Would you kindly turn in the word of
scripture to the gospel recorded by Saint Matthew
and you will find that the passage before
us this morning in pursuing our studies in
the Sermon on the Mount begins with verse
21 in chapter 5 and proceeds to include
verse 26 verses 21 to 26.
You have heard that it was said to
the people long ago do not murder and
anyone who murders will be subject to judgment
but I tell you that anyone who is
angry with his brother will be subject to
judgment.
Again anyone who says to his brother Wrecker
is answerable to the Sanhedrin but anyone who
says you fool will be in danger of
the fire of hell.
Therefore if you are offering your gift at
the altar and there remember that your brother
has something against you leave your gift there
in front of the altar first go and
be reconciled to your brother then come and
offer your gift settle matters quickly with your
adversary who is taking you to court.
Do it while you're still with him on
the way or he may hand you over
to the judge and the judge may hand
you over to the officer and you may
be thrown into prison.
I tell you the truth you will not
go out until you have paid the last
penny.
We have entitled our theme this morning as
found in this passage murder the bud and
the bloom now a few Sunday mornings ago
we were looking at these words of our
Lord in verses 19 and 20 where he
was telling his disciples in the first place
and telling us of course through his word
that our righteousness as the subjects of his
kingdom must exceed, must excel, must surpass the
righteousness of the teachers of the law and
of the Pharisees of his day.
The righteousness of the subjects of the kingdom
of our Lord must be something which is
altogether different from anything else that bears the
name.
It is something altogether surpassing every other claimant
to that name.
In the passage now before us we encounter
the first of six illustrations given by our
Lord in the body of this one chapter
illustrations of what this larger, this greater, this
surpassing righteousness really is and this is going
to be our theme for meditation over a
number of Sunday mornings.
Now thus far our Lord has been expressing
various facets of that righteousness in positive terms
in the Beatitudes for example and in telling
us as he told his ancient disciples that
we are to be the salt of the
earth and the light of the world all
that is very positive.
But now he moves to the negative and
he tells us what is not adequate, what
is short of the mark what this qualitative
righteousness is not and when we come at
last to put the negative and the positive
together in our Lord's teaching we have virtually
a very remarkable statement of the case that
can only humble us and however arrogant we
may be in and of ourselves if we
are not humbled by it, it bespeaks of
our being very far away from the Spirit
of God.
Well here it is this is the subject
the righteousness that excels and our Lord begins
to elucidate this with reference to the commandment
given by God in the Old Testament the
principle operated of course before the commandment was
enunciated but it was enunciated in the law
in the Decalogue in the Ten Commandments as
given on Mount Sinai thou shalt not kill
you shall not commit murder Now may I
just say this so that everybody will understand
the passage before us today is very full.
Also there are a number of difficult questions
relating to it that are well nigh impossible
to answer.
I have to choose out this morning what
we can fit into the time at our
disposal and what I deem to be the
main thread.
What I will have to leave I leave
only because in some cases I don't understand
in other cases the time does not permit.
But I just want you to know that
I realize the passage before us is too
big for this hour, too large, too great
to cover nevertheless may the Lord help us
to have the main thrust of it and
to be able to apply it to ourselves
Now there are three main things if we
have time that we must look at.
First of all and this is the most
important the necessity to deal with murder in
the bud as well as in the bloom.
Verses 21 and 22 you have heard that
it was said to the people long ago
do not murder and anyone who murders will
be subject to judgment but I tell you
that anyone who is angry with his brother
will be subject to judgment again anyone who
says to his brother Raka is answerable to
the Sanhedrin but anyone who says you fool
will be in danger of the fire of
hell.
Now the deeper and more exacting Christian ethic
is not content with mere abstinence from the
committal of murder.
It demands a radical approach to anger in
the human heart which is murder in the
bud in the embryo.
That in embryo is the thrust of the
message before us this morning.
Now by way of background we need to
bear in mind that the Pharisees and the
teachers of the law in our Lord's time
and day they restricted the application of the
sixth commandment to the simple act or terrible
act of course of murder to the actual
deed of murder.
They took the meaning of the sixth commandment
to simply say do not murder, don't kill,
don't shed blood and if you don't shed
blood well then of course you're free, you're
not guilty of it what our Lord is
saying here is this there is a deeper
meaning to the commandment than that and even
though you may be quite innocent of the
dastardly deed itself you've never shot anyone you've
never knifed anyone, you've never cut anyone down
you've never been drunk driving and you've never
you've never murdered anyone on the highway but
you may nevertheless have murder in your heart
and murder in your spirit and if you
have it in the bud in the sight
of God it is tantamount to performing it
in act.
Now this is very challenging first of all
then let's look at the prohibition of the
overt act of murder.
You have heard that it was said to
the people long ago do not murder.
That this was the first and evident import
of the sixth commandment was agreed by all
concerned by Jesus the Pharisees and the teachers
of the law and everybody else they agreed
that it meant in the first place don't
actually murder, don't commit the overt act of
homicide human life is not ours to tamper
with human life is not ours to do
as we please with it murder in any
form whether it be of the fetus in
the womb at the beginning of life or
of someone aged at the end of life
or of anyone in between the one and
the other murder in any of its forms
is reprehensible in the sight of God.
Now that is clear as crystal from the
most superficial reading of the sixth commandment what
is in mind here it would seem however
is the killing of a personal enemy.
Now here is something that I cannot pursue
this morning I don't personally believe that we
are actually dealing with war here but with
personal relationships between people.
We come to the act the matter of
war or peace in other places in scripture
but I don't think that that is the
main thing that is it isn't what is
envisaged here.
Of the seven words available in the Hebrew
language to express the act of terminating life
by killing it that used here and in
46 other places in the Old Testament, Ratzach
is almost always if not always used of
killing one's personal enemy.
Killing one's personal enemy, getting rid of someone
I hate and who has become or whom
I have made my enemy.
Now life was deemed to be sacred in
the Old Testament this is this is basic
and all violent forms of snatching it away
brought guilt not only upon the individual but
upon the land and upon the nation.
Whether in the case of manslaughter or a
premeditated killing and that in turn must lead
to the yielding up of a life in
its place that is the law of the
Old Testament.
You take a life, you forfeit a life.
In the case of premeditated murder in the
Old Testament there was no such thing as
atonement now it would be very wise of
us to read the Old Testament when we're
thinking of capital punishment.
The Old Testament does not know of such
a thing as atonement that relates to premeditated
murder.
There was no substitute, there was no lamb,
there was no sacrifice that could cover for
the sin of premeditated murder.
No ransom could be paid and Dr. Walter
Kaiser Jr. whose ministry in this pulpit has
been a great benefit to a number of
us in our summer fellowships over over the
years, he explains why.
Genesis 9.6 he says would explain why
this is so this one capital offense required
the death penalty but was unlike the other
crimes that also had a capital punishment which
allowed substitution and so forgiveness it was because
humans are made in the image of God.
The capital punishment for first-degree murder became
a perpetual obligation to kill a person says
Dr. Kaiser was tantamount to killing God in
effigy.
You've seen it happen in some of the
parades on the street some of the people
out to manifest on which side they're on
and they have an effigy of someone and
they burn him up.
To murder a human being made in the
image of God is to murder God in
effigy says Kaiser I think it's a very
remarkable way of declaring a truth from scripture.
It is to murder God in effigy.
That murderer's life is owed to God.
Not to society not to the grieving loved
ones and not even as a preventative measure
for more crimes of a similar nature it
is owed to God.
It has been forfeited because it has murdered
one on the image of God now that
was a fact generally accepted by the Jews
generally accepted by all Jews of our Lord's
day and our Lord concurs.
Our Lord agrees there is no question about
that.
According to Jesus however the scribes and the
Pharisees had added something to the sixth commandment
something which be clouded the divine intention you
notice how Jesus quotes the addition in the
verse before us.
The second part of verse 21 the words
anyone who murders will be subject to judgment
now that is not in the Ten Commandments.
This is something that they have brought in
alongside the words from the Ten Commandments the
words which say thou shalt not kill.
They add this anyone who murders will be
subject to judgment will you say that's that
follows automatically doesn't it and in any case
isn't it a quotation from somewhere else in
the Old Testament well it is.
Why then is this wrong?
What is there wrong with it?
and now let me explain.
The Pharisees by putting these two things together
in juxtaposition had reduced the import of the
commandment thou shalt not kill to being just
a question of committing actual murder they've reduced
it to the matter of actually shedding blood
actually committing murder and that's all it means
and they're crystallizing that thought when they bring
in this here this addition to it and
then they go on to say if you
do commit the act of murder you will
be punished and punished as it is clear
here from the Hebrew punished by the local
tribunal by the magistrate.
Now there are two things there very important.
One as far as they're concerned murder is
simply the taking away of life the shedding
of blood the terminating of human life.
Two the consequences for murder come exclusively from
the tribunal from the magistrate and what they're
forgetting is this even though you may escape
the ire of the magistrate you have yet
another and a higher tribunal and Jesus later
on in this passage goes on to speak
of the fire of hell.
You may not be a murderer according to
this definition and you may avoid all the
charges brought against you before the civil magistrate
or whatever nevertheless there is a higher tribunal
that knows your heart and knows your soul
and knows your spirit and says the Lord
Jesus you are answerable there.
Now the second thing is this the condemnation
then of the attitude underlying acts of murder
I tell you says Jesus that anyone who
is angry with his brother and some manuscripts
have the words inscribed there without cause.
Anyone who is angry with his brother will
be subject to judgment.
Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes agreed up
to that point now we come to the
dividing line Jesus insisted that the command to
desist from murder goes beyond the mere prohibition
of the act itself to the condemnation of
the attitude of soul that gives birth to
the act that gives one the desire to
murder, the hatred the fire in the soul,
the venom in the spirit the bitterness that
lies dormant in the soul and will ultimately
express itself in the act of murder the
divine commandment says Jesus does not simply proscribe
murder itself, murder in full bloom but it
also proscribes murder in the bud, namely in
the form of anger and therefore our Lord
Jesus demands of the subjects of his kingdom
a quality of righteousness that is not only
free from acts of murder from cultivating and
permitting the underlying spirit to germinate and to
thrive and to live on in our hearts.
You see this is very challenging for all
of us I don't suppose any of us
here this morning have committed murder in the
strict sense, in the first sense homicide but
you see many of us may well be
carrying in our hearts a murderer spirit and
we want to dispatch of someone and we
want to see him or her dead either
the opportunity has not come our way or
we've not had the courage to do it
or we've been afraid of the consequences but
there it is and we carry it with
us and we feed it by one means
and another now the Lord Jesus Christ says
if you're living under my rule in my
kingdom subject to my law, listen he says
you've got to deal with that and the
righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees and
the teachers of the law must be a
righteousness that penetrates and permeates your soul so
that you do not have murder in the
bud in your heart.
Now good people I don't know how you
feel but but I find this very challenging.
There is a world of difference between these
two positions as will become evident upon a
moment's reflection.
Let me just give you an illustration you
see there was a young man who went
to Jesus one day and he said good
master he said what must I do to
inherit eternal life well says our Lord what
does the law say and Jesus quoted some
of the commandments oh he says wonderful okay
I'm through then I've passed he says I've
kept all these from my youth up what
he meant was he'd kept them superficially see
in terms of the understanding for example of
the commandment thou shalt not murder he hadn't
murdered anybody he hadn't shed anybody's blood but
what our Lord is saying you see is
that we can have murder in the heart
and you and I may be like that
young fellow or like the Pharisees and the
scribes thinking just because our hands are clean
and there is no law in the land
that can touch us they're all right brothers
and sisters we may not be we may
not be the Savior's teaching here is challenging
in the extreme you cannot claim innocence from
murder if you have hate in your soul
for anyone anger is the breeding ground of
murder of premeditated murder at any rate hate
or anger desires as we've said the removal
of someone out of life not just away
from your presence but out of life altogether
oh yes there is such a thing as
righteous indignation Jesus practiced it Paul commends it
when he writes to the Ephesians but it's
a very difficult thing to practice worthily in
the sight of God because James says man's
anger does not bring about the righteous life
that God requires James 1 10 the ethics
of the kingdom therefore demand that this that
we are dealing with this morning this hatred
that gives birth to murder shall be dealt
with in the butt thirdly the expression of
humiliating language now this takes us further on
the road and it it humbles us correspondingly
more and more again says Jesus in second
part of verse 22 anyone who says to
his brother raka is answerable to the Sanhedrin
but anyone who says you fool will be
in danger of the fire of hell now
there are many things we cannot comment on
here but let me say the obvious and
this is it and it is it is
it is it is something that we must
give note to give our attention to you
can kill with words you can murder with
words we can slay a character in the
first place with innuendo and gossip and slander
and lies and the worry that may emerge
in the consequence of all that can be
such as will bring a man or a
woman to actual physical death and if you
spread enough gossip with enough and sufficient innuendos
and lies somebody who loves you very much
may take the weapon in his or her
hand and slay that person instead of you
so that you murder by proxy and according
to British law murder by proxy is murder
in the first degree I believe that is
true to scripture you don't need to use
the axe you don't need to use the
pistol you don't need to use the automatic
but you may so arouse the enmity of
somebody else who loves you so much he
or she will take it upon himself to
get rid of the individual concern but you
are responsible my brother my sister before God
there is a very close bond between hateful
words and the hateful spirit on the one
hand and murder on the other and in
between between very often most likely you have
hateful words a hateful spirit in the heart
hateful words on the lips and the act
of homicide now the offensive language referred to
here by Jesus is very significant to call
someone racker is virtually to brand the person
as what you and I would say in
common parlance a blockhead or an empty-headed
person brainless it speaks of sheer contempt for
someone you see it presumes that I am
a knowledgeable character I've been through the schools
I've graduated I've got something you know and
here I am sitting on my pedestal and
he's brainless he's a dud says the Lord
Jesus you can't talk like that about your
father's creature what have you but that you
have received not nothing and you cannot speak
disparagingly as if he were in a different
category from yourself to call someone a fool
or the Greek word moros to give it
its real title denotes someone as a rebel
as the second reference here or an apostate
or an outcast and John Stott quotes Dr.
A.B. Bruce of a former generation as
probably expressing what the two words mean in
this way I quote racker says Dr. Bruce
expresses contempt for a man's head he translated
you stupid how often I've heard that word
used by people not realizing how awful it
is in the sight of God you stupid
brainless mindless more you fool expresses contempt for
his heart or his character you scoundrel now
it may well be that we have been
in the habit of using such unseemly language
in ignorance of their true implications in the
sight of God brothers and sisters if we
have let's desist from it let's by the
grace of God say to him right here
where we stand or where we sit this
morning that's enough of that he will not
have it he will not hold us guiltless
we use such language demeaning and unworthy of
creatures made after his image however spoilt the
image has become and particularly so when they
have been redeemed by the blood of Christ
and are our brothers and our sisters in
the church he will not have it you
and I will not go unscathed he will
thrash us he will chastise whom he loves
whether or not these angry thoughts and vicious
words actually result in physical murder in the
sight of God they come too near to
the act of murder to be safe in
our lives therefore by the grace of God
let's get rid of them let's seek his
mercy from day to day to keep us
from the evil way that's the implication here
as subjects of the kingdom let us obey
our king and honor him there are many
other or there is so much that one
might say here I have no time to
say it this morning I must rush to
conclude by briefly referring to the two other
matters here the next is the necessity of
defusing anger in someone's heart and the stress
that in the defusing of anger that is
to have priority even over the most sacred
act of worship verses 23 and 24 look
at them says our Lord if you are
offering your gift at the altar and there
remember that your brother has something against you
leave your gift there in front of the
altar don't go on with it first go
and be reconciled to your brother then come
and offer your gift now these words are
staggering in their import the law and the
prophets would agree with the teaching of Jesus
and his apostles that the loftiest exercise of
any man any woman anywhere anytime is the
worship of Almighty God you may occupy a
very important station in life and we ought
to respect one another for the important stations
we we may occupy but there is nothing
in life comparable to the worship of Almighty
God himself this is the chief end of
man and this is the highest point to
which man rises if you are a true
worshipper in the sight of God you've risen
above anybody and everybody apart from those that
are with you there here we are on
common ground nevertheless Jesus the Son of God
and the King of the heavenly kingdom categorically
affirms here that it is not only legitimate
but it is our bounden duty to put
that act of worship on hold if we
remember in process of our worshiping that our
brother has got something against us and we
should put the act of worship on hold
for a moment or even for longer and
go and be reconciled to our brother as
someone has put it I'm not sure who
God is content to wait the Almighty God
the Lord the creator of the ends of
the earth the Lord of time the eternal
being himself is content to wait for you
and for me to put things right with
our brother he says don't go on with
your worship put things right now in practice
of course it may not be as simple
as that and in chapter 18 of Matthew
how Lord deals with this this this subject
more more elaborately where it isn't as easy
as that not just going to an individual
and putting things right it may not work
out like that but it's got to be
done that's what Jesus is saying can I
just spell that out very briefly the act
of worship envisaged here of course is against
the background of the Old Testament an offering
of one's gift at the altar somebody's grateful
to God somebody's worshipping God and he's bringing
a sacrifice to offer it to God now
Mark there's a lot of things going on
before he brings the sacrifice there's the gratitude
in his soul then there's the decision made
what sacrifice is required of me and then
there is the finding of the sacrifice and
the paying for it if he wasn't a
farmer even if he was a farmer of
course he's had to pay for it but
if he's not a farmer he's had to
buy it from someone probably from the priest
and then he brings the animal into the
temple now all this has been going on
and the worship has come to the point
where the animal is being offered is being
handed over to the sacrificing priest to be
slain now that's the point now says our
Lord there comes over the worshipper the awareness
that somebody somewhere's got something against him some
brother somewhere has something against him the cause
of complaint which that brother may be nursing
in his soul may be legitimate may be
illegitimate there may be good reason for his
wounded feeling or there may be none nevertheless
says Jesus in that same brother's heart there
are seeds of thought and of feelings that
can if allowed to go unattended develop into
anger and beyond anger into murder so
he says put things right the appropriate course
in such circumstances as Jesus leave your gift
there in front of the altar first go
and be reconciled to your brother then come
and offer your gift the point is you
see that even the worship of almighty God
is unacceptable to the God whom we worship
whilst we carry a grudge or anger or
we know that our brother carries it we
must defuse it in ourselves or in our
brother we must do everything we can to
that end the commandment not to kill not
to murder requires us to assume this ruthless
and painstaking discipline in order to extinguish that
which can lead to an act of murder
somewhere down the line whether it be in
ourselves or in someone else we can't allow
it to go on we must learn to
extinguish the flame that can blaze forth into
murder in anyone this is the righteousness that
exceeds that of the Pharisees and the scribes
I wonder whether there is someone among us
this morning and you have thought in your
heart that the demands of the New Testament
are far inferior to the demands of the
old and you thought that to be under
the law in the Old Testament subject to
the law pure and simple as it was
understood the way back there was something far
less exacting than being a subject of the
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ my friend
I'm sorry to disabuse you I'm sorry to
disabuse you or the law cannot condemn us
who are in Christ Jesus we are not
under the law we're under grace what does
that mean because our king is a king
of grace he is a king who is
able to change our hearts and take murder
out of our soul and he will bring
us there I just say one word about
this other matter the urgency of settling our
differences with an adversary now notice we've moved
from a brother to an adversary verses 25
to 26 settle matters quickly with your adversary
who is taking you to court do it
while you're still with him on the way
or he may hand you over to the
judge the judge may hand you over to
the officer and you may be thrown into
prison I tell you the truth you will
not get out until you've paid the last
penny can I summarize it Jesus says this
is urgent really somebody's taking you to court
charging you with not having paid up your
your dues now look he says you're on
the way to court don't let him put
his foot inside the door of the court
and make his case before the judge because
that'll be too late I have no time
to try to explain and apply that and
it's too late see he says that you
put it right on the way before you
get into that position now that is but
an introduction to the righteousness which Jesus expects
of his people it exceeds the righteousness of
the Pharisees and of the teachers of the
law and it does so particularly because it
is not legal and it is not literal
even though it respects the literal and if
you like the legal but it goes beyond
that it is deeper it is vaster it
is more total and comprehensive Jesus Christ demands
the sanctification of the whole man of the
whole woman of the whole person the heart
must be right with God God save us
from thinking of holiness and sanctification simply in
terms of not going there not doing that
all those may be important have their place
relatively important but the basic and fundamental thing
is the matter of the heart the condition
of the heart and if the king of
the heavenly kingdom doesn't do anything he does
this he gets to the root of the
matter in our hearts and he says that's
where the problem is and that's what I'm
addressing you to and I'm determined to deal
with your heart see that's why we sang
don't you think it was a good choice
we need the Holy Spirit don't we I
can't do this of myself we're proud aren't
we I am apart from the grace of
God it is thine to cleanse the heart
to sanctify the soul to pour fresh life
on every part and new create the whole
we can only do this brothers and sisters
insofar as the Spirit of God is exercising
his sovereign saving mighty transforming grace upon us
and if he's urging you today in this
direction if he's saying anything to you as
he's saying to me brother and sister let's
be obedient he is still the one who
pardons transgressions and who cleanses us from unrighteousness
if we confess our sins come then to
the fount where sin is washed away but
do not let us only ask for cleansing
and pardon and be rid of our burden
let us ask for the grace that gives
us a burden for holiness of heart let
us pray oh Lord God our Father in
heaven we thank you for a lovely morning
such as this the end of November but
we nevertheless come to thank you now particularly
for your disturbing word not because we like
to be disturbed but because we have known
you at least well enough to understand that
whilst we remain undisturbed in our immaturity and
perhaps in our rebellion we are in a
dangerous situation and therefore our Lord we thank
you for this disturbing message from your word
even on this lovely sunny morning grant that
as we obey your truths discover your grace
we may find that there is a day
which is brighter than this bright morning even
a day without a cloud between us and
yourself and the blood of Jesus Christ your
Son cleanses us from all sin yea though
our sins are a scarlet they become a
snow though they be red like crimson they
shall be as will Father in heaven come
renew us strengthen us put strength into our
vacillating wills and energize us to be obedient
to your truth that we may be subjects
of your kingdom who are living epistles clearly
read and understood of men just because you
are fulfilling your saving purpose in each of
our lives in Jesus name, Amen