Every day in America, the strong murder the weak, and it's legal. It's legal for the strong to murder the weak in America because Americans have grabbed for a godlike power to determine what is real and what is not real, who is human and who is subhuman. This is a profoundly important point made by Pastor John in his latest Sanctity of Human Life Sunday sermon and in a clip recently sent to us by a listener to this podcast.

Here's Pastor John to explain. Abortions come from self-deification. Deification, what in the world is that? To deify something is to treat it as God. Deification is to act as though you're God. I can hear someone say, "Oh, here it comes, some over-the-top, overstated, fevered, rhetorical, sermonic flourish about our becoming gods." If we're pro-choice, you listen and judge if it's fevered.

In 1992, in the case of Planned Parenthood versus Casey, the Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke a sentence, one of the most important sentences uttered in the last 50 years, for echoing and shaping our culture. He said, "At the heart of liberty, is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning of the universe and of the mystery of human life." That's breathtaking.

Here's one of the outworkings of that self-deifying worldview. Minnesota, along with 37 other states, have fetal homicide laws. You know what that is? Laws about how you can treat a baby in the womb. You can read these just like I did. Just go to Google and type in Minnesota Statutes 609-2661 following.

These statutes distinguish first degree murder, second degree murder, third degree murder, manslaughter, and assault, all of them relating to the unborn. For example, Statute 609.2661 says, "Whoever does any of the following is guilty of murder of an unborn child in the first degree and must be sentenced to imprisonment for life." One, "Causes the death of an unborn child with premeditation and with intent to affect the death of the unborn child or of another." To which you all respond, "That's the definition of abortion." "Causes the death of an unborn child with premeditation and with the intent to affect the death of the unborn child." So why doesn't that rule out abortion?

It's there in the law. Simple. 609.2661 gives some definitions. A, "Unborn child means the unborn offspring of a human being conceived but not yet born." Amen. That's good. B, "Whoever," I can define whoever, "Whoever does not include the pregnant woman." So in the sentence, "Whoever causes the death of an unborn child with premeditation doesn't include the mom." And then goes right to the chase in 609.269, "All these sections protecting the unborn child do not apply," quote, "to any act described in section 145.412, which is all about abortion." Oh, okay, so abortion is just an exception.

Here's the implication. It is illegal, Minnesota and lots of states, to take the life of an unborn child if the mother wants the baby. And it's legal to take the life of an unborn child if she doesn't. In the first case, the law treats the fetus as a human with rights.

In the second case, the law treats the fetus as a non-human with no rights. Humanness, humanness, the existence of a human being is decreed by the will of the mother. The baby is young and weak. It can't cry out, "I'm a human!" Therefore, the will of the older, the stronger, holds sway.

And by her will, she may confer upon the human, "You're a human!" or not. If she does confer humanness on this thing, no one may kill this baby. And if she does not confer humanness on this baby, it may be legally, with impunity, killed. That is legally enshrined self-deification.

The strong decide which of the weak are persons. We reject that in the case of Nazi anti-Semitism. We reject that in the case of Confederate race-based slavery. We reject that in the case of Soviet gulag. But in the case of the unborn, millions of people, millions in the church, which is what I care about most, embrace the self-deifying principle the human will of the strong confers personhood.

If she wants the baby, it's a baby. If she doesn't, it's not. She's God. Now, according to God's Word, the baby inside and outside the womb gets its personhood from God. This is Psalm 139. "You formed my inward parts, you, God, you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you for you are fearfully and wonderfully made. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in the secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them." God's divine person forming work in the womb is not to be preempted by any self-deifying human being.

So I say again abortion is caused significantly by human self-deification. Sobering. That's from John Piper's Sanctity of Human Life Sunday sermons titled "Doing the right thing never ruins your life." A belief that prevents abortion. Preached on January 28th, 2021. The entire sermon, of course, is online right now at DesiringGod.org.

This clip was submitted to us by Lauren in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you, Lauren, for sending us this potent clip. Powerful. A lot to think about. If you have a sermon clip, send it in to us. Tell us what bits of Piper's sermons have caught your attention and we share that clip with the APJ audience.

If you've got one, email me. Give me your name, your hometown, the sermon title, the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio and tell me how it impacted you. Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to me at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. That's an email address.

AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. Well, can an older man marry a younger woman? Specifically, can a 48 year old man marry a 24 year old woman? Both are Christians. What would you say? We are going to hear from Pastor John because it's a question with a lot to think about. And we will when we field this dilemma from a podcast listener next time.

I'm your host Tony Ranke and we are rejoined in studio with Pastor John on Friday. We'll see you then.