Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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The Biblical Witness for Life

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Celebrate Life

Why don’t we have the kids stand who are going to class. Just stand, don’t run yet. Don’t run off yet. I want to pray for you. If you’re going to run off to catechism, hold on. We’re going to pray for you. Well, they’re not holding on. Okay. All right, let’s pray together. Father, we thank you. Spend this month of January focusing on the gift of life. We thank you for our children. We thank you for the many, many children in our fellowship. We thank you even now for the women in our church, Lord, who are pregnant. We ask for your protection. Lord, we ask that as our children are raised in this community that they learn to love you and serve you. We pray that even today, your Holy Spirit would work in their lives through the Catechism class and the ones that stand here, Lord, open their ears and their hearts to understand your word. We pray the same for us and we ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.

The worship was awesome, wasn’t it? Appreciate the worship team. Why don’t we thank them real quick? As I mentioned in my prayer, January is kind of set aside, or being recognized more and more as a month to kind of remember and celebrate life, because it was in January that the infamous Roe v. Wade decision was passed back in 1973. So actually this coming a week from today, which is January 19th, that’s been set aside as the sanctity of Human Life Sunday. So we’re going to be having some people sharing here about the work that they are doing to rescue women and children. And so it’s going to be a really, really exciting and different service. But I wanted to talk today a little bit to kind of set that up. I want to talk a little bit about the sanctity of human life. Since Roe v. Wade in 1973, the numbers are fuzzy, but in America there’s probably been easily over 50 million abortions. That’s just America. In the West, the numbers are just so far beyond anything we can imagine.

We don’t have accurate reporting. We don’t even have accurate reporting here in America. So whatever numbers you hear, it’s usually higher than the number you hear. So the numbers get to a point where they’re just staggering when you think about it.

And they can become so overwhelming that they almost lose their significance. It’s like just a statistic, you know? And so because of the work that my wife, Diane, does and even the work that Lydia is doing with Thrive and what he is doing with trafficking, these things, you know, I hear stories all the time on the front of rescue and the front of affirming life.

And it’s not about statistics. It’s about people. It’s about real people like you and me. It’s about sons and daughters like we have. These stories are going on all around us. Every day, I hear stories. Real people with real problems in life and death situations are happening every day in our community. Today women are deciding whether to save life or take life. And I believe that we as a church have a responsibility to affirm life, amen, affirm life, celebrate life. I believe we also have a responsibility to rescue and minister to those who are hurting, whether it’s the poor, the homeless, the trafficked, the pregnant woman, the unborn child. And I believe that if the church in America cared enough that abortion could be virtually outlawed could be virtually in America. The sad thing to life, and we are willing to talk about this tragedy.

Unfortunately in many churches January will pass by, and next Sunday will pass by, and no mention of abortion and it’s just not mention the church silent unfortunately that’s probably the majority situation uh… more and more though i think churches are beginning to uh… speak up which is a good sign and uh… because the more that we , that we , and I understand the the to the more we will see women and children rescued.

So I wanted to talk today, for some of you, I may not be saying anything you haven’t heard, for others maybe you’re a guest here today and you’re like, what? You actually used the word abortion in the pulpit? What? I’ve never heard such a thing. So today will be a treat for you. Because the thing we need to understand As I’ll share a little bit more later, the heartbreak of abortion and even infanticide in our culture is not a problem that’s out there. It’s a problem that’s in here. It’s a problem in the church. And so the church needs to know, the church needs to understand. our pro-life need to be able to give an answer for the hope that is in you.

The last thing we need is people who were uninformed espousing things that are unbiblical in the name of the name of Jesus because that ends up hurting and not helping.

Biblical Teaching

So I want to talk today about some of the biblical teaching, because we don’t have time to cover it all, but some of what the Bible says regarding the sanctity of human life. I read an article the other day where the author, in a major online magazine, the Webzine, they call them, right, something like that, arguing that the Bible doesn’t address the issue of abortion. Now as Christians, have, have you had your coffee this morning.

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Bible doesn’t address every, particular situation. If it did, it would be like the Federal Register, which is 340,000 pages and weighs 34 pounds.

That’s a big book. Because it tries to address every particular. The Bible doesn’t do that. Now when you read the book of Exodus, you will get examples of what are called case And there’s actually some case laws that deal with issues of life. It deals with issues of injury, deals with questions of property damage, and these things. And there are sections in the Bible like that, but not a whole lot, really. And the point of those case laws is actually to illustrate for us how do we apply the Ten Commandments.

That’s really what it is. If God says, don’t steal, then just as an example, don’t steal. Okay, well, what is stealing me? What does it, it look like in practice? If the government takes half of my income, is that stealing? Well, that was easy. Ha ha, got a radical crowd here.

That means I’m in good company. So you have to define these things, right? So the Bible will give us examples. But mainly the Bible gives us principles that we then have to apply in the many different situations we’re in. So the word abortion doesn’t have to be in the Bible any more than the word Trinity has to be in the Bible, or the word Christmas, or the word Easter, and I could give all kinds of words that we use that don’t have to be in the Bible, but the concept or the truth or whatever is in the Bible. And so we use a word to define that. So I actually don’t like the word abortion, because I think abortion is a word that masks what’s really happening. It’s a euphemism to cover what’s really going on. We’ve medicalized it and we’ve distanced ourselves from what’s really happening in an abortion by calling it an abortion. So no, the Bible doesn’t use the word abortion. But what does the Bible tell us? The Bible tells us firstly, number one, that God is the creator of all life. God is the creator of all life. Look at Genesis 1. Let’s go back to the very, very beginning. The beginning is a good place to begin, right? So

Made in God’s Image

if you have a Bible, in Genesis 1:26, says then God said let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image and in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.

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that creation is the creation of this being, this creature that is different than everything else is created because this creature has his divine image. Or as it says here, his image is like this. Which means that man is a spiritual being and man is a moral being. He is reason, he is volition, he is emotion. He can relate to God and he can commune with and commune with God that the lower order of beings cannot. And so he is distinguished from animals. Now, more and more, I need to encourage you to be aware of the animal rights movement that’s happening.

When I’m all for animal rights in the sense of I don’t believe in brutality to animals, unless my cats are really annoying me, then I might. But there is a movement, there’s a radical element to the movement, which says that all life, meaning animal and human, is equal. And that therefore humans have no greater right than animals. Humans have no right to take the life of animals for food. And so the animal rights movement wants to exalt, if you will, the value of animals. But the problem is it devalues human beings. And it says that human beings are mere animals, right? mere animals. Now we are animals, but not mere animals. We are the only animals that are made in God’s image which are able to commune with God. This is why the doctrine of creation is so important. Because if you are an evolutionist, then the logical conclusion is that, yeah, man is a higher primate, if you will, but he’s basically an animal. He’s just an animal. And so, you know, the theory of evolution, and it’s only a theory, has consequences on how people view one another and even view themselves. It has consequences on how people live. As Richard Weaver said so many years ago in his famous book, ideas have consequences. What people think really does influence how they live. And so if we are mere animals, only animals, is it any surprise that people are acting like animals? If that’s all we are? But the scripture says we’re not mere animals, we are the highest created being, okay, created being in the image and likeness of God. That places a value on us which supersedes the value of the lower orders of creation. So we are made in God’s image. When I say we, I mean every human being. The unborn child in the womb is made in the image of God. Just as the born child, just as the adult, just as every person that exists is made in God’s image. And this stamps upon them a value which is transcendent really. Secondly, we see here a blessing given to the original couple and some people see it as a blessing and some people see it as a mandate. But in verse 28 it says, “…and now God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, See, I’ve given every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed. To you it shall be for food. Also to every beast of the earth, every bird of the air, to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life I. I have given every green herb for food and it was so. Then God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very, very good. So this blessing or what some people call a mandate is a command to be fruitful and to multiply and by saying that God is, I mean you have to understand what God is doing here. God creates man in his image and then God says to the original couple, replicate that. I want you to replicate my image. And this is a mandate but it’s a blessing.

Children a Blessing

So those of us who know the Lord understand that children are a blessing from the Lord, right? And the fruit of the womb is his reward. And so we value children as God’s blessing, but we value them because we understand that they are created in God’s image. And so we are filling the earth, if you will, with what is good, the image of God.

It’s no coincidence that as our culture has drifted so far away from biblical revelation, we see not only abortion but also infanticide. see arise in child abuse because children are no longer valued as the Bible values them. Thirdly, we see a reiteration of this blessing in the account of Noah. We go to chapter 9 of the same book, Congenesis. By the way, has Noah movie come out yet? It’s not out yet. Does anybody know what’s coming out? You guys don’t know about the movie? Here’s going to be good. So you know the story of Genesis, right? No? Yes? Say yes if you know the story. Okay, so. We know you don’t like the government, that we’re sure of. Okay. So God sees evil, God brings a flood, he saves Noah and his family, and his sons and their wives, and he starts over, if you will. And it says in 9 and 1, so God blessed Noah and his sons and says to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Again the reiteration of this original blessing or this original mandate., and it’s important to note that this mandate is given after the fall and after God had already judged the world for sin. And God reiterates it twice here because you could argue, well you know I understand Genesis because there was no sin in the world, but now the sin in the world when you have babies it’s not just the likeness of God, you’re creating a little sinner. You are. You are. All your parents are like, aha! Yeah, right. Nevertheless, God says, do it. It’s a blessing. So in spite of the fact that humanity. God still says that filling the earth with his image is a good thing even though now it’s a fallen image.

God also in this passage sets up human government in order to protect life and he says in verse 6, whoever sheds man’s blood by man of his blood will be shed for in the image of God he made man. And as for you be fruitful, multiply, bring forth the bundle in the earth and multiply in it. So the point of the establishment of human government and the sword, as it’s called in Scripture in Romans 13, is the protection of human life. So God establishes an order in order to protect that which He values, and He values human life.

Now let’s look at the law. Go to Exodus 20. Now, in our day and age, we live in a time which is very anti-law, anti-authority, anti-rules, anti-anti. Am I wrong on that? I mean, if I’m wrong. So we really live in a time of moral chaos where people assert there is no right or wrong or the only right is the right that I define for myself. You have your right and I have my right. You have your own right and wrong. I have my right and wrong. Even the Supreme Court, God have mercy on us, said that the essence of freedom is the right to define your own reality. Yeah, that’s really been said in the Supreme Court decision, to define your own reality.

Well, the result of that is, that’s really a product of a lot of growth of a lot of thinking over many years. The point I’m getting to is that we live in a time of philosophical and really moral chaos. So people don’t believe or don’t want to believe in an absolute right or wrong that applies to all people.

They don’t want to believe in laws and rules that govern us. Yet, we see here in Exodus that God gave certain fundamentals to govern our life.

The Ten Commandments

And I want to read them and make a few comments on them. In Exodus 20, this is the first giving of the law. 20, verse 1, God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third or fourth generations of those who hate me, with showing mercy to thousands or thousands of generations to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.” In other words, you can’t relax and put everybody else to work and say, hey, I’m I’m not working. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and the holiday. Honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor? So God gives the 10 commandments, also called the Decalogue.

Now throughout the Decalogue, the importance of this for our discussion today of life is that many of the commandments are designed, hear me now, the commandments are designed to protect life. Protect life. Alright? So, as we look at the commandments, the commandment regarding the Sabbath, this commandment was designed so that people could not oppress their servants or their workers and force them to work seven days a week or to work constantly without rest. In other words, those who had authority were required to let their people and their cattle rest. It was to protect people from oppression. Okay? So God is protecting those who are under authority, those who labor from being overworked, and in some cases literally worked to death. So God establishes the Sabbath to protect. Of course, it’s also for worship and other things, but the point is, it is designed to protect life and protect people. Also, the Lord says here, honor your father and mother. This is foundational to the integrity of the family. And the family is the institution that God is designed to bring life into existence and to nurture and care for life. And guess what happens when the family breaks down? You find all kinds of other problems, right? All sorts of other problems. One of the reasons we’re having, we’re seeing so much abortion, one, there’s many, is because of the breakdown of the family. And so as the family decays, you see other social ills that are a result of that. And so God is saying, is saying, honor your father and mother. We need to maintain godly order in the home. We need to train our children to respect not only our authority, but ultimately the authority of God, right? And when the family in a culture is healthy, then the culture ends up being healthy. And when the family decays, ultimately the culture is going to decay. So the family is designed to nurture life, and so God wants the family to be protected because he cares about life. The obvious commandment is the sixth commandment, you shall not murder. Some versions say you shall not kill. There’s It’s actually a different word for kill in Hebrew than the word murder, and this is the word murder. You shall not murder. If the unborn child is a child, and not just a thing or a blob or whatever, then to destroy that person is murder. And I know that sounds harsh. But this commandment is to guard all innocent life in every form.

Whether it’s the unborn, whether it’s the elderly, whether it’s the disabled, it is designed as a commandment to forbid us to shed blood, to shed human blood that is innocent.

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Why is it innocent? I don’t mean before God, I mean innocent and legally innocent.

Holiness and Life

Also, you shall not commit adultery. This is also another commandment to protect the family, but also to protect life. The commandment to not commit adultery applies to any sex outside of marriage. God forbids premarital sex, extramarital sex. He forbids any kind of sex that is not within the confines of the marriage covenant. When people, well let me just say this, you’re not going to have an abortion if you don’t have sex. You paid me all this money just to hear that. Now it’s like, it is laughable. But you know the best form of abstinence is to keep your zipper up. Because you can’t get pregnant if you’re not having sex. You can’t get an STD if you’re not having sex. Doesn’t happen. It can happen. Well, it happened once at Virgin Mary. That’s it. No more. I actually had a guy in my office once, his girlfriend was pregnant. He said, we didn’t have sex, we didn’t have sex. I said, what is she, the Virgin Mary? What are you trying, I mean I know I looked down, but what are you trying to pull on me? It doesn’t work that way folks. Okay, so you know, when scripture tells us And, and this command regarding adultery really in principle, and then we’ve got to think about principle, it applies to any form of sex outside the marriage covenant. Why? Because the family, the marriage covenant is a fence to protect, not sex, but to protect the life that sex produces. Because there is a covenantal commitment to the spouse and then to the offspring. It is a means to guard and protect and nourish the life that comes from the sexual union.

And we live in a time of sexual anarchy. There’s no other word for it. Sexual anarchy, in which any form, any kind, any time, by anyone is considered acceptable.

The scripture says, you shall not commit adultery. This means you shall not have any sex outside the bonds of marriage. Period. First Thessalonians. Listen to what Paul says when you go to chapter 4. Here’s what Paul tells the church.

Thessalonians 4.1 finally then, brethren, we urge you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that you would abound more and more just as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God. Listen, this is the will of God. We don’t want to be confused about this. This is the will of God. sanctification that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and in honor. This is the will of God for his people. So, I said earlier, the problem isn’t just out there, the problem’s here.

My wife who works for a pro-life organization, clinic, you listening?

This is worth paying for. This tidbit right here. That over 50% and maybe as high as 75% of the women that come in claim to be Christians.

Now let that sink in for a minute. This means that the sexual anarchy, because it’s this scripture and many others tell us that sex is reserved for marriage. This tells us this is the will of God that you abstain from sexual immorality, defined as anything outside of marriage. And you have 50, 70% of the women coming into a clinic because they’re either pregnant or lawmaker have an STD site in affiliation with the church the sexual problem the sexual anarchy the sexual revolution as invaded the profession for and that’s why we need to hear sermons like this because the church must be the church if we’re going to see change in the culture. The culture doesn’t change when the church looks like the culture. Jesus said, if the salt has lost its saltiness, what’s it good for? Nothing. Be cast out, trodden under foot of men. In other words, it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. Well, when Christians are living like non-Christians, we have no impact. We have no moral authority because we’re living like the unbeliever and we’re not any different.

God has called his people to be holy, which means separate and set apart and not living like the non-Christian. Claps, applauds. And that applies to all of us and it applies in every area. area, but it applies in the sexual area too. Whether it’s pornography, whether it’s pre-marital sex, whether it’s adultery, it’s all forbidden by Scripture.

And you know what? God knows more than we do. Maybe God knows that when we behave in certain ways it causes heartache and damage. Maybe God knows that when we act in certain ways it destroys lives. Maybe he knows this. And maybe God knows that sexual anarchy leads to bloodshed, which it does, every day in America. And there are some of you like, let’s talk about law and rules, I don’t like it. Let me tell you something friend. The moral abyss that is modernity, or now they call it post-modernity, that moral abyss is filled with human blood.

Aborted babies, killed babies, killed old people, people destroyed in war, people destroyed through trafficking, go down the list.

Moral anarchy leads to the destruction of life. To embrace an anti-law, an anti-authority mentality, is to embrace death. God gives us his law, he gives us his word. You know why? Because God loves us. He loves us. And he knows that we’ve lost our way. And he knows that we need to be told right from wrong. He knows this. He’s so in his great love, he has preserved his truth and his word for us in this book. He’s given us his word to guide us through this darkness that we live in. So that we can avoid the heartache that comes from moral anarchy. The sad thing is, is that the women that come into the clinic are not rejoicing. They’re not celebrating their freedom. They’re broken people. They’re troubled people. And so in spite of the rhetoric of choice and the rhetoric of freedom that we are fed, the reality is that when you embrace anarchy, the result is heartbreak.

It always has been and it always will be. Remember, God loves us. God loves those created in His image, and God has given us rules, laws, guidelines, call Him what you want. But I can tell you this, they’re not suggestions. They’re not opinions. Because when God speaks, it’s true. And He loves us enough to tell us right from wrong, light from darkness. And he does it out of love. Not to keep us from having fun, not to be a leads to misery. But holiness always leads to happiness. Always. Let me, I can say a whole lot more, but we don’t have time. The last thing I want to

The Greatest Witness

mention is, I think the greatest biblical witness to the value of human life is that Jesus Christ became a man. The incarnation. He took on human form, not just the image, but He took on human nature. And in taking on human nature, He ennobled it. But in addition to that, He came and He took upon human nature to redeem it, to salvage it. Yes, it’s fallen.

Yes, our hearts apart from God are evil Yet Jesus Christ came he took upon human nature. He died for our sins was buried. He rose from the dead Jesus is coming again to receive his own unto himself And so what a greater statement about the value of human life that the Son incarnate would give his life to exchange that life. That’s what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 10, and we’re going to re-close with this. Why don’t you turn there with me. In Matthew 10, actually it’s not in Matthew 10. Here’s what Jesus said. I’ve been memorized. He said this. He said, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Now think about that. Because what he’s saying is, he’s saying the human soul is of more value than all of the wealth in the world. And he proved his belief in the value of the human soul because Jesus gave his soul, his life, in exchange for your soul. This is the foundation of our belief in human dignity, our own human dignity, as well as that of other people. That first, we are made in God’s image. Secondly, that the Son of God took our image upon Himself. And then thirdly, that the Son of God died, that we might be saved, and that this fallen image would be restored to that image and likeness of God fully. For Jesus to give his life is the ultimate value statement for the sanctity of human life. Amen? That’s how much he loves us, how much he values us. Let’s stand and pray together. Lord, I thank you that you’ve not left us in darkness. And I thank you that your. Your word is clear. I thank you that we have a clear, clear word, a clear revelation of the value that you place on the human life that you created.

Closing Prayer

And I pray, Lord, that we, your people, would truly embrace your vision, your word, and And we would value, truly value those around us. I pray that we would appreciate the dignity that we have individually as being made in your image. And I pray that we would treat others in such a way that reflects our knowledge that they are made in your image, whether it’s our spouse, our children, our neighbors, our co-workers, that we would see them as made in your image and see them as the object of your redeeming love. And I do pray, lastly, Father, if there’s anybody here that doesn’t know your son Jesus, their heart. Help them understand that you created them for a reason. You made them.

You value them. You sent your son to die for them to remove their sins so that they could come into a relationship with you. Help them understand that Lord. Open their eyes.

We ask it all in your name. Amen.