“IS THERE HOPE FOR AMERICA #5-A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS”
JOHN 3:18-19
INTRO: One of the greatest evils facing our nation today is abortion. If
America is ever to become a Christian nation again we cannot
ignore the millions who have died from abortion. Friends, we are
literally killing our future! The only remedy for the travesty of
abortion is that the gospel which brings love and forgiveness shine
in the darkness of the abortion business. Jesus said in JOHN 3:18-
19—“He that believethonhimisnotcondemned:buthe that believeth
notiscondemnedalready,becausehehathnotbelievedinthenameof
theonly begottenSonofGod. Andthisisthecondemnation,thatlight
iscomeintotheworld,andmenloveddarknessratherthanlight,
becausetheirdeedswereevil.” The light of the gospel needs to shine
all over this nation again. And we, God’s people, must do the shining!
MATTHEW 5:16 tells us—“Letyourlightsoshinebeforemen,thatthey
mayseeyourgoodworks,andglorifyyourFatherwhichisinheaven.”
Friends, abortion is murder. It is SIN! And God hates it! PROVERBS
6:16-19 says—“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an
abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that
shed innocent blood, A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that
be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and
he that soweth discord among brethren.” Note the words “hands that
shed innocent blood.” God declares in His Word that life is precious!
The devaluing of human life in our society is growing today.
Last night (April 2005) news on T.V. -- they interviewed a Jewish doctor
who is also a scientist, he had this to say:
"My wife had a heart attack and was labeled as in
"Permanent/Persistent Vegetative State."
He said at first he wasn't sure, but as he watched her eyes light up
when he and his family came into the room, he began to doubt the
"Label"!!! He began to work with her. He wrote "BLINK" on a sheet of
paper and held it up so that she could see it and---she began to BLINK
over and over rapidly. She had control of her eye movement--but not
other parts of her body. Then he worked out a system to communicate
with her using eye movements. He said she consistently recognizes
COLORS, ETC.
He also said that to label a PERSON as a VEGETABLE----brings them
down to PLANT LIFE and PLANTS don't have to be kept alive."
These people are considered (looked upon as) PLANT VEGETATION!
FIRST UNBORN BABIES, NOW THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED, NEXT
THE OLD AND INFIRM! THE LIST IS GROWING! (Bible Illustrator For
Windows. Version 3.0f. Copyright 1990-1998, by Parsons Technology,
Inc. All Rights Reserved).
Carol Everett of Austin, Texas was a successful abortionist. She got
into the business to justify her own abortion and became hooked on
the money. She was on her way to becoming a millionaire when a
counselor shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with her and she was
saved. After having profited from 35,000 abortions she left the
business. She believes that Christ opened her eyes to the grisly trade.
Friends, if America has any hope at all, the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ must shine brightly across our nation again! Our world lies
in darkness. Sinners are blinded. 2 CORINTHIANS 3:4-6 tells us—
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord;
and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Folks, I want to speak this morning on “A Light In Darkness.” We need
to expose abortion for what it is: IT IS MURDER! IT IS SIN! And we
need to let the light of the gospel shine forth brightly in our lives, our
words, and our walks. I would have you note three things with me:
(1) THE ATROCITY OF ABORTION
ISAIAH 59:1-8—“Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot
save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid
his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled
with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken
lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for
justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak
lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch
cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their
eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover
themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and
the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they
make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of
peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they
have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not
know peace.”
A. A DESTESTABLE PRACTICE. One of the most common types of abortion
uses a high-powered vacuum to suck the unborn baby from the womb,
piece by piece, chunk by chunk. In another “procedure” the doctors reach
in with forceps and rip off a leg, then another leg, then an arm—all the
while the baby may be alive and fighting to avoid the forceps. Then the
abortionist rips off the other arm and reaches in to crush the baby’s head so
the doctor can pull it out.
The most horrendous procedure of all is the partial-birth abortion. This is a
late-term procedure in which the abortionist moves the baby into a breach
birth position. The tiny body’s backside faces his executioner, who pulls
the feet out, and then the rest of the body. Everything but the head.
Understandably, the baby is writhing in pain at all this. Now the doctor
punctures the back of the base of the skull with scissors. He puts a tube in
the baby’s skull and sucks out the baby’s brains with a vacuum. When the
skull is largely empty, the abortionist pulls what’s left of the head out of the
womb, and the partial birth abortion is “successful.” (D. James Kennedy
with Jerry Newcombe. What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? p.
99).
Probably all of us have seen the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, and the
battered bodies of the soldiers from the Vietnam War on television but never
a picture of an aborted baby. We would all be horrified! Shari Richard, an
ultrasonographer, who takes sonograms of babes in the womb, said
something I think is very, very perceptive, “If wombs had windows, abortion
would end” (D. James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe. What If America
Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 100).
B. A DEVALUING OF PEOPLE. Not only is abortion A DESTESTABLE
PRACTICE but also abortion is A DEVALUING OF PEOPLE. How did our
beloved nation which was founded upon Christian principles and the value
and preciousness of human life become involved in such a horrible mess?
Folks, it all started with the diminishing importance of the sanctity of life!
Life is sacred to God! And it should be to us also! The Psalmist asks in
PSALM 8:4-8—“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of
man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to
have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his
feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air,
and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the
seas.” Life is precious to God! It is so precious to HIM that God sent His
only begotten Son to die for the sins of humanity. But when a society begins
to diminish the sanctity of life we see the tragic results that follow.
In the Dred Scott Decision in 1857 the Supreme Court ruled that slaves were
not people and were not protected by our Constitution or our laws. How
could people be so blinded? A largely Christian-led antislavery movement
and a bloody Civil War ended the practice of slavery. In 1936, the Supreme
Tribunal of Nazi Germany declared that Jews were not persons and not
protected by the law. The Holocaust resulted and millions of people died.
Our Supreme Court in 1973 ruled in “Roe vs. Wade” that unborn children
were not persons and not deserving of the protection of our Constitution and
laws. They separated the idea of abortion from the idea of killing. A baby is
not a person but a glob of tissue or its P. O. C., products of conception, or
simply a fetus. Ever since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe vs.
Wade on January 22, 1973, almost 50 million unborn babies have been
killed in the U. S.—some by having their brains sucked out in partial-birth
abortions. The American holocaust is eight times larger than the loss of
Jewish lives in Nazi Germany (D. James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe.
What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 101).
ILLUS: People today find it difficult to believe that the time existed, not that
long ago, when America not only allowed slavery, but protected it by
law. However a curious parallel exists between the pro-slaver of
yesterday and the pro-abortionist of today.
The pro-slaver put forth three main arguments for the retention of
slavery:
-That the slave was his property and that this gave the owner rights
over the slave's body.
-That the slave did not have a soul and was therefore not human.
-That government had no business interfering.
The pro-abortionist uses the same arguments:
-A woman has the right to dispose of the child within her because
her body is her property.
-The fetus isn't human…
-Government has no right to interfere.
It took a civil war last time to make America aware of her sins. What
will it take this time?
DAVID CRITCHFIELD, pastor, Oklahoma City (Bible Illustrator For
Windows. Version 3.0f. Copyright 1990-1998, by Parsons
Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved).
We have looked at THE ATROCITY OF ABORTION but let us also see…
(2) THE ASSESSMENT OF ABORTION
JOB 11:13—“Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou
mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?”
JOB 13:4—“But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.”
A. A PHILOSOPHY BUILT ON FALSEHOOD. Norma McCorvey (Jane Doe)
had just one desire that was to have an abortion. She was used by feminist
attorneys who told her they would get her one (lie 1); knew the decision
would not be made until after her child was born (lie 2). The attorneys said
she was gang-raped (lie 3). She was not raped at all. These attorneys
simply used Norma for the monumental case (D. James Kennedy with Jerry
Newcombe. What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 105). In a
companion case, Doe vs. Bolton, Doe (Sandra Cano) never wanted an
abortion and never had one, but attorneys said she did (lie 4). The affidavit
said that her mental and physical health would be jeopardized (lie 5).
Sandra later gave birth to a baby girl. Neither Jane Roe nor Mary Doe ever
had abortions; they are now pro-life. Their two children are alive today (D.
James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe. What If America Were A Christian
Nation Again? p. 105). Dr. Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of the National
Abortion Rights Action League (who today is pro-life) has admitted they
made up the number of 10,000 back alley abortions (lie 6). Friends,
abortion is a philosophy built on falsehood. ISAIAH 59:12-13 says—“For
our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us:
for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; In
transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God,
speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words
of falsehood.” But please note that not only is abortion A PHILOSOPHY
BUILT ON FALSEHOOD but also it is…
B. A PHILOSOPHY ALLEGEDLY BASED ON FREEDOM. The pro-choice
movement, as it is called, promises freedom to its adherents but I want you
to note:
More than half the women who have had abortions did so under pressure from fathers of their children, from their own parents, from friends, from schoolteachers, and from clinic administrators.
Abortion is the only surgical procedure for which a physician is not required to tell parents of the dangerous complications involved in the surgery, or even the truth about what it is he is doing—removing a baby, not a lump of tissues.
Abortionists insist on translating the word baby from the vernacular into Latin, fetus, so people won’t know what’s going. Deception is essential for the abortionist.
It is interesting to note that the pro-choice crowd is, for the most part, the same crowd that rose up in “holy” indignation when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of school vouchers, whereby families could turn in vouchers at any school of their choice so their children could be educated there.
The most effective sex education programs in this country are based upon abstinence. They promote it. They teach children to respect their bodies. They teach abstinence until marriage and then fidelity in marriage. But the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and others are rising up in “holy” horror that such things could be taught to our children. They don’t want to give our children a choice. Sound like freedom to you?
Despite the scientific evidence for creationism, the same pro-choice group led by the ACLU, says, “Oh, no, students must not choose between tow theories. They must be force-fed evolution and nothing else.” Let me ask, “How pro-choice is that?”
Consider the issue of school prayer. The choice of giving children the choice to pray or not to pray silently or audibly in school. The rhetoric of the pro-choice movement is “No, we must never give them that choice.”
The pro-choice movement also uses other arguments to bolster support for its alleged “freedom”:
Control-Her-Own-Body-Argument. In our society, a woman doesn’t have the right to kill her own body. That is a crime. One important thing we must remember is that the baby is not part of a woman’s body. Every single cell in the mother’s body has the same set of forty-six chromosomes, exactly the same genes. But the baby has a entirely different set of chromosome and genes. The baby makes his or her own placenta, umbilical cord, and nest. The baby also has his or her own blood supply, and 50 % of the cases, the baby is a different sex.
Rape?Incest? Life of Mother? Argument. There is one thing we need to understand—that all three of these situations—rape, incest, and the life of the mother—together make up less than 2% of all abortions. And yet they give rise to 98% of the rhetoric about abortion.
Every Child A Wanted Child Argument. For decades our country has aborted an average of 1.5 million babies a year. At the same time, however, two million couples were looking for babies to adopt. Thankfully, the number of abortions is down to less than nine hundred thousand (D. James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe. What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 111). There are many parents out there that would just love to be able to adopt some of these babies before they are aborted. In his book, What If America Were A Christian Nation Again?, D. James Kennedy wrote: “I recently heard about a child who was born with AIDS. The parents didn’t want him; I think the mother was dying and the father was gone. Six or eight families lined up to take this child who had the sentence of death on him (D. James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe. WhatIf America Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 111).
Quality of Life Argument. Friends, we must never forget that before Adolph Hitler ever killed a single Jew, he murdered 275,000 handicapped people. First, abortion was prevalent in Germany for over twenty years. Then there was infanticide, the killing of babies. And then there was the destruction of the handicapped adults. Folks, suicide is becoming almost an epidemic in our society. Suicide took the lives of 30,622 people in 2001 (CDC 2004). Doctor-assisted suicide is on some state ballots. Euthanasia, the killing of the elderly, is the push in our time, and is already in one state, Oregon.