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Amen, all right. We're continuing this evening with the book of matthew and this is actually the second part to chapter five My voice keeps cutting in and out i'm losing my voice. I don't know why Since sunday and so forgive me if I crack a little bit and please don't make fun of me. All right All right, so we're going to start in verse 21 Well, let me actually just do a little bit of review from the first half of chapter five, of course from last week We went over what's commonly known as the beatitudes And essentially what this is It's uh god's definition of what a blessing is right and it's obviously contrary to what the world believes But he is essentially describing what it means to actually be blessed and we see that in the first couple verses Culminating to the fact that it's a blessing to be persecuted For christ's sake right? He says there in verse number 10 blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake For theirs is the kingdom of heaven and so we see all these blessings but one of the greatest blessings that a christian can ever have is to be persecuted for their faith and the reason for that is Because the bible says yea all that will live godly in christ. Jesus shall suffer persecution And when we look at persecution in the bible, obviously, it's synonymous with tribulation But it's not just any tribulation. It's tribulation That's a result of you living a godly life because there are people out there that suffer tribulation But it's because they're an idiot, you know what I mean? It's because they're doing stupid stuff They're suffering as the bible says as a murderer as a thief as an evildoer And not necessarily because they're serving god And so we want to suffer as a christian because we're living out christian principles Because of the fact that according to the bible there's actually a great reward for people who suffer for righteousness' sake He says there that there's exceeding great reward for us and not only that When we suffer tribulation for righteousness sake the bible tells us that we are in good company because the bible says that the prophets of old Also are persecuted in like manner and so we recognize that there's people who have exemplified That type of godliness that merits Persecution tribulation so on and so forth and it tells us to rejoice over that and so we conclude That first half with talking about that and of course he he he goes into being the salt of the earth And the importance of having those that property of being salt salt obviously preserved and we think of christians We're sent to this world to preserve souls from going to hell By giving them the gospel you think of joseph when he went into egypt, you know, he told his brothers You know, he meant it into evil but god meant it into good to save much people alive right to preserve life there And in like manner we're sent forth as ambassadors for christ to give people the gospel and be salty christians and thereby getting people saved But in this at the same time salt is also an irritant if you're to pour salt on an open wound That would be very painful and it's irritating, right? So in like manner the preaching of the gospels to them to perish foolishness But into us which are saved is the power of god But also just the preaching of the council of god is going to make a lot of people mad. It's going to irritate a lot of people It's it's going to expose listen to this the open wound of sin in our society the open wound of sin In people's lives and so that's going to irritate a lot of people and so god wants us to be that salt And if you're not a salty christian, the bible says that you've lost your savior. Okay, and if you lost your savior Jesus said you're good for nothing christian, but to be cast down to be trotted under the foot of men This is essentially describing a christian who lets the world walk all over them Because they're not salty enough, right? and he goes into being the light of the world the importance of letting our Works be displayed in this world so as to cause people to glorify god because of it and then uh The next couple verses i'm actually going to explain going into the second half Because they relate to what we're going to talk about tonight Now, let me just say this when going through verses 21 through 48 Till the end of the chapter. Let me just say a couple things regarding that first and foremost What we're going to look at tonight Is an example of jesus christ Amplifying the laws of god because we're going to see a lot of things that we see in the old testament that are particular laws That are not done away with okay, but we're going to see god amplifying those laws and setting a higher standard, okay? Based upon those commandments another thing that I want you to notice is the fact that or take into account Is that the section that we're going to read tonight? Listen listen very closely the section that we're going to read tonight. We need to interpret that section based upon verse 17 And verse 20, okay So when we look at this chapter tonight, we look at all these commandments. We need to keep verse 17 in mind Look at verse 17. It says think not that i'm come to destroy the law So he says that right before going into the section Why because he wants the reader to know the listeners to know? Hey, i'm not destroying the law i'm not doing away with the law I'm, not making it null and void He's not repealing the law Okay, he's not coming to destroy the law And the prophets or the prophets. Excuse me. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill so as you read This second half of matthew chapter five. We need to keep that in mind He said why are you making such a big deal about it because christians today? Read this and automatically think that what jesus is doing is saying oh, you know basically The old testament laws are basically done away with it's not important to god or whatever But we just got finished reading in verse 17 that he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill them. Okay So we need to keep that in mind The second thing that we need to keep in mind when we read the second half and pay attention here is verse 20 It says for I say to you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribe and of the pharisees You shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven He said why should I keep that in mind? when reading this passage here Well because of the fact that when you look at these commandments that god is giving that jesus christ is giving here And the fact that he's amplifying it. He's he's kind of going above and beyond he's setting the standard the bar pretty high You kind of wonder like who's able to keep all this and the answer is nobody. No one can right? Okay And he's saying there in verse 20 Your righteousness needs to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the pharisees not because they're righteous But because outwardly they have that outward righteous piety about themselves And he's saying if you can't if you can't exceed their righteousness, you can't be saved, you know And obviously we know that they're not righteous. The only righteous one is jesus christ himself. Okay He's the only one who's perfect. He's the only one who's righteous And we can in and of ourselves save ourselves based upon our works We can't even keep any of the things that are mentioned here in this particular chapter So we need to recognize that jesus is going to amplify the laws first and foremost But secondly, we need to interpret it. We need to interpret what's going to be stated based upon verse 17 and based upon verse number 20 Now with that being said, let's go into verse 21 here He started he begins to say ye have heard that it had been said by them of old time Now this is a phrase that's going to keep coming up five times in this particular chapter and the reason for that is because He's essentially repeating or he's stating what the law said in times past now There's a lot of debate as to whether the last one is something that the bible states and i'm going to address that At the end of the sermon when we go through verse 43 But for the most part when you look at the other four when he says when you have you have heard by them of old time He is quoting the old testament, okay? And so let's start off by looking at that He says of all time thou shall not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment pretty clear cut and dry, right? Basically don't murder and anybody who murders is in danger of judgment. They're in danger of Essentially being put to death. Okay because of a capital crime Or just the judgment of god if you were to apply it to christians and we'll get into the application of christians in just a bit So it's just a basic command there and it says in 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 hell fire Now before I explain to you what this passage means Let me also make the statement that this sermon also known as the sermon on the mount that goes from chapters five six and seven He's addressing his disciples, right? So people who are saved but you got to keep in mind that there's people from judea dicopolis Galilee there's possibly a mixed multitude of people there. Wouldn't you agree that there's probably people here are not saved You know if you're to have a church of a thousand people probably the vast majority of the people there Are saved if they if it's a bible believe in church, they preach the right gospel But you might have a sprinkling of a few who are not saved How much more when he's preaching to a multitude outdoors people are coming to hear him there's going to be people there who are not safe, but the sermon is directed towards christians because he Is addressing the disciples as we see in the beginning of the chapter And so this is going to apply to unsafe people and we're going to see the secondary application to It applies to unsafe people but we're going to see the application to save people as well. So what does he mean here? when he talks about Those who are angry with their brother Shall be in danger of judgment people who say raka danger of counsel People who call other people a fool danger of hellfire. Well right off the bat. We know that if a person Is not saved The bible tells us that whosoever keepeth the whole law yet offended one point he's guilty of all And if you've gone soul winning for any length of time if you've preached the gospel for any length of time Most people at the door feel like they're going to go to heaven because they're a good person Okay, and possibly they even have in their mind. Well, i've never killed anybody I've never committed murder and they're probably right about that Although, you know, you know, we've ran into people who said i've committed murder, you know I've ran into at least one person like that in my ministry and also I remember someone in omani Uh preaching the gospel someone they're like, yeah, I killed someone, you know, it was I committed murder, you know, but for the most part the majority of people you speak to probably are not murderers And if they are they're not going to divulge that information Most people are going to think they deserve and they merit eternal life because they haven't done something as criminal as murder, right? And so he's addressing this crowd. He's telling them you've heard that, you know, obviously killing is wrong But let me just say that even being angry with your brother is wrong and you're in danger of judgment Why because when someone kills an individual physically it starts in the heart with anger And what we're going to look at here in this chapter is that much of the issues that jesus christ is addressing Are the issues of the heart? Where sin actually begins and he's saying look if you're angry with your brother without a cause you're in danger of judgment He says if you say to your brother raca, which quite frankly we don't necessarily know exactly what that means You know raca, but if you're to take it based upon its context, it's just like an insult of some sort Okay It doesn't really matter. We don't use that term today You know, but he says you're in danger of the council And he says if you call anybody a fool you're in danger of hellfire So he's basically raising the standard saying you may have not committed murder. You may have not killed anybody But you've been angry with someone in your heart at one point You've said raca to someone and you probably called someone a fool at which point you're still guilty of being a sinner And therefore you're in danger of hellfire, okay Pretty simple there Now, how would we apply this to christians though? Because he's addressing christians here as well Well, we obviously know that if we do all these things we're not going to lose our salvation. Okay? And you know workspace salvationists will like to use this these passages of scripture to try to teach that If we do these things then we can lose it because it says that we're in danger of hellfire, right? Now go to james chapter 3 if you would james chapter number three Because there's a secondary application that we can gather from this for believers And that is that if you're angry with your brother in your heart without a cause If you say rock or insult your brother or call someone a fool. Yeah, you are in danger of hellfire not literal damnation But a world of hell basically that that can that can sprout and result From that type of speech. Okay. Look at james chapter three And verse number five it says here even so the tongue is a little member and boasted great things Behold how great a little matter Excuse me, how great a matter a little fire kindleth and the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature And is set on fire of hell the bible says what does that mean you can create a lot of chaos With your tongue, right? You call someone a fool You can create a lot of damage and as the bible's and obviously james chapter 3 is not talking about literal hell, right? It's not like your your your your tongue can kindle Hell and make someone go to hell or whatever it's referring to the fact that it can create a lot of chaos It can create a lot of problems Problems it can get you punched in the face It can get you beat up You know i've known and i've been in that position in high school where I mouthed off to the wrong person And I said on course the nature of the the I kindled fire I kindled hell There's people who had ought against me and I suffered for that greatly Because of the fact that I was not able to control my tongue So, yeah, you know matthew chapter 5 when talking about this particular subject may not apply to christians as in them going to hell that applies to unsafe people because of the fact that This chapter is essentially stripping people of their righteousness Helping them to realize that there's none righteous. No, not one because if you keep if you Whosoever keep the whole law and you've offended in one point. You're already guilty of all Yeah, you may not have committed murder, but you've been angry with your brother in your heart You may have insulted someone called someone a fool at which point you're basically still guilty but for christians we can apply this and saying well, you know if you Death and life are in the power of the tongue And there are certain individuals that their mouth called for strokes What do you mean by that? I mean, there's some people that just mouth off and sometimes You know, they just deserve a slap in the mouth or something like that At which point hopefully they give you the other cheek as we're going to look at in this passage. Amen Now i'm not saying that you should slap them. I'm not saying that you should punch them I'm, not saying that christians should ever get involved in that I'm, just saying the nature of the beast in the world in which we live in Just take it from me because I have experience with this Is that there's certain people that mouth off not understanding that there's consequences to those actions And don't be that person who just mouths off and insults people and calls them fools and just kind of degrades them and insults them And not think that there's no consequences to those actions, okay, and so go back to matthew chapter five So he talks about the law of not killing Thou shall not kill That's what has been said of old in the old testament. However, let's expand on that a little further because obviously not everyone's a murderer But if you've been angry with your brother in your heart, you've already committed sin if you are Insulting them calling them a fool and it's also an indication that you are bitter towards someone you have resentment towards an individual That you need to get right. Okay, so he addresses the subject of murder Being angry with your brother And then also look at verse number 23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar And there remember is that thy brother hath ought 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 He's basically saying, you know to obey is better than sacrifice And he's not obviously still in matthew. We're still under the old testament law, right because jesus christ has not yet died And so that's why he's referring to leaving the gift at the altar But he's not excluding The command to offer a gift or have an altar or do any of those things He's not excluding that he's essentially saying, you know get your heart, right? But do this as well Especially what he told the pharisees these ought to have done and not to leave the others undone, right? So a good way to apply this is like still come to church But you better get right with your brother sister in christ if you're bitter against them Go soul winning, but you know what? You should get your heart right and get sin out of your life when you go so many Right read your bible take care of your spiritual responsibilities, but make sure you address the matters of the heart And we never want to be these christians who were taking care of these outward appearances These disciplines that we have that are very much important and we need to obey them and do them and just neglect the matters of the heart understand And so he's saying there bring the gift to the altar, but make sure you reconcile your differences with your brother or sister in christ Of course women are also included in that command, right? verse 25 This is a verse that a lot of people christians don't like to hear But it says here agree with thine adversary quickly Whilst thou are in the way with them lest at any time the adversary delivered thee to the judge And the judge delivered thee to the officer and thou be cast into prison Barely I say unto thee Thou shalt by no means come out come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Whoa, what is jesus teaching here? I mean, is he saying that I have to yield Is he's teaching deference? Yeah, he is You know what? That's not popular with christians, especially these constitutionalist american type christians Who have a tendency to put the constitution almost at the same level as the bible? You know my rights this and my rights that well according to the bible. You should be willing to yield your rights at certain times Because we're nothing in this world my friends And i'm all for having rights I'm all for you know, the the the the rights that we have from the constitution or whatever it may be But hold on a second according to the bible. We're also supposed to exercise deference Exercise yielding and you say well, I don't really agree with that Didn't just say you don't agree with the words of jesus because what does he mean by that? agree with thine adversary quickly and and here's the thing folks is that You know Jesus christ the bible says that as a sheep before shearers is dumb. So he opened not his mouth Being reviled he reviled not again And even when he was being crucified, you know, he could have sent Oh boatload of angels to just destroy everyone if he wanted to You're like, yeah, but that's not a good example. He was supposed to die on the cross for our sins You can't really use that. Oh really, you know, doesn't the bible tell us That we're supposed to walk in those steps And and exemplify that same suffering that jesus christ did on the cross He said we said where does he say that? Well go to first peter go to first peter real quick Because one of you said that so i'm just gonna i'm just kidding go to first peter chapter two if you would This is called deference this is called yielding and we don't like this because it goes against our human nature I don't like to yield. I don't like to uh, Exercise deference and all those things, you know But the bible tells us that the sufferings of jesus christ on the cross exemplified that that's what we should do Look what it says in verse number chapter two in verse number 20 it says for what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults buffeted could mean beaten Ye shall take it patiently But if when you do well and suffer for it you take it patiently This is acceptable with god for even here unto where he called because christ also suffered for us Leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps There you go Well, I still don't agree with that, you know, I just think that we should fight for our rights You know what? I don't fight for my rights as a christian. I just live out my rights And i'll live them i'll live them out to the bitter end right But you know these other extra rights that people want to make a big deal about and and It's a hill that they want to die on i'm not going to die on those hills because of the fact that the bible tells me To exercise deference to agree with my adversary quickly and you know what? I understand why people don't like that because there's no glory in it There's no There's no trophy with that. There's no bragging rights. There's no victory dance, right? I Mean there's not it's not something we could just be like yeah exercise deference All right, I yielded, you know You know how much honor i'm gonna get from that there is no like in the world's eyes. There's no honor It's actually uh, you know humiliating is what it is actually right when you yield And you exercise deference It's it kind of humbles you a little bit But you know what take it up with god if you don't like that because that's what he taught Otherwise show me what's what what does this mean? Okay, and and this is an important point and the reason I say it's an important point because he addresses it again Towards the end of the chapter here, okay And I know the constitution is christians out there. I hate I know you hate that and I know you don't agree with it Because it's all about god and country brother It's all about god and country brother It's all about murica my rides brother You know get those masks away from me, brother I'm all about my rifle my bible My woman My beer or whatever, you know, whatever they drink they don't do bud light anymore, right? I I'm not with that brand of christianity. I don't care for it I don't care if the majority of christians in america are for it. I don't care for it Because they don't know matthew chapter five apparently And and this type of preaching doesn't win more christians, uh to this view it actually pisses more christians off But I don't care, you know, jesus when he preached these things a lot of people said, you know This is a hard saying and he wasn't afraid to offend people because it rubbed them the wrong way. Oh, well Let's read on here So he addresses murder anger. He addresses deference and yielding. And by the way, let me just say this is that I understand that position though Because again sin nature doesn't want to yield to an adversary We don't want to agree with an adversary, right? And i'll give you an example of this let me just give you you say yeah, but you're you're saying it But when have you exemplified that pastor ma'am? Well, you know what? It was very humiliating to have to leave omonte That's that was humiliating for me Because when we left omonte, we were forced out of omonte and I was forced to kind of yield and say okay you guys win Where everyone was telling me go back Go back and show them the what for Get a new building and and and show them your right that you don't deserve that you know what I did I yielded I said you guys win Take the building. I'll leave the i'll leave the state of the state. I'll leave the city I won't leave the state yet. I have not yielded in that manner yet And you know what They threw a party when we left They mocked me I remember pulling up the the u-haul truck And and you know who's there when we're loading all our junk into the u-haul Okay people driving by Snapping pictures mocking us posting us on instagram. Ah, we got them out How does this feel just mocking making fun of us saying we got you to leave? We succeeded look at this just the worst top possible mockery there is I mean you think that feels like yeah. No, it's just like I have to yield I guess I have to agree with my adversary and you know and you know what I didn't pursue justice either Amen Like our perpetrated the perpetrators who who did that were never caught they were never brought to justice And I didn't pursue it. Why because i'm just going to agree with my adversary. I'm just going to yield to it I'm, just going to say lord you take care of it And i'll take the humiliation for the for righteousness sake but you know what a lot of christians myself included We don't like to be humiliated especially before the enemies of god Right, but you know the last time I checked jesus christ was humiliated before the entire world when he was crucified on the cross And he didn't deserve that either but he allowed himself to be beaten and scourged and and made fun of and mocked and spat upon You know and he didn't come down from the cross he could have easily just spoken death To every single one. It was like just have them disappear. But instead he said father forgive them for they know not what they do And so, you know, that's an example of yielding Where I had to kind of just put up with the mockery And you know all the posts and the tagging and people messaging like what now? Where's your god now? I thought you weren't going to leave. I thought you were going to do this what now and just what am I going to say? All right You know Yeah, you know you got nowhere to meet now, huh? It's just like yeah, you're right. I don't But then we got a building and it's just like well we got somewhere to meet But this is the life of a christian Is that sometimes we have to suffer humility Humiliation embarrassment without having to fight back It's not popular, but it's biblical and and sometimes we have to do that and i'll be honest with you. I didn't like it either You think I like that you think I like being human after all that crap I was talking Doesn't have to be kicked out sucks But then I read something like this. I'm like, well, this is the will of the lord This is the will of god so It's all good, you know and all things work together for good And and here's the thing it's hard to try to convince other christians that from a spiritual perspective we did succeed We succeeded You know in the world's eyes. We were completely humiliated And we suffered loss and we were embarrassed and you know all these things but from My mind from a spiritual perspective. It's like we won because of the fact that I rejoice over the fact that we suffered for righteousness sake that we were persecuted for righteousness sake And we got a new building out of it, which is exactly what we needed. So Let's move on here. So then so he addresses murder Now we're going to get into the subject of adultery He says in verse 27 you have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shall 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 So obviously we see this command in the old testament not to commit physical adultery And that sin was a capital crime punishable by death, right? Excuse me Now you can easily see someone here saying Well, you know, i've never done that I was like, yeah But have you ever looked upon a woman to lust after her you've committed adultery with her already in your heart Now, let me explain something before I proceed explaining these passages of scripture Jesus christ is saying He's stripping away the righteousness of the crowd by saying you've never killed but you've been angry with your brother in your heart Which still merits damnation? Because that essentially you've broken the law, okay Same thing with adultery But this doesn't mean that being angry with your brother is literally the same as murdering someone And it doesn't mean that lusting in your heart towards another person, even though it's wrong is the same thing as adultery They merit the same punishment Because god's standard is high. However, the same punishment of hell because god's standard is high. However, Looking upon a woman to lust after is not the same as physical adultery That's important to know Because you get people that get upset when we preach against physical adultery and you're like, yeah But have you ever lusted upon looked upon a woman to lust after you're saying that people like that should be put to death No, because the old testament doesn't say that The old testament talks about lusting in your heart as well Okay, let's talk about Lust not after her beauty in thine heart and the book of proverbs Okay, the bible talks about that, but it never institutes the death penalty for the sins of the heart because that can be quantified There's no heart police Other than god himself Who knows the heart he punishes here on this earth people for actual physical sins Physical crimes that they commit, okay And so even though he's amplifying this he's expanding on the commandments just to kind of strip people away from their righteousness Don't take it too far where it's just like, okay Well lusting, you know, you're basically saying that people who lust in their heart should be put to death as well No, no, that's not what the bible is teaching at all. Okay And so he gives that command but he says he expands upon he says lust in the heart is still adultery Now look at verse 29 says 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 of course he talks about the hand as well. Now a lot of repenting your sins type teachers like to use passages like this To try to say you have to repent of your sins pluck out your eye and cut off your right hand You know so that your whole body's not cast into hell They'll try to use passages like this to against christians to say you have to stop sinning In order to avoid eternal damnation, right? But this interpretation is really stupid though And let me explain to you why it's so stupid. Okay First of all, there are no maimed christians in heaven You guys understand that and there's not thousands and thousands of eyeballs and right hands in hell You guys get that That's number one number two If a man were to pluck out his right eye because it offends him because it it lusted upon a woman as it is in context Wouldn't that mean that the left eye looked upon it as well? Because doesn't the left eye look at what the right eye looks at as well Unless you got one of those You know what i'm talking about You know, you got a wandering eye or something like that But you know the truth is the left eye looks at what the right eye looks looks at as well Then what does it mean pastor? Well, it's basically saying Even if you were to pluck out your right eye You're still sitting with your left eye And if you were to cut off your right hand, you're still going to send with your left because it's all part of the same body Because it's an issue of the heart Basically, there's nothing you can do to stop sinning Because if you were to pluck out your own eyes, you would still imagine evil in your heart So what is he doing? What is jesus saying here? He's basically stripping the crowd of their righteousness by saying you can't stop sinning Because even if you're to pluck out your eye and cut off your hand you would still be a sinner You cannot cut that off from your life What you need is the righteousness of jesus christ Okay You don't need to repent of your sins to be saved because of the fact that you can't repent of sins to be saved You can't repent of all sins I mean, even if you were to stop one particular sin, you're going to be struggling with another sin the next day And the very thought that you can repent of sins to be saved is a sinning of itself Because it's a foolish thought and the bible says that the thought of foolishness is sin So, what is he doing here he's explaining the fact that There's none righteous no, not one there's none that do with good. No, not one the bible says There's not a just man upon earth that do with good and sin is not So even when you're doing good You're still committing sins because you live in a corruptible body that sins So plucking out your eye cutting off your right hand doesn't work Now there's a dispensationalist out there who teaches that If christians were to take the mark of the beast You know because it goes in the forehead or in the right hand They said this is what you can do. You can cut off your hand So that you're not damned eternally And then they're like, well, what about like the mark in the forehead though? Well, you're gonna have to pluck out your right eye and dig in there and and take it out Which basically shows how little they know about human anatomy Yeah It's like oh, okay, man, why didn't I think of that? Hopefully the tribulation comes in our time just so he can do that Because gene kim is what i'm talking about here gene kim and robert breaker these heretics And so You said well, okay. Well, I see how that could apply to unsafe people stripping them of their righteousness Is this applicable to save people? I believe it is because you know, we can take this passage of scripture And essentially show us that you know as christians we should remove things from our lives that are causing us to stumble, right? You say yeah, but how would you apply that to the part that it talks about hellfire though? Well in context is referring to lust referring to adultery and Here's two solutions to that one being you need to cut that thing off That's causing you you need to cut that temptation off remove yourself from temptation so as to not commit that sin or As the bible also says you should get married And the bible says listen to this it is better to marry than to what Burn so you can kind of see how that would tie into that, right? Because obviously when it says burn it's not saying like it's better to marry than to go to hell or something like that It's basically it's when it talks about burning it's referring to those inner inhibitions that every human being has The desire to want to be in a physical relationship Okay And so he's saying it's better to marry than to burn you can see how that can parallel this passage And could be a secondary application to this for christians We should remove things from our lives that would be tempting to us, but also follow the biblical model of marriage Uh so as to not commit fornication Um or any of that and so we see that there now so he addresses murder old testament law He amplifies that by talking about being angry with your brother calling him a fool, etc He addresses adultery. He addresses lust and then he's going to address divorce Look at verse 31. It says it has 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 save him for the cause of fornication Causes her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committed adultery now, this is important here, okay This is old testament law Uh that you can give a writing of divorcement for fornication for any uncleanness However, it's also in the bible all the way back to genesis that would have god had joined together. Let no man put asunder Okay, so god's original intent for the institution of marriage is that it's till death do his part So what this passage is teaching us here is that it's never okay To get divorced for any reason whatsoever. You're like, well, hold on a second. Well, what do you mean? It says fornication there though. Well fornication is the act between two people that are not married And so This is obviously referring to the betrothal stage and we have a great example of this in the book of matthew with joseph and mary when joseph thought That mary had essentially broken their betrothal Uh the betrothal by committing fornication and he was minded to put her away privately Okay, because of the fact that even though they were betrothed They had not yet consummated the marriage and therefore considered fornication and therefore he was willing to write her a bill of divorcement So it says except for the cause of fornication this is referring this is what the old testament describes as being uncleanness of some sort um on the the the night of uh the wedding And it says here That if you put away your wife and obviously this can be the other way around as well if a wife puts away her husband It says causes her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committed adultery now This is a hill that I will die on This is subject of divorce Because folks we live in a society Where even christians are willing to participate? in this act of divorce As if it's nothing And folks people don't realize how wicked it is in the eyes of god to divorce your spouse You're essentially breaking a vow you're breaking an oath you you made a covenant before god that is till death do you part and then The stuff gets hard And he's like, well, I want a divorce now Well, sorry, that's not the way it works You should have thought about that before you made a vow before god You understand before you made the oath before you made a covenant before god and here's the thing folks, you know We have weddings at our church. We've had a lot of weddings at our church And you know when when when the bride and groom say the vows this isn't just to make the wedding look pretty or something like that It's not because it just sounds so sweet and it just adds to the ceremony or something like that You're saying it to god And listen to this part of the vow is this for better Or for good Is that what it says? for better or for I For better or for No, it says for better or for worse And you know what there's times in marriage when things get bad when the stuff starts to hit the fan And it gets worse It's not what it used to be, but you made a vow You made a vow In your love for your spouse and your recognition That that was the covenant that you're making before god is for better for worse for richer for poor and sickness and in health in all areas You're saying till till one of us dies i'm going to be faithful and loyal to you and I shall never leave you nor forsake thee I mean, this is a strong covenant before god that people make right? And folks i'm going to preach that to the cows come home and the cows are never coming And I want our kids and our church to understand that our church stands for biblical marriage for the biblical Institution of marriage that we do not believe in divorce We don't we don't just quit on marriage We don't just quit on our spouses just because the going gets tough I want my sons and my daughters to stay married even when it gets hard It gets difficult and it's just it's just grueling and it's it's hard to the bitter end and so be it Yeah, but it's just not the way it used to be but you vowed though You made that oath But I didn't think it was going to be this way But you made the vow though Folks when jephthah made an oath before god that he would offer whatever comes through his tent And then his daughter comes through his tent You know that wasn't a good deal But you know, he made a vow he made an oath and he had to offer his daughter before the lord It was a stupid vow, but guess what he had to keep that vow you have to keep that oath So there's no going back on it my friends And obviously people are placed in a position where they can't do anything about it. Their spouse is just Wants to divorce them or whatever and and you know They just don't have no say in the matter Let me tell you what I would do If my if my wife one day divorces me want to divorce me, okay Let's say I wasn't a pastor and my wife is just like i'm sick of you I'm getting a divorce. You're old. You're not as handsome as you used to be You know, whatever And she told me that I would number one if she ever handed me divorce papers first and foremost I'd look at him and just be like I'm not taking that serious You're gonna have to kill me Because i'm not taking it serious at all and i'm not telling you to do this by the way I'm, just saying what I would do There's not instructions on how to deal with that I'm telling what I would do and and then this is also what I would do. First of all, I'd laugh at those papers I would not even entertain the possibility of ever getting divorced and then secondly, I would do everything in my Body and soul and spirit to win my spouse back I would do everything humanly possible To get my wife To love me again To fall in love with me again. I would laugh at those papers I I I'd piss on those papers. I would tear them up and throw them into the garbage because that's what they mean to me But then after that I would say i'm gonna do everything I possibly can to make you crazy after me again This war is not over You will love me You will think i'm handsome once again, you will want me you will desire me Promise and you know what if it takes me the rest of my life then that's what i'll do If she's just like I want to do with you and and and you know, i'm moving i'm like, well cool where we're moving to I'll stalk you Because i'm your husband whether you go I go Because i'm not giving up on this thing but you know too many people give up Way too fast way too soon. They throw in the towel Throw in the towel folks. We need to have some tenacity about our marriage We need to have a prayer life. We need to have some tenacity We need to have some oomph and say lord. I made this vow before you and so help me to keep this vow It's really hard. I'll be honest with you. I don't even love my wife anymore But you know what help me to regain that love for my wife again And I made a vow and so I want to keep it And so send flowers send chocolates lose weight get buff do whatever you got to do Send her letters write her songs Oh, that's just too much for better for worse for better for worse Make it happen By any means necessary obviously within reason without committing any crimes But You said why because it's important to fight for marriage, that's why And you people you young people who have not yet gotten married let this be a lesson to you. Amen Better choose wisely That's a big vow. Hey, but when I made that vow close to eight years ago, I meant every single word And when I said those words to my wife, it wasn't just because the ceremony was beautiful And we just wanted to say it into the mic and everyone's crying and the crowd and everything is just so beautiful It's just oh everyone's caught up in the emotion of things. No, I mean those things Till death do its part and no that's not an excuse for murder either Let no man put asunder We have too many christians who give up too too soon too easy They want a consolation prize they want everything to be easy They want it to be completely easy with no struggle They don't want their spouses to gain weight. They don't want their spouses to get ugly They want their spouses to just be as perfect as the day day one. It doesn't work that way You know and luckily we're christians We have the bible we have god's word We have listen to this and I want to spend too much time on this but I get passionate about this subject because it's important and unfortunately just you know Christians don't respect marriage anymore But you know what we have a god who's literally able to mold our hearts You know, the only person who can really change and just mold a heart and just turn a heart is god himself So we got one up on the world my friends We have the god of the bible who could literally turn the hearts of our spouses can turn the hearts of our children Can turn the hearts of the brethren It can happen God is still in the opera, you know, he's still operating miracles to this day my friends All right, let's move on here And by the way, so the reason it says it causes a commit to commit adultery is because if a woman is divorced Divorced The natural propensity it's not right They're supposed to remain unmarried He's supposed to remain unmarried But the natural propensity of people is to get remarried which is wrong and the bible considers that adultery And whoever marries that person commits adultery as well according to god's standards Okay And so instead of being like the pharisees here just looking for an excuse to get married because in another portions He's like is it right to give a bill of divorcement for any cost? They're just looking for a reason to just get remarried because they're born with their marriage or whatever You know look for a reason to stay together Hey, let's stay together. Amen I'm not going to break out into that song But you know the oldie oldies but goodies, but I agree with the message You know loving you weather and all that times the good and the bad happy or sad you guys don't you guys aren't romantic at all You guys romanticism sucks, okay You guys need I need to preach a sermon on how to be romantic I don't know why you're laughing. I'm just kidding So here's the last thing I want to mention before I get into these last three here is You're kind of seeing a pattern here And when you start looking at these commandments You start seeing that it's like the pharisees who are twisting these things, right? Because they have an issue with the whole divorce thing. They're the ones who constantly bringing it up And even with the swearing and making oaths in verse 33 it states again You have heard that hath been said by them of old time thou shalt not forswear thyself But thou shalt perform unto the lord thine oaths Which by the way, just ironically comes after talking about marriage But I say to you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is god's throne Nor by earth for it is his footstool neither by jerusalem for it is the city of the great king Neither shalt thou swear by the head because thou canst not make one. Excuse me one hair white or black. So Verse 37 let your communication be yay yay nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil Basically saying, you know vows are important don't undermine the severity of a vow. That's what he's saying. Okay, and by the way, uh, This let me just bring this up. Don't just swear all the time Sometimes I gotta check people when they're talking they're just like oh man, I swear, you know this one thing Oh, I swear this is this and that it's just like don't swear swear not at all Stop using that lingo I swear swear not at all He's like why does he say neither by jerusalem? Is there something special about jerusalem? No, he's just essentially saying in all places Have this type of attitude. You're not making oaths flippant oaths and flippant vows unto the lord because You need to be keeping them if you make them. Okay, which by the way, that's why we don't have an altar call Because an altar call is simply services where people are constantly making vows that they don't keep They're just like I promise i'll never do this sin ever ever again And they're just like, oh man, I promise i'll go to the mission field I'll give my life to the mission field and they never go They're just making these flippant vows Not taking into consideration what the bible says in ecclesiastes five And uh, I don't have enough time to go back to that passage. So Let's move on here All right verse 38 you have heard that has been said and I 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 a man will sue thee at law and take away thy coat let him take have thy cloak also 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. So what is he saying here again? This is not negating old testament laws Because jesus said in verse 17 that he came not to destroy the law And an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is an old testament law Where it's referring to life for life, which by the way, the new testament also supports the death penalty life for life So he's not saying here, oh you've said you've heard that have been said by them of old This commandment, but don't listen to them Those old fogies. I don't know what they're talking about. Turn the other cheek. These are separate examples That he's given here. Okay And what he's referring to is the fact that Obviously there's eye for eye tooth for tooth and even as the bible says in the old testament life for life You can't apply that if someone just smacks you on the face And they're trying to provoke you to a fight because when it says smithy on the cheek, that's not necessarily like a That's not you know death How many have ever been slapped in the face All the people that I figured would get slapped in the face absolutely Not surprised not surprised at all. I'm just kidding Some of you need to raise two hands i'm just kidding Some of you need to raise two hands i'm just kidding You know You get slapped in the face because for whatever reason maybe you're mouthing off or something Or someone is trying to provoke you to a fight If they slap you in the face, they're not trying to kill you Trying to provoke you, right? And so, you know, you see here eye for eye tooth for tooth It's just like you're not justified in taking someone's life just because they they punch you in the mouth or even if they slap you You understand? Now, what is he teaching here yielding? Exercising deference Now I think like this particular scripture applies more to men than it does to women You know what I mean? It applies more to guys fighting than cat fights I haven't seen a cat fight in a long time But you know guys fight all the time though and guys are easily provoked Right, I mean they're hot heads they just they're always looking for a reason to fight and you know This is important that we follow this Because we should not be violent And the bible even says to pastors and obviously it's applicable to everyone that we should not be strikers or brawlers Okay And you know what? I'll be real honest with you. I would have a hard time with this Just being honest with you, you know, someone's smiting me on the cheek You know, I would have a really difficult time with that But according to the bible, I would have to yield and just kind of like walk away And look especially in the day and age in which we live you don't want to just get into some physical altercation with just anyone Because you never know what people can do You never know if they have a gun or a knife and you embarrass them or something you beat them up They can come back and kill you. You just don't know so it's better to just take the slap on the cheek And just say I don't want to fight You know, you're like well, what if I know how to fight though? That's not the point The point is yield walk away from it Okay And he says there in verse 40 if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat Let him have thy cloak also. Now. That's that's a tough one, too, right? you know, um If someone sues you and is trying to take your possessions your finances according to according to jesus, he's like just give it to them He's like what? Yeah, that's what he said Isn't that crazy and then he says if you have a cloak give it to him, too Now people don't like that at all Christians do not like that But you know what we should not be so attached to possessions and money And things that we can't just give it away if we have to or lose it if we have to And have no justice if it is taken away You see we as christians we want justice I want justice we all want justice Christian any bible even christians want they want justice for crimes that are committed, right? But you know what? Sometimes the justice doesn't come in our lifetime I mean think about this have we seen justice for those who Crucified the lord per se obviously they're in hell right now But when he was crucified on the cross there was no justice for him He allowed himself to be crucified and defrauded and all those things because that was god's will for his life And so what this is saying here what this is teaching is very important my friends because too many times we have christians Yay, even in our church listen to me Who feel like? Oh, we need to be fighting every legal battle or something and no we don't And you may not agree with me on it, but I don't care. This is what the bible says And i'm telling you as your pastor. This is what god's word says the word of yield sometimes most of the time actually all the time Not to say that you're not going to yield but for the most part this is what the bible teaches us And you know if someone takes your possessions they take your money You know just you know when someone when we were persecuted and they stole my van They took my van they found it in omani Stripped and they took all the kinds of stuff. They said do you want to price charges? I was like no And by the way, this is like the second third time they stole my van I said no before i'm just gonna you kiss that van. Goodbye You know, but that wasn't right they'll pass from here the constitution says So Get another van It's gonna burn anyways, i'm not attached to that van i'm not attached to any van actually I hate vans But just possessions in general i'm not really attached to them And if people use those possessions to mock me by taking them away from me then so be it You know, and I know a lot of people don't agree with that, but that's okay Because you know as a good friend of mine said sometimes it's not important to right every wrong One day we'll all be righted and we'll all be corrected and justice will come but not right now And you know what this rubs me the wrong way As it probably rubs you the wrong way And that's why the bible is not written by man. It's written by god because it goes against our very sinful nature to want to justify ourselves and vindicate ourselves And win every battle, but you know what i've lost a lot of battles And I and you know, I have no choice in it. That's that's how the life that's how life is sometimes Sometimes the christian life is not a victory Sometimes it's a complete and utter loss Where you are humiliated? And things are taken from you, you know You're defrauded and in fact first corinthians chapter five says suffer yourselves to be defrauded You Allow yourself to be taken advantage of if they do take advantage of you And take give them your cloak also why because we're not attached to the things in this world And so, you know, that's a hard saying but It's in the bible and you know, I have to ask god to give me grace to like obey that Like help me lord because I you know I Want justice sometimes, you know, and it's just But we need our minds to be renewed Okay And I know there's no there's no honor and victory and and victory dance after that. But you know, sometimes it's a time to mourn And it gives us more reason to pray too. Amen All right, lastly He says in verse 43 ye have heard that it has been said thou shall love thy neighbor and hate thy 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 and i'ma stop right there. So Here's here's my take on this. Okay Because we could say well, you know this Might have this does it doesn't say that in the bible someone else is bringing this up and I would definitely agree That that's definitely the case because nowhere in the bible doesn't say love your love your neighbor and hate your enemy in the old testament right So you can see how the pharisees can possibly take that and teach that But it doesn't really fit the criteria of what we're looking at here though Because what we're looking at is all old testament laws that are in the old testament of things that are being said With the exception of this wild card of love your enemy or love your neighbor and hate your enemy So it's possible that this is actually referring to old testament teachings So what does it say to hate your enemy well think about this, okay You know the bible does teach in old testament to love your enemy to excuse me to love your neighbor and to love your enemy But it also says in the prophets that we're to hate the enemies of the lord And the enemies of the lord are our what enemies And It's no coincidence that jesus says in verse 17 I've come not to destroy the law or the what prophets david said, you know in psalm 139 That he hates those who hate the lord and that is a biblical teaching there Okay, and we need to make that distinction between our enemies people who just Revile us or hate us or mock us who make themselves the enemies our enemies And then you have the enemies of the lord people who have made themselves Haters of god and fit the criteria that we see in romans chapter one, okay You say so what are you saying then pastor if you're saying that this is an old testament thing Is he repealing that here? No because Just as we saw regarding divorce or even swearing The things of this nature. These are things that jesus christ was amplifying and showing you what more to do The pharisees were doing the same thing and they were adding things to that Okay Looking for a reason to get divorced, you know in matthew 23, he's like they're saying don't swear by the altar But if anyone swears by the gold You know, I can't finish the verse but since matthew chapter 23, they're kind of twisting god's laws to fit their agenda and my opinion is that They probably take some old testament statements made by prophets where the enemies of the lord are our enemies and they apply it but in an unbiblical way So, what do you mean well, I got me here some verses from the talmud amen Because what the pharisees were doing is taking biblical concepts and twisting them to fit their agenda And so the biblical doctrine of hating those who hate the lord is like yeah They've become enemies because they hate the lord. They're reprobates Right wicked reprobates who are beyond the hope of salvation who hate the lord But the pharisees took concepts of the bible and twisted them to fit their agenda Now, let me read you a couple things here from the talmud It says even though god created the non-jew they are still animals in human form It is not becoming for a jew to be served by an animal therefore he will be served by animals in human form A pregnant non-jew is no better than a pregnant animal The souls of non-jews come from impure spirits and are called pigs If you eat with the gentile it is the same thing as eating with a dog Let me skip some here because there's a lot It is the law to kill anyone who denies the torah The christians belong to the dying ones of the torah a heretic gentile you may kill outright with your own hands Every jew who spills the blood of the godless non-jews is doing the same as making a sacrifice to god Now this is pretty consistent with how the pharisees who were adherence to judaism would treat all the nations around them in the bible Because they consider the samaritans as being what enemies If a heathen gentile hits a jew the gentile must be killed. Well, that's different than what we saw in verse 39 Sanhedrin 57a says when a jew murders a gentile There will be no death penalty when a jew steals what a jew steals from a gentile he may keep All gentile children are animals A jewish man is obligated to say the following prayer every day. Thank you god for not making me a gentile a woman or a slave That sounds familiar right When the publican and the pharisee go into the temple I think the right So Even the best of gentiles should be killed i'm, that's not my opinion i'm reading off There's a guy named moses maimonides Who is one of the greatest codifiers in philosophy in jewish history? and in his Commentary of the torah he states accordingly if we see an idolatry gentile being swept away or drowning in the river We should not help him If we see that his life is in danger, we should not save him It is religious duty. However to eradicate jewish traders And to cause them to descend to the pit of destruction since they cause difficult Difficulty to the jews and sway the people away from god as did jesus of nazareth and his students and so on and so forth so, you know I think what it's being stated here and by the way, there's no it's not a coincidence that in chapter six He starts talking about the jews. He starts talking about the pharisees About the hypocrites I think the ones who are twisting what's being stated here are the pharisees because israel at this time is under the tutelage of the pharisees So when they say love your neighbor and hate your enemy, they're not referring to the enemy as being the reprobates, which is exactly what they are It's not the false prophets, which is exactly what they are They're referring to the surrounding nations what they call the goyems You and me Cattle animals dogs And this is exactly what they taught And he's saying no love your enemies Jesus says bless them that curse you do good to them They hate you pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you he's like reach the nations Be good to the different nations give them the gospel bless them bless them and curse not is what he's saying here And so both interpretations I think are fine But I think this fits the actual narrative of the chapter And the fact that in chapter six and seven he starts kind of giving it to the pharisees there. Okay And so I went a little long tonight, but I wanted to finish that chapter and give you some verses from the talmud So, you know, you know how wicked these people are. Let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word we're so thankful lord for the commandments of god and The expansion of of the law here help us to uphold it lord and to love the law of god And to love your word your in your commandments help us to take them not just to get into consideration, but may they Reside within our hearts that we may observe them all the days of our life. We love you We thank you pray these things in jesus name. Amen