Sanctity of Life- GPC- 2023 Imago Dei

· INTRODUCTION: This week our message is a little different. Usually, we stay pretty much in one place, as we seek to exposit scripture as it was written. Today, we are going to be using a similar method of examining scripture and applying it to our lives, but we are going to look at 4 different passages to see what they tell us about the “SANCTITY OF LIFE.”

o This is our second message in our 3 part series called Imago Dei. David preached in June on God’s design for sexuality and gender. Today, we are talking about sanctity of life and next Sunday we will be looking at what THE PURPOSE OF MAN IS!

o To begin, would you turn with me to Psalm 139:13-16?

§ (Announcements, would you stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy word, read, pray, you may be seated, drink.)

· There’s no way around this, this is an intense topic. It is also extremely important. Human life matters to God deeply and it is important that we understand WHAT GOD’S DESIGN for sanctity of life, or the worth of human life, is!

To truly understand the importance of human life, we HAVE TO GO TO SCRIPTURE! God is so very clear with us that humanity has INTRINSIC value!

Unfortunately, at no time in history has this doctrine NOT BEEN UNDER ATTACK! Going all the way back to the time of Joshua and before, human sacrifices and infant sacrifices were common and even celebrated!

This is not a new issue that followers of God have to interact with. And that’s the thing. We HAVE TO INTERACT with this. Issues with the sanctity of life are all around us!

Just 10 days ago, the ERLC (Ethics, Religious Liberty Committee of the SBC) published a brief covering a law from California.

The law in question is called “The End of Life Option Act.”

· This law allows patients to request lethal drugs from a doctor to kill themselves. The law requires patients to receive confirmation of mental capability and of “terminal status” from 2 doctors and wait 48 hours.

o However, there was recently a lawsuit from a disability rights group that argues that the law in California, (AND I QUOTE), “steers people with terminal disabilities away from necessary mental health care, medical care, and disability supports, and towards death by suicide under the guise of ‘mercy’ and ‘dignity’ in dying.”

o Specifically, one of the cases mentioned is that of Ingrid Tischer, one of the plaintiffs. Ms. Tischer was born with muscular dystrophy. In 2021, she contracted pneumonia, requested physical therapy to regain strength but was denied. Instead of therapy, this is what her doctor said, “Well, I mean, look at you, there’s nothing we can do for you. And you’ve known this is coming for a long time. So why are you surprised?”

§ That refusal speaks volumes and is not the only situation cited in this lawsuit against this Californian law. Another lawsuit simply argues that the man in question was depressed from not receiving the aid he medically needed, but was told that doctor-assisted suicide would be a good option.

· As the ERLC argues, Medical care was the solution to this man’s depression, not suicide. The ERLC continues on saying, “Individuals with disabilities and those experiencing mental health crises should be met with care and compassion- not with encouragement to end their life.”

· This issue matters deeply. This is not just an issue in California. In fact, there’s actually a website entirely devoted to BRINGING Doctor-Assisted suicide to your state!

o Listen to this organization’s sales pitch for Illinois- “We’re building momentum in Illinois! Help bring death with dignity to your state. Together we can fight to ensure that people with terminal illness can decide how and when to die on their own terms.”

§ Unfortunately, as the ERLC highlighted, these laws are rarely contained and have unintended consequences.

§ In addition to the Euthanasia side of things, there has long been a fight over life in the womb!

· This fight is much more public and is more well-known and is important! Today, we aim to take some time to see WHY the sanctity of life matters so deeply and WHAT scripture tells us about the sanctity of life.

MAIN POINT: Human life has intrinsic value because we are created by God in God’s image!

· BODY: As we dive back into our Imago Dei series, we will be expositing scripture, but instead of staying in one place, we have 4 different passages we will look at together today.

o Imago Dei is the Latin term for “BEING MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD.” We began this series in June with David preaching on the modern day gender confusion. Today, we resume it by examining what scripture says about this important battle for human life!

o As we begin, we’ll begin in Genesis 1:26-28. Under each of the passages, you’ll find a fill-in-the-blank this week. The goal of this is simple; this is a very important topic and I want to make sure that we are all on the same page as we walk through and exegete these passages together! The fill-in-the-blanks this week are my summary of our main takeaway from each passage.

· Looking at Genesis 1:26-28 we read, “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.”- Genesis 1:26-28

o Genesis 1 records the history of creation. On the 6th day, God creates man. God addresses the Holy Spirit and Jesus, the other two parts of the trinity and makes a statement about man.

§ God says that man will be made in GOD’S IMAGE! Let me be clear. MAN IS MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE! That means that we should live in obedience to God!

§ God created us, formed us and made us! Male and female, God made us and God gave us this job; to be fruitful and multiply.

· Human life is part of the very command that God gives Adam and Eve! God tells Adam and Eve the importance of their lives by telling them to be fruitful and to multiply it AND by telling Adam and Eve to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it!

o The created order given in Genesis 1 is quite clear. God has made man and has given man responsibility and a job. It is our task to live it out!

§ That’s the main takeaway that I want us to take from Genesis 1. God made man in His image and gave man a job.

§ There’s many other things that we could take away, but when we seek to address our culture’s misunderstanding of the sanctity of life, that is what we must begin with!

· When we understand that GOD MADE US and gave us a purpose, we see that there is innate worth in human life!

· We continue to see this close relationship between God’s creation of man and of man’s purpose in Genesis 2:5-7. Scripture says, “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”- Genesis 2:5-7

o Genesis 2 is essentially a zoomed in telling of what happens when God created man. Genesis 1 tells us that man was created in God’s image. In Genesis 2, God inspired Moses to show WHAT it looked like.

§ Scripture paints a clear picture that there was nothing yet, because God made everything from nothing! Further, here in Genesis 2, it’s clear that when man is made, God makes him to WORK THE LAND!

§ God makes man to work and notice what verse 7 says. Listen to this really closely. “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

· GOD MADE MAN PERSONALLY AND BREATHED INTO ADAM’S LUNGS!

o Man began to live only after this personal creation by God! Throughout all of time, every human who lives comes from the line of Adam and Eve, which began when God FORMED MAN FROM THE GROUND AND BREATHED INTO HIM!

o God’s creation of man is intricate and personal! Our takeaway from this passage is that, “God personally created man, giving man worth!”

o By personally breathing life into man, God shows His high value of man!

§ Dear brothers and sisters, do not miss this! The events of Genesis 1 and 2 make clear to us just HOW IMPORTANT human life has been since creation!

§ Human life matters deeply!

· Continuing down this same path, let’s consider Psalm 139:13-16 for a minute.

o Psalm 139 is a psalm of David. It is focused entirely on praising God for GOD’S POWER AND GOD’S KNOWLEDGE OF DAVID!

o Verses 13-16 say, “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.”- Psalm 139:13-16

§ Similar to what we saw in Genesis 1 and 2, here, David gives praise and glory to God for creating us! David specifically praises God for “knitting us together,” and “for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

· God has made us just how he wanted to and WE ARE TRULY WONDERFULLY MADE!

o Although not specifically a sanctity of life issue, this is a challenge in our culture! There’s a number of areas that we see this, whether in gender reassignment surgery, which is people deciding that they know more than God, or even in the occurrence of plastic surgery augmentations, or eating disorders.

§ Let’s take a second to consider Eating Disorders as an example here.

According to a 2011 survey, a survey which has continued to be supported by additional research, up to 60% of girls ages 6-12 are dissatisfied with their body and express concerns about being too fat. This is something that research shows follows them throughout life.

§ In a similar study, up to 57% of adolescent girls, that is girls ages 10-19 self-report crash dieting, which is a form of eating restriction, fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills, or taking laxatives to lose weight. It isn’t just girls.

The statistics for adolescent boys are startling. According to a 2018 study, 13% of adolescent boys could be diagnosed with an eating disorder, which does not include other negative body image issues, which include among other things STEROID USAGE OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS!

§ Just as striking, roughly 1/3 of individuals who have an eating disorder will attempt to commit suicide!

· My point with this is that we have lost sight of what it means to truly be WONDERFULLY MADE!

· And here’s the beautiful truth; the answer that these teens and their parents need isn’t JUST a better understanding of nutrition and reality, although that does matter; it’s an understanding THAT THEY ARE WONDERFULLY MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD AND ARE GIVEN PURPOSE!

· This is a message for the world! Our world needs to hear that there is hope! Our identity and our value is not in our physical appearance, it’s in the fact that GOD HAS MADE US!

o And that’s the message of Psalm 139:13-16!

o Even before we were ever born, GOD HAS KNOWN US! God has also numbered our days and HAS WRITTEN THEM ALREADY!

o God’s creation is wonderful and that includes us!

When we think of ourselves as NOT GOOD ENOUGH, what we really are saying is that GOD’S CREATION ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH!

§ As David tells us, we should PRAISE GOD BECAUSE WE ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE!

§ So, from Psalm 139, our major takeaway is that, “God has made us according to his plan in HIS image. We should praise God for this!”

· As we think about the sanctity of life and what our world says about the meaning of life, we MUST understand that we are MADE ACCORDING TO GOD’S DESIRE, IN GOD’S IMAGE AND THAT GOD IS WORTHY OF PRAISE FOR THAT!

o Any attempts to diminish the value of human life is sinful as it is an attempt to remove praise that our GOD DESERVES!

o We need to be faithful to praise God- as we’ll see next week, that’s a HUGE part of man’s purpose! In fact, it’s the CHIEF PURPOSE that God has given us!

· Now, continuing on, let’s turn to Jeremiah 1. Jeremiah 1:4-5 is part of the introduction to the book of Jeremiah and it provides incredible insight into what it means to be made by God!

o Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 1. This is what Jeremiah wrote down, “Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”- Jeremiah 1:4-5

o BEFORE JEREMIAH WAS EVER BORN, GOD HAD A PLAN!

o God had established Jeremiah as a prophet; consecrated, or set apart, to serve the Lord! God has a unique plan for us! This isn’t some far-off hypothetical destiny like some movies show; this is THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE INTRICATELY MAKING US AND KNOWING US!

§ This isn’t just the case though for Jeremiah! Ephesians 2:10 makes that quite clear! Paul wrote, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

§ Before we were born, GOD HAS CREATED THINGS FOR US TO DO! God has set aside things for us to do! Think about that now in the context of giftings!

· God has given us each unique gifts, talents and personalities! We also each have unique things to do!

If we remove someone and devalue someone’s life, what we are really doing is DE-VALUING GOD’S CREATION AND GOD’S EQUIPPING OF THAT PERSON!

o I’m not just talking about killing someone who is unborn, or euthanasia; although we will talk about those issues, but right now, I’m talking about something we can all be guilty of: ignoring someone who is skilled or gifted! I’m talking about looking at someone and saying, “Well, that person doesn’t matter.” Or, “That person isn’t capable.”

§ God has uniquely gifted all of us! It’s not our job to write people off, it’s our job to FOLLOW GOD AND TO SERVE HIM! It’s our job to help one another UTILIZE OUR GIFTS and SERVE GOD WITH THEM!

§ Jeremiah had a purpose set out from before he was born! God appointed him to be a prophet! Likewise, God has given us works and has equipped us like Paul writes in Ephesians 4 and in Romans 12!

o Between this passage and Psalm 139:13-16 we see that our creator God knows us and CREATED EACH OF US UNIQUELY! Our take-away from this passage is that “God has given us a purpose in life.”

· We’ve see throughout a very brief overview of the Old Testament that God has created life and that it has a purpose. Let’s strive to answer two things now; first, how is Imago Dei under attack; and second, what is the Christian solution to attacks on Imago Dei?

o Thinking of how Imago Dei is under attack, we spoke earlier about how it is under attack in the way that people look at themselves. That’s a major form of attack on people who are MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD! But, let’s talk about 2 more famous ways that Imago Dei is under attack.

§ These are abortion and euthanasia.

§ Abortion refers to the voluntary killing of a baby before death. This is classified different than infanticide, which refers specifically to the killing of a baby after birth. I am also not discussing situations such as ectopic pregnancies. If you would like to talk more about those, I’d love to talk after service.

· Statistically speaking, abortion rates are high, especially pre-2022 and the reversal of Roe V Wade. In fact, the AGI (Alan Guttmacher Institute), a distinctly non-pro-life organization reports that almost half of pregnancies in America are unplanned. Four in 10 unplanned pregnancies end in abortion according to the AGI. Further, the AGI reports that excluding miscarriages about 22% of pregnancies ended in abortion.

o In other words, abortion happens all around us. The AGI simply says about this, “At least half of American women will experience an unintended pregnancy by age 45, and at current rates, about 1/3rd will have had an abortion.”

o Obviously, this should sadden our hearts. I was further saddened though when I read an AGI statistic saying that 43% of women getting an abortion claim to be protestants.

§ These are people like you and I! What it tells me is that Imago Dei is under attack! We are losing sight of and we are not teaching how deeply valuable every person is in God’s eyes!

And that should deeply sadden us! It should convict our hearts of a need to TEACH THIS TO OUR CHILDREN AND TO LIVE OUT THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE!

§ This issue is carried over into the other side of life, as Euthanasia has been in the news earlier as we mentioned at the beginning of our time together.

§ Honestly, when we put these statistics about these terrible things under attack, it can be easy to feel discouraged! It can be easy to become angry and it can be easy to begin to see people on the other side of this as an enemy.

· Instead of that though, I want to challenge us that we need to bring the GOSPEL WITH US INTO THESE ATTACKS ON IMAGO DEI!

· If we do not base our position off of the Bible and the GOSPEL, then we are merely stating a preference! Instead, as we seek to walk with others through difficult times and as we seek to LOVE THEM, we should be a light that brings hope with us!

· Ultimately, this will never be a political battle. This should not be a political battle. Just like gender, this is a spiritual battle.

o This is a battle between God’s design and satan’s attempts to confuse the world!

o We need to understand that this is so much more than what this world leads us to believe! The central issue at stake is not just physical preference, but rather is spiritual truth!

o So we’ve established that the issue is prevalent. There are many ways that our society is attacking what it means to be a human and to be made in the image of God!

§ What’s the solution then? I think that we see the solution in Romans 5.

· Romans 5:12-14 paints a clear picture that SIN HAS ENTERED THROUGH ONE MAN! Through Adam, we have a sin nature. But now, if you look down just a few verses, looking at verses 18-21, we see the hope that we have!

· Let me read verse 21. “so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”- Romans 5:21

o Death, the rebellion of the world, sin, all of these are terrible for humanity! These are not good things! Abortion, euthanasia, attacks on human worth? Those are bad things!

o But, there is hope because we don’t live under death’s power! Instead, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD came reigning in righteousness, sacrificed his life for us on the cross and rose again so that we can live not under bondage to sin and death, but in freedom, set free to live righteous lives!

§ This is TRUE HOPE AND THIS IS THE TRUE SOLUTION TO ALL OF THESE CHALLENGES! The solution is truly to show people WHO JESUS IS!

· CONCLUSION: Now, we’ve talked about the theological solution to the attacks on the sanctity of life, but what about the practical, daily application?

o I want to challenge us with three things that we can do.

§ First, we can pray for and support resources that point people towards JESUS in these times of crisis such as CARE and TRI-STATE.

· We do this through Ice Cream Social, connection with them, etc.

As Christians we should LOVE ADOPTION AND we should be huge supporters of foster care and adoption. We not only have practical reasons for this, we have theological reasons!

Ephesians 1:5 says, “ In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”

OUR VERY SALVATION IS BECAUSE WE ARE ADOPTED! YOU AND I, WE HAVE BEEN ADOPTED!

Practically, I have a number of friends who have been adopted and I’m so thankful for those families who decided to take a step of faith and love them.

I know I’ve mentioned this resource before, but I really cannot recommend “Until Every Child is Home” by Todd Chipman enough. I’ll admit to being biased because he has been a great mentor to me in addition to being my favorite Seminary professor. Any man who can make Koine Greek fun and unintimidating is a great professor. We don’t have time to go into every detail of how Christians should relate to adoption, but Dr. Chipman does an excellent job.

As he recounts in the book, not only was he adopted, two of his daughters were adopted. And as he walks through the theology of adoption, he does a phenomenal job showing their story and how God was with them through the ups and the downs.

We actually have this in the church library, so check it out!

§ Second, we can lovingly evangelize and disciple the people around us. (Great Commission)

I hope you are seeing throughout scripture that THE struggles that we feel with the world have a solution; JESUS! In turn, just about everything that we study should call us to evangelism and discipleship! Don’t miss how those two things were given to us to CHANGE THE WORLD!

Trust me, this issue is not solved by picketing or protesting. This issue is solved by prayer, by loving evangelism and discipling the people around us!

§ Finally, we can rest with our hope in Jesus, not in any human government.

· Ultimately, the solution to these challenges in life is not human government. The solution that we need is JESUS!

o GMC SIERRA

o If you have placed your faith in Jesus, let me challenge you, when you begin to think about something like this and you begin to feel upset, immediately go to the Lord in prayer! Even before you are upset, GO TO THE LORD IN PRAYER!

§ Philippians 4:4-7 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness[d] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

· Consider that! Not only should we always go to the LORD IN PRAYER ALWAYS, we should also REJOICE AT ALL TIMES!

o No matter how hopeless we may feel about the world around us, mark my words; we can rejoice and have hope, because WE KNOW THAT GOD IS IN CONTROL!

o Because we know that, we can truly REST in God!

§ Let’s pray.

Benediction: Romans 15:13