The Sixth Commandment: "DEADLY WORDS"

The First Commandment:

What Sits On The Throne Of Our Heart?

The Second Commandment:

"The God We Want vs. The God Who Is"

The Third Commandment:

“What does my life say about the name of God?”

The Fourth Commandment:

"The Rest We Can't Earn"

The Fifth Commandment:

"HONORING OTHERS"

The Sixth Commandment:

"DEADLY WORDS"

Exodus 20:13 KJV 1900

13 Thou shalt not kill.

Main Thought:

The sixth commandment doesn’t just expose what we do with our hands; it exposes what we carry in our hearts.

INTRODUCTION —

“WELL, AT LEAST I HAVEN’T KILLED ANYBODY!”

Exodus 20:13 KJV 1900

13 Thou shalt not kill.

Four words.

Pretty straightforward.

And if we're honest, this might be the first commandment in this series where most of us think:

“Well, I’ve got this one covered.”

We've lied.

We've coveted.

We've had idols.

We've dishonored people.

But murder?

“Pastor, I think I can check that box.”

You know, when I was growing up and got caught doing something wrong, my defense was basically:

“Well, at least I didn't kill anybody!”

I might have done something stupid...

I might have lied...

I might have gotten into trouble...

But I hadn't killed anybody.

So I figured I was doing pretty good.

Illustration: The A-Team

Some of you remember **The A-Team** back in the 1980s.

You'd hear that theme music start playing...

**Dun dun dun dun-dun... dun dun-dun...**

And you knew something was about to happen.

You had Hannibal: with the plan,

Face: TALKING his way out of trouble,

B.A. Baracus (MR.T): looking like he could lift the entire van by himself, and

Murdock: doing something that made absolutely no sense.

And whenever the A-Team showed up, somebody was about to get what was coming to them!

Now, when we hear the words **“Thou shalt not kill,”** most of us immediately picture something dramatic.

- We picture a criminal.

- We picture a police car.

- We picture handcuffs.

- We picture somebody being dragged into court.

- We picture the kind of person who would need **the A-Team** to come rescue somebody from a bad situation.

But we don't picture ourselves.

We think,

*“Well, I've never murdered anybody.”*

*“I've never been arrested for murder.”*

*“I've never had to explain myself to the police.”*

So we read the sixth commandment and think, **“I'm good on this one.”**

But Jesus walks into the room and changes the whole scene.

Because Jesus says the problem isn't just what happens **with your hands.**

The problem is what happens **in your heart.**

WE may never pick up a weapon... but you can pick up anger.

You may never take someone's life... but you can spend twenty years wishing they had a miserable one.

You may never pull a trigger... but you can kill someone's reputation with your words.

You may never send somebody to the grave... but bitterness can bury a relationship.

And suddenly this commandment isn't about some criminal somewhere else.

- It's about **me.**

- It's about **you.**

- It's about what's happening right here...

- in our homes...

- in our marriages...

- in our friendships...

- in our church...

and, most uncomfortably of all,

**in our own hearts.**

That's where Jesus takes the sixth commandment.

He doesn't just ask,

**“Have you ever killed someone?”**

He asks,

**“What is your heart doing to the people around you?”**

I. THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT EXPOSES OUR HEART

Matthew 5:21–22 KJV 1900

Jesus says: 21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Jesus says:

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, Thou shalt not kill...

But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment...”

Jesus takes the commandment deeper.

The Pharisees looked at murder as an **external action.**

Jesus says God is concerned about the **internal condition of the heart.**

Here's the principle:

God doesn't only care about what comes out of our hands.

He cares about what lives in our hearts.

Illustration — “The Old TV”

Some of you remember those old televisions from the 60s and 70s.

You had to get up off the couch.

Walk over to the television.

Turn the knob.

Maybe adjust the antenna.

And if the picture wasn't clear, you had to stand there and hold the antenna while somebody else said:

“Is that better?”

And you would say:

“No.”

“Now?”

“No.”

“Now?”

“A little.”

We laugh at that now because we have better technology.

But here's the thing:

**God doesn't need to adjust the picture.**

He sees perfectly.

We can clean up the outside.

We can make ourselves look respectable.

We can smile.

We can shake hands.

We can say:

“Good morning, brother.”

While inside we're thinking:

“I wish you would go somewhere.”

Everybody laughs because **we know.**

That's the point of Jesus' teaching.

The commandment isn't JUST ! :

“Don't kill people.”

It's:

“What is happening inside of you… toward people?”

jesus is expounding on the ten commandments the far-reaching demands of god's law

culminating in his famous phrase you all must be perfect as God in heaven is perfect

At the end of the day that's what God demands from you, ME, AND EVERYONE ELSE… PERFECTION

This line from christ is intended to level us and to sober us

to the reality that we are imperfect and therefore cannot meet God's demands which will force us to cry out for someone

who can… Jesus Christ

II. MURDER BEGINS LONG BEFORE THE HANDS

1 John 3:15 KJV 1900

15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

That's strong language.

John doesn't say:

“Whosoever kills his brother...”

He says:

“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.”

Why?

Because hatred begins destroying a person long BEFORE a hand… ever touches them.

The progression:

Thought → Attitude → Words → Actions

It often starts quietly.

“I don't like them.”

Then:

“I don't trust them.”

Then:

“They always do that.”

Then:

“They think they're better than everybody.”

Then we tell somebody else.

Then we repeat it.

Then we justify it.

And eventually we've built an entire case against somebody who may not even know they're on trial.

 Henry Nowlin who is a author once said :

“Nobody is shot with a bullet who is not first shot with a word and nobody is shot with a word who is not first shot with a thought”

and then he goes on to say:

“that killing is not just a brute external act it is in its most common form an internal issue of the heart”

Have you examined your heart lately? How's it looking in there?

Proverbs 18:21 KJV 1900

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

When I was in middle school we had a teacher who preached this verse at least 4 times a year,

Your mouth can become an instrument of life.

Or an instrument of death.

The choice... is yours...

THE TELEPHONE

Back in the 1970s, if you wanted to talk to somebody, you picked up the telephone.

And it was attached to the wall.

**The wall!**

You couldn't take it with you.

You couldn't put it in your pocket.

You couldn't go outside and still talk.

And if somebody else was using it?

You waited.

And some of you had a phone with that **long curly cord** that somehow could stretch halfway across the house.

You ever try to get that cord untangled ?

It was impossible!

Sometimes you would get a call from one person, but when you picked up there were more people on the phone,

Anger is like picking up that old telephone.

You may think you're just talking to one person.

But before long...

**everybody has heard it.**

One sentence

becomes a conversation.

The conversation

becomes gossip.

Gossip

becomes resentment.

Resentment

becomes bitterness.

And bitterness

begins poisoning relationships.

Turn with me to

Ephesians 4:31 KJV 1900

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Paul says:

GET RID OF IT!!!!

Don't decorate it.

Don't justify it.

Don't feed it.

**Put it away.**

GET RID OF IT!!!!

III. OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THAT WE JUSTIFY OUR ANGER

This is where the commandment really unmasks us.

We say:

“Well, I'm angry

because they deserve it.”

“I'm bitter

because of what they did.”

“I don't forgive

because they haven't apologized.”

“If you knew what they did to me, you'd understand.”

And maybe they really did something terrible.

But let me ask you this :

What is happening to your heart because of what they did?

Ephesians 4:26 KJV 1900

26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

In other words:

Don't let anger move into the house and start paying rent.

That's the problem.

We let anger stay.

We feed it.

We replay the conversation.

We rehearse what we should have said.

We imagine what we're going to say next time.

And suddenly we're having an argument with somebody who isn't even in the room!

IV. JESUS SHOWS US WHAT PERFECT LOVE LOOKS LIKE

Now we need to move from the bad news to the good news.

At the end of the day that's what God demands PERFECTION

This is intended to level us and to sober us

to the reality that we are imperfect and therefore cannot meet God's demands which will force us to cry out for someone

who can… Jesus Christ

Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 KJV 1900

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus didn't love people because they were lovable.

He loved sinners.

Jesus didn't wait for His enemies to apologize.

He loved them.

Jesus didn't wait for people to recognize His worth.

He loved them.

Jesus didn't retaliate when He was mistreated.

He entrusted Himself to the Father.

REAL QUICK GO WITH ME TO LUKE 23

Jesus is hanging on the cross.

He's been:

* falsely accused,

beaten,

mocked,

spit upon,

rejected,

nailed to a cross.

And what does He say?

READ IT TOGETHER

Luke 23:34 KJV 1900

34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

Think about that.

The people WHO ARE murdering Jesus are standing beneath Him.

And Jesus isn't saying:

“Father, get them.”

He's saying:

“Father, forgive them.”

That's the sixth commandment fulfilled perfectly.

Jesus didn't merely avoid murder.

Jesus loved His MURDERES

V. BECAUSE JESUS FORGAVE US, WE CAN FORGIVE OTHERS

HOW DOES TTHIS APPLY TO ME PASTOR COOK?

Colossians 3:12–13 KJV 1900

12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

Notice the order.

Because you are loved, you can love.

Because you've been forgiven, you can forgive.

Because Christ has shown you mercy, you can show mercy.

We don't forgive people because they deserve it.

We forgive because

Christ forgave us when we didn't deserve it.

THE RECORD PLAYER

Here's another one that could work beautifully with an older crowd.

Some of you remember sitting around the house listening to records.

You'd put the needle down...

and if there was a scratch in the record, what happened?

It kept repeating the same thing.

Same line.

Same word.

Same sound.

Over and over.

And sometimes our hearts do that.

Someone hurt us.

And every time we think about them, our heart hits the scratch.

They did this.

Scratch.

They said that.

Scratch.

I'll never forget it.

Scratch.

And we keep replaying the same wound.

But forgiveness doesn't mean pretending it didn't happen.

Forgiveness means:

I'm not going to let what happened to me control who I become.

That's freedom.

VI. THE GOSPEL FREES US FROM HAVING TO GET EVEN

Romans 12:19 KJV 1900

19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves...

Why?

Because vengeance belongs to God.

You don't have to settle every score.

You don't have to win every argument.

You don't have to get the last word.

You don't have to make everybody understand your side.

You don't have to make somebody hurt because they hurt you.

THIS MORNING LETS LET GOD BE GOD

vengeance belongs to God.

SO LETS GIVE IT TO HIM

RAY BOLTZ WROTE THIS

That's what this altar is for You don't have to carry Those burdens anymore There's a light in the darkness There's a love that's true And Jesus is waiting He is waiting here for you Go quickly now Before they close the door That's what the altar is for

PRAY

HEAVLY FATHER HELP US THIS MORNING I HAVE BEEN UNMASKED THIS WEEK AS I HAVE STUDIED THIS MESSAAGE,

HELP US TO LOOK AT OURSELVES HONESTLY THIS MORNING .

This morning I want us all to answer one question:

Who is the person you are having trouble forgiving?

Don't say their name out loud.

You already know.

Maybe it's:

* a spouse,

* a child,

* a parent,

* a sibling,

* an old friend,

* somebody from work,

* somebody from church,

* somebody who betrayed you years ago.

And maybe you haven't physically killed them.

But every time you think about them...

**your heart wants them to hurt.**

That's what Jesus is addressing.

Look at the cross.

The same Jesus who says:

“Love your enemies”

is the Jesus who loved **you** when you were His enemy.

He's not asking us to do something He hasn't already done for us.

Ephesians 4:32 KJV 1900

32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

THE ALTER IS OPEN

DISMISSAL PRAYER

Lord I don't know who needed this this morning but I know I certainly did.

I hope we leave here this morning with forgiveness in our hearts,

and lord I hope that we would forgive like you forgave us, because we certainly did not deserve it.

in Jesus Name Amen.