Thou Shall Not Kill

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Thou Shall Not Kill

A Message by Pastor Eric Chang.

Matthew 5:21-26
We read today in Matthew 5, as we continue to look into the wonderful words of our Lord Jesus. In Mt 5:21-26, we read this:

You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults" - the RSV says 'insults' but your footnote will tell you that the original has it as "says Raca to" - "his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has 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. Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny" - the last farthing.

Jesus' Glory — the Great Lawgiver and God Manifest in the Flesh
What is the Lord Jesus saying to us in this passage? What is it that we can learn? First, let us take note of this fact: take note first of the glory of Jesus and who it is that is speaking to us. He says, "It was said to you of old, 'You shall not kill'." "Thou shalt not kill" is what? It is the sixth commandment of the Ten Commandments - "Thou shalt not kill." [Exo. 20:13-KJV] The Lord Jesus says, "You have heard it said", that is, "God said to the people of old through Moses". He gave them the Ten Commandments, and one of these was: "You shall not kill". [RSV] The Lord Jesus says, "And I say to you." What is the Lord Jesus doing? Here we see the Lord Jesus as the Great Lawgiver. The translation: "But I say to you" is a little bit not too desirable. It is difficult to translate otherwise, because the particle in the Greek can be translated as 'yet'; it is not as strong as 'but'. 'But' can be a contradictory statement. The Lord Jesus is not contradicting the OT by any means. He is not saying that there is anything wrong with the statement: "You shall not kill". But 'but' in this non-adversative sense, non-contradictory sense, He says, "I want you to understand what this means." And what it means is something to be understood at a much higher level than simply not literally killing a person.

So, first let us notice, that the Lord Jesus is, in fact, taking the OT Law much deeper that its original statement. And who would dare to expound the Word of God like this? Who would dare to make a new commandment, who says it is not enough just not to kill a person, because if you are angry with a person, you have already committed a crime as bad as murder. You are likely to end up as much in hell as the person who committed murder. The fire of hell awaits the person who says to his brother, "You moron! You idiot! You fool!" We shall see in a moment what this means. But first let us notice the glory of Jesus as the Great Lawgiver, the One who is enabled to speak with the authority of God for the simple reason that He is God. He is God manifest in the flesh.

There are many enemies of the church today who seem to have an axe to grind, who want to go around telling us that Jesus is somehow less than that divine glory, that He is somehow less than God. Never believe it! Because people who speak like this have never met with Jesus. Anyone who has met with Jesus does not need an academic argument to prove that Jesus is God. If you have met with Jesus, you know He is God and one can only pity those who do not know Him, and so end up in such academic arguments. But all of Scripture shows to us - if we have eyes to see - that Jesus is none other than God manifest in the flesh in His divine glory.

"It was said to you by God, and now I am saying to you again". The same Person who gave the commandment to Moses is the One who is telling us what that commandment means. And I pray that your eyes may be opened to behold the glory of Jesus. There is nothing so tragic as a Christian who cannot see the glory of Jesus. The glory of Jesus is something that is so supremely magnificent, that if you cannot see it, then pray that God may open your eyes. The apostle John says in Jn. 12:41 that Isaiah saw the glory - "his glory"! Whose glory? The glory of Jesus! "...and spoke of him." This is an astonishing statement for the apostle John to make in John Chapter 12. Where did Isaiah see His glory? Where did he see Jesus' glory? Well, in the temple! In Isaiah Chapter 6, Isaiah describes how he beheld God's glory in the temple.

There are so many Christians today who simply cannot see the glory. I want to deal with this problem today, to see why is it that you cannot see the glory. Why are these poor people mixed up in various confused sects, unable to see His glory? For me, I have spent many years ago, something like 3 years, studying the Word of God, just searching the Bible for the teaching concerning the glory of Jesus, just praying that God will open my eyes that I may be able to see His glory. And how the Lord did open my eyes! Those 3 years just filled me with a sense of wonder and praise as I began to see more and more of the glory of God manifested in Jesus.

We cannot come to know God unless God comes to us. How did He come to us? He came to us in Jesus, in a way that He can speak our language, in a way that we can understand. It is wonderful when people speak to us the language we can understand. God did not want to speak over our heads; He wanted to speak to our hearts. Therefore He came in the only way it was possible to speak to us in such a way, that is, He came (as Hebrews tells us in the first chapter) in His Son. He has spoken to us in His Son. Why is it that so many Christians cannot see the glory of Jesus? Not only they cannot see His glory, but also they find that they cannot communicate with Him. Prayer is a cold and dead thing. Prayer is difficult. Prayer is not the sweet thing that other Christians say it is. We want to deal with this particular problem, and all this is here in our passage.

Surpassing the Pharisees' Righteousness by Meeting Jesus' Requirement
What does the Lord Jesus say to us here? He says that if you commit murder, that is enough to destroy your relationship with God and you lose eternal life. "But," He says, "I'll tell you much more than that." Because, out of so many people, how many people have ever committed murder? Very few people indeed! And so immediately we can go away feeling, "Well, we are quite righteous." Remember what we studied last week? "Except your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will under no condition enter the kingdom of God" [Mt. 5:20] - by no means will you ever enter the kingdom of God. Therefore, if we say, "Well, my righteousness [must] exceed the Pharisees'. The Pharisees don't commit murder. Therefore if I don't commit murder, then I am equal with the Pharisees. How can I exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees?"

So the Lord Jesus is going on to tell us that His requirements, His standard of righteousness is far above that of the Pharisees, and far above that of the average Christian today. That is why we are talking about it. So many Christians have such a low understanding of holiness that it is about time we woke up to the Lord's teaching.

The first thing we see, as we saw just now, is that if we do not see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, where on this earth can we see God's glory? You will never be able to see God's glory unless you get to heaven, and without Him you will never get to heaven anyway. There is only one place and only in One Person can we, in this age, see the glory of God, and that is in Jesus Christ. If you do not see it in Him, you will see it nowhere. That is exactly what Paul says in 2 Cor. 3:18, we "with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, where? In the face of Jesus! That is where we see God's glory. If you cannot see the glory today, then pray that God may open your eyes. Because, you see, what we need in the church today are people filled with the divine fire. Where does that divine fire come from? From a seeing - with the spiritual eyes - the glory of Jesus.

The Hindrance to Seeing Jesus' Glory - Lack of Holiness!
What prevents us from seeing that glory? It is the lack of holiness. The lack of holiness! That is why the Lord Jesus is not raising the standards of morality, of righteousness, simply to make life difficult for us. Do you understand that? He is not saying, "I want to make life harder for you. Before, all you had to do to get into heaven was not to kill anybody, and now I am saying to you if you hate somebody, you are as bad as a murderer; you will be fit for hell." You say, "Dear me, it's hard enough to live the Christian life as it is! And now, Lord Jesus, You are raising the standard so high that I just can't make it. If I can't jump over a 3-foot jump and You are raising it to a 6-foot jump, I might as well give it up. I mean, I can't do it." Is Jesus trying to make life hard for us? Not at all! He is trying to show us the pathway to seeing His glory - the pathway to spiritual power; the pathway to being a true disciple. What is the use of being a Christian that is neither here nor there? Make up your mind. Do you want to be an all-out Christian or do you just want to be a wishy-washy nominal Christian? If you want to be a nominal one, just hand in your resignation. Cancel it out! It is not worth living that kind of a life. You will end up only in self-deception.

But Jesus is showing us the path of holiness, which is the path of glory. In Hebrews Chapter 12, the writer tells us there these very important words, that unless you are holy, you shall not see the glory of God: "Without holiness, no man shall see God." [v14] Now these verses I would like to imprint in your minds and in your hearts today. So important are these words, specially in the church of today, that it is time that every Christian realize this. Heb. 12:14 reads: "Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." I have told you many times before, beware what you understand by faith - that salvation by believing. You see, faith in the Bible is to be understood in terms of that which enables you to be holy. You are not going to be saved, the writer to the Hebrews tells us, by just professing faith, as so many Christians do. Only by that faith which brings you into holiness, only that faith will enable you to belong to God, to see God. "Without holiness, no one shall see God."

Are you holy? If you are not holy, if you have not got this holiness, then no matter what kind of a Christianity you profess, then look at the Word of God. You will simply not be able to see God; you will simply not enter into His salvation. These are not my words. These are the words of God. Faith is only truly saving faith if it is a faith by which God's holiness becomes ours. The requirement of holiness is upon every disciple. "Be holy as your Father is holy." [1 Pet. 1:16] That is the scriptural teaching in the NT. The Lord Jesus goes on to speak about this at the end of Matthew Chapter 5 where He says, "Be perfect as your Father is perfect". [v48] And what that means we will look at when we come to that passage.

Jesus Wants Not Converts, But Disciples Who Are Holy
Now think about this. Think about your old position. If you are not a Christian, I would like you to understand: becoming a Christian is something I would like you to think very carefully about, not something to rush into. Not at all! You say, "Strange! Most people are trying to drag people into the kingdom of God, trying to register quick conversions, and here is this man stopping them as they are enter the door." We are stopping you only for this: that you know exactly what you are doing. You see, Jesus is not interested in making conversions; He is interested in making disciples. "Go into all the world and make disciples", not make just converts. We want to turn every Christian into a powerhouse, a spiritual powerhouse. The church has enough of mediocre so-called Christians. Every Christian in this church, it is my aim, as Paul says, "To build you up into the fullness of the stature of Christ". [Eph 4:13] That was Paul's standard - until every Christian stands complete in Christ, in the full stature and glory of Christ. Paul had a very high objective. And this is the objective we have in this church, too.

We must have holiness. But what is this 'holiness'? What is this thing 'holiness'? Does it mean we become holy when we begin to see some kind of a halo sparkling on top of our heads? No, no! We are not talking about that. Holiness is simply totalness - a totality of commitment to God! There is no holiness without a total consecration to God. The first step in holiness, and the basic step, is that your heart is undividedly loyal and committed to Christ. Are you holy? Then ask yourself this question: Is my heart, at this very moment, totally committed to Jesus? Or is it divided within? Is it partly belonging to Jesus? There is no partial holiness. You are holy or not holy - there is no way of partiality. There is no way to be neither for Jesus or against Jesus. "He that is not with me is against me." [Mt. 12:30-KJV] The words of Jesus are always clear-cut and sharp. There are no in-between stages.

The first step, then, in holiness is that you are 100% the Lord's. When Jesus bought us "with an enormous price", as Paul says in Corinthians [1 Cor. 6:20 & 7:23], did He just buy one arm of mine? Did He buy two arms? Did He buy part of me? The Bible says He bought me - all of me. I am His. Now you are deceiving yourself and trying to deceive the Lord if you are keeping back something in your life from the Lord. Remember what happened to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5, when they professed to have given all to the Lord, but kept back something for themselves? That is a grievous sin! God does not grab you and drag you into His kingdom. The choice is yours, but you either do not offer yourself to the Lord, or if you offer yourself, you offer yourself totally, unreservedly to Him.

Only a Totally Committed Disciple Is Filled with the Holy Spirit
There are many people today who ask: What is it to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It sounds something so mysterious. There is absolutely nothing mysterious about being filled with the Holy Spirit. The reason why so many people are not filled with the Spirit is because the Spirit cannot fill [them]. 'Fill' means what? 'Filled' means to be full. If a cup has only water in half of it, would we call it full? If the cup is three quarters full of liquid in it, is it full? If it has 90%, is it full? Of course not, full means full; it means filled. You cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit unless you are a 100% Christian. You waste your time saying, "Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit" when in fact, in your heart, you do not want to be 100% His. There is no mystery about being filled with the Spirit. Any person who is 100% committed to Jesus is filled with the Spirit because he is 100% the Lord's. So, there is nothing mysterious about it at all. When Paul says to always "be filled with the Spirit" [Eph. 5:18], he means that a Christian must always be 100% [the Lord's], never taking anything back to himself again.

If you have done that, if you have completely yielded your life to God without any reservation - be honest about it, no reservations - you are a person who will be filled with the Spirit. You say, "Why do you say 'will be'?" There is one more thing: you must ask God to fill you. Many Christians are not filled simply because they never ask. "...ye have not, because ye ask not." [Jam. 4:16-KJV] And we will see as we go on in the Lord's teaching that He says, "...how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him". [Lk. 11:13] If you feel that you have genuinely given yourself 100% to God, then ask Him. If you do not see that you have the power of God in your life, ask Him to fill you. It is very simple. And He will! There is no problem there at all - if you mean exactly what you say.

We are seeing today some very important things. We see that the Lord Jesus put such a high standard there to show us that there is no way to be a true disciple unless we are filled with the Spirit. There is no way to meet His requirements unless we are filled with the Spirit. The Bible knows only one kind of Christian, and that is the Spirit-filled Christian. To be filled with the Spirit is the normal Christian life. There is nothing mysterious about it. If you are filled with the Spirit, you will know what the Christian life is all about. If you are a 100% Christian, you will realize that you know the power that comes from being a Christian. I do not always say 'external joy' because you see things far more deeply, more clearly than any other person can see. You have a spiritual discernment and insight which others do not have. This means that sin often grieves you much more deeply than it grieves anyone else.

Discernment and Insight Comes with the Filling of the Spirit
Many people cannot see the things of God because they are blind. Why are they blind? Because they have not the light of God in their soul. There are many intelligent people who read the Bible but they cannot understand a thing that it says. It does not make head or tail to them. They cannot understand it. Is it because they are stupid? No! They are intelligent people, but they cannot understand the Word of God. Why? Because the things of God must be understood in God's light! Unless you have God's light coming into you, you cannot understand it. But read the Bible like this: kneel down before God, ask Him to cleanse away all your sin with His precious blood, which alone can take away sin; nothing else can. Say, "Here is my life - 100% Yours. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit." Open your Bible and look at it. You will find that its meaning just jumps up and hits you right in the eye. You will say, "Hey! It's all coming alive to me now!" I am sure it would. There will be some technical things that you may not understand because of lack of historical knowledge or background knowledge, but the spiritual meaning of everything will come forth to you clear and sharp.

When I was a very young Christian, I read a very difficult book - the Book of Chronicles. I wonder if you have tried reading it. I wrote down many notes on the Book of Chronicles. I was a Christian for no more than one or two years at that time. Today when I look back on my notes on Chronicles, I stand amazed. I say to myself, "Could I have seen all those spiritual riches as such a young Christian? Where did I have such spiritual insight from?" Even such a book as Chronicles, which so many people read and cannot see anything in it of any spiritual value, comes forth to me full of riches as such a young Christian. You know why? I thank God that right from the beginning, right there back in China, the Christians taught me right there, that a Christian is not a Christian unless you are a 100% Christian. When you are a 100% Christian, you are a Spirit-filled Christian. When you are a Spirit-filled Christian, you have marvelous insight. When I look back on those notes - all my notes on Chronicles - which, strangely enough, are written in a Chinese Communist school exercise book with a man with a hammer and sickle in front, and read them now, I just thank God. It shows me. Did I study any theology at that time? No, I knew no theology. Had I been to a Bible College? No, I had not been to Bible College. Then where did I have this kind of spiritual insight that even now when I read it, my heart burns inside of me. Because, you see, knowing God and serving God is not a matter of Bible College or theological college. It is a matter of spiritual insight. And when I look at those notes on Chronicles, I wonder if I could improve on them even now - after all the theological college and Bible College and everything else. I very much wonder if I could improve on those notes.

Holiness - the Secret of Seeing Jesus and Having Spiritual Power
This then is the secret of spiritual insight, of spiritual power. It is the secret of holiness which the Lord Jesus is teaching us here. Why does He insist on holiness? Because there is no other way to be a Christian - a true Christian. I beg of you, if any of you are thinking of becoming Christians but do not intend to be a 100% Christian, I beg of you, forget it. Forget it! Come back to the Lord when you intend to be 100% His. Don't play around with God! Less than 100% is playing around with God. He takes nothing less. Read His teaching here. He says, "What I require of you is this standard." Now let us consider what is the standard.

So God requires of us holiness in order for us to see His glory. Jesus then - let us deeply understand - did not raise the standard to make life difficult for us, but to show us that only if we walk in the holiness that He requires, can we see His glory, such as people in the OT, apart from the prophets, too often were unable to see. So He is showing us how this is to be done.

Anger - A Way to Check Whether We Are Under the Spirit's Control
Let us look at what He said. He said this: "If you have anger in your heart against a brother, you are liable to the courts. V22 says: "But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment". Then it continues: "whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council". The word translated 'judgment' also means 'court'. It is a technical word also for the local courts of Israel. The next one says that if you say to a brother, "Raca" (which the RSV has put into the margin), [you "shall be liable to the council"]. What does 'Raca' mean? It comes from a Hebrew word which means 'empty'; thus, empty-headed. So if you say to your brother, "You empty head! You silly fellow! You idiot!", you are going to be liable to a lot of trouble. You are going to be liable to the council. The council is the Sanhedrin. In the original it is simply the word for the Sanhedrin. And He says, "If you say to your brother "You fool"...". The word 'fool' here is a stronger word that the word that is translated 'Raca'. 'Raca' means you empty-head. It means, "You silly fellow. You idiot. You 'not very intelligent'." But the word 'fool' in the Bible always has spiritual overtones. "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" [Ps. 14:1] It is the fool who says this kind of things, that is, a person who is spiritually, morally degraded. So if you say to a person, "You fool!", carrying that moral sense, "You moron! You godless person", then you are liable to hellfire [since] you pass such judgement upon a brother.

Now consider these words. We see first, technically speaking, in terms of exposition, that we see an advance from the less serious to the more serious: from the council, to the Sanhedrin, to the hellfire. The council [is comprised] of 23 judges, the Sanhedrin of 71 judges, and hellfire, the judgment of God. From a simple anger, the anger that secondly then goes on to carry out a statement that says, "You idiot!" which is spoken out of hatred, out of bitterness, and to the more serious charge, "You godless fellow. That is a very serious charge, which is saying that he does not know God at all, wiping him off altogether out of the kingdom of God, passing the death sentence upon him. So with what measure you judge, you will be judged.

What does all this say to us? It has many important things to say to us. First, a person who is filled with the Spirit is a person whose emotions are under God's control - the control of the Holy Spirit. You see, you are not 100% filled if your emotions are not also controlled by God, are they? Many Christians go down spiritually because their emotions have never been handed over to God. They have not been controlled by the Holy Spirit. Have you ever noticed that the first thing to react is always your emotions?

Any of you who drive a car will know exactly what I mean. You drive along and somebody cuts in front of you. Immediately your anger comes up. The first thing that reacts is your anger. Your emotions must be brought under control. We must be governed by God right to our emotions - when even our emotional reaction is governed by God. Many Christians have not learned this. The result is there are Christians whose emotions run wild. Are you one of those people? This kind of Christians really worry me. They are one day up and the next day down. You know the kind of Christians: happy today, weeping tomorrow. They feel good today; they feel bad tomorrow. Their feelings are like the barometer that jumps up and down with the weather. If you are one of this kind of Christians, it means that you are not a Spirit-filled Christian. There is something wrong with you. It is about time you dealt with it quickly. Because that kind of Christian, the emotion goes up and down and it tends to go further down every time. Soon it will hit such a low that you cannot get out of it. Like the British economy, it goes heading downwards. You cannot find a high spot. It goes up a few cents to drop another five cents. It goes up two and drops another seven. In the 3 months I was here, the pound lost 30 cents against the dollar. And too many people's Christian lives operate exactly like this.

Put Our Emotions Under God's Control
Are your emotions under God's control? Ask yourself that. Are you the kind of Christian, having been to church, you feel good now; you have done it. You say, "That was really good!" And tomorrow morning, you get up and say, "Aah, I don't feel so good this morning. The Lord seems to be far away from me." You are living on your emotions and your emotions are not spiritually controlled. This kind of Christian is one that has no consistency of witness. They are the kind of Christians that have no power. God cannot use people like these. It is absolutely essential that you bring your emotions to God - that they come under God's control. Are your emotions under God's control? Have you got God's power in your life? Here, then, is an important lesson: put your emotions under God's control.

Here we can see then that the Lord is showing us a very important lesson. But the next thing we must see is this: it governs our relationship to one another. If you are angry against your brother, that is a particularly serious offense. What He mentions here in Mt. 5:22 has to do with a brother. You may be angry with certain godless persons in certain ways, yes. Not all anger is sin. You must be sure about that. This anger here is the anger spoken of in terms of the anger which produces murder. It is an anger, notice in exposition, as it relates to murder. There is no murder in which there would have been no anger. The first emotion in murder comes from anger. Anger can be cool and calculated, or it can be an instant burst. But it is always our emotions that start off the trouble.

Holiness Has to Do with Our Relationships with Brothers and Sisters
So notice this. Holiness has to do with our relationships with brothers and sisters. Examine your relationships to your brothers and sisters. Examine your relationships to other people. Notice how we are emotional beings. As I mentioned to someone a while ago, when we look at people, we judge them according to our feelings. You look at a person and you say, "I like this person." Or, "I don't like this person." How do you determine it? Well, you just go by your emotions. You say, "I look at a fellow and I don't like his looks. So, I don't like him." How do you know? He may be a wonderful guy? Just because you do not like his looks, [you do not like him]. What does that prove? It just proves that you go by your emotions. Or you look at a fellow, you say, "Oh, I like him". Well, he may be a rotten chap, but just because you like his face, you like him. How do you like him? Do you know what is in his heart? You do not know what is in his heart. But you go by your emotions. Human beings judge everything by emotions.

How does a boy love a girl? Does he do the rational thing? Does he sit down and calculate the benefits of this girl, whether she is a spiritual girl, a capable girl, or an intelligent girl? How does a girl judge a boy? Well, too often it is just: "I like him." Or, "I don't like him". It is as simple as that. There is nothing very logical about it. Often the reason is a servant of our emotions. That is to say, having liked the fellow, we think of all the reasons why we like him, isn't it? Often, the reasons are not even able to hold any water. They simply do not stand up to examination. But our reason is a servant of our emotions all too often. We justify our feelings with our mind.

Too often, we bring this into the church; then we have problems. I find often that a brother and a sister or people in the church, do not like one another, for no obvious reasons, [as if to say]: "It is just that I don't happen to like his style. I don't like his behavior. I don't like his manner. So, I don't like him." Now this must go. All this must go out of the church. Don't judge a person whether his hair is long or short, whether he has a moustache or no moustache, glasses or no glasses. It has nothing to do with it. The Lord Jesus wants us at no time to judge our relationships according to the flesh.

There is a statement by Paul in Corinthians, in which he says, "Henceforth, we know no man after the flesh." [1 Cor. 2:2] And all the Christians are confused, "What does he mean? How can you know no man after the flesh?" It means simply this: that our relationships are not based on our natural emotions. I love you because you are the Lord's, because you are my brother and my sister in Christ. You are precious to me. I did not say whether you dress in a way that I like or don't like. I do not care whether I like your hairstyle or not. I love you because you are my brother and sister. And I wish that in this church, as we go on from week to week, that we will build up a relationship in which we do not know one another according to the flesh, as Paul says, but only according to the spiritual relationship that we have in Christ. "Love one another." Don't say, "I like his face." Or, "I don't like his face." It does not matter. "He doesn't speak Cantonese [one of the Chinese dialects] very well; I don't like him." Or, "I like only people who speak a certain dialect, and he can't speak this dialect." A spiritual church is a place in which there is genuine love for one another.

There is something we must also deal with in our churches. You go to many churches and there is a coldness. You come in, you are new, but nobody wants to talk to you. Nobody wants to know you. I hope that there is no person who is new in this church who will feel overlooked, neglected and unwanted. In this church, we are going to build a spiritual church, that any person who comes in will immediately feel that he or she is part of the family. I want you to know that you are loved. I want you to know that, if you are a Christian, go out and show your love to some newcomer. After all, we have all been newcomers, haven't we? We have all gone to churches where nobody has known us. Would you like people not to look at us? Would you like to be neglected there? Then do not neglect those who come. Show that they are loved. Then what about the non-Christians? Well, love them with the love of Christ. Christ also died for them. Don't say, "He is not a Christian. I don't want to talk to him." Christ also loved him - He died for him! Don't judge according to your feelings! Christians must not be clannish. They must love wherever love is needed.

Make Right with God Quickly!
Well, there is such a lot of riches here that we must rush on. Here we come to a final point since our time is nearly gone, and come to another spiritual principle. I want to say to you, when you study the Word of God, look for the spiritual principles. That is the way to understand the Bible. Many people who read the Bible do not see it because they do not see the spiritual principle involved. The other principle involved here that the Lord Jesus speaks about is this. He says, "If there is anything wrong in your spiritual life, put it right immediately. Never waste time."

He says that when you are on the way, "Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court." [Mt. 5:25] Here, of course, it is not talking about a human court case. Here the 'court' referred to is the spiritual court. Put things right immediately, before you come to the judgment. Because by the time you get to the judgment, it will be too late. Make right with God quickly! Get right with Him! Never waste time! The spiritual man never dilly-dallies. He acts quickly. There is no time to waste. The longer you let a sin hang around, the stronger that sin will become and the more difficult it will be to deal with, and the more likely you are going to end up in the judgment with it. Never dilly-dally! Quickly search out the problems, and put them right. This is an essential secret to learn. Hesitation has cost many people their spiritual power, their joy, and in fact, even their spiritual life.

I remember an elder in our church in Shanghai who was once talking to a young man, persuading him to get right with God quickly because of his sin. This young man was putting it off. He said, "I am young. I have lots of time. I have to think these things through, and see how to put it right." The elder of our church pleaded with him, "Look! Don't think you are young and therefore you have lots of time. In God's time, nobody knows when your time will be up. Act quickly!" This elder was sharing this matter with me, and he said, "You know what? This person refused to get right with God there and then. He walked down the street to the next block, and he was killed right there at that block, not 3 minutes later. He thought he had plenty of time - he was young. He did not know his time was up in 3 minutes. He had 3 minutes to go - if only he had known that." Spiritual things have to do with life and death. Never dilly-dally! If you are not right with God now, get right with God in a hurry. Don't say you are young, that you have plenty of time. For all you know, you are like that man, who had only 3 minutes of his life left. He walked down - he was healthy - with all sorts of self-confidence, and was killed 3 minutes later. The spiritual principle is this: act quickly!

Our Relationship with God Is Connected to that with One Another
We have to close on one final note and it is this: the Lord Jesus said that our relationship with God is directly connected with our relationships with one another. Did you ever know that? Don't think you are a good Christian just because you have your quiet time, your prayer and so on. That is not enough to make you a good Christian. It depends on your relationships to brothers and sisters. Here the Lord Jesus says in vv23&24: "If when you come to the altar to bring your gift, you remember that your brother has something against you, then leave your gift there." Why? Because God is not going to accept it. It is no use offering a gift; God is not going to accept your gift. Leave your gift there and get right with your brother. Be reconciled to him. And then come back and offer your gift.

You see, our relationship with God is directly affected by our relationships with one another. If your relationships with your brothers and sisters are not right, you are wasting your time of trying to get through to God. If when you pray you cannot get through to God, ask yourself these questions then, as we conclude: Am I 100% a Christian? Has some brother or sister got something against me?" Notice it did not say, "If you have something against a brother or sister..." because a Christian should have nothing against a brother and sister. He says, "You have forgiven them, whatever there is to forgive." But if you have dealt with a brother and sister in such a way that he has something against you - you have wronged him, there is something that you must make amends for - then get right with him. Otherwise, you cannot get through.

Holiness Is the Key to All Spiritual Life - the Secret to Power!
So here then, to summarize, we see that we have some very important spiritual lessons. We saw then that if we want to see the glory of God, if we want to be able to have sweet communion with God, then we must have holiness. Without holiness, there will be no communion with God. Many people have asked me, "How is it that when I pray to God, I don't seem to get any kind of answer? God does not seem to hear me." The answer is very simple, my friend. It is because, either you are not 100% a Christian, i.e., you are not filled with the Spirit, or you are not right with your brothers and sisters or there is some sin in your life that is hindering. You have to get right in every aspect. Holiness is the path to spiritual power, and spiritual joy and spiritual insight. In other words, holiness, as the Lord Jesus is teaching us here, is the key to all spiritual life. Without it, you get nowhere. May God then enable you to see whether or not you are holy, whether or not you are 100% His, whether or not you are right with your brothers and sisters!

If you are a married person, [examine] whether you are right with your wife and your children. You know, married life has often been a trap for so many Christians - it could simply destroy them. And the apostle Peter tells us this: that you have to be right with the Lord, and you have to be right with your wife and your family. In 1 Pet. 3:7 he says this (and every married person should note these words): behave or "live considerately with your wives", treating her with honor as the weaker one. What for? So that "your prayers may not be hindered." If our relationship with our wife or if our wife's relationship with us is not right, our communion with God is going to be hindered.

Let us then conclude today with realizing the important things that we have looked at. I have shared with you the secret of spiritual power. The secret of spiritual power is none other than holiness, so much so that when Peter and John healed the lame man in the temple, you remember in Acts 3? The crowd came around and admired them and wondered at them. What did Peter say to them? He said, "Why are you admiring us? - as though by our own power or holiness" - note: power or holiness - the same thing - "we accomplished this mighty work." [v12-KJV] Think about that. Power is holiness. Holiness is power. If you do not have power in your Christian life, if you are weak, then it is because you are not holy. You are not holy because you are not filled with the Spirit. You are not filled with the Spirit because you are not totally the Lord's and you have not been cleansed from sin. If you understand these things, you have understood something very important.

When I was in Peking [now Beijing] in 1965, I heard Wang Ming Dao preach his last sermon before he was arrested. I learned from him the secret of his spiritual power, as I listened to his preaching. Do you know what he preached? He preached there as a man who was about to die, as a man who knew that the end had come. He said to all this great congregation of people in Peking, among whom were even Communist soldiers who had come disguised as civilians to hear his preaching. He said, "You must be a righteous man, because that is the secret of power." As he said this, he jumped straight off the platform. Such emphasis he put into those words. He was a man of holiness, a man of righteousness. Why was God able to use Wang Ming Dao? Because his life was full of holiness. His enemies could not find something to attack him with. They had to [make up] something to lay a charge upon him. They could not think of what to attack him with. His life was so blameless and spotless throughout. Therefore, aim to live holy, even if it is going to be costly to you, even if it is going to incur financial cost to you - whatever it is. Always be holy! What is John Sung's secret of power? It is the same thing. If you read his biographical notes, you will see them. In all his teachings, John Sung always emphasized 'holiness'. Why? Because only in holiness do you have power! And a powerless Christian is not a Christian that the Bible knows.

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