The Meaning Of Life (part 7)

Our Father in heaven Lord we gather before you this morning Mindful that Life is transitory that this world views life as cheap and as utterly meaningless but father in spite of the fact that human life mortality is transitory is momentary

Lord we know that Our souls will go on forever. We are created in your image and you have

Placed eternity in the heart of man, and you have given us souls that will be Somewhere for eternity

Lord as we look to your word. I pray that you would give us a greater sense of The importance of human life of the importance of Valuing each and every soul

Lord would you bless each soul here this morning in Jesus name we pray amen Well, it seems like a month ago, but it was really last

Sunday. It was a long week. What can I tell you?

we were discussing abortion and just to kind of Review a little bit and then we have some more

I gave this idea and by the way, I didn't really Complete this but this idea of murder being the taking of human life with malice aforethought

But it must be also to be technically to be legally Murder, I said it must be illegal.

And so when we talk about abortion, it's kind of an interesting Conundrum because we don't like abortion.

In fact, we hate abortion because God hates abortion But and and I would say it's the taking of a human life and at the very least even if we wouldn't say

Necessarily in every case it's with malice aforethought. It's definitely not I Wouldn't say it's with the greatest kindness, you know

Certainly and I mean if you study what abortion actually does to the baby you would understand that this is not

Typically kind but what how do people justify abortion by the way? With regard to just looking at maybe the baby and you know

I'll just give it away and then we'll take some comments, but people look and they say well, you know, the baby isn't

Developing properly the baby is going to be handicapped. The baby is going to be this way. So it's really not malice.

It's kindness, it's It's loving to put the child out of his or her misery

We're gonna talk some about because pastor

Bob sent me an email this last week about eugenics Who's familiar with eugenics?

Would somebody care to describe what eugenics is because I'd prefer that somebody else did it what is eugenics?

Yes selective breeding to bring about an uber bench a

Superman a superior being You know, some people should be encouraged to breed other people should be stopped from breeding

We are after all I mean, what does that sound like? Sounds like horses, you know or dogs or something like that, you know

You know, we want purebreds. We want thoroughbreds. We want you know dogs of a

That are healthier that are stronger that are faster that are able to burrow underground

So we're going to breed certain types of dogs together until we get that we want horses that run faster

We want horses that are bigger. So we're going to you know, breed together horses that are bigger

So that we get bigger and bigger and bigger horses When we start doing that with people, what are we doing we're playing

God we're playing God and this it really is a

And horrific idea and you mentioned it really came to its culmination. It's pinnacle as it were

Or we could say it's nadir Under the

Nazis, but it was popular before that What's popular for that it was popular in United States Popular with a lot of people.

What do you suppose might cause something like eugenics to be popular an evolutionary worldview because what's at the baseline of evolution?

Survival of the fittest. So how do you make sure that your Kind is going to survive make sure you have the fittest

Get the best and so what you then do you look at the weak the diseased the

Genetically challenged and you mark them for extinction

Why? because they are dragging your Race your breed down you have basically turned mankind into animal

Nothing more nothing less survival of the fittest It's an ugly ugly thought

But getting back to this and we'll talk more about that But getting back to this idea of murder taking of a human life malice aforethought illegal a lot of people say that abortion is murder and Biblically, I think that's true

Legally in this country. Is it murder? I mean

I can I can believe I can proclaim that I think that Abortion is murder.

But is it murder? Legally in the United States. The answer is No, does that change its you know moral dimension?

No, was it legal to gas Jews in Germany? Yes, did that make it moral?

No, did that stop it from ultimately being murder? No But in within the confines of Nazi Germany, that was perfectly acceptable as Repugnant as that was we talked about many of the things that the

Bible says about Human life when it starts things of that nature. I also mentioned and I was reading about RC Sproul has a book about abortion and it really is interesting because I mentioned

DNA and how a Baby in the womb has a heartbeat at 22 days but he went on at some length because he has a cousin who's a doctor and I and I just found this interesting that if you think about it because I mentioned last week that some of the abortion rights advocates will say that the

The baby in the womb or what they call the fetus or whatever. They want to call it they will say that the baby is a

Parasite and so RC is talking about this. He says now just think about this.

He says They want to call it a parasite, but the truth is that parasite

If nobody does anything is going to leave right and it's going to leave

Naturally, and it's going to leave behind no negative Consequences in all likelihood, right

That's not what parasites do It doesn't even meet the definition of a parasite.

They just want it to be Parasite doesn't matter that it has its own blood supply all these other things

You know it and his point was predominantly with the argument for abortion from the abortion rights advocate is a woman's body a woman's

Right to choose well it's not her body and You know if you negate the premise then it's pretty hard to get to the conclusion right if you say it's a woman's body

Therefore it's a woman's right to choose. Well if it's not her body. I think it becomes a little more complicated

So we looked at several passages including John the Baptist leaping in the womb David describing and the psalmist describing how created in his mother's womb even

Isaac and Jacob wrestling doing battle or not

Isaac and Jacob but Jacob and Esau, thank you Then we talked about two men striving together.

I don't you know what's called. They're fighting You know I I mean it reminds me of an old West bar scene.

I don't know why maybe it's because it's the desert or Whatever. I don't know, but you know I just picture these two guys kind of going at it after somebody spilled their beer on somebody else

But that has nothing to do with this it just sounds it just seems like it you know and the pregnant woman

Loses her baby, and then they they talk about the penalties even if she just has the baby early

There's a there's a penalty to pay and if the baby dies The penalty ultimately is death why because that was a human life that was ended

And I wanted to in our last little biblical Argument for Birth in the earth life in the womb, let's look at Isaiah chapter 49, and I think there are a lot of Allusions to Jesus in this chapter there are several what are called servant songs and Isaiah and Isaiah 49 is one of them and I'm going to read just Isaiah 49

Verses 1 & 2 Listen to me Oh Coastlands and give attention you peoples from afar the

Lord called me from the womb from the body of my mother he named my name and Look at verse 5 and now the

Lord says he who formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring

Jacob back to him and that Israel might be gathered to him for I am honored in the eyes of the

Lord and My God has become my strength now, there are some disputes about who the servant is depends on your political or your political your theological perspective, but I think it's pretty clear a lot of the a lot of the illusions.

There are certainly of Jesus But just that idea of being called from the womb.

Well, how do you call an amorphous? Grouping of cells, you know from the womb

How do you? Appoint that person to an important role the answer is you couldn't because it wouldn't be a person

I was reading What's that this morning? I think it was this morning. It was this morning a woman who has devoted her life to human rights and worked in a number of countries and She says there's a real problem in the

United States she says that problem is Is freedom of speech when it comes to being anti -abortion

You shouldn't be allowed she says To say anything against abortion because it's a human right

Women have a human right to have an abortion therefore any arguments against that Should be outlawed and she says it's just like you wouldn't permit

Racist language in that same way. You shouldn't allow anti -abortion language.

What's wrong with that line of thinking? Okay, so a couple of things that Charlie said one is this idea of Freedom of conscience.

I mean just think about what she's saying that you know, you ought not to be able There are some laws that are so sacrosanct.

You ought to be not be able to speak against them Well, there was a time in this country where the law was

For lack of a better word racist The Dred Scott decision other things so not allowed to speak against those things

You know, well that was fine because she agrees with that but she doesn't agree with this so that kind of language should be outlawed the other thing you mentioned was this idea of Well, I'll just kind of merge it all together

Here's the thing There was a time in I how many of you were alive in the 1970s

I had a high school teacher who was a just Here there's liberal

There's communist and then there was this woman you okay, and she was one of my high school teachers and she tried to Get me to join the

ACLU and I I probably wasn't as conservative then as I am now

But she said I Said well, that's a pretty radical organization.

Isn't she goes? No, they're just about preserving You know the rights the constitutional rights of Americans. She says for example

They just went to court to protect the right of the American Nazi Party to march through the streets of Skokie, Illinois Which had a high concentration of Jewish Americans in it to protest?

You know to march and to do all their stuff, you know, they're Nazi stuff In Skokie, Illinois, this is during the 70s

And I and I read that woman's Column this morning and I just thought okay.

It used to be that the that the liberals in this country were so concerned about free speech that they would even go to court to stop somebody from Preventing the

Nazis from doing their Naziist stuff and Now they say well, wait a minute

Here's something way worse than Nazism It's called being against abortions being called if you're pro -life, that's just terrible.

That is unacceptable That kind of speech must be muzzled. It must be stopped

And you know you talk about conscience and the right of conscience and how important that is

What do we see now? Even if you want to make or you don't want to make a not just make a cake, right?

They presented this whole homosexual marriage debate. They presented as if somebody walks, you know

I'll just say sashays into your establishment And you say I will not serve you a cake because you are a homosexual

That's not exactly what's happening. What actually is happening is Would you make this wedding cake for us, you know and put two guys on it and will you put you know?

Brad and Steve forever or whatever, you know to get two guys names on there and you know Maybe three even throw a

Bible verse on it, you know and how we're gonna be forever and wedded bliss and you know if you can even put

God loves us and has a wonderful plan on the cake that would make it just Awesome, and you say you know what that is against my conscience

I can't actually do that because that is a matter of Speech and I don't agree with that.

It's a matter of my conscience and I can't do that Well now they're saying you can't have that Objection, you can't believe that if you want to be in business

You know being in business gives you certain obligations and among those things is the obligation to make that sort of cake or to cater that sort of Wedding even though you don't agree with it and that's where society is right now.

It's not even a matter of Can you you know have a conscience or whatever? your conscience in their minds doesn't matter at all because you don't know what you're talking about and They and they do and they do

Tom's exactly right. They do want to make you know an equivalence You know, it used to be in the 60s, you know

Blacks and whites couldn't get married and they go back to there's a court decision loving The name of the person was loving versus Virginia It's kind of an odd name for a case because it makes you think you know

But the person's name was loving versus a state of Virginia where? the idea of interracial marriage

Which was against the law in some states that was struck down And I'm like, okay

Again, let's just let's just get it out there as we've been studying what it means to be an image bearer

There's nothing wrong with interracial marriage Black yellow, whatever color white image bearers all the same

But when it comes to Activities, which is what we're talking about here

Homosexual activity that is a different thing This would be like, you know,

I have to make a case celebrating or a cake celebrating fornication I have to make a cake celebrating, you know bank robbery.

Congratulations On your 100th successful bank robbery. No, I'm not gonna do that, you know

Congratulations on whatever, you know, I mean there are some things that are just wrong congratulations on you know stealing from whatever or I There are just some things that ought not to be celebrated and homosexual marriage is one of those things.

First of all, it's not marriage and Secondly, it is a sin let's let's just briefly go over some of the

Political arguments for abortion and again, these have nothing to do with Biblical arguments they have to do with political arguments.

First of all that women have freedom They have the right to choose they have reproductive rights is what they call

Call it and I agree that women have a right to reproduce That has nothing, you know, that's just one of those euphemisms

If you don't want to call it we have the right to murder our child. What do you call it?

Reproductive rights I don't even want to discuss that one.

But how about this one? Here's another political argument for abortion All children should be wanted children

We heard that one What does that mean means if a child's not wanted it's okay to Kill it murder is okay.

If you don't want somebody around I Thought that was the idea of murder, right? Politicians say this sometimes

That they oppose abortion, but they don't really support laws against abortion. They're just personally opposed to it.

I Have a variation on that where and this is more typical Where they say I'm personally opposed to abortion, but I don't want to Force my views on other people

Okay, let's reverse that a little bit I'm in favor of abortion. I'm not but let's just say

I was I'm in favor of abortion and I want to Enforce my views on other people.

That's the truth, right? That's what people want.

I want to you have to accept my view This is what this country has come to, you know, if you don't believe in homosexual marriage, you're wrong if you don't believe in a woman's right to end her pregnancy, you're wrong and You know so much for freedom of conscience so much for freedom of speech so much for freedom of religion now

Pastor Bob sent me this email. I'm gonna read some of it here. He says The entire abortion issue is fundamentally

Darwinism evolution gone to seed. It is the fruit of A view held by our culture which developed beginning in 1859

Darwin's books Darwin's work was seminal and putting the

God is not necessary impulses of the Enlightenment on the fast -track What does he mean by that?

Because if you can find a way to Either ignore God or to kind of push him out of the way and say well, that's not how life began at all

Genesis is a myth. It's a fable. It's a poem What really happened is?

You know life began from Sorry, I have to use this because it immediately springs in my mind

I'm gonna use a movie thing. I can't help I sometimes you're at the movie and you just feel like Somebody in the movie screen has just reached out and smacked you across the face, you know, and it's like Can I have my money back

I Was that I don't remember which movie it was but it was a Star Trek movie years and years ago

And they traveled back in time and they were standing around this little mud puddle anybody else see this and There this is the moment when life began

You know So, I mean,

I I'm just like I I'm watching it. I'm going let's just think about the absurdity of this from nothing life spontaneously began a one -cell organism just Came in to be and then that one -cell organism,

I don't know how long it took, you know reproduced itself

And then that one reproduced itself and pretty soon there were a lot of one -cell organisms And then they started splitting up and getting bigger and then finally, you know that the time came where there were different What's the word

I'm looking for I I I'll just say sexes, you know male and female now.

I've always wondered if the idea of course behind There being different genders.

There's the word I was looking for to be more kind and Sunday morning like the idea behind the two genders is that there might be a more more of a variable there more variety to life and all that then

Why did it stop at two? Why aren't there three or four or five genders, you know? So we could have all kinds of variety of life

I don't know. Maybe it's because in the beginning male and female created he them. I I don't know

It certainly seems like the Bible Seems know what it's talking about. But anyway He says, you know the impulses of the

Enlightenment to kind of push God out of the way. Well, I would add sadly a

Sigmund Freud to this the father of modern psychology because his whole message was what God is dead and you have all the information you need inside of you

Darwin's message. I mean he wasn't so much against God. He was just a he was a dopey scientist who you know, or a biologist who came up with this idea that You know

That we don't see it or that we would see Transitions in life forms over time, but he goes pastor

Bob come goes on to say that Survival of the fittest and natural selection were perfect vehicles to create or to view the creation as chaotic without purpose and the product of chance

And he says this of course while a rational removes accountability to the Creator which is at the root of rejecting the

God of the Bible so, you know if the purpose is to explain that life is random life is chance life has no

Purpose or meaning nothing really matters Anyone can see nothing really matters to me if that's the idea of life

Then it's pretty much what what does that tell every unbeliever that you can do as you please

If you are nothing but the product of billions and trillions of quadrillions of years of chance and change and the wonder of life

Then you can do whatever you want Hi, I did like this part

Because I I love it when people throw in words that I've never read before as if I should just know what they are

You know Like when pastor Mike said trans chronological this morning I know what that means, but I thought

I wonder how many people have ever used the word trans chronological in a daily conversation It means it spans.

It's a truth that spans all time by the way in case you were wondering but He says let me see if I could find the word here

Okay, he says He's been prophesying

Prophesying that evolution will one day be thought or be taught as a theory of antiquity in other words

You know and I I argue this with my unbelieving friends all the time Do you suppose in a thousand years if we're still on around that mankind will be saying?

You know what evolution is the theory? And I say well of course not You know or it'll be so modified that it won't be recognizable by how they view it today

And I like so why are you staking everything on that? You know that's my argument, but They say that evolution will be or he says that one day

It'll be taught as a theory of antiquity like earth water fire and air you know as the elements and then he says here's the word as As Phlogiston with a pH at the beginning

Phlogiston I don't even know if that's how you say it And I had I had to look it up.

I'm going what in the world is that? Here it is the Phlogiston theory is an obsolete scientific theory that postulated a fire -like element called

Phlogiston contained within combustible bodies fire and released during combustion

The name comes from the ancient Greek Word Phlogiston burning up It was first stated in 1667 and It attempted to explain burning processes such as combustion and rusting which are now collectively known as oxidation

But the theory remained settled science for 100 years

And I'm like okay that Phlogiston was you know a great theory taught in classrooms all over the place for a hundred years settled science and I think that's someday that's going to be what we think of Evolution that it will be as dopey as Phlogiston But he goes on and now we're going to get into the eugenics party talks about Planned Parenthood and etc etc and Margaret Sanger But it's interesting because eugenics

Started much earlier than the even Planned Parenthood, you know really about the turn of the 20th century with this idea of evolution kind of catching on and when you think about it if we

Believe that the world goes from the simple to the complex and our idea then should be what to make take the complex

Mankind and to make it better So eugenics is this idea of weeding out the weak and the the negative traits in mankind and working towards kind of a utopia

Notice the same word or the same beginning utopia Eugenics not really, but sounds good the temptation to manipulate science that that's what the

And let me see See who that is. Oh, this is a good quote here from Pastor Bobby says the temptation and manipulate science to use aggressive popular propaganda in schools and to enact

Repugnant laws and the belief that technocrats can mold a perfect society is something that will always linger in perfect form or in different forms

Americans should study the tactics and think of the eugenicists and Some of the progressives from this period in order to regard or to guard against acts of future acts of collective tyranny

Where they want to work for the collective good In other words, and I think this is what we hear all the time.

We have to worry about the collective good well, this nation was founded on what the idea of the

Individual and protection of the individual. That's what the Bill of Rights are

He says There's a definite connection between Darwinian Darwinian ism evolution abortion and collective tyranny

That is Well, he talks about the political correctness the political correctness that's kind of coming into our country and he says it is a cloud

Which may be the beginning of a storm this will most assuredly burst upon Christians We are all aware that presently it is not politically correct to be a

Christian if this cloud really bursts it will be possible to trace that storm to Charles Darwin and what he started and And then he quotes

Alistair Begg. I really like this quote. He says ideas have consequences Children cannot be taught at school that they were born without reason

That they prolong themselves by chance and that they die and they go into oblivion

With that it will make an impact Well, ultimately it's going to have an impact on their lives and their minds

You can't be taught that and believe that it's gonna have no impact on you in other words But Bob says well we ought not to despair because ultimately we win in Christ I found this this is also out of RC Sproul's book.

How many of you remember Sandra Day O 'Connor? former Justice on the

Supreme Court Listen what she says because when we're talking about abortion we're talking about the beginning of life She says this the difficulty with this analysis is clear potential life

That's what they want us to see that this is not a person as a potential person Potential life is no less potential in the first weeks of pregnancy three weeks eight weeks

Then it is at viability or afterwards The choice of viability at that point or as that point at which the state interested in potential life

Becomes compelling in other words where the state necessarily has to intervene to protect an actual life not a potential life she says is

No less arbitrary than choosing any point before viability or any point afterwards in other words

You have a potential life right from the beginning And if you're gonna say well now it's gone from the point of potential life to an actual life

She says that that's just arbitrary. She says accordingly. I believe that the state's interest in protecting potential human life

Exists throughout the pregnancy now.

Let's see I have I got my notes kind of out over here, but Talking about political arguments for abortion and this maybe is the most serious one

What about cases of rape incest or the mother's health Rape incest or the mother's health what would you say to someone who says well if I get raped a woman who says if I Get raped how can you tell me that I can't have an abortion well

And and yeah, it is a kind of a foot in the door because even if let's say You know people who try to get

Pregnant to try to have a baby often are unsuccessful so you know obviously in the case of a rape you would not be trying which

You know maybe you do or maybe you don't get pregnant, but you know rape incest these are these are

Horrible things and so here's here's what I would say generally Someone says they were raped therefore.

You know they want to have an abortion. I'd say Rape is horrible. I mean

I cannot imagine Having to go through that and I certainly

I Can't minimize that I cannot minimize that listen if you've ever been the victim of a crime period

Any crime at all I remember Just a matter of where I was

All right, I was at a bridge club And I came out and my car stereo had been stolen

I Was a police officer and I was like I was mad

I'm first my first response was I'm driving a Toyota, and I looked down the row of cars, and you know it's like Jaguar Porsche You know and those were the cheap cars

And and you know you just go and I'm driving a Toyota, and they stole my car radio, and I was like I'm going people when

I'm out there. You know the streets I give rich people tickets, and I let the poor people go what is wrong with you guys

It's like don't you get it. This is Robin Hood. We're in this together No, they didn't get it, but I felt

Violating somebody broke in my window got under my car and stole my radio That's a property issue

You know rape is I mean just how many times worse, it's your person and This this individual is forcing themselves upon you.

It's a terrible crime incest can be as Terrible, I think especially you know if it's a

Father and a daughter or an uncle and a daughter or a grandfather and a daughter something granddaughter that kind of thing terrible

How do we say well, you know what those things don't matter you can't say that So our first I think our first obligation is to the person right to their

Heart to what's been done to them and to kind of empathize But then ultimately we have to turn around and say you know what as much as I empathize with you

How sympathize with the baby because let's just think about this for a minute that baby didn't do anything.

It's the product of sin But it hasn't done anything wrong

The baby ought not to be punished for what that person did let's go get that person I'm with you on that one.

Let's send him to jail And I do more than send him to jail if it were legal it's a terrible terrible thing, but that doesn't you know we can't

We cannot justify Taking revenge on an innocent person because some wrong was done to us

This would be like Well, I mean, and this is a poor example, and I'll grant you that But this would be like me saying okay, my car stereo was stolen therefore.

I'm gonna go steal somebody else's I Can't justify doing something to somebody else because something was done to me and these again

I cannot fathom The horror of being raped or being the victim of incest but I think ultimately we have to we have to try to coach a woman through this to understand that the

The image of God that she's bearing has value even if she is crushed

Emotionally by what has happened to her But I think that you know babies typically

I would I would think that babies who are Created this way who are conceived this way probably are aborted at a higher rate than others

Because there's just so much emotional baggage with them and We'll spend more time on this, but I wanted to just say this about you know women who have had

Abortions, maybe you know somebody says well I was the victim of rape or incest and therefore I had an abortion or I was too young I didn't know what

I was doing. I knew you know as 17 I was 19. I was 20 or whatever and I knew

I couldn't take care of a child therefore. I had an abortion That's reality you know

I mean millions and millions and millions of Children have been aborted

What do we say what would you say to a woman who tells you that she's had an abortion

I I'm gonna

I'm Brian God can forgive that sin.

I mean in a nutshell. That's exactly right. I mean it's it's a sin But you know we act like it's just the unpardonable sin.

You know that it's denying the Holy Spirit is blaspheming the Holy Spirit Paul was a murderer

Matthew was a tax gatherer you know those were two of the most heinous sins you could Commit at the time of Jesus and yet those men were

Among the Apostles among the messengers of Jesus Christ there is

I think a Certain sense in which we want to or which we do stigmatize

The women who have abortions and really an unfair way they're just like anybody else they need

Salvation they need to hear the gospel They need to hear that Whether you know it's abortion or homosexuality or stealing candy bars

Not that those three things are equivalent, but they're all sinful and every single sin as I said

I think on Wednesday. You know creates a debt With God that we can never pay we think well that that sin wasn't that bad well, then you've got a wrong view of sin

Every sin condemns and abortion Being a sin is not it's a grave sin, but we're not a

Roman Catholics We don't have mortal sins. We don't have venial sins any single sin any single failure

To love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself

Has but one ultimate punishment and that is eternity in hell apart from faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ and we need to gently kindly preach the gospel and Say you know what

I? Wish you hadn't done that You probably maybe wish you hadn't done that but here's the truth the truth is it's a sin, and it can be forgiven

Do you want to be forgiven for your sins? Let's pray father

You are a loving and compassionate God if it were not for that who could stand if you were not willing to forgive

If you were not willing to remove our sins As far as the

East is from the West If you were not willing to cleanse us entirely of Our guiltiness before you none of us

None of us could go to heaven, but thanks be to God.

Thanks be to you that you Saint your son the

Lord Christ Jesus Into this world to redeem sinners just like us just like those who have had abortions those who have practiced racism

Those who have denied in any way shape or form The truth that each and every person is an image bearer whether they have an

IQ like Einstein or whether they're born with certain defects It's interesting well mankind wants to Strive for the perfect to make the perfect human the perfect society

Father you have promised us That in glory We will be perfect we will have a perfect body

We will live in a perfect society Father let us anticipate heaven and not commit the sin of trying to create heaven on earth