"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
On September 11th, 2001 over 3500 lives were extinguished. They were future leaders of this nation, doctors who could have saved many lives, scientist who may have found a cure for cancer, evangelist’s who may have lead thousands to the Lord, and they were all loved. Yes, on September 11th, 2001, evil doers killed over 3500 people.
On September 12th, 2001, 4000 lives were extinguished and again on September 13th and 14th and 15. Every day in America there are over 4000 unborn babies whose lives have been taken in what is called pro-choice. 4000 each day, 28,000 each week, 112,000 each month and 1,460,000 each year.
On September 11th, 2001 terrorist killed over 3500 people, and the outcry for justice was great, the cry of pain was heard through out our Nation. We are still in the process of bringing terrorism under control, if that is possible. 4,000 innocent unborn babies are being slaughtered everyday, but I see no weeping, no anger, and no outcry for justice and no one who cares.
In Jeremiah 5:1, God tells the weeping prophet Jeremiah that He formed him in the belly. And then God says that even before there was form to his body, before there was even a heart beat, even before there was a so-called primitive streak or the early spinal cord, before Jeremiah’s parents ever thought about having a child, GOD KNEW HIM!!!!
And you know what? If God knew Jeremiah before he was formed in his mother’s womb, then God knows every unborn child before they are formed in their mother’s womb! And God knew you and I before we were formed.
If we would only look at the unborn the way that God looks at the unborn, we wouldn’t be having this discussion this morning and Jeanette would be out of a job and the abortion industry would be looked at as the most despicable thing that could be done to another human being.
God has placed a value on human life over every other thing that He created. I know that we have animal rights activists that would be upset with that statement, but I’m sorry today, God made man in His image and likeness and God said that He loved man and had a plan of redemption for man, and God is, I believe with all of my heart, very upset at what is happening all over the world to unborn babies!!!!
Story:
A young man was walking along the seashore. Far ahead of him, he saw a distant figure of someone who, like him, was walking, but who paused every few steps, stooped down, and seemed to be throwing something into the sea.
His curiosity aroused, the young man hurried forward, walking awkwardly in the sand, as he tried to catch up with the man. As he came closer, he saw that it was an older gentleman, and the reason that he would stop every step or two was to pick up a starfish and fling it into the ocean. It was only then that the young man noticed the thousands of starfish that littered the beach for miles, left stranded there by the tide.
The young man felt a rising sense of anger. What the old man was doing seemed so pointless, he surely was wasting his time, and he couldn’t wait to catch up with him to tell him so. By the time the young man caught up to the older man, he was out of breath.
"Why are you doing this?" he gasped. "You can’t save all of these starfish! It’s useless! What does it matter?"
The old man paused for a moment, looking down at the crusty starfish he’d just picked up. He turned it over slowly, then answered.
"It matters to this one," he said, and with a slow deliberate motion, he tossed it back into the sea, back into life.
I believe it matters to God over the increasing insensitivity to human life. The more we take God out of things, out of our public schools, out of our government, out of our currency, out of every public display, the less we respect and appreciate the life that He has given to us.
I want to look at some things today when we think about the sanctity of life and the words God used in Jeremiah chapter five and verse one when He told Jeremiah, "I knew thee."
#1) We Were Created in God’s Image & Likeness:
God made us in His own image (spiritual beings) and likeness (physical).
Genesis 1:26 &27 says,
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
Christians more than anyone on the face of the earth aught to believe that God and God alone CREATED man in His image and likeness. There was no big bang and no evolutionary process that took billions and billions of years. And we didn’t come from a monkey. I may look like a monkey, but I didn’t come from one.
Story:
There was a man who was looking for a job without any success for several weeks. So he decided to take a break and visit the zoo. While he was at the zoo, he asked the zookeeper if they had any openings.
The zookeeper motioned the man over to a tree and whispered, "Our gorilla just died last night, and we’re expecting a group of children to come this afternoon. They will be very disappointed if they don’t get to see a gorilla. If you’re willing to get into this gorilla outfit and just swing around in the cage, I’ll pay you $10 an hour."
The man thought about the children, and he thought about the money, and then he said, "yes, I’ll do it." And so he got into the gorilla suit and walked over and entered into the gorilla cage. Just then, the children began to file by. The man decided he was going to give the children a show by swinging on a tire. He swung so high, that he landed into the next cage, which was the lion’s cage.
Immediately the man in the gorilla suit began to scream and climb the bars and shake and rattle the cage. The children also began to scream as the lion slowly and stalkingly approached the gorilla. Just when the man in the gorilla suit thought all was hopeless and that he was going to be the lions dinner, the lion said, "Psssst, hey mister, you better shut up before we both lose our jobs."
So, we may act like monkeys sometimes, but we didn’t come from them.
We must see that everything begins with God! Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
Graham Scroggie in his great book, "The unfolding drama of redemption", says that this first statement by God in the Bible takes care of at least six false doctrines.
The God of the universe created everything from nothing, and He did it by His Word, this is the same God who says "I knew thee." He alone is the one that can create life and sustain life and take life if He so chooses.
Man has no right to say when life begins and especially when it is over.
Man has no right trying to play God and decide when a life should be terminated or not. "In the beginning God created."
In fact if we want to get all these creationists and humanists mad, let’s tell them the whole truth. It was Jesus, God the Son, who created all things! Look at John 1:1-3,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
We were made in God’s image and likeness and as believers we need to let God’s image shine through us so that people will see Godliness in us more than they see our humanness. We also need to conform to the image of His Son.
Romans 8:28 &29 says,
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
A lot of people use this verse to teach predestination but what they do is stop where it says "he did foreknow, he also did predestinate" and they don’t finish the sentence where Paul says we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. In other words, God knew us before we were even formed in our mother’s womb and he predestined us to be like Jesus.
Are you like Jesus? Would people say about you and I like they said about Peter after he preached to the religious Jews in Acts 4:13, when the Jewish leaders said,
"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus."
They could tell by the way they talked and the way they lived, that they had been with Jesus. Can people tell by being with us and listening to us, that we’ve been with Jesus?
Or can they tell that we haven’t been with Jesus for quite some time? Oh, you go to church faithfully, but you haven’t been with Jesus. You read your Bible because you should, but you haven’t been with Jesus.
In the beginning God Created! If you remove that, everything else changes. That says it all.
And then,
#2) God has an Eternal Love for Man:
Psalm 8:1-9,
"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"
In John 17:23, Jesus is praying the real Lord’s Prayer in the garden of Gethsemane,
"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."
God loves man today and He loves us so much that He paid the ultimate price for our soul’s salvation.
John 3:16 says,
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 15:12 & 13,
"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
God loved man so much that He gave His life for us on the cross and He wants us to know Him in a personal way. If God put such a great value on the life of man, than we should certainly do no less than God in our love and concern for the unborn children that are thoughtlessly slaughtered each and every day.
Some statistics on loss of human life:
REVOLUTIONARY WAR 25,324 lives lost.
CIVIL WAR 498,332 lives lost.
WORLD WAR II 407,316 lives lost.
KOREAN WAR 54,246 lives lost.
VIETNAM WAR 56,655 lives lost.
GULF WAR 293 lives lost.
WAR ON THE UNBORN 31,000,000 since abortion was legalized in 1973. (6 times the number of casualties in all the wars combined)
The question is, will we be faithful to the service of the Lord after all he has done for us, and for how much He loves us. Paul said it was the love of Christ that constrained him.
God made us in His image and likeness.
God has an eternal love for man.
#3) God provided an Eternal Gift for us in His Son:
Ephesians 2:8-9,
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Romans 6:23 says,
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Salvation is a gift from God to man and it is the greatest gift that could ever be given and it was given because of a heart of love for man.
God told Jeremiah that He sanctified and called him before he was even formed in his mothers womb! God has a plan for each and every life, but we’ll only fulfil all that God has for our lives when we first become His child by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and then yielding our lives to Him on obedient service.
God said "I Knew Thee." Jeremiah. I want you to know that God is saying that to you as well. Will you respond to Him. He knew every aborted baby since the beginning of this horrid procedure. Let’s pray for our leaders and people who can make a difference in changing the direction of our nation back to life and protection for the unborn. Let’s pray.