Dakota Community Church
August 10, 2014
Murder Mystery
Summer Series at Dakota: The 10 Commandments
Exodus 20:13
You shall not murder.
{The Hebrew word also covers causing human death through carelessness or negligence}
1. Why all the fuss?
A.) Murder is a violation of a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith. A denial that God is the Sovereign author of life who alone has the power and right to give or to take away human breath.
Job 10:11-12
You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. 12 You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.
Human life is a gift from God, He remains the owner of everything.
Psalm 24:1
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein
B.) Murder is a denial of the value of every human life a, destroying of the creature made in the image of God; evolution vs imago Dei.
What imago Dei means and what it does not mean.
This means that all human life has value because we bear God’s image but not that all human activity is approved by God and must therefore be accepted by man.
The image bearer has become marred, man has fallen, sin is not good in any way; even if you are so bent to it that to you it seems you were made that way.
We respect and protect human life, especially the weak and oppressed without condoning sin.
Psalm 82:3-4
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
We have an obligation to social justice as the people of God that goes beyond not murdering.
That brings us to the second point of this sermon:
What does it mean to violate the sixth commandment?
OR:
2. A shockingly inclusive whodunit!
Almost all ending of a human life is considered murder in the eyes of God but with a few notable exceptions. What King David did to Uriah was murder, what he did to Goliath was not.
If you willfully and violently end a human life you are a murderer in the eyes of God
This includes abortion and euthanasia
Exodus 21:22-25
“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
What about all this eye for eye business and the prospect of a blind toothless society?
Have evolved beyond God now?
Are we more just and reasonable now; recognizing that these laws are the product of backward and uneducated people and certainly not anything to do with an all powerful creator?
1 Corinthians 4:5
Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
We are living during the time of gospel proclamation but the great and terrible Day of the Lord will come. On that day justice will be served and the guilty will receive their due.
Until then we preach grace and love our neighbours - even the ones who declare themselves our enemies.
If you fail to love your neighbour you are a murderer in the eyes of God
Matthew 5:21-22
You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Jesus goes right to the heart of the matter.
God is not looking for or accepting a grudgingly offered outward obedience.
“Well, I didn’t want to but I knuckled under, gritted my teeth and obeyed God.” {BUZZZ}
Jesus is making the point to a bunch of self righteous people who think they are good that this issue is a matter of the heart; that physical murder is only the final expression of the problem.
“In forbidding murder God means to teach us that He abhors the root of murder, which is envy, hatred, anger, and the desire for revenge, and that He regards all these as hidden murder.”
Heidelberg Catechism
We disobey the sixth commandment by tolerating whatever attitude might produce either active injury or passive apathy toward our neighbours good.
If you ignore those who are oppressed and in need you are a murderer in the eyes of God
Matthew 25:41-46
‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Our duty to God and our duty to neighbour are connected; notice who Jesus identifies with, the sick, the hungry, the stranger, the naked and thirsty and the prisoner.
We are all guilty of murder, this sin issue runs deep in all of us, none is any better than any other.
There are not degrees of sinners in the eyes of God just debtors who cannot pay.
If I gossip about you it shows that I do not understand that my life is full of things that would make for great gossip if they came to be known.
If I condemn an addict it shows that I think I am not one as though addiction to food or piety or power or money were not also just as punishable by damnation.
3. Facing our day in court
James 2:8-13
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Murder is not the unpardonable sin.
There is no one who needs to leave here today under the guilt of condemnation.
Romans 8:1-2
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you[b] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
Follow Dan on twitter: @DanCormie
