Would you please take your Bibles and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 5 as we talk tonight about perhaps the Commandment that gets the most press in our culture today This little and short sixth commandment you shall not murder It's only four words in English and actually two in the Hebrew Murder not is what it says in the Hebrew This little word this little verb the verb Ratsah in the Hebrew Isn't very specific there is no specific word that Distinguishes murder from other kinds of killing To kill is to kill in the Hebrew whether it's legitimate or not legitimate But Eugene Merrill and commenting upon this commandment in this verse says that the usage of this verb elsewhere in the context and the other teachings in scripture make it obvious that he is not talking Against the states right to practice capital punishment a wage war for a person's right to defend themselves We kind of covered that this morning in our sermon. He's talking about the illegitimate taking of life By an individual or an institution not authorized to do so why? Well because life is sacred why because all people are made in the image of God And in that image they share in a common experience known as common grace That God gives life and God alone is the one who should be able to take that life away We I said I mentioned that we we debate and discuss this a lot because of the pro-life movement and our concern in America about abortion and Birth control issues and in fantaside in euthanasia We have questions about just war with a Vietnam or Iraq is a proper way to risk and to lose the lives of young American men and women There's issues concerning Racism and oppression and the civil rights movement and there's the resurgence of violent crime in our communities were concerned about urbanization and Immigration and poverty all which add to violence in our culture and then we have questions about gun control and the Right of someone to defend himself for his property and these issues concerning life and the taking of life Kind of surround the American in his modern context So it's easy to understand how we give so much press to this and yet in saying that there's a lot concerning this commandment that we never touch upon This commandment I think is easy unlike some of the others. It's easy to understand It's unpopular in many of its principles and it's much opposed in its application But I want you to see that there was a progression in these ten commandments The beginning in this commandment and proceeding to the end the last five commandments There's a descending order of importance in the sacredness of life Life in the experience of a human being. There's the sacredness of a man's own person. You shall not murder the sacredness of his most treasured and lasting relationship his family is marriage. You shall not commit adultery Law is concerning the sacredness of his possessions. You shall not steal and Concerning the sacredness of his reputation. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor and even concerning his possessions His family and his wife and his home and his possessions. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife You shall not desire your neighbor's house his field or his male servant or his female servant his officer is donk You're anything else that is your neighbors It's interesting that as we proceed from the fifth commandment to the tenth command We go more and more from the external to the internal until we arrive at the tenth commandment that speaks of no overt action But desires and yearnings and attitudes of the heart that actually give birth to all the sins that preceded We go from the external action of killing human being To the condemnation of desire that is inordinate and unnatural Because it's the desires in commandment number 10 that give birth to all of the violations of the commandments Five through nine as what James says Then when lust is conceived it gives birth to sin and with sin is accomplished it brings forth death So here's these anordinate desire the desire for a neighbor's wife and therefore adultery the desire for his possessions therefore theft and the over his position to bearing false witness against him Entity towards him as a person leads to murder All of these commandments are connected We can't separate one from the other without the whole system of morality collapsing But I want us to see something else. I want you to look if you will at the ten commandments There was also a parallelism of sacredness on the two tables of the law The first table of law concerns the sacredness of God and his things as the second table of law Concerns itself with the sacredness of man and his things because if God is sacred then men made in the image of God It's sacred in fact all of life Divine life and human life is sacred Look how these these commandments concerning God and man parallel each other First the commandment about the the authority of God Look how the commandment begins in verse six I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery God's about to make an authoritative statement that is paralleled by the fact that we should honor our father and our mother Because they have a sacred authority over us as God does How about the uniqueness of God you shall have no other gods before me parallel to that is You shall not murder You cannot dispose of God and his life any more than you can a person in their life Each person is unique they have their own place and God's cosmic order of things God has his place and will not be displaced Men have their place and should not be displaced The loyalty we owe to God and to other people You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above or on the earth beneath Or is in the water under the earth you shall not bow down to them or serve them For the Lord your God is a jealous God You shall not commit adultery Is an interesting that in the Old Testament and in the New Testament that idolatry is referred to as spiritual adultery God deserves our love and affection and our singular devotion and so do our husbands and wives How about the holiness of God's name and And that of the human being in his reputation you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor God's name is holy Did you ever think that the the name the reputation of someone else is the same? God is free to damage his own reputation if he wants You will never do that Someone else is free to do the same But it's not your place or my place to impune the character and name of God or someone else in Vanity in our speech or false witness in what we say There's even something here about the sacredness of the things that belong to God and to other people Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you Six days you shall labor and do all your work But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God You shall not steal You shall not covet that which is your neighbors Every time we violate the Sabbath day Every time we find some reason not to be a church to worship we're taking what belongs to God and Using it for ourselves Six days are yours God said to do anything you want the seventh day is mine You have your own wives and your own children and your own things You shall not covet mine nor take mine Says our neighbor next to us. There's a sacredness that proceeds from a person's being and Their authority and their name and their life and their possessions and their activities So that all of life is sacred and you know what Shouldn't surprise us that the more we are godless and the less we think about God than the more Lawless we become and the more lawless we become the more loveless we are godlessness and Lawlessness and Lovelessness are all connected says the Lord Jesus Christ They will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake and Many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another and many false prophets will arise and lead many a stray and Because lawlessness will be increased the love of many will grow cold It should not surprise us that in our postmodern post-Christian Lawless age of spiritual and cultural and our key that the value of human life is once again Almost come to nothing that is why in the context of all of sacredness of life one dimension, but perhaps the most important humanly speaking God gives a commitment You shall not kill We've been looking at these commandments each one of them from three perspectives first What they say about the character and nature of God second how they point to the finished and complete work of Jesus Christ and thirdly What they command us in our ethical conduct and behavior? What does this sixth commandment say about God you shall not murder? For even though it speaks to men and the second table of law your duty to me and my duty to you It has something to say about the character of life and it's obvious. This may be the easiest one to see into the character of God God is the giver of life God is the great life giver so much so that your life that God gives you is cold in the Bible the image of God Turn back to Genesis one if you will and look with me beginning in verse 26 where God begins to tell us how you and I and the rest of mankind came into this world Genesis chapter one beginning at verse 26 then God said after he made everything else He said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea And over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over ever creeping thing to creeps on the earth Let's make a creature God says that rules over the other creatures the other creatures have the life of God in themselves But let us make a creature that has more than our life that reflects our image and our likeness that has in his character a little bit of the divine So God created man kind or man in his own image in the image of God He created him male and female he created them and God blessed them the man and the woman and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and Subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the I want you to join me in Procreating more life Fill the world with the life of God in the soul of man Duplicate with me again and again and again the image of God in chapter 2 verse 7 Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and Breed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being And the Lord God planted a garden in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed God did something In Adam and Eve that he had not done in any other creature. He made he breed into their mouth his own spirit He spirited into them the life of God They're different They're different from any other creature not only in the image that they bear but the life they possess of the dominion that they have So that all of life especially human life It belongs to God. No one can give it except God and no one can take it away except God Dr. Great testimony of faith of Job. You remember that story how he lost the lives of all of his livestock and Then all of his children And he put sackcloth and ashes on And he rented his garments and he went into mourning and he said naked I came from my mother's room and naked I will return the Lord Gibbs and the Lord takes away blessed be the name of the Lord And it says that in all these things Job did not sin with his mouth Nor charge God with wrongdoing the Lord gives life and the Lord takes life away Blessed be the name of the Lord Now God may well delicate and does delegate to certain authorities in life the power of the sword the power to take life away To punish murder to defend or execute people in war time But even in that this government that Romans 13 talks about He does that to preserve life It is the primary duty of the state To stop people who would recklessly take the lives of other people Propose violence in the culture that endangers the safety of a man and a wife and their children To defend a people from an aggressive enemy who would kill them all To get what he wants and this state has the power of the sword To take life in some ironic way in our fallen world in order to save life Few Christians I think would deny the authority of the state to execute criminals or the wage war both as deliberate actions and tent on killing people now We may disagree as to how extensive that is and And into what scenarios it is justified But that appears to be the teaching of scripture That the sanctity of life necessitates the state God surrounds the sanctity of life with clear warnings and prohibitions and all of us accountable for not only our own lives But the lives of other people you're in Genesis 2 look at Genesis 4 the first story of two people after the fall of mankind a Guy named Cain and his brother named Abel Look in chapter 4 verse 10 after Cain killed Abel The Lord said to him What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground and Now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand When you work the ground it shall no longer yield to you its strength You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth Cain sent to the Lord my punny pens greater than I can bear Behold you have driven me away and from the ground and from your face I shall be hidden I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth and whoever finds me will kill me Then the Lord said to him not so If anyone kills Cain Vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold and the Lord put a mark on Cain Lest any who found him should attack him Look at Genesis 9 verses 5 and 6 After no one his family came off the ark and For your life blood 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 whoever sheds the blood of man By man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image We looked at this passage this morning from next to this 21 whoever strikes a man so that he dies Shall be put to death But if he did not die lie and wait for him But God let him fall into his hand and I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee But if a man willfully attack another to kill him by cunning you shall take him from that altar that he may die God surrounds the sanctity of life with strict prohibitions And severe punishments for those who would violate the sanctity of life I don't think we need to discuss here this evening and I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on the subjects of a just war We preach a sermon on that last fall or Capital punishment we handled that as well or abortion and infanticide we had a sermon series on that our Euthanasia and Mercy killing we covered that in the series on Christian ethics Now I'm aware that people have questions the questions about birth control practices and In vitro fertilization and abortion to save a mother's life is itself defense or not Living wills and what we call pulling the plug and ending a life that's on life support My excitation to you is this You did not bring your life into the world of the life of your loved one And therefore you have no permission to let it go or take it away Without consulting with other people of responsibility you should consult with your physician, but they don't have the last say and With your pastor, but he doesn't have the last say and with legal authorities and they don't have the last say But the whole community the Christian community the medical community the legal community and your family all have a say in the Sacredness of life surrounding these issues. There are I think guidelines and principles that give us answers in these things That life conceived in the womb is conceived as life regardless of that life is in some Dish of frozen embryos and some medical locker somewhere if it's a life on death row waiting for an accounting for why it took the lives of other people in society The point is that life is sacred and And that every life is surrounded by mutual accountabilities and must be answered for there is no such thing Listen to me as one disposable life Not the life of an unwanted child Not the life of a person born in complete physically or mentally Not the life of someone who is violent and foul and wicked All of these lives are under the sovereign control of the life giver and Demand great deliberation before a doctor or a Mother or a state Terminates that life God set forth the principle that the sanctity of life needed to be safeguarded by the entire Human community the state the church the home the individual John Calvin in the Christian Institutes of the Christian religion when he got to this sixth commandment he said the purpose of this commandment is this The Lord has bound man-dined together by a certain unity Hence each man ought to concern himself with the safety of all men in Summary then all Violence injury and harmful things all things that may be injurious to our neighbors body are forbidden to us He says there were all And dishonibly united in this Humanity were one with one another and therefore life is sacred when he preached on the ten commandments He said on his sermon on this particular commandment Now in addition it is God who has forbidden us to kill in so far as it is such a shameful and atrocious thing Let us understand that in the first place whoever raises himself up against his neighbor to kill him is not worthy to be kept on Earth for he is worse than the savage beast We are appalled At old time thinking like that and our great Sophisticated libertarian 21st century easy ethos were appalled at the fact that John Calvin said no Now you are united to everyone in the world in a sacred bond called humanity your human life And to take the human life of someone else is the worst thing you can do. Why? Well, I think it's common sense If I take away another person's life prematurely Then all of the gifts of common grace that God has instored for them and all of the work of saving grace that God would do for them has been prematurely ended How can dead people hear a gospel and repent and be saved? And how can child aborted in the womb ever rise up to be the kind a person that becomes a missionary around the world the present of the United States a doctor that saves lives a preacher of the gospel and If I end your life so that it can't function normally and how will it know all the good gifts and graces that God gives to Husband and wife family and children the joy and happiness of friends and the riches and benevolence of community all those things are taken away and more Every time I reach out to touch the sacredness of life in any way God alone gives life God alone takes life God is charge mankind to preserve life and the state to punish those who take life illigently Life is God's basic gift to mankind and life if it's not safe Then all the other gifts that God gives to mankind are in jeopardy. There was something of a logical flow in what our founding fathers said that there are Certain things that are inalienable to people to human beings. What are they? You know them? It's in our spiritual DNA as Americans they are life Liberty Without life there is no freedom without freedom. We cannot pursue the joy and happiness that God has for us Life is the fountain head of all cut it off and all things are cut off and That's God's character speaking forth God who existed completely It himself sufficient and happy and said you know My joy and my wonderment of life is just to the to be kept to myself I will create a world of animals and men and angels and I will share my life with them so they have life and Liberty and the experience of the happiness that the father, son and spirit share together in the life of the Trinity And to reach out and touch that is to reach into the very core of the triune God's nature and to go against him And that is what we've done It is a sad story that after a man and a woman fell into sin their first two children Ghibli each other Genesis 4 is where it is for a reason and The lesson is clear You are your brothers keeper so We said the second thing we learn from each commandment is about our older brother Jesus Christ What does this 6th commandment say about Jesus Christ? You shall not murder Will it tells us that if the father is the giver of life the son is the redeemer of life in fact Jesus Christ makes it very clear that he has come To give life to all whom the father has decided shall have a second chance at life Listen to what is said of Jesus Christ in the gospel of John and The beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him and without him was not made anything that was made in Him was life And the life was the light of men For as the father raises the dead and gives life to them. So also the son gives life to whomever he wishes Truly truly I say to you an hour is coming and is now here when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of God and Those who here will live for as the father has life in himself So he is granted to the son also to have life in himself You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life But it is these Jesus Christ who bear witness of me and you are willing to come to me that you may have life The thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy I came that they might have life and have it abundantly and I give eternal life to them And they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hands because I am the way the truth and the life and No one comes to the father but me and this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God in Jesus Christ Of you have sent these things have been written to you so that you believe in the name of the son of God and they believing in him You may have life in his name Jesus Christ has come to rescue mankind from death Paul says in Romans chapter 5 For if because of one man's sin death rain through that one man Much more were those who received the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness rain in life through that one man Jesus Christ Therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men So one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men For the wages of sin is death But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord We must not folks Take this whole issue of life and spiritualize it away Jesus Christ makes it clear that he came to earth to restore life in three dimensions first to give us spiritual life To overcome the deadness of sin that we might be able to live with God He came then to give us resurrection life as well That our bodies would be raised someday and glory just as our souls would be So that when we live with God forever in heaven We will live as complete beings the kind of beings we remain in the garden of Eden a body in a soul glorified and full permeated with the life of God And thirdly in between that first giving of life and conversion And the second giving of life and resurrection Jesus Christ came to restore and protect life on this earth In one of the most glorious passages in all of scripture Beginning at the end of Revelation 20 and going halfway through chapter 21 We're trolled about the great white throne judgment and the second coming of Jesus Christ And it's his version his own words that give commentary on the consummation of the human history and experience The Bible says he cast into hell both death and Hades so that death is no more He raises everybody who is dead to life and they stand before him for judgment They go either into eternal life in the city of God or to the second death into the lake of fire with the devil and death itself And then he says that he is making all things new There is no weeping or tears no sickness and sorrow death is no more behold he says I make all things new There's always this great debate about Jesus Christ and the social gospel Folks how could the gospel not have social dimensions These missionaries and another part of the world That for now nine under 80 or 90 years have not known the human freedoms and civil rights that we have are not there just to lead people to Jesus Christ That's the beginning to give people the gift of eternal life So that when they die they go to the city of God and live forever, but there's more than that They're planning churches and doing mercy ministry. They'll start schools and as Christians begin to grow in that culture They'll begin to be a leavening influence between the twin death scenarios of Islam and communism One system that had no value of human life The other system believes by violence and revenge, but Christ will be there to change their lives on this earth And make it a better place. How can we not do that as missionaries How can we not do that as God's workers and witnesses in our own communities The gospel has direct ramifications for life. That's what the young people are studying. I said this morning Matt Smith get a lesson he hit it out of the ball park Talking about when Jesus Christ goes with his gospel and begins to change the human experience called history Things get better for everybody from children to old people and everybody in between life Becomes important again Life becomes sacred. Why? Because people look at Jesus Christ and they see that all that mankind was intended to be All that Jesus does for mankind And it just raises their consciousness and their conduct to a new level They fall in love with the giver of life God the father whom they once feared And with the redeemer of life Jesus Christ their great champion And because he puts the Holy Spirit in them all of the sudden They are motivated to enhance life wherever they are our friends Keith and Kristi Gettie and Stuart Town and right about this in this little song we like to sing here the call of the kingdom Which we think is about missions But it's really about promoting Life with God Everywhere we are it covers all three of these dimensions of Christ's life giving ministry spiritual life and resurrection life and the new life a renewed and restored creation Hear the call of the kingdom that your eyes to the king Let his song rise within you as a fragrant offering Of how God rich and mercy came in Christ to redeem all who trust in his unfailing grace Hear the call of the kingdom to be children of light with the mercy of heaven the humility of Christ Walking justly before him loving all that is right that the life of Christ may shine through us Hear the call of the kingdom to reach out to the lost With the father's compassion and the wonder of the cross bringing peace and forgiveness and I hope yet to come That the nations put their trust in him King of heaven we will answer the call We will follow bringing hope to the world filled with passion filled with power to proclaim salvation In Jesus name So what's that tell us It tells us that we as Christians must be the preservers of life We are people That are connected to life in two ways that we can't avoid listen again to John Calvin The Lord has will that we consider these two things which are naturally in man that might lead us to seek his preservation of life first To reverence the image of God imprinted in every man and second To embrace our own flesh in him There's two things that unite you and me to every person and my life to the life of every human being on the face of the globe They share in the image of God Their glory is my glory and if their glory somewhere Under some communist regime under some Muslim persecution in some nation in America where secularism values in life not whatsoever If their image of God is threatened then mine is not safe either And secondly Calvin says The embrace our flesh They are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh There is every bit of human being as we are and all that I want for me. I should give to them Calvin's right Our reverence for God and the image he put in us And our embracing of our shared humanity shouldn't motivate us to take this commandment seriously I'm again I'm not going to address abortion Capital punishment war medical ethics. We've written volumes on these things I just want to remind you folks that still in my humble opinion the number one evil in America today is the abortion of children in the womb of a woman And we've become complacent about it We've become tired of arguing about it and discouraged over the lack of progress But until that evil goes away Life for you and me will never be sacred again never What I'd like to address today is what the Heidelberg Catechism calls hidden murder Hidden murder We have an archaticism In the larger and shorter catechism long expositions about what life is all about. It's more than just physical life It includes according to our catechism The protection of people's reputation The control of our anger The briding of our lust the way we use food and drink and drugs and things like that includes all of these things including oppression And slavery and the abuse of oppressed and innocent people It has to do with attitude as much as action But it's the little Heidelberg Catechism That says This commandment speaks not only of killing But in forbidding this God means to teach us that he abhor's the root of murder namely envy and hatred anger and desire revenge and all that are in his sight hidden murder What is hidden murder? Michael Horton in his book on the Ten Commandments touches upon this He says evangelicals in other parts of the world are often baffled by the political agenda of some of their American brothers and sisters Pro-life and pro-family yet opposed to any restrictions on fire arms or generally unsympathetic to the problems of the inner cities In America the wealthiest nation on the earth one child and five is poor We may be anti-abortion, but I'll be really pro-life The United States according to the United Nations has the dubious title of the most violent nation on earth And that is why we must begin not with social issues but with biblical themes Instead of deciding on a set of core issues and then going to the Bible for support We must develop a concern for God's concerns and search the scriptures to find where he places the heaviest emphasis We just begin to see our duty on one-to-one relationships and not just in political categories So I want to I want to mention folks Seven things that are hidden murdered that I think are worthy of our attention And then I want to give you an answer to those things Seven concepts we need to think about here's the first one of the seven the see of anger in contempt in which America now swims We address this in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus did in Matthew chapter five and Chris Decker preached a wonderful Sermon on this Jesus said you have heard that it was said to those of old You shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment But I said to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment and whoever insults his brother Will be liable to the counsel and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire because he has already committed murder in his heart There's something wrong with our culture That it floats on a sea of irritation and foul language and bad temper and contempt and unbridled anger road rage is just the top of the boil The beginning of what ugly things will come out once the soul has been pricked and lanced By the irritations of life to something wrong with America And we are such angry and contemptuous people Number two Violence as entertainment and even as comedy The Television the internet Video games extreme fighting We think violence is an art form now Go go look at all this preparation of these kung fu movies Where people are just killed by the Dozens I mean there was one of my read about recently that in 181 minutes 79 people were killed And we considered an entertainment These violent video games sports have now become almost gladiatorial in spirit It's not enough to score a touchdown To get a hockey goal We want to see a fight We want to see somebody leveled Players not only want to score they get in the hospital and say now we're going to flatten We're going to kill him. Don't you kill him And they do The deaths in competitive sports are increasing with each decade We have lost the civility of the American gentleman. He's given way to the macho man with a hair trigger temper And the civilizing entity of society The gentia woman have given way to the strong woman She can bring home the bacon frying up in a pan Make you a man because she's a woman I doubt that she is She's becoming just as foul-mouth and just as aggressive and just as violent as her macho male counterpart That is life And domestically violent America Domestic violence Violence in the home between husband and wives Age of people in their children Is 12 times what it was When I was little boy growing up in Columbus, Ohio go figure Thirdly Homelessness of our cities and communities People whose families have turned their backs on them Human life will literally lying in the gutter the image of God disposed of in our city streets like trash Martin Luther said if you send a person away naked When you could clothe him you have led him to freeze to death If you see anyone suffer hunger and do not feed him you have let him starve to death Likewise, if you see anyone condemned to death or in a similar peril and do not save him Although you have ways and means to do so, you have killed him It will do you no good to plead that you did not contribute to his death by word or deed You have withheld your love from him and robbed him of the service by which his life May have been saved Homeless people need to be addressed Did you know forthly That starvation is the world's number one problem. I want you to listen To these amazing statistics every year 15 million children Under the age of 12 die of hunger Three billion people in the world today struggle to survive on less than two American dollars a day The urban institute of Washington DC estimated that one out of every six elderly people in the United States has an inadequate Diet In the US hunger and race are connected 46% of African-American children were chronically hungry And 40% of Latino children are chronically hungry compared to 16% of white children who are chronically hungry The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women The United States ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white infants One out of every eight children under the age of 12 in the United States goes to beg hungry every single night Mount nutrition is implicated in more than half of child deaths worldwide a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease Since the great black plague in the middle ages About 183 million children weighed less than they should weigh for their age An estimated 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition About 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year And every three point six seconds someone dies of hunger since I began this sermon tonight 4,200 people have died because they did not have enough to eat And now we ask why Jesus wants us to pray give us this day our daily bread Fifthly let me quickly. I'm running out of time We need to address the issue of neglecting the elderly by their children and grandparents old people Put away to die Euthanasia is on the rise in America number six racism continues to be a problem in America George Gallup said that white evangelicals are more likely than any other demographic group in America To oppose living next door to the non-white person We seem to have a disdain for humanity in technicolor We just don't like people who are different than we are And seventhly and lastly slavery is again a growing world menace It is on the rise and domestic political and sexual slavery It is fueled by a legal immigration And it's a great problem in America now How do we address those things i want to give you seven words very quickly seven concepts I'm not giving you seven things to do but seven things to think about That will hopefully change your actions first Is the word covenant we need to accept the truth that you're in a human covenant of creation and common grace with every other human person One commentator after another said this was the very thought that lies behind the sixth commandment The commandment protects the individual within the covenant community of life We are our brothers keeper and even though we don't want to face that That responsibility will never grow away see number one covenant the second C is civility Christians must be free of contempt The Bible talks about how we are Are letting our speech be seasoned with salt silly when it how to respond to each person Colossian says we must put them all away anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from our mouth and live with a heart of grace civility We should be the most civil people and how we talk to one another and other people the most civil people in the world Thirdly and easy one charity Now these three abide faith and open charity But the greatest of these is charity there should be something that is loving and kind At the very core of a Christian number four is compassion That a special concern for the poor and the oppressed and the forsaken Be launched in our souls he has told you oh man was good and what does the Lord require of you But to do justice to love mercy and walk humbly with your God number five cherishing Paul says the demand ought to cherish his wife And nourish her as he does his own flesh It is trite because it's true The charity begins at home If I can't be civil and kind to my wife and children If there's violence and contempt and anger and hatred If my neighbors are not physically and spiritually and emotionally and verbally safe Then God is my witness nobody's safe How about the next seek community The we'd be concerned about the community in which we lived just as Jeremiah told the people Seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you into eggs out and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare You will find your welfare Seek the city ought to go on 12 months a year In some smaller and focused format That leads to the final in Seventh Sea which is the church And I want to ask you as a church and how I want to ask the deacons To take the leadership in this thing and begin to help us plan Not to just be classic. We pro-life which we are we we have our ministries to people Considering abortion and to people who've lost children and to people who want to adopt children and to lowest is large We have Other ministries to the elderly and the shut in but we need to push a little bit farther There was a growing need in American life and American church For a focused and developed need to special needs people There are more and more people who need Us to preserve and promote and enhance their life with special needs than we realize And we have an opportunity to develop that In our church. I've talked with Karen Chambers just last week And I've asked her to invite people from our denominational headquarters in To talk to us to become a church that is specialist and and and strong in special needs ministry But we also need to be thinking about these these issues of hidden murder And I'm going to ask you to consider as an individual and as a family That once the deacons Give us a Menu of things we can be involved in that every single person and every family adopt into their warp and wolf of life some Mystery of mercy and compassion and outreach Some way to enhance life and to make it better. It may be tutoring students who don't know how to read So they can get a better education and overcome their poverty. It may be working with people who are homeless Or advocating for someone for better housing Each one of us as family units needs to not just say we're against abortion We need to be four people We need to be four life in all of its dimensions Because I want to be known as a church Where every human life is precious Where every human being is honored And where every human breath of every person Is a song of thanksgiving and praise to God the giver of life in Jesus Christ the great redeemer John Calvin in 1555 a long time ago preached through the book of Deuteronomy You think I'm a long-winded preacher It took him 200 sermons to get through Deuteronomy He had sixteen on the ten commandments and on sermon number eight He ended the commandment on the sanctity of life with these words Therefore Let us now learn to submit ourselves truly to what is said here That doing purge of all ranker and ill will We might be advised to engage ourselves in the service of our fellow man And fulfill our obligation According to the means that God has given us What a better way to end a message here tonight And to begin an earnest life a pro-life concerns Then to engage ourselves as Calvin says in the service of our fellow man He has told you, oh man, what is good And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice and to love mercy
And to walk humbly with your God He wants you to be an enhancer Of human life Amen Father, this is a big order you've said before us We thought we were doing pretty well because he hadn't killed anybody lately And yet we look at this thing and it is overwhelming And yet it's not a commandment you give just individuals But all mankind and to the community of the redeemed in particular That you call them To be people who make life better where they live In little ways In ways of mercy, in justice, in compassion, in service Kindness, generosity, tenderness, and forgiveness There are people all around us who suffer And whose lives have been taken for granted and perhaps mistreated And counted as nothing by others near and dear to them And we have the opportunity To reach out in this great union we have with mankind in general And this bond we have with us As brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ To make a difference in their life To lead in gospel witness by being compassionate people With read all men with dignity And with a precious concern To make their life safe And secure and sacred So it is with us So your grace will give us the mercy and strength to do that As it becomes a theme and our preaching and teaching a priority for the elders A plan that the decons can construct for us And as every individual and every family takes up their peace of this great struggle And this great cause We anticipate that you will use our church in magnificent ways To lead many sons and daughters to glory By first honoring their humanity That they might come to Jesus Christ and honor his divinity We ask you to do this not just for our sake But so that you're pleased with us as the giver and redeemer of life That the Holy Spirit who is the The enricher of life who lives within us might do his perfect work through us In the world around us today Save us from our sins Save us because we're sacred Help us to save and enhance other people who are just like us And who are under your love and mercy and your life giving grace We ask you these things in Jesus name and for his sake amen