christ gave of his life so that you and i may have life this is what christ did and therefore the church is pro-life because we give of our lives so that others may see the life that christ has given us this morning i want to set the stage for what is going to take place over the next 45 minutes i want to make sure that we as a church are all on the same page as we enter into a very tough and difficult topic on why the oasis church holds so tightly for the fight of human life

you might be in here this morning and you might disagree with the church's stance on this you might be in here this morning and you might be a skeptic and you might have a lot of questions for why the church is the way the church it is when it comes to this topic and i just want to say whether you're here or whether you are online i'm so glad and thankful that you're here and i want you to know that is you this morning my office door always open to you i would love to have a not an argument but a great discussion as we try to find out truth so where does truth begin what is the truth for the christian it is found in the word of god so the oasis church exists to glorify god through the preaching and teaching of god's word deep relational community and outreach to the world so therefore our foundation of truth is found in the word amen and that is where we are gonna start now there might be some of you that are in here and you might be thinking okay we already agree on this topic i'm not sure you even need to hear this and so some of you might be tempted to come up to me after the service and go man that was a courageous sermon and give me an attaboy i am here to tell you this one fact the sermon i gave on january 2nd was much more courageous than this one most people just missed what i said on january 2nd you might be tempted in here this morning to come up to me afterwards and go you know what i agree with you but i just wish you went harder and if that's you seth and i have devised a time of sermon critique for this sermon it'll be this thursday at 10 30 a.m on the corner of planned parenthood and you can come on up and critique my sermon as we pray and beg women not to go through if abortions so if you think i'm going to go too soft this morning if that's your position please join me thursday 10 30 a.m now you might be in here this morning or you might be online and you may have had an abortion and you're walking through this struggling not sure if you really want to hear this sermon i want to talk to you for just a moment because i want to tell you one glorious amazing truth a truth that i will give my life and die for and that truth is this what sits at the heart of the gospel of jesus christ is christ has come into the world to save sinners and there is no sin greater than the cross there is no sin that christ doesn't look at and says i can't do anything with that it's beyond my power to save

you might be in here this morning and you might think i don't belong with church people man they've got their whole lives put together they're all good everything's good that's not my people and i'm here to tell you every single christian in the history of the world has this one thing in common we recognize that we don't deserve to be here no one truly saved by the blood of the lamb ever thinks i'm good that doesn't exist for the christian that language does not exist in our vocabulary we understand that the power of god is at work within all who believe and it is god working through us and god working in us the church is not reserved for these morally upright goody goody two-shoes the people you know don't cuss don't do anything too crazy that's your idea of church that's not what church is you know why because i know you and i know me and i know everyone is battling and wrestling in some pretty wicked things

too often people look at the church and see a whole bunch of people who are all put together and say yeah that's not me let me tell you what the bible says about you and me here's just a few texts for you romans chapter 3 all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god romans chapter 5 while we were weak while we were sinners while we were yet enemies of god ephesians 2 and we were dead in our sins and trespasses in which we once walked following the course and the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work with us in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived and the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and mind and more by nature children of wrath like who the rest of mankind

what is paul saying there this is the key to understanding the gospel there is no such thing as good people and bad people there are only those who have been saved by the power of god through the grace of god putting their faith and trust in god and those who have not so whoever in your mind is in here as good enough for god if they're truly saved by grace they'll say oh no my friends just the opposite

god saves any and all who call on him there is no sin greater than the cross of jesus christ because god is in the business of saving sinners and every church going true believer says that of paul of whom i'm the foremost so how committed is god to saving sinners such as you and me

the last few moments of jesus's life he hung on a cross and there were two men one to his right and one to his left and they spent the last few hours of their life reviling the savior of the world but one of these men one of these men heard jesus praying eloy eloy lama and with his final few moments of breath he reviles the other brother and then he says remember me lord remember me and jesus said truly truly you will be with me today in paradise jesus saved a murderous horrific sinner

named scotty hutch

and so therefore we must not look at sins as this is greater than the ones i carry you carry for all fallen short of the glory of god so that's your intro psalm 139 is where we're gonna be psalm 139 grab your bible psalms right in the middle if you don't know your book your bible that well that's okay psalms is right in the middle 150 chapters uh of the bible longest in chapters uh second longest in word count psalm 139 is going to be our text as we walk through the fight for human life why this sunday well we're in vision month as a church this saturday will be the 49th anniversary of roe v wade in this country and so this our church is committed we have many people committed for the fight of life and so i as a pastor would come before you and say why we are committed to this and i want us to see not what i think not what anyone else thinks who cares what the politicians are doing i want to see what the church is called to do so let's pray and we'll dive in together

father god we come before you with fear and trembling

because you are a holy righteous god and god we're in great need of your grace and your power this morning and so god i ask you to do a mighty work god ask you to humble me behind beneath your cross this morning now church says to pray for me pray that i'll be useful and helpful pray that god will speak through me pray that i'll be here to glorify god and not man

now church says pray for yourself pray that god will open up your ears your heart your mind to hear from him and his word this morning

our father you are seated in the heavens the world is your footstool you are sovereign over all things so god let us praise and worship you we pray these things in your son's holy and righteous name amen

allow me to start off this morning church by giving you a very controversial statement allow me to start off church by telling you one of the most irking controversial statements you will hear sitting in the pew of any church when it comes to this topic and here it is the role of the church the purpose of the church why we exist in this world is not to stop abortions we exist on this earth to proclaim and declare that god has come to earth crushed his son on the cross resurrected him three days later has ascended and is seated at the right hand of god to save sinners the primary purpose of the church is not to stop abortions the primary purpose of the church is to glorify god by calling sinners to repent and put their trust in jesus christ we are ambassadors to christ making our appeal be reconciled to christ therefore our whole purpose in existing in a world that hates god is to call the enemies of god to be worshippers of god through the love of god what sits at the heart of every single sin is the fact that we all desire to be the god of our own lives you ever want to offend someone tell them god's sovereign over all things people hate that by the way god's sovereign out of salvation over salvation man fists come offline you know why because i want to be in charge of my own salvation my own life

what sits at the heart of every sin it's a desire to be god and i'm here to tell you even if you are in christ you know this fight very well in your own heart do you not i don't i want to do it my way

and therefore the church is built of people who recognize the fact that their desire to be god of their own life is cosmic treason and this is the truth if the church were to preach to go and do all the work stop abortions and make it unthinkable in this country and neglect the call to save sinners then we have failed and failed miserably and the reason why that's offensive to so many people is because of this because you and i think so small of eternity

if christ came to stop abortions to stop slavery to stop all of all of these social things then he failed but our savior came and was crushed to save sinners and that is what we are first called to do to call people to know christ and be reconciled to christ and then to call people to righteousness

because when we truly see god as infinitely worthy then the fight for life becomes so much more than stopping abortions it becomes about the fight for eternity the fight for not only the baby but for the mother but for the father for the grandparents for the abortionist doctor for the medical staff and the abortion clinics

so therefore we will never grow tired of pleading with people be reconciled to god if you don't believe me by the way you can check out second corinthians 5 that's where i got this so here's what i want to do i want you to just don't look at your bible look at me and i want you to hear the word of god i want you to hear the word of god 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 them very well

this is god's word one of the core attributes of our god is that he is a creator god what sits at the apex of his creation the pinnacle of his creation is mankind if you remember all the way back to genesis he creates and on that sixth day he says let us make man in our own image in our own likeness and what is the difference between day six and day one through five day one through five what did he do he spoke and things were put into existence he spoke in the grand canyon was formed he spoke in the beautiful trees reform he spoke and these things happened but when it came to man when it came to mankind he knelt down he got his hands in the dust he formed man in the dust and then he breathed life into man no other creation did he do that but only for mankind therefore mankind is superior to all creation mankind is superior to all creation i want to prove this to you your precious little animal your little dog your little cat your little turtle or whatever the whatever you've got is none equal to you your dog is not thinking about eternity your dog is not thinking about the moral implications of sex trafficking in the world your dog even when it does something wrong it's not thinking man i've sinned against a holy god and you're like yeah but it cowers when i get mad at it yeah that's called disciplines because you have a rod bro not because it has a soul that is aware of the eternal things of god and this this fights against you and i here's why because we're like that just doesn't sound right because man i love my dog fluffy but you've got to remember you have about 120 years of a teaching in this culture in this country in this world that says what that you and i came from animals and so like man that's a little harsh because i don't know that just doesn't fit because again you've heard the teaching we have come from animals we've evolved from animals

the academics have taught over and over that nothing and nothing came together a massive massive explosion happened in over 14 billion years here we are evolved from animals here's the problem you can't take that you cannot take that and actually walk it out an application you know how i know because i say you can go to the u of a you can sit in a class where they will teach you that and then you'll go right outside go onto the lawn and you will find a booth where someone is complaining about how a human being is treating another human being as what as animals and it will stir up anger within the human part why because you and i both know we are not animals at the core we're not just a smarter version of animals there's something special about us why because we're the apex of god's creation

this shows that at the heart of every human being we know the fact that we are a unique creation created in the image of god for the glory of god and you can always prove this to anyone you know how i know this because you can go up to them and you can say okay let's take last year's triple crown winner winner of the kentucky kentuck kentucky life speaking's hard winner of the kentucky derby the triple crown winner medina spirit worth three and a half million dollars

and you were to say okay let's take that horse worth three and a half million dollars and let's take a child with severe disabilities who deserves life every single human being will be like shoot the horse and shoot him dead because we recognize that the human life is intrinsically valuable more valuable than any other creation

and so this is what we see here in the text that creation is not only purposeful but it is personal that god in his never-ending eternal power has had his hands on you from before time began as he's created you and formed you in your mother's womb he has given you a personality he has given you height weight all for his glory every human being is created to be a reflector of god's glory even listen to this it's going to offend most of you even the most hardened atheist is a reflector of god's glory and you can see this in a lot of hardened atheists you know why because some of them have some amazing god-reflecting glory intrinsic in them and they have denied this they have rejected this you and i are created for the glory of god with personal purposeful work

so now when people who don't believe in god see this when they see this verse do you know what they say ah you christians you're living in the past you see back then david or whoever wrote this which was david david did not know about genetics but now we have been enlightened we know about genetics we know why you are made the way you are it's this thing called genetics so you see they didn't know what it was so use this superstition god thing in order to explain the things they don't understand here's the problem you and i both know that when it comes to forming a child you take 23 chromosomes from the mother 23 from the father and they combine together to make a unique person but we can't decide we don't know how the 23 are chosen from each side do we let me give an example i am tall both my parents are tall um i am i used to be a whole lot skinnier but i am skinny i am loud i have an unquenchable desire to not only learn but then tell people all that i have learned and a lot of people roll their eyes when i tell them how excited i am about crazy things right it's just like unquenchable it cannot stop in me like i like molly like asked me like why did i have a book next to my my bed stand as i'm falling asleep and there's a commentary on revelation try reading that as you're trying to fall asleep right some of you like that's a great book to fall asleep to and so i have this unquenchable desire that will not stop from morning to night to desire to learn it and then to tell people about it now you take my brother who has same mom same dad and he's not tall he's average height and guess what he doesn't have this unquenchable desire to learn and to tell people about it but you know what he does have this amazing gift where he can just give whatever you ask him you could be the owner of the biggest clothing store in the world and people like hey give me your shirt he's like all right here you go you know take off the shirt and give it to you my brother if you were to call him and be like hey i need help he'd be in his car before you finished your sentence and then there's me like is there anything i could not be doing same parents god uniquely gifted me in certain areas and uniquely gifted him in certain areas he's uniquely gifted you and he's uniquely gifted you with certain qualities and attributes for his glory and this happens not because god and genetics are oppositions but because god uses genetics for his glory and so this is why we what this is what it says here about being fearfully and wonderfully made so what happens at the moment of conception 23 chromosomes from the mom 23 chromosomes from the dad meet together get this this is so fascinating 18 days after conception the baby has a beating heart 18 days after the conception the baby has a beating heart what does the heart do it beats blood whose blood is it beating its own blood not mom's blood its own blood think about that y'all that's just days after a woman finds out she is even pregnant

it's amazing at about six weeks at about six weeks the baby has a brain you can see it on any ultrasound at six weeks you can see a dark little spot in the head that is the brain the medical community uses what we call vital signs to determine life that's brain activity and heartbeat therefore by pure logic by pure logic this baby is a person so the church asks well how did we get here how did we get so far off if that's the biology how did we get here friends you must understand abortion didn't start in 1973 with roe v wade that's kind of the american like things where we just don't know our history and it's clear we don't do you know when abortion started 300 350 years before christ even walked this earth

greek philosophers were one of the first proponents of abortion do you know who stood against greek philosophers the medical community it was the medical community that stood against the greek philosophers do you know what their argument was we have a right we have a duty to protect life here we are some 2500 years later

and that's not the same argument

why because at the center of the scientific community is the belief that humanity is just made up by accident evolution over 14 billion years evolved from animals we do need to encourage our young people who love christ to be involved in the scientific community to fight for life i'm so thankful for believers who are involved in the scientific community it is great so now we have something that is going on here now we have a question about what is life and where does it start let me remind you that in this country one of the worst constitutional decisions was when this country decided to declare somebody as a human based on skin color and we arrived at the three-fifths compromise one of the most atrocious court decisions in the history of the world it and the only reason why people wanted to call them at least three fists is to pad their pocketbook for power when you and i start debating over when life begins outside of conception we will fall into a dangerous dangerous trap

next one of the arguments is well that baby is totally reliant on the mother so the mother can do whatever she wants let's take that logic to its fullest extreme i've been around enough parents all you need to be around is one and know that one-year-olds are totally reliant on their parents right i mean look they're totally reliant until about 16 in this country because you can't get a job can't make money until 16. so let's just be real here that if someone if a parent of a one-year-old were to take their kids say this is my house my food my clothes that you're taking and put them outside they'd be in jail for a very long time so reliance does not actually give allowance and it cannot

next objection

when a young woman gets pregnant people say this baby will ruin your life and unfortunately this comes from the argument that you and i both know oh so well three things you need to do in this country to not be in the lower class graduate high school find gainful employment and not have a kid before your marriage and the problem is is they say see that third one you've missed you are going to be in poverty you're going to be struggling it's going to be rough your whole life will be ruined if you have this child church i think this is the most important argument we need to pay attention to i actually think this is the one if you're going to stand and fight on this one this is the one so how do we answer that first we must realize why this is a powerful culture a powerful argument in our culture our culture is hedonists we want maximum pleasure with minimal suffering we are the only country in the world that is shocked when we suffer and there are pastors who will not tell their people who not have the courage to look their people in the eye and say suffering is part of the christian life

so how do we respond to this we respond this way doing the right thing never ruins your life doing the right thing never ruins your life church we must declare that not only must we declare that we must believe it not only must we believe it we must live that out we must assume we must assume suffering is a part of our life and here's the good news suffering does not mean an absence of god in fact suffering is god's tool it's his shortcut for sanctification for your life and for my life it is the grammar school of the christian walk

let me give you an example of someone suffering quote far more imprisonments with countless beatings and often near death five times i received 39 lashes three times i was beaten with rods once i was stoned three times shipwrecked a night adrift at sea on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers dangers from robbers dangers from my own people dangers from the gentiles danger in city danger in the wilderness danger at sea danger from false brothers in toil and in hardship our hardship through many a sleepless nights in hunger and in thirst often without food and cold and exposure bitten by a snake oh and by the way a bunch of knucklehead churches trying to argue and split

you know what the apostle paul said he said but it was all totally worth it because when we give our suffering we say you know what god as i'm walking through suffering it's yours and i trust you in my suffering you will say this as paul did in his final letter his swan song of the new testament now is it now is the time for my departure from this world i have finished the race i have fought the good fight and there is glory there is christ who awaits me paul never said doing the right thing would be easy and he also never said he never said that you will not suffer he said the opposite you will suffer and it will be totally worth it

we must have the courage to tell people doing the right thing will never ever ruin your life because suffering is terrifying is it not and we see this this is what this whole psalm is about david is walking through suffering and what does he say he says wonderful area works my soul knows it very well my soul knows how good you are through suffering o god i can see you god through great suffering this is not an intellectual knowledge it's an experiential knowledge

most people don't see the grace and the goodness of god because they're actually never looking for it in the same way most people are saying where's god today you see they've blinded their eyes to where god is working today it is clear where god is working today friends most of us just don't want to look for it for the christian the greatest joy is the lord there is nothing in this world that can satisfy our thirst our hunger but that which christ gives we have a responsibility to show the world the goodness of god we have a mandate as a church to worship god as a supreme treasure and say as a psalmist is your works are great my soul knows them well

next is the argument of bodily autonomy my body my choice let's look at the text do you see in verses 13 and 14 you formed my inward parts you knitted me together in my mother's womb i praise you for i am fearfully i am wonderfully made the psalmist assumes he is a person before he is even born

so then how do we think about the role of government the problem is as most people think too much about government and some people think too little about government most people think that the government is the answer the government is not a necessary evil it is necessary because of evil god is in charge of every single government on this earth right now he rules and reigns and is in complete sovereign rule and reign of every single government even those that hate him and want to see him destroyed he is in charge

and so in our government we hear the arguments quote do not cram your bible your religion into my government how do we answer that very simply everyone has a religion everyone has a belief statement atheism is a religion

and so we are all we the question is not about religion the question is about what is our foundation of truth and what the bible does is the bible declares truth and now does it declare truth but it reveals the hardness of hearts and you could prove this to almost anyone in this country you know how 80 of abortion-minded women 80 of abortion-minded women if they were to see a sonogram if they were to see the picture of the baby in in in their womb would refuse to get an abortion why because they know what this verse says they know it to be true in their heart of hearts so how do we understand government first we understand government is necessary but it is not the end all it's not like if the government fixes it we all get fixed how do i know 1783 a man joined british parliament you know his name william wilberforce william wilbur first converted under john wesley john wesley america and what does he do he sees how something is going on he sees the slave trade in great britain and says that's not right they're human beings made in the image of god this same text is what william wilbur first used and he gave his whole life

but he knew as well as i do and as well as you do the answer is not in government the answer is in the gospel and so he starts and he goes on a war path all through great britain and i wish i could tell you he went out and preached once and everyone came the whole country turned like that

decades and decades and decades of preaching and meeting and preaching and meeting and preaching and meeting he's not a preacher by the way not in churches out on the streets with his friends with his family and he gets a letter from his good friend john wesley do you know what john wesley wrote to him said this quote oh be not weary of well doing go in the name of god and in the power of his might tell even american slavery the vilest to ever saw the sun shall vanish away before it four days before william wilberforce's death british parliament passed laws declaring african-americans made in the image of god

so what is our solution what is our answer we fight for life because we fight for the gospel the gospel was christ willingly joyfully went to the cross to be crushed for the sins of all who would believe we must realize we are not dealing with an intellectual problem that will be fixed by a facebook post we're dealing with a heart problem paul tells timothy it will be a seared conscience that will trigger the end of days

abortions take place not because there's a lack of knowledge of biology every abortionist in the country knows that at the moment of conception that is a child there is two reasons why it continues in this country first the average abortion makes the doctor one thousand dollars you can do the math they can do about 12 a day

worldwide an abortion every second in this world our culture also determines that abortion gives right to mothers the right to choose at the cost of the child and this is the lie that has been sold to women everywhere you don't want to ruin your life do you

god said be fruitful and multiply abortion becomes the rejection of this commandment

finally abortion takes place because we live in a world we live in a culture that is about power might makes right

we live in a world where right and wrong is boiled down to personal preferences rather than objective norms if you do not know your word of god you will not have an outside shot you will not have an outside shot of fighting the fight of abortion know these texts because all this started back in genesis chapter 3 eve do what you want god's keeping you from good stuff you do what you want you make yourself your own god and adam and eve bought that lie hook line and sinker

and our sin runs that deep as well and in the garden god could told the serpent crush him they disobeyed me you crush him but he didn't he gave him a promise that there will be a child born of the woman thousands of years later thousands of years later a 13 year old girl 14 year old girl no job outcasted by her community had an unplanned pregnancy

and she did the right thing

that child grew up and when he was 33 years old after a three-year ministry he went put himself on the cross and was crushed by god himself

the old testament who are you to destroy that which is made in the image of god whoever sheds blood by man shall his blood be shed so christ gave of his life to save his church christ died for christ's church christ gave of his life so that you and i may have life this is what christ did

and therefore the church is pro-life because we give of our lives so that others may see the life that christ has given us

now you may be thinking okay we gathered okay we grew now where do we go what are we going to do pastor come friday and i'll tell you how you can get involved in the church it will be a tough movie there will not be a dry eye in this room

but we must not turn a blind eye we must not sit on the sidelines and think someone else can next i want to encourage you with one more thought do you recognize that you and i were created with a purpose you were created for the glory for the greatness of god do you see every moment of your life even the worst of your moments as a moment for god to be clearly seen by those who do not believe in him

wonderful are your works my soul knows them very well do you know the goodness of god church i want you to pay very close attention god is not waiting on you to get to work the gospel is not a help wanted ad we don't put on the front of this church help wanted to stop whatever it is a help available ad help is available

because god is calling all of us to take our crowns to lay them at the feet of his throne and when he is high and lifted up in our lives he will draw all men to himself when we truly worship he will call the abortionist doctor to himself he will call the mom who is terrified about how she'll provide for her unplanned child he will call the politician that celebrates and wickedness to himself he will call the moral legalist that sits in church every week and thinks man if i'm just here god will think i'm good and i'll get my check mark he will call the man frustrated with his job and they will come to him and they'll say that's my king my king is the lamb who was slain the gospel the church of jesus christ is all about enlisting people that recognize they're sick know the difference between uncle sam and the church uncle sam will only enlist you if you're healthy the church will only enlist you if you're sick let's pray father god we thank you for this morning god we thank you that in our weakness you are made strong god we thank you for you formed our inward parts you knitted us together in our mother's mood we praise you for you we are fearfully and wonderfully made wonderful are your works our soul knows them very well and so god let us come let us lay our crowns at your feet god let us worship you

let us be bold in our worship of you and we have been made for a purpose for a time such as this as jeremiah says we pray these things their son's holy righteous name amen

hi i'm pastor scott pastor of the oasis church listen we are so excited that you decide to join us for the preaching and teaching of god's word we just pray that this will stir your affections towards christ but we have one encouragement we want to leave you with please do not allow this to take the place of the local body of believers we pray that you will be involved in a local congregation a local church that you can find yourself submitting under the eldership and the leadership of a local church we pray that you will find yourself stirred towards christ and that your joy in christ will be ever increasing