Dear congregation, this afternoon we continue to study the Ten Commandments and this morning we saw something of the context in which God gave them, God delivered them to the Israelites, that glorious and terrifying scene there at Mount Sinai. And this afternoon as we want to focus especially on The Sixth Commandment from Exodus 20, verse 12 or 13, where God commands us, you shall not murder, and in connection with that, Lord's Day 40 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Now, if you were here two weeks ago, you'd remember how in the morning service, instead of reading first the Ten Commandments, I read first the summary, and then I read the Ten Commandments, because the Ten Commandments show us how we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The Ten Commandments show us how we are to love our neighbour as ourselves. It's not just a list of do's and don'ts, but this is God's gracious instruction to us, God's gracious guidance to us. Well, a few weeks ago we looked at the fifth commandment, which is the first commandment, which is sometimes described as being part of the second table of God's law as it deals with our neighbor. And we saw that the obvious focus of the fifth commandment is that children are to honor their parents, honor their father and their mother. We saw also how this has a broader, A broader application to how all of us are to relate to those who God has placed in authority over us. Now the sixth commandment is very short. Four little words. You shall not kill. And yet obeying this commandment requires far more than simply not killing someone. So let's consider that this afternoon under the theme, love your neighbor in light of the sixth commandment. So love your neighbor in light of the sixth commandment. And with the Lord's help, I want to see this in three sections. First of all, what sins are forbidden. Secondly, getting to the heart of these sins. And then third, what demonstrations of love are required. So what sins are forbidden, getting to the heart of these sins, and what demonstrations of love are required. Now, before looking at the specific sins that are forbidden, it's good to remind ourselves why murder is so serious. Even here in the Western world, in the country in which we live, with all of its confusion, with its rejection of God and its word, there's still some understanding that murder is wrong. If you were to ask people what are the worst kinds of crimes, it's likely that at the top of their list would be crimes that involve the killing of other people. And from a human point of view, murder is so serious because there's no recovery from it. If you get robbed, you can typically earn back or replace the things that have been stolen. It's terrible to be a victim of sexual assault, and yet we know people who have suffered in this way, and yet by God's grace and with God's help, they've gone on to live lives that are full of blessing and joy. But murder is different. When someone has been killed, their life is over. There's no coming back from that. From a biblical point of view, murder is even more serious. This person who has been killed has been made in the image of God, and to attack an image-bearer of God is really to attack God Himself who has created them. Now, the reason why, from the Bible, why murder is so serious is that we were created to glorify, serve, and worship God. When someone is murdered, they're no longer able to do that. It ends all praise and all worship. The last reason I'll give why this is so serious is that for the person who is killed, their days of grace are over. Whether they are ready or not to stand before God, they now have to appear before Him. They now have to give an account of their lives. How sobering even just that last part is. Let's look then now at some specific activities that are forbidden. As we think of this command not to murder, we immediately think of physical actions, physical deeds that result in someone's death, right? Shooting someone, stabbing, hitting someone with a car, poisoning someone. All these things are clearly involved in this commandment. As you think about this commandment, we need to acknowledge also with grief the ways in which our society continues to blatantly violate this commandment. A few years ago, hundreds of graves were found outside of residential schools. And you remember the outrage and the movement, Every Child Matters. And there's something good about that movement. It's true. Every child does matter. And it's a great tragedy when Aboriginal children suffered abuse and neglect, and some died. There should be careful and fair investigation into this. But how sad it is that we live in a country where we say every child matters, except when that child is not born, when that child is unexpected and unwanted. Suddenly, this chance ends, and instead of every child matters, we say, a woman's right to choose. We live in a country where there are virtually no restrictions on abortion, and our tax dollars go to pay for free abortions for those who want it. That's horrible. Do we not have a responsibility to speak up about this great evil? Just think about different terrible things that happened in the history of this world. You might think of the Nazi Holocaust, and in four years, the Germans killed six million Jews. It's terrible. You might think of the African slave trade. For 300 years, we had slaves who were being kidnapped from Africa and sold and oppressed and suffered brutally. They estimate that between 15 to 60 million slaves died during those years. But current estimates are that every single year, 73 million babies are aborted worldwide. How much blood do we not have on our hands as a nation and as a world? They also, as a country, have assisted suicide. And now Canada has legislation, I believe it's sometime in the spring, we're going to extend that to those who are depressed, to those who suffer from mental illnesses. Again, how evil it is that instead of seeking to compassionately come alongside people, to give them hope, to encourage them, we now say, here's a solution. Let us help you commit suicide. Let us end your suffering instead of seeking to give them hope. And here again, do we not have an obligation to speak up? And not just to speak up, but actively to look for ways to come alongside those who are suffering, to support good organizations that seek to help those who are suffering and to show the evil of these legislations. There's other things that we could mention as well. Transgender surgery, especially for young children. How much harm is being caused to those who are confused, to those who are struggling? All these outward actions are certainly included in his commandments. But our catechism helpfully begins by stating that this is so much broader than outward actions that result in physical death. Catechism says that neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deeds, I dishonor, hate, wound, or kill my neighbor by myself or by another. This is also what we saw from what we read together in Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 and 22. And Jesus there is speaking and he says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. In the days of Jesus, we had religious rulers, including the Pharisees and the scribes, and their tendency was to reduce God's law, to make it very simple. focusing on specific outward actions. So the sixth commandment, don't murder, that means as long as you don't kill anyone, you haven't broken the commandment. The seventh commandment, don't commit adultery, as long as you're not sleeping around, you've kept this commandment. And by doing that, by restricting the ten commandments in this way, it becomes quite easy for a devoted Jew to start checking off the boxes. I never killed anyone, I never committed adultery, I haven't stolen anything, I haven't lied in court. But Jesus here is showing that this is wrong. Jesus here is not changing God's law, but he's showing that the law is about way more than outward behaviors. God's law gets to our hearts, our desires, our thoughts, our words. Jesus specifically mentions anger, we'll come back to that in our second point. He goes on to say that to call someone raka, that means empty-headed or a fool, is to break the six commandments. And if you do that, if you use these words, you deserve to be punished. Not just with some minor punishment, a little slap on the wrist, but he says you deserve to be dragged before the same courts that deal with murderers. If you use this kind of language, you are in danger of hellfire. How often have we not said, or at least thought, what an idiot. Do they have any brains? They're so stupid. Maybe even we said or thought to ourselves, I wish he or she was dead. Or maybe you didn't say anything, but you're very angry and you're glaring at someone. There's a saying, but that isn't there. If looks could kill, dot, dot, dot. In other words, the anger that comes out, there's a hatred, a murderous desire that's there in that look, in that glare. Now, soul brain is then as we realize that this commandment is much broader than simply not stabbing someone or not shooting someone. Do we not have to confess this afternoon that we are guilty of murder, that we are guilty of breaking this commandment, that in our thoughts, in our words, in our looks, sometimes even interactions, we have shown hatred, desire to wound someone. We wished that they were not there. This commandment is not only concerned about the protection of other lives, but also our own lives. And here again, the catechism says that I hurt not myself, nor willfully expose myself to any danger. In the Westminster, a larger catechism, Helpfully, gives a few more details, and it says, our duty in connection to this commandment is a serious use or a sober use of food, drink, medical care, sleep, work, and recreation. And here again, isn't there a ditch on both sides of the road? There are these good things that God has given to us, eating, drinking, sleeping, recreation, and yet we can abuse them, we can overuse them. Perhaps by being lazy, by overindulging, and the result is, again, that we are unhealthy and unproductive. Or perhaps we are more likely to fall into the other ditch. We know that we need to eat and drink, we know we need to get enough sleep, we know we need to have exercise, and yet we are so busy, we are so busy with our work or other things that we completely neglect these things. And if we do that, it results in being unhealthy, perhaps burnt out or exhausted, unable to serve in church or society. Here again, don't we have to confess that often we get this balance wrong? Don't we often overindulge? There's not times in which we completely neglect some of these things. Or perhaps we take these things so seriously that they become an idol to us, that we idolize our health, that our life revolves around eating just right and sleeping just right. And we see that there's so many ways in which we can fall into this trap and sin against God and against ourself. There are other things that we can mention as we consider this. Self-harm, suicide, smoking, using drugs, abusing alcohol. What about full contact sports or other high risk activities? What about violent video games and movies where we are entertained by people killing each other or we as the person on the screen are going around killing and destroying and hurting? Well, the focus of this commandment is the protection and preservation of human life. Especially as we think about murder, are there any exceptions to that? And our New King James translation is helpful as it translates this verse, you shall not murder. Many of us grew up with, or at least are familiar with the King James translation, and it says there, thou shalt not kill. And right away, as we think of killing, there are times in which it's lawful to kill. There are three broad exceptions I'll quickly go through, which are helpful for us to consider this afternoon. The first is capital punishments, right, the death penalty for certain crimes. And we see that already commanded in Genesis 9, where God commands Noah and his descendants, he says, the right punishment for murder is death. This is repeated as God gives his law to Moses in Exodus 21, and this continues to apply to us today. The catechism summarizes Romans 13, as it says, wherefore, the magistrate, civil government, is armed with the sword to prevent murder. So, that's one exception to, one category to keep in mind. Another category is self-defense. And I trust most of us think that self-defense is acceptable, though it's a lot harder to prove from Scripture than capital punishment. that will point to verses like Matthew 5 verses 38 and 39 where Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you not to resist an evil person. Whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also. And they, like the Mennonites, for example, will argue that we should never defend ourselves. But that's to misunderstand this passage. This passage is, first of all, dealing about taking vengeance or revenge against someone. And a slap on a cheek can be understood as a traditional insult, not a threat to life and limb. One passage that gives some direction about self-defense and even using lethal force is Exodus 22. And then we read, if the thief is found breaking in and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. So, someone wakes up in the middle of the night, a thief is breaking in, he hits that person, and that person dies. In that context, there was no guilt. They were innocent of blood. But that verse goes on to say, if the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed. So, from that passage, we see that in certain contexts, lethal force is reasonable to protect yourself. In other circumstances, it's not reasonable. Another thing we can say in connection to self-defense is that the heart of the Sixth Commandment is the principle that human life is precious. Human life should be preserved. There again we see support for self-defense as you defend yourselves and others from attack. The third exception to killing other people is in times of war. Romans 13 again applies to that. That's the magistrate does not bear the sword in vain. They have a duty to defend, to protect. But does it mean that every war is legitimate? Yet throughout most of church history, Christians have agreed that there are times in which war is not just permitted, but even required. If you have questions about that, you can just Google Christian just war theory. I don't want to spend more time on that this afternoon. So as we consider what it means to love our neighbor in the Six Commandments, it means that we need to fight against and avoid these sins that are forbidden, sins that involve dishonoring, hating, wounding, or killing our neighbor. But to do this, how we are to avoid this, it's helpful to know where these sins come from. And let's consider that in our second thought, getting to the heart of these sins. Question 106 of the Catechism asks, but this commandment seems only to speak of murder. And the answer is, in forbidding murder, God teaches us that He abhors or hates the causes thereof, such as envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge, and that He accounts all of these as murder. Certainly, there's quite a bit of overlap as we think about these different categories, these emotions and emotives. Let's go through them quickly this afternoon, and may God convict us and expose us, for we are guilty of these sins. First of all, envy. We can define envy as a desire to possess. Another person's gifts, possessions, position, or achievements. So instead of being happy for that person and whatever that they have, we are jealous. We want what they have. We wish that we could have it instead of them. There's many examples of envy in the Bible. Aaron and Miriam envied Moses, the prestigious role he had among the Israelites. We see how Saul envied David when the women were singing, David has killed his thousands, Saul has killed his hundreds and David has killed his thousands. We can see the envy of David, how he envied Uriah for his wife Bathsheba, how King Ahab envied Naboth for his vineyard. I'm sure you can think of other examples. We see when there's this envy, when there's this desire to have or belong to someone else, that in some of these cases, it directly resulted in murder, people being killed. What about you and me? Do we look with resentment and envy at the people around us because of the toys they have, because of the luxuries that they enjoy? because of the vacations that they go on, because of their successes or opportunities that they have in society or in a church. I'm sure all of us have experienced envy in some way, and we know how it can destroy things, how it can result in bitterness and anger. Proverbs 14 verse 30 warns us, it says, a sound heart is life to the body. But envy is rottenness to the bones. And next, we can think of hatred. Hatred is really the opposite of love. Also, as Elder Leung pointed out before the service, to hate someone is to detest them, to have an intense dislike toward them, to be hostile toward them. After Jacob deceived his father, we read how Esau hated him, wanted to kill him. We can read of Joseph's brothers, how they hated him. They couldn't even speak peaceably to him. King Ahab hated the prophet Micaiah because he warned Ahab of what would happen if he goes on in sin. What about us? Do we detest? Do we hate anyone? Do we have a sense of hostility in us as we think of a certain person or if we meet a certain person? And again, don't we have to confess that so quickly these kinds of feelings and emotions get stirred up in our hearts? Even with those who we love, those we have good relationships with, something small happens, and it's so quick for us that these feelings get stirred up. In 1 John 2.9, the apostle warns us. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. Our chapter later, 1 John 3 verse 15, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. How important it is that as we see these feelings, as we recognize these emotions, and we quickly confess them to God, We confess our sins and we ask Him for help to root this sin out of our hearts. So we have envy, we have hatred, and there's anger. And I think all of us know what anger is, that strong feeling of displeasure that can be stirred up in our hearts and our minds. The one definition I found, it's a feeling of displeasure aroused by a wrong, whether real or perceived. Even that, isn't that something to keep in mind? How often have we not become angry about something, and then later found out that we got angry over nothing? It's a misunderstanding. We got angry about something that wasn't even true. On Genesis 4, we read about Cain, who was very angry that God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but not his. And we know how that ended. Balak was angry with Balaam and he kept on repeatedly blast Israel instead of curse them. King Saul was angry with his son Jonathan when Jonathan stuck up for David. We might not struggle as much with hatred. I think almost all of us, if not all of us, struggle with anger. How many times in a week do you get angry with someone, a spouse, a parent? sibling, a child, the rude cashier in the grocery store, the crowd of people around you on the highway as you go to work or to school. Ephesians 4 verse 31, Paul tells us, that's all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. There are also times then when we should be angry. I looked up the words anger and angry in the Bible and I was quite surprised. First of all, they're in the Bible 326 times. And in most of these cases, it's God who is angry. And that again reminds us even in the passage that we read from Matthew chapter five. It says there, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause. So there are times in which we should be angry. So look at the Bible, we see how God is angry because of oppression, angry because of abuse, because of idolatry and immorality. Even the Lord Jesus, there's times in which he was angry. Do you remember when he went to the temple, the temple courtyard was filled with merchants selling the wares, and he got a cord of whips and he drove them out because they had turned the house of prayer into a marketplace. Or Jesus, we read that he was very angry with his disciples when parents brought their little children to Jesus, that Jesus would bless them. But the disciples were turning them away. But what we never read in the Bible is that Jesus became angry because he was inconvenienced. He never became angry when people around him were slow to understand, slow to learn who he was. We don't read that Jesus became angry when His disciples were arguing on the way to Jerusalem, which of them would be the greatest. We don't read that Jesus became angry when Judas, one of His disciples, one of His friends, made a plan to betray Him, and Judas met Him in the garden. Ephesians 4, verse 26 says, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Lastly, there can be a desire for revenge. Again, a definition I found is that a desire for revenge is retaliation for some injury. And again, whether real or perceived. And children, this is very simple. You're building something with Lego, and your brother or sister or friend comes along and destroys what you have built. A desire of revenge is when you get up and you find their house, their building, and you smash their house. That's how revenge works. And the sad thing is when people grow up, it doesn't get much better. Again, if you look at people around us, so often there can be this desire for revenge. This person has hurt me. This person has offended me. How can I get them back? Even as you look at a national scale or international scale, isn't that often the case? One country does one thing, another country retaliates, and we see how things can quickly escalate. In the Bible, we see this, this desire revenge. We have Joseph's brothers who are very worried that Joseph is going to take revenge on them now that he was a powerful ruler. Or we have Joab, one of the generals, David's general. He kills Abner in revenge for the death of his brother Ahasuel. There's other examples as well. But as we look at the Bible, look at history, even as we look in our hearts, do we not have to confess and admit that this envy, this hatred, this anger, and this desire for revenge This lives in our hearts, something that we struggle with. But how then should we live? These are all these things that we're not supposed to do. How does God want us to live in a way that, in which we glorify God and keep his law? Let's see that in our third thought, what demonstrations of love are required. As you've seen with other commandments, as God explicitly forbids one action, don't kill, He implicitly commands the opposite action. So negatively, we are forbidden to harm our neighbor. And positively, we are required to love our neighbor, to seek their well-being. You see that in question answer 107. Is it not enough that we don't kill any man in the manner mentioned above? And the answer is no. For when God forbids envy, hatred, and anger, he commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness toward him, and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies. And that we do good. even to our enemies?" Here in the middle, the answer is a helpful test that the catechism draws from Scripture. I trust you all know the summary of the Ten Commandments. And Jesus is not original with Jesus. He took that from the Old Testament. But concerning our obligations to our neighbor, we are told we are to love our neighbor as ourself. And that's a test by which we can examine ourselves. Do I love my neighbor? Do I love my wife? Do I love my children? Do I love the fellow members in this congregation as much as I love myself? That's what's required. If you love, if we love our neighbor as ourself, then we obviously won't hate them. We'll be slow to get angry with them. Instead of envying them, we'll rejoice with them. We'll be glad to see how God is blessing them, how God is providing for them. The problem is that usually we love ourselves a lot, and we act as though everything in the world revolves around me. So if I don't get to pick first, if I don't get to go first, if I don't get that recognition, if it seems as though someone else is getting everything handed to them in a silver platter, then we respond with bitterness, anger, and envy. So God commands us, love your neighbor as you love yourself. What does this look like? What would it look like to love our neighbor as ourself in connection with the six commandments? And Catechism again gives us a helpful list to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness to him or her. In many ways, this is the complete opposite of the emotions and the motivations that we saw earlier as the causes of mercy. To be patient is to be slow to anger. Peace is that state of tranquility or wholeness. To have peace is to have a relationship of love and loyalty with others. What a contrast with hatred. Meekness is to have a calm temper of mind, not easily provoked, and to be humble. This again applies to anger, but also envy. and all kindness towards them. Instead of a desire for revenge, a desire to see them destroyed, you desire to see people around you blessed by God, blessed physically, blessed in their relationships, blessed financially, blessed in their work, blessed spiritually. This isn't limited to our friends, our families, and our co-workers. This isn't limited to those we get along with. This even applies to our enemies, to those who hate us, those who make fun of us, those who oppose us. We are to love them. As we think about these things, there are several things to note in conclusion. First of all, we are all guilty in breaking this commandment. None of us can leave here this afternoon and say, I perfectly love my neighbors." And even as believers, we struggle with this. We do fight against envy, hatred, anger, and desire for revenge, especially as believers that God calls us to live differently. In Titus 3 verses 1 and 2, Titus is to tell the people he's speaking to, to tell believers, Paul tells Titus to say, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey and to be ready for every good work, and to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. And then Paul points out how, as before God worked in us, we were people who hated We lived in malice and envy. Paul says we were hateful and hating one another. And Paul reminds Timothy of a great change that has taken place. Or Titus. Titus 3, verses 4 and 6, we read, but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward men appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. So if we're here today as believers, Paul is telling Titus of this glorious change that has taken place. We used to be like this, haters, hating one another. But by God's grace, you see something of God's love. We see something of who Christ is. Christ, the greatest demonstration of love. How then will we not respond by loving those around us? What if you're still without Christ? Perhaps you're here this afternoon and you're especially convicted of the many ways in which you break this commandment, of the anger and hatred and envy that you find in your hearts. Is there any hope, any good news for a murderer like you? In Acts 2, we have Peter addressing the crowd that has gathered there at Pentecost. And in his sermon, he accuses them, the gathered crowd, of murder. In verse 23 of Acts 2, he says to them, him, Jesus, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. Many in a crowd there, they had the blood of an innocent man on their hands, not just an innocent man. They had the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God on their hands. This crowd becomes convicted and they cry out, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter tells them, even for sinners like you who are guilty of the death of Christ, repent, turn from your sins and turn to Christ. Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As Peter said a few verses earlier in his sermon, he said, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The same is true today for you. If you're without Christ, if you're feeling convicted of this sin, there was hope for those who had the blood of Christ on their hands. Is there not also hope for you then? That God will receive you, that God will forgive you in and through Christ. Jesus came to seek and save sinners, and that includes those who repeatedly break the six commandments. So if you think about this commandment, as you realize how far short we have come, and how guilty we are of breaking this commandment, Let us look to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. And let us look and pray that He would help us, through His Word and by His Spirit, to put this sin to death. That God would help us to reflect something of the love of Christ to those around us. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father who is in heaven, we come to you again in this afternoon, and we thank you that there is hope for those who have sinned against you. There's hope for those who are guilty of breaking this commandment, for those who your word calls murderers. Lord, help us. Help us to remember this. Help us to believe this. If we're still here without Christ, Lord, draw us, drive us unto Christ. We ask that you'd work in all of our hearts. So that's day by day and hour by hour. You may confess our sins. You may confess how we have so much anger, envy, bitterness, and desire of revenge in our hearts. Lord, that you would soften our hearts. You'd purify our hearts and our minds. We would be amazed by the love that you displayed to enemies, and that we would reflect this love. It would help us to show great love in our families. If we're married to our spouse, if we're parents to our children or to our grandchildren, it would help us to love our coworkers, help us to love our neighbors, our friends. Help us to love those in this world. There are so many who live in darkness. There are so many who have rarely experienced self-sacrificing love. Help us to point them to Christ and to be witnesses of Christ by the way that we live. We pray that you'd be with us now in this week that lies before us. We thank you that we could begin this week in your house, worshiping you. And we pray, Lord, that you'd bless us. Help us in whatever that we have planned, whether we go to school, whether we work, whether we're retired. We pray that you'd bless us. Help us to glorify you. Help us to praise you in all that we do. Lord, help us to delight in you. as we read in the Shorter Catechism that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And let that be also our desire, our goal, and our experience in this week. And we pray all these things for Christ's sake alone. Amen.