Those Who Hate Me Love Death

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There is no abomination more likely to kindle the judgment of God against a nation than the murder of the unborn.

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Child sacrifice and the shedding of innocent blood not only brings judgment, it is judgment, brothers and sisters.

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You're called to love. You're called to protect. You're called to be sacrificial. You're not called to sacrifice.

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You're made in the image of God, ma 'am. Abortion is murder. It's murder.

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Murder is the unjustified killing of a human being with malice of forethought.

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That is murder. Hear now the words 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 weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it?

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And will he not repay man according to his work? As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together.

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Father, I pray, Lord, that you would get me out of the way, that you would speak to your people.

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Lord, open your words to our understanding. I pray that you illuminate your words today.

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Help us to see and understand. Open our minds to your truth. Lord, please use us.

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Use us, Father. To bring your people to yourself, to spread light into our world and to be salt.

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I pray, Lord, specifically for this room and the people who have sacrificed time to be here,

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Lord, who are listening to your word. I pray, Lord, you'd raise people up in this room that you would use to bring healing to this nation, to bring justice.

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We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. It's a powerful text.

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I just read to you Proverbs 24. It is one of the verses, actually, that God used to impress upon us at Apologia Church our need to lay our lives down for the sake of love for God and love for our neighbor.

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It's a powerful verse. The Proverbs is an amazing book. It really is, and it's a powerful book of wisdom, and that is skill in living.

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How do you live for God? How do you live in a way that glorifies God, honors

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God? It's a powerful book because you go from verse to verse to verse, and it's divine wisdom.

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It's skill in living, not simply knowledge, not gaining knowledge and understanding.

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It's not merely the abstract. Wisdom to a Jew is skill in living.

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How do I live? How does God intend for me to live? What's his will in my life? And this is a powerful section of Scripture because there's a command here, rescue those who are being taken away to death.

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Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. This is not the kind of thing, the kind of ministry that is, well,

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I don't want to do that. I'm not sure that I'm really called to that. This is a command of God in Scripture.

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This goes out to all of God's people. Rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

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And of course, this principle fits other contexts as well. But in our context, we're talking about the most vulnerable among us.

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We're talking about fatherless children, children who have been abandoned by their fathers and, of course, their mothers.

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This is the weakest among us. This is the most innocent among us. These are children who have no voice, only heartbeats to call out, no voice, no ability to speak for themselves.

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And these are those who are being led to the slaughter. In my nation alone, as I mentioned earlier, we're about 60 million babies deep, 60 million image bearers of God.

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We have dwarfed the Holocaust in comparison. I just posted something on my page,

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I believe last night, and it was talking about who's the greatest mass murderer of history. And it's interesting to note that in the lineup of the greatest mass murderers in history, they were all socialist, communist, atheists.

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So that is, of course, interesting to note. The worldview behind the greatest mass murderers in history was not the

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Christian worldview, but the Marxist, atheistic, agnostic, socialist worldview.

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But it's interesting because the numbers that they told about the greatest mass murderers were like, well, this guy, you know, made 10 million.

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This one is 45 million. So the greatest mass murderer in history. But in reality, if you look at just my nation alone, we're about 60 million deep in four decades.

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60 million children dead, slaughtered, torn from limb to limb, and it's quite honestly incomprehensible.

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It's impossible for us to actually fathom that. Let's just be honest with it. When you hear the number 3 ,000 babies a day plus murdered in my nation alone, there is no way for an image bearer of God with the weight of that kind of injustice for us to fully comprehend it.

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You can't understand it. 60 million children dead is just too easy to say.

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It's over too quickly. It truly is. There's no way to fathom it, no way to comprehend it, and I think that's what's deadened us to it, and that's why we're so apathetic, we're so indifferent.

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We call it evil. We call it a monstrosity. We say that it must end. But I have to ask the question to myself first, and I have.

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Are you morally indignant but then nothing, no fruit, nothing to display the moral indignance?

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Are you truly genuine in your affections? Let love be genuine.

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Am I genuine in my affections for my pre -born neighbors? Love God, love neighbor.

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No matter where you're at in the law of God discussion, we can all agree that for Christians in the

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New Covenant, the command of God is to love God and to love our neighbor. All of God's commandments rest upon those two commandments, and when we think about this particular text, this verse before us, with a command to hold them back or being led to the slaughter, and when we think about our pre -born neighbors who are dying, every minute they're being slaughtered, not deaths that are humane in terms of how can we make this easier for this image -bearer of God so there's not as much pain.

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How am I truly loving them when I know the facts that abortionists go into a woman with tools, they feel around for a limb, and when they catch one, they pull hard out of the mother and a leg comes out.

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They reach back in, they pull off a limb, another one, an arm, and then they reach back in, they tear the torso to pieces, and then they reach back in and search for the skull, and when they grab the skull, they know because they can't pull them all the way down, then they crush, and when they crush that skull of that baby, stuff comes out, the brains, and then after this baby comes out of the mother, they have to put the baby back together again like a puzzle on the tray to make sure they haven't left pieces of this woman's son or daughter inside of her womb so that she doesn't get an infection and get sick and die.

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This is a brutal process. It is not only inhumane, it is excruciating for that child in the womb.

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It is a barbaric and disgusting practice, or of course you can have the chemical abortion where you'll take a pill and the mother will give birth to her baby boy or baby girl in the toilet.

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This is where we're at, this is what we have to face, and when Jesus tells me, love your neighbor, love your neighbor as you love yourself, greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

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We have to contextualize that and think about it in terms of our cultures, both yours and mine.

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This is happening on a large scale in my culture and in your culture. We have to ask the question, how am

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I loving God and loving my neighbor in the context of abortion? Of course this isn't the only sin we have to speak with the gospel against, it's not the only sin, this isn't the only thing, but it is an apparent, obvious injustice that is taking place right next to us.

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One of the things I had to ask myself in light of this particular text years ago, as a minister of the gospel, as somebody who was pro -life, as somebody who spoke and gave sermons against abortion, am

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I truly serious about this? Do I actually believe that these are image -bearers of God?

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Do I believe that these are children? Do I believe this is my neighbor? Do I really believe it?

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Well, yes, of course, Lord, I believe that it is, I believe everything that I'm saying. And the question I have to ask is, well,

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I have these children being killed less than 20 minutes away from my home.

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What have I ever done to go and show my love for God and love for this little boy or little girl or this mother or father?

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What have I ever done to actually put legs on my love? And the answer was, quite frankly, nothing.

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I haven't done anything, nothing, except just talk about it at coffee shops, talk about what Christians and, of course, vote pro -life.

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And there's something to be considered in terms of when this injustice is all around us,

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I think that Christians in the West, we have truncated the gospel. Please hear me on this, please.

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I know it's late, but I need you to listen closely to this. I think we have truncated the gospel to simple things like what the gospel is, is that you get to go to heaven one day.

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That's the gospel. That's what we say about the gospel, is that if you believe in Jesus, you get to go to heaven today.

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And that's it. That's what we believe about the whole gospel, is that Jesus is God. He came and lived a perfect life and died for sins and rose again.

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Why did he go through all of that? Well, fundamentally, it's so you get to go to heaven one day. And the answer is, yes, of course, it's the gift of eternal life and Jesus through his work.

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But I believe that we have backgrounded what's in the foreground of the gospel, and we have foregrounded what's in the background of the gospel.

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What I mean is, is we've taken a blessing of the gospel, a truth of the gospel, like heaven one day and eternal life as a gift of God apart from any works.

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We've put that at the very front of the description of the gospel, and we have backgrounded what's at the very front of the gospel, and that's the lordship of Jesus Christ, his redemption of all of creation, the fact that Jesus is putting every enemy under his feet.

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Did you know, for Christians, of course, one of the favorite Bible verses is John 3 .16.

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Some of you may have it on your T -shirt right now. We have T -shirts with our favorite chestnut verses as Christians, right?

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John 3 .16, we wave it at ballparks and games and things like that.

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That's what we do. We have our favorite verses. Well, did you know that I think you can find what God's favorite

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Bible verse is? It's the one that's quoted the most in the New Testament, alluded to, and that is

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Psalm 110 .1. It's the most quoted and alluded to verse in the

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New Testament from the Old Testament. So the inspired authors of the

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New Testament quote this one the most, and it's Psalm 110 .1. What is that? The Lord said unto my

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Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

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Never forget Psalm 2, one of the promises of the kingdom of God, the Messiah himself as he came into the world, the promise from the

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Father to the Son. The Father speaks to the Son in the

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Old Testament. Take that, modalism. That was a theology nerd joke, okay?

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The Father speaks to the Son in the Old Testament in Psalm 2. Here's what he says. He says this to the Son, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession.

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Ask of me, I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession.

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That's what God says to the Son. And then he warns the kings of the earth. He says this, be wise, obey the

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Son, or you'll perish. So Jesus, I'll give you the earth as your possession, all the nations, just ask me.

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And kings, obey my Son or you're going to perish. Question to be asked is something one of my heroes of the faith asked on that particular verse.

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He says, do we think as Christians that Jesus forgot to ask?

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It's quite obvious Jesus didn't forget to ask because his great commission to us in Matthew 28, 18 through 20 was this, all authority, all authority.

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I need to say it again because I don't think that Christians in the West have grasped that in the 21st century.

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Our forebearers did. When they built civilizations, when they built communities and cultures, they built it with the understanding that Jesus was the king.

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He was to be obeyed in the home, in the church, and in the legislature.

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All authority in heaven. Every evangelical Christian believes that. We love that.

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Jesus wields ultimate authority in heaven, right? He's the king on his throne and all the angels bow before him.

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All the saints that have preceded us before him, they're all before his throne. He has absolute authority in heaven.

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Every evangelical Christian says absolutely, yay, and amen. Jesus is the king of heaven. He's in charge of everything.

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His authority is unquestioned. Everything in heaven kneels and bows to Jesus. All authority in heaven.

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Every evangelical says amen. And here's the part we miss. And on earth has been, past tense, given to me.

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So the Great Commission, after Jesus' perfect life and death and resurrection, the Great Commission starts with all authority in heaven and on earth is mine.

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Now it has been given to me. Jesus didn't forget to ask the Father for the nations and the earth for his inheritance.

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And he says, therefore go, because all the authority in heaven and on earth is mine, therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey. So Jesus says, disciple the nations, teach the nation to obey me.

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Why? Because all authority is mine. Jesus is ascended and seated on his throne.

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He is ruling over his kingdom. Now all nations, tribes, peoples, tongues must come to Jesus and bow to him in submission and worship.

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That's the command of the gospel. The gospel is not a suggestion, as we hear it often today with evangelicals.

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You can listen to men like Rick Warren, Christmastime, a couple of years ago, he's on Fox News. And he says,

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I just want you to give Jesus a trial. Just give him a 90 -day trial or 60 -day trial or whatever

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Warren says. Give Jesus a chance. There's this bumper sticker, very popular in the United States.

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Whenever I see it, I have to work on my sanctification, I say this often. Whenever I see it,

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I have to work on not crashing my car into that car. I try to work on loving my neighbor. And what it says is this,

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Jesus died, Jesus died for the opportunity.

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Will you give him a chance? Give Jesus a chance. He died for the opportunity.

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Give Jesus a chance. He died for the opportunity. I'm sorry, brothers and sisters, that is not the call of the gospel.

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That's not how the apostles preached it. That's not how Jesus preached it. That is not how the gospel is communicated.

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And we ask the question, why are our cultures falling into this abyss, into this darkness? Why are they going at the rapid speed that they are?

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Well, Jesus has an answer for that. He says in the most famous sermon in the history of the world, the Sermon on the

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Mount, he says to the church, he says that the meek shall inherit the earth.

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God's people will inherit the earth. Do you hear it? God's people will inherit the earth.

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And he says to the church, he says, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

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What's salt in Jesus' culture? It's a preservative. It preserves things from spoil and decay.

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And what is light but something that dispels darkness? And Jesus says, that's your role, church.

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You're the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world. And we ask the question, well, what's wrong with our cultures? What's wrong with our world?

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Well, if we're the light of the world and the salt of the earth and we don't have a gospel that resembles Jesus' gospel,

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I think we've found our problem. We act like Jesus is something you try out. We act like Jesus and his message is something that, well, you can take or leave.

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You know, it's really just sort of optional. It's a, you know, give him a try kind of a thing. Jesus says,

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I'm the ruler of the world. I'm sitting on my throne. I've died to purchase the world. I am risen.

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I am the king of kings and lord of lords. Repent and believe the gospel. Turn from your sin and trust in me.

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That's the call of the gospel. It's a command, not some option. And I want you to see something in terms of as Christians when we hear this message about abortion and our call to face this injustice.

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I want you to think about something that I had to really grapple with, and it was something in Isaiah chapter two.

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So turn your Bibles to Isaiah chapter two. We, I think, often focus so much inward on the church and church issues that we tend to, again, truncate things to, well, the gospel's about heaven one day.

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It doesn't have much to say about this earth and the world around us. We've truncated the gospel to a few propositions and things where we go when we promise people heaven one day.

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Well, they give Jesus a chance so they can go to heaven one day. Is God concerned with anything more than that?

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I would say when the Bible calls Jesus the king of kings and the lord of lords, that speaks to position and authority right now, not in heaven one day.

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It's not merely some Christian slogan, Jesus is the king of kings and lord of lords, with no meaning.

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It has absolute meaning. Jesus rules over the kings of the earth now, and if they don't obey him, when his wrath is kindled, they will not last.

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Is Jesus concerned with the world around us? Is Jesus concerned with the world being preserved by the church and its saltiness and its light?

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I want you to hear this from God in Isaiah, and I want to just preface this by saying this, please listen closely to this.

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I realize that our situation is not identical to Israel's situation here, but the principles here do not change because God does not change.

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I am the lord, I change not. That's what God says about his own character.

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So my point here is that as we read Isaiah here and God's word to his people, understand that God's character does not change, his will does not change, his desires don't change.

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In this particular case, this gives us the heart of God about the fatherless. Here it is, Isaiah chapter 1,

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Isaiah chapter 1, verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom.

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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. Incense is an abomination to me.

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New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations, I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

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Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates.

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They've become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.

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Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes.

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Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice.

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Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless.

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Plead the widow's cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they should be as white as snow.

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Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you're willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

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But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Here it is, how the unfaithful, how the faithful city has become a whore.

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She who is full of justice, righteousness lodged in her. But now, murderers, your silvers become dross, your best wine mixed with water.

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Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts.

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They, listen, do not bring justice to the fatherless.

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And the widow's cause does not come to them. There's another one of those chestnut verses. Do you hear it?

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Right, that's one of those verses we put on cards as Christians. We put that on Facebook statuses and Instagram posts.

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Girls get nice cups of coffee like lattes and flowers and, you know, Bibles and shot of Isaiah chapter one.

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Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. Do you ever consider with that particular text in this context that that verse right there, that call of God, come, let us reason together.

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Though your sins are as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. God calling his people to come to him for forgiveness and him promising a complete washing away of our sins is in the context of God saying his soul hates their worship.

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And why? Because they are not ceasing to do evil, learning to do good, seeking justice, correcting oppression, and they do not bring justice to the fatherless.

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God's heart here with the fatherless is that you will not bring justice to the fatherless.

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You won't care for these orphaned children. There are murderers lodged in you and you come to me with prayers and hands and worship and convocation and new moons and Sabbath and incense.

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You have all this religious worship, all this religiosity, and in the midst of that religiosity you have the fatherless children, injustice, murder, and you do nothing.

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And God says, my soul hates your worship. Why? Because of the injustice that you tolerate, you do nothing about it.

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You do not seek to correct this oppression and so I hate your worship. I don't want your worship.

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What do I want from you? I want true worship. I want justice. I want you to correct oppression, cease to do evil, learn to do good, plead the cause of the fatherless child.

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It's a powerful thing to consider, brothers and sisters. Please let it hit you. Don't let these words go over you.

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Don't think to yourself, this is for somebody else. Brothers and sisters, this is the word of God speaking to us. And listen,

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I am just sharing this with you from the bottom of my heart. I am not a motivational speaker. Do not misunderstand my passion here for motivational speaking.

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I am not trying to sell you anything, nothing. I'm giving you the word of God on something that is vitally important to understand as Christians.

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I am not going to romanticize this ministry. I will not lie to you. This ministry is awful.

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It is horrible. It is ugly. It is not fun. There is persecution.

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There is danger. There are consequences to this ministry. I will not romanticize this ministry for you.

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I will not. There are beautiful ministries, adoption ministries, where you get hugs around your neck and you get treated in a lovely way because people see what you're doing.

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You're caring for fatherless children and you're caring for them, but it's in a totally different context. There are homeless ministries where when you go out to lay your life down to love your neighbor, you go to give them food.

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You go to give them stuff to drink and toothbrushes and clothes and shoes. And when they receive it, they welcome you and they love you and they hug you.

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So this ministry is the culture of life coming against the culture of death.

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And it is a hostile culture. It is a culture that is founded upon rebellion against our creator.

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You are touching on, and I am touching on, one of the very core parts of the fallenness of our culture, and that is their hatred for God.

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Understand this, brothers and sisters, please hear me on this. The abortion issue is not an issue of the left versus the right, conservatives versus liberals, the liberal party versus the labor party.

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This is an issue of sin and rebellion against God. This is an issue of fallen hearts. God says this, those who hate me love death.

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Those who hate me love death. The answer for abortion in our culture is very simple.

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It's fallen people who need the gospel. Abortion is a gospel issue, a gospel issue.

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And I want to encourage you to hear this. Not only do these texts apply to us as God's people, I want you to encourage you to think about this.

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This is not a romantic and amazing and beautiful ministry. There are moments like Scott showed you that are quite beautiful and amazing, and they'll change your life.

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I don't want to diminish that at all. But I want to warn you, I am calling you to lay your life down. That's what I'm calling you to.

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I'm calling you to come and die. That's the kind of call that Jesus gave for himself. He would speak to thousands of people, crowds, large crowds following Jesus.

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I bet you all of them, the majority of them would have identified with Jesus. Yeah, that's the Messiah. Look what he's doing.

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Look at the miracles. Look at the food. Look at all that he's doing. Look at the way he speaks and teaches. Sure, that's the

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Messiah. They would have been nominal followers of Jesus. No question about that for what Jesus did for them.

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But when Jesus turns to them in Luke and says this, If anyone comes to me and does not hate father, mother, he's just naming everyone we love the most, sister, brother, wife, and even your own life, you're not worthy to be my disciple.

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He says, if you don't take up the cross and do the death march, walk to your death, you're not worthy to be my disciple.

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And there is the moment where you see those who truly know Jesus, understand his message because they all leave.

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They walk away. And Jesus turns, of course, to the ones that are still there. He says, do you also want to leave?

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And they say, where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life.

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They understood who he was. They understood the context of this world and this message. But the nominal ones that understand the commitment turned away from Jesus.

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They didn't want to come and die. And just know this, that when you come to Christ and you are joined to him, you are joined to him in his death and resurrection.

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And as a believer, it is a gift of God, a gift from his hands, a beautiful gift that smells like Christmas.

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It is wrapped and has a bow on it, a gift from God, Philippians 129.

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It has been gifted to you not only to believe in Christ, listen, listen, but also to suffer for his sake.

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Both are gifts from God. And if we're honest with ourselves, we always say to the first one, yes, thank you.

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The gift of faith to believe in Jesus. You can keep the second gift, Lord, I'll take the first.

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But both are gifts from God, do you hear it? Both are gifts from God, faith in Jesus and suffering for Christ.

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When you enter into God's kingdom, you get Christ's righteousness, amen? No more guilt, no more shame,

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God will never count your sins against you. He counts you righteous apart from works, but never forget, you are brought into a kingdom under the rule of Jesus and he employs us into the world to be his light, his light into the world.

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And please hear me on this, I'm calling you to be godly troublemakers. I hear that's a real problem in the

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Australian church, it is in mine too in the United States, it's a problem in our church. We love our comforts, we love our comfort.

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A brother just reminded me during the break about a quote from a well -known

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Christian that says, the greatest enemy of the 21st century church is the 21st century church.

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It's not liberalism, it's not Marxism, it's not socialism, it's not Mormonism, the watchtower,

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Roman Catholicism or whatever you want to throw in there. The greatest enemy of the 21st century church is the 21st century church in terms of we love our comforts, we have an idol of comfort, an idol of self, we don't want to risk, we don't want to suffer, we don't want to sacrifice, be honest.

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We're afraid to face this down in our culture because of what people will think about us, what people will say about us, what we will lose.

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And as we idolize comfort and all these things, ease, not wanting to be persecuted, children die every moment in our culture, dead, ripped to shreds, gone, never to be found again, thrown into dumpsters and toilets, children, image bearers of God, dead.

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They die all around us while we love our comfort, while we worship our comfort ourselves. I'm calling you to be godly troublemakers, the kind of godly troublemakers that you see in our

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New Testament. Here's what I'm going to challenge you to do. Please, remember this, Acts, read the book of Acts, do it, read the book of Acts.

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This next week, do this, try this, read the book of Acts every day, once a day. It won't take you that long, sacrifice some

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Netflix time and just read the book of Acts, once a day, every day, and I challenge you,

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I challenge you to read the book of Acts and ask the question, does their methodology of engaging the world in the public square with the gospel, does it match our methodology today?

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You see, they went into the culture with the gospel, I think Zach said it to you earlier, when

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Jesus talks about the church, he says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

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Gates are defensive, they don't move. We think about it like the gates of hell won't prevail on us, like they're coming towards us.

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No, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church that is overcoming them, and the church in the

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New Testament that turned the world upside down in a generation, in a generation.

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That church was engaging in the public square. People often say, yes, but Pastor Jeff, that's a different culture, it's just so different now, it's just different.

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You see, our culture, we can never engage in the public square like that because it's just seen as offensive, and people don't like it, and they make them angry, a riot might break out, you might take a beating for it, might get thrown into jail, all those things happen to the church in the book of Acts.

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It wasn't a different culture, it was a hostile culture that needed Christ, and the apostles and early leaders of the church were willing to lay their lives down for the sake of love, love of God, and love for neighbor.

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And they were suffering, and they were abused, and riots broke out. When they came to a place to preach the gospel in the public square, riots would break out, they were thrown into jail and beaten.

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People would take oaths not to eat until the

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Apostle Paul is dead. That's the kind of thing that took place in the first century, and listen please, the

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Apostle Paul can say within a generation of the death and resurrection of Jesus, he can say this in Romans chapter one to the church in Rome, your faith is being proclaimed throughout the entire world.

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In Colossians chapter one, Paul says that the gospel has been preached to every creature under heaven in the first century.

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That is glorious, of course at the time he's talking about the known empire, it had spread throughout the entire empire, churches were popping up everywhere, why?

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The church wasn't starting Bible studies in basements, they were bringing the gospel in full power, 100 proof gospel into the culture, and they were suffering as a result of it, and I want you to hear this in Acts chapter nine, it's a fantastic example, go read it later.

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Paul gets knocked off of his high horse, he comes to Jesus right after he was just persecuting the church, he says in Galatians that he tried to destroy the church itself, he is trying to take

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Christians to jail and to beatings and all the rest. He meets Jesus, his eyes are opened, he turns to Christ and in Acts nine, listen, as soon as Paul comes to Jesus, he takes a beeline to Damascus, and it says that he goes to the place of religious worship, to their synagogue, and he actually argues with the

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Jews in their place of religious worship, saying what to them?

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That they're wrong, that they need to repent of their sins and come to Jesus. How offensive.

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That's not very loving, Paul. Paul, listen, you gotta understand, I think there's a better way to love those people, you know?

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I think, Paul, if you could just tell them about all that the

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Lord has for them, the good things and their best life, and people would love it, Paul, right, like it's just not loving to be so confrontational.

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You offended a lot of people in there, Paul, I'm just saying, I just don't know, I just don't know.

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Right? Like, I think you can hear the 21st century evangelical wishy -washy

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Christian saying to Paul, that's not very loving. But what happened when Paul goes into a confrontational mode with love and grace and respect and humility, and he argues with the

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Jews in their synagogue, here's the result, read the text, Acts nine, it says that the church was built up because of his engaging in the public square.

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It says that the church experienced peace, that it was multiplied, what's that mean?

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People were being saved, the church was growing, it was extending, and it says, ready, some people wanted to kill him.

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They want him dead. So all this blessing and conflict and all this stuff and people being offended in the gospel, people being saved, the church experienced peace, building up, and then this segment over here of people wants

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Paul dead. And I think many of us maybe today, because of unbiblical influences, might say, maybe that was a better way.

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See, if you could have done it in a way where they didn't want to kill you, then that would be like Jesus.

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Are you hearing it? That is how our faith comes into this fallen world.

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It comes with light, it comes with conflict, you see it throughout the book of Acts. Engaging in the public square, we need godly troublemakers to light godly fires.

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Not for your sake, not for popularity, not for glory, for the glory of Jesus, not for your glory, for his glory, for the glory of the gospel.

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We go into the culture, we preach the gospel like our forebearers have, they would go into cultures and communities of complete pagans who would kill them, and they preach the gospel faithfully until the entire culture, by the end of their life, came to Jesus and was considered a

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Christian nation. It wasn't easy for them either. They faced consequences and suffering.

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They were willing to lay their lives down for the sake of the laws. Acts chapter 9, Acts 17,

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Paul at the Areopagus. He's not going to the Areopagus, this place of the Epicureans and the

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Stoics and Aristotle and Socrates. He wasn't going there to share some interesting ideas and philosophies.

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They just wanted to hear, oh, what's your take on things, Paul? Come, let us hear it. They were bringing him up on preliminary charges.

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It was hostile. And what's he say? He says, well, you already know the God that I'm talking about. You even built an altar to him here.

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You know everything that I'm saying is true, and what God has done is he's given us Jesus, raised him up, and he says, and he commands men everywhere to repent.

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Did you hear it? Commands. Commands. He told them in a hostile context,

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God commands you to repent of your sin and turn to his Son. That was Acts 17. Acts 18,

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Apollos, one of my favorite characters in Scripture that we know very little about. Just little spaces, and I love

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Apollos. He says he was mighty in the Scriptures. He was eloquent. And it says in Acts 18, he refuted the

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Jews publicly, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is

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Mashiach, that Jesus is the Messiah. You see, again, the Christians engaging in the public square, in the public square, which means a big blessing for us today, brothers and sisters, because the public square has expanded now.

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It's not just out there, but now God has given us a gift. The internet is a gift for Christians from God.

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Thank you. The public square is also now right in your pocket. It's right in your pocket.

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You can reach out to the world in an instant. The public square is being used by the opposition, unbelievers, socialists,

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Marxists, those who seek to destroy the world that God has made. They have learned how to use the public square in your pocket.

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We have to do the same with the gospel. Just consider the blessing we have now, brothers and sisters.

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Here I am, from Phoenix, Arizona, in Sydney, Australia, sitting with a room of brothers and sisters in this room right now who have shared with me amazing stories that I'm humbled by and I deserve no credit for, about how

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God has changed your life because of what God has done through our ministry. All I did was push a button.

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You're watching and listening to things and being changed by them because we pushed a button. We used the public square.

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You need to use it too with boldness in your culture. So what's this going to take? What's it going to take?

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A couple points. Listen, there's nothing spectacular about this. Brothers and sisters, listen, you can continue to learn, you can continue to grow in this area in terms of overcoming objections and arguments from believers and unbelievers in facing abortion with the gospel, but this is not a complicated thing.

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Abortion is an issue of sin. Don't nod your heads with the typical

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Christian response where we hear something we're supposed to say yes to or agree with theologically and we just have the, you know, just like your doctor hits your knee with a hammer and you just kick because it's just a reflex, right?

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Just yes, amen. I want you to think about that. Abortion is an issue of national sin, national sin, individual hearts that are fallen, rebellions against their creator, they don't know

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God, and it's a culture and a nation, national sin, where we all love death together.

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It's an issue of sin, sin against God. And so how do you solve the problem of sin?

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You don't solve it just through mere political processes. You don't start, you don't solve it by saying, hey, come join the

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Labor Party or the Republican Party or this party, let's fight it that way. No, the problem of human sin can only be dealt with in one way, and that's the gospel.

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Do you believe it? Listen, we're brothers and sisters here, I need you to listen to my heart on this.

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Do you believe that? Don't say yes because you're supposed to. Don't say yes because you're a Christian and you know the proper theology.

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I want to ask you, do you believe that the gospel, the good news of God, is the power of God for salvation?

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Do you believe it? That's the only way a person's heart can change, yes? Because you see, listen, if our culture loves death because they hate

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God, if our culture is in this because of their sin, then the only way the culture changes and loves life and not death is if their hearts are renewed and changed.

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What does God say in his word, Ezekiel 36? He says, I'll sprinkle clean water on you and you'll be clean.

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Promise in a new covenant, by the way. He says, I'll cleanse you from all your idols. He says, I will take out the heart of stone and I'll give you a heart of flesh, a heart that was once hard towards God, it was impenetrable, nothing could get through.

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Now God says, I'll make it malleable, I'll make it soft, I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to observe my statutes.

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If we want our nations to obey God, there's only one way people obey God. Your hearts regenerated, they're made new, they're new creations.

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Brothers and sisters, don't let this be pithy Christian language. This is the truth before God, it's how

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God saves you and me, it's the truth. So what's the answer, what's it gonna take? Number one, it's the gospel that's the power of God for salvation,

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Romans 1. God uses the message of his son and the good news, that call to repentance and faith.

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He uses that message, he broadcasts that message, he empowers it by his spirit and he brings dead people to life.

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They go from death to life. So how do we solve this? It's the gospel itself. When we go to the abortion mills, we're preaching the gospel.

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Our message is very simple out there. I said in the beginning, there's three parts. One, what do we say?

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We tell them the truth. We say, please don't murder your child. Mom, mom, please listen to me.

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We say, you're not gonna leave Planned Parenthood no longer a mother. You're gonna leave the mother of a dead child.

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Please don't murder your child. We bring the law of God to bear on them so that God can use that word to convict them and to challenge them, to drive them to Jesus.

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We also want to remind them of what they've been suppressing all week. The night before, that morning, we've talked to mothers who have turned away from Planned Parenthood or the abortion mill.

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They've come to us. We've loved them and cared for them, thrown them baby showers, bought them furniture. We've done all these different things.

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We've talked to them and they've told us that they've even prayed the night before they had the appointment or that morning,

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God, if you want me not to do this, then please send somebody to stop me.

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And when we're there calling out, mom, please don't murder your baby, that message gets through.

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We say, don't murder your child. Number two, we preach the gospel. We tell them there's hope in Jesus, that they can be forgiven of all their sins.

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We preach to them briefly, quickly, 30 seconds from door to door. We say, Jesus is

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God. He lived perfectly and died for sinners and rose from the dead. You can experience forgiveness and salvation, turn to Christ and live.

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And the third thing we say is this, we'll help you. We'll give you anything you need. We'll adopt your baby. We'll do anything. Please come talk to us.

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Three things, very simple message. That's at the abortion mill. The hope is the gospel.

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What else is it going to take in our nations? Humble boldness, humble boldness.

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It's the kind of boldness that you see in the New Testament, the kind of boldness that recognizes that it's

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God's message that gets through to save sinners. It's his gospel, his word.

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Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That's right.

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It's God's word that opens the hearts of blind people, gives them hearing, lets them see.

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We use the word of God, but we also recognize that we must be humble because what does the

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Bible say? Second Timothy 2, 24 through 26 says this, the Lord's servant must be patient when wronged, able to teach in humility, correcting those who oppose themselves, listen, if perhaps

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God may grant them repentance. So what's it going to take?

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One, the communication of the gospel, a clear communication of the gospel. Two, humble boldness.

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We must preach the gospel boldly in the public square to our culture because God uses the gospel to save, but there's a humble boldness because we recognize that we cannot save anybody.

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It's God's work to raise dead people to life. Amen? Humble boldness. We have to make sure that we communicate the love of God in the midst of a message that is very, very cutting.

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Next thing, what's it going to take? A willingness to suffer. The gospel, humble boldness, a willingness to suffer.

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In Acts chapter 5, go there quickly, Acts chapter 5, New Testament account of the church and this is the apostles now defying the law itself.

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They were commanded to stop preaching in Jesus' name. They were commanded to stop preaching in Jesus' name.

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And in verse 27 of chapter 5, it says, Pause, pause for a second.

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Did you catch that? That's incredible. They heard, listen, they heard the message of the apostles and they interpreted their message as this, you're intending to put

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His blood upon us, that blood guiltiness upon us. That's how they heard the preaching of the apostles, that they were guilty.

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How offensive. How offensive. But watch this. to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

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So notice this, they actually were calling out in their day, judging people.

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You're guilty. You killed the Lord of glory. You're guilty. They're saying, you're saying

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His blood is upon us. Well, God has given the Savior to give forgiveness and repentance. We're going to obey

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God rather than men. They're saying, stop preaching in His name. They're saying, we're obeying God rather than men.

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And as you read the account, you'll see, of course, Gamaliel steps in and thankfully he stops them from killing them.

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But what it says is this, in verse 40. Now watch.

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This is so convicting. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

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And every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Messiah is

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Jesus. Brothers and sisters, they're saying, stop preaching in His name. They do it anyway. They bring them back.

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Stop preaching in His name. They take a beating, a beating. They are hot. They are in pain.

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They are stinging. They are bleeding. And it says that they left the council rejoicing, rejoicing with joy.

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How many of us would take a beating like that for Jesus and we'd say, okay, I'm gonna go take a break.

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Right? I took a beating for Jesus. I played my part. I did my thing. I took a beating. I'm gonna take a break.

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I'm gonna lay low for a little while. Right? They leave the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer, to suffer for Jesus.

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That was their whole context. Worthy to suffer for Jesus. And it says that they went on teaching and preaching

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Jesus. So they disobeyed once again. They kept on teaching and preaching Jesus, counting it as a gift to suffer for Jesus.

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So what's it gonna take? The gospel. What's it gonna take? Humble boldness in the public square.

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What's it gonna take? A willingness to suffer. What's it gonna take? You must lay down your life.

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Jesus says, greater love has no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. Brothers and sisters,

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I cannot describe for you, I can't describe for you, I can't. There's no way to put it into words.

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I don't have any way to articulate it. What it feels like when you hold one of these babies in your arms, because you're holding this baby in your arms and you know, seconds, seconds.

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This baby was seconds away from death.

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If I wasn't there, if God hadn't sent me there, if she didn't hear that one word, this baby

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I'm holding onto right now is dead. It changes everything.

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When you see, as I've seen, Olivia Grace and Cara at church, twin girls, saved at Planned Parenthood because we're preaching the gospel.

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When you see them running in front of the pulpit during my sermon, they never listen.

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When you see them running in front of the pulpit, you're reminded, these little girls, if the world had their way, they're dead.

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Again, if we weren't there as a church preaching the gospel, they're dead, they don't exist.

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They're murdered. It changes everything. You must be willing to lay your life down. It's going to cost you,

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I promise. I told you I will not romanticize this ministry. It's going to cost you everything.

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What's it worth though? My life in exchange for thousands? Thousands? My life for thousands of children in a second?

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What greater way to have love for a neighbor than to lay your life down in this way and to take what comes in terms of suffering?

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Let me just say, I know it's getting late, guys, and I'm so grateful that you have stuck around and you're hanging in there.

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I'll just point to so much I would love to do. I could keep you here until 3 a .m., believe me. I just want to talk about a very important aspect of this, and that's the failure of the pro -life movement.

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This is where we have to get down to the nitty gritty. How? Well, we know, of course, we can go to the abortion mills.

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That's one lane we have to run in. Go to the abortion mills, create ministries that can offer help and resources to these women, and please listen, please listen, please listen, gospel -centered ministries.

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Our country, my country, is filled with women's resource ministries, ministries in the area of abortion for women, and they do not preach the gospel.

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They will not talk about Christ. They will not give the gospel to women. It is a ministry, a mercy ministry, praise

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God for it, that is not gospel -centered. We need gospel -centered ministries at the front lines, reaching the women who are going to kill their children that day.

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We need gospel ministries that will help women, give them the gospel, and support them, mercy ministries.

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That's one lane. Second lane, we need to have a ministry that actually speaks to the culture, begins engaging the culture at large with the message that abortion is murder.

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From what I understand in Australia, we don't talk about abortion like that, even within the Christian communities, very often.

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Abortion is murder. It's murder. Murder is the unjustified killing of a human being with malice of forethought.

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That is murder. Abortion is murder. And listen, please listen, the pro -life movement doesn't want to use the word murder.

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The pro -life movement does not want to use the word murder, and you have to hear me on in removing the biblical terminology and the proper judicial terminology of murder, when we've removed it from the conversation because it's offensive, then listen closely, legislators do not have to legislate against abortion.

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Why? If it's not murder, it doesn't need to be legislated against. If the woman, please listen, is a victim, as much as the child is a victim, then legislators never need to create legislation to end abortion, ever.

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Why? Because she's a victim. What's that mean? She's not guilty. There's no criminal charge. There's no nothing.

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She's a victim, child's a victim, no legislation necessary. We must use biblical language in the culture, communicating exactly what the

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Bible says, with no neutrality. God's word says that it is an image bearer of God, uniquely created by God, knit together in the womb.

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God's word says this is murder. We must communicate that to our culture.

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We must change the conversation. Listen, this is so critical. Our opposition, unbelievers, those who seek to destroy

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God's order and the culture of Christ, they understand the power of words and controlling the conversation.

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You see it every day in your feed, if you're on Facebook, with Vice, NowThis, and all the other organizations that are created as propaganda machines to promote an unbelieving perspective.

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Christians need to actually engage in the public square online, making sure we communicate the message that abortion is murder.

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That's the first, that's the second thing. The third thing is we need to communicate the message that abortion is murder to our legislature.

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And we must communicate the message, abortion is murder. Number two, we want an immediate end to abortion, not merely incremental change.

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And number three, repent and believe. To the abortion mill, repent and believe the gospel.

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To the culture at large, repent and believe the gospel. To the legislature, repent and believe the gospel.

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We need Christians who are willing to be bold enough to preach God's hard and loving truths, even to their legislature.

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Abortion is murder. We want an immediate end to this killing. Here's what

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I want you to hear. I don't want to look or appear to be a person who is just trying to cause unnecessary division.

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Because when I say that the pro -life movement is an abysmal failure, please hear me on this.

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I'm saying that with humility, and I'm saying that as a minister of the gospel, based upon the pro -life movement's abandonment of God's revelation as their foundation.

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I had an interview with Tony Lowinger, who is the vice president of the National Right to Life. Sadly, the

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National Right to Life is influencing not only American politics around abortion, but we discovered when we were trying to help

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Ireland, they influenced Ireland as well. They gave them horrible, terrible, unbiblical argumentation, and now abortion is legal in Southern Ireland as of this year.

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The pro -life movement in America devastated them. And now the pro -life movement in America is trying to influence the

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Australian church. We're the pro -life movement, believe us. We've got this covered. We've got it handled. Tony Lowinger is the vice president.

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We had Christians that we knew who were in Oklahoma. They put forth a bill with a majority pro -life legislature.

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Please hear that. Majority pro -life legislator in a state with a whole lot of Christians. They got a bill through with Senator Joseph Silk, and the bill was an immediate end to abortion, criminalization, calling it murder.

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And the pro -life legislators in Oklahoma, they asked Tony Lowinger of the

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National Right to Life. He came to the legislature. They said, Tony, how do you want us to vote on this?

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This was the chance. This was the chance to end abortion immediately, not incrementally, right now.

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It would have criminalized it with that one bill, and the pro -life legislature was saying, tell us what to do,

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Tony, National Right to Life. Tony told them, don't pass this bill. Why?

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He says, if you pass this bill, it'll do away with all of our incremental legislation we put into place.

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It's as obvious as the nose on my face, isn't it? Of course it would do away with all the legislation, because what would it do?

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It would criminalize abortion outright. And when I had Tony Lowinger, as he was leaving the courthouse, we got people to talk to him, and he was willing to get on the radio with me.

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The interview's up for you all to see on YouTube. I tried to be very gracious and very respectful to him.

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I tried to let him give his side. And what he said was that they did not want to use

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Christian language in this fight. They wanted to take a backdoor approach. In other words, a non -Christian position of neutrality in the fight against abortion.

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Brothers and sisters, no gospel, no salvation. No gospel, no heart change.

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And he said that they wanted to work to end abortion incrementally, and hopefully one day the

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Supreme Court will reverse their opinion on abortion. I won't get into the discussion of American law, but that's not even necessary in my country.

01:00:07

The states right now could criminalize abortion today, right now, and ignore the opinion of the

01:00:12

Supreme Court, because our Constitution doesn't allow the Supreme Court to create law. It's a court opinion that can be resisted and ignored.

01:00:19

Tony Lowinger said, no gospel, no Bible, neutrality, and he says, backdoor approach.

01:00:28

And he says this. They don't want to use the word murder, because they believe that women are as much victims in abortion as the children.

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If women are victims in abortion, there's nothing to repent of. There's nothing to ask

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God for forgiveness for. And let me just say this, this is so important. To any women in here who have had abortions, if you trust in Christ, you are saved.

01:01:01

You are forgiven. There is no more guilt. God will never count your sins against you.

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You are righteous in Jesus. You are forgiven. You are blameless in Jesus.

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You are righteous and no longer a murderer in God's eyes. You are free and forgiven for all eternity.

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You are a sister in Christ. Apology of church. We have in our church many women who have had abortions.

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I have women in my church that have had multiple abortions. And do you know what they call abortion? Murder. Why?

01:01:41

Because they've experienced the grace of God in the gospel. They've experienced the revelation of who they truly are and their sin before God, and they've met

01:01:52

God's grace in Jesus, and they've been forgiven. Listen, we don't have a message for women who have had abortions in terms of hope and forgiveness, if we buy into the pro -life's line that they're victims.

01:02:07

Brothers and sisters, abortion is the unjustified killing of an image -bearer of God with malice aforethought.

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It's murder. And the only way to end it in a nation legislatively is the way, please hear this, our forebearers criminalized abortion.

01:02:25

They called abortion murder, and they considered it a crime. And that is how we must, as Christians, speak to this issue.

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When you call it murder and a crime, you're being honest about what it is, and you're offering the hope of the gospel in the midst of it.

01:02:40

We get to do both. We get to call it what it is, and we get to tell people about the glorious hope in Jesus Christ.

01:02:47

Final word, and like I said, I wish I had so much more time with you. Jesus says,

01:02:56

Matthew 24, Matthew 24, 25.

01:03:03

He says, on the last day, there's going to be this vindication where God points to the truth of his people, this glorious vindication.

01:03:17

And he says, I was hungry, and you gave me something to drink. Something to eat.

01:03:23

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was in prison, and you came and visited me.

01:03:28

And the people of God are saying, when? When did we see you hungry and thirsty and visit you in prison?

01:03:34

And he said, when you did it for the least of these, you did it unto me.

01:03:41

In the context of the fatherless, in the context of the murder of innocent image -bearers of God, we have to take that principle that Jesus says this.

01:03:57

As much as you didn't feed me, give me something to drink, visit me in prison, you didn't do it unto me.

01:04:07

He condemns those on the last day that did not do those things. We have to ask the question, on the last day, what will

01:04:16

Jesus say to me? Remember the verse I read to us at the very beginning,

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Proverbs 24? Right? Rescue those who are being led to the slaughter, stumbling to death.

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There's an amazing thing that God says there. Did you catch it? And if you say, behold,

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I didn't know. I didn't know. It says, does not he who weighs the heart know it?

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Doesn't he know that you know and I know?

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That excuse, Lord, I didn't know. I didn't know what to do. I didn't, I couldn't do anything.

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It says, and will he not repay man according to his work? There's a danger in what

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I just said. The danger is, is you can take this as a man who is trying to make you feel guilty into doing something or pressure you into doing something.

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And I give you my word before God. And in the last day, you'll know my heart's intentions on this.

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My word before God, I am not trying to sell you anything, manipulate you at all, or pressure you or guilt you.

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I am simply telling you what the text says. These are God's words, not mine.

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And they're words that I had to face as a minister of the gospel. And I come to you as a brother in Christ, humbly saying,

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I have repented of my sin, my apathy, and my indifference. And I'm encouraging you to do the same.

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And I assure you of this. If you commit before God to lay your life down for these little ones,

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I believe with all my heart that God will bless it. And if you say, I don't know what to do, first you submit yourself to God.

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First you throw yourself at his feet. First you ask for his power. And then you let him lead the ministry.

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You let him do it. I pray, and I've been praying. I've been praying that God would raise up in these rooms that we're talking to over the week,

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I pray that God would raise up men and women who would lead this fight in Australia with the gospel at the very front.