CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION Psalm 139:1-4 Dr. JD Harless Tri-County Christian Church September 20, 2015 Resources: Books & David Stone Last week we talked about the American Cultural Tsunami the crashing waves of culture that comes rolling in and drowning humanity with immorality. I mentioned that one of the problems with a tsunami is that it upon you almost before you know it. There is not an ample warning. But there is something else that I did not mention. A tsunami comes in in waves. Not just one but several. One hits then another and another. Adding devastation on top of devastation. This morning I want to talk about the first of the nine waves of that cultural tsunami that has shocked our nation. This wave is the wave of abortion. Unless you intentionally avoid all news you have surely heard the horrid news that involves Planned Parenthood one of the leading perpetrators of abortions in America. Listen to what LifeNews.Com tells us The Center for Medical Progress has released a new undercover video today with another shocking discovery. This latest video catches the nation s biggest abortion business selling specific body parts including the heart, eyes and gonads of unborn babies. The video also shows the shocking ways in which Planned Parenthood officials admit that they are breaking federal law by selling aborted baby body parts for profit. Abortion is one of those waves of the American Cultural Tsunami that has crashed onto the shores of our nation and caused an enormous catastrophe. Friends... we are doing a huge disfavor to our nation if we do not stand up and broadcast what the truth of this issue really is! And that is exactly what we are going to do. There is going to be no watering down... no apologies... no disclaimers... just plain old truth! Now understand we want to saturate that truth with love CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION 1
But as we said last week We do not reject those that might be involved with abortion those organizations who encourage it and those who are having it done. We do not resemble them by doing what they do. We are to redeem them to love them into the Kingdom as fellow sinners who need the grace of God just as much as we do. Let me give you something to think about for a moment! In the 30 years since the Roe vs Wade decision... legalizing abortion on demand... over 56 million babies have died 3 out of every 10 American women will have an abortion in her lifetime. I am sure that percentage would not be that high here this morning... but who knows who is carrying that burden around... locked up inside... eating away at the very soul? There may be some of you sitting here today that: o... know someone who has been through an abortion o... maybe some of you guys have put pressure on your girlfriend or even your wife to have an abortion o... maybe there are some parents here this morning... or maybe you know some parents... who have secretly had their daughter abort her child to keep the parents from social embarrassment. You probably realize that there were almost 4,000 lives killed in the World Trade Center incident on September 11, 2001. BUT DID YOU REALIZE... that there were another 4,000 killed on September 12 th... and September 13 th... and September 14 th. Approximately 1.2 million abortions take place in America each year. Across the world 42 million abortions take place each year. That s 115,000 every single day Those numbers are overwhelming... aren t they? In fact... we really cannot comprehend them. Let me bring it home for us... If there was one person killed in this worship center this morning every time that a baby is aborted... 2.8 per minute... in less than 30 minutes we would all be dead! This issue... abortion... it is not going to quietly go away! It is going to be here to stay if we as Christians don t stand up for the truth! CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION 2
Friends... even if some of you don t agree with me this morning... at least listen for the next several minutes... listen to the facts... and then make up your mind what really is the truth! 1. WHAT IS THE WORLD S VIEW ON ABORTION? Abortion is not a new issue... it is almost as old as human life itself. Most ancient cultures considered abortion a serious crime Josephus... a Jewish Historian during the life of Jesus and the apostles... said the law commanded to raise all children and prohibited women from aborting or destroying seed. A woman who does so is to be judged a murderer. But... Plato and Aristotle both thought that deformed children should be exposed to the elements of nature and left to die. In Plato s Republic it was an obligation to abort the baby if the mother was over 40 years old. In an article entitled Killing Babies Isn t Always Wrong, philosopher Peter Singer, a professor at Princeton, writes: perhaps, like ancient Greeks, we should have a ceremony a month after birth, at which the infant is admitted to the community. Before that time infants should not be recognized as having the same rights to life as older people. He s not alone. American University philosopher Jeffrey Reiman agrees: Infants do not possess in their own right a property that makes it wrong to kill them. And that is where we have arrived today Abortion is okay. The Alan Guttmacher Institute conducted a survey of women who had had an abortion: 50% said they did it because they did not want to be a single parent 66% said they could not afford the child 75% said that the child would interfere with their lives. Stats now tell us that up to 1 out of every 3 babies conceived this year will be aborted. CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION 3
Melody Green writes The safest place to be in America today is on death row. Because fewer deaths per capita occur there than anywhere else on earth. And the most dangerous place to be in America is in the mother s womb. Medical authorities determine a person to be alive today if there are brain waves that are detectable OR a heartbeat. Taking that into consideration listen to these facts: An unborn child is genetically unique at fertilization In 18-21 days the heart begins to beat At 5 ½ to 6 weeks brain waves can be detected and the adrenal gland and thyroid are functioning. At 8 weeks every organ is in place. And yet did you know that almost all the abortions that are performed are done so after the 7 th week. After the time that our medical authorities consider life to exist. I like what Ronald Reagan said when he was in office I have noticed that all of those in favor of abortion have already been born. The fact is that in some states a girl can get an abortion without her parents permission but she cannot get her ears pierced without that permission. Let me ask you a question: what kind of advice do you think our world would give a mother who was pregnant with her 5 th child knowing the following facts: Her husband had syphilis She had tuberculosis Their first child was born blind Their second child died Their third child was born deaf Their fourth child had tuberculosis Would the world tell the mother to abort the child? If they do guess what you just kill Ludwig Bon Beethoven. YES BUT WHAT ABOUT RAPE AND INCEST OR EVEN THE MOTHER S LIFE BEING IN DANGER WOULDN T IT BE OKAY THEN? CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION 4
Did you know that out of all the abortions that are performed less than 1% of them are brought on because of rape, incest or the mother s life being in danger? 99% is simply for convenience. A Florida man was arrested for taking turtle eggs from the beach. He defended himself by saying that the eggs were not yet life. His defense did not work. The court considered the turtle eggs to be living turtles. He was convicted and fined. And yet the world does not consider the unborn baby to be life I am confused! Did you know that in every state in America that if you kill a pregnant woman that you are charged with two counts of murder the mother and the unborn baby. And yet the mother can choose to abort the baby and it is Okay I am really confused! That is where the world view stands! Confusing? Depressing? Maddening? 2. WHAT IS THE BIBLE S VIEW OF LIFE? GENESIS 9:6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. When a human life is taken the image of God is snuffed out. In EXODUS 21 it tells us that if two men are fighting and they bump into a pregnant woman and as a result the baby dies. Both of the men are to be put to death for murder. In LUKE 1 we read that John the Baptist leaped in his mother s womb when he heard the voice of Mary the mother of Jesus. The Greek word used here for the baby inside the womb is the same word used for the baby outside of the womb. The unborn baby is obviously considered life in the Scriptures. CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION 5
PSALM 139:1-4 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. PSALM 139:13-16 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. JEREMIAH 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. I really don t need to commit much on this the Bible is pretty straight forward life begins before birth and that baby s life has the same rights to life as any other human being does. To abort one of those lives is considered murder and it snuffs out the image of God that He implanted in that baby even before conception. According to the Bible abortion is wrong and is a sin! 3. WHAT SHOULD BE OUR RESPONSE AS CHRISTIANS? I think that there are three legitimate responses that you and I need to make as Christians: Our Response to our Children Parents stand up for the truth with your kids! Teach them that sex outside of marriage is a sin and that they will reap some horrible consequences if they don t stay away from it! Don t be afraid to tell your sons to respect the girls that they date and to reserve a sexual relationship with them until marriage. Don t be afraid to CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION 6
tell your daughters that they are fearfully and wonderfully made and that God expects them to reserve themselves for their husbands! If we could just get kids to do this if we could just get them to reserve sexual relations to marriage there would be a 70% drop in the number of abortions immediately. 70% of the abortions performed are performed on women who are not married or who are having an affair outside of their own marriage. And we need to teach them that if they do mess up if they do give into sin and end up pregnant then don t compound the sin by taking the life of the baby. It is not the baby s fault you messed up. I know that abstinence may not be a very popular thing in this world BUT teach it teach it teach it teach it! Babies are still only created in one way that I know of and if you aren t doing that then there is not going to be any unwanted baby. NOW I KNOW some of you here are thinking well you can become pregnant by artificial insemination but have you ever heard of anyone who did that who did not want a baby? Our Response to the Single Mother The second response that we need to understand is our response to the single mother. A dear preacher friend has a daughter had a baby out of wedlock. I sit with him in my office one afternoon as he agonized over what was taking place. He was a preacher of a good church. And now his daughter is pregnant. You know not once did the word abortion come out of his mouth! It would have probably made things a lot more easy if the pregnancy was never made known to his congregation if it all just quietly went away! But they supported their daughter in spite of the sin that she had committed. I applaud them for that! She made one mistake she certainly did not need to make another. Will she have to suffer because of what she did? CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION 7
yes but when you sow wild oats you harvest wild oats. But she was willing to pay the price for her mistake and so were her parents. We need to stand up for those women who messed up but chose not to mess up a second time ending a life that is so precious to God. And by that I am not saying that we should condone the bad behavior. They should go and sin no more But we should love them in spite of what they have done or what has been done to them. In the same way that God loves us in spite of what we have done. Our Response to Those Who Have had an Abortion There is a third response and that is our response to the ones who have had an abortion! Love them love them love them! Again we don t have to love the sin But certainly need to love the sinner. We don t need to come at them with some kind of self-righteous attitude or some kind of judgmental spirit. We need to be the compassionate person that Jesus has been to us! I cannot imagine the feelings that someone who has been through an abortion must feel. Especially if they felt forced to do it or was convinced by others that there was no other option. They are carrying a burden that has to be tough to handle. What they need is to be able to trust in us to love them through it all! CONCLUSION: Let me give you one more scenario before I close A young man finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant. He knows that the baby is not his. They live in a culture that if anyone finds out the girl can be killed for getting pregnant out of wedlock. So what does he do? Does he sneak her off and get an abortion saving both her and him the embarrassment of the pregnancy and maybe even saving her life? Do they get the abortion? IF you are thinking that it would be a good idea then you just killed off Jesus. And where would we be if He had never lived here on earth? We never know how the world is changed every time one of these lives is aborted before he or she can ever see the light of day. CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION 8
Listen friends The Tsunami of Abortion has crashed onto the scene. The results are devastating. Many have been hurt and even more have been killed. Our jobs as Christians is to stick to the truth and share the truth but to do so with all the love we can muster up! The fact is a life may very well depend on it. CULTURAL SHOCK: ABORTION 9