All right, Exodus chapter 20, beginning in verse one. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that's in the heaven above, what's in the earth beneath, what is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word. We even thank you for your law, Lord, for you give it to us that we may understand how this world works and what your character is like and how we need to conform our lives to it. But Lord, thanks for the gospel. I pray that it would shine really clear this morning, even beyond your law. Lord, I ask your Holy Spirit to move in me and in them. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. So we come to the sixth commandment. I think we all kind of take it for granted, but why is murder wrong? If you had to explain to someone what's wrong about murder, what would you say? We intuitively know it, but how would you defend it? I mean, our culture claims that we all evolved from animals. That's interesting. What are the implications if that was true, that we all just evolved from animals? The implication would be that human life is no more precious than animal life, right? That would be the implication. Now, I assure you by the authority of the word of God, that is not true. but that's the implications of evolution. Genesis 1.27 says, so God created the man in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female, he created them. We're gonna unpack that in a minute. But certainly you see there, not from apes, but from God, God made us. Now even though evolution is the predominant view in our country, few live consistent with the implications of it. I'm very thankful for that. I mean, if they did, there'd be a complete disregard for human life, wouldn't there? Right? But they don't live that way. I mean, they still mourn when their loved ones die, different than they do when they squash bugs and when they eat meat. Right? And so there is a difference because it's wired in them. They know something's different, even though their belief system is mangled up. Okay, so we're looking at the sixth commandment. Now, look at page seven. We're gonna do something different. Don't you love something different? We're gonna answer two questions today. So the first half is gonna be the first question, which is, how do we know that human life is precious? Then we're gonna look at what are the implications that all life is precious in God's sight. We're gonna hit some pretty heavy topics, as you might imagine in this. We've got murder, suicide, abortion. So before we get to some of those heavier topics, We're gonna talk about something else. This first question, how is life, how do we know that life is precious? We'll answer that in three ways. You see there in your bulletin, God made human beings in his image. We saw that at creation. Then we'll look at God spoke to humans. So we have scripture, and then finally, God redeemed humans by the blood of Christ, looking at the cross. Okay, so that first sub-point, God made humans in his image at creation. Anyone know how the Bible starts, Genesis 1.1? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Well, that's pretty clear. God created this thing. I don't know if any of you ever heard where, talk about the catechism sometimes, and somewhere in here, here it is. There's the kids' version. The very first question says this. It's great for little kids. It says, who made you? I bet kids you know, who made you? Hey, you already know the first question. There you go. God made you. That's right. Now this is kind of a big deal that God made you. If I had a painting up here of Leonardo da Vinci, it would be priceless. Why? Because of who made it, right? Who made it? Because God made you, you are priceless. But you might say, oh, look at the second question. What else did God make? God made all things. Well, so everything is precious. So what's different about us? Well, we find that again, as I read this a minute, Genesis 127. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created them. Male and female he created them. That's important. We're made in His image. Nothing else in all of creation. So He did make everything, but there's only one thing that's actually made in His own image. It's humans. It's us. So you're made, so that makes you important even more. You're made in His image. Just like we said, what are the implications if you're a highly evolved ape? What are the implications that you're made in the image of God? There are a lot of implications. Later in Genesis, we're gonna see this connection between the sixth commandment and the image of God. This is Genesis 9.6, it says this. Whoever sheds, this is right after Noah. So Noah gets off that big ark, remember kids, all that water? He gets off the ark and God says this to him. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. You see how he connected? God connected and said, because you're made in my image, man shall not kill man. Now let me illustrate this. Imagine I have a picture of any of you up here, and then all of a sudden I took a knife and started stabbing it. What would you think of that? It's just a picture. I'm not, I'm not actually killing you. I'm just, I'm just stabbing the picture. What's wrong with that? Well, you would know whoever this is, he must really hate that person, right? It's just an image. So when God puts his image into humans and a human is killed, it is very much like stabbing that picture. It's a picture of God is made. We're made in God's image. Another angle on this is we're the only thing God created that has a soul. Do you know that, kids? You have a soul. Hey, let's look back at this. We're just gonna read this whole thing today. No, I'm just kidding. This is question 17. It said, how did God create man? God created man, male and female, after his own image. Okay, we covered that. Question 19, what else did God give Adam and Eve besides bodies? He gave them souls that will last forever. That's interesting. Do you have a soul as well as a body, question 20? Yes, and my soul is going to last forever. It's true, isn't it? You have a soul, and to not just trust just the kid's catechism. Scripture says this, Ecclesiastes 12.7, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Right, so when a person dies, their spirit separates from their body, and it goes up to God. Matthew 22, the grace commandment, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. And then you get to your mind, yes, it's coming. But your soul, you have a soul. God put a soul, a spirit inside of you. Animals do not have that. We do. There's a soul that will live forever, even after the body dies. There's something very, very special and unique. Okay, so we see we're creating the image of God. That's a big deal. Humans are precious. What else makes us precious? The second sub point. Now this is an interesting one. You might not have thought of this one. God spoke to humans, scripture. God not only created us in His image, He revealed Himself to us with a lot of words. You're holding them in your hand. He taught us what He was like. He gave us instructions how to live the abundant life. That's what we're studying right now, right? Summarizing the Ten Commandments. You would not know all these things unless God told you. He gave us stories. Think about all the stories in the Bible. Thousands of years of humans, how God interacted with them and all the cool things. God did. We know this because God gave it to us. It's as if he gave us many love letters. This is Zephaniah 3.17, it says, Now this is different. Well, let me say this. If you've been around Christianity for a long time, you take this for granted. Of course we have a Bible. Of course we have a Bible. Imagine this. Imagine a soldier who's deployed, and what if he got like thousands of letters from his wife? Everyone else who was with him, all other soldiers who know, he is greatly loved, right? He's the guy that's getting like three letters every day when the mail comes. Wow. Whoever's your wife, she really loves you, right? God has given you. I mean, think about this. Do you know how many words? This is ESV. 750,000 words plus. Given by God to you because he loves you. God must really care about humans. He didn't send this for animals, for angels. It is for you because he loves you. He put a lot of effort into this. Psalm 19 says it this way. The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. They're more precious than gold. than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, honey of the honeycomb. Buy them, your servant is warned, and keeping them, there's great reward. So a little plug for Sunday school. Hey, we're talking about the Bible at 9 a.m. each week. You can come at 9 a.m., bring your kids too, and we're learning about how great the Bible is. That's one of our themes, or it is our theme for this year, is the Bible. Because we want you to know it, understand it, love it more, use it more. Okay, so we got those two things. You're made in God's image, and he's given you his word. What else? that we know these precious. The third sub-point is this. God redeemed humans by the blood of Christ. At the cross, what's the best way to know that God loves humans? You know how much someone loves something by what they're willing to sacrifice for it. Isn't that true? What you're willing to sacrifice for. You know, it didn't cost God anything to make you in his image. Believe it or not, He just spoke. I mean, man, then he formed out of the dust. Still super easy. No cost at all to God. To give you his word, no cost. He just spoke it, right? It's real easy for God. The problem is we come to Romans 6.23. You know what that says? It says, for the wages or the consequence, the penalty of sin is death. Well, that's bad news. All of humanity is under a death penalty. We've all been, ever since Adam and Eve, we're all under a death penalty, separated from God forever. And so if God wants to get us back, it would cost Him a lot. How do you know that God demonstrated His love? It says it, Romans 5.8. And this, God demonstrated His love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That was costly. It was the most costly thing imaginable. Let that sink in. It didn't cost him anything to make you, to give you his word, but to save you cost him the life of his son. God loves humanity so much. You know the verse right, John 3.16, what's it say? We're not perished, we have eternal life. It's because he loves us. But this should be encouraging to us. We often don't think, we think about the commands, right? We're gonna talk about it in a second. What are the implications of this? But just be encouraged. You are actually precious to God. You are precious to God. He really, really loves you enough to send Jesus. Now, Christianity is completely different. Any other religion, how do you get to the happy place? Any other religion? You work at it. You obey whatever the rules are. And then you're gonna get to Nirvana, you get to heaven, you get to this happy place. Not so with Christianity. I mean, hopefully by now, we're on the sixth commandment. By now, hopefully you've realized you got no shot at heaven. Every one of these commands, we just open up and it just gets huge, right? Man, the implications of each command is enormous. If you think you're gonna get to heaven by your good works, this series is showing you otherwise, right? Christianity is based on Jesus coming to earth and saying, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna obey every one of these commands, every implication of it, because you can't. And we don't. We fail over and over again. Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I've fallen far short, and so have you. But Jesus didn't. Ephesians 2.8.9 says, for by grace you've been saved through faith. Not because you were a good person. It is not your own doing. What do you think that means? It's pretty obvious. It's not by your own doing. It's right there. So many people are so confused by this. If you get nothing else out of this sermon, please get that. You are not getting to heaven by being a good person. It is a gift of God, not a result of works. He says it again in case we're really dull. So no one can boast. It is a gift. This is the most costly gift ever given, ever given. Imagine I have daughters and you, if you have a son, imagine your daughter kidnapped. What would you do to get her back? How much would you pay? What would you sell? Of course, everything, but what if it's still not enough? What would you do? Would you literally trade yourself and say, you know what, you can have me, just give back the daughter. If you've got a daughter, think about that for a second. Absolutely, absolutely wouldn't think twice about that. That is nothing compared to what Jesus did for you. He didn't just give up his life. He actually took the wrath of God. He was separated from God because he loved you. That should, if you're awake, impact your heart. You are loved by God. You're precious because he made you. You're precious because he gave you his word. You're precious because Jesus died in your place. And so then we come back to the sixth commandment. It makes so much more sense, doesn't it? Of course we can't murder someone made in the image of God. They're so precious. We're going to murder someone. I mean, think about that. The report, who died today in combat? Oh, the guy that got thousands of letters from his wife, right? He matters. He matters to someone. You matter to God. He gave you the whole Bible. He sent his son to die for you. Of course we can't murder someone who Christ might've died for. I hope you see that picture. So now let's look at that second question. What are the implications of this? We're gonna split this in half. You see this again on page seven, two answers. Implications of how you treat other people. Let's start with that one. All right. And as you remember, I said this last week and the week before, each of these commands is in seed form, right? It represents a whole category, right? So when it says do not murder, we're talking about a whole category. Let's unpack this, okay? What's in here? We're going to break it into three pieces. Sins of the heart, the mouth, and the hands. Okay? Heart, mouth, hands. Okay, let's start with the heart. In Matthew 5, Jesus already starts unpacking this for us. Sermon on the Mount. He says, There's the Sixth Commandment. Hey, if you think the Sixth Commandment is just the Old Testament, Jesus repeats them for you. You shout out murder, but whoever murders will be liable to judgment." No surprise there. But I say to you, this is going to be interesting, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. He upped the ante, didn't he? He said, included under this umbrella of the sixth commandment, right, do not murder, is being angry. How many of you don't raise your hands because you all raised your hands? Have you been angry? Of course, all of us have. You have broken the sixth commandment. Jesus goes on, he says, whoever says this is a sin of the mouth, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. Those are strong words from our Lord. Even people say the Old Testament's so dark, the New Testament's bright and cheery. Jesus just said, if you call someone a fool, you're going to hell. Well, that doesn't sound bright and cheery. He's being honest. He's saying under this command, remember we said everyone's under a death penalty, right? For the wages of sin is death. You see, Jesus has opened it up to our hearts, to our hearts. Short of Catechism 69, you're going to study this this week. Hopefully you've got this, dads. or single moms, whoever's leading the family, dad's traveling, we have that little guide, it's back there, you're gonna look at this this week. It's great to unpack with your kids. Question 69, it says, what is forbidden in the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment forbids us to take our own life, we'll get to that in a minute, or to unjustly the life of your neighbor, or anything tending to that end. Do you know what that means? Tending, so anything in the direction of that end, which is murder. So what are the things that tend in that direction? Well, it starts in the heart with anger and hatred. Everyone who murders someone first hated them in their heart. A quick story, I once heard a young child pray, sorry for murdering someone in my heart. You know what, that child was so wise. You know, we all should be praying that prayer, shouldn't we? We all have murdered people in our heart. That child understood the implications of the sixth commandment. Sorry for murdering someone in my heart. Okay, so that sins of the heart, now sins of the mouth. Do we ever kill with our words? Proverbs 12, 18. There's one whose rash words are like a sword thrust, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Do your words cut? Have you ever injured anyone with your words? So obviously this category includes everything from verbal abuse to yelling. Do our words cut others? This is the Sixth Commandment. Does it make sense how we are? We're murdering someone. You can murder someone's good name. You don't have to be there in gossip. You're murdering their good name. The implications of the Sixth Commandment. Okay, so that's heart, mouth. Let's talk about the hands. We'll start with the extreme of murder. John Curt, a great Bible scholar, in his commentary on this says, the Hebrew word for murder is rassah. I'm glad there's no Jewish people here because I probably mispronounced it. But anyway, it occurs 47 times in the Old Testament. In every instance but one, it speaks of one human being killing another. It's never used of a person killing an animal. In addition, Rasha is never employed in context of war, capital punishment, or self-defense. Most often, it denotes a planned or premeditated murder in the form of revenge, Numbers 35, or assassination, 2 Kings 6. Unpremeditated murder, known as manslaughter in English common law, is also prohibited in Numbers 35 because it is Rasha. Okay, so hopefully it's helpful to understand the Hebrew word. It's always talking about a human killing another human. And it's never used. in situations of war, capital punishment, or self-defense. Westminster Larger Catechism says very similar. This is an excerpt from their answer in 136. It says, the sins forbidden in the Sixth Commandment are all taking away the life of ourselves or of others except in cases of public justice, numbers 35, lawful war, Jeremiah 48 and Deuteronomy 20, or necessary defense, Exodus 22. So except in those three exception cases, a precious human life is never to be taken. Kids, this begins with hitting. Did you know that? If you've ever hit a sibling, you've broken the sixth commandment. Because murder begins with hitting. See, because whatever tends to the end of murder is breaking the sixth commandment. It includes all kinds of things. It includes spousal abuse, child abuse. All of those tend in the direction of murder. This also includes abortion. Why would I say that? Because in scriptural view, human life and the soul starts at conception. A few verses, Jeremiah 1, 4, and 5. Now the word of the Lord came to me. This is Jeremiah saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Okay, so here's little baby Jeremiah, still inside his mother, and God has appointed him a prophet. Implication, he's human. That shouldn't be too surprising to you. He's already a person, even before he's born, Jeremiah 49. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother, he named my name. Okay, if Isaiah was named, still inside his mother, he's a human. He has a soul. He's a person made in the image of God. Now in the New Testament, Luke 1, 41. Okay, so this is a Mary who is pregnant with Jesus. Elizabeth has John the Baptist. They're both pregnant. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leapt in her womb. Anyone who's been pregnant, have you ever had a baby jump inside you? My wife used to say the baby was swinging from her ribcage. You know what it is to have movement inside of you. So Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, Now if a baby still in a womb can be filled with the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist, and jumps, he obviously is in the image of God and already a person. I hope that makes sense to you. Now here's an interesting one, let's jump back. Here's a law from, now the reason I'm taking this at length, this is highly controversial in our society. Can you defend this? Could you defend this from scripture? I'm giving you three verses. Okay, let me just say the references again. If you ever need to defend this, that was Jeremiah 1, 4, and 5. Isaiah 49, 1. And Luke 1, 41 to 44. And then lastly, Exodus 21, 22 and following. It says in the law, when men strive together and they hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life. Now, what does that mean? It means if you kill the baby inside a pregnant woman, your life is exchanged for that life. You're going to be executed because of that unborn baby. Okay, so in the Old Testament law, that's saying that an unborn baby is still a baby. and those who kill it must give up their own lives. And now if you personally have had an abortion, please hear me. It is not the unforgivable sin. It's not the unforgivable sin. If you've asked Jesus to forgive you, he has already paid the penalty for that sin, just like every other sin. Hear Isaiah 1.18, Though they are red like crimson, they've become like wool. The reality is we've all murdered in our heart, with our mouth, and with our hands. We will be white as snow. So I just want to encourage you, if that's true of you, so even though we speak against abortion, please hear if that's true of you. You would not be the only one guilty of the Sixth Commandment. What's at the heart of murder? You have to dehumanize the person in order to murder them. Let me give you some illustrations from history. The Native Americans, when they settled the West, how did that happen? They called them savages. If you call them savage, you can probably get away with doing all kinds of things to them, and they did. They dehumanized them. Another great evil in America, American slavery. I mean, how could that happen? People believing the lie that blacks are somehow less evolved than whites. How did the Holocaust happen? Nazis believed the lie that Jews were a parasitic vermin worthy only of eradication. This is true of the unborn, that an unborn baby is somehow less than human. Do you see in all these situations, you dehumanize the person and then you can treat them however you want. I mean, how can any reasonable person believe such ridiculous things about the Jews or Native Americans, African Americans, or an unborn child? It's about less than human. I'll tell you how reasonable people can believe that. Two words, selfish pride. Selfish pride. The prideful selfishness of the settlers created the Trail of Tears. The prideful selfishness of slave owners who knew they had a lot of money to gain from slavery lied to themselves. Prideful selfishness of the Nazis fed the Holocaust. Prideful selfishness of our country feeds abortion because there's a lot of money to be made off killing the unborn. It's selfish of a woman to get an abortion. She's definitely not putting her unborn child before herself. But I want to extend this even further. What if you own a business that makes good money on products that destroy other people's lives? Do you see how that breaks the sixth commandment? You don't have to believe your customers are less than human. You just have to focus on yourself. What is in my best interest? What's in my best interest? I mean, what you also have to understand is we have an enemy. Do you know Satan just loves this? He's been lying to people and saying, because he can't kill God, so what does he go after? The images of God. And he convinces them to kill each other, dehumanize each other. Right? He loves it because it is his way of getting back at God, destroying humanity. We've seen this throughout history. Human life is very, very precious to God. Every ethnicity, every age, every socioeconomic status is precious to God. Those are the implications of how we relate to others. What about how we relate to ourselves? Now this might surprise you. Did you know the sixth commandment also includes how you treat yourself? Let's break it down the same way. Sins of the heart, the mouth and the hands. Sins of the heart. Do you ever battle having low thoughts of yourself? I mean, some of you likely struggle with suicidal thoughts. Let me give you some practical advice. If you struggle in that way, actually either of those ways, do you know how the Bible ends? If you look at the very last verse of the Bible, John says, come, Lord Jesus, come. So if you ever struggle with suicidal thoughts, here's a much more healthy thought to think. My suffering is so difficult. Come, Lord Jesus, come. It'd be great, Jesus, if you came right now, I would be okay with that. And take me home, make everything all better. Okay, that's a much more healthy thought than suicidal thoughts. So when you're in difficult circumstances, that would be better. Last verse of Revelation. We'll unpack that more in a second. You are created in the image of God and you're precious to God. He has written you the entire Bible so that you would understand that you are loved. I mean, imagine that soldier who received thousands of letters saying, I think I want to kill myself, nobody loves me. I mean, what would everyone else around him say? Are you a moron? Like there's a whole stack of letters, right? You are loved. You have an entire stack of letters that says you are loved. Now, even if you don't have suicidal thoughts and just have low thoughts of yourselves, all these same things apply. He has paid the ultimate price to redeem your life so that you can live eternally with him in the new heavens and the new earth. Remind yourself of how precious you are to your Father. It will help you to take your eyes off yourself and to stop condemning yourself. Sins of the heart, sins of the mouth, self-condemning words. I mean, I think some of us say things to ourselves that we could never imagine anyone else saying to us. We'll say the worst things to ourselves. Is that true? Stop doing that. Stop. You are precious to God. We should not be condemning ourselves. He does not agree with you at all about what you're saying to yourself. He condemns everyone else who murders your good name, and that includes you. Do not murder your own good name. You're precious. Okay, so sins of the heart, sins of the mouth, sins of the hand. We're gonna start with the extreme of suicide. John Curt, again, the Bible scholar, said this. It should be noted that the verb in our verse, thou shalt not murder, does not specify any particular person as its direct object. The form is thus not qualified in that way. Consequently, it is likely that suicide is included in this prohibition. Suicide, again, is not the unforgivable sin. It is murder like any other, but it is certainly murder. It is self-murder. God has numbered all of your days. Psalm 139 says this. He says that before any of them came to be, he's numbered all of them. Do not ever cut them short. How do you know that God doesn't have some great things in the future for you? You might have. I mean, everyone who commits suicide, almost all of them are depressed. They have difficult circumstances. They think to be dead would be better than to be alive. Is that true? How do you know that? How do you know that God doesn't have good things for you in the future? There's a guy named Job. You probably should read his book in the Bible. He had it about as worse as anyone did. All his kids died. His wife was against him. His health was terrible. Everything he had was destroyed or stolen. Any man who could be thinking, yeah, being dead would be better than being alive right now, read the end of the book. Do you know that story ends? God had great things in store for him. How do you know that God does not have great things in store in your future? You don't. So do not ever consider killing yourself. Does that make sense? It's very, very important. You're not better off dead than you are alive. There's a second implication. Oh, let me give you a verse for that, Romans 8, 28. God is using suffering, even terrible suffering, for your good, for your good purpose. Do not try to get out of it by killing yourself. You're precious and loved, and he has plans for your future. The second angle on suicide is, it's only thinking about yourself. Remember we talked about prideful selfishness, right? And all those other great evils through history. Suicide too is prideful selfishness. How so? It is only thinking about yourself. I mean, think, how many people would it be affected by if you were to commit suicide? Right? I mean, it's the only thing about oneself. Just like abortion is the only thing about oneself and one's convenience, so is suicide. 1 Corinthians 10.13 says this, Lots of other people. You would be surprised how many people right here have had thoughts like that. You are not unique. You are not unique. No temptation has faced you except what's common to mankind. And God is faithful. This is important. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way of escape so you may endure it. There is a way of escape. Let me tell you one. Talk to someone. It is one of the number one things you need to do. Talk to someone. That's true for all kinds of sins. I've used that on all kinds of things I've struggled with. I just talked to someone. Confess your sins to each other. Tell someone. Tell someone so they can try to help you get through it. There is a way of escape and it is not suicide. Now moving back from that extreme of suicide, what are other implications of how we can use our hands? Implications for the sixth commandment. How we can sin with our hands against ourselves. How about risking your own life? Reckless driving. Here's a story I'm not proud of. My wife and I had just started dating, and I quite enjoy driving. You might guess this story's gonna take a bad turn. And so I was driving on a little country road. It was wet, and I was driving very quickly around curves, and I loved doing this, until I flipped the car on its side, landed down on the driver's side. By God's grace, I wasn't hurt at all, but it got my attention, you think? I said, wait a second, I'm about to get hopefully married and start a family. I'm driving like a crazy man. I was breaking the sixth command. I was needlessly risking my own life. Does that make sense? It's an implication of the sixth commandment, how you treat yourself. How about your own body? Not taking care of your own body. Substance abuse is breaking the sixth commandment. Drinking excessively is breaking the sixth commandment. Regular use of tobacco. Gluttony. Boy, I'm really getting close to home, aren't I? All these things are breaking the sixth commandment. Lack of sleep. I'm guilty of that at times. Working yourself to death. 1 Corinthians 6 19 says this, Whom you have from God, you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." Your body belongs to God. How we treat it, does that make sense? How the implication is, you shall not murder, you shall not murder yourself, and you shall not do anything that tends toward that end, right? So if you mistreat your body, you don't take care of it, you're tending toward that end. I hope you see the broad implications, not only how you relate to others, how you relate to yourselves, in your heart, with your words, and with your hands. All this flows from where we started. Human life is precious in God's sight. Try reminding yourself. When you see people, remind yourself, that is an eternal being. I often do this. I remind myself, that's an eternal being who's gonna live eternally somewhere. It just kind of gets my head in a right frame of mind. They're made in the image of God. God sent thousands and thousands of words to that person to communicate to them. They could be a Christian or they could become a Christian, which would mean Christ died for them. You will love your neighbor as yourself naturally. If you are constantly thinking like that, does that make sense? You'll constantly, if you are reminding yourself that is eternal being. We will not dehumanize each other. You will not murder in your heart with your words or with your hands, your sibling, your spouse, your coworker, your boss, your neighbor who dog poops in your yard, or the guy who cuts you off in traffic. We murder all these people, often. You'll be able to look yourself in the mirror and look differently. You will begin to understand how God feels about you. Zephaniah 3.17, the Lord your God is with you, the mighty warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you. God delights in you. Say that to yourself when you look in the mirror. God delights in me. In his love, he will no longer rebuke you. He will rejoice over you with singing. Like a father holding a newborn baby, he delights in you. You don't delight in your kids because of what they do or how they look, you just delight in them because you love them. God feels that way about you. You won't murder yourself in your heart, with your words or with your hands. You'll remember that all humans are created in the image of God. I'm gonna end with this. Do you know the worst time the sixth commandment was ever broken? The worst time the sixth commandment was ever broken in the history of humanity. Do you know when that was? It was the crucifixion. You know, in murder, you're murdering the image of God. Who did they murder? God. Wasn't no image. They murdered God. The crucifixion, the greatest breaking of the sixth commandment. But you know what it resulted in? Your salvation. You were bought through so many people breaking the sixth commandment. Jesus died. His murder brought you eternal life. It's good news, isn't it? Let's pray. Father, we're guilty as charged. Every one of us. So many ways how we murder ourselves and others. Thank you, Lord, through the murder of Jesus, that we have eternal life, a gift that we can never earn or deserve. I pray that there would be no one here who goes on believing they're going to get to heaven by being a good person. Lord, open their eyes, unclog their ears, that they would hear the gospel, the good news that Jesus died. Because they cannot keep your law, that then we may begin to grow in how we use our words, what happens in our heart, how we use our hands, that we would not murder. Lord, we ask your help with this. Thank you so, so much for the gospel that ensures my salvation and theirs. We pray in his name. Amen.