The Sixth Commandment

The Sixth Commandment and the Preservation of Life

Well this morning we continue on with the Sixth Commandment and I've been a little under the weather the past few days so I missed the men's meeting where we reviewed Watson although I enjoyed the chapter very much and I won't cover a lot of the ground that he covered though it was very profitable.

I'm sure those of you who worked through Watson this week are all the better for it. But as we consider the Sixth Commandment we, as we've been doing each week now, we also want to consider what our catechism says as far as questions and answers that help us frame the application.

So question 74 for our catechism which I think is a wonderful summation of biblical.

Teaching.

What is required in the Sixth Commandment? And here's the answer. The Sixth Commandment requires all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life and the life of others. So they take from the commandment, Exodus 20 verse 13, you shall not murder.

At the heart of that commandment is the preservation of life, both of your own life and that of your neighbors. So what is forbidden in the Sixth Commandment? And so the Sixth Commandment forbids the taking away our own life or the life of our neighbor unjustly or whatsoever tends thereunto.

In other words, whatever would denigrate, diminish, or ultimately lead to the loss of your neighbor's life, that is what the Sixth Commandment forbids. Now there's a whole other angle that will open up when we consider Matthew 5 which we're not going to do this morning since we plan on doing the Sermon on the Mount after this.

Series.

We'll wait until we get there. Of course, this is a lot deeper than just the outward physical act of murder. Exodus 20 verse 13, you shall not murder. Now some of you may be looking down on a Bible on your lap and you may read verse 13 saying you shall not kill.

Wise are the translations that translate you shall not murder. It's a very specific word that is chosen. There's many types of killing that don't all qualify as murder. This is a very specific word that's broader than just murder.

It includes the category of manslaughter. The Hebrew term is ratzak. So you have within that murder as well as manslaughter. That is the willful taking away of a human life and also the unintentional taking away.

Of a human life.

That is within the breadth of the Sixth Commandment. Murder of course is the willful and unlawful taking away of human life. As we'll see, it's one of the highest forms of rebellion against God. For it, apart from all other commandments, apart from all other sinful acts, strikes at the very heart of who God is.

It lashes out against His image and therefore God requires an eye for an eye and a tooth.

For a tooth.

We see this in Genesis chapters 1 and chapter 9 establishes the point. In chapter 1, of course, we understand the very nature of humanity. Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So in light of all that God has made, man, as it were, is sort of the crowning vice regent over all creaturely forms. His dominion is to be exercised as God's representative within the cosmos. God created man, we read, in His own image.

Here's something that sets man apart from all other creatures. Man alone is made in the image of God. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. Now we get to Genesis chapter 9 after the flood where God in His wrath wipes the sinful depravity of man off the face of the earth.

And in Genesis chapter 9, as He establishes a covenant with Noah, He lays down terms. This is what we call a common grace covenant. What we mean by that is this is the covenant by which God establishes the maintenance and the continuance of the world for the purpose of special grace, right?

In other words, God establishes covenant grace and that covenant grace comes in the form of a common or universal grace, that which is common to all, and a special grace, that which is unique to His people.

The one leads to the other. The common grace realm establishes and is established for the sake of God's special grace, for God's redemption. And so as He's establishing and maintaining the world now being repopulated through Noah,.

He says this,.

Surely I will require your lifeblood. From every beast I will require it. From every man, from every man's brother, I require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he made man.

You see how this is tied again to the creation account. It's because man is made in the image of God that God requires the life. In other words, if a man's blood has been shed, then vengeance must take place.

By man, that offender's blood shall be shed. And the reason given is in the image of God, He made man. So God's image gives the foundation for the sixth commandment. The fact that we are made in the image of God is what gives us inherent dignity.

It's what makes our life so valuable, so precious in the sight of God. And that again is why I say murder is the highest form of cosmic rebellion. To efface, to seek to destroy the image of God is the highest form of human rebellion.

And we see murder from the very beginning. The Lord respected Abel in His offering we read in Genesis 4. This is right off the heels of the fall in Genesis 3. The Lord respected Abel in His offering, but He did not respect or He did not regard Cain in His offering.

And Cain was very angry. His countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do not do well, lo, sin lies at the door.

Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Now, Cain went and spoke with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

Doubtless, Cain had heard all of the stories from Adam and Eve. Cain and Abel sitting on their parents' lap, hearing about the deceitful serpent that tore them away from paradise in communion with God.

No doubt they had heard of the goodness of the Creator, how though that deception and fall into sin cost them paradise, nevertheless, God in His mercy spared them. In fact, when they sought to cover themselves, which is to have no covering at all, God in His mercy made a covering for them, a sacrificial covering for them.

He shed animal blood that they might be covered. Now we find Abel shedding animal blood to make a sacrifice unto God, a sacrifice that God accepts. But when Cain, who keeps the ground, brings a grain offering, we find that this is not regarded by God.

And yet, do we not see God's goodness and God's mercy even here? In other words, God has not regarded the offering of Cain. God's worship has been slighted. God's majesty has been offended. How does God react to Cain?

It's the most amazing thing. We sort of read right past it. God, who is to be worshipped purely in holiness, who is to be worshipped perfectly, comes to Cain, the faulty worshipper, and He begins to reason with him.

In other words, God seems far less concerned about the offense at the altar. He seems far more concerned about the state of Cain's heart.

Do you notice that?

He goes to reason with Cain. Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? Don't you know you'll be accepted if you do well? Don't you know that sin is lying at the door? Its desire is for you. Don't you remember what your parents told you?

Don't you know that it's seeking to destroy you like it seeks to destroy them?

You must rule over it.

And even as Cain is being shepherded, as it were, by God, he's plotting evil in his heart. He goes out to the field, strikes up a conversation with Abel, and then strikes Abel to death. So you have this contrast of God's compassion seeking to invade, as it were, Cain's conscience, Cain's evil intention, Cain's plotting heart.

He speaks to him lovingly, out of fatherly concern. He seeks to stir up a pang of conscience, to turn away his heart from wrath and bitterness. But what does Cain do? Cain sulks away to plot murder. The warning from God's own lip does not steal his steps one moment.

Now this scene plays out hundreds of thousands of times each moment across the world, don't you think? Hundreds of thousands of times each moment. That pang of conscience, that slow down. Why are you being so cruel, so ruthless, so full of contempt and malice and bitterness towards someone?

Scripture says that the heart plots evil continually. Desperately wicked. Who could know it? You see in Cain that rather than keeping his relationship with God as the main issue, in other words, Cain, you have offended me.

You've come to the altar and you're slighting me. You're robbing me of my due. That's the main issue. Your relationship with me, your worship of me is the main issue. But instead, he can only have a regard for his brother.

In other words, he's less concerned about his relationship with God, his worship with God, his communion with God. What's foremost in his mind, what's troubling his conscience, is his brother, anger, envy, malice.

So Cain sees Abel as the main issue, the main obstacle, the main concern. When he should have been seeing God as the main issue, the main concern. Remember, as we've established a couple weeks ago, if you don't have the first table, you won't get the second.

This is a reflection of sin's depravity. What does sin seek to do? This is the first issue of sin generationally. We already saw that sin, like a claymore mine, imploded the marital relationship between Adam and Eve.

Everything is put out of order. Instead of a loving, sacrificial leader, a man like unto Christ, Eve receives a tyrant who's going to rule over her, use her, according to his own comforts and needs. And her desire will be for her husband, but he'll rule over her.

So now there's discord, disharmony in the marital relationship. What's the very next sin? It comes right out of the curse. Now all of man's work is obstructed in the world. Rather than effortlessly bringing forth fruit from the field, now there's thorns and thistles, and by the sweat, even by the blood of his hands, man will bring forth bread from the ground.

What's the next issue of sin? What's the very first sin, as far as the text is concerned, to crop up in the next generation of humanity?

Well, it's this right here. Murder.

This is a reflection of sin's depravity, isn't it? Destructive to human life. Destructive to the advancement of humanity. Destructive to God's good design. Destructive to the Giver of Life's purpose for mankind.

Rather than going in the grain, in the groove, in the purpose of the Giver of Life, man begins to take life, destroy life. Everything's out of whack, as it were. We go on to read that God comes again to confront Cain, as He had before, but now after the act.

What have you done?

Where's your brother?

It's the word that is meant to keep stinging his conscience.

Brother. Where's your brother?

He's so callous and indifferent. Am I my brother's keeper? The word keeper there is shepherd. We had read already in Genesis 4 that Abel was a keeper of the sheep. Am I my brother's shepherd? I thought you were his shepherd.

Since you love shepherds so much, why don't you know where he is? Wasn't he one of your favorite lambs? You see how callous and calculated and cold Cain's response is? And God says, the voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground.

So now, instead of bearing fruit for the refreshment and delight of mankind, it's as if the blood of man through murder is being force-fed into the ground, and the ground is gurgling as it screams out in protest.

The whole cosmos is now suffering as a result of sin. Genesis 4 gives us the first malicious cutting down of human life in history. God had promised that death would be the wages of sin. This is true in the most profound sense here in Genesis 4.

And if that doesn't strike you, consider this. The first recorded human death in Scripture is a murder. The first human death in Scripture is a murder. Doesn't that speak volumes to the disruption and cruelty of sin?

What does it look like as this is transmitted across even more generations? It looks like this. Listen to my voice, wives of Lamech. Give heed to my speech. I've killed a man for wounding me. So now it's the anger and the envy, in fact, even just the smallest slight is enough for a murderer to take up his hand in violence.

What do we read of God? He abhors a man of violence. Psalm 10 shows us how man can grow so callous in his murderous intent. The wicked in his proud countenance doesn't seek God. God is in none of his thoughts.

His ways are always prospering. Your judgments, the Lord's judgments are far above him, far away from his sight. He says in his heart, I won't be moved. I'll never be in adversity. My 401k is looking splendid.

I don't have any issues with my life. It's no problem that my heart is seething with rage. It's no problem that bitterness is a way of life to me, that I burn bridges left and right. That's no issue. Things are going well for me.

His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, oppression. Under his tongue, trouble, iniquity. He sits in lurking places of the village. In the secret places, he murders the innocent. In verse 13, why did the wicked renounce God in this way?

Because of this. He said in his heart, you won't require an account. This is something that I'll never have to answer for. This is just what everyone's like. Everyone has issues. Everyone is envious, angry, upset.

For being just frank, everyone hates someone. And of course, the fundamental rationale is, I'll never have to answer. God's ways are so above his thoughts that he has no concern to answer before God. Psalm 94, the same thing.

They break in pieces your people, O Lord. They slay the widow and the stranger. They murder the fatherless, yet they say, the Lord doesn't see. The God of Jacob doesn't understand. Somehow, we think there's this little cabinet in our chest where we can have our secret lusts and our secret hatreds, our secret contempt.

And somehow, that's just our own little domain. No one else can really see it, because we know how to put on that southern hospitality smile. What's the sort of way of slighting someone in the south? I've heard it say, bless your heart.

That's like the ultimate curse, the ultimate vulgarity in the Bible belt. Bless your heart, dear. That might come off very saccharine. The reality is, in the mind and in the secret cabinet of the heart, there's real hatred, jealousy, rage, a certain contempt and bitterness.

And we think, the Lord doesn't see. God doesn't understand. This won't be weighed against me. This doesn't count. After all, I smiled, and I spoke kindly. I've even treated them better than they deserve.

So I don't have to give an account. But of course, Scripture says, every careless word, every thought and intention of the heart, all of this is open before God. You might as well have spoken. You might as well have acted out on it.

That's how you'll be judged. God does see. As clear as the blood in the field cries out to Him, all the bitterness in your life cries out to Him. And so the Sixth Commandment teaches us to have a true, profound regard for life.

Not just for the immediate physical well-being, but a regard for one's welfare, for one's honor, for one's good. The Sixth Commandment teaches us to have a regard for life. So second point here. This first point was sort of an overview, murder from the beginning.

Second point, regarding life. Again, Genesis 9. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he made man. That is the foundation for this command. You shall not murder.

We even read, by the way, we sort of read past it, we even read, even from the beast I will require it. Does that not strike you? Even from the beast I will require it. Does not that show that man is the crown of God's creation?

He's not the end of a chain of evolutionary development? He's made unlike all of the other animals because he alone is made in the image of God. This used to be obvious to every civilization on the history of the earth.

Then we became so wise in our own sight that we became fools. I require your lifeblood from every man, even from the beasts. Exodus 21 actually spells this out. If an animal slays a man, if an ox gores a man, that ox is to be stoned in the assembly, like an idolater, like a blasphemer.

It's to be put to death in the most public and personal way. It's a public execution. We have some vestige of that when a pit bull gets off its chain and attacks someone and what do they do to that animal?

They put it down. It's a man-slaying beast. We have some vestige of biblical law in that practice. This whole perspective, by the way, is vital if we are to have a regard for life as we live in a culture of death.

And we're living in a culture of death. We're living in a culture that relativizes all forms of life and sees human life as really indistinguishable in value from any other form of life. In fact, environmentalists seem to have an extinction fetish for the human race.

Wouldn't it be better if sea cucumbers could dwell unencumbered by humanity? Wouldn't it be better for human beings to die so that kudzu could grow unencumbered? It's like, what are you talking about?

Some animal activist would honestly delight to see human beings die if it would save animal life. Of course, we need to regard animal life. Scripture says, blessed is the man that regards the life of his beast.

My wife hates our cat. I remind her of this verse constantly. I say, I'm a blessed man when Ralphie's on my lap. I'm a blessed man as I regard the life of my beast. But this regard for life, it has a trickle effect.

We need to appreciate all that God has made. It's something you don't have to teach a child to do. They're amazed. It's something that we end up getting desensitized and sort of calloused to when, in fact, we're meant to be in awe of the vibrant diversity of God's creation.

And then we're just stewarded wisely. In my experience, by the way, hunters and sportsmen, even those who actually hunt for sport, the sort of trope against them, the charge against them is they have no regard for animal life.

That's almost always opposite to the case. When they see an animal needlessly suffering, you can see they're very stressed and concerned that that animal's not needlessly suffering. They have a certain respect for wildlife.

And so they're not going out of the way to sort of torture the animal, as it were. But they have a right understanding these animals were made for the benefit of man, for the use of man and the contours of man being a steward of creation, exercising dominion over it.

Speaking, we had some people over earlier in the week, and I was sharing some stories along these lines because I think I was just bambified growing up. So I could probably put a brave exterior on. For some reason, pigs are the only exception to this.

I could go in a helicopter and shoot pigs with an AR and be as happy as a clam. I don't know why. I have no sympathy for swine. But, you know, even if I was out, maybe some of you guys would invite me to go hunting some fall season.

I'm probably going to be turning green by the time we put that deer down. It's going to be like, all right, let's make this kind of quick. I think I need to steal my resolve. I remember my dad, one year, a morning dove flew into our window, and it injured its wing.

My dad built this little cage and nursed it back to health, and we released it. So from that moment on, I thought my dad's Dr. Doolittle.

This is amazing.

You know, we're going to now care for all the critters in the yards of Leominster. And sure enough, I was walking home from school not long after that, and a squirrel had been hit by a car. And as I was walking by, it was sort of mangled and gasping for air.

And immediately, I ran to my dad. You know, we got another patient, Dad. Now, he was rather in the middle of work, and he's humoring me. He's got his latex gloves on because he was a dental technician.

He's walking to the sidewalk, just wants to get back to his job. He doesn't communicate this, so I'm thinking, this is amazing. I wonder if you can make a little bottle of milk. Maybe the squirrel would be, you know, I'm thinking 10 steps ahead.

My dad's thinking, this poor thing, I need to suffocate it and put it out of its misery. So my dad scoops it up, and I'm just beaming with joy. And then I watch his fingers go around the neck, and his body go limp, and my eyes are like black with terror as we head home.

Well, we're on a tangent now, but let me say, if we would have care and compassion on any given animal, how much more should we have on a human being? Why is it, I don't think we should allow whale species to go extinct, but you see some of these activists, they'd rather drown the sailors and save the whales.

There's something satanic about that. If we have regard for human life, it will trickle down into the compassion and stewardship we show toward all other forms of life. And yet we have in utmost, a completely transcendent regard for all of human life.

There is an inherent dignity and value to man, because man alone is made in the image of God. Cornelius Van Til, who I've just been diving into now that I know he wrote on the Ten Commandments. He says, for a truly biblical conception of man, we must keep in mind these factors.

In other words, keep in mind the biblical story. It's everything we've seen between Genesis 3 and 4. For a truly biblical conception of man, we must keep in mind these factors. First, his original dignity as a creation of God.

Not just any creation. The express, the supreme creation of God. Secondly, his ethical defection from God. So all that man was intended to be, and how in rebellion now he is the very opposite of that.

Now all his ways are darkened, his understanding is rebellious. Now his actions are full of evil intent. There's been an ethical defection from God. But then, praise God, his restoration in the grace of God.

His restoration in Christ. And when a Christian fully recognizes these things, Van Til says, he will be saved from two extremes. On the one hand, self-glorification. On the other hand, self-abasement.

That is profound. When you understand who we were as God intended us to be, who we are as a result of the fall into sin, and then who we are restored to be in Christ, on the one hand, it will spare you from glorifying yourself.

Nothing I do is wrong. Everything I do is okay. We're going to make things after our own image. We're going to live life in our own way. The sort of self-glorification, self-rule, self-referentiality.

But then on the other hand, self-abasement. Say, my life doesn't matter. So what if people die? That's just the way things go. Cogs in the wheel, in the machinery of life. Neither is there this abasement or denigration to life.

And we're seeing in our day the constant seesaw of these two extremes always played out. On the one hand, self-glorification, the pride of man. This is especially in the sort of bioengineering and medical fields.

If we can do it, we must do it. Elective surgery? Of course. People that, they want to be handicapped. So they'll go to doctors that are under the Hippocratic oath and say, will you please maim me? Will you please remove my perfectly functioning organs?

So on the one hand, self-glorification in the most depraved forms, but also then self-abasement. Do we not see in this onslaught of global media how desensitized we've become to violence? Is that not reflected in the entertainment that has an ever-increasing and yet never satiated appetite for gore and sensuality?

It's terrifying to think of what this is producing as far as the moral ethos of the next generation. They're unmoved to see the most gorious details. Does it not astound you that it was a scandal that had to develop within the FCC for Elvis to move his hips?

We laugh at that now. That was something serious. Now is there any form of evil that's not broadcast for the youngest minds to see? How do we have regard for life in a culture of death? Well, let's consider some of the areas that this commandment touches upon.

Part of having regard for life in a culture of death is understanding what the Sixth Commandment requires and also what it does not require. So let's talk about first defense.

Defense.

You shall not murder does not prohibit nations from entering into armed conflict in order to protect citizens from outside aggressors. There's more caveats that apply to this. We're not going to spend the rest of the morning looking at just war theory, but that's a legitimate category of Christian ethical practice.

There is such a thing as just war in a fallen world. Sorry to disappoint our Mennonite and Quaker friends. They sort of have an over-realized eschatology. They want the lion and the lamb to lay down together now.

But it is not so. Wars and rumors of wars these things shall be. They must be so. So there is a place for the taking of life in armed conflict between two nations. That doesn't mean every war is just.

This is only for lawful wars, those that meet the threshold that I think the church has wisely held to since it was largely developed by Augustine. Again, see how many roads lead back to him. Neither does it forbid law enforcement from defending their own life or using deadly force when it's necessary to protect other life.

Not only for law enforcement, but for anyone to defend his own life, to defend the life of his loved ones or of his neighbor. And so there's a legitimacy to self-defense that's established by God himself.

Exodus 21 lays out the details of this. But I want to give as a caveat to a room that I know we have a lot of concealed carry guys in here. If someone were ever to bust down the door, we're more of a threat to one another than whoever comes in is most likely.

How good is your aim, right? We should always stand on the fact that self-defense is lawful when it is necessary. And I want to punctuate that word necessary. In other words, it's always a last resort to send someone into immortality, to stand before God the dread judge of all.

That's no small thing. And we shouldn't be Wyatt Earp going around the house daydreaming about someone breaking in. There's a problem, a dysfunction. You're not understanding this command and this regard for life rightly if, husbands, you're in the bedroom at night and you hear what sounds like the crackling of a window and you smile.

That's a problem. If you're like, finally, I've been waiting for this day. No, it's the last resort. It's the last thing you want to do. It's not they were 30 yards away and running away and I just thought I would practice my aim.

No.

Jesus says...

The first thing He says to Peter is put your sword back in its sheath. He doesn't say throw out your sword. He says put it back in your sheath. You probably need it later. But for now, put it back in the sheath.

Then He said those who live by the sword will die by the sword. God abhors a violent man. Don't go to the gas station at 1am and daydream about getting an encounter. Don't daydream about being on the CCTV camera.

Don't go in like the sheriff and size people up. We need to have a regard for human life in a culture of death. Secondly, this is of course always a sort of tender consideration,.

Is suicide. Suicide.

You shall not murder. It does apply to even yourself. You shall not murder even your own self. Human life is to be preserved not because each person possesses some absolute right of ownership over their own person.

That's the fundamental political assertion of libertarianism. You have an absolute sovereignty over your person. Christians don't believe that. You belong to God. And that is why suicide is not permitted.

It's under the sixth commandment as something prohibited by God. God is the absolute owner of humanity. Our lives are His prerogative. We sing it in the old 100th. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us, not we ourselves.

We didn't make ourselves, neither can we take ourselves. It's sad. You look at Japan and you see the plummeting birth rate. You see what decades of the export of American secularism to that nation has done.

And unlike many other Asian nations where Christianity has never taken root,.

Not for long.

And you see that the suicide rate among young men is one of the highest in the world. It's tragic. They have certain places in Tokyo where the parks or certain forests where this is just where you go in an attempt to commit suicide.

How do you have regard for life in a culture of death? That I've come to this place now, the last straw, and now I'll take my own life. As if that's your right. It is not. Regard for life in a culture of death.

How does that touch on abortion? You'll notice in this command, you shall not murder is not limited to some later stage of human development. He does not say you shall not murder at this point. You shall not murder until.

It simply says you shall not murder. In fact, there's no direct object here in the Hebrew. You shall not murder. Full stop. There's no specification of who is not to be murdered. It simply says you shall not murder.

So in other words, all human life at any stage of development is in scope here. All human life is to be considered intrinsically dignified because all human life is made in the image of God.

From the moment.

A human is being formed in the womb, from the moment of conception, all that is needed for that humanity to come to its full potential is there. We see there's been this viral show. I don't watch these shows, but I always see clips of them.

Some clips went viral. This young man, I believe his name was Tanner. I think that was right.

He's.

Extremely autistic.

He's got this joy that is enviable.

The show is called Love on the Spectrum. It's about people that struggle with disorders on the spectrum, struggling to build these relationships. Tanner is going out on this date and this lovely lady with downs across from him.

He just can't stop talking. Man after my own heart. He's sitting there, bubbling away.

He's like,.

What kind of man are you looking for? For me, I'm looking for a Christian. He's going on. You can tell he's been raised in this way. It's really wonderful. If you look at the comments under some of these clips, everyone just says, if only the world could be full of Tanners.

Wouldn't it be amazing to have someone like Tanner in your life? Wouldn't you give anything to have him in your life? Do you not see the hypocrisy of that? When they're 30 and they're.

A blessing,.

And they're teaching you and showing you the childlike simplicity of love and honesty and a general desire for the good of the people around you, and you just realize, oh, I'm really dirty. I have evil intents.

I could really learn a lot. What a blessing it is to know someone like this. We live in a society that, if you get scandally enough, they say, abort it. Abort all the Tanners.

Abort.

These lives that are just going to be a burden on you and on society. These are undesirable. There's a complete hypocrisy that a show like this could be viral in a society where we denigrate life that we deem as a society unworthy.

The hypocrisy, the contrast of having a regard for human life in this culture of death. When God is removed as the source and end of human life, human society dictates for itself who counts and who doesn't.

This is not some hypothetical venture. This is how history plays out time and time again. Genocidal acts, acts of eugenics, being inflicted upon people simply because they're not counted as people. They haven't earned the cut.