Abortion is a Problem

[0:00] A few days ago, last Friday morning at five o'clock to be exact, I was sitting in my Lazy Boy and reminding myself of how absolutely crazy the task was ahead of me.

[0:19] I just flipped the switch on Mr. Coffee and was waiting for my morning jolt of caffeine. Maybe that would help stimulate something to say that could make some sense out of an utterly senseless issue.

[0:38] But what is left to be said that has not already been said by so many who have said it better than I could about this nightmarish, senseless issue?

[0:51] Out of all the circumstances that have brought death upon us humans, disease, wars, famines, plagues, floods, earthquakes, and tornadoes, all of which we regard as terrible, and for just one reason, they end the lives of human beings.

[1:14] And in the midst of those aforementioned ravages, we go to great extremes to rescue and salvage and help all the people we can to survive those terrible realities.

[1:29] Why do we do that? There's only one reason. We do it because we tell ourselves that human lives are valuable, even precious.

[1:41] We all feel that way about our own life and have no difficulty assigning that same value to the lives of others. And we often think about how we would feel and struggle to stay alive if we were the victims we were trying to help.

[1:59] So it goes us on to do more, to care more, to give more, to preserve the lives of others in peril. But strangely enough, that attitude often does not apply to our fellow human beings who yet remain in process.

[2:20] These are the growing and developing ones inside the body of another human being who is able to reproduce another human being after her own kind in her own body.

[2:37] Or is it really another human she is producing? Is her product a person or a thing?

[2:50] Because if a thing, then it is an it. And it can properly be described as a blob of tissue, a growth mass, or even an unwanted parasite.

[3:11] But if the product is human, then it is not an it at all, but a he or a she.

[3:25] Then we are talking baby or babies. Returning to the earlier analogy of rescuing a fellow human being in peril, maybe someone drowning that we would jump in to save or at least throw them a lifeline.

[3:44] Instead, what if we just shoot them? You heard me. Just sight them in with your firearm and shoot them.

[3:59] Or instead of a heroic fireman entering a burning building with a water hose, when he sees a trapped, scared victim, just dows them, not with water, but with gasoline.

[4:13] That's unthinkable, isn't it? Well, that's crazy. Of course it is. Not merely unthinkable, but inhumane.

[4:24] Unspeakably cruel. Even murder. By all standards. But in speaking of standards, the unborn have been subjected to a different standard for survival since the Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade in 1973.

[4:45] Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion for the court that legalized the abortion of the unborn. And in his opinion, he admitted the decision was largely based on the inability to determine when the product of conception actually became a human person.

[5:11] The court's decision went on to say that if the time should come when personhood could be positively established, then at that point, the product as a human person would be entitled to the constitutional protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[5:33] But, being unable to establish that in 1973, it was that uncertainty that favored those who demanded the right to terminate the product upon the decision of the pregnant host.

[5:53] So the court ruled, and abortion on demand became the law of the land and remains so to the present. And despite the valiant efforts of Christians and their churches, pouring millions of dollars into the efforts of saving the unborn, and despite the stellar efforts of pregnancy resource clinics staffed by loving and compassionate people, abortion on demand remains the law of the land.

[6:25] But now let's fast forward to the present. Scientific evidence of DNA analysis has now revealed that at the point of conception, that is, when the male sperm fertilizes the female egg, the entirety of the genetic code of a human being is complete and intact.

[6:55] requiring only time and nurture from the host for it to reach independent viability. With this beginning of personhood slash life now determined, the question is, will the Supreme Court be willing to reverse itself because of the new information now available that did not exist in 1973?

[7:21] Or, will the court retreat from a reversal and allow the 1973 ruling to stand on the basis of its being an established precedent?

[7:39] After all, legal precedents are important, since the public has already acclimated itself to that ruling since 1973.

[7:55] And the court could no doubt find a legal precedent that would be a legal precedent supporting that decision, should they decide to surrender it.

[8:08] And speaking of legal precedents, one was also put, in the ensuing years in place with the Supreme Court ruling in 1857, arrived at with a 7-2 decision.

[8:21] The court ruled that black people are not included and were not intended to be included under the word citizens found in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.

[8:43] In the ensuing years, legal scholars widely denounced the ruling. Bernard Schwartz said, it stands first in any list of the worst of Supreme Court decisions.

[9:00] Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes called it the court's greatest self-inflicted wound. And Junius Rodriguez says it is universally condemned as the Supreme Court's worst decision.

[9:16] Today, pro-lifers would agree that Dred Scott was a deplorable decision, but that was not the worst a court could do.

[9:28] The court makeup of 1973 surpassed that, and it has resulted in the wanton legal murder of more than 50 million unborn of all races and ethnicities.

[9:44] The Dred Scott Court was spared the embarrassment of needing to reverse their decision of 1857 because its ruling was superseded by direct amendments to the Constitution.

[9:57] In 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, and the 14th Amendment in 1868 guaranteed citizenship for all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.

[10:16] The Dred Scott ruling, as well as the Roe v. Wade ruling, remain stellar examples of a point made from this pulpit many times over the past five decades.

[10:28] And that is, we are all spiritually and morally fallen individuals and are thus reduced to reasoning and logic that is warped.

[10:39] This allows us, including the Supreme Court, to reach wrong and sometimes even evil conclusions in assessments and determinations.

[10:51] Consequently, untold numbers of human beings were legally forced into slavery and maintained as such, while millions of innocents had their unborn lives cruelly executed.

[11:05] And these evils were perpetrated by the supposed best and brightest among us. It is unknown rather Roe v. Wade will again appear before the current crop of our best and brightest.

[11:23] If it does, it would appear they would be hard-pressed not to overturn the ruling given in 1973 based on the issue of personhood now being determined by the DNA findings.

[11:38] On the other hand, they might seek refuge in that issue of precedence. They could reason that Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land for 50 years and is a very well-established precedent.

[11:58] Whereas, Dred Scott was a precedent for only a few years before being superseded by constitutional amendments. In addition, it was surrounded by the public climate of the Civil War before, during, and after.

[12:15] Our prayer today would be for this different court to look beyond precedence and focus on the more basic issue of the intrinsic value of human life itself.

[12:30] And that alone should decide the issue and the DNA results should ironclad clinch it. But, we are encouraged that an entirely different court will hear the case should it come before them.

[12:49] But with all this controversy about abortion, its toll and its evils, how is it that we still insist that even though it is a problem and a big one, it is not the problem?

[13:04] And that's because there is one even bigger than that. Lots bigger. And for an even partially biblically educated Christian, it should be realized that abortion is, as all other human vices, but bigger in that it ends innocent human lives.

[13:26] And bad as that is, it is still insisted not to be the problem, but merely a symptom of what the real problem actually is.

[13:40] And, of course, yes, you've guessed it, it is that same old worn-out word called sin. That's the real problem.

[13:52] And no Congress or Supreme Court is able to conquer it, no matter how many laws they pass or rulings or rulings they hand down.

[14:04] Abortion, along with all other homicides, rapes, robberies, sodomy, lesbianism, adultery, lies, and all occasions of sexual involvement outside the bonds of marriage, including the current craze of living together, none of these or all of them can be called the problem, but all of them are symptoms thereof.

[14:33] The problem defined by the Bible is that which is rooted in the sinful, self-centered mind and heart that is the fallen humanity of us all.

[14:47] In our drive to please ourselves, if necessary, at the expense of others, it has often ended the life of another human being.

[15:00] But making abortion illegal, as is other homicides, cannot address that ingrained self-centeredness systemic to our humanness.

[15:12] Making things illegal does not prevent people from doing them. It merely attaches a penalty to them. Thankfully, that does aid as a deterrent, not because people no longer want to do them, often they do, but they fear the penalty that comes from them, so they are dissuaded from doing them.

[15:37] Yet, the attitude and desire remain because the heart has not been changed. And what law can do that?

[15:49] None. That is far too great a task for any law to undertake. this is a job that only God's intervention can conquer.

[16:02] And it is called the gospel. It alone can change the human heart, which changes the human attitude, which changes the human actions.

[16:16] this is what makes a woman want to keep and love her baby rather than allow its life to be taken. I never actually talked to my mother about what she was thinking when she discovered she was pregnant with me and unmarried.

[16:41] She was 18. my biological dad whom I never met was 20. There was a familiar term used back then called a shotgun wedding.

[16:58] It was the expression coined to describe a forced wedding. One can picture the father of the girl standing by the wedding party with a shotgun.

[17:09] make sure that the boy goes through with marrying his daughter. Perhaps a little overly dramatic but you get the picture.

[17:21] Well my mother's dad was thinking shotgun also but not in connection with a wedding. He was thinking in terms of a shooting and my dad was the man with the bullseye on him.

[17:37] Everyone who knew my grandpa knew he had a reputation for being a hothead and he might very well shoot Wayne my father as he had threatened to do if he even came around.

[17:55] So these two young lovers my mom and dad Wayne and Dorothy parted company but never did get over each other.

[18:07] and what might have been neither have I. Of course abortion was available back then in 1934 but it was rare and definitely illegal.

[18:27] but that was then and now we fast forward from 1934 to 2020. Now we are reminded by the pro-abortion crowd that it is the law of the land and comes under the category of women's health care.

[18:49] the health of the baby is not mentioned. Would abortions even be necessary if people engaging in sexual activity use the protection that actually prevents conception from occurring?

[19:07] the ultimate protection is of course abstinence which as the old saying goes it's guaranteed to work every time it's tried abstinence but what is the fun in that?

[19:33] Abstinence does nothing to tame the raging hormones and raging hormones do not take kindly to suppression.

[19:46] After all it is due to those hormones that you and I are here they lie undeveloped and seemingly dormant and undetected for the first 12 or 15 years of our lives and then all of a sudden they kick in.

[20:08] That's when a boy starts thinking you know girls are really kind of cool after all and they don't actually have cooties either and when a boy and girl first hold hands well who can explain that feeling is it electricity no it's just it's a girl and you are a boy and viva la difference the Bible talks about this in Proverbs chapter 30 Solomon who is called the wisest man ever admitted he could not understand this dynamic he said there are three things which are too wonderful for me for which I do not understand one the way of an eagle in the sky and the way of a serpent on a rock the way of a ship in the middle of the sea and the way of a man with a maid and the maid of which

[21:32] Solomon is speaking is not a servant or cleaning lady it probably should be rendered the way of a boy with a girl or the way of a girl with a boy because it does work both ways you know and all by divine design because God built into the male and female psyches a kind of natural attraction and desire toward each other and when that progresses into courtship and then marriage the two fulfill the vows of commitment which they made to each other at their wedding ceremony and they physically consummate the marriage in a literal way when the two become one in the deepest expression of marital love and this is how babies come to be this is how you came to be God set the whole thing up not only to provide for the perpetuity of the human race but to create an orderly society in every culture there is a public declaration of a man and a woman and their commitment to each other with the vows they make in the presence of witnesses and that is a public notice to all that henceforth neither of these two is any longer available but of course some throw over that established order in favor of doing that physical consummation act without the public act of marital commitment and they create for themselves and their society a whole new set of complexities and problems that will mar the intended blessedness of their relationship and that's what my mom and dad did and nine months later if not before the complications and unplanned consequences began showing up of course they knew it was wrong back in 1934 and the way they knew it was because the culture shouted it from the rooftops besides their own consciences telling them but still when the hormones say dance you gotta dance don't you well you sure do unless you have some interior spiritual fortitude that is more powerful than the hormones but

[24:03] Wayne and Dorothy didn't and neither do many other Waynes and Dorothys especially now so does does the culture still shout from the rooftops today oh it sure does but the message is different now the so-called experts tell us you are abnormal if you don't have sexual experience or experiences before marriage and should you choose to hamper yourself with legal and confining marriage in fact it could even be injurious to your emotional health if you refrain from desired sexual activity live-in partners is healthy also and if you've had multiple live-ins then you gain a feel for the differences in people and it can help you sort out people in case you should want to live with one permanently you will better know then the kind of person you're looking for kind of like shopping around if you are college age be advised there are several great schools that provide for and encourage males and females sharing dorms you can also find a ready supply of birth control pills condoms and other items to help with safe and healthy sexual activities also in many dorms the phone number of your nearest planned pregnancy office is posted so everyone can see and they will tell you you surely should use precaution but if a problem should arise planned parenthood is there to help you with it and for many this is what a caring full service academic institution prides itself in providing after all kids are going to do this anyway rather than fighting a losing battle we just recognize this as normal youthful activity and simply try to provide a safe and caring atmosphere that's today's message being shouted from the rooftops a recent message delivered here at grace revealed how acceptance of the evolutionary hypothesis has become an automatic pathway to the several destructive practices that are plaguing our nation today if biological evolution is true including the being of

[26:48] God is simply unnecessary and even likely non existent and we should not be surprised but ought to even expect the present fallout and abortion on demand ought not surprise us it should even be expected along with a host of other things with which we Christians disagree because if there is no God and there is no set standard to be applied to humanity humans are in charge man is the measure of all things premarital sex well of course that's what you want because what you want is all that really matters same sex partners sure why not why should you be prevented from loving whomever you wish we do of course require one thing these expressions and sexual activity must be between consenting adults really why why who has the right to draw that line if

[28:07] I make my own rules who are you to tell me I cannot force a woman into sexual activity don't tell me that is unacceptable it may be unacceptable to you that doesn't make it unacceptable to me matter of fact it might even make sex more exciting and enjoyable if she resists remember what I've said so many times about a consequence of the fall being our warped and skewed thinking this is an example one of many yeah might even make sex more exciting and enjoyable if she resists well we call these people rapists and we lock them up but again why noted atheist Richard Dawkins tells us there is no God and we all must dance to our

[29:08] DNA and it is your DNA that will determine your standards your desires your willingness to do whatever whether you like it or not that's your DNA calling the shots and you simply dance to your DNA so if your DNA logically if it requires rape you really have no choice in the matter now in actuality would Dawkins agree with rape being permissible not likely at least we would hope not but on what grounds could he object you see we're talking about drawing lines and once you give individuals the right to draw their own lines people draw them all over the place and no one has the right to fault anyone else for where they draw their line that's what we're dealing with right now you see where all of this is going we cannot remove the moral compass making every person their own north star and then punish them for charting their own moral standards unthinking people of which we have an abundant supply would tell us you can't do that that's crazy no it isn't crazy at all it's the only course that remains it's also what

[30:34] Isaiah reminds us of in chapter five written 700 years before Christ was born saying woe to those who call evil good and good evil got got a got a lot of that going on today who substitute darkness for light who substitute bitter for sweet woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight does this mean Isaiah had these people to deal with in his day it sure does of course and they were even 700 years closer to the fall than we are and this thinking was present in his day the fallen intellect and warped logic we have hammered has been a major working rationale for humanity since Genesis 3 and it has produced the ilk of Richard Dawkins and his sad followers traditional biblical morality has been turned on its head and by the way since there is no

[31:46] God of which the evolutionists are certain what is he doing in our schools get him out and get out the prayers addressed to him also our Supreme Court concurred by utilizing all the warped logic they could muster more and more the very acknowledgement of God is being abandoned in this U.S.

[32:17] of A and with what is it being replaced it is being replaced with we the people and the government we have established that is our new God do you see why liberals see government as the solution to everything it is in accord with what is trending if we can get God out of everything then man alone will be in charge and government will be free from the religious superstitions that hinder it government can and will provide the needed answers for everything have you any idea of what the ratios of for and against would be between conservatives and liberals when it comes to issues like evolution creation abortion homosexuality same sex marriage and premarital sex where do conservatives and liberals line up with those issues and conservatives and liberals both have a worldview everybody has a worldview that's the way you see and understand the world and your place in it where did each conservatives and liberals where did they get their worldview how did they arrive at their estimation and understanding of the way the world is and the way it operates as has often been said the issue is authority and what or who you regard it to be these subjects just mentioned all have to do with moral issues perceptions of right and wrong question do these issues get commingled with politics of course they do inevitably so can they be separated can you separate your morals from your politics no can't be done impossible they inseparably clash with each other at every turn of events the question that needs to be addressed especially by professing

[35:03] Christians is do your spiritual beliefs determine your politics or does your politics determine your spiritual beliefs any who think they can separate them is simply living an illusion there is no such thing as a spiritual slash political Dr.

[35:32] Hyde and Mr. Jekyll and that was you recall a novel of fiction so the bottom line and burning question is what do we do what position do we take regarding the unborn if ever there was a deed drenched in moral and spiritual darkness it is the wanton execution of the unborn and the fact of its being accomplished by a licensed medical doctor makes it all the more heinous speaking of spiritual darkness Ephesians chapter 5 provides the answer for Christians it says do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but instead expose them into cowardly silence and yes that's what generates most of the silence it's cowardliness you write you preach you protest you debate and you don't quit but you need to do all of these things with the right attitude you need to realize the abortion crowd is not the enemy they are captives of the enemy and they don't even know it they need compassion not condemnation and if and when condemnation is in order and

[37:44] God will dispense it because vengeance belongs to him not us what the abortionist folks do is provide a springboard to salvation through the gospel how does that work it works when we expose abortion as a deed of moral darkness that can be forgiven and remedied through the gospel this is nothing more than calling their sin out and what it is even though they of course will tend to poo poo it when sin is made the issue as it truly is then the gospel has somewhere to go I want you to think about that when sin is identified and pinpointed as the issue when sin is exposed then the gospel has somewhere to go something to apply itself to without sin the gospel is out of business but by all means we are we must avoid name calling wrathfulness anger threats the gospel we present must be couched in love because it is couched in love sin but without apology the scriptures make so much of it after all it is the problem from which all of these other symptoms originate without the word and its reality the gospel cannot be applied that is without the word sin the gospel makes no sense got nowhere to go when we call abortion what it is the wanton legal murder of the innocent unborn we are countering the claim the pro abortion crowd wants to make it women's health care we do not have the right to let them get away with that we need the backbone to call out those of the abortion on demand crowd and call it what

[40:09] God calls it a deed of darkness in Romans 1 the apostle Paul declared himself a debtor to both the Greeks and the barbarians both to the wise and the foolish to give them the gospel of the grace of God that they might be saved and Paul is saying I owe it to them I have a debt to pay so too we are under obligation to mothers carrying their unborn not only to steer them away from allowing the destruction of their precious baby but steering them toward the God of compassion and forgiveness and maybe it's forgiveness for a baby already aborted as opposed to a baby they are now carrying in either case God is waiting to receive them with his outstretched arms he can and will forgive anyone whose sin is acknowledged and forgiveness requested for it it's called forgiveness via the grace of

[41:13] God and it's the greatest thing in the world the fact that God can will and wants to forgive is simply a consequence of the scope of Christ's death on the cross said Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and on that basis the reality of Christ opening the door for admitted sinners to come he then says I beg of you take advantage of God's open door through Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God if you've had an abortion God can handle that and he wants to if he can't or won't that would simply mean the substitutionary death that Christ died on the cross was somehow not enough he left something unpaid but Jesus did not do that he paid it all that's why he was able to say it is finished he didn't say

[42:24] I made a down payment he meant he had paid the price for the entire human race and that includes you whoever you are and whatever your sin or sins God wants to forgive and pardon and cleanse you you can be the one who gives the gospel somewhere to go by opening your heart to his love and his forgiveness since 1973 this nightmare of abortion on demand has been the law of the land and all across this country organizations like our own pregnancy resource center has sprung up operated by people with love and compassion who have a great respect for the lives of the unborn and for the often tragic circumstances in which some of these expectant mothers find themselves and these people have spent countless hours churches and individuals have invested hundreds of millions of dollars since that time in an effort to curb something that should never have been but is and I cannot think of any more justifiable cause sharing our hard-earned dollars and our prayers and our compassion and our evangelizing than on behalf of those who are unable to defend themselves just think of that that precious little boy or girl already has everything intact everything the DNA requires and you know what when they grow to adulthood they won't have any more DNA descriptive of who and what they are than what they had when they were conceived isn't that something that is amazing every now and then

[44:51] I just have to kind of stop and and ask myself now Mark wait a minute is this really going on I just don't understand how there can be so few human beings living in this great land of liberty well I guess I'm just at a loss to understand it just it just seems to me like saved or lost rich or poor whatever there just ought to be I would think that inherent sense of the value and the preciousness of life and whatever stage it is we ought to just bend every effort to preserve it simply because it is God who gave it and were made in his likeness and in his image well you know it's just another instance of it's just another instance of the gospel being the only thing that works and the only thing that can get the job done and it doesn't make any difference what the vice is what the sin is the gospel is available and it is adequate and there isn't anything else that can do it and this is why Paul said I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God through faith unto salvation to everyone who believes and I don't know what your particular status is right now

[46:47] God knows and you may be here as someone who is seeking and searching or looking for that forgiveness looking for that acceptance that God has guaranteed he'd make available to you and I want to give you an opportunity right now if you want to join with me in a word of prayer which you heads bowed please and I'm not asking anyone to get up out of their seat and come forward or anything like that but with our heads bowed no one looking around I would like to know if there's anyone here who would really appreciate me praying for them and no I won't call your name even if I know your name I'll just I'll just remember you in prayer is there anybody who would like to be remembered in prayer regarding these issues we've been talking about anyone father we are so thankful for the gracious provision you have made available to us through the gospel we who have been recipients of it and enjoying it for lo these many years still do not understand the dynamics involved how you are able to come into our lives and make us a whole new person in

[48:00] Christ with new desires new goals new ambitions new agenda we don't understand how you do that but we're so grateful that you do and for each changed life here makes up grace Bible church thank you for each and every one of these dear folks and thank you for the efforts that so many expend some from our own congregation and other congregations working in the pregnancy resource centers trying to encourage and steer so many of these misguided young women into the truth of what motherhood really is and should be and what God is doing miraculously inside their bodies we pray your blessing upon them and their efforts thank you for their tireless labors thank you for the long hours that they spend thank you for their willingness to give of themselves to just be instrumental in saving just even one precious life and we pray for our supreme court they will be undergoing all kinds of pressure and stresses in connection with this issue we are a nation divided when it comes to the abortion issue and our prayer is that for each of those who have decisions to render and evidence to consider that you will give them the fortitude and the courage and the wisdom to stand for what they know to be right and true regardless of what's going on in the culture regardless of from whom the money or the support is coming regardless of who has the influence that you will gird up their minds and their hearts and enable them to see this issue as you see it and to be able to treat it accordingly once again thank you for the preciousness and the miracle of life in

[50:13] Christ in his name amen amen you you you you you