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Thank you, Matt. Good morning, church. It's great to be together this morning around God's word

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and the weather's changing a bit, but as we're going to see this morning, God's kingdom

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does not. And so let me just get myself sorted.

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Here, technology. Oh dear.

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Let's come to the giver of these words before we dive in to see what he has to say to us today.

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Would you please join me in prayer?

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Lord Jesus, we are so thankful that we are able to be here this morning together,

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together around your words that you have spoken, not just historically, but are speaking to us

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today through your Holy Spirit. Please give us understanding. May we not be like the crowds

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who walked away saying you are a great man, but did nothing about it, but be like your disciples

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who have ears to hear, to receive your Spirit, to be transformed.

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We ask for this grace and mercy in your name. Amen.

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So for the past few weeks, we've been at the feet of Jesus on this mountain, exploring his teaching

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to the crowds and more specifically to his disciples, which as we've noticed, had the flavour

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of what Moses said would happen in that one greater than he would come on the scene having

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the very words of God to give to his people. In the opening verses of Christ's teaching,

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we saw that he started off with what it is to be blessed in chapter five, verses one through to 12.

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What it is to be blessed in God's sight and to be part of his kingdom with the Beatitudes,

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which showed us that it's only those who rely on the mercy and grace of God who will be blessed

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in his sight. It was there that we noticed that Jesus spoke in a general sense to the crowds,

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but then we saw towards the end of those verses in verses 11 and 12 that he turned his attention

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specifically to the disciples using the words you and warning them and saying that if you are going

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to live for God and his kingdom, then you can be sure that there will be slander, persecution,

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and insults coming your way. And that was important to note because it was to them,

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to the disciples of Jesus, to the people of the kingdom of heaven, that Jesus then went on to

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liken them to the salt and the light of this world. Salt which had preservative qualities and light

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which darkness can't overcome and is driven back whenever present. All this to say, Jesus in no

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uncertain terms was saying to his disciples directly that you are not to withdraw from this world,

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but you are to engage with it all the while not compromising with the world as to lose our witness.

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Then last week we saw that Jesus made the incredible and awesome claim that he is in fact

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the one who fulfills the law, which is as we saw his way of saying that by his very life,

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his very doctrine, he gives the fullest expression of what the law and the prophets are all about.

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So with that established for his disciples, you can imagine it, the question would have become,

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what was going to be their view of the moral law, which is most clearly seen in the 10 commandments

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and how would they apply it to their lives? And we need to think about this here this morning too,

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as we have to remember that Jesus made it clear in verses 17 through to 20 that the law is still

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authoritative for his people. That's what we saw last week. The believers of Jesus, his disciples

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will follow the moral law of God because God's moral law nature has never changed. However,

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Jesus was very clear that he is the ultimate expression of the law and we see throughout

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the whole council of scripture that all who come to him, who were united to him by the Holy Spirit

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will obey and love the law of God from the heart because it is written on our hearts, says Jeremiah

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and Ezekiel. So with all that said, Jesus now turns his attention to contrasting six of the traditional

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interpretations of the law that the people had been taught by the religious leaders of the time

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with his own, but I tell you antidotes. That's what we'll be looking at over the next few weeks.

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Everything from verse 21 to the end of the chapter is an illustration, an explanation,

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an application of how we as the disciples of Jesus Christ are really meant to understand and apply

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the law of God in our own lives as we engage with this world. So if you have your Bibles with you

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this morning, we'll be in our text quite a bit. So would you look with me at verse 21. Jesus says,

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you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, you shall not murder and anyone who murders

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will be subject to judgment. Now obviously Jesus hasn't pulled this saying out of nowhere because

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as he says here, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, which we should take as

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the people of Israel and what he quotes is actually the sixth of the ten commandments, the sixth

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commandment given by God to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai recorded in the book of Exodus and

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repeated in Deuteronomy 5. Jesus is doing something very interesting here. You see by Jesus

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quoting Torah or the law, it shows that he in no way disagrees with what God has revealed

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to Israel before. We saw that so clearly last week when Jesus said he had not come to abolish

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the law but to give it its fullest meaning and we have to remember that as he works through these

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next few sayings because on the surface it might seem that he quotes a command and then contradicts

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what's been said before with the phrase, but I say unto you, but that simply isn't the case.

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Now what Jesus is contradicting is not the law itself but certain distortions of the application

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of the law of which the religious leaders taught at the time and that the people had heard and

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adopted. In fact as we'll see here in our text, far from contradicting the law, Jesus endorses,

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reinforces and insists on its authority going on to give its true interpretation. For example,

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it's not like Jesus says you've heard it said don't commit adultery but I say unto you go for it.

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No, rather he takes things to a totally different level in how the law really should be understood

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and applied. So that's what we have to remember here this morning church by Jesus pointing his

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audience to the law, he's demonstrating that he in no uncertain terms is continuing, that it is the

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continuing moral standard of God and in no way disconnected or discontinued in the kingdom of

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heaven. Yet he is defining where the application has gone wrong and where it must land.

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It's here that it might be a good time to have a think about why. Why did Jesus need to give the

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clearest application and explanation of the law that the world had ever heard in the face of the

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teaching of the time? Well to put it simply the religious teachers of Israel just didn't have a

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high view of the law. You may have read through the book of Matthew and thought to yourself but

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Michael the Pharisees did everything in such an extreme way, more so than we do. I mean as you

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read through the book of Matthew you'll see that they didn't eat with sinners, they fasted more than

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anyone else in the region, they washed their hands in a ceremonial way every time they ate,

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but the list goes on and on and on. Weren't they uber law keepers? But you'll also notice as you

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read through the book of Matthew that much of what they did, much of their understanding of the law

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concentrated on the external factors. It seemed to be the driving theological view of the Pharisees

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the external. And to put it simply Jesus is going to point out here that that was a major problem

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that they saw the commandments as external requirements only which demonstrated that they

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didn't emphasize or realize the internal requirements of the commandments. So they gave the people

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the Pharisees gave the people they taught the people that they could keep the commandments of

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God even if their hearts weren't right with him. That's what's going on here the Pharisees were

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fixated on the external and taught the people of Israel that as long as they obeyed the externals

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of the commandments they were right with God. In other words the Pharisees were scaling down the

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demands of the law making their view as we've said before and noticed the view of the law very small.

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I want to give you an example of this. Take the text that we have before us this morning.

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Jesus says to his disciples you've heard that you shouldn't murder because you'll end up being the

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subject of judgment. Just before we go on to see what Jesus has to say about this.

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We want to ask the question what is this judgment that Jesus speaks of?

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Professor Albert Barnes is helpful here noting that the judgment here in context was the tribunal

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that would judge cases of criminal activity. It was a court that sat in each city or town

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and consisted commonly of seven members. It was the lowest court of the world and the lowest

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court. It was the lowest court among the Jews and from it an appeal might be taken to the Sanhedrin

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in Jerusalem. So with that understanding in this context we are to take judgment here as when

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someone was suspect of committing murder. They would be brought before the local Jewish courts

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and with that they would stand trial to determine if the act was intended an accident or lawful as

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said in Deuteronomy 19.4. This was incredibly serious stuff as the consequences for premeditated

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murder was capital punishment. The law puts it like this in Exodus 21.14. If anyone schemes and

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kills someone deliberately that person is to be taken from the altar and that person is to be put

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to death. But church that's what I want you to notice this morning. I want you to notice

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where the phariseeical application has landed. It's a civil case. That's what Jesus is pointing out

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here. The phariseeical application of the law that you have heard is you break the law and you've got

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a civil problem on your hands. That's what judgment is here. The civil courts. In other words the

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Pharisees taught the people that the law of God was upheld as long as justice in the courts

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and punishment of those who had committed murder was served. So that's what Jesus is doing here.

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He takes the sixth commandment and says you've heard that teaching on the law when it comes to

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murder. They say don't do it because you know the consequences. You'll end up in court. They have

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the power to take your life. Church this is where Jesus takes things to a totally different level

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than just the consequence of a mere human judgment. I want you to read with me verse 22.

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These are the words of Jesus but I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will

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be subject to judgment. Again anyone who says to a brother or sister, raka is answerable to the

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court and anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell. It goes without saying

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we really must pay attention to what's happening here because Jesus is essentially saying that you

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can break the sixth commandment my disciples in do not murder in more ways than just taking the life

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of someone else. It's clear that's what's being said here and we want to remember the context.

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The primary concern for Jesus here was to teach his disciples the truth, the application of the

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law, the truth to those who are the meek who are the humble. So I want us to really pay attention

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to really catch what Jesus is saying here not to just understand it but to apply it.

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So notice it. Notice what Jesus is doing here. He takes that which appears external and plunges it

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into the internal. You see it right here in our text this morning right here in verse 22.

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He says to the disciples but I tell you anyone who was angry anyone who says to a brother sister

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raka anyone who says you fool is as guilty as a murderer. Jesus is showing us something here.

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He's teaching us that the law is first and foremost spiritual as he takes the application

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of the law from the external into the internal from the outward action and its consequences

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to the seat of the human heart and its intentions. It's by Jesus doing this that we as the disciples

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of Jesus see that that's what the law is. It was given not to just deal with the external

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but also to expose lawlessness in the internal in the heart in the mind and that's what the

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Pharisees had completely missed right. They'd missed that the law is spiritual in nature and

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in fact verse 21 of our text this morning it's a clear explanation of what's come before in verse

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20 where Jesus says for I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees

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and the teachers of the law you will certainly not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Again

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because the Pharisees view of the righteousness of righteousness and its application was based

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on external keeping of the law and that's the nature of the problem that Jesus had here.

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What he was pushing no kicking back against the Pharisees misuse of the law and their teaching to

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others and they did this because we have to conclude that they had no idea of the character

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of their God who sees and knows everything. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

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be pleasing in your sight Lord as King David puts it in Psalm 19.

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You might be here this morning and thinking to yourself Michael what's so bad about

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seeing the law as external about seeing it exclusively external. Well because the source

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of the problem wasn't being exposed just the external behaviour was being dealt with

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and then no real cure could be prescribed. Now as many of you know over the past couple of weeks

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Haley has had some pretty tremendous pain with her back and neck and as great as the doctors have

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been in trying to deal with the pain as shown by her external symptoms it really hasn't been

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until she had an MRI that anyone could really really see what was happening what was really

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going on on the inside but once that was done once we could see what was happening from the x-rays

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a real picture of the internal damage could be clearly seen. That was the Pharisees problem.

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They ignored the internal and thought that by dealing with the externality of the issue

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that they had kept the law that they were model citizens of God's heavenly kingdom and in great

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relationship with him. They taught the people you can come and do the same as us but as we saw last

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week the law cannot justify us because we simply can't keep it once it's applied to what's going on

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on the inside of us and knowing that says Jesus knowing that is the first step to really

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step to realizing that we are the poor in spirit. That's where Jesus takes it. The law acts like an

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MRI which reveals what's really going on on the inside as it deals with the spiritual things deals

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with the heart. It's not just external it's not just political it's not just civil not just social

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like the Pharisees were teaching. No it exposes what's going on in the hearts and minds of people.

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Now brothers and sisters by the Lord Jesus giving us this application

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he's actually giving us a diagnostic tool by which we can check our own hearts right.

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Now on the one hand we all know that our hearts are deceitfully wicked and who can know them

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says Jeremiah but on the other hand because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives because

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of the illumination of his conviction there has been a sense of our utter poorness of spirit

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before the living God. So much so that there's been a time where we have handed our lives over

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to God and called upon the name of the Lord to be saved and because of that work we are gradually

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being separated from our old man and conformed more and more into the image of the new man

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of Jesus and that's because Jesus is the perfect law keeper the exact representation of God says

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the author to the Hebrews. The law still acts somewhat as a as a tool for us by which we can

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continually do self-examination and confession of our failings in its light. With that said Jesus

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actually gives us two examples of how to do this how to do a bit of diagnostic work on the heart

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in our passage this morning. Obviously the first one is with our hearts that's what Jesus is doing

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here in verse 22. He shows how the sixth commandment the commandment not to murder relates to our anger

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where no one can see it. I want to say that there is a righteous anger and there is an unrighteous

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anger and unfortunately we don't have all the time in the world to go into this this morning but I

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found Martin Luther his comments on this in the midst of doing real reform in in Europe his

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definition of righteous anger extremely helpful. He calls it an anger of love as it's anger that

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wishes no one any evil one that is friendly to the person but hostile to the sin.

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But that's not what Jesus is referring to here. He's referring to unrighteous anger that hates the

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person and he judges that anger as murder in the heart. Second Jesus moves on and he speaks of

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another kind of law breaking applying the sixth commandment to our tongues saying if you have used

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destructive speech towards others you are guilty of murder by the tongue.

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It's here that by Jesus moving from the heart to the tongue that we really do understand there is

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so much more than physical murder that's involved with this commandment. Now in regards to murder

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by the tongue I do want to say a couple of things about this and point you particularly to that word

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that Jesus uses in verse 22, raka. It means you empty head. Now that's not just a mean name that

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you catch our children calling each other on the playground but it comes from an incredibly

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prideful place. It's a word that scorns a person accusing them of being spiritually ignorant.

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It's what you would say to someone who has a lack of knowledge of the truth when it comes to God.

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The second word is you fool. That word comes from an incredibly spiteful place.

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Raka from pride, fool from spite. It's a word which comes from hatred. It's a word which you

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would use when you accuse a person of having no grace in his life. In other words to call someone

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raka or a fool in the way that is being used here in chapter five you're pretty much accusing a

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person of being a complete heathen. Now we don't know this for certain I will admit that

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but you can pretty much read between the lines here. You can imagine it Jesus taking real life

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scenarios and words that were being said by the Pharisees of John the Baptist of himself

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and his followers. We can make an educated guess here because we know that all throughout the

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gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that the Pharisees accused Jesus and the disciples

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of being ignorant of the truth having no real knowledge of God and that Jesus was not

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having no real knowledge of God in the way that they went about breaking the pharisee

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traditions. So if we think about it in that way Jesus was saying that when you speak destructively

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when you speak with hatred towards others you're committing murder by the tongue

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and to put it simply this commandment is broken not only when someone unlawfully takes the life

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of another it's broken with the tongue and the heart and those sins said Jesus those sins must be

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taken with the utmost of seriousness.

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We really need to hear these words this morning church.

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Jesus says if you harbour this kind of hatred in your heart and spew out this kind of hatred

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out of your mouth you're guilty enough not just to go to the church and say I'm guilty

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out of your mouth you're guilty enough not just to go to court but hell.

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And I do want to say this Jesus isn't saying that these different places where sin takes place is

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in the heart and the tongue deserves different places of judgment. Now Jesus is simply stressing

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the seriousness of all sin that comes from pride and hatred towards your neighbour. He is saying

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in a profoundly paradoxical way against the popular understanding of the day that though no one may

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ever know that you've committed these sins this pride and hatred is incredibly serious in the sight

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of God and he sees and judges the heart.

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Brother sister maybe you have experienced in the midst of great pressure

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heart sins of this sort not just against people out there in the world but even against those you

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love. Maybe you've experienced in the midst of great pressures in a family context with your

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spouse or even with your children murder of the tongue like this. Jesus is saying my disciples

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that is a symptom of something that needs to be changed in the heart. So you see this again we

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need to understand this Jesus uses the law as a diagnostic tool to give us self-examination.

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We might think I'm not breaking the law everything's fine I haven't broken the law not to murder

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but then in the midst of pressure that cutting word comes out against your spouse which is

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designed to destroy designed to tear down. Maybe you can think of the times driving to work and

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that person cuts in front of you and mouths something off and you think to yourself if only

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I catch up with that guy I would love to do such and so forth to them. Maybe it's as fickle as

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someone's comment on a social media post that riles you up on the toilet in the morning and

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you go about the rest of the day thinking how stupid they are and telling everyone else about it.

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Brothers and sisters according to the Lord Jesus Christ the one we call our master

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that's murder by tongue murder in the heart and Jesus is saying to us in no uncertain terms

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that is a sign of spiritual sickness. So the question naturally should come from us what is

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Jesus telling us to do here are we to go and just obey the law and all will be fine

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well no because if we're honest we know our thoughts we hear the Lord's words and we know

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our thoughts we hear the words that we use and are sometimes surprised by the utter

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hatred that comes vomiting out of our mouth towards others. Jesus's point is to drive you

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not to work harder at being more tight-lipped whose point is to drive you into his arms

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again and again and again in prayer and dependence on him.

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It's to drive you to want the Holy Spirit to work that wondrous work of grace in our lives

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to kill the sin in your life and in my life. Church anyone that's ever struggled with this

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kind of sin you know you can't free yourself from it. Prideful anger hatred and deep resentment

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need spiritual surgery the grace of God to work at the very core of our very being to free us from it.

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That's what we need we need the grace of God in our sanctification

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so church instead of running away from the law being terrified of the law

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let's examine ourselves in light of the law because it's delightful in that it drives us

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to depend on Jesus. Let us depend on him and the work of the Spirit in our lives more and more.

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Because it is he that is conforming us again to the pattern of God's perfect law. I want to say

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this again only the grace of God can conquer this kind of sin and the law was given not so we would

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look to our own abilities but to the life of the Lord. The Lord's law is given to us to be

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faithful to our abilities but to the life of the perfect law keeper.

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I remember the first time this really hit home with me. I remember years ago looking at the law

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with those terrifying thou shalt not's and seeing how guilty I was before them that utter sense of

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condemnation especially when applied to my thoughts. But then I remember years later after I

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was very same thou shalt not's and thinking to myself you know because of Jesus because of his

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perfect law keeping on my behalf those thou shalt not's were they more like promises that are held

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out to the children of God. Promises that are as I'm separated more and more from my old nature.

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As I'm separated from that old life and conformed more and more into the image of Jesus Christ.

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Well there will actually become there will actually come a day where I shall not have any

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gods before him. That there will come a day where I shall not covet other people's lives or things.

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That there will come a day where I will not murder people in the heart or with my tongue.

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And yet in the meantime where I do fall short and let me say this I really do fall short.

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I can look to Jesus. I can look to that perfect man who gave his life and cry out to him help me.

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Help me to be more like you not because I deserve it. Not because I've earned it because

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in your pleasure in your delight you have saved a wretch like me. And church it is the delight of

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the Holy Spirit to do his work in us. Are we worthy in and of ourselves of this grace? Absolutely not.

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But that is the thing about grace. It is completely undeserved favour and because of Jesus we are

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welcomed as children to come to the throne of grace. In the midst of our guilt we can cry out

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Lord I've sinned please forgive me Lord please work in me take this pride take this hatred away.

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And brothers and sisters it is our father's delight and pleasure to answer prayers like that.

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Now as we finish our time in this text this morning Jesus then goes on to apply the law in

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a different way in regards to our relationships with each other.

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That's what he's doing in verses 23 through to 26. He takes the law from examining our inner

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person and applies it to the relationships with each other. He does this by giving a couple of

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applications to really drive this point home. First about a person in the midst of conflict

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who is on their way to the temple to worship God as you would do under the old covenant.

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But then he remembers that there is division with another a brother. So Jesus says they need to go

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and be reconciled. Second he uses the example of people in the midst of conflict and he says which

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if it's not settled it can spiral more and more out of control till one of them ends up in prison.

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Now we won't go as deep into this but I do want to say this.

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We have to see what's being driven home in the light of everything that we've looked at so far

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this morning and it goes back to using the law as a diagnostic tool to examine ourselves as believers.

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Jesus is saying that the law reveals bad stuff going on not just on the surface but in the heart

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and it gets us to ask questions of ourselves like what's my attitude towards other people.

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If our attitude of heart is hateful towards others then that's an indication that something

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is terribly wrong. If we speak badly of others wanting to destroy them wanting to tear them down

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with what we say then it shows us something of the state of our heart and so when we come to these

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examples the question then becomes what is our attitude towards others in the midst of conflict.

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Are we concerned that we have offended others? Are we proactive in reconciliation rather than

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externally worshipping God saying everything is fine but holding real resentment towards others?

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Are we concerned that when we have offended others that we need to do something about it rather than

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waiting for them to come to us and say we're going to do something about it rather than

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waiting for them to come to us? In other words are we wanting to show the tremendous character of God

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and the love that we have received towards others or do we simply just not care enough to do anything

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about it? Well I would put forward to you this morning church that's what Jesus is doing here

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with these examples. He's saying to us his disciples that if you have the love of God in your

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heart if the gospel has really captured you then you are going to have a heart that wants to be

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right with your brothers and sisters. In other words if you have experienced reconciliation

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and the love of God then the overflow of that relationship is a want of reconciliation with

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those around us. A want it's not always possible but a desire to not have division, to have a lack

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and to not harbour hatred and to tear down. So there's a warning in this.

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If we don't care Jesus says that tells us that's evidence of absence of gospel love in our heart

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and so to believers this law is given to drive us back to Christ so we might put to death sin in us.

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To the self-righteous it reminds us that this law cannot justify us before God who searches

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the hearts and minds of people. So as we close this needs to be said loud and clear this morning.

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It is only God who can work these things in us and he only does it by his grace and through the work

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of his spirit. So when we see these things in ourselves and we will see these things in ourselves

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God's invitation is come freely, come to Christ, turn back again experience a fresh

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the blessings of the indwelling of the work of the Holy Spirit. That is our invitation as disciples

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of Jesus to continually go to the throne room of grace. The law shows us what God will make us

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one day and we ought to desire now to become what one day shall be.

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Would you please join me in praying for these things?

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Lord Jesus we thank you that as your church we're not gathered in this room this morning

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speaking to each other or to the ceiling but we are speaking to you as your precious

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beloved bride, blood purchased children, your disciples. These are challenging words Jesus

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for all of us. We ask and we've asked for many months that you would transform us,

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that you would change us and as your word is a double-edged sword

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exposing things in us this morning I pray Father that I pray for your people that we won't run

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from but run to you. I pray that there would be an overwhelming sense of your love, your forgiveness

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and your work in the hearts and minds of your people. We thank you for these words Jesus,

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we thank you that they are words that again remind us that we are to look to you and no other,

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that there is one way and you have made that way possible because of your love for us.

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Might we be encouraged this morning, might we be built up, might we be transformed by your work in

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us. We ask for these things in Jesus name. Amen.