Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew, I'm sorry, Psalm 90. First go to Psalm 90. Psalm 90, our text will be Matthew
5, We'll start here in Psalm 90. Last Monday morning, it was Teacher
Appreciation Day at Sophie's school. So I took Sophie somewhere
before school and we got her to teach her something. Because of that, I took a different
route to school that I'm not used to taking. It's one that
I'm not familiar with and much longer way. Anyway, I just
wasn't used to going that way. The road that we were on was
45 miles per hour. That was the speed limit on that
road, 45 miles per hour. As I was headed down the road,
I came up on two police officers sitting in each direction just
like this. And as my nature is and initial reaction is, as soon
as I saw those police officers, I let off of my accelerator and
I looked at my speedometer. That's just what I do. That's
my admission of guilt. But I saw these two police officers
and I let off. I looked at my speedometer and
I was doing 43 miles per hour. So I passed the police officers. And as soon as I did, one of
them turned on his blue lights, spun around and pulled me over. And he came up to my window and
he said, do you know why I pulled you over? And I said, no, sir,
I don't. He said, you just drove through
a school zone. And he said, this road is 45
miles per hour. But he said at this particular
time of day, he goes to 25 miles per hour. And I said, well, I'm terribly
sorry. I didn't know. I'm not used to going this way.
It's a different route. I just didn't realize I was in
a school zone. So he took my license. He checked
me out. He gave me a warning. He didn't
give me a ticket. He gave me a warning and he let
me go. All right. Now, a side note,
let me leave the point of where I'm going with this. Here's a
side note. That was an unjust judgment. Okay. That was an unjust judgment. I respect police officers like
you cannot imagine. Some people don't, but I do.
I have such a high respect for their office that they've been
given. And this was a nice man. I really, I appreciated him. Um, I was very grateful for the
fact that he didn't give me a ticket. I was, I, I said, thank you. That's very kind. Thank you.
But here's the fact of the matter. That was an unjust judgment while
he had my license back there. I was sitting in the seat thinking
I deserve a ticket. I was gearing myself up for it.
Get ready. I was doing 43 and a 25. And I deserve a ticket, all right? But in the name of doing good,
and in the name of being kind, showing
kindness in doing good, that police officer made an unjust
judgment concerning me. Now, because that's what we sinners
do, we are centers and this is how we view things. We think
what he did was kind and good. All right. And because that's
how we view things, we take something that's evil. And view it as being
good. That's kind. He was kind and
good and generous and all of those things, because that's
how we view. Unjustice. We all naturally think
that that's how God is because that's how we are. It makes sense
to us that that's how God is. That's God being kind and being
good. Here's the thing we need to realize.
That's not how God is at all. That's not how he is at all. God does not make unjust judgments. He does not. He will not. And he cannot. You know, it's,
it's pretty dangerous when you say God can't do something, we're
talking about God. Well, according to God, he cannot
clear the guilty. And it's because he's Holy. We, we talk about Holy God, the
Holy Bible, all this, what Holy means is just, it means shall
not the judge of the earth do right. That's what Holy means.
Cannot sin. Holy. All right. Now that's the side note. Okay. To come back on track here, I
did not know that I had broken the law. I did not know. I really believe
me. There've been plenty of times
when I did, but in this moment, I did not know that I had broken
the law, but here's the thing that was irrelevant. It didn't matter that I was totally
ignorant of the fact. I mean, just ignorant of the
fact that I had broken the law. Totally irrelevant. The law knew
that I had broken it. I just ignorantly drove on past
and boom, blue lights. The law knew. And whether I was aware of it
or not, either way, I was guilty. Whether I was aware of it or
not, either way, I was guilty. Now, the reason I'm telling you
all that is because Psalm 90 verse eight says, thou hast set our iniquities
before thee. Our secret sins in the light
of thy countenance. Even the sins that we have no
idea that we have committed. All of them are set before the
light of his countenance. All of them are set right in
front of his face. And we cannot imagine how many
sins we commit on a regular basis that we have no idea we're committing
them. No idea. And our ignorance of them is
irrelevant. It's irrelevant. Even though
we don't know we're committing them, the law knows. How many things have we done?
Think about this. And I don't want to take too
long on this because I've got to get to a certain place, but
just think about this. How many things have we done?
Like speeding, running stop signs. running red lights. How many
things have we done when no police officers were around? You know,
you do it and it's like, I don't see anybody. I don't
see anything. We're good. Okay. How many things have we
done when no officers were around and the law didn't know we did
it? physically on this earth. Okay. The law had no idea that
we did it. All right. How many times has
the law here been ignorant of our sin? That's not how it works
with God. That's just not how it works
with God. Turn with me to Psalm 139. Psalm 139 verse one, it says,
Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my
down sitting and my uprising. You know every time I sit down
and stand up. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. That means before I ever think
it. You know, the scripture says
that in glory, before we ever ask him a question, he'll tell
us the answer. He knows our thought before we think it. Verse three,
thou compasses to my path and my lying down and art acquainted
with all my ways. For there's not a word in my
tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. You know
every word I say. You know everything that comes
out of my mouth. You know everything that comes
out of my heart, whether it makes it to my mouth or not. Verse
five, thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand
upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high, I cannot attain unto
it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? Where could I go or be where
you would not see me? Verse eight, if I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say
surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and
the light are both alike to thee." It doesn't matter. David said, you see all of me
at all times in all ways. Down in verse 23, he said, search
me, Oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and
see if there'd be any wicked way in me and lead me in the
way everlasting. Now, what I want us to get ahold
of in this Bible study is not the sin that we know we're committing. But the sin that we don't know
we're committing. That's what I want us to dwell
on for a second, for a reason, the sin that we don't know that
we're committing the depth of our secret sins that are going
to have to be answered for whether we realize we're doing it or
not. Okay. Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter five, this is our text. We've been going through Matthew.
We've spent quite a bit of time already in Matthew five. We've
really broken down these verses. I want to look at a large section
of verses today. The rest of them, what our Lord
is dealing with here is the sin that we commit. and the sin that
is committed against us. For today's Bible study, we're
gonna read the verses that talk about the sins we commit, all
right? Verse 21, our Lord said, you
have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt
not kill. And whosoever shall be in danger,
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. He
said, you know that if you physically take someone's life, you're a
murderer. You know that the law says thou
shalt not kill. But he said, let me tell you
something that you don't know. All right. He said, this is a
sin that you're committing that you have no idea you're committing
it. He said, if you get angry with
somebody without cause, then you, number one, are sinning,
and you are murdering that person in your heart, and God sees it,
and that's how God sees that anger, and that's how it is,
because that's what we are. You know, you tell somebody,
you talk about sin, the scripture is so full of sin. Why do we
talk about sin so much? Why so much sin? Because that's
all that we are. And the scripture deals with
it, and deals with it, and deals with it. But before the Lord
opens someone to it and breaks them to it, you tell them the
Word of God says, I'm a sinner and you're a sinner. And they
go, no, I'm not. That's sin. That anger. Don't you call me a sinner. That's
murder of the heart. That's sin. And that's what our
Lord said, that's without cause. When God says we are sinners,
us to get mad is without cause. And he said, you've murdered
in the heart and you're a sinner. People have no idea that. All
of us, we naturally, we just don't realize that. Verse 21,
you've heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt
not kill, but 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, Rekha, that means you're
a vain fellow, you're a vain person. shall be in danger of
the council, but whosoever shall say thou fool." Have you ever
thought or said that somebody's a fool? Man, he's a fool. All
right, whoever says that, the end of verse 22 says, shall be
in danger of hell fire. Verse 23, 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
while 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 till thou hast paid
the uttermost farthing." Christ was raised from the dead because
he paid the uttermost farthing. risen with him, risen from the
dead, risen to life evermore is because he paid the uttermost
farthing. He paid the debt in full. Those
who are outside of Christ don't have anything to pay God with.
And for that reason, they die never to live again. They'll
never be able to pay the uttermost farthing. That's the glory of
dying with Christ. He paid the debt in full. Verse
27, He said, You 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. The same thing applies to women
toward men. And there's not a soul in this
room who's innocent of that. There's just not. Verse 29, and
if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from
thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into
hell. He said, if your right eye has lusted, he's talking
about looking on a woman and lust, he said, pluck it out and
get rid of it. It's better for one member to perish than for
the whole body to fall. Verse 30, if thy right hand offend
thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable
for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy
whole body should be cast into hell." So what verse 31 says, 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,
and that goes both ways, saving for the cause of being unfaithful.
He calls it her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her
that is divorce committed adultery. All right. So here's what he
just said. Lust is adultery. And he said, fornication is adultery. And he said, divorce is adultery. And he said, getting remarried
is adultery. This thing runs deep. I mean, this thing runs deep
and excuses no one. It excuses no one. Verse 33. Again, you have heard that it
hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear
thyself. What that means is do not say,
I promise. Okay. For the future, I swear
now shall not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord
thine oath. He's saying, just do it. Don't
forswear when the opportunity arise for whatever it is you
need to do, just do it. Verse 34, but I say unto you,
swear not at all, neither by heaven for it's God's throne.
nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem,
for it's the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear
by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be
yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of
evil. He's saying to make a promise
of the future is to say that you can control the outcome of
the future. That's what we're saying. I swear,
I promise, I will control the outcome of the future. And Christ
is saying, no, you won't. You can't, you're not God. So
don't make that promise. in the place of God. James said,
we don't even know what's gonna take place tomorrow. He said,
what is our life? It's a vapor. It's here for a
minute and it vanishes away. He said, for that, we ought to
say, if the Lord will, that we shall live. If he even lets us
live to tomorrow, we will do this or do that. So here's what
I want us to understand. Even a promise is sin against
God. Do we see this? Anybody who says,
I promise, I promise, that's a sin against God. Our sin runs
so much deeper than we realize or could ever even imagine. And the glory of what that means
is now, this is what I had to get to. I'm not going to talk
about your sin and you're a center and such on and so forth. You
are, and I am, but if we don't get to this, well, you talk about
a, you talk about a sad day. Here's the glory of what this
means. This is the glory of what this
means. It means what Christ redeemed
us from runs so much deeper than we could ever possibly realize
or ever even imagine. What his blood ran down into
and covered. It could never be fathomed what
He did for us. It could not be fathomed. We
are amazed at His salvation of us just because of the things
we know about. You know, it's like, oh, I did
that and I'm so glad He paid for that. Yeah, and I did that. We're amazed just at the things
we know about. If we only knew something of
the depth of our secret sins, then we'd have a better understanding
of what Romans 5, verse 6 says. Let me quote that to you. This
is what it says. It says, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. The ungodly,
that's who he died for. But that's what I want us to
get a hold of. Our sin runs so much deeper than we could possibly
imagine. Therefore, the blood of Christ
The redemption of the blood of Christ, it runs so deep. It runs so much deeper than we
could ever imagine. There's a song that says, dark
the stain that soiled man's nature, long the distance that he fell,
far removed from hope and heaven into deep despair and hell. but there was a fountain opened
and the blood of God's own Son purifies the soul and reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. Praise the Lord for full salvation. God still reigns upon His throne
and I know the blood still reaches deeper than the stain has gone. deeper than the stain has gone.
With this announcement that our Lord has given to us, He is telling
us and instructing us on the depth of our secret sins. But
with that announcement, He has given us right here the remedy
for all of that secret sin. I just read a lot of verses.
I read a lot of different examples. Each one of them deserves its
own message. But what I want to do is I want to see the big
picture of what he's saying about this secret sin. And I want to
see the big picture of what he's saying on this great remedy that
we can't even fathom. So let me show it to you here
and then we'll be done. Verses 21 and 22 said, this is
what the Lord said. He said, your sin is the problem.
You being angry with your brother, that's the problem. You're the
problem. Verses 23 to 26, he said, here's the remedy. All
right, and this is what Christ did for us. I'm gonna tell you what, sinners
who get ahold of their sin, when God reveals it for the first
time, it's a stark, oh no. I apply to that category. I apply
to that category. I apply to that category. I apply
to that category. Wait a minute. All right. Now, may God reveal the remedy,
the remedy. When we hear this, you think,
well, then what hope do we have? Like the apostle said, well,
Lord, then who, who can be saved here? It is here. It is right
here. Verse 23. This is what Christ did for us.
He's talking about. being angry with your brother,
and, therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, in there
rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee. If you
remember that your brother has ought against you, something
against you, not you against your brother. But if you remember
that your brother is enmity against you, and that's what we were. We had no right to be, it was
without cause. but we were at enmity against
Christ. What did he do? Verse 24, he
said, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother
and then come and offer thy gift. He left the glory where he was
at the altar of God. And he came to us where we were
And He reconciled us to Himself by His own blood. And then He
offered His gift of reconciliation up to God. This Word is gonna
constantly remind us that we are nothing but wrong and Christ
is nothing but right. We did all the wrong, He did
all the right. All right, now, verses 27 and
28, this is what He said. Your sin is the problem. All
right, you're lusting, you're committing. This is the problem,
right? Verses 29 and 30, he said, here's
the remedy. This is what Christ did for us
because of our sin, verse 29. He said, if thy right eye offend
thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. He made himself to be our right
eye. Does that make sense? He became
us. He traded places with us. The right hand of the Holy God
made himself to be the right eye. The right hand of God became
the right eye. And we're about to see the right
hand of sinful man. And he made himself to be cast
away for the sake of his people. Verse 29, if thy right eye offend
thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is profitable
for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that the
whole body should be cast into hell. And he said, if thy right
hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. And that's
what Christ did for us. He was cut off for the sake of
his people. He cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? It was for this reason right
here, verse 30. If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off
and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one
of thy members should perish, and not that the whole body should
be cast into hell. Turn with me, this is it, I promise. Turn to John 11. You're not supposed to promise. I'm convicted. All right, John
11, this right here is the story of Lazarus and that goes from
verse 1 to verse 46. Now picking up with verse 47. Then gathered the chief priests
and the Pharisees a council and said, what do we for this man
do with many miracles?" They're speaking of the Lord. If we let
him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans
shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one
of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year,
said unto them, Know ye nothing at all, nor consider that it
is expedient for us that one man should die for the people,
and that the whole nation perish not? And this spake he not of
himself, But being high priest that year, he prophesied that
Jesus should die for that nation and not for that nation only,
but that also he should gather together in one the children
of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth, they
took counsel together for to put him to death. We are the
sin. But thank God Christ is the remedy
for our sin. You can't get around it. We're
sinners. But Christ is the remedy for
our sin. And that doesn't give us a license
to sin, you know, shout just because Christ put away our sin.
Does that make us want to give in and dive into sin? God forbid. David said, we read Psalm 139.
He said, search me, see if there's a wicked way in me and get it
out of me. But thank God we have the comfort
of knowing that where our sin has abounded, knowingly and unknowingly,
Christ's grace has much more abounded, much more. May He abound that to us. All
right, you're dismissed.