The Ten Commandments: A Deeper Dive Commandment 6 Part 3

Welcome back to part 3 of the Sixth Commandment as we delve deeper into, Thou Shall Not Murder.

Before I begin, here are some https://ministrypass.com/top-20-most-embarrassing-preaching-stories/

“My most embarrassing funny preaching story was back in the early 80’s and my 1st experience with a ‘lavalier’ mic! The choir sung and I got up to preach, but I was still getting over the stomach flu!
I felt some moving so I called the choir back to sing and ran out as they sang, “Let the Lord have His Way.” I barely made out of the auditorium. Suddenly, my wife runs into the men’s restroom and said, ‘Your Mic Is Still On!’
Needless to say, when I came back to the pulpit, we just dismissed!”
– Robert

“As the pastor, I was giving the welcome and announcements to begin our service. It was Palm Sunday so I was briefly sharing how Jesus rode into town on a donkey, to which I inquired of the audience if anyone had come to church on a donkey.
A reply came from a woman in the audience. She points to her husband and says. ‘No, but I came with one.’ Hilarious.”
– David

“I was serving as a missionary in Mexico. I had a pretty good grasp on the language, but still struggled in various areas. I was in a series of messages on ‘How Great God Is’ and was expressing the love of God for His children.
I meant to say, ‘He knows how many hairs we have on our heads,’ but instead I said, ‘He even knows how many horses are on our heads.’
When I said that, I saw the older people with questioning faces, while the younger people chuckled.
The words horse and hair are quite close in Spanish—I obviously chose the wrong word. I stopped the preaching turned to a teenager in our church who was bi-lingual and asked her what I had said. When she told me that I said, ‘God knows how many horses are on our head,’ I smiled, thanked her and said, ‘God knows that too,’ then attempted to continue the service.”

“For 15 years of student ministry, I’ve had ‘the sex talk’ in my preaching calendar.
I tried to come up with some really awkward ways of making things less awkward.
One of the first things we do each time I preach on sex is to have the students stand up, turn towards wherever the adults are in the building and scream, ‘SEX!’ as loud as they can. Then they look at each other and scream ‘SEX!’ as loud as they can.  Finally, I created an interactive message—complete with a hand motion that called for the students to blurt out, ‘Sex!’ every time they saw it.  Every. Time.

One fateful Sunday, I was preaching in the main service; it was Youth Sunday. Our group of however many students were all sitting in the font, on my left, having helped lead worship, done human videos, and basically run every other aspect of service to this point.  The only problem was, my hand motion for ‘Sex!’ was something I did a lot when preaching.  And the students picked up on that.
Apparently, they conspired.
As I was preaching to the main congregation, all the sudden I heard about 30+ students yell, ‘SEX!’ right in the middle of my message.  I have no idea what I was talking about at that point. All I know is that adults’ faces were colors I didn’t know existed. Old people were passed out (and it wasn’t the Holy Spirit), and I had some explaining to do, mid-message. 
Fortunately, once I explained to our congregation what was going on, they were pretty gracious.”
– Scott

And, “I was preaching about Law vs. Grace and used Deuteronomy 23:12-14 as an example for crazy laws. One of the students genuinely volunteered before service to read the passage out loud…when it came time to read, he misunderstood what verse I said to begin with and just started at verse 1. I lost all attention for the rest of service.
Deuteronomy 23:1 definitely shouldn’t be read out loud in a youth group.”
– Hannah

“No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD.” Deuteronomy 23:1

Laughter, the best medicine for each and very day as it is a joy to be around those who add humor and brighten your day.

Part 3 is devoted to the swiftness of justice, specific judgments, and what would fit in today’s society versus the evolution of the Israelite people as they entered into the promised land.

Action speaks louder than words—the phrase used in the Old West for man used his firearm to settle the score and “justice”? was done.

Remember when vigilantes or posses were formed to find the person who robbed the bank, shot up the salon, raped a woman, beat the married party or killed a person in cold blood.

Swift judgment was the rule of the day so law and order could be restored to that troubled community and people could be re-assured that there were peace and order.

When reading the Bible, look at the swiftness of judgment where the case was tried and before sunset of the day following the verdict the murderer was dead. Look no further than the crucifixion of Christ and the timeline.

No, we had no multiple years on death row, no appeals, and no waits in the jail for years and years… swiftness of justice according to God’s laws for it happened to Christ. I bet lawyers would be screaming against for this would put many out of business.

But, in man’s case, he would rather live and not die. God knows all our inner workings and created the necessary laws and judgments to deter man from committing crimes. 

In this day and age, let us look to God’s laws and provide punishment swiftly to meet the crime and to have two or more witnesses preside and or if the person who committed the crime says he did it or that we have actual evidence that shows the person did the crime to have swiftness of justice and not years in the prison based on appeals. 

I have a question to pose to you—If you are a defense attorney and your client tells you that he murdered the party, how, as a Christian, represent him?

The Bible speaks about accidental deaths that takes shape where we have a person who does not intentionally kill or by the use of pre-meditation, yet the other person is found dead.

Cases arrive where a murder has been committed and the perpetrator of the crime is not detected. Deuteronomy 21:1-9 comes into focus where the city in which the crime was committed, or country to the nearest city to make atonement.

Please read Deuteronomy 21:1-19 and see the wisdom of God as to the establishment of a refuge city where those who accidentally kill someone. God gave us the what ifs, whys, where’s, when’s and who will adminiter or oversee the city. 

This is the establishment of community guilt as the person responsible is not detected and punished.

Man is so short sided, as he thinks he can get away with murder literally and not thinking that one day he will meet Jesus. Such foolishness for a person to think they can get away with anything.

Look no further than Adam and Eve or Cain and Abel. Jesus made hatred of a brother without cause equivalent to murder. When a person thinks it or thinks to murder that person, then this is murder in the sight of the Lord.

Revelation 21:8 puts all things in perspective– ⁸ But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Please read the above verse carefully as I will provide a breakdown from the NIV—The “cowardly” are not those who are fainthearted in their faith or who sometimes doubts or questions, but those who turn back from following God. They are not brave enough to stand up for Christ; they are not humble enough to accept his authority over their lives. They are put in the same list as the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the liars, the idolaters, the sexually immoral and those practicing magic arts.

As for the penalty, they will be confined to the fiery lake of burning sulfur which will also contain the antichrist, the false prophet, Satan, death and Hades and everyone whose name is not recorded in the book of life.

The final chapter is written and the second death is eternal torment or destruction, thus you are separated from God.

Folks, these are strong words as they should hit home when you read Revelation 21:8. There will be no escape if you are consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

Vengeance is mine saith the Lord and the crime against the four-year-old in Aiken by the parents will be placed upon both for they admitted to the crime of murder and they must face punishment.

We all want justice done and done swiftly, but we live in a society where good is evil and evil is good and we are under man’s and not God’s laws.

Yes, it so sad to see and hear of a crime like this, but rest assured God will make both parties pay for their crime. Just think, how would you like to be in their shoes to face the eternal one.

The Digest of Divine Law says that domestic tranquility is impossible in any community which ignores God’s laws. Thus, while the greatest of all commandments is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, the second is like unto it: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

God places an emphasis on loving thy neighbor not killing thy neighbor. Why does man think he can set up a standard of personal conduct? God did this when He gave us the Ten Commandments. If it isn’t broke, why fix it?

We can go one step further by asking if any nation has a right to say what type of punishment shall be administered out of those who violate any of the commandments? No, again for God declared the punishments have been declared biblically by God’s statutes and judgments. If it isn’t broke, why fix it?

As I said in the past, we have Ten Commandments to follow, they are perfect, fair, equitable, correct and yet man has to ruin them by not following them. What a mess!

God created the scenarios, the examples, the outcomes, the penalties, the statutes, judgments, laws and commandments and man has done a fine job in just throwing them to the wayside.

As I close, I made the case to those who do not believe in the death penalty—Biblically, you have no ground to stand on for God has made it clear on the death penalty and accidental killings.

What part do you not understand? I have not taken verses out of text for this is what God hath said and what the outcome will be. 

So, if you disagree, so be it, but I ask that you show me where God goes against the sixth commandment—his word is infallible and you can find nothing, so I will pray for you to study the word and have an open mind.

Now on to the Seventh Commandment which is “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Stay tuned as we take a deep dive into this very prevalent subject in today’s society.