Choose Life!

West Side Church of Christ, Searcy, Arkansas

Sermon Notes, January 22, 2017 A.M.

Choose Life

Steve W. Reeves

INTRODUCTION:

A. Forty four ars ago today, January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States

    issued a ruling in Roe vs. Wade that legalized abortion in our country. That ruling

    had a greater impact upon the world than any other decision in the court’s history.  

B. I want you to know that I am unashamedly and wholeheartedly “pro-life.” I hold this

    view not because of political partisanship but because I believe it is the will

    of God revealed in the Bible. Since Roe vs. Wade there have been approximately

    1, 600,000 babies aborted every year. That's 4,383 per day. In the United States we

    have aborted more babies than the total number of soldiers killed in the Revolutionary

    War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

C. I believe every Christian along with everyone who respects the message of the Bible

    and everyone who seeks to honor God should choose life.

I. EVERY LIFE IS IMPORTANT TO GOD.

    A. From the book of Psalms notice:

       1. Psalm 22:9-10- “Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb.

           You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.¹⁰ Upon You I was cast from

           birth. You have been my God from my mother’s womb.” 

       2. Psalm 127:3 – “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a

           reward.”

       3. In Psalm 139:13-14 we read, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in

           my mother’s womb.¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully

           made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.”

    B. Under the law of Moses if a pregnant woman was hit as two men struggled and the

       baby died the penalty was death (Exodus 21:22-25).

    C. We have desensitized the violence of abortion. Isaiah said, “Woe to

       those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light

       for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter: (Isaiah 5:20).

       1. We cannot face the cruelty of what we are doing so we change the terminology.

       2. We say we are “terminating” a pregnancy.” The largest provider of abortions in

           the United States is “Planned Parenthood.” This does not sound offensive does

           it? However, Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger who

           advocated abortion as a means of controlling the size of families.

       3. We don’t call the baby in a womb a child. We call it a “fetus.” Do you know the

           the word “fetus” is Latin for “baby child.” People use that word because it sounds

           more acceptable for someone to say they destroyed a “fetus” as if it were simply

           a blob of material rather than destroying a “baby child.”     

    D. The late Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, said, "There can be no

       keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." In

       our country, however, we have more laws protecting the Northern Spotted Owl or

       the egg of a Bald Eagle than we do a baby in the womb of its mother. This is wrong.

II. EVERY LIFE IS A PLAN OF GOD.

    A. In Jeremiah 1:5 God called Jeremiah - “Before I formed you in the womb I knew

       you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet

       to the nations.” 

       1. Who is the “I?” God!

       2. What did God do with Jeremiah before he was born? He consecrated (set apart)

           and appointed him as a prophet.  

       3. God had a plan for Jeremiah’s life.

    B. In Judges 13:5 God told Manoah and his wife of the impending birth of Sanson

       and how he would be used to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

    C. When Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist was carrying him in her womb they

       were visited by Mary, the mother of Jesus. When Mary came near Luke says the

       baby leaped in his mother’s womb. The word used for baby is “bephos” which is

       also used in Luke 18:15 where it is translated, “babies.”

    D. When the Word became flesh He was formed within the womb of a young virgin.

       Mary was young, unmarried, poor. Many people today would have urged her to

       have an abortion. Abortions and infant exposure were performed in Roman times.

       Aren’t you thankful she did not?

    E. God has a plan for every life. A young woman once gave birth to a baby boy. She

       was not married. The country was in the midst of the great depression. The babies

       father had nothing to do with them. How easy it would have been for her to have an

       abortion. She kept the baby. When the boy was still young his mother was killed in

       an accident. He was raised by his grandmother working in cotton and strawberry   

       fields to help with the family income. As a young man he joined the army. After the

       army he enrolled in Harding College. He was not a Christian but through the

       influence of teachers and classmates he began studying the Bible and was

       baptized in the college swimming pool. He began preaching and preaching.

       Ultimately he preached in over 1,400 revivals with over 40,000 responses of which

       10,000 were baptisms. His name is Jimmy Allen. How many souls would have been

       lost if Jimmy’s mother had aborted her baby?

    F. With over 55 million abortions in the past forty-four years you must wonder how

       many lives have been lost that could have made a huge difference in the world?

       Perhaps someone who would have discovered a cure for cancer? Perhaps

       someone who would have grown up to be a President? An old proverb says,“Any

       fool can count the number of seeds in an apple but only God can count the number

       of apples in a seed.”

III. EVERY LIFE IS A PRODUCT OF CHOICES AND CONSEQUENCES.

    A. None of us are here by “immaculate conception.” Our conception, development

       and birth were the result of a plan designed by God when He created male and

       female (Genesis 1:27).    

    B. God’s plan also consisted of giving us the ability to make choices. In Genesis 2 we

       read how he created Adam and placed him in the garden with a variety of choices.

       There was only one tree that was off limits and the consequences of the choice was

       clearly stated, “for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17)..

       The man and his wife made a deadly choice. The consequence is stated by Paul in  

       Romans 5:12. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and

       death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

    C. You are free to choose but you are not free to choose the consequences’ of your

       choice.       

       1. You may choose to jump out of an airplane without a parachute. Once you have

           made that choice you cannot choose the consequences.

       2. Why are there so many unwanted pregnancies? Why are sexually transmitted

           diseases so prevalent? They are the consequences of choices that individuals

           make.

       3. Why are there so many abortions? Is it because of rape, incest or the

           endangerment of the mother’s life? The pro-abortionists consistently use all of

           these arguments. Three out of four abortions are performed as a means of birth

           control. Sometimes a woman becomes pregnant and is told that this is the

           answer. She may not know that there are countless couples who would willingly

           raise that child and give it a good home. Sometimes abortions are performed

           because a mother doesn’t want a baby interfering with her life, career or

           education.

       D. The consequences of abortion are far reaching upon society and upon the

           individuals involved. Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, obstetrician/gynecologist, was

           director of the largest abortion clinic in the world. As the years passed Dr.

           Nathanson changed his views. His clinic had performed 60,000 abortions. He

           later made this statement. “I’m deeply troubled by my own increasing certainty

           that I had in fact presided over 60,000 deaths.” Remember, there are always

           consequences to the choices we make in life.

IV. EVERY LIFE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO DEMONSTRATE LOVE.

    A. Every life provides us with an opportunity to demonstrate love and concern. A   

       young couple was told their unborn baby had a chromosomal disorder. She

       would probably be still-born. Doctors advised that the woman have an abortion.

       She refused. The little girl was born and given the name Bailey. She was blind

       and deaf. The doctors said she might live one week. Bailey surpised them and

       lived a month – two months – six months – a year – two – three years. Her mom

       and dad loved her so much. Everyone at church pitched in and helped. The ladies

       in the nursery cared for her. I have never seen such love and care for a child. Early

       one morning the angels came and took Bailey as she slept. I conducted her funeral.

       I commented on how much Bailey taught us about loving that we would never

       have known had it not been for her life. Today, her picture hangs on the wall

       beside the church nursery.

    B. Jesus said, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to

       treat you” (Matthew 7:12).

       1. What if the unborn baby were making the decision about whether the parents

           would live?

       2. What if nine unborn babies were deciding the fate of the Supreme Court

           justices?

CONCLUSION:

A. As Moses spoke his final words to Israel before his death he said in Deuteronomy

    30:19-20 – “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set

    before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you

    may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His

    voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that

    you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and

    Jacob, to give them.”

B. May God help us to turn the tide and choose life here and for eternity.