The Value of One Life
Intro: 1857 U.S. Supreme Court made a decision that today looks pretty ridiculous. 7 of 9 Justices decided that a black slave named Dred Scott was nothing more than the property of his owner – thus he had no rights as a citizen and no protection under the law.
Justice Taney said, Negroes – slave or free – were not included and were not intended to be included in the category of citizen as the word was used in the Constitution.
Today, after a civil war, after civil rights, and after thousands of inappropriate actions, this atrocity has been corrected and all men – no matter what the color of their skin are viewed as equal by the Constitution.
Truth: 29 years ago, on January 22, 1973, The Supreme Court made another incredibly poor decision. The Court struck down the abortion laws in all 50 states deciding that a woman’s right to privacy gives her the right to abort her unborn child. In the Court’s opinion, they determined that the unborn child was not a person as defined by the Constitution and was therefore not entitled to or guaranteed the right to life. Instead, the baby was nothing more than the property of the mother, to choose, along with her doctor, the whether the child lives or dies.
Irony: In 1972, the Supreme Court amended the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940 authorizing fines up to $500,000 in addition to jail time for destroying an unborn eagle in it’s egg.
Irony: Today, in all 50 states, if a pregnant women is murdered, the suspect will be charged with two counts of murder.
Stats: Alan Guttmacher Institute estimates that since 1973 approximately 41 million babies have been aborted in the United States.
That is 20 babies every 20 seconds of every day for 29 years or 12% of America’s current population.
Guttmacher reports: 1% Victims of rape or incest
1% Fetal defects
4% Mother’s life endangered
66% Financial instability
76% Interference with life
Truth: The greatest human tragedies – nothing compares to it – not even war: Counting all of America’s wars from 1775 to present we have lost only 1.1 million Americans.
Hitler’s Holocaust claimed only 6 million lives.
Point: The Abortion procedure is a modern day holocaust
Trans: Some of you may have had an abortion, and most of us have been touched by it in some way. God can and does forgive. His grace and mercy are complete and sustaining.
I 3 Biblical Reasons Why Abortion is Wrong
A God sees each unborn child as a person
1 Created in God’s image Gen 1:26-28
Verse: 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 man; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”
Idea: We are in His likeness – Body, soul, and spirit. Intentionally created for a relationship with God.
2 Fearfully and wonderfully made Ps. 139:13-16
Verse: 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.
Idea: Created by God – While God uses a natural process – no life comes into being without the touch of God. And God neither makes mistakes nor does He make junk. All life is miraculous. And each life is sacred.
Idea: Knit together – lit. covered me – Hidden away as a treasure until the proper time for you
Idea: Fearfully and wonderfully made
3 Formed in the womb Jer. 1:5
Verse: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
Idea: Formed – created with care – much like a sculptor creates a statue
Idea: Knew – indicates an intimate, experiential knowledge – person to person. All human life, which begins at conception, is precious to God.
B God sees each unborn child as His possession. Ps. 139:13
Idea: Created – lit. to possess one by the reins.
Word: Rein – a reference in Hebrew to the kidneys – which the Hebrews viewed as the seat on all human desire and longing; the most hidden and vital portions of a living soul.
Idea: As the One who authors life, God does not just know every part of me, He possesses me. I am His divine creation. I only have life b/c He breathed life into me.
C God sees each unborn child as purposeful
Idea: All the days ordained for me (Ps. 139:16) – lit. The days of my life have been mapped out in advance beginning with my embryonic members and each stage of my development process.
Idea: God has mapped out a plan for my life. He knows every thing about me – God knows when I lie down and when I stand up. He every thought before it comes to my own mind.
Idea: I set you apart; I appointed you – (Jer. 1:5) – Not only does He know you, but within His sovereignty He has a plan for your life.
Story: Beethovan – Well recognized professor at a world famous medical school proposed to his class an ethical question.
Family history: Mother has TB. Father has syphilis. They have four children. One is blind, one has died, one had TB, and one is deaf. The woman is informed that she is pregnant. The parents come to you and want to know if they should have an abortion. What advice would you give them? Every group advised the parents to have an abortion.
You just killed Beethovan.
II 5 Practical Things Christians Must Do in the Wake of Abortion
A Pray Draw near to God and ask for His intervention
Truth: This is a spiritual problem – and it is foolish to think that we can fight a spiritual battle in our flesh with earthly weapons.
Verse: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power… For or struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph. 6:10,12
B Vote Elect people into office who will promote life.
C Support Other ministries and means to prevent abortion
D Encourage People who are faced with abortion to life.
E Protest Use peaceful, legal means to voice your outrage.
Conclusion:
Quote: May we dare to believe that by the grace of God and the perseverance of His people in prayer and piety and political pressure there could emerge in the coming decades a consensus for life, and that the 21st century could look back on our generation with the same dismay that we look back on the slave laws of this land and on the concentration camps of World War II. Nationwide reformation has happened before – with Wilberforce in England and with Lincohn in America. It can happen again. May God help us and we stand for Him! - John Piper
