Unplanned Pregnancy

Tom Shrader presents a biblical case that God views the unborn as human persons created in His image, formed and known by Him in the womb. He addresses common reasons women give for having abortions—including inconvenience, finances, relationship instability, health concerns, and rape—arguing that none justify ending a human life. While maintaining abortion is sin, he emphasizes God's complete forgiveness and cleansing for those who repent.

Series: Sexuality by Design (1999)

Recorded: October 28, 1999

Duration: 41 min

Themes: abortion, life, forgiveness, repentance, sin, image, sanctity, mercy, facing unplanned pregnancy, considering abortion, post-abortion guilt, counseling women, pastor, mentor, parent, young adult

Scripture: Genesis 1:26-27, Job 31:15, Psalm 51, Psalm 22:10, Jeremiah 1:5, Luke 1:41, Luke 18, Matthew 6, Psalm 37:25, Isaiah 45:9, Exodus 4, John 9, 1 Corinthians 6

Theological Themes: imago dei, image of god, biblical anthropology, sanctity of life, divine sovereignty, god's knowledge, redemption, complete forgiveness

Full Transcript

Today is the fifth in what will be eight sessions that we'll do dealing with the topic of sex and sexuality. We have tried to not avoid any of the issues that we would normally be forced to think of in terms of the context of sex or sexuality. The title of this series, Sexuality by Design, really does capture what we're trying to say in its core, and that's that our personality and who we are, especially our sexuality, is not an accident that God has a plan there. He created us with a sexual desire and a need, but He also created for us some boundaries, and those boundaries are within the confines of marriage, and even rules within that that we deal with in the area of sex.

In fact, those are the last two sessions that we'll look at in this study. We look at sex and marriage. What does God have to say about sex and marriage? How does that relate? And in the last session, sex in marriage, how do you do this thing? So that's a workshop session that we do, so that's usually generally well-attended.

What we've also said is we don't want to ignore, and we wouldn't, and you'd be disappointed in us if we did, any of the issues that are more controversial, perhaps, in this whole topic area. So last week we looked at the issue of homosexuality. Today we look at the issue of abortion, and I think, having now been really dealing with this topic in public forum for a dozen years, that I've learned a lot about not just the topic itself, not necessarily a lot of new things about the topic, but a lot of things about people and the way that we deal with it.

The Scope of the Problem

I have long since learned that in a room, and I'm not sure that it would hold in this room, but for example, today at noon, in the study at noon, which is a very different demographic than we'll have here this morning, that you will see this topic virtually touch almost everyone in that room today at noon. Just to give you a sense, when we're talking about involvement and the proportion of this issue, if you look at casualties, American casualties, deaths, in the Revolutionary War, we lost about 25,000 Americans. In Korea, about 54,000. Vietnam, about 58,000. World War I, 116,000. World War II, about 407,000 Americans. In the Civil War, we had right at a half a million Americans killed.

Since Roe v. Wade, 1973, we've had, and the number varies, somewhere between 40 and 45 million babies aborted. The size of this problem for us annually now, and the numbers vary just a bit, is somewhere between 1.3 and 1.6 million abortions a year, and about 55 million abortions worldwide every year. It's a gigantic problem.

The Personal Reality

But rather than have just those numbers, you look at those and you just go, wow, they're out there. U.S. News & World Report, a year or so ago, really tried to deal with this issue, and as they were building the case, here's what they were talking about, and I think this is powerful stuff. The statistic is astonishing: 43 percent of American women will have an abortion in their lifetime. We're talking about this group that's coming up and moving through.

That would mean that, for better or worse, abortion is more common life experience for a woman, or as common, as divorce. And all of the attention we get to breast cancer, three times more common than breast cancer. Again, let me just drive that point home. The article continues: It would mean that more than twice as many women have abortions as have college degrees.

But when you begin to look at this topic, they say now after 25, 26, 27 years of Roe vs. Wade, abortions are safe, legal, but not rare. Now what U.S. News is responding to there is President Clinton's response to abortion, when he said, I want to make abortions safe, legal, and rare. The point is that we're not getting there.

Political Dimensions

And that's why, when we look at this topic, when we get into this whole area of abortion, one of the things that we deal with, in two basic different ways, number one is the whole political thing. The minute that we start talking about this topic, we end up in a discussion on politics. And that's because it has such political overtones to it.

Every presidential, I was watching an interview the other day with my favorite presidential candidate, the Donald. And I love, I happen to be one of those weird fellows, I love Trump. I don't think he's a Christian, but I love the Donald. And any of you that didn't read, especially you in real estate, The Art of the Deal, his first book, it's just a magnificent book. So I love watching the Donald. I don't buy a lot of his act, but I love watching him.

And they asked the Donald about abortion, and here's what he said, and again, he reinforced this last Sunday on Meet the Press. I hate, I mean, he was adamant, he must have said it a dozen times, I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, but I have to protect the choice to have it. And that's become, there's no one, other than just very rare extremes now, there's no one who's arguing this, here it is, it's great. Everyone is taking that position more toward the middle of what an abomination it is.

The Key Question

Now here's the thing that I think is an interesting question. Why do you hate it, and why is it an abomination? What's so bad about it? Because it would seem to me that the answer would be, I hate it because, and I have to begin to wrestle with this whole issue.

I watched an interview with Faye Waddleton, former president of Planned Parenthood, and what she said is, there's no question anymore that the fetus is a life, a human life. And I thought, man, this is front-page news, this is big stuff. But she went on to say, this is not about life, this is about choice.

So it would seem to me, as we begin to wrestle this process through, we could easily chase some rabbit trail, where all of a sudden we're giving you lists of candidates, and all of a sudden we're talking about the political side of this, but we aren't going there.

We aren't going to deal with the economic ramifications of it, although they are huge. Here's the issue for us, and I would hope that you would at least see some level of consistency here on our part: we believe God's spoken to us through His word, and we believe as Christians that we want to know what God has to say about an issue. It doesn't really matter what I think, and with all due respect, it doesn't truly matter what you think, if we can go and say, what does God say? What does God say about that tissue mass that's in the womb? Is that how God views it?

What we're going to try to do today is very quickly build a case for you that God views that mass in the womb as a person, as a human, as a baby. Then we're going to look at the reason that women give for having abortions. And then we're going to give you some very specific and important information in how we process all this.

I want to say it again. I understand, as we deal with this issue, that we're dealing with something that touches many of you. And lest you think, oh, it's all the people out there. I was at church Tuesday morning, and I was studying, and Beth Hancock, who directs our women's ministry, walked by. She said, what are you teaching this week? And I said, well, I'm going to deal with abortion. And we had this conversation, and I said, Beth, what do you think about here at the church? And she said, basically, if you took the women from 18 to 40, 45, I would bet that somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of these ladies have had abortions. So it would be exactly the number. And that doesn't surprise me one bit.

What surprised me is that we still live at a time when we think it somehow is an issue that's out there. And part of that now is because you have people who've been converted who are now moving into the church. But that issue is as much an issue for us to deal with as it is in the marketplace.

What God Says About Human Life

What's God have to say about this? Well, God says that He makes people, and people are created in His image. We point this verse out to you regularly. "Let us make a man in our image, in our likeness. Let him rule over all the creatures. God created man in His own image. In the image of God, man was made."

Now these can be explosive verses, because they can easily be taken out of context. The New Age movement would look at those and say, that's why we tell you that you are like God. That's what God says. You are like God. And that's not what He said. That's not what the verse says. The New Age movement said, you're made in the image of God. There's a big difference between being made in the image of God and being God. There's a big distinction there.

The other thing that we always observe as we look at those verses is that if we don't know anything other than just grammar and English, there's something that's just grammatically unusual in those verses. You see it, don't you? What is it? The plural personal pronoun. Let us make man in our image. It's God giving us a first indication here as early as Genesis 1:26 of evidence of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If it's God singular, it would be, I'll make man in my image. But it's God plural, singular God, one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What It Means to Be Made in God's Image

What's it mean to be made in the image of God? Essentially three things that you'll see in man that make him made in the image of God. First, man has a sense of morality, a sense of rightness and wrongness that's unique. Man is unique as compared to the rest of creation. For example, we have a sense of judicial process or due process. You'll never uncover an anthill and see Judge Judy in there holding court. There's no sense of morality in the context of the animal world. Man has a sense of morality, a sense of rightness, and a sense of wrong.

Here's the second thing, and this may be a stretch in some of your cases. Man has personality. And by that, what we mean is man has emotion, man has knowledge, man has feeling, man can love. We had a dog by the name of Rudy, and relatively, and I will say this, even though I'm not a huge animal guy, for me even it was kind of sad when Rudy died. Well, Rudy died, and much to my chagrin and lack of input, we've replaced him. And so we have this other dog. And the dog, this poor dog now has three or four names, because we haven't settled on a name. I call him Brick, as in dumb as a. And they'll say to me, and I know we offend all of you dog lovers at the same time, and you know we kid here, but the girls will say to me, Dad, you're hurting the dog's feelings. And I'm saying, no, I don't think so, because watch this tail. You're dumb as a brick, you're dumb as a brick, and it'll just shake and shake and shake. The thing doesn't know. The thing is a brick. It doesn't know. That's the whole point here. There isn't a, I guess there may be some feelings, there's something going on in there. But that dog's look in my eye, when I look in that dog's eyes, I don't see a Rhodes Scholar looking back at me, is the point of this thing.

So man has morality, man has personality, here's the third thing. Man is spiritual, almost incurably spiritual. That's why you'll go into some very isolated tribal areas, and you'll see them almost instinctively worship. Again, in an ant colony, you're never going to unfold this ant colony, dig it up, and see them in there building statues and burning candles to something. They don't know. They're animals. There's no sense of transcendence there. As we deal with man, man is different in this case. Man has an idea and an understanding that he is eternal. When man is created, he's created in the image of God.

God Forms People in the Womb

Here's the second thing. People are formed by God in the womb. As Job begins to deal with his detractors, and he begins to answer them, he said, "Did not He who made me in the womb also make them?" It's the same idea that you find in Psalm 51. When the psalmist writes, "I was conceived in sin," it's not that he

was born as a bastard child. That's not the point. The point was, at conception, he was a sinner, and he was formed by God in the womb.

Here's the third point. People are known by God in the womb. Again, the psalmist simply writes and begins to talk, "You knew me in my mother's womb. You've been my God from that point on. You're the God of the living. You were my God, and You're not the God of the dead. You're the God of the living, and You were my God when I was in my mother's womb."

People are selected by God in the mother's womb. This is Jeremiah the prophet, talking about the fact that the word of the Lord came to me, and here's what God said. When Job speaks, in this case, to the prophet Jeremiah, here's what He says: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart."

The Reality of Life in the Womb

That little pooch in your mommy's tummy was, in fact, a baby, and you know this. We deal with this all the time. I have yet, and I don't mean this facetiously, I just mean this seriously, and I think the vocabulary points to this truth. I've yet to have a baby sitting at church saying, "Ooh, my fetus kicked me." They just simply don't do it.

There was a gal who came in the other day, and she was just beaming, just beaming, and I said, "What's up?" And she said, "Well, I'm pregnant, look." And I'm telling you, you look and you kind of go, she might have had a quarter pounder. I don't know. There ain't much there. There's a little thing, just a little pooch, and she can't wait, and they get into these maternity clothes, and they just can't wait because they understand, because they see themselves as mothers and understand this, that this is a baby. It's not a byproduct of conception. It's not just fetal tissue. It's a baby.

There's a lady, and finally this baby was born, but she would come up every Sunday and say, "The baby really likes," and then she'd pick out the songs. The baby would respond to the songs, to the music, to the message. Because instinctively, we know this is a baby. This is life.

We know it's alive. We know there's a heartbeat. We know that there's brain waves. We know that there is life, and when I deal with that, and especially if I begin to terminate that and terminate it, I've terminated and stopped life, not just a tissue mass.

Scripture's Clear Language

As Luke writes, he talks about the value that God places on these babies. This important, again, when we use the term baby, we're talking about all we can talk about is baby. That's the only English word we have. In the Greek, Luke had options. Luke, let me remind you quickly, was a historian. He was a physician. He was probably a scientist. He was an artist. So, when you put that personality together, you have this very precise guy.

Well, the Greek word that Luke chooses in Luke chapter 1, when he says, "Mary," I'm sorry, when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby, John the Baptist, the baby in her lap, the baby moves. "As soon as I heard your greeting and it reached my ears, the baby in my womb jumped." Now, the word that He uses here in Luke 1:41 is the same word He uses in Luke 18 when He says people were bringing their babies to Jesus.

When the Scripture looks at the product of conception, it sees and speaks of not a tissue mass but of a baby. And I really do believe, when Faye Waddleton says, "It's not a matter of whether it's alive or not, clearly it's life," I believe that's a compelling argument.

The Question of Dependency

But the only thing this baby lacks to be sufficient outside the womb is nourishment and time. Judge Bork, this is one of those powerful arguments. Judge Bork was not, Robert Bork, was not a pro-life judge until a conversation with his pro-life wife. And he was trying to reason and all these other things, and she said to him, "You love your aunt, don't you?" "I do." "If your aunt was in a coma, there she is, she's in a coma, she's flat there, that's it. No response. And you were giving her nourishment and air was being allowed to flow to her, would you pull the plug?"

He said, "Well, that would be a very hard decision, that would be a really hard thing, especially if she's just laying there." And she said, "I understand that. Now, what if I told you this? In seven months, that aunt is going to get up and walk and she's going to be as vibrant as she ever was. Would you pull the plug?" He said, "Well, obviously not."

And her point is, that's exactly what you do to a baby in the womb. The only thing you have lacking is nourishment and time. When you intervene and you stop that, you stop a human life that's in the process not of degenerating, but in the process of preparing itself and growing and being nurtured for life. When I terminate a pregnancy, I kill a baby. That's our view.

The Reasons Given for Abortion

What are the reasons? Why would we do this? Here's some of them, and these percentages change a little bit over the years, but not a ton. Obviously, the total's way higher than 100 percent because people give different reasons. 76 percent said the baby would change their life. 68 percent said they couldn't afford it. 51 percent said they had problems in relationships. 31 percent said they were embarrassed. 31 percent said they were not ready. 30 percent said they were too young. I'll tell you the other side of that. It's an ever-growing number now. Too old. They already had enough kids. That's it. The parents just said, "I don't want to do this." Health of the baby, 13 percent.

Interestingly enough, some key numbers here have stayed the same really for a decade, and that is the baby would be an inconvenience at this point, 76 percent. The financial aspect of it has stayed consistently around there. Relational problem has stayed always around 50 percent. This idea of baby's health has stayed consistently at 13 percent, which seems high, and it is, and I'll tell you why in a bit. And rape and incest has stayed consistently at 1 percent.

Here's what I want you to see. God speaks to every one of these. And my point is going to be very clear to you. There's no circumstance where

I can justify terminating a baby's life. Here's the first thing. 76 percent said, "It's just not a good time for me right now." That may sound trivial to you and to me, but I'm sure to somebody at this point, that sounds like a real explanation.

It's nothing more than Matthew 6, where Jesus says, "I tell you, don't worry about your life or what you're going to eat or drink. Don't worry about your body or what you're going to wear. Is not life much more important than food and clothes?" Look at the birds of the air. The point here is, look at the birds of the air.

I remember talking to you one time about Luke, when Luke quotes Jesus in a passage similar to this, where He says, "Consider the raven." I remember literally spending two or three days thinking about the raven. At the end of this whole thing, all I could come up with is, the raven is born and the raven takes in food, disposes food, procreates, eats bugs. That's kind of what I came up with. Then it dawned on me, here's what He's saying. The raven does exactly what God's designed it to do, and God takes care of it. You do what I've designed you to do, and I'll take care of you.

Look at the birds. They don't sow. They don't reap. They couldn't. God provides for them. Here's a basic question: Are you not much more valuable than the animals? There's a whole component of the population right now that would say no to that, by the way. That you're equally valuable to them. Well, you're way superior to them. They're here for your pleasure.

God's Provision for Our Needs

To say it's inconvenient, 68% said, "I can't afford it." Again, we could use the same comments that Jesus makes here in Matthew chapter 6. We could apply the same thing here. "I can't afford it right now."

The psalmist contemplates life, and the psalmist says, "I was young, and now I'm old, and I've never seen the righteous forsaken or the children breaking bread." Here's what I've seen. I've seen God provide in case after case after case after case.

This is a classic example. I was teaching about this one day, and I was talking to a guy, and I used this illustration that this guy had been in Ethiopia during the peak time of the famine, and this guy said, "I had never seen a Christian starve, even in that famine-swept land." So I finished, it was a big class, and this guy came up afterwards and said to me, "I'm from Ethiopia, and I've seen Christians starve." Well, I'm kind of up against it, and I said, "Really, what part of Ethiopia are you from?" I don't know what to say to this guy.

I said, "Well, all I'm doing is reporting what he said," and he said, "No, no, no, let me finish. Don't be defensive." He said, "I saw Christians starve voluntarily as they gave their food to other believers, and especially to non-believers, but I never saw Christians starve because God didn't meet the provision." See, God is going to meet His provision.

When all of a sudden, look, here in the simplest sense, if we wait to have kids until we're economically set, we're one generation away from annihilation. That's just fundamental truth. We are talking about not an issue of convenience here. We're talking about a human life, and I understand the potential of human life.

The Value of Life

Listen, if I go up outside of Flagstaff today, and I take a rifle, and I pick off and shoot a bald eagle, my fine for that, at least it used to be a couple of years ago, was a year in jail and a $100,000 fine. If instead of picking them off, I go and take a bald eagle egg and destroy it, you know what my fine is? A year in jail or $100,000, because bald eagle eggs grow up to be bald eagles. This is not some giant leap of logic here. This is just fair, honest, thoughtful processing.

When I come along and say, "I'm going to wipe this life out, because it's not really a good time for me, I'm just starting my career, things are just kicking off, or I'm only two semesters away from graduating, or we don't have enough money," God says, "Hey, I'll take care of that."

Unstable Relationships

Here's the third thing that we saw. "I'm not in a stable relationship." Fifty-one percent use that as an explanation. I know it's a cheap shot, but still, I think a legitimate shot. Don't forget it was stable enough to get pregnant.

"I'm not in a stable relationship. What's going to happen to a kid when it grows up? This kid's going to be brought into this world. This is a tough enough world as it is. This is a pregnancy that's not necessarily wanted. There's not a father around."

There is zero statistical data that says that there's any correlation between whether a baby was wanted or unwanted, and the way that it was treated in terms of abuse or anything else. None. It might make sense that it should be, but there isn't. Here's what God says: "I am a father to the fatherless." That human father may be gone. That human relationship may not be developing the way you want it to, but you need to know something. I'll be there for that kid. I'm a father to the fatherless. I'm there.

In my mind, these are no-brainers. I don't even think these are tough. It gets a little more difficult now.

Health Problems

Thirteen percent said, "I've been told I have a problem with the baby, or there's a health problem." It's real interesting. The data gets very complicated here. Then they push a little more and say, "What was the doctor's diagnosis of the problem?" Of the thirteen percent that said it's a health problem, only eight percent had been told by a doctor that there was a serious health problem. There had been some that were told there were minor problems or other problems. The majority had felt that they hadn't taken care of the baby well in terms of prenatal care. They thought they were going

to destroy this baby. But it launches us into a real discussion here about who is God anyway.

The Potter and the Clay

Isaiah writes, "Who is the clay to say to the potter, why did you make me this way?" In Exodus chapter four, Moses has been called upon to lead the nation of Israel. Moses says, "I can't lead these guys. I'm not very bright. I stutter. I stammer. I can't do this." And God says to him, "Moses, here's a question: who made the deaf? Who made the dumb? Who made the blind? I quote now: it is I, God."

We have this thing to say, "Well, this child is less than perfect, and we don't want to dare blame God for it." God says, "Hey, heap the blame on me. I'll take it. I created this person this way. I did it."

Jesus and the disciples in John nine are walking into the city, and they see a blind man. They say to Jesus, "Who made this guy? Why is he blind? Did this guy sin? Or did his parents sin?" Jesus said, "Neither one of them. This man's a display case for the work of God." God said, "I didn't blink here. I didn't all of a sudden lose track, and all of a sudden the creation got distorted because I missed it. No, I'm there."

God's Purpose in Disability

We had a guy in a study not too long ago. He came in, and he was all jacked, and he was all pumped. I said, "How are you doing?" He said, "I'm pumped." I said, "Why are you pumped?" He said, "I just spent two days working with Special Olympics. What a desire, and what a treat it was working with those kids."

We in our minds are using that child, that birth condition—we're using that as an explanation where we're almost saying, "I don't know why you wouldn't kill that kid." And I got this guy over here saying, "No, it was a pleasure to be ministered to by those kids."

God says, "Listen, I understand that may not have been what you had in mind for that kid." Ask Coach Stallings. Remember when Gene Stallings was here? He had his boy with Down syndrome, and he would tell you point blank, "I wouldn't trade this kid for a Heisman Trophy winner today. The love that I received from this kid is so fresh, and so renewed, and unconditional in its nature."

The Case of Rape

One percent—and this number stays consistent—said "I'm a victim of rape." Here's my question, and it's real simple: Is it right to kill the baby because the father acted irresponsibly? Is it right to be able to do that?

I've had two incidences. As I said, I've done this enough now. I've had two incidences. One, I had a man who came in, and he was talking, and he said, "You know my wife, don't you?" I said, "I sure do." He said, "She's a terrific gal, isn't she?" I said, "She's a remarkable woman." He said, "What probably a lot of people don't know—in fact, nobody really—is her mom was raped, and she's the product of that rape."

I had a guy that came up after one of the studies dealing with this very issue, and he said, "You think your girls are cute, don't you?" I said, "Hey, the whole world does." He said, "I'll show you a cute girl." He pulled out a picture, and it was this girl fishing. She had to be about nine or ten, and she had fishing line all over her. She was casting, and she had it all—it was an unbelievable picture. I said, "She really is cute, congratulations."

He started to cry, and he did what sometimes you will do. He got his back around so nobody could see him, and he said, "What nobody really knows is we were on vacation 10 or 11 years ago, and my wife was out jogging, and she got raped. This is the product of that rape."

God Turns Evil Into Good

Here's my point. I understand this may seem, in a sense to you, somewhat uncaring, but I'm saying: what is compassionate about killing a child because the father acted irresponsibly? What you're doing is circumventing the opportunity of God to take that evil and turn it into good, as He does over and over and over and over again.

See, this is real easy stuff when you make it black and white. Are you saying to me the issue is black and white? I'm saying to you, God sure sees it as black and white. I think that's why there is such discomfort in this whole issue, because as you begin to deal with it, you begin to understand that God's not neutral on this issue.

How Do You Respond?

How do you respond? Well, you've got some recommendations there in your sheet. Let me just point you in this direction and then out the door.

As U.S. News & World Report is ending that discussion, here's what they point out. They point out that women are very willing to talk about the issue of abortion, but they rarely talk about their own. They suggest that that reluctance to talk stems not from fear of others, but from the fact that they haven't completely come to peace with this decision.

Again, I don't want to mince any words here. The reason why is, I think especially if you've aborted a child and now you have children of your own, it's a graphic, daily reminder that you terminated a human life. I listen to the gal say to me, "You know, I didn't lose a baby or a two or three-year-old. I lost a baby in the womb at a month or two, and I find myself wondering, I wonder what that baby would look like now. I wonder what that baby would be like."

There Is Hope

Some very helpful information. Acknowledge that abortion is a sin. There is no question about it. But understand at the same time, it's not the unpardonable sin. There is hope.

If you're here today, and you've been enduring this whole discussion, and you're going, "This doesn't apply to me, it doesn't apply to me, it doesn't apply to me"—let me tell you, it probably applies to someone that you know. Even if it doesn't, then you go ahead and substitute some other sin, your sin, your favorite sin, for the topic of the day. There's hope.

In a world that's filled with hopelessness, we come along and say there's hope. It doesn't get—in terms of I think humanly—it can't get much worse than the fact that I've taken a baby's life or a human life. But God says it doesn't matter the depth of the sin or the scope of the

The God of Forgiveness

I'm dealing with a God who's not in heaven as some cosmic killjoy, but a God that says, "Yes, there is wrath and judgment for sin, but if you come in repentance and faith, you miss the wrath of God. You escape the wrath of God." And now, that sin as it's acknowledged is not just forgiven—I am cleansed from that. God separates my sin as far as the east is from the west.

We've made this point to you before. It's so interesting. He doesn't say north from south, because if I go north long enough, I'm heading south. But I go east—it doesn't matter how long I go east, I'm still going east. God says I've separated your sin and I've separated the consequence of that sin and I've given you eternal life and you have heaven assured as the saints that are already there.

If you come in repentance and faith, it's a hideous thing that you've done. Forget that. You've been here long enough to know we're not isolating on any sin. It's 1 Corinthians 6. You've got idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, fornicators, greedy people, swindlers and all kinds of evil and such were some of us. You've been forgiven and now you've been cleansed.

Why Can't You Forgive Yourself?

You're walking around beating yourself up. Let me ask you what I think is an important question: Why can't you forgive yourself of something that God has already forgiven you of? God says you're forgiven.

Are there consequences? There are. I think, statistically, the support would be there. I think you're seeing this unprecedented high level of miscarriages right now in this society. We had three in our church in two months. Most, many of the doctors will tell you that's oftentimes part of a consequence and result of abortion. But I understand those consequences are there, but I'm forgiven.

Here's some key advice on any sin: Don't let the adversary, don't let the demons, don't let the forces of evil in this world under the direction of Satan himself hold you in bondage to forgiven sin. You have been forgiven. Accept the forgiveness.

I know—there's just no question, I know how hard and painful this is. But all this does is remind us again and again of the awesome power and love and grace and mercy of our God. Also, it ought to be a reminder to you that you live in a culture, in a world, in a society that's institutionalized the killing of 1.6 million kids every year.

Following God's Design

Let me give you just a sub point. It's got nothing to do with it, but we'll get you out the door because we've got two extra minutes. Because I'm trying to make the point to you: when we follow God's laws, look how this works. Eighty-one percent of the ladies who have abortions are single. So before they violate God's law as it deals with abortion, they violated God's sexual boundaries.

I can cut abortion by almost 1.1 million abortions every year if we just say, "You know what? Let's follow God's principles for sex inside of marriage." And the point is here: God's not some guy that says, "You know what? I don't want you having any fun. I'm here to take as much—I want to rob you of all the fun there is in the world."

No, here's what He says: "I want to give you life and I want to give it to you abundantly and I want you to enjoy that life and I want you to live it to the fullest." And the way that I live life to the fullest is to follow the guidelines, the parameters, the laws that God has placed around us.

A Message of Hope

It's a tough issue. And hopefully what you do today is come face to face with this reality, face to face in your own life. Maybe understand—and I'll tell you again, a subset of this that I deal with more and more are men. I had a guy yesterday who came up and said, "I've paid for four different women that I've impregnated to have abortions. And I think about it every day of my life." That's what sin does.

But again, this is not a message of despair. It's a message of hope. There's hope in Christ and Christ alone in the world. That guilt that you don't think you can possibly ever get rid of—you're right, you can't on your own. And God takes it away and you experience the cleansing and the forgiveness that comes in the person of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. We'll get you on your way.

Father, thank You for Your son Jesus. Thank You that He forgives us and He dies on the cross so that we can have eternal life. And that in Him we find not just a second, but a third, a fourth chance. We find a chance for life in spite of all of our sin, as hideous as it may be. You tell us to believe and confess Jesus as Lord and believe that You raised Him from the dead.

Father, I pray for the men and women that may be here today that have never come to that point in their life, that today may be a day of salvation, where they stop and understand that Jesus Christ was God come in the flesh, that when He died on the cross He paid the price of the sin of His people, and that those who believe in Him will be in heaven as sure as the saints that are already there. God, maybe You'll touch some people's hearts this morning with that message.

For some of us we look at sin, abortion and others. And God, we're having a hard time even forgiving ourselves—how sweet it is to hear that You have forgiven us. God, let that truth ring in our ears, fill our heart. We pray that to You in Jesus' name, amen.

See you next week!