Trinity Baptist Church

 

Check any website, magazine or news outlet for their latest poll results, and you will find that, without exception, Americans rank “the economy” as the single-most important issue of this campaign. In fact, I would daresay that if the poll were restricted to conservative, bible-believing Christians, the results would be unchanged. It is that very item that will lead many Christians to vote their pocketbook rather than their ethics.

 

But is that true? Is the economy the most important aspect of the crisis we are dealing with in America? I would remind you of what we have discovered thus far in this series:

 

“Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.”

 

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord”

 

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan.”

 

From a scriptural standpoint, there is an inescapable connection between moral rightness and economic blessing. That is why I have chosen to bring before you two campaign issues that rise to the top in moral stature:

 

Homosexual marriage (last week), and the right to life. While researching the issue on line, a website headline caught my eye:

 

It was an online commentary written 10/10/2008 by a deacon in the Catholic Church from Virginia named Keith Fournier. 

 

“As the world watches the indices of global stock markets plummet and succumb to the dull fear which the collapse of much of the financial system has caused, we need to examine what truly brought us – and keeps us- here. We also need to ask, honestly and forthrightly, what, and who, can help lead us out of the wasteland.

 

I suggest that the financial collapse is simply the sordid fruit of the greed and the idolatry which has elevated the accumulation of stuff over persons to the level of something to actually be emulated - and dragged us all down with the indices. This practical materialism is a cancer, caused by a fundamental loss of basic values such as a respect for all human life, no matter how old or young, large or small.

 

It has also given rise to a counterfeit set of purported “values” which place consumption over care and ultimately eat away at true and authentic human freedom, whether that freedom is expressed in a market economy which purports to promote it or other structures of social, cultural and political life which are also succumbing to its corrosive effects.

 

When a society fails to recognize that persons are more important than things, when it loses sight of the primacy of the inviolable dignity of every single human person at every age, every stage and of every size, it soon devolves into a form of practical materialism, worshipping a new golden calf.

It uses the language of human rights but has lost its true moral content. When there is no recognition of a pre-eminent right to life, there will soon be an erosion of the entire structure of human rights. Human rights do not exist in a vacuum; they are goods of the human person.

 

This is why I absolutely insist that to be “Pro-Life” is NOT to be a political Partisan or a “single issue” voter. Rather, it is to be truly human and to recognize that there is a hierarchy of rights. Without acknowledging the preeminent right to life, all derivative rights and the entire infrastructure of human rights is placed in jeopardy.

 

The further legitimate questions and positions of political parties become moot. Without the freedom to be born, all of the talk about compassion for the poor and the promotion of freedom throughout the entirety of life, and how we attain it, is hollow and empty. Failing to recognize our first neighbors in the womb as having a right to be born and then to live a full life in our community is a foundational failure of our obligation in solidarity to one another and the entire ethic of being “our brothers (and sisters) keeper”. There can be no enduring lasting solidarity in a culture that kills its own children and then calls it a “right”. This is a moral crisis.

 

What is really needed is not a financial bail-out, but a Moral Bail Out. Certainly that is true in regard to abortion. 

 

On January 22, 1973, nine men dressed in black robes, known, as the Supreme Court of the United States, made it legal in the United States for babies to be aborted. 

 

Because of that decision, tomorrow, as has been the case for the last 35 years, somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 babies will be killed by abortion. Over the next hour, 183 babies will be killed by legal abortion. And before this year is over, 1,600,000 babies will be killed by abortion. Almost 1 in 3 babies who are conceived in this nation will be destroyed by abortion.

 

That, in a nation that claims to trust in God and believe His Word. In fact His Word says,  

 

Proverbs 24:11-12

 

 

I want to speak to you today about the abortion issue and its fingerlings, and how they impact this election. 

 

I will say to you unequivocally and unreservedly that pro-choice is not God's choice. 

 

But I want to preface that by saying to those who have taken the pro-choice position previously you are not necessarily condemned by the position you have taken. 

 

 

 

 

Maybe you have been involved in an abortion, maybe you have had an abortion, or maybe you have advised someone you love to have an abortion, you now know that you were wrong. 

God does not condemn you, if you realize you were wrong, if you realize that this was a wrong decision and now you are sorry, the Bible does not condemn you necessarily.

 

In fact, Jesus said, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. In fact, you are not cut off from Christ at all because God offers forgiveness and cleansing from sin and a cleansing from conscience to those who will receive that cleansing and that forgiveness.  

 

You may have been persuaded by someone to do this, you may not have known all the issues, you may not have understood all about it, you may have been told that it was no more than a tonsillectomy. You may have been told it was no more than destroying some tissue; you may have been talked in to it for what ever reason. 

 

Today I do not bring a message of guilt or condemnation, but I say to you that in Jesus Christ, as for any other sin or mistake, there is forgiveness, there is cleansing, there is hope, there is peace. 

 

All of us have sinned in our life, all of us have done things that are wrong and we have made decisions that are wrong and things for which we are sorry.

 

God will forgive you and God will cleanse you if only you will admit it and ask Him. You may regret what you have done, you may have feelings of anger, of self-hatred, of self-loathing, you may go through periods of crying, periods of regret, but my friend God wants you to receive the cleansing and the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers. 

In fact, the most powerful voices in the battle today are those who have gone through this experience and made the wrong choice. 

 

Beverly Smith McMillan opened the first abortion clinic in Jackson, Mississippi but after a live changing experience with Jesus Christ, she closed that clinic. She repented of her sin and she testifies of the power of Christ to cleanse from sin, to cleanse your conscience and to begin life fresh and new and to find a future in Jesus Christ. 

 

Norma McCorvey is "Jane Roe," the pseudonym she assumed to remain anonymous as the lead plaintiff in the case that legalized abortion in the United States.

Once an abortion-rights supporter, McCorvey has switched sides: She's now a vocal anti-abortion activist. She has started a ministry called Roe No More to fight against abortion rights. 

 

If he can do it for these women, he can do it for you. This message is not to condemn you; this message is not to bring you down. This message is to offer you hope. 

 

First of all there are the Justices of the Supreme Court in 1973 that legalized abortion in America.

 

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) is a United States Supreme Court case that resulted in a landmark decision regarding abortion.[1] According to the Roe decision, most laws against abortion in the United States violated a constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision overturned all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion that were inconsistent with its holdings. Roe v. Wade is one of the most controversial and politically significant cases in U.S. Supreme Court history. Its lesser-known companion case, Doe v. Bolton, was decided at the same time.

 

Roe v. Wade centrally held that a mother may abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the "point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable.’" The Court defined viable as being potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid. Viability usually occurs at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks."

 

The Court also held that abortion after viability must be available when needed to protect a woman's health, which the Court defined broadly in the companion case of Doe v. Bolton. These rulings affected laws in 46 states  

 

Think of the impact of that: for the first time in American history, it was now legal to kill a baby in the womb of its mother. Roe v. Wade overturned the laws of at least 36 states. The first law limiting abortion was enacted in 1821. And then in 1973, seven men decided it was legal to kill an unborn baby in the United States of America.

 

 

In fact, Justice Byron White, one of the two dissenting justices wrote:

 

“I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court's judgment. The Court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes. . .

. As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant exercise of the power of judicial review that the Constitution extends to this Court.”

 

When our forefathers wrote in the prelude to the Constitution that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they had no idea that this would be interpreted to mean the right to kill an unborn child. This was not even in their minds by any stretch of the imagination.

 

So obviously those seven justices bear responsibility.

 

Then we have doctors who perform abortions.  

 

Now the law says a woman can have an abortion if the baby's birth would threaten the life or the health of the mother. We know what it means when it says threaten the life of a mother, but do you understand what it means when it says would threaten the health of a mother? 

 

 

 

The court's definition of the health of a mother is medical judgment may be an exercise in the light of all factors including physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age relevant to the well being of the patient. 

 

So a doctor could determine that abortion is necessary because of the psychological state of a young woman, because of the financial condition of a young woman. She is not able financially to care for a child so she can have an abortion. Or she is too psychologically unbalanced to care for a child or to mother a child so she can have an abortion. Or she already has too many children to raise another child so she can have an abortion. Or for any reason that you can imagine, a doctor can sign the okay for a woman to have an abortion. It is all in the doctor's hands.

 

In his hands is the power of life and death. In his hands is an awesome decision. The definition is very broad in the case of the life or health of a mother. If she is just too stressed out to have a child, or if she is just embarrassed because she is unwed and doesn't want to have to go through the embarrassment of baring a child as an unwed mother or if she is married but simply doesn't want to have another child or if she is married and she has become pregnant by another man and doesn't want her husband to know or if there are a hundred other reasons, a doctor can sign and she can have an abortion in this country.

 

And then there are the owners of the abortion clinics. Millions and millions of dollars have been made in this country on abortions.

 

The estimates are that $590 million are spent each year on first trimester abortions and $393 million are spent on late term abortions. That means that each year in the U.S., the abortion industry brings in approximately $983 million through their abortion services alone.

 

If you add in the $273 million that Planned Parenthood (America's largest abortion provider) receives annually in government grants and contracts, the annual dollar amount moves well past 1 billion.

 

And then there are the parents and grandparents and family members who encourage young women to make this their choice. 

 

Dr. L.A Agnew, a professor for UCLA Medical School, gave the class of medical students this case. And he asked the medical students what they would do, what they would recommend for this family. 

 

He said the father has syphilis, the mother has tuberculosis. They already have four children, one is blind, the second is deaf, the third died in childbirth, the fourth has tuberculosis and the mother is pregnant with her fifth child. The parents are willing to have an abortion, as their doctor what would you recommend? 

 

The majority of the class very quickly recommended an abortion. He said, congratulations class, you just killed Beethoven, because that was the situation of his family. 

 

 

 

A girl not yet 13 was raped. The family was so poor they could not afford an abortion. Should she have been enabled to have an abortion. If you said, "Yes," you just aborted one of the greatest of gospel singers, Ethel Waters. She, the child of that 13 year old mother inspired nations as she sang for Jesus.

 

Another: A young girl from a small town finds herself pregnant and unmarried. Her fiancé is a well-respected businessman who has nothing to gain and everything to lose if this child is born. 

From every earthly perspective it is clearly a case of bad timing and unfortunate circumstances. Abortion? If yes, you just murdered Jesus Christ.

 

We do not know how many Beethovens have been killed. We do not know how many scientists have been destroyed. We do not know how many physicists have been killed. We do not know how many young men who would fight for their country have been destroyed in the womb. We have no way of knowing how many progenies who would have gone on to do great things have had their lives taken before they had a chance to be born.

 

 

Now they will say they are personally opposed to abortion, but believe in a woman’s right to choose. 

They say that they believe abortion should be legal, safe and rare. Can you name one other constitutionally-guaranteed right that you would want to be rare? Isn’t that the most ludicrous argument you’ve ever heard advanced? Now the constitution guarantees freedom of speech, but we sure don’t want you to use it. It should be rare. 

We want you to have the right to assemble, but you shouldn’t take advantage of that very often! 

It’s ridiculous!

 

And then political organizations that promote pro-choice positions.

 

And they give money to the politician who will run on their ticket and promote their ticket and vote their way. The lobbyists groups and other organizations that promote this particular lifestyle. There is tremendous support for abortion rights from organizations like NEA, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. 

 

But perhaps the most close to home are voters who vote for candidates that support abortion and defend Roe v Wade.    

 

Voters are voting to continue the murder of the unborn. The Bible says, "God hates the hands that shed innocent blood." And I say to you, that voters who vote the pro-choice position have blood on their hands in the United States of America!

 

My friend, I care not whether you are a democrat or a republican. We need to vote the convictions of morality and the Word of God. It has come to a time in our country when we need to rise above what our parents voted, what we learned as children and we need to vote the convictions of morality and the convictions of Scripture.

 

 

You say, Bro. Terry I am going to take the pro-choice position. That seems to be right, a woman should have the right to choose. 

 

Well, you find yourself in a dilemma if you have any regard at all for the Bible. 

 

Listen to Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." 

 

Here is my question for you: Are the unborn human beings? The pro-choice people say the fetus is not a human being. Before a baby is born, it is not a human being, it is not a person like you or I. It is not a living soul created in the image of God. 

 

Listen to Psalm 139:13-16, "For You 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." 

 

"Made in secret" is referencing conception. That is the fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Scripture is teaching us that human life begins at conception.

 

Consider some aspects of this creative process

 

Day 1: fertilization: all human chromosomes are present; unique human life begins.

 

Day 6: embryo begins implantation in the uterus.

 

Day 22: heart begins to beat with the child's own blood, often a different type than the mothers'.

 

Week 3: By the end of third week the child's backbone spinal column and nervous system are forming. The liver, kidneys and intestines begin to take shape.

 

At 25 days after conception the heart beats its first of nearly 3,000,000,000 life-type strokes.

 

Week 4: By the end of week four the child is ten thousand times larger than the fertilized egg. 

 

Week 5: Eyes, legs, and hands begin to develop.

 

 

Week 6: Brain waves are detectable; mouth and lips are present; fingernails are forming.

 

Week 7: Eyelids, and toes form, nose distinct. The baby is kicking and swimming.

 

Week 8: Every organ is in place, bones begin to replace cartilage, and fingerprints begin to form. By the 8th week the baby can begin to hear.

 

Weeks 9 and 10: Teeth begin to form, fingernails develop. The baby can turn his head, and frown. The baby can hiccup. 

 

Weeks 10 and 11: The baby can "breathe" amniotic fluid and urinate. Week 11 the baby can grasp objects placed in its hand; all organ systems are functioning. The baby has a skeletal structure, nerves, and circulation.

 

 

Week 12: The baby has all of the parts necessary to experience pain, including nerves, spinal cord, and thalamus. Vocal cords are complete. The baby can suck its thumb. 

 

 Week 14: At this age, the heart pumps several quarts of blood through the body every day.

 

Week 15: The baby has an adult's taste buds.

 

Month 4: Bone Marrow is now beginning to form. The heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood a day. By the end of month 4 the baby will be 8-10 inches in length and will weigh up to half a pound.

 

 

Week 17: The baby can have dream (REM) sleep. 

 

Week 19: Babies can routinely be saved at 21 to 22 weeks after fertilization, and sometimes they can be saved even younger.

 

Week 20: The earliest stage at which Partial birth abortions are performed. At 20 weeks the baby recognizes its' mothers voice.

 

 

Months 5 and 6: The baby practices breathing by inhaling amniotic fluid into its developing lungs. The baby will grasp at the umbilical cord when it feels it. Most mothers feel an increase in movement, kicking, and hiccups from the baby. Oil and sweat glands are now functioning. The baby is now twelve inches long or more, and weighs up to one and a half pounds.

 

 

Months 7 through 9: Eyeteeth are present. The baby opens and closes his eyes. The baby is using four of the five senses (vision, hearing, taste, and touch.) He knows the difference between waking and sleeping, and can relate to the moods of the mother. The baby's skin begins to thicken, and a layer of fat is produced and stored beneath the skin. Antibodies are built up, and the baby's heart begins to pump 300 gallons of blood per day.

 

A baby inside a mother's womb is a human being.

 

Look at the cognizance of the unborn according to the Bible. When Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, and of course, Mary was carrying the Lord Jesus, Elizabeth was carrying John the Baptist in her womb. 

 

It says, "when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:" Now the word for "babe" is "brephos" in the Greek meaning unborn child, or fetus, or infant. It can be used to describe an infant whether born or unborn.

 

Here is John the Baptist who is cognizant of the presence of Jesus although he is yet unborn.

That is an amazing thing and yet God said, supernaturally that John the Baptist was aware that he was in the presence of Jesus though still in the womb. 

 

The Bible uses the same term to describe an infant whether it is a born infant or an unborn infant. 

In fact, it is the word that Luke uses to describe the pre-born Jesus. God says that it is a person whether it is an unborn person or a born person.

Look at the construction of the unborn. 

 

The Psalmist said, "You have formed my inward parts." Look at a sonogram and you will see that a baby looks just like you and me inside the mother's womb. The same hands, the same feet, the same head, the same mouth, the same ears, how can anybody look at a sonogram and not see that an unborn child is a human being just like you and me, made in the image of God? 

 

So you see, there is a problem here; there is in the pro-choice position something to deal with. There is a plight here and that is that an unborn child is a human being. 

 

Dr. Bernard Nathanson was an obstetrician and an assistant professor at Cornell University Medical School. He became the Director of the first and largest abortion clinic in America. He performed or supervised 60,000 abortions in eighteen months. Suddenly he resigned and said he would never superintend or perform another abortion, do you know why? 

 

 

 

Because as he began in 1973 and time progressed over those 60,000 abortions, technology advanced and the first sonogram machines came on the scene. And when Dr. Nathanson could observe the baby within the womb, he was shocked and appalled at what he had done. And he said, no longer will I abort another baby. And now he is the greatest and most outspoken scientist against abortion. He said I will never do it again. We have got to get the abortion law off the books.

 

Here is why pro-choice can't be God's choice.

 

Number one, you have to deal with the problem of murder. 

 

Exodus 20:13 says, "You shall not murder." 

 

Proverbs 6:17 says, "God hates hands that shed innocent blood." 

 

If an unborn child is a human being, then to drown that child in the mother's womb or suck that child from the mother's womb, or ever how else it is done, is to commit murder. And pro-choicers can use all the high sounding words they want to use for it, but it boils down to taking of a human life.

 

It cannot be moral to perform an abortion or to have an abortion performed. It cannot be the moral act of a human being to take the life of another human being. 

 

Exodus 21:22, "if men fight and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no lasting harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him." 

 

We think we are an advanced, sophisticated, technological society and we are more barbaric than the Old Testament society. Even in Old Testament times, God said it is a sin to cause a pregnant woman to give birth prematurely. 

 

And God put a protection on a pregnant woman and said you will be punished if you cause her to give birth prematurely. God put a premium on unborn life even then. God hasn't changed, it is not moral to do it now, and it wasn't moral to do it then.

 

And look at how we have a double standard, now in most of the states it has become a double murder if you in an act of violence kill a pregnant woman; you are guilty of double murder. In some cases, if you are in an automobile accident and you are at fault and the passenger in the other car is a pregnant woman, you are guilty of double homicide. The same people who say you are guilty of double homicide say that the life within her is not a person and then they say you are guilty of double murder. 

 

How can they say on one hand, the life within her is not a person and on the other hand they charge you with double murder? Hypocrites! You can't have it both ways, if it is immoral, if it is double murder to kill a pregnant woman, then it is murder to kill her baby! 

 

 

Did you know that only 1% of abortions in America have anything to do with the life and the health of the mother? 97% of American abortions are for convenience. 70% of women who have abortions in America are unmarried and most of these are white, middle and upper class. About 1/3 will go back for a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th abortion. It is becoming their means of birth control.

 

At the same time, two million couples are waiting to adopt babies in America. There is another option besides killing your baby and that is to give the baby up for adoption.

It is amazing to me to hear abortion-minded mothers who say “Oh I could never give my baby up for adoption.” In essence they are saying, I could kill it, but never give it up for adoption! Amazing! Millions of couples are waiting to adopt, they want to adopt. 1½ million babies are aborted each year and 2 million couples want to adopt each year.

 

 

Pro-choice is not God's choice and this is what we can do about it. The Bible says, "Rescue those being led away to death."

 

That means stay informed on the issues. You can go to Focus on the Family, Dr. Dobson and stay informed on the issues. Go to WeVoteValues.com on the Internet. There are many other places on the internet, many magazines you can take to stay informed on the issues. 

 

Support your local crisis pregnancy centers, financially and other ways. Support counseling and adoption agencies. Teach your children what the Bible says about sex, love, and marriage. They need to know the Biblical point of view. 

 

Have compassion on young people who find themselves pregnant. The church needs to become a safe place for young people to tell their problems once again. 

 

They need to know that they are not going to be screamed and yelled at at home or at church if they come home and say I am pregnant. They need to know that somebody will care, that somebody will talk to them, that somebody will help them, that somebody will love them because I am going to tell you, it is going to happen. 

 

It is going to happen in the best of homes, it is going to happen in the best of families, it is going to happen in the best of churches. That is called life; it is going to happen because that is a part of life. It is going to happen in spite of your best effort, our best effort and when it does happen we need to guide them in the best of ways. And they need to be able to come to us not go to people who will send them to an abortion clinic.

 

Number two there needs to be a political program. 

 

Why a political program? Because all of us are American citizens and we have the right to vote. We must register to vote and you must vote. And I hope you would vote your convictions as a believer in Jesus Christ. 

And there is a myriad of other issues that stem from this one, and time will not allow me to address; embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, assisted suicide just to mention three. 

 

I cannot tell you how to vote. But I will tell you where they stand. 

 

And I’ll use their words to do it:

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

 

The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to comprehensive affordable family planning services and age-appropriate sex education which empower people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions.

 

The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs.

 

 

“Faithful to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence, we assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.

 

We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life.

 

We oppose the nonconsensual withholding of care or treatment from people with disabilities, as well as the elderly and infirm, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, which endanger especially those on the margins of society.”

 

Number three, there needs to be a personal program. 

 

Speak your heart and mind to others in your sphere of influence. Isaiah 58:1 says, "cry loud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet. Show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins." Isaiah 5:20 says, "woe to them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness to light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." 

 

Pray for God to have mercy on America. 

Dr. Joseph Bruner at Vanderbilt is known for his work in fetal surgery, especially on babies with spina bifida, a condition in which the spine does not close properly during development.   In this photo you see the hand of little Samuel Armus, who was at the time a 21 week-old fetus in the womb of his mother, and the hands of Dr. Bruner. 

 

During the operation, a photographer named Michael Clancy took a photograph which shows the fetus' hand emerging from the womb, with its fingers wrapped around one of the surgeon's fingers.

 

 Referring to the photograph, Brad Clanton, counsel for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, said 

 

"It unambiguously illustrates the humanity of an unborn child at approximately the same stage of pregnancy as most infants who are killed by partial-birth abortion...No reasonable person could look at the picture and deny that there is a tiny member of the human race, with an arm, a hand, fingers and a sense of touch."

 

By the way, that surgery was successful and little Samuel Armas was born on December 2, 1999, and has been developing well, according to his parents, Alex and Julie Armas.

 

The editors of USA Today titled the picture, "Hand of Hope."

 

Our text in Proverbs 24:11, reminds us of our responsibility to “Rescue the perishing; don’t hesitate to step in and help”.

 

And that is the purpose of the church and the Christian in this mess today. 

 

Some of you have been touched by abortion in your family. Some of you have had abortions in your life, once again; God's healing grace, God's mercy never ceases. His mercy is new every morning.

 

I want to tell you today, there is grace for you to start over again no matter what you have done

 

I think about another group of people who need to be rescued: those who are headed for spiritual death; those headed for eternal death without Jesus Christ in a place called hell. That is what this church is all about.

 

There are people today who are being deceived and blinded to the love that Jesus Christ has. No matter what your position may be, whether it is pro-choice or pro-life, no matter what your political persuasion is, the important thing is that Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed His blood for all our sins, whoever we are. 

 

And He gave His life in order that our sins maybe forgiven, in order that we all might have eternal life by trusting and putting our faith in Him. And all of us need Him no matter who we are, no matter what our background, no matter what our political party, no matter what our persuasion, no matter what our age, Jesus died for each of us. And He offers free forgiveness and life to all of us who will call upon Him. He is extending to you today a “Hand of Hope”.

 

Let's pray together.