is that the answer to those questions is no. None of us have perfectly kept the command from God not to murder. In fact, all of us are guilty before God just as much as any murderer is. You may say, how can that be? And if it is true, what hope is there for me? What must I do? How can I change? Spirit of the Lord is going to instruct us as we take a look at His Word. He will give us the answers. Please take your Bibles and open to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. We're going to be looking at verses 21 to 26 today. Before we look at the passage, let me tell you a little bit about the surrounding context. In Matthew chapters 5 to 7, The Lord Jesus Christ gives His great Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon, Jesus accomplishes a number of purposes, but He does so fundamentally by contrasting true righteousness and false righteousness. That is, the behavior and life of those who actually know God and will enter His Kingdom, and the behavior and life of those who only think they know God, and only think they will enter his kingdom. This contrast between these two righteousnesses is fundamentally accomplished by analyzing the teaching and behavior of two groups of Jews at that time, the Scribes and Pharisees. You heard this read earlier, but look at Matthew 5 verse 20. Matthew 5 verse 20 says, For I say to you, this is Jesus speaking, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now most Jews at that time would have found that statement very shocking because they consider the scribes and Pharisees experts on the law of God, the holiest of people. But Jesus, starting from that statement and continuing for the rest of the chapter, chapter 5, he presents a series of contrasts between what the scribes and Pharisees taught and what God actually requires as a holy standard. The first topic that Jesus brings up is the topic of murder, which is what he addresses in verses 21 to 26. And that's the text that I want us to consider today. Let's read Jesus' words in Matthew 5, 21 to 26. Jesus says, you have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder. And whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent." We're going to organize our approach to Jesus' teaching in this passage by considering a central question. The question is, how does the truly righteous person act in regard to murder? How does the truly righteous person act in regard to murder? And the answer comes in two parts. Number one, He recoils even from damning anger. And number two, he hurries to reconcile with anyone he has offended. Now let's see how Jesus develops these two parts of his answer, starting in verses 21 to 22. The first part is again, when it comes to murder and keeping that command, the truly righteous person recoils even from damning anger. Look at verse 21, you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. Jesus begins by reminding his listeners of the teaching that they had received from the scribes and Pharisees when it comes to murder. The scribes and Pharisees had taught the Jews about how the ancient Israelites were given two rules via Moses and the law of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. Those two rules, we see the first one, you shall not commit murder. Where is that from? That's straight from the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20-15. But the second rule, murders are liable to judgment via human courts, which is basically execution, that's not a quotation of the law of Moses, but a summary of different Old Testament rules. The concept of capital punishment by human courts was ordained by God himself. First, right after the flood in Genesis 9, 6. Genesis 9, 6, God says, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, he made man. That was where the punishment was inaugurated, but it appears many other times in the Old Testament law. Exodus 21, verses 12 to 14. Or Leviticus 24, 17. Or Numbers 35, verses 30 to 31. Each one of these texts prescribing that murderers should be put to death by human courts. That is the appropriate punishment for murder according to God's law. And the scribes and Pharisees had passed this on to the people. So you might ask, but what's the problem? Aren't they being biblical? The problem is what the scribes and Pharisees have left out. They thought, like many people still do today, that merely refraining from outright killing counted as keeping God's command regarding murder. But Jesus clarifies that God's standard is much holier than that. Look now at verse 22. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever says to his brother, you good-for-nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell." I don't know if you were startled by this section, but it would have been extremely startling for Jesus' original listeners, and for several reasons. First of all, there is Jesus' strong assertion of His own authority. He says, But I say to you, I Myself, Son of God, is asserting plainly. It doesn't matter what others have said. It doesn't matter what kind of tradition you have. I have the authoritative interpretation of God's law. I am declaring it to you and it is binding on you, Jesus says. Second, there is the universal nature of Jesus' statement. Notice Jesus refers to everyone. That is without qualification or exception. And the anger too is unqualified. He says everyone who is angry. This means that what Jesus has to say about anger applies to anger in general. Whether that anger is concealed or expressed. Whether it is violent or non-violent. Whether it is a cold anger or a hot anger. You might ask, is Jesus really condemning all anger without exception? There's no qualification here. Well, the Bible does reveal that there is such a concept as righteous anger. Righteous anger is anger on God's behalf. Anger that is concerned with God's glory and concerned with what God deserves. God displays this kind of anger, and he has a right to do so. And Jesus also, in his earthly ministry, displays anger at times. That is a righteous anger. But typical human anger is not righteous. It is unrighteous. Just as James says in his book, James 1.20, the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Man's anger And when I say anger, I'm referring to that strong feeling of displeasure and indignation. Man's anger is usually born from pride and selfishness. The heart says, I'm not getting what I want. I'm not getting what I need. I'm not getting what I deserve. Therefore, I'm angry. You see, God created man with a sense of justice. And our anger was meant to assist us as people in recognizing injustice and motivating us to set situations right for God's sake. Anger was meant to do us good. But the corruptions of man's heart by sin is such that both our sense of justice and our anger is twisted to serve the self. We forget as Psalm 103 says, that God actually treats us better than we deserve, even when we experience trouble and evil from others. It's still better than we deserve. We also forget that for those of us who are in Christ, that God has promised that every trial, every hurt that we experience, God is using for our ultimate good and His glory. Instead of remembering these truths and finding solace in them, we instead find fault with others, and even find fault with God, and therefore we get angry. This is the kind of anger Jesus is referring to in Matthew 5.22. It doesn't matter how it's expressed, this is typical human anger, which is centered on the self. But how is this anger usually expressed? Well, continuing on in Matthew 5.22, notice to whom Jesus says this anger is directed. A brother. Anger is usually directed at a person. What's meant by brother here? Well, this term is used throughout the New Testament to refer to a fellow disciple of Jesus. But it is broader than that. It does refer, first of all, to a fellow believer. But it also applies to the brotherhood of mankind. any man or woman made in the image of God. So then in verse 22, Jesus is indeed talking about universal anger. It is typical selfish anger that anyone feels toward any other person. That's what he's talking about. And that's startling. Jesus startles because he asserts his own authority. He startles because he applies it in a universal fashion. But thirdly, Jesus' statement startles because of his equation, his plain equation of anger with murder. Verse 22, Jesus presents three seemingly slight offenses, and then he announces their appropriate penalties. And notice what the offenses are. There's merely being angry, there's calling someone good for nothing, which is from the Aramaic rakah, roughly equivalent to modern expressions like dummy, stupid, fool. And then there's, thirdly, calling someone a fool. And this doesn't come from Aramaic, this comes from the Greek moros, from which we get the English word moron. Now, none of these seem like great offenses. In fact, they're pretty equivalent to each other. that much difference between these things. Yet look at what Jesus says the appropriate penalties are. For getting angry at someone, the appropriate penalty according to Jesus is judgment by the court in the same way that murder is judged. And what's that? Execution. For calling someone a raka, Jesus says that deserves judgment by the Supreme Court. He's probably referring to capital punishment by the Sanhedrin in Israel. That was the top governing body. They only dealt with the worst crimes. And for calling someone a morass, Jesus says that deserves eternal death and hellfire. In other words, it doesn't matter which court you show up in, for the slightest bit of sinful anger, for the smallest word spoken in anger, The penalty is the same as it is for murder. It is death, even eternal torment. And by the way, the word for hell here is the common word used for hell in the New Testament. It's the word Gehenna, which is a reference to the Valley of Hinnom. That's literally what Gehenna means, Valley of Hinnom, which was just southwest of Jerusalem. That valley was once used as a site of human sacrifice to the false god, Olek. We hear about this in the Old Testament. But a certain righteous king named Josiah, he ended that practice and he desecrated and cursed the site, according to 2 Kings 23.10. Reportedly, the valley of Hinnom, Gehenna, it later became the garbage dump of Jerusalem. It was where refuse was continually dropped off and burned. Now whether that tradition is true or not, Gehenna certainly became a common metaphor for eternal judgment. All that is detestable before God will one day be thrown, not placed gently, but thrown into the fires of Gehenna, or hell, to be forever burned, but never totally consumed. And who does Jesus say has earned a spot in this Gehenna fire, this hell fire? The one who is merely angry with another person or calls them a name. And you may say, but wait, the punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime. Why should anger or mere words be judged as murder? And besides, isn't Jesus pulling a fast one here? I mean, did the Old Testament really say anything about anger being like murder? Actually, we can see the connection between anger and murder without very much trouble. We hear it quite explicitly in 1 John 3.15. 1 John 3.15, John writes, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. But it's not just the New Testament. The connection between anger and murder is actually right there even in the Ten Commandments. The Sixth Commandment says you shall not murder. But what does the Tenth Commandment say according to Exodus 20.17? The Tenth Commandment is you shall not covet. You shall not have evil desire, inordinate desire for something you don't have. Where does that desire take place? Secretly in the heart. So are the Ten Commandments only external, or are they external and internal? Certainly it's the latter, isn't it? You see, the great mistake that the Scribes and Pharisees made, and it's the same mistake that so many people make today, is that they thought that God's commands were only to be obeyed on the outside. But the Tenth Commandment reveals that all of God's commandments have a heart element as well. You must obey the command on the inside. Jesus is not changing the rules. He's not adding to the Old Testament. He's just explaining what was already there, but that was missed and ignored by those who were trying to establish their own self-righteousness. And consider these two other Old Testament verses. 1 Samuel 16, 7b. We saw this not too long ago in Sunday school. God says to Samuel, For God sees not as a man sees, For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord, that is Yahweh, looks at the heart. Or Leviticus 19, Leviticus 19 verses 17 to 18 says this, You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor, but you shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh, says God. So why is anger equivalent to murder in God's eyes and worthy of murder's penalty? Because anger is murder in the heart. Everything that murder is on the outside, anger is on the inside. The angry heart hypocritically judges another person to be unworthy of life, of kindness or love. Thus, the angry heart seeks to harm or even kill another person in some sort of twisted self-justice. And the only reason an angry heart does not result in actual murder in every one of us is due to God's grace. via external restraints, like government, and via the fear of consequences. Now, friends, do you see how devastating this truth that Jesus declares is for each one of us? Why? Because we have all been angry, haven't we? Angry out of pride, out of selfishness, which means, according to God, what are we? We are all murderers at heart, worthy of the death penalty and eternal fire. Now think for yourselves, even about your recent experiences of anger. You saw a person do something you didn't want that person to do. And so you felt this angry passion arise in your heart. That was all. What does God say actually happened in your heart at that moment? You killed another person. You struck them down in your heart. You wish for that person to hurt, to suffer, even to die. God says you committed murder. And worse, again, if you just think back to your recent experiences, When you felt that anger, you probably let a little bit of that anger, that murder, out of your heart. Because murder doesn't like to be contained. And so you spoke an angry word. You maybe gave a slight insult. Or maybe you said something that was so terrible it could not be repeated here. Maybe you were subtle about it, passing off your hateful remark as a joke. Oh, I was only joking. Or maybe you were overt about it. You just spewed forth venom. Maybe you gossiped about a person in secret. You were trying to wound him from afar. Or maybe you said it straight to his face, even in front of other people, because you wanted to humiliate him. There are many ways that we express anger in words. But what's really going on when we do that according to God? What are our words in those instances? They are the knife stabs of a murderer. They are the murder bullets shot at point blank range at another person. We are trying to execute someone with our words. And you know what God thinks about that? He takes notice. Now, to this point, I've only discussed angry thoughts and angry words, but need I say anything about an instance where a person actually raises his hand to hurt, to harm someone physically, or to harm their property? If God is willing, more than willing, to condemn to hell somebody who is merely angry with a brother, what do you think God thinks about a person who actually strikes another person? My friends, we have plainly not kept God's command when it comes to murder. We have committed murder again and again in our hearts and with our words. Really, before God, we are serial killers. I don't mean that just to be rhetorically interesting. It's the truth. We are mass murderers. We're total villains before God. Therefore, we have no place in God's kingdom. We only have a just place reserved for us in hell. That's the truth. But there's good news. There's good news in the scriptures, even for murderers. And what is that truth? That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to die for murderers. the righteous one who is God. He became a man. He lived a perfectly righteous life on the earth. And then he submitted to death for crimes that he never committed. He was totally innocent and righteous. He was put to death on a cross as if he were a criminal. He was crucified with criminals. Why? So that he could take the place of his people. For all of those who are in Jesus Christ, He bears hell for them on the cross. The penalty of murder, He bore it Himself, and He drank the last drop of the cup of God's wrath. No condemnation left for those who are in Christ Jesus. And not only that, but He accounted He attributed His perfect righteousness, the righteousness of His life where He did everything that God commanded that a righteous person would do. He attributed that to His people so that their sin was paid for and they were clothed in His righteousness. He was the substitutionary sacrifice and we know that His sacrifice was accepted. And how do we know that? Because Jesus rose again from the grave. Three days after dying, he was in the tomb, but then he rose, and then later on he ascended to the right hand of God, which proves God accepted his sacrifice on behalf of his people. That is wonderful news! So how can we find an interest in Jesus Christ? How can we, each one of us, have our sins covered by him? It has to do with what Jesus said. What did Jesus proclaim as he began his ministry? Mark 1 15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repent and believe. There is pardon available for you. Yes, even you and me as murderers if we will repent and believe. What does it mean to repent? It means to turn away from your sin, yourself, and your self-righteousness. You know your sins, not just anger and murder, but everything else that you've done in contrary to God's law. You ought to have worshipped Him, served Him, submitted to Him, but you haven't. Now turn from that life. Turn even from your whole self. Jesus says, if you want to come after me, you must deny yourself. You must do that. No longer it's what I want to do. I'm no longer the king of my life. I'm giving that up. I'm giving that over to the Lord. and turn even from your self-righteousness. There's no way you can work yourself back into God's favor. You're a murderer through and through. It's stamped all over your record. What could you possibly do now to make yourself right with God? You must turn from that. Excuse me. You must turn from your sin, yourself and your self-righteousness, And you are to believe in the Lord. Believe in the gospel. Believe that Jesus Christ is the only God and Savior and that he saves sinners like you. Believe that his perfect life and perfect death is sufficient to cover all your sins and to make you acceptable to God. Not you plus Jesus, but Jesus alone. He did it all. Believe also that Jesus is not able only to supply forgiving grace to you, but transforming grace to make you someone who actually does righteousness by the power of his spirit. You see, Jesus' words here in Matthew 5, 21 to 22, they show you that you cannot satisfy God's standard on your own. You need God's mercy and grace, and he is so good. that he will supply it to all who come to him in faith. Ephesians 2.8 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, unmerited favor given to you and to me, sinners. But Jesus' words on murder here are not just meant to drive us to the saving gospel, they also show us the kind of life that ought to result from embracing the gospel, from embracing the good news. Though no one will be perfect, even after coming to Christ by faith, it is nonetheless true, and get this, It's nonetheless true that biblical Christians, true kingdom citizens, they will be characterized by exactly the righteous life Jesus implies in these words. True Christians are not murderers anymore. Not just positionally before God, but behaviorally. Outwardly, they don't murder. Verbally, they don't murder. And they don't even murder in their hearts. Now, Christians, yes. We still fail from time to time, but sinful anger should no longer characterize our lives. That's what a true king of citizen is like. So if you claim to know Jesus Christ, yet you have been walking in sinful anger, and if you're not sure about this, just ask the people around you. God's spirit is calling you today to repent. Repent of your pride and your selfishness that maligns God and murders others because you don't think you're getting what you deserve. Turn away from that. Repent of your heart idolatry, which has worshipped something else as more important than God, loves it more than God, and therefore resents when you don't get it. You've got God. You can't value something else more. Repent of the excuses you make to justify your own anger. Oh, not my fault. They provoked me. Stop blaming other people. Stop blaming your circumstances. Instead, humble yourselves again by realizing that God is good to you. He gives you far better than you deserve. You should be able to say like Jacob does in Genesis, I am not worthy of the loving kindness that you have showed to me. And you should take hold again by faith the truth that God Himself, even if nothing else is going right in your life, God Himself is enough for you, and that He will perfectly provide for you in His love and His wisdom through every difficulty you encounter. Now, there's more here, and we want to get to it. We've seen that the truly righteous person recoils even from damning anger, but that's not all. There's something else the righteous person does when it comes to murder. Number two, he hurries to reconcile with anyone he has offended. See this in verses 23 to 26. Actually, we can break this into two parts. There are two areas, two ways the person hurries. This, first of all, happens before worship. That's verses 23 to 24. Look at those again. He says, Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, Leave your offering there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Jesus now presents an illustration of what walking according to the previously expressed principle about anger and murder looks like. Notice the phrase he uses here. He says, your brother has something against you. What's that mean? Well, in context, this phrase refers primarily to a hurt that you have inflicted upon another person in anger. But the phrase is broad enough to also include instances where your brother is offended by something you did, even if you don't think you did anything wrong. Jesus says, if a truly righteous person goes to worship God by sacrifice, and then suddenly remembers that he has an offended brother, what does he do? He halts the sacrifice, he goes to make reconciliation with his brother, and then he comes back to worship God with a clear conscience. Now, appreciate how radical a commitment to reconciliation Jesus expects from his people. Jesus says, even if you're right there at the altar. Now, the specific context of this worship offering situation is not given. But Jesus is speaking to crowds in Galilee, and they are familiar with the traveling to Jerusalem that they would have to do to sacrifice at the temple. Normally, that journey was about 80 miles, took three days, and even after one arrived in Jerusalem, one probably had to wait in a long line of worshipers at the temple to be able to finally present an offering. It could take all day. But Jesus says, it doesn't matter how far you've traveled or how long you've waited to worship, If you remember that you have a broken or strained relationship with another person that you have not tried to reconcile, then stop everything and go seek peace. Even if it means traveling all the way back to Galilee. Someone will say, but I'm right at the altar. Can't I just finish and then go seek reconciliation? I don't want to have to get back in line. Jesus says seeking reconciliation immediately is more important. Why? Because otherwise the worship is hypocritical. It is unclean worship. After all, consider, if God has equated anger with murder, then will God accept the offerings of a murderer when he has not repented of his crimes, that they have not been dealt with? Will God approve the heart of one who is still looking at his brother with contempt? Consider what God says to unfaithful Israel in Isaiah 115. Isaiah 115, God says to Israel, so when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. My friends, how many of us have vainly sung, prayed, and taken communion while our hands are similarly covered with the blood of murderous anger. Will God have any interest in our prayers or our worship in such cases? He will not. He will hate that you have presented that to him. He will have no regard for it. So what must we do instead? Exactly what Jesus says here. Pause our worship and go seek reconciliation with the brother. Worship through obedience comes before worship through liturgy. Now remember, you can't force reconciliation with a person, but you can confess your faults. You can repent of your sins. You can seek to make things right with the one you've offended. We are called to do exactly as Paul says in Romans 12, 18. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Jesus is saying the same thing. When it comes to murder, the truly righteous person hurries to reconcile before worship. But not just that. The truly righteous one also hurries to reconcile before judgment. This is verses 25 to 26. Look at those again. Jesus says, Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent. The situation presented in these final two verses is of a civil lawsuit where someone is looking to collect a debt or monetary damages from another. Jesus commends making friends quickly. That is, settling out of court while you were with your opponent on the way to the courthouse. If you do that, then you won't be found guilty in court, you won't be thrown into debtor's prison, where you would otherwise be forced to pay for every cent you owe. Now, is this just practical advice, or is it something more? Well, certainly the advice is practical. I mean, if we're following what Jesus has been saying thus far, Christians should be people who do not need to be taken to court. We are a people, we ought to be, who quickly and gladly make things right without costly judicial proceedings. Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 6, 1-7. But the words in verses 25-26, they must be about something more. The entire context up to this point has been about how God will not accept one who holds on to anger or who refuses to reconcile with a brother. Additionally, this same lawsuit analogy is used by Jesus in Luke 12 verses 58 to 59 to urge Israel to reconcile with God before it is too late. He uses the same analogy. He says, look, you're going to be handed over to the officer and then he's going to throw you into the prison and you'll never get out. Therefore, I take these final two verses as referring not to human judgment, but divine judgment. Jesus is saying that we should make reconciliation quickly with those we have hurt and offended, because if we don't, that person, the person that we hurt in anger, he may bring the case, so to speak, before God, who is the ultimate judge. And God has already established that we are guilty, according to verses 21 and 22. So if the case gets to him, then he will have no choice but to have his attendants throw us into the eternal prison where we will pay the full penalty of our crime. And will we be able to work off that debt in God's prison? Verse 26 might make us think so, if we don't know how debtors' prisons usually work. You see, in ancient times, there is virtually no chance of escaping a debtor's prison. Why is that? Because your debt only grew while you were in the prison trying to work it off. Thus, being thrown into debtor's prison was like receiving a life sentence. There was no way out. So it will be, Jesus says, with those who commit crimes of murder in their hearts and in their words, if they refuse to repent, and if they refuse to demonstrate that repentance by quickly pursuing reconciliation with those that they've hurt. Otherwise, that murderer will be brought to trial. He will be condemned and thrown into the prison of hell to pay for every modicum of anger, every biting word ever uttered. But there will be no end to the torturous payment because the debt is limitless. Is it not plainly wise then, my friends, to make peace quickly now before you are indicted for murder? Is it not better to settle out of court and avoid the great judge's pronouncement? And don't misunderstand. Jesus is not saying by this illustration that if you ever fail to pursue a particular relationship in reconciliation that you're automatically damned or you've lost your salvation. But Jesus is making quite clear that the truly righteous, true kingdom citizens, they are marked by readiness to humbly pursue reconciliation with whomever they harm by anger or even by misunderstanding. That's the kind of people Jesus expects will be the citizens of his kingdom. the truly righteous hurry to reconcile before the judgment of God comes. So then, we've heard today a sobering word from God that I think will help us as we get ready to take communion. We started with the question, how does the truly righteous person act in regard to murder? And we've seen the answer from Jesus. The truly righteous person does not merely refrain from outward murder, but he recoils even from damning anger, and he hurries to reconcile with anyone he's offended before worship and before judgment. I titled this sermon today, Will You Be Indicted for Murder? And that's the question I believe we all need to consider now as we end. God has clarified what the verdict and punishment will be for you if you let the case go too far. But there is a way of escape, and that way is by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. So then I urge you by the mercies of God to take that way. Make peace with God and make peace with your fellow men while there's still time. Heed the word from Paul in Ephesians 4.26. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Don't dawdle. Don't waste any more time. Make friends quickly now. Seek reconciliation, because if you do, you won't need to fear the judgment. There'll be no condemnation for you. But instead, you can have that joyful expectation of entry into God's kingdom, that kingdom of righteousness and blessing and life, which you can taste even now, if you will go to Christ in repentance and faith. I pray that you would do that. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that shows us not only do we need the gospel, but that the way of righteousness for a true kingdom citizen is so good. It is right, Lord. It is right not to harbor sinful anger at all and to seek reconciliation with anyone whom we have offended quickly. then you are pleased then you are honored then we are exactly as the beginning of Matthew 5 said we are lights in the world we are salt in the earth Jesus we cannot do this apart from your spirit and Lord please forgive us for all the times that we have not obeyed your word but for any who are listening to this message today and they've never repented of their evil way, their way of murder, I pray that they would do so now. And they would find your forgiving and transforming grace, which is freely available for those who believe. But for those who do know your God, I pray that they would get out from that entangling sin, that sinful, proud anger, and instead walk in the way of peace, your way, your blessed way. In Jesus' name, amen.