The Sacredness of Life

The sixth comm is the simple yet the supreme answer to the issue of assisted suicide, to abortion, to euthanasia. To murder. And so tonight we want to cover three points with you. We want to talk, first of all, about the rationale behind the precept.

What is God's rationale? Why did God say we are not to murder other people? And then, second of all, we want to see the root beneath the problem.

Why is it people murder? And then talk about the response placed before God's people this evening as to what should be happening in our lives. So, first of all, turn with me to Genesis chapter 9.

And we want to give you the rationale behind the precept: you sh not murder. Exodus 20, verse number 13. And there are three of them. One is creation, two is reproduction, and third is authorization.

The first is creation. God said in Genesis chapter 9, verse 6, who sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man. Now if you recall when when Abel was murdered by his brother Cain God came to Cain and said, Where is Abel? Now, when God asks a question, God always knows the answer. Okay? So, when God ever comes to man and asks him a question, he's not looking for an answer from man because he doesn't know something. God knows something. So when he came to Cain and said, Where is Abel?

He was giving Cain the opportunity to rep from his sin. Because although the prohibition on murder is not recorded to Genesis chapter 9, verse 6, Cain knew that he broke the divine law. And how did he know? Because he sought to cover up his sin. His response in Genesis chapter 4, verse 8, was, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? And that has been a question man has asked down through the ages. Answer, of course, is always: yes, you are. But Cain came back and said, I don't know where Abel is, as if he was going to try to pull the wool over God's eyes, and God wasn't able to understand what happened to Abel.

And so God gave him the opportunity to repent, yet Cain lied about what he knew and where Abel was. He also knew he violated God's law because when God handed down the punishment upon him, He said in Genesis chapter 4 that it was a too great of punishment for him. And God's punishment centered around his loss of Or Cain's loss of God's presence and Cain's loss of God's fellowship and God's protection. But it's not until Genesis chapter 9, verse 6, that God actually states for us in writing. the prohibition against murder.

And he gives us the penalty. If you kill someone, the penalty for you is de. And the seriousness of it is in the latter part of verse 6 when it says, For in the image of God he made man. You see, the reason murder is so serious is because in the creation of man, God made man in his image. And whenever you strike out against man, you indirectly strike out against God. So when you slay another man, You are, in essence, slaying God because man is made in the image of God. The second thing I want you to see is the reason behind the rationale behind this precept: is that God says, Man is made not only in the image of God through creation, but verse number seven reproduction and as for you be fruitful and multiply populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.

God is in the life. God is not into death. So he says, you're not to kill another man or another woman because they're made in the image of God. What you are to do is to reproduce yourself over again. This is God's covenant to Noah and to his family. Why? Because God's into life, God is the life giver. Christ said that He was the way, the truth, and the life. We don't murder because God is in favor of life, He's not in favor of death. And so The mystery about life is that you don't give life. Therefore, you have no right to take life.

And so we must teach this truth over and over and over again to our children. Because if they go to the public school, they're going to get monkey mythology. And they need to understand that that's not true. Scientists cannot prove when life began. There's no way they can. They can only speculate. But God tells us when life began, for He is the originator of life. So when you murder a life, this is what you do. You take the place of God. And when you kill someone, if you abort a child, if you murder someone in hand-to-hand combat because you don't like that person, you hate that person, you want to kill that person.

God says, look, you've ended a human life that's made in my image. Therefore, you despise me. Because I made them in my image. And when you take another life, you disagree with God. You tell God that that life is worthless. That life means nothing. And God says, no, that life means everything to me because it's been created in my image.

So whenever you abort a child, you challenge the divine intention. In fact, the biggest blow to the sovereignty of God in the history of man is abortion. Right? Because it says that God's plan is not right for you. It tells you that God's design, if God opens and closes the womb, which He does, right? The Bible tells us that God opens and closes the womb. So when a woman conceives a child, it's not. Well, it is because they came together and they had that union of sexual intimacy. But it's God who opens the womb So God, in his divine intention, had planned in eternity past that that mother would have a child.

And whenever you say, no, I don't want that child, or no, that child is going to be deformed, therefore I don want that child to come into my family, what you are saying is that God's sovereign plan is not the best plan. That, what God has designed for you is not what you want, and you disagree with his plan. So the created then becomes the master of his own fate. And you try to take God's sovereignty into your hand. And God says, I'm into life.

I am the life-giver. And therefore, you have no right to take another man's life. The third rationale I want to give you is what I call authorization.

And it says this in Deuteronomy 32, 39, See now that I, I am He, God said, and there is no God besides me. It is I who puts to death and gives life. God says, I am the one who is God.

I am the only God. There is no God beside me, and no one has a right to take anybody else's life except for me because I created that life. But the Bible says that God has a divinely instituted covenant.

A civil official is a minister of God. Regardless of his personal beliefs about God or his relationship to God, for he is doing the Lord's work whether he realizes it or not. By promoting peace and safety among men. Now read on. It says, 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 upon the one who practices ev. The sword in Scripture is an instrument of death. It symbolizes the right of civil government to inflict punishment, including The death penalty.

Why? Because God has given the sword into the ministers that He has appointed. To oversee and to rule. And so you understand that the Lord initiated the death penalty in Genesis chapter 9, verse 6. When he said, Whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed. God is the authority. And God is the one who gives life and takes life. And God gives that authority into the powers that be, that rule. And hopefully, Lord willing, they would do it in a just way as they exercise the authority given to them by God.

Christ came to redeem man. He came that man might have life, that he might have life abundantly. He came that man might have eternal life. And he wants that eternal life to not only be for tomorrow, but be for today. Because eternal life speaks of the quality of life which we have with Christ, not the longevity of life. Because everybody lives eternally, right? So therefore, eternal life is the quality of life in the presence of God. And we must understand that that's what Christ came to give man.

And when we execute another man, when we kill someone, when we murder someone, we thrust them into a criseless eternity. And you inflict the kind of punishment upon them which shuts them off from the possibility. Of redemptive grace. And God says, you have no authority to do such a thing.

That's my response. You have no right to thrust someone into a crisis eternity because of your anger that would lead to murder. That's the rationale behind the precept. It set us around creation. That man is made in the image of God. Every man is. Every believer, every unbeliever is made in the image of God. That gives man dignity, not because of who he is, but because of what God did in him. And that dignity comes to fruition when man is recreated through the new birth in that image. And so, because man is created in the image of God, God says you can't kill another person.

Because of reproduction, God is in the life. He wants us to reproduce. He wants us to be fruitful and multiply. And some of you need to get out the stick and do some more of that. But he wants us to give more life because God is into life. God wants life to happen. For the more people who give life through the physical means have more of an opportunity to impact other people who need eternal life. And God wants that. And the third rationale is, of course, the authorization by God himself that he gives to the government only to inflict punishment with the sword.

And not man. What's these important number two? What's the root beneath the problem of murder? Where did it all begin? Turn with me over to John chapter 10.

Would you please? John chapter 10. The root falls into three areas. Number one, our adversary. Number two, our depravity.

And number three, our animosity. First of all, our adversary, John 10, 10. What did Christ say? He said, the thief comes only to steal and kill And destroy. Jesus is the life giver. Satan is the thief. He is the life destroyer. And Jesus' name for Satan. Is thief. He calls him the thief. For Satan's only purpose is to destroy Life over in John 8:4, what did Christ say? You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. Because that's where point number two comes in.

Although our adversary is the root beneath the problem, there's also the fact of our depravity. Turn with me to Mark chapter 7.

Mark chapter 7. Verse number 20. Listen to what Jesus says. That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts. And what? Murders. Murder comes from the inside of man. Murder is that which comes about because of our own depravity. Our fallen human nature shares the presence of evil that Satan himself Personifies in that old nature. What's inside of man, his depravity, is what leads him to murder.

It's not simply because of social deprivation, nor is it because of stressful situations. Nor is it because of bad influences that cause people to murder others. Those things tempt us to sin. But those things don't make us sin. It's the depravity of man. Proverbs 6, verses 16 to 19. Christ or God gives us the six things that God hate, yea, seven are an abomination to him. Hands that shed innocent blood are things that God hates. Murder is a despicable manifestation of a fleshy heart. And the seriousness of the offense is seen in one of the last declarations of God's word in Revelation 22, verse number 15, when it says, Those who are outside heaven are murderers.

Those who don't make it into the kingdom are those who are murdering kind of people. Which leads us to our third point.

As to the root beneath the problem of murder, and that is our animosity. And this is where it's going to get a little bit more personal for us. Because you folks are sitting out there saying, you what, we're not going murder anybody. At least not this week. You know, we don't have any plans to go. By and be involved in a drive-by shooting and kill somebody that we don't like. Or, you know, we've got a lot of people we like to see dead, but we're not going to go out and shoot anybody. That's not us.

We're not those kind of people. But to help us all understand the severity of this command, we need to understand what Jesus said. Over in 1 John 3, verse number 15, John said, Everyone who hates his brother is what? A murderer. Now, hold on a second here.

If you hate your brother, God says you are a murderer. Now think that through with me for a moment. That makes us all guilty to some extent, doesn't it? John is speaking to fellow believers. And says, if you hate your brother, you're a murderer. Not to consider the state of the heart is not to consider that which the Lord holds to be the all-important measure. of tr guilt. Jesus says, every who is angry with his brother shall be guilty.

Before the core. Now, God does not prohibit anger. God Himself was angry. In his time on the earth, in John chapter 2 and in Matthew chapter 21, in the cleansing of the temple, Jesus Christ was an angry man. Turned over the tables, he took a whip, he scattered the people. Ephesians 4:2 says, Be ye angry and sin not. So it is possible to be angry and not sin if it's a righteous indignation. That is possible. Jesus Christ had righteous indignation. Because he was concerned about his father's house.

Psalm 7:11 says that God Himself is angry with the wicked every day. God's angry with him. So Jesus is talking about anger against a brother. A selfish anger has to do with the brooding and the smoldering resentment that evidences itself in holding a grudge. That evidences itself in an unforgiving spirit. God says, Your animosity is that which condemns you.

Why? Because inside there is an unforgiving spirit. This is a grudge that you are holding against another brother. And Christ says, if you do that, you're guilty before the court.

That is, you're guilty of the death penalty. And the only way that can be resolved is through the blood of Jesus Christ, who cleanses us from all of our sins. Christ says that you're guilty of fiery hell, Gehenna.

And that makes us all guilty. That makes us all susceptible to the sin. Of murder. Which leads us to our third point, and we must close: the response before our people.

Three things. Number one: be repentant. And confess your sins. We need to realize that God expects us to be repentant. Cain was not repentant when God came to him. Where is your brother Abel? I don't know. Beats me. I'm not my brother's keeper. God expects us to be repentant. Let me ask you a question.

Is there someone that you're harboring resentment against? Evening, holding a grudge against, refusing to grant them forgiveness for a wrong done to you. God says you're guilty before the court.

You're harboring resentment. Listen to the words of John over in 1 John chapter 2. Listen to what he says. Verse number 9. The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in darkness until now.

The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. God says, if you hate your brother, you're living a light that's characteristic of a person who's an unbeliever, who lives in darkness.

Over in 1 John chapter 3, verse 14, listen to what John says. He says, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Over in 1 John 4, verse number 20, John says, This: If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

My friends, it would be very good for all of us to do some soul searching and be repentant and confess our sins if there be the sins that loom in our heart that says, you know what? I've got some resentment. I've got some people I can't stand to be around. I hate them. Don't try to cover it up and say, well, I don really hate any. Buddy, we can candy coat it and say, Well, I just don't like him very much. I'd rather not talk to him. Why not? We need to examine our lives. Number two.

If you have something against your brother, you need to be restored and controlled by the Spirit. Right after, over in Matthew 5, 21 and 22, as he talks about, you have heard that it was said, this whole thing about murder. If you say to your brother Rak, if you call your brother a fool, you're bound to the fires of hell. Listen to what he says in verse number 23. If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar. And there, remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your offering there before the altar.

Go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. You see, God wants you to be restored to your brother. He wants you to be restored to your sister. He says, Look, man is made in my image, and you're coming to worship me. Me, the creator of that man. And if you hold something against that brother, don't even think of coming to worship me because your relationship to man is. Is the indicator of your relationship to God. If you're bitter and you hold grudges and you have an unforgiving spirit, that tells people around you what your relationship is with God.

Doesn it? Because no man who says he loves God and hates his brother is truthful. And so God wants us to be restored and controlled by His spirit. Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 to 26. You ought to take some time just to read that. How we're not to walk in the spirit of the flesh, but walk in the spirit him. Don't walk in the carnal, fleshy ways that the world walks in, but walk controlled by God's Spirit. Peter said over in 1 Peter 4, verses 14. 16, if you're going to suffer for good, that's okay.

But don't let any of you suffer as an evild. Don 't let any of you suffer as a murderer, he says. Whether it's the physical act or the attitude, don't suffer. As a murderer, make sure that you're restored to your brother and that you are controlled by God's Spirit. And lastly, be responsible. Be responsible and cherish your brothers and sisters. 1 John chapter 4, verse number 19. We love because he first loved.

Loved us. My friends, we need to be responsible children and to love our brothers and sisters. And we can only do that because Christ loved us. Outside of his power and outside of his spirit, we cannot accomplish what God wants us to accomplish. And James 4 says, What? To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is what? Sin. James says, if you know what to do and you don't do it, it's sin. To do nothing is bad. It's real bad. It's better to do something wrong than to do nothing. If you know what to do, you don't do it.

That's sin. And so maybe there's somebody that you know who's lonely and could be suicidal. And God is saying, I want you to befriend that person. I want you to take that person in their loneliness and come alongside them. Befriend them. Maybe there's someone who has actually committed a homicide. They've actually murdered somebody. They've actually gone from the attitude to the act, and now they're in prison. And God says, I want you to go.

That person. Remember Matthew 25? When I was sick, you visited me. When I was in prison, you came to see me. When did we do that? Ah, when you did it. To the least of these my brethren, you did it as unto me, Christ said. These people are created in my image. You went to them and you met their needs, and you did it as To me. And God says, maybe you know somebody in prison who's committed homicide, and God says, You need to go see that person.

Maybe you need to open your home to an expected Single mother, a young girl who's pregnant, is wondering whether or not she should abort her child. And you, No, you come into our home. That's a big responsibility, isn't it? You come into our home, we'll help you with the birth of your child. Child, and we'll help you get you get you on your feet. God says, I want you to love your brothers and sisters, I want you to be responsible, and I want you to cherish them.

And that's our response as God's people.