Just A Bunch Of Murderers

Aug 13, 2000 Exodus 20:13

“Just a bunch of murderers”

INTRODUCTION

A. God has reasons for why the command was given.

 God put a supreme value on human life (Gen. 1:27, 31)

- He created it and called it “very good”

- He redeemed it ; by sending His Son, God made it very clear that He considers mankind worth the effort to form a relationship with us

- Every human life has great value in God’s eyes; that’s the only opinion that really matters anyway

- Our society tends to de-value human life (i.e. “you are only valuable so long as you are like me or as long as you help me to get something that I want”)

- We tend to de-value ourselves. When we start to think the way that the world thinks about value and significance, then we base our value on what we are able to contribute, what we have, or what we can do. When we can no longer contribute, when our failures outnumber our successes, when we don’t have anymore, we begin to wonder how much value we really have. The ultimate outcome of that kind of thinking is suicide or self-murder. In a crowd this size, there is probably at least one if not many who have either had passing or maybe even serious thoughts about suicide. Let me tell you right now – you have value and significance. No matter where you are or what you have done, you are a creation of God and someone that He loves.

 All forms of murder exert man’s sovereignty (control) over life and death when this decision really belongs to God.

- God is the one who determines when life begins, and only He has the right to decide when it ends

- When you commit murder, abortion, euthenasia or suicide, you are taking it upon yourself to decide which life is worth preserving and which is not

- God says that all life is valuable. When we murder, we say that our opinion of someone’s life is more important than God’s opinion.

- Some persons value their lives so highly and want so much to keep it that they will go to all kinds of extremes to preserve it. Have you heard of cryogenics? That is the process of freezing your diseased body in the hopes that at some point in the future, scientists will find a cure for whatever ails you, be able to thaw you out, give you the cure, and you can continue living. In one process I heard about, they don’t freeze all of you. To preserve space, they cut off your head and just freeze your head. I guess if they ever thaw you out, you’ll just go around like the headless horsemen. Cryogenics is the ultimate attempt at maintaining man’s control over how long a person lives. Suicide is the ultimate attempt of man to control when a person dies.

- Somewhere in between is man’s attempt to so control his diet, his exercise and his surroundings in such a way that he can put off death as long as possible. (story on pg 208 of Tale of the Tardy Oxcart about father who wanted to protect his children and ended up killing one of them)

- The fact is that death is coming for all of us one day. We have no control over when or how. And we have no control over the fact that each of us will have to stand before God at some point after we die. What we can control is whether that time before God will be a pleasant experience or a fearful one.

 Killing goes against God’s nature. (Jn. 14:6; 1 Jn. 4:7)

- Jesus told His disciples, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE”. In Gn. 2:7, it says, “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” God is the author and sustainer of life. When we destroy life, we are fighting against God. That’s not a very wise position to be in.

- In Jn. 4:7, it says that “. . . God is love.” Love builds up life rather than tearing it down.

- God is in the business of giving life not destroying it. Jn. 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.”

- Everyone in this room was dead at some point. The thought of that will make you step back for a moment. No wonder it stinks so much in here! I don’t mean that each of us was lying in a casket waiting to be lowered in the ground. I mean that each of us was dead in our sins. (Eph 2:1,4-5 NIV) As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, . . . But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.