From His Heart

Speaker 1

When does life begin? This is a foundational question and a foundational truth, one that is very hotly and passionately debated in our world today, especially in our country.

However, the issue of life and when life begins is not a subjective matter with God. It is very clear in God's word what He says about life and about this thing called abortion.

Speaker 2

When does human life really begin? What does God's word say about this critical issue of abortion? That's the crucial question that will be answered today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Today we're continuing Pastor Jeff's series Foundations, where we're learning about the foundational pillars that govern life, governments, our families, and our hearts. Abortion is the main thing that needs to be addressed in our world today. This lesson is called When Life Begins, and we'll hear part one today and part two tomorrow.

There are two online@fromhisheart.org where you can download a free MP3 of any broadcast and the sermon notes from Pastor Jeff. Now get ready for some real truth. Open your Bible to the Book of Psalms as Pastor Jeff boldly lays out the truth about when life begins.

Speaker 1

**Psalm chapter 139.** David says these words beginning in verse 13: "For you formed my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me when as yet, there was not one of them."

I want you to notice with me today as we talk and tackle this subject. I was reading this week that about half of the pastors in America won't ever talk about this because it's like a hot potato, and they just think, "Ah, we don't really want to talk about this." This would seem like we're getting political. The question of life and the issue of life is not a political issue. It's a spiritual issue. It's a moral issue. It's a biblical issue. And God has a lot to say about it.

So I want to share with you four insights that give us understanding of this issue of life and of abortion.

**Insight number one: What does God say about it?** God says that life begins at conception. That's what God says. Life begins at conception. The moment a woman's egg is fertilized by a man's seed, life begins. A fertilized egg is conception. The definition of conception in the dictionary says this: "The action of conceiving a child." Job said in Job 33, verse 4, "The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." And that life from the life giver God happens at the moment of conception. God gives us life at conception.

Now that is clear when you look at the story in Genesis about Jacob and his wife Rachel. Do you remember the story? Jacob is the father; his name was changed to Israel. He had the 12 sons, and we know them as the 12 tribes of Israel of Jacob. Well, he had two wives: Leah, the one that he didn't want to marry, the one that he got snookered into marrying by his father-in-law, Laban. He thought he was marrying Rachel, the girl he loved, but his father-in-law, Laban, did a switcheroo and gave him Leah. And he was like, "Crud." So he got Leah, and Leah was a baby maker. Leah could have the kids, and Rachel couldn't have any kids.

Rachel said when she saw her sister, there was conflict there. As you can imagine, guys, if you can think of being married to two sisters, and one is really pretty and the other one is good at making babies, there's just a difference there. And there's tension and jealousy. Well, it says in Genesis chapter 30: "Now, when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister Leah. And she said to Jacob, 'Give me children or else I die.' Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, 'Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?'" God is the one who gives life. Jacob can't give life; he can give a seed, but he can't give life. God is the one that we read about in the Old Testament who opens wombs and closes wombs. And when the womb is opened and the egg is fertilized by the seed of a man, then there is life. It's given at conception.

**Secondly, man takes on the sin nature of Adam at conception.** You know, every single one of us in this room has been born into this world with a sin nature that we received from our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Adam. The Bible says in Psalm 51, David says, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." Now, he's not saying that his mother had some kind of an illicit affair. David's mother was with David's father, Jesse; they were married. But David says, by inspiration of the Spirit, when my mother and father came together and I was conceived, I was given a sin nature. "In sin, my mother conceived me."

At that moment, not only did I take on the image of God, but I also took on the image of Adam, and I was brought into this world with a sin nature. Now that is the word of God. And you know what's so cool? True science agrees with God. I mean, God is the Creator. So anytime, we don't need as Christians to be afraid of science—true science—but true science is always going to agree with God, with the Creator who made it all and who set everything up. God is not haphazard and willy-nilly; God is a God who is ordered and structured, and everything is perfect with God. True science always agrees with God.

Now, when it comes to the subject of life, the American Heritage Dictionary of Science says this: "Life, the form of existence that organisms like animals and plants have and that inorganic objects or organic dead bodies lack. Inanimate existence. It's characterized by growth, reproduction, or the potential for reproduction, metabolism, and response to stimuli that constitutes life." When there is growth, when there is reproduction, when there is metabolism, and when there is a response to stimuli, that constitutes life.

Now, David didn't have the benefit of knowing all the science like we do today. David never saw a 3D ultrasound. David never saw what was going on in the womb. But God gave him insight through the Holy Spirit that in the womb, the Lord was weaving and knitting and doing, as the scripture says, "skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth." That literally means embroidery. God was doing embroidery; He was doing needlework in the womb to create this one whom He had given life to at conception.

And we have seen things through ultrasound that show us what is happening in the womb. Did you know the heart begins to beat 18 to 24 days after conception? Between five to six weeks, the embryo begins to make spontaneous movements. At eight weeks, the fetus has fingerprints. At nine weeks, it can swallow and stick out its tongue. At ten weeks, the fetus can hiccup and suck its thumb. Three-week embryos have a beating heart. Six weeks, brain impulses. Seven weeks, distinct limb movements. Nine weeks, they suck their thumbs. Babies are a gift from God. The fruit of the womb, the Bible says, is a reward. David said, "You formed my inward parts, literally my kidneys, and you wove me in my mother's womb, and I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." True science agrees with God.

**Secondly, God says that the fetus growing in the womb is a person.** It's a person. Carol Everett is a strong proponent of pro-life causes. Her story is powerful. She came to Texarkana some years ago and was the keynote speaker for First Choice Pregnancy Center. Carol Everett's story is that she used to own two abortion clinics in the Dallas area, and she was giving insight. In her story, she tells what it was like to talk to the women that came into the abortion clinic. She said invariably they'd ask the same question: "Is this a baby?" And she said, "We would always answer, 'It's not a baby. It's a blood clot. It's tissue. It's the products of conception.'" Planned Parenthood has said that it's just another STD, a sexually transmitted disease. That's what they call the baby growing in the womb. To the one who is looking for answers and trying to make a decision, "What should I do?" Well, you should get rid of that sexually transmitted disease.

Abraham Lincoln was talking to a little boy one day, and he said to the little boy, "How many legs does a dog have?" The little boy said, "Well, that's easy. He has four." Lincoln said, "Yeah, but if you call his tail a leg, then how many legs does he have?" The boy said, "Well, then he'd have five." Lincoln said, "No, he'd still have four. A tail is still a tail, no matter what you call it."

Hey, I don’t care what you want to call that in the womb; it's a baby. It's a person. And God says it's a person.

Speaker 2

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and today's message, "When Life Begins," is a sobering lesson, no doubt. It's from his series Foundations. He'll return in just a moment to explore the depth of this truth.

Everywhere you look these days, people are bombarded with half-truths, clever distortions, and outright lies. And that is surely the case with the subject of abortion. Wouldn't you like to be a part of the force that pushes back on this and other lies that the devil tells the world today? We're asking for your continued help financially to allow this ministry to push back against those forces.

People are searching for something solid, something real, something they can build their lives on—not built on the master deceiver, the father of lies, the devil himself. And that's why Pastor Jeff has written his new book, The Devil's Newsroom. We want to place it in your hands to help you discern the enemy's lies and counter them with the real truth of God's word. This book is our gift to you for your support of any amount to From His Heart.

This month, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253) or go online to fromhisheart.org and request the brand new book, The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning in to God's Truth. You'll learn how to silence the devil's fake news as you tune your heart to hear the voice of God.

Now let's get back to the lesson, "When Life Begins." Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 1

Look at it again for you wove formed my inward parts, my kidneys, my organs. You did that. You wove me in my mother's womb. You can just see God. God is so intimately involved in every step, in every detail of this little guy's life. And David's talking about himself. King David, man. Before I was King David, I was in my mother's womb. And God, you were working on me. And God was having such joy weaving David and doing the embroidery work with David.

My frame was not hidden from you, God, when I was made in secret, skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth, which is euphemistically speaking of the womb. And Lord, your eyes have seen my unformed substance. My unwrapped literally is what that says. My unwrapped substance. And in your book they were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them. God planned everything out. For they he planned out in this little unwrapped embryo. It's okay. This little guy that I am working on right now, he's gonna be so tall and he's gonna have this color for his eyes and this kind of hair and this kind of skin tone and this kind of personality and this kind of IQ. He did all of that stuff God was working on, that.

God is intimately acquainted, as David says in this psalm, with all my ways. The Lord is doing that now. God forms us and knows us in the womb. He's doing all this work in the womb. He's intimately acquainted with us in the womb. Jeremiah, chapter one. The Lord says this. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you and have appointed you a prophet to the nations, man. God knew Jeremiah in the womb. God knew David in the womb, God was forming and God was working in the womb.

Hey, the womb of a mother is supposed to be the safest place on the earth, as God does his work in the secret places in the depths of the earth, so to speak. God knew Jeremiah. God knew David. It wasn't a blood clot. It wasn't the product of conception. It was a person. It was a little boy. In David's case, it was a little boy that was going to grow up to be king. In Jeremiah's case, it was a little boy who was going to grow up to be the mighty prophet.

You know, when we're in the womb, one of the things the American Heritage Dictionary of Science said that life responds to stimuli, and we can recognize and respond to stimuli in the womb. Now, that's been shown in studies with ultrasound. It's been shown that babies respond to things. They respond to sound. They respond to things that jolt them or hurt them. They respond. And that is talked about in the word of God.

You know, it was in the Gospel of Luke where we read about Elizabeth, who is going to have a son. Elizabeth in her old age, she who is barren, is going to have a son. And his name was going to be called John. And six months later, the angel Gabriel went to the town in Nazareth to a certain girl named Mary. And he told Mary, you're going to have a son, and he is going to be the king. He's going to be the Messiah. And she said, how can these things be since I'm a virgin? He said, the power of the Most High will come upon you. The Lord shall overshadow you, and that in your womb will be holy.

And when Mary said, behold the bondslave of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word. Then when she received that word, she was pregnant, and she conceived in her womb right then, as Gabriel said. And she hightailed it to the hill country to go see her aunt Elizabeth, her relative Elizabeth, who was in the sixth month carrying little John the Baptist. And the scripture says this in Luke chapter one. And it came about when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting. The baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And she cried out with a loud voice and said, blessed among women are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. Little six-month-in-the-womb John the Baptist, he recognized that Mary, who was carrying the Lord Jesus, was in his presence, and he leaped for joy. That's a person in there. That's a person. And that person responds to stimuli. And God says, you protect that person. I am doing work in the womb. And this is not a blob. This is a person.

And life begins at conception. And thirdly, God says to take the life of an innocent person is murder. It's murder. See, that's the issue of it all. And that's what the abortion people don't want to answer the question of when does life begin? Because if you say, well, life begins when the scripture says it begins, because God is the author of life and his word is true. And so if life begins at conception, then no one can have an abortion. That would be murder. So they don't want to say that. They say, well, it's up to the mother. The mother determines when life begins.

One abortion doctor has gone so far to say the mother has the right a year after birth to determine if that baby should live or not. That is her right. Not her right. It's not her right. God says that to take the life of an innocent person is murder. The sixth commandment in God's top 10, you shall not murder. Well, what happens if you murder God? What is the punishment for murder God? Genesis, chapter nine, verse six. The Lord says these words after the flood, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, he made man.

It's serious business to take the life of another, the innocent life of another. It's one thing for the government to take the life of a guilty man. That's what government is supposed to do. It bears the sword. Not in vain, the scripture says in Romans, chapter 13. But for a man to take another man's life, he's not to do that. Because that man was made in the image of God. And if you do that, you forfeit your own life.

Now, when you think about the issue of life and abortion, you need to know that the devil is into abortion up to his eyeballs. He is all for abortion. Why? Because Jesus said in John 8:44 that the devil is a murderer. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he's into murder. How do we know that? Because after the fall in Genesis chapter three, you flip the page to Genesis chapter four, and one of the first things that happens in Genesis chapter four is murder. As Cain kills his brother Abel.

And God says to Cain, where is your brother Abel? And Cain says, I don't know. How am I supposed to know? Am I my brother's keeper? And God says to Cain, he says, the voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground. He murdered his brother. The devil is a murderer. And the devil wants to murder the babies. Murder the babies.

In ancient Israel, God told them when they went into the promised land, he said, now listen, when you go into the land of promise, the land of Canaan, the land we now know as Israel, when you go into that land, you drive the people of that land out. You don't cohabitate with them, you don't co-mingle with them. Why? Because if you do, they will pollute you because they have a polluted land, demonic religion. And it says in Psalm 106, but the people mingled with the nations and they learned their practices and served their idols, which became a snare to the people of God.

One of the reasons, big reason, why judgment came to Israel is because they were shedding innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters to the false gods, Molech, Chemosh, and the pagan practices of Canaan. The devil wants to murder the babies and the devil wants to deceive the people. Deceive the people today. So the people today say, well, you know, I don't really understand much about abortion. I don't really want to know much about that. See no evil, you know, out of sight, out of mind. And the devil wants to deceive people.

Speaker 2

And he has succeeded in deceiving many people about when life begins. And that's the name of this message today from Pastor Jeff Shreve on From His Heart. Today we heard part one, tomorrow, part two of the lesson that you may want to share with a friend. To do so, go to fromhisheart.org, click the Listen link, and share that link that will provide the hard truth to those you love who need to hear the truth.

As we've just heard, this message from God's Word by Pastor Jeff is truly a stirring one. And there's much more to be said on the next broadcast revolving around what scripture has to say about this impassioned topic of abortion. So make sure you're with us then as we continue to learn about what happens when life begins.

This month, Pastor Jeff would like to get into your hands a new book that will help you discern and delete the fake news that you hear and see each day in your life. It's called *The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning in to God's Truth*, and it's our gift of thanks to you for your support of any amount to From His Heart.

This month, a brand new book, *The Devil's Newsroom*. Call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) or go to fromhisheart.org and request this book as our thanks for supporting From His Heart.

Thank you for being here today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, trusting you'll be here tomorrow as well for Part Two of *When Life Begins*. Join Pastor Jeff Shreve on Thursday as he speaks truth, love, and hope to a lost and hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at the end fromhisheart.org.