Matthew 5, we'll begin reading verse 2, and then go on to verse 26, and we'll be looking at the 21 to 26, but we'll set the context of the Sermon on the Mount to remember what Jesus had been saying through the first part where he instructs, and those were his disciples. It's not really pointing out, it's not by works, but really by their faith and showing. in certain ways, and then what they're called to be is salt and light, and then his relationship to the law. And then he builds really on that foundation in this next portion and really throughout the rest of the chapter. Beginning with verse 2, And he, Jesus, opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and order all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, Not an iota nor a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever lacks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. You've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says you're a fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you're offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser, or going with him to court. Lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. On Tuesday, Election Day, It's always, in our society, a very important day. Because it's a day when we choose a leadership for the next several years. And leadership for any group is crucial. Whether we have good leaders or bad leaders, we'll tend to direct the course of our nation. And so I trust you've been in fervent prayer. What happens on Tuesday will have an impact on our society. Maybe for good, maybe for evil. And as we understand that, how we should be in fervent prayer for God's mercy, for God raising up godly leaders. But Tuesday will also be a day of relief, I think, for many of us. If you've been following all that's going on in the political campaigns and all the ads, it'll be a relief no longer having all those ads on the air, especially the negative ads that attack one's opponent, that often distort the facts or voting records or statements to make the person appear different than what they are. I saw one man being interviewed who was running for the U.S. House of Representatives. And he said his opponent was currently running eleven different negative ads about him. And that's the conventional wisdom. His opponent was falling behind in the polls. Seemingly could not win. And what does the conventional wisdom say to do? Well, you need to drive up his negatives. Your opponent says, how did you do that? You do it with attack ads. You try to bring out the worst things. So they are sharply critical. But as I watch these attack ads and listen to them, it strikes me that they are often character assassinations. They're putting the worst light on the person in their votes, their views, in order for the electorate to view them with more suspicion. And it's true that that's what's politically expedient. That's what needs to be done. But always in the back of my mind is, is that right morally? Is it right morally? be doing this in order to turn things around. And if we really understand what Jesus is saying to us in verses 21 to 26, we would understand that that sort of character assassination, as well as insults, anger, are all forms of murder. They're attacking someone and are coming from that same root as murder. Indeed, as we would look at the end, even a lack of reconciliation with our brother goes against the commandment. And Jesus is saying, all those violations of that sixth commandment make us liable for judgment before God. And therefore, the Christian and the Christian politician included, and each one of us need to be very careful of our interactions with others. Our becoming angry, our insulting, our engaging in character assassination. because these are violating God's command. Well, how do we see this from these verses? Well, first, is we need to see that Jesus' words are in contrast with the traditional understanding of scripture, what had been handed down to the Jews from one generation of rabbi to the next, but not contrary to the scripture itself. Six times, from verse 21 on to the end of the chapter, we have this formula where Jesus has said, You have heard it said to those of old, and then the contrast, what I say to you. It's often thought Jesus is talking about the Old Testament with the Old Testament commands. And on the surface, it would seem to be that way. And thus and somehow, he's contradicting The commands of the Old Testament are going beyond them, are adding an element of faith that wasn't there. And we need to be following commands of, you know, we need to be walking by faith and not according to the law. But Jesus isn't doing that. He's not destroying what the law says, but He's deepening its demands. He's bringing out what was entailed in all the commandments in the Old Testament. But he's pointing out that the traditional understanding was limited and was too limited in scope and really didn't get to the full impact of what each of the commandments deals with. And so you go through, really, a number of the commandments and bring out what the teaching failed to bring out. And we can say that for three reasons. Behold, that Jesus was contradicting the law goes against what he just said in the previous verses. He said he's come to fulfill the law, not to destroy it, not to undo it, not to make it void in some way. In fact, as we saw last week, Jesus teaches us that God's law is an essential tool for diagnosing our spiritual condition. We break it and encourage others to do so. Or we hold to it and encourage others to do so. It's an indication of our heart. It's an indication of how much we love God. How much we care for God's will for our lives or not. It's really, then, Jesus sets a standard for how you evaluate yourself in the kingdom of heaven. It's not the standard by which you get in the kingdom, for how you see your position. And so rather than dispensing with the need for righteousness, rather than dispensing with the need for the law, Jesus is fulfilling it. He is saying that his followers need to have righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. Second, we can see that Jesus is confronting the false understandings of what the law meant. Especially when you get to the last contrast, we were given a little bit more details, where it says you're to love your neighbor, and then it goes on to say, and hate your enemy. And Jesus is pointing out to a traditional understanding, that as they came across that command in Leviticus, to love your neighbor, They would have understood there was also an implication, an influence that you're to hate somebody, hate those who are your enemies. That teaching seems to be well-received and well-regarded within Jewish circles, but it's wrong. There's no command in the Old Testament to hate your enemies. And as we will see from the Sixth Commandment, it really implies the opposite. And thus, the contrast is between what others have taught, what has been handed down as a teaching of the rabbis, and what Jesus teaches. And it's made very emphatic as Jesus says, but I say to you, We could literally translate it because He is emphasizing His authority to speak with authority on what God's Word means. And we know He has that authority because He is the Son of God. He is the Word incarnate. It's wrong to think this way because it misunderstands even what the Old Testament law is. It wasn't merely some external laws. Throughout, there's an emphasis on the heart as well. And so, as you think about the two greatest commandments in the Old Testament, what do they involve? They involve love. Loving God and loving your neighbor. Involvement of heart in what you do. What attempt gets down to the last commandment? It says you're not to covenant. A matter of the heart. Not something external. As we sing the Psalms, how many of them are expressions of the heart? Psalm 51. The need for a broken and a contrite heart. The teachers of law were wrong in thinking of it as only external. And if you outwardly just didn't murder somebody, it fulfilled the commandment. Now even in the Old Testament, the commands went much deeper. It went to our hearts, as well as our minds, as well as our actions. And the emphasis throughout the Old Testament is on faith in our heart, in the internal, and then how it shows in what's external. Well, the second point we need to see is that Jesus reveals the true meaning, the depth of meaning that there is in the commandment not to murder. And we'll see next week, Lord willing, what it means not to commit adultery can go on. The traditional understanding would have been, don't commit the physical act. If you commit the physical act of murder, then you're liable for judgment. You're liable to stand before God and be judged. And the implication is, if you don't do that, well, then you're okay. If you've not taken the life, you fulfilled that commandment, and you're okay. And then the questions that were being asked are, what's the scope of that commandment? Does it apply to any of taking of life, or is capital punishment okay? Is defending yourself in battle okay? Are wars okay? Is self-defense okay? What about the issue of manslaughter? And they would be talking about those issues. And when is it murder? When is it a violation of the law and when it isn't? But Jesus is pointing out that this command goes much deeper than that. It's much wider than just the physical acts of taking the life of another. He makes it clear. that this commandment forbids not only the outward act, but thoughts and words that would come from the same desire, from the same root sin of not protecting a person's life of wanting to destroy the life of another. So, he mentions three things. being angry with your brother, insulting your brother, calling another person a fool. And what he's trying to say, whether you kill someone with a weapon, with a gun or a knife or poison, or you engage in insulting a person, character assassination, belittling, calling them names, gossiping behind their back, it's all the same spiritual sickness. And the later ones may not ever lead to committing physical murder. But, those insults and character assassination and anger and belittling are ugly symptoms of the same sin. The same state of mind that says, you're standing in my way and I want to take your life. And have us pause for a moment and think about that. How often do we do that? Now we would not think of physically taking somebody else's life. Maybe, except for those exceptions of defending yourself or whatever. But to be a cold-blooded killer. But it's often said, if looks could kill. And if we were to add, if thoughts could kill. If you were to look at your angry or resentful thoughts, or looks, or words, at the times when you call someone foolish, or do some character assassination, How many of us by the end of the week would be surrounded by bodies of maimed and dead people? And parents, have you ever said to your child, if I get my hands on you, enough, you know, say what you are going to do. Maybe you'll say, well, I'll wring your neck or whatever. Threatening. Now, we should realize that Jesus isn't placing these sins as equivalent to murder. That if you call someone a fool, it's just exactly the same as murdering them. He's not doing that. But what He's trying to say, in a very vivid way, is that calling someone a fool, insulting someone, or being angry with someone, is far more serious than we ever think. And he points it out by saying the consequences. He says, you know, you're liable to judgment. The teacher said, you're liable to judgment if you commit murder, if you take a life. Jesus is saying, if you're angry, if there's hatred in your heart, you're liable for judgment. And it goes on, and it actually says, you're liable to the council, to the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the land. And then it goes on to say, you're liable to the hell of fire. And commentators often want to try to figure out why one is attached to the other. But the point that Jesus is making is you're guilty. When you do these things, you become guilty before God, and oftentimes before man. You're breaking the commandment not to murder. And for doing so, whether it be in your words or in your thoughts, in your attitude towards somebody else, you are deserving of hell. You don't have to go out and physically kill someone. to be deserving, to be liable for the fires of hell. And in verse 22, there are two different Greek words that are used here. The first one that isn't even translated in my version of raka means empty. And it's the sense of empty-headed. You dummy, you stupid one. And so you're calling your brother empty-headed. And the second, and it really expresses contempt for the person's mind, their thinking ability. The second word is a word that means fool. And it's translated that, but it really has a sense of scoundrel. You have contempt for the person's heart and character. They're no good on the inside. And it's really saying to us, it doesn't matter what form of attack. If we attack the person for their mind, their lack of understanding, their being dim-witted, or we attack them because there's something wrong morally in their character, in their heart. Whenever we have that contemptuous attitude, it's sin. It's breaking the commandment and makes us guilty, liable before God. And so it doesn't matter. Whether you're young or old, or whether the person you're attacking is weak in mind or weak in body, or whether they're sophisticated or not. Whether they're a great sinner or not. What you're doing is treating that person as if they have no value. As if they have not been made in the image of God. And it's wrong. And it's contrary to the commandment not to murder. And just think how counter that is to the thinking in our society around us. Where it's seen as okay to mock and to ridicule, to use character assassination to belittle the ideas of others and all the rest. We'd likely call someone a fool. or empty-headed, or dispensed with their thinking. It's breaking the sixth commandment just as much as taking a knife and stabbing them. The third point is Jesus gives us two illustrations of how to apply this teaching and really extend this teaching a step further. Because we need to realize that in a command permitting an activity, there's also implied the opposite, the promoting of the other side of the coin. So not to bear false witness implies we're to be promoting the truth. And not to be stealing implies that we're to work unlawfully procuring what we need. And this prohibition then against attacking others implies the opposite, we're to be promoting reconciliation with our fellow man. And the two illustrations really point to that, the need for reconciliation. The first in verses 23 and 24 is, your brother has something against you. You might notice the word so at the beginning of verse 23, or therefore, as it could be translated. It's tying back what's given here, the illustration, what Jesus has just talked about in terms of the commandment not to murder. Therefore, he gives an example of what to do. And he gives it in a very general way. If somebody has something, your brother has something against you. He doesn't say you've sinned against your brother. He's left it very broad and very general. It may be that you sinned, and therefore he has something against you, but maybe it's only in his mind. Maybe you haven't done anything wrong, and yet he holds a grudge against you for wrong reasons. And the point is, it doesn't matter. Because when there's that strife between brothers, There's a violating of this commandment. There's really attacking of the other person going on. And so it needs to be dealt with. It needs to go and seek reconciliation. And how important is it? Well, Jesus makes it clear. It's vitally important. He gives a situation. You're there for worship. And you wait till later to worship. It's that important. And then after you reconcile, then you can return to the worship of God with a clear conscience and with a full heart. It goes on to a second illustration in verses 25 and 26 that really advances this idea of reconciliation of others a step further. The first is dealing with a brother. Well, what about an accuser, someone who's hostile to you, someone who might be an enemy to you? How are you to deal with that? Yeah, it's one thing to be reconciled to a Christian brother or sister, but how about somebody outside? And Jesus gives us an example, and today we might think in terms of being summoned to court. You have a bad debt, an unpaid debt. And the person sues you and takes you to court. And Jesus is saying it's better to be reconciled. Seek reconciliation at all costs. Because that anger and that animosity will build up. It will become set in stone. You have to appear before the judge, that accuser. We have to carry through on his accusations. We have to present the facts. And you'll be found guilty. And you'll be sent off to jail. And you'll have to pay every single penny, which might include a fine, on top of what you wrote. And so the idea is, how much better to be reconciled, even to someone who's accusing, even someone who's an hostility to you. Animosity is like a time-box. It explodes and causes great destruction of relationships. And Jesus is really telling us the right time to clear up a matter, whether it be with our enemy or with our brother, is as soon as we become aware of it. It's really implied in the commandment not to murder. That we're to be doing those things that would prevent strife and antagonism between people. You will live at peace with all men, as far as it depends upon you. Let me give you three applications for today. First, as you realize that the Sixth Commandment, as it talks about murder, isn't just talking about guns and poison and knives and such. It's also talking about hatred. It's talking about anger. It's talking about insults. It's talking about character assassination gossip. The murder of somebody's reputation. How easy it is to do these things. How it's around us in society that we can pick up a habit of doing those things and not even think about it. I encourage you, in your thoughts, in your attitudes, your words, to carefully consider, are you attacking someone who's been made in the image of God? You don't have to do it. Second, is to realize when you do, and we all do it, you have an advocate in Jesus Christ, that by faith you can be forgiven. And it's for those who Jesus has already described, those who are poor in spirit, who realize their spiritual need, who mourn over their sins, who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness. As we come to Christ in faith, those sins are forgiven. All of our sins are forgiven. And so the fact that you and I are murderers, are forgiven through Christ. And lastly, as you consider the commandment, there's a positive aspect that we're called to preserve life. That means we're to be seeking reconciliation. So I encourage you to think about it. There's somebody that you know you're not reconciled. You're holding a grudge. You're keeping that person at arm's length. We should be constantly seeking to be in right relationship with others. That's concluded by implication in this command. As we see these things, indeed, our righteousness could exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, if not only of the external, only of not taking someone's life, and not the ways they do it, the ways we do it in our hearts and in our minds. Let's pray. Look at this command and see that we're called not to murder. How often we fail to see the full implications of this very simple yet profound command. Too often we live our lives and we are murdering people every day with our thoughts and with our words. And we don't think anything about it. Too often we let wounds fester and grow worse and don't see a need to go to our brother who has something against us. And maybe we know that it's in their minds and not something that we've done. And yet we're content to let that happen, the wounds fester and fester, and become worse and worse, rather than seeking reconciliation. Help us to do that. Help us to understand the full impact of this command. And to realize that we cannot carry out this command by our efforts, but we give thanks that through Christ, He has carried it out. He was able to follow it completely. And that we are clothed in His righteousness as we trust in Him. It's in His name we pray. Amen.