Boldness against Brutality
The A-Z of Boldness
Deuteronomy 18:9-13
"9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. 13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God."
This morning we are continuing with our A-Z of Boldness. The topic we will be discussing is not an easy one , I ask that you will pray that I might be bold in bringing the message this morning. We are on the second letter of our A-Z, that of course being B. B is for Brutaliity. We as christians need to be bold against brutality. Here's where it gets tough. Boldness against the brutality of Abortion. This morning we are going to take a look at how the world thinks about the subject as well as how God thinks about it, and what a christian should think about it. We will be looking at several scriptures this morning, but one will be our basis for God's word today. That scripture is Deuteronomy 18 v9-13. Moses is adressing Israel concerning the pagan practices that they will encounter entering into the land before them. He warns them not to follow after or take part in these practices. We are going to be concentrating on the beginning ov verse 10 this morning as it deals with sacrificing of children.
So, let’s look at this issue in three ways: 1) How the World thinks about abortion. 2) How God thinks about abortion.. and... 3) How the Christian SHOULD think about abortion.
I. HOW THE WORLD THINKS: CONVENIENTLY
First let’s look at what the world thinks. The sanctity of life was an issue as far back as Moses’ time. Israel came out of Egypt to the land of Canaan and found her new neighbors to be of different races and to hold very different religious practices. Deuteronomy 18 introduces us to one of those neighbors, the Ammonites. Now the Ammonites worshiped a God called Molech. Now, according to history, Molech was a large grotesque beast with the body of a man and the head of a bull and the abdomen was hollowed out. This idol worship, as almost all idol worship, involved sexual immorality. But the worship of Molech not only contained sexual immorality but also the sacrifice of children! Under the bull a fire burned until that hollow abdomen glowed with heat. The ancient idolaters would dance and perform sexual activities with several partners in front of this false god. The revelry would intensify until an infant child of one of the participants was thrown alive into the hot abdominal cavity. The child was seared to death, its shrieks of pain drowned out by the feverish beating of drums and the sound of voices involved in sexual ecstasy. The next day when the orgy was over and the mass hysteria had long been quieted and the idol had cooled down the burned remains were taken out of the other side of the idol. That is why the King James translators said in verse 10, "10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, -"Don’t you dare sacrifice your son or daughter in the fire."
Moses warned the Israelites that they were not to participate in that activity because it was detestable to God. The consciences of the pagan Ammonites were so hardened that they sacrificed their own children to intensify their selfish desires. Now, that sounds horrible. But is our world doing much different today? Millions are engaging in every kind of sensual pleasure. Unrestrained sexual activity has resulted in an enormous number of unwanted pregnancies. The answer for those unwanted pregnancies in so many cases is to sacrifice them in the womb and so they are tossed onto the ashes of the abortuary as the gods of convenience, sex and success are worshiped. Listen, over 98% of all the abortions performed today are performed for convenience! Not because the life of the mother is threatened, not because the woman was raped or treated incestuously, but because the pregnancy was inconvenient to their plans.
This is an old survey from 1998 but I'm sure the numbers have not decreased, if anything they are escalating.
Wants to postpone childbearing: 25.5%
Wants no (more) children: 7.9%
Cannot afford a baby: 21.3%
Having a child will disrupt education or job: 10.8%
Has relationship problem or partner does not want pregnancy: 14.1%
Too young; parent(s) or other(s) object to pregnancy: 12.2%
Risk to maternal health: 2.8%
Risk to fetal health: 3.3%
Other: 2.1%
And to make it even more "Molech-worship" like, is the way an unborn baby is aborted. It is interesting to me that having an abortion is called “choice.” And yet those I’ve talked to who have had an abortion never knew the details of what they are choosing. Why wouldn’t any medical professional at least describe the procedure? If you have knee surgeries and an the Doctor explained in detail what was going to happen.. But not in most abortions. The brutality of it is not explained by those who do it, you’ll never read it on a ballot. So, I want to be as sensitive as possible but I think it is important that you know a little about this process.
There are several common ways to abort a pregnancy. One of the newest methods is by using the drug: RU-486. RU-486 is taken after the mother misses her period. It can be used up to the second month of pregnancy. It works by blocking progesterone, a crucial hormone during pregnancy. Without progesterone, the uterine lining does not provide food, fluid and oxygen to the tiny developing baby. The baby cannot survive. A second drug is then given that stimulates the uterus to contract and the baby is expelled.
A more common way is by using a “suction machine” which is 27x more powerful than a domestic vacuum cleaner. This is called “suction aspiration.” A tube is placed within a woman and the suction tears the placenta from the uterus, dismembering the child.
Another is called “Dilation and Curettage” or D & C. The abortionist inserts a looped shaped knife into the mother’s womb and literally cuts the child into pieces.
A mid-trimester method that is used is to insert a saline solution that has a corrosive effect of concentrated salt that literally burns the unborn baby to death. The mother than delivers a dead baby.
And up until November, 2003 when the President signed a law making it illegal, we had “partial-birth” abortion or “Dilation and Extraction.” This is where a child is literally delivered, all except it’s head. Then a knife is inserted into the base of the back of the neck, a suction machine is placed in the hole and into the brain cavity and turned on. Almost unbelievably there are current court cases seeking to overturn the “Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act” that President Bush signed.
Why? How? Well because the world thinks that since the baby in the womb is just a little bit of tissue it’s okay to abort it. But the amount of tissue doesn’t make a person’s worth, the spirit inside the tissue does. But when you see it only as a “fetus” you’re not worried about the spirit or life. And so, since January 22, 1973 when the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand there have been over 53 million abortions. One out of every three pregnancies end in the killing of the unborn baby. More unborn lives have been snuffed out than 10 times the number of Americans lost in all our wars. And yet even from a logical stand-point the world’s reasoning doesn’t make sense. Do you know that in in Florida, that you can go to the beach and be fined $20,000 and be put in prison for a year for taking one Sea Turtle egg from the nest? Florida considers what is growing in those eggs to be worth while and yet in the same state unborn babies in the womb are thought worthless! Does that make sense? But that is the world’s thinking process when it comes to the unborn. It’s all based on convenience, on the fact that the unborn child is simply tissue and therefore if it gets in your way, complicates your life, so, get rid of it.
But, as Christians we know that we are not to think like the world thinks. Col 3:2 - “Set your mind on the things of God, not earthly things.”(NIV) So let us look at:
II. HOW GOD THINKS: PERFECTLY
We know that God is perfect. The Psalmist writes in Psa. 18:30- “As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him."So, instead of the reasoning of the world we must go to the reasoning of the Word. With that in mind, let me say this as clearly as I can as we begin this point. You cannot read scripture without concluding that God considers life to begin at conception not at delivery! Consider with me the following scriptures:
Psalms 139:13 -16 - “13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them..” David says that God already knew him and had ordained his days while he was still in the womb.
Isaiah 49:1 & 5 tell us that God called Isaiah before he was born, he called him in the womb to be his servant. And it’s not just the O.T. In Luke 1:41 it says that John the Baptist was 6 months developed in his mother’s womb when Mary came to visit his mother Elizabeth. Lk 1:44 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb..”
Now, you may say, "I can see that God considers life to begin at conception. But does God recognize any mitigating circumstances?" What about rape? If a girl is violated by a brutal man should she have to bare that child? Now, make no mistake about it, that is a difficult question. But as difficult as it is I don’t think that two wrongs can make a right. Interestingly, these actually acount for less than 3% of all abortions Rape or incest as reasons to legalize abortion are nothing more than emotional smoke screens behind which those profiting from abortions choose to hide."
"What about if a mother’s life is in danger?" Well, I think if there is a choice between the mother’s life and the life of the child in the womb it is probably best to choose the mother because that is the life that is woven with so many other lives. But Dr. C. Everett Coop, former U.S. Surgeon General, wrote, "Protection of the life of the mother for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life. If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arrived that threatened the mother’s health the Dr. will either induce labor or perform a C-section, his intent is to save both the mother and the baby."
“What about when you know you’re going to have a handicapped child?” Can God not use handicaps to His glory? Moses stuttered, Mephibosheth was lame, Bartimaeus was born blind but in each case God used them to show His kindness. The person who could have invented the cure for cancer may have been aborted. A person who may have been the next Billy Graham may have been aborted.
You see, the point is, God considers every life important! He knows the hairs on our head, he knows the sparrow that falls. Don’t let your conscience get hard, every life makes a difference. And what does God say bout a woman’s right to choose? Biblically He says, “I am pro-choice. Every woman has the right to choose to be intimate with a man or not!” You see the choice is not to kill the unborn but whether or not to participate in the practice that might result in conception. Is it any wonder that the Bible teaches that sexual intimacy is to be only reserved for marriage? there is also the choice to continue with sin. Choose to bring that life forth as a blessing or choose to kill that baby because it's not convenient. God says that children are a reward from Him, a heritage to be honored not killed. You say, "Yes, but what about all the unwanted pregnancies in today’s culture. Is it fair to bring an unwanted baby into the world?" In America there is no such thing as an unwanted baby. There are 3 million couples who wait every year unsatisfied for a baby to adopt.
You see, every life matters to God. Whether it’s perfect or deformed! He’s the one that is the author and Creator of life! And when God works for days and weeks to create life what do you think His reaction is when we destroy it? He told the children of Israel, then His chosen people not to imitate the Ammonites because their treatment of infants was detestable to Him. Abortion is detestable to Him now.
God thinks differently then the world thinks....To him every life is precious, and life begins in the womb at conception and is manifested outside the womb at birth.
III. HOW THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD THINK: BIBLICALLY
Well, we know what the world thinks and what God thinks and it’s obvious they are contradictory; what should we think and do? The thinking part of the question is easy in the light of the scriptures. To a Christian, a follower of God’s ways, abortion is WRONG. It is unscriptural and anti-scriptural, it is sin. But what can we do? I mean after all, Biblical thinking on this issue is obviously counter-culture. How can we make a stand without alienating the very people we need to help?
Well, let’s look back at what God wanted the Israelites to do in their cultural environment.
(1) He said in vs:9- “thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. "I.e., Don’t do what the Ammonites do. We are not to imitate the world. Rom. 12:3 tells us not to be “conformed to the patterns of this world..” Don’t have an abortion, don’t counsel someone to have one. And let’s raise our children to know that the only "safe-sex" God recognizes is sex within marriage! I get real tired of people telling our kids that they can have sex as long as its “safe sex” because they are using some sort of contraceptive. That’s the Ammonites way of thinking, not God’s. Do you know that condoms have a 16% failure rate for pregnancy? That’s 1 out of 6.. The same odds as putting a bullet in a gun and playing Russian roulette. But beyond that we as Christians are responsible to teach our children through our words and our examples that they are to be morally pure. sex outside of marriage is sin. There is no safe way to sin!
(2) They were to be blameless within the culture and before the Lord. Vs:13- “ 13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God."Perfect here means blameless. The word blameless comes from the Hebrew here that means to “stand for right.” Matt. 5:14- "14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, F9 but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."...(don’t) light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead put it on a stand for all to see." Captain Lewis after he had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima looked back at that mushroom cloud and said six words, "My God what have we done?" And I don’t know about you but I don’t want to stand before God someday and hear him say, you lived during the years when there were over 50 million babies killed in what they called abortion. What in the world were you doing?" May it at least be said that we stood up for God’s values!
So, what can we do practically to make a difference? Let me close by very briefly making 5 suggestions that you can do as Christians that respect the Sanctity of Life.
1) Repent. If you have had an abortion, if you have counseled someone to have one, or maybe even participated in the operation. Don’t gloss it over don’t pretend because society accepts it or because its legal that it’s okay. 1 Jn 1:9- "If we confess our sins to God, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse from all unrighteousness." David committed adultery and murder and in Psalm 51 he pleaded with God to cleanse him and God did. Please understand that standing for Godly values means offering God’s forgiveness and acceptance to those who wish they could take it all back. Eph. 4:15 tells us we are to speak the truth, but speak it in love. It is quite possible that there are some here who have gone through this. I want you to know today that you are loved, that you have not committed the unpardonable sin. That there is help and we want you to have it. Please, please don’t be so guilt ridden that you turn away from the One who offers to cleanse you from your sin and guilt!
2)Pray. James 5:16- "The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." Pray that this will stop and that we will have opportunities to stop it.
3)Take a stand that is non -violent. Ours is a spiritual fight not a physical. That means we don’t get into fist fights with Pro-Choicers or bomb abortion clinics. We don’t have to become inflammatory, we don’t have to call people murders, we don’t have to get red in the face. 1 Peter 3:15 says be prepared to give a reason for your hope but "always do it with meekness and fear(or reverence)." So, counsel with Scripture. The tendency is to respond to an emotional issue with just emotion. But when you talk to someone say, "I’m opposed to abortion because the Bible says..” Let people know where you stand Scripturally when the topic comes up.
4) Communicate what you can to those who can make the changes. I challenge you to be a one-issue voter. Don’t give someone or any party who stands on a platform that says abortion is permissible. This is NOT a political issue, it is a moral issue. I encourage you to let our current politician know how we feel. Write letters, sign petitions, let them know the way that you want them to represent you on this topic.
5)Help provide positive alternatives. A lot of women get abortions because they don’t any alternatives, they think there is no way out. Someone once said, “The only thing it takes for evil to win, is for good people to do nothing.”
Abortion is not a matter of choice. God considers it as we should brutality against children.
