The Dignity of Human Life

Well, one of the first American writers that really made an international name for himself was Washington Irving. I have on my shelf his sketchbook and one of his writings, one of his short stories in that sketchbook was the story of Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle was, the story was set back in the Revolutionary War days, actually before and after the Revolutionary War, Rip Van Winkle was a kind gentleman who lived in a small town at the foot of the Ketskill Mountains in New York. Everybody loved Rip Van Winkle. He gave candy and toys to kids and everybody loved him. The problem was he was allergic to hard work and so his house and his farm had kind of fallen into disrepair and his wife was nagging him all the time to get stuff done around there. So one day he decided to get away from his nagging wife. He would go up to the hillside, took his musket with him and went up on one of the hills. As he's going up there with his dog, interestingly enough named Wolf, he climbed up on this mountain and he heard his name being called and he thought, that's strange. He turned around, didn't understand who the guy was, didn't recognize him, didn't know him. Guy was carrying a keg up the hill. Well, Rip Van Winkle helped him, ends up long story short, drinking a little bit of his moonshine and falling asleep. When he woke up, he noticed strangely enough that everything around him had changed. His musket was rotting and rusty. His beard looked like he belonged on dynasty and his dog was nowhere to be found. So he makes his way back down to his village and lo and behold, he doesn't recognize anybody. Starts asking a few questions and he finds out that his wife has died and everybody that he knows has either died in a war that he's never heard about or has moved away. Everything's different. He proclaims himself to be a loyal subject of King George III and gets in trouble for that because King George III no longer has his portrait in the village in, it is George Washington that has his portrait there. So through a series of misadventures like this, he discovers he has slept for 20 years. He has missed 20 years of life and everything in his world has changed. Well, Noah's story is amazingly similar to that. Noah didn't fall asleep but he was isolated from his world and it wasn't for 20 years but it was for a whole year and when he got off the arc, everything had changed. Everybody he knew outside his immediate family was dead. The topography was different. There were all these high mountains. The climate was different. He would find out his diet would be different. Everything has changed but one thing has stayed the same. One thing has stayed the same. That is, if the eight people that walked off the arc carried within their hearts the same sinful nature that produced the violence and corruption that brought the judgment of the flood to begin with. And so God as Noah gets off of the arc in Genesis 9 where we find ourselves this morning, as Noah gets off the arc, God emphasizes very clearly one thing, one thing because he knows that the same sinful nature in Noah's heart is what brought all the violence on the earth that caused his judgment. He emphasizes one thing, the dignity of human life. Now, once you know what the Bible means by that, when the Bible talks about the value and dignity of human life, it basically refers to two things. Number one, that man has a unique position in God's creation. He is not one of the animals. Now the great thing about the first 11 chapters of Genesis is we get back to the foundational truths of Scripture and it is these foundations that are attacked by all the modern philosophies and isms of the world. The theory of evolution attacks this very basic foundational teaching of Scripture and that is that man has a unique position in God's creation unlike anything else. He is not one of the animals. He did not come from the animals. God uniquely, specifically and specially created Adam and Eve. So the value of human life, the dignity of human life, is found first of all in the fact that man has a unique position in creation. Secondly, what this means is that life, human life is a gift of God and is not to be taken lightly. So man has a unique place in God's creation and because of that, human life above all other forms of life has a special value in the sight of God and is not to be taken lightly. That is what the dignity of human life is all about and that is the one truth that God will nail down to Noah when he gets off the ark. Now we are going to see how this develops in chapter 9 and then see what it means to us. There are some of these stories that lend themselves easily to illustrating the gospel such as we did last week with chapter 8. This one, chapter 9, not quite so much but it deals with some very basic foundational truths that our society and culture has left behind and we need to get back to and certainly we as believers need to be re-grounded in. So let's see what Genesis chapter 9 tells us about the value and dignity of human life. First of all, the principle of human dignity is given to us in the first 17 verses. In the instructions that God gave to Noah, God reminds him of the two things that I just mentioned about human dignity, his unique place in creation and the value of human life. Those two things God really emphasizes to Noah in his instructions to him in the first 17 verses. Let's see how it plays out. There are three ways that God emphasizes this dignity of human life in the principles he gives out here. First of all, it's emphasized in a special commission, a special commission that God gave to Noah. You find it in verse 1, then God bless Noah and his son saying to them, be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. Now, he gives him some other instructions that we'll get to in just a moment in verses 2 through 6. But, skip down to verse 7 and you find pretty much the same thing. This is the beginning and the end, the introduction and conclusion to the first section of instructions then. Verse 7 says, as for you, be fruitful and increase in number, multiply on the earth and increase upon it. Now, the amazing thing about this special commission that's given to Noah is it is almost identical to what God had given to Adam. When Adam was created, when God first made man and placed him on this earth, it was a very similar, almost identical command. So this is repeated and the interesting thing to me is that even though man is fallen, even though man has made a terrible mess of everything and God had to judge the world and just save a few people, God says, we're going to start over. I'm going to give you another chance. God did not say, okay, mankind, you had your chance and you wasted it. So we're going to let the cats rule now. Now, I know the cats think that's what God decided, but he didn't. God is still in charge and so God is giving him a second chance, a new beginning. He hasn't given up on mankind. He has not replaced man with some other creature or some other means of governing his world. He gives mankind another chance. I am so thankful that God is a God of new beginnings, that God is a God of second chances. God is one who wipes the slate clean, who is willing to forgive and cleanse and say, let's start over. Maybe you came to church this morning and your life is a mess. And you know, if you're honest, you're the reason. You've made a mess of your life. So I remember many lots of other things have happened to you that have kind of shoved you in that direction. And you feel like there's no hope. I really can't recover from this. Could God ever forgive me? Could God ever save me? Could I ever get to heaven? And the answer is yes. Because God is a God of new beginnings. God is a God of second chances. God is a God who says like the father did to the prodigal son. I know you've wasted all of the inheritance I gave you. But you're my son. Come back. I love you. And he welcomes him home with open arms. God is that kind of God. He welcomes you. He is willing to take you to receive you, to forgive you, to cleanse you, to let you be his child. If you come this morning and you think there's no hope for me, I've done too much. I've been to too many bad places. I've made such a mess of my life. I can't turn it around. That's a good place to be because you're finally admitting you can't turn it around. And you can't. Only God can. But God is willing to offer you a new beginning. He's willing to say, I didn't give it up on you. I'm going to give you a new beginning in Christ. If you'll accept my son Jesus as your Savior, I'll clean up your life. I'll forgive you. I'll give you a new direction and purpose in life. God is a God of new beginnings. I'm so grateful for that. Now maybe you've trusted Jesus as your Savior. But you've still made a mess of things. We still have that simple nature in us and we're all capable of doing that. So maybe even as a believer in Christ, you think is there any second chance for me? I know Jesus. I know Christ in the forgiveness of sin, but I still mess things up. Thank God the Bible says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all in righteousness, you can be forgiven. You can be cleansed. You too, as Christ's follower can have a new beginning, a new start. This special commission given to Noah shows the value that God places on human life, enough value to give second chances to give new beginnings. But then he calls Noah and all of mankind a special creation. And because man is a special creation of God, this place is a high value on human life. It gives dignity to human life. So secondly, the principle of human dignity is seen in that man is a special creation. Look at verse two. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground and upon all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hands. By the way, the only if you compare the creation records, the only animals left out are the domesticated cattle type of animals. They are not in bread with that fear, if you will. But everything else has a fear of humans, including snakes, ladies. They actually do fear you. So take some comfort in that. Verse three. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you just as I gave you the green plants. Now I give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its life blood still in it. The principle of draining the blood before eating meat is established here, the reason being it is the blood that carries life to any organism, to any creature. Now later that will become an important part of the sacrificial system that animals that are brought for sacrifice have to have their blood drained from them because the blood carries the life. And so he is establishing that here. But he goes on to move it a step further. Verse five. And for your life blood, in the words the life of a human being, I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. Now that is interesting. How does that happen? Well, don't we recognize that animals that attack humans have moved beyond the normal bounds of nature. Something is wrong there. And we typically take the life of that animal. Usually that is how we view things and rightly so. I think that is in bread into what God has built into us there. And it is what he is talking about in verse five. The end of verse five says, he says, and from each man too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Now look at verse six. Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. And here is the reason why in the image of God has God made man. Mankind is made in God's image. So he is a special creation. Remember what it means to be in the image of God? It means you share common personality characteristics, intellect, emotion and will. But it goes beyond that. It means that you share the opportunity and capacity to make moral choices. You can determine the difference between right and wrong and make choices on that basis. But even more than that, it means that you have the capacity to have a relationship with God. No other thing that God created has that capacity to be in a personal relationship with the living God. But you do. We as humans do. And so we are a special creation of God. We are different from the animals. And God re-institutes here the dominion of mankind over the animal kingdom. There's just a couple of changes from what he said in Genesis 1 and 2. And that is that now animals will fear man by and large. And we are given meat to eat. Yes. I'm glad I'm on this side of the foot. We have meat that we can eat now. Okay? Not all those salads. That's okay too. God re-institutes the function of man in superintending and overseeing the animal kingdom. Why? Because man is different. He's not an animal. The value of human life then is brought to a very high level in verses 5 and 6 where he says, God says, I value human life so highly because it is in my image that you dare not treat it lightly. Now what is he talking about in verse 6 when he says, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. Well, at the very least he is certainly saying that human life is sacred. It is in the image of God and premeditated murder. But the willful taking of another human life is utterly evil. Is he instituting capital punishment here? I believe so. I believe when he says, by man shall his blood be shed. That second use of the word man is talking about some kind of instituted authority, some kind of properly constituted authority. There must be a structure whereby premeditated taking of a human life is dealt with with the most severe kind of punishment. Otherwise you will have the same anarchy that existed before the flood. What God is doing is instituting a means of dealing with violence in the human race so that it can be mitigated so that it can be decreased so that it can be dealt with. I love what Henry Morris in his excellent commentary on Genesis says about this. So let me quote him. He says it so much better than I can. The anarchistic conditions that had developed before the flood, men slaying whom they would and defending themselves as they could, were not to be permitted to recur. Before the flood there was evidently no formal arrangement of human government, saved perhaps the patriarchal authority of the father. There was no formal mechanism for the punishment of crime or of crime prevention, even for the capital crime of murder as is evident in the individual histories of Cain and the Lamaic. We've seen both of those already. Evidently each person was able to act quite independently of all restraints except those of his own conscience and self-interest. The slide of man in the sin had so devastated those, that's the reason why there was tremendous violence and corruption on the earth. Morris goes on to say. This eventually led to a universal state of violence and anarchy to prevent the development of similar conditions after the flood, God established the institution of human government, including especially the authority for capital punishment. It is clear of course that the authority for capital punishment implies also the authority to establish laws governing those human activities and personal relationships which, if unregulated, soon lead to murder. For example, robbery, adultery, usurping property, the simple instruction to know is the fundamental basis for all human legal and governmental institutions. I believe he's nailed it. I believe he's got it right. I believe what God is saying with this command to know if you take whoever sheds the blood of man by man, by constituted authority, his life will be forfeited, will be taken. And that basic concept that man has a right to institute formal authorities which will govern his affairs and punish the most severe crimes that's established right here. And I don't believe that's ever changed. It's not mosaic law that's been done away with because this is before the mosaic law and it is reaffirmed in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul. Look at these verses where Paul talks about human government in Romans 13. Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities where there is no authority except that which is a stamp which God has established. That's not saying that God establishes a particular form of government but that God has established the principle of human government that we are required to govern ourselves. He goes on to describe what that involves in verse 4. This is Paul in the New Testament for the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid for rulers do not notice this, do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoers. The principle foundational function of government is to punish evil. And I could go a lot of places with that but I'm going to let it go there. That is the principle function of government to punish evil and reward good, not the other way around. And the Bible says the government can bear the sword. Now Paul was writing to Roman Christians under the Roman government which had a lot of problems for sure. But when he says they carry the sword, they bear the sword. The word for sword is the word, there are three or four words for sword in the New Testament. This is the word that is typically used for the instrument used for capital punishment to end someone's life in a court of law or after a criminal proceeding. So he's talking about capital punishment here. And all of the turmoil about this and all of the question and argument back and forth, nobody seems to be going back to the basics, to the foundation, to the beginnings. Why did God institute human government anyway and what is its authority and power? It's clear in Genesis 9, reaffirmed in Romans chapter 13. Now God would also in the law of Moses, ensure that there were safeguards so that no one was criminally prosecuted unjustly, laws like there had to be two or three witnesses and other laws like that. So God knew that man would even twist this to, pervert it and change it and make a mess of it. And so he wanted to make sure that when this is instituted it's done with the proper safeguards. And certainly we should not favor any kind of capital punishment unless there are safeguards in place to make sure that only those who are truly guilty suffer this ultimate punishment. But it is clear that capital punishment is taught in Genesis chapter 9. God says to mankind you are a special creation and I value your life because it's in the image of God you dare not take life lightly. That's what he's saying. So the value of human dignity, the principle of human dignity is found in this special commission in the fact that we're a special creation. And thirdly it's found in a special covenant that was made with Noah. Beginning in verse 9, there is a special covenant that God makes with Noah. Verse 8, then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you. The birds, the livestock and all the wild animals and all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth, I establish my covenant with you. Now here it is verse 11, never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood. Never again. Notice the strength of this. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you. A covenant, notice for all generations to come, I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. So God said to know, this is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth. Pretty clear to me that God establishes and reinforces over and over again that this is a covenant that will last forever that never again, He promises, will the earth be destroyed by water. Second Peter 3 says it will be destroyed by fire in a future judgment. But never again will it be destroyed by water. And here's the sign of this covenant. I'm going to place a rainbow. Whenever you see a rainbow in the sky, you know, God's looking at that too. You ever thought about that? God's looking at it too. Because He says very clearly here, whenever I place a boat, I will remember this covenant. So when you're admiring that rainbow in the sky, God is also looking at Him saying, I remember my covenant with Noah and all His descendants. By the way, I think God stresses so much several times here that the rainbow is a sign of His covenant, that is the only legitimate sign for the rainbow. It is sad that some have taken it to be the sign of a simple lifestyle. But this is what God intended it to be. So don't give up on the rainbow. It has a biblical sign to it. The biblical sign is the covenant with Noah. You are a special creature, Noah. You have been given a special commission and I make a special covenant with you. So man has a special place in God's creation and God's working. And that's clear in Genesis chapter 9. But here's the problem. God has spoken, but man has an incredible capacity to twist what God says and pervert it. And it even happens in Genesis 9. So what we see next in this passage of Scripture is the perversion of human dignity. God is clear that he values human life by this special commission, new beginning, new start. He's still giving to man the commission he gave to Adam. He reaffirms the fact that man is created in the image of God. He is a special creation and he even makes a special covenant with Noah. So God has spoken, but now man messes it up as we tend to do. So what happens? Three things happen to Noah that are still happening. That still happen with us in this world today, right here in Princeton, right here in the United States. Three things still happening to pervert the value of human life. One is that man cheapens his view of life. Look again at verses five and six. God makes it clear. I'm going to demand an accounting for your life, the life of your fellow man who ever sheds the blood of man by man by properly constituted authorities. Now his blood be shed. Why? Because human life is in the image of God. Clear, clear teaching, but despite the clear teaching of human life being in the image of God, we have an incredible capacity seen through human history to stain the pages of history with human blood through violence and war. The victims of violence are all over the place. After World War I, nations got together and they established what was called the League of Nations. If you read the covenant of the League of Nations, there were several things they wanted to do about world poverty and lots of other things like that. But the one thing, the main reason for the League of Nations was to alleviate war and to provide an arbitration process for governments and nations to settle their differences without going to war. Well, it didn't take long for that to fail. It was established in 1920 and by the end of the 20s and early 30s, Hitler was already marching through Germany and within another 10 years there would be another World War which would put the first one to shame, make it look like a play thing. And millions of lives would be lost. So after the Second World War they said, okay, we got to fix this thing again. So we'll do the United Nations, 1946. Let's form the United Nations. Well has it done any better? There have been 20 plus million lives lost in war since then. Man has the incredible capacity to cheapen his view of life. Bringing it away from an international level to a national, even a local level. The commonness of murders in our society. The violence, senseless violence carried out by Islamic extremists as we have seen again in our country this week. Another evidence of the fact, terrorism, another evidence of the fact that we have a tendency to cheapen our view of human life, be value human life when people are wholesale slaughtered for religious purposes. But abortion, euthanasia, the purposeful taking of lives at the end of life, not passively letting them die but actively taking their lives very common anymore. Both of those show that we have swallowed the evolutionary lie that we're just animals. We do not value human life as we once did. 42 years since the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, well over 50 million human lives have been taken. It just shows that we do not value human life. Only pause for a moment. Whenever I say anything about abortion, I am very keenly aware that there may be ladies here and families here who have been personally touched by that. Maybe in your past, maybe before you came to know Christ, maybe in a crisis situation. And you have since that time suffered incredible guilt. Could I remind you that God is a God of new beginnings and of new starts? Could I remind you that even the Apostle Paul who would be God's primary ambassador to take the gospel to the Greek and Roman world said in 1 Timothy 1, I don't deserve any of this because I murdered Christians before I got saved. God can forgive you, my friend, of whatever has happened in your past, for whatever reason it may have happened. My comments are directed to a culture at large, even a government that does not value human life enough to say that it begins at conception. And we must value human life and uphold the dignity of human life from conception to natural death. That is the biblical standard. It is not the standard of our culture today. We have a tendency to twist and pervert God's standards. It is seen in the fact that man cheapens his view of life. And secondly, it is also seen in the fact that man corrupts his blessings in life. God gives us good things, gives us blessings. We have a tendency to corrupt them. That is exactly what Noah does. Look at verse 20. Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. He said, well, Noah is innocent. He did not understand what he did not understand it would ferment. I do not know. I think there was plenty of this going on before the flood, with all the violence and twisting of God's standards. So I think Noah knew what would happen. Noah is a pretty bright guy. God had given him the benefit, the blessing of farming, which was man's first occupation in the Garden of Eden. A great occupation. And the fruits of it are intended to be a blessing to us. But we have a tendency to take all of God's blessings and corrupt them and turn them to evil purposes. So Noah gets drunk and shames himself in the process. The sad thing is that this is the only event in Noah's life that is recorded in his last 350 years. The sad to end with this record after being known as a man of God, one who found favor in the eyes of God, one who preached righteousness, one who rebuked the unrighteousness of his generation to end this way. I think it's a warning that all of us have the same sin nature that no matter who you are, righteous Noah, proclaimer of truth, no matter who you are, we all have that same sinful nature and we need to guard against corrupting the good blessings that God gives us. Whether it is the fruit of the vine or medications that are designed to help us get better or sexual fulfillment within the bonds of marriage, all of those things have been twisted and perverted for evil to harm us. It just shows the tendency of our sinful nature. Man corrupts his blessings in life. Noah did, we still do today. But the perversion of human dignity is seen not only in the fact that man cheapens his view of life and man corrupts his blessings in life, but man also contaminates his relationships in life. And that's what happens next. The sad, sorted story of what happens beginning of verse 22. And the father of Canaan saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside, but Shem and Japheth took a garment and later to cross their shoulders, then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, cursed be Canaan, the lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, may Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth. May Japheth live in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his slave. Now what is going on here? This is a really unusual story and it has been grossly misinterpreted and misused. So I want to take just a few moments to explain what's happening here. The bottom line certainly is that there's a breakdown morally in Noah's family and that his relationships are contaminated by sin. But exactly what is it that's going on here? There are basically three questions which have troubled people about this passage and maybe some of you have been troubled by them as well. The first question is, what happened that was so bad? The Bible simply tells us that ham saw the nakedness of his father and told his brothers. That's really all we can say with any clarity. There are lots of ideas as to what may have happened that ranged from seeing with delight and glee or telling with disrespect and reproach on his father. Certainly he dishonored his father no matter what actually happened. Even intimations, indications or at least some people say possibilities of sexual involvement or whatever. We don't really know. All the Bible says is that he saw his father's nakedness. The word C is used in the Old Testament to gaze on. And so there must be more than just a casual glance here. Nothing else happened but what it was we don't know. But there was some breakdown morally here. The second question that troubles a lot of people is why is the curse then, the judgment pronounced by Noah on Canaan, not ham. It was Noah's son ham that evidently did whatever was wrong here and showed dishonor to his father. Then why is Canaan cursed? Canaan is the youngest son of ham. If you will look at verse 24, when Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had said to him, he said, cursed Becanon. It's like he saw what his youngest son had been and then turns to his grandson. What's the deal here? What's going on? The Hebrew word for youngest son, it's called a Hebrew superlative. And it simply means that this is a very strong way of saying the youngest in the family, the youngest descendant. By the way, ham was not his youngest son. Look back at verse 18. The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were shim, ham and jayfah. They're usually listed almost always in the Old Testament listed in the order of age. Ham was not the youngest son. So what does he say by the youngest? He's talking about the youngest descendant, the youngest in the family. If you look at chapter 10, verse 6, you find that Canaan is the youngest of ham's sons. Evidently, at this point in the family tree, Canaan is the youngest descendant. So why does he curse Canaan? Evidently, Canaan was involved in whatever dishonor was committed to Ham's father, Canaan's grandfather. Did he encourage Noah's drunkenness? Did he commit some sexual sin? Well Noah was asleep or we don't know. But we know that Canaan is responsible for his own actions. God will later say that a child or a grandchild should not be punished for his father's sins. So obviously, Canaan is guilty. And Noah is addressing the youngest in the family who is guilty of some impropriety. That's the reason why it's Canaan. But there's a third question that troubles people here and it is this, is there any justification for slavery in this passage? Because this text has been horribly twisted to justify the institution of slavery. And I just want to say up front, that is a horrible misrepresentation of this passage. The reason why some people teach that is because it's clear that the descendants of Ham are the African peoples. But I would remind you, it was not Ham that was cursed. It was his son Canaan. And if you follow through who came from Canaan in chapter 10 and verse 15, it's the Canaanites who were Caucasian. They lived in the land of Canaan and God said they will be servants or be subjugated to the descendants of Shem. Who are they? If you reach chapter 11, Abraham is the descendant of Shem. The Jewish people are the descendants of Shem. This prophecy is fulfilled when God sends the nation of Israel into the land of Canaan to judge the Canaanite nations, to destroy them and those that were left alive to subjugate them because of their awful sin. That's how it was fulfilled. There's nothing, nothing to do with what we know is the dark page in our nation's history of slavery. This text has nothing to do with that. And it is a terrible injustice to try to make it say that. This is the Canaanites who have already been dealt with by God through Israel in the way that he prophesied here. The real point of this passage is that there is a terrible moral breakdown in the family of Noah so soon after the new start in a new world which shows the capacity for moral breakdowns for any of us. This is warning for us. We have the same seed in us, the same sinful nature that can germinate into sin that will contaminate our relationships in life because we are sinners. We tend to contaminate our relationships and broken families all around us are the evidence of that. Our values human life so much we are made in his image, we are special creations of God. He has instituted human government to deal with the fact that man may take human life lightly. But we still because of our sin nature have a tendency to pervert, twist, turn to evil, all the good things that God has given us including our relationships, our blessings in life and even our view of life. So God values us, He wants to recapture the dignity of human life but the way that God showed in the greatest most powerful way the dignity of human life and that He values human life is when He sent His Son into this world to die for you and for me because the real problem is sin nature that is clear, Noah walks off the earth with a sin nature and it doesn't take long for that nature to surface and mess up everything God has given him. Same thing is true of us, we all are born with that same sin nature and God shows that he loves human life and values human life much more than instituting government and capital punishment and all that. He showed it most when he sent his Son Jesus to deal with the root issue, the sin problem. The cross, the cross is God's best demonstration of the value of human life, how much He loves us that He would send His own perfect son from the goris of heaven to die to be punished to be crucified because of your sin and my sin that's how much God values you, that's how much He loves you that He would give His own Son to die for you and the real answer to the problems in society is the cross, it is the cross of Christ that is the answer, that's how God responded. God didn't say I'll get right just self help, text book. He said I'll send my Son Jesus to my dying breath, I will preach the cross, it is the cross of Christ that is the answer to all of mankind's problems. It's not a different government, it's not a different president, although Linus is going, it is not anything else, it is not any program, it is the cross, it is Christ. That is our hope, that's the only hope for you, the only hope for me is Jesus dying on the cross and I will preach that until I die, it is the cross, nothing else, the cross. There are many other things, we have lots of programs here that reach out and try to help people, lots of them and I believe in them or they wouldn't be here, but if they do not point to the cross then they shouldn't be here because it is the cross, the death of Christ alone that can solve problems. That's what the Bible teaches, I don't care what self-help books teach, the Bible teaches that the cross is the answer to man's problems and where we must take people is to the cross of Christ and recognize that we are sinners in need of a savior. There may be lots of other practical helps that people need, but if we leave out the cross we have left out the one thing that will make an eternal difference. People can clean their lives up and go straight to hell. But we need Christ, a savior who died for us, that is the message of the Bible, that is the message that Paul said is foolishness to this world but is the power of God to save those that will believe. It is the cross my friend, the message of redemption through Christ that covers and takes care of all the mess that we make of the good gifts of life. That's how much God values you and loves you, that he would send his son Jesus to die for you. That's how he showed it. That's the message he gives and that's what we need to trust Jesus as our savior. If you've never done that you can do everything else. You can do everything else and it will not ultimately make the deep spiritual changes in your life that you need through Christ. It must be through coming to Christ at the cross. That's the remedy for the way we pervert and twist everything God's given us. The remedy is Christ, the cross. God loves you so much that he sent Jesus to be your savior. Would you pray with me? Father, we kneel before the cross. We recognize that Jesus as our savior is the only ultimate eternal hope of deliverance. Father, take the teaching, preaching of your word. You're very word itself and speak to our hearts. I pray that if there's anyone here today who's never trusted Jesus and they're trying so hard to get their lives together, they've never come to the cross. They've never come to Jesus. Father, help them today to realize that's where they need to start. Lord, I thank You that You loved us so much that You sent Your only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Thank You for the cross. Thank You for Jesus. I pray that everyone here will know for sure today they know Jesus. It's in His name we pray. Amen.