Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: The Sixth Word

God’s gracious law. The law is given certainly to drive us to our sin. The commandments are also given to us to show the way of life in which we should walk. The commandments are given to a redeemed people in Exodus and then again in Deuteronomy. So they’re not just to drive us to our sin. They’re to tell us how we should walk in the context of our world and how the world should be structured.

Today we began a series of sermons on the sixth word. We say word because that’s the word the Bible uses. The Bible doesn’t say the ten commandments. It says the ten words. And word is a little more comprehensive than just a commandment as we’ve seen as we’ve been through these.

So today the sixth word in Deuteronomy 5:17 and we’re going through the Deuteronomy listing of the commandments to emphasize the transition the full fleshing out of some of these commandments that we find in the second giving of the law in Deuteronomy, the second law.

Deuteronomy 5:17. Please stand for reading of God’s word. “You shall not murder.” Let’s pray.

Lord God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for telling us how we’re supposed to live, what we’re prone to do, and what by your Holy Spirit we should do in place of these sins, how to live righteously with you and with our neighbor. We bless you, Lord God, for the grace of your law to us. Now, may your spirit transform our lives through this particular commandment as we come to understand it, rejoice in it and obey it. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

So this is the sixth word, sixth commandment. And what we will do over the next several weeks is what we’ve done throughout this series to remind us. I’ve listed on your handouts what we’ll do is look at the specific commandment today and then next week we’ll have the first of a couple of sermons on Moses’ sermon on the sixth word found in Deuteronomy 19:1-22:8.

So if you want to kind of get pre-studied for the next couple of sermons, that’s the text we’ll be looking at for the next couple of weeks. We will then move to Leviticus 19. That’s the third point of triangulation on these words that we’re looking at is the 613 commandments in Leviticus 19. And we’ll look specifically at Leviticus 19:17 and 18. And this is the very heart of Leviticus 19. This is the heart of the book of Leviticus which is the heart of the Pentateuch.

And so at the very heart of Torah and the five first books of the Bible are the verses we’ll look at in a couple of weeks and you already know from the last few sermons that’s the verses about loving your neighbor. So at the heart of the Old Testament is the command to love your neighbor.

So we’ll look at that. Those are the only—it’s the only section Leviticus 19 that deals directly with the sixth word. We’ll also look at Daniel 6 somewhere along the way here. We’ve said that the book of Daniel is structured according to the Ten Commandments. Last week, we did a quick review at the very end of the sermon on the first five chapters of Daniel. And if you read Daniel 6 to your children or to yourself and think about it and meditate about it at some point, we’ll also touch on Daniel 6 as it relates to an exposition and exegesis of the sixth word.

I’ve also listed here Exodus 21:12-36. This is the section of the law of the covenant that deals, I think, with the sixth word. So, you may want to refer to that also, but that has not been part of our sermon series. We’re looking at the text of the commandment in Deuteronomy, contrasting it or comparing it to Exodus 20. We’re looking at the sermons of Moses on these words. We’re looking at the summation, Leviticus 19, and we’re looking at nice picture examples of these words in the book of Daniel.

And I’d suggest that’s a wonderful way to teach your children, to teach yourself and others that you may want to instruct in the ten words. I think that’s a pretty good way to do it. So, that’s where we’re going.

Now, there’s another sense of significance to the particular commandment we’re dealing with here. If you have an—I don’t know what version we were reading in unison today, might have been New King James or something. I don’t know. But unfortunately, it failed to accurately translate the text of the ten words for you.

And what we’ve been doing in our Bible study methods class in Sunday school is to look at the importance of little tiny words. They’re significant. If you have your scriptures, well here, just listen. This is the English Standard Version reading of the next few commandments. Deuteronomy 5:18-22.

These follow the commandment we’re looking at today. Commandment today, do not murder, kill. We’ll look at that word. And then verse 18 says, “And you shall not commit adultery.” Verse 19, “And you shall not steal.” Verse 20, “And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Verse 21, “And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not covet your neighbor’s property.”

It goes on to say, now that word, little word “and,” that conjunction is not in Exodus 20. In Exodus 20, it doesn’t have those ands in there. So, but here in Deuteronomy, the second giving of the law, it has done some things to change the law, not change the law, help us understand it better. Right?

So, for instance, last week in terms of honoring your parents, it added not just long life, but that they be well with you in the land. And that was implicit in Exodus 20. But in Deuteronomy 5, God doesn’t want us to miss it. The second time he gives the law, he says, “Not only will you have long life if you honor your parents, but it’ll be a good life. You’ll live well in the land.”

The fourth commandment, the way we just recited, I hope you notice the difference if you’re probably used to the Exodus 20 version talks about the rest. And we just sang that song that’s, you know, so you and your family can rest. Well, God wants us to know that we’re not just supposed to rest with our family. We’re supposed to extend rest to the created order. And so in the Deuteronomy version of the Ten Commandments, it adds this idea about giving your servants rest because you were, you know, trapped in Egypt. You know what it’s like? You want to bring rejoicing, Lord’s Day, Christian Sabbath, rejoicing to the culture around you. You have an obligation not just to rest you and your family, but to extend rest beyond your family.

And we, you don’t see that. It’s implicit in Exodus 20, but it’s explicit in Deuteronomy 5.

Well, what’s explicit about this little word here, I think this is exceedingly significant, is that it really gives us a pretty good basis for seeing the second tablet as the second tablet. And there’s a lot of discussion about what these tablets were and all that stuff, but it links together commandments 6 to 10 with these series of “and” or conjunction words. Okay, so what does that tell us?

Well, it tells us that this sixth commandment is the header. These other things are linked to it. It’s not linked to the fourth explicitly. It’s a separate header in terms of what we’re supposed to do toward people. And that header is linked then to the next four actions. And what it tells you is they’re a unit. It’s a header statement. Don’t whatever the word is, kill, murder, whatever it is. And here are all the other things you’re supposed to do relative to your brothers and sisters on the world, the image bearers of God.

So I think that conjunction is very important for us to see the significance of the sixth word and begin to see a broader sense of it than we may be very narrowly restricted to seeing if we don’t see it correctly. So the sixth commandment kind of sums up the last five and there’s a relationship I think between four, five and six, right?

I mean the fourth commandment is the result of obeying the first three. You get the Sabbath, enthronement, life, blessing, all that stuff, rest, extending it out to the culture. That’s there. The fourth commandment. It’s a celebration of life. That’s what the Christian Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath is. We’re celebrating life today. How could we celebrate life better than to come into the presence of God in worship and then to take that presence into our activities today? We celebrate life.

The Lord’s day is a day of celebration. And we’re to honor life. That’s what the fifth word told us, right? Honor life. Honor your parents. Honor the dispensers of life. Your parents gave you life. So we celebrate life. We honor and esteem life in other people. And then finally, we protect or guard life in the sixth word. So we have an obligation to celebrate life. And we just sang that song that Jesus is the fountain of life. And we’re to celebrate the life we have. We’re to honor that life by honoring one another. And we’re to protect life by not striking out at each other and by being guardians of one another’s lives as we live in community.

And how do you protect life? Well, you follow the last five commandments all linked together with that little conjunction of “and.” So, I think in a very real sense, the sixth word is a header word for the rest of the ten commandments here. That’s real significant. I don’t know about you, I never knew that. I’m 60 years old. I’ve been going to church a long time. And I went to church when I was a little kid. I probably don’t remember everything I learned, but I never learned that the conjunction was there in the Deuteronomy 5 version. Why didn’t I learn that? Why didn’t I know that these commandments were sort of linked together and grouped up as a group?

Well, I don’t know why, but you know it now. Don’t forget it. Teach it to your children and try to meditate upon the significance of that as we look at these last five words or five commandments.

Okay. Number three on your outline, the sixth word: murder, manslaughter, and more. So, you know what does this word mean? “Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not murder.” What is the deal here?

Angie has a book of coloring pages out of the Bible for the kids. And this is what I didn’t use today. What I used today was Cain and Abel, the first murder. This is the one that’s in this book. And you probably can’t see it back there, but it says, “Thou shalt not kill.” And it’s got some kid aiming a slingshot at a birdie. So I know it’s funny, isn’t it?

And so you know, if you think that the sixth word is “kill.” Don’t kill anything, you know, don’t step on a bug, don’t kill a bird, you know, don’t shoot anything, that’s what you’re going to end up with. But the word isn’t “kill.” There is a word for kill in the Bible in the Old Testament that talks about killing animals and killing things. This ain’t it. This is a different word.

This particular word is used actually relatively few times. It’s only used about 45 or 50 times. And it’s interesting because the very first occurrence of this word is actually in Exodus 20 in the sixth commandment. That’s where it’s first used. First use is significant in the scriptures and that’s where it begins and then it’s used in a lot of other texts.

And what I’ve given you here on your outline, Deuteronomy 17, 19, Numbers 35, these are all places—not the New Testament verses of course, but these are places that are significant for us to understand what the word is and what it isn’t.

Deuteronomy 17 doesn’t use this word, but what it does say is if you’ve got a man or woman doing what is evil and he’s gone and served other gods and worshiped them then you’re supposed to execute them. You’re supposed to, you know, execute this particular person. So you’re supposed to kill them, put them to death. Not the same word.

But the significance of that is that “thou shalt not kill” can’t mean a blanket prohibition on capital punishment because the text of scripture tells us explicitly that for certain sins capital punishment is supposed to be part of the gig. In fact, in this very sermon section in Deuteronomy, Moses sermon on the sixth word, he’ll actually give provisions for warfare when you’re supposed to go kill people that are attacking your country or attacking God, whatever it is. So, there’s actually regulations for war. So, “thou shalt not kill” can’t be a blanket prohibition of killing anybody because in Deuteronomy, we’ll actually see these verses talking about what we’re supposed to do in case of warfare.

And Deuteronomy 19:12, “the elders of the city shall send and take him from there and hand him over to the avenger of blood so that he may die.” This is talking about someone that murders somebody else that violates the sixth word. God explicitly says you’re supposed to kill him. Now, it’s a different word, okay? But the point is, it can’t be a blanket prohibition on the taking of life in general because other words are used. This one isn’t. This one’s only about men being killed. And it can’t be all violence or all killing of men because then the scriptures would contradict themselves and God doesn’t do that.

So it’s okay to execute people and in fact the scriptures tell us very explicitly that you have to execute certain kinds of people. It tells us that in the scriptures. So it’s not a blanket prohibition against all violence. It’s a particular way that men kill other men that’s being spoken of here.

And as I said, it’s used only less than 50 times. I think only the root is used 38 times. 14 times of the 38 are in chapter 35 of the book of Numbers. That’s interesting. So if we really want to understand the word, we got to look at Numbers 35 a little bit because that’s where 14 of the 38 occurrences of this particular word are.

And what you find in Numbers 35, let me just read a couple of verses to you. Numbers 35. Verse six says, “Now among the cities which you shall give to the Levites, you shall appoint six cities of refuge to which a manslayer,” same root word, someone that has broken the sixth word, “may flee, and to these you shall add 42 cities.”

So Numbers 35 is about the establishment of the cities of refuge in the land. And when somebody killed somebody else, they were supposed to—you’re supposed to have roads provided by the state, by the way, I believe. And these cities are supposed to be close enough where a guy could run away from the person that God has called to execute vengeance upon them for killing a family member. They’re supposed to run away and go to the city of refuge.

And there’s different kinds of people that end up at this city of refuge. And this word is used about several different kinds of people.

In Numbers 35:11, we read, “Then you shall appoint cities of refuge that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there.” Okay, so now we’ve got a qualification to this word. It’s not just a murderer. Yeah, it says don’t murder. But it doesn’t just murder. It’s also a manslayer. The basis for our English common law word manslaughter. A man slayer is to slay a man. And you’re a manslayer if you do manslaughter.

And in this case, the man who has slaughtered somebody else has done it accidentally. But it’s the same word. The sixth commandment uses the same word whether it’s talking about murder or manslaughter. Murder, intentional premeditated murder or accidental murder as a result of your negligence.

So, you can look at more of these verses in Numbers later, but this is the two ways it’s used. For instance, in verse 16, another one I should read, “if he strikes him with an iron implement so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.”

So here now we’re told, okay, this isn’t somebody that’s killed somebody accidentally. This is somebody that, you know, got the poker in the fire from the fireplace in the den and he hits him with an iron implement and kills them. That guy not just should be put to death, he shall surely be put to death.

The Old Testament penalties are interesting. Sometimes you have this emphatic Hebrew words used, “he shall surely be put to death.” And it seems that the idea here is that you can’t do anything but put him to death. Certain crimes in the Old Testament, they have prescribed penalties for them in that particular system, but it doesn’t say he shall surely do this. But with someone who actually kills a man deliberately murdering somebody, you don’t have the judge should not have the option of life imprisonment or the death penalty. Got to be the death penalty. Awful lot of other cases the judges in the Old Testament had options.

So in Numbers 35 where most of the occurrences, the great bulk of these—not full majority but a third to a little more than that—of these words are used. It’s used both in terms of manslaughter and in terms of murder. So it’s real tough to translate the sixth word in a way that you know does justice to what’s being said. It doesn’t mean kill. Different Hebrew words mean kill. Doesn’t mean murder because it can also refer to manslaughter.

“Don’t commit manslaughter.” Which is very significant. That little word study of that word means that the sixth commandment involves more than just not killing somebody.

So if you came here today as you know you, “well the sixth commandment, I don’t have any worries of that one. I’m not going to kill anybody.” Well, who would? Why would God give us as one of the ten words a prohibition on something that almost none of us are ever tempted to do?

Well, he doesn’t. He’s addressing something far broader. He’s addressing our accidental actions that could cause harm to the life of someone else. So, it’s a broad term, not as broad as kill, but it is broader than murder. And it includes these obligations then as we begin to think about it to be careful, right? To not do something that might accidentally harm the life or remove the life from somebody else.

I could go on with more verses, but that’s that’s a good way. The only time the word is used, apart from man killing man, is actually in Proverbs, this particular Hebrew word, Proverbs 22:13, “The lazy man says, ‘There’s a lion outside. I shall be slain in the streets.’” I shall be—sixth commandment sort of stuff in the streets. So, this refers to an animal actually killing a man.

All other occurrences are about men killing either accidentally or intentionally other men. Only this one applies it to an animal. So, you know, I guess if we wanted to change the picture, “thou shalt not kill” the danger of killing a little bird, it would be the other way around. The only time the word is used relative to man-animal stuff is when the animal’s threatening to kill the man.

But even here, who knows? Is it really a wild lion that’s being directly referred to or is the sluggard imagining crime in the streets by men and describing them as wild lions? Probably more likely actually because of the way the word is used.

Okay, the point is that it means murder. It means manslaughter. It means the accidental taking of human life. And it means more than that because in 1 John 3:15 we read, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

Whoa. So now we’ve got an expansion at least in our study of what this word means. It means you can’t hate your brother.

Well, we know that this is what Jesus tells us in Matthew 5. “You heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit murder. Whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 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 hellfire.”

And by the way, that’s the context. He goes on to say, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has ought against you, go and be reconciled with him before you come to the altar.”

So what is Jesus doing? Some people say that what he’s doing is he’s taking an Old Testament law and in the New Testament—I remember Robert Bahnsen once doing this, Seventh Day Adventist guy—He’s expanding out the boundaries of the law. In the Old Testament, it’s just this murdering thing that’s prohibited. New Testament, man, Jesus is just pushing it out there. And now we can’t be angry with each other now. Could be before.

Well, that’s just wrong. It’s wrongheaded. It’s wrong theologically. Jesus is the same lawgiver on Sinai that he is on the Sermon on the Mount. And while the law may differ in its application, Jesus isn’t saying anything new here. This is supposed to—can be understood as being implicit in what the sixth word already tells us.

And when we get to Leviticus 19:17 and 18, we’ll see that its commentary on the law says you have to love your neighbor. So this text, this specific commandment is about murder. Of course, it’s about manslaughter. And really, it’s about much more than that. It’s about our hateful attitudes toward each other. It’s us diminishing the life of the other person in any way, shape, or form.

And that’s why these “ands” are so important. One way I can take away your life is to have sex with your wife or your husband. And one way I can take away your life is taking your property. You know, we’ve come to think that property is nothing. We become so gnostic in our perspective. Gets us mad when the tenth commandment says that the wife is part of the property of the man. And it actually says that a lot of commentators will tell you that.

That isn’t diminishing women, folks. That’s raising the value of property. And by the way, when we get to the New Testament, when we get to the New Testament, we find out that not only is the wife our property, Christine’s my property. She is, but I’m her property, too. And again, that isn’t something new. That was always the gig. Husband and wife always belong to one another. We’re not our own.

Okay? But what we do is we think property is so insignificant. Now, our founding fathers didn’t. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” which was originally in John Locke’s formulation, “the pursuit of property.” And to take a man’s property was to take an aspect of his life. And that’s why these things are strung together like that. It helps us to see the sixth word isn’t just about murder. It’s not just about murder and manslaughter. It’s not even just about murder, manslaughter, and hatred.

It’s about anything we might do to take away the life of the other person.

And actually, when we start putting it together then with the rest of the Old Testament and New Testament, it’s about not doing the things that we’re positively supposed to do to help each other’s lives. Cause what does the case law say? If I see your property, I’m supposed to restore him to you. That ox or the ass that’s wandering away. You don’t know where he is. I got to take him back to you. I’m supposed to help you. Love.

If I’m going to love my wife, I better be doing more than just not doing anything bad to her. I should be loving her and helping her develop in who she is. Develop life.

You know, I know that a lot of people disagree with me on Titanic, but I really like the movie Leonardo DiCaprio and at the very beginning the woman—you know the actress the old actress at the beginning of that movie just died recently and I thought about it again—you know at the beginning she’s an old lady she had survived the Titanic the sinking of it and she’s she goes there to be with him to search the Titanic out and in her room before she goes there’s all these pictures of what she’s done all these things she’s accomplished as a result of her encounter with Leonardo DiCaprio.

And I know it’s kind of hard to think of Leonardo DiCaprio as a God figure, but in a way that’s just what he is. He’s a Jesus figure. He wants her to ascend be with him at the at the top of the staircase. Well, Jesus wants us to develop, to mature, that our lives may be well in the land that we’re given to do. Jesus wants us to celebrate life. He wants us to honor life and guard it.

And part of that starting actually is the desire to love one another, to bring each other, to bring our wives, our husbands, our friends to their full budding flourishing of who they are as being recipients of the gracious gift of life through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So life is really the subject of the sixth word and the flourishing of life accomplished specifically by not taking it and being careful about it. But the implications are… And you’re not just supposed to not hate your brother, you’re supposed to positively love him.

Now, that’s why capital—that’s why you got to take life. And it sounds a little counterintuitive. Capital punishment. That is why in the Old Testament laws it says you “surely have to put him to death.” The guy who deliberately kills somebody else because he is striking out at life itself.

You know what did David say? He killed Uriah Bath Sheba’s husband and it’s so striking in Psalm 51 “Against thee, against thee only have I sinned.” Very—you know I remember Scott saying I don’t like that verse don’t like David saying—well none of us do but it gets right to the heart of the matter to strike out at an image bearer of God is to strike out at God. It is as we would say in terms of this, it’s to strike out at life.

“All them that hate me love death.” And that’s what it is.

Now, you can either hold human life way up high because people are image bearers of God. And if you greatly value something, you have to severely punish people that will strike out at it. Right? That’s the reason why God commands the death penalty.

And conversely, when we think we’re being really cool and really good humanist and really valuing human life, since about World War II, no more capital punishment. Very sporadic use of capital punishment anymore. And has this heightened the value of human life in the last 50 years? Absolutely not. It’s had just the opposite effect.

Humanism will always fail. It rejects theism. It rejects man as the image bearer of God and wanting to protect the image bearing of God, wanting to protect life and result and rejoice in life and cause it to flourish. which would lead us to to execute those who have struck out at that. No, we want to be better than that. We want to really value human life. We’ll be humanist and we’ll get rid of God’s word and we won’t—we’ll value life so much that we won’t ever take it.

We’ll take some guy who, you know, killed somebody and we’ll lock him up in a cage for 40 years. We’ll lock him up in a cage for 40 years thinking this is more humane than to execute them. That’s ridiculous. And the end result of that attitude throughout our land in the last 50 years, 60 years, 70 years is that human life is devalued.

So that a woman for instance a week ago, I don’t remember, I don’t know if it was here in another state, has a baby, leaves it in the john, kill, you know, dies in there and she’s found innocent. Abortion happened since then. Infanticide is, you know, growing and it’s numbers of times it happens because you know humanism will always fail. It will not protect humanity.

The way to protect the value and image bearing capacity of man is to is to properly punish to execute those who strike out at the very source of life in a culture the image bearing capacity of men.

Ecclesiastes 10:8 says, “He who digs a pit will fall into it and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall.” Our culture has tried to break through the protecting wall of life in terms of the death penalty. We’ve taken it away and a serpent bites us. We’ve dug a pit hoping to accomplish one thing, but the pit itself catches us. And so we try to value human life so much and get rid of the image, get rid of the idea of God and his law. And what happens? We end up with the dehumanization of our culture.

All because the culture moves away from the sixth word and its clear implications in scripture.

So, the sixth word it it says guard life and to guard life. The case laws tell us to execute people that take life and that’s the only way to guard it. May seem counterintuitive, but if you think about it just a little bit, really there’s a sweet reasonableness to it.

Now, as I said, it does have positive obligations. Calvin does a pretty good job in this. Let me let me read a little bit of Calvin’s commentary on the sixth word. Let’s see where should I pick this up.

Calvin says “that the negative precepts—don’t do this, don’t do that as they are called. The opposite affirmation is also to be understood else it would not be by any means consistent that a person would satisfy God’s law by merely abstaining from doing injury to others. Suppose, for example, that one of a cowardly disposition and not daring to assail even a child, should not move a finger to injure his neighbors, would he therefore have discharged the duties of humanity as regards the sixth commandment? Nay, natural common sense demands more than that we should simply abstain from wrongdoing.

“And not to say more on this point, it will plainly appear from the summary of the second table,” and again, this is the header of the second table, “that this God not only forbids us to be murderers, but also prescribes that everyone should study faithfully to defend the life of his neighbor and practically to declare that it is dear to him. So we all have an obligation as a society to defend the life of our neighbor and in one way of doing that is to execute criminals, murderers and we have an obligation to defend life in our culture to protect it and to declare that it is dear to us.

“The life of our neighbors should be dear to us because it’s a reflection of the image of God. For in that summary, no mere negative phrase is used, but the words expressly set forth that our neighbors are to be loved. This is in Leviticus 19:18. It is unquestionable then that of those whom God there commands to be loved, he here commands the lives to our care.

“There are consequently two parts in the commandment. First, that we should not vex or oppress or be in enmity with any. And secondly, that we should not only live at peace with men without exciting quarrels, but also should aid as far as we can the miserable who are unjustly oppressed and should endeavor to resist the wicked lest they should injure men as they as they list.

“Christ therefore in expounding the genuine sense of the law not only pronounces those transgressions who have committed murder but also that ‘Ye shall be in danger of the judgment of hellfire if you hate your brother or call him a fool.’ And he quotes Matthew 5:22. For he does not there, as some have ignorantly supposed frame a new law as if to cast blame upon his father, but shows the folly and perversity of those interpreters of the law who only insist on the external appearance and husk of things. As it is vulgarly said, since the doctrine of God must rather be estimated from a due consideration of his nature before earthly judges, if a man have carried a weapon for the purpose of killing a man, he is found guilty of violence. And God, who is a spiritual lawgiver, goes even further with him. Therefore, anger is accounted murder. Yay. And as much as he pierces even to the most secret feelings, he holds even concealed hatred to be murder. For so we must understand John’s words, ‘whosoever hates his brother is a murderer.’”

So Calvin says, and this is why on your outline today, the Westminster Confession of Faith shows the what things are prohibited in this law and what things are commanded in this law by way of implication and by tying this law up with all the rest of laws. The law is about protecting and enhance by protecting it enhancing life. And so it doesn’t stop with simply a prohibition against rude acts against one another.

As Calvin says, God pierces right down to our hearts, telling us on the one hand that hatred is murder, and on the other hand, we’re to love our neighbor in specifically in Leviticus 19 with the proper use of our tongue. So there are positive commands to this particular text.

Now we’re going to have a meeting in our house 4:15 today and you know it relates to all of this. It says well I’m doing good in my home. We have rejoicing in our home because we homeschool or can afford private school. But we have an obligation in the fourth word to extend that kind of rejoicing rest, the education of children to others. And we have an obligation in the sixth word to promote the life of others.

And one possible way, maybe not, maybe isn’t going to happen, maybe it is. But this is why I came up with this idea and I’ve shared with a number of people, the pastors in Oregon City got excited about it last Wednesday when I talked about it., you know, some of them who have been reticent to start Christian schools at their own churches really like this idea of the church in Oregon City starting a Christian school so that we can begin to raise a faithful generation of kids outside of that public school system that is atheistic by definition, not theistic, that is more and more socialistic and that is more and more radically environmentalistic.

If we can pull kids out of that and give more and more kids the opportunity of real life to understand the world based in a Christian context, then what we’re doing is obeying the sixth word by saving some of those that are being hauled off to destruction through their thought systems. And we’re doing the very obligations of the sixth word to promote life in the context of the Christian church and God’s community.

We have the obligation, I think, in different forms and maybe not with the schooling thing, but each of us has an obligation to seek the well-being of the life of those that we have relationship with. And that life is found in the context of obedience to God and rejoicing in his word. That’s what the sixth word I think is all about. It tells us rejoice in life, honor life, and then finally protect life.

The sixth word and the Genesis account.

Last almost last point here on the outline. Remember here that these things are can be related. The commandments to the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Adam, explicitly called the son of god in the gospels sins against the Father in being impatient in taking the fruit before or at all if you believe in a blanket prohibition or before he was supposed to take it.

And what happens next is Adam’s progeny, we have the first murder. So we have the first offense against the father with Adam sinning against the father, not honoring dad. And then we have the first murder violation of the sixth word. So we got fifth word, sixth word being played out in the opening pages of the book of Genesis.

And this is why in the cover of the order of worship, we’ve got Cain killing Abel or plotting to kill him. And that’s the coloring page for the kids as well. And it’s really important that our kids understand this. God gives us the account because it’s such a common temptation to fallen man to strike out in some form against brother or sister. And so that’s a violation of the son. And then we’ll see in the next commandment is adultery. And in as the seed got worse and worse coming forth from Cain, we get down to Lamech. And he’s a polygamist, which means he’s an adulterer. And there we have the first adultery given for us. He’s also a murderer, by the way, as well. And so we have this progression down. And so there’s this progression in the Genesis account going from not honoring dad to killing brother and then improperly relating to marriage in terms of adultery.

Now, it’s the spirit of God that works with men to bring them into marriage relationships. And so, I think what we have in these accounts of a violation of the fifth word and then the sixth word and then the seventh word are sins against the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And so, remember what we said here is that the ten commandments, another way of looking at them, just structure them in our heads to remember them is that you got the first three, you know, no greater power than Elohim the Father, no other mediator than the Son Jesus Christ and have a full spirit empowered, not an empty witness of God. Commandment three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And commandments five, six, and seven do that same thing. Now four, rejoicing life in community is the result of honoring God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And those three aspects I think are repeated twice for us in the rest of these lists. Honor your father, relate correctly to your brother in relationship to community in the sixth word. And then go about marrying and procreating the race properly in terms of the seventh word. Have a spiritual spirit-led bringing together of marriage.

And that’s the way it works. So this sixth commandment falls in the context of that and it falls in the relationship then to Adam, Cain and the Sethites. Now on your outline, I got Lamech there as well with the Sethites cause he was a polygamist. And then of course the reversal of these are found in Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.

But you know, as we go through the ten words, it’s interesting now that we’re in the ones that can be observed more properly how this relates to the historical account of Genesis and this sixth word follows on the fifth the murder of Abel by Cain followed upon the dishonoring of the father by the son of God Adam and so it’s significant and it takes us to the idea of this first murder Cain and Abel and the account is interesting we read that in the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portion And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering.

But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Then Cain speaks to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

Now, very interesting text filled with all kinds of interesting stuff that we can’t talk at fully today, but it is interesting the sorts of offerings. Abel brings an ascension offering. Cain brings a tribute offering as they’ll later be described in Leviticus. Now, a grain offering was a tribute offering. An ascension offering is the animal offering. And the animal offering also was involved with purification for sin.

Now, if you’re going to get to Leviticus and do it properly, you have to properly sequence but pull together the offerings of Cain and Abel. You can’t just do an Abel offering. You got to have a Cain offering. You can’t just do a Cain offering with grain. You got to have an animal offering. God shows us that a after this murder in the sacrificial system again what was positively supposed to be going on here.

These boys, these young men actually by this time they’re supposed to be cooperating together. And instead the story is one of complete disunity and anger against on one person’s part against the righteous Abel. and sin and murder.

So again, while it’s stressing the first murder, the sacrificial system knowing it is a reminder that what we’re supposed to see in brothers is not just the absence of anger and envy and murder. But what we’re supposed to see in brothers, the only thing that’ll keep those things at bay is properly relating and cooperating to one another. God doesn’t leave us in isolation.

Now, what was Abel all? What was Cain all upset about? Well, I think that the driving thing. He got angry. We know that. Why was he angry? Because God had regard. We don’t know how God showed it. Maybe fire. I don’t know what it was. But God liked Abel’s offering and didn’t seem to like Cain’s offering.

Now, Cain can’t do anything about what just happened. It’s there. He can’t change it. God loved Abel, at least by way of his offering, more than he loved Cain. And Cain couldn’t get that love now, right? I mean, the offerings are over. Now, God tries to point him to the future. “you do better, you’ll be approved.”

But Cain is living in the past and he’s living in a past where he was rejected somehow and the other brother accepted. Cain was struggling with envy. He was struggling with the desire to be like Abel, to have the love that Abel had gotten from God, acceptance, but completely unable to do it.

Envy is worse than coveting. Coveting wants what you have and tries to get it somehow. And it could be properly getting it or improperly getting it. Envy says, “What you have, I can’t have, and therefore I don’t want you to have it.” Life is acceptance and love. Cain wasn’t loved. At least this is how he interpreted it. And his offering wasn’t accepted in some way. And rather than learning by this and moving into the future, Cain driven by envy became angry. And in that anger, even though God specifically through grace gives him hope for the future, he dwells in the envy of the past. And he does the only thing that envy knows how to do. It kills what it can’t have.

You know, down in these neighborhoods, people will go up to really rich cars and key them, right? They’ll just put a big put a big chunk in the side of the car. Why? Because they can’t have that car. They want to not make you have it, too.

What’s going on in our culture? What happened down there in California is people hate corporations. don’t be fooled by what’s going down in the elections here. They were good in many ways. But look folks, I’m telling you, this country has become more and more socialistic, both these and ours. And what that means is people don’t like private enterprise. They don’t like free market. They trust the state more than they do corporations.

So they had two big corporate women who seem to be pretty accomplished at running a state and running the US Senate. They both lost. And they lost because the progressives beat the drum over and over how evil corporations are, how that money was corporate money., same thing with the attempt to roll back radical environmentalism down there. They beat the drum. They had one, they were one note Johnny’s, but it was a note that worked. “Big oil companies, big oil companies, big oil companies” are funding this measure. The country, you know, hates that. And people hate that profit and they get envious and they want to tear down, you know, BP. They want to tear down the free market people.

They want to tear they can’t do it themselves. We can’t become BP. We can’t be rich like them. So, let’s take their money away. Let’s tax those guys for my benefit or even not for my benefit just to hurt them. That’s envy. And envy is what drove, I think, the first murder.

Even worse, envy is what was directly responsible for our Savior’s death. In Matthew 27:18, talking about Pilate here, “Pilate knew that It was out of envy that they had delivered him up.” Talking about the Jews delivering up Jesus. They delivered.

Now, you can go on and on. Lots of examples of envy in the Bible. But here it is. The first murder, the most vile murder, the defining murder of fallen humanity as well is driven by envy. The text tells us this. Tells us that Pilate had it right. He knew it. The text records it for us. It wants us to understand it. And then later when the apostles get murdered, it’s the same thing. the Jews are delivering of and the text of scripture says explicitly because of envy.

The reason we actually move to murder or maybe move to slander or maybe don’t move to help our brother and sister out. One of the biggest reasons for that is envy of the other person.

Envy motivated the first death. It motivated the vilest death. It’s worse than wrath. Proverbs 27:4 says, “Wrath is cruel. Anger is overwhelming. But who can stand before jealousy?” Or in better translation, “who can stand before envy?” Nobody.

If we want to obey this sixth word, if we want to be lifegiving sources of God’s image bearing capacity to us, if we want to not just not take away life from others, but to positively enhance it in others, and if we want to avoid the kind of horrific attacking of brother to brother that goes on from Cain and Abel right through the human race, and was reflected for us in many of the elections this last week, we have to deal with envy. We have to deal with envy.

Well, how do you do it? So, I’ve focused on one thing here. There’s other reasons for murder, but the first murder and the worst murder motivated by envy. Envy produces what’s much of the sin and the violations, the hatred of brothers that go on. Here’s a list of some ways to cure envy in yourself.

You know it. You know that as you come here today, you’ve hated this person, that person, person. You’ve spoken evil of somebody. You’ve used your tongue to harm somebody’s reputation. You’ve hated them, at least in your heart, even if you haven’t let expression to it. Or you certainly haven’t desired the well-being of everybody you came across the last 5 years. You haven’t sought for their well-being in life. Now, you have in a lot of ways, but in any ways, we know that we violate the sixth word. And we’ll see as we go on for the other ones that they’re violated in various ways.

Well, we violated the sixth word. How can we cure ourselves?

Well, we want to submit to God’s property rights. He gives to Abel what he gives to Abel. That’s God’s gift to Abel. Every man has been given grace by God. God’s acceptance of Abel is his deal. And God owns property. He owns us. We’re his property. And he’s going to give to some of us blessings and gifts and benefits. He gives to some of us money. And he gives to others of us poverty. That’s his deal. It’s his money. It’s his property. He knows what’s best for you. Don’t try to strike out at somebody else because they’ve got a gifting that you don’t have or they’ve got success that you don’t have. They’ve got the friends that you don’t have.

Submit to God’s sovereign property rights and appreciation for God’s unequal giftings.

I watched Toy Story 3 this week a couple of nights ago. Great movie. Baptism, right? Got the name of Andy on him. We got the name of Jesus on us. We belong to Jesus. And if Jesus wants to put us in the attic and let other toys get played with, that’s okay, Jesus knows what he’s doing with us. We got to trust him in that. Otherwise, if we’re up there in that attic, we’re going to be envious of toys being played with by kids.

And this was the point of the movie is that, you know, sin is wanting to do things for ourselves and lifegiving righteousness is wanting to do things for our owner to acknowledge that our owner has different purposes for us at different times that are way beyond our capability even of understanding what might what our owner might do.

And in the case of the toys, of course, the owner gives them to a kid that’s going to play with them. We don’t know what’s going to happen to us, but we appreciate God’s unequal giftings and unequal callings in life. You’ve got a particular place, and it may be a lot tougher place than the guy next to you has, but you know what? In the providence of God, that’s a place that Jesus has given to you.

I know it sounds simple and everything, but you plant where you’re bloom. And if it’s in the attic, it’s in the attic. And if it’s in the daycare, it’s in the daycare. And if you if you don’t come to grips with that, your heart’s going to be envious of other people. And you’re not going to like people. And more and more over your life, you’re going to find more and more people you don’t like because they’ve got things you don’t have. And you can never have.

You can never have their looks or their money or their friends. You may try it with the providence of God. You know what? I’m I’m convinced God calls a lot of Christians not to have a lot of friends. That’s okay. It’s all right. God gives us each what we need to be effective for his kingdom. And when we’re effective for his kingdom and fulfilling the purposes for which he’s placed his name on us at baptism, that’s life. He’s a lifegiver, right? And we rejoice in unequal giftings, unequal callings.

We appreciate other people’s giftings and callings. They’re fulfilling a role that we could never fulfill. And if you don’t get to that place, you’re going to struggle with anger and envy, wrath, and you’re going to hurt people around you instead of helping them.

Thanksgiving for God’s world. We want things to be different, but this is God’s world. The sixth commandment is about protecting. And it’s the sum result of rejoicing and honoring life by protecting it. And an appreciation for God’s world is one of the cures for envy. Because God’s world has different things going on in different directions.

Confession to sin. You know, the way to get rid of sin ultimately is not just to analyze and think about it and say, “Okay, I’m going to move on.” Is to confess it. If you’ve hated your brother in your heart or had bad thoughts or just didn’t love them, confess it right now. It’s sin. You don’t like somebody here, confess it. If you’ve been envious against somebody, you’ve been tempted to slander them with your tongue, to do murder with your tongue. I mean, even if you just hold it in your bosom, Jesus says you’re a murderer. But if you express it how so much more.

So, confess it. Tell God, “This is wrong. I don’t want to be like this anymore. I want to appreciate you. I want to submit to your property rights, your unequal giftings.” Not just submit to them. I want to rejoice in them. And I want to find my particular giftings, my particular calling, my particular station. And when you do that, confessing your sins and moving in terms of righteousness, you become one of those great dispensers of life.

You become that bright shining light in the middle of a dark American world. You’ve got tremendous power. You’re an image bearer of God. Men are God’s ultimate resource are you. Each one of you. And God says that the way to accomplish that is through confession and then moving into righteousness.

Pray for your enemies. You got real enemies. Maybe they really do hate you. What are you supposed to do? Jesus tells us, you know, you follow the rule book and it’ll be well with you in the land. Pray for those who despitefully use you. Don’t get envious. angry. Try to strike out with your tongue, with your thoughts, with your fists, with whatever it is. Pray for those who despitefully use you.

Recognize that salvation is by grace, not by our environment.

May the Lord God grant us to be those who truly fulfill both the negative and positive aspects of the sixth commandment. May he make us lifegivers in a way that we haven’t been lifegivers up to now.

I talked last week about community life and kids and friendships and youth groups and all that stuff. Hey, this is really key right here. This is where it’s at. This is what splits kids up. Now, interest groups are fine, but when you get groups splitting up against one another, not liking each other, sixth commandments going on. Usually, envy’s going on, anger, sin. And so, this is it. This is how we honor life is by protecting life.

And we can make immediate application this in the context of our church, our families, and our culture. And God says it will be great blessing for us as we protect his life and flourish in that life in the times in which he’s made us.

Let’s pray.

Lord God, we thank you for it today. We thank you for your sixth word. We thank you for its comprehensibility. Thank you that we can understand it by looking at it, thinking about it, and studying your scriptures about it. Thank you for its overall perspective and everything that we do in terms of relating one to another into your world. Make us, Lord God, those who love our neighbor as ourselves, seek their well-being, forsake wrath, envy, and the attempt to hurt others, and make us, Lord God, a congregation of people who build on the good work you’ve done here by causing us to build each other up more and more. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.