That we considered this morning, as I mentioned, what was more surprising than the tragic news of Robin Williams' death was the way in which he died. Suicide? Robin Williams? the man who seemed to have as much joy in every interview as he had when he was playing even the funniest of roles on the screen. As this author wrote, I was a bit surprised and yet this is the cold hard reality. The man who seemed on the outside to most of the masses to embody a life of laughter and affluence was dealing with a depression that would not let loose of him on the inside. How could a funny man be so unhappy? How could someone so wealthy and so funny end up so depressed that he takes his own life? And then from the Ann Voskamp, cancer can be deadly and so can depression. Depression is like a room engulfed in flames that you can't breathe for the sooty smoke smothering you limp. We considered this morning the prevalence of suicide in our society, in the Bible, in church history, the wrongness of suicide. It is self-murder against God. Self-murder is against human nature and against society. The causes, those closer, those more proximate causes, and then the ultimate cause of suicide is man's sin. And then our closing biblical response, suicide is not the end, it does not guarantee damnation, nor does it guarantee bliss, and those considering suicide need a savior. As we come into our study this evening, let me just mention a number of passages that we looked at this morning regarding King Saul. We saw that one of the key things standing out in that 1 Chronicles 10 passage was that in suicide, King Saul was a bad example and was quickly followed into it by his armor bearer. We saw that Ahithophel was not one who was clinically depressed, but he made a self-conscious choice that it would be rather better to die at home than exposed in King David's court of law. We saw something of Job's wife to Job, curse God and die. We see in that, with those overwhelming circumstances, that it is not that circumstances coerce and pick an individual up and throw them out of this life. There is choice that is involved in it. But then we saw that bright spot of the Philippian jailer, who is one who was at the door of suicide and of a Christless eternity, and was able to rise above that at Paul's urging, and then move quickly to, sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. And we considered how vastly different the outcome was for the Philippian jailer. If he had committed suicide, if he had succeeded at falling on his sword, he had never gone back home again. And he would have never gone back home again with the gospel that would have led to his family hearing the truth, and believing the truth, and then being baptized into the truth, and then having this feast of joy together. Well, as we take up our study once again this evening, we want to consider first of all, as you see it on your handout sheet, unworthy motives. Unworthy motives for self-murder. And this morning, we were looking at a number of the proximate causes. There are aspects that may fit under the causes under this heading this evening. I'm taking up more of some of these causes as given by Samuel Miller in his guilt, folly, and sources of suicide written back in 1805. Why? Why suicide? Let us go yonder to the victim of impatience and despair, who wanders silent, sad, and alone, considering the termination of his sorrows by the pistol or the poisonous draught. Let us approach and inquire why he is disgusted with life this evening. We want to look at these closer causes, these causes that lie on the surface, recognizing that the ultimate cause, the root cause, is that of the human heart in its sin. Consider with me then with Samuel Miller. Severe embarrassment from circumstances. Severe embarrassment from circumstances. You have been robbed of your property by fraud or by disastrous occurrences. You have been brought from the height of affluence to the most abject poverty. You cannot dig to beg. You are ashamed and therefore you resolve to leave this life. But when we would find ourselves in circumstances like this, We need to think of the example of our Savior of the world, who, when he walked upon the earth, did not have a place to lay his head, and see that our Savior, even by example, made poverty and sufferings honorable. Secondly B, despairing disgrace from criminal acts. He has perhaps been betrayed into infamous crimes or led less criminally into circumstances which he fears have destroyed his reputation. And he cannot think of surviving his reputation. Here is the woman that is brought low. He knows that he is exposed as a fraud. Suicide is not going to help your reputation. Suicide is only going to irreversibly seal your reputation as one who has given in and was one who has murdered himself. Thirdly, C, apparently incurable disease. Once again, Miller. He prefers death to a life of torture and therefore determines not to wait for his dismissal from suffering. To such a one, I would say, no man can certainly tell whether a disease which he thinks incurable may not afterwards be found to admit of some remedy, or at least of some alleviation. Dark and dismal as your prospect now is, you may, like Job, be again restored to health and enjoyment. or if not perfectly restored, your burden may be rendered light and tolerable. But supposing that your case is hopeless, and that your whole life is destined to be a scene of suffering, then which is most becoming in a rational being, and especially in a Christian, to bear the suffering with firmness, or to fly from it by illicit and cowardly means? What is it that raises to such an elevation the character of the martyrs and other primitive sufferers for the gospel? What is it in their conduct which men of all habits and modes of thinking admire, and which sometimes even exhorts a trembling homage from the blaspheming infidel? It is that divine strength which deliberately chose to suffer the most excruciating tortures rather than to escape from them by the sacrifice of principle or by yielding to forbidden demands. I do not volunteer for a life of suffering. I would not propose that anyone here should have to suffer for the glory of God. But if God ordains that we glorify Him by enduring a long stretch of suffering, then we must say, Amen. May God be glorified even in my suffering. Fourthly, D. Anticipated shameful or torturous death Here is not only where there is a criminal exposure, but the prospect of a dishonorable death by the hand of public justice. This seems to be what is motivating Ahithophel. He doesn't want to be brought up on charges of treason against King David. or of a still more dreadful execution by the lingering torments of savage foes. This sounds like King Saul, doesn't it? The archers have hit him and his life is lingering and he knows that the Philistines are coming and so he commands that he should be killed but instead he falls on his own sword. No man can be absolutely certain that the death which he considers as inevitable will be realized. Divine providence has frequently interfered in a most extraordinary manner for the deliverance of those from whom all prospect of relief from human sources was cut off. Now, fifthly E, despondency. Despondency from disappointed love while this passion is allowed to be most important, and when properly regulated, most laudable, yet let us not imagine, like those who borrow their principles of morality from the stage or from the novels, we have to include a couple of other technologies in our day, that love is the main business of life and the attainment of its wishes, all that is worth living for. There are considerations which should be regarded as paramount to everything of this kind. There may be, and there doubtless is in this respect, an idolatry as criminal as it is unworthy of the rational character. We need, when our hearts are broken, to take a little bit of time to see if God won't bring some measure of healing, if God won't give us another direction for our love, for our romantic interest to flow. But even in a situation where our hearts, where our hopes have been dashed and our hearts are broken, we need to know that God is still on His throne and we must honor Him. As parents, we need to beware of the dark lyrics that romanticize death. The lyrics that say, don't fear the reaper. The lyrics that tell us that Romeo and Juliet did something wonderfully romantic by committing their suicide. No, they didn't. They committed something that was wonderfully foolish and horribly wrong. And if they were real individuals, would have plunged them into a Christless eternity. F. Emptiness from a worldly party life. And here Miller once again, perhaps one young in years but old in wasteful living, has run the round of what he calls pleasures, and having found little happiness in this course, supposing that life can afford nothing better, he resolves to escape from a scene in which he finds no objects that can any longer interest or gratify himself. He's been living for pleasure. But once he starts drinking the same drinks of pleasure over and over again, there is an inability to satisfy in the way that he used to get drunk on these pleasures. But how degraded is that mind that can find no interesting employment, no gratifying pursuit, in a world such as this? Where are those elevated pleasures which arise from the cultivation of our minds, from the acquisition of knowledge, from walking with chosen companions in the delightful fields of literature and science? It's like a blind mortal is like the pig that roots around the scraps of carnal sensuality and feels its emptiness. He misses the greater part of life. Altogether misses the beauty of the sunset that God has sent. G. The supposed boldness and independence of self-murder. Once again, Miller. Finally, a vain worshipper of human applause, supposes suicide to be a distinction of bold and elevated minds, and therefore becomes his own murderer to get a name, to evince that he has firmness and courage enough to commit the crime. Socrates had his hemlock, and I have my arson. But we need to look at that critically. Even from the eyes of a distinguished atheistic father, when the dead body of his son who had destroyed his own life was found, this atheistic father exclaimed, poor insane coward. And the father was never heard to mention the unhappy event again. No. Suicide is not a bark of boldness and of independence. But now, secondly, this evening, the environments. The environments favorable to self-murder. And you'll see some of the blanks are filled in. I'm simply going to mention several of these, so don't be alarmed by looking at all of those sub-points. The environments. contexts out of which Mr. Miller would not be surprised to find self-murder arising. First of all, A, faulty religious principles. If we live in an atheistic context, then we ought not to be surprised if there is suicide that flows out of that. Thus, when a man believes that there is no moral governor of the universe, no judge to whom he is accountable for his actions, no heaven to be sought, no hell to be avoided, will he not, of course, feel himself at liberty to dispose of his own life at pleasure? And if he is at any time weary of existence and finds the affections which bind him to his family and friends more than counterbalanced by the pressure of suffering, What is there to prevent his taking refuge in the grave? There can be a corrupt religion that is religion only in name, but a religion that is going to deny that God exists as He does, that He does not see, that He does not hear, that He does not understand. But false religion may give us the freedom to commit suicide, but it also is going to be altogether devoid of any comfort in that kind of context. Another environment, B, an early and excessive indulgence in pleasure. If someone starts with Solomon in their youth and tests with mirth and with pleasure and says that all I want to live for is happiness and for the party and I'm going to have the continual buzz either of the marijuana or the wine, then we ought not be surprised if there's going to be a vanity of vanities that flows out of that kind of life of pleasure. those who ride their horses in the morning and have their deck of cards in the afternoon, and that is all that their life affords, there will be an emptiness where we would not be surprised to hear them say, My soul is weary of life. Thirdly, an environment of drug or alcohol abuse. We considered something of that this morning, particularly with all of the medications that are available in our day. But even back in the 1800s, there was a danger of drug and alcohol abuse. There was an awareness that wine is a mocker and that strong drink is a brawler. and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Solomon is very graphic as he pictures the man who is impacted by his drunkenness and is oblivious to the world that is around him. Hosea 4 and verse 11 speaks of harlotry and wine and new wine enslave the heart. But listen to Miller. But I speak of those instances in which habits of intoxication have so perverted and disordered the mind, so clouded every prospect, so tortured the animal feelings, or so plunged their miserable subjects into sadness and despair as to tempt them to take refuge from the burden of suffering in a voluntary death. Instances of this kind are by no means rare. Rare, did I say? It is probable that a large portion of the suicides which occur are directly or remotely connected with this species of intemperance. The course by which habits of intoxication conduct men to this catastrophe is direct and natural, while these habits debilitate the intellect and pervert the moral faculties. They inflame the passions and add new strength to every corrupt propensity. While they weaken the power of self-command, they give a force to the appetites and a turbulence to the feelings which require a more than ordinary share of self-government. You see what he is saying. that if someone gives themselves to intoxication once, and then again, and then again, and then again, that there is going to be this accumulative effect that comes from it where they're simply worn down by it and are willing to step out of this world, most likely at a time when their judgment is significantly impaired by the bottle. Now, fourthly, D, gambling. God's way is for us to not have a slack hand, but know that the hand of the diligent makes rich. God's way is that the hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor. God's way is the lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is man's precious possession. But gambling comes in and says, instead of a life of ongoing and careful diligence, instead of a life of hard work every day, I'm going to show up at the gaming table and I'm going to make my whole life savings in one day, in one week. And what happens? Well, man's way of getting rich quick with gambling is one that Miller says dazzles, but to deceive. It flatters, but to trample under feet. It allures, but to destroy. It tends to undermine every virtuous principle, to harden the heart and convert him who once abhorred duplicity and fraud into a determined villain. The gambler is agitated by a thousand contending passions. At the cast of the die or the turning up of a car, he is ultimately the sport of hope and fear and joy and grief and confidence and despair. He is held in suspense more painful than racks and torches till it is decided whether his wishes succeed. And when he finds that they succeed not, which is generally the case, he retires mortified. reproaching himself, out of humor with mankind, filled with malignant passions, or perhaps weary of life and furious and desperate. I thought it might be interesting to consider something of the casino suicide rates. I found that approximately one in five pathological gamblers attempts suicide. The suicide rate among pathological gamblers is higher than for any other addictive disorder. That is saying something. A survey of nearly 400 gamblers anonymous revealed that two-thirds had contemplated suicide, 47% had a definite plan to kill themselves, and 77% stated that they had wanted to die. Then I came along one study that said, no, we found that the suicide rates are no greater in communities that have a casino than in the whole general population. And I went to that one a little bit cautiously as it was sponsored by the gambling industry. In Chicago, a young couple committed suicide together after the wife racked up a $200,000 gambling debt. A 76-year-old man hung himself after losing $134,000 at the casino. A 38-year-old policeman shot himself after losing $3,500 at Blackjack. There are environments that will contribute to the taking of our own lives. E, I'm simply going to name these, illegitimate romance, habitual idleness, arrogant ambition, hypocrisy. All of these are those environments out of which we may be more inclined to take our lives. So as we come this evening to Roman numeral 3, let us hear these appeals against self-murder. Here's a word, here's an appeal to parents. See how this subject demands your careful attention. There's a whole realm here that can suck our children in to get them to believe that the reaper is nothing to worry about. That Romeo and Juliet have found something wonderful in the romantic pursuit of suicide. Miller says, you are the guardians of their health and lives. You form their morals. You direct their pursuits. You are the depositories of their happiness in this world and at a degree in that which is to come. With what unceasing care then should you imbue their minds with correct principles? With what sacred fidelity should you put them on their guard against the licentious opinions of the age, against the contagion of evil company, and against the destructive habits of intemperance and sloth? with what devout tenderness should you exhort them, warn them, pray over them, and endeavor to win them, both by precept and example, to the love and fear as well as to the knowledge of God. May God grant that as we interact with our children, as we start interacting with them while they're still on the changing table, that God will grant us a bridge of communication over which we are comfortable to walk back and forth and interact with them on everything under the sun. That we would be able to instruct our children that at the end of the day they need to conclude where Solomon concludes the book of Ecclesiastes. You want to avoid a life of breath of breath, where your whole life is insignificant? Then hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments. For this is man's all. Why? For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. God says that after life is over, God is going to bring every work into judgment. And that imparts significance to what we do here and now. For you parents whose hearts drop in disappointment even with the mentioning of your children, may God grant that you would know the last chapter is not written. May God grant that you would be able to pray and labor on in hope, that God would grant that you would recognize, though you are to have a powerful influence over this son or daughter, that nonetheless that son or daughter is his or her own moral agent, and you cannot decide for them that they follow God. You cannot convert them. You can only decide for God yourself. But then secondly, by way of appeals to young friends. Young friends, get a realistic view of life. Try to forget the maxim that you can be whatever you want to be Try to forget that you are the master of your own destiny. Now, if someone says that to you, if a teacher, if an instructor pushes that philosophy on you, if they merely mean by that, that you need to be a hard worker, and anything worth accomplishing is not simply going to fall into your lap, but that you need to work diligently to accomplish something, then yes, a thousand times yes, we agree. For the Bible promotes strong work and a determined effort to accomplish our desires under the blessing of God. But if they mean as they normally do, that you can be whatever you want to be departed or with God locked out of the picture, then it's altogether wrong. Just don't dream that you can do whatever you want to do because you have a mind set to it and you're going to work hard. You don't control your physical and emotional health. And that's going to have a little bit to say about whether or not you can be whatever you want to be. You don't control the weather. And if you're dreaming of being a rich farmer in California and drought sets in, why don't you go out there and tell those farmers, you can be whatever you want to be. You can do whatever you want to do. You don't control the stability of the nations and of international trade. But you and I may know the God who does. We live in a sin-cursed world, a life of difficulty and disappointment, and you need to steel yourself for reality. If you come bouncing along, thinking, I'm going to be whatever I want to be, and you hit disappointment and you hit difficulty, then it can send you down in a hurry. Miller once again. This consideration of suicide should affect and alarm you and awaken all your vigilance in guarding against every source of danger. The river of life flows troubled and foaming before you, but inexperienced and optimistic, you cast an eye down the current, overlook its agitations and fondly hope for passage that will be uninterrupted, smooth and joyful. Disappointments will occur. Vexations will arise. Bereavements will cover you with mourning, and various forms of affliction will teach you that this world is, to every child of apostate Adam, a veil of tears. And that's why Paul speaks to Titus, exhort the young men to be sober-minded. You, in a special way, need to put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we can't forget that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. You need more than a boundless optimism that you can do whatever you want to do, that you can be whatever you want to be. When disaster strikes, you're going to need an anchor. You're going to need to have this confidence that God is on His throne. You're going to need something of true religion. of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, with the awareness that all these things will be added to you after you seek first the kingdom of God. And then finally, see, for those who may be in deep troubles, we all go through seasons of trial. And some of us are going to have concentrated doses of pain prescribed by God for us. How will we respond? With Job, will you be able to say, though he slay me, yet I will trust him? When the props are knocked out from under you, and you are faced with daily and weighty disappointment, how will you go on? Friends may not understand you and abandon you. Things may lose their glitter. Proud teachers may counsel you to put an end to it all. Yeah, your life is miserable. If my life were as miserable as yours, I would end it for sure. But bear in mind that those atheistic teachers will not be available to do anything to help you once you jump from the burning inferno of your own life into the burning inferno of everlasting punishment. How different it is to find refuge in the gospel of Jesus Christ, where We have the prospect of going to heaven and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Don't you want to be there? Don't you want to be there in heaven, to be in this place where all of the curse is taken? Don't you at least want to be there to see what it's like to be in a realm where there is nothing of the curse and nothing of sin and nothing of disappointment? And how will you get there? By faith. Therefore, having been justified by faith. having been declared righteous by simply looking away from ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. To anyone who struggles, to anyone who gets depressed, to anyone who gets down, being right with God, having peace with God, will be a tremendous ballast in your ship. Remember that John Gifford. He was graciously moved from being the gambling, drunken man at the door of suicide who mocked the Christians there in Bedford into becoming Holy Mr. Gifford, the evangelist who had directed John Bunyan to the cross. Remember that Philippian jailer who, due to the grace of God, heard the apostle Paul crying out to him, and therefore he did not fall on his sword, but instead he was able to go home to his wife and to his children. And he was able to bring the gospel with him into that home. And he ended up rejoicing, having believed in God with all his household. What a radical change! From suicide to rejoicing that his whole family is going to the place where there is no curse. Now to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and forevermore. Let's pray. Father, we have been stunned by the initial news on Monday evening of Robin Williams' passing from this world. We have seen and witnessed and been involved in a number of discussions regarding him. And with our minds turned to this very sad topic, we have come this morning and again this evening to ask if there was anything in our sufficient scriptures that would direct us on how to think. And we're very grateful, O God, that even this sad topic is covered in your Scriptures. We see something of a prevalence of suicide, not only in our society around us, but even in the pages of Scripture. And we find those directions that we can very plainly establish the wrongness of suicide. And then we come this evening and we consider more of the causes and the motives, something more of the environments. And we would bless you, Lord, that in your kindness we have exposure to the Bible, we have exposure to a biblical Christianity, a biblical Christianity that is going to hold before us the solemn reality of a holy God, who has come up with a place of eternal destruction for those who ignore him. But we find that in our biblical Christianity that we are confronted not only with that sobering reality of hell, but we are confronted with the most encouraging reality of justification by faith. of the hope that is ours in the gospel through your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Father, we would pray that you would be pleased to take this walk through the reality of suicide and this walk through the scriptures to direct our minds. And we would pray for those who are of younger years, that you would help them to weather the storm of youth with all of the raging of their hormones, with the potential experimentation in drugs and in alcohol. We pray, our God, that you would sustain our children, that you would preserve them, even in their foolishness. And we would ask that you would bring all of us to the place where we trust in your Son, And we are thereby granted peace with you, the God of heaven, and our candidates for that heaven to come where there is no more sorrow, no more death, no more curse. Grant it through the powerful working of your spirit, applying that great work of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask it in his name. Amen.