Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 139:13-16

Before I Was Born

 

/You formed my inward parts;/

/you knitted me together in my mother’s womb/.

/I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made/.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there were none of them.[1]

January 22, 2003, will mark the thirtieth anniversary of *Roe verses Wade* in the United States.

The founding fathers of that nation could not have anticipated that learned judges would one day discover in the American Constitution a guarantee of privacy in matters of abortion.

I suggest that the founders of that republic would have found the arguments justifying infanticide abhorrent.

Those wise men could not have foreseen the flood of wickedness which would advocate treating the unborn as so much garbage, readily disposable if the presence of that life were considered inconvenient to the mother.

Thirty years ago, a grave sin was condoned in my native land.

Each year, on the Sunday nearest that infamous date, churches throughout the world, and especially churches in North America, mark the tragedy by observing Sanctity of Life Sunday.

It is appropriate that our own congregation should seize this opportunity to observe this date to remind each member and each guest of God’s view of human life.

Whenever I address the issue of abortion, I realise that I am possibly, even likely, speaking to some women who chose to abort their child.

Such women often struggle for years with feelings of guilt and remorse for years following their abortions.

Most women who have had abortions didn’t realise that they were taking a human life at the time they aborted.

They listened to so-called “abortion counsellors” who presented themselves as “pro-choice.”

But they soon learned that while there were choices, every choice ultimately led to “termination” of the pregnancy.

Many abortions were not premeditated—at least not by the women who had them.

Ruthless abortuary employees convinced them that this was just a surgical procedure, or a selfish boyfriend convinced them that they would be left alone if they did not choose to abort, or perhaps even self-serving parents insisted that they would have to face the future alone.

Most women feel backed into a corner, or they would never agree to take the life of their unborn child.

After the deed, they grieve.

The Texas Justice Foundation has received thousands of affidavits from women who have had abortions.

Attorney Kathleen Cassidy reports that in 85 to 90 percent of them, the woman states that she “was either coerced by a person or by her circumstances into having an abortion.”

The person was a boyfriend or a husband threatening to leave, or a parent telling her that if she keeps the baby, she’ll be on her own.

The coercive circumstance may simply be confusion and panic.

And coercion is not choice.

An estimated 30 to 40 million women have had abortions during the thirty years since the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions.

When women, especially those who have been coerced, realise that they have ended a life, many become depressed, immersing themselves in alcohol, drugs, or promiscuity.

Some even contemplate suicide.[2]

If you feel guilt and remorse over what you’ve done, there is a way to be set at liberty and to enter into the light which accompanies God’s forgiveness.

The way to deal with that guilt is to seek Jesus Christ’s forgiveness.

On the authority of His Holy Word, I assure you that you can be forgiven.

I remind you of the words recorded in *1 John 1:9*.

These are indeed words that form a soft pillow for weary heads.

/If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness/.

It will take but a moment longer, and the need is sufficiently great that I must point you to an incident in the days when Jesus walked among men.

Listen to this rather extended account of Jesus as He dealt with a sinful woman.

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table.

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”

And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”

“A certain moneylender had two debtors.

One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both.

Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”

And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?

I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much.

But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?”

And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” [*Luke 7:36-50*].

I must believe that the same one who forgave that woman so many years ago is both able and ready to forgive you today.

In His forgiveness is freedom from condemnation.

This is the promise of *Romans 8:1-4*.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Now, join me in considering life before birth.

In doing this, we will rely upon the Word of God, and we will take special notice of one of the Psalms which was given through the Psalmist David.

Focus on the *139th Psalm* with me, and in particular, take note of *verses thirteen* through *sixteen*.

When Does Life Begin?

Life begins at forty—at least in the view of some among us.

Other individuals who are have yet to see such advanced age may question the veracity of a statement such as that.

Perhaps they think that life begins at thirty, or at twenty.

Others, who busted forty some years back, would lead us to believe that life begins quite well down the pike.

However, life does not begin at forty; rather it begins even before we are born.

This is the assertion of our text and of other texts in the Word of God.

In our culture, we mark the beginning of life with birth.

Certainly, there is some precedence for this even in the Word of God.

Job laments his life, wondering why he was not stillborn [*Job 3:16*].

It is as though he recognises the beginning of being as birth.

David, grappling with the presence of the wicked, pronounces a curse, praying that God will make them as /the stillborn child who never sees the sun/ [*Psalm** 58:8b*].

Likewise, Solomon, avers that a stillborn child is better off than a man who has no ability to enjoy what God delivers into his hands [*Ecclesiastes 6:3*].

In each of these instances, the Word of God acknowledges the popularly held belief that life begins with birth.

However, clarifying that concept of life’s initiation are other passages.

As one example, consider the fact that Jeremiah received a commission from God when he was but a young man.

In his commissioning, God informed him that it was God Himself who formed him in the womb, but that before ever he was formed, God knew him.

He was consecrated before birth.

Likewise, he was appointed to the prophetic office before birth [*Jeremiah 1:5*].

When Manoah and his wife were told of the birth of a deliverer for all Israel, they were told that the child would be a Nazirite to God from the womb [*Judges 13:5, 7*].

Samson affirmed this truth to Delilah, which brought about his disgrace and capture by the enemies of God [*Judges 16:17*].

John the Baptist was prophesied to be filled with the Holy Spirit, even in his mother’s womb [*Luke 1:15*].

Elizabeth, mother of John, spoke of this when Mary came to stay with her for a period prior to her own delivery of Jesus the Messiah.

Recall the passage which is so often read during the Christmas Season.