Pro-Life Means What?

Would you take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. You follow as I begin reading in verse 26 of Genesis 1. Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the ground and God said behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit you shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life I have given every green plant for food.

And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word, this word that you have inscripturated that we might know your mind. we pray Lord as we explore the word today seek to understand our responsibilities that you would bless this effort you would give us insight not only into your word but into our hearts you would help us as we seek to understand your will thank you now in Jesus name Amen 47 years ago on January 22 1973 the United States Supreme Court delivered one of its most momentous decisions in its history The case is known as Roe v Wade or Roe versus Wade and in its decision the court struck down all state and federal laws that prohibited abortion, and as a result, abortion became legal in all 50 states.

And nothing has been the same since then. Roe v. Wade opened the gates to the death of millions of unborn infants, even to the point leading to ever-increasing liberal abortion laws so that last year New York State passed its Reproductive Health Act in which it became legal to abort a baby even up to the point of birth. Roe v. Wade opened the door to legalization of physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia If you can visit death on an unwanted, undesirable child, why not then when someone no longer wants to live an undesirable life?

Or when family members believe that a loved one doesn't have a proper quality of life, it doesn't meet the bar of a good quality of life. We've arrived at the place where preventing death is immoral and killing someone is considered virtuous. Roe v. Wade opened the door to a divided nation. A division exists in this country, a deep division between those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice.

Passions run high on both sides as evidenced by the marches, the editorials, the protests, the speeches, and most of all by the uncivil, venomous, and vicious words thrown around in almost every discussion of the issue. now most conservative most conservative evangelical bible believing christians which that means us identify themselves as pro-life we take a strong stand against death we stand against euthanasia we stand against abortion but do you do we know why Why is that the case? Why do we stand on those grounds? Does it mean that we're merely against something?

Which is what the world typically does, and I don't know if you've ever noticed, but you will see the discussion formed in the media as pro and anti Have you ever noticed that Pro is never the adjective used or the noun used It's always pro-choice and anti-abortion. I find that interesting. But maybe one of the reasons why that is is because people have identified the pro-life position as something that's merely against.

Is that what pro-life means? I want to explore that today. On this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, let's explore a little bit what it means to be pro-life. I had a million ideas running through my head this week and trying to narrow it all down. So we're just going to scratch the surface. But let's think about this.

What does it mean to be pro-life? If you are pro-life, then you must understand the why of pro-life. You must understand why you are pro-life. And let's begin here in Genesis chapter 1. text we just read. You must be pro-life if you believe that man is created by God and created in God's image. Now there are two things that we have to see here as we look at this text.

First of all, God is creator and since God is creator he is necessarily the law giver. Because he created man he has the right to tell man his duty what he must do and he does that in the verses immediately following because man is a creature he is entirely dependent on God even in knowing what is right and what is wrong and so as you continue as we read through the text after after creating man in his image, we see what God does. He says, you must multiply, you must rule, you must work, right?

You must eat your food only from the seed-bearing plants. And even on into the next chapter where he says, and you must leave one particular tree alone. Man was entirely dependent on God to know what was right and what was wrong. That was true when man was perfect. Now think about that. That was true when man was perfect.

When man was in a perfect state, he was still entirely dependent on God to understand what was right and what was wrong Consequently man does not determine moral requirements rather he receives those moral requirements I think that's very important for us to understand as we think about this. We are entirely dependent upon God for understanding what is right and what is wrong. That was true when we're perfect.

How much more since sin has entered the picture? Do we need that? Consequently, man does not create moral requirements. What man does is receive those moral requirements. Now, what happens when you no longer acknowledge that God is creator? What happens then?

Well, then, when man believes himself independent of God, he's no longer accountable to God. And so then he determines what's right and what's wrong. He no longer receives any moral requirements. He becomes the originator of morality. Oregon, some years ago, passed the Death with Dignity Act. A doctor can help you end your life under certain criteria.

Here they are. You have to be an adult. You have to be able to make and communicate health care decisions. you have to have a terminal illness that the prognosis said will lead will lead to death within six months you must have you must have a consultation with a psychologist and your doctor okay and there are a few other hoops hoops to jump through this is the proper criteria then for a moral end of life okay if we no longer accept god god says you can't kill people If we no longer accept God as creator, then we originate our own moral rules.

The moral rules are you've got to be an adult, be able to communicate health care decisions, have a terminal illness that will end your life in six months, with consultation with a psychologist, psychiatrist, both concurring. Now you can end your life. All right? But what if you disagree with that criteria? What if you disagree with that criteria and you're just depressed and you want to end it all?

And so you ask your doctor in Oregon to prescribe a lethal dose of medicine. And he says, no, I can't do that. Would he be wrong for refusing to do that? Would he be bad, even immoral? Would that doctor be wrong? be bad or even immoral for refusing to give you that lethal dose of drugs? Well, Oregon would say, yeah, that's wrong.

Well, in Belgium, in Belgium, if you're depressed, you can get a physician-assisted suicide. Much easier. If you're just depressed, you can end your life. In fact, in Belgium, you've even got nine-year-olds who've been euthanized. now on right what basis does Oregon have to say that's wrong Belgium no basis at all if man is the originator of morality then who's to say what's right or what's wrong who's to say that man determined what constitutes moral and immoral when we do not acknowledge God as creator so if you're pro-life you must embrace the truth of God as creator and thus the author of our ethics.

God makes the rules. If you're going to be pro-life, you must embrace that position. God makes the rules. Now, we also note in our text that if you're pro-life, you must believe that man bears the image of God. In some sense, we are reflections of what God is like. Now, we're not the same as God.

We're in his image. We're in his likeness. We are creatures. We're not the creator, but we, in some sense, exhibit God. We have the privilege of exhibiting God in the world. We are his images.

We're like photographs. We're not God himself, but we're photographs. So let's say I pull out of the box of pictures. We have these boxes of pictures. They're all painted green. we pull out of those boxes a picture of Tim and Andy Pasma, me and my little brother in our radio, our little red radio flyer. And one of my kids looks at it and says, is that you, dad?

What's my answer going to be? Yeah, that's me. That's me. Is it me? Well, yeah, it's me, but not, you know, not exactly because I'm sitting here next to him, but that is me, right? That's how you've got to think in terms of the image of God.

We reflect God. We represent God. We're a photograph of God. People look at us and say, God's like that. All right? Now, because you a creature God makes the rules So because you an image bearer God assigns your value Alright If God the creator and we a creature then God makes the rules If we're in the image of God, then God assigns our value.

Human life has value because human beings represent God. Alright? We have value because we represent God. Do you remember in 2003? I know it's a long time ago and some of you weren't even alive yet. Some of you who are alive here remember 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq.

Now do you remember, I can still see this, do you remember that video of the Iraqis pulling down a statue of Saddam Hussein? Do you remember that? It's a very iconic, that spread all over the world. That went all over the world. If they had pulled down a statue of Tim Pazma, that would not have gone viral, right? Not even here.

But they were pulling down a statue of Saddam Hussein. Why did that go viral? Was that statue a gold statue encrusted with valuable gems? Is that why? No. It went viral because those people were saying something about the value of their ruler.

That spoke loud and clear that they saw no value in Saddam Hussein. How did they show that? By ripping down that statue. Okay? So we're valuable because, not because we have value in and of ourselves, but because we represent God. We are image bearers of God.

God has given us that value by making us image bearers. Now, what happens when we abandon the truth that every human being is made in the image of God? Again, man then becomes the one who assigns value to human life. That unborn baby only has value if he or she is wanted. Wanted means valuable Unwanted, you're not valuable We determine that Man's determined that That unborn infant has value If he contributes something to my life Right If you going to be an inconvenience You going to keep me from pursuing my PhD you not as valuable now The old man only has value if he can contribute something to life and if he's not too much of a drain on our resources.

If that old guy becomes too much of a drain on our resources, his value goes down, you see? Terminal illness means the rest of your life has very little quality, so why not end it? It doesn't have as much value. In India and China, male babies have more value than female babies, just because they're male. A survey in Belgium recently, 40% of Belgians believe that social security expenses need to be kept in check by no longer administering costly treatments to prolong the lives of people over 85.

Because what? 85, you're not as valuable anymore. You see what happens? As soon as we abandon the idea that man is made in the image of God, then man becomes the person. That's our value. Now man determines what's valuable and what is not.

I went to Pittsburgh on Tuesday. I drove to Pittsburgh and back. I went to Pittsburgh to see a friend, George Scipione. Many of you probably never heard of George, otherwise known as Skip. George is one of the granddaddies in the biblical counseling movement in fact he was on the ACBC board from day one he's been on the board since 1977 I've come to love George he's one of my heroes he's one of my heroes in biblical counseling and he welcomed me and has been a friend for a long long time And George suddenly found out that he had cancer.

And man, he's gone downhill since then. Eileen, his wife, told me that probably three months at the most, most likely weeks. So I went to see George. Why not just end it all? Why not George just say, give me a lethal dose? because George doesn't see his life as being less valuable. Instead he sees whatever God given him as a means of serving him When I left he said pray that I finish well You all know my sister, Miriam, right?

You may not know this, but she's mentally handicapped. That's obvious when you meet her. But she wasn't born that way. She wasn't born that way. She was 18 months old. When something happened, maybe the smallpox vaccination, we're not really sure, but something happened and she got encephalitis.

It's a disease of the brain. So let me ask you, at 18 months, did her life become less valuable when she got sick? Because she can't do what she should be able to do at her age, right? What determines the value? The value is this person is in the image of God. This person is in the image of God.

That's where their value lies. It's not in their quality of life. It's not in what I determined is valuable. It's in what God has said. This is an image bearer. That image bearer then is valuable.

But notice that if you embrace those truths, it surely must make a difference in the way that you treat people. If you believe that all human beings are made in the image of God, it has to determine how you treat people. It has to be foundational to that. Look at Genesis chapter 9. The Lord puts it in stark terms in Genesis chapter 9. Genesis 9, verses 5 and 6.

And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning. From every beast I will require it, and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his image. You see what he's saying here?

What makes murder such a horrendous crime? It's because you are making an attack on God. That's what he's saying. You are attacking God. Why is it so bad? Because man is the image of God.

Man is the image of God. Abortion and euthanasia are wrong because they are attacks on God. just like that statue that the Iraqis pulled down, right? That wasn't an attack against some stone, was it? It was an attack against Saddam Hussein. It was an attack on him. It was said that they disdained him, they hated him.

So when you take a human life by abortion or euthanasia, you are saying something about what you think of God. You are attacking God. You are saying, I disdain God. That's what it means, and that's what makes it so wrong. But you know what? It goes beyond that.

And I have to admit that this part of my sermon has been sparked by a conversation with Kara and Emily. They brought this to my attention, and by the way, they don't just say it, the Bible says it. And that is this. If you believe that man is the image of God, that's going to mean that you treat all people with decency and respect. If every human being is made in the image of God, that means you treat everyone with decency and respect.

Because that says something about your view of God. Think of all these. What about the disabled person? Or the baby with birth defects? How do you treat that person? What about the woman who wants an abortion?

How do you see her? Do you see her as merely an enemy? Or do you see her as in the image of God? What about the old woman who struggles with dementia and who's really hard to love now? How do you treat her? We should treat her well.

Why? Because she's made in the image of God. Let me ask you this. What if you meet the physician who performs abortion or helps in assisted suicides? What do you think about that? How should you treat that person? if he's made in the image of God you treat him with respect listen to James 3 listen to James 3 this is found in James 3 8-10 it's embedded in that section that talks about the tongue now listen carefully to what the apostle James says the tongue is a restless evil full of deadly poison with it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the image of God Do you see what he saying When you speak horribly to someone you attacking the image of God I find that to me that has always struck me With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it, we curse people who are made in the image of God.

From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. And so, you know, I want to appeal to you. If we believe all men are created in the image of God, we will not be known, we will not be known for uncivil, venomous, vicious words. No matter how strongly we feel, no matter if we meet the person that we think is a perpetrator of great crimes, we will not use vicious, venomous words.

We're not to be known for that we're not to attack the image of God with our words so you see being pro-life means more than responding to abortion and euthanasia it means how do we respond to people how do we respond to people embracing the pro-life view means then you understand why you embrace it man is a creature subject to God and made in the image of God and we ought to be consistent with those views if you're pro-life then you must be a prophet having said what i just said now listen here a prophet if we're going to be pro-life then we must be prophets what was a prophet he was a messenger from god commissioned to speak the word of god to his society and to his culture jesus called john the baptist the greatest prophet of all what did john do turn over to Matthew 14 for a moment. I think we have a paradigm here for us. Matthew 14.

Herod's now, you know, John the Baptist is dead, and now Matthew's recalling what led to his death. Verse 3. For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias his brother Philip wife because John had been saying to him it is not lawful for you to have her John marched into the palace and told Herod what you are doing is wrong Luke, in our translation, where Luke recounts this story, it says Luke publicly criticized him.

You know what John was doing there? You want to hear the phrase we all use? We hear all over the... John spoke truth to power. You know, that's the big phrase now, right? Unless, of course, you're a Christian speaking truth to power.

Then it's not so popular. But if we're pro-life, we have to be willing to speak truth to power. So those who know God's truth have a responsibility to speak the truth to a culture that loves death. We have the responsibility of being prophets, of speaking God's truth in our culture today. All right. Now, again, what did I just get done saying?

You never proclaim God's truth with with uncivil, vicious, venomous words. But we speak the truth. Nonetheless, we must speak the truth. Right. That abortion and euthanasia is wrong and not be afraid of saying why we think it's wrong, because God says it's wrong. I love it Psalm 82 3 and 4 was our call to worship today God has said give justice to the weak and the fatherless maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute rescue the weak and the needy deliver them from the hand of the wicked who are the weak the powerless and the afflicted who have no one to speak for them it's those unborn infants it's those old people when everyone else is making their decisions for them who are the ones in a position to say something and do something it's us god's people we're the ones who must speak the truth and not be afraid of saying what is right and what is wrong and god's people must speak the truth even if no one listens you know a great passage is ezekiel chapter 2 verse 5 this is god speaking to ezekiel you know what he says to him he says the people are impudent and stubborn.

I send you to them, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God. And whether they hear or refuse to hear for they are a rebellious house they will know that a prophet has been among them Isn't that great? God says, you know what, I'm going to send you and you're going to speak. And they may not listen, but they are going to know this. There was a prophet who was among them.

And that's our responsibility. Our culture ought to say, there was a prophet among us. we need to be prophets if you're pro-life i think you must be a prophet speaking god's truth in a culture that doesn't want to hear god's truth thirdly if you're pro-life then you must be an ambassador more than an activist let me say that again if you're pro-life you must be an ambassador more than an activist Now that might sound strange after what I just said about being a prophet. Right?

We're supposed to speak the truth, God's truth. You know, those who speak the loudest are usually considered the activists. If you write or speak or protest in a way that gains the attention of people, friend or foe, you will be called an activist. however if you're only an activist there's the danger that people will reduce your message to something that only serves a political purpose if you're only an activist and people look at you and say well yeah you're just supporting the republican platform right you'll be you'll be consider just a shill for a political party or for a particular interest group.

And the last thing we want is someone identifying us with a political viewpoint. That's what happens when you're an activist. But God has called us to be ambassadors. We've already heard it this morning. Let's turn there again. Second Corinthians chapter five.

God has called us to be ambassadors. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Verse 17. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, because he's entrusted us with that message, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us.

We implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sense that in him we might become the righteousness of God now you know what an ambassador is don't you an ambassador is someone who represents your country in another country who communicates the message of the message of the president if you will to the leadership of another country right now a man named John M Huntsman is our ambassador in Russia and his job is to communicate to the Russian government our views, our government's views. And Paul says we're ambassadors. We represent another king.

We belong to someone else and we're in this other country and we are here as ambassadors of God with a message from God of reconciliation. You see, man is at odds with God. Disobedience to God's law has made him accountable and he is in trouble. So God does something about that. He doesn't leave. He doesn't leave us in our guilt.

He doesn't leave us under his judgment. He sends his ambassadors with a message. He sends us with the message. That message is, I want you to be reconciled to me. I'm not, I don't want to be your adversary. I implore you, be reconciled.

Here is Jesus. believe in him and you'll be reconciled to me my heart is that you'll be reconciled to me you see God sees his enemies in their hopeless situation and he wants them to know his heart he's not cruel leaving them to his judgment he's not leaving them to the guilt of their sin he sends a savior to take that guilt and to pay the price and he gives us the message of telling them that. Listen, the merchants of death are our enemies, and they are God's enemies. But God has not sent us to defeat them Now you heard me say this a hundred times I probably say it every single Sanctity of Human Life Sunday God has not sent us to defeat our enemies That's what an activist does.

You see? God has called us to win them. That's what an ambassador does. We say to them, your sin invites God's judgment. but God invites you to the peace table. And there it is. It's the cross.

You see? Does that mean we don't say hard things? No. We must speak about the righteous requirements of God. We must say this is wrong. This is damnable.

This is what God will bring judgment on. But that's only the first thing we say. We're not done. That's what an activist does. But an ambassador says, but there's more. There's grace.

There's forgiveness. You can be reconciled to God even because of your evil acts and even because of the evil that you have done. I come to you telling you that's wrong and it's worthy of judgment. But the judge, the king, has said, there's grace for you. That's what an ambassador does. That's what he does.

Listen. An activist stands outside an abortion clinic yelling slogans at the women going in. That's an activist. Women who are confused, panicked, afraid at this moment because their world has been turned upside down. And they don't know what else they could possibly do. there was a there was a blog on the Gospel Coalition site and I think the title of that blog said it all it said this most abortion minded women are not calculated killers they're afraid you see they're afraid they don't know what to do and our culture is saying to them here's what you do they need people to come alongside and say no so an activist is just going to yell slogans at those scared women An ambassador will know and love that woman and bring her the good news that in Jesus, God will never leave her or forsake her.

Right? Isn't that the message of the Gospel? That's what they need to hear. That there's forgiveness and grace and help and hope. They're not going to get that from an activist yelling over the fence at them. An activist wheels into the church parking lot with slogans on his bumper like, it's a child, not a choice.

What he doesn't realize is that his friend who just parked next to him and saw that bumper sticker had an abortion 15 years ago. And now she sits in her car weeping with grief and shame over what she did 15 years ago. have you ever thought about that when i look back over some of my sermons years ago on sanctity human life sunday i could just wish they'd be erased because they were hard on what's wrong without thinking there may be someone out here who needs to hear of grace not a slogan but grace an ambassador will have more concern for the good news of forgiveness than for a slogan that makes a point some of you remember richard gans richard was a speaker here he was kind of a strange guy everybody knows that he's he's he's been in uh he um he's a biblical counselor and a pastor in Canada. His story is really fascinating.

If you want to read it, a Jewish guy is converted to faith and ends up as a biblical counselor and a pastor. So when the Canadian Parliament was debating these issues, I can't remember if it was abortion or right to die issues, but both forces were arrayed in front of the Parliament building in Ottawa on that day. The forces for life on one side, the forces for death on the other, with police in the middle.

It was a really hot hot kind of a thing Well Richard went to that and his friends on this side on the pro side lost him They couldn find him They wondered where he was. He was gone for a long time. They couldn't figure out what happened to him. Finally, he shows up, and they say, Where were you? He said, Well, I was over there. And they said to him, What?

What? You're betraying us? No. You're over there with them. Yes. What were you doing?

He says, well, I sat down with some of them. And I got to know them. And I told them about Jesus. But his friends were still indignant. You see, he was an ambassador. He was an ambassador that day.

And if you know Richard, he's a strange fellow. But boy, he's really strong about that. I've got to go tell them about Jesus that's the answer now I stand here today as an ambassador and if you're contemplating abortion know that God hates it He will judge it but also know this He offers you hope He offers you hope maybe you're here and you've had an abortion there's good news for you there is free forgiveness in Jesus not because you've changed your ways not because you're sorry enough but because Jesus has taken the guilt of that sin upon himself and it's been punished there and you are free you're free you don't have to look back at that you have the right through forgiveness never to look back again never to even think about that again.

Never to give it another thought. Just go and serve your new master. There's no need for shame any longer. You're forgiven. You see, we have to be ambassadors, not activists. That's what God calls for us.

So to stand for life means much more than standing against and protesting death. it means that you understand why God expects you to be pro-life pro-life means you act consistently with those beliefs God help us who stand for God's truth, that man is born, the man is made in the image of God. God help us to treat people like that. No matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, even if you're not even thinking about this issue, to be pro-life means you're going to treat people with decency and respect, and you're going to say what God says is right and what's wrong. we cannot let our culture ever form our ideas about the ethics in this situation god has spoken clearly we're dependent on him to know what's right what's right and what's wrong and we need to listen and we need to speak pro-life means you take the mantle of the prophet and you speak truth e whether it's speaking the truth individually speaking the truth publicly however God opens the venues for us we need to speak we need to speak but having said that pro-life means that you'll avoid being a mere activist and instead seek to be an ambassador may God help us to be truly truly and biblically pro Let pray Father these are difficult days in which we live And sin makes us angry, especially this sin.

But God help us. Help us to use that anger in the right way. to see the horror of sin, but to see the magnificence of a Savior. Help us, Father, to be truly and biblically pro-life. Help us to act consistently with what we say we believe. As was prayed before, God keep us from being comfortable and help us to be involved but to be involved in ways that magnify our Savior Jesus Father we pray that you would help us in this way in Jesus name Amen