Please take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to Exodus chapter 20. We're going to read together one verse. Verse 13. Exodus 20 in verse 13, you shall not murder. Amen. One American is shot, stabbed, beaten, or strangled to death every minute of every day. A statistic that I looked up on Google this week that shocked me. It seems that no matter where you turn in our society or even in our world, there is murder. It's on the television, it's in movies, it's fiction, but on the streets and next door, sadly, it is a brutal reality. With a murder rate of 10 in every 100,000s, your chances of being murdered are far greater than your chances of dying in an airplane or an automobile crash. Again, quite a staggering statistic. Murder is a horrible crime against God and against one fellow's man. It may be the greatest offense of all given the enormity of death and what happens thereafter. Imagine this evening taking a person's life and that person immediately going to hell. The sixth commandment very clearly says thy shalt not murder. Or in the ESV, you shall not murder. But murder is more than just taking a life. Murder can be defined as the premeditated and intentional taking of another human being. But there are some things that are not considered murder that we need to set out this evening. In Genesis 9 verse 6, Numbers 35 and Leviticus 24, capital punishment would not be considered as murder. God in his word lays down the principle that for certain offenses, man has the right to terminate another human life. Whether or not you personally agree with capital punishment or not, it's plain to see that throughout all of scriptures, the Bible authorizes these things. Another one might be killings that take place in the exercise of just war. would also not be classed as murder. Throughout the history of the world, nations have had to defend their borders or other weak nations against aggressive enemies. I stand here this evening as one who could have been shot and killed back in my homeland. Twice, my family had to run from those who were trying to take my father and even my own life as we lived in Macrafelt. As a grandchild going back three generations, I praise God that I had grandparents who fought both in World War I and World War II. If not, I probably wouldn't be standing here, or it would be a totally different world. You see, even God at various times has ordered his people onto the battlefield. Those who kill in just wars are not murderers. However, those who engage in brutality And those who set people against others indeed are murderous. Killings that are the product of self-defense would also fall onto this class of not being murders. Often police officers must kill in the line of duty. Homeowners may have to kill an intruder coming into their home to protect themselves and their family. These people are not murderers. Sometimes people are attacked on the street and must defend themselves. These too are not classed as murderers. But there are times when murder is murder, which is wrong. And it's to that that this commandment this evening speaks to. And it's that that I want to this evening look at. Perhaps when you thought or read of the passage this evening, you thought, well, I think I'm going to be all right at this sermon. What's Merv gonna bring that might, as it were, hit me between the eyeballs? With a two by four. We'll get to that point. But we have to lay the foundation. And this evening, I wanna consider this under three parts. I'd like to look first at the commandment itself. I want us to ask, what doesn't it mean? And what does it mean? I'd like us then secondly to turn back and look at Genesis chapter 9 and verses 5 and 6 and see the rationale for this command. We could turn forward to Exodus 21 and other places to learn that, but we need to go back to remember Genesis 9 and see what God would have us to learn there. And then thirdly, We need to go into the New Testament and go to Matthew 5 and verse 21 and see what the title of my sermon is. There's more to murder than taking a life. And so, first of all, this evening, let's look firstly at respecting life and taking care to protect it. This command is crystal clear. It's very simple, even in the original language, and it means, do not unlawfully or immorally take the life of another human being. This command is a call to believers to respect life, to take care, to protect it, and to cherish other human beings. not to take that life wrongfully. The Hebrew consists of only two words, no murdering. It's an emphatic prohibition and the very briefest sort. We even talked about it, some of us this afternoon, how short could this commandment be? No murder. No killing. But it's a specific term for killing and murder. This command is never used, like I said, for acts of war in the Bible. It's never used for capital punishment in the Bible. It's never used for lethal self-defense in the Bible. It's never used on any occasion where God or his angels are the subject of this verse. It is always, however, used in the context of planned premeditated murder. or assassinating someone else and all kinds that go with it. So what does this command mean specifically? Well, first of all, we need to see what it doesn't mean. First of all, it doesn't mean that God is forbidding or outlawing killing of every kind whatsoever. Remember who's writing this. Remember it's Moses. And Moses required, later on as he would write it down from God himself, the death penalty for anyone who disobeyed this command. You see what I'm saying here? Moses wrote down, you shall not murder. And later on, Moses would also write down that anyone who took the life of anyone else in an unlawful way was also to receive death. The death penalty. Put to death those who put anyone to death for any reason. And so it's clear that God's intention is not the outlaw of every kind of killing whatsoever. But then that leads logically to the second thing that this command is not saying. This command is not forbidding the death penalty. Because even in the laws of Moses that he wrote down given to him by God, the death penalty was allowed. I remember as a young boy in Northern Ireland, where the death penalty did not happen, watching news from America. I think I was about Cribbon's age, six or seven. And we were watching this man that was on death row. And as a six-year-old boy, I was like, what is that? Tons of questions to my parents. We all know what that means. Here, we see that the taking of one life, that God is saying that the death penalty is not the same as killing, as it were, someone unlawfully. This command is also not forbidding war. Like I said, it's not enjoining pacifism. On the one hand, God commands Israel to engage in war. Again, as a young boy, I used to love when my Sunday school teachers would go to some of those passages in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. And I used to have a cousin who was in my Sunday school class. And sometimes we would like to reenact those things that we learned in Sunday school. He usually always ended up with me getting hurt, because he was a lot bigger than I was. But we would go to war. I would be one and he would be the other. Never went in my favor. But you see here in the Old Testament, war is sanctioned as a legitimate expression of the authority of those civil governors. And in the New Testament in Romans 13, when the Apostle Paul says that the civil magistrate or the government or the governor does not bear the sword for nothing. Justice, protection, defense. Fourthly, this command is not forbidding lethal self-defense. So what does this command? actually mean. You shall do no immoral or unlawful killing. It's forbidding any acts of violence against an individual out of hatred, out of anger, out of malice or deceit for any personal gain in whatever circumstance and by whatever circumstance. We're never to take a human life unless God has given the authority. There is to be no taking of life without the sanction of God's word. And therefore abortion, embryonic StelSem research, euthanasia, or mercy killing, all of these things are outlawed along with murder and manslaughter. Starting to come a little bit closer to home. The point of the command is twofold. On the one hand, we must extend extreme care when it comes to life. And on the other hand, the command actually calls for us to honor life for life, judicially. We must exercise extreme care when it comes to life. Christian, we must cultivate a view of the sanctity of life. We live in a culture of death. No matter where we turn, it's right there in front of us. These are not easy things to hear on a Sunday night. But yet we live in a culture of death, and it's so easy for us to give in to that thinking of the culture around us. Brothers and sisters, we must stand firm in these days for the preservation of life. We must cultivate a view of the sanctity of life. The Westminster Larger Catechism in question 135 asks, what are the duties required in the sixth commandment? And it lays it out better than I could ever say. The duties required in the Sixth Commandment are all careful studies and lawful endeavors to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices which tend to the unjust taking away of the life of any. By the patient bearing of the hand of God, by the quietness of mind and cheerfulness of spirit, by a sober use of meat and drink and exercise and sleep and labor and recreation, by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness, peaceable, mild and courteous, speech and behavior, forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries and requiring good for evil, comforting and eating those who are distressed and protecting and defending the innocent. Amen. It would do us well at times to reread that. It would do us well also with the kind of proof texts that are given. Brothers and sisters in our society, we cannot afford to be indifferent to the practices that are going on in our day. Tomorrow morning in this country, there will be abortion clinics that open and hundreds and thousands of, as the confession or the catechism would say, the innocent would be brutally murdered in the womb. We cannot and must not be indifferent to these things. We are commanded throughout all of scripture to defend the innocent, to stand up for those who have no voice. We cannot afford to be indifferent to these new medical technologies which allow humans to toy with life and destroy it, and they call it research. And we might wonder, well, these things, you know, what does it have to do with me? It's got everything to do with you. We have a responsibility. We are called to be salt and light. We are to stand up when things go against the word of God. And here is but one. We need to cultivate that culture as believers to stand up for these things, to even encourage one another, to even go to some of these abortion clinics and stand outside the doors as others' churches and other believers would do, trying to speak to those women as they walk in. being onesome, being kind, and asking them, do they realize what they are doing? Brothers and sisters, these things have everything to do with us. We need an RD to stand up To say that these things are wrong. Not because we say so. But because the word of our living God tells us so. When life is wrongfully taken of another human being. Then it's wrong. It's so wrong. But what are we doing about it? Are we hiding our light under a bushel? Or are we being proactive and speaking to those who need to hear these things? Let us pray that we can cultivate a life and a culture together as God's people in this place to stand for the truth in these days. Things are only perhaps going to get worse, we don't know. Which is why we need to take a stand today. We need to tell the world That murder is wrong. Of infants in the womb, of older people as they get older and they fly to countries that you pop a pill and in a few hours you are no more. And everything that goes in between. Because secondly, this evening, we are accountable to God for human life. Why? Because we all bear his image. Please turn to Genesis chapter nine. And reading in verse five and six, It says, and for your lifeblood, I will require a reckoning. From every beast, I will require and from man. From his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. This was a Sunday school class, I'd ask you, to whom does life belong to? Life belongs to God. Human life belongs to God. And if life belongs to God, then life itself is sacred. No man can take it without God's permission. So the rationale of this command is that we are accountable to God for human life because life bears his image uniquely. We're all made and look different. Thank goodness. Otherwise the world would be a boring place. But our lives bear the image of God. And God here in Genesis 9, through the writing of Moses, emphasizes that the taking of human life will require life itself. When human life is wrongly taken by man or beast, God announces in verse 5, then, I will hold that person accountable. He says, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. And the verse just doesn't end there, for it says, for God made man in his own image. It's the last phrase of that verse. that shows us the seriousness and even the sobriety this evening of life itself. We're made in his image. But do you notice that the connect between the second commandment and the first commandment? God is to be reverenced. And man is to be treated with dignity because he is made in the image of God. It doesn't matter what race he's from. Just because we're Americans slash Irish, it doesn't mean that we are superior from any other race. It doesn't matter what background we're from. No matter if he is an absolute rebellion spiritually against the living God, he is still made in the image of the living God. We are to respect life because we are created in his image. God here shows us in Genesis 9 the high standard he has for life. It's not a low view that the world has in our day, but sadly how we view life as a reflection of how seriously we take God as author. If you ever read through history books, you will see that where death and the shedding of innocent blood starts the graph, as it were, starts to rise. You will also see a correlation to how that country views God, the giver of life. Example being, The country we live in today. There is more life taken in this country of the United States than all other countries put together. We live in a day when we are walking away from God. We live in a land that is dark to these things. We live in a day in a land that plays fast and lifts with the life of everyone. Because they do not take God as his word. They wrongfully take life because they have no time for the living God. We need to be praying in these days for a revival. If we were to walk down Main Street, Placerville, oh, quiet little Placerville. A little time stuck in the hills. We were to open our mouths and say that abortion is wrong and it's an offense to the living God. If we were to turn around and say that euthanasia is wrong, that life is a gift from God. If we were to turn around and say that The little quiet town of Placerville has turned its back on God. How long do you think we'd last standing, telling those things? Not long at all. We may think of mission fields far, far away, but we live in one. We live in a time that is dark to these things. We live in a time that shuns the word of God, a time that shuns God himself. We live in a time where man wants to live for himself and not for God. The word of God tells us that we as a church are to be set upon a hill. We are to shine bright and loud and radiate that light across where we live. Brothers and sisters, we need to pray that God would enable us to do that, that he would give us opportunities to speak to those people who need to hear these things. We might tell them that murder is wrong. You might say, well, I've never murdered anyone. I have no intention to. And that brings us thirdly then to there's more to murder than taking a life. If we turn forward now in our Bibles to Matthew chapter five, In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 21, our Lord Jesus Christ says this. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. Exodus 20 verse 13. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is 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 the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gifts 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. Come to terms quickly with their 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 until you have paid the last penny. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that we can violate this command without doing anything outwardly. And this is where the proverbial two by four comes into plain view and becomes oh so clear. Why? Because it hits every one of us right between the eyeballs. We can violate this command without doing it criminally. And with regard to our justice system, we can still be murderers. Look at what he says. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. These things are of spiritual matters. We're now talking about the very heart of man, and here our Lord Jesus Christ in all of his wisdom says, yes, you've heard of that command, you shall not murder. And you may sit with your hands nicely folded and say, well, I would never kill anyone. I've never lifted a spear or a sword and plunged it into anyone. I've never in our day lifted a gun or anything else and shot anyone and murder. But here our Lord Jesus breaks these things. And he says it's not just the outward, it's the inward. He tells us that these tongues and heart sins must be taken with utmost seriousness. Thoughts in our minds, thoughts in our hearts, words that spew from our lips. These things need to be taken serious. Look at verse 20. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom. My friends, that is why we need a savior. There's no one in this room this evening who's going to stand up and cheer and say that we have disregard for human life and that we do our best to establish a culture of death. There's no one here who says, oh, yes, yes, I murder regularly. It's no big deal. I believe most of you, if not all of you, are appalled by the culture of death in the community. You condemn abortion. You condemn the cavalier treatment of the unborn human life. You condemn the cavalier treatment of people in their old age, those who are being euthanized, those who are being murdered. But there is not a one. Not a one of us, not a one of us in here who has never murdered with our heart and with our tongue. Perhaps we've murdered someone's reputation. Perhaps this evening we're estranged from a fellow brother, even in this establishment and in this church who we are estranged from. The Lord Jesus here says that when we violate this principle of loving one another, we bring division and discord into the body. You're bringing your offering to the altar and you remember, I have a problem with so-and-so. The Word of God doesn't tell you, well, you know what? Just bury your head in the sand. Don't worry about it. All's fine. Noah tells you here to go to that brother, to seek him out, to show him love, to say, hey, we need to talk. James tells us that when we've broken one law, we've broken them all. Jesus, back in verse 20, reminds us that if we don't keep the law better than the scribes and the Pharisees, we're going to hell. Brothers and sisters, that is why this evening we cannot keep even this commandment ourselves. As far as I know, none of us in this room have been convicted of murder. We may not have been convicted in the physical sense, but it's God convicting us this evening in our hearts and in our minds. Jesus here is not pointing to what your hands can do. He's pointing here to your heart. How is your heart this evening, brothers and sisters, in the command you shall not murder? Christ here is showing us that our hearts and our minds and our tongues can murder someone just as much as our hands can. When we can murder our brother or sister or. Someone else in our heart. High as our walk with the Lord. God, who has told us. You shall not do these things. We cannot keep this command ourselves. This pride man this evening will say, well, you know, I can. I can guard my tongue. I can guard my mind. I can guard my heart. I say to you this evening, if you think that, take heed lest you fall. Jesus's exposition of this command this evening shows us that we are in need of grace. There's none of us who can say that we haven't sinned here. The gospel of John says, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. This evening, do we need to leave, as it were, our offering at the altar and go and find that brother or sister and ask them for forgiveness? How many times have we come through those doors? Not reconciled with a brother or sister in the Lord. How many times have husbands and wives gone to bed angry with each other and disregarded the command to not let the sun go down on her wrath? How many times, young people, when your parents have said no to something or it's not what you wanted to hear, you go into that fit of rage and you fly off the handle and you harbor all types of bitterness in your heart? How often have we looked at someone and we've thought, you fool. Brothers and sisters, it's not just with the hands that we can kill. It's with our minds, with our hearts, and with our tongue. As God's people this evening, do we take the second of the commands that Christ has given us, to love our neighbor as ourselves. You see, many will say, oh yes, I can love everyone. It's only through Christ's help that you're able to love but one. And so this evening I ask you, where do your affections lie? Do they lie with yourself? Do they lie with what you want? Are they yours and yours alone? Or do your affections lie to the one true and living God? A God who has said in his word, you shall not murder. And his word has told us that even a thought, even an inkling in our hearts, even the words that come out of our lips are the equivalent. This evening, do we need to repent? Then tonight I bring you hope. For the one who gave this list of anger, Goes on to talk about lust and all these different things. Also tells the believer to come to me and I will give you rest. This evening, are you unburdened by these things? Are you troubled? Then confess them to God. Seek his forgiveness for these things. If you have a problem with a brother or sister, then approach them and talk to them. God takes these things seriously. He calls us as believers to live a life that is holy, a life that is pleasing unto him, a life that what we heard this morning is a sacrifice. A life of dying to yourself and worshiping him. Our final hymn this evening says, take time to be holy. Speak oft with thy Lord. Meaning pray and cry onto him. Abide in him always and feed on his word. Prayer and word. Make friends of God's children. Help those who are weak. The church, forgetting and nothing, has blessing to seek. We're called to love a holy life. We're called to walk closely with God, to feed on his word, to cry onto him in prayer, to live Christian lives with God's people. And we're to be reminded of as we are God's people, then we above all else are the most blessed. The final verse of the hymn we're going to sing tonight says this. Take time to be holy. Be calm in thy soul. each thought and each motive beneath his control. Thus, led by his spirit to fountains of love, they soon shall be fitted for service above. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word this evening. Lord, it comes to us with such gravity, such meaning, even many things to ponder even in our own lives in these days. And Lord, we pray that you would enable us and help us to love one another just as you have loved us. Lord, we pray in these days that indeed we would take time to be holy, that we would live lives that are pleasing to you and to your word. that indeed we would speak oft with you, that we would take every motive and each captive thought beneath you and your word and what it commands. Lord, we ask that you would forgive us for times when we have not obeyed your word as we should. Lord, we pray that we would seek forgiveness this evening. May it be that we would live lives indeed that are pleasing to you. Lord, we ask that you would enable us and help us. We cannot do these things in and of ourselves. And so we pray that, indeed, you would send forth your spirit to enable, to encourage, at times even rebuke, that, Lord, we would live according to your law. Encourage us in these things, we pray, for we ask it in Christ's precious name. Amen.