Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Defending the Sacredness of Life in a Culture of Death Ex. 20:13 September 14th, 2008 Sermon #8 Eugenics is the study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding. It means that pre-born children who might have disabilities are aborted. Taking this super race worldview head on, Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, has put children with disabilities in the national spotlight. Her decision to have a child with Down’s syndrome puts her in a tiny minority of American women. A staggering statistic: 92% of unborn children diagnosed with Down’s, are aborted in the United States. If trends continue and women like Sarah Palin continue to be the tiniest minority, we will all but exterminate children with Down’s from society… and our world will be a darker place. We will miss out on the opportunity to experience these wonderful and giving members of our communities. While it’s true many parents of children with Down’s syndrome experience grief and shock when first given the diagnosis, upon follow-up, those same parents expound on the joys and happiness their child has brought to the family, and the optimism they feel for their child's future. Children with Down’s play with peers, participate in sports programs, graduate from high school and can live independent lives in the community with proper support. Are you ready for this? Today there are waiting lists of parents wanting to adopt children with Down’s syndrome! But if in a darker future world, medical science comes up with a test of pre-borns for ADHD, autism, dyslexia, nearsightedness, epilepsy – how many more children will die? In our own church many of you would not be here. You’re not perfect and thus, according to the view of some, not fit to live. As the father of a son with epilepsy, Governor Palin’s words in her acceptance speech, “To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House” brought tears to my eyes. Last Sunday we worked through a Biblical worldview on environmentalism. Sadly, we place more value on animals and plants than on unborn children. For destroying an eagle’s egg you can be fined up to $5,000 and sentenced to five years in prison. The fine for killing a cat is $4,000. The fine for killing a tree is $10,000, yet killing an unborn baby is not considered a crime at all, as long as the mother gives consent. This past week we commemorated September 11, 2001. Thirty-five hundred lives were extinguished that day. It’s an event that will forever be etched in our minds. Did you know though that on September 12, 2001, 4000 lives were extinguished and again on September 13th, and 14th and 15th? Every day in America over 4000 unborn babies’ lives are taken in what is called pro-choice; 4000 each day, 28,000 each week, 112,000 each month and 1,460,000 each year. Since 1973 there have been 40 million abortions – 34 times the number of casualties in all of our wars combined from the American Revolution to the Iraq War. A “culture of death” no longer values human life. But God’s Word still says, “You shall not murder” (Ex. 20:13). So what can we do? How do we defend the sacredness of life in a culture of death? What does God’s Word say about these life and death issues? While there are not specifics for every situation, scripture does give us principles that apply and provide guidance through today’s moral morass. Let me lay out some basic Bible principles first and then make some specific applications. Before we start let me also say that I am fully aware that there are at least Four Distinct Groups here today. 1) There are those here who profoundly believe that murder in the womb or at the end of life is morally wrong. May my message be an encouragement and challenge to you. 2) Then, there are others who are basically undecided about these issues. I hope I can help you make up your mind. 3) There are still others who are pro-choice and pro-euthanasia. I’m truly glad you’re here and hope you’ll simply hear what I have to say. If you still don't agree with me when I am finished, I won't be angry at you. I love you. 4) Finally, there are some here who’ve had an abortion. I’m most concerned about this last group. Let me say frankly that today’s message is not primarily addressed to you. You already know the truth about abortion. Nothing I can say can add to what you’ve been through. But I want you to know that we love you and we’re so glad that you’re here. We’ll never do anything to hurt or embarrass you. Our deepest prayer for you is that you’ll experience God's grace and forgiveness. We will not condemn you this morning. I promise you that! You have my word on it! Because of the complexity of this subject, we have a lot of ground to cover this morning. As you can imagine, we could spend several Sundays on these life and death issues, but we’re going to dig in and do it in one…so turn on your brain juices and let’s get going. 1. All human life is sacred. Former President, Ronald Reagan, in defending a culture of life pointed out that, suppose you’re hunting in the woods and you see something moving, but you don’t know if it’s a person or an animal. You don’t just start shooting. You make sure before you fire a shot. That’s just common decency, you choose to protect life. A woman picketing outside the jail where “Dr. Death,” Jack Kevorkian was being held, walked with her dog and had a sign on him that said, “I have a right denied to my master.” She commented that if her dog became sick, she could end its life painlessly. Why shouldn’t she have the same right to end her own life if she so chose? Two Reasons: a) Because human beings were created in God’s image, human beings have intrinsic value. The main thrust of the 6th commandment, “You shall not murder,” is the value of human life. This is not a new command. It’s a reiteration of God’s command from thousands of year before when God ordained government. Gen. 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” Human beings have an inherent awareness of the sanctity of human life that is obviously part of our original design. It goes against our very nature to murder which is why every civilization has laws against murder. Genesis 9 is the first recorded prohibition against malicious, premeditated murder. The basis of this prohibition was “for in the image of God has God made man.” All God is asking is that man not destroy that which is God’s by right of creation and design. A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In a room of 200, he asked, "Who’d like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the twenty dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.  "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It’s still worth $20.” Many times human beings are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by decisions made or other circumstances. They may appear worthless because of sin. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, image-bearers will never lose their value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, even sinful and wicked, we are still priceless. The image of God will never be erased. Men and women have great value because we’re created in the Creator’s own image.   The term “image” refers to someone who resembles someone else, like a daughter who’s the image of her mother. The fact we’re made in the image of God means we have similar inner qualities; the ability to reason, to enter into relationships–especially to relate to God. No other created thing has the ability to relate to our Creator as we do. Do you realize that human beings are the closest thing in all creation to God? Psalm 8:5 says that man is "a little lower than heavenly beings" Some translations say "a little lower than angels" but the word translated "angels" or "heavenly beings" is "Elohim" so the verse actually says that we are created "a little lower than Elohim–God Himself."    The ranking order in creation is not God, angels, and then humans, it’s God, humans, angels. Angels aren't of greater value than human beings. The reverse is true. Angels are not created in God's image. Only man is given this distinction. Man is the pinnacle of God’s creation. Murder then is, in the most intense sense of the word, a sacrilege. It’s not only a crime against mankind; it’s a crime against God in whose image we’re all made. God gave man an eternal soul and made him for eternity. When someone murders a human being, they’re literally shaking their fist in the face of God. Murder abrogates divine authority. It’s man trying to act in God’s place of giver and taker of life. Because human beings were created in God’s image, human beings have intrinsic value. b) Because all human beings were purchased by the death of God Incarnate, they have value. Mark McGwire was in the news again this past week, but he will long be remembered for his part in the great home run competition of 1998, as he and Sammy Sosa competed to break Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs. McGwire finally broke it, beating out Sammy Sosa after he slugged in 72 home runs in a single season. Do you have any idea how much that baseball, #72, was sold for? About $3 million. Can you imagine that? Why? After all, there are millions of baseballs in the world, but that one is worth $2.7 million...because it is associated with Mark McGwire. One big fire and that baseball is gone. Why are humans valuable? Not only were we created by God, but God paid the ultimate price for us. He paid for our sin with the blood of His own Son on Calvary’s cruel cross. God treasures you and I more than any other creature, even more than the angels, because He loved us enough to pay the unbelievable cost of redeeming us. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” There is no such thing as a “mere mortal” nor are we the “human animal.” The words to that song that we sang as children are so true, “Red and yellow, black and white, they ARE precious in His sight.” Most of us don’t buy junk and we’re certainly not foolish enough to pay great amounts of money for junk. Do we really think that our infinitely wise God would pay the price of His own Son’s life for us, for all of mankind – if man did not have great value, inherent value? Because all human beings were purchased by the death of God Incarnate, they have value. 2. A culture of death redefines and devalues personhood. Remember the theme song of Disney’s Pocahontas, Colors of the Wind. There’s a powerful line in that song, “You think the only people who are people are the people who look and think like you…” Dr Seuss said it another way in Horton Hears a Who, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” So what makes someone a person? How we answer that question can mean life or death for a lot of people. Why? Because with personhood comes entitlement to rights and civil protection. Those who advocate placing maternal rights above the rights of unborn babies often say that what makes someone a person is that he or she has “function.” That is, personhood means having the ability to do or function in some way. To these individuals I am a person because I am able to think, to respond to stimuli, to feel, to reason. The ramifications of this are enormous. Lacking the ability to reason, the “developing mass of tissue” in the mother’s womb is considered a non-person and thus has no rights. Someone in a coma, vegetative state or just severely disabled, like a Terry Schiavo, is often not able to reason so she then is, according to this argument, a non-person. So what you can do? What you add to the human race makes you a person but if you bring nothing to the table, then in essence you are a non-person. Peter Singer, philosophy professor at Princeton, carries the personhood-as-function view to its logical extreme when he states that a parent’s rights take precedence over those of his or her infant who, by virtue of being not yet fully mature, is unable to function. Singer concludes that it’s ethical for a parent to take the life of the baby, since it isn’t a person, as “it” lacks conscious awareness of self, which is, in Singer’s view, essential to personhood. My Golden Retriever is self-aware. Dakota feels emotion, as is evidenced by her wagging tale and keen interest when the refrigerator door is opened. And I believe she loves. She’ll greet me at the door, tail wagging. Whatever functional criteria one comes up with for personhood—be it self-awareness, ability to create, feel, or love—some member of the animal kingdom can match it. This clouds the personhood definition—especially since a few chimps have learned some sign language and can now “communicate.” Clearly function is not what makes us what we are. We could argue that what gives us personhood is our very existence. But an amoeba exists. Does it thus have rights? Though some have argued that it does, the answer is no. What makes us persons is that we are image bearers of God. We are human beings. I am a person because I am and I am human. What makes me a person is not what I do. “I” have existed from the one-cell zygote stage. Imagining ourselves in the point of view of a zygote, we could rightfully say, “I don’t think yet, but I exist and I bear the image of God—therefore, I am.” Viewing ourselves this way is completely compatible with that statement in Genesis about humanity being made in God's image. Turn to Gen. 1:27 (p. 1).  Humans are persons worthy of respect by virtue of the fact that we are created human, not because of anything we do. From the zygote to the incapacitated and everything in between, human beings are persons simply because we "are," and we have human DNA. We do not lose our humanity or our personhood when we have diminished or absent function. And this truth has tremendous ramifications in the embryonic stem-cell lab, in the abortion clinic and in the hospice.   A. W. Tozer said that what we think about God is the most important thing about us but C.S. Lewis disagreed. He believed, instead, that what God thinks of us is the most important thing about us. When we consider what makes us human persons, Lewis got it right. Even if a human never has enough capacity to think about God, he or she is still the object of God’s unique creation and care, possessing personhood. God made the animals, but He didn’t make them in His image. So regardless of size, if we bear God’s image, we are precious in a way that the animals are not. A human person’s a person, no matter how small. In a culture of death there’s a growing opinion that not everyone should be viewed as persons and have a right to live. There are individuals who do not seem to measure up to the standard of full humanness. The Bible addresses this matter as well. There have always been people groups in danger of losing the right to life, the weaker segments of society, those who cannot defend themselves. And there are many who believe that they should either be terminated or never allowed to live. Who are they? a) The poor. The issue of poverty is frequently raised alongside this issue. There are those who say it would be better to not be born than to be born poor. Many think that a poor woman must have the right to abort a child because she will not be able to care for it anyway. Others stress that society cannot afford to underwrite the costs of poor children. Such arguments assume that the lives of these children have no value. Their lack of worth has been determined by how little is in their mother’s pocketbook. But God’s Word teaches that the poor are of great value to God. He provides for them and defends them. He assures that the poor will be treated with dignity and respect through Old Testament laws He gave to protect them. Psalms 35:10 says, “Who is like you, O LORD? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them.” In Scripture the poor were not looked down upon as if they were poor because they were lazy or inferior. The poor included widows, orphans, strangers or those who became poor because of disease or catastrophe. Scripture clearly teaches that the lives of poor people are of value to God. b) The disabled. Infanticide is on the increase in hospitals. The same arguments to defend abortion are used to defend infanticide. Proponents argue it’s not murder since these children don’t measure up to the definition of personhood: good mental health, good physical health, the ability to socialize, etc. But God values children. While Jesus refused to meet with Herod, He welcomed little children. One of the repeated themes of Scripture is God’s sovereignty, in that He makes both the able and disabled. Exodus 4:11 “The LORD said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” Job was commended as a righteous man because He cared for the disabled, “I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame” (Job 29:15). The same themes employed in Scripture for the poor are used for the disabled. God loves and defends them! c) The elderly. If the elderly become burdensome or senile, then their personhood may be called into question. You’ll often find that even elderly individuals sometimes regard themselves of little or no worth. What a different attitude we find in God’s Word! Prov. 20:29 “The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old.” Older people are to be venerated, and are symbols of the security, prosperity and wisdom of a society. God’s Word teaches that there are no exceptions to personhood. All people have an equal right to protection. The Bible dos not devalue people because they are imperfect according to the world’s standards, or because of their status or age. It never questions their right to live. Instead, God’s laws protect them. The teaching of Scripture is that God cares for and protects the weak and defenseless, and His people are to do the same! 3. Euthanasia seeks to take the control of when life ends out of God’s hands. Euthanasia is the next big social issue. Think about this. Presently there are an estimated two working people for every one person on social security. In the 1950's there were thirty-five workers for every person on Social Security. Travel back to 1984, then Colorado governor, Richard Lamm said, “old people have a duty to die and get out of the way.” In 1984 people were shocked that a major leader would dare say such a horrible thing! But abortion has devalued human life replacing moral absolutes with secular humanism/atheism. Thus, declaring man as the final authority of life and death. The unthinkable is becoming thinkable. And if American culture continues in its trend, it’s very feasible that there will soon be a belief that the elderly and infirm “have a duty to die and get out of the way.” The philosophy of the euthanasia movement is that some persons are better off dead. Someone whose life is judged to be of little or no value may be selected for non-treatment or even for active euthanasia. The word euthanasia means “happy death.” One of the underlying fallacies of euthanasia is that it’s “death with dignity.” There’s no such thing as death with dignity. I’ve been at many deathbeds. Death is the enemy and the penalty for sin. The reason euthanasia is even seriously considered an option is that most people don’t want to deal with pain, die in a hospital with tubes hanging out of them, lose their faculties or become a burden to their family. In our day of modern drugs no one needs to have excruciating pain. With hospice one doesn’t have to die at a hospital but can die quietly at home. As far as losing our faculties or being a burden, when my children were infants they didn’t have their faculties developed and midnight feedings were a burden, but that didn’t take away from their value of life or personhood. As we take care of our children, part of honoring our parents is to care for them. Now sometimes, such as with Alzheimer’s, we need help from a care facility but that doesn’t take away our Biblical responsibility to care for them. The power of life and death is to be in the hand of God. In Deuteronomy God says, “I put to death and I bring to life” (32:39). He has ordained our days and is in control of our lives (Ps. 139:16). Now that doesn’t mean we prolong death but we’re not to hasten it. Murder is murder, even if it is self-murder and a violation of Exodus 20:13. Tools such as a Living Will and Advance Directives can protect you from having medical personnel keep you alive unnecessarily, prolonging death. But please be careful who you give the power of attorney to. Recently, I talked to one of our members who had given power of attorney to one of their children who is probably not a believer. As we worked through this together, I asked the question, “Would your daughter in the right situation have an abortion?” This individual answered honestly, “yes.” I pointed out that if someone does not have a Biblical life ethic, they should not be in charge of when someone else lives or dies. Foundational to a biblical perspective on euthanasia is a proper understanding of the sanctity of human life. In the past most people believed in the sanctity of human life. Unfortunately, this view is beginning to erode into a "quality of life" standard. The disabled and infirm were seen as having a special place in God's world, but today medical personnel judge a person's fitness for life on the basis of a perceived quality of life or lack of such quality. The Bible teaches that human beings are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26) and therefore have dignity and value. Human life is sacred and should not be terminated merely because life is difficult or inconvenient. In a patient's last days everything possible should be done to alleviate physical and emotional pain. Giving drugs to a patient to relieve pain is morally justifiable. Proverbs 31:6 says, “Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to him whose life is bitter.” 4. Embryonic stem cells sacrifice one life for another. One of the buzz topics is stem cell research. You’d think, listening to the hype, that there’s a government ban on stem cell research and “those” Christians are standing in the way of medical cures for the sick. That’s because you’ve got popular actors like Michael J. Fox, who is afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, up on Capitol Hill, testifying before Congress about the need for stem cell research so scientists can find a cure for Parkinson’s. All of us would love to see a cure for Parkinson’s and a host of other diseases. But there is no ban on stem cell research. The ban is on government funding of embryonic stem cell research. That’s a crucial distinction rarely explained in most news stories. And it’s embryonic stem cell research that people who care about life have a big problem with. Stem cell research is fine. Stem cells can be drawn from almost any tissue from your body. They can even be drawn from umbilical cord blood, after a baby is born. They offer much promise in medical research. In fact, some 65 human conditions – from brain cancer to Crohn’s disease have seen some successful treatment with adult stem cell therapy. You want to know how many have been successfully treated by embryonic stem cell therapy? Zero. Not one. Zip, after more than two decades of research using embryonic stem cells. But what does the media hype? Embryonic stem cells. Stem cell research is not a bad thing but embryonic stem cell research is a different story. That’s because it requires taking an embryo just days old, and removing cells, thereby destroying that beginning human life. It’s abortion and it’s murder. It’s a violation of “You shall not murder.” 5. Abortion seeks to take the control of when life begins out of God’s hands. Scripture teaches that life begins at conception (Ps. 139:13-16). Most believers don’t realize the extent of this legal murder that is going on in our country today.  The Greek word for infant is ‘brephos’ and it is used eight times in Scripture. Six times it’s used for a child already born and two times for a child still in the womb. The point? There’s no difference! It’s very noteworthy that when someone is planning to terminate the life of the unborn, they refer to the unborn as the fetus or the embryo. By contrast, when they plan to keep the child and cherish it, it is always known as “my baby” or “my child.” Did you ever hear anyone say “I’m going to have a little fetus?” Did you ever hear an abortionist say, “We’re going to kill the little baby?” Our respect for the unborn seems to be strangely affected by the circumstances. Just a side note, I am so pleased that Dr. Martin Luther King’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, is putting pressure on the African-American community to reject abortion. She calls it a “racist, genocidal act and kills more blacks than the KKK ever lynched.” She’s right. Abortion is the sin of murder. The victim is unquestionably innocent. The victim is totally helpless and the order to kill comes from the victim’s own mother. It is also, always a calculated, premeditated murder. It’s often painful, even torturous to the baby, being burned, crushed, or ripped apart...and it is always painful to the mother. I’m so thankful that the blood of Jesus covers ALL sin, even abortion. Being pro-life means that we care for both the unborn and the born, the fetus and the mother...even mothers who aborted their baby. Conclusion: Euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, abortion – all of this makes many Christians want to simply build the church walls even higher, dig the moats deeper, and pull up the drawbridges. This is the least helpful and the least biblical of all responses. We are called to be in the world, just as Jesus was. This is our moment to offer Christian hope. The cure for a culture of death hasn’t changed in 2000 years. Our message is the same, the same one the early church shared with a Roman culture of death world. Paul wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:20-21). A lost and dying world needs the message that Jesus still saves and changes. Will we share it? Will we take a risk? Recently, I stumbled on the story of Irena Sendler, a Polish nurse who risked her life to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto. We’ve got a clip today summarizing her life. http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=NDEjca8nYqg. If she could risk everything, what’s holding us back? Why aren’t we seeking to win our worlds? When someone trusts Christ, they move from a Culture of Death worldview to a Culture of Life! So what can we do in a culture of death? * We must faithfully share our faith.We need to get back to our marching orders and obeying the Great Commission. We are Christ’s ambassadors! We need to remember that the primary Biblical call is to make disciples, not win arguments. * We must watch our attitudes. Satan is the enemy of life, not doctors, people who are in favor of abortions, or politicians. It’s way too easy for us to become self-righteous, smug and condemning. We’re prone to get angry with people who sin differently than we do. We are often more caustic than Christian in our dealings with people. Instead of building bridges with those who are lost, our venom can erect long-standing barriers that end up isolating people from the gospel. * We must balance our “prophetic” and “priestly” roles as believers. Society’s views on abortion are changing but it takes time. William Wilberforce campaigned for 35 years to get rid of slavery in Britain. The number of abortions in the U.S. last year fell to the lowest level since the procedure was made legal. One of the contributing factors for the decline is the changing attitudes about the moral implications of abortion. Christians are making a difference and we need to keep speaking out but we must also offer love and compassion to those who need help. * We must be sensitive and non-judgmental toward those who have had abortions and toward those who have encouraged abortions like boyfriends or husbands. They are in need of grace and forgiveness, not condemnation. There may be some here today who’ve had abortions. This message was hard for you to hear. I want you to know that this church is a safe place for you. It is my deepest prayer that you’ll experience God’s redeeming grace and cleansing forgiveness. Abortion is not the unpardonable sin. * We must strive for consistency. If we say we’re pro-life, we need to value all human life; preborn, orphans, widows, the physically and emotionally challenged, the homeless, those with AIDS, the hungry, the poor, those in prison and older people. In one blog a pastor lamented that while we focus on the preborn one Sunday a year, the church ignores matters of racism and bigotry. I never thought I would hear from a national candidate the words, “To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.” This morning a lost world, a culture of death is waiting to hear words of forgiveness, salvation, redemption and regeneration from our lips! And you don’t have to go on national TV; you can share them with your next door neighbor. Will you?