MURDER!!!!!!

So as we gather this morning, the text before us is this idea of murder. Many people have highlighted they love the sermon title name. It's "Murder!!!!!!" With six exclamation points, so we are really diving into the murder theme.

Part of it is the fact that, as a society, we have a mild obsession with murder. There's an entire television network dedicated to murder, just murder documentaries. Eighty-three percent of Americans over the age of 13 have consumed murder-related content over the last year, whether that be a book, a podcast, a series on television, a Netflix documentary. But 83%. So if we take the average attendance on a Sunday morning of both services, there's roughly 15 people who have not done so. It's a very small group who has not. I know some people who spend their Sunday evenings just obsessed with murder documentaries. It happens. People love them. Forty-two million Americans listen to a murder true-crime podcast every month. So a little over 10% of the U.S.—this is their monthly diet. There are 75 current documentaries that deal with murder or murder-related things on Netflix currently, and iTunes and Spotify list roughly 23,000 murder true-crime podcasts available for your enjoyment today. That is our society's obsession with murder.

One of the surveys highlighted why people are so obsessed: the thrill of the chase, the thrill of what's gonna happen. Who is the murderer? It's all about the person. So within this, our society doesn't actually care about the fact that people are murdered. We aren't interested even in the ones who are murdered, but rather the entertainment of finding out what happened. We love a good mystery, a whodunit.

But as I've said before, when you get to the end of some of these series—I will partake in one; I enjoy a good true-crime podcast every now and then, or a documentary on Netflix—what you often see is if there's a four-part series, by the end of the series you've probably forgotten the victim's name or much about the person at all. But you know everything about the murderer. You know their neighbor, you know their mother, you know their third aunt, second cousin. Somehow you know everyone because they've all been interviewed like 12 different times about how they just did not see it coming. "They're the sweetest per—" So you know everything about the murderer, but somehow the victims usually, not always, get lost along the way, because ultimately, we don't really care about that. We're sad murders happen, but really we just want to know why. What's going on? It's a sad state of the world that we live in. We've lost sight of the person.

As we dive into our text today, this command ultimately is reflecting on the nature of the image of God and the destruction of that image. Ultimately we begin with this prohibition against taking out the image of God or abusing the image of God in others. As a society, we've become obsessed with these entertainments, or we've become obsessed with watching media about it. Many of you probably over the last month have consumed plenty of news reports on trials and other things, and everyone's got an opinion on what should have happened or what might have happened or why these people are wrong. "I watched two minutes of a trial, but I know everything about a trial." All of these ins and outs. We all have opinions. Part of it's because, as we'll dive into it, we all like to get worked up. It's part of our sinful condition. Our society knows it. That's how our society makes money. We thrive on anger. Anger is popular. Anger is what makes money, and this is part of what we see is also an aspect of murder.

So as we unpack all of these things that are in view today, as we get deep into the heart of "Are we murderers? How is murder seen and lived out in our lives?" and ultimately, as we see as a world, "How have we belittled the image of God?"—that is what brings us today to the Sixth Commandment.

So again, the Sixth Commandment—as we will unpack it here, straight to the point. It's very quick. We see these four: "You shall not murder." That's pretty straightforward, right? We can wrap this thing up in like 10 minutes. But no, there's so much more that we're gonna unpack this morning, because there's so much more behind this text. There's so much more that the whole Old Testament ties into this text, because this is but the beating heart of so many other things that the Scriptures will unpack when it comes to how we treat one another and how we treat image bearers.

I. The Commandment

So, as we come to the commandment, it begins, as I said, with four simple English words: "You shall not murder." For those with a good modern English translation, that's what is before you.

Again, what we've seen over the last few weeks: we spent the last five weeks looking at the first five. If you break them up, the first three are straight vertical—man to God. How do we worship God? How do we not worship him wrongly? No carved idols, none of those things, not using His name in vain. Very high—how we worship God. The next two are the transition. They have both a vertical and a horizontal element. Keep the Sabbath day and keep it holy, because it's to the Lord, but also it gives rest to all people. There's a both/and. And then last week we talked about authority: listening to, obeying parents. "Honor your father and your mother," which also has a hierarchical idea of honor not only to your parents; it's also a reflection to honor of God. So there's this dual purpose in those.

But now we have this transition to the last five, and the last five are very rapid-fire commandments. They're very short. The last one gets a little long because it lists like 19 different things that you can covet, but pretty much: don't covet. We'll summarize it for you there. It's very straightforward. These are very rapid fire, but there's a lot behind these simple words. Even as we come to our text, "You shall not murder," there's a lot that we will unpack today. Ultimately, as you look at these texts as a whole, we see this in the New Testament: we are called to love God—which you see in the first five—and love our neighbor—the second five. It's kind of how this breaks up for us. Part of that is because one reflects a worship of God himself, and the second has an honoring of the image of God found in man. We’re honoring God's image found in mankind, because God's image is not destroyed at the Fall. It is marred, but it still remains on his creation. We see that in Genesis 9 when the command is given that anyone who murders someone, their life must be taken because they've destroyed the image of God. So Genesis 9, which is after the Fall—we're six chapters later, many years—the image of God is still relevant in the text. And so that plays out forward as how we treat one another reflects how well we think about the image of God in mankind.

So again, we come to our text before us: "You shall not murder." In the Hebrew, it's actually two words. This is the shortest of all of the commandments, and it's simply lo tirsha. That's it. I might have butchered the Hebrew—I'm sorry for those Hebrew scholars—but it's two simple Hebrew words. "No kill." No kill. It's great. You got it?

Now again, as I said, most of you all have modern English translations that say, "You shall not murder." For those good King Jimmy users—you got some good old King James in this—"Thou shalt not kill." That's those who grew up in that world. That's where I grew up. "Thou shalt not kill" is what I memorized as a kid. Kill is close to what it says. Murder is close to what it means. Both. As we unpack this word, it's actually a word used only 46 times in the Old Testament. It's not used often because it has the connotation—if we were using a better translation—you shall not unlawfully take another person's life. That is probably a better, more full definition. It does not roll off the tongue as well, though. You shall not unlawfully take another person's life. That is the Hebrew meaning behind the text. So it has this defining characteristic that murder in our text is more than just killing someone out of anger and volitionally taking a life. There's more going on. Our English language unfortunately just doesn't do a good job bearing the weight of what this means.

So again, we take the first one: you shall not murder. We're all good with that. You should not, out of anger, spite, jealousy, take another person's life. We can all agree, hopefully. Absolutely that is not what we should do. We should not act in malice. This is different than other uses of this word—other Hebrew uses of the word for killing. There are things such as execution. Again, Genesis 9 highlighted those who kill someone—murderers—therefore are killed. It's a different word the second time, because it's dealing with lawful execution for those who have committed this crime. Different. "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," because God made man in His own image. So that's the Genesis 9 picture. It's a different word.

So very simply: don't murder people. Don't willfully plot their death. Don't act in accordance with your sinful hate to lead to someone's murder. It's very straightforward. This is not difficult. We don't murder our children. Don't have abortions. Don't lazily pull the plug on your elderly parents because they're an inconvenience. These things seem obvious, but we still need to say them again. These things are not things that we should be doing. Do not be lazy in your thinking. Do not be flippant in these things either. The image of God is seen in man and should be treated and given dignity as such. Some of this we'll unpack later. It's why we do many of the ministries that we are a part of—flows from this love for God and the image found in man. It's why we have Heather Hills, why we serve the seniors in that facility down there. It's why we're encouraged by the work of Hope Cove and other non-emergency pregnancy services. It's always a different name. But why we encourage those things, why we help volunteer in other aspects as well—caring for the image of God in man.

So we don't murder. But, as I said, that's not the only text. That's very obvious and surface-level, but the second part is we do not carelessly, by our actions, also lead to the death of another. As I said, this Hebrew word is found more than anywhere else in Numbers 35, dealing with the cities of refuge. For those who are great Old Testament scholars and know the Hebrew system and how the Old Testament worked: if you accidentally killed someone, there were cities set up around Israel that you could flee to for the people to solve the case to determine whether or not you acted with malicious intent. If you didn't, you had to live there for the rest of your life until the high priest died. When he died, you could leave. If you left before the high priest died, the family of the one you killed could kill you without repercussion. That's roughly how it broke down. In the text, the hypothetical that the Lord gives in Numbers is literally: you're out chopping wood, your ax head flies off while chopping and kills your neighbor who's out with you. You kill him—flee to a city of refuge. It's carelessness. It carries this weight of careless taking of life, not being aware of your surroundings, that leads to the death of another. The trials simply determine whether or not there's malice. "Have you ever hated them?" "No." "Okay, it was just an accident. But here are the repercussions," because it uses the Hebrew—you are now a murderer. This is your classification in Israel. This is your name. You may have a different consequence because of the restitution available, but your label is the same.

In our context, we have many actions that, through selfishness and carelessness, lead to people dying. It happens often in our society: drunk driving; people improperly storing their weapons in their homes; carelessness while hunting. I highlighted this event in first service; they didn't get it. When the vice president accidentally shot one of his best friends while out hunting because he was just not paying attention—not being... did not kill him, though. Different vice president. We gotta go back like 15 years. I'm gonna date myself a little bit on that one. But just that picture—being careless. Carelessness that leads to bodily harm or death. Distracted driving, people texting, going 100 miles an hour. These are things that are not good—leading to the death of another, thus highlighting murder. All of this is what is incumbent in this Hebrew term. It's willful taking of life, and carelessness that leads to the taking of a life.

On the surface, this seems pretty cut and dry—makes perfect sense. But there's so much more going on. We've highlighted this in the first five commandments; we'll highlight it in the next four as well. There's so much going on behind the surface as we take this throughout the rest of Scripture. There are many implications that come to mind as we work through this text.

One of the great helps along the way in thinking through this has been the confessions that we've read. If you were paying attention to the words and not just blindly reciting them, there was a lot in that. That's why I did all three of them in the Heidelberg. There were a lot of things said that were not just "Don't kill someone." There was a lot to unpack—envy, hatred, malice, how you treat people, how you talk about people. All of that is encompassed in all three of those questions. They worked through the Scriptures. Thomas Watson, who Pastor Adam has referenced several times in the last five weeks, has a fantastic book called The Ten Commandments. He works through the Ten Commandments, all of the implications and uses. Fantastic book. Highly recommend it if you're into Thomas Watson and dead Puritans. It's a niche for some people; others, not so much. But he unpacks a lot of these things, and we've kind of worked through some of his implications. I'll work through some of them as well today, as it ties into the Heidelberg and, again, how all of the Old Testament speaks about this. These aren't just people making up stuff; it's what the Scripture ultimately shows us.

II. The Implications

As we dive into this text and the idea of what is the implication of "You shall not murder," there are three basic elements when we think of murder as it comes to another person: you shall not murder their body (physical being), their name (reputation), and their soul. These are the three areas we'll unpack a bit here this morning.

We begin with body—very surface level, what I've mostly covered—but some of the different ways this involves itself we may not think about. The very first, of course, is that we murder the body of another beginning with our minds. Through the mind you can murder another. First John 3:15: "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." Jesus echoes the same teaching first in Matthew 5:22 and so on, as He deals with the idea of murder. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not murder.' But I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother is liable to judgment." The idea of anger, envy, hatred—that all begins here. That's the beginning part of the text: we begin the act of murder through our hatred. Do you hate people? Do you hate an individual? There are plenty of people who are like, "Well, I like most people, but this person—God, just do something to me. They show up to work, and they just talk, and they just..." Is there a part of your soul that has a sense of hatred towards another? This is the beginning of murder. The Old Testament highlights it multiple times: murder begins in the heart, begins with a hatred toward another—to think less of them, to think the worst of them. Do you murder them with your mind?

Secondly, do we murder them with our tongue? This will come up more in a couple weeks when we deal with the idea of bearing false witness, but it begins here as well. John highlights this as the very act that takes place when they handed Jesus over: "Of course we gave Him to you. We wouldn't give Him to you if He wasn't evil." Through their actions of lying—through false witness—leading to the murder of another; leading to their death through your words. So through tongue and bearing false witness leading to murder.

Through simple plotting—plotting the death of another. We see this in David. The great David himself plotted the murder of Uriah. He had a whole system in place: "I'm gonna send this letter to this guy. He's gonna send him to the front lines, then he's gonna die, and then I get my lady." A whole system in place. Then Nathan the prophet rebukes him for it, and he was very angry when he heard about the sheep being killed. If you want to go back and read that in 2 Samuel, the whole thing ties up—it's all about murder—and even in his plotting, he didn't physically kill Uriah, but he is guilty of the murder of Uriah simply by putting the plan into action.

Next, this one might hit slightly more close to home: through the consent of someone's death. "They deserved it." "Yeah, that's probably not the best reason, but it couldn't have happened to a worse guy." You're okay with it or excited about it. I'm not talking about civil society doing its job, but vigilante justice or other forms where you're like, "It's not the right way to do it, but if it's gotta get done, it's gotta get done." That highlights the same idea of murder. It's what ultimately Paul says he was guilty of. At the end of the book of Acts in chapter 22, reflecting on his life a bit, he says, "When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him." Paul often refers to himself as a murderer beginning with this moment—that he approved of the murder of Stephen. Stephen is making a defense for who Christ is. He is the Messiah. He works through the whole Old Testament to say so. The people are angry about that. They stone him for blasphemy, and Paul is like, "That sounds about right. He deserved it." Guilty of consenting to murder—consenting to the unlawful taking of life.

And then lastly, through the lack of mercy. Deuteronomy highlights: "No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge." We see the same idea in other parts of Leviticus. If you take someone's coat as a pledge, you must return it that night to make sure they have their coat to sleep in. If you take from the poor, you must make sure you give them back what they have so they can survive. You must be merciful to those around you. Do not take things, but give mercifully. If your actions lead to the death of another through your lack of mercy or your lack of attentiveness, you are therefore guilty of murder.

Each of these deal with different ways of physical harm and murder against the image of God—honoring the image of God in others. It's the same reason we see Jesus make His theological point in Matthew 24, where He gives this long discussion: "You did these things to me—when you saw me sick, when you saw me in prison... and you gave to me. You did it to me." It plays into that image of God and care. When it comes to this, the prohibition against the murder of the body or the attack against the body asks: do we take seriously the physical well-being of those around us to the degree that we are able to assist and be engaged?

The second form of murder that Scripture highlights is name. This one is probably much more commonly done. We went through the body; most of us are probably like, "Yeah, we're mostly good." But the second two more than likely hit closer to home. How we murder the name of another person—through our words, we attack people's being, who they are, and their name. Leviticus highlights: "You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people. You shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord." This is the Lord's teaching. How do you talk about other people? Is your general aspect to tear people's reputation down? We have an entire society based on this very thing. There are entire networks whose job is to rip people apart, tear people down, make sure everyone knows how evil everyone is but me. "I am great, and everyone I like is also great. We're perfect. Everyone else is the devil." A whole lot of our world exists to murder people's names falsely.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, all the more we are not to speak wrongly of one another. James 4: "Do not speak evil against one another. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge." The admonition James has: we do not speak evil against one another. We encourage one another. We build one another up, making much of the work of God. We are not people known for gossip. We're not known for our social media solely being about how everyone is evil. What are we known for? What is our life reflecting? Do we build people up or tear people down?

There are entire industries that exist in our country to get rid of false social media posts. People's lives are destroyed by a random picture that gets put online. You spend thousands and thousands of dollars for people to scour the internet to remove it all—by people just being vindictive or mean. It takes a lot to recover a name, and some of it takes a lot of time. Are we as believers known for how we tear people down or how we build others up? How do we make much of God in others? Do we think about these things as we act and speak?

That same thing applies to how we treat others in public. This is where Jesus says in Matthew 5—He talks about anger—"Whoever insults his brother is liable to the council; whoever says, 'You fool,' is liable to the hell of fire." How you speak about other people in front of them—do you tear people down? You can very much see this in an employment setting. If you have employees, how you treat them, how you talk to them in front of other employees. Among brothers and sisters—how you talk to one another in front of other people reflects what you think about God in them, what you think about the gospel reality in those moments. Do you treat them poorly, or do you reflect the gospel in the words that you say and the way you act?

We have the body, we have the name, and lastly, the soul. Maybe you're hearing me say, "You murder people's souls," and you're like, "That sounds crazy. You can't murder a soul. It's eternal. That makes no sense." But really, because it is eternal, this is probably the most serious of the three. The eternal nature of the soul makes the murder of the soul so heavy for us to think about, and it's probably one of the areas that we think the least about. Physically harming someone—sure, you see that. Speaking bad about people—okay, I shouldn't tear people down. Souls? "I don't even know what that means. That just sounds crazy. What is Andrew talking about?" Well, let me tell you.

As we unpack this, this becomes the spiritual reality of those around us. Do we take seriously the spiritual realities of those around us, or are we careless with them? Several illustrations:

First, this section in our church building right here. The pulpit is probably the single greatest opportunity for the murdering of souls—and that is through the preaching of false doctrine. Simply preaching a doctrine that does not highlight the repentance and faith needed in Christ. You are sinners in need of salvation. You are murderers whom God has saved. Those realities, when hidden and not proclaimed, lead to the murder of souls. False doctrine that does not properly point us to Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and Savior alone—our need to repent and believe—leads to the very nature of the murder of souls because you are not giving properly the means by which salvation is possible, thus leading to eternal damnation. So simply teaching false doctrine—not teaching the proper gospel. Again, as Paul makes the point, even if an angel comes and speaks a gospel different than the doctrine, let him be anathema. The gospel is so important because in the gospel is life. Apart from the gospel, there is no life—thus death, thus murder. If we're not clear with the doctrine that we teach, we can lead to the murder of souls.

Second, through the withholding of the gospel—a more common aspect as well. It's not just getting it right, but being open to share. Do we make it a point in our lives to be open with the gospel that has saved us? If you've experienced the saving work of Christ—if you've experienced the forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit residing in you that led you to faith and trust in Christ—do you then seek opportunities to share that with others? With your family, an unbelieving friend, a coworker, people you do life with—do you seek to build relationships for the purpose of explaining the gospel, highlighting the goodness of Christ? Do you look for opportunities to make much of Christ's work in you and the gospel work that's possible for others? Is that an important part of your life?

We are a Reformed church, so we can get our sovereignty hats on for a moment and say, "Well, God is sovereign after all, so if He wants them to be saved, they will be saved." That silly logic somehow creeps in as an excuse to not do anything. It's a true biblical thought, but it becomes an excuse to do whatever I want, which is often why Reformed people get characterized that way—"Sovereignty of God is my excuse to do whatever I want." It's not. We're called to proclaim the good news of Christ that has saved you, to proclaim it to others. God is the one who produces that salvific work—absolutely. But how will they know unless they are told? How will they speak unless we speak? So the murder of souls can be by withholding the gospel—by not being open to proclaiming the good news.

Third, a life devoid of the gospel that is spoken. I have no problem talking about God and all the things I believe. I will talk about the gospel all day long, but I don't live it in any way, shape, or form. It's not really my thing. "I like talking about God. God is great. Everyone should do this. I'm still gonna do my own thing. Let's be honest, He's got a lot of things He calls us to—live holy lives. It's not my thing, but I'll definitely tell everyone else what they should do." It's the opposite: our lives are devoid of the very things we proclaim. When people look at you, they go, "You say this. Your life looks completely opposite. What does this even mean? Is this just something you mentally assent to, to check a box?" You tarnish the name of God.

This isn't a call to perfectionism. Clearly, we are not going to be perfect. We will not live perfectly. Of course not. The whole list of the commandments Jesus highlights shows our need for Him, but it also encourages us to be mindful of what we do. So when we sin, when we fail, when we mess up, we are open to admit our faults in a world that never admits to being wrong. It's countercultural to admit that we mess up, that we do sin, to ask forgiveness of people. You ever ask forgiveness of a non-believer and how confused they are? "That's fine. You made a mistake. Go away. Stop apologizing. This is weird." But it's what we are called to do. We seek forgiveness, and we give forgiveness. It extols the gospel because we have been forgiven. Our life reflects that we've been forgiven as we forgive and seek forgiveness—the flow of repentance. When our gospel speech doesn't match the life we live, we can lead to the murder of other souls because they no longer see the value of the gospel. "It looks no different. Your life looks like everything else I do. What's the difference? You go to church on Sunday. Okay. Cool." What is the difference?

This is where we apply these truths. We speak the truth of the gospel. We live the truth of the gospel for the proclamation of what Christ has done. This also highlights that the word has that carelessness aspect. A lot of this, we aren't volitionally doing. We aren't purposely going out to do these things. We just sometimes are careless. We are very non-thinking people sometimes. We just go through the motions. "Oh, they're offended? That's on them. I'm just gonna keep being me." It's an attitude that exists. But do we seek to rectify those situations? Do we seek to make much of the gospel in those situations? How do we endeavor to make much of God and the grace that we have received through all of these moments?

This becomes the three-fold part that we see played out here in this simple command: "You shall not murder." No kill. All of these things are wrapped up in this simple phrase. When you think about your week—your interactions in the week ahead—are these things that you will think about? The words that you say, the attitude you have towards your brothers and sisters, the attitude you have towards coworkers. Maybe you're in strife with someone. Do you think about what is the cause of that strife and how much you have been forgiven that therefore flows that forgiveness to others? It becomes a volitional thought that we must put off the old and put on the new—Paul's illustrations. Do away with the old self and put on the new self because we are created in the image of God, and we bear God's image to the world around us. We do not belittle their body, their name, or their soul, but make much of the gospel in each and every opportunity. Do you seek those moments—seeking the good of others, not seeking to tear down, but to build up and to make much of the gospel?

For that is the ultimate hope. The only hope that exists is in the gospel—the gospel that has saved you; it has saved me. It saves the vilest of sinners. Paul referenced himself as a murderer. There is no one too far from the gospel. There is no sin so grave that Christ's blood does not forgive. I could have given you this giant list; you'd be like, "Every one of those are true. I plotted this murder. I killed this person. I did this." The gospel is still real, and the gospel still forgives. The gospel transforms death into life. The repentance of our sinful ways and turning to Christ in His salvific work—His blood poured out for us on the cross. The cross is not some passing historical event. It's a true and living event that has saved and continues to save, as the Holy Spirit works in us, leads us to forgiveness and hope. If you don't know that truth, I pray that you seek the Lord. Pray for the Lord to open your eyes to the wonder and glory that is the forgiveness of sins. The vilest of murderers find restitution in the gospel. For as we've said, we cannot fulfill the law. The law is not meant to be fulfilled and then, once I check all these boxes, then I will come to faith. It is not a perfection that then leads to faith, but it is through the imperfection that leads us to the One who is perfect, who does save and who can save.

Throughout this week, I pray that you will seek the good of others, that you will pray for opportunities to proclaim the gospel, to build others up in the faith—seeking to make much of what the Lord is doing. In the end, as I said, there's lots of ways we can look at these two words. This barely scratches the surface of everything that this text has for us. There are so many more implications. We have great opportunities throughout the week in our small groups to unpack some of these more. But as you dive in, I pray the Lord will encourage you to live this out well this week. Think deeply of the truth of what God has saved you from and how He will continue to grow you day by day.