Sanctity of Life Sunday 2019

Sanctity of Life Sunday

Opening Illustration:

Introduction:

The Bible clearly states that God’s chosen people, are prohibited from committing the act of murder.  Let’s read Exodus 20:13.  

Exodus 20:13 ESV

“You shall not murder.”

Point:

So, the English Standard Version of Exodus 20:13 states emphatically “you shall not murder”. I was curious to see what other translations would say.  So here is the listing:

NIV

“You shall not murder.”

NASB

“You shall not murder.”

The Message 

“No murder”

Holman Christian Standard Bible

“Do not murder”

Point:

Let me say here and now that abortion is murder. It is. I don’t care what New York puts into law or what laws West Virgina is putting into place, abortion is murder. I’m sorry if that offends, but it is what I believe God’s word to say. 

Illustration:

The first to be killed in Nazi Germany were the infirm, the senile and mentally handicapped, the aged and defective children. Eventually, as World War II approached, the doomed undesirables included epileptics, children with badly modeled ears and even bed- wetters. Transportation of patients to killing centers was carried out by "The Charitable Transport Company for the Sick." The plan then was to kill all Jews and Poles and to cut down the Russian Population by 30,000,000. 

We're all struck by this great Holocaust and wonder how it ever could have happened. Leo Alexander, who was consultant to the Secretary of War and on duty with the office of Chief Counselor for War Crimes in Nuremberg, says that what happened in in Nazi Germany "all started with the acceptance of the attitude that there is such a thing as life not worthy to be lived." 

An elderly German man who lived through the Holocaust tells the following story: 

Story:

I always considered myself a Christian. I attended a church since I was a small boy. We had heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews; but like most people in America today, we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really taking place. What could anyone do to stop it? 

A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track. We became disturbed when one Sunday we heard cries coming from the train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews. 

Week after week that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they passed our church. It was so terribly disturbing! We could do nothing to help these poor people, yet their screams tormented us. We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow, and we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns. It some of the screams reached our ears, we'd just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more. 

Years have passed, and no one talks about it much any more; but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. I can still hear them crying out for help. 

God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene. 

Point:

Does this sound like the United States in 2019 — 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. Ninety percent of expectant parents who receive a prenatal diagnosis of down syndrome will abort their baby. A life not worthy to be lived? 

What that's really saying is that God goofed, He 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. 

Point:

Brothers and sisters, I pray that God will either reveal to you this morning that all life has a plan and is precious. If that revelation has already happened, it is my prayer that God will solidify that concept in your minds. All life, at any age, born or unborn, no matter where it comes from has value to God. 

All Life Has A Plan And Is Precious!

Scripture:

Psalm 139:13-16 ESV

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Understanding A Scriptural View of Life

I. Created To Bear His Picture

Only human beings can fellowship with the Creator.

Genesis 1:26-27 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,

    in the image of God he created him;

    male and female he created them. 

Only man is crowned by God with glory and majesty 

Psalm 8:4-5 ESV

what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

Only God should determine life's beginning and end. 

Psalm 139:16 ESV

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Point:

In this context, the question is often asked, "What if the mother's life is in danger? Shouldn't she have an abortion then?" Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General of the United States says that during his more than 35 years of medical practice in obstetrics, "Never once did a case come across my practice where abortion was necessary to save a mother's life." 

Point:

What about the notion of women’s rights? It is the women’s right to determine what she does with her body right? Well, take a second and watch a portion of sermon delivered by Matt Chandler, Senior Pastor at The Village Church. 

Point:

And 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 that suffering. Even though the circumstances may not make sense from our perspectives, we are never "authorized" to "play God," to usurp the position that is rightfully His.

Understanding A Scriptural View of Life

I. Created To Bear His Picture

II. Developed According to His Plan 

It is declared in His Word: 

Psalm 139:13-15 - organ systems being "woven together," the "frame," obviously referring to the skeleton, bones, skull which will determine height, build, size. Luke 1:35 - the baby Mary is carrying is called the "holy offspring," not a "blob of tissue" or a "potential" being. 

Luke 1:41 - Elizabeth's baby leaps in her womb upon hearing Mary's news, not an action performed by "fetal tissue." 

It is validated by medical science: 

Heart beating from 18-21 days, brain waves from 40 days.

Clearly shown by us of ultrasound technology.

Not even supporters of abortion argue any more as to when life begins. 

Luke 1:35 ESV

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

Understanding A Scriptural View of Life

I. Created To Bear His Picture

II. Developed According to His Plan

III. Protected to Fulfill HIs Purpose

Statistics:

• A total of 730,322 abortions were reported to Centers for Disease Control for 2011, the most recent year numbers are available. (Reporting is voluntary and not 100%.)

• It is estimated that close to 4000 unborn children are aborted each day. 

• In the United States, about half of all pregnancies are unintended.

• Of all unintended pregnancies, 4 in 10 are aborted.

• Twenty-one percent of all pregnancies in the U.S. end in abortion (not including natural miscarriages).

• By age 45, one third of American women will have had at least one abortion.

Point:

Point:

America is a sin sick death focused society.  Our government funnels our tax dollars to programs that exterminate defenseless human life in a more humane way than many of us euthanize our pets.  More American children have died at the hands of doctors, nurses, mothers and fathers than…

The Civil War

WW I

WW II

Vietnam

Korean

The Revolutionary War

The War of 1812 

Mexican-American War

Any Conflict in Iraq

and the Philippine American War

COMBINED! 

Friends there is a murderous war being waged everyday on the unborn child and all of us are guilty of turning our heads and ignoring their silent cries.  Not only are we guilty of murder in the spiritual sense, but we are all guilty of physical murder by sitting idly by while watching our country grow numb to a fetal genocide 50 million strong.

Major Point!

Perhaps the saddest of all these statistics is that the greatest number of women having abortions are Protestants.  It’s not even close.  42% of all abortions occur by Protestant women.  

Point:

God loves little children, a theme throughout Scripture.

If they're not protected in the womb, they can't live to experience that love. 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?

Illustration:

In his book Sanctity of Life, Chuck Swindoll tells the story of a couple who married during the Great Depression when he was middle-aged and she was in her twenties. Exactly 10 months after their wedding day, their first child was born — a baby boy. Times were tough, but they managed fairly well. Before their second anniversary, along came a second child, this time a girl. Their hands were certainly full with this addition! 

And then lo and behold, in January long before their fourth anniversary the following October, the mother conceived her third child, even though they were using contraceptives. The other two children were, obviously, still in diapers. Finances were very challenging. The mother's health was not good, and understandably she was tired all the time. She didn't especially enjoy young children to begin with; she was depressed. The pressures were so great that it would've been easy to consider seeking out someone, who could perform an abortion, even though they were illegal. However, this couple was convinced that they should accept whatever God had sovereignty planned for them. In spite of the circumstances, they chose to trust God and have that baby in October of 1934. 

That baby was Charles R. Swindoll, president of Dallas Theological Seminary, pastor for many years and pre-eminent teacher of the Word. He was his parents' last child. All three of those children are today in vocational Christian service. 

Point:

No one, certainly not his parents, knew at that time what God's plan for him, or his siblings, would be. But they knew God, and they fully believed that He was greater than their rights, their plans or their inconveniences. 

That God has not changed. Whether at the beginning of life, at the end or any point in between, His timing is perfect, His plan is detailed and His provision unmatched. 

This morning, I want to invite a special guest to our stage to share her story of choosing life. Would you please welcome Sarah to Eastern Shore Baptist Church?

Will You Pray For And Protect The Unborn?