Turning now to our text in Matthew chapter 5, the subject is thou shalt not kill. God's commandments are exceeding broad. They cover an enormous amount of area. And you can ask many questions that I will not address tonight because I'm looking at the text where it focuses. Yes, I know. There are times when men are commanded by God to kill, such as the civil magistrate when he executes justice upon the offender and has transgressed to such a degree that he must die for his sin who has taken another man's life. and I know that there are arguments about self-denial, I mean self-defense, and I know there are arguments about war, and the arguments about that are huge, enormous, and I cannot possibly cover them, not in a sermon, not even in one sermon probably. But I wish to deal with the text. Now the verses 21 through 26 of this Gospel of Matthew are the first example of a series of six examples which Jesus gives in order to show the true and correct interpretation of the moral law in contrast to the traditional but the false interpretation of the moral law by the scribes and Pharisees. Let me read those words to you. ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with an adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the utmost fathering. Christ lays down those principles that are correct in interpreting the law, the moral law of God. Now, from here on, the remainder of this chapter in the Sermon on the Mount, and perhaps the entire rest of the Sermon on the Mount, I think it probably could be understood this way, the whole remainder of the chapter and probably the remainder of the sermon that Jesus preached on this occasion, the Sermon on the Mount, are an exposition of Christ's astonishing statement, except your righteousness shall exceed, go beyond the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. Now what we have is a contrast between the law not as given by Moses, but as exposited by the scribes and Pharisees, explained by the scribes and the Pharisees, the Moses law, the commandment of Moses. Thou shalt not kill, so the Pharisees taught. but they taught it incorrectly. You say, well, that's very obvious. I mean, they taught what the law says, what Moses said in the law. Thou shalt not kill. Isn't that the commandment? Yes, it is. And yet they have misinterpreted it because of the way in which they limited their interpretation. So we have the illustration of Paul at his conversion. And we have it given to us in Romans chapter 7. Paul was a Pharisee. And he interpreted the law previous to his conversion like the Pharisees. And it was an incorrect interpretation. And he tells us that he was incorrect in his understanding of what God was saying in the moral law in the chapter 7 and the verse 7. Listen, what shall I say? What shall I say then? Is the law sin? Maybe I should even go back to verse six. But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit. and not in the oldness of the letter. Scribes and Pharisees followed the letter of the law perfectly. And in their minds, they never transgressed it. In their understanding of the law, they had never violated this commandment. And Paul had the same attitude. But he goes on, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law said, Thou shalt not covet. And I read on. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, evil-mindedness. For without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. I had not known sin, Paul says, except the commandment said, Thou shalt not covet. He began to see the true spiritual nature of the moral law when he was converted. His eyes were opened. He was enlightened by God's Holy Spirit. to understand what the truth of God's holy word was teaching, not what it was said to teach by the scribes and the Pharisees. And he, being one of the Pharisees, had understood it as the Pharisees understood it previously. The spirit of the law is most essential to understand what the law is teaching. So by review, I say that having proclaimed Jesus, having proclaimed the perpetual validity of the moral law, and having expounded its true spirituality, and thirdly, having guaranteed its ultimate fulfillment, now Christ gives several practical, concrete illustrations of what he means. Three come exactly from the Ten Commandments. And the others are not far off. They are part of the law. Now that word law means instruction, which can include commandments. It doesn't exclude other teaching, other instruction in the Old Testament and New Testament as well. There's much law in the New Testament. Now the scribes and Pharisees were guilty of distorting the meaning and reducing the demands of God's moral law. And this is what Christ is illustrating. So verse 21 says of Matthew chapter 5, You have heard that it hath been said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill." And again, I say, what conceivably can be wrong with this teaching? Thou shalt not kill. Isn't that the Decalogue? Isn't that the Ten Commandments? One of the Ten Commandments? How can anyone criticize the scribes and Pharisees for teaching the Sixth Commandment to men? Well, the answer is that they had given a wrong interpretation of this commandment. And I read it in the second part of that 21st verse. Ye have heard that it hath been said of them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. There's the wrong interpretation. Shall be in danger of the judgment. shall be in danger of a law court judging them. You see, they saw this commandment only externally as a commandment against the crime of killing, of murdering. And of course, The law does not deny this. The law does command that there be a court of law to execute judgment upon the murderer who takes another man's life. I will give you only one illustration in Numbers chapter 35. It's a very interesting one. I think we should look more into this book of numbers than we do. But I look into this book of numbers and pick up at that 35th chapter and the verse 30 and following. Whosoever killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses. But one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. Moreover, he shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer. which is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. This contained their whole understanding of the commandment, thou shalt not kill. And I don't mean they limited it just to these very words, but to this very idea that there is a law court, a judicial law court that executes against criminals, against murderers, The execution of that judgment at the mouth of two or three witnesses is to always be final. However, what they did was to weaken the interpretation of what the law was teaching. The law does teach what they were teaching, but it teaches, oh, so much more. And Jesus is pointing this out. By only taking the second aspect of the moral law, the judicial execution of the criminal, of the murderer, who literally did this heinous crime of murder, limiting it to that, is to deny so much more that God had commanded. So they confined the Sixth Commandment to the external act rather than to the heart of the man. They confined it to a human court of law and they did not understand that anyone who's broken this law in his heart is in danger of the judgment, the final judgment of God in the last day, guilty of such a crime as can be punished only with eternal burnings. They emptied the holy law of its spiritual import and they reduced it to a question of civil crime in a court of human justice. They followed the letter, and thereby they entirely missed the spirit of the law, of God's moral law. According to their interpretation, they felt perfectly happy and righteous, and they were certainly not at all legally guilty in their minds of this violation of this commandment, because they were not guilty of the crime of literal murder. Of course, the crime of murder is a heinous crime and deserves the swift and dire punishment that God has commanded it to receive in that court of human justice. However, to limit the Sixth Commandment like this means that no one need be troubled in his mind and heart and conscience over breaking the Sixth Commandment if he hasn't done the crime of murder. Why, I have kept God's law, they felt, and this was the way they responded. I've never broken it. I've never done any murder. I am not guilty of any crime of this heinous sin of taking a human life. But you are so wrong, Jesus says. Your interpretation is a travesty of the truth. You have distorted and weakened the law so that it no longer means what God meant when he gave the commandment, the holy law in commandment. that because of their false interpretation, they sincerely thought that they had fully obeyed and were not guilty of breaking this sixth commandment, or practically any other commandment, because they interpreted every commandment the same. Let me tell you that today this is a very common attitude in the churches, perhaps in this church, I don't know. I suspect it's here as well as other places. So the law is defined so that it is possible for people to face God's law and to say, I haven't broken it. I've never broken it. I'm guiltless. I am righteous. I am sinless against this commandment. Because, you see, the commandment is seen only in negative terms of avoiding a certain kind of evil. And when they've avoided that evil outwardly, they are persuaded, most people today in the churches are persuaded, that they have kept this law. The illustration of the rich young ruler would be understood in this same context. Perhaps you remember how he had come to Jesus. Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He knew something was wrong, but he couldn't figure it out because he had an understanding of the law that was false, contrary to truth, a travesty of the truth. And Jesus gave him a list of the commandments, particularly the second table. And he said, all these things I've kept from my youth up, what are you talking about? I never broke the law, never in my life have I ever broken the law. So Jesus gives him a commandment he cannot keep. Sell all that you have and give it to the poor. He was a rich man. Give away everything he had? You see, he began to get the message and he began to see he couldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. He couldn't do it. He really couldn't do it. Look at how Jesus expresses and exposes the fallacy of their interpretation. and how he, in contrast to their view, demonstrates how someone should really look at the Sixth Commandment, spiritually. Now, because most people have this external, human, legal view of God's moral law, therefore they do not, cannot, will not understand or feel that they've ever broken the commandment, and that it does not condemn them, not at all. That is the most tragic thing imaginable. And Jesus shows that it is untrue by the way he shows them what the law really meant when God gave it. Christ's view is so very different. It's stated under at least these three headings. He gives three statements. First of all, he says what matters is the spirit of the law and not the letter of the law. And he, when correctly understood, this commandment, thou shalt not kill, means that if you are angry, you're in danger of judgment. Let me read it to you again. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment." Causeless anger is forbidden. And such anger in God's sight is his sin of murder. This hatred, this contempt, this bitterness, this envy, this malice in the heart are condemned by God when He says, Thou shalt not kill. And many manuscripts omit the praise without a cause, but whether it's there or not, we are all guilty. breaking this commandment. Every one of us, all of us have been angry, unjustly, wrongly angry with our brother. So every one of us has the seeds of murder in his heart. And then he uses this word, if you say to your brother, Raka, what does that mean? Well, it's kind of the idea of calling him stupid. I guess that would be the closest, perhaps, English equivalent to racker. So Christ reinforces the spirit of the law when he uses this illustration. This term of contempt of another person, calling them stupid. And the council here would probably be the Sanhedrin. It seems very clearly that it must be. Now, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murderers, adulterers. It was interesting that we read the 14th chapter this evening as we were reading his secularly through Matthew. Because it brings out some of the same things that Jesus was saying to the scribes and Pharisees earlier in the Sermon on the Mount. And he says them in chapter 14 directly to the scribes and Pharisees. Were the scribes and Pharisees present when Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount? Seems like they probably were not. I won't say there were none of them there, because it doesn't say that, but he delivered this sermon to his own disciples primarily, and it's not mentioned that the scribes and Pharisees were there. But he later will address it, and they will be greatly offended when he addresses this subject to them directly, as he did in chapter 14 of Matthew. So what has happened? By their interpretation, they are guiltless. In their minds, their attitude is, well, I've never committed an act of murder, and therefore I've never broken this commandment, thou shalt not kill. And yet a spirit of this contempt and scorn of others makes them guilty. and guilty as foul and dangerous guilt as any murderer could ever be. I don't think you believe that. Most of you do not. Do I believe it? At least I do intellectually, but I think sometimes it escapes my mind and my heart. And then the third statement he makes He says, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. So you say to another fellow, individual, perhaps brother, fool, you're a fool. Now many of us have said such words. We've at least thought them. Perhaps we even said them to the person. And they deserve, Christ says, hell fire, burning in hell forever. That's what they deserve. And you're guilty of such a crime, such a sin, as would make you suffer this punishment. Now, of course, this righteous indignation, Paul says, be angry and sin not. How can you be angry and sin not? By being angry with sin. Be angry only with sin. And you'll be guiltless. But is that what we're angry with? Not usually. We're angry with people. We're angry with their behavior. We're angry what they've said about us. We're angry what they may do to us. We're angry because they are not what we want them to be and expect them to be. And we may have even said some harsh things like stupid or fool. And to do so is to be in danger of hellfire. That's what Christ says. I didn't say it. Christ said it. I'll say it as well, but I condemn myself. Thou shalt not kill. That's the first point, that it is a spiritual sin, not just an outward physical crime. The second point that Christ makes is that we are to do good as well as to avoid evil. Let me read the 23rd verse. Therefore I say unto thee, therefore I say if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remembers that thy brother has taught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer the gift. Not only are we to avoid the evil, abstain from the evil, from being angry, from lashing out at our brother, calling him racker or a fool, but we are to do him good, to be reconciled to him, to make up whatever has been between us. Maybe he wronged us, maybe we wronged him, but whatever it is, we are separated and estranged from this person, this brother. And we're to make up and to do right. So we're to go about doing good. Make it right when it's wrong. Stop whatever it is that you've been doing and do it right. Confess whatever you're doing. and seek forgiveness. Beg it. Beg it on his part, but beg it from God as well, for Christ's sake. And then, then you may come into the presence of God and worship. Not until then, or you will be the hypocrite, just as the scribes and Pharisees were. It's not enough to make sacrifices to make offerings. I hope you do make an offering. Hope you have made sacrificial offerings. But such offerings and such worship are not a substitute for doing the right, correct, true thing. And we can only do it humbly, penitently, contritely. We must do it from the heart and our life must be changed so that we receive this brother and are reconciled to him. God's not going to accept a cover up. He will never let you get away with such covering up as we try to do. Let me read to you from Psalm 51 in the verses 16 through 19. Not a part of the sermon or the psalm that we are most familiar with, but it is a most vital part of the psalm. Verses 16 and following. For thou desirest not sacrifice. God doesn't want your sacrifice. Else would I give it, David said. You're not looking for me to offer a sacrifice. What are you looking for? Thou delightest not in burnt offering. And yet God has said, bring your sacrifices, bring your burnt offerings. But that's not what God wants, not first. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God thou will not despise. do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion to the church. Build thou up the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar." What had David done? taken the life of Uriah, as well as committed adultery with his wife, taken the life of Uriah. So he had committed a crime. But we are as guilty as he by being angry, by saying raka, saying thou fool, No guiltless person in this room, none, not one is guiltless. And the third point or emphasis that Christ is making is that we do this in God's face, in his presence. Perhaps that's not as clear, but I think it is clear, but not as clear to some. Agree with an adversary quickly while thou art in the way, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. For verily I say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the utmost fathering, penny. So he's saying, you have a judge that you must answer to. And ultimately that judge, if you're going to be punished with eternal burnings, eternal fire, is God. So we stand in God's presence before the judge. Thou shalt have no other gods before me in my face. Thou shalt have no other gods right in front of me. If we have another god, it will always be in front of God, because nothing can be hid from Him. Why you say, I did it in the dark, nobody could see it, but God could see it. I did it in secret, it was hidden from everybody, nobody knew it. This other god that I bowed down to, that I've been serving. Maybe it's a car. I don't know what your other God is. There are many kinds of gods. Anything that's bigger than God is another God. If you make anything as big or bigger than God, you've made another idol, another God. Whatever's the biggest thing in your life, that's your God. I don't know what the biggest thing in your life is. It's probably not the living and true God for many of you. or every one of you would be godly people, Christian people, walking with the Lord, humbly walking in His face, learning. You cannot do it in any other way, but do it in His very face, in His presence. Keep short accounts, therefore, with God. Make a quick confession. Quickly confess. Don't delay. Don't say, oh, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll ask God to forgive me another day. No, now is the day. Yes, that's also in Psalm 51. Very clearly. And the verse is four. Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. In thy sight. that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest." David knew. God knew his sin, his crime, his transgression. Do you know it? You must know it. You must come to feel it. For God knows all. God sees all. Nothing can be hid from God. Nothing can be hid from God. And when He touches your conscience, don't harden. Don't hold out. Agree quickly with God. When He touches your conscience, Beg His forgiveness. Plead His work of atoning for sin by His redemption, by His shed blood. Forgive. Oh God, forgive for Christ's sake. Now what do you feel? What can you say? What will you say? Have you felt Christ condemning you because you have broken His holy law, His commandment, thou shalt not kill? Well, if you felt it, what are you to do? You may either agree with the scribes and Pharisees, or you may agree with God. I hope you will find the right answer and the correct answer and not say with the scribes and pharisees, well, I really have never broken this commandment. I'm guiltless, sinless. God says differently. Not one is without guilt. Not one has kept this commandment. Not one is sinless. Everyone has killed another human being in God's sight. Agree quickly with God and with Christ. See that you yourself are a sinner. and you're helpless, and you're undone, and you're guilty, and you deserve hellfire. If you got what you deserve, every one of us, each of us, deserves God's ultimate judgment. We are lawbreakers. We deserve the ultimate punishment. So no longer make a cover-up, make a false defense. Don't pretend to be righteous in yourself when you're guilty. And not one of us who has the heart that each of us has can pretend to be guiltless, can pretend to be righteous, can pretend to never have broken the commandment, thou shalt not kill. Who with our hearts has ever met the law's demands and done what God and what Christ desires us to be and to do? There's only one thing for you to do. Humbly, penitentially, believingly go to the Lord Jesus Christ and confess. Make an honest confession. Christ has guaranteed the ultimate fulfillment of this law, and he's done it for you and for me. He kept the whole law. Did he need to do this? No. He was already sinless as the living and true God, but he became incarnate and took on himself the form of a mediator. that He might bring redemption and shed His blood and make the sacrifice that we could never make for our sins, for all our sins, the true sufficient sacrifice. He is the ultimate fulfillment, I say, of the law. He's met its full demands and met those demands for you. And by His Spirit, He will enable you and me more and more to fulfill the law. Will we ever do it perfectly? We will never do it as we should. Every thought is probably foul and full of sin in some measure. But He does begin to grant to us a strength and a power to do and to long to do. And often our obedience or our righteousness seems to be more a desire for obedience than a complete and full and correct obedience perfectly. But He does begin to put it in our hearts to love His law, to love His commandments, to love what is righteous, to love the just, The thing that is just. And therefore to love God, who is perfectly just and righteous and without sin. You really hate God, don't you? Because He's righteous, holy, pure, without sin. We hate that. Except by His grace. And then we begin to love God. And to love His ways. And we want to know God. How will we know Him? By His commandments. This is how He teaches us who He is and what He's like. By the commands that He gives us about what He would expect of us. What He wants us to be and to do. That we would be like Him, as He is. Do you know Him? Do you learn of Him from His Word and His Law? Come now and know Jesus Christ. Know God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has satisfied, has paid the law's ultimate penalty for everyone who comes to him. That we might not perish, but we might have everlasting life. Come through Jesus Christ, the one who paid it all. Lest you delay and wait and perish and pay the last penny. The utmost fathering. Don't delay. Agree quickly. You're not promised tomorrow. You're not promised another hour. You may die before you get home tonight. Heard of a death of a man this very evening. One day alive, the next day dead. No one expected it. Man, 50 years of age. What you need is not a false defense. You're guilty and it will be false if you defend yourself. You don't need any longer a false defense. You need an honest confession. Make it quickly. Make it to God. Beg Him, forgive for Christ's sake. Forgive my sin, my breaking of your law, my transgression of your commandment. Forgive me for Christ's sake. Let us stand for prayer. Holy Father, righteous Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive, we beg. Forgive, for Christ's sake, our sin. Thank you that you do forgive all our sins and blot them out in Christ's name. because He paid the penalty. He made the atonement. He offered the sufficient sacrifice and satisfied divine justice and reconciled us to Himself. Grievous sinners that we are, we are reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.