The Sanctity of Life

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I'd like to welcome visitors that are here with us this morning. I'm thinking about the sanctity of life, the sacredness of life, physical life. Life is a sacred trust from God. [00:00:31] A baby is born. We think of all the nice things that are involved. We think of the beauty of that. But sometimes we may forget that is a very sacred thing, life. The second thought that's been predominant in my mind is where we go for comfort and hope. The big questions that we face have to do sometimes about the what ifs or if only. [00:01:05] The comfort lies not in knowing all the details of circumstances. But our comfort is in God. [00:01:41] Those two thoughts. The sanctity of physical life and where do we find comfort and hope are the thoughts predominant in my mind. I'd like to turn to the psalmist's writings in Psalm 48, 49 I think it is. Read the words of the psalmist there. I'm not sure what all he was thinking about here when he penned these words. But he uses some phrases here that I did not bother to look up in the original language just recently at least. [00:02:18] But in the midst of whatever distress he was, the psalmist uttered these words. I will incline my ear to a parable. I will open my dark saying upon the heart. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother. Nor give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth forever. [00:02:56] I hear the psalmist saying in his recognition of who God is and who man is that there is nothing, life is priceless there is nothing that can be compared to the value of life as we look into the scripture we find that God alone is the author of life Genesis the second chapter we already read that God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul. [00:03:32] There is something God breathed in every one of us. It is a mystery to me. It is beyond my comprehension how that God allows his creation, man, to be a co-participant in the creation of life, as he has chosen to do. But the breath itself comes from God. God alone can give life. We can notice that maybe a bit more. [00:04:05] I'd like to read yet in Job 33, what Job had to say in 33 verse 4. Therefore, the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life. It is good to live with the realization, the awareness, the consciousness, that it is God that has made us. Almighty God, all-knowing God, the ever-existent God, He alone has made us. [00:04:38] We are made by him in his image. Man has gone far in his technology, in the knowledge of technology and the things that he has discovered and put together and formed. Some years back they set out a spaceship on a journey to Neptune that went four and four tenth billion miles. That ship had cameras on it that could take pictures that were sent back to the earth. [00:05:17] And it took six hours, six and four tenth hours, or six hours and four minutes, I believe, whatever it was, to transmit those pictures back to the earth at the rate of speed of 186,000 miles per second. Well, I'm long lost in those numbers. I don't know where I'm at. Man has great abilities. Man has put millions of calculations on a little chip [00:05:52] that take place in fractions of seconds the size of your fingernail. But man does not have the ability to create life in its simplest form. The one cell. The two selves joining together. Man has attempted, man has tried, and I predict, I think safely, that he never will accomplish that. Life belongs to God. [00:06:24] God alone is the creator of life. Therefore, life is sacred. It is not to be tampered with. The scriptures say further, teach us further, that God alone has the authority to how he deals with life. God alone has the authority, he who created it, to terminate it. No man has the right to terminate life. That is why the scriptures give us teaching like they do in the Old Testament laws. [00:07:02] We want to look at a few of those things. First Samuel, the prophet said, he bringeth down to the grave and he bringeth up. Life is in the hands of God, therefore life is sacred. The scriptures say in Acts the 17th chapter, whatever else might be meant there, it says, He hath determined the times appointed, God has determined the times appointed, before, and the bounds of their habitation. [00:07:37] In Him we live and move and have our being. Life is sacred. Therefore, God established severe penalty for tampering with life. In the Old Testament, Leviticus the 17th chapter, I would read to you from verse 11 and following. Leviticus 17, verse 11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls. [00:08:12] for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among you which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten, he shall even pour out the blood thereof and cover it with dust, for it is the life of all flesh. The blood of it, it is for the life thereof. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, You shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof. Whosoever eateth it shall be cut off. [00:09:00] When they reaffirmed this law in the New Testament, it was continued. There is a principle in this as I see it. That is, life is sacred. Therefore, man needs to be very careful how he tempers and deals with life. That is why, he says, we should not eat the blood. But it's not just a law to make a law, but it is significant of the sacredness of life. [00:09:33] Therefore, he speaks about murder in the Old Testament and in the New. And he says that when there is murder committed, it must be avenged. A life for a life was the law. Now, if there was a death caused through accident, there were cities of refuge established. And if one, by accident, killed someone, he could run to that city. If he could outrun the pursuer, the avenger, he could appeal for mercy, and they would have a hearing. [00:10:12] And when the high priest died, the guilty could return home again. free from that avenging but it had nothing to do with intentional murder taking life life for life how is it in the new I'll leave that in the hands of God and the civil authorities at this point but the point is that God says we shall not temper with life you know how it is when a person dies you can do anything you like but you cannot change the [00:10:47] Life is precious because it is its frame is under the authority and control of him that made it. Life is precious because it is once only, only one life, to soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Therein we have the basis for the conviction that the people of God must have and do have [00:11:21] In spite of what all else is said today, that abortion is wrong And that euthanasia is not to be determined by man or done by man To determine or to terminate life if it seems better or more logical or more convenient for old people to just be taken away. That is in the hands of God Almighty. Life is sacred. And the terminating of one's own life [00:11:53] is in the same category. It is not ours to say. It is God's to say. Let it rest there. The second thought that we have been thinking is Where we go for our comfort, true comfort, true strength, to face life in all its circumstances, rests alone in God. Psalm 103, I'd like to read a few verses there. [00:12:26] Verse 13 says, Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him and His righteousness unto children's children [00:12:58] to such as keep His covenant and to those that remember His commandments to do them. Now we are very human people. We are very conscious of our environment, of the things that happen about us. And we do well to be so. But it seems to me that in any circumstance, And in this circumstance as well, God is asking us to fix our eyes on Him. To remember that it is He that pitieth as a father His children. [00:13:34] It is there that we really find a place to rest. We can wrestle with questions. And we're not saying we shouldn't have questions. But we can wrestle with those questions. But some of those questions are bigger than our answers are ever going to be. But in the midst of questions, we find solace and comfort in the presence of God. That's where we would direct our minds this morning. That we, he wants us to move forward in the comfort and strength that he alone can give us. [00:14:08] 2 Corinthians, the second chapter. The Apostle Paul refers to struggles that man faces, that he faced. He says, Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort of God. who are with we ourselves are comforted of God for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us [00:14:44] so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ and whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the same suffering which we also suffer or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation there are substitute Comforts that man can can achieve can reach out to and find but those comforts can never supply what Paul said that God comforts us for Paul said he was comforted we are comforted so that we can have something to pass on to others that need comfort and it is only the comfort that comes from God himself that puts us to rest in the [00:15:36] In the midst of the troubled storm, we look therefore this morning to the God of all comfort, so that he can comfort us. Comfort doesn't always mean the removal of pain, but there is a deeper comfort that can give us rest in the midst of pain. And when that comfort is our experience, wordlessly sometimes that comfort is passed on. And as we experience in life, prayer can be a most effectual part of this comfort. [00:16:14] As we pray for each other, God behind the scenes that we don't see with our eyes reaches down with hands that we don't see, Reaches down with emotions that we don't see Didn't we read in Psalm 103 That like a father pitieth his children And we'll notice further Well again in Psalm 1st, 46 It says God is our refuge and strength What else does it say? [00:16:46] A very present help in trouble Where should the emphasis be on that passage, on that phrase? I'm not sure, probably on all the words but he says a very present not a future hell not a past hell but a very present hell God is near when we reach out to him a very present hell in a time of trouble then in Hebrews the fourth chapter where he says for we have not an high priest [00:17:18] which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities He is not without emotion But was at all points Tempted like as we are Yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly To the throne of grace That divine enablement That we may find grace to help In time of trouble That we may obtain mercy And find grace to help In time of trouble I think he says Let us therefore come boldly [00:17:49] to the throne of grace, or confidently, expectantly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of trouble. We would have us this morning to fix our focus on our Lord Jesus Christ. We have to deal with the circumstances, with the realities of life, but as we look on to Him and He gives us direction, then we can give comfort. We can be there and we can find grace for our own needs. [00:18:24] If you're like I am and I'm sure we are together in this, we've all felt pain. We don't know what to say. There is nothing to be said perhaps. It's all been said. And we can find it in Him. He says also in 1 Thessalonians 5 Wherefore, comfort yourselves together I'm thankful, that has been pointed out to us already in the statements that were made [00:18:55] I'm thankful that while it is God that is the God of all comfort God ministers that comfort through the family of God And it is a comfort just to be together It is a comfort to share It is a comfort to listen and he instructs us and he says, wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another as you also do. He is saying here that we should comfort ourselves together and edify one another. [00:19:30] Build up the kind of comfort that builds up. Edifying, comfort giving. and I'm glad Paul could say to the Thessalonians that we can say it that way this morning as also you do it means so much let's kneel and pray