January 27 AM Sermon
A Proclamation 1494
The Sanctity of Life
Pres. Bush, Jan. , 2002
“Now therefore, I, George W. Bush, Pres. of the U. S. of A., by virtue of the authority vested in me by the constitution & the laws of the U. S., do hereby proclaim Sun. Jan. 20th, 2002 as National Sanctity of Life Day. I call upon all Americans to reflect upon the sanctity of human life. Let us recognize the day with appropriate ceremonies in our homes & places of worship; rededicate ourselves to compassionate service on behalf of the weak & the defenseless; & to reaffirm our commitment to respect the life & dignity of every human being. …Unborn children should be welcomed into life & protected in law.”
A. I’ve not preached on abortion but once or twice in 21 years.
1. One, because I’m preaching to the choir… most of us have convictions commensurate with Bible teaching.
2. & two, because it is such a painful subject.
B. It didn’t fit the sermon schedule & I was not going to do it.
1. But I heard a sermon on radio that prompted me to be urgent…
2. I wish I could play the tape for you.
C. Be assured that if an abortion is in your past, God can forgive or has...
1. But we cannot be silent on the subject.
D. How many abortions in our country since 1973 (Roe v. Wade)? 39 mil.!
1. Oddly, there are approximately 40 mil. between the ages of 1 & 29 that have been born since Roe v. Wade.
a. We have wiped out 50% of the generation.
b. Every time you see one in that age group, know that one also died.
2. This generation knows it exists because of choice. “Mom could have let me be born or she could have killed me. & nobody else cares either way.”
a. We decry the school shootings & wonder how it could happen!
b. It happens because they have been taught that life is a choice & one option is as good as the other.
c. Kids will stop killing kids when parents stop killing kids! & when they are taught that life is important! Every life!
I. Abortion is our holocaust.
A. Germany’s claimed 6 million. Abortion in America? 6 times that many!
1. & it is darkly amusing that the precepts & parameters of the holocaust are identical, blow for blow, with the presuppositions of abortion.
a. Both take place because of a matrix of humanism.
b. Be it Nietzsche & the humanism of Germany or Western humanism & agnosticism in the U.S. Because of it, an act of killing is legalized.
2. The killing in Germany was called the “final solution” to the problem of the Jews that authorized the death camps.
a. Here, it is called “pro-choice”!
b. Both involved “non-persons” — Jews were not considered persons because of their lack of utility...etc. & a child in the womb has been considered a non-person because of his inability to sustain life on his own.
B. How could this happen? There are 6 major fronts or arguments that abortion puts up.
I. Six Arguments of Abortion
A. “The Supreme Court of the U. S. has ruled that a fetus does not have rights under the Constitution.” He (or ‘it’) is not a person!
1. Question is: If I am a person & it is illegal to kill me, why is it legal to kill a child?
a. “Well, he cannot sustain life on his own.”
1] Chris, how long could Emma (a 6-week baby) live without your care? A baby cannot sustain life on his own.
2] My mother-in-law cannot sustain life on her own.
b. “Well, they are born undeveloped.”
1] A lot of people are born undeveloped.
c. “They have no utility; can do nothing.”
1] A lot of old people lose their utility.
2] Many are senile — & still have rights. Worth. Value.
2. Question: Why is a baby in the womb, under development, not a human; but people not in the womb, still under development (& some going down) considered people?
3. What does God say?
a. Psa 119:73 — “Your hands made me & fashioned me;”
b. Psa. 139:13 — “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 4 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works”
1] I am wonderful! The baby in the womb is a craft of God.
c. Job 10:10 —“Did You not pour me out like milk & curdle me like cheese?
1] That’s the embryonic stage of sperm & egg coming together, forming a living being.
2] Then says in v. 11: “Did You not Clothe me with skin & flesh, & knit me together with bones & sinews?”
d. Exo. 21:22ff — “If men struggle with each other & strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage (lit. ‘her fruit comes out’), yet there is no further injury (meaning the child didn’t die), he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, & he shall pay as the judges decide.(note: fined) 23 But if there is any further injury (if you hurt that baby in the womb), then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”
1] God quotes verbatim the “Lex Talionis”- the law of retaliation given to all Jews as their constitutional right to life.
2] We have that same right. Declaration: “...Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness”?
3] God said that child in the womb is a human & he comes under the jurisdiction of law.
4. When women give birth, a million out of a mil. times, it is a human.
a. When a baby is premature we jump. Superhuman efforts are made to save that child. Hospitals sometimes will write it off…
b. If that child is handicapped, we do all we can to take care of him.
c. If there is any problem; we say he has dignity.
d. & if that infant in the womb dies, we bury him. Give him a name. Put it on a tombstone. & I do the funeral. They are people.
5. Hippocratic oath, “I will not give to a woman pessary to produce abortion.”
a. At 2 months a child has fingerprints.
b. At 3rd month (10 weeks) he feels pain.
c. At 20 weeks there is rapid eye movement — he’s dreaming.
d. Film shows a needle being inserted into the womb of a pregnant woman for an abortion. The child recoils. He’s scared! Something is there that shouldn’t be.
B. 2nd Argument: “A Woman Has a Right Over Her Body.”
1. Al Gore thundered that at the Democratic National Convention. Applause drowned him out.
2. Thing is: I agree. But the assumption many make is that the child in the womb is part of her body, not a living person residing in her body.
a. But the child is not her body.
b. The woman has a capability that only God can give. That is to be a vehicle of life.
c. Incidentally, when women have operations & lose body parts, they don’t go thru post-operative trauma support groups. But when they have abortions, they go thru post-operative depression.
d. We don’t counsel appendectomies, or cosmetic surgery… but we do counsel women and men who are victims of abortion.
C. 3rd Argument: “A Woman Has a Right Over Her Life.” Meaning: “I don’t want this burden!”
1. We would agree that a child is an inconvenience. (Chris, is a baby ever inconvenient?)
a. You have to sit up & do some things when a child comes.
b. But does the inconvenience justify death? You won’t buy that!
c. When Susan Smith put her children to death in S. Carolina because of convenience, you were outraged! Selfish reasons of convenience will not stand up in any court of law, or any court of public opinion. She put to death living beings!
2. Listen to all the arguments for abortion & you can only come to one conclusion: it is all rhetoric. And it is rhetorical sleight-of-hand.
a. You can’t fool a child with it. Only an adult! The kid will not see the emperor’s clothes. No matter how you couch it, it is killing a baby.
b. By the way: Fetus is Latin, & Neonate is Greek — for baby.
c. The term “pro-choice” is a softened way of saying “pro-death”.
1] If Al Gore had been handed that speech from a rookie speech writer, & it had said, “I believe the woman has the right to kill the child in her womb,” they would have told him to change it. & he could say, “Aren’t we killing something? It had life & it doesn’t now?”
2] “Yes, but you can’t say that.” “Why?” “It’s inflammatory!”
3] “She has a right to abort her baby.” Change it! Inflammatory!
4] You can’t say death or human.
5] A woman has a right to choose! Not inflammatory. Just rhetoric!
3. I have yet to figure out how an ideology in America can love trees & kill babies. We can love whales—and kill babies. Love baby seals & kill baby humans! (Maybe I need a degree to be able to see…)
D. #4 — “This is an unwanted Child.”
1. It goes like this: She’s a career-minded woman… or it’s a bad circumstance. Woman has no husband, no skills, no means of support. Or, she already has kids. Elvis sang: “If there’s one thing that she don’t need; it’s another little hungry mouth to feed in the Ghetto.”
a. We can sympathize with that. But we’ve seen a lot of people grow up in bad circumstances… & they are glad to be here.
b. Some of you were adopted out of bad circumstances. Jim Bob Humphrey would have been a candidate for abortion in today’s atmosphere. But a loving couple adopted him….
c. Many of you were probably not wanted by your parents…
2. Put them on our doorstep! Wherever you are, bring them to us; we’ll find a home for them. Amen? We’ll find a way for that kid not to be put to death. There are different ways, but death is not an option!
a. You go to any circumstance — ask any kid if he is willing to die to help remedy the situation. Ask any mother if she’ll pick one of her kids to die… &you’ll have no takers.
b. So, I’m pro-choice. Give the choice to the kid!
c. He’ll choose to live. & if it’s a girl, she’ll choose not to die, & she shouldn’t be made to die, — a woman has authority over her body!
E. #5 — “If Abortion Isn’t Legal, a woman might try it herself with a coat hanger & hemorrhage and die!”
1. That’s a fact. It happens. In the pain & embarrassment of the moment, many have tried it and died.
a. Yes, for a woman to use a coat hanger and die is a bad thing!
b. You know why? ‘cause it’s a bad thing for a human to die needlessly Whether it’s the mother — or the child!
c. But legislating an equally bad thing is not the solution.
d. There’s a better solution.
2. I’m going to give you a word that’s been out of use for awhile. You may not recognize it. It’s not politically correct & is out of the vocabulary.
a. It’s RESPONSIBLE. (used it until the mid-70’s)
b. “Responsible” means that when a man & a woman have sex (which, by the way, was not intended for men & women, but for husbands & wives) — with sex comes a release that brings sperm & egg together; & that creates the possibility of a child. You’re responsible for your actions. & if a child is created, you’re responsible for him or her.
3. That’s the solution. It’s called HUMANITY! You must live with your choices & your actions! Killing the innocent baby is called BARBARITY and sin and ….!
a. Once an abortion is done, guilt & depression are a given…
b. And there is no solution except clinging to the grace of God!
F. #6— “What About Rape, Incest, or a Threatened Life?”
1. Threatened life? C. Everett Koop, once Surgeon General of the U.S., said that in his 38 years in obstetrics he had never seen a threatened life.
a. It happens. Rarely. But he never saw it.
b. I know of a case when a woman got pregnant at the same time she was diagnosed with cancer. Here was a clear choice between her life or the child’s. Treatment for the cancer would kill the baby.
2. Life sometimes gives us a choice between 2 lives. Saving one costs the other.
a. Firemen at the World Trade Center lost their lives trying to save others. Many rescue missions…
b. A damaged submarine. Captain must seal a section to save the ship and the lives aboard. But there is no time to get 10 men out of that section.
c Tom Landry’s daughter discovered liver cancer about the same time she learned of her pregnancy. She refused treatment. The baby lived. She died.
3. But these situations do not happen very often. & this argument is rhetorical sleight-of-hand.
4. On RAPE & INCEST: Want to know the percentage of abortions that result from them? — .06, almost 1/2 of 1%.
a. In a debate, Norm Geisler said, “OK, we’ll agree to legalize abortion in cases of rape & incest if you’ll agree to give us the babies for adoption in all other cases.” The abortion rights speaker would not agree. It is all rhetorical sleight-of-hand!
1] We’ll take the 99.4%. You take the .06%. They’re not willing.
b. Of course, the woman is an innocent victim in such cases.
c. Why create another innocent victim in killing the baby? Two wrongs do not make a right!
d. Give us the baby! We’ll find a home.
e. Listen, We’ve got people going to Russia, China, Thailand, — everywhere, to find babies to adopt. We can find homes for these children. I can assure you, the kids will walk away better for it.
f. Ask Moses. You can put him afloat in the Nile River, and God will take care of him.
g. Death is not an option.
III. Why Does It Continue?
A. It’s legal. & people confuse legal with moral and right.
B. It’s foundation is Evolution/Humanism.
1. Illustration. We can burst the balloons but until the foundation is destroyed, they’ll be right back.
2. When men buy into the philosophy that there is no infinite personal God who has spoken, become a man & redeemed man; & that He is the final standard for man, then man is the highest of creatures. And thus, we’re the top of the chain, and might makes right. So, we are the standards of good & evil. It’s called humanism. And now, you make decisions based upon convenience.
3. That’s why it won’t be turned around as easily now as slavery, or even civil rights in the 50’s, because we are not sitting on the same consensus.
C. It’s in the dark. You can’t see it.
1. If we could place every newborn on the mother’s breast & she be told to decide now, abortion would cease.
2. But it’s done in the dark, & what you can’t see isn’t real.
D. Political Pressure.
1. Leading voices in America are the media & the Arts & they are pro-abortion.
2. But this is beginning to be modified. The # of abortions is decreasing & that’s amazing since:
a. The cost of abortions is the same as years ago. $300! Easy! Other health costs have skyrocketed. Not abortions.
b. Abortion Clinics are closing. Ones left are advertising. You can now go in for a facial, a massage, & an abortion.
E. Silence… by those who care.
1. Christians always arrive late. We’re not a people of prescience. We don’t see what’s coming. & we generally have to react… because we don’t act.
2. Every generation has a national sin, & each has to speak up. This is ours. We did not ask to be born now, but we were. & we must speak up.
3. So, what do we do?
a. Speak up! Micah 2:6 — “But if they do not speak out concerning these things, Reproaches will not be turned back.” Say, “No.”
b. Send the next generation out with convictions. Educate your kid.
1] Educate yourself… Teach, we don’t do this...
2] Christians don’t lie. Don’t leave our mates. Don’t do abortions!
c. Support the Alternatives.
1] Give some help to crisis pregnancy centers.
2] Help girls who choose to keep their babies, or adopt them…
3] Let’s be known as a people who care… who do not shun them… but embrace them and help them.
d. Pray & reach out with the gospel.
1] If an entire population will embrace the infinite personal God who spoke and gave His Son to die for us on the cross to redeem us, that’s going to change their world view, and that will change how they see a child
2] In the Roman Empire girl babies did not have the same value as a boy. So, girls were often left exposed to die.
a. They would either be picked up by brothels & raised to be prostitutes, sold into slavery, or they would die of exposure or be eaten by wild animals. It was a common thing. It’s called idolatry. Paganism. Humanism.
b. Know what Christians did? They made a difference.
1] They went looking for the little girls to adopt and rear.
2] When runaway slaves took the underground railroad to the North, if you were a Christian you stepped in and helped them…
3] Abortion is our National Sin.
4] Why are we even debating this?