am012008-Abortion-A God Issue Not A Woman's Issue
ABORTION:
A God Issue Not a Woman’s Issue
For a number of years we have taken the Sanctity of Life week to remind us of the tragedy that occurs by the millions every year. It is estimated that every 20 seconds an abortion occurs and every 2 minutes a professing born-again woman chooses to have an abortion. Many of these people live secretly with the guilt every day and men are not excluded from this guilt in the sense that many approve and even demand the mother to abort the child.
Many of us are concerned that the silence in the Church about abortion is evidence that we are losing our boldness for righteousness in this nation. Will we become like the evangelical Christians in Germany during WWII when some 6 million Jews were slaughtered?
As the apostle Peter was directed by the Holy Spirit to remind his fellow Christians of important truths.
2 Peter 1:12-13
12 Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. 13 I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder,
We must be reminded again of this tragedy gripping our generation.
For those of you who are new believers, new to our congregation; let me very quickly give you God’s response concerning abortion which makes it a God issue and not a woman’s issue.
Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (not a living tree, animal, bird, but a person).
Genesis 1:26-27
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness (let us make man to be like us and to represent us); and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God places great value on man being created in the image of God and protects that life with the strongest of consequences.
Genesis 9:6
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.
God declares the same protection for the unborn as the born.
Exodus 21:22-23
“If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. 23 But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life.
God declares the unborn to have purpose according to His design.
Psalm 139:15-16
15 (David) My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. (God’s plan gives purpose to life).
Galatians 1:15-16
But when God, who had set me apart (separated) even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, …
Isaiah 49:1
1 Listen to Me, O islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me.
Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you (Jeremiah) in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Romans 9:10-12
10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11 for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”
Matthew 1:20
But when he (Joseph) had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
When abortion occurs a child that is known by God prior to conception, created by God in his mother’s womb, to represent Him and most of all to bring pleasure to Him is destroyed from living out God’s purposes. This is the reason the abortion is a God issue; it’s about God not a woman’s right over her body.
Can we win the war on the abortion issue? That isn’t the question we should ask? The question is will we speak out about this tragedy and tell the truth? The issue is about speaking forth truth not winning!
Let me draw an application from a situation in the first century. Peter and John had just healed a man that had never walked! He was over 40 years of age and never taken the first step. An enormous crowd gathered by this miracle and Peter preached Christ and Him crucified, buried, and resurrected and some 5000 were saved. The religious leaders were upset because they thought they were done with this Jesus they had crucified. So they placed Peter and John in jail for the night for healing the man in the name of Jesus. The following day they were questioned by the authorities.
Acts 4:13-22
13 Now as they (religious and political leaders of Israel) observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. 14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply. 15 But when they had ordered them to leave the Council, they began to confer with one another, 16 saying, “What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 “But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name.” 18 And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; 20 for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 21 When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened; 22 for the man was more than forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.
Three things are very practical from this account of Peter and John.
1. Peter and John were not educated but they still knew truth.
Everyone of us can speak truth to our culture.
You don’t need to be educated. You and I just need to know what God has said about abortion.
2. The world doesn’t want truth to be proclaimed.
The world benefits from injustice; therefore, they do not comprehend truth.
The world cannot speak for God only believers can speak truth.
3. Peter and John spoke boldly about truth.
Should we obey government or God?
Remember, God never asks us to win; He asks us to proclaim truth! We may never win the abortion issues but we are to boldly make truth available. Eventually righteousness wins when Christ returns, but for now goal is to take every opportunity to witness. The moral issue is about the unborn having the opportunity to glorify God by living out His plan for their lives.
Challenge:
1. Authentic disciples are about moral truth not winning.
2. Authentic disciples protect the innocent and voiceless.
3. Authentic disciples offer forgiveness to the guilty.
4. Authentic disciples don’t abort God’s plan for their life.