Sermon On The Mount - Part 5

Peace be with you. Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I've been blessed by the singing and and the opening and and blessed just to be present with all you again. Well, I want to continue in the Sermon on the Mount here and go to the next the next verses we have recorded here that Jesus talked about which have a lot to do with how we feel toward our brother. Why don't we all stand and we'll read these next few verses and and pray. Starting in verse 21 here of chapter 5 in Matthew he says, You have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court and whoever says to his brother you good for nothing shall be guilty before the supreme court and whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Therefore if you present your offering at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you leave your offering there before the altar and go first and be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven we thank you for this opportunity to be here with brothers and sisters and children and we thank you for these words these instructions that you've given us through your dear son about relating to our brother and the relationship we should have with our brothers and I pray Lord that as we explore these verses today that you help us to have understanding and to convict us of all evil and and to teach us to be more more like you and more and more conformed to your image. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. I don't know if other people do this or not but I do a lot of wondering sometimes. Sometimes when I'm somewhere where I can just sit and watch people especially groups of people or or I'm just in town where there's lots of people going about. I wonder a lot of things. There's all these people they're doing this or that they're coming some are coming some are going some move quickly others move slowly and I don't know any of them none of them know me right and and I I just I sometimes I'll just think about these people and I'll wonder I'll try to put myself in their shoes and I wonder like what what are they thinking right now I wonder how their life was or how their life is at home I wonder how their circumstances were growing up I wonder what their goals are in life I wonder what kind of events happened that shaped their lives to make them who they are now I wonder if these people think about the consequences of their choices I wonder if they ever stop to wonder if there's more to life than what they than what they have or what they think I wonder if they ever think about dying and then sometimes I wonder if I would be them would I be like them or would they be like me I wonder and then sometimes I'll wonder if if other people ever wonder the same thing about me that I wonder about them but often oftentimes when I just when I when I think about when I just watch people a lot of people that I don't know and I don't really have any reason to like I just don't know them I I can't see an apparent um I can't see the apparent value in in in their life that that I still know is there it it stirs something within me like I I uh I just think like there's all these people and I'm just seeing a really small amount of them there's all these people and God made them all um he notices them every bit as much as he notices me what's God's purpose with all these people what's his plan none of them are an accident each has a soul that's as valuable as mine and who am I but a drop in the bucket all these people's lives are as important to them as mine is to me their friends and their goals and their desires are as important to them as mine are to me and I consider my life very important I consider my life very valuable when someone says my name my head jerks up if people are talking a bit about me I'd like to know what they're talking about if someone sends me a personal message I'm real interested in it if I send someone a personal message I'd like to know what they think about what I said but the thing of it is all these people think the same way about themselves it's humbling it's humbling to realize that I'm I'm not extra special I'm not extra important um I was fearfully and wonderfully made but not any more than any any of the other seven billion people in the world they were all knit together in their mother's womb and their mother was just as special as mine and God has a purpose for giving them sunshine and rain for allowing their lungs to breathe air and their hearts to pump blood these people's worth isn't so easily evident to me but they are just as valuable to God as I am when God made humanity he made them in his own image and I think one of the reasons God doesn't want us to make images of him is because he has already made images of himself you know people people make idols or images of whatever they perceive whatever they perceive that gives them security and purpose they'll they'll whatever they perceive that is um is is the source of of uh the meaning and reason for their existence and they'll make they'll make a graven image of this thing and they'll call it an idol and they consider this thing sacred and they worship this thing and and if someone uh if someone doesn't regard this thing as sacred he's considered ungodly if someone speaks an evil word against this idol he's considered a blasphemer if someone uh destroys the idol if someone demolishes it or or does away with it he's he's worthy of guilt of capital punishment that's how bad that is now God wants his people to have nothing to do with this graven image business nothing to do with this this graven images that are supposed to represent God and to worship and to worship it he wants us to have nothing to do with that he has already made representatives of himself in the form of a human being and he made them in his image and he does however want us to consider these image bearers of himself as sacred and valuable and to not destroy them in Genesis 9 way early on when God made this covenant with Noah after the flood God said whoever sheds man's blood by man's blood shall it by man shall his blood be shed because I made man in God's image and if you can imagine if you can imagine the terror the horror the unthinkable atrocity that a pagan or a heathen would feel if someone if someone spoke against or destroyed this thing that he thinks represents the very uh the very reason for his existence if you can think how what what emotion arises within this person when this happens uh that that is how bad it is if if we think ill or we speak evil or we destroy another human being and of course it's worse worse because because we know that that these idols are nothing we know uh that that the the God who made us is the real God and so but but if you can think if you can try to put yourself in the uh in in the shoes of a pagan who really really believes that this this image that he has here is the representation of the maker of himself then it's then we can start understanding why he has these why it arouses these feelings within him if somebody speaks against it um unlike these graven images that people behold with sacred awe these image bearers of the real God sometimes offend us and they sometimes rub us the wrong way and they sometimes do injustices to us they sometimes just really deeply hurt our feelings and we consider them worth less than ourselves and within us an emotion starts arousing that's called anger and we become angry with that person and whether we speak it or not whether we act on it or not something within us desires this person to be gone out from away from our presence and out of our minds this feeling or emotion that can well up in us toward our brother is so common and so prevalent in us as humans that the first brother that ever set foot upon the earth saw a need to get rid of his one and only brother Cain and Abel the first two brothers they brought these sacrifices before the Lord and I'm I'm inclined to believe that Cain's heart was not right toward his brother before they ever brought this sacrifice to the Lord and therefore God accepted the sacrifice of Cain and Abel and he did not accept the sacrifice of Cain and people within all of us maybe to some varying degrees but I think with a when within all of man there is a deep deep longing to be accepted and and to not be accepted is really really hurtful and so so when when Cain realized that God accepted Abel's sacrifice and not mine then he became very angry and his countenance fell and right right then and there at at that point before there was any bloodshed God addressed this thing as a problem and he said Cain why are you angry and why is your countenance fallen if you do well you'll be accepted but if you don't do well or because you didn't do well sin lies at the door and it it desires to have you but you must rule over it and so Cain goes out to talk with Abel and this would probably have been the right step for him to do to take if his heart toward Abel had changed but it didn't and he didn't rule over that desire that came lurking at his door but rather he let that desire rule over him and he rose up and he murdered his brother anyone from any tribe kindred or tongue who hears this story knows that what Cain did was wrong it was wrong it is a sin worthy of judgment and condemnation nearly all civilizations consider murdering your fellow citizen a crime a crime that puts you on the most wanted list a crime that has officers hunting you down a crime that makes you liable in the highest courts in God's covenant with Noah he had already said it really early on he that sheds man's blood should receive this capital punishment and we go forward many more centuries and God gives the 10 commandments there at Mount Sinai and the sixth commandment is thou shall not murder but now here's Jesus who came to lay the axe at the root of the tree and he's here on the mountain and he's giving his first sermon to the people as the new king of the new kingdom of the new creation that's been promised and he says you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder and whoever murders whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court but i say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court and whoever says to his brother you good for nothing shall be guilty before the supreme court and whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go to the fiery hell in other words Jesus is saying in this new nation if you are angry with your brother if you consider him worthless and say insulting things to him you're guilty as a murderer it is unacceptable in this new nation if you do this you will be cast into the fiery hell and that is a pretty weighty punch with Jesus being unrealistic was he being impossible no he was doing what he so often did he's like let's go way back to the beginning to how it was meant to be and let's deal with the problem at its very core at its very root let's let's let's get there and that's what he's doing here God came to Cain before there was any bloodshed before before there were any insults hurled while while there was still only an emotion that that the only result so far had been that his countenance had fallen and at that point God comes to Cain and he gives him this choice and he says you do well you will be accepted but if you don't there's a desire lurking at the door that will rule over you and it will make you do things you never intended to do anger is a powerful emotion it kills people it turns children to rebels it disintegrates marriages it makes wars and it divides churches there's nothing wrong with having strong emotional feelings we can't necessarily control what emotion we feel in a given circumstance and I'll talk a little more about that later but in in this new covenant in this new creation where we are re-established Jesus is re-establishing his people to be the rulers over creation and remember what did he say when did he say the kingdom is coming now it's at hand he said so so in this new creation uh that we are in right now he wants us to be the rulers over our desires this is where Adam and Eve failed when they saw the fruit and they saw that it was desirous to have they had a choice they could have ruled over that desire and listened to what God said or they could let that desire rule them which is exactly what they did and in and the next and their children that's exactly what Cain did he let that desire rule over him and it plummeted the whole humanity into this whole realm of darkness and beastly activity beastly works and beastly sins until there came Jesus the son of man a son of man the son of man who conquered this evil reign of sin and Jesus ruled over his desires he was also tempted as we are and yet without sin and so can we but Jesus didn't merely come to uh to show us how to to live um with stricter discipline so that we remember he he raises the standard quite a bit he raises the standard that was already that that most people already couldn't get to and he raises that standard higher and he's not he's not saying uh he's not coming here merely to tell us how to discipline our flesh harder so that we can get there when he uses language when the scriptures use language like i will put into them a new heart and i will write my law upon their heart he's talking about something more than that he he is coming to totally reorganize and to reshuffle our whole value system and our desires and the way we think and the way we reason and the way we feel this creates a a dynamic that we have to reckon with and i i don't i this could be a message in itself i don't want to get into it to great to a great extent because it'll take me away from from the main text that we're we have here today but if we try to live the new covenant life merely by strictly disciplining ourselves we will usually feel defeated but this this does not mean this does not mean what what we sometimes get get get the impression of is that people people want to say or testify that oh no i became a new creature and all my desires changed and i no longer desire to sin beware of those testimonies just beware if if if if you find yourself battling with sin if you find a desire rising up within you that that you know is not from god don't necessarily mean that that means you haven't been converted or born again or it means you're still here it means you still have flesh it means that that exactly what the scriptures say that this flesh that we have must be crucified daily and the reason it has to be is because we'll never get done battling against these sins if if you ever uh uh if if if you never need to battle against the desires to do wrong it means one of two things either you've passed from this life or gone to the next or you just totally don't have an a proper understanding of what sin is we could we could talk a long time on that but i want to i want to talk about anger and some of its results its effects in proverbs in proverbs 16 32 it says he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who takes the city we not only give an account for our deeds we also give an account for our words and our thoughts john the apostle in his epistles said it really matter-of-factly when he said everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and we know that no murderer has eternal life that's pretty straightforward and pretty blunt and it might be easy for us to think that well we don't hate our brother or we don't get angry with our brother or sister because we think of anger as getting all red in the face and raising our voice and screaming but let's let's really look at what jesus said here he goes on after he says that he who commits murder shall be liable to the court he says i say unto you sorry whoever is angry is liable at the court and then he says whoever says to his brother you good for nothing shall be guilty before the supreme court and whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell i do not think that jesus is saying that these particular these and if you read it in the king james it'll say he that says to his brother raka shall be guilty uh and he that says you fool shall be shall shall be guilty of hell um uh i don't think jesus is is saying that these particular words are are uh are what's so evil although i think we should forbid we should abstain from saying them uh but but i think what he's saying is that even these almost mild insults that we give to people are unacceptable they're unacceptable when we call someone a fool when we call someone a worthless one we're hating our brother even that kind of insulting thing is unacceptable in the kingdom of god john chrysostom said the word raka is not an expression of great disrespect rather it is one of minor contempt or a minor affront on the part of the speaker when we greek speakers give orders to our servants or any subordinate person and we say away with you or you go tell a certain person but those who speak the syriac language say raka using raka instead of you yet god the lover of man roots out even the least of faults considering us to behave to one another in a fitting manner with due respect exactly which words are being used is not what matters the most it's the attitude of disrespect that we would show to our fellow man whether it's you know hey dude are you you fool are you idiot all these things are unacceptable when we show that kind of contempt for our brother we demonstrate that we're not fit for the kingdom of god we're speaking evil against a sacred bearer of god's image and we're exalting ourself above our brother no one is good for nothing or worthless if jesus gave his blood his priceless blood to purchase someone what does that mean it means that person is of great value i'd encourage all of us to beware of myself included to beware of the casual language our society around us uses when i read when i read history when i read letters that were written to each other from long ago i i marvel at the at the uh at the respectful language that was used that that that treated and and and esteemed people with dignity and maybe perhaps it can be overdone um but i i think i think this kind of language that gets used in our day is and and and i believe somebody can probably grow up and this is all he was taught and he might he might use this language because it's what he what he grew up with and not necessarily be disrespectful and yet we should realize that this kind of language this this this dude and this um um all those kind of words are like they are the product of a generation of people who have who have just lost the level of dignity and respect that they should have for their human for for their fellow humans when we start viewing anger and bitterness and malice like jesus did here we started realizing that all of us have a beast lurking at our door and probably all of us have at one point or another opened the door to him according to jesus the standard that jesus sets here it's no longer this i'd say there's probably a very small percent of the people of the population that would um that would ever get so angry with someone who offended them that they they would pull out their gun or their knife or pick up a club and and beat the guy to death a pretty small percent of people would actually do that and and but jesus is saying it's no longer just this real small percent of people who are guilty of capital punishment but it's all the people who are angry with their brother and say insulting things to them that's enough to make us realize that we should all fall on our faces and we all need to become poor in spirit and we all ought to mourn and be meek and hunger for righteousness and be merciful and have our hearts purified and become a peacemaker i think i think when the when the weight the depth of the things that jesus taught in the remainder of the sermon on the mount when they grip our hearts it will it will help us to never get too far away from the beatitudes that he starts with in ephesians 4 verses 26 and 27 paul says be angry and sin not let not the sun go down on your wrath neither give place to the devil you might wonder about that be angry and sin not and i i said earlier that i i that we can't necessarily control our emotions entirely now we can we can we can train our emotions and we ought to train our emotions um and yet and yet um circumstances will happen but that we we don't necessarily have control of what what kind of emotion affects us let me give you an example so consider um imagine this this uh on the american frontier there's a pioneer family a man his wife his children living way out in the middle of nowhere and and this man has to leave uh he has to leave to go somewhere it's going to take him a week or 10 days until he gets back he has to go through the woods and over the mountains and over the rivers and and so he leaves his wife and his children there and he goes on this errand and now he's on his way back and he's coming he's coming close to home and he's he's he's excited and he he he's been gone so long and he longs for his wife and his children and he has this he has this love and this emotion of joy he's he's on the last stretch of the journey he'll be home in an hour and he he has all this emotion in him of love and joy and and suddenly uh not far behind him he hears the outbreak of a of a whole pack of wolves howling do you think he is capable of just maintaining this loving joyful emotion no he'll have shivers running up and down his spine he'll be dreadfully afraid um he and he can't and there's nothing wrong with it he he can't help that okay so so that's how emotions work and really that's why we should never we should never base our decisions or our our our actions on our emotions because that's exactly what can happen to him okay anger is an emotion and something can happen to us uh where where where where this emotion starts rising up within us and if i don't think that that's wrong i think in fact if i understand god right i think his preference of a man is one who would have that emotion in him something something there are things that can happen that will fill him with indignation but he rules over it he controls it and that's what paul means when he says be angry and the first thing he says is sin not and and the godly man when he feels this emotion rising up the first warning that comes to his mind is i gotta be careful i'm very susceptible to sinning right now and and when he feels this his first his first um his first uh thing is i gotta be careful i can't sin and what paul follows up by saying is don't let the sun go down on your wrath deal with this thing don't let it get more than one day old because what will happen if you do it'll give place for the devil sometimes anger when we we have an emotion when we respond emotionally to anger sometimes we just lash out but not always sometimes we just let it fester inside of us and we don't deal with it either but we just keep it inside here and and we let the sun go down and we let days go by and we we create this little spot where the devil can get his foot on and this thing festers and it grows and it even changes forms uh uh just just as if just as if we got a wound or a sore on our skin and if we don't properly take care of it that place is super susceptible to an infection and if we don't take care of that infection the the flies are going to lay eggs in there and it's going to fill up with maggots and it's going to stink and it's going to it's it's going to be ugly and it's going to be dreadfully stinky and poisonous uh that's that's what can happen with anger when it's not dealed with dealt with uh resentment rises up and this wound becomes a fertile ground for bitterness anger that's not dealt with can go through this process and it changes forms the anger turns sour and into resentment from there it turns into internal murmuring from there it turns into blame patterns and then into self-pity and we start considering ourselves a victim and that no one understands the situation and anyone that doesn't agree with me must be against me and in a host of subtle ways we try to control how people think about us and the person that we're angry with it's the gall of bitterness and it's just as nauseous as that infection full of maggots amazingly almost everyone can see it except the person that has it there are very very very few people in fact i i personally don't know if i've met a one who has admitted i am a bitter person i am full of bitterness i've met people full of bitterness but i don't know that i've ever met somebody that admitted it if you don't mind me quoting jordan peterson i recently heard him say if you're embittered you become vengeful and cruel inevitably and then you make everything that's made you worse worse in turn for others and there's no bottom to that um a couple verses in james james chapter 1 19 and 20 say this you know my beloved brethren but everyone must be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of god we go over to chapter 3 verses 13 to 18 he says who among you is wise and understanding let him show by his good behavior his deeds and gentleness of wisdom but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambitions in your heart do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth this wisdom is not that which comes down from above but it is earthly natural and demonic for where set for jealousy and selfish ambitions exist there is disorder and every evil thing but the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle reasonable full of mercy and good fruits unwavering without hypocrisy and the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace make peace with your brother this does not come naturally the natural man recoils at the idea of opening himself up to someone to just get hurt all over again but neither does the natural man perceive the things of the spirit it's so much easier to just pray about it but jesus addresses that as a problem if we go back here to matthew 5 he says in verse 23 and 24 therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you leave your offering there before the altar and go first and be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offering so god god was pleased and he even commanded that the people bring gifts to the altar not not because he wanted a gift not because he needed bulls and rams and but but he he wanted them to bring offerings because it was a sacrifice on their part and showed that they remembered the lord god but we learned through the prophets that it it became obvious that god has no desire for gifts and sacrifices from people who disobey him and can't get along with their brothers the prophet isaiah in his first chapter says hear the words of the lord you rulers of sodom give ear to the law of our god you people of gomorrah what is this multitude of your sacrifices to me says the lord i am full of the burned offerings of rams and the fat of lambs i do not desire the blood of bulls and he goats when you come to appear before me who required these things from your hands to tread my court although you should bring fine wheat flour it is vain incenses and abomination to me i cannot endure your new moons and sabbaths and callings of assemblies and fastings and holy days your new moons and feasts my soul hates you have become a dissatisfaction to me you will not forgive your sin i will not forgive your sins when you stretch forth your hands to me i will not i will turn my eyes from you although you make many prayers i will not listen to you because your hands are full of blood wash yourselves make yourselves clean put away the evil from your soul before my eyes seize from your evil learn to do good seek judgment and redeem the wrong the early christians understood that our prayers and our praise and our thanksgiving our gifts that we bring to the altar and they saw the altar as heaven where this for this kind of worship was directed toward and jesus is saying here if you bring me this praise if you bring me this thanksgiving and there's and and there's strife between you and the brothers go and make that right first and then come and bring me what you have the way we relate to man is so closely related to how we relate to god the value we put on our brother is so closely related to the value we put on god so much so it is it is so it is so nearly the same thing that when someone asked jesus what's the greatest commandment he didn't give them one command he gave him two he said love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength and then he said the second is like unto it i'll have to give you that one too love your neighbor as yourself remember that our brother is an image bearer of god john says something very interesting in first john 4 20 when he says if someone says they love god and hate his brother he is a liar for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love god whom he has not seen what we've done to the least of these are brethren we've done it to god when paul when saul was on his way to damascus what was he what was he going there to do he was going there to capture human beings and he was going to persecute them and put them in prison and try them and when jesus stopped him on the way he said why persecute you me because what we do to human beings to these image bearers of god is what we're doing to god when jesus came into Zacchaeus house Zacchaeus said i'm going to give half of my wealth to the poor people and then i'm going to make restitution with everybody that i've wronged those that i've cheated i'm going to restore it fourfold i'm going to i'm going to i'm going to make restitution with the people i've wronged and give wealth to the poor people and jesus said today salvation has come to this house this is what it's like this is what it's about people people who get this heart for their fellow man and want to make things right and distribute what they have to the poor this is what salvation is back in matthew verses 25 and 26 here in chapter 5 make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge uh to the officer and you be thrown into prison truly i say to you you will not come up you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent jesus is still using this courtroom language um uh i i don't think what jesus is saying here when i was young i was confused about this verse somewhat i i kind of felt like jesus is saying agree with thine adversary quickly just just whether he's right or wrong agree with him and and and so that he doesn't do anything bad to you but but then i'm pretty sure that's not what jesus is saying it wouldn't it wouldn't fit or match the life he lived and a lot of other teachings i think what he's saying is this anger that you have that'll make you liable before the court and these insulting remarks that you've made to your brothers that'll make you liable before the supreme court you've got a limited amount of time to make these things right while you are on the way while you are still here on this pilgrimage before it's too late go get these things made right if if uh if you come before the judgment seat of christ this way without without this thing being made right and and you haven't at least done what what you're capable of doing to try to resolve this if you haven't done that then this case is going to become come before the judge jesus christ and he's going to hand you over to the angels and they're going to cast you into hell paul said in romans 12 if possible so far as it depends on you be at peace with all men and though jesus is not jesus is not saying just just compromise on anything and be agreeable to everyone he is teaching against a spirit of demanding our rights and then and then when we face the consequences of demanding our rights to call that persecution for righteousness sake i think i think jesus is teaching against this kind of attitude this this kind of attitude that would that would that kind of wants to be martyred right we want to be persecuted for righteousness sake and be the martyr and so and so we'll figure out what our rights are and we'll stand on them and if it provokes someone we'll stand on them all the more until the person does something for us and then we'll be the persecuted for righteousness sake i don't think that's what jesus wants can you imagine jesus jesus came to the jesus came to the region of the gadarenes one time and and and healed those demonic people and the people of the city came out and said would you just would you just go can you imagine what kind of authority jesus could have used to say what do you mean do you know that i had a part in creating this land where your feet are on and the air that you're breathing and you're telling me to go no he just left he just left he wasn't there demanding his rights toting his authority maybe your case is more right than the other person's that doesn't mean you can't bow that bow down before them jacob was more right than esau but he wanted peace with his brother and he bowed before him seven times david was in a huff and an anger and he was minded to go kill navel and his people he was wrong he was in the wrong and abigail interceded to make peace with him this passage in proverbs that i'll read it it it renders different here in the septuagint than it will in your masoretic text if that's what you have it's in chapter 25 verses 9 to 12 do not enter into a quarrel quickly that you may not be sorry in the end when your friend reproaches you retreat and do not despise him lest your friend continues to reproach you and your quarrel and enmity shall not depart but be equal to death for you grace and friendship free a man keep these for yourselves that you may not be reproached but guard your ways peaceably seek the lord while he may be found the prophet isaiah says let's bury our hatchets or better yet let's beat him into plowshares life is full of things that are hurtful things that our fellow men do that hurt us and the closer and more loved someone was the deeper that hurt goes jesus knows all about that one of the most hurtful betrayals ever was when judas betrayed jesus and we tend to underestimate how dreadfully hurtful this was to jesus partly i think because of jesus's response he didn't get angry he didn't do what so many of us do when we're hurt this was a judas was a man who had walked with jesus it was a man whom jesus had chosen of all the people in the region jesus chose 12 and this was one of them that's really special and he walked with jesus he helped he performed miracles with jesus he heard his instructions he was close enough to him that he carried the money pay and when many many disciples left jesus because of hard sayings this man stuck it out then he turns and uses this special connection that he had with jesus to turn him over to people who he knew wanted to kill him so that he could walk away with a small bag with 30 pieces of silver in it that must have really hurt but when jesus meets him there in the garden he doesn't call him fool he doesn't call him raka he doesn't call him you worthless fellow he says friend the the love of jesus is not so quickly turned off john wrote that his own who were in the world he loved them to the end he loved them to the end cyprian wrote of jesus that he loved them with brotherly love nor is it to be wondered at that among the obedient he showed himself such since he could bear judas even to the last with long patience could take meat with his enemy could know the household foe and not openly point him out nor refuse the kiss of a traitor god has made out of one this is not the quote anymore god has made out of one blood all nations they are all precious valuable bearers of god's image and they ought to be treated as such the value we put on others ends up being the vow the price tag we put on ourselves i don't know how many of you have heard that little poem that little verse that says still as of old men by themselves are priced for 30 pieces of silver judas sold himself not christ you see how true love is the antidote to this sin of anger in first corinthians 13 i'll give you a little challenge for you to and for you and me to examine ourselves to see if we to see if we love as we ought to love in first corinthians 13 there there were it's the love chapter right so so sometime you can do this on your own when you're all by yourself and you feel like being real honest with yourself or if you want to you can go to a brother and ask him but they're from verse from verse four down part ways where it says love is patient love is kind it is not jealous love does not brag and is not do this put your name in there and see if something doesn't seem right so so i'll for myself does this make any sense at all dwayne is patient dwayne is kind dwayne is not jealous he does not love to brag dwayne is not arrogant he does not act unbecomely dwayne does not seek his own he's not provoked dwayne does not take into account a wrong suffering he rejoices in righteousness he does not rejoice in unrighteousness but he rejoices in truth dwayne bears all things he believes all things he hopes all things he endures all things dwayne never fails try to do that sometime and maybe and maybe we just need to realize just how much we have to grow and how much we need to be seeking the lord's face daily and begging for mercy and being compassionate to others who also fail i want to close the reading of some verses in colossians 3 i'll close with this colossians 3 i'll start in verse 8 and read to 17 but now you also put them all aside anger wrath malice slander and abusive speech from your mouth do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him a renewal in which there is no distinction between greek and jews circumcision and uncircumcision barbarian scythian slave and free man but christ is all in all so as those who have been chosen of god holy and beloved put on a heart of compassion kindness humility gentleness and patience bearing with one another and forgiving each other whoever has a complaint against anyone just as the lord forgave you so also should you beyond all these things put on love which is the perfect bond of unity let the peace of christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful let the word of christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your hearts to god whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks through him to god the father and the lord had his blessing um yeah i have been blessed today with all that's been shared and i don't have much to add but i i thought of this um oh i think i almost read down to it and i say i wonder it says come the lord says come let us reason together this is argue it out though your sins are like scarlet they will be like snow like we've been taught so much today and on the consequences of of sin and and though it's really bad they will shall be like snow though they are red like crimson they shall be like wool and then he says if you are willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land but if you refuse and repel you shall be devoured by the sword and by the mouth of the lord for the mouth of the lord has spoken i just just seemed like it fit in there for me but um i've been blessed by all that's been shared today and salmon god bless thank you brother dwayne uh so many good points that uh were convictions convictions i remember just on the tongue i'm a brother buddy gave a lesson on the tongue maybe last year and i mean who couldn't be convicted we all we all stumbled with the tongue and you brought that out and brought up many things brother that that convicted me of my own life but whether it's just a tongue uh yeah the early christians had the diddy k and then he had the nicaean creed and then the anabaptist said to slide him and do a trick but all those things together can't tell us how to love god and love one another that's something that no creed can dictate to us and uh another sin i'll confess is i have two people who call me regularly they're not in our congregation but when i hear the phone ring i don't have a caller id on the landline and i hear one of their voices or both of them i says i say to myself oh no why do i have to do this another half hour with i really don't want the same old same old and i'm thinking is that the attitude that god has to me when i pray oh do i have to listen to him again he really doesn't care for these people i mean he's not patient with him long suffering and loving but i wonder if god has turned off when i start praying the way that i can get turned off by these some of these people they call me that i don't really think want to repent of their ways and um and then you mentioned popularity brother popularity i even had a dream last night in this because and it's so foolish about confess my sin on it popularity i was very good running when i was young that's why i walk funny and the shoes are all messed up and i have to hobble around because i can run from long distance but i had a dream last night that i won the bronze medal in the olympics the bronze not the gold or the silver the bronze and so i went back to massachusetts or some my relatives almost all dead my mother and father and brother i just said and then i could tell him about the gospel but i had the i won a bronze medal so they would probably believe my testimony for and saying how foolish that is uh it's trifling your time away sports and then people who watch sports as i shared with john it's just try your double violation you're trifling your time watching other people trifle their time and so what was the the sinful dream like that and the thing there this is something um dwayne and it touched off the way you said it and i'm surprised we didn't say more amen while you're talking i was going to say amen out loud a couple two or three times but i didn't but on um people that we can avoid and this is not original but i heard this a living hell on earth would be for a certain type of person in the old testament who would that be max you know who that would be living hell on earth it would be for a leper if i sang a leper unclean unclean they brought their food to him at night no communication they had no nobody it's just living hell on earth yeah okay well they give me a nice nah and that well yeah i'd rather be a uh you were of what i mean you don't but i mean a leper is just a social outcast no communication unclean your whole life it's just it's like a living hell although they could have other lepers uh that could look at them with consolation but how that was so so bad and my last point was uh that um and you mentioned mentioned it by dwayne and this thing it's something like um they have sometimes the standards minimum what can i get away with what i can't you know we have standards or something like that but i think the attitude is to be like the psalmist and psalm 40 talking about jesus himself i delight to do thy will what what can i do to please you god what what can i do to please you instead of just making it sneaking into heaven you're getting in the last spot or or what can't i do you know i can't i can't listen to any worldly music or or something like that just throw it away it's all trash thank you brother dwayne the lord be magnified oh yeah i really appreciated that um open or the i appreciated both the opening and the message i had i did have one thought that i had a few years ago about how where jesus speaks about if we hate our brother we're a murderer i've wondered about that like what is he saying like that seems pretty harsh you know just to be upset with somebody and you're a murderer and then um just thinking about it i felt like he showed me like like when you're in that angry state that's where you have the tools to commit murder and so murderers they're in that angry state when they when they they um they act unreasonable and then they they do that heinous crime it's it's because they're in that state of anger and so when we're in that state of anger we haven't really killed anybody or murdered anybody but we are capable in that place of committing that and i think i think that's why he he says that or at least that's what i thought maybe he why he was saying that so it's good to get yourself out of that state as soon as possible yeah that was just all i want to share appreciated the opening and the message um yeah brother doing it was really good yeah thank you um especially the sobering opening part of it where we where you were just sharing your own thoughts about sometimes you'll look at somebody and you know just comparing about the things that are important to you that they have such things that are important to them and just uh yeah the whole part of us all being made in the image of god and and it is really sobering to to really i think very healthy um i need to do it more often to just think about like i'm nobody special um yeah we're knit in our wombs as david said about himself in his mother's womb that'd be true for all of us we're all made in the image of god so in that sense we are special but everybody is all of us are so um even the people that don't know god they're made in the image of god and that's really sobering um great message thank you so much um yeah i guess one thing i did want to share um i think maybe i'd shared it with you before brother dewane is uh maybe just a reminder but the spelling of the word in that passage uh ephesians chapter 4 verse 26 where it's uh it's translated it's a translator's opinion i want to emphasize that it's a translator's opinion that it is the imperative or the command form of the verb to say be angry it's their opinion they translated it that way it went to print it's been that way for hundreds of years everybody just accepts it but it's be nice if it was in the footnote they say you know but this could be understand that you guys get angry it's not a command it's like you guys get angry but you know don't let it that before the sun goes down to deal with that anger and all that all that the rest of what it says there in that passage and i really really really think that's the way it should be rendered and understood it's not a command because when you put it together with what you read in colossians chapter 3 where it says put away from yourself all anger now that's a command and it goes on to all the other acts of the flesh to put them away from yourself so is paul disagreeing with himself over here in ephesians he's telling the ephesians church hey be angry but you know and he goes on and finishes his thought and over here he's saying put away from yourself all anger so which imperative which command is he is he no the other one is not a command i'm absolutely certain of it it's just the fact that it's the present tense spelled exactly the same as the command form of the verb the present tense is just saying you guys you guys get angry but you know then it goes on to basically admonish them to to deal with it and to make peace with your brother and stuff so just a thought there all right yeah i just appreciated the messages also um one thing though i wasn't quite sure about duane or i don't think i quite agree um was was the uh i don't completely disagree either the comment about the using of like dude i think i mean i wouldn't encourage anyone here to start using it and i probably discourage anyone that was here to maybe not use it but in in a certain culture if you will or or where a person grew up i i'm not sure that across the board just because it was used it was a devaluation maybe does that make sense yeah i think i kind of said that but maybe it was not understood okay maybe i was sewn out yeah i appreciated both messages too um i'm not even sure like what the present i was thinking about hezekiah and i'm not even sure what the present scholarly consensus is about this but there's part of his legacy i think that that you can even go still touch and see today and uh and it's his it's alluded to in both chronicles and in kings there but it says i think in the esv it's a conduit in the king james it's a tunnel and it's it's still there it's something that you can you can be inside of it which is pretty incredible that that king did something that you can still touch and see today which which is pretty amazing and then uh um yeah i just wanted to to say i i appreciated that message too and duane that you gave and and you were talking about i don't know maybe a form of chivalry is kind of like the right classification for that that respect i just got done reading some civil war history and even like opposing generals like there'd be a confederate city under siege and there's a there's an army in there and uh and the union the union general will send a communication under a flag of truce and i always i i mean i almost find it kind of ironic you know the way that it's worded but it's essentially you know a proffer for surrender and he's saying you know i'm i'm satisfied that you can't hold this city anymore i've got you surrounded and here are my terms for surrender and then he'll sign the letter your obedient servant general so and so it's kind of like who's serving who here you know um and i i do think there's something in that that's that's lost today and i'm not at all advocating you know that the generals over that war or or that even that type of chivalry maybe that was even supposed to be laced with irony i'm not sure but and and then also i just really appreciated the thoughts that you kind of put together about testimonies of miraculous deliverance from deep and gross sin and and no longer desiring them or struggling and i i certainly think that that part of bearing up our cross every day is is putting to death those things that are temptations the scripture talks about that we will be tempted we're going to continue to face temptations jesus's prayer model prayer that he gave us is a prayer to god to be able to withstand temptation and be delivered from them i i think i guess the sum total of my thoughts are i agree with what you're saying and i'm not sure that there isn't a case where god can give us delivery from a sin in fact i think he does but i also think that um that we we are right with god and not because we have the absence of temptation and we don't desire to sin but because but because of what we do with the temptation and and putting it away and actively choosing a righteous road anyway i appreciated that amen is is Children, obey the Father's blessed command. Love one another, as if the Savior. Children, obey his blessed command. Fairest words are lightly spoken. Victrous hearts are rashly stirred. Brightest blades of life are broken By a single careless word. Love one another, as if the Savior. Children, obey the Father's blessed command. Love one another, as if the Savior. Children, obey his blessed command. As sorrows widening, Lord, the Son of God Heals sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior! And stuffing room In my face condemned he stood. Healed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior sweet! Father's plan, our God was he. Oh, what hope might be! Hallelujah! What a Savior sweet to God! His finish was his cry. Now in his altar divine. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! What a Savior sweet! From his ransomed home to preach, His song we'll sing. Hallelujah! What a Savior sweet! Since God the Father first made man, It was his ever-blessed plan That when man was grown, He would leave home and go alone To seek a man whose heart is pure. We'll give him love that shall endure With him to be a good horse ride And while with him to be his wife. The virgin's smile, The lowly cherubim's pride, Sins of the earth, Penitence of the world. The blessing dove, Love in all her life, The blessing dove, And with his cherubim he shall Take the dust of his pride And ever for her good provide. And as the Savior gave his life, No man shall live to save his wife. The reaper's sheep about the home, A Saint Maria shall bring home. A mystery of death dispersed, This is the Christ and the Lord's mystery.