Amen. My name is Eric, one of the
pastors here. Glad to be here with you this
morning. And as always, lately we have
been in the Gospel of Matthew, and particularly we're in
Chapter 5. As some of you may know, chapter
5 through Chapter 7 is the the Sermon on the Mount, and that is
Jesus's longest recorded sermon or discourse in the Gospels.
And we've been walking through it and we've got to this place
where we're at verse 21. So if you have your Bibles, open
them to Matthew chapter 5 starting in verse 21.
Today we are talking about anger and that anger is the heart
behind murder. In my prayer, I alluded to the
idea that we want comfort and healing and want to bring
clarity to a terrible tragedy that happened in a in a
neighboring community, in the Tremonton community.
And, and so I would thought I would read the press release of
what happened last Sunday just to get us all on the same page.
It says on August 17th at 21 O two hours, which would be about
9:00 PM, the Box Elder Communication Center received
multiple 911 hang up calls from an address in Tremont in Utah.
An officer from the Tremont in Garland Police Department
responded and began speaking with an occupant of the home who
was reporting an apparent domestic disturbance, at which
time a mail emerged from the residence with the firearm and
the male opened fire on the officer, striking and killing
the officer. A second officer with the
Tremont and Garland Police Department responded to assist.
The first was immediately fired upon by the same male suspect.
The second, the second officer, was also struck and killed by
the suspects gunfire. A third officer and deputy from
Box Elder County Sheriff's Office had also been dispatched
to assist. As they arrived in the area, the
suspect fired several rounds into the deputy's vehicle,
striking the deputy and the deputy's police service dog.
After being hit by gunfire, the deputy, the deputy and police
service dog remained in their vehicle and were subsequently
evacuated to an area hospital and specialty veterinary clinic
where they received medical treatment.
Both are recovering and in fair condition.
These are unthinkable and terrible tragedies that have
happened in our community. And I think a lot of times I was
hearing in the interviews that these were senseless acts.
And in one sense, yes, they don't make sense that that
people could be so evil that terrible things could happen
like that to our own people in our communities, people that are
trying to protect us, the police officers.
And yet, by God's grace and Providence, I don't think that
we need to look any further than Scripture to actually try to
make sense of evil like this that exists in our world.
It talked about it being a domestic violence disturbance.
And I think you can always sum up domestic violence as this.
It always starts with the sin of anger.
And while many of us may not think that we're capable of
murder, all of us are susceptible to hurting others,
hurting ourselves with what comes from sinful anger.
And so that's what we're going to be talking about today is the
depths of of the depravity of man with the the sin of anger
and how it is the heart behind murder.
And so as we get into our passage, I first want to talk
about an old commandment from the Old Testament.
And that's my first point, which is thou shalt not murder.
I think everybody's kind of heard the 10 commandments.
We've been blessed to have these as kind of a principle even in
America to follow. And it's not until recently that
maybe people have tried to tear down pictures and statues and
things that have things like this, the 10 commandments on
them. But I think that God's word is,
is powerful and strong enough to have made it around the world.
And most people, you could say, probably know that it's wrong to
commit murder. And even if you don't know the
Bible, the Bible tells us that everybody knows that murder is
evil. You know, Paul tells us in in
Romans chapter 2, when when Gentiles who do not have the law
by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to
themselves. Even though they do not have the
law, they show that the work of the law is written on their
hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their
conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.
So in one sense, Paul tells us that all people were created
with a conscience and an ability to to differentiate right from
wrong, good from evil. Now that doesn't mean that
everybody knows all of the laws and the commands of the Bible,
but murder is basically a natural law on top of a a
commandment of God. We first get the commandment
from God in the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 20 when Moses
went up on the mountain to get the the 2 tablets the the the
law from God. And these were written, by the
way, some of the words only really actually literally
written by God's own finger was the 10 commandments.
This is one of them. You shall not murder, right?
So this means that it's extremely important.
Written in stone means that it will never change, it will never
end. It is, this is the eternal law
that murder is evil, murder is wrong.
And so that's what Jesus opens up with in this passage.
So let's get to the first part, first verse of our text, verse
21. He says this you have heard that
it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever
murders will be liable to judgment.
So what's going on here in context is Jesus is giving his
Sermon on the Mount. He's talking first and foremost
to his disciples, but standing around who are Jewish and then
standing around would be also Pharisees, religious leaders,
scribes, and other Jewish people that have come out to listen to
Jesus and to see his miracles and all the things that he's
been able to do. And he's he's he's got quite a
gathering of people that want to hear him and and see him and he
starts to do this thing. What we what we would call the
the 6th antithesis of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in
Matthew chapter 5 S from here on over the next six weeks, we're
actually going to see the text always begins with you've heard
that it was said. And then in the next verse, he
says verse, he says, but I say, and so there's a, a contrast or
an exposition or Jesus expounding on or or correcting
even a teaching that was from the Old Testament.
But when he says, you've heard that it was said to those of
old, he's saying this is what the rabbis and the Jewish
leaders taught to you from the law.
And, and so we're going to get into that in just a little bit
what Jesus has to say about this statement.
But so far, at first glance, there's really actually nothing
wrong with this statement. You've heard that it was said to
those of old that you shall not murder, which comes from Exodus,
right? That's a law.
That's one of the 10 commandments and that whoever
does this will be liable to the judgement.
Again, that is something from the Old Testament that there was
a thing called capital punishment that God had
instilled in in civil law for Israelites to follow, which was
if someone committed a certain sin, capital punishment was was
just. And so, you know, by the way,
when we talk about murder and killing, so in in the King James
version of the 10 commandments, it says thou shalt not kill.
And while that that makes sense and it's a good translation, I
do believe that the better translation is murder in the ESV
and others because the the specific word for kill or murder
there is to kill with evil intent.
So there there is and the and the definition then of that
would be unlawful or unjustifiably killing a person.
So there's an unlawful and unjustifiable way of killing
someone. There must also be a lawful and
justifiable way of killing as well.
So there is a contrast between between murder and just killing,
right? Murder is to kill with evil
intent. This is someone who has no
respect for life, does not care about preserving life, does not
see the image of God in people. And matter of fact, in Genesis
96, when God talks about capital punishment, he says whoever
sheds the blood of man by the man by man shall his blood be
shed. For God made man in his own
image. This is why it is evil to murder
by the way, because God made man and woman in his own image.
Genesis 127 God created man in his own image.
In the image of God He created him, male and female.
He created them. This means that all people have
intrinsic value or value built into them just because they are
a special creation of God, that he has put his image on them.
Meaning that humanity was created for a special
relationship with God, special communion with God, and we share
some characteristics of God's own nature.
Now, not all of them, right There are there are
incommunicable attributes of God which are like him being
eternal, triune and everywhere all at once, knowing everything.
Those are things that we can't grasp, but but having the
ability to create, to have mercy and grace and love and justice,
all of these things. Now we don't create out of
nothing like he did, but we can take with the elements that he
made and create things. And so in a sense, we are
created in God's image with even moral attributes, right to know
what's right and wrong, what's just and unjust.
And what this commandment says is that murder is wrong and evil
because murder disrespects and devalues life, the life that God
created, the image bearers of God.
And so not only is it just murder, This is why we believe
that abortion is wrong. Even though some may try to say
that this is not a life yet. That's kind of the argument is
that this isn't a life yet. This isn't a person yet.
But the reality is, is that we believe life starts at
conception. And so then that baby growing in
mom's womb, as the Bible says, knitted together by God, has the
image of God from the beginning. And so therefore we believe
abortion to be evil and, and just that murder.
It's not valuing or respecting, it's not preserving life.
But people can be fooled into thinking, but that's that's OK
if it's going to save my life or that's OK if it's going to save
my future. That's OK if you know, I don't
know the person yet. But the reality is, is that's a
skewed way of looking at things because sometimes we can do the
wrong thing and be fooled into believing it's possibly the
right thing. So there are unjustifiable and
unlawful murders that happen as well, like unjust war, right?
There are some leaders and governments that think by having
power is going to be a good thing for all, but that isn't
necessarily true, especially if the leader is a tyrant or a
terrorist who does not respect life or preserve life doesn't
give value to all human beings and so therefore that person
would be unjust and it would be just.
Then that's when war starts to become just is when another
nation says we need to protect ourselves and protect the world
from such evil. And by the way, the man who
killed those Tremont police officers is likely going to face
the death penalty. And so to make sense of these
things, we look at and, and, and, and we look at God's word
and we say, OK, there's a contrast between just murder
and, or just killing and unjustifiable murder.
Men are evil. We have consciences, though,
through the fall, our consciences are seared and we
only want to do evil. We only have this desire for
pride and selfishness, which leads to all kinds of sins, even
being confused about things like abortion.
And by the way, I just wanted to say this, that somebody once
told me you need to wound them with the law, but bind them up
with the grace of Jesus Christ. And what we need to understand,
I don't want to go any further without saying this, that all of
these people, even people who commit murder, can be forgiven.
Now the consequences on earth may be something that can't
change, but every person, this, these are not unforgivable sins.
But it is good to know what sin is so that we can know how to
repent, that we can know that we need the blood of Jesus, the
murdered blood of Jesus, to cover over our sinful ways, our
sinful lives, our sinful hearts. And so there is no unforgivable
sin other than that of just rejecting and not believing.
But that's as far as I want to go with this conversation about
murder. I think, as I said, we all
understand that murder is evil. So what leads a person to commit
murder? Most of the time it's because of
anger. Now there are other reasons like
greed or jealousy, but I could argue that those derived from
being angry that one doesn't have enough or is mad at another
one who has more. It's a heart issue though.
Murder comes from the heart, and it starts with this root of
anger. And I would go a little bit
further and say that pride is kind of the ultimate source of
anger. Because when we're getting angry
at somebody or someone, again, this is what I would say would
be unjustifiable anger, which we're going to get to, would be
to be angry because of something that you feel like happened to
you. And then you hang on to that and
let let it to grow and fester until it turns into outward
action or internal thoughts toward people.
And pride says, that shouldn't happen to me.
I'm above this. No way you're going to allow do
this to me. And so I think pride or it says
that I deserve this and that person doesn't.
So I'm going to be angry or jealous about that, right?
And so pride and anger are very close together, but anger is the
heart behind murder. We don't have to go too far to
find this because the Bible records the first murder in
human history. In Genesis chapter 4, Adam and
Eve had some children and their names were Cain and Abel,
another famous story. And in this story, chapter 4, it
says verse 3. In the course of time Cain
brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and
Abel also brought of the first born of his flock and of their
fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel
and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no
regard. So Cain was very angry, and his
face fell. The Lord said to Cain, Why are
you angry and why is your face falling?
If you do well, will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
It's desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
And Cain spoke to Abel, his mother.
And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother
Abel and killed him. The very first murder in
Scripture points to it was done out of a heart of anger.
And so let's dig into this a little bit more.
We've looked at anger. We've looked or looked at
murder, what it is, what it isn't.
We've introduced anger as the root of murder, the antecedent,
and now we'll look at the rest of the proper teaching of Jesus
on this commandment. And my next point is this.
I believe this is what he's saying here, and we're going to
look at it. Unrighteous anger is the sin
that is equal to committing homicide.
The heart of the matter is that if you are capable, then you're
culpable. You think you're strong enough
to to control your sin when you're angry.
Well, I would say watch out because it's a very fine line
between what is righteous anger and what is unrighteous anger.
We need to watch out for things like even domestic violence.
You know, one of the easiest places to become angry is at
home when you've got two different people who have two
different opinions, 2 personalities, and you're around
each other all the time. And you get in a little fight or
an argument about something and it boils and it stews over.
And we'd like to think we all have self-control.
But I would just say to the Christian specifically, watch
out for domestic violence in your homes.
And it starts with anger. And I hope we can deal with this
right now. I've been a pastor for quite a
while, and so I can say that Christians aren't immune to
domestic violence. OK, so let's get into Jesus's
words, he says. But I say to you that everyone
who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement, and
whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council.
And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
So like I said, in this antithesis of Jesus, at first
glance, there wasn't really anything wrong with the the
first verse 21. But really what Jesus is now
doing is he's saying, you've heard that it was said, but I
say meaning that I am the God of these scriptures, that these
scriptures are talking about, that they think that they're
teaching properly. And I'm telling you that they're
leaving something out. He's saying while murder is evil
and wrong and the judgement will come for them, they are only
preaching the letter of the law, which they're so famous of
preaching. The Pharisees were so obsessed
with trying and the scribes trying to figure out what can I
do, what I, what can I do? Very black and white, like, OK.
And so they stopped at murder. It didn't get to the heart of
the matter or the root of the issue, which Jesus brings up
here is anger. They missed the mark.
The spirit of the law is what they needed to hear expounded to
them. And while the.
Consequences of murder and anger are different on Earth.
The sin is the. Same because it originates in
the heart. And it starts with.
A feeling, The feeling of anger. Now what's the definition of
anger? I've got a few definitions I've
looked at. It says a strong feeling of
annoyance, displeasure or hostility.
Or an. Emotion characterized by tension
and hostility arising from frustration, real or imagined
injury by another or perceived injustice.
So it is a feeling that arises and and it is in a sense just to
there's nothing wrong to feel an emotion.
These emotions were built into us.
As we'll see, God himself has emotions as He created us in his
image, and he has anger as one of those.
But it starts the. Problem is that we're human and
that we don't fully grasp or understand when we should be
angry or why these feelings are popping up when something
happens. You know, sometimes we don't
have the whole story about something.
And that's why in that definition it said a real or
imagined injury or perceived injustice is sometimes we can
perceive a situation or what somebody's done to us and we can
start to think we're righteous in our anger when really we
didn't slow down and take the time to actually really think
about everything that actually happened.
And maybe, just maybe, our offence can be lessened or
minimized because of that. A mentor once said.
To me, anger comes from unmet or unrealized expectations.
And sometimes we have too high of expectations for everyone
around us. And so then because we've placed
such high expectations for everyone around us, when they
don't meet them, we're angry. And maybe, maybe the reality is,
is we need to lower our expectations of everybody around
us. But there must be an.
Anger that isn't sin because Ephesians 426 tells us be angry
and do not sin and don't let the sun go down on your anger.
And I think that. Many people take that verse out
of context and they'll say, OK, it's still daytime and the sun's
literally going down. And so before we go to bed,
honey, we're going to work this out even though we're both still
elevated, right? I don't really think that that's
what that means. I think it's like a hyperbole
where don't let anger go too long.
But I'll just say practically, if you're both angry right
before bed, it's not a good time to talk, Talk about it right?
Then, you know, maybe you do need to sleep on it.
But as a good principle, don't let too many days pass by where
you're seething in anger especially.
But if you can't control yourself, take a break, please.
So what is righteous and unrighteous anger?
Righteous anger is. Towards sin and true injustices,
true injustices. Righteous anger is indignant at
those who devalue life. So in a sense, a feeling comes
up when you hear about these officers being killed, right?
Immediately it's, it's sorrow and it's a little bit of
righteous anger, right? That's wrong, that's evil.
That shouldn't have happened. Because someone.
Devalued life. Unrighteous anger.
Is when we do not respect life and we devalue people because of
their sins or their mistakes. You remember the?
Praise hate the sin, not the Sinner.
That's true. We should hate sin, but we
shouldn't hate others because of their sin.
Otherwise justice would say you should be aided because we're
all sinners. We've all sinned.
One of God's. Attributes is Wrath as I've said
before. Thinking.
About the day of the Lord when Jesus comes back to judge
everything or or even in times past and Old Testament where God
judged the people of Israel or the nations around.
Like in Isaiah 13911. It says that nine through 11.
It says, Behold, the day of the Lord comes cruel with wrath and
fierce anger, to make the land of desolation, and destroy its
sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and
their constellations will not give their light.
The sun will be darkened its rising, the moon will not shed
its light. I will punish the world for its
evil, and the wicked for their iniquity.
I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the
pompous pride of the ruthless. God has a righteous anger and
wrath that will be. Has been and will.
Be executed on unrepentant sinners and that's what hell is
by the way, which will last for eternity.
Jesus got angry who is God by the way, but as as fully man and
fully God here on earth. In Mark chapter 3 verse 5, it
says he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their
hardness of heart and said to the man stretch out your hand.
He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
This was where they were the the religious leaders were getting
mad at Jesus for teaching the way he taught and healing on the
Sabbath. And he was angry at their their
foolishness, their arrogance, their bad interpretation, their
false teachings of scripture. And to have anger at that is
also justified. But here's the thing.
God is slow to anger Exodus. 34. One of the most quoted things
about God's character is this sentence.
Like it's goes like this. The Lord, the Lord of God,
merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast
love and faithfulness. Slow to anger is one of these
things that is repeated about God over and over again.
And so here's the thing. Even though God has righteous
wrath and anger, He's God and we're not.
And and he's. Merciful at the same time,
though, right? So we're in danger of anger
becoming or being a sin probably most of the time.
I can say that with some certainty.
James kind of reiterates this when talking to us mere humans,
telling us God's words from the Holy Spirit written to Him.
It says, Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be
quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of
God. All right, So what is he saying?
He's saying be slow to anger like God.
Beware of your anger, human. You're not God and your anger
does not produce the righteousness of God.
So therefore we must. Get a grasp on or.
As Moses said, the writer of Genesis rule over this sin
that's crouching so closely at our doors, ready to control.
US. You must have a.
Control over this. So maybe, maybe you are
struggling with anger. Maybe you're the hot head who
punches holes in the wall at home and says I'm just letting
off steam or. Maybe you're the opposite.
And you hold everything in like a slow boil that just comes out
in sarcasm and passive aggressive digs.
Maybe you're thinking negative? Thoughts towards everyone around
you. Maybe.
You get annoyed by most people. Well, let's look at what Jesus
has to say about this. Going back to our verse.
I say to everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable
to the judgement, meaning the sin of anger is also the same
judgement that the murderer should get.
That's what he's getting at there.
And then he goes on. Whoever insults his brother will
be liable to the council insults his brother.
OK, the the original word rock on meaning blockhead or
worthless. I don't think people call
people. Blockheads anymore.
But what this is getting at is this disrespecting and devaluing
life or the ability of a person to be able to think clearly.
And while I would agree that we all have different intelligent
levels as we look out to the world, this is even talking
about your brother here, your fellow believer, your family
member, people you're supposed to love that even non believers
love. Well, the Bible.
Says it says. If you insult someone.
Like this, thinking they're basically worthless or stupid.
Then you're liable to the council here, the Sanhedrin, the
highest court at that time, who condemned people to death for
their sin. Or it goes on and says.
If you say you fool, we'll be liable to the fires of hell.
That's very clear of the judgment of hell part, but it
says the word Moray there means you idiot or moron.
Again, a similar word used to devalue a person when.
We think of people in this. Way it's it's almost as if we
are saying that this world would be better off without you.
Are you a name caller? When you're mad.
But you think maybe you're a. Good person because you don't
hurt people physically. But pride?
Again, going back to that idea of the root of pride in anger
says I'm smarter than or not as bad as, So you're stupid, I'm
smart, you're worse than I am, and I'm better.
Are we saying that? Although we may not be saying it
in that sentence in our mind when we're putting people down
around us. Are we not simply?
Just saying I'm better than there should be more people like
me who think like me, who act like me, who look like me in the
world and less like people like you do.
You see the correlation? To murder there as if their life
doesn't matter, their differences don't matter, they
shouldn't exist. And Jesus says we're all guilty.
Why? Because we can all say that we
do that. I mean, this is something that
even I struggle with. I'm telling you here and what
what one key to this before we can start condemning ourselves.
I do want you to feel the conviction of OK, I need to
follow these laws of God better if I'm going to be a Christian,
but yet also remember what Jesus said in verse 20 of our thing he
he said for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds out
of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter
the Kingdom of heaven. And so think these Pharisees are
standing around and they think I'm good because I don't murder
people. I'm not a serial killer.
But Jesus is taking. It several steps further and and
now getting into everyone's kitchen and saying I bet.
And we can say this for ourselves.
Maybe on a monthly, weekly or daily basis we are saying in our
minds and our hearts that some people annoy us or anger us
enough that we would have even a split second thought if not
allowing to dwell on it longer. That we sometimes might.
Wish that somebody doesn't exist anymore.
And I don't want to go even. Further with the thoughts of
human minds because you know as well as I do how bad they can be
but here's the thing, recognizing anger is a dangerous
sin and knowing what we are capable of is the first step to
repentance. Here we.
Must confess our. Weakness to God and expose those
weaknesses for what they are. They are evil and they're not
just low on the list. Jesus is saying they're right up
here on this list of what society thinks is evil.
We're doing the same thing in our heart and our mind.
Remember this when, when he said your righteousness must exceed
the scribes and the Pharisees. What he's saying here is look.
You think that you can? Follow some kind of a black and
white law to get to me. But what I'm trying to.
Tell you is is that you are so sinful and so messed up because
of the fall, because of original sin, because of your ancestors
Adam and Eve following Satan, believing the lie, disobeying
God, disrespecting God, that this is built into you, you.
Were born with this. Nature of sin.
And now you keep contributing to it over and over again, giving
the proof that you are 100% sinful.
Everything you do, all your actions, all your thoughts.
Even though you think that you can do good things and you might
outwardly have good works, they are tainted by a sick heart, a
depraved heart. And that's why Jesus came.
And did you know that Jesus was murdered because of angry men
who thought that they were doing a just and righteous act?
They couldn't understand. Jesus, because their hearts were
darkened and their minds were darkened, and they came at him,
calling him all kinds of names, thinking that he was preaching
blasphemy because they didn't see him as the Son of God, the
true God. And So what did they do?
Out of jealousy as well, they put him forward to be crucified
on a cross, killed. And they were so wrong.
They were so twisted in their thinking.
We are susceptible of the same thing and our own sins also
attributed and contributed to putting Jesus on that cross.
Because you know what? He came to save us from our sins
and to die for our sins, to be the sacrifice, and to pay the
judgment for our sins. And so the murder.
Of angry men toward Jesus. We might as well put ourselves
in that camp as well. We put him on the cross, but
that's the good news. The gospel is, although there's
no possible way of making it to heaven or being right with God,
having our righteousness higher than the scribes and the
Pharisees to enter the Kingdom of God by the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. He exchanges.
He never broke a law, He never got angry.
He never in an unrighteous way. He never thought of murder.
And he exchanges that. Righteousness with all of our
unrighteousness, right there on the cross when he was nailed and
his blood was spilled. And he takes our place.
And by faith alone we can have forgiveness of all of our sins,
past, present and future. It's all wiped away.
We start with a a clean slate. But not only that, we have
Christ's righteousness and the sanctifying work of the Holy
Spirit. Meaning the Holy Spirit comes
into our lives now. And now we couldn't fight
against. We had no self-control over
these sins of anger and all these sins that put Jesus on the
cross and and Jesus saying I've come to do all the work, it is
finished now I'm sending my Holy Spirit to conform you to become
more like me, the image of Christ.
And you need to. Rest in faith alone in me.
This is why I've came and this is kind of the essence of of
Jesus's teaching here is that he came to save us from our sin.
But first he has to come and show us that we are sinners and
we need him and him alone. We cannot do anything or add to
his works on the cross to be righteous.
We need the gospel. We need Jesus to save us.
Even. From just.
Our anger here and as Christians now we look at these words also
because we know that he's talking to his disciples.
And although they're probably not quite getting it, when they
get the Holy Spirit, they certainly do get it.
And now they're like, OK, we can look back on Scripture.
And when you go to the New Testament, you see that the
apostles and disciples, they're like filled with the Spirit.
They now get it and they're like reiterating the things that
Jesus said in all the sin lists of Galatians and Ephesians and
Romans. It uses anger or wrath or malice
or these words as sins right next to some of what societies
calls as the heinous sins. We need Jesus to be saved.
From our sin and now we need Jesus to be.
Free from our anger. So that now we can start to live
lives that honor him. And not only as we go.
On into this passage with short time I have left.
Not only are we to be watchful and accountable for our own
anger issues, but Jesus takes it even further than that and tells
us we're supposed to be proactive in helping others, not
sin in anger towards us and that's the last thing is
reconciliation avoids anger in others.
Christians ought to not only get angry or to deal with their
anger, they are supposed to not tempt others to anger by sinful.
Actions that they do. To to Christians and non
Christians. And let me just tell you this.
A simple way to avoid conflict getting angry at one another is
don't do house projects together at home.
You know, a couple. Weeks ago my wife and I decided
to take this venture on staining cabinets and we thought it was
only going to be like a 2-3 day job.
You know, how hard could it be? Well, it took about two weeks.
And my wife did most of the work.
I did some of the taping off and the taking off of cupboards and
things like that. But she.
You know we, we. Had this type of stain that
wasn't really actually staying you know, it was somebody told
us that you could stain with this type of stain without
taking the full finish off and it didn't really work.
And we were like, you know, we were so trained through YouTube
that we thought we were going to be professionals.
And and so we put it on and it was wiping off and it was like,
OK, so we started out to lightly paint it on.
And it looks amazing. By the way, if you ever I come
over, my wife did a fantastic job.
She's she's so good at, at you just working hard and getting
projects done. But but so before the clear
coat, she tells me, can you go sand lightly, you know, before
we put the clear coat on? And I'm like, OK, yeah, I think
I know what lightly means, you know, and so I go down there and
I'm like, I'm like, you know, like this is light, right?
Like, and I'm scrubbing it too hard and, and by the way, we're
a week and 1/2 into this thought we were going to quit.
We were going to call professional in and be like, you
got to finish this job. We were almost done.
I rubbed most of the stain off everywhere and things got
heated, you know, because she thought she'd explained it
properly to me and, and, and I thought I heard properly.
And, and so we were both kind of offended at one another and we
needed some time away, some time apart.
And, but thankfully that the Lord has put it into our hearts
to know that we should be forgiving and, and seek
reconciliation. And, and that's what we did.
And it happened just in time for this sermon, so.
But let's go on to. What Jesus has to say about this
in the next couple of verses right here it says, so if you're
offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your
brother has something against you, leave your gift there
before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and
then come and offer your gift. What I believe is happening here
and in the next verses is that Jesus gives 2 illustrations to
his teaching. This is.
To the. Believer, believer relationship
inside the church or inside the home, if you're a believer.
Why? Because it uses that word
brother there and it's basically saying, and, and here's where
people again, they try to be too black and white with this type
of thing. It says if you're offering your
gift at your altar. So like if I'm at church and I
know right now that I'm angry with someone or someone's angry
at me because I did something, I need to leave worshipping God
and now I need to run home and try to make that right.
I don't think that that that's exactly what it's saying, but it
is kind of trying to get your attention.
Don't come and put your face on at church worshipping God,
accepting his forgiveness, basking in all of that wonderful
love that you get from the grace of Jesus Christ.
And then then yet you have this someone else that's miserable,
suffering, possibly tempted to sin because of anger, and maybe
you played a role in that. You should go seek
reconciliation. And then the next, the next.
One, come to terms quickly with your accuser while you're going
with him to the court. Let your accuser hand you over
to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in
prison. Truly, I say to you, you'll
never get out until you have paid the last penny.
I believe that this is talking about Christians relationships
with the unbelieving civil or secular society.
First of all, we shouldn't be doing things that should cause
us to be sued. OK, now I'm not like wronging
people. Now, I'm not talking about, you
know, standing on convictions and truth and not baking a cake
for someone. You have the right to do that,
to stand for your truth or for the truth, the only truth.
But we shouldn't be living out there in the world in such a way
that people can accuse us of evil and can accuse us of
angering them in ways that we wouldn't even do to other
people. And we should seek
reconciliation for the world as well, living, as we talked about
several weeks ago, light, salt and light to the world.
Do the right thing always. With people, watch your ways
among the outsiders, as the Bible says, for the times are
evil. But I want to close with this.
We mourn with those who are mourning the loss of the Tremont
police officers. Let's look at this senseless act
of violence as a major sin that must be avoided at all costs.
But let's not forget where. Murder originates from the heart
and it starts with the sin of anger and they are two separate
sins with different consequences on earth yes, yes, but Jesus
makes it clear that all who sin, whether physically or in the
heart, are guilty of the same eternal judgment so before we
dismiss the possibility of us being.
Like the worst of. Society, let us come to the Lord
and ask Him to help us to dig down to the root cause of the
sin of anger and ask Him to pluck it.
Pluck it out of us like the noxious weed that needs to be
doused with kills all. Till up the soil of our hearts
and plant a new seed of a flourishing plant that produces
the fruit of the Spirit. Lovejoy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. And if there's anything worth
killing, it's killing your sin. Romans 813.
Says this, if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but
if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you
will live. And one of my favorite authors
and Puritans wrote a book on this verse called Mortification
of Sin and he has a famous quote in there and it says be killing
sin or sin will be killing you. We have a duty as Christians to
be killing sin in our lives. And we do that by the power of.
The Holy Spirit. And start to walk.
With Him, our spiritual disciplines are meeting together
with one another, worshiping together on the Lord's Day,
holding each other accountable to these truths.
God's people will know through the preaching and the study of
his Word that there's a righteous anger and there's an
unrighteous kind. The latter is a serious sin that
Jesus is challenging here and speaking against.
But we must rely on the. Righteousness of Christ to
conform us to be like Him, never sinned when angry.
And there are some practical ways to calm down right in the
heat of the moment, and those can be helpful.
But I want you to know that those are only temporary.
So use those things, yes, but we also must get to the heart of
the matter. And Christians.
Strive to follow God's moral laws and Jesus's exposition of
them and this. Coupled with the holy.
Spirit in us will produce the results we need to kill our
anger problems. Will you pray with me, Father?
We thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, We thank you for your
word and revealing our desperation, our need for your
grace, your mercy through Jesus Christ, and thank you for those
of us who believed that you sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts.
So that we. Can actually do the things that
you've called us to do while. We're dead in our.
Spirits, as unbelievers, we cannot do that.
We cannot follow your ways, but you've empowered us to, and
we're grateful now to do this because we love you so.
Thank you Lord Jesus, I pray that you would touch the hearts
and the minds of all the people that needed to hear this today
and help us all be less. Angry in Jesus.
Name Amen.