Tonight, I thought it would be good for us to do something that I really wanted to bring into this morning's message, but couldn't really do it. I wanted to talk to you tonight about what time it is. You know, it is almost the 22nd of January. And you remember what the 22nd of January is? The 22nd of January is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, 1973. And so now for 41 years basically, abortion has been legalized. Or 40 years. Abortion has been legalized. It's estimated that 50 million babies have been aborted. And I think that's only in this country. That's not worldwide. That's only in this country. 50 million. Abortion has become a way of life for us. Now, what interests me is that on the front of Time Magazine, I don't know if you can see this, this was from a couple of weeks ago, January 14th edition, it says, 40 years ago, abortion rights activists won an epic victory with Roe versus Wade. They've been losing ever since. abortion activists, they've been losing ever since. Now, they have some real interesting reasons about why they've been losing, but I've heard this before, that one of the reasons that they're losing is because we have better imaging, you know, the imaging that they do when they do the ultrasounds and all of that. And now the mothers in most states are required to look at, to have one of these images and to look at the baby that's in there. And many of them can look and see the life and see that that's a separate life from their own. And therefore, many of these young women and young and middle-aged women have said, OK, I'm not going to have an abortion because I can see something there and that's a real life. Thank the Lord for that. That's that's an important thing. Just to give you a few just to give you a few statistics to think about. Planned Parenthood performed in 2011 and 2012, this is a government agency that your tax dollars and my tax dollars pay for, they performed in one year 333,964 abortions. at a cost of $1,622 a piece average, spent $542 million taxpayer dollars to kill almost 334,000 little infants. They say in this article that there's about 1,900 abortion clinics in the country, and I don't know whether that counts all the Planned Parenthood ones or if these are just the non-Planned Parenthood ones, but they say the number has dropped from 2908 abortion clinics, abortion providers in 1982 to 1793 in 2008. So it's dropped by 1200 almost. It happened in 2008. 2008. There are no more figures any more recent than that. So it's dropped down about 1,200 abortion providers. And one of the things that's helping is that many of our pro-life legislators are getting into the legislature and they're saying, You have to have parental consent for teenagers. You have to have one or more of the parents to sign for them to have an abortion. They have to wait sometimes overnight or a day or two so that they think about it and they can't just do it right away. There's all kinds of regulations. They have to see the ultrasound of the baby. They have to receive five hours of counseling. There's all kinds of requirements that the states are putting on. Now the federal government doesn't necessarily like that, but the wonderful part is the pro-life state legislatures are putting things on the books that require things to take more time. As a result of that, many of those young women are rethinking the whole issue and a lot of them aren't having abortions. Four states don't have but one abortion clinic in the whole state. North and South Dakota, And Arkansas and Mississippi only have one clinic open in the whole state. Now that's something to get thanks for. Now I think the reason for all of this, some of the positive things that we're seeing is because God is letting more and more people understand that that is a human life, that that is a human being. You know, abortion has never been just about politics. Most of the people in government say it's all political based on rights, whether or not a woman has the right to control her own, now they say her own body, which is not her own body, it's a completely different person. Half of those little babies in there are male, and that's not part of that female body. So, you know, that's an argument that doesn't fly. The other thing is, they've just got to stop and realize that this is a human being. That this is something made in the image of God. This is not a blob of tissue that's in there. And more and more people have scruples about it, non-Christians, as well as Christians, more and more people have scruples about why abortion should not be taking place, and that it should be more, as they say, rare than it is. This morning when we talked about mercy, I thought, that we ought to talk about mercy for the unborn, because there's nobody to defend their rights. So often, there's nobody to defend the rights of that little child. The state says, the federal government says a woman is entitled to have an abortion, even in the third trimester. when that baby's getting big. And yet, how horrible that is to see. Now, I thought tonight that we ought to focus our examination, not just on politics, not just on what's happening in state legislatures, but rather on the scriptures. And to see what God has to say about it because it pretty much doesn't matter what the state says, what the federal government says. I don't care because I don't answer to those people in many ways. Who I do answer to and who we as believers do answer to is the living God. And so what does he have to say about all this? Let's take our Bibles and turn to Psalm 51. Let's look at verse 5. Psalm 51 verse 5 and let's see what this text says about it. Who would like to read that one for us tonight? Psalm 51 verse 5. Behold I was brought forth in iniquity. In other words, this is not saying that David that there was something wrong that David was conceived in some way, that his mother and father sinned in some way when he was conceived. It doesn't mean that at all. But what it means is that from the very first, from conception, that David had the characteristic of humanity which we call sinfulness, that all of us have, and that we've had it from the very beginning, that we've had that human characteristic of being prone to sin from the very time of our conception. So what that leads us to say is, from the time of conception, when those two pieces of the puzzle come together and form, that which is going to be soon, going to leave the body to be a full-blown young boy or baby, whether it's a boy or girl, we see that there's already humanity, that human, from conception that they are human beings. That's why we don't say, well, they become human beings at 13 weeks, or they become human beings at 19 weeks, or they become human beings at 30 weeks. In other words, we can kill them before that because they're just a blob of tissue. Well, the state has taken that argument, that because it's just a blob of tissue, you can get rid of it, because it's just like something that's infecting you and so you get rid of it. How horrible that is to think of. That you can say that this little being is something to be discarded and thrown away. The characteristic of humanity is there at conception. Now let's go to Jeremiah chapter 1 verses 4 and 5. Isaiah, Jeremiah. Let's look at chapter 1 verses 4 and 5. Sissy, would you read that one when you get there? I know your pages are going to stick together, but that's alright. Notice that. He says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. So there is something there. It's not a blob of tissue, but there is a person there. This person is there from the very beginning. While you were there in the womb, I knew you, I consecrated you, and I appointed you while you were in the womb to be a prophet to the nations. Now that's pretty serious. How would we like it if Jeremiah had been aborted? How would we like it if Isaiah had been aborted? Called in the womb. Called from the very beginning. The characteristic of humanness. of humanity. Let's look at Psalm 139. Let's go back to Psalm 139 and let's look at verses 15 and 16. Psalm 139 verses 15 and 16. Who has that and would like to read it for us? Andy, you want to read it? Yes, sir. All right, boy, look at that one. He says, Your eyes saw my informed substance. Here I am. I'm just the little tiny thing in there. You saw me in the womb, and yet the days were ordained for me when there wasn't even one. God is the one who has this purpose for us. He sees us in the body of our mothers. Nothing is hidden from Him. Even when we were in the secret place in the womb that we are not hidden from Him, we know that there is a real human being right there in the womb and that this child is a child, not a blob of tissue. Because God sees us and He knows us, even when our frame is unformed, even when we're just that little bitty beginning of a developed child. Let's go to Isaiah 49 verses 1 and 5. Who would like to read those two verses for us? Janice, are you there? You want to read it for us? Listen to me, O Island, and pay attention to Jesus from afar. The Lord called me from the woods, and the body of my mother came down into the earth. And now it is the Lord who formed me from the wood into this surface, to raise up the back of the hand, so that Israel might be given refuge in it. For I am honored by the Lord and by God. My God is my strength. The Lord called me from the womb. The Lord formed me from the womb to be his servant. It's important to see that the children in the womb are not treated as nothing. They're not treated as a blob. They're not treated as unimportant. But look at Isaiah and Jeremiah, both are called from the womb. God has an intention and purpose for them from the beginning of their earthly life. And that that purpose is important. He's carrying it out. Think how much Isaiah and Jeremiah have meant to us. Think of all those verses that are quoted. Think of the ministries that those two prophets had. And think about how important they are. What would it be like if they were aboard? I mean, we can hardly imagine the effect on our scriptures and not having these two books. All right, let's go to Luke in the New Testament. Let's go to Luke chapter 1, verse 15. Luke chapter 1, verse 15. Somebody want to read that one when they get there? All right, so here is John the Baptist. Here's a description of John the Baptist, and here is what is being said about him. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, The angel said this, he will drink no wine or liquor. In other words, he'll be a Nazarite. He'll be set apart to God completely. He'll be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. So before he comes out, you know, they used to say that a child wasn't a child until it exited the body of its mother. He didn't even care about it. And yet, Here is the Lord saying, the angel says, here's the mark of humanity, he's very important from the very beginning while he's in the womb, he's filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb. Isn't it John the Baptist who's the one that when he heard Mary, when Mary comes to see John's mother, that he rejoices in the womb, filled by the Spirit, rejoicing in the womb. I mean, how can we imagine that? That's just an amazing detail that the Scriptures put. That this little baby in the womb rejoices when he hears the mother of his Lord come into the house. So, There's no way you can justify killing that little child. Psalm 106. Let's look at verses 35 to 39. Psalm 106. Who wants to read that one for us? Psalm 106 verses 35 to 39. Mona, would you like to? Yes, ma'am. but they lived with the nations and learned their practices and served their audience, which became a standard for them, but it didn't sacrifice their servants and their daughters to the demons. It's a terrible thing to have to think about, because he said the people in Moses' day, they didn't destroy the corrupt nations, they mingled with them, they learned their practices, they served their idols, their idols became a snare or a trap, and these people sacrificed their children. Now, when we say, oh, they sacrificed their children, how horrible. Well, what's abortion? Isn't it sacrificing the children in the womb to the convenience of the mother, sometimes, many times. I don't want another baby, many say. I'm too young. I can't afford it anymore. Yeah, but is that a reason to take a life? Did God give us that right to take that life? No, God doesn't give us that right to take that life because having another child is inconvenient or expensive or I'm a little too young. Look at Mary. What did the angel say to Mary when she was about 15 years old? You're going to be the mother of the Messiah. And she could have said, I'm too young. It's real inconvenient for me to be pregnant. I'm not married. It's real inconvenient for me to bear a child. I'm only 15 years old. It's real inconvenient for me because everybody's going to throw rocks at me or stone me or think I'm a terrible person. And you remember what they did to Jesus in John chapter 8. They said, we weren't born of fornication like you. Because they knew Jesus was born of a virgin, and they couldn't conceive that that was possible. So they said, ha ha, we're not born of fornication. Our parents didn't get together before they were married. You, yours did. And that was the slanderous thing that they said to me. When we sacrifice our children to the God of convenience, look what God says about those people that were doing that. They were sacrificing them to demons and trying to get what they wanted. You know, you remember even in some of those conditions, in some of those situations in the Old Testament where it says there was this terrible battle and this one guy, he put his child on the wall and sacrificed him so he'd win the battle. In other words, sacrificed him to demons so that he would have power from the demons to win the battle. And that's what the scripture is saying. And here, are we doing any better? Because we're just saying, well, that child's inconvenient. I don't want to cost too much. And the government says, we don't want to pay for any more welfare, baby, so we'll help you. We'll give you $1,600 to kill the child. Susan and I had a, my mother had a doctor friend in Nashville. He was a pediatrician. And he would have girls that would come in to his office. He was a medical doctor. They'd come in and say, we want an abortion. Will you do it? He said, no, I won't do it now, but you bring it back when it's five years old and I'll kill it then. Yeah, like they could bring it back at five years old and kill it. You see, this is where we are. This is the situation we're in. Now, I would say to you that one of the difficulties that we have, because it talks about the land being polluted by blood, and that these people played the harlot in their deeds and sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. So again, we need to pray for our country about this because this has an effect on this whole nation. And the reason that we go through things is when God allows judgment to come on us for evil practices. And this is an evil practice that is taking away the lives. Somebody said, what could we have done with those 50 million people? What good would have been done by those 50? How many great musicians would we have had? How many great inventors would we have had? How many great business people would we have had? How many great leaders, presidents, senators, congressmen, mothers who raised their children in godly ways? How many great believers out of all those 50 million would we have had? What would our country look like if we spared those 50 million people instead of taking them away? And Schaefer, Francis Schaefer, used to say back in the 70s, I remember when he wrote his book, Whatever Happened to the Human Race, one of the things that he said is, when you justify abortion, you know what the next thing is. If you justify killing in the womb, then pretty soon you're justifying infanticide. And that's been happening for years. You know what they do in some of the Scandinavian countries? They do not let the mother see the baby until the baby is five days old. Don't let her see it. Because if it has a cleft palate, if it has a minor blockage, obstruction in the bowel, if it has any simple corrective, something that can be corrected by a surgeon, they don't want to do it, and they'll let the child die. They put it in the room, don't feed it, don't take care of it, and the child dies, and they say, your baby died. That's what they do in some of the Scandinavian countries. Infanticide. And you know what Francis Schaeffer said is next after infanticide? Then they quit taking care of the elderly. They'll say, oh, well we've only got so many dollars for health care. Have you ever heard that? We've got so many dollars for health care. And so we're keeping your mother alive in the nursing home and she's not hardly even there. Well, we can't afford to do that anymore. We're going to pull the plug on your mother, your father. Or they say, well, you're sick now. And we can't give you a heart. You're too old to give. We can't give you a heart bypass surgery. Now it might help you both. We can't give that to you anymore because we can't spend it on young people. We've got a whole bunch of people coming on. Your life's already over. So what we're going to do is we're not going to give it to you. We're going to put it back there and take care of them because they've got more life ahead of them than you do. See, they'll be making decisions for us like that, right? There are young people. And in the health care law, the 900 pages, 1100 pages, you know, there's a whole council in there that says, we'll make decisions on what kind of treatment is appropriate for each age group, for each person that comes along. They set up a council to make decisions for them. Now Francis Shaker wasn't wrong, was he? He said, once you do abortion and that's accepted, then infanticide comes next. Once infanticide is okayed, And we allow that even on the side where we start letting these children die rather than take care of them, then the next thing is the elderly and the nursing home. The elderly as far as treatment is concerned. And that's what they'll do. It's human nature. If we don't protect life there, nobody's going to protect life here where we are. And it's important because all life is important. Because the little child's important. Because the teenager's important. Because the middle-aged person, the 20-something, the 30-something, the 40-something, 50 to 80 to 90 to 100, every single one of those are important. Every life is important. And that's what God says. And it's His duty. to end those days when he wants to end them. It's not our duty to end them when we want to end them. He's the one that's going to say, yes, it's time. Come home. He's the one that has the right. We don't. We don't have the right to pull the plug on somebody that we think is using up resources that could be used better by somebody 30, 40 years younger. We can't say that. Or that that little child, because he needs surgery, shouldn't live because we don't want to give that child surgery or over here. All life is important, and this is the anniversary of it, January 22nd. We need, as believers, to have the biblical perspective that says that God calls it life, and we're not going to say it's okay. Let's bow and pray. Father, we thank you that our lives are important to you. That you loved us so much, even sinful and broken and wrong as we are, you loved us. And you sent the Lord Jesus for us. And Father, he went to the cross for us. And he died so that we could live. So that we could live and live in this life with you and then come to live with you forever. We thank you for the Lord Jesus who loved us that much. We think about how he took those little children, how he put them on his knee, how he put his hands on them, how he prayed for them, how he set them apart, and how he said, Father, it would be better for a man to have a big millstone hung around his neck and be thrown into the sea than to mislead one of those little children. Father, we pray that you will help us to stand up for a life like these little children, or adults, or elderly. that we'll stand up for life in every level. We pray, Father, that you be with us this week, even in our culture, which is so dead set against us on some of these issues. And give us the grace to answer their questions, and to answer them without being disrespectful or ugly to them. And help us, Father, because our human hearts don't want to even do that. Forgive our sins, cleanse us from unrighteousness, and help us this night. We pray in the mighty name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.