PASTOR'S CORNER

Matt 5:21-26     Are you a murder at heart? Kent Hughes wrote in his commentary, “Has Christ radical righteousness truly penetrated our relationships with others? Or are we full of hostility that causes us to verbally or silently murmur “fool” or “worthless” as we go through life? If so, we need to repent, calling upon the Holy Spirit’s renewing power. The righteous, those who have received the radical righteousness of Christ, must guard their hearts and mouths.”  As I said last week, “Raca & Fool” view others with contempt, and once we’re there, murder could be just around the corner, because in our minds, they have no worth, and don’t deserve to live.  This is a great concern for the people that Jesus was speaking to!   Why?   Because murder of the heart affects our relationship we have with God and that also will have an effect on our worship.  To have a heart of murder is to put our genuine worship under trial by God’s holy standard.   “The evil emotions in our

Matt 5:21-26 “When a rattlesnake is cornered, sometimes it becomes so angry that it bites itself. When a man harbors hatred or bitterness in his heart he is poisoning himself just like the rattlesnake that bites itself."  See! If anger does not exist in the heart, it does not exist at all.  I say this to reference what Jesus is saying here! In the internal new birth found in Christ alone.   The righteousness that exceeds the external self-righteous of the Scribes and Pharisee’s comes through the transforming work of God.   From the beginning of this sermon Jesus has made it abundantly clear that His message addresses the heart (the internal) over the traditions and workings of men (the eternal).  Jesus focuses on and exposes the heart of men by addressing what is in their minds and heart.  See! God is very concerned about the inside; and when the outside matches with the inside, God is pleased.  As we read in Jeremiah 17:10 " I the LORD search the heart and tes