WEBVTT 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:11.199 Well, good morning. 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:19.600 Today is Sunday, the thirteenth of September, 2015, already, and God is still on the throne. 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:31.839 I have no idea what your week was like, but I know for a fact God reigns and rules and is involved in the lives of men and women and children today. 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:33.600 God is still on the throne. 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:38.640 He was last week, he will be the week to come, and he is today. 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:40.479 God is gracious. 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:41.759 God is good. 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:43.359 God is sovereign. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:44.880 God is patient. 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:47.359 God is trustworthy. 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:49.840 And God has spoken. 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:52.240 He has spoken to us. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:59.200 And part of what he has said is in the tender commandments. 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:02.159 These aren't harsh words of condemnation. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:03.840 They're tender words. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:10.400 Oh, Walt, oh Jane, oh put your own name in there. 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:12.879 Go this way, don't go that way. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:14.560 This is the way of life. 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:17.760 This is the way life was meant to work. 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:25.519 And when God speaks, he neither misleads nor stutters. 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:37.280 And he is not misleading and he is not stuttering when he says, My dear people, I want you to know, go this way, don't go that. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.400 And in particular, don't murder. 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:49.200 Don't take life with hands or with our hearts. 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:56.400 Now, when God speaks, God's people, if they're wise, respond. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:06.319 We do not come and open the scriptures just to have our intellect enlarged. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:16.319 We don't come to the scriptures just to plummet the depths of profound theological truths, although they certainly are there and that's worth plummeting. 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:25.360 We don't come to the scriptures in order to have our ego stroked or to feel good or to be entertained. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:29.759 If we come to the scriptures that way, we are fools. 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:36.159 When God speaks, the question is not, do we like what he hears and do we like the way it's said? 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:41.919 The question is, what do I do with what God is saying to me? 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:45.680 And that's the question that I have for us. 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:49.120 And it's always the question as we open up the scriptures. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:51.919 Today is the second Sunday of the month. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:57.039 It's our custom here, of course, on the second Sunday of the month to have communion. 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:05.360 And today I've asked if we could do the communion at the end, and the orchestra is going to play, and I'm looking forward to that very much. 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:08.000 You're going to have to hold your excitement for a little bit. 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:10.800 Your excitement not for the orchestra. 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:14.560 Your excitement for responding to God. 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:24.719 So we'll be taking communion, and during communion, the orchestra will play not as a performance, but as an aid to us responding to Him. 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:28.800 And the Lord's Supper is meant to be a response. 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:33.919 So that will be our application of God's word this morning. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:36.400 So just uh just a heads up. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:40.800 Thou shalt not murder. 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:50.319 I trust that by the time I'm done uh trying to unpack this a little bit, you will understand. 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:56.080 No murder with hand or with heart. 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:56.960 Alright? 00:03:57.599 --> 00:03:59.439 That's where we're going with this. 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:01.280 I'd like to pray. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:09.120 Heavenly Father, as we turn to your word, we don't just turn uh to just whatever. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:14.319 We turn to something that you have from foundations past, from eternity past. 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:16.879 You have had words of truth for us. 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:18.720 You are a God who speaks. 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:20.800 You are there and you are not silent. 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:21.680 You speak. 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:30.240 And Lord, it's my desire that I and this congregation this morning will respond to your words, not my words. 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:36.720 My words at best will be an effort to bring your words to light. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:38.879 And they may confuse your word. 00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:44.639 And Lord, we want to know what you have to say to us this day. 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:52.879 And it is our heart's desire that we would respond to you in obedience and worship. 00:04:53.199 --> 00:04:55.839 So, Lord, we're listening. 00:04:56.639 --> 00:04:57.360 We're listening. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:04:59.199 Amen. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:05.680 Well, our uh our passage is really pretty simple. 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:08.560 Um murder. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:26.879 We saw last week and the week before that the first four of the tender commandments talk about the vertical, talk about our relationship with God, and then commandments five through ten talk about the horizontal, our relationships with one another. 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.959 And God has direct things to say to us about our relationship with Him. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:36.160 He has direct and practical things to say to us about our relationship with one another. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:39.439 And the two are intimately intertwined. 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:45.120 You cannot be rightly related to God and not be rightly related to one another. 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:49.839 You cannot be rightly related to other people and not be rightly related to God. 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:51.759 They inherently go together. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:58.560 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbors as yourself. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:13.120 So we're in that section of the tender commandments that cause us to look around and to reflect what's our action and what are our attitudes towards other people. 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:20.879 This is an incredibly simple, direct command. 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:28.879 Um I'm gonna make it more complicated with that next slide, but it's an incredibly simple and direct command. 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:31.360 You shall not murder. 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:37.759 Actually, since you are all, of course, great Hebrew scholars, you know there's really only two words in the original. 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:39.920 No, I'm being facetious. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:42.319 But there are only two words. 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:50.720 It's no murder, no stuttering there, no misleading there. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:07:01.680 And uh actually, we find three of the tender commandments in a row that contain just two words: no murder, no adultery, and no stealing. 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:07.680 It really doesn't get any clearer or simpler than that. 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:23.279 Now, we have to understand, uh, especially if you were raised maybe with the King James or some of the more traditional translations, you probably have floating around in your head, thou shalt not kill. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:37.680 And what I'm going to try to suggest to you is that although that is not a bad translation, in our thinking, that immediately takes us places that this command does not go. 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:50.800 It's talking about the unauthorized and premeditated taking of human life by one person taking another person's life. 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:53.920 That is what the words mean. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:58.560 That is clear if you examine the scriptures carefully. 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:07.759 And in our ears, probably thou shalt not kill, becomes much more general than that. 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:18.160 But what God is saying to his people Israel, and it was clearly understood with the words that he used in the original, no murder, no murder. 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:39.440 So what we have is a question of unauthorized, because sometimes it is authorized to take life, unauthorized and premeditated with malice aforethought, taking of another human life. 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:46.639 With hand, or as we shall see what Jesus said, it's with hand or with heart. 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:49.039 So, just a couple of simple things. 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:52.000 This is not a general term for killing. 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:56.320 Our word for kill, uh, we use it for all kinds of things. 00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:05.200 You could kill a plant, you could kill an animal, you could kill the weeds in the garden, you could kill a good idea, you could kill initiative, you can kill time. 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:07.840 There's all kinds of things that we kill. 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:09.440 You can kill a party. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:11.679 That's not what this is talking about. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:21.840 This is very specifically the unauthorized and premeditated taking of another life of a human being. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:26.559 This relates to murder, pure and simple. 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:36.080 Uh, it is not a prohibition against all taking of human life in any and every circumstance. 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:43.360 Uh there are times when it is right and necessary to take human life. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:45.600 The scriptures make that very clear. 00:09:45.759 --> 00:10:10.159 For example, um in the matter of war, God has clear instructions for his chosen people Israel, which we find in Deuteronomy chapter 20, explicit instructions of how the nation Israel was to go to war, and that included taking life of the enemies at times. 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:20.639 There is such a thing as an appropriate killing of human, taking of human life that is not automatically murder. 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:24.720 There's a distinction in the scriptures between that. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:31.840 There is a just and a righteous and a necessary time and place to take human life. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:38.799 God is the author of life, and God is the only one who can authorize when it is right and when it is wrong. 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:49.919 I just want to go on and make it very clear that God instructed his nation Israel to go to war multiple times, and God has not changed. 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:54.720 And Jesus' words did not change Moses' words. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:11:03.039 Jesus' words took them far deeper, not just with our hands, but also not with our heart. 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:14.639 Now, the question of a war, what's a just war or a righteous war, that's an incredibly important subject. 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:18.320 But just be aware, and I'm I'm not going to try to answer that this morning. 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:20.799 We'd be here until tomorrow morning this time. 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:26.399 All I want to point out is that God at times commanded his people to go to war. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:27.679 And there is such a thing. 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:30.639 If God says do it, it is just and righteous. 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:37.519 Now, it becomes very, very difficult and very existential, very personal. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.080 I grew up in the Vietnam era. 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:49.200 I was 63 was my draft number, which meant uh I was going to be drafted. 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:52.000 I didn't end up getting drafted, long story. 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:54.000 But it became very personal. 00:11:54.240 --> 00:12:00.240 Is this a war that I am prepared to fight in and kill someone? 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:09.360 Which is actually the wrong question, but I was just a dumb kid, and uh so I I had lots of wrong questions and wrong answers to the wrong questions. 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:15.120 The real question is not do I want to do this, but is this a righteous and just war? 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:20.559 That would take us places I have no time or no interest this morning in going. 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:26.159 I just want to make clear that there is such a thing as an authorized war. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:31.279 Uh capital punishment is another expression of that. 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:47.600 The Jewish people, in the laws and instructions that God gave, um, made a distinction between unintentional and premeditated acts of taking life. 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:57.600 And uh the whole issue of capital punishment, which is of course a living issue, all of this stuff is very, very current stuff. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:14.960 But you can't read the scriptures clearly and simply, frankly, without recognizing that there is a time and a place as God has proscribed it for what we call capital punishment. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:21.840 The point is that not all taking of life is the same as murder, is what is being talked about here. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:29.679 Capital punishment was proscribed by God for a whole lot of things. 00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:32.960 It was prescribed for a whole lot of things. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:42.399 Uh for incest, child sacrifice, kidnapping, witchcraft, and a whole series of sexual sins, including homosexuality. 00:13:42.639 --> 00:13:47.759 The subject of capital punishment would also take us several days to go into. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:50.799 And that would be a good thing to do, maybe another time. 00:13:51.039 --> 00:14:00.480 Maybe I'll come up with the idea of doing a whole series of sermons on some of these incredibly current and uh very practical current issues. 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:02.639 That's not where we're going this morning. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:10.879 I just want to underscore that this is not a prohibition, that the sixth commandment is not a prohibition against all taking of human life. 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:13.279 And then you get to the matter of governments. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:26.080 If you read Romans chapter 13, the key passage, one of the key passages on government, God entrusts to human governments, not just so-called Christian governments. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:34.559 He entrusted to the Roman emperors who were anything but God followers, and the church suffered as a result. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:41.120 Just because the church might suffer under the role of a government that we're under really isn't the point. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:45.440 The point is how we respond as God's people. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:53.039 But the fact of the matter is that God gives to government what Romans 13 calls the sword. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:15:03.600 Says it's not for naught that the government has the sword, and that is clearly pointing to what we would call capital punishment. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:07.440 Governmental authority, however, is not absolute. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:19.200 Governmental authority, as all authority is, the authority of husbands in the family, leaders in the church, rulers over the affairs of men. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:29.840 Authority, if it's right, is always delegated by God and received under the instructions and delegation of God. 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:38.559 God can authorize us to do things that we otherwise would not be allowed to do. 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:45.360 God can do anything he wants, and unlike us, what he wants is always and only good. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:55.919 And if we would just bring ourselves, bring ourselves under the authority of God in practical ways, it would go a long way for us. 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:10.720 The government must not declare as acceptable what God says is unacceptable, and the government may not prohibit things that God says is right and good. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:22.080 When the government does that, then it's stepping out from under the authority of God, and then there are times that we must suffer the consequences. 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:45.679 Um the consequences not of rebelling against the government, but the consequences of having a government that is not following what God says, but we then must follow what God says, and that sometimes, and I can assure you in many places around the world, has very personal and very tragic circumstances, and we may very well find ourselves in the midst of that sooner than we think. 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:50.320 There is nothing surprising about that, there's nothing in a certain sense wrong about that. 00:16:50.480 --> 00:17:00.000 If God wants us to live and function and serve Him with an oppressive regime that crushes the church, so be it. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:06.480 The church has thrived over the centuries in times of persecution and distress. 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:14.640 A majority church, the moral majority, uh sorry, I want to get away from politics here. 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:24.240 Um you can't fully get away from politics, but my friends, I will not use this pulpit as a political point of expression. 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:38.799 Where the scriptures make it clear, biblical, moral, ethical issues will be loud and clear, but during next year's election, do not expect and do not ask me to preach politics. 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:43.039 That is wrong, and I will refuse to do it. 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:45.279 I will simply refuse to do it. 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:55.440 We say what God says, and then it's up to us as individuals to respond in a democratic society according to our conscience. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:56.000 Okay? 00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:58.000 Sorry, that was a bunny trail. 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:02.160 I didn't have it in my notes, but all right. 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:14.160 The point of all of this is that there are times where it's right and necessary to take human life, but what the sixth commandment is talking about is murder. 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:25.119 Unauthorized by God and premeditated by our evil hearts, the taking of life of another human being. 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:34.720 God is the one who determines what is authorized, not your orinary heart or mine. 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:35.440 Okay. 00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:38.960 You didn't know I had an orinary heart? 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:40.640 Talk to Jane. 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:42.400 Talk to our kids. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:44.960 All right. 00:18:45.519 --> 00:18:51.519 This command does not come to us without a context and without precedent. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:54.720 There is a basis for this. 00:18:54.880 --> 00:19:01.519 There is something that lies behind it, the limitations that we have as human beings. 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:05.519 And it's found in what the Bible talks about. 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:10.000 The scholars and the theologians, they get PhDs and write thousands of books. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:15.839 You could fill a whole library with questions of the image of man, but that's not, it should not be their thinking. 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:20.559 God has been very clear that man is created in his image. 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.599 In the image of God, he created him. 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:26.240 And that we must see. 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:28.799 We don't need to dwell on it this morning. 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:34.400 Uh, but just turn, if you would, to Genesis chapter 9, just for a moment. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:36.720 Genesis chapter 9. 00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:52.400 We're going to move back towards uh towards creation, but a very interesting thing in Genesis chapter 9, we find ourselves uh at the time of Noah, and you know what happened at the time of Noah? 00:19:52.799 --> 00:20:01.440 God took his prerogative and destroyed the peoples of the earth, with the exception of Noah and his family. 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:09.200 God has every right to do whatever he wants, including wiping out civilization. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:13.680 He preserved a few because he wasn't done with us. 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:16.160 He's not done with us yet. 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:25.279 But God took his prerogative and destroyed mankind with the exception of Noah's family. 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:36.160 Genesis chapter 9, verses 1 through 6, and God blessed Noah, uh, this is after the flood, um, and said to him, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:37.359 Does that sound familiar? 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:38.799 Be fruitful and multiply? 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:40.640 God had said that originally. 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:46.799 It is man, God's intention for man to be fruitful and to multiply and to fulfill uh to fill the earth. 00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:58.079 The fear of you and dread shall be upon every beast of the earth and every bird of the heavens, everything that creeps in the ground and all the fish in the sea, into your hand they are delivered. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:01.440 We are not at the same level of the animal world. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:09.279 We are to rule over, steward uh the animal world, but we're not just another animal. 00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:13.839 Every moving thing that lives, verse 3, shall be food for you. 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:16.720 As I have given you green plants, I give you everything. 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:20.960 But you shall not eat of that which with its life, which is that is the blood. 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:32.160 For your lifeblood I will require a reckoning from every beast I will require it, and from man, from his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:33.119 Verse 6. 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:35.440 Genesis 9, verse 6. 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:42.960 Whoever sheds the blood of man shall uh his blood be shed. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:44.960 Okay, that's what we've been talking about. 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:47.119 There's a place for taking life. 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:52.640 And here's the root of it, the last phrase of verse 6. 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:56.960 For God made man in his own image. 00:21:57.200 --> 00:21:59.519 Now he just kind of states that here. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.599 What does the image of God in man mean? 00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:04.880 We need to understand that. 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:05.920 I'll try to help you. 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:22.799 But what I'm suggesting is that that was the reason why unauthorized and premeditated taking of life is not allowed because God made man in his image. 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:31.039 And God is the only one authorized to prescribe the times and places that human life can be taken. 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:43.039 And so right here in Genesis chapter 9, we see that there is an authorized and an unauthorized taking of human life. 00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:52.240 And the reason, the rationale behind all of this, the explanation, is that we were made in the image and likeness of God. 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:58.400 Now, this will take us back to Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 and 27. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:00.640 And we could spend weeks. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:49.359 In the image of God he created him. 00:23:49.519 --> 00:23:51.680 Male and female, he created them. 00:23:52.480 --> 00:24:07.599 Repeated in this, these two verses twice is reference to the image of God in which man was created, and that's the very same thing that was reached back to in Genesis chapter 9. 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:13.680 Now, I'm not going to take very much time to talk about what the image of God is. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:21.279 I think there's lot, again, lots and lots of books that have been written, far too many doctors' theses written on it. 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:35.920 But, and there's a certain variety of understandings, but here are at least three things that the image of God in man, by those who have given their lives studying it, tend to understand. 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:47.039 First of all, there is such a thing as abstract thought, creativity, maybe even into the area of the arts, intellectual investigation. 00:24:49.279 --> 00:25:05.519 Adam and Eve were given the responsibility of naming the animals, which was not just sticking a label, that's going to be a hippopotamus and that's going to be a frog, but that investigation into the nature of things, of which in biblical times names were a reflection. 00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:14.480 There is something that separates us from all of the rest of creation, at least abstract thought, creativity, and art. 00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:24.000 Another thing that is generally understood is the moral nature of man, or what we might call conscience. 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:39.200 Mark Twain had not only said, I think I quoted it last week, how dumb my father was when I was 17, and then I was astounded at how much he had learned by the time I got to be 21. 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:45.039 Mark Twain, that great exegete of scripture, no, he was not. 00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:48.880 But he was an astute observer of man. 00:25:49.839 --> 00:26:00.960 Mark Twain said that man is the only animal that blushes or has reason to. 00:26:01.920 --> 00:26:03.920 Very profound observation. 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:09.759 Man is the only animal that blushes or has reason to. 00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:16.160 There is a moral nature that separates us from the rest of creation, the rest of the animal world. 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:17.359 We have a conscience. 00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:23.119 The conscience can be pressed down, the conscience can be seared, the conscience can be twisted. 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:39.680 But there is a moral nature within every human being, and the blushing, the embarrassment is a poor shadow left after the fall of our moral nature. 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:42.880 Just a mere shadow of the way things ought to work. 00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:45.119 We ought to do far more than just blush. 00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:49.920 We ought to run to Jesus and say, God help me, a sinner. 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:56.559 But every blush, I don't mean the kind that you paint on your face, or you don't paint it, you brush it on, I guess. 00:26:56.640 --> 00:26:57.039 I don't know. 00:26:57.119 --> 00:26:57.920 Anyway. 00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:00.079 Jane, you better help me with that. 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:02.480 And don't just tell me to keep moving, Walt. 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:07.599 Several implications of that. 00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:10.880 Man is not simply a higher animal. 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:14.480 There is a crescendo in creation. 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:18.160 The created realm. 00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:22.480 But man is set apart from the rest of creation. 00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:25.279 It is, we are the best. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:28.319 We've just really screwed up the best. 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:36.319 But in the created order, we are the highest expression of God's creation. 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:47.920 When we, without authorization and with malice of forethought, take the life of another human being, we are taking God's best and destroying it. 00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:51.759 And we have no authorization from God to do that. 00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:58.640 Now, there's a lot of attention given today, and rightly so, to environmental issues. 00:27:58.880 --> 00:28:02.559 We were not created to destroy the environment. 00:28:02.720 --> 00:28:07.759 We were created to rule over it and steward to tend and care for the garden. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:14.720 So there are real environmental concerns, and sometimes as Christians, we just let the liberals worry about that. 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:18.400 And if to that extent, we're not understanding what God said. 00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:23.119 We are to be stewards of creation, but make no mistake about it. 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:26.079 Man is not just another animal. 00:28:26.319 --> 00:28:31.200 We can be concerned about spotted owls, we can be concerned about Cecil the Lion. 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:36.960 But what really matters, what really matters is man. 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:39.519 Man, man. 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:49.519 We must not, without authorization and with malice aforethought, take human life, with hand or heart. 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:52.000 Saving the whales is great. 00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:57.440 It's just not as important as saving human life. 00:28:57.759 --> 00:29:00.559 This gets right to the matter of abortion. 00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:14.160 Even if you only assume that a fetus is a potential human being, I think it's a whole lot more than that, I personally believe from what my study of it is that it is a human life. 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:29.680 But even if it is only a potential human life, it must not be discarded like an appendix or a tumor that is taken out and thrown away just because it's not convenient or it might be hazardous to us. 00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:38.160 You see, the nature of human life and the image of God in man gets into all kinds of practical things. 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:43.519 I'm gonna have to keep going, otherwise I'm gonna get too excited here. 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:47.200 Human life means more than the environment. 00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:52.400 And in other words, God is saying there's something you're to take your hands off of. 00:29:52.960 --> 00:30:00.079 You can tend the garden, you can rule over the animals, you can kill the other animals, but when it comes to other people, hands off. 00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:01.200 Hands off. 00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:02.799 It's not up to us. 00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:04.319 It's up to God. 00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:12.640 It's not our affair, it's not within our mandate, it's not within our job description. 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:15.200 Who do we think we are? 00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:18.880 Who do we think God is? 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:21.440 God can do anything he wants. 00:30:21.839 --> 00:30:24.720 And some of the things that he wants, I struggle with. 00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:27.039 Because I'm not sure how that all fits together. 00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:28.240 I get that. 00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:36.880 But I believe with every ounce of my body that God does whatever he pleases, and he pleases always and only that which is good. 00:30:37.519 --> 00:30:47.599 So when I'm confused about it, I just have to submit under the authority and the word of God because who do I think I am to question God? 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:49.599 Job got in trouble with that. 00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:51.759 You remember what happened at the end of the book of Job? 00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:54.640 Job had lots of reasons for lots of questions. 00:30:54.880 --> 00:31:00.720 And so he finally went after God and he started asking God inappropriate questions. 00:31:01.839 --> 00:31:03.680 Do you remember what God said to him? 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:06.160 Who do you think you are, Job? 00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:08.559 Were you there when I made Leviathan? 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:12.160 Were you there when I threw the mountains into space into place? 00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:14.319 Were you there when I created the universes? 00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:16.000 Who do you think you are? 00:31:16.400 --> 00:31:18.160 And Job shut up. 00:31:19.039 --> 00:31:29.039 We must not find ourselves challenging God's good in perfect ways just because it hurts or just because we don't understand it. 00:31:31.279 --> 00:31:34.880 Complex moral issues here, every one of them. 00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:39.279 I am not talking about these things cheaply. 00:31:39.920 --> 00:31:58.960 But the root of solving the moral and ethical issues today can only be found in a biblical worldview, where we go back and we set aside our inner judge, that's not right, that's not right, that's not right, and we sit under the teaching of God's word. 00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:23.759 So we have all kinds we've already touched on war and just war or not, uh, capital punishment, the role of government, but it gets into all kinds of other ethical issues: abortion, artificial insemination, genetic manipulation, gender manipulation, cloning of humans, stem cell research, euthanasia, suicide, assisted suicide. 00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:32.640 All of those need to be explored by Christians and understood by Christians from a biblical theological worldview. 00:32:32.799 --> 00:32:35.440 None of those are my point this morning. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:50.799 But I do want to say that this issue of the nature of man as the highest of creation and having inherent value because we reflect the image and the likeness of God. 00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:53.759 We resemble God in certain ways. 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:55.920 That's the likeness. 00:32:56.079 --> 00:33:01.839 The image of God, when when we see ourselves, we see something of God. 00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:07.680 And because of that, that has to be brought to bear on these ethical questions. 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:19.200 We may find ourselves, unfortunately, as far as I'm concerned, having the technical ability to do things which we are not authorized to do. 00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:28.000 And that's not just taking a gun, that could be uh aborting a fetus or it could be manipulating DNA or whatever. 00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:35.119 Uh and all I'm saying is just because we have the technical ability to do something doesn't mean it's authorized for us to do it. 00:33:35.359 --> 00:33:36.640 Pure and simple. 00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:40.799 It's clear from what we are seeing. 00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:41.839 What are the limits? 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:42.960 How do we decide? 00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:44.720 It's not a simple matter. 00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:52.480 Uh it's not just enough to say we're pro-life, but if we're not pro-life, we're not in touch with who God is and what God has said. 00:33:52.640 --> 00:33:55.119 But it's not just enough to be against abortion. 00:33:55.279 --> 00:34:00.720 We need to be stimulating a whole culture of life instead of a culture of death. 00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:09.440 And it's very interesting that the ethical issues in our age have to do with the early phases of life and the latter phases of life. 00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:17.360 But we need to have an understanding of God, man, life, and a culture of life. 00:34:17.679 --> 00:34:20.800 Death comes, the death rate is a hundred percent. 00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:33.519 How we approach death for ourselves, how we feel about that, the actions that are taken towards the end of our life, are every bit as important of the issues of abortion. 00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:36.639 They're essentially the same kind of thing. 00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:41.280 Now, I can just picture somebody taking that out as a soundbite, and then I'd get in all kinds of trouble. 00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:44.239 Put it in the context of what I've been saying this morning. 00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:45.039 All right. 00:34:46.880 --> 00:34:54.159 I want to have us look for a couple of minutes at uh the New Testament application of this. 00:34:56.320 --> 00:35:12.719 Uh you may be thinking to yourself, fine, uh, murder's wrong, and human life must not be, must be treated with utmost sanctity, but I don't kill, I don't promote abortion, I don't euthanetize, I've never taken a gun in my hand to kill someone. 00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:18.800 I don't pass out um Halloween candy with razor blades stuck in the middle. 00:35:19.039 --> 00:35:24.719 Finally, finally, we've going through, and I've been waiting for a commandment that I could get off the hook from. 00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:28.719 Okay, go all of the other ones? 00:35:29.679 --> 00:35:32.880 Maybe I could say I haven't done those. 00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:46.880 My friends, if we understand the way Jesus explained the sixth commandment, we need the bread and we need the cup. 00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:49.840 The bread in the cup is for us. 00:35:50.480 --> 00:35:58.880 Because we may or may not take human life with our hands, but you have taken human life with your heart. 00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:03.360 Let's see what Jesus says about this. 00:36:07.039 --> 00:36:09.360 Matthew chapter 5, verses 21. 00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:10.639 Let's turn there for a moment. 00:36:11.039 --> 00:36:12.960 Not going to spend a lot of time here. 00:36:13.199 --> 00:36:15.119 It's too convicting. 00:36:16.079 --> 00:36:17.519 It's too convicting. 00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:20.239 I don't need to spend a lot of time here. 00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:27.679 Uh Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 to 26. 00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:29.199 Let me just read it. 00:36:29.920 --> 00:36:43.519 Um, it's very interesting that this is in the context of Jesus interacting with the Pharisees who accused him of playing fast and free with the Old Testament law. 00:36:43.679 --> 00:36:51.440 And so he says just a few verses in before this in verse 17 of chapter 5 don't think that I have come to abolish the law and prophets. 00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:55.280 I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. 00:36:55.519 --> 00:37:16.320 And what he explains to us now is a deeper understanding than just the surface understanding of uh, in this case, uh the sixth commandment, and then verses 27 and following, which we'll see touch on next week, uh, the seventh commandment. 00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:21.599 So far from doing away with the law, he's showing us the inner meaning of it. 00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:29.360 One writer has correctly said uh Jesus sharpens the edge of every commandment. 00:37:31.599 --> 00:37:37.119 It penetrates and judges the thoughts and intentions of our heart. 00:37:37.840 --> 00:37:54.719 Jesus said, You have heard it said, and then he says, What is said actually is that murder is the root of which anger is the fruit. 00:37:54.960 --> 00:38:00.079 Verse 22 I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable for judgment. 00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:03.039 Everyone who insults his brother will be liable to the counsel. 00:38:03.199 --> 00:38:06.480 Whoever says you fool will be liable to the fire of hell. 00:38:06.719 --> 00:38:18.880 So if you're offering your gift at the altar, and remember that your brother has something against you, implied, you've done something against you, so he ha against him, so he has something against you, then leave your gift at the altar. 00:38:19.119 --> 00:38:22.159 First go be reconciled, your brother, and then come. 00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:24.960 Come to terms quickly with your accuser. 00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:36.159 Verse 26, I say to you, uh, there is real punishment to be meted out to those who murder with their hearts. 00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:51.199 Um I'd like to just have you think about what I call I don't think I stole this from somebody. 00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:53.199 I think I came up with it, but it doesn't matter. 00:38:53.760 --> 00:39:01.440 The anger, hatred, continuum, anger, murder continuum. 00:39:01.599 --> 00:39:03.119 It begins with anger. 00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:12.239 Um and and he begins talking about anyone who says raca, uh, translated here, I think you fool. 00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:24.400 Um have you ever said to somebody, have you ever I can't even how many times has somebody cut me off and I said, You idiot? 00:39:25.840 --> 00:39:31.440 How many times has somebody done something where I just begin to disdain them, begin to look down on them? 00:39:31.599 --> 00:39:37.679 You crazy, good for nothing idiot! Have you ever once had such thoughts about some other person? 00:39:37.840 --> 00:39:39.039 Don't raise your hand. 00:39:39.199 --> 00:39:42.960 You would think it would be a praise meeting in here, the hands would be up so high. 00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:54.320 So it begins with just really kind of anger that gets within us and it boils over to a disdain. 00:39:54.480 --> 00:39:56.880 Like you look at that lowlife. 00:39:57.119 --> 00:39:58.480 That low life. 00:40:00.079 --> 00:40:03.679 My friends, what are we saying about another human being? 00:40:03.840 --> 00:40:06.400 What's the attitude in our heart? 00:40:06.639 --> 00:40:13.360 Who is there in your world of experience and circle of relationships that you really can't stand? 00:40:14.320 --> 00:40:21.280 Please don't try to tell me that there's not somebody in your life that you really don't like. 00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:25.760 You would avoid them, you'd rather not talk with them, there's things about them that drive you nuts. 00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:36.320 You, in your mind, you're putting them down, you're scorning them, you're disdaining them, you're dishonoring them, and it's just part of the continuum. 00:40:36.960 --> 00:40:44.719 And then, if we're not careful, uh it becomes hatred, beginning to wish the ill of another person. 00:40:45.440 --> 00:40:49.280 Wishing, I just hope that person gets his. 00:40:50.239 --> 00:41:01.280 In a wide variety of ways, we begin not only to be angry and not only to have scorn, not be able to stand that person, but it becomes more than that. 00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:05.440 We begin to, we would be happy if they got their comeuppance. 00:41:05.679 --> 00:41:08.320 I hope he gets his or hers. 00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:09.280 Okay? 00:41:10.639 --> 00:41:22.719 And what Jesus is saying is that anger is the fruit of which verbal, mental, physical murder is the root. 00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:33.519 The difference between anger and murder is a matter of degrees, level of intensity, and physical harm actually are not actually being caused. 00:41:33.760 --> 00:41:41.679 Clearly, if you if you said, I could just kill that guy, okay, it's clearly better that you just say it than actually do it. 00:41:41.840 --> 00:41:52.400 I'm not saying the consequences don't vary significantly, but the attitude of our hearts is somewhere along that continuum. 00:41:52.480 --> 00:41:56.800 And murder is simply the fruit of which anger is the root. 00:41:56.960 --> 00:41:59.920 They are clearly tied in Scripture. 00:42:00.159 --> 00:42:11.920