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[00:00:00] Nine. And again, if you are able, if you would stand for the reading of God's Word
I will have cause to say this again, but as we read these words, sometimes we generalize this psalm too much. Sometimes we simply apply this psalm to everyone and everything, and there are many principles in this psalm that apply to everyone. But I want you to hear it for I, uh, for, for what it was written for.
It was written to God's people. It was written to you, and it speaks of God's intimate love and concern for you. So hear this for what it is, the living and true Word of God. Yahweh, You search me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up, You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there was a [00:01:00] word on my tongue, behold, Yahweh, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too high. I cannot attain to it "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there.
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, 'Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,' even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You. For You formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am [00:02:00] fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in Your book were written all the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God. How vast is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.
Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed, for they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies take Your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate You, Yahweh? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred. They have become my enemies.
Search [00:03:00] me, O God, know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way." May God bless the reading, the hearing, and most importantly, obedience to His Word. Please be seated.
We are wrapping up a series that we started a couple months back on government, on the different kinds of biblical government. We've looked at self-government, we've looked at family government, church government, and we're wrapping up civil government. And in wrapping up civil government, we're doing something that the church is tasked to do, and that is to instruct the civil magistrate, to instruct the civil government as to the ways of God.
That is one of the overlaps that the church is responsible for
And we're gonna look at a wicked proposition. In fact, number one on your outline, and [00:04:00] if, if you're new or if you're unfamiliar, in your bulletin there's a handout. It's a half-page sheet and it's a sermon outline. It's some fill in the blank. It gives you a place to take notes. But number one on your outline, a wicked proposition.
A wicked proposition. But before I get there, I want to say something, because today's topic will be about abortion. And the proposition, most of you know it, is Prop 1. It'll be on our ballots in about three weeks But I want to say something before we get started because I know most of your stories, but I don't pretend to know your entire story.
I don't know if there's anyone in this room that's had an abortion. I don't know if there's anyone in this room that has supported someone else in having an abortion. I don't know. I don't know what kind of birth control you use. I don't know these things. But I do know this, and I want to remind you of the words of Psalm 103.
And I'm just gonna read [00:05:00] five verses beginning in verse eight, but, but hear these words. "Yahweh is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sin, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving kindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He knows that we are but dust."
I don't know your past, but I know that if you're in Christ Jesus, you have found forgiveness. I know that [00:06:00] as horrible a sin that abortion is, and I will not shy away from calling it murder throughout the rest of the sermon, it is not the unforgivable sin. And you can find forgiveness and compassion in Christ, and I want you to know that
Prop one will be on our ballots in a couple of week- weeks, and it is known as the Reproductive Freedom Act, and it basically allows for abortion the entire pregnancy. I'll, I'll get to the specifics in a minute, but I do wanna take a look at our current law, and our current law is found in Idaho Code Title 18, Chapter 6 on abortion and contraception.
And I think you need to understand this. It's a good law, it's a decent law, but it is a deficient law, as we will see. It begins with these words, and I think these are good words to start, and it basically says that the state prefers, by all legal means, live childbirth over [00:07:00] abortion. So the state is promotion, promoting live childbirth over a- abortion.
It requires informed consent for minors, which means parental involvement. A young girl can't, on her own, go and have an abortion in private without her parents knowing. There are criminal penalties for everyone involved, the doctor, the nurse, and the mother, and that's contentious. That is a topic that Christians don't agree on.
That is a topic that Christians will argue and debate, but I submit to you it is the biblical view, and it is the most compassionate view because it promotes repentance. It communicates wrongdoing, and it promotes repentance. But there are some deficiencies in our law. Our law allows for aborti- abortifacient birth control.
It makes no distinction between what kind of birth control it would allow for, and you need to understand this, and I can go into more detail if you're curious, but most birth control pills operate in at [00:08:00] least three ways, and it's important to know this, and I have plenty of research if you wanna see it.
The first thing it does is the birth control pill attempts to stop ovulation. It doesn't always work, so it has a backup plan. It's going to increase the mucus in the womb so that the sperm can't travel as easily. But sometimes that doesn't work, so it has a third backup plan. It destroys the lining of the uterus so that the baby can't attach.
And as far back as 1965, and you may not know this, I used to teach nursing ethics, and my nursing students didn't know this But the American Pediatric Association changed the definition of pregnancy. They changed the definition of conception, and instead of fertilization, it now became attachment. But you see, the baby is created prior to attachment.
The baby is created high in the fallopian tube, and then it travels to the uterus and it attaches. And you see, they made this change so that they didn't have to admit [00:09:00] that birth control pills cause abortions. Now, I've, I've heard they've made some improvements. I heard that there might be some that don't.
I haven't had time to do the research. But our law allows for that. Our law also allows for abortion due to rape and incest, and I will address that in more detail later, but it just doesn't make sense to me to punish a child for his father's crimes. And I know that one's em- emotional. Stacy and I have had some very emotional discussions about this
But the Reproductive Freedom Act removes all of it
I'll get back to the whole idea of reproductive freedom. It is the dumbest name because we already have reproductive freedom, and I'll get to that and I'll little illustrate that. Abortion is referred to as healthcare. So murdering an unborn baby is now known as healthcare. That's what they want you to vote on.[00:10:00]
This bill poorly defines just about every term it uses, viability, health
And ultimately, it allows for uninhibited abortion up to and beyond viability. It removes parental rights over their children. Simply put, it legalizes the murder of unborn children. And again, if you want the detail, I did not intend to, you know, stand up here and try to sound like a lawyer, but I can show you the detail.
It allows for abortion from day one to the day of delivery, and we're gonna be asked to vote on it. Hopefully, you're still in Psalm 139. I want to look at Psalm 139 before I look at some arguments and responses And I think it's important that we look at Psalm 139 because Psalm 139 does have something to say about the unborn child, the unborn person, the unborn human being created in the image of God.[00:11:00]
But as I was preparing for this sermon and, and as I was studying Psalm 139, I almost changed gears because it hit me maybe for the first time. I had always read Psalm 139 for those verses in the middle. But it hit me I need this psalm. I need to read this psalm. I should probably memorize this psalm. I would challenge you to memorize this psalm.
I don't shy away from sharing with you that you have a very imperfect pastor. You have a pastor that still struggles with sin, that cries out to God and wonders, "Why do I still struggle with this?" You have a pastor that questions God's sovereignty far too often. Why did you do this? Why did you allow this?
Why didn't you do things the way I wanted you to do things, as if I'm your equal? And I share that because I know it's true of you also. We [00:12:00] question God. We get angry at God. We question His sovereignty and His love for us when things don't go right, and this psalm responds to all of it in such an intimate way This is a psalm of intimacy depicting the relationship between God and His covenant people.
And there are some parts that we can generalize. This psalm speaks of God's omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence, and we can generalize those things. This psalm speaks of the baby in the womb, and we can generalize those things, but don't miss the point. This psalm is truly, truly a love letter to each and every one here who claims Christ.
So hear these words for the way they were intended. Number two, on the outline, God's knowledge and care for us. God's knowledge and care for us. And the first six verses address the fact that God knows us intimately [00:13:00] Beginning in verse 1, "Yahweh, you search me and you know me." And I know some of your translations probably put that in the past tense.
It can be translated in the present, and I think it fits the context better. Search me, examine me, investigate me, and know me. And here's the thing, that takes no effort on the part of God. It's instantaneous. It's not as if God has to look at your life and study it and, "Oh, I wonder what he's gonna do next week.
I wonder what she's gonna do this afternoon." No, God knows you. And the important thing for us to understand is He knows us better than we know ourselves. So why hide your sin? When you sin, get on your knees and confess it. When you're angry with God, and you shouldn't be angry with God, and it is a sin to be angry with God, but trying to hide it's sillier.
Confess it to God. Do what the psalmist did and cry out to God and ask Him to change your heart. Examine yourself by [00:14:00] Scripture. God knows you better than you know yourself, and so let His Word examine you. Let His Word measure you. Let His Word correct you. "You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar."
And it's, it's interesting here, this word for understand means that He perceives it, He understands it, but it also brings with it an element of He regards it. God cares about you. He cares what you think. He cares what plans you're making for the future. He cares about the hurts that you experience. He has regard for your understanding and for your thoughts, your purposes in life, your aim in life.
"You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways." And this, this word translated you scrutinize, it's actually a word that means [00:15:00] to sow. It's a word that means to scatter, and the idea is God knows you so intimately He can take you apart and put you back together.
He knows everything about you, your thoughts, your will, your desires, your hurts, your loves
"Scrutinize my path and my lying down," and He is intimately acquainted with all your ways. He's-- literally the word means He superintends. He watches over you. There is never a time that God is not watching over you. There's a debate in theology whether or not we have a guardian angel, and some theologians think we each have a guardian angel.
Other theologians would say, no, we don't, or maybe only kids have it. In one sense, it doesn't matter because if you're in Christ Jesus, He never leaves you. The Spirit of God indwells you, and God scrutinizes your path, and He oversees it, and He watches out for you because He cares for you. [00:16:00] Verse four: "Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it.
You have enclosed me from behind and before, and Your hand is upon me." And we'll come back to this idea that God's hand is upon you. But what David is writing here, "You've enclosed me," the idea is God is providing protection. And I know you might be thinking, "But bad things happen." Only the bad that God allows, only the bad that God brings into your life, only the bad that God uses to test and refine you, only the bad that we should consider joyful, as James wrote You have enclosed me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful, too incomprehensible for me. It is too high. I cannot attain to it. And so we see God's omniscience in the first six verses. In the next six verses, verses seven to 12, we see God's omnipresence. Again, the emphasis, and there's certainly overlap here, but [00:17:00] God is always with us.
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? And again, the words used here are so intimate. The, the, it's literally, where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I walk from Your Spirit? And that's important to know because the word for walk is used throughout the Scriptures in how we live our lives, everything we do, the way we live our lives, the way we conduct ourselves.
Is there any way, anywhere I can get away from You? So in Deuteronomy 6:7, we read this of parents. Moses has laid out the law of God, and Moses is instructing parents, "You shall teach them these laws diligently to your sons, and talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk." By the way, the same Hebrew word.
"When you lie down and when you rise up." And in the New Testament, we find the same thing in Galatians 5:16, "But I say, walk by the Spirit." Live your lives according to the Spirit. Live your [00:18:00] lives in dependence of the work of the Holy Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. And we need to understand the context.
When David says, "Where can I go? Where can I flee?" He's not trying to get away from God. Again, reread this when you get home. He's afraid that he could somehow get away from God. He's afraid that maybe he could get himself in a predicament or in a situation or go somewhere and God wouldn't be there. And so he's asking God these questions, "Is there anywhere that You won't be there with me?"
And God assures him that there's nowhere. "If I ascend to heaven, You are there. If my, if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there." And Sheol was known as the grave, but it was also a, a place of the afterlife. And even there, God will be with David. "If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will [00:19:00] lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me."
And the idea here, Your hand will lead me, your h- Your hand will guide me. And he speaks of God's right hand, and that's important because in the Bible, the right hand speaks of the place of power, the place of strength, and it's God's power and God's strength that leads us and guides us and cares for us.
Where is Jesus? He is at the right hand of the Father Picture this, and I'm sure you've all done it, but it's when we're talking to our child. We, we've probably all done this. Well, actually, different illustration When I go up and down the stairs and I have a grandchild with me, I will reach down and I will take my grandchild's hand, and I'll say, "Hold Papa's hand because you don't want Papa to fall."
But in reality, it's Papa holding their hand because I don't want them to fall. And that's the picture that the [00:20:00] psalmist is painting here. It is God reaching down and taking us by the hand gently and kindly and guiding us in His ways. If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me and the light around me will be night."
And the idea here is, uh, the darkness overwhelming him is the darkness hiding him. Can the darkness hide me from you? Can my own sin, because darkness is so often used, uh, euphemistically of evil or sin or getting into a bad situation. Is there any sin, is there any situation that I could get into that would actually hide me from your presence, that I would be outside of your covenant care and mercy?
And the implied answer throughout this entire psalm is no. Verse 12: Even the darkness is not dark to you, for the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to you. So God is always present with us. And then we get into those verses, verses [00:21:00] 13 to 18, uh, and they speak of God's omnipresence.
They speak of the child in the womb, and it's important that we understand these verses because God's care and God's affection begins in the womb. For you formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb. So much in that passage. This word you formed me, it literally means you created me, but it also means you possess me.
You possess my inward parts. And the He- Hebrew here is actually my kidneys, and it's a part for the whole. All, all the parts inside of me, you formed, you possess, you hold. And yes, babies die in the womb. And I believe we have every reason to believe that God takes them to heaven, especially children of believers.
We live in a sinful world, and sinful things will happen. But that doesn't mean that God is no less [00:22:00] caring or no less has us, even in the womb, that He forms us, He creates us, He possesses us. He forms each of our inward parts. He weaves us together, and this is another one of those words. It, it, it means building something or shaping something, but it also means to cover.
And it, it comes with the idea that He protects us in the womb. And we'll come back to that in just a minute, but You formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb. And it's important to recognize here that the Bible is speaking of two people, two persons, two bodies. David in the womb of his mother, and he uses personal pronouns.
It was David in his mother's womb, and it was his mother's womb. Two people, not one
But God [00:23:00] protects us in the womb. And it's interesting, uh, some of you know this, some of you don't, but I've been an EMT for over 45 years. I just recently let it lapse because I'm certified in Arizona. I don't live there anymore, so I finally let it go. Uh, but in the process of being an EMT, we take, uh, childbirth c- classes because that happens.
I've actually had the opportunity. I've delivered four babies in my career. But one of the things that we learn in childbirth classes, and you may or you may not know this, but the most dangerous time of your life, all things being equal, the most dangerous time of your life is birth. So many things happen when you're born, and I've got multiple notes.
I'm just gonna real quickly run through them. But your respiratory system changes. There are valves and blood vessels that open and close in your lungs because you're not breathing through a placenta anymore, but you're using your own lungs. And all these things have to operate, and they have to operate at the right time, and they have to work in unison with the cardiovascular system.
Same thing, you got [00:24:00] valves closing and doors shutting in your heart so that your heart starts beating. Temperature regulation, meta- metabolism, and blood glucose. You're no longer being fed by the placenta, but now your liver's gotta make glucose and things like that. Liver function changes Kidneys and fluid regulation, digestive system, the immune system kicks in, the hormone and endocrine system starts working on its own, no longer dependent on the mother.
Your neurological system starts to work different. Your blood-forming system begins to work different. Skin, your skin, we don't even think about it, but your skin now becomes a protective barrier. In the womb, it didn't matter. Your skin has to start working properly. You're separated from the placenta and the umbilical cord, and there are structural changes that take place in the body of the baby as well.
It is the most dangerous time in your life, and we read in this psalm that God is intimately there, intimately protecting [00:25:00] that child. Verse 14, "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well." There is a different way to translate this.
There are some that would translate it, "I will give thanks, for You are fearful and wonderful." But if God is fearful and wonderful, what He makes is fearful and wonderful. So it really doesn't change the meaning of the text. But the psalmist breaks out in spontaneous praise. Verse 15, "My frame was not hidden from You."
My, my structure, my bones, my bone system, my skeletal system, "was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought." And this word for skillfully wrought, it speaks of variation. There are no two human beings that look the same. Even twins have minor differences. And it is God who is creating those differences.
It is God who is [00:26:00] skillfully making and designing us and making us various. And the, the psalmist speaks with poetic license here, "When I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance." And it's important to understand what that word means, because it, it literally means my, my folded-up material, okay?
It was when I was unformed, it, when-- it was when I didn't necessarily look like a human being, but I just looked like this folded-up blob. It's literally the Hebrew word for embryo. "You have seen my unformed embryo, and in Your book were written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them."
How precious. Again, he breaks into spontaneous praise. How precious are your thoughts to me, O God How vast is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. [00:27:00] And then this verse, this, this next phrase here should be read with astonishment because I think it's how David meant it.
When I awake, I am still with you. I fall asleep from exhaustion. I fall asleep sometimes when you read the Psalms in tears, praying and confessing my sins, asking why are these things happening to me? Why does the wicked pursue me? And when I wake up, guess what? You are there. And I'm curious when you wake up, what's the first thought of your morning?
Is your first thought when you wake up, God is there. God is protecting me. I'm in His right hand. He cares for me. He cared for me in the womb. He cares for me for the rest of my life. He will meet me when I close my eyes the last time. 'Cause that was David's thought, and it astonished him. It surprised him.
In verses 19 to 24, all of a sudden there's a shift in gears in the Psalm, and commentators will argue back and forth what's going [00:28:00] on here. Okay, some will argue this isn't even original. It is. Trust me, there are ways to, to look at the Hebrew text. It makes perfect sense, the word usage, the grammar, all that stuff.
These are David's words. But it makes perfect sense to me. David is praising God for his intimate love and concern, and now David is concerned for God's honor. God, you are so good to me. You are so kind to me. Verse 19, O that you would slay the wicked. O God, depart from me. I'm sorry. O, O that you would slay the w- O that you would slay the wicked, O God.
Depart from me, therefore men of bloodshed. David did not want to be around people that didn't honor God. And we know, uh, the Psalm gives us no, uh, indication of the situation that David was in, but we know that David was persecuted for much of his young life. And David is recognizing the protection of God, and he may be [00:29:00] crying out for more.
But I think that what's going on here is he's concerned for God's honor, because listen to how he describes the wicked in verse 20. For they speak against you wickedly. David's not concerned with himself. David is concerned with God. They speak against you wickedly. This is not about me. And your enemies take your name in vain.
And literally in the Hebrew, it simply, it says, "Your enemies take in vain," and there's really not an object of what it is they take in vain. But the words are so close to the third commandment that most translations will insert name. And the idea here is they claim to be followers of you, but they take your name in vain.
They're not following you according to what you want They're not following you in a way that honors and glorifies you. They take your name in vain. "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Yahweh? Do [00:30:00] I not loathe those who rise up against you?" And as Christians, we have trouble with these types of verses.
These are known as imprecatory prayers or imprecatory verses because you see, in David's day, it was quite a bit easier to recognize who it was that hated God and how they hated Him. And it's harder in our day, and we need to study the Scriptures, and we need to study the Old Testament and the New Testament if we're gonna get any good at it.
"Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? Do I not loathe those who rise up against you?" He already said, "Would you slay the wicked?" And imprecatory prayers tend to scare New Testament Christians because we lose sight of the fact that we need to pray these prayers through Christ Jesus. We lose sight of the fact that for someone to be saved, they must die first.
They must be slain first. That wicked heart must be killed and put to death, and a new heart must be implanted. And so in today's world, [00:31:00] we pray the gospel first and foremost. Change that heart. Kill that wickedness. But let's just simplify it. What about things? Do you hate the things that God hates? What do you watch?
What do you look at online? What do you read? How do you dress? How do you talk? How do you interact with other people? What types of things are you interested in? Do you hate the things that God hates? Because in verse 22, David says, "I hate them with the perfect hatred, and they have become my enemies." But I want you to notice one last thing in the last two verses of this psalm.
David's hatred of God's enemies, David's hatred of the wicked turns back on himself
David hates those who take God's name in vain, and so [00:32:00] David says with the words of verse one, "Search me, O God, know me, know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts." And he's asking God to do this because he wants God to reveal sin to him. "And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way."
God, if I'm gonna hate your enemies, then I must hate my own sin. Do you hate your own sin? I've had people tell me that during our times of confession, they don't know what to confess. Read your Bibles. We sin all the time. None of us love God with all of our hearts. None of us love God with all of our strength, with all of our mind, with all of our soul.
None of us do. And David is asking God to reveal it, so pray this prayer on a regular basis, "God, search me, know me, try me, because I am anxious. I do have my doubts. See if there is any hurtful [00:33:00] way in me. Lead me in the everlasting way. I want salvation." And today, salvation is found in Christ Jesus. So we can pray this prayer for others that God would lead them to Christ.
You see, the primary meaning of this Psalm, and we've talked about this word, but the primary meaning of this Psalm is God's hesed, God's covenant faithfulness, God's covenant love. And in the midst of the Psalm, we read of God's care for the unborn. We read that the unborn is a person. The unborn is a person with value and dignity and worth, intimately created, crafted, and formed in the image of God.
And that leads us to number three on our outline and back to proposition one, arguments and responses. Arguments and responses. And I just want to say a few things before we start here, and this will be, uh, brief. It'll need to be brief But I have heard [00:34:00] multiple testimonies from girls that went to abortion mills to have an abortion, and they met Christians.
And because of the love and the care of the Christian, they decided not to go through with it. So it is working for those Christians that are willing to stand in front of these mills and pray. But the testimonies, they're, they're so similar. It's usually a young girl, and the, the average age is somewhere in their young twenties.
And they go to the abortion mill, they get pregnant, and by their own admission, it's because of very bad decision-making. And oftentimes, their male counterpart is out of the picture, or he's angry with them because he doesn't want a baby. And notice I didn't call them a father or a dad, but a male counterpart because they don't deserve that title.
The woman usually says that she doesn't have a good job, she isn't making enough money, she can't afford a, a child, she's having employment problems. [00:35:00] And she goes to the abortion mill, and oftentimes she'll go once, she'll leave. Sometimes she'll come back, sometimes she'll carry through with the abortion.
But often, especially if she engages with Christians, her conscience is pricked And some of these young girls receive hope. Some of them receive not only hope in terms of the gospel, in terms of forgiveness of sins, in terms of the love of God, but they are also offered support. And it's hands-on, it's real money, it's real-- It's Christians coming alongside.
We support the pregnancy center in town. Fortunately, we're a small town, we don't have a giant problem here, but we're ready to help. Are you willing to open your doors? Are you willing to contribute money? Because I can't tell you how many of these testimonials that that's what changed it, the love of Christ and the Christian willingness to help.
They hear the gospel. They get to see an ultrasound. [00:36:00] And you see, when you go to an abortion mill, they won't show you the ultrasound unless it's mandated by law, because they know that that changes the minds of young girls all the time. And these Christians often will bring a trailer, and they'll have an ultrasound, and they'll show the woman the ultrasound.
And oftentimes, the woman will keep the baby. In fact, one mom, after her conscience was pricked, she said this, "I'm going to be a mother one way or another, so why not keep the baby?" And often they begin to walk with Christ. And so before we get into the arguments and the responses, I, I wanna caution you, and I want to just share with you, be kind.
So often Christians are unkind. Be kind. Ask questions. It is so much better when you engage an unbeliever, when you engage somebody and you're, you're on different sides. Asking a question comes across so much kinder, so much gentler, and it makes them think. Use the [00:37:00] word baby. Don't compromise your worldview.
Don't compromise the Christian worldview because they will not compromise theirs. But the three chief arguments for why a woman should have a right to an abortion is bodily autonomy, my body, my choice; personhood The fetus is just a clump of cells, right? It's not a person. It's not a human being. And then the hard cases.
And the hard cases are a little bit harder to sum up because you got to deal with things individually. But, you know, at the top of the list is, you know, rape and incest. And again, I simply submit, why punish the child for the crime of his or her father? My body, my choice. And this is an important argument because it brings up a key question.
And as Christians, it's the question that should be at the forefront of the discussion. What is in the womb? We need to identify what is in the womb. And we've already seen according to God's Word, [00:38:00] and we'll see according to science and common sense, it is a baby. It is a human being. It is a person created in the image of God with value and worth and dignity.
It is my body, my choice. A good question would be, choice to do what? And it's not that we want to get in people's faces. It's not that we want to challenge people. We want to be kind about it. But we want them to come to a recognition of what it is they want to choose. There is no way to terminate a pregnancy without killing a baby.
And most people that go to these abortion mills, they do everything they can to not think those thoughts. My body, my choice. And the premise of this is often that women should have reproductive freedom. Well, here's the problem with that. If you're pregnant and so you've come to the abortion mill, you've already exercised your reproductive freedom.
You're not looking for the freedom to reproduce. You're looking for the freedom to murder your child. [00:39:00] And again, we just need to be upfront and honest with these people. My body, my choice. It's not your body. We're talking two bodies here. And here is maybe the most important thing. It's a body that you invited in.
Babies don't just pop into the womb. Babies are a result of action and decision-making, and you invited that child into your womb by your actions. It has a different genetic code. It has a separate circulatory and nervous system. It can have a different blood type from its mother because the blood doesn't mix.
And here's-- a- and if you want to talk about this later, but, uh, th- this is fascinating. But if you study biology, believe it or not, there are two systems in your body that biologists actually consider outside your body. They're in your body, but they're outside your body, okay? The digestive system is [00:40:00] technically, biologically speaking, outside of your body.
Yes, it's housed within, but it's not a part of your body, and in order for food to get into your body, it has to go through the system and absorb into your body. Well, guess what? The reproductive tract is outside of your body. And if you want to really get... In fact, I'm gonna attach it to tomorrow's email, the article explaining that in a more sophisticated scientific way.
It's not your body. If you're pregnant with a male baby, are you half man now? It's not your body. And what about surrogate mothers? Surrogate mothers contribute nothing to the child because it's not her body. And oftentimes the argument will shift about this time, and they'll say something like, "I shouldn't be forced to carry a foreign substance in my body."
But again, as I've already said, you invited that, quote-unquote, foreign substance into your body. And you can ask a very simple question, should we not hold people [00:41:00] responsible? Should we hold drunk drivers responsible for their actions? Should we hold rapists responsible for their actions? And most people are gonna give you an immediate yes.
So then you just turn the question around. Should we not be held responsible for our actions? And then usually, again, the argument will shift, "It's not a baby, it's just a clump of cells." So personhood is brought up. And again, "It's not a baby, it's just a clump of cells." And here's, here's the response: "So are we."
We are all just a clump of cells. It's a developmental issue. You're simply a more developed clump than maybe the baby is. And depending how old you are, you're even more developed. And depending how often you work out, you might be super developed. But we're all clumps of cells, if you want to look at it that way A person is a person.
A human being is a person, and the unbeliever [00:42:00] likes to make this distinction between what it means to be a human being and what it means to be a person, and the Bible does not make that distinction. Believe it or not, i- in the Hebrew language, it's, in scripture for sure, but also my study of outside of scripture, there is no Hebrew word that simply means person.
Typically, in your Bibles, when you come across the English word person in the Old Testament, it's either a translation of Adam or Nephesh, and there's one other word, but it, it escapes me But, but we have come up with this idea of person, not the Bible. If you're a human being, you're a person. If you're a human being, you're created in the image of God and you have value and worth.
Same thing in the Greek language. Now, outside of the Greek New Testament, there is a word that you can translate and it means person. We've used that in later theology. But in the New Testament, again, it's words for soul and words for man. There's no specific word [00:43:00] that simply means person, because in the biblical worldview, it wasn't a question.
If you're a man, you're a person. If you, if you're a human being, a living soul, you're a person. So those arguments simply weren't made. We read Luke chapter 1 at the beginning of our sermon. You don't have to turn there, but I want you to listen to the words of verse 35 one more time The angel Gabriel has confronted Mary, and the angel Gabriel has told Mary she's gonna have a, a baby.
And the angel answered and said to her, verse 35, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the holy child shall be called the Son of God." And there are at least three things that we should note here. Contextually, this phrase, "come upon you and overshadow you," refers to the mechanism of Jesus' conception.
Yes, Jesus did not have a human father, but His conception was like ours. He was conceived in a fallopian tube, and He traveled down to the [00:44:00] uterus, and He, His body was implanted on the side of the uterus because He was just like us. But the most important thing I think about this verse is the word child is not in the passage.
"And for this reason, the holy child shall be called the Son of God." We insert child. Literally, the text says this: "The being begotten holy thing." And you can smooth that out, and I've actually written peer-reviewed journal articles on this subject, so I've been tested on this one. You can actually smooth it out, and you can actually translate it, the holy product of conception Think about how the world uses that, as if it means something less than a person, and yet this is what Jesus is described as, the holy product outcome of conception.
And last but not least, the child is a person. The child shall be called the Son of God. Jesus began as a person at [00:45:00] conception, and we're told in the book of Hebrews that He had to. There's an obligation here. If Jesus was going to truly be our Savior, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, in order to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
In order to take your sins and take it to the cross and pay the price, Jesus had to be as human as you are. And the only thing different about Jesus and you and I is sin. And the writer of Hebrews addresses that as well, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things, yet without sin."
To be a human being is to be a person. And let's just go one step further. Let's be consistent with this argument. If the baby's not a person yet, and the baby becomes a person at some point in time, can we stop being persons? And anyone consistent with this argument will say yes. [00:46:00] There's a man by the name of Peter Singer.
He's a professor of-- He was a professor of bioethics at Princeton University. And he may be the most famous, if you're into these things, he may be the most famous bioethicist in, in your lifetime. And he wrote multiple books. And the thing I like about Peter Singer, and I disagree with everything the man says, but the thing I like about him is he is a consistent unbeliever.
And what Peter Singer would say is if the baby is not a person at conception, if the baby becomes a person sometime after conception, then as a human being, you can lose personhood. So grandma who has dementia, you ought to be able to take her to the clinic and have her put down because she is no longer a person.
And Peter Singer believes, again, being consistent with this absurd argument, that you take your baby home, you should have at least three months that you can take your baby back to the hospital and have your child put down because it's still not a person. And Peter [00:47:00] Singer would argue for up to a year.
You want to know why he doesn't? Our society's not ready for that yet
We're all clumps of cells and we're all persons if we're human beings. And then lastly, the hard cases. And this is, this one is hard to summarize because there, there are differences, but let me just, uh, say a few things and, and then we'll wrap it up. And I will send you some resources in tomorrow's email.
But here's the interesting thing, and I'm just gonna start with this one because I've already addressed rape and incest. But oftentimes we're told that abortion should be allowed to save the life of the mother. And I'm gonna send you a video clip in the, uh, email tomorrow, but there was a, a doctor, I forget the hospital that he works at, but he works at one of those, uh, high-risk labor and delivery places, and he worked there for over a decade.
And this is what the doctor said, and he knows what he's talking about, "You cannot save the life of a woman via an abortion. It is impossible." And he said he [00:48:00] never did it in 10-plus years at the clinic. You can't do it And the reason you can't do it is you have to prepare the mother for the abortion, and it takes anywhere from twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
And if the mother's life is really in danger, she's gonna die within that time. The only way to save the life of the mother is to deliver the baby, typically through cesarean And he said that's what he did for over 10 years. Never lost a mother. Some kids didn't make it, but the majority of the kids that he delivered are alive today.
You do not need to abort a child. That is a lie from the pit of hell. You do not need to abort a child to save the life of a, of a woman. It doesn't work. You deliver the child
All children should be given equal protection under the law [00:49:00] From fertilization, from conception onward, there exists a new human being, a new human person in the image of God with worth, value, and dignity. To be a human being is to be a person. We are all clumps of cells, just at different stages. Abortion is the murder of an unborn child and should be prevented and prosecuted.
And again, I can't tell you how many pro-life bills have been voted out because Christians can't agree on this one. How many states have introduced bills like the Freedom of, uh- I forget what it's called now. Because Christians can't agree on this one, and yet the Bible is clear. If you commit murder, that is a crime that should be punished.
Abortion is murder of an unborn child and should be prevented and persecuted, prosecuted. [00:50:00] Don't give up your worldview when you engage people. Be nice. Ask questions. Share the gospel. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul writes this, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh." And he uses the same terminology that if he was talking about a battlefield.
"We do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our, of our warfare are not the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." And that word means exactly what it means, destruction, obliteration. And what are our tools? It's the gospel. "For we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."
You see, the abortionist arguments, and if I could do a class on it, but the abortionist arguments are incoherent, inconsistent, [00:51:00] and they actually borrow from our worldview. To make any moral statement, they must borrow from our worldview And we need to lovingly and kindly use that against them Ask questions.
Be kind. Use the word baby. Uh, moms, th-those of you that are homeschooling, on the back shelf, there's several copies of a book. It's called Mama Bear Apologetics. It addresses a lot of these issues. Take one. And remember Paul's further words in Ephesians 6:12, our struggle, literally in the Greek, our wrestling, our fighting, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
And throughout the scriptures, we are told what our tool is. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the entirety of this book. Don't narrow [00:52:00] down the gospel. It's not just about salvation. Yes, that's where you probably want to begin, but it's about life, and it's about who we are, and what we are, and God's care for us, and that brings us back to Psalm 139, because I would be remiss if I left you without these words No.
If you are in covenant with Christ Jesus, if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, know that God loves you. Know that God is covenantally faithful with you That He cherishes you in a very intimate way. That's the main point of Psalm 139. And everything else is extra. Important, but extra.
God loves you intimately. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that You remind us because we are so [00:53:00] slow. You call us sheep for a reason. We can be so slow, Father. Thank You that You remind us that You care for us. There is not a moment in our day, a moment in our life where You don't care for us, where You're not concerned with us, that You're not there by our side, that You're not holding our hands, that we don't stand before Your very face and You intimately care for us.
May we not forget that, Lord, when we go to the table here in a few moments. That even the table, even this church service where You call us into Your presence is about Your love for us, Your care for us, Your desire to disciple us and discipline us and do for us. Father, thank You for Psalm 139. I pray that many would choose to memorize that psalm, and I pray that as we memorize those words, that we would believe them more and more and more.
And Father, I pray for November 3rd. I pray that this wicked bill will fail [00:54:00] miserably. I pray that it will not become a law in this state. I pray that Christians will get out and Christians will exercise their right of voting and that we will vote this down. I pray that we will, in the time we have left, that we will speak to our neighbors, we will speak to our friends, we will share some of these truths Father, do not let the wicked win here.
Father, slay the wicked. I ask that in the name of Christ Jesus and through the gospel that you would slay the wicked, that we would see some amazing conversions and some flip-flops right before the vote, Lord. Slay the wicked. Bring them to Christ. Bring them to new life. And Father, we pray that this, this bill will come nowhere close to passing.
For we ask all of this in the name of our King and our Savior, Christ Jesus, and all of God's people said, amen
