Why Must It Be The Church?

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Well thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today. My name is Luke Pearson.

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I'm the discipleship pastor at Apology of Church and I'm here with Obviously in Abortion Now. Thank you

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Paul and Cookstown and Let Them Live for hosting us here. We're incredibly grateful for this opportunity to be here.

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This is now my third trip here to Ireland so I think I understand your language enough to not say anything too embarrassing.

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So I'm grateful again for the opportunity. I want to say before I get started that we really honestly don't feel worthy even to be here.

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We're inspired by your faithfulness to God's word. It's apparent here in the

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RP church and we're just blessed to be here. We're encouraged by the roots you guys have in John Knox who was one of our spiritual heroes of the faith and so again we're just honored.

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One thing I want to mention that we're grateful for for John Knox was just his ability to influence even the the civil government if you will and we know of the stories of him being able to influence

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Queen Mary. His ability to speak the truth into the magistrate and obviously we know of his how he overthrew

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Catholicism and ultimately replaced it with Presbyterianism. There's a quote from him I really

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I really enjoy and he said resistance to tyranny is obedience to God and that's now what you face here in Northern Ireland is tyranny being forced upon you and it's it's going to be up to the church to resist that and as Knox said it will be obedience to God.

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So what I want to speak specifically about tonight the title of this message is Why the Church? So now that abortion is being unjustly forced upon you in the form of legislated murder of your pre -born neighbors

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I want to show you why abortion can only be ended by the gospel through the proclamation of the church.

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The pro -life movement attempt to end abortion in my nation through neutral scientific means has failed miserably to the count of nearly 62 million dead babies and my hope today is to show you why this same methodology that has also influenced your nation already has ultimately failed and what must be done to fight it.

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Before going any further I have a quote from our good friend Joe Boot he's from Canada but he's actually from from England originally but it's in Canada now but speaking on the hopelessness of the culture he said this

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Proverbs 8 36 is plain concerning the ultimate outcome of rejection of God's wisdom all who sin against me wrong their own souls all those who hate me love death without the sovereign

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God in their world and outside of the covenant men desperately plan their utopias dream of creating cybernetic life and downloading their consciousness into a machine to escape death and wonder how man will avoid the consequences of the evil in his own heart our culture and its restlessness and hopelessness is developing a love affair with death hence the current obsession with promoting population control abortion homosexuality euthanasia and physician assisted suicide simply put our current cultures in my nation and here hate

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God and love death before I get any further please bow your heads with me as I pray

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Lord I'm so thankful again for this opportunity to stand right here today Lord and to bring this message to my brothers and sisters here in Northern Ireland Ireland Lord I'm so humbled and thankful for this opportunity to ask that you would speak through me

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Lord they would use this message and Pastor Zach's and Pastor Jeff's messages

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Lord to inspire and encourage and aid our brothers and sisters here in the fight to end abortion and we ask that you would be glorified and in Christ's name we pray amen so why end abortion now why us why the

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Americans what are we doing differently than the major pro -life groups in my nation again and who's influencing here so again the numbers and just my nation alone is 62 million dead babies that's over over about 46 years that's a roughly 3 000 babies per day praise

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God that number has slowed down recently to around 2 000 per day but 2 000 lives per day compared to 3 000 lives per day really isn't a victory is it the major pro -life groups want you to think it is but in reality it is not

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I'm I'm obviously thankful for the 1 000 lives that are that are being spared each day but that's not what

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I call winning have small battles been won yes absolutely but it's not a victory until legalized murder of our pre -born neighbors is outlawed once again to give you something to compare these numbers to conservative numbers of total deaths from world war ii are 50 to 80 million depending on how one counts the deaths conservative numbers of murders from Hitler Stalin and Pol Pot combined is a measly 22 million conservatively 1800 deaths at the hands of the

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IRA brothers and sisters the murderous abomination created by Margaret Sanger is responsible for three times that and counting in my nation alone if we were to stack these dead babies up one precious little body at a time it would create a burial mound nearly six miles tall this is my culture's tower of babel built to bring them closer to the vile god that they worship may it serve as a beacon to encourage you to engage in this fight and to prevent your nation from having this same monument all that to say please please know that we're not here as haughty know -it -alls but as repentance centers and sackcloth and ashes not look at us in a good way but look at us in look at what we have repented of we now know what works and what does not work we know what has failed resulting in this modern holocaust and by god's grace we also know what is necessary now to win this war and my hope and my prayer is that our admonition rings true with you and if you are not already that you will partner with our dear friends from let them live they are beginning to employ the effective methods that the pro -life movement and my nation has failed to use and ultimately we hope and pray that you will be able to once again end abortion in your nation and prevent your own national holocaust before it even begins so how has the church failed simple answer the church and our and both of our nations have failed miserably to assert the authority of christ in all things for various reasons which i won't get into today the church militant or true believers presently alive and forming the universal bride of christ ultimately has abandoned the culture unlike our forefathers unlike john knox the church has stopped speaking truth into the culture it has stopped holding magistrates to biblical standards it has left the culture to its own devices the church as a whole in both of our cultures has developed a retreatist mentality so rather than exhibiting biblical influence we duck and cover i'm a fourth generation of faithful ministers of the gospel and each generation has affected cultures and other nations other than my own nation of the u .s

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but they're all part of generations that has let their own culture go so they went to different nations preach the gospel did amazing things but let their own culture go we've given up on the culture we've retreated to our ecclesiastical bunkers and into our christian ghettos this has resulted in two major outlooks one those waiting for the rapture and two those waiting on god to fix things the former is cowardly the latter is lazy and neither take godly responsibility scripture clearly teaches that christ jesus our lord and king is now ruling and we have failed and we have failed to assert his crown rights over all things that's why i love this little banner right underneath me christ owns all things and we've failed to rightly acknowledge this especially over the issue of abortion francis schaefer once said every abortion clinic should have a sign in front of it saying open by the permission of the church every single abortion mill exists because the church has allowed it to every one of our pre -born neighbors that's innocently murdered in the womb has been needlessly slaughtered because christ's bride has allowed it our nation's once covenanted with god and are absolutely accountable for the demise of our cultures proverbs 29 18 says where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint but blessed is he who keeps the law simply put there has been no prophetic vision and the people have therefore cast off restraint so what devices and have we left our cultures to idolatry is the answer by failing to call our cultures to rightful worship of their creator we have allowed them to create their own idols to worship and done so uninhibited i truly believe that we become what we worship and culture is nothing more than worship externalized and this has led to the formation then of two main idols the first one is death the second one is comfort as i mentioned in the quote earlier from joe boot our cultures have love affairs with death one of our other apology of church dr james white always says we live in a culture of death simply put our cultures worship death so if we become what we worship and our cultures worship death what do our cultures naturally make and the answer is murderers two of the biggest moral topics in our nations are abortion and euthanasia what they want is to legalize murder our cultures without restrictions are willing to sacrifice anything for the second idol i mentioned which again is comfort ultimately our cultures worship the god of comfort what are common reasons they want safe and legal abortions we hear these all the time you guys here in northern ireland will now start to hear these as well physical and emotional pain rape sickness disease money careers education sexual freedom without consequences they all boil down to comfort the result is that our cultures will readily and willingly murder their own children without remorse all for the sake of comfort they know it's a pre -born human they know it's a life they also know that it's murder they say this to us all the time they just want the right to murder their children because their comfort is much more valuable to them we become what we worship they worship comfort therefore their comfort is of far greater worth than their own offspring the church in my culture has failed to say this for the last 46 plus years we've failed to call abortion murder and this brings me to my next point the pro -life rhetoric the terminology and the rhetoric being used by the pro -life industry for nearly 50 years has utterly failed miserably again to the tune of 62 million dead babies and counting overall the pro -life industry has failed to call abortion murder they failed to call it what it is they've failed to use god's law as its standard and they failed to put legislation in place that agrees the pro -life industry has been trying all this time to scientifically convince pro -choicers that our pre -born neighbors are fully human in the womb in 1973 this was the time of roe v wade we could not quite yet scientifically show that babies are fully human from conception but since then science has overwhelmingly has shown that babies are beyond a shadow of a doubt fully human from the moment of conception there is no doubt whatsoever that a fetus in the womb of its mother is a human life the pro -life movement continues to put forth this argument as the primary reason to make abortion illegal the problem however is that abortion supporters know this they know it's a human life they've repeatedly admitted as much but they simply do not care they want the right to murder their children because comfort trumps the lives of their offspring we have footage of people saying this time and time again do you know what they say to us when we're there at the mill and we're offering to adopt their children we plead with them not to murder their children they say i could never let somebody else have my child so they'd rather murder it brace yourselves brothers and scissors as this is something you will hear once again we become what we worship even though pro -choicers willingly call it murder the pro -life industry as a whole still refuses to call it murder or at the very least calling the mother the one who has hired an assassin to murder her child a murderer they still stick to failing rhetoric who in here saw our new film excuse me film babies are still murdered here baby babies are murdered here too a few of you okay great so some of this will be familiar to you um so we just put this out in october it's our second second film on this topic um so there's some quotes here i want to share with you guys olivia gans turner who is the president of of the virginia society of human life and director of american victims of abortion for the national right to life who is the is the national right to life is the biggest pro -life group in our nation and they're the ones that are most heavily affecting northern ireland so our our director marcus asked this question so you think women are not necessarily murderers but more victims in this process her reply was no one in the pro -life movement no legitimate fully recognized and organized pro -life organization pro -life person that i know or a right thinking pro -life person has ever intimidated me with the thought of women having abortions as murderers and then also carol tobias who's the president of the national right to life so she is the top person in the pro -life movement in our nation she said the pro -life movement has a lot of women who are active in it who have had abortions and they very much argue that the mother who got the abortion is also a victim so why is this why does this movement hold on to this language that has been anything but successful we believe this to be true for one reason and that is the roman catholic church yes the same church that teaches the false works based salvation the same church that knox fought so hard against a church that we are all very familiar with this is the same church that two years ago offered plenary indulgences for attending the 2018 march for life in washington dc if you don't know what plenary indulgences are they free a person from all temporal punishment due to sin in other words if a catholic properly received the plenary indulgence at the 2018 march for life and then immediately died he would go straight to heaven rather than spend some time in purgatory this is the same church that is behind the biggest pro -life groups in my nation again those are 40 days for life the national right to life and then there were none so why won't roman catholics call abortion murder simple answer their theology won't allow it they may individually call it murder but never corporately as a whole they may even without hesitation call the abortion doctor a murderer but they absolutely will not refer to the mother as anything but a victim their theology will not allow them to see the abortive mother as god sees them a murderer let me explain what i mean there are two types of sin in roman catholic theology there's mortal and venial so a definition here from catholiccatechism .com

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says we call the most serious and grave sins mortal sins mortal sins destroy the grace of god in the heart of the sinner by their very grave nature a mortal sin cuts our relationship off from god and turns man away from his creator the second type of sin venial sin that of less grave matter does not cut us off from christ however venial sin does weaken grace in the soul and damages our relationship with god a person who frequently indulges in venial sin is very likely to collapse into mortal sin if they persist in their evil ways so here's here's the point mortal sins must meet three conditions one it's a sin of grave of a grave matter two it's a sin committed with full knowledge of the center and three it is a sin committed with deliberate consent of the sinner in other words mortal sins cannot be done on accident again from catholic catechism it says a person who commits a mortal sin is one who knows that their sin is wrong but still deliberately commits the sin anyway this means that mortal sins are premeditated by the sinner and thus are truly a rejection of god's law and love but doesn't this sound exactly like the mother having an abortion isn't she deliberately with full knowledge committing a premeditated murder surely this is no accident right we would say yes absolutely the roman catholic however would say no they would still say that the mother is a victim that she didn't have full knowledge of what she was doing or was at the very least coerced this is very confusing especially considering that the first mortal sin listed is abortion and they define it as direct abortion which is willed as an end or as a means is gravely contrary to the moral law the church imposes the canonical penalty of excommunication for this crime against human life and their brothers and sisters lies the answer as to why roman catholics refuse to flat out and straight away call abortion murder and is also why they only refer to the mother as a victim if they were to do so they would have to excommunicate a lot of men and women from the roman catholic church so at this point it strictly becomes a numbers game and this is also the driving force behind the failing pro -life rhetoric bad unbiblical roman catholic theology it's ultimately is the underlying presupposition that has caused the pro -life industry to fail so miserably again resulting in 62 million dead babies in my nation alone and counting how many of you in here saw the movie unplanned it's okay if you did you can raise your hand you're not in trouble okay i'll to be honest i was genuinely grieved to see how many faithful brothers and sisters promoted this film many unknowing unknowingly uh not knowing why it was not a good film to promote but um please please hear me on this abby johnson she's the founder of and there were none was the main person of the movie along with what she promotes is the problem and not the solution the methodology she is advocating for is grounded in a faulty worldview one that cannot save and ultimately will not defeat anything at all you may be thinking that i'm crazy that's fair enough but please listen as i'm going to try to show you what i mean at one life la this is a conference early in 2019 she was promoting this film and speaking of abortion she said this battle will be won because of truth this battle will be won and it will be won because of jesus christ at this point i i agreed with her i was like amen abby this is this is great to hear but then she went on to say faith in science proves our point and shows that we are on the winning side faith in what there it is again brothers and sisters it's not faith in christ or the gospel but faith in science and continuing she said we are fighting against ignorance friends willful ignorance and here again is the victim argument i discussed this earlier how the majority of the time these mothers know precisely what they are doing this is not willful ignorance but willful murder of their own children she then went on to say in john 832 it says and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free excellent i thought okay maybe she's going to straighten out what she's saying but the question of course is what is the truth what was christ talking about what was he referring to when he said the truth will set you free her answer she said on march 29th the truth about abortion is coming to theaters across the country in my upcoming film unplanned that was her truth that will set you free it was her film the truth about abortion is not at all what sets us free the truth christ was referring to was the knowledge of who he is to make it even worse she continues later in the speech to clarify what her goal truly is she said we want to show people that social justice begins in the and that we will not stop until the most marginalized group of people in our society the unborn are protected not just by law because our goal cannot simply be just to make abortion illegal again i agreed but she said our goal must be to make abortion unthinkable wrong again abby please hear me brothers and sisters our goal cannot simply be to make abortion unthinkable it must be to preach the gospel to lead lost souls to christ and to expand christ's kingdom abortion is only unthinkable if you're regenerate the abolition of abortion can only occur through the proclamation of the gospel now to really drive this point home i want to look at something else that abby said this was at the 14th annual divine mercy conference in april of 2019 again this is a roman catholic conference a clip of this was actually in babies and murder here too you may have seen it she said we can't talk about abortion in our churches unless we're also willing to talk about redemption and healing after abortion again she always starts off well i'm like yeah that's good abby let's let's explore this further the question however is how does she define redemption so in response she was talking about a sign she saw that listed a bunch of societal ailments on it she said i have the answer for everything that ails you on your list it's the catholic church we have the answer we have the truth and later on after discussing ice cream sounds silly but this is what she was doing she said we have something better than any type of ice cream and that's the real presence of jesus christ but we but exactly but we don't want to talk about it we want to keep it to ourselves we don't want to defend the roman catholic church we don't want to defend our beliefs why because we're afraid we might offend somebody people who are against the church they have no qualms about offending you in fact they revel in your offense friends as catholics and those who hold the fullness of truth it is time for us to be bold in our faith unlike ever before we have the truth we should want everyone around us to experience that great joy of the truth and so there you have it this is actually absolutely not the truth and fundamentally not only is it not the gospel but is damnable heresy amen and it is what's influencing the major pro -life groups in our nations and this brings me to my next point then what is our presupposition why the church why can abortion only end and only be stopped by the church first it starts with our presuppositions only we the church militant presuppose god's word is truth that it is the only infallible rule of faith and practice that only by it do we have any justification for morality whatsoever only by standing on scripture can we call abortion murder only we know there is no neutrality that you're either for or against christ atheists have no justification and neither does the roman catholic church their ultimate authority is not the word of god but the pope or the church itself and neither do they have a true gospel there's another quote i want to share with you from our friend dr george grant he was this is also in babies and murdered here too he said one of the things about the catholic church is that it operates largely by tradition rather than by theology and so you can create a culture that cherishes life large families all of that without really having a strong foundation for that theologically so that a skeptical generation can come along and wash away centuries of tradition in a moment so i think that roman catholics are very good at creating this culture but they're very very poor in establishing that culture on a firm foundation because they do not have the theology for it and as a result they can have short bursts of public policy victories but they're not sustainable what makes the victory sustainable inevitably will be the transformation of people's hearts by the power of the gospel that's what changes cultures what we need is reformation so ultimately attempting to operate from a neutral position leaves the pro -life movement with no ultimate authority either i have another quote here again from carol tobias she said the national right to life does not consider itself to be any kind of religious or faith -based faith -based organization but we realize we are fighting in a secular world that doesn't care you know a lot of people don't read the bible they don't know that god created human life that he is the creator of life so we try to work on a scientific basis a human rights basis certainly faith comes into a lot of what we do but that's not necessarily the basis for our arguments so the basis of their arguments however is science and subjective human rights they provide no objective standard of morality and therefore build their foundation on sinking sand that ebbs and flows with societal convention and this brings me to the next reason as to why this fight to end abortion must be led by the church ultimately abortion can only be ended by the gospel the shedding of innocent blood can only be stopped by the shedding of christ's innocent blood only after the hearts of men have been changed our cultures know that in order for redemption to occur innocent blood must be shed the problem is that they're seeking redemption from pain in the god of comfort and they've rejected the only sacrifice of innocent blood that can truly redeem them even righteous laws are ultimately nothing more than societal band -aids they do not heal the hearts of men until men's hearts are regenerated until their hearts of stone are replaced with hearts of flesh they will still desire sin and they will still desire death simply put they need the gospel these righteous laws and proclamations are nothing more than temporary solutions that appease cultural demands please don't misunderstand me i praise god for those that have been enacted that do save some lives but they need to be protected and fought for but as part of the fight the gospel must be proclaimed without it these laws and proclamations are ultimately meaningless laws are nothing more than legislated morality so naturally the question becomes whose morality are we going to legislate if we're going to attempt to establish neutral laws separate from god's objective morality absent from god's good news of redemptive grace that we are simply bailing water from a sinking ship one bucket at a time each bucket of water we bail may buy us some time it may save some lives but without the hope of a rescuer there's nothing more than false hope they're not victories but lies and it's time to abandon this titanic of a sinking ship and both of our nations it appears to have been well designed but in reality has a fatal flaw the gospel must be the driving force that propels the righteous arc of redemption and gospel change must happen one person at a time it starts at the bottom and works its way up the more christ kingdom grows the more men will love christ and the more that men love christ the more men will love their neighbor and including their pre -born neighbor this can only occur with the proclamation of the gospel and the proclamation of the gospel can only come from the living universal church of christ the church militant the living active fighting bride of christ naturally a bride will want to please her husband but what does the church's husband want what pleases him there's two things i want to discuss the first one is to love god and love others the second is the great commission so back to the first point love god and love others and this therefore fulfills the two greatest commandments right matthew 22 36 through 40 teacher which is the greatest commandment in the law and he said to him you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind this is the great and first commandment and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depends all the law and the prophets so loving god and loving your neighbor will naturally lead to the second one which is the great commission this of course is the last thing jesus said to the disciples in matthew before leaving them in matthew 28 18 through 20 he said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you and behold i am with you always to the end of the age so obviously christ desires his bride to go into all the world preaching the gospel and making disciples however there are two statements in the great commission that are commonly overlooked this will be my focus for the next two points the first one all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me and the second one teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you so by what authority again this is matthew 20 18 all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me now go jesus has been given all authority abraham kuyper said there is not a square inch and the whole domain of our human existence over which christ who is sovereign over all does not cry mine through the great commission he transferred authority to his bride to go make and teach in his name with his authority this is what i believe to be the missing element that i mentioned earlier in our cultures the church has failed to assert this authority of christ over all things christ has commanded us to assert his authority and as a whole we have failed to do so we've become fearful timid and lazy we say with our lips that christ is king that he is ruler of the universe but in no way do our actions show that we actually believe this in many ways we talk the talk but do not walk the walk quickly i want to look at collagens 1 15 through 20 it says he is the image of the invisible god the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together and he is the head of the body of the church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead and everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of god was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross so all things were created by christ and for his glory both in heaven and on earth this includes thrones dominions rulers and authorities they were created and exist and are upheld through him and for him i think the point that we so often miss is that christ is not just concerned with things in heaven he is also concerned with things here on earth we become so heaven -minded and rightly so that we become not so earthly minded what is it that christ is accomplishing this text says that he didn't come simply to make peace by the blood of his cross but also to reconcile to himself all things where on earth and in heaven so by asserting the authority of christ over all things through the gospel all things on earth can be reconciled to christ including abortion we must preach the gospel boldly with all authority the authority given to us by christ this includes the area of government and politics our laws and government exist because christ allows them to they're included under thrones dominions rulers and authorities romans 13 teaches us that there is no authority except from god and those that exist have been instituted by god so our governing authorities are literally god's deacons his servants his ministers they operate as god allows them to he has all authority and as his bride it's our duty to assert that authority we've become we've come to believe that the government is absolutely sovereign that they are god the government acts is as if they are our savior we've come to believe and allow this but ultimately the only sovereignty governments truly have comes from the truly sovereign god of the universe our nations have allowed our cultures to establish some forms of unrighteous tyranny quickly i want to look at an example in scripture of fighting tyranny with god's authority we are all familiar with david and goliath and first samuel chapter 17 but i think again that there's some things that we overlook some things that were said that are important but we tend to miss when we tell this story in our sunday school classrooms david first came to the israelite camp he saw goliath for the first time and goliath was breathing threats against the israelite army david's response in 1726 was this for who is this uncircumcised philistine that he should defy the armies of the living god notice david's immediate boldness and courage while the entire israeli army is hiding in utter fear david was not at all impressed by goliath so after declining saul's armor david collected the five smooth stones for a sling and approached goliath so this is 1743 through 44 goliath's reaction to david was this am i a dog that you come to me with sticks come to me and i will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field it says the goliath actually disdained david and cursed him by his gods so i loved in david's reply to goliath verses 45 to 47 he said you come to me with a sword and a spear and with a javelin but i come to you in the name of the lord of hosts the god of the armies of israel whom you have defied this day the lord will deliver you into my hand and i will strike you down and cut off your head and i will give you the dead bodies of the host of the philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a god in israel and that all this assembly may know that the lord saves not with sword and spear for the battle is the lord's and he will give you into our hand so the point i want us to get here is how often do we have this courage that david had how often do we face the enemy with that much confidence goliath is a perfect picture of the culture that we're facing the same spiteful god -hating attitude that we're up against when the big mean and haughty culture is bearing down when they say are we dogs that you come to us with a book our response should not be to duck and cover or to run and hide we should not retreat our response should be who are you uncircumcised culture that you should defy the armies of the living god when the culture spits hurls insults threatens us our response should not be to find the nearest bunker and wait it out our response should be to confront them in the name of the lord of hosts to let them know that they have defied the god of the armies of israel and for what purpose the text here says that all the earth may know that there is a god in israel and to declare that the lord saves not with sword and spear so who in this room today tonight who will be this generation's david who will admonish the church to take courage because the battle is the lord's who has enough fortitude to tell the culture he will give you into our hand the next point is called the imperial gospel and i realize that might sound strange if you haven't heard us talk about this but let me explain the gospel is imperialistic simply all that really means is that the gospel is designed in such a way as to eliminate all rivals as to dethrone all idols and as to defeat every area in which sin resides quick history lesson the writers of the new testament were not actually the first to use the euangelion the evangel the gospel literally the good news it was an imperialistic term already being used primarily for the emperor just like the gospel of the kingdom of christ it was literally the good news of the emperor or of the king so an example would be an emperor would return in victory from battle and he would send his good news bearers ahead of him to proclaim the good news of his victory our good friend andrew sandlin said this the emperor issued good news his gospel he himself embodied the good news he was deemed in some sense divine he healed he performed other miracles he was the world's savior he as a god protected the state great signs accompanied his birth and life his words became sacred writings he granted great power to humans under his care no wonder his life and actions and words are celebrated as gospel the emperor himself was good news so the early christians were not persecuted for their faith in christ the roman empire actually welcomed other religions they bragged about all the different religions that they had in their nation the christians were persecuted because they would not call caesar lord they would not declare kaiser curious but instead they said we have no king but christ there was a religious principle of the roman empire regarding caesar augustus and it went like this salvation is to be found in none other save augustus and there is no other name given to men in which they can be saved this should sound familiar to us as christians it sounds a lot like acts 4 12 which says and there is salvation and no one else for there was no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved this was a direct affront to the imperial worship of caesar peter understood exactly what he was saying he understood that the gospel is not simply a private matter it's not just in the privacy of your own heart or your own home but that it had political implications he was overturning caesar's authority christ is the true caesar of the universe he's the only good news the only way of salvation the world's only rightful ruler and i have nothing against the queen i think she's a very nice lady but unlike paper monarchs christ has a real and true authority he has all authority we should be preaching the gospel as if we believe this and if we do the gospel should directly affect politics and culture it should be confronting unrighteous rulers and unrighteous laws and unrighteous cultural desires and lifestyles if it is not then we're not doing it right i'm going to quote my friend andrew sandlin again this is this is very important he said it's imperative to understand that battling for religious liberty and protecting the family and championing biblical sexuality are not the results of faithful gospel ministry they aren't tasks in addition to the gospel they are a part an indispensable part of the gospel ministry every time we litigate to protect street preachers we're preaching the gospel every time we influence legislators to vote for marriage we're preaching the gospel every time we lead churches to speak biblical truth outside the walls of the church we're preaching the gospel every time we expose human trafficking we're preaching the gospel every time we work to limit abortion both by persuading a woman not to get one and influencing the government to limit and eventually abolish it we're preaching the gospel and this brings me to my last point then with this authority what specifically should we be teaching them to observe remember from the great commission christ said teach them all that i have commanded you and for the sake of time in regard to abortion there's one passage i want to look at which happens to be to my right proverbs 24 10 through 12 if you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small rescue those who are being taken away to death hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter if you say behold we did not know this does not he who weighs the heart perceive it does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it and will he not repay man according to his work this is the driving force behind an abortion now it's quite simple it's nothing tricky nor exegetically difficult to decipher the bottom line is this we are commanded to rescue those who are being taken away to death and to hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter this is not a suggestion this is a command and this clearly and directly describes abortion as the church as christ's bride it is our responsibility to live this out to rescue those beautiful children who are being taken away to death to hold them back from stumbling to the slaughter we have the opportunity to obey this command and we're not doing it chances are we're also not teaching others to observe it if we're not teaching others to observe it then we are failing the great commission and if you say we did not know this then you are a liar if you're hearing this you now know and are without excuse verse 12 says does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it and will he not repay man according to his work you will be held accountable the church christ's bride will be held accountable so the answer to ending abortion has to come from the church and it has to start with the gospel and the language and the rhetoric cannot be compromised it has to be based upon principles in scripture again my friend

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Andrew Sandlin said the curse affects all creation but the gospel goes far as the curse is found and that means everywhere so in conclusion my plea to you is to please repent of any apathy about abortion please do not resort to the failing tactics of the pro -life industry in my nation please allow the gospel and God's objective law to be your standard precious little lives literally depend on it and my challenge to you for those of you who are pastors it starts with you it starts here in the pulpit you are not just the watchdogs of your congregations but also the watchdogs of your culture there is a saying as the church goes so goes the nation and this could not be a more true statement how you lead your churches directly affects the state of your surrounding community and eventually your culture so my admonition to you is to be bold to be courageous don't buckle under persecution you will be hated if you engage in this fight i can promise you that quickly i want to look at judges six and this is the story of Gideon God commanded

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Gideon to literally tear down his community idols these are the idols that his own father built

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Gideon was very afraid he told God in verse six but God told Gideon in verse 16 I will be with you

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Gideon was faithful and he followed God and God gave him the courage to obey his commands

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Gideon pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah pole what was the result the men of the town immediately the next morning went looking for him they found his father and demanded bring out your son that he may die for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the

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Asherah beside it yet as God promised he protected him here's the point as I mentioned earlier abortion is a cultural idol and if you engage in this fight you will be attempting to tear down that idol you will be hated the culture may even want to kill you but be faithful to God's commands as in verse 34 it says he will clothe you with the spirit of the

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Lord this fight will not be easy it is hard to be hopeful but easy to be hopeless my practical advice to you is to leave a media footprint media is a tremendous blessing that should be viewed with grateful suspicion but can also be used for righteous or excuse me used for unrighteous causes

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I implore you to find a way to maximize it for this righteous cause if you're here with let them live you're doing an incredible job and I can't tell you enough how encouraged and blessed we are to see how how you guys are handling this fight pro -aborts are doing a fantastic job of using it to propagate their worldview so how are you using it to propagate yours in closing who will be this generation's

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David who will be this generation's Gideon Isaiah 41 10 says fear not for I am with you be not dismayed for I am your

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God I will strengthen you I will help you I will uphold you with my righteous hand let's pray

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Lord I'm just once again humbled and grateful for this opportunity today to bring this message

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I'm so thankful for my brothers and sisters here Lord that love you so much that to love

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Christ and the gospel and I ask that you would use this message to encourage and spur them on Lord to engage in this fight

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Lord that you would use them to bring forth the gospel and to expand your kingdom and to once again end abortion in their nation