The Sermon That Can Change A Nation

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I'm going to read to you a passage from Isaiah chapter 1, starting in verse 1.

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The vision of Isaiah. How do you say it in Ireland? Isaiah or Isaiah? What's that?

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Isaiah. OK, there you go. I'm learning. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

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That's verse 1. Word from God's prophet. Now I want you to move to verse 10.

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Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah.

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What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well -fed beasts.

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

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I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.

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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 shall be as white as snow.

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Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are 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

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Lord has spoken. How the faithful city has become a whore. She who was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

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Your silver has become dross. Your best wine mixed with water. Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves.

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Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless.

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And the widow's cause does not come to them. Powerful words.

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Powerful words spoken by God's prophet to God's people. That God, in this moment, is not concerned with their solemn assemblies.

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What is our confessionalism? What is our strong theology?

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What is our commitment to the doctrines of grace and the history of the Reformation? What is our commitment to solid worship services that honor

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God with the proclamation of the word? What is all our protection of our orthodoxy without pleading the cause of the fatherless?

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What is the use of the church when Christ calls us to be salt and light to the world around us?

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If we will not stand for justice and God's truth in the culture around about us.

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Here is God speaking to his people, saying to his people, you were full of justice.

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Righteousness lodged in you, but now murderers. Now, of course, using all the principles of sound, biblical hermeneutics, the art and science of biblical interpretation, we know, of course, who the audience was here.

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We know, of course, who the city was here. We know the time that it was written and who was being spoken to, of course.

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But the principle here doesn't change, because God says, I am the

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Lord. I do not change. God says to his people, all of this practice of piety and of righteousness in your worship, in your solemn assembly, in your sacrifices means nothing to me.

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It's a burden to God for God's people to have a core of piety and righteousness and all of these externals, all of this practice built upon righteousness.

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And yet we will not plead the widow's cause. We will not protect the fatherless, the orphans.

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And we have murderers in our midst. God, of course, promised judgment to his people, that he was actually opposed to them, because they would not uphold justice.

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Brothers and sisters, I am of the conviction that the God of the Old Testament is the

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God of the New Testament. These are not two gods. We don't have the wrathful

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God who is concerned with justice of the Old Testament. And along comes Jesus, God's gracious side, his merciful side.

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Oftentimes when we're outside of the abortion mill in the United States, we run into people, of course, who are professing believers of the evangelism of the

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West. And they often will say, when we call out to the women pleading for the life of their children, offering help and love and mercy, they will often say, well, your message is too strong.

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It's too judgmental. It's too much law. Because you see, Jesus has come and he's brought to us grace.

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And that's what's missing from your message, is you need to know Jesus and the grace of God. You're too hooked up with that Old Testament God, the

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God who cares about justice and righteousness in the land. Brothers and sisters, you know quite well, and I'm so glad, so happy, so comfortable with my surroundings right now, covenanters.

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Many of you, some of you are visiting, you're welcome too. Covenanters, oftentimes many people, it was just said to me during the break here,

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Jeff, you're basically a covenanter. And I think that's essentially true, except I'm, of course, a Reformed Baptist.

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I'm just more right in one area than you. But I love my surroundings right now, this community, because we're speaking the same language.

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We understand that the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament.

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It's one God, one narrative, one history, to the glory of God. It's a single

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God who weaves together all of history, controls every molecule, not a maverick molecule in the universe, and history is linear.

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It's going somewhere by God's decree, going ultimately to the glory of God in his

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Messiah through the propagation of his fame in all the earth. The fact that Jesus is

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King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And I have to say this, that has become just such a pithy, cavalier

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Christian slogan. It means ultimately nothing in our day. We say we believe it.

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Every Christian, every Reformed, every Evangelical will say, yes, Jesus, amen.

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He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The question is, do you really believe it, that he is today

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King over the kings of this earth, that he's Lord today over the lords of this earth, that he actually has authority over them today in the earthly realm?

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Now, covenanters, you believe that, and so do I. We have unity in that truth, that we actually believe that nations are to be submissive to Christ's rule, that the aim of the gospel is not merely to win souls simply for heaven one day, but the aim of the gospel is that God, through his gospel, through his

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Messiah's work, reconciles the world to himself. He has brought a kingdom that broke into history, and that kingdom is advancing in the world.

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In Matthew 28, 18 through 20, Jesus says something at the very end of the gospel, according to Matthew, that we have to take seriously or not.

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We have to take seriously or just outright reject. There's no middle ground.

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And I think oftentimes we read passages of scripture, and I have to confess myself. Sometimes I get mellow -headed.

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Sometimes I neglect the truth that is right before me. I don't think about its implications. I don't embrace the truth of it all.

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And this is one of those texts, the very end of the gospel according to Matthew. Just consider for a moment, we don't have time to do the whole gospel as much as I'd love to.

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The gospel opens up according to Matthew chapter one, and it gives you Christ's royal lineage, demonstrating that he has the right to the royal throne of David.

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Why is that significant? It's significant because God promised in the Old Testament that through the

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Messiah, he was gonna bring redemption and salvation, yes, but through the Messiah, he was gonna break into history with a rule, a kingdom, and a ruler that would sit at his right hand,

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Psalm 110, one, placing all of God's enemies under his feet as a footstool for his feet.

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You see, this kingdom according to the Old Testament was gonna be a kingdom that ruled the earth. Every nation, tribe, tongue, and language would come to worship him.

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Psalm chapter 22, that popular psalm of the passion of the Messiah, his hands and feet pierced, his enemies surrounding him like dogs wagging their heads at him, his heart like wax melted within him.

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They divide his garments among them, and with his clothing, they cast lots.

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That passion of the Messiah psalm says near the end that all the families of the earth would return to worship the

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Lord. You see, that's the aim of the gospel. And Matthew opens up showing you that Jesus owns that right to the throne of David, the ruler of the earth, the one they were expecting, not simply to purchase people to have

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Bible studies in basements one day, but the one who was actually gonna rule the nations and bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

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That's the message of the gospel of the kingdom. And of course, Matthew chapter three, John the

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Baptist enters in. His first words are repent for the kingdom of heaven, the rule of heaven, the kingdom of God is at hand.

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And he says to those in his day, repent and bear fruit. And he says the ax is already laid at the root of the trees.

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When Jesus goes into the wilderness temptation, Satan promised him, offered him what he came for.

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We know the temptation, it's the last one there in Matthew where he says, here's all the kingdoms of the earth.

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That's what you came for. The world, Jesus, all of it.

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I'll give it to you now. No cross, no atonement, no sacrifice, no suffering.

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I will give you what you came for. What was promised to you, all you must do is bow and worship me.

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And of course, Jesus does what Adam didn't do in the garden and Israel didn't do in the wilderness.

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He obeys God and stands on the word of God. And he says what? He says, you should worship the

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Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Victory over Satan in the wilderness. And what are his first words?

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As he leaves the wilderness, it says that he went out proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

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What does that even mean to us anymore as evangelicals, as reformed folks, as Christian fundamentalists?

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What does it mean today in the evangelifish West when Jesus says the good news of the kingdom?

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How is that good news to Christians today? Can we even articulate it that it's good news that Christ is the ruler of the world?

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And of course, Matthew flows throughout his gospel telling the same story of the Old Testament. Finishing on Matthew 28, 18 through 20, he says this, after his cross work, after his righteous life and his obedience to the law of God, his death on that cross, his resurrection from the dead, as he's about to ascend to take his position on the throne, putting

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God's enemies under his feet, he says this, all authority, let me say it again, just in case there's a language barrier in the

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Irish, all authority in heaven and all

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Christians say, yay and amen, that's where Jesus has authority, heaven.

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But Jesus doesn't stop there, he says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been, not will be, not should be, but has been given to me.

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And he says, therefore, because of this truth, all authority being mine, therefore, go 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, by immersion, by the way. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just seeing if you're still awake here at 10 .10.

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And he says this, all authority, make disciples, baptize, and he says this, teach them to what?

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Obey, that, brothers and sisters, is the aim of the gospel of the kingdom.

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Those are not wishful things, that is not wishful thinking, the great commission is not wishful thinking, it is divine mandate.

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Mandate, don't believe me? Psalm chapter two, Old Testament, once again,

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Psalm chapter two, the Father speaks to the Son. And he says this to the Son, he says, 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 and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession.

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Brothers and sisters, I will ask you what my Presbyterian mentor, I'm a disciple of Greg Bonson, what he often said on this text.

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He said this, listen closely, don't let it miss you, don't become mellow headed, here's what he asked.

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Do you think that Jesus forgot to ask? Ask of me,

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I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession. And then it says, the

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Father to the kings of the earth, he says this, be wise, oh kings, obey the

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Son or you'll perish. You see, that of course is the message of the

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Bible that Christ has all, all, not some, but all authority.

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Daniel 7, 13 through 14, it says, Daniel says, I'm looking in the night visions and one like a son of man coming on the clouds.

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He says, he came up to the ancient of his days and was presented before him and to him, that's

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Jesus, if you didn't know, and to him was given dominion, glory, a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and he just starts listing, everybody would serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. His kingdom one which will not be destroyed.

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Brothers and sisters, we're in this room tonight facing, of course, a giant, a great evil.

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In my land, it's already happening to the tune of 3 ,000 children a day.

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And in your land, you are facing this. And we are here today not simply to get emotionally charged up or excited that there are a lot of people that think just like us.

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We're here today fundamentally because many of us, of course, in my nation have not recognized this fundamental, foundational truth that Jesus Christ is king and he calls people to obey.

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Never forget that when the Apostle Paul preached the gospel at the Areopagus, Mars Hill, I believe he's being brought there on preliminary charges.

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They're not just interested in listening to the Apostle Paul. He speaks to the pagans in his day and he says something that sounds very different from our message today.

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He says to those pagans, ultimately, they already know the God that he's talking about.

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And he says this, God commands men everywhere to repent.

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That he has appointed Jesus as the judge. He has raised him up. And the message of the gospel proclaimed by the apostles was repent and believe the gospel.

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Jesus is the king. Why don't you all come quietly? That's ultimately the essence of it all.

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And we're here today, I think many of us here in this position because we have failed in our duty and our task and the call of Jesus in that same gospel, the gospel according to Matthew, where Jesus says in the most famous sermon in the history of humanity, he says to the church, you're the salt, you are the salt of the earth.

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You're the light of the world. Now, for those of you who are here in Ireland, I want to say to you,

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I have no right to come to you with any kind of authority on myself, none.

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I have no right to come to you as an American coming here and dictating to you what you ought to do.

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Maybe you should try our methodology. We have a unique way of handling this. Maybe you guys should follow us and not the pro -life movement.

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I'm coming to you as a pastor, as a minister of the gospel, as a Christian in a nation where the church has failed so dramatically.

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We've failed in that we've handed over the duty of fighting against this injustice to people in the pro -life movement who have decided to fight against it with pure neutrality.

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Don't use scripture, don't use biblical language, don't talk about sin, don't talk about repentance and the gospel.

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Some of the most popular pregnancy centers in the United States, I've talked to so many women,

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I've lost count, who worked for those pregnancy centers because they thought they were

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Christian and they were told in those pregnancy centers by leaders in the pro -life movement not to use

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Christian language and not to preach the gospel to the women who come in. As a church, we've failed.

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We've failed because we've decided it's better to play neutrality. Maybe it's better to see this as a distinction between the secular and the sacred.

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Maybe Jesus has nothing to say to the kings of the earth. We should be more concerned with church and worship and what's going on between our ears and in our homes and in our churches, but maybe

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Jesus has nothing to say over here in the government realm. Now, you know as covenanters, that's not true.

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That's not the biblical message. Your history and my history is replete with examples of Christians who understood the biblical narrative rightly,

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Christians that came over into my country and established a civilization, a culture of Christ.

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They weren't perfect, it wasn't a utopia, but they would name Jesus as Lord in their government documents.

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When they made treaties, they would name the Trinitarian God of the Bible. I don't need to share with you the history of Ireland and the covenanters and how you understood your nation to be in covenant with God, and yet here we are, and we can't even begin to list all of the parts of our cultures that are broken.

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I'm coming to you as a repentant believer, sackcloth and ashes, saying we recognize now a failure after 45 years of Roe v.

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Wade and 60 million children slaughtered, gone, dead.

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We have beaten the Holocaust by a metric ton. We cannot even begin to touch it.

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And we recognize now as the church, many of us as the church in the United States, we have failed in this task because we have failed to be salt, we have failed to be light, and this is it.

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Please listen closely. We have failed because we have failed to be fundamentally Christian when we fight against abortion.

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We've bought into the idea that we need to placate the unbeliever. We've bought into the idea that we need to soften the message of the gospel.

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Don't use a serrated edge. And because of that, we've lost this fight dramatically.

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I'm gonna say this. If we hold back abortion in Ireland and we actually undo it in the

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United States, but we fail to proclaim the gospel in the midst of it, we've won nothing.

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Because that means people are still lost. They still need Christ. Our nation is not discipled.

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This is about the gospel. Abortion is simply fruit on a tree.

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It is a symptom of a spiritually dead culture. The only answer is the gospel.

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And stop. This is dangerous. We come into church here as brothers and sisters in Christ, and even though there is a bit of a language barrier,

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I'm an American with a very broke -down remnant of English, right?

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You have a very beautiful, wonderful accent and very erudite. It just sounds delicious when you speak.

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It's wonderful, okay? But here, watch this. But we all understand Christian code.

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You see, Irish Christians and American Christians, we all speak the

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Christian ghetto language. You come into church, you hear all the things that you like. You hear the buzzwords, whatever they might be for your particular denomination, whatever floats your boat.

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You can talk about the reformed, and we talk about the five points, and we talk about things like total depravity, and all of a sudden, you're waking up.

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You're like, I know that word. I like this guy. He's on my team, right?

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And the danger is, is if someone comes before you and starts speaking the Christian ghetto language, it excites you because it's your language.

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You connect with those things, and so you feel settled and you feel comfortable. This cannot be about that.

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Where someone says something like, it's about the gospel. You must preach the gospel. It's about people coming to Jesus, and you all simply say yay and amen, and we're all in the echo chamber.

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We're all very, very excited. But let me just say something. That doesn't change the world. Speaking the

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Christian language, connecting to these truths, and saying that excites me, I love that, and then leaving this room and doing nothing is not consistent with the message of the gospel.

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When we talk about proclaiming the gospel in the midst of abortion, it means we actually have to do it, and it comes with dramatic consequences.

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Consequences for your family, consequences for your church, consequences with your job.

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And I wanna say that so much of what's wrong around us is because we've failed to be salt and light to the culture, and that is our task.

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One Christian before said something that stuck with me, and I'll never forget it. He says this, the culture around you is the report card of the church.

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The culture around you is the report card of the church. How are you doing? How are you doing?

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And in two nations, my nation and your nation, that were at one time considered Christian nations in covenant with God, we look around us today, and we see so much brokenness, so much depravity, so much of the breakdown of the family and gender.

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We see all these things that are distorted in human sexuality. We see the theft rampant on a widespread scale, and we have to ask the question, how are we doing as a church?

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Because at one point, we could have called ourselves Christian nations in covenant with God. We look around us today, and we say, what happened?

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We, of course, know the word of God. Of course, we're not responsible for anybody else's sin. People sin, and they're responsible before God for that.

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That's their sin. I don't need to feel guilty for their particular sin, but I do know the task that was presented before us as Christians, and that's to be salt and light.

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Salt, of course, is a preservative. It stops things from spoil and decay. In that time when

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Jesus spoke it, it wasn't simply about flavor. I don't think Irish people use a lot of salt, in my opinion, but salt for them was a preservative.

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It stopped things from spoil and decay. Now, if our culture is going into depravity, if it's spoiling and decaying, it is

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God's command that the church is the salt to it. The church is the light that stops that darkness from spreading.

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It's supposed to be the light of God that dispels the darkness. We are the vehicle, the means of grace for God to stop the world from falling off the cliff into unrighteousness and injustice.

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That's us. It's our task. And I fear that so many of us are so in love with comfort in our day, so in love with comfort, so in love with approval.

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You know, the little like thing on Facebook and YouTube. We love the likes, right?

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They've done all kinds of studies and what that does to the human brain and how, basically, social media has become like heroin.

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It's the truth. Because we get a certain jolt, a certain buzz, we just get a certain feeling from what we see.

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We post something, we say something, and it's, oh, it's approved by others. Look, I have 10 people that made happy faces and laughing faces at my comment.

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I'm a funny guy! Like and heart and like and heart and, oh,

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I got dislikes. Who doesn't like me? What did I say in my message that was offensive to somebody?

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Brothers and sisters, our social media speaks so clearly and high definition to how much we love the praise of men over against the love of God, the praise of God.

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We love the praise of men. And the Apostle Paul says in Galatians when he's giving a very hard message to a church.

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Imagine now being a church in Galatia. You hear you got a letter from the Apostle Paul. You come in to gather now to worship

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God in proper Presbyterian form. And the

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Apostle Paul's letter comes to the front and now that's being read now to the church and it opens up with all the amazing things that Paul always does.

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Grace to you and peace and you're like, oh, Paul sounds so, he loves us so much. Paul is so good to us, he loves us.

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And before that letter even really gets going, within a few words it says, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ to another gospel, which is not another.

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He says, some who are troubling you want to pervert the gospel of Christ. He says, if I come back to you and preach any other gospel, let me be anathema.

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If an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other gospel, let him be anathema. Paul now going hard at the church in Galatia.

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And what does he say? Here it is right now. This is the substance of it. This is the principle of it all. How can Paul do that?

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How can he get away with that? How does he have the strength for that? This is it. Through divine inspiration, you see what motivates a person to sacrifice life and limb and of course reputation.

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He says this, am I seeking to please men or God?

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If I was still seeking to please men, I would not be the slave of Christ. And that, brothers and sisters, is it.

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We face a culture that is just embracing death, drinking it in, going off the cliff, and it is the church's mission to proclaim the gospel in the midst of it, to bring people's hearts from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh through that gospel message and powered by the spirit of God were to be salt and light to the culture.

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And what's stopping us? The church turned the world upside down in the first century, turned it upside down.

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Within a generation, the gospel went to the edges of the Roman Empire. Christians were known everywhere.

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The gospel transformed whole cultures and nations within a few centuries. Do we have a different God?

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Is he absent? Is he an absentee landlord now? Do we have a gospel message that's just simply not powerful for the 21st century?

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Is the spirit of God not able to raise dead sinners to life? No. It's the gospel that's the power of God for salvation.

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I think what's wrong is not the gospel, not the spirit of God, not God's mission. I think what's wrong is the people that God has determined to proclaim that message, oftentimes love comfort and approval more than God's pleasure.

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And Paul says, am I seeking to please men or God? If I was still seeking to please men, I would not be the servant of Christ.

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I wouldn't be the slave of Jesus. This is it. In this issue of abortion, one symptom of a culture of death, one thing that's springing from spiritual death in our nation around us that needs the gospel, it's a question of whether or not we're slaves of Jesus or slaves of men.

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You see, I don't have really good news for you today other than, of course, the gospel. I don't have good news for you in terms of how wonderful this mission is.

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I wanna tell you that it's awful. It's awful. If you enter into this to save the lives of the pre -born, if you stick yourself out there to proclaim the truth of God in the midst of a hostile culture,

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I promise you something, pain, suffering, hatred, rebellion.

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I promise you that it will not be easy. I promise you that you will be persecuted if you stand up for righteousness and justice and the gospel in the midst of a hostile culture.

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But I can also promise you that when you stand on the truth of God, something happens. When you stand on the gospel itself, something happens.

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And I can promise you, when you stand up for justice and righteousness and the gospel in a hostile land, that God himself is pleased.

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And that ought to be our aim above anything else. Brothers and sisters, this is our call.

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And here's the fundamental parts of it. I know that it's running late, but you've had coffee. So we call that Christian crack in the

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United States, but that has a whole different meaning here in Ireland. Couple things,

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I will go quickly today. I won't do everything I had planned. One, it's a question of who has authority.

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Who has ultimate authority? Well, I have the answer, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. It's not our government.

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It's not any king or earthly ruler. It's not autonomous man and his law. As a matter of fact, man's law is by very definition, tyranny, that's the definition, man's law.

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Who has authority? It's Jesus, where? In heaven and on earth, here. He is the ultimate.

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According to scripture, Proverbs 1, verse seven, it is, listen closely, I know it's getting late, but listen closely, the fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You want knowledge? You want wisdom?

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It starts with fear of God. That's where it begins. There is no knowledge apart from Jesus Christ, none.

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Let me say it again. There is no knowledge apart from Jesus Christ, not true knowledge in science, in the arts, not in politics, not in ethics, nothing.

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Apart from Jesus Christ, you cannot have a coherent appeal to science, no uniformity in nature. You don't have

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Jesus guiding the universe. All you have is time and chance acting on matter. If you don't have

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Jesus Christ as the foundation, you can't even reason in a coherent way. There's no justification for laws of logic, which are immaterial, unchanging, invariant entities.

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Apart from Jesus Christ, if atheism were true, all you have is just the fizzing between your ears, biochemical responses.

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You're not even thinking. You're just fizzing right now. Apart from Jesus Christ, there's no beauty.

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There's no truth. There's no goodness apart from Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, ethical appeals are nonsense.

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And doesn't it make perfect sense? Think about it. In your nation and mine, once Christian nations, it's amazing.

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We've abandoned Jesus Christ. Does it come with consequences? Absolutely. Do you really need

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Jesus Christ at the base of your system to have meaningful, ethical appeals? Well, let's look at the track record here.

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We had nations once that were built upon the word of God. In my nation, John Jay, our first Supreme Court justice, when he was writing down laws, he was appealing to the case laws in Moses.

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Our nation, my nation, actually quoted scripture in our case law system to build a nation system of justice.

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That was my nation. In your nation, your nation appealed clearly to the laws of God and God's word as the foundation of their system.

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And what did you see? Not perfection, but what did you see? Justice, righteousness, goodness, exalting a nation.

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And now that we've abandoned Jesus in our nations as final authority and the final arbiter, now we have people that can't even tell you if a man is a man or a woman is a woman.

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We have people that identify now as cats. I wish

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I was kidding, brothers and sisters, and you know I'm not. As dogs. We have grandfathers who mutilated their bodies and now he's now being praised on the covers of magazines.

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Grandfathers. And the audience around, the community around, gives hearty approval, knowing full well,

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Romans 1, that those who do such things deserve death. God says so,

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Romans chapter 1. Is that offensive to say in our culture? Absolutely. Should we minimize the damage of that?

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Absolutely not. Of course, you see coming out of academia today and all of our institutions, institutions that were once built for the glory of Jesus Christ, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard University, Christian institutions built for the glory of God, now no longer

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Christian. You see those institutions pumping out people that say this, well, there's no absolute truth.

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Your truth is your truth. My truth is my truth. There's no ultimate foundation for ethics.

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All we are is matter in motion. There's no eminent morality. We live, we die, and we're gone. We're absolutely gone when we die.

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You see, without Jesus Christ, there are no ethical appeals. So as Christians, we need to recognize Christ has all authority today in Ireland.

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Today. Christ has all authority today in the United States of America. And we have to proclaim that truth and repentance and faith toward God, recognizing that without Christ, we fall completely into darkness.

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In Colossians chapter two, the apostle says this, that all the treasures of wisdom, knowledge, they're all hidden in Christ.

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Without Christ, there is no wisdom, there is no knowledge. All there is is darkness. All there is is sinking sand.

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Now, of course, we need to recognize this, and this is a fundamental point. Listen closely to this. I will just direct you all to much of what we have online,

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Apology of Studios on YouTube. You can go to Apologyofstudios .com to get more of this expatiated.

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We can't do it all in one night. I know it's late. I don't wanna be abusive to your time here. But I will say this. This is one of those things tonight you can't leave without.

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Don't leave here without this principle. It is vital. You must get it. If you lose it, we lose so much.

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The book of Acts, I believe, does not simply tell us the narrative of what happened in the early church so we can be onlookers and say, oh, that was very interesting.

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I believe that God, through divine inspiration, showed us what it was like to have people who faithfully obeyed him and were energized and motivated, empowered by his spirit.

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Listen closely. The principle of public proclamation of the truth is found throughout the entire

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Bible. I'll say it again. The principle of the public proclamation of God's truth is found throughout the

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Bible. And you might be saying, well, I agree with that, Pastor Jeff. Well, it doesn't look like it in my country and in yours in terms of what the church generally embraces about how the word of God is to be propagated because we seem to believe in our day that the word of God is fine and is to be boldly proclaimed on the

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Lord's day in church. You see, we seem to be more bold with the word of God within our walls and in our echo chamber than we are out there in the public square where it belongs.

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You see, in the book of Acts, you see something very, very different from the modern evangelifish method.

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And what is that? I mean, I think that Jesus and the apostles would fail virtually every single seminary course on evangelism we have today.

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Why? Because watch, they didn't use church services as the primary means of evangelism of the culture.

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Church is about the people of God worshiping. It's not about unbelievers. If they wanna come, that's fine.

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We'll welcome them, but this is not for them. The church is for the people of God to come boldly and with confidence into the presence of God to give him glory and worship.

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When you have somebody who's hostile towards God coming into that meeting, it's a little bit out of order, but we'll take them.

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If you're proclaiming the truth rightly, they won't be comfortable very long.

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Amen? I just made you Baptist just for one night. The word of God is supposed to go there to them.

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In the book of Acts, I dare you to try. I'm not saying this with any kind of arrogance or haughtiness but I just wanna present you a challenge.

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I dare you to try to make our modern form of evangelism that's taught and caught in our churches across the

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West, I dare you to try to find it in the book of Acts. This idea of the primary thing is friendship evangelism, right?

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Let me make friends with somebody for five to 10 years and maybe earn the right to preach the gospel to them. You do not find that in the book of Acts.

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What do you find? Well, Acts chapter nine, the apostle Paul comes to Jesus. His eyes are open to the truth and immediately,

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Acts nine, beeline to the synagogue. How rude. You're gonna go to a place of religious worship?

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You're gonna go to a place where there's supposed to be some bit of sanctity? There's something there that's sacred and you're gonna go there and you're gonna cause problems?

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It says Paul went there and did what? He proved that Jesus was Mashiach, that he's the Messiah to Jews, to Hellenistic Jews and it says what?

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Here's the consequences of going to places, preaching the gospel and refuting people on their own ground.

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It says this, the church was built up, it experienced peace, it was multiplied. Hey, praise

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God for that. That's awesome. That's great. Sorry, Irish. It's grand. It's grand.

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Lovely. See, I'm learning but there's more. It says not just that there was peace, it was built up and it was multiplied.

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It says this. It says, and some people wanted to kill him. You see, faithful proclamation, public proclamation in the public square of the gospel leads sometimes to salvation.

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Grace of God, all to God's glory, nothing to do with anybody. It's all to God's boasting glory. He does all the work, yes.

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And sometimes that gospel proclamation, that going into the public square, it creates a whole huddle of people, listen, who actually take oaths that they're not gonna eat anything until you're dead.

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Or that Paul has to actually escape out of a window through a, with a basket because people are after his life.

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The gospel's proclaimed, of course, by Apollos in Acts chapter 18. It says this, listen closely. He vigorously refuted the

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Jews publicly. He vigorously refuted the Jews publicly. What's that mean?

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He was arguing for Christianity. In the public square. And it says what?

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The church was emboldened by it. And of course, you see the early apostles and leaders of the church, the

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Christians going into cultures. Listen closely, they preach the gospel. What happened? Riots broke out, riots.

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Riots broke out because the gospel. Watch, not because they wanted it to happen that way, but because when you bring the gospel faithfully to a culture in the public square, sometimes, sometimes, a riot breaks out.

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And many modern evangelicals will say what? They'll say, well, you need to change your methodology. You're not being very loving.

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You're not being very kind. You see, the gauge for us today seems to be this. This seems to be the gauge for success in evangelism.

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This is the gauge. If people like you and love your message, then you're doing things well.

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That seems to be the gauge in our day. If you are hated by people and disliked by the culture, then you're doing something wrong.

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And all I have to say is this. Woe to you when all people speak well of you.

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Woe to you. That's a curse on you when all people speak well of you.

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The conditions for our success in a culture is, number one, Romans 116, the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

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The message of the gospel is the power of God for salvation. Never forget that at the heart of the gospel, in the heart of it, it's not merely about Jesus punching my ticket for heaven one day.

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The heart of the gospel has inside of it this proclamation, the lordship of Jesus Christ, that he rules, that he's

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Lord. That's in the heart of the gospel. Romans 116, the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

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Never forget, of course, after this amazing appeal to the sovereignty of God in all things,

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Paul just moves together in this systematic explanation of the gospel from Romans 1 to 3 in our depravity and our sin and not righteous and fetus swift as shed blood.

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And then what God did in Romans chapter three through five, you see that Christ is our propitiation, that we're justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Jesus.

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We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. All that beautiful story, moving into the full sovereignty of God, Romans 9.

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Sorry, Arminians, Romans 9. God is fully sovereign. He mercies whom he wills and he hardens whom he wills.

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And then, of course, Romans chapter 10 is this. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of...

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You're allowed to talk tonight. We'll just keep it our little secret, okay? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of?

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That's right. How does somebody hear unless somebody comes to preach?

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How are they gonna hear the truth about the gospel in the midst of abortion if you aren't on your feet and out there in the public square with his message on your lips?

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How are they gonna hear it today in our culture where we have an amazing means of communication like that, that the apostles would have killed for, not literally, but they would have loved to have this thing.

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They could have preached the gospel and not had to walk 10 ,000 miles by foot. I get to put a video up today and preach the gospel, and the moment

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I put it up, it's in New Zealand, it's in Ireland, it's in Africa. Shame on us for not using it.

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Shame on us for not using it when the unbelievers are using it. They are using their voice.

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The Reformation happened because, of course, the grace of God and the glory of God, but it happened because there was one amazing new invention.

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What was it? The printing press. And those reformers knew how to use it, and they did.

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And now we have the unbelievers using the printing press of our day, and we step aside.

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We say, well, we're being faithful in our churches, we're being faithful in our worship services, we're being faithful with our proclamation of the word of God, all the while in a public square, we're not saying anything, we're not speaking into it.

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And that, of course, is one of the reasons abortion is getting legs on it in your country and already has legs in mine.

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Of course, we talk about the conditions of success, it's God's word, it's the truth of God, it's the gospel itself.

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People are lost, Romans chapter three, and the result of it is their feet are swift to shed blood.

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The gospel is the answer. 2 Timothy 2, 24 through 26 teaches us that the conditions for success is this.

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The Lord's patient must be patient when wronged, able to teach, and of course, it lists all the qualifications there, and watch, it says this, and it says, if perhaps

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God may grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.

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So there's a humble boldness there, there's a word of God being proclaimed, and there's a boldness because I know, watch this, I preach the gospel to anybody in any circumstance, and I know the conditions for success is this, if perhaps

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God grants them repentance. It's not me, it's not my words, my training, my wisdom, my abilities, it's

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God granting repentance. But watch, it's God granting repentance through the proclamation of the truth.

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That's how he does it. The conditions for success, you must be patient, you must be humble, but you must preach the truth, and God is the one that gives the increase.

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I'm gonna just say a couple things here. There are some things I've done online where you can see me do the full explanation of the refutation of the pro -choice arguments.

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I won't belabor those tonight because of time. I just wanna talk about overcoming objections of the pro -life movement.

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Yes, I said the pro -life movement. Can I say something to you here that I think is one of the most important things?

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If you didn't know this, it is so vital. It is so vital, brothers and sisters, please don't miss it.

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Again, I won't belabor the point with the objections of the pro -choice. Go get that later online. But the pro -life movement.

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We got into this about five years ago. I was pro -life in my heart, in my head, in my church. I preached messages against abortion in my church, but we didn't do anything going out to the abortion facilities that are killing 10 to 50 children a day right down the street from my house.

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Didn't do anything. We learned about some Christians. They were going out and actually preaching the gospel and offering help at these abortion facilities, and they were saving lives and discipling women.

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So we decided to start doing it. My first day, we saved two children, first day. One day, go out.

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God didn't have to do that for us. He didn't have to. We said if we did it our whole lives and saved one child, it was a life well -lived.

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We saved two on our first day. We've saved over 100 now as a church. And now because of our ministry, thousands across the country through all the churches that have been raised up to do ministry just like ours.

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But as we started this ministry, I said I'm pro -life because pro -life means you stand for the life of the unborn.

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And what we've discovered over the years as Christians fighting in this battle is we've learned that the pro -life movement, leaders in the pro -life movement have said explicitly, go listen to my interview

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I had with Tony Lowinger, the vice president of the National Right to Life.

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Go look it up on YouTube, Jeff Durb and Tony Lowinger. About a half an hour conversation with the vice president of one of the largest pro -life organizations, not in the

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United States, but in the world, one of the leading organizations that is influencing your fight in Ireland.

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That needs to be heard and understood. And he said explicitly in my interview with him that they wanna take a backdoor approach and not use the

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Bible, not use Christian language, not talk about Jesus, not talk about the gospel, a backdoor approach.

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And he said this, that they are not working in the United States to call it murder, they just want it to stop, but they have no intention of calling it murder in legislation.

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So no Jesus, no gospel, no hope, no salvation, and no legislation that means anything at all.

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Going to legislators and saying, hey, I have a personal preference, can you please stop doing this? And the legislator says, but why?

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Is it a moral failure? Is it an issue of justice? Well, is it murder? No, the pro -life movement says, no, no, no, no, we're not fighting for it to be called murder, please don't call it murder, we'd just like it to stop.

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Whatever does that mean, brothers and sisters? Is that Christian? Is that Christian legislation?

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Is that discipling a nation? The pro -life movement has explicitly said they do not want to call abortion murder for the women who do it, they do not.

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You can listen to the things we have online where Zach spoke with the president of National Right to Life, Tobias, and she said the pro -life movement, listen closely, because these words must change us, because listen closely,

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I am not coming into Ireland, please hear me on this, coming in here trying to tell you as the

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Irish church, listen to the American, I have all the answers. I'm saying, brothers and sisters, you have the answers, it's in your laps, it's the word of God.

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You're the church, be the church. I'm telling you, as a brother in Christ, humbly, humbly, with no haughtiness and no pride, brothers and sisters, as Christians, you need to hear that the pro -life movement says,

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Tobias, in the interview with Zach, she says this, the pro -life movement is not working to have legislation that call abortion murder for the women, she says this, we believe that women are as much victims as the children who die in abortion.

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So the mothers who kill their children are the same victim as the child that they lead to the slaughter?

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That's coming from the pro -life movement, the same pro -life movement that's failed in my nation and comes to your nation and says, listen to us.

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Listen to us, Ireland, we have the answers for you. We're the pro -life movement in America. Brothers and sisters, you're the church, you have the gospel, you don't need them and their message that's

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Christless and gospel -less. It will not save Ireland, it has not saved us.

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It has been a point of complete and utter failure in the United States. Have there been victories with the pro -life movement in America?

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If you wanna call a victory some children being saved, yes, praise

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God for that. God, Van Til said, strikes straight blows with crooked sticks,

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I don't believe we should go looking around for crooked sticks. Because he can, because you see the pro -life movement has fought with inconsistent legislation to fight against abortion.

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They will not call it murder, they will not call women who have it murderers. Listen, they say this, don't call it murder, they say she's a victim.

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Well, brothers and sisters, can I say something to you as Christians, please? I know you're getting tired here, but I just need you to focus for a few more minutes.

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Listen, this is vital, it's huge. We were at the rally in Dublin about a week ago.

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And in the rally, we saw all the pro -life rhetoric and all the pro -life things, and we're grateful to God for every person, no matter what they are, atheist,

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Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, agnostic, Christian, Catholic, who say that abortion is an injustice, it's murder, it needs to stop.

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I say we take all of them. But we saw all the signs that say things like, abortion stops the beating hearts.

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What does that mean? Abortion stops the beating hearts. What's that mean, what's that?

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We saw people, though, that we were excited about that had signs that said, abortion is murder. And I said, praise

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God, let's go talk to them. So we went over and we started talking to them, we said, abortion is murder.

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Yes, praise God, do you believe abortion is murder? Yes, so I said, I have a question for you. And I was so excited to get the right answer.

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I said, does the pro -life movement in Ireland that says abortion is murder, do they see the woman who commits it, do they see her as a murderer, or do they see her as a victim?

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And every single person that had a sign that said, abortion is murder, said she's a victim, not a murderer.

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Listen, please, be the church here. Listen and think with the word of God here. If a woman who has an abortion is a victim, then that means, watch, she is not guilty.

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And if she is not guilty, she does not need Christ in that. You see,

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I say this, people say, if you say it's murder, you're gonna be so harsh, you're gonna hurt women.

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I say this, no, it's the pro -life message that's hurting women. Because if you say to a woman who's killed her child that she's a victim, then she doesn't need

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Christ. She hasn't committed a sin. She doesn't need to repent and to believe in that.

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What message is there of hope for the woman who's had an abortion? My church is filled with women who have had abortions.

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I have one woman in my church that has had four abortions. She's killed four of her children.

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And the hope she has in the gospel is that Christ has washed that sin away. She has been cleansed.

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God will never count it against her. He's taken all of the wrath of God and exhausted it in her place because she recognizes that she's killed her child.

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And she's turned to Christ and she is covered in the righteousness of Jesus, washed of all of her sins.

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The pro -life movement says to her, you're not guilty, sweetie. You're not guilty.

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You're just a victim. That's a Christless, gospel -less, hopeless message.

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Also, we've been told by the pro -life movement, only a few more points here,

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I promise. We've been told by the pro -life movement, we just need to convince the women that it's a baby.

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We just need to convince the woman that it's a baby. One, point one. The pro -choice movement already recognizes that.

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I can show you article after article after article where the pro -choice movement today isn't even trying at the highest level to argue that it's not a baby.

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They say outright, blatantly, it's a human being, it's her baby, but she still has the right to kill it because there's no way out now with biological science.

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It's a baby from conception. All the biological components of a human being from the moment of conception, that's a fact.

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And the pro -choice movement doesn't even try to dismiss it now, they embrace it. They say, yes, it's a human, yes, it's her baby, but she has the right to kill it.

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And the pro -life movement goes and says, no, no, our methodology is just convince the women that it's a human being from conception.

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Second point, what's the problem with abortion? It's a symptom of what?

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Romans three. There's none righteous, no, not one. None who seeks for God, no fear of God before their eyes.

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Watch, their feet are swift to shed blood.

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You see, abortion is a symptom of what? Spiritual death, alienation from God. And you know what women tell us when they walk in that abortion mill?

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You know what they say to us? We say, please, mom, we call them moms because they are. We say, please, mom, don't kill your child today.

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We'll help you, we'll love you, we'll adopt your baby, we'll give you whatever you need. Do you need money, do you need food, do you need shelter, we'll give you anything.

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We're pleading, please don't kill your child today. And you know what they say to us? When we say, please don't murder your child, this is your baby, they say,

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I know it's my baby. I have the right to kill my child. You can't tell me not to kill my child.

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They walk into those doors and they affirm to us that they know it's their child and they say this,

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I have the right to kill my child. And for the professing Christians that walk into these death centers, they say,

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God will forgive me. Why? You can convince a person all day long that it's a human being in their womb and if they're fallen and they're a rebel against God, they will say, it doesn't matter.

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My feet are swift to shed blood. The pro -life movement fails to recognize a biblical anthropology that all of us are, without Christ, totally depraved, fallen at war with God, hostile to God.

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And you take a moral message and you put it on a fallen heart and you say, be good, be honorable, be noble.

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The fallen heart says, no to God in rebellion. Why? Because that fallen heart doesn't need moral lessons, it needs repentance and faith.

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It needs Jesus. Next, legislative. If she's a victim and it's not murder, then it's not a sin.

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If she's a victim and not a murderer, then it's not a sin. If she's a victim, listen, then it's not a crime.

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If it's not a crime, then no legislation is necessary. At the rally, we asked the people again, is it murder?

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They said, no, she's a victim. And just consider this, the pro -life movement, the failed pro -life movement in my country who's shipping out our failed narrative to Ireland, to Ireland's Irish churches and Irish Christians, the pro -life movement is gutting justice from Ireland.

01:00:18

And you ask me how? Listen, in Ireland right now, Southern Ireland at least, it's a 14 -year prison sentence if a woman has an abortion.

01:00:27

Is that right? A 14 -year prison sentence if she has an abortion. The Eighth Amendment equalizes the life of the baby with the life of the mother.

01:00:36

And the pro -life movement is coming into Ireland and they're telling you as the church, no, she's a victim, which means they're gutting the justice that's already established in Ireland that says that she's not a victim, she's guilty of a crime.

01:00:52

The pro -life movement is shipping our failed narrative in and they are killing your justice that was established by our forebearers.

01:01:00

Here, if you go to your legislator and you say,

01:01:07

I want abortion to end, they're gonna ask you why. And if you don't have an issue of justice to present before them, then you can expect to have abortion no ministry in Ireland.

01:01:20

Brothers and sisters, it's murder, yes, but we need to speak the truth in love, of course. It's the grace of God we offer in the gospel, but watch.

01:01:31

When we fail to say that it is murder because we want to love women and we want them to know

01:01:43

Jesus, listen closely, it means that the pro -life movement is failing to recognize the distinction between the church and the state.

01:01:53

Romans 13, and my goodness, covenanters, you know this so well. It says it in your testimony,

01:01:59

I just read it last night. By the way, it's amazing, I love your confession, I love your testimony, love it, it's wonderful.

01:02:08

Your testimony says about the church and the state that both the church and the state are under the rule of Jesus.

01:02:17

And both the church and the state are supposed to be ministers towards the kingdom of Jesus. But the pro -life movement fails to recognize what your testimony says so clearly.

01:02:28

The pro -life movement fails to recognize that the distinction between the church and the state is that the church preaches the gospel and offers forgiveness in Christ through the gospel, and the state, according to Romans 13, is

01:02:42

God's divine institution that is set to establish justice and to punish the wicked.

01:02:50

Just consider this for a second, think about how mixed up we are. How mixed up this is, this makes no sense, and it needs to be broke down in our minds.

01:03:01

If we went out today on a mission in Ireland, and we stopped afterwards for tea, which would be normal for Ireland, and we saw running past us a man out of breath, running past us, and he came in front of us, and he was holding something in his hands, like a television, and we said, hey, what's going on, are you okay?

01:03:24

And he tells you that he just stole this television from someone's house, he just broke into their home, he stole it, and now he's running off with his television.

01:03:32

What's our job in that moment? Preach the gospel to this guy, win him to Jesus, call him to turn from all of his sin to Christ, amen?

01:03:39

And we do that, we preach the gospel to this guy, his heart is opened, tears in his eyes, he drops the

01:03:46

TV, he drops on his knees, and he says, oh Lord, please forgive me, save me from my sins, I trust in you,

01:03:51

Jesus, and he gets up, and we embrace him, and praise God, this person's come to faith in Jesus, right?

01:03:57

Amen for that moment. And a few moments later, the police pull up, or the

01:04:04

Garda, or whatever weird Irish word you have for it. They pull up, they get out, and they say, we've been looking for this man, he just broke into someone's home, and he stole this.

01:04:16

It would be intellectually inept of us as Christians to say, halt, you don't understand, this man's come to Christ, he's forgiven of all of his sins, he's come to Jesus, and he's covered in the righteousness of Jesus, he's saved because he's trusted in Christ.

01:04:37

How foolish. We ought to recognize as Christians, there's a distinction between the mission of the church, to proclaim forgiveness in Jesus, salvation there, and the role of the civil magistrate, which is to do what?

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Establish justice, punish evil, and to bring harmony. We don't say to this person who's stolen, no, no, no, no, you're not actually a thief, you're a victim of your environment.

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You couldn't help yourself, sweetie. You didn't know any better. You're not a thief, and you're not guilty.

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No, we say, what? You are a thief, and there's forgiveness for you in Jesus. Turn from your sins to Christ.

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We would never say to the police or the civil magistrate, you can't punish this thief, because they're a believer in Jesus.

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It's foolish. Brothers and sisters, final words.

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I can't tell you what it truly feels like. I can't explain it.

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To hold a child in your arms that was destined for death.

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I can't express that feeling. Honestly, it's incomprehensible, and I do hope it's something that you never have to experience.

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We've had so many children saved from abortion. Some of these children, after they were saved from death, they're running around our church.

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Twin girls, Olivia Grace and Kara, when I'm preaching, sometimes in the past, when they've come, they're screaming, causing distraction in service, and I say,

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I say, praise God. We're family integrated, too. You're like, well, that's because you're

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Presbyterian, Jeff. We have kids on our service screaming and yelling. Sometimes these little girls that were saved from death in an abortion mill, they're running around our church, disrupting things, and I say, you disrupt all you want.

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I know that goes against the order of the church and everything, but you know what? As close as they were to death, that's fine.

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All you want. I've held a child named Carmelo in my arms that was literally seconds away from death, and through talking to his father outside the front of a

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Planned Parenthood, his father went in and took her off the operating table. And Carmelo was in my arms, saved from death.

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There's been so much fruit of real lives changed because of the gospel, the gospel being preached at an abortion mill.

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Will you please men or God? Will you bring the gospel into the public square in the light of abortion?

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Will you call it what it is, and we call your nation to repent of it? You might be thinking, well, how could this be done through us?

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Well, I'm gonna tell you. God in the first century turned the world upside down with 11 very confused disciples.

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One betrayed him. 11 are standing there before Jesus as he ascends, thinking, go win the world, all the nations.

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I see a lot more than 11 in this room. I see potential giants of the faith, and here's my earnest hope.

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Please listen. I hope to God that because of the gospel, you are used by God to establish justice in Ireland, and you hold back this evil of the slaughter of the unborn.

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I hope to God that I'm not back soon teaching you guys how to do abortion mill ministry to save children's lives.

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The only way your nation will stop going there is if hearts are transformed, and they do not transform without Jesus.

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They won't. It must come from you. So rise up, men and women of God.