WEBVTT 1 00:00:16.360 --> 00:00:21.180 As a public service to the religious life of this community and the faith of its people, 2 00:00:21.880 --> 00:00:27.060 we take pleasure in presenting a television feature of the Back to God Hour with the Reverend 3 00:00:27.060 --> 00:00:29.780 Peter Eldersveld in the ministry of the Word of God. 4 00:00:49.800 --> 00:00:55.640 And God spake all these words, saying, Thou shalt not kill. 5 00:00:58.140 --> 00:01:08.480 The cost of living is going up. The cost of life is going down. In fact, life has become very cheap. 6 00:01:10.180 --> 00:01:16.420 We spend millions of dollars on scientific research to preserve life, to extend it, 7 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:21.320 to enrich it, and devoted men and women are working day and night toward that end. 8 00:01:21.320 --> 00:01:26.880 But meanwhile, we are perversely abusing this great gift in every way. 9 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:39.720 The National Safety Council tells us that 96,000 people were killed and 9,600,000 were injured in 10 00:01:39.720 --> 00:01:45.460 accidents in one year, most of which were due to carelessness and recklessness. 11 00:01:46.960 --> 00:01:51.060 Motor vehicles killed over 38,000 people that year. 12 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:59.800 That's four every hour. We spent eight billion seven hundred million dollars to pay for those 13 00:01:59.800 --> 00:02:07.520 accidents. That's an average of two hundred dollars per family. A strange paradox indeed 14 00:02:07.520 --> 00:02:14.620 that it should cost us so much to make life so cheap. And then think of how many people 15 00:02:14.620 --> 00:02:24.140 have been killed in our wars. During the first half of this 20th century, 140 million. World War 16 00:02:24.140 --> 00:02:33.320 II alone cost us 22 million dead and 35 million wounded. And those figures are still mounting 17 00:02:33.320 --> 00:02:43.580 due to the starvation and disease and poverty in the aftermath. And furthermore, consider the 18 00:02:43.880 --> 00:02:49.400 over 50% of the people in this world do not have enough food to sustain life properly. 19 00:02:51.160 --> 00:02:56.420 They simply go to bed hungry every night. And that's not because we don't have enough for all, 20 00:02:56.440 --> 00:03:02.200 but rather because what we have is not fairly distributed. And meanwhile, we are spending 21 00:03:02.200 --> 00:03:08.860 millions of dollars on the machines of destruction, which can only bring us more poverty and hunger. 22 00:03:10.860 --> 00:03:18.860 And then suppose you add to all of that the dreadful loss and waste of life through debauchery and 23 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:26.060 dissipation and all forms of immorality. Think of the human wrecks, not only in our skittles and 24 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:32.540 slums, but in the upper brackets of society where that kind of living can be covered up with a 25 00:03:32.540 --> 00:03:38.420 cloak of respectability. And don't forget to include those who make a profitable business out 26 00:03:38.420 --> 00:03:45.640 of providing the inducements for these victims of vice. And then of course, there is outright 27 00:03:45.640 --> 00:03:54.320 murder itself, one every 40 minutes in this country according to a recent report. And there 28 00:03:54.320 --> 00:04:02.780 are kindred crimes against the life of man, such as kidnapping and rape and assault. Our leaders 29 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:09.100 are beginning to express grave concern about the increase of these crimes. Editors are writing 30 00:04:09.100 --> 00:04:15.120 about it, and criminologists are worried about it. They're telling us that the criminal rate 31 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:28.100 now is one major crime every 22 seconds. Yes, life is cheap. Thou shalt not kill, says God, 32 00:04:28.100 --> 00:04:34.960 but we have found a wide variety of ways to break that commandment, many more besides those I have 33 00:04:34.960 --> 00:04:43.160 mentioned. And what's worse is that we have become accustomed to this horrible waste of life. We are 34 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:51.500 beginning to take it for granted. But perhaps you do not feel guilty. You have never committed any 35 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:59.120 these crimes, and you don't feel responsible directly or indirectly for our wars. Well, 36 00:04:59.180 --> 00:05:04.220 then suppose you listen to these few words from the New Testament. You'll find them in the First 37 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:15.060 Epistle of John chapter 3 and verse 15, where we read, whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. 38 00:05:17.520 --> 00:05:27.540 You see, in the sight of God, we're all in this thing together. Hatred is the root of murder. 39 00:05:29.540 --> 00:05:35.020 It may not have made you a criminal, but it has made you a sinner. Which one of us would 40 00:05:35.020 --> 00:05:39.800 ever dare to say that he has no hatred in his heart and has never had any hatred in his heart 41 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:47.980 for someone else? The God who is love says that every one of us is a murderer at heart. 42 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:56.740 That's a terrible thing to say, isn't it? But it's true. Maybe the sins we have been talking 43 00:05:56.740 --> 00:06:03.320 about and mentioning by name are really only signs of what's wrong with all of us. 44 00:06:05.960 --> 00:06:13.820 Have you ever watched a potter at work with his clay? It's a very delicate art, isn't it? You 45 00:06:13.820 --> 00:06:20.040 marvel at his genius. You wonder how he does it. He takes just a lump of common clay and fashions 46 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:29.420 it into a lovely statue. But now suppose that he could make it live and move and talk. Suppose 47 00:06:29.420 --> 00:06:38.800 the statue would come alive. Well, that's what God did when he made us. Just common clay became 48 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:48.640 a man's well-formed body and into it God breathed his own breath, his own spirit, and man became a 49 00:06:48.640 --> 00:06:58.300 living soul, the Bible says. He made the statue live. It can talk and walk and think and understand. 50 00:06:58.300 --> 00:07:05.720 It can study the stars and till the soil and harness the powers of nature. It can build 51 00:07:05.720 --> 00:07:15.280 skyscrapers and write books and split atoms. And it can even know God. All the ingredients of a 52 00:07:15.280 --> 00:07:21.740 man's body taken together would bring less than a dollar on the pre-inflated market. But with God's 53 00:07:21.890 --> 00:07:27.810 great gift of life, man walks with dignity and dominion in the image of his maker. 54 00:07:30.250 --> 00:07:36.950 You know, when you go to the great art galleries in this world, where they display the treasures 55 00:07:36.950 --> 00:07:43.750 of painting and sculpture, you may study them and examine them and admire them and absorb 56 00:07:43.750 --> 00:07:51.250 their matchless beauty, but you may not mutilate them. In some instances, you even have to look 57 00:07:51.250 --> 00:07:57.290 at them through panes of glass. You may not touch them. The world has nothing but contempt for 58 00:07:57.290 --> 00:08:05.770 people who trample the treasures of art. Soldiers, for example, in times of war who damage and destroy 59 00:08:05.770 --> 00:08:14.210 them and enemies that bomb them deliberately. Well, what do you think God says about people who damage 60 00:08:14.210 --> 00:08:20.670 and destroy the creature of his highest genius, the statue that became the temple of a living 61 00:08:20.670 --> 00:08:33.510 soul of the spirit of God? Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not hate. Life may be cheap to us, 62 00:08:34.570 --> 00:08:42.030 but not to God. And remember, it is the artist himself with whom we will have to reckon if we 63 00:08:42.030 --> 00:08:50.230 ruin his art. Life is a gift of God, a precious gift. Be careful what you do with it. 64 00:08:53.210 --> 00:09:00.150 But you ask, how is it possible for people like us with hate in our hearts to obey this 65 00:09:00.150 --> 00:09:09.190 commandment? How can we appreciate the true value of life and handle it with care? The 66 00:09:09.190 --> 00:09:15.270 treasures of art never mean very much to people who have no feeling for them. And we have certainly 67 00:09:15.270 --> 00:09:22.570 proved, you say, by the way we abuse this treasure that we don't really understand how much it is 68 00:09:22.570 --> 00:09:32.990 worth. Well, there's one place in this world where you must go if you want to see how precious life 69 00:09:32.990 --> 00:09:39.590 really is. You won't find that here on Mount Sinai. This commandment only tells you how much 70 00:09:39.590 --> 00:09:46.170 life was worth when God made it and how we have cheapened it. But if you want to see its true value, 71 00:09:46.690 --> 00:09:53.870 you'll have to go to Mount Calvary where God paid the price to redeem it. The price of the precious 72 00:09:53.870 --> 00:10:05.610 blood of his dear son. For God so loved the world that it cost him, his only begotten son, 73 00:10:05.610 --> 00:10:11.490 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. 74 00:10:14.730 --> 00:10:21.070 There is no other hope, no other real hope, for hateful hearts like ours, whether or not we 75 00:10:21.070 --> 00:10:27.470 actually commit murder. The greatest life that was ever lived was sacrificed on a cross 76 00:10:28.450 --> 00:10:37.070 to save the lives of those who deserve death. In exchange for our hatred, we may have God's love. 77 00:10:38.430 --> 00:10:45.130 For people like us who shed human blood and soak the earth with it, the blood of Christ was shed. 78 00:10:45.990 --> 00:10:54.710 For all those who confess on Mount Sinai, there is pardon on Mount Calvary. And isn't it significant 79 00:10:55.470 --> 00:11:02.350 that the first believer on Mount Calvary, 1900 years ago, the only man who made a public profession 80 00:11:02.350 --> 00:11:08.970 of his faith in that most momentous hour of the world's history, was a murderer on the cross next 81 00:11:08.970 --> 00:11:15.770 to Jesus. His hatred became love when he saw the love of God displayed there. And he cried, 82 00:11:15.770 --> 00:11:19.770 Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 83 00:11:20.810 --> 00:11:27.490 The life of the Son of God was given for a man who had taken the life of another, 84 00:11:28.010 --> 00:11:35.610 and the God who had said once, thou shalt not kill, then said from that cross to a killer, 85 00:11:36.650 --> 00:11:42.170 verily, verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. 86 00:11:43.950 --> 00:11:52.270 That should be good news to people like us with hate in our hearts. If human life means that much 87 00:11:52.270 --> 00:11:59.870 to God, if it is so precious in his sight, if he would go so far to save it, then no matter how 88 00:11:59.870 --> 00:12:09.030 much we have abused it, he can redeem it with his love. If a killer on a cross could be saved 89 00:12:09.030 --> 00:12:15.950 by the Christ of the cross, then there is hope even in murderer's row, 90 00:12:16.770 --> 00:12:22.550 and for all the rest of us who but for the grace of God would be thereto. 91 00:12:26.090 --> 00:12:34.810 It is as though God says to you and to me, here, give me your life such as it is, 92 00:12:34.810 --> 00:12:41.310 and I'll give you mine. Give me your sin and I'll give you my Son. 93 00:12:43.010 --> 00:12:49.690 Give me your hate and I'll give you my love. What more could you ask? 94 00:12:50.830 --> 00:12:57.930 Life everlasting in exchange for the life that is lost. 95 00:13:14.490 --> 00:13:19.030 You may have a printed copy of today's message as well as the others in this series. 96 00:13:19.030 --> 00:13:25.710 If you will send your request to the Back to God Hour, Box 773, Chicago, Illinois, 97 00:13:26.310 --> 00:13:31.030 and if you would like extra copies for distribution to others, we will be happy to send them to you. 98 00:13:32.290 --> 00:13:38.130 Join us again next week, same time and station, for another program of the Back to God Hour 99 00:13:38.130 --> 00:13:41.950 with the Reverend Peter Eldersveld in the Ministry of the Word of God, 100 00:13:42.230 --> 00:13:47.270 presented as a public service to the religious life of this community and the faith of its people.