The 6th Commandment

As we have been going through the series of sermons on the Ten Commandments, it's obvious that the Ten Commandments were never meant to be just a list of dos and don'ts. But that's basically how people look at it. Just this list of thou shalt nots. Then when we study the principles behind it, and we look at how the Ten Commandments were explained in the laws of the Old Covenant that was given to Israel, we see how they're applied in the New Testament. We begin to really understand the purpose and the importance of the Ten Commandments. Each one isn't just, okay, thou shalt or thou shalt not, but it shows us a basic principle of life. When we went through the first four over and over again, as we went through it, we saw this helps define our relationship with God. Now if you say, well, I'm just not going to use God's name in vain, I'm going to keep the Sabbath, but I'm going to hate it. There's a relationship here. When we went through the fifth commandment, we showed that it actually declares the sanctity of parenthood, of family, and protects family. We get to the sixth commandment, and we have a commandment that in the Old King James simply says, thou shalt not kill. Very simple statement. And yet, it's a very controversial commandment, and it's been used in different ways throughout history by people. Thou shalt not kill. This simple statement, and the principle behind it, is obvious. There is a sanctity. There is a specialness to human life. That is the premise that this commandment comes out of, and it is the premise that we must explore as we explore exactly what does that mean. Exactly how do we break that down into situations. How do you apply all the laws? That's part of the problem that we face all the time. How do you apply the laws? Especially sometimes, as we've talked about, when one law, one law seems to contradict another. In fact, we'll actually go through one law today that deals with this concept of thou shalt not kill that is really quite startling when you understand what it says. So what does this mean? How do we expand this out? Obviously, God doesn't condemn all killing. In fact, we kill animals. Now, I've seen this used to say that you can't kill an animal and to support vegetarians. Thou shalt not kill. We know that God actually told the ancient Israelites to kill people. Joshua was told to take the Israelite army in, surround the city of Jericho, and kill everybody but the family of Rahab. And he did. So there, as I've read articles from those who want to discredit the Bible, say, see, God even goes against these own commandments. God is a murderer. He cannot be worshiped.

Well, this goes into the sanctity of human life, as we'll talk about in a minute, is because God makes human life holy. It is God who says human life has value. And as the creator, he can take human life when he wants. But he only does it for a reason. He only does it for a reason. God will not live with evil past a certain point. But that's neither here nor there because we're not discussing God's right to take human life. We're discussing the commandment about our right to take human life. The Hebrew word that's translated kill there in the Old King James, and almost every modern translation does not translate that word kill.

They translate it as murder. That's very important. There's a difference between killing and murder. Murder is the unlawful taking of life. It is unlawful to take life. Obviously, when God says to take it, it is lawful. So, the unlawful taking of life. Now, let's start discussing this commandment by actually going to a time before this was given about Sinai. Let's go to Genesis chapter 9. This is right after the Great Flood. And Noah is given a series of instructions about, basically, how society is supposed to work.

I mean, Noah is starting a new world, right? So, here's some basic concepts, very basic, on how society is supposed to work. Verse 4. So, we're breaking into the middle of these instructions from God to Noah. He says, But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Now, he was telling them you could eat meat. So, he says, now, when you eat meat, though, you cannot eat it with the blood in it. You have to drain all the blood out, or you can't make blood pudding. I mean, people usually, in different parts of the world, use blood to make all kinds of foods with it.

He says, You cannot do that. Surely, for your life blood, I will demand a reckoning. From the hand of every beast, I will require it from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of a man. He's saying here, you cannot eat life blood, because life blood is the life I give you. And there is a penalty for taking you to life, whether a person does it or an animal does it. Look at verse 6. Whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, he made man.

Now, there's two important things here. God gives the judicial right for human beings to take the life of a person who has committed murder. He gives the responsibility to human beings by blood. Let's start again. Whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed. So there is a judicial power given here. Now, that's all that's said. It's not told how that judicial power is to be carried out. What we see is that those instructions come when God takes Israel and gives them specific laws. He says, now, this is how you carry this out. But this is a judicial power that he gives to human beings. And then he says, why? For in the image of God, he made man.

That's a real important statement. Human beings are created in the image of God. Therefore, God has given each human being value. And to take a human being's life is horrendous to God. And therefore, when someone does it, and we're talking about murder here, that's... when we get into... in a minute, we're going to get into God's instructions to ancient Israel, which are absolutely unique in all of ancient history. How he explains and defines murder is unique. So he says here, for the image of God made man.

And then verse 7 is a continual continuation of this thought process. And for, as for you, be fruitful, multiply, bring forth abundantly the earth, and multiply it. In other words, the creation, the procreation of life, and the protection of life is what human beings should be centered on. That taking a human life is horrendous before God. So this is given before... before the Ten Commandments. And I only bring that out to show the one thing. Murder is horrendous to God before the Ten Commandments, but also what we call capital punishment is actually an authority given to human beings.

Now, I mean, we can... we can discuss... I mean, from the pulpit, I'm not going to discuss all the political ram of occasions of capital punishment. I'm just going to say the right for capital punishment was given by God to humanity if murder has taken place. That tells us how horrendous murder is in the eyes of God.

So now we get to God comes and He has formed a nation of Israel. God gives to Israel all kinds of laws that have to do with how they function as a nation. You know, there's whole sections of laws in the Old Testament. We don't apply directly. I mean, we don't apply all the ones that have to do with the liturgical priesthood, right? Because Jesus Christ is the high priest. There's also laws we don't apply because you have to have a physical government to do so. I mean, you and I don't go stone people today, right? Because you have to have a physical government in which a theocracy and which God's laws govern that government for those things to take place. So there's a lot of those laws we don't do, but we still learn from them. We still study the Passover sacrifice, and in doing so we learn about Jesus Christ, right? We should still study the laws of ancient Israel even though we cannot do them because the church is not a physical nation, a spiritual nation. But we still should learn from them. Let's go to Numbers 35 because Numbers 35 has more instructions about murder than any other chapter in the entire book of the law. You know Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the book of the law. This was the basis for the laws, or to be the basis for the laws of ancient Israel. And this entire chapter is about murder.

It's about murder. And they are told to set up cities of refuge. Now, if you've been coming to the Bible studies where we go through the book of Judges, we discuss this in detail. Because the cities of refuge were set up by Joshua as commanded. There were very specific cities where if you committed certain crimes, you were to go to. Because remember, they didn't have a standing army and they didn't have a standing police force. Cases were tried by the elders in the gates of the city and everybody was to come and participate. If someone was declared by an elder, by the elders and the participation of everybody in the city, yes, you are a murderer, they were to, as a community, stole them to death.

It was a public execution carried out by everybody. But what if you didn't murder the person? What if it was an accident?

Well, then you had to go to the city of refuge, which was a prison without laws.

Now, most murders fled so they weren't stoned at the city gates.

What happened with most murderers, they fled. The family had to choose among the family men who are now the blood avengers. Remember, there's no police force. If you run from an assa in the Ephraim, or from an assa in the Gad, or from Gad into Judah, who's going to get you? There's no police force. So the blood avengers, the families would pick, you know, a brother and a cousin to say, you go kill the person. And that's why they ran. If you were guilty of murder, you didn't want to go to trial. You ran. And so it was carried out by blood avengers. Now, you have to understand, this law is something different than anything you and I... But this is the law of God. This is what Israel set up on. So family members would hunt you down and kill you. Because that's what God told them to do. If you committed murder, we have to look at the definition of murder, they were to hunt you down and kill you. Or you were to be dragged in front of the entire community in stone. But if you fled to the city of refuge, nobody could touch you. The people in that city were to protect you until you had an official trial. It was always based on a trial. If you ran away, there was a trial, you're convicted, and cousin Joe and cousin Joseph and brother Aaron hunt you down. You can't say, send the sheriff, there is no sheriff. So if you ran to the city of refuge, there you got a trial. And it was supposed to be a more, maybe a more objective trial. You got a trial, and if you were innocent that it was an accident or other stipulations, the concept of manslaughter is brand new. Ancient laws where you kill somebody, you get killed. Unless you're rich. Rich people fought out of it. But everybody else paid a penalty. So here we have a concept of manslaughter. That sometimes a person could kill somebody, but it wasn't their intent. In which case it was to be judged differently.

And so if you were found innocent, you had to stay in the city of refuge until the high priest died. Which means years could go by. Because someone died, and there is an importance to that. But because it was not your intent, and what you're going to find all through what we're going to look at, and we're looking at the Old Testament a lot today, we'll go to the New Testament too, the whole point was, what was your intent? What they would do is, if your intent was not to kill the person, you had to stay there. What would happen if you left? This is a prison without walls, by the way. There's no walls in this prison. You leave if you want. If you leave, the blood avengers can kill you. Because somebody still died. But once the high priest dies, everything is wiped out, and the blood avengers can't come after you. You are free.

So some people could commit manslaughter, go into the city of refuge, have a trial, and they are declared not guilty, and they lived there for two years. The high priest dies, and they're free. Somebody might live there for 40 years.

Because the point is, someone still died. But your intent was not. That's a whole new concept to law in the ancient world. Because God's looking at what is the intent. So you have to study all of chapter 35 to really understand this. Let me pick out a couple verses that really begin to show us, once the laws are given to ancient Israel, how God expands this concept that murder is, if someone commits murder, their blood is required. How that breaks down into this now national system. Verse 12. He says, then this is the person that flees, okay, they've committed manslaughter, or they've committed murder, and they're trying to get away from it, but they run to the city of refuge so that they can't be hunted down. They shall be cities of refuge for you, from the avenger, in other words, the blood avenger, that the manslaughter may not die until he stands before the congregation of judgment. God's system demanded you get a trial. There are certain ideas in the Western world that still aren't extended much in the world today that come through the Bible, and that is the person who committed the crime has a right to a trial. And so, the person who had killed somebody had a right to a trial, and if they didn't feel like they were going to get a, you know, a fair one at home, they ran to the city of refuge and said, I want to be tried here. You people don't know me, you know, I had a wild youth, so they're going to hold that against me, you know, at home. So I'm coming here, so now I get a fair trial. But the point is they had a trial, and the case was heard. Now, let's look at some other things. Verse 30. This one is also remarkable. Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses. The one witness is not sufficient testimony against the person for the death penalty. You actually had to have witnesses to the crime. A person could literally see somebody else kill somebody, and if they were the only witness, the murderer was set free.

He had to have more than one witness. Now, there's a reason for that. It is better for the guilty person to go free than for a non-guilty person to be put to death. That's the long gun. Because there was no... if you were a murderer, there was no jail to go to. You just got killed by the city of refuge, or they kicked you out. The Avengers came and got you, but either way, you're a dead person. There was no mercy for murder, so you better make sure it's right.

There was no life imprisonment. It didn't exist. There was one penalty by the law of God for ancient Israel. So they had to kill it. So if one witness saw it, what if that witness was lying? Or what if that witness really didn't see it properly? So you had to have two or three witnesses. They had to get up and swear before the congregation and before the elders, yes, I saw this. That's unique, too. The next verse is really interesting. Moreover, you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, that he shall surely be put to death. See, in most cultures, if you had influence, power, and money, you could get your son off for committing murder. You just pay the right amount of money to the right people. The law of God said, sorry, it doesn't matter how much money you have. If you've committed murder, you have actually been convicted of murder. There's been two or three witnesses, you had a fair trial, you are condemned to death. So you see, that shall not kill can't mean nobody can ever kill anybody because in ancient Israel, all the laws are about killing the murderer. But the structure in which it had to be done was very, very specific. Very specific.

You know, unlike today, they didn't have any way of proving it. So, you know, they could take fingerprints or DNA or all these things. A witness, if someone got murdered and no one saw it, everybody could say, I know that person did it, but you know what? They could not be, condemned, if went to death. He had 50 people say, I know that person killed him. He hated him. Were there witnesses? No, that the person could not be condemned.

The concept of rights, not only for the person who was killed, but for the person who is accused, is a new concept. The accused has rights? Yes, especially in capital punishment.

So, we're looking at a brand new system of law that you really can't find in the ancient world anyplace. Where God is saying, as a nation, you're going to have to deal with these things. And what you do, here's what you have to do. In fact, what's very interesting here is, he tells them, now these weren't the only cases, but he says, let me give you some examples of what would be murder and what is not murder. So, he actually gives them a list of examples so that the judges can go look through the examples. It's case law, by the way. Where do you think the United States and Britain gets case law? You know, if something's judge, what they do is they go look at how all the judges, for the last 200 years, have judged, don't matter. Where do you get that from? The Torah. Okay, God tells Moses, let's give them some cases. These were probably actual cases, by the way. These were probably things that had come up. So, let's make a list of some of the cases so that when the elders have to judge this, and the Levites, and all the people have to sit around and watch the judgment, they will know where it's coming from. So, look at verse 16. But if he strikes him with an iron implement so that he dies, he is a murderer. Okay. So, you know, you take a poker out of the fire, or you take a sword, and you stand the guy because you're mad at him, you're a murderer. There's intent. This is real important. There's the intent. You don't hit somebody with an iron implement unless you're trying to do permanent damage. Okay. So, he said, there's intent here. That's a murder.

The murderer shall surely be put to death. If he strikes him with a stone and a hand by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer. And the murderer shall surely be put to death. You know, I pick up a rock just as heavy and as big as I can, and I smack you in the head. Well, you're a murderer. You killed the guy. You bashed his brains in. Or if he strikes him with a hand weapon by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. This all has to do with weapons. Notice the word weapon. You are using a weapon that is designed to kill. A rock, a sword, a wooden weapon. And you're killing a person. In other words, that is your intent. The Avenger of Blood himself shall put the murderer to death when he needs him. He shall put him to death. That's pretty interesting, too. Family members, you've got to go hunt him down. You wonder how many cases may have come up where the family member said, nah, just let him go. We're not going to hunt him down and kill him. That probably happened.

He says, if he pushes him out of hatred, or while lying in wait, hurls something at him so that he dies, or an enmity he strikes him with a hand so that he dies, then what is struck of him shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. In other words, if you hate somebody so much that you go up to him and shove him off a cliff, or beating the death with your fist, you're a murderer.

Hatred is part of the issue. What is the intent? What is the intent? I hate you so much. I have so much envy towards you. I'm so jealous of you. Whatever. But notice intent is very important.

Now look at verse 32. Now if he pushes him suddenly without enmity, or throws anything at him without lying in wait, or uses a stone by which a man could die, throwing it at him without seeing him so that he dies, or he was not his enemy, or seeking him harm, then the congregation shall judge between the man and slayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments. So the congregation shall deliver the man and slayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Okay, let's look at some cases where it would be murder. A guy's in some guy's face, and he shoves him. And the guy trips and hits his head.

He shoves him suddenly. His intent wasn't to hurt him. The guy's at, you know, in his face, he's yelling at him, he shoves him. He says, okay, that's not, that's a murder.

He says, or he throws something. You know, this must have actually happened. The guy must have, I don't know, he throws, he says he throws something, a rock, and he can't see him. He was, he was not his enemy, and he was not seeking him harm. I don't know. One of the guys chasing a coyote off his property and throws a rock, and his neighbor just happens to be walking by, and he hits him in the head and kills him. He says he's not his enemy. You see? You, he says when these cases come up, here's some, here's some cases to study. He's not a murderer. He killed the man, but he's not a murderer. Now, he may have to go to the city of refuge, but the Avengers of Blood don't, can't, they don't, they don't kill him. It's case law. Murder depends on how the person did it and why they did it.

And issues of accident, of no intent, was considered manslaughter. Had a different penalty. You were not put to death. This is a brand new con, I mean, if you go back, you know, you're looking at 1400 BC approximately, that this law is being given. That's 3400 years ago. You could, you could look at the code of Hammurabi, you can look at all the different ancient codes of, you can't find anything like this. It's remarkable. Especially the one that, sorry, you can't buy him. Sorry rich people, you get the same judgment as poor people. Everybody gets the same judgment.

So you see the law of God, how he applies, thou shalt not kill, is to a nation. Remember, this is a nation. You and I do not apply this law the same way. There is a, we can't set up a city of refuge, we can't send out blood avengers, that would be wrong. But you understand how, how he applied that commandment. So that brought them to other issues. The issue of self-defense. You know, there's only one law that I could find there. Maybe others, I looked, I can't find, there's only one law I can find in the Torah about self-defense. And it tells us a lot about how God sees this. Let's look at Exodus 22.

You have to really think about this one. It's interesting.

You read Jewish commentaries. They spent a lot of time developing this idea of what does these, what do these two verses mean? Verse 2.

Well, let's read verse 1, so you can really understand where he's leading. He says, If a man steals an ox or a sheep and swatters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. Now, this is real important because a person who stole did not receive the death penalty. They had to pay it back in five times, other places at seven times. If you could not pay it back, guess what happened? You became the slave of the person that you stole until you did pay it back. You had to work for them every day until you paid off the debt. So this is real important. Here's what happens with thieves. If you steal, you have an obligation to pay back. He says, If the thief is found breaking in and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. Ah, so someone breaks into my house. I can kill them. Read the next verse. If the son has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed. Now, he should make full restitution. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

Wait a minute. It says, there shall be guilt.

Now, wait a minute. If a thief breaks into my house, the pointer is stealing, and it's at night and there's a scuffle, you know, and I kill him, it's okay. If he breaks in during the day, I'm guilty of murder. What's this? If I kill him. Okay. Let's think about the law.

The law says, if someone steals, there are exact penalties for stealing. And that person is expected to appear before the law, receive a fair trial, and receive the penalty. That's debated by the law. The law of God.

If a person breaks into your house at night, and remember, the person here is a thief. It specifically says, thief. If he breaks into your house at night, you do not know his intent. If his intent is to kill, and a scuffle breaks out, you can defend yourself. If you defended yourself, and you killed him, you were guilty. Because you don't know his intent. If it's in the day, you know, if he comes into your house back then, and he has a sword, uh oh, his intent. But you know what you can do in the day? You can run away, you can run out and get the elders. You can do all kinds of options. And you were to do those options. If a guy, let's bring it down into a modern situation. Say you know a kid down the street uses drugs and he steals, you know, everybody knows he's stealing to supply his drug.

And he breaks into your house in the middle of the night. And you don't know what's going on. You wake up and, you know, he's rifling through the right beside your bed. And in your panic, you grab this, you know, there's a scuffle, and you grab this lamp and you smack him alongside the head, and he dies. And in accordance with this law, you're not guilty. Now, if you come home late from work, I mean early from work, and you notice he's in your, you know, it's day time, and he's in your garage stealing, you're not allowed to go get your shotgun, put a shell in it, and shoot him. According to this law, the thief is protected. Understand the law protects the thief. This law of God, we're not talking about American law, the law protects the thief because the penalty for stealing is not the death penalty. And you, in ancient Israel, they were not allowed as individuals to carry out the law. It had to go before the elders and be carried out. In other words, there was a judicial system, and the individual was not allowed to take the law into his own hands. The issue at night was, you did not know the intent. The issue of the day is, you can run away. You can do all kinds of different things. That's what the scripture says. Understand, you have to read it. It's what it says. That's what the law of God says. That was the law they lived under. That was the law of Numbers 35. It's the law of Exodus 22. Understand, in the law of God, if someone was stealing your horse, you were not allowed to kill them. They had to appear before the law. In the United States, we have a belief that you can kill people to protect property. It is not biblical. I know that's hard to hear, but I challenge any of you to show me it. Take the law of God and show me, if someone's stealing your car, you can shoot them. It doesn't allow you to do it. You know why? Stealing did not involve the death penalty. Now, if they're raping your wife, and you smack them hard enough to kill them, that's different. Rape involves the death penalty in the scripture. But let me explain something. It's always the intent, not only of the person committing the crime, but of the person doing the defense. When you read this, you could not premeditate the murder or the killing of the person. That's why you can't do it in the daytime. If the Israelites stand and you're saying, someone breaks into my house, I'm going to kill them. I've got swords laying around strategically around the house. When they break in, I'm going to kill them. You know what happens if it was the daytime and someone broke into your house and you killed them? You were brought up on charges of murder. That's what the law of God said. That's different than how we think, isn't it? Certainly different than how we think.

We have to be real careful what we think self-defense is. We have to be real careful. The whole intent was that even the person defending themselves did not have the intent to kill the other person. Now, it could happen, and the law said they're not guilty if it's a capital offense. You know, someone insults your wife and you beat them to death. It's murder! The Bible doesn't allege it. No, it's mad that they had told your wife, but you don't have to murder them. We come from a culture where, you know, you go back 150 years. There really was gunfights all through the United States over honor. That was not biblical. It was considered a crime according to the law of God. Yeah, but a guy spit on my boots.

Can't kill him! Right? I called him out in the street. That can't do it!

So, our society, although some of it is based on the law of God, some of it is not. So, we look at how this is set up, and we have to really question how much is our environment, the way we live, and affect it what we think.

I gave a sermon done on this specific thing that's similar to this at one time. Here's a guy, and the guy says, you know what? I have a loaded gun under my bed. So, if said he would break into my house to shoot him, I'm going to go home and unload that thing, and I'm going to put it in another room. And I said, why is that? Why is it?

Matthew 26.

Verse 50.

Jesus had told the disciples, time's going to come in here soon where you're going to need some swords. In other words, violence is coming. Peter said, we got two. He said, yeah, that's enough. Now, he's making a point here. Violence was coming. They took it very literal. So, what happens here, they come to get Jesus on that night before he was crucified. But Jesus said to him, Fred, why have you come? Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took him. And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand, drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. We know it was Peter. But Jesus said to him, put your sword in its place for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. But he thinks that I cannot pray to my father and he will provide me with more than 12 legions of angels. How then could this scripture be fulfilled? Then it must happen this way. Now, what's interesting is Jesus is not a total pacifist here. I can lay waste to the whole earth. I could kill everybody on the earth. All you have to do is say, Father, it leads to about 5,000, 5 to 6,000. So roughly, he says, I could get 50 to 60,000 angels with one word and we will kill every living thing on this earth. But that's not what we're supposed to do here, Peter. So, put the sword away. See, a lot of this has to do with who we have our faith in. I've known preppers that have enough firepower to, you know, for a SWAT team.

And I've said to them, so this is how Christianity is. You have food and your neighbors are starving. Instead of sharing your food with your neighbors, you're going to just stack the bodies up until the blood's running through the street. Yeah, that's real Christianity. Besides, I wouldn't cry on God to help you at that point because I don't think he'll listen. If you choose to live by the sword, you have to understand what's going to happen. God's not going to be there. Not at that point.

I don't know if the couple people I've talked to have really gotten that or not, but, you know, it's stockpiling weapons. Now, I have a hunting rifle in home, I have a shotgun that I have used to hunt with. I have no shells for the shotgun, I don't think.

The hunting rifle is hidden away so the grandkids couldn't find it, and the shells are hidden in another place where the grandkids couldn't find it. To tell you the truth, there's no way I could find the two of them loaded and shoot anybody.

Right? I know how to use those weapons, but I understand what the law of God says. What is my intent? If my intent is, I'm just waiting for something to come in my house so I can blow them away, I am a murderer!

That's not self-defense! So, the scripture doesn't say that we can't participate in self-defense. It defines it very narrowly, very narrowly, and it has to do with your intent to protect life. Not my intent is to be Clint Eastwood. You know? You just walk around so once in your life you can say, go ahead, punk, make my day. That's not the intent of the law!

So, let's apply this now one more step. Abortion. Abortion is not mentioned specifically in the Bible, but I want you to think about what it said in Genesis 9. You cannot take life if a man murders. He deliberately, through anger or hatred or whatever, kills somebody. Pre-meditated and he murders somebody. In a fit of whatever, jealousy or envy. That his blood is required by man. Man has an initial power to try him and to actually take his life. Why? Because we are made in the image of God. Because we are made in the image of God. How does God choose to create human beings in his image? By procreation. Through gestation.

So, what is in that mother at six hours or six weeks or six months? It is God creating a being in his image. Anyone who understands that knows abortion is murder.

Jeremiah chapter 1, Job says somewhat the same thing in the book of Job, but this one is so dramatic in how Jeremiah says it.

Jeremiah 1 and let's start in verse 4.

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I made you holy before you were even born. I sanctified you. I ordained you as a prophet to the nations. You know, not every unborn baby is made sanctified by God to be a prophet, but every unborn baby is God's way of creating beings in his own image so they can be his children. To a born a baby is to a born a child of God. It is very serious. Now, you and I do live under the new covenant. I know people who have committed murder, and I know people who have committed abortions, have repented, been forgiven by God, and are fine Christians.

So that's because we live under the new covenant. We lived under the old covenant. There wasn't much opportunity for that because the law had to be enforced.

So yes, some of us, you know, they have been murdered. Some of us may have committed abortion. But let's take it a step further because as we really understand what this commandment is all about, we step into the teachings of Jesus Christ and let's go to Matthew 5. As you all do, I had to go there someplace in this. Matthew 5.

And the Sermon on the Mount. Part of this was read in the, or part of this, the Sermon was read in the Sermon in. Verse 21, you have heard, Jesus says, there was said of old that you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. In other words, when you harbor this anger, anger is a normal experience. But I tell you what, you study what the Bible says about anger. There's a fine line between what is acceptable anger and unacceptable anger to God. When we harbor ill will, just viciousness towards another person, any concept of vengeance, not justice, that's something else towards another person, we're in real danger. Because those are the motivations that lead to murder.

So even though if we don't commit murder, if we carry around the motivations of murder, we're breaking God's law. The span of the sixth commandment really expands out. We're breaking God's law. He goes on and says, whoever says to his brother, Raka, literally means empty. You are valueless. You have no value. You're empty-headed. There's nothing in you that's even worth saving. Or if we say to the person you fool is in the danger of hellfire, you know, many people know that the Greek language say this you fool is almost like it's coming in a fit of rage or worthless. But it's the same thing. The Raka is, you're worthless. The other is emotional thing. And I don't know if the Greek is that exact there, but there are people who try to connect that together. The point is what he's saying is, and think about this, if you think a person is worthless, you could justify almost any way you treat them. You could justify almost any way you treat them. Not in accordance with the law, but in accordance with your own emotions. That's what Jesus is saying is wrong.

It doesn't mean you justify people who've broken the law. If someone breaks into your house and steals, you should call 911 and have them arrested. And they should face the law. It does you no good to hate that person for the next three years. It is an issue of law. He said, yeah, but the law got them off. They were guilty. I saw them. But there are some techniques. Okay. Even under the law of God, guilty people get off sometimes. Notice that? Even under the law of God, guilty people got off sometimes. You say, well, God, I turned that over to you. You turn it over to God, but you don't walk around destroying yourself with the attitude of murder. But we harbor anger, hatred, bitterness. It destroys us. You may not be killing the other person, but you're killing yourself. You're killing yourself. You know, when you expand this out, wow, we get just a little further in this same chapter. Let's go to verse 38. Okay. In this sort of same discussion that Jesus has, he says, okay, the law isn't just about the action. It's about the intent. But when you're really studying, number 35, there's all kinds of instructions in Deuteronomy about murder and manslaughter. You go through all those, it's all about intent. Hatred is actually mentioned. Remember, we read it in number 35. If the person does this out of hatred, they're a murderer.

So hatred is the spirit of murder. So then what do we, how do we, what's our approach then? You have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. Now, that is actually one of the laws. Now, people think that means vengeance. If you go read what it says in the Torah about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, what it is saying is, let the punishment fit the crime.

You have, you can't over punish for something. The punishment has to fit the crime. That was the principle. So he says, okay, let the punishment fit the crime. And there are times when justice should be done. But if you spent your whole life wanting everybody punished to fit the crime, you're a pretty miserable person. Right? So here's what he says, but I tell you not to resist an evil person, and whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to the other cheek also. And he did say, let somebody kill you. He didn't say, let somebody steal from you. What the point he's making, and he's exaggerating to make a point. The point is, you know what? Stop seeking justice all the time, and you concentrate on who you are. If somebody yells at you, instead of spending the next week, you know, somebody at work yells at you, and you spend the next week, I hope they get fired.

I have a confession to make.

I've had, you ever have a guy go by, you know, he's going 100 miles an hour, and he cuts in front of you, just weaving back and forth. I've had a guy do that in my head, I have thought, God, please help a policeman to catch him and throw everything at him. And then I say, uh, sorry. Sorry. I really thought that important to the scheme of things, that God is going to have him arrested because he kept coming. Okay.

That's pretty arrogant to ask God to do that. All of a sudden, justice doesn't mean that much, because I think God said, hey son, you're going 75, and it's only a 65 mile an hour Spain zone. How does that, have you pulled over? How's that go? Oh yeah. Okay, okay, okay. Let's just step back a minute here. Uh, let's just sort of, okay, just forget that prayer. Okay, let's just forget that one, and I'll slow down something. How's that?

We gotta be careful. Now, we always want justice. Justice is good, and I'm not saying that people should get away with terrible crimes. The point he's making here is what motivates us? What obsesses us? And we're obsessed with everybody getting their due. What about you getting your due and me getting my due? He goes on here, clear up to verse 48, it expands us. If anyone wants you to sue you and take away your tutoring, let them have your cook. Now, he doesn't say, let everybody sue you and take everything you have. The point he's saying is, be more than fair. Sometimes, go ahead and be the party that's injured, because God says, I'm bigger than that, and I'm bigger than them, and you can be bigger than that, too. There's a time to be the injured party and not feel abused. There's a time to be the injured party and say, you know what? For the sake of God, I'm just going to do that.

For the sake of God's reputation, or for the sake of my peace of mind, I will go ahead and be the injured party. That's not weakness. That's actually strength. I'm going to be the injured party here. See, it's a whole different viewpoint. God wants justice, but you and I can't be the sheriff.

The person who enforces and determines justice in every situation. I don't know. Unless God's ordained you to sheriff. I've never met an ordained sheriff. That'd be an interesting experience.

Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him, too. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. For you have heard that it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. You shall love your neighbor is actually one of the laws in the Old Testament. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. That you may be the sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. He goes on and says, if you only love people who love you, how are you any better than evil people?

Adolf Hitler had people he loved, and he's about as evil as you could get. And they loved him.

He says, look, we have to be those, we have to be willing to be those, who for the sake of not having hatred, for the sake of not being bitter, there's times we go ahead and be the person put upon.

And sometimes we just we say justice isn't the issue here.

This is tough, folks. But I tell you what, the Old Testament law was tough, too. People don't think they think, you know, they think of the Old Testament. You go on killing whoever you want. No, you couldn't. As I said, the first time I read that scripture years ago, and I thought, wait a minute, this scripture is giving a right to the thief! God's giving a right to the thief! That's not right. Oh, yeah, it is. Because stealing did not entail the death penalty. Other crimes did. That was different. You could defend yourself.

So here we see what Christ tells us in terms of be proactive in how you treat others, and don't be overly sensitive to the whole concept of justice. Do what is right. And, like, God take care of the justice. Oh, we can expand this out to all kinds of things.

Slander is the spirit of murder. When you deliberately try to destroy another person by telling stories about them, you know, especially lies, I mean, you just lie about them.

Hence, the spirit of murder. You're trying to assassinate who they are without killing them. You know, it's like, I want you to suffer. It's like torture. I want this person to suffer, so I'm going to slander about them, and now they'll suffer. The spirit of murder.

The sixth commandment shows us the sanctity of life. Human life because why? Genesis 9. We are made in the image of God. We apply this to murder. We apply it to abortion. We also know God's forgiveness. God does give rights to take human life at times. He gave it to the civil government in terms of if a person commits murder. He gave it to ancient Israel and their army defending their nation. The church is not a nation. You want to find real interesting in that context, by the way? The New Testament. The only time you see a Christian defending themselves against persecution. Remember, they were violently persecuted by both Jews and Romans. I say defending themselves with violence. They defended themselves with the judicial system. Paul did that a lot. But the only time you see a Christian defending himself against persecution with violence was Peter whacking off the guy's ear. I went to Jesus' song to do Put the Sword Away. You never see a Christian killing a Roman soldier who has come to take him away. Ever. You never see a Christian killing a Jewish soldier who had come to take him away. That means that for the name of God, we are to stand up and take the persecution. Oh, man, that makes it even harder, doesn't it? That makes it even harder.

The sixth commandment says God can take life. He can tell others to take life. But it's always very narrow cases when you can't even self-defense. It's very, very narrow. A lot depends on the intent of the person who's defending himself. I know people almost want to get in a situation so they can, you know, kill somebody. Yeah, that's intent. You're automatically in trouble.

The sixth commandment, though, extends way beyond the simple command to not commit murder. The spirit of the law, and this is where we have to live this every day, you and I, the spirit of the law involves anger, hatred, and even the most difficult part of this commandment. We have to learn to love our enemies.