Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the book of Genesis, Genesis
chapter 9, and reading from our text, verses 5 and 6. And surely your blood of your
lives will I require, at the hand of every beast will I require
it, and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother
will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by
man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made
he man. Genesis 9 verses 5 and 6. And this morning, with the Lord's
help, I desire to speak to you on the sanctity of human life. This week, the MPs in our House
of Commons launched a serious assault on the sanctity of human
life. On Tuesday, they voted to decriminalise
abortion even up to birth. And on Friday, to axe the end
of life protections, voting in favour of the Assisted Suicide
Bill, despite the passionate opposition in Parliament. 314 of our MPs voted in favour
of the terminally ill adults or end of life bill with 291
against, only a margin of 23 votes. The House also rejected
amendments to protect those struggling with mental illness with financial
pressure or concerns about being a burden from undergoing assisted
suicide. They rejected those amendments
and yet still voted in favour of him. The legislation will
now proceed to the House of Lords, which will consider the proposals
over the coming months. Under the bill, patients deemed
to be terminally ill with less than six months to live would
be allowed to receive help to kill themselves. It has been
a very solemn week for us as a nation and I wanted this morning
to hear the word of God, to reaffirm to us the sanctity of human life,
the difference between us and the beasts. We read in Genesis
chapter 9 of the beasts that are actually delivered into our
hand. Every moving thing that liveth
shall be meat for you. Before the fall it was only herbs,
There was no death before the fall. But here it is reaffirmed
after the flood that we are given to be able to kill and eat the
beasts of the field, every living thing. We are prohibited from
eating the blood which is the life of it. The blood always
is set apart as separate, even in the New Testament, when the
apostles had to determine whether the Gentiles were to be circumcised,
were to keep the law or not. They said no, they need not be
circumcised, they were not obliged to keep the law, but they did
command them to abstain from fornication and from eating with
the blood. And those two specific things
they charged upon them. And the blood, indeed, it points
to the precious blood of Christ. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. The blood is the life. And so
even with the beast, that is set apart as not to be eaten. But then immediately, in the
verses that we've read for our text, There is a very big difference
placed upon the worth of a human life. If an animal, if an animal
should kill a man, that would be required of that animal. If
a man should kill another brother, another man, I will require the
life of that man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by
man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made
he man. And so I want to look at two
main points this morning. Firstly, how killing is covered
in scripture. And then secondly, the sanctity
of human life and the reasons that scripture gives why it is
so different than that of a beast. But firstly, the way that death
is set before us in the scriptures of truth. We've already mentioned
in the context here the difference between the death of a beast
and the death of man. Right the way through the scriptures
man is able, is commanded to eat the flesh of beasts. Under the Old Testament there
were those beasts and birds that were counted as unclean and in
a ceremonial way they were forbidden to be eaten. in the New Testament
that does not apply. But the idea that God has given
every beast to be eaten and for food for us, that is clearly
set before us in Scriptures. Now we know, of course, there
will be those that through a choice of their own decide they don't
want to eat flesh, vegetarians or whatever, and if they want
to make that choice they can. But if they make it on the basis
that God does not command and does not allow them to eat flesh,
that is not scriptural, although we can do it by choice. But when
it comes to man, killing is covered in four ways. in scripture and
you might say in a fifth way. The first one is premeditated
murder. Thou shalt not kill. Those that
plan and with full purpose of mind go about to take the life
of another. Our text here is very clear that
there is for such a one capital punishment, judicial punishment. So that is the first, premeditated
murder. The second is accidental killing. The example given in scripture
is if one was felling a tree with an axe and the head came
off the axe and flew and hit someone and killed them, that
man did not have any enmity, he didn't plan it, it was an
accident, that he shall not be then guilty of death. But it
was provided with the Jews to have cities of refuge And the
one that had killed someone unawares like that, they were to run to
that city of refuge so that the avenger of blood, the relatives
of that one killed, did not find them and kill them. In that city
of refuge, they would be heard before the judges to determine
whether it was premeditated or whether it was an accidental
killing. If it was premeditated, they
were still to be put to death. If it was accidental, then they
had to stay, in effect, imprisoned in that city until the death
of the high priest. There's a lot of ceremonial teaching
as well in this, and of course, We have those cities of refuge,
a beautiful time, of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The hymn writer says, a refuge
for sinners the gospel makes known. And as our great high
priest, he has already died and risen again, so those that flee
to him, they are immediately free. Then we have the judicial
killing. And this is that which follows
a premeditated murder, that the judges have power, have authority
by God, as in our text, to put to death, not by one witness,
there must be two witnesses, it must be very clear, and that
they put that person to death in a judicial way. Then there is the killing in
the time of war. We know there is a difference
in that, because David, when he was so grieved and upset with
Joab, that Joab had killed Abner, he'd killed also Masa or Asahel,
one other he'd killed in a time of peace, and David says that
he shed the blood of war in a time of peace. It makes a very clear
distinction between killing in a time of peace, which would
then be murder, and in a time of war. These are ways that are
set before us in the Word of God. We also have two very solemn
cases, and they are applicable to what has gone through our
parliaments in the House of Commons this week, and that is the suicide
or assisted suicide. We think of King Saul, the first
king over Israel, the 12 tribes. And when fighting with the Philistines,
the Philistines wounded him. And he asked his armor bearer
that he might kill him so that the Philistines did not come
and abuse him. So he was in a similar situation,
you might say, to one that had a short time to live. And rather
than wait for God's time and for events to take place, to
take into one's own hand, to take one's own life. And when
the armour bearer would not do it, then Saul fell upon his own
sword. He killed himself with his own
sword, took his own life. And his armour bearer, when he
saw what King Saul had done, He followed suit and did the
same." What a solemn reminder that when there are those around
us that are doing something, even wrong, that there are those
that will follow suit and they will do the same thing. Shaw
was a most solemn character before that war when God had been silent
to him. Instead of going to the Lord,
he went and consulted a witch. He was a man that had his own
way of serving the Lord. Whenever God commanded him to
do something, he did it in his own way, and then said that he
had done the will of the Lord, when in fact he'd done it but
on his terms and his way. How careful we need to be in
that way. not deceiving ourselves and saying,
well, we have done the will of the Lord, or we might have done
a bit of it, but not done all of it. And so Saul is the most
solemn character, a warning of one that took his own life. The other one is that of Judas
Iscariot, who betrayed our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And
when he saw that the Lord was to be condemned, then he repented
or changed his mind or regretted what he'd done. Not a real evangelical
repentance of godly sorrow, but just really despair, realizing
the reality of what he'd done. And he went again and hung himself,
cast the pieces of silver that he'd got from betraying the Lord
before the priests, and then hung himself. They brought the
potter's field to bury strangers in, called it the field of blood." Suicide, or taking one's own
life then in scripture, is associated with those two most solemn characters. Addressing the other issue regarding
the children in the womb. May we remember that right through
scriptures we read these words, God gave her conception. Life begins at conception. And we have that reinforced in
the law of Moses where it is said if a person, a man, a woman
that was with child, that if there were no mischief followed,
then he would be released. But if there was mischief followed,
then blood for blood, life for life. So if he injured a woman
that was carrying a child, and that woman then had the child
because of the injury, but the child was born alive and well,
then he would not be punished as a murderer. But if the child
was born and it died because of that injury, then it would
be counted as murder just the same, just the same as what our
text here prescribed. It's a solemn thing. How many
murders, how many murderers there are, in our healthcare system
and how many are guilty of this and yet don't realise it. So
many millions throughout the world are slain before they ever
see the light of day. It is a solemn day in which we
live but the scripture is not silent as to why we should not
kill, we should not kill the unborn We should not kill our
elderly. Both ends of life's spectrum
are under attack. And we need much prayer that
these laws do not come, or at least one will, but one's still
got to go through the House of Lords. I want to look secondly at then
the sanctity of human life. Why is it? Why should we view
human life in this sanctified way? In our text the context is comparing
with a beast and I want to begin and looking at seven points through
as sub-points. But firstly to consider a life
that is different to that of a beast. In Ecclesiastes chapter
3, at the end of that chapter, at first there is a bringing
of man and beast together as suffering the same thing, that
is, that they are dying. If we read from verse 18, I said
in mine heart, this is Ecclesiastes 3 verse 18, concerning the estate
of the sons of men, that God might manifest them and that
they might see that they themselves are beasts, or that which befalleth
the sons of men befalleth beasts. Even one thing befalleth them,
as the one dieth, so dieth the other. Yea, they have all one
breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast, for
all is vanity. All go unto one place. All are of the dust. and all
turn to dust again. So those verses are dealing with
our outward body, our mortal body, the fact that we die and
we return to dust again. And we view that, we know that,
the cemeteries, we see that right through life. But the next verse
brings a very great difference, something that is not viewed
and not understood by the natural man. Who knoweth the spirit of
man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth
downward to the earth? That is the difference. That
is the difference between man and a beast. And that is why
in our text, in the context, beasts may be killed for food,
but man may not be killed because man has a soul. And he has a soul from conception. You would remember that when
we had John Baptist in the womb and Elizabeth and Mary came and
saluted her cousin and the babe leapt in the womb. And Mary,
she testified, or Elizabeth, testified and said that when
the mother of her Lord doth come, that the babe leapt in the womb,
heard the salutation, leapt for joy, a living, living soul. But how is it different as it
were. How was man created? Viewed outwardly first. If we look at man, then he has
a reasoning that the beasts do not have. They can reason a little
bit. Great things are made of little
things that some animals do to learn and to have some wisdom
to do. pales into complete insignificance
to what is given unto man to be actually have an intellect
and a rationality to be able to design many, many things. He can be taught one thing and
then use that information, process that information to bring out
other information and other skills from what he has already learned. That is what is seen in an outward
way. God has put man over his creation. He has given him to be over the
beasts and to rule over man as well. He is made in that way,
in the image of God, in having dominion, in having ruling, in
being in the pinnacle of God's creation. And that we can see
even in a natural way. We can observe that. We can see
a very distinct difference between men and peace. But then there is that that is
not seen. There's seen the soul of man. God breathed into man the breath
of life, gave him a living soul. Man became a living soul. That is an eternal soul. A being that tabernacles here
in this body, that at death goes from this tabernacle and returns
to God, and at the resurrection is then joined to a new tabernacle,
whether in glory or whether in eternal torments in hell. That soul is our consciousness. It's that which remains, though
this body return to death. And that is what was clear in
Ecclesiastes. The spirit of the beast goeth
downward, the spirit of man goeth upward. In that way, in the made,
in the image of God, is that man is eternal. Man never ceases
to exist once he's been conceived. But then there is that which
has been lost at the fall, an image that we were given in Adam,
which is a true knowledge of God in true righteousness and
holiness. Man made in the image of God,
there was no separation between him and God. He could commune
with God, have fellowship with him, hear his voice walking in
the garden, that we have lost. We are unholy, we are unrighteous,
we have no knowledge of God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, neither can he know them. They are spiritually
discerned. Under the sentence of death,
in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Not only
the body shall die, But the soul is spiritually dead, dead in
trespasses and sins, and cannot know the spiritual things. But
he was made in that image, and that is only lost through the
Fall, but is through the Gospel to be restored and at last to
be perfect in heaven. There's another way that we are
made in the image of God. When our Lord came to this earth,
he was made man and dwelt among us. He was Emmanuel, God with
us. And we were made in that image,
the very likeness as what our Lord was to take into union with
his divine nature. The very flesh and bones that
hung upon the cross are now glorified in heaven. Every vision that we have of
the eternal world and the beings of it, they are as men, as angels. A man is made in that image of
God that is the image of His eternal Son that He took when
He came here below. Just because our Lord came second
as the second Adam, doesn't mean to say that Adam the first was
not made in that image of God, in that sense. How we are actually made, how
our bodies are, is made by God again distinctly so different
than any animal whatsoever. And so our life, the life of
man, is different from that of a beast. The second point where human life is to be sanctified
and set apart, is that it is a life needing redemption. Every soul that is born is under
the curse, is under the sentence of not only just death that an
animal is under, but under eternal death. And if He is to escape that eternal
death, then He must be redeemed and set free from that. And we know that God is sovereign
as concerning those that have not come to years or not come
to be born or to know things and to learn. but the usual way
is that it is done in a day of grace. And so we would remember
that the Lord Jesus Christ in coming has come to redeem, set
free by the payment of a price, not beasts, not angels, but man. That puts man in a very, very
special position, because God Himself has wrought a way that
He may be saved, may be delivered from the wrath to come, and that
He has made that way of redemption in His only begotten Son, by
Him coming in that same image, same body and suffering, dying,
shedding his blood, standing in the place of his people. The soul of man is one of which
God's whole plan of salvation is pointed to redeeming and to
saving. You might say, well, It's not everyone that is saved. And surely others, some can say,
well, I don't want to be saved, or those that don't believe.
But what we're speaking about here is the sanctity of human
life in the reality as viewed by God,
revealed to us in the Word, that that soul living eternally God
has made a provision in his beloved Son, that we are not to seek
into the secret will and purposes of God, but to know that God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but should have eternal life. It is to be proclaimed in all
the world. And so for one to then say, this
life, this baby, this person, that the Lord has wrought such
a plan of salvation for mankind, that we're going to deem that
this one can be taken out of it. This one, their life can
be shortened. This one cannot take part in
that and cut it short. May we remember the subjects
of God's redemption is fallen sinful man. The third thing, how the human
life is a sanctified set-apart life. It is a life that is in
the day of grace, or a soul to be called. A time when a soul
is to be called by grace, born again, spiritually to be made
alive. Everyone that is not called,
that dies as they were born, shall perish eternally. And life
then is very precious, especially to one that does not know the
Lord, that does not have faith in God, that has not believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. While there is life, there is
hope. This is to be set forth to all
that live, however old they are, however much in pain they are. What if we were to say, There's
that dying thief on the cross and he is suffering in agony.
Let's come and quickly put him out of his misery and let's stop
his death and his sufferings before it takes its course. And
he is slain. But as he continued on the cross,
he was brought to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To pray,
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And the Lord
answer him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be
with me in paradise. You might say it would be equivalent
to seeing a person in agony, in trouble, on a hospital bed. And as they continue in that
way, the Lord blesses them with saving faith, brought to believe
and brought to be with Him in heaven, instead of having one
coming and taking away and cutting their life short artificially
or by their own hand when grace has not been given. Now may we
be very clear, we cannot, we will never frustrate God's design
and plan. We will never cheat God out of
one of his children. It will never be that one exercising
abortion or killing by suicide, euthanasia, will never rob God
of one of his children, no. But we are not to pry into the
secret ways of God at all. Now many that have testified
during these debates who are Downs, or there have been congenital
deformities, they're in wheelchairs, and how their lives have been
spared, and how useful their lives have been, how thankful
they are to actually have them, even in a natural sense. And
yet they could have, and many would, still be taking those
very same lives. And how much more precious is
it to value every minute, every bit of time that those yet uncalled
have upon this earth, that while they have life they may hear
the gospel and believe and be saved. So life is precious in that way
to an unbeliever. Let's think of it another way,
in the fourth place. The sanctity of human life is
because it is a life purchased by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ. Peter, in his first epistle and
chapter 1, he says in verse 18, For as much as ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. We are to think who redeemed
us, how we were redeemed. and our life then is very precious. Those that are called, our election
is known by calling. So when the Lord does call us,
when we do know that we have a hope beyond the grave, then
we know that we have been redeemed by Christ dying and suffering
for us. He endured these things. We're
not to think, well, We have a hope beyond the grave. Why should
I suffer here? Why should I have pain? Why should
my last days be filled with agony? I can just take a pill or put
away my life and I'll go straight to heaven. I'll be with the Lord.
You wouldn't. If you've got that small value
of Christ or estimation of his redeeming precious blood and
what was shed for you, as you profess in believing, to then
just take that life and to extinguish it. The Lord has said that he
will come for his people. They are not to choose their
time. Job, in all of his afflictions,
he says, all the appointed days of my time will I wait till my
change come. He would not take away his own
life. The fifth way, our lives, the
sanctity of human life, is because we have a life given by Christ
which is eternal life. I give unto them eternal life,
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of mine hand. You might say, you've just said,
a soul lives forever. Well, a life forever in hell,
it is an existence, but not eternal life of blessedness and glory. But the life that God gives his
children restores that which was in Adam, or even better than
that, brings them to know the holiness in Christ, the righteousness
of God in Christ, brings them to a true knowledge of God and
the knowledge of their relationship with Him, to love God and to
love all that He does and all that He's done. To be in possession
of that eternal life and then say, I'm going to destroy this
temple We read the solemn word, whosoever shall destroy the temple
of God, him will God destroy. And if we kill our own bodies,
we are destroying the temple of God. We are killing and taking
away the tabernacle that our soul is in. A sixth way is that we are to
live a life unto the Lord. Paul says, the life that I now
live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. But he also says in writing to
the Corinthians in his first epistle in chapter six, if I turn to it, Verses 19 and
20. And this is an exhortation to
flee from fornication. What know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have
of God and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price. Wherefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit which are God's. And so the Apostle
is clearly setting forth our body, our spirit, they are God's. You are bought with a price,
wherefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
are His. How can we take that which is
His and destroy it and take it away? It is sanctified, it is
set apart, as the Lords, whose we are, and whose we are to serve
here below. We read of David, he served his
own day and generation. And each one, when they had served
it, then the Lord took them. But we are not to ourselves cut
short that time here below of serving the Lord. Though we are
on the pinnacle of God's creation, yet God himself then is above
us. And he, as much as we decide
when we will kill an animal, perhaps put an animal out of
its misery, so it is only God that decides and prescribes the
conditions of which a man can take away his life or another's
life. The last one is why the life
of man, human life, is a sanctified life. It is a life the Lord brings
to Himself. Again and again in the Word of
God, He testifies of this. There is He that brings His people
to Himself. Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I
am, there ye may be also. It is God's appointed time, appointed
time to be born. We've sung of it in our first
hymn, an appointed time to die. And God appoints it. You might
say, well, what if man does take his own life? Is that then he's
cheated God? He's gone away from God's appointments? No. The sovereignty of God, the
great mystery of God, God is sovereign and nothing happens.
Even those evil things that are happening done by man, we know
that by the crucifixion, is under the sovereignty of God. Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? It's a great
mystery to us, but it is very important for us to realize the
truth of Deuteronomy chapter 29 and verse 29, that the secret
things belong unto God. The things that are revealed
belong unto us and to our own children, that we might do them. And we're not to pry. into the
secret things. We are to know God is in sovereign
control over all things. And these laws that are passed,
solemn laws, anti-God laws, they will not cheat God of one of
his people. They will not touch any of his
people eternally. No, even if his people are forced
to walk in this way, that shall again not cheat them of heaven. It cannot destroy what God has
given. But we, in walking according
to the word of God, making our laws in accordance with the sanctity
of human life and what is revealed in the word, are not to have
recourse to our own thoughts or emotions or feelings or anecdotes
of those that have taken this course and how good they have
felt it to be. is to be weighed in the balances
of the sanctuary and God's dear people are to walk according
to the word of God. We are thankful that there were
those in Parliament that clearly testified that they would walk
according to their faith and vote according to their faith,
that they were not listened to or go along with arguments of
man to turn aside from what God has commanded and may we but
not be left to drift into the thinking and ways of the world
and to turn away from the word of God and not realise how special,
how sanctified, how separate from a beast man is, man that
is made in the image of God. Surely, your blood of your lives
will I require. At the hand of every beast will
I require it, and at the hand of man. At the hand of every
man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image
of God made he man. One last thought. Are you, am
I, saved? Do we know the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we clearly called? Have we
in us that blessing of eternal life? May these things bring
us to a real concern, that we be found on the rock, we be found
as a believer, that we have every evidence of whose we are and
whom we serve, and we have that good hope beyond the grave. Don't
take these things for granted, dear friends, but may our life
and all we do and all we think bear clear witness of a changed
character, a renewed soul, one for whom Christ has died, rose
again, and for whom Christ will have to be with him in heaven
at last. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.