[0:00] Amen. Feel free to grab a seat. I'll ask that you take out your copy of God's Word, which I hope you have with you this day.
[0:12] Our exposition of the book of Romans, we're going to pick back up here in a couple of weeks in chapter 9.
[0:35] And we have been working together through a sermon series called Christ in Culture. We've been talking about how it is as Christians, now as the body of Christ, we should be engaging culture for the sake of the gospel.
[0:53] In fact, seeking to change culture with the gospel. Our theme verse for the series has been 1 Corinthians, the second part of verse 22 of chapter 9 and verse 23, where Paul says, I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
[1:12] I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessing. And so Paul was arranging his life in such a way that people would come to know Christ, that he might have joy in that process, in joining God in what it is that he's doing in the world.
[1:30] This morning's topic is Christ and the unborn. And I have to tell you, this has been an incredibly difficult two weeks for me as I've studied abortion itself.
[1:45] I have been so mad, I've been trembling at times. I've had to put down the research I was doing and walk away from it. I have cried.
[1:56] I have been confronted by my own apathy. I didn't learn anything new over the past couple of weeks. But as I prayed that God would allow the truth of abortion to run down in me and what he has to say about it, that I might share that with you.
[2:14] It's been troubling to me. I'm very thankful that I got a last-minute call to officiate John and Mallory's wedding yesterday and had a little joyful experience in the middle of all of that, that I might have my spirits lifted a bit.
[2:30] So let's begin this morning. Let me read this text. We'll pray together and I'll show you what I've been learning on the topic. Proverbs 24, verses 10 through 12.
[2:43] If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
[3:00] Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay man according to his work? Let's pray together. Father God, I ask by your spirit that you will save us from ourselves this morning.
[3:18] That you will help us to think rightly about the issue of abortion. And that you will show us how it is we should engage culture for the sake of the gospel and for the souls of those who are lost.
[3:31] Please, Father, use me to speak powerfully from your word this day. And I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So the text, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time in it.
[3:46] The issue to speak against abortion, to be pro-life is certainly something that the Bible speaks to, but it does so very plainly and very briefly. It's not a really very difficult biblical argument to make.
[3:58] The sixth commandment is, thou shalt not murder. And it's really that simple. But I've kind of arrived at Proverbs to see, help us to see, what is said of Christians who shrink back from the challenge of our culture.
[4:17] A culture that is very pro-choice, which I won't use that term much more. I'll use the term pro-abortion. Pro-choice is a term used to distract us from what's really happening.
[4:29] We could use the term pro-murder, really, in its case. But you see in verse 11 of Proverbs 24, we're instructed to rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
[4:41] And the writer here is not referring to unborn children being murdered. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about people who are living in sin and their ultimate resting place, the place they will go, and I shouldn't even use the term resting, is death and slaughter, eternal judgment.
[4:59] That there's a judgment coming on them one day. And we have, in our culture, a mass that's moving in that direction because they bought this cultural lie that it's okay to murder unborn children.
[5:13] We live in a day of adversity, verse 10. And if we don't become a louder voice, I think it'll be said of us that our strength is small.
[5:24] And you'll see in verse 12, we can't say, we didn't know. We didn't know it was an issue. Because here it says that God knows what's in your heart.
[5:35] He knows you know. And that he'll repay man according to his work. And so I desperately want us to get this right. And I want to show you today how aborting unborn children is not just bad for unborn children, but it's bad for all of society.
[5:57] I want you to see that today. And if we love people, if we love the world, if we want to see culture transformed by the renewing power of the gospel, we must see this together and we must act together.
[6:10] This is an issue that touches everyone's lives. 43% of women of childbearing age have had or will have an abortion in America.
[6:25] I'm only talking about America this morning. 43% of women in childbearing age, which is said to be 15 to 55. I think that's a little extreme. But 43% of women.
[6:38] 43% of those women who have abortions identify themselves as Protestant. 27% as Catholic. And 18% as evangelical or born-again Christians.
[6:54] This is a topic very close to home. If you'll allow me, 18% of these women are members of Bible-believing churches.
[7:05] If you'll allow me that phrase today. Which means each year, about a quarter of a million unborn children are murdered by those who say they're born-again Christians.
[7:17] This is not a topic far from who we are. I hope everybody today already agrees with my stance. If not, I pray that it'll change.
[7:29] If you have more questions, there's no way for me to exhaustively cover this topic today. Please, please come talk to me. So firstly, aborting unborn children is bad, is unhealthy for unborn children.
[7:46] In our culture, this issue has not really become a debate of morality. Our culture at large, save some psychopaths and sociopaths, our culture at large would say that murder is in fact wrong.
[8:01] It's become a question of when is a life a life? When is a child a child? And then therefore, when is murder murder? I recently read an article by two bioethicists whose names I'm just not even going to try to say for you.
[8:18] They argued in the Journal of Medical Ethics that afterbirth abortion should be legal in all cases where abortion is legal. Did you catch that?
[8:30] So currently, it is legal to abort a child who's tested for Down syndrome and found to be positive for that. It's legal to do so, to abort them. Their argument is it should also be legal to abort them after they're born.
[8:48] And sadly, it's not a reductio ad absurdum intended to show how illogical abortion is. It's a philosophical argument for infanticide.
[9:00] And they're not the only people making this argument. Have you heard recently of the court case where the couple was awarded $3 million because they had a Down syndrome daughter and they were told by a test that she didn't have Down syndrome?
[9:14] Four years old, this little girl is, when this court case is decided. And this family is awarded $3 million because they said we would have aborted her had we known that she had Down syndrome.
[9:29] That is the society we live in. That's the debate that's going on. Let me ask you this question. When did your life begin? At what point would you say you were who you are today?
[9:46] David writes in Psalm 139, 13 and 14, speaking to God, for you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
[10:00] Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. David knew when his life began. It began at conception. Do you know that the person you are today, the shape that you are, your mental capacity, all of that was given to you in your genetic code?
[10:17] When your mother's egg joined with your father's sperm, everything needed to form you was present at that time. Before that joining, you were not you.
[10:30] After that joining, you were you. So, what is the difference between an unborn child and a newborn?
[10:41] What is the difference between a child in the womb and one who is outside of the womb? And I have found four arguments, four differences given, which make no sense to me.
[10:56] The first is size. But does how big you are determine how alive you are? Does that even logically make sense to anybody in the room?
[11:10] If that were the case, then Chris Stewart is more alive than me. And Eddie is more alive than Chris Stewart. Right? And my son, Cademan, who's two, is less alive than I am.
[11:24] It's absurd. How about level of development? Am I more alive than Cademan, my two-year-old, because I'm smarter and stronger, at least for now?
[11:36] Am I any more alive than he is as a result? Environment is the third. Does being in this room make any of us more alive than someone who is outside this room, those who are across the hall right now?
[11:51] Are they less alive because of their location? Certainly not. Or how about degree of dependency? Is a small-born child less alive than an unborn child?
[12:04] Is Judah, my five-and-a-half-month-old, less alive than Cademan because he's more dependent on his mother? Is someone with Alzheimer's disease who needs intensive care or someone who's mentally disabled less alive?
[12:20] How about me? I'm a type 1 diabetic. I require insulin from external sources. I'm dependent on my insulin pump. It's not a pager.
[12:31] It's an insulin pump to stay alive. Does that make me less alive? Have I digressed when I was diagnosed with diabetes? Certainly not.
[12:43] Any attempt to say that an unborn child is not alive, is less alive than any other human being is absolutely absurd.
[12:57] I began to do a ton of research this past two weeks over child development. I'll encourage you to do that. It's incredibly fascinating. But I want to talk about just one particular age.
[13:09] I want to talk about a 12-week-old unborn child. In the state of Georgia, first-term abortion is considered up to 12 weeks, six days old.
[13:22] I want to talk about a 12-week-unborn child. I have this really incredible that I've been carrying in my pocket. This is a life-size scaled sculpture of a 12-week-old unborn child.
[13:39] I'm going to pass this around. I want you guys to just pass it around and hold it in your hand. This is the approximate size based off of a miscarried child.
[13:51] A 12-week-old unborn child has eyes and ears, has fingernails and toenails. All of its major organs are intact.
[14:02] It begins producing white blood cells. The kidneys begin producing urine at that age. Little baby peas. The synapses in the brain are forming at 12 weeks old, which means that it's beginning to learn.
[14:19] Different reflexes begin, sucking motion, opening and closing eyes, grabbing and curling toes. A 12-week-old unborn child plays with its umbilical cord.
[14:31] Swallowing, kicking, flipping, and waving arms. All of that is happening at this age. I will give a brief warning at this point.
[14:46] I'm going to try to keep this PG. I'm going to explain a little bit of the abortive procedure and if you have any children in here you don't want to hear that. Now's your time to run out of the room. But I want to tell you a little bit about what happens to a child of this age in a surgical abortion.
[15:02] The procedure is called dilation and evacuation. It takes about five minutes and the woman, the mother, is dilated and a catheter attached to a suction machine is placed inside of her and that baby is sucked out of the inside of her.
[15:24] The amniotic fluid is pulled out and the baby comes out usually in pieces. That's this age. Not long after, up to 24 weeks and 6 days here in the state of Georgia, that procedure begins to be a little more graphic and I just wanted to read to you, this is from the Atlanta Women's Medical Center and Abortion Clinic.
[15:51] This is the way they describe it. The surgical abortion after dilation is complete in a manner similar to but more extensive than the method described for first trimester abortions and glaze what's happening over.
[16:06] Let me tell you what's happening. The second trimester abortion, the woman is dilated. The same suction is used to pull out all the amniotic fluid at which point the baby suffocates and then the doctor sticks a long pair of forceps up inside the woman and blindly feels around until he grabs something, clamps down and he yanks it out so an arm comes out and then a leg comes out.
[16:32] His goal is to get everything out from inside the woman. Eventually the head has to come out but he has to crush it for it to come out and that's what he does. The whole procedure takes about 15 minutes and he pockets about $1,000.
[16:45] That is what's happening to the unborn children. It's atrocious. I'm trembling talking about it right now. Approximately 1.3 million unborn children a year are murdered in America.
[17:03] There have been over 53 million unborn child murders since Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973. 53 million.
[17:15] This is a genocide much larger than anything that happened during the Holocaust. You history buffs can tell me if I'm wrong but at the hands of Adolf Hitler I believe about 41 million people died.
[17:29] It's about 30 million Russians 6 million Jews and about 5 million of the Allied troops were killed. 41 million.
[17:40] This has surpassed even the casualties of that war and if we're going to be consistent in our logic as these bioethicists do we would justify the Holocaust and the atrocities of that war.
[17:53] We would say well these people were an inconvenience to Hitler and his plan. Hitler wanted to rule the world he didn't care for some of these people and therefore it was okay for him to choose to just dismiss them and dispose of them and move on and that is what we're doing with the unborn children.
[18:16] 1.3 million a year that's about 3,800 abortions that are performed each day. 3,800 and in the hour and a half we will have met this morning 237 unborn children will have been murdered.
[18:34] 237 this room has in it I don't know I'm going to guess about 70 people so we're what is that a fifth of that number and if a man walked in the back of this room today and killed all of us it would be national news there would be outcry it happened recently did it in a movie theater 12 people lost their lives and that's a tragedy I'm not making light of that it's a tragedy that those 12 people died but in an hour and a half 237 people are going to be murdered this morning and we're quiet secondly aborting unborn children is bad it's not healthy for women the pro-life argument has often been framed as an anti-woman argument I heard on conservative talk radio the other day that
[19:36] Romney is losing the woman vote because he's pro-life it's often framed that way but let me show you that pro-life is actually pro-woman it's pro-women's life as well the effects the physical effects and the psychological effects that abortion has on women is rather atrocious and let me just start with the physical effects Dr. Elizabeth Shatigan testified before a senate subcommittee in 2004 this start quote abortion increases rates of breast cancer placenta previa preterm births and maternal suicide statistically all types of death are higher with women who have induced abortions end quote ectopic pregnancy which is when the egg and plants in the fallopian tube and not in the uterus that is something I learned this week are responsible for 12% of all pregnancy related maternal deaths and it's increased 500% since abortion was legalized
[20:44] Dr. Joel Brind said the single most avoidable risk factor for breast cancer is induced abortion end quote women who have abortions have a minimum a minimum 50% greater chance of having breast cancer to as much as a 300% greater chance of having breast cancer abortion also ends in death for women on July 20th just recently national news a woman named Tanya Reeves went in for a second term abortion in Chicago and she hemorrhaged on the table it took five hours for her to bleed out and you know what the abortion clinic did kept her there so it would have looked real bad to rush her off to the ER wouldn't it for this procedure this thing that's touted as just another procedure just another surgery to be done psychological effects dozens of studies tie abortion to a rise in sexual dysfunction aversion to sex loss of intimacy unexpected guilt extramarital affairs traumatic stress syndrome personality fragmentation grief response child abuse and neglect and an increase in alcohol and drug abuse women who have abortions are five times more likely to abuse drugs there was a study done of a group of women just eight weeks after abortion and many of these things don't show up until much much later in a woman's life but just eight weeks after an abortion 44% of these women reported nervous disorders 36% sleep disorders 31% deep regret about their decision and 11% had already been prescribed psychotropic medication just eight weeks after their abortion the group women exploited by abortion has chapters all across the United
[22:47] States for women who decide they'd like to reach out and receive support for the trauma they've experienced in abortion has 30,000 members in the US psychological effects are also so deep and if abortion is just another surgical procedure why is it that we don't see support groups for people who have had their wisdom teeth taken out or an appendectomy!
[23:15] We don't see support groups for people like that because there is no psychological damage done for such a simple surgical procedure abortion is so much more so the pro-life movement those of us who hold to that is also pro-women I care about women care deeply about their health and their psychology I want to see culture reformed and I want to see women healthy thirdly aborting unborn children is bad for men men also report some of the same psychological effects however many men are not involved at all in the decision 80% of women who obtain abortions are single and have no support from the father 80% this epidemic has allowed men and I use that term very loosely really I should say boys playing at men games to ignore their responsibilities is that it has permitted them to do as they please without any regard to the consequence this week
[24:22] I was I was watching Cade and he for quite a while has climbed up onto the back of our couch and crawled down the length of it on Thursday he decided it would be awesome to stand up on the back of the couch and take a header off the couch and literally he jumped onto the cushion and then onto his head on the floor boys don't think about consequences do they he just did that now fortunately he learned the consequences in this case these boys the consequences of their action is taken out on somebody else not on them and legally we permit that to happen so aborting unborn children is also bad for men it has permitted many men to stay boys and lastly aborting unborn children is bad for the church I want you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 1 I'll begin reading in verse 11 what to me is the multitude of your sacrifices says the
[25:38] Lord I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats when you come to appear before me who has required of you this trampling of my courts bring no more vain offerings incense is an abomination to me new moon and sabbath and the calling of convocations I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates they have become a burden to me and I am weary of bearing them when you spread out your hands I will hide my eyes from you even though you make many prayers I will not listen your hands are full of blood wash yourselves make yourselves clean remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes cease to do evil learn to do good seek justice correct oppression bring justice to the fatherless plead the widow's cause through the prophet Isaiah God said to his people you're going through the motions of religion doing things that he had commanded them to do making sacrifice he had told them to do that but they were just going through the motions of doing that and how many of us do the same come here and sit to go through the motion of going through church how many people this morning across the united states are doing just that and what's the correction he brings to them verse 17 learn to do good seek justice correct oppression he's saying defend the defenseless fight for those who cannot fight for themselves in surveys 26% of
[27:22] Americans have strong pro-choice opinions that I use the term again pro-abortion opinions 29% of those survey have strong pro-life opinions which leaves 55% of this country that doesn't really know where they stand they might lean one direction or the other the church has a responsibility to work it's not hopeless it's not the 29% of us against the 71% it's the 29% against the 26% and there's so many opinions to be swayed we can have an impact on this issue we must stand up for the defenseless we must fight for those who cannot fight for themselves and I don't just mean unborn children I also mean the women who are being led astray the culture this narrative that speaks so loud as we looked in proverbs all of those who are being taken away to death who are stumbling to the slaughter we must become a voice of reason to them we also must be consistent young ladies this is especially for you although none of us should ignore this there are pills that are certainly abortive there are after morning after pills certainly abortive but birth control methods that most women use known as the pill can also be abortive hear me carefully the pill that most women take does three things number one and primarily it tricks a woman's body into believing it's pregnant so she won't ovulate there's no egg to be fertilized no big deal that's not abortive secondly they thicken the mucus in the cervix making it more difficult for sperm to reach any egg that may exist that's the second method but thirdly they prevent a fertilized egg an unborn child from implanting and that's abortive now I can't
[29:44] I can't draw a line in the sand about this I'm not even nearly well read enough it's my understanding that all of those contraceptive methods known as the pill do this they have a primary and a secondary and a tertiary methodology Sam and I used birth control she used birth control when we were first married we won't anymore because of what I've learned I can't say that's the thing you need to do but you do need to be informed and you do need to do your research and you do need to prayerfully consider what you do what you put in your body and the effects that it may have please be aware of that so question if allowing the murder of 1.3 million unborn children this year is so bad for everyone why do we continue to permit this to happen why do we just go on with it there are some that say that this is an issue that's a distraction from the gospel these social narratives these things that we try to drop to do is a distraction from just simply going out and preaching the gospel but I would say to you in the closing record of the book of Matthew we see what's commonly called the great commission beginning in verse 16 it reads now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them and when they saw him they worshipped him but some doubted and Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold
[31:32] I'm with you always to the end of the age we're not just told to go and make converts we're told to go and make disciples those who follow after Jesus Christ and therefore we must teach his ways and we also must model his ways Jesus cared deeply about the oppressed look at who he hung out with the lepers were put off in another area they were considered less than human culturally they were considered non-human and Jesus went to them that's who we are to be as we make disciples it's very gospel motivated to care about women and men and unborn children we must act I don't know yet exactly how this church is going to act but it will if I have anything to do with it you're going to have to run me off or we're going to do something about this issue in America
[32:35] I don't know what we can do to impact it on such a large level can we prevent the abortion the murder of 1.3 million unborn children gosh I pray so I don't think so I don't think that God's going to use us in that kind of a way but we can do something and if we'll rise up together as evangelical Christians and speak against this I believe a greater thing can be done so what can we practically be doing and we'll do some things together I promise understand the politics Roe v. Wade needs to be repealed certainly that needs to happen but you know that the power to punish crime this is not a federal issue certainly vote for people who are pro-life don't vote for anybody who's pro-choice vote for people who are pro-life but this isn't even a federal issue you know who punishes murderers the state of Georgia the federal government doesn't do that that's not a power given to them in the constitution we can affect what happens on the state level much more readily than we can on the national level we need to see Roe v. Wade repealed but then we got to go after our state government the people want this to happen
[33:48] I believe it can I still maybe foolishly but I still believe in democracy we need to be involved with our local efforts the Dahlonega Care Center and the Gainesville Care Center are phenomenal resources they do lots for women with unborn children who are considering these types of options and we will be further involved with them in the future we need to be alternatives we've talked to you quite a bit about our church we want to foster and adopt children beyond that we want to support young mothers single mothers who decide to keep children it's something we call the ABBA initiative and you'll begin to hear more and more about that but we also need to be offering some alternative to this immoral dilemma I would ask you today I kind of hope I haven't blown your mind with any new information I hope that you've been very aware of what's going on but I would just ask today that you have God search your heart and expose your apathy he did to me this week and I pray that he'll do the same for you that we might move together to see our culture changed with the redemptive gospel message and we can see an end put to the murder of unborn children let's pray together a ending a
[35:13] Thank you.