Fearfully And Wonderfully Made

Introduction:

A. This Tuesday, January 22, 2008, marks the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in our country.

1. Since then untold numbers of babies have been aborted. At a rate of 1.6 million a year, the total would be over 56 million.

2. This is not a topic that I enjoy thinking about or talking about, but it is one that needs to be addressed.

3. I want you to know that even though I have strong convictions about this issue, I also want to communicate with humility and compassion.

4. There very well may be some among us this morning, both men and women, who have had something to do with an abortion.

5. Please understand that my purpose is not to intensify your pain or guilt.

6. I have a feeling that if you could go back and do something different, knowing what you know now, you probably would make a different choice.

B. My purpose today is to educate and motivate.

1. We can get so use to the way things are that we come to accept everything as good and right.

2. I realize that there are many related issues that tend to complicate the central issue.

3. It sounds reasonable to make the point that it is better to abort a baby than to have one born to a person who does not want the baby, or to one who is too young or too poor to raise the baby properly, or to one who is a drug abuser, or a child abuser, or a prostitute or a rape victim.

4. And all of that is true, we would rather not have babies being born to people who have those attitudes or are behaving that way or are in those situations.

5. But none of those things change the central issue – abortion is murder.

6. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

7. Abortion stops a beating heart and ends a person’s life.

C. One thing I know for sure – the issue of abortion evokes strong emotions.

1. Those who approve it vehemently demand their right to privacy and their freedom of choice.

2. Those who oppose it argue that it is the taking of a life and that no society can prosper and be blessed by God who kills their unborn babies.

3. This week, in Washington, D.C., both sides will again try to make their point with massive demonstrations.

4. And I’m sure that during this election year, this issue will be raised as an important issue.

D. Today, I want us to examine the issue of abortion from two vantage points – Revelation and Reason.

I. Arguments from Revelation

A. Regardless of any arguments that can be made about any subject, for the Christian, what God says about it is final.

1. We might come up with 100 reasons why something is right, but if God says it is wrong, then it is wrong.

2. So, when we read our Bibles, what do we find about abortion? What has God said?

3. For starters, the word “abortion” does not appear in the Bible, not in the OT nor the NT.

4. It would be much easier for me this morning, if I could point to a text that said, “Thou shalt not abort a child.” Or the opposite “abortion is nothing. It matters not whether you abort or don’t abort.”

5. But there is no such text. So, what do we find in the Bible?

B. First, We find evidence for the sanctity of human life.

1. We discover that humans are a special creation of God, set apart and above the animals.

2. Genesis 1:26-28 reads, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”

3. Genesis 9:5-6 says, “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.’”

4. In both testaments we find the command, “thou shall not kill (Ex. 20:13; Mt. 5:21).