Please turn in your Bibles to the 8th Psalm. The Psalms are found basically in the middle of the Bible. And we'll be at the 8th Psalm. And as you turn there, we want to let you know of a pamphlet that I use a lot in preparation for this. Some of you may be thinking, does he ever have an original thought? Every Sunday it seems like I'm giving credit, which I'll continue to do. But when we get to a theory, I'll let you know those sources that I'm particularly using. But Terry Johnson wrote widely circulated pamphlets that the original title was What is Man? I think they changed the title of it now. But because of that, what he wrote, he was asked to pray the national rights life rally in Washington DC about five years ago. But it's a great, great, really exposition of this verse that we're going to look at this morning from Psalm 8. And it has to do with this question that is posed by the psalmist, which on the surface appears to be just another philosophical question. But upon further investigation or closer examination, you will find that this question is one of those heart-wrenching questions that when properly understood, will send shivers down your spine. And it is in verse 4. It's in three words. What is man? And what I want to suggest to you is that there's really not a more important question for our civilization. In fact, I would go further and suggest that our answer to that question must be loud and clear. You'll find that the psalmist answer in the fifth verse and following is very loud. And it's very clear, my hope is that Trinity Presbyterian Church will stand with one voice and say, this is our answer to that question. Resolutely, we are committed to what the Bible says in answer to the question, what is man? Beginning in verse 1 of psalmist, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth? Use a section of glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have ordained strength because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the Avenger. When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man? That you are mindful of him and the Son of man that you visit him. And then we get his very clear, exuberant answer in verse 5, where you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea to pass through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. And then the response printed for you in the bulletin, all men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. If you are following the outline in the bulletin you will notice number 1, the drawing of the battle line, the battle line is simply this question, what is man? What is human life? Is human life different than animal life? Is it different than plant life? Is man unique? Is life sacred? And a traditional answer has always been in any society that is Bible-based, the answer is yes, of course man is different. The universal opinion of our biblically shaped culture until recently has been that man is alone made in the image of God, and that he is supreme, that he is superior over all else that God has created. Even our criminal laws assume this. If you harm another person, if you harm a human being, then there are consequences for your action. There are consequences for your behavior. It is traditional, that is our biblically shaped culture, but it comes as no surprise to you, not everyone is traditional. Not everyone's opinions are biblically shaped. For example, the modern humanists, the secular humanists, if you were to ask the modern humanists, which there are many in our day, if you were to ask one, what is more important, the sanctity of human life, or the quality of human life? They would say to you without blinking an eye, well of course it's the quality of human life. In other words, what they are saying is the real is you are not the sanctity of human life. It is the quality of that person's life. Will that person live a meaningful or have a meaningful quality of life? You ask, well how in the world do you determine what is a meaningful, a quality, what is a quality life, a life of quality? And they'll say, well, if that life is not going to compromise the quality of life of another individual, for example, can the parents afford a child? Will the parents be able to feed that child? Or perhaps will that life be a burden to someone else who already is alive, who already has a certain quality of life? And if the person does not, well then they should be terminated. You see life is expendable, or so they say. That's the battle on, rather than the point is, as well, we're at war. I hope that you walk out of here this morning, realizing that we really are involved in a religious war. Most of us have fallen asleep. Most of us, including myself, have become numb to this issue of the sanctity of human life, the sanctity of that life within the woman, the unborn child. It's a religious war because it involves faith. Faith will determine what side of the issue or what side of the line you fall. But there is the line that has been drawn. On the one side of the line there is the Christian's standard of morality. On the other side of the line there is the world's standard of morality. There's the Christian standard and then there is this modern humanistic standard of morality. And hanging in the palace is the kind of nation that we, I would say, it will be that the nation that we are, because the winner of this battle will determine what we think about life and death. The winner of this battle will determine how we're going to view ourselves. Will we view ourselves in the image of God, that God is our father, that we are His creation, we are His children, or will we be beasts? Selectively bred, instinct driven. Are we a family? Are we or are we a herd? And it's a war. It's a battle. And right at the heart of this war is this battle over abortion. In other words, you might say, broadly speaking, the war is what is man? But the decisive battle is the battle over abortion. And if we lose that battle, then we lose it all. So I might add, if it is a war, if you agree with me that we are at war, that you can't say I'm personally opposed, but I think it should be permitted in our society. To permit it is to support it. To support it is to tell us a great deal about what you think about life and death and the family and sex and values. It's that serious. Everything hinges on this single issue. And I want to illustrate that point by looking at three areas. Marriage and sex, the family and children, and then society and social order. And under each one of these there'll be this ultimate question, and then how does the humanist answer? And then what does scripture say? Marriage and sex. It comes down to a certain question. What is morally valid? Is it one man with one woman for life, or is one man with one woman just one option among many other options? Now for centuries, the biblical based culture, like our own, the cultural norm has discouraged anything other than a heterosexual monogamous relationship. It has been understood that every child deserves and has the right to the fundamental right to a mother and a father until today. Today, the pressure is to normalize single parenting, to sanction homosexual marriages, to permit homosexual and lesbian adoptions. It is now the pressure to allow lesbians to be artificially inseminated. It's wrong, it's animalistic, you say. That is degrading, it is wrong. I say again, animalistic, but then again, that's the hinge. What is man? Is he an animal? Or is he a human? Is he an animal? Then there's nothing special. If there's nothing special about man, if there's nothing sacred about man, then there's nothing sacred about the act that creates life. And if there's nothing sacred about the act that creates life, then the act that creates life is just purely physical. There's nothing mysterious, there's nothing mystical about it. And our children are no better than animals, they might as well be bandy. You might as well allow them to just be raised by the herd where fathers come and go as they like. And where with sex and really in all of life there is no obligation. And that's the way the media portrays it. That's what we allow into our homes, hours and hours a day. I've heard it said, you know, we wouldn't invite someone into our homes to be our guest and talk like we allow the people on the television to talk. And prime time TV is the worst, where there are just the strings of sexual innuendos that double talk. Talk shows with their twisted, deranged view of life. But then what about that which type is all of our education system in America? Where first graders are taught sex education, where first graders are being taught about alternate lifestyles. First graders are taught to be open-minded about homosexuality and lesbianism and age. Fourth graders are taught about a contraception, birth control, school districts, where no preference can be given to the heterosexual monogamous relationship, school districts, where they can't teach abstinence because after all abstinence is a religious conviction. Have we lost our minds? Are we insane? It depends. It depends on how you answer the question, what is man? Because if man is an animal, then life is not sacred. Propagate like a rabbit. Who cares? Leave the litter to the herd. Are worse than animals, kill the offspring before they're born? Or were humans made in the image of God? Life is sacred and the act that creates life is sacred. Young people hear me. Junior high school. The act that creates life is sacred. And God sets up the parameters. That's a whole nother subject in itself. But that you just hear me say, the act that creates life is sacred. It is necessary between you and your soul marriage partner. One day you'll be glad you waited. If the act that creates life is sacred, then woe to the society that does not promote the life within the womb. If the act that creates life is sacred, then woe to the society that does not promote the permanent bond between a man and a woman in marriage. I'm telling you, it boils down to the sanctity of that unborn life. If you have any hope of saving the morality of our nation, it must begin with saving the life of the unborn. And then secondly, what about the family and children with regard to the family and children? The question is, whose children are they? The children belong to the family, or do they belong to the state? And for centuries the traditional and Christian Jew has been that children and parents are bound together in covenant and by blood. And it's always been the right of the parents to train the child, to discipline the child, to educate the child. It has always been the parents prerogative, to teach the children, the family religion, the family values, the family business, the family trade, the family property. But that's not the way the modernist, the humanistic person thinks they see the family as a convenience. Tell me this, why does it take 12 years to educate our children sexually? Why must they have sex education from K to 12 grade? Does it take that long? Can you not train a child at the proper age about sex education in an afternoon? I'll say what takes 12 years. It takes 12 years to undermine traditional values. It takes 12 years to wear down the traditional Christian moral values that are taught in the Bible. It takes 12 years to undermine parental morality. There's a scene in the movie The Deer Hunter. It's a very graphic movie just because I mentioned movies doesn't, you know, recommend them. But in that movie, there's a movie that drastically depicts Russian relapse in Vietnam. And there's a scene in which the propaganda is drawing the Marxist family. And he has this picture of the assembled village. And he takes his pen and he marks through the parents. That's the Marxist family. The Marxist family is secondary to the state. It is the Marxist, it is Marxist for the state to have not only the right to fulfill, but to feel it's their obligation to educate our children in a way that seems to be for the good of society as they say. It is Marxist for children to have rights that supersade the family. Do you know that in America children can divorce their parents? Do you know, I'm sure you do, that the American government slunders the wealth of parents through inheritance taxes? Do you realize that in America the tide between the parent and the child is growing weaker? And weaker and weaker and weaker? You can just see in America how they're just drawing a line through the parents. The question is, what is man? If we're animals, then the tide between the parent and the offspring should be weak. It's transient, it's temporary. Abortion is understandable. But if we're made in his image, then he is our father. We are his family. We have souls. The family connection is the most important connection there is in society. The family is the primary institution from which all other institutions gained legitimacy. The family is God's ordained institution to train and to nurture children, not to stay. I know I'm among friends. I know you agree with me. I know that you are convinced that the family bond is important. I know you believe that parental authority is important. The undermining of the state is very frightening. But let me say what we've already alluded to and said, we will not win the battle for our children if we don't win the battle for the unborn. You can talk about whatever you want to say where the line is going to be a good subject for Sunday lunch today. Where do you think the battle is really drawn? But I don't suggest until you lose this battle and you'll lose the war. I think history proves that Terry Johnson said this is in his pamphlet logic with devastating consistency and power marches down the halls of history and what you can see today, you will eat for breakfast tomorrow. What about society and social order? We believe that men created in God's image and that people should be treated as if they are made in God's image. By the way, the way you treat each other tells me a great deal about how you treat God. How you treat God tells me how you're going to treat me and how you're going to treat others. Because we're made in God's image and man has to be treated with respect and dignity. But there's a whole new generation of barbarists, even as we said in our prayer earlier. Law enforcers are talking about motiveless crime. We're talking about murder and rape and aggravated assault and there's no motive. There's no remorse, there's no conscience. Crime is up 508% this 1960. Violet crimes are up 300%. Rape is up 775%. Our society rings their hands at that. What have we done? What have we created? This from a publication in the Mississippi Family Council said the best predictor of violent crime and burglary in a community is not race and income. We want to shake our little white middle class fingers and say, oh it's race, it didn't come, look at them, look at them. That's not the real issue. That's not the real predictor it said. It's not a race or income. They went on to say it's the proportion of households without fathers. 70% of all juveniles in long-term correctional facilities did not grow up with a father. It's not society to ring their hands and ought to be ought to be the church who are ringing our hands and saying, what have we done? What have we created? Or should I say, what have we not done to stop it? We have the answer. We have the Bible. We know the place of the father in the family. Just that we've left them answer the question, what is man? As man as an animal, I mean, why not they shoot horses? We step on bugs. Is that what man is? Or is man made in God's image to be treated with respect and effort we need to do? We need to do is be taking our children from the earliest days to respect all humankind no matter color of skin or the amount of money their daddy makes. And we shouldn't be surprised. We're not going to do it. And we shouldn't be surprised when we hear the next brutalizing cry. We're not going to win the battle of the straits until we win the battle in the doctors office in the clinic. And then Roman numeral tone, I just a few minutes to develop this point, but it's the value of human life. The question here is, is human life from conception is it sacred? Is it not to be violated? Or is it ordinary? And therefore, expendable. The Christian answer my friends is not debatable. Scripture and tradition they speak with one voice and our position in discharge must be that all human life is sacred and abortion is wrong. Abortion is forbidden. And it's not even if this is really the debate anymore. Everybody knows when the sperm and the egg unite it results in the 46 chromosomes. It results in human life. It's not a plant. It's not an animal. It's not a mineral. It is a human life. But the humanists don't seem to care. The pro-abortionist doesn't care. They decide so what if it's human life? Human life doesn't deserve special consideration. And so because of that we have these powerful movements in our society like animal rights movements that would prefer to protect the laboratory wrath and to save a person from cancer. Because we're all even. We're animals. We have environmental movement where people prefer to save trees and bushes rather than human life. Feedle research movement. Youth in Asia movement. And this is what Malcolm Lutteridge said. It took more than three decades to transform a war crime into an act of compassion and therefore enabling the victors in the war against Naziism, talking about us, to adopt the very practices for which the Nazis had been solemnly condemned in November. What is man? It's man's an animal that all of life is not sacred. And what about that unwanted person? What about the unborn? What about the terminally ill? What about the infant that's handicapped? They're expendable. Terminate them. And if that is the belief that a sea evercoop said and we begin to slide to us with seven years ago a young seminary student couple of RTS and Orlando conceived twins. He tragically they were some ease and they were joined at the heart and the liver and there was an agonizing pregnancy and they had these experts who were evaluating and re-evaluating these twins as they developed within their mother and then they came to time for these girls to be born. They were born in December. And for 20 days they struggled to survive on the 21st day because the weakest Mary Elizabeth was really falling. They knew they had to do surgery to separate them. On the 22nd day the stronger of the two Sarah Catherine unexpectedly died. So both girls died and they came these questions. Why didn't those parents terminate? That's a good word. Why didn't they terminate? Why didn't they say that family, all that anguish and why didn't they say themselves all that money? Shouldn't they have done that? And we say no. And the reason being is because as tragic as that pregnancy and that life was those twins were not animals. They were human beings made in the image of God and they had souls and they lived and they were loved and they died. But because they left the timing of their life and their death in the hands of God where it belonged that those girls humanity was respected rather than despised. Mother Teresa they say to pick up babies out of garbage piles and she'd love them for a few hours and then she was asked why. And she said we're not dealing with animals but human beings made in the image of God who need to be loved with the love of Christ. We need to ask ourselves if you had asked yourself in a number of years, when did you ask ourselves do you think we're winning this battle? Then there were last abortions in 99 and then there were in 98. That's great. That's what we will. But are we winning the battle? When abortions can be performed for sex selection? When they can be performed for birth control and without parental consent and some places without spousal notification? There's no waiting period in a lot of places. We're not winning the battle. We're not winning the war. When our tax dollars go towards abortion counseling. We're not winning. When our tax dollars go to fetal research and we're not talking about death. We're talking about live birth miscarriages and they keep these babies alive and abortions so that they can perform experiments. One man was found with seven living brains in his laboratory. And that's when you have to agree with motorists and say it took 30 years for a Nazi crime to become normal medical practice in the United States. And then lastly this quote from the village voice, very liberal voice. Most of these marching in Washington are protesting or the crisis pregnancy center. They have nothing to gain from it. It's one thing to defend civil rights of adults. They can vote. You can get something politically from that. What do you get from defending the unborn? And again, we have the answer from scripture that you gain defending the defenseless. You stand up for what scripture teaches. You try to answer the question, what is man? You also try to do something about the terrible consequences that come upon a nation that continues with that sort of crime really sin. Mother Teresa said, if it becomes permissible for a mother to destroy life in her own womb, what will it be before I come after you when you come after me? So in closing, it is a war. It's a religious war. It's a fight of faith. We need to buy the spirit. They kinder back up our courage. We need not be timid. We need not become known. Religion that God, our father accepts as pure and flawless is this to look after orphans and widows in their distress. And to keep oneself from being polluted by the world as we pray together. Our father in heaven, we tremble at your justice. When we think about our nation, we pray, Father, that you would defend the unborn, that you would cause us to rise up in your power and that by your power you would miraculously stop this abhorrent practice in our nation. We did pray that you would have mercy, that you would forgive us for our involvement in any level, even to the point of having done or having performed it, or even if it's just someone in here this morning who just has been so apathetic beginning with me right here. We pray that you would have mercy. We pray that you have mercy and show your unlimited forgiveness to any, any woman who sits in here this day as had an abortion. Father, we pray for them that they do know your forgiveness and we pray for our many ladies who are pregnant now and we ask you to bless them, that you give them health, that you give them healthy babies, babies that would come to term and we just pray that you bless those pregnancies now. And all of those covenant children who walked out of here earlier, God, please bless them and bring them to your son, the Lord Jesus. And it's in his name we pray, amen.