The Industry of Death

In one room, you encourage the patient that the slight irregularity of the fetal heart is not important, that she is going to have a fine, healthy baby. Then you go to the next room and you assure another woman on whom you just did a saline abortion that it's good that the heart is already irregular, she's nothing to worry about, she is not going to have a live baby. Dr. Shennens continues, now whether you admit this to the patient is another matter.

Her distress by unwanted pregnancy to me is the primary consideration. We just have to face it, note this, somebody has to do it and unfortunately we are the executioners. The justices that Stephen was just referring to are those who were on the bench when abortion became legal in the United States back in the 1970s. Stephen first preached this sermon in the 1990s, but as you know from today's news, it's just as relevant today.

We're in a vintage wisdom series through the Ten Commandments called Down from Sinai. We've come to the command prohibiting murder. Stephen used this opportunity to address the issue of abortion. Although the political climate has changed, abortion is still an important issue about which Christians need to think biblically.

This lesson is called The Industry of Death. Here we find ourselves in Exodus chapter 20 reading the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill. What I want to do is introduce to you if you don't know and I don't think you know the depths of it, in fact it's too hideous to reveal all of the depths of this perversion, but I will instruct as best I can what is taking place today and then tell you what the Bible has to say about life and when life begins and who is the creator and the designer behind life and the process of conception. The Bible is very clear. In fact, you need to understand that abortion is not really new.

We trace it all the way back to at least 400 years before the time of Jesus Christ. Medical practitioners today quote, they so choose the Hippocratic oath and that oath says, among other things, I as a physician will not aid a woman in procuring a device for the purpose of abortion. The first thing that I want to give you are the different types of abortion. This is not to gross you out.

It is simply to inform you of the hideous nature of murder that is taking place in America. There are several types. There are three different categories, the first, the second and the third trimester. During the first trimester, there is what is called dilation and curetage.

This is what occurs. The opening of the cervix is dilated with a series of instruments to allow the insertion of a curette or a sharp scraping instrument. The fetus is then cut into pieces and scraped from the uterine wall. There's another kind called suction curette. Using this method, the cervix is dilated and then a tube is inserted connected to a strong suction apparatus.

The vacuum is so powerful that the baby is torn to bits and then sucked into a jar. During the second trimester, this is the most prevalent form. It's called salt poisoning or saline injection. This method is used after 16 weeks.

This is now when the baby is four months old. When enough fluid has accumulated in the sac around the baby, a long needle is inserted through the mother's abdomen into the baby's sac. Some fluid is removed and a strong salt solution is injected in. The helpless baby swallows this poison and suffers severely. He kicks and jerks violently as he is literally being burned alive by the solution. It takes over an hour for the baby to die by this method.

His outer layer of skin completely burns off. Within 24 hours, labor will usually set in and the mother will give birth to a dead baby. And I'm going to read to you in a little bit, a doctor who performs these, who rationalizes it, who justifies it, but yet he condemns himself by what he says. Then in the third trimester, some of you may not be aware that a baby can be aborted up to the day of birth. You need to understand that this issue was even around during the time of Christ.

You know, that was one of the surprising things to me. And as I study the Bible and get into those commentaries and read what the ancients have written, it's amazing to me how sin and perversions that we think are new on the scene are really ancient. They go back as far as we can imagine, because there has always been Satan and his design is to preempt the creative acts of God. He could care less about anything else than shaking his fist at the authority of God, who is the power and the energy and the force behind conception and birth.

And so he seeks to do it. But you go back to the rabbis and in the Talmud, quote, we outlaw abortion. The rabbis would treat this baby as a human being, not some appendage, not some tumor, not some embarrassment, not some kind of tissue that is to be discarded. This was life, they said. We declare the same today. In fact, the tadaque, a compilation of Old Testament law, extra Old Testament law, said this, the early church law, quote, Thou shalt not murder by abortion.

So it's not new. The world looks to the church and says, What is the church's position? What do the scriptures teach? And yet there is the national religious caucus for the abortion rights or for the rights of the abortionists. That is filled with churches, the American Baptist Church, the Church of the Brethren, the Episcopal Church Woman's Caucus, the Presbyterian Church of the United States, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the United Presbyterian Church, the YWCA, and on down the line, people who have corporately signed the bloody decree that this is not life and we will snuff it out. Well, if the church doesn't know what God's position is, if the church doesn't hold to be valid the teachings of scripture, then we're all out to lunch. The world definitely cannot receive an answer from the church if we abandon what scripture teaches. And that's why we're going to cover dozens of passages of scripture in rapid fashion.

But those out there who say they represent God, whatever church they may be called, if they do not represent his scriptures, they do not represent God. I want to briefly expose some of the myths you hear them, we can't cover it all. In fact, my purpose is really not to be an apologetic against all of these myths, but I think you need to be aware.

And I want to do my part. Number one, they say that abortion will take care of the quote, unwanted child. Let me read you this from the Planned Parenthood Federation, which is the hellish force behind abortion. Quote, if women are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies, the result is unwanted children. Everyone knows that they are among society's most tragic cases, often uncared for, unloved, brutalized and abandoned.

That makes sense. According to the American Humane Association between 1976 and 1982, the number of reported child abuse cases more than doubled to 400,000 to nearly a million. The National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse posted a 35% increase in reports of sexually abused children in 1984. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, the 1973 abortion on demand decision is not curbing child abuse. And furthermore, there is no such thing as an unwanted child by someone in this country. I shared with you the story quite some time ago about the time my wife and I were expecting our twin boys. And we were in Dallas and we went to Baylor Hospital for just a checkup.

She was nine months, full term. And the doctor there at the checkup said, hey, you know, what are you doing walking around? You're about to have these babies. And he ushered her into the hospital and sent me downstairs to fill out all these forms. If you've been there, you know, it's the craziest time in the world to fill out forms.

So I'm down there trying to remember my name and all of that phone numbers and addresses and everything. And we're filling those things out. And then she hands me one and she says, by the way, if you don't want them, fill this form out. And if you only knew the trouble we went through during that pregnancy, you bet we want them at least long enough to punish them and then we may give them away. We wanted those babies.

And I filled that form out, but that piqued my interest, I thought, to myself. And I asked her, I said, how many people are on your list at Baylor University Hospital? And she said, we've got over 1,000 couples waiting for you to say you don't want your baby.

And they'll give it a home. Nearly 25 million babies have been deprived of somebody's love and home. There is no such thing as an unwanted child. There's another myth and that's right, a very tragic scenario. And yet a very small percentage of the entire scenario involving abortion. In fact, in Pennsylvania, they were one time giving medical assistance and free abortions to a woman claiming rape and they were nearly 50 a month until they decided that, first of all, they had to go to the police and report it as rape and then it nearly disappeared.

Very slim percentage. But let me say this, because I don't know who's in this audience today and what your background may be. It is never right to do wrong.

You got that? Never compound the guilt and the pain upon a woman who has been raped to counsel her to become party to a murderer. What help is that?

It's no help at all. In fact, I ran across a story of a black girl, a young teenage black girl who was raped by a white man. Great information for those that would say, let's abort. She was a believer and decided to raise this baby and brought the baby into the world. That baby was a girl who would trust Christ and sing for Christ.

And whenever you hear the song, his eye is on the sparrow, you think of Ethel Waters, she was a little baby. It is never right to become a murderer, even if someone has been raped. Don't become a felonist criminal because felony has been committed. There's another myth and that's the back alley. You hear all about that. Planned Parenthood has the coat hangers on billboards and, oh, we want to keep them from going back to that. Do you realize that since it's been legalized six to seven times, more women have died during the abortion procedure than before?

That also then would be considered a myth. What's the force behind this? Let me just expose some things to you. First of all, the motivating force, if you have notes, I want you to write these down. The first is a new sex ethic. That is in this country, the belief that we should have freedom to pursue whatever kind of lifestyle we want to pursue. But we've got a problem. There is a consequence. So let's rid ourselves of the potential consequence and then we can have this liberty. That gave way, of course, or was compounded by the rise of feminism began by lesbians who espouse total sexual freedom. And then the ERA came along or closely on the heels who demanded an on demand abortion, quote, listen to this quote, women are not equal to men unless they are rid of childbearing responsibilities.

That's their tenant. And then, of course, the population. That's really another myth. You know, they say, Oh, my goodness, where are we going to live?

You ever heard of the fact that you could put everybody in the world shoulder to shoulder in the state of Rhode Island today? And there's a theological problem with that, too. God created Earth. And in his design, he knows how many people Earth can inhabit.

If we think we're filling it up, then that's all the more reason to expect his return because he knows how big it needs to be to handle the population. Planned Parenthood, of course, is behind it. Planned Parenthood was created by Margaret Sanger, an incredibly immoral woman.

And there's a biography on her life. But here's what she says. She says the birth control, such as abortion, is calculated to undermine the authority of the Christian church. You see what her motive is? She didn't care about the rights of a woman. She says this will undermine the authority of the Christian church. I continue her quote. I look forward to seeing humanity free someday from the tyranny of Christianity. She also expounded a six fold plan for peace where she suggested we sterilize all the feeble-minded.

Feeble-minded included Jews, blacks, Catholics, and people like that. That is the force behind Planned Parenthood. It's inconsistent that the Supreme Court has also ruled that a man can be prosecuted as a murderer if he attacks a pregnant woman and the woman's baby dies. In other words, they're saying that the only person in America that has the right to kill its baby is the mother. There are business spin-offs.

This really is grisly, but I want to let you know what's happening. Business spin-offs from abortion. 1981, Fortune Magazine declared abortion to be a billion dollar industry.

And there's a triple profit. The first is abortion itself, what the woman pays the clinic, what the doctor makes, and all of the medical staff. Then there is the sale of the babies. They refer to them, obviously, as fetuses.

I really like to refer to them as babies. They sell the bodies of the dead babies and they break the bodies down. There are cosmetic industries built on the collagen, which is found in tissue and bone marrow. And if you go to the store and you see something like a hand cream, ladies, that says, enriched by collagen, read there to make sure it's animal collagen because it may be baby collagen.

They sell it to unsuspecting customers. And then, of course, there's more. There is the experimentation of the dead babies, live and dead.

Listen to this. Abortion has been used to justify widespread fetal experimentation. For example, in 1973, kidneys were taken from aborted babies for study at Dalhouse University in Canada. The New England Journal of Medicine reported on a study of the effects of a mother's drugs on her babies that were aborted alive. According to the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Bella Roosh cut hearts out of aborted babies and kept the hearts beating for hours. In 1973, Dr. Rise of the University of Manitoba cut open the skulls of live aborted babies and studied them. He later killed the babies by a sharp puncture to the heart. Dead babies and live aborted babies are being used in experimentation. In fact, they've taken fetal organs and grafted them into rats to see how long the rats will live in America. Dr. Lawrence Law of Cambridge University in England says he buys aborted babies to experiment with them. He says that a fetus is so much garbage. Let me read you what one abortionist says, though, that's currently involved and how he condemns himself. Dr. Joseph Sennans, age 36, has this to say.

You have to become a bit schizophrenic. In one room, you encourage the patient that the slight irregularity of the fetal heart is not important, that she is going to have a fine, healthy baby. Then you go to the next room and you assure another woman on whom you just did a saline abortion that it's good that the heart is already irregular.

She has nothing to worry about. She is not going to have a live baby. Dr. Sennans continues, at the beginning, we were doing abortions on smaller fetuses and the kicking and heartbeat did not manifest itself as much. I think if I had started with 24 weekers right off the bat, I would have had a much greater conflict in my own mind if this was the same as murder or not. But since we started off slowly with 15 to 16 weekers, the fetus just never got consideration. Then gradually, the whole range of cases started to become larger. And all of a sudden, one noticed that at the time of the saline infusion, there was a lot of activity in the uterus.

It wasn't fluid currents. It was obviously the fetus being distressed by swallowing the salt solution and kicking violently through the death trauma. Now, whether you admit this to the patient is another matter. Her distress by unwanted pregnancy to me is the primary consideration. We just have to face it. Note this, somebody has to do it and unfortunately, we are the executioners in this instance. What is the real motivation behind abortion?

Let me give you three. Number one, decision making apart from God. What I want to do is to just simply reaffirm the sovereignty of God. That is, he is the creator of life. He is the rightful owner of life. He is the decider of life. He determines the length and the breadth of a person's days. It is not a woman's right. He is the sovereign God.

It is up to him. Number two, sexual freedom without consequence. Did you know that nearly 80% of all abortions are performed on unmarried women? 80%, which pulls the mask off so that we see just like the time of Jesus Christ, there was this embarrassing consequence and the woman felt it would be better rather than bear her child and give God the glory and hopefully turn that child to God. Oh no, we don't want this baby. It's an embarrassment.

It's an inconvenience. Internationally now abortion has become the most common form of birth control. Number three, the third, materialism without restraint. Materialism without restraint. The billion dollar business out there related to the death of aborted babies is incredible and it is those who are making money fistful after fistful who now could no longer stop, then they could help themselves. Why? Because without God, without his authority to stop, this will take from me my financial support and there is a materialistic hunger that literally rationalizes murder. As in the case of this poor doctor who refers to himself as an executioner.

It's interesting. I came across the law in New England. It's a thousand dollar fine for shipping pregnant lobster because it'll hurt the offspring. You see, we want lobster. America loves lobster and you would never want to hurt the industry of lobster.

So you find somebody a thousand dollars for potentially damaging an animal. Principle number one, conception is the work or the act of God. Mark it down, men and women. This is more than the uniting of 64 chromosomes. This is the creative, powerful act of a creative God, a powerful God. And we have given ourselves far too much credit for the procreative process. It is God who is the ordainer of life. Let me give you negatively what the scriptures have to say. Genesis 16 to Sarah says, the Lord has restrained me from conceiving. Genesis 2018 the Lord closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech. First Samuel one five, the Lord has closed the womb of Hannah. You see, it is God who allows conception positively. Genesis 17 19.

He says, your wife Sarah will conceive and bear a son. Genesis 21 two. So Sarah conceived and bore a son at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.

Mark that down. It begins at the beginning conception. Genesis 25 21 and Isaac prayed and the Lord answered and Rebecca, his wife conceived Ruth 4 13. So Boaz took Ruth. He went into her and the Lord enabled her to conceive.

Pretty clear. Judges 13 seven. Manoah is going to bear Samson says, Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. He shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. Matthew Chapter one verses 20 to 23. It's interesting, and we need to understand one of the greatest theological arguments that life begins at conception is the fact that Jesus Christ was incarnate. That is, he left heaven and he became human. He entered the process of life.

And when did that begin at Bethlehem? No, at conception. You see, Jesus Christ at one time was the simple unification of 64 chromosomes. He was at one time an embryo. God put him through the entire process so he would know the process of humanity. Principle number two.

Physical life in the womb is the design of God, and we're beyond conception now into the designing of that body. Job Chapter 10. Let me have you look there. Job Chapter 10. It's the book right before songs. Job Chapter 10. Note this verse eight. Job says, Thy hands fashioned and made me all together. And would you then destroy me? Remember now that thou hast made me as clay, and wouldst thou turn me into dust again? Didst thou not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?

Close me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted me life and loving kindness, and thy care has preserved my spirit. Turn over to Chapter 31 verses 13 to 15.

Chapter 31, 13 to 15. If I have despised the claim of my male or female servants when they filed a complaint against me, what thing could I do when God arises and when he calls me to account? What will I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make him and the same one fashion us in the womb? That is the creative power of God there in the secret place of the womb. Psalm 100 verse three. Know ye that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. Ecclesiastes 11 five.

Listen to this. Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman. So you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

The wind is mysterious. It is the work of God in the womb there in the hidden part where God is creatively designing a body that is his part as well. They are both from his power. Isaiah 44 one. Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb. Verse 24. Thus says the Lord your Redeemer and the one who formed you from the womb. I the Lord and the maker of all things in Psalm chapter 139 consider the creative power of God. Even then verse 13 of Psalm chapter 139 for thou didst form my inward part literally my kidney.

That was the Hebrew euphemism for all of that material part of the body that's created in the womb. Thou didst form my kidneys. Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are thy works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance.

How's that for embryo? And in my book they were all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them. That means from the conception to the womb and the forming of the womb to the end of life God is the power. He is the sovereign behind it all.

He is involved in the process. I think the application is simple then from conception to birth and beyond God is the creative designer. By the way this answers the problem of deformity of handicap of disability.

There will come a day when by genetic engineering or by genetic testing they will give the woman the right to abort her child because they will have discovered Down syndrome, some disability, the lack of an arm or a leg or whatever it might be. And yet you remember when Moses came to God and he said oh look Lord I can't go to Pharaoh I'm not eloquent. You know what God told him in Exodus chapter 4 verse 11 he said Moses who made man's mouth? Who made him dumb or able to speak? Who made him blind or able to see? Is it not God who made us all?

Who are we to determine the worthiness of someone based on what we can see? There was a woman I think it was her fifth child all four before had been some had some type of handicap some type of problem physically. And she had a drunkard for a for a husband and so she was she had conceived and was going to bear the fifth and they said hey listen you need to get rid of that baby abort. And she decided to carry it to full term and brought that baby boy into the world and he is my favorite composer. We know him as Beethoven.

He liked this precious gal deaf when he composed Moonlight Sonata. We as a country have disregarded the authority of God and when you chuck divine rights when you throw out the fact that he is a sovereign God that we are accountable to you lose the foundation for human rights. I wonder where these chief justices were when they were little children. Were they near a church? Did they live near Christians?

Who was silent? Who didn't tell them about Jesus Christ? Who didn't tell them about the authority that God should have in all of our lives and the value of life the authority of scripture. We now have another generation living around us within the tentacles of our ministry and we must declare to them that God is sovereign and only by acknowledging him can we ever hope to improve our culture and our society. We bring people to Jesus Christ. Let's go back to Matthew chapter 28 where Jesus Christ told them to go back into their perverted degenerate societies and make disciples.

Who are you discipling today? Who have you won to Jesus Christ? Where are your disciples?

Everything else falls short. From fulfilling that commission to make disciples to immerse them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and to teach them to observe all that I've commanded you. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. Stephen dealt with a big topic in this message, the topic of abortion. He first preached this message back in 1990 but the issue is just as relevant today. If it would help you to be able to listen again or if you know someone that you want to share this lesson with, we have it posted online at wisdomonline.org. We'll be back with the next message in this series next time. Please join us right here on Wisdom for the Heart.