Intro: L.R. Agnew, a professor at UCLA Medical School, gave his students this scenario:
"Consider this family history:
• The father has a venereal disease
• The mother has tuberculosis
• They have had 4 children: The first of whom was blind
The second died as an infant
The third is deaf
The fourth has tuberculosis
• The mother is pregnant
• The parents are willing to have an abortion IF YOU,
and their physician, recommend it.
WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST?
Overwhelmingly, the class said they would strongly encourage the mother to have an abortion.
Professor Agnew then said, "Congratulations, You just murdered Beethoven."
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The topic of Abortion, and the larger issue of the Sanctity of Life, are among the most controversial issues of our time.
Every year America aborts 1 1/2 million babies!
On the average, that’s about 4,000 babies a day, or 1 every 20 seconds.
That means in this 80-minute service there will be 240 babies aborted.
The truth is, if we look up "abortion" in the concordance, we will find there aren’t any Bible verses that even contain the word.
However,
What we do find is
• a God who created life
• a God who values life in the womb
• a God who absolutely forbids the taking of innocent life, and
• a God who sent His Son so that all people might have full and abundant life!
Listen to Psalm 139: 13-16
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
I. ALL LIFE IS PRECIOUS
a. God created life and said it was valuable.
Gen. 1:27, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He
him; male and female He created them."
Gen. 2:7, goes on to explain, "The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the
ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."
Life was God’s first gift to us!
b. Because life is valuable to God, It only makes sense that children are valuable to him as well.
Mark 10:14-16, Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder
them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
"… And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them."
Psalm 127:3, says, "Children are a reward from the Lord."
c. We learn further from scripture that children are not suddenly precious to God after they’re born: The unborn are precious to Him as well.
Some time ago I read that not even a geneticist can distinguish between the DNA of a developing embryo and the DNA of a full grown human being.
• At just 21 days- 3 weeks - a baby in the womb has a heartbeat.
• By 40 days - 5 weeks- brainwaves can be detected.
If the absence of brainwaves and heartbeat define death today…
What do their presence in the womb mean?
Listen: 99.999% of all abortions occur after the 7th week.
The invention of "Ultrasound" convinced Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a noted abortionist, that ending life in the womb is nothing short of murder.
Life in the womb is just that . . . It’s LIFE! Life begins at conception.
Jer. 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. . . "
Isa. 44:24 speaks of, "The redeemer who formed you in the womb. . ."
Psalm 139, "You knit me together in my mother’s womb…
You saw my unformed body. . .
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. . ."
Have you ever noticed that what’s inside a mother’s body is a "baby" when it’s wanted---- and it’s a "fetus" when it’s not wanted? What’s the difference?
I’ve never seen a proud mother wearing a maternity top with the word "fetus" on it -- and that arrow pointing down. Have you?
It’s simply a game of semantics that people use to avoid the reality of abortion.
In Luke chapter 1, we read about Mary who was pregnant with Jesus, coming to the home of Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist…
The Bible says, that the baby in Elizabeth’s womb "leaped for joy" when she and Mary greeted one another.
In some miraculous, spiritual way, the baby was rejoicing that the Savior from God had come so close.
Interestingly, the very same Greek word used for "baby" in that text. . . was used in other NT verses -- for a baby outside the womb.
Lk 2:12, 17, Lk 18:15, 2 Tim. 3:15
All life is precious from the moment of conception!
How precious?
Ask that couple who’s childless.
In a typical year, 200,000 couples in America alone seek to adopt an infant;
Only about 25,000 children are put up for adoption.
That’s an 8 - 1 ratio.
Yet 1.6 million babies never make it out of the birth canal alive each year.
ALL OF LIFE IS PRECIOUS!
II. Fragile Life Must Be Protected
a. The harsh reality today is that many lives are in danger.
In the 30 years since the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand, over 39 million children have died. That’s just in America alone!
• 55 million children are aborted every tear world-wide!
Let me put it this way for you:
According to the 1996 world almanac, 27% of pregnancies end in abortion
-- 1 out of every 4--
The Alan Guttmacher Institute, which is the research arm of Planned Parenthood reported that:
only 1% of abortions are performed on those who are victims of rape
1% have fetal abnormalities
4% had a doctor who said their health would worsen if the pregnancy was cont
96% have abortions, to some degree, for the sake of convenience
Dr. Everett Koop, formerly the Surgeon General of the United States, said that during his 35-plus years of practicing medicine,
(quote) "Never once did a case come across my practice where abortion was necessary to [actually] save a mother’s life."
[Swindoll, Sanctity of Human Life, pg 23]
In 1995, Carolyn Havenill got 21 years - life for the murder of a fetus.
Convicted 8 times of drunk driving, she crashed her car into another vehicle which carried a woman 81/2 months pregnant ---- the woman’s unborn baby died.
IF Ms. Havenill had been a doctor, she could have gotten paid for the same result!
Back in June of 1998, Wisconsin Governor, Tommy Thompson, signed a bill into law that will criminalize harming an unborn child -during an assault on the child’s mother.
[PWB 6-26-98]
A mother can even be charged with "fetal abuse" for taking drugs during a pregnancy.
How can it be illegal to abuse a fetus, to assault it, or to unintentionally kill it,. . .
But then to be a "LEGAL, MDICAL PROCEDURE"
When a doctor uses a suction device or a cutting tool
to remove it from the womb - - - one piece at a time?
The harsh reality is that:
The womb is the most dangerous place to be in America or anywhere in the world…and You didn’t have a "choice" in it!
b. What does the Bible say about our responsibility as Christians regarding abortion? WHAT CAN WE DO?
Long before God gave the 10 commandments, he said in Genesis 9:6:
"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God had God made man."
Proverbs 6:17, says that God hates, detests 7 things: included in that list is;
"Hands that shed innocent blood." [NIV] "Hands that murder the innocent" [The Message]
# 6 of the 10 commandments says, "You shall not murder"
Proverbs 24:11, "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
Proverbs 31:8-9, tells us to, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves."
Ronald Reagan once said, "I have noticed that all of those in favor of abortion have already been born."
There is NOT a single Support Group For Unborn Babies - anywhere in this country
There is NOT a political Lobby in Washington comprised of fertilized eggs, Embryos and fetuses.
There is NOT a "Future Babies of America Club" in any of our Highschools
If ever a group couldn’t "speak for themselves," it’s our unborn children!
Therefore,
as a church
as individuals
We must "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves."
The question is: HOW DO WE DO THAT?
The answer is: "Lovingly and Compassionately"
The Bible says, we don’t wage war like the world wages war.
1. We need to pour our resources and volunteers into the Pregnancy Care Centers or Crisis Pregnancy Centers:
Clothes for babies Maternity clothes for pregnant mothers
Baby items
Counselors to volunteer time
2. We need to support the Abstinence programs that the Pregnancy Care Center takes into our Public Schools.
3. We’ve got to reach out to the countless women who have chosen an abortion, and now face
Physical
Emotional, and
Spiritual scars - that seem nearly impossible to handle.
Please listen and Understand me here:
The reason I’ve spoken so forcefully about this subject today is for the benefit of those women who have not yet had to make these painful choices
I’m talking to those who haven’t yet had to decide whether to
abort a baby,
keep a baby, or
put a baby up for adoption.
I’m not trying to beat you up - - if abortion is in your past.
I simply want to keep it out of your future.
I’ve talked with a number of women who have had abortions and later regretted it.
I’ve never spoken to one woman - who considered abortion - chose life - and later regretted that decision.
I’ve never met one yet who said, "I wish I would have had the abortion after all."
1. Life is Precious, and 2. So Fragile, and needs to be protected.
III. New Life is God’s Promise
A. Women who have had abortions suffer tremendous pain.
Anne Speckhard, in her book, Psycho-social Stress Following Abortion, says,
73% of women who have had abortions suffer flashbacks;
81% are preoccupied with the aborted child;
96% later regarded their decision as the "taking of a life"
Botched abortions have caused some women to be infertile,
Others to have physical complications later in life, and still . . .
Others to lose their life altogether.
It’s not a simple,
out-patient surgery,
free of complications,
hardly remembered afterward.
It’s often a Physical and Emotional Travesty!
b. The ONLY hope for healing that these women have --
is the New Life that is found in Christ and Christ alone!
They need
The Forgiveness
The blessed assurance to go onward and forward in life
The cleansing of the heart and soul that only the cleansing blood of Jesus offers.
The Bible promises that God will forgive our wickedness, and remember our sins no more.
We’re told that if we’ll confess our sins. . .
God will forgive us, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That goes for abortion as well as any other transgression!
God will take that sin as far as the east is from the west…And remember it no more!
CONCLUSION:
1. All Life is Precious to God
2. As Christians, we need to do whatever we can to defend and protect life.
That may mean: *peaceful demonstration, *volunteering, *opening our home to a pregnant teenager,
*Voting for candidates who are willing to stand up for life.
*Sharing Christ with those facing crisis pregnancies,
*Praying that men and women around the world would learn to value life as God does.
3. New Life is God’s promise: No matter what we’ve done. No matter how we’ve failed, if we honestly repent and turn to God in Christ- HE WILL FORGIVE!
Charles McCarry has lived an interesting life.
In addition to being the author of The Tears of Autumn and The Last Supper,
He served as Assistant to the Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower cabinet, as well as, worked for the CIA.
However, Charles McCarry almost wasn’t born . . . He explained it this way:
My mother became pregnant with me at the age of 39.
She had nearly died while giving birth to my only sibling.
Her doctor, who believed the second pregnancy was a serious threat to her life
Advised an abortion.
The advice made sense. . . but my mother refused to accept it.
Just before she died -- at age 97 -- I asked her "WHY?"
She replied,
"I wanted to see who your were going to turn out to be."
[letter to the Wall Street Journal, quoted in 2-90 Reader’s Digest]
Every human being deserves the chance to turn out to be… somebody!
Good News!
We have a God who personally created "somebodies"
You are one - and you matter to Him!
He believed in your life so much…that he was willing to give his life for it!
Can you accept that today?
His life - for yours?
His forgiveness - for your sins?
His love - for your sorrow?
His blood - for your cleansing?
