Hands that shed innocent blood
1)
Our world is, in many respects, a violent place.
2) If we turn on the
television, listen to the radio or read a newspaper, we are instantly exposed
to brutality.
a)
At the present time we have soldiers fighting in
b)
Other countries around the world are involved with
conflict.
c)
Murder is a common subject in news casts. There are assaults, robberies, and other
violent crimes.
d)
Many families do not just hear about crime: They experience it.
3)
Their car is taken, their house is robbed, property is
vandalized, or they are mugged.
4)
If people do not personally have this experience, it
may happen to one of their relatives.
5)
Today’s material is based on Prov.
6:19, hands that shed innocent blood.
6)
Hands that shed innocent blood can be dealt with in
several different ways.
a)
My intention is to look at this part of the Proverb
from 3 or maybe four vantage points.
b)
Today I want to look at it from the standpoint of
murder.
c)
Murder is a serious problem in the
7) Between the years of 1980
and 2000, there were a total of 352,000 murders and non negligent
manslaughters.
8)
More than a quarter of a million people were killed in
a 20 year period – a lot of blood was shed.
9)
Some of that blood was innocent.
10) About
half of the 352,000 deaths over the 20 year period I just cited were related to
alcohol.
11) Liquor
is a leading cause in the shedding of innocent blood.
12) Some
Christians have given a very simple answer to why they do not drink alcoholic
beverages.
13) They do not want to support
an industry that makes a beverage that kills hundreds of thousands of people.
14) When
someone is driving drunk and kills a small child, innocent blood is shed.
15) Prov. 6 says God hates that.
16) When
someone uses a gun or other weapon to takes a life, that
is also the shedding of blood.
17) Maybe
the shed blood is not always “innocent,” but taking that life is wrong.
18) As
I said, today we want to think about shedding blood from the perspective of
murder.
19) Our
country pays a lot of attention to the subject of murder.
20) Many
of the leading t.v. programs that people say they
like to watch involve criminal activities.
21) Murder
is one of the featured activities on several prime time shows.
22) A
person is killed and investigators seek to uncover who committed the crime.
a)
Murder is, by no means, something that is new.
b)
Words like “kill” and “murder” are found about 300
times in the Bible.
c)
We remember that Jesus once said, “thou
shall not murder” (Mt. 19:18).
d) If we are familiar with the
Ten Commandments, we will remember that murder was part of the Old Testament
law.
23) Ex.
20:13 says it was wrong to “murder” others.
a)
Some have questioned this particular commandment.
b)
In some parts of the Old Testament we read about
activities that led to the death penalty.
c)
Critics have said, “the Ten
Commandments condemned murder, but people were told to murder.”
d)
Stated another way, “God told His people to do what the
Ten Commandments condemned.”
1)
There is a difference between “murder” and “kill.”
2)
Imagine a police officer who is off duty and he walks
into a convenience store.
3)
If he is in a bad mood, takes out his gun and starts
shooting customers, he is guilty of murder.
4) If he walks into the store,
it is being robbed, the suspect is a serious threat, the
officer may need to shoot.
5)
In this latter case the officer has “killed” a man, but
he has not committed murder.
a)
This is precisely what we find in the Old Testament.
b)
There were cases where people were to be put to death
for very bad things (they were to be killed).
c)
Murder, however, was wrong and this was condemned in
the Ten Commandments.
6)
Murder is so much a part of human history we find it
associated with the first human couple.
a) The world’s first child
(Cain) reached a time when he was old enough to murder his brother, Gen. 4:8.
b)
The first human death on this planet was the result of
murder.
c)
When a funeral is announced we may think a person was
old and perhaps sick.
d)
Whatever happened for Abel’s funeral—the first funeral,
it was for a young man.
e)
Abel was not sick or old.
7)
As the Bible moves from Gen. 4 to Gen. 6, the subject
of murder continues.
8)
Man’s wickedness was “very great” (Gen. 6:5).
9)
It was so bad God said He would destroy man (Gen. 6:7).
a)
Our world often speaks of giving people “second
chances.”
b)
We have seen a law created in recent times
that is referred to as “three strikes.”
c)
A person may get three chances before facing some of
the worst consequences.
d)
Our world speaks of “reforming” people and having
“redemption programs.”
10) Only
rarely is someone so bad that the world says, “He must be put to death.”
11) In
the ancient world things we so bad God said there had to be a new beginning.
12) This
was done; a flood came and there was a world-wide cleansing.
a)
By the time of Gen. 12, the world had returned to many
of its same old ways.
b)
Violence had once again become an issue and this
illustrated in many ways.
c)
Abraham thought Egyptians would murder him (Gen. 12:12)
because he had a pretty wife.
13) Isaac
(Gen. 26:7) also had a pretty wife and he thought he would be killed so others
could have her.
14) The
threat of murder involved many different peoples and strangers, but not limited
to these groups.
15) Joseph’s
brothers were so jealous they talked about murdering him (Gen. 37:20-21).
16) Murders
involved family members as well as people who did know each other.
17) When
we look at these examples we are introduced to stories about adults being
killed.
18) Murder
was also something experienced by children.
a)
Ex. 1:22 says young girls could be kept alive, but baby
boys had to be murdered.
b)
When we look at man’s history, it has often been very
brutal.
c)
Murder, after murder, after murder has been committed
on this planet.
19) Philistines
wanted to murder Samson (Judg. 16:2).
20) Samuel
thought Saul would kill him (1 Sam. 16:1-2).
21) Saul
tried to get his son and servant to kill David (1 Sam. 19:1).
22) David
plotted how to kill Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba
(2 Sam. 11).
23) Solomon
tried to kill Jeroboam (1 Kgs. 11:40).
24) Ahab
wanted a vineyard so his wife had the vineyard owner killed.
a)
Someone might think most of these things were early in
the world’s history.
b)
Sure, it was bad in the earlier years but things got
much better with time.
25) This
is not what we find when we open up the New Testament.
26) In
the New Testament we are introduced to the person of Jesus Christ.
27) Jesus
was the focus of many murder plots.
a)
Listen to Mt. 26:4 – READ
b)
Along with a murderous hatred for Jesus, there was some
hatred for John the Baptist.
c)
John was murdered, Mk. 6.
d)
Herodias did not like his
preaching and schemed to get him killed.
e)
When Christianity began, the murders continued.
f)
Saul of Tarsus consented to the murder of Stephen, Acts
7:58-60.
g)
Later, Paul was targeted for murder (Acts 9:23-24).
28) James
was “killed with the sword” (Acts 12:2).
29) This
problem is so bad Paul listed it as a “work of the flesh” (Gal. 5:21, KJV).
30) When
we think about murder, there are some very practical points, one of which is
this.
a)
Unbelievers often point to the Bible and refer to it as
a “bloody book.”
b)
It is said that religion has bred violence; in the case
of Old Testament religion, things were awful.
c)
Critics argue that man would have been much better off
without religion.
d)
How can there be a just and loving God with all the
deaths found in the scriptures?
e)
I have given proof that that the Bible does have much
to say about murder.
f)
This is only half of the story.
31) Secular
teachers do not tell their students about some well known secular leaders.
32) History
contains names such as Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, and Mao-Tse-Tung.
33) At
least four different and well-known rulers were Marxists.
34) You
may remember Mao, a ruler from 1949 to 1976; under him 70 million Chinese were
killed.
35) This
communist regime sometimes cut their victims into pieces and cooked them.
36) Family
members were forced to eat what was cooked.
37) People
do not often talk about this man and what he did.
38) Some
don’t want to think about what he did.
Others may think such a thing could not be true.
39) It
is true. 70 million people went to their
deaths under this one regime.
a)
If we want to see evil, look at Godless and heathen
rulers like we had in
b)
Bible characters were not always perfect people; no one
questions that fact.
c)
The sins of people in the Bible (the killing) does not
compare with ungodly rulers.
40) It
is estimated that 30 million people perished under Stalin.
41) Another
godless man (Pol Pot) ruled in
42) During
this time a fifth of
43) Today
there is a genocide museum where the S-21 prison once stood.
44) Educators
have told impressionable minds that religion has promoted violence and murder.
45) According
to them, the world would be a better place without religion.
46) This
is simply not true; it is a clever lie that ignores some well established
historical facts.
a)
Liberal teachers and philosophers may have advanced
degrees lining their walls.
b)
Their testimony conflicts with recent and ancient
history.
c)
When people turn their back on God or refuse to follow
Him, murder is a logical consequence.
d)
If people have no respect for God, and a government is
not controlling their every move,
e)
Murder is going to be a major problem in virtually any
nation.
47) Our
world stands up and says “murder is wrong.”
48) Why
is it wrong? We see all types of killing
in the animal world and are not all that bothered by it.
49) One
animal kills another for food, to obtain better shelter, and possibly to obtain
a mate.
50) If
man is nothing but an evolved animal, why not act like our predatory ancestors?
51) The
world has no real answer for that question.
It can only say it is against the law.
52) It
can say it is not a nice way to love, but the animal kingdom says might makes right.
53) If
we are evolved animals, there is no moral code to follow.
54) The
Bible says murder is wrong because man was made in the image of God (Gen. 9:6).
55) Murder
takes away God’s right to control the world.
56) God
is the one who is to be in control of man’s destiny.
57) The
New Testament refers to those who have “gone the way of Cain” (Jude 11).
58) We
expect there will always be people who are guilty of murder because they reject
the scriptures.
59) Eventually
these people will learn that murder is a very serious sin.
60) When
innocent blood is involved, God says He “hates” that.
61) Yet,
even thought God hates this activity, forgiveness is available.