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Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim
Our Bibles. And let's turn to Exodus chapter 20 and we'll have a very short reading tonight. Exodus chapter 20 in verse 13. All right. Let's let's pray together. Father I thank you so much for the day and the opportunity to fellowship together in your love and around your word we ask that you would help us to rejoice in your truth rightly applied in our lives.
We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. Exodus chapter 20 in verse 13 this is the sixth commandment the Lord gave to Israel. You shall not murder if you have the King James. It says what thou shalt not kill.
Well there's more than one word and for kill in the Hebrew you have the word in the Hebrew for kill where you might you might butcher an ox or a lamb. There might be some need to to kill something in that regard.
But the word being used here is very specific. It's not the general word for kill but it's the specific word in the Hebrew. For for murder it necessarily retains the idea that what is being done is being done out of selfish reasons.
What is being done is is not authorized something that's being done by one's own personal desire but not because it's righteous or ordered by the Lord. And when we come to this commandment short as it is it is located in the list of ten at a special juncture.
And so if you have the extra handout anybody need the extra handout. All right. I think Jay is volunteered as it's one of our deacons to the handout the extra handout. Now we've talked about this before about these ten commandments these ten words that indeed there are ten commandments but they are arranged in a set of concentric parallels called a chiasm.
Now the first commandment and the second commandment have a quote one more down here Jay I have a close relationship and we've talked about that it has to do with worship. You shall have no other gods before me and you shall make for yourself no graven image.
And they both relate to the way that we are to properly think about God and worship God in him alone. Not only is he the only God but we ought not look around the created order and envision that that God is like a fish as the Philistines worshipped Dagon or that God is the storm God.
And that's where we really see the power of God as the Canaanites worshipped Baal. And so proper worship is the concern. And those two commandments are so close together very tightly wound together. And at the very end we have a commandment thou shalt not covet.
And it's said twice you shall not covet your neighbor's house or anything else in his household. But it says it said twice you shall not covet. You shall not covet even though it's one command. How do we know.
It's just one command. Because if you covet you covet. That's just the way it is the first two commands. You can you can fail to worship. You can you can worship God. But then break the second commandment by making God into an idol.
You can say there's only one God and I worship him and him alone. But then as soon as you make an idol to venerate to bow down before then you're breaking the second commandment. This is what Israel did.
They broke the second commandment without breaking the first. As Moses came down the mountain because here at Aaron had made a golden calf and he said this is the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt.
No it wasn't they. Of course he wasn't saying that God didn't bring him back out of Egypt. He wasn't saying that the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt is one among many gods. He wasn't saying that he was saying that God is seen in this golden calf.
And that was breaking the second commandment without breaking the first. That's why we order them the way that we do. The Bible says there's ten commandments. That's how we count them. There's ten even though the tenth commandment comes in two parts.
Why is it all important. Because the first two commandments and the last commandment that comes in two parts are very related. Now let's look at those. You see it on your handout a and B and B and a the top two lines and the bottom two lines in that in that curve worship is the concern of the first two commandments.
Worship part 1 and part 2. How are we to worship. The very end about covening is about desire. Part 1 and part 2. Now how are those related. How is the concern about proper worship of God and proper desire.
Related do you think. How are they related in our experience. More importantly how they related in God's Word. That's not a big leap. Is it where your treasure is there your heart will be also right. And you always supposed to worship with all our heart.
Well where is our treasure. What do we desire. What. What have we said our affections on. You see the connection Paul in his writings connected idolatry with covetousness. He said he said covetousness is just idolatry.
Or idolatry is just covetousness. He made that connection. Now let's envision that we have the old saloon doors. You know what those look like. Right. Those old saloon doors. They don't really cover much of the doorway.
Do they. But if you want to come into the saloon there they are. And they're just both hanging right there. And when you come in do you just use one of them. Oh you can try. But the man coming through always disturbs the one side.
Even if he just uses the other. They just kind of bust open together. He just sit there and they swing together. Everybody comes in. They just hit them both. Don't they. And that's like the first two commandments and the last commandment that is in two parts.
And these are like the entryway into breaking covenant. God is saying to his people Israel now this is this is this is acting against this is living contrary to my design for you as those I have made in my image you you you breach what it means to be made in my image through these doors.
When you fail to worship God supremely because your desires your affections are disordered. Isn't that what happened in Genesis 3. Right there. There was there was a deception about who God really was.
Is he really good. Did God really say. Is God being generous with you. A question about God. A muddling of who God is at the same time a an increase of disordered affections. That Eve looked upon the fruit that was denied to her something that wasn't hers.
God said all this other fruit is yours. This fruit is not yours. And she looked upon it and desired it. Didn't she. It's desirable to her eyes. Desirable to make one wise. How was the image of God breached at the beginning.
You had to walk through those two doors and they were opened and entered into at the same time. Weren't they now to continue all the other breaches of sin all the different ways in which to betray the uniform that God has given us to wear that of the image of God.
You come in through those two doors. And if you just proceed in sin you just keep on and keep on and keep on in sin. More and more terrible things happen. Look at. Look how you. You move further and further in you start lying about God and lying about your neighbor first you think wrongly about God and worship him wrongly.
Then you're just lying about him. You bearing his name in vain saying all the wrong things about him. If your desires are wrong then your words come out wrong. And you begin to say wrong things about your neighbor.
Do we have any problem with that. Today people have disordered affections and they begin to say all sorts of lies about their neighbors. And we have the fourth commandment. And we have the eighth commandment.
Remember the Sabbath day. Keep it holy. And you shall not steal. What is this. This. Both of these are about trusting in God's provision. Not work in your household 24 -7. Because trust God. He's the one who provides and don't steal from others.
Trust God to provide. You don't have to steal from others. God will provide for you. Move on in further. You keep on sending your your desires are disordered. You're you don't really worship God. What happens to your relationship with God and your neighbor around you.
Do you keep on trust. You're not gonna trust in God's provision if you. If you don't worship him rightly. If you don't if you're saying false things about him. And then look what happens to the family.
Getting close to the bullseye. Now aren't we. What happens to the family. What happens between parents and children. What happens between husband and wife. Honor your father and mother. Do you shall not commit adultery.
Do you see however. And what is it the very heart. What is that last bastion of covenant breaking that God is putting on display for Israel. What's what's the worst thing you could do against the image of God.
Murder. That's right murder. Now let's think back. Let's think about. Let's think back at at the creation. That's gonna be sound like a ridiculous question. But how does. How does murder fit in with the image of God and the creation mandate be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdue it.
Not at all not even close. Not not even a shred of anything left that you could finally find some connection between the two. God made man as his relational mediating servant to fill the earth with his glory.
Murder does not fit in at all. Everything that we read about in Genesis 1 2 is about life. Life life life. Look how abundant God made life. Look how much he treasures life. Look how much he wants us to be about life.
God is the one who gives us life. We had to love him supremely. God gave life to those around us. We got to love them rightly. God is the one who gives life to all the creation around us. We are to steward that properly appropriately righteously.
And we are to our relationship to our neighbor to our friend to our family member and even to our enemies described by Christ as what love everything from our. As a husband I'm instructed to love my wife as a father.
I'm instructed to love my children. As a as a Christian I'm instructed to to love my fellow brothers and sisters in in Christ. As a pastor I'm called to to love those who are members of my church and my unbelief love my neighbors until and I'm to love my enemies.
I can't find a relationship with anybody in this world to which I'm not called to love now. Of course that looks different based on those relationships. But it's always about devoted myself for the good of this person in the right way even if it costs me all.
Right. So that is to be done according to God's truth and God's holiness and God's authority because he's he's the one who's given us his son our prophet priest and King. Now let's think about the context of of murder we're going to talk about.
You shall not commit adultery. That'd be the next commandment. But when God made mankind he made he says it says he created them male and female. He created them and instantly immediately he brought Eve to Adam that they would be one flesh married husband and wife.
And what did Jesus say about that. What. God has joined together. Let no man separate. Do you know what else God joined together. Body and soul. God joined body and soul together. The inner man and the outer man.
He's he's the one who put us together that way. That's the way we're supposed to be. Body and soul. Well God has joined together let no man separate. It's not the purview of any person to go separate some soul from his or her body.
Right. Not. They're not their purview. Even if they think they have good reason to even if even if Lamech gets insulted and wounded by a young man he doesn't get to strike him down and kill him and go home and boast about it to his wives.
Okay. The divorcing of the body from the soul. Well you know what. Death is a God's purview. That's in God's hands not ours. And just to underscore the point why did God put man and woman together. It was for the purpose of more life abundant life.
Wasn't it. So everything in the created order is against murder. Which is why a culture that is demonic is about a culture of death. It's direct opposite. Right. The devil hates the image of God and lashes out against the image of God any which way he can with all manner of deception.
So everything this is why. And we're not trying to pick on particular people to be mean. But abortion is the murder of unborn infants. That's breaking this commandment that God gave to Israel. But why did God give this commandment to Israel.
Because no one ought to be doing that. Murdering somebody made in the image of God as against the law of God. That's against his nature. It's against his who he is. Euthanasia which is very very popular.
All manner of people deciding to go pay someone to kill them. That's a culture of death. Helping helping young people or any people destroy themselves and cut themselves and take all manner of toxic chemicals to destroy who God made them to be as a woman or as a man.
That is the culture of death that is just one form of slow assisted suicide. That's the culture of death. There there is a there is a there is nothing that is good or just or right in any of those things.
It's against God's creation. God's word in the creation brings about life. Right. He speaks all of it into existence. He brings forth life life. He kills it all very good very good life. And then what does he say to Adam.
You may eat freely of all these trees in the garden. But of this one tree the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat in the day that you eat of it you will surely die. See God's Word brings life to disobey God's Word to rebel against his power is to separate yourself from that life.
That's death. The death is separation in the Bible. Death is described as a separation in the Bible. And in the day that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they indeed were separated from God separated from each other separated from all manner of good.
And that's how Satan murdered Adam and Eve. Now in John chapter 8 verse 44 Jesus addresses the the Pharisees the religious Jews of the day. He says you are of your father the devil. You do the works of your father the devil.
And he was a murderer from the beginning. He is a deceiver. He is the he is the father of lies. Right. So what is he doing there. Jesus immediately connects deception with murder. And he says Satan was a murderer from the beginning.
Well what's the beginning. He's pointing back to Adam and Eve in the garden. There's the beginning. And Satan murdered Adam and Eve through his deceptions. In other words by diverting them away from the Word of God by diverting them away from God's truth he deceived them and thus he murdered them.
Now let's look at what happened. Let's look at that story in Genesis 3 again. Jesus says Satan was a murderer. He's a deceiver. He's the father of lies. Well what happened. Verse 1. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said to the woman has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. Well he knew that that's not what God had said. He's just trying to twist things. Verse 2. And the woman said to the serpent we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden.
God has said you should not eat it nor shall you touch it lest you die. Eve's recitation is not perfect. She leaves some things out she adds some things in. Then the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die.
For God knows that in the day that you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate.
She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. So Satan entered into this situation by way of illicit desire covetousness.
The the word here for Eve looking and finding the fruit desirable is the same word in the Tenth Commandment for covet exact same word. Okay. Desiring something that doesn't belong to you. If you have no business setting your affections on because that's not yours.
It's not noticing something attractive and beautiful. You drive past a building. Oh wow. What a beautiful building. You didn't covet the building. Okay you weren't fix like I've got to have it. That's mine.
No you can notice beauty without coveting. What she was doing is setting her affections on things and desiring things that doesn't belong to her. Satan simultaneously questioned the supreme value of God.
At the same time he was offering forbidden desire idolatry and covetousness swing on their hinges unto death. I think I like the saloon door illustration because these are not hard doors to walk through.
Oh there you real easy to go through. Very inviting. That's that's the reason why they made him that way very easy to come through. Eve brought death to herself and her husband and Adam did not prevent her.
And he actively ate. And so he brought death to himself and the whole human race. Now they entered into sin with this wrong thinking about God and this wrong desire about what God said wasn't theirs right.
So there's the there's the breach into denying the image of God and living contrary to how God designed them. Now sin didn't stop there. Sin begot sin. And then there was more sin and then there was more sin.
And what do we read about. What story to read about in Genesis 4 murder. Right. All the way to the heart of where sin ends up. God promised that sin brought death. And we see the extent that sin goes to all the way to murder.
Now Cain didn't start off as a murderer. Did he. What were Cain's issues when you hear that somebody murdered so-and-so what is the question that we often ask when you hear that somebody murdered themselves.
Suicide. What questions do we often ask. What do we normally ask. How did I get. How'd that happen. How'd they get there. What. What would possess them to do such a thing. What led to this tragedy. What happened that.
That was the result. We wanted to know what led up. Because we know you don't start off a murderer. Don't you know you don't start off a murderer. There are reasons behind it all right with Cain. In Genesis chapter 4 we hear the story in the first five verses about how Cain and Abel both brought sacrifices to God and were worshiping.
I think they were on the east side of the garden where the entrance is. And there and they're offering up sacrifices to God and worshiping him. And the Lord accepts Abel's offering. He does not accept Cain's offering.
And then we read in verse 5 Cain was very angry in this countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain verse 6 why are you angry. And why is your countenance fallen. If you do well will you not be accepted.
And if you do not do well sin lies at the door. And this desire is for you meaning it wants to master you but you should rule over it. What's going on here. Improper worship of God. Because his desires were wrong.
Thus thus he is now upset and overcome by these by these illicit desires. He doesn't listen to the Lord. And then he deceives his brother who was also his neighbor Abel to get him out into the field. It says he talked with Abel his brother and it came to pass when they were out in the field.
So he got him out into the field. Didn't he. So he lied to his neighbor lied to his brother Abel. And then he you think he's honoring his parents right now by the way how how how many breaches of the image of God.
How much do you have to to step away and run away from loving God your Creator supremely and loving others rightly. And and being completely mismanaging what God has given to Cain entrusted to Cain to to be a steward of.
And Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. So we see what's in store for those made in God's image when their worship is corrupted by self-glorifying desires. What. What's in store. Death and destruction violence and murder so much so that it fills the whole earth.
And then God answers with a flood. Right. Isn't that the answer. See the sin of Cain. Here we see what happens when those made in God's image are cut off from his life full of sin. And they live contrary to God's design for them.
And then there's violence and destruction. And not just in the life of Cain but it fills the whole earth. And that's when God answers with a flood and a covenant with Noah where he describes how things are going to go from this point forward.
And what God does there is he begins to he reaches back to the way things were in the Garden of Eden. He brings those things forward begins to re-implement those in the life of Noah and his children.
And then does some things that sets their attention and affections on hope to come and we'll talk about that some other time. Any questions or thoughts as we close all. Right. Well let's sing the doxology together.
