God's Case Against Abortion & Regard for the Unborn

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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Those were some good hymns and some good questions that we covered on the means of grace.

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Those are very important for the Christian life. And I had a few other announcements to make.

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One is with respect to tithing. I know I've mentioned this before a little bit, but we wanted to just encourage everybody.

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What we're doing is we're saving our tithes in our savings accounts. So we're just kind of storing them off until we get ready to accept donations as a church body.

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So we just wanted to encourage you to do something like that and obviously to give.

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You can also give to other ministries or biblical ministries and things like that. I wanted to also lift up Pastor Dave Hendricks from Santa Teresa Church where Jeremy and Alethea have been coming from.

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He's been doing chemo treatments five days a week. So we just want to pray for him.

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And he's been feeling a little weaker and things like that. So we just want to go ahead and just keep him in prayer.

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And so I wanted to start what

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I think is going to be a series on abortion. And I've really been convicted about this and just been really learning a lot about this subject.

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But before we do that, let's go ahead and start with a word of prayer. Our precious, gracious, and heavenly

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Father, we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity for this precious Lord's Day to gather together as a church and as a people that want to seek your kingdom and your righteousness first and foremost.

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We ask that you would bless the gathering of your people and the preaching of your word. And also we ask that you help us,

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Lord, to be faithful and faithful Christians who walk after your kingdom statutes.

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And Lord, help us to open our minds to the truth and to be receptive to what your word has to say about this incredibly pressing subject of abortion,

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Lord, and about the unborn. Father, we thank you. We also thank the fathers that are with us today.

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We ask that you would bless the fathers as we celebrate Father's Day as well.

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And for those who no longer have their fathers with us, we ask that you would encourage them, knowing that you, of course,

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Father, are our heavenly Father and that you sustain us and encourage us in these times,

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Lord. Father, we thank you and we ask this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. All right.

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So I wanted to start out by really thanking our amazing...

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We really have such an amazing group of people here with us, and I'm so grateful for you all. And I just wanted to especially thank our brothers and sisters who have been actively participating in abortion ministry, some for many years.

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And I'm just very grateful for the opportunity that God has given us as a church and to really have an opportunity to be witnesses and to be the salt and light on this issue in our community and in our county.

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And I know a lot of the sisters here with us, they go out and protest at abortion clinics.

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And we've been speaking at city council and giving five minutes of public comment and just defending the unborn and exposing the evils of abortion and Planned Parenthood.

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And I've just been very encouraged by that. And Sister Elizabeth has been sharing us some really good news on that, which

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I also wanted to mention her as well, Sister Elizabeth Crawford. She's been doing abortion ministry for a long time and many years,

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I'm sure. How many years now do you know? About 10 years. So, yeah, very grateful for her and for the amazing work that she's been doing and really helping us, allowing us to be a part of that and just try to really be salt and light on such a pressing issue of our time.

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And I've just been very encouraged by her and by the brothers and sisters who have been participating.

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And I want to encourage all of us to do so, to participate in whatever way that we can.

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And so we also wanted to mention

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I've been contacting, trying to contact different ministries and different people regarding this issue.

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And I was able to procure an order of a book from Life Dynamics.

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And I mentioned, I quoted Life Dynamics quite a bit in my speeches to city council.

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They have been doing abortion ministry work for like 40 years or so.

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And they have a book called Lime 5. And this book is basically, it's an in -depth expose of the abortion industry.

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And they graciously allowed us to order a whole box free of charge, just pay the shipping.

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So they were very, they've been very gracious, very generous. They even gave me another copy of Mark Crutcher's book,

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Siege, which is a pro -life field manual. And this is also by Mark Crutcher.

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He's the president of Life Dynamics. And so today we wanted to give you all copies of this book.

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You can take a copy of this book for yourselves. And if you also know somebody that you think would benefit from this book, by all means, grab them a copy and hand it out to them.

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And so we were also thinking about giving copies of these to the city council members, the commissioners and things like that, just to kind of help people to see the reality of what abortion really is and what it entails.

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So, you know, after the service, feel free to take your copy and for anybody else that you think would benefit from it.

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And with that said, I also wanted to encourage all of us as well to attend and or protest at the weekly council meetings, like I mentioned,

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Mondays at 930. And it's at the main court, the court downtown in San Antonio here.

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And they're going to be closed on Monday for Juneteenth. So they're going to be closed. But, you know, next week they're going to open up.

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And in fact, I think next week is when they're going to announce the Women's Commission, what they ended up deciding on the

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Women's Commission. And some exciting updates on that is that they were supposed to make the final determination on the

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Women's Commission last week. But I think because of the protesting, they've started to reconsider maybe what they're going to make the

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Women's Commission about. So there's some exciting. We've really been making a dent. I mean, just a small little church of, you know, four or five people there.

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And it's amazing that the Lord has really been using this to help bring righteousness and life to our county.

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And so that's some very exciting news. So I encourage you all to participate, to attend if you can. Even if you can't attend in person, you can still attend online through their

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YouTube channel. And you can also view the presentations that we've made on the

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YouTube channel. And you can also make a public comment by calling in.

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So you can also call and or videocast and make a public comment and share what you want to say about abortion or Planned Parenthood.

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Things of that sort. And so just really exciting things that the Lord is doing with us in our church.

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And I'm looking forward to what we're going to talk about today as well. And also, this is really, really important because we're as a church.

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We need to prepare ourselves to be to be the church and to be salt and light, especially to those struggling with the concept or the decision to make an abortion or with unplanned pregnancies.

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We really want to encourage everybody to be open and willing to help. Right. Because, you know,

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I've already made the announcement. Other sisters have made the announcement that we if you need help, contact us on our website at our crown ministries dot com.

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And we can help you because we believe that the Lord will provide richly beyond even what what you're what you need.

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So we know that the Lord provides and we believe that God will provide and help us to be ministers of truth and of the healing, that healing balm that they need.

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And so we want to just encourage you all to share the truth with these with women who may be struggling, men who may be struggling with abortion, with the gospel, with considering even possibility of adopting financially, helping with appointments or diapers, you know, all of the all of those things, maybe even giving women shelter, you know, just just the different things that that we might be, that we might encounter as a church as we get more involved in this kind of ministry.

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So we just want to be encouraging you all to keep an open, be open about those things, to consider those things and just try to do what you can as we seek to glorify

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God in this very important work. You know, we've been pretty much the only church that's been protesting on Mondays.

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And even with that, it's been amazing to see the Lord, what the damage he can do with just a few, a few, a faithful few.

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Right. So but at the same time, we also want to encourage other churches that we are that, you know, that are solid, that are sound to also participate.

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And for the introduction, I wanted to also. This is going to be a little bit unorthodox, you might say.

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I wanted to read from a textbook that I read that I read in college. This is in one of my religious studies classes.

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It's a book called Exploring the Philosophy of Religion. And this book is is,

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I think, typical of many popular college level textbooks. When it's talking about religious studies or religion in college, you're going to find this is very common.

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You're going to find this to be the common doctrine or teaching that you'll see in in universities.

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And so this author, David Stewart, I think he's a professor at Ohio University. He says this.

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If one were to look for the term abortion in either the Jewish, the

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Old Testament or the Christian, the New Testament scriptures, nothing would be found. The term does not appear there, nor is the issue discussed in direct terms.

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There is no commandment that says thou shall not commit abortion. So those looking for scriptural guidance for their views have to look for more indirect guidance.

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There is, of course, the Sixth Commandment, which in its Jewish version says you shall not murder. And in Catholic and Protestant version says you shall not kill.

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The question is whether these prohibitions apply to the pre -birth human or only to human beings who live independently of their mother.

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The answer is not given in scripture, but is brought to the reading of Jewish and Christian scriptures by those who look to those passages to defend their views.

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In other words, he's accusing us of isageating the text when we say that God condemns abortion.

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That's what he's accusing us of. Other biblical passages include Exodus 21, 22 through 25, which applies mosaic law to cases when violence to a pregnant woman results in premature birth.

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And in Psalm 139, 13 through 16, which describes the gestation of a fetus as being fearfully and wonderfully made.

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Neither citation gives unambiguous guidance to the issue of how to assess the status of the fetus.

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In the New Testament, the reference in Luke 141 through 42 to Elizabeth's awareness of the presence in her womb of the child who would come to be known as John the

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Baptist is sometimes cited by pro -life adherents. This passage of scripture, however, says that the child was six months old, well past the time when pro -choice adherents usually defend termination of a pregnancy.

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So you can see the shallow, abominable treatment of scripture that these professors have.

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And this has influenced our students, college students, including Christians who attend secular universities.

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Even Christian universities, there's Christian universities that also teach that abortion is

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OK. And so this is dangerous ground, dangerous territory.

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One thing that you might have noticed, he said that the word abortion is not in the Bible. You see this frequently in many people who try to argue for something called the word concept fallacy.

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Just because the word is not there does not mean the Bible does not have anything to say about it.

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One perfect example is the Trinity, right? The word Trinity is not in the

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Bible. That was, I think, coined by Tertullian, who was an early

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Christian apologist. So that doesn't mean that the Bible does not teach the Trinity. The concept, the doctrine of the

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Trinity is clearly taught in the whole counsel of God. Similarly, abortion, we will see, is clearly condemned in the

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Bible. But this is why, this is another important lesson for us to beware.

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To beware of any categorical or universal claims that make general statements.

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In general, but about the Bible in particular, right? So the claim that abortion is nowhere directly discussed in the

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Bible. You also see this in other Christian movements that tend to truncate the

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Bible. Such as New Covenant Theology. They tend to oversimplify the Bible. They tend to overlook certain parts of the

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Bible that teach Covenant Theology. Or Lordship Salvation. They tend to, again, oversimplifies or may overgeneralize certain commands in Christ, saying, forsake all that you have and follow me.

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They tend to make overgeneralized passages when they are not meant to be applied in that way to everybody or in every situation.

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Similarly, also like pietism. Pietism is essentially the overemphasis on emotion and experience at the expense of doctrine.

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So all of these are truncated forms of Christianity due to either misinterpretation, oversimplification, and especially a lack of systematic harmonization of doctrine and scripture.

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You have to take the whole counsel of God. You cannot ignore the whole counsel of God.

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You've got to study it comprehensively. You have to make sure that you're not leaving anything out when it's talking about a specific issue like abortion.

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Okay? And now, while these movements may not necessarily be heretical, they are, however, often very imbalanced.

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And they can lead to dangerous inconsistencies and be very problematic because of that. Because theology has consequences, right?

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What we believe has consequences. And you saw how this book gave an extremely shallow, truncated assessment of scripture and dismissal of basically all pro -life

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Christians who say abortion is murder. But this is what you're going to find in a lot of campuses, probably most campuses today.

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That's the kind of treatment that they're going to give. So the first section I have here is on the biblical case against abortion and for the unborn.

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The second will be the spiritual reality of abortion. And the third will be abortion in the public sphere, in society, in politics.

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So Isaiah 8 .20 says, So that was a very fitting way to open.

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What does the scriptures actually say? Let's dig into the scriptures to see what they actually say about the issue of abortion.

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So let's start out with Exodus 21. Verse 22 -25, that's one of the passages that he mentioned.

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And here, in that passage, you'll see a very specific situation that deals with the concept of abortion.

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Exodus 21 .22 -25. It says this,

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The one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judge has determined.

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But if there is harm to the baby, in other words, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

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So I don't understand how this professor doesn't realize the explicit teaching here that if you get in a fight with somebody and you hit a woman on accident, or if you hit a pregnant woman and she aborts her child because of it, her child dies, miscarries, then you will have to pay with your own life.

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It's clear as day here. You get capital punishment if the child dies. If the unborn child dies, you will suffer capital punishment.

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And this is God's word, this is God's law. So that itself shows you how

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God sees the unborn. He sees them as human life, as human beings, with the same status as somebody who is born.

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They are treated equally. So the concept of abortion being condemned is clearly there in this very passage.

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The intentional unjust killing of an unborn child is condemned as murder.

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And even if it wasn't intentional, God takes it so seriously that even if it's not intended, you didn't intend to hit the woman, but if you kill the child, you still pay the price with your life.

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So God considers unborn children equally with born persons, thus killing an unborn child is punished by death in the

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Old Testament. Similarly, if we turn to Genesis 9, verses 5 -7, we'll see a similar concept here.

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I believe it's called, there's a Latin term for it, I think it's called lex talionis, which is the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, tongue for a tongue, lip for a lip, life for life, foot for foot.

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So Genesis 9, verses 5 -7, it says this,

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Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning. From the hand of every beast

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I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man.

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Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man.

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And as for you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply in it.

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So here we see again, another very important doctrine related to this, that's the imago dei, the image of God.

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We are created in God's image. And in the letter of Corinthians, it goes even further and says, man is the image of the invisible

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God. We are God's image. Therefore, killing a human being is punished with the highest form of earthly punishment, which is death.

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So, you shed man's blood, your blood will be shed. And that's man's blood.

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The blood of the unborn is man's blood. It's human blood. So you will be guilty of murder.

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And so, another passage that David Stewart mentioned, the professor, was

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Psalm 139. Let's turn to that psalm. Psalm 139.

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Many of you probably are familiar with this psalm. It has a very special, amazing description of what happens in the womb when a child is there.

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Starting at verse 13. Psalm 139. Starting at verse 13.

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So, in Psalm 139, verses 13 -16, it says this, For you formed my inward parts.

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You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

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Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when

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I was being made in secret. Intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance.

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In your book were written every one of them. The days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them.

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This is an amazing passage and it shows you the predetermined counsel, the predestinating power of God's providence and will.

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How, even though the days were not yet there, that last passage in verse 16, the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them.

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God has already predetermined every single one of our days. Every one of our sins, every one of our actions, every one of our good works has been prepared beforehand, sovereignly by God.

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So, for you to say that you can kill an unborn child is to, you're basically undermining and spitting on God's predestinating will because God has a purpose for every one of us.

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Now, of course, God predetermined abortion as well. Abortion is not an accident.

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It's not something that God didn't foresee. He predetermined every single baby that was, is, and will be aborted because God is sovereign and He has a reason for everything that He does.

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But you see how God takes seriously the unborn, even the unformed substance.

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God is still preparing us individually for a specific purpose.

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So, for you to just simply crassly say, we can kill the child in the unborn womb as long as it's within a certain time period or whatever, you're taking the place of God because you're not sovereign over that life.

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God is the only one who is sovereign over life. Right? Similarly, let's turn to another passage.

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Again, he mentioned three passages. There's scores of scriptures that talk about this issue.

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One of them that he didn't mention was Psalm 22. Let's go to Psalm 22.

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Psalm 22 has other very pressing words for the issue of abortion and the unborn.

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Starting in verse 9. So Psalm 22 starting in verse 9 through 11. Yet you are

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He who took me from the womb. You made me to trust you, you made me trust you at my mother's breast.

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On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my

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God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help.

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So here you see, verse 10. From my mother's womb you have been my

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God. God is sovereign over every individual including the unborn.

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Even before they're born. Right? God said even before creation, even before the foundation of the world,

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God had thought of each and every one of us in His mind. And so in the womb,

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God is still God. God is still sovereign over those who are unborn.

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And then also jumping down in Psalm 22 to verses 30 to 31. Posterity shall serve

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Him and shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn.

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That He has done it. You see, when you try to say that we can kill an unborn child for whatever reason, what you're saying is that's a denial.

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That's a denial of God's sovereignty. That is an attack and an undermining and a denial of God's sovereignty and of His predestinating power over every single human life.

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And you will answer for that. If we thwart human life, whether it's at conception, whether it's after birth, whether it's six months in the womb or later, you will answer to God because you are dealing with somebody made in His image.

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Boy or girl. It does not matter. So similarly, another

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Psalm that He didn't mention is Psalm 71. So let's turn to Psalm 71.

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And verses 5 -6. Psalm 71.

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Verses 5 -6. For You, O Lord, are my hope, my trust,

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O Lord, from my youth. Upon You have I leaned from before my birth.

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You are He who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of You.

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Upon You I have leaned from before my birth. We're talking about persons.

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Human beings are still human beings in the womb. From conception forward, they are human beings with a purpose, with a divine purpose.

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And it's clearly expressed in the Scriptures. It's amazing.

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He didn't even bother to mention that. He said nowhere does the Bible talk about this issue.

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And you will see that this is a very shallow mindset of many people today, even in churches.

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Because churches aren't dealing with this issue like they should be. Many churches ignore this issue. And it is one of the most wicked holocausts that our nation is responsible for.

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So now let's turn to the New Testament where he mentioned the story in Luke chapter 1.

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In Luke chapter 1, we see the birth of Christ. Starting in verse 34.

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Luke chapter 1 starting in verse 34 through 37. I'm going to read the context first so we can understand what's going on and then read on.

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So the Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verses 34 to 37. And Mary said to the angel,

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How will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the

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Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the

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Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son.

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And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.

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Now skipping down to verse 39. In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah.

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And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.

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And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

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For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leapt for joy.

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So look at how he just grossly dismissed what's going on here.

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The author of this book, the professor, only focused on John the

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Baptist who was six months old. Didn't even bother to talk about Jesus.

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Jesus in this passage had just been conceived. Okay? And listen again to what in the first passage that we read.

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The power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the

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Son of God. The child to be born. It's a child. It's not a fetus.

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It's not anything less than a child. Full person child.

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A human child. That's what God calls it. And this is talking about conception.

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Okay? In those days, Mary arose. It's talking about Mary barely having conceived

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Christ. And there you see, Elizabeth celebrates because John the

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Baptist recognizes Christ when he hears Mary. And he says,

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Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? She's saying the mother of my

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Lord, the little baby Jesus was barely conceived at that point. Barely having been conceived.

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And you see there, even at conception, God is treating that child as a child, as a full human person.

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And even Mary recognizes that and calls him my Lord. This is just incredible.

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And he completely ignores this. How can you ignore this? So, and then of course, this is one account of Christ's birth.

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There's another account that he didn't bother to look at. Let's turn to the other birth account in the

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Gospel of Matthew 1. In Matthew 1, starting at verse 18, you see another very interesting, very revealing passage with respect to this issue.

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The Gospel of Matthew 1, verses 18 -23. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

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When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the

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Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

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But when he 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

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Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her, the child who has been conceived, barely conceived as a child, a full child, is of the

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Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

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Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name

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Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. That's a prophecy from Isaiah 7 .14 that the virgin will be with child and conceive.

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That's the virgin birth of Christ. So God even considers the fertilized egg at conception a full human child.

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I don't know how He missed that. This is not rocket science, right? A basic reading of the

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Bible will tell you that. Now let's go to the sixth commandment. This is obviously a very important thing.

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So here we're showing that even though the word abortion is not in the Bible, killing the unborn is clearly condemned.

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We haven't even finished looking at all the Scriptures yet, and that's already been made obvious from the

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Scripture. The sixth commandment. I'm going to read from the Larger Catechism, the Westminster Larger Catechism, questions 134 and on.

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Which is the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill or murder. Question 135.

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What are the duties required in the sixth commandment? The duties required in the sixth commandment are all careful studies and lawful endeavors to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions and avoiding all occasions, temptations and practices which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any by just defense thereof against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit, a sober use of meat, drink, physique, sleep, labor and recreation by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness, peaceable, mild and courteous speeches and behavior, forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries and quieting good for evil, comforting and succoring the distressed and protecting and defending the innocent.

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This was written back in the 1600s. What this is doing is taking the full counsel of God like we talked about.

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It's systematically harmonizing the whole counsel of God. What does it say about murdering? And it's summarizing it in this question and answer form.

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It's excellent. Question 136 says, What are the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment? The sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are all taking away of the life of ourselves or of others except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defense, self -defense.

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The neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preservation of life. The necessary means of preservation of life.

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Sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire, revenge, all excessive passions, distracting cares, immoderate use of meat, drink, labor, and recreations, provoking words, oppression, quarreling, striking, wounding, and whatsoever else leads to the destruction of the life of any.

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And even then, if God condemns hatred as murder, if Jesus himself said, you so much as hate your brother, you're a murderer, how much more taking away the life of an unborn child?

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No. You're actually performing a murder, a physical murder, instead of just a spiritual heart murder.

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That's even worse. So abortion is clearly murder.

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The intentional, unjust killing of an unborn child is condemned as murder. And like we saw in Exodus 22, even the unintentional killing of an unborn child is regarded as murder.

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Capital punishment is punished the same as murder, with capital punishment.

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No exceptions. No exceptions. So now, let's turn to Proverbs 24.

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Proverbs 24, verse 11. This is a very important call to action for us as a church.

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Proverbs 24, verse 11. You've probably seen this verse often quoted in abortion ministries and things like that.

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Proverbs 24, verse 11 says, Rescue, rescue those who are being taken away to death.

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Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. This is a clarion call.

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This is a call to action for us as a church to fight for and rescue the unborn with the way, the truth, and the life, the gospel, and with mercy ministry.

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This is a clear instruction for us as a church to rescue and help to save those who are being slaughtered, the innocent, who are being taken away to death, the unborn especially.

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And you see this precedent from church history as well. In church history, the early

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Christians, the Romans had a very patriarchal society. People like to call the

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US a patriarchal society. They don't know what patriarchy means. The Romans were very patriarchal, so patriarchal in fact that the father had the authority to kill his son, any of his kids at any age.

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He had the right to kill them, including when they were born. So when somebody's son or daughter was born, they would put him up, they would offer him up, and if the parents would take him, the child would live.

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And if they wouldn't, the child would stay and die. Or one of two things would happen. Those who were in pimps and prostitutes would pick them up and make them sex slaves or slaves, slave labor.

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Turn them into slaves and sex slaves. Or the church would come and pick up those children.

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So you see here, even in the early church, they would seek to protect, to rescue those who would be left to the slaughter, left to be killed, left to just die.

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And so this is something that is not new to our time. So now let's go to Proverbs 6.

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We're going to get more of a feel for how God feels about abortion. Remember, this professor didn't mention any of these passages.

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Keep that in mind too. Because this is why I want us to equip ourselves with God's Word so that we can share this and let people see this is how

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God sees the murder of abortion. He sees conceived conception is a child, a full human child.

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So Proverbs 6, starting at verse 16 through 19. There are six things that the

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Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

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God hates hands that shed innocent blood. This is something very pressing to the pro -life issue.

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Because you'll see, most pro -life organizations believe that the woman should not be charged with a crime or should not be charged with killing her child because she's treated as a victim, according to most pro -life organizations.

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But what does God say? Who volunteered to get the abortion? Who conceded to getting the abortion?

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The mother is just as guilty as the abortionist. The abortionist is the instrument of death, but the mother had to be the one to go and get the abortion.

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Hands that shed innocent blood, God hates that. That is wicked. It's evil.

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It's murder. Because you're taking the life of a child that is made in the image of God.

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Doesn't matter if they're handicapped. Doesn't matter if there's deformity. That doesn't matter. There is no exception anywhere in the

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Bible to any of those things. That's all coming from eugenics. That's all coming from anti...

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You know, who wants to kill... See, this is what he fails to mention too. In the Bible, who is the one that's always trying to kill babies?

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Starts with a D, right? Or an S. Satan. The devil himself. He's the one that's always going after babies.

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In Egypt, trying to kill the firstborn. In Herod's time.

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Herod was trying to kill the firstborn too because he found out that Christ the Messiah was here. And you see, as judgment,

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God judging Egyptians by killing the firstborn because of the false idolatry that they had of Pharaoh being the

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God King. That was a judgment. So, because again,

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God is the one who is in charge of life. He's the one who has the authority to give life and to take it. If God wants to kill someone,

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He has the full authority to do so. We don't. We only have it unless God delegates it to us and says it's okay to do so in a specific circumstance.

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So now, I want to take you to a passage that will remove any and all doubt as to how

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God feels about abortion. That passage is in the book of Amos 1.

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In verse 13. Amos 1.

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Starting in verse 13. The prophet Amos. You'll see here. It's amazing that something so explicit and people to not even mention it.

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You're going to publish a textbook, a university textbook, and not even mention everything we've talked about.

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And this is barely a cursory review of what the Bible talks about. But in Amos 1 .13,

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this is a powerful passage. This is judgment on Israel's neighbors. The passage is going through and God is pronouncing judgment on all of Israel's neighbors for specific sins that they've committed.

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So in verse 13, He says, Thus says the Lord, For three transgressions of the Ammonites and for four,

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I will not revoke the punishment. Why? Because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead that they might enlarge their border.

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So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour her strongholds with shouting on the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind, and their king shall go into exile.

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He and his princes together, says the Lord. So here, what do we see here?

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We see God explicitly judging the Ammonite nation because they were killing unborn children.

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Ripping them out of pregnant women. God clearly condemns and judges the killing of unborn children.

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This is also understood to be the eternal moral law of God because it is murder.

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It's tied to not murdering. That's the sixth commandment. The ten commandments are a summary of the eternal moral law of God that was first revealed to Adam and Eve in the garden.

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That is further summarized by Christ in the book of Leviticus to love God and to love your neighbor.

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So loving your neighbor obviously includes not killing him, including your unborn neighbor.

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This is just so obvious. Especially, you see how

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God is constantly looking after the helpless. The innocent.

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Those who are most helpless. Think about it. Who is most helpless in our society today?

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What category of people are the most helpless in our society? The unborn.

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That's obvious. The unborn. Because it's legal to kill them in so many parts of the world.

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In some places in this nation, in some places, I think like in New York or Chicago, more black babies are aborted than born.

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It's a holocaust. It's a genocide. It's murder. Mass murder. So now to make a distinction, no child is innocent because we're all fallen in Adam.

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We're all fallen and guilty of Adam's sin. That's what Romans 5 talks about.

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That's what the New Testament talks about. The Old Testament as well. We are all guilty of Adam's sin.

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We are all fallen sinners in Adam. And we need Christ to be our forgiveness for that sin.

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So yes, we are guilty of our own sin, but we are also fallen sinners in Adam because Adam broke the covenant.

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And he was our federal head in the garden. So no child is innocent. We are all born sinners.

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But that child is innocent with respect to he didn't do anything wrong to deserve being killed.

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And obviously, he is the victim of sin. He is the victim of the crime of murder, of the sin of murder, of abortion.

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So a few more passages here that I'd like to cover.

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Let's go to Jeremiah 1, chapter 1, verse 4. Here we're going to see some more of what we saw in the book of Psalms.

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In Jeremiah 1, verses 4 -5, you see, Now the word of the

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Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born,

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I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Even before Jeremiah was born, before any of us are born, we have a predetermined purpose by God.

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That is why it is such a heinous sin to say that we have authority to determine if this child should live.

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Oh, well, he's going to suffer. Oh, well, he's going to be unwanted. Oh, well, I can't pay for him. That's wicked.

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You're not God. You don't have the authority to kill somebody because of those reasons. Isaiah 41, verses 1 -3 says,

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Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb.

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From the body of my mother He named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of His hand

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He hid me. He made me a polished arrow. In His quiver He hid me away. And He said to me,

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You are my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Even from the womb

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He was named. Galatians 1 .15, the Apostle Paul, But when

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He who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal

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His Son to me, in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.

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God has a purpose, a predetermined purpose for everyone. You have no right, nobody has any right to terminate a child in the womb for any reason.

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It is not allowed. But in Scripture, it's not allowed. Job 31, this is also a really good passage,

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Job 31, verses 13 -15, If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant when they brought a complaint against me, what then shall

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I do when God rises up? When He makes injury, what shall I answer Him? Did not

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He who made me in the womb make Him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?

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The recognition is clear, and this is before technology and knowing that the child's heart could beat at three weeks and the brainwaves appear at six weeks, even before all this technology that we now have giving us even more information about just how much an unborn child is a human being.

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Thousands of years ago, the authors of Scripture, the Jewish nation knew that the unborn are image bearers of God.

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It doesn't take an ultrasound. It doesn't take none of that technology.

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All it takes is God's Word clearly pronouncing that when you are conceived in the womb, you are a child.

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You are a human child. And then Ecclesiastes 11 .5

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says, As you do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

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It's just showing you we have no authority whatsoever to take the life or to play

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God with human lives. We cannot do that. We have no right to do that.

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And God condemns it with the strongest punishment of death in the

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Old Testament. Abortion also violates the most fundamental precept of medicine.

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This is what's so ironic. You'll see Planned Parenthood say, well, we provide health care to women.

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That's not health care. What's the fundamental precept of medicine?

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It's to save life, to preserve life, not to kill it. This is so fascinating.

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Even pagans understand this. Even ancient pagans knew this.

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It even violates the Hippocratic Oath. And most doctors are supposed to swear.

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They used to swear, and they often still swear a version of the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath, the ancient one, says this,

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I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them.

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I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.

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And I similarly will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion. How could even pagans know better?

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The modern version of the Oath, the Hippocratic Oath says this, Most especially must I tread with the care in matters of life and death.

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If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks, but it may also be within my power to take a life.

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This awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty.

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Above all, I must not play God. This is stuff, even pagans understand this.

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That's what's so sad about all this. So, here we see, again,

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God's sovereign authority over human life, over all life. Job 121, and he said,

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Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.

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Blessed be the name of the Lord. God is sovereign. 1 Samuel 2 .6 -7 The Lord kills and brings to life.

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He brings down to shield and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and He exalts.

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God is in control of human life. Deuteronomy 32 .39

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See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God beside me. I kill,

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I kill, and I make alive. I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

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There you see the connection. There is no God beside me. I kill and I make alive.

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I, God, kill and make alive. So for you to say that you have the authority or the right to kill someone that is not delegated or given as a right from God, you're playing

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God. Because God said, There is no God beside me. I'm the one who gives and takes life.

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Very clear. So, I apologize if I went a little long.

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I was trying to get to the second section. I barely got to the second section, so we're doing good. Next week,

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Lord willing, we're going to cover the spiritual reality and spiritual warfare of abortion. Also, because there's a spiritual aspect to this, of course.

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There's a demonic aspect to this. And we need to be aware of it. So, Lord willing, we will continue going through this.

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And so, let's go ahead now and close out in prayer. Our gracious, precious, heavenly

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Father, we thank you again, Lord, for the opportunity to gather together, to preach your word.

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Lord, please help us as a church to be faithful to the truth of your word, to preach it faithfully, to live it faithfully, to teach it faithfully, and to practice it and walk it out faithfully.

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Lord, help us to correct any errors in our judgment and thoughts and words and actions,

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Lord, and our sins. Please bring correction through us, Lord, through your Spirit, through our conscience, and through your fellow people.

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Help us, Lord, to renew our consciences and to be convicted and to really take hold of, grasp the reality of what's going on today with the gross sin of abortion, as your word says.

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Help us to have your perspective, your eyes, to look at this issue with your eyes and to be your people, to rescue those who are being led away to slaughter, to rescue those who are being killed in the womb.

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Lord, we thank you. We also lift up to you the brothers and sisters who are sick, Lord, those who are suffering and struggling.

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Sister, we lift up to you Angie. We ask that you heal her of her cancer, Lord, and that you help her to find the best treatment for her.

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Lord, we ask that you heal Olda and her facial injuries, her brain injuries. Help her to recover,

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Lord. We ask that you heal those who are struggling, Father God, with loss, with grief.

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And we also lift up to you Pastor Dave from Santa Teresa Baptist Church of his cancer and his chemo treatments.

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Lord, we ask that you help him to recover, that you give him the grace to continue to do the work that you have called him to do here.

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As long as he's here, Father God, we ask that you help him and that you heal him, that you help us, Lord, and that you sanctify every one of us,

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Lord, through all of these trials, sickness, whatever it may be, Lord, sickness, the good, bad, and the ugly.

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We know that you have caused all things, worked all things ultimately for good. Even something as wicked as abortion,

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Lord, we know that you use it for good, ultimately for your good. And Lord, we ask that you help us,

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Lord, to continue to be a salt and light, Lord, in our society. In Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

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Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

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Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

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If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries, such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcasts, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.