A Time To Be Born A Time To Die
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
1 Peter 4:10
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
2 Timothy 4:3-4
“The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
Please open your Bibles to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Pastor Karenlee and I like to watch courtroom dramas like the old Matlock or Law and Order TV shows.
In the courtroom there is a sequence of events:
- Opening statements are made by the attorneys
- Witnesses questioned and cross examined
- Objections are made if something is out of order
- Evidence is introduced
- Closing arguments are made by the attorneys
- Judge or Jury deliberates
- Verdict is pronounced
- Sentencing (if necessary)
What happens if order is not maintained? Chaos ensues!
Instead of justice being served there is injustice.
With that in mind let’s read: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
(Prayer for help)
Today has been chosen as Sanctity of Human life Sunday.
I am not sure who or what group chose the third Sunday of January to be Sanctity of Life Sunday each year but sometimes we need reminders to help us remember important issues.
Often sanctity of life focuses only on the abortion issue which is epidemic around the world and in the USA.
But we cannot forget the sanctity of all human life at any stage and at any age.
Let’s look at a couple of phrases from today’s Scripture that deal with life.
Ecclesiastes 3:2a, 3a, 8b
“a time to be born and a time to die”, “a time to kill and a time to heal”, and, “a time for war and a time for peace.”
All of these have to do with life and death …
- We are born into life
- Healing maintains life
- Peace preserves life that would be lost in war
- Dying is the natural end of what begins at birth
- Killing eliminates the option of healing
- War in inevitably takes lives that would not have been taken in peace
Birth, healing, peace is God’s plan
Natural death is in place because of sin and will remain until we are raised in the great resurrection
Killing and murder are the results of the chaos that comes from not following the Lord’s plan.
So let’s look at, “A Time To Be Born and A Time To Die”
These are things that should happen naturally and should be under the watchful eyes of the Lord.
What is the Lord’s plan for “A Time To Be Born”?
Man and woman meet, fall in love, get married and have children.
That is God’s order. That is His plan.
In His perfect plan …
A man gives his life to love and serve Jesus as Lord and Savior
A woman gives her life to love and serve Jesus as her Lord and Savior
The life of the man is sacred in God’s sight
The life of the woman is sacred in God’s sight
The marriage of the man and the woman is sacred in God’s sight
The sexual union of the man and his wife is sacred in God’s sight
The children who are a product of that union are sacred in God’s sight
It is natural
It is directed with and in harmony with God
It is God’s plan and it works because it is ordered by God
What happens when you take that order and mix it up? Chaos!
What is it that pressures people into seeking abortions?
There are a lot of reasons and I was doing some research to find what the most often used reasons are but they were too saddening to list.
Inevitably, though, the reasons ultimately were because God’s order and God’s plan for godly marriage and the procreation of children was not being followed.
The sadness of this makes me feel like weeping. I was watching a video on how to use an over the counter abortion pill that can be used up to the tenth week of pregnancy. As the woman narrated the video in a gentle, caring voice she spoke about “your early options for abortion and asked the question, “what’s involved in ending an early pregnancy?” Later they asked, “Not ready to be pregnant? There are two ways to end your early pregnancy.”
Do you see the confusion? Do you hear the double-speak?
We clearly understand the necessity of God’s order, right?
Do you plant your tomatoes outside in November?
What would the results be?
Do you stare at the sun without some kind of eye protection? Result?
Do you drive a car at the age of three? What would the result be?
You can see that abortion is a symptom of the chaos that is a result of not following God’s plan for the continuation of humanity.
What about the other part of the phrase, “A time to be born and a time to die?”
Hebrews 9:27 NASB says,
“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment …”
The death of these bodies of flesh is the natural end of our mortal existence here on earth.
On September 1, 2014 the Daily Mail reported that, “A company is charging people more than $200,000 to be frozen after they die, and the chance to be brought back to life by future technologies.”
Is this earthly life what we should be longing to protect at any cost?
In 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 the Apostle Paul states,
“Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
If Paul was alive on earth now I can guarantee that he would not be paying $200,000 to be a fan of cryopreservation or cryonics!
Cryopreservation is yet another case of the chaos that comes from not following the plan of the Lord for life in this world.
Natural death, on the other hand, is God’s plan.
Immortality was His original plan but we messed that up with sin.
Now, if we remember that we are thinking about the sanctity of human life today we need to remember that there is another phrase in Ecclesiastes 3 regarding death …
Ecclesiastes 3:3 says,
“A time to kill and a time to heal …”
First, when is killing NOT allowed?
Exodus 20:13 says,
“You shall not murder.”
Murder is essentially an aborting a person after they are born.
If a person who is 100 years old is murdered, the murderer aborts the rest of that person’s life.
Murder is explicitly prohibited in Scripture over and over again.
So, if murder is killing, why does Ecclesiastes 3:3 say that there is a time to kill?
What about capital punishment or the death penalty?
First we need to realize that there is a difference between what is in Scripture about an individual putting someone to death (murder) and the government putting someone to death (the death penalty.)
The command to individual persons throughout the Bible is, “Thou shall not murder!”
(We are not talking here about cases of self-defense)
Isn’t killing by the government just murder by the government?
Isn’t human life sacred and not to be taken by anyone at any stage for any reason?
Political correctness says that the death penalty is the same as murder.
What does the Word of God say?
In Exodus 21:12-14 we see …
“Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death. However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place I will designate. But if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately, that person is to be taken from my altar and put to death.”
Here Yahweh, The LORD God of Israel, is making a distinction between murder and manslaughter.
The Lord gives explicit instructions regarding capital punishment in Deuteronomy 17.
- The death penalty cannot be imposed with only one eye witness
- There must be at least two or three eye witnesses
- The penalty is executed by the “people” and not by an individual
In Romans 13:4 it says,
“For the one in authority (the government) is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”
When it says that “rulers … bear the sword” it is speaking specifically that the government has the right and even the duty of the government to carry out capital punishment or the death penalty.
Quote from GotQuestions.org
“How should a Christian view the death penalty? First, we must remember that God has instituted capital punishment in His Word; therefore, it would be presumptuous of us to think that we could institute a higher standard. God has the highest standard of any being; He is perfect. This standard applies not only to us but to Himself. Therefore, He loves to an infinite degree, and He has mercy to an infinite degree. We also see that He has wrath to an infinite degree, and it is all maintained in a perfect balance.”
So, what does all of this have to do with the sanctity of human life?
Human life is sacred in the eyes of the Lord.
When human life is not considered to be sacred in the hearts of humans chaos occurs.
The people who will angrily march in the streets promoting abortion are the very same people who will angrily march in the streets to protect the lives of mass murderers.
We should have no problem being filled with sorrow over a person who has been murdered. That person’s life was sacred in the sight of God.
We have no problem being filled with sorrow over the taking of the life of an unborn baby. That baby’s life was sacred in the sight of the Lord.
And, we as Christians, should also have no problem being filled with sorrow over a life that is so destroyed by sin that God’s justice demands that they be put to death. And even in that case our hope is that they come to know the forgiveness of sin that is found by faith in Jesus before they are put to death.
Human life is sacred in God’s eyes.
Our immortal souls are just as sacred in the eyes of the Lord and that is why the Perfect Lamb of God gave His life so that we might have eternal life.
Final comments and prayer.
