Let's pray. God, I pray that you would speak to us now. Lord, that you'd open my mouth, that you'd open our eyes to this word. And Lord, that we would be appropriately confronted where evil still exists in our own hearts. And Lord, that we would be moved to humble contrition true repentance and turning, and a commitment, Lord, to regard others the way that you would have us do. Be pleased to work and build up your church today, Lord God. Amen. Something that never ceases to amaze me is the constant presence in our media of murder. Truly, if there's one crime that continues to outrage, terrify, yet fascinate all of mankind, it is murder. Murder regularly makes our news headlines, whether it's simple murder, mass murder, or self-murder, suicide. Of course, the big news this weekend is that someone attempted to murder our former president. But it's not just the news. Murder is also the frequent subject of our literature and entertainment. Though fictional murder stories, like whodunit mysteries, they have been popular for centuries, I was just reading yesterday that the true crime genre, so books, podcasts, TV shows, telling the stories of real crimes, especially murder, they have exploded in popularity in the last 15 years. People are interested. People want to hear about true crimes, even true murders. Why is this? Why is it that murder, or what is it about murder that so easily grabs our attention and stirs up our horror? I'm sure there's more than one answer to that, but surely a main part of the answer is that it just comes down to how God made us. According to Genesis 1, God created man in God's image. Therefore, no matter whether we believe in God or not, no matter whether we believe the Bible or not, something in us cannot help but cry out against murder as such a heinous wrong. To unlawfully end the life of a fellow human being, to destroy a person who is fundamentally like us, who thinks, who feels, who desires, who worships, to snatch from someone not merely his possessions or his dignity, but his very life breath. This is obviously a despicable evil worthy of the greatest condemnation and punishment. Now, since murder is so terrible, How is it that anyone can bring himself to actually commit murder? Society asks this question every time there is a new murder, and I'm sure they're asking it about this shooter. What drove the person to do this horrible act? Was it money? Was it drugs? Was it romance? Was it some cause? Did this come from his genetics? Was this a result of his upbringing? Or maybe it's the inevitable result of living in an oppressive system. We might conclude about murderers that they are just especially depraved people. We may even spiritually compare ourselves to murderers and thus feel a little bit reassured. I may struggle with some different sins. Yeah, I don't get along with people, but I don't commit murder. I've never committed murder. We may shudder at the thought of murder, or thank God that we are not murderers and don't know any murderers. But are we, in fact, free from the sin of murder? Can we accurately say that we have kept God's command, God's famous command, you shall not murder? The shocking answer from God's word is no, we are not free from the sin of murder. For if you have ever been angry, if you've ever spoken an irritated word to someone, or even just harbored ill will against another person, just for a moment, then you have not perfectly kept God's command not to murder, and you stand just as guilty and condemned before God as an actual murderer does. How can this be? And if mere anger really is tantamount to murder, what hope is there for any of us? Let's let our God himself explain and answer Please take your Bibles and open to the Gospel of Matthew. First book of the New Testament. We're going to be looking at Matthew chapter 5 today, verses 21 to 26. The title of my message is, Anger, a Capital Crime. Anger, a Capital Crime. As I said, Matthew 5, 21 to 26. But before we look at that passage, let me tell you a little bit about the context. In Matthew chapters 5 to 7, the Lord Jesus Christ is giving his great Sermon on the Mount. In the Sermon, Jesus contrasts true righteousness and false righteousness, that is, the kind of living that is characteristic of those who will enter the kingdom of God and the kind of living of those who only think they will enter the kingdom of God. The contrast that Jesus presents is fundamentally accomplished by analyzing the teaching and behavior of a certain group of Jews, known at that time as the Scribes and Pharisees. Notice what Jesus says in Matthew 5.20. We heard this earlier in our scripture reading. Matthew 5.20, Jesus says, for I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Most Jews at this time would have considered the scribes and Pharisees to be true experts on the law of God and the holiest of people. But starting in verse 21, Jesus presents a series of contrasts between what the scribes and Pharisees taught on different topics and what God actually requires of his people. And the first topic that Jesus addresses in this way is murder, which is our text. So let's now read Jesus' words regarding true righteousness and murder in Matthew 5, 21 to 26. 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 now whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing, will be guilty before, 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 this passage under one central question, and that is, how does the truly righteous person act in regard to murder? This is the question Jesus wants us to think about. How does the truly righteous person act in regard to murder? Jesus prompts this question, but Jesus also answers this question in two parts. We're going to look at each one of those. The first part of Jesus' answer appears in verses 21 to 22, and that is, number one, when it comes to murder, the truly righteous person recoils even from damning anger. He recoils even from damning anger. Let's see this. Look at verse 21 again. 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 by the great prophet Moses. They are, you shall not commit murder, which comes straight from the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20, 13, and murderers are liable to judgment via human courts. That is, execution. They will be put to death by a court. Now this latter rule is a summary of Old Testament commands rather than a quotation. But the concept of capital punishment by human courts for murder, it first appears in Genesis 9.6. This is right after the flood when God says to Noah, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, he made man. It's Genesis 9-6. Several other Old Testament texts similarly prescribe death for murderers through human courts. Exodus 21, 12-14, Leviticus 24-17, Numbers 35, 30-31. So now, if the scribes and Pharisees are only teaching what the Bible says about murder, what's the problem? Why did Jesus bring this up? Well, 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 is keeping God's command about 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." This is an extremely startling statement from Jesus, and for several reasons. First, there's the strong assertion of Jesus' own authority. He says, but I say to you, I myself, Jesus as the Son of God. He asserts plainly, it doesn't matter what others have said. I have the authoritative interpretation of God's law, and I'm declaring it to you now. Second, there's the universal nature of Jesus' statement. Notice that Jesus refers to everyone, without qualification or exception, not some people, people in a certain situation, everyone. And then the anger, too, is unqualified. Everyone who is angry, the text says. This means that what Jesus is about to say regarding anger applies to anger in general, whether it's concealed anger or expressed anger, whether it's violent or nonviolent, whether it's cold or it's hot. Everyone who is angry, Jesus says. But someone might ask at this point, Oh, is Jesus condemning all anger without exception? Well, the Bible reveals that there is such a concept as righteous anger. This is anger on God's behalf. Anger that is concerned with God's glory and with others, not the self. Concerned with God's glory and others being treated rightly as God commands. This is righteous anger. God displays this kind of anger all throughout the Bible. Jesus also displays this type of anger at times. But this is not typical human anger. Typical human anger is unrighteous anger, so typical that James can say in James 1.20, James 1.20, the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Now, no qualification there. It just says this is human anger. The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. You see, man's anger, that is, that active, whole-person response of judgment against perceived evil, man's anger is usually born from pride and selfishness. It's an expression of the following. 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. See, God created man with a sense of justice. And God created man with the capacity for anger. Our anger was meant to assist us in recognizing injustice and motivating us to set those situations right for God's sake. Anger was meant to be a good thing for us. But the corruption of man's heart by sin is such that both man's sense of justice and his anger is twisted to serve the self. We forget, as people, we forget that as Psalm 103 says, God actually treats us better than we deserve, even when we're facing troubles. We also forget that for those in Christ, God works all difficulties and even the mistreatment of others for our good and for his glory. Forgetting these things, we instead find fault with others and even find fault with God and feel justified in being angry. This is the kind of anger that Jesus is referring to in Matthew 5.22. Continuing on, notice Jesus says, to whom the anger is directed, anyone who is angry or everyone who is angry with his brother. Now brother is a common term in the New Testament, referring first to fellow disciples of Jesus. But this term extends ultimately to the entire brotherhood of mankind. This isn't just a fellow Christian, this can be anyone. So then in verse 22, Jesus is indeed talking about universal anger, that typical selfish anger that all people feel towards others. And we have felt that kind of anger too, haven't we? We have participated in it. So Jesus' statement thus far startles in his asserted authority. It startles in the universal application about what he's saying. But also thirdly, and most importantly, Jesus' statement is startling because of Jesus' equation of anger with murder. In verse 22, Jesus presents three seemingly slight offenses. and then announces their penalties. On the offensive side, we have merely being angry. We have calling someone a good-for-nothing, which is from the Aramaic rakah, roughly equivalent to modern expressions like dummy, stupid, fool. So you call somebody something like that. Or then there's the third one. There's calling someone a fool. You say, I thought that's the same thing as rakah. No, this is the Greek term now. This is the Greek moros, from which we get moron. So if you're merely angry, you call someone a dummy, you call someone a moron, this is what Jesus is talking about. Now, these don't seem like great offenses. In fact, they're all pretty equivalent to each other. It's not like, oh man, calling someone a moron, that's so much worse than calling them a dummy. They're kind of all about the same. Yet notice what Jesus says the appropriate penalties are of each of these cited offenses. For getting angry at someone, judgment by the court, That is, judgment that is the same in the court as for murder, which is what? Execution. For calling someone a raka, judgment by the Supreme Court. That probably refers to capital punishment administered by the Sanhedrin itself, the governing body of Judea. And for calling someone a moras, Jesus says the appropriate penalty is 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, Jesus says the penalty is the same as for murder, death, even everlasting torment. By the way, the word for hell here is the common one used in the New Testament. It's Gehenna. Gehenna is a reference to the Valley of Hinnom, which is just southwest of Jerusalem. The valley was once used as a site of human sacrifice to a false god. But the righteous king of Judah, Josiah, he ended that practice during his reign and desecrated and cursed the site, according to 2 Kings 23.10. Now reportedly, the Valley of Hinnom, also could be called Gehenna, It later became a garbage dump for Jerusalem, where refuse was continually dropped off and burned. Now, whether that tradition is true or not, Gehenna certainly became a common metaphor for the place of eternal judgment. All that is detestable before God will one day be thrown into the fire of Gehenna, or hell, to be forever burned, but not totally consumed. And who does Jesus say has earned a spot in this hellfire? The one who's merely angry with his brother or calls him a name. At this point you might say, but wait, the punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime. I mean, why should anger or mere words be judged as murder? Besides, isn't Jesus pulling a fast one here? The Old Testament law never said anything about anger being equal to murder, didn't it? Or did it? Actually, we can see the connection between anger and murder without too much trouble. It's made very explicit in another passage of the New Testament. 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 right there even in the 10 Commandments. For what is the 10th Commandment according to Exodus 20, 17? You shall not covet. And where does coveting or sinful desiring take place? In the heart. It's secret, nobody sees it. So then, are the Ten Commandments, were they originally meant by God to be only external, or both internal and external? It's both, isn't it? See, the great mistake of the scribes and Pharisees, and this is the mistake that all self-righteous people make today, is that they think that God's commands are only to be obeyed on the outside. But the Tenth Commandment reveals All of God's commandments have a heart element as well, and they always have. Jesus is not changing the rules. He's not adding to the Old Testament. He's just explaining what was already there, but what was hidden and ignored by those trying to justify themselves before God. Consider these two other Old Testament verses. 1 Samuel 16.7, second part of it, 1 Samuel 16.7, 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. And then Leviticus 19, Leviticus 19, 17 to 18, God commands, you shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor, but 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. Why is anger equivalent to murder in God's eyes and therefore worthy of murder's penalty? As these texts reveal, because anger is murder in the heart. Anger is murder in the heart. Everything that murder is on the outside begins with an angry heart. The angry heart hypocritically judges another to be unworthy of life or kindness or love. The angry heart thus seeks to harm and even kill another person out of some twisted sense of self-justice. And the only reason that an angry heart does not result in actual murder Committed on the outside is due to God's grace, due to God's restraint on that person's heart internally, or due to the restraints that God puts externally around that person, even in the fear of consequences. Now my friends and brethren, do you see how devastating this truth about anger is for all of us? Because we have all been angry, haven't we? And according to God, what does that mean? That we are all murderers at heart, worthy of the death penalty, and even the unceasing fires of God's eternal judgment. Think for yourselves. Even in recent experiences of anger, You saw a person do something that you didn't want him to do, and you felt this angry passion arise in your heart. According to God, what really happened in your heart in that moment, you killed that person. You struck that person down in your heart. You wished for that person to hurt, to suffer, even to die. In God's eyes, you murdered that person. Worse, you probably let some of that murder from your heart escape. This is the thing about the heart. It does not like to be contained. It wants to manifest what's inside. And so when you felt that anger, when you participated in that anger, when you yielded to that anger, you spoke an angry word. Maybe it was a slight insult. Maybe something so terrible it couldn't be repeated here in the church. Maybe you were subtle about it. It said something and then you passed it off as a joke. Maybe you were overt about it. You were bold and venomous words. Maybe you gossiped about a person from afar in secret, seeking to inflict wounds without that person knowing. Or maybe you said that angry word straight to a person's face. You tried to actually humiliate him in front of everyone. There are many ways that we express anger in words. But you know what these kinds of words really are before God? They are the knife stabs of a murderer. They are the angry bullets of a murderer fired at point-blank range, sniper rounds fired from afar. They are an attempted execution with speech. And a holy and righteous God takes note of each one of them. Of course, up to this point, I've only discussed angry thoughts and angry words. But do I need to say anything about actual violence committed towards another person or their property? If God is ready to judge with hell one who is merely angry in his heart at another person, how do you think God feels about one who raises his hand to harm another? My friends, we plainly have not kept God's command to refrain from murder. In fact, we have committed murder again and again with our hearts and with our words. Spiritually, we are serial killers, mass murderers, total villains. Therefore, we have no place in God's kingdom, only a just place reserved in hell forever. But here's where the good news comes in. According to the Bible, there is hope even for murderers like us. This is because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he came to live, to suffer, and to die in the place of murderers. though he was perfectly righteous and innocent. He was executed on the cross as a criminal, bearing the full penalty of hell on behalf of all his people. For those in him, Jesus drank the last drop of the cup of God's wrath so that there is no condemnation left And Jesus gave his own people his perfect righteousness so that they become totally acceptable to God, pleasing to God. And we know that the father accepted Jesus' substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of sinners because after Jesus died, what happened? He rose from the dead three days later. And he later ascended to his father's right hand. And what does all that mean for us who are hearing this word today? It means that there is pardon available for all those who will come to Jesus as Jesus commands. And what does Jesus command? Mark 115. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Therefore, repent and believe in the gospel. Though the Bible judges you a murderer, you can be saved from hell and you can enter God's kingdom as a precious citizen. You will humble your heart before God. You must, on the one hand, repent. You must turn. You must change your mind about God, your sin, and your life. You must give up your sin. You must give up yourself in your own way. You must give up any attempt to make yourself acceptable to God based on your own good works. That's never going to happen. Your good works are useless, and your record is totally corrupt. You must turn from your sin, yourself, your own righteousness, and you must instead believe the gospel. Believe the good news that Jesus really is the son of God, and he's the only savior for sinners. Believe that his life, death, and resurrection are sufficient to cover all of your sins, yes, even all of your murders, and bring you forever into God's kingdom. And believe that Jesus not only has grace powerful enough to forgive your sins, but grace powerful enough to transform you by His Holy Spirit to walk in a new way of righteous obedience as you trust in Him. This is the good news. This is the good news that the bad news drives us toward, right? Jesus' words in Matthew 5, 21 to 22, they show you, they show me, that we cannot satisfy God's standard on our own. We're already so guilty. We need God's mercy and grace. That's the only way we can be saved. And God is so good that he extends that mercy to all, to all who come to him in humble faith and trust in his son Jesus. Ephesians 2.8 says, Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith and not out of yourselves, it is the gift of God. by grace through faith in Jesus. But Jesus' words here are not only meant to drive us to the gospel so that we may be saved. These words also show us the kind of life that results from embracing the gospel. Though no one will ever be perfect, even after coming to know Jesus Christ in a saving way, It is nonetheless true that biblical Christians, true kingdom citizens, they will be characterized by exactly what Jesus implies in these words. True Christians fundamentally are not murderers anymore, not just positionally, but practically, behaviorally, verbally, and inwardly. They are not murderers. Yes, Christians will still fail from time to time. You fail. I fail. But sinful anger is no longer to characterize our lives. If you claim to know Jesus Christ, yet continue to walk in a pattern of sinful anger, a habit of sinful anger, something that people can notice around you, then God's Spirit is calling you today to repent. You need to repent again. Not be saved again, but repent. Repent. of the pride and the selfishness that maligns God and murders others, because you don't think you're getting what you need or deserve. Repent of the heart idolatry, which worships something else instead of God, something that you feel you need more than God or just as much as God. Repent of the excuses that you give, justifying your anger. You blame others or you blame your difficult circumstances. Turn from all those things. Humble yourself again by realizing God gives you far better than you deserve. And take hold by faith that God himself is always enough for you. He always perfectly provides for you according to his love and wisdom in each situation, including those in which you are being mistreated. That was no accident that you encountered that. God intends to glorify himself in that situation as he refines you and then testifies of his supernatural grace to others. When you respond by suffering righteously instead of self-centered anger. Now these are already wondrous and very practical truths that we've heard from Jesus. But there's more. We've seen, number one, that the truly righteous person, he recoils even from damning anger. and say, it's not good enough that I'm merely not killing on the outside. I want to make sure before the Lord, with his help, I'm not killing on the inside. But something else the righteous person does when it comes to murder, we see in verses 23 to 26. And that's this, number two. The truly righteous person hurries to reconcile with anyone he has offended. He hurries to reconcile with anyone he has offended. Now this happens in two ways, Jesus presents. The first is 2A, before worship. He hurries to reconcile with anyone he's offended before he goes to worship God. And this is what we see in verses 23 and 24. 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 in the truly righteous person. Notice the phrase here, your brother has something against you. What does this mean? In context, this phrase refers primarily to a hurt that you have inflicted on someone else by your anger. But the language can include instances where your brother is offended, and you're pretty sure you did nothing wrong. Jesus says, if that's the situation, and a truly righteous person goes to worship God with a sacrifice, and he suddenly remembers that he has an offended brother, what does that truly righteous person do? He halts his sacrifice. He goes to make reconciliation with his brother, and then he comes back to worship God with a clear conscience. I don't know about you, that might seem over the top, but Jesus is making a point. Notice how radical a commitment to reconciliation Jesus expects of his kingdom's citizens. Jesus says, even if you're right there at the altar, What altar? Now, no specific context is given here regarding this worship offering situation, but Jesus is, at this point, speaking to crowds in Galilee, crowds of Jews, who are quite familiar with traveling to Jerusalem to worship by sacrifice. And normally, that journey was about 80 miles south, and it took three days. Even after one arrived in Jerusalem, one probably had to wait in a long line of worshipers at the temple to be able to present an offering. You may have had to wait all day. But Jesus says, it doesn't matter how far you've traveled, how long you've waited to worship, if you remember that you have a broken or strained relationship that you have not tried to reconcile, stop everything and go seek peace. Even if it means traveling all the way back to Galilee. But someone will say, come on, I'm right at the altar. Can't I just finish and then go seek reconciliation? Jesus says seeking reconciliation immediately is more important. Why? Because otherwise, the worship is hypocritical. After all, consider, if God has equated anger with murder, then will God accept the offerings of a murderer? when his crimes still have not been dealt with? Will God approve the heart that still is treating his brother with contempt? God says unfaithful Israel in Isaiah 115, Isaiah 115. 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. How many of us have vainly sung, prayed, or partook in communion while our hands were similarly covered in the blood of murderous anger? God has no interest in our prayers or our worship in such cases. It is offensive to him. So what must we do instead if we find ourselves in that kind of situation? Exactly as Jesus says here, pause your worship, go seek reconciliation with your brother. Worship through obedience must come 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 have offended. As Romans 12, 18 says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. So then, when it comes to murder, the truly righteous person hurries to reconcile with anyone he's offended before worship, But there's something else, this is 2B. The truly righteous person also hurries to reconcile before judgment. Before judgment. Look at how Jesus continues in verses 25 to 26. 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. Jesus commends making friends quickly. That is, settling out of court. That is, while you and your opponent are on your way to the courthouse so that you are not inadvertently found guilty in court and thrown into debtor's prison where you will pay the penalty for every cent that you owe. Now is this just practical advice or is this something more? Certainly the practical element is there and is true. Christians should be people who do not need to be taken to court, but rather who gladly make things right without painful and costly judicial proceedings. This is part of what Paul's getting at in 1 Corinthians 6, one to seven. But these words in verses 25 and 26, they must be about something more than practical legal advice. After all, the entire context up to this point has been about how God himself will not accept one who holds on to anger and who refuses to reconcile with a brother. Additionally, this same lawsuit analogy is used by Jesus in another place, Luke 12, 58-59, to urge Israel to reconcile with their God before it is too late. Therefore, I take these final two verses as referring not to human judgment, but to divine judgment. Jesus is saying, we should make reconciliation quickly with those we have hurt and offended, because if we don't, the person we hurt may bring the case against us, so to speak, before the ultimate judge, who is God. And God has already established that we are guilty according to verses 21 to 22. So if the case gets to him, what will be the outcome? He will have no choice. but to have his attendants throw us into his eternal prison where we will pay the full penalty of our crime. And will we be able to work off the debt in God's prison? Verse 26 might make you think so if you don't know how debtor's prisons work. There is virtually no chance of escaping an ancient debtor's prison. That is because your debt only grew while you're in the prison trying to work it off. Thus, being thrown in the debtor's prison was like receiving a forever life sentence. There was no way out. So it will be, Jesus says, with those who commit the crimes of murder in their heart and in their words, and then refuse to repent. showing that they refuse to repent because they don't quickly pursue relationships with those that they have hurt. They don't quickly pursue reconciliation. Such murderers will eventually be brought to trial. They will then be condemned, and they will be thrown into the prison of hell. They will pay there for every modicum of anger they ever felt, every biting word they ever spoke. but there will be no end to the torturer's payment, for the debt has no limit. The debt has no limit. So we can appreciate the counsel of Jesus in verses 25 and 26, can't we? Is it not plainly wise to make peace quickly now with God and with others before you are indicted for murder before God? Is it not better to settle out of court and avoid the great judge's pronouncement? Now don't misunderstand. Jesus is not saying by this illustration that if you ever fail to pursue reconciliation in a relationship that you're automatically damned or that you've already lost your salvation. But Jesus is making quite clear what is characteristic of the truly righteous, of the truly saved. True kingdom citizens are marked by readiness to pursue humble reconciliation with whomever they have harmed by anger or even by misunderstanding. The truly righteous hurry to do this before God's judgment or God's discipline comes. They do not say, eh, repent later. God's forgiving, God's understanding. That's not the way the truly righteous thinks. So then we've heard today a sobering, but I hope you also see a liberating word from God when it comes to our anger. 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, he also, number one, recoils even from damning anger. Number two, he hurries to reconcile with anyone he has offended before worship and before judgment. Let us not, therefore, remain mistaken. Before God, anger is a capital crime, and you are guilty of it. So then, what will you do now? How will you proceed? 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, only one way, repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. So I urge you, I urge you by the kind love and mercies of God to repent and believe today. Make peace with God and make peace with your fellow man while you have the opportunity. Ephesians 4.26 says, Ephesians 4.26, do not let the sun go down on your anger. Now that has practical application in our relationships, but start doing that with God first. Don't dawdle anymore. Make friends with God now, quickly. Seek reconciliation with God. And then show that by seeking reconciliation with your fellow man. You will not need to fear the judgment. You will not be like, what does the proverb say? A murderer is a fugitive until the day of his death. You will not have to be a spiritual fugitive before God. You won't have to have the burden of your murders hanging over you. You won't need to fear the judgment, but you can instead have peace, and you can look forward as one made righteous by God alone. and displaying the fruit of God's work in your heart and a changed life, you can look forward to your everlasting inheritance in God's coming kingdom. It's not for murderers, but God has changed you from being a murderer, so you can be confident, I'm going into God's kingdom. You can taste that good inheritance today if you will repent and believe. So will you do that? Will you do that fundamentally if you've never done it before? And will you do it again if anger has become, again, a practice in your life, a habit in your life? This, of course, is something that we all need to do individually, but it's something we need to help one another do as well. That's why God gave us the church, right? You may say, Pastor Dave, I hear you. I totally believe what you're saying, but I struggle with anger, and I don't know how to put it to death. I don't know how to overcome it. Guess what? God has given you an extremely important resource called the church, and he wants you to take advantage. You need your brothers and sisters. You need their counsel, you need their encouragement, you need their accountability. If you really want to put anger to death in your life, are you taking advantage of that resource? Because if you're not, how serious are you? Let us be committed to not only putting to death this murderous sin in our own lives, but helping one another. and protecting them from it. Are you willing to say amen to that? Follow through on your amen to the glory of God. Let's pray. God, we are so amazed at the extent of your forgiveness. Sometimes, God, we lose sight of what our sin really represents before you, but we see it afresh from this simple word from the Lord here in Matthew 5. All our anger, all our angry words, all our bitterness, all our outrage, all our grudges, all our unforgiveness, they are murder before you. We are countless times showing ourselves condemned as murderers, and we just deserve fire. But God, you have covered all of that. You have forgiven all of that. You have chosen not to remember a single instance of those things. For those of us who are in Christ, why? How could you do such a kind thing? Well, it goes back to your heart, but it also goes back to the work of Jesus. He suffered in the place of murderers like us, so that we will never suffer. Oh Jesus, all our murderers were set on you. You bore them, you suffered for them, you paid for them, and it's all done. So there's no condemnation for us, we're in the Lord Jesus. Amazing, amazing God, when we think of how many crimes we've committed and you have paid them all. But God, how should we now live? How can we who have died to sin with Christ on the cross go back and live in it? What would we say to our shame that even as believers we have sometimes walked in murderous anger? We've gone back to the slavery that you freed us from. and didn't benefit us at all. It only brought more damage in our lives and dishonor to you. So God today, I believe by your word, you're calling us again to repent, to get down to the roots of the anger and to uproot it. So God, I pray that you do that. I pray that you do that for this congregation, for this set of brothers and sisters, not just the older ones among us, Lord, but going down even to the children. God, I pray that. We would repent of the anger and repent of the pride, selfishness, and commitment to our own ways that is fueling the anger. Lord, you yourself and whatever you've chosen for our lives is all we need. We don't need anything else. It's not worth getting angry over because you love us and you've always purposed to perfectly take care of us and you will never fail. So God, we will submit ourselves to you. And when we are mistreated, we will give that over to you as well and say, I'm not seeking my own vengeance. God knows, he's promised to take care of it. I don't have to get angry. God, I pray that that would be true of this entire congregation, that anger would not be the sin that characterizes us, but rather we would put this sin to death by the power of your spirit and by the promises of your word. But those that don't know you, God, and still remain condemned as murderers, I pray, God, that you would cause them to repent today. This is not something you want to risk the case getting to God while you think about whether you want to believe in Jesus. Oh, no. The case is too serious. The punishment is too overwhelming. It's time to settle out of court. It's time to repent and believe. I pray, God, any who are dawdling, that they would dawdle no more. I give everything over to you. that they'd repent of their anger, believe in Jesus, and experience your eternal life. In Jesus' name, amen.