Dennis Tuuri

scriptures, the commandments that you give to us and this Holy Spirit that you give to us on the basis of Jesus Christ’s obedience to fulfill these laws that you have given us. Almighty God, we thank you that though we cannot obey them perfectly, yet we have a perfect one before you in your presence whose righteousness is imputed to us who believe in him, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for gathering us this Sabbath day to rest in the finished victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death and for the release that he has obtained from us from your cursings.

into the blessings that you have in store for us, your people. Almighty God, we thank you though that you still command us to keep these laws and still call forth blessings and cursings upon us if we forsake his covenant, if we forsake the guidance of the Holy Spirit and we forsake the covenant keeper, Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for this Sabbath day. We thank you for the proclamation ministry given to this thy church and we thank you for its appearance in this land.

We thank you, Lord God, for the freedom we have to worship and pray now that you would bless service, forgiving our sins in Jesus Christ, our savior. As we put faith in him, and as we walk in obedience to his law word. Almighty God, we thank you for this day and ask for the blessings of your holy spirit upon this service. May we be strengthened to do your will from it and give you all the glory in it.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Sing unto God. Sing praises to his name. Extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name Yah. And rejoice before him. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty is the holy our soul shall rise to him. Holy, holy, holy Merc and mighty God in every person. Blessed. Holy, holy, holy. All saints adore thee. Passing down their golden crowns around the cross of Except him all be holy word that I ever shall be.

Holy, holy, holy darkness mighty. Though the eye of temple and thy glory made us see Holy thou are holy. There is nothing beside thee. Perfect in power with love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. All earth shall praise my name. with earth and sky. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty God in preless. Please be seated.

I’d like to read from Deuteronomy the 30th chapter verses 15-20. Deuteronomy 30:15-20.

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. And that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply. And the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whether thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wil not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them, I denounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish and that you shall not prolong your days upon the land whether thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live, that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, that thou mayest obey his voice, that thou mayest cleave unto him, for he is thy life, and the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for your scriptures. We pray for the illumination of your Holy Spirit. As we look at them, we speak forth this day what we believe to be the truth of your word. Give us open hearts, Lord God, to hear the things of you, open minds to understand them, and open hands to act in obedience. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

We meet this Sabbath day in commemoration of the sanctity of human life. Sunday. President Reagan has again this year declared this Sunday to be the Sunday in which the sanctity of human life is proclaimed for throughout the land and particularly of course in churches. Sanctity of human life Sunday is in remembrance. It is the closest Sunday to January 22nd, which is the anniversary of the Roe versus Wade decision, basically providing abortion on demand in this country since 1973.

And I won’t I’m sure that at this point in time, many of us in this church, most of us, all of us in this church know the tremendous sin of abortion, what it is, understand the ramifications of it throughout this land. How many millions of babies have been slaughtered before their birth? How many pre-born infants, 14 million or more have been killed since that day of infamy in 1973. We have for the last two years in this church on the Sunday that is closest to January 22nd performed a service of malediction, a liturgy of malediction, calling forth God’s cursing upon those people who participate in the sin of abortion.

That is proper as part of the proclamation ministry of the church. However, as reconstructionists, we know that our aim that what God wants us to do with our life is simply not to critique the evil that around us. Although that is important, but rather we’re also to stress the positive. We’re to rebuild our country for the sake of God’s glory. And so this day, I thought it proper that we do two things.

That as well as condemn abortion and the negation of life found therein, that we would also affirm life and affirm the blessings of God that he gives upon those people that do act in obedience to the sanctity of human life.

The passage we just read sets before us the two ways we want to draw out in a picture before you this Sunday. One way is the way of obedience to the voice of God. One way is a way of life and consequently of blessings. The other way is a way of disobedience to the commands of God. It is a negation of life. It is an affirmation of death and it calls upon itself the cursing from God. That’s the picture we hope to paint before you today.

In this first part of the service we want to affirm human life. We want to talk a little bit about child rearing and the fact that child rearing is in and of itself an affirmation of life as God has given it to us. Child rearing is the attempt to raise up the next generation of children to continue the life that God has caused in us to bring forth another generation to serve him and to affirm his kingship. Child rearing is then an affirmation of life and an affirmation of blessings of the king.

There are many positive scriptures of course that talk about child rearing and in a little bit we’ll read some of those scriptures and ask the congregation to give their amen to the blessings that God gives to those people who rear children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We don’t need to belabor that point. It is well understood that people who take upon themselves the burden of childbearing do it with much consideration of the pain, the sacrifice, the many troubles and trials that those children will bring their way. It’s a labor of love. It is an act of self-sacrifice of laying down our life as it were for the life of our children. We all know all about that.

But for what purpose do we raise children? The word of God makes it clear that everything we do is to bring glory to God. That is the purpose of man to bring glory to God. In Malachi 2:15, the scriptures teach us that the purpose of marriage itself is to bring forth a godly seed that God seeks through men and women coming together in marriage in his sight to bring forth a godly seed for himself. Now that word a godly seed indicates of course the importance of raising our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

But it speaks to something else. It speaks to the question of ownership of that seed. And I guess one thing we wanted to stress today is who owns the children that we’re talking about. Who owns the children that will shortly be brought forth in baptism? Who owns the children on the other hand that those people who negate life annually kill and slaughter.

Psalm 103, we start every communion service, most communion services in this church, the reading of Psalm 100, the first few verses. And in Psalm 100:3, we read that know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. This specific verse as well as a myriad other number of verses including the one we read from Deuteronomy earlier shows that God himself is our owner. He’s our creator. We’re made by him. We’re his creation. We are not our own. And the offspring that we bring forth are a godly seed and that we’re supposed to be raised in a godly fashion.

But more importantly, they’re his children. The ultimate ownership of children belongs not to the parent nor to the state. The ultimate ownership of children belong to God.

Now, in this day and age when the state has affirmed its ownership of children through various techniques and methods. It’s important to reaffirm the parental obligation to raise their children according to God’s dictate. However, it’s also important that we not lapse into the sin of believing that the children are ultimately our own possession. No, children are given to parents in stewardship from God who is their owner. This is a critical point and we’ll see in the second half of the service how a negation of this basic point is what’s led to abortion in this land.

There are penalties in the biblical case law regarding an incorrigible son or daughter who raises a ruckus who curses his parents who strikes out at his parents and if you do a study of the text he’s talking about an incorrigible person in that case the parents are forbidden to exercise the death penalty against children why because God owns them and he wants somebody else interceding as it were to make sure the cases case is understood and known children do not belong to parents they belong ultimately for God and they’re to be used for his purpose purposes.

It follows from that we can’t understand necessarily what the benefits of a child will be for God’s purpose. There was a case of the man who was blind in the New Testament and the disciples came to Jesus and they said, “Is this man blind for his own sins?” Which would indicate it’s a psalm of belief in reincarnation which is ludicrous. Is this man blind for the sins of his parents? And Jesus said, “No, he is blind that he might manifest the glory of God.” Jesus was going to heal that person and show the glory forth of God.

And that was the purpose why that son was born blind to that to that family. Children are to be used for God’s purposes and will be used to demonstrate glory to him.

Baptism, which we’re shortly partake of here, speaks to this ownership of the child by God. Now, baptism speaks about a lot of things, of course, and we’ve gone through a lot of talks in this church explaining the meaning of baptism in terms of it being a sacrament or an initiation into the covenant of grace. More demonstration of the child’s participation in the covenant of grace through being raised in a Christian family. Baptism speaks about that covenant of grace. It demonstrates that visually.

Baptism infant baptism specifically speaks to the passiveness of the person who has been brought to faith in Jesus Christ. The infant is passive. He cannot do a thing. That is an affirmation of the election of God and salvation as opposed to the inauguration of salvation on the part of the individual. There are many things that baptism speaks to. It speaks of our cleansing of course and our adoption into the family of God.

God works through means. And just to talk a little bit about that the sense of election there and to talk a little bit about infant baptism in that in that regard. Parents are commanded to raise their children in the faith. And if this church baptizes an infant who is a child of believing parents, we do so recognizing the parent has a commitment obligation to raise that child in the faith.

In the last few baptisms, we’ve talked about the obligations of the parent and we tried to give some practical advice as to how to do that. Parents that have raised their children in the faith. It is not through chance that the parents in this church who bring forth their children for baptism have those children. It’s not because through whatever chance or random mechanism is available, these particular parents happen to have children.

No, those children are in that family according to the decreed will of God. It is part of his will for that child to be involved in that family. Remember that children are after all stewards of the parents and not the parent has not brought that child to life in the sense of being its creator. God can place that particular child that particular soul and whoever he wants to place it in terms of families.

God has called that child to be born into that family for a specific purpose. God has indicated to us therefore that his normative means or normative end for that child is blessing and belief in Jesus Christ. We’re to presuppose the inclusion of that child into the covenant of grace. We certainly presuppose the inclusion of that child in the visible covenant community and recognize that God works through means.

The means that God works through for evangelism is the preaching of the word of God. And there is no place in which a person will receive more preaching from the word of God than in a godly home. We recognize that God works through means. God has said the word won’t go void won’t return void or empty from its purpose. God raises God assigns children to believing parents of the raise them in the faith. And therefore, we have every reason to believe that those children will become part of the elect of God.

Not through physical lineage, but through the providence of God and placing that child in a household, will he be raised in accordance to the word of God.

I was thinking last night that in terms of evangelism then we stressed this before, one of the most important tools we have for evangelism in this country is child rearing. That’s an important tool to make disciples for Jesus Christ. I was thinking that apart from we obviously believe in covenantal baptism as opposed to professional baptism and I was thinking that if you take a hundred converts at a Billy Graham crusade this year and you take a hundred children out of a congregation such as this that teaches the whole counsel of God’s word and understands their obligation to preach teach those children the word of God and to raise them in the faith.

If you take a hundred of each child each group rather and follow them for 10 years my money would be on the children that are raised by the covenant keepers. Okay? God works through means. The means is the preaching of the word of God. And one of the means he works through also are godly families. We don’t mean by that faith is a result of physical lineage. That is heresy. There are some cults and different groups in the country that do preach that those churches are anathema.

If you run across a person who believes in physical lineage producing faith, that person is a curse from God and he has a responsibility to repent for God for that sin. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about children sovereignly placed by God into believing parents into the believing households rather.

So certainly baptism speaks to that. But baptism also speaks we’re told in the word of God in the New Testament that people are the children are baptized, adults are baptized into the name of Jesus Christ. If you look at Vine’s expository dictionary when he talks about the Greek word for baptism there, he’ll he’ll you’ll find a phrase there where he says that when we talked about baptizing into the name of somebody that person became the property of that of the whoever it was baptized into the name of under the ownership of. When we talk about people being baptized into the name of Jesus Christ, we’re talking about Jesus Christ’s ownership of those people.

Now, we’re not talking about them actually becoming his property. We’re affirming the fact that those children are his property already. We’re affirming the fact that he has sovereignly placed them in a believing family and we’re to presuppose then their inclusion into the covenant of grace and act on the basis of that.

The name of a person speak of a person’s authority, of his power, and of all that he is. RJ Rushdoony uses the example in one of his position papers that you’ve heard the expression open up in the name of the law. When a person comes to a door of a of a of a criminal, open in the name of the law. The name has all the authority, all the power, all the authority of the law itself. And so Jesus Christ’s name indicates all his power and authority over us. When we bring forth our children for baptism, it’s in recognition that God owns those children.

And baptism in that situation becomes an affirmation of blessing upon that family as they seek to move in obedience to God’s commands.

Revelation 14:1 is a description of the 144,000. And it says that those 144,000 have the father’s name written upon their foreheads. Now, we don’t mean that it’s actually etched there. I’m sure that’s not what the word of God means. It means he owns them. He owns the elect. The 144,000 speak of the elect of God. And God’s name is on their foreheads. And baptism is a visual sacrament through which the name of God is applied to those people. Baptism is important. It is the mark or brand of God’s ownership upon the children.

To deny baptism to children of professing believers is to deny them the badge or the mark of ownership, the brand of God upon them. And the word of God clearly tells us in the Old Testament that if circumcision was kept off from a child, that child would be cut off from the covenant community. Therefore, in our confessional statement of this church, we have the following statement. We believe that all professions of faith in Jesus Christ and their children are entitled to the waters of baptism and under obligation to enter therein.

There’s an obligation on the part of the parents to act in obedience to the law of God that commands the name of the creator to be placed upon their offspring. And so, the parents this morning have affirmed life and the decision to rear children for God. They’ve also affirmed blessings by asking you that their children be baptized into the covenant community of Jesus Christ. They recognize God’s ownership of them and of their offspring and therefore want the covenant sign applied to them.

Baptism is an affirmation of that presupposed blessing that will fall upon those people who are members of the covenant of grace.

At this time, I would like to read forth a series of blessings that the word of God teaches will come upon those families and upon those children who will walk in obedience to his word and who understand his ownership of them and all that entails. After I read each blessing, I would ask the congregation to say amen and affirmation of the blessing.

Lo, children are inherited of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Amen.

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the side of thine house. thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold that thus shall the man be blessed that fearth the Lord. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her. A wise son maketh a glad father. The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetth a wise child shall have joy of him. Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bore thee shall rejoice.

Amen. Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest. Yay, he shall give delight unto thy soul. Amen.

And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shalt be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shalt be the ba thy basket of thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in. and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. Amen.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for yourself. We acknowledge and confess before you that we are your sheep and that you have ultimate ownership over us. We also acknowledge and confess before you, Lord God, that you are the owner of our children and have given into our care for purposes of stewardship.

Almighty God, we pray your blessings upon this congregation, the families of this congregation and the children as we walk in obedience to your word. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

At this time, I’d like the Phillips and the Woodses to come forward, please. Oh, here is fine. Here is fine.

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness to his children’s children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are a far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Dearly beloved, the sacrament of baptism is of divine ordinance. God our father, who has redeemed us by the sacrifice of Christ, is also the God and father of our children. They belong with us who believe to the membership of the church through the covenant made in Christ and confirmed to us by God in this sacrament which is a sign and seal of our cleansing our engrafting into Christ and of our welcome into the household of God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” And he took them up in his arms and put his hands upon them and bless them.

St. Paul also declared that the children of believers are to be numbered with the holy people of God. In presenting your children for baptism, do you confess your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? And do you promise in dependence on the grace of God to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

Let’s pray. Most merciful and loving father, we thank thee for the church of thy dear son, the ministry of thy word, and the sacraments of grace. We praise thee that thou hast given us so gracious promises concerning our children and that in mercy thou callst them to thee, marking them with this sacrament as a singular token and pledge of thy love.

Set apart this water from a common to a sacred use and grant that what we now do on earth may be confirmed in heaven. As in humble faith we present these children to thee, we beseech thee to receive them to endow them with thy holy spirit and keep them ever as thine own through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What is the Christian name of this child? Mariah. The name of this child Mariah Phillips. I baptize thee in the name of Jesus Christ of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. May the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit come upon you and stay upon you now and forever.

What is the Christian name of this child? Nathaniel. The name of this child Nathaniel Phillips. I baptize you in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. May the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit come upon you and stay upon you now and forever more in Jesus name. Amen.

What’s the Christian name of this child? Miranda. Miranda Woods. I baptize you in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. May the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit come upon you and stay upon you now and forever more. In Jesus name. Amen.

These children are now baptized into Christ kingdom. And you, the people of this congregation, in receiving these children, promise with God’s help to be their sponsors to the end that they may confess Christ as Lord and Savior and come at last into his eternal kingdom. Jesus said, “Whoso shall receive such little one in my name receiveth me.”

Let’s pray. Almighty and everlasting God, who of thine infinite mercy and goodness has promised that thou will not only be our God, but also the God and father of our children, we humbly beseech thee for these children that thy spirit may be upon them and dwell in them forever. Take them, we entreat thee, unto thy fatherly care and protection.

Guide them and sanctify them both in body and in soul. Grant them to grow in wisdom as in stature in favor with God and men. Abundantly enrich them with thy heavenly grace. Bring them safely through the perils of childhood. Deliver them from the temptation of youth and lead them to witness a good confession and to persevere therein to the end.

Oh God, our father, give unto thy servants in whom thou hast committed this blessed trust the assurance of thine unfailing providence and care. Guide them with thy counsel as they teach and train their children. Help them to lead their household into an ever-increasing knowledge of Christ and in a more steadfast obedience to his will. We commend to thy fatherly care the children and families of this congregation. Help us in our homes to honor thee and by love to serve one another and to thy name be all blessing and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Let’s stand as we sing the next song. We know the tune of this song is the same as the last heart 27. We have the home with God and wonder and wonder the prayer Jesus name is sweet to every children this way. And there is a home where there is to pray the sacred word that brings us to let us in our blessed peace to Build your heart in love to me and you all will be seated.

At this time we’ll sing our operatorial psalm found on the back of your bulletin. Psalm number 113. At this time those people who have tithes and offerings to bring can bring them to the front as we sing the song. Let me Forever is glory. Hallelujah.

A reading from Proverbs 8:32-36.

Now therefore Hearken unto me, oh ye children, for blessed are they that keep my ways, hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinnth against me wrongeth his own soul. All thee that hate me love death.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this scripture and pray that you would enlighten to our ears. We would understand what you have to teach us in it. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

This portion of the proverbs like Deuteronomy 28 and Deuteronomy 30 we read earlier talks of the two ways. The ways of life and blessing and obedience, the way of disobedience, death and cursing. This verse in verse 34 and 35 speaks of the blessing of them that find life. Life, they shall obtain the favor of the Lord. And that is happily what we can proclaim in terms of the Phillips household and the Woods household this morning.

But our service has another side to it today. For we know that there are those in our nation who are committing foul and evil sins of killing pre-born infants in tremendous numbers. We talked about the importance in terms of obedience of recognizing the ownership of God of our children. And I think that it is important to recognize that abortion historically and currently has been espoused by those who proclaim ownership of children by people other than God.

For instance, the Roman fathers at the time of the church, early church were considered to be the lord of their children. They were the ones who gave life to the children in their belief. They were the ones who could take that life. Therefore, the Roman fathers were legally allowed to kill their children even after birth. This was their right because they had ultimate ownership of the children.

To espouse ultimate parental ownership one way or another through political action in this country will not solve the problem of abortion. There are many people who involve themselves in abortion this day who do so for this specific reason. The children are mine. They’re part of my body. I have the right to either allow them to live or to die.

This position was also been espoused in more modern times by Nobel laureate Dr. Watson. I will read a quote from him. Dr. James Watson is the one who discovered the molecular or the co-discover the molecular structure of DNA and he also based his position on abortion with an understanding of parental ownership of the children.

In an interview in the AMA journal he talks about various techniques to discover if children are going to be handicapped before they’re born. He says fortunately now through such techniques as amniocentesis parents can often learn in advance whether their children would be normal and healthy or hopelessly deformed. They then can choose either to have the child or opt for a therapeutic abortion. But the cruel fact remains that because of the present limits of such detection methods, most birth defects are not discovered till birth.

Well, that doesn’t stop him. Of course, he wants to go ahead and propose the following. If a child were not declared alive until 3 days after birth, then all parents could be allowed the choice that only a few are given under the present system. That’s equal too, isn’t it? Nice and fair. The doctor would allow the child to die if the parent so chose and save a lot of misery and suffering. I believe this view is the only rational compassionate attitude to have.

As Rushdoony would say, there’s a place in hell for a man like that. But you understand he says that because he wants to acknowledge the ultimate ownership of the child by the parent. And the parent may not want the child. They got to give some time to see what the child looks like and whether or not he’s an acceptable baby to the child who actually to the parent rather who actually owns the child.

So people who espouse parental ownership of children find themselves if it’s convenient for the sake of the parents to kill those infants and in this case even those infants who have already been born.

Well the other side of that issue is that the state owns the children and along that lines we have a quotation from Plato in his Republic. Plato says he should make it a rule in the republic now for his perfect talking about his perfect society. I should make it a rule for a woman to bear children to the state from her 20th year to 40th year and a man after getting over the sharpest burst in the race of life henceforward to beget children to the state and he is until he is 55 years old.

So he says these people should raise children for the state until they’re 55 years old in terms of men and if that a man who is either above or under this age shall meddle with the business of begetting children for the commonwealth, we shall declare his act to be an offense against religion and justice because he’s offended the state, doesn’t have the state’s blessing upon the the beginning of the children, etc., etc.

But he acknowledged that this would probably happen and we didn’t want to have men pent up after the age of 55 and so we should go let them go ahead and do whatever they want to do in terms of other females in the community. However, if this results in children, it says that children so happily conceived if that cannot sometimes be helped, having children as a result of a man over 55 having intercourse with a with a woman, then it’s best to dispose of the infant on the understanding of the fruit of such union is not to be reared.

And it’s not to be reared because it’s not in accordance with the principles of the state. If the state owns the children, if the state owns the people, then the state can dictate which portions of the population will live or die. And if there are infants born to people outside of what he considers to be the optimum range of childbearing and therefore wouldn’t have the blessing of the state upon that union.

Those children should be aborted if possible and if not of course upon their birth would be killed. And of course we have modern examples of that as well in terms of China for instance where they determined for public policy purposes that they don’t want anybody to have more than one or two children. The state has ultimate ownership of the children and therefore insists on aborting other infants or actually killing the children if they’re born to people outside of the illegal one or two.

So state ownership also leads to abortion. But you can go further than that of course and that is that nobody owns anything and this is a position that Marquis de Sade took and in his in one of his writings he talks about justification of incest and sodomy. He also espoused bestiality for what is man and what difference is there between man and other plants. If we take away the understanding that man is created in the image of God Sade said, “Well, what’s the what’s the importance of these restrictions we have upon things such as murder?” Sade said, “Savages, the most independent of men, the nearest to nature, daily indulge in murder, which amongst them goes unpunished.

The freest of people are they who are most friendly to murder.” Infanticide, abortion, and youth in Asia were also urged by him as checks to overpopulation. So, if we remove God’s ownership of children, if we place it in the hands of the state, if we place the ownership of children in the hands of the parents or if we say that nobody really owns them but just sort of belong to nature. Any one of those positions is going to lead to people who propound and put forth abortion as a method of controlling unwanted population.

The common bond running throughout these is a rejection of course of God’s ownership of children that the scriptures plainly affirm. They reject the commands of God. They walk in disobedience to his law. Having done that, they reject God himself and they then are turned over to a love of death. Proverbs tells us that all them that hate God love death. Man in his rejection of God for supposedly a free life ends up affirming death in abortion.

So we have that cycle that the scriptures tell us about disobedience and negation of life and affirmation of death and then the cursings of God upon those people. An endless spiral of depravity.

The solution to the problem of abortion in this country will not be found apart from the God of the scriptures.

Human life, Dan did a remarkably remarkable job last year of giving various quotes from people who said, “Well, we know it’s human life after all.” That’s not the question. The question is, do we want that life to continue? That’s the real question. For the anti-abortionist, for the right to life people to continue to think that the vital part of the battle is whether or not we’re talking about human life is foolish. I’ve talked to people you say, “Well, those were real hardened abortionists that Dan was talking about last year.” But I’ve talked to people at the Oregon Graduate Center.

Well, if you knew it was human life inside you, would you still think it was okay for women to commit abortion? Well, yeah, I think I would. Human life, apart from an understanding of the ownership of that life by God, that person being created in the image of God, has no sanctity to it. We’re talking about the sanctity of human life today because it’s based upon an understanding that life is a gift of God.

To sever that connection or to attempt to solve the abortion problem without making that connection again that we’re God’s people, and we’re part of his the owner that he has ultimate ownership over us is not going to lead to a solution to the abortion problem. The abortion sin in this country is also insoluble apart from God’s law. Even if there are people who affirm God’s ownership of all his people but they don’t affirm God’s law and as a result they reject the case applications that clearly teach that abortion is murder.

And I’m not going to go through a big lot of proofs about that. It’s part of the confession statement of this church if you become a member of this church that you agree that you abhor the sin of abortion and you pledge to oppose it. That sort of statement should be in every church in this land. The abortion problem is not going to be solved apart from the word of God being proclaimed forth in the churches as mandating that abortion is nothing is another word for murder.