The main standing for the reading of the Word, it's a good to see you in the house of the Lord. It's a beautiful, beautiful morning. And you're all welcome, especially if you're investing with us, we're delighted to have visitors each Sunday in our church. And invite you all to make sure and fill out the little blue friendship habits in the few, usually on the left-hand side before you leave. And also, carry your bulletin with you. Make note of all the things that are coming up as the women's retreat next week in. We have cerebral events. We have a classical guitar concert this afternoon. At four o'clock, there are things there you need to notice that are right upon us in this coming week. Now let's direct our attention to the Word of God. Gospel of Matthew, sermon on the Mount. Jesus speaking entirely saying, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel. And whoever says, you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So, if you are offering your gift at the altar and they 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. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest 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 will never get out until you've paid the last penny. The Word of the Lord. Oh man, you may be seated. Jesus has just told his hearers, he's teaching his disciples but the multitude have gathered to hear Jesus' teach. And he's just said to his disciples that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, that you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Everybody knew the scribes and the Pharisees had an excellent righteousness. In fact, their righteousness was on display in the marketplace and in the temple and in everyday life so that people could see the righteousness of these men, who were experts in the law and who sought to live a life of holiness, separated, that's what the word Pharisee means. It means a separated one, separated from the common ordinary people and how that life that is pleasing to God. The whole law code of the Old Testament had repeatedly said, the Lord said, be holy for I am holy. And that was all they were attempting to do was to fulfill the expectation of the Old Covenant and that is to be righteous, to be holy, to be separated to God, to be upright. And Jesus said, unless you have a righteousness that is better than that, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Last week we saw that that righteousness that is better than that is a righteousness that's provided by Jesus Christ himself in that he fulfilled obeyed and completed and manifested the perfect obedience to the law God in his own life. And thereby lived a righteous life for us but not stopping there he went to the cross and bore the penalty of the law in his own body that is death on the cross that he might bear the penalty of our disobedience and our lack of righteousness. So if you have Christ, you have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scrubs and the Pharisees. Isn't that wonderful to know that we have been saved by the grace of God in providing a substitute Jesus Christ? And since in his active obedience upon this earth living an obedient life, he lived the life of obedience that we cannot live in our sin. And he died the death that we are due but he died in our place thereby freeing us, partening us, enabling us to be justified and accounted righteous in the sight of God. Well that about covers it, we are off the hook, aren't we? There is nothing else we need to do. He's covered it in life, he's covered it in death, his perfect righteousness is ours, we cannot never, we can never have the righteousness that he had. We can never live up to that. But don't worry about it, you don't have to. God's changed the standard. He said all bets are off, the law has been done away with, don't worry about it anymore. Christ looked to Christ and Christ alone. Real good strong gospel preaching sometimes can be misunderstood and misapplied in our hearts. We can get to the point where we reach what's called antinomianism, where we have a position against the law of God that we set aside the law of God. Since Christ has taken care of the law of God, has fulfilled it in his obedience and he's fulfilled it in his life and in his death. We think the law of God has been abrogated and it has been an old that he no longer applies. And some people read some statements of the Apostle Paul and others that way and live a life that they call just a life of spirit-led freedom. Now, Christian life is a life of spirit-led freedom. But the liberty that we have received is not liberty from the obligations of the moral law of God. The freedom that we've gotten is the freedom from the shackles and the thralldom of sin that just completely incapacitates us in our ability to keep God's law and to do anything God calls for at all. What are the reasons that the Pharisees' righteousness did not live up to the standard it should have lived up to is that they had developed a hermeneutic that is a way of interpreting the Scripture. That sort of brought the laws down to where they were kind of available. It had moved the law of God down a few notches to where it was achievable now in the part of sinful man. And a person could keep the law, feel like he had kept it perfectly and thereby have a certain self-righteousness and a certain self-justification and self-satisfaction about that. And that's simply because they misunderstood the deep spiritual importance of the law of the law of God. The law is spiritual, Paul said. Jesus said you have heard it said by those of old. Jesus, if you don't hear anything else here this, Jesus is not contrasting the law of Moses with a new law of the law of Jesus. No, he's not saying you've heard of it old, Moses, but I say unto you, I Jesus say unto you and then give another interpretation or another law. Jesus is contrasting the interpretation of Moses with what Jesus knows to be Moses true intent. Jesus is going to have controversies with these Pharisees all the way through his ministry. And one of the things he says to them later on in his ministry is, you do err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. If you would have known Moses, you would know me for he spoke of me. The law of Moses is the law of Jesus. When Moses got the commandments on the mountain it took them down to the people. He had been inspired by the spirit of God, the very finger of God had written the commandments. And Jesus, the third, the second person of the triune God was involved in the law giving. Jesus understood the law not just from its original intent, but through his active obedience. If you're going to listen to an interpreter of Moses, it's Christ we need to listen to and not necessarily the Pharisees or anyone who are today who is of the Phariseical persuasion. So that's the contrast. Not between Moses and Christ. It's between Moses as interpreted by the Pharisees and Moses as understood by Christ. And you can see it just in the way Jesus cites the commandments. You have heard it said of old, you shall not murder. That's the commandment. I shall not kill. I shall do no murder. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. That little next phrase is not in the deck of law, is it? But it is in the book of Leviticus. And it is a prescription there that sets up the use of Moses law as the civil law of the theocracy. So what they have done is they've taken the law of Moses, they shall not kill with all of its deep moral and spiritual implications in meaning. And they have reduced it to simply the civil code, the civil law. And so if you do offend anyone who does murder will be liable to judgment. You'll go before the courts. You'll be brought before the magistrate. You'll be accused and tried for murder. That's all very true. So if you have never committed murder, if you have never committed murder and been accused and indicted and tried and convicted, then you've kept this law perfectly. It's all there is to it. That's the law. As they said, they had reduced it to the civil law of murder. So if you were not a murderer, you had kept this commandment in its entirety. You can feel pretty good about yourself. You can stand to pray in the temple as the Pharisee did. Lord, I thank you that I'm not like this publicant. And you can cite your righteousness before God because you've never murdered anybody. I doubt if there's anyone in this room that's ever murdered anybody. So we're all perfectly righteous by fair circle standards. Let's sing a hymn and go home. But that's just not it. Jesus said, Jesus said there's just so much more to that commandment than just the civil law of murder. And if you want to really know what it is, he has an escalation of things that is entailed in this particular command. But I say to you, the contrast, everyone who is angry with his brother is liable to judgment. If you just have anger, you are liable to the arrangement and the indictment and the conviction and the punishment of the judgment. If you just simply in your heart harbor that particular attitude, that mindset toward your brother, you are guilty. And then he escalates it a little bit more. He says, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel. An insult is to say to your brother, you worthless fellow. You, it's derision, it's disdain, it's to demean. It's beyond just insult. It really is holding your brother in that contempt, in the in contempt. Whoever does that will be liable to the counsel. That's different. The counsel is not the magistrate of the civil law. The counsel is the Sanhedrin. These are the keepers of Israel's spiritual life, the 70 superior elders that constitute a Supreme Court of Israel. Now we've moved into the area of the religious life of the people. Then he escalates it again. Whoever says, you fool, this is the insult just the side of the striking of the fatal blow upon the brother. This is the one that so demeans and so reduces his brother's worth to where he is, just as though he were an animal. You fool will be liable to the hell of fire. Now the judgment is taken out of the hands of the magistrates, out of the hands of the Sanhedrin and is put into the hands of the judge of all the earth. Because only the judge of all the earth, the righteous judge, God himself can consign a person to the hell of fire. You see what Jesus has done? Jesus has certainly moved the penalties higher and he has made the prescription even more narrow. Who among us can say, I am free from ever saying to my brother, you worthless fellow, who of us can ever say that we're free from ever looking at someone with disdain and disgust, anger, insult, derision, hatred. It's interesting that Jesus example says if you're offering your gift at the altar and they remember that your brother, where in the Bible do we find two brothers at the altar offering gifts? I take you back to Genesis, Genesis chapter 4. And Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord and again she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground and in the course of time Cain brought to the Lord and offering of the fruit of the ground, comes Cain to worship, comes Cain to the altar, comes Cain to appear before the Lord, to honor the Lord, to worship the Lord. Righteous upright, godly, good, worshiping Cain, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions, comes younger brother Abel to the altar, to worship, to offer sacrifice before the Lord. Two brothers worshiping the Lord, bringing their sacrifice. Now the text here doesn't tell us anything other than this. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. Look if Hebrews tells us that Abel by faith offered a more excellent sacrifice than did Cain. Without getting too bogged down into the nature of the sacrifice, one of them being the produce of the seed, the other being the produce of the flock, one of them being the blood sacrifice, the other not being a blood sacrifice. One offering represented the work, the sweat of the face, the tilling and the work that went into his own offering. Cain's offering was an offering of his works, Abel's offering was an offering of just observing the phenomenon of God in watching the lambs. But for some reason God had more regard for Abel's sacrifice and Hebrews tells us it drives to the heart, it was by faith, by faith. Abel came with a humility and a faith before God offering a blood sacrifice. Cain came before the Lord with the works of his hands and probably a certain pride and satisfaction in his abundance of what he could bring. But notice the reaction, this is what I want us to catch and then we're done. Cain was very angry and his face fell, something is going on in Cain's heart. Cain, the first born, Cain, the productive, Cain, the upright, something is going on in his heart and says he's angry. He feels he's been slighted, he feels that he has been underestimated, he has insulted. And he says and his face fell. I think that indicates to us that there's a certain hurt in Cain, a certain embarrassment, a certain deeper, deeper feeling and the Lord comes to minister to Cain. Don't miss this in the Bible. And the Lord said to Cain, the Lord did not leave Cain in his anger, his bitterness, his misery, in the warptness of his soul, in the dark, disgusting depression of his mood, the Lord came to Cain. And this is how the conversation went. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If Cain could at that moment have given a good, insightful and honest confession to the Lord, so I'll tell you why I'm angry. I'm angry. It's my little brother. And I'm angry, Lord, at you. And I'm angry and if he could have listed and understood his heart about his anger, he would have been on the road to repentance. In fact, that's what the Lord lays out before him. If you do well, will you not be accepted? The Lord is ministering and pleading with Cain to do it right. If you come in faith, if you offer the acceptable sacrifice, if it's not beyond what you can do, if you will do it, will you not be accepted? Why this anger and why this hostility and this bitterness toward your brother and toward me? If you do well, will you not be accepted? Oh, that's the common to me, all you that laborer have your laden and I will give you rest in the Old Testament. That's the Lord opening the invitation. But if you do not do well, your sin is crouching at the door and its desire is against you, it's to get you. Wouldn't it be wonderful to hear the Lord himself preach to you a sermon against Cain? What would your response be if the Lord himself came to you and asked you, why are you hurt? Why are you angry? Why are you in distraught? Why are you in this feeling of conflict and hostility within your soul? What's going on in your heart? Lord, ask these questions back then. He asked Cain's father on one occasion, where are you? Adam, where are you? Those are the questions that we need to answer for the Lord. Where are you? Why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? Then he gives him the clear warning. He says, if, and here's the probation, here's the choice, if you do not do well, if you do not work through it, if you do not come to terms with it, if you do not repent of it, if you do not forsake it, if you do not have some kind of handle on this in your heart, sin is just crouching at the door. Sin is waiting to spring upon you. Sin is waiting to destroy you. It's desire is against you, but the Lord says, you must rule over it. Imagine the Lord preaching a sermon to us, telling us that we must overcome sin, that sin is something that is very real in our lives, and it's got us inside our hearts, and it's bubbling and seething there, and we're just on the verge of doing something horrible, but we must rule over it. At this point, Cain had not murdered Abel, but I am telling you, he had a heart for it. He was angry, he was bitter, and he would not listen to the restraining voice of God. He would not even see in his mind the other option of doing well and being accepted. I don't know how long it appeared a time it was, I don't know if it was a matter of hours or days or ever how long it was, but Cain never, never came to the place in his heart where he did serious business with God. He never stepped up to the choice that God gave him. He never moved to the place of individual responsibility. And Jesus says, as he closed this passage, you need to do business now and in a hurry, own your way to the courthouse along with your accuser, settle the case, wrap it up, get it done, don't wait on the judge to issue a verdict. That's what God is calling us to do. He's calling us to take care of that sin while it is in our hearts, while it is anger and bitterness, while it is ranker, while it is all of those seizing emotions that will work themselves out in that sin, in that horrible violet act. And Jesus is trying to tell us, he's trying to tell us that our issues are not in our civil conduct and in our behavior in front of others. We all get by okay in that area. It is our heart where we have to do business. Sin, even this morning, even in our heart is crouching, waiting to seize us and we've got to learn to rule over it. We've got to call upon God, we've got to seek His help, we've got to find His Spirit, we have to find some way. It is the Spirit of God that enables us to keep the law of God, Paul says, in Romans. And that is what our burden is to see what Christ is getting at. That's the deeper import of the law. The law goes to our hearts, to our attitudes. That's where we've got to do business with God. Why are you angry? Why is your face falling? Don't you know if you do well, but if you find yourself seized by the sin enslaved by the sin, overwrought by the sin, it's going to be terrible for your life. It's going to be terrible for your heart. Start at work, continue at work, in the recesses of your soul. It's where the law goes. The law of God is a lamp and a light that searches our heart and searches our soul, our conscience.