“An Exposition of the Sixth Commandment”

(Sunday Morning January 17th, 2010)

Passage: Exodus 20:13

O.S. This Sunday Has Been Designated as Sanctity of Life Sunday by the Southern Baptist Convention And So, I Felt That It Would be Appropriate for Us to Examine This Sixth of the Ten Commandments Which We Just Read. Now, I Believe That Most of You Would Agree With Me When I Say That We are Living in a Society That Has Begun to Devalue Human Life.

Ex.    This Can be Illustrated by the Fact That We Have Aborted Over 50 Million
          Babies in This Country Since the Roe vs Wade Decision That Legalized Abortion
          Was Passed on January 22nd, 1973.

Ex. This Can Also be Illustrated by the Fact That Many People Have Begun to Value
Animal Life Just as Much or More Than Human Life.

Ingrid Newkirk, Who is the Director of P.E.T.A. (And That Stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals); Ingrid Newkirk Says “A Rat is a Pig is a Boy” And With That Statement, She Implies That You and I are Nothing More Than a Higher Form of an Animal, and That It is Wrong for Us to View Ourselves in Any Other Way. In Fact, They Even Have a Label Now for Those of Us Who Might Think of Ourselves as Being Something More Than an Animal; It is the Term “Speciesism”. This is the Crime of Thinking More Highly of Our Own Species Than We Ought to Think…and This Kind of Logic Has Really Gotten Out O.S. This Sunday Has Been Designated as Sanctity of Life Sunday by the Southern Baptist Convention, And So, I Felt That It Would be Appropriate for Us to Examine This Sixth of the Ten Commandments Which We Just Read.

Now, I Believe That Most of You Would Agree With Me When I Say That We are Living in a Society That Has Begun to Devalue Human Life.

Ex. This Can be Illustrated by the Fact That We Have Aborted Over 50 Million Babies in This Country Since the Roe vs Wade Decision That Legalized Abortion Was Passed on January 22nd, 1973.

Ex. This Can Also be Illustrated by the Fact That Many People Have Begun to Value Animal Life Just as Much or More Than Human Life.

Several Years Ago, for Example, an Elderly Man in New Jersey Was Accused of Cruelty to an Animal, Because He Used a Broomstick to Kill a Rat That Was Eating His Tomatoes. The Humane Societies Executive Director Jumped to the Defense of the Rat, and He Tried to Have the Man Jailed for Six Months and Fined $1,250.00. That Just Shows the Kind of Logic That Some People Possess Today.

Q.n = So, Why Has Human Life Begun to be Devalued Like This in Our Country?

Ans = I Believe That This Has Happened, Because an Increasing Number of Our Citizens Have Adopted a Secular Worldview, And So, by Way of Introduction, I Just Want to Contrast Our Biblical Worldview With the Secular Worldview That Many Around Us Now Ascribe To.

a. Our Biblical Worldview Accepts Divine Creation, But the Secular Worldview Accepts Human Evolution

In Genesis 1:1, the Bible Says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…”

And in Genesis 1:27, We are Told That…“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”

The Fact That We Have Been Created in God’s Image Sets Us Apart From the Animals, and It Places Immense Value on Human Life

But if We Merely Emerged From a Primordial Soup, as the Evolutionist Says, (From the Goo Through the Zoo to You); Then, We are Only Superior to Animals, Because We Just Happened to Win the Luck of the Draw – Speceisism

b. Our Biblical Worldview Accepts Moral Absolutes, But the Secular Worldview Accepts Moral Relativism

These Ten Commandments are God’s Moral Absolutes, and There are Others

In Levitcus 18:22, for Example, the Bible Says “'You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination”

This Tells Us That Homosexuality is a Sin, and It is Forbidden by God But Those Who Endorse a Secular Worldview Disagree, They Say, “Homosexuality, and for that matter, adultery, abortion, pornography are not wrong; these are merely cultural choices. And Consequently, we have no right to impose our moral standards on others. We should promote tolerance instead, and those who refuse to do so are guilty of a hate crime”

c. Our Biblical Worldview Accepts Jesus Christ as God’s Son, But the Secular Worldview Accepts Jesus as Only One of Many Religious Leaders

In John 14:6, Jesus Said, “…’I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me’”

Jesus Was Saying, in Essence, That There is no Other Way for Anyone to Come Into a Right Relationship With God and Inherit Eternal Life Except by Him

But the Secularist Would Disagree and Say “No, if There is a God (Most are Agnostics), There Many Different Paths to God and All Religious Beliefs are EQUALLY VALID; So Again, We Should Stress Tolerance” (Elaborate)

d. Our Biblical Worldview Accepts the Hope of Eternal Life, But the Secular Worldview Accepts Only Our Temporal Existence

In John 17:3, the Bible Says “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”

The Foundational Truth of Our Faith is That There is One True God; We Can Know Him and His Will for Our Lives, and We Can Inherit Eternal Life

But the Secularist Says That We Can’t Really Know God, All We Can Really be Certain About is This Life; and So, We are Not Accountable to God

Dostovesky, the Russian Philosopher Said, “If there is no God, then everything is permissible,” and That is the Logical Conclusion of a Secular Worldview

T.S. I Believe That Human Life Has Been Devalued in This Country, Because Many Have Bought Into This Secular Worldview and It is Constantly Being Promoted (Just Look Around and You Will See That Even Our Children are Being Indoctrinated…)

Our Biblical Worldview, Unlike the Secular Worldview, Places Extreme Value on Human Life, and That Can be Seen as We Carefully Examine This Sixth Commandment, And So, With This in Mind, I Want to Answer Two Questions in Relation to This Commandment This Morning.

Question # 1 = What is Not Forbidden by This Commandment?

1) The Killing of Animals is Not Forbidden

Perhaps, It is Because the King James Version Says “Thou Shalt Not Kill” That Some Have Said That This Prohibits All Killing.But the Bible is It’s Best Interpreter, and in the 24th Verse of This Same Chapter Moses Commanded the Israelites to Offer Animal Sacrifices to God. We are Also Told in Genesis 3:21 That God Himself Made Clothes Out of Animal Skins for Adam and Eve to Clothe Themselves With. Also, in Genesis 9:3, God Said This to Noah; He Said, "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant”. Moreover, We are Told in Luke 24:42-43 That the Disciples Gave Jesus a Piece of Broiled Fish and He Ate It in Front of Them. So, We are Told Specifically in the Bible That It is Alright for Us to Kill and Eat Animals.

There is Absolutely Nothing Wrong With Eating Barbecued Beef and Sausage, or a T-Bone Steak, or a Plate Full of Tacos and Enchiladas, or a Cheeseburger, or a Ham and Cheese Omelet, or Venison, or Maui Maui, or Blackened Snapper With Shrimp, or Crawfish and Crab Legs, or Lamb Chops, or Fajitas, or Fried Chicken, or Good Ole American Hot Dog (CAN I GET A WITNESS?)

By the Way, Animal Rights Activists Have Tried to Insist That We Put Labels Inside of Fur Coats Now That Say, “An Animal Had to be Killed for You to Wear This Garment”. If We Take That to It’s Logical Conclusion, I Suppose Every Big Mac Would Come With a Label That Says “This Used to be Betsy the Cow Now Don’t You Feel Bad..”.

Now, Proverbs 12:10 Does Say “A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal,” So, We Should Never Senselessly Abuse Animals or Exploit Our Use of Them the Way That the Buffalo Hunters Did Many Years Ago, But It is Alright for Us to Raise Them and Eat Them and Use Their Hides for Clothing Etcetera.

2) Capital Punishment is Not Forbidden

Many Bible Scholars Believe That God Created the Institution of Government Soon After the Flood And This Included the Right to Execute Those Who Would Deliberately Take the Life of Another Human Being. In Genesis 9:6, God Said This to Noah; He Said, "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man” . Now, Those Who Oppose Capital Punishment do so by Suggesting That It Has Never Been Proven to Deter Crime But I Want You to Notice That God Did Not Endorse Capital Punishment for That Reason, He Did It to Reinforce the Value of Human Life. He Was Saying, in Essence, That When Someone Strikes Down Another Human Being, They are Indirectly Striking at God.

In Exodus 21:14, the Bible Says, "If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die”. Here is a Case of Premeditated Murder, and We are Told That, Even if Such a Person Goes to the Temple, Kneels at the Altar, and Pleads for Mercy, He is Still to be Executed. He May be Given Mercy by God in Heaven, But He is Not to be Given Mercy on Earth. He Should be Put to Death, the Scripture Says, Because He is Guilty of Premeditated Murder, the Taking of a Human Life Which is God’s Ultimate Gift.

By the Way, We Don’t Have Time to Read This, But the Bible Tells Us in Numbers 35:16-26 That a Blood Avenger Would be Allowed to Put Them to Death.

That Means That the Closest of Kin Was Given the Privilege of Carrying Out the Execution Themselves if They Desired to do So (Elaborate = Victim’s Rights)

3) Self-Defense is Not Forbidden

In Exodus 22:2, the Bible Says, "If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guiltiness on his account” .This Means That if You are in Your Bed at Night and You Hear an Intruder, and You Feel in Someway Threatened by This, If You Take a Revolver Out of Your Dresser and You Use It to Protect Yourself and Your Family, God Will Not Hold You Accountable for That Person’s Death.

(Sign - “Don’t Worry About My Dog Just Beware of My .357 Magnum”)

I Would Bet That a Thief Would Think Twice Before Breaking in to That House

4) Accidental Killing is Not Forbidden

Listen Carefully to What the Bible Says in Deuteronomy 19:4-6; It Says,“4 Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously — 5 as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies — he may flee to one of these cities and live” . Here Moses Uses an Example of an Axe Head Flying Off and Hitting Someone so Hard That They are Unintentionally Killed.

In Fact, We are Told That There Were Not Even Any Signs of Bad Sentiments Between Them; It Was Just a Tragic Accident. Well, I Want You to Notice That Someone Who Had Killed Another Person in Such a Way Did Not Retain All of the Privileges and Freedoms That They Had Enjoyed Previously.

They Had to Flee to One of Six Cities of Refuge That the Lord Had Set Up for This Purpose. But Listen, They Were Instructed to do This Primarily for Their Protection So, They Were Not Held Accountable by God for This Other Person’s Death.

5) War is Not Forbidden

We Have Many Examples in the Old Testament Where God Literally Commanded His Chosen People to go to War. In Fact, in Exodus 15:3, Our Lord is Called “A Man of War”. I Could Use Many Scriptural Examples, But My Favorite is Found in Romans 13:4, Which Says This About Civil Government; It Says, “for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil” .

Q.n = Did You Know That the Primary Purpose of Government, From a Biblical Perspective, Involves Protecting It’s Citizens?

The Primary Purpose of Government is Not to Provide Us With Healthcare and Retirement Funds or to Rebuild Our House After a Flood. God Designed It to Protect Us From Evils Like Murder, and Rape, and Theft, Etc.. So Now, Try to Imagine What This City Would be Like if We Did Not Have Any Policemen to Protect Us.

This Would be a Very Dangerous Place for Us to Be. And War Can Become Necessary at Times for the Same Reason, In Fact, I Believe That There is a Such Thing as a Just War. When a Nation is Defending Itself Against Aggression, or Protecting Weaker Nations From Ruthless Dictators Such as Adolph Hitler or Saddam Hussein, Then, War Might Become Necessary, and Those Who Participate in It are Not Guilty of Breaking This Sixth Commandment.

Question # 1 = What is Not Forbidden by This Commandment?

Question # 2 = What is Forbidden by This Commandment?

1) Intentional Murder is Forbidden

In the Hebrew Language, There are Nine Different Words That Can be Translated “To Kill”. God Passed Over Eight of Those Words That Mean Things Like “To Kill” or “To Slaughter” or “To Sacrifice,” and He Chose the Hebrew Word “Ratash” Which Can Only Mean “To Murder”.

a. This Includes Homicide Which is the Deliberate Premeditated Act of Taking Another Human Being’s Life.

We are Told in Genesis 4, for Example, That Cain Rose Up Against His Brother Abel, and He Deliberately Took His Life. That is What is Being Addressed Here, Unfortunately, These Kinds of Violent Crimes are More Common in Our Country Than They are in Any Other Country in the Civilized World And I Believe That One Reason This is True is Because It Takes Us so Long to Prosecute a Violent Criminal.
Listen to What Solomon Said About This in Ecclesiastes 8:11, He Said, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil”. According to Solomon, This Might be the Primary Reason That the Violent Crime Rate in Our Country Continues to Escalate.

Ex. President William McKinley, for Example, Was Assassinated on Sept 1, 1901

and Just 53 Days Later the Man Who Assassinated Him Was Executed

Ex. Yet, Timothy McVeigh, Who Was Responsible for the Bombing in Oklahoma

City on April 18th, 1995 Was Not Executed Until June 11th, 2001 And This

Would be Considered Exceptionally Early Because, on the Average in This

Country, It Takes 15 to 20 Years for a Death Sentence to be Carried Out (Safest

Place to be is on Death Row, and Most Dangerous Place is Inside of a Mother’s

Womb)

b. This Includes Suicide

In Jeremiah 10:23, the Prophet Said, “I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps”. That Means That None of Us Has the Right to Play God by Taking Another Person’s Life or by Taking Our Own And We Have an Example of This in 2 Samuel 1:14-15.

A Man Came and Told David That King Saul Had Tried to Take His Own Life, But He Had Not Succeeded So, He Asked This Man to Finish the Job, and He Said That He Did. He Thought That David Would Commend Him; But Instead, the Bible Says That David Had the Man Executed.
We Could Put That in the Same Category as Assisted Suicide Today, and That Should Tell Us That God is Clearly Opposed to It. Now, Just so That You Will Know, I Believe That This Definitely Applies to Active Euthanasia, But It Does Not Always Apply to Passive Euthanasia.

i. Active Euthanasia Involves Things Like Physician Assisted Suicide Where

Someone Deliberately Hastens a Persons Death

ii. Passive Euthanasia Has a Broader Definition; But in the Classic Sense, It

Simply Involves Withdrawing Measures That Keep a Person Alive by

Artificial Means

If a Person is Brain Dead, for Example, and They are Only Being Kept Alive by a Respiratory Machine, I Don’t Believe It is Wrong to Let Nature Take Its Course.

Pt = We do Not Have the Right to Take a Human Life at the Beginning or the End;

That Decision Should be Left in the Hands of God Alone, And So, Suicide is a

Sin

Q.n = Now, Can Someone Who Has Committed Suicide Still go to Heaven?
Ans = Yet, But It is Still a Terrible Sin and a Very Selfish Act

c. This Includes Abortion

Now, I Know That Abortions are Very Common in Our Day, and That It is Entirely Possible That Someone Who is Here May Have Had One. So, I Want You to Know That My Intention is to Not to Heap More Guilt Upon Such a Person, and There Usually is a Lot of Guilt Associated With This. (Elaborate) I Don’t Want to Add to Anyone’s Pain; My Goal is to Bring Us All to the Point of Embracing a Biblical Worldview Regarding Life And the Bible Clearly Says That Life Begins in the Womb.

The Psalmist in Psalms 139:13, for Example, Said, “For you (Meaning God) created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb” (NIV) . Now, if Some Young Lady Was Knitting Some Little Booties Together, and All of a Sudden I Came Over There With a Knife and Ripped What She Was Doing in Two, My Guess Would be That This Would Make Her Fairly Angry.

Q.n = So, How Do You Think It Makes God Feel When Someone Comes and

Destroys a Person That He Has Been Weaving Together in a Mother’s

Womb?
Ans = Well, I am Sure That This Must Anger Him And I Believe That He Will Hold

Anyone Who Does This Accountable Exodus 21:21-23 (Turn and Read)

Now, I Want You to Notice That God Attaches the Same Value to the Life Inside of the Womb as He Does to the Life Outside of the Womb And Abortion Has Gotten Way Out of Hand in Our Country, With Over 50 Million Babies Being Aborted Since Abortion Was Legalized in 1973 - 4,383 Abortions on Average Every Day, 183 Per Hour, 3 Every Minute.

Q.n = How Many is That?

Ans = Well, Maybe This Image Will Help You to Grasp It.

The Mississippi Baptist Convention Created This Memorial Which is Called “A Memorial to the Missing,” and It is Filled With 50 Million Pennies (Elaborate)

2) Indirect Murder is Forbidden

a. This Includes Negligent Homicide

In Exodus 21:28-29, Moses Said This, and I Find This to be Very Interesting; He Said, “28 If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished. 29 ‘If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death”

Q.n = Did You Catch That? This Man Was to be Held Responsible Because of His

Negligence

Q.n = Now, You Tell Me. How Should This be Applied to an Alcoholic Who Has

Been Warned About His Behavior Repeatedly and Ultimately Kills an

Innocent Person, or Perhaps, Several Innocent People, Because He Was

Driving While Intoxicated?

b. This Includes Economic Homicide

I’ve Chosen to Call this Economic Homicide, Because This is Often What Drives It.

A Lot of People are Involved in Abortion, for Example, Because It Has Become a Lucrative Industry.

And Those Who Produce and Sell Alcoholic Beverages are Indirectly Responsible for Over 70% of the Deaths That Occur in This Country Every Year.

22,000 Deaths, Listen to Me Now, 22,000 Deaths Occur Every Year in This Country and 70% of Those are Somehow Related to the Consumption of Alcohol.

In Habakkuk 2:12, the Bible Says "Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity!” (NKJV)

And So, I Believe That God Will Hold Our Supreme Court Justices Responsible for the Deaths of 50 Million Babies, and He Will Hold the Liquor Barons Responsible

3) Invisible Murder is Forbidden

a. This Includes Our Attitudes

I Suppose That Some People Can Come to This Commandment and Say to Themselves, “Well, I Haven’t Broken That One” But That is Only Because They Have Failed to Examine Their Heart For You See, Jesus Expanded on This Sixth Commandment in the Sermon on the Mount and He Said This; He Said,“21 You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' 22 "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell” (Matt 5:21-22)

So, Now, We All Have to Examine Our Hearts and See if We are Harboring Any Bitterness or Hatred There Towards Anyone Or, as One Man Said, “I’ve Never Murdered Anyone, But I Must Admit That I Have Read a Few Obituaries With Great Delight”. Oh, Listen My Friend, Because That’s Bad. In Fact, Our Lord Said, in Essence, That a Person Who Has an Attitude Like That in Their Heart Towards Another Human Being is Guilty of Murder.

A Few Weeks Ago, Our Sunday School Lesson Dealt With an Occasion When Jesus Healed a Man on the Sabbath and the Jewish Leaders Objected So, Jesus Turned to Them and Said, “…’Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?’.Then, the Bible Says “But they kept silent” (Mark 3:4)

Q.n = Do You Know Why They Kept Silent?

Ans = Because He Had ‘Nailed Em’!

b. This Includes Our Ancestry

The Great Bible Scholar G. Campbell Morgan Was Talking With a Young Man Who Was Overwrought With Conviction About His Sin
And in Anguish, This Young Man Cried Out and Said, “I Suppose That I’ve Broken Every Commandment Except the One That Says ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder.’” But Dr. Morgan Said, “I Hate to Have to Tell You This, But You’ve Broken That One Too” . And He Was Right.

For You See, It Was Our Sins That Nailed Jesus to the Cross And Because We Can All Trace Our Ancestry Back to Adam, We are All Equally Responsible .

In Acts 3:14-15, the Apostle Peter Said, “14 But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.”

Peter Took the Hammer and the Nails, and He Placed Them Squarely in the Hands of These Jews And He Said, in Essence, You’re Guilty; You Crucified the Son of God.

I’m Sure That Many of These Jews Were Not Even in the City of Jerusalem When Jesus Was Crucified; But Nevertheless, Peter Informed Them of the Fact That They Were Guilty of the Crime.

And So are We, Because It Was Our Sins That Put Him There.

But the Amazing Thing is That He Used the Very Instrument That Proves That We are All Guilty of Murder to Provide Us With Eternal Redemption.

That Caused Me to Want to Say “Hallelujah What a Savior!”