The Battle for Life

(Homicide, Suicide & Euthanasia)

I. Introduction

A. There is a great battle for life.

1. Unfortunately we are losing the war.

2. Satan the great deceiver is convincing the world that life is cheap.

B. There is no greater depreciation of life than through the acts of:

1. Abortion: Murdering of innocence children.

2. Euthanasia: Assisted-murder.

3. Suicide: self-murder.

C. Why has the destruction of life become a viable option to our problems?

1. The inconvenience it causes.

2. The burden on others.

3. Depression.

4. Pride.

5. The lack of faith in God.

D. The cost of losing is unacceptable to God, for you see He has paid the ultimate price for our souls.

E. Modern Views of the Value of Life

F. Ignorance sustained by denial is crippling our nation.

G. This Sunday we will examine homicide, euthanasia & suicide.

II. Homicide

A. The killing of one human being by another.

B. Homicide includes accidental, negligent, planned.

1. Abortion, the killing of human babies by another human.

2. Suicide, the killing of a human by self.

3. Euthanasia, killing of self with assistance.

C. Our legal system no longer provides righteous judgments against those who take life.

1. Sentences for rape, drugs & terrorism are harsher than for a murder.

D. The law of God makes provision for the execution of the murderer (Genesis 9:6; Exodus 21:12; Romans 13:4)

E. When human life is devaluated the next logical step is to accept the destruction of life “not worth living”.

1. Therefore we should not be surprised by the increase of societal acceptance of suicide and euthanasia.

III. Suicide

A. Suicide strikes both young and old

1. Suicide took the lives of 30,575 Americans in 1998 (11.3 per 100,000 population)

2. More people die from suicide than from homicide. In the United States

a. 1998 the CDC reported that there were 1.7 times as many suicides as homicides.

B. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death for all Americans.

1. Third leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24.

C. Leading Cause of suicide is untreated depression.

(http://www.save.org/prevention/friends_depression.html)

D. Eighteen elderly Americans take their own lives each day.

1. The highest rate coming from white American males who are 65 years old or older.

E. More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from:

1. Cancer.

2. Heart disease.

3. Chronic lung disease.

4. AIDS.

5. Birth defects.

6. Stroke.

7. Pneumonia.

8. Influenza

Combined!

F. Oregon suicide rate increased with the legalization of euthanasia in 1994.

1. When local newspapers ran headlines bemoaning the state's soaring suicide rate among adolescents, nobody connected the dots.

IV. Euthanasia

A. Euthanasia is the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.

B. Societal Attitudes toward Euthanasia:

1. Today Poll shows little support for Euthanasia.

2. Many chose euthanasia to avoid being a burden to others

a. An Oregon report on assisted suicide for the year 2000 showed that more patients than ever before took their lives because they felt they had become a burden to friends, family, and caregivers.

3. Oregon suicide rate increased with legalization, where assisted suicide was legalized in 1994, doctors prescribed deadly drugs to 39 patients-and yet

a. Of those 39 cases, at least 27 were reported as having died from a deliberate lethal overdose of controlled substances under Oregon's assisted-suicide law.

C. Euthanasia has escalated the death rate in the Netherlands.

1. One study (from pro-euthanasia researchers) reported that euthanasia in the Netherlands continues to increase.

2. And now doctors not only are killing the terminally ill, but also those with chronic, non-life-threatening conditions (Smith, p. 110).

3. As late as 1995, 1 in 42 deaths’ in Holland was determined to be an assisted suicide.

4. Even more alarming is the fact that 1 in 4 doctors admits to killing patients without the patient's request or approval (Washington Post 11/28/96, citing the New England Journal of Medicine ).

5. The Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia.

a. From euthanasia for people who are terminally ill to euthanasia for those who are chronically ill.

b. From euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for psychological distress.

c. And from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia (Hendin, 1996).

D. The American Medical Associations response to euthanasia.

1. “The AMA establishes the Code of Ethics for the medical profession. One of the fundamental principles of that code is that physicians must not act with the intent of causing the death of their patients. Physician-assisted suicide is simply incompatible with the physician's role as healer. When faced with patients who are terminally ill and suffering, physicians must relieve their suffering by providing adequate comfort care.” (10 October 1995, the general counsel of the American Medical Association, Kirk Johnson, wrote a letter to Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley.)

V. God’s response to taking Life

A. God values life because He created all life.

1. Created: Genesis 1:26-27

a. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

2. In Him we live and move and have our being: Acts 17:28

a. For "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.'

3. God forms the spirit of man:

a. Zechariah 12:1The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:

B. God has specifically said, “do not murder.”

a. Exodus 20:13"You shall not murder”

1) The Hebrew word also covers causing human death through carelessness or negligence

C. Only God has the privilege to take and give life. Deuteronomy 32:39

a. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

D. God values life because He loves.

a. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

b. Romans 13:9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

E. Hope in Jesus is the only escape. Acts 16:27, 30-34

1. From a life that has no hope.

a. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

b. Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

2. Jesus is the way of escape from the hopelessness of pain when dying.

3. Allow Jesus to bring you home to heaven.

VI. Conclusion

A. The battle for life is real, and engaged fiercely in our society.

B. We must know exactly where we stand on these issues: murder is wrong, no matter the name it is given: abortion, suicide, euthanasia.

C. We must be ready to present a message of hope to those who struggle with these issues. Jesus!

Modified from Dave Stewart

"Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright (c) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."