The Children Yet Unborn

In this message from Psalm 139:13–16, David Platt reminds us that taking the life of an unborn child is an affront to our Creator.

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Transcript

Freedom And Responsibility After Egypt

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You are listening to David Platt Messages, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author, and teacher David Platt.

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If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, let me invite you to open with me to Psalm chapter 139. Let me invite you to pull out those notes that you received when you came in tonight that are going to guide our time in the Word. Gathered together in this square to stand for freedom and to celebrate freedom. Just historic picture. Just a few months ago, and sort of stand there to talk with Egyptians, especially to talk with various Christians, pastors in Egypt, and to hear them talk about freedom in entirely new ways for them. To hear, on one hand, just the excitement as they talked about freedom and what this might mean for them at the same time, to be completely honest, to hear especially our brothers and sisters talk with a bit of hesitancy, even in some senses fear. Nobody really knows what's going to happen in Egypt in the days ahead. Nobody knows who's going to lead in Egypt. And our brothers and sisters know that that that leadership in the wrong hands could bring about greater harm for the church. And so we need to be praying for our brothers and sisters in in Egypt, really all over North Africa and the Middle East, and just historic changes that are happening there. But all of that to come back to. As I sat there thinking about what has happened in Egypt, listening to them, I could not help but to, on one hand, thank God for the freedoms that we enjoy, the freedoms that we celebrate on this weekend, freedom to worship like we've been doing, freedom for me to speak like I'm speaking right now. These are freedoms that we obviously cannot take for granted. Yet at the same time, I was reminded that with freedom comes a significant measure of responsibility. And even, in some senses, regulation. Now we would kind of pit freedom and regulation against one another, but the reality is in freedom, we we want regulation against anything or anyone that would seek to abuse freedom by harming someone else. And so that that leads me to the the two things I want to do tonight. I want to, on one hand, express deep gratefulness to God for the freedom that we have. And I know this is a great gift that we've been given, and we have much reason to celebrate on this weekend.

Abortion And A Pastoral Aim

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Our freedom. At the same time, I want to address tonight what is what I'm convinced is the most morally outrageous, sinfully vicious practice that we participate in in the name of freedom. And that is abortion. In the United States, since abortion was legalized after the Roe vs. Wade court decision in January of 1973, over forty-five million abortions have occurred. Three thousand abortions occurring every day. An abortion occurring every twenty to twenty five seconds. You realize that, and you realize that abortion has affected and is affecting men, women, families, children, all over our country. This next stat I saw different numbers for, and I went with the most conservative one that I found. But research has found that at least one-third of American women have an abortion at some point in their lives. One third, one out of three childbearing women in our country have an abortion at some point in their lives. That's astounding. It's eye-opening, really, even for us in this room tonight. I want to say from the start that I know there are women in this room who have had abortions. I'm certainly assuming that. I can say with almost confidence that that is the case. Some of you have had abortions and no one in this room knows about it. Some of you have had abortions, and maybe no one at all knows about. And I'm not even going to begin to presume what is going on in your heart and mind even now, or what will go on in your heart and mind as we dive into this topic tonight. Abortion has been called a secret killer, not only of babies, but of moms, whose abortions leave difficult wounds and deep scars. And so I want to be sensitive. Oh, I want to be pastorally sensitive to your mind and your heart. I want you to know from the start that we're going to look at the stark truth from Scripture about abortion tonight. We're going to see the sinful nature of abortion in the Word tonight. Because I want to show every person in this room who has thought about having an abortion. I want to show every person in this room who may be even at this moment thinking about having an abortion. I want to show every person in this room who will ever think about having an abortion. I want to lodge this word so deeply by the power of God's Spirit in your heart so that that thought will never, ever, ever cross your mind again. I want you to hate abortion after tonight because God hates abortion. I want to show you why that is. This is not just for childbearing women in this room, but all of us as the church, as the people of God. Now, this is key. My goal tonight is not to make a political speech. I am not running for office. That is not my job. My job as pastor is to open the word of God, to show the people of God the Word of God, particularly as it pertains to issues in our lives and our culture and the church. And abortion is a major issue in our lives, culture, and the church. And I want the people, you that God has entrusted to my care as a pastor, I want you to know what God's word says about abortion. I want you to see the severity with which Scripture addresses it, so you can think and speak biblically about it, so you can stand boldly against it. So I want to be clear on one hand, but I want to be compassionate on the other hand. I want to speak strongly and sensitively at the same time. So particularly for women and men for that matter, who have been involved in abortion in your past. I want you to hang with me. We're going to see, you can look in your notes. We're going to look at abortion and God. It's going to lead us to abortion in the gospel. And my prayer tonight is that you would, in the end, you would walk away seeing and hearing and feeling the love of Christ for you. So that's where we're going. Hang with me. Now, this is obviously not just an American issue. In the world, over 46 million abortions occur every year. That's a hundred and thirty thousand abortions occurring every day. Oh, do you do you remember the feeling you had when that many people were killed almost instantly in an earthquake in Haiti? That just shook you. Oh, it's horrible. Do you remember not long ago when 150,000, 200,000 people were killed in cyclone in Myanmar and earthquake in China? Just back to back. Or a few years ago when tsunami came in Southeast Asia and swept away a quarter of a million people, just like that. Massive disasters in our day. What I want you to see tonight is the moral disaster of even greater proportions. 130,000 helpless babies being dismembered and destroyed every single day. And we hardly even notice it. I do not believe it is an overstatement to call abortion a modern Holocaust. I believe that is an understatement because every single month we surpass the number of people systematically slaughtered in the world. And just as German Christians did not need to hide from the reality of what was happening in concentration camps, we in this room cannot, must not hide from the reality of what is happening 3,000 times a day in our country and 130,000 times a day all around the world in abortion clinics. Now, I know I've already made some strong statements here, maybe even some that are uncomfortable for you. But I want to show you why in the Word. Here's the deal. When we come to the Word, we don't see the word abortion in the Bible. Instead, we see a theology of who God is, who man is, and how God is working in the world. And I'm convinced this is the fundamental starting point for thinking about abortion. Abortion is not primarily a political issue. The goal tonight is not to be Republican or be Democrat. This is not primarily a political issue. It is not primarily, abortion is not primarily a social issue. It's not primarily a women's issue. Abortion is not primarily a children's issue. Abortion is primarily a God issue. I want you to raise, raise your sights above all the fray, political, social, women, children, this, this, and that. Raise your sights above the fray and see how abortion relates to God. That's our starting point. So you got two texts at the top of your notes. One from Psalm chapter 78, where we started nine weeks ago. So you're holding Psalm 139 in front of you. We're about to read that in a second. But I want you to know where even where we're at tonight started. When I knew we would be walking through this series on passing the gospel on to the next generation, we would start in Psalm 78. I was reading, meditating, praying on Psalm 78, and it says, it's just a reminder, you don't have to turn there, you can if you want, but the Bible says, we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders he has done. God has commanded our fathers to teach them to their children that the next generation might know them. Listen to this the children yet unborn. As soon as I saw that phrase, the children yet unborn. I couldn't help but ask myself the question how will we pass the gospel on to the next generation if we eliminate the children yet unborn? And so I sense God saying, you need to address that phrase in the word, the children yet unborn. And so that's what now leads us to this passage in Psalm chapter 139.

Psalm 139 And The Unborn

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A picture that David, the psalmist here, gives us of the unborn. So we're going to start in verse 13 and read just four verses. This is God speaking to David. Listen to what he says. For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Let's pray. Oh God, we pray tonight that you would help us to see ourselves in this text. Help us to see where we, each of us in this room, where we once were in our mother's womb. Help us to see your intimate relationship with us at that moment. So help us to see ourselves in this text, and then help us to see others in this text. Help us to see babies that are in mothers' wombs even in this room, and babies that are in mothers' wombs all across city, country, the world. Show us your relationship to them. We pray. Guard me. I pray, we pray, guard me from saying anything, anything at all that does not align with your word. I pray that you would do all of these things as we think about this difficult issue for our good and for your glory. Amen. Okay,

God's Authority Over Life

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three truths that spring from Psalm 139 and are echoed all over scripture. So we're not gonna have time to turn to a bunch of different places, but you might, if you've taken notes, might want to write down, just I'm gonna throw out tons of scriptures here and there along the way, springing from Psalm 139 that are echoed all over the place. These three truths concerning abortion and God. That's where we're starting. Number one, abortion is an affront to God's sovereign authority as creator. Abortion is an affront to God's sovereign authority as creator. You formed my inward parts, oh God. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. God is the creator. Keep going to your notes here. He is the giver of life. God alone has the power and authority to give life. A man and a woman can come together in an attempt to reproduce life, but the reality is only God ultimately can produce life. This is his work. Only God. Job chapter 33, verse 4. The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job chapter 12, verse 9 and 10. In God's hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. Your breath is in God's hand. He is the giver of life, and he is the taker of life. Job 1 21, when Job's children die in tragic. Picture of Job chapter 1. Job falls on his face and he says, Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I will return. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. The Lord gives life, the Lord takes away life. This is his prerogative. This is his work. Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 39. God says, I put to death and I bring to life. This is my prerogative to put to death, my prerogative to bring to life. That's why that's why suicide is a sin. Not the unpardonable sin, but definitely sin, because it's God's prerogative, God's authority alone to give and to take life. And abortion is an affront to God's sovereign authority as creator. Abortion, like suicide, suicide says, oh no, we're in control of life. We decide when someone lives, and we decide when someone dies. Not true. God, our creator, alone, makes these calls. Abortion is an affront, an offense to the authority of the one who gives life and takes

Why Creation Compels Praise

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life. Second, abortion is an assault on God's glorious work in creation. See this. Not just the reality of God's authority as creator, but the glory and the beauty of God's work in creation. Want you to see this right after David confesses God's work in creating him. Listen to what he says. You formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. Verse 14, I praise you. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Oh, follow this in your notes. The way God creates people compels praise. The way God creates people compels praise. David is describing this person-forming work of God that's taking place in the mother's womb. You form me, my inner parts, you knit me together. Then he responds in worship. I praise you. The way you form my inward parts, the way you knitted me together in my mother's womb, this work of creation creates awe and amazement. And it does, doesn't it? When you think about it, especially what we know that David did not know. It's awe-evoking. Praise compelling. What happens in the mother's womb leads to worship to think, okay, God takes little egg and sperm. Now we're not going to go into reproduction one-on-one, but you're following with me, okay? Okay, little egg and sperm. And within two weeks, there is a heart that is beating. And it's circulating its own blood. Within a few more weeks, fingers are forming on hands. Brain waves are detectable. After just six weeks, these inward parts are moving around. Two weeks later, you have discernible fingerprints, discernible sexuality, kidneys forming, functioning. Then a gallbladder. By the twelfth week, all of the organs of a baby's body are functional, and the baby can cry. All of that. Within three short months, the first trimester, heart, organs, brain, sexuality, movement, reaction, and God on high is doing all of this. That evokes awe, amazement, praise, worship. So then, to imagine at this moment, during this time period, to insert a tool. Take a pill. Undergo an operation to definitively rip apart that which is being created. That is an assault on God's glorious work in creation. There is no way around that. Most abortions take place between ten and fourteen weeks of gestation. What they say is the optimal time, quote unquote, for dismemberment and removal. And during that time, 10-14 weeks, what we just talked about, God has been forming this glorious work of creation. Look at this one picture. I'm gonna show you one picture. This is this is after one trimester. What God has knit together. See the beauty of what God is doing, the intricacy of the person God is forming to be ripped apart. An absolute assault on his glorious work in creation. Now, this is right here, this is the crux.

Personhood And The Core Debate

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The crux of the debate concerning abortion. The crux of the debate concerning abortion is what is going on in the womb. And God is clear in his word. The womb contains a person for. Formed in the image of God. It's clear. Psalm 139, other texts, Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 through 28. God is creating, forming a person in his image, unlike anything else in all creation. He's knitting together a human being. Now, people have argued and will argue, well, what is full personhood? When does an embryo or a fetus become a person? And this really is the most important question. Virtually every argument in the entire abortion controversy comes back to this one question. What is the unborn? What or who is in the womb? Because once that question is answered, every other question comes into perspective. The reality is, if the unborn is not human, then no justification for abortion is even necessary. Some people say, well, the human is not, or the unborn is not a human person. It's just some nonviable tissue mass. Just a part of a woman's body. Others say it's it's only a potential human or a human that's not yet a person. Start playing games with words here. And the reality is, if this is true, then the argument is over. If it's not a person, then have the abortion. No justification for abortion would even be necessary at that point. On the other hand, if the unborn is human, no justification for abortion is adequate. No justification for abortion even begins to make sense. This is where I I'm indebted to Gregory Kokel, uh theologian, philosopher, apologetic apolog apologist who wrote a good little booklet called Precious Unborn Human Persons. Just a great little resource. People say abortion is such a complex issue. There's just no easy answers. But here's the deal. If that which is in the womb is a person, then abortion is not complex at all. You think about it. Once it is granted, now I know I know there may even be some in this room who would say, Well, the unborn who's in the womb is not a person. But assume for a second it is a person. That which is in the womb is a person created in the image of God. If that is true, then every single justification for abortion falls apart. People say, well, women have the right to privacy with their doctors. Certainly. We all have a right to a measure of privacy, but no privacy argument is ever a cover for doing serious harm to another innocent human being. We have laws that invade our privacy whenever we start huming and harming another person's welfare. Privacy is not the issue here. But women should have the freedom to choose. Sure, in some things, but not all things. Yes, women should have the freedom to choose in this or that. But women, men for that matter, we don't have the freedom to simply eliminate toddlers when they become burdensome to us. Or teenagers, for that matter. Teenagers in this room did not particularly appreciate that comment. And I I can respect it. No woman has the freedom to kill her child. If it's a child, right? No, no, no freedom of choice there. Well, making abortion illegal forces women in the back alleys with coat hangers to do abortions themselves. Let's think about this. If it is dangerous to kill a person, should we make it easier for them to do so? If it is dangerous for a man to rob a bank, should we create laws making it safer for him to rob a bank? But more children will create a drain on the economy. When human beings get expensive, do we kill them? I want you to think about this. Cocoa mentions a little girl named Rachel. Family friends had a little girl named Rachel. I want you to hear his description. Eye-opening. He writes, Rachel is two months old, but she is still six weeks away from being a full-term baby. She was born prematurely at twenty four weeks, in the middle of her mother's second trimester. On the day of her birth, Rachel weighed one pound, nine ounces, but dropped to just under a pound soon after. She was so small she could rest in the palm of her daddy's hand. She was a tiny living human person. Heroic measures were taken to save this child's life. Why? Because, Coco writes, we have an obligation to protect, to nurture, and care for other humans who would die without our help, especially little children. Rachel was a vulnerable and valuable human being. But get this if a doctor came into the hospital room and instead of caring for little Rachel, took the life of this little girl as she lay quietly nursing at her mother's breast, that would be homicide. However, if this same little girl, the very same Rachel, was inches away, resting inside her mother's womb, she could be legally killed by abortion. That makes no sense. That is utterly ludicrous. If that which is in the womb is a person, a child, everything, everything revolves around what is happening in the womb. And scripture makes this clear. God sees and God works, he's forming, he's knitting, he's creating, he's nurturing, he's shaping, he's crafting in a way that evokes praise and awe. And abortion is an assault on that glorious work of God. The way God creates people compels praise. And all of God's works, all of them are wonderful. I praise you, verse 14, because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. All of God's works are wonderful. Now, part of, in a sense, much of the contemporary defense for abortion involves denying, assaulting this reality. Abortions

Disability And Rape Questions

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happen here and around the world because childbearing is seen as inconvenient, as it's costly, too much for a woman in a certain situation. It's inadvisable, even irresponsible, some would say, for a woman to move forward in a certain situation and have a child. Based on career, based on relational situation, based on emotional situation. This complicated with advancements in medical technology, whether it's the ability to detect sexuality, which is huge in some countries, for example, for example, China. There's a one-child policy. It is advantageous to have a boy, so girls are more often aborted. Where to? To have a girl in some parts of India, to have a girl, the dowry that's involved with that picture is going to be bring too much of a burden on the family. So if they're able to find out that it's a girl, abortion, if they're not able to find out, the girl is born, the mother starts weeping and decides to throw the baby out. Due to sexuality or disability. Now that seems repulsive to us, but we are we are willing to do similar things. When it comes to disability, it's it's obviously possible to determine whether or not a a child in a womb has Down syndrome or a variety of other things, maybe a particular debilitating disease that will affect that child's life. So should abortion be permittable in those kinds of circumstances. Not if you believe that all of God's works are wonderful. Because when you believe this, then you know God's work is wonderful, even, maybe even especially in the case of disability. That is all over Scripture. John 9, man born blind. People ask, whose fault is this that he was born blind? His fault or his parents' fault? Jesus says it wasn't his fault, it wasn't his parents' fault. God did this so that his glory might be made known to and through this man. So that the wonderful works of God might be revealed to and through this man. Through his, even through his disability. Now, I don't presume to know all of the difficulties involved with disabilities. About a year ago, many of you know, Heather and I began this process of adopting a special needs child from China and have been waiting to be matched, and our eyes again have been opened to the realities of orphans in the world who have disabilities, and those are the ones who have been born who have not been aborted to think of the number of children who, because of their disabilities, were never even born. One article from AB News ABC News website, a pediatric geneticist at Children's Hospital in Boston, said this. An estimated 92% of all women who received a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to terminate their pregnancies. And I want again, I'm not assuming to know all that goes into having child with various disabilities. But I do want to urge you not to deny the wonderful work of God, even or especially in disability. I want to encourage you, to urge you to trust that God has a design and a desire to use everything, everything for the good of his people and the glory of his name, and it is absolutely wrong to play God in such situations, saying, I know what is better than you. We do not play God, we obey God. God's works are wonderful, even especially in the case of disability, and even or especially in the midst of difficulty. It's at this point some people ask, well, what about cases of incest or rape? Is abortion justifiable then? And oh, once again, I can't say this enough. I can't presume to know what it is like to be in that kind of situation. I shudder at the horror of that happening to my wife or any other woman for that matter. I don't even begin to presume to know the physical and emotional and relational toll that brings not only on a woman, but her whole family. But bring this back to the fundamental question: is the baby in the womb a person? And if so, then everything changes. Would you murder a child outside of a womb because they were conceived by rape? Of course not. Then why would you murder a child inside of the womb because they were conceived by rape? Deuteronomy 24, 16. Why should a child pay for his father's crime? How ought we treat an innocent child who reminds us of a terrible experience with murder or mercy? People say, well, what about the emotional toll on a woman? Again, I can't even begin to imagine, but think about it. What if the rapist was caught? Would we allow the woman to murder him in order to have emotional relief? No. Then why in the world would we allow her to murder her child instead? I'm not saying this is easy. I'm not saying this is easy at all, but I'm saying this because Scripture's saying this. Because this is the whole point. All over Scripture, we see it. God has a record of taking the most evil, horrible, painful circumstances in this life and turning them into peace and life and joy. It's just the crux. This is what this is from the very beginning. It's Genesis 38. You've got incest there. Then you turn over to Matthew chapter 1 and you realize that the very lineage of Jesus Christ Himself has incest in it. You see Joseph's brothers wanting to murder him and then settling for selling him into slavery, and God uses that evil to bring about the salvation of his entire people. This is the very essence of the gospel that God takes the very murder of his one and only Son and turns it into the way for you and I to be saved. Don't doubt the ability of our God to take that which is difficult and painful, even evil, and turn it into good. And along these lines, just side note, I want to encourage you. Families in this room who have who have chosen to have children, even though maybe you knew that that child had a disability. And you did not have an abortion. Maybe you're walking through some major struggles right now. Maybe those struggles have been going on for years and years and years. Others have been in difficult circumstances and you've chosen to have a child, to walk a difficult road and have a child. I hope that you're encouraged here. That you made a good choice. It is always a good choice to trust the God whose works will always in the end show themselves wonderful. Third truth concerning God and abortion. Abortion is an affront

God's Intimate Care In The Womb

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to God's sovereign authority as creator, an assault on God's glorious work in creation, and abortion is an attack on God's intimate relationship with the unborn. It's an attack on God's intimate relationship with the unborn. This flows from what we've already seen, I think, here in Psalm 39, that I've got scriptures listed here that help reinforce us all over Scripture. Listen to the intimacy in verse 15 and 16. David says, My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. Before there was anything formed, you saw me. And your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. See, God here relating not merely to an embryo, but to a person and his relationship with that person from conception, from the very forming of inward parts. This is an astoundingly intimate relationship between God on high and a child in a womb. This is fascinating. He fashions them, Job 31, 15. Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one fashion us in the womb? You know, another verse there. I didn't put it there, but Job chapter 10, verse 8 through 12. Your hands shaped me and made me. God, you molded me like clay. He fashions them and he values them. I put Exodus chapter 21, verse 22 through 25 there. These are kind of confusing verses. A lot that could be talked about in them, but a simple point is clear. Listen to this. When men strive together, this is Exodus 21, 22, when men strive together, meaning they're fighting, and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out. So basically, forced into premature labor. When that happens, but there is no harm, the one who hit the woman shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determined. But if there is harm to this child that comes out, if there's harm, then you shall pay life for life. Whatever these verses lead to and are talking about, it is clear that God values this child that is in a mother's womb. He fashions the unborn, he values them, he knows them. Jeremiah 1, 5. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. He relates to them. Psalm 22, verse 10 says, Oh, I love this. The psalmist says, From my mother's womb you have been my God. Isn't that beautiful? From my mother's womb you have been my God. You've related to me as my God. He calls them, Galatians 1.15, it pleased God. Paul says, Who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace? He names them, Isaiah 49.1. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother. He named my name and anoints them. This is John the Baptist in Luke chapter 1, verse 15. Says he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. Anointed with the Spirit, even from his mother's womb. The converse of that, I didn't put this verse in there. It's kind of bad news, but Psalm chapter 51, verse 5, says that we are sinful from the moment our mother conceives us. Embryos don't have a sinful nature. People have sinful natures. All of this showing, abortion, an attack on the intimate relationship that God possesses with the unborn. Do we see how serious this is? This is not a social issue, political issue, women's issue, children's issue. This is a God issue. Abortion is an affront to God's character, an assault on God's work, an attack on God's relationship with precious babies that he knits together. Ultimately a God issue, and as a result, abortion

Sin, Judgment, And Medical Edge Cases

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is also a gospel issue. So I hope that we have seen the severity of the sin of abortion. What we have done. An affront, an assault, an attack on God, his character, his work, his relationship. Now I want us to think about what God does. So this is what we have done in this sin of abortion. Two things I want to point out that God does. One, God is the judge of sin. God hates the taking of innocent life, and he judges all who take innocent life. Mothers who have aborted babies stand under the judgment of God. And leaders who have permitted abortion standard. Under the judgment of God. Pastors who have counseled people to have abortion. Now, side note here. I I I hope this is obvious, but just in case it's not, it's obviously worth saying. The only time medical action like we're talking about tonight would be justified is in a case where a woman's pregnancy will kill her, like tubal pregnancies. Obviously, it is better for one human to live, a mom, than for two humans to die, a mom and a child. And the intent here, totally different. The intent is not to kill the child, but to save life. And in saving life, the tragic, unavoidable result in rare circumstances like that, is the death of a child. But aside from that, there is no, absolutely no biblical warrant for pastors to counsel people to have abortions. Or anyone else for that matter. Leaders who have permitted abortion, pastors and legislators, others who have worked to make abortion possible stand under the judgment of God. This obviously includes our president. Whom I could pray for. But who is proactively, aggressively working to keep the murder of innocent children legal? Now, as I mentioned, it is not my job to give political speeches, but to preach biblical sermons, to teach what the Bible says, to proclaim what God has said. But this is an area where God has spoken. Even when it comes to

Government And Legislating Morality

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civil authorities, leaders, and our relationship to them. So I don't have time to turn there, but you might write down Romans chapter 13, verse 1 through 4, where Paul in the New Testament addresses our relationship to civil authorities and God's purpose for civil authorities. Let me read it to you. Romans chapter 13, verse 1. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. God has instituted governing authorities. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed. And those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers, now this is the key verse, verse 3, for rulers, the leaders are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad conduct. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for our good. This is where we say, oh, there's so much to unpack here in Romans chapter 13. But this is this is so simple and clear, yet so missed in much political discussion, even among Christians in the church. The Bible teaches that government is given by God for the good of people. What Romans 13 is saying: government given, instituted by God, exists under the authority of God, to be a terror to bad conduct. For good. So those who do what is good are approved by the government. That's God's design. One of the primary purposes, if not the primary purpose of government. And the design of God is to protect and promote the good of people. The government does this by making enforcing laws, which leads to the second part here in your notes. Government is given by God for the legislation of morality. Government given by God for the legislation of morality. Government given by God to affirm the good. That's what it's meant by legislation of morality. Governments are given by God to affirm the good and condemn the bad. That's what Romans 13.3 is all about. Affirm the good, condemn the bad, ensure justice, promote good for people. That's foundational. But this is where many people say, well, it's not the state's job. It's not the job of the government to legislate morality. But that is a sham argument, and we know it. All of us do. The state does have the responsibility of legislating morality, saying that stealing is wrong, that lying is wrong, that murder is wrong, and a host of other things are wrong. This is what the government does. Now, when it comes to the issue of abortion, people immediately say, well, we shouldn't take someone's right to choose away. But don't miss it. The government exists to take people's right to choose away. You cannot choose to steal, for if you do, there will be consequences. You cannot choose to do a whole host of things that the government has put laws against, and it's good that government says these things. You cannot choose to speed on the road, as I was reminded of by a kind civil servant recently. Don't understand why I-20 is 55 miles an hour. Can I get an amen? Is that yeah? Civil disobedience. No, no, okay, listen. So as as this man, kind man, is walking up to my window, I did not look at him and say, Bro, I have the right to choose to go however fast I want. He would look at me and say, This pink little piece of paper here says, you don't have that right to choose. He would write me a ticket. This is good. If everyone chose to do whatever they wanted to do, what would the inevitable result be? Anarchy. We're all free to do whatever we want. That's not good. And yet it's the basis by which many, many in the church are saying, well, maybe I wouldn't have an abortion, but I don't think we should take someone's right to choose away from them. We take people's right to choose evil away from them every day as a society, and that's a really good thing for all of us. It is good for us to say no one has the right to do evil. And it's absolute moral silliness, even cultural suicide, to say that everyone has a right to do whatever they choose to do. And this is where I want to call you Christian, out of a muddled middle road. It says, Well, I don't think we should impose morality on someone else. I want to cause you to realize that we impose morality on others every single day, and that's a good thing for all of us. And when it comes to evil, it is right for us to oppose evil. Wisely, graciously, firmly, humbly, boldly to oppose it. To say that you are pro-choice. Pro-choice about what? Whether you eat Mexican or Chinese food for dinner tonight? Pro choice about the house you live in or the car you drive. Of course you are pro-choice about those things. But you are not pro-choice about rape. And you are not pro-choice about burglary, and you're not pro-choice about kidnapping. So are you pro-choice about killing children? Brothers and sisters, moral flowing from it, political neutrality here is not an option. Moral indifference is not an option. Randy Alcorn said it best. He said to endorse or even to be neutral about killing innocent children created in God's image is unthinkable in the scriptures, was unthinkable to Christians in church history and should be unthinkable to Christians today. Which leads me then to say that God is the judge of sin, including Christians who have done nothing about abortion. I. Because I am the chief of sinners upon this one. I point the finger here at myself, for I I have been shamefully passive when it comes to this issue in the church. And I have been brought to repentance this week. Martin Luther said, if I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely the point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proven. And to be steady on all the battle fronts besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. I'm not saying this is the only battle raging in our culture. As we walk to the Word, we're seeing all kinds of battles raging in our culture, in the church, in our lives, in our hearts, and families, and we're addressing them. So this is not the only battle, but this is a battle raging in our culture that is affecting literally millions upon millions upon millions of people. And if I or if you sit idly by while millions of children, individuals, people in the image of God all around us are dismembered and destroyed, and we do nothing, then we are directly avoiding God's command to speak and to work on behalf of the weak and the oppressed and the innocent among us. And that is sin. God is the judge of sin. But thankfully that is not all.

Forgiveness And Healing Through Christ

SPEAKER_01 55:20

Ladies and gentlemen, God is also the savior of sinners. God is the judge. He hates abortion. God is the savior. He loves sinners. So I want to encourage you here, okay? Now begin to rise up a little bit. So we're down looking at the death and the severity here. Now rise up. I want to encourage you. Particularly, every woman who has aborted a child, every father who has supported abortion, anybody who's encouraged abortion, performed abortion, permitted abortion, counseled abortion, or done nothing about abortion, know this. Hear this, feel this, lodge this deep within your heart, your mind, and your soul. God forgives entirely. Entirely. Christ has endured the penalty for your abortion. To anyone who has been involved in abortion, any of these other ways, or not been involved, Christ, this is the whole beauty of the gospel. God on high has sent his son, who has lived a sinless, perfect life, the life that we could not live, and he has stood in our place. He has taken all of the wrath and judgment. Do your sin and my sin upon himself. He has taken it all. All the guilt, all the condemnation of sin, he has taken upon himself. So that when you are in Christ, you are free from sin and forgiven of all your sin. I remember your sins no more, God says. Now we've talked about this before. We know this doesn't mean God has amnesia, that he has forgotten that you had an abortion, forgotten that you encouraged this abortion, whatever it may be. Does it have amnesia? He is omniscient. He knows all things. The beauty of the gospel is the God who knows all things, who knows everything about your past abortion and otherwise, the God who knows all of that in Christ does not hold you accountable for any of that. For any of it. You're forgiven not just partway, but entirely. He forgives entirely. He heals deeply. God does not desire for you to live your life in pain and regret, but in peace and joy. Yes, to hate the sin of your past, that's a good thing. And in every area of our life, oftentimes the pain of sin in the past is a powerful deterrent to sin in the future, right? Like you've been down this road of sin, you know that's painful, and that deters you from going down the road again. You know that's not a good road. And so that in that sense, pain of sin in the past is good, but don't let pain from sin in the past then rob you of peace in the present. No, Luke chapter 7, verse 47 through 50. When Jesus speaks to a woman who had lived a sexually immoral lifestyle, he says to her, Your sins are forgiven, your faith has saved you. Now go in peace. Oh, hear this. God desires his peace to be your possession. He forgives entirely, he heals deeply, he restores completely. Oh, hear this in Christ, in Christ, you are not guilty anymore. Romans 8:1, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. To every woman in this room who's had an abortion, you do not wear scarlet letter A on your shirt everywhere you go. When you're in Christ, the Father on high, God on high, does not look at you and see the guilt of your abortion anymore. He looks on you and he sees the very righteousness of Jesus Christ himself. You're robed, you're clothed in his righteousness. Whether you've had one abortion or five abortions, whether you have performed hundreds of abortions or legally made possible thousands, even millions of abortions. You turn trust in Christ to save you, forgive you, heal you, restore you, and you are not guilty anymore. He restores completely and he redeems fully. This is the beauty of our God. Our God who takes evil and turns it into good. Who takes suffering and turns it into satisfaction, who takes mourning and turns it into dancing. Oh I think there are there are people that I know who have abortion in their past. Who have experienced God's forgiveness. Oh to see these precious women and men serving other unwed mothers. Coming alongside young girls who are considering abortion. Taking well God has taken that which the adversary intended for evil, and he is using it for good. This is redemption.

Practical Steps For The Church

SPEAKER_01 1:02:00

And this is where I I want this to lead us then to think about it as the church, what what this means for us in light of all we've seen. I hope it's clear, it's clear to me from the word, I hope it's clear to us that morale moral neutrality is a dangerous myth. A deadly myth when it comes to this issue. You might write down Ephesians chapter 5, verse 11. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 11 teaches, Paul's saying there, that we not only avoid works of darkness, we don't just avoid works of darkness, but we oppose works of darkness. We don't just avoid evil, we act against evil. We don't just sit passively by when surrounded by evil. We avoid and we act. And so this is where I I don't know what this means for your life. I don't know what this means for your family. Still walking through even what this means for my life and my family. And I don't know what this means completely for us as a church in the days ahead. But I want to call us tonight, based on what we've seen in the Word. I want to call you, Christian, first, look around to learn the facts about abortion. Let tonight be a start. We've got Brookhills.org, rotating feature, children yet unborn. Tonight, this week, sometime, go there. Click on it, you've got a whole page there with resources, stuff where you can find. Let this catapult you into. Don't be the person who just says, Well, I just I don't want to I don't want to know all that's going on in a concentration camp. I don't want to know all that's going on in this over here. We need to know. So learn the facts about abortion, see the pictures of abortion. Now, obviously, tonight I've shown one little picture, but I've not shown video, thought about it, but obviously I know that there are a variety of different ages represented in this room. But the reason I put this is because I believe we need to know, we need to see, and in a very real sense, we need to feel the horror of abortion. We don't need to hide from that reality, hide from images. We need to feel the weight of an unborn child's humanity. You watch some of these videos and you'll be struck by an unborn child's humanity in disturbing ways. We need to experience and sense the horror of what is happening 3,000 times a day in our country, all across, all across Birmingham and beyond. So we need to learn, we need to see, and we need to listen to the victims of abortion. What I mean by this is we need to we need to walk with one another. We need to share life with one another. We don't need to just go to Bible study classes and kind of move on with our lives. We need to share life with one another in a way that brothers and sisters find in their relationship with you an open ear to talk about what is most often hidden below the surface. One estimate, one statistic said 95% of people in the church who've lost a child to abortion have never really come to terms with it. Now, I don't know how you how you measure a statistic like that. 95% of the people in the church who've lost a child to abortion have never really come to terms with it. But regardless, whether that's not, whether or whether or not that's that's perfect and exact, that makes me very concerned as a pastor to know that there are people hearing this message tonight who have never told a single person about their abortion, who are suffering in silence. And so, church, I want to call us to listen. And then, brother or sister, I want to call you to step forward, to share your burdens from the past with brothers and their sisters. These are burdens that are not intended to be carried alone. And then, if if either now or at any point in the future you begin, even begin to contemplate abortion, share your struggles in the present with brothers and their sisters. Step forward in the middle of the world coming down on you, middle where you feel trapped in, you think, I can't move forward with having this child. What it'll mean here, here, here, here, here. When you start thinking like that, go to your brothers and sisters and listen to wise, loving, tender, truthful, biblical counsel. And then to all of us, speak up. Speak up before God in prayer. This is a battle that is intense in our culture. It's a battle that's intense in the church, and it requires prayer and fasting. Speak up, pray before God, speak up before God, and speak up before the government. I I don't know exactly what this needs to look like in each of our lives, but I do want to encourage, I want to challenge you, Christian. To use your democratic privileges of free speech, representation, demonstration to press for legal protection of the unborn. Not just to celebrate this weekend the freedoms we have, but to directly address with those freedoms that which is evil around us. Speak up and finally reach out through giving to pro-life causes and ministries. If we put put websites on that information page that you can go to. Through serving unwed and underage mothers. Oh, I'm so, so thankful to God for members of this church who are working wisely and graciously and lovingly to address these kinds of issues, whether it's in Lifeline Children's Services or the Alabama Baptist Children's Home or Save a Life, members all throughout this church, and there's there's many others who are who are working on this. Opportunity to serve unwed and underage mothers through volunteering at pregnancy centers, through supporting abortion alternatives. Explore creatively ways to do that, and then through through adopting unwanted children. Let's show a watching culture that sees children as an unwanted liability. Let's show them that every child is wanted and every child is loved.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:39

We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of David Platt Messages. For more resources from David Platt, we invite you to visit radical.net.