Thou Shall Not Murder

Mr. Coleman talked about the series of sermons I've been doing on the Ten Commandments. As we go through the Ten Commandments, and we've done six sermons so far, we see that the Ten Commandments are not just, as many people think, a list of do's and don'ts. They are primary concepts, primary principles of life. We've gone through the first four of the Ten Commandments where we talked about our relationship with God. This isn't just a matter of God says, oh, don't use my name in vain and keep the Sabbath. There's a whole lot more to these commandments and how they guide every aspect of our lives.

We went through, and I did two sermons on the Commandment about honoring parents because this shows the sanctity of parenthood. That means the family is important to God. Which brings us to the Sixth Commandment, which in the old, Cate James simply says, thou shalt not kill. That's all it says. Now you think, well, that's pretty simple, but actually the Sixth Commandment has created a lot of controversy over the years because exactly what does that mean?

There are people who are vegetarians who believe that that forbids us to kill animals. Well, the problem is that if you read the entire Bible, you see where God actually told people, you can't eat these animals.

You have to kill them to eat them. He actually told people to kill animals for sacrifices as part of the worship of Him. So the killing of animals isn't the issue. We also, though, have the issue where God told people to kill other human beings. I mean, thou shalt not kill has to do specifically with human beings. And yet God has told human beings.

He told Joshua to take the army of Israel around Jericho and when the walls fell to kill everybody inside except one family. And that's what they did. So what exactly are the ramifications of this commandment in terms of how do we apply it?

As we've been going through all these commandments, we find that there are issues of how do we apply this? How does this apply in our modern world? We face sometimes issues that they never faced in the ancient world. How did it apply then? And it's always important to find out how did it apply then before we try to figure out how it applies now. Now, as Mr. Coleman said in the sermon that was a perfect introduction to this, the word thou shalt not kill, kill is actually a poor translation of that word.

The word in Hebrew for kill and murder are different words. And the word that is actually used there is thou shalt not murder. Murder is the unlawful taking of human life, which implies there has to be a lawful taking of human life. This commandment has been used to say that capital punishment is wrong. Is that true? It's killing of any human being under any circumstance against what this commandment says. How do we define murder? So this is what we're going to go through today. How does God define this, thou shalt not murder?

And we'll look specifically at some New Testament passages, but we'll really spend some time in how this was defined to ancient Israel. Ancient Israel was a nation. Thou shalt not murder was a law for an entire nation that was administered as a nation. Now you and I can't administer that the same way. The principle still applies. You and I do not have the right to take people out and stone them, do we? We are not a government in the way that ancient Israel was.

But the principles still apply. So we need to study the laws that were given to ancient Israel and say, how does that apply to us as Christians? But I want to start with not the laws given to ancient Israel, but a passage clear back in Genesis 9. So let's go to Genesis 9.

Genesis 9. This is right after the Great Flood. And God tells Noah, here are some of the principles of which you're going to have to build a new civilization on. So he gives him some very general, very specific principles. In verse 4, he begins to talk about a principle that would lead to a law against murder.

He says in verse 4, well, let's start in verse 4, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. Surely 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 man. Now let's think about what this means. He says, when you eat meat, because right before that he told them they could eat meat, you cannot eat the blood in the meat. You have to drain the blood out. Of course, draining the blood out of meat is not a common practice in much of the world today. In fact, people actually eat blood, blood pudding. They make different kinds of dishes, literally out of the blood of animals. And he says we are to avoid blood, or not to eat blood, because this represents the life that God gives to all living things.

And then he says, if a human being is killed by either an animal or a human being, there is a reckoning. There is a price that animal or that human being has to pay.

Verse 6, whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed. Now you have to stop and recognize the importance of what he just said. That's enormous judicial power. If a human being commits murder against another human being, God said, human beings, he said, shed by man his blood shall be shed. He says, other human beings have the right to take the life of the murderer.

This means thou shalt not kill can't forbid all killing of human beings, because it would be directly in opposition to this and to other statements that we'll read in a little bit. So literally was given to human beings the power to have a judicial system. Now this does not, as we will see, somehow justify mob violence, lynch mobs. That's not what he's talking about here.

There has to be a judicial system in which if someone has actually committed murder, they are found guilty and those with authority have right to take their life. Now obviously, this doesn't apply directly to the church, does it? We don't have the right to take somebody else's life, but it is a judicial power given to humanity after the flood. Notice the rest of the verse. For in the image of God, he made man. Here's the point.

The reason this is such an issue and the reason why capital punishment is allowed in this case is because every human being has value because every human being is made in the image of God.

And this is the basis of the commandment, thou shalt not murder.

The value of every human being because every human being is made in the image of God.

That is the basic principle of this commandment. Verse 7, we don't usually think about as part of this, but it's actually part of this whole discussion on blood and murder and the fact that capital punishment is permitted. As for you, this is the purpose for what you of age should be doing. Be fruitful, multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it. In other words, procreation and protection of life is what we're supposed to be doing.

Our lives are supposed to be about procreation, protection of life, nurturing life, not death. So murder is a horrendous sin that is so horrendous to God because every human being is made in his image that he actually gave before Abraham was ever born, before he ever gave the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai. He gave humanity the right to commit capital punishment against the murderer. So now we move into the time of ancient Israel.

How are they supposed to apply that?

What do you do? Oh, this guy accused somebody of murder. Okay, let's all drag him out, just string him up. It was ancient Israel like the average cowboy movie. They're stringing up people all the time, breaking into the jail. I mean, what do you do? How is this applied now?

How do we apply thou shalt not murder in a judicial sense? Now, there's a lot of laws throughout the Torah that talks about this, but there's one passage that goes into it in great detail.

Now, I want to cover part of that. It's an entire chapter. It's Numbers 35.

Numbers 35.

In order to understand God's commandment, thou shalt not murder, and how He defines that, how He defines it, not you and I, we have to really understand how He told ancient Israel to administer it, because the concept of justice that He administered in some ways is similar to our concepts in the Western world.

In some ways, it's not even remotely like our concepts in the Western world.

So we're going to have to divorce ourselves from saying, okay, I have an American view of this, to let's look back and be an ancient Israelite.

Here's what He told them, and we'll go through a few verses, and it'll show you the complexity of this. If somebody killed somebody, they had to flee to a city of refuge.

So somebody died by the hand of somebody else.

The person who had committed the killing had to go to a city of refuge.

Now, we've been going through the book of Judges in the Inho Bible study up in Dixon, and we just went through the city of refuge a couple months ago. The city of refuge is a remarkable concept. They are prisons without walls. You go there voluntarily. Now, this is a nation. When Israel went into the Promised Land, once it was settled, they disbanded the army.

There was no king. There was a judge. What is a judge? It's a judicial position. It was an entire nation based on laws and judges. There were elders that ran the cities and towns. So you had elders that ran the cities and towns. But there was no overriding government as we know it. That's why the Israelites in the time of Judges, as we go through the book of Judges, sometimes fought each other as much as they fought their neighbors. They were a loosely affiliated group of tribes because there was no central government. But there was a judge.

Now, here's how it worked if you killed somebody. There were six cities and you ran as fast as you can. There was no police force. There is no police force. There's no standing army. So guess who comes after you? The family of the dead person gets together and they pick the blood avenger and they pick some members of that family and they have total judicial power to kill you.

That's what God said. And they hunt you down. Now think about this. No police force. You've committed a murder. You get on your donkey and you ride as fast as you can. Hopefully you have a horse. You go a little faster. And you get to the nearest city of refuge. You go to the elders and say, I demand a trial. I wouldn't get a fair one back home. I mean, everybody knows me. So I'm here.

I demand a trial. And the blood avengers have tracked you down. And so there's, you know, there's Uncle Aaron of the guy that died and cousin Malachi. And they're standing outside. They're saying, let him out. And the elders say, no, you can't. You can't have him because he has to have a trial. So the blood avengers have to now participate in a trial. And the person who killed the person is now put on trial. There's a couple things that are remarkable here. One is the person who killed the person has rights. They have a right to a trial. Do you realize how odd that is even in today's world? Outside, especially in the Western world, you have the right to a fair trial, not the trial at the gates of the town where you live in, but in a place that's supposed to be objective. Now you're in the city of refuge. What's interesting there, there's no walls.

You're in a jail with no walls. If you leave by law, the blood avengers can kill you because somebody died. Okay? A human life was taken. They can kill you. If you stay there, they can't kill you. Even if you are innocent of doing this on purpose, but you actually killed the person, you have to stay there until the high priest dies and then you're free. That family can't touch you. Well, that sounds good if the high priest, you know, okay, there's a trial and it's determined that you are not guilty. You killed the guy, but it wasn't murder. Now we have an interesting thing here because we're having a definition of killing that includes murder and another definition. You know how different this is in ancient law? This is nothing like anything in the walls of the ancient world. Okay, you killed him, but it was not murder. Okay, you have to stay in the city and you can live there for two years and then the high priest dies, you're free. And that family can't do anything to you. But what if the high priest doesn't die for 40 years? Well, your choice is either to stay there or leave the prison of your own accord, in which case that family can hunt you down and kill you. In other words, you had to pay a price for killing somebody.

But you didn't forfeit your life. So how do you determine whether it's murder or not murder?

How do you determine it? And what we have here in Numbers 35 is this remarkable establishment of how to determine whether something's murder or not murder. Look at verse 12, though. This is what's really one of the points that's really important here. They shall be cities. This is talked about the city's refuge for you from the Avenger. Yeah? If you killed somebody, you better run there. It says that the manslaughter—it doesn't say the murderer—is to protect the person who killed somebody, but it doesn't fit a definition of murder. So then we have to define what murder is. Do refuge for you from the Avenger that the manslaughter may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment. In other words, you are guaranteed if you—what you had to go to the city refuge and you were guaranteed a fair trial. That is absolutely remarkable in the ancient world. Everybody—it didn't matter whether you were famous, poor, rich, who your family was—everybody got a fair trial. You just had to get to the city refuge, go in and turn yourself in. If you didn't go turn yourself in and you decide to go hide out in the mountains, you better hope that the blood avengers aren't people that are really intent on killing you. You know, they might track you for five years. And they have full legal right. When they find you, they are to kill you because you took a life. But you say, well, it wasn't on purpose. You flee, you get a trial. Look at verse 30.

Whoever kills a person, the murderer—so the point is, if it's proven after a trial that it's murder, the murderer shall be put to death. So, thou shalt not kill can't include capital punishment because those who murder are to be killed legally. Therefore, it is not murder. Put to death on the testimony of witnesses, but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. You could see somebody commit murder. You could see it. And you could go and be a witness at the trial. And if there wasn't a second witness, the person was set free.

That's the law of God. The purpose, the reason why, it is better for a guilty person to go free than for an innocent person to be put to death. It was better. The issue is, the concept was that God will take care of the guilty person.

God will fix this, but it is better for that person to go free than for you to kill.

Or the blood avengers, they'll kick him out of the city and watch as the blood avengers kill him. And then they find out, oh, wow, later this person wasn't guilty. The witness lied. We now killed somebody. So it was actually better. The next verse is also interesting.

Moreover, you shall take no ransom for the life of the murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. In other words, rich people can't buy back their sons.

How much does it cost to get him out? What does it cost? We can pay it? Poor people can put to death. Rich people get off.

Which has sort of been the way of the world forever, right? It doesn't work that way.

It's an amazing judicial thought system that God set up.

Now, no, no. If you're actually guilty, you're put to death even if you're rich.

But there has to be two or three witnesses, which means a lot of murderers, if they took place and nobody saw it. You know, you could be in a situation where 50 people say, I know that person did it. You know it. He hated him for years. We know he killed him. But if you didn't have witnesses, you could not convict him. You couldn't convict him on hearsay. You could not convict him on conjecture. You could not convict him on circumstantial events. A convicted murderer took two or three people that saw the person do it. So how do you define murder?

The fascinating thing about the Torah is its case law. It gives, when this situation happens, you do this. When this situation happens, you do this. These are cases that kept coming up.

And they recorded them. Why do you think—you know, it's interesting. The United States and Britain both have case law. Right? You go to court. Okay. The lawyers go find out how has this been judged on over the last hundred years because we want to take all these cases to the judge so the judge can look at it and say, okay, let's look at how other judges looked at this.

Deuteronomy especially is case law. Case after case after case. You can say, how do I apply this law? Well, let's go look at the way it's applied. So in Numbers 35, God says, let's look at some cases. Now, I would guess these were actual cases, but they may not have been. They may have been cases. Okay. Let me give you a few cases. Write down these cases so when you get to the city of refuge and the guy says, I didn't do it on purpose. Yes, I killed the guy and the witnesses are brought forth. You can look at this and make a judgment. Make a judgment. So look at verse 16.

But if he strikes him with an iron implement, then he dies. He's a murderer.

The murderer shall surely be put to death. Okay. If the guy runs him through with a sword, he's a murderer. We know that. Okay. I mean, if he picked up a pitchfork and stabbed him, it was murder. You see, he was mad. I know he was mad, but come on, it's murder. He found he was fooling around with his wife. You know, that is not grounds for killing a guy. In the Bible, it is grounds for dragging him before the court. Adultery was a crime. You could drag your man and your wife before the court, but you couldn't kill them. This was a judicial system. Individuals within the country were not allowed to be vigilantes. They had to live by the law.

They had to live by the law. He says, okay, let's bring a case up. How did he kill him? Stabbed him with a pitchfork. Okay, it's murder. He goes on, he says, and if he strikes him with a stone in the hand by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death. The guy picks up a big rock and beats the guy's brain in. Yeah, it's murder.

If he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon, it's a weapon. He takes a club, you know, that you carry off to war and kills the guy. By which one could die? If he does die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. The avenger of blood himself shall put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death. In other words, a bunch of guys took and dragged you outside and threw you outside the city. Now, you can imagine, they opened the gates and they throw you out, and they shut the gates behind you. And guess who's standing outside? All the relatives of the guy you killed. This is not good, okay? If you're the murderer, you don't want to be shoved out of the city of refuge. It's a bad day. So they shove him out. Now, if he pushed him out of hatred, or while lying in wait, hurls something at him so that he dies, or in enmity he strikes him with his hands so that he dies, the water struck him, shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him. Now, notice here, now this is what makes the law of God so fascinating. It has to do with intent. He shoved him because he hated him, and he shoved him hard enough that he smacked his head on a rock and died. Why did he shove him? Because he hated him. Ah, then that's murder. He had intent to do harm, therefore it is murder. Intent to do harm. Now, God list here, let me give you some cases to look at so that when you have to make a case, you can find something to come to a conclusion. However, this is verse 22, if he pushes him suddenly without enmity, or throws anything at him without lying in wait, or uses a stone in which a man could die, throwing it at him without seeing him so that he dies while he was not his entity, or seeking him harm, then the congregation shall judge between the man, slayer, and the avenger of blood, according to these judgments. And so the congregation shall deliver the man-slayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Return him to the city of refuge, where he is in a prison that he can leave anytime, but he must wait for the high priest to die, and then he has a full party.

But you know, what if he shoves somebody and he has no hatred? What if a man startles him? What if a man runs up to him and angry, and he just is threatening, and he shoves him, and a guy trips and falls and hits his head? What was his intent? He was startled. That is not murder.

His intent wasn't to kill the man. See? I like this one where he throws a rock and he doesn't see the guy. I don't know what you would be doing. Maybe you were chasing the coyotes off the property, threw a rock, and your neighbor was in the brush or something. You smacked your neighbor in the head, and you go over there and all. No, you killed your neighbor. Right? I mean, I've tried to figure out what that would be. So you run to the city of refuge, and everybody shows up. And the witnesses say, nah, we were all working in the field, too. This, you know, old Malachi was up in the brushes, trying to get a sheep out. And there was a bunch of coyotes running through. And Joseph over here threw a rock at a coyote. He's not very good at throwing. And he smacked Malachi and killed him.

That's not murder. It's killing. It's not murder. So the man did not receive the death penalty. You begin to see the concept. What was the intent?

Why were they trying to do it? To take human life because your intent is to take the life or do harm is against the law of God. And the penalty in ancient Israel was death.

Now later, it would change a little bit. They would tend to kill them at the town where it took place. And the whole community would come out and stone them. The whole community would come out and stone the person. So now this brings us up to other ideas. Okay, so we understand murder is intent. It is usually premeditated. If it's not premeditated, it's done in a fit of anger or hatred.

The person has lost control, anger, hatred, and they take this life. Then the question is, what about self-defense? Now, interesting enough, throughout the Torah, I've only found one scripture that directly hits self-defense. There may be other scriptures I'm missing, so I can't say this is the only one. It's the only one I found that deals with it head-on and direct. Okay, so let's look at that one. Exodus 22. Exodus 22. So why are you going through all this? Because we have to understand how God applied this to a nation, even though you and I can apply it the same way.

But it is the principle we still must apply. So the concept of murder, the idea that there is manslaughter, is truly unique in many ways. Maybe in the Code of Hammurabi, I can't remember.

But it is fairly unique to ancient law. The idea that the rich people can't buy back their children who've committed a murder is really unique. The idea that you have to have two or three witnesses, knowing that a murderer may get off, that's unique.

The idea that everybody gets a fair trial, that's unique.

The blood avengers are not so unique. In the Middle East, the idea that a family that someone was killed, members of that family, had the responsibility of chasing down the murderer was fairly common. So that's not totally unique. Exodus 22, verse 1. Now, to really understand this, you have to really look at the context of who it's talking about. Verse 1, If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five ox for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. There's other places that say, you know, the person has to give back sevenfold. It depends on the level of theft and why it's done. When we get into, thou shalt not steal, we'll even look at that, how there's different punishments for stealing the Bible. Now, verse 2. If the thief is found breaking in and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. Okay. So someone's broken into my house, and here they are in my house, and they're stealing something, and I walk over, and I punch him just as hard as I can, and he falls on the ground, and I kick him four or five times, and he dies. Okay. He says, well, there's no guilt on it. Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Let's go to the next verse. If the son has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed.

He should... For whose bloodshed? There's guilt on the household owner for killing the thief. What is the thief supposed to do? He should make full restitution. If he has nothing, he shall be sold for his theft. In other words, here is the punishment for stealing. You've got to pay back so much four times, five times, what you stole. If you can't do that, your soul is a slave until you can pay back what you stole. That's the punishment for theft.

Why would it be okay to kill a thief at night and you're charged with murder if you kill him in the daytime? This is real important. What is the punishment, legal punishment for murder?

What is it in the Bible? I mean, in the Old Testament here. What is the legal punishment for murder? Anybody? Death. What is the legal punishment for rape? Death. What is the legal punishment for stealing? No. You've got to pay back. And if you don't, you've got to become a I've talked about it this time period. Yeah, in this time period. What is it? We just read it. You've got to pay back and if you don't, you get sold. The penalty for theft was not death. And if you killed the thief, you would pass upon him a judgment that was beyond the law, which made you a law breaker. If you look at this, what's remarkable about this, it gives the thief rights. Because he's a human being.

It gives, right? I mean, there's no else a way to look at it. If you come in at night, you don't know why he's there. What is his intent? Is it to kill me? Is it to rape my wife? Is it to kidnap my children? By the way, all three of those are death penalty issues. So if in the struggle, you kill the man at night, you don't know his intention, there is, by law, you are okay.

In the daytime, you know his intent. Because remember, the noun here is thief.

You know his intent. You can run away. You can scream out and get help. There's other people up and around. You have all kinds of actions you can do. Therefore, to kill him as a thief.

Now, if he was attacking you, that's something different.

If he was trying to kill you, that's something different.

But he's a thief. Let me give this... let me put this in the modern context.

You have a neighbor down the street, some kid, that's using drugs, and everybody knows he's stealing. He's even been arrested a couple times for stealing. He breaks in your house at night, and you wake up, and he's there beside your bed going through the drawers. You don't know what's going on. You're half asleep. You're scared to death. All you know is you're under some kind of attack, and you reach over and you grab the lamp, and you hit him just as hard as you can, and you kill him. You know, some 16-year-old boy. According to the law of God, you are not guilty of murder. Now, you are guilty of killing, but you're not guilty of murder. Now, you're driving home. You get home a little early from work, and you look, and your garage door is open.

And there is that boy. He's now in your garage stealing your bicycle.

So you'll go get out your shotgun, put a shell in it, and blow him away.

According to the law of God, you've committed murder. You've committed murder.

Interesting, huh? See, we have an idea in this country that we can kill people for taking property.

That's not what Exodus says. That's what it says. It's what we believe, because it's our society.

You say, well, believe me, if I saw someone steal my car, I'd go get my hunting rifle, and I'd put a shell in there, and I'd shoot him. Well, you know what? It's a crime.

If he saw someone stealing, he could go get his bow and arrow. Most of them had bow and arrows. They were hunters, and they could shoot him with the bow and arrow. And if it was at daytime, what would they be? The elders would come and charge them with murder, because death was not the penalty for stealing. The only way they could kill another human being was when their life was immediately in danger, and they had not premeditated it. And there's the rub with us sometimes. We have to be honest with this.

You know, I am a hunting rifle. I am my dad's hunting rifle. I have a shotgun.

I don't have shells for most of it, but I have some shells someplace.

The hunting rifles and the shotgun are all hidden someplace where the grandkids can't get to them, and the shells are in a totally different part of the house hidden someplace else.

I couldn't shoot somebody if I wanted to, because I'm not going to premeditate what I do.

It's the intent.

If you have a loaded gun and you've already decided, when the thief comes in, I'm going to blow them away, what if their intent is different?

Well, it's my property. I understand, and that's an American way of thinking, I want you to show me in the scripture, the scripture, where you and I have the right to kill them. Now, they're talking about direct attack, hey? But if it's direct attack, the gun's no good anyways, you can't get to it.

Unless you sleep with it under your pillow or something, and then I've got to ask, what are you doing that for? What is your intent? And our intent basically is, we have to admit it, we've seen the movies, right? Go ahead, punk. Make my day.

I know what movies you watch now.

Right?

It's a 44 magnum, right? It's the most powerful handgun in the world.

Yeah, we're all dirty hairy. Now we're Christians.

They're Christians.

You know, I've talked to people over the years, collecting guns and weapons, because one of these days, the country's going to go into chaos, and they're going to come after my food. I've got food in the basement.

So let me see, you and your children, your wife, they're coming, you go outside, and you tell everybody, go away. All your neighbors are out there, all the people you know that you keep the Sabbath and follow God, and they're all out there saying, please share the food. And you say, go away, or we're going to open fire. And they come at the house, and you break out the windows and there's your little kitten popping away, and you've got your oozy out, and you're just mowing the bodies, and they're piling up all over the place, and you're saying, this is Christianity. Yeah.

Well, let's think about that a minute. Let's go to Matthew 26. Matthew 26.

I find it fascinating that self-defense was very narrowly defined.

It was a very narrow definition in the Old Testament. You had to be physically being attacked. And it had to be a capital punishment offense for you to react by killing the other person, which means you're not premeditating this. You're in some kind of struggle when you kill the person. Matthew 26. This is where they come to get Jesus on the night that he was betrayed. And Jesus said to him, friend, why have you come? And they took and laid hands on Jesus and took him. And suddenly one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Now, you have to understand, there's a whole conversation that's taking place before this where Jesus said, there's going to be violence happening here, you know? Better have your swords, guys. And they took it literally. And Peter said, we got two. And you can just hear the sarcasm when Jesus said, that's enough.

Okay, bring your two swords, you know. And Peter, being Peter, pulls it out and whacks off the guy's ear. But Jesus said to him, put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. But you think that I cannot pray to my father and he will provide me with more than 12 legions of angels. He says, but the scriptures have to be fulfilled. A legion was between 5 and 6,000 men. This means between 50 and 60,000 angels. Now, at this point, Jesus isn't being a pacifist. He turns to Peter and says, wait a minute, Peter, do you understand?

All I have to do is ask my father and they'll devastate the earth.

They'll kill every living thing. That's the power he had. They'll kill every man, woman, child, animal, blade of grass. There won't be an amoeba left. Of course, Peter, you don't know what amoeba is, but there won't be any left. They will kill everything. But that's not what I'm supposed to do. So put the sword away. Because if you trust in that, you will die that way.

You know, I've told people, if you think you're going to protect your food and water, because you're standing out there with your lever action 30-30, then be prepared to die by a lever action 30-30. Because why would God be protecting you? You trusted the sword. See, this self-defense is a different issue than what we define it as, or we define it as anti-guns. I got them. Used them, shot them, went hunting with them. It's not the point.

I mean, I could use anything. You know, I could have my dad's old bayonet from the Korean War. There's a weapon for you. I guess put that under my bed and say, somebody come in, I'm going to use that. But once again, what am I doing? It's a premeditated, I'm going to commit an act of violence.

And when we look at the Scripture, we're in a dangerous ground.

We're in a dangerous ground. We're in dangerous ground. Just like killing the thief can be a dangerous issue.

Another question that comes up is abortion. Abortion is not in the Bible.

But I want you to really think about what we read in Mark 9. That there is a loud, God-allows human beings to carry out capital punishment for murder.

Now, there has to be, there's supposed to be a judicial system to do that. Unfortunately, there aren't, as bad as our judicial system is, it's probably the best one in the world, and that's frightening. That's frightening. But he said that you could do this because man was made in the image of God. So man is made. Every human being, every man and woman is special, has value, because they're made, their mind is like God in certain ways.

How does God choose to make that process happen? How does God choose to create a human being in his image, through procreation and gestation? Right? That's how he chooses to do that.

What is happening in a pregnant woman? God is forming someone in his image.

Now, we look at the biology of it. That's how he chose to do it, right? That's how he chose to do it, but that was his choice and that's how he does it. And that's what makes Jeremiah 1 so profound.

Jeremiah 1.

Verse 4.

Jeremiah 1, 4, Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

I don't think this is unique to Jeremiah. I think every one of us.

I think the homeless person out here that you might pass that you could tell something's wrong with their mind. They're out there begging for some food. I think God knew them before they were born.

Every one of us has value. That's why God hasn't thrown humanity away.

Everybody has value.

He says, Before you were born, I sanctified you. I made you holy before you were born. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Now, God ordains very few people a prophet before they're born.

But it shows you that God is involved in this human experience much more than we realize and much earlier than we realize.

We are wayward. Humanity is a wayward, rebellious group of children, but there still is children.

Some of them he'll throw in the lake of fire. I understand.

But to take the life, and it is life, of an unborn child is murder.

Now, you and I don't live under the old covenant, so let me step back and say something.

You know, as Paul says at one point, as were some of you, he talks about the world.

There's lots of people that God's called that have committed murder, and there's lots of people that have committed an abortion. You are forgiven.

That's the problem with the old covenant. There wasn't much of a choice. Once you were killed, you were killed.

Because God is creating the church, you are forgiven. God does not hold that against you at all. And that's a hard thing. I mean, I've talked to people who have taken a life, and I've talked to women who have committed abortion, and it's hard years and years and years later to give that up.

What have I done? God forgave you. It's not on his list anymore.

This is what's so great about being part of the new covenant.

It doesn't change what's right and wrong. It changes our relationship with the lawgiver. Understand, it doesn't change what's right and wrong. It does change our relationship with the lawgiver.

And so we have to understand as we go through this definition that those who have openly broken this law have been forgiven, if you repent.

But the bottom line is, every one of us have broken this law.

Every one of us. Oh, we may not pull the trigger or stab somebody or hit somebody with a baseball bat. We may not have done that, but we've done it in spirit.

Mr. Coleman mentioned this verse. I'm going to go there. I wasn't going to, but let's go there. Matthew 5. Matthew 5. Verse 21.

He says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder.

Whoever murders shall 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. Whoever says to his brother, Raka, which means empty, worthless, empty-headed, you are meaningless, shall be in danger of the counsel. But whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire.

Some translators say you fool is a statement made in absolute disgust. There's an emotion behind it.

You fool. You're worthless. You're nothing. You know what happens when we decide a person is meaningless? We can be justified in treating them however we want, can't we?

What you and I decide a person is meaningless. They have no meaning. They're worthless. We can justify just about anything we do to them. And at that point, that's the same spirit of murder that allows someone to kill somebody. You're worthless. Me killing you means nothing. You're not even a human being. So when we go down that path, we're actually committing the spirit of murder.

Anger. Uncontrolled anger. You know, not all anger is wrong. You can be angry with each other. You can be... anger is a normal part of life and it can be a proper response in certain circumstances. But this uncontrolled anger that leaves us obsessed and bitter towards another person, we may not be killing them, but we're killing us.

It is a spirit of murder. That's why, a little later in the same chapter, Jesus takes this to a... He takes it to a point that is so uncomfortable, it's hard to really get into this if you really understand what he's saying. Verse 38 says, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye to tooth for a tooth. That is one of the laws in the Old Testament. Now, people think it means vengeance. It doesn't. What it actually means is let the punishment fit the crime. You know, don't make punishments that outweigh the crime, which is the point about killing the thief. It's not a capital punishment offense.

So you can't just go kill the guy, because he's still on your horse.

But I tell you not to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If he wants to sue you, take away your tunic. Let him have your coke also. Now, he's not saying that it's wrong to stand up in court and defend yourself. He's talking a principle here, because we can see where Paul defended himself in court.

Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him, you ask you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. He says, in other words, our approach to life is, instead of always being centered on personal justice, instead let's just center on doing kindness to someone else. Even if that means you have to take the bad. Even if that means you have to take the injustice. There's a time to take injustice for a bigger principle. And that's hard because we want personal justice.

You know, have you ever, I've got a confession to make, have you ever been buzzing along down the highway and some guy, you look in the rear view and you can see this guy weaving and he's going, you know, 100 miles an hour. And when he buzzes by you, he looks like he's going to clip you just so he can go in front of you, get around the other end, you're watching him do this. You're watching people slam on their brakes and it's dangerous, right? And the first thing in my head is God put, have the next policeman see him, pull him over and give him the biggest fine possible I want justice!

Of course, there's always a couple things that pop into my mind about half a second later like, you're really that important in the scheme of life that God is going to track down and have this guy arrested. And the second thing is, oh wait a minute, I'm going 75 in a 65 mile an hour zone.

God, let's stick back for this justice. Just a minute, okay?

And the policeman pulls you over and says, did you see the guy going 100 miles an hour? And the policeman says, yeah, I saw them, but it was weird. I just got this overwhelming feeling to pull you over. I don't know where it came from, but you were going 75. I'm going to have to write you out a ticket, okay? And it's like, you know, you don't want to go down there, but we really want justice! We want it so badly.

Yeah, but do we? Or do you want to say, let it go? Hope the guy doesn't kill himself? Now, I've thought that that's when you step backwards and you think, I don't want a guy five miles down the road and see him wrapped around a tree. I really don't want to see that. I hope he gets control of whatever the problem is here, because I don't want to see that guy die. Is he wrong? Yeah.

But justifying is wrong. It's saying, I don't want to carry this sense of justice.

Yeah, I've seen people get mad over something two days later.

Let it go! It's not that issue, that justice, that desire for personal justice can't drive us.

That's why further on here in this same passage, Christ says in verse 43, you have heard the word said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. You shall love your neighbor as a command in the Torah. 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. What? You want to start to have peace. Go to someone who's abused you and ask God to grant them repentance. But what if they repent? That's right. What if they repent?

And God will forgive them. Yeah.

It changes the way you think. And why, verse 45, that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes the Son the rise of the evil, though the good, and sends rain on the just, though the unjust. He then finishes his argument with, if people love only the people who love them, what makes you any different than anybody else? Adolf Hitler. I mean, this is Jesus' example, but Adolf Hitler loved people who loved him. He's the most despicable evil person who deserved death, by the way, according to the law of God. If we only love those who love us, how are we different than him? That's Jesus' argument.

So we have to recognize that this idea of murder, we've all broken it in spirit. I mean, there's a whole other subject we could go in. I'm not going to go there, but slander is the spirit of murder, where you spread stories and half-truths and lies about people in order to destroy their reputation and hurt them. Spirit of murder? But that's a whole other sermon there.

The sixth commandment demonstrates God's sanctity of human life. We are made in the image of God.

God reserves for himself when someone should be killed. And he tells us specifically when it should happen.

Given to the civil governments of this world, it's permission to kill people for murder.

Now, as you know and I know, that gets all perverted in every civil government there is. It's perverted in our government.

But it is a right that has been given in order to stop murder.

But the sixth commandment expands beyond that. It's beyond that. It deals with anger.

It deals with uncontrolled animosity. It deals with hatred. And the most difficult of all the concepts that are attached to thou shalt not murder is that in the midst of this, we are to learn to love our enemies.