Abortion

RV198-01

The seven angels that John has observed coming out of the holy of holies in the heavenly tabernacle are given seven bowls filled with the fiery wrath of a holy God. The eternal God has patiently tolerated the kingdom of man on earth under the authority of Satan at this point in time, for centuries. The closer the human race comes to the Second Coming of Christ, the more evil society becomes on earth. The Word of God makes it very clear to us that men shall become extremely evil in their outlook near the end of the age. God is eternal, so His moral laws are eternally in effect. And His punishments, therefore, for violations of those laws are inevitable.

Near the end of the seven-year tribulation period, God makes His final move in judgment against Satan's world system. The tabernacle, we now observe, is filled with a cloud of smoke from the glory and the power of God. When this happens, it is a signal that there is no more access to God to plead for mercy. We have had this on other occasions in the Scripture where access to God was cut off by this visible demonstration of the presence of the glory of God.

For example, in Exodus 40:34-35: "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." This is the same thing that John is seeing in heaven. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was suddenly excluded from access to God because of the presence of God in great infinite glory.

This is also the case in the 1 Kings 8:10 and 11: "And it came about, when the priest came from the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord. So, the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord fill the House of the Lord." This is on the occasion when the ark of the covenant was brought into Solomon's magnificent temple.

So, we have historical precedence for the fact that when God wants to make clear that He's there, and He's on top of things, and His presence is to be made very forceful, in times past, the glory of God shone forth, and then there was the gradual filling of the cloud of smoke.

This condition is what John sees existing in the heavenly tabernacle, just preceding the turning loose of the seven plagues on tribulation mankind. And the purpose of all this is to make it clear that there is no more access to God. The day of grace has passed. It is a frightful thing to any thoughtful person to realize that there is no way to escape the wrath of God, and His impending punishment at a certain point in time. But that happens in our age as well as in that which is to come.

That is the point of 1 John 5:16, where John says, "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that you should make requests for this." Here you have a brother who is desperately ill. You ask God to save his life and to preserve him so that he does not die. John says, "If you are aware of the fact that this person is willfully, persistently in sin, and that he is deeply caught up in reversionism, it may be that God is going to impose the sin unto death. That is going to take the Christians life, and take him to heaven. And there is now, at this point, for this person, you must consider a point of no return." If that's the conclusion to which God leads you, then he says, "Don't even pray for him."

So, what we have here in Revelation 15 is a very sobering picture. At the end of the tribulation, God comes to this point in time when the door is closed. They have gone beyond grace. The glory of God in His Holiness, which will burn through fiercely against tribulation unbelievers, is now about to be turned loose. The time of grace, and thus of access to God, is over.

This has happened on other occasions in the Word of God. For example, this happened in Noah's day. And I cannot stress enough this sobering principle that the time will come when God simply walks off from you. You can only thumb your nose so much at Him. And you can only cast aside the principles of doctrine for so long, and He walks off from you. And He gives you over to whatever it is you are bound and determined to pursue. This was certainly true in Noah's day. Matthew 24:37-39: "Jesus said, "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For, as in those days, which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, and they were marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark." That doesn't seem like anything very wrong in their doing that. But you must realize that they were doing this while thumbing their nose at God's man, Noah, who was sounding off, saying, 'The end of the world is at hand. Repent. Turn to God. Accept the coming Savior, or you are going to be doomed. I am building this ark as an ark of refuge for a few of us." The implication was: "You may join us if you turn to the Savior to come."

Instead, they went about their usual things. They ate; they drank; and, they gave in marriage. And it was a vile society. It was just like ours today. It did all the things that our society is doing today, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away: So, shall the coming of the Son of Man be." They did not understand that they had 120 years, and when that 120 years was over (to the day), the door was slammed shut, and there was no further opportunity for them.

The same was true of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their homosexuality – that bestial thing which is given political protection in our country today. It is a disease in which the people who have brought this upon themselves by their conduct are beating away at American taxpayers, and saying. "You're not spending enough money to find a solution." And yet, we spend ten times more on that than any of the major diseases that kill most of us in excessive numbers. Then former Surgeon General Everett Koop told us this week that, in his opinion, there never will be found a cure for AIDS because of the nature of this particular virus. So, all that money is down a rat hole because God says, "You're not going to push Me around. I told you that this conduct brings on death." We don't live in a theocracy, so the civil government can't impose that death, but God says, "I can, and I will."

In Luke 17:28, we have the matter of Lot's day: "It was the same as happened in the days of Lot. They were eating; they were drinking; they were buying; they were selling; they were planting; and, they were building." This was an enormously successful economic situation in those five cities of the plain. The two major ones were Sodom and Gomorrah: "But on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. So, it will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed."

When is the Son of Man going to be revealed? At the end of the tribulation, at His Second Coming. What this is telling us is the very thing that John is saying: "The bowls of wrath are full to the brim. They're overflowing. And now there is not going to be given any second chance. There is no return. The party's over."

The same was true for the prophet Jeremiah, who was really treated like a dog by the Jewish people when he came to them, and very faithfully proclaimed to them that they cannot do the things they are doing in moral violations, and not go upon national self-destruction. Lamentations 3:44 has this very pointed and very explanatory statement relative to the time when, in his day, the imminent captivity of Babylon is upon them, and finally, God said, "There's no turning around." So, in Lamentations 3:44 we read, "You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through." Isn't that clear? This is the same thing that John sees – the cloud covering the tabernacle, as in the case of Moses, and as in the case of Sodom, they could not even go before God to minister. The cloud was there, and it was a signal to back off: "God is here in all His glory, and you cannot approach Him now. You have no access to Him." So, here in Jeremiah's day, God finally covered them with the cloud, and no prayer could pass through.

This is also true today, and that's the most pertinent thing for us to be aware of. This is true for us today of coming to this point of no return on indifference or neutrality. And neutrality is the same as indifference to the Word of God. In Hebrews 10:26-27, the writer says, "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth. We know what doctrine is. Someone has alerted us. Someone has taught us: "There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries." This is what John sees. John sees fiery consequences on the sea of glass. He saw the flames of fire beneath the sea of God's holiness – the wrath of God. The grace of God turns into the wrath of God.

Then notice here in Hebrews 4:30-31: "For we know Him who said, 'Vengeance is Mine. I will repay.' And again the Lord will judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." And indeed it is.

In colonial days, the preachers were forceful men within the community, and this is one of the texts that Jonathan Edwards, one of the great Puritan preachers, used as his text to move an early American society in colonial days into a great spiritual revival. He played all the nuances of this terrible text. And people got the picture and got the vision. He made an impact at a time when the nation had to face the trials of the American Revolution.

However, in those days, the preachers were not worried about having a large congregation because people knew that they should listen to the Word of God. And when the war came, there were occasions when ministers stood in the pulpit, wearing their ministerial gowns, and calling the people to rally to the cause of liberty, and then, at the end of the sermon, taking off their clerical gowns, and standing in military uniform of the Continental Army before the congregation, indicating that they were going to have a few pulpit supply substitutes for the next few years while he goes to minister to the men who were going into battle. There was a serious connection between the nation's welfare and the first person in line who can help the nation, and that is the preacher who knows the Word of God, and knows what his business is in teaching that word.

So, unbeliever can stand eventually before God's angry holy presence, no matter who he is. The psalmist put that very well in Psalm 76:7, when he said, "Will the Lord reject forever, and will he never be favorable again?" Then over in Psalm 76:7: "You, even You, are to be feared. And who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry? Indeed, who?" Who just gets mad at you, and you play the fool if you think that you can violate His principles, and still stand in His presence. Fortunately, people think that they can do that because they are getting away with murder, literally, as we shall see in a moment, and that God is not doing anything about it. Don't kid yourself. He's keeping records.

The petition of Jesus, in His sample prayer uttered in Matthew 6, particularly in verse 10 – that simple closing petition is soon to be granted: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And that's what the tribulation period is eventually all about.

So, Peter the pastor-teacher-elder or put a proposition to the people that he taught, and I put that to you tonight, in 2 Peter 3:11-12. Having despised what need is going to do to this earth and to this world – to the whole world system of Satan, Peter says, "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat." Everything's going to go up in flames. So, what kind of a person should you be? I'm trying to figure out what kind of person I should be, and what things I'm no longer going to do, because I know what's coming. I know that God is getting ready to make this move, and I think we're going to get the signal very shortly. That is what he's doing. Therefore, there are a lot of things that need to be done. There are a lot of tapes that need to be edited. There are a lot of preparations that need to be made to be left behind when we're gone, because it's on the horizon.

So, what manner of people ought we to be in integrity, and in going about doing God's business, and getting on-board and pushing your weight, and helping everything that Berean Church could do? We have people abandoning us because their noses are out of joint, because they do not have the vision to realize that whatever their problems are, Berean Church is supremely worth their support and their backing. And they're unmitigated fools for thinking otherwise. I can assure you that they will someday stand in the presence of this holy God, and He's going to ask them why their heads were not screwed on straight, and see what they will have to say to Him.

What we're talking about is an evil of our society, and we're talking about the end of the world. The vengeance of God and the wrath of God in the seven plagues is a holy wrath. It is righteous, and it is just. This is not some tyrant who's having a temper tantrum, who's going to do all these things to mankind. All of mankind is, in time, going to be forced to admit that God is right and that He is holy? Philippians 2:9-11 tells us that every man and woman and child, and every human being is going to bow the knee in respect to Jesus Christ: those in heaven; those in hell; and, those on earth. Unbelievers this day should flee to Christ to escape the final great wrath of God. And they should do that because God always gives fair warning of His impending judgments. We're told that He's going to do that for these people in the tribulation.

We've seen, for example, in Revelation 14:6-7, that final great warning to the tribulation humanity to turn to Christ: "And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. And he said with a loud voice, 'Fear God.'" That's where it is, folks.

Just look at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes – a book that is filled with the human viewpoint of the great Solomon. He describes how he wasted his life and frittered away his capacities. He looked for satisfaction as he drifted off into apostasy with his multiplicity of wives and his paganism. When he gets to the end of the book, he says, "What's the sum of everything that I have certainly demonstrated?" He said, "Here it is, folks: One, fear God. Be doggone afraid of Him, and respect His Holiness. Secondly, keep His commandments. Learn your doctrine, and live by it." He says, "That's the whole sum of life. That's what you should do: morning; noon; and, night. Be afraid of God; respect who He is, and His authority; learn the Word of God; and, then act upon it." He said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment is come. And worship Him who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters."

That's very important because they're worshiping the antichrist at that time. God says, "That's a very bad mistake. Don't do that." But most of them will ignore Him.

Today God warns in the words of Scripture. He has given us the inerrant Bible, and it's filled with His warnings to us. People choose to dismiss God's warnings, and they choose instead to be the friends of Satan's world and friends of Satan's world system. You may find yourself, on occasions of life, where you have a tough decision to make – a hard call. Because for you to stand for righteousness, it's going to deny you something you'd like to have. For you to stand for godliness because you fear God and you obey His commandments, so that you take a position for what is right before all of mankind is going to cost you. And then we'll see what moral courage you may have to rise up and say, "I go with God, wherever the chips may fall."

The wrath of God is coming in terrible judgment upon the United States for the simple reason (apart from all the other reasons that there are) of shedding the blood of 28 million babies by abortion. Just as the blood of innocent Abel cried out from the ground for vengeance to God, so the blood of 28 million American children cries out for vengeance. In Genesis 4:10, Cain tried to play dumb when God asked him about his brother. God says, "Now let's stop the foolishness, Cain." He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground." Now that, folks, is a doctrinal principle. Blood taken in murder (homicide) cries out to God for vengeance.

This, of course, is exactly what the law of God states. Why is that so? Why is the blood of some animal that you kill not crying out to God for vengeance? It is for a simple reason. That animal has not made in the image of God. But in the case of human beings, from the point in time when an egg and sperm come together, the image of God explodes into a life form. That life form is destined to be a human being eventually, made in the image of God. It is totally different from animals in every respect.

For this reason, after the flood in Genesis 9:6, we have this principle laid down, and it is immutable. God says, "Whosoever sheds man's blood (willful, first-degree murder), by man his blood shall be shed." Why? "For in the image of God, He made man." That's why you cannot kill an unborn baby. It's made in the image of God. It's in the process of developing with all the characteristics that accrue to a creature made in the image of God.

Israel turned its back upon this principle. Israel said, "We don't care if we said the blood of our children." Yes, they did it by abortion. But they had so degenerated in time with their brutality and this evil practice, that they did it to their living children. Yes, Israel – the people of God, like all the pagans round about them. In Ezekiel 9:9-10, Ezekiel calls upon the people, and brings this to their terrible attention: "Then He said to me (God speaking to the prophet), 'The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great. And the land is filled with blood, and the city is full of perversion. For they say, 'The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.''" This is the same old principle: "Nothing has happened. Hey, we've done this for years. Nothing has happened."

In the passage we read this morning, Peter said, "Don't fall for that trap. Don't fall for that hook. God is being patient, and giving you a chance, but He's keeping tabs on you." The people said, "God does not see.' God said, "But as for Me, My eye will have no pity. Nor shall I spare, but I shall bring their conduct upon their heads."

Turn to Psalm 106:34-43 for the gross picture of it all. Here again, the psalmist is reviewing the history of God's earthly people: They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord commanded them." God said, "When you come into Canaan, conquer these people who are a spiritual cancer. You must destroy them and everything about them, because what they're doing will appeal to your sin nature, and you'll pick it up. And if you do what they did, you're going to pay the same consequences:" "But they mingled with the nations, and learned their practices, and served their idols, which became a snare to them, and even sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons, and shed innocent blood – the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood."

To put this in perspective, think of some small child that is very precious to you, or that is an adorable little kid, and understand that this is what they were doing. This wasn't just abortion that they were doing – shedding that innocent blood. Here was a breathing child now, out of the womb. And they were doing just like the pagans were doing. Well, don't feel so smug, folks. How much are you Christians doing that is just like the society that we move in? How much indifference do we have in support of God's Work? These idiots are running around saying, "You have hurt our feelings at Berean Church. You have mistreated us. You have denied us our place in the sun," or whatever it is.

Well, my job is to tell you that you better think a second time, because you're in for a big, big surprise at the Judgment Seat of Christ. And you have the freedom to turn your back, but you better evaluate whether what you are turning your back upon is the work of God or the work of Satan as you are suggesting. This land was polluted with blood: "Thus they became unclean in their practices, and played the harlot in their deeds."

When you start doing this with children, it's easy to slip down into all the degeneracies of sexual degeneracy, bestiality, homosexuality, and lesbianism. The governor of the state of Texas, being a forthright feminazi, is very proud of the fact that she has appointed a judge now who is an open homosexual – so much for exemplary moral conduct. It is not like in colonial days where you could look up to the preacher, and where you could look up to your political leaders, and say, "Here are men of God who are exercising authority from God as being called of God. Therefore, they have a high and noble calling, and we must esteem them with the highest respect for that."

Here is a practice for which God destroyed the cities of the plain in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. And we're proud of this?

"Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people, and He abhorred His inheritance." How terrible it is when God has revelation that He gets sick to His stomach at you, and He wants to vomit you out: "Then he gave them into the hands of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were subdued under their power." Many times He would deliver them. They, however, were rebellious in their counsel, and so sent down in their iniquity. God even picked them up when they gave any kind of sign of repentance. He put them back in operation, and they turned against Him again. And what happened?

Leviticus 26 warned the Jewish people that there would be a cycle of five stages of discipline that God would bring upon them if they turned against God to apostasy. The final stage of that was national military conquest by an outside power, and destruction, and scattering of the nation. That is where the United States is now on the brink for the slaughter and the blood that it has shed of its aborted children.

The evil men of the Warren Supreme Court, some of whom have now died, they're in the presence of God. Can you imagine what a message they'd like to bring to us tonight – to this nation? They're playing the case of Lazarus and the rich man all over again. How I'd hate to be in their shoes with the flood of innocent blood – that torrent that they turned loose! Do we have a reason for saying things like that?

Omniscience

Verse 4: "Even before there was a word on my tongue, behold the Lord, You knew it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high. I cannot attain to it." God's divine omniscience is beyond human comprehension, but it is also a protective care.

Omnipresence

"If I take the wings of the dawn, or if I dwell at the remotest part of the sea." "If I could take the wings of the dawn:" This is what's inscribed on Charles Lindbergh's tomb on Maui: "If I take the wings of the dawn:" "If I fly at the speed of light, I cannot escape You." Isn't that something?

"If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea (if I go over to the other side of the ocean), I can't escape you. Even there, Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, 'Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and Your light around me will be night,' even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You." God's omnipresence means that He's everywhere to protect and to comfort, as well as to judge us.

Omnipotence

Unborn Children are Human Beings

What are we saying? What is god saying? God is saying that in every child in every womb, from that first child in the womb of Eve, God Himself is the manipulator; the operator; and, the person who is forming that child. The hand of God is forming the child. That is an awesome and a wondrous thing. So, let's get that up front. I don't care how a child is conceived – once it comes into being, it is destined to be a creature in the image of God, and God is forming it. He's putting it together.

Then notice verse 15: "My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret (that is, in the hidden womb) and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth." When he was in the womb, it was like being inside the earth. Nobody could see. It was dark. But God was there. He was developing the baby during the pregnancy – out of sight; hidden, as it were, underground (in the womb): "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance." Yes, he was just a few little cells, without form. He was a glob at one point, but he was a glob bearing the image of God, from the very point of conception:

"Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in Your book they were all written." Do you realize with that is saying? God saw the nine-month development, while this was in process, and he was forming this child, He wrote out a plan of life for this unborn child.

We're not just telling you a bunch of nonsense when we say that God has a plan for your life. It was written in the records of heaven from the point of your conception: "The days that were ordained for me (how long you will live), when as yet there was not one of them." Before I even started day one of my existence outside of the womb, my schedule of life was already there. God's very thoughts here are expressed as the thoughts of the Word of God itself.

Verse 17-18 conclude this section: "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God (Bible doctrine). How vast is the sum of them? If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You." Nine months later, he is born, and he's still with God. He was with Him at the point of his conception. As God made those little bones; put all the little sinews together; put all the flesh on; and, put it all together, God was there doing it.

Now here's a serious conclusion to this psalm. You will notice it breaks up into four sections of six verses each. The final section is in verses 19-24. We have seen omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Now we see the loyalty of David to such a God. A God with the "omnis" deserves our intense loyalty no matter who else on earth we have to walk away from.

Verse 19: "Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed." Here's the prayer that the wicked who shed innocent blood (the blood of unborn babies), that they would be destroyed by God.

Verse 20: "For they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies take Your name in vain." They speak against God, and they use His name in a curse word: "Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?" Can you imagine some liberal preacher, or liberals in any category? Can you imagine Donahue getting hold of this verse? I hope none of you are going to write to him and give him this verse. I'm glad Mrs Teams is not here right now. She writes to everybody. What would he do with a verse that says, "I hate those who hate you, O God? And I loathe those who rise up against You." What he is saying is that he opposes those who oppose the doctrine of the Word of God. The word "hate" here means "I reject him." I cut myself off from them. I separate.

Verse 22: "I hate them with the utmost hatred. They have become my enemies." He hates intensely those who oppose God and who oppose God's laws. He views them as his personal enemy, so he would have nothing to do with them.

Then in verse 23, David says, "But I can be no better than they are, O God, unless you come through for me. I know the Word, and that's my standard, but I need your guidance." So, here's that dramatic prayer of David: Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. And see if there be any hurtful way in me, any wicked thing in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. David, asks God to check out His loyalty to God: "Check out when I compromise the truth I know to gain some other advantage in this world at the compromise of being disloyal to you, and to check out my real concerns for the work of God."

You can see how loathsome is the practice of people who turn their noses up at Berean Church ministries, because they have their eyes on themselves, even if they have a legitimate gripe to say that this work is greater than any one of us. That's what David was saying: "God help me to know that while You may have used me in a great way, and indeed He did, what I am engaged in with the people of Israel is bigger than I am. How can I handle this unless You keep me straight? Identify the evils in my life," he says, "so that You could lead me in the everlastingly way, and so that You can lead me in a long life." That is what he means there.

So, I tell you, on the basis of the Scripture that an abortion is a grossly simple act of human destruction. I think you've probably figured out for yourself that it is an interruption of a work of God which is in progress. Do you understand that? Every time a baby is chopped up in the womb, and sucked out by that suction machine, it is an interruption of the work of God (who is shoved aside) that is in process. If you think He's going to stand around and let that little child's innocent blood be shed under some justification of human viewpoint of Satan's world system, you have another think coming.

Let's take a look at one more. If there ever was a man who understood the issues of life, and who knew what it was to have the agonies of life, it was Job. We Christians know what we're talking about because we know the Word of God. So, here's another one to give you a perspective on the issue of abortion, which is the number one issue of the political campaign that we're now engaged in. You cannot, in integrity, place your vote for anybody that says, "I'll kill unborn children, and I'll interrupt the hand of God in the process of what He is doing," without having to dismiss all these Scriptures. Take a look at Job here in 10:8-12: "Your hands fashioned and made me altogether."

Here's a man in deep physical agony and pain and suffering, and wondering why God is doing this to him, because this was a righteous man: "Your hands fashioned and made me all together, and would You destroy me?" Jobs says, "I know that You made me." He's saying Psalm 139 again. He says, "You put me all together in my mother's womb. Certain natural laws that you set into motion took place and proceeded. But are you going to destroy a work of God?" Did you get that? This is a work of God that is being destroyed when in an unborn child, and it's no different because that child has continued to the birth stage.

Verse 9: "Remember now that You have made me as clay. And would You turn me into dust again? You put me together. You made me as if you were somebody who was modeling clay, like a potter who's putting something together. Can You be inconsistent that You're going to destroy your own work?" What's He talking about? He's talking about that he was molded as a baby for nine months in his mother's womb. And Job just can't believe that God would turn on him and turn him back into a dust like a potter would a piece of pottery that he doesn't like, and that he has worked on so carefully.

Verse 10: "Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?" Here Joe compares the work of God in the fetus as milk, which gradually changes and curdles into cheese or something else. This is a very apt description of what takes place in the process of a child being developed: "Clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit together with bones and sinews." He says, "You put me together as an embryo in my mother's womb. You gradually gave me bones; You knit them together; You gave me sinews; You gave me a skeletal structure; and, you carried this on from the point of my conception. And all the while, I was never destined to be a dog, a pig, or a rat, but a creature in the image of God. Then finally, nine months later, You have granted me life and lovingkindness, and Your care has preserved my spirit."

Finally, God completes His work. In the Hebrew language, it really says, "You have granted me lives" (plural), because it was not only physical life, but it was also spiritual life. Here's an act of birth as an expression of God's lovingkindness and grace in forming this child. Now God watches over his spirit, including his soul. Thus from the point of conception again Job makes it clear that God is involved in creating a baby (a human being) in His own image, and it will not become anything else.

So, here are some sobering conclusions: Conception is always an act of God. That is very clear from the Word of God. Human beings cannot bring about conception, even when they manipulate by scientific methods today. When they're successful, for whatever reasons, in the sovereignty of God, it is God who brings about the conception. Never make a mistake about that, whatever the circumstances, as per His sovereign purposes. Conception is not the inevitable result of sexual union. It is a decision on the part of God.

So, the question in your mind may be: are there ever any exceptions? Probably not. The only possible exception (and the Bible does not speak to this) might be: what if the birth of that child will cost the mother her life? And the medical world tells us that that is a very, very small occasion of circumstances that that ever happens. Nevertheless, if it happens once, what should be done? The Word of God does not address it. You'd have to make your decision. If you were to ask my advice, I would say that the implications; the traditions; and, the patterns of the Word of God would say that you would save the life of the mother, and the child must go on to heaven. You have to make that choice.

Usually God makes that choice. That's what a miscarriage is. God Himself decides, perhaps even to save the life of the mother, to take the child and send him on to heaven, to await your arrival there, and He terminates the pregnancy. But there's never a conception except that God does it.

The Bible makes this very clear, for example, in Psalm 127:3, where the psalmist says, "Behold, children are a gift of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward." Children are a gift from God, and that's the only place they come from. And it is a reward to have a child.

In another place, it says that children are like arrows in your quiver: "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them? They shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate." Yes, the quiver is full of them. It's an honor to have them as a reward. It shows that God has great favor upon you by having given you this child.

I can't answer all the sovereignty questions about God, and why he does things. And don't give me this nonsense about children being born into bad homes, and problem areas, and all that. We have run out of time, and there are several things that I'll have to cover next time to tie this up. But you need to be very clear in your mind of what we're dealing with in this terrible sin which has been imposed by a group of evil judges upon this nation, and it's going to be the core reason why, in the book of the Revelation, the United States and this part of the world no longer is an issue. Everything shifts to Western Europe, and everything is gradually shifting there now. There's where the power base is, because this nation, which became a refuge for freedom for the Jews and for people who are seeking religious liberties, has gone against its God, as the Jews of old. And we have turned to their practice of shedding the blood of our innocent children. They didn't get away with it, and neither shall we.

We have several examples in the Word of God that establish the fact that no conception is except by an act of God. There's no conception which is not an act of God. Therefore, I don't care what the condition is, or what the circumstances are – you cannot suddenly say that some children should be slaughtered because of the conditions under which they were conceived. No. That is not true. That compromises the principles of the Word of God.

Next time, we'll go through some dramatic examples in Scripture, and make it very clear that any baby who was ever conceived is an act of God. God brings about conception, under varying circumstances, as per His sovereign design and wisdom, and we cannot always know the answers of that.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is that it is not up to man to destroy at will the judgment of God when He brings about a conception. Some people better start quivering in their boots with that, because that's the position they take – that it is their right to make the judgment, and to interrupt a work of God, and a conception which He brought about in the first place. Are you prepared to do that? Think twice.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1992

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