I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, as we continue a series of studies in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. Today, we are looking at verses 21 through 26. Hear the Word of God. Jesus said, 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're offering your gift at the altar and they 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 I say to you, you will never get out until you've paid the last penny. Let us pray. Father, your word is a delight to us because you are a delight to us. And so Father, as we give our attention to this passage now, we pray for the help of your spirit. Father, we pray that you would plow our hearts with the word of God. Father, we pray that you would Plant the seed of your word that it might bear good fruit in our lives. Lord, lead us into repentance where we need to repent and into new obedience where we need to obey. But Father, we thank you for the word of God. And Father, we worship you even as we study it and preach it and hear it. And Father, all to your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Our Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the question, what is the Sixth Commandment? And it answers, the Sixth Commandment is, thou shalt not kill, quoting from the old King James Version. And then it asks, what is required in the Sixth Commandment? You might think it would say, the Sixth Commandment requires that you not murder anyone. but that's not what it says, at least not at first. It actually answers the sixth commandment, requireth all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life and the life of others. See, the Westminster divines understood that these commandments not only prohibit something, but by prohibiting it, they also enjoin its opposite, the positive. And so not only should we not kill someone, not murder them, but we should do everything we can to preserve life, to preserve our own life, to preserve the lives of those around us. So they lead with the positive, and only then did they come back and say, what is forbidden in the Sixth Commandment? And their answer? You might expect the Sixth Commandment forbid of the taking away of our own life or the life of our neighbor unjustly or whatever tendeth thereunto. In other words, carelessness or whatever it might be. Now, as we come to this section in Matthew 5, Jesus is giving examples. We saw last time, just before this, Jesus is talking about the law, and he explains that he didn't come to abolish the law, the Old Testament law of God. but to fulfill it, to complete it. And he warns against those who would minimize the law of God in their teaching as they teach others, and also, of course, in their own lives. And in fact, he says that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven. How do we have that kind of righteousness? That's what people then would have been asking because they thought very highly of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. And so they ask, they're at least thinking, how on earth will anyone be saved if that's the standard? Well, we said last time, one way to have that righteousness and the primary way that we have that righteousness is that we have it in Christ. In our despairing of righteousness, we are driven to Jesus, trusting in Jesus, And Jesus not only takes our sin upon himself and has died for it, but he gives us his own perfect righteousness to stand on our record before God. That's the only way anyone enters the kingdom of heaven. The only way anyone can be saved is in the perfect righteousness of Jesus. But then having that with new life, with this new righteousness, new standing before God in Christ, we now love God's law. We want to live by God's law. We want to obey it from the heart, from the inside out, not merely outward show to satisfy fellow church members or our elders or our parents or our children, whoever it might be. And that was the way it was with so many of the Pharisees. That's why Jesus called them whitewashed tombs, pretty on the outside, hideous on the inside, but rather because we love the Lord who sees our hearts. And we want the Lord to see in his people hearts that love him, that want to obey Him. that we won't do it perfectly, and that we do try to live by God's law and by God's word. Now, Jesus teaches that, as we saw last time, but then, being the supremely excellent teacher that he is, he goes on to give a number of examples or case studies where he looks at various laws to demonstrate what he is talking about by this righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees. And so what does this Pharisee exceeding righteousness look like? Well, Jesus' first example is here in our passage, and it has to do with the sixth commandment. having to do with not murdering, prohibiting murder. And as we look at it, I want to examine it under three headings. First of all, the commandment as it was given and taught, and then second, the deeper intention or deeper meaning or requirements of the commandment, and then application of the commandment, as Jesus suggests a couple there. So first of all, the commandment as it was given and taught, verse 21, You have heard that it was said. Now, that introduces us to a familiar, or what will become a familiar formula through this passage, where Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, but I say to you. Well, who is Jesus correcting? Who does he have in mind when he uses this example? Well, we have to very quickly say not Moses, Jesus isn't correcting Moses, not the Ten Commandments themselves. Jesus is not correcting the Ten Commandments, which, after all, are commandments he himself gave, right? God gave the Ten Commandments. Jesus gave the Ten Commandments. He's not suddenly changed his mind and decided he's taking exception to them, no. That's not where Jesus' difference lies when he says, you have heard that it was said, but I say to you, rather, he is correcting how they had been taught the law and mistaught the law with a right understanding of the law. It's like having the author explain his book to you, having the lawgiver explain what the intention of the law actually is. I say to you, so what was taught? Well, you shall not murder. So far so good, that's the commandment, Sixth Commandment. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. Now that's not part of the Ten Commandments, but we could say that is part of the broader law that was given to Moses for Israel, where civil penalties would accompany murder. Obviously, there were penalties for murder in Israel. And so in a sense, what Jesus quotes from them here is okay. It's really not bad. And by the way, murder, I think, is a better translation. The King James, thou shalt not kill, is true, but it could be taken in the wrong ways. It could be taken as prohibiting even the execution of a criminal by justly tried under the state. It could be taken as preventing extreme self-defense if needed, or it could be seen as requiring passivism. But, you know, God's own law required capital punishment in certain cases, and self-defense is certainly valid and legitimate, even at the extreme of taking the life of another in defense of yourself or loved ones. So it's not that the commandment prohibits killing in any and all ways, but rather that it prohibits murder, or as our catechism puts it, the taking of our own life or that of another unjustly. Wrongly. We know that distinction. We know what it is. Well, so far so good. Jesus doesn't take exception to what has been stated so far. But what is the problem? The problem is it doesn't go far enough. The teaching doesn't go deeply enough. Without further elaboration, someone might think that they've kept the commandment And they're good with God on the score of this particular commandment. Remember Jesus' conversation with the rich young ruler, the man who came to Jesus and said, sir, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life? And somewhat surprisingly, Jesus says to him, if you would enter life, keep the commandments. In an absolute sense, that's true. If anyone kept the law perfectly, they would be good with God. Of course, we know no one does that, but that's where Jesus starts. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. And the ruler says, well, which ones? Which is kind of like a student saying, is this going to be on the test? We know what that means, because if it's not, it's not even worth knowing. It's not worth studying. It's not worth my effort and time to acquire this information if I'm not going to be examined on it. And that could be what he was saying, or just asking for clarification. Which commands, Jesus, do I need to keep? And Jesus kind of plays along and he suggests a few commandments. Interestingly, they're all from the second table of the law, the second, not the first four commands, but the latter six commandments of the 10 commandments that all have to do with our horizontal relationships, human to human relationships. Jesus suggests some, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother. And then another place, the summary of it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, which kind of encompasses all of those more specific commandments. And the young man says to Jesus, all of these I have kept. Wow, okay. The young man is giving the answer of one who has been taught by the scribes and the Pharisees. That's the answer of those who have been taught by the scribes and the Pharisees. All these I have kept. And I think he was utterly sincere. He truly thought he was blameless before God on account of each one of these single commandments. And it's worth noticing the very first one Jesus mentions is the one he's talking about here. You shall not murder. The man thought he had kept that commandment. And on one level, I'm sure that he had. He had never murdered anyone, never taken the life of another person unjustly. But had he actually kept the sixth commandment blamelessly? You see, here's the rub, here's the problem. A superficial understanding of God's law and a superficial application of God's law gives us a false sense of righteousness. All these I have kept, God must be pretty pleased with me. But the thing is, a false sense of righteousness strips us of any sense of desperate need for Jesus. It's part of the problem with the Pharisees. They were so convinced of their own righteousness, they didn't see who Jesus was and certainly didn't feel any need of who he was. And without Jesus, we're cast into hell. So an inadequate understanding, a superficial grasp of God's law is a problem. And that was Jesus' problem, as we'll see as he goes on. It's not so much with what was taught, but that what was taught was not enough. It didn't go deep enough. And that brings us then to the second thing I want to consider with this passage, and that is the deeper intent of the commandment, the greater reach of the commandment into our lives than they had been taught. You see this in verse 22. Jesus, the second half of the formula, but I say to you, again, not correcting the law, not correcting Moses, but correcting the way it had been taught. 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. What is Jesus saying here? He's saying that it's not just literal murder, that is a violation of the commandment. But hatred for another in one's heart, an insulting tongue that is an expression of that heart, a contempt, an attitude of contempt toward other people made in the image of God. Let's take a look at each one of those. First of all, he says whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Most modern Bible translations have a little note there, you'll notice a little number or note of some sort that indicates that the words without cause are found in some manuscripts. they're not included in the text because scholars conclude that that's not, probably not originally there, the oldest manuscripts don't have it, that kind of thing. It may have come in with a scribe not really paying attention, or maybe thought that was a bit harsh, that couldn't be right, and then consciously tried to soften what Jesus was saying just a little bit with the words, without cause. Because Jesus seems to, as you take the words at face value, prohibit anger in any form. Whoever's angry with his brother, without qualification, So that seems pretty strong, and so you have these words. But while the words, it seems, were not there originally without cause, without reason, I do think that they reflect the intent of what Jesus is saying. I don't think Jesus was prohibiting anger in any form, and in fact, not only are there things we should be angry about, But Jesus himself was angry in certain contexts. He got angry, for example, with the money changing going on in the temple is driving them out with the crack of a whip, the money changers. And specifically in Mark three, the hard heartedness of the Pharisees, we had a man with a diseased, a withered hand, and it was a Sabbath. And Jesus looks at them and he says, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath? And it says they remained silent. And it says Jesus looked at them in anger because of their hard hearts and healed the man's hand even as they were watching. Because yes, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. But it specifically says Jesus looked at them in anger. He was angry with them at how hard-hearted they were. So Jesus is talking about an improper anger here, as the rest of the verse in the context seems to indicate. A selfish, not a righteous anger. Anger where my agenda, not God's agenda, is being frustrated. Anger that persists and refuses to be placated. Anger that is, well, enjoyed. because sometimes it feels good to be angry at someone. Well, notice what Jesus does here. It's not just murder itself that is liable to judgment, and he uses the same word liable, but anger. It's in verse 21, but here it's anger. Anger too is a violation of that commandment. Improper anger is sin and violates that command. And then he says, whoever insults his brother will be liable, there's that word again, to the council. The word insults is literally whoever says raka to his brother. It's a term of derision. It's an insult of someone's intelligence, kind of like calling them a numbskull or something like that. And it does seem there may have been some law on the books that prohibited that kind of language toward a fellow Jew, because Jesus says that if you do that, if you utter that, you would be answerable to the Jewish council for violating apparently this statute. But it goes further than that. And again, Jesus' point is not that you just get in trouble with the civil authorities, but he goes on to say, and whoever says you fool, will be liable to the fires of hell. The word you fool here is the word from which our word moron comes from. Fire of Hell is literally Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom. You may have heard of that, a trash dump outside the city of Jerusalem where fires were burning continually, smoke rising up with the fires. In the evil days of King Ahaz, King Manasseh, which some of you will recall from our studies in 2 Kings, it was a place of human sacrifice. And Jeremiah, a contemporary of those days, referred to it as the valley of slaughter. And so with its fires, its smoke, its grim associations, its unpleasantness, it was a very apt metaphor for hell and a rather vivid metaphor for hell as well. And so Jesus is in effect saying, yeah, you don't wanna get caught up with the Jewish council, but worry a lot more about being cast into hell. Now, what's Jesus saying here? Well, let's go back again to that rich young ruler. Remember, the man said to Jesus, all these I have kept, what do I still lack? Okay, good so far, there's gotta be something else, tell me what it is, what do I still need to do? Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, you can see the guy, you know, just on the edge of his seat, if you'd be perfect, go, sell what you possess, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. and come follow me." There it was. All you need to do. He couldn't do it. You know what happened? The man walked away sadly, turned away from Jesus. The text says, for he had great possessions. Turned his back on eternal life for this pittance he had in the world. Why? Because not only did he have his possessions, but his possessions had him. The man was a profound idolater. He worshiped his money. And Jesus put him to the test. Now moving up to the top table, the first table of the law, in fact, the very first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me, the Lord says. And Jesus said, okay, let's check this guy out and see who his God really is. His God was his money, as became evident, exposed his sinful heart. You see, when he says, all these I have kept, he was exposing only a very superficial understanding of the word of God, the commands of God. And it was a lethal misunderstanding. So is ours, so is yours and mine. We do like to justify ourselves, but God's word and God's law rightly understood will not let us get away thinking all these I have kept. Most likely you have never murdered anyone, but you've hated them. You have felt contempt for them, and that contempt has led you to utter words of insult and derision toward them, either in their presence or alone or to another. You've done that, and so have I. What does that mean? That means not a one of us has kept the sixth commandment. Not even close. Do not look at the commandment, you shall not murder, and think, check, I'm good. You're not. I'm not. We stand under the judgment of God. Is Jesus saying that to hate someone is as bad as literally murdering them? No. That's nonsense. Of course it's not. And that's not what Jesus is saying. What he is saying is that there are ways to violate this commandment that don't involve physically murdering someone. It's about our hearts. After all, murdering someone is also an expression of our hearts. It's about hatred, it's about contempt, it's about insulting language. No, they're not as bad as actually murdering someone, but they are, in fact, a grievous violation of the sixth commandment. And apart from God's forgiving grace in Christ, that violation lands you and me in hell forever. You see why Jesus took exception to how the law was being taught. So the commandment as given, commandment with its deeper intent, as Jesus indicates, that it goes beyond the mirror outward to our hearts. And then he offers a couple of applications, just touch on these quickly. In verses 23 and following, obviously we shouldn't murder someone, but as the Catechism teaches, we should do everything we can to protect our own lives, to protect the lives of others around us, and that is an application of it. But Jesus offers a couple of specifics. Interestingly, they both tie into the idea of being a peacemaker, which you remember he talked about back in the Beatitudes. One of his examples is from the realm of religion, and the other is from the realm of the civil courts. First, in verses 23 through 24, Jesus says, if you're there, you're at the temple, you're in the house of God, you're offering your gift at the altar, and in that very moment, you remember that your brother has something against you. You've done something to offend them, to hurt you, and they're upset with you. Maybe there's been a strain or even a break in the relationship. You've sinned against them in some way. Jesus says you should leave off right there and go be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift. Get reconciled and then come and worship God. It's that important. Leave off worshiping God to go make things right with this person you have offended. Maybe you need to apologize, ask their forgiveness, clarify, whatever it might be. So Jesus is saying that the sixth commandment should prompt us not only that we don't murder someone or hate them or hold them in contempt, but desire to be reconciled to people, desire to have good and healthy relationships with people, being willing to humble ourselves and apologize and ask forgiveness for whatever part you might have played or I played in causing the breach in that relationship. The sixth commandment calls for us to not only kill people, but seek to be reconciled in a good relationship with them. As Paul put it, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with all men. So that's one example that Jesus gives. The second example is from the law courts. Jesus envisions a court case. You've wronged someone and they're taking you to court, suing you, whatever it might be. And Jesus, in effect, is saying, well, don't just merely rely on the court to settle things because you don't know how that's going to go. but rather you seek to be reconciled with the person. Don't just leave it to the courts, but how is your heart in all of this? Are you hoping the court's just gonna destroy them? Or do you care about them and the relationship? Are you concerned to go ahead and make an effort to be reconciled even before it gets to the court? Because you don't know how things are going to go there, and you can end up in prison, as Jesus says, and never get out until you have paid the last price. Penny. By the way, if we want to sort of spiritualize this a little bit, this has to do with our appearing before God, too. We're not called to simply wait and see what God decides when we stand before him on that day. We're called to be reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ now, because in fact, if you wait and you're not in Christ, you will be in hell and you will not get out until you've suffered an eternity's worth of justice from an infinitely holy God. But those are the examples that Jesus uses. And, you know, we look at them and you could come up with all kinds of what-if questions. And I think it would be wrong to take even what Jesus says here and just woodenly apply it in various situations. That calls for wisdom. But we don't want to lose sight of Jesus' point. Violation of the sixth commandment comes from the heart. True obedience to the commandment comes from our hearts. And far from being murderers, by God's grace in our heart, we should seek to love others and want to be reconciled to other people in as much as it's in our power to do that. Now, you know, we read this and we have to confess we're all guilty. We all need to repent. We all need to go before the Lord and confess that we have hated others. We've held others in contempt. We have spoken insultingly to others and about others. But we go before the Lord in repentance asking his forgiveness. Jesus died for these sins also and seek forgiveness in him. And we may need to go and seek forgiveness from other people as well. but also by God's grace, then with this in mind, we want to, by His grace, do better. Please don't murder anyone, really. But also guard your heart against contempt for others, against outright hatred of others, especially people who are different theologically or on a different side politically or ethnically or any other way. Be on guard with your tongue and with your heart against disparaging others, against gossip about others. Watch yourself online. All of that goes back to this sixth commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself, the law says. Jesus taught in John 13, as I have loved you, so you must love one another. See, our vertical relationship to God has great implications for our horizontal relationships with each other. You shall not murder, the command says. We're all guilty, but grace and forgiveness are found in Christ. Let's pray. Father, be merciful to us, the sinners. Lord, we have violated this command, and we confess it to you, acknowledge our guilt, and Lord, pray that you would forgive us for the sake of the shed blood of your Son. But Father, also, we pray for your grace that we would Begin to obey this command, not just outwardly, but Lord, more deeply. Help us to be aware of our hearts, what we're thinking, and Lord, to repent and to seek to love others as you have loved us. Forgive us, Father. Thank you for the righteousness of Jesus for us before you in this matter, as in every other. And it's in his name we pray, amen.