Matthew 5:17-30

Shall we ask God's blessing on our gathering? Our gracious God and Father, we do indeed confess our need before Thee, need of all these graces which are ours freely through Thy Spirit in Christ. Thank Thee for that blessed one who came down from heaven to seek and to save that which was lost. We're thankful for each one of us found in His mercy and redeemed of the Lord.

We thank Thee we can gather to consider Thy word this afternoon. We pray for safety for all who will be traveling homeward from here later and others traveling elsewhere. We ask for Thy preserving mercies and we ask for preservation in our discussion today that it might be profitable to the edifying of the saints to the glory of God that we might go away having learned something more of the way of God so we might seek grace whereby we might serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Help us then we pray as we return thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I have a number of verses to read but I want to read just one verse in 1st Timothy chapter 6 first.

1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 3. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness. I was struck with these words yesterday as I was sending out an email to some of the saints. What we are going to be considering this afternoon is just what we've read up here.

Wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and so I trust that we will give due diligence and attention and reverence to what is spoken. These are wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. They're not something to live by for salvation but they certainly are something to seek by the Spirit of God to live by as believers and I personally am unwilling to give them away to another people of another time.

These are wholesome words. This is the doctrine that is according to godliness. So let's go back to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 reading at verse 17.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill for verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven for I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shall not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother raka shall be in danger of the council whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there remember us that thy brother hath fought against thee leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift agree with an adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer and thou be cast into prison verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou has paid the uttermost bargain ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart and if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell and if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from you for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell it hath been said whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement but I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time thou shalt not forswear thyself but shall perform unto the lord thine oaths but I say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is god's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool neither by jerusalem for it is the city of the great king neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black but let your communication be yay yay nay nay but whatsoever is more than these come up of evil ye have heard that it hath been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I say unto you that you resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also and if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him twain give to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away ye have heard that it hath been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy but I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust for if ye love them which love you what reward have ye do not even the publicans the same and if you salute your brethren only what do ye more than others do not even the publicans so be therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect if you have an outline and I hope you do I think there should be plenty for everyone um I'm not going to go over the beginning that was well handled at Ontario some weeks ago you'll see my thoughts the Lord Jesus the true lawgiver and judge contrasts the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees with the practical righteousness that he expects of his subjects in so doing he gives the true interpretation of the law and clarifies God's intention in regards to his commandments there are six statements that are quoted from the moral law if you have a new bearer you'll notice and we'll have occasions to discuss that sometimes it starts out as a direct quotation from the law and perhaps I should just say right here that the law does not necessarily mean just the ten commandments and it does not even necessarily mean just um exodus or deuteronomy where that occurs it can the law is basically the first five books of the old testament and sometimes the law actually will include all of the old testament all the word of God but you'll notice as I started to say the first part of the quotation is indeed directly from the law and then it changes that the rest of it does not have any corresponding part and I think that's what we're going to find as we go through this the Lord is straightening out their thinking he is reinterpreting they have developed their system of traditions and their interpretations which in many cases actually set aside the law or added to the law and so that the statement which was said by or of to them of old times not necessarily what God intended and that's what we're going to find as we go through this verse 17 is a very important verse and I'm just going to sit down and we'll we'll get started is for me to think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill I think it's very important to realize how important this statement is right at the beginning of this teaching in the beginning of his public ministry he is doing wonderful things there are many rumors circulating about him and so if you've just come out of if you were to read your bible right through malachi and then go right to Matthew 1 and read you'll think is he going to just change the law is there something radically new he's going to assure us no and the law is holy and just and good it's not going to be destroyed but it's going to be properly interpreted and it's going to be lived out in the lives of his followers those of us saved through this indwelling spirit of God but what is that thought of destroy not come to destroy the law it's relatively commonly used it's basic thought is just destroy as you see that newbery has unloose or make void he is not coming to establish something totally new he is building upon what God has revealed in the past what God has commanded his people he is going to build on that he's not destroying it not come to destroy but to fulfill so what is the sense of fulfill well if in James we got he that offends in one place is guilty of all to fulfill would be to accomplish the whole entire aspect of the law not one not one thing could be missing in other words he was going to live a perfect life according to the law as far as fulfilling the law even the broken law he was going to accomplish that consequence to that he's going to magnify it i think isaiah 42 is it magnify the law and make it honorable i think we should should maybe clarify right at the beginning his keeping the law is not what saves us if that were so then our righteousness would be a righteousness which is of the law well the law cannot do that so obviously he could not sin and so he could not violate God's law but i think the the real where he saves us as far in relation to the law is that christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law having been made a curse for us as it is written cursed as everyone would hang up on the tree so for us as believers the place where he fulfilled the law that was greatest for us is when he died under the curse of a broken law and that's that's what saves us but i enjoyed as you notice looking at concordance for other use of this word fulfilled Matthew has it i a dozen times probably at least that it might be fulfilled which was written and so he is fulfilling all the prophetic scriptures concerning himself you can see that he was going beyond what the scribes and pharisees were expecting because they were looking at just the formality and the ritualism of law keeping and he's not going to or or to destroy it he is going to fulfill and give it a spiritual and moral fullness in his life in this teaching and so it's kind of it's going to in a sense of all the pharisees and the scribes out of the water because they were looking at just this formality of ritualism we're we're keeping it we're we're we're the people the lord is saying no you're not having because there is easy to that moral and spiritual development that the law intends that the law that the law is uh is uh pointing toward which is going to be fulfilled in christ so the gospel he is going to bring there is nothing contradictory about it as to the law he is not contradicting the law it's a very good point uh romans 3 do we make void the law yea we establish the law and going back with a with the new testament we can see that god had predicted that righteousness would come by faith way back in abraham abraham believed god and it was counted to him for righteousness that is the gold standard that's the only way god has ever justified anyone and ever will is by faith and so righteousness by faith is not contradictory it is the establishment of the law this is in galatians 3 verses 19 through 25 kind of point that out the purpose of the law to to for a time period until christ came so the seed came so it was our school master and romans chapter 8 what the law could not do and that it was leaked through the flesh the law was an external system just like the laws of the land you would need no laws if you didn't have lawbreakers and people do things that ought not to be done and they ought to know they ought not to be done but the only way to put a put a limit on it is to make a law to make it illegal then you can find them or punish them somehow and hopefully get them to quit doing it and that's all the law could ever accomplish in unregenerate people the righteousness that we're going to get to later that is by faith of jesus christ is a righteousness that brings into our life into our being with the holy spirit and now we fulfill the righteousness which is in the law not by law keeping but in the power of the spirit of god with more about that later but so the lord is not loosing he's not throwing away the old testament and neither should we we should appreciate the old testament we're going to see that the precepts that it taught if interpreted rightly and brought into our our lives by the spirit of god our wholesome teachings they are indeed holy and just and good they were never meant for righteousness but they'll keep a man walking away that's that will please god so the statement that's repeated elsewhere verse 18 till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law to all be fulfilled i'll just uh i'll plug that's why we we believe in the inspiration of scripture right down to the jot and the tip and we it pays to pay attention to what is written in the scriptures of truth because it's not haphazard now there are i'll not deny there is some value in paraphrases and so forth we do it all the time from the platform we paraphrase what this verse means but if you really want to study and understand it it pays to to have a bible version that sticks with the language of scripture and and those are available and our king james does very very good at that it has its faults but it does well at intending a word-for-word translation which allows you to study he's showing the continuity of old testament law prophets with his truth his teaching who he is because he says barely i stand to you so it's not it's not a putting away saying well the prophets and what the law of what moses and the prophets they all said that's that's different than what i'm going to say he said no i spoke through them now i'm the final word keepers one and this is what i'm saying he's he is in a sense deepening he's like turning up the microscope to a different power because this i'm showing you now and so it's not only continuity but it's also uh it's called uh teleopathy or it's where it's going it's gold it's going to its fulfillment and it's also again the law and i think that john one the law was given by moses you don't have a relationship with the law a loving relationship with the law the law is hard and cold unbendable but it says but grace and truth came by jesus christ so here is a person who has arrived but grace and truth has arrived and here is this one the continuity is being is being maintained but it's with a view to a relationship with the one who is a source of all this truth that's what god intends a relationship with him it's not going to pass away so one not one job still is going to pass until though if he wants us to have a relationship not just in time but forever not just in heaven but here on earth the concept will be true we'll likely discuss it shortly but romans 10 and 4 christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone that believe is the object of it he's he's what has made the fulfillment of it possible by his his death verse 19 whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the shame shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven uh i think this this should speak to all of us i want this to be practical today i think we all do there's many times we're better off to stop short of trying to interpret or apply something for fear we should do this um how many times have you heard they and i hope we don't do it today we read what it says here in matthew 5 6 and 7 and we say well it can't mean that well are we teaching something that are we breaking one of the least commandments and so if it just doesn't suit our our ability or our preference we could be guilty of that i looked up this do and teach that's the that's the way it should be in our lives shouldn't it practice someone says your action speaks aloud i can't hear your words well that's sometimes how it do and teach is right ezra i think is the first one ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the lord and to do it and to teach in israel statutes and judgments it's also it's here and then in acts chapter one the things which the lord began both the do and teach lovely when doing precedes teaching i looked at the contrast because i just put in the search engine do and teach those two words and well it comes in the old testament there's time after time it says teach and do that's how the law was here's the here's the commandment now you do it it didn't work then and it still doesn't work but now be a direction a front to the pharisees of the scribes they were the ones that they were laden people with heavy burdens but they wouldn't lift a little finger to help them so they would like to teach they didn't want to do anything so the lord is pointing right out notes do and teach matthew 23 is the great denunciation and i said you know they sit in so observe what they say but don't do it the way they do because they say and do not we don't want to be that way we want to both do first of all do and then teach those characteristics of the lord jesus i just mentioned in acts one until he was taken up into heaven so there was never a failure in the part of christ to do first that's the object of what we do are taught and he says the doers of the word are not heroes only deceiving your own selves it's often said not deceiving anyone else it's just deceiving your own self if we think that we can go by knowing the truth but not doing it really in first peter chapter 5 the exhortation to elders is that they are to feed which would be teaching but their their feeding comes after they are examples to the flock so they're first living their lives before the flock among the flock and then they're able to teach because they are and that will give weight verse 24 i say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven good opportunity for for the gospel of course what what was their righteousness it was observing the commandments as they interpreted them to to make them doable as far as they were concerned that that won't do law keeping cannot bring righteousness i think the best commentary i know on on these verses is philippians chapter three where paul lists all of his uh qualifications as a pharisee a pharisee of the pharisees philippians chapter three verse four though i might also have confidence in the flesh if any other man thinketh that he after wherever he might trust in the flesh i more circumcised the eighth day of the stock of israel of the tribe of and hebrew of the hebrews as touching the law of pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the church touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless then let's read on what things were gained to me those i counted lost for christ yea doubtless and i count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and you count them but done that i may win christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of christ the righteousness which is of god by faith that's he outlines the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees doing good observing the commandments and even he says touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless that's that's quite a statement and i i take it he didn't make that statement lightly but it's all it's all trash it's done the righteous not having my righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of christ the righteousness which is of god by faith that's the only righteousness so he goes to heaven yes you know they they the scribes and pharisees were interested in what other people would call them to be righteous they were interested in the this is what i see as the scribes they were they were interested in remarked by external formally and they had the as in a sense the word in their hand and they thought just by having it in that external form that made it righteous but god is he the lord is showing them they're teaching them that there needs to be an inward righteousness that doesn't come from them or any other human it comes from the very word of god itself and the pharisees they were interested or marked by ritualism and ceremonialism and so as they were looking at all the the things that they needed to do or not do so that other people would call them righteous and allura saying they're not the ones that's the righteousness that's false if other people are calling you righteous and that's your standard it's false it's a matter of his god called you righteous and so just like the uh the uh two men that went up to the temple of prey public and a pharisee who was the one that justified who was the one that was called righteous and see he brings that he brings that right here in my in my if it doesn't exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees you have no righteousness would you say that paul's first says a pharisee his competence is his ability of his keeping the law his confidence is actually in himself exactly now his confidence is in christ as a perfect representative when he presents me my my action doesn't make me right with god it's christ action for for me before god makes me righteous and i'm simply trusting him and the pharisees they were what they thought was being for god so that others would see them well they're the pharisees they're the righteous one and all it was was hypocrisy and the lord's calling him out on it he's pointing out here that's all that's all for you it's good flesh we all we often hear about the bad flesh all the bad vices of life but here's good flesh good flesh of the scribes and the pharisees carrier carrying the sacred writings a certain way so that people look at it and say boy they're holy you know they were they're inside what that's what he's going to deal with inside what they think what they how they treat others in their mind what they're thinking is going to prove whether they're righteous or not was there a mistake trying to satisfy the law by words rather than by faith you're opposed to god by words rather than faith that's that's the the great burden there of the apostle in romans chapter 10 i should just read that romans chapter 10 verse 1 brethren my heart's desire and prayer to god for israel is that they might be saved for i bear them record that they have a zeal of god but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of god's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of god for christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it they were trying to to establish righteousness on the basis of their works and that's that's impossible and so they needed to to rest on the work of christ for salvation but they were zealous at it paul actually uses that thought of being a pharisee in a positive sense they versus the sadducees they were more or less what we would call fundamental nowadays uh now they the lord upgraded them severely they weren't they weren't righteous and they weren't true to what they taught but they at least upheld the law what was the law supposed to teach them then if we when we consider that kind of going back around it we all know the law teaches us it reveals us we're sinners it's a school school master as you brought out in galatians to bring us to christ and so that's what they were supposed to be it's supposed to reveal their sin and that's the strength of sin is the law and that's what it's supposed to do and i can think of i was in a bookstore one time they had the ten commandments up way up high on the wall and things were for sale in the bookstore and pictures and everything else but nobody was buying the ten commandments i guess because they had it way up high in a special place and i asked the guy behind the counter i said what does that prove what does that prove to you and and of course i was probably the same way i'm asking this question he said well they're the ten commandments and i said i know what it proved to me and and he said what's that and i said it proved i never could keep them and that's what i got to preach christ in that sense that's what that's what they did for me i could i can't keep them myself but with the holy spirit and i think that's what we'll get into later with the holy spirit we have that inward ability to to have these attributes romans 3 and 20 therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the insight for by the law is the knowledge of sin that's that's all the law can ever do it's it's often been likened to a mirror it can show you what what problems you have but it can't do anything about it so romans 10 there that's the law has an end of power and that's fulfilling christ and if the strength of the sin is the law then the strength over sin is christ and the bible teaches that so now we'll start the six statements from the law that the lord clarifies and this one commentator put it intensifies and that's kind of man had and we'll all do this we'll interpret things in such a way that we can do it we'll weaken it we'll take some of the requirements off so they're saying i've never killed anyone so i'm a righteous person and the lord is going to take it deeper than that and say well god looks on the heart and so you don't have to have actually murdered someone maybe we should just clarify that the commandment says thou shall not kill but it's obviously understanding that means thou shall not murder it is perfectly justifiable for the authorities to execute a person it is justifiable no obviously to be regretted that in warfare people are killed the point is thou shall not murder and you know there were no trials after all the hundreds of thousands of people were killed on the battlefields of israel that was all justifiable but thou shall not commit murder even so in the law that if your relative was killed by somebody you had to flee to a city of refuge or they had a right to take your life if you weren't there technically not until if it was if it was warfare technically not but that was the problem with job and uh right they they sled this shed the blood of war in in peace and so they were guilty so thou shall not kill that that's probably all of us off the hook isn't it well not the lord says just a minute but i say unto you and that's what i thought this is the true lawgiver the spirit of christ was in the prophets and so now the true lawgiver says i say unto you i the true lawgiver i'm going to interpret what what god requires of a man if you want to be righteous before god if you're going to go to the work system and what by the spirit of god the standard that we should have whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment is there a justifiable anger i've put it down christ addressed unjustified anger there's a righteous anger the lord jesus exhibited that when he wrote money changes out of the temple making his father closer i have a question why he says in each of these six things times he says you've heard that it was said by them of old time kind of a funny way to say if he's just quoting scripture why wouldn't he said it says in the law is he is he including what they had changed by their adding to the law the the pharisees and is he including what they were teaching which would be in many times in addition to what the law said is he including that by saying it that way there are likely others may have different thoughts i think so because you know he quotes it all one statement i'll should not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment and then he gives his his interpretation his clarification on that the the system and they have a name for their whole body but great rabbis down through the centuries they had collected their teachings and they worked them all together and discussed it and hammered out a system of rules and regulations expounding supposedly but many times diminishing taking away from what the commandment said so whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment and the lord starts that as the very lowest point of judgment i take these each of these goes up first the the judgment is the local judgment at least from where i've read a local body of judges and then when it goes up to the council you're up to the sanhedrin in in jerusalem so you're going up to the supreme court as it were and then last of all is hell fire and so what they said the person who murdered someone was was worthy of the lord saying that's that's the very basic level it goes up from there i i take it there is justified angry and that's in the fact that it says without a cause ephesians says be angry and sin not ephesians four so it's all right to be angry as long as you don't go as long as you don't sin for us that's kind of a fine line huh and that's exactly what the lord but we're going to get get into it that's why he said you need to settle it they were forbidden under the law which which clarified itself they were forbidden to take vengeance and they were forbidden even to bear grudge against their brother and i take it we are also no because unsettled anger may lead to physical murder that's the point that's where does murder come from in most cases it comes from hatred that's nursed in the heart until it bursts out and you may not physically kill them take their life but you will character kill them you will be a manslayer of their character so when someone says oh what do you think about brother so-and-so you have the opportunity now to slam him that's easy all you stay away from him he just he has this and thinks that and goes the other thing that's a man slayer you're slaying a person's character for no reason and that seems to be the thought of well each of these uh raka and then thou fool thou fool is an attempt thou worthless fellow it's a total destruction of their character unfit to live so you set yourself up as a judge to to judge the person's character who they are you're just fool you're worthless individual and so i am the final authority here and i'm on you you're done it's over how how proud is that that's extreme self-righteous pride that's exactly what the pharisees did how they did it to the lord jesus exactly see a person i see here the lord is speaking the divine truth the continuity of truth in the old testament that these pharisees just loved and he just pulled them right in the heart every time i see on you and they're just they're just starting to just burn inside you have to have to admit that he speaks with authority i didn't mention it when i was giving my introduction but any even though the youngest of the brethren here the last section on the outline has said to fully appreciate the teaching of this section of the word of god let us look for examples of these precepts in the life of the lord jesus link the character of the blessed at the beginning of the chapter with the practice of these precepts link this teaching with the practice of the book of acts and teaching in the epistles and link this teaching with the fruit of the spirit so if anyone sees any scripture or any reference anything would help even if you're just looking at the margin of your bible if you find a verse that will contribute to this i just just out of the margin a lot many of you will have first john 3 verse 15 here link with this one first john chapter 3 verse 15 whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him john in his his typical blunt fashion which says that hatred is the equivalent of murder and it is it's grievous to see in assemblies in families between husbands and wives when anger comes to that character of murder even so could you define that hatred for us because no doubt there's some young person here and they're thinking back in their life where they hated some christian for about three days and then they got over it and they're wondering if they're saved or not and one thing leads upon another how does that work in typical in john's writings edith is in the present tense and so it's it's a central hatred it's it's a desire for the destruction of the other person it's characteristic of the ungodly and the things that are characteristic of the ungodly definitely can be seen in the lives of people but they're not characteristic and so that's what first john 3 is saying right as long as as long as you got over it in three days three days if it's if it's still there check the foundation there's a link between anger and righteous anger that i don't know if you brought up righteous anger is the anger that when you're standing in the on the side of god who was righteous so if we have anger that isn't from the concepts of scripture of what god would be angry about then it's not righteous anger and so righteous anger unrighteous anger is usually bugs us in the short term anyway and if that's festered that's where you get the hatred if you let that if you let that go on and on anger anger really for no reason um that's where you get judged in my opinion that's mostly uninterpreted um misinterpreted because of the fact that it doesn't mean we do not judge we wake up in the morning and we judge the weather we put the right clothes on we judge whether someone's gonna uh brought us off the road i mean there's all kinds of judgments we make the judgment isn't to not judge it's to when making that judgment observe the fact that my failure is right along with it um and if you look at the example of the lord jesus christ he had the right he was being judged by the pharisees when he plucked the corn when healed on the saturday they were misjudging him because they didn't understand the law the way he was going to explain it to them but then when it came his turn to judge he had the right he was the only one in the room that had the right to condemn that woman to death and yet what did he do he let he he allowed her to not be judged but to go free and give her forgiveness instead so that the righteous anger that we have should be directly linked to our understanding of scripture it shouldn't be that someone left the door open and they continue to do it over and over again and you know that is not righteous anger it's not not to say you're right in being angry it just shouldn't allow to be offensive i think the key is to differentiate between um and especially for the young is differentiate between the person and the action because there's there's very there's very hateful things that can be done even to a young christian especially sometimes to young christians that they don't have the maturity to be able to look past that action and that translates into a hatred and it may have been something that a more mature christian did do that that wasn't right i mean it's not that we don't do we always treat one another with the way that we should but the idea there is that hatred of that action or whatever drove the the hatred that that person you know like you said for three days hopefully it's you know something that is can be gotten over in three days but there can be things uh you know even you know in interpersonal relationships mother-in-law father-in-law that sort of thing that it can be even ongoing but the the key thing i think in that so that a person doesn't lose that sense of you know am i am i not saved because i can't you know look past this person or i can't love this person is differentiating go i love this person i absolutely hate what they do and that has to be that key distinction and and you know in a lot of cases i think it's only way to to be able to survive mentally and deal with that person because we're not allowed as brothers and sisters in christ to say well i'm going to you know no longer associate with that person it's it is we are to love the brethren we are to to figure out how to work that love one to another while still dealing with these behaviors that that in some cases you know as you said you can hate somebody for three days just invariably intentional that's where long suffering and forbearance and love love covers a multitude of sins obviously we're going to have to pick up the pace so the lord doesn't leave us just with these negative things he says here's how you deal with it as far as this gift at the altar you remind me of first corinthians 11 we're to judge ourselves and then then eat it's the same way here god wants the gift you come to the altar you realize oops my brothers got out against me god says first go be reconciled then come and offer your gift same way if we you know people say well i judge myself unworthy to eat to break bread this morning wrong answer if you judge that then you needed to make it right and then so god wants the gift but he wants it from the right spirit if you read through the old testament you'll see that's god their offerings became such a stench to him because they were bringing it with unrighteous hands and unrighteous hearts and they'd be worshiping the idol one day and defrauding their neighbor and then the next day they're bringing an offering to god god says i i can't stand it stop it god has brought the the action under judgment and now he wants us to bring the action under judgment by dealing with the offering coming to the game dealing with a gift coming to the altar because he says i see him be that whosoever is angry with his brother so and so on he says that's that's my judgment on that attitude now he says that if that attitude is is maintained it's going to it's going to affect your worship it's going to affect your service for god now you deal with that action you deal with that attitude so god wants to deal with us to deal with our attitudes in relation on a horizontal plane brother to brother sister to before we deal we give him something vertically doesn't it seem in verse 23 that the handling of the gift causes the remembrance so that so that there should be an examination before we make a gift but even the handling of the gift will cause the remembrance and if there if you if there's something that is determined that needs to be adjusted it needs to be adjusted before a gift is given it's a lesson if we get in the presence of god some of those things would come to our mind it was like the content is involved isn't it in in these scriptures do does the offender or the offended go both no and this example right here it seems to be the offender here now matthew 18 is the offended one if thy brother mr heading doesn't have it that way and what the bible teaches did you notice that i noticed i read that over and over thinking i had it wrong yeah but everybody else has it that way the offend the offender the one who caused the harm is the one who goes here but you read further in matthew you're off not off the hook appear to be offended either way you're to go god towers it both ways if i know my brother has ought against me i need to i need to go to him but he needs to come to me also we can't miss the point of keeping a short account i think that's the whole point here yeah when you bring your gift you remember that there's something not right so you go and deal with it so you don't have the examples of verse 22 short accounts with god and short accounts with our brethren and in humans you know unsaved saved the light and i think we can summarize verses 25 and 26 as just just um illustrating that further we don't need to add any symbolism or anything in there just saying when you got a an adversary situation contention between brethren you need to get it sorted out before it's too late god does not look lightly on divisions among brethren and within assemblies over what usually is trivia uh we're gonna matthew 18 he will be cast into prison what happens if an offended brother is just his pride has been hurt is that uh is that worthwhile i'm sorry for hurting your pride is that what we have to do or is it a matter of is this is this a just cause it's great and that's uh we need to ask you know is this that's a judgment call on both of their parts see that spiritual brother if he knows that he's hurt this man's pride would go the thing is is is it's a sense of the mutual relationships that we have with each other that's what's important that's good that's what's to be and i think in moving into our time frame before the next lord's day it should be taken care of because that's when we're going to offer the next time is it not i mean in a public way so it shouldn't be hung out there well i'll do it i'll do it in two weeks i'll go to him in two weeks it should be right away we're looking at the offender and and uh the one that's been offended but what does god think about a gift that is attempted to be offered does god see this situation he doesn't want it yeah you know you mentioned being intensely practical as well though i i think that the lord was being very intensely practical for his people because you know based on this i'd say lawsuits back then look like lawsuits today i mean the company i work for will be just about anything to stay out of a lawsuit because you're tied up for two or three years while you're getting you know evidence together and maybe they could run things a little quicker back then but this looks almost as bad as far as you know going up the law and then you're thrown in prison and then you know what kind of effectiveness do you have as a person for god to be able to do you know if you're tied up with this kind of action all your life it's an intensely practical application to even us today is stay out of this kind of trouble does this gift have to do with the first day of the week or does it have to do with seven days a week and uh the hindering of a brother well i think i think it has to do seven days a week this is this is relationship among the leaders well my point was that we're coming and we're getting our basket full or for lord's day and this nagging thing keeps coming into your mind that you've got something wrong with a brother and and i read this and god's probably not going to accept what i have because i haven't done my part in getting this thing right hmm poor sister or wife let's go to verse 27 you have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery but i say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her have committed adultery with her already in his heart so here's again proof of what we've said the law dealt with the external the tangible the lord is dealing with the heart and we need to take heed to what the lord says and this was a a very convicting thing for me before i was saved because i guess i would have put myself with the apostle paul you know in a lot of things concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless thou shall not kill thou shall not commit adultery no problem um look upon a woman who lost after committed adultery already that's what god says i'm as guilty as the most guilty there is and we need to judge it i and to me we should deal with them but the right hand and the right eye and the right hand after this what i put in in here the lord commanded dealing drastically with the flesh and that's that's the lesson of that this is hyperbole is is the word using an exaggerating example to teach the lesson but the word of god speaks mortify the deeds of the body what i mean he's put to death so it's the same sort of dramatic language we need to deal ruthlessly if if our eyes are getting in trouble we need to get our eyes closed or somewhere else or whatever and that'd be 15 and 19 says for out of the heart proceeded perceived evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witness and blasphemies these are the things which the final man this thought of lust and what follows from it james chapter one for every man is verse 14 but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death and that's why we need to nip these things we talked about keeping short accounts as far as grudges and anger it's the same identical thing here we need to nip it in the bud at whatever the cost because if we allow that lust to conceive it's going to produce fruit and that fruit sin and the end of sin is death you can take david it happened in an eventide he saw a woman and the rest is history it all started with a look far better if he hadn't had any eyes started in the garden of eavesdrop sorry so there's the beginning the lust the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life it's lust lust lust we had a man in prison a few years ago that i think he was saved and whenever he saw an attractive woman he averted his eyes and some of the other men that came to the bible said he said i've noticed that that's why you're always like this yeah well that isn't that is not sin to to see an attractive woman acknowledge in your heart in your conscience that she's an attractive woman that's not sin this is going beyond that right this this look at this looks and looks with an intention um there's a thought of not only thought and feelings of the mind so there may be a thought but how a person handles the thought allowing it to be something emotional or feelings is when the problem becomes a major issue so beloved all of us pornography is exactly what feeds into this and get a get a filter on your computer or whatever is necessary because that's what the world wants to just throw in front of you continually for that very purpose to nurse the temptation is what's the what's the wrong nurse it the look the thought is is defying itself but acting on the thought well now we will defile others too i think the the order here is moral if you will the right eye and then the right hand it's the eye that that links with look on the woman so that's the eye that's where it originates and then the hand acts on what the eye feeds on can we can we take a moment just to examine that for a second though so like if you're if you're uh because i had dealt with this a lot when i first got saved when you you were talking about the man that diverts his eyes so he looks upon a woman the thought can come to your mind without you trying to think about it that is not sin it's when you allow that thought to grow and and you actually seek to think on that thought would you would you agree or disagree with that this thought's coming to our minds without without us choosing if we judge it at at the first instant it's just like plucking out the eye and that cast is the same word as cast into the lake of fire uh it's it's a ruthless action um again someone said you can't keep the birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in their head it was a difficulty for my first kind of saving because we're thoughts that we all have thoughts that we can't control and we're being influenced by a lot of different things that we're not in control of even necessarily if you walk through the mind of the superman you can't balance and stuff so i think the word look is the idea of a discerning look so once you recognize what what you're what you're looking at and you recognize what it is and recognize what's going on then you deal with it to deliver once 13 14 make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of that that's the same thought of judging it don't get it in a situation where you're going to be exposed to this if possible so why in the first two of these sections that were taken up is it and talking about being put in the house it doesn't it doesn't mention that anywhere else other than these first two maybe there's no significance of this regardless of what people thought it seems that there's a judgment a judging that's going on to the extreme of the fire judgment and so that simple little thing or that what we think would be a minute little thing in god's estimation it's again a fire so this is activity that'd be in keeping with the unbeliever so therefore it's going to result in now that's the the ultimate many sadly in this world are controlled by these things so this is activity in keeping with an unbeliever so if you're going to conduct yourself that way right right so watch watch your eyes your eyes your ears your lips your hands your feet is very true i think the lord jesus is important pluck out that right eye cast it from the cut off by right hand right by hand i think he's importing the reality of the importance of one's soul and spirit over the flesh and why should we take that he he could do this and he not only could he did he did perform all this he's pure and and perfect in every way and everything you you mentioned kept he upped the ante as it were we all can see that it's not only was it the law now it's harder let's face it but he did and he did it perfectly and why why should we lessen it he's just important reality of the importance we often just we shouldn't lessen the plain words of christ to conform to man's immorality or ways the law which neither we nor our fathers could bear that the jews said and now it's the word tightens it down a lot more but we through the spirit can mortify the deeds of the body so the pharisees are i'm sorry no the pharisees are listening to him they pride themselves on keeping the law we have the example of the pharisee and republican um and we have a really example of paul putting the law blame so they kept the law but now he's just expanded this to they're all guilty there's no way there's no way that i said last night when we read this when we read the part uh 27 uh look up after a woman to lust after well he just condemned 99.99 percent of the men in the world yeah i don't know about the women but the men um but um so now now according to him they're guilty you can see why they hate him because he just took away their righteousness my question is this our relationship today to the law paul brought out that it's a rigid and it's a fearful thing it was a fearful thing the law it's rigid and and not bending and you broke it you were in trouble why don't we feel that way at all today um the law does not affect me that way it's righteous i know i'm guilty of breaking almost all of them and uh i know what you mean but maybe we should just say maybe we get lax on this i mean i think of commandment in ephesians six to servants to serve their masters with fear and trembling and i i'm looking at this point in in in first john four love god is love and we're linked with the one who fulfilled the law and our righteousness is in him perfect love cast without fear we have nothing to be afraid of from that law now we've been given the spirit of god and we don't want to break that law we don't want to think the things that we don't want to do them we don't even want to think of them because of who we are and whose we are so our link with christ who fulfilled the law who completed the law and he's our righteousness we're linked with him we love him he loves us it's there the law is there and it shows us we failed but it doesn't create any fear in me does a dead man fear the cops no no we've been crucified we're dead to the law that's why we're not scared of it but on the other side of it when we sin i mean we we feel guilty and we need to go straight away confess it and it's done that's that's what keeps us close to council but we know we are forgiven we don't have to worry about we are forgiven right there's a positional aspect that you're referring to there but i think what we're focusing on today is the practical righteous life we've been delivered from the from the controlling ruling power of sin over us we no longer have that as believers now we're going to be controlled by the spirit of god that brings out the fruit of a righteous life you're forgiven rich but we might want to read a statement to communion with our god and our lord and to follow up on brandon's practical point Romans 13 the beginning is about the authorities of government and here it says wilt thou then not be afraid of the authority do that which is good so if you're out here going 45 through most sterling you better be watching your mirrors and you better be feeling guilty unless the officer graduated with your son yeah something something's something's wrong with our conscience if when we're doing wrong we're not feeling so if you want to feel good about it and your conscience about do what's right right and you won't have to worry don't worry about a lot if you're not breaking it no if you see the policeman coming you don't need to wave at him yeah you can wave at him i'm not but they wave back