In his sermon titled 'You Shall Not Murder the Image Bearers of God,' James Lundquist explores the Sixth Commandment, emphasizing the sanctity of life and the inherent worth of every individual as an image bearer of God. He argues that murder extends beyond physical acts to include thoughts, words, and deeds that unlawfully take or diminish life. Lundquist discusses Biblical examples such as Cain and Abel, David and Uriah, and the New Testament Pharisees to illustrate different forms of murder, including heart-murder, lip-murder, and soul-murder. The sermon underscores the sovereignty of God in life and death decisions, asserting that murder usurps God's authority by assuming the role of sovereign over another's life. However, Lundquist reassures that through Christ's perfect obedience to the Sixth Commandment and His life-giving sacrifice, forgiveness is available to all. He encourages reconciliation among individuals harboring anger, urging them to be the first to seek peace and to remember the worth of others as God sees them. The sermon calls for a comprehensive understanding of murder that includes spiritual dimensions, advocating for humility, forgiveness, and the nurturing of one's own soul to effectively love and respect others.

The sermon today is, You Shall Not Murder the Image Bearers of God. This is the second in our pattern. I know and I thank you Connor for the prayer just now before the message. I just want to add to it Our God we're gonna talk a lot about murder But God what I'm most thankful for is that you are the life-giving God. You take dead people and make them alive.

You created us. We rebelled against you, treason, deserve Death, eternal death. And you are the life-giving God through the work of Christ. Oh, may we see your mercy and your grace in this commandment, amen. Exodus 20, verse 13, you shall not murder.

We are all murderers. We will all continue to be murderers. And we are all far worse than we think. You can restate that for every command we go over. Last week, preached on what the sixth commandment forbids, what it requires, what it teaches about God, and this week how we have failed to obey the sixth commandment and how Jesus has perfectly obeyed it.

There's three keys, three overarching keys I want you to remember as we walk through this that's true of everything I'm gonna talk about. Key number one, all people, all people are created by God and image bearers of God, no exceptions, none. All people from conception, in the womb, the elderly, the disabled, the sick, the men, women, boys, girls, all colors, all nationalities, all conditions, all abilities, whether you have none or whether you have far more than anybody else, in all times are created in the image of God. And the unlawful killing of any person, granted there are people out there that say that some people are not people, They are evil, they're wicked, they're wrong, and they can be forgiven, they can repent. But the unlawful killing of any person by thought, word, or deed is murder.

Number two, Only God determines all people's life and death. He is sovereign and working all things from eternity, past and future for his glory. Even in the sin of murder, God is still sovereign over what happens there. It's hard. It's a hard sin to think that God is even in control of that, but He is.

Number three, This can be said about all the commands about anything in our life the first part Christ is our only hope now murder in any form is forgivable Please hear that please know that and whatever I say it is forgivable. There's only one thing that's unforgivable, and that's dying in your sin of unbelief in Christ alone for salvation. That's it. That's it. You can be forgiven.

There's no sin that's too big for His grace, or that sin's bigger than God. As long as you're alive. But once you die, you're done. And we'll talk about that. That's what makes this sin of murder so hard and so different than all the other commandments we'll talk about.

So remember those. So point number one, how we have failed to obey the sixth commandment. Now, physical Murder is the one aspect of this command that we might think that, okay, we've got this one down. But be careful, as I go through this you'll see that it's way more than somebody just being stabbed or shot or killed out there on the street or in a home or some other horrific way like that. But murder is unlawfully taking any human life.

We see Cain taking Abel's life. You see that Moses taking Egyptians life. Even attempted murder is murder. Saul, how many times has Saul tried to kill David? Right?

Ordering murder. You're a murderer if you order murder. David and Uriah. David ordering the murder of Uriah. Now just a side note on that.

Why did David murder Uriah? Because of adultery. Hey adultery is the murder of two spouses. We'll get to adultery next week, but adultery is the murder of your spouse and the other person's spouse. David murdered who knows how many people in that, his spouse.

He murdered Uriah, he cared nothing really for Bathsheba, murdered her in the way he treated her. What about all the people that had to back up from Uriah? When Uriah was told to go to the, when he was told to put Uriah out front. How many people there died? David's murder is just so, So deep there.

We have Paul, or when he was Saul, ordering, consenting to the murder of Stephen. Following a command to murder, even by the government, is murder. You follow a command to murder, you're a murderer. Pharaoh, when he ordered all the babies in Egypt to be murdered, he's a murderer, and if anybody killed any babies, they were murderers. Joab, right back to Uriah.

Joab, by following the command of David, was a murderer. Now, reading about Joab, it's hard to read, especially because of David. He was a wicked man, and David never properly dealt with him. He never did. Read it, that's hard to read about.

Uriah, he also killed Abner, he killed Absalom, Amasa, or Amma, Amos. We have Herod in the New Testament killing the young boys the soldiers there that followed that order guilty of murder and there can be unjust wars there can be I'm not talking about pacifism or I'm not talking about for conscience reasons Be careful. There are biblical reasons why it would be an unjust war. Another form of Physical murder, government not executing murders according to due process is murder. It is.

It is murder. Read Numbers 35. That's where you get that from. Not protecting life when you have the opportunity is murder. Think of Pilate and he had the opportunity to save Jesus.

He didn't. We know it was God's will, but still, that's the ultimate example. Well, they're not protecting life when you have the opportunity is murder. The key to this sin compared to any others, when you murder, life ends. Life ends.

It's done. And all that's left for that person is eternity in heaven or in hell. And when you murder, you are saying, I don't believe you should live, I know better than God, I am God, you need to die. And that's easy free to amen talking about physical murder, wait till I get to heart murder, lip murder, soul murder. Can you amen it then?

You better. You better. Continuing on on physical murder. Jason touched on this one lastly, just want to say a couple more things on abortion. Abortion, They're babies.

They're image bears of God. And I wanna say this, maybe you've had an abortion, maybe you've even considered abortion. That's murder, just considering it. Maybe You've aided somebody, that's murder. But this is what I want to say about it.

Back to point number three, key point number three. Jesus, if you're a Christian, Jesus has forgiven you. He's forgiven you. He's taken that guilt, He's taken that burden, He's taken that wrath for you. You don't bear that wrath anymore.

If you're not a Christian and you're in that spot, you can be forgiven. The guilt and the wrath can be taken away. You can be cared for. You're not guilty anymore. Live that way.

Live that way. There are scars, there are memories. I get that. But please know you are forgiven. You're a Christian.

Another area, euthanasia, killing people because of their age, their ability, what we might think is their quality of life, No matter whether it's voluntary or not, it's murder. Murder suicide and assisted suicide is self-murder and murdering somebody else. When you do assisted suicide, you're not giving aid to protect life when you have the ability. Think of the story of the Good Samaritan. You had a couple people who had the ability and they said, no, you don't deserve it.

They were assisting. It wasn't suicide, but they were assisting and then a Samaritan came along. Consent is murder. Just because there's consent in self murder, you're still a murderer. Back to adultery.

Two people consenting to have adultery is still adultery. Two people consenting to fornication is fornication. Consent is still murder. Think of King Saul. Here's a story of King Saul when he died, if you remember the story.

King Saul asked his armor bear to kill him. His armor bear said no. So what happened? King Saul and his armor bear committed suicide. That's not the end of the story.

A man thinking that he could find favor with David went back to David and said hey the king was dying there's nothing I can do about it he asked for me to kill him he lied straight out lied on the whole story so I killed him thinking he was gonna make favor with David what did David do he killed him for murdering Saul executed murdering Saul, executed him. Not providing life-sustaining needs is murder. Food, air, water. I know where your mind's going when I say that, going to the hospital bed. We need a principle, we need a principle to guide us in those kind of decisions even.

But not providing life-sustaining needs of food, air, and water is murder. The least of these, think of the sheep and the goats, the least of these. Suicide, now let's talk about what's at the heart of this. Suicide is about discontentment with God. It is selfish.

It is selfish, you're saying I deserve better. Or if you're assisting somebody, they deserve better. Don't want others to have to take care of me or take care of them. The pain is too much. I'm not trying to minimize what pain you may be in, what pain you may be suffering in.

But we need to think through our pain and our suffering right. Turn to James 1. Turn to James 1. You can stay in James. I'll be back in James a few times today.

But James 1, let me read to you verses 2 through 4 and then 12. My brethren, Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Verse 12, blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Who? Thinking about these sins, especially of self-murder, nothing I'm going to say fixed perfectly in self-murder, heart-murder, lip-murder, but when you think about this of self-murder, heart-murder, soul-murder, who are you gonna trust with your suffering, your emotions, your feelings, or the sovereign God who gave his life for you, who is caring for you, who says right here he wants to comfort you, who's producing patience in you, who says when you have endured it, that you have been and when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life.

Who are you gonna trust with your suffering? Your feelings? Your emotions? Somebody else's feelings and emotions about what they think about your future quality of life or God? Second Corinthians, in Second Corinthians, we read in Second Corinthians One, verses three through five.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Who are you gonna trust with your comfort and your peace? Your emotions, your feelings, or God? Who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. We're the body of Christ.

Not trying to minimize anybody's sufferings, but what you're missing out on is the comfort of God. You're saying, I don't want your comfort. You can't comfort me, God. You can't. You're not good enough to comfort me.

And God, there's no way what you could be doing here is building patience and comforting me so that I may comfort others. Your word is wrong, God. Is what we're saying when we do self-murder or system murder, murder our souls, murder people with our hearts, saying they don't deserve your comfort, God. We're the body of Christ. I Want to give you care for your struggles for your trials.

That's part of it. I'll talk about that a little bit later But your trials are not just about you Sounds harsh, but that's the truth Your trials are not just about you your trials are our trials too But also to come for you and that you would learn to comfort others. You might have to comfort them through your trial. So whether physically murdering people or murdering in our hearts or murdering in our words, what we are doing is we are assigning worth and dignity to people. We're assigning that.

We're saying what your worth and dignity is, and we're saying it's not much, and it's not worthy of life. We cannot, as I said, we cannot determine people's worth based on our feeling, based on our emotion, based on our desires, based on our wants, based on what we think is our logical, or even based on the laws of the land. Pharaoh and the children, Herod and the children, our country in abortion, countries in euthanasia. We can't, assisted suicide. We must have a foundation.

The foundation is people are created in the image of God and we shall not murder in thought, word or deed, period. Shall not. What part of shall not do we not understand? Shall not. Shall not.

How do you determine yours or others worth? How are we determining that? Well, It's not because of age. It's not because of their accomplishments. It's not about their ability or what we think their ability is or the ability to have joy or happiness or lack thereof or what we can give to others.

It's not about what we think our social usefulness is or their social usefulness is. God has given you worth by making you in his image. He has given a command to not murder. He has backed it up with a punishment of death unlike anything else in all creation. I'll get to the gospel in a little bit to even put a bigger point on this of your worth.

Heart murder. Heart murder. We go back to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew 5.20, this is where we've been for all these commands and will continue to be. It's a great place to start.

Jesus. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." The scribes and the Pharisees thought they had this down with the physical part, but they didn't have the physical part. They thought all it was as long as I don't physically kill them, that we're fine. I didn't shoot them with an arrow, I didn't strangle them, and I'm fine. Oh, they were just fine of denying people healthcare on the Sabbath.

They were guilty of murder. They were guilty of murder. And we know they were guilty of murder in their heart. In Matthew 5 22, we see whoever's angry with his brother without a cause. Jesus says, you're a murderer.

You're a murderer if you're angry with your brother without a cause. And we say, there's my loophole. There's my loophole. I'm righteously angry. I'm really not angry at them.

And we minimalize it. And we lie to ourselves. We so... I lie to myself. I lie to myself that I'm...

It's a right anger. Oh, I have the righteousness of Christ is what I have. Really? Do you really? Do I really?

In this life, this is a very, very, very hard level to attain. Christ did attain it for us. Use it very, very, very carefully. And just as an aside, just an aside, the phrase, the phrase without a cause, if you study that in your Bible, you look at it, look at your footnotes, it may not even supposed to be there. The word may actually be, whoever is angry with his brother is a murderer.

Because we can't do righteous anger. Now you combine it with other scriptures and there is a place for righteous anger. Yes, that is, but it could be harsher than what we have here. But even having that phrase, because of other scripture that phrase is fine there. I just want you to be careful with this loophole we think we have.

God alone has perfect righteous anger. And he has wrath and vengeance that we are not to have. He has perfect righteous wrath and vengeance. We can't even have that. None of that.

But God alone can have perfect righteous anger. We can strive for righteous anger. 1 John 3 15, whoever hates his brother is a murderer and there there is no exception you hate your brother you're a murderer now let me go over to back to Matthew 5 or 15 here Matthew 15 verse 19 says time about heart murder, for out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts. Always starts there. But out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murderers, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

Our word sin always starts in the heart and the thoughts. Always there. And we've all murdered in our hearts. Children, children, look at me. You have.

You have. You have murdered at least in your heart. Maybe not this morning you can remember, but I guarantee this week you can look back and see, were you angry with your brother? Your sister? Were you?

Your parents? A friend? You're most likely a murderer this week. We've all murdered in our hearts. We've all had anger, bitterness, coveting, despising, hating, malice, envy.

I'm better than them. I'm better than them. I deserve more than they deserve. If you only knew the situation, you think I'm okay with my anger. If you only knew everything, you'd understand why I'm bitter towards them.

It's their fault. And you're murdering them in your heart. When you're envying them and coveting them and all your justification of your loophole of I have a cause if you only knew all that I know. But I'm not going to tell you because that would be gossip. You might cover yourself in that.

You're a murderer. Murder is stealing life, stealing glory from God, even in your heart. You commit heart murder, you are stealing life, saying they don't deserve to live. I'm better than them. They don't deserve the mercy of God, but I do because I have righteous anger.

What you're doing is you are hating God for not taking care of the situation the way you want it done. You're hating God for not providing for you the way he is for others. He's not providing for you the way he's providing for their spouse, their stuff, their children, their friends, your vacations, your abilities, and on and on and on. And you're murdering them and you're murdering God in your heart. You ever consider that, you're murdering God in your heart?

We are when we disobey this and we're angry with our brother with bitterness and malice, hatred, envying, coveting, stealing, lying. Now Psalm 11 does say that God is angry with the wicked every day. He does say that. He is the righteous judge, we are not. I wanna read something very sweet out of Zephaniah chapter three to contrast when he says God is angry with the wicked every day.

Hear this what he says about you Christian though. He's not angry with you like he's angry with the wicked. Listen this from Zephaniah 3 verse 17. The Lord your God in your midst the mighty one will save He will rejoice over you with gladness He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.

The Lord rejoices over you with gladness and singing. The children of God, those that have repented and trusted in Christ alone for salvation, He rejoicing over you with gladness and singing. That should be our disposition to our brethren. Rejoicing over them like God rejoices over you. We are created in his image.

We are not perfected in his image yet. And we are being conformed to that image, that perfect image. Well, here's a perfect image of God rejoicing gladly and loving over you. That's what we're to be conformed to. That's life-giving rejoicing.

That's life-giving gladness, life-giving love. Not the anger and bitterness and envy and hatred and murderous hearts. Be conformed. Move on to tongue and lip murder. Tongue and lip murder.

Back in Matthew five, you have a couple terms there that Jesus uses. Raqqa, Raqqa, Jason touched on this last week, Raka, it's a term of derision, malicious slander, contempt, despising. An example of this is the mocking of Jesus at his trial and on the cross. Be careful of your mocking, even the wicked. Be careful of your mocking.

Is it really righteous anger towards them? Be careful. Be careful. They're image bearers of God. No matter how evil they are, they're an image bearer of God.

They may deserve to die for their sins if they're a murderer they're still an image bearer of God no matter what you think of them he also talks about Jesus also talked about in Matthew 5 the phrase you fool and you fool is actually telling somebody you're a rebel against God. Jesus doesn't use this against his people. You know where he used this the most? Against the Pharisees. It's the Pharisees he used this.

If you may still be in James, so go back over to James 3. James 3, yes I'd like to read the whole chapter. I'm gonna refrain. It's tough, but five through 11 is all I'm gonna read. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things, they're boasting.

See how great a forest a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. Your tongue is putting the world on fire with its sin. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.

But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and father and with it we curse men Who have been made in the similitude in the image who have been made in the image of? God Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing my brethren these things ought not to be so." Murderous tongues words come from a murderous heart. We say, but I'm speaking truth and love Ephesians 4.

I'm speaking truth and love. That's what I'm doing. But our hearts are saying, no, no, no, no. They're really beyond your grace, God. They're really beyond your grace.

God, you just don't know how to treat them. I do. I do, and I've got the words for them. God, you don't have a good, you don't have the word for them they need. They're not listening to you.

They need to hear my words. We're saying I'm better than them and we have no humility to care for them as the children of God, to rejoice over them, to sing over them that they have been redeemed from sin is bad and you should be thinking your sins are even more wicked than theirs could possibly be. You have no humility. You're saying, oh this is righteous anger. I'm speaking truth and love and In your heart, there's no love You just want to hurt them You want to be in the place of God?

These are children of God, bride of Christ, even the non-Christians, they're image-bearers. They're still image-bearers. Back to James 1, Still in James, probably tell James is a good chapter for all this. James 1 verse 19 and 20, so then my beloved brethren, let every man Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Humble yourselves. Be willing to put yourself more often in the camp of, I'm prone not to listen. Prone not to listen. I'm prone to speak swiftly. Just assume that's your condition.

Take a step back. Assume that your position is, I'm prone to wrath. I'm prone to not producing the righteousness of God, humble yourself before you speak. In order to do that, we'll get to soul murder, You've got to be caring for your soul exceedingly to be in that condition. That takes the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is a time to call out foolishness. I'm not saying there's not. There is a time to call out foolishness. We know that. But are you really doing it for their good?

Or out of a desire to hurt them? Their character or other selfish desires? Listen to this, murder is not the punishment for foolishness. It's not. Maybe it's chastening.

Maybe your foolishness leads to you being in trouble with the law. Your foolishness leads you to be in trouble with your work, your family, your friends. There needs to be forgiveness and repentance, but the punishment for foolishness is not murder. We are not to murder them because they're fools. There is a place to call out foolishness.

There is. We go to Ephesians 4 now. Ephesians 4.25 says, Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor for we are members of one another be angry and do not sin do not let the Sun go down on your wrath listen lying bearing false witness is murdering someone's name and reputation. It's murder. We'll get to lying bearing false witness.

It's murder. Now we are going to sin. I started talking about this last week a little bit. We are going to sin against one another. We are going to get under one another's skin now and then.

It's going to happen. Within your family, you know how that happens and it does happen between friends. It does. We're not the same. But you know what?

That's part of God's beautiful creation. Seven billion people, we're all different. God's creativity is wonderful. Relish in it, enjoy it. Don't murder it.

But humble yourself. Consider that you may actually have a role in someone else being angry at you and sinning towards you. Just consider it, be humble about it, and consider it's not just that the other person's the only one sinning here. One of the points in Matthew 5 and here in Ephesians 4 is that we are to go and be the first person to reconcile. We are to go and be the first person to reconcile, be the first mover right away.

Let me say again, Which one should be the first mover when there's anger between people? The one that has none? That you may just think they have none, or the one that has it all? Yes. Yes!

You are called to be the first mover even if you think You're the one that has no problem. It's just them that has a problem with me. I'm righteous in this. I've been fine in this. If you're not willing to go to them, talk about it, then you are unrighteously angry at them.

You are. You're murdering them in your heart. Husband and wife. Husband and wife. Parents.

Children. Friends. You might say here, well I'll wait till sunset. It just says, just don't let the sun go down on my wrath. Don't let the sun go down.

You know what happens there if you don't do it right away. You know what happens there? I think we're all cool now. I think everything's fine. I don't need to go say anything.

We've had time. She's fine. He's fine. They're fine. I think everything's fine.

Or you forget and you wake up in the morning and everything's not fine. Don't wait. Go now. Said it last week, the Lord's Supper is coming. Humble yourself.

Get up if you have to and go across the yard. At least talk to your husband, wife. Look him in the eye. Examine yourself. Seek forgiveness.

Whether it's quick now, you need a longer conversation now, but at least acknowledge it. Do it now. Don't wait. Don't wait. Soul murder.

Soul murder. Well, Adam and Eve are the best example here. The soul murder. They were perfect. They murdered their souls, killed their souls, they were dead, made themselves dead, and all humanity after them.

Can't get much greater for soul murder than that and we've inherited that we've inherited we can't blame Adam and Eve we're responsible for our own sin we we inherited that and and we we committed these these sins before we even remember right we talked about anger anger against your especially children think about this children You don't remember the first time you murdered your children, your parents. Children, you don't remember. But your mamas do. There was a time when you were so angry that mama wasn't feeding you when you wanted to be fed and you demanded that she care for you right then. Ask your moms and you murdered her in your heart.

These babies do. Even your grandchildren have done this. Right? Even sweet little Sarah, unfortunately. All right, but they can be saved.

They can all be redeemed from that. Soul murder, if you care so little for your soul, you are not going to care for anybody else's soul. Not your children, not your spouses, not your friends. You're not. This is loving yourself so you can love Others.

Let me read from John 8. John 8, 44. You, he's talking to the religious leaders, Jesus, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do he was a murderer from the beginning remember Adam and Eve he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it. Who is your father?

Who is your father? If you're redeemed, it's God. Don't act as if you still have the devil still your father. He's a murder from the beginning. And he wants to murder.

And he continues to murder. And he loves it when you murder with your thoughts, with your words, with your actions. So he thinks he's making a disciple. We're not to injure other souls, we're not to entice them to sin, there's so much I had written down here on enticing to sin that I cut out, so much. Or corrupt by your bad example.

Soul murder, in Acts 20 and 28. Elders, Jason and I Are told to take heed to ourselves and to all the flock Among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood If we do not do this If Jason and I are not taking heed to ourselves, Jason, if we are not taking our heed to ourselves and the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made us overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with their own blood, we are murdering their souls. We have no care for their souls and we are murdering them. Thomas Watson says, ministers are murderers who either starve, poison or infect souls. Now church, I wanna tell you, Jason and I have no desire to ever do anything along those lines.

And if you think we are, please come to us. If you think that we've done a single thing to harm your souls, please. And may you find us humble to seek forgiveness if there's anything in there, intentional or not. You want to know how to care for your soul? In the one way, scripture is full of it, the word of God, first Peter two, one through three.

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Here's how to feed your soul and grow. As newborn babes, what do newborn babes do with the pure milk? What do they do? Look at them. Look at the babes we have around here.

They're one or two. Look how fast they grow in those first couple years. How fast they grow. Forget if it's by age two or age three, you're roughly half your height that you're gonna be. Look at that.

God uses that analogy to say, here's how you grow. In eliminating heart murder, eliminating tongue murder, lip murder, soul murder, laying aside all malice and deceit, hypoxia, envy, and all evil speaking. Desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby and then taste the grace of the Lord in that. Care for your soul so exceedingly. Now the greatest form, the greatest form of self-murder is staying spiritually dead.

It's the greatest form of soul-murder is staying spiritually dead. Rejection of life in Christ as the only way, truth and life, you are committing spiritual suicide. There are a lot here in that place. There are a lot here in that place. There are a lot here in this place.

Maybe half? I don't think I'm exaggerating. Maybe half. Now, many of that half are very young, they're still responsible for their sin. Maybe there's 10%, 20% here that have been taught by their parents week in and week out, taught by their friends, heard the preaching of the word, still reject life and cling to death.

Love spiritual death. Must love the hell that's coming because you want nothing to do with life. Can you continue to reject? Stop rejecting and live. Please live.

Now the last thing I want to say on this point, murder is not wrong, just wrong because we ended a life. That's what you get, we're missing it. If you're getting from this, murder is just wrong because we've harbored in our heart or murder is wrong just because we've hurt someone's feelings with our words or we've neglected our own souls, you've missed my point or I've done a poor job explaining my point. It's sinful because we have said we are the sovereign over the image bears of God and their image is not worthy of life. That's why murder is sinful, ultimately.

Now let's talk about how the Lord Jesus has perfectly obeyed the Sixth Commandment. We know that Jesus obeyed perfectly in his heart. He kept his heart with all diligence in Proverbs 4. And we know this through looking at his prayers, through his actions, through the outworking of his heart. We look at his words.

He gave the gospel to everyone. There was no partiality in who got to hear the gospel from him. There's none. None. The rich heard it.

The poor heard it. The leaders heard it. The religious heard it. The Romans heard it. The Greeks heard it.

The Jews heard it. The criminals, even during his crucifixion, heard it. The gospel for everyone. He had righteous anger that we are to be conformed to. He had it in Matthew 23.

He had it in Matthew 23, where he pronounces eight woes over the Pharisees. He had it in the cleansing of the temple in Mark 3. He had it where it talks about, this is the word the man with the withered hand, that he was healing on the Sabbath. And they were asking Jesus, Jesus asking them, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? And they were quiet.

They said nothing. And it says Jesus was angry at them and grieved over the hardness of their heart. You want to judge whether you have righteous anger or not? Look at that example in Mark 3. Jesus was angry at them, but it was combined with grief over the hardness of their sins.

If you're angry with somebody, but you have no grief, unlike Jesus, you can have even empathy. You've been there. You've been a hard-hearted person. You've been angry with sin. You've hated.

You've murdered. But if there's no grief there, if there's no sorrow there, if you're not really trying to care for their hearts, that might be one way to judge whether you're really trying to have righteous anger and being conformed to the way the righteous anger of our Christ was. There are times for righteous anger. Abortion is a good time for righteous anger. But be careful.

Do you want the abortionist to die and go to hell? You want to be saved or her saved. There are times for that. He cared for his own soul. You see that in his prayers, how he went to synagogue, his reading of scripture.

You see how Jesus perfectly obeyed this in his works. He demonstrated all people's worth by his interaction with all people. I don't think there's anybody that's left out in his care. He cared for the young, the sick, the paralyzed, the blind, the deaf, the mute, the lame, the withered hand, people with bad backs with dropsy that were maimed, demon possessed, rich, poor, outcasts, foreigners, enemies, and friends. He raised people from the dead.

He fed 5, 000 and 4, 000 people, giving them life-sustaining food, protecting life. He saved a woman that they were going to stone for adultery because they didn't go through due process. They didn't care anything for her life in due process. He saved her from that, from that wicked execution that was about to happen, and told her the gospel. Matthew 12 we see in great multitudes followed Jesus and he healed them all.

No partiality there, all. There's no way we can say all of those people believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. There are people there that may have hated him that he healed, enemies that he healed, enemies children that he's healed. People that the next day cursed Jesus. Back to James, right?

When we bless God with our mouth and we curse man in our hearts, What are we doing? We're murdering them and taking the Lord's name in vain. There were people there that probably took the Lord's name in vain. He healed them all. He cared for them.

They didn't deserve it. None of us deserve it. Hear this. Jesus did not come to save people that were dying. We're all dying physically.

But listen to this carefully. Jesus did not come to save people that were dying. Oh, we're all dying physically But listen to this carefully Jesus did not come to save people that were dying. He came to save people that were already dead He has no murderous intention in him. He can't murder people that are dead anyway but he had no murderous intention.

Look at the way he cared for life. The way he cared for life. We don't need just a little help or a lot of help. We're dead. And we need Jesus to give us life.

We're dead. Jesus sacrificed his life to make a way for dead people to be made alive. Brothers and sisters, how much worth do you need in order to be so careful with your heart, with your thoughts, with your works, towards yourself and towards others, than to know Jesus sacrificed his life to make a way for dead people to be made alive. Than to know you've been bought by the blood of Jesus, by the blood of God. How much worth do you need?

No other creations even close to this or can have any part of this. This is only for you. How much more worth do you need? How much more worth does that person you're angry with in your heart need? How much more do you need to prove that you need to care for them and love them.

There is a place for rebuking. There is a place for rebuking. There is a place for calling out foolishness. But the vast majority of our time should be rejoicing over them with gladness and love. That God who saved me saved them, especially talking about our brethren.

God has created us all in his image. Jesus came as a perfect man. The express image of God died for people, and all people who repent and believe in Christ alone for salvation will be saved. You have incredible worth, and you shall not murder. Two applications.

One. One, Remember the sovereignty of God in all of this. Remember the sovereignty of God in all of this. God has put the people around you and that come across your path that he wants for your growth and their growth. He's put them there for your growth and their growth.

Some are very hard to be around at times. I am that some and you are that some. All of us are very hard to be around at times, But we are there for your growth, for my growth, for each other's growth. We do not murder image bearers. We do not despise the sovereignty of God.

We do not despise His plans. Think that my plans are greater. I know what is the best plan for that person or even me. Parents, humble yourself. Humble yourself towards what you think are the best plans for your children even.

You don't know it. You're gonna lead, you're gonna direct, you're gonna raise them up in the nurture of the Lord. Be careful though. Careful of our anger towards them. Is that the way you want God to determine your worth?

Do you want God to determine our worth of saving based on our abilities? Based on our abilities to obey, based on our ability to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind, based on our ability to evangelize the world, to perfectly obey the great commission, to perfectly love our neighbors, to perfectly love our enemies, to perfectly love husbands, love our wife as Christ loved the church, Wives to perfectly submit, children to perfectly honor, is that how you want God to determine your worth and salvation? If so, you'll get your rewards of hell. So don't live and don't act and don't think that that's the way you want it to be with God and the way you treat others. And number two, I've already stated this, if there is any anger between you and somebody else here, Any anger between you, whether it's from you or from them, go now.

Go. Humble yourself. You'll be an example. Won't feel good. Whisper, look, glance.

Do something to acknowledge that, that that needs dealt with. Please. Do that now and reconcile with your brother, with your sister, with your husband, with your wife, with your child, with your brother, with your sister, with your parent. And do that now. Let's pray.

Our God, Thank you. Thank you for giving life to dead people. Thank you for giving us this command. You had to give it to us because you knew the direction of our hearts. Not just for the physical murder and hatred of physically ending a life, but especially in our hearts, with our tongues, with our souls.

Thank you, Christ, for perfectly obeying and showing us What a life of giving life, of protecting life, of serving, of caring. Thank you God that you rejoice over us. You're glad over us. You love us. The love you have for Christ.

Thank you God. Thank you, oh Christ. Purchase through your blood. Thank you Holy Spirit for still filling us. Thank you for your patience with us.

One day we'll have this perfect, but you will determine that day when we die and are with you and made perfect. Until then we are growing according to your plan. Help us to yearn for acceleration of our growth. Help us to love our neighbor because we have loved our own souls and have a love for you because you've loved us first. Thank you oh God.

Amen.