Help me then in every tribulation, so to trust Thy promises, O Lord. That I lose not faith's sweet consolation, offer me within Thy holy Word. Lord, when toil and trouble meeting, Ere to take us from a Father's hand, One by one, the days, the moments fleeting, Till I reach the promised land. Amen, praise God for the grace that he gives us day by day. All right, let's dismiss the little ones to go to their class with Mrs. Shore. You can head back in there. All right, the rest of us can take our Bibles and open up to the book of Matthew. If you don't have a Bible, feel free to go back to the back table and get a Bible to be able to read along with us as we study scripture this morning. Matthew chapter five. and verses 21 through 26, all right? Last week, Jesus, in the message on the Sermon on the Mount, he got into the law, and what we were studying about the law, and we saw that he came not to destroy the law, but that the law would be fulfilled. And we looked at some of those prophecies in scripture and saw that. We saw also that not the smallest marking in the Bible would be, if you're looking for the scriptures, Matthew chapter five, right? Matthew chapter five, 21 through 26. Not the smallest marking would be done away with, right? So in the Hebrew, a jot or a tittle was the smallest of the smallest markings. And Jesus said, until the end of time, nothing's going to be removed from his word. Believers who despise his law on earth will be lowly in the kingdom of heaven. Remember we talked about that, if you despise the least of these commandments and teach others to do the same, you're gonna be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But somebody that exalts God's word, honors those commands and teaches those commands is gonna be called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And yet having said that, that there is benefit to obeying God's word and the law, Yet that's not the way to righteousness. He said, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. You know, this past, I'm thinking it was, what day was it? Wednesday, I guess it was. I went into Edinburgh, down to Princess Street Gardens, had opportunity to share the gospel with some people down there. And one young lady that I spoke with, she's sitting with a guy, and I asked her, she said she was Catholic growing up, and I asked her, have you ever sinned? And she said, no, I never sinned. And she said it kind of proudly, no, I never sinned. And the way she said it, I just looked at her and I said, so you're right and the Bible's wrong. Because the Word of God says in Romans 3.10, there's none righteous, no not one. It says in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And in Romans 3.19, it goes on to say, now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped. and all the world may become guilty before God. So what's the point of the law? The point of the law is to take that young lady or myself and I say, I know I've never sinned. Am I so bold I would stand and I would begin to defend the fact that I'm sinless, that I'm a good person, that I've done all these good things and surely God will accept me? And the law keeps talking and condemning me until finally my mouth stops saying anything. because I acknowledge that I have sinned. That's the point of the law. It is given to those that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. So Jesus has defended the law. He said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I've not come to destroy it. I've come to fulfill it. The law is good. You need to keep the law, but the law is not made to make us righteous. But now, what Christ is gonna say is, I wanna further illustrate how much the law condemns us. He's gonna do that in several ways in the sermons that we're gonna be looking at in the following Sundays. But this morning, as he expounds on it, he's gonna show that the law dealt with externals. Thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not commit adultery. And man thinks external. You know, the act of murder, the act of adultery. But what the lawgiver is going to show is that when he applies the law to us, he doesn't deal with externals. He deals with internals. Is there murder in our heart? Is there adultery in our heart? and he's gonna be very convicting as he shares that. So let's pray and ask God to bless his word to our hearts this morning. We're just gonna look at murder and what the word of God says about that, and let's pray. Father, we're thankful for the word of God. We're thankful that it is quick, it is powerful, it is sharper than a two-edged sword. It does pierce through the dividing center of soul and spirit, the joints of marrow. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would have his way in our hearts this morning. Lord, thank you for, again, each one that's here, thank you for the time that we can spend in your words, studying your word. And Father, I pray quiet us before you. There's a lot of things that can captivate our minds, and Lord, we might look like we're here, but we could be somewhere else thinking about other things today. And Father, we'd ask that the Holy Spirit would captivate us with the truth of the Word of God. And Father, that you speak to us. I pray that you please help me as I speak. Help me speak in love as we looked at in Sunday school. Father, help me also to speak clearly. and make the Word of God known today. And Father, I pray that there would be conviction by your Spirit as we really examine our hearts in light of your truth. And Lord, the Word of God does give light. It does expose, and as it exposes, we pray, Spirit of God, give us grace to deal with our sin, to confess it and forsake it, and to honor Jesus Christ in our lives. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. So the first example that the Lord Jesus is gonna give to illustrate that as he's come, he's not come to do away with the law. In fact, he's gonna kind of almost exalt the law to bring us to grace. The first example he uses is that command, thou shalt not kill. And it's an external, it's been interpreted by mankind as an external law. The act of murder, the act of taking somebody's life. But the law dealt with externals, and that was a historic position. For the last thousands of years, that's the way they saw it. They saw it as saying, thou shalt not commit the act of murder. And I think this morning, if I asked anybody in here, is murder wrong? I would hope that everybody in here would absolutely, yeah, murder is wrong. And we know that. And it's been understood by mankind, it's been rung for thousands of years, the act of murder. And as he says, verse 21, he says, ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. So he's going back several hundred years, in fact, 1300 years to Moses and the inscripturation of the laws as God gave it. He's going back to that point where that law was written down. And so what's going on back then? The children of Israel, they've just come out of Egypt after 400 years of bondage. They're being led by God. He is a pillar of smoke in the daytime, a pillar of fire by night. so it's a theocracy and God is the in fact the leader at that time of the children of Israel and as but as a human leader, they have a man his name is Moses and Exodus 4 16 God told Moses that Aaron was going to be a spokesman unto the people and he shall be even he shall be to be instead of a mouth and But then it says, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. In other words, Moses was the main man with the children of Israel that had that relationship with God whereby God gave revelation to Moses and Moses revealed it to the people. He was the key leader of the children of Israel. In fact, it says about Moses in Exodus 33, 11, And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Can you imagine that? There's a precious thing about prayer in New Testament Christianity where we have that experience without the visible realization of it. Surely there's been times in your life as a believer where you've had personal communion with God that's been very sweet, and the presence of God has been very real, but not in the sense of what Moses experienced. Moses entered physically, visibly, not seeing God, but seeing the glory of God, seeing the power of God in his presence all around him as he went into those places. Moses physically went into that position. So when the law was given, again, what's going on? The law was given with an awful realization of God's power. Hebrews 12 speaks about it, and listen to the description that took place upon that mountain as Moses received the law. It says, for ye are not come unto that mount that might be touched. And Hebrews is written to believers in the New Testament. It's not written in the Old Testament. And so it's saying to them, you weren't there, okay, at that mount that you could physically touch. But then it describes it. and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with the dark." Okay, it's saying that you're not there, but this is what it was like. When the law was given, this is the phenomenon that were taking place, the manifestations of the presence of God and the very power of God that was there. Back when we were in the States about a year ago this week, we were in Michigan and staying on a lake with my family and my sister-in-law's family. And I know that we were there because it was Kaylee's birthday and she just celebrated her birthday this past week. But one night while we were there, we had a huge thunderstorm. And I love thunderstorms, so I was really thankful to get to experience it. But it woke me up in the night about one o'clock in the morning, and the sky was just going nuts. Just flashing, flashing, flashing, flashing, the thunder's rolling. And I went out into the living room where there's these huge windows that overlook the lake and watch the storm on the water. It was awesome. Awesome. But physically, that storm represented the storm. That storm was not there because the presence of God was there, but the storm on Mount Sinai was because that God was there. So imagine what it was like for the people as they're down below, and the cloud comes, and there's thundering on the mountain, there's trumpet sounds on the mountain, and there's a voice that is awful, and the people are entreating that the voice wouldn't speak anymore because it's too fearful to hear, and if an animal, broke through and touched the mountain, that animal was to be stoned with stones and die. Okay, so my question would be, when God gave the law, was it something to be sworn? You know, did Moses come down from the mountain with the law of God? And did people look at those commandments and go, oh, no big deal, because God isn't scary at all. What did they have? By God's grace, God helped these people to be in fear of him when he gave the law. That's God's mercy. Y'all, you can look at that mountain and say, why was God scary like that? Why did he make it so awesome? Why did he make it so fearful? Because it's an awesome thing and a fearful thing to stand before a living God, a holy God. God is awesome. God is amazing in his power. We ought to have a fear of God. Job, Job 28, 28 said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. Proverbs 9, 10 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Could I say this morning, I know I can, I can say it, with the authority of God, one of the biggest problems in our generation is that there is no fear of God. They don't fear God. That's sad. Would you, would you, how would you feel as a, as a mom to watch children walk along the top of Arthur's seat with no fear of death, no fear of falling off the crates? Wouldn't that gut you? Wouldn't you just be beside yourself like thinking you, children, you ought to fear that. You ought to be afraid to walk so close to the edge. Why? Because it means your damnation if you fall. Surely God looks down at this world and thinks, children, you ought to fear. There ought to be a fear in your heart of a holy God, a God that can stand and condemn you to an eternity in hell, that that fear ought to be in your heart. God in his mercy wants us to be afraid. Psalm 36 once says, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes. How could mankind legislate abortion with a fear of God? How could they legislate homosexual marriage if they had a fear of God? How could they legislate teaching in the schools that there is no creator and that evolution is absolutely true if they had a fear of God? but the problem this morning is they don't. But God gave it the law with an awesome realization of his power. Then he gave it with an awesome realization of his presence. Exodus 31 verse 18 says, and he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of commuting with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Moses, where did you come up with that? And he said, God gave it. In fact, it's written with the very finger of God. I don't know how that works, you know, physically, like how God did that. But God, it says, biblically, that it was the hand of God that did it. The finger of God. So what is the authority behind these, as we call them, the Ten Commandments, God? Do you know in the United States today, even though there's a great public outcry against it, that still today there's some courts that have the Ten Commandments up in the courtroom? You know, if the law was given by anybody else, it wouldn't have lasted this long. That by now, surely it would have changed. People would have said, nah, nah, nah. And they're starting to kind of break it apart. But the reality is, it still stands. It's still right. It's still correct. Why? Because it's given by God. It's still applicable today, 3,000 years later. So what did it say? It said, do not murder. Do not murder. You have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt not kill. And actually, we looked at Moses and the Ten Commandments, but you know, in actuality, that that command, thou shalt not kill, is one of the earliest commands given in scripture, as again, written by Moses, but written about a time period that preceded him, revelation that would have been given to him by God. Because he's writing, Moses is the one that wrote about Adam and Eve. He's the one that wrote about Cain and Abel. And back then, in early times, Genesis 9-6, just after the flood, it said, So before the Ten Commandments, Way back at the first book of the Bible, we're just 10 chapters into the first book of the Bible, and chapter number nine, it says, don't kill. Don't kill, don't murder. Again, a very important command. You know what's sad is that the first murder took place how quickly? In the first family. Do you know that? The first murder that ever took place took place in the very first family. The boys' names were Cain and Abel. And I'm sure as I say that, the kids think about the story of what took place. But it says in Genesis 4, 8, Cain talked with Abel, his brother. It came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. Cain despised his brother. Why? Because his brother's sacrifice had been acceptable to God. He offered a blood sacrifice, as God had said. And Cain didn't want to do that. Cain took up the fruit of the field and thought, you know, I'm going to offer to God a sacrifice that pleases me. And because it pleases me, it ought to please God. But God didn't accept it. And God didn't accept it, and Cain was jealous of his brother Abel. And so he sees him in the field, gets angry at him, and kills him. And so the first murder takes place, but the instruction was there. But Jesus says further as he shares the law, the law is do not murder, but if you murder, you'll be in jeopardy of the judgment. You'll be in jeopardy of the judgment. It says, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. That makes sense, doesn't it? Doesn't it? I mean, none of us this morning would want murderers just to be able to kind of do whatever they want to do without punishment. I mean, that would wreck society if somebody could just take somebody's life and it was pointless, right? So look with me if you want back at Numbers chapter 35. So what did the law say about murder? Okay, because it's not just the Ten Commandments. God's word goes beyond that and gives more scripture about how to deal with the crime of murder. Numbers chapter 35, and begin reading at verse 16, okay? So we're back towards the beginning of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, chapter 35. And then I'll start reading at verse 16. It says, if he smite him, this is the murderer, with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. Verse 17, if he smite him with throwing a stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he smite him with a hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. Okay, God's repeated that every verse. Why? For emphasis. When the Word of God repeats, it's always to emphasize. Verse 19, the revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer. When he meeteth them, he shall slay him. Okay, if somebody killed somebody else, whoever found out about that, and pursued that person, could justly put that person to death in that time period, unless they got to a city of refuge. And in a city of refuge, there's a council, and the council would look at it and say, did he hate him? Did he lie in wait for him? Was he trying to kill him? And all that instruction's right here as we read on. It says, but if you thrust him of hatred or hurl at him by lying of wait, that he die, verse 20, or an enmity smiting with his hand that he die, he that smote him shall surely be put to death, for he's a murderer. The revenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him. But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or if cast upon him anything without lying of weight, or with any stone, wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it upon him that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm. Okay, this is a person that would be like this in our modern day. You've had a car accident and somebody's died. You didn't try to kill them, but a consequence of a tragic accident is that there's accidental death. Okay? So God's differentiating between those two things. What happens with him? Then the congregation shall judge between the slayer, the person that killed somebody, not murderer, slayer, and the revenger of blood according to these judgment. And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge whither he was fled, and he shall abide in it until the death of the high priest which was anointed with the holy oil. Okay, there are consequences. That person, though they didn't mean to do it, yet there are consequences, and they are to stay in that city until the death of the high priest, and then they can go free. So it's not saying it's okay that somebody's life was taken by their lack of attention or their accidental cause, but they didn't premeditate it, therefore they're not worthy of death. Okay, so interesting, the Word of God has something to say about corporal punishment. And if today, I mean, this was taken on the streets, not many people would agree with corporal punishment, and yet the word of God has corporal punishment in it, okay? But everybody that we'd ask, if we went out on the street and said, you know, is murder okay? Everybody would say what? Categorically, no, unless they are a murderer, perhaps. No, it's not okay. I just, I read an article about, I forget how somebody died. I don't know whether it was maybe a drunk driver or something. And, um, the court just found that person not guilty who caused the death of a child. You know what the parents were saying? They're calling it injustice. How could this be? You have robbed us of our daughter and you go free. What if that was you? No, it's not okay. Nobody would stand up and say murder is okay. It takes something that cannot be given back, right? So you can't steal it and give it back. But Jesus says that mankind has murder in their hearts. Do you know that? Jesus says, you know, we've dealt with the law and that's here, here's the law. That's external, everybody knows that's not okay. But I'm gonna come to the inside and see what it says internally. Jesus says, mankind is murder in their hearts. He says in verse 22, but I say unto you. Now Jesus has an authority that nobody else has. He's the lawgiver. And he says, you know, this is the law, but now let me expound upon the law, but I say unto you, and you know what? He's the one that sees the heart. I can't see the heart. No earthly judge can see the heart and say, you're guilty of murder in the heart. They can only judge by externals, but God has the piercing ability to look to the very heart of a person. 1 Samuel 16.7 says, For the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Is Jesus just concerned or is God just concerned with the outward act of murder? He's not. He's also concerned about the internal desire or revelation of the source of murder that takes place. And he's gonna expound on it here, and so what does he say? He says, unreasonable anger is murderous. Unreasonable anger is murderous. It says, I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Wow. That's the same thing that's said about a murderer. It says, the law said if you murder somebody, commit the act, then you're in danger of the judgment. Same words. But I say unto you that if you're angry with your brother without a cause, that you're in danger of the judgment. Same punishment. God says. Now think about it. When somebody commits murder, is it reasonable or unreasonable? Unreasonable. A lot of times, isn't it? Not maybe in every case. Maybe there'd be a case where you could say, well, that person was severely tried by somebody and they responded, right? But a lot of times it's completely unreasonable. For instance, was Abel worthy of death because he offered a sacrifice that was acceptable to God and God accepted it? No. Cain's problem was not with Abel. Cain's problem was with who? God. But he took it out on Abel. It's not reasonable. You know, have you ever read an article and you read about a murder and you had to check to see if it was a tabloid that you'd somehow picked up? Because you're kidding, right? Why would somebody kill somebody over something to eat? I've read of that. You know, arguments over food at the table. I just read about a murder that took place. A kid called Tyler Blancet killed his mom, Sherry, in Alabama. He was going to the University of Alabama, came home. He and his mom had an argument over grades. Apparently he hit her with a bat or something like that and killed her. You're kidding. And so we can understand why the Lord says, you know what? One of the roots of murder is an unreasonable anger, an anger that is not checked, that comes, God says, from a murderous heart. We need to be careful, don't we? Young people or children, think about this. Have you ever gotten really angry with somebody and it was over something very stupid? You know, your parents have been saying to you, why are you fighting over that? That's ridiculous, it's not worth the effort. But there's that unreasonable anger that creeps into our hearts. And so Jesus says, unreasonable anger is a root of murder. Then he says, name calling is a root of a murderous heart. It says, whosoever shall say to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council. The Sanhedrin, danger of having to go before the Sanhedrin, the judges of the land, because they said Raka. Well, what does Raka mean? Raka was an Aramaic term. Raka was an Aramaic term meaning empty one. It's just name calling. It's a saying, you're just empty, full of emptiness. The saying says, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, right? You've heard that said? Like, no big deal, right? It doesn't matter what I say, it matters what I do. I can say whatever I wanna say, and I know it's speaking about somebody that's been offended, but we kinda take a low view of what is said. I know the other day, I had a lady out in front of my house cursing a man. You know, and I've seen it many times. But just going off, like how many times have you seen somebody go off? I've seen people go off here maybe more than any other time in my life, any other place in my life. Just letting their mouth fly off the handle. What does God think about that? Does God care what I say? Matthew 12, 36 says, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Do you know that everything that I say, every word that I say, I'm gonna give an account before a holy God for what has been said? How careful we need to be about what comes out of our mouth. Exodus 20 verse seven, you know this one very well. One of the 10 commandments, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for he will not hold him guiltless at taking his name in vain. No big deal. I just I don't mean, you know, Jesus, but I don't mean God by it. God says I'm not going to hold him guiltless. You can't get away with that. You can't say my name in vain like a curse word and stand before me someday and me say, hey, that's fine. No big deal. I'll just let that one slide. Every time somebody says that, I've heard it. It's grievous. Mark and I heard it when we picked up that cabinet that you got the man. I don't know if you heard him say it, but he's taking Christ's name in vain. I heard him do it several times. He used the name of Jesus Christ as a curse word. You know, he's gonna give an account before a holy God for that. That's a very serious thing. So how important what I say is, because people would say murder, that's a big deal, but it's not a big deal what I say. But name calling, God says, if you do that, you're going to be a danger to the council. Again, the council was the Sanhedrin. You know, they had the authority to commit somebody to death. That person would then have to go before a Roman judge to back up and verify what the Jews' judgment had been upon him, but they could give the sentence of death. So it's not a light thing that Jesus is saying. Now, I think putting ourselves in with Jesus's congregation, the Sermon on the Mount, people were feeling pretty good about themselves maybe before he started saying, I'm not a murderer, I'm a good person. But then Jesus begins to reveal murder in the heart. Unreasonable anger is murderous. Name-calling is murderous. And then cursing anger is murderous. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire. The Believer's Bible commentary says here, the word fool means more than just the dunce. It signifies a moral fool who ought to be dead, and it expresses the wish that he were. It's like our word damn. Wow. That fool is just like damning somebody. It's like saying, you know, we hear it in our society, somebody cursing somebody and putting God's judgment upon them, as it were. And God says, that's hellish, and it's worthy of hell. Wow. Again, I've heard it more than I care to. I live across from a pub, and I've heard it many times, middle of the night, people cursing. Cursing. You know, and the police, if it was murder, if somebody's being killed, the police would be there, and they'd be taking care of it. But what's taking place out there, it's not physical murder, but it's murder, it's murderous. It's the same sin. Now I look at it, I saw it last Saturday, was it? Yeah, Saturday morning, 1.30 in the morning. I'm watching as I'm on the phone with the police, encouraging them to come quickly. Watching people beat each other up. They're punching each other. It's violence, reprobate. It's awful. And it's this wicked sin that Jesus Christ is speaking about. You know what the Bible says in Revelation 20, 1.8? but the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall depart in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. There's a lot of things we can look at in the list, but did you notice one thing that we've been talking about is in that list? Murderers. Murderers shall have their part in the lake of fire which burneth with brimstone. Let me ask you this. Is Jesus, when you stand before him, is he gonna differentiate between the act of murder and the thought of murder? No. He's just told us that. It's the same. We all know today, I mean, if we had, you know, anybody that thought murder was okay, we'd be bothered by that. But the problem is this. We could have Murder in our hearts. And God's as serious about that this morning as he is about the act of murder. And once that dealt with. So we might say, I've never done something really bad like murder, but the question would be, or have you? Have you? So what do we do? Well, Jesus goes on to say, if you wanna worship God, you got that in your heart, deal with it before you try to worship me. Bringing your gift to the altar is worship. In verse 23, it says, therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar. They want to worship God. That's a good thing. I mean, we'd say that's great that you want to worship God, but worshiping God without a clean heart is no worship at all. It's not. No, it doesn't please God that's warning that somebody's in church. It doesn't please God that somebody dresses up, looks nice. It doesn't please God that they put on a good facade. What God's interested in is the heart, and that's why Jesus says it doesn't matter if you're not knifing somebody in the back. Physically, what matters is if you're knifing somebody in the back spiritually. If that is in your heart, it needs to be dealt with. And so, how do we know it's there? Well, the spirit of God is gonna remind you. It says, therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee. All right, you're coming to worship God, you get down there, you've got an offering of some sort, let's say it's financial, and you're gonna give that to God. Or it's physical, back in the day, it's a lamb, or it's something, you wanna worship God. And all of a sudden you get there, and it's like you can't. And you're thinking, why not? And you're convicted inside, you're thinking, you know what? Man, I'm not right with somebody. And I know I'm not. And if I stood before a holy God, what he'd say to me is, look, you've got anger in your heart, you've got bitterness in your heart, you've committed the act of murder in your heart against somebody, and it's not right, it's not okay, and I stand in judgment upon you. So what does God say to do about that? Well, to leave and get right and then serve God. Verse 24. It says, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. You get to a place, say you come to church, you wanna worship God, and all of a sudden it seems like, oh man, there's something in my life that needs to be dealt with. What God says to do is deal with it. I told you the story before of a James Stuart, the man that was used to the Lord in Europe as a revival preacher. He had a translator, a Jewish translator. And that guy disappeared for a couple days. And when he came back, James rebuked him and said, where have you been? If you're gonna translate for me, you gotta be faithful. And the man said to James Stewart, you know what? God was convicting me and I wasn't right with some people and I had to get right. So I had to go to them and ask them to forgive me. And now I'm back and I know that God can use me now because my heart's right with him. It's all right in a church when people want to get right immediately. That's a good thing. Even in the middle of a service for somebody that's convicted to say, you know what, I got to deal with this right now and let's go get this taken care of. And to go to somebody and say, look, I'm sorry. It's not right. It's not okay. That's a good thing. So when the spirit of God reminds us, we need to respond and leave and go get right. We're to deal with our sin before it condemns us. You know, Some people on that mountain, they're sitting there and Jesus is preaching and they're going, they hear him say, it has been said, thou shalt not kill. And they go, that's not me. I've never killed anybody. And then Jesus gets more specific and they begin to realize there's murder in their hearts. You know, they shouldn't continue to sit there. They ought to get up and go to their sister and say, I'm sorry. Go to their brother and say, I'm sorry. Go to their mom and dad and say, I'm sorry. Go to their neighbor and say, I'm sorry. Go to their boss and say, I'm sorry. Please forgive me, I want to get this right with you because I know what God thinks about this now and it's not okay. And deal with it. If they didn't do that, what's the problem? If they didn't do that, they're in danger of judgment. Verse 25 says, agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge. What he's saying is this, you're at an impasse with your adversary, you know there's a problem, deal with it, otherwise there's gonna come a day where it's too late. It's too late. You should, when you're in the way with them, deal with it before you get to the judge, because if you get to the judge, it's too late. You know, right now, everybody in here has the opportunity to get right with anybody. You can't. You can humble your heart and go to them and say, look, I'm sorry, this is not right. It's never been right. Please forgive me. I want to restore this relationship because it is, I've realized today how awful it is in the sight of a holy God. It's not okay, I want to get right. We can do that. But you know, when you stand before God someday, it's too late. It's too late. And that's what he's going to go on to say. Deal with it, otherwise you're in danger of the judgment, because they're going to deliver you to the judge. And once you get to the judge, you're in danger of punishment. You don't get to the judge and get off. It's too late. It says in the judge, deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. You get to the judge, and the judge says, guilty. Sentence. That's it. You know, I could feel bad for that kid Tyler I mentioned that killed his mom. Why? What's the rest of his life gonna be like? He wrecked it, didn't he? Sad, one point of anger, one point of murderous anger should have been dealt with in his heart, he didn't deal with it. And I understand that for the rest of his life, his life's wrecked, except for the mercy of God, the grace of God, the forgiveness of God, him getting saved in prison or something like that, barring anything like that, his life is wrecked completely. You know, it's gonna be a sad thing for people to enter into eternity without the grace of God, without the mercy of God, because when judgment comes, it is exact. There is no mercy given. Verse 26 says, verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost pardon. Jesus is saying, if it gets to the judge and the judge gives punishment, I'm telling you this, you're gonna pay it in full. Pay it in full. No mercy. You know, the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 1 9 about those that are cast into hell, they're punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. They're beyond the mercy, they're beyond the grace of God. It's too late, they're in eternity, they're judged. Remember that rich man in hell? He's crying out and saying, oh, Father Abraham, have mercy on him. Send that beggar Lazarus, full of sorrow, send him with just a drop of water on his finger and touch it to my tongue because I am tormented in these flames. And Abraham basically says no, no, no mercy. Yeah, it's a very serious thing to enter into eternity without getting relationships right with others. You know, we've talked about it before, and Jesus will talk about it in the Sermon on the Mount. If you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. And so if there's murder in your heart towards somebody, and it's not right, get it right. Deal with it. Because God views it the same. You know, again, this morning, if I asked, do we have any murderers here? I don't think, you know, I don't know, but I don't think anybody would raise their hand, right? But in actuality, if we looked in the mirror and looked into our heart, the honest truth would be, you know what, there's murder in my heart or there has been murder in my heart in the past. There's been anger that has been unreasonable. I curse people or I've called names at people and God says it's the same. It's the same. So we need to see it as God sees it. You know, the blessing. The blessing of doing it as God views it is that we can deal with it, right? Because if I deal with it in the way, you know, I'm still in the way with my adversary, I can deal with it in a way that gets right with him and gets right with God. before judgment, that's God's mercy. That'd be far better today. You know, and if this morning you're thinking, I'm gonna go to heaven because I'm a good person, I hope somebody would stop and think, you know what? Anybody would say murderers can't go to heaven, but by the grace of God, Paul was a murderer, he went to heaven. But we understand, murder's a big thing. Nobody would say, I'm a good person, I'm a murderer. Nobody says it. But in reality, if we look at the word of God again, everybody is guilty of that, everybody. So how much this morning do we need the grace of God and the forgiveness of God and the help of God to deal with that? Let's pray and ask God to bless His words, our hearts. Father, we're thankful this morning for the time that we've been able to spend in Your Word. And I ask just now in this invitation time, as we stand and sing, that Lord, if there's murder in our hearts towards somebody, we're not right. Lord, and I pray the Spirit of God give us grace to repent. And Father, grace to humble ourselves and go to that person today and say, look, I'm sorry that this relationship has been this bad. I'm sorry for my part in it. I'm sorry for a heart against you. And Lord, that we deal with it and get it right so that we can please you. Thank you for your help this morning as we looked at the sin of murder in your word. Blessed are those who stand and sing. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.