We're going to Exodus chapter
20. And we're going to verse 13. Exodus chapter 20 and verse 13. It's not a big reading today.
It says, thou shalt not kill. thou shalt not kill. So this is the next commandment
in the Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses. Moses gave
to the children of Israel and recorded in the scriptures and
have been passed down to us by God the Holy Spirit. This is
the sixth of the Ten Commandments as they are listed here in our
Bibles. And perhaps you'll remember that
I mentioned before that we have come to the second section, as
it were, of the commandments, the Ten Commandments. And this
division is kind of imposed. It's not that the scripture gives
us any direction that this division is here but the thought is that
since it was in two tablets and as there are clearly commandments
that direct us to the worship of God and clearly commandments
that relate to our dealings one with another these are called
sometimes the first tablet and the second tablet and whether
that's a legitimate division or not we are amongst those commandments
which speak to us about our relationship with our fellow men and women
and boys and girls. And it's showing us how God directs
us to treat one another properly and deal with how we live together
as a society. Now, when I was young, I learned
the Ten Commandments. It was part of my sort of homework
from Sunday school. One a week I was to learn and
you know, they stay with you. When you learn these things when
you're young, they stay with you all your life. And this particular
commandment was one of my favourites because it was one of the easier
ones to memorise. thou shalt not kill. But I remember
thinking at the time that this law was so short that it didn't
provide any context. It was just a, as it were, a
straight statement. And I wondered if I was breaking
this commandment when I killed a fly or when I killed a fish. Or if I was to kill a poisonous
snake, would I be breaking this commandment? And I also thought,
what if someone is executed for a crime that they commit? Does
that mean that that is a breaking of this law? And what about a
soldier who has to go to war to fight? Is that a breach of
this commandment? And while this commandment was
easy to memorise and repeat, what it meant was less clear
to me. It was less straightforward what
it meant. Now, let me just dispense with
a couple of those perhaps false notions for you, just in case
you wonder about these things like I did. It's clear from the
Scriptures, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, that killing
animals was not included in this prohibition. Animals were regularly
killed for food and for sacrifice, and indeed the Lord commanded
it. And we discover that during the
ministry of the Lord, when the Lord Jesus Christ was here on
earth, the Passover lamb with his disciples. So the killing
of animals was not prohibited by this law. And dangerous creatures
may, on occasion, have to be exterminated if they threaten
to cause hurt or damage to men and women or even property. And also, because we live in
a world of sin, and because men and women do not abide by the
commandments and do not live by the principles of care and
love and respect for one another, men and women do wicked things
and crimes are committed that need to be judged, that need
to be punished, and deterrence have to be put in place so that
people might think twice before doing something that is wrong. And that does not become a prohibition
because of this commandment either. The Bible speaks a lot about
putting someone to death who has murdered another person,
what we call capital punishment. And there were rules in the scriptures,
not here in this chapter, but in other chapters that Moses
gave us, rules in the scriptures to determine whether or not a
person was killed on purpose or accidentally killed. What
we distinguish as being the difference between murder and manslaughter. there were even laws about when
a baby was killed while it was in its mother's womb. And it's
also clear from the scriptures that fighting and killing in
war when one is defending one's home, when one is defending one's
country, when one is defending one's family, or indeed defending
one's own person is not prohibited by this command. And at times
the scripture even commands the destruction of whole nations
in war because of their evil deeds. And we remember that these
10 commandments and all the other commandments of God were primarily
given to the children of Israel and were intended to regulate
the way that the people lived together and honoured and respected
their families and their neighbours and their fellow men and women. And what this command is telling
us is that no one has the right to kill another man, woman or
child of any age or condition or nation as a personal act of
anger or malice or envy. By this law is prohibited murder. By this law is prohibited abortion,
which is the killing of infants in the womb. By this law is prohibited
euthanasia, or so-called mercy killing, which is purposefully
killing to hasten the end of life. And also, no one has the
right to take his own life. So by this law, suicide is forbidden,
which is simply self-murder. And it's right and fitting that
such a law be given to men and women because the scripture tells
us that all men and women are created in God's image and all
men and women are important and all men and women, indeed human
life, is precious. But because we are sinners, We
always put our own self-interest first. Indeed, that was the great
crime. that Cain committed against his
brother Abel. He rose up because of pride,
because of anger, because of envy, and he slew his brother
Abel. That's the first murder of one
man against another that we have recorded in the Word of God in
those early chapters of Genesis. And God is here telling us that
he sees and he knows and he judges and he condemns the act of killing
another person or indeed of taking your own life. And he places
it into the hands and the responsibilities of a settled government to or
a magistrate to bring the responsibilities of a proper judicial rule of
law to bear on those who have breached this law of murder and
to have killed another person. You know When we think about
this killing oneself, I just want to put a little thought
in there. It happens a lot, and sometimes it happens with young
people too, that we discover that young people take their
own lives. And people sometimes think that
if they kill themselves, then their troubles will be all over. But what they don't realise is
that they have still to meet God. And if they kill themselves,
then they are killing themselves, breaking a law, and they're not
able to ask forgiveness. And in a sense, only then, as
they come into judgment, do their real troubles begin. But I think there's more to this
little commandment than meets the eye. And it reminds us that
very often we take these commandments and we think about them as it
were on the level with a straight statement and what that statement
says without fully appreciating that there is more to be understood
as it were under the surface. For example, you could assassinate
a man by killing him. That's what an assassin is, someone
who kills someone else. You can assassinate a man with
a gun or a knife, but you can also assassinate a man's character
by speaking evil or speaking lies or speaking ill against
him. You can destroy a man's body
and you can destroy a man's reputation. And it is true that murdering
someone is wrong, but the Lord Jesus Christ tells us in his
Sermon on the Mount that it's not only the act of murder that
is wrong, but it is the improper anger and hatred in the heart
that motivates the act which is wrong. And here we can see
the true nature of sin and how this sin, as in all the commands,
extends to condemn us whether we've technically physically
committed the actual crime or not. Because it's not only the
acting out of the crime, but it's the motive for the crime,
the desire after the crime, and the anger in our heart that sponsors
the crime. And if temper and anger and rage
in our hearts reveals the root of sin, that if left unchecked
will come forth in all manner of evil conduct. The act is wrong
in the performance, but so is the evil motive in the heart,
and God sees both. We may not have committed the
sin of murdering someone, but if we have desired to do so,
or if we have wished we might, or if we've got angry enough
to be able to do it, then the Lord knows what was in our hearts. So that once again, the law of
God doesn't give any of us a warm feeling of peace and comfort because we've obeyed God's laws,
but rather an awareness in our consciences that our hearts are
deceitful and desperately wicked, and were it not for God's grace,
were it not for God's restraining hand, we are as able and as willing
to perform the vilest acts for our own self-interest as is anyone
else. When we look at a criminal who
has been convicted of a sin, do we think to ourselves, I would
never do that? Or do we rather say, as we probably
should, there but for the grace of God go I? It's best if we
think the latter. Our sin, may not be open or public
or even directly covered by a law or a statute. But all of us know
that we are sinners before God and if we fail in one of God's
commands, we fail in all. And none of us, none of us should
ever wish to be measured by the holiness or the purity of God's
law. We shall always fall short and
we shall always be found wanting. And again, I repeat, how can
a man or a woman or a boy or a girl be right with God? How can I be pure in the sight
of God? You know, if we're not even clean
in our own eyes, if our conscience condemns us, How can we be clean
in the sight of God? Only by the washing of regeneration. Only by the application of the
cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. And only by the imputed righteousness
of God as a free gift of his grace. Let me say one more general
thing about God's law here and indeed man's law. Men have made
laws for all manner of things. Some are good and some are not
so good. And we live in days where there
is a lot of confusion about what is right and what is wrong. How should people live? What
should people's liberties be? How are people to be free to
do things that they want to do, whether they accord with the
law of God or not? And we find that laws are being
changed. Laws that have stood for many, many years in our countries
are being changed now to let people do what once was regarded
as illegal. And it's confusing times for
many of us. I get confused and I'm sure you
do too. But the prophet Samuel tells
us this. He says, the Lord seeth not as
man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. And here's the
thing that ought to give each of us personal peace and comfort
and reassurance. David says in Psalm 32 verse
2, Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no guile. If the Lord does not
impute iniquity to us, if the Lord forgives us of our sins,
then we are blessed indeed. If we trust the Lord Jesus Christ
and rely upon his righteousness and not our own, then the Lord
has promised to receive us, to save us from our sin and to bless
us with eternal life. And we may have done the worst
kind of crimes in this world and yet there is redemption and
yet there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared. God's grace is the greatest blessing
that we can have in this life. And I pray that it will be the
portion and experience of all who are listening today. May
the Lord bless you once again. Amen.