INTRODUCTION:

1. I am going to speak this morning on the subject of capital punishment (the death penalty). While people have been executed for many crimes (rape, treason, kidnapping, cattle rustling and horse stealing, etc.), I want to focus on the death penalty for murder (Genesis 9:6).
2. For many people, capital punishment is a controversial subject, but for those of us who believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, it is not at all controversial (Genesis 9:6).
3. Capital punishment is a divisive political subject. While the majority of Americans support capital punishment, liberal organizations and liberal politicians have been working to abolish it.
4. Many of us recall Governor Mario Cuomo's opposition to capital punishment. Cuomo was supposedly a devout Roman Catholic, and he often referred to his Catholic religion to defend his position.
5. Like most liberal politicians, Cuomo opposed capital punishment but he supported abortion. Somehow his Roman Catholicism didn't get in the way of his pro-abortion politics. This is hypocrisy.
6. Capital punishment is a divisive political issue, and while it touches upon the fields of penology (the study of crime and punishment and prisons, etc.), sociology (the study of social problems in society), law and justice, etc., it is primarily a Biblical subject and that is how we should look at it.

I. THE ORIGIN OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (9:1-7).

1. Adam was the first head of the human race. After the flood, Noah took his place as the second head of the human race.
2. Since Adam was the first head of the human race, we read that God blessed Adam and Eve, and said to them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it..." (Genesis 1:28).
3. And since Noah was the second head of the human race, the LORD gave the same command to Noah and his family (9:1).
4. After the flood, there was to be a new beginning. There was to be a fresh start, full of hope with all of God's blessing (9:1).
5. By comparing Genesis 9:2, 3 with Genesis chapters 1 and 2, we notice that after the flood man was allowed to eat meat.
6. Bible teachers (such as John Phillips) have suggested that after the flood, God instructed man to eat meat in order to protect us against demons. Keep that in mind the next time you are eating a hamburger.
7. It is interesting to note that First Timothy 4:1-3 says that those who command to abstain from meats are teaching "doctrines of devils."
8. So after the flood, there was to be a new beginning. There was to be a fresh start, full of hope, and filled with all of God's blessings (9:1).
9. "Sin had been punished, grace was working, and God was ready to guide and bless those through whom the earth was to be peopled and ruled" (W.H. Griffith Thomas, Genesis).
10. And for the people to be properly governed and ruled, there had to be law and order. Capital punishment is essential for law and order (9:6).
11. Laws have little value, unless there is a punishment for those who violate the laws. Sadly, our society today is becoming increasingly lawless.
12. In order to maintain law and order, and because life is sacred, God instituted the death penalty (9:6). And it has never been repealed or abrogated.
13. Furthermore, because life is sacred, eating blood is prohibited (9:4; cf. Acts 15:20, 29). By the way, these Scriptures have absolutely nothing to do with blood transfusions (as taught by the J.W. cult).
14. Later on, the Bible teaches what the blood symbolizes in atonement. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin (Hebrews 9:22).
15. Leviticus 3:17 says, "It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood."
16. The word "require" is found three times in Genesis 9:5 -- "At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man" (9:5b).
17. The word "require" is also found in this context elsewhere in the Old Testament. When Joseph's brothers felt guilty about the way they mistreated him, Reuben said, "Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required" (Genesis 42:22).
18. When innocent blood is shed, blood will be required (9:5, 6). This great principle of blood for blood is because man was made "in the image of God" (Genesis 9:6).
19. Second Chronicles 25:4 says, "Every man shall die for his own sin."
20. Murder is a grievous sin, and a shocking affront to God our Creator, who made man in His own image and likeness.
21. After establishing the death penalty, once again God exhorted and encouraged mankind to be fruitful (9:7; cf. 1:22, 28; 8:17; 9:1).

II. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT WAS INCORPORATED INTO THE MOSAIC LAW

1. I have heard people say that, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (Exodus 21:24, 25) was the Jewish law and we are no longer bound by it.
2. It is true that, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc." is part of the Mosaic Law and it is true that we are not under the law. However, God instituted capital punishment hundreds of years before the law, and it was later on incorporated into the Mosaic law.
3. It should be noted that Genesis 9:6 established capital punishment for murder only, and this was incorporated into the Mosaic Law. Exodus 21:12 says, "He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death."
4. And we read this statement three times in Numbers 35 -- "the murderer shall surely be put to death" (35:16, 17, 18).
5. We also see this statement repeated several times -- "the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer" (Numbers 35:19-27).
6. However it should be noted that the Mosaic Law required the death penalty for many other crimes besides murder, such as working on the Sabbath (Numbers 35:2), cursing either father or mother (Leviticus 20:9), adultery (Leviticus 20:10), homosexuality (Lev. 20:13), false prophesying (Deuteronomy 13:1-10), practicing a false religion or worshipping idols (Deuteronomy 17:1-7), and other offenses as well.
7. Therefore, when we defend capital punishment we do not do so on the basis of the Mosaic Law but on the basis of Genesis 9:6, which was nearly a thousand years before the LORD gave the law to Moses.
8. Some people insist capital punishment must be wrong because Exodus 20:13 says, "Thou shalt not kill" (the sixth commandment). But this commandment literally means, "Thou shalt not murder."
9. Soldiers and policemen who kill in the line of duty are not guilty of murder. The LORD told the Israelites to kill the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
10. The men who carried out the LORD'S command were instruments of divine judgment. They were not murderers.
11. Remember it was God who ordered Joshua and Israel to execute the death penalty upon Achan (Joshua 7:15).
12. The law of capital punishment was never rescinded.

III. THE NEW TESTAMENT'S TEACHING

1. As Baptists we believe that the New Testament is our final authority. We get our doctrine from the New Testament. Therefore, whatever we learn about capital punishment in the New Testament is very important.
2. And as we study the New Testament we see that capital punishment has never been rescinded.
3. When the apostle Paul stood before Festus, he said, "For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die" (Acts 25:11).
4. Paul certainly believed in capital punishment (cf. Romans 13:1-7). "The sword" in Romans 13:4 refers to the government's right to execute wrongdoers.
5. This sword was worn by the Roman Emperor and his bodyguards.
6. Paul says the executioner is "the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil" (Romans 13:4).
7. Paul wrote, "But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers" (I Timothy 1:8, 9).
8. Paul commended the Old Testament law and the penalties it invoked.
9. The repentant thief also understood the validity of capital punishment. He said to the impenitent thief, "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss" (Luke 23:40, 41).
10. I have heard opponents of capital punishment insist that it was unchristian because Jesus said we are to turn the other cheek. While individual Christians must sometimes turn the other cheek, and suffer loss, etc. this has nothing to do with government's authority and responsibility to execute murderers and other dangerous criminals.
11. The Bible clearly teaches that it is the purpose of government to punish evildoers, and capital punishment is one of the ways this purpose is to be carried out.
12. Furthermore, despite the claims of liberal politicians, capital punishment is a deterrent to crime. Opponents of capital punishment claim that life in prison is a better punishment, but oftentimes these murderers escape from prison, as we saw in the news recently when two murderers escaped from the upstate Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6.
13. Sometimes prisoners kill prison guards or other prisoners. Sometimes they escape and then kill those who testified against them during their trial, or they kill others who they believe helped put them in prison (policeman, prosecuting attorney, judge, etc.).
14. In 2001, a University of California-Santa Barbara freshman named David Attias, who is the son of a Hollywood director, deliberately plowed his car into a group of young adults in Santa Barbara, California, killing four and permanently injuring another before climbing atop his car and declaring himself "the Angel of Death."
15. Charged with murder, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a state mental institution. He was released in 2012, and is now freely walking the streets of California.
16. Prosecutor Paula Waldman warned the court Attias still posed a threat. “It’s not a matter of if he will ever become violent again, but when,” Waldman said at the 2012 hearing to release him.
17. If this maniac kills again, what will the people responsible for his release from prison say to the victims' families?
18. According to the Bible he should have been executed (Gen. 9:6).
19. In 2002, William Tucker wrote an excellent article for The Wall Street Journal, presenting data showing a dramatic correlation between executions and the deterrence of murder.
20. For example, before 1963, most states had capital punishment and used it, and murder rates were low. Tucker wrote, "By the early '60s, however, liberals began arguing that because murder rates were so low the death penalty was no longer needed...Executions ground to a halt until the court abolished them altogether in 1972. Simultaneously, murders skyrocketed."

CONCLUSION:

1. Before we conclude, let me give another reason -- an obvious reason -- why capital punishment is a deterrent. A murderer who is executed never murders again!
2. Besides all this, God says capital punishment is a deterrent, and that should settle it. Deuteronomy 19:20 says, "And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you."
3. Capital punishment is taught all throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. Revelation 13:10 says, "He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword."
4. I mentioned earlier the principle of "blood for blood."
5. When innocent blood is shed, blood will be required (9:5, 6). This great principle of blood for blood is because man was made "in the image of God."
6. I want for us to consider the most important execution of all time. It took place over two thousand years ago on Mount Calvary.
7. From a human standpoint the death penalty executed on Jesus Christ was unjust because He was innocent. Pontius Pilate said, "Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him" (John 19:4).
8. First Peter 2:22 says Christ "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth."
9. Hebrews 9:27 says Christ is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners."
10. So from a human standpoint the death penalty executed on Jesus Christ was unjust, but from God's standpoint it was absolutely necessary (cf. Isaiah 53:4-6, 10; II Corinthians 5:21; I Peter 2:24).
11. If there had been no capital punishment at the time of the cross, there could be no salvation for the sinner today, and all of us assembled here this morning would be eternally lost.
12. Every lost sinner who dies without faith in Christ will suffer an eternal death penalty. The Bible says, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Psalms 9:17).
13. Our Lord said those who leave this world without saving faith "shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matthew 25:46).
14. Revelation 20:15 says, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
15. The Bible says there is an eternal death penalty for those who refuse to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:36).