Today is Human Sanctity of Life Sunday. And so we wanna focus on what is going around, not only in our country, but also around the world with this thing called abortion. That's a nice term for it. It's murder is what it is. I don't know if that shocked you this morning to hear that that is the number one thing, cause of death. That's not only number one cause of death around the world, but that's number one cause of death in the United States of America. Think about that. You take all the car accidents and all those that die of cancer and all those that die of heart attack and all the different things that can cause a person to die in 2024 in the United States of America, there were more babies killed than all those put together. The number's about 55% of all deaths is accounted for for abortion. Think about that, folks. What a sad place we are in society today. Take your Bibles, turn with me to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. This is one of my favorite Psalms in the Word of God. I want us to look at a few verses here. We're gonna start here in verse number 13. The Bible says, for thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect. And in thy book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you, Lord, this morning, for the fact of what your Bible has told us, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Lord, before our members were fashioned, Lord, before we had all the different things that we have, Lord, you knew how we were gonna be formed. You knew what physical difficulties, if any, that you would allow us to be born with. Lord, you knew what talents you would give us, what abilities. Lord, that's all part of your plan. I'm thankful, Lord, you have a plan for each one of us. And that Lord that you've assigned worth to your creation. God help us in this land today as we really have an epidemic of murders. Oh, we wouldn't call it that. We would use terms that sound better, but the truth is, Lord, of taking the lives of these babies, these children of our own, denying them that opportunity to grow up. And Lord, I pray that you would help us this morning as we look into your word, Lord, help us to align with what your word says. Lord, help us to stand against this evil that is in this world, wanting this to take place. And many are duped into believing that it's just a choice. Well, I guess it is a choice to murder or not to murder, but it's against your laws. It ought to be against ours. God, help us again this morning, meet with us, we pray. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, today's society does not put a high value on a human life. And don't get me wrong, the pretense is there. Man will go to great lengths to save a human life. We'll see that if someone's in trouble, these disasters there in California with the fires, there's been some heroic deeds done to save some human life. If that particular life is deemed worth saving, For instance, the life that's in the womb is not always considered worth saving unless that child is won by the mother. If that child was not planned or that child is deformed or unwanted to kill that child, they think is perfectly fine according to society, not just American society, but around the world. Of course, they wouldn't use the word kill. because that gives a bad connotation. Modern man considers himself to be civilized, sophisticated, and wouldn't do such barbaric things. That's exactly what it is. It is murder. It is killing. I find it very interesting that in the society we live, we don't wanna go by God's laws anymore. God puts a high price on a life, a human life, so much so that if someone takes a human life, the Bible says their life should be taken. But today we say, oh no, we don't want to do that. We'll just put them away, and maybe not even for the rest of their life. We'll just separate them from society. We wouldn't want to take that life. but then when it comes to a baby in the womb, well, that's okay. If that's an inconvenience, just abort that baby. If that baby's gonna have some physical problems, that might get expensive, that might make it hard, you know what, let's just go ahead and let's abort that baby, that's murder, folks. But that's the way society thinks today. A higher value is placed on a individual that would take a human life, than an innocent baby in the womb. That's backwards. This morning, again, we have our sanctity of life Sunday to remind us that life is precious. By the way, that's not because man thinks so. That's not even because this preacher thinks so, but it's because that's what God says. God says life is precious. I like hearing our little baby back there, by the way. That doesn't bother me a bit, amen? I wouldn't mind if we had a course of them. Life is precious. What does God have to say on the subject of the sanctity of human life? Well, God says man is His special creation. Now, I know if you turn on the TV, you watch any animal show today, and they will talk about evolution as if it's not a theory, but it's fact. It is not a fact. It is a falsehood, amen. It's not real. It's made up. There's no evidence for it. That's why currently there are hundreds upon hundreds of evolutionary theories because none of them work. Because God created, amen. God is the creator. He made everything and he made man in the image of God. Every other thing that God made was spoken into being, but not man. God took the time to form man out of the dust of the ground. God took the time to make man, to form him. He's special in the eyes of God. Look at Genesis chapter two with me, if you will. Hold your place there in Psalms, but go to Genesis chapter two with me. notice here Genesis chapter 2 and look at verse number 7 with me if you will. Genesis chapter 2 and verse number 7 The Bible says this, and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight. Well, that's verse nine, that's verse seven. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Folks, that's different than every other thing. God spoke. Yeah, now I understand that the animals, they came out of the dirt, but God spoke them into being. He told the earth to do that. He didn't breathe into every single one the breath of life. They didn't become a living soul. I love animals. I truly do. I grew up with a lot of animals, a lot of strange ones, okay? Growing up, we had a skunk in our house. in the house, I shouldn't say, in a cage outside. We had a lot of strange animals. We had a flying squirrel. We had some other things. I love animals, but I'm going to be honest with you. Animals don't go to Heaven. They do not have a soul. Will there be some animals? Yes, we know there will be some that God created, but you know, when an animal dies, it is out of existence. It does not have an eternal soul. Man does. God's special creation. We're a triune being. We bear the image of God in many ways, but one of the most significant ways is that we're triune just like God. God exists in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We exist as a triune being. We have a body, a soul, and a spirit. We find that notice here in Genesis chapter 1, look with me at verse number 25. Genesis chapter 1, verse number 25. And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and everything that creeps upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created him, male and female created he them. Interesting today, there's some scientists that are pushing, well, you know, if man, if we could just get man to go extinct, this world would be such a better place. They're actually pushing that. There's some that are pushing, hey, don't have any children, so that man can go extinct. But what I find in scripture is God created an environment for his special creation, man. God didn't create man for the earth. God created the earth and the things in the earth for His special creation, mankind. We are given the ability of higher reasoning and speech as well. We are given a soul by God. This separates us from animals. We already saw that in Genesis 2 there. We were told here in the verses that I just read, notice here, verse 28, and God blessed them and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, notice, and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. God told us to have dominion. What does that mean? That word dominion means to prevail against, to reign or rule, subdue, bring under bondage, keep under, bring into subjection the animals. God gave us that responsibility. And you know, having a soul makes us eternal. Man will live somewhere forever. Hey, when this life is over and you face death as all of us will, You will exist somewhere. Yes, your physical body will go through what we call death. You know, death is nothing but a separation. Physical death, your body is separated from your soul. Body is placed in the ground, it decays. But what we find in scripture is that it's not over at that point. There's another death you do not want to experience. The Bible calls it the second death. it's also a separation because that's what death is. And it separates that soul, that eternal part of you from God for eternity in a place called hell. Bible tells us that's the second death. You don't wanna experience that one. By the way, God doesn't want you to experience that one either. but you will exist somewhere. You know, the evolutionists, they like to throw around millions and billions of years, right? So let's do that this morning for just a moment. Humor me. Let's throw around a million years. A million years from today, you will exist and so will I. Think about that for a moment. Oh, we won't exist in these bodies. Gonna have a glorified body if we're saved. but you will exist. Hey, let's throw one that they love to say billions of years, right? A billion years from today, you will exist. Think about that for a moment. That's not fantasy. That's not make-believe. That's not just what this preacher thinks. This preacher is just a man. What does God say? God says that you and I will exist for eternity, either in heaven, because we've trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior, or in hell for eternity. Never ends. But you and I will exist forever. Where are you going to be? Animals will not. As we've mentioned, they were not created in the image of God. They were not given a soul like you and I. This is further evidence in the Bible by the difference between killing a person and killing an animal. Go with me to Leviticus chapter 24. Leviticus chapter 24. Notice what the scripture says here, beginning in verse 17, Leviticus chapter 24, verse 17. And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. This is God's law. And he that killeth a beast shall make it good, beast for beast. And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor as he had done, so shall it be done to him. Notice what he says. If a man kills a man, he's gonna lose his life. Why? Because man is precious. made the image of God. A beast has got to make it good. You know, if you own a cow and your neighbor were to kill your cow, he's supposed to make it good. He's got to give you one of just as valuable. Because the life of an animal in God's eyes, and by the way, that's the only eyes that matter, amen, is not as precious as the life of a human being. But yet we got it turned around backwards today, don't we? You know? environmentalist, he wants us to save all the animals. And again, I have no problem with that. We ought to be good stewards of this earth that God has given us. But they want to abort the babies and save the whales. I've got a problem with that. And, you know, what we find in scripture at conception, a human life has a soul. This is given by God. There is not some evolutionary process going on in the womb. A baby's not evolving into a human. It is a human. And that's one of the arguments they try to give. Well, it goes through these stages and that, you know, it's not human at this point. You know what? Every baby in the womb is a human being. allowed to come to birth. Guess what? When it's born, it's a human being. God is just making those cells into that human being, that process. It's not some evolutionary process. They don't come out, well, 99.9% of them are human beings, and that 0.1% ends up being a monkey or a fish. It doesn't work that way, does it? No. No evolutionary process is going on. They wanna call the baby a fetus because they want to distance it from being a human being. Let's call it what it is, it's a baby. The truth of the Bible is seeing the fact that every human being goes through the same process, reproduced, as the Bible says, after his kind. Never anything else. Go back to Psalm 139 where we were, notice with me here, verses 13 and 14. For thou has possessed my reins, thou has covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are they works, and that my soul knoweth right well. I'm thankful that God supersedes that process, amen. I'm thankful it's not, as the evolutionists say, it's not left up to chance and happenstance, amen? God guides that process. God gave you the eye color He wanted you to have. God gave you the hair or lack of hair or whatever, the type of hair God wanted you to have. God gave you all those things. He encoded that in your body and your genes, the height you were going to be in, all those different things. All of us have things about us that say, hey, if God would let me, I'd make this change or that change. I would say, Lord, give me perfect eyesight. I'd get rid of these glasses. I'd love that. That wasn't God's plan. God designed you the way he designed you. Some of those designs may be that you have to lean on him a little more. This is one of those for me. Some of those designs may be because God has a specific purpose for your life and he gave you the talents or the abilities or whatever it may be, that you can use that for God's glory. I think of Amy Carmichael, a missionary, and she was a missionary to India. And you know, at that time, The Indians really did not accept white people at all. They weren't used to them. They didn't trust them. Now, there's still some of that today, by the way, there, but there especially. And she wasn't able to reach them very well at first. And then she learned a little trick. If she could make a substance that she could put on her, it made her skin color the same as theirs. She already had the darker hair, she already had the brown eyes, and they accepted her more, and she was able to give the gospel and see folks saved. But you know, when she was a little girl, she prayed, and she prayed, and she prayed, and she trusted, and she believed that God would give her blue eyes. She had brown eyes. She wanted her eye color changed. She believed God could do it. She did not understand, why wouldn't God change my eye color? God gave her the eye color He did because He knew what He was going to use her for, amen? Folks, those things that sometimes we say, well, I wish I could change this or that, it may just be God's given you that in your life for the purpose that He has designed for you. We need to find His purpose and live in it But I'm thankful he supersedes that process. We truly are fearfully and wonderfully made. This means several things. First, God doesn't make junk, amen? You and I have worth and every baby has worth. Every individual has worth. We don't see them the way God does many times. We'll see somebody that maybe they've gotten their life messed up. Maybe they're heavily into drugs and we'd say, oh, they're not worth anything. That's not what God says. God says he loves that sinner. He wants to see them get saved and their life changed. They are worth something to him. Every single human being has worth. God doesn't make mistakes. You know what that does? It messes up the argument of the transgenders. Doesn't it? See, to think that changing your gender, which they can't anyway, truth be told, if they die and pass away and their bones are buried and they're dug up later, scientists can tell whether they were male or female. Can't change your bone structure. Sorry, you are what God made you. But it messes up their argument. Because the argument either has to believe evolution, well evolution messed up in that process and I should have been a girl or I should have been a boy. Or they have to believe that God made a mistake. Well God should have made me a girl or God should have made me a boy but he made me the opposite so I've got to change. Both of those are absolutely wrong. Evolution is not real, and God doesn't make mistakes, amen? So it messes up that argument of the transgender. We just need to accept what God has made us. Hey, sometimes our plans may not match God's, but whose plan is better? His is, just get with his program. Whether that means accepting that you're a boy or a girl what God made you, or whether that means just accepting what God has for your life, maybe accepting some deficiencies physically that God's given you, whatever it may mean for you, let's just get with God's program and serve Him the way He's designed us to serve Him. We are all made on purpose by a loving God for a purpose. That purpose, first of all, is that we should not perish. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hey, God's plan for every single individual. that you don't go to hell. His plan is that you have your sins forgiven and that you're on your way to heaven. You say, preacher, how can I do that? What good works can I do? How much money do I have to give to the church? How faithful do I have to be? How many times I got to get baptized? Well, I got good news for you. It's a free gift. Amen. It's a free gift. It's not by baptism. It's not by church membership. It's not by your good works. It's not by your money. It's a free gift. My Bible tells me that it is the gift of God. It's his gift, not the preacher's gift, not the church's gift. Although the preacher and the church should show you how to get it, amen, but it's not our gift to give, it's his gift. I can't save anyone. This church, I love our church, we do not have the ability to save any single person, none. It's not our gift. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus paid for that gift when He died on the cross of Calvary and He shed His blood. Perfect Lamb of God, never sinned, never done anything wrong, never had a bad thought, Never lost his temper when he shouldn't have, I'll put it that way. There were times when he had to show his righteous anger. My God was perfect. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came and he died on that cross so that every single human being could have a hope of eternal salvation. But it's a gift, he paid for it. But he offers it freely. you either accept it or you reject it. If you accept that gift, you have eternal life. To accept it's easy as A, B, C. A, you admit to God you're a sinner. Folks, we don't need people to tell us that, right? No one had to pound in my head and explain to me and give me all kind of information to prove to me that I was a sinner. I knew I was a sinner. We all do wrong. We may not all do the same things, but we all do wrong. Then B, we believe that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. He is God in the flesh. He is the son of God that came and died. We believe he did take our place on the cross of Calvary. He died and he shed his blood for our sin. Three days later, he rose again. and then C, we simply call on Him. The Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, not might be, not could be, shall be saved. Let me ask you, do you know Christ as your Savior? Hey, it's not enough to know the facts up here. The Bible says, with a heart man believeth unto righteousness, with a mouth confession is made unto salvation. Has there been a time when you humbled yourself before God? And you told God, I know I'm a sinner. God, I know I can't save myself. And I trust the shed blood of Jesus Christ, your son, to be my only hope for heaven. Oh, you may not have said those words. The words are not what's important. It's the heart attitude. We realize we can't save ourselves. By the way, that's why God sent a savior, amen? You don't send a Savior unless someone needs to be saved. But if you've humbled yourself and called upon God to save you, based on the authority of the Word of God, he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. If you've done that, you have eternal life. If you haven't, my friend, that is God's plan for you. God wants you to be saved because you're worth something to Him. His purpose is to save you so that you'll bring glory to Him. The Bible says, whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. God's purpose is that we be conformed to the image of His Son. Romans 8, 29, for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. God wants you and I. to have an abundant life. Jesus said, I've come to bring life, and they might have it more abundantly. He wants you to experience the abundant life. Then I notice, as God's special creation, God puts a high value on every human being God's high value is shown through the penalty we already mentioned there, Genesis 9, 6. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. But you know, we've cheapened that today. We've cheapened that. Again, we've said to criminals, it's okay, we'll just We'll just take care of you for the rest of your life. But to babies, hey, if they're a nuisance, just get rid of them. If you didn't plan on them, don't worry about it. Just abort them. Folks, I hope we're broken of where our country is today. We've cheapened the value of man. Our society allows abortions. And in some countries, praise the Lord, not here yet. But if we're not careful, it'll happen. assisted suicide. You know, there's at least 15 countries right now, presently, that allow what they call assisted dying. Some allow for this, for those that are both young and old, have no medical problems. Some of them, the Netherlands started this back in 2002. You don't even need to have a physical problem or anything. You can just come to the medical institutions and say, you know what? I'm tired of living. Don't like it, don't enjoy it anymore. I just want to end my life. And you can do that. They have what they call the Termination of Life or On Request or Assisted Suicide Act of 2002, still in place today. And there's other countries that have followed suit. They were the first ones. Folks, we must take a stand against this. If we don't take a stand against abortion, not only are millions going to still be being killed, but it's going to start working on the other end too. It already is. There's already those that are advocating for euthanasia, for those that they would say, well, you know, they're too old. They're past their healthful point to society. We need to just get rid of them. Those debates are going on in our country today. We want things to turn around. We've got to take a stand. We cannot just ignore it. We must provide alternatives, starting with God's love, God's love to help, God's love for forgiveness. Those mothers that have maybe gone through, had an abortion, they need forgiveness and love as well. They need the gospel of Jesus Christ. We see the high value that Jesus puts on those that others value less. You know, in Roman times and when Rome had its big empire and most of the, those that were under that at that time, most of the known world was, their value of children was, was much like it is in America today. There was a time in America that children were seen as a good thing. Children were seen as the Bible says, a blessing and a reward of the womb, but not today in America. In Rome, they were seen as a nuisance. They were seen as a drain on the pocketbook, a drain on society. In Rome, when a child was born, I'm talking to a Roman citizen, worked a little differently for those who didn't have citizenship, but for a Roman citizen, then after that child was born, the father would give indication whether that child was to live or to die. If that child had some deformities or had some other problems, if that father already had a lot of children and figured, you know, I don't think I could take care of another one, He would just give the sign to let them know, go ahead and kill that child. That was common practice. We're doing the same thing. Oh, I know those, they say, oh, we wouldn't kill a baby that's out of the womb. Guess what? They're doing that today. It's called partial birth abortion. And they're doing that when they're already born and they tried to abort them, but they lived through it. and they'll just put them in a room and let them die. A baby on their own that has just been born cannot take care of itself. It's happening. How about society outcasts? In those days, the publicans, the prostitutes and such like, they were considered outcasts. They're not worth anything. But in Mark chapter 10, verse 14, but when Jesus saw it, he was much depleased and said unto them, suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not for such as the kingdom of God. God is concerned about the outcast. Jesus went to the public. As a matter of fact, one of the publicans was made a disciple, Matthew. Those that were outcast to the religious group, Jesus was accused of, well, he eateth publicans and sinners. Well, can I clue you in on something? We're all sinners. But those Pharisees, they forgot that. They thought they were above being a sinner. Now, Jesus said he came to seek and to save that which was lost. He mentioned to them that it's not the whole that needs a physician, but the sick. And this world is sin sick. And the only one that can give the healing to that is Jesus Christ. That's why it's so important we get out the message. We're shown in the scriptures the high value of every soul, Matthew 16, 26. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall man give in exchange for his soul? I don't know the condition of Elon Musk's soul. I don't know if he's saved or not. I would say by what I've observed, I would say he's probably not, but I can't see his heart. But when I read that scripture, I can't help but think of him right now, to my current knowledge anyway, he's the richest man in the world, unless things have changed. And by the actions, again, I can't judge the heart, but by the actions, it appears he's unsaved. What does it gain him to have those billions of dollars? Gains the whole world. He can do anything he wants. He could take a vacation for the rest of his life. He could buy anything that's out there to buy. He can afford it. He could enjoy everything this world has to offer. Every amusement park, every whatever there is out there. But what does it gain a man if he can do all of that? And what if he could do it for his entire life and die and go to hell for eternity? The gain is zero. It's not worth it, folks. It's not worth it. It's what the Bible is trying to get us to see here. What can a man give in exchange for his soul? Oh, today they're giving all kinds of things. Some will exchange their soul if I can get popularity and fame. If they can have fortune, if they can have this or that, they'll gladly give their soul. Do you realize your soul is worth more than that? Your soul is worth more than that. Again, you're gonna be alive a million years from now. You're gonna be alive a billion years from now, 50 billion years from now. a trillion years from now, you are going to exist somewhere. Your soul is worth more than 50 to 100 years of everything you could possibly want. What price tag are you putting on your soul? God's not willing that any should perish. He has mandated that every born again believer try and save souls. We're told that He that wins souls is wise. If you know Christ as your Savior, are you being wise? Are you going after others and warning them? What would you think of someone out there with those fires in California? If someone saw a house or an area on fire and they saw some people there and those people were unaware or maybe they were trapped and that individual had the wherewithal to get them out of that trap where they're trapped by the fire and just decide, you know what? That's not in my schedule today. I'm too busy. I mean, if I do that, I'm gonna miss my business lunch this afternoon. I can't do that. And just walked on and let those people perish. Oh, there would be an outcry if people found out. What a monster. How could they do that? Christian, are we letting people perish far worse? Die spiritually and go to hell for eternity? Because, well, that's just not in my schedule today. I didn't plan on so-and-so crossing my path today. I don't have time to give him the gospel. That's just not in my plans. Really? He that winneth souls is wise. Jesus said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. If we're truly following Jesus, we're fishing, amen? We're to give the gospel, we see it over and over again. Mark 15, 16, go into all the world, preach the gospel, that word preachers proclaim to every creature. Hey ladies, you aren't to be a preacher in the fact that you stand behind the Pope, that's against God's word, but you are to be a preacher in the fact that you are to proclaim the word of God. You're to proclaim to those around you, you're to give out the gospel message and so are we men. Since God has put such a great price on mankind, should not we as well? As great a price as God has put on human life, physical life, we have seen this morning, He puts a higher price on spiritual life. Because that matters more, because this life is gonna be over for most of us, let's be honest, most of us probably won't see 100 years of life. That's rare. And if you do, very few years after that. But eternity never, never, never, ever ends. That's why God puts the emphasis on eternal life. And I'm thankful when God gives His gift of life, I'm thankful it's eternal, amen? I'm thankful it's called everlasting life. I'm thankful it's not saved until you mess up, because I mess up a lot. I'm thankful it's eternal life that God gives and I'm secure in His hand. How about you today? Do you have eternal life? Do you know for sure right now at this moment, if something was to happen to you, if you were to lose your life, where would you go for eternity? I'm thankful that I know I'd go to heaven, not because I'm a good guy, not because I'm a preacher, but because I've done what this book says. There was a day when I humbled myself and I asked Jesus Christ to save an unworthy sinner. And praise God, he keeps his word. He did it. How about you? Are you saved? Do you know for sure you're saved? If not, I plead with you this morning. Please trust Christ as your savior. Old preacher, I'd be embarrassed to let anybody know I'm unsaved. I'd rather be embarrassed and go to heaven than not be embarrassed and go to hell. If you don't know this morning, please don't put it off. You're not guaranteed another day. And if you do know Christ as Savior, we have a mandate. Life is precious. We need to help preserve physical life, absolutely. But we also need to help people get eternal life. giving them God's plan of salvation. Would you bow your heads, close your eyes, stand please to your feet.