What is Murder? Who is a Murder?

Well if you would take your Bible and turn back with me to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. I said earlier that we'll be in verses 21 to 22 in the message this morning. Now like I said earlier, we introduced this section of scripture. In last week's message we introduced it. We looked ahead into the verses. And this morning we're going to look at verse 21 and 22. And then next week we'll look at verse 23 and 26. That is finishing out this block of scripture. Now you really need to step back and look at the block of scripture. You need to see that verse 21 to 26 is one lesson.

Now I wanted to break it down in several messages for several reasons. Number one, for the sake of time. I just want us to be good stewards of our time. And then also there's so much here. And I want us to just take our time so we can get it all. Get it all in our minds and hearts. And it will all come together I believe to form one message for us all. Now last week I stated that Jesus is giving us six lessons. Our six illustrations starting in verse 21. Going all the way through to the end of the chapter. Remember what Jesus is doing here. Remember what is taking place there on the Sermon on the Mount.

That mountain side when Jesus is preaching this sermon. Remember what Jesus is doing. Jesus is attacking the false religion of the Jews. That false religious system. Their perversion of the Old Testament law. Jesus is dismantling their external religious system right before their eyes. And also he is exalting. He is exalting the Old Testament law to its rightful place. And he is explaining the true meaning of the Old Testament law. He is explaining and that phrase is important. He is explaining how man can live out verse 20. Now look back at verse 20. What does he say?

"For I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." That's a definitive statement is it not? Verse 20 is a part of that new standard. Remember we talked about the new standard last week. This is the new standard that he is explaining to the Jews and explaining to us. And man is responsible to a completely new standard other than the scribes above and beyond the standard of the scribes and the Pharisees and the Jews and the nation of Israel. Now we really need to remember what we learned last week.

In everything that Jesus is doing here, he is introducing a new authority and a new standard to the Jews. Yes, a new authority and a new standard. Those were the two major truths that we divided last week in our message. And if you did not get that message, it really is a must. You need to go back because this will set us up and help us be able to break down and interpret everything that's going on from verse 21 to 48. And you will see this new authority and this new standard all throughout the study of these six lessons, these six illustrations.

Now at a glance at our verses here this morning, it really appears that the main subject is murder. Look at verse 21. "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder.'" But then when we read on into verse 22, it seems that anger could be the main subject. Look at verse 22. "But I say to you that if anyone is angry..." Well, a question. What is the main subject? What's the main subject of the two verses? We will see that it is both. The main subject is both murder and anger. And these are the subjects of this lesson, this illustration. But for me all week, I've been pondering over this.

This leads me to pose a question that I think we must answer. What is murder? Now think with me about that question. What is murder? If one of the main subject is murder, and it is, we need to ask that question, what is murder? For some, murder is the terrible moral crime of our day, and that is abortion. If you ask certain people the question, what is murder? They will immediately think about abortion. For some, murder is a mass shooting. We live in a day of these mass shootings. As a matter of fact, last year we had the mass shooting there at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart. You can call it a mass shooting. It's really mass murder.

Over 20 people were gunned down. And in 1999, we had the awful mass shooting there at Columbine High School where 13 people were killed. And then close to home, in 1997, at Pearl High School, just an hour or so drive from here, 16-year-old Luke Woodham killed two students. He wounded several others when he went on that shooting rampage. But you know, personally, for some, murder is a lot more personal. We have people in the life of our church who have been personally affected by murder. Living without a loved one is a part of their everyday life. So murder is really, really personal for them.

Now, at this point, I think it's important for us to define what murder is, not culturally, not from our own experience. But we must define murder biblically. See, scripture is our supreme authority. So we must allow murder to be defined by the scriptures. Scripturally, we can say it like this. Murder is the unlawful taking of a human life by another human. Now, we do not have the time to go into some of these details, but there is a difference in the Old Testament scriptures between murder and manslaughter. Man's slaughter would be the accidental killing of an individual. It even speaks about self-defense.

There is a difference between murder and the killing of one in war. Now, some of you might not have realized this, but the first commandment given about murder is found way back in Genesis 9-6, long before the giving of the Ten Commandments. In Genesis 6, not only do we see the punishment for murder, but we see the seriousness of the crime of murder. And Genesis 9-6 shows us a key that we need to have. You need to have this key if we're going to understand this lesson and make it applied to our lives. But let's look at Genesis 9-6.

"Whoever sheds the blood of a man," that's murder, "by man shall his blood be shed." See, that is a defense of capital punishment. But notice the verse, "For God made man in his own image." Here in Genesis 9-6, we see the punishment for murder. That is death. Again, that is capital punishment. But we also see why murder is so serious. It is because man is created in the very image of God. You see, all sin is against God, yes. But to murder another human is to sin against God in a very, very unique way. One Bible commentator says it like this, and I'm quoting, "It is to assault the sacredness," I like that.

"It is to assault the sacredness of the image of God." So for one human to murder another human, it is to sin against that sacred image of God within a man. Why? Because God has created man in his own image. Go back to Genesis 9-6 again. "Whoever sheds the blood of a man, by man shall his blood be shed." "For God made man in his own image." Also, we see the commandment not to murder really all throughout the Old Testament, really all throughout the entire Bible, specifically Genesis, or excuse me, Exodus 20, verse 13. This is the sixth of the ten commandments. It simply says, "You shall not murder," and that's the English standard version.

But I did a little research on one of my reference programs, and I found all of the different references I could find to murder, maybe it was manslaughter and accidental killing. There are over 25 references concerning murder or the unlawful taking of a human life from Genesis to 1 John. Now that might have been a little bit loose, but it's there. Notice what we must see here. Murder is the unlawful taking of a human life, not manslaughter, nothing accidental, not self-defense, not killing in the time of war. Murder is the unlawful taking of a human life by another human.

Murder is a unique sin against God because it is a sin against the very sacred image of God that is within a man, again, Genesis 9.6. "Whoever sheds the blood of a man, a man shall shed his blood, for God made man in his own image." Now with that biblical understanding of murder in our minds, I want us to look at two things that are going on here in our verses, verses 21 and 22. This is how we'll approach what I'm calling the body of the message. First, we have out of verse 21 the reduction of the commandment. We have the reduction of the commandment. And then second, we have the exaltation of the commandment there in verse 22.

Now as always in the life of our church, I encourage us all to take notes. We want to take what the Lord has given us. We want to digest it. We want to study it. We want to take it into our daily lives. We want to make sure we retain not just the knowledge, but a work of the Spirit of God with what He gives us. So I encourage you to take notes. Now as a part of examining this exaltation, number two, this exaltation, we'll have some very important specifics. And then we'll come back around to Genesis 9.6. And again, that is the key to so much. So let's get into the message I want us to notice. First, we have the reduction of the commandment.

The reduction of this commandment. Look at verse 21. "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder,' and whoever murders will be liable to the judgment." Now here in verse 21, we have the Jews and their reductionistic approach to the entire Old Testament, not just this subject, this commandment that pertains to murder. That is why Jesus is attacking. Now I've used all kinds of words here to describe what Jesus is doing. I do that on purpose so it'll stick into our minds and hearts. Jesus is attacking. He is disassembling. He is desiring to destroy. He is contradicting everything they've been taught and they know.

Now I need to explain specifically what the Jews were doing. And then I will give us a great example that will help us see their terrible, grievous mistake here. Now when we read verse 21, we see two things right away. First, the Old Testament law did say, "You shall not murder." That's from Exodus 20 verse 13. That's the Sixth Commandment. Many of you knew that when I read it. But also the Old Testament law did say that they were liable to judgment. That's the latter part of the verse. Now this is clearly stated in Numbers chapter 30 verse 30 and 31. Now a very important question. What's going on here in the verse?

Why is Jesus attacking their belief and their teaching if it seems to be so scriptural? Their error can be missed if we're not careful. Their approach of putting these two things together automatically led to a reductionistic position. When they added the punishment of Numbers 30 to the Sixth Commandment, "You shall not murder," it automatically weakened the original commandment. This approach automatically put the Sixth Commandment in a place of falling short of the original intent of the command. This reduced the ramifications for not keeping the commandment only to being accountable to the Jewish court system.

Simply they were saying something like this. I'm just paraphrasing their approach. "Well, you better not murder because if you do, you will be punished by the courts." And their approach to the Sixth Commandment, really in the entire Old Testament law, they made many, many mistakes. They did not deal with their personal responsibility before God in the judgment. They did not teach the importance of God's character in regards to this subject of murder. There was no mention of the fact that man was made in the very image of God. Therefore, murder is destroying the sacred image of God within a man.

They did not teach anything concerning the disposition of the heart and the mind concerning murder. For the Jews, this was simply a matter of two things. First, murder was a physical act of unlawfully killing another man. And then second, the ramifications for that murder was going before the Jewish court system for the crime. Nothing more from the Old Testament Scriptures. Nothing about being personally responsible for God. Nothing about the character of God. Nothing about the man's inner attitude of the heart and the mind. This was nothing but reductionism, a dumbing down of what the Old Testament Scriptures truly said.

Now, I want to give you an example here for two reasons. Number one, I want to prove to you what I'm saying is true. And also the example will kind of help shed some light on what I've been trying to teach and show us. And this example will show us this reductionistic approach to the Old Testament Scriptures and really how it affected all of their religious system and daily life. This will help. And this comes from the story of the rich young ruler. Many of us are familiar with this rich young man, the rich long lawyer, the rich young ruler.

Now, we see his story in many places in Matthew 19, starting in verse 16 and Mark 10, starting in verse 17. And then in Luke 18, starting in verse 18. Now, what's taking place here? This young man was a religious leader. He knew the Old Testament Scriptures thoroughly. He had been taught to obey the law by the mere letter of the law. Remember, that was the practice of the day. He was taught to obey the externals of the law. He had been taught that if he lived in this manner, he was right before God. And again, that was the thrust of all of their religious activity. Now, what does Jesus say to this young man? What was Jesus' approach to him?

Jesus attacks his external religion by aiming at his heart. I need to say that again. Jesus attacks this young man's external religion by aiming at his heart. Jesus was not giving him terms for salvation. He called this young man to go and sell everything that he owned and to give it to the poor to expose the true condition of his heart. Now, what did Jesus expose? Two things. First, the condition of his heart. The actual condition of his heart. Because he refused to obey, he revealed his gods. And that was self and possessions.

And then second, the reality that his approach to the Old Testament law could not and did not affect his inner man, his heart. If he related to the Old Testament law properly, he would have obeyed what Jesus commanded. Therefore, he would have revealed a true heart, a heart right before God. This young religious leader is exhibit A. He is exhibit A for how the Jews had this reductionistic approach to the Old Testament scriptures. They had reduced it all down to rules and regulations and mere religious externals. Now, in summary, what do we see here?

Simply, they had reduced the commandment not to murder but down to the actual deed, just the deed. Nothing about the heart. Nothing about the thoughts of a man. Nothing about what is going on inside of the man. By marrying the sixth commandment to the ramifications that are seen in Numbers 30, they had weakened the entire purpose of the command. This is reductionism. This is reductionism, a dumbing of things down. Now, I feel like I need to give you a little more. There's a lot more we need to say here, but for the sake of time, this will be short. We need to see that the religious leaders made another fatal error.

This will highlight things for us. By ignoring what the Old Testament scriptures taught concerning the heart of the man, the religious leaders fast-tracked their religion to nothing but externals. For generations, the Jews had the Old Testament writings but they ignored passages that they knew quite well. Just a couple that every scribe, every Pharisee, every religious leader would have known quite well. They would have been able to quote probably from heart. I think about Psalm 51. This is the great prayer of confession and repentance and contrition by David. He was a man after God's own heart. He had sinned grievously against God.

He had sinned in many, many ways, and he's coming back to God and what does he say in verse 6? "Behold," he's praying, "you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart." See, David knew that his sin was a matter of the heart. In 1 Samuel 6 verse 7, this is when Samuel is doing God's work and he's looking for a king. He's looking for the king that God has selected.

But notice what verse 7 says, "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord sees not as man.'" But he goes on to say, "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." See, God had to remind Samuel, who was a great man of God, to look at the heart. I will give another that is not necessarily as overt as these previous two, but this would have been well known to the Jewish leaders in that day, Psalm 15 verses 1 and 2. And I'm starting with verse 1, "A Psalm of David," and this is a prayer, "O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart." David knew it was about the heart. And truthfully, the Psalms are full of passages, just like Psalm 15 verses 1 to 2, just like Psalm 51 verse 6. The Psalms are full. Again, in summary, what do we see? "The Jewish leaders and the people had long ignored the matters of the heart. They did not pray as David did in Psalm 51. They did not listen to God as Samuel did in 1 Samuel 16.

They did not know and live out the Psalms which call a man to make their religion a matter of the heart." Again, this fast-tracked their religion to nothing but rules and externals. When Jesus talked to this rich young ruler, he quoted five. He quoted five of the six commandments from the second part of the ten commandments, which all deal with human relationships. He capped things off when he quoted from the Decalogue, which he certainly knew. And what did the young man say? How did he respond? He said something like this, "Jesus, I've kept all of this stuff. I've done it all.

What else can I do?" His response proved the fact that their entire religion was based on externals. It is not a stretch to say that the young man responded with maybe a little touch of sarcasm saying something like this, "Hey, Jesus, I've not killed anyone like you mentioned. I've not committed adultery. You quoted that one to me. I've not stolen. You quoted that one. I've not lied. I've not dishonored my parents. I've loved my neighbor just fine." See, he didn't have a clue because it was all externals for him and all about the heart for Jesus. Now, in application, we must see that reductionism is alive and well today.

Now, but for the Jews, their problem went beyond reducing the Scriptures. They missed the meaning of the Scriptures altogether. Now, why? How in the world could they miss the meaning? They didn't have the Spirit. Listen, they didn't have the Spirit. This was born out of spiritual blindness. This was born out of spiritual lostness. You see, we must have the Spirit of God within us to enable us to understand the true meaning of the Scriptures. And then and only then can we accept the true meaning. And one more point of application. Many assume that reductionists are grace abusers. Let me say that again.

Many assume that those who reduce the Scriptures, they dumb them down, abuse grace. Now, that's not always the case. Many times reductionists are legalists. Instead of adhering to all of God's Word, they take part of God's Word and they reduce God's Word. And then they add all kinds of manmade rules and regulations to God's Word. That's what the Pharisees and the religious leaders did. Now, let me warn you. These people will look very, very spiritual. I'm talking about the legalists now. They will look very, very spiritual. But inside they are full of pride. They are full of self-righteousness.

They are full of bitterness and anger and hatred. And listen, this type of religion always destroys. And when you take a man like this and put him around God's people, they will always attack the sheep. They always do. They always do. So let's move on. I want us to see our second major truth. We have what I'm calling the exaltation of the commandment. This is out of verse 22. We have the exaltation of the commandment. Look back at the verse with me. "But I," this is Jesus speaking to the crowds, "but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel.

And whoever says you fool will be liable to the fire of hell." Now, here is where it is important for us to remember what Jesus is doing. I said this last week over and over. I'll continue to say it. He is imposing a new authority and a new standard. Of course, Jesus is not contradicting the Old Testament Scriptures in any way. Jesus is explaining the true meaning of the Scriptures. Therefore, he is contradicting the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus disassembled their external religion, their external approach to the sixth commandment, by explaining that a man is guilty of murder far more, far beyond the mere act of killing.

And when he gets through, it is safe to say that the Jewish leaders were shocked to death. And what I mean by shocked to death, they were shocked and they were ready to put Jesus to death, because they ultimately did. Now, Jesus does three things here. He explains this new commandment, exalting this new commandment in three ways. There are three examples. First, we see the danger of anger. Jesus gives what I call the danger of anger. Look at verse 22. "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." Now, before we get into the teaching on anger, we need to see the context. Context is important.

The context here comes from this word "brother." Now, this does not refer to what we would call brothers and sisters in the life of the church. All of this predates the church, in the time of the church. Brother here is a broad description of their Jewish brothers or any other Jewish person that they may come in contact with. Some scholars say that this is even broader. They say this pertains to any man, no matter their nationality, no matter their religion. Now, go back to this word "anger." This word "anger" here describes a long-lived anger. This is an anger which is fueled along, it is nursed along in life.

It is kept alive by brooding over that anger so that it will not die, it will not go away. And you need to get this. This would be a selfish, sinful anger. Now, an important question. Didn't Jesus get angry? Did not Jesus get angry when he cleared the temple? Remember, he made a whip and drove them out of the temple, did he not? Yes. But his anger was never about self. His was a righteous anger. Now, listen close. Being God, he could be angry for sin and yet not sin. So in verse 22, Jesus is condemning a selfish anger, an ungodly anger. A few verses that might help you.

In Ephesians 4 verse 26, Paul says to be angry, but do not sin in that anger. In James 1.20, it says that anger in a man does not work the righteousness of God. In Colossians 3.8, Paul calls God's people to put off all anger, wrath, malice, and slander. So we see that Jesus is condemning an anger which broods. He is forbidding an anger which will not let go, an anger which cannot be pacified. He is condemning an anger which seeks revenge. But this forbidden anger is against a brother. Simply this anger is directed against any man, no matter their religion, no matter their nationality. But notice what Jesus does here.

He says the man who is guilty of this anger should go before the Jewish courts as a murderer. Isn't that what verse 22 says? They should be treated as a murderer, guilty of murder, deserving the death of a murderer. Now a question. What was the Jewish reaction? Remember there are great crowds there. The Jewish leaders would have been there. Yes, some Gentiles, the disciples were there. But what was the Jewish reaction? They were shocked to death. This made them what? Angry. This provoked that sin that was within them. They were shocked and ultimately they did put Jesus to death.

They committed this very sin against Jesus that he is describing. So first we see the danger of anger. And then second we see the sin of slander. This is in verse 22. The sin of slander. Go back to the verse. "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." Now here's where it starts. "Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel." Now here in your English Standard Version we see the phrase "insults his brother." The New American, we use the New American quite often. It uses the phrase "you good for nothing." Now we're familiar with the King James, many of us are.

There's this term that is used, it's called "Raka." Now Bible scholars tell us that this word "Raka" is really almost untranslatable. They say that it speaks more to a tone of voice than an actual word. They say that it speaks more to an attitude, to an expression, than a particular word. At the heart of this expression is contempt. At the heart of this expression is derision, is slander, is it is abuse. It would not be wrong for us to use phrases like this.

You could say it communicates something like "you brainless idiot." "Are you good for nothing?" "Are you fool?" Some Bible commentators use words like this, like "you jughead or blockhead." Any of these things can be used with arrogant contempt to insult, to put down a person, and that would capture what Jesus is saying. So we see Jesus is condemning slander. I call it the sin of slander. A contemptuous, slanderous, abusive attitude coming out in words, coming out in an attitude, coming out and directed, directed at a brother, a man, or a person. But notice what Jesus does here.

He says that any man guilty of this sin is liable to the Jewish council. It's a little different than we saw earlier. This would be what would be called the Jewish Supreme Court. And anyone who went before this council, they were put on trial for the most serious offenses, the most serious of crimes. These criminals, if they were convicted, they would receive the harshest of penalties, including being stoned to death. Now what's the Jewish reaction here? Again, they were shocked to death. This made them become slanderous. This was what was within their heart. They committed this very sin against Jesus from this day forward.

They were shocked, and ultimately, they put Jesus to death. And then third observation, not a verse 22. Third, we see the sin of condemning one's character. We see the sin of condemning one's character. This is the last part of verse 22. "But I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council," the Jewish high council. And here we go. "And whoever says you fool will be liable to the fire of hell." Now every translation that we study uses the same word, and that is fool. Now this word fool, it means stupid. It means a lot of things. It means dull.

It can mean moral fool. It can mean a man who is playing the fool. Now out of this word, this is where we get our word moron from. To call someone a fool or a moron is to criticize their mental ability even to insult their moral character. It is to attack his reputation both mentally and morally. So we see Jesus is attacking. He is condemning any attack on someone's character, on their reputation. He is condemning any assault on a brother's mental ability or their morality. But notice what Jesus does here. He says that any person guilty of this sin is deserving of hell fire. Now notice this phrase, hell fire.

And we need to understand this phrase does not speak to the eternal place of punishment that we would see as hell fire. This word comes from a word which is the name of a valley outside of Jerusalem. Now in Jesus' time this was the city dump. Yes, this was the city dump. But it was also a place where they dumped dead bodies. The bodies of criminals who had been stoned. They would have even dumped the bodies of dead animals. And see they burned all of the trash and they burned the dead bodies. And scholars and historians tell us that the smoke and an awful stench was always in the air around Jerusalem. But there's more.

This place was notorious. This place was an abomination. It was notorious for being the site where Ahaz introduced Israel to the worship of the god Molech. Simply in worshiping Molech, the people of God literally sacrificed their children and burned their children to the god of Molech. And this valley was always seen as an accursed place forever defiled and forever desecrated. So this valley was seen as accursed. Full of trash, dead bodies, where useless evil things were disposed of and destroyed. Now a question. You probably know the question I'm going to ask. What was the Jewish reaction? Fury, anger, slander. They were shocked to death.

They were shocked and ultimately they did put Jesus to death. And listen, they committed this very sin. They committed this very sin against Jesus, the one that he is describing here. Now in summary, what are we seeing here? This is really, really a lot out of verse 22. Jesus is imposing a new standard. This is God's standard. Jesus was saying that uncontrolled, unrighteous anger is sin. Contemptuous language towards a brother, it is a greater sin. Slanderous talk against a man's name and character, it's even worse. And they all deserve the punishment of a murderer. Now a question that needs to be asked. Think about this with me.

Are all these degrees of punishment meant to be taken literally? Are all of these degrees of punishment meant to be taken literally? No. Jesus is saying to this crowd something like this, and I'm really just putting it in my own language as I have understood it. Jesus is saying something like this, listen you scribes and Pharisees, the traditions taught you that murder was sinful and punishable by death. But I tell you, remember his new standard in authority? But I tell you, not only are your outward actions under the judgment of God, but your thoughts, your attitudes, your words are under the judgment of God as well.

Jesus continues, and he's saying something like this, listen, your long-lasting, unrighteous anger is just as sinful as murder. Your contemptuous language towards any brother, it's just like murder. Your slanderous speech attacking the intelligence, the name, the character of any man, it is just like murder. He was saying to them, it's all murder, it's all murder, it's all murder. And why is that the case? How can this new standard be so high? Again, remember the verse I asked you to remember, Genesis 9-6. This is the key. What do we see? We must see that murder is an assault against the sacredness of the image of God within a man. You see?

It's all murder. Now this leads me to the title of the message. And really the title is in the form of two questions. The first question is what is murder? The first question is what is murder? And then the second question is who is a murderer? I do not think we could pause with one question, what is murder? And I don't think we could just use who is murder. It must be both. What is murder? Remember the new standard? And who is a murderer? Now an application, I want to pose a few questions for you. First, what is murder? What did the Jewish religious system say? But what did Jesus say? Remember what he did?

The new standard, God's standard, a new authority. He was God. He raised the bar. What did he do? He described and articulated what murder was. The Jews had reduced it. They had dumbed it down. But the second question, who is a murderer? Who does Jesus implicate? And how do you stand up against this new standard? See how it gets personal? Who is a murderer? Who does Jesus implicate? And how do you, how do we stand up against this new standard? And I have to ask you a few questions here in application. And I trust that the Holy Spirit of God, we use what I ask to convict you and work in you and to change you.

And my question is, do you possess an unrighteous, self-serving anger? Do you brood over past hurts to the point of resentment? Do you allow anger to fester and to grow, and to grow into things like bitterness? If so, you're a murderer. Have you never forgiven an old friend who wronged you years ago? Is there a family member in your life, and you just can't bring yourself to a place of repentance? And listen, that resentment and anger just festers and grows every time you see that family member. Oh, do you have an ex-husband or ex-wife that you just can't forgive? Have you been a victim?

See, we live in a day when everybody wants to talk about what it means to be a victim, and we're discussing victimhood in society. But listen, if you've been victimized, if you've been hurt, if you've been sinned against, even a crime committed against you, it could lead you to a place where you have this unrighteous anger. You brood over the past. It's resentment, and it festers, and it grows, and it's anger and bitterness. Listen, if that's the case, I don't care what it is, you are a murderer. You're murdering the very image of God within a man. See, you need to see that.

That's why Genesis 9.6 is key, because if you're murdering this way, you are murdering the very image of God within that man. And then do you regularly engage in the sin of slander? Do you? Do you use condescending terms and words at another? Do you call people names? Do you have abusive attitudes for certain nationalities or maybe skin colors? If so, you're a murderer. You know, some people today, they just can't stand someone from another nationality. Some people, they just can't stand another color of a human being. Some people can't stand someone of another religion or creed.

Listen, if that is you, you are murdering the very image of God within that man, within that brother. You're a murderer if you do that. And do you condemn the character of a brother? Do you attack one's mental state? Do you attack their name? Do you attack their character? Do you use terms like fool and moron and idiot to injure a brother's name and character? If you know you're a murderer, do you do this in traffic when things don't go right? Do you do this against your boss or maybe a coworker that you really don't get along with? Do you do this with a friend or a neighbor? Oh, here's one that some people might not see.

Do you do this in competition, in sports? You see, if you do, you're a murderer. And if you do, you're murdering the very image of God that is within a man, within a brother. That's the question, based on what we've learned. What do murderers deserve? See, we've learned so much. What murder is, we're learning who a murderer is, but I must ask the question, what do murderers deserve? And listen, this is God's standard, and no man can live this standard. And this proves two things. We're all sinners. We're brokenness. We've destroyed this law of God. We're all sinners, and we need a savior. And listen, murderers deserve death.

Now, I'm not talking about the death that a Jewish court would give. No, we're talking about eternal death, damnation. Now, I want to leave us in the message with a little bit of application, a little further. I want to leave us with some self-examination. I feel like we really need to be able to examine our minds, our hearts, our understanding, what we've learned. We can't just check the message off, take our notes, file them away. It's got to work in our heart and mind. It's got to change our character. This is the true and extraordinary Christian life.

First, I want you to see then, when you examine yourself, you cannot look at your external performance. You can't. You can do all of these things in the flesh. You can do it by the religious externals. Listen, you don't know what's in your heart. You don't know the motivations of your mind. Listen, no one could perform externally like the Jewish leaders. Second, you can't look at the performance of another. If you look to the right, there's going to be somebody who lives it better than you. If you look to the left, there's always somebody that's not doing quite as good as you. You can't look at yourself and you can't look at others.

And listen, we must see the human heart. But the problem is, we can't see the human heart. Only God can see the human heart. And this takes two things, the work of the Word of God and the work of the Spirit of God. See, it's the Spirit of God that takes the Word of God and opens up our minds and hearts to who we truly are. And the Psalms are full of it. But there's a key here. If you're not born again, you can't. You just can't. If you don't know God, if God's not saved you, listen, you're in your sin. You're a rebel against God. You cannot conceive spiritual things. So what have we looked at this morning? We've looked at so much.

What is murder and who is a murderer? Let's pray over what we've looked at. And then we'll go over a few announcements that are really pertinent to where we are today. And then we'll close our worship time together. Let's pray.