What those verses say is that God has a consistency in the way that He works.  In the same way that He is bringing many sons to glory spiritually, there is an exact parallel in the birth process (Hebrews 2:10).

Let us look at the words of King David as he pondered what his own life in the womb was like before his birth.  He was inspired by God, and David did a lot of thinking, a lot of understanding and a lot of writing, but he wondered what God was doing that early on when he was conceived, and when he was a baby in his mother’s womb.  What was God thinking?  What was God doing?

Psalms 139:13  For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

An alternate translation from the New Revised Standard Version:

Psalms 139:13  For it was You who formed my inward parts: You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

David knew that when his father and mother came together, the pregnancy had occurred, but he said it was God who had formed him.  Already, God had a picture in His mind of David’s personality, his emotions, his make up, his DNA and everything that we see.  Today, we know that the scientists and biologists know a lot about chromosomes, DNA, etc.

With God’s Holy Spirit, David was able to perceive more than the experts today.  Even though he used words like “we are knit together” – he did not know how cells and molecules and genes worked or formed, but he still understood more than the scientists and the experts of today.  And he understood God’s hand in the process, and God’s working to bring it about.

Psalms 139:14  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knows right well.

We are wonderfully made, and David said that he knew that very well, and he gives God the credit.  God was there doing the programming and doing the selecting.  He was making it happen, and He gave him life as sure as He gave Adam the breath of life, He was bringing life.  How does life come about?  We talk about the ovum being viable, and the sperm being viable, but they are not alive in the same way because it is very short viability.  It is not continual life, and unless they come together and the sperm goes to the nucleus of ovum, they both will quickly die out.  God is the author of life.

Psalms 139:15  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

We are known of God right down to the very elements and minerals that we are made from.

Psalms 139:15 (RSV)  My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Psalms 139:16  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect [incomplete].

Brethren, the truth of the matter is that we are still not perfect.  We will be perfect the day that we are born spiritually into the Kingdom of God.  We are still going through the growth process right now.

Psalms 139:16b  ….and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalms 139:16 (RSV)  Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.  In your book were written all the days that were formed for me when none of them yet existed.

I think that in this verse David was saying that God had plans for him – and that he would need specific skills and talents. Those traits existed in him in the womb.  We know now that David grew up and he was an excellent marksman with the sling.  He had fast reflexes and he was very accurate, he had good timing, he had musical traits and tendencies and he was so good on the harp that he was brought into the palace to play before Saul.  Those traits existed in his mother’s womb at conception.  David knew that.

We will touch on the concept of predestination, being known of God, and selected by God from conception for His special purposes.

Psalms 139:17  How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

Just how much thought did God put into all of those chromosomes and DNAs, and the selection of all of the different possibilities that could have combined?  A woman has thousands of ova (plural of ovum), and they are there from the time that she reaches the age of puberty.  There are hundreds of millions of choices, or opportunities, from the man.  God directed them and He worked them out.

Today, God is as involved in the process as He ever was.  It was not just that He was in the process for the prophets of old like David.  He is involved in every single one of our lives as we come about from the point of conception and before.

Psalms 22:9  But thou art He that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.  I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly [womb].

David knew that from the very beginning God had plans for him and was going to use him.  Mankind has forgotten that God has plans for him here and now.

Let us go to the book of Ecclesiastes, which was written by Solomon, the son of David.  We know that, even though at one point Solomon was the wisest man that ever existed, because of his excesses, because of his turning away from God, because of his idolatry and because of his many wives turning his heart away, he lost a great deal of his wisdom and understanding.  Keep that in mind as we read this.  Mankind has forgotten today that God has plans for him here and now.  God has different plans for each and every one of us, because He gives us different spiritual gifts as it says in 1 Corinthians 12.  Here are some of Solomon’s observations:

Ecclesiastes 11:4  He that observeth the wind shall not sow.

Solomon is saying that you get up in the morning and you see the wind is coming from the north and it is going to be cold and rainy, you are not going to get out there and plant today.  In other words you find an excuse not to go out and do your job.

Ecclesiastes 11:4b-5  …And he that regards the clouds shall not reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child.

We do not know, according to Solomon, at this time how those bones form and a new little baby grows while he is still in the womb.

Ecclesiastes 11:5b  …even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

Solomon is saying that we do not know exactly how it happens.  Man does not know how a baby is formed so intricately in the womb, and we do not know what God’s plans for him are.

Again, we see man’s view [Solomon’s observations] that it would be better not to have been born.

That mistaken attitude comes from not knowing, or believing, or having faith in the plan of God, and that God is working all things out.

Ecclesiastes 6:3  If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

Solomon postures that it would have been better if he had never been born?  We do not know the plan of God in our lives, and we should not come to this conclusion.  It is good that we were born.

Paul knew better, and he understood the things David said.

Galatians 1:15  But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace.

Paul knew that God was involved in his life.  Remember he was Saul and he was killing Christians when he was an adult.  But he finally understood that God was involved in his life in a very personal and intimate way from the moment of conception.

We see here how far-reaching God’s plans are.  God is not capricious or haphazard.  A lot of people use the word ‘fate,’ and they say that is just the way things are, it is all time and chance.  It could have happened to anybody, that is the way the cookie crumbles, that is the toss of the dice, and there is no reason or rhyme to it.  That is not true, and it is especially not true in the life of a Christian.

Isaiah 44:1  Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen.

God is talking to the many descendants of Jacob who comprise part of Israel in this case.  They were special to God.  Now that is not to the rejection of everybody else.  They were chosen for a certain purpose.

Isaiah 44:2  Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb.

God tells us over and over that He began at the very beginning.  He had a hands-on decision making involvement in each and every life.

Isaiah 44:2b  ….which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.  [Jesurun is Israel’s nick-name.]

God did not just come along at the very end and see that Israel was a pretty good nation, and then say that He would use them.  No, He brought them to the point where they were.

Isaiah 49:1  Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD has called me from the womb [womb – ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus]; from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name.

Isaiah 49:4-5  Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.  And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.

Even Isaiah had some doubts and God records quite a few times how his men had doubts about their self worth, and whether God was using them.  They came to the realization that God had chosen them from the time that their father and mother came together.

We see a personal one-on-one involvement between Isaiah and God, and it is the same with us.

God has given parents a great part in His eternal plan of salvation.  When a man and a woman come together, when they get married, that is the only time that children should be formed.  God has given them a marvelous part in His plan of bringing many sons to glory.  (Hebrews 2:10)  It is not a work that just goes on for twenty years while the children are at home, but it is a part of God’s eternal plan of salvation.  God has given parents a marvelous part in His plan of bringing many sons to glory.  Parents are involved in that, and God lets us be a part of creation, and a part of eternity.

Before anyone can be a spirit-born Son of God, before anyone can be called by God, and given the spark of God's spiritual life at baptism, and the laying-on-of-hands, before anyone can become a mature adult, they must be given the life of their father and mother, in one flesh, at conception, and complete the gestation period and become a child at birth. The whole process begins at conception, and the gestation period in the womb and birth.  That is when a son of God begins.

Jeremiah 1:5  Before I formed thee in the womb [uterus] I knew thee; and before [you were born] you came forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, [set you apart for a special purpose] and “I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

Notice when God picked him. What if Jeremiah had come out and been deaf, dumb and blind.  It was not going to be, because God was involved from the very beginning.  He knew that Jeremiah would have the traits that he did, and he would have what would it take.  Courage to stand before the nation, a grasp of languages, and all of those traits God specifically hand-wove into Jeremiah at conception.

Don’t think that at the time of the prophets everything was going smoothly and everybody recognized the prophets of God and had respect and honor for the prophets.  It was as bad in the days of Jeremiah as it is today – worse in many cases.  If we count back twenty-five years at a million abortions a year, there have been twenty million, and I dare say that there have been thirty or forty million abortions just in the United States.  That is enough people to form a goodly nation.

Jeremiah 19:4  Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents.

In Jeremiah’s dad, they were killing little babies, and this was probably very much akin to what is called partial birth abortions today.  These were new little infants coming into the world, with hope, with life, and color and a good immune system, with the potential to become adults.  They were offering them to their idolatrous gods.  It was a form of birth control for them – but it was abortion.  God abhors it, and He cannot even believe it.

God is going to create mankind in His image; we are going to be the eternal sons of God.  God knew that there would be accidents, and He knew that there would be murders, but for a mother to be involved in killing a precious infant in wholesale slaughter, God could not imagine that happening.

Jeremiah 19:5  They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal.

That is a horrible death, but that is the way that they were killing the babies.  This is just my theory: did they think that if you bring produce to God – that is good, and if you bring a lamb to God – that is good, how much greater will it be if you bring a son or a daughter to God to offer in sacrifice?  They were doing it for their own devious means, but they were feigning the worship of God.

Jeremiah 19:5b  …which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind.

God said that He never suggested such a thing – He never thought such a thing.  You go back to when God is giving the law and He does not say anything like, “Do not burn your children to false gods.”  He did not think that was going to happen.  He said, “Do not kill” and that should have thoroughly covered it.

A little further on we see where Jeremiah suffered from exhaustion for a time.  We see this many times with the prophets, they became tired and they ran out of juice.  They broke down, and they had nervous breakdowns.  We see that the going got too rough for Jeremiah, and he wanted to quit just like Job did.

Jeremiah 20:14-16  Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.  Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.  And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew [Sodom and Gomorrah], and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide.

Late-term abortion was a commonplace practice in Jeremiah’s time.

Jeremiah 20:17-18  Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave [stillborn], and her womb to be always great with me. Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

God records these moods for us, so that we can see that the going got very rough – even for the prophets of God.

Jeremiah realized that God knew him, and sanctified him from the womb for a very special purpose.

Brethren, it is the same for us, we too are sanctified, we were called for special purposes – we must be so doing.  What is it that we were cut out to be?  What are the traits and the attributes, and what are the talents that we have been given?

Ephesians 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

All through the Old Testament we see that God did work all things after the counsel of His own will.  He was involved in bringing about the very formation and development of the embryo and the fetus in the womb, and making sure that the child developed into what He wanted. But what about this part where Paul says, “…predestinated according to the purpose of Him?”

The world has a wrong concept about predestination.  Predestination does not mean that everything is worked out in advance, and that we just go along for the ride.  Some people look at predestination and fate like it is already laid out, and it is going to happen, and it does not matter whether I am good or whether I am bad, whether I work or whether I don’t work.  Biblical predestination is just the opposite.  God has purposes for us, and we must go about achieving them.  God is going to help, just as He helped the prophets of old when they came to the point where they were depressed, dejected and ready to give up.  How does God guide us?  How does God let us know when to join, when to turn, when to start, and when to stop?  He guides us by His law and by His truth.

What if somebody says to you, “I have a great job for you, it pays a million dollars and you only have to work two Saturday’s each month”?  Well, God’s law says that that job is not for you.  God does not want you working there, and God has something else.  His law and His truth guide us.

God is involved in the very beginning, when a father and mother come together in one flesh, and one single sperm cell unites with a single ovum – a new spark of life comes into existence.

The father’s sperm (seed in biblical language), imparts life – physical human life – to the mother’s ovum.  It is a continuing – ongoing life – a human being is created – though not yet born.

God gives parents that part, that responsibility, that privilege and that blessing of being a part of the creation process.<

God has endowed us with the power to replicate ourselves, and to be able to reproduce ourselves.  If that process is ever aborted, anywhere along the way, the very plan of God is interrupted, because God has made us a part of this ongoing plan.  From the beginning of the spark of human life all the way up to eternal life.<

For the first four months of life a baby is referred to as an embryo.  The last five months we refer to it as a fetus.  Those are technical terms and that has nothing to do with whether God says that you can bring about a cessation of life or not.  Brethren, the physical spark of life that begins at conception, is only one step in God’s process of creating many eternal spiritual sons and daughters.

A human being has to be BEGOTTEN by his human father.  To be born again of the Spirit – of God – one must first be BEGOTTEN by our Spiritual Father – Almighty God.  Here we are seeing type and antitype.  This is not a metaphor, but it is a parallel where the exact process that is going on in human kind, on the physical level, also goes on in the spiritual level.

Just as a physical life is begotten and that child grows protected in the womb until he is born into this world, in the same way a new spark of spiritual life has to begin to grow in us at some point.  It takes place at baptism, and the laying on of hands, and then we have to grow protected and nourished among one another – among church brethren. 

The verse that says that we are to assemble together is not talking about just getting together for two hours on Saturday.  That word means that we get together with brethren, and we are spiritually fed by one another.  We are encouraged by one another, we learn from one another, and we are sustained by one another.  There is a word in the Hebrew language, ‘synagogue’ and it is almost the same word that we have in the English language, church.  But God’s people understand that the church is not an organization, it is not a building, but it is an assembly of people.  It does not refer to a day of the week, or a corner on the block, it is an assembly of God’s people.  The word synagogue means the exact same thing.  It does not mean the building with the Star of David on top of it, but it means an assembly of people coming together.  It does not have anything to do with just on the Sabbath for a couple of hours, but it means a coming together.  Paul spoke the words that we have in Hebrews:

Hebrews 10:25  …not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

That word ‘assembling’ does not refer to Sabbath services.  People assume that it does because they make the same mistake about saying, “Which ‘church’ do you belong to?”  That is the way the world thinks.  They make the same mistake with the word synagogue.  They think of the building and the organization rather than the assembly of people.  Do not forsake the “epi” which means higher than, greater over and assembling.

Brethren we come together.  The Church is where we grow.  It is the assembling of the brethren, and we feed on each other, and we need each other.  That is where God places those who are led by His Spirit.  They are not be aborted either.  A human has to be begotten by his human father before he can be born into this world as a new infant baby.  In the exact same way -- To be born again into the spirit realm of the Family of God at the resurrection of the saints – one must first be BEGOTTEN by our Spiritual Father – Almighty God.  There is an exact picture and an exact type there.

We brethren, are already, though yet unborn into God’s spiritual realm, the BEGOTTEN children of God.  Just as a baby in the womb.  In the same way, we are still in the womb – developing to be born.  We are not yet fully born spiritually children of God.  This will take place in the resurrection.

1 John 3:2  Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.

It is just like a mother says that she has a baby ‘on the way.’  We are now the children of God.

By direct comparison the impregnated embryo or fetus in a mother’s womb is already the child of its parents, though it is not yet born.  That is why abortion is murder.  God hates abortion.

Abortion is the killing of a human being.  It is an interruption in the process of man coming to total fruition, and becoming in the image of God at the final resurrection. 

Abortion on this planet is not going to go away.  It has been here for thousands of years, and it is going to be here right up until the very return of Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 16:20  Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto Me [These children are mine says God!], and these have you sacrificed unto them to be devoured. [their lives were aborted] Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter?

God says, no, this is a ‘big thing.’  It is the same with abortion today.

Ezekiel 16:21, 36  That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them? Thus saith the Lord GOD; because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them.

This is why God hates abortion.

God warns us to beware [not only physical abortion – killing babies] but He warns us to be careful to avoid spiritual abortion, because that, too, is a possibility.

Spiritual abortion takes place when a converted, begotten of God, child of God has his spiritual growth and life terminated.  This is spiritual death.

Jesus Christ gave this parable, and it can be explained partly in calling and not hearing God’s calling, but it can also show that once we are called, and we become the children of God, that it is possible to be spiritually aborted.

Mark 4:1  And He began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto Him a great multitude, so that He entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. [Sound travels well across water.]

Mark 4:2-3  And He taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in His doctrine, Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

Jesus is going to give this picture of a man with a bag full of seed, and he is going to go out and he is going to sling [broadcast] the seed and to sow it.

Mark 4:4-9  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some [seed] fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.  And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.  And He said unto them, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Jesus Christ realized that not everybody was going to understand what He is saying here.  That sounded like a simple thing, and people said that they knew that if you threw seed in the road that the birds are going to eat it.  But Jesus Christ was pointing to a Spiritual principle.

Mark 4:10-11  And when he was alone, they that were about Him with the twelve asked of Him the parable.  And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

Jesus is sharing with the disciples something that only the converted mind could grasp, that only the diligent student of the scriptures can understand.

Mark 4:12  That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

It was not time for those people to be called.  Some people think that God is trying to call everybody and save everybody.  No, He is not. God is working with a few, those that are predestinated for this time, those that God has special purposes for at this time.

Mark 4:13  And He said unto them, Know ye not this parable? And how then will ye know all parables? 

Christ said, “If you don’t understand this parable, then you are missing the boat on everything that I am saying.

Mark 4:14  The sower soweth the word.

The Word of God, the Truth of God.  It is about the Kingdom of God.

Mark 4:15  And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

So, the gospel goes out and somebody hears the truth, they see the principles, and they say, “This is great.  I like the Sabbath, I like the Feast, and I like the Commandments of God.”  But Satan comes immediately, and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.  It can be because they are hurt, because they are challenged, because they hear something that they don’t like, because they are offended, or because it is too hard.

Mark 4:16  And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness.

It sprang up a little bit before it dried up.

Mark 4:17  And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

They come along for a little while, and then they are gone.

Mark 4:18-19  And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,  And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

They are busy raising their kids – partying – seeing the world – but God’s Truth is not precious to them.  God’s truth and His beauty and what God is teaching does not work in their lives.

Mark 4:20  And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

God expects change.  God has predestined, and He has worked with us from the moment of conception and before.  All through the gestation period of the nine months in the womb, God is making sure that we are growing and developing.  Spiritually, in the same way, God works with us all throughout our converted lives.  Who we see, who we hear, where we go and what we learn.

Paul understood that it was possible for spiritual abortion to take place.

The process for human birth began when the father’s and the mother’s eyes met, and when they became one flesh.  Then a spark of life was generated, and that life was on its way to becoming an eternal son of God in the Kingdom of God for all eternity.  But that period, that life, could be cut short at any time.  If it happens when someone has received God’s Holy Spirit, and when they are led of God’s Holy Spirit, it is spiritual abortion.

Hebrews 6:4-6  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,  If they shall fall away, to renew them again [impossible] unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

It is just like once a little child in its mother’s womb is aborted.  That child is not going to live his physical life.  A little child that never learned their ABC’s, never grew up, never learned skills, never married and never reproduced.

When converted Christians fall away after receiving God’s spiritual spark of life, they are spiritually aborted.  Sure they will go about their physical lives, but eternal life is forever cut off from them.  There is nothing that remains for them except the Third Resurrection, that is the second death – eternal death.

Hebrews 6:7-8  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. 

Brethren, that is where the weeping and gnashing of teeth comes about.

Hebrews 6:9  But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things [do not be spiritually aborted – with your spiritual life cut short] of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.

Physical abortion is horrible, but spiritual abortion is eternal death.

Conception, life in the human womb, and birth into this world is a beautiful expression of God's consistency in His pattern of creation, and it is nothing less than an exact picture of the spiritual process of entering into His Life.

Our incredible potential is to be able to enter into the Family of God.

Human reproduction is the exact type of God’s spiritual reproduction.  God is reproducing Himself through humans. The world does not know that.  We start from that little spark of life, when we were nothing but a gleam in our father’s eye and life in our mother’s belly.

Jesus then is our elder brother, and He went through this process before us, having fit perfectly into the type by His physical birth, all the way through to His resurrection.  He has already gone through the entire process.

John 17:5  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

With Jesus it was different.  He was already glorified then, He came down to the earth.  Jesus Christ did not take a shortcut, and He went through the same process that we do.  He was tempted exactly as we are.

When did Jesus, the God of the Old Testament, become flesh?  Was it at conception, or was it at birth?  People think that at Christmas they are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and they hardly think of Jesus, let alone this beautiful spiritual plan of eternal life that we are looking at.  Did Jesus become God in the flesh at some point between conception and birth?  We know the answer to that.

Matthew 1:18  Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused [legally binding, contractual - engaged] to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible is very specific and clear, and this is beautiful language.  They had not slept together, and they were not man and wife together.

Matthew 1:19  Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately.

Joseph would not say, “My wife has committed fornication.”

Matthew 1:20  But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife.

This took the intervention of God, because Joseph knew very well exactly how conception works, that a man and a woman come together and a new life is formed.

Matthew 1:20b  …for that which is conceived in her is of Holy Spirit.

God the Father is the daddy of Jesus Christ, not Joseph.

Matthew 1:21-22  And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS [means “Savior”]: for He shall save His people from their sins.  Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son.

This has never happened before, and it is not going to happen again.  Where did the spark of life come from?  Where did the seed of life come from?

Matthew 1:22b  …and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

John 1:11  He came unto His own, and His own received him not.

Jesus was born a little baby of the Jewish tribe, but the Jews did not receive Him.<

God was working out His plan, with human reproduction being the exact parallel of God’s spiritual plan of reproduction.

John 1:12  But as many [brethren] as received Him, to them gave He power [right or privilege] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.

Women do not have the “right” or the “privilege” to abort their child – no one does.

John 1:13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of [the will of] God.

We see God’s direct intervention in our calling, and in giving us of His Holy Spirit.  Brethren, read that carefully – we have the privilege of becoming Sons of God – because it is God’s Will.

John 1:14  And the Word was made flesh [Jesus became a baby], and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

Brethren, we have this glory too.  What is this glory?

John 1:14b  …the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, the full of grace and truth.

At that time Jesus was the only begotten.  But today, we who are baptized, and have had the laying on of hands, and received God’s Holy Spirit, we too are begotten by God.

Let us expound on how we too have been begotten.  What does that mean?  It is incredible if we understand, and if we believe.  God’s Holy Spirit carries with it God’s divine nature – when we are converted we receive that new Life – God’s divine nature.  That is what Jesus had, not just the human nature; He was God with us [Emmanuel], God was in Him, from infancy.  So Jesus was God in the flesh from conception, when the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary.

II Peter 1:3a  According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and Godliness.

This is what we are talking about, physical life first and spiritual life second.

II Peter 1:3b  …through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue.

At His resurrection, Christ was returned to His former glory.  We are called to glory and virtue.

II Peter 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises…

That passes on to us brethren.  This is in the flesh, in the human flesh.

II Peter 1:4b  …that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Now we are not just talking about the human nature that we got from our parents, but God’s divine nature.

When we became children of God we began to carry God’s divine nature, and we were a new creation as Jesus did all of His natural life.

We have Christ in us. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

John 14:23  “…God the Father and Jesus will come unto us, and make Their abode with us.

How can we tell if God lives in us?  John addresses this point.

1 John 3:24  “Hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us.

When we become converted children of God, with God’s Holy Spirit, we begin to carry God’s divine nature.

Briefly, let us look at a short list of scriptures that show conclusively that we are sealed by God’s Holy Spirit until redemption, and that is when we will be fully born into the family of God.  But right now we are sealed.

II Corinthians 1:22  Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

We are still flesh and blood, but we have a token of God’s Holy Spirit.  It is just like a baby in the womb that cannot walk, talk or read, but they are on their way to being human.  We are on our way to being eternally spiritual.  We are not there yet.

Ephesians 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.

We are going to look at a number of Scriptures brethren, where it shows that we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise:

Ephesians 1:14  Which is the earnest [like a deed or down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.

You can see how emphatic the scriptures are, saying this over and over about the divine nature being in us even now.

Ephesians 4:30  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

II Corinthians 5:5  Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of His Spirit.

God was working in us from the very beginning.  That was the spark of life, the beginning of God’s Spirit in us.

And then Paul, looking forward to the resurrection, said:

II Corinthians 5:6  Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body [like a baby in the womb – not yet born], we are absent from the Lord:

We are not yet born into the eternal Family of God.

Romans 8:21  Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Not just our body, but the entire creation.

Romans 8:22-23  For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit.

Now there is a different phraseology, instead of “sealed with the spirit,” it says “the firstfruits of the Spirit.”

Romans 8:23b  …even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Just like a baby has to go through the birth canal, we must spiritually go into the eternal Kingdom and family of God.  That takes place at the First Resurrection.

Just as Jesus was God from conception, a human being begins life at conception.  It is the “miracle of life.”

God’s law is clear about unborn children having their right to life.  God's will is to protect pre-born children.

Psalms 127:3  "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward."

We have seen today the entire plan of God, and how God has laid it out.  He shows us so clearly the physical plan.  It is not to be aborted, and it is not be interrupted, so that a child can come into the world and grow physically to maturity. 

In exactly the same way God the Father gives us His life, we become children of the Father, and we take on the Father’s name.  We received our physical father’s last name when we were born, and we take on God the Father’s name at our baptism and spiritual conversion, to become the children of God.  But just as the baby grows in the womb, the spiritual infant (that is us) grows to spiritual maturity in this body of church brethren.  God’s Spirit unites with our human spirit until we grow to spiritual maturity.  Then, at the coming of Jesus Christ, we will be born into the family of God.

WZ/pp/sl

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Sermon:

"A Picture of Life"