Pastor Thomas Terry preaches to us on the sixth commandment, “You shall not murder,” as we continue the short detour in our preaching schedule to hear what God says about murder from Exodus 20 and other Biblical texts.This sermon helps us understand the definition of murder, why the command matters, how the command plays out in our modern culture, and what lies at the heart of this command.
Transcript
Good morning, family. If you made your way in a little bit later this morning, I wanted to just let you know that we have, just for this morning, opened up the downstairs for kids ages 7 to 10, just given the subject matter of our sermon this morning. So if you want, now would be a good time. If you feel compelled to take your children downstairs, they’re eager to love your kids well and serve your kids well. I was thinking about this yesterday, so I was thinking about all the kids being, well, a good handful of kids being taken out of the sanctuary this morning, and just was like, oh man, that makes me feel weird. We’re such a family integrated congregation, and I thought it would just be just good to remind you that we love having kids in the sanctuary. I know that can be a bit challenging for some folks, because there’s all kinds of babies
crying, and there’s restlessness, and sometimes you’ll catch a kid running down the aisle. I just want you to know from the pastors, that does not bother us one bit. It does not affect us. In fact, we delight in it. It’s a joy for us to hear life in the congregation. And so for the new moms and new dads, don’t feel insecure about having your kids in the sanctuary. We love it. It would be far better for us to be a bit distracted than to not experience the life that God has so graced us with in this congregation. So on that note, this morning we’re going to talk about a very difficult topic. We’re going to talk about the subject of murder. There are these moments in our culture where something happens that is so socially significant that immediately after it happens, it becomes viral, where it feels like the whole world
is watching and re-watching what just happened. We often refer to this type of situation as breaking the internet. So take, for example, just a few months ago when Will Smith stepped on stage at the Oscars and slapped Chris Rock across the face for a comment made about Jada Smith’s hair, or lack thereof. For weeks, the media and news outlets gave their opinion and their commentary on the whole situation. If you happened to be tethered to social outlets that week, you most definitely saw the flood of memes, all kinds of social commentary bombarding you with contrasting perspectives, various insights as to the ethic of the situation, and not to mention the overwhelming conspiracies connected to the circumstance. Which makes this one event, this cultural moment, incredibly difficult to navigate. Was Will Smith right for doing what he did? I mean, after all, he was defending his wife.
Was Will Smith wrong? I mean, Chris Rock is a comedian who makes a living off of making fun of people, which the case could be made that Will Smith built his career by doing some of the very same things. Or was the whole thing planned out to draw attention to the dwindling viewership of the Grammys? Well, with all this information flooding our social medias, how could we possibly make an educated assessment of the situation? Now given the confusion, the question is, is there a place for Christians to chime in on these viral moments? To bring to the table some biblical clarity? The answer is, of course there’s room. But there’s a better question to ask. Is it the best use of our time? I mean, these kinds of viral and cultural moments happen so often, it would be foolish for pastors to try and address these seemingly insignificant cultural moments.
Besides, pastors ought not take their preaching cues from the culture, but take their preaching cues from the unique needs of the people in their own congregations. But with that said, there are these rare but viral moments. Because of the overwhelming flood of memes and misinformation and social commentary, pastors should address these issues biblically, to bring truth to God’s people, to allow for God’s word to bear on the hearts of their congregation. So take, for example, the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion. This has obviously created an uproar in our culture. You’ve no doubt seen the massive flood of information across your social medias. And all kinds of chaos. And not only that, but given that we live in Portland, Oregon, and it’s a city that’s full of both abortion advocates and activists, we will likely begin to see more and more acts of vandalism and violence if indeed Roe v. Wade is turned over.
The Sixth Commandment
So, this is a cultural moment for us that is so serious that it necessitates wisdom and clarity as to what God in his word has to say about the sanctity of life. Now last week, in the providence of God, Todd Miles preached on the fifth commandment. He was actually going to be here this morning preaching on a whole other sermon. But it seems only appropriate, given our cultural moment, that we address this issue. And so this week, in God’s providence, we’ll be looking at the sixth commandment. And so if you’d be so kind as to turn with me and your Bibles to the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verse 13. Book of Exodus is the second book of the Bible. Chapter 20, verse 13. Before we begin, I’d like to take just a few moments to pray, ask for the Lord’s help. Our Father and our God, we need you.
When we deal with these types of issues, these difficult topics, we need both the help of the Holy Spirit to open up our eyes to the truth contained in your word. But we also need the comfort of the Holy Spirit to help us as we process the truth contained in your word. And so we pray, O Lord and God, that as you speak to us through your inspired word, that you would change us, convict us, comfort us, and conform us into the image of Jesus. We pray all of these things in Christ’s name, amen. Our passage this morning is really quite simple and short. You shall not murder. You shall not kill. This is a commandment that is very popular in our culture. It’s known by Christians and non-Christians alike. But despite its popularity, it’s a commandment that is often either overlooked or considered to be irrelevant in our modern world.
My hope for us this morning is to bring some clarity and biblical perspective concerning God’s heart for the sanctity of human life. And I’d like to do that this morning by asking four important questions concerning this commandment. These four questions are, what does this command really mean? Why does this command really matter? How does this command play out in our modern age? And what’s at the heart of this commandment? But before we dive too deep into these questions, I want to begin by first looking at the very first killing recorded in human history. In Genesis 4, we come to this story concerning this conflict with the first siblings, Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve. These two brothers, though related by blood, were in every way different from each other. Abel was a righteous and pious man who had a genuine love for the Lord and a desire to
do what is right and pleasing to God. And because of that, things always seem to go right for Abel. Cain, on the other hand, was a troubled man, always struggled a bit. Seemed that he couldn’t ever live up to Abel’s righteousness and piety, and he was constantly living under the long shadow of Abel, his brother. And so this seed of jealousy began to take root deep in Cain’s heart. And this created resentment and indignation towards Abel. One day, the Lord asks both brothers to bring the Lord an offering. Now Abel’s offering was acceptable to the Lord, but Cain’s was not. Now we don’t get a complete picture as to what was wrong with Cain’s offering, but the Lord, who is the surveyor of the human heart, knew that what Cain had to offer was not from the same posture of righteousness that his brother Abel was.
It’s highly likely that what was offered was comparatively the same, but it wasn’t what was offered so much as how it was offered that made the difference. You see, because Abel’s motives were right, his offering was rightly received by God. And this really began to be the breaking point for Cain. This made Cain furious. So the Lord says to Cain, why are you so upset, Cain? If you do what is right, you will be accepted. If you don’t do what’s right, your sin will overcome you. Well, obviously this embarrassed Cain, made him even more furious. The seed of jealousy that had already existed in his heart grew into hatred and hatred grew into horror. You see, this would be the last time Cain would be outshined by Abel. And after burning in rage all night long because of Cain’s embarrassment before the Lord, the next day in the quiet of the morning, as Cain and Abel were walking in the field, Cain surrenders
himself to his deep jealousy and murders his brother and leaves him for dead in the field. Jealousy turned to hatred and hatred turned to the unimaginable. Cain kills his brother in cold blood. The Lord in sadness and infinite wisdom asks Cain this rhetorical question, Cain, where is your brother? Cain replies with indifference to what he just did. He says, how should I know? Is it my responsibility to keep tabs on my brother’s comings and goings? The Lord says, what have you done, Cain? The voice of your brother’s blood speaks to me from the ground. You see, in this story of the very first siblings, you already get a sense of the pervasiveness and escalation of sin from indifference to jealousy, from resentment to rage, and then ultimately murder. And what you see from the very first pages of Scripture is that as quickly as Cain was
able to murder, so also does the rest of humanity skate on the ever-thin possibility of breaking the sixth commandment. And so as you engage with this sermon this morning, please don’t file this away as something that is irrelevant or not important to you in your world. I would encourage you to hear God’s Word, brothers and sisters, with a soft heart, with sober eyes, and with an understanding that all Scripture is relevant. It’s all God-breathed, and it’s useful for teaching, correcting, and for training in righteousness. And so with that said, let’s begin by asking the first question. What does this command really mean? Most people have heard the sixth commandment in the language of the King James Version, Thou shalt not kill, okay? But the problem with the King James Version is that in the Hebrew, there are ten different uses for the word kill. And so in the King James Version, it’s a bit more generic, but with this particular command,
What Murder Really Means
God had prohibited a very specific kind of killing, and that type of killing is murder. In fact, in the Hebrew, it’s only two words, murder not, or no murder. So if we were reading from a Hebrew Bible, or if Jan were up here breaking it down for us, that would make this verse the shortest verse in the Bible. But despite its terse brevity, it’s a verse that is provocative and powerful, but more than anything, perilous if we break it. So if the command is no murder, then the question we should be asking is, what does murder really mean? Well, to be specific, it is the act of premeditated or intentional violence against another human out of hatred, anger, or malice that results in the death of that human. It could also include voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, which just means to be so careless and so reckless with your actions that it results in the death of another human being.
So that’s what this Hebrew word is explicitly addressing in our text this morning. But I do think it’s helpful to understand what this verse doesn’t mean, just so that we can be very clear with our understanding of this command. So what this verse doesn’t speak to is capital punishment. This verse doesn’t speak to soldiers who kill in a just war. It doesn’t speak to police officers who justly kill someone in the line of duty. And it doesn’t speak of lethal self-defense. Those are different words that are used than this command. Now these can be very complicated issues to address. And we actually see throughout Scripture that the Lord actually makes provision for these kinds of what you might call lawful killings. But given our limitations on time, I’m not going to dive into those passages this morning because those are not really relevant to this particular text or command.
So I want to spend our time dealing with what you might call unlawful killings or murder, which is more precisely the point of the sixth commandment. Now to understand what this command means or defining our terms properly is always a good thing, especially in the culture that we live in. Asking what is murder is a great question. But the greater question I think we need to ask is why does this command really matter? Now you might be thinking, well, that’s a given because murder is wrong. In fact, everybody knows that murder is wrong. But the question I’m really trying to get at is why is it wrong? Especially if you don’t have a Christian worldview. I mean, if you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian, we are excited that you’re here. We hope that you would see the heart of Jesus through this command of no murder.
We also hope that you would be confronted with the truth and beauty of the gospel. You might see your need of him as we go through this text this morning. But for non-Christians living in a post-Christian world, this is a reasonable question to ask. And the reason why is because in a godless society, in a post-truth world, there can be no morals, meaning, value, or significance. If there is no God, then on what basis is murder morally wrong? If Darwinian’s natural selection theory, survival of the fittest, is how we understand all of human life, then why not murder the weakest among us? Why not be indifferent about life towards those who are mentally and physically a little less than average or sick? If we are simply creatures that have evolved from nothing, if humans are nothing more than soulless bodies made up of atoms, molecules, and cells, then why does murder really matter?
Where does your ethic for no murder come from? And the truth is, any consistent atheist, if they push their worldview to the furthest extent, must admit that there is no rational justification to value human life. You see, human life, in all of its sacredness, in all of its dignity, is borrowed from God. Because despite the humanistic view concerning the origin of life, that mankind was some natural cause, or that it’s some sort of spontaneous generation from a distant planet, Genesis 1 makes it completely clear, God made man. God alone is the author of life. And because God made man, and because God is a moral and personal God, then morals, meaning, value, and dignity for human life is defined and determined by God himself. So if you are not a Christian, please understand that your ethic for no murder has been divinely coated into the fabric of your soul by God himself.
That’s why you know, intrinsically, that murder is wrong. The mere fact that social media puts covers and disclaimers and trigger warnings on images of murder and death is because God has given all humans a moral compass. Christians and non-Christians alike. We weren’t made to be indifferent about the death of human beings. The law of God, the ethics of God, the morals of God, are all written on the human heart precisely because we were made by God. But not only that, life is sacred because man is made in the image of God. In Genesis 1, we get this literal, literal creation account. God speaks all creation into existence by the power of his word. He creates the heavens and the earth, day and night, seas and dry land, plants and animals, all living creatures in the seas and on dry lands. And after everything he made, he says what?
It is good. And then in verses 26 and 27, God says, 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 all creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them. Did you notice three times in these two verses, we’re told that man is made in the image of God. This is redundant by design. It’s for emphasis. What God is driving at here is that man is distinct from all other aspects of his creation. Did you ever notice that in his creation account, after he speaks all humanity into existence, God uniquely says of humanity, it is very good.
All other aspects of creation, he says it is good. But with man, it’s very good. This speaks to the separateness and distinctness of humanity. Out of all of God’s creation, he is most pleased and cares most profoundly for humanity. Human beings are the apex of God’s creation. God made man to be many mirrors, to reflect his goodness, to reflect his ethic, to reflect his morals, to reflect his character, to reflect his love, and most importantly, to reflect his glory. In fact, this is the chief end of man, to glorify God. Because all people are made in the image of God, all people reflect the quality that God imprints upon them. So we are to treat all humans with dignity, value, meaning, and worth. And you see, brothers and sisters, this not only impacts how we view the taking of human life, but it also impacts everything else about humanity.
This means then that Christians should oppose racism, nationalism, classism, sexism. We should be against power dynamics that seek to abuse or mistreat people. Christians are uniquely positioned to love and serve the most disenfranchised people of this world because we uniquely understand that all people are made in the image of God. This is why, brothers and sisters, we can care for the drug addict. This is why we can care for the prostitute, or for the felon, or for the gang member, or for the homeless, and even for the abortionist. This is the very reason we can love our enemies because even the worst of our enemies bear the mark of God’s identity. This is why no murder matters. To murder a human who bears the image of God is an assault on the very image of God. God gives us this command precisely because he aims to preserve the image of God in humanity.
Murder in Our Modern Age
He gives us this command as an expression of his love and care for humanity. He reveals his heart for people in this very act of establishing laws that protect the life of all people. So we don’t not murder simply because it’s against the law. We don’t murder because it’s against God’s law, and all of his law is about the vertical and horizontal relationship that we share with God and one another. Now maybe you’re thinking to yourself, well, of course, this commandment mattered back in the day because back then we were not sophisticated and enlightened. In the ancient world, we needed these commands because we were a bit barbaric. People back then were acting wildly. Well it is true that this command mattered back in the day, but it’s also true that this command matters today, which then begs this question. How does this command play out in our modern age?
Well, one thing that is so obvious is that we have in many ways advanced as a society. We are more sophisticated and enlightened than ever before. Through modern advancements in science and technology, we have a deeper understanding of the world around us. I mean, think about this. You have digital access to the vast information of the world sitting in your pockets and purses right now. Unless you are Andrew Pack, who has a flip phone. So we have advanced in many ways. But I would submit to you that one of the ways in which we have not advanced as a society is in the area of murder. Now it might appear on the surface that we’re less barbaric than ages before, but in many ways I think we’re more barbaric. We’ve just gotten better at marketing and linguistics. Underneath the floorboards, if you take a closer look, you will see that we are very
much a murderous and barbaric culture, and the evidence is overwhelming. I want us to look at three ways in which our modern world, our modern age, perpetuates this culture of murder. The first one being a bit more obvious, the second a bit more covert, and the third is not really popular right now, but it’s increasingly growing in influence. And so the first is murder by vengeance. We are an angry and vengeful culture. This is true. A recent New York Times article said that according to the data gathered by the FBI for its annual report on crime, the United States in 2020 experienced the biggest rise in murder since the start of the national record keeping data in 1960. Now the reason for the rise of murder is a bit difficult to sort out. But analysts have pointed out that two of the biggest contributing factors include pandemic
stresses and distrust between police and the public after the murder of George Floyd. So just think about this for a second. Let’s put on our thinking caps. Stress and frustration increase because of a pandemic, because of how many people are being killed by this pandemic, and our society responds by killing more people. Stresses rise because of distrust with the police because one police officer murdered a man and our society responds by murdering more people. So this begs the question, in what ways have we advanced as a sophisticated and enlightened society? More than ever, we are a culture infatuated with death. We have a massive increase in mass shootings. We just saw this two days ago. We saw an increase in gang and gun violence and political turmoil that results in violence. We saw this most profoundly with the Capitol riot. Now did you know that in Portland, Oregon, the murder rate increased 800% from 2020 to
2021? And in 2022, it’s looking even worse. New data shows that Portland currently has more homicides than San Francisco and Seattle combined. This is crazy, and it is highly unlikely that our city will do nothing to curb this. It seems to me that the more we progress as a society, the less we value human life. This brings us to perhaps the biggest issue of murder in our modern world: murder by abortion. Now I want to deal with this issue in a way that is sensitive but honest. There are likely many in this room that are haunted by the reality that in some way they have participated in abortion. I know this is a painful topic to talk about. And I know that what comes with talking about abortion is this recurring reality of shame and guilt. But I would ask you this morning, that if you’re one of those people, please stay engaged
with me. Though it will be painful, I promise you I will not leave you in condemnation. I promise you I will leave you with Christ and the glory of his forgiveness. Now it will take us a minute to get there, and it will be hard, but I promise we’ll get there. But it is important to talk through these issues truthfully. The technical definition of abortion is the intentional termination of a pregnancy through either physical or chemical means. But the biblical definition for abortion is murder. It’s murder. Listen to this. According to the National Right to Life Educational Foundation, more than 62.5 million unborn babies have been lost to abortion in the United States since 1973. The year the Supreme Court legalized abortion. Now I just want you to sit in the tension of that number. 62.5 million babies murdered in the womb.
How is this possible? How can we let this happen as a society? How can we hear these horrific numbers of babies being murdered and not do anything to stop it? How is this not the biggest social justice issue our world has ever known? And for the life of me, I cannot understand how the feminist movement doesn’t see this as a massive issue for women’s rights. I mean, maybe half of those babies murdered in the womb were likely women. But shockingly, it is the feminists who are the greatest advocates for murdering these babies. You see, here is where marketing and linguistics attempt to detour and to deceive what is actually happening. The world says things like, no, it’s not a baby, it’s a fetus. But what does that mean? A lot of people say calling a fetus a baby is just religious rhetoric. But listen, scientific evidence actually says the opposite.
Science says that a fetus is, in fact, a baby. And you see the inconsistency of our culture that is constantly screaming to us, we’ve seen this over the last two years, over and over again, trust the science. When it comes to babies in the womb, you can dismiss science. It’s open for interpretation. Another gross inconsistency is with the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. And if you’re unaware, this is a law in the United States that recognizes an embryo or a fetus in utero as a legal victim. If the embryo or fetus is injured or killed through a crime of violence, the law defines child in utero as a member of the human species at any stage of development in the womb. So if someone murders a woman who is pregnant, it’s a double homicide by law. Or if you participate in the violent act that results in the killing of a baby in the
womb, you will be charged with murder. So from a legal standpoint, if someone else kills a baby in the womb, it’s murder. But if a mother decides to kill her own baby in the womb, it’s perfectly and socially acceptable. And from the feminist perspective, it’s viewed as courageous and virtuous. In some cases, it’s celebrated. This is a gross inconsistency. But here’s the truth. It doesn’t matter what science says. It doesn’t matter what the government says or what the law says. The only thing that really matters is what God says. And God without question views a fetus in the womb as a child. Psalm 139
says, for you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. Jeremiah 1.5 says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. Luke 1.15, speaking about John the Baptist said, and he will be filled with the HolySpirit even from his mother’s womb. And you see, long before the country initiated the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, God himself made law to protect the life of the unborn. Exodus 21, verses 22 through 25 says,
when men strive together, meaning when men fight and hit a pregnant woman so that her child, her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her will surely be fined as the woman’s husband shall impose on him. And he shall pay as the judge determines, but if there is harm, if there is harm, you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe
— Exodus 21
(ESV)
. You see, God values the life of a child in the womb so much that he imposes his own capital punishment for killing babies in the womb.
So to be clear, this is God’s perspective of life in the womb. God has made it abundantly clear in his word, abortion is murder, no matter what the culture says, no matter how they market it or how they change the language, it’s murder. About a month ago, I was on my way to the office after dropping my kids off at school and I stopped by one of my favorite coffee shops in Portland, and this was just after Texas was all up in the news concerning their partial abortion ban. As I walked up to the counter, there were these two women baristas who were obviously frustrated with Texas and they were wearing t-shirts that were pro-choice in nature. And one of their t-shirts was just so disgusting, I can’t even tell you what the shirt said. It was obvious that they were both pro-abortion. And as I was sitting in line to place my order, my heart just fell so heavy for these women.
I just couldn’t help but thinking how much they’ve been deceived into thinking that murdering children is some sort of virtue or some kind of empowerment for women. And so I kindly walk up to the counter and I order a pour over, which typically takes about four minutes. And so I’m standing on the side waiting for my coffee when one of the women has this kind of sad but visceral response as she looks in the trash where they dispose of the coffee grounds. And I mean, she was aghast. Obviously something shocked her. So I’m a bit concerned. What is it in the trash that she saw that caused for her to respond that way? Well, as it turns out, one of the baristas earlier in the morning had cut some pretty large pieces of a plant and threw those pieces of the plant and discarded them in the trash.
This coffee shop had this long plant. I don’t know what kind of plant it was, but it was long and it draped down and some of the ends were kind of, I guess in this other barista’s mind, not suitable anymore. So they cut them off, threw them in the trash with the coffee grounds. And this woman, she says out loud, how could they do this to a living plant? Just throw it away in the trash like that. By this time, the other woman barista walks over to the trash and the two of them begin to take out the pieces of the plants and place them on the countertop. And they begin to wash off the plants, all the coffee grounds, and they begin to set them up and they discuss with each other about all the ways in which they can restore these plants back to health.
I kid you not, this literally happened. They certainly failed to recognize the irony of this situation. But here’s the thing. I noticed something profound that morning. Abortion is not a compassion issue. Abortion is not a cognizant issue. These women were both capable of expressing compassion. They did it for the plant. They were both cognizant of the fact that the plant was a living organism. You see, abortion is more an issue of conditioning, crisis, and convenience. They’ve been conditioned to embrace an ideology that says it’s not a baby in the womb. It’s not a living organism. It’s nothing more than a lump of cells. And this conditioning has so severed their conscience that when a crisis of pregnancy occurs, and for many of these women, it is a crisis, it is a crisis, but they’ve been so conditioned that they conveniently discard their child. They’ve been so conditioned to treat abortion as nothing more than a surgical procedure
to remove the cells, something akin to an appendix, not the murder of a child. This is the culture we live in. It’s evil. It’s backwards. It’s heartless. And God hates it because it seeks to conveniently kill that which bears the unique image of God. Now listen, you might be thinking to yourself, dude, you’re talking to Christians. We know this. We understand this reality. But let me tell you, there is a fast-growing demographic of professing Christians that fundamentally believe that abortion is not wrong. With the rise of extreme wokeness within the church, more and more Christians are taking their cues from the culture rather than the Bible. So this is a massive issue within the church. And listen to me, I want to be clear. If you profess to be a Christian and you propagate the idea that it’s a woman’s right to choose, you are complicit in the 62.5 million babies being murdered in the womb.
To propagate that idea is to propagate murder. You’re complicit because you contribute to the conditioning and to the convenience. You help spread the lie that murder in the womb is really okay. Brothers and sisters, we need to be more engaged in the fight for the lives of these babies. We need to be truth tellers about abortion. And I know that is very hard to do in the city that we live in. And rest assured, it will come with great cost. You speak up for the lives of these babies in Portland, Oregon, you will feel it. But we got to do it. Because we care. Because God has made us to care. God has commanded us to care. And he’s given us a heart to care. And listen, our words, they’re not enough. We need to put action behind our words. We need to be saying that abortion is wrong.
But we also need to be lovingly available to come alongside these vulnerable women in crisis and support them financially to have and ultimately, hopefully to raise these babies. And listen, the church is uniquely poised to make this a possibility. To make this a reality. We need to come alongside and be willing to adopt these babies if necessary. We the children of God have been adopted by God. So we uniquely have a framework for adoption. I long for the day when churches in America have line items in their budgets for adoption that are equal to their missions budgets. Trinity Church, why don’t we have this? I’ve been asking myself this question all week. Why do we not have this in our budget? I’m committed to putting it in the budget if you’re willing to support this budget. I’m confident that we can do this and we could support adoption in this congregation.
Why have we not done this? Surely God cares about these people. Surely God cares about these babies. So should we. We need to be willing to put our money where our mouth is. It’s murder to terminate life in the womb no matter the culture’s view or perspective. Now in the same way we’re not to terminate life in the beginning, we’re also called not to terminate life in the end. And this brings us to the third issue in our modern world and that’s murder by euthanasia. Which as of now is currently legal in Oregon. It’s legal here in Oregon. Now Oregon doesn’t call it euthanasia. In Oregon they call it the Death with Dignity Act. Call it what you want. At the end of the day it’s just medically assisted murder. Now just to be clear, there is a huge difference in stopping treatment and stopping life.
You have someone suffering from cancer and decides I just can’t go through the chemo anymore. It’s too hard on my body. It’s too hard on my family. I just want to be with Jesus. That’s not euthanasia. That’s ending treatment, not ending life. But to assist in the killing of someone because they’re sick or weak, that’s not compassion. It’s murder. And the reason why this is an important issue for us to be talking about is because where will the line be drawn? At what point do we start determining who does and who doesn’t deserve to live? People with physical or mental challenges, do they deserve to live? People who are disabled, do they deserve to live? You see, the ultimate end of euthanasia is to rid the world of weak and atypical people. Rest assured, no matter how they camouflage it, that’s the ultimate aim. But again, all people are made in the image of God.
The Heart of the Command
So all people deserve to live a full and complete life. And God alone holds life and death in his hands. Not you and not physicians. Now maybe after hearing about murder in our modern age, you’ve come to the conclusion that you’re good. Thank you for the data points, Thomas. I’ve not participated in any murder. I’m not planning on murdering someone. Thank you for the moral check. But I don’t want to leave you this morning with just the command. I want to leave you with what lies underneath the command. So my final question for you this morning is, what’s at the heart of this command? Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 and 22. Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 and 22. Hear the words of our Lord Jesus. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder.
Here Jesus is throwing us back to Exodus. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. Here Jesus, like a surgeon, cuts deeply with his words. Jesus takes the command, you shall not murder, and pushes it farther by tethering anger and hate to murder. He masterfully moves us from this command that exists in our minds somewhere out there with those wicked sociopaths who physically kill people, and he begins to push it in to every human heart. Jesus exposes with his words our utter lack of law-keeping. Essentially Jesus is saying, if you have in your mind that you’ve kept the commandment perfectly, might I remind you that if you have hatred in your heart, if you have been
so angry with someone that you’ve literally said, I hate that person, you’re guilty of breaking the sixth commandment. If you have insulted or assassinated someone’s character, if you’ve gossiped or slandered a person, you’ve broken the sixth commandment. If you have spoken with hateful or vengeful words in the slightest of ways, if you’ve said to someone on the freeway, who cuts you off, you idiot, how could you do that? You have broken the sixth commandment in your heart. And to back up this statement, turn with me in your Bibles to 1st John, 1st John chapter 3, and keep your thumb on 1st John chapter 3, because we’re going to bounce here a bit. Verse 13 says, listen, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. The Bible makes no difference between what you do physically to murder someone and what
you do with the hatred in your heart towards people. And you see, when Jesus tethers hatred to murder, he indicts all of humanity. Here’s the truth. We’re all guilty of murder. Because all of us at some point have been so filled with hate that in our hearts, we’ve murdered people. We fail to keep God’s law perfectly. And you see, this just exposes our greatest reality and our deepest need. We can’t keep the law. No matter how moral we try to be, we can’t keep it. None of us are righteous enough. None of us are good enough. The sin in our hearts has permeated into every facet of our life and most profoundly with our hearts of hatred. And because we can’t keep the law perfectly, we are condemned by the law. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. And you see, brothers and sisters, this is what makes Jesus so amazing and so beautiful.
That though we fail to keep his law perfectly, and the result is that we deserve death, Jesus kept the law perfectly so that through his death, we might have life. Do you understand what this means, brothers and sisters? It means that though we are murderers in our heart who deserve to be judged for all the ways that we have violated the sixth commandment, Christ gave his life to forgive us for all of those expressions of murder so that we might be saved, so that our consciences might be cleansed. I mean, just think about this morning. How many people have you murdered in your mind this week? You can be forgiven. Your conscience can be clean. Hear me this morning. Have you participated in the unthinkable? Have you physically taken life? Have you aborted a baby in the womb? As horrific as that is, listen to my words.
You can find freedom in Jesus Christ. He will forgive you. Your guilt and your shame can be removed because of God’s kindness to you. Your conscience can be cleansed by trusting in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus himself was murdered to save murderers like you and me. Jesus is in the business of making murderers into ministers of the gospel. I was talking to Pastor Andrew this week about this text as we were thinking about how complicated of a text this is, how to preach it, what are the protocols, what are some safety mechanisms that we can put in place. And Andrew said this amazing and profound statement. He said outside of Christ and his atoning death for our sins, everyone is identified as a murderer. But inside of Christ, those who have been saved by trusting in Jesus, we are no longer
defined as murderers, but as forgiven saints. And brothers and sisters, he’s so right. This is the depths of God’s grace for you. We have been saved from a culture of death and brought into a kingdom of life. I want to close this morning by juxtaposing where we started with the life of Cain and where we ended with the life of Christ. First John chapter three, verse 12, just move up a little bit, it says, we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. You see, brothers and sisters, what you see here is that the greatest expression of hate is murder, the taking of life. Now look down just a few verses to verse 16, but this, by this, we know love that he, that
From Death to Life
is Jesus, laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. And here, what you see is the greatest expression of love is sacrifice, the giving of life. So hate begets murder as we saw with Cain and love begets sacrifice as we see with Christ. Jesus offers the greatest expression of love through his life, death, and resurrection on the cross, through his sacrifice. We murder because we are unrighteous. Jesus was murdered to make us righteous. So to that, my final question to you this morning is, do you know this Jesus? Do you know this gracious and forgiving Jesus who laid his life down for you? Do you want to know this Jesus? Are you feeling weighed down by your sin as the truth pierced your hearts this morning? You can know him this morning as Lord and Savior.
If you ask him to save you, trust and believe that he is who he says he is, the son of God who gave his life as a ransom for your life. And listen, there is no sin so great that Jesus cannot save you from. There’s no sin so severe that Jesus’s blood and body will not touch. He made you in his image so that you might know him and reflect his glory, embrace him by faith and become what God has made you to be, a child of God. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we are so thankful that though your word pierces us and convicts us, your word also testifies to your radical mercy and your marvelous grace. Help us, Father, to see the world through your eyes, to see humanity with the eyes of Jesus with dignity, value, significance, and worth. Help us to be more active in the fight for life from the womb to the tomb.
Help us to see all people as image bearers. Help us to be a light in our dark city and help us to withstand the persecution that comes from standing bold on your word and your truth that all of life is sacred. Empower your people in this church to not just be speakers of the truth, but to put our money where our mouth is, to come alongside vulnerable people and love them into health and adopt thousands of babies in this city. We pray all these things in Christ’s name, amen.