Who Is a Murderer?
Matthew 5:2126
 
Text
 
I've titled this passage tonight, "Who is a Murderer?" because I really think that's what our Lord is talking about.
 
It’s one of those terms that, unfortunately, we are much too accustomed to hearing about. Almost daily the news records another event where a life is taken at someone else’s hand. 
 
Statistics say that the United States experiences 45 murders per day. That’s over 16,000 per year. They go on all the time, in fact murders are so commonplace in some city that they don't always make the newspapers, unless they're bizarre or multiple.
 
Murder is really a very serious problem in our world, getting worse all the time. And that doesn't say anything about abortion and suicide and manslaughter both voluntary and involuntary. 
 
Now notice what our Lord says in verse 21, "Ye have heard it said by them of old, Thou shalt not kill."
 
Where did that come from? Well if you know anything about the Revelation of God you know it came basically from Exodus chapter 20, verse 14 when God gave the Decalogue and said, "Thou shalt not kill."
 
But scripture actually has a lot more to say about murder than just that. In fact if we go back even in the Book of Genesis we find in the 9th chapter and the 6th that capital punishment is instituted as a penalty for murder. And the reason is given in the same verse, "For in the image of God made he man."
 
To take the life of a human being is to assault the image of God He created in man and that brings about serious penalty. And so Genesis 9 authorizes capital punishment for those who shed blood because man is made in the image of God.
 
Now when you study Exodus 20:14 you would find that the phrase "thou shalt not kill," means murder. It does not refer to capital punishment, that is taking a life under divine allowance. It does not refer to a just war.
 
It doesn’t have anything to do with self-defense. I think we have the right to protect the image of God in our lives and the lives of our families and those about us when they are assaulted and attacked by those who would kill us. I don't believe it means accidental deaths.
 
For in Deuteronomy for example, chapter 19 it says that if a man takes a life of someone inadvertently, by accident, without pre‑meditating it that man is not to forfeit his life because there was no pre‑meditation.
 
What the Bible is talking about is murder. Planned, plotted murder.
 
God reiterates His position again in Exodus 21 and verse 14: "But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile (or deceit), thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die." God says capital punishment or death for the one who presumptuously comes in a pre‑meditative way to take the life of his neighbor.
 
Now if you know anything about the Bible you know that this was the very first human crime. In Genesis chapter 4 it says this, "And 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 murdered him." And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel, your brother? And he said, I know not: I am my brother's keeper."
 
The first crime was a murder, and the second crime was a lie. First he killed somebody then he perjured himself. And of course God said, "What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood cries unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand."
 
And so it is that from the first human crime, murder, on through the Revelation of God murder is a Biblical issue.
 
Now if we study the scripture we know how God feels about it, it is forbidden. It is punishable by death. We learn other things about murder in the Bible for example we learn that murder is a crime authored by the devil himself. John 8:44 says the devil is a murderer.
We find something else about murder in Matthew chapter 15 for example and verse 19 we find that murder is a manifestation of an evil human heart. Matthew 15:19 says, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies."
 
            Now listen to me, murders, thefts and all that other stuff do not happen because of social deprivation, they happen because of a degenerated human heart. Murder does not happen because of stressful situations it happens because it's authored by Satan himself.
 
Man is a murderer because he has a reprobate mind that has been given over to evil because he rejects God. So that murder is a crime authored by the devil, it is a crime that comes out of the evil human heart.
 
Now Biblical history and modern history are literally filled with murderers. From Cain to today, right now we've had murderers in human society.
 
We shudder at the thought of murder, we're afraid of it. We don't like to walk the dark streets of certain towns or of our own city in certain places. We worry about getting double locks on our doors for fear somebody might come and kill us.
 
Now it seems to me that the oddity of Jesus statement here in the Sermon on the Mount is that Jesus is speaking to the scribes and Pharisees. 
 
For in Matthew 5 through 7 our Lord is addressing the scribes and Pharisees on a hillside in Galilee along with the rest of the multitude.
But here in particular He refers to their approach to life.
 
Look again at verse 21, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, Thou shalt not murder and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment."
 
Stop right there. Now Jesus is saying, you know, you believe that it's wrong to murder because if you do you'll be in danger of judgment. And at that point the scribes and the Pharisees would have said Amen, Amen. We're against murder, we have been taught by them of old by the rabbinical tradition that murder is an evil thing.
 
In fact the thought that they did not murder, now listen to this, this is the key: the thought that they did not commit murder was one way in which they convinced themselves they were righteous. We would not murder, we would never murder anyone. And consequently we must be righteous. We have kept the law of God, 'Thou shalt not kill." We wouldn't murder anyone. And so they're not murdering was one of their favorite ways to justify themselves.
 
And so if we reject the idea of murder, and if we say to ourselves, why, that terrible breed of humanity, that indescribable vileness that characterizes murders, they're a different kind of person than I am, I don't murder. I'm not that kind of person, I wouldn't hurt anybody. And we would identify with the Pharisees at that point.
 
But, this is precisely where Jesus wants to attack them.
Back up to verse 20, He says, "For I say unto you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven."
 
They said if we don't murder we're righteous. Jesus said your righteousness has to exceed that. Not murdering is not enough. And when He said your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees He then proceeded from verse 21 to verse 48 to give six illustrations of how our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.
 
In this first one, Jesus gives them a teaching here about murder that's literally shocking, it is devastating, and it affects them in three ways and this is the outline I want you to watch tonight because it affects us the same three.
 
 What Jesus is going to say is so dramatic it'll shatter all of their comfortable categories. They had convinced themselves because they didn't kill anybody they were holy, they were righteous. Jesus blows that concept to bits.
 
1. Jesus' Words to Them Affects Their View of Themselves
 
They though they were righteous because they didn't kill. Now it was rabbinic law that they adhered to, notice again in verse 21, "You have heard that it was said by them of old." Now Jesus here is reminding them of rabbinic tradition. He's not referring to the law of Moses, He not referring necessarily to the Word of God, them of old were the rabbis.
This was a common reference to their past rabbinical teaching. Your religious system is what He's saying, your system of Judaism, your traditional system, your teach­ing says, you are not to kill because if you do you're in danger of judgment. You've been taught that, that is the tradition that's passed down to you.
 
And you remember that I told you last time the Jewish people at the time of Jesus were totally dependent upon this tradition.
 
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and no longer did any of them speak Hebrew. Since the Babylonian captivity and following they spoke Aramaic, and so the Hebrew Scriptures were lost to them in a sense. When they came back from captivity rather than the rabbis and the scribes and the rest of them as the time went on providing a scripture in their own language, they kept them in ignorance.
 
And so they couldn't really read and understand the Hebrew for themselves. And so the rabbis, the scribes, and the Pharisees, and the others would tell them what it meant, and this gave them a tremendous power over the people because the people couldn't verify whether it was true or not.
 
You'll remember that when they came back from captivity you remember, and they, they picked up the scripture in Ezra and Nehemiah's time and they read the scripture it says that "They read the scripture to the people, and gave the sense of it." It says in Nehemiah chapter 8 they had to give the sense of it cause the people couldn't understand it. And it continued even till Jesus, day.
Listen, the Jews of the New Testament, even much of the Old Testament were not people of the Book. They couldn’t even read the Book. 
 
They listened to what the traditional rabbis taught and they twisted and perverted it to their own ends.
 
Now in fairness, that doesn’t mean that everything they taught was wrong. Every now and then the things they taught did have a Biblical scriptural base, such as this.
 
You look at verse 21 again and it says, "Thou shalt not kill." Now you know that is Biblical. They were right on at that point. They got that from Exodus 20 verse 14. Further, you'll notice it says, "Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment." That's true also.
 
Numbers 35:30 and 31 it says right in there that when someone commits murder they're to die. So this rabbinic tradition was true, they were right on at this point. That was alright, it was basically scriptural.
 
But the point that Jesus is making here is it doesn't go far enough. That much is true but there's so much more. You have taken part of God's law; you have interpreted it only partially and then satisfied yourself with keeping your partial interpretation and therefore justifying yourself.
 
And you'll notice interestingly enough it says that whoever does this shall be in danger of judgment, and by the way the term judgment here refers to the local court, the local court, now I want you to think about this.
What He is saying is this, your teaching says you must not murder, now watch, because if you murder you will be in danger of being punished by the civil court.
 
Now what's wrong with that? It doesn't go far enough, does it? Their full interpretation of the 6th commandment of the Decalogue was this: don't kill because if you do, you'll get in trouble with the law.
 
But what about God? What about God's holy character? Oh that didn't even enter into the discussion. They had made this so mundane they didn't even mention God, they didn't even mention divine judgment, they said nothing about inner attitudes, they said nothing about the heart, all they said was don't murder or you'll get in a lot of trouble.
 
Their interpretation stopped short. And because they didn't murder and didn't get in trouble they decided they were self‑righteous, self‑justified, perfectly happy about themselves. Justified before God, we don't kill.
 
But listen, they forgot to read the rest of the Old Testament. Because the rest of the Old Testament says that God desires truth in the inward parts, Psalm 51:6.
 
The rest of the Old Testament says that "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all their heart, soul, mind, strength, thy neighbor as thyself."
 
The rest of the Old Testament says that God who knows the hearts and tries the hearts of men will judge.
In other words the part of God's law they left out was the internal part. It wasn't enough for you not to kill, God was concerned about what was going on inside. They had restricted the scope of God's commandments to an earthly court, they had restricted the scope of God's commandment to an act of murder.
 
And that's why Jesus goes on in verse 22, and says this, "But I say unto you." Let Me tell what God really meant by that word in Exodus, let Me give you the right interpretation, "whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause," and by the way in the King James it says without a cause, it's not in the best manuscripts, let's leave it out, "whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."
 
Jesus simply says, it isn't the issue of murder alone it's the issue of anger and hatred in your heart. You cannot justify yourself because you don't kill because if there's hatred in your heart you are the same as a murderer. And so I say the first point in this statement is that Jesus words affected how they viewed themselves and how we view ourselves.
 
We do this all the time. We look down ou self-righteous noses and say, “I would never do that.”
 
And yet sometimes we get so angry on the inside with someone, we mock people, we may curse people, we may feel bitterness toward people, we may nurse grudges toward people, we have unreconciled feelings toward people, and our Lord Jesus is saying, that is the same as murder.
Because God looks at the heart. And so when He says, "I say unto you," He swept aside all the rabbinical rubbish, and He put the emphasis where the emphasis belonged, He stripped them of their self‑righteousness. He said, in effect, who is a murderer? I'll tell you who is a murderer, anybody who is angry with his brother, anybody, you're a murderer. That's pretty straightforward, isn't it?
 
In fact, it’s interesting that the Lord says anger and murder merit equal punishment. In verse 22 He is saying you're in danger of the judgment, you're in danger of the council; you're in danger of hell fire.
 
Now what's our Lord saying? He’s saying that what's going on in the inside of you is what God judges. You may hate more than a murderer hates, you just don't have an opportunity to kill. And even a, a less violent hatred than that, even anger with a brother to any degree is the same in God's eyes as murder, and so frankly, who is a murderer? The answer is all of us.  
 
You have hatred, you're a murderer, you have anger, you're a murderer. And in God's eyes it's no different than a man who goes out and does the crime.
 
It's amazing to me how we justify ourselves. Even the worst of men justify themselves. In May of 1931 in the city of New York, one of the most dangerous criminals that city had ever known was captured. He was known as Two-Gun Crowley. Two-gun Crowley they said would kill at the drop of a hat, He brutally murdered many people, even finally brutally murdering policemen. What did he think of himself? We know what he thinks of himself or what he thought of himself because finally he was captured in his girlfriend's apartment after a long and arduous gun battle involving at least a hundred policemen.
 
And when they finally got him, they found a bloodstained note that said, "Under my coat is a weary heart, but a kind one, one that would do nobody any harm."
 
That's the depth to which a human heart will go to justify itself. Here is someone who would do nobody any harm? Who's he kidding? He was later executed in the electric chair.
 
You see even the worst of men exonerate themselves. But Jesus is talking o the best of men and says if you're angry with a brother or if you hate somebody you're a murderer, pretty serious. Jesus is saying, even if you don't do the killing, if your heart is full of anger and hate you're a murderer.
 
Now in verse 22, he uses three illustrations to reveal this sin. 
 
First one, "Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause," and as I said that's left out, there always will be a cause, that doesn't even appear in the better manuscripts, I don't know why I keep reading it.
 
"Whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of judgment." Now that's the first illustration. Jesus says you want Me to show you how serious this issue is, whoever's angry with his brother is in danger of judgment.
 
 
He's talking about selfish anger, you're angry with a brother. Something has happened and you're really hoppin' mad, you're angry. And it can be a slow burn or it can be a flaring thing. This is a brooding nursed anger that is not allowed to die, it's just a smoldering long-lived kind of thing for the most part.
 
And when you hold a grudge against somebody, when you hold a bitterness against somebody, when you hold anything no matter how small against somebody, you are as guilty says Jesus as the person who takes a life and you deserve the same judgment. If you are angry with your brother you are in danger of judgment. There shouldn't be any difference it's just as serious.
 
By the way, the judgment at the end of verse 21 that the civil court would give would be execution.
 
And He says the same thing right here: if you're angry you are in danger of execution. Capital punishment should belong to you for anger just as much as for murder. Now this is a tremendous statement.  
 
I don't know a civil court in the world that would give the death penalty to somebody for getting angry.
 
In fact, it’s becoming more and more rare for murder. But if God's calling the verdicts and God's sitting on the throne He is saying in effect that the one who is angry is as guilty as the one who kills.
 
 
 
 
Second illustration: 
 
verse 22. "Whosoever shall say to his brother Raca, shall be in danger of the council."
 
Now what does this mean? Well this person is also condemned as a murderer. Here is another example of someone who ought to get the death penalty. 
 
Raca is an interesting term, It's very hard to translate, it is an untranslated epithet. In other words it doesn't mean anything, it was sort of a, a term of derision that doesn't really translate, it meant something in that time and they all knew what it meant.
 
It is a malicious term, some have said it means brainless idiot, some have said it means worthless fellow, silly fool, empty head, blockhead, rockhead.
 
Commentators go all over every place with it. Rather than trying to translate it, let me define it: 
 
It is a verbal expression of slander against a person.
 
Maybe more directed toward his personality and toward something in his character or something in his looks, something of that sort. It is a word of arrogant contempt. You know, it’s what you say when someone cuts you off in traffic and you roll down your window and begin to shout at them. 
 
In our language it's different but it's basically the same thing, or he can do the same thing by making gestures with his hand or whatever, it's the same thing. And I've heard it a few times in my life. It didn't come out Raca but it was Raca.
There's a tale told about a certain rabbi whose name was Simon Ben Eleazar, and this rabbi was coming from his teacher's house and he'd just had a lesson at the feet of this great teacher and he was feeling uplifted in the thought of his own scholarship and he was so thrilled with his own righteousness and his own goodness and his own holiness. 
 
And as he was walking along he came across a very low, rather ugly common man who passed by and greeted him, and the rabbi did not return the greeting. Instead, he said, you Raca, how ugly you are. Are all the men of your town as ugly as you?
 
To which the man replied, ”That I do not know. Go and tell the Maker who created me how ugly is the creature He has made.”
 
 Contempt, says our Lord is murder in the heart, and the death penalty is equally deserved. Beloved, what Jesus is saying is what you feel inside is enough to damn you to eternal hell as much as what you do on the outside. That's the message.
 
There's a third illustration in verse 22, "whosoever shall say, Thou fool (mōros), from which we get our word moron) shall be in danger of hell fire."
 
Now apparently this was even a worse thing to say to somebody. It seems as though there's a, a rising level. The word mōros from which we get moron, the word comes from a Hebrew root which means to rebel, and in the Hebrew Bible a fool was one who rebelled against God.
 
 
And so to call someone a rebel against God as a sign of your hatred of them is a sin.
 
Someone says, but didn’t Jesus use the term? Aren’t men foos who rebel against God?
 
Let me show you the difference.
 
Jesus said to the Pharisees, you fools, you mōros. Only it wasn't wrong for Him to say it because it was true, wasn't it? They were fools, they had rebelled against God. "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God," it says in the Psalms. "The fool," according to the Proverbs, "lives against God."
 
The fool lives a life set against God, he lives a life of self‑will and self‑design, and you do a man a favor to go and say, you're a fool to live like that. Jesus walking on the road to Emmaus said to those disciples, "Fools and slow of heart to believe." There is a time when we do people a favor to say, you're foolish.
 
For example I may stand in front the pulpit like this and I may say to you, you're going to hell without Jesus Christ. That's different than when somebody offends me and I scream at them, go to hell, see? Same terminology.
 
I may stand in a pulpit and I may say, God will damn you to a Christless eternity unless you come to Him in faith. If you continue your life of sin God may damn you, that's different than me saying to someone, God damn you. See?
 
You see I have no right in my anger to curse people, to pour such malicious venom on them to wish them damned to hell. I can say it as a loving warning, I cannot say it as the expression of a malicious hatred, you see?
 
And so what our Lord is saying is, if you have ever had anger toward somebody or if you have ever maliciously said to somebody, you stupid blockhead, or if you have ever said to someone, go to hell or God damn you because of your anger and your wrath and the malice of your heart, you are just as much a murderer as somebody who takes a life.
 
And what Jesus is trying to do and He does it very well is absolutely destroy the system of self-righteousness--it can't stand that kind of examination. And so our Lord gets to the core of the matter.
 
Now notice the word, hell fire at the end of verse 22. It's a very serious word, the word hell. The Greek word translated hell here is the word geēnna, and I want to tell you about it. 
 
Gehēnna is a word with a history. Geēnna is used and translated hell very commonly, it's Matthew 5:22, 29, 30, Matthew 10:28, Matthew 18:9, 23:15, and 23:33, Mark 9, Luke 12. It's used in James, it's a very common word. It means hell. But geēnna, now listen is a reference to Hinnom, geēnna is a form of Hinnom, it means the valley of Hinnom.
 
It's still there today. It is a notorious place. It was the place where Ahaz had introduced into Israel the fire worship of the heathen god Moloch to whom little children were burned in the fire.
"He burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and he burned his children in the fire." Says Second Chronicles 28:3.
 
Further Josiah the reforming king had stamped out the evil worship of Moloch in the place of Hinnom and ordered that the valley should be forever after an accursed place. Because of what had gone on, because it had been defiled, because in the valley there had been the fire of Moloch.
 
Now in consequence of this the valley of Hinnom bore that curse throughout all of Israel's history, it became a place where the Jewish people dumped their garbage. The valley of Hinnom was the garbage dump of Jerusalem.
 
And what they had there was a public incinerator that burned all the time, all the time, all the time, never went out, never went out. And when Jesus referred to geēnna or hell and described the eternal state of the wicked as geēnna, what He was saying is it is an eternal, never ending fire in an accursed place where the rubbish of humanity will burn and be consumed, vivid language.
 
Always, says the historian, the fire smoldered in Hinnom and a pall of thick smoke lay over Hinnom at all times, and it bred a loathsome kind of worm which was very hard to kill. That is what our Lord refers to in Mark 44, "where the worm dies not."
 
So geēnna, the valley of Hinnom became identified in people's minds as a filthy, vile, accursed place where useless and evil things were destroyed, and Jesus used it as a vivid illustration of hell.
And He says if you're ever angry and if you ever say a malicious word to put down some person, or worse than that if you ever cursed them as it were to hell, you are as guilty and as liable for eternal hell as a murderer is. And so Jesus attacks the sin of anger, the sin of slander, and the sin of cursing, and with it He shows them themselves.  
 
His words have a second effect in verses 23 and 24. They affect not only their view of themselves, but they affect
 
2. Their View of God.
 
Now Jesus moves from the Pharisees and the scribes and the people to Himself, and for us He takes us to the area of worship, and I want you to see what He says.
 
Worship was a major issue with scribes and Pharisees. Their whole life was worship. They were in the temple all the time doing their thing, worshiping God, making sacrifices, carrying out the law. Their life was a circumscribed life of worship, but our Lord here condemns that very worship.
 
Look at verse 23, "Therefore," "therefore," in other words the therefore means since God is concerned with internal things, since God is concerned with attitudes toward others, how you feel about your brother, how you speak to your brother and whether or not you curse your brother. 
 
 
 
 
Since God is concerned with internal things listen to this, "if you bring your gift to the altar" here you come for worship, "and there remember" when you get there you remember "your brother has any­thing against you, leave there your gift before the altar, go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift."
 
In other words reconciliation comes before worship. Boy what a powerful point.
 
I hope we can get this, every Jew would understand this scene; the Jews knew the standard of worship. The idea of sacrifice for them was very obvious, very simple. If a man committed a sin, what happened?
 
A breech came between himself and God, the relation was disturbed. How was that to be remedied? It was to be remedied by a contrite and broken heart, and a man was to confess his sin, and a man was to manifest repentance, contrition and brokenness. And then in order to manifest outwardly that inward feeling he was to bring an animal as a sacrifice.
 
The animal wasn't the issue the attitude was, you see. You see obedience in the heart is better than sacrifice; the sacrifice was merely an outward symbol of a repentant obedient heart. And so when the breech came and the man repented and in sorrow asked forgiveness and set things right with God he then brought a sacrifice.
 
And so the picture here is perhaps even the Day of Atonement, and the Jew is coming because he wants to be a part and he has his own sacrifice to bring as well.
And he comes and he offers the sacrifice to the priest, he walks through the outer part of the courtyard and he walks into the inner part of the courtyard and finally he comes to the court of the priests and he has to stop there because he can't enter. 
 
Only the priests could go in there. And so he takes the sacrifice and gives it to the priest and then he's to lay his hands on it to identify with it; and the priest takes it in and makes the sacrifice. And the man gets all the way there and he's got the thing in the hands of the priest and he puts his hands on it and the identification is going on and all of a sudden Jesus is saying to him, stop right there.
 
You remember you have problems with your brother? And the brother has something against you. Leave that altar; don't make that sacrifice until you make things right with your brother. Settle the breech between man and man before you settle the breech between man and God.
 
This isn't anything new, they knew this, this had always been God's standard. In Isaiah 1:11 God said to Israel through Isaiah, "For what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?" What good are they all? "says the LORD;
 
I am full of your burnt offerings, the fat of rams, the fat of fed beasts, I delight not in the blood of bullocks, and lambs, and he‑goats." I don't want anymore of your vain oblations. "Your incense is an abomination unto me; your new moons and your feasts my soul hate; they are trouble unto me; I am weary of the whole thing."
Why? "Your hands are full of blood. Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow."
 
He's saying, don't you dare come to Me with your religion until you've made your life right with the poor and the oppressed and the orphans and the widows. In other words deal with your brother and then deal with Me. 
 
 
Now, the Lord brings us to a very fascinating point, look at verse 23 again, "If you bring your gift to the altar, and you remember that your brother has something against you."           
 
Did you see that? It isn't even that you're angry. It is that he's angry at you. Do you see how important it is that we have right relations?
 
Our Lord shows His holiness in the fact that He's not even dealing with the anger of the one worshiping, that was dealt with in verse 22. In verse 22 He says, if you're angry, you're in danger of condemnation.
 
Then in verse 23 He says, if anybody's angry at you, I don't want your worship, go away. Leave your gift, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.  He is dealing now with anger against the worshiper.
 
That's pretty strong stuff folks, pretty strong stuff. If you come to church to worship the Lord, and you're angry with somebody, leave, and stay away till you've made it right. 
 
On the other hand, if you come to church and because of something that happened somebody's angry with you and you have never made it right, I don't care who that person is, go and make it right and don't come back until it's right.
 
Sometimes we sit around and say, how can we make our church more of what it ought to be? Maybe if we had more of a certain kind of music or maybe if we had a prettier building, or maybe if we had better hymns or, or better special music, or better sermons or whatever it is, listen, if you want to enhance worship then everybody who's got something against a brother, leave. And come back when it's right. .
 
Then we'll see the power of the Spirit of God in our midst, amen? Thank you, both of you. It's hard. This is where we live, isn't it? Pretty tough, pretty tough.
 
 
You say, Terry, you are always telling us to bring people to church, and then you tell us to leave. Well, I had to get you here to tell you to leave. People with unresolved issues of anger and bitterness are killing the spirit of the church.
 
Listen, people who discuss what we can do to increase the worship always miss the point. The way to increase the meaningful worship is to get the people out who don't have any business being here, because there's something wrong.
 
You know something? I believe that every Sunday there are people who come here, husbands and wives who have bitterness between the two of them and they try to worship God and God doesn't want anything to do with it.
I believe there are families that come where there's animosity from the kids toward the parents or the parents toward the kids and God isn't interested in their worship.
 
I believe that there are times when we come to church and there is a feeling against somebody else in the fellowship or a neighbor in the street or somewhere, and we know there's a bitterness, we do absolutely nothing about it. 
 
There's a fellow Christian that we don't particularly care for and something has happened, and we let that thing settle in a bitterness and the Bible says, go away, you offer nothing to God, He is not interested in your worship. It's a sham.
 
You say “how do I find that person who's angry with me?” Well I think the implication of the text is that you know this person's angry with you. I mean obviously there are people angry with me, I don't even know it. I can't run around just asking everybody.
 
And there are other times when I know somebody's angry with me and I try to reconcile with them and I, I do my best and I ask their forgiveness and I try to make it right, and they don't forgive me but I've done the best I can, there's nothing more I can do, then I am free to worship God.
 
Then there are some people I should reconcile with but I don't even know that they feel that way. But listen, when I do know it and when I can do something I must, says Jesus.
And so Jesus' words are devastating, they affect the way we view ourselves, they affect how we view God. 
 
And finally they affect
 
3. How We View Others.
 
He's already introduced that in verses 23 and 24, and now He gives a specific example in 25 and 26.
 
He says, now that you've taken care of the worship part and you've left, here's what to do. Now that you've left to get it right so you can worship God,
 
Verses 25-26
 
Now what's He saying? The imagery of our Lord is graphic. He is saying, you better go and get it right with your brother, and He uses an illustration borrowed from the old legal method of dealing with debtors in Jewish society.
 
The idea is that you're here worshiping and you've got a debt. And it's come to the place where you're actually being dragged into court over this debt.
 
Now the key is in verse 25, "Agree with thine adversary quickly."
 
Immediately, now, I mean you've left your gift, go, do it now.
 
Say you know I'm just gonna work that out when the right time comes, I'm going to say something.
 
No. Jesus says, “Do it now. Immediately.
 
The time for reconciliation is now because tomorrow may be too late. The implication, you'll be cast into prison and you'll have to be stuck there without the possibility of ever paying back that debt and it'll be too late.
 
Now here, Jesus focuses on the guilty party. In 23 and 24 He's saying in a sense, you're there at the altar, you know somebody hates you, somebody is angry with you.
 
And now He moves to deal with the factor of guilt. There may be guilt on both sides, but the guilty party is in view, if it's both or if it's one. And He is saying settle your case out of court. That's what He's saying.
 
Don't let this thing continue and continue till you're on your way to court, and then somebody will lose and get thrown into prison and never be able to pay it back. That's what He's saying, settle it out of court.
 
In Jewish law when a man was judged guilty and he was determined to be the debtor, he was handed over to the court officer. And the court officer then tries to exact from the individual the payment to the creditor.
 
The ruling says that this man has to pay this man so much, the court officer tries to get it. Now if he can't get it he takes the man who defaults, slams him in prison and he has to stay in prison till he can pay it back. The point is if you're in prison you can't ever pay it back, can't be done.
Jesus here, is saying settle it out of court, reconcile before it's severe judgment and you can't reconcile at all.
 
Now what does He mean here? Does He mean that the time will come when the person will die and you'll never be able to reconcile?  Or does He mean the time will come when God will chasten you and judge you, and it'll be too late?
 
Possibly both of those things, He doesn't really explain that.
 
But what He does say is this, you can't worship Me unless your relations are right, so hurry, hurry and make them right, don't let them go to the place where there will be a civil judgment made and somebody loses in the end. Don't let it go too far, is the idea. Don't let it go to the place where God, in judgment moves in, act before then.
 
And I believe in the final analysis He's saying that God is the real judge, and hell is the real punishment. And if you don't make things right you may find yourself in an eternal hell, with a debt that never could be paid.
 
Let me sum it up right now. You Pharisees and scribes who are depending on your own self‑righteousness, just because you don't kill you think you're holy, but let Me tell you something:
 
If you're angry, if you've ever said a malicious word about somebody's character, if you've ever cursed anybody, you're like a murderer.
If you've ever come to an altar to worship God and had something against your brother you are in danger of such judgment, such hypocrisy would be enacted in your worship that you leave that gift and run to make it right.
 
And when you get into a conflict with somebody, immediately, as fast as you can, resolve that issue because you too are in danger of hell. The point He's telling them is this: the fact that you don't murder is a little piece of the iceberg. You've got grudges that you've never settled, you worship in hypocrisy, you curse, you malign, you're angry and the same judgment comes upon you for that. Death and hell are what you deserve. That's what He's saying.
 
So, who is a murderer? Ask yourself, who is a murderer? Have you ever been angry? You ever called anybody a name? Maybe your wife or husband or child? Somebody under your breath? Have you ever cursed anybody? Have you ever come to church to worship while you had bitterness in your heart? Such hypocrisy.
 
Have you ever had a grudge with somebody and you dragged it all the way to the court and you never settled it? And you weren't faithful? Then you're the same as a murderer. Because you allowed conflict, bitterness, hatred, anger to enter into your heart.
 
Let me ask a second question. First question, who is a murderer? Second question, who deserves death and hell?
 
You do, and I do, because we're all guilty of murder, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is what? Death.
And so you say, well how do we escape? I mean if we're all murderers and no murderer will inherit the kingdom, if we're all murderers, and we all deserve death and hell then how do we escape?
 
We've all worshiped in hypocrisy, we've all been angry, we've all said malicious things, we've all thought a curse, or said a curse, we've all been unreconciled to a brother, we've all done that, what are we going to do?
 
And that is exactly what Jesus is after. He wants to drive them to the fact that they cannot be righteous on their own, which will drive them to their knees at the foot of the cross to accept the imputed righteousness that only Jesus Christ can give. 
 
Everything that He says here is to drive them to frustration and inadequacy so that they come to Him. He died our death. He entered our hell that we might have righteousness. You deserve death, I deserve death, you deserve hell, I deserve hell, we're all murderers.
 
And God had every reason to be angry with us, didn't He? God had every reason to hate us, righteously to hate us. God had every reason to hold us in contempt. God had every reason to curse us, righteously. God had every reason to send us away, because we were murderers.
 
But you know something? He loves us, He forgives us, He pays our debt and wonder of wonders He seeks to reconcile us to Himself in His eternal kingdom because He wants to have fellowship with us. Is that incredible?
 
Now listen to me, if an absolutely holy God can so desire to be reconciled to vile murderers like us, can we find it in our hearts to be reconciled to our brothers? He sets the pattern. Let's pray.