that's behind the murder. Now notice it

says here he's angry with his brother.

Does this apply to non-believers? Well,

of course. And later in the chapter he's

going to talk he's going to say

virtually the same thing about loving

your enemies. And we'll get to that.

Right. It's significant that his brother

because the first murder was Cain

killing his brother.

And it's the most grievous to a father

when their children are at war with each

other. And what grieves the heart of our

heavenly father the most is when there's

wars of words in the church. When

there's hatred in the church. And so

Jesus Jesus is dealing with the

brothers. He's talking about the family

first.

In fact, if we deal with these issues at

the heart level, at the level of the

family, just if if we can change if we

can change the child training of our

nation,

then within a generation, we can close

our buds, right?

When when when we just have a particular

bad egg arrive, well, we put them out of

our misery. I had a teacher in high

school, civics teacher, and he said

something. I I don't know. I I think I

heard something pretty much confirmed,

but you'll get the idea. Anyway, he said

2% of the population commit all the

crimes.

All all the crimes 2% of the population.

That was in the early 90s. I don't know

what percentage this is now. It may have

grown in percent, but for the most part,

it's the same. The 2%

they're they before they were murdering,

they were breaking windows and they were

stealing and they were

uh beating people up, getting drunk in

pro in public,

having a bunch of babies out of wedlock.

I mean, it's just they were they were

just they they weren't raised right.

And when you look at you look at the

prison population, most of them come

from fatherless homes.

Vast majority, not fatherless homes that

if you look if you look back at the

family, most of them had the vast

majority of them had a horrible home

life. That's why I I you know I I'll me

I'll mention amendment three. I'll

mention that we have an election coming

up. But honestly I I don't I'm not that

political. Sound political to me pastor.

No. My emphasis is on the individual and

the family in the church. If you change

the individuals, if we train these

children up on the discipline, the

admonition of the Lord, we teach them to

love one another. We model that as a

community in the church. Then the people

we're interacting with the most will

model the love of Christ. You don't need

police.

We were talking yesterday about, you

know, technically a lot of church, a lot

of people have a key to this place and

how to get in this place. You've been

coming here for very long. Even even

non-members say, "Hey, can I get in the

truck?" Sure, I'll give you this. And

I'll tell you, oh, they know you. I'll

give you the lockbox code and you can

come in and go out. Well, if any of you

turn bad, that could go bad for us. We

got a sound system over here. We got

some

drums over here.

But I trust too. I'm not saying all

pastors should trust the congregation.

By the way, it occurred to me recently.

I I think I I guess I've said this

before, but I just been thinking about

it recently that a healthy church has

sinned.

A healthy church has immaturity in it.

Why is that? Because a healthy church

has new people adding to it all the time

who have a variety of issues to deal

with.

A healthy church going to have some

gossip in it, gonna have some backbiting

in it, gonna have some pornography in

it, gonna have gonna have some anger

issues in it, gonna have some

drunkenness, going to have some

addiction issues. Healthy church is a

church where sinners come and and their

sinners are at different stages of

development, right? But as a community,

we all should be growing in grace.

God's dealing with those things. He's

transforming us. He's changing us.

But I have a lot of trust. I have a lot

of trust for this community. A lot of

trust for this community. Um and and I I

say that to say if you change the heart

of men, you don't need police officers

on every corner. Says in Proverbs, by

the transgression of the land, many are

princes. I could put that in modern

vernacular. By defendant land, you get a

lot of police officers.

But when you change the heart of man,

the heart of anger, the heart of

bitterness, the heart of covetousness,

the heart of adultery, then the

externals with it. So Moses comes out of

Egypt. He has a group of people. Not all

of them are believers. It's a mixed

multitude. Some of them are Egyptians

who are like, "Well, you know, the Jews

put their put the blood over the

doorpost and the avenger of death and

didn't kill them. I'm going with the

Jews. I'm going with the Hebrews."

Actually, is a more technical term. I'm

going with the Hebrews. I'm getting out

of here with them. There were

unbelievers in their camp and they had

civil law to do what? To put away evil.

But now Jesus is showing up and he's not

merely dealing with the civil realm. He

dealt with that in the Old Testament.

Now he comes to us as an individual and

not just as individual. He comes down to

the heart and he wants us to change our

hearts by bringing our sinful hearts to

God, repenting and being transformed.

And then we take our children and we

train them up. And when we see those

weeds of meanness and unkindness and

hatred and envy and covetousness, we

deal with it. We confront it.

We thank their little honey and we we

hug him and we tell them we love him.

We deal with the heart, not merely the

externals, but the heart. Jesus came to

deal with the heart.

Verse 18, he says, "But what comes out

uh I'm sorry, Matthew 15:18."

Matthew 15:18

He tells us the heart of murder. He

says, "But what when what comes out of

the mouth proceeds from the heart and

defiles a person? For out of the heart

comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery,

sexual immorality, theft, false witness,

and slander." Have a feeling I'll be

using this sermon this this same slide

in my next sermon. I'll just change the

label, the heart of to heart of

adultery. You can hear it again next

week.

Jesus makes it clear that that uh murder

isn't a lack of cops problem.

Murder is a heart problem

and Jesus wants to change the heart. Now

instead Jesus changes the heart for men.

We need

we need peace officers. I like the word

peace officer better than police

officers.

There to keep the peace.

Uh they're there to restrain evil

because not everybody's a big burly guy

that can defend themselves. We have a

society with weak people and um you know

the widow and the orphan and without

people without family

who are who who need the protection of

the civil majesty.

We need we need peace officers

but more than peace officers we need

peace.

And so heart the heart of murder

is the heart.

First John 3,

John says this. Says, "For this is the

message that you've heard from the

beginning." By the way, the word that's

the name for Genesis. You've heard it

from Genesis. You heard it from the

beginning that we should love one

another. We should not be like Cain who

was of the evil one and murdered his

brother. He was of the evil one. He had

a heart problem. His own regenerate. And

why did he murder murder him? Because

his own deeds were evil and his brothers

righteous. Do not be surprised,

brothers, that the world hates you. We

know that we have passed out of death

into life because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a

murderer. And you know that no murderer

has eternal life abiding in him. He

doesn't say everybody that plunges their

a knife into their beating heart of

someone's chest is a murderer. Everybody

that hates his brother is a murderer.

God says you're a murderer if you hate

your brother.

If you got bitter bitterness issues with

your brother, he says you're a murderer.

An evidence that you've been saved and

touched by God's grace. One evidence is

you love the brothers. He says you love

the brothers. It's an evidence of

regeneration.

You I was talking with Chris here. I

don't know. I think this last week. It's

just strange when you go and you visit a

church or you meet a Christian and like

I I remember experience this one time

where I saw I was in my early uh

actually probably I was early 20s or

late teens and I saw this girl wearing a

a t-shirt actually quoting Matthew 6 to

consider the liies. I knew that came

from Matthew chapter 6. Oh, hey your

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

t-shirt. Are you a Christian? Like, oh,

uh, yeah,

t-shirt.

Oh, just kind of disappointing when I

meet a Christian and I I be I'm excited

to meet a Christian out in bubble. I'm

always like, hey, that's one of my

family. And then I go and I'm expecting

them to be excited to see me to meet me.

Like, hey, I'm a Christian. And it's

kind of like, oh, okay.

I think that's weird. I think it's

weird. I excited when I meet a believer.

Do you do you love the brothers?

I I had a conversation with a with a

Romanian pastor one time. He didn't

speak English and I didn't speak

Romanian or I spoke very little

Romanian. He spoke very little English.

We had a conversation using the Bible.

We would hit out a couple little words

and we turn to a verse of the Bible and

he go to the same passage and we'd make

some kind of point with hand gestures

and we have a great fellowship. Couldn't

even speak each other's language.

He loved the brothers.

says, "Everyone who hates his brother is

a murderer."

It's a It's an indicative.

It's an indicative.

If you hate your brother, you need to

repent because you're in a in a

dangerous situation.

I'm not I I'm not going to go as far as

the apostle.

Maybe maybe God just hasn't dealt with

that part of your life yet. But it's

still a scary statement. If you hate

your brother, you're a murderer.

It's a scary statement. So, let's deal

with that before we go to the communion

table.

In fact, that's what he teaches on next.

Back to Matthew chapter 5. Back to the

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

center of the mountain. Turn around so

much you're going to forget what the

text is. Back to Matthew chapter 5. So

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

in other words, see as how this is the

case that anger is equivalent of murder.

See how that is the case. If you are

offering your gift at the altar and

there remember that your brother has

something against you, leave your gift

there before the altar and go first. Be

reconciled to your brother and then come

and offer your gift.

Well, what's it saying? Well, our

heavenly father, if you want to be right

with dad, you got to be right with your

brother. So if you come to the Lord's

table or in those days, if you a

sacrifice. I said, "Okay, I brought my

lamb without blemish. Perfect. Perfect

lamb. Nice healthy lamb. It's a good

looking lamb. Sacrifice great lamb." And

you bring it to the door of the

tabernacle and you travel all the way

from pan ram. And you made it here to

Jerusalem. You're going to offer your

your little lamb, little little uh

little fluffy. And then you're like, "My

brother has something against me." Leave

your gift there. We'll be reconciled.

brothers didn't come and offer your

guest. Now, this old covenant,

what does that look like, R?

Well, you come to the communion table.

I'm not saying you can't take communion.

Um, but what what it's saying is is u

you better get it resolved with your

brother. really when you know when

you're on your way to church when you

know earlier in the week get get right

with your brother or sister or wife if

the king

as much as possible peaceably with all

men first be reconciled to your brother

and then come and offer your gift before

God hears our worship he wants us to be

right with our brothers and first Peter

3 says that don't be bitter husbands

don't be bitter against your wives that

your prayers be not hindered

Malachi He says, "You cover my altar

with tears. I won't receive it." Why?

Because you doubt treacherously with the

wife of my youth. What's he saying? I

want you to be right in your horizontal

relationships in order to be right in

your vertical relationship with God.

If you got beef with your brother, get

right with your brother. Then come and

offer your gift. Otherwise, it t

I think

a I've seen of times I can't remember 13

or 17

numbers in my head. It it talk in

Leviticus about how when they would

offer up the burnt offering, it's a

sweet smelling favor in God's nose.

Meaning God when when it's offered in

the proper way, the smell of the burnt

offering

satisfies God in such a way that he

forgives their sins. Kind of an

interesting phrase, a sweet smelling

favor. And we're told in Corinthians

that that that that sweet smelling favor

is the favor of Christ. that when Christ

died for us, God says, "I accept the

sinner on behalf of the offering they

came to offer." But if we come with

hatred in our heart, it it has a sense

for the sweet smelling savior. He says,

"First get right with your brother."

This is taught in the Old Testament.

Leviticus 19,

you shall not go around as a slanderer

among your people, and you shall not

stand up against the life of your

neighbor. I am the Lord. You shall not

hate your brother in your heart, but you

shall reason frankly with your neighbor,

lest you incur sin because of him. You

shall not take vengeance or bear grudge

against the sons of your own people. But

you shall love your neighbor as

yourself. I am the Lord. God is very

concerned with don't backfight against

your neighbor. Go make it right with

your neighbor and love him as you love

yourself. Don't go around as a tail

bearer,

but love your neighbor. Go and confront

him. Post frankly with him. King your

brother. King the people. That doesn't

even say you're guilty when your brother

has something against you. Maybe maybe

they're all in the wrong 100% possibly.

He just says that we should be concerned

if our brother has something against us

and we need to be reconciled with them

as much as we possibly. Sometimes people

aren't ready to forgive. They're not

ready to move on. They're not ready to

get off their uh out of their angry

prison. But we we need to make ourselves

available for when they are ready.

Jesus concludes this morning's passage.

Just come to terms quickly with your

accuser while you're going with them to

court. Let your accuser hand you over to

the judge and the judge to the guard and

you put it you be put in prison. Truly I

say to you, you will never get out until

you have paid the last penny. Now

there's an there's an illusion here to a

prison.

And the idea here is If you owe your

your neighbor and you don't pay it, uh

then the judge finds in favor of the

other person, you're gonna you're gonna

have to pay the last penny.

Maybe didn't maybe you well I don't owe

it.

He owes me

come to terms quickly with your accuser.

Try to be at peace with your accuser. Uh

or else while you're on your way to

court,

uh you're doing while you're on your way

to court, lest the the accuser hand you

the judge and the judge to the guard and

the guard throws you in prison. He says,

"Truly I say to you, you will not get

out until you paid the last penny." The

penny was the smallest currency in Rome.

It was about 160th of a day's wage.

So it was more than one of our pennies,

but it was a very 160th of a day's wage.

He says, "You won't get out of D's

prison till you pay out the city." Now,

is he really talking about D's prison? I

think it's an illustration. What's the

illustration? We've all got our day in

court.

We're all going to appear before the

Lord. And what Jesus is saying is if you

got issues with the brother, seek to be

reconciled with them before your day in

court as much as you can. Be at peace

with the brother. Some people just

they're comfortable with the hostility.

And I was like, well, you know, I just

I'm we're never going to be we're never

going to go alone. We're never going to

be friends. I'm never going to put it

away. That's not the right heart. It's

not the right heart. The heart, you

know, God God loves his children. He

loves you and he loves that brother that

you're offended at. He loves that sister

you're offended at. And he says, "While

you're on your way to court, before you

die,

go seek peace with your your brother." I

I think this is direct application to to

to the people in the church. God wants

if we want to be right with God, we got

to be right with each other, with our

neighbors. If we have a heart of

bitterness, heart of envy, heart of

anger, he says it's a heart of murder.

And the evidence of of a of a regenerate

heart is love toward the brethren.

Murder begins in the heart. And to be

right with God, we must repent of the

root sin of murder. One more verse I

want to read or one more passage

concluding with this. This is Psalm 51.

This is a psalm that David wrote after

he committed adultery with Bath Sheba.

After he had Bath Sheba's wife murdered

to cover up his sin, after he had a

bunch of soldiers uh as a consequence of

his cover up got killed.

And he was confronted by the prophet as

a murderer, as an adulterer,

as a hypocrite.

It says this Psalm 51 says to the choir

master, a psalm of David, when Nathan

the prophet went to him after he'd gone

into Bath Sheba. Here's his prayer.

Prayer of a repentant s have mercy on

me, oh God, according to your steadfast

love. According to your abundant mercy,

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and

cleanse me from my sins. For I know my

transgressions and my sin is ever before

me. David is done making excuses and

he's done with denial. He's ready to

confess his transgressions are ever

before me. I'm not trying to hide it

anymore. I'm done with the hiding it. My

transgressions are ever before me.

Skipping down to 16. For you will not

delight in sacrifice or I would give it.

You will not be pleased with the burnt

offering. The sacrifices of God are a

broken spirit, a broken and contrite

heart. Oh God, you will not despise.

This is the heart of repentance of a

murderer, an adulterer who's grieved

over it. And and so often times we want

to excuse our sins.

If if uh

you know, I talked about some heavy

stuff, talked about abortion, talked

about

David was a murderer.

Some people want to try to get over it

by by living in denial. Well, that's not

murder. That's different. Denial is

never going to set you free. The truth

will set you free.

By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged.

And by the fear of the Lord, men depart

from evil. But if you will come to him

with your filthy, stained hand and

confess it, he's ready to hear you. Your

father's ready to hear you. Now, You got

to be ready to make it right with your

brother, too, if you've got a brother or

sister or husband or wife. But, but uh

but God welcomes you to come and confess

your sin. A broken spirit and a contrite

heart, he will not despise.

So, as we come to communion table this

morning, if you have unforgiveness, if

you have hatred, if you have envy,

if you're if you're angry with your

brother and just boiling, I I want to

urge you to resolve to make it right and

confess your sin to the Lord

and trust in his sacrifice on your

behalf and he will hear you and cleanse

you and restore you because Jesus died

for you and he's worth living for him.

God, we thank you, Lord, that you're a

merciful and gracious God. That your

loving kindness extends through the

deepest depths of darkness of humanity.

And uh regardless of where we're at, as

we bring our sins to you, you invite us

as you do in Isaiah 1:18, come now and

Isaiah 1:18

let us reason together, sayeth the Lord,

though thy sins be afraid. They shall be

white as snow, though they be red like

crimson. shall be his. God, we pray that

you would cleanse us this morning, that

you would heal our broken hearts, that

you would bring restoration,

and uh God, that you would grant us

wisdom as we deal with these sensitive

subjects and compassion and mercy and

kindness, that your your attributes

would abound in us as your children. And

Lord, I pray for this church, Lord. I

pray Lord if there's any division or

anger or hatred or or jealousy or envy

or bitterness unforgiveness that God you

would deal with it this morning that you

would heal your people. Behold how good

and how pleasant it is for brethren to

dwell together in unity. Bring unity to

your churches.

Amen.