Latest / Fairview Presbyterian Church (PCA) Sermons / The Murderous Heart (Matthew 5:21-26)- Dalton D. Vetter

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The Murderous Heart (Matthew 5:21-26)- Dalton D. Vetter · Fairview Presbyterian Church (PCA) Sermons

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Good evening. As Pastor Kenny mentioned, we are
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beginning a new sermon series tonight. And due
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to a mystery white substance that myself and
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my fellow Midwesterners like to call snow, I
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have the honor and privilege of beginning it
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tonight. And as Kenny and I began talking through
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the sermon series and what he had in mind for
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it and dealing with issues of I thought back
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on my own life and I looked at society. And I
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realized that more than anything else, the sin
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of anger unfortunately defines the life of many
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Christians and the life of many non -believers.
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And it's one we can see so commonly, even in
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the interactions with our spouses. Maybe you
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men have been gone for a long day of work, you've
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been gone for... nine or 10 hours and you come
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home and the first thing your wife asks you to
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do is take out the garbage. Or wives, maybe you've
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had a long day with the children, they've been
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sick, they've been throwing up, they got into
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too much Valentine's Day candy and they have
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been running rampant all over the house. And
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you just need some help but your husband comes
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home and he collapses tired and he wakes up the
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next day ready for you to yell at him. And it's
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one that we can see amongst believers online
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as they argue theology, or even in person when
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they argue theology. They are quick to throw
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insults. This sin, the sin of anger, is ultimately
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defined as murder. And Christian, you need to
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face it, you are a murderer. At least that is
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how Jesus defines it. In our text tonight, Matthew
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5 verses 21 through 26. Again the the text that
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Jesus uses to define anger is found in Matthew
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5 verse 21 through 26 You have heard it said
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You heard that it was said to those of old you
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shall not murder and whoever murders will be
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liable to judgment But I say to you that everyone
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who is angry with his brother will be liable
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to judgment Whoever insults his brother will
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be liable to counsel and whoever says you fool
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will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you
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are offering your gift at the altar and there
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you remember that your brother has something
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against you, leave your gift there before the
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altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother
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and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms
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quickly with your accuser while you are going
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with him to court. Least your accuser hand you
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over to the judge and the judge to the guard
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and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you,
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you will never get out until you have paid the
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last penny." Now if we are going to understand
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this text, I think it is first right and proper
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to go to God in prayer and ask for help and understanding.
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Our Lord and our God, we ask you as we examine
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the words of your son tonight that you would
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open our eyes to see and our ears to hear that
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we would understand. what you would like us to,
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that we would understand how great of God we
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have because we are great sinners, and we have
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failed on so many accounts. And we need your
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help, Lord. Help us tonight through your Holy
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Spirit to understand what is in this text. And
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I pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen. Now
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as we move into this text, I think it's important
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to understand where we are at to have some background.
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because this sermon is right at the start of
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Jesus' ministry. It comes after his baptism.
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It comes after his 40 days in the wilderness
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where he was let out and tested by Satan. At
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this point, he has called his disciples and he
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has began to teach. He started in the region
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of Galilee as he gathered people around him from
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Jerusalem and Judea and the Decapolis, really
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the central and southern parts of Israel. and
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he has taken them north to Galilee. And he takes
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them up on this mountain to preach because Jesus
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did not have the convenience of having a microphone
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like we have this evening. He had to get above
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the crowd. So he takes them up to the mountain
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and he begins to preach. And he begins with the
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Beatitudes, explaining the types of characteristics
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that should mark believers in the kingdom of
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God. Then he moves into how he fulfills the law
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and the true meaning of it. And he begins, actually,
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with the sixth commandment of the law, which
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is, thou shall not murder. And he recounts this
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in verse 21. You have heard it said that those
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of old you shall not murder, and whoever murders
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will be liable to judgment. Jesus, in this statement,
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he's doing two things. He's quoting the sixth
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commandment from Exodus chapter 20, but he's
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also counting the scribes and the Pharisees.
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the people that were deemed more righteous than
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everyone else. These were the Billy Grahams of
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your day, your R .C. Sproul, your John MacArthur,
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your Pastor Kennes. But unfortunately, they did
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not have the same level of grace that any of
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those men have or had. They had their Pharisaical
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view. It was very literal, it was very wooden.
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And I don't even think... literal is the right
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definition. It was literalistic. They made it
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so literal, it forced any other meaning out of
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the text. And so as the scribes and Pharisees
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approached the issue of murder, they just said,
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well, as long as I keep my hands clean, and I
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do not lay my hand upon my wife or another man,
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and I do not take their life and cold blooded
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murder, then I'm okay. This verse is not referring
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to killing in self -defense or killing in a time
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of war, but this is cold, and this is a cold
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-blooded murder, murder in the first degree.
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And Jesus rightly explains that anyone who murders
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will be liable to judgment. This is the idea
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of eye for the eye, which actually comes from
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Leviticus 24, 17, which states, whoever takes
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a human life shall surely be put to death. It
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is just in the eyes of God that those who murder
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in cold blood, they should also have their life
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taken. But Jesus does not want to stay on this
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wooden understanding of the law. He wants to
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get at the heart of it, what is behind it, to
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the heart of the believer. The law was never
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meant to be a box to live in. It was meant to
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be a convicting sight that stood before believers
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that made them look inward. That made them understand
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their sin and the weight of it and that was meant
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to drive them to a holy God to a holy Savior
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and Jesus goes on to explain it says I say to
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you to you Now it's important to understand that
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Jesus is not adding something new to the law
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He is doing he is explaining what the law always
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meant That it was meant to get at the heart.
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I love how pastor Adriel Sanchez puts it in this
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passage, the law of God has jurisdiction over
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our hearts just as much as he has it over our
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hands. The law was always meant to guide the
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heart just as much as it did our hands. And this
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is where we will have our great accusation from
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Christ that we are murderers. Because he begins
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to say, whoever becomes angry with his brother
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is liable to judgment. He takes the words from
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the law, from the wooden understanding of it,
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and he puts it into practice at the heart level.
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He talks about anger. Now this anger is not a
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holy and righteous anger. We know from Ephesians
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4 that you can be angry and you cannot sin. We
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see Jesus even execute this type of anger when
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he goes into the temple to cleanse it out. He
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goes into the temple and he sees the tax collectors
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and the money changers exchanging money and selling
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goods and selling things to sacrifice. But this
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was not the place to do sale. This was the place
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to sacrifice, to come and worship. And Jesus
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and his anger drove them out, flipping the tables,
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even forming a whip as he began to chase them.
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This is a holy and righteous anger. And you might
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not think, well, forming a whip and chasing people
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out is not very righteous. But you are dealing
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with the Son of God, someone who knew and knows
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the law perfectly. And the mercy that he showed
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in that forming of a whip and the flipping of
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the tables was one that was designed to keep
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those men, those people from eternal judgment.
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That maybe in this one action of Christ, they
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would repent and turn to God, that they would
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come to worship instead of coming to sell. This
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is a type of anger that many believers struggle
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with. There's maybe one time in my life where
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I could say I was genuinely angry in a righteous
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way. Because usually our anger comes from a sense
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of pride. It comes from a sense of self -righteousness.
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It's the same exact sin that the serpent committed
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in the garden. He put himself above God. And
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that is what we are quick to do. We do not need
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provocation. We do not need anyone calling us
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a name or doing anything. We just need One action,
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maybe they just look at us wrong. They don't
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have to get to calling us a name. Maybe our neighbor
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looks at us funny one morning as we were walking
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up to the car and we do not like the way that
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they look at us. So we decide to take vengeance
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upon them. We decide to go over to their garden
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and pull up all of their daisies and leave it
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as a dirt bed. There's no reasonableness to our
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anger. Our anger will make us punch holes in
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walls, throw our keys out the window of our cars,
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curse at people going down the street. And I
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think for me, the perfect example of this comes
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from freshman year in high school when I played
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football. And I know many of the women are really
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a football analogy. You're just going to have
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to bear with me. I'll do my best to explain the
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terms of the game. When I played football freshman
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year, I was third string. As third string that
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meant I was not the primary people. I was not
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the backup to the primary people. I was the backup
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to the backup. Which meant in rivalry games I
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never got a chance to play. And we were playing
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one of our main rivals one evening and I had
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sat through about three quarters of the game.
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Well enough people were tired from this bitter
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rivalry taking place that I had the opportunity
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to go in at kick return. Now kick return happens
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when the game is progressing. and the other team
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is not making it far enough up the field so you
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get to go in and someone gets to catch the ball
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as it gets kicked off and your job or my job
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at the time was to protect the guy running up
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the field. While I had sat there on the bench
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being filled with more anger because we were
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not doing well in the game I was not getting
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a chance to go out there and fight alongside
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of my brothers and I decided as we took off down
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the field before the guy I was meant to defend
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even got to the running back, I decided to hit
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him with all my force and with all my might.
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And if you know football, you know that would
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be a massive personal foul and would result in
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time on the bench if it was not for high school.
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But what happened in that instance is he got
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thrown on his back and I got thrown on my back
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and I think we both stood up with a concussion
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not knowing what just happened. And that is the
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type of anger that Jesus is challenging here.
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It came out of my own pride. Our anger comes
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out of our own pride, and it makes us do ridiculous
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things that often get us hurt, and most definitely
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hurts those around us. And this type of anger
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leaves us liable to judgment. It leaves us liable
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to go before a local council, and this time it
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would have been seven elders or seven religious
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leaders that had the ability to pronounce a prison
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sentence, or at worst even a quick death penalty,
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something like a beheading, something that happened
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instantaneously. they were able to handle unjustified
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murder. And so in this case, they would be able
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to handle our unjustified anger. Now this anger
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does not usually stand on its own, it usually
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progresses as Jesus progresses in the text. And
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he said, whoever insults his brother will be
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liable to counsel. Now if you have a different
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translation, you might see the word, call his
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brother Raka. It is a Greek term. And it's most
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similar to the German word Doomkopf, which just
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means dumb head if you translate it literally.
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Empty headed, stupid, airhead, any of those types
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of words that you can think of. It is a full
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insult. It was really a cultural word that you
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were not meant to say. It would be equivalent
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to one of the curse words that we have today
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because it even tied into the idea of The word
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raka would be used with heretics as Jewish leaders
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spit upon a heretic that was espousing theology
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or things about God that were not true. The Jews
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today actually have maintained this practice
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in Israel. They will, as they walk down the street,
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they will spit upon Christians as they tried
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to proclaim the gospel and to proclaim the Messiah.
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This is what the word raka is getting at. It
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is a full insult. And I think most commonly that
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happens most often to us in road rage. We are
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driving down the street or trying to get onto
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the interstate and someone drives around us in
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their little car at a speed that is not necessary
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or appropriate. And then they get in front of
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us and they slam on their brakes for some reason.
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And usually the thing that comes out of our mouth
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is something to the extent of, you idiot, I cannot
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believe you would do that. I have a place to
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go and things to do and You could have hurt me
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or someone else. It is a quick anger. It is an
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insult. This also, as I mentioned, can come out
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with our spouses as we get frustrated or we get
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upset. We may have a way of doing things, and
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then our wife or our husband comes in and tries
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to do it some way else, in a different way than
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how we would do. And we think, how stupid can
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you be? Why would you clean the dishes that way?
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Why would you clean the blinds that way? Why
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would you vacuum the floors that way? And this
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type of anger, as it progresses, leaves us liable
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to counsel. This would be liable to the Sanhedrin,
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the counsel of 71. It was designed to handle
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the worst cases of heresy. This is the counsel
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that Jesus had to go through and was spat upon
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as he faced. the wrath of God on the cross, the
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righteous anger of God on the cross. They could
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pronounce stoning. They could put people up for
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crucifixion. And this is the type of death that
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Jesus says we deserve if we are willing to insult
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people, if we are quick with our tongue. And
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this continues to progress because often we do
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not just stop at calling people stupid. We need
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to attack them morally. We need to believe that
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they are godless. And so Jesus gives us a warning.
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And he says, whoever says you fool will be liable
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to the hell of fire. And the word fool here is
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often used in scripture. God uses fool in scripture.
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Psalm 14 .1, for instance, says, the fool says
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in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt.
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They do abominable deeds. There is none who does
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good. So the word fool is a moral condemnation.
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If you call someone a fool, what you are saying
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is they are without God. They have no knowledge
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of God. They are far from him. You are excommunicating
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people with your words and your thoughts and
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your deeds when you call someone fool. The type
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of fool that God wants us, or the word. fool
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that God wants us to be able to use is the same
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way he uses it in Psalm 14. There is an element
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of grace to it. We can acknowledge that someone
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is without God while also acknowledging that
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they need great grace. Because we too were once
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fools. We were blind to our sin. We were dead
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in our trespasses. We were without God and the
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wisdom of him. But it is out of his great grace
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that he has called us to his mercy. He has called
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us to know him. We are no longer fools, but we
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have the wisdom of God because of his spirit
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working in our lives. And if we are willing to
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call someone a fool and morally condemn them,
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there is only one punishment that Jesus lays
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out, the hell of fire. And this is the word for
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hell. This is the word Gehenna. It is not the
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word that we see King David use in the Psalms
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where he says, which is the place that people
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would go as an intermediate state, the place
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of death. This is the place of weeping and gnashing
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of teeth. This is not a place of a little red
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devil where there's just some fire around us
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and we get to walk down a lane as we be punished.
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No, this is a place of condemnation. And to understand
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the picture that Jesus is laying here, we must
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understand this word, Gehenna. The word comes
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from the Valley of Heman. This is a place of
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apostasy. Solomon would use the Valley of Heman
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to set up places of Moloch worship. Moloch was
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the god of child sacrifice. King Josiah, when
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he took the throne and second king, he would
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come in and he would destroy these places of
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worship. And then he would use it not for pagan
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worship or even just to throw away and things
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that belonged to the pagans, he would use it
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to dump bodies after a war, bodies that had died
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that were unbelieving, and they would be burned
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up. They would light the pile on fire, and there
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would be condemnation for it. The Jews even continued
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this practice in the Jesus' day, and they did
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not use it to dump bodies, but they would use
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it to burn their trash. So this is a place from
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the Old Testament all the way into the new. that
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was a place of condemnation, of apostasy, a place
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of unbelief that was meant to burn the worst
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trash. And this is the condemnation that we all
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deserved when we walked without the wisdom of
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God. This is the condemnation we deserve when
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we are quick to look at people on the highway
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as we drive down it and we see them holding up
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their political signs of different messages and
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we think, you fool, how can you think any of
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those things? Or maybe you're having a Bible
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conversation with one of your brothers or sisters,
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and you start to think, you fool, how can you
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not believe in infant baptism? Or maybe how could
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you believe in infant baptism? We are quick to
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do this condemnation. As we look through each
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one of these, the gradation gets worse and worse
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and worse in terms of punishment, but the sins
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themselves become more and more common. Nowadays
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it is so easy to see people, quick to say, you
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fool, to claim that they are without God and
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show them no grace. We are a little slower, but
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not by much to call them stupid. And we are slower
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yet to just pull off and use our fist, use our
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hands to cause harm. And this should make us
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ask ourselves as we reflect on this text, why
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are you holding onto your anger? What is beneath
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the surface? I understand that maybe you have
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some sort of physical ailment that makes it hard
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to get out of bed in the morning. I understand
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that people abort children and those children
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do not deserve it. But why are you holding on
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to your anger? Why are you angry at God? Why
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are you angry at your friend who tried to give
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you good advice? Or at your wife who just wanted
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your help? Or at your husband? who all he needed
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was a hug himself. And we as Christians should
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be quick to let go of this anger. We should be
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willing to trade in this heart of anger, and
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we should trade it in for the heart of Christ.
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Ephesians 4, 31 and 32 tells us, let all bitterness
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and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be
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put away from you, along with all malice. Be
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kind to one another, tender -hearted, forgiving
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one another as God and Christ forgave you. Just
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as God has shown us grace, we should be quick
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to show grace. We even sing this or we pray this
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when we pray the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us our
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debts as we forgive our debtors. We need to forgive
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in the same way that Christ forgave. We need
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to take radical steps. to fix our relationships
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and to have relationships. And so we move on
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from these three condemnations of murder, of
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anger, to two demonstrations of how we should
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be rectified with our neighbors, with our spouses,
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with our friends. The first one comes when you're
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going to worship. Worship, when you're approaching
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it, is always a time where you're meditating
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on the week before. You're thinking of of the
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sin that you committed. You're thinking of the
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fact you just got angry at your wife as you loaded
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the children into the car. You're maybe thinking
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of the time you cursed someone out at work and
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they did not deserve it. And we should reflect
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on these sins. And maybe you do it as you're
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coming in or maybe you do it while we're praying
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our prayer confession during that time of silent
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prayer. Hopefully you're doing it during this
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sermon. Right now you're reflecting. on these
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times. But Christ tells us if you're coming in
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to worship and you have a sacrifice to offer,
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you have prayers to pray and hymns to sing, but
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if you are still angry with your brother, do
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not come. You do not have a worship. You do not
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have a sacrifice that can truly approach the
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Lord. The Lord wants a perfect sacrifice. In
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the Psalms we were told, for you will not delight
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in sacrifice, or I will give it. You will not
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be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices
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of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite
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heart. O God, you will not despise. God wants
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us to come and to worship with a broken heart,
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a heart of repentance, one that seeks to have
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right relationships with him and with others.
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And we cannot come and offer our sacrifices unless
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we have come repentant of all of our sins. And
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as Jesus is giving this command, everyone in
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the crowd would have been thinking, well, this
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is preposterous. The trip from Galilee to Jerusalem
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was an 80 mile trip. It was a four or five day
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trip. And so they're in one way. And so they
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have already come to Galilee. Now they need to
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go back to Jerusalem. If they get there and they
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have a sacrifice to give, but they have had a
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fight with their spouse, if they have had a fight
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with a friend who tried to give them good advice,
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they need to leave their sacrifice, go back,
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take another four or five days, make reconciliation,
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and then come back to worship. Because only then
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they can come with a pure sacrifice. As one commentator
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ultimately put it, if you are unfit, for worship,
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you are unfit to die. And so God wants us to
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come before him with a broken and contrite heart
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so that we can be worshiped, that he can be worshiped
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properly, that we can be ready for the Lord to
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come back as we sung this morning, as we talked
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about this morning. And Jesus gives us a second
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demonstration of how do we seek reconciliation.
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And he talks about... Come to terms quickly with
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your accuser while you are going with them to
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court. Least your accuser hands you over to a
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judge and the judge to the guard and you be put
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in prison. Now this accuser has two different
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meanings. There is the real life meaning where
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a legal crime was committed. Maybe someone insulted
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you and you thought the only just punishment
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for them was to pick up your fist and press it
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against their cheek. or maybe you had a coworker
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who you thought he was lazy and maybe a glutton
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and you decided to make it known before the whole
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office. You decided to call him a liar and maybe
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even pronounced sins on him that he did not even
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commit. And now he's looking for a restoration.
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He sues you for defamation or he gets sued for
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assault. And before you even get to court the
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commandment that God gives us, is to go and make
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reconciliation. Go apologize in repentance. Pay
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the hospital bill that the man needed to have
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after being assaulted by you. Go to your boss
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and say, hey, this coworker, there are times
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he is lazy, but I am lazy, too, and most of what
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I said was not true. You need to go before you
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ever get to the court date. You need to go before
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you even go to talk with a lawyer. The first
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step you should take is to go and seek reconciliation
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with this person because if it gets to court,
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you will justly owe him everything. They could
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take everything you have, all of your savings.
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If there's not enough there, they could come
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after your car or your house or anything you
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own. They could take it and they are right to
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do so because you have attacked them. You have
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murdered their name. You have done great wrong.
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against them, and it needs to be reconciled.
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But then there's a second meaning to this. There
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is a spiritual meaning that we must remember.
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Because throughout this whole passage, Jesus
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does not want to just deal with physical actions,
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not just with the hands. He wants to deal with
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the heart. The spiritual side of this is that
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if we get to heaven and we have been unfit to
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die, we have been unrepentant, we have Jesus
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not as a mediator, not as a friend, but as an
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accuser, and justly so. If we stand before God
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with unrepentant sin, it does not matter how
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loudly we proclaim Christ, we show ourselves
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to be unbelievers if we are unrepentant with
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our sin. Now, this does not mean that we can
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never get angry. Even unjustly, the Lord knows,
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Paul tells us in the scripture that we will still
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wrestle against the flesh. But as John Owen puts
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it we must be killing sin or it will be killing
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you and especially when it comes to anger because
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anger destroys relationships it destroys marriages
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it destroys friendships and Often it is blasphemous
28:41
against God because as we dwell in our anger
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We almost cease being angry at our spouse or
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with our friend and we begin to be angry at God
28:50
especially if we're facing the loss of a loved
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one or a medical issue. We start to wonder why
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God would put us in this place, why God would
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allow us to exist here. Why has he abandoned
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us? It's very similar to the Israelites in Numbers
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21. As they're pulled through the wilderness,
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they begin to doubt God for the food and the
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manna that he has provided, and they call it
29:17
worthless. That is often what we do to God with
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our anger. We forget all of the blessings and
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the graces that he has given us and we get angry
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at him. Anger is a radical sin and you must take
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radical steps to repent of it and have right
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relationships. Let me say that one more time
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because if there's anything you get from the
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sermon, this is it. Anger is a radical sin and
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you must take radical steps to repent of it.
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and have right relationships. Maybe, Christian,
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you are sitting here and you're thinking that
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these things that I have described, described
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yourself. Maybe you realize that you have forgotten
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the grace of your good God who gave His Son in
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your place, who took upon the wrath of God, the
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righteous anger of God in your place. He was
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spat upon for you. Reflect on your Savior. Turn
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back. You do not have to be a slave to your anger
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any longer. You can be a slave to righteousness.
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You are an heir, a child of God. Take on the
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heart of Christ. Take on a tender heart. Take
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on a forgiving heart. Follow your savior. He
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has given you the example. Now follow him. Leave
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here seeking forgiveness. Leave here seeking
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reconciliation and restoration. with your friend
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or with your spouse. Now maybe you are here tonight
30:54
and you do not know this Christ that I've talked
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about, but you do know that your life has been
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one filled with bitterness and with strife, with
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fighting, with yelling, with maybe broken marriages,
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divorces out of it. You can turn to Christ. Christ
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is the only Savior you can have. He died for
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sinners. He died in the place of sinners, and
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you can turn to him. Now, maybe you fit none
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of these categories, but next time you get angry,
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you should stop and say, does this represent
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Christ? And if it does not, seek repentance.
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Seek the radical steps to have right relationships.
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Let's pray.