Scripture Reading: Exodus 21:22–25

Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 21. As her brother said, today is Sanctity of Life Sunday. This is a bit of a review day. When I ask the question, what do I want people to know the Bible teaches concerning abortion, this is the material that I think is most sufficient.

So it is a repetition of years before. God willing, tonight we'll repeat the teaching on the death penalty, but this morning, specifically the Bible and abortion. So beginning in Exodus chapter 21 at verse 22. If men fight and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.

But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. Amen. Well, let us pray.

Opening Prayer

Our Father in heaven, I thank you for this opportunity to gather together on the Sabbath day to worship you. God, we thank you that your word is sufficient for all matters of faith and practice. We thank you that it speaks not only to our religious being, but it speaks to matters of Christian ethics, to ethics for mankind as a whole. And even now, Lord God, we pray for the ministry and the aid of your Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us as we consider the biblical material.

We pray, Father, that you would seal these things into our hearts and minds, that we would think your thoughts after you concerning this issue. God, it is a gross tragedy that is continuing on in our own day and age in the countries of the world, where babies are murdered in their mothers' wombs. God, I pray that we would take these things to heart. that we would sigh and cry over the abominations of the land, that we would be a prayerful people, that we would be a thinking people, that we would be a people that are committed to life, committed to those things that bring glory and honor and praise unto you. We ask now that you would bless this time of study together, forgive us for all of our sins and transgression, and fill each and every one of us with your spirit.

And we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen. Well,

Introduction

I want to preface by saying that I'm conscious of the fact that some would say that we would not be committed to or we should not rather speak to political issues. Consider that Prime Minister Trudeau's Liberal Party in Canada and the Democrat Party in the United States of America are co-conspirators to mass murder. This is not a political issue. It is a theological and an ethical issue that the Sixth Commandment speaks to.

We need to take this to heart. Planned Parenthood in the United States this year will spend $45 million to back the Democratic Party and try to stop President Trump. They know all too well that if Trump continues as president, the courts will be stacked with conservatives and the potential is that Roe vs. Wade may be overturned.

They are horrified at the prospect that persons will not be given the so-called right to murder babies in their mother's wombs. Again, I suggest this is not a political issue. It is a theological and an ethical issue the Bible addresses consistently. We ought to consider as well that within our recent political cycle, so-called conservatives don't even want to bring up the issue of abortion.

Very often you hear the kinds of things like, how will the future judge this generation? We do that. We judge the U.S. for chattel slavery that occurred in their history. We judge Nazi Germany.

What will our future, or the posterity, how will they look upon a people that were supposedly civilized, that had such disregard for people who didn't care one bit about little babies in their mother's womb? The very thought of it is horrifying. This is not a political issue, but it's theological and ethical. It is ultimately a transgression of God's law, and it degrades a society.

John Murray well said that nothing shows the moral bankruptcy of a people or of a generation more than disregard for the sanctity of human life. Now, how would some of our forefathers respond to the sorts of things that are occurring today? Now, I realize euthanasia is barbaric as well. The destruction of elderly people or the terminally ill, the utter disregard for persons that are somehow vulnerable and are not as efficient as the rest of us are.

This is horrific and it is ungodly and it is unrighteous. It would certainly invoke the prophet to pray as he did in his own generation, in wrath, remember mercy. Sometimes people say, I wonder if we will undergo the wrath and judgment of God. Brethren, every sign and evidence is around us that we are presently under the wrath and fury of God.

When you look at Romans chapter one, what is three times repeated, but that God gave them up to a reprobate mind? You could say that about life in Canada. You could say that about life in the United States of America. There is a reprobate mind that prevails when we have such disregard for the vulnerable among us.

The Sixth Commandment

So I want to look first at the sixth commandment, secondly, the sanctity of human life, and then thirdly, the specific exegesis of the passage that I just read here in Exodus 21. Well, the foundation for the prohibition against the abortion of little babies in their mother's womb is, in fact, the sixth commandment. You shall not murder. God alone is the lawgiver.

God alone is the one who regulates. God alone is the one alone who tells us when we can end life. There are three instances in the Bible of lawful homicide. We have self-defense.

If somebody breaks into your house and you are in fear for your life, you can deal out a lethal opposition to that particular offender. We have just war. Now again, what the issue is concerning just war would take a series of sermons. But Deuteronomy 7, verses 1 to 5, God commands holy war against the Canaanites.

And then of course you have the death penalty. If you're interested, you can come back tonight and we'll look at what scripture says concerning that. That is homicide, but it's not murder. Murder involves premeditation.

Murder involves malice of forethought. Murder involves a plan, a plot, a mindset to destroy the life of another individual. So the sixth commandment is the overarching concern with reference to the sin, the crime of abortion, euthanasia, any unlawful killing of another human being. Now, certainly the Sixth Commandment speaks to the internal nature of man.

I think it's the Sixth Commandment that's at the basis of the prohibition that we find against bitterness, against slander, against gossip, against those sorts of things. We don't want to destroy the reputation of others because that is, in a sense, murder. but we're dealing with the externality, we're dealing with the stopping of another person's life and heartbeat. Walter Kaiser says, while Hebrew possesses seven words for killing, the word used here, he's commenting on the text in Exodus and in the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments, appears only 47 times in the Old Testament. If any one of the seven words could signify murder, where factors of premeditation and intentionality are present, this is the verb.

Now, the Old Testament distinguishes between an accidental homicide and murder. Accidental homicide includes somebody chopping wood with their axe and the axe head isn't tight and it flies off and it strikes their neighbor in the head and he dies. Well, that's accidental. He didn't mean to do that.

Murder would be the one with the axe hiding in the bush so that he can take out his neighbor. There's intentionality, there's premeditation, there's malice aforethought. The Bible makes that distinction and what we have with reference to abortion and euthanasia is not accidental. It is premeditated, it does involve malice aforethought.

There is a desire and a design on the part of the murderer to cease or end the life of the one murdered. And then in terms of the sixth commandment, we also ought to appreciate the dignity of man. In other words, why does God give us these commandments? Because we bear His image.

It's not even that we bear His image or that His image is in us. We are, in fact, the image of God Almighty. And I want to show how the Bible says that concerning the various phases of human life, which we'll do in just a moment. But we understand, or we need to understand, that the doctrine of creation in the image of God is ultimately the rationale for the sanctity of human life.

Animals are wonderful. They can provide great companionship, they can provide a lot of good things, but they are not made in the image of God. In the creation week, one aspect of the creation is identified as being in the image of God. That's man, that's woman, that's boy, that's girl, that's baby in the womb, that's old person in a hospital bed, that's sick person, that's handicapped person.

Whatever their station, whatever their status, whatever their age, whatever their place in life, they are image bearers of the living God. The best that a monkey can do, or a dog can do, or an animal of any kind can do, will never ever achieve that status. So God has protected us, his creatures, with his commandments, and the sixth commandment needs to be rehearsed frequently.

Sanctity of Human Life

Now let's look secondly at the sanctity of human life in the Bible. We're gonna move through all these passages again. I want everybody to have these things in their minds and hearts.

Image of God: Pre-Fall and Post-Fall

We see the image of God in pre-fall man, Genesis 1, 26 and 27. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Again, we have dignity. There is sanctity about human life.

There is something unique about us as creatures that doesn't obtain among the animal kingdom. Again, we ought not to be vicious and unkind and vile and abuse animals for no reason whatsoever, but they are not in the image of God. Mankind is, and we need to take that seriously. So the image of God is there prior to the fall.

But secondly, we see the image of God in the post-fall state of man. Some theologians, many theologians have debated this. Does the image of God remain in man after the fall? And there's good men on either side of the question.

I fall on the side that yes, in fact, it does, but I think it all depends on how you define image of God. But if we just make that admission that on the other side of the fall, we still see man bear God's image, at least in some sense or to some degree. James 3.9, he condemns the way that we use our tongue. With the tongue, we bless God and with it, we curse men who have been made in his image or made in his likeness or similitude.

So the image of God is present with man prior to the fall. The image of God is in man after the fall.

Image of God in Children

Thirdly, we see the image of God in children, in children. In Leviticus chapter 18, 21, we find a prohibition concerning the children of the covenant community. Leviticus 18, 21. You shall not let any of your descendants, your children, pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of the Lord your God.

I am the Lord. Or profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. What's that mean?

Molech was worshipped the way that he's worshipped today through abortion by child sacrifice. In fact, abortion has become something of a sacrament among the perverted persons of this world that despise God's law. But Molech was basically an idol. He was a statue, and he had outstretched arms, and they'd build a fire around Molech, and the way that they would worship is they'd bring their babies and toss them up into the arms of Molech.

Well, Molech was an idol. Molech was a statue. Molech was a thing. He didn't have opposable thumbs.

He didn't have dexterity. He didn't have the ability to cleave onto these children. More often than not, they'd throw these children into the arms of Molech, they'd bounce off and land in the fire. This is the prohibition.

Ephesians 6, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath. Do not exasperate them. Why? Because they're image bearers. child abuse, child torture, perversion with children.

It all disrespects the reality that little children bear the image of God most high. But we see that image of God further. We see it in the handicapped. If you're in Leviticus 19, look at verse 14.

You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God. I am the Lord. They're not deficient, they're not somehow inferior, they're not somehow less, and we can have a disregard with reference to their life and their prosperity. No, they're image bearers of the living and true God.

We're not to mock them, we're not to provoke them, we're not to hurt them, and we're not to be prejudiced against them. We have that blessed account in our Lord's ministry when he's walking through the city of Jericho and blind Bartimaeus cries out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And the crowds around Bartimaeus try to shush him. They try to tell him to be quiet.

They say, oh, he's too busy. There's too many people. He doesn't want to have any talk with you. I love that blind Bartimaeus cries all the louder.

And he says, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. What does the text say? The text says that Jesus stopped, Jesus walked over to that man, and Jesus says, what would you have me to do? And this man says, I want to see again.

And this man, Jesus, opened his eyes so that he could see again. He didn't say, well, you're inferior, you're defective, you're somehow lower on the evolutionary scale. No, there is dignity among all persons in whatever age, whatever situation they find themselves in. We see it among the sick also.

Turn to the book of James, James chapter 5. James chapter 5 highlights the reality that there are sick persons among us and love and kindness and compassion is the way that we are to respond. In James 5, verse 14, as anyone among you sick, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. We see the image of God in the elderly, Leviticus 19.32, all young men. All of us young men ought to rise in the presence of a hoary head. This is what the scripture dictates.

It's not the case that old people are no longer any value. They no longer have any worth. They're no longer worthy of our... You esteem them.

You praise God for them. You get up and open doors for them. It ought to shock our sensibilities when we see the way that young people treat adults or the elderly in our generation. It is absolutely and utterly disgusting.

And yet God's Word speaks to this issue and says there is dignity in image bearers of the living and true God.

Image of God in the Pre-Born

Now let's look finally at this point at the image of God in the pre-born in the womb. Turn to Genesis 25. Again, several passages just to illustrate that what we find in the womb is not the product of conception. That's what the pro-aborts like to tell us it is.

It's the product of conception. Yeah, and that product of conception happens to be a human being, happens to be an image-bearer of the living and true God. Or they say it's a lump of cells. It's undefined.

It's this mass. Absolutely, positively contrary to what we find in the written record of God's Holy Word. Notice in Genesis chapter 25 at verses 19 to 23. This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son.

Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord granted his plea.

And Rebekah, his wife, conceived. But the children struggled together within her. The children struggled together within her. I'm going to ask you to remember that as we move to the specific exposition of Exodus chapter 21.

But consider the text. The children struggled within her, and she said, if all is well, why am I like this? So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb.

Two people shall be separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed, there were twins in her womb. And the first, listen to the language, came out red.

Keep that in your head. Not that Esau was red, but that they came out red. It's the language utilized in the prohibition in Exodus chapter 21. Childbirth is a reference or refers to these children coming out.

They come out of the womb into the world, but they're children prior to their coming out of the womb. That's what the text conspicuously highlights. Turn to the book of Job. The book of Job indicates the personhood of pre-born children. in two places, at least, that we'll look at.

Job 10, verses 8 to 12. Job 10, verses 8 to 12. Your hands have made me and fashioned me in an intricate unity, yet you would destroy me. Remember, I pray, that you have made me like clay, and will you turn me into dust again?

Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? Clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You have granted me life and favor and your care has preserved my spirit. Job 31, Job 31.

Notice in verses 13 to 15, in this particular context, Job is basically rehearsing his righteousness before God. And I realize that sounds like a bit of an arrogant thing to suggest, but that's one of the issues in Job. Job wonders why these things are happening to him. And as he's rehearsing this, he says, I didn't mistreat my servants.

I didn't treat them with any degree of inferiority because God is the Lord of both. both servant and master. So notice in Job 31.13, If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant when they complained against me, what then shall I do when God rises up? When he punishes, how shall I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make them?

Did not the same one fashion us in the womb? What's in the womb of Job's mother? It's Job. What's in the womb of Job's servants' mothers?

It's Job's servants. There's no product of conception or a lump of cells that are undefined. These are persons that bear the very image of God Most High. And then the psalmist in Psalm 51.

Psalm 51, David is rehearsing his native depravity. He's rehearsing the reality that he's a sinner before God. And in Psalm 51 5, he says, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin, my mother conceived me. It doesn't mean that the sexual act between his father and mother was somehow sinful.

It means that as soon as David was, he was a sinner. He was in Ada. And so his depravity is traced back to the womb. But as he says, it was me that was conceived in the womb.

And then as we saw or heard in Psalm 139 verses 13 to 16, the divine weaver, God who fashions us together in the womb, we see from the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1.5, he was separated from the womb to be a prophet to the nations. The apostle Paul says the same thing about his apostolic ministry in Galatians 1.15, it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb. Do you see, if the pro-abortion people lived at this particular time, nations would not have been born. Prophets would not have been born.

We would see the Son of Man Himself not even be born. As we turn to the New Testament, we see the same emphasis concerning what is in the womb. Turn to Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1.

Notice in verse 15. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. This of course is a reference to John the Baptist.

Now, the Holy Spirit doesn't come upon a lump of cells or a product of conception that is not human, but the Holy Spirit dwells among image bearers of the living and true God. And that's the emphasis that we find here. Notice as well in verses 41 to 44, And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now the same word used by Luke there is used by Luke in Luke 18, where it speaks of children outside the womb, the children that were permitted to come to our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's the same Greek word applied. Whether in the womb or outside of the womb, it's the same word, babe, child, little one, whatever you want to say in terms of the semantic range of the word, but it describes human beings. But then notice in verse 42, then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Let that sink in for just a moment. When Jesus was in the womb, he was the Lord. Why is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me? That's Elizabeth's statement concerning the product of conception in the womb of Mary.

It is the mother of my, or rather, she is the mother of my Lord, is what she says there. And then, as I mentioned, Galatians 1.15, Paul is separated from his mother's womb. Gordon Clark said, one argument abortionists frequently use to defend themselves against the charge of murder is the claim that the baby is not a human being. But if the baby in the womb is not human, what is it?

Is it canine? Is it feline? I think that some babies born 30 or 40 years ago have turned out to be asinine. And Clark is absolutely positively right on that.

Brethren, what is happening is a travesty. What is happening is a tragedy. What is happening, future generations will look back and say, how in the world could they do that? There is scientific data.

Now, Ben Shapiro says, when I go out to try and convince people I don't use the Bible, for him the Old Testament is a Jew, I use science. Brethren, we are Christians, and we need to know what the Bible says. But if you go knocking on science's door, guess what you're going to hear? A unique genetic code in that baby in the womb.

What are you going to hear? You're going to hear that science verifies what God has always told us, is that that preborn in the womb is human. It is a baby. It has a beating heart.

It feels pain. There is such a hypocrisy among us when it comes to this. How many of you have ever heard of Scott Peterson? Scott Peterson is on death row in the state of California for a double homicide because he murdered his pregnant wife.

Do you understand that? He murdered his pregnant wife, so he was found guilty on two charges of murder. Well, if he hadn't have murdered her, but she had gone to the abortion clinic and had that baby executed, that's her choice, that's her right, that's up to her. It is absolute hypocrisy when we boil it all down.

The scriptures are clear with reference to the image of God. But as well, the incarnation dignifies the image of God, doesn't it? Christ assumed our humanity with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof. In other words, he identifies with us.

He took on our flesh. He took on our humanity. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven as that blessed saint, not saint in the Catholic sense, but that godly believer, Gregory of Nazianzus says, whatever is not assumed is not healed. And so Christ assumes our humanity so that he can heal us through his cross work and give us life eternal in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So we see the sixth commandment, the prohibition, you shall not murder. We see secondly, the sanctity of life. Whether it's pre-born all the way to older age, whether you're sick in between, whatever the condition, whatever the situation, men are not disposable. We can't just dispense with people because they're bothersome.

We can't just get rid of people because we don't want them around us. Having looked at this afresh in this past week, and this is always the hardest sermon of the year to preach. I mean, who wants to preach on abortion? Who wants to think about abortion?

Who wants to consider the tragedy that the most vulnerable among us are being targeted for execution to the tune of about 100,000 a year in Canada and about a million a year in the United States of America? And then other nations, China, I mean, it can't even go there when there's forced abortion from the civil state. I mean, these are horrific and wretched and wicked realities that obtain in our own generation and in our own situation that should in fact horrify us and disgust us and evoke from us prayer and a biblical righteous response to the wickedness that we see all around us.

Exegesis of Exodus 21:22–25

Turn back to the book of Exodus for specific exegesis of this passage. Exodus chapter 21, if men fight and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him. And he shall pay as the judge has determined. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Oh, that's what I was gonna say just before this text. So going over this past week, I popped on to Matt Walsh, his blog, he had a thing about this group called Child Free. You can look at this. It's a discussion site at Reddit.

He says they have them on Facebook as well. Child Free. These people hate Children. They hate babies.

They refer to them as goblins. They refer to their abortion as being so liberating and so wonderful. A recent award winner apparently was so thankful that she had aborted her child so that now she was able to pursue her career and win a statue. I mean, this is the sorts of things that are going on out there.

We had this story this past week. A woman that works at an abortion clinic had the discussion with her little child about abortion, and how the little child gets it, that sometimes children are unwanted, and sometimes parents are not able to have a child, so, you know, abortion is the right thing. What about this whole shout-your-abortion madness? These are people that would be standing around Molech and rejoicing and praising Molech from whom all blessings flow.

It may be a little more sanitized, it may look a little bit polished nowadays, but it's the same response to the image of God in these little babies. Now back to Exodus chapter 21.

Context: Case Laws and the Decalogue

We need to appreciate that 21 to 23 articulate, expand upon, amplify, and apply the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are given in Exodus chapter 20. We refer to that as the Decalogue or the Ten Words. One of those words is murder, and so when you get to Exodus 21, you see laws specifically concerning homicide, murder, bodily injury.

So that's the context. If Israel were to ask Yahweh, how do we do life in the land based on these 10 commandments, chapters 21 to 23 give us the response. This is how they were to conduct themselves in their tenure in the land as they lived in the land of promise that Yahweh had given to them. So 21 to 23 basically flesh out the general principles of the Ten Commandments and show how they function in civil society.

You have laws, say, for instance, about having a fence on your roof. You'd have a flat roof, and they would use that as living space, and there was a prohibition against not having a roof, or a mandate to have a roof. Why? Because somebody might wander up there and fall off and kill themselves or die.

They didn't want that to happen. So a concrete application of the sixth commandment in civil society is put a roof or put a fence around your roof. It would apply to us, put a fence around your swimming pool so that your neighbor child doesn't come over and drown. This is a concrete application of the sixth commandment in society.

And that is precisely what chapters 21 to 23 in the book of Exodus do. The book of Deuteronomy amplifies and expands and even shows some further details with reference to that, but the underlying law that Moses is interpreting or applying under the inspiration of the Spirit is the Ten Commandments. And so notice this application of the Sixth Commandment in Exodus chapter 21.

The Translation Question

Now we need to speak concerning the translation. Notice what our text says in verse 22 if you're using the New King James. The text literally says, and the New King James and the ESV are good here. There's a couple that are very bad.

If you have a Bible that has in verse 22, so that she has a miscarriage, that is a faulty translation. That is a horrible translation. The Bible has a word or Hebrew has a word for miscarriage. It's already in Exodus 23, but it's not here.

It's literally, if men fight and hurt a woman with child, so that her children come out prematurely. That's the emphasis. And children, the plural, is used to envisage the potentiality that there's twins or triplets or whatever the next steps are, quad, quad, whatever, quad, five, you know, if you've got a whole bunch in there. This text protects each and every one of them.

Now, why is this important? Because what you have are two fools, two men, that get into a fistfight in civil society. Now, it's probably one of their wives is standing there, and she's pregnant. And in this interchange, or in this exchange of blows flying, she gets struck.

The text says that if she gets struck, and then has a miscarriage, and then no harm follows, the text only protects her. But if it's translated properly, and if her children come out and no harm follows to the children and to the mother, do you see that? Nod, give me a nod, because miscarriage only protects the mother. That's not the word that's used here.

It's the same concept that we saw in Genesis 25, that Jacob and Esau came out. It wasn't the fact that they were miscarried, rather they were born. And this is the language that's used in this text. If men fight and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows to either her or the children.

This is a specific case law that protects the preborn in the womb of their mother. And notice how the text proceeds. If no harm follows, then a monetary fine shall be imposed upon these fools. That's the least of their issues.

They should be punished with that because they hurt a woman and caused distress to somebody who was pregnant. But the text stipulates that if harm does follow to either A, the mother, or the children, then what's called the lex talionis applies. Lex talionis is a Latin phrase for the law of retribution. That means eye for eye, tooth for tooth, burn for burn, wound for wound, life for life.

So you need to appreciate what's happening here. This is an accident. Not that these two fools are fighting in the street, but that she is struck. and yet the law of God provides in an accidental abortion the protection of the babies to the degree that if someone hurts them they will be executed. The lex talionis applies.

That is a an amazing sort of admission when we look at the current situation. Abortion isn't accidental. Abortion doesn't just happen. Abortion is scheduled.

In fact, in the more horrific moments of my life, I ponder that. Tomorrow, there's a notepad somewhere with five or ten appointments of babies that are going to be murdered. Multiply that all throughout Canada, all throughout the United States. Multiply that number and it's truly staggering.

That's not accidental. That's not the result of me and Mark getting in a fight and accidentally hitting somebody that's pregnant. This is intentional. This is state-subsidized.

This is federally protected. This is, in the language of Bernie Sanders, a constitutional right. To murder people? Are you crazy?

Is that what we've become? We have gotten to the place in our civil society where persons that are a bit of a bother, where persons are a bit of an inconvenience, where we can exterminate them, we can rid them from the face of the earth. Again, the prophet's words are very legit. In wrath, remember mercy.

The reality is, is that this passage affords protection for both a mother and her children. Supposing she has more than one with reference to these two fools that induce an accidental abortion. The lex talionis or the law of retribution, life for life, means that that fool should die if he causes the death of that little one. May God have mercy on us.

May the Lord most high have mercy on us. The penal sanction in view, the law of retribution or retaliation demands capital punishment. Something else that's intriguing, go back in Exodus 21 to verses 12 to 14. Here's where I suggested earlier, said earlier, there's a distinction in the Bible made between homicide or accidental homicide or what we'd call manslaughter and murder.

Exodus 21, 12, he who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. Now that is obviously with malice aforethought, that's with intentionality, that's with premeditation, that's with purpose and planning. However, verse 13, if he did not lie and wait, that's what indicates that verse 12 is premeditated. Verse 12 indicates or verse 12 by way of implication means he did lie and wait.

His purpose was to end the person's life. His purpose was to stop a beating heart. But then notice in verse 13, however, if he did not lie and wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die." Now, the difference there, again, is between accidental killing or manslaughter and intentional murder.

Now, the scenario of verse 22 is an accident, right? But there's no city of refuge for that accident. There's no place for him to run at that accident. You jeopardized a woman and her baby.

There's no quarter for you. You die at the hand of the civil government, the hand of the lawful magistrate who wields the sword in God's stead. That's the reality that we're faced with here. So when it comes to verses 22 to 25, I could hear that.

I didn't mean to hit her. I didn't mean that her children should come out and die. I didn't mean for that to happen. What do you think that would have promoted in Israelite society?

Hopefully some care and some caution on how you ought to conduct yourself. If you knew there was a reality that you accidentally striking a woman and her baby dying and then you being executed for it, you'd probably not want to be around a pregnant woman having fists flying. See, law is designed to deter. And severe and strict penalties are designed to deter.

Tonight we'll consider the common objection against the death penalty. Well, it doesn't function as a deterrent. I can guarantee you it does at least in one place. The person that's executed, he'll never commit a murder again.

That's a great deterrent for civil society when a man is taken out and he's not able to go out and do mischief upon his fellows. But in Romans 13, the apostle Paul says that one of the reasons why the magistrate has been given the sword by God is to promote fear on the part of the body politic. But be afraid, for he is God's minister to execute wrath. He is God's deacon in civil society to bring the wrath and fury of God to bear in history upon criminal offenders.

Be afraid. Paul says there is a deterrent effect in the death penalty. I would suggest that the law of retribution, the lex talionis, produced that in the hearts of Israelites as well, or at least it was calculated to do so. You really ought to be aware that if you engage in this sort of foolishness on the city street and you strike a woman and her baby dies, you're going to be executed by the civil state.

Hopefully, it would produce a bit more responsibility on the parts of those who would want to get in fistfights on city streets. And in terms of this particular passage, if men fight and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the judge has determined. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life. Doesn't it not only underscore God's judgment, God's penalty, but the abomination involved.

The thought that we would accidentally kill a baby and thus bring upon our own heads the death penalty shows how serious this particular offense is. It's not a choice. It's not a right. It's not something that, oh, it's up to me, you know, the foolhardy, my body, my choice.

That's not your body. It is another human being with its own DNA. It's another human being with its own genetic code. It is not your body.

It is simply not the case that that is the way it is. This is an abomination, such that the early Christians, and Immanuel called the Didache, said, you shall not abort a child or commit infanticide. This happened in the Roman Empire. If you didn't get a girl baby, you'd throw it on the garbage heap.

It would either get taken and sold into prostitution, or it would be eaten by dogs in the city streets. You know, dogs for us are nice little pets that we have around and they bring companionship. When Paul speaks of dogs in the New Testament, you've got to remember, these were the sort of mangy beings that roamed city streets and would eat babies if they found them. And that's what happened, and that's why the early church, and again, probably AD 110 is when scholars date the Didache.

That's not a long time after the last writing apostles. They speak to this particular issue. You shall not abort a child or commit infanticide. You see the prohibition in the book of Revelation.

A couple other places as well. Sorcery. You've seen that word in your New Testament. The word behind it is pharmacy.

The idea is drugs. Not necessarily, you know, drugs for a headache or drugs for this or drugs for that, but drugs that were taken at times to induce abortion. This is what's happening in our generation, and the early church spoke out against this. John Calvin says, if it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.

He's right. He is absolutely, positively right. Now, the pro-aborts will say, he said fetus. Yeah, genius.

Fetus simply means unborn baby. You know, they use the word fetus to try to depersonalize it. This has a long pedigree. Depersonalize your opposition.

Dehumanize them. Treat them as somehow inferior so that it's okay to dispense with them as we see fit. Fetus simply means unborn baby. So every time you hear a pro-abort, use that particular language.

Think to yourself, they're just as foolish as the day is long because they're simply saying unborn baby.

God's Judgment on Shedding Innocent Blood

Now the judgment of God is pronounced against these things just by way of a concluding thought before we enter into some lines of application. Proverbs 6, 16 to 19. These six things Yahweh hates. Yea, seven are an abomination to Him.

A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift and running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren. Hands that shed innocent blood. Is there a better description of abortion or euthanasia? Is there a better description of anything so barbaric than hands that shed innocent blood?

Revelation 21 8 tells us who will populate the lake of fire, but the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, abominable, Murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Murder is no joke. Murder is a breach of God's holy commandment. And for those who would just dismiss this and say, well, you know, the church shouldn't be caught up in politics. That is absolutely, positively destructive, ultimately, of the church herself.

Yes, we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We preach the healing blessings of salvation in Him. And if you have had an abortion here this morning, there is forgiveness with God that He may be feared. There is mercy with our Savior to deliver to the uttermost all who draw nigh unto God through Him.

But if the church does not preach God's law, which she is not doing as she ought, we have fumbled the ball. We have betrayed our calling. It's gospel and law, law and gospel. Men will never see their need for gospel until we tell them what God's holy law says.

There is a direct correlation between the two. If we do not preach the severity and the strictness and the judgment of God with reference to transgressors of his law, Why would anybody ever think that they need Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

Conclusion: Origin, State, and Church

Well, in conclusion, I want to remind us all, in the first place, the origin of abortion. The origin of abortion. I've got three texts. The first, John 8, 44, Jesus says, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it. He was a murderer from the beginning. What's God do?

God creates this world. God creates the earth. God makes Adam and Eve. God tells them to be fruitful and multiply.

God is pro-life. The devil comes in the garden through the serpent, crafty and cunning, and wants to murder, wants to maim, wants to destroy, wants to obliterate, wants to ruin God's good creation. He is a murderer from the beginning. As well, Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6, 12 tells us, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. In other words, behind Planned Parenthood, there is a spiritual dimension. Behind the abortion doctor, there is a spiritual dimension. And we as God's people can never forget that.

Prayer is absolutely crucial in this arena. We need to be praying for babies. We need to be praying for the end of abortion. As our brother said with reference to life on this earth, Jesus taught us to pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

There's no abortion clinics in heaven. There's no maid in heaven. There's no euthanasia in heaven. There's none of that in heaven.

And if Jesus told us to pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven, now some will say, well, there'll never be utopia. I'm one of them. There'll never be utopia. The eschaton is the eschaton.

The golden age is to come. But brethren, with reference to our calling under God in this world, we need to pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And to that end, we need to appreciate the spiritual dimension behind or involved in this crime, this atrocity of abortion. And then Christ speaking his wisdom in Proverbs 8, 36.

He says, but he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me, Jesus says, love death. All those who hate me love death. Again, brethren, read some of the literature.

Unless you live under a rock and you haven't been paying attention, there are women shouting their abortion. There are people that are so filled with glee, at least on the surface, that they murdered babies so that their career could continue down the particular trajectory. And I want to assure you, it ain't just women. Men are as culpable and men are as responsible in this whole sick, twisted affair.

Behind every pregnant woman is a man. That's just the way biology works. Now, there are those instances where women will go to abort their babies against the desires of their men, and that's horrific. And there was a video clip of that some months ago, and it's gut-wrenching to see this man not wanting his wife or girlfriend to go into that abortion clinic to murder their baby.

But for the most part, men are writing checks. Men are swiping credit cards. Men are right there as involved in this process as are the women. So it's not just a women's issue.

And for them who say, well, you're a man. You know nothing about this. These are human beings. I'm a human being.

I know a lot about it. There you go. This whole idea is wretched. Now, secondly, in terms of the state and abortion, I just want to read a brief bit about our situation.

The history of abortion in Canada. The Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1968 and 69, introduced by Pierre Trudeau's liberal government, legalized abortion as long as a committee of doctors signed off that it was necessary for the physical or mental well-being of the mother. Notice they don't really care about the physical or mental well-being of the baby. That's not even in... thought, but this is the way it was.

And then in 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R. V. Morgenthaler that the existing laws were unconstitutional and struck down the 1969 law. The then-governing progressive conservatives attempted but failed to pass a new abortion law.

And since then, Canada has had no criminal laws governing the subject, and abortion is a decision made by a woman with her doctor. No law. We're right up there with China, with Korea, or North Korea. We're right up there with the best and the brightest in terms of God-hating rebels.

It's pathetic. You've seen that. We need a law.ca. Well, this is the emphasis.

There's no law restricting abortion in Canada. Imagine that for a moment. Imagine the Democrat Party in the United States of America. Late-term abortion is the fundamental theme that each of these runners for the office of president have in common.

Pete Buttigieg says that a baby isn't a baby until it takes its first breath. And intriguingly, this man invokes his evangelical faith, all the while married to a man. I mean, that's how strange things have become. And then we're lambasted for preaching on politics.

And then we've got conservatives who don't even want to bring up the issue, and churches oftentimes that follow suit. What a bunch of gutless wonders. Babies are dying in mass. Old people are dying, not as many, but are.

Sick people are dying because they are dispensable. And yet, we've got issues because we say it's wrong, it's sin, it's vile, it's wicked. Now, consider our current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. Quote, I've made it clear that future candidates need to be completely understanding that they will be expected to vote pro-choice on any bills.

In order to play in our political party, you have to vote against the baby. This is just ghoulish, isn't it? I'm not making this up. You can verify all this.

And he's a self-proclaimed feminist. He refused to take a position on sex-selective abortion, which targets baby girls. Don't you love that? Feminists in the United States on Saturday were protesting how bad they have it.

They're protesting how wicked and oppressive the United States of America is. Are you kidding me? I'm not saying that's the best place on the face of the earth, but it's certainly not the worst place on the face of the earth. But these so-called feminists have not one bit of concern about baby girls.

Sex, selective, abortion. We don't want a girl. Let's get rid of her. Just like the infanticide at the time of the early church in the Roman Empire.

Throw it out on the trash heap. Either the dogs will take it or the pimps will take it. And then he goes on to say, quote, leave discussions like that between a woman and the health professionals that she encounters. You hear that, don't you?

I trust women, these politicians will say. I don't. Not one bit. I don't trust women.

I don't trust men. I don't trust murderous doctors. I trust God's law. And God has spoken to these particular issues.

And the function of civil government is simply to enforce it. That's it! Not to say, well, you know, it's up to them. That's like saying, it's up to, and it's probably heading this way, it's up to a man and a child whether pedophilia is to obtain or occur in our modern society.

We're going that direction. The brave new world is upon us. 1984 has been surpassed in many, many ways, and I don't just mean chronologically, I mean theoretically. We are in dark days, and yet, we don't see it. Now, some will say, but the state is not forcing anyone to have abortions.

You're right. We're not in China. They're not forcing it. But again, abortion is murder.

That's a foolish argument. That's a terrible argument. The state isn't forcing people to engage in drive-by shootings either. Oh, well, OK.

Then I guess drive-by shootings are acceptable. And that's no. Murder is murder, whatever the particular condition or situation is. Now, I would suggest, no, I would highly recommend that you understand that abortion is a crime.

There are some sins that aren't necessarily crimes. The civil state should never punish you for covetousness. That is really Orwellian, and none of us want to go that direction. You do not want to be punished for covetousness.

In the criminal sphere, God will always deal with sinners. The civil state is supposed to deal with criminals. So, not all sin is necessarily crime, and not all crime is necessarily sin. Imagine if you lived in Saudi Arabia and you had a Bible.

That would be a crime against the civil state, but it's not a sin against God, is it? God is favorable toward that. We must obey God rather than men. Abortion is both a sin against God, and it's a crime that should be punished by the civil government.

It is a crime against It's a crime against humanity. It is something that is wicked. It is something that is wrong. And that leads us to consider the very purpose of civil government.

And here I rest on J. Gresson Machen. He says, the state exists for the repression of evildoers and the protection of individual liberty. That's what you should want from your federal government.

Notice, he doesn't say they exist to provide everything you'll ever need from the cradle to the grave. That's not their function. That's not their purpose. That's not their role.

Why do Christians sound like status today? We want, we want, we want freebies. No, go out and work. Go do what you're supposed to do.

Faithfully serve your God six days. Get your paycheck. Buy your products. Don't rely on Justin Trudeau to provide everything that you need.

Again, let me just highlight what Machen says, as I believe it accurately reflects what the function of civil government is. The state exists for the repression of evildoers and the protection of individual liberty. That's it. He also said that civil government is, quote, not intended to produce blessedness or happiness, but intended to prevent blessedness or happiness from being interfered with by wicked men.

Now, move from this vantage point, with reference to the consideration of abortion, to what the civil state does want to be involved in. With reference to Canada and the United States, they really do want to tell you what you can eat, what you can't eat, what you can drink, what you can't drink, They want to be in every jot and tittle of your life. If you doubt that, again, you must live under a happy rock, because brethren, this is the reality. They want to be involved at every step.

They want their finger in every pie. They want their involvement felt all over the place, unless it's a woman's right to choose. That should be between her and her doctor. Well, why shouldn't the use of plastic straws be left to McDonald's and their customers?

Why does the civil state feel the need to meddle and to outlaw plastic straws in the state of California, and it's coming here, to outlaw plastic straws because we don't want to fill the landfills with plastic? Aborted fetuses are fine, but not plastic from straws. Why don't they apply that same logic? It should be between McDonald's and their customers to have a plastic straw.

That's what they say with reference to Bush. That should be between a mother and her doctor. No, it shouldn't. It is murder.

And that's the one real function of civil government is to stop murder from happening in a civil society. I don't trust murderous parents. I don't trust diabolical doctors. I don't trust them for a moment, and neither should any of us.

We need to trust the law of God Most High and the reality that righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. And while the civil government in America and Canada isn't the theocratic nation of Israel, and there's a lot of differences in that regard, this one thing persists. Protect the human beings that are under your care. That's it.

Just keep me from getting murdered and keep me from getting, you know, invaded upon by ISIS or whatever rogue criminal element comes from without. Protect me within the civil sphere from murderous people in and protect me from murderous people from without. Brethren, if you ask the Bible what's the function and role of government, it doesn't go much beyond that. It doesn't go much beyond that.

And I think Machen is absolutely right.

The Church and Abortion

Now, finally, with reference to the church and abortion, first of all, We need to understand it's prevalent. Now, there's some good signs, at least in the United States. Some states or cities within states are declaring themselves as sanctuary cities for little babies. Sanctuary cities, not for illegal immigrants, but for pre-born babies.

Some states are trying to eradicate abortion completely. Brethren, that is good and encouraging. The fact is it's prevalent. The fact is that abortion is rampant.

The fact is that we live among a people that are ghoulish in nature in terms of how they respond to little babies in their mother's wombs. It is horrific. I would suggest first the church needs to have the knowledge that the Bible sets forth. I mean, if you're the kind of person that gets into a theological debate and says, well, I think the Bible says you need to repent.

You need to get your act together. We live in a day and age where the God-haters do not play fair. They do not play according to the rules. They lie, they deceive, they cheat.

What we need is a strong biblical apologetic and a strong articulation of what God's Holy Word says. First of all, to teach other Christians, because the thought process among professing Christians today is unfortunately abysmal. We need to know what Scripture says concerning this. Secondly, the professing people of God and surgical abortion.

That's a terrible and a wretched and a wicked thing. Randy Alcorn, in his book, Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Questions, makes this point, and this book is dated, that kids within professing church backgrounds, born-again backgrounds, are having abortions. It's horrific and a reproach among the professing people of God. As well, the professing people of God in the voting booth.

Imagine voting for a candidate who was okay with pedophilia or rape. Would you do that? Probably not. But with abortion, it's a constitutional right.

It's a woman's right to choose. It's her body. She can do whatever she wants. Why are we so foolish like that?

Oh yeah, I'm going to vote for this guy. He's the pedophilia candidate, or he's the rape candidate. You know, what his personal life is, it really doesn't matter. But to be a Democrat or a liberal in the US or Canada, you have to swear or sign on the dotted line to be against babies.

Just imagine how miserable your life must be to target babies for destruction. It's why they always look so unhappy, I guess. When you reject God and when you violate His law, no good comes from it. As well, the professing people of God and sexual immorality.

Young people and children, you know the best way to never ever be confronted with this thought of having to have an abortion or even contemplate it? Is don't have sex. Have it when you're married, get married, find a good woman, find a good guy. When you're young, work hard, do what you're supposed to do, take care of yourself, be fit, whatever you gotta do.

So when you're 18, 19, 20, get married, you have babies, you do what God calls you to do. It's typically among the professing people of God when people are sexually immoral. Again, I'm not a biologist, I'm not a doctor, but this much I know. If you don't have relations, you will not get pregnant.

Just the way it is. It's an amazing thing. I don't ever want this to happen. Will I have the surefire way?

I can tell you 100%. The Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4 says, this is the will of God for you, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. As well, pornography. Pornography never produces good on the part of the viewer.

Pornography oftentimes reduces inhibition. Pornography objectifies persons and people. Pornography oftentimes is the gateway drug into illicit sexual relationships. Don't do it.

And then another thing that happens among the professing people of God is what's called abortifacient birth control. There are types of birth control that are not contraceptive in nature, but rather are abortifacient. That means that once a baby is implanted in the womb, there are certain devices that are utilized to irritate the inner lining of the uterus so that that baby cannot live. That is wicked.

That is chemical abortion. And that is something that we need to guard against. Do not do it. Young people, listen to me.

If you get nothing else out of this sermon today, do what Paul says. Abstain from sexual immorality. No good. Ask your parents, ask your grandparents, ask anybody around you.

Does good things come out of bad things when you sin against God? No, it doesn't. It never gets better. It never gets happier.

It never leaves you in a position where you're free and content and everything is good and you've got peace. No, it's terrible. The way of the transgressor, according to Solomon, is hard. It's not easy, it's not soft, it's not light.

The way of the transgressor is hard. And then as well, with reference to the preaching of the law and abortion. I mentioned earlier the necessity to preach the law. A theologian from a former day, Carl F.

H. Henry, said, even where there is no saving faith, the law serves to restrain sin and to preserve the order of creation by proclaiming the will of God. By its judgments and its threats of condemnation and punishment, the written law, along with the law of conscience, hinders sin among the unregenerate. It has the role of a magistrate who is a terror to evildoers.

It fulfills a political function, therefore, by its constraining influence in the unregenerate world." Now, hopefully everybody in our church would say, yeah, we know that it's called The civil use of the law. There's a pedagogical use where we preach the law to show sinners their sin and their need for the Savior. There's the normative use of the law where the people of God, the believer, the justified by faith Christian lives according to God's law, empowered by the Spirit, not unto salvation, but because he's been saved. But that first use of the law is the civil use.

God uses the law to restrain the wickedness of man. And if the church does not take this seriously, then we end up with what we're seeing. I don't think we can blame the church for everything. I've never been that way, but the church has been complicit in not faithfully declaring the whole counsel of God with reference to these things.

And I want to end with the power of the gospel. As I said earlier, there is forgiveness with God. For those of you who perhaps use McShane's calendar, you've been in the book of Nehemiah. And in Nehemiah chapter eight, Nehemiah and the brothers, they read the law.

They preach the law. That's the sort of the origin of the pulpit. They build a platform, the men stand on there, and they give the sense of the law. It's expositional preaching.

What happens? God blesses it. What happens to the people of Israel? They get convicted, they cry, and then they engage in the sacraments, and they rejoice.

And then in Nehemiah chapter 9, they confess their sins to Yahweh. Now, remember the station or the time that Nehemiah lived. It was after the Babylonian captivity. See, the chronology of the Bible is not reflected in the order of the books in the English Bible.

The chronology is not that which is reflected in the order that is given. Ezra and Nehemiah come after the Babylonian captivity of the church about the 5th or rather 6th or 5th century BC. So Babylon's done, the children of Israel have returned to Judah, and what do the people at Nehemiah's day do? They confess their sins to God.

And you know what the constant refrain is? But, but, but, you have been merciful. You have been kind. You have been gracious.

You have forgiven. See, the reality is, brethren, that we have all sinned against the Holy God. We have all defied Him. Whether or not we've aborted babies, whether or not we've euthanized vulnerable persons, we've all sinned against this Holy God.

But let me assure you as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is forgiveness. There is mercy. You see forgiveness and mercy for the Apostle Paul. What did the Apostle Paul do?

He was there when Stephen was stoned to death. The Apostle Paul was the man who held their garments. The Apostle Paul says he tried to destroy the church of God, but I obtained mercy. He says, this is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world, sinners to save.

And then he says, of whom I am chief. Well, if the chief sinner was forgiven, and you're not the chief sinner, there is forgiveness for such as you. So if you've had an abortion, or if you're a man who incited an abortion with reference to a woman, Go to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, because there is forgiveness, there is mercy, there is grace. And we always need to end on that high note.

Preach the law of God, the righteousness and justice of God, the necessity for the civil state to execute murderers. But with reference to the church, she is the agency of healing. The state is the agency of punishment. The church is the agency of healing.

We dispense the truth of the gospel, the sacraments of the gospel, and the blessed reality that God Most High saves all who come to Him through Jesus Christ our Lord. Well, let us pray.

Closing Prayer

Our Father, these are very difficult subjects to think about. These are very tough subjects to consider. But God, these are very real subjects that are happening each and every day. And we would cry with the prophet, in your wrath remember mercy.

Give us grace as your people to be prayerful concerning these things. Give us grace as your people to be able to articulate what the Bible says concerning these things, and help us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ our Lord. Give us wisdom. Give us grace and help and strength.

Give us biblical understanding as we conduct ourselves in a sinful world. And God, I pray that you would be merciful to any and all here that are still in their sin, whether abortion, whether euthanasia, or any other sin. God, convict them of that sin and show them the glory and the sufficiency and the blessedness of Jesus Christ to save sinners. And we ask in His glorious name, Amen.

Well, let's sing the doxology to conclude our service this morning. It's on page 568 in your hymnbook.

Scripture References

• Genesis 1:26-27; 25:19-23
• Exodus 21:12-14; 21:22-25
• Leviticus 18:21; 19:14; 19:32
• Deuteronomy 7:1-5
• Nehemiah 8; 9
• Job 10:8-12; 31:13-15
• Psalm 51:5; 139:13-16
• Proverbs 6:16-19; 8:36
• Jeremiah 1:5
• Luke 1:15; 1:41-44; 18
• John 8:44
• Romans 1; 13
• Galatians 1:15
• Ephesians 6:4; 6:12
• 1 Thessalonians 4:3
• James 3:9; 5:14
• Revelation 21:8