Drawing the Biblical Dividing Line on Abortion

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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All right Hopefully I can speak loud enough for y 'all back there.

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Can you all hear me back there? Yeah, okay So welcome everybody, thank you for joining us and this is a

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This is the last of a four -part series that I've been preaching on with respect to abortion in light of what's been going on in our country and in our city and so I wanted to Briefly recap what happened at City Hall this

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July 5th on Tuesday we had a very long and a very intense day of spiritual warfare at City Hall and over a hundred people spoke on the the abortion ordinance that they were trying to pass in the city and Much to I think everybody's surprise this

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City Council ended up voting against it the mayor broke the tie he broke the tie against the

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The abortion ordinance that they were trying to pass and so at that point the pro -choice side became unhinged and they started screaming and cussing and they even threatened the police and they had to the police had to escort us out of The building so it was a very thick with spiritual warfare.

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It was a very intense day, but By God's grace, there was some victory there and but they're not going to stop

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I mean, there's already talk about them trying to push it at the county level. So We have to stay vigilant about that and to speak up and to let them know that God will hold them accountable for their actions, so We I also wanted to encourage everybody to think to think and encourage those who voted against the abortion ordinance and to admonish those who were in favor of it and One thing that was also very encouraging is that the chief the chief of police

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Allen chief Allen was They asked him to comment and he also said that he was strongly against the abortion ordinance.

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So that was also very encouraging I would also Invite you to watch as much as the meeting as possible

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They they stream all of their their meetings on YouTube so you could take a look at that meeting on July 5th at City Council and you can see for yourself all of the different things that people were saying and A few of us from our church spoke got a chance to speak as well

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And we've also been speaking to a city count to the county courthouse about their the

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Women's Commission that they were pushing and There's a few takeaways that I got from this experience that were

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I think really revealing and the first one that I noticed is that When you hear both sides speaking on the issue of abortion

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You constantly hear the pro -choice side that it's a woman's rights This is about women's right and a right to choose the right to choose to kill her, baby

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And when you hear the pro -life side you tend to hear that this is about the unborn We're here to defend the unborn.

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What about the unborn? And it's like we're almost talking past each other because we're not even dealing with the same issue right, and I think it's important when we're talking to people or Interacting with those who are on the pro -abortion side to get them to realize that the issue is not about women's rights

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Because obviously nobody has the right to take innocent life Right. Nobody has the right to kill

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Innocent life especially the most helpless and defenseless of all which would be the unborn and This has nothing really to do with women's rights

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This is what the radical feminist agenda has been trying to push this entire time Even in our city level they the bill that they were the item that they were trying to pass was very clearly

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Coming from a radical feminist perspective and we need to reorient the conversation towards the unborn because the unborn is what this issue is about and With Respect to the unborn we're obviously talking about their right to life.

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The right to life is the supreme Right that we're talking about here

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We're not just talking about a woman's right to choose to do something that you know It doesn't have any consequences.

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This is about ending somebody's life So it's it's just something that I important that I really

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It really hit me when I was looking at everybody speak And so another lesson that I learned from this from this experience is that It's really important not to provoke the other side and we don't want to make

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Unnecessary provocations at them. I did notice that a few people on the pro -life side They made some remarks that were just inappropriate and they really just provoked

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The other side to anger and the goal obviously is to win them over Right, we want to win them over to Christ that's really the goal and so we don't want to do things that would cause the hindrance

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Against that that would you know when when they voted? after the vote Somebody from the pro -life side started kind of dancing and mocking

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The fact that they lost and that was just angering the the women and the people that were pro -choice even more

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So we don't want to do that. We want to maintain the ability to dialogue civilly and To debate to discuss things and share the truth and love so that we can win them over Because that's the goal ultimately is to preach the gospel and to share the truth with them

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So this is the like I said, this is the fourth of a four -part series on abortion

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The first part was dealing with what God thinks what God says and his word about abortion how he feels about killing

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Innocent life and we saw very clearly how the scriptures speak to that The fact the reality that abortion is indeed murder that it is wrong and that the woman should also be held accountable for her actions not just the abortionist and we also saw that That human life

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God is sovereign over the womb God is sovereign over every stage of human life because he is sovereign over everything and To decide who gets to live and who gets to die is to play

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God and that is complete idolatry and sin so we cannot put ourselves in that position and So I want us to turn to a very important song that I didn't get a chance to cover the last few weeks

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This is Psalm 127 If we go to Psalm 127, I'm going to read the whole thing.

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This is a very very important passage That's very appropriate

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I think and So Psalm 127 God speaks unless the

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Lord builds a house those who build it labor in vain Unless the Lord watches over the city the watchman stays awake in vain

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It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest eating the bread of anxious toil For he gives to his beloved sleep

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Behold children are a heritage from the Lord the fruit of the womb a reward Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth

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Blessed is a man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate

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This is a powerful passage Describing how God uses children to bless his people and to bless

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Because that's how he works. He works through the family and he blesses us through family and through children whereas the abortion pro -abortion people they often try to push

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Children as a burden as a ball and chain as a as a nuisance and as something that will prevent you from doing what?

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You want to do? But again, we have to adopt the mind of Christ with respect to this and understand that children are a tremendous blessing from God And that's not to say that it's easy.

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That's not to say that child rearing or you know, raising a family is easy It's not easy But God indeed blesses us and many of us who have children obviously can attest to that that how much of a blessing children are even in cases of rape and incest

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Even in those cases God is a redemptive God and he can take that very situation

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In rape and incest and bless the family affected the woman affected with that child that's happened many times where God blesses the the the woman and the

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Family and the child becomes the center of attention. He becomes the the light of everybody's world because God as Romans 8 28 and 29 says and we know that for those who love

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God and all things work together for good for Those who are called according to his purpose Those for those who meet for new he also predestined to be a conformed to the image of a son in order that he might

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Be the firstborn among many brothers. So we know those who love God those who believe in Christ and love

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God called according to To his purpose and all things good bad ugly and indifferent all things

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Ultimately serve for our good no matter how bad they may be So that's another important thing to to bear in mind because they will often use that as an excuse to say

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Well, it was rape. It was incest. And of course, that's less than 1 % of all cases of abortion. So it's not even really the issue but Obviously it happens and we need to be aware of that and I I also wanted to mention this because I didn't get a chance to last the last few weeks

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The early church very clearly condemned abortion as well There's something called the dedicate which is in Greek.

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It's the it's the 12. It's the teaching of the 12 and It's early 2nd century. So we're talking in the early 100s.

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Okay that that Track says you shall not commit murder.

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You shall not commit adultery. You shall not commit pederasty You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal you shall not practice magic.

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You shall not practice witchcraft You shall not murder a child by abortion Nor kill that which is born

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So it condemns it unequivocally the early church already understood that God in his word condemned it

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So it's something to that's what you know Somebody at City Hall was studying at seminary and they were pro -choice

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They were studying the Bible and claiming to be pro -choice. It was just absolutely despicable.

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These people are just there's there's just a cloud of deception over them and That's why

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I think it's important to have really important to focus on having a biblical balance

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Having biblical balance when it comes to this issue a very contentious in a very complex issue and also to have

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Biblical dividing lines, where do we draw the line? And where do we draw have the right balance?

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this requires us to develop a biblical worldview and apologetic and Like like with anything up when we're doing apologetics with it

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Whether it's false religions with his Roman Catholicism where it's Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons abortion is no different It requires a biblical apologetic and our apologetic matters because Consistency matters because truth matters truth is consistent and God is the way the truth in the life.

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Amen and first Corinthians 1433 says God is not a

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God of confusion but of peace a peace love and a sound mind and so we have to have a consistent biblical understanding of what

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God Speaks to us regarding the issue of abortion now if we turn to Proverbs chapter 26 and Proverbs 26 verses 4 through 5 we're going to cover an important passage with respect to apologetics and this will serve as the foundation that we're going to use to go forward and Knowing how to discern and how to apply apologetics to the issue of abortion

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So Proverbs 26 for 4 through 5 so in Proverbs 26 verse 4 through 5

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God says Answer not a fool according to his folly lest you be like him yourself

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Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes So there's a two -part freight.

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There's two parts to this passage The first is to answer answer not a fool according to be to according to his folly lest you be like him yourself

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What this means is we don't want to answer somebody by adopting their own assumptions

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We want to always assume as Christians the truth of God's Word.

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That is our foundation that is our Absolute standard what by which we must judge all things that's all the scriptura, right?

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That's what that was one of the mottos of the Reformation sola scriptura Scripture is the final ultimate authority that trumps all other standards all other opinions of men

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And so we must never abandon our post from Scripture Scripture is the foundation

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The second part is to answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes

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So here what Scripture is explaining is that yes You do want to answer a fool according to his folly to demonstrate how foolish his position is

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The way we do that is by showing that his position is either inconsistent. It contradicts itself or it's absurd right and so one one example of this

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You'll you'll often hear from people on the pro -choice side say it's the mother's body.

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Therefore. It's her choice, right? my body my choice The only problem with that of course is that it's not her body

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There is another body in there, right and that other body just happens to have a head a heart brain limbs

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So it's like saying what are you saying? Are you saying you have two heads? You have two hearts four legs four arms

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That's demonstrating the absurdity of that argument, right? And that's a way we demonstrate the foolishness of their position

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By cut by showing it's either contradictory or leads to absurdity also known as the ad hominem argument

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Not the abusive one but the proper way to argue ad hominem arguing according to what they believe so And we also have to keep in mind that virtually all pro -choice all pro -abortion arguments are echoes of notorious eugenicists

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Nazis the Holocaust Racism and slavery they all echo those wicked godless agendas because they all devalue human life

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Fundamentally devalue human life the slaves the Jews and now the unborn they devalue what it what that God made human life in his image including the womb including the child in the womb and we saw several of those passages especially in the

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Gospels and in the Psalms how God Has a distinct purpose for every person in the womb.

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He forms them in the womb. He has a purpose for them since before that they're born and so We have to be biblically grounded and balanced with respect to this and I Like this example

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Martin Luther from the Reformation gives us a great example of this When he was in the

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Diet of Worms in the Diet of Worms he was being challenged by Charles Emperor the fifth who was the

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Roman Catholic Emperor and He they wanted the Catholic Church wanted Luther to recant his views because they deemed them heretical because they were challenging the

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Catholic Church and so Luther Responded by saying this unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of the scriptures or by clear arguments

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Since I believe neither the Pope nor the councils alone it being evident that they have often erred and contradicted themselves

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I am conquered by the Holy Scriptures quoted by me and my conscience is bound in the

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Word of God I cannot and will not recant anything Since it is unsafe and dangerous to do anything against conscience here.

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I stand I cannot do otherwise God help me. Amen so Here we see

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Luther's print Luther's conviction His underlying conviction was you better show me scripture or good arguments logic

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Logical arguments in scripture. That's our standard. We need to use scripture and plain reason

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Now the problem that I've noticed as a result of doing this study is that many people in the pro -life movement?

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They love to use science. They love to use science. They love to use Reason they love to use logic but in many cases they deliberately avoid using the

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Bible and That violates what we just read in Proverbs to not answer the fool according to his folly

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They should Lester be made a fool like him because we cannot abandon our standard for truth

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We have to stay grounded in the word always That's the main problem with the pro -life movement is that there are often a lack of biblical balance

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With respect to many issues, not just that one Because with respect to a boy with really with respect to anything, but especially with respect to abortion

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We have to balance the natural and the spiritual We have to balance and make sure we're not too liberal or too ecumenical, which is another major problem in the pro -life movement too friendly with Catholics and others who are not who don't hold to the biblical gospel or To earth sometimes it's too earthly minded meaning that it doesn't have a proper eternal perspective in mind

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And it's also sometimes it can be too spiritual without a proper consideration for the political and practical ramifications of how we should respond as Christians in the public sphere and So there there's so many of these things that we have to juggle as As Christians to make sure that we are responding according to God and his word and Sadly another problem is that like I mentioned most pro -life organizations oppose charging mothers who have abortions with murder and This came to a full

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Public view when Texas attempted to criminalize abortion and also charged the woman under homicide

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To bring her under the legal code of homicide Abby Johnson, who is a prominent

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Catholic pro -life Spokesperson publicly opposed it.

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She publicly opposed the bill and sadly, John Leach who was

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I think he's a house representative in Texas, he shot it down and It's very sad to see that it got shot down and And you see a lot of these issues stem from an unbiblical perspective or understanding of how to view this issue and That's why the trigger laws they're called trigger laws that just got passed in Texas do nothing to the woman

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They only charged the abortionist with with the crime. They don't touch the woman because of what happened here previously

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But and so like first Thessalonians 521 says we must test everything and hold fast to that which is good and to abstain from every form of evil and our

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Thinking and our thoughts and our actions and our doing and everything that we do so this brings us now to the next part of the message here that I wanted to Give a little bit of an evaluation of different resources that I've come across to better equip us and to help us to to learn to learn from their

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Contributions and from their mistakes so that we also learn how to maintain a proper biblical balance with respect to this issue.

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And I Noticed that I never really quite agreed with any one

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Organization or person with respect to the issue of abortion because there's a lot of things that you have to consider with this issue

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The first one that I had listed here. His name is Scott Klusendorf, and he's a very prominent

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Pro -life apologist you might say he's an he's an evangelical Christian and you'll often see his debates on YouTube and While he does have some good counter arguments some ad hominem arguments

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He has a fundamental flaw in his approach and that is that he doesn't like to use the

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Bible to defend life And you'll see this. This is an ongoing theme here that you're going to keep seeing

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He explicitly said on a debate that he doesn't argue for sectarian or a particular sectarian or religious view

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Just with science and logic The problem of course is on what grounds do you have to say anything, right?

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The only grounds we have for anything. We know or say is true is

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God in his Word Who commanded thou shalt not murder? It was the

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God of the Bible that is the one who commanded you shall not murder We cannot abandon the foundation the

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God who commanded those very things and so we have to be careful Another book that I came across Was Randy Alcorn, he's a prominent another prominent pro -life minister he wrote a book here called pro -life why pro -life and You'll see some good facts and statistics in this book but again

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There's a there's sort of a failure because he explicitly says in this book that he is not going to Touch the

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Bible to try to argue for why abortion is wrong. He's just going to use science and facts and logic so you see this again and He does say that he has another book called pro -life answers to pro -choice arguments where he does discuss the scripture, which is good

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But again, we don't want to ever do one and not the other you want to present the whole package as much as possible

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Because that is our foundation for that. We have to stand on that is what we have to hold people to the standard of truth in the scriptures and so This brings me to the next

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Organization called life dynamics headed by Mark Crutcher and He's a very generous

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That's a very generous organization actually ordered a case of books from them free of charge only just the shipping

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Paying the shipping and we have some books here from from life dynamics called line 5 and it's an in -depth expose of the abortion

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Industry, so feel free to take a copy for yourself and for anybody else who you think might benefit from that It's a very good expose on the abortion industry in general and This this individual he's much like a general in the pro -life movement

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He is a very brilliant strategist and I've learned a great deal from him just so many different things that I've learned and just how complicated and how

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How particular you have to be with respect to the issue of abortion and how because it bleeds into so many different areas in our life and in society and so And I often quote him

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I've often quoted him in many of my speeches to City Council and to the County Commissioners Court he has a lot of very good information and The other thing that I that I appreciate about him is that he's not a

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Catholic. He's actually a Southern Baptist But but that being said there's there is a there's another really

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Disappointing flaw in his approach because for him Abortion is the all -important issue.

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It's the all -important all -consuming issue even at the expense of other primary issues like false teaching or the biblical gospel and this is where it's easy to lose our balance if we're not careful and so He he does he claims that God hates the murder of abortion the murder of children and abortion more than anything else

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More than anything. And so you see that our theology will drive us to our conclusions

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But there's a there's a slight issue with that because it's completely overlooking the fact that God also severely hates and despises

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False teaching and false teachers and especially religious hypocrites like the Pharisees He despises them in fact more than anything else

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You see the virulence and the hatred with which Christ denounced the Pharisees in which God renounces false teaching and you will see when

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Paul says in Galatians 1 if Anybody brings to you any gospel that is different from the one that you have received from me.

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Let him be anathema eternally condemned to hell So that is the all -important issue.

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We must have truth. We must have the true gospel This actually reminds me of another ministry called

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Zola Levitt and they are a sort of messianic Jewish organization that in one of their articles they were talking about Israel the the nation of Israel and the

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Pope and they were saying they were disappointed because the Pope said something negative about Israel and At the end of the article they encouraged their readers to pray that the that the

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Pope will have a Will change his disposition towards Israel to make it more of a positive one and it kind of stunned me because it's like What do you what do you mean?

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What? Who cares what the Pope thinks about Israel? He needs to step down and stop being Antichrist He needs to denounce his false gospel, right?

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What that's you but you see where you you see these driving convictions that people have and the conclusions that they lead to because they

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Don't have an eternal perspective in mind They have an earthly perspective towards a certain nation like Israel or towards abortion and it sometimes causes us to lose our balance

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So we have to be careful with respect to this and the reason I'm explaining this because in one of his podcasts

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Mark Crutcher talks about how he loves Pope John Paul the second and He actually loves him as one of the finest leaders of our time of the 20th century because he very publicly spoke out against abortion now, of course

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That speaking out against abortion it is good to do those things however, the fact that you are eternally murdering over a billion souls with a false gospel as Antichrist it's pretty much nullifies what you do in abortion

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You you don't have a biblical balance you lose your biblical balance at that point We have to have proper biblical perspective because it's not going to do you any good to be pro -life and still go to hell

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Having a false gospel and not being saved by faith alone in Christ alone right, so we must have a again a biblical perspective with respect to these issues and so We need both the law and the gospel that is the foundation of sound doctrine of The Reformation and of what the scriptures teach we need to have both the law and the gospel the law in this situation

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Obviously with respect to abortion as you shall not murder right, but that's not the only thing

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We also need the gospel. We need redemption from our sin. We need redemption from abortion and we need redemption from God's wrath, which is the gospel that God came live the perfect life and died for sinners on the cross and by faith and Trusting in him and in the sacrifice that the perfect sacrifice that he made and in his life

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We can be fully pardoned of all sin That is the balance that we must have as believers and not lose sight of that of his word the law and the gospel and so We we really need to encourage and I would like to get in touch with him and speak more with him about this because I think he

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He has a lot of good things to offer It's just that you kind of have to chew the meat and spit out the bones Sometimes you're just not going to find everything necessarily from one organization that you need

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Another organization that I came across was Operation Rescue and I recently learned from James White that Operation Rescue Apparently has a fuzzy position on what the gospel is and so again, you kind of see

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The problem with them with that with respect to that issue as well. However, they do have some very good information

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Exposing the abortion clinics in Texas, including the one that dr France France their runs or used to run at hilltop the hilltop women's clinic that they shut down And there's a lot of good information exposing him and the abortionists in Texas and in El Paso and in New Mexico So there's good information there that we can also

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Draw from so again, we must chew the meat spit out the bones and keep learning and keep growing

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There was another Minister his name is Will Ford whom I learned a great deal

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He has a DVD called the truth behind abortion and I really appreciate his the his his teaching because He really uncovers the reality of abortion a spiritual warfare that it is demonic warfare

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Because there are there are spirits tied to abortion specifically molek and Lilith there's there's the devil is

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Fierce with respect to this issue and he manifests himself and in feminism the spirit of feminism feminism is also the spirit of Lilith the demon spirit of Lilith and so we have to fight back this agenda by Equipping ourselves with the full armor of God according to Ephesians 6 we need to fight

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In a sense fire with fire the spirit with the spirit Which is the sword of the spirit being the

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Word of God that is the weapon of our warfare However, we again have to be careful not to over spiritualize the conflict and disregard

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Organizations like Planned Parenthood and ACLU and all of these feminist pro abortion organizations because they are also the enemy

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They are the ones pushing the devil's agenda in our society and in the public sphere And so we have to remember that the enemy is not always some disembodied spirit who's floating around Causing trouble in the behind the scenes.

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He really does manifest himself in society in organizations like Planned Parenthood and others and so But whereas the demons the devil and demons don't have redemption

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Pro abortion advocates do have the chance of redemption if they believe the gospel so we must continue to offer them the gospel and that's why we must not we must strive not to alienate them or Provoke them but rather seek to win them over win them over to the truth through the gospel into Christ so the the another

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Another organization here that uh That had some some very good things as well.

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It's called and abortion now by Jeff Durbin now this or this organization They tend to be a lot more

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Bible centered, which I really appreciate it. They have a biblical perspective They say that we need to argue from Scripture We need to protest our legislators and let them know that you should be defending the unborn and making our city a safe haven according to what

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God says because God says that murder is evil and so We they also have some documentaries.

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I think you can watch babies are murdered here and but again

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There's there's concerns with them because they do tend to partner up a lot with false ministers like Doug Wilson who are unstable men

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That teach they don't teach the biblical gospel And so it's similar to partnering up with the

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Roman Catholic Church because they don't have a biblical gospel either So we that we don't want to compromise the truth by partnering up with false

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Views false Gospels or false ministers because as Scripture says you cannot sit at the

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Lord's table and at the table of devils right, we must maintain a distinction and to call them to repentance as well, so the other issue

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Here is that they are also abolitionists and this is an important term that we need to understand with respect to the issue of abortion

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Abolitionism versus incrementalism Means that with an abolitionist will push for the complete abolishment of human abortion complete abolishment outlaw it completely and criminalize it completely criminalize every party who is involved the woman the abortionist, etc, so now

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This is the good thing. This is a perspective that we should adopt because it is a biblical perspective Abortion must be condemned at every level.

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However The problem is that they tend to oppose incremental legislation such as the heartbeat bills like the one we have in Texas and this can bring us into problems because So incremental legislation means that it doesn't outlaw abortion, but it regulates it

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It says you can't kill babies past 13 weeks or past 18 weeks or 20 weeks

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So they pass incremental legislation in hopes that it will actually Be easier to to pass and at least save some lives rather than no lives that's the that tends to be the the logic and so we need to be wary of We should be careful with incremental legislation because it can be very dangerous and it can be unstable

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And it can be and it can be easy to sidestep but But but but I think

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Mark Crutcher has a really good perspective on this because he says That when you are pro -life and you oppose

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Incremental legislation you can often give politicians the impression that the pro -life movement is at odds with each other

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Can't get their act together Due to infighting and lead to a lack of confidence and trust because we're we're we're we're sounding an uncertain sound

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And that's what first Corinthians 14 7 through 8 tells us that even if lifeless Instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes.

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How will anyone know what is played? and If the bugle gives an indistinct sound who will get ready for battle?

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So that's the problem with incremental opposing Incremental legislation can have consequences that causes infighting and it distracts from the real issue and so Because there's a difference

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There is a difference between advocacy and support if you advocate something

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Like an incremental legislation that would be wrong because that's all you advocate for that should not be our view.

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It's okay to support Incremental legislation with the qualification that we are going to continue to fight for full abolition

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This is just a stepping stone to get us to full abolition of human abortion and so if there's a difference there and we need to be aware of that so that we don't fall into this trap of infighting and us as an opposing legislation that may actually save lives and does save lives, so we it's not necessarily wrong to support incremental legislation and now

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Because you'll often you'll see we we've killed 65 million babies in our country this used to be 5 ,000 babies per day in our country 5 ,000 per day now

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We're down to 2 ,000 per day Obviously that's still an abomination Obviously that needs to end completely

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But the reduction of 3 ,000 babies being saved is due almost entirely to incremental legislation

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So there we have to ask ourselves. Was it worth it saving 3 ,000 babies as opposed to the 5 ,000 that we had

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Was it worth it? And our answer should be yes, of course. It's worth saving babies, even if it's not saving all of them

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It's kind of like Schindler's List and where Oscar Schindler tried to save as many Jews as he could and he later

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Lived with a lot of regret because he said well, I could have sold my car and saved more I could have done more

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It's like yeah. Well, of course we can do more and we should do more but saving some is

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Better than saving none and that I think is the important takeaway with respect to incremental legislation so The next ministry that I came across was full armor ministries by John O 'Rourke and he's

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Affiliated with a pastor pastor Patrick Hines up in Tennessee, and we love pastor

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Hines he was in our podcast network for a few years and He's a great pastor.

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He's a he's an awesome awesome pastor who preaches the Word of God faithfully and I've seen a lot of John O 'Rourke's teaching

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It's very helpful teaching and he also tends to have a better balance than most Because he grounds himself in the word and he doesn't partner with ecumenical teachers or organizations that preach a false gospel

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So it's very refreshing because that's very rare you're gonna see it's rare and hard to find ministries that have a biblical balance with respect to that issue and and Yet even though he tends to be more balanced

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It's still hard to find in -depth information the kind of information that you're going to find from somebody like Mark Crutcher in From life dynamics because I forgot to mention that Mark Crutcher has been doing pro -life ministry for 40 years

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Exclusively full -time so there there's something to benefit from those men who have dedicated their lives to that cause

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This is why we need to diversify our research instead of relying on just one ministry And this is true in general not just abortion

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But in general when studying theology in the Bible, we need to diversify and research different perspectives so that we don't fall prey to biases that we become unaware of we need to check our biases by getting different perspectives and also examining everything to the scriptures so Another problem that I noticed though is that sometimes

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John O 'Rourke will oversimplify the abortion problem a little bit and not always be accurate with respect to the reality of the situation especially when it comes to he claims that Ultrasounds education and earthly means of protesting abortion or deterring people from abortion don't really help

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And he says this because mankind is radically depraved because of what the Bible teaches about men being

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Inherently corrupt and evil which is true That it not that is true men are depraved

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But they're not utterly depraved and their depravity varies. We're not all as bad as Hitler was everybody has different levels of depravity where as an unbeliever and we need to be aware of that because Some unbelievers can become convinced of pro -life of the pro -life perspective without coming to Christ That is a possibility and it happens very often

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In fact, especially with a very prominent Catholic organizations that you find even the one the one here in El Paso with Southwest Coalition for Life Which is a

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Catholic organization that's pro -life and yet they don't have the biblical gospel. So we

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We need to and Abby Johnson is another one we need to We need to not overlook the reality that Even The the issue there is not that well, yes, these arguments can convince somebody of becoming pro -life but the the issue of The issue that the gospel ultimately aims to resolve is that of eternal life?

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It's the issue of eternal life. Obviously it speaks to the issue of abortion because the law under undergirds the gospel you shall not murder and You cannot be truly pro -life unless you are pro gospel you can't you cannot separate those two

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It makes no sense you can be pro but you can be pro -life and still go to hell again because pro -life unbelievers

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Ultimately cannot account for their pro -life position apart from the Bible or without stealing from the

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Bible Because God alone is the one who has the authority to kill life and to take it and to say what's right?

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And what's wrong? And the way the only way we know is through his word through his written word and what he has said it's in his in it

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So the problem there, of course is if you don't believe the gospel you will perish eternally

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And so that's the issue. That is the ultimate issue of the gospel now another thing we need to be careful of is to overlook the reality that Mothers and fathers who performed abortions can be victims as well and Sometimes it sounds like a lot of these guys who are abolitionists.

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They will Overlook the fact that women can be victims They can be the society the ignorant the gullible women, especially younger women and and men can fall prey to the deception and the lies of the devil's agenda from the abortion industry and so The abortion industry are masters of deception.

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They are child. They are children of the devil they will deceive you left and right and so it is possible and Because they have a conflict of interest they want abortions because they make money off of abortions obviously and they're gonna they will

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They will it's kind of like what Jesus told the Pharisees Well, they will they will cross land and sea to me only to make a convert a twofold son of hell and so money is behind a lot of this the love of money and with so we need to be careful and And sympathize with the fact that women can and often are victims

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Even though that doesn't necessarily absolve them from the guilt of their sin It because it's possible for you to be for you to be both guilty to both be deceived and therefore a victim

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But also guilty because you murdered your child Okay, so and like I quoted him last week first Timothy 2 14 through 15

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It says that Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and still became a transgressor

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Okay Deception does not absolve you from guilt. That's that's the important principle there

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Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self -control

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Now the last resource I wanted to talk about here I think is really important because it shows the danger of falling into falling prey to to these dangerous extremes and that is known as abolish human abortion or the

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AHA and There's local there's people locally that are from the AHA here in El Paso as well

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So I really want to make sure that we have a biblical Understanding of how to relate to them

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And to see what they say So a AHA says that We are not

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There I'm quoting this from their website abolish human abortion comm so they say we are not attacking the

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Bride of Christ in any way Rather we are exhorting all believers

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Everywhere to be the church and to boldly practice true and vital

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Christianity in the midst of a culture that kills his children So that on face value Amen, right?

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That's a good thing. We should be exhorting each other and we should be participating actively in the ending of abortion just like Nazi Germany if we were

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Christians in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust we should as Christians actively protest the

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Brutal brutal murdering of Jews. This is no different. This is the silent

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Holocaust of six times more Murders than even the

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Holocaust itself so We should exhort one another to participate in ending abortion in whatever way we can

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But they continue they say we shall demonstrate that abortion itself is a greater threat to the mission of the church

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Then is abolitionist agitation So now we're starting to see their agenda what they mean by abolitionist

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Agitation that's what they do. They agitate people Christians and churches to be more active in abolition of abortion

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But we this is where we're going to see their true colors They also say we shall peaceably assemble outside of our nation's child sacrifice centers, which are abortion clinics courthouses and church buildings and Stand in protest all along the roads which connect these guilty institutions

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So now you see what they're what they're saying here they are implicating all

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Christians and churches as guilty institutions of abortion Because of a failure to do what they're doing

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Okay, so now they're ratcheting it up a notch. This is not just exhorting Exhorting is one thing accusing you of being a guilty institution

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Guilty party is another and we need to be careful not to cross that line They continue we shall call upon all those who claim to be adopted by Christ to do the same in other words to do exactly the same that they do

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We shall not think speak or write with moderation We shall be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice

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We will use no moderating tones to take the place of what ought to have been an outrage at This abomination for the past 42 now almost 50 years

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We will not equivocate. We will not retreat a single inch and we will be heard We shall admonish and rebuke professing believers in Jesus Christ who neglect the plight of their pre -born neighbors in the same manner that our

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Lord rebuked and admonished the Pharisees Who neglected justice mercy and faithfulness in his day?

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So now we see this coming to full fruition We see now they're schizophrenic ideology on the one hand.

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They're saying we're exhorting believers We're not going after the church in any way. We're just exhorting them and then here they're saying they're accusing pretty much the church that doesn't do exactly what they do as being as hypocritical and guilty as the

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Pharisees Which if you read Matthew Matthew 23, you'll see that Jesus Christ despised and hated the

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Pharisees more than anybody else on earth So this is a problem They are not simply exhorting.

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They are condemning the church as guilty and Accusing it of pharisaical hypocrisy therein lies the danger where we need to be careful

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The body and help bright of help made bright of Christ This is what they're saying The body and help made bright of Christ has an obligation to actively and visibly oppose the ongoing practice of child sacrifice

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Going on in her midst as part of her mandate to be salt and light Fulfill the Great Commission and be ambassadors of the kingdom of God who do not neglect the weightier matters of his law

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The translation however, this is what they mean If you don't agree with them in every single point and do exactly as they do

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They're going to call you out as guilty participants of abortion whether you're a church or a

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Christian Whatever you are going to be condemned as a pharisaical hypocrite

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This is where you see them be very cult like in their behavior this is a cult and we need to stay away from these people and Admonish them to repent and to have restore a biblical balance on this issue

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They're calling everyone out in the church who does not prioritize abortion as the ultimate thing as hypocritical

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Pharisees, so This is where we have to be careful Abortion is not the ultimate thing.

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It is a very primary thing It is a primary issue, but there are other primary issues at stake

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Including false teaching including the LGBT agenda There's a lot of issues the church needs to pay attention to not exclusively or not just abortion

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Not even necessarily primarily abortion so That's the contradiction whereas Here they say all we are asking

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Fellow Christians to do is to love their neighbors them as themselves and to love God in whose image their neighbors are made

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There's a contradiction. You're not asking them You are demanding that they be exactly like you and do exactly what you do

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Which is schizophrenic in its ideology, it's dangerous its imbalance and it leads to schism and Sin in the church because they go after churches who don't do exactly what they do even churches that are doing pro life ministry and That's the danger here

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So we need to be careful We need to have a balance as Christians and as a church not to lose sight of the other issues that are at stake

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We have many things to fight against abortion is one of many and yes abortion should be a focus

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But so should the LGBT agenda the what's that bill called that Biden is trying to push the

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Equality Act the This is directly going to affect churches as well.

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There's there's false teaching. There's false Gospels There's all of these different issues that we need to also have in mind

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So that's where we have to Strive to keep a biblical balance and not to see now

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They're guilty of the very thing They're accusing the church of being in in condemning everybody else because they're not like them

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They become the Pharisees because now you're not like us. You're not doing exactly what we do.

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Therefore. You're the hypocrite so that exposes them as hypocrites themselves and Losing sight of what's most important or the balance that scripture calls us to have

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So now we can move on to calls to action. I Have a few things here that we want to be at bear in mind in our calls to action

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As Christians, we cannot be passive with respect to abortion. We should play an active role as much as we can

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Active role there is also forgiveness for abortion. Like I mentioned, of course, there's forgiveness for sin all of us are guilty of murder because all of us have hated somebody and Being a hate being a hater and God's eyes makes you a murderer at heart

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So we must we must have mercy and compassion on people who have had abortions We also need to mention that That Sorry my

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Legislators, okay We also Yeah we cannot turn a blind eye to this and I was actually going to mention this to City Council by telling them because they were trying to pretend like Abortion is not an issue by simply not keeping record of it and I wanted to tell them that you don't have the power or authority to do that because the only thing

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That can wipe your slate clean From abortion and all other sin is the power and blood of Christ Right.

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That's the only thing that has the power to wipe the stain of abortion And so we have to bear that in mind be discerning

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Calling yourself a Republican or Christian does not necessarily make you a balanced pro -life Christian We have to have a biblical balance

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And so we all have a role to play not just in El Paso, but also with our neighbors in New Mexico They are ramping up the abortion market in Mexico, New Mexico in fact, the

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Mississippi abortion clinic called the pink house is moving to Las Cruces and And The Santa Teresa clinic the woman's reproductive clinic is still there

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So we need and the governor of New Mexico has no shame whatsoever She is like bring it on come over to New Mexico.

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Have your abortion. So with that the battleground is right in our backyard Also one important thing.

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I wanted to mention if you are pregnant if you have a child I encourage you to ask your OBG OBGYN what their view of abortion is

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Ask them what their view of the unborn is that is important because that can be dangerous to have

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Your child's life in their hands and if they believe that abortion is okay So keep that in mind

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This is a call to arms against the spiritual wickedness in high places Again, like I mentioned to put on the full armor of God and I'll close by reading

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Ephesians 6 10 through 18 Where God instructs us to put on the full armor of God? Finally be strong in the

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Lord and in the strength of his might Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil for we do not wrestle

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Against flesh and blood but against the rulers against authorities against the cosmic powers of this present darkness

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Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day and having done all to stand firm

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Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and As shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace the gospel.

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We must have the gospel and In all circumstances take up the shield of faith in which you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of Salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the

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Word of God The Word of God praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end

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Keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the Saints. Amen so we must prepare ourselves as a church to be

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Christ Church and to be good Samaritans to our Community to open our doors to people affected by abortion to support ministries and organizations that are balanced with pro -life and the gospel and Seek even consider adopting unwanted children financially helping struggling women or giving shelter to women who have difficult situations like this and also to protest and the

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City Council and The the court the county courthouse you can also call in and and to protest their their wicked agendas

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In fact, they're trying to push one. They're probably going to try to push the same abortion ordinance this Thursday at the county level now so we

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This is something where we're at war and being at war war requires you to be constantly vigilant about what's going on and constantly fighting against the enemy and to destroy the works of the devil and so with that I thank you for your patience and let's

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Let's go ahead and close this series out with a word of prayer Our gracious precious

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Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord for the opportunity to deep dive into your word with respect to the issue of abortion help us

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Father God to be salt and light in Our city in our county and with our neighbors in New Mexico help us and equip us

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Lord to be Christians who? With the full armor of God to fight and withstand the enemy

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Lord knowing that he is at work all Around us and to not lose heart to not lose

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Confidence or trust in you father God regardless of the outcome regardless of what happens regardless of what our city tries to do with its laws

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We let us continue to fight against the wickedness of abortion of the enemy on all fronts and to continue to strive

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After holiness and to be salt and light Lord and equip us to do that and to seek your kingdom and your righteousness first and foremost

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Especially in family worship father God we also lift up in prayer those who are going to be baptized today We thank you for this wonderful opportunity to see the powerful testimony of your work in other people's lives and to rejoice with them and to celebrate that you have

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You have gained More lost sheep into your fold father God let us rejoice together as a family and household of faith and in Jesus name

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We pray amen Thank you for listening to the sermons of thorn crown

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Covenant Baptist Church Where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life we strive to be biblical reformed historic confessional loving discerning

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Christians who evangelize Stand firm in and earnestly contend for the Christian faith if you're looking for a church in the

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El Paso, Texas area Or for more information about our church sermons and ministries such as simple reform on the radio and thorn crown

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Network podcasts Please contact us at thorn crown ministries .com and may the mercy peace and love of our trium