The Fight for Life

It was the mid-1980s, and I was a teenager. It was a Sunday night, and our parents and several of the deacons asked our youth group to come into a classroom. We called it classroom number one, where I grew up there in Austin, and to watch a video. And the video was entitled, The Silent Scream.

Ultrasound technology was new in that day and age, and we were just learning about what happens inside a mother’s womb by getting pictures with this technology, and then being able to see what takes place there. It was fascinating. We had never known before that time, you know, what it looked like or what happened, but this particular film had been made in response to the 1972 Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade, which you may know It didn’t just legalize it, it turned it into a right, quote-unquote, where any pregnant woman in the United States could go in and abort her child.

And the states didn’t have the ability to say no. The people didn’t have the ability to vote on it. The Supreme Court just simply said, this is the way it’s going to be, whether you like it or not. And so, the battle became one for hearts and minds.

And this particular video that they showed us was part of that battle. We walked into the room and we sat down, and there on the screen in front of us, they said, This is going to be shocking to some of you. This is going to be graphic. And I won’t describe it in detail this morning, but it was truly horrifying.

We watched the beginning of the video, a young child in a mother’s womb, and at the end of the video, there was nothing left there. But after I saw that video, there was no doubt in my mind that what had taken place was tantamount to murder.

When the Supreme Court reversed the Roe v. Wade decision, June 24th of 2022, we rejoiced. We were glad that this kind of atrocity was not going to be promoted as a right anymore. Of course, that didn’t mean that all of the states were on board, and in fact, since that decision was made, things are very divided among the states.

There are some states where it is completely illegal to have an abortion, period, such as, for example, the state of Texas. There are other states, and one in particular, which just this past week made news for passing a law that legalized abortion up until the moment of birth. The state of Massachusetts. And it is mixed, and it creates problems.

Another issue that came up this past week was that there was a woman who, because a couple, and I don’t know who they are, if they’re married or not married, but a couple decided that they wanted to have their child through a surrogate mother, so they donated the necessary items and impregnated this woman scientifically.

And she started carrying a baby boy. Well, they found out that the…or was it a girl? I don’t remember. But they found out that the child had some sort of heart problem. And the parents wanted the woman who was carrying their child to have an abortion.

Well, she refused. She fled to Texas, where the Attorney General of the state said, No, you don’t have to do that here. And she gave birth to this child. And now, the state of Texas is in a legal situation where the parents have come and the state is requiring them to give medical attention to this child who has a heart problem.

But they didn’t want the woman to have the child to begin with. And that’s where the differences in the laws and the state creates an issue. What does the Bible have to say about the fight for life? God is a God of life.

We read in Deuteronomy 30, verse 19, where Moses says to God’s people, “…I call heaven and earth as witness today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”

God is the God of life. Jesus said in John 10, verse 10, The thief comes but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.

Well, in our culture today, we are divided. As I mentioned, several states have come out on the side of death. And then other states have come out on the side of life. And then there’s some who are kind of in between. But what must we do to win the fight for life?

What must happen for us to stand up for righteousness and support those innocent children who suffer because of the sins of their parents? We want to talk about three things this morning in that regard. First of all, to win the fight for life, we need to win the battle for truth.

We need to win the battle of personal responsibility. And third, we need to win the battle of the role of the church. Let’s think about those three things this morning as we think about the fight for life. First of all, we need to win the battle for truth. What does it mean for something to be true?

No, it’s not just a matter of opinion. Many believe, opposite or contrary to that notion, that morality is just a matter of opinion or personal taste. In fact, years ago, when I was getting my master’s degree, I sat in on an ethics class at St. Edward’s University.

On the first day of the class, the professor asks the students, what do you think morality is like? Is it more like the expression, 2 plus 2 equals 4, that is a hard and fast truth, something that cannot change, something that must be adhered to?

Or, is morality more like, say, your taste in ice cream, whether you prefer chocolate or vanilla? Which one of those is morality more like? And he asked the students to go around and vote, and this was sort of an icebreaker, I guess, and there was no debating it. It was just, what do you think? Raise your hand one way or another, what your opinion is.

Well, at the end of that class, and I believe there were 23 students in the class, counting myself, 21 out of the 23 said morality was more like picking your favorite flavor of ice cream, chocolate or vanilla. Just a personal preference, but certainly nothing that one had to observe by way of truth.

Well, that’s exactly what the devil wants us to believe. Because if you take God out of morality entirely, you take truth out of morality, Then morality just becomes a matter of public opinion, or a matter of personal taste, and what one may think is murder, another may think is just perfectly fine, and we see that starting to make more inroads in our society all the time.

The truth is this, that mankind seeks to deceive itself into thinking that morality is not absolute and objective and true. And what does this mean? It means that God is in conflict with man. This shouldn’t surprise us because God has been in conflict with man for a long time.

In fact, in Jeremiah 25, verse 31, we read, For the Lord has a controversy with the nations. He will plead His case with all flesh. A controversy. Micah 6, verse 2, For the Lord has a complaint against His people, and He will contend with Israel. God has a conflict with man, and man tries to shrug it off as if it’s just a matter of opinion.

The controversy is between right and wrong, truth and error, and which side will we stand up on? The fact is that God gives absolute truth, and His truths do not change, and He demands that we conform to those truths.

Jesus said in John chapter 8 and verse 32, “…and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He then said in John 17, verse 17, what the source of truth is. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. And so we have God’s truth before us in His holy word. And we have the opportunity then to present it to others, which means that we must fight the good fight.

Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 6, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, spiritual powers, “…against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

There is a fight that God wants us to engage in. It’s not a carnal fight, by any means. It’s not a fight that’s won with a sword or with a gun or With something like that, no. It’s a fight for the hearts and minds of mankind. It’s a fight between spiritual hosts of wickedness and righteousness. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10, 3-6, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God.

We’re pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

And so we see it’s about obedience. It’s about commitment to the truth. It’s about dedication to what’s real. What happens when we abandon truth? Well, you can see it in our headlines today. Murder, suicide, theft, and many other social problems that take place in this world.

When people believe that they can make their own truth, that they can ignore reality, then what happens? People get hurt. Again, it’s nothing new. Consider the efforts that were made several hundred years ago in the modern era even by Napoleon to get rid of God from France. What happened? Millions of people killed, slaughtered.

What about the efforts of Stalin in Soviet Russia? Scores of people slaughtered to hold up a godless ideology. Hitler, while he professed belief in God, very much was a modernist, subscribed to the thoughts of a philosopher named Nietzsche, and sought to implement a sort of master race over society. Again, it was an abandonment of truth and God and what was righteous and holy that led Him to do what He did.

When God’s Word is not upheld, terrible consequences follow in the world. And so to win the fight for life, first of all, we must win the battle for truth. But then secondly, to win the fight for life, we need to win the battle of personal responsibility.

What motivates someone to have an abortion or to commit murder or to act in some other immoral and sinful way, largely? It’s the desire to sin without consequence. For abortion, people want to commit fornication, and they don’t want to have to worry about the consequences of their fornication. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4, in verses 3 through 8, For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you have to abstain from fornication, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lusts like the Gentiles, who do not know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this manner, In this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified, for God did not call us to uncleanness, but unholiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

That was the teaching. And that’s what many believed and subscribed to for thousands of years. But then, when the modern age came, the group of people came along and said, we don’t need God. We don’t need those restrictions. We can live our lives the way we want.

And not have to deal with the consequences of our immorality. In the 1960s, there was a series of judicial decisions at the Supreme Court that ushered in a tremendous age of libertine values that loosened society’s moral strictures on sexuality.

The invention of the birth control pill created a tremendous push for these things to take place. Women were told that now they could be in control of their own reproduction and have sex without consequences. They could have careers without having to worry about children.

In fact, also this past week in the news, one particular congressperson by the name of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came out publicly and decided that she was going to freeze her eggs. You say, well, what does that mean? Well, it’s a process by which a woman decides that she’s not going to have children right now.

She wants to have them later in life, and so she’s going to freeze her eggs, and then later on, she will be able to access those eggs, fertilize them, and have a baby when it’s convenient for her. Modern scientific medical advances are certainly helpful in a lot of areas of life, but in some places, it seems like, no, it is the case.

People are simply trying to play God. The marriage rate since the 1960s has dropped 60% more couples wanting to just cohabitate now than to commit to a lifelong decision. The divorce rate is 40 to 45 percent, much higher than it was before all of these sweeping changes took place. Many, many children are still born out of wedlock, especially in the United States, where we have three times the world average of children who, within their homes, don’t have either mother or father.

It’s only 7% worldwide, and why is that? Because in those other countries in the world, they still commit to and uphold monogamy in a lot of places. The research shows that this is detrimental to our society. When children don’t have both parents in the home, there is a tremendous curtailment of development. Why?

Why all of these changes? Why the desires? The Bible says it’s simply this. We have a choice between the flesh and between the Spirit. In Galatians chapter 5 and verses 16 through 26, the Apostle Paul makes that very clear. He says, I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. When the flesh takes over, the Spirit takes a back seat. When the Spirit takes over, the flesh takes a back seat. That’s basically what the apostle is saying. And what are the consequences of pursuing the flesh? They are the works of the flesh.

Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the such light. What does the fruit of the Spirit produce? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

He says these two don’t mix. But the big lie among our culture is, no, you can have the fruit of the Spirit and the lust of the flesh together. The Bible says we cannot. What can we do? Well, for one, we can remember Daniel and his friends from Daniel chapter 1. Do you remember what it says in verse 8? Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies. What can we do? We can purpose within our hearts.

That we are not going to defile ourselves with the culture’s delicacies. Don’t buy into their propaganda. Don’t drink their Kool-Aid. Don’t eat the king’s meat and drink the king’s wine. We need to take personal responsibility for our lives and live in the way that God desires.

When we remove personal responsibility from the society, bad things happen. And then finally, to win the fight for life, we’ve got to win the battle of the role of the church. The Bible says that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. And that means that if the church is not upholding the truth, then no one else is going to do that job.

1 Timothy 3 and verse 15, Paul says, “…But if I am delayed, I write to you that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

And this is where the church can shine. Standing up for what’s right, regardless of what is said in the news media, regardless of what may be promoted in our culture, Whether it’s within the school systems, or whether it’s within the businesses that surround us, whether it is within the commercials that we see on television, or the sports figures that we see elevated to prominence in the world, it’s the church that upholds the truth. Not man.

Yes, there will be friction. Yes, society will fight it. Yes, they will try to eliminate us if they can. But Jesus understood this. He fought the same battle in His day. In Matthew chapter 15, in verses 12 through 14, His disciples came to Him and said, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? And what was Jesus’ answer?

Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. If the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch. Jesus didn’t apologize for telling the truth and neither should we. He recognized that you can’t prevent some people from destroying themselves if they’re dead set on it, yes.

But he also understood that there were others out there who would listen, who would hear the message, who would respond to it favorably, who would come in faith and give themselves to God. And so he continued to tell the truth.

The church must follow in His footsteps. We must also stand up where others sit down. We must not back away from what is right. We must do it lovingly, with kindness, with a good heart, taking into consideration how many are self-deceived, and as a result, believe things that they shouldn’t believe.

But we can do that. Jesus said in Revelation 3 and verse 19, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Oh, but some will say, well, what about the separation of church and state, which really today is kind of a separation of church and society More than it is the church and state. The original intention of that was to make it so that the state couldn’t dictate to the church what it should believe and practice. Instead, it’s taken more of an opposite course where it’s now the church who should not dictate to the state and, by extension, society what they should believe.

Should the church influence public policy? Absolutely. Why shouldn’t it? What greater standard is there for right and wrong than the truth? Secular systems aren’t going to give us the truth. They can’t claim superiority. Look at the damage that they have done the past 200 years.

The Bible, and I say this with my tongue and my cheek to some degree because it’s so much superior than this statement, but the Bible is at least as good as anything that those in the secular world can put out there. It’s at least as good as that.

Now we know that is far superior and so much better. And so let’s engage others with the Bible’s message. Let’s fulfill our purpose of supporting and upholding the truth, because to win the fight for life, we’ve got to win the battle for the role of the church.

Now today, we continue to face opposition when it comes to these social issues, and particularly the fight for life. And it’s up to us to stand up for what’s right and let others know what the Bible says. And to bring others to Christ. Yes, there will be some who won’t hear. In fact, Jesus said the way is broad and the gate is wide that leads to destruction. Most people will not. But there will be some who do.

And the message that we need to give them is simply this. God loves you. He wants to save you out of the destruction that this world’s sin brings to your life. He sent Jesus to die on the cross that we might be forgiven of our sins. And even those horrific sins that we discussed earlier in this lesson, One can be forgiven of those. What does it take? It takes a willingness to hear God’s word and then to believe that word and then to put that word into practice within your life. Jesus said we’ve got to repent of those sins and turn around and follow God completely.

We’ve got to confess Him as Lord, the standard of right and wrong for our lives today, and then identify with Him by being baptized so that we can participate in His death, burial, and resurrection and be raised to walk in a new life, a new life, because if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old things are passed away. Behold, all has become new. The world doesn’t have to control your life. The culture doesn’t have to dictate to you how you behave. We can submit to another, Jesus Christ. And this morning, if it’s your desire to do that, we stand ready to help you. And you can come forward and make that decision to be baptized or maybe ask for prayer so that you can redouble your efforts in the fight for truth, in the fight for life. Whatever your need may be, come make it known now while we stand and sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!