Thank you, Neil. Thank all of you for seeing this morning, too. Marvelous. Today, January 21, 2007, today, many churches all over this country are observing what we call sanctity of life Sunday. We do this, usually, this third Sunday in January, right around this time, because it was on January 22, 1973 that the Supreme Court of the United States of America in a ruling known as Roe vs. Wade decided that the Constitution does confer the right for the unborn child to have his life terminated in his mother's womb. Since that day, an average of one and a half million legal abortions later, since that day, approximately 50 million aborted children in the United States of America. And so the Church, the Evangelical Church in particular, and the Catholic Church as well, all over this country, many churches today will be observing a sanctity of life Sunday. And this morning, I would have you observed with me what the Scripture has to say about the sanctity and the sacredness of human life. And somebody says, I come here to hear a lecture about politics. This is not about politics. This is about what God has to say in His Word. Maybe with me, if you will, from Psalm 139 vs. 13 through 16, Psalm 139, 13 through 16. David, the psalmist, the king, wrote, for you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you again for the timelessness and the timelessness of your Word. Your Word is truth. I ask that you as sanctified as in the truth. If Father your Word, it communicates truth and grace to us. It shines light into our lives, even into those dark and corners where we just assume nobody looked, but there you are. And your Word reveals yourself to us and it reveals ourselves to us as well. I pray, Father, that in the exposition and the application of your Word today, that you will use this Word to administer truth and grace and healing to us. In conviction where it needs to be as well, that you use this Word to mold us and shape us more and more and conform to with your son, Jesus, the living Word and whose name I pray. Amen. Well, I said just a minute ago that this is not a political issue. This is a moral and ethical and yes, a spiritual issue first and foremost. It happens to have clear-cut implications and ramifications in the political arena. Well, so be it. The Bible speaks to all these issues. It doesn't simply turn aside or turn away because it happens to have political implications. It is my job as a pastor and a teacher of the Bible to speak to these issues and it's our job as Christians to understand these issues and to engage our culture meaningfully and truthfully and courageously about these issues. And if it happens, it happens that this issue has this impact and the political arena will so be it. Secondly, you need to understand that what I'm saying this morning is not an endorsement of any candidate or any party. Fortunately, we don't have any real elections going on right now than there are local strong mayor election on, I believe it's this coming Tuesday or sometime soon, but this is not an endorsement of a party or of a candidate. I think it's our duty to set forth clearly what God's Word says and then the candidates and the parties can align themselves with it or not. That's between them and God Almighty. Third, I need to stress what I'm about to talk about this morning. This is not an issue unto salvation. This is not an issue that God's going to ask us about when we stand before him in terms of our salvation. This can and do disagree on this issue. I will confess to you I don't understand how you can believe the Bible to be God's Word and not be strongly pro-life and not believe what I'm about to say to be true, but I do know it's possible. There's a fourth word I say about this before we begin and that is the word of forgiveness. I know that what I'm going to talk about this morning may be very painful for some of you understand. And I don't desire to add any more pain or guilt or shame or any more sense of loss than you've already experienced and you've already endured for probably a number of years. You need to know that the sin of abortion and it is a sin is not the unforgivable sin and you need to hear the word from God's Word that says that there's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Whatever you've done, however many times, however long it's been, if you are in Christ, the blood of Christ covers the sin of abortion as well as all other sins that we confess before Him. This is one of the major fault lines underlying our culture today is the issue of the sanctity or the sacredness of human life. For the vast bulk of Western history, for as long as there's been something called Western civilization, people have believed the message of the Bible that God is the author of life, the human beings are made in the image of God and that life human life is therefore a holy gift from God and it's not to be taken away except under extraordinary circumstances and those are very few. Psalm 139 that we look at this morning, this is one of the high points of the biblical doctrine of the sacredness of human life. So what does a 3,000 year old song and that's what this is, it's a song that's meant to be sun and worship? What does a 3,000 year old song have to teach us today about this very current, very polarizing issue? Three things in particular this morning I'll call your attention to you. First of all, it teaches that every human life is sacred unto the Lord. Look at verse 13 and 14 with me again with you. For you created my inn most being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. If God does it, it's good. Each person on our planet is unique. One of a kind, intentional, never to be repeated, masterpiece designed by God for his good pleasure. Nobody who lives up to his complete God-given potential, none of us do. Some of us don't really even try. We are each his unique creation. So from the macro level that we sang about this morning, God of wonders beyond our galaxy. From the macro level down to every cell in our bodies, in the inner workings, the intimate workings of every cell in our bodies. Every one of us bears the imprint of God Almighty with the possible exception of Nick Saban. I'm not sure about Nick Saban, but all the rest of us are made in God's image. Psalm 8 verses 3 through 5, which we did responsibly a while ago. The way I learned it a long time ago, God's word says. When I consider your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, what you have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him, or the son of man that you care for him, and yet you have made him a little lower than God, and have crowned him with glory and majesty. The way we decided a while ago, we said, you've made him a little lower than the heavenly beings. And as a possible translation, the Hebrew word that's used there is Elohim. Can mean heavenly beings. Has other possible means? Can be a name for God? He's often used as a name for God, and I believe the best translation of that verse is that you have made him a little lower than God and have crowned him with glory and majesty. That's who you are. That's what you are. You've been made in his image. Every single one of us is his creation. We are not all God's children. I know the song says so. I know his father to say that. We're all his creation. We're not all his children. We become his children. That's a privilege that has only conferred to those who have been adopted into his family through the adopting agency of the blood of Christ. If you're here today, you've not heard this before. Again, I'm really glad you're here. You're not here by accident. You're here by divine design by divine appointment. You're made by God and you're made in his image every person on the planet. But you're adopted and there's family to become his children only through faith in Christ. We are saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone. So if you've not heard that before, hear it this morning. You're his creation, but until you do business with Jesus, you're not his child. And I hope that today that applies to you that this would be the day that you'd do business with him. You come before God in faith and receive the grace of God freely offered to you in the sacrifice of Christ. Every human being is sacred unto the Lord. There are no throwaway people. There are no accidental children. There are no unwanted children because God wants the child. There's never been a baby born with God said, oops, didn't see that coming. Darn, I turned my head for one minute and look what happened. Not one person on the planet was ever born that way. And this biblical principle that all men and women are made in God's image, not just the king, not just the royalty, not just the nobility, not just the powerful and the wealthy. This is one of the engines that embelled the Protestant Reformation. That we are all God's image bears. Every one of us is one of the engines that drove the founders of this country. Who said that the king is a man, a human being like the rest of us, and that we are all see if these words sound familiar, that we hold these shoes to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. And our endowed by their creator were certain unanniable rights, and among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This doctrine that we are all created in God's image, all of us, every single one of us, from the mightiest to the humblest. This doctrine is part of what separates Christianity and Judaism from all the other non-biblical faiths on the planet. In Hinduism you have the caste system where people are separated by their ethnic backgrounds by their economic status, by who their family is or is not. In Buddhism you have no doctrine being made in the image of God because Buddhism has no God. So how could you possibly made in his or its image? And in Islam I guess I don't even need to explain that radical Islam obviously doesn't believe we are endowed by our creator or was certain unanniable rights, among which are the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness because as we all know there is an element of Islam that is more than happy, more than ready willing and able to divorce you from your rights to all of the above. The Bible alone teaches that every human life is sacred unto the Lord anywhere and everywhere that people move away from this doctrine. Human life is cheapened and people suffer. Peggy Newton, a former speechwriter for President Reagan and President Bush 41, editorial columnist, wrote an editorial a few years ago called In Love with Death. I'd encourage you to look it up online, let me read you the opening paragraph of this editorial in Love with Death. God made the world or He didn't. God made you or He didn't. If He did, your little human life is and has been touched by the divine. If this is true, it would be true of all humans, not only some. And so again if it is true, each human life is precious of infinite value worthy of great respect. Every human life is sacred unto the Lord. The second principle that I would derive from Psalm 139 and that is that every day of life is sacred unto the Lord. Every day of life is sacred unto the Lord. I'm going to spend the bulk of the time this morning talking about this particular issue. I'm going to give you a ton of information right now folks. I wouldn't do this to most congregations, but this is the advanced Presbyterian Church. You know this. This is the honors Presbyterian Church. I am going to presume on you a bit and I want you to know, first of all, I'm going to use the screens a lot more this morning than I normally do, if you don't write stuff down you can. Secondly I've put some an article entitled, well there's an article, I'll get to that in a minute. There's an article out in the narthex. You can pick up. There's going to have a lot of this information in it too. You can get the tape or the CD and you can get it on the web once we get the website caught up. I know we're a little bit behind. You can get this information because I know I'm going to dump a whole lot on you right now, but I want you to stay with me. I think this is important. Every day of our lives is sacred unto the Lord from the moment of conception, from the moment of conception to the moment we take our last breath on this planet every day of life is sacred unto the Lord. Last week I showed you those 4D ultrasounds of that 17-week-old baby in utero. Think about that as I read from verse 16 again. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Before one of them came to be. The word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Let me get the guys up in the tower. This should be up on the screens, guys. It should be a Jeremiah chapter 1 verses 4 and 5. The word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. It goes back further than that. If he is in chapter 1 verses 3 and 4, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Before he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. You knit me together in my mother's womb. You ordained every day of my life before one of them came to be. Before you formed me in the womb, you knew me. Before the creation of the world, you had chosen us. You chosen me to be holy and blameless in his sight. Life begins a conception, but you were on the mind of and you were in the heart of God long before that. Now, used to be, when we talked about the sanctity of human life, we dealt primarily with the issue of abortion on demand, and I have spoken to you about that already, and I have spoken to you about that in times past. I want to say it again that I am, this church is, and our denomination is, unequivocally, unapologetically pro-life. I believe we believe that life begins a conception, and therefore I am, and we are opposed to the killing of unborn children in their mother's womb. I know that according to the dominant media culture in this country today, that makes me a mouth breathing, knuckle-dragging, cave-dwelling, neanderthal, according to what the media has to say. But I am glad to be from into dwell in a place where children are recognized as a blessing from God to be celebrated and not an unwanted inconvenience to be eliminated. Mother Teresa once made this comment about Western culture in general. She said, it is a very great poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish. I would give you some good news, though. I would give you some good news. The rates of abortion on demand have fallen in this country for the last 10-12 years. They continue to decline. I do believe that with every advance in technology, every new ultrasound technique, as the womb becomes more and more transparent, we are more and more aware that what is going on in the womb is not some formless mass of protoplasm. There is a human life. There is a baby in that womb. And it is that life that is terminated in abortion. I would give you encouragement that with every advance in technology, with every advance in knowledge, that the rates of abortion on demand will continue to decline. You have in your bulletin that half-sheet, fearfully and wonderfully made, those things that have become more and more well-known, excuse me, we begin to see how much is going on in that unborn child. I believe that we will advance more and encroach more and more into the darkness. But I want to talk about something that is a very current interest and very much on our minds and hearts, and that is right now stem cell research. I spoke to you about this a couple of years ago, but I need to bring it up again, because the issue is back in the news, it is back in the news for a couple of reasons. One is you may be aware that in the last election cycle, last fall, Michael J. Fox took the campaign to the campaign trail, and he campaigned for a number of candidates in different states on this issue of embryonic stem cell research. I want to state right up front. I like Michael J. Fox on television. I like him as Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties, yes, that's how old I am. I like him as Marty McFly when he made back to the future, one really good movie and then they made two others. I like him as in the characters I've seen him. I know he's done a number of other roles on television and in the movies, so I like him personally and I'm saddened that he is afflicted with Parkinson's disease. I really am, but when he takes to the campaign stump and begins to campaign on this issue, then he puts himself in a position where those of us who disagree will criticize and I do want to be critical of what he's done. By the way, I do have, and this is where I want to refer to an article, most of what I'm about to say about embryonic stem cell research is in a blue paper in a folder out there on a table. I only made about 20 copies because I figured the rest of you can get this off the website where I also have it posted and the rest you probably aren't that interested. But let me say this, and if you're not that interested in stem cell research, you have my blessing to take about a five-minute mental break. Start doing your grocery list or thinking about that golf you're going to play today or being out on your boat, but for the rest of us, I hope you agree. This issue is of vital importance. Michael J. Fox campaigned that embryonic stem cells may well hold the key to curing Parkinson's disease, his affliction, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries, and a number of other afflictions. In Maryland, campaigning for a man named Ben Cardin for the Senate, he said this and I'm quoting, stem cell research offers hope to millions of Americans with diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's. But George Bush and Michael Steele, the other opposing candidate, would put limits on the most promising stem cell research, it's why I support Ben Cardin, he said putting his hand over his heart and with so much at stake, I respectfully ask you to do the same. They campaigned in a similar way in Missouri, state I happen to have been born in, campaigned that way in Missouri for Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. Then this past Thursday, just three days ago as I speak, the United States House represented, voted 253 to 174 to approve federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. And the dominant media culture, and a great deal of the American population, would ask the question, how can any reasonable, how can any moderately enlightened, compassionate, human being oppose such research? I want to try to cut through some of this rhetoric and I want to tell you exactly what this is all about. Again, I'm going to use the screens more this morning than I normally like to do, normally I just want to talk to you of my heart years, but I know I'm going to do a lot of information dump. So a lot of this is going to be on the screen. It's in the article on the table, it's in the article on the website, I hope you'll stay with me. First of all, let me ask some basic questions and answer them. What are stem cells? Stem cells are the fundamental building blocks for all the tissues in human body. They can develop into bone, brain, muscle, nerve, skin, and all the other organs. What kinds of stem cells are there, all right, stay with me, you ready for this? What kinds of stem cells are there? There are three basic kinds, toe-typidant, pleuripidant, and multi-pidant, to me weeks just to learn to say those words, toe-typidant, pleuripidant, and multi-pidant. And each represent a different stage to develop. Pleuripidant stem cells are the ones known as embryonic stem cells. How are embryonic stem cells useful in medicine? Well researchers believe that embryonic stem cells have great promise in the treatment of many illnesses. They believe they can use these stem cells and direct them to develop into various types of other new cells. They can rejuvenate through them, they can rejuvenate even replace ailing organs. For instance, some believe it may be possible to grow insulin-producing cells to cure some forms of diabetes, to grow nerve cells to restore function for patients who have been paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. So why is embryonic stem cell research so controversial? Because there are two reasons. One is this, an embryo is killed when the pleuripidant stem cells are extracted. Are you staying with me on this? I know this is not light stuff. Again, if you weren't the honors Presbyterian course, I wouldn't teach you this, but I think you can hang with me on this. An embryo is killed when the pleuripidant stem cells are extracted. And also, the kinds of research that Michael J. Fox and others are advocating, can you handle one more term, somatic cell, nuclear transfer, SCNT for short? It's just a high-falutin name for cloning. It is cloning. They say it's not, it is cloning. It is exactly the process that was used to clone dolly the sheep. Remember dolly the sheep? The first male male that was cloned about ten years ago? What you may not know is that dolly the sheep was the 277th attempt to clone a mammal. Which means the first 276 were almost sheep. Try to wrap your brains around what that will mean, if that technology is ever used to try to clone a human being. Until we know more about it, wouldn't it be prudent and compassionate to lift the band on embryonic stem cell research? I mean, come on. Shouldn't we try it anyway until we know more about it? Here's another revelation for you, are you ready? There is no ban on stem cell research. There is no ban on stem cell research, embryonic or any other kind of stem cell research. President Bush is the first United States president to vote any to allow any funds for embryonic stem cell research period. President Clinton's administration did not vote any money for stem cell research. President Bush has allowed for some funds to go towards stem cell research. His veto was simply not to allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. There is no law preventing this. Any lab in the country can do embryonic stem cell research. You can do it at home today if you know how. The issue is, who's going to pay for it? Industry does not want to pay for this, so they want the government to pay for it, which means they want you and me. They want us to pay for embryonic stem cell research. President Bush's decision on August 7th, 2001 was simply to prohibit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Private individuals and companies can do it if they want, but they don't want to. Why is that? Memory to you just a part of the speech that the representative from Melbourne, Florida, Dave Weldon, Dr. Dave Weldon, and Army Veteran and physician, the only physician in the Florida house, the Florida delegation to the house, Dr. Dave Weldon gave this speech on the floor two years ago now. The truth is embryonic stem cells have never been used to treat any human being for any disease ever. You will hear people repeatedly say that they hold great promise supposedly, but as a matter of fact, they have never been used to treat anything. Even in animal models, we use mouse or rat embryonic stem cells. They do not even have a good model to treat an animal disease with embryonic stem cells. However, adult stem cells, and we're full of adult stem cells, folks, adult stem cells have been used in humans to treat Parkinson's disease, the partially stored vision of someone who's legally blind, relieved systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, cure severe combined immunode efficiency disease, treat several types of cancers, such as leukemia, solid tumors, neuroblastomas, non-hygienic lymphoma, and renal cell carcinoma. Most stem cells have been used to treat multiple sclerosis children with the bubble boy syndrome and heart failure in humans. The current scorecard, as we speak right now today, January 21, 2007, the current scorecard is this, adult stem cells, including cord blood stem cells, umbilical cord stem cells, 72 embryonic stem cells, zero. So let me ask a question. It's more compassionate to continue to chase the possibility that someday, maybe somehow way down the road is years away best, embryonic stem cells might hold the cure, might hold treatment possibilities for some diseases, or to throw our resources behind adult and umbilical cord stem cells, and as of about two weeks ago we now know you can also get stem cells from embryonic fluid and placental tissue that seem to be as flexible as those from the pleuripidant stem cells. What's more compassionate, more reasonable, to throw your money after some stem cell research that might your results years down the road, or to get behind the one that's producing results right now today? Remember this next time somebody asks you why we pro-lifers are so unreasonable, and so non compassionate in regard to this issue. One more quote from President Bush's speech to August 7th, 2001. As we seek to improve human life, we must always preserve human dignity. Advances in biomedical technology must never come at the expense of human conscience. As we seek what is possible, we must also seek what is right, we must not forget that even the most noble ends do not justify any means, and they got right to the heart of the matter. Life is a creation, not a commodity. Our children are gifts to be loved and protected, not products to be designed and manufactured. No human life should be started or ended as the object of an experiment. Every human life is sacred under the Lord, every day of life is sacred under the Lord. Last application and its brief, every area of life is sacred under the Lord. The fact that God is involved in the very process of our conception, our physiological development, every day of our lives points to significant truth. There is no aspect of life on this planet that is not under His sovereign control. The great Dutch theologian and Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Abraham Kuiper, was fond of saying there is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry. This is mine. There is no sacred secular dichotomy. Christ is Lord over all. He is Lord over every area of our lives. There is no area that he is not concerned with. He is not willing to be involved with. He is interested in what we do here on Sunday mornings. He is interested in what we say to each other is we drive home and how we drive home. He is interested in how we do our work, Monday through Friday and how we treat our co-workers and how we are treated by our co-workers. He is interested in how we talk to our spouses and whether or not we have spouses. He is interested in how we treat our children and our children treat us as well. He is interested in how we spend our money and our leisure time. He is interested in what we do with our money and what makes us laugh, what makes us weep. When the Son of God came to earth as a man, he came as a man in flesh and blood with nerve cells and stem cells. He came as flesh and dwelt among us and he laid claim to every square inch of life on this planet. Let me finish this morning by reading from a book by Dr. Joe Wheeler. This is written by a doctor, included in this book, Dr. Wright several years ago, a fragile young woman came to my office expecting her first baby. One month before she was due, the baby was in a breech position. The death rate of breech babies is high because of the difficulty in delivering the aftercoming head and the imperative need of delivering it quickly after the body is born. During the delivery, I waited as patient as I could for the natural forces of expulsion to thoroughly dilate the firm maternal structures. At last the time had come and I gently drew down one little foot. I grasped the other but it would not come down beside the first one. To my consternation, I saw the other little foot would never be beside the first one. The entire thigh from the hip to the knee was missing. I knew what a dreadful effect this would have upon the unstable nervous system of this mother. The family would almost certainly empower itself, taking the child to every famous orthopedist in the world. I saw this little girl sitting sadly by herself while the other girls danced and ran and played. I could slow my hand. I could delay those first short moments no one in this world would ever know. The mother after the first shock of grief would be glad that she had lost her child so sadly handicapped. The little pink foot on the good side bobbed out from its protecting towel and pressed firmly against my slowly moving hand. The hand and the who's keeping the safety of the mother and the baby had been entrusted. I couldn't do it. I delivered the baby with her pitiful little leg, every foreboding came true. The mother was in the hospital for several months, she looked like a rath of her former self. As the years went on, I blamed myself bitterly, not having had the strength to yield to my temptation. Our hospital stages and elaborate Christmas party each year for the staff. This past year, three lovely young musicians on the stage played softly in unison with the organ. I was especially fascinated by the young harpist. She played extraordinarily well as if she loved it. Her slender fingers flicked across the strings and her face was upturned as if the world that moment were a wonderful and holy place. When the short program was over, there came running down the aisle a woman I did not know. Oh, you saw her, she cried. You must have recognized your baby. That was my daughter who played the harp. The little girl who was born with only one good leg, seventeen years ago. We tried everything else first. Now she has a whole artificial leg on that side. Best of all, through all those years, she learned to use her hands so wonderfully she's going to be one of the world's greatest harpists. She is my whole life. Now she is so happy and here she is. The sweet young girl had quietly approached us. Her eyes glowing. Impulsively I took the child of my arms. Across her warm shoulder I saw the creeping shock of the delivery room seventeen years before. I lived in those awful moments when her life was in my hand. As the last strains of silent night faded, I found the comfort. I waited for for so long. I hope these words have been an encouragement and an admonition and a comfort to you as well. Will you pray with me? Father, thank you for the gift of life that you have given each and every one of us life and breath and being and in you we live and move and have our being. Thank you for the miracle of life that it's just so far beyond our comprehension. How you can unite a man and a woman through that you can produce a whole new human being. It's the closest thing. I suppose, Father, we ever come to being really creative. Now Father, I thank you for the gift of life. I thank you for the gift of eternal life that you have given us to Jesus Christ, our Lord. I pray that as these words of mine sink in, I hope, that they are not just sloughed off like unwanted cells, that as these words of mine sink in today, that they are truly your words until using to penetrate our hearts and our minds and our souls and our memories too. I thank you, the minister, healing and grace and comfort and encouragement as well as admonition and instruction. Father, you would do these things as my prayer in Jesus' name, Amen. Prepare to receive the benediction. I would remind you again if you're a first timer or an occasionally as I love to meet you right here in the narthex and I need to scoot over to my meeting in the fellowship hall. Go now in the love of God the Father, the grace and mercy of God the Son, the fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit and live the life, Amen.