Matthew 5:21–26Scripture
Matthew chapter 5 this morning verse 21–26 we are moving into a section here where Jesus begins to talk and he's really speaking to this pheriseical mindset.
It's a pheriseical mindset that says if I achieve then I will arrive. And that mindset is not necessarily just indicative of a heart and mind and behavior of yesterday but it is also very present in the church today.
We long for application. But sometimes in our desire to chase application and it is important that we understand how to apply these truths that we are learning. But sometimes in our desire to get to the application part, we forego the gift we have in Christ and what he achieved for us eternally.
And I came to be a beacon in the midst of this kind of attitude this morning to share with you that Christ has accomplished a great work for you.
It's a work you can never do on your own. It is a lifechanging work. It renews hearts. It softens and tells the most hardened soil. It does impossible things in the mind of men and women.
His work is far beyond any work you could ever do in your own strength.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:45
He is accomplishing something. Not only has he accomplished something, but he is accomplishing something in our midst today.
And even as we sit in this room, he is moving in the hearts of men and women in the room.
Introduction
And he is doing stuff. He's taking the thoughts of your weak frustrations, possibly anger, pro, possibly anxiety, and he is doing something with that only he can do in the hearts of men.
This is the good work of Christ. I'll just kick this thing off before we read. Here's my title. And I think it'll maybe help lay a framework for the way that at least I see this portion of text. Now, we're moving into six things. He gives six laws that would been very familiar for the Pharisees. And then he gives so this is the overwork.
It is do not murder, right? That's that's the that's the above the ground issue. But then he also gives the underground issues because this is what Jesus does is he helps us understand that it isn't just the above the ground issue that is the problem.
There is a below the ground issue that is the seed to the above the ground issue.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:02
And this issue underground is laid way before we see the manifestation of the fruit. And so he's speaking about really this problem that exists because the Pharisees in that day only focused on the above the ground issue, but they did not care about what sprung forth from the heart.
Not only what sprung forth from the heart, but what caused that seed to get there. The underground issue is the issue. You want to cut off a problem. You can't just cut off. How many of you have tried to cut some weeds off in your yard only to know that it comes back the next day? It just there's something miraculous about a weed.
It just finds its way back above the ground. Because until you dig down and you get to the root of the issue, you will never solve the problem. And it is, it just keeps manifesting, just keeps manifesting. And you keep chopping the fruit, what you see, but never working your way back to the root. Jesus has the ability to get to the parts of you and uproot something that continues to manifest over and over again.
And you can cut and chop down all your life, but you will grow weary trying to take out what only God can uproot.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:18
Now, this is the good news. So, not only is he trying to help them understand you got a problem, everybody in here today has a problem and the solution to your problem is Jesus Christ.
He is the answer to your problem. He is the answer. And so that is the good news. But to get there, you have to admit you have a problem. So Jesus goes to the underground and helps the Pharisees see it is not the fact that you just have avoided murdering people, but there is a root issue in you that if you talk bad about your brother, that's murder.
He's saying that I don't just judge what you do with your hands. I judge what you do with your heart.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:08
Now, this makes all of us guilty. And so, he's trying to help them understand you're guilty. But the only point is not to make you feel terrible about yourself, but to offer a solution to the problem, which is Christ.
All right? So, the seed that condemns, the seed of sin, that's what we're seeing. The seed that condemns, the seed of sin, and the seed that saves, Jesus Christ. We see this parallel that exists between the two. Matthew 5:21-26 says this, "You have heard, it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment."
But I say to you that everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says you fool will be liable to hell of fire. That's a big deal. So if you're offering your gift at an altar and there you remember your brothers have something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.
First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you're going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you put in prison.
Truly I say to you will never get out until you've paid the last penny.
Ain't it amazing what worship we offer up with corrupt hearts?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:06
Isn't that amazing?
Everything that dominates your life today, everything began with something small.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:24
No one wakes up in the morning and suddenly becomes destroyed. No one wakes up in the morning and all of a sudden is overwhelmed. No one wakes up in the morning and destroys their life in a moment. This happens slowly. It happens slowly. No one falls in public disgrace. And today really quite honestly we've seen a lot and it easy to really look at pastors and because they're they're in the spotlight.
We see a lot of pastors today that have fallen into public disgrace. That didn't happen overnight. Are you with me today? That happened slowly. See, we think that our problems came in a moment. Your problem didn't come in a moment. Your problem has been brewing below the surface for a while now. And for some of us, it's amazing because a problem pops up and we wonder how it get got there, but we don't even realize we've been watering it.
We've been making sure it's getting sun. We've been helping foster the kind of relationship that produces fruit from a seed. We incubate that problem. We protect that problem. We protect that attitude. We protect those things.
We water those things with our protection and then get shocked when the fruit comes.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:12
Okay, let me break this down for you in this way. How many of you a problem manifest and you make an excuse for the problem?
That's that's protecting your problem. Don't want any anything getting in to mess with my problem. Somebody will come and point out your problem and you'll treat them like a rabbit and you'll put fences up and say, "Don't chew on my problem." You'll protect your problem. You'll make excuses for your problem. You'll foster your problem. Don't get mad when you have a whole field of bad fruit because your go-to response is to foster the problem.
The seed.
The harvest, listen, the harvest looks sudden. The seed doesn't.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:15
You never notice the seed. It stays quiet. It stays hidden. You only notice the wreckage that's produced from it. A marriage didn't collapse overnight, folks. The real issue is not the toothpaste and how you roll it. The toilet paper roll and which direction it goes. That's not the problem in your marriage.
There's something deeper at work. That's the problem. I you know what I found and I've been in several conversations over the last year and I this just me right whenever we enter into a problem or a manifestation of a problem or a harvest comes or we see a problem we attack the problem or that thing which we see but we never really can get a clear picture of what's causing it.
I truly believe that most of everything in life, if you think about it this today, just think about it for kicks. Maybe I'm wrong. This is just my opinion. I'm not saying this is Scripture. I'm just saying it's my opinion. So much of what we deal with, problems in relationships, problems in marriage, problems in life, problems at school, problems at work, problems come from us wanting to be in control.
Truly, like you can work yourself back to that. Well, I just don't like the way they're behaving because you want to control them. And it's amazing because people are professional controllers of everyone else, yet they forsake to control themsel.
If you like control so much, you just work on controlling you. Because how many of you know you are a full-time job on your own? You're a full-time job on your own. Now listen. Can I just stop for a moment? And I know it seems like I'm derailed. I'm not I'm not derailed. I understand what Scripture is. This is my introduction.
So, I get to do what I want in my introduction. Then we'll get to the points, okay? And it's Scripture-based. But let's listen to me for a second. The more you know God's word and I think our church in diligently executing Scripture and faithfully going through and me not being able to skip one part that's been hard and just having to go through and deal with every part of the word.
The more you learn, the easier it is to want to control everyone's life to be in submission to this because you value this.
The more you value this, the more you want people to live according to this. The more you desire to live according to this.
But the job of an individual is not to be so inflamed with passion for truth that you want to control everyone else.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:13
But to be so inflamed with passion for truth that you let it do its work in you. That's the point. The Pharisees were a people who wanted TO present well AND control everyone else.
And it wasn't because they didn't value the law. Track with me here. It's because they did. SO THE more biblically grounded YOU become, the more at risk you become OF becoming A pharisee WHO does NOT LET THE truth of God do its work in you, but you use it as a tool to cut others down when it's not doing the work of God in them.
Be inflamed with passion for his word. And let it crucify you for his glory.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:18
But this is about you. This is exactly what Jesus exposes in Matthew 5. He does not begin with what people do. He begins with what produces what they do. He goes beneath the action and drives straight into the heart of an individual. He is not merely asking what you've done.
He is revealing what lives inside of each of you. And the uncomfortable truth of this passage is that the wrong seed is already in the soil of the heart long before fruit ever appears. And just in case you want to thank somebody, Adam and Eve made sure you had the corrupt seed in you when you were born.
Thanks, Pops. For it's corrupt. It produces sin of every kind.
That is why we do not simply need better behavior. We need a savior.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:34
We have a problem. Listen, guys. I know some of you may not think you do, but we have a sin problem that needs remedied.
Listen, the greatest gift of your life is being able to do soulsearching to see the sin problem in you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:53
It is way easier to see the sin problem in others. But that doesn't help you. That torments you. You know why it torments you? Because you can't solve that problem in others and it will make you miserable. You want to feel out of control, try to go fix other people. Only God can do that in the hearts of men.
Your job is to see the sin problem in you and let him deal with that. Now, that's my introduction. All right. Point one. Last week I didn't say 0.1. I think I only said the actual point and I think Liz is in the audience today so I apologize for that. I think at point three everybody was asking me all week long what point one and two was.
So for you notetakers out there who will stroke out if I don't tell you the points.
Point 1The seed that condemns is planted in the heart
Point one. Point one. The seed that condemns is planted in the heart before it's seen in the hands. That's what we start with. Jesus says, "You've heard that it was said, do not murder. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." So here Jesus is not redefining murder. He is revealing its roots.
Okay?
Murder is not the beginning of a problem. It is the exposure of a problem. Okay? Murder is the fruit. Anger is the seed.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:26
It's the underwork. Now, track with me here. Jesus is basically saying, if you have a seed problem, not if you have a fruit problem. He works it all the way back to the seed being dropped in the soil.
If you have a seed problem, you have a problem that classifies you for hellfire.
So what is he doing here? Making all of us tormented by the impossibility of a life lived in holiness. Yeah. Yeah. He's trying to help you see that the way he sees problems is on a is on a more minute scale than the way you classify problems.
Actually, it's more gracious that he sees the problem in seed form and doesn't wait till it gets to harvest form.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:25
It's beautiful that God knows that the seed manifests the fruit and he wants to cut it off in the quick early.
This is gracious of God. It's a little scary because we know that we have a seed problem and we were given the seed problem at birth and we know we have that problem. But it is good to know that we have a heavenly father who understands where to cut it off before it gets too big. And so when we put our trust in him, he cuts it off where it gives birth.
No one kills without first cultivating contempt. No one destroys without first rehearsing hatred.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:09
No one explodes in violence without first living for years with quiet bitterness growing underground.
The act feels sudden. The growth was slow. It was slow. Your problem didn't manifest overnight, folks. Anger. Listen, hell does not begin with screaming. Okay, that's the fruit. It begins with smoldering.
Anger that is excused becomes anger that is rehearsed. Anger that is rehearsed becomes anger that is loved. And anger that is loved becomes anger that rules.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:00
This is why Jesus is exposing this problem.
The seed that condemns does not wait for a crime to make you guilty. It makes you guilty at the level of desire.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:16
You can avoid the act and still carry murder in your heart. And for God, that makes you guilty. You think your sin is small because the fruit has not shown yet. It will. But if your fruit that fruit of that sin never shows and no one else knows about it, God does.
And you're still guilty of hellfire. There's some of us today and I remember being young people just check me for a second, man. And this is not this is not just two young people. This is the old people in the house, too. The old people in the house, too. You're like, "What's up, old Sean?" I don't really know.
That moves with my age. So, I classify old at a different level now than when I was 20. Basically, when I was 20, I thought 50 was ashes to ashes and dust to dust. Just bury them six feet in the ground. Is it eight or six? I don't know. It's one of those. Might as well just put them down in the ground.
They're done. Now, I'm almost 50. I think that's pretty young. It's amazing how the scale moves with your But young people, whoever you think you are today, young people today, listen to me.
You think that it is only a problem or the sin problem in your life IS only A problem when IT becomes public.
Please don't think that. It is a problem early. It's a problem early. Don't be like your parents and wait till you are exposed. Don't do that. Allow God to cut that off early to deal with that quickly because when it begins to manifest, we have problems.
We have problems then. Now, God can take a field of bad fruit and he can wipe it out in a moment. That's who God is. But he wants to catch it when it's in seed form. That's what he's saying. Really, Pharisees? All you're worrying about is what you do with your hands, but I'm concerned about what you're doing with your harp.
Some OF YOU talk BAD about your brother right inside THE church. YOU USE prayer requests TO gossip. YOU ARE evil and malicious. You think ALL kinds OF crazy stuff when people cut YOU OFF ON THE road.
You got a problem in there. There's a problem. And I want to deal with that before it manifests into something bigger. Listen, these are warning signs of a heart illness. You know what you should do when you begin to get ragy about stuff and this is all of you probably at some point unless you're like Brooke and you're a freak of nature and God just gave you a switch.
You'd think that everything that anybody else is doing is actually nice when they're trying to kill you.
Polyiana in nature. But most of the other people I would say normal. She would say her view is normal, but I she would say her view saved and she would be concerned about me. But the reality is when you begin to rage about the little things, you need to understand that is a fruit already. Maybe a sprout. What does it say?
Some 30fold, some 60fold, some 100fold. Man, figure out what the problem is below the surface. When it's at 30fold before it gets to 100. You know what you need to do when it pops up and you're like, "Whoa, what's that? Why am I so ragy? What is going on? Why am I so run to the only one who can help you?
It's Christ." Now, some of you going to run to your parents. You're going to run to a counselor. You're going to run to this person. You're going to run to your pastor. I'm not saying all of these are bad, but if you're running to them before you're running to him. Some of you substitute running to them and you count that like you're running to him because you have conversations about him in those conver well.
This is a godly counselor and you substitute him for God and you think that counts.
But he's the only one who can cut that off, who can change your heart. Some of you, when you see signs of stuff rising up in your life before it gets too big, run to him so that he can not just cut off the fruit, but he can go down and dig down and get out the root problem before it grows into something bigger.
Point 2The seed that condemns reproduces through the mouth
Okay. Okay. Number two, point two. Okay. The seed that condemns reproduces through the mouth. The seed that condemns reproduces through the mouth. Jesus moves from anger to words. Notice it starts with anger and it moves to words. Starts in the heart and begins to spring up out of the mouth. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Whoever says raqa, whoever says you fool.
Listen, your mouth is not neutral. It is a field that reveals what is growing underneath the surface of your life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:14
Trust me on that. You can be in a conversation with somebody and you can know very quickly you can love them. You can care about them, but you can diagnose pretty quickly that they're filled with pride because of the way they talk.
Their language is a field that reveals what's happening underneath.
Every insult is a seed. Every sarcastic comment is a seed.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:52
God help me. Am I the only one? God help me. Some Sometimes I think sarcasm is a way to show my wit. Nitwit. It's not. It's a seed. Every whispering slander is a seed. Every contemptfilled joke is a seed.
God later on doesn't even doesn't even warn us about what we say. He warns us about saying too much. Some of you just gab on too much. You just talk too much. YOU just SAY TOO much. You will be held accountable for every idle word you say. And sometimes it isn't even that it's bad, it's that it's too much.
Your words have so much value to God that you should hold them tightly until you've run them through the filter of his word before you utter them to the earth.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:56
Sometimes you don't need to say anything. Sometimes, track with me. Sometimes when you're talking to somebody, choosing silence is best because the Holy Spirit is saying something if you'll just be quiet.
The Holy Spirit is instructing. The Holy Spirit is renewing the mind. He's renewing the mind with Scripture they already know. And when people come to you for counsel, what they really need is to hear truth from God's word. And let me tell you something, sometimes silence gets them there.
Well, but I really want to help them understand that I empathize with them and connect with them so that I could tell them how to live their life.
You don't know how to live yours. No offense. I mean, right? Am I right? If we're So, all be it. Let's be honest today. Let's be honest. I'm trying to preach God's word. WHY? Because I don't even I'M sometimes I'M just glad I made IT through A DAY. The only confidence I stand in here today IS NOT in my wit, MY knowledge, MY insight, MY wisdom, BUT IT IS.
It's the only thing that matters. Words do not fall harmlessly to the ground. They reproduce and they multiply. And what they reproduce depends on what rules your heart. Some people wonder why relationships around them are decaying.
They keep planting verbal violence and hoping relational peace will grow.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:47
That one convicts a bit. You say it was just a sentence.
God says it was sewing. You cannot seow poison into people and expect peace to grow. Jesus is not exaggerating when he connects words to guilt before God. He is revealing that the seed that condemns always testifies against itself.
The mouth eventually reveals what the heart truly loves.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:23
Point 3The seed that condemns corrupts worship at the root
Number three, the seed that condemns corrupts worship at the root. Jesus says, "If you bring your gift to the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift."
This is one of the most sobering statements in all of Scripture.
God is saying, "I will not accept your worship while you protect your sin."
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:49
God is saying, "You sing songs, but your heart is divided. You prayers, but your hands are dirty. You lift your Bible while refusing to repent and God is saying, "Stop it.
Just stop it. It would be better for you TO BE authentic about WHO you really are, deep down under the surface, WHO YOU truly ARE, your authentic self. IT would BE better FOR YOU TO bring that TO church ON Sunday than to come and pretend like you love ME when your life says YOU deny ME.
Stop it. Just stop it.
Church is not a masquerade. It is not a costume party.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:58
This is the house OF GOD. DO YOU really think that HE can't see you for you? Just stop it.
You cannot plant bitterness all week and offer praise on Sunday.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:18
God does not receive crops from poisoned soil unlike we do. We'll spray poison on it so the bugs don't eat it and then we'll eat it and we're good with that.
But God won't. God won't. He knows better. And so you can offer up crop from poison soil AND he'll deny IT. He don't want that kind of worship. The seed that condemns does not stay confined to private corners. It spreads into sacred places. It hallows our prayer. It silences joy. It weakens worship. And some of you wonder why God feels distant.
Why you can't connect with him. Why you can't hear him, feel him, or sense him in your CAR OR your home or even the church anymore like you used to.
You began to point your finger at this or that or the other. But the real issue IS NOT that OR THE other because christ HAD THE ability AND THE disciples had the ability TO GO into every situation AND worship him IN prisons, IN floggings AND crucifixions and in ALL kinds OF suffering.
WE SAW THE disciples BE able TO worship HIM IN spite OF others.
IT IS disrespect TO GOD to say he IS only enough when I'M comfortable. It is AN insult TO GOD TO SAY HE IS only enough when it's MY WAY. Dishonors his gloriness. Gloriness. Gloriousness dishonors him entirely. Some of you feel he's distant. The issue is not his silence. It is your refusal.
Worship does not die because God withdraws.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:29
Worship dies when repentance is postponed. And repentance is often postponed when you think you're good on your own and you're not.
Postponed repentance comes from a person unwilling to acknowledge their guilt. So Jesus begins by helping all of us see you're all guilty. Why does he do this? Because he wants your worship to be received.
He wants you to sense him in your car and in your home. And whatever your trouble is, no matter how unbearable you're walking through, he wants you to sense him there.
But often times we can't. We feel dead inside. And I want to propose to you today could be because repentance is denied.
Point 4The seed that condemns grows stronger through delay
Point four, the seed that condemns grows stronger through delay. Jesus says, "Settle matters quickly." Why? Because roots grow deeper with time. Give me a few more minutes and I'm done. Because delay strengthens chains. Because sin never stays small.
What you excuse today, you will obey tomorrow.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:04
It will control your life. So you choose your poison. You think you're in control because the fruit is not visible yet.
Wrong. Wrong man. The seed has already begun to take ownership of the soil, pushing back and pushing down to gain greater access to hold on stronger for the sake of production of stuff you never wanted in the first place.
Every day repentance is delayed, the seed grows deeper and condemned. And that seed condemns, gains more authority in the heart.
Listen, hell never needed a mile. It only needs permission.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:03
That's it. Let me tell you how you give sin permission. Make excuses for it. Yeah. Track with me now. Have you been there? We can all say we've been there at some area of our lives, right? Please, today with all my heart, don't give sin permission and don't make excuses.
Repent for the kingdom is at hand. That's what he's saying. That's what he's saying to those who are far from Christ. That's what he's saying to the Pharisees. Jesus is sitting on the mountain and he's saying, "Please see the seed problem. The seed is condemning you, not just the fruit."
Point 5The seed that saves replaces the seed that condemns
Point five. And here's the hopeful. Okay, here it is. Here it is, guys. Here it is. Okay, here it is. This is it. This is what I've been trying to get to because it's been rough these four points. But listen to this. This is what Jesus is trying to get to. The first f points is what he's trying to say to help you understand you got a problem.
You got a problem. And then he's doing ALL OF this. WHY IS HE doing ALL this? JESUS IS such A downer. Why is he doing this? Here it is. The seed that saves must be replaced with the seed that condemns.
That's what he's trying to help you with. So now the ground shifts. Jesus does not only talk about the deadly seed. In Scripture, he calls himself one. Track with me. Unless a grain of wheat, the Bible says, falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. Jesus is a seed. Jesus is a seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
This is the gospel. Sorry, I'm looking over here a lot. This is the gospel. It's my safe zone with Brooke. Just the safe zone.
Your seed which came to you through Adam, the first Adam produced death. His seed produced life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:35
Your sewing ends in the grave. His sewing ends in resurrection.
At the cross, God planted his son into the darkest soil of the universe.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:00
And instead of corruption swallowing him, glory exploded OUT OF HIM.
THE grave became A garden. The tomb became a womb. THE symbol of death became the birthplace of eternal life.
Christ did not come to prune your nature.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:27
HE came TO replace IT, to change you, to give you a new heart.
New birth is not modification. It is transplantation.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:38
A new seed enters a heart. A new nature begins to grow.
A NEW harvest becomes inevitable. If Christ is in you, murder loses its roots and its seeds are thrown as far as the east are from the west into the sea of forgetfulness.
Bitterness loses its throne.
Anger loses its authority because THE seed OF life IS stronger than the seed of death.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:11
Can I get an amen? That's THE goodness OF THE gospel. There IS hope for you. There's hope for each of us. That hope is found in Jesus Christ. Which seed will rule you? In closing, the seed that condemns explains why the law searches us so deeply.
The seed that saves explains why the gospel meets us so freely. The cross now stands before us as both warning and invitation.
Our sin placed Christ there. His love kept him there. His power raised him from there.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:58
We do not gather on Sunday because we have managed our hearts well through the week.
We gather because grace has met us where we could not fix ourselves.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:14
We gather because Christ has done for us what we could never do for ourselves.
You do not need better behavior. You need a new life. And that new life is not grown through effort. It is received through faith.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:30
The most searching truth in this room is that God sees the seed beneath the every action. And the most confronting truth in this room is that we he has provided a savior for what he sees.
So the question this passage leaves us with is not simply what will you change this week.
The question is who are you trusting with your heart? The seed that condemns or the seed that saves?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:04
I think it's important in this moment to be silent, to contemplate what I want you to do as they sing this reprise.
I want you to do this. I can't stop you from singing, but I would prefer you to contemplate. Are you running to Christ in the midst of seeing your brokenness? Do you understand that he is what you need most? Take this moment, reflect, contemplate, and pray. And some of you today, some of you've not run to Christ for your problems.
You've run to everything else. And I came here today to tell you, please run to him quickly. You don't need an altar call. You don't need me to walk you through. You don't need a sinner's prayer. You need a heart that longs for him. And I can't control that.