All right, I did not produce a handout for this, but I'm gonna go over a review question that was given to me last week, and then we'll move on from there. So the question from last week was regarding forbearance, because we looked at the duty of forbearing with others and the sins that they commit against us. And the question is this, we learned that God's forbearance has limits, How far or long should we have forbearance on those who do us wrong? Now, this is a great question, and we'll look at some of the answer to this in the new material today, but there are times when no forbearance is required. And we'll look at this specifically with a lawful or just defense against violence, where we have an immediate duty, for example, of self-preservation. So if somebody attacks you, I'm not going to tell a person while they're being attacked or before they ever get attacked. Well, you know, you should be forbearing and you should allow that person to kill, rape, whatever it is. You should just allow them to do that and forbear with their evil deeds. So there are certain situations, especially defensive situations, when no forbearance is required. There are other circumstances that the Bible distinguishes this way. There are some people that are like swine and so there is no forbearance for them. We're not even to speak good truths to them that might save them because they'll demonstrate a refusal of those truths and a violence against us for expressing them. So that would be disobedience to cast your pearls before a swine. Then there are others that the Bible talks about in Jude, where you rescue someone with a garment defiled by the flesh, hating the defilement, but rescuing them from the flames. And then there are your brethren. So you have kind of absolutely no forbearance with some, a limited measure of forbearance with others, And with our brethren, we're to be completely forbearing because we have no sense that they will do us any wrong. So then in the marital relationship and family relations and church relations which resemble the family, there ought to be the most forbearance. And those relationships where people might kill you or steal those under your care or rape your children or something very harmful and damaging, there's no forbearance. So we can't get into all the detailed circumstances that there could be, but the basic rule is, yes, there are limits to forbearance. For some, the limit is there is none, no forbearance. For others, the limit is you have to see what good or evil it might produce to be forbearing with a certain person. And when you realize that there's no more place for forbearance, Then you move on. And this is all for private persons. I'm not talking about civil magistrates, public persons who have a duty of not forbearing at all in their office. They have a duty of vengeance. But the private person has a duty of forbearance, not a vengeance. And there are very limited exceptions. But basic duty for a private person is be forbearing and then distinguishing types of people and what is the outcome that you observe as you forbear with this person, there could be a time to cut off forbearance and to use severity. With some, there's just severity, and others, we use forbearance as long as humanly possible. So hopefully that answers, to a certain extent, your question. Great question. All right, now let's move into part two of our study, and we'll just review very briefly what we looked at in the first part, which was the duties required in the Sixth Commandment. all careful studies and lawful endeavors to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts, purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any." So you love your own life, you preserve your own life, you treat your neighbor as you would want them to treat you, and so you love your neighbor and seek to avoid any passions, any temptations, any purposes, any occasions, any practices that tend to the unjust taking away of anyone's life. And then the catechism goes on about a just defense against violence, patient bearing the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit, sober use of meat, drink, physics, sleep, labor and recreations, by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness, peaceable, mild, and courteous speeches and behavior, forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil, comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent. Now then, question 136, we'll begin this evening. I'll probably take four to six studies. Question 136, what are the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment? The answer, I'll read the whole answer and then we'll go part by part. The sixth commandment, or excuse me, the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are, all taking away the life of ourselves or of others, except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defense, the neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preservation of life, sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge, all excessive passions, distracting cares, immoderate use of meat, drink, labor, and recreations, provoking words, oppression, quarreling, striking, wounding, and whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any. Alright, now let's begin with the first portion, Sins Forbidden, Taking Away the Life of Ourselves or of Others, Except in Case of Public Justice and Lawful War, we'll look at on the first page of our handout. So the unjust taking away of our own life, Acts chapter 16 verse 28, Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here. Now this is the jailer at Philippi and his opinion is that all the prisoners are going to escape the prison and under Roman law, When your prisoners are escaped, the magistrate would put you to death. So if you were the keeper of a prisoner and your prisoner escaped, you die, which is absolutely cruel and unjust, one of those Roman cutthroat laws. God's law does not require that. It does require a diligent care, but it was virtually automatic. The prisoners escape, you die. And you'll notice in the New Testament a couple different instances in Paul's life where this comes out. Do you remember when the ship was about to crash that Paul was on going to Rome? And the advice was, we need to kill all these prisoners. Well, the reason for that was that if they didn't kill the prisoners, They would die. So Julius, who wants to save Paul's life, he says, no, no, no, no, let's not do that. But the basic Roman rule was your prisoner escapes, you're dead. Don't let them escape. And if there's any possibility they might escape, kill them. That was the Roman rule. Very, very cruel, very savage. Kill or be killed. You think, okay, Romulus was raised by a wolf, supposedly, so it makes sense. They're very ravening kind of people. But here, what Paul says to a Roman soldier, because Philippi was a Roman colony, meaning it was like its own little Rome. It had all the rights and privileges of Romans under the government of the city-state of Philippi. He tells him, don't harm yourself. Even though you think all the prisoners are going to escape because of this earthquake, don't do it. It's a duty not to do yourself any harm. That's a biblical requirement. Don't harm yourself. All right. So, we are not to take away our own lives, as the Philippian jailer was about to do and Paul forbade him from doing, nor are we to take away the life of others. Genesis chapter 9 verse 6, who so shedeth man's blood? By man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made he man. So here we see you can't shed another man's blood. That's not your position. That's not your duty. The general rule is don't take the life of any. And the reason is not because man is any different in his body, but because he is different in his spirit. He is created in the image of the invisible God. You can kill a cow. You can kill a bear. You can kill a bird. Any animals, it's lawful to take their lives. There's no prohibition like this. They're not made in the image of God. Not my brother, Bear. Not my sister, Sal. You know, we're not related to them. But man is created in God's image and because of that extra measure of God's spirit that he put upon man by making him in his image, you can't just take his life whenever you please. His life is special. His life is set aside from the common use of animals because he's made in God's image. And then there are exceptions to these rules. The exception, specifically of taking away the life of others, entails public justice, and then we'll look at the other things later. So first, public justice. Numbers chapter 35, verses 31 and 33, where the Bible says, moreover, he shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death, but he shall be surely put to death. Then verse 33. So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are, for blood it defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. All right, so this harkens back to Genesis 9-6. This is built on that foundation in Numbers 35. It's not built on the unique circumstances of the Hebrew people, of their republic, built under Moses, given laws that were unique to them for their worship. This law is not built on that foundation, and that's very important to understand. This law is built on the nature of man, as made in God's image. Therefore, if someone is a murderer, there is no justice in taking a satisfaction for his life. Pay me a million dollars and you don't die as a murderer. No, there's none of that. No satisfaction. If he is guilty of a crime worthy of death, he shall surely be put to death, God says. No doubt about it. No second guessing, no mercy, no pity. Surely he shall be put to death. And then he gives in verse 33 a reason why you ought to consider this and why you ought to obey. Because your land will be polluted. Now this was true of the Gentiles. Their land was polluted. Their land vomited them out because of their violations of the seventh and the sixth commandments as special reasons God wanted them out of the land of Canaan. They were murderers. They were whoremongers. They were incestuous persons. They offered human sacrifice. God wanted them out. He hated them. And he hates all people and nations who tolerate murder, who tolerate whoremongering, who tolerate incest, who tolerate infant sacrifice, which is abortion in our day. He hates all those kinds of people. And he's going to ensure that your land will be defiled and polluted. And the only way you can cleanse your land The only political solution, the only way by which God can look at your land and say, now it's been cleaned up, is you take the life of the murderer, period, full stop, no exceptions. This is not unique to the Mosaic economy. This is because man is created in God's image. That's why you shall shed the blood of anyone who sheds man's blood. So if there are people who say, thou shalt not kill, means no capital punishment. Such a person is a lunatic. Such a person doesn't even understand the first ABCs of reality, which is thou shalt not kill requires capital punishment. It's not that they're at odds and how do I reconcile these? No. Because God says thou shalt not kill, therefore capital punishment for murderers. That's exactly the Bible teaching from Genesis to Revelation. Okay, so we are prohibited from taking away the life of others except in cases of public justice. So here's another verse or series of verses Exodus 21 verses 12 14 through 17 and 22 through 23. These are sometimes called the judicial laws of Moses. Sometimes people will call them the forensic laws. It just means relating to court where matters are tried. But judicial law is how our confession speaks of it. So I'll use that language. Exodus 21 and 22, or maybe even into 23 a little bit, those are the principal judicial laws of Moses. And some of those judicial laws of Moses have what our confession calls general equity. And general just means it's not particular to one nation. It's general in scope, meaning if you're a Scot, if you're an American, if you're an African, or if you're a Jew, this law applies to you. The contrasted term would be particular equity or particular right. And those are laws, we can have laws of particular equity that we build ourselves in our nation. They're wholesome laws that are founded on general moral principles, but every nation has the right to make laws of particular equity. Israel didn't have that right. But God gave it only to himself. He gave them all their laws of particular equity. All the laws unique to them, God said, I will make those for you. I will be your supreme legislator. And I will tell you what you ought to do in different matters. And so he did that. So our confession is contrasting those judicial laws that expire with the state of that people. Those are laws of particular equity. with those laws that you can't get rid of unless you got rid of human nature. Those are laws of general equity. And without this distinction, people have absurd opinions about the Bible. Without understanding that God dealt with the Israelites sometimes as a peculiar people, separate from everybody else, and sometimes he dealt with them as humans just like everybody else. If you don't get that distinction, you're gonna think you have to not eat pork, and you have to say the name Yeshua instead of Jesus. It'd be absurd. And then you'll think you should keep the Passover in goofiness like this. Once you understand that, that God dealt with them in a twofold respect. Here as a unique nation, here in this passage as a set of humans living together, and so he gives them these laws. Okay, so with that in mind, Verse 12 of Exodus 21, in the judicial laws of Moses. He that smiteth a man so that he die, shall be surely put to death. Nothing unique about that for Jews. Okay, that is not unique to Jews. That applies to all mankind, it's of general equity. Verse 14, but if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar that he may die. No refuge in the tabernacle. No refuge in my house. Can't run to a church to be safe. If you murder someone, take them out. Bring them forth so that the holy place doesn't get defiled with blood, of course. But he needs to die. Verse 15. He that smiteth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. You think this is unique to the Jews? No. Jesus repeats it in the New Testament. Well, he actually repeats one that follows, which is the cursing. Smiting, same thing. In the book of 1 Timothy, when it says murderers of fathers and mothers, the word means he that smites his father or his mother. He's talking about this passage. That's what Paul's talking about in 1 Timothy 1. He that smiteth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. So verse 12 and verse 14 are dealing with the sixth commandment. Now this is dealing with the fifth commandment. Is the fifth commandment unique to Jews? Only Jews have parents? Only Jews have to show respect to their parents? That's absurd. Verse 16. And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, He shall surely be put to death. Now this is, you know, if you want to look at the Bible teaching as a whole, you realize pretty quickly, this isn't an absolute prohibition of slavery. Some people think this is, which is absurd. God says, if you steal a man and you sell him, you'll be put to death. Oh, by the way, you can buy these people on the market. You can sell them and keep them as slaves for their whole life. Does that make any sense? That God on the one hand says it's a capital crime. And then on the other hand, he says, it's okay for you to do. No, that doesn't make any sense. There's not a prohibition of slavery, not at all. What it would be is if you stole somebody's slave. That would be a capital offense. If you went and stole somebody else's manservant, and you took him off to sell him, you'd be liable to capital punishment. If you stole a free man and took him off to sell him, or if you stole a man's daughter, we call this elopement, that's a capital offense. So these are offenses where you take someone you have no right to, and you bring them off to sell them, like Joseph's brethren. It's a capital offense. And of course, the proper relations of family and of freedom and these sorts of things, they're all guarded and protected in here, as are the rights of a master over his slaves. That means that when the Yankees invaded the South and said, you can't have your slaves anymore, guess what they were? Man-stealers. They were a massive operation of man-stealers who came in to steal other people's men, which means they all deserve to die. Not just in the sense that they invaded another nation, so they were liable to death, but as man-stealers, they had two crimes that made them worthy of death, which of course corrupted and destroyed our entire republic. All right, verse 17. He that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Okay, here again, this is what Christ quotes in Matthew 15 and Mark 7 as part and parcel of the fifth commandment. Then verse 22, if men strive and herd a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished according as the woman's husband will lay upon him and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life. Okay, so here you have an infant not come to full term the woman is not delivered you in your stupidity accidentally bump into this woman that's what's happening here you accidentally bump into a pregnant woman and she carries early so she gives her baby off early when she shouldn't yet but you precipitate it by your stupidity God says that your inadvertent premature birth of this child could cost you your life. So think about that. You accidentally bump into a pregnant woman because you're fighting, you're wrestling, you're mad. And she comes in, bonk, you bump into her. Baby comes out, baby's maimed. Guess what happens to you? You get maimed. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, burning for burning, stripe for stripe. However you injured that infant, you ought to be injured. Now think about that. Every single mother, grandparent, doctor, politician, who says that it's okay to willfully take the child in the mother's womb, tear them limb from limb, or scorch them with some solution so that they die, what should happen to all of them? We ought to tear them limb from limb. We ought to put them in a scorching solution to cause them to die. Every single one. Why? because eye for eye, tooth for tooth. We ought to tear their head off. We ought to cut their arms off. We ought to kill every one of them in the most gruesome way that they do to infants because they don't do it accidentally. And if someone does it accidentally, they forfeit their life. How much more if they do it on purpose, as a profession, with their own infant, with their grandchild, with their son or their daughter? Such practices are utterly barbaric. And because of that, because man is created in the image of God, from the moment of conception he's created in the image of God, because that's true, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, stripe for stripe, burning for burning, that's the only suitable punishment for those that murder their infants or other people's infants. They ought to die by poisoning, by crushing their skull, by cutting their arms off. Whatever they did to the infants, that should happen to them. That's what God says, but here notice, are we supposed to take people's lives? Well, no, not as a general rule, except in cases of public justice. Then you smite a person so that they die, you die. You wound a person, you get wounded. You curse your father or mother, you get put to death. You steal anyone, you sell them, you get put to death. You see, all these are matters of public justice under the moral law, the Ten Commandments. The nature of God requires it. The nature of man requires it. These are not uniquely Jewish. Romans 13, verses 1 through 4. Again, matters of public justice. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Okay, so notice the Apostle Paul after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his crucifixion on the cross and the incorporation of the Gentiles into the church after the day of Pentecost and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit tells us things about civil government. He tells us some very important things. One, our duty of subjection. Be subject to the higher powers. Why? Because there's no power, there's no legitimate civil power but of God. And that word of is hupa in Greek. It means to be under. There's no power but that which is under God. And then he says that they are ordained by God, by his agency, by his doing. So there is a providential aspect. They're ordained of God. And there is a, if I can say this, a moral aspect. Their power is under God. It's submitted to him, in other words, which is required by the words that he uses later. They are a minister of God. In any case, verse two goes on and says that they are God's ordinance. So these powers that be, they're under God, they're by God, they're his ordinance. And if you resist a lawful power, you're going to hell. That's what he says. You'll receive damnation. And then he tells you why. Why will you go to hell if you resist the lawful power of magistrates? For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Therefore, just as a sidelight, if they terrorize good works, they're not a lawful power. They're not an ordinance of God. If they punish and restrain lawfulness and godliness and holiness, they're what we call tyrants. They're not lawful powers. But an actual ruler is not a terror to good works, but he's a terror to evil works. He's to put every criminal in abject fear of his life. That's the duty of a magistrate. Will thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. Here, notice, the civil power is not a necessary evil. Okay? Those who believe that civil power is of the devil or is worldly, or is a necessary evil, are blasphemers. They take God's name in vain. God says, they are my minister, my servant. They do my bidding. They do what I want. And then you say, well, they're ordained of the devil. Who then are you saying God is? What are you saying God is the devil? So all who claim that civil power and capital punishment are somehow ungodly, are somehow unchristian, are themselves heretics, blasphemers, and wicked seditious persons. He is the minister of God to thee for good. How do you call that evil? Unless you're so demented that you hate the true God and you love your idols. And then the apostle goes on. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. Now the word sword is makairos in Greek. It is the beheading sword. It is the axe with which they chop you up. In fact, it's also used of butchery in the temples, the types of equipment they would use to kill and slay the animal. Same exact implement. He does not bear this butcher's sword for no reason or in vain. So then he has the power of what we call capital punishment, the beheading sword. Kaput is your head. Capital means take the head off. That's capital punishment. He beareth not the beheading sword in vain. It's not just a show. Well, it is in our day, which means that we don't have lawful magistrates. If they bear the power of capital punishment and they don't exercise it against them that do evil, they are not ordained of God. Because God says, here's the business I give you. Here's my vengeance and wrath against them that do evil. Go forth and kill people. That's what he says to the civil magistrate. Kill this person, this person, and this person, and this person. Because if they do these evil deeds that I say are worthy of death, you'd better punish them with death. What kind of minister doesn't do what his master tells him? Well, he's no minister. He's rebel. He's ungodly, disobedient. So he beareth not the sword in vain for He is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Now here's the point. If you think that all killing and all vengeance is evil, you are yourselves evil. So the Anabaptists, who claim that civil government is necessarily evil, are blaspheming the name of God, because they're saying that God's minister, God's servant boy, who executes his vengeance, is doing something in itself wrong. No, actually, that's seditious, that's heretical, that's ungodly, that's blasphemous, to say that one who goes about God's business is sinning. He's doing what God commands and you say he's sinning. You are corrupt. Your conscience is defiled. You have fought against the living God, which is why our ancestors, if you want to know, why did the Protestant reformers put the Anabaptists to death? Here's your answer. Because they were seditious. And they said that civil government is evil. Capital punishment is a crime. And Jesus abolished the law so that there is no civil government who serves God. Oh, really? That's not what the apostle Paul says. The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, says the exact opposite. So if you blaspheme the office of God's minister and say that he is a minister of Satan, you ought to be punished by that same minister. You are a mover of sedition. And so here, you'll notice, Vengeance belongs to God and he deputizes someone to execute his wrath. That is the civil magistrate. That's what Paul's talking about. He is to kill, that's his job. Okay, so all taking away the life of ourselves or others except in case of public justice and lawful war. Next page of your handouts. Jeremiah chapter 48 verse 10. Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully. And cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood. Now, the Bible often gives us what we would call parallel structures. And sometimes when you read the Bible and you don't know what a word means, they even do this for Hebrew. What are the ranges of meaning for this word? Well, just look at the parallels. Because sometimes it'll tell you this and this. So the concepts in the context of that passage will be similar or parallel concepts. So look at that in this light. Cursed be he that. There's your first tip. There are two cursed be he that's in this passage. So now he's gonna give you two curses. You could say they're two separate things. I think they're actually one. One is the work of the Lord. The other is your sword bleeding a man out. So the work of the Lord deceitfully is parallel to keeping back. The work of the Lord then is parallel to what? Having blood on your sword. So if you keep your sword back from blood, you're not doing God's work. So in other words, when it's time to fight and to kill in lawful war, you'd better not stop yourself from killing or God will curse you. And that's exactly what Jeremiah 48 10 is talking about. Keeping your sword back when it's time to kill and God says to kill is deceitful disobedience to God's work. And you're cursed if you don't. Okay, so, Lawful War, Deuteronomy 20, verses one through four. Verse one. When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them. For the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, and shall say unto them, hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies, let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. Okay, so here notice a couple of things. Context is that you're going off to fight in battle. Your enemies, you're fighting them, they've invaded, or you have some lawful cause to invade them. And now you're wondering, what's going to happen? What's going to happen in this fight? Am I going to live? Am I going to die? Are we going to win? Are we going to lose? God says, don't concern yourself with those things. I promise to be with you. Now, God isn't with lawless, wicked people who do evil things. He's against them. He opposes them. Here, God is telling them through Moses, I will be blessing and providing and giving success in this battle you're about to go to. I will be with you. I will cause you as you approach to this battle, not to be fearful i will fight against your enemies as you fight i will go with you as you go toward your enemies now this is very very important to understand if you're fighting a lawful war that God says I approve of, you should expect Him to go with you. You should expect Him to be with you as a people, not just as individuals. The people, the bulk, the nation, the army, the captains, the thousands, the hundreds, they should think God is with us. And if they can't think that way, They shouldn't be fighting. They shouldn't be fighting at all. They should run the other way, because then they can expect God to curse them. They can expect God to come against them. But here notice... If God told them, I'm going to be with you and bless you, you think it's because it's against the sixth commandment to go off and fight in war? Does that really make any sense? Thou shalt not kill means you can't go to war. Now I'm telling you to go to war and I'll be with you and I'll bless you in it. That makes absolutely no sense. It's just as absurd as the idea of man stealing equals slavery. And then here he says, well, you can have slaves. Well, yeah, it's a capital offense, but I'll let you do it. No, if it's a capital offense, he requires the magistrate to put you to death for practicing it. And so likewise here, we may reason warfare is lawful because God promises to bless it and to be with his people when they go to war. Ecclesiastes 3, 1 through 3. to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up. Now war is such a time. War is exclusively devoted to killing and destroying. to breaking down and killing, which is exactly what verse three is focused on in Ecclesiastes three. There is a season, there's a time to every purpose under heaven. So because of that, there is a time for lawful war. Psalm 18, verses 32, 34, 37, and 38. Verse 32, it is God that girdeth me with strength and maketh my way perfect. Verse 34, he teacheth my hands to war so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Verse 37, I have pursued mine enemies and overtaken them. Neither did I turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise. They are fallen under my feet. Now, if the God of some people were David's God, he would never say these things. If there were no time in which you could lawfully go to war, there were no time to kill, there were no time to break down, you always had to heal, you always had to build up, this psalm makes absolutely no sense. It must be, as the maniches of old imagined, the God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New. It's that simple. It's either the same God and they're wrong, or it's a different God and they're right. Well, it's the same God, that's very clear. From Jesus, his words, Paul's words, Peter's words, John's words, every word in the New Testament assumes that's the same God that they worshiped, that we worship. That's the same God who sent his son, who died for our sins. That's the same God who gave his law in Sinai, who writes his law in our hearts. This is the same God who justifies the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. This is the same God. He's one God over all men. So because that's the case, pacifism is absolutely ungodly. Absolutely. Because David says, God teaches my hands to war. And David was a warrior. He was a man who shed blood. Therefore, if someone lawfully engages in warfare, It's God who girds him with strength and makes his way perfect. It's God who causes him to run after his enemies, pursuing, overtaking them. This is what happens in battle. You push your enemy back. Then they start a retreat. Then you run after them and overtake them and slaughter the rest of them. That's what he's talking about. That's in lawful warfare. And it's completely and totally just. And then lastly, The catechism goes on. The sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are all taking away the life of ourselves or of others, except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defense. Exodus chapter 22. Remember again, this is the judicial law of Moses. Verses two and three. If a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he die, There shall no blood be shed for him. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him, for he should make full restitution. If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. All right, so notice here a couple of things. One is, you have a thief breaking into your house. You strike him, he dies. Do you have to die? Are you a murderer? God's answer is no. Now again, this is founded on the sixth commandment. This isn't something unique. You think there are only robbers in ancient Israel? There aren't robbers in modern times? Of course. This is a common circumstance among all nations. People like to break in and steal your stuff. Now, if it's at night, he says, you're absolutely innocent. You have no idea what his intentions are. You can't necessarily see the weapons or lack of weaponry in his hands. So you take his life out of precautionary measures. You're innocent. Okay, now in the daytime, let's say you could see what he's doing. All he's doing is trying to rob you. He's not trying to kill you. You can't take his life under God's law. Because now you know, well, you might see his weapon, then you can use force that matches his force. But now you can see, well, the guy's intention is to steal from me. Well, what's he supposed to do? Make restitution? What did you do to him? You took his life. So with the element of night, and the lack of knowledge of what his intentions are, you have right to use what is called a necessary defense. You can take his life. You're totally innocent. In the case of a daytime robbery, you see he's not armed. You see he's trying to steal. You can try to stop him. You can't kill him. That's the point. Some people believe that if the sun be risen upon him refers to, you know, he broke in, then you chase him down and take private vengeance. That's true, too. You can't go and take private vengeance. He stole from you. Now I'm going to kill you. No, you can't do that. That's murder. because what he ought to do is make restitution that's what you should get out of this man is restitution and if he can't pay it then you get to sell him as a slave and keep the proceeds so it's a pretty sweet deal you get your stuff back in other words maybe some more but if he breaks in at night it's a necessary defense because you don't know whether he's armed or not you have the right to kill him now in our laws If someone invades your home, you have the right to kill him. If he's fleeing, this is a very similar principle. If he's running away from your home, do you have a right to kill him? No, even if he broke in. You can't go after him to take private vengeance. but you can take a necessary defense of your own life. So our law actually in Virginia distinguishes as the Bible does. What is a necessary defense? What is you now going after somebody to take private vengeance, which is not in your power to do. It is not in your power to take private vengeance. It is in your power to give a necessary defense. And so these passages, just to sum up, we spend a lot of time on these because they are perhaps misused notions in scripture, is that somehow the sixth commandment does not allow for these forms of killing. Because the word thou shalt not kill is assumed to mean every killing in every case. Well, certain types of thou shalt not kill are actually thou shalt kill. Because he took a man's life, his life must be taken. So the sixth commandment may require the death of a man at the hands of the civil magistrate, as opposed to forbidding it. All right, so then, God willing, next week we'll pick up our study and we'll continue on the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment.