INTRODUCTION: Illustr. ¡V Man¡¦s recollection of trainloads of Jews headed for Nazi concentration camps that passed by a German church every Sunday.
Sound like us in the United States in 2001? Are we tempted to just ¡§sing a little louder¡¨? Notice it all began with ¡§the attitude that there is such a thing as a life not worthy to be lived.¡¨ That sounds a lot like today¡¦s statistic that up to 90% of expectant parents who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome will abort their baby. Yet, do you know anyone with a Down syndrome child who doesn¡¦t tell you that child is the light of their life, an absolute joy, the most loving person they¡¦ve ever known? A life not worthy to be lived?
What that¡¦s really saying is that God goofed, must¡¦ve been distracted or tired when He created that particular life, maybe not paying real close attention. Is that the way God views the people He creates? Let¡¦s look into Scripture. Because,
PROPOSITION: WE BELIEVE ALL HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED.
EVERY HUMAN BEING IS¡K
I. CREATED TO BEAR HIS IMAGE.
A. Only human beings can fellowship with the Creator. Genesis 1:27 ¡V ¡§God created man in His own image¡K¡¨ Nothing else in creation can have a relationship with God. You don¡¦t see dogs or frogs or monkeys or dolphins or any other living creature worshipping God, building churches or praying. They can¡¦t because they weren¡¦t created that way. From the beginning we were created to know and walk with God. Nothing else God created has that privilege. You and I can know the eternal God ¡V personally! He wants that for us. He made us so we could have fellowship with Him on a daily basis. This relationship is unique among creation.
And the ¡§perfect people,¡¨ the human beings who would seem to be closest to human perfection certainly don¡¦t have an edge in this area of fellowship with the Creator. In fact, many times those who are youngest or weakest often walk closest to God. Perhaps it is their child-like innocence and faith. I would dare say, on this Sanctity of Life Sunday, that many of us could learn a thing or two about a close relationship with God by spending time with those in our society born with Down syndrome, forms of mental retardation and other handicaps. Many times we look on them with pity when in truth, we should pity ourselves because they, in their simplicity, often know God better than we do with all our mental skills intact.
Only human beings can fellowship with the Creator. ¡§And a little child shall lead them.¡¨ ¡V Isaiah 11:6. II Corinthians 12:9 ¡V ¡§My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.¡¨ God taught Paul that he could learn more about Him in his handicap than he could in his strength. If we continue to become a ¡§throw away¡¨ society, disposing of the weak and unwanted among us, we will be throwing away people created in the image of God who teach us valuable lessons about how to see and know God.
B. Only man is crowned by God with glory and majesty. Psalm 8:4-5 ¡V ¡§What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.¡¨ In each of us, at our best, there is the imprint of the Divine. There¡¦s a little bit of God in you! God¡¦s fingerprints are stamped on your life! We are NOT Gods nor do we have divine DNA and yet we are reflections of His image. Sin may have tarnished the original image God intended, but man is still by far the closest living being representing His creator.
When we throw away 1 million babies through abortion every year in America, we¡¦re missing a million reflections of God! We are throwing God¡¦s handiwork into the trash. God only knows the impact those 40 million babies created in the image of God could have made on our society. Only man is crowned by God with glory and majesty. In our arrogance and pride we have tossed aside what God crowned with glory and majesty. 40 million looks at God in the Dumpster! We wouldn¡¦t think of throwing a Picasso into a bonfire but we don¡¦t give it a second thought when we throw God¡¦s greatest work of art into the garbage!
Please Jesus! Touch our hearts and hearts all over America. In a land where we desperately need to see Jesus we keep throwing a million mirrors of your image away each year! Only human beings can fellowship with the Creator. Only man is crowned by God with glory and majesty.
C. Only God should determine life¡¦s beginning and end. Psalm 139:16 ¡V ¡§Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.¡¨
Illustr. ¡V Quote from Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General.
At the other end of life, when loved ones have illnesses diagnosed as terminal and are perhaps in great pain, Christian physicians who view God as the giver and taker of life can become very skilled in pain management to alleviate suffering. Even though the circumstances may not make sense from our perspective, we are never ¡§authorized¡¨ to ¡§play God,¡¨ to usurp the position that is rightfully His. When we cross that line it is disastrous to society. Such is the case in Holland where last November (2000), the lower house of the Dutch Parliament passed a bill that legalized doctor assisted suicide, a practice that had already been recognized since 1993 and carried out years before that.
Family Voice Magazine ¡V Henk Reitsema still cannot fathom the tragedy that robbed his family of their grandfather 4 years ago. His grandfather had contracted non-Hodgkin¡¦s lymphoma, which would have naturally taken his life within a few years. He also developed a painful thrombosis in his leg, so he asked the nursing home physician for help with the pain. Instead, the doctor quietly ordered nurses to administer overdoses of morphine and withhold food and water. Rather than providing healing or comfort, and without consulting Grandfather Reitsema or his loved ones, the doctor aimed to kill. When the family later confronted the Doctor responsible, his response was, ¡§But he was sick! Don¡¦t you understand? I was just helping him out.¡¨
Dutch medical surveys reveal that in three out of four cases where doctors intervened to hasten death, the patient did not give permission. Not long after the incident with Henk¡¦s grandfather, Dutch media began to uncover the tragedy at the nursing home. Henk recalls, ¡§The newspaper reported that they practiced ¡¥bed-rooming¡¦ ¡V making space in the beds from time to time ¡V by putting in what the Dutch call versterving. It¡¦s a sort of humanistic Dutch word for letting somebody starve. It¡¦s an official term that makes active killing of people sound like treatment. When they needed beds for new patients, they would ¡¥clean out¡¦ some beds. Make a checklist, and in a week, ten people would die.¡¨
The same type of thing will happen in America if we keep stepping over the line trying to play God. Citizens in Oregon have already voted to maintain the availability of that very ¡§option.¡¨ WE BELIEVE ALL HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED.
I. CREATED TO BEAR HIS IMAGE.
Only human beings can fellowship with the Creator.
Only man is crowned by God with glory and majesty.
Only God should determine life¡¦s beginning and end.
Psalm 23:4 ¡V ¡§Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.¡¨
II. DEVELOPED ACCORDING TO HIS PLAN.
A. It is DECLARED in His Word.
„h Psalm 139:13-15 ¡V ¡§For you formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother¡¦s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your words and that my soul knows well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed¡K¡¨ These verses describe organ systems being ¡§woven together,¡¨ the ¡§frame¡¨ obviously referring to skeleton, bones, skull which will determine height, build and size. God, the Master Designer did all these things!
„h Luke 1:35 ¡V ¡§The angel answered, ¡¥The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.¡¦¡¨ Here the baby that Mary was to carry is called the ¡§Holy One,¡¨ not a ¡§blob of tissue¡¨ or a ¡§potential¡¨ being.
„h Luke 1:41 ¡V ¡§When Elizabeth heard Mary¡¦s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb¡K¡¨ This was not an action or response performed by ¡§fetal tissue!¡¨ LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION! It is DECLARED in God¡¦s Word and¡K
B. It is VALIDATED by medical science.
To deny this truth, everyone knows you must then be able to give some point in the development of that tissue when it ¡§comes to life!¡¨ Not even supporters of abortion argue any more as to when life begins. Medical science has proven that a baby¡¦s heart is already beating 18-21 days after conception. Brain waves are functioning as early as 40 days after conception. These things have all been clearly shown by use of ultrasound technology. God is at work ¡§knitting together¡¨ a new life inside his/her mother¡¦s body! (Illustr. - Show now famous picture of little Samuel Armas hand reaching out to grasp the doctor¡¦s finger during open fetal spina bifada surgery. His mother was only 21 weeks pregnant!)
Many of you hold in your hand an actual scale model of a living baby as it looks inside its mother¡¦s body at 11-12 weeks old. Isn¡¦t that incredible! You can see its little arms and legs, its head, its eyes, its nose and mouth. It¡¦s a perfect little baby human! What a crime, what a tragedy, what a cruel and inhumane thing it is to think of destroying that perfect little baby inside his/her mother¡¦s body. Three of the proudest days of my life were October 22, 1987, August 9, 1990 and May 4, 1997. On those three days I stood as a proud papa holding my children, Tristin Lynee¡¦, Trevor Wayne and Travis Wayde in my hands, looking down at an absolute miracle from God. But long before I held them in my arms, God had been holding them in the palm of His hand, much like you and I hold that little model of an 11-12 week old baby this morning.
CREATED TO BEAR HIS IMAGE
DEVELOPED ACCORDING TO HIS PLAN.
III. PROTECTED TO FULFILL HIS PURPOSE.
God loves little children ¡V that theme is throughout Scripture. If they¡¦re not protected in the womb, they can¡¦t live to experience that love (at least not in this life. We believe that every aborted baby is in the presence of Jesus!) Even the animal kingdom is fiercely protective of its young! If our children are to be protected after birth, shouldn¡¦t they also receive even more protection ¡¥in utero,¡¦ when they¡¦re even more vulnerable?
We believe God leaves us here on this earth only until His God-ordained purpose for us has been fulfilled. Then God and God alone has the right to carry us from this life to the next.
CONCLUSION: Illustr. ¡V Story about Chuck Swindoll.
