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Murdered Anyone Lately? · CCC West Covina

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Father God, we thank you for today, and we are so.
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Grateful for Your Word that explains everything we need to
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know pertaining to life and godliness, and You have been so
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good to give it to us that we might be able to see the
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greatness and the glory of our God.
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Tonight, as we study your word, we pray that you'd open our eyes
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to see only the things that will allow us to to be the kind of
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people you want us to be and get us to know who you are even all
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the more. We thank you, Father, that you
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give this opportunity to us in the middle of the week and pray
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that Lord, we will grow deep in our understanding of You, that
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we might follow you fully, not partially, but totally committed
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to serving our God. So we thank you in the precious
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name of Christ, Amen. I am so glad that you're here
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with us this evening. And I trust that the things that
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you learn will help you grow and your your walk with the Lord.
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I think that as we study through the Sermon on the Mount, I think
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that there will be so many things that God will use to draw
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you closer to him. So tonight I just want to ask
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and answer a very simple question.
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That's it. I'm going to ask you one
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question and answer that question.
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The question is this have you murdered anybody lately?
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That's the question. Have you murdered anyone lately?
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You would say, well, why would you ask that question?
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We're in church. We come to church.
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We're not murderers. Why would you ask that question?
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Well, that's because murders are happening in great numbers every
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single day. And I'm afraid that most of us
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don't understand the the essence of that.
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For instance, that there are there are 55 murders that occur
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in our country every day, at least 55.
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That's on the low end scale. In other words, there's around
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20,000 people murdered every year in America.
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Every 31 minutes somebody's murdered.
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So by the time we're done tonight, two people are going to
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die by murder. Hopefully it's none of you this
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evening, but that's the reality of murder.
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But on the other hand, suicide is also murder, and there are
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134 suicides take place every single day in America, 134,
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meaning that there is 49,000 suicides every year in our
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country. And suicide is a form of murder.
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On top of that, abortion is murder.
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And there are somewhere between 2200 and 2800 abortions every
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day, meaning that there's somewhere between 800,000 and a
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million babies aborted every year or murdered every single
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year. Now just think about that.
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And we live in in Southern California, and unless the
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murder is out of the ordinary or in multiples or bizarre, we
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usually don't hear about them. But because we live in
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California, most of the murders are bizarre, and so we do hear a
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lot about them. So I ask you again, have you
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murdered anyone lately? That's a fair question to ask.
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Now, I would probably guess that that none of you would murder
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like Ted Bundy murdered when he killed over 30 different young
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women across 7 different states. I'm going to presume that's none
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of you this evening. And I will also presume that
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that that none of you are like Jeffrey Dahmer, who between 1978
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and 1991 murdered 17 young men and boys, dismembering them.
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He was called the Milwaukee Cannibal.
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I would also assume that that none of you are murderers like
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John Wayne Gacy, who was called the killer clown in the 70s.
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He murdered 33 young men, wrapped them in plastic bags and
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buried them under his house. And then I would also assume
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that none of you are anywhere related to Charles Manson.
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Who's the Charles Manson family murders consisted of the actor
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Sharon Tate and six other members in 1969.
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I would hope that none of you are the Zodiac Killer because he
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has never been caught and he killed several people in
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Northern California during the 60s and 70s.
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Also, I'm certain that none of you of of are of the persuasion
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of Timothy McVeigh who killed 168 people with the Oklahoma
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City bombing. Those are famous murderers.
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For lack of a better title, we can even think of the The Trial
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of the Century with. With OJ Simpson, although he was
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found not guilty, that doesn't mean he didn't kill his ex-wife
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and her boyfriend. All that being said is that that
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murders happen all the time and Christ would ask a question
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about murder in the Sermon on the Mount.
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And so it's important for us to realize that the Bible makes it
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very clear in the in the Decalogue, the 10 commandments
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that excess chapter 20, the 6th commandment, thou shalt not.
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Kill. Better translated murder because
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there are some killings that God has divinely appointed.
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Thou shalt. Not murder.
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In fact, in Genesis 9 verse #6 Our Lord said, Whoso sheddeth
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man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.
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For in the image of God made he man.
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So God under divine order made a way for murderers to be dealt
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with. God instituted capital
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punishment. Genesis 9 verse #6 Romans
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chapter 13 verse #4 So when the Bible says thou shalt not
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murder, that does not include capital punishment.
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It does not include wars because God has designed wars throughout
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His sovereign plan. A lot of it to discipline and
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judge certain nations. It also doesn't include
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self-defense. In Deuteronomy 19 there is a a
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prohibition against killing those who out of self-defense
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defend themselves. Because after all, you are made
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in the image of God and you are to protect that image.
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And so in protecting others or yourself and self-defense, then
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you are not subject to be killed, nor are you labeled a
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murderer. Murder is something that's
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planned, that's plotted to enact some kind of violence upon
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someone else. And the question would come,
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why? Why are there murders?
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Well, we know that murders are authored by Satan.
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John 844. He was a murderer from the
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beginning crisis. So Satan is the author of
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murders. You also need to know that
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murder is an abomination to God. Proverbs chapter 6 tells us that
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that those who shed innocent blood are an abomination to God.
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You also need to know that murder arises from the heart.
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Matthew chapter 15, Mark Chapter 7 from the heart proceeds
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murders, adulteries, slandering, gossip, but murder arises from
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the heart. Murder is authored by Satan.
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Murder is an abomination to God, and murder is the acts of the
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reprobate according to Romans chapter 1, verses 28 and 29.
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But I ask you just another time, have you murdered anyone lately?
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And that is a fair question. And you will see why it's a fair
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question before the evening is over.
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Christ is preaching on the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee.
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There are scores of people. That are listening to him.
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I always marvelled the fact that the Lord never needed a
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microphone. He was able to speak and
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everybody was able to hear what he said.
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Now whether they gathered closely around him, I have no
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idea. I I wasn't there, but the scores
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of people on the North Shore, the Sea of Galilee, numbered in
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the hundreds maybe, and probably in the thousands.
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And he begins his sermon by by interpreting the identity of
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Kingdom children in verses 1 to 12 with the Beatitudes.
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Once he interprets the identity of children of the Kingdom, he
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articulates their authority. That's in verses 13 down through
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20. He articulates their authority,
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one as salt in light in the world.
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And he articulates their authority because of the
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authority of Scripture that they follow.
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Having said all that, Christ says, the children in my Kingdom
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manifest a certain morality, a morality that stems from the
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inside of them, not the outside of them.
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And in so doing, He gives 6 illustrations whereby the
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children of the King manifest their morality.
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Number one is murder #2 adultery #3 divorce #4 swearing #5
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revenge, and number six love. He gives 6 illustrations that
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are so pertinent to today, that are so relevant to our everyday
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life that it's almost amazing to us how he articulates it.
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But after all, these are are the children of the King in the
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morality that they manifest on a daily basis.
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He articulates very clearly and he begins with the same phrase
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all six times. You have heard that it was said
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by the ancients of old. He doesn't say that you have
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heard that it was said in the Law of Moses.
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He didn't say you've heard that it was said in the Pentateuch.
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You haven't heard that it was said by the prophets.
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He didn't say that. He simply says that you have
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heard that it was said by the ancients of old, by the by the
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rabbis of old. Because what they would do is
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that they would add to the Scriptures, they would add their
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oral tradition to the Word of God, and then they would then
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teach the people about their oral traditions as if they were
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as authoritative as God's Word was authoritative.
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So Christ comes along and having interpreted the identity of the
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people of his Kingdom, having articulated the authority of his
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people in that Kingdom, he's now going to manifest the morality
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of the people that live in that Kingdom.
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And he does it in such a powerful way because he knows
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that it within the audience, there are there are many
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Pharisees, there are many scribes.
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And that's why the theme verse is verse 20 of chapter 5.
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Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and
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Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of God.
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And that had to shock everybody on the mountainside for their
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thinking. How can that ever be possible?
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They are so holy, they are so pure, they have such authority.
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People lived in awe of the Pharisees, they lived in awe of
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the scribes. They were keepers of the law,
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they were interpreters of the law and they were high on
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worship and people will be taken back by just the the presence of
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these religious leaders. But but Christ condemned them.
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Christ spoke against them because they were hypocritical.
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And so he makes it very clear in verse 20, which is the theme
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verse of the the three chapters, that your righteousness must
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succeed, that of the scribes and Pharisees because theirs was a
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self righteousness. There was a self.
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Induced righteousness And Christ says, you must obtain my
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righteousness, or you'll never enter the Kingdom of heaven of
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heaven. With that in mind, let me read
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to you the section on murder, verse 21.
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You have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit
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murder and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the
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court. But I say to you that everyone
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who was angry with his brother shall be guilty before the
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court. And whoever says to his brother
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you good for nothing or raka shall be guilty before the
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Supreme Court. And whoever says you fool shall
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be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
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Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and
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there remember that your brother has something against you, leave
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your offering there before the altar.
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Go first, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and
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present your offering. Make friends quickly with your.
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Opponent at law. While you are with him on the
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way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge
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and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.
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Truly, I say to you, you will not come out of there until you
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have paid up the last cent. Over the next several weeks, I'm
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going to give you 3 points. The first point will always be
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the rabbinical tradition. The second point will always be
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the biblical teaching. The Third Point will always be
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your personal transformation. That's how we will look at each
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of these topics that our Lord brings to the people there on
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the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee.
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Our Lord is very purposeful. He's he's very strategic.
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He knows exactly what to say and how to say it.
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And so he begins by always attacking the rabbinical
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tradition. It's, it's not the biblical
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teaching. He attacks because he came to
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fulfill the law, not abolish the law.
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But it is the rabbinical tradition that he does attack
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because they had raised their tradition higher than the law of
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God. And so he came to tear that
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down. He came to destroy.
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It. And so let's begin with the
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rabbinical tradition. When he says these words, you
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have heard that the ancients were told, or you have heard,
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you have heard from the ancients of old, you've heard from them.
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You shall not commit murder, and you can hear the people in the
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crowd. Amen.
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Amen. You got it right, Jesus, You
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shall not commit murder. And all of us would say Amen to
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that as well. We know the Decalogue, we know
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what it says. They knew what it said.
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And so Christ says, you have heard that it was said by the
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ages of old that you shall not murder.
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And they agreed. They would understand that and
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they would say this and whoever commits murder shall be liable
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to the courts. Very interesting how he states
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that because he wants them to understand the rabbinical
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tradition. You see, the Pharisees would say
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we are holy and we are righteous because we don't murder.
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We're not like Jeffrey Dahmer. We're not like Ted Bundy.
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We're not like Charles Manson. Those are heinous people.
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Those are our murderers. Those are serial killers.
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Those are are the nasty of the nasties.
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We're not like that. Oh no, we, we are holy and
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righteous because we don't murder.
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We are on our way to heaven because we don't murder.
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We haven't killed anybody. We don't even own a knife, a
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sword or a gun or a tank or a hand grenade or whatever.
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We owe nothing. We've never killed anyone
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because the Bible says you shall not murder.
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And so they would see themselves as holy people.
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They would see themselves as righteous before God because
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they never murdered anybody. And there are people today who
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would see themselves as righteous because they'd never
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kill anybody. I'm not a murderer.
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I'm not a an adulterer. I'm not a liar.
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I'm. I'm not.
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That kind of person, those kind of people are just nasty people.
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And we begin to compare ourselves among ourselves.
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And that's exactly what the Pharisees did.
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But Jesus says your righteousness must exceed that
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of the scribes. And Pharisees, in other words,
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not murdering anyone is not enough to get you into heaven.
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So if you think that you don't murder someone and you are
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righteous because of that, and that's going to get you to
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heaven, Jesus says, but I say unto you, he, he is going to
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give them the the true teaching of the law of God.
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He's going to help them understand exactly what the Lord
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was saying. Notice they said the rabbinical
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teaching was you should not commit murder and whoever
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commits murder shall be liable to the court.
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In other words, if you murdered someone then the courts would
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decide what would happen. But notice they they left out
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what the Lord thought about murder and what the.
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Lord would do to. Those who committed murder
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according to Genesis Chapter 9 verse #6 which of course they
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would know very, very well, they did not take into account God's
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holy character. God is a God of life.
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That's why you don't murder. God's a God of truth, That's why
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you don't lie. God's a God of purity and
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holiness. That's why you don't commit
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immorality. Why?
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Because you're a child of the king.
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And you want to live like a child of the king.
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You want to honor the king. The point is, they didn't kill
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simply because if they did, they would get in trouble.
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By the law of the land, they didn't see themselves as being
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judged by the living God. You see, they emphasized the act
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of murder and they excluded the attitude behind murder.
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That's very important. They should know what God's
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attitude. About man's.
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Heart. Is all about.
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They would know first name was 16 that man looks on the outward
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appearance, but God, God looks upon the heart.
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God is into the. Heart because what's ever
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happened on the inside is going to manifest itself on the
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outside. Man is a murderer because of
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what's happens on the inside, not because of what's happening
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on the outside. Man is a murderer because he's
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induced from the inside out, from a heart.
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Murders proceed from the heart. Murders come forth because of
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what's on the inside of a man, not what's on the outside of a
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man. That's what concerns our Lord.
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They would know Psalm 51 verse #6 that God desires truth in the
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inward parts. They would know First Kings
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chapter 8 verse #39 which says Thou alone dost know the hearts
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of all the souls of men. They would know First Chronicles
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28 verse #9 The Lord searches all hearts and understands every
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intent of man's thoughts. That's just amazing to me that
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God understands every intent of man's thoughts.
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You you can't disguise your motives to.
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God. You can't deceive God.
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God knows your heart. He knows every intent of the
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thoughts in your heart. He knows them all.
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Well, you see, the Pharisees would know those kinds of of
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verses and Jesus would reinforce that when He said, you shall
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love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your
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soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength, with
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everything on the inside of you. You should love Him and your
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neighbor as yourself. And the Lord would would
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emphasize that. So the Old Testament clearly
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taught that God was into man's heart more so than anything
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else. But the Jews.
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The Jews disregarded the internal attitude and emphasized
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the external. Act, For if they acted properly,
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they saw themselves as righteous and holy.
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If what they did on the outside was pleasing, then they were a
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holy people. They had forgotten about the
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inside. So you move from the rabbinical
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tradition to the biblical teaching.
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And Jesus says, But I say unto you, But I say, I'm going to
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give you the real intent of the law.
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I'm. Going to explain the law of God
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to you as you've never heard it before.
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I want you to understand what the law of God really is truly
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all about, he says. But I say to you that everyone
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who was angry with his brother shall be guilty before the
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court. And whoever says to his brother
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Rakah shall be guilty before the Supreme Court.
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And whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go
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into Gehenna or into a fiery hell.
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What he does is he gives these illustrations.
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He begins with an indictment. You've heard it this way.
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But I say unto you. And he's going to give 3
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illustrations, and they're going to build 1 upon the other.
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The first one deals with silent anger, the second one deals with
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spoken anger, and then the next one deals with salacious anger.
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So he's going to build 1 upon the other and show them that
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their righteous standard fell way short of God's standard.
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Because God, he's going to, he's going to raise the standard
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before the people. He's going to raise it so high
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it's going to be impossible for people to meet it.
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You see, the reason the Pharisees lower the standard is
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because they couldn't meet God's standard.
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So they lowered the standards so they could seem righteous.
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They lowered the standards so they could obtain in their mind
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a right to standing before God. And God says, you've heard that
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it was said by the angels of old.
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This is what they've told you. But I'm going to tell you the
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real story. Here's the real law.
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Here's the real righteous standard.
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And unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and
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Pharisees, that is, you must obtain my righteousness, you
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will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.
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So you can imagine what was going through the minds of the
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people there in the North Shore, the Sea of Galilee, and all of a
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sudden you read this and you all of a sudden you find yourself
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convicted. Why?
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Because I'm going to ask you the same question.
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Have you murdered anyone lately? That's the question, because we
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would all agree, the Pharisees, no, we haven't murdered anybody.
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We nobody's dead. We haven't shed any man's blood.
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Ah, but you see, that's not the intent of the law.
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That's not what God was saying. He says no if you are angry.
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If there's a. Silent anger, or a spoken anger
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or a salacious anger. You're bound for a fiery hell.
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In other words, your heart makes you more guilty than the heinous
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act of murder. So the answer to the question
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have you murdered anyone lately? The answer is yes.
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It's not no, it's yes. And therefore you realize you
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can't meet the standard. And this is where Christ is
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driving them. He will later say next time
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we're together you shall not commit adultery.
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That's what you've heard. And then what?
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I'll say you're right. We don't do that.
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We don't sleep with another man's wife.
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We only sleep with our own wives.
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Ah, but I say unto you, right says deals with the heart of a
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man, not the. Acts of a man.
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And again he will blow them right off the North Shore, the
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Sea of Galilee, with those words that are so piercing to the.
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Depths of man's soul. Because he wants to bring them
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to a point of conviction. He's teaching them that the
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roots, the root of murder, is the heart of a man that's angry,
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the heart of a man that's. Filled with hatred.
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That's why you murder, because of what's on the inside, and God
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judges not based on what you do on the outside.
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He's based on what you do. He judges based on what you do
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on the inside. Which is very important.
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Why? Because in Revelation chapter
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22, Christ says these words. He says blessed are those who
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wash their robes, that they may have the right to the Tree of
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life and may enter by the gates into the city.
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But outside of the gates, outside of heaven.
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Are the dogs and sorcerers the immoral persons and murderers?
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Murderers can't get into the Kingdom and so Christ says
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murder begins on the inside. For instance, John would say in
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first John 3 verse #15 these words, whoever hates his brother
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is a murderer. Whoever hates his brother is a
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murderer. So John is on the North Shore of
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the Sea of Galilee. He hears the words of of Jesus
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and he begins to understand where murder begins.
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Not to consider the state of the heart is not to consider that
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which the Lord holds to be the all important measure of true
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guilt. That's why Solemn would say
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guard your heart, for out of it flow all the issues of life.
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Guard your heart. It's the wellspring of all
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things that happen in life. If you can't guard your heart,
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you're in big trouble. So Christ says you have heard
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that it was said by the ages of old.
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You sound murder. But I want to let you know
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something. If you are angry with your
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brother, it's, it's from the root word or gay, which means to
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brood, to smolder, to to hold it in.
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That's why we call it silent anger.
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It it's the rumblings on the inside where nothing happens but
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the face gets more and more red with each passing day.
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It's where bitterness wells up on the inside because man is so
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angry because of something that happened to him.
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You say, well, wait a minute, our our Lord got angry.
36:34
Yes, he did. John 2 at the end of Matthew
36:41
both he cleansed the temple, overturned the tables, chased
36:45
out the the money changers. He was angry, yes he was, but it
36:51
was righteous indignation. Psalm 69 was fulfilled in John
36:56
2. Zeal for thy Father's house
36:59
consumes me. And he was zealous.
37:03
He had a he had a righteous indignation.
37:04
That's why Paul would say be angry and sin, not because there
37:08
is a righteous indignation and and, and the more holy you are,
37:13
the more the more angry you become at unholiness, the more
37:18
Christ like you are, the more angry you are at those that are
37:22
not Christ like things. And so you could become angry at
37:29
those things and it's well deserving.
37:33
It's called righteous indignation.
37:35
He's not talking about righteous anger.
37:37
He's not talking about righteous indignation.
37:38
He's talking about somebody who is angry because something has
37:42
happened to them because of somebody else.
37:45
Someone has caused this anger within you, some offense, some
37:52
attitude, some action, some situation that's caused.
37:57
You to be. Angry.
38:02
Which causes you to refuse to forgive.
38:08
It's that long lived kind of anger or gay is a is a unique
38:16
word. If it's the root of all
38:18
bitterness in the right of Hebrew says be careful that a
38:22
rooterness root of bitterness is it well up within you because it
38:25
defiles many, many people. I've talked to people over the
38:29
times I've talked to fathers and mothers and sons and daughters
38:32
about the bitterness in their family and be careful about that
38:35
because it's going to defile the members of your family.
38:37
You got to be careful about that.
38:40
But they had this anger that's on the inside, the silent anger.
38:45
Nothing comes out. It's just wells up, it swells
38:48
up, it gets huge and all of a sudden you are so incensed on
38:56
the inside. Christ says those people are are
39:03
guilty before the court. Other words, they're they're
39:09
deserving of death. Whoa, they're deserving of
39:15
death. Anger merits divine execution
39:19
because God is a judge who sits on the throne.
39:24
Anger is at the root of hatred, and hatred is at the root of
39:28
every murder. And God says if you are angry at
39:33
your brother. You are deserving.
39:35
Of death, even though you never said a word, even there, though
39:42
you you never shot a bullet, even though you never wield a
39:46
knife. Your anger is worthy of death.
39:53
Then he builds on that because he wants to take it from silent
39:57
anger to spoken anger. He he wants to to move from an
40:04
internal anger or internal, yeah, internal anger to a verbal
40:14
abuse, he says. And whoever says to his brother,
40:19
maybe your text says Raka. The new America standard says
40:23
you good for nothing. That's a little soft Recall is
40:29
a, is an it's a word that cannot be translated.
40:36
It's a word that they would know very, very well because there's
40:39
no definition of it. There's no describing it, but
40:42
they wouldn't know it well. It's a word that that deals with
40:49
the, the malicious intent to degrade someone, maybe because
40:54
of the character, maybe because of the way they look, but you're
40:58
going to, you're going to speak a word of Raqqa against them.
41:03
And Christ says if if you move from internal anger to verbal
41:08
abuse, if you move from silent anger to spoken anger, he says
41:15
that you are guilty before the Supreme Court.
41:20
That's a more intense court. Why?
41:24
Because that was the Sanhedrin, the 70 ruling elders of
41:30
Jerusalem who were the ones who judged the most severe of all
41:38
crimes. They pronounced judgement upon
41:43
Stephen as to why he was stoned. Because the words.
41:48
That Steven used So Christ says if you had this silent,
41:58
smoldering anger. You're worthy of.
42:02
Death if that moves even further to to to spoken.
42:08
Anger. You're still.
42:11
Worthy of death. And then he says.
42:17
He says, and whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to
42:22
go into the fiery hell, you fool, moron.
42:27
It's from the Hebrew word moron, which means to live against God,
42:33
to rebel against God. So if you if you say to someone
42:39
you, you fool. Now, now listen carefully.
42:42
Jesus called the Pharisees fools because they didn't live against
42:49
God. They didn't rebel against God.
42:52
So you can call someone that fool who lives against God and
42:56
who rebels against God because that's the definition of marah,
43:00
which is at the root of moron. But.
43:06
If you just go around calling people that who are not that in
43:12
a malicious kind of way, this is what we call salacious anger.
43:18
It moves from silent anger to spoken anger to salacious kind
43:23
of anger to slamming kind of anger to scathing kind of anger.
43:34
A lashing out at someone. Psalm 14 says that the fool has
43:42
said in his heart, no to God, that's the fool.
43:50
That's the one who lives against, against God.
43:57
And Christ says if you do that, you, you are guilty of a fiery
44:05
hell. You're guilty of Gehenna, a word
44:10
that Christ would use 11 times in the Gospels.
44:15
Gehenna is the translation of the Valley of Hinnom.
44:20
The Valley of Hinnom is that the valley on the South side of the
44:24
Old City of Jerusalem. It became a cursed place simply
44:32
because of Ahaz the king who convinced Israel to to worship
44:38
the fire God Moloch and offer their children up his
44:40
sacrifices. When Josiah became king, he he
44:45
transformed all that and reformed all that, but cursed
44:49
the valley of Hinnom. It became the the garbage dump
44:54
in in Jerusalem and there was always this, this fire, this
44:59
this smoldering fire that would always be present in the valley
45:05
of Hinnom. It became the perfect
45:07
illustration for a fiery hell because a fire would never go
45:11
out. It was always lit, it was always
45:15
smoldering, it was always smelly.
45:17
It was a very cursed place. And that became the illustration
45:21
that Christ would use of hell and call it Gehenna.
45:26
Christ says whether you have silent anger, spoken anger or
45:32
salacious anger, you're worthy of death.
45:39
So you think that if you just murder someone and they died
45:44
physically, you were a murderer? He says Oh no, no, no, no.
45:51
That, that that begins on the inside of a man, and a man is
45:55
guilty of murder. If there's this silent anger, if
45:59
there's this spoken anger, if there's this salacious anger
46:02
where he is lashing out at other people and is bitter and
46:06
resentful, resentful toward them, that man is just as worthy
46:12
of death as Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy,
46:22
anybody else who is physically killed.
46:26
Someone else. Why?
46:28
Because Christ looks upon the heart, not the appearance of a
46:34
man, not the acts of a man. Why?
46:37
Because all the. Appearance and acts of a man's
46:39
come from where? Inside of the man.
46:47
So what do you do? How do you handle this?
46:53
And, and Christ even even deals with it to some degree.
46:55
He says, therefore, based on what I just told you, based on
47:00
your anger and your response towards somebody else.
47:05
Therefore, he says, if you are presenting your offering at the
47:08
altar and there remember that your brother has something
47:11
against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go
47:15
first be reconciled to your brother and then come and
47:17
present your offering. He says this because the
47:21
Pharisees were with a symbol of worship in Israel and they
47:27
prided themselves on how they worshipped.
47:31
And Christ says, I want to let you know that you're living a
47:33
life of hypocrisy because listen, if you know of someone
47:40
who is angry with you, if you know of someone who has
47:43
something against you, and they, they would know about the, the
47:47
procedure and worship, they would know, they would, they
47:50
would take the, the animal in for sacrifice and they would,
47:52
they would present it to the high priest and they would lay
47:55
their hands on it. And the priest would go in and
47:57
sacrifice that, that animal for the forgiveness of sins.
48:00
And that was just a, a symbolic act of the attitude of the
48:04
heart. And they says when you, when you
48:08
take that animal and you go into the priest and you offer that,
48:11
that, that animal to the priest, if you know there's anybody who
48:15
has something against you, stop, stop right there.
48:19
Turn around and leave and get it right with that person.
48:26
Why? Because if you don't, it's
48:33
worthy of death. It's.
48:36
Worthy of death. This is so important.
48:40
Think about it this way. People say, OK, how do we make
48:44
the worship at Christ Community Church the best it can possibly?
48:48
Be. Maybe we should remove the pews
48:53
and put in chairs? Or maybe we should repaint the
48:57
auditorium and make it aesthetically pleasing.
49:00
Or maybe we should have a whole full orchestra pit.
49:03
Or maybe we should have different kind of music.
49:06
Or maybe we should have shorter sermons.
49:08
Or, or maybe we should have this or have that.
49:11
Oh no, no, no, no, no. You want better worship.
49:16
Here it is. Christ tells you if you come to
49:20
church to worship the Lord and you know of someone in the
49:24
auditorium who has something against you, leave.
49:29
Leave the auditorium and get it right because that's the only
49:35
way you're going to have meaningful, true, pure worship.
49:41
Everything else is hypocritical. Coming in here thinking that you
49:45
can worship the Lord, knowing that you just had a knock down,
49:49
drag out fight with your wife on the way to church and you're
49:52
yelling and screaming at each other and you get out of the car
49:55
and you say praise the Lord. I'm at church today.
49:58
I'm glad to be here. Hallelujah, brother.
50:01
Let's sing some praises to Jesus.
50:04
Never, never gotten right with your wife or with your husband.
50:09
You're a hypocrite and the Pharisees were extremely
50:16
hypocritical. It grieves me when they're there
50:20
are children who, who, who fight with their parents and then they
50:24
want to come to church and worship the Lord as if there's
50:26
nothing wrong, but there's everything wrong.
50:29
You can't worship the Lord hypocritically.
50:34
You can't worship the Lord knowing that you have this
50:37
offense or this anger or this attitude toward a friend of
50:41
yours or or your mother or your father or a husband or a wife or
50:45
someone who sits across on the other side of the auditorium.
50:48
You cannot worship effectively. You cannot worship meaningfully.
50:53
You can't worship Christ like if you have that kind of attitude,
50:59
you cannot. So you must leave, get it right,
51:06
then come back. That's why he says this.
51:10
He says make friends quickly, leave and do it quickly.
51:16
Don't wait. Ah, well, you know, there's next
51:18
week, there's next month when they will see him today.
51:23
No, no, no. Do it quickly.
51:25
Do it now. If you know he knows that which
51:28
is right to do, he needs to do it extremely quickly and
51:34
efficiently. Make friends quickly with your
51:38
opponent in law while you are with them on the way so that
51:41
your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge
51:44
to the officer and you be thrown into prison.
51:46
Truly, I say to you, you will not come out of there until you
51:51
have paid up the last cent. In other words, you can't pay it
51:54
up. You're in prison.
51:55
It'll never be paid back. It's too late.
51:58
It's done. It's over.
52:01
And if God is a judge? It's too late.
52:07
Nothing you can do. Christ is is is helping them
52:12
understand that they are such hypocrites in the way they deal
52:16
with their relationships with people and they they wouldn't
52:19
know this. They should know this.
52:23
This was not new to them. God said it this way Isaiah 1.
52:29
What are your multiplied sacrifices to me, says the Lord.
52:33
I have had enough of your burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of
52:37
fed cattle, and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls,
52:40
lambs, or goats. When you come to appear before
52:43
me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?
52:48
Bring your worthless offerings no longer.
52:51
Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the
52:55
calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity and the
52:59
solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals
53:02
and your appointed feast. They have become a burden to me.
53:05
I am weary of burying them. So when you spread out your
53:09
hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you.
53:13
Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen.
53:18
Your hands are covered with blood.
53:22
Christ is saying, says in Israel, look, you're coming and
53:25
you have all these sacrifices, you have all these rituals, you
53:28
have all these ceremonies. It's like saying to us today,
53:31
you know which way to go to church.
53:33
You know how to dress for church.
53:34
You know where to sit in church. You know how to sing in church.
53:37
You know how to say the right things in church.
53:39
And God says, I don't want any of that.
53:42
It means nothing to me. This is this.
53:47
Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean.
53:50
Remove the evil of your deeds from my sight.
53:54
Cease to do evil. Learn to do good.
53:56
Seek justice. Reprove the ruthless.
53:59
Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.
54:02
In other words, make sure you're right with the people around
54:05
you. Make sure your attitude is right
54:07
with the people you live with. Because that's what matters.
54:11
Sacrifice to me means nothing. Obedience to me means
54:15
everything. Think about what he says in the
54:18
book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 7.
54:21
Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words, to no avail.
54:26
God says, will you steal murder, commit adultery, swear falsely,
54:31
offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods that you
54:35
have not known? Then come and stand before me in
54:40
this house which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered,
54:46
that you may do all these abominations.
54:50
Lord says, are you going to live a life of immorality?
54:55
Are you going to live a life that's abominable to me?
54:58
Are you going to live a life of anger and murder and all kinds
55:02
of things that I'm against? Come into my house and say I'm
55:06
here to worship you. He says get out of here.
55:10
I don't want any of that. I don't need that.
55:14
Get it right before you come to me.
55:19
See, the Pharisee should have known all.
55:20
That, and that's just a sampling of a couple of verses.
55:24
The Old Testament's filled with them.
55:26
Why? It's all about the heart.
55:29
It's all about the inside of a man and his relationship he has
55:33
with other people. You can't get God man right
55:38
until you get man man right. If man man is wrong man God, it
55:45
will always be wrong. That's why in the Sermon of the
55:50
Mount he talks about prayer. He has one explanation of the
55:58
disciples prayer and deals with forgiveness.
56:03
He says unless you forgive your brother his trespasses, I will
56:09
not forgive you your trespasses. Why?
56:15
Because if you can't deal with your brother, don't even think
56:18
of coming to me and dealing with me.
56:21
It doesn't work that way. And that's the whole point.
56:26
Christ is driving them to a place of desperation.
56:30
Wait a minute. The Bible says we're not to
56:32
murder. We don't kill anybody.
56:34
Ah, no, no, no. It goes way deeper than that.
56:36
It goes to the inside of a man, the heart of a man, because
56:38
murders happen because of anger in the heart.
56:41
Anger happens because hatred spurs it on.
56:44
And then you commit the act of murder.
56:46
It's all on the inside. You're guilty because of what's
56:48
on the inside, not because of what you do on the outside.
56:51
And. They're like, whoa, what do we
56:55
do? How do you fix that?
57:00
That's the point. So he's driving into the foot of
57:03
the cross. He's driving them to him to
57:09
plead and to cry out for mercy. That's where your personal
57:14
transformation comes in. And we got to go fast.
57:18
And that is number one there. There needs to be a recognition,
57:22
a recognition of anger. Where does it come from?
57:26
Our adversary. He's the author of it, Our
57:29
Depravity. Romans 128 and 29 Mark Chapter 7
57:34
speak of how everything comes from the inside of a man.
57:38
It comes from jealousy. Read about the prodigal son in
57:41
Luke chapter 15, where the prodigal's brother, the older
57:45
brother, is so jealous and so angry that his father would
57:50
forgive his prodigal son and grant him a place of blessing in
57:57
the house. He was so resentful because of
57:59
jealousy. Jealousy happens, Animosity
58:03
happens inside of a man. There's this recognition of
58:09
where all this comes from. It comes from the inside of you.
58:13
It comes from your heart. Unless you guard your heart,
58:17
unless you protect your heart, unless your heart is.
58:20
Truly committed to Christ, there is no.
58:23
Hope it all comes from the inside.
58:28
So there needs to be this recognition that that
58:30
recognition leads then to a rejection of those things that
58:34
are evil. That's why the Bible says over
58:37
in Colossians chapter 3 these words.
58:43
But now also you put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice,
58:47
slander and abusive speech from your mouth and do not lie to one
58:52
another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil
58:56
practices. You need to lay those things
58:59
aside. You need to, you need to discard
59:01
those like you would dirty clothes at the end of the day.
59:04
That's what it means to put off and put on at the end of the
59:07
day. You, you take off your dirty
59:08
clothes and you and you put them in the hamper.
59:10
They need to be cleaned. You need to get rid of a malice,
59:13
an abusive language and and slander.
59:15
Get rid of all that stuff. Why?
59:18
Because it's not fitting for a child of the king, that's why.
59:22
Well, how am I going to do that? See, we, we, we need to look at
59:26
Philippians. 48 and think on the things that are.
59:27
True and pure and. Holy and lovely that are
59:30
attractive, that are, that are of good repute, that we might
59:33
think on things that are pure from above and not below.
59:36
But we sit in our homes and we we sit resenting someone who has
59:41
said something to us. And we, we sit there thinking
59:44
all kinds of evil things against them, instead of thinking on the
59:47
things of Scripture. Wherewithal shall a man keep his
59:50
way pure, But by taking heed to the word of God, Thy Word, I
59:54
have treasure in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.
59:56
It's all about thinking about the things of Scripture in the
59:59
things of our Lord, having our minds focused on that which is
1:00:03
above and not below. There needs to be a rejection of
1:00:06
all that stuff because we are totally engulfed.
1:00:10
In the truth of. Scripture.
1:00:11
And then there needs to be a reconciliation, A reconciliation
1:00:16
with our brother, reconciliation with our sister or a family
1:00:21
member or someone else. The Lord has turned the tables
1:00:27
on the Pharisees. He's revolutionized everything.
1:00:34
And a holy God who is perfect wanted you and me to be
1:00:39
reconciled to him. So we did everything to make
1:00:43
that possible. And if a holy God who is sinless
1:00:49
and spotless and pure would do all he could to reconcile
1:00:53
sinful, unholy, wretched man, why can't we do all we can to
1:00:59
reconcile with our brother or sister in Christ, Right?
1:01:07
And that reconciliation can only come, that rejection can only
1:01:10
come, that recognition can only come if there's a redemption.
1:01:14
That's the fourth point you can add to your outline.
1:01:17
Redemption. You got to be redeemed.
1:01:21
See, Christ is driving them to the cross.
1:01:23
He's driving them to cry out for mercy.
1:01:26
Lord, we can't do this. If we're guilty of, of, of the
1:01:30
hell, the fiery hell, because of anger on the inside, what can we
1:01:34
do? Christ says you can't do
1:01:36
anything. You can't.
1:01:39
Ah, but I can. Because you see, I can grant you
1:01:43
my righteousness. I can grant you a standing with
1:01:47
me. I can grant you a righteousness
1:01:52
that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, because theirs is
1:01:57
one of human achievement and it dams their soul.
1:02:06
But I can give you 1 because of divine accomplishment and it
1:02:11
will save your soul. So have you murdered anyone
1:02:18
lately? The answer is yes, we all have.
1:02:25
But the good news is this. Jesus is the one who cleanses
1:02:31
our soul. Jesus is the one that saves us
1:02:35
from our sin. Jesus is our Redeemer, so he
1:02:40
says these words, Come unto me, Come unto me, all you that are
1:02:48
heavy laden and burden, and I will give you rest.
1:02:52
Come to me. Though your sins be a scarlet,
1:02:57
they should be as white as snow. Though they be red like Crimson,
1:03:03
they will be made as wool. See, Pharisees knew that verse
1:03:11
too. They just refused to to come to
1:03:15
Christ us. Well, the good news is, is that
1:03:21
if you're here tonight and you're giving life to Christ,
1:03:23
then you've been cleansed. You've been washed in the blood
1:03:26
of the lamb. If you haven't, you can be.
1:03:30
All you have to do is give your life to Christ.
1:03:33
Let me pray with you. Father, we thank you for
1:03:36
tonight. You realize, Lord, that we're
1:03:41
murderers don't want to be, but we are.
1:03:46
We have sinful hearts, and yet yet you love us enough to die
1:03:54
for us and to pave the way by taking our penalty.
1:03:58
The wages of sin is death, and all of sin have fallen short of
1:04:02
the glory of God. But Christ, you're our
1:04:07
substitute. You died in ours place.
1:04:11
You bore the the wrath of hell on Calvary's cross.
1:04:18
So we would have to. We escaped Gehenna, we escaped
1:04:22
the fiery hell because of Christ and his righteousness imputed to
1:04:30
us. For that Lord we are grateful.
1:04:35
In Jesus name, Amen.