Say Fool, Go To Hell?

Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast,

making Theology Central.

Good morning everyone, it is Sunday, March the 1st, 2026.

It is currently 11.24 a.m. Central time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology

Central Studio, located right here in Abilene, Texas.

Now this is another episode in our series The Hell Question, and well you know what this

series is about.

This series is dealing with one of the most debated, one of the most emotionally charged

subjects in Christianity, and that is the subject of hell.

And we are talking, when we're talking about the subject of hell in this series, we've

been talking about, well, the debate between those who hold to eternal conscious torment

and those who hold to annihilationism, and we've been dealing with all of the issues surrounding

this.

So what I tried to do from the very beginning is I said, I'm not going to start with

a theological system, like right here next to me, I can just lean down.

I have an introduction to systematic theology, right?

I am not going to just start with a system of theology that says, this is what we believe

about hell, and then simply teach what that system teaches.

I cannot stand that.

I know, look, Christianity operates system first, scripture second.

I know they're going to say they don't, but they do.

Everyone adopts a system of theology, and then they go to scripture simply to prove

texts, that system, and they say, this is what the system teaches.

So this is how I read the scripture because you read the scripture through the lens of

your particular system.

I, I don't like that.

In fact, I try to argue against that, do not be committed to a system, be committed to

the scriptures, unless we're going to say scripture is not the final authority, and

your system is the final authority.

Now, trying to get people to throw away their system is very, very difficult, but that's

what I've tried to do from the very beginning.

We're not going to start with the system.

We're going to do something very, very, very basic.

For some reason, I guess it's extremely difficult to get people to do this, but here's what

I decided to do.

We, we listened to, well, Kirk Cameron, give kind of his system of annihilation, isn't

even though he said it's more his son.

He was right there.

We won't get into the entire debate, but you know, that's been a debate all over the

internet about what Kirk Cameron has said about annihilationism.

We did allow that.

We played every second of that.

We went through all of that.

But at some point, I'm like, okay, people can debate eternal conscious torment.

They can debate annihilationism.

Everyone can go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

But the most basic thing to do is to basically tell everyone, stop, be quiet.

We are going to work through every single verse that is connected to this particular subject.

So in this case, I decided we're going to find every single verse in the Bible that

speaks about judgment after death.

We're going to try to do our best to go in order without skipping anything.

And that's what we've been working on.

That's what we've been trying to do.

Oh, yes, there has been some detours due to a comment on YouTube.

And we had to take some time to go work through all of that.

But we still took the very same approach, okay?

This is the passage of scripture you want to talk about.

We're going to work through every verse within this section carefully.

We're going to, we're going to do our very best.

So we, we still took the same kind of framework to that, but this is the passage where we're

going to work through it in a very tedious, meticulous kind of way.

So we've been working through all of these scriptures.

And I think we've done a pretty good job up to this point.

Hopefully we can continue to do a good job.

I guess you'll make that final determination, all right?

But even though, no, this is important, even though this series is about hell and

even though it's about this debate between annihilationism and eternal conscious torment,

this is very important.

We are not allowed or we should not, well, I guess we are allowed to do it.

We shouldn't be allowed to do it.

We ourselves should not allow ourselves to treat verses in the Bible as simply tools for

theological debate.

We shouldn't just grab a verse, decide what it may contribute to our doctrine, our to

our theological system.

In this case, we shouldn't just go to these individual verses and go, well, this is what

it has to say about judgment.

This is what it has to say about hell.

This is what it says against annihilationism or for annihilationism.

This is what it has to say about eternal conscious torment or against eternal conscious

torment.

We shouldn't just do that, right?

And then, and then simply ignore everything else in the verse.

See, what we need to do is try to treat the verse, how can I say it?

Not like a, just a, a tool and our ongoing theological debate, but we should go to the

verse and go, what is it actually saying?

What is it actually doing?

What is the main point here within this verse?

Now, we're trying our very best to do that.

Now, sometimes, I mean, you do have to make decisions, right?

When you're trying to go through every single verse to determine what they're saying

about judgment after death or the subject of hell or how it may apply or, or, or go against

the idea of annihilationism, sometimes you have to go, okay, if I'm not careful here,

this could turn into a six-month series and take us far from the ultimate subject.

But at the same time, you don't want to just be dismissive to what a verse is actually

saying or doing.

Because if you're not, if you, if you aren't careful, then you stop doing exegesis and

you're just really doing kind of propaganda, you're just kind of doing, you're just trying

to build your own case and, and the key is to try to handle the text within their context

and to try to understand what they are actually saying, irregardless of what you're trying

to prove with that use of that particular verse.

So in the last episode, we dealt with Matthew chapter 5, verse 22.

Let me read it to you.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 22, 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.

But whosoever shall say, thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire.

Now what we did is that word that's translated hell there in the King James is a Greek word

gahana.

And so what we decided to do in Matthew, in our last episode, when we looked at Matthew

5, 22, we really focused on that word gahana.

What it is, what it isn't, that whole garbage dumps sermon kind of cliche is historically

shaky and I think definitely misleading.

So we went after that, but you know, there's more going on than that.

That took over an hour just to do that.

So on one hand, I was like, you know what, we did what we need to do.

We talked about gahana, we talked about what it is, what it isn't.

We talked about how the there's just no real way to get annihilation is annihilationism

into this.

So I think we did a pretty good job.

We can move on.

We can jump immediately over to Matthew chapter 5, verses 29 through 30.

That's going to require a lot of work right there.

Let's just get there.

But I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute, we have kind of a problem sitting right here

in Matthew 5, 22 that I could just ignore, but I don't know if we can.

I don't know if we, I don't know if we should, I mean, I guess we can, but I don't know

if we should.

There's kind of a problem sitting right there.

And so I'm like, we've got, we've got to do something, all right?

Jesus is saying something in Matthew 5, 22 that sounds kind of like this.

You call someone a fool, you're in danger of going to hell.

And the moment you say that out loud, let me just say it out loud.

You call someone a fool, you're in danger of going to hell.

And then you're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

I say that out loud, that sounds like a contradiction.

Because people are called fools all over the Bible.

Wisdom literature uses the term, the Psalms say it, the Proverbs say it.

Paul says at least something similar.

You, I didn't say you foolish Galatians, doesn't he say that?

Even Jesus himself calls people fools in other places.

I think even within, I think even in Matthew.

So what are we supposed to do?

Is Jesus contradicting scripture?

Is Jesus contradicting himself?

Is the passage teaching that one word can damn you?

So I feel like, you know, we, we got, we got to do something more here.

We, I feel like we can't just move on.

So even though we're going to kind of deal with this,

maybe not so much trying to figure out what it's saying about Guyana,

what it's saying about hell, what it's saying about annihilationism,

I still think it's relevant to this series

because what we're doing in this series is going through every single verse

and trying our best to truly exegiate the verse

and try to understand what it says.

On one hand, we accomplished part of our goal

and understanding what it's saying in regards to Guyana,

but I, I think you're still left with,

well, what about that fool thing?

Like, how does that work?

I mean, come on.

We, we, we have to, we, we got it,

we got to figure something out here, all right?

So that's what we're going to try to do

and we're going to try our very best to understand it.

And hopefully by the time we're done,

you're going to be like, oh, now I see what's going on.

Because I think in some ways,

if we truly see what this verse is doing,

I think it may give us greater insight

into the entire sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through 7,

which I would argue is one of the most misinterpreted

and misuse misapplied passages in the entire Bible.

I mean, I can, you can go on sermon audio

and I can listen to the first sermon

that any pastor preaches on the sermon on the Mount

and almost within seconds going,

oh, here we go again, we're right back to this problem

because it is so mishandled.

So maybe this will just help us understand

the sermon on the Mount better, what's going on,

understand this, if I say full, do I end up in hell?

What actually is going on here?

And then maybe then the next time we can move on

to Matthew 5, 29 through 30

and figure out what difficulties we will find there.

So are you ready?

I think personally in Matthew 5 verse 22,

there is a hermeneutical key.

Now, I say this frequently that whenever you're dealing

with a passage of scripture, locate the hermeneutical key

because if you can find the key,

then you can unlock the door to proper understanding.

If you do not find the key, then sometimes the door remains locked

and we don't really know what actually is going on.

Now, let me make it very clear.

We should always try to find the hermeneutical key.

We should not create a hermeneutical key.

It's not like, oh, I need a key.

Let me run down to the key shop

and let me make me a key

because I need a key to unlock this passage of scripture.

You don't just make them,

you either find them in the text or you do not.

You don't create one, you look for one.

There's a big difference.

And I think sometimes I'm like,

I don't really know what the hermeneutical key is

because I don't know what's going on.

And it's okay to admit that.

So I think the interpretive center,

the interpretive key of this passage

is this, are you ready?

First, I'm going to read it.

Go back to verse 21.

You have heard that it was said by them of old time,

thou shall not kill and whoever shall kill

shall be in danger of the judgment.

But I say in to you that whosoever is angry

with his brother without cause

shall be in danger of the judgment

and whosoever shall say to his brother,

Raka shall be in danger of counsel

but whoever shall say,

thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire.

Did you see the key?

Did you find it?

Are you ready?

Here it is.

The killing for Bidden in verse 21

is in a sense the exact same killing

that is exposed in verse 22.

The killing that is being forbidden in 21

is the same killing being exposed in verse 22.

One is murder with the hands.

The other is murder with the heart and with your mouth.

I don't think Jesus is adding a new sin next to murder.

He's redefining what murder actually is.

And if you miss that point, I think everything collapses.

Now in some cases churches are good at acknowledging this.

The only problem is they then turn it into

instead of allowing the law to do its work.

They turn it into moralism and here are three steps

so that you can stop doing this and you

and you can obey this.

And that's, yeah, we could get into a whole discussion

about that, but are you ready?

Let's take this and let's work this.

Now, I've been trying as much as possible

whenever we're dealing with a scripture

to go back to our five layers approach.

We have an entire series on five layers

and we need to be doing individual episodes in that series.

But the five layers approach, I'm using it everywhere.

So if you go find our series on the five layers,

learn the five layers of Bible reading

and then you'll know I'm using it everywhere else.

So here we go.

Layer number one, once again, we have to establish boundary.

We have to establish structure

and we have to establish genre.

That's the first layer whenever we're dealing with a text.

The boundary, the structure and the genre.

So if we put Matthew 5.22 where it belongs,

first and foremost, it's in the sermon on the Mount.

And that goes Matthew 5 through 7.

That's just a fact.

It's right here.

Sermon on the Mount begins in chapter 5.

It ends at the end of chapter 7.

So it's found within that sermon.

That's so important to understand.

Sometimes we tend to kind of forget that.

And just remember what is Matthew 5 through 7?

It's a sermon, but it would be classified as law.

Jesus is giving us a correct understanding of the law.

He's expounding our understanding of the law.

He's giving us the deeper meaning of the law

and that the law goes beyond just our external actions.

It goes to our heart.

It goes to our emotions, our desires, our feelings.

It goes deeper than the external action,

which is not good news,

because it will show you that you are condemned,

even if you've avoided the external act.

So you have to understand that's what's going on here.

And this is the very, this is the very,

this is the first major section

within the Sermon on the Mount,

where Jesus begins to say,

you have heard, but I say unto you,

and you notice that in Matthew 5 verse 21.

You have heard Matthew 5, 21,

but I say unto you, Matthew 5, 22.

This is a section where he begins to do this,

this kind of back and forth.

You have heard, but I say unto you.

So we can call this as an antithesis.

And Matthew 5, 21 through 26,

and this is the first antithesis,

and this is the first example.

And I think it matters because Jesus begins here

with something everyone recognizes.

This does, everyone can recognize what's going on here.

Look at Matthew 5, 21.

You can recognize that, right?

You have heard that it was said by them of all time,

vow shall not kill.

Everyone understands murder.

Everyone understands what it means to kill someone.

Everyone recognizes as he starts with something

everyone can understand.

Everyone has some concept of, everyone can grasp

to kill, to murder.

But here's the thing.

He does not stop at the external act.

He pushes underneath the external act to the heart

and to speech what you feel and desire inside of you

and what you say with your mouth.

So the flow is, you've heard, do not murder,

but I say unto you, and ultimately he's kind of saying,

the heart behind murder already condemns you.

Yeah, you've heard, don't murder,

but I say unto you that the heart,

the heart behind murder already condemns you.

So then look at verse 22, then kind of escalates

and three steps.

Look at verse 22, but I say unto you that

whosoever is angry, so we start with anger,

then it goes to anyone is anger with his brother

without a cause.

Remember, there's a textual variant there

without a cause is in some manuscripts,

not in other manuscripts, shall be in danger of judgment

and whosoever shall say to his brother,

Raka, there.

So it goes from anger and in Raka we can say contempt.

I'm gonna look for a different translation.

I got one right here.

It puts it this way, Matthew 5.22, so you can see it.

But I say, if you're even angry with someone,

there's anger, you're subject to judgment.

If you call someone an idiot,

if you call someone an idiot, this is a term of contempt.

So you go from anger to you're an idiot.

There's contempt for someone.

Now, where does the contempt arise from?

The contempt is arising from the anger.

The anger is the initial cause.

It's the anger and you feel that that's an emotion.

That's something you feel.

It's inside your heart, your emotion, your mind.

There's anger which leads to idiot or contempt or Raka,

but then it goes to a third.

Matthew 5.22, Raka, she'll be in danger of the council.

But whoever she'll say,

vow full, she'll be in danger of hellfire.

Wait a minute, you fool.

So anger leads to contempt, but full,

that we almost sound like,

well, calling someone a fool is not that bad.

I mean, calling someone an idiot, that sounds,

that sounds very bad, but full,

why is full here like now now you're in danger of hellfire?

Well, what is it about this full that is so

seems to be take it to a different level?

But he's obviously escalating it, anger, contempt,

and now calling someone a fool.

Well, what is this third?

And then note, note there's also an escalation

in the judgment, right?

If you're angry, if there's angry, or if you're angry,

you're in danger of judgment.

If you can give contempt or call someone an idiot,

that you could be in front of the council,

but if you say full,

gahana, hellfire, that seems like a massive escalation.

What why?

So the understanding that full then becomes

very, very important and understanding

what exactly is being said here.

So I want you to understand the structure here

is to intensify, all right?

So this is what I want you to understand.

What Jesus is doing here, he's not teaching us

necessarily a vocabulary list.

Okay, I can't call someone Raka.

So I can't call someone an idiot.

I can't call someone a fool.

So I'm gonna do better at what I call people.

I'm gonna try to find out.

No, Jesus is trying to expose the heart.

The Raka and the fool is coming from the anger.

So then it's gonna be like,

gahana, I'm not gonna try to be angry.

So we turn it into kind of like a moralistic idea.

Jesus is trying to expose something, all right?

So I just want you again to see in Matthew 5.21.

He doesn't start with a marginal sin.

He starts with one of the 10 commandments.

You shall not murder.

We see that in Exodus chapter 20 verse 13.

Deuteronomy chapter five, I believe verse 17, right?

So he starts with something everyone can understand, right?

And then just note, he does this, it intensifies, right?

So what he wants to do, I cannot stress this enough.

Verse 21, murder there in verse 21

is defined an external way.

Do not murder, do not kill someone.

Verse 21, verse 22, that same murder is now being exposed

but it's internal and it's verbal, right?

Think of it this way.

He's not moving from murder to insults.

He's moving from surface obedience to heart reality.

That's what you have to see here.

Now, I know what you're saying,

but you still didn't explain what it means

to call someone a fool.

I know we're gonna get there.

I'm gonna make sure we understand that.

But I want you to see the boundary, the structure,

the genre, I want you to see what's going on.

Jesus is trying to strip away and expose

what's going on on the inside.

So think of it this way.

You could be speaking to a bunch of people

who could be like, well, I've never murdered anyone.

I'm not a murderer, I've never killed someone.

So I'm righteous, I'm godly, I obey the 10 commandments.

And Jesus say, okay, that's what you've heard,

but I say unto you.

And then he goes from anger to rockah to fool.

And you end up from judgment, counsel to hell, fire.

Whoa, what is going on here?

He's trying to expose something deeper,

something that's we can all,

well, we nobody wants to admit to, right?

So there's layer number one.

That's boundary, that's structure, that's genre.

Layer number two, we'll talk about the voice

and kind of the historical situation here.

I think it's fair to say, Jesus is speaking to people

who would believe that they have kept the commandments.

And we see this throughout the New Testament

that especially the religious people,

the religious leaders, they all think that they've obeyed.

It's the notable sinners, it's the notorious sinners

in the gospels are like, yeah, we're messed up.

We violate everything, I'm not even worthy to look to you.

It's the others are like, I think the God

that I'm not like these other people.

So you have either people who can recognize

how sinful they are or you have people

who somehow perceive themselves

to be more righteous than they are.

And how can you perceive yourself

to be more righteous than you are

is by simply looking at the external act.

I've never killed anyone.

I've never murdered anyone.

Well, Jesus is going to try to demonstrate,

there's something more going on, all right?

So it's this assumption that they think

they've never murdered anyone that think Jesus

is simply dismantling.

So he's talking to people who would have really,

I've not killed anyone.

And he's going to try to dismantle this and show them,

no, actually you have, all right?

So he's dealing with people who, I mean,

especially you got to understand

the historical situation.

And the first century Jewish thought

murder was a capital crime.

Courts existed, councils existed,

judgment language was real.

So he's talking about to real people

in a real situation.

So when Jesus comes along and says,

hey, you're in danger of judgment, liable to judgment,

you're in danger to the council

or liable to the council.

And then when he says you're liable

or in danger of gahana or hellfire,

this is not exaggeration.

This is escalating accountability.

Okay, hey, if you do this,

you may be in danger of this court or this court,

but ultimately you could be in danger

of gahana, hellfire.

Whoa, now that's some serious accountability.

But say you still may think but but okay, I'm good

because I haven't killed anyone,

but he's going to try to dismantle your feelings of,

well, thinking you're okay.

Now, we go to layer number three,

that this is observation language and meaning, all right?

I think this is important.

Murder does not begin with blood.

Murder does not begin with blood.

This is not me saying it.

This is kind of a scriptural idea

that should already be somewhat familiar to you, right?

We could go to, we could go to first John,

we could go to first John

and you'll begin to see this almost immediately.

First John, chapter three, verse 15,

first John 3, 15,

whosoever hated his brother is a murderer

and you know that no murderer,

half eternal life abiding in him.

Well, that's serious.

Whoever, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer

and know that no murderer has eternal life

abiding in him.

Now, and that's first John 3, 15, first,

and first John, it does not say hatred leads to murder.

It says hatred is murder.

That's the same logic Jesus is using in Matthew chapter five.

I don't know what you'd understand that.

Hatred is murder.

It doesn't lead to murder.

It is murder from a theological perspective.

And this is what, this is so critical

and why so much of Christianity does not understand.

Even though Christianity says, no, no, no,

God calls for this deeper standard.

It's always this idea, God calls for a deeper standard,

but then we somehow convince ourselves

we are even obeying the deeper standard.

No, the point is the deeper standard

is the thing that condemns all of us.

So what we try to say, I don't hate them.

We always try to downplay it.

I don't hate them.

I just don't like them.

Okay.

Because we don't want to acknowledge what's really inside,

because in the minute you acknowledge

you have any hate inside of you, you have to acknowledge

you've murdered someone.

You are a murderer.

You are a murderer.

Just like, look, Jesus here in a minute,

and later on in the sermon on the mountain,

he's gonna demonstrate that almost everyone

in your church is an adulterer.

That person standing behind the pulpit is an adulterer.

He's like, well, he's never touched anyone.

Still an adulterer.

Your Sunday school teacher is an adulterer.

Your small group leader is an adulterer.

Yeah, your spouse is an adulterer.

Where everyone is an adulterer to some level.

And you're a murderer.

Now, see, we don't, we don't, we, we, we,

even though Jesus takes the law and does this,

we still, in our minds, the church operates under,

well, okay, there's still venial and mortal sins.

There's mortal and venial sins.

Okay, well, there's a difference here.

I understand we can draw a distinction

from a human perspective and our human understanding

of morality, but from a theological standpoint,

I'm sorry, you're a murderer.

You're an adulterer, you're a liar.

I mean, you're, you're, I mean, you're all these things.

I know you don't wanna be and I know you're gonna claim

that you're not, you're gonna claim,

you're gonna wrap yourself in a robe of self-righteousness.

Jesus here is exposing, oh, there's a whole lot

of murderers here.

So, so I wanted you to make sure you understand

a murder, this murder does not begin with blood.

Murder does not begin with blood.

It begins with hatred.

Now, what does Jesus begin with?

Go back to Matthew chapter five, verse 22.

But I say into you that whosoever is angry.

Ooh, Jesus begins with anger.

Why?

Why does Jesus begins with anger?

Well, I think in many cases, I think we can probably

make a good argument here.

Anger devalues a person.

It devalues a person.

I think when we become angry with someone,

it moves them from an image bearer to an obstacle,

to an enemy, to something disposable

because we're angry with them.

And I think that's the same internal logic

that leads to physical murder.

And if you look at James chapter four,

I think if you look at James chapter four,

James four, now this is kind of a hermeneutical hypothesis

here, you could probably argue with me here,

but James chapter four, verse one,

from whence come wars and fighting among you,

come they not hence, even of your lust

that war in your members, you lust and you have not,

you kill and you desire to have,

you cannot obtain, you fight and war,

yet you have not because you ask not.

Now, depending on how you understand it,

some translation has it, what causes quarrels

and what causes fights among you,

you desire and you do not have so you murder.

I think what, now whether you thinking

this is actual murder or James is referring to,

in a sense you have murdered in your heart,

the concept is still the same.

It all starts from internal sources.

It's inside of us.

It's a heart problem and look,

you may have never killed anyone.

You may have never murdered anyone,

but I guarantee you, you know what it means

to be angry at someone.

You know what it means to be angry at someone,

and you know the thoughts you've had

at those people you get angry with.

You know how you feel.

You may not, even if you've never articulated it,

at that moment when you're really angry,

oh, you've got some feelings inside of you,

and if you were to truly articulate them,

yeah.

So anger and contempt, well, I mean, it's murder.

It's a form of killing.

So when we get to Raka and you fool,

this is not necessarily about vocabulary, all right?

But we have to deal with this, all right?

Because I know immediately someone's gonna say,

but people are called fools all over the Bible.

Remember, this is going to the heart,

but we do have to understand this, all right?

So when we look at the count of people

being called a fool in the Bible,

typically when someone is referred to as a fool,

it's more about diagnosing their behavior.

For example, Psalm 14, one, the fool says in his heart,

there is no God.

Proverbs 17, fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 12, 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes.

Typically, when the word fool is being used in scripture,

it's describing someone's behavior.

It's describing their posture.

It's not a final verdict on a person's worth.

It's just, it's describing their actions.

It's describing their words.

But is there something different in Matthew 5.22?

And Matthew 5.22,

the word fool here, Matthew 5.22,

it's functioning is something different.

It's doing more than just saying,

hey, your actions, your posture.

No, no, it is, it's functioning as a condemnation.

It's not a correction, it's a condemning.

So in a sense in Matthew 5.22, when you say,

you fool, it's a verdict on the person.

You're making a final verdict on that person.

It's basically you are declaring that person is worthless.

It's your claim that you feel you have the moral authority

to condemn, you have the moral authority

to basically declare this person worthless,

unsavable, they're done, they're finished.

You're making a final judgment.

So you're escalating yourself

because you're angry, you make a judgment against them

as if you are the moral authority.

You're not instructing, you're not warning,

you're giving almost like a prophetic diagnosis.

Now, Jesus calls the Pharisees fools in Matthew 23,

but that's the eternal son of God.

That's a judicial exposure by the rightful judge.

It's not contempt from a fellow sinner.

It, no, that's Jesus who is without sin.

And that we got to remember that distinction.

So try to understand the logic Jesus is using.

Murder says your life has no value,

I'm going to kill you, I'm going to get rid of you.

When you call someone a fool

in the context of Matthew 5.22, you've gone beyond

just your anger.

Now you've gone beyond just referring to someone as Raka

or an idiot, you are now basically giving

someone full condemnation, full contempt.

And you're saying your life has no value.

You are worthless, you are useless.

You, yeah, you should be destroyed.

Think of it this way, physical murder,

you use a physical weapon, a physical tool

for the second, well, you're using words

and that comes from your heart.

The judgment of declaring this person worthless

is the same.

When you murder someone, you're like your worthless.

You can just be disposed of.

And your anger to call someone a fool,

it's the same level of contempt

and the same of disposing of someone.

So therefore the murder in Matthew 5.21

is the murder in Matthew 5.22

and you end up, well, you're murdering someone,

you're killing someone, you're declaring them unworthy,

you're declaring them worthless,

you're declaring them useless,

you're declaring them as disposable.

Now this concept here is,

as you want to make sure you understand this

and therefore we need to understand

kind of the place this in its broader context

and its canonical and theological context.

This is important.

Look at Jesus, because Jesus does the same,

he kind of goes with the same idea

and Matthew 15,

Matthew 15, 19,

for out of the heart,

precede evil thoughts, murders,

adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness

and blasphemy.

From the heart produces evil thoughts

and produces murder.

From your heart, you can murder.

From your heart comes actual murder.

The before a physical murder has occurred,

internal murder has already occurred.

You're a murderer before you murder.

You kill someone before you kill someone.

Luke chapter six.

Luke chapter six, verse 45.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart

brings forth that which is good

and evil man out of the evil treasure

of his heart brings forth that which is evil.

From the out of the abundance of the heart,

his mouth speaketh.

Your words flow from your heart.

Anger, your words reflect that anger.

Now this is very important, all right?

Matthew five, 22, is not a speech ethics lesson.

It's not a warning about bad language or mean words.

It's not a call for you to be nicer.

It is law and it's full force.

The purpose is to remove any self-justification.

I've never murdered anyone.

Oh, yes you have.

It is to try to show you that murder is far more common

than you want to admit.

Most of your churches made up of murderers.

Your family is made up of murderers.

You are a murderer.

And then it wants to expose that you stand guilty

even without shedding anyone's actual physical blood.

See, most people may be able to say,

I haven't murdered anyone, but no one can say,

almost no one can say, I've never murdered anyone

in my heart.

And that's the point because you have called someone a fool.

You have shown complete and utter contempt, condemned them.

You've acted like you're morally superior

and you've declared your moral verdict against them.

You've made your declaration against them

as if you are God.

Now, Gahana here, hellfire, or the, the, the, the,

the Gahana of fire, it's not attached just to a random insult

here, it's really in this particular context

is being attached to murder.

If hatred and contempt are murder,

well then you're in danger of hell for murder

and you are a murder, but it goes beyond just the physical murder.

So is Matthew 522 saying full sends you directly to hell?

No, I think it's teaching something even far more disturbing.

That murder does not require blood.

It only requires a heart willing to condemn

another person as worth less.

You dehumanize, you condemn,

you say things about them and listen to many Christians talk.

And if you want, all you want to do,

if you really want to see the murderers in your midst,

all you really need to do is just bring up politics,

just bring up politics and a lot, watch the,

and I can't speak for Christian women,

but let the Christian men start talking.

Oh, these idiot liberals, these,

and they'll start calling them names and start,

and it's like, oh wow, it sounds like you're describing

these people as worthless, you're dehumanizing them.

You are condemning them.

Wow, they may be liberals, and they may be woke,

and they may be snowflakes, and they may be libtards

or whatever other ridiculous term you want to use,

but you, sir, are a murderer and you deserve to go to hell.

So maybe instead of worrying about the liberals,

you may want to look in the mirror and realize

you are a murderer and be broken and fall

at the feet of Christ begging for mercy

because you are guilty of killing people.

Listen to some pastors talk about homosexuals

or transgender, listen to them.

Listen to the murder that will take place.

This is to condemn us.

So, let me read it this way.

You've heard that our ancestors were told

you must not murder, and if you commit murder,

you are subject to judgment, but I say unto you,

if you are even angry with someone,

you're subject to judgment.

If you call someone an idiot,

you're in danger of being brought before the court,

and if you curse someone,

you are in danger of the fires of hell.

It's where you're condemning, you're destroying,

you're saying you're useless, you're saying you're worthless.

Have you murdered anyone today?

No, I don't know, maybe today you're doing pretty good.

Maybe, maybe, let's just start with anger.

Now, I know we like to justify our anger.

We'll even say, well, the Bible says be angry and said not,

you can try to justify it all day long.

Let me know, just a minute anger shows up, you're in danger.

Let me know, just a minute anger shows up,

you're in danger.

It's wonderful to say be angry and said not,

that's wonderful, that's great.

How difficult it is in your anger not to sin,

but the point is your anger puts you in a very dangerous place

because your anger, and even in Matthew five,

depending if you have the textual variant there,

not anger without a cause.

Now, I know you'll try to justify your cause,

but there's a lot of self-serving,

a lot of trying to justify yourself,

a lot of trying to make ourselves look better than we are.

In the reality, we gotta realize that we dehumanize,

we treat people as worthless,

we utter our final verdict as we have moral authority

to judge and to condemn.

And when we do that, in many cases,

we're murdering that person.

And when we murder someone, well, then you're a murderer,

and you deserve the fires of hell.

Now, this is not about, I'm gonna try harder.

No, this is about the only one who never murdered anyone

is the eternal son of God who preached the law

to show us that we will fail and violate the law.

So we need someone who will keep the law on our behalf,

which is Jesus Christ, he obeyed this,

he did not murder anyone, and by faith in him,

his obedience to this law is imputed to my counsel.

I stand before God as if I've never murdered anyone externally

or internally, I am perfect and holy in Christ.

And practice, unfortunately, most likely,

I may end up murdering someone before the day is over.

Now, and if you wanna see how Jesus escalates this,

just so that you see, so you feel the full weight of the law,

all right?

So he goes here that we could be murderers, right?

Then it goes all the way here, and we can continue reading.

Then he's gonna escalate it,

and this is where we're gonna end up in 29 and 30.

You've heard that it was said by them

of all time, thou shall not commit adultery.

Again, all right, I've never committed adultery.

We haven't ever touched anyone,

but I see into you, whosoever looketh on a woman

who lusts after her, have committed adultery with her

already in his heart, heart adultery.

And heart adultery, you're being condemned

just as if you committed physical adultery.

Now, we will draw the distinction

and I understand that, right?

You know the church does that.

You can have 75 people sitting in the church

who are adulterers, all adulterers.

They are all adulterers because they've committed adultery

in the heart, in their mind, in their desire.

They're all there.

Someone will commit physical adultery,

and then the people in the church

will render a judgment against the one

who committed physical adultery,

may excommunicate them, say they're disqualified,

throw them out of everything, and say,

you're not, well, they all sit there as guilty adulterers.

It's kind of crazy.

Hey, those young people committed fornication.

Let's judge them.

You're a stinkin' adulterer.

Why are you rendering?

Well, they did it physically.

I only do it in my mind.

See, the church is very weird

in how we draw these distinctions.

And the law says, you're guilty.

And we're like, well, you're guilty,

but at least it's better than not being guilty of that.

But the law says you're guilty.

And we don't really feel the full weight of that guilt

unless we commit a certain physical acts,

then we're like, okay, now I feel horrible.

Now I'm in, oh, no, but before God,

He's like, you're an adulterer, you're an murderer.

Now again, this gets taught in church, okay.

Then how can we stop being murderers?

How can we stop being adulterers?

And then it gives you 75 things to do.

You need a filter, do this,

you need a accountability partner,

and it gives you 75 things to do.

And the point is, I'm sorry,

we're going to be guilty

and we're going to be condemned by it.

But then the hell fire comes in in verse 29 and 30.

If you're right, I offended the,

pluck it out and cast it from the,

for it is profitable for the that,

that one of thy members should perish

and not thy whole body should be cast into hell.

There's, there's where hell.

Gahana shows up again.

Now what is going on here?

What is going on here?

How do we understand?

What is the threat of, hey, start ripping off parts of your body?

So obviously whatever hell is is pretty bad.

If you don't want to go,

it would be better for you to rip off parts of your body

than to actually go into hell.

That's like what, so that says a lot about what Gahana is.

But it also says,

what is the threat of, hey,

start ripping off parts of your body?

So obviously whatever hell is is pretty bad.

It also is like, well, wait a minute.

Can you stop the adultery at the heart by ripping out your eye

and cutting off your hand?

Or you know, whatever thing you're going to pluck off?

Yeah, so what's going on?

Once again, I think the law is there to ultimately expose.

So are you a murderer today?

Well, I'm sorry to inform you, you are.

The only one who saves you is Christ, who isn't.

All right, I know that kind of takes us a little way

from Gahana and Hell,

but we had to deal with it to some level.

We had to.

All right, I hope that makes sense.

I did the best I could trying to make it make sense.

Yeah, there we go.

So thanks for listening.

Everyone have a great Sunday.

I don't know if we'll hopefully maybe we'll get another

episode in today, we will see.

I don't know.

It would be good to get some other things accomplished,

but we're doing the best we can.

So thank you.

Have a great day and well.

Hey, to say it, you're a murderer.

God bless.