R368 The Sanctity if Human Life

Life, there's power in the Word.

Life, and there's power in the Word of God. Today we'll hear from the powerful teaching of Dr. Don Wilton. We head to Psalm 139 for today's message on the sanctity of human life from Dr. Don Wilton. As we open the Word together, know we're open to connect with you as well online at www.tewonline.org.

And now, Dr. Don Wilton. Would you kindly take a copy of God's Word this morning and turn with me to Psalm 139. You will need your Bibles as always as we come together in God's house. This morning we're going to be looking at several passages of Scripture, but I want us to begin with Psalm 139.

The sanctity of human life. Let's read together from verse 13. For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful.

I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Join me as we pray together. Our Father, this is such a very special moment. It's special first of all because of your presence. We know that you're here, Lord Jesus. But it's special also because of all the folks who worship with us by way of television.

People in their homes and nursing homes, rest homes, people in motel rooms who are on the road traveling and arresting their weary bodies, men and women who work in order to retain the wonderful society that we can live in, the peace that we can enjoy, policemen, law enforcement officers. Father, there are people right now in workplaces that simply serve mankind, doctors and nurses, those who attend others. And right here in this beautiful sanctuary on Main Street, and we were reminded of how grand it is to know that you will make us as white as snow, that there is nothing, our Father, within our hearts that we have done that is beyond your forgiveness, that you love us so tenderly and so wonderfully. Father, just speak to us today, there are people here, dear people listening and watching and worshiping in places that we have no idea of whose hearts are heavy, they're carrying burdens. Lord, let them release those burdens to you today. May we lift high the name of Jesus. May we be hidden behind the cross. May your sweet Spirit move across this place.

In Jesus' name, amen. We live in a very unfortunate day and age in many ways. There's a lot that we can be thankful for and I know that we all agree to that. But circumstances in today's day and age have caused so much of what we know to be right to become distorted and hidden. Politics is the name of the game. And when it comes to issues like the sanctity of human life, so many of the things that we read about and so many of the things that we say and so many of the things that we do are made with the ballot box in mind. We're either too afraid that the electorate is not going to return us because we ran opposed to an issue that society seemingly supports or perhaps we are afraid to make and to take a stand on certain issues that God has set before us. I roundly condemn any person who resorts to any form of violent activity in order to try and justify a spiritual stance.

In my opinion, it nullifies what they are doing. The sad part is that today that when it comes down to issues as tender as the sanctity of human life, that there is so much rhetoric, there is such a great debate that there are people who become lost in the crossfire. And there are people today watching us by way of television who are so very special. We want you to know how much we love you today. We want you to know that there is nothing that is beyond God's grace and His forgiveness. The sad part about what is happening in America today is the people that have become lost.

The hurting hearts and even here today upstairs and downstairs there are women in particular and many men whose hearts have been broken and who have been seriously impacted because of the issue of human life. I want to suggest to us this morning that we do two things. First of all, that together we look at the facts. We cut the rhetoric and we forget about the politics. Let's just for a moment forget about Democrats and Republicans.

Let's just forget about running for office and what's popular and what's not popular. Let's just lay aside all the things that have so easily beset us and encompassed us and have held us captive and let's ask ourselves what are the facts according to God's Word. Let's look at God's Word. Let's say we are a nation under God. Let's go back to our roots.

Let's get back to Bethel. Let's get back to the place of Jacob's commitment. Let's get back to the unsearchable riches of God in Christ Jesus and we're going to discover something so marvelous, so incredible that God tells us that there is a new tomorrow. There is a new day that you and I can be free from these burdens that we carry. Young lady, you can be set free today. You can be set free today.

No matter what you've gone through and no matter what prison cell you have found yourself captive to for so many years. Let's look at the facts and then in the second place, let's ask ourselves a question. If this is what the Bible tells us, what can we do about it?

What can I do? Does the Bible tell me that there's something that I can practically respond to today? What is my response as a Christian person to what God teaches about the sanctity of human life?

So what are the facts? Number one, life is God and God is life. That's the first and most fundamental fact that we have to begin with in God's Word. Genesis 1 and verse 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In verse 27 of the same chapter, God created man in his own image. I'm not preaching about evolution today but it always puzzles me that people say that we came from apes and monkeys and yet the Bible says that we were created in the image of God and if that be true, that means that God was an ape or a monkey. The Bible says in verse 27 that he created man in his own image. He told us we were special in Colossians chapter 1 verse 16, for by him were all things created. There is no exclusionary policy or principle as far as God's Word is concerned. And in Isaiah 64 and verse 8, one of my favorite passages, But now, O LORD, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You are the potter, and all of us are the work of Your hand. What a wonderful picture.

I can just see the potter sitting down at the potter's wheel, can you not? Making us fearfully and wonderfully in His presence, molding us from very conception into what God has made us to be today with intricate detail. If God is life and life is God, it means that He creates us but it also means that He alone is responsible for life and for death. Despite Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Bible is very clear about euthanasia and about man's right to take life. In 1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 6, the Lord brings death and makes alive.

The Lord brings down to the grave and the Lord raises up. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 19, I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life that both you and your seed may live. He creates us, God is responsible for both life and death. The facts are that on that basis, He directs us if God is life and life is God, God directs us. He doesn't just leave us to wander around, He shows us, He instructs us, He says to us, follow me, learn from me, obey me.

He not only directs us but He warns us. God tells us that there are consequences when we do not follow His precepts and His principles in Amos chapter 1 and verse 13, the most horrific passage. And I will not turn away its punishment, talking about the Ammonites, because they ripped open the woman with child in Gilead. I happen to be one of those pastors who believe that these passages are a direct reference to abortion.

I will not turn away punishment because they are guilty of ripping open the woman with child in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 10 and I absolutely love this. I have parents come to me from time to time, stillborn babies and babies that were not born at all, lost through miscarriages. They've said to me what has happened to my unborn baby and I know because of what the Bible teaches that that baby, that child, that person is transported into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. That when the rapture of the church occurs, my friends, that the unborn baby in the womb of a non-Christian mother is going to be taken from her presence. Listen to what Matthew 18 and 10 tells us, never despise one of these little ones for I tell you that they have their guardian angels in heaven. Who are these people, these guardian angels?

They look continually on the face of my heavenly father. What an incredible thing to think that life is God and God is life. But look at the second fact, life is God's people. Here we read in Psalm 139 that we were fearfully made and wonderfully made. I believe my friends that the fearful part of our making is a reference to the artistic endeavor of the creation of God in the human being.

If we were to bring a physician here to this platform this morning who was an expert in physiology, he or she would agree that even the very tip of your little finger is so fearfully made, it is made with such intricate design that I don't believe the average human mind like mine could really comprehend the intricacy of God's handiwork, the potter who molds the clay and who makes us what we are. But we are not only fearfully made, which refers to the intricate design of God's image upon the lives of men and women and boys and girls, but I believe the wonderfully made is a reference to the final product. Oh, people are wonderfully made. Just look at us.

We're all different. We're all this way and that way and out that way and up this way. But I tell you, friends, when you look at the world today, life is God's people. We are the very climactic expression of the very best that God has to give. Man is the mountaintop of God's creation.

Listen to what Job chapter 10 and verses 8 through 12 tells us. Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Do not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese. Clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews.

You gave me life and showed me kindness. And in your providence, you watched over my spirit. And the psalmist tells us in Psalm 139 that this begins right there at the moment of conception when our frame is hidden from public consumption and when I am made in the secret place.

What an incredible thought to think that God would sit down and He would make me and He would design me. Forgive the interruption, but what a powerful thought to know that God has intricately cared about us from the very beginning. I pray that you know that our ministry here is not just in this moment, but an opportunity to spend time on a daily basis with God's word is critical to us. You can discover more on our website at www.tewonline.org, but there's a unique part of our ministry that takes place every single day. The Encouraging Word's most requested resource is the Daily Encouraging Word. The Daily Encouraging Word is a daily devotional made available in a quarterly booklet or delivered each morning in your email inbox. If you would like to request this free devotional, please call 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. We are confident that it will be a blessing to you. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today.

Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton on the sanctity of human life. I always remember my grandmothers notwithstanding my mother-in-law and my own mother and my wife who knit. Knitting seems to be an art that may be dying out. I don't know.

I don't see it all that often. But it's a remarkable thing to behold how a lady can take a little thread and she can get two instruments and sit down and knit together the sinews that eventually are constructed in such a way that they make a beautiful jersey or a sweater or a coat or a jacket or a blanket or a rug or some kind of wonderful, wonderful commodity. What an incredible art and God does just that. He knits us and he sews our sinews together and he creates us. He creates us. He fashions us and he designs us after his own image. What an incredible privilege to think that God would make you and me in his image. Well, life is God and life is God's people but we must understand, dear friend, that life begins at conception.

Listen to the Word of God in chapter 31 verse 15. Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers? We've talked about how God forms us in Isaiah 64 and verse 8 that we are the clay and God is the potter and he hand crafts us.

Just think about the process whereby you and I come to be where we are. Day one, conception. When the sperm meets the egg, life begins. Week one, when this thing called the fetus, this unborn child attaches itself to the wall of the womb. Think about two weeks after conception how this fetus stops the mother's menstrual period. How that at the three-week point the heart is beginning to beat.

I'll never forget the birth of my own children, how exciting it is. The expectant couple when that heartbeat is felt. By six weeks the brain waves are measurable and this little child begins to move and to respond to touch. By eight weeks there is a heartbeat that is heard on ultrasonic stethoscope. The heart has been beating now for one month. This is by the eight-week mark. Consider the fact that at this stage an EKG can be done on this unborn baby.

Brain waves are measurable. This little baby at eight weeks can feel pain, sucks his or her thumb, can grasp objects that are placed into his or her hand at eight weeks, even swims in the mother's embryonic feud. By two and a half months the body is completely formed even down to the minutest detail of the fingerprints. Two and a half months and by three months all systems go.

Launch pad, waterworks and all. We're told beloved friends listen to me that from three months that fetus now only needs to grow in size and in maturity. From three months old. These are the facts. But there's a fourth fact that we must consider life is precious. I love to be around little children. One of my favorite things to say to little children is, has your mom or dad ever told you that you're precious? Uh-huh, uh-huh.

We love to do that. Life is so precious, isn't it? Children in our congregation all over the world, you are precious, friend. Life is precious. People all over this congregation, people all over the world, all of you folks listening by way of television, you're precious.

There's no other word for it. You're precious according to God's word. And we know that deep down in your heart you're hurting.

And we want you to know how much we love you and how much we care for you because you're precious. That's a biblical fact. Isn't it sad then if life is so precious that every third baby dies from abortion? If life is so precious, isn't it sad that 1.6 million babies are aborted every year? 4,400 each day, one baby every second dies.

How many have died since we began this worship service? If life is so precious, isn't it sad that since Roe v. Wade, that women can legally abort an unborn child at any time during her nine-month pregnancy and without any reason given? If life is so precious, isn't it sad that almost 800,000 babies are aborted within just 10 days of conception? Folks, this is a time when the heart is beating, when brain waves are measured, when the stomach, the liver, the kidneys, and the brain are functioning, when fingerprints have been formed. If life is so precious and the facts speak for themselves, and isn't it sad that by 18 weeks 64,000 American babies are aborted each year when all organs are complete and functioning? When this baby is breathing, swallowing, digesting, sleeping, dreaming, waking up? Isn't it sad that at that point all that baby needs is the nourishment to grow?

Isn't it sad if life is so precious that the average abortion procedure takes 5 to 10 minutes while the average wait for adoption takes 2 to 10 years? These are the facts, but dear friend today, the reason why we're here is because based upon these facts, we believe that God loves us beyond anything that we could comprehend, and there's something that we can do about it. I want to share with you four responses this morning. You might want to write them down. Four responses that we can have. First of all, ask God for his salvation.

All of these are going to be S's, so you can try and remember them a little easier. Ask God for his salvation. You might say to me this morning, Pastor, I've gone through an abortion and if only people knew how much I have wept. If you don't know Jesus, friend, the first thing you've got to do is ask him for his salvation.

You see, God is life, and when you ask God for salvation, my friend, it means that you are coming to him and you're saying to him, outside of you life is meaningless, and I'm willing to repent of my sin and by faith trust in you, and when you receive God's salvation, God will infiltrate your heart and begin to do for you what you and I cannot do for ourselves. Second, reclaim the source of life. If you know Jesus Christ and you're carrying a burden today, perhaps you've had an abortion, perhaps you've been a partner in something related to the sanctity of human life, and perhaps for years and years you've carried this load, I want you to know, my friends, you can reclaim the source of life. You can go back to Bethel. You can go back to the place of Jacob's commitment. You can go back to the place where you built an altar to the God of creation. You can go back to him and you can say to him, Lord, revive me and restore me.

That's what it's all about. This is the God of the Bible. He's the God of reconciliation and he's the God of restoration. I tell you what, this God, my friend, this God doesn't deal with bomb blasts in Atlanta, Georgia.

This is not a God who's going to go around whipping you from one end of the earth to the other. This is the God of love and the God of forgiveness. This is the God who holds out his hand to you. This is the God who points you to the Lord Jesus Christ, his only son. And he says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And he has already shed his blood for you. The price has already been paid. You can claim him for yourself.

You can take him to yourself. Ask God for salvation. Reclaim the source of life. But thirdly, know that there are solutions available. There are solutions. This is not an eternal predicament that you found yourself in.

No sir, no ma'am. That solution, first of all, is to be found in God's forgiveness. Here's what happens. It's a wonderful thing to think about. When you give your life to Jesus, he does this for you. If you're a born again believer and you've sinned, he does this for you.

He says that if you confess your sin, he's faithful and just to forgive you your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Are you ready to do that very thing, to open your life to Christ? Do you have questions?

Let's talk about it. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD. We'd love to talk with you, pray with you, 866-899-9673. And before we get away, a closing thought from Dr. Don Wilson. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you were praying along with Dr. Wilson moments ago to give your life to Christ for the first time or rededicate your life, Dr. Wilson has wonderful resources we want you to have absolutely free if you'll call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. We want to put these resources in your hands. And earlier we spoke about the Daily Encouraging Word Bible Guide. You can call for your free copy of that as well, 866-899-9673. You can also sign up for it on our website, tewonline.org, receive it through the email every single morning. That's available online at tewonline.org. And I hope you'll join us tomorrow for Dr. Wilson's message, Using Your Gifts for God on the Encouraging Word.