Murdered Anyone Lately?

Father God, we thank you for today, and we are so.

Grateful for Your Word that explains everything we need to

know pertaining to life and godliness, and You have been so

good to give it to us that we might be able to see the

greatness and the glory of our God.

Tonight, as we study your word, we pray that you'd open our eyes

to see only the things that will allow us to to be the kind of

people you want us to be and get us to know who you are even all

the more. We thank you, Father, that you

give this opportunity to us in the middle of the week and pray

that Lord, we will grow deep in our understanding of You, that

we might follow you fully, not partially, but totally committed

to serving our God. So we thank you in the precious

name of Christ, Amen. I am so glad that you're here

with us this evening. And I trust that the things that

you learn will help you grow and your your walk with the Lord.

I think that as we study through the Sermon on the Mount, I think

that there will be so many things that God will use to draw

you closer to him. So tonight I just want to ask

and answer a very simple question.

That's it. I'm going to ask you one

question and answer that question.

The question is this have you murdered anybody lately?

That's the question. Have you murdered anyone lately?

You would say, well, why would you ask that question?

We're in church. We come to church.

We're not murderers. Why would you ask that question?

Well, that's because murders are happening in great numbers every

single day. And I'm afraid that most of us

don't understand the the essence of that.

For instance, that there are there are 55 murders that occur

in our country every day, at least 55.

That's on the low end scale. In other words, there's around

20,000 people murdered every year in America.

Every 31 minutes somebody's murdered.

So by the time we're done tonight, two people are going to

die by murder. Hopefully it's none of you this

evening, but that's the reality of murder.

But on the other hand, suicide is also murder, and there are

134 suicides take place every single day in America, 134,

meaning that there is 49,000 suicides every year in our

country. And suicide is a form of murder.

On top of that, abortion is murder.

And there are somewhere between 2200 and 2800 abortions every

day, meaning that there's somewhere between 800,000 and a

million babies aborted every year or murdered every single

year. Now just think about that.

And we live in in Southern California, and unless the

murder is out of the ordinary or in multiples or bizarre, we

usually don't hear about them. But because we live in

California, most of the murders are bizarre, and so we do hear a

lot about them. So I ask you again, have you

murdered anyone lately? That's a fair question to ask.

Now, I would probably guess that that none of you would murder

like Ted Bundy murdered when he killed over 30 different young

women across 7 different states. I'm going to presume that's none

of you this evening. And I will also presume that

that that none of you are like Jeffrey Dahmer, who between 1978

and 1991 murdered 17 young men and boys, dismembering them.

He was called the Milwaukee Cannibal.

I would also assume that that none of you are murderers like

John Wayne Gacy, who was called the killer clown in the 70s.

He murdered 33 young men, wrapped them in plastic bags and

buried them under his house. And then I would also assume

that none of you are anywhere related to Charles Manson.

Who's the Charles Manson family murders consisted of the actor

Sharon Tate and six other members in 1969.

I would hope that none of you are the Zodiac Killer because he

has never been caught and he killed several people in

Northern California during the 60s and 70s.

Also, I'm certain that none of you of of are of the persuasion

of Timothy McVeigh who killed 168 people with the Oklahoma

City bombing. Those are famous murderers.

For lack of a better title, we can even think of the The Trial

of the Century with. With OJ Simpson, although he was

found not guilty, that doesn't mean he didn't kill his ex-wife

and her boyfriend. All that being said is that that

murders happen all the time and Christ would ask a question

about murder in the Sermon on the Mount.

And so it's important for us to realize that the Bible makes it

very clear in the in the Decalogue, the 10 commandments

that excess chapter 20, the 6th commandment, thou shalt not.

Kill. Better translated murder because

there are some killings that God has divinely appointed.

Thou shalt. Not murder.

In fact, in Genesis 9 verse #6 Our Lord said, Whoso sheddeth

man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.

For in the image of God made he man.

So God under divine order made a way for murderers to be dealt

with. God instituted capital

punishment. Genesis 9 verse #6 Romans

Romans 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13 verse #4 So when the Bible says thou shalt not

murder, that does not include capital punishment.

It does not include wars because God has designed wars throughout

His sovereign plan. A lot of it to discipline and

judge certain nations. It also doesn't include

self-defense. In Deuteronomy 19 there is a a

prohibition against killing those who out of self-defense

defend themselves. Because after all, you are made

in the image of God and you are to protect that image.

And so in protecting others or yourself and self-defense, then

you are not subject to be killed, nor are you labeled a

murderer. Murder is something that's

planned, that's plotted to enact some kind of violence upon

someone else. And the question would come,

why? Why are there murders?

Well, we know that murders are authored by Satan.

John 844. He was a murderer from the

beginning crisis. So Satan is the author of

murders. You also need to know that

murder is an abomination to God. Proverbs chapter 6 tells us that

Proverbs 6 · chapter mention

that those who shed innocent blood are an abomination to God.

You also need to know that murder arises from the heart.

Matthew chapter 15, Mark Chapter 7 from the heart proceeds

Matthew 15 · chapter mention Mark 7 · chapter mention

murders, adulteries, slandering, gossip, but murder arises from

the heart. Murder is authored by Satan.

Murder is an abomination to God, and murder is the acts of the

reprobate according to Romans chapter 1, verses 28 and 29.

Romans 1:28

But I ask you just another time, have you murdered anyone lately?

And that is a fair question. And you will see why it's a fair

question before the evening is over.

Christ is preaching on the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee.

There are scores of people. That are listening to him.

I always marvelled the fact that the Lord never needed a

microphone. He was able to speak and

everybody was able to hear what he said.

Now whether they gathered closely around him, I have no

idea. I I wasn't there, but the scores

of people on the North Shore, the Sea of Galilee, numbered in

the hundreds maybe, and probably in the thousands.

And he begins his sermon by by interpreting the identity of

Kingdom children in verses 1 to 12 with the Beatitudes.

Once he interprets the identity of children of the Kingdom, he

articulates their authority. That's in verses 13 down through

20. He articulates their authority,

one as salt in light in the world.

And he articulates their authority because of the

authority of Scripture that they follow.

Having said all that, Christ says, the children in my Kingdom

manifest a certain morality, a morality that stems from the

inside of them, not the outside of them.

And in so doing, He gives 6 illustrations whereby the

children of the King manifest their morality.

Number one is murder #2 adultery #3 divorce #4 swearing #5

revenge, and number six love. He gives 6 illustrations that

are so pertinent to today, that are so relevant to our everyday

life that it's almost amazing to us how he articulates it.

But after all, these are are the children of the King in the

morality that they manifest on a daily basis.

He articulates very clearly and he begins with the same phrase

all six times. You have heard that it was said

by the ancients of old. He doesn't say that you have

heard that it was said in the Law of Moses.

He didn't say you've heard that it was said in the Pentateuch.

You haven't heard that it was said by the prophets.

He didn't say that. He simply says that you have

heard that it was said by the ancients of old, by the by the

rabbis of old. Because what they would do is

that they would add to the Scriptures, they would add their

oral tradition to the Word of God, and then they would then

teach the people about their oral traditions as if they were

as authoritative as God's Word was authoritative.

So Christ comes along and having interpreted the identity of the

people of his Kingdom, having articulated the authority of his

people in that Kingdom, he's now going to manifest the morality

of the people that live in that Kingdom.

And he does it in such a powerful way because he knows

that it within the audience, there are there are many

Pharisees, there are many scribes.

And that's why the theme verse is verse 20 of chapter 5.

Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and

Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of God.

And that had to shock everybody on the mountainside for their

thinking. How can that ever be possible?

They are so holy, they are so pure, they have such authority.

People lived in awe of the Pharisees, they lived in awe of

the scribes. They were keepers of the law,

they were interpreters of the law and they were high on

worship and people will be taken back by just the the presence of

these religious leaders. But but Christ condemned them.

Christ spoke against them because they were hypocritical.

And so he makes it very clear in verse 20, which is the theme

verse of the the three chapters, that your righteousness must

succeed, that of the scribes and Pharisees because theirs was a

self righteousness. There was a self.

Induced righteousness And Christ says, you must obtain my

righteousness, or you'll never enter the Kingdom of heaven of

heaven. With that in mind, let me read

to you the section on murder, verse 21.

You have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit

murder and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the

court. But I say to you that everyone

who was angry with his brother shall be guilty before the

court. And whoever says to his brother

you good for nothing or raka shall be guilty before the

Supreme Court. And whoever says you fool shall

be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and

there remember that your brother has something against you, leave

your offering there before the altar.

Go first, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and

present your offering. Make friends quickly with your.

Opponent at law. While you are with him on the

way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge

and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.

Truly, I say to you, you will not come out of there until you

have paid up the last cent. Over the next several weeks, I'm

going to give you 3 points. The first point will always be

the rabbinical tradition. The second point will always be

the biblical teaching. The Third Point will always be

your personal transformation. That's how we will look at each

of these topics that our Lord brings to the people there on

the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Our Lord is very purposeful. He's he's very strategic.

He knows exactly what to say and how to say it.

And so he begins by always attacking the rabbinical

tradition. It's, it's not the biblical

teaching. He attacks because he came to

fulfill the law, not abolish the law.

But it is the rabbinical tradition that he does attack

because they had raised their tradition higher than the law of

God. And so he came to tear that

down. He came to destroy.

It. And so let's begin with the

rabbinical tradition. When he says these words, you

have heard that the ancients were told, or you have heard,

you have heard from the ancients of old, you've heard from them.

You shall not commit murder, and you can hear the people in the

crowd. Amen.

Amen. You got it right, Jesus, You

shall not commit murder. And all of us would say Amen to

that as well. We know the Decalogue, we know

what it says. They knew what it said.

And so Christ says, you have heard that it was said by the

ages of old that you shall not murder.

And they agreed. They would understand that and

they would say this and whoever commits murder shall be liable

to the courts. Very interesting how he states

that because he wants them to understand the rabbinical

tradition. You see, the Pharisees would say

we are holy and we are righteous because we don't murder.

We're not like Jeffrey Dahmer. We're not like Ted Bundy.

We're not like Charles Manson. Those are heinous people.

Those are our murderers. Those are serial killers.

Those are are the nasty of the nasties.

We're not like that. Oh no, we, we are holy and

righteous because we don't murder.

We are on our way to heaven because we don't murder.

We haven't killed anybody. We don't even own a knife, a

sword or a gun or a tank or a hand grenade or whatever.

We owe nothing. We've never killed anyone

because the Bible says you shall not murder.

And so they would see themselves as holy people.

They would see themselves as righteous before God because

they never murdered anybody. And there are people today who

would see themselves as righteous because they'd never

kill anybody. I'm not a murderer.

I'm not a an adulterer. I'm not a liar.

I'm. I'm not.

That kind of person, those kind of people are just nasty people.

And we begin to compare ourselves among ourselves.

And that's exactly what the Pharisees did.

But Jesus says your righteousness must exceed that

of the scribes. And Pharisees, in other words,

not murdering anyone is not enough to get you into heaven.

So if you think that you don't murder someone and you are

righteous because of that, and that's going to get you to

heaven, Jesus says, but I say unto you, he, he is going to

give them the the true teaching of the law of God.

He's going to help them understand exactly what the Lord

was saying. Notice they said the rabbinical

teaching was you should not commit murder and whoever

commits murder shall be liable to the court.

In other words, if you murdered someone then the courts would

decide what would happen. But notice they they left out

what the Lord thought about murder and what the.

Lord would do to. Those who committed murder

according to Genesis Chapter 9 verse #6 which of course they

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

would know very, very well, they did not take into account God's

holy character. God is a God of life.

That's why you don't murder. God's a God of truth, That's why

you don't lie. God's a God of purity and

holiness. That's why you don't commit

immorality. Why?

Because you're a child of the king.

And you want to live like a child of the king.

You want to honor the king. The point is, they didn't kill

simply because if they did, they would get in trouble.

By the law of the land, they didn't see themselves as being

judged by the living God. You see, they emphasized the act

of murder and they excluded the attitude behind murder.

That's very important. They should know what God's

attitude. About man's.

Heart. Is all about.

They would know first name was 16 that man looks on the outward

appearance, but God, God looks upon the heart.

God is into the. Heart because what's ever

happened on the inside is going to manifest itself on the

outside. Man is a murderer because of

what's happens on the inside, not because of what's happening

on the outside. Man is a murderer because he's

induced from the inside out, from a heart.

Murders proceed from the heart. Murders come forth because of

what's on the inside of a man, not what's on the outside of a

man. That's what concerns our Lord.

They would know Psalm 51 verse #6 that God desires truth in the

inward parts. They would know First Kings

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8 verse #39 which says Thou alone dost know the hearts

of all the souls of men. They would know First Chronicles

28 verse #9 The Lord searches all hearts and understands every

intent of man's thoughts. That's just amazing to me that

God understands every intent of man's thoughts.

You you can't disguise your motives to.

God. You can't deceive God.

God knows your heart. He knows every intent of the

thoughts in your heart. He knows them all.

Well, you see, the Pharisees would know those kinds of of

verses and Jesus would reinforce that when He said, you shall

love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your

soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength, with

everything on the inside of you. You should love Him and your

neighbor as yourself. And the Lord would would

emphasize that. So the Old Testament clearly

taught that God was into man's heart more so than anything

else. But the Jews.

The Jews disregarded the internal attitude and emphasized

the external. Act, For if they acted properly,

they saw themselves as righteous and holy.

If what they did on the outside was pleasing, then they were a

holy people. They had forgotten about the

inside. So you move from the rabbinical

tradition to the biblical teaching.

And Jesus says, But I say unto you, But I say, I'm going to

give you the real intent of the law.

I'm. Going to explain the law of God

to you as you've never heard it before.

I want you to understand what the law of God really is truly

all about, he says. But I say to you that everyone

who was angry with his brother shall be guilty before the

court. And whoever says to his brother

Rakah shall be guilty before the Supreme Court.

And whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go

into Gehenna or into a fiery hell.

What he does is he gives these illustrations.

He begins with an indictment. You've heard it this way.

But I say unto you. And he's going to give 3

illustrations, and they're going to build 1 upon the other.

The first one deals with silent anger, the second one deals with

spoken anger, and then the next one deals with salacious anger.

So he's going to build 1 upon the other and show them that

their righteous standard fell way short of God's standard.

Because God, he's going to, he's going to raise the standard

before the people. He's going to raise it so high

it's going to be impossible for people to meet it.

You see, the reason the Pharisees lower the standard is

because they couldn't meet God's standard.

So they lowered the standards so they could seem righteous.

They lowered the standards so they could obtain in their mind

a right to standing before God. And God says, you've heard that

it was said by the angels of old.

This is what they've told you. But I'm going to tell you the

real story. Here's the real law.

Here's the real righteous standard.

And unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and

Pharisees, that is, you must obtain my righteousness, you

will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.

So you can imagine what was going through the minds of the

people there in the North Shore, the Sea of Galilee, and all of a

sudden you read this and you all of a sudden you find yourself

convicted. Why?

Because I'm going to ask you the same question.

Have you murdered anyone lately? That's the question, because we

would all agree, the Pharisees, no, we haven't murdered anybody.

We nobody's dead. We haven't shed any man's blood.

Ah, but you see, that's not the intent of the law.

That's not what God was saying. He says no if you are angry.

If there's a. Silent anger, or a spoken anger

or a salacious anger. You're bound for a fiery hell.

In other words, your heart makes you more guilty than the heinous

act of murder. So the answer to the question

have you murdered anyone lately? The answer is yes.

It's not no, it's yes. And therefore you realize you

can't meet the standard. And this is where Christ is

driving them. He will later say next time

we're together you shall not commit adultery.

That's what you've heard. And then what?

I'll say you're right. We don't do that.

We don't sleep with another man's wife.

We only sleep with our own wives.

Ah, but I say unto you, right says deals with the heart of a

man, not the. Acts of a man.

And again he will blow them right off the North Shore, the

Sea of Galilee, with those words that are so piercing to the.

Depths of man's soul. Because he wants to bring them

to a point of conviction. He's teaching them that the

roots, the root of murder, is the heart of a man that's angry,

the heart of a man that's. Filled with hatred.

That's why you murder, because of what's on the inside, and God

judges not based on what you do on the outside.

He's based on what you do. He judges based on what you do

on the inside. Which is very important.

Why? Because in Revelation chapter

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

22, Christ says these words. He says blessed are those who

wash their robes, that they may have the right to the Tree of

life and may enter by the gates into the city.

But outside of the gates, outside of heaven.

Are the dogs and sorcerers the immoral persons and murderers?

Murderers can't get into the Kingdom and so Christ says

murder begins on the inside. For instance, John would say in

first John 3 verse #15 these words, whoever hates his brother

is a murderer. Whoever hates his brother is a

murderer. So John is on the North Shore of

the Sea of Galilee. He hears the words of of Jesus

and he begins to understand where murder begins.

Not to consider the state of the heart is not to consider that

which the Lord holds to be the all important measure of true

guilt. That's why Solemn would say

guard your heart, for out of it flow all the issues of life.

Guard your heart. It's the wellspring of all

things that happen in life. If you can't guard your heart,

you're in big trouble. So Christ says you have heard

that it was said by the ages of old.

You sound murder. But I want to let you know

something. If you are angry with your

brother, it's, it's from the root word or gay, which means to

brood, to smolder, to to hold it in.

That's why we call it silent anger.

It it's the rumblings on the inside where nothing happens but

the face gets more and more red with each passing day.

It's where bitterness wells up on the inside because man is so

angry because of something that happened to him.

You say, well, wait a minute, our our Lord got angry.

Yes, he did. John 2 at the end of Matthew

both he cleansed the temple, overturned the tables, chased

out the the money changers. He was angry, yes he was, but it

was righteous indignation. Psalm 69 was fulfilled in John

2. Zeal for thy Father's house

consumes me. And he was zealous.

He had a he had a righteous indignation.

That's why Paul would say be angry and sin, not because there

is a righteous indignation and and, and the more holy you are,

the more the more angry you become at unholiness, the more

Christ like you are, the more angry you are at those that are

not Christ like things. And so you could become angry at

those things and it's well deserving.

It's called righteous indignation.

He's not talking about righteous anger.

He's not talking about righteous indignation.

He's talking about somebody who is angry because something has

happened to them because of somebody else.

Someone has caused this anger within you, some offense, some

attitude, some action, some situation that's caused.

You to be. Angry.

Which causes you to refuse to forgive.

It's that long lived kind of anger or gay is a is a unique

word. If it's the root of all

bitterness in the right of Hebrew says be careful that a

rooterness root of bitterness is it well up within you because it

defiles many, many people. I've talked to people over the

times I've talked to fathers and mothers and sons and daughters

about the bitterness in their family and be careful about that

because it's going to defile the members of your family.

You got to be careful about that.

But they had this anger that's on the inside, the silent anger.

Nothing comes out. It's just wells up, it swells

up, it gets huge and all of a sudden you are so incensed on

the inside. Christ says those people are are

guilty before the court. Other words, they're they're

deserving of death. Whoa, they're deserving of

death. Anger merits divine execution

because God is a judge who sits on the throne.

Anger is at the root of hatred, and hatred is at the root of

every murder. And God says if you are angry at

your brother. You are deserving.

Of death, even though you never said a word, even there, though

you you never shot a bullet, even though you never wield a

knife. Your anger is worthy of death.

Then he builds on that because he wants to take it from silent

anger to spoken anger. He he wants to to move from an

internal anger or internal, yeah, internal anger to a verbal

abuse, he says. And whoever says to his brother,

maybe your text says Raka. The new America standard says

you good for nothing. That's a little soft Recall is

a, is an it's a word that cannot be translated.

It's a word that they would know very, very well because there's

no definition of it. There's no describing it, but

they wouldn't know it well. It's a word that that deals with

the, the malicious intent to degrade someone, maybe because

of the character, maybe because of the way they look, but you're

going to, you're going to speak a word of Raqqa against them.

And Christ says if if you move from internal anger to verbal

abuse, if you move from silent anger to spoken anger, he says

that you are guilty before the Supreme Court.

That's a more intense court. Why?

Because that was the Sanhedrin, the 70 ruling elders of

Jerusalem who were the ones who judged the most severe of all

crimes. They pronounced judgement upon

Stephen as to why he was stoned. Because the words.

That Steven used So Christ says if you had this silent,

smoldering anger. You're worthy of.

Death if that moves even further to to to spoken.

Anger. You're still.

Worthy of death. And then he says.

He says, and whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to

go into the fiery hell, you fool, moron.

It's from the Hebrew word moron, which means to live against God,

to rebel against God. So if you if you say to someone

you, you fool. Now, now listen carefully.

Jesus called the Pharisees fools because they didn't live against

God. They didn't rebel against God.

So you can call someone that fool who lives against God and

who rebels against God because that's the definition of marah,

which is at the root of moron. But.

If you just go around calling people that who are not that in

a malicious kind of way, this is what we call salacious anger.

It moves from silent anger to spoken anger to salacious kind

of anger to slamming kind of anger to scathing kind of anger.

A lashing out at someone. Psalm 14 says that the fool has

said in his heart, no to God, that's the fool.

That's the one who lives against, against God.

And Christ says if you do that, you, you are guilty of a fiery

hell. You're guilty of Gehenna, a word

that Christ would use 11 times in the Gospels.

Gehenna is the translation of the Valley of Hinnom.

The Valley of Hinnom is that the valley on the South side of the

Old City of Jerusalem. It became a cursed place simply

because of Ahaz the king who convinced Israel to to worship

the fire God Moloch and offer their children up his

sacrifices. When Josiah became king, he he

transformed all that and reformed all that, but cursed

the valley of Hinnom. It became the the garbage dump

in in Jerusalem and there was always this, this fire, this

this smoldering fire that would always be present in the valley

of Hinnom. It became the perfect

illustration for a fiery hell because a fire would never go

out. It was always lit, it was always

smoldering, it was always smelly.

It was a very cursed place. And that became the illustration

that Christ would use of hell and call it Gehenna.

Christ says whether you have silent anger, spoken anger or

salacious anger, you're worthy of death.

So you think that if you just murder someone and they died

physically, you were a murderer? He says Oh no, no, no, no.

That, that that begins on the inside of a man, and a man is

guilty of murder. If there's this silent anger, if

there's this spoken anger, if there's this salacious anger

where he is lashing out at other people and is bitter and

resentful, resentful toward them, that man is just as worthy

of death as Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy,

anybody else who is physically killed.

Someone else. Why?

Because Christ looks upon the heart, not the appearance of a

man, not the acts of a man. Why?

Because all the. Appearance and acts of a man's

come from where? Inside of the man.

So what do you do? How do you handle this?

And, and Christ even even deals with it to some degree.

He says, therefore, based on what I just told you, based on

your anger and your response towards somebody else.

Therefore, he says, if you are presenting your offering at the

altar and there remember that your brother has something

against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go

first be reconciled to your brother and then come and

present your offering. He says this because the

Pharisees were with a symbol of worship in Israel and they

prided themselves on how they worshipped.

And Christ says, I want to let you know that you're living a

life of hypocrisy because listen, if you know of someone

who is angry with you, if you know of someone who has

something against you, and they, they would know about the, the

procedure and worship, they would know, they would, they

would take the, the animal in for sacrifice and they would,

they would present it to the high priest and they would lay

their hands on it. And the priest would go in and

sacrifice that, that animal for the forgiveness of sins.

And that was just a, a symbolic act of the attitude of the

heart. And they says when you, when you

take that animal and you go into the priest and you offer that,

that, that animal to the priest, if you know there's anybody who

has something against you, stop, stop right there.

Turn around and leave and get it right with that person.

Why? Because if you don't, it's

worthy of death. It's.

Worthy of death. This is so important.

Think about it this way. People say, OK, how do we make

the worship at Christ Community Church the best it can possibly?

Be. Maybe we should remove the pews

and put in chairs? Or maybe we should repaint the

auditorium and make it aesthetically pleasing.

Or maybe we should have a whole full orchestra pit.

Or maybe we should have different kind of music.

Or maybe we should have shorter sermons.

Or, or maybe we should have this or have that.

Oh no, no, no, no, no. You want better worship.

Here it is. Christ tells you if you come to

church to worship the Lord and you know of someone in the

auditorium who has something against you, leave.

Leave the auditorium and get it right because that's the only

way you're going to have meaningful, true, pure worship.

Everything else is hypocritical. Coming in here thinking that you

can worship the Lord, knowing that you just had a knock down,

drag out fight with your wife on the way to church and you're

yelling and screaming at each other and you get out of the car

and you say praise the Lord. I'm at church today.

I'm glad to be here. Hallelujah, brother.

Let's sing some praises to Jesus.

Never, never gotten right with your wife or with your husband.

You're a hypocrite and the Pharisees were extremely

hypocritical. It grieves me when they're there

are children who, who, who fight with their parents and then they

want to come to church and worship the Lord as if there's

nothing wrong, but there's everything wrong.

You can't worship the Lord hypocritically.

You can't worship the Lord knowing that you have this

offense or this anger or this attitude toward a friend of

yours or or your mother or your father or a husband or a wife or

someone who sits across on the other side of the auditorium.

You cannot worship effectively. You cannot worship meaningfully.

You can't worship Christ like if you have that kind of attitude,

you cannot. So you must leave, get it right,

then come back. That's why he says this.

He says make friends quickly, leave and do it quickly.

Don't wait. Ah, well, you know, there's next

week, there's next month when they will see him today.

No, no, no. Do it quickly.

Do it now. If you know he knows that which

is right to do, he needs to do it extremely quickly and

efficiently. Make friends quickly with your

opponent in law while you are with them on the way so that

your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge

to the officer and you be thrown into prison.

Truly, I say to you, you will not come out of there until you

have paid up the last cent. In other words, you can't pay it

up. You're in prison.

It'll never be paid back. It's too late.

It's done. It's over.

And if God is a judge? It's too late.

Nothing you can do. Christ is is is helping them

understand that they are such hypocrites in the way they deal

with their relationships with people and they they wouldn't

know this. They should know this.

This was not new to them. God said it this way Isaiah 1.

What are your multiplied sacrifices to me, says the Lord.

I have had enough of your burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of

fed cattle, and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls,

lambs, or goats. When you come to appear before

me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?

Bring your worthless offerings no longer.

Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the

calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity and the

solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals

and your appointed feast. They have become a burden to me.

I am weary of burying them. So when you spread out your

hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you.

Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen.

Your hands are covered with blood.

Christ is saying, says in Israel, look, you're coming and

you have all these sacrifices, you have all these rituals, you

have all these ceremonies. It's like saying to us today,

you know which way to go to church.

You know how to dress for church.

You know where to sit in church. You know how to sing in church.

You know how to say the right things in church.

And God says, I don't want any of that.

It means nothing to me. This is this.

Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean.

Remove the evil of your deeds from my sight.

Cease to do evil. Learn to do good.

Seek justice. Reprove the ruthless.

Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.

In other words, make sure you're right with the people around

you. Make sure your attitude is right

with the people you live with. Because that's what matters.

Sacrifice to me means nothing. Obedience to me means

everything. Think about what he says in the

book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 7.

Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words, to no avail.

God says, will you steal murder, commit adultery, swear falsely,

offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods that you

have not known? Then come and stand before me in

this house which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered,

that you may do all these abominations.

Lord says, are you going to live a life of immorality?

Are you going to live a life that's abominable to me?

Are you going to live a life of anger and murder and all kinds

of things that I'm against? Come into my house and say I'm

here to worship you. He says get out of here.

I don't want any of that. I don't need that.

Get it right before you come to me.

See, the Pharisee should have known all.

That, and that's just a sampling of a couple of verses.

The Old Testament's filled with them.

Why? It's all about the heart.

It's all about the inside of a man and his relationship he has

with other people. You can't get God man right

until you get man man right. If man man is wrong man God, it

will always be wrong. That's why in the Sermon of the

Mount he talks about prayer. He has one explanation of the

disciples prayer and deals with forgiveness.

He says unless you forgive your brother his trespasses, I will

not forgive you your trespasses. Why?

Because if you can't deal with your brother, don't even think

of coming to me and dealing with me.

It doesn't work that way. And that's the whole point.

Christ is driving them to a place of desperation.

Wait a minute. The Bible says we're not to

murder. We don't kill anybody.

Ah, no, no, no. It goes way deeper than that.

It goes to the inside of a man, the heart of a man, because

murders happen because of anger in the heart.

Anger happens because hatred spurs it on.

And then you commit the act of murder.

It's all on the inside. You're guilty because of what's

on the inside, not because of what you do on the outside.

And. They're like, whoa, what do we

do? How do you fix that?

That's the point. So he's driving into the foot of

the cross. He's driving them to him to

plead and to cry out for mercy. That's where your personal

transformation comes in. And we got to go fast.

And that is number one there. There needs to be a recognition,

a recognition of anger. Where does it come from?

Our adversary. He's the author of it, Our

Depravity. Romans 128 and 29 Mark Chapter 7

Mark 7 · chapter mention

speak of how everything comes from the inside of a man.

It comes from jealousy. Read about the prodigal son in

Luke chapter 15, where the prodigal's brother, the older

Luke 15 · chapter mention

brother, is so jealous and so angry that his father would

forgive his prodigal son and grant him a place of blessing in

the house. He was so resentful because of

jealousy. Jealousy happens, Animosity

happens inside of a man. There's this recognition of

where all this comes from. It comes from the inside of you.

It comes from your heart. Unless you guard your heart,

unless you protect your heart, unless your heart is.

Truly committed to Christ, there is no.

Hope it all comes from the inside.

So there needs to be this recognition that that

recognition leads then to a rejection of those things that

are evil. That's why the Bible says over

in Colossians chapter 3 these words.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

But now also you put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice,

slander and abusive speech from your mouth and do not lie to one

another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil

practices. You need to lay those things

aside. You need to, you need to discard

those like you would dirty clothes at the end of the day.

That's what it means to put off and put on at the end of the

day. You, you take off your dirty

clothes and you and you put them in the hamper.

They need to be cleaned. You need to get rid of a malice,

an abusive language and and slander.

Get rid of all that stuff. Why?

Because it's not fitting for a child of the king, that's why.

Well, how am I going to do that? See, we, we, we need to look at

Philippians. 48 and think on the things that are.

True and pure and. Holy and lovely that are

attractive, that are, that are of good repute, that we might

think on things that are pure from above and not below.

But we sit in our homes and we we sit resenting someone who has

said something to us. And we, we sit there thinking

all kinds of evil things against them, instead of thinking on the

things of Scripture. Wherewithal shall a man keep his

way pure, But by taking heed to the word of God, Thy Word, I

have treasure in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.

It's all about thinking about the things of Scripture in the

things of our Lord, having our minds focused on that which is

above and not below. There needs to be a rejection of

all that stuff because we are totally engulfed.

In the truth of. Scripture.

And then there needs to be a reconciliation, A reconciliation

with our brother, reconciliation with our sister or a family

member or someone else. The Lord has turned the tables

on the Pharisees. He's revolutionized everything.

And a holy God who is perfect wanted you and me to be

reconciled to him. So we did everything to make

that possible. And if a holy God who is sinless

and spotless and pure would do all he could to reconcile

sinful, unholy, wretched man, why can't we do all we can to

reconcile with our brother or sister in Christ, Right?

And that reconciliation can only come, that rejection can only

come, that recognition can only come if there's a redemption.

That's the fourth point you can add to your outline.

Redemption. You got to be redeemed.

See, Christ is driving them to the cross.

He's driving them to cry out for mercy.

Lord, we can't do this. If we're guilty of, of, of the

hell, the fiery hell, because of anger on the inside, what can we

do? Christ says you can't do

anything. You can't.

Ah, but I can. Because you see, I can grant you

my righteousness. I can grant you a standing with

me. I can grant you a righteousness

that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, because theirs is

one of human achievement and it dams their soul.

But I can give you 1 because of divine accomplishment and it

will save your soul. So have you murdered anyone

lately? The answer is yes, we all have.

But the good news is this. Jesus is the one who cleanses

our soul. Jesus is the one that saves us

from our sin. Jesus is our Redeemer, so he

says these words, Come unto me, Come unto me, all you that are

heavy laden and burden, and I will give you rest.

Come to me. Though your sins be a scarlet,

they should be as white as snow. Though they be red like Crimson,

they will be made as wool. See, Pharisees knew that verse

too. They just refused to to come to

Christ us. Well, the good news is, is that

if you're here tonight and you're giving life to Christ,

then you've been cleansed. You've been washed in the blood

of the lamb. If you haven't, you can be.

All you have to do is give your life to Christ.

Let me pray with you. Father, we thank you for

tonight. You realize, Lord, that we're

murderers don't want to be, but we are.

We have sinful hearts, and yet yet you love us enough to die

for us and to pave the way by taking our penalty.

The wages of sin is death, and all of sin have fallen short of

the glory of God. But Christ, you're our

substitute. You died in ours place.

You bore the the wrath of hell on Calvary's cross.

So we would have to. We escaped Gehenna, we escaped

the fiery hell because of Christ and his righteousness imputed to

us. For that Lord we are grateful.

In Jesus name, Amen.