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Jesus strips us stark naked of our self-righteousness
and says, if you're angry with a brother
or if you hate somebody, you're a murderer.
Jesus is saying, even if you don't do the killing,
if your heart is full of anger and hate you're a murderer,
hate brings you nearer to murder than any other emotion.
And hate is merely the extension of what?
Anger.
Welcome to Grace To You, the Bible Teaching Ministry of John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
If someone accused you of ever lying or ever hurting someone
with an unkind word, you'd have to say,
yes, guilty as charged.
But something as serious as murder.
That's way beyond anything you've ever done, right?
Or is it?
Answering that question starts by understanding
what Jesus Himself said about sin.
Not just sinful behavior, but the sinful attitudes
that no one can see.
Today on Grace To You, John MacArthur moves beyond
a shallow view of sin to expose the heart motivations
where sin takes root.
As John continues his study titled,
a sinfulness of sin.
And now with today's lesson, here is John MacArthur.
Matthew chapter 5 and verse 21,
I've titled this passage, Who Is A Murderer?
Because I really think that's what our Lord is talking about.
Now notice what our Lord says in verse 21.
You have heard it said by them of old,
thou shalt not kill.
Where did that come from?
Well, if you know anything about the revelation of God,
you know it came basically from Exodus chapter 20
when God gave the decalogue and said,
thou shalt not kill.
But Scripture has a lot more to say about murder than just that.
In fact, if we go back even in the book of Genesis,
we find in the ninth chapter in the sixth verse this statement,
who so shedith man's blood by man shall his blood be shed?
Genesis 9, 6, instituted capital punishment
as a penalty for murder.
And the reason is given in the same verse
for in the image of God made he man.
To take the life of a human being is to assault the image of God
he created in man and that brings about serious penalty.
And so Genesis 9 authorizes capital punishment
for those who shed blood because man is made in the image of God.
Now if you were to study Exodus 20,
you would find that the word thou shalt not kill means murder.
It means murder.
It does not refer to capital punishment.
That is taking a life under divine allowance.
It does not refer to a just war.
Oh, there were times in God's economy of Israel.
There are times in God's plan for history when there are conflicts on a national level
carrying out certain exercises of the will of God in judgment upon some nations
where there might be an allowance for killing
and it would not be considered murder.
I do not believe that the text of Exodus 20 has anything to do with self-defense.
I think that we have the right to protect the image of God in our lives
and the lives of our families and those about us when they are assaulted
and attacked by those who would kill us.
But what the Bible is talking about is murder.
Murder, planned, plotted to some degree, murder.
In Exodus 21, in verse 14, we redis.
But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile or deceit,
thou shalt take him from mine altar that he may die.
Again, God reiterates the punishment of capital, punishment, or death for the one
who presumptuously comes in a premeditative way to take the life of his neighbor.
In Numbers 35, we have some further word from God about this, it says.
If he smite him with an instrument of iron so that he die, he is a murderer.
The murderer shall surely be put to death.
In other words, if a man takes an instrument of iron and crushes the skull of another,
he is a murderer, he is to die.
And if he smite him with throwing a stone wherewith he may die and he die, he is a murderer.
The murderer shall surely be put to death.
Or if he smite him with a hand weapon of wood wherewith he may die and he die, he is a
murderer.
The murderer shall surely be put to death.
The avenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer.
In other words, the society was to protect itself by taking the life of the one who indiscriminately
premeditatively took the life of another.
And it goes on in Deuteronomy 35 to discuss other such situations where murder occurs.
Now if you know anything about the Bible, you know that this was the very first human crime.
In Genesis chapter 4, it says this, and Cain talked with Abel his brother, came to pass
when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and murdered him.
And of course God said, what has thou done?
The voice of thy brother's blood cries unto me from the ground.
And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand.
And so it is that from the first human crime, murder, on through the revelation of God,
murder is a biblical issue.
Now if we study the Scripture, we know how God feels about it, it is forbidden.
It is punishable by death.
We learn other things about murder in the Bible.
For example, we learn that murder is a crime authored by the devil himself.
John 844 says the devil is a murderer.
And murder is basically authored by Satan.
We find something else about murder.
In Matthew chapter 15, for example, in verse 19, we find that murder is a manifestation
of an evil human heart.
Matthew 15 and 19 says, for out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
renecations, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, now listen to me, murders, thefts, and all
that other stuff do not happen because of social deprivation.
They happen because of a degenerated human heart.
Murder does not happen because of stressful situations, it happens because it's authored
by Satan himself.
In Romans chapter 1 and verse 29, it says that man has been given over to a reprobate
mind and as a result of a reprobate mind, he is filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, etc.
Man is a murderer because he has a reprobate mind that has been given over to evil because
he rejects God.
So that murder is a crime authored by the devil.
It is a crime that comes out of the evil human heart.
In Galatians 5, 21, Paul tells us that murder is an act of the flesh.
It is a deed done by unregenerated human nature.
We learn also in the Bible that murder is an abomination to God.
In Proverbs 6, verses 16 and 17, the Bible says there are six things that
the Lord hates, yey seven are an abomination unto him, and it lists this, hands, the shed,
innocent blood.
Murder is abominable to God.
Murder is an act of an unregenerated human flesh.
Murder is a manifestation of an evil heart.
Murder is authored by the devil himself.
Murder is punishable by death because it is an intrusion into life which is created
in the image of God.
To show you how seriously God views murder, it says in Revelation 22 and verse 14,
blessed are they that wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and
enter in through the gates into the city.
For outside are dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers.
The kingdom of God and the eternal state is not a place for murderers.
Now the list of biblical murderers is long and we could spend all night and all through
the night talking about them.
The Old Testament lists a lot of murderers.
I'll suggest a few for your memory.
One, Lamek, Pharaoh, Abimolek, Joab, the Amalekites, David, Absalom, Zimri, Jezebel,
J.U.
Athalia, Joash, Manasseh.
The New Testament lists some others.
Herod, Judas, the High Priest, Brabus, Herodius, her daughter, and that's a partial list.
The biblical history and modern history are literally filled with murderers.
From keen to today, right now, we've had murderers in human society.
You know, when you think about a person who is a murderer, when you think about the kind
of a man who can assault 33 little boys, stuff them in plastic bags and bury them in the
ground, you shudder because it's almost an inhuman thing.
We can't hardly relate to that.
We may relate a little easier to somebody who in a heated argument takes a gun and
shoots somebody.
We may relate a little more to a fight where somebody gives someone a blow that takes
their life, but it's all the same to God.
We shudder, frankly, at the thought of murder.
We're afraid of it.
We don't like to walk the dark streets of certain towns or of our own city in certain
places.
We worry about getting double locks on our doors for fear somebody might come and kill
us.
I know what it's like to have the experience of having your life threatened and I know
what it's like to have people say they're going to take your life and perhaps you've
lived through some anticipation or fantasy like that or even a reality like that.
Now if we are sort of sick inside to think about such a crime as murder, we identify
well with the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus is speaking to.
For in Matthew 5 through 7, our Lord is addressing the scribes and Pharisees on a hillside
in Galilee along with the rest of the multitude.
But here in particular, He refers to their approach to life.
Look again at verse 21.
You have heard that it was said by them of old thou shalt not murder and whosoever shall
kill shall be in danger of judgment.
Stop right there.
Now Jesus is saying, you know, you believe that it's wrong to murder because if you do,
you'll be in danger of judgment.
And at that point the scribes and the Pharisees would have said, Amen, we're against murder.
We have been taught by them of old, by the rabbinical tradition that murder is an evil thing.
In fact, the thought that they did not murder, now listen to this, this is the key.
The thought that they did not commit murder was one way in which they convinced themselves
they were righteous.
We would not murder, we would never murder anyone.
And consequently we must be righteous.
We have kept the law of God thou shalt not kill, we wouldn't murder anyone.
And so they're not murdering was one of their favorite ways to justify themselves.
Jesus said, your righteousness has to exceed that.
They had convinced themselves because they didn't kill anybody, they were holy.
They were righteous.
Jesus blows that concept to bits.
The first point, Jesus words to them affects their own self righteousness.
They thought they were righteous because they didn't kill.
Now it was rabbinic law that they adhered to.
Notice again in verse 21, you have heard that it was said by them of old.
Now Jesus here is reminding them of rabbinic tradition.
He's not referring to the law of Moses, he's not referring necessarily to the word of God.
Them of old were the rabbis.
This is a common formula referring to their past rabbinical teaching.
Your religious system is what he's saying.
Your system of Judaism, your traditional system, your teaching says you are not to kill because
if you do you're in danger of judgment.
You've been taught that.
That is the tradition that's passed down to you.
And you remember that I told you last time that the Jewish people at the time of Jesus
were totally dependent upon this tradition because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew.
Remember I told you that?
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew.
They did not any longer speak Hebrew since the Babylonian captivity and following they spoke
Aramaic.
And so the Hebrew scriptures were lost to them in a sense.
And so they couldn't really read and understand the Hebrew for themselves.
And so the rabbis, the scribes and the Pharisees and the others would tell them what it meant.
And this gave them a tremendous power over the people because the people couldn't verify
whether it was true or not.
You remember that when they came back from captivity or remember they picked up the Scripture
and Ezra Nehemiah's time and they read the Scripture.
It says that they read the Scripture to the people and gave the sense of it.
It says in Nehemiah chapter 8 they had to give the sense of it because the people couldn't
understand it.
And it continued even till Jesus day so that the people were not people of the book.
They themselves did not read the Word of God, the Old Testament.
They listened to what the traditional rabbis taught and they twisted and perverted it to
their own ends.
But every now and then the things they taught did have a biblical, scriptural base such
as this.
You look at verse 21 again and it says, thou shalt not kill.
Now you know that is biblical, that is biblical.
They were right on at that point.
Further, you'll notice it says, whose so ever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment.
That's true also.
I read you numbers 35, 30 and 31.
It says right in there that when someone commits murder, they're to die.
So this rabbinic tradition was true.
They were right on at this point.
That was all right.
It was basically scriptural.
But the point that Jesus is making here is it doesn't go far enough.
That much is true, but there's so much more.
You have taken part of God's law.
You have interpreted it only partially and then satisfied yourself with keeping your
partial interpretation and therefore justifying yourself.
And you'll notice, interestingly enough, it says, whoever does this shall be in danger
of judgment.
And by the way, the term judgment here refers to the local court, the local court.
I want you to think about this.
What he is saying is this.
Our teaching says, you must not murder, now watch, because if you murder, you will be
in danger of being punished by the civil court.
Do you get that?
Now what's wrong with that?
It doesn't go far enough, does it?
Their full interpretation of the sixth commandment of the decalogue was this, don't kill because
if you do, you'll get in trouble with the law, or what about God?
Or what about God's holy character?
Well, that didn't even enter into the discussion.
They had made this so mundane, they didn't even mention God, they didn't even mention
divine judgment.
They said nothing about inner attitudes, they said nothing about the heart.
All they said was, don't murder, you'll get in a lot of trouble.
Very superficial.
Their interpretation stopped short, and because they didn't murder and didn't get in trouble,
they decided they were self-righteous, self-justified, perfectly happy about themselves, justified
before God.
We don't kill, but listen, they forgot to read the rest of the Old Testament, because
the rest of the Old Testament says that God, watch this, desires truth in the inward
parts, Psalm 51 6.
The rest of the Old Testament says that thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all their
hearts, so mind-strength thy neighbors, I self.
The rest of the Old Testament says that God who knows the hearts and tries the hearts of
men will judge.
In other words, the part of God's law, they left out was the internal part.
It wasn't enough for you not to kill, God was concerned about what was going on inside.
They had restricted the scope of God's commandments to an earthly court.
They had restricted the scope of God's commandment to an act of murder, and that's why Jesus
goes on in verse 22 and says this, but I say unto you, let me tell you what God really
meant by that word in Exodus.
Let me give you the right interpretation, whosoever is angry with his brother, without
a cause, and by the way, in the King James, it says without a cause, it's not in the best
manuscripts.
Let's leave it out.
Whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of judgment, and whosoever
shall say to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council, and whosoever shall
say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire.
Jesus simply says, it isn't the issue of murder alone, it's the issue of anger and hatred
in your heart.
You cannot justify yourself because you don't kill, because if it's hatred in your heart,
you are the same as a murderer.
And so I say the first point in this statement is that Jesus' words affected their own self-righteousness.
It affected how they viewed themselves, how we view ourselves.
We do this all the time, and we say, oh, you know, that category of people that murder
I would never do that, and yet sometimes we get so angry on the inside with someone.
We mock people, we make cursed people, we may feel bitterness toward people, we may nurse
grudges toward people, we have unrecconciled feelings toward people, and our Lord Jesus is
saying that is the same as murder, because God looks at the heart.
And so when He says, I say unto you, He swept aside all the rabbinical rubbish, and He
put the emphasis where the emphasis belonged, He stripped them of their self-righteousness,
He said in effect, who is a murderer?
I'll tell you who is a murderer, anybody who is angry with His brother, anybody, you're
a murderer.
That's pretty straightforward, isn't it?
Pretty devastating.
It strips the Pharisees' bear, and it doesn't do a bad job on us either, frankly.
Murder is murder's root, and our Lord says anger and murder merit equal punishment.
In verse 22, He's saying, you're in danger of the judgment, you're in danger of the counsel,
you're in danger of hellfire.
And so, frankly, who is a murderer?
The answer is all of us, all of us, listen to 1 John 3, 15, whosoever hates his brother
is a murderer, do you hear that?
Brethren hates his brother's a murderer, and brother here is used in a broad and generic
sense in terms of social relationships, people in your life, not your spiritual brother,
because nobody listening to Jesus at that point would have understood the brotherhood
of believers.
You have hatred, you're a murderer, you have anger, you're a murderer.
And in God's eyes, it's no different than a man who goes out and does the crime.
You know, it's amazing to me how we justify ourselves.
Everybody does that.
Even the worst of men justify themselves, you know that?
Even the worst of men justify themselves in May of, in May of 1931, the city of New York,
witnessed the capture of one of the most dangerous criminals that that city had known until
that time.
It was known as Two Gun Crowley.
Two gun Crowley, they said, would kill it the drop of a hat.
He brutally murdered many people, even finally brutally murdering policemen.
What did he think of himself?
We know what he thinks of himself or what he thought of himself, because finally he
was captured in his girlfriend's apartment after a long and arduous gun battle involving
at least a hundred policemen.
And when they finally got him, there was a blood-stained note there because he was severely
wounded.
This is what the note said, under my coat is a weary heart, but a kind one.
One that would do nobody any harm.
End quote.
You say, that's absurd.
Yeah, but you see, that's the depth to which a human heart will go to justify itself.
Here is someone who would do nobody any harm?
Who's he kidding?
He was later executed in the electric chair.
You see, even the worst of men exonerate themselves to say nothing of the best of men
who would think, oh, I would never put myself in that category and Jesus strips us stark
naked of our self-righteousness and says, if you're angry with a brother or if you hate
somebody you're a murderer, pretty serious.
Jesus is saying, even if you don't do the killing, if your heart is full of anger and
hate you're a murderer, hate brings you nearer to murder than any other emotion.
And hate is merely the extension of what?
Anger.
Anger, hatred leads to murder.
It is the common source of killing.
And by the way, hatred and anger can even kill you because it can eat you alive on the
inside.
And so Jesus strikes hard to show us, beloved, listen to this.
What he's trying to show is that even the best of men, if the truth were known are the
worst of men.
You're listening to Grace To You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
John's current series is titled The Sinfulness of Sin.
Now, friend, this study is penetrating and convicting, but if all you take away from
these messages, conviction, you have no hope.
So if after hearing today's message, you're realizing, wow, my sin is worse than I thought,
and there's no way I can ever measure up to God's standard.
You need to know what the next step to take is.
So here is that next step, explained by John MacArthur.
That that is the very point at which you in your desperation or in the words of Jesus
are burdened and heavy laden with your sin will find grace.
You know, Paul is the model of that, isn't he?
I was a murderer.
I was a blasphemer, but the Lord saved me.
And not only did he save me, he says in 1 Timothy, but he made me an apostle.
He elevated me.
He lifted me up.
This is a man who was a blasphemer and a murderer.
And he wasn't just murdering anybody.
He was essentially bent on murdering people who believed in Jesus Christ, Christians.
And the Lord made him the apostle who wrote 13 books of the New Testament.
What more do you need to know about grace than that story?
And it wasn't that Paul came to his senses on his own and said, hey, I got to change
my life.
I got to get out of this blasphemy bit and come to the Lord.
No.
He was going to Damascus to arrest more Christians and persecute and maybe murder them when the
Lord appeared on the road to Damascus, struck him blind and converted him right in a heavenly
miraculous act that wasn't planned by Paul at all.
It wasn't some course correction or some decision on his part.
It was an interruption from heaven.
You might think that, well, the Lord could have picked some more prepared people, maybe
some rabbis, some Old Testament scholars who didn't have lives like that, why him?
Because he's a trophy of grace.
It's like the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, where you have harlots in the genealogy
of Jesus, which is a message that get ready because the Messiah has come through grace
extended to even the worst of human beings.
So I think the message in all of the sinfulness of sin is that no sin puts you beyond salvation
except the sin of unbelief.
That's right, friend, and that's good news.
Jesus has come extending His grace to the whole world, and we're here each day teaching
that good news, explaining biblical truth, helping you know what it means to follow Christ.
If that kind of ministry resonates with you, consider partnering with us when you contact
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You can mail your tax deductible donation to Grace to You, Post Office Box 4,000, Panorama
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You can also donate online at gty.org.
Through your support, you help bring verse by verse Bible teaching to people in communities
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Again, to express your support, call 855 Grace, or go to gty.org.
And keep in mind, you can download John's current series from Matthew 5, called the Sinfulness
of Sin, free of charge at gty.org.
And for a deeper study of the gospel of Matthew, John has written a four-volume commentary
on that book.
To order the first volume which covers the material in our current radio study, or to purchase
all four volumes, call 855 Grace, or go to gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson.
Watch Grace to You television this Sunday on Direct TV Channel 378.
And join us tomorrow when John MacArthur continues unpacking the Sinfulness of Sin, and
the glorious gift of forgiveness made possible by Christ.
It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth in one verse at a time, on Grace to
You.
