The Sanctity of Life

The Sanctity of Life

Introduction:

Life is truly a gift each of us has been given by our Creator.  Read Psalm 139:14, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.”  Isaiah 44:24.  “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb:  I am the Lord, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;”  NKJV

“The body is a masterpiece of exquisite design.  Beautifully “engineered.”  It is governed by several hundred systems of control – each interacting with and affecting the other.  The brain has 10 billion nerve cells to record what it sees and hears.  Our skin has more than 2 million tiny sweat glands – about 3000 per square inch – all part of the intricate system which keeps the body at an even temperature.  A “pump” in our chest makes the blood travel 168 million miles a day – equivalent of 6720 times around the world!  The lining of the stomach contains 35 million glands secreting juices which aid the process of digestion.”  Ken Birks

Entire books have been written about how incredibly designed the human body is.  Yet millions of lives have been taken during the past 40 years due to the legalization of abortion.  Abortion is the shedding of innocent blood – something the Bible says God hates.  (Proverbs 6:16-17)  “These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:  A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood,”  NKJV  Instead of taking life, we should be protecting it.

Body:

I. Life Begins in the Womb

·  Luke 1:39-44  “Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.  And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!  But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in by womb for joy.”  NKJV  The babe leaped in her womb.  Not just some blob of biological tissue!  This same word is as the word in Luke 2:12, 16.  “And this will be the sign to you:  You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.  16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.”  NKJV

·  David says in Psalm 22:10 that he was David while in the womb.  “I was cast upon You from birth.  From My mother’s womb You have been My God.”

·  Read Psalm 139:13-16.  “lowest parts of the earth” – an expression for the darkness and concealment of the mother’s womb.  “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.  My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  And in Your book they all were written.  The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”  NKJV

·  Read Jeremiah 1:5.  “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.”  NKJV  Jehovah formed Jeremiah in the womb.

·  Note the words of Job in Job 3:1-3.  “a male child conceived.”  “After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.  And Job spoke, and said:  May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, A male child is conceived.”  NKJV Then read verses 11-16.  “Why did I not die at birth?  Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?  Why did the knees receive me?  Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?  For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves, Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver; Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light?”  NKJV  If he had died at birth, he would have gone to be with kings and counselors.  In other words, he possessed a soul.  He further claims that still born children also had souls.  So children in the womb possess souls. 

II. Why Abortion Is Sin

·  Listen to how the child develops while in the womb. 

·  “The 20^th Day after conception  In the watery world of the womb, the developing child is a complex, dynamic and rapidly growing individual.  By the 20^th day the foundations of the brain, spinal cord, and entire nervous system have been established.  The heart begins to beat in irregular patterns by 21 days and in smooth rhythmic contractions a week later.

·  The end of the first month – through the 8^th week  By the end of the first month, the child will have grown ten thousand times his or her original size, and by birth the child’s weight will have increased six billion times.  Lines in the hands and fingerprints begin to be etched by the 8^th week, and these will remain a distinctive feature of the individual throughout his or her life.

·  After eight weeks, the child bears all the external features and internal organs of a full-term baby.  From now until fully grown, generally around 25 years of age, the body will change mainly in terms of size and gradual refinements.

·  In the third month, the child becomes very active.  If the womb had windows, we would see graceful and fluid motions as the child sleeps and wakes, makes fists, sucks his thumb, fans her toes, and seeks positions of comfort.  During the remaining months in the womb, the child continues to develop activities, and even to learn, in preparation for the day of birth.

·  The most dangerous stage  You would think that in this state of life the child would be relatively safe, but this is one of the most dangerous battles for life that this person will ever face.  It’s ironic that in the child’s most innocent stage of life there is a fierce battle raging for the life of this tiny unborn infant.”  Ken Birks 

·  God gives this warning in Exodus 23:7 “Keep yourself far from a false matter, do not kill the innocent and righteous.  For I will not justify the wicked.”  NKJV and Exodus 21:22-24.  “If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.  But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,”  NKJV 

·  The wicked are described like this in Psalm 10:8.  “He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the secret places he murders the innocent; His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.”  NJKV 

·  Satan uses every method he can to destroy life. 

III. What Can We Do About Abortion?

·  “We can take a stand for truth and speak with conviction what our convictions are to friends, letters to editors, etc.

·  We can pray fervently in this area, wrestling against the rulers of darkness and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly realms.

·  We can picket abortion clinics peaceable. We should not be involved in any kind of violent act against abortion clinics or doctors who perform abortions.  Vengeance belongs to the Lord only!

·  We can offer all the help and support we can to insure mothers to carry their child to full term.  We can work with pro-life candidates, helping them to get elected into office.

·  We must continue to spread the life changing gospel.  That’s when lives are really changed.

·  Melody Green writes, “Abortion is not an issue that you can remain ‘neutral’ on.  You are either for it or against it.”  Ken Birks

Conclusion:

We truly are fearfully and wonderfully made.  God formed us in the womb and gave us an eternal spirit that will live somewhere forever. 

Bobby Stafford 

January 18, 2015