Welcome to this message from the Teaching Ministry of University Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Florida, under the leadership of Senior Pastor Mike Osborne. Thanks, Tim. As Tim pointed out, we're in a series of studies on the Ten Commandments. And I don't know if you've been here for the whole series, but we've covered the first five. And today, we're now on the sixth commandment. It is found there in verse 13 of the text. It says, you shall not murder. Let's ask the Lord's blessing upon the reading and preaching of His Word. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that it is life to those who believe in Christ. And we pray that as we study what it means to not commit murder, that we might also walk away from this study today, loving life and promoting life ever where we go. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You shall not murder. Okay. Is that relevant to you? After all, I doubt that we have anybody in the room this morning who has actually pointed a gun at somebody and shot him and killed him. I doubt we have anybody who has stabbed someone else to death. I doubt we have anybody who has taken your hands and choked someone to death. So I don't know that we have any murderers in that sense. So you might ask yourself, how does this commandment really speak to me? Well, I think we need to begin by acknowledging that we live in a world filled with death. Everywhere you look, you see it. You see death. Every day, turn on the news. There's word of yet another shooting. Yet another tragic car accident. Yet another roadside bombing over there in Afghanistan. Yet another child abuse case. Yet another life fallen apart. TV shows and movies seem to glorify brutality and murder and crime more and more all the time. And then there's the news that you don't hear about. For example, this week in the United States, over 22,000 unborn babies will die because of abortion. That's death. 1.3 million a year abortions. Here in the state of Florida, the last year for which numbers were available back in 2008, 94,000 children died by abortion here in the state of Florida. John Calvin speaking about this says, if it seems horrible to kill a man in his own house, then in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light. Well, we could talk about a lot of other examples, but clearly the sanctity of human life is under attack in our world more and more from many different directions. When you go out into the community this week on your job, when you go to school, you will see it. You will see signs of death. When we went out as a church family a couple of weeks ago into our community on that Saturday of service, what did we see? We saw signs of death, chaos, human suffering, poverty, fractured families, fractured relationships, racial prejudice, disorder, evil. We live in what has been called a culture of death. How do we get here? Where did that come from? It came from the Garden of Eden. You read in the Bible, you know the story back in Genesis chapter 2, God had said to Adam and Eve, when you eat of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil, and that day you will die, because that's the tree I've forbidden you to eat from. And sure enough that's what happened. Adam and Eve listened to the lies of the devil. The devil is called in the Bible a murderer from the beginning. They listened to the devil's lies, they disobeyed God's clear prerogative, and they disobeyed and they fell into sin. Eventually they died physically, but immediately they died spiritually. And from that very moment on, the fall of Adam and Eve in the sin brought death and destruction and disease and decay and all sorts of other difficulties. All of that became part of the human experience. Everything was suddenly harder because of the fall. Relationships became harder to maintain, marriages became harder, child rearing became harder, work got harder. But worst of all, worst of all of those different calamities, people started to hurt each other, people started to hate each other, people started to murder one another. In fact, the very next sin in the Bible that's mentioned after the sins of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 4 was the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. A few generations later in Genesis 4 says that a man named Lomack killed somebody out of revenge. And then in Genesis 6 it says that God looked down upon the world he had made and he saw that the earth was corrupt and full of violence. Violence itself, part of this death culture, everywhere you look are signs of death. You've contributed to it. I've contributed to it. The 6th commandment kills us all. But I hope you'll see also by the time we're done today that in the 6th commandment there's also an invitation from God to life. So let's dive in. I would like to show you three things this morning. The first thing is the very obvious thing that in the 6th commandment God tells his people to stop murdering. Stop murdering. The Hebrew word there in verse 13 is murder, not kill. Now a lot of us were raised like me on the King James version of the Bible that said thou shalt not kill. But actually that's not a good translation of the word. It's the word murder. It's a unique word. There are seven different words in the Hebrew language in the Bible related to the word kill. But the one used here almost always refers to the intentional killing of a person by his or her enemy. It's the violent, willful, malicious assault of one person upon another. That's what God forbids. Because you see the Bible does not forbid all killing. Animals may be killed according to the Bible. Now they should not be tormented. Animals should not be treated in humanely. Allah, Michael, Vic, but the Bible says it's okay under certain circumstances to kill animals. They were used for Old Testament sacrifices in the Old Testament. They can be used for food and so on. Killing is lawful in times of war. Killing is lawful when you must defend your life, your property, your family from someone who would want to take them away from you. And killing is lawful as a tool of the state to punish murderers. That's what we know as capital punishment. Now, I know a couple of those issues might be a little controversial. And we can talk about them some other time. But that's what I believe the Bible teaches that there are situations in which killing is permitted. But murder is different. Murder is forbidden in the sixth commandment. Stop murdering. God says murderers were put to death back in Israel during the Old Testament era. They had to be because their sin of murder brought blood guilt upon the land. Even animals that killed human beings had to be put to death according to the Jewish law. Now, there were cases, as you might imagine, there were cases when someone died accidentally at the hand of someone else. There were cases of unintentional killing. And in those cases, the person responsible could flee to one of the cities of refuge that God provided within the land of Palestine. There were these cities of refuge that people could run to and be safe. And they could stay there until the death of a high priest. And there could be no revenge killing in those cases because that was not murder. But in the case of murder and even in the case of accidentally causing the death of an unborn child, it was life for life. And you might be asking yourself why? Why is it necessary? Why does the Bible promote the death of someone who takes the life of somebody else? Well, it's because human beings are unique. Human beings are not like the rest of the animals. Human beings possess the image of God. We were created in God's image. And therefore human life is sacred. We call it the sanctity of human life. Human life is precious. Human life is worth preserving. It doesn't matter how old the person is. It doesn't matter what race he or she is. It doesn't matter the state of health in which he or she is in. Human life is precious and ought to be preserved. Right after the flood waters had receded back in the days of Noah, Genesis chapter 9, God told Noah, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image. That's what justifies the death of someone who murders somebody else. See us Lewis wrote a little less a called the weight of glory and in there he talks about the value of human beings. He says this I quote, there are no ordinary people next to the blessed sacrament itself. And we're going to be having the blessed sacrament later on this morning next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. So when you murder somebody, you show contempt for God. When you murder somebody, somebody has said you kill God in effigy. You kill the image of God when you take somebody else's life. Suicide suicide is self murder. Now let's be clear suicide is not an unforgivable sin. Someone who kills himself or herself does not automatically go to hell that is the teaching of in some quarters, but we don't believe the Bible teaches that suicide is not unforgivable. It is a sin, but it is a serious sin and it is a violation of the sixth commandment because it is self murder. One of the reasons by the way that God rejected Israel back in the Old Testament day was that they were a nation of murderers and God judged them for that. The prophet Hosea in one place said this, there is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery. They break all bounds and bloodshed, follows bloodshed. That's what God said about the nation of Israel, his people. What would Hosea say about America? But here's something really, really important. When you read through the Bible, you find out that murder not only happens when someone takes someone else's life. It also happens when you hate someone in your heart. It also happens when you attack someone with your words. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5. This is in the sermon on the Mount and he refers back to the sixth commandment. And he says, you've heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, this is Jesus speaking, I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, Raka, R-A-C-A is answerable to the Sanhedron, but anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell. Now look, we've talked about this before and I want to say it again, not all anger is sin. Not all judgment is sin. We can have many other sermons about that. There is such a thing as righteous indignation. Jesus got angry. There are times to be angry, but that's not what Jesus is talking about here. He's talking about treating other people with contempt. He's talking about treating other human beings made in the image of God with derision. He's talking about verbal abuse, unrighteous anger. The kind of anger that arises out of pride and vengeance and hate. These two words that he says that you should not say about someone else. The first one is Raka. It's a little bit difficult to know exactly what that means for us. But the word seems to be related to a word that means nothing or emptiness. Have you ever thought in your head or said something that would indicate that you believe somebody else is a nothing? That you would just entirely disregard that person, that he or she means nothing to you, doesn't add anything to you. Have you ever looked at somebody from a distance and just thought of them as a nothing, as somebody totally unimportant, irrelevant? Did you forget that that person is made in the image of God is a reflection of God's glory, that word fool. It's the Greek word morose, morose. Have you ever called somebody a moron? That's what Jesus is talking about, insulting somebody, attacking them verbally, labeling them, shunning them through your words and actions and thoughts. First John 315 says, everybody who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. So the first thing that Jesus is saying to us that God is saying to us through the sixth commandment is stop that. Stop murdering. Whether in actuality and in literal fashion, or in your words, your actions, your thoughts, stop murdering. But as we've learned in this series on the Ten Commandments, the Ten Commandments don't merely tell us what not to do. They also tell us what to do. In other words, when you have a negative command, you need to see what its positive side is. And that's the case with the sixth commandment. There is a positive side to the commandment against murdering. God's not only telling you to stop murdering. He's also saying promote life. You hear that? Promote life. Bring life and light into the death and the darkness of this world. And when you do that, you are obeying the sixth commandment. This is why Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 5, remember the passage we looked at earlier where Jesus says to stop murdering in your heart, stop hating people. He goes on to say in the very next couple of verses, therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar, and they remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, first go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift. Isn't that cool that Jesus is saying not only to stop hating people and stop insulting people, but if you're at odds with somebody, make amends. Reconciled. See, that is the promotion of good in addition to the ceasing of the bad thing. You promote life whenever you make amends with somebody with whom you are in a fractured relationship. When you forgive somebody who hurt you, you are obeying the sixth commandment. When you care for the poor, you're obeying the sixth commandment. When you feed the hungry and clothe the naked, when you visit those in prison, you are obeying the sixth commandment because you're promoting life, you're bringing life, you're offering life into deathly situations. You share the gospel with somebody who doesn't know Christ when you make disciples, when we as a church make disciples of all nations. We are obeying the sixth commandment. So the question you ought to be asking yourself right now is, what am I doing about this culture of death in which I live? What am I doing to bring life and to offer life to people who are experiencing death, who are experiencing disorder in chaos? What am I doing to offer life and light to the death and darkness around me? Because see, friends, the call to discipleship is a call to die to your love of comfort. The call to be a follower of Christ is a call to die to your self-absorption and your greed and your idols so that you can care for the bodies and the souls of people around you. Proverbs 24-11 says, to deliver those or rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering towards slaughter. That's part of our Christian calling. Proverbs 31 says, to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Speak up for the rights of all those who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly. Defend the rights of the poor and the needy. In other words, what are we learning here about the sixth commandment? You shall not murder. It's simply another way to say, love your neighbor as yourself. The commandment against murdering is the command to love those who are in need of care, who are in need of rescue, who are helpless, who are trapped in a situation of death. Love your neighbor as yourself. Now I know what some of you are thinking. Some of you are saying, I can't do that. Some of you are even saying, I won't do that. Because Mike, you don't understand how I've been treated. You don't understand about my situation that I've been the victim of hate. I've been used. I've been abused. I've been treated unfairly. How can God expect me to treat others with fairness? How can God expect me to care for people who have not cared for me? Some of you are thinking, I need to hate. I must hate. I must hold a grudge because if I don't, I won't have anything else to hang on to. I don't think I can trust people anymore. I don't know that I can trust God anymore. Are you thinking that? When you hear that you are called and I am called to offer life to people, are you thinking there's no way I can do that because I don't have it to give. Well, if that describes you even just a little bit, here's what I want you to know. The Six Commandment does not only call you to stop murdering and start promoting life. The Six Commandment is actually God revealing something that's true about Him. He's the Lord of life. God is the Lord of life. He loves life. And God loves you so much that He handed His Son Jesus over to murderers. He handed His Son Jesus over to death that you might live. I've come, says Jesus in John 10, not to steal and kill and destroy. That's the devil's job. I've come that you may have life and have it to the full. Jesus is called in the Bible the author of life. He's the one who knit you in your mother's womb. He created you in the first place. And when he went to the cross, he was carrying your sins with him to the cross. And he died for you that you might live. He rose again from the dead that you might be born again and be justified and forgiven and restored and redeemed and made new. God loves you more than you will ever know. And if that's true, don't you think that He can help you become a person who loves haltingly? Yes, imperfectly let yes. But God who loves you so very much can make you a person who offers life and light to people in death and in darkness. The Gospel of Gracie see has broken into this culture of death that we talked about earlier. Change is possible because of that. Resurrection is possible because of that out of your pain. God can create something of beauty out of your ashes. God can bring forth life out of your loss. God can restore joy. God makes beautiful things out of dust. So choose life this morning. Choose life this morning. Stop murdering and bring life and light into the death and darkness around you and receive the life that Jesus offers through the Gospel of His grace. To end up this sermon, I thought I would show you a video that I ran across this past week that was shared on Facebook. It's a wonderful video. Let me set it up this way. You're going to see a story on this video of some people who were in a situation of death and who could have just said it's death, I'm not going to do anything about I cannot respond to this. And instead of going with that, they chose by God's grace to bring life into a deathly situation. So enjoy the video.
We're about to go see some of Rachel as well. Rachel's grandfather, I really wish Rachel could be here today because first of all Rachel would think that this is probably the neatest thing she'd ever seen in her entire life. Community, our church, where we are from, we greatly love Rachel and continue to love her family and I'm overwhelmed with how greatly you have honored her memory. So please receive my most deepest and heartfelt thanks. You've done a great honor today. So thank you. Such a big help from that young age that she understood and felt the pain of others on the other side of the world. To give up her birthday present so that other children can improve their lives if the most beautiful gift a person can give. The midst of death Jesus offers life. Let us who have received his life take it and share with those around us. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our hearts dance like those people in the video to think that you who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Jesus. Our hearts dance father to think that you have come into this dark dreary world. A world so full of death so full of sadness and tragedy. And you've brought the water of life. You have poured your spirit out upon us Lord. And today as we come to this table we are grateful that we have signs and seals of what a great loving God you are. A God who rather than see us go off into death would intervene and rescue us from death and bring us into life. Thank you father for the Lord supper that we're about to have. Thank you for this wine or juice. Thank you for this bread. Ordinary elements but symbols of the covenant love that you've given to us the dying love that you've shared with us. And so we pray Holy Spirit of God that you will bless this meal that we're about to share that you will use it as a means of grace and growth in our lives that you will change us from people who are so often self-absorbed into people who really do love our neighbor as ourselves. Lord forgive us that we have walked past the neighbor lying in the road. We have murdered with our hearts we have murdered with our words and with our thoughts. Father I have murdered people and I ask for your forgiving grace upon me and upon my brothers and sisters here. And that you as we share these elements together that you will renew us in love and stir within us a heart of compassion. God a heart that you have that reflects the sanctity of human life. Lord may we see people in a new way because of today and because of your love for us and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. We at University Presbyterian Church thank you for listening to this message. Our mission is to help people know God grow together and serve others. To learn more about the church or how to have a vital relationship with God, visit our website at www.uPC-orlando.com or call our offices at 407-384-3300.