• Our society does not place to much value on human life today do they?
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• Life is such a precious gift. But just cause life is given to us doesn't mean that we can do with it as we please. The Bible commands we are not to take another life, our own life, or even the life of an unborn child.
• We live in probably the most violent period in human history.
• nearly 2 million crimes of violence annually (25,000 murders 30,000 suicides)
• one state has legalized assisted suicides
• the medical community is seriuously discussing legalizing euthanasia for the elderly and seriously sick
• abortion rate in America - 1.6 million per year (778,192 Americans died in WW1, WW2, VN, and Iraq combined)
• 32 million babies aborted since Roe v. Wade, Jan. 1973
• Do we value life as much as God does? No.

Let me show you 3 principles of life that spring from the sixth commandment (Ex. 20.13)

Human Life is Sacred

• As Moses is giving these commandments this one is nothing less than God's intent to protect human life.
• Why? Because God has the ultimate plan for human life, not us. He has a plan for individual lives, He has a redemptive plan for each individual life.

Life is the predicate of divine protection

• Ex. 20:13 is a verbal decleration - "no killing" Hebrew ratsach. It is used of killing a personal enemy, but it is also used of killing someone without emnity.
• Why is God so adamant about protecting human life? Gen 1.26-27; Gen. 9.6.
• Each person belongs to God and God alone has the right to determine matters of life and death.
• Casual decisions about abortion, euthanasia, and not providing food for the starving show disregard for the sanctity of human life.

Life is the subject of a diving plan

• Humans think that they are alone responsible for procreation. We quickly forget that it really is all up to Him. No life occurs without his involvment.
• Furthermore He has a plan for every person.
• To indiscriminately terminate life at the beginning, the end, or any point in between is to disregard God's purpose and plan for persons He has created.
• Jer. 1.5 speaks to this.

Life is the object of divine redemption

• Gen. 2.7 says when God had created man he breathed life into him. Then God brought forth Eve from Adam.
• But then death enters the picture and brings death to the human family. Gen 3.19. Death was not part of the original intent.
• But even so, life is still very precious. So precious that God sent his son to die for our very lives.

Human Life is a Sacred Trust to the Individual

• the prohibition of murder means no individual has the right to terminate a life, including his or her own. All decisions made about life, even before the person is born, should take itno account that all life belongs to God.

Life is a miracle God entrusts to every person

• Psalm 139.14 says it best - I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The creation of life is an event beyond mere human capability. It is an event in which God is involved. Everything humans do, is strictly science. Procreation is a scientific process whereby an egg is fertilized and grows and develops. Just like in the animal kingdom, yet do you know what the difference is? A soul, that comes from God alone.

Human life is a gift from God, and each person is a steward of his or her life

• 1 Cor. 6:19
• Life is a gift from God and that life is nothing more than a stewardship for which He will hold each person accountable
• Each person is a steward and will be judged on teh basis of whether we have received the redemptive work in Christ Jesus (John 3:16-18). We will also be judged on teh basis of what we have done with the life God entrusted to us. (2 Cor. 5:10). We will be judged on the stewardship of knowing and doing the will of God (Matt. 25:14-30).

God demands respect for the sancity of human life.

• Murder is not just as we normall think, it can be much more complicated. Jesus talked about the respect we need to have for each other (Matt. 5:21-22).
• Jesus was saying that the loss of respect for life is the root for actual murder.
• We are accountable to God for our actions and our attitudes, our attitudes towards others reveal our attitudes toward God and respect for life.

Human Life is the Sacred Trust of the Community

• Only God has the ultimate control over life and death

The taking of a life is never to be an individual decision

• The sixth commandment was part of the bigger covenant of Israel. This covenant spelled out when a life could be taken (normally if the actions of a person jepordized the welfare of the community).

Preservation of individual lives and the life of the community was the only justifiable reason for the taking of a life. 16 crimes in the Old Testament called for the death penalty: murder, kidnapping, adultery, homosexuality, incest, bestiality, disregarding parents, cursing or striking parents, offering human sacrifice, false prophecy, blashpemy, profaning the Sabbath, sacrificing to false gods, magic and divination, unchastity, rape. Why? THey were threaths to individual lives and welfare and cohesive unity of a the community.

Even though the community has the prerogative of life and death as a trust from God, administration of this responsibility must be done with justice and equity

• In other words, the death penalty can be okay if done rightly. Genocide under the same conditions is wrong. And the perpetrators will be handled by God, even Israel (Jer. 19:5)

Conclusion

• The sixth commandment states that no individual has the right to take the life of another person, it is a gift from God and we need to stop and think how precious this gift is from God.