Well, let's get started in our study today as we continue on the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5 verse 7. Thus far, we've looked at kind of the context or an introduction for the Sermon on the Mount. We looked at the Beatitudes, at being salt and light. And then last week, we looked at this idea of Christ fulfilling the law, which is a really important section of verses. And really, we found, hey, Christ has fulfilled the law. He's not done away with the Old Testament. It's all God's Word. But because He's fulfilled the law and died for us, that sin-atoning death, we can actually have His righteousness in which that section of verses last week ended on verse 20, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the heaven. It's a stern warning, but what he's talking about here is the internal, the imputed righteousness of Christ in believers, which comes from having Jesus, of course, atoned for our sins. And by that, he means that that righteousness far surpasses that of the external righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. It's an important section of verses and it really sets the tone for what he's gonna continue to talk about in the Sermon on the Mount. For Jesus is gonna continue to be diving into the heart and the internal matters more than the external. In fact, the internal, we could say drives the external. We read in Proverbs 16, two, all the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. Well, today we're going to begin a new section of verses on the Sermon on the Mount that really looks at, over the coming weeks, we're going to look at this, six different corrective illustrations. Each of these six corrective illustrations begins with the phrase, you have heard that it was said of old. Each one of those six illustrations. And so that phrase points to the fact that the scribes and Pharisees have told people about these six things. But Jesus is now going to expound upon them, and again, cause people to look at the inner part of the person rather than just the external. So those six corrective illustrations that we're gonna be looking at in the coming weeks are these. Today we'll be looking at anger and murder, found in verse 21 through 26. Sexual sin, that begins in verse 27. Divorce, verse 31. Oaths and speaking the truth, verse 33. Retaliation, verse 38. And loving your enemies begins in verse 43. So regarding inward versus outward or external righteousness, listen to what John Calvin said in his Institutes. Let us agree that through the law, man's life is molded not only to outward honesty, but also to inward and spiritual righteousness. Although no one can deny this, very few duly note it. This happens because they do not look to the law giver, capital L meaning God. They do not look to God by whose character the nature of the law is to be appraised. Listen to what he says here. If some king by edict forbids fornication, murder or theft, I admit that a man who does not commit such acts will not be bound by the penalty. That is because the mortal lawgiver's jurisdiction extends only to the outward political order. I'm going to stop there for a minute. What does he mean? Well, for example, in this country, is it a law that you shall not commit murder? It is a law, right? And so, he's saying here that that law is given by a mortal lawgiver, not the Supreme, capital L, Lawgiver. And so, by us obeying that outwardly, by us not committing the physical act of murdering, we're not guilty under that particular form of the law, right? Because it's been given by a person. Then he goes on, listen to what he says, But God, whose eye nothing escapes and who is concerned not so much with outward appearance as with purity of heart, forbids not only fornication, murder, and theft, but lust, anger, hatred, coveting, and deceit. For since he is a spiritual lawgiver, he speaks not less of the soul than he does of the body." So what's he saying there? Jesus says there's more to this, right? It's not just the outward physical act of murdering, it's anger, right? And so that's what Jesus is looking at. And so turn in your Bibles, if you have them this morning, to Matthew 5, verses 21 through 26. Matthew 5, beginning in verse 21. You have heard that it was said of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that 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 fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are 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 while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the 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." So we're going to look at this section of verses today under six headings, and this is on your handout. We'll look at anger and murder found in verse 21, the danger of anger, verse 22A, the danger of slander, verse 22B, the danger of condemning someone's character, Verse 22C, the cure for anger, verses 23 through 24. And then we'll look at more of a practical application of getting to the heart of anger that's found in Lou Priolo's book that I'll mention a little bit later. But let's first of all look at murder. Jesus says in verse 21, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. Well, if you look at just the idea of physical killing just in this country alone, The numbers are staggering per year. There's 25,000 people murdered in the U.S. every year. There's approximately 46,000 self-murders or suicides every year in this country. And it's reported that there's approximately 775,000 pre-birth murders, abortions every year. Well, if you add those numbers, that comes to 846,000 murders every year just in this country alone. And yes, if you break that down per day, 2,317 murders per day. Well, Jesus is saying in verse 21, this is wrong. It's wrong to kill another life. Of course, the very first murder in the Old Testament is recorded in Genesis 4, 8. Let me just ask the question, when did the fall happen? What part of Genesis? Genesis 3, right? Now, we don't know how much time transpired between Genesis 3 and Genesis 4, but it wasn't long, wasn't long at all. So first sin enters in Genesis 3, very next chapter, we see the first murder, Genesis 4, 8. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Now, when God went to Cain and approached Cain, he really had more self-pity than he did grief. For he says to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear, Genesis 4.13. Well, the first prohibition against murder was given in Genesis 9, 6, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Of course, we see later in the Ten Commandments, the Sixth Commandment, thou shalt not murder, Exodus 20, 13. John MacArthur notes, the term has to do with criminal killing. And from many accounts and teachings in Scripture, it is clear that capital punishment, just warfare, accidental homicide, and self-defense are excluded. The commandment is against the intentional, we could also add willful, killing of another human being for purely personal reasons, whatever those reasons might be. Well, the Bible makes it clear, of course, that God hates murder. It's one of the six things that He hates as Proverbs 6 outlines. But we see many people throughout biblical history, both Old and New Testament, breaking that. and killing people. Remember the context here, though, in the Sermon on the Mount. Let's just back up for just a second. Remember, Jesus is talking to his disciples, but remember the scribes and the Pharisees are also listening to him. They're listening, no doubt, intently to him. So you can imagine their response when Jesus said in verse 21, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. How did the scribes and Pharisees feel about that? Pretty good. They would have agreed with that wholeheartedly. In fact, they would have said, you know, I'm good there. I haven't actually killed somebody. So what Jesus is telling me here is not only right, but I've actually done. I haven't killed anybody. In fact, if there's one sin that I haven't done, it's got to be that, right? Because I haven't physically murdered someone. Well, according to rabbinic tradition and the beliefs of most cultures in that period of time, murder was limited to actually physically taking another person's life. But again, it just goes to show how the scribes and Pharisees were focused on what? The external, right, not the internal. So Jesus absolutely turns their world upside down. When he goes further to state in Matthew 22, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. So what's Jesus doing there? Well, he's saying that you who are angry should be judged as if you had committed a murder. No doubt, the scribes and Pharisees would have been totally befuddled by that statement, and there would have been murmurings in the crowd. But this is the first part of the definition of murder, and that's being angry with someone. Remember that we've said that Jesus looks at the heart, at the internal. not just the external. And so what he's saying here is that the physical act of murder, which is wrong, of course, but that actually begins in the heart. It originates in the heart and it starts with evil thoughts, regardless of whether or not those thoughts give rise to a physical act. Jesus is saying to them, and he's saying to us, when we hate someone, When we curse someone, when we malign another individual, when we are angry with someone, we are guilty of murder. Yes, it is us law-abiding moral citizens who are Christians who are just as guilty of murder as those that are on death row. Jesus makes it very clear that everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, 1 John 3, 15. What he's getting at here is we all stand guilty. Do we not? How many of you have not been angry towards someone? We all have. We all stand guilty here as murderers. In May of 1931, the city of New York witnessed the capture of one of the most dangerous criminals ever known. His name was Francis Crowley, but he was more famously known for his nickname, which was Two-Gun Crowley. He had shown himself to be the kind of man who would kill at the drop of a hat, and he did. Indeed, he did, over the course of about three months, killed many people, including many police officers. Sometime before his capture, he had been parked on the side of a road, and a policeman came up and asked to see his license. Without saying a word, Crowley drew his gun and shot the policeman down. Then as the officer lay dying on the ground, Crowley took the officer's revolver and fired another bullet into his body. When the 19-year-old Crowley was finally captured at his girlfriend's apartment, a bloodstained note was discovered that had been written by Crowley during an hour-long battle between him and several hundred police officers. The note read simply, under my coat is a weary heart, but a kind one, one that would do nobody any harm. Crowley was sentenced to die by the electric chair. And when he arrived on death row, he did not say, this is fair. This is what I get for killing policemen. No, instead he said, this is what I get for defending myself. Well, what's the point here? He thought that he was a good person. He thought that he had a good heart. He thought that he was justified in what he did when, in fact, he took the life of others. He murdered them. Well, we might be very tempted when we hear the story of Two-Gun Crowley or when we hear stories of even recent news out of the Lowcountry where there's been recently convicted murderers to say, how could he? Or how could she? They must have been absolutely crazy to do that. Well, there may have been a little crazy involved. However, let me say this, they were angry. Anger leads to murder. You know, it is tempting for us to be, well, Lord, I'm not like that person, right? And so, we kind of stand tall and we kind of think of ourselves pretty good. And it's really not unlike what the Pharisees did, not unlike what the Pharisee did in Luke 18 when he stood by himself and he prayed, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all I get. What should we be doing? What's the point here? Well, the point is, that we can't compare ourselves as Christians. We can't compare ourselves to others. We can't compare ourselves to bloodthirsty criminals and say, Lord, at least I'm not like that person. No, we have to compare ourselves as Christians to the absolute perfect standard in God's Word. And when we get angry, instead of saying, at least I'm not murdering, recognize you actually are. and I actually am. And we come before the Lord in absolute humility and we ask the Lord to forgive us. And we say, Lord, there, but for your grace, there I am also. Take away the sin of anger. Now, we need to take a moment and we've got to differentiate between righteous and unrighteous anger. So, righteous anger was demonstrated by Jesus himself. We think about an example of when he cleansed the temple of those who were defiling it in John 2 and Matthew 21. We, like Jesus, should be angry when people don't honor God. or they don't honor His name, or they don't honor who He is. Righteous anger is motivated by a sincere love for God and occurs when God's will has been violated. It's right for us to get angry over our sin, knowing how it has violated God's law and His very character. However, if we were to be honest, most of the time we become angry Not because God's name and will has been violated, but because we were hurt. We feel like we have been sinned against, not God, and that makes us angry. This is sinful anger and is motivated by love of an idolatrous desire, and it occurs when we feel like our will has been violated. How many of y'all have toddlers in the home or remember having toddlers in the home? What do they do when they get upset and they get angry? It's called a temper tantrum, right? Lay on the floor and kick and scream. It's really, if we think about it, it's really not unlike what we do as adults. See, when our will has been violated, when we've been hurt by somebody, we get angry and we throw a fit. unrighteous, it's sinful anger. It's the kind of sinful anger that Jesus is speaking about here that includes holding a grudge, cherishing resentment, not being willing to forgive, losing our temper, and harboring ill will toward another. This is wrong. and it needs to be repented of. Well, secondly, anger involves insulting another person. Jesus says, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel, Matthew 5.22b. The original term used here was raka, and it has no exact modern equivalent, but it's been transliterated to mean insulting, malicious abuse, derision, and slander. This would be the type of word that was used by the Roman soldiers as they were placing the crown of thorns on Jesus's head, Matthew 27. Well, why is insulting another person so bad? Because we are all created in the image of God. And to slander a human being, to slander a creature that God has made is to slander God himself. And yes, is equivalent to murdering that person. When we slander, we are intentionally trying to ruin another's reputation. And Jesus says here, guilty. This is like murder. For out of the heart, in this case, a heart of anger, the mouth speaks. And how quickly we can get to this point if we leave our thoughts unchecked. Well, thirdly, we're not to condemn a person, what is spoken of in Matthew 22C, and whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. The word for fool here is moros, which means stupid or dull, and the term from which we get moron. To call someone a fool or a moron is to defame their character. which is also murder. John MacArthur writes, Jesus's prohibition is against slanderously calling a person a fool out of anger and hatred. Such an expression of malicious animosity is tantamount to murder and makes us guilty. So, we've discussed the danger of anger, the danger of slander, the danger of condemning someone's character. Well, what do we do with it? We go to the Lord and we repent, yes, but there's more for us to do that Jesus says in Matthew 5, 23 through 24. So if you are 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. So first we need to acknowledge our sin. But secondly, we go to the person with whom we have a grievance and we seek reconciliation. If we don't seek reconciliation and we continue to harbor resentment, what's going to happen? Bitterness will grow. It'll continue to harm our lives. It'll harm our relationship with others. It'll harm our relationship with God. And as we see in this verse too, it'll actually harm our worship of God. James Montgomery Boyd, so importantly, listen to this quote, writes, men find it easier to substitute the ceremonial aspects of religion for the demands of a clear conscience before God. And where in ancient times this meant the presentation of sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, today it means the attendance of a Christian at church. his participation in a Bible study or prayer meeting or giving to the church or missionaries. These things are right in and of themselves. We should do them, but God says that they are worthless from his point of view so long as there is unconfessed sin in the life of the Christian and failure on the Christian's part to make the sin right. What's he saying there? If we have harbored anger and resentment towards someone, it will affect our worship of God. Do you have a clear conscience this morning when you go to the worship service? If not, Jesus is saying, deal with this. Let us deal with this before we come to worship the triune God. Remember, it's the heart he sees. We can't hide from God one ounce of guilt. Though we can look the part, we can come in nicely dressed, everything's fine, we can't hide our inner guilt of bitterness toward others. Thirdly, we should seek reconciliation and restoration immediately. Paul writes, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down in your anger and give no opportunity to the devil, Ephesians 4, 26 through 27. So if you hear this this morning and you think, well, I'm really I'm really angry toward a friend of mine. Go and confess that. I'm angry toward a colleague. Confess that. I'm angry toward my spouse. Confess it before nightfall. I'm angry with my children. Confess that before it grows and festers and gets worse. Why? Because the Bible tells us to do so. And if we don't, it gives the devil an opportunity. to further our anger, resentment, and malice toward the other person. Well, let me conclude by briefly discussing how we get to the heart of anger. Again, it's so important, Jesus is not just focusing on the external, he's focusing even more on the internal. Right? And so we see this throughout his teachings in the New Testament in general, but specifically in his teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. Remember, it's the heart that devises schemes, and it's an angry heart that is murder, even if the physical act of murder does not occur. Well, there's a book that was written several years ago. How many of you all have seen this book by Lou Priolo, The Heart of Anger? It's a very, very good book. And I would recommend it to you if you have children in your home that struggle with anger from time to time, but also it's helpful for adults. If you struggle with anger, this is a great book that I would commend to you. And one of the practical things that he mentions in this book is a worksheet on which your child, but also you, if you're struggling with anger, could answer four specific questions when struggling with anger. The four questions are these, and we actually put a handout in green on your table. The first question is, what happened that provoked me to anger? What actually caused that? Secondly, what did I say and or do when I became angry? Third, what does the Bible say about what I said or what I did. when I became angry? And fourth, what should I have said? In other words, I did this, but what does the Bible say I should have done? How could I have responded biblically to that person or to that circumstance? Take that with you. That handout's important. You can take a picture of it if you want. These questions, though, get to the heart of the matter, get to the heart of anger, and it gets us thinking about what led to our angry response and or action. What I want you to do, just take two minutes and then we'll conclude. So, two minutes, think about, in light of this lesson today, how has the Lord helped you in times of anger in the past? What has He done to show you that? What has He done to help you repent of it and let that be an encouragement to those around your table? So, just share that for a moment. We'll take about a minute or two to do that and then we'll conclude. All right, let's come back together. And let me say this just in light of today's lesson. The Lord can do amazing things and He is doing amazing things in and through your lives. If you struggle with anger, you don't have to. You really don't have to, nor should you. You don't let anger define us. We can pray, and I think so much of the time we as Christians don't remember just how powerful prayer is. You can pray and the Lord forgives you and through the grace of the Holy Spirit will help you turn away from old patterns, including from anger. God forgives, He recognizes the struggle. Remember too, Jesus could have talked about a number of things on the Sermon on the Mount, but He chose to talk about anger. And so, he knew the struggle that the Jews had with anger. He knows the struggle that prevails today, that people really have a genuine struggle with anger. Clear your conscience before the Lord. Repent. Worship Him with a clean slate. Come before Him as a forgiven, encouraged child of God, resting and delighting in His imputed righteousness in you. Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for that gift of your son. What a marvelous gift. We thank you for the imputed righteousness of Christ that, Father, we have now been placed in right standing with you. And you see us through the lens of the blood of your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, for those that are struggling with anger, help us to lay it aside. Help us to put it aside. Help us by the grace of the Holy Spirit to mortify it, that you would cleanse us from that sin, that we would live upright lives, Lord, that are pleasing, are glorifying to you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.