Lesson 7 Commandment 6

[0:00] I need seven volunteers to come stand up here for me. I need you to come and help me out with something. So if you want to get up and walk, all you got to do is come stand in a line facing that way.

[0:15] You won't have to move too much, I don't think. So one, two, three, four, five. I need two more. I'm going to give you a card.

[0:30] That's bigger than that. A card. A card. A card. A card. A card. You can look at your card. And everybody else has got a card. And here's what you got to do.

[0:41] You need to put yourselves in order. Okay? We'll start here with the beginning of the story and here to the end of the story. Then you can either move or you can trade cards.

[0:52] I don't care which. But you just need to get in chronological order. Chronological order. Oh, first is down there?

[1:06] Yes. Yeah, first is down there. We're going to start the story over into that list. Okay, so let's just see.

[1:25] Okay, so turn your cards this way so you can see it. Okay, so we have slavery. Let my people go. Ten plagues. Jack is standing in the middle of everything. What do you want? What do you got?

[1:35] We got Red Sea. What do you have? What do you have? Law, wilderness, promised land. Okay, let me ask you all sitting down here. Is this correct? I think so.

[1:49] Okay, I actually think so as well. So they were slaves in Egypt first, right? That's the very first thing. Nothing else makes sense without this. And that was promised back in Genesis 15.

[2:01] God said to Abraham, your descendants are going to go into the land and they'll be slaves for 400 years. Well, then God shows up and tells them, let my people go. And he says this to Pharaoh.

[2:12] Who did God use to say this to Pharaoh? Moses. Moses. But Aaron, but Moses wouldn't speak so he used his brother. Exactly, exactly.

[2:22] So Moses was God's mouthpiece and Aaron was Moses' mouthpiece. Okay, then we have the ten plagues. Now how many plagues were there? There was the lotus, there was the frogs, there was the blood of the Nile.

[2:43] There was flies. Mosquito frogs. We said frogs. Tumors. Hellstones.

[2:54] Hellstones. Boils. Boils. Yeah, I think boils and tumors are the same. Death of the firstborn. Death of the firstborn. Lice.

[3:08] I don't know if I can't give them anymore. That's pretty good, that's pretty good. Okay, so they get set free and then they cross the Red Sea because the Egyptians were coming after them.

[3:18] What happened to the Egyptians after the sea closed up? They drowned. They drowned. They drowned, that's right. God destroyed them there. Then the beginning of the law, which was out at Mount Sinai.

[3:30] As a matter of fact, when you think about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the half the book of Exodus, the entire book of Leviticus, and a very front portion of the book of Numbers all happened at Mount Sinai.

[3:45] Okay? Then they go into the wilderness. They're going to head to the promised land, but they don't get there yet because they wouldn't go into the land, right? So they wander around for 40 years. Then they finally make it into the promised land where they drive out the inhabitants of the promised land before them.

[4:04] And here's the thing. Our commandment, the sixth commandment, what does it say? Do not murder. It says do not murder. And yet, here they are in the promised land, and they put everyone to the sword.

[4:17] They wipe out the can and that's it. That's right. All right. Y'all did a great job. Thank y'all so much. What we want to do, you get my undying gratitude.

[4:31] Sit down. Good job. Sit down. You sound like a teenager. Oh, yeah.

[4:42] I feel like a teenager. What we need to do is we really need to answer a big question because when we begin to think about this commandment, you shall not murder, this commandment has been misunderstood in a lot of ways.

[5:01] You'll remember the old movie, Sergeant York. He didn't want to go to war because he didn't want to kill anybody because he said the Bible says you shall not kill. But the word here is not the word kill.

[5:13] The word is the word murder. And murder is a very specific thing, and killing is something different. Okay? So there is killing that happens when there's capital punishment.

[5:24] There's killing that happens in war. There's killing that happens by accidents, which are not the same thing as murder. I mean, I know there's some nuances in there that we'll get into, but this is a very specific word.

[5:38] And so, but a lot of people who are not Christians, they will point out to Christians, and they'll say, but your Bible is contradictory. It says not to murder, and yet God tells Israel to go destroy all of these people in all of these places.

[5:54] So how do we answer such a thing? And I think it's important for us to see this and have a good understanding of what this is. So in Deuteronomy, they're about to go into the land, and here's what Moses is telling them.

[6:10] Okay? Now, I'm starting in the middle of the paragraph because I didn't want to read the whole thing because it's pretty lengthy. But verses 1 through 15, he's telling them what to do in certain cities.

[6:22] And in those cities, he's basically saying you need to destroy the men of the military. You leave the women, the children, the livestock alone. But when he comes to these cities, listen to what he says.

[6:33] But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes. But you shall devote them to complete destruction.

[6:48] The Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded. That they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods.

[7:04] And so you sin against the Lord your God. Now, you can't really slice this any other way. You shall save alive nothing that breathes.

[7:18] It's every human and all the animals. Everything is devoted to destruction. And we can't really whitewash this, right? We don't need, and we don't need to.

[7:29] But a lot of Christians are going to look at this and say, well, Israel didn't really understand what it was that God wanted. And so they did this. Or this wasn't really what he was talking about. But there's a huge problem with that.

[7:42] And it has to do with what happens in the book of Joshua. But before we get there, one of the things we've got to say up front is this. God is always right in everything he says.

[7:59] God is always just and good in every command that he gives. And if we are sitting here reading this and think to ourselves, why would God do this?

[8:13] Then that means we have the problem. We are judging God's actions and his thoughts and his values based upon a system of values that don't belong to him.

[8:26] And he is the creator of all things. And he is the one who gets to decide what is just and what is not just. We don't know all of the things.

[8:37] We don't know hearts. We don't know what behaviors there were. We don't know what was going on. And so we have to lean on a big truth. And that is that God is just in everything that he says and he does.

[8:50] The second thing we have to lean on is this. Not a single human being should be left alive. Not a single human being should be left alive even today because of our sin.

[9:08] There is nothing that recommends us to God. If we were to say, well, that's not fair, then the question we would have to ask is, do you really want God to be fair with all of us?

[9:26] Because if he's fair with all of us, we all get destroyed. And you see, when we can't grasp that, it's because we don't understand sin.

[9:38] And you've got to go back to the Bible and you've got to look at sin. What is sin? And are we sinners? And yes, we are. And it's a wickedness that pervades.

[9:51] So that's kind of a theological sort of background to sort of looking at such a thing. But I do want to give you more than just sort of those theological thoughts.

[10:02] I want to go to the book of Joshua and show you something. And I just realized I had gum in my mouth. I'm sorry about that. My wife told me, stop teaching with gum in your mouth.

[10:18] Yes. My apologies. In Joshua chapter 11, verse 16 through 23. So Joshua took all that land and the hill country and all the Negev and all the land of Goshen and the low land of the Ereba and the hill country of Israel and its low land.

[10:32] From Mount Halika, which rises towards Seir as far as Belgad in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. And he captured all their kings and struck them and put them to death.

[10:45] Joshua made war a long time with all of those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon.

[10:57] And just so you'll know, you'll remember if you've read Joshua, the Gibeons made peace with Israel by deception. And because Israel made that peace with them, they didn't destroy them.

[11:09] Okay. But the Gibeons came and said, we're not from this country. We're from a long way away. Don't kill us. And Joshua was like, okay. And it's like, wait, you live right here. Okay, well, we gave you our word so we can't kill you.

[11:21] So they don't, right? They took them all in battle. So all the other peoples they took in battle. For it was the Lord's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle in order that they should be devoted to destruction and receive no mercy, but be destroyed just as the Lord commanded Moses.

[11:42] And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel.

[11:57] Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza and Gath and Ashdod did some remain.

[12:10] So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments, and the land had rest from war.

[12:28] So Joshua tells us that what it was that Moses commanded, he has done. So he has put to death all of them. But we get a glimpse into who these people are when we hear him say that he cut off the Anakim from the hill country.

[12:49] The Anakim are giants. The Anakim are related to the Nephilim. The Nephilim come from Genesis chapter 6 around verse 4, where it says at that time Nephilim were in the land when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men.

[13:09] And what the Bible teaches is that angels, who were fallen angels, who didn't keep their abode, saw the daughters of men and came and were, because angels can take on human appearance, they married these women and had children with these women.

[13:29] And those children were the giants that are all through the Bible. As a matter of fact, you start looking through the Bible and you'll see giants all over the place. Everybody knows about the famous giant Goliath.

[13:41] Well, he was just one of many. Israel fought against Og of Bashan. And Og was a giant whose bed was 13 feet long.

[13:54] Okay? So these Anakim are the offspring of fallen angels and humans. And what these fallen angels and these giants did is that they misled and led all the people astray.

[14:10] They introduced them to the arts of astrology and the dark arts of these magic things. They introduced them to bell worship and worshiping other gods. And many times, perhaps maybe even being those gods themselves, saying, hey, you should worship me.

[14:25] Look how big I am. And so these were the people who were in the promised land. And not only were they doing these things and leading the people astray this way, but they were involved in temple prostitution.

[14:39] They were involved in child sacrifice, throwing children off into the fires for Molech. And so when in Genesis 6 at the flood, God destroyed the whole world except for eight people because violence was in the land.

[14:56] That violence was brought about by the leading of the Nephilim. And so here they are again. The giants are in the promised land. And the reason that God says, go devote them all to destruction is because of the wickedness of the people and the potential of another global destruction that would need to happen because of where they would lead the people if he did not destroy them completely.

[15:23] And you can see that some of them were left. You see them that they're in the Gaza. They're in Gath and in Ashdod. And that's where Goliath comes from. David, as he ends his career, has rid the land of all the giants.

[15:37] It's always been bad boys. Yes, always, always bad boys. So I don't know if that makes sense to you, but I think it's important to just know that when God says, go destroy them all, he's not being capricious.

[15:52] He's not just being arbitrary. He's not just saying, oh, go do this because I don't like them. I like you better. These are people who deserve this because of their sin, just like you and I deserve it because of our sin.

[16:07] The question we should ask is, why does God keep any of us alive? That's the question we should ask. Why would God be gracious to any of us? Because all of us deserve this same fate.

[16:20] So let me pause there before we get back into the commandment number six and look at what it means and see if you have any questions about that. Because I think it's important to be able to know why it is God would command for his people to wipe out everyone.

[16:38] You know, man, woman, boy and girl. Even the infants, it says sometimes. Why could he command such a thing? And I think this gives us, you know, a glimpse into why that is.

[16:51] No questions? Comments? Okay. So then let's talk about what this commandment means, what this commandment is about. You shall not murder. And like a banana that has layers and sunflower seeds that have layers and onions that have layers, this commandment has layers as well.

[17:12] Right? So we're going to look at what Jesus has to say about this commandment. He says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. Whoever murders will be liable to the judgment.

[17:23] But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.

[17:38] In other words, what Jesus is doing is says, yes, you should not physically murder anyone. But it's more than just that. It's not just the action. But it's the other layer of the attitude.

[17:51] That you can break this commandment in both action and attitude. Okay? Yeah.

[18:07] Yeah. Yeah. I was going to ask a question, but I lost my space. Oh, my gosh. It happens to be ready to get over it. So one of the things we have to realize is that this anger that is there, while, you know, if you ask yourself, have I ever broken this commandment?

[18:25] And then you kind of look at yourself and say, well, I've never murdered anybody. But then you have to say, well, have I ever been angry? And if you've been angry, then you've probably broken this commandment.

[18:36] And so we want to kind of begin the process of looking at, so where does anger come from? Right? Where does that come from? How is that there? And the next passage in Luke says this.

[18:49] It says, for no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. Right? So can a lemon tree bear oranges? Nope. Right. So what's at the root comes out of the fruit.

[19:01] That's the idea. Right? For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. Okay? So if you go out this summer to the dewberry vines, you're not going to grab cherries.

[19:17] It's not going to happen because what's at the root comes out of the fruit. Okay? The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.

[19:27] For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. So anger comes from the heart.

[19:41] Anger comes from the heart. So here's one thing you must stop saying. You made me mad. You can't say that anymore.

[19:55] No one makes you mad. That anger doesn't come from them. That anger comes from you. Now they may have done something that you get mad about, but that's a different thing than saying you made me mad.

[20:13] Because when we say you made me mad, we're shifting the blame to the other person rather than taking responsibility for ourselves. Okay. So that gives us sort of that high-level look.

[20:25] Where does anger come from? But what we need to do is now we need to dive a little deeper as to why does that anger come from our heart?

[20:36] Why is it there? Why is it coming out? And this is where we need to go to James chapter 4. And as I read this and we talk about this, I want you to remember what the very first commandment is about.

[20:51] Okay. Just keep it in your mind. Maybe even the second commandment. Keep it in your mind as we read through this. Okay. James says to a bunch of Christians, he says, What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

[21:04] Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

[21:17] You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

[21:32] Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Now let's just go back and let's just think about what this is saying. Okay. So what causes the quarrels and what causes the fights among you?

[21:45] That is like if we were to look in our home and look at Michelle and I and we say, Why are y'all fighting? If we're fighting and have a conflict together, that's what this first phrase is about.

[21:56] What causes that conflict? And the answer is, is it not this, that your passions, your desires are at war within you?

[22:08] Now the word for passions here does not have to be something that's wicked. It could be something that's good. Right? You could desire something so much so that it begins to rule your heart.

[22:24] Okay. We've talked about that. And there was a lady in the Bible who had a problem with something she wanted so much that if she didn't get it, she wanted to just die.

[22:38] Does anybody remember who I'm talking about? She wanted a child. She wanted a child. And it was Rachel. That's right. Jacob's second wife. She says, I want a child. If I can't have a child, I'll just die.

[22:48] So she wanted something good. And in this case, Rachel is saying, I want this so much so. This is passion in her. This desire in her.

[22:59] Warring within her. And what is she willing to do to get it? She's willing to murder herself. She says, I just need to die.

[23:09] I want this. If I don't get this, then I should die myself. That desire has risen so high, it has become a demand. And he says here, you can tell he's talking about the sixth commandment, right?

[23:23] You desire, do not have. So you murder. He's making reference to the sixth commandment right there. You covet, cannot obtain. So you fight and quarrel.

[23:33] You do not have because you do not ask. And now normally, we quote this, you do not have because you do not ask, as a thing to say, you know, we really need to ask the Lord for things.

[23:45] When in reality, the context of this verse and this idea is that you ask and don't receive because you ask to spend on those passions.

[23:57] You can see Rachel going like, God, give me a child or else I die. Now she's praying wrongly, right? She even, so this, this, this, how is, now let me ask you this.

[24:08] How is this connected to the first commandment? You're putting another God. You're putting somebody in front of God. That's right. That's right. And I want you to think about the fact that this, this passions that we're talking about here, I say it can be a good thing.

[24:26] Think about all the good things that you desire. I mean, I, honestly, I desire for my kids to, to call me and love me. And I desire for my wife to respect me.

[24:39] I desire for you to, to hear me out and listen to me. And I desire for you never to get mad at me. Like I desire. There's so many things I desire. And at what point has that desire gotten too high?

[24:56] Like ice cream. Like ice cream. You know, that's exactly right. I was going to, I was going to go back over that. So, I gave this illustration. Some of you have never heard this. Some of you know what we're talking about here.

[25:07] So, Michelle and I were taking this trip. And just real quick, we stopped to get some ice cream at Marble Slab. And they had a thing for Rocky Road, right? And it was going to be the chocolate ice cream, the marshmallows, and the walnuts.

[25:19] And as the girl starts mixing it all up together, she doesn't grab the marshmallows, but she grabbed the marshmallow cream. Now, it's not wrong to want marshmallows instead of marshmallow cream.

[25:31] But that made me so angry. I didn't say anything to her. I just took it because it was just too late in my mind. And it's like I paid for it. We got in the car and I was angry and I just slammed it up into the front windshield area.

[25:46] I wasn't going to eat it. We were going to drive. And she's sitting there. I mean, you know, it's one of those moments where you, it's like somebody who walks in the kitchen slamming doors, you know. The tension is built.

[25:56] And so she's like, I'm sitting over here. I don't want to be killed by him, you know. And, you know, she's just very quiet with me. But, like, that desire to have marshmallows instead of marshmallow cream, I know that's really silly.

[26:11] But how many times have you done that over something so silly? That ruled my heart. I'm not proud of that at all.

[26:21] It just displayed the wickedness of my heart that I want things my way. And if you don't bow to my kingdom and give me what I want when I want it, then I'm the executioner.

[26:35] That is what this commandment is all about. Just that very thing. But the thing we desire doesn't have to be trivial like marshmallows. It can be the love of a friend.

[26:48] It can be the confidence that we put in somebody that we told them something and they kept that confidence. It can be just family coming to visit us and check on us and being sure that we're okay.

[26:59] It can be. I mean, you fill in the blank. And so where this anger comes from is that it comes from the idolatry of our heart.

[27:12] When your phone goes off because you've got a, say, a text message or you've got a phone call, but you've got it on silent or something like that, when it dings at you like that, what do we call that?

[27:30] A notification. It's a notification. So you get a text message. It goes bling, you know, whatever. You get an email. It goes bling. Or you get a voicemail. It goes bling.

[27:41] It's that notification. It says, hey, there's something here. One of the things that we need to be thinking in our minds is that if I'm angry, that's a notification that says there's a problem.

[27:53] That's a notification that says there's a problem in my heart. I've got an idol in my heart that needs to be taken to the Lord and it needs to be crucified.

[28:04] It needs to be dealt with. Our emotions, particularly anger, is this sort of notification. The problem is this, that at this point, we want to be lawyers and we want to parse out the difference between anger, wrath, rage, irritation, frustration, and upset.

[28:29] As though some of these things are not as bad as the others. So I want to give a definition of anger. Okay?

[28:40] Now, I didn't come up with this definition. A guy smarter than me came up with this definition. Matter of fact, I think his name is Robert Jones in his book called Uprooting Anger. And he says this, it's a whole person active response of negative moral judgment against perceived evil.

[28:59] It's a whole person active response of negative moral judgment against perceived evil. Now, let me say it before we talk about this. This is a good definition of anger because there is such a thing as righteous, godly anger.

[29:16] And this definition covers that. But there's also unrighteous anger. And we're going to talk in a second about how to tell the difference between the two. But I just want us to look at the definition.

[29:26] And we'll talk about it backwards. There's a perceived evil. There's something that we see that we think is evil. It's wicked. It's wrong. It's a violation. It's something that's unjust and needs to be rectified.

[29:41] So there's a perceived evil. Then there's a negative moral judgment against it. So we see that evil thing and we have a negative moral judgment. We're saying that's wrong. That's not right.

[29:53] That shouldn't be. That's the feel of this negative moral judgment. And we'll have that, right? You know, you could see. You could see, you know, let's say maybe there's a lady in the store and she's trying to check out.

[30:06] And as she goes up, maybe she's got her cane and she's walking. And this, you know, little punk kid like jumps in front of her in line. And as he does, just about knocks her over. You get angry, right?

[30:18] You see a perceived evil. And it probably is evil, right? And then you have this negative moral judgment about it. It's like, punk kid. Come over here. Let me get a hold of you.

[30:29] Like your mama should have gotten a hold of you, you know? But it's a whole person active response. You ever notice how anger activates everything? Anger activates everything.

[30:42] Like all of a sudden, my mind is focused. My words are there. I've got more energy within my body because it's supposed to do that, right? The problem has to do really with is it really evil?

[31:00] And is the response we're having really equal to the task? So let me do this. Let's talk about righteous anger for a second.

[31:12] And I want to give you three criteria that you can use to say, do I have righteous anger right now? Because we all get angry.

[31:24] And so sometimes it could be righteous anger. And this also comes from Robert Jones in his book, Uprooting Anger. And I think this is spot on. I think this matches what you see with Jesus driving the people out of the temple, right, with his whip.

[31:39] I think this matches that. So here's the first criteria. Righteous anger reacts to actual sin. Righteous anger reacts to actual sin.

[31:56] I'll say it one more time. Righteous anger reacts to actual sin. It brings in the word perception or perceiving.

[32:06] It does. It does. Because we might perceive something to be evil that's not actually evil. Because we have a tendency to bring our preferences up to the level of law.

[32:21] You know? And so this is not about being inconvenience. Such as marshmallow cream instead of marshmallows. Or preferences such as marshmallows instead of marshmallow cream.

[32:33] Those are all preferences. That's an inconvenience. And therefore, if I get angry at something like that, that's not an actual sin. That young lady who was making my ice cream didn't sin.

[32:45] She didn't break God's law by putting marshmallow cream there. Although, I want to have a talk with God about that and say that marshmallow cream might be and should be against the law. But that's a different discussion.

[32:57] But think about all the times that you've been angry. And was it a preference? Or was there an actual breaking of God's law? One of the reasons we're talking about the Ten Commandments is so that when we look at somebody's behavior, we can go, wait a minute.

[33:12] Does this break one of the Ten Commandments? If it doesn't, how do you know that this is a sin? If it's not a sin, then the anger we feel over it is not righteous.

[33:26] It's not godly. It's not biblical. And it needs to be repented of. That's tough. That's tough. Okay, that's the first criteria. But let's just say it is.

[33:37] Because I have a suspicion that most of us are pretty good at spotting, well, that's really my preference. No, I think you're violating Scripture.

[33:48] And I think that we can see it when somebody's breaking God's law. Maybe we can't pin it back to which law it is. But we have the smell test that goes like, man, there's something wrong with that behavior. You know?

[34:01] Second criteria. Righteous anger focuses on God. Righteous anger focuses on God. And what I mean by that is that it focuses on his kingdom, his rights, and his concerns.

[34:20] It's about his kingdom, his rights, and his concerns. You go back to the story of Jesus driving out the money changers from the temple. And Jesus had two things in his sight.

[34:33] He had the injustice being done to the people who were having to bring all this money. And they were being robbed of their money. And people who were being excluded from the temple because where the money changers were, it was in the court of the Gentiles.

[34:46] So Gentiles couldn't even come and be there for worship who were not full Jews yet but still believed in the God of Israel. They had no place to worship because that's where the money changers were.

[34:58] That's why Jesus says my house will be called a house of prayer for the nations. And the other part is that they were violating the worship of God. And so Jesus, it wasn't about him, but it was about his father and about his people.

[35:10] Right? So God's kingdom is his people. That's a part of what his kingdom is. So as Jesus looks at this, his anger is focused upon God, his kingdom, his rights, and his concerns.

[35:21] Not upon himself. Not about how he's being treated. Now, that's tough because so often our anger is focused on our kingdom and our concerns and our rights.

[35:38] Okay. Third criteria. Righteous anger is accompanied by other godly qualities.

[35:51] Righteous anger is accompanied by other godly qualities. Righteous anger is accompanied by other godly qualities.

[36:07] So back in the day when Roe versus Wade was decided, there was a stint of time, people who were angry, that babies were being murdered.

[36:22] So it wasn't about them. It was about sin. It was about sin. Actual sin. It was about God's kingdom. Like, this is God's world.

[36:32] You shouldn't be doing that. But the way that that was dealt with is people were going and trying to blow up abortion places. You remember that? Attacking the doctors and this type of thing.

[36:45] Okay. You can't. You can't get the first two right and it'd be righteous anger if you're just going to go try to blow them up. You've got to have other godly qualities that go with that.

[36:56] You've still got to live in a godly manner. That's why Jesus says if you call him fool or if you insult him. That's why he's going after our words because 99% of the time the way we violate this is we get angry and then we say things.

[37:14] Either in ways we shouldn't or things we shouldn't say. Isn't it when you're talking to the TV? You know, it's interesting.

[37:26] There's some nuances in all of this because for the longest time, I used to think that it was okay to get angry with myself. And Michelle and I, we were tiling a bathroom.

[37:38] Okay. And we were doing a shower and we were putting up this 12 inch by 12 inch tile on the walls. And we had this one place that had to have like 12 cuts out of it. After the third failed cut.

[37:51] I go outside to try it one more time. I come in. It's the fourth one. It doesn't work. I'm so steaming with anger. I walk outside.

[38:02] I have this table set up with the tile saw. I have all the little pieces I've cut off. I have the water running. I've got the pump running. I took the table. I threw it over. I took all the pieces of tile that I had.

[38:14] I threw it at the fence, busting it all over my yard. I found a machete in the middle of the yard and went to the door of my shop. And I just began to chop my door in half with my machete because I was so angry with myself.

[38:29] And I thought to myself, that's okay. It's just about me. But it's not because God's in charge of all things. He's even in charge of giving me the ability or not the ability to do such a thing.

[38:45] And when I get angry at myself, I'm really getting angry at God. And so while I can't just examine that particular instance, I'm using that as an example to say, I'm not sure that there is a way for us to be angry in an unrighteous way that's not a sin.

[39:07] And if it's going to be righteous anger, it's got to have all of these things. It has to come with godly qualities, other godly qualities. And you can go read through the Proverbs and think about how it talks about how we need to speak.

[39:22] You know, Ephesians 4.29 says, let your word be seasoned so that it gives grace to those who hear, that it builds up and it doesn't tear down. Now, I'm going to tell you, that's tough.

[39:37] But I'm pretty sure, I'll come right to you. I am pretty sure that I've never had righteous anger.

[39:50] Maybe a couple of times. Maybe a couple of times. 99% of the time, it's, I miss on the first one. It's not really a sin that somebody's done to me.

[40:01] But, yeah, we're going to come to some hope here in a little bit on that. Okay, so I'll pause there. I just wondered how you would respond in your abortion case.

[40:16] Yeah, so. With kind words. Mm-hmm. I mean, how would you respond? So, I have a friend of mine who has gone to some of the abortion clinics in San Antonio.

[40:30] And this is one way, right? He sees what's going on. He knows that this is wrong. It does make him angry. The anger, though he doesn't express it in any kind of negative way, but he allows it to channel him and give him energy.

[40:46] And he goes and stands on the corner of the street on the sidewalk outside that abortion clinic and he preaches the gospel. When people get out of their car to go in, he says, please don't go in there.

[40:56] Please don't go in there. You know you're just going to go in there and murder your baby. We're here. We will help you. If you want, we can adopt your baby. Please don't go in there and do that. You can be forgiven of this.

[41:08] He just pleads with them. I think another way is when somebody says, you know what, this is a terrible thing. I want to go to the Pregnancy Help Center and I want to give money to them and I want to help them find ladies who might be thinking about abortion.

[41:22] And they'll go to the Pregnancy Help Center and they get their mind changed because they see the ultrasound or whatever. And so I think being involved in all of these ways is a very helpful way to take that thing that you see as an unjust and an unjust and an evil thing in this world and then putting action to it to help.

[41:41] What we don't want to do is we come across a lady and she tells us she's had an abortion and we go like, how dare you? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's a moment where she's telling you that.

[41:51] It's like, you know, Christ died for people like us. What about remaining silent in those places? So there is, you know what, I think we'll get there in just a second.

[42:05] I think what we're going to say here in a second will get us there because we're talking about how do we obey this commandment, right? And then let's make some application and we'll get to that because always I'm talking about light, map, and mirror, right?

[42:21] This gives us a light. So the light of this commandment helps us to see that God loves justice, that God loves justice. And so he doesn't want us taking justice into our own hands.

[42:33] That's the whole point of this. We are not the arbiters of justice. He is, right? And then he has given us governing authorities to bear the sword for justice.

[42:44] That's one of the reasons that our country's in the problems that we're in is because we've made government into being way more than it ought to be. You read Romans chapter 13 and government ought to be very, very narrow in what it does.

[42:58] It protects citizens, number one. Number two, it punishes evildoers. And number three, it rewards people who obey the law. That's what government should do and only that. Government shouldn't be doing all the other things.

[43:09] Now that was free for you. I just kind of got a little ahead of myself. But the point is that God loves justice. And he's established justice for the family, right, through the parents.

[43:21] He's established justice for society through government. He's established justice within the church through the leadership of the church, right? You're supposed to use fair, balanced scales.

[43:32] And the part of all of those who are being led to love justice the way God loves justice is to call out people who are not being just. You know?

[43:42] It's Jesus who called Herod a fox. Right? He knew that Herod was not doing things just. And so Jesus calls him a fox and tells him he needs to quit.

[43:53] So there is an example of saying, are we saying that we need to be nice? No, we're not saying we need to be nice. We're saying that we don't need to commit murder. We don't need to let our anger be unjust and then carry it out in an unjust way.

[44:07] Because God loves justice. So then let's talk about it as a map. Now, positively then, positively, this commandment tells us that we ought to protect life.

[44:19] And I do think that when we remain silent on issues of justice, we are not being proactive in obeying this commandment in order to protect life.

[44:32] Now, you have to measure what can I do? How can I be involved? And not everybody is going to be involved in the same way. And just because you don't give money to the local, you know, pregnancy help center or just because you don't go down to the pregnancy or to the abortion clinics and preach on the corner doesn't mean that you're not obeying this commandment.

[44:52] Because you've got to be sure that you're making a stand in your private life as well. We all have people in our lives that disagree with us on this. And engaging them and seeking to help them see the truth so that their mind is changed about this is a way for us to protect life.

[45:14] Does that make sense? You might not be able to go to these places. You know, I think about somebody who might be bedridden, who can't go anywhere to do anything. And they don't have much money.

[45:25] And you say, well, how can this person obey this commandment? Well, they surely can. They could be praying. Right? They could be praying for the protection of life. They could be encouraging their family members to protect life. So I think it needs to be positive.

[45:38] Right? You've got to think about how do we protect life. Let me ask you this. What are some other ways? We can go expand out. Think of ways that we can protect life.

[45:49] What are things we can do to protect life? Why don't we teach our family and our children as one way to start?

[45:59] Okay. Sure. Teach them that everybody's made the image of God worthy of dignity and respect. That's right. Okay. Support those who provide the protection.

[46:13] Okay. Right. Right. I'm thinking law enforcement. Exactly. Our EMTs and so forth. Exactly. First responders, doctors, nurses.

[46:24] That's right. That is a great way to protect life. It's important to the people who are directly involved in that front line kind of way. What's another way? Well, in college.

[46:36] Go ahead. Go ahead. Linda. It's kind of a back your way, but a lot of people do prison ministry. Mm-hmm. And they're trying to help the people that have maybe committed something.

[46:49] Right. Murder or something that they're trying to protect because they have asked for forgiveness. Right. Exactly. What are you saying? In college, it was kind of during the height of Roevo State, Wayne, in our university, some of us formed an organization so that we could help spread the word.

[47:15] And there were some of us that would go and stand in front of certain clinics and things like that. We did it. We did it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But at least we, in our generation of people, we did something about it.

[47:29] Right. That was a start, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. I think the children's homes that take kids in that are going to be orphaned or, you know, they're in a situation where they're being abused.

[47:44] I think those homes that take those kids in to help protect them, I think that's a way of protecting life. I think when you, when you build your house in such a way as to follow code so that it's not going to fall down and hurt somebody or, you know, kill somebody.

[48:03] You know, there's a commandment in the Old Testament that says that you're to build a parapet around the top of your house because all of their roofs were flat and people would go up onto the roof in order to hang out and visit.

[48:15] So you had to build a parapet in order to protect people from falling off. Now, we don't have roofs like that, but I think the direct correlation of that today is following code and building it the right way so that somebody who comes along later doesn't die because of some faulty way of a place is built.

[48:34] I think that goes to our cars. Right. There's this idea of being negligent with our cars and not, not keeping it where it ought to be. And so the, the, something that happens to the car ends up causing an accident.

[48:47] I think when we defend our families, right? Uh, you're like, I'm a big second amendment guy, but like the reason we have the second amendment is because of the sixth commandment to protect life is a God given duty.

[49:03] And whatever you have to do to protect your family, yourself, that is something that is supposed to be a part of this. Now, protection and defending is protecting and defending.

[49:13] It's not hunting down. Those are two different things. Um, you know, you see someone out in public who is being abused, you know, or hurt or attacked or assaulted or something like that, protecting life.

[49:27] You know, if you can't physically protect yourself, you know, maybe, maybe the, whoever's doing is stronger than you are calling for help is, is the thing to do.

[49:38] We shouldn't just sit in silence and walk by. Do you know the stories that are out there of people who are getting assaulted and the people who just walk by and do nothing? They're all violators of the sixth commandment.

[49:50] Um, I think that even, this is a very touchy subject, but, but let me say it this way. Um, if a wife is being abused by her husband, she has a duty to be away from him so that she doesn't give him opportunity to violate this command.

[50:13] Right now that doesn't speak to a divorce and all that issue. It just speaks. She's got to be away. She cannot be there with him and allow him to abuse her because she's giving him opportunity to violate the sixth commandment.

[50:29] You have to protect life. You have to protect life. Um, negatively, negatively, we, obviously we can't take life. We can't take life in anger.

[50:40] So we're not going to murder, but also that means we got to be careful. With our words, right? Can't, we can't call names. We can't, uh, speak ill of one another.

[50:52] Um, accidents. So I was thinking about accidents. I was thinking about like work accidents, car accidents, hunting accidents. Do accidents play into this?

[51:05] Are accidents a violation of the sixth commandment? Do you have to do that? So we've got levels of them.

[51:15] I totally agree. I do think that there's a difference between somebody who gets behind the wheel with a DWI and somebody who has failed to keep their tire pressure correct.

[51:26] Maybe they've run their tires bald, right? There's a negligence that happens that then causes you to maybe have an accident and maybe it takes somebody's life.

[51:37] Is that a violation of the sixth commandment? I think it is in this way in that you're not being proactive to protect life. It goes back to that kind of a thing.

[51:48] I think it's possible that there are some accidents out there that are not due to negligence. I really searched trying to think about it myself. I'm not a lawyer, so I can't really, you know, put those things out.

[52:01] But there is a difference between accidents and murder in this, that the Old Testament even recognizes that there was a difference between in anger taking somebody's life and by accident taking somebody's life.

[52:15] And so the Old Testament law gave you the cities of refuge. So if I were to accidentally, if I were to accidentally, you know, because my tires went bald and the tires blew and I lost control of my car and I killed someone with my car, if I was in the Old Testament, that family would have the right to take my life because I took their loved one's life.

[52:40] But if I run to the city of refuge, then they can't touch me. They can't do anything to me until the high priest dies and the new one comes on. If I run, then I'm free.

[52:51] So that it recognizes that there's something different about an accident. Our law follows the same kind of idea, right? We have manslaughter versus murder. And those are two different things.

[53:04] And so we need to keep that in mind. And the only way that I would say that, like, a manslaughter is a violation of this command is if there's some sort of negligence or a lack of proactive protecting of life that would be a part of that.

[53:17] I have a question. Yes? Well, you're talking about the cities of refuge in the Bible. Is that comparable to what we call sanctuary city thing? No, that's comparable to prison.

[53:27] It's comparable to prison. So the Bible does not normally uphold the idea of prison of any kind. It's like you receive a punishment for your crime and you're done.

[53:39] So some of it's capital punishment, some of it's not. The only sort of prison sentence you have in the Bible is the cities of refuge because that person can't leave. He can't go back home to his family. He's got to be away from them, but he's not going to be killed.

[53:52] Nobody can take vengeance upon him. So here's the thing. Thinking about all of this, we really can kind of come back to the fact that there's none of us who have not violated this commandment.

[54:07] This is a pretty tough commandment. And that brings us to the mirror. And the good news is this. Christ died for murderers.

[54:23] If you look at the Apostle Paul, he was standing there as Stephen was in the pit and the Pharisees were throwing stones and they were stoning him.

[54:34] And he was holding everybody's coats and he was giving approval to what it was that they were doing. And this Saul of Tarsus, Christ saved him.

[54:47] And he has written the vast majority of the New Testament. There is hope. There is hope for someone who has anger and who's struggling with that anger.

[54:58] And here's the hope. We know that if I get angry in this moment, I have the forgiveness of Christ because his blood covers me. But it's not just the forgiveness that I have.

[55:11] He died upon the cross to purchase the promises of the new covenant. He died on the cross to be the one that God would allow him to then pour out the Holy Spirit.

[55:22] And because he has won this on the cross, he sheds abroad his love. He pours out his Holy Spirit upon all of his people. And the Holy Spirit comes to live within us so that it's not just we get forgiven for our anger, but now we have the power of God in us by the Spirit to be able to not be angry.

[55:42] To be able to find those idols and kill them and put them aside and get them out of our hearts so that we have fewer things that we are getting angry about.

[55:52] He empowers us so that we can see things rightly. We can see when it's really a sin and it's not a sin. And so the hope is that as we look at this commandment, is that it sends us running to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and empowerment to obey this commandment, to forgive us when we have failed to live up to this commandment.

[56:14] And so if you think to yourself and begin to rationalize out and say, Oh, you know, I was just upset. Then you've cut the gospel off at the knees for you.

[56:29] If you say, I was just a little frustrated. It's like, yeah, but that's the very beginning. That's like the very beginning stages of this whole thing. Why would you say it's just a baby snake?

[56:41] It's just a baby rattler. Why just keep it in my pocket? We wouldn't do that, right? So why do we do that with being upset and frustrated and irritated? Because in part, we want to justify our actions.

[56:54] We want to justify the way we feel about something. But when we do that, we cut ourselves off from the gospel that forgives us even for the little baby snakes we've got.

[57:08] So my prayer is that we'll take to heart these things and we'll look at them and we'll say, Okay, what do I need to do? Well, first of all, look for the times you've been angry and ask the Lord to forgive you.

[57:18] Secondly, pray every day, Lord, empower me to help me to not do this anymore. Anymore.