Abortion: A Daily Tragedy

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On September 11th, 2001, over 3,500 people died in what was to become the worst act of domestic terrorism that had ever been enacted on American soil.
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It was a day of national tragedy and mourning wherein we all took a step back from our normal lives and were emotionally challenged by the loss of so many people so quickly.
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And even to the day that we are today, we still rightfully get emotional when we consider the events of that day.
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What most people do not consider, I have found, however, is that on September 10th, 2001, over 4,000 lives were destroyed.
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Same goes for September 12th, September 13th, 14th, and every day since.
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Because every day in America, not around the world, but in the United States, there are over 4,000 unborn babies whose lives are taken in what is called the pro-choice or pro-abortion movement.
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Now, you may say, boy, that 4,000 number sounds a little inflated.
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Eight thousand of those last year were in Duval County alone.
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Duval County leads the state.
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Most people do not know that.
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I received that information in an email.
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It was not even in my notes.
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Eight thousand in one year from just our small county.
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But around the nation, that amounts to 28,000 per week, 112,000 per month, 1,460,000 per year.
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Thirty years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States of America handed down their infamous decision, which we've become known as the Roe versus Wade decision, which made abortion on demand a legal reality in our nation.
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And it put into motion the destruction of over 40 million human baby lives since its enactment, 40.
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Now, when we consider the horrid conditions of the concentration camps under the mad dictator Adolf Hitler, most of us get understandably upset.
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And most sensible people see what happened under Hitler and understand it was an appalling event in the history of the German nation.
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Approximately six million people were killed in the concentration camps.
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However, since the adoption of Roe versus Wade, America has seen six times that many children.
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When we really sit and consider the sheer numbers that are involved in this issue, the reality is staggering.
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This morning, we're going to examine the tragedy of abortion, and I've entitled the subject of the morning a daily tragedy because it is a daily circumstance.
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And we're going to examine the tragedy of abortion from the perspective of sacred Scripture.
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And the reason for that is simple.
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And you've heard me say this many times, but I mean it always when I say it.
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But this morning it has an extra importance.
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And this is it.
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It doesn't matter what my opinion is.
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And truth be told, it doesn't matter what your opinion is.
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It matters what God says.
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When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter what Keith Foskey feels about the subject.
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And it doesn't matter what Nathan Dutton feels about the subject or Robert Bales or Gary Foskey.
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What matters is what God feels.
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What matters is what God says.
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That's the truth.
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He is the creator and he has the prerogative, the right to demand and command his people.
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And it is God who gives life and it is God who gives us the foundation for ethics.
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We're going to see how the action of abortion is not just an affront to our human sensibilities, which to many of us it is, but we're also going to see how it is an affront to the very person of God.
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Now, I want to make a note before I begin, because as I was writing this, I wanted to say this very thing.
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I believe that the vast majority of the people in this room, if not all of you, are opposed at least somehow to abortion on demand.
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As a church, we've supported pro-life causes, continue to do so.
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However, I ask you, just because you agree.
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Just because you think you have that opinion, don't turn your minds off, because if you have that opinion for other than biblical reasons, you need to form your opinions on Scripture.
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If it just insults your sensibilities, that's not enough.
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Likewise, if you're opposed to what I'm saying this morning, I encourage you not to turn your minds off either.
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Listen to what God's word says on this subject, and I pray be willing to be conformed to the truth of Scripture.
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So that being said, let's stand together and let's read Genesis 1 and 26, and we're going to read 26 and 27, actually very famous verse of Scripture.
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Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness.
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And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
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So God created man in his own image.
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In the image of God, he created him male and female.
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He created our Father and our God, we pray that as we engage this subject, that our minds will be open to the truth of Scripture, that we will be confronted by it and conform to it.
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I pray as the mouthpiece this morning, that you would keep me from error, keep my heart in line with the truth, overshadow me with your Holy Spirit and fill me with his power.
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I pray the same for the congregation, that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit this morning, have their minds and hearts kept open to the truth, and that in all of this, you would be glorified.
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In Jesus name, Amen.
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I want to begin by saying that the opposition to abortion is a subject that has been and likely always will be very, very close to my heart.
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And I have tried my best to keep my personal feelings and emotional appeals out of this message.
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As I was writing the opening paragraphs of the message, my wife can attest to this, I was confronted with all of the stories I wanted to tell of times when in ministry and in my personal relationships with friends and family, I've had to deal with this issue.
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The pleas and the cries that both my wife and I have made to women who were considering abortions weigh heavily on my heart.
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And it would be easy to simply tell story after story after story of those accounts and work you into an emotional frenzy.
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But that is not biblical preaching.
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As I said before, my experiences and my personal feelings do not matter.
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What matters is what God says.
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And as I've said before, when it comes to truth, my opinion should not even enter into the equation.
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God's word is the truth and it must be our standard for any topic, especially one as ethically divisive as this one.
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So this morning, I want to seek to answer the important questions about abortion that face us as not only a nation, but face us as individuals.
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And I want to tell you, I've really distilled the questions because if somebody says, what's the important question surrounding abortion? What's the important issues? What are the key issues? What are the things that we need to focus on in the discussion and in the debate? I've distilled it down to two questions.
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Some people may think that's a narrowed view, but.
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I think at the end of the message, you'll see why.
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And if you're taking notes, here's the two questions we're going to deal with today.
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Question number one, is human life really sacred? Is human life really sacred? And number two, when does human life begin? That's the two, I think, to distill the question, that is how I distilled it.
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Now, I believe these are the most relevant questions because they get to the real issue, they get to the heart of the real question, and that is this, is abortion the destruction of a living human person? That's the question, because there are a lot of issues we could debate.
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There's a lot of issues that people want to bring into the conversation.
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People want to bring into the conversation the right to privacy.
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They'll tout that as the right for the freedom of abortion.
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They'll say, well, every person has a right to privacy.
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However, that argument is predicated on the belief that abortion is not the taking of a human life, because if abortion is the taking of a human life, then it doesn't matter whether it's done in private or whether it's done in public, because we don't make exceptions for private murders.
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So, again, it comes back to the question, is abortion the taking of a living human person, the life of a living human person? If so, privacy is not the issue.
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Secondly, people will say, well, it's about a woman's right to choose.
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What's best for her body? Yet, in the same way, if abortion is taking an actual human life, then the right of choice is not necessarily in view.
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I cannot choose to end another person's life simply because that life inconvenience is mine.
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And if choice is the issue, what about the choices of the unborn that are being robbed from them in the destruction of their life? If they are a living human person.
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So doesn't it come back to the distillation of the question, is this a living human person? If so, then the right to privacy, the right of personal choice, all of those are secondary non-issues.
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This is why I believe that all the issues surrounding the question of abortion are secondary to the question of, is a fetus, and that's one of the few times you're going to hear me use that word today.
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I'm not a big fan of the F word.
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That's what it is.
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It's the fetus word because we do that.
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We distinguish, oh, that's not a baby, that's a fetus.
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We do that to placate our own consciences.
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But the question is, is a fetus a living human person? And by extension, then, is abortion the destruction of an actual human life? So again, I think the foundational question is, is human life really sacred? And when does it begin? That being said, let's begin with the first question, is human life sacred, really sacred? Now, some of you may see this as somewhat of an inane question, as most would agree, at least conceptually, that human life is sacred, at least to some extent.
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We see this all over the world.
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Most people see human life as sacred.
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In fact, any time in the world a tragedy happens that takes the lives of human beings, we see it as tragedy because we understand life has value.
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I don't know why my voice keeps doing that, but any time a coal mining accident occurs where there are seven or eight men trapped below ground for four weeks or months at a time, we wait with bated breath to see if they're going to survive in hopes that they will survive.
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Why? Because life is sacred and we understand the value of even those few human lives.
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So I don't think the question really is human life really sacred.
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I think the question really should be asked in this way.
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Why is human life sacred? Why is human life sacred? And the answer to that, I believe, is found in our opening text of Scripture.
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Verse 26 of Genesis 1, God using here the majestic plural, which is a common literary device wherein a regal figure will not describe himself in the individual personal pronoun of me or my, but will say us.
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This is why some people are confused.
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What does this mean? God's talking here about the Trinity.
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Well, it could be, but it could also be just simply a reference to the majestic plural when he said, let us make man in our image.
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Kings and queens have been known to do that for centuries and for longer periods than that, to refer to individuals as us when they are referring to the crown or to the position.
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So don't let that become a point of confusion when God said, let us.
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He's certainly not talking about him and the angels or him and other heavenly beings.
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When he talks about us, he's talking about the person of God.
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Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.
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And then he goes on to verse 27.
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So God created man in his own image.
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Right there in this initial introduction to the creation of humankind, we see a particular stamp that is placed upon the condition of man that is not placed on the condition of any other created being.
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It is the stamp that we call the image of God.
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Now, that does not mean that we are little gods or micro deities.
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What it does mean, however, is that above all creation.
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We have been endowed with the characteristics that God has called his image.
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We have the ability for intellect, we have the ability for emotion, we have the ability for wisdom, we have the ability for creativity that is not only above other created beings, it is in an entirely different category.
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I always laugh when I talk to people who believe in evolution.
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Because they'll say, well, we're just more advanced than monkeys.
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Well, you know, they just we're just at a different level of advancement.
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You know what? Because they'll say, see that monkey pick up that stick and hit something with a stick that shows that he's a tool user and human beings are tool users.
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We're just more advanced tool users.
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No, we're in an entirely different group.
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I'll be real surprised when I see a bunch of apes produce a symphony or an orangutan play basketball.
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Well, maybe that could happen, but truly understand the goal and purpose of the game.
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Or how about a primate going to the moon on his own without our assistance? It doesn't happen.
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Why? Because mankind is an entirely different species.
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Created with a very stamp of the image of God, there is something inherently special about the nature of mankind, and it is that we have been created in God's image.
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And just because mankind has tarnished the image of God through sin and falling into sin, that image has not been removed.
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All people, sinner and saint, all people bear the mark of the image of God.
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As a result, when the Bible describes the value of mankind and his life, it is this quality that is considered most important.
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I want to I want to ask you to turn you're in Genesis.
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Just go over to Genesis chapter nine in Genesis chapter nine.
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This is the situation right after Noah comes off of the ark.
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Noah comes off of the ark and he makes an altar to worship God, and God gives Noah the first governmental law that we see described in the Bible.
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Now, it's not the first command in the Bible, the first command in the Bible is thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.
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That's the first command in the Scripture.
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But the first instance of governmental law wherein God says this will be the law of man comes to us in Genesis chapter nine and verse six.
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And speaking to Noah, God says, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed.
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Now, some have interpreted that to mean, well, all he's saying here is a prophetic statement, kind of like he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.
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And that's all he's saying is if you if you kill a person, then your blood is going to be taken.
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But the problem is that does not fit into the literary structure of this particular sentence.
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This statement is given in the imperative.
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Meaning it is a statement of what will happen as a result, it is a law, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed.
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It is the institution, the very institution of what we call capital offense.
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Capital crime, meaning that because this offense is so heinous, a person has voided their very right to life for having engaged in it.
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Why? Because God made man in his image, because the life that has been taken is the very image of God.
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The only rightful response is to forfeit the life of the one who committed the crime, because it was a willful attack, not against the person.
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Yes, that was involved, but it was a willful attack against the image of God.
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God is offended by murder, not just because the person is killed, but because a person created in his image has been destroyed.
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Jesus goes a step further.
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Jesus in Matthew five, you don't have to go there.
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Most of you are familiar with this text.
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He says in Matthew five during the Sermon on the Mount, he says, you have heard it said of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.
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But I say unto you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.
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Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council.
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And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
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You see, for Jesus, even the act of being angry with someone without just cause was liable to punishment in the highest degree.
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Why? Because we are not dealing with a simple stray animal.
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We are not dealing with a mass of protoplasm that has grown up into just a really smart ape.
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We're dealing with a being that has within it.
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Inherently, the image of God.
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Thus, when we deal with one another, we are not to insult one another, we are not to call each other fools and be angry unjustly with one another, because in such we are insulting the very image or an image bearer of God.
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And that fact alone, the very fact that we are image bearers is enough to prove to us that human life is of great value.
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It is sacred.
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That truth enough, however, as I said a few moments ago.
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The question at hand really is not, is human life sacred? Because I think most of us, to some extent, agree with that, even those who would be pro abortion.
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And some might even argue, well, the first part of the sermon is irrelevant because we agree that human life is sacred.
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But the problem is they would say this isn't relevant because when we talk about abortion.
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We don't know if we're talking about human life or not.
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So why did I even spend the last 10 minutes discussing the sanctity of human life and the value of human life? Why did I do that? Well, because of this and this is this is important.
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Little note takers might want to write this down.
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Abortion is the destruction of something.
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No one disagrees with that.
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Abortion is the destruction of something.
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We're going to seek in a little while to talk about what that something is.
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But for now, we can all agree.
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And even the most liberal minded person would have to agree, abortion is the act of destroying something.
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Here's my point.
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If what we are destroying is a living human person, then we are talking about destroying a being that has been created in the image of God.
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Thus, the level of the conversation just jumped drastically because the value of what we're talking about just got exceedingly large.
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If we are destroying a living human person, we are destroying a being that bears the image of God.
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We know we're destroying something.
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That's why the sanctity of the sacredness of life is so important.
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Because these are massive stakes.
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We don't want to be wrong about this.
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So as I said before, the actual issue falls to the second question.
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But I think the first question is involved in the second question, because we have to relate and ask the question, is life really sacred? Yes, it's sacred because it's created in the image of God.
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Human life is special because it's creating the image of God.
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But now the question, the more pressing question, the question that I think is on everyone's mind and really is the crux of the debate is when does human life begin? And I want to answer first with a statement of admittance that the Bible never says in the words of science that human life begins at conception.
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However, there are things that we infer from scriptural truth that do not have to be stated explicitly for us to still believe that they are true and understand the truth from them.
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I've been thinking particularly of the doctrine of the Trinity, a doctrine that most Orthodox Christians believe in, but is not ever explicitly stated in the scripture.
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It is inferred based on the text of scripture that we see.
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But I must at least concede, as we begin, there is nowhere in scripture where you're going to find the words conception and life because these words, these scientific type words are not found in the text of scripture.
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However.
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We will look today at some texts of scripture that give us inference that what is within the mother's womb from conception is an actual living human person.
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That's the key.
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That's what we want to know.
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The most famous verse on this subject, and I must admit, it's not the most compelling to me, but because I am preaching on the sermon on abortion, I want you to turn to Psalm 139.
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What I mean by it's not the most convincing to me is I don't think I don't think it would convince that life begins at conception, but it does speak a very important truth.
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And I want to show you what it is.
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Psalm 139 and verse 13, the one that is mostly used in describing this particular issue.
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In fact, if you go to places where people are talking about pro-life, this verse is normally quoted or put on shirts or signs or something like that because it is a powerful verse.
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But again, we have to see what is the verse actually say, not read our own meanings into what is the verse say? It says in verse 13, for you formed my inward parts.
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You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
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I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
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Wonderful are your works.
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My soul knows it very well.
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My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth, the earth there, of course, being an analogy to the womb.
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It says your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book were written every one of them.
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The days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
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This, of course, is the description of the drama of a child being formed in the womb, and it is describing the very action of God in the event of conception, bringing the baby together in its parts from a from simply a two masses coming together and creating life.
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And then that life going on to having an actual life outside of the womb where it talks about its days being fashioned before it.
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It does describe for us.
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Here, it doesn't say when life begins specifically, however, it does speak poetically of God's intricate care in the formation of the baby in the womb of the mother.
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This speaks more about God's relationship to the baby than it does with the baby itself.
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So it still is very valuable in that sense, because even though it doesn't say, as I said, conception is when life begins.
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What it says is that when that baby is being formed in the womb and when that baby is coming together and when that baby is coming to term and getting ready to be born as I'm sure looking forward to in March when that would come as that's happening.
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God is a part of every step that he is the one bringing the parts together so that it comes to fruition in a human life whose days have already been ordained by God.
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So in that sense, it's speaking not so much of the baby, but of God's relationship.
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Even before it's born, God has an intricate relationship.
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In creation, even before the baby is born, as he said to Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter one, he says, and this is speaking specifically to Jeremiah, he says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you.
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I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
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So God speaks of a relationship with an individual and a life that has been ordained for that individual before they are ever departed from the womb.
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Now, some may argue and say, now, wait a minute, Pastor, he's not talking about and this is two words you probably want to make note of.
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He's not he's not talking about actual life.
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He's talking about potential life.
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Now, if that is the argument that you feel is valid and I don't talk to just you, we do broadcast and people hear this.
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If that's the argument you think is valid, the question that should then be asked is this, does the Bible, does God's law protect potential life? If you want to argue that the life in the womb is an actual but only potential, well, let's just take a step back and say, does God's law protect potential life? You might want to look at this if you if you will.
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Exodus chapter 21, Exodus chapter 21 and verse 22.
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This is somewhat of an obscure passage, but I think in the case that it describes, the protection of potential life is very clear.
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There are some things about it that are not so clear.
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But when you read it, I think the clarity of the fact that it protects potential life is very obvious.
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Let's look at Exodus 21, verse 22.
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It says when men strive together and hit a pregnant woman.
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All right.
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Right there.
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Two men are doing something.
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It's striving.
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They're warring.
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They're fighting.
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Something's happening between these two men.
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And in the result, they hit a pregnant woman so that her child come out.
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That's the part that is sometimes confused because we don't know whether the child is coming out, if it's if it's a miscarriage or if it's a if it's a I'm sorry, I lost my word there.
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A what? A premature birth or whatever.
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But the hitting of the woman has caused this.
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It says so that that indicates cause.
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It says if if two men are striving together, they hit a woman so that her child come out.
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But there is no harm.
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Then the one who hit her shall surely be fined as the woman's husband shall impose on him and he shall pay as the judges determine.
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So if a woman is hit while she's pregnant and she gives birth prematurely, however, the baby is safe because for whatever reason, the premature birth didn't bring any harm to the child.
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The father still has some recourse against the man who hit her because it could have damaged that life.
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It could have caused a problem.
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So he still has recourse.
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This is an early form of suing for emotional distress.
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I'm just kidding.
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But it's there was the potential damage to life.
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Thus, there is recourse, however, and this is where it gets very telling.
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He says, but if there is harm.
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It doesn't say harm to the baby or harm to the mother, and I think that is intentionally obscure, because if a woman is hit and gives birth prematurely, the baby can be damaged and yet so can she.
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So it doesn't say specifically whether she is the object of the harm or whether the baby is the object of the harm.
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But I think either one could easily be understood as being the object of the harm.
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It says if harm occurs, then you shall pay life for life.
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Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, strike for strike.
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What's it saying? It's saying the life of that mother or the life of that child is worth the life of the men who caused its death.
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Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.
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Even though a child is not born, he still receives protective rights under the law of God.
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And the ironic truth is that in America, we have a version of this same law.
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If a woman is pregnant and a man robs her and knocks her to the ground and she has a miscarriage as a result, that man will be charged with the life of that child.
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In America today, how can we be so inconsistent? And that law even extends to animals.
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Folks, there was a guy in California who robbed a bald eagle's nest.
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He stole a bald eagle egg.
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He was caught and he was taken before the judge.
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And this was what the judge declared.
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The egg would have become life.
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So the taking of potential life is tantamount to the taking of actual life.
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Yet 4,000 times a day we snuff out unborn babies.
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If the destruction of a bird egg is the legal equivalent to killing a bird, then the destruction of a human fetus is the same as killing a baby legally.
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There can be no other option.
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However, when you look into the law of our land and I know Mike is visiting with us today, Mike is a lawyer, and I know you know the law has probably many inconsistencies.
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Am I right? Yes, sir.
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The law is, in fact, often inconsistent, particularly on this issue.
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So the Bible makes it clear that the baby in the womb is at the very least potential life.
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That is without doubt.
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But is it an actual life? And for that, I believe one of the most precious stories in the Bible is where I find my answer.
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And if you want to turn to the New Testament, we're going to look at the book of Luke chapter one.
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Don't lose me now, folks.
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I know I know I'm running a little long this morning.
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Please stay with me.
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This is such an important topic.
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And you know what? I give you short sermons sometimes.
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So this just kind of evens out.
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When Mary went to visit her cousin.
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After she'd been impregnated by the Holy Spirit, Luke chapter one, verse thirty nine, this was the story.
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It said in those days, Mary rose and went with haste into the hill country, to the town of Judea.
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And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
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And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.
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Now, imagine that in filtered.
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It says Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she claimed or 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? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
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Beloved, we are told that that which is inside a woman is impersonal matter, that it is simply it is simply just biological produce.
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It's not a living human person.
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Let me tell you something.
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Biological, indescribable matter doesn't leap for joy.
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An important linguistic point should also be made.
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If you look in the Hebrew language, you will not find a different word for baby in the womb and baby out of the womb.
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Neither in the Greek language will you find a different word in the Bible used for baby in the womb, maybe outside the womb.
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It's just the word baby.
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Mary says here or Elizabeth said she said when the baby, you know, in my womb leapt for joy.
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Now, I did say earlier that I wanted to keep this biblical and I do and I will.
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But at this moment, for just a moment, I'm going to ask for your indulgence as I do seek to address the concept of natural law.
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Because natural law is another word that we use for science.
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OK, and if God is the creator of everything, God is also the creator of science.
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Science is simply knowledge of the world.
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And what we learn about the world through science is God's truth.
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All truth is God's truth.
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If it's true, God is the author of it.
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That being said, I want to share with you a few things that we have learned just in the last century about human life.
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Please listen, for this is vastly important.
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All of the genetic information, the entire genetic code that generates the particular characteristics of a human being is established at the very moment of conception.
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At the moment of conception, all of the DNA that is what is going to become you is at that moment created.
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Science does not dispute that, which means this, that being that is growing inside of the mother's womb is no longer a part of the mother.
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As they say, oh, it's just a part of her body.
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She can get rid of it if she wants.
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It's not a part of her anymore.
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It is its own individual genetic being.
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And within 18 days, between 18 and 25 days, there is a discernible heartbeat.
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Within eight weeks, they have mapped brain waves and they have determined that the baby has fingerprints in as little as eight weeks.
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Within 12 to 13 weeks, the baby will suck his thumb and he will recoil from pain.
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Now, you will hear on television, you will hear people say that all that is within that womb is an undifferentiated mass of protoplasm.
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Beloved, there is no greater lie than that.
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Undifferentiated masses of protoplasm do not have heartbeats.
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They don't suck their thumbs and they don't recoil from pain.
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There was once a film entitled The Silent Scream.
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Now, I have seen this film and I do not recommend it except to people who are considering abortion because The Silent Scream is a video documentation.
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It is a documentation of an abortion and the video is a video in the womb, a sonogramic image within the womb.
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And what is seen in the video is as the fetus is being removed, I am not going to describe in what fashion, the fetus, the baby is pulling away from the clamps and from the knife.
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It is called The Silent Scream because the video has no sound.
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But the contorted face of the child is the same face that any one of us would have if as an adult human being we were suffering the same.
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In the final evidence or the final analysis, rather, the evidence is very clear, at least I think both biblically and scientifically, that the baby in the womb is a living human person.
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And because of this, we have no reason to deny that what is going on in America is the most atrocious of events, far outweighing those of Auschwitz, far outweighing those of any society in history.
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For the millions that are being destroyed are helpless babies.
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Now, indulge me for another moment and I promise we will draw to a close.
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Indulge me one more moment.
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Because I know that some of you will consider this message today and you will begin to have thoughts that arise in your mind.
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You will begin to have questions that arise in your mind.
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You may go to lunch today and have conversations.
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I think that's great.
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I always look forward to hearing the calls I get of the conversations that some of my sermons engender.
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And I imagine this one will be one of those.
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And also for those who hear this broadcast, I know there are questions.
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And I want to deal with just a couple of quick questions.
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I promise you it won't be long.
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Just listen.
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Because this is the questions that I've received and I want to address them publicly now.
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What about the woman who's going to die if she has the baby? That's one question.
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What about the baby that is totally malformed and probably won't live anything more than a couple of days? That's another question that's very common.
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And thirdly, what about the child who has a notable physical or mental impairment that will cause the child's quality of life to drop substantially? What about that? Does that make an exception to the rule that life is sacred and that life begins at conception? And that taking the life is the destruction of a living human person? Well, to answer those questions, this is if I were being asked by somebody who really felt this way or just in general, this would be my first response.
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Number one, I would say, do we honestly believe that the overwhelming majority of the 4000 abortions that occur every day do so to save the life of a mother or the quality of life of a child? Do you honestly believe that? Do you honestly believe that the 4000 abortions that happen every day do so because there are that many women who can't carry a baby to term or that many children that are going to be born malformed, deformed or with a mental impairment? In fact, I decided this week as I was preparing for this message to actually do a little research.
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And you know what I found out? I found out that there are seven states, Florida being one of them, that actually records the data of why women choose to have abortions.
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This is an independent data and it involves a very large sample of almost 800,000 over a period of nine years.
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So this is not just one or two women.
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This is a very large sample over a very long span of time.
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Here is the result of the statistical survey.
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Those who received an abortion for physical reasons, meaning their life was endangered or the life of the child was endangered, 0.52 percent, less than 1 percent.
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Those who did so because the child might have a mental condition, 0.12 percent, not even just a little over a tenth of 1 percent.
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Those who were convinced it was an abnormal fetus, 0.57 percent, still not 1 percent.
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Those who did not know or chose another reason, 0.5 percent.
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Those who had an abortion because it was their personal right and choice to do so, as listed on the survey, 98.29.
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That means that of the 798,226 women who were surveyed in Florida, 784,596 made a choice without any mitigating medical reason.
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In a period of only nine years, over 784,000 babies still in the womb were destroyed because in some way or another, they were considered to be unworthy of the right to life, in many cases, I would argue, simply because of convenience.
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780,000, a period of nine years, one state alone.
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So I would say, do we honestly believe that's the reason why we're keeping it legal? The second question I would ask is this, and this is one I really want you to take home with you.
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And I want you to invest some thought into this, of the abortions that are made for medical reasons, how many are actually made to save a life? Children born with physical and mental problems are not worthless.
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They deserve life.
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They still bear the image of God just because they require more care than a child without their problems does not mean they are any less worthy of life.
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Yet for many, this is a place where it is perfectly right for us to play God.
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And as for women who are in danger in pregnancy, the Bible never makes the case that one life is more or less valuable than another.
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But it does declare that both lives are made in the image of God.
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In these rare cases, it would seem that all medical stops should be pulled to save both lives, because they're both made in the image of God.
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In the end, the goal of all of our efforts should be the preservation of life, whether it be life that is inside or outside the womb.
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In fact, in the medical profession, doctors are made to take an oath, and within that oath, they are to work towards the preservation of life.
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Yet so many are willing to destroy life in the name of choice.
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Sadly, in our modern epicurean atmosphere, where the pursuit of personal pleasure trumps all other pursuits, pregnancy has become a punishment and childbearing a prison sentence.
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Even the current president of the United States called childbirth a punishment.
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And this view is held by many in our society.
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As a result, the goal of preservation of life has taken a backseat to the goal of personal convenience and pleasure.
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And the selfishness of our society deserves the judgment of God.
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I do pray that God would have mercy on our nation, not because we deserve his mercy, but because without it, we stand precariously close to the precipice of his judgment.
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The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, the sins of Assyria and Babylon, and even the sins of Nazi Germany pale in comparison to the massive loss of life that is going on in our country every day.
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God be merciful to us.
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Only if God's spirit moves and brings revival in our land will we see this horrible atrocity stop.
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Without a moving of the spirit, there is no hope for only God's spirit can change the hearts of men and women.
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This sermon without God's spirit will not change people's minds.
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So I would encourage that.
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I would encourage a prayer for our nation, for a national revival without which all we can look forward to is judgment.
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I would also encourage us as a church to continue to support groups that are on the front lines of this issue, not shrink back from supporting groups that would stand like the Women's Resource Center and other places like that.
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Being willing to show women the picture of the baby in the womb to prove to them that what they have been told about that baby is a lie, that that baby is a lie.
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Did you know that all over our nation, there are places that don't want women to have sonograms so that they won't see the baby, so that they'll go ahead with the abortion because they know if they see the baby, they won't have the abortion.
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As a church, we ought to support places and pray for places that offer those sonograms for free, just so that women will see those precious children in their wombs.
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I ask you to bow your heads now and prepare to pray, and as we prepare for prayer, I want to extend one word of comfort, because I imagine that someone listening to my voice has been affected by abortion in some way or another, maybe never having had an abortion, but perhaps maybe knowing someone who has.
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I want to remind you of God's promise of forgiveness.
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Abortion is a sin, but it's not an unforgivable sin.
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And if you have had this problem, I encourage your prayer of forgiveness today, that you can have peace in your soul.
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Yet at the same time, those of us who are yet unconvinced, I pray for you as well.
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I pray that we as a nation will see the atrocity, turn and seek God.
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Father, we pray for our nation today.
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We are on our knees, O Lord, in our spirits, begging for your mercy, knowing that apart from your mercy, nothing will change.
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I pray, O God, that as we close the service today, we will not close our minds and hearts to the truth of what has been preached.
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Give us now, as we close our service, a spirit of desire to pray for our nation and changes, and be willing to aid in whatever way our church is called to need, to help, to do whatever we can, to be those who seek life and the preservation of it.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Stand with us now as we sing, and if you have a need for prayer, please come as we sing.