[0:00] Let's turn now to the Word of God as we find that in the book of Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20 and verse 13.
[0:15] We've been going through these Ten Commandments somewhat slowly, but we've reached the Sixth Commandment as you find it there in verse 13. You shall not murder or you shall not kill.
[0:35] In the year to March this year, in that year up to March 2018, statistics for England and Wales show that there were 701 homicides.
[0:50] Homicides would mean deliberate murder and also unintentional killing, such as happens, which is normally called manslaughter. If you take both categories, there were 701 homicides recorded in that year to March 2018.
[1:09] That's an increase of 12% over the previous year. For Scotland, the figures for 2016-2017 showed an increase of 10% over the previous year.
[1:25] And when you add to that the increase in knife crime, assaults which did not end up, thankfully, with someone losing their lives, that too is increased largely throughout the whole country.
[1:40] When human life becomes devalued, inevitably you end up with more deaths. I'm not at all treating this simplistically as if that's the only reason why there's an increase in homicides and in those sort of statistics.
[1:59] But it's undoubtedly the case that the more you devalue human life, and we've seen that the more you set apart God's Word and set it aside and dismiss what it teaches about human beings, about our morality, about our relation to God, about conscience, all of these things, the more you set that aside and then come back to human wisdom instead of it, this is the kind of thing inevitably you find increasing.
[2:26] Now that may sound somewhat simplistic, and I'm emphasizing the fact that it's not simply the setting apart of God's law or setting it aside rather.
[2:37] There are other issues as well. But inevitably that is a factor in the society that we live in and live amongst. When you come to this commandment, the sixth commandment, you shall not murder or you shall not kill, there are a number of things that we have to say, first of all, about the intent of that prohibition.
[2:58] It's a prohibition intended to guard life, to preserve life, and also to actually set out the value of human life so that that itself is taken into consideration in our human relationship.
[3:15] So the intent of its prohibition, what is the intent behind it? And secondly, we can look at the extent of its application to what areas of our human life does this sixth commandment apply.
[3:30] Now that's going to take us into things which are not easy to speak about. So please keep praying that the Lord will continue to guide us and that we will actually not shirk from mentioning things which are important to mention and to take stock of, even though they are very hard actually to deal with, both in terms of speaking and hearing.
[3:55] First of all, the meaning of this word murder or kill. You shall not kill. You shall not murder. The word there is always used about human life. It's only used in the context of taking a human life.
[4:08] It's never used of taking animal life. Different words in the Old Testament in the Hebrew text for that. This word is always confined to human life. And it includes both deliberately taking a life, intentionally taking a life, and also the unintentional or even the one where there's provocation that ends up in violence that takes a life.
[4:30] But the word is inclusive of all of these different ways in which life is taken by someone who kills someone else. And in fact, the word murder is somewhat too narrow in its translation.
[4:46] And the word kill, on the other hand, is somewhat too wide. Because as we'll see, there are some areas where exceptions are made, even in the Bible, with regard to taking life.
[4:57] And on the other hand, murder is really a word which nowadays at least is confined to a deliberate, intentional killing. So homicide is a good word because that really includes the meaning of this word in Hebrew.
[5:16] And it also is a word which nowadays, as we use it, includes both the intentional taking of life, the deliberate taking of life, and that which is unintentional for whatever reason, but ends up in the loss of life nevertheless.
[5:29] Now we know from the Bible, and particularly from Genesis chapter 9, where you actually find what was certainly at that stage set out as the death penalty, various arguments for and against that by prominent Christians all the way through history, certainly from New Testament times onwards.
[5:47] But the evil of taking a human life is directly related to the value that God has placed upon it. Because that passage in Genesis chapter 9 and verse 6 actually mentions that God actually created human beings in his own image.
[6:07] And whatever way you take the passage there, that is certainly a central emphasis in it, where after God had brought the disaster of the flood upon the earth and reestablished Noah and his family again to begin life as a society on earth.
[6:26] This is one of the things that God actually said to him. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
[6:38] And the image of God as man was created by God is central to the sanctity of life, central to all that we need to do in order to preserve life, and in order to set up measures which are designed themselves to fit in with the commandment, you shall not commit homicide, you shall not kill in that sense.
[7:03] So there are in fact degrees of guilt with regard to killing, obviously somebody who goes out deliberately or intentionally to take the life of someone else, whether it's through vengeance, whatever the motive is, that is classed as a degree of guilt above someone who ends up taking another life, but hadn't set out to do that intentionally or deliberately.
[7:29] Nevertheless, through acts of carelessness or whatever, through fits of anger, that's been the end result. That's not an intentional killing. That person did not go out deliberately knowing that they were going to take the life of someone else, and nevertheless it comes under the rubric of this commandment, you shall not commit homicide.
[7:51] Now there are exceptions, and there are exceptions in the Bible itself, not many, but these exceptions do show that in every circumstance, or rather we could say in some circumstances, the taking of life is not actually wrong.
[8:08] Israel, for example, went to war all the way through its history until they settled in Canaan in the Promised Land. And on a number of these occasions, you actually find that God himself, in the likes of Leviticus chapter 20, ordered that they would actually not spare their enemies.
[8:30] And in some cases, where the inhabitants of the land were where they were going to settle, they were instructed by God not to spare any. Now that's very difficult for us to actually accept.
[8:41] It's very difficult to understand, certainly. We have to accept it because we know that that was God's will, that that's what God actually said to them, and it's complicated, but there is a whole aspect of those Canaanites and Amorites that had grossly sinned against God, and this was God's way of bringing punishment upon them.
[9:02] No different in that sense to what he had brought upon the earth in Noah's day. It's an aspect of the judgment of God, except that he used this time Israel to carry that out in these cases.
[9:14] So that obviously could not be the taking of life that was to be condemned or criticized, because God himself had specified and commanded in these instances that this is how it would be done.
[9:29] And that carries you into the idea of a just war. Now war is something that we know of always takes human life, sometimes to a catastrophic extent.
[9:44] But there is the concept of a just war, a war that needs to be engaged in because of what is being dealt with.
[9:55] It would be very difficult to argue that the decision to go to war against Nazi Germany was in fact not a just decision, that it wasn't something that was necessary at the time, however much it was highly regrettable.
[10:12] And you could not say that that therefore came under a deliberate or an unintentional transgression of the sixth commandment. The taking of lives in war is always a tragedy.
[10:25] War is always an evil. Let's be clear about that. You cannot actually justify war by saying there's no evil element in it.
[10:37] It is always, to one degree or another, an evil. It's something that ends up with such devastation and such loss. And if you look throughout the world today, you know very well yourselves that there are so many parts of the world where the taking of human lives on a huge scale is still very much part of human society.
[10:58] And tragically, there are so many places in the world where war is still carried out. Now if you actually added up all the instances of war that you find throughout the course of history, you would not by any means find all of these could be categorized as a just war.
[11:16] Sometimes war breaks out over things that really, at the end of the day, or the beginning of things, are just trivialities. Maybe they're racial. Maybe they're just personal disagreements. And you end up with factions, and then end up with factions going to war, and then you get the country embroiled in war.
[11:32] It's there all the time. But in the likes of the Second World War, not to actually have taken that aggressor and stood against that aggressor would certainly itself have been surely a shirking of responsibilities.
[11:51] So there is that particular exception where war sometimes requires, always requires the taking of life, even in a just war.
[12:02] The other exception is the death penalty itself. Now, I know there are views, probably even in this building, in regard to the death penalty, whether or not Genesis 9 and verse 6 still applies.
[12:15] And you get some very eminent Christians on both sides of the argument, some saying, yes, it's still in force. God has never abrogated it. On the other hand, some would say, yes, that's understandable, but in the circumstances we're in today, what about when maybe innocent people sometimes get put to death or got put to death, whatever the form of capital punishment was at the time.
[12:41] Leaving aside the arguments for and against, it's certainly in God's own specification of it to Noah at that specific point was not regarded as a contravention of what came to be the sixth commandment.
[12:55] How could it be? It was God's own appointed measure to deal with the person who took another human life. So that's another exception, if we take it, that is still in place.
[13:08] So there you have the meaning of the word to kill. It's homicide. You have certain exceptions to it. And there's also the fact that this is basically what lies behind safety measures today.
[13:20] Every individual, every deacon's court, every public authority, especially nowadays, has to take public safety and personal safety very much to heart and be very careful about it.
[13:36] And right through the Old Testament, you actually find, for example, I'm just picking one example. It's an interesting one because maybe it's not something that we would read every day.
[13:46] I'm sure it's not. But in the course of reading the Bible, you'd come across a passage like this where you'd find a chapter dealing with various laws in Deuteronomy 22. And at verse 8, you read as follows.
[13:58] When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.
[14:09] That's interesting. That's God specifying to the people of Israel when you're building your house, because, of course, most would have flat roofs in those days. And what it's saying is, when you build it, you shall make a parapet for your roof.
[14:23] You'll actually put something round the outside of your roof for safety purposes so that you will not get somebody falling to their death and bring the guilt of his blood or her blood on that house.
[14:37] In other words, that's health and safety. It's there right in the Old Testament. You think health and safety is something that's really quite modern. It's not. It's there right back in God giving these directions to Israel because God was so himself concerned, himself, with a preserving of human life, with protecting human life, with a sanctity of human life, that they were to take every measure possible, every legitimate means, in order to preserve human life.
[15:06] And that reminds us, indeed, as the Catechism puts it, for the Sixth Commandment. After saying, what is the Sixth Commandment? It asks the question, what is required in the Sixth Commandment?
[15:19] And then it's answered, the Sixth Commandment requires all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life and the life of others.
[15:31] That's what the Sixth Commandment requires. And you can see how that comes to be applied in our homes, in our private lives, in our family life. It applies to travel, the means of travel that are used.
[15:43] It applies to industry. It applies to public service. Hardly any area of society or human life you can think of is not actually involved in health and safety issues.
[15:58] And the health and safety issues come back to the Sixth Commandment. Because this is, as the Catechism puts it, this is the other side of it, not only shall you not take life, but you shall do everything possible to preserve life.
[16:14] Somebody who doesn't go out deliberately to kill somebody and then gets drunk and goes behind the wheel of a car and unfortunately takes someone's life on the way home, that person is actually guilty of transgressing the Sixth Commandment because that person has not taken every legitimate means to preserve life.
[16:37] It's the opposite. There are many instances of that. But that's also part, indeed we've seen that with the other commandments as well, or ones we've seen so far, that it's a two-sided thing where you find that, where it says, for example, that you shall have no other gods before me.
[16:56] It doesn't just mean you don't actually have any other gods but God. It means that God comes first in your life. All the other positive sides of the commandments.
[17:07] So that's the intent of this prohibition. The meaning of it is homicide. There are one or two exceptions, and it is the basis of all the safety measures that we need to apply in regard to preserving and protecting and securing human life.
[17:27] Secondly, what about the extent of its application? If that's the essential meaning of it, with some exceptions, what is the extent of its application? Well, obviously, it applies, as we said, to murder and to manslaughter.
[17:42] That's pretty obvious. You shall not take life. You shall not commit homicide, whether it's deliberate or unintentional. Nevertheless, it's the taking of a life.
[17:53] And the Sixth Commandment very obviously applies to that. We don't really need to go into that very much. There are other areas where we actually need to apply it and see it has relevance in certainly in modern society.
[18:09] Now, there's one area I'm not going to deal with, but it has a relation to the Sixth Commandment. It's a most sensitive and emotional issue, and that's the issue of suicide.
[18:24] It's something that we all have difficulties with, and it's something that involves complexities such as states of mind, mental health issues, and it would not be right for us to try and just deal with that in a few moments.
[18:42] It needs much more extensive and indeed more expertise than I have to deal with it. But I do believe it does have a direct relation to the prohibition against the taking of life, even when it comes to be our own life.
[18:58] I did say at the beginning we're dealing with issues that are very difficult, very hard to think about and speak about, but they are issues that are so very much part of the society we belong to.
[19:12] And while suicide, of course, is not confined to young lives, it is still the case that there has been an increase, particularly in young males in Scotland in recent years, in the last year or two.
[19:29] Whatever the reasons may be, it's an established fact, and it's a tragedy. It always is. So I'm not going to deal with that particular one.
[19:39] I'm going to deal with four others, two in some detail and two in less detail. The first one is abortion. Abortion itself is a very emotive issue and raises a lot of difficulty in terms of dealing with what's involved.
[20:02] And we have to be very careful and not just generalize or appear that we're just dealing with this subject in a way that's detached and harsh.
[20:16] Please remember there are people, even in this congregation, who are committed to trying to help and to counsel those who have unwanted or unexpected pregnancy. Pregnancy crisis counseling is hugely important.
[20:29] And please bear that in mind in your prayers because I know those who are involved will really appreciate that. And that's not just women who happen to have fallen pregnant.
[20:42] It also means the men involved also need that same counseling very often. So that's just something, again, in passing, not to minimize it, but just to realize that there is a lot of work going on in trying to prevent abortion.
[20:59] Abortion is indeed something that for our society is itself a blot on our society. There were 200,000 plus abortions in the UK in the last year.
[21:15] 200,000 unborn children had their lives terminated. And the years before that were of a similar number.
[21:27] Now when you go to the Old Testament, although we're used to the word fetus in English, the Old Testament does, indeed the New Testament as well, the Old Testament, because that's where we're focused tonight in these words in Exodus, the Old Testament has no word for fetus.
[21:47] It only uses the word that's used for a newborn baby, the word child. child. You will never find the word fetus different from the word child used in the Old Testament.
[22:01] Whenever a woman became pregnant, she was said to be with child. Whenever the child was born, the same word was used for that born child, that newborn child, or that infant child, as had been used for the child and the womb pre-birth.
[22:19] that itself reminds us that the Old Testament made no distinction between the life of the unborn and the life of the born. It's human life.
[22:30] It was regarded as sacred and the sanctity of life that the sixth commandment sets out to establish and the life that it sets out to protect includes the life of the child and the child is defined as the child in the womb, just as surely as the child that has been born and come into the world.
[22:55] In other words, it sees life as sacred from its beginning. At whatever stage you look at, an unborn child, the Old Testament will never suggest that it's not a child, that it's not a human life, that it actually should be regarded as something less and therefore that can be terminated.
[23:18] Now, that number of abortions in our own country and of course it's not confined to our country, a lot of it, as you know, is emotive and as you've seen in recent times where, with Northern Ireland for example, where there has been, where there was a campaign to introduce abortion on demand, the one thing that's very much involved in that is that instead of life being sacred from the very beginnings, that a woman particularly, though sometimes men are involved as well, but it's usually set out as the woman's right to have control over her own body and therefore has the right to terminate a life begun in her womb.
[24:11] It's that human right, that individual right that dominates the thinking behind abortion on demand, not life being sacred from conception, from its beginnings in the womb.
[24:27] But that's how the Old Testament, and that's what the New Testament word in Greek, it's the same word used for the unborn child and for the child after it's been born. It's that same word, there is no word for fetus as if it was distinct from a child or a human life.
[24:46] And that means that difficult although it is, we have to actually raise these issues, we have to preach about these issues, we have to let people know the facts about these issues.
[25:02] We're talking about human life, we're talking about deliberate taking of life even before that life has come into the world. We don't accept that there are absolutely no circumstances where an abortion ought not to be carried out, but the number of cases such as the mother's danger to her life, things like that, are minuscule in number compared to the number of actual abortions that are carried out.
[25:38] So again, please remember those who are dedicating themselves to trying to prevent abortions taking place. we have to speak for that because our passive silence, if we're just saying, it's not really for us to say anything about that, let's leave it to the professionals, let's leave it to Christians in the medical profession, let's leave it to others, that silence is really being complicit in the actual abortions themselves, complicit in the fact that they're being carried out.
[26:19] And that again assumes that it's something that really because of its nature, I know it's difficult, and one of the things, I will see it with euthanasia in a minute, one of the things that has been the case for years now, is the use of certain terminology, certain words, which actually are themselves designed to lessen the gravity of what is involved in abortion.
[26:52] Termination, or words that are used along with that, it's the taking of life, it's the ending of a human life, it's that serious.
[27:05] And we've become so accustomed to it in our society that those who raise their voices against it, or those who are attempting to prevent such things happening, are facing such a hostile reaction from those who think this is just our human right.
[27:23] Why should you actually stand against what we want to do in controlling our own destiny and our own bodies? So abortion is very much a transgression of the sixth commandment.
[27:36] So too is euthanasia. Euthanasia is comprised of the word euthanasia is made up of two Greek words. And the two Greek words together mean good death.
[27:49] Good death. That's what euthanasia literally means. That's why you call, we mentioned terminology in a minute ago, that's why you very often find this going under the term of mercy killing.
[28:03] Okay, mercy killing. Just think about it. Mercy and killing brought together in one phrase. Mercy killing. Now there are difficulties of course involved in dealing with euthanasia or the attempt to increase more facility for euthanasia or to legalize euthanasia.
[28:26] And that's going on all the time. And the campaign for that is very much still live and increasing. The difficulties of suffering, the difficulties of seeing somebody suffering, the difficulty of somebody who has disability and these disabilities increase as life goes on, physical or mental disabilities and the strain on families, the difficulties of old age, the difficulties of the kind of disabilities that old age sometimes bring.
[28:55] All of these things are part of the arguments, the reasoning, why euthanasia ought to be introduced and legalized. And again, it assumes something which is not the case.
[29:10] It assumes that every individual has the right to determine when their own life ends. Even if it's not by their own hand, nevertheless, it's assumed by those who are very much in favor of euthanasia that every human being has the right to determine that.
[29:27] If they get to a stage where they think they just really can't go on and life is not worth living anymore, then they should have the right to have their life terminated. That's what's behind it. Well, isn't it a great tragedy when a human life is considered in terms of economics or economic value or any other values, whether it's a disability itself that's taken into account as the primary reason as to why euthanasia should be legalized?
[29:57] God alone has the right over our birth and our death. God alone has that right.
[30:09] And I'm saying, as we've said all along, the more you push the Bible to the side or the more you get rid of it altogether and its teachings, inevitably that's what's going to happen. You take God out of the picture and you're left with ourselves, with our own human way of thinking and our human wisdom and we apply our own human minds and you come eventually to the situation where without God and without a moral value at all, based on a standard or an absolute such as God's law, what you end up is with a hierarchy, if you like, of human opinions and the one that's in the majority is the one that wins.
[30:45] That's not how we believe human society should be organized. That's why we need the law of God. That's why we need that standard, that absolute, so that it guards all aspects of life.
[30:57] euthanasia, again, it's not easy, of course it isn't, but for all the difficulties and for all the emotive issues that are involved in it, it would be an immense tragedy if it was legalized in our own country.
[31:16] To see people saying that life is no longer worth living and then to put that beside a mother who lovingly cares for a child that has mental or physical handicaps or both and will nevertheless say that it's been the most rewarding thing that they've ever done to love and to look after that child or that adult.
[31:46] Well, that's what euthanasia wants to encroach on and invade. And, of course, you can go back to, again, think about extremes, which may not always be helpful, but, in fact, all of this goes back into the early 19th century where you find certain philosophers and certain authors as well actually coming to promote this view that only certain types of human life are really worth preserving.
[32:20] That itself is directly related to Darwin's view and what came from Darwin's view of evolution, as it developed, at least from Darwin's beginnings, that only a certain type of able human life really should be preserved, and that either through killing or through sterilization or whatever other types of human life, such as low intelligence or handicaps, whatever, should just be eliminated from human society.
[32:54] That's what led to Nazi Germany. That's what was current then in Nazi Germany when only one particular way, one particular race or one particular kind of life was deemed fit to live.
[33:13] The rest, Jews, gypsies, other types, just get rid of them. Let's just keep the master race, get rid of the rest.
[33:25] that's really directly related to the devaluing of human life so that you argue for euthanasia rather than its protection by loving provision, by medical expertise, by hospice movements, all of these things that are themselves a positive outcome of this prohibition.
[33:52] You shall not commit homicide. you shall make every effort to preserve human life. So there's abortion, there's euthanasia. Very quickly, there's something that perhaps we wouldn't think of as much to do with this commandment, but it's there and that's a mental inward thinking about revenge, hatred, wanting to actually get rid of others, even if it's just mentally when they're maybe standing in the way.
[34:28] Remember Jesus we read actually in Matthew chapter 5 and at verse 21 and 22. I'll just remind you of what that said. Matthew 5 at verse 21, where it says Jesus again referring to the Old Testament and then saying, but I say to you, he said the same with adultery, you have heard it said, it was said by those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
[35:11] and if you also look at 1 John, the first letter of John, chapter 3, and when you come to verse 15, you come to words that are very strong, but nevertheless are related to what we're looking at tonight.
[35:27] In verse 14, he says, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Whoever, or everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.
[35:44] And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. That's not in itself necessarily an easy text to deal with, but what it's saying is there is an element of killing, even mentally killing, when you just want vengeance against someone that's done you some wrong or stands in your way.
[36:06] If you hate him to that extent, you're committing mental murder and you're bringing into that a whole lot of things in your own soul that really are terribly difficult powers and forces that could take you over.
[36:24] So Jesus and 1 John there you find that hating to that extent is itself a form of murder, of committing, of annihilating somebody in your mind.
[36:36] And the final category I want to mention, and it is something that we need to be aware of today, and that is virtual killing. Thousands of children are brought up with knowing what killing is because they do it on their computers.
[36:55] computers. They do it on computer games. They do it in various virtual forms. They see it in films. They watch it on TV.
[37:07] They can actually do it themselves through certain computer games. Why do you think some computer games are marked 18 plus? Just the same as some films are actually marked 18 plus.
[37:19] because it contains certain acts of violence, including people being killed, that children should not see. And in fact, it's not just children shouldn't see it, neither should you or I.
[37:32] It's taking a human life, and you're seeing it again and again and again. The danger is, and it often happens, and it's happening to some of our young people especially, and I'm sure that that's an aspect of why there's such an increase in violence among young people.
[37:47] that is because the mind has become so accustomed to seeing killing, it doesn't really have time to stop to think what's happening.
[37:57] Even if it's on a screen, it's a human life being taken. It's a life being terminated. It's a family being affected by someone precious to them being taken out.
[38:13] It's another widow being created. another set of children being made orphans. You don't think of that when you're actually playing games.
[38:26] But in actual fact, that's what's going into your mind. Killing that you see virtually can eventually cause you to become so used to it, you don't think much of it when it comes actually to be on your news that there's been another homicide in London or Glasgow.
[38:45] You see, human life is so devalued in our society that the sixth commandment, yes, it's valued thankfully by many people yet, but nevertheless it's come to be set aside when it comes to certain takings of lives such as abortion and euthanasia and virtual killings and hated towards your fellow human beings.
[39:09] you shall not commit homicide. But the last word doesn't belong to the law, it belongs to the gospel.
[39:23] David maybe didn't murder Uriah with his own hand. It wasn't David himself who caused the, actually put the sword through Uriah to end his life.
[39:38] But he arranged it and he arranged it deliberately and from that point of view you can say without David's plotting and planning and organizing of the event, Uriah would not have been killed.
[39:53] So from that point of view David killed him. As surely as he had killed him with his own hand, he caused his death. He committed homicide. And yet when Nathan the prophet came to him and put his finger on this great sin, you're the man, you're the one who's done this.
[40:16] David realized then the gravity of his action. And he said, I have sinned against God. And Nathan assured him, your sin is forgiven.
[40:32] Friends, tonight, let's remember those who deal with prisoners who have committed homicide, and others who have done terrible acts, sexual predators, pedophiles, all sorts of human sins and behavior.
[40:56] Their life is not beyond redemption. Remember prison chaplains, who remember the medical practices, the emergency services, and all who deal with these types of things from day to day.
[41:10] Remember, as I said, those who are involved in pregnancy crisis. Because the one thing that Christians are always concerned for is that no matter what the crime, no matter what the offense, no matter how grave, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sins.
[41:33] Where would we be without the gospel? Let's pray. Lord, our gracious God, we thank you for your forbearance with us in our own lives and with our people that we belong to.
[41:50] We acknowledge before you, Lord, our sins and our sinful ways. We come with shame, O Lord, to think of those issues that have been before us in relation to your command.
[42:02] We come to confess sin in your presence. We come to confess our own sin, even if we have never killed anyone. And we confess, Lord, that we are so prone to not have our minds think upon these issues that are happening from day to day in our own society.
[42:24] We pray for your blessing upon all who are seeking to help those who have committed these crimes and atrocities. We pray, Lord, that you'd bless them. We ask that you would strengthen them.
[42:37] We pray for the chaplains, for those in the pregnancy crisis, both here and elsewhere, for those who counsel against euthanasia, for those, Lord, who are seeking to thwart the attempts of the groups that are pushing to introduce these things all the time.
[42:55] Lord God, we commit our way to you and ask especially that you would reawaken us as a people to a sense of your law, a sense of sin, and a sense of our need of your forgiveness and of your protective care.
[43:08] We thank you for your commands. Help us like the psalmist to say that we love them because they are indeed a means by which we are guided in the right path. Be with us then now we pray.
[43:19] Hear the prayers of your people, pardoning all our sin for Jesus' sake. Amen. Let's conclude this evening singing in Psalm 119.
[43:32] 119, that's on page 159, and that's at verse 33. We'll sing that section to the end of verse 40. Teach me to follow your decrees, then I will keep them to the end.
[43:47] Give insight, and I'll keep your law with all my heart to it attend. Psalm 119, 119, at verse 33, on page 159.
[43:59] Teach me to follow your decrees. Teach me to follow your decrees, and I will keep them to the end.
[44:22] Give thanks, I doubt, I'll give you love, with all my heart to it attend.
[44:38] Let me in your commandment's path, for there, O Lord, O Lord, delight, I find, and find my heart towards your loss, from selfish gift, reset my mind.
[45:12] O, turn my eyes, from worthless things, give life according to your word, to me, your servant, keep your pledge, so that you may be feared, O Lord.
[45:45] Remove from me the shame my thread, pure loss, except in life my death, O, how I long for your decrees, reset me in your righteousness.