Human life is immeasurably valuable. This great worth of a human being is a result of the fact that humans are made in the image of God. God despises the needless slaughter of his image-bearers, and has commanded: "You shall not murder." God hates murder so much that he calls for the death penalty for any who unjustly take a human life (Gen 9:6). And yet in our country, and around the world, there is unrestrained and government-sanctioned murder perpetrated every day against the most innocent and helpless. A silent holocaust against the unborn. Every Christian must stand against this great evil and cry out in defense of those who have no voice of their own.

If you would all stand, please. We are in God's holy presence, and we want to hear his word with our hearts tuned to him. Exodus chapter 20, We're just going to read verse 13. Exodus 20, verse 13. Let us hear God's word.

Thou shalt not kill. Amen. Our Father in Heaven, we are so glad to gather before Thee again. We are here. Thy blood-bought people are here.

And blessed and spirit-filled brothers are preaching to others in other rooms. Father, all across this campus, Christ is being exalted, thy word is going forth. What we must have from thee is the outpouring of thy Holy Spirit. Come, O God, please, by the power of the world to come, fill this place. May we know the love of God shed abroad in our hearts through that spirit which is given unto us.

Help this weak vessel of dust to speak to thy precious people. These are thy sheep, Lord Jesus. They are hungry, feed them. Lord, I can do nothing for a soul here, but Thy blessed Spirit can open the heart, illumine the mind, and fill us with understanding, with love for Thee and love for one another. Help us now as we address this often complex and challenging debate.

Help us, oh God, to understand the importance of what we are considering now. And we pray it all that Christ would be exalted, And we ask it in his name, amen. Please be seated. God alone is the Lord of human life. God's word reveals that our almighty, all-knowing, and all-present creator purposed, designed, and created it.

Indeed, God gives to all life and breath and all things. And in his infinite creative genius, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. That is, he created the spirit of man within him. You are not just a handful of chemicals and water. You didn't just hoist up out of the primordial soup billions of years ago.

You are human beings with a conscience. You are human beings that have a spiritual part that is you, that will live forever. And God alone is the Lord of that life. Not you or anybody else. God, the Almighty.

God then is the fountain of life. That is, He created it. He is the giver of both physical and spiritual life. King David praised God for being the strength, the defender, the stronghold of life, and the book of Ruth proclaims that God is the restorer of life. Because God alone is the almighty creator, he alone is Lord of human life.

Only God can declare, behold, all souls are mine. That's the only one that can say that. So then, human life belongs to God. It is sacred and unique among all other life forms in this world. Nothing compares to human life.

Therefore, The human destruction of human life must be according to the revealed will of the Lord of life alone. Let me Repeat that. The human destruction of human life must be according to the revealed will of the Lord of life alone. Otherwise the intentional killing of human life is a crime against God himself. Both history and scripture reveal that sinful human beings are neither good nor wise in their judgments of who should live and who should die.

We're not any good at that. That is the primary reason the horror of abortion exists. Our culture is in darkness and does not understand who should live and who should die. Consider this. According to statistics, and I know that this subject is often overflowing with statistics, And statistics don't change anybody's heart, by the way.

But at least understand something of the enormity of what we're talking about. That's my only purpose in bringing this up. According to statistics accessed on October 2nd of this year, the U.S. Has committed 61, 645, 895 abortions since 1973. And that number increases every day.

And since 1980, 1 billion, 550 million, 160, 344 image bearers of God have been slaughtered worldwide. Now the soul in here can compute mentally a number like that. Your brain can't hold it. You cannot even use your creative powers to imagine one billion slaughtered human beings, almost two billion, since 1980. Now, people that are Christians, those that have pro-life sentiments, are encouraged.

In the last year or two, there's been something of a drop in the issue, in the number of abortions. And we're thankful for that, but very often when we hear news like that, it's like, oh that's wonderful, we switch off and go on to something else. The number is still in the millions. Millions of human beings made in the image of God are mercilessly slaughtered, pulled apart, poisoned. I could spend a long time just talking to you about the procedures and that's not my point today.

But it is brutal beyond words. I stood outside an abortion clinic for six years, preaching and pleading with women not to kill their children. That didn't call them names, but they called us haters. We pleaded with them, can we help you? Can we pray with you before you go in?

Could we please talk with you for five minutes before you go in there and destroy the life in your womb? The hostility was incredible. And I even told a woman, I said, listen, you're going in, how far along are you? They're probably going to give you the morning after pill. Here's what's going to happen.

You're going to take that. You're going to go home. You're going to take the pill. And this is what the doctor is going to tell you in that room. When that baby starts to come, go sit on the toilet.

Drop that human life into the toilet bowl. Now a culture that sanctions that has lost its understanding of what life is. By the way, with that 1 billion, 550 million, 160 thousand, 344 deaths since 1980, God has seen fit to let us know. All you have to do is look at the numbers. No war in human history has massacred so many lives, human lives.

None. Since 1981, Argus Communications, or excuse me, in 1981, Argus Communications published a book by John Joseph Powell entitled, Abortion, the Silent Holocaust. He believed that it was legitimate to compare the mass slaughter of unborn babies to the dreadful treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany. And so do we. So this message respectfully borrows his title, Abortion, The silent Holocaust.

Hitler did not come close to what the United States of America has done to its own citizens. We hear that abortion rates are down. But how many abortions does it take before you think, this shouldn't be happening in my city? The answer should be one. So, may the sovereign and almighty creator of life grant us wisdom and understanding much grace by his spirit.

And as we consider this solemn subject, I pray that the Lord Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life will stir our hearts to protect and preserve the lives of the unborn. First a question, what does the sixth commandment mean? The words are simple, thou shalt not kill. In the Hebrew it's just two words, no kill. But what does it mean?

You hear people use it all the time to make certain arguments. Is it even legitimate for me to be standing here and applying this law of God to the subject I'm addressing? And I'm going to argue, of course, that it does. By his almighty power, the Lord God who delivered his people from bondage and slavery in Egypt, took them to Mount Sinai, where he gave them his covenant law, which we call the Ten Commandments. The sixth commandment, recorded in Exodus 2013, says boldly and simply, thou shalt not kill.

Now we probably all understand what this verse says. The words aren't hard. The issue is most of us often do not understand what it means, or how it would relate to abortion. So, I want us to consider first, this will be just a little technical for a few moments, but if you can hang on to that and not collapse into a deep snore, then I trust to give you something that will be encouraging in your thinking. The word abortion, I think all of us know probably, does not appear in the Holy Scriptures.

Not there. Nevertheless, Jews and the early Christians rejected it because they understood the implications of the sixth commandment and the sanctity of human life. Jewish and Christian convictions about abortion rested firmly upon the foundation laid first in Genesis 1 26-28, which we considered in the last hour. God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion. So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God created he him. Male and female created He them. These themselves are words of life about life. And human life is different from all animal life on this planet. Because while all life that God gives is important under his reign, human life is utterly distinguished because it is the only life on the face of this planet that is in the image of God.

There is something about God in human beings. That's why so often they become arrogant and prideful blowfish because they think they are something. Well the fact is every human being is something. He is not a blob, you know, there's not just a ghost in the machine. He is a human being with a human immortal soul.

He's made in the image of God. We're not little gods, but we are godlike. That can't be said about any other life on the planet. Now in those God-breathed words of Genesis, the Holy Spirit draws back the veil, so to speak, the veil of heaven, to let us eavesdrop on the eternal decree of God regarding the creation of human beings. In that glorious and holy council, the holy persons of the Trinity decreed to make man in our image after our likeness.

Okay, we read this In the minds of too many people, this is kind of like either science fiction or just a fairy tale. That's what Richard Dawkins thinks. This is just like a fairy tale. Little green men, men on the moon, all of that kind of stuff. Brethren, these words are awesome.

God says about everything else, let it be, let it be, and it was, but with man, the Holy Spirit draws back, as it were, lets us go into the counsels, the majesty, the splendor of God's glory, and lets us hear that we're made in His image. That sets us apart from everything on the planet. In that divine decree, We see that human life is of high and unique importance in God's eyes. Now, He's not impressed with us, let's be clear. But he loves his image that is within us, and he despises that we have marred it with sin.

That is why he's given us a savior. In his love, his mercy, and his grace. Now, God blessed male and female, and said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Have babies. And again, this is something that we just don't get in our culture.

The issue of evolution has given America virtually what I would call mental anesthetic. It simply sees nothing in human life. That's why it's easy to say, well, you know when you get old enough, you just become a useless eater. We can get rid of you. Oh, if there are too many babies coming into the world, let's just kill them.

But the fact of the matter is, is God has made man and woman in such a way that we are able to reproduce image bearers of God. Satan hates that. He despises that. And lost men under his influence reflect his hatred. God blessed men and women with the astonishing ability to give birth.

The thought that two human beings in love can lie together and produce an image bearer of Almighty God is astonishing. So God sets a high value on human life. We see just how great God's regard for human life is in His command to Noah. Who so shedeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed." Why? For in the image of God made He them, made He man.

That's why. You kill one of my image bearers, I'm going to tell some of my other image bearers to take your life. Shedding man's blood in this context means murder. And here God inaugurated capital punishment for it. He later added, ye shall take no satisfaction, that means no ransom payment, for the life of a murderer.

We'll talk about this in just a moment. There is such a thing as accidental killing and one could pay a ransom price for the loss of the one who was accidentally killed. But God says here, in the clearest words, a murderer, no ransom. There's no payment for him. It's life for life.

Our culture doesn't get it. That's why it continues to murder every single day of its existence. God says that the murderer is guilty of death and shall surely be put to death. Murder is an inhuman, barbarous, unjust, crying sin. Why?

Because human beings are made in the image of God. It's not just, oh, we lost a potential lawyer. Oh, we lost a potential artist. Oh, we lost a potential musician. It's that we have murdered, we have slaughtered God's image bearers and he despises it and he never looks the other way.

When Cain slew Abel, God said the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. Abel's blood had a voice that cried out to God for justice and it reached all the way up into God's court in heaven. It's a picturesque way to say God always knows when the blood of his image bearers is spilled. He sees it. He judges it.

Commentator Nahum Sarna puts it well, quote, murder is the supreme and capital crime because the dignity, sanctity, and inviolability of human life all derived from the fact that every human being bears the stamp of the divine maker." Close quote. Building on this foundation, let us consider this, the meaning of the sixth commandment. Why is there a sixth commandment? Because we're made in the image of God. Now what does that, thou shalt not kill, mean?

The one true and living God declared from Mount Sinai, thou shalt not kill. Now the word translated kill has no single word equivalent in English. The Hebrew can be translated in a general sense of kill or it can be translated in the specific sense of murder. On one hand the Old Testament applies it to accidental killing. In the event that someone unintentionally killed another person, the killer could flee to one of six cities of refuge that God appointed in Israel.

On the other hand, the Old Testament applies the word to deliberate, premeditated killing or murder. Accessories to murder. Applied to them as well. Finally, it applies to kinds of killing that God himself commands. For instance, the Old Testament scriptures reveal that God gave commands for war, permitted occasions of self-defense, and demanded the death penalty for some crimes as murder, as witchcraft, and others.

So what does the Sixth Commandment mean? What does it mean? The idea behind God's command here seems to be this. Human beings may not take the life of another human being without God's approval. In other words, kill means unapproved taking of human life.

Does that make sense to you? Because God is the author of life. He says who lives. He says who dies. Not you, not me ever, but always him.

So there are at least three things that kill can apply to. But when God says, thou shalt not kill, he's ultimately saying, I am the giver and taker of life. No one kills outside of my approval, and there is swift retribution for those who do. I repeat, life and death belong to God. And we must be submitted to his word or we're not going to be any good about who should live and who should die.

God alone has that authority to tell human beings and their governments when and how to take human life. Human beings may not determine of their own will when to take the life of another human being. Now having said that, in whatever ways God applies the word kill in Scripture, He always demands the death penalty for murder. He commanded Noah, as I said earlier, who so shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For the image in the image of God made he man." Now in that Next, shedding man's blood meant murder.

Now let me say this. If we've understood what we're talking about, thinking about, if you're following me, as we've worked through those technicalities, then we have to begin to at least sense, it has to kind of creep into our darkened minds a little bit, that unborn life then is important. It is important to God. Let's consider one more text that's, it's an iffy text. What I mean by that is commentators really struggle over it all the time.

It's complex. I don't want to bore you to tears by giving you all the different views. I'm just going to give you the view that I think is the most sound. But I know that there are solid evangelicals who disagree with what I'm going to say here this morning. So we've got good men on both sides of this.

But it's Exodus chapter 21. You might want to turn there. It might even be a passage you've read before and found puzzling, and you're in good company because most commentators really struggle with this. But it's Exodus chapter 21, verses 22 through 25. And if you'll stay with me for a few minutes, we will try to work through this quickly.

I just want to make one more point before we begin applying this thought of thou shalt not kill. First of all, what does that text say? In fact, every pastor needs to have burned into his brain. First of all, you must tell the Lord's people what it says. What does the text, what does the Bible say?

Then you need to explain to them what it means. If you've been married for more than a couple of days, you know that you can say something and before long you're going, no but You know what I mean. Yes, but you said, right? You understand how those things go. You can say things.

And even though you say them, sometimes people don't even get that part right. And then they start trying to figure out what you've meant. And you find out later, sometimes you're talking about the same thing, sometimes you're on different planets. Pastors must tell the Lord's people, not that they're fools or ignorant, but they need to understand what it says. Then you begin to wrestle with what does it mean, and then you can apply it properly.

If you mess up the first two, you're not going to apply it in a way that's useful to God's people. So what does the text say? Well it says, if men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit or her unborn children come out of her and yet no mischief, if you're reading the King James, it means no harm and yet no mischief follow. He shall surely be punished according to the woman's husband will lay upon him or according as the woman's husband will lay upon him and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow or if any harm follows now listen carefully then thou shalt give life for life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Well then, what does it mean? We heard it, what's that all about? Well this passage has a very long history of debate among the Lord's people because it presents difficulties for interpreters. Bible-believing Christians are divided between two well-known interpretations of this passage, but because our time is limited, we will simply focus on the interpretation that I believe best represents the biblical data. I'm not alone.

This is not my original thinking. There are a number who hold this. And we will call it the premature birth interpretation. The premature birth interpretation. Now, Verses 22 and 23 present this scenario.

Two or more men are fighting. During the brawl, one of them unintentionally strikes a pregnant woman. That causes a premature birth, not a miscarriage, a premature birth. Apart from the sorrow and the difficulty of a premature birth, there is no mischief, there's no harm to the mother or the baby. So the husband of the woman finds the man who caused the injuries, and the judges enforce that payment.

Right? Now, the second part of that passage, verses 24 and 25, there's a severe injury or death to the mother or the baby or both. In that case, the judges apply what we call the law of retribution. Life for life. Did we hear that language?

Life for life. Now, because this is an accidental death, I assume, along with others, that if the woman or the child or both of them die, the man can run for a city of refuge he did not intend to kill. But if not, he can still lose his life. Why? Because an image bearer of God has been destroyed.

So now with that in mind, if you followed me, there's no harm and real harm. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, all of those things. If that's the case, what can we draw from that? It's not a passage about abortion. I want to make sure you're not confused about that.

This is not about abortion, but it is about the termination of life. And we want to learn something from that. And it's this, number one, In the interpretation I've given you, the baby is viewed as a person just like the mother. It's not just a blob of tissue, as we've been told for decades. Throughout the Old Testament, scriptures, children in the women are spoken of and treated as persons.

Now, Psalm 139, listen carefully, verses 13 through 16. For you formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made." God's hand is in the life of every child, illegitimate or otherwise.

Amen. When I was made in secret and skillfully wrought, we see God is a great skilled artist here. Skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. And in your book, they were all written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. Before I was out of the womb, you knew me, had my days on the calendar.

It's all set. This is a human being made in the image of God, and David is speaking of the extraordinary skill and craft of God in knitting him together in his mother's womb. Isaiah chapter 49 verses 1 and 2 and 5 say, Listen, O coastlands, to me, and take heed, you peoples from afar. The Lord has called me from the womb, from the matrix of my mother. He has made mention of my name.

He's called me from the womb. He can't call a blob. He calls a person. From the matrix of my mother, he has made mention of my name. And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel is gathered to him.

For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. Jeremiah chapter one, four and five. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, before I, God, formed Thee, Jeremiah, in the womb." The miracle of God-giving life takes place in the womb when those remarkable cells merge together and human life, image bearers of God, begin to grow in a woman's womb. That should be the safest place in the world. In our country, it is among the most dangerous, if not the most dangerous.

Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. And there are other passages, but in each of these, the unborn child in the womb is addressed and considered a person, a human being. Number two, the baby is viewed as valuable human life then, as valuable as the mother. Not only a person like the mother, but valuable human life. That's why there is a ransom for damage and there is capital punishment if the one who kills doesn't flee to a city of refuge.

Number three, the man is punished for killing or injuring the baby as well as the mother. And the last point is the most important. Listen really carefully. The death of the baby is accidental, not intentional. That leads us to an important question.

By the way, I've got to pick up the tempo here. It is this. How does the sixth commandment relate to abortion? The noun abortion and its verb forms have several different meanings. Furthermore, abortions can be divided into two kinds.

One, spontaneous abortions, and we call those miscarriages. Two, induced abortions. Spontaneous abortions occur with no outside external intervention, and we call them, as I said, miscarriages. Induced abortions intentionally use outside or external intervention to terminate a pregnancy. In other words, humans invade the womb and destroy human life with a variety of techniques.

Induced abortion murders a human being in its mother's womb. And that, most tragically, is because it is used so frequently as a method of birth control. I want to have fun. I want to fornicate. I want to have adultery, or I think I can't afford to have a baby, but that's okay.

We just go ahead and have our pleasure, and then we kill the life we make. Let's make some applications. God says, you shall not murder and abortion is murder. Therefore, one, intentional abortion is murder. It is the conscious determination to take innocent life outside of God's authority.

It is the purposeful destruction of an image bearer of God. Two, intentional abortion is murder. Therefore, those who perform it shed innocent blood. Shedding innocent blood before God is a horrific crime and one that God abhors and always punishes. If a slain person was found near a city, the elders of that city would gather together.

And if that body, that corpse was found in close proximity to their their city, they would have to determine, they would make inquiry, and then the elders of that city would behead a heifer, wash their hands, and then declared that the city had not slain this man. Because innocent blood had been shed, and it was going to be blamed on the city. They had to prove they had nothing to do with that death. Brethren, if the shedding of innocent blood is murder and something that God hates, What does God think of a nation that's killed 61 million innocent lives since 1973? Number three, intentional abortion is murder, and therefore those who consent to it are guilty of murder.

That's the way the scripture looks at it. If you stand around and watch it and say, yeah, well, you know, let them do what they want to do. They're guilty of that blood. The Word of God says that plainly. Jesus was in Pilate's hands and the Jews cried out, crucify him, crucify him, and in a very vain attempt to wash his hands from the guilt of Christ's blood, He still consented to Jesus's death.

He was guilty, hand washing and all. The same is true with those who consent to this bloody practice, this demonic practice, in our country. Fourthly, intentional abortion is murder. Therefore, those in authority who do not punish it when it is known are guilty of it. The kings and queens, princes and princesses, presidents, governors, mayors, public leaders, senators, congressmen, and worse of all, church leaders, who know that innocent blood is shed in their jurisdiction and do nothing to stop it, nothing to punishment, have blood on their hands, according to the Word of God.

They are guilty before God even as the abortionist himself is. Fifthly, intentional abortion is murder therefore those who commit it are like Satan, who was a liar and murderer from the beginning. Sixthly, intentional border is murder, abortion is murder, therefore Jesus' blood-bought people Therefore, Jesus' blood-bought people must do all biblically lawful things to deter or to stop it. I'm going to steal just a few more minutes and close it up. My friends, if we do not, we will be guilty of consenting to it.

I'm not trying to put a guilt trip on anybody. I am telling you what the Word of God holds us accountable for. We're going to stand before the Almighty. We must do what we can. That doesn't mean that everybody has to go down and preach in front of the abortion clinic like I have.

There are many ways to help, to help women and to plead with them. There are so many ways that you can do it, but find out and do what you can to see that this thing stops. Intentional abortion is murder, therefore Jesus Christ's blood, bought people have a profound responsibility. Number seven, intentional abortion is murder. And this is why I must take just a few extra minutes.

Do forgive me. I don't want to take anybody's time. But I'm in the Q&A that follows, so it's okay if I'm not there. We live in a culture of death. Our culture loves death.

God's people should cultivate cultures of life. That begins with the pulpits that proclaim Christ, and then in our homes where we exalt Christ. It is rare in our day to find a church in which women have not had abortions. And let me say this, and I say this with all concern. Have you, dear women, said, have any of you here said, I will have my freedom, not babies.

I will have my education, my career, not babies. I will keep my swimsuit figure and my fashionable figure, not babies. Men, have any of you been guilty of this? I will not have this evidence of my adultery. I will not have this economic burden.

I will not have this responsibility stealing my life. I heard all of this done at the abortion clinic and more and more. Now, oh my friend, your abortion and your consent to abortion is a violent, devilish crime against heaven. The shedding of innocent blood and a blow at the very image of God. Know this, The scripture says, the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.

Yet those who commit abortion, those who consent to abortion, those who look the other way when knowing about abortion, and those who have had abortions, may find hope. There is hope. Hope from certain judgment by repenting of your murders and trusting the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have seen it. Upon Calvary's cross, where Christ's blood flowed from his head and his hands and his feet, murderers may find cleansing and pardon from that sin.

As dreadful and horrifying as abortion is, its judgment nailed Jesus, the Son of God, to the cross. And every repentant, blood-shedding sinner that flees to him will know his astonishing grace, His astonishing mercy, his astonishing love, and his forgiveness. Abortion is one of the things that nailed the Son of God to the cross of Calvary. Flee to him and have your murders washed away forever. Come to Christ and be cleansed.

Is your conscience stained with murder? Some of you here may have had abortions. Come to Christ. Is your heart broken for shedding innocent blood? Come to Christ for healing.

Is your life ruined by your murderous deed? Then come to Christ for restoration to Almighty God. Come to Jesus who received God's justice in his broken body and his life's blood for murderers. Such were some of you, Paul said to the Corinthians. So, believers in Jesus Christ have resisted and rejected abortion since our Lord began building his church.

Protecting and saving life is a cause that our saviors, blood bought people, must continue as long as the world exists. So by earnest prayer to God, and by all biblical means, we must resist this demonic bloodbath. And may Christ Jesus the Lord bring an end to this silent holocaust. Amen. Father, please I pray with all of my heart, take these truths and seal them to us.

And seal them to us. Oh may the bloodbath stop. At least may we do all that we can in prayer and in what ways thou dost lead us to resist this murder of thy image bearers. In the name of Jesus. Amen.