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you can turn with me in your Bibles to the psalm that we just sang, Psalm 139. For Sanctity of Life Sunday, we want to note a portion of this psalm that speaks to the intimate divine design in creation and specifically as it pertains to the baby in the womb. The implications for our approach to life, to death, to the value of humanity, to the image of God in man as we see the Scriptures holding forth the sanctity of life, the state or quality of being holy, or we may speak to the reality of the ultimate importance or inviolability of life as it itself rests in divine authorship and divine glory. We'll read all of Psalm 139 and then have a look specifically at verses 13 to 16. Psalm 139, the word of God. For the chief musician, a Psalm of David.

Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought of far off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, oh Lord, you know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me. and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you.

For you have formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they all were written. The days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. How precious are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you.

Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men, for they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate you? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Amen. Let's go to God in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time in worship, the preaching of your holy word. Do be with us once again by your spirit. We would pray that we would hallow your name, that we would honor your truth, that we would now be attentive in this act of worship, that we would focus upon the proclamation of your truth. We pray that we would hear what the spirit has for this church, that we would read the words of the living and true God and avail according to their wisdom and according to their perfection. do help us to reflect with great joy upon the Creator, who knits together His creation in the womb. We would see that man is a testament to the glory and the divine design of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who orders all things, who brings all things to a particular point that redound to your glory, that sing your praises, that ought to lift up praises from every soul to the highest places of the heavens in honor of the triune God of heaven and earth. Do be with us now in worship, we pray, in Christ's name, amen.

Well, in Psalm 139 we have, and perhaps the title for the psalm may say something like, God's perfect knowledge of man. We have this first section in verses one to six that speak to divine omniscience, that speak to the knowledge of God, the knowledge that God has of us, his creation. He knows us intimately such that reflecting upon the very knowledge of God, the perfection of the knowledge of God, elicits this response by the psalmist in verse 6, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain it. And then it moves to the omnipresence of God, we could say His immensity, His infinity as it's expressed in His every awareness, where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence?

These words are a comfort to the people of God, but they ought to be a terror to those who are outside of Christ. A terror to those who think that they can hide behind four walls and a roof and engage in all manner of perversion. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? Those who seek perversity in darkness need to know that indeed the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to you.

The psalmist highlights the glories of God and His divine perfections, specifically His omniscience and His omnipresence, blessings to the believer, cursings and terrors to those who do not believe, and then we have this precious reality of the creative intimacy of God in making man, in verses 13 to 16.

We want to focus on that. God's intimate, sovereign, and wise providence is gloriously displayed in the forming of mankind in the womb and establishing, therefore, both the dignity of human life and the comfort of God's people in His all-encompassing care. What doctrine do we have set before us in verses 13-16, we can say that we see there that the formation of man in the womb is a work of God's immediate providence executed according to His eternal decree and redounding to the glory of the One who creates so intimately as One who weaves us together in our mother's wombs. The blessing that we have in a divine Creator and the testament that man is to the wisdom of God to the glory of God, to the creative excellencies of the one who creates. Life from conception onward is the life that God has bestowed and is such a reality that that life bears the very image of God as we'll see in a moment.

And from the outset of the church, coming from the apostolic age and moving forward, Believers, theologians, Christians have reflected upon this and seen the perversity, the corruption, the madness and the iniquity of ending life senselessly in the womb.

Tertullian wrote, We are not permitted to touch the embryo, lest we should be guilty of murder. Hippolytus, if anyone shall destroy the fruit of the womb, he has destroyed a human being and will give account. Cyprian of Carthage, let no one kill his child, nor let him be an heir to murder. To destroy a fetus formed or unformed is murder.

Lactantius, murder begins in the womb. The flower of life is laid low. Basil, the infant, though enclosed in the womb, is already a human being. What is more precious than a living soul? And Ambrose, not to exhaust the witness. He who committed murder shall not escape punishment. For murder ceases not to be murder, though it be committed before birth.

Human beings bear the very dignity they have because they are creatures made and sustained by God. And Psalm 139 provides the poetical grammar for this particular reality. Life is not self-originating, nor morally neutral in its earliest stages. It is already the object of divine intention, being itself the object of divine design, human dignity, rests upon divine authorship. And what we want to look at with respect to this psalm, four things, actually five. The intention of the, or we could say the principle intention of this psalm, or the principle and ultimate meaning of this psalm has to do with the very words of Christ in reflection upon his incarnate glory, his incarnate humility, we could say. And so the ultimate meaning is Christological in its thrust, but that does not evacuate, but rather strengthens the ethical reality that Human life bears the dignity of the very Creator that created it. So five things.

First, the Creator's intimate formation. Secondly, the response of the redeemed. Thirdly, the hidden artistry of God. Fourthly, the eternal decree manifest in the womb. And fifthly, the incarnation as the ground for the sanctity of life. So first, the Creator's intimate formation.

Notice verse 13. You have formed My inward parts you have covered me in my mother's womb." There is an intimate connection between the formation and the one who forms. The psalmist could have perhaps written, I was formed. My inward parts were formed. I was covered in my mother's womb. But he uses the language, you formed.

Your hands formed. my inward parts. There is intimate care by the Creator in weaving together human life. It is the intimacy of the Divine Creator, a personal connection between the God of all things and that which is formed in the womb of the human mother. You formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. There is, if there is intimate care then, there is a careful and a significant creation that is obtaining here.

And you can turn with me to a notable passage in connection with the sanctity of human life, and that's in Genesis chapter 1. This is what exalts man above all the other creatures. Perhaps we could say, save angels. In a redemptive way though, man is exalted above all creatures. In Genesis 1, we have this reality that it is not the gibbon, it is not the seagull, it is not the squirrel or the baby seal created in the image of God. It is man alone for a particular purpose.

In Genesis 1 at verse 26, 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." It's an interesting note by one of the commentators on this point.

And I cannot recall his name, but he notes something in connection to the holy, holy, holy exclamation in Isaiah 6, to the three-fold repetition of created in Genesis 1.27. God, in the declaration of the angels, God is holy, holy, holy.

He is infinitely exalted above all his creation. He is other than that which he has created. The great distinction between creator and the creature, well, man is created in the image of God, and this language is repeated three times, just like the holy, holy, holy of Isaiah 6. Man is the super excellent creation of all creation.

He is the one who has been made in the image of God by the glorious Creator to bear that very image that He has bestowed on man. And we may ask ourselves, what is this image of God? What does it mean to be made in the image of God? God has no form. God is spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all of his glorious perfections. So what does it mean to be made in the image of God?

One definition runs this way, and it is a good definition. The image of God in man consists principally in original righteousness, that is, in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. whereby man was conformed to God morally and spiritually, and secondarily in those faculties of the soul, reason, will, and affections, wherein he is capacitated for communion with God and dominion over creation." We were created in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.

In the fall, man lost that particular principal reality of the image of God, but we still bear those things secondarily, the faculties of the soul, reason, will, and affections, though they be corrupted, nevertheless by those things we are made and declared to be above those things that surround us that we have dominion over.

It's a perverse and a wicked world that gives more rights to eagles in their eggs than to babies in their wombs. It's a perverted and upside down and wicked world that gives more rights to the baby seal than to babies in their mother's wombs. It is perverse and upside down for a world to set exalted above the fetus, to set exalted above the embryo, to set exalted above, let's just say it plainly, the baby in the womb, the rights of cows and horses. We have before us the blessed reality that the God of heaven and earth, You have formed my inward parts. have covered me in my mother's womb. We see here, of course, the sovereign and formative agency of God in crafting man.

We see as well the depths of the divine constitution. Notice, you have formed my inward parts. It's interesting language. I've seen some note here that it could be a reference to the kidneys, but that in a poetical sense. In other words, it's not just some sort of general formation, it's not just some sort of external formation or a detached creation of a class of being, but God has intimately designed and he is the artificer of our body in its extensive nature, and our souls. He has woven us together. He has knit us together. He has created us from the outside to the inside, and all about, He has formed our inward parts.

That baby in the womb is one created by the Divine Creator, created in the image of God, and at all stages of life is to be treated with great dignity and great sanctity. It is a It is the depth of divine constitution. You have formed my inward parts, not simply form or shape, but the entirety of the life, body and soul.

And I think it's good for us at times like this to observe the complexities and the intricacies of the human body as testaments and declarations to divine design. You've heard that quote before. of Spurgeon, if you've been here for a while, in his reflection upon Psalm 19, his reflection upon the testament that the stars and the galaxies rolling in their orbits give to man upon earth.

In the expanse above us, God flies, as it were, his starry flag to show the king is at home and he hangs out his coat of arms bearing shield to show the atheist how much he despises their denunciations of him. Well, the same is with the intricacies of the human body. In the expanse of the human body, in the intricacy and the genius of how we are composed, God flies the banner of divine genius in creation. And the atheist to look at that, the naturalist to look at that, The self-confessed Christian who supports abortion, which is an oxymoron, to consider the complexities of the human body and the fact that it has been made in the image of God, is to rail against reason, to rail against the declaration of the Creator, and to rail against his sacred word. The depths of divine constitution speak to the sanctity of human life, the complexities, the intricacies of the human body, just to reflect upon the human genome.

There's a quote we'll cite in a minute at the point of a number of verse at a a number of verses forward from where we are right now, but we reflect upon what we're able to do as human beings in comparison to the gibbon, the squirrel, the albatross, and the worm.

None of the other creatures are able to engage in story writing. I've never seen a gibbon sit down in a chair, stroke his beard, and write out wonderful chapters of poetry or prose or fiction or non-fiction. A house cat, as wonderful as they are, cannot sit down and reflect upon its own history and stroke its whiskers and think about different things that were blessed and that were cursed in their own history. A cockroach can't engage in Aristotelian syllogisms. It can't set forth premises and conclusions.

They can't, you know, you could slap a, you know, slap a house dog behind the steering wheel, and he might be able to grip it a little bit with the paws, but can he navigate exiting off of Highway 1, driving to Langley, getting off at 232nd and driving to somewhere in Langley?

And we're just scratching the surface of the obvious declaration in the testament of the creation of mankind that we, by God's design, stand above the animal. We stand above those who have been formatively blessed in order that we might, as image bearers, bring glory to the living. and true God. The careful and skillful hand of the Creator is seen.

You covered me in my mother's womb. We sang the language in the hymn, and other renderings have this. You knit me together. You have weaved me. You have woven me together in my mother's womb. The language is of an intimate embroidery and intimate knitting together of the baby in the womb.

It's God as the divine weaver. Notice in the book of Job, in the book of Job, in Job 10, like language to Psalm 139 here, Job 10 beginning at verse 8. Very similar language, speaking of God as the divine weaver, the one who carefully has fashioned from conception onward the intricacies of man.

Your hands, Job 10.8, have made me and fashioned me, 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.

God is the sovereign and divine weaver of the lives of His creation, and mankind specifically and intimately He has fashioned together by His glory and for His glory. Notice, secondly, the response of the redeemed. So we have the Creator's intimate formation. Our divine Creator, the one who set the galaxies rolling in their orbits, has condescended to create image-bearers for His glory. And the response of the redeemed, as we see in verse 14, is, I will praise you. The response of the redeemed, it should be the response of every man, of every woman, of every boy, of every girl, to respond in praise to their creator for the glory of his creation and for his divine perfections alone. But it is, of course, the redeemer's response, I will praise you.

And what does it mean to praise God? Perhaps, kids, you've heard You're the preacher, your parents speak to you about, we need to praise God. Here, as we gather together in worship, we are to praise our God. What does that mean? We would want to say that it's not seen primarily in emotional outburst. I say not primarily, but we should never emotionally outburst anyway. But not primarily is praise seen in emotional outburst, musical expression, or subjective feeling, but The spiritual response of the whole person to the revealed excellencies of God. That is praise.

Our spiritual response to the revealed excellencies of God. And what is in view here but the revealed excellency of the human being? the revealed excellency of the conceptus in the womb, the baby in the womb, the revealed excellencies of the Divine Weaver who has woven us together, mankind together, in our mother's wombs. Praise is, again, that spiritual response by the redeemed, the whole person, a whole-souled response to the One who has created us, the excellencies of God. the glory due to the master weaver? What is the response of the formation of mankind?

It is, I will praise you. As we'll see in a moment, there's a foreclause that follows, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. But the artisan of galaxies is the artisan of humanity from conception. I think we very often, when we reflect upon divine creation, I think very often, and hey, rightly so, we look outward. We can look up to the stars and we can see the declaration of a God who has put those stars in their place. We can look to the mountains and see the majesty of rolling hills, the majesty of pointed scapes and the trees that bedeck those mountains. We can look upon the rolling waves of oceans and those things and there see the majesty of God. but not as if to exalt ourselves in some sort of pride, but we ought to very often as well look to humanity and see something of the centrality of creation, that He created man in order that man might be redeemed by the living, the doing, the dying, the rising again of the Son of God, and that by that Christ, He might bring many image-bearers that He has woven together to glory. The creator, the artisan, the artificer of galaxies is the one who has fashioned humanity, is the one who has done so and from conception.

And as we'll see in a number of minutes, even if we may say prior to conception. We see the wondrous workmanship that commands our worship. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. What a glorious phrase, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. What an abomination it is then to bring destruction to something that has been fearfully and wonderfully made. in perversion, in corruption, in murderous iniquity, to bring to end the life of one who has been fearfully and wonderfully made. In the womb, woven together by the divine Creator, to bring destruction to that in a place where they should be the most safest. It's an abomination in the sight of God because we are, in His image, fearfully and wonderfully made. This language of fearfully I think we're to see in that two things, but ultimately it is God word.

It's reverent awe towards the one who makes. We consider the making of humanity, we consider the intimacy, the intricacy, the obvious design, and it is to elicit not a terror, but a reverential awe toward the master weaver, the one who has created, the one who has fashioned the baby in the womb. Reverent awe towards the One who makes. This fear is directed upward, not inward. Creation revealing the majesty of the Creator. That's what that baby in the womb does. It's not a burden. It's not something to be cast off. It declares the glory of the master weaver, the creator of all things. That one resting in the safest place it should rest is a testament to the glory, the wondrous workmanship that commands our worship.

Fearfully, this reverential awe rendered towards one so glorious that he can fashion life from out of nothing, or from the dust of the earth. Wonderfully. What do we see here? So we're fearfully made, this is to elicit in everyone, but certainly they're redeemed, an exalted respect and an exalted honoring and reverential awe to the one who has weaved together human life, it's also wonderfully, we are wonderfully formed, we are wonderfully made. It is that we are set apart, we are intricate, yes, but distinctly purposed within creation. We are fearfully and we are wonderfully made.

We are exalted above the other creatures in that God has set a peculiar eye upon His image bearers that He might bring many men and women, boys and girls, to salvation through Jesus Christ, our blessed Redeemer. Divine wisdom is expressed through creaturely form. The baby in the womb is a declaration of the divine wisdom, of the glory of the Creator in fashioning together so glorious a thing. God does not engage in some detached, general creation of humanity as just some class of existence. Notice the language.

First, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. And then, marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. Again, God does not engage in some detached, general creation of humanity as a class of creation. but a precious individuality exists from the exact moment of divine formation. In that womb, the preciousness of a blessed individuality, the divine weaver having woven together a glorious image-bearer within the womb of the human mother. And we see here something of, not something of, we see here the certain knowledge of divine craftsmanship.

Notice what the redeemed also says. The redeemed praises the creator and the redeemed knows very well that the works of the creator are marvelous. That should be our response as well. it's the redeemed response, so it should be our response, as the redeemed, is that we see God as marvelous. We gather together for worship. God is a marvel. He is amazing. His excellencies, His perfections, His most absoluteness, His most holiness, His most lovingness, His grace, His mercy, His condescension towards the sons of men, the glory of His being and the perfections of His work are to elicit in the redeemed this marvelousness, or the response that God is marvelous and His works are marvelous.

Our souls know that very well. The Hebrew, as one commentator notes, denotes something both dreadful and awe-inspiring. Not dreadful in the negative sense, but that the intricacies of divine creation in mankind are such that it is to elicit, again, reverential awe before the God who has made such a thing, mankind, to behold the glories of God and to follow after the path of righteousness. On this reality, marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.

The redeemed say this, the redeemed know this, the redeemed live this, and it is to be the case, of course, that all men are to observe this. And to a certain degree, there are those outside of Christ that are so confronted by the marvelousness of God and His works that they even in their view, mistakenly confess it. There's an occasion, this is extended, but I think you'll find it a glorious testament to the obviousness of creation in mankind.

Because it is the case on many fronts that the prevailing philosophy behind abortion, the prevailing philosophy behind infanticide is the casting aside of God from our contemplations. If we get God out of our mind, and we never truly can, but if we get God out of our minds and out of the equation, then we are the lords of our own destinies and lords over our own bodies, if you will. And we can do whatever we want to the creation, because there is no... Well, first of all, it isn't the creation. It's just the madness of the fairy tale that nothing exploded and created everything. And we live according to the casting aside of God. One atheist famously said, we must not let a divine foot in the door.

This is an occasion where we see here a scientist. Some of you have heard this quote before in its smaller casing. But a scientist working on the Human Genome Project, we've been talking a little bit about the intricacies of the human body. And this microbiologist is working on the Human Genome Project, which, kids, was the examination of human DNA to map out the human DNA and figure smart things out with the human DNA. But notice the inescapability of the marvelousness of the works of God professed even by those who are in unbelief. In an article printed in The Ledger, February 17, 2000, entitled The Biologist, the author recounts an interview with a scientist who was working on the Human Genome Project.

His specific focus is on the genetic controls of diseases, the purposes for which would be to eliminate them. Pretty good idea. The interviewer asks the scientist about his beliefs on evolution. His answer was shocking. He said that he knows of nobody in his whole profession who believes in evolution anymore. He said that genetic information was designed by genius beyond genius. When asked if he has ever lectured on or written about this viewpoint, his answer was just as shocking as the first. He said, no, I just say it evolved.

To be a molecular biologist requires one to hold on to two insanities at all times. It would be insane to believe in evolution when you can see the truth for yourself. And two, it would be insane to say you don't believe in evolution because all government work, research grants, papers, college lectures, everything would stop. I'd be out of a job.

And then in brackets, the article writer says, huh, I thought in science, if things don't make sense, you could question the, oh, never mind. The geneticist being interviewed said something else interesting. He said, the work I do in genetic research is honorable. We will find the cures to many of mankind's worst diseases.

But in the meantime, we have to live with the elephant in the living room. What elephant, the interviewer asked, creation design. It's like an elephant in the living room. It moves around, takes up an enormous amount of space, loudly trumpets, bumps into us, knocks things over, eats a ton of hay, and smells like an elephant.

And yet we have to swear it isn't there. Isn't that the intellectual dishonesty of the scientific profession by those who are forced, whether by themselves or by the complex, to deny God, to deny creation, even though they secretly affirm that There is genius beyond genius in these things.

Marvelous are your works, that my soul knows very well. A spiritual acknowledgement, not a bare observation. It's not just, those are your works. It's marvelous are your works, and my soul knows that very well. The mind, even of those who try to cast out the thoughts of God, are compelled enough to acknowledge that there is genius beyond genius. And we know as the redeemed that there is genius beyond genius.

The Divine One. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who has knit together babies in their wombs. And so when it comes to the topic of human life, whether beginning at conception or to the very end, there is an inviolable sanctity. There is an inviolable and ultimate importance and significance because it is the weaving together of the creator. It is the making of the one who set galaxies in their orbits. The one who did that is the one who has framed mankind in the womb of the mother.

And we see, moving on in the text, the hidden artistry of God. The hidden artistry of God. Notice verse 15. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Now, of course, in our modern day, we have technology, we can, with cameras, see inside the womb. It's not as if this psalm, though, no longer bears any weight, given technology in the 21st century.

It is the case that it is only God who can truly see the hidden frame of mankind. That one inside the womb, the idea is that God has that intimate knowledge of the one more so than anyone else has knowledge of that one who is formed in the womb of the mother. All the more another reason why it is an absolute abhorrence to murder to murder a baby in the womb. Wait upon wait, clause upon clause, divine revelation upon divine revelation testifies to that abhorrence and exalts the reality that there is a creator who not detachedly but intimately has framed mankind in the womb of the mother. We see here the omniscient eye of God upon our hidden frame. The womb is likened to the lowest parts of the earth. The lowest parts of the earth, if we think about that, we don't know much about that. It's secret. It's obscure. It's mysterious. But God knows that which is obscure, that which is secret, that which is hidden. He intimately knows His creation, that which He has created in His image to bring glory, to bring honor, to be testaments to grace and testaments to divine justice.

It's interesting language as well here with regards to the embroidery language that's used more than once in this text. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, curiously wrought or skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. The language used, very interestingly, is used elsewhere.

One place, and you could turn with me if you'd like to, to Exodus 26. Exodus 26, speaking of the splendor of the temple, Notice in Exodus 26, 36, with regards to the creation, not of the temple rather, sorry, but the tabernacle. Notice in verse 36, you shall make a screen for the door of the tabernacle, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen made by a weaver.

God is described in Psalm 139, as we've noted already, as a divine weaver. One who knits together. And if the glory of God is to be captured in this screen or veil for the door of the tabernacle, how much more is His image-bearer a declaration of the glory of the Creator. Not a human weaver, but the divine weaver who has made us in His image. The image of God is glorified even in the womb. Even before birth, the soul and body are knit together by the Lord for His purpose and for His praise.

We see next the eternal decree manifest in the womb. Notice in v. 16, so now we're going even behind the door of conception. We're going behind, we're going before, if you'll allow the language, conception, and we're seeing God in His eternal decree, even knowing the substance. We see the eternal decree manifest in the womb. Your eyes saw My substance being yet unformed.

And in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. And so the act of creation, the act of weaving together the baby in the mother's womb is a testament to the glory of the creator and therefore a declaration that the violation, that the murder, that the destruction of that one is an offense against the living and true God who has woven that one. We also see that the reality of a sovereign God in the eternal decree who has known our very substance. We were written in a particular book of creation before that day of fashioning, when as yet there were no days, God knew us.

That is also a testament to the sanctity, to the dignity of human life before it's even coming into being. It's an offense against the glory of God to murder babies in the womb. It's an offense against the glory of the eternal decree to rail against One who has sought to fashion, to weave together the glory of One in the womb of the mother. The souls Confident rest in divine purpose is set before us here. Your eyes saw my substance. What ought to be the response of the redeemed to this declaration in verses 13-15? It is one of confident rest in divine purpose.

Again, your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. In your book, it's the decree of God, the mind of God, if you will, before bringing things into being is captured as a book. The word is actually in the Greek Septuagint where we get the word Bible. And in your Bible, if you'll allow, they all were written. The days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them.

We should have, the believers should have, confident rest in divine purpose. And far be it from anyone, and God forbid that any of the redeemed would own any action, would own any deed, where such decreed glory and such divine glory is destroyed by the hands of wicked men. The eternal decree is manifest in the womb, and we as believers rest confidently in divine purpose.

We see here God's knowledge being prior to completion. An embryo, shapeless to man, is known perfectly to God. It may be shapeless insofar as it does not bear yet the formation of a man, but a baby is a living human being that God intimately has woven together. He has fashioned and knit together the embryo which may be shapeless to man, but known perfectly to the God who weaved that precious one.

God's providence precedes and governs all growth formation in these days that are fashioned for me. What a confident rest we can have when we look upon our world beset on all sides by wickedness and corruption and evil, by unrighteousness, by iniquity, by transgression and depravity. We can rest in a sovereign God who has fashioned our days for us. What an absence of comfort, what an absence of hope in a naturalistic world where there is no God over all things who has fashioned us and fashioned our days. What a hopeless reality that is.

What a glorious reality it is for the redeemed and for those who know the certain truth that there is a Creator triune in high heaven who has woven together His image bearers that they might in time bring glory through the redemption wrought by Christ. And as we noted at the beginning, we are to see as Pastor Butler has started the Psalms and has been preaching through the Psalms, he's noted on more than one occasion that these are the words of Christ, the prayers of Christ, the praises of of Christ. And we see here, by virtue of the inspired author David, that the incarnate Christ is in view here, giving praises to God, reflecting upon the knowledge that God has of the Christ, the Son of God having assumed our nature, and the Christ returning praise for the works wrought by God in bringing to bear this plan of redemption. For You formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. The Son of God's assumption of embryonic and fetal life interprets what Psalm 139 already affirms. That human life is valuable. Human life bears sanctity before it is even visible or, if we may say, socially acknowledged.

The Son of God bore what we bore. The Son of God took upon Himself our humanity. It's interesting. that the second Adam did not come as an adult, he did not assume or come as an adult man, but assumed our nature and in so doing was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Far from this being principally about Christ, vacating Psalm 139 of anything to do with an ethical reality that touches upon the topic of abortion and the sanctity of human life, the assumption of the Son of God of our humanity strengthens that claim. The Son of God assumed our humanity and thereby exalts humanity to a point that ought to already have been recognized as fearful and wonderful and marvelous by virtue of the divine weaver, the divine creator. But now the Son of God, having assumed our nature, He redeems a sinful humanity, not by bypassing its early stages, but by passing through the very stages. The value of human life is not grounded in emotion or politics in this sense, but in the divine wisdom and in the Word made flesh.

Value of human life is grounded in the divine wisdom, again, the Divine Weaver, the Creator of heaven and earth, who set galaxies in their orbits and who has woven together mankind in the womb of the mother and in the Word made flesh. Christ assumes our humanity that He might bring many sons to glory, and in so doing, sanctifies that womb that was already sanctified by virtue of God being the divine creator of all things, peculiarly for mankind.

In conclusion, we should tremble before the God who sees in secret and works in hidden places, and who has skillfully woven the life of the human being. We should tremble before that God. We as the redeemed most certainly should tremble before this God, not in a running away fear, but in that running to fear, running forward rather, running to reverential fear, reverential awe. Exalting in the One who has fashioned mankind for that peculiar and glorious redemptive purpose, the unbeliever should tremble.

The One who seeks to exalt death and not life in our lower scheme. What a culture of death. What an inverted culture that seeks to destroy mankind in what should be its most protected, but certainly its most vulnerable state. The unbeliever, the naturalist, the atheist, the advocate for abortion, the advocate for infanticide, ought to fear the God of heaven and earth. They ought to tremble. They ought to have such a disposition as those before the Lamb of Terror who call upon the rocks and the trees to hide them from the wrath of God. Kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and they perish in the way.

Those who rule over us, those in positions of power, who exalt death, who exalt wickedness over life and over goodness and righteousness, ought to fear the God of heaven and earth. And those who would be proponents of the murder of the unborn ought to fear, ought to tremble, before the God who sees in secret even their innermost thoughts and will judge the unrighteous with everlasting fire.

We should defend and fight for the dignity of life in the womb and not upon sentiment, but upon the glory of God displayed in the creation and upon the authoritative scriptures. We defend and fight according to that sixth commandment that Pastor Butler mentioned, according to the glories of God displayed in creation and peculiarly in the image of God that is in man. We should also rest in the omnipotent providence of God who numbered our members and has also numbered our days. This doctrine applied in our lower world and for all Christians is against, first, modern naturalism. modern naturalism that opposes the God of heaven and earth.

They know He's there. They suppress Him in unrighteousness. It is that full-time job, the mind of mankind, to suppress the reality of God in unrighteousness. We already heard from an unbelieving scientist who knows that there is genius beyond genius behind the human genome, behind the DNA of mankind.

No one with a proper intelligence and with a mind working with a measure of propriety can say that there is not a God who has made, who has created, who has put all things in order, and who has knit together that baby in the womb. This doctrine applied is, of course, against abortion, against infanticide. The womb is a sacred temple wherein God fashions His image. And for anyone to violate that, for anyone to rail against the blessed glory and simplicity of life in the womb, That is to engage in murder to rail against the God who has intimately fashioned to rail against the divine perfections of the one who has woven together his image bearers. May God have mercy on a generation who seeks to murder the innocent in the womb. This is unto comfort in affliction as well.

He who formed us knows all of our days, and so there is, we can confidently say, nothing without purpose. The days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. And in your book, they all were written. We can have comfort in affliction And we can know that there is a God who works according to divine purpose to bring glory to his name and good to his people.

And this doctrine applied is unto worship. I will praise You. David praises the incarnate Son, praises God according to His assumed humanity, so we must praise our Maker as well, as the redeemed, with body and soul. Our inward parts, the whole person. When we come into worship, we don't just come superficially into this place, but we come as a whole person who is to exalt in the revealed excellencies of God, one of those things being the blessed creation of a baby in the womb. The blessed creation of mankind in the womb of the mother.

And as that one grows, and as that one is birthed, and as that one is brought unto the tomb there is sanctity. Unto the tomb there is dignity. Unto that end before God there is great and ultimate significance. May God have mercy on a generation that rejoices in death.

May God have mercy on a generation that exalts, that rejoices in the murder of the unborn, that rejoices in the murder of babies, that has t-shirts printed and hats made and all of these things fashioned that they might rejoice in the destruction of those in the womb. What godlessness, what satanically animated Terrible, terrible sin. Terrible transgression. Terrible iniquity.

May God have mercy, and as Pastor Butler prayed, may God turn the hearts of those who are wrapped up in that madness, who are wrapped up in that sin, that they may behold the glory of the Creator, the glory of the One who has formed our inward parts, who has woven us together in the mother's womb.

May God turn the hearts of rulers, may God turn the hearts of the populace to know the sanctity of life, to know the glory of the Creator, to know the glory of the One who assumed that reality of our humanity in the womb and forward and in time redeemed a multitude of sinners. this morning, and you're in sin, generally speaking, outside of Christ, or you have been wrapped up in this terrible sin, know that there is a Savior for sin. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into this world, sinners to save, and Paul says, of whom I am chief. There is mercy to be had in the living and true God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray in his name. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your truth. We thank you for what we see in the Holy Scriptures.

God, we pray that you would help us to rejoice in you as the divine weaver of image bearers, the creator of mankind, the one who has created all things in the space of six days, and all very good, the one who providentially governs over his people. over His creation and the one who in time redeems and brings forth sinners to everlasting life. We pray for those who rule over us and those who are wrapped up in the madness and the abhorrence of abortion, that You would change their hearts and turn them to the living God, otherwise cause them to stumble like drunken men, that they would no longer bring perversion upon the nations. We pray that You would go with us into this day. Help us to reflect upon Your glories. Help us to reflect upon Your excellencies. Help us to rejoice in You, God, our Creator. And we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.