Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20091129.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part II: God's Forming Israel To Heed Him, Exodus 15:22-40:38
F. God's Giving His People Their Moral And Civil Law, Exodus 20:1-17
2. The Latter Six Commandments: Loving Mankind, Exodus 20:12-17
b. Commandment Six: Upholding The Sanctity Of Human Life
(Exodus 20:13 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    A sensitive issue in our culture today is the subject of the ending and the preserving of life:

    (1) When the Attorney General, Eric Holder moved the trial of the five men accused of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to a civilian court near where the New York City Twin Towers were destroyed, many Americans opposed it: they felt the accused foreigners should be tried, convicted and executed at Guantanamo Bay as war criminals, not given room to air their terrorist propaganda before the world in a civil court.

    President Obama has said he is sure the defendants will be convicted regardless of the trial move. Nevertheless, a lawyer for one defendant reports his client will plead "not guilty" though he admitted doing the crime so he can explain in court what he did and why in an apparent effort to sway opinion, USA TODAY, 11/23/2009, p. 3A!

    Then again, some feel these men should never be executed even if they have confessed to the crime. Some of the members of our Connecticut State legislature's Judiciary Committee oppose capital punishment for any crime, and seek to abolish the death penalty!

    (2) This issue affects Congress's passage of a health care bill:

    (a) In a promo for the "Talk of Connecticut", President Obama is heard saying of the House bill: "This is a health care bill, not an abortion bill! Federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions!"

    (b) However, the National Right To Life Committee claims the Senate version "contains massive abortion funding" and "provisions that threaten to ration lifesaving medical treatment for seniors." (Steven Ertelt, "Senate Health Care Bill Contains Rationing Provisions, Pro-Life Group Warns," www.lifenews.com)

    (3) Some claim that since the Bible verse we will view today, Exodus 20:13 KJV, commands, "Thou shalt not kill," God opposes all killing even in war to defend one's nation from an invading army!

    (4) Some even believe it is immoral ever to kill not only another human, but to kill any animal life form! The rationale is that if all animal life evolved with man from a common ancestor, killing any animal is killing a relative of humanity, that it is thus immoral to do so!



    Thus, we may ask, "With all the issues related to the ending or to the preserving of life, what is right, and why?!"

    Need: "In view of today's hotly debated issue regarding the ending or preserving of life, WHAT is RIGHT, and WHY?!"

  1. The Exodus 20:13 command in its literary context OPPOSES the MORAL CRIME of the MURDER of OTHER HUMAN BEINGS:
    1. The Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible lists nine different Hebrew verbs that are translated "kill" in the King James Version.
    2. However, the Exodus 20:13 verb for "kill", rasah, as used elsewhere in Scripture when a person intentionally ends another person's life is a "crime against man and God's censure of it," or the sin of murder, Harris, Archer, Waltke, Theol. Wordbook of the O. T., vol. II, p. 860.
  2. Yet, Scripture ORDERS the RIGHTEOUS SLAYING of MAN in CERTAIN CASES, and DISTINGUISHES it from MURDER:
    1. All lawless taking of human life is the sin of murder (as follows):
      1. Genesis 4:1-8 teaches Cain's slaying of Abel was the sin of murder.
      2. As the believer's body today is God's temple (1 Cor. 6:19), and one who destroys his body will be destroyed by God (1 Cor. 3:16-17), suicide, the premeditated killing of one's self, is the sin of murder. (cf. James M. Gray, Christian Worker's Commentary, 1915, p. 62)
      3. All abortion-on-demand is the sin of murder: Exodus 21:22-23 explains that if a man injured any pregnant woman, and either she or her unborn fetus died as a result, the man who inflicted the injury was to be slain for murder. This command reveals that at any stage of pregnancy, in God's view, the fetus is a human being.
      4. Similarly, the intentional killing of humans near the end of life in euthanasia is the sin of murder like abortion is at the start of life.
    2. However, certain situations of killing human beings are justified:
      1. Murder is to be punished by government's execution of the guilty:
        1. After the Genesis Flood that occurred to punish worldwide murder (Genesis 6:13), God ordered Noah and his family to execute anyone who murdered another human being, Gen. 9:6a.
        2. This power is now delegated to human government, Rom. 13:4.
      2. Other serious crimes Biblically demand the death penalty, crimes like kidnapping (Ex. 21:16) and rape (Dt. 22:25-27), among others.
      3. Killing a human in necessary self defense is just, Ex. 22:2-3 NIV.
      4. Consequently, at the international level, there is grounds for "just war," the taking of human life on a broad scale in conflict meant to preserve another society from evil destruction. Genesis 14:1-20 illustrates such a case: Abraham led his servants in a just war against a city state coalition after it invaded and plundered neighboring cities, and captured his relative, Lot and his family!
      5. On the charge that killing animals is murder in presuming man is a relative by evolutionary processes to all animal life forms, Genesis 1-2 counters all evolutionary theories, and claims man is made in God's image to rule both plants and animals! His taking of animal or plant life for his welfare is thus permitted by God, Gen. 9:2-3.
  3. Though some hold capital punishment is illogical in calling for the "killing of a killer for killing", Scripture gives it God's rationale:
    1. God's Genesis 9:6a,b call for capital punishment is based on His reminder that the victim was made in God's image, Genesis 1:26-28.
    2. Thus, murder is contempt for man's Maker, so a MURDERER shows CONTEMPT for the ONE who GAVE him his OWN LIFE!
    3. God thus justly calls for the murderer's life to be forfeited by man in retribution for his scorn of the One who gave the murderer life.
    4. Also, God's call that innocent people in society execute the murderer, a distasteful duty for them to say the least, motivates them in turn to fear ever committing murder, inhibiting further murders, Deut. 21:21.
  4. [Unintentional killing is not an act of disregard for God, so He treats it as an applicable accident or negligence, Numbers 35:9-34.]
  5. [Yet, mentally hating another is equal in God's eyes to murder, so the believer must confess it to Him as sin, 1 John 3:15; 1 John 1:9!]
Application: If we are guilty of murder either in thought or deed, (1) may we trust in Christ as Savior to be forgiven, John 3:16; Rom. 3:21-26; Col. 1:14. (2) Then, may we (a) rely on the Holy Spirit for thought and behavior control (Gal. 5:16; Phil. 2:12-13) and (b) love all men as made in God's image, Rom. 13:8! (3) God spiritually forgives the act of murder, but the government must still punish it as a crime against society; thus, though one is forgiven by God for the act of murder, he must still surrender himself to the police!

Lesson: Humans alone always exist in God's image, so all Biblical breaches of God's image in man alone by man are punishable by death! Where no dishonor of God's image is involved by the slayer, the killing of humans is not sin, but it must be handled under Biblical guidelines!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 When I began to prepare this message, I did not know that I would be led of God to apply it, but that is just what has happened!

After last Sunday's worship service, a Church member gave me a copy of Mark Robinson's book, Smoke, Fire and Angels. Mark was one of dozens who were injured in the catastrophic July 29, 2005 Avon Mountain accident when a loaded runaway construction truck sped down the hill and crashed into stopped cars on the other side of the road. This book tells of that tragedy and of its life-changing effects.

The truck company owner, Mr. David Wilcox, is now serving a prison term for charges related to the accident that cost the lives of five people, that altered the lives of many more and caused great suffering.

Yet, from Robinson's book, it is clear the State of Connecticut is also culpable for the accident: (a) page 124 reports that Wilcox's companies "had amassed 1,136 safety violations from the state, the same state that also awarded Wilcox with $1.6 million of business."

(b) Also, David Wilcox's Truck 8 "was the seventh truck in 21 years to plow through the intersection at the base of the mountain after losing its brakes." (Ibid.)

That being so, to avoid being culpable myself for the future potential loss of human life as is the State of Connecticut in its failure to protect innocent citizens on state roads from illegal vehicles, I warn you: if you see a commercial vehicle driving on a Connecticut road in an unsafe way, or note that it appears to be old or worn, it MAY NOT be SAFE for HIGHWAY DRIVING due to the troubling way matters in our state government are run! Thus, be WARY of the vehicle, KEEP a SAFE DISTANCE from it to ESCAPE potential HARM, and try to protect others by taking down the vehicle's license plate number and reporting it to the police!



Thus, may we always seek to RESPECT human life as existing in the IMAGE of GOD so as NOT to HARM it, but RATHER to PROTECT human life, and also SUPPORT the JUST PUNISHMENT of WRONGDOERS for the welfare of society.

May we then help preserve a SAFER society where the Gospel of Christ can be presented to SAVE SOULS from ETERNAL condemnation!