Jeff Durbin: Rescue Those Being Taken Away to Death

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If you want to open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 24, verse 10.

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Proverbs 24, verse 10. As I announced, this is the study we've been in at Apologia Church for some time.

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Wisdom from Above, verse by verse through the book of God's wisdom, not merely theological abstractions, not things just up here in the head, but how do we actually skillfully walk out this truth?

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Really, in many ways, it can be compared to the difference between confession, what we confess to believe, and praxis, what we practically work out in practice.

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We say we believe this, so what does it look like in practice or praxis?

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So this is Wisdom from Above. How do we live as God's people? How do we live righteously? How do we live like Jesus, the

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Incarnate One? Wisdom from Above. And so we've skipped ahead into Proverbs 24, verse 10, a verse familiar with, or verses familiar to our church body, very familiar to us, because of the time that we're in right now.

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Again, we're poised at this moment in our nation and in our state, and states across this nation, to be a part of the bloodiest holocaust of pre -born children that we've ever seen in this nation.

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And so Proverbs 24, verse 10, hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

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Rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

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If you say, behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

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Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay man according to his work?

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Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as God's people. Father, please bless the proclamation of your word today.

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Lord, even in a church body like ours, that you have used in such powerful ways to rescue the pre -born, to stand for truth and justice, and even in a church body like ours, we can grow dull, we can grow indifferent, we can lose our sight.

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And so I pray, God, with all that's in me, I pray that you'd use your word today. Lord, open our eyes to your truth, to empower us to live for your glory in this area, and we do pray,

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Lord, for your mercy, please, your mercy upon this land. We do pray,

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God, that you would hold back your righteous hand of judgment, that you would bring revival and reformation amongst your people surrounding your word and truth.

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Lord, I pray that you would use the message today to open the eyes of your people and to establish justice.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So Proverbs 24, many of you remember, young church, mostly ex -drug addicts, apologia church.

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It was a sight to see. It was, David was there. He was there in the beginning, he knows.

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It was a church you came to, and maybe you saw the online teaching, and you were encouraged by the reformed theology, the commitment to scripture, the expositional

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Bible preaching, and so you brought your family, loaded them up in the van, came to apologia church, and you had to walk through a cloud of tattooed, gauged people smoking cigarettes.

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You had to walk through like a literal cloud of smoke to get through the door into worship. It was like incense to the Lord is what it was.

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But this very young church with a lot of baby believers in Christ became very challenged and convicted by the

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Lord through this particular text and other texts like this, but God challenged us, cut us, convicted us, that we said one thing.

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We had a confession about what the slaughter of the pre -born was, and what was happening all around us.

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We had a confession. We had the kind of conversations that Christians have, Christians who profess to be pro -life.

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We talk about it in coffee shops, at Bible studies. We talk about it in our homes. We keep it behind our eyeballs and between our ears.

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We vote. We send money off to pro -life organizations. We did those sorts of things.

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You know, the Sanctity of Life Sunday sermon annually that every pastor will give across the nation.

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We did those things, but all the while we did those things, we became very convicted that we have abortion mills all around us, all around us, and some of these abortion mills were taking the lives of dozens of children every day.

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One abortion mill we started ministering at in Glendale would kill 50 children on a

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Sunday. And so we became very convicted as a church that we know the gospel.

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We know the truth. We know the message that can open the eyes of the blind. We know what

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Jesus can do. We know that we don't have any money. We didn't. We know we don't have any resources, but we'll lay our lives down for the sake of these children.

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And we said, if we could do this entire ministry our whole life as a church and save just one life, it's a ministry well -spent and a life well -lived, amen?

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I still believe that to this day. But this particular verse was challenging to us.

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And let's read it again. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. That's challenging.

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That's cutting to us as God's people, because I think many of us would like to think in the day of adversity, we would stand.

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In the day of adversity, I'll stand. I would fight. If I was back during the time of the war for independence, a revolutionary war,

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I would have grabbed my musket. Pastor Jonas called to arms. I would have stood on that beach.

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I would have been ready to fight for freedom and liberty and the law of God. I would have stood.

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Would we? Would we? Would you have stood in the day of adversity then when the threat coming from King George was not only will you die, but all your posterity will be plunged into poverty indefinitely?

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Loss of lands, loss of income. Not just you would lose your life.

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I mean, that's in some ways easy enough. I'll die for the cause of liberty. But you and your children and your children's children and their children will be plunged into abject poverty for good.

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Would you stand in the day of adversity? The scripture says if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

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I think oftentimes we all like to do that. Christians love to talk trash, don't we? Armchair theologians, armchair evangelists, right?

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Internet specialists. People who like to hide behind keyboards and they're so courageous and brave.

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But would you really stand in the day of adversity? We like to say if I was there during the time of slavery,

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I would have been amongst the Christian abolitionists in the North and in the South. I would have been fighting for the word of God saying this brother and sister is in the imago dei.

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This is my brother in humanity and in Christ. I would have been the one proclaiming

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Christ's glory and the law of God. I would have been amongst the Christian abolitionists who were confronting plantation owners saying what they were doing was an abomination in God's eyes.

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I would have been amongst the Christian abolitionists who said to the plantation owners, not only are you doing what is wicked, but God says according to his law, you're engaging in man stealing and enslaving and you deserve the death penalty.

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I would have been amongst the abolitionists, we like to think. If it was a day of adversity, I would have been strong.

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Or we like to tell ourselves tales if I was living during the time of the Holocaust and the

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SS showed up at my door and I was hiding Jews. I would have stood.

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I would have defended their lives. I would have lost my wife. I would have lost my children.

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I would have been gassed along with them if I was living in that day of adversity. Would we? Would we?

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See, I think oftentimes as Christians, we have a mighty fine profession of faith. A mighty fine profession of faith, especially in reformed circles.

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We know what we believe, we know why we believe it, we've got a great confession. But our praxis is awful.

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We don't actually live out what we say we believe. And in this text right here, the word from God says, if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

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You're not strong. You're weak. You're weak. You're not strong.

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See, the day of adversity reveals what's really there. Right? It's easy to look very strong and mighty and bold when there's no challenges, there's no difficulty.

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That's an easy context. To look strong, to seem bold. Adversity, difficulty, challenges, trials reveal what's actually in you.

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It tells the real story beyond your profession. You can say one thing about what you believe, but adversity, difficulty, challenge, that day of adversity will reveal what's actually there.

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Are you strong or are you weak? And the text says, wisdom from God.

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Rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

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Now I recognize, brothers and sisters, I fully recognize, and this is the generous part of wisdom literature, this is what's so generous about it, is that there's a principle here in the text that I know, yes, yes, yes, it extends far beyond the issue of the slaughter of the pre -born and child sacrifice.

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I know that. There's a principle here in this text that extends out all the way through the culture in terms of how people deceive other people and lead them into lifestyles of death and destruction.

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That's the benefit and the glory of wisdom is that principle is light that goes all the way out and that you can be applied in so many ways.

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You can apply this in some ways to evangelism. At the Mormon temple, people being led to death in the slaughter of their souls, yes and amen, but there is something specific here that's under the surface.

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What is on the surface and it is out loud to the people of God is what is actually true in this text.

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There are people who are being taken away to death. Rescue them, rescue them.

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There are people who are stumbling to the slaughter. You have to hold them back. You have to stand in the way.

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You have to move beyond profession and confession and say, do I actually believe this?

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In light of the pre -born, do I really believe that that's in the Imago Dei? Do I really believe that that is a human being, a distinct human being created by Almighty God?

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Do I really believe the texts that say, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you?

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Do I believe that there's a creator God who knows the name of every one of these children? Do we believe it?

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My fear is we don't. My fear is we have a land full of professing Christians who are just liars.

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They say they believe this, but they don't act like it's actually true. They don't believe that this is actually a child being dismembered and slaughtered and disemboweled.

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It's happening all around us. And we fight against it, even as evangelical

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Christians, we fight against it like we can compromise, like we can do deals with the devil.

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Like, well, if we even just tolerate partiality and say you can kill some kids but not others, maybe we can get along our way to truth.

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Brothers and sisters, you are never gonna get to a righteous end by using iniquitous means, ever.

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The text says to rescue them, to hold them back. And here's the word from God.

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If you say, if you say, we didn't know.

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We didn't know. Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

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What's that mean? He knows your heart. He knows what you know.

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He knows what you're capable of. He knows what you won't do because your strength is small.

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Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And here's the warning.

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And will he not repay man according to his work? We've lost sight of the fact that God, our

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God, is a consuming fire. We've lost sight of the fact that God is a just judge, a righteous

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God, that he is the judge of all the earth. His throne is established on justice and he will always do right.

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We have an evangelicalism, a Christianity in the West that is nothing more than concerts and cotton candy and popcorn and TED Talks.

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We don't know the Bible. We don't know the holiness of God. We don't understand the justice of God. We don't understand the wrath of God.

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Texts like this are meaningless to us because we have no fear of God.

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We're not actually afraid of God. We think God is a nice, simply happy God with no wrath.

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We tend to think in evangelicalism in the West, we tend to think of, we have an Old Testament God that is filled with hot wrath and justice and he loves law, he loves righteousness, he's a holy

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God and thank God for Jesus who delivers us from that kind of God.

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Now we have just the really happy God who's not concerned with justice, he's not concerned with righteousness.

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He just wants you to escape this world to get to the next better world so you can live there forever and he's not concerned with this life.

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Brothers and sisters, that's not the Christian message, that's not the Christian worldview. The God of the

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Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. It is one God, one author, one message of redemption.

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It is one unified revelation and God is concerned with justice. The proof that God is concerned with justice and will always be concerned with justice and righteousness and he is filled with wrath is that cross.

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That cross is the eternal demonstration that God is holy and just and righteous and he is always concerned with justice.

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The glory of that cross is that God's wrath and his justice was poured out on his son for the sake of his people.

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But make no mistake about it, God is a consuming fire and he is to be feared. God warns people, responds or perish.

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God calls people to repentance and even warns them that the land will vomit them out for blood guiltiness.

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And we tend to think about that as Christians as, oh, that's God talking about those other people.

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He has those words for the pagans, right? He has those words for the people who are just the hedonists.

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He is speaking to those who don't know him and don't know his truth and don't hold his Bible. Now, you know the text, brothers and sisters, but it's vital for us to get it into our hearts, especially now in Isaiah chapter one, verse 10, the text says, hear the word of the

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Lord, you rulers of Sodom, give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the

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Lord? I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well -fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.

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When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?

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Bring no more vain offerings, incenses and abomination to me, new moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations.

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I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates.

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They have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands,

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I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.

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Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

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Now, if you're new to the Bible, if you haven't read Isaiah, you might be wondering, what part of the story of redemption is this?

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Because this is Sodom and Gomorrah, he mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah, so like what part of the timeline of biblical history is this?

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Sodom and Gomorrah, that place of just unbridled wickedness and injustice and evil is, okay, so that's what

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Isaiah is doing, he's in that time, that's the period he's in, he's talking to Sodom and Gomorrah, the answer is no, no.

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This is far, far, far beyond the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. No, this is

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God talking to the covenant people of God. This is

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God talking to those who profess to believe in God. This is

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God talking to those who have a Bible. This is

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God talking to, can I say, the church. And God refers to them in the most cutting of ways, a way that would alert them to their spiritual poverty and their brokenness and their rebellion, he calls them

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Sodom and Gomorrah. What is worse than that? What's worse than that?

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It would have been a place of disgust, it's supposed to draw out of you feelings of disgust and distaste and God says to the covenant people of God, listen, who are going to church, they're going to worship, they're carrying scrolls, they've got the

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Bible, they profess the faith, they're praying the prayers, they're doing all the rituals, all the things that make you look like you're following the true

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God, the eternal God and what God says to them is he says, your hands are filled with blood and he says, though you make many prayers,

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I will not listen. And God says that how he feels about their gathering and their assembly and their feasting and their singing and their praying, my soul hates this.

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Now, who's he talking to, pagans? No, is he talking to the unbelievers? No, he's talking to the professing people of God and he tells them your hands are filled with blood and so what he calls them to is this, he says, cease to do evil, so there's the call, stop, turn, cease to do evil, learn to do good and what he calls

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God's people to is something we have neglected so much over generations in the

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West, he says, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

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Now, I know that a section like this is not gonna change us, it'll go right past us.

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If we have a particular view of God changing somehow in his character and nature and his standards or we have a particular view of the law of God as irrelevant and not abiding any longer,

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I recognize you have charlatans like Andy Stanley who I debated on Unbelievable Radio Program who will suggest things like we need to unhitch the

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Old Testament from the New Testament and so I know that there are people who read a text like this and they say, things are different now,

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God's not concerned with justice but one of the glories of the Christian worldview is the truth of the immutability of God, that God is unchanging.

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His standards are unchanging, his character is unchanging, his righteousness is unchanging and God calls his people here to seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless.

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That's a command, that's a call from God that God's people are to seek justice and correct oppression.

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Let me bring it down to the bottom shelf to those who have distilled Christianity into almost nothing, a meaningless message.

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Let me give it to you with the full force of the law. You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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If you don't like the conversation about justice and righteousness and holiness, can we at least have the two greatest commandments?

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Love God, love your neighbor. That's what this is. How can we say we love

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God and love our neighbors when blood is filling our streets? Our nation is so guilty of blood guiltiness and we think that this can go on forever.

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Maybe we can change things through working around the edges and not actually telling the truth.

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Maybe we don't need to talk about repentance and faith and the word of God. Maybe we can just work towards maybe little wins and compromises.

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Maybe that's how we do it. We'll do it with a Christless conservatism. We'll take all the fruit of the

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Christian worldview, the fruit of Christian morality, we'll try to place that over people, but what it is is nothing more than a whitewashed tomb.

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It is filled with stinking, rotting death. That's how Jesus talks about that whitewashed external morality when you're filled with death on the inside.

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We're never gonna change any of this until we start proclaiming the full glory of the gospel and the excellencies of Jesus Christ.

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Jesus said, all authority in heaven and where? On earth has been given to me.

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That was given over two millennia ago. He has all authority today, which means

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Christians are commanded to speak the truth in the public square.

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Christians are commanded to proclaim the gospel, the full authority of Jesus Christ. We have to get away from the pithy slogans surrounding this where you'll even have evangelical pastors that will say things like,

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I don't do politics, I'm just about the gospel. Well, brothers and sisters, nobody here is calling you to engage in petty partisan political theater.

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What we're calling people to is very simply this, you are not preaching the gospel if you are not preaching the lordship and authority of Jesus Christ over all things.

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That is precisely what got the early Christians killed and has gotten Christians killed in every nation we've gone as missionaries and Christians are dying today for that truth.

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If you will not speak to the area of politics, you don't understand the gospel, which starts with the authority and lordship of Jesus Christ.

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Politics engages, listen closely, in legislation. Distill it down.

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Legislation is the imposition of morality. Do you think that King Jesus has something to say about morality?

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Yes, amen. Then you must proclaim his lordship, his glory, and his law in every area of life to yourself, to your family, to your church, to your legislators, to your nation.

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Scripture has a word about injustice. In the same book,

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Isaiah chapter 59, verse 14, hear the word of God. It says, justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away for truth has stumbled in the public squares and uprightness cannot enter.

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There's the answer from scripture. Justice, fallen in the streets, unrighteousness all around us, why?

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Why? And the answer is, truth has stumbled in the public squares.

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We're not bringing it out there. We're not speaking it. We hide that light. We're not salt to the culture around us and so all that's out there is death and darkness and decay because it is the duty of the helpmeet of Christ, his bride, to bring his truth, his glory, that salt and light into the world around us.

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It is his church that is the means of God to bring about that light and transformation in the world and when we're not out there giving a hot gospel, full -throated with the truth, injustice, unrighteousness, why?

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Because truth has stumbled in the public squares. It's not there. It's not there.

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The world doesn't change without the call to repentance and faith. The world isn't gonna change without the truth of God in this area and brothers and sisters,

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I know I'm speaking to you today with a lot of passion and the reason is, is because there are so many people who are deluded at this very moment.

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We were saying years before Roe versus Wade was overturned that Roe v.

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Wade is not the problem. It is a court opinion. It is not the law of the lands.

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Our constitution is very clear. Congress creates law, not the Supreme Courts.

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The Supreme Court has given wicked decrees in the past and states, lesser magistrates, have resisted their wicked decrees.

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An example we know, well, an apology at church, is the Dred Scott case where those wicked, abominable

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Supreme Court justices argued, justices argued, that our black brothers and sisters were not persons, they were property and they argued that they needed to be returned to their masters.

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Thank God for northern states and lesser magistrates who said regarding the

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Dred Scott case, no, you will not perpetrate this injustice.

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We reject your opinion. We reject your decree and that is precisely what every state ought to have done with the decision of Roe versus Wade.

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You know the bills that our church was able to get in across the country when

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Roe versus Wade was a thing. Our bills argued what's in the womb is in the image of God. What's in the womb deserves equal protection from fertilization and it is the duty of the state to resist

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Roe versus Wade and to establish justice now. It was never the problem. God says those who hate me love death.

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The problem is a hatred for God. The problem is a fallen heart. That's the problem. And we were arguing

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Roe versus Wade is not the problem. The problem is compromise. The problem is truth falling into public square.

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The problem is a pro -life industry that is fundamentally not Christian, gospel -less, wordless and deals in partiality and unequal weights and measures with bills that they consider victorious, bills that say you can kill these kids but not these kids.

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God says abomination. On the last day, God is gonna judge every single one of those bills of partiality put forward by the pro -life establishments.

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They are not working for equal protection. They never were. They aren't. They never will because of the doctrinal issue, the dirty little secret of the pro -life establishment.

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They are fundamentally not Christian and they say that a woman must, must be given legal immunity and impunity when she takes the life of her child willfully in the womb.

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Let me distill it real fast. This is the best way to put this. Are you ready? If you get this, you'll get pretty much the whole thing.

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The pro -choice establishments, the pro -choicers believe that a woman has the right to take the life of her child willfully in the womb and she must be given, by law, legal immunity to do it and to be doing it with impunity, that's to say no punishments.

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However, even the pro -choicers, let's say 99 % of them, say that when the human being exits the magical birth canal and when they are visible and present, if the mother goes for the life of that child willfully, then, then justice must be established for the child.

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The child is out and at that point, even the most rabid pro -choicer says yes, at that point, that mother needs to be punished because that is a crime to take the life of the child.

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So again, the pro -choicers say in the womb, immunity, impunity, out of the womb, justice begins for that child.

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But brothers and sisters, that is exactly the position of the pro -life establishment. The pro -life establishment, again, not

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Christian, not standing on the authority of God's word and under the authority of Christ, says to every bill you and I have put in across the country, we do not want equal protection for the child in the womb.

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That would lead to a mother who willfully takes the life of her child in the womb, seeing punishment by law.

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They write in their legislation, even in their trigger laws regarding Roe, they write into legislation that these laws, these punishments will not apply to the mother of the pre -born child, meaning that the pro -life establishment believes that a mother must be given legal immunity and impunity to take the life of her child in her womb, but when that baby is out, then justice begins for the child and it has full protection.

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Brothers and sisters, are you seeing the problem? It's the same fundamental position regarding justice for the child.

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Truth has fallen in the public square and that's why we're facing this.

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And we've been deluded when we think about establishing justice, correcting oppression, bringing justice to that fatherless child, that child with no representation, no protection, no covering.

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We've been deluded into thinking that Roe versus Wade gave us somehow, somewhere, some abortion -free state.

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Brothers and sisters, did you know that abortions are on the rise in our nation? And even in states with trigger laws and no more abortion mills, they're being taken now by pills and potions at higher numbers than before.

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It's bloodier and deadlier after Roe. There is not one single abortion -free state in this entire nation, not one.

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And all given to you and I as a courtesy of the pro -life establishment who wrote the protection into their very laws that women must see no punishment and they must be given legal immunity to take the lives of their children in their womb.

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But we're even worse now. We've been told Roe was the problem, Roe is gone. Rejoice, rejoice.

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Brothers and sisters, are we glad that Dobbs ended with the overturning of Roe? Yes and amen.

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Our church body paid for one of the amicus briefs that went into the Dobbs case, arguing from the basis of scripture and the

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Constitution consistently to overturn Roe versus Wade. But brothers and sisters, be careful in glorying in and praising that decision because what that decision was was a pilot moment.

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You remember pilots, he knew that Jesus was righteous and what he did before the crowds is he simply washed his hands of it, said,

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I find no fault in him, you see to it. And with the Supreme Court decision, what they did is they took the lives of these pre -born children by the millions and they said very clearly, states, you decide if you wanna kill them.

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They washed their hands of the issue and they told the states, you decide if you want to kill them.

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That is nothing to celebrate in terms of righteousness, amen? But listen closely.

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I told you that we are on the precipice of the most bloody part of this incredible Holocaust we've found ourselves in for decades.

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And what I mean by that is not only the abortions rising across the nation, again, even in trigger law states, but right now across the nation, we have ballot measures that are taking place across this nation.

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Our state is one of them. The ballot measure would put abortion into the state's constitution.

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If this ballot measure passes, Arizona will be a state where you can have abortions from start essentially to birth, nine months.

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It's ambiguous because the text of the ballot measure says viability, but then defining viability is of course vague because what it defines it as is if it requires medical attention, extreme medical attention.

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But brothers and sisters, I just spent two months in Wisconsin in two different NICUs with my twins, born in 29 weeks.

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And according to the ballot measure in our state and other states, they're up for grabs.

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They can be killed. They required extreme medical care around the clock, teams of doctors to preserve their lives.

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Surgeries, care, love, machines, oxygen, food, feeding tubes.

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And according to these ballot measures, you can kill them, their lives are worthless. And then it goes beyond that because even if you can prove viability, the text says, but if the mental health of the mother is a factor, the doctor can say viability is irrelevant because their mental health is at stake.

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And so brothers and sisters, I am not being hyperbolic when I tell you that we are about to enter into the most bloody time of this

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Holocaust. It's not hyperbole. It's not an exaggeration.

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Truth has fallen in the public square and that is why we are where we are at today as the church.

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The church has been silent in many ways on this issue.

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We have chipped off the duty to fight for these pre -born neighbors, to parachurch organizations and non -Christian organizations who will say explicitly, we are not calling people to repentance in faith.

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We are not using the Bible. We are not preaching the gospel. We're just arguing this in terms of human biology.

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You see, if we could just prove, if we could just prove to these mothers that what's in them is a distinct human being from the moment of conception, if we can prove it biologically, the lights will come on and they will turn away.

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We'll have a culture of life. And so we are not fighting as Christians with the Bible and the gospel. We are fighting on the basis of biology.

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And brothers and sisters, have we noticed in this nation that our nation doesn't give a damn about biology?

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They don't care. You're trying to argue on the basis of biology towards people, men wearing beards and dresses.

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They don't care because the issue is they hate God. They're not righteous. They're not God -seeking.

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They need new hearts. They need eyes to see. That's the issue.

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It's not biology. And you'll know this last week or two weeks ago, did you see the interview with Bill Maher?

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Did you see that? All these pro -life establishment types won't stand on the authority of Christ, won't stand on God's word, won't preach the gospel.

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If we could just prove to the world that it's human from fertilization. Brothers and sisters, that's an incontrovertible fact.

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It can't be disputed. Nobody disputes that anymore. It's human from fertilization. There's no arguing with that.

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The Bible teaches it. All biological science teaches it. It's incontrovertible. And they say, if we could just prove it biologically, then they'll see.

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And then Bill Maher says, look at these pro -life hypocrites. They're saying they believe that it's murder, but then they're saying, give it to the states to let them decide on different ways to kill them.

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15 weeks, 10 weeks, whatever it is. Maybe some states can kill them and some states can't. He's like, that makes no sense to me.

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And what does Bill Maher, the rabid unbeliever, say? He says, I have respect for the absolutist position, in other words, the consistent position, who says that it's murder and it can't be tolerated.

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And then he says, in reference to it being murder, he says, it kind of is. I'm just okay with that.

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He says, there's a lot of people in the world. We won't miss you. There it is. That's the real contrast.

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And that's the real heart of the battle. There is the absolutist position, the

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Christian position, the consistent position versus those who simply love death.

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And brothers and sisters, there's no way we are gonna overcome this by compromise.

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This might be a shock to many people who are just getting into this. And if this is your first time at Apology at Church, welcome.

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The greatest, you've heard me say this so many times, this is threadbare for Apology at Church. It's not new.

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The greatest enemy to the abolition of abortion or equal protection is the pro -life establishment. That shocks people.

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It shocked me at the beginning. But when you see, brothers and sisters, bills of abolition and equal protection coming from the church, going into legislatures across the country, and it being the pro -life leaders of that state and nationally that work to kill our bills of abolition.

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Do you know that abolition should have already happened in this country in probably 25 states with at least 25 bills of abolition?

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Did you know that? And did you know that in every single state those bills have gone in? They've been killed, not by the pro -choicers, but by the pro -life establishment.

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Many of you guys have seen that in Missouri, I sat down in front of the Missouri legislature to testify on behalf of a bill of abolition and equal protection.

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Very simple. Human from fertilization, equal protection for all humans in this state.

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Who can disagree with that? And sitting next to me in the

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Missouri legislature at the Capitol, you would think, who was it? Who was it, Pastor Jeff?

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Was it the ACLU? Who was it, Planned Parenthood? Who was it?

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Those leaders, they were there sitting next to you? No. Planned Parenthood was sitting behind me.

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They were planning to oppose it that day, but they saw that it was the two largest pro -life organizations in Missouri that sat down to oppose the bill, and their answer was this.

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If we give equal protection to all humans from fertilization, it would mean that women who take the lives of their children in the womb would be seen as guilty, and guilty of a crime, and we don't want that.

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So these babies, delivered to death on a silver platter by those who use our language, borrow our

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Bible verses to receive funding, to fight a fight that they have no intention of ever winning, and did you know that in our state right now, okay, here it is.

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Ready, brothers, sisters, are you ready? Here it is. Seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless.

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These are the words of God, not the words of Jeff Durbin. Seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless.

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In our state, where we sit, where there is about to be a wave of bloodshed if the church doesn't rise up, we had two laws, two laws on the books, because old

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America was so influenced by the word of God and the gospel, you can't avoid this. There's Christian laws on the books in every state in our nation.

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Some of them are hanging around. They haven't been struck from the record yet, but in our state, in the state of Arizona, we had two laws, two.

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One was Arizona Statute 13 -3603. That was a law saying that the abortion doctor, the abortionist, would be criminal if he committed an abortion.

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The other law was 13 -3604, and that was a law that said if a mother willfully did it, she was also guilty of a crime.

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We had those two laws, and did you know, brothers and sisters, that those were on our books in this state through the duration of Roe.

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Now, are you ready for the shocker? Two laws criminalizing abortion, for the abortionist and for the mother in the state of Arizona.

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Never struck from the record, valid laws the whole way through the Supreme Court. Opinion did nothing to subvert those laws.

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If our state agreed with the Supreme Court, the way our government works is we were to change that legislation.

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Never happens. The law criminalizing the mother was removed only three years ago.

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And you'll remember, brothers and sisters, why and when it was removed.

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Our church worked to get a bill of abolition and equal protection into the Arizona legislature.

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We had the approval of many of the legislators. They saw the bill, it was simple enough. They were professing to be pro -life, human from fertilization.

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All humans deserve equal protection in Arizona. We could have abolished abortion in Arizona. It was stopped and killed by the leader of the pro -life establishment in this state.

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She told them, Kathy Herod, don't pass Jeff's bill. Pass my bill.

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And her bill said a couple things. One, you can kill babies in Arizona, but you must give them a proper burial.

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Which only further lined the pockets of the abortion industry, because they packed the cost of that into the abortion.

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She made more money for them. She also said in her bill, and she was proud of it, that you cannot kill a baby in Arizona for the express reason that it has a genetic abnormality.

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To which I told Kathy, Kathy, your bill is irrelevant. Because not only are you saying you can kill the healthy kids, but you're also saying something that's irrelevant because all a mother has to do is walk into the doctor's office and say, no,

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I love Down syndrome. I think they're beautiful. I'm not killing it because of Down syndrome.

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I'm killing it because I hate it with my whole heart. And that's how you get her on the law.

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She was proud of this bill. She celebrated it as a victory, as a pro -life victory. After killing the bill of abolition, she celebrated.

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And then she put as one line, as a single line, that we know most legislators had no idea what it was.

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It said repeal of 13 -3604. So what's that mean, brothers and sisters?

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Are you ready for this? The pro -life establishment decriminalized abortion in Arizona for the woman.

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It was explicitly them. Now, are you ready for part two?

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Our Supreme Court looked at that remaining law that criminalizes the abortionist, and the

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Supreme Court said what was obvious to everybody. That law's on the books. That law is valid. That law has never been repealed.

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It's abiding, it's standing, it's a law. And right now, you'll probably be shocked to know that the people who are working to repeal that law and to decriminalize abortion in Arizona for the abortionist, of course the pro -choicers want it, but the people who are leading this fight in many ways are your favorite

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Republican and pro -life politicians. They are working to decriminalize it as I speak.

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Yes, your favorite leaders, leaders like Donald Trump. He's working hard to have our state undo that.

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Leaders like Carrie Lake, Republican darlings, conservative heroes spoke out against the law criminalizing the abortionist and did a beautiful, beautiful video talking about how she was more in the center and she just gave the pro -choice position.

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They are charlatans and turncoats because they are not standing on Christ. That's what a

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Christless conservatism will get you. And as of right now in our state, twice now, twice the

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House, twice now, the House has moved to work a bill in after legislative session to repeal that law criminalizing the abortionist.

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We're talking about pro -lifers, Republicans. And this week now, because it failed there in the

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House, the Senate is now pushing to have something happen this week to repeal the law criminalizing the abortionist.

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Brothers and sisters, I know that we have sounded radical for so long.

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I know, I know, for years, for years, your pastors have been calling us to stand with fidelity on God's word, to not compromise, to preach the gospel in the public square, to stand for the truth, to not blend the world's practices and standards with the church, but to preach a pure and unbiased and unadulterated gospel.

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We've argued that the only way that light's ever gonna dispel the darkness is if it's actually light and it's not hidden.

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And I know that we sound crazy at times when we go to the Phoenix City Council and we call them to establish justice and we preach the gospel to them and we call them to turn to Christ.

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And I know that I've looked radical and insane before legislatures across the country where I've told the legislature to pass the bill, to turn to Christ, and that there's a day of judgment coming where they will be held accountable for how they respond to this bill.

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I know we look radical. But hopefully, now, in these circumstances, in this

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Holocaust, with more to come, you will see that it wasn't actually radical, it's necessary, it's necessary.

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Truth falls in the public square, injustice and unrighteousness. Brothers and sisters,

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I'm not calling you. I'm not calling you. And I've said this so many times, I'm not calling us as a church to be a church that simply has hobby horses and pet political issues and petty partisan politics.

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I'm actually calling you away from those things. I'm calling you towards God's standards of justice.

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I'm calling you to obey Christ. I'm calling you to stand under the banner of the gospel and to proclaim with full clarity the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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I'm calling you to obey Jesus. I'm calling you to a painful life. I'm calling you to lose things, reputation, money, your life.

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And I know that's a hard thing to do, but brothers and sisters, this is where we really get tested as to whether we actually believe our confession.

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Do you really believe that these are image bearers of God, real human beings at every stage?

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Do I really believe that? Because if brothers and sisters, if we actually believed it, we would look like it, we would act like it.

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We would show up and speak the truth to those who are seeking to end justice on their behalf.

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We would show up to demand justice for the glory of God and for the sake of Christ for these children.

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We would do that if we really believed it. Do you guys remember? I get emotional every time

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I talk about it because it was a big day for us when we started this.

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We didn't know what we were doing. You guys know. We just said, we're gonna go. And so the first day we went, we went to a

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Planned Parenthood right by where I had just resigned at the hospital.

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I mean, I'll be honest, it was kind of like awkward. I literally put my resignation in as chaplain at the hospital after four and a half years, working full -time there.

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I put my resignation in and the very next day, I'm standing on the sidewalk, literally across the street from the hospital and all the old therapists and doctors are driving by and I got a sign that says, please don't kill your baby, we'll help you.

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I'm like, hi. And we stood outside this Planned Parenthood across the street from the hospital and within an hour or two, we saved two babies.

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Then we kept going and preaching the gospel. We'd have save after save after save, but then we had this spectacular save with Carmelo and I'm pretty sure, no,

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I am sure, Carmelo was the first baby that was brought to us that had been saved.

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So Carmelo's mom turned away, her husband Chris, amazing story how it happened.

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We took care of that family, we got his business back online for him, paid for a new trailer and everything to get his business back so they can afford to pay for Carmelo and all the rest and so she's so thrilled about what we did for her to save his life that she shows up on a

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Sunday and I will never forget that powerful moment and some of you guys are right there to experience it where she comes in with Carmelo and at that moment, it was not theory anymore.

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It wasn't just something we were doing. She's passing around this little baby to us and those of us who were standing outside the abortion mill there's no words because you're thinking all these crazy thoughts like how fragile life is and how on a razor's edge everything is and you're looking at this little life and he's looking in your eyes and all of a sudden, everything becomes so clear.

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This is not just in theory, they're killing these children.

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I'm holding one who's only alive because we showed up and we're not even good at this.

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We're not professionals. We just showed up and we're passing

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Carmelo around and everybody has the same reaction. Everybody's bawling and she left and we were fully committed.

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Nothing was ever gonna stop us after that because now we touched them and now we know the stakes and so I've said so many times and I'm copying what my friends said that there's no way for us to even comprehend as creatures.

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We can't. 65 million plus babies slaughtered in this nation.

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There's no way that we can comprehend that. We can't even fathom it.

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So as my friend said, you can only think about it as one baby at a time, one baby at a time,

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Carmelo. And you know in my own life, brothers and sisters,

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I didn't plan this. I wanna tell you this, this is very personal. I know this is being recorded but I'm talking to you as our church body.

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Five years ago almost when we adopted Augustine, it was a hard thing to take on.

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I didn't know what God was doing in our lives and I had no idea what this amazing, crazy miracle that God was gonna do to completely heal him from spina bifida and it took me by surprise as much as you,

01:00:03

I'm still reeling from it. When I think about it, but I believe that God has done something in my life and in our lives as a church body because what

01:00:14

I didn't know when we adopted Augustine was that not only was God gonna heal him and do that amazing miracle in his life that was just gonna shout to the world, but I didn't know that his mother, his birth mother had tried to kill him numerous times.

01:00:32

When she found out she was pregnant at five months, she went to kill him at an abortion mill. Tabitha, a

01:00:39

Christian who knew her stopped her and said, I'll take care of you. I'll pay your bills, I'll feed you,

01:00:45

I'll go to every doctor's appointment. We're gonna find a Christian family to adopt your son. Do not murder your son.

01:00:52

And so she took her into her home and then when she got an ultrasound, she found out that he had a worse stage of spina bifida and she said, nobody is ever gonna adopt a child like this wheelchair, brain shunt, clubbed feet for life, no way.

01:01:06

And Tabitha told me only fairly recently that for two weeks straight, every day, she was all but standing in the way of the door as the birth mom tried to take

01:01:18

Augustine's life at an abortion mill. I didn't know that.

01:01:24

And it was only a Christian who stood in the way and told the truth that saved his life.

01:01:32

He's only alive because Tabitha, and she told the truth, she didn't pull punches.

01:01:42

She called her to turn to Christ and called her not to murder August. So the mill tried to take my son's life.

01:01:52

And I believe that God did that so that when you see him running around here, you'll remember.

01:02:05

And then I learned something new recently, if you haven't heard this. You know that we're adopting

01:02:10

Nora and Piper. August 15th, that's the official decree.

01:02:19

Birth mom is so sweet and so amazing. She's an incredible woman, incredible. I'll skip past all the miracles that got us to get the girls and the two months and the

01:02:30

NICU and all the rest and God saving Piper's life. Numerous times.

01:02:37

Birth mom called me recently and she said, Jeff, you need to let the world know what a miracle the girls are.

01:02:45

And I said, of course, of course, I know that. I mean,

01:02:51

I've seen how God preserved Piper's life. Yeah. She said, no, not like that.

01:02:57

She said, when I found out that I was pregnant, I thought there was no way I can do this. So she said, so I went to get an abortion pill.

01:03:06

She said, I took the abortion pill. And she said, the next day

01:03:11

I was cramping and I was bleeding and I swore I had an abortion. And she said, but just to make sure,

01:03:19

I went and got another abortion pill and I took it again. And the next day was bleeding and cramping again.

01:03:27

I swore I had an abortion. She said, Jeff, you have to tell everyone what a miracle they are.

01:03:41

So I didn't know this was coming, that God was gonna plant in front of your face as a church body, a consistent testimony to why we're doing what we're doing with these two sets of children that we've adopted into our family that we never saw this coming.

01:04:04

God was gonna have a constant testimony in my life and yours, here's why. One, by the mill, and these two, by the pills.

01:04:18

So you'll see their faces and remember every day you see them, why we wanna obey God, to seek justice, to correct oppression, and bring justice to the fatherless.

01:04:30

Hold them back, church. So I wanna give you just quickly, I promise we're doing this quickly, a practical way this week you can obey that section of scripture.

01:04:43

So Darrell, would you come on up and notify the church as to how they can put feet to this this week?

01:04:57

Well again, church, as Jeff said, he talked about showing up.

01:05:04

And so I wanna remind you that as citizens in Arizona, you can show up right now.

01:05:12

And so we have a call to action and we've got easy steps for you.

01:05:17

You might wanna write this down. Go to azledge .gov, that's

01:05:23

A -Z -L -E -G .gov. You can click on the member roster there and there you will find a roster of senators and house members.

01:05:37

You can email each one of them. Their contact information is there. You can email each one of them.

01:05:43

You can call each one of them, especially the Republicans. And in particular, those who have already expressed compromise on this issue.

01:05:56

And to my knowledge, each and every one of those folks who have expressed compromise also have said they're pro -life.

01:06:05

And here are the members that I want you to focus on, please. Sean Abolik, Senator.

01:06:14

Ken Bennett, Senator. T .J. Shope, Senator.

01:06:22

House Member Matt Gress. House Member David Cook. And House Member Timothy Dunn.

01:06:34

If you would do this, this too could be your worship towards God, it's your sacrifice at this moment.

01:06:44

And we would ask you, I would ask you to remember this, that this is a gospel issue. It's a matter of life and death.

01:06:51

These folks need your voice. They need to hear the law of God. They need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

01:06:57

They need to be encouraged to stand firm on this issue and don't compromise.

01:07:04

Thank you. Let's pray.

01:07:14

Father, I pray that Lord, you would take the word that went out today, allow it to penetrate into our hearts and minds, not only ours as a church, but also for your church in this nation, and particularly for us in this state.

01:07:30

We pray, God, you'd be glorified. Lord, we know that we are under judgment and we deserve a lot more of it, but we ask for your mercy, mercy upon our nation.

01:07:41

And please, Lord, move with the proclamation of your truth into the world to glorify yourself through transformation in life.