Who Is a Murderer?
The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin • Sermon • Submitted
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Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Introduction:
Introduction:
One of the first aspects on this massive subject that we must understand is that the law of God is not a penal code that is obeyed on the external only, it is meant to go much deeper than that.
The minister of the Gospel may tell people that it is wrong to perform certain actions, because the Bible says “thou shalt not,” but if he fails to give the spiritual case that produces such sinful actions, he has missed the mark.
From the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been dealing with the internals, on what men are like in their minds and hearts.
Because contrary to the external, superficial, and hypocritical righteousness that typified the scribes and the Pharisees, the righteousness that God requires is first of all an internal righteousness.
Listen, if righteousness does exist in the heart, then it does not exist at all.
Though this thought had been long ago lost because of the way that the scribes and Pharisees had overtaken the system with their manmade forms of righteousness, that the people saw that only the externals are where God is looking.
Solomon prayed:
Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
David’s last words to his son, Solomon, he said:
And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
Hanani, the seer, reminded King Asa:
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
The fact is that God is first of all concerned about what men are like on the inside, and that is a central truth that runs throughout the OT and the NT.
A good outward act is validated by God only when it honestly represents what is on the inside.
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
Right externals behavior is only pleasing to the Lord when it corresponds to right internal attitudes and motives.
For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
Because He knew that these self-righteous, self-appointed religious leaders could not possibly understand what He was saying, He devoted much of His sermon to expose their faulty principles and motivations of the legalistic system that had replaced God’s revealed Word.
In an effort to expose the self-appointed elite hypocrites, Christ gives six corrective illustrations that reveals their lack of concern for the internals and their focus on the externals only.
And He begins each statement in roughly the same way, “You have that it has been said....,” “but I say to you.”
And in all of these illustrations, Jesus reaffirms why the righteousness of the people had better exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees if they are hoping to enter heaven.
Christ deals with their lack of true righteousness buy speaking on six specific subjects; murder, sexual sin, divorce, speaking the truth, retaliation, and loving others.
And as He deals with these six subjects, the principle applies to every area of life: righteousness is a matter of the heart.
Follow me on these six specific subjects.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the 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.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
And what Christ is doing here is that He contrasts the human teaching with God’s Divine Word and standard.
“This is what you have always been taught that this meant, but I am telling you that God goes much deeper than just the external adherence to the law and goes down into the heart, to the motive.
Christ is attempting to teach them that He was standing firm on the truth of God’s Word, it was the Jewish tradition that was not.
Now, understand that when we Jesus says, “you have heard it said by them of old...” that He is not referring to the law of Moses but referring to those “Ancients” that would quote and interpret the law of Moses.
The writer said:
Matthew, vols. 1-4 (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary) Chapter 26: The Attitude behind the Act (An Overview of 5:21–48)
“The scribes and Pharisees of that age had completely inverted the order of things. Their carnality and self-righteousness had led them to exalt the precepts respecting ceremonial observances to the highest place and to throw the duties inculcated in the ten commandments comparatively into the background”
In other words, the scribes and Pharisees of the day were more concerned with the external observance of the law and paid no attention to the true desires of their hearts.
The question that arises is if the scribes and Pharisees got this so wrong, then why did the people not read and interpret the Law themselves and understand it for themselves?
The condition of Judaism at the time of Christ was remarkably like the church in the 16th century.
The Scriptures were not translated into the languages of the people.
The liturgy, the prayers, the Scripture reading, and even most of the hymns and anthems were in Latin, which none of the common people knew or understood.
When a priest gave a sermon or homily, the people had nothing by which judge what he said because they did not know the language.
They had no idea as to whether or not his message was scriptural, or even whether or not scriptural was important.
There are five principles that the Lord lays out in this section that we need to remember and we will be reminding of as we go along.
First, that the spirit of the law is more important than the letter of the law.
The law not given as a mechanical set of rules by which men, in their power, could govern their outward living.
It was given as a guide to the type of character God requires.
Second, the law is positive as well as negative.
In other words, its purpose not only is to prevent both inner and outward sin but to promote both inner and outer righteousness.
Third, the law is not an end in and of itself.
Its purpose goes beyond purifying the lives of God’s people.
Its supreme purpose is to glorify God.
Fourth, God alone is qualified to judge men, because He alone can judge men’s hearts.
Only the Creator has the right and the ability to judge the deepest inner workings of His creatures.
Fifth, Every human being is commanded to live up to the perfect divine standard to which the law points.
And because that command is impossible for man to fulfill, God Himself has provided fulfillment through His Son, Jesus Christ.
So, just like the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, it is intended to show the people how very far from God’s standard they have come.
Therefore, because we have fallen short of God’s standard, we are all in need of the Grace of the one that has fulfilled the standard.
We want to begin to look at these six different areas that Christ covers buy speaking on “Who is a Murderer?”
And Christ does this in three ways: Devastating their Confidence, Destroying their Comfort, and Directing their Cooperation.
I. Christ Devastates their Confidence (vs. 21-22)
I. Christ Devastates their Confidence (vs. 21-22)
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
When the ancients of old, to whom Jesus is referring, spoke and said that they law of God said, “thou shalt not kill,” they were speaking correctly.
Thou shalt not kill.
And literally in the Hebrews language, the law of God says, “Thou shalt do no murder.”
But the Scriptures have a lot more to say about it than just that.
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
And what Genesis 9:6 does it to institute capital punishment for murder.
And the reason for that is given in the next part of the verse.
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
You take a human life and it is an assault to the image of God He created in man and that brings about serious penalty.
And so, Genesis 9 authorizes capital punishment for those who shed blood, in murder, because man is made in the image of God.
And we need to understand that in Genesis 9, that refers to murder; it does not refer to capital punishment, that is taking a life under Divine allowance.
Some people have cynically said that Christians are the very people that admit that murder is wrong, but are in favor of the death penalty.
Well, I am in favor of the death penalty because the Word of God is in favor of the death penalty, that is Divine Allowance, not murder.
This command against murder, also does not refer to the killing that takes place during the times of a just war.
There were many times, in the economy of God with Israel, that God’s plan was when there were conflicts on a national level, carrying out certain exercises of the will of God in judgment upon some nations where there might be an allowance and it would not be considered murder.
And I do not think that the text in Exodus 20:14 has anything to do with self defense.
I think that you have the right to protect the image of God in our lives and the lives of our families and those about us when they are assaulted and attacked by those who would kill us.
I do not believe that it is referring to accidental death.
Deut. 19, speaks about the city of refuge where people that were involved in accidental killings could go and be safe, because they were not guilty of murder, because there was no pre-meditation.
And so, in those cases a man does need to forfeit his life.
What the Bible is talking is murder; planned, and plotted to some degree.
But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.
And if he smite him with throwing a stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.
Or if he smite him with an hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.
The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him.
In other words, the society was to protect itself by taking the life of the one who indiscriminately, pre-meditatively took the life of another.
So, we learn from the Scriptures that the one who is guilty of murder, his life is to be taken for the blood that he shed.
But we also learn from the Scriptures that Satan is the Father of Murder.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
We learn from the Scriptures that Murder is an abomination to the Lord.
These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
We also learn that the Kingdom of God and the eternal state is not a place for murderers.
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
Jesus said that if you commit murder, then you will be in danger of the judgment.
The word “danger” is the word “ἔνοχος” and it means liable or guilty.
If you murder someone, you will stand guilty in the judgment and following the Biblical pattern, you will be put to death.
They knew the Biblical mandate, “thou shalt not kill,” they knew what the OT law said about it.
But the point of Christ is that you did not go far enough.
The part that you admit to it true, you should commit the physical act of murder, but there is so much more.
You have taken and believe part of God’s law, you have interpreted it only partially and then you satisfied yourself with keeping your partial interpretation and are thereby justifying yourself.
Now, watch this.
Their teaching stated that you should not murder, because if you do you will be in danger of being punished before the civil court.
Now, what is wrong with that?
Does that not the practicing of righteousness?
I mean, do not murder and you will be acting righteous?
The problem is that it does not go far enough.
Their full interpretation of the law was; “Do not kill because if you do, you will be in trouble with the law.”
But what about God?
What about God’s holy character?
Well, that did not even enter into the discussion.
They had made this law so mundane that they did not even mention God.
They had made the law so commonplace that they did not even mention inner attitudes, they mentioned nothing of the heart.
All they said was, “do not murder, or you will get into trouble.”
Very superficial.
The problem is that their interpretation stopped short of where it should have.
Because they did not murder and; therefore, did not get into trouble with the court, they concluded that they were righteous.
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Jesus says, “Let me tell you God really meant by those words in Exodus, let me give you the right interpretation.”
Read verse 22 again.
Jesus is simply saying that it is not the issue of murder alone, it is an issue of anger and hatred in your heart.
You cannot justify yourself because you do not kill.
Because if there is hatred in your heart you are the same as a murderer.
The word “angry” is the “ὀργίζω” and it speaks of having feelings or aversion or antipathy for someone.”
So, this is why in this first point I say that Christ Devastates their Confidence.
It effected how they viewed themselves, it affects how we view ourselves.
We do the same thing, don’t we?
We classify murderers and say, “well, I would never do that.”
And yet, sometimes we get so angry on the inside with someone, we fell bitterness towards people, we hold and nurse grudges towards people, we have unreconciled feelings towards people, and Christ is saying, “that is the same as murder.”
Because, folks, God looks at the heart.
And so when He says, “I say unto you,” He swept aside all the rabbinical rubbish and He put the emphasis where the emphasis belonged and He stripped them bare of their self-righteousness.
Who is a murder?
I will tell you, Jesus say, who is a murder.
It is not just someone who takes someone’s life, but if you hold angry thoughts against your brother, you are guilty of murder.
And just as a side note:
There is no need to interpret the word “brother” or “ἀδελφός” as talking about believers.
“Oh, the Bible says that I can hold grudges and hold thoughts of anger against an unsaved person and be OK, just not a fellow believer.”
What Jesus had in mind here by that usage was the understanding of your neighbor-brother.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Christ just strips the Pharisees bare of their self-righteousness.
And it does not do a bad job on us either.
Anger is murders root, and our Lord says, watch this, anger and murder merit equal punishment.
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
The word “judgment” in this verse is the same Greek word for “judgment” (κρίσις) in verse 21.
Jesus said, “Let’s get down to the matter and go to the heart of the issue. Because God looks on the heart and is more concerned with what is going on on the inside, if you hold grudges and hatred in your heart (on the inside) towards someone, you are worthy of death.”
Pretty devastating.
Notice what our Lord is doing.
He is going into the inside where God judges.
The fact is, you may hate more than a murderer hates, you just lack the opportunity to kill.
And anger in the eyes of God is murder.
So, quite frankly, who is a murderer?
All of us!
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
Jesus said, you have hatred in your heart, you have anger in your heart towards someone, you are guilty of murderer.
In the eyes of God, it is no different than the man that goes out and commits the act.
Now, understand that there is a righteous anger, and that is not what Christ is talking about.
There is a time when the believer has a right to be angry and, in fact, the more holy that we become, the more angry we get over certain things.
And I would say that the difference in righteous and unrighteous anger is that righteous anger is when God’s holiness is maligned and unrighteous anger is when we are personally maligned.
By the way, when a murder went before “the judgment” or “the courts,” it would end in execution.
And it says the same thing about the person that is guilty of being angry, they are in danger of being executed.
Again, the Greek word for “judgment” in verse 21 is the same Greek word for “judgment” in verses 22, same word, same punishment.
Capital punishment, the text says, belongs to the angry person as much as it belongs to the murderer.
Now, that is a devastating statement, because it forces us to look on the inside.
Listen, don’t miss this, it isn’t so much what we do as what we are and what we feel.
There is not a civil court in the world that would give someone the death penalty for being angry.
But when God is the one that is in charge and calling the shots, He is saying that an angry person is a guilty as a murderer.
Notice the second illustration.
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Who Is a Murderer?
Now what does this mean? Well this person is also condemned as a murderer, this is another person who ought to go before the council and get the same death penalty. He’s saying to the Jews, you’re afraid of the death penalty for murder? On God’s terms it ought to be the same penalty for anger and there ought to be the same penalty for saying Raca to somebody.
This word is a word that is difficult to translate and people have gone all over the board to try and define this.
Basically what it is a verbal expression of slander against a person.
Perhaps something that has to do with his personality or his character versus his looks.
It is a word of arrogant contempt, it is word of despising.
It is a word that is used one of that despises another person.
It is a word or words that are said about someone, true or not, that is intended to being them harm.
You go out and talk about another person, whether or not what you are saying is true, with the intent of harming them or their reputation, you are guilty of this.
you are in essence saying that they are a “stupid idiot, or fool.”
Listen, and please don’t miss this.
What Jesus is saying is that what you feel on the inside is enough to damn you to eternal hell as much as what you do on the outside.
Jesus gives a third illustration:
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
“Fool” is the word “μωρός” from where we get our English word “moron.”
If you call someone a “moron” you are in danger of Hell.
Now, apparently this was even a worse thing to say to someone.
It comes from a Hebrew root “marah” which means “rebel.”
And in the Hebrew Bible, a fool was one who rebelled against God.
So, if you call someone a rebel against God, now if it is true, you have done them a favor.
But if it is meant as words of anger, it is sinful.
If you impugn against a person’s relationship with God, you are guilty of this.
It is the old adage, “well, they cannot be a Christian and do that,” and it is said with malice and contempt, you are guilty of murder.
I mean Christ really just nails down the ugliness of the heart and lays us
Now, notice the word “Hell.”
It is the word “γέεννα” and this word has a history and it is fascinating.
“γέεννα” is a reference, listen to this, to Hinnom, it means “The Valley of Hinnom.”
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Who Is a Murderer?
it was the place where Ahaz had introduced into Israel the fire worship of the heathen god Moloch to whom little children were burned in the fire.
Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
Josiah, the reforming King stamped out the evil worship of Moloch in the place of Hinnom and ordered that the valley should be forever after an accursed place because of what had gone on there.
Now the valley of Hinnom bore that curse throughout of all Israel’s history and became the place where the Jewish people dumped their garbage.
And what they had there was a public incinerator that burned all the time.
Jesus referring to “γέεννα” or “Hell” is describing the eternal state of the wicked as place where there is an eternal fire never goes out.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Who Is a Murderer?
Always, says the historian, the fire smoldered in Hinnom and a pall of thick smoke lay over Hinnom at all times, and it bred a loathsome kind of worm which was very hard to kill.
That is, no doubt, the reference that Christ makes when He says in the Gospel of Mark, “where the worm dies not.”
And he says that if you are ever angry and if you ever say a malicious word to put someone down, or worse yet, if you have ever cursed them as it were to hell (the meaning of the word “fool”), you are as guilty and as liable for eternal hell as a murderer is.
So Jesus attacks the sin of anger, the sin of slander, and the sin of cursing, and with it He destroys their self-righteousness.
You think that you are OK because you have not committed the physical act of murder?
God looks deeper at the heart and the motives and when He does that you are guilty.
II. Christ Destroys their Comfort (vs. 23-24)
II. Christ Destroys their Comfort (vs. 23-24)
Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
This is so powerful.
Jesus now moves from the area of the Pharisees to the area of worship.
He begins with “therefore.”
Because God looks on the inside, the heart, the motives.
Since God is concerned with the attitude towards others, how you feel about your brother, how you speak to your brother, and whether or not you curse your brother.
He then goes to worship, “if you come to worship and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift, go and be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
In other words, “Do not enter into here to worship knowing that your brother is offended with you, get that right first and then worship.”
In other words, reconciliation comes before worship.
Here is the standard of worship that would have been the staple of the peoples system.
When a man commited a sin, there was a breech between himself and God; the relationship was disturbed.
It was to be remedied by the offering of a sacrifice for the sin.
Now, get this picture.
A Jew is coming to bring his sacrifice to the high priest, and he gets all the way and places the sacrifice into the hands of the high priest.
And all of a sudden, God says, “stop right there.”
You remember your neighbor?
He has something against you.
Leave the altar, leave the sacrifice and do not make that sacrifice until you make things right with your neighbor.
Settle that breech between man and man before you settle that breech between God and man.
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
Your incense is an abomination to me, your new moons, I am weary of the whole thing.
Christ is saying, “don’t you dare come to the Father with your religion until you have made your life right with your neighbor.
Deal with your neighbor and then deal with me.
God says, “Get out of here until you make right the relationship. “
He is saying that if you scribes and Pharisees and you religionists, you come in with all this worship paraphernalia, I don’t want any of it, go away until you get right with your brother.
Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
God says, very graphically, if anyone is angry at you, I do not want your worship.
Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Leave your gift, leave your worship, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.
Our Lord shows His holiness in the fact that He is not even dealing with the anger of the one worshiping, that was dealt with in verse 22.
He is dealing now with anger against the worshiper.
You know me and I know you, and one of the things that we know about each other is that we want God to bless EBC.
We want the worship to be Spirit led, we want the fellowship to be Spirit filled, and we want the preaching to be Spirit anointed.
We want every aspect of the worship experience here to be all the Lord would have it to be.
And there are times when we ask the question, “how do make the worship experience better, how do we make the singing better, how do we make the overall experience better?
And when we ask those questions, we ask them with absolute sincerity.
But those are not really the correct question.
What needs to happen in the Church is that God’s people who have something against a brother, need to get that thing right before they come to Church, that is what our Lord is saying.
When that takes place, then we will see the power of God in our midst.
You have so many people sitting in the pews of Churches holding grudges against other brothers in Christ and then wonder why, at least, that their personal experience is not what it should be.
I believe that there are times when people come to Church and there is a feeling against somebody else in the fellowship or a neighbor, and we know there is bitterness, and we do absolutely nothing about it.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
We should not expect that Church will be all that we want it to be when we have bitterness in our hearts and do nothing about it.
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
Our responsibility is, if we know that we have made someone angry with us that we go and make that right and then come back and then worship the Lord.
You say, “what if they do not accept my attempts to reconcile?”
Not your responsibility to be concerned with the response, we need to make sure that our conscience is clear and we follow the Biblical pattern and attempt art reconciliation
III. Christ Directs their Cooperation (vs. 25-26)
III. Christ Directs their Cooperation (vs. 25-26)
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
What is Christ saying here, this is so important.
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
If there is a person that you know that you have made angry, then you need to find him quickly.
Christ directs these people by telling them to do this quickly.
Get it right with your brother quickly!
I mean, you have left your gift at the altar, according to verse 24, and now you must find your brother quickly and get that thing right.
I have heard people say who have held grudges against other believers for quite sone time say, “well, I need to wait until my spirit us right, so I do not make things worse.”
Well, that certainly sounds spiritual and it is made to sound that way.
But if that is your reasoning for not obeying the command of the Lord, then you have other problems besides your brother being angry because that reasoning, quite frankly, is a cop-out.
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Jesus says, do it quickly because not only is your worship put on hold, but they will come a time when you will not be able to it.
Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Basically, being thrown into prison and not being able to get out is an analogy of God’s punishment.
Listen, the basic teaching is plain and unmistakeable: we are to make every effort, without delay, to make our relationships right with our brothers before our relationship can be right with God and we can avoid chastening.
Matthew, vols. 1-4 (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary) The Effect on Our Relations with Others
Thus everything Jesus teaches in this passage, as in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, is to show the absolutely perfect standard of God’s righteousness and the absolutely impossible task of our meeting that standard in our own power. He shatters self-righteousness in order to drive us to His righteousness, which alone is acceptable to God.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
The scribes and the Pharisees who are depending on their own self-righteousness, just because you do not kill, you think that you are holy.
Jesus says, “Let me tell you something; if you are angry, if you have ever said a malicious word about somebody’s character, if you have ever cursed anybody, you are a murderer.
If you have ever come to be altar to worship God and had something against your brother you are in danger of the judgment, and such hypocrisy would be enacted in your worship that you leave that gift and run and make it right.
And when you are in a conflict with someone, immediately, as fast as you can, resolve that issue because you too are in danger of Hell.”
You are not righteous just because you have not done the physical act of murder, you are guilty as guilty can be if you have been angry, if you have been malicious to others, and cursed them by impugning their character.
The Pharisees and scribes were in just as much need of grace as anyone, the problem was, they did not know it.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Who Is a Murderer?
God had every reason to be angry with us, didn’t He? God had every reason to hate us, righteously to hate us. God had every reason to hold us in contempt. God had every reason to curse us, righteously. God had every reason to send us away, becausewe were murderers.
But even though we are as vial and guilty as the Mansons of Bundeys, He loves us, He forgave us, He pays our debt and wonder of wonders He seeks to reconcile to Himself in His eternal Kingdom, because He wants fellowship with us.
Incredible!
Listen, if an absolutely holy God can so desire to be reconciled to vile murderers like us, can we find it in our hearts to be reconciled to our brothers?
He sets the pattern!