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Sanctity of Life Sunday, 2016
A scientist once approached God and said, “Listen God, we’ve decided we don’t need you anymore.
These days we can clone people, transplant organs and do all sorts of things that used to be considered miraculous.”
God replied, “Don’t need me huh?
How about we put your theory to the test.
Why don’t we have a competition to see who can make a human being, say, a male human being.”
The scientist agrees, so God tells him they should do it like he did in the good old days when he created Adam.
“Fine” says the scientist as he bends down to scoop up a handful of dirt.
“Whoa!” says God, shaking his head in disapproval.
“Not so fast.
You get your own dirt.”
In this little story, there’s a whole lot of truth.
It puts us in our place.
God is the creator of everything, seen and unseen.
And if God is the Creator, then that means everything that exists is part of the creation, and therefore inferior to Him.
Now, many deep thinkers and even those in the hard sciences often have at the forefront of their minds one of the things God has given to His creatures: Life.
Science describes what happens regarding life, especially how unborn children are formed.
But how was life introduced in our world in the first place?
Harvard professor of biology Andrew Knoll was interviewed as to how life began.
He had a couple of interesting observations.
For starters, he said, “bacteria are necessary for every cycle of a biologically important element; organisms like ourselves are optional.”
So, bacteria are more important than human beings.
Really, Dr. Knoll?
He was asked whether we will ever get to the bottom of figuring out how life began.
This was his answer: “I don't know” he said.
“I imagine my grandchildren will still be sitting around saying that it's a great mystery, but that they will understand that mystery at a level that would be incomprehensible to us today.”
Now let’s lay a simple statement alongside all the learnin’ of the best and the brightest and see which one resonates better: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
What’s the difference?
One says, “I’ll figure it out for myself.
I don’t need a god telling me stuff.”
The other says, “I need the true and living God to figure out for me where life came from and how it happened.”
We who hold to the truth of Scripture say with one voice: “God is author of life”.
He created it.
But over the years, many who don’t hold to the truth of Scripture have rushed in where angels fear to tread.
They’re asking questions such as: Is human life useful?
Or sacred?
How our culture answers that question determines so much of how we treat our citizens.
If life is useful, then it’s perfectly fine for the powers that be to control people.
To manipulate them.
For the good of humanity and the planet, of course.
Take the organization Negative Population Growth.
Yes it is as it sounds.
They have world-wide aspirations: “We judge that a sustainable population for the United States should not exceed 150 million, and should probably not exceed two billion for the world.”
So, NPG people, which of you will be first to advance your agenda by leaving us?
But that’s a logical conclusion when the movers and shakers of the world live out Romans 1:21-22.
They fail to honor God as God.
They fail to give Him thanks.
As a result, they become futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts become darkened.
They profess to be wise but they become fools.
God created life.
This is a thing we know.
Even the animals.
Psalm 104:29: “When You hide Your face, they are dismayed; when You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.”
It is God who gives life and breath to all, especially the greatest of His creation, human beings.
For we are the only creatures made in His image, according to His likeness.
And so we consider life something worth talking about.
Of course, we weren’t able to last Sunday—God had other plans for us.
But January 22 marked the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton abortion related cases.
Over the past 43 years, literally millions of people have marched for life in Washington DC, standing up for the unborn.
But we know that there’s so much more life than that which is in the womb.
There’s life after the little one has exited his or her mother, all the way up through to natural death.
Martin Luther King Jr. said it well: “Our lives begin to end when we become silent about things that matter”.
We don’t want to be guilty of being silent on this all important issue: the value of human life, wherever we find it.
So we’re going to talk about it today.
My goal is for us to walk out of here today a bit more human than when we walked in, giving praise to our God for how He has made us.
I want to remind all of us about the value of life, whether in the womb or out, regardless of our age, station in life, or condition.
I want you to walk with me as we look first in the womb and discover life there.
Then let’s look at life outside the womb and lastly, a brief word about the end of life.
You know, all of us are getting . . .
older.
When we were young, we had our whole life in front of us.
But as we know, the older we get, the faster the days go by.
Our bodies aren’t as agile as they once were; now they’re a bit more fragile.
Our minds aren’t as sharp as they used to be.
But regardless of what condition a human being is in, we are to celebrate life.
This is one of God’s essential gifts to us!
Scripture tells us how God created the first man and woman: Dirt and ribs.
God formed man from the dirt of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and became a living being.
After awhile, God looked at His perfect creation and observed something not good about it.
He said, “It’s not good that man should be alone.
I’ll make a helper suitable for him.”
So, God put the first man into a deep sleep, and fashioned a woman from a rib He took from Adam.
He brought her to Adam, and it was literally a match made in paradise!
Now we know that playing in the dirt is not how the rest of us were conceived.
God set it up in a beautiful way that both man and woman would be involved.
And part of the reason for marriage is that husbands and wives obey God’s command to be fruitful, multiply and subdue the earth.
Now there are many married couples who don’t have children.
And that is message for another day.
But in the normal scheme of things, a natural part of marriage is to produce kids.
So, when the act of marriage happens at the right time, a daughter of Eve has a fertilized egg and a new life is conceived.
He declared human beings as made in His image, and therefore, it stands to reason that life is sacred, which flies in the face of the PC answer to the question, “Is human life useful or sacred?”
God says it’s sacred.
Of course, we know that the Scripture has a lot to say about human life in the womb.
Psalm 139:13–14: “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.”
When God called Jeremiah to be His prophet He said, “before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”
When Elizabeth, to whom God gave ability to have children in her old age, heard the voice of her cousin Mary, who was also carrying a miracle baby she said, “the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”
Elizabeth thought her so-called product of conception was human.
We know that there’s life in the womb.
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