Oh, are we ready? Okay, all right. Let's go ahead and get started. Let's take God's word and open up to Matthew chapter five. Oh yeah, yeah. That's right. Matthew chapter five, we're going to start reading at verse 21 to verse 26. Raising the question tonight, are you a murderer? Matthew chapter five, let's listen to the recorded words of our Lord Jesus Christ. You have heard that it was said to 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, you 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, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge The judge to the guard and you put in and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. So reads God's infallible, inerrant and holy word. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father. We thank you, Lord, For this evening that you have written already in your book before it ever existed. So we take great comfort and encouragement in the fact that none of us are here by chance. None of us are here by blind fate or luck, but indeed father, we are here because this is what you have ordained. And we pray with anticipation in the light of your absolute sovereignty, setting us here tonight, that Lord, you would give us the grace, each one of us, to hear the proclamation, the teaching of your holy word tonight, most effectually to our sanctification, to making us more like Christ. And Father, we pray that you would therefore open our eyes tonight to behold wondrous things out of your word, things that will bring deep and searching conviction to our hearts, things that will also bring great comfort and encouragement to our hearts as well. Father, we commit all of these things into your hands. And we do so for the sake, for the honor, and for the glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord, your eternal Son. Amen. This evening, we continue the teaching series, which I have entitled, What Did Jesus Say? where we look carefully at many passages in the Gospels that give attention to those recorded words of our Lord that are most familiar to Christians and even non-Christians in certain circles and contexts, but are too often misunderstood and thus misapplied. In tonight's study we turn to Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 through 26 which in the context of Matthew chapters 5 through 7 actually begins a subsection of the Sermon on the Mount because what begins here in chapter 5 verse 21 is our Lord's greater exposition of what he declares in verses 19 and 20. And let's just read what Jesus says in verses 19 and 20 here in Matthew 5. Our Lord says, 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 Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So starting at chapter five in verse 21, Jesus is now giving the greater exposition of what he says in verses 19 and 20. So on the one hand, in this subsection, One sees how the Christian works out the righteous requirement of the law by not relaxing the commands but obeying them. On the other hand, it is seen with greater force why the righteousness of a Christian must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees if they are to even enter the kingdom of heaven. Remember the grave warning that we just read. that Jesus gives in Matthew 520. And what a warning this is. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. On the heels of this warning, Jesus will proceed for the rest of this sermon, all the way to chapter 7 in Matthew. He will proceed for the rest of this sermon to make a vivid contrast between true and false righteousness. That is the righteousness that results from being in God's kingdom and the righteousness that will keep you out of God's kingdom. And here in Matthew 5, 21 to 26, we have one such example, which we are confronted and where we are confronted with a very practical, searching, alarming question. Are you a murderer? This question is raised out of the exposition our Lord gives us here of the sixth commandment in God's moral law, which says, you shall not murder. But before we launch into a full treatment of this passage, there is one important preliminary matter that must be underscored. We need to take notice and understand the meaning behind our Lord's words You have heard that it was said to those of old, but I say to you." These words are repeated six times within verses 21-48 here in chapter 5. What Jesus is doing by making this type of declaration is to show the true meaning and intent of God's law by correcting the erroneous conclusions which had been drawn together by the scribes and Pharisees. This is very important for us to understand because There are actually evangelicals today who advocate that Jesus was actually deviating from the law of Moses and setting his teaching in opposition to it. This is particularly embraced by what is called New Covenant theology. One of their own writers maintains that Christ has come as the new law giver who supersedes and replaces Moses with higher laws. Therefore, they reason that when Jesus pronounced, you have heard that it was said to those of old, but I say to you, he was replacing the law given to Moses, which would include the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments, with new laws. But to believe this is, of course, to contradict the very thing Jesus declared he did not come to do. Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And part of that fulfillment was teaching the true meaning of what it actually said and how it was to really be applied. So let's be very clear about this. Our Lord is not modifying the law of Moses, the teaching of the Psalms, the standards of the prophets, or any other part of scripture. He is rather countering the false interpretations of the law given by the scribes and Pharisees. In fact, notice what Jesus doesn't say in these words. If our Lord was referring to the scriptures, he would have said, it is written, or Moses commanded, or the prophet Isaiah said. Instead, he declares, you have heard that it was said to those of old. This is not a direct reference to Scripture, but to the sayings of the rabbinical teachings and traditions that had been handed down to the Jewish people of that day. While some of these sayings had direct quotes from Scripture, yet they were also combined with a rabbinical tradition attached to the biblical command, which greatly altered and modified the true meaning of God's law. You see, in the history of the nation of Israel, during their captivity in Babylon, they had actually ceased to even know the Hebrew language. When they returned to Jerusalem after those 70 years of captivity, the language they spoke was Aramaic. Hence, with no working knowledge of the Hebrew, they could not in turn read the law of Moses since it was written in the Hebrew language. The result of this dilemma was a slavish dependence for any knowledge of the law upon the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. So when Jesus declared, You have heard that it was said, our Lord was saying in effect, you have heard this and that as you have gone to the synagogues and listened to the instructions of the scribes and Pharisees. And of course the consequence of what they heard by the scribes and Pharisees was not in reality the teaching of God's law, but a misrepresentation of it given by their teachers. And what this consisted of were various interpretations and traditions which have been added to the law through the centuries. In fact, far from teaching from the scriptures themselves, most rabbis taught exclusively from the Talmud, which was an exhaustive codification of the rabbinic traditions. So when Jesus comes on the scene, and begins his public ministry, it is no wonder that every rank and file Jew were amazed, indeed astonished, at his teaching, because it was such a radical departure from what they had always heard. The Lord Jesus was essentially recovering the true teaching and intent of God's law to the people. He was bringing them back to the Bible, and this is what we have in the Sermon on the Mount as a whole. Now, with this very important context before us, we can proceed to our study of Matthew 5, verses 21 to 26. As I've already noted, this passage is our Lord's exposition of the sixth commandment in the moral law, you shall not murder. And from this exposition, I want us to see two things principally. First, the meaning of murder And second, the mortification of murder. To begin with, then, let's understand the meaning of murder. Look with me at verses 21 and 22. You have heard that it was said to 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 with will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. Jesus opens his exposition of the sixth commandment by quoting the rabbinical version of this command which greatly altered the commandment and thus truncated its true meaning and divine intent. You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder and, here's their addition, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. These additional words attached to God's original command weakened the force and robbed the spirit of the command itself. In the first place, the rabbinical version of this command did not even prescribe the biblical penalty for homicidal murder, which is death. Instead, the penalty they established for murder was liability before a civil court, which apparently used its own judgment as to punishment. In the second place, and certainly of greater importance, The rabbinical version of the sixth command does not even take into consideration the holy character of God, which this command is an expression of, as all the commandments in the moral law. In other words, there was no mention of murder as transgressing God's law. or desecrating his image in which man is made, or of God's own role in determining and dispensing judgment for this sin. And finally, there was not even the least consideration or passing remark as to the heart offense of murder. What the Jewish rabbis, scribes, and Pharisees had essentially done was to repress murder to nothing more than a civil issue to be prosecuted in a human court. Moreover, they had defined murder as strictly a physical act, thereby canceling altogether the presence and reality of the motives and passions of the heart, which lie behind the act itself. To say this another way, the Jewish teachers in Jesus' day took no thought for what the scriptures plainly teach, that it is the heart of man which is the fountain of all sin. Indeed, the heart is at the root of everything we are and do. Therefore, as David confessed in Psalm 51, verse 6, God takes delight in truth, in the inward being, and teaches wisdom in the secret heart. This is why Proverbs 4, 23 exhorts us to guard our heart, for from it flow the issues of life. Thus, when it comes to who we are and what we do, 1 Samuel 16, 7 reminds us that God looks at the heart as opposed to man who looks merely at outward appearance. But for the rabbis and scribes and Pharisees, we have to understand the heart of man was not even a category to consider when it came to murder or, for that matter, anything else. This is very important to understand. Because as we learned three weeks ago, the righteousness for the scribes and Pharisees was merely external, which resulted in a self-righteousness. So when it came to the sin of murder, as long as they had not actually taken the physical life of another person, they firmly believed that they were clear and innocent of transgressing the sixth commandment. But our Lord Jesus Christ would put the scribes and Pharisees on notice, along with every other Jew, that murder runs far deeper than just the physical act. Murder is a sin of the heart. It is a sin of the heart. Look into verse 22. Jesus declares in contradistinction from the rabbinical spin on the sixth commandment, 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. How shocking, how alarming and utterly jaw-dropping these words must have been to the first hearers of Jesus. By these words, Christ swept aside all the rubbish of rabbinical tradition He stripped away every vestige of self-righteousness and overthrew any appeal to self-justification which is common for every sinner. What Jesus shows us is that murder is a sin rooted in the heart of man and is expressed in three different ways by both attitude and action. First of all, notice, murder begins with unrighteous anger. Murder begins with unrighteous anger. Our Lord proclaims that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Now, it should be clarified very quickly that not all anger is sinful and therefore the spring of murder. There is a type of anger that is called righteous indignation. This was the anger that Jesus himself exemplified when he drove the money changers out of the temple. But what must be noted about this kind of anger is that it is rooted in a zeal for God's glory and honor, and it has nothing to do with selfish motives or self-serving ambitions. It is an anger fixed on the display of God's honor and name being desecrated and profaned by the sin of man. That is righteous indignation. But clearly in our text, Jesus is not referring to righteous indignation. Oh no. The anger which is being condemned as the root of murder is a selfish anger aimed at anyone because of something they have done against us that is especially displeasing and irritating to our senses. In fact, the very word Jesus uses here, translated angry, comes from a Greek verb which has to do with brooding, simmering anger that is nurtured and not allowed to die. It is seen in the holding of a grudge. It is seen in the smoldering bitterness that refuses to forgive. And it is the anger that prizes resentment and withholds reconciliation with the offender. Jesus declares that this kind of anger is in fact the sin of murder. And for anyone who harbors such angry feelings toward other people, our Lord says they will be liable to judgment. The type of judgment Christ is referring to here is actually the civil court. The very type of court which the scribes and Pharisees held as penalizing only those guilty of physical murder. But, of course, if you are found guilty of physical murder in the civil court, then the penalty you face would be death. Yet Jesus says why even the very anger which leads to physical murder deserves the penalty of death. What a vivid contrast this standard was compared to the scribes and Pharisees. But the standard which Christ was setting forth was none other than God's own righteous standard. God's condemnation for the sin of murder was not only homicidal murder, but it was heart murder. Heart murder, which took as one of its forms those feelings of bitterness and rage and resentment that we might have towards someone else. Concerning this form of murder, John MacArthur made this observation. It is possible for a model, law-abiding citizen to be as guilty of murder as anyone on death row. It is possible for a person who has never been involved in so much as a fist fight to have more of a murderous spirit than a multiple killer. Many people in the deepest feelings of their hearts have anger and hatred to such a degree that they're true desires for the hated person to be dead. The fact that fear, cowardice, or lack of opportunity does not permit them to take that person's life does not diminish their guilt before God. Anger is incipient murder. Anger is incipient murder. So let me ask you, are you angry with anyone right now? Oh yeah, let's just be honest. Let me just cut right to the chase here. Are you angry with anyone right now? Is there resentment, bitterness, and feelings of outright malice that you're holding against someone in your heart? Every time you think of this person or see this person, your heart boils with bitter rage. Forgiveness and reconciliation are nowhere on your radar. Just the deepest feelings of smoldering, burning anger. If this is true of you, I want you to listen to what Jesus Christ says, not Pastor Kurt, hear what Christ says. You're guilty of murder. You're guilty of murder. And such guilt should have you rightly condemned even in a mere civil court of law. Second of all, murder is also rooted in contemptuous insults. Contemptuous insults. Back to our text, Jesus goes on to say, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. Now, the verb translated insults is also translated raka in other translations. Raka is a transliteration of a word that was commonly used in our Lord's day to characterize a person or thing. When applied to a person, it was an expression of malicious abuse, derision, and slander. In short, it was a term of arrogant contempt. It is the political pundits who are ever deriding and discrediting the politicians whom they have no use for because of their own selfish agendas. Or it's the college professor whose atheistic beliefs spill over into the classroom with all kinds of abusive and false claims to slander Christians. And it's even ungodly church members. You mean church members can be ungodly? Yes. Read your Bible. Who do everything in their power to ruin the reputation of a faithful pastor because of their contempt for God's word. And that's key. It's because of their contempt for God's word by spreading vicious lies about God's man so as to rid him from their midst. Each of these examples illustrates this form of murder called contemptuous insults. And our Lord says that to such, they will be liable to the council. The council was referring here to the Jewish Sanhedrin, which was the Supreme Court in Israel that tried only the most serious of trials and dispensed the most severe penalties, which included death by stoning. In our context, it would be the U.S. Supreme Court. So here's the picture, okay? Here's the picture. To verbally slander another person's character is no different than taking their life. It's no different than taking their life, which should be worthy of death by the judgment of the highest human court. And why is this? Because it's murder. This is murder. Finally, the sin of murder is also rooted in censorious reviling. Censorious reviling. Our Lord warns, and whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. Now, it should be noted very quickly that calling someone a fool is not always a sin. Okay? Let's be clear about that. The book of Proverbs has much to teach us about certain people in the world whose very character is that of a fool. Psalm 14 verse 1 tells us that the man who says in his heart there is no God is a fool. Right? And even Jesus himself rebuked his own disciples as being foolish. So what then is Jesus referring to here in our text that whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire? The term translated fool in this passage has been understood as a transliteration of a Hebrew term which refers to a rebel, an apostate, or an outcast. The sentiment behind this expression therefore is verbally condemning someone to damnation out of a personal hatred and maliciousness one has toward them. It is the harshest condemnation one could ever express to another person out of anger. It is that most terrible pronouncement that we would hear in the world today, well why don't you just go to hell? It's that. It's that. This is the sentiment behind the expression, you fool. It is the censorious reviling of someone's character in the worst degree possible, and our Lord Jesus Christ calls it murder. This is murder. You have murdered someone if you are guilty of this. But notice that attached to such guilt, Jesus declares that such a person will be liable to the hell of fire. Well, what is the hell of fire? Oh, it's eternal punishment. It's hell itself. Thus, if we take all three forms of murder together, combined with their penalties, the central searching point Christ is making is that heart murder is just as bad and worthy of condemnation, whether in God's court or man's court. And the reason why is because the physical act of murder, listen, that can only be carried out by a heart, a heart that is already full of hatred and contempt and bitter rage toward the other person. Physical murder is merely the fruit of the murderous spirit that resides in the heart of sinful man. So what then is murder? How can we sum this up? Murder is the vile manifestation of an angry, bitter, malicious heart. Murder is the vile manifestation of an angry, bitter, malicious heart. Charles Spurgeon, he once put it like this, Murder lies within anger, for we wish harm to the object of our wrath, or even wish that he did not exist. And this, Spurgeon says, this is to kill him in desire. To kill him in desire. Which is what malice is. It's the reason that Thomas Watson called malice mental murder. But having underscored now the meaning of murder, let's proceed to our next major point of exposition and one that we all need desperately since we're all serial killers here tonight. The mortification of murder. The mortification of murder. Look into verses 23 to 26. We read, 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, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. If we are to overcome the sin of murder in our hearts, Jesus sets forth, get this. Now he sets forth only one remedy reconciliation, reconciliation. That's the one remedy. In fact, the two illustrations he gives in this passage to make this point emphasizes both the necessity and urgency of reconciliation. On the one hand, we have the necessity of reconciliation by our Lord's illustration of the man going to the temple for public worship. Nothing was more exalted to the common Jew than following the ceremonial laws for worship, which through sacrifices and offerings was intended to restore a right relationship with God. But here in Matthew chapter 5, 23 and 24, Jesus lays down the principle that reconciliation with your fellow man must precede the worship of God. Look at what he says. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Now I want you to think about this because I honestly I don't know very many Christians at all who even have a category for this but this this is straight Bible. OK. This is right out of the text. How can there be any integrity in our worship to God if we are holding bitterness and animosity toward another person? The answer should be very obvious. If we go to public worship, raging in our hearts toward another person in anger, yet think that by our attendance and activity in the church service we're somehow pleasing God, then we are deceiving ourselves by our own hypocrisy. The point is, our worship to God is worthless. It is empty. It's nothing but a sham. I want you to listen again to what John MacArthur wrote on this point. MacArthur said, regardless of who is responsible for the break in relationship, and often there is guilt on both sides, we should determine to make reconciliation before we come before God to worship. True worship is not enhanced by better music, better prayers, better architecture, or even better preaching. True worship is enhanced by better relationships between those who come to worship. And this is the monumental premium our Lord Jesus places on reconciliation. First be reconciled. He said first. Not second. First. So here's how we should apply this. All right, here's the implication. It would be better to stay out of public worship till the breach was settled and restored between believers than to profane the worship. than to profane the worship by hearts that can't possibly show God true love because of the unresolved anger we have with another person. We must not dare think that our mere physical attendance in a worship service is enough for God. Oh well, they are there. And you think that's all God's looking at? Just your physical appearance? Oh no, my friend, let me remind you, God looks at the heart. God looks at the heart. This is why David said in Psalm 66 and verse 18, if I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. So while we may fool others with our plastic worship, we're not fooling God. He sees the heart. And if there is murder in the heart, then we must repent by reconciling with our estranged brother or sister. Otherwise, our worship means nothing to God. It means nothing. Hence, the necessity of reconciliation. But on the other hand, Jesus also teaches us concerning the urgency of reconciliation by his illustration of the two men going to court in verses 25 and 26. The fundamental point of this illustration is that the time for reconciliation is always right now. It's always right now. Jesus says, come to terms quickly. with your accuser while you're going with him to court. In other words, do not delay this urgent need to be at peace with this person who has either offended you or you have offended them. It's right now. Sinclair Ferguson put it this way, and this is excellent. Look at what Ferguson wrote. Ferguson said, animosity is a time bomb. We do not know when it will go off. We must deal with it quickly before the consequences of our bitterness get completely out of control. Most human relationships that are destroyed could have been preserved if there had been communication, well that's a novel idea, communication, and action at the right time. Jesus says that the right time is as soon as we are conscious that we are at enmity with our brother. So then how must we overcome the sin of murder? How do we do it? If we're at odds with another person, and the context here is Christian and Christian, okay, the church, within the church, if we're at odds with a brother, sister, and Christ, if we are harboring bitterness, anger, contempt, and malice toward someone who has offended us to any degree, How do we conquer this murderous spirit raging in our hearts? Our Lord Jesus makes it very plain and clear. You must reconcile. You must reconcile. This is necessary if our worship to God is going to be true and clean of hypocrisy. But it also must be urgent. It must be urgent. If we would avoid what could be an outbreak of anger that may cause damage, listen, damage that could last a lifetime, a lifetime. Beloved, this is very serious. And we must not take this as a matter that we can just think about another day. Nor must we dare to settle for a mere truce A truce. Now, what is that? Well, you know, a truce. This is where most of our families are, where we just brush the animosity under the proverbial rug and pretend nothing is wrong. Let's don't deal with the pink elephant in the room. A truce will never equal reconciliation. Let me tell you what you're settling for, people. You settle for a truce, you're settling for a cold war. That's all that is. That's all that is. That's just a cold war. No, what Christ commands us to do is to seek reconciliation. Now, what is that? What is biblical reconciliation? It takes three things. Are you listening? Three things. It takes confession of sin, it takes repentance of sin, and it takes forgiveness of sin. That is what biblical reconciliation takes. Confession, repentance, forgiveness. But, and here is the great caveat, okay? It also takes two people willing to be reconciled. Oh, yeah, there is that, right? Oh, yeah, two people. Yeah, two people. And this clarification is really important to make because, brothers and sisters, we obviously do not have the power to change someone's heart who may be offended with us. We have no control over that. We don't have the power to change their hearts. However, what the Word of God calls us to do, and this is what we've got to be clear about, God's word calls us to make every effort in our own power to be reconciled even if, you listen to this, even if we fail to achieve it because the other person will not repent. Remember Romans 12, 18. You need to memorize this. If you don't have this memorized, you need to memorize this. Romans 12, 18. If possible, So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. You need to memorize that. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, we must seek reconciliation. This is what matters. It is the state and condition of our own heart toward this other person and ultimately toward God. If I'm pursuing reconciliation, though I may not see it come to pass because of the other person's bitterness and anger, then at least in my own heart, I will be free from the anger and contempt that would hold me from wanting to be reconciled. Just because they won't do the right thing doesn't mean you don't do the right thing. You do the right thing, regardless of what they do. As much as it depends on you, so far as it depends on you, you have to do the right thing. So the point is, as far as possible, We must strive to remove all basis for the hostility that may be there. You say, is that hard? Very, very hard. Is it messy? It's always messy. This kind of work is never clean. It's never clean. It's ugly. It's ugly. You know why it's ugly? Because you're dealing with sin that has divided you with that person. And it is always a mess. But God's word says to you, dear Christian, it says this to you, if possible, Aren't you glad those two words are there? If possible, which implies what? It may not be possible, right? That's the implication. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. And hey, you know what? And for those of us who've lived long enough to see this and experience this and taste this, there are just some people we cannot live peaceably with, no matter how hard we've tried. no matter how hard we have tried. And we just have to accept that and move on. Keep praying for them, but there can't be any peace with them, because of where their hearts are. Even though your heart's in the right place, and your heart is pursuing the things of God, and you want there to be peace, and you want there to be reconciliation, but they gotta want it too. And if they don't want it, then there is no peace, and you have to move on. You gotta move on. That's tough, it's hard, but. Well, let's close this study tonight by asking the most pressing question of this passage in Matthew 5, 21 through 26. Are you a murderer? Are you a murderer? Are there people in your heart and by your words that you have actually assassinated? You have murdered them by your contempt and malice and bitterness and hostile anger, which you have held them to like prisoners, like captives? Does this describe any of you here tonight? Are you guilty of murder? Of course, the greater question would be, who isn't guilty of murder? I mean, what did I just say a few moments ago? I'm standing here with a room full of serial killers. We're all guilty. We're all guilty. Murder is the most common sin to man because no man as a sinner has ever been free from the anger which results in murder. None of us. But thank God, that in Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven and we can be cleansed of every murderous thought, every murderous word we have ever expressed, not to mention forgiven, even for the unjust taking of a human life. Paul, the apostle was forgiven. He took human lives. He took Christian lives. He was forgiven. By Jesus Christ and his atoning death, there is forgiveness for murderers. Yes, there is. But also, beloved, in Jesus Christ, we are freed from the enslaving power of murder as well. We are. Through Christ, we can overcome bitterness and anger and hostility that we may have toward others. It's not impossible. Jesus has set us free from the enslaving power of sin. So yes, we can walk in freedom. from those sins of the heart. And so there's no excuse for these sins in our lives as Christians. No excuse. No excuse. The Bible commands us to be rid of them. In fact, just look at Ephesians chapter four in verse 31. Ephesians chapter four in verse 31. What does it say? It commands us as the church, as Christians, listen to this, let all bitterness, not some, not, not a little bit, all bitterness. And wrath and anger and clamor and slander be to be put away from you along with all malice with that mental murder. That's the command of God to all of us as Christians, put all of this away from you. Be done with it. Those old clothes don't fit you anymore. They don't. Well, then what kind of clothes do we wear? Well, look at verse 32. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. The Bible commands us to mortify the sins of the heart that give place to murder. But to do so, as we've learned tonight from God's word, to do this, okay, takes the concerted effort on our part to seek reconciliation with whomever we may be offended with or vice versa. And this is why, as Christians, don't ever leave a local church in anger. Do not ever leave a local church in anger. I have been in Christian ministry for 35 years, And I've witnessed so many Christians leave local churches in a spirit of rage and bitterness and anger, whether it's at the pastor, whether it's other church members. And they leave, of course, they're always justifying their anger, but it's always selfish. But they're gonna do everything they can to justify it. create their own narratives about it. But when you seek to pursue peace with them, here's the test. Is their anger really justified? When you seek to pursue peace with them, when those they're offended with actually pursue peace with them and they hold them off at arm's length and say, I don't want to reconcile and I will not forgive. That, my friend, is when you know they're in deep sin. Deep sin, and they need to repent. If you're angry with someone in this church family, you need to go to them in private. And you need to talk it out. You need to pursue peace, but listen, listen. You need to pursue peace and not just get your pound of flesh. There is a difference. I've had plenty of people have meetings with me, angry with me, just to get their pound of flesh. They were never pursuing peace. And that was a worthless waste of time, just a waste of time. The Bible says you pursue peace, you're not trying to pursue a pound of flesh. We have to start thinking more biblically about these things. If we're going to be right in our walk with God, if we're going to be more like Christ. So let me leave you with this mandate. since you're all a bunch of serial killers, repent of your murderous anger and be reconciled to whomever you are at odds with. To refuse to do this, okay, like people I just told you about, to refuse to do this is to betray a heart not right with God. And you thus need to be saved by Jesus Christ. But to give yourself to this mandate is to obey God, glorifying him, and thus showing the fruit of a life which is saved by Jesus Christ. A Christian, a Christian, because they are a man or woman in Christ, then they are pursuers of peace, real peace, godly peace, God honoring peace. And therefore reconciliation, they're not against it. And so beloved, let us take this teaching tonight to heart. Let us take it and let's go back and pray over it and, and really ask the Lord. Am I guilty of murder right now? Is there unresolved anger, bitterness, contempt that I have toward a brother, a sister in Christ? Holy Father, give me grace to repent, to put this to death, and the courage to pursue peace with that person. Let's pray. Our blessed Heavenly Father, our holy, eternal God. The scripture tells us throughout that you are the God of peace. And as Christians, as believers in Jesus Christ, as that new creation, Lord, you also tell us that we, as your people, are peacemakers. But blessed Father, how often have we miserably failed and fallen short in living up to the true identification that we have in Jesus Christ as peacemakers. Forgive us, Father, for every time that we've not pursued peace with others when we should have, when we've not pursued reconciliation when we should have. Forgive us for every evil murderous thought we have ever entertained that we've ever nurtured in our hearts. Towards someone else. We pray Lord that you would work in each of us. A greater grace of repentance. That we would put off and put away all bitterness and anger and clamor and evil speaking and malice and slander that such sins of the heart and of the tongue we would do everything in the power of the spirit to kill and instead replace those sins with kindness and with compassion and patience and humility and meekness and forgiveness. Blessed Father, we know this is your will that we are praying because this is what your word clearly teaches and calls us to. And so we trust in you for the grace. Your grace, your power to carry this out for the sake and the honor of your eternal son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.