WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.760 We're working our way through the Ten Commandments and we are now on 00:00:03.760 --> 00:00:09.540 commandment number six here that we read from Exodus 20. One of the helpful 00:00:09.540 --> 00:00:14.080 frameworks for looking at the Ten Commandments comes to us from just after 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:19.080 the Reformation. So the confession that we subscribe to here as ministers and 00:00:19.080 --> 00:00:24.160 elders at St. C's, the Westminster Confession, in the Catechism they explore 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:29.519 every single one of the Ten Commandments and they ask what is forbidden in this 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:34.799 commandment and then what is required. And that's because the reformers and many 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:38.320 people before them saw that in every single one of the Ten Commandments it's 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.920 not just telling you what not to do but embedded within that command is also 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:47.960 something that is your duty, what you're being asked by God to do, what you 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:54.159 should live into. And so one command is do not steal and do not steal also means 00:00:54.159 --> 00:01:00.199 go and be generous. Don't spend the life of taking instead spend your life 00:01:00.199 --> 00:01:05.560 giving. So there's two sides to every single one of the commands and that's 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:09.719 very much the case with the Six Commandment. You shall not murder, you 00:01:09.719 --> 00:01:14.400 shall not unjustly kill and the positive side of that is that this command is 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:20.759 really about deeply about us seeing that it's giving us something, it's giving us 00:01:20.760 --> 00:01:25.719 a command that tells us look at your relationships. It's talking to us actively 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:28.980 about how we consider and how we deal with the relationships we have in our 00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:33.240 lives and how every single one of us have so many relationships that are 00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:39.040 always in need of deep treatment, of repair, of reconciliation and that we've 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:43.080 got to be fighting for those relationships. That's the positive side of the Six 00:01:43.080 --> 00:01:47.120 Commandment. So let's think about it exactly in that format. What is forbidden 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:52.359 and then what is required and how in the world are we going to do it? Okay so 00:01:52.359 --> 00:02:02.320 first what is forbidden? What is forbidden is murder. Let us pray. It's very 00:02:02.320 --> 00:02:08.640 simple. Do not murder, right? Some translations say you shall not kill and 00:02:08.640 --> 00:02:13.520 that's not very helpful because this is a more specific word than just killing. 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:19.480 It's the word murder and it's got three instances in view across the Old 00:02:19.480 --> 00:02:25.120 Testament and they include premeditated murder, murder in the midst of passion, 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:30.240 you know, murder in the midst of sudden anger, rage or extreme negligence that 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:34.320 causes death in some way. So these are the way this particular word in Hebrews 00:02:34.320 --> 00:02:39.120 used across the Old Testament. Never used in the case of self-harm or just war, 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:42.840 anything like that. I won't get into any of that tonight but it's got this very 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:49.920 specific reference. Okay fine. We all agree. Don't murder people. Actually 00:02:49.920 --> 00:02:53.960 everybody agrees in the modern world with this. So if you look at the first 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:58.360 five commandments like we've been looking at, modern Western people have a 00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:01.520 really hard time with the first five commandments. But when you come to 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:05.360 Commandment 6, everybody's okay. Everybody agrees. All the nations are 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:09.800 happy with this for the most part. Part of that is because the modern Western 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:15.120 ethic is singular. It's one thing and that's you can do whatever you want as 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:20.600 long as you do no harm. And so in the first five they don't apply but when 00:03:20.600 --> 00:03:25.960 you get to number six, it's obviously a doing harm situation. It's stealing life. 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:30.320 In other words, for modern Western people we think in the language of rights. We 00:03:30.320 --> 00:03:34.480 think through the lens of rights, individual rights. And so murder infringes 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:39.840 upon a person's right to live, to life. And so everybody is okay with this. 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:48.159 Murder is clearly harm at stealing life. Yet, let me give you quickly three ways 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:56.199 that this commandment do not murder from the Bible confronts modern people. 00:03:56.199 --> 00:04:01.120 Confronts the modern West in particular. The first is that after the 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:07.039 Enlightenment, when we came to the 19th century, the 1800s, Karl Marx was one of 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:14.800 the first among many to say that modern people have the possibility and the 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:23.199 requirement of seeking utopia. And that utopia, a real place, a real society, was 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:28.319 possible. And with that he said that utopia is a time where we reach a social 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:32.800 order where there is complete social harmony with no conflict and no violence. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:36.680 And he said that that was real, that was possible, that we'd finally in a 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:40.800 post-industrialized age, we wouldn't need religion anymore, instead we could have 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:46.039 utopia. And we could really find that out. Now, two World Wars later, after the 00:04:46.039 --> 00:04:52.800 Russian gulag and all sorts of other happenings, it came to 1955. And that 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:56.759 was the age where we said, you know what, that vision of ideological utopia did 00:04:56.759 --> 00:05:02.319 not work, and it's not gonna work. But in 1955, a guy by the name of Raymond Aaron 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:05.719 wrote a book called The Opium of the Intellectuals, where he talked about that 00:05:05.719 --> 00:05:11.800 and he said this, he said this, he said, ideology is over, it's finished, we've just 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:16.879 passed the World Wars. An imperfect and unjust as the Western society is in many 00:05:16.879 --> 00:05:23.839 ways, it has progressed sufficiently so that reforms appear more and more 00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:29.799 promising, that one day violence and unpredictable disorder will be gone. 00:05:29.799 --> 00:05:35.079 And he said ideology is over and now in the modern West we can now finally get 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:40.000 to the place where we put away violence and we get to, not utopia, no, that was 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:46.439 silly, but something like it. And what he was suggesting is that the same thing 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:50.639 keeps happening to modern people in every single political race, in every 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:54.759 single great political moment, in every single rebirth of a nation, at the end of 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:58.039 every war, at the beginning of every war, at the end of every revolution, somebody 00:05:58.039 --> 00:06:04.919 stands up and says, now, now we will get finally to such a state of progress that 00:06:04.919 --> 00:06:08.519 we will reach a point where there's no longer a land full of violence, no 00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:16.519 longer a land enchanted, engrossed in things like murder. And the Bible comes 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:25.039 along with the statistics and says no. And for a reason that we're going to come 00:06:25.039 --> 00:06:28.759 to in just a moment, but let me say this, the current world average, the current 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:35.599 world average of known keyword, known homicides over the last ten years has 00:06:35.599 --> 00:06:42.479 held pretty steady at 475,000 per year. So that means that there are 1,300 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:46.759 murders taking place every single day that police across many of the countries 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:51.560 that participate in this actually know about. And that means that we haven't 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:59.720 really progressed, not really, not really. And we're not actually going to. The 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:03.160 second thing that the way this command confronts modern people is that 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:08.439 Peter Singer, he's a bioethicist at Princeton, he's one of the most famous 00:07:08.439 --> 00:07:12.680 philosophers in the world. And Peter Singer writes this, he says, there is no 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:20.000 reason to say that human beings have a right to life any more than any animal 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:26.360 does. And he says the reason for that is because you can't say humans have any 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:32.480 inherent worth any more than any other creature that exists. And he says that 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:38.960 because he thinks that worth is not in what we are, but what we can do, our 00:07:38.960 --> 00:07:43.920 abilities. And so he says that there are plenty of animals that have more ability 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:49.120 than certain humans. And he says, you can never say that a human's life is worth 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:52.879 anything more. It's all based on ability. He says that's the only way to say it. And 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:56.560 you know why? Because if you don't believe in God, if there is no God, then 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:00.439 anything goes. There's no way to ultimately judge worth, the value of a thing. 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:05.079 And if there is no God, then lots of philosophers have come alongside Peter and 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:09.680 say, you know what, you're right. How can we really, in other words, how can modern, 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:15.680 Western, humanistic society actually say that humans have quote, a right to life? 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:20.199 What exactly is that right? What are you actually believing in when you say that 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:24.319 human life is worth something? It's valuable, it's worth more than anything 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:28.199 else. And so we don't live in a progressive society that's a culture of 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:32.039 life. We live in a society that's a culture of death. And so we don't protect 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:36.480 human life like we think we do from womb to tomb, from abortion to euthanasia. 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:42.559 Now the third way that this command confronts us as modern people, and 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:47.279 this one's very short but the most important, and that's this, that we are 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:53.360 trained in the modern culture we live in to think of human beings as good people 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:57.799 and bad people. You know, there's a qualitative difference. There's the good 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:03.719 people, the respectable citizen, and then there's bad people. And bad people are 00:09:03.719 --> 00:09:07.639 the ones that are prone to commit the great things that do not 00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:11.359 murder. It's really for them that there's this qualitative distinction that cuts 00:09:11.359 --> 00:09:17.919 through human beings between the good and the bad. The Bible comes along, Jesus 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:21.599 Christ comes along in Matthew 5 and says one big thing tonight, and it's simply 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:30.440 this, the lesson, and that's that murder is a problem of the heart. And that's why 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:35.000 we're not progressing out of it. And that there's really no such thing as this 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:38.519 great division, this qualitative distinction between good and bad. He says 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:42.399 that murder is a problem of broken hearts. And you see that in Matthew chapter 5 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:46.279 verses 21 to 24. He says it really clearly right at the very beginning. Now he 00:09:46.279 --> 00:09:49.759 says, you've heard that it was said to those of old. He's talking about the 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:54.000 Sixth Commandment, but he's talking about it as it's being interpreted through 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:58.600 the rabbinic literature, the rabbis in the first century. And for them, they 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:01.480 would have said, look, if you've never laid your hand upon somebody else in an 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:05.360 act of violence like this, breaking the Sixth Commandment in the most literal way, 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:09.840 you're fine, you're obedient, you've observed it. And Jesus comes and says, 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:15.600 but I say to you, if you are angry with your brother or sister, you are liable to 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:19.240 judgment. And then later we say, well, what judgment he says? It's hell, hellfire. 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:25.200 He takes it all the way to there. And so Jesus comes in and says that immediately, 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:30.720 Calvin said, this is the passage where we learn about murder of the heart. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:35.960 Well, he gets that from 1 John 3.15. And it becomes even more clear there when John 00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:40.000 says, if you hate your brother or sister or neighbor, you've committed murder 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:45.759 against them in your heart. And so we've got to think about how this happens to 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:52.120 really understand what Jesus means here. James chapter one, verses 13 to 15 says 00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:59.080 that evil begins, sin begins in the desire and the deepest desire. So it uses 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:02.919 this word in Greek for desire, but it's a word that doesn't just mean things you 00:11:02.919 --> 00:11:06.960 want, it means your deepest desires, all the way to the depths of your consciousness. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:10.919 And then it says, each person is tempted when they're enticed by their own desire 00:11:10.919 --> 00:11:18.439 and desire conceives and gives birth to sin through the hands, visibly, outwardly. 00:11:18.439 --> 00:11:23.599 And you see the metaphor that's being used? James says that the way this works is 00:11:23.599 --> 00:11:32.000 that first you have a deep, deep desire, like unjust anger, hatred towards 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:36.000 somebody, and it grows and it grows and it grows and it conceives. He puts it in 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:41.240 the metaphor of giving birth and eventually it can become birth to 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:46.200 something much more, a sin that comes out through the hands, not just deep down 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:51.320 in the heart. But you see, he's saying that it's all in the same 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:54.919 continuum. The distinction is not qualitative, it's just quantity, it's 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:59.240 just one of degree that murder starts right down at the depths of who we are, 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:04.919 deep down in the heart and it happens when we let anger boil and boil and boil. 00:12:04.919 --> 00:12:11.639 So Jesus goes deep here and he says that anger, unjust anger, and hatred, 00:12:11.639 --> 00:12:16.479 deep down in the depths of the heart, is murder before the Lord. He takes it all 00:12:16.479 --> 00:12:22.439 the way to that extreme. How does this happen? Now here's how it happens. You'll 00:12:22.439 --> 00:12:28.439 see in the, we read from the ESV and in verse 22 it says, whoever insults his 00:12:28.439 --> 00:12:34.559 brother will be liable to the counsel. Older translations usually say whoever 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:40.000 says rocker will be liable to the counsel. And the reason that they did that 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:46.919 is because rocker is a word that has a powerful and specific meaning. So he's 00:12:46.919 --> 00:12:51.079 saying here that it's not just rocker, it doesn't just mean that you've got some 00:12:51.079 --> 00:12:55.959 mere concern for somebody. You know, it's not just when you look at your friend, 00:12:55.959 --> 00:13:01.719 your brother, your sister, your spouse, and you say you're doing something foolish 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:07.120 and I'm concerned about you and I want what's best for you. That's not rocker. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:11.279 Rocker is when you turn to your brother, sister, friend, neighbor, spouse, anybody 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:15.040 in your life and you say, you don't say you're doing something foolish, I'm 00:13:15.040 --> 00:13:21.519 concerned. You say you're a fool. You say, you know, you're a cretin and there's a 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:24.879 word here in this passage that is the Greek word that stands behind the 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:30.320 English word moron and it's when you say deep down in the heart, you're, you are a 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:35.160 moron. That is what you are, that's who you are. That's what the word rocker means 00:13:35.160 --> 00:13:41.800 and the way to think about it is it's like James 1, Matthew 5 is saying that 00:13:41.800 --> 00:13:46.280 the human being is like a tree and when you look at that tree you see the 00:13:46.280 --> 00:13:50.960 branches furthest extended out and those are like the sins that you see that are 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:53.960 most visible but when you follow the branches to their source you go down, 00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:57.520 down, down all the way you see that something's happened all the way at the 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:02.480 root to give birth to the farthest branch that's possible and he's saying 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:07.840 that's where you've got to go to find the source for murder. It's deep down in the 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:12.600 roots, it's all the way down at the bottom and the way it works is that it 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:18.720 starts with unjust anger towards somebody. Maybe you've, you've sinned against 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:23.919 somebody else or they've sinned against you and there's a reason to be angry, 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:27.319 there's a justice in a certain type of anger but what he's talking about 00:14:27.320 --> 00:14:34.040 here is when that anger becomes grudge-holding and so you know it starts 00:14:34.040 --> 00:14:38.920 when you, when you, you become so frustrated with somebody in your life 00:14:38.920 --> 00:14:43.560 they annoy you you know every single time you're around them the eyes 00:14:43.560 --> 00:14:48.520 of your, the eyes of your heart are rolling constantly and there's a growing 00:14:48.520 --> 00:14:55.440 disdain, there's a growing disdain and eventually it creates an awkwardness 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:01.360 that you can feel and eventually it creates a silence and finally it gets 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:06.240 to the point of separation and that's what he means by the word rocker it's 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:12.640 holding on because of an unjust anger a perpetual annoyance and actually 00:15:12.640 --> 00:15:17.680 separating from a human being because you have a real disdain for them deep 00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:21.560 down in your heart and you see what Jesus is saying he's saying that thou shall 00:15:21.559 --> 00:15:29.279 not murder is ultimately about relationships and he's saying that if 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:35.519 we're not constantly tending to our relationships like a garden they're 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:39.759 going to grow weeds and so anybody who's been married knows that this is one of 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:42.679 the helpful metaphors that if you're not constantly working and working and 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:47.000 working on your marriage then it's going to naturally grow weeds and there 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:50.319 always has to be a pruning and Jesus is saying here thou shall not murder instead 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:55.840 thou shall seek reconciliation and repair in all the relationships in your 00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:59.920 life all the time because without an active pursuit of reconciliation and 00:15:59.920 --> 00:16:04.400 repair the relationships in our lives are just going to grow weeds that's what 00:16:04.400 --> 00:16:12.480 he's saying here now let's move on we look at this and we say wow murder of 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:19.320 the heart this is searching because any act of sulling somebody's reputation of 00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:22.879 unjust anger bitterness of grudge holding of saying that person is such a 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:28.760 fool of putting forward the gossip train to push their reputation down a little 00:16:28.760 --> 00:16:31.440 bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more every single one of 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:35.920 those provoking acts even if it's quiet even if deep down in the heart Jesus 00:16:35.920 --> 00:16:41.760 says that's murder of the heart and you and I say tonight how often do I do that 00:16:41.760 --> 00:16:46.480 oh this is this is a search and command then that's exactly Jesus's point 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:49.200 because when you look deep down in the depths of your heart you say how often 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:54.640 do I do this do I struggle with this and Jesus is trying to get Pharisees who 00:16:54.640 --> 00:16:57.520 are standing all around and thinking I've never broken the sixth commandment to 00:16:57.520 --> 00:17:03.720 realize you break it every day when you when you look at the roots when you look 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:08.559 deep down at the bottom of your heart you've got to be willing to say I'm I 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:13.920 have murder in the heart according to Jesus according to 1st John 3 15 and 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:17.799 that means that the Bible Jesus is inviting us here to realize something 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:22.279 very important and that's it stands against every instinct of modern people 00:17:22.279 --> 00:17:29.879 and that's that the line between the most visible unjust behavior the most 00:17:29.879 --> 00:17:34.519 visible thing the most visible violent thing that we can think of the line 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:40.680 between that and the simple act of murder in the heart is not one of complete 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:44.279 qualitative distinction instead he's saying it's one of degree it's a 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:49.399 development and he's saying that that's where it begins deep down in the roots 00:17:49.399 --> 00:17:57.319 and so Alexander Alexander Solzhenitsyn he was a victim of the evils of the the 00:17:57.319 --> 00:18:02.960 gulags the Russian gulags and he wrote a book about it the gulag archipelago and 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:08.720 Alexander later became a Christian and when you read it you expect him at the 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:16.039 very beginning to disparage of course the people that were responsible and he 00:18:16.039 --> 00:18:18.880 starts off an introduction very interesting he says you know don't don't 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:22.519 think that I'm going to say that the architects and the actors of the 00:18:22.519 --> 00:18:29.319 communist gulag are the epitome of evil and then the rest of us are good he 00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:32.079 starts that way and he says no and this is a very famous line that's been 00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:36.480 quoted many many times he says no I've learned he says that the line between 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:43.799 good and evil passes through every human heart and if Jesus is right here and he 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:50.440 is we've got to say it passes through my heart it's very searching now what are 00:18:50.440 --> 00:18:57.920 we gonna do what is required of us how can we how can we survive secondly 00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:03.440 finally first in order to get a solution to this we have to think about just for 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:10.880 a moment why murder is so wrong and we're not told that in Exodus chapter 20 or 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:17.120 Matthew chapter 5 instead you go all the way back to the beginning God tells us 00:19:17.120 --> 00:19:21.039 why murder is wrong all the way back in Genesis chapter 9 right at the end of 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:24.519 the flood and so this is what he says he says you shall not shed another person's 00:19:24.519 --> 00:19:30.480 blood because they are the image of God so he says murder is wrong because human 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:34.120 beings are made in the image of God and so that means that life every single 00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:38.160 human life is the gift of God and that means no other human is allowed or can 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:43.240 take that away life is a gift of God and it's only up to him to decide when it 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:47.799 starts and when it ends and so he says look out and know that every single 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:53.120 human being is made in God's image is God's image and so that's why human life 00:19:53.120 --> 00:19:56.799 is precious and more precious than any other life on the face of the planet and 00:19:56.799 --> 00:20:03.319 alright look here's what that means Matthew 5 that means that when we have 00:20:03.319 --> 00:20:11.039 disdain for people holding on to grudges it means that we are regarding them as 00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:16.960 less than the image of God that's what that's that's got to be the application 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:20.399 that's got to be what Jesus ultimately means but when my anger my anointing my 00:20:20.399 --> 00:20:25.919 annoyance my bitterness furthering the sulling of their reputation by gossip 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:30.080 about a person overtakes me and I have deep deep disdain for somebody in my 00:20:30.080 --> 00:20:36.080 life I'm regarding that person is less than the image of God and that's why 00:20:36.080 --> 00:20:41.200 Peter Singer can come the great philosopher and say you know what human 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:44.800 beings are not any more valuable than animals you can't really say that Peter 00:20:44.800 --> 00:20:50.240 says why because he has no doctrine no belief that human beings are made in the 00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:54.039 image of God you see the reason murder is wrong is because human beings are made 00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:58.639 in the image of God and so if you deny the existence of God you don't have a 00:20:58.639 --> 00:21:04.519 justification for why human life is so precious and so valuable and that's 00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:07.599 exactly what we learn here in Genesis chapter 9 now the second thing that 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:12.599 that's why murder is wrong well then what is required of us now Jesus tells us 00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:18.319 Jesus tells us here he says in verse 23 if you're offering a gift at the altar 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:22.519 and you remember there that your brother has something against you he says stop 00:21:22.519 --> 00:21:28.759 and go and be reconciled and then come back now you got to think about this in 00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:34.359 the context there is only one altar it's in Jerusalem in the first century and 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:40.519 that means that if you live in Galilee or even further you've traveled in the 00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:44.680 first century 50 miles you've hitched your wagon you know you've prepared 00:21:44.680 --> 00:21:47.839 your family you've gotten all the supplies you needed you've traveled all 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:51.400 the way to the city of Jerusalem it's taken you a long time it's been a big 00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:56.240 commitment you could have faced robbery robbery along the road along the way and 00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:59.040 now you're there you're finally there you've been preparing all week to offer 00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:02.320 your sacrifice and he says now if you're standing there practicing your 00:22:02.320 --> 00:22:06.480 religion and somebody has something against you there's real real bitterness 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:13.920 he says leave it and go it's extreme you said I've traveled 50 miles to get 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:17.519 here to the Jerusalem temple and now you're telling me to go and that means 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:21.519 that he's picking up on something from the Old Testament which is that God 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:30.279 perpetually over and over again says to us I desire mercy not sacrifice you know 00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:33.920 I care less about your religion and your religious practices than the 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:38.400 condition of your heart and he says if you're holding bitterness and grudge and 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:43.400 disdain he said he's saying you've got to go and seek forgiveness that's what 00:22:43.400 --> 00:22:47.920 that's what's required of us that's what he says here go and be reconciled now 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:52.800 when you attach this to Matthew 5 to Matthew 18 here it says if somebody's 00:22:52.800 --> 00:22:58.040 got something against you that you need to ask forgiveness for he says go Matthew 00:22:58.040 --> 00:23:03.440 18 it says if you have somebody something against somebody else go and be 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:08.800 reconciled and you see that he's saying that it works in both directions if 00:23:08.800 --> 00:23:11.920 you're the primary if you're the one that's sinned against somebody he says 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:16.279 go if you've been sinned against he says go he calls the Christian in other 00:23:16.279 --> 00:23:19.680 words when you look at the Westminster larger catechism it says that the duty 00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:24.960 required of a person obeying the 6th commandment is actively to be a 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:34.120 peacemaker to seek peacemaking now last thing how can we do that I was helped 00:23:34.120 --> 00:23:39.400 by Tim Keller's book on forgiveness because he takes this command and works 00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:44.600 through a thousand situations many many different instances so it's important to 00:23:44.600 --> 00:23:51.240 say that we can't tonight talk about all the nuances all the ways all the big 00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:55.200 ways and the little ways that this applies to us because there are all sorts 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:59.600 of situations where a person cannot and should not go find somebody to seek 00:23:59.600 --> 00:24:05.200 reconciliation of course that's very true and so I encourage you to read that 00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:10.680 book where that's talked about here and there but in a most basic way what 00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:16.120 we're being told to do here is two things inner repentance and forgiveness 00:24:16.120 --> 00:24:21.880 and then external repentance and forgiveness now internal repentance 00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:26.360 and forgiveness is so important and what is it internal repentance internal 00:24:26.360 --> 00:24:31.920 repentance is when you've done something against somebody else and you say 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:36.320 before God deep down in your heart without any conditions this is what I 00:24:36.320 --> 00:24:43.000 did and I know it was wrong it's sin you know it's not it's not the language of 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:50.000 if I offended this person in some way then I am sorry for it and that's 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:53.200 that's repentance with conditions and it's not repentance instead it's saying 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:59.320 internally what I did I did and it was wrong and even if you were the person 00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:03.399 that's been sinned against in some relationship that needs tending he 00:25:03.399 --> 00:25:08.599 talks about the attitude of repentance and the attitude of repentance is when 00:25:08.599 --> 00:25:12.039 you're you might not be the primary one that's caused this problem between you 00:25:12.039 --> 00:25:17.079 but the attitude of repentance is where you still say internally you know I 00:25:17.079 --> 00:25:24.439 know that I'm a sinner too and I know deep down in the roots of my heart what 00:25:24.440 --> 00:25:29.840 I'm actually capable of and when you look and search and deep down to the roots 00:25:29.840 --> 00:25:33.120 you say you know there are things in my life too that I need to repent of and so 00:25:33.120 --> 00:25:38.279 that allows you to actually approach a person in a spirit of reconciliation 00:25:38.279 --> 00:25:42.640 because you approach them in a way where you see you see what you're capable of 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:45.920 yourself and so that's inner repentance that leads to internal 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:50.519 forgiveness and internal forgiveness happens when you say looking at the 00:25:50.519 --> 00:25:56.839 looking at the cross of Jesus Christ I do not need to be repaid for this I'm 00:25:56.839 --> 00:26:03.879 willing to swallow the pain to let it die deep down inside of me it hurts it 00:26:03.879 --> 00:26:08.000 causes pain because that's what Jesus Christ has done for me that's an internal 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:13.519 forgiveness and you know I'm willing to cast this as far as the east is from the 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:19.639 west now Keller makes the note that this may be enough this may be all you need 00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:27.080 to do because for most of us most of the time in most of our relationships we 00:26:27.080 --> 00:26:31.120 don't actually need to go seek reconciliation with people all the time 00:26:31.120 --> 00:26:35.080 about everything you know he makes the point that we don't we don't want to 00:26:35.080 --> 00:26:39.080 nitpick about every single thing that happens amongst us as friends and 00:26:39.080 --> 00:26:42.480 spouses and co-workers and colleagues and all sorts of things he says instead 00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:46.040 most of the time the way to heal our relationships is actually just very 00:26:46.039 --> 00:26:51.799 simple internal repentance internal forgiveness to just let it die right here 00:26:51.799 --> 00:26:58.759 it says because most of the time that's enough but sometimes we also are being 00:26:58.759 --> 00:27:02.359 called to seek external repentance and external forgiveness and that's when 00:27:02.359 --> 00:27:05.839 you realize no you know we've got to actually talk we've actually got to go 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:09.440 and meet and try to seek reconciliation and healing in the midst of this 00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:17.240 conflict we need we've got to seek peacemaking let's close the condition 00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:23.480 how how can we become people how can we become people that live like this how 00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:27.000 can we come become people who can actually look deep down inside and see 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:31.840 who we really are it's very searching this command and then turn and become 00:27:31.840 --> 00:27:36.240 peacemakers reconcilers with the people around us in deep deep relationships 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:41.920 and I think the only way that that's possible is if you look deep down in the 00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:47.160 heart and realize I know how far sin goes down into me you know we believe in 00:27:47.160 --> 00:27:52.000 total depravity here which means that sin has gone down and corrupted every 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:58.200 aspect of who I am in my soul and then realize but the grace of Jesus Christ 00:27:58.200 --> 00:28:05.160 goes deeper still in other words sin goes so deep it corrupts us to the to 00:28:05.160 --> 00:28:11.880 highest degree and yet the grace of Jesus Christ goes so much deeper it gets 00:28:11.880 --> 00:28:17.880 underneath it it heals the roots all the way at the bottom it gets up underneath 00:28:17.880 --> 00:28:23.759 the soil of sin and regrows you changes you changes your heart from the very 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:29.279 bottom it gives life to a tree that's dead that's how far the grace of Jesus 00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:34.360 goes you know Jesus Christ is the only human being who never had a murderous 00:28:34.359 --> 00:28:42.879 thought he's the only human being who never breathed a single word of disdain 00:28:42.879 --> 00:28:50.839 he never had unjust anger and more than that he we shall not murder because 00:28:50.839 --> 00:28:54.039 human beings are created in the image of God but he is the fullness of that image 00:28:54.039 --> 00:29:02.199 he is the image of God in full he came to show us peace we became violent to 00:29:02.200 --> 00:29:10.480 him you know he came to teach us the way of reconciliation we murdered him acts 00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:14.960 chapter 2 we mentioned it last week Paul looks out at a crowded room in 00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:18.360 Jerusalem with lots of people groups to tons of people that were not there at 00:29:18.360 --> 00:29:23.319 the crucifixion and he says you use y'all y'all crucified Jesus you put him on 00:29:23.319 --> 00:29:29.799 the cross he came to seek peace with his creation and yet we murdered him he was 00:29:29.799 --> 00:29:34.240 murdered at our hands and that means that we look at the cross and we see it's 00:29:34.240 --> 00:29:38.919 horror and yet we still call it good Friday and how can we and it's because 00:29:38.919 --> 00:29:45.159 when Jesus Christ went to the cross you know he was the boy the baby that came 00:29:45.159 --> 00:29:49.159 to die he knew what he was doing he came with the full intention to serve us to 00:29:49.159 --> 00:29:55.399 all the way to the bottom to be murdered by the people he made and that means that 00:29:55.400 --> 00:30:02.080 the cross was so intentional that God the Father received the sacrifice of 00:30:02.080 --> 00:30:07.800 Jesus Christ in your behalf and he gives grace to you by the Holy Spirit that 00:30:07.800 --> 00:30:11.320 runs so deep it goes all the way to the root it goes all the way to the bottom 00:30:11.320 --> 00:30:15.400 and can heal you and can change you it's the place of forgiveness for every 00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:20.920 thought of disdain that we've all had towards other people it's the place of 00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:28.440 healing now that means and this is true the last word that means we all we all 00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:31.800 can ask tonight you know where in my real what relationships in my life need 00:30:31.800 --> 00:30:39.400 tending what relationships in my life the weeds need to be pulled up from who do 00:30:39.400 --> 00:30:44.480 I need to go to what do I need to repent and forgive internally and then go 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:50.560 perhaps and speak with somebody to heal a wound and a relationship but look 00:30:50.559 --> 00:30:56.519 before you do that the only way that that is gonna be lasting and truly 00:30:56.519 --> 00:30:59.919 powerful is if you see first the great wound that needs to be healed is you 00:30:59.919 --> 00:31:03.679 need to be reconciled to God you know we need to be reconciled with other 00:31:03.679 --> 00:31:08.000 people but before that we need to be reconciled to God and you can't be 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:12.759 except he did it Jesus Christ did it the cross of Christ did it he reconciled 00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:20.279 you so tonight be reconciled to God by faith and then go and reconcile with the 00:31:20.279 --> 00:31:24.960 people in your lives that you need to reconcile with let's pray father teach 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:30.000 us what it means to obey this command all the way to the bottom it's very 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:35.119 searching Lord for us tonight as we consider all the ways deep down in the 00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:41.480 heart we've been disdainful and dismissive and unjustly angry and 00:31:41.480 --> 00:31:47.960 perpetually annoyed and gossipers seeking to hurt somebody else's reputation 00:31:47.960 --> 00:31:55.759 so Lord teach us the path of peace the path of forgiveness by helping us 00:31:55.759 --> 00:32:02.200 tonight by the Spirit to know that the cross of Christ heals and forgives 00:32:02.200 --> 00:32:10.360 every single one of our deeply deeply simple thoughts protect us Lord from 00:32:10.360 --> 00:32:17.240 those sins becoming anything more than that because sometimes they do and so we 00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:19.880 ask that you would teach us what it means to obey this commandment in both 00:32:19.880 --> 00:32:48.440 directions and we pray this in Christ's name Amen.