Our Most Precious Faith
The Sanctity of Life
Turn to Psalm 139. About five years ago Anne and I were driving on Oil Heritage Road, and I happened to see some paper in the ditch at the side of the road. And as I passed I said to Anne, that looks like money. So, I turned around and I saw a twenty-dollar bill, and another, and another. There was $180 in the ditch and then I saw a wallet. We figured that someone may have been driving a motorcycle and lost their wallet from their back pocket or something. So, we dropped it off at the OPP station in Petrolia. About three weeks later we were renting the cottage we always rent in Kincardine and Anne was doing some laundry at the laundromat. So, I said, I will just take Ted for a walk. Well, I walked about a block and saw three twenty-dollar bills on the sidewalk. Fortunately, I didn’t see a wallet this time, so I could keep the money. And I have to admit, for the next little while, anytime I was out for a walk, I was constantly looking for money!
Now, I do not put a lot of weight into believing in a sign or something. I remember having a couple tell me once that they knew they should get married because the first time they dated there was rainbow. And I thought you had better have a better reason than that. But seriously, though I would not place some kind of spiritual sign to such an event or try to spiritualize it, I do believe this, that God knew I would find the money. And therefore, that as Christians we must have a very strong sense of God’s providence and that all things come from His hand. And therefore, we are responsible for everything that God brings into our lives. And again, I do not want to spiritualize this. That if you are buying a car and praying whether God wants you to have the red one or the blue one, first, determine whether you need the car; and second, can you afford it? And then buy the one you think is best. Yet, after that, I believe we can say, thank You Lord for providing the car. Don’t make a big deal about the car but know that God gave you the means to buy it.
I do not always believe that Christians are the only ones blessed in this world, but it should be the Christian who acknowledges the blessing from God. I said the other week that if your neighbour is wealthy, God allowed him to be wealthy. Now, they may not thank the Lord for that, but we of all people should, whether that is daily bread, or it’s the red car, or the $60 bucks on the sidewalk. In other words, things are not random, in the sense that all things come from God. James said:
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
James 1:16-17 (LSB)
Do not be deceived. In other words, do not believe that I earned this—though you may work harder than most—but understand, it is the Lord who gave you that ability to work hard. As I get older, I cherish the energy that the Lord gives me to work and to achieve, understanding that God could choose to change this at any time. In some ways we can drive ourselves and work hard, but on the other hand, we have to admit we are very frail in the sense that our every breathe comes from God. In the statement we are about to study this morning, I would suggest that our view will be different from much of the culture for two reasons: one, the Bible teaches something very different; but secondly, because we see all things coming from God’s hand. Our statement says this:
THE SANCTITY OF LIFE
We believe that life is a gift from God and that all life is precious from conception to natural death. Therefore abortion, suicide, murder, and euthanasia oppose the desire of God. Since each person is made in the image of God, we grieve and oppose such practices (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6; Psalm 139:13-18; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Life is a gift from God. Deuteronomy 32:39, God said, “It is I who put to death and give life.” First Samuel 2:6, “Yahweh puts to death and makes alive.” I have said to you before that the reason God can ask a people to slay another group of people is because this is His right. This is God’s choosing, for the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s, as well as its fullness, The world, and those who dwell in it. So, what do you and I actually own if God owns everything? First Chronicles 29:11-12:
“Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.”
1 Chronicles 29:11-12 (LSB)
Truly, God gives to us the energy and everything we need to do what we do. This is why when we bring our tithes and offerings to the Lord, we are not giving Him what is ours, we are simply giving back to Him a portion of what is already His. I remember being home as a little guy with no money to buy any Christmas presents and I used to grab something like my sister’s used pencil crayons or whatever I could find and wrap them up and put on the tag, to Harold (my brother) from Mark. And my brother would open up the present Christmas morning, and my sister would say, hey, those are my pencil crayons! I have told you before that sometimes when one of our grandkids goes to take a chip from a bowl, I will grab the bowl and jokingly say, mine, mine, mine! That is really bad theology for God says:
“For every beast of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is Mine.”
Ps 50:10-11 (LSB)
So, when we look at life, we know that it belongs to God. The little life within the womb is God’s life, as we are merely stewards of that life. We especially see this with our lives as believers as Paul wrote:
“Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you
have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 1:19-20 (LSB)
And this stewardship applies to a mother and the parents of that little one. It also applies to the person’s own body as they grow into a teen and adult, that my life and your life belong to God. And as we care for those who grow older, that as caretakers, we care for another’s life. So, whether we are infants—who cannot care for ourselves—or if we are adults, caring for our own lives, or as we may grow older and cannot again look after our own bodies. During all this time, God owns that life. And we are either caring for ourselves or the life of someone else whom God has placed into our care. Now, this is a real issue for society, but it is not an issue for us, as the Bible could not be clearer in stating who owns the life. Yet euthanasia advocate Dr. Philip Nitschke said that if someone has the right to live, they also have the right to die. He said this:
“Someone needs to provide this knowledge, training or recourse necessary to anyone who
wants it, including the depressed, the elderly, the bereaved, the troubled teen. If we are to
remain consistent and we believe that the individual has the right to dispose of their life,
we should not erect artificial barriers in the way of sub-groups who don’t meet our criteria.”
Philip Nitchke
I would actually agree with his statement that if someone has the right to dispose of their life, then how can we place barriers or boundaries around that decision. In other words, if is someone is so desperate that they do not want to live anymore, who are you and I to tell them whether it would be okay for them to take their life. But we need to back up here when considering his statement, for his thinking is based upon his belief that the individual has the right to dispose of their life, if this were true, I would agree with him. But they actually do not, as their life is from God, it is not their own.
Please do not misunderstand what I am about to say this morning but thinking through this as I prepared for this message this week, that the term “right to life” is possibly not the best term. We have been sort of taught as Christians, the term “right to life” over the term “pro choice” or “right to choose.” Yet I would suggest that the term “right to life” is not necessarily the best term, as it places the power or ownership in the person who has the life, and it does not mention God. Because the power of the life or the ownership of the life is in God’s hands. So, I do not know how this could be better described, but possibly we could say not “right to life” but “God’s right to determine life.” As this takes the ownership out of the hands of men and women and places it back in the proper ownership of God, as we are simply stewards of the lives the Lord has given us to us.
And while we might lament that society continues to move forward on this issue, that it has gone from wanting to give people who are terminally ill to have the right to die to give those who would just prefer to be dead that option medically. But the entire concept is wrong, as we must begin any discussion of this as Christians with the primary truth of God’s right to determine every life. Now, the difficulty with this argument is that we may fall to the claims of those who would promote abortion or those who promote euthanasia that this is all done under the label of compassion. Abortion, a compassion to a child who may be born with severe challenges. Why would we put them through that? Euthanasia, a person who is suffering. How could we be so cruel as to allow them to live under such suffering? Yet the underlying argument is not really compassion as shown in the debates over both these issues. As abortions, done for so-called compassionate reasons, have morphed into merely for the reason of choice, or for convenience for the Mom or Dad or the society. Or euthanasia, done for so-called compassionate reasons, to help the terminally ill end their suffering has morphed into claiming that anyone has the right to end his or her life at any time for any reason whatsoever. Therefore, we cannot come to this issue under the heading of compassion.
So, my goal this morning is not to help us determine where that line is of what might deem compassionate or what is not. My goal is to teach that because of what the Bible says, that there is no line. That as our statement says we grieve and oppose any practice of abortion, euthanasia, murder, or suicide. And I realize that we could start this discussion by making an argument of the life of the child in the womb, in other words, proving that this child in the womb is alive, which he or she is and it is the right argument. And which many have done and would be able to do a far better job doing this than I ever could. One of the things I appreciated so much about Charlie Kirk was not only his desire to defend the Bible, but it was his ability to debate it scientifically in regard to something like abortion, and this is a great gift when we are speaking about this with those outside the church. But we, who hold to the Bible, do not need to go to that argument, as the truth of the Bible should back us up in the argument. For as Christians we really should be arguing who owns a person’s life, and therefore, who has the right to take it or not.
Do you understand what I am saying? That yes, we can listen to the arguments of an infant in the womb or the great suffering of an adult, arguments of when we should or should not interfere. But in reality, we who know the Bible should be asking this question, “When does God have the right to interfere with a life?” As it is God who owns that life, whether that life is still in the womb or 105 years old. When does God have the right to interfere with that life? The answer is He always does. Again, Deuteronomy 32:39, God said, “It is I who put to death and give life.” First Samuel 2:6, “Yahweh puts to death and makes alive.” In other words, this is not an argument we are deciding.
If there was a painting or a beautiful building and we were deciding whether we should get rid of them or not. Who should decide that? The one who owns the painting or the beautiful building. This is Bible 101. This is not difficult from a theological perspective. Now, it may be difficult to explain this to someone on the street who does not believe in God or who does not accept the truth of the Bible, but it ought not be difficult for us who know the truth. So, as we hold to this position, as we consider it this morning, we are not talking about the term of a pregnancy or the struggle of an individual, as the matter is not one for us to decide or choose, for this is God’s decision. So, let’s look at two things this morning.
God’s Command
God simply says, thou shalt not kill. Now, we do not have time, but the Bible gives only three exceptions to this command. One, one is in war; two, capital punishment, and three, self-defence. And we really understand this command when we think of it as thou shalt not murder. As we see in the Bible that God has the right to human life and in such cases as government, He gives that right to those who govern. Are there abuses to this? Certainly, there are, but God has given the right of a government to take the lives of those who have taken life. Or when we saw in the book of 1 Samuel when He commanded Israel to kill, this is God’s command, therefore it is God’s doing. Secondly:
God Speaks of Life in the Womb
Look with me at that Psalm 139 passage.
1 “Where Can I Go from Your Spirit?
For the choir director. Of David. A Psalm.
O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Yahweh, You know it all.
5 You have enclosed me behind and before,
And You have put Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
9 If I lift up the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will bruise me,
And the light around me will be night,”
12 Even the darkness is not too dark for You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And intricately woven in the depths of the earth;
16 Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance;
And in Your book all of them were written
The days that were formed for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
17 How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.
19 Oh that You would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of bloodshed, depart from me.
20 For they speak against You wickedly,
And Your enemies take Your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate You, O Yahweh?
And do I not revile those who rise up against You?
22 I hate them with the utmost hatred;
They have become my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.”
Psalm 139:1-24 (LSB)
Al Mohler teaches here that God reveals Himself in this Psalm through three of His attributes. David confesses that God knows His words even before he speaks to them and his thoughts even before he thinks them. Therefore, God is omniscience. In other words, He knows everything. The Psalm also says that there is no where we can go that God is not present. Where can I go from Your Spirit? If I ascend to heaven, You are there and if I go even to the realm of the dead, behold You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn and I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me. It is a great comfort to us to know that there is no place we can go, or be taken, or find ourselves away from the presence of God. In other words, God is in all places at all times, so God is omnipresent. And then the Psalm goes on to explain God’s greatness in His creation of the human body, as it speaks of God forming a human life in the womb. This demonstrates God’s omnipotence, that He is all-powerful.
Now, this truth that God is the source of life and God is the One who forms the human within the womb overwhelmingly highlights the sanctity of our lives. That to have life that is fashioned by God is an incredible thought and therefore, is a massive responsibility for us to steward that life. In contrast to the idea that we evolved from apes not only tries to explain the origin of our lives but also says something very significant about the quality of our lives. For on one hand, we have the omniscient God, the omnipresent God, the omnipotent God creating; and on the other hand, we have a worldview that teaches happenchance occurring to produce human beings. Al Mohler wrote this:
“Worldviews have results. They have implications—ideas have consequences—and if evolution is understood as the evolutionist intends it to be understood, then human life has no inherent sanctity, no dignity, and no special status at all.”
Al Mohler, “The Sanctity of Life and the Culture of Death” 81
Stephen J. Gould, Professor at Harvard University described human life as an accidental “twig” on the “amazing tree of life,” and he added that though human life is amazing in that it came about, he also said it means that life has no meaning in a moral sense. Richard Dawkins said that we are basically germ factories and germ hosts until we die, and then they will move to another body in which to take up their form and shape and substance. And we may think that this is really silly, but we need to understand that this is what is taught at universities and feeds the idea that sex before marriage, that sex outside of marriage, that changing my sex, that impure thoughts, that whatever feeds my appetites as “an accidental twig” is okay. For why wouldn’t it be? In other words, if this is the basis of life, it would be really hard to change the mind of the guy or the gal on the street. In other words, trying to argue any of these things that we hold to will not make a whole lot of sense to them when they come from an evolutionist point of view.
And so, we have this great chasm between human thought and biblical truth. We have random chance versus the precise and direct action by God, and we have pure accident versus a plan and purpose before the foundation of the world. And therefore, what does this lead to? It leads from a secular thought, it’s my life I can do what I want; to a spiritual thought, that life is responsible to its Creator, and is owed by its Creator.
I often mention the vast intelligence of man, the things that he has discovered and made. The vast knowledge of medicines and the quality of music and art and architecture. Anne and I were in the Fox Theater in Detroit. And when you walk into the Fox Theater it is absolutely breathtaking of the architecture, the design, the carvings, the massive light fixtures, the intricate beauty. And yet, even when we go back in history, we see man building and doing things that is truly incredible, things that were built in the past that still are breathtaking today. And yet, spiritually, in the past many worshipped idols and believed in various gods. In other words, though man was able to accomplish so many great things, spiritually he was dead and rejected the truth of God. And we may think that idols are silly and wonder how could man ever be so deceived to think such a thing?
And yet today we have man even more intelligent, who has added to all of his accomplishments all the wonders of technology and travel and science, again, things that are breathtaking; and yet spiritually, man is still dead and therefore continues to reject God, and is so deceived to believe that we originated from apes, and that the wonders of creation came about by random chance. If this world continues, people will likely look back at our generations and say, how could they be so dumb? As the next generations will discover and create even greater things, yet all the while, they will still be deceived in some other lie that emphasizes their deadness spiritually and their rejection of God.
You know, God has allowed mankind such great knowledge and yet at the same time God has allowed man to prove himself silly in spiritual matters. Man’s record in art, medicine, architecture, athleticism, technology—A+. Man’s record spiritually—D–. No, actually—F for failure, drop out. I was thinking of this as a blind spot, that man can get everything right, except his relationship to God. He is alive to every kind of knowledge except spiritual knowledge. His intellectual powers seemingly increase with every generation, intelligence goes up and up and up, while at the same time he remains dead spiritually.
Way back in Old Testament times, God told Daniel that people will go to and fro. And that knowledge will increase in the last days. So, this fact that man becomes smarter and smarter is something that God has allowed and something that God has already said would happen. But spiritually, man will continue to walk in the futility of his mind, being darkened and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in him because of the hardness of his heart, as he has become callous, and has given himself over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity.
I find with trying to teach on these statements an incredible blessing for me as it forces me to try to make an argument. To try to present Scriptures that shows the truth of God’s Word and then try to make it clear to us as hearers. But I also find it really hard to touch on everything that needs to be addressed and realize that I cannot do that within thirty-five minutes. And I am sure that many presentations on this topic would include abortion and euthanasia statistics and trends and scientific arguments for why not to have an abortion, and especially where these paths will lead down the road to even more evils that will continue on. I was thinking that as abortions get closer and closer to birth and for more and more reasons, and as euthanasia gets less and less in age and for more and more reasons, there will likely be almost at some point an overlap. And these are all important discussions and topics. But I have chosen to focus on the core of the issue, that it is God who has created life and not men or women. And that the men and women that we might talk to about these issues in the world in many ways may be brilliant, but dead spiritually. And therefore, their rejection of God is going to eliminate the basis for our whole argument. And yes, we may have some influence in debates, and it is good that laws may be changed to protect the rights of the unborn and the rights of the elderly, but until the human heart is changed spiritually, the direction of mankind will not change. Al Mohler said this:
“These threats to human dignity are symptoms of our fundamental problem— sin. And because we are sinners, not only by the sin we inherit, but by the sins we commit, we are headed for hell and we deserve it so.”
Al Mohler, “The Sanctity of Life and the Culture of Death” 90
Arguments are good but may we not hold to our statement against suicide, abortion, euthanasia, and murder with human arguments. For we need to hold to our statement because it is God’s truth and that is God that holds the right to human life no matter at what age or stage. Therefore, things such as the suffering of an individual, the term of a baby, the threat to the mother, becoming pregnant because of a rape—sure there are human arguments for all these things. But the bottom line for the Christian is this—this is a human life, and therefore, only God has the right to determine to take that life.
One last thing. We need to be careful as we consider this issue—that as we teach and promote the sanctity of life, that it is in the hands of God—we cannot forget that this is also true of us. That my life is in God’s hands, that your life is on God’s hands. And therefore, we cannot just speak about life and death, but the responsibility of what we do with the life we have been given. We may argue that the unborn life is precious, yet when we do that, we are also emphasizing that my life is precious. Why? Because it has been uniquely created by God and therefore this comes with a massive responsibility. For if my life has been uniquely created by a Master Creator, we also understand that it also must come with the Master’s purpose. Therefore, I cannot do with my life as I wish. Just as we would teach that a mother cannot do with her unborn as she wishes, I cannot do with my own life as I wish. For my life, your life, has been given to us by God for His purposes.
The Lord said this to the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” And our response to such a verse would be, well God had great plans for Jeremiah, didn’t He? But God also has plans for you. (2 Tim 1:9) God, who called us and saved us to a holy calling. (1 Pet 4:10) each of us has received a gift to be used as good stewards. (Heb 12:1) let us run with endurance the race that has been set before us. Let’s stand in closing as we read Ephesians 2:10 together, and then I will pray and then we will remain standing for our closing song. And Paul wrote to all of us as believers (stand together):
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10 (LSB)
That’s why—as those who have been given a life by God—have a responsibility to use that life for His glory. Let’s pray. Lord, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. So, we commit our lives to You as You have created us for Your glory. Therefore, may our thoughts be Your thoughts, might our wills be Your will. May our actions and desires be pleasing to You that we might be renewed in our minds. May we be pure, loving, caring, discerning, understanding, truthful, sincere. So, whatever You have commanded us this day and this coming week, may it be our desire and our action of obedience for You glory and purpose. And all God’s people said, amen.