Title: Celebrating A New Life
Series: New Beginnings for the New Year
Text: Psalm 139:13-16
Introduction: A Pro-Life President
President George W. Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act into law November 5, 2003, vowing that his administration would “vigorously defend this law against any who would try to overturn it in the courts.” He is quoted as saying:
“America stands for liberty, for the pursuit of happiness and for the unalienable right of life. And the most basic duty of government is to defend the life of the innocent. Every person, however frail or vulnerable, has a place and a purpose in this world. Every person has a special dignity. This right to life cannot be granted or denied by government, because is does not come from government, it comes from the Creator of Life.” (Cited in a letter from Jacki Ragan, State Organizational Development Department, National Right To Life Committee, Inc., January 2005.)
I. LIFE BEGINS AT THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION. (Jeremiah 1:5)
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations."
Illustration: Alive Or Not?
Medical authorities determine a person to be "alive" if there is either a detectable heartbeat or brain-wave activity. With that in mind, it is eye-opening for some to realize that unborn children have detectable heartbeats at eighteen days (two and one-half weeks) after conception and detectable brain-wave activity forty days (a little over five and one-half weeks) after conception. What is so shocking is that essentially 100 percent of all abortions occur after the seventh week of pregnancy. (Sanctity of Life, C. Swindoll, Word, 1990, p. 11-12.)
Illustration: How Valuable Is An Unborn Child?
A leading abortionist was interviewed by a newsman about an event which took place. A man shot a woman who was carrying her unborn child. Both the lady and the child died. The question was, “Should the man be found guilty of two murders?”
The response was, “Only if she wanted her baby.” (Chris Gowen, http://SermonCentral.com.)
A. There Is No Biblical Distinction Between A Child And A Fetus.
1. Webster defines a fetus as a young animal.
fetus – a young animal while in the body of its mother or in the egg especially in the later stages of development. (Webster’s New Encyclopedic Dictionary, © 1993, Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers: New York, p. 371.)
2. God defines a fetus as a person, and sometimes as a nation. (Genesis 25:21-23)
B. An Unborn Child Is Just As Valuable And Precious As The Child Who Has Been Born. (Exodus 21:22-25)
Illustration: Laci And Conner’s Law
In 2004, the United States Congress passed and president Bush signed the Unborn Victim’s of Violence Act, also known as “Laci and Conner’s Law,” protecting the life of the unborn, and determining that life to be just as valuable as any other. (Cited in a letter from Jacki Ragan, State Organizational Development Department, National Right To Life Committee, Inc., January 2005.)
II. IT’S NOT A CHOICE, IT’S A CHILD.
Illustration: Would You Choose Abortion?
Would you consider abortion in the following four situations?
(1) There’s a preacher and wife who are very, very, poor. They already have 14 kids. Now she finds out she’s pregnant with number 15. They’re living in tremendous poverty. Considering their poverty and the excessive world population, would you consider recommending she get an abortion? Then you have killed John Wesley, one of the great evangelists in the 19th century.
(2) The father is sick with syphilis, the mother has TB. They have four children. The first is blind, the second is dead, the third is deaf, and the fourth has TB. She finds she’s pregnant again. Given the extreme situation, would you consider recommending abortion? You have killed the great musician and composer Ludwig Van Beethoven.
(3) A white man raped a 13-year-old black girl, and she got pregnant. If you were her parents, would you considering recommending abortion? You have just pronounced death on the great black gospel singer, Ethel Waters.
(4) A teenage girl is pregnant. She’s not married. Her fiancé is not the father of the baby, and he’s very upset. Would you consider recommending abortion? You have declared the murder of Jesus Christ. (http://www.bible.org, Source unknown.)
A. Sexual Intimacy Was Never Intended For Unmarried Partners. (1 Corinthians 7:1-2)
1. The world’s attempt to legitimize abortion is primarily a back-door effort to allow sexual relationships outside of the marriage union.
2. By eliminating the consequence of an unwanted pregnancy, the world gains more “freedom” to engage in immoral behavior.
3. Women, of course, have always had the right to choose – to choose not to risk the consequences of immoral behavior by remaining pure until marriage.
B. The Control Of A Person’s Body Belongs To Their Spouse. (1 Corinthians 7:3-4)
1. God has given authority of a person’s body to their spouse.
2. If a person is unmarried, control of their body is delegated to the Holy Spirit.
3. He does not give up control of the body because of marriage (1 Corinthians 3:16-17), but in the most intimate aspects of the marriage relationship, He recognizes and respects the God-given authority of the spouse.
4. But the Holy Spirit still retains the ultimate authority, so that a spouse may not consent to nor force an ungodly choice upon their mate.
Illustration: What Commitment?
Some of you may remember the man who won a U.S. Supreme Court case over his right to obtain an abortion for his comatose wife. He argued at that time that an abortion could aid a possible recovery for his wife, Nancy, who was comatose as a result of a car accident in 1988.
The abortion accomplished, Martin Klein now plans to divorce his wife. His comment was, "Life changes, tragedy happens. It’s all very complicated."
He also said "my commitment to Nancy continues to remain as strong as ever." (http://www.christianglobe.com/illustrations, Credenda, Agenda, Volume 4/Number 3, p. 15.)
I must say that Mr. Klein’s statement is accurate. His commitment to his wife is as strong now as it was previously. It is obvious that he never really made a commitment to her at all.
III. GOD ALONE DETERMINES WHAT IS AN ACCEPTABLE QUAILITY OF LIFE. (Exodus 13:2; 2 Samuel 4:4; Matthew 19:12; Acts 3:2; 14:8)
Illustration: The Value Of Life In The Womb
Susan Shelley writes in Marriage Partnership, “I was thrilled when the doctor told me our baby-to-be was a boy. I decided to keep the news a secret because I wanted to see Marshall’s face when our son was delivered.
“In the fifth month, our doctor recommended a Level II ultrasound. As I lay on the examining table, Dr. Silver manipulated the ultrasound, measuring the cranium and the femur and viewing the internal organs. We all watched the embryonic motions.”
“Is everything okay?” Marshall asked.
“Let me complete the examination and I’ll give you a full report,” the doctor said. I hoped his evasive answer was merely his standard procedure.
Moments later, Dr. Silver announced his observations in a matter-of-fact voice. “We have some problems. The fetus has a malformed heart--the aorta is attached incorrectly. There are missing portions of the cerebellum. A club foot. A cleft palate and perhaps a cleft lip. Possibly spina bifida. This is probably a case of Trisomy 13 or Trisomy 18. In either case, it is a condition incompatible with life.”
Neither Marshall nor I could say anything. So Dr. Silver continued.
“It’s likely the fetus will spontaneously miscarry. If the child is born, it will not survive long outside the womb. You need to decide if you want to try and carry this pregnancy to term.”
We both knew what he was asking. My soul was shaken by the news, but I knew clearly what I was to do.
“God is the giver and taker of life,” I said. “If the only opportunity I have to know this child is in my womb, I don’t want to cut that time short. If the only world he is to know is the womb, I want that world to be as safe as I can make it.” (Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 3.)
Illustration: Smell The Rain
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news.
That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean to deliver the couple’s new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s soft words dropped like bombs.
"I don’t think she’s going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There’s only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk. She would never talk. She would probably be blind. She would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation. And on and on.
"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live and live to be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter’s chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable.
"David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements," Diana remembers "I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn’t listen, I couldn’t listen. I said, "No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don’t care what the doctors say Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"
As if willed to live by Diana’s determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae’s underdeveloped nervous system was essentially "raw," every lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort-so they couldn’t even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultra-violet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But as weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later-though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero-Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
Today, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She shows no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more-but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother’s lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin’s baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent.
Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?" Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain." Danae closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we’re about to get wet. It smells like rain."
Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana’s eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children before the rains came her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest, and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well. (http://www.bible.org, By Nancy Miller, Columbia Homecare Group, Dallas, Texas.)
IV. A MOTHER’S LIFE IS IN GOD’S HANDS. (Genesis 35:16-19)
A. Less Than One Percent Of All Abortions Are To Save The Life Of The Mother.
Illustration: Is Abortion Necessary?
C. Everett Koop, M.D., formerly the Surgeon General, states that during his 35-plus years of practicing medicine, "Never once did a case come across my practice where abortion was necessary to save a mother’s life." (C. Swindoll, “Sanctity of Life,” Word, 1990, p. 23.)
B. Seventy-Five Percent Of Abortions Are Performed As A Matter Of Convenience.
Illustration: I Wanted To See Who You Were Going To Turn Out To Be
Charles McCarry can claim a varied career. In addition to being the author of “The Tears of Autumn” and “The Last Supper,” he served as assistant to the Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower cabinet and has done two stints in the CIA.
But he almost wasn’t born. Says McCarry, “My mother became pregnant with me at the age of 39. She had nearly died while giving birth to my only sibling. Her doctor, who believed the second pregnancy was a serious threat to her life, advised an abortion. The advice made sense, but my mother refused to accept it.”
Just before she died at age 97, he asked her why.
She replied, “I wanted to see who you were going to turn out to be.” (http://www.christianglobe.com/illustrations. In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, quoted in Reader’s Digest, February 1990.)
V. THERE ARE NO BIBLICAL EXCEPTIONS THAT ALLOW ABORTION.
Illustrations: Pro-Life Means No Exceptions
A pro-life group, Georgia Right to Life, says it will not endorse any political candidate who insists that abortion be allowed in "certain situations" such as rape or incest.
American Life League president Judie Brown agrees that being truly pro-life means "no exceptions." She says the Georgia group is "right on track" because all human life is precious.
Georgia Right To Life came under a tremendous amount of pressure from the National Right to Life Committee, many Republicans, and others, but the leadership of GRTL , Brown says, is correct in their 100% stance.
Brown says as long as pro-lifers expect just "a little bit," from politicians -- i.e., allowing a few exceptions for abortion -- they are going to get even less than that. The pro-life leader says what pro-lifers need to do is expect politicians to recognize a child as a human being and be opposed to abortion in all circumstances because abortion is an act that kills a human being. Brown says standing up for every innocent human life is the only position that is pleasing to God. (Agape Press News Brief, August 27, 2002)
A. The Bible Makes No Provision For Abortion In Cases Of Rape Or Incest.
1. God values all human life, regardless of the nature of its conception.
2. Understandably, a woman may not want to keep a child conceived this way.
3. Adoption should be the alternative.
B. Even When Conception Occurs In A Violent And Sinful Act, Human Life Is Still A Gift From God.
1. The child has no choice in how it is conceived.
2. As distasteful as this may be, the child is innocent and not accountable for the sins of another.
3. A valid choice is adoption.
Conclusion: Abortion Is Not The Unpardonable Sin.
1) There are many women who have made the choice to have an abortion who now deeply regret it.
a. There are constant reminders of the heinousness of their actions. (Psalm 51:3)
b. There are moments when guilt and despair come crashing down upon them. ( Romans 7:24a)
2) Though the consequences of destroying the life of an unborn child cannot be reversed, it is possible to find spiritual healing from God.
3) The pathway to forgiveness and peace is the same as with any other sin.
a. Agree with God that what you did was sin. (Galatians 5:19-21)
b. Repent and ask for God’s forgiveness. (John 6:37b; 1 John 1:9)
4) You, too, can be cleansed and enjoy a right relationship with God. (Titus 3:3-7)
