Title: The Sanctity of Human Life Date: January 27, 2019 Subject: The sanctity of life Scripture: Genesis 1:26, 27; 9:1-7; Psalm 51:5

Transcription

1 Title: The Sanctity of Human Life Date: January 27, 2019 Subject: The sanctity of life Scripture: Genesis 1:26, 27; 9:1-7; Psalm 51:5 Human life is disrespected on many levels. A person who feels he was disrespected pulls out a gun and kills the person who disrespected him. That s major disrespect for the now dead person s life. A 16 year-old youth demanded money from a Philadelphia ice cream truck driver (in 1994). The man refused so the boy shot him. Neighborhood teens gathered around the dying father of three and mockingly chanted, They killed Mr. Softee. A driver who later arrived at the scene told reporters, It wasn t human. People were laughing and asking me for ice cream. I was crying... They were acting as though a cat had died, not a human being. Human life is considered to be of little value as evidenced by the ease with which people kill one another, abortions on demand or for genetic selection and preference boy vs. girl or one without defects, human trafficking, human embryo research, euthanasia. Hannah shared from one of the main texts about the sanctity of life (Psalm 139). There are others. The back of the sermon notes has a long list I got from somewhere. I didn t check them all out but am familiar with many. Let s look at some others. Genesis 1:26, 27. READ. The Bible declares and emphasizes that man, men and women, are a special creation by God. They were made in God s image. There s a sacredness to their lives, a sanctity of life, as only humans had God breathe life into them and bestow his likeness on them. The Lord gave to people the capability of rational thought, personality, and moral responsibility. People are distinct from animal life and plant life because we re in the image of God. Animals aren t no matter what bumper stickers say about dogs, cats, etc. being people too. People worry about what happens when they die. Giraffes don t. People ponder all things financial from taxes to estate planning. Guppies don t. People try to figure out what to do with sin, shame. Golden retrievers may express fear of being punished but not shame. Humans have regrets. Lions don t express regret and guilt over killing and eating a zebra. Oh, I did it again. What s wrong with me? Animals don t seek after God. Granted, a lot of people don t either, but they have the capacity to. Since people were made in the image of the Almighty Sovereign, they were delegated sovereignty over all the rest of creation. They were to rule over azaleas, bumblebees, cheetahs, dinosaurs, elk I think you get the picture. Humanity is different from, superior to and ruler of the rest of creation. The distinction of people and their directive are echoed a few chapters later in Genesis 9:1-7. READ. Noah and his family came off the Ark after the global flood as the only 8 people on the planet. Noah is given the same blessing and command Adam and Eve had about being fruitful, multiplying and filling the earth. The Lord reminds them of their heritage that people are made in the image of God. It s connected to the specific

2 ramification of taking the life of another person. God will hold the person accountable who murders another and also provides the consequence of human punishment for murder. Human life is to be protected. Human life is deemed to have priority as people are allowed to eat animals who will now become afraid of people. READ Psalm 51:5. It may help our understanding by hearing the New Living Translation: For I was born a sinner--yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. There s more to what happens in the womb other than the joining of the sperm and egg to create a physical being. Moral components are considered as being present from the time of conception. Evolutionists trace the beginning of all life forms back to one single cell which through the process of evolution evolved into all manner of life from amoebas to fish to reptiles to monkeys to humans. So it seems like there s a massive disconnect in thinking when people say that the organism in the mother s womb doesn t have life yet all life came from one cell. This was the case back in 1973 when the Supreme Court made their decision that has been used to allow abortion. In the Roe v. Wade decision, Justice Harry Blackmun wrote, If the suggestion of personhood [of the preborn] is established, the appellant s case (Roe who sought an abortion), of course, collapses, for the fetus right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment. Blackmun was suggesting that if the thing in the womb could be shown to be a human being, then things would change. There ve been medical and scientific advances since We have this thing called ultrasound. It provides a picture inside the womb. Unborn children have detectable heartbeats at 18 days (two and one-half weeks) after conception and detectable brain-wave activity at 40 days (a little over five and onehalf weeks) after conception. And yet with this compelling scientific evidence and more that it s a human life and not a glob, the pro-abortion argument hasn t collapsed. There s been a surprising shift in their thinking or admission. More and more agree that the thing in a woman s tummy has life, human life. We might think this should end the debate. Except it doesn t. Mary Elizabeth Williams who is passionately pro-choice wrote an article titled So What If Abortion Ends Life? She wrote, Of all the diabolically clever moves the anti-choice lobby has ever pulled, surely one of the greatest has been its consistent co-opting of the word "life." Life! Who wants to argue with that? Who wants be on the side of... not-life? That's why the language of those who support abortion has for so long been carefully couched in other terms. While opponents of abortion eagerly describe themselves as "pro-life," the rest of us have had to scramble around with not nearly as big-ticket words like "choice" and "reproductive freedom." The "life" conversation is often too thorny to even broach. Yet I know that throughout my own pregnancies, I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was carrying a human life inside of me. I believe that s what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn t make me one iota less solidly pro-choice We play into the sneaky, dirty tricks of the anti-choice lobby when we on the pro-choice side squirm so uncomfortably at the ways in which they've repeatedly appropriated the concept of "life." Here's the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. That's a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up

3 looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She's the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always (salon.com/2013/01/23/so_what_if_abortion_ends_life). It s the idea of good life and bad life. Try the line of thinking that not all human life has the same value with another people group so they don t have the same rights to life. Oh wait, it s been done. Hitler with the Jews and those who didn t meet his standards for creating the super race or were imperfect. Slavery There are those who look down their noses at people who are pro-life and accuse them of being one issue voters. The fact of a person being pro-life doesn t mean that he/she is a good candidate. Turn the conversation by asking the person, If a person running for President said she would give everyone in the US $300,000, cure cancer in the first year, end all wars -- but black people must die, or Native Americans, or those over age 70, would you vote for her? Mary Elizabeth and her side want to make the issue about preference, reproductive choice or deflect the conversation to be about other issues like war, possible abuse of unintended children, the death penalty, care for mothers after they give birth to try to show that pro-lifers aren t all that pro-life. I found an article How to argue with your relatives about abortion which is revealing as it insinuates pro-lifers really only focus on the lives of the white middle-class. I made copies of it and they re available in the foyer. The pro-choice group tries to shape the argument around a woman having the freedom to choose what she does with her body. There are two points to be made. What if it s not part of the woman s body? What if the it is in the woman s body? The woman and fetus are not the same. The preborn can be a different gender from the mother. The preborn can have a different blood type. It has its own functioning brain, kidneys, and lungs. The big thing to me is that the preborn has its own DNA, its own genetic code. It s not a clone. The unborn child isn t part of her body but takes up temporary residence in it. The second point is women don t have the right to do anything they want with their bodies. Neither do men by the way. Well, people can do what they want, but there are consequences. A person can commit prostitution but there are legal, physical and mental tolls that have to be paid. People who inject themselves with drugs subject themselves to addiction, possible overdose. A person isn t free to holler fire in a crowded theatre. A person can t send a bomb threat to a school and get away with by saying I was kidding. There are moral and legal rules about what we can do with our bodies. Steven J. Cole, the slogan, Pro-family, Pro-child, Pro-choice makes perfect sense to some, or it wouldn t be plastered on bumper stickers. But stop and think, What is the choice that they are advocating? The answer is, the choice to kill your baby! So that bumper sticker is about as logical as saying, I m pro-women, pro-rape! It s utter nonsense! Another bumper sticker reads, Against abortion? Don t have one. That assumes that abortion is a personal preference, not a moral issue. Imagine a bumper sticker, Against rape? Don t commit one! That s fine if rape is just a preference, but if it s a heinous crime, that s ludicrous! Another

4 slogan says, Keep your laws off my body! In other words, We can t legislate morality. But we do have laws against rape, incest, child abuse, theft, and murder (bible.org/article/what-bible-says-about-abortion). We could get theological and bring up the point that people s bodies don t belong to themselves. Jesus died and with that payment for humanity s sin bought our souls, minds and bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). There are a lot of Christ followers who don t like the idea either as they want to do what they want to do and not live the life the Lord has set out for his children. But it doesn t negate the truth. The sanctity of human life isn t a political issue, though it carries over into that arena. It s an ethical, moral and spiritual issue. Material from Chip Ingram in the foyer. Here s more of the weirdness of the situation. Thirty-eight states have fetal homicide laws. Wisconsin is one of them and its laws cover death by auto accident, explosives, weapons and fire but has an exemption for abortion. In the next section about partial-birth abortion (940.16) A Child" means a human being from the time of fertilization until it is completely delivered from a pregnant woman. If a pregnant woman is in a car accident and the fetus is killed, the person who causes the accident can be found guilty of a felony and go to jail. If the same woman arrives safely at an abortion clinic and the procedure is performed, there are no legal consequences. There are a lot of people who want to downplay the moral and spiritual component of humanity so we re viewed as just one more animal. But, think of this. There are federal and state laws that protect animals and their eggs including most birds. Wisconsin state law informs us all birds, with the exception of resident game birds and certain non-native species are protected from intentional taking, killing or possession. This includes their nests, eggs and body parts (dnr.wi.gov/topic/endangeredresources/laws.html). If you smash a bird egg you can be fined or go to jail. Killing a fetus in the womb... One man said, this kind of weird, ethereal argumentation that s so detached from rational thought that it shows our consciences have been seared demonic blindness (Matt Chandler, lead pastor of The Village Church). But it s the natural consequence of discarding the so called antiquated Bible and adopting the philosophy of evolution. Since people are just higher forms, maybe, of animals, and not created in the image of God, there s no basis for morality except for what the majority or the culture will allow. What do people who hold to the God-given sanctity of human life need to do? Hannah presented some key action steps. Here are some companion ideas. The first idea comes from Matt Chandler whom I quoted earlier. First, repent. Of what? Our indifference. We ve just been indifferent. Literally, there s not much difference between Mary Elizabeth here who we quoted and us. Right? Yeah, abortion ends life. So what? I m not doing it. That s how I m taking my stand: I m not going to do it. We need to repent of being indifferent. We just haven t cared, haven t done anything. (The Sanctity of Human Life, Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Jan 12, 2014).

5 Second, be proclaimers of people being made in God s image. Insert God more into our everyday conversation with people. I got to do that this week with the Schwan deliveryman. It was relatively easy as he initiated the conversation knowing I was in the religion business. He wanted to know if it was true what he d heard about the New York governor okaying abortion right up to the moment of birth. I mentioned some of the things that I was putting into this message... School. Put feet to our words. Be pro humanity. Show compassion and kindness toward all human life preborn, born, prenatal health, post-birth health, healthy, sick, rich, poor, homeless, young, aged, mentally challenged, incarcerated. Supporters of pro-life organizations time, energy, and financial resources. Carers for unwed mothers and women with problems pregnancies. Contactors of governmental leaders write, vote. Model moral purity. Abstain from premarital and extramarital sexual involvement. Advocates for adoption. Pray, pray, and pray for those on the front lines of the battle, politicians, physicians, pro-life leaders, mothersto-be. Above all be messengers of God s forgiveness. Jesus was confronted with the woman who was caught in adultery and the crowd wanted him to condemn her to death. After the crowd slinked away having their sin and depravity exposed by Jesus, the Savior may have taken the woman s chin in his hands and lifted her head so he could look her in the eye. Then he tenderly spoke words of forgiveness. We may need to hear those words because of our sin that separates us from having a relationship with Jesus and need to establish a relationship through faith in his totally sufficient payment for our sins. We may need to hear them because of our inaction on issues related to the sanctity of life. We may need them because of having had an abortion or our role in getting one for someone. Jesus lifts our chin so he can look us in the eyes and say You re forgiven.