 Today we look at chapter five here in Matthew verses 21 through 26. We're looking at the spirit of the law the law of Moses And you'll see what I mean in just a moment, but let's begin reading together at verse 21 I'll read to verse 26 and we'll get into our study Matthew chapter 5 beginning at verse 21 reading to verse 26 Jesus said you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause Shall be in danger of the judgment whoever says to his brother Raqqa Shall be in danger of the council, but whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift Agree with your adversary quickly while you are on the way with him Unless your adversary deliver you to the judge the judge hand you over to the officer and You be thrown into prison Assuredly I say to you you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny in verse 20 Jesus Christ made a statement. Let's use that verse as a Platform to move into the other verses because in verse 20 here in chapter 5 He had said this he said for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven When Jesus said that he was making a very strong statement he was saying My followers must exhibit greater righteousness than that of the scribes and that of the Pharisees and in saying that Jesus was slamming the door shut on what has been called works righteousness You see this statement that he was making would have completely shocked those who were listening to him on that day You see the scribes were the religious experts either with they were the teachers of the law of Moses The Pharisees were a small but very powerful and influential religious group and They were the bar that was used at that time to measure righteousness buying Now as mentioned the Pharisees were small numerically, but large when it came to influence Just the name Pharisee Gives to us insight and how they lived their lives the word Pharisee literally is translated one who separates himself And that's exactly what the Pharisees did They were known for keeping themselves pure they were known for staying away from those who were impure To become a Pharisee required that you would do certain things You would pledge yourself in the presence of three Pharisees to a strict adherence of levitical purity separation from ignorant and carelessly vulgar people The scrupulous payment of tithes the support of priests and a conscientious regard for vows and other people's property They attempted to cultivate a perfect heart that feared the very thought of sin The avoidance of sin springing from love for God the fulfillment of his commandments without expectation of reward and The avoidance of any impure thought or any act that may lead to sin in that lifestyle Resulted in their being regarded as extremely righteous people They were so respected that the ordinary people of their day knew that they would never be able to measure up to the righteousness of a scribe or Pharisee But amazingly the Lord Jesus Christ is telling his would-be followers that their righteousness must exceed The righteousness that was attributed to Pharisees So in the mind of his listeners the door would have immediately been shut to them Who amongst them could have a greater righteousness than that of a scribe that of a Pharisee? Well, what we're gonna be seeing here is that with all their efforts They were still falling short of what Jesus would say is true righteousness The result of their pursuit of righteousness would never satisfy the longing of a heart Because their works could never produce a satisfied heart that was pure But Jesus's grace could Remember in chapter 5 in verse 8 how he simply had said blessed are the pure in heart. They shall see God The Pharisees in reality were not pure in heart And thus they were not going to have a relationship with God because they were building their lives on Self-righteousness and not the righteousness that results from humility and seeking God for forgiveness Their righteousness was really an outward righteousness It was a show if you will, but it wasn't an inward condition the result of all of their disciplined efforts actually caused them to become proud and Self-righteous and that's possible by the way To be so religious that you become proud of being so religious. I had a guy very early in my Christian walk Whom I knew I was in my early 20s at the time. I believe his nickname was Lucky and I Remember he had unfortunately, he had a habit of boasting he had a You know an arrogance about him. I'm sorry to sound like I'm judging him But that that's truly how I was impressed by him He was always bragging about things he did for God and all and and it really was more arrogance than anything else And I was a young man and he was an old man at that time who's in his 40s Yeah, and I remember speaking to him on one occasion. I was about 22 years old 23 and I said to him, you know Pride and arrogance is something that the Lord Does not like God gives grace to the humble, but he opposes the proud and I'll never forget his response. He said Humble Humble he goes I am humble I'm the most humble man. I know And he didn't see that he didn't see how Interesting that is I mean I am the most he was proud of his humility. How is that possible? But he was and it's possible for us to get caught up with the outer trappings of Religiosity and to miss the most important thing which is the condition of the heart and that's what had happened with the Pharisees They wore the religion on the outside, but their hearts had not been recreated. They had not been cleansed Jesus uses Pharisees very often as examples of those who are self-righteous and one occasion in Luke chapter 18 For example in verses 9 through 14 Luke writes To some who are confident of their own righteousness and look down on everybody else Jesus told this parable Two men went up to the temple to pray when a Pharisee and the other attacks collector The Pharisees stood up and prayed about himself God I thank you that I am not like other men robbers Evil doers adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all that I get But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven But beat his breast and said God have mercy on me a sinner I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted Jesus quite often would make reference to the Pharisees because the Pharisees were regarded in society as a most extraordinarily religious people they were the standard they were the bar of excellence Now from the introduction of this sermon Jesus has been focusing on motivations of the heart because that's what God is most aware of What men are truly like in their minds and in their desires and God's concern is for what men should have in him and his concern is what they're pursuing and He wants to know what they treat he wants to reveal what we truly are without him But God's desire as it says in Psalm 51 6 is he says behold you desire truth in the inward parts It's easy for us to deceive ourselves into thinking that we're right in God's sight if we do all the right external things If we have the right religiosity about us, you will we'll be seeing this as we go through the Sermon on the mount how They would pray and they would fast and they would give the three external Demonstrations of being religious during the time of Christ and yet as Jesus will say so clearly But they do this to be seen by men It's easy to deceive ourselves into thinking that that we are right in the sight of God But Proverbs 16 verse 2 says it like this all the ways of men are clean in his own sight But the Lord Ways the motives Someone once said what you are in public will never blind God to what you are in private And that agrees with scripture Hebrews 4 13 nothing in all creation can hide from him Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done We think we can hide from God, but we're not I have a granddaughter my granddaughters Gonna be three years old and and she thinks that sometimes she can hide from me She thinks that she can go into the cupboard and find the gum and she can hide for me I have actually found her in my office under my desk With gum she loves gum and she's underneath the desk and I'll be saying where we're Stella And I'll go walking around the desk and there she is and rappers everywhere You know and she thinks she's hiding from me she'll come in she'll even come in and and oh Hi, Papa, and she'll hug me, but her eyes somewhere else is like okay. Where's the stash? And she'll go and she'll go get the gum we can do that We think that we can hide from God what we really are but the Bible says no everything is open Everything is exposed before the Lord. He sees it all and God searches out He searches out our heart and God also weighs out our motives in Jeremiah 17 9 and 10 Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful above all things beyond cure who can understand it I The Lord search the heart examine the mind to reward a man according to his conduct according to what his deeds deserve And that's why Paul would pray for us Paul would pray that the church would understand the grace of God Paul would pray that that we the church When we begin walking with the Lord that we would be careful to know that all that we are comes from him And it's not what I do that makes him love me It's that he chose to love me in spite of what I was prior to coming to faith in him. I was his enemy I was hostily opposed to him. I was not his friend I was opposed in every way and yet God loved me and sent his son Jesus to die on the cross That's how I got saved and now that I have a relationship with God He would be very careful to remind me that it's through grace that I stand and it's by faith that I was saved through the grace of God And thus I need to hold fast to him at all times And so he would tell the Ephesians in chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 That he and this is what he was praying for them that he that God would grant you according to the riches of his glory To be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and that you Would be rooted and grounded in love You see the good deeds of the Pharisees did not come from cleansed hearts They did not have the attributes of the Beatitudes and their motives were not genuinely pure Jesus will say in Matthew 23 5 All their works they do to be seen by men Now people in general all of us really have the tendency of using External measurements to determine what we think is good We can do the same thing when judging whether something is true or something's being blessed by God Even Christian ministers and ministries can be judged by that kind of standard The Apostle Paul was judged by people based on outer appearance now If you ever read any historic references to Paul or even some of the things that he said concerning himself in his writings You would discover that history records that the Apostle Paul was not an attractive man whatsoever history records that he had a Large crooked nose that he was slight in stature his eyes were bulgy. He was not an attractive man and when he was Writing to the Corinthians when you read and study second Corinthians You'll discover that Paul no less than 21 times in that book no less than 21 times in 13 chapters Defends himself against accusations and some of the accusations that came against the Apostle Paul by the Corinthian opponents Related to his appearance and The way that he spoke They said while he writes weighty letters, but in appearance. He's weak. He's timid He's cowardly and they would say things concerning him to the degree that in 2nd Corinthians 512 He said this he said we do not commend ourselves again to you But give you opportunity to boast on our behalf that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart You see God does not use outer appearance as his standard. He judges the motives of the person Six times in the following verses Jesus attacks the legalistic system that has replaced the word of God And he begins each rebuke by either saying you have heard or it has been said This phrase you have heard is what is called a rabbinical phrase it relates to the teaching of rabbis And so Jesus is utilizing their teaching to make it very clear And to make a very important distinction and the point that he's going to make and we'll see this is righteousness is a matter of the heart And not the externals only which is why we need God's grace And so he begins at verse 21 by saying it like this you have heard that it was said to those of old You shall not murder Now many of us were raised hearing the phrase thou shalt not kill And so there have been many arguments related to that while you're not to kill and some have argued in many ways concerning that You see that initially in Exodus chapter 20 verse 13. Thou shalt not kill is the sixth Commandment out of the ten commandments It's really a command against murder It's speaking of intentional killing it is not speaking of the utilization of capital punishment It is not speaking of something that can occur that can occur in an accidental death where I'm will say driving my car And and I accidentally collide with another car and somebody a passenger or driver in the other vehicle dies It's not speaking concerning that It's it's not speaking concerning warfare Because there are times and there is a just and a reasonable use of force in war It isn't speaking about a person Defending themselves against attack somebody has approached them as intending to do them physical harm and in the course of trying to protect Themselves they take the other person's life. It's not speaking about that nor is it speaking about you happening upon a crime and getting involved and Somehow through the course of events ending up taking the life of somebody as you were defending somebody else None of that applies to this. This is speaking concerning intentional killing and When Jesus is speaking about murder here in verse 21 and says you have heard that it was said to those of old You shall not murder he continues by saying what they're being taught and Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment when he does that he's pointing out something very basic You see in there saying that whoever murders will be in danger of judgment They would normally Cross-reference and use another scripture to bolster their teaching that scripture would have been Genesis chapter 9 verse 6 And Genesis 9 verse 6 says whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed For in the image of God he made man And so what they did is they took the scripture exodus 2013 They quoted it you shall not murder then they added Genesis 9 verse 6 as the explanatory note to that verse and we're teaching that and the point is that it would seem that The Pharisees really didn't go far enough in the teaching concerning this They saw murder as purely an external act. So they didn't go deep enough into this They didn't go to the root. They didn't point out the spiritual cause that Resulted in somebody murdering somebody else and because that's inadequate Jesus corrects their interpretation and that's why he says but I say to you now You'll see this in in a while when we get to a certain point in the study Where the people are gonna marvel at the methodology of Jesus because in his teaching style He spoke with authority and you're seeing his authority right now when he says but I say it to you during that day as it's true to this day when a teacher would teach the word of God very often they would Refer to a commentator or their source if you will So very often when I give a quote, you'll hear me say it has been said or whatever And I'm actually referencing another person who has made a comment and that's how the rabbis would would teach But not so with Jesus. You have heard it said by those of all or to those of old, but I say it to you Now what are you saying Jesus with your authority? Well, basically he's simply saying Resist beginnings now. What does that mean? Stop the train before it begins moving down the track What does that mean? I don't know. I just felt like saying it. No, what does that mean? Well in James chapter 1 verses 19 and 20 James said so then my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak Slow to wrath for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God Stop it. Nip it in the bud before it gets so serious that you end up taking a man's life That's basically what the Lord is speaking about there the beginning of an act of murder is sinful anger and hatred and that springs out of our human nature and So murder is an act of the heart and not of the hands alone Mark 721 says for from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders So why is this important for him to start out this way? Because this teaching destroys any self-righteousness that anybody can have You see the best of people in their hearts are in the same condition as the worst as Unflattering as this is it speaks of our sinful condition our sinful human nature The decisive seat of evil it has been said is not in social and political institutions But simply in the weakness and imperfection of the human soul itself God in Genesis 821 said in his heart the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth And so this activity that that can lead to murder is actually springing from an impure soul and The point the Lord is making is everyone has broken this commandment at one time or another Because in reality murder is simply hate that is ripened into deed Notice how he says in verse 22 whoever is angry with his brother without cause is in danger And he actually gives escalating degrees of anger and corresponding results penalties He speaks of being angry When he speaks of being angry with your brother without cause that word angry speaks of that brooding simmering anger It's that holding a grudge now now let's be theoretical because I know nobody in this room has ever held a grudge I realize that I'm speaking to people have never done that It's that that person injured me and I just can't get past it They have said something about me or done something and it has bothered me so much I just can't let it go and you brood over it you think about it And you don't let it go you mentally have grasped it and held fast to it It's a it's like in a cage in your mind and you will not open the the cage door to let it go It stays there. It's like a pet and before you know it you just brood over the same thing They injured me they injured me they injured me and it makes me so upset. It's holding a grudge Somebody once said this he said you know whenever I get into an argument with my wife she gets historical And his friend said you mean hysterical No historical she brings up everything I've done And and and it's possible isn't it isn't it possible for us to have a list of things that were done to us by somebody and And it injured us and we brood over it. We just think about it. We don't want to let it go Jesus said it begins there It begins when we don't release things that we should release and we just hold on to them and harbor them as a result of that We actually go into name calling that word rocker. We don't use a word like that We don't even use the word that has been described the word is to describe the word rocker the word rocker It's called it's empty headed and some have used the the the word blockhead And it's just it's just an insult because what happens is i'm now holding a grudge And before you know it I begin to just vent and I I begin to use some some words to describe this guy And then it goes to fool that word fool. There is actually escalating the word fool means stupid moronic It speaks of a godless fool and it gets to character assassination The lord is simply saying there are degrees of anger that lead to degrees of results that ultimately end went Unforgiven and you die in that condition You end up going to health because your heart is so impure That's a pretty strong thing, but it's true. The penalty is how far When you reject god's offer of forgiveness So jesus is revealing an increasing degree of seriousness from simmering anger You become enraged Which when unchecked Leads to physical activity even murder Now there's something that's an aside if you will but actually has some Some depth to it when you begin to consider it What's the problem with getting angry somebody bugs you you just let them know Or you say things about them or take it out on them later on what's the problem with that kind of anger Well anger actually is very destructive in many ways, but that kind of anger actually destroys relationships It destroys your relationship with god And it destroys relationship with other people You see true religion Produces love for one another not hatred and the lord jesus christ Would have us to know that self-righteous externalism Will never foster love for somebody else What it does it actually when i'm self-righteous it it produces in me A mentality of one upmanship if you will Because legalism when i'm trying to make myself look good on the outside always leads me To want to one up somebody else who might be also considered righteous And jesus Created a community And the community that he's creating is a community of brothers and sisters And here's the thing that's really important about that is this community called the church today This community Has been created With many purposes One of them being the purpose of loving One another In ephesians chapter four verses two and three paul said it like this. He said be humble and gentle Be patient with each other Make an allowance for each other's faults because of your love Always keep yourselves united in the holy spirit Find yourselves together with peace When paul was writing to the roman church in chapter 13 of the book of romans in verse 10 He simply said it like this. He said love does no harm to a neighbor Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law So when a person harbors a grudge You cannot truly worship god And so the way for us to be able to really worship god is through the act of reconciliation Notice what he said in verse 23 and 24 if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you Leave your gift there before the altar go your way First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift See reconciliation is the key to truly worshiping god in spirit and in truth My mom My mom was outspoken. Some of you perhaps knew my mom. She's gone home to be with the lord But mama was outspoken I remember on one occasion I was maybe seven years old or so We went to a store to purchase some shoes So mom took me into the store. It was in the evening. I still remember that and we walked into this shoe store and this good size shoe salesman got rude to my mom Just was rude to her. My mom wasn't the kind of woman you could get rude to She just wasn't that kind He got rude with her And my mom turns and looks at me. I still remember her doing that you wait here So she follows this guy he walked away and he went into this back room to check on some shoes or whatever And she followed after him Now me I followed after my mom was going to happen And the guy I still remember he was kneeling down and there were some shelves And he was pulling some shoes off of a shelf and my mom stood over him And she said to him something I've never forgotten just to tell you my mom was outspoken she said I don't appreciate the way that you spoke to me just now I'm going to go home and I'm going to tell my husband what you just did And she said to him my husband is short But he can jump real high That's what my mom He apologized He apologized. That was my mom. She was outspoken She was one of these people that you just couldn't say something to her without her having a quick response That was my mom. She had a fiery temper She got saved and god's doing a work in this woman's life But one day she's speaking to me and she says this and I was in my early 20s when she said this But I've never forgotten mama was speaking to me. She says david she goes. I love the ministry I love the ministry I love serving god. It's people. I can't stand And I laughed and I said mama people are the ministry You need to understand that You know and it's easy for us to like certain things and not to like the people who are involved in those things Well john in first john 420 said it like this He said if someone says I love god But hates a christian brother or a sister that person is a liar For if we don't love people as the people we can see how can we love god whom we haven't seen That's true If I say I love the invisible god, but I can't stand those whom he loves and I really don't have a relationship with him reconciliation It's all about love. It's all about the grace of god. It's all about forgiveness. It's all about letting it go It's all about just saying god use me and and work in me Fill me with your spirit and help me to let go of these things because my nature my inclination of nature I can want to get even I can simmer I can brood I can say things I can be vicious god. I don't want to go there I want to love you it takes um faith and The decision of the will takes a that willingness To let things go To move to where you're supposed to be to learn to love Instead of wanting to get even all the time Some of us Don't know how to love We're still learning I was 17 And decided to go see my girlfriend. I had a girlfriend at that time when I was in high school. Her name was terry I lived in norwalk. She lived in wittier. I climbed in my car drove from my house It was in the evening drove to wittier to go and see her it was a surprise visit I didn't tell her I was coming over to see her I pulled my car up into the front Parked there at the curb climbed out of the car began to walk up the driveway The garage was one of these garages that the driveway just drove straight into it. It was attached to the house in the front of the house and as I walked up I heard the door and I heard movement actually by the door in the front And suddenly there's terry standing there at the corner Well, I thought she was excited to see me. I was real thrilled Hi terry Hi, what are you doing here? So I just wanted to see I just wanted to say hi, you know, I wasn't doing anything decided to Drive and just to see you Oh And she's kind of awkward. I don't know why she's being awkward when The front door opens up and her father's standing there and you could see The light coming out of the front door though. I was on the side. I couldn't really see just the light I could see the light and then I hear this voice It's her father and and he says terry Make up your mind You've got scott here on the front porch and you got david there by the garage Which one is it going to be and I was stunned stunned And she's just mortified And I look at her with this Like you shot me look And I go into my car and I have to drive home And I'm broody. I'm angry. I'm stirred up all the way home. So by the time I get to the house I swing the door open. I step in dramatically saying I will never love again Ever and I start swearing using these real bad words Never I was so angry So betrayed and I was screaming. I'm going to kill him. I will kill him Mama says david, please don't and so the phone Rings and it's terry and she's And I'm going whimper whimper whimper and I I my mama speaks to me and I've never forgotten what she said She said to me love david never stop and don't be afraid of it It's the only thing that matters in life is love And if you at this age decide that you will never trust or care or love somebody Make it a huge mistake son And my mom said this to me. She said love until your heart breaks Love until your heart breaks I took her advice I took her advice Instead of carrying grudges And being angry at things people have done to you and I could give you a list of things that have been said about me over the years That are so unkind So many things so many ungracious things So many things if you choose to always Stir those things up Well, billy grams wife said it best She said every cat knows That some things Need to remain buried and that's true You just leave them alone. You take them before the lord And you say god, I will not become bitter I will not become bitter over these things I don't want to harbor grudges. I don't want to simmer in anger I want to release them into your hand because that's what believers do in Ephesians chapter four versus 30 through 32 Paul said do not grieve the holy spirit of god by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption Let all bitterness wrath anger Clamor and evil speaking be put away from you With all malice And be kind to one another tender hearted Forgiving one another just as god in christ forgave you Forgiveness That's something we learned through jesus christ God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us Even when we were in hostile opposition to him our minds were in constant Argumentation against him in his righteous standards When we were just his enemies he demonstrates to us his love even as sinners And he gave his son And so jesus would be pointing us and we'll be seeing this ultimately i'm just getting ahead But he'll be pointing us to that grace that he gives to us That enables us to be forgiving people He says in verses 23 and 24 if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you Leave your gift there before the altar go your way First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift agree with your adversary quickly While you're on the way with him unless your adversary deliver you to the judge The judge hand you over to the officer and you'll be thrown into prison Assuredly i say to you you will by no means get out of there till you have paid The last penny i was an assisting pastor the senior pastor for several months Was mocking and Hurting me i would come home and i would tell my wife marie the lord is moving me it's time to go And at that time marie thought that i was just overly sensitive She thought i was wanting to quit But in fact i had been the punching bag Every monday night at meetings for some time I was only 29 30 years old at the time 30 years old at the time I was still growing up i didn't know how to handle that and i would come home and i would tell marie I need to move on And she would say Intersweet and gentle way man up So i did I held fast every week i'd come back beaten and beaten and beaten emotionally Finally i told her i can't do this anymore and i began to weep at the house after one of the meetings I said i was a target again. This has been going on so long I can't do this anymore and what i had done is i had begun to instead of dealing with it with the pastor I began to speak to one of the guys there who was A friend of mine and and it was just not a proper thing to do I was simmering i was getting angry and now i was beginning to open up just like jesus said i shouldn't do That's what i was doing And marie finally said you have to do whatever you think you need to do And i had waited so she'd be on the same page with me Over this and when she finally said that the next week i go to the meeting and This time the senior pastor with the board and the board was made up of 12 of us He says before the board david you're not a pastor You're a counselor What you need to do is go back to school finish your degree We're going to reduce your salary by 50 percent. We're removing your ordination And you will be a church counselor, but you're not a pastor because you're not called to be a pastor And i still remember looking at him at that time saying there's only one thing i know That i'm called to do and that's to be a pastor, but it's obvious that it's not here Therefore i resigned my position i give you two weeks notice And the board that was there that day I Why are you gonna and i said i need to do that and so at first they began to argue but I said no it's time to resign one of the men his name was dan said I will not receive your resignation david Because i know you're called by god And i said i truly appreciate Your vote of confidence dan, but i am resigning and i will not remain here And so the board Took a vote the 10 Of the board members all agreed to receive my resignation dan Would not vote for it. He abstained or actually opposed it. He said nay They received my resignation I walked out the front door closed the door behind me dan stood next to me and Again i was 30 years old I looked into his eyes and i said it's all over and i began to weep like a baby And i remember just putting my head on his shoulder and just crying like a child It's over I went home. I told my wife I resigned And she shot me no she um She said let's see what god wants to do two weeks later. We planted this church That's how this church came to be But i had unresolved business Planted the church did our ministry a year went by the holy spirit awakened me one morning It's time to reconcile with the senior pastor. I called the church I said i'd like to speak to you. I spoke to him. I want to talk to you He said about what i said about this last year We need to speak He said let me see if i have time for you He made some time for me. I came in sat down with him It got very loud in that office He was yelling at me and i responded with anger back so loud that his new assistant came walking into the back to make sure We weren't killing each other. It was very loud in that's how that's how it came down and It calmed down Then we began to be honest And then we asked each other for forgiveness We prayed for one another I stood up to leave He hugged me. I hugged him in return I said i love him my brother. He said i love you too I walked out that door and never turned back and never looked back Because that's what reconciliation does That's what reconciliation does It can go from Vruiting anger to violence It does You have to nip it in the bud With the grace of god you can forgive With the grace of god you can release it. We'll see this i'll be teaching out of matthew and jesus speaks concerning debt collecting and forgiveness Because in reality the word forgive can very often be translated to release someone from a debt And somebody may owe me something and i'm gonna make them pay And i'm just gonna stay there and make sure that they pay that debt off When what i have to do is release them from that and let god do his work I stand ready should they ever come and say forgive me that i'm ready to forgive But if i've been brooding and simmering and angry and and gossiping and and it's been getting and escalating beyond and beyond Then i'm it's more destructive. It's destructive for me and my relationship with god and others It's bad with my relationship with that person And the lord says when you go to the altar and you bring your gift If you remember that your brother has ought against you go and be reconciled to that man When he speaks of this gift the gift was more more than likely what was called a free will offering It was given as an act of faith. It was a voluntary offering that was normally associated with gratitude to god So jesus says before you make this kind of offering examine your heart Unresolved conflict must be settled so that peace can exist in the family of god Do everything that you can to be resolved and reconciled with somebody else Because true worship is not built simply on gospel messages and singing and praying or even in the giving of our gifts It is built on relationships first with god and then with others To be healed We have to be courageous. We need to do the difficult thing Because open confession and forgiveness Is a pathway to reconciliation And james 516 says confess your faults one to another So if you have a problem, we do our best to reconcile And we can have peace And we can move on You see when jesus said agree with your adversary quickly the time for reconciliation As is true with salvation is always now It takes faith. It takes determination. It takes humility. It takes the power of the holy spirit for this to happen But it can And if you don't humble yourself and don't confess You don't have peace with god or anyone else And unrepentant sin is always dealt with If you don't repent And you're remaining your sin In the context of this passage If your righteousness is like the scribes and Pharisees, which is all external but not real And you've done your best to have an appearance of being a righteous person, but you're not right with god And you die in that condition Then ultimately you will stay In the condition of being judged Unrepentance sin is always dealt with In first john 3 14 and 15 it says we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brother in He who does not love his brother abides in death Whoever hates his brother is a murderer And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him Cain was of the evil one and he rose up and slew his brother able So the point is either we're going to be like What jesus would have us to be born again with the new nature and loving and forgiving Or we're really going to retain that nature that was the kind of nature cane had Which was an unrepentant nature that led him To kill his own brother The grace of god Is what we all need If we tried to be righteous as the Pharisees were Jesus said your righteousness needs to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees But how's that possible and it's possible by the grace of god and not by man's fleshly self efforts If god is speaking to your heart today, and you've been trying to improve yourself you can't The way to improvement is to die to yourself Say god be merciful to me. I am a sinner. I need your help forgive me first And as you've forgiven me teach me to forgive others so that I might really be your child I want to be your child