Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to serve as your Bible teacher every day on this great radio station.
On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. In Exodus 2013, God said, You shall not kill. Kill is not the best translation of this verse. The better translation is, You shall not murder.
What God is talking about is premeditated murder that comes out of anger. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, it seems like every day the headlines are filled with reports about violent crimes.
We see fights erupting on city streets and we hear about senseless murders as well. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains that preventing these tragedies begins with implementing God's sixth commandment to preserve life. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. When the woke crowd rolls their eyes at the Ten Commandments, it's likely because they don't understand how these guardrails from God have fostered civility for generations. In reality, the Ten Commandments have established dignity. They represent the bedrock upon which our legal system is founded.
Furthermore, defying these laws adds to chaos. Following them produces God's blessing. Well, I've written a brand new bestselling book on this topic. It's available to you today. It's titled The Ten. How to live and love in a world that has lost its way. As you read this book for yourself and when you share it with your family and friends, you'll see how these ten simple guardrails will continue to yield God's blessings in your life when you choose to follow them. I want to send a copy of my new book, The Ten, to you today, along with a collection of ten encouragement cards. Each card includes one of the commandments and describes how you can readily apply it to your life. While there's still time, you're invited to request both resources, my book, The Ten, and the collection of ten encouragement cards.
I'll send them to your home right away when you include a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Today, we're going to talk about the sixth commandment. Tragic stories of homicide often dominate the news cycle, but the sinful act of killing someone is quite rare. So, does that mean that most of us have never broken the sixth commandment?
Well, today I'm going to expose common attitudes that creep into our minds that, when allowed to fester, can lead us down a path of destruction. I titled today's message, Preserve Life. Thou shall not kill. And today we're going to answer three important questions to help us apply this commandment. First of all, what does the commandment say?
What does it say? Now, the King James Version translates the word kill, ratza, as kill. Thou shalt not kill. But any student of the Bible knows there is no absolute prohibition against killing. There is some killing that is actually sanctioned by God.
For example, God gives the state, government, the power to take a life. There's another form of sanctioned killing, and that is a just war. Sometimes war is not only allowed, it's commanded by God. Here's one other occurrence where killing is allowed in the Bible. Exodus 22, verse 2 says that if somebody breaks into your house at night and threatens your life, you have a right to take their life. When we talk about the sanctity of human life, it's not just life in the womb, all life is sacred.
And if somebody is threatening your life or the life of a loved one, you have the right to take their life as well. That's why kill is not the best translation of this verse. The better translation is you shall not murder. What God is talking about is premeditated murder that comes out of anger.
And that leads to a second question to answer. What does the sixth commandment cover? What's encompassed in thou shalt not murder? Three things, first of all, overt acts of murder. That's the most obvious, acts of murder. There are several kinds of murder. First of all, there's homicide. That is, taking another person's life out of anger.
We'll talk about that in a moment in the first murder in Genesis 4 when Cain killed his brother Abel. But since that time, people have been killing one another. In fact, his homicide is rampant in our land right now. But that's not the only way to kill a person.
Secondly, I think this law includes suicide. Not just the taking of another life, but even the taking of our own life. Those who succumbed to suicide have become a victim of Satan. In John 8, Jesus said Satan is a murderer.
He is a deceiver, he is a liar, he is the father of all lies. The person who takes his own life has succumbed to the lies of Satan who says your life is worthless. You become a burden to other people.
Your struggle will never end. You're better off dead than you are alive. No, suicide is not the unpardonable sin. But we have to be clear, it is a sin. It is wrong for you to take any life, including your own, that you didn't create. When somebody takes their own life, they have fallen short of God's standard.
And we need to be compassionate. But we need to be very clear that no one has the right to take a life, including his own life. A third overt act of murder would be euthanasia, sometimes referred to as assisted suicide. Did you know that nine states right now, along with the District of Columbia, have laws permitting assisted suicide? Let's be clear, we're not talking about just the cessation of treatment. That's a prayerful choice that an individual and family have to make to cease certain treatments. But this is proactively working to take another life.
The problem with that is, those who are affected by these laws, that sphere tends to grow, as it has in the Netherlands, to include people who are elderly, people who are hopelessly infirmed, those who have become a burden to insurance companies or to the state itself. We have no right to take another life, no matter what name we put on it. Another application of overt murders, of course, is abortion. You know, people ask me all the time, where does the Bible address abortion? Well, the obvious place we talk about often is Psalm 139, verses 13 through 16, in which the psalmist talks about how intricately we have been woven together in our mother's womb, how our days were written in God's book before there was one of them that we lived. But there's another passage that is equally strong about this, and that is in Exodus 21, verses 22 to 23.
Listen to this law. If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child and there is injury to the child, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life. God's Word says that fetus, that unborn baby, is a life. In fact, it's such a valuable life that if it's lost, the penalty is another life be exchanged for that life. Have you heard, you're hearing it right now, that this concept of life begins at conception?
That's a new idea. The religious people haven't believed that all the time. Christians haven't believed that. That is just something new by the right wing to take control of the government and so forth.
Not at all. For hundreds of years, Christians have believed that life begins at conception, that that fetus is an actual life. Life begins at conception.
We have no right to take the life of the most helpless in our society, the unborn child. I think this command certainly commands or includes acts of murder itself, and it also includes attitudes that lead to murder. We talked about that at length in our series 18 Minutes with Jesus. In Matthew 5, Jesus talks about certain attitudes that lead to murder that we need to be on guard against. Certainly, anger is one. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that anger like fire eventually dies out after leaving a path of destruction. Somebody has compared anger to an acid that is stored in a container.
It's an acid that destroys not only the container in which it's stored, it destroys the object on which it is poured. That is the power of unresolved anger. And that's why Jesus said in Matthew 5, 22, But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. Anger in and of itself is not a sin. The Bible says be angry, but do not sin. You need to resolve anger before nighttime comes.
Don't let the sun go down on your anger. Jesus said another attitude, an action that leads to murder, is an insult. He goes on to say in Matthew 5, 22, Whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. That word translated good for nothing. It's an Aramaic word. It means somebody's mental aptitude.
Literally, it means empty-headed. You dimwit. You know, when our girls were growing up, we tried to keep them from using the S word, stupid. Don't say stupid, stupid.
Of course, I would undercut myself when I'd yell it out when somebody tried to cut me off. But I tried to, as much as possible, not have them use the word stupid, because you're assaulting somebody's mental aptitude, somebody God made. And that leads to a third wrong attitude in action that leads to murder, defamation. Matthew 5, 22 says, And whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. That word fool is moros.
We get moron from it. We think of mental aptitude, but it really is a character assassination, somebody who's devoid of good character. You know, in Proverbs 11, 9, Solomon said, With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor. You can destroy a person by the words you strike them with. You know, just as murder robs somebody a physical life, wrong attitudes, whether it's anger, insults, defamation, they rob a person of their God-given dignity. That's where the apostle John said in 1 John 3, 15, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. When you insult somebody, defame them, spill out bitterness on them, you are assaulting somebody Christ made. Now, there's a third area that this command encompasses, acts of murder, actions or attitudes that lead to murder, and third, activities short of murder. When God talks about violence, he's not just talking about murder, he's talking about any way we assault another person.
I want to tell you something very interesting. If you study Genesis 6, right before God destroyed the world, do you know the reason he destroyed the world? He says himself in Genesis chapter 5.
In fact, he says it twice. In Genesis 6, 11, it says, Now the earth was corrupt and was filled with violence. And then it says in verse 13, God said, The earth is filled with violence and I'm about to destroy it. Don't think this attitude or this idea of violence is some secondary issue. God hates violence. And we need to remember that. That's the reason he destroyed the earth.
When you strike another human being, you are striking somebody who's been created in the image of God. I don't know if it was this way with you growing up, but it was for me. My parents went to great lengths to make sure we didn't see anything that was immoral or overtly sexual, you know. Certain TV programs, certain movies, you know. You just couldn't watch those.
You didn't ever want to see anybody in their underwear. I mean, that was terrible. But to see somebody have their head chopped off, oh, that was nothing, you know.
People gunned down, you know, in a brawl, you know. That was fine. Violence was okay. Sexual immorality was wrong.
No, both are wrong. Both cheapened the value of life. And that's why we've got to be very careful about what we allow our children to see. I think not the only reason, but one reason violence is so prevalent in our society is we glorify violence through television and movies and video games.
We teach people that life is cheap. You know, the Bible says we're not to engage in any kind of violence whatsoever. And if you're in a situation where there is violence in the home, that must be dealt with. Why is, and the third question is, why is the punishment for violating the sixth commandment so severe?
Let's be clear. There's no wiggle room in God's law for taking the life of another person. Exodus 21 verses 12 and 14 say, he who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. If a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from my altar, that he may die. If God did not prescribe such a severe punishment for murder, then it would devalue human life.
No, but here's another reason. God is so against violence and especially murder. I described Psalm 139 verses 13 to 16 that talk about how intricately designed we were by God. Now listen to Psalm 139 verses 17 and 18. This is worth the price of the sermon right here.
This is what David is saying. How precious, God, are your thoughts about me, oh God. They cannot be numbered.
I can't even count them. They outnumber the grains of sand and when I wake up, they're still with me. Isn't that an amazing thought? God doesn't just think about you occasionally. He is constantly thinking about you. When you wake up, he's thinking about you. Through the day, he's thinking about you.
When you go to bed, he's thinking about you. You can't count the number of times a day that God is thinking about you because he loves you. You can understand then why God reacts so violently to somebody destroying that person that he loves, that person that he sent his son, Jesus, to die for. You can understand his outrage at the first murder when Cain murdered his brother Abel. Remember the story God told Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve, to bring an offering? He told them exactly what kind of offering to bring. Abel obeyed God and brought the right kind of sacrifice. God accepted his offering. But Cain decided he would try to approach God in his own way. He had a better way, he thought, to approach God, a better offering to bring.
In fact, that same pattern continues today. There's a phrase throughout the Bible, the way of Cain. Beware of the way of Cain. What is the way of Cain? It's trying to approach God on your terms instead of God's terms. People today say, oh, I don't need to believe in Jesus. I can come to God in my own way, through another God, or through my own good works. No, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes to the Father but by me. Cain didn't believe that. God rejected his offering. And Cain got angry. Now, his anger really was toward God, but he knew the principle, don't pick a fight with somebody bigger than you are. So he directed his anger not toward God, but toward his brother, who was made in the image of God. He killed Abel, and what did God say in verse nine?
He said, what have you done? God knew the answer. He wanted to know if Cain would confess. Cain didn't confess. And so God said it straight in verse 10.
The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground for justice. Up to that point, no human being had ever died. Can you imagine how Adam and Eve must have felt when they stumbled upon the lifeless corpse of their son, Abel? They, perhaps better than anybody, understood the sanctity of the value of human life.
Why? Because life was truly a gift from God for them. God had personally breathed the breath of life into each one of them, and they understood that nobody had a right to extinguish that breath of life. Life is valuable to God. How do we apply this commandment?
What are some things that we can do? There's a scene in the novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, in which a cutthroat murderer named Blue Duck stumbles upon a group of gamblers, and he wants to enter the gang. The hardened gamblers don't want to let Blue Duck in, so without warning, he pulls his gun and shoots one of them. Another one of the gamblers says, man, life sure is cheap up here on the Canadian River.
Blue Duck says, yep, and it may get even cheaper. We live in a society in which life seems to be cheap. We may think, well, we're powerless to do anything to stem the tide of devaluing human life. But let me close today by just some practical things that we can do.
First of all, if you're able, give your time. Give some of your money to support shelters that protect abused women and children. We have a pregnancy center that we support here at First Baptist Dallas, and what I love about it and many pregnancy centers is they not only care for the child inside the womb and make sure that child is taken care of, but also for the mother and the child once they're born.
Remember, again, the sanctity of life means caring about all children, both the born and the unborn. Second, if you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, deal with that immediately. We have a wonderful counseling center here at our church, Pathways Counseling.
Pam Green and her team are able to see and to help you. If you're watching this right now, you live in another city and you're struggling with suicide, talk to somebody immediately. If you have nobody to talk to, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.
It operates 24 hours a day. I've asked the number to be put on the screen. It's 1-800-273-8255. 1-800-273-8255. Thirdly, maybe you have elderly neighbors. They deserve dignity of life as well. Check in on them.
Make sure they have water and food and utilities and what they need to live and survive. And fourth, and perhaps most importantly, remember murder, whether it's overt murder or attitudes that lead to murder comes from the heart. If you've got a root of bitterness in your life toward the way a family member has treated you, maybe a friend has betrayed you, a parent has disappointed you, root that bitterness out. We are never more like Christ than when we forgive a wrong committed against us.
Remember, unresolved anger metastasizes into a tumor of bitterness and can destroy everything and everyone important around us. That's why the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 12, 15, see to it that no one of you comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled. Simply put, to preserve life means to carry the light and protect God's precious gift of life. Our lives and the lives of others are gifts from God and for that reason they must be protected and preserved. And there's still a lot of ground to cover as we continue this brand new teaching series. It's titled The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way. Earlier I mentioned my brand new book by the same title It's already a national bestseller.
You can be among the first to own a hardcover copy by getting in touch with Pathway to Victory today. As I've watched chaos and confusion overcome our country, God placed this subject on my heart. When I sat down to write it, I felt Him guiding my thoughts, especially as I envisioned the positive impact this book would have on my family and yours.
God wants to bless us and His blessings await those who take His commandments seriously. Please reach out today and request your copy of The Ten. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Now, as we conclude today's program, let me give you some good news about Pathway to Victory. I'm pleased to tell you that we're enjoying a fruitful season of growth and influence for God's kingdom. In fact, in recent months, the support of Friends Like You has allowed us to reach more and more people with the truth of God's Word through both television and radio. But I believe the best days for our ministry are still ahead. I promise to remain dedicated to preaching God's Word without reservation or apology. And I rely on faithful Friends Like You to partner with me. Together, we are piercing the darkness with the light of God's Word.
David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, be sure to ask for your copy of the brand new book by Dr. Jeffress titled The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way. You can call us at 866-999-2965 or make your request online at ptv.org. And when you give $100 or more, you'll also receive the complete collection of audio and video discs for this month's teaching series, The Ten.
You'll get that along with the corresponding study guide. One more time our phone number 866-999-2965 or visit online at ptv.org. You could send your request by mail, here's the address, P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
I'm David J. Mullins. You know, few perils pose a greater threat to a marriage than adultery. So how can we guard ourselves and our families against the temptation of moral compromise? Join us for a message on the seventh commandment. That's next time on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Imagine waking up to the sight of Alaska's majestic coastline or spotting wildlife from the deck of a luxurious cruise ship. Experience these unforgettable moments on the Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska with Dr. Robert Jeffress. Relax with us in Alaska and I guarantee you'll come home spiritually and physically refreshed. To book your spot on the 2024 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska, go to ptv.org.
