Look at verse 21. We dealt with
this a little bit last week, but let's put it in its context.
It says in verse 21, Christ speaking, he says, you've heard that it
was said by them of old, those who taught them under the old
covenant, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall
be in danger of the judgment. And they taught right. That was
right. That was one of the commandments.
Murder is sin. To commit the act of murder is
sin and deserves capital punishment. And those to whom God imputes
sin will be in danger of eternal judgment. So, you know, I told
you last week a lot of scholars, they say, well, that's just talking
about man's court like the Sanhedrin. It could be talking about that.
It does deserve capital punishment. But it's also common for people
to think that to gain man's approval or man's acquittal is also to
gain God's approval and God's acquittal. We're going to see
that in chapter six, you know, when he talks about, do not your
alms before men, that kind of thing. To be seen of men. Why do people want to be seen
of men? Because they think that's their
witness. And they want the approval of men because they think the
approval of men automatically means God's approval. And what
Christ is teaching, that's not necessarily so. And obviously
he's saying here, because you don't commit the act of murder,
does that leave you righteous in God's sight? Does that recommend
you unto God as far as a right relationship with God? And look
at verse 22. He says, but I say unto you that
whosoever is angry with his brother without a call shall be in danger
of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his
brother Rekha, which is a term of contempt and hatred, It's
almost like desiring somebody to be killed. Shall be in danger
of the council. All right? Now, you could not
be brought up before the Sanhedrin for being angry enough to kill
somebody. Just like in our courts, if you
go out and murder somebody, you'll be arrested and tried and convicted
if they prove it. But now if you're sitting there
thinking about somebody you don't like or hate, they can't come
in here and arrest you for that. So the council here, you know,
somebody said, well, he's talking about the Sanhedrin, well, how
could they do that? You know, they had some real meticulous
laws that they had concocted, but what this is talking about,
what the Lord's talking about is you gotta relate that to the
judgment of God. And he says, but whosoever shall
say thou fool, that's another term of contempt, worthless person,
you might say, or vain fellow in your concordance, shall be
in danger of hellfire. That's Gehenna, that's what he's
talking about. Well, here's the issue. First of all, as I said last
week, Christ is not giving them something new here, as some scholars
say. Well, under the old covenant,
it was wrong to commit the act of murder, but it was not wrong
to think it. Well, the Old Covenant law, Christ
summarized the Old Covenant law how? In two laws. Love God perfectly and love your
neighbor as yourself. In other words, it wasn't just
enough even under the Old Covenant as far as the achieving of righteousness. It wasn't enough under the Old
Covenant just to do your neighbor no harm. that you were to have
the greatest good in mind for your neighbor. Now again, they
couldn't bring you up on charges and convict you and administer
capital punishment for thinking about it, but the law was still
there as a standard of righteousness, and righteousness is perfect
satisfaction to the law and the justice of God. That's what the
law was given. And why was the law given to
sinners? To show us our sin. to show them
their need of salvation by the grace of God. The law said thou
shalt not covet. Covetousness was an act of the
heart, the mind, the affections, and the will. You could covet
something and not move a muscle. You could covet something and
not harm anybody physically. So covetousness was forbidden.
So this is not a new law. This is a correction. that told
them that, look, just because you haven't committed the act
of murder and then later on the act of adultery does not make
you righteous before God. You're still a sinner. And you
need a righteousness you cannot produce. Well, how righteous
must I be? Well, the law of God reaches
the heart. And we read in Romans chapter 7 how Paul, when he was
deceived in pharisaism and legalism, how he thought he was spiritually
alive, saved, without the law. But when the Holy Spirit showed
him the reality of the law that reaches the heart, he said, sin
revived, which I thought the sin problem was taken care of,
he said. I thought sins were purged and put away and I didn't
have to worry about that anymore. Sin revived and I died. That's being slain by the law
to show that if God were to judge me based upon my best efforts
to keep the law, it would be eternal death. To show that if
God were to charge me with sin, I would be damned forever. What
David say, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand?
That's the way it is. Now, that speaks to a person
who's never committed the act of murder, but who's had the
thought, that rekkah, that thou fool, the anger. And believe
it or not, there's somebody, there's some people, Who fool
themselves into thinking, well, I've never been that angry with
a person. Well, okay, I doubt that. Very seriously. But here's the thing. What about
covetousness? Have you ever coveted anything?
Have you ever had a thought of lust? I mean, the law is going
to bind sinners, one way or another, to see, if they see the reality
of the law, to show that they have no righteousness before
God. And that if we're going to be
righteousness, it must be by God's grace through Jesus Christ
crucified, raised from the dead. Well, look at verse 23. He says, therefore thou bring
thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother
hath aught against thee, a matter against you. Leave there thy
gift before the altar, go thy way, first be reconciled to thy
brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary
quickly. Whilst thou art in the way with
him, that is why you're not parted yet, he says, lest at any time
the adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge deliver
thee to the officer and thou be cast into prison, verily I
say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till
thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. That satisfaction to
the law. Well, what is all that about?
He's talking about bringing your gift to the altar. And really
what he's saying here is that the attitude and motive is just
as important as the act. You remember Christ said one
time, he said, these people draw to me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. So the heart was an issue. And
here's the thing too, before I get into the details of this
part here, one of the things that people are deceived about
by nature is the issue of what is sin and what is righteousness. You know, all the arguments and
the debates that go on today about sin and righteousness,
Christ made sin, us made the righteousness of God. I believe
that 90% of that could be settled if people would just do studies
in the Bible on what is sin and what is righteousness. Christ
taught that, that's a problem for all of us by nature, and
Christ taught that to his disciples. You know, most people, when they
think of sin, They think of something substantive, like it's something,
like this book. This book was sin. I could pick
it up here and put it over there. They talk about the transference
of sin. What is sin? Well, sin's a lot
of things as far as the words in the scripture. For example,
sin is, the most common word in the New Testament for sin
is the word that means missing the mark. For all have sinned. and come short of the glory of
God. When it says Christ was made sin, that's the word missing
the mark. All right? It means you didn't
hit the target. It means you didn't reach the
goal. It means you fall short. So here's a guy trying to do
the best he can do to keep the law. I can tell you one thing
about him. He may be moral, he may be religious,
he may be sincere, but he still misses the mark. What's the mark? Righteousness. Well, what's the
standard of righteousness? Christ. Acts 17, 31, God's gonna
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
appointed, in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that
he hath raised him from the dead. How righteous must we be? We
gotta be as righteous as Christ. Now, not only did Christ commit
no murder, He never thought of murder. Somebody said, well,
he got angry. Yes, he got angry at false religion,
false religious practices that dishonored his father. But that
was righteous indignation, pure, righteous, sinless indignation.
That's what Christ expressed when he drove the money changers
out of the temple. But he never had a thought of
sin, a motive of sin, or a goal of sin. It was always perfect
righteousness in deed and in heart. Another word for sin is
transgression of the law, breaking the law. And Christ says here,
you know, well now, you've heard Him say, you shall not kill. If you kill, you've broken the
law. But I say unto you, the law goes further than that. If
you think it, you're transgressing the law. Another word for sin
is iniquity. That means it doesn't balance
out. Remember Christ said to them, we're going to look at
that later on in Matthew 7, those who come to Him at judgment pleading
their works, Does not equal righteousness, depart from me ye that work iniquity. They said we preached in his
name. Nothing sinful about that, but it will not make you righteous.
It's iniquity if you think it does. And then another word for
sin is debt. Sin runs up a debt. Now, we know
that in human courts, you know, somebody says, here's a guy who
commits a crime. They put him in prison to do
what? To pay his debt to society. Well, sin runs up a debt to God,
you see. And that's why the doctrine of
imputation is so important. Christ, as our surety in the
everlasting covenant of grace before the foundation of world,
took the sin debt of his people. It was charged to him. He became
our surety. And in time, He came as the substitute
to pay the debt. And that's what He did on the
cross. He paid our debt in full. He paid the ransom price. He
redeemed us so that God's law and justice is satisfied. That's
called propitiation. Sin is not a substance. Look
over at Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. This is the passage here where
he called the Pharisees hypocrites. He said in verse eight of Matthew
15, listen to this, he said, this people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. Now if the law did not forbid
sins of thought, why would he say that? As long as you draw
nigh, why wouldn't he say, well, as long as you draw nigh to me
with your lips, and as long as you honor me with your mouth
and you go through the motions, well, that's okay, because that's
all the law requires. But no, he said, their heart's
far from me. And he says in verse nine, but
in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. Now look at verse 10. He called the multitude, he said
unto them, hear and understand, not that which goeth into the
mouth defiles the man, but that which cometh out of the mouth,
this defiles the man. And he says, then came his disciples,
said unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? And he answered and said, verse
13, every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall
be rooted up, let him alone. They're blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch. Then answered Peter and said
unto him, declare unto us this parable. He says, and Jesus said,
are you also yet without understanding? Do you not yet understand that
whatsoever entereth at the mouth goeth into the belly, cast out
into the draft? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart. And they defile a
man, for out of the heart Proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things
which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defiles
not a man. Sin is not a problem that can
be cured from the outside in. That's what he's saying. Sin
is not an issue of things going into us, it's what comes out
of our heart. That's a basic principle of Christianity. And so, taste not, touch not,
handle not, will not help us. That's what he's saying. Paul
called that worldly. We'll go back to Matthew 5. Now,
in light of all that, what is all this about when he says,
if you bring your gift to the altar? In your lesson, I've got there
several points of concern here that Christ seeks to correct
because of the error of the Pharisees. And again, he's teaching against
what they, you know, remember he told them in Matthew 23, he
said, now you're real careful to pay your tithe, but you neglect
the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and all
of that. Well, they had taught that as
long as you go through the ceremonies, bring your gifts, your offerings,
really, and I'm not going to say they said this explicitly,
but really it doesn't matter what you do, how you think, how
you feel, what your attitude is, just bring your gift. That's
what they taught. Be careful. It's kind of like
you all have heard of the heretical Catholic teaching of confession
to a priest. And I'll guarantee you now, the
Catholics will not put it this way, but this is what it kind
of fosters, that you can do anything you want to do throughout the
week as long as you go to Mass and you confess to that priest.
Now that's the attitude, and that's the attitude the Pharisees
had. As long as you do this, go through the motions, bring
your gift, pray for forgiveness, all of that, then you're okay.
But Christ says, no, that's not the way the law works. That's
not the way a right relationship with God, God looks on the, man
looks on the outward appearance. Man is impressed with the motions
of ceremony and religion, but God looks on the heart. And if we're true citizens of
the kingdom of heaven, he's given us a new heart. And let me tell
you something about the new heart. The only way the new heart can
be cleansed is by the blood of Jesus Christ. Tithing, ceremonies
will not do it. Bringing gifts to the altar,
coming down the aisle, confessing to a preacher or a priest will
not cleanse your heart, if it's a new heart. The only thing that'll
do it is the blood of Jesus Christ. The only thing that'll clear
the conscience that's been purged is His righteousness alone. You
won't be satisfied, you won't settle, you won't have peace
based on anything else. But Christ's righteousness imputed
alone, his blood alone, religion, man's religion will not help
you. That's the way it is in the kingdom
of heaven. And so this is what makes us as believers concerned
not only about the actions of sin, but the thoughts of sin. It really, it keeps us in a state
of continual conviction. So Christ, when he says, when
he states this, he's telling them, look, he said, you need
to be concerned with the weightier matters of the law. He says,
if your brother has something against you, going to the altar
and bringing your offer, he's not gonna clear that up, not
gonna clear you of that guilt. You need to go make things right
with your brother. You know what he's saying there?
In other words, unless you have the right perfection of thought
and attitude and deed, you cannot be made righteous by the law. And he tells them that. He says,
look at verse 26, very last saying to thee, thou shalt by no means
come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
In other words, it has to be settled perfectly. Now, somebody
might argue, so, well, we can do that. Well, I mean, you know,
we can pay men what we owe them. We can do that. But I'll tell
you what we can't do. We can't love our neighbors ourselves. We can't settle the issue between
us and God based upon our loving our brethren because we're sinners. So that's the statement that
he makes. What the Pharisees have taught
you concerning religious ceremonies and offerings will not clear
up the matter. There's only one thing that would
clear up the matter and make you righteous according to your
works, and that is if you loved your neighbor perfectly. And
he gives that example because that was a common teaching. among
the Pharisees. Well, look down at verse 27.
He says, You've heard that it was said by them of old, 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 sin's already there. And you know something? Here's
the thing about it. A man or woman can go through
their life and never commit the act of murder. and never commit
the physical act of adultery. But you can't help it in the
thought. You can't stop it in the thought. Somebody does something to you
in a fit of anger, I'll put it to you this way, what if somebody
does something to your children? Or your grandchildren? What's
your first thought? Either kill them or harm them
in some way, These things just pop into our minds. You're sitting
there listening to the gospel. You're reading scripture. Have
you ever done that and a sinful thought pop into your head? Did
you plan that this morning? No. Because it's just there. It's just part of our sinful
human nature. And we can't help it. Boy, that's
a convicting thought. What does that tell me? It tells
me that there's no righteousness in me. And it tells me that my
only righteousness is Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the
dead. Don't you think? Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputes righteousness without works. What a message! The Pharisees didn't have that
message. Oh, they said, it doesn't matter,
just go bring your gift to the altar. You say, well, I've got this
matter against a brother. And it's not settled. Don't worry
about that, just bring your gift to the altar. Go to church, confess,
rededicate, you know, whatever. Christ said, no, if you're going
to keep the righteousness of the law, you go settle the matter.
Quickly! Later on, he's going to talk
about enemies. He's going to talk about those who sue you.
He said, they sue you, they want your coat. Well, give them your
inner coat too. Perfection. That's what he's talking about.
Can man achieve it? No. Can you try? Yeah, you can try. But with all
sin and come short of the glory of God. Should we try? Yes. But that's not gonna make us
righteous. That's the issue. Look at verse 29. He says, and if thy right eye
offend thee, pluck it out. Boy, how many commentators you've
read on this one now. And cast it from thee, for it's
profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy
right hand offend thee, cut it off, cast it from thee. For it's
profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." Now, you
and I both know that Christ is not speaking literally here.
He's speaking symbolically. He's not giving us leave to mutilate
our bodies in order to attain righteousness. First of all,
He Himself has told us already that mutilation of our bodies
will not achieve righteousness. You say, well, I see something
with my right eye and it causes me to sin. I'll pluck it out. What are you going to do? You'll
do the same with your left eye. And if you pluck it out too,
you still have those mental problems called memories that keep popping
in your mind. You cut off the right hand, you'll
do it with the left hand. You see, mutilation, you've seen
this. You've seen people who will actually
put their bodies under pain, like whipping themselves, thinking
that's gonna take care of sin. Those Catholic monks that used
to do that. I mean, man, they'd take a cat of nine tail and beat
their backs, you know. But here's the thing, that won't
take care of the problem. What's Christ teaching him there?
All right, here's the thing. How far should you go if you're
seeking righteousness by your works? How far should you go?
Go to the nth degree. And if physical mutilation could
take care of the problem, that's how far you should go. In other
words, if I'm trying to attain righteousness before God, by
my works and plucking out my right eye could achieve that,
then I should do it. But it won't. It won't do it. Sin is something that we cannot
get rid of by outward remedies. You remember when Christ dealt
with the rich young man in Matthew 19 who said, Lord, what good
thing must I do to attain eternal life, to inherit eternal life?
And the Lord said, well, why do you call me good? There's
none good but God. And of course, that's what he
was teaching the man is if you don't see Christ as God, then
don't call him good. I was writing an article for
a future bulletin about good people. Now, we all know people
in society, in our community, that we in the world look at
and we say, well, he's a good man, she's a good woman. What
we're talking about, hopefully what we're talking about, is
we're talking about how they compare to other men and in the
eyes of men. But when it comes to God, the
Bible says there's none good, no not one. How good must you
be? How righteous must you be? How
can you attain it? We're talking about that message,
how righteousness comes. What comes by Jesus Christ? By
His cross work. His obedience unto death as the
surety and substitute of His people. How is it attained for
sinners? By imputation. God imputes that
righteousness to us. He charges it to our account.
Having charged our sins to Christ's account, He imputes righteousness.
How do we experience it? By God-given faith, it comes
to our knowledge. We come to know about it. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. So the issue here, the point
of all this is this. What Christ is saying, if you're
pursuing righteousness by your works, then basically anything
that hinders you from yielding perfect obedience to God ought
to be cut off and cut out. But that won't work. Go ahead,
poke out. Don't poke out your right eye.
But it won't cure the problem, will it? There's only one cure
for this problem of sin, and that's righteousness attained
by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior by the grace of God. Okay.