Sanctity of Life Sunday, 2021

Sanctity of Life Sunday, 2021 Celebrate Life As we begin this morning, I wanted to simply clarify. The song we heard is Phil Keaggy's "Little Ones" and most of the video clip was part of the song, "you named me no one" written by Sarah Jane Roberts. I have seen this video a number of times, just to hold things together today. To say I feel deeply about this issue is a vast understatement. So, it's all in how we see things and how we package them. It all began Friday night. I was up late, as I usually am getting ready for Sunday. I went to bed with this message on my mind but was absolutely wrung out. Emotionally spent. I suddenly woke up yesterday morning. I looked at the clock. After 7. I got out of bed as fast as I could. Kitty was already downstairs making coffee. She was not moving with much sense of urgency-as she would if it were Sunday. I looked at her and said, "are you planning on going to the building to pray?" Then she looked at me really strange. And said, "Today is Saturday." I stared back at her, and with a sense of urgency said, "Are you sure?" She walked over to the calendar and pointed out, lovingly, kindly, and said, "I went to work yesterday." Then it dawned on me. Yesterday was indeed, Saturday! I actually had to sit down and process this new, valuable bit of info. Because I was far from finished with all that I had to put together for today. And when I realized that, yesterday was, indeed, Saturday, I began to sing the Hallelujah Chorus! Not really! But I thought about singing the Hallelujah Chorus! All of a sudden, I began to relax. Kitty and I had a great time over coffee before her mentoring date with Natalie, and life was good! Truly, a changed perspective makes all the difference. Interacting with my beloved convinced me that I was wrong. From that moment on, the rest of the day was powerful and intense as I finished up putting things together for today. All because I had a change of perspective. And our time of corporate worship has been an unforgettable one! We get to focus, once again, on what the Lord, the author of life has done. He has given us life. As we read earlier today, he has knit us together in our mother's womb. We praise him because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And to make matters even better! The Lord did not leave us out there by ourselves. He has placed us in families. Mothers. Fathers. Children. Grandchildren. Siblings. Cousins. And on and on. And even more glorious, those of us who are in the family of God, we will continue these precious relationships in this life and when we get to the other side, they will continue forever! Today, we celebrate life honoring the Lord and enjoying the life he has given us. As we know, today is our Sanctity of Life Sunday. We take time out to remember that all human life is sacred. Every human being, inside and outside the womb is made in the image of our Creator God. Every person is of extreme worth and value. But. Practically since the beginning of God's very good creative act when he spoke the universe into existence, death has been with us. God said to our first parents, "Don't eat. You will die if you do." What did they do? They ate. Delicious but deadly fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Since that day, we have lived out our own death certificate. We have assumed the position reserved only for God and made many pronouncements on who should live, and who should die. We believe that we have that right. Now, there are many reasons why we think it is good and right for fellow image bearers of God to die-at our own hands. One reason is capital punishment. God gave Noah this command after the Lord caused a global flood-his judgment on a wicked world. He told Noah in essence, "if anybody murders someone, they themselves are to be killed." Though tragic, capital punishment is reserved for those who take the life of fellow image bearers. There are also wicked reasons for taking the lives of others. At the senior end-we have euthanasia. Physician Assisted Suicide. Some people take their own lives in this manner because of ongoing, unbearable pain. Others have euthanasia forced on them because they are a burden to their family among other reasons. We won't go into that today. But this is, again, we humans living out our death certificate of a curse-we decide what is good and evil. On the other side of life-both in the womb and newly born, there's abortion and infanticide. Because we are like God knowing good and evil, we have taken it upon ourselves to pronounce which children should live and which ones should die. And globally we are putting into practice of knowing good and evil-or thinking we know good and evil-in massive numbers. According to the World Health Organization there are between 40 and 50 million persons aborted per year. In this past year that amounted to almost half of the deaths in the world from every cause. Staggering numbers to say the least. We are so concerned with Covid-19 and the thousands who have died with it world-wide, and to be precise, very few have died strictly from it. But how many who are so afraid of themselves and others catching this virus have the same or greater concern over abortion and infanticide which are far deadlier than covid ever thought of being? Today, as we remember the holocaust called abortion and in increasing numbers, infanticide, let's begin with what God's word says regarding how heinous God sees murder, particularly the killing of our own children. As I mentioned, God told Noah in Genesis 9.6 that a person who murders someone else, forfeits his own life, presumably by those authorized to do so. In Exodus, God gave his people the 10 Commandments. The 6th one is simply, "you shall not murder." Time fails us to even begin to address the absolute horror of infanticide practiced in the Old Testament. The demonic, pagan gods, it was believed, required parents to offer their alive children as burnt offerings, something that the Lord actually said, did not even enter his mind as spoke through Jeremiah. As we move through the New Testament, the commandment about not murdering fellow image bearers stands. But what about abortion specifically? Though the New Testament is silent on this, there are several influential Christians who wrote about it back then. Let me cite just 1 writing. It was a training manual of sorts, written in the latter part of the 1st Century about the same time as the New Testament was being written by Paul, Peter, John and others. This manual was for those who were interested in becoming Christians. See, they approached things a little differently than we do. We normally lay out the facts of the gospel, then when we get them to commit, we give them the fine print as it were about all the things the believer now needs to believe and practice. But in the first couple of centuries, it was train them first, to let them know what they are getting themselves into. Then as a capstone event, should they still want to follow Jesus they get baptized. Again, in large measure, the early Christians used the writing called the Didache, which means teaching to train them in the things of the Lord and what it means to follow him. And though the New Testament did not directly address abortion, the Didache did. Here is what it said, you shall not practice magic, or witchcraft; you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten-meaning infanticide. In other words, if a person was to become a Christian in the first few centuries, among many other things, abortion and infanticide were things that they did not practice. Not only that, other church leaders saw women who obtained abortions as murderers. Today, we are a little more nuanced than they were in the first century. But in our nuance, have we watered down the holiness of God in our churches? Another message for another time. But one thing we can agree on as true Christians. God calls abortion murder, for it is the intentional taking of human life, inside the womb. There is very little disagreement between true Christians and those who understand this issue. But tragically a large percentage of those who call themselves Christians don't know that God considers abortion an abomination. If we as Christians always hung around fellow Christians, I suppose we would not talk abortion. We would not need to do so. But we live in the world. As the Lord told us, we are in the world but not of it. And so, by the grace of God, He has given us the privilege to be the Lord's witnesses to those who so desperately need to see God's ways lived out in our lives, among one another. And abortion ranks right up there with the Lord's desire and the world's desperation to witness a culture of life, rather than a culture of death. So, it is into the marketplace of ideas that we go. We live in a society where anything and everything goes. What we call a pro-life stance is only one idea among many. And to hear the mainstream media and organizations like Planned Parenthood, and even leaders in liberal churches tell it, it would seem that very few people hold to a conservative pro-life position. However, the latest Gallup poll taken last May, shows the country divided down the middle-48% are pro-life and 46% are pro-abortion. As Christians we are to set a God-honoring witness to those in our culture. Also, let's not forget that we still live in a country build on the foundation of our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. How do we engage the culture where half of us as U.S. citizens and most of us as non-Christians hold to pro-abortion position? Answer? It's all in how we package this issue. Like anything, words matter. Of course there are some who say they don't believe that. But they can't help themselves. Take the Speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi. After the house rules were set that forbid gendered pronouns, she could not obey those rules. When she introduced herself to talk about the articles of Impeachment against President Trump, in the space of literally 10 seconds she used 6 gendered pronouns! The point is, even with the Nancy Pelosi's of the world, words matter. So, I want to equip us in the battle of ideas as we talk to fellow image bearers of God regarding abortion. The heart of this issue is summed up in 1 word: personhood. If you get nothing else out of this message, get this: personhood is at the very center of the argument. Now we might be thinking, "How can that be? There is a baby in the womb." Guess what? Pro-abortion people admit that. "But there is life in the womb. And life begins at conception." And you would be right again. In reality, those who deny that life begins at conception are the science deniers. In 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services stated that life indeed begins at conception. But those who hold to pro-abortion ideas admit to all this. They believe that life begins at conception. They believe that there is a baby in the womb. But that does not matter to them. What DOES matter to them is this issue of whether the entity in the womb is a person or not. And this a pro-abortion person will deny. In a nutshell, the idea goes like this: the human body means very little. But the value we place on the body, includes the idea of personhood. In other words, if I consider that what is in the womb is only a blob of tissue, or even a mere body, I can do what I want with it. But if I value this body in the womb as a person, then he or she must be protected. If only a body, I can destroy it. If the body is a person, the I must protect him or her. We can spend all day just here, be must go on. Let me recommend an outstanding resource for you to discover more about this issue of personhood: "Love Thy Body" by Nancy Pearcey. Again, the argument is not over whether human life is in the womb. The argument is over whether the one in the womb is a person. Let's go on in the battle of ideas, and it has to do with a phrase: "freedom to choose". That is the mantra of the pro-abortion movement as we all know. This is really an unfortunate phrase, because every person on the planet has the freedom to choose. Women have the freedom to choose. So do men. So do kids. But something is dreadfully wrong with this phrase. When it comes to the abortion issue, we have been trained to leave the phrase open and be OK with that. What we ought to be doing is to first of all train ourselves to simply finish the phrase by asking, "Freedom to choose . . .What?" "Ok, my pro-abortion friend, you are free to choose. Free to choose what?" In the battle in the marketplace of ideas, we dare not let this go. We need to pin the person down. Force him or her to answer to question. Terminate the pregnancy? End the life? then we can step in and define what is in the womb from a personhood standpoint. If we have the freedom to choose, then to help them understand the weakness of their position, we can give them some absurd idea. "Not to be snarky, but do I have the freedom of choice to hit you over the head and take your wallet?" The point is, help the person to understand that no one has the absolute freedom to do what they want with their own body. Do we have the freedom to hurt ourselves, for example? No. It is illegal to kill oneself. And speaking of one's own body let me give you several milestones in the womb. We saw 2 milestones when watching the video at the beginning of the message. 21 days, or thereabout, after conception, before a woman even knows for sure she is pregnant, a heartbeat is present. About 3 weeks later, brainwaves can be detected. But the detection is only as good as the sensitivity of the instruments measuring these things. So, could it be possible that a heartbeat even begins earlier and brainwaves are present earlier than what we already know? Let me make a brief point here before we go on to the 3rd milestone in the womb. The definition of death includes 2 things: absence of a heartbeat and no brainwaves. If that is physical death, then we ought to conclude that life means at the very least the presence of a heartbeat and brainwaves. Right around the time a woman knows for sure she is pregnant the person inside her womb has a heartbeat and brainwaves. A third milestone in the womb is the presence of pain receptors in this tiny person. The Family Research Council-an outstanding, trustworthy organization published these facts: By as early as 16 weeks after conception, the person in the womb shows stress responses. In other words, the baby can feel pain then. However, pain is sensed more acutely by babies at the beginning of the 3rd trimester-about 20 weeks, than by newborns and even by adults because the mechanisms that inhibit pain are not yet fully developed. In other words, in what is called a late term abortion, the unborn child feels everything with no shock factor. When we experience something extremely painful in our body, what happens? We can sometimes go into shock. It's the Lord's way of gradually introducing our body to the painful thing that just happened. When a late term baby is aborted, there is no shock factor. And by the way, fetal surgery is getting increasingly common. And anesthesia is administered in those times. So, it is common knowledge that babies can feel pain in the womb, full force during a late term abortion. Those who know better are some of the strongest advocates for late term abortions. Governor Northam, a pediatric neurologist by training, defended a bill that would allow abortion all the way to 40 weeks by saying, "If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother." Did you catch it? An infant already delivered, is in question here. What would the discussion entail? Any sane person would not have a discussion-this person is born. But let's remember. This comment was made by Governor Northam defending late term abortions all the way up to the day of the person's birth. How hard hearted can a person be to do anything other than reject this out of hand? Jeremiah 17:9 is so evident here: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Our heart naturally knows no bounds when it comes to sin. We are capable of the most vile forms of inflicting pain on one another. Finally, let me give you one more piece of weaponry in the abortion battle as we engage in the markeplace of ideas, and that is the word, fetus. Most of us know what that is. It is Latin for offspring. And what does offspring mean? It means, baby. Infant. But why is the unborn person referred to as a fetus? How many of us naturally go around speaking Latin? Why use a special Latin word for who is in the womb? Why not simply say baby? Offspring? Could it be that those who use this term say this on purpose, unwilling to face what-who is really in the womb? Of course, we need to simply ask the question: Do you know what fetus means? There is much more we can, and perhaps need to say. But let's leave it there. If we use the weapons I have outlined, we have more than enough firepower to do battle in the marketplace of ideas. And why engage in the battle? What is the purpose? Let me suggest to us a very practical reason before we get to what I am convinced is the ultimate reason. In marketing terms, how big of a business is abortion? The most recent stats I could find for Planned Parenthood were current in 2017. Their total income was $1.5 billion. Obviously, there is much more money being raked in, not the least of which is the issue of, there is no easy way to say it-body parts. And how much by the way of fetal tissue goes into the current covid-19 vaccines? And we haven't even talked about the dealing with what amounts to PTSD and other mental health issues in post-abortive women, and even men, who mostly don't have a say in this issue. So, why should we engage in the marketplace of ideas regarding abortion? Short answer: follow the money. What if, hypothetically, every woman, man, parent, grandparent had a rock ribbed conviction that the one in the womb is a person and he or she or they! should be protected. How quickly would the so-called abortion industry go away? Do we think that abortionists, Planned Parenthood and others of their ilk do it for free? No. Instead of destroying lives perhaps they would find something better to occupy their time. But we need to engage in this battle one prayer at a time. One encounter at a time. One conversation at a time. Every heart and mind changed from being pro-abortion to that of pro-life is one less unit of demand. If the demand for abortion goes too low, it no longer becomes profitable. Again, follow the money. We also can multi-task. There are more prongs in this battle. Though it will be a lot more difficult going forward we can engage politically and work to have the laws changed. In this session of Congress 45 Freshman House members are solidly pro-life-to include 27 men. We can get involved practically. We heard a great presentation from Donna about the East End Pregnancy Center. There are a couple of these kinds of centers in the Richmond area and hundreds if not thousands around the country. They are largely unknown. Why? Because, ultimately the evil one prevents the word from getting out. Every center needs money. They need volunteers. Prayerfully consider how you can and should be involved. Then there is the incredible technology called ultrasound. We saw a few pictures in our video earlier. And now the imagery is stunning. Ministries like Preborn or "Save the Storks" center their work around offering ultrasound screenings. The hard evidence shows that 8 out of every 10 women who seek abortions, after seeing the person in the womb decide to carry him or her to term. Great stats! And what a marvel of technology, as a woman and even the father can literally look at their little person through a window in the womb. And let's not forget about adoption. There are a number of Christian pro-life adoption agencies as well. Time fails us to get into any detail at all about this. Finally there is the demonstrating at abortion clinics, Life Chain Sundays, sidewalk counseling, passing out printed information and so much more. The most important thing we can do as Christians in the battle over abortion begins in the family. As parents and grandparents, we can prayerfully engage with our kids and grandkids, taking the initiative to explain to them the value of life. We can tell them and now show them in stunning pictures and ultrasound videos, what happens in the womb. We can teach them true science, that life begins at conception. And when they are ready, what really happens when an abortion takes place. And who we are all accountable to. God is the author of life. He commands us to value it. Every person, whether perfectly healthy or with some abnormality is supremely valuable. And just to remind us-every one of us has limitations. None of us are perfectly formed. We live in a fallen world. So all those with Downs Syndrome, or blind, or without limbs, pick an abnormality-we are all part of the human race. Each one equally as valuable. Each one supremely valued by the one who created them. When God commissioned 80 year old Moses to lead God's people out of bondage, Moses had an argument with God. "I'm not able to do what you are asking" is what Moses basically told the Lord. "They won't believe that you sent me." "I can't talk too good." What was God's reply? Listen carefully because I think we read it too quickly. Here's what he told Moses in Exodus 4:11: "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?" Did you catch that? God takes responsibility for even the deformities we are born with. Again let me remind us: we live in a fallen world. It is not God's intention to keep it this way. There will come a day when babies will no longer possess deformities coming out of the womb. Babies will be born after Jesus returns here to this planet and he will reign for 1000 years. So, who are we to say, that a person who has a deformity does not have the right to live? But what is abortion all about anyway? Why do image bearers of God insist on getting rid of fellow image bearers of God, regardless of the pain and suffering involved? The ultimate answer is rebellion against what God has told us as human beings. What was the very first commandment God gave us? "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it." God intended children to be a blessing, but how often do we consider them a curse? Or inconvenient? Or something we cannot afford? Or a hindrance to our own plans? Every time a person says, "I will abort", that person is telling God, once again, "I am like you, God, knowing good and evil." Of course, there are many complications. Many anecdotal, personal, often painful stories of people trying to justify their abortion. But God calls it sin. God hates it. Abortion and infanticide are abhorrent to God. But on the other hand, as we have seen today, there are things we as Christians can do. And it all comes together in one statement. One person saved in the womb, carried to term helps fulfill the first mandate our Creator gave to us. And just as important, every baby who emerges alive from the womb is one more potential worshiper of God. And we as Christians know the end of the book. Picture the scene! Along with the myriads of angels, the 24 elders, the living creatures, there will also be the redeemed, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" Amen! And that is why we engage. We are to be about helping precious souls come to Christ so they too can be saved and give praise to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! Today has been a real gut wrenching experience. Because some of you here and on Facebook Live have experienced the horror of it. There is probably not a day that goes by that you don't think about the what ifs, and the deep regrets. And immense sorrow still grips you. Even if you have had that experience years ago. We weep with you. We are filled with sorrow for you. But those of us who have not engaged in the sin of abortion or even infanticide, are not free from sin. It's just that we may not be guilty of THAT sin. This morning, I want us to reconsider the whole issue of sin. I want us to squarely face it in our own lives. See, we have all sinned against holy God. We know that to be true. Every and any sin is worthy of God pouring out his wrath on us. Every one us as image bearers of God, are guilty. Guilty as charged. But how directly have we faced our sin? Our abominations? Our transgressions? Our iniquities that we have committed against God? I'm afraid that because we are fallen humans, we don't do a very good job at that. And that is to our own hurt. How do we often deal with the pain that sin and evil has caused in our lives? We rationalize. We justify. We make things sound a bit nicer to us, not as harsh. So we can somehow feel better about ourselves to save face in our own eyes. See, we have affairs. But God calls it adultery. We are gay and engage in gay love. God calls it sodomy. As single people we sleep around-have benefits. God calls it fornication. We tell little fibs. But God calls them lies. As students we cheat on tests. But God calls that stealing answers. We are justified in calling people demeaning names like idiot and stupid. But Jesus said we are in danger of hell fire because we display a murderous spirit. We have an abortion. God calls it murder. How are we to deal with our wickedness? We start by asking the Lord to show us our heart. Full force. David begs God, Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Second, we confess our sin. Not our mistakes. Not our shortcomings. See, Scripture does not tell us that Jesus died for our mistakes. He did not die for our shortcomings. You want to know what he died for? Isaiah 53:5-6: He was pierced for our transgressions-not mistakes; he was crushed for our iniquities-not our faults; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity-not low self esteem of us all. We are to confess our adultery. Our homosexuality. Our lust. Our stealing. Our murder. We call it what God calls it. Then having faced it, we cast it at the foot of the cross. See, we can be forgiven of sin. Of abomination. Of transgressions. Because these things are what Jesus died for. And having done this, cast our sins at the cross, we receive his tender, amazing, beyond words forgiveness. And we bask in that. And we believe him when he says "I forgive you. My blood covers you. Forever." And having received the forgiveness of God, we can ask him to take control of our lives. We can walk in freedom, because by his stripes we are spiritually healed. Sometimes physically. But most assuredly spiritually healed. This morning, I want us to do business with the Lord. This message is too valuable to merely walk out of here with a rousing song. I want us to feel the weight and the glory of God taking our sin as we cast them on him, as we name specific sins using the names God uses. Then having confessed and repented of them we trust his promise to forgive us, knowing the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. We remember his promise to us that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, we are going to keep things quiet this morning. I want us to spend time before the Lord in silence. We are not going to sing to end the service. The offering basket will be in the back on the information table. Please remember to give as you leave, knowing that your offering is an act of worship. But stay before the Lord. As long as it takes. When you feel you are finished, leave quietly. Take the fellowship outside or in the fellowship hall. I will pray a prayer to get things going. Then we will turn Facebook Live off. And let me encourage you who are watching, that you would do more than watch. You would participate and do what we are about to do. Confess your sins. Receive his forgiveness. Ask him to take control. And then engage the world with life. Life. Eternal life.