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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our services this morning here at Faithful Word Baptist Church. Very good to see you all here for our Sunday morning service. Find your seats, please, and take a psalm book. Go to hymn number 56 to get started this morning. Hymn number 56. When we all get to heaven. Hymn number 56. We'll sing it out nice and strong starting on that verse. 56. Hymn number 56. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Hymn number 56. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Sing his mercy and his grace. In the mansion, bright and blessed. He'll bring care for us a place. When we all get to heaven. What a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus. We'll sing and shout the victory. While we walk the hill. Round that plain glass. We'll go over and spread the sky. But when traveling days are over. Not a shadow, not a sign. When we all get to heaven. What a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus. We'll sing and shout the victory. Let us send the true and faithful. Trusting, serving every day. Just one glimpse of heaven and glory. Well, the joys of life today. When we all get to heaven. What a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus. We'll sing and shout the victory. Onward to the Christ before us. Soon His beauty will be whole. Still the early gates will open. We shall spread the streets of God. When we all get to heaven. What a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus. We'll sing and shout the victory. Amen. That's a good start to our singing this morning. We want to go before the Lord and ask for his blessing on this service. I ask for the next Macintosh if you please. Thank you for allowing us to be gathered here this morning. We pray that you would bless this singing and fill Pastor Anderson with the power of your Holy Spirit as he preaches to us later. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Number 43 begins, come we that love the Lord. And let our joys be known. That means you have to sing it out with me this morning. Number 43. Him number 43. Sing it out now. Come we that love the Lord. And let our joys be known. Join in the song that's sweet of Lord. Join in the song that's sweet of Lord. Join in the song that's sweet of Lord. Join in the song that's sweet of Lord. Join in the song that's sweet of Lord. Join in the song that's sweet of Lord. Join in the song that's sweet of Lord. Join in the song that's sweet of Lord. Join in the song that's sweet of Lord. You are God, but children of the heavenly King. But children of the heavenly King. They speak their joys abroad. They speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching onward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets. Before we reach the heavenly pew. Before we reach the heavenly pew. Or was the golden streams, or was the golden streams? We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching onward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Then let our songs abound and every tear be tried. We're marching through Emmanuel's crown. We're marching through Emmanuel's crown. To fairer worlds on high, to fairer worlds on high. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Thank you for singing. All right. At this time, we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at six. Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study. This week we will be in 2 Chronicles chapter 34. We've got the soul winning times listed there below. As well as salvations and baptisms. Across the page are the birthdays and anniversaries for the month of February. And then on the back we've got the list of expectant ladies. Please pray for them to have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. We've got a baby shower today. All ladies and teenage girls are invited to attend. We'd rather that you leave the kids at home, but nurselings are okay. And food will be provided. And so again, that's at two o'clock. Don't be shy if you don't know Lola. Because again, all ladies and girls are invited to these things. And so we'd love for you to show up and just enjoy some fellowship. Meet some new people. Other upcoming events. February 19th we've got pastor Jonathan Shelley preaching here on Wednesday night. Then next month, March 12th, we've got pastor Corbin Ressel preaching here as well. So those are some special Wednesday nights. Mark the calendar for those. And then of course we've got the mission strip coming up in March. That is about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. We're going to do the answer in front of your hymnal with Psalm 126. If you don't have an answer, please raise your hand. You'll receive one. And we'll sing it on that verse together. When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion. Psalm 126. When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion. We were like that, that dream. That was our mouth filled with laughter. We were like that, that dream. That was our mouth filled with laughter. We were like that, that dream. That was our mouth filled with laughter. We were like that, that dream. That dream. That was our mouth filled with laughter. And our dog was singing. Then said they among the heat. Then the Lord had done great things for them. The Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity. Oh, Lord. As the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall ring. Oh, Lord. As the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Then said they among the heat. Then the Lord had done great things for them. The Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad. He that goeth forth and cleaveth. Bearing flesh to see. Shout doubtless, Come again. Shout doubtless, Come again. Shout doubtless, Come again. Shout out, let's come again with rejoicing. When he did, she's with him. There's a day of unbelieving. The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. Whereof we are glad. Amen. Good singing, everybody. Go to hymn number 441, your psalm looks now number 441. Keep up the good singing. We'll sing great is thy faithfulness. Hymn number 441. 441, great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. Hymn number 441. Lift it up now. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not the confessions they failed not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon, and stars and their forces above, Joy with all nature and painful witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Heart and for sin and up whose path in Your hand Thy oh near presence to cheer and to guide, Strength for today and bridal for tomorrow, Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. All right, at this time, we'll quickly pass our offering plates. As the plates go around, let's turn in our Bibles to Numbers chapter 35. Numbers chapter 35, as we always do. We'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Numbers chapter 35, follow along silently with brother Corbin Brock as he reads. Numbers chapter 35. Numbers chapter 35. And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Command the children of Israel that they give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in, and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them. And the cities shall they have to dwell in, and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle and for their goods and for all their beasts. And the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city, and outward, a thousand cubits round about. And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side 2,000 cubits, and on the south side 2,000 cubits, and on the west side 2,000 cubits, and on the north side 2,000 cubits, and the cities shall be in the midst, this shall be to them the suburbs of the cities. And among the cities which you shall give unto the Levites there shall be six cities for refuge Which you shall appoint for the manslayer that he may flee thither and to them ye shall add forty and two cities So all the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities them shall you give with their suburbs and The cities which you shall give shall be of the possession of the children of Israel from them that have many you shall give many But from them that have few you shall give few everyone shall give of his cities under the Levites according to his inheritance which he inheriteth and the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them when you become over Jordan into the land of Canaan Then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you that the Slayer may flee thither which killeth any person at unawares and They shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger that the manslayer die not Until he stand before the congregation in judgment and of these cities which he shall give six cities shall you have for refuge? You shall give three cities on this side Jordan and three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan which shall be cities of Refuge these six cities shall be a refuge both for the children of Israel and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them that everyone that killeth any person unawares may flee thither and If he smite him with an instrument of iron so that he died he is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death and If he smite him with throwing a stone wherewith he may die and he died He is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death Or if he smite him with an hand weapon of wood Wherewith he may die and he die he is a murderer the murderer shall be put to death death. The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him, he shall slay him. But if he thrust him of hatred or hurl at him by laying of weight that he die, or in enmity smite him with his hand that he die, he that smote him shall surely be put to death. For he is a murderer, the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him. But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him anything without laying of weight, or with any stone wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it upon him that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm, then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments. And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whither he was fled. And he shall abide in it until the death of the high priest, which is anointed with the holy oil. But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whither he was fled, and the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood, because he should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer shall return into the land of his possession. So these things shall be for a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses. But one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. Moreover, he shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. And he shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land until the death of the priest. So you shall not pollute the land wherein you are, for blood it defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not therefore the land which you shall inhabit, wherein I dwell, for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel. Father in heaven, we thank you for this beautiful day you've given us. We thank you that the Word of God is true and that it endureth forever. We ask now that you would bless Pastor Anderson and give him wisdom and boldness to preach the Word of God unto us. And Lord, may we have ready ears to hear these things and may they sink deeply down into our ears. We ask for your blessing now on all these things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Man, this morning I'm preaching on the subject of murderers, and I'm continuing my series that I started last Sunday on Revelation 21 8. Of course Revelation 21 8 is one of my favorite verses to use out soul winning, and of course it says, but the fearful and the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And the reason that I use this verse out soul winning is because a lot of people think that you'll only go to hell if you've done something really bad like murder or sorcery, but then if we look at some of the other things on that list, they are things that pretty much everybody has been guilty of at one time or another, right? The fearful, being a coward, unbelieving. We've all acted in a way that showed that we lacked faith at one time or another, and of course all liars is pretty much the catch-all that just gets everybody. And so it's a verse that I use a lot out soul winning. I've been going soul winning a lot lately, and I had this verse just kind of drilled into my head from using it so much, and so I decided to just do a series breaking down each item on the list and talking about them, because obviously those of us who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are going to heaven because we've been forgiven of all these things, right? So all our sins are forgiven and forgotten. As far as the East is from the West, so far has God separated us from our sins. We're born again. We have eternal life. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But that being said, we still want to live in such a way that we would be pleasing to God, and if these are a list of things that brings God's wrath upon the unsaved to the point that he would prepare a place for them in hell, then obviously we don't want to do these things that are so repugnant in the eyes of God. We don't want to be fearful. We don't want to be unbelieving. We don't want to be abominable, and we certainly don't want to be murderers, okay? So last Sunday morning I preached on the fearful. Sunday night I preached on the unbelieving, and then Friday night I preached at Anchor Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, and I took the series on the road, and I preached on the abominable, because in the age of the internet it's pretty easy to get caught up if you're that worried about missing that abominable sermon. Well, you know, it wasn't an abominable sermon, but it was a sermon about the abominable. Then you could go back and listen to that online. By the way, we had a great service in Oklahoma City. We had 132 people in attendance, and so it's exciting to be in that kind of service, and, you know, I believe that Pastor Dylan Awes is going to do great things in Oklahoma, and so I'm looking forward to that. But this morning we're going to talk about murderers, right? And this is one that you might just think, oh, I already know everything about this. You know, don't kill people. But, you know, there's a little more to it than that in the Bible, and I think that Numbers chapter 35 is really the best chapter to really delve into the specifics of what constitutes murder, because out of 43 times that the word murder or murderer is used in the Bible, 11 of them are in this one chapter. This is the first mentioned in a King James Bible of the word murder. Obviously we know that Cain murdered Abel, but as far as using the word murder, Numbers 35 is kind of the murder chapter, right? And the first thing that you need to understand is that what the Bible considers murder is what we would call in 2025 America first-degree murder, right? So when the Bible talks about murder, it's talking about what we would specifically call first-degree murder, and what does that mean? It means that it's something that is premeditated, purposeful killing of another person. Now if you would, look at verse 16, and we're going to look at the specifics of what constitutes murder according to the Bible. It says in verse number 16, if he smite him with an instrument of iron so that he die, he is a murderer, the murderer shall be put to death, shall surely be put to death. Verse 17, if he smite him with a throwing stone, right? And obviously the analogy for this today would be shooting a gun, right? You're just throwing the stone a little bit faster. Wherewith he may die and he die, he's a murderer, the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he smite him with a hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die and he die, he is a murderer, the murderer shall surely be put to death. Now this may seem a little bit redundant to you, right? Three verses in a row that are all specifically focusing on the implement that is used, and I think that the idea here that the Word of God is trying to get across is that if someone kills someone with their bare hands, there's a pretty good chance that it wasn't premeditated or that it was an accident, right? You hear about situations where someone just punches someone or just shoves someone and accidentally kills that person. Well, it's very likely that it was an accident, but what the Bible is saying is if you come at someone with a crowbar or a baseball bat or a knife or something like that and you kill them and then, oh whoops, didn't mean to kill them, you know what, that's unlikely because you're assaulting them with what? A deadly weapon. And a lot of these ideas that we have in our modern jurisprudence come from the Bible. They come from Scripture. Unfortunately, we don't follow Scripture as well as we should in our justice system, but there are a lot of things that have still made their way into our justice system, and so assault with a deadly weapon is what we're talking about here. If you're using a baseball bat, if you're using a crowbar, if you're beating someone with something or hurling a projectile at them, then you should understand that that is assault with a deadly weapon, and if you kill someone doing that, then that is murder, okay? Look at verse number 19. It says, the revenger of blood shall himself slay the murderer when he meeteth him. He shall slay him. Now, the idea here is that the murderer, according to Scripture, the person who's guilty of first-degree murder, automatically gets the death penalty. There is no other punishment that is allowed. There's no decision where we go and we have a sentencing hearing and we decide what the punishment is. Only one punishment is acceptable for the murderer, and that punishment is death, which is why there's no hearing needed. The murderer, as soon as the revenger of blood finds him, he just kills him. He just kills him and speedily brings justice to the revenger of blood. Look at verse number 20, by the revenger of blood, I should say. Verse 20, it says, but if he thrust him of hatred or hurled at him by lying of weight, that he die, or an enmity smite him with his hand, that he die, he that smote him shall surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The revenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meet him. Now, this particular Scripture is emphasizing the premeditation aspect of murder in the Bible, and notice that he is smiting him because of enmity. He's doing it in enmity, right? In verse 20, it says he thrust him of hatred. So what are we seeing with the hatred and the enmity? A motive to kill, right? And then it says that he lies in wait for him. That's the premeditation. And so we can see these elements are there. Premeditation, a motive, and killing that person. It could be considered murder even if it's done with the bare hands, but if it's done with a weapon, that even speaks more to the fact that it was premeditated and intent to kill was there. And so that's what the Bible is saying. So murder, first three murder, requires premeditation and or a motive, according to the Bible. Look at verse 22. It says, but if he thrust him suddenly without enmity. So this is what we would call second-degree murder, right? Because first-degree murder is premeditated. You have a motive going in. You plan it. Whereas second-degree murder is what we would call a crime of passion where someone just kind of loses it in the moment and just kills someone on the spur of the moment because they lost their temper. And so that's what it means when it says he thrust him suddenly, meaning, you know, spur of the moment, not lying in wait, didn't hate him in the past, suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him anything without laying of weight, or with any stone wherewith a man may die, seeing him not and cast it upon him. Now we're talking about accidentally killing someone, right? You know, you throw a rock and, oh, I didn't see that you were standing where I was about to throw that rock, and cast it upon him that he die and was not his enemy. No motive, right? Neither sought his harm. Then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments. So what the Bible is saying is that there could be crimes of passion, second-degree murder. Those things need to be dealt with in a court of law, and you have to adjudicate those things and figure out, okay, what's going on here, was this on purpose, was this an accident, what's going to be the punishment, and so forth. Whereas first-degree murder is a foregone conclusion, death penalty. No trial needed. Anybody who is guilty of this is just put to death immediately, okay? Whereas second-degree murder or the accidental killing of someone through negligence, we would call that manslaughter, right? So what are some examples of manslaughter in our modern world? For example, let's say you get in the car and you're driving a hundred miles an hour down the freeway. You're not supposed to be driving a hundred miles an hour down the freeway. You're breaking the law, you're being irresponsible, you're being reckless, you're being negligent, and then let's say you just accidentally kill someone. That's not murder because you didn't go out and set out to kill someone. It's not even second-degree murder because you didn't just in the moment say, I'm going to kill somebody right now, but rather you were doing something wrong and you killed someone accidentally, but you're guilty because you were doing something wrong. You were going a hundred miles an hour, okay? Now let's say you're driving down the road and you're following the speed limit, you're doing everything right, and somebody jumps in front of your car. That's not manslaughter because you weren't doing anything wrong. You're just going about your business, you're driving, and then that person died. That's just called an accident, you know, and if you're doing everything right, people can still accidentally get killed. These things happen, you're not guilty. What are some other examples? Well, let's say, you know, you're just being reckless. Let's say you you drink alcohol or something and then you go operate machinery while you're drunk and then you have some industrial accident and kill someone, right? Again, that's manslaughter because you're operating the machine drunk. Whereas if you were following the rules, operating the machine, doing what you're supposed to do, somebody gets killed, that's just an accident. Does everybody see the difference? But the idea here is that you have human beings, you have judges that are supposed to think about these things, figure things out according to all these judgments. So they've read the Bible, they know what the Word of God says about right and wrong, and then they can sit down and think about these things and decide what's going on in a given situation, okay? But when it comes to first-degree murder, we're not supposed to sit around and think about, you know, how to handle it. It's just, you just kill the guy. That's just what the Bible says. Does everybody understand the difference? Whereas there are other things that are gray areas. And this is why it's important that our justice system does have a human being sitting as a judge, human beings in the jury to be able to, you know, figure out these kind of gray areas and decide what's right and wrong in a given situation according to biblical principles. Because let's face it, the Bible does not spell out every exact situation that you're ever going to run into in your life. And so the idea is that you take the biblical principles that you learn from the examples that are given, and then you apply those to the things that are not mentioned, okay? And this goes for all areas of Bible study. Let's say you want to know what God thinks about marijuana or cocaine or heroin. You know, you're doing a Bible search and you're typing in heroin. Zero hits, you know. Cocaine is zero hits. I guess God just has no opinion. Christian liberty. No, the idea here is that you look at what God says about alcohol and then you extrapolate that out and say, well, this is what God is saying about alcohol. Other mind-altering chemicals and substances are going to be in that same category. And so whatever he's saying about alcohol should also be applied to the use of other drugs, okay? And we can always extrapolate those things out because God can't sit there and spell out every situation you're going to encounter in your life. And so we're constantly in our lives making decisions, and so we need to make those decisions based upon biblical principles. And the best way to do this is to just eat, breathe, and sleep this book, you know, and just really know the Bible. And if you're just living in the Bible and just meditating in God's Word day and night, then when you get hit with situations, you can kind of think about them the way God approaches things and the way God thinks about things because that has become your worldview. And so that's the idea here with second-degree murder and or manslaughter. Okay, so let's go to verse 25. Let's keep moving through this passage. It says, And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of refuge whither he was fled, and he shall abide in it until the death of the high priest which was anointed with the holy oil. Now, there's a lot going on in this verse, but the idea here is that the revenger of blood is some kind of a friend, family member, or just somebody who's interested in putting the murderer to death. Now, if he has committed first-degree murder, then go right ahead and kill him and make things right. But in a situation where it's second-degree murder or manslaughter, well then we need to deliver this guy out of the hand of the revenger of blood because we don't want the revenger of blood to be guilty of murder. If the revenger of blood kills an innocent person, now he's a murderer. Whereas if the revenger of blood kills someone who is guilty, then he is doing the work of God. He is actually doing right. Okay, and so the person who has committed second-degree murder or manslaughter has to go to a place called the city of refuge. So God ordained that there would be these six different cities of refuge in the land of Israel. There would be three on the west side of the Jordan River and three on the east side of the Jordan River. And the idea behind having six of them is that they're easy to get to because if it's too far to get there, you know, this bounty hunter is going to get you before you even get there and get safe and have a chance to state your case. And so the city of refuge is like a neutral ground where, you know, you cannot be punished for murder. Okay, and so if it's found that you did commit first-degree murder, then you're pulled out of the city of refuge and put to death. But if you are in fact only guilty of second-degree or manslaughter, then you end up going to the city of refuge and you have to stay in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Okay, so how long is that? That could be a month or a year or ten years or thirty years. It just depends on how long that sucker stays alive, you know, and you don't know how long that's going to be. Okay, but you have to go there and obviously you say, what? I don't get it. Why? Obviously a lot of these things, in addition to being practical, they also have a spiritual significance, a symbolic significance, and so forth. But they're also very practical and they also make a lot of sense. You know, when the high priest dies, it's just a way of society pushing a reset button every however many years. And obviously it's not random or chance because God is in control. God can keep the high priest alive or God can allow the high priest to die whenever he wants. So whenever God wants to push that reset button, it's going to happen. And the idea here is that, you know, we're not just stacking, you know, just just putting all these people away for life or something. And the other thing is that the city of refuge is much more humane than going to prison because the city of refuge is the closest thing to prison in the Bible. There's no prison in the Bible. And when I say no prison, I mean God in his law, which is very detailed and gives lots of crimes and lots of punishments. God never prescribes anyone to go to prison for any reason. Obviously there are stories in the Bible where he then will put people in prison. Joseph's in prison, Daniel's in prison, whatever. That's not the point. The point is that God never prescribed those things, okay. It's not part of his system. God prescribed that people would be punished either by paying a fine, receiving a beating, or in extreme cases being put to death, okay, for serious crimes. And so this is kind of the closest thing to prison in God's economy, but it's much more humane than prison because it's almost similar to being on house arrest or something, right, where you got the ankle bracelet and can't leave your house. Except it's even better because you're not even confined to your house because you have the run of the whole city. It'd be like if I, let's say, you know, let's just pick a random city and let's just say that the city of, you know, Flagstaff is a city of refuge or something, right. And so, you know, I'm in Phoenix and, you know, I, you know, I get mad and kill somebody or whatever and I, you know, flee to Flagstaff to the city of refuge. It's just like, hey, you can't leave the city limits of Flagstaff until the death of, you know, Donald Trump or something, right. You know, I'm just trying to kind of help you wrap your mind around this. He's not the high priest, folks. Don't take it too literally, all right. People are going to think it's like a Trump cult or something, you know. There is kind of a Trump cult going on, but it's not really here. And so the thing about that is that, you know, you could still function. You could get a job, you get a place to live, you know. It's not necessarily convenient to upend your life and move to this other town. And here's the other thing about the city of refuge. It's not only fugitives that are living there. There are a lot of normal people living there, too. So there's normal people living there and fugitives and you can have a life there. It's inconvenient, but at least you're there. People know where you are. They're kind of keeping an eye on you and whatever and you can live that down and so forth. You know, it's not prison at all. It's, it's a, it's, it's a better system, okay. And you say, well, you know, the Bible's barbaric, beating people's barbaric, but I can turn around and just say that locking someone in a cage is barbaric. And I guarantee you that if we went to the prison and did a questionnaire, who wants to receive a beating and get out of jail? Virtually everyone would take the caning or the whipping or the beating and be released from prison rather than be locked up. I mean, if I had a choice right now to get a severe beating, like, you know, and not something that obviously is breaking your bones and stuff. The whole point of it was to be flogged or to be caned and yeah, it's gonna be bloody, it's gonna be bruises, it's gonna be excruciating, it's gonna, you know, hurt for days and weeks afterward, but then it's over. At least you don't have to lose years of your life and, and be around a bunch of skeevy people in prison and so forth. And so the law of the Lord is perfect, you know, whether it's a beating, paying a fine, exile to the city of refuge temporarily, whatever, this is a superior system to our system. Now look at verse 26. It says, but if the slayer, and this is the person who has committed either second-degree murder or manslaughter, if the slayer at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whither he was fled, and the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer, he should not be guilty of blood, because he should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer shall return into the land of his possession. So these things shall be for a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Now in verse 30, we have just one brief verse about the standard of evidence for murder, right? It says in verse 30, who so killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses, right? So there has to be evidence. There has to be witnesses. One witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. So you have to have two or three witnesses. One witness is not enough. And I do think that in today's world, besides just witnesses, you could also count other things as witnesses, like you could count something like DNA or, you know, surveillance footage or whatever. And, you know, if you have multiple pieces of those evidence and, and, and, uh, they're guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, then obviously they would be put to death in the ancient world. It's mainly going to be eyewitness testimony because they didn't have the forensic laboratories that we have right now. Obviously times change. And so you have to take the principles of the Bible and sort of adapt them to our modern society. Then it says in verse number 31, it says, moreover, you shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death, but he's just surely be put to death. Now what does satisfaction mean in this context? What we're talking about with satisfaction is that you could pay money to get yourself off the hook, right? So like, let's say that I murdered someone and I'm supposed to be put to death, but I say, you know what? Instead, I'm just going to give a quarter million dollars to the family. And then like, I'm going to give you guys a quarter million dollars. You're not going to press charges and we can just sort of forget about the whole thing, you know? Right. The Bible is saying, no, you can't do this in other situations. Sometimes paying someone can make things right. You know, if you've, if you've done some kind of damage to them, if you've, uh, you know, done things like, uh, you know, fornication, you know, possibly even adultery or something, you know, and, and, and you might think like, okay, you know, but then what does the Bible say about adultery and proverbs? Like he doesn't, he doesn't want your money. He's just mad and wants you dead. Right. Uh, that's a paraphrase, but that's from, uh, I think what Proverbs chapter five or so forth, somewhere around that neighborhood of proverbs, right? That, you know, yeah, nobody's going to want to take a satisfaction for that either. But the point is, you know, you, you break someone's stuff, you hurt someone, you cause them to lose a limb or something. You might pay them a payout, right? People, it's like all these billboards you see everywhere. Oh, you got in an accident and you get this $300,000 because you hurt your leg or hurt your arm or whatever, right? In a lot of situations, you know, money can make you feel better about a lot of bad things that have happened to you. But what the Bible is prohibiting here is taking satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death. So there's no paying of a fine or paying a settlement and saying, look, I got lots of money, so here's a million dollars. Shut up and don't worry about it. That's not going to work. The Bible says, no, the murderer must be put to death. That's why it finishes with the statement. He shall surely be put to death. Don't take a satisfaction for the life of a murderer who's guilty of death. Don't take that satisfaction. What does satisfaction mean? You know, like, oh, well this'll satisfy the requirements of the law. God's saying only the blood of the murderer will satisfy justice and nothing else will satisfy justice. And then he also says this in verse 32, you shall take no satisfaction for him that has fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land until the death of the high priest. So he's saying you also cannot pay to get out of the city of refuge early. You know, even if you did second degree murder or manslaughter, you have to stay in that city of refuge until the death of the high priest and you cannot pay money to get out. There's, it's, there's no get out of jail free card when it comes to killing someone. Now the next thing I want you to see in these next few verses are that, you know, allowing murder to go unpunished pollutes an entire nation. It pollutes an entire area. It pollutes the land. And it isn't kind or merciful for you to just allow murder to happen unpunished in the land. It will ultimately cause the entire land to be cursed. And so this is not you being kind or good or benevolent to be soft on crime and to let crime run rampant. And today a lot of times liberals will have this view of being soft on crime and just sort of turning a blind eye to crime. And then you, and then you'll have this, these little cute statements that come along from, uh, people that are burning in hell like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Okay. Who will say things like this, oh, eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. You know, first of all, that's an attack on God's word. It's a mockery of God's word because eye for an eye is a direct quote from God. It's direct quote from the Bible. So eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. This is the logic. And if you've ever talked to people who are against the death penalty, this is the stupid logic that they'll use. They'll, this is what they'll say. They'll say, well, and I've had many conversations throughout my life with people who are against the death penalty. And you'll talk to them and you'll say, well, look, you know, somebody commits murder, they have to be put to death. Here's what the Bible says. And here's what they'll say. They'll say, well, yeah, but here's the problem with that is that now the executioner has to kill them. Now he just committed murder. And then we have to kill the executioner and then whoever killed him has to kill him. And it's just this never ending cycle that everybody dies. It's just, this is foolish because the Bible is crystal clear that the executioner is not a murderer. The executioner, the Bible says, is a minister of God. It literally says in Romans chapter 13, he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. The person who puts to death the guilty criminal, the guilty person who has committed a crime worthy of death is doing the Lord's work. That's what the Bible says. So no, it is not a, you know, eye for an eye leaving the whole world blind. No, no. Basically you knock out someone's eye, we put out your eye and that's it. It stops there. Nobody else has to have their eye put out and no, the whole world isn't blind because the whole stupid thing about, oh, for an eye leaves the whole world blind. The thing that's stupid about that is who here can say, and actually I don't want to have you raise your hand if you have put out someone's eye, just raise your eye, raise your hand. If you've never damaged anyone else's eye to where they had to lose their eye, put up your hand. If you've never knocked out anyone's okay. There's a lot of hands aren't going up. So, okay, wow. You got some rough people here. Just kidding. But the point is, the point is that the vast majority of us have never punched someone in the eye to the point where they lost their eye. So how's the whole world gonna be blind, Marty? You know, it just isn't gonna happen, okay? And so these little cute little statements, uh, they're blasphemous at the end of the day because it's like you're not basing that on the Word of God. You're criticizing the Word of God. And Jesus Christ did not come to destroy the law of the prophets. He came to fulfill. And when he quoted in Matthew 5, eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, he's not saying that those are wrong statements because he started out his sermon by affirming everything in the law of God. All he's saying is that you don't always have to fight back. You can turn the other cheek. You can suffer wrong. You can allow people to defraud you. You can forgive. You can pass over a transgression. This is talking about in your personal life you deciding to forgive people that hurt you. We, when we're the victim, we can always decide to forgive people that hurt us, can't we? Now this never works with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter because you're dead. So you can't be like, I forgive you. You're dead. But the point is that in general if you just start doing the forgiving for everybody else and just saying, oh we're just gonna forgive all these murderers, rapists, and whatever, you're just turning society into just a hellhole. And there are some hellhole countries in this world. There are some failed states. And when we talk about a failed state or, you know, what Donald Trump affectionately referred to as a crap hole country. I'm censoring that just a little bit. When we're talking about those places, those are places where the rule of law is not being enforced, right? I mean think about the the failed states of this world. What do we mean by that? We mean people steal and get away with it, people kill and get away with it, people rape and get away. That's what we mean when we say a failed state, okay? Those are scary places where you would not want to live. I don't know about you, but I love the fact that I can go to bed at night and sleep tight and not worry about anything because I know that we live in a safe country where things are under control and where there aren't just roving bands of marauders and gangs and people just, you know, we know that we're pretty safe. And the chances of something happening are pretty slim, right? And we can walk down the street in the daytime sometimes and some places we can even walk down the street at night and not even think about anything, not worry about anything. Praise God for that kind of safety, but you know you're never going to have that kind of safety without the rule of law, without laws being in place and being enforced. And so this liberal, bleeding-heart mentality of going soft on crime, soft on criminals, you know what it is? It's hard on victims, is what it is. And so you're not being kind, gracious, or merciful, you're being unkind and unmerciful to the victims of these evil perpetrators. And you know these sort of, you know, face-cattooed gang members from MS-13 or whatever, who knows what I'm talking about, MS-13, right? You know, just these evil, murderous gang members, you know, they should all be put to death, you know? And these countries that have these organized cabals and cartels of these kind of people, you know, they should just go to war with them and fix the problem. And here's the thing, I'm all for liberty and the Constitution and everything, but here's the thing, when the crime gets bad enough, nobody cares about that anymore. When the crime gets bad enough, they're just like, kill the bad guys and we don't care how you do it, just fix it. Then when things are safe, then we start talking about, okay, now let's talk about the rule of law and due process and everything like that. But when you're living in a failed state, you got to just kill these suckers and then get things, you know, back to normal and then we can start having a nice civilized system with courtrooms and everything like that. And thank God that's where we're at in America and that's why I'm for the rule of law, you know, I'm for giving people due process and so forth, but that's because I'm not scared to walk down the street and neither are you because we don't live in a failed state. So, but we shouldn't let people turn this into a failed state. And we're already seeing legislation across the country where they'll have things like, oh, you know, you can't prosecute shoplifting. And obviously that's not a big deal compared to murder, but that's where it starts. This thing of, oh, if cars run, if cars run from the police, the police can't chase them. That was a law from, I think, Washington state a few years back. Police aren't allowed to chase anybody. And so then it's just like, I guess now all the normal people are going to pull over and then all the weird criminals are just going to run every time because the police aren't allowed to chase them. And then it's just like, oh, you know, we don't prosecute shoplifters, we don't prosecute theft, we don't prosecute graffiti, we don't prosecute, and it just keeps escalating. Pretty soon you got yourself a violent failed state. And so, you know, we need to have the rule of law, we need to have criminals being punished. And money is not a punishment. Prison is not a punishment for first degree murder. There's only one acceptable punishment, according to God, and it's death. It is death. What verse did we leave off on? Does anybody know? Uh, verse 33, it says, so ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are. For blood it defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not therefore the land which he inhabit wherein I dwell, for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel. Look, if you want God to dwell among you as a people, you cannot be a land that is shedding innocent blood and letting people get away with it. You have to put the murderers to death. You have to execute the murderers in order to have that. And so, yeah, there are, you could point to rare circumstances in the Bible where an individual could be pardoned for murder, but in general, murder must be punished by the death penalty in order for society to function properly. And that is what God has ordained. Okay. And so when you have America today, for example, and we think about the issue with abortion, you know, what is the big issue about abortion? You know, why are Christians so upset about abortion? Why are we so fired up about it? You know, you say, well, it's just, it's just a tiny little baby. It's just a tiny little clump of tissue or whatever they say. But here's the, the problem is that when you have an abortion or when abortions take place in your city, innocent blood is being shed. Human beings are being killed. Human lives are being snuffed out. And the problem with that is that it incurs the wrath of God on the whole land. And, and when society condones it, society becomes complicit in that act of murder. Well, now there's a curse upon our land and it's repugnant in the eyes of God. And that's why we're fired up about abortion because we want to live in a land that's blessed by God. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. And we want God to be among us and blessing us. We don't want to live in a nation where murder goes unpunished and then God's wrath is evident. We don't want that. So now I'm going to get into the more practical part of the sermon. And if you would flip over to 2 Kings chapter 6. So the, the purpose of going through Numbers 35 is just, it's the most detailed passage on murder in general, giving all the nuts and bolts of what it is, what the punishment is, what's the standard of proof, and so on and so forth. But now I want to get into the more practical part, which is reasons why people commit murder. Okay? So I identified three primary reasons why people commit murder. Right? Because one of the best ways to not get involved in sin is to remove yourself a few steps from getting involved in sin. Because the Bible says, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. There's a process that leads up to sinning, right? You don't just go out one day and kill someone. There's a process that leads up to that, isn't there? And there are reasons why people commit murder. And if you can identify these reasons and make sure you don't go down any of these three paths, then you're never going to commit murder. Because you're not going down these three paths. So the first reason why people commit murder, number one, is because of greed. Because of greed, right? The covetous person commits murder because they want to take something that belongs to someone else. Now, there are plenty of examples of this in the Bible. I'm going to read for you some verses while you're getting to 2nd Kings 6. James 4 says, From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? Watch this. You lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. So the Bible talks about people going to war and killing other people because they are greedy of those things that those people possess. They want to take more land, more resources. They want to steal their stuff. You know, Proverbs chapter 1 verse 19. So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. Right? So people that are greedy of gain will take away the life of the owners thereof. And I remember when I was a kid, there would be things on the news about people being killed for their shoes in Sacramento, California. The Air Jordans or whatever expensive shoes. Also the starter jackets. I remember when I was a kid, you know, everybody wanted the starter jacket for the Oakland Raiders. I don't even think that's even a thing anymore. Didn't the Raiders go somewhere else? Las Vegas. What the man? I've been out of the loop for a while apparently. Actually I was never really in the loop. But you know, it's like the Oakland Raiders and you know, you could kind of get by with the San Francisco 49ers. Nobody's going to kill you for that. But if you had the Oakland Raiders, you know, and I remember my parents even seeing this stuff on the news and kind of warning me like, hey, you're not allowed to wear any of this stuff. We don't want you getting jumped and killed for this stuff. So we don't want you wearing these brands because on the TV they're saying it's these shoes, it's these jackets, it's these hats. If you wear these down the street, you know, these gang members will jump you and kill you. What is the motive? Greed. I want those shoes. I want that jacket. I want that hat. And so this is a real life thing. Now look at 2 Kings chapter 6. This is actually the next time murder is mentioned by name in the Bible. Use the word murder in Numbers 35. But then the next time murder pops up, called by that name. Obviously there's a lot of murder in the Bible. But using the word murder is 2 Kings 6 32. It says, but Elisha sat in his house and the elders sat with him and the king sent a man from before him. But Eir, Eir means before, Eir the messenger came to him. He said to the elders, see ye how this son of a murderer had sent to take away my head. Now, who is he talking about when he says this son of a murderer is coming to take away my head? He's talking about the son of Ahab. Ahab and Jezebel, right? And what did Ahab and Jezebel do? They murdered Naboth. And here's the thing that's interesting about that. Number one, they're doing it because of greed. Ahab really wanted that vineyard. And so they killed Naboth to get the vineyard. So what's the motive? Greed. Okay. Motive number one, greed. But not only that, it shows that you can be called a murderer by the word of God, even if you kill someone indirectly. So Ahab and Jezebel weren't actually killing people themselves, but what did they do? They had people bear false witness against Naboth and he was actually put to death through a, you know, he, he received a trial and so it was all legal. Naboth's execution was legal, but they, they're murderers because they lied about him and got him executed and he was not guilty. So bearing false witness leading to violence is an act of violence itself. So if you would turn to Deuteronomy chapter four. Motive number one for murder is greed, right? That's the reason why people commit murder. Greed. Number two motive is hatred, right? Hatred. This is something that the Bible emphasizes about murder. Uh, did I have you turn to Deuteronomy 4? Look at verse 42. It says that the slayer might flee thither. What are we talking about there? Flee where? To the city of refuge, right? Uh, which should kill his neighbor unawares, watch this, and hated him not in time past and that fleeing under one of these cities he might live. And the idea here is that hating him in time past is first degree premeditated murder. Not hating him in time past is second degree or manslaughter. Go to the city of refuge. Go if you would to chapter 19. Chapter 19. Motive number one for murder is greed. Motive number two, hatred. Look at verse number four of chapter 19. And this is the case of the slayer which shall flee thither. Again, we're talking about fleeing to city of refuge that he may live who so killeth his neighbor ignorantly whom he hated not in time past. Verse six, lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer while his heart is hot and overtake him because the way is long and slay him whereas he was not worthy of death in as much as he hated him not in time past. The idea here is that hatred in the past is the key to premeditated murder in these situations, right? Because of the fact that there's a motive of I hate you ergo I'm going to kill you, okay? And of course this is alluded to in the New Testament too, you know, when it says whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, okay? Because hatred in the heart is carried out in murder ultimately. So motive number one is greed. Motive number two is hatred. Now here's the thing, hatred could also cover things like jealousy and revenge, right? Because if you think about it let's say someone has been inappropriate with your wife or maybe you know you wrongfully think that someone was inappropriate with your wife or you just are afraid that someone you know and you just get some idea in your head maybe you're just being paranoid or whatever but if you go out and kill that guy it's because you're mad at that guy you know you hate that guy you want him dead you want that particular person dead whereas stealing the shoes the jacket the hat it's not that you hate that person and want them dead it's really just that you want the stuff it's greed. Ahab didn't just really want Naboth dead he just really wanted that vineyard. You see that? So there's a difference between greed as a motive and hatred as a motive. Hatred could also cover things like revenge, right? Somebody burns you, someone hurts you, slanders you, does evil to you in some way and then you go out and take revenge by murdering that person well then that is under the hatred category isn't it? Because hate in your heart is the desire to go murder someone right so if you want to understand what that is you know that's what we're talking about with this motive of hatred like just oh man I want this guy dead then you go out and kill that person that's the premeditated murder and that is hatred as a motive it could be subcategories of like jealousy revenge you know whatever reason why you hate that innocent person that would cause you to do that but number three and if you would go to second Samuel chapter 12 and again I'm not saying that I'm getting all the motives I just I feel like these are the three biggest motives and you could probably think of another really good motive that I'm missing I just kind of thought of the three biggest ones that we see in real life and that we see in the Bible and the three big ones in my opinion are greed hatred and covering up a crime is another big one right covering up a crime and in fact I'm going to show you how covering up a crime is probably the biggest in fact in America today in 2025 I predict that most murders will be committed to cover up a crime okay so what have we got here second Samuel 12 9 it says wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and has taken his wife to be thy wife and has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon now of course this is the story of David and Bathsheba I don't have time to go into it but the idea here is that David committed adultery with Bathsheba and he kills Uriah to cover up the crime to cover up the crime you know there's no indication necessarily that David is just dying to have Bathsheba as his wife you know he committed he wanted to commit that sin with her he did commit that sin with her but what's the purpose of murder is it greed not necessarily is it hatred for Uriah Uriah is actually a great guy that he likes Uriah he doesn't want to kill Uriah why does he kill it he kills Uriah because he's trying to cover up a crime he wants to get away with committing adultery so by killing Uriah and marrying Bathsheba he can cover up the crime and no one will know that he committed adultery with her because look he was gonna get busted because she was pregnant but by killing Uriah he can cover this up so murder is committed to cover up a crime and here's why I say that most murders are committed to cover up a crime because abortion falls under this category nobody's going down to the abortion clinic and saying oh man I just really hate this baby the baby hasn't even done them dirty yet the baby hasn't done anything and abortion could really fall under two categories right of our three big motives greed hatred and covering up a crime it could either be the greed category because here's how abortion would be committed as an act of greed is well because you know I'm not done living my life yet I want to spend my money on having fun I want to have more money more resources and guess what we all know having children is expensive it takes our resources it takes our time it takes our money and so people say oh I'm gonna go have an abortion because I'm greedy of those resources and I'm not willing to share them with my child I want to keep all the money and the time and everything for me being selfish that is the greed motive for murder but then also abortion is often to cover up a crime because why do women get abortions often because of the fact that they've committed fornication and they don't want to get busted that they committed fornication so they go out and have an abortion to cover up the crime now look fornication is wicked and evil and you know what if you go out and fornicate and get pregnant out of wedlock you ought to be ashamed of yourself it is a shameful thing and you know what you ought to be chastised for that and you ought to be shamed for that we're not going to congratulate you on your bastard but at the same time you if you've done that you must face those consequences and don't commit murder to cover that up oh I don't want to face the shame and consequences of you know getting pregnant out of wedlock so I'm just gonna go have an abortion you are adding a huge crime fornication is already bad now you're adding murder you think God's gonna bless that and if you do that you know what you're showing is that you have more fear of being embarrassed or shamed or humiliated than you have of God in heaven you ought to be much more scared of God and the consequences of being a murderer and just oh I don't want people to think ill of me ergo I'm gonna go out and kill someone first of all what happens when people find out that you killed your baby that's gonna be shameful too you should be sure your sin will find you out but even if you never get caught God knows that you killed your baby and God's gonna punch you know look if you've already had an abortion in the past sorry you committed murder in the past now look I'm not here to beat up on you or hate on you because you know what hopefully after you did that hopefully you repented of that you're sorry you've made your peace with God you're never gonna do it again obviously all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men and you know obviously we can be forgiven of our sins and I'm not trying to hang something over your head from five years ago ten years ago fifteen years ago but you know what if you're saying well I did it and it was fine then I don't forgive you and neither you know what I mean and if if you're just saying oh well well I had an abortion and it was the right thing to do well then you're wicked and God's gonna punish you severely for that on this earth but look if you're if you did that if you had an abortion and you're sorry and you've repented and you're not gonna do it again then you know what hey I forgive you and so does every other you know godly Christian forgive you and you can move on and live a good godly Christian life okay but I'm telling you do not go out and commit the heinous sin of murder to cover your crime of fornication and obviously here's another big one is that people will have an abortion because they're trying to cover up an even worse crime which is a adultery you know woman goes out commits adultery gets pregnant with some other dude's baby oh I don't want to ruin my family oh I don't you know it's like look you already screwed up you should have thought about that before playing the whore and going out and committing adultery you should have thought about that now you're gonna have to face the consequences of having this baby because it is never right for you to murder your baby it just isn't okay and you know what committing murder to cover up a crime we could also take it beyond abortion and think about all kinds of situations where you know someone is maybe in the process of stealing or robbing somebody walks in on them and then BAM you know they have to shoot someone basically to get away from stealing or whatever they're doing right so if you got caught you know and flagrante delicto or something you know you get in trouble for doing something and then you kill the witnesses or something right so that's another time that this could come into play where people are committing murder to cover up a crime or you know somebody knows too much you know this is sort of like when the Clintons are suiciding people you know what's the motive they don't necessarily hate those people they're not greedy of what those people have but rather those people are suicided because they know too much and they're being killed to cover up a crime you know Epstein didn't kill himself or whatever and so it's funny there's this guy there was this meme that was going around or not I don't think meme is the right word there's like a graphic that was going around many years ago and it was talking about this guy named Victor Thorne who had died suspiciously and this graphic was going around saying hey these are people who like expose the Clintons who died suspiciously you know the supposedly committed suicide but they were probably like suicided and one of them was this guy named Victor Thorne and for some reason whoever made this graphic they put my face as Victor Thorne and the reason why and the reason why this happened was because I guess there just weren't a lot of pictures of Victor Thorne online and what happened I had I had brought up or talked about a book by Victor Thorne and I was talking about Victor Thorne so somebody just went on Google Images typed in Victor Thorne and then my face popped up just because I had talked about Victor and they just saw and they're just like this must be Victor Thorne and so and I mean I'm talking this graphic was viewed by like millions of people like this was a really popular graphic that was being shared it was like a viral graphic and so I have like just tons of people for months mentioning me like hey I hear you died and like you know I saw I saw that you died recently I'm sorry you committed suicide ha ha you know because there's just this graphic and so this day I think that graphic still floating around you know I I'm not living a double life as Victor Thorne okay Victor Thorne is a totally different guy and you know yeah I don't know if he killed himself or if he was murdered but if he was murdered then the motive was what covering up a crime that was the motive and so those are the three big ones that I came up with and so here's the conclusion of the sermon I mean the moral of the sermon is pretty simple don't murder anyone kids okay don't murder anyone and it might seem a little bit simple but guess what people do it people commit murder you know and it's funny I learned one thing as a pastor I'm in my 20th year of pastoring now here's what I've learned preach against every sin because people do everything and sometimes you think like oh surely I don't have to preach against drugs nobody's on drugs surely I don't have to preach against pornography nobody's watching pornography you know surely I don't have to I mean you name it it's happening okay and so you know this is one of those things where sometimes you kind of feel like man why am I preaching this or something I preach a sermon one time called suicide and while I was preaching the sermon I was thinking like why am I preaching on this and then I had a guy walk up to me after the service and say he was a first-time visitor and say thank you so much I really needed that sermon I just attempted suicide like a month and a half ago and I really needed to hear the sermon then I had people email me and say thank you for that sermon on suicide that helped me then I heard about you know someone committing suicide that I kind of vaguely knew and I was like what in the world I guess I did need to preach that sermon and so if it's in the Bible we need to preach it and so the moral of the sermon is simple don't commit murder but I'm gonna take it a step further and say that you know ultimately murder proceeds from the heart and what did Jesus say from within out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications and murders these things come from within the heart and so my advice to you today is that the best way not to commit murder is not to have a reason to commit murder so don't go down either of these three roads in your mind right do not go down these paths of number one greed don't be greedy be content with what you have you're not gonna be killing people to steal their stuff if you're content with what you have now you're a couple steps removed from murdering someone right whereas if you're already super greedy and just lusting after money now you're just one step away from well you know what I can just you know smother grandma for the inheritance or something you know what I mean because you know because you're already right there because you're already just obsessed with money and you know she's got all that you know and yeah but if you're not greedy you're not even gonna be close to doing something like that right sorry for the crude illustration but number two hatred hatred do not avenge yourself right because again most of the hatred category is some kind of a vindictive vengeful I'm gonna get back at that person who's done what does the Bible say love your enemies dearly beloved of veins not yourselves but rather give place under wrath right put off wrath put off anger for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay sayeth the Lord and the number three covering a crime don't commit the crime you're not gonna need to cover up fornication if you didn't commit fornication you're not gonna need to cover up adultery if you don't commit adultery and obviously fornication adultery often lead to death in one form or another and so don't commit the crime you don't have to cover the crime don't be greedy and you're not gonna be killing people because of greed do not avenge yourself and be vindictive and hateful toward those who've wronged you let it go pray to the Lord let the Lord deal with it then you're not gonna be just on the verge of just you know you're not just gonna be sitting there loading the gun and thinking about it and everything you know cuz like I said these things don't just happen immediately typically you know you hate them in time past and then that culminates in murder so children do not commit murder amen let's fire it's another word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word and Lord God please help us to live lives that would honor and glorify you thank you so much that the sins that we have committed are forgiven and forgotten thank you so much for salvation through Christ but Lord those of us who are saved help us to live a life that is honoring and glorifying to you help us never to commit murder and Lord help us not to even have these things in our heart that would even lead us down that road and in Jesus name we pray amen amen all right ladies gentlemen take your hymnals please go to him 303 will be dismissed and singing 303 my faith looks up to the hymn number three hundred and three three hundred and three lift it up on that first now my faith Oh all my guilt away they To my fainting heart, my zeal inspire, As thou hast died for me, home in my love to be, Pure, warm, and changed, I see a living light. When life's dark fates I tread, And dreams around me spread, Be thou my guide. In darkness turned to day, While sorrow steers away, Nor let me ever stray from thee aside. When death's night spreads in dream, When death's cold solids stream, Shall we roam? Blessed Savior then in love, Fear and distrust renew, Oh, bear me safe above, The presence of soul. Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching!