"THE CREATOR OF LIFE GIVES AND TAKES LIFE IN HIS TIME AND MANNER."

105. Q. What does God require in the sixth commandment?
A. I am not to dishonour, hate, injure, or kill my neighbour by thoughts, words, or gestures, and much less by deeds, whether personally or through another;[1] rather, I am to put away all desire of revenge.[2] Moreover, I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself.[3] Therefore, also, the government bears the sword to prevent murder.[4]
[1] Gen. 9:6; Lev. 19:17, 18; Matt. 5:21, 22; 26:52. [2] Prov. 25:21, 22; Matt. 18:35; Rom. 12:19; Eph. 4:26. [3] Matt. 4:7; 26:52; Rom. 13:11-14. [4] Gen. 9:6; Ex. 21:14; Rom. 13:4.

106. Q. But does this commandment speak only of killing?
A. By forbidding murder God teaches us that He hates the root of murder, such as envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge,[1] and that He regards all these as murder.[2]
[1] Prov. 14:30; Rom. 1:29; 12:19; Gal. 5:19-21; James 1:20; I John 2:9-11. [2] I John 3:15.

107. Q. Is it enough, then, that we do not kill our neighbour in any such way? A. No. When God condemns envy, hatred, and anger, He commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves,[1] to show patience, peace, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness toward him,[2] to protect him from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies.[3]
[1] Matt. 7:12; 22:39; Rom. 12:10. [2] Matt. 5:5; Luke 6:36; Rom. 12:10, 18; Gal. 6:1, 2; Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:12; IPet. 3:8. [3] Ex. 23:4, 5; Matt. 5:44, 45; Rom. 12:20.

Scripture Reading:
Genesis 9:1-7
Romans 12:9-13:10

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 119:28
Psalm 103:4
Psalm 18:8
Psalm 145:2,3
Psalm 37:1,9,11

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The Lord instructs us in the sixth commandment not to murder. With this command we’re placed in the midst of some very contemporary issues facing our society. That terrorists hijacked airplanes and turned them into missiles –in the process killing all passengers on board- was an act of murder. Abortion clinics in our country and around the world annually terminate hundreds of thousands of pregnancies – and that is murder. A couple of years ago the Northern Territory government permitted euthanasia (be it under certain conditions), but euthanasia is murder. Thankfully, the federal government stepped in to force a change in law. Meanwhile we today have a Dr Nitzke lobbying strongly to open a euthanasia clinic in WA – contrary to the sixth commandment. Suicide rates have risen in the last number of years, but suicide too is murder. In distant lands are millions of refugees, some of whom go to great lengths to get to Australia. The major political parties of our land uphold a policy of not welcoming these refugees. The question is: does God in our commandment give us a responsibility toward these refugees? If yes, what? You see, the sixth commandment places us in the midst of some very contemporary issues.

It is simple enough to say that God forbids the murder of innocent passengers on an airplane, forbids the murder of babies in their mother’s womb, forbids the murder of a senile grandparent, etc. But why, brothers and sisters, why does God forbid it? What are the principles behind the sixth commandment? And if God forbids murder of babies, what does God command in relation to caring for mothers unhappy with their pregnancy? If God forbids the murder of the aged and infirm, what does God command in relation to caring for these members of our society?

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

1. Why people may not terminate life
2. What people need to do with life

God’s command is categorical: "You shall not murder." Why did the Lord give this command? The answer lies first of all in the material of Genesis 1 and 2. For I learn from those chapters that the human race did not arise from a process of evolution so that there is at bottom no difference between a man and a mosquito – as if there’s morally no difference between getting ride of a pesky mosquito and getting rid of a troublesome man. Rather, the Lord God almighty took dust from the earth, fashioned it into the shape of a man, breathed into it the breathe of life, and man became a living being. Not only that, the man God fashioned in the beginning was created in the image of God. That is, the Lord gave a unique task to the man; the man was created in such a way that he imaged what God was like. As image of God he received a place in God’s world above the animals; man himself is not an animal. After the Flood, God told Noah that "every moving thing that lives shall be food for you" (Gen 9:3); Noah and his descendents were free to kill any animal for food. But God added, "Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man" (vs 6). God permits the killing of animals (under certain conditions), but He forbids the killing of people, and He Himself appeals to His creating work to explain His command; He created the human race, and did so in the image of God.

It is true that the fall into sin occurred between the time God created man in Gen 2 and the time God forbade murder in Gen 9. That fall into sin changed much, and changed things radically, but it did not change the fact that man was created to image God. True, after the fall the human race was no longer able to image God unless the Lord renewed a particular person through His Holy Spirit. But even that doesn’t change the fact that man had a task to image God, and on account of that task no one was permitted to kill another.

As we consider why we may not murder, there is another aspect we need to keep in mind. To murder someone is to inflict death upon that person. But where, congregation, does death come from? God did not create it; death did not exist in Paradise. Instead, death entered the world when we ate from the forbidden tree. Said God in the beginning: "in the day that you eat of [that tree], you shall die" (Gen 2:17). That’s what happened. In Adam the whole human race sinned, and so brought death to oneself. Paul says it this way to the Romans, "The wages of sin is death" (cf Rom 6:23).

Since that is the case, brothers and sisters, who is entitled to distribute that penalty? Are you? Am I? Let’s have it straight in our minds, beloved: death is not simply the termination of life. Nor did that termination exist in the world God created in the beginning. Death is a foreign element, an evil thing that we brought into the world through our fall. Death is God’s penalty, God’s judgment on our disobedience; death is the expression of God’s holy wrath on our sin. That reality spells out that it is not for people to distribute death to anyone; it is for God to hand out that penalty upon sinners at the time of His choosing.

Remember too that death is not the end of things. This penalty on sin, death, leads to God’s judgment hall. As the apostle Paul writes: "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one many receive the things done in the body" (II Cor 5:10). That presses the question upon us again: is it for any of us to hurl a person in front of God’s judgment seat?! You see, as long as a person lives, there is still time for him to repent from sin and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ in faith. But if I murder a person, if I impose upon him the penalty God ordained for sin, I drive him straight to God’s judgment seat – and he no longer has opportunity to repent of his sins, with all the eternal consequences of that.

Again, there is another aspect of the matter to keep in mind. The Lord God sent His only Son into a world where God promised the penalty of death upon every sinner. He sent His Son so that He might bear the burden of God’s wrath against sin. What happened? The Lord Jesus Christ was murdered on the cross of Calvary. As Peter says in His Pentecost sermon to the people of Jerusalem concerning Jesus of Nazareth: "Him … you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death" (Acts 2:23). That’s to say: people thought to take matters in their own hand, and impose on Jesus of Nazareth the penalty that God had decreed upon every sinner. That was blatantly evil on the part of the people, since God had prohibited murder; God Himself would impose the penalty of sin upon the sinner at His time. But more, God had decreed that the penalty of death was to fall only upon sinners. And see: Jesus was Himself not a sinner! Yet the people murdered Him; how evil their deed!

But here is the marvel of God’s eternal counsel: God in infinite mercy was pleased to turn this murder into salvation for many! For Peter continues his sermon like this: "God raised [Him] up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it" (vs 24). Christ’s innocent death is the fulfillment of the sacrifices of the Old Testament; as the animal died in the temple in place of the sinner who deserved to die for his sins, so Christ Jesus died in place of the sinner who believes in Him. So sin was atoned for, and the sinner delivered from the wrath of God. That’s the mystery of the gospel; the murder performed upon Jesus Christ opens up for God’s people the way to heaven!

That glorious gospel, though, does not mean that we no longer have to die. We certainly do. But, as Paul can say, "to die is gain." For death brings the child of God before the judgment seat of God, where Christ intercedes on his behalf, and the saint –justified as he is in Jesus’ blood- receives life eternal in the presence of God – with no tears or pain or suffering anymore. Indeed, for Christ’s sake is death gain!

Does that glorious gospel mean that we are now free to murder each other or ourselves? Most certainly not! The command of the beginning remains; God created us in His own image, and therefore we may not kill each other or ourselves. In fact, through His Holy Spirit the Lord has recreated us in His image; how much less then are we permitted to murder each other or ourselves!

How, now, my brothers and sisters, are we to apply this material in midst of today’s questions? What should the unmarried girl do when the doctor tells her what she feared to hear – yes, you’re pregnant? What should you do when you’re told that the baby you’re expecting is handicapped? The option is available: terminate the pregnancy. To our sinful nature the option is attractive; in the church there’s still shame associated with pregnancy outside of marriage, for it speaks of sin. How tempting the option to be rid of the evidence…. And a handicapped child, one that will never walk, will never be independent? Human emotion says: put this child to one side, and let’s try again….

Listen, beloved of the Lord, to what the Holy Spirit makes David say. Ps 139: "You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb" (vs 13). The point: God Himself was at work in the womb of David’s mother. He caused David’s conception, at the time of His choosing, and He fashioned David in his mother’s womb in a manner pleasing to Him. And that is true of every child throughout history, including the child you’d rather not carry. What shall we do now; criticize God for the way He makes a child, conclude that His handiwork is no good and so we’d better terminate the pregnancy? Is it the place of creatures to criticize the Creator? Says Isaiah:

"Woe to him who strives with his Maker!
…Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?" (vs 9).

That is: it is not for people to criticize the master Potter for the work He does. If He wants to make one child to be good at everything –we’d say: the ideal child- and He wants to make the next so handicapped that the child needs constant care, it is not for us to criticize God’s decisions. God created that child, whether handicapped or not, in His image. If we shed the blood of the child we’d rather not have, by God’s ordinance our blood must be shed – capital punishment. No, beloved, the God of life does not give us permission to destroy life – no matter how inconvenient that new life may be. Instead, where He in wisdom gives new life, His children may expect that He will also give the strength to care for that new life.

Again, what shall I do when suffering and pain becomes too much to bear, when I’m a burden to others? Shall I seek assistance from a Dr Nitzke to be relieved of the suffering of this life? Shall I pursue euthanasia to free an aged family member of her suffering? You know, if you claim there is no God, if you are convinced that the human race is nothing more than a more evolved animal than any other species, then, really, what argument can you bring up that we should not do to an old person what we do to an old farm animal? That our society moves in the direction of euthanasia is a perfectly logical follow-on from the evolution theory.

But what does the Lord say on the matter? It’s a fact that people become old and lose their ability to be productive members of society. It’s a fact too that people can become so riddled with pain that they long for relief. And we all know that everybody is going to die one day anyway. Does the Lord give opening to us to hurry death along? Here too, beloved, we need to work with the material of Gen 9: God created man in the image of God, and so He forbids the shedding of anyone’s blood. It may well be that a person overcome with illness no longer shows anything of the glory of being created in the image of God –and yes, that’s so very humbling, for the person himself and for his family- but God’s ordinance stands: "Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man" (Gen 9:6). More: death is God’s wages on our sin. It is not for us to impose that wage on a sinner; that’s for God to do, at His time. Even the fact that Jesus Christ has taken the sting out of death for the child of God does not alter the fact that death is for God to give, not us – no matter how unproductive a person may become, no matter how much a suffering person longs for the end. Instead of looking at euthanasia as an escape from misery, the Lord would have us cling to His promises in Jesus Christ, including this promise that He carries His own in every circumstance; Christ was forsaken, and therefore the child of God is never forsaken, no matter how great the pain.

The same applies to suicide. Shall I criticize the fact that God has given me life, continues to give me life, and so seek to put an end to my life? Shall I say that God’s timing in giving me death is bad, and so hurry things along? Certainly, for the believer "to die is gain." But if God has said that murder is sin, how shall I give account to God for my sin of murdering myself? Please hear me well; I do not say there is no forgiveness possible for the sin of suicide. The question now is: what is God’s command on the matter? He hates murder, and that includes not just murder of another (be the person strong or weak, healthy or sick, and unborn infant or an aged or suffering family member); it includes also the murder of self. God created life and He upholds it, and so we may not take it. Death is His penalty on our fall into sin, and so it’s not for us to take that penalty on ourselves when we want it.

Yet suicide speaks of despair, and God has a word of encouragement for those who despair. Christ Jesus was rejected by God and man alike so that we might never be rejected by God. Then it’s true that we may feel so alone, so rejected. But the Lord would have us believe that our feelings are not the measure of how things really are. His promise is firm, and to that we may cling.

God hates all murder. So much so that He emphatically commanded that "whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed." That is: God does not want a murderer to live on His earth, whether that be the person who shoots his neighbor in cold blood, or who tears an infant from the womb, or gives a lethal injection to a so-called unproductive member of society. The means God has ordained for the result of sin to come upon the murderer is capital punishment; the governing authorities –Rom 13:4- must take the life of the evildoer. I know: there are those who argue that the sixth commandment forbids murder, and so we may not kill even the murderer. But in the case of the murderer God Himself commands that the murderer’s life be taken. We have to acquiesce to that, and insist on capital punishment for all murderers. That our government does not insist on capital punishment, that it even permits abortion, must bring God’s displeasure upon our land.

I move on now to our second point:

Behind the murders on September 11 lay an enormous amount of hatred and anger and desire for revenge. Behind a suicide can be very much hatred too, particularly hatred of the self. Behind abortion and euthanasia lie attitudes of selfishness; this pregnancy doesn’t suit me, I haven’t got the energy or time or money to look after my aging parent. Behind murder lie unholy attitudes. "By forbidding murder God teaches us that He hates the root of murder, such as envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge, and that He regards all these as murder" – we confess in our Lord’s Day.

Instead of attitudes that lead to murder, the Lord God requires His people to embrace different attitudes. Question & Answer 107: "When God condemns envy, hatred, and anger, He commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to show patience, peace, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness toward him…."

"Patience, peace, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness," we say in our Lord’s Day. These attitudes, brothers and sisters, are fruits of the Holy Spirit. I read in Gal 5 that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (vss 22f). These are fruits of the Spirit because they are the attitudes that the Lord displayed when He sent His only Son into the world. "God so loved the world," I read in Jn 3, "that He sent His only-begotten Son into the world that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have life everlasting" (vs 16). "The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy," I read in Ps 103:8. Jesus says in Luke 6 that the Most High is "kind to the unthankful and evil," and then adds, "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful" (vss 35f). This is the attitude that God displayed in Jesus Christ to the unworthy, and that’s why the Lord commands His people to display the same attitudes.

In fact, that’s why the Lord through His Holy Spirit causes His people to display these attitudes. And see: what do we see in the congregation? What do we see in our homes? Certainly, we can pick up on the shortcomings that remain, and recognize that we have need for further growth. But at the same time, beloved, we can note with deep gratitude to the Lord that He through His Spirit has worked in our hearts so that the patience, peace, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness mentioned in our Lord’s Day are evident in the congregation, and evident in the families. Here is reason for deep gratitude, and constant thankfulness to the Lord.

Charity begins in the home, the old adage has it. And that’s true. The attitude in the home and the care within the congregation needs also to be tasted in the society around us. A couple of examples. Consider the nursing homes of our nation. It is first and foremost for residents’ children and grandchildren to extend mercy and love to their aged parents or their handicapped sibling. But the fact is that in our society too many are finding the care of needy family members an unwanted burden, and so accept euthanasia as a way out. The weak and the aged become victims to their children’s selfishness. Is here not an opportunity for Christians to show to others something of the love that God showed to the world in sending His only Son?

In the greater Armadale area are surely as many abortions per capita as anywhere else in the nation – mothers with an unwanted pregnancy, mothers not able to bear the thought of receiving a handicapped child. Who knows what anguish there is in the heart of the mother as she faces the thought of an unwanted or handicapped child? Is there not here an opportunity to extend to her the gentleness, the kindness, the mercy the Lord has extended to us? Who knows what relief that mercy can bring to that mother, and what consequence for the child! O yes, it can require long-term work on our part. But decrying the abortion laws of our nation is not enough; we confess in our Lord’s Day that the Lord our God "commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to show patience, peace, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness toward him…."

What shall we say in relation to the refugees that keep struggling to come to Australia’s shores? Given the millions of refugees around the world, and given that our enormous land is so sparsely populated, is the Lord pleased that we set a ceiling of 12,000 on our annual intake? Does that image the love and the mercy and the gentleness and the friendliness that our Lord commands in the sixth commandment?

Charity begins in the home. By God’s grace, one can see a beginning of obedience to the sixth commandment in our homes and congregation. But the world around us still lives in their sin, and so tolerates murder in cold blood. It is an environment where there is so much need for the love, the mercy, the friendliness, the patience that God displayed in Jesus Christ. And God would let the world taste something of this mercy and kindness through the way His children treat their fellow men. Amen.