The Gospel & Rescuing Children

The Gospel as the Foundation of the End Abortion Now Movement

Hi everybody, I'm Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. Thank you again for watching endabortionnow .com the live stream event. Don't forget to hashtag endabortionnow .com and share the live stream across your social media platforms and if you would consider partnering with Apologia Church as we Communicate the gospel in the area of abortion across the United States of America.

You can do so by going to endabortionnow .com. Go to the donate tab. And if you feel led give there you can partner with about a hundred churches right now that have partnered with Apologia Church across the United States just this week babies have been saved just this week.

Christians have been getting involved in this ministry bringing the gospel to their local abortion mill and you can do the same. But if you feel led give today at endabortionnow .com and help us continue this effort to end abortion Immediately in our nation endabortionnow .com.

Prayer for Justice, Repentance, and Gospel Power

Welcome to end abortion now the conference Praise God welcome we have people from all over the country and we have the whole world watching right now, so praise praise God and Especially thanks to God that we put this together in such a short time.

Some of you guys got plane tickets from across the country you organized getting your families out. You did so much and so little time. And that reason for that is the name of the conference is end abortion now.

And so we thought well now We'll do it. And so that's why it happened so quickly. Thank you guys for accommodating Everything and making your schedules work. I have a lot to say in a very short period of time and everybody knows I have sins in the area of time.

So we're gonna get started right away if you would join with me in prayer Father we come before you as your people Lord, this is not about us. It is not for our glory. It is not for our sake. God is for the glory of your son father Lord Jesus we ask as your people Lord gathered here together From churches across the United States.

We ask Lord Jesus that you would put this enemy under your feet. You would defeat this enemy that you'd bring justice for these children. And God we do pray that you would fill us Lord this weekend that it would not be In any way a motivational speeches it would be Lord power come from you from your word.

Change us Lord challenge us convict us God get us on our feet fill us God with your power with Lord boldness courage your words. Put your gospel father on our lips. And let it go forth to the world Lord.

Let the world be wood and Your words in our mouths fire and we pray God that you would rescue those who are Being led to the slaughter. You would use your church to do it. We pray God that you would defeat your enemies.

Defeat.

Wretched organizations like Planned Parenthood. Destroy it Lord with your word and love your mercy. We pray God for every woman going into an abortion clinic this next year we pray that you would let your words come from our mouths like a Sword that it would pierce through that they would hear and understand our love for them Our concern for them.

We pray God that you would bring Salvation to the abortion mills across the United States. We pray Lord for our neighbors Carrying little ones in That you would bring repentance and faith. We pray Lord for our neighbors in the womb that you would give us Lord God the endurance the Perseverance the love the power to fight for them.

Please help us God we are powerless in ourselves. And so we confess it and we do ask God that you'd forgive us. Forgive us as your people Forgive us of our sins individually.

Corporately.

Forgive us God for not acting when we ought to and we pray God Lord as we move forward you would grant to us by your spirit fruit in keeping with repentance. That we would fight for all with all of our might for your glory for the gospel and for these children.

And we do pray God that you would give us Lord the opportunity to start trouble. Please God allow us to be godly troublemakers please allow us to have controversy not for Controversy sake but for the sake of your truth for the sake of the gospel.

Lord put us in a fight For the glory of Jesus. It's in his name. We pray. Amen. So we're here and abortion now is the catch cry. I Say often that this isn't about any one of us. It is about the gospel.

It's about Jesus Christ. It's about God. It's about God's glory. That's what this is about. That's why we're called together here on this day not to sign up for a Ministry Necessarily partnering with us so we can create satellite ministries.

This is about God's truth. God's gospel, which doesn't change. And it's about God's people across the United States bringing the message of the gospel where it is needed. It is about us standing boldly where we ought to it is about us standing for justice.

Really the call of this weekend is to come together as the people of God from the United States. To affirm our love for the gospel our love for these children and to be sent back home on mission together In all of our respective churches and ministries to bring the gospel consistently in the area of abortion.

That's what this is about. We believe that the pro-life movement has failed. It has been an abysmal failure. We believe that we believe that fundamentally it's been an abysmal failure because it has failed Fundamentally to stand on the Word of God.

That's the answer. We believe that the problem of abortion is a problem of sin. It's a problem of private sin individual sin it's a problem of national sin and It's a problem of sin that comes from a very fallen heart and what we believe needs to take place is that our nation needs to have a heart change it needs a heart of Stone removed in a heart of flesh replacing it and the only way that takes place Brothers and sisters is through God's Spirit through the proclamation of his Word.

The only way people have eyes Opened up and ears opened up. The only way that people have their hearts transformed is when they have an encounter with God with Jesus Christ. Now we believe that we're not ashamed of it.

Yes. Our movement is fundamentally Christian. It is standing on the Word of God. We confess right now to all of our enemies who are watching around the world first. We love you we want you to know Jesus and be forgiven and Second second we are not neutral.

We are standing on the Word of God. We are standing on biblical principles and we are in this fight because we are fundamentally Christian. That's why we're in this fight. The pro-life movement has failed because it has failed to stand on the Word of God.

It has failed to call abortion what it actually is murder it has failed to fight against abortion in the legislature and Consistent Christian way saying ultimately this is an image bearer of God. It's murder to kill it and you ought not do it and God commands you to repent of this wicked sin.

Why the Pro-Life Movement Has Failed

Now that makes a lot of people very very uncomfortable to speak in that way in the 21st century evangelical church. To talk about this fight in terms of what God says is something that you shouldn't do as a matter of fact many of you Guys saw when I spoke on Apology at TV to the vice president of the national right to life.

He said and wasn't ashamed. He said professed Accepted was proud to say it that their mission in this movement as this major pro-life organization Was to take a backdoor approach. To not stand on the Word of God to not make it about Jesus, but to take a backdoor approach.

What we really need to do they say in the pro-life movement is just Convince people that this is a human being in the womb. We just need people to understand that. This is a human being. It's a part of our species and we can't kill it.

Well what I say when people say that is that you must not spend a lot of time out on the streets. Because for those of you guys that are in this kind of ministry on the front lines. You know that when you convince these image bearers of God that they're about to kill another human being their response is.

So what I? Have the right to murder my child. Yes, I know. It's a baby. Yes. I know. It's my baby. Yes, I know that it's human, but my path is to destroy it. You can convince people who are fallen all Day long that that is a human being in the womb and they will say that's right and I have the right to murder it.

One of the reasons we are engaged in the way that we are with media is We want to expose and let people know see and hear what we know see and hear outside of those abortion mills. You can say why do you broadcast the way you do?

Why are you putting things on live stream? Is it to make apology of famous? No, it's actually really hard to do those sorts of things. We have much we have so many other things we could be doing. Right.

I could be spending time with family. We could be having a great time having we could just be doing wonderful things with our lives. Why do we go out to the abortion mills and turn everything on? We do it because we want to expose this darkness for what it really is.

We want people to see the Planned Parenthood supporters saying yes I know it's murder and giving fist bumps in the air when you say that it's murder. We want people to see what's actually taking place out there.

We want to expose this darkness for what it actually is. We want to be able to see that it doesn't make a difference if you convince somebody that it's a human that it's a baby. They will say with a very fallen hearts.

Well, I have the right to murder my child or you may get this one ready. I What oh you guys have been here. You know. The pro-life movement has been abysmal failure because it has failed fundamentally to stand on the Word of God.

If the nation's heart is fallen then what the nation needs is a new heart. If the nation is blind. Then they need the great physician to give them sight again. If the nation is deaf and they can't hear they need the one who gives hearing to deaf people if our nation is dead.

Then it needs a resurrection and there's only one way that takes place brothers and sisters and yes, you will be seen. You will be seen as a radical. Yes, you will be seen as people who are troublemakers.

You will be seen as people causing great difficulty you will be told to stop and I will say this and I say this with a Sad heart and I mean that sincerely. Some of the greatest opposition you will receive as you enter into this ministry of the gospel at the abortion mills some of the greatest opposition you will receive is from professing Christians.

People who will tell you no, I agree. You shouldn't have an abortion. No, I agree that it's an image bearer of God. I agree that it's murder and the women shouldn't do it. But I don't believe you should be going to abortion mills to tell women they're about to murder their children.

I don't believe that what you're doing is right. I think what you're doing is very very Edgy, it's it's too sharp. It's a serrated edge that doesn't need to be there. Well, what you do is when someone says that to you.

Point them to the scriptures where God commands them. To stand in the way of people who were standing who are going to death. What you do is you actually ask them questions like okay. We have two paths here.

One is go to the abortion mills preach the gospel. Call it murder. Offer to help. Offer to love offer to support now. We've done that together. Amen, and as a result of that hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of babies thousands saved from death.

Right, the gospel proclaimed literally tens of thousands of times. That's the one way so path one go preach the gospel. Love these women tell them that you'll serve them and adopt their babies and help them.

One. Thousands of babies saved. The gospel goes forth tens of thousands of times. Ask the person who says don't go. How many babies have you saved? With your methodology. Your methodology is this. Don't go.

Your methodology is this stay silent. Your methodology is this vote?

Republican what's happened?

40 years Roe v. Wade the pro-life movement Voting Republican. And where we at where we at 700 some-odd abortion facilities across the United States and over 3 ,000 image bearers of God dying every single day in our nation.

Every day and Nothing's changing. You could say all day long That we have less abortion. Facilities.

You could say all day that we're changing things, but every day is 9 -11. Every day is a day that we go and fight wars for 3 ,000 people died and we fight a war and in every day in our nation 3 ,000 babies die and You can say that we're fighting and we're trying but I want to say that there's something wrong and believe me.

This is coming from a hardcore pipe-hitting Calvinist. I Know God is sovereign. I Know that he wields his authority and I know that abortion is an enemy ultimately that he only permits. I Know that but I also know that listen.

We have the same God the same spirit and the same gospel as the early church that turned the world upside down. And there isn't a special power that the early church had to turn a pagan empire on its head.

That we do not have you see I think that I think this Romans 1 the gospel is the power of God for salvation and if we're not seeing Salvation and hearts changed. I want to ask the question. Why are we under God's judgment because that's certainly a possibility.

Okay, is the gospel being faithfully proclaimed and my answer when I look across the broad stream and spectrum of pro-life Movements when I ask the question is the gospel being proclaimed in this area.

My answer is no. Is it being proclaimed? Yes, but it is it being proclaimed in a consistent way from the Church of Jesus Christ across this nation and my answer is No, I don't believe so. And so I want to point lest anybody think that there's a haughty spirit or a pride Behind this because it's important to avoid that believe me.

One of the things you have to fight in abortion mill ministry is pride. Do you go out to the abortion mill and no one's standing there next to you? And the first thing you say is what you know. What do you say when you're out there and you're out there for weeks on end and nobody shows up next to you.

What what do you say? Come on, tell me you've been there. What do you say? What?

Where's the church.

And so there's a danger in doing this ministry going out to abortion mills. Seeing the need seeing lives being saved and transformed you start looking next to you and you say where's the church? There's a danger of pride and haughtiness to say well, I'm doing this and they're not I'm doing this.

Where's the church? I'm doing this the bride has failed. I Ought to be accepted in this place and during this time I think what we ought to do as Christians who were convicted over this who were going out and doing this I think we ought to love Jesus bride.

And we should call Jesus bride to come with us and remember this. Fundamentally, and this is vitally important for those of us that are going to the abortion mill and thinking about these things. How did you?

Decide to start going to the abortion mill. How was it because somebody annihilated you Because somebody destroyed you or did you see? Faithfulness and did you see God moving and then you went? I'm what I want to say this.

I'm convinced that God's bride is.

Wooed.

Into things. And what I want to say is put down pride and we ought to woo Jesus bride into this fight. That's the answer. And so less anybody think this is coming from a place of pride. I want to just say briefly How did we get involved as a church first?

We were pro-life. We believed that it was an image bearer of God that abortion was murder. I preached sermons against abortion. I believed abortion was sin. I believed that it needed to end. I Was pro-life between my ears in my heart and in my head.

I was pro-life between the walls of my church. I voted for pro-life candidates. I believe that that's what we had going for us and We had a woman on years ago on apology or radio. I saw her come across my feed.

I saw that she was involved in abortion mill ministry. I saw pictures of her coming out on Facebook where she was with different women like consistently just different women different babies and she was at the hospital and then at a different hospital and in a new woman and in a new baby and.

I thought.

What is this works? You can actually go and save children outside of an abortion mill because my idea of abortion mill ministry was a lot of heat. No light. I Had I had a picture in my mind of nutcase Professing Christians who went to abortion mills and screamed a lot and caused a lot of problems.

But maybe nothing and so we had this wonderful sister in Christ on the radio and she was talking to us saying she'd be involved in this ministry for like two decades from since she was a child and She's talking about how they do it and they go they preach the gospel.

They love these women and we're like, wow. Wow, and she says yeah, and we saved 360 some-odd babies. And you should have seen Luke and joy and I are our jaws are on the table. I'm thinking 20 years of ministry 360 some-odd babies.

That's insane. That is insane and she says yeah last year, it's like a baby a day like a baby a day and so. So Apology at church was challenged by that and people started coming together saying we should do something about this.

We can do it. Obviously, we know the gospel. We know the need we know where these places are.

Let's go.

And so we went knowing nothing except God's truth and the fact that we love these women. And so we went. We went to the abortion mill on our first day at the abortion mill. We were walking away in about two hours with two 16 year old girls who decided not to murder their children that day.

Two babies first day. And so we knew That this could be done. God was in this and so we kept going. Well, that was almost four years ago. And when we have an apology of church that we know of over 40 Sorry over 70 babies saved locally from apology of church.

The number is much higher than that. That's just what we can confirm. And Over 100 ministries have started across the United States as a result of apology of church. Just talking about.

This.

Ministry praise God and at this point if we could guess thousands of children.

Saved.

Why?

There's nothing special in us. The truth is if you want to know how this all started It's because as we started going out to the abortion mill All we did is we reported back to you on apology or radio what was happening.

We said hey guys, we saved a baby today. Hey, baby saved. Hey this happened this weekend. Hey, baby was saved. Hey, baby was saved and all of a sudden we start getting notice from Christians across the country saying hey Jeff I started my own abortion mill ministry and we had a save this weekend and we had five saves and we took a woman in.

And this woman came to Christ and we're singing all see all these things take place. Everything that you see before you today took place organically and here's why. It was just a single church in the middle of the desert.

That's not very wise not very mighty. Not very powerful that just said this. I want to love God and love these people and so we went and That's what this is. That's what's before you nothing special in us.

It's just being faithful. I Want to talk today. Quickly tomorrow is answering objections so talk about objections you get from professing Christians who say you shouldn't do this kind of ministry and Objections you get outside the abortion mill, but I want to address just briefly the cowardice of modern Evangelicalism the cowardice of modern evangelicalism now, this is across the board.

I want to say very very important. It's not simply in the area of abortion. Not simply an error in the area of abortion now when I by the way when I say the cowardice of modern Evangelicalism what I'm talking about is the culture of the 21st century Evangelical Church in the West.

It's the kind of culture that says don't offend. Don't cause trouble. Don't make things difficult.

Don't go to jail.

It's the kind of Christianity that says if people hate you if people Despise you if people dislike your message, then you must be doing something wrong. Compare and contrast that to the ministry of Jesus and his Apostles.

Where Jesus says to people to his people woe to you when all people speak well of you.

The Cost of Boldness in the Ministry of Jesus and the Apostles

In.

Contrast to the ministry of Jesus where he speaks to crowds of thousands of people We're making progress now in the kingdom of God. It's broken into history and now progress finally. We're having some progress after all this opposition.

Thousands of followers. What does modern evangelicalism say when you've got thousands of seat seats filled? Do whatever you can to keep them. Build a coffee shop sell cotton candy and chocolate milk. Whatever you have to do to keep these people in their seats.

Jesus turns around and does everything to get him an F letter grade in seminary classes across the United States. He says to these crowds of thousands if anyone comes to me and does not hate and. Then he names the most important people in your life father mother Sister brother wife.

And he says that even your own life. You're not worthy to be my disciple if you come after Jesus. He says you must take up your cross. You must come to die and.

Rise again.

That's the call of Jesus. That's the gospel call of Jesus. Come die or don't come. Modern evangelicalism as a culture is filled with cowardice. When you see Christians being bold with the truth telling the truth modern evangelicalism says Condemn it.

It's wrong. It shouldn't be that way. Why. Because the world needs to accept us. They need to love us. If we could just make friends with the world. Then we'll make everybody love Jesus. Whereas the mission of Jesus and his apostles was to call people to come from where they were to where he is.

To call people out of death and into life. Modern evangelicalism sees people who would tell the truth as enemies of the truth. It's a weird place to be if you look in the book of Acts. I do believe that the book of Acts God has given to us this amazing.

Book.

That shows us the pattern of His spirit moving in his people faithfully in the first century. So what do you see in the book of Acts as the mo of the Christian Church? Well, you see the Apostles taken in after being warned by the government.

What was the warning shut up?

Shut up.

Didn't we tell you to stop bringing this man's blood upon us? Didn't we tell you to stop speaking in his name. And Peter's response as Somebody who was an ex-coward evangelical Who denied that he even knew Jesus before a little servant girl?

Peter's response is we have to obey God rather than men and Then after a conversation about what to do with these men They do what they think is appropriate and they beat him. The Apostles take a beating for Jesus.

They're cut up and blue and purple and bloodied and hot Walking out of there with their backs hot and sore. I think most of us were honest. We'd say in that moment we would say oh I did my Christian duty.

Time to take a break. What is to say. They left the presence of the council.

Rejoicing.

That they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his namesake. That was the heartbeat of the early evangelist. That was the heartbeat of the early church. People always say when you get back to the early church.

Okay, get back to the early church the way the early church was. I want to say do you realize how dangerous that is? You wanna get back to the way the early church was. Well they died. Are you ready to die?

Are you ready to die for the faith for the truth? They spoke the truth not in a way that was hostile in nature in terms of them being mean-spirited and unkind. They just told the truth. And when you tell the truth to a culture that is at war with God.

That culture is in their own mind at war with you. Which means that if you tell the truth in a culture that loves death.

Expect.

Hostility expect Difficulty at every sign and they walk away counting themselves.

Full of joy.

That they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus name and they kept on preaching the truth. And what took place. It wasn't long after ultimately that at the Roman Empire was turned upside down and went from paganism ultimately to Christians.

Dominating and I don't mean that in the sense of some political Physical thing. I'm talking in the sense of Christians spreading the message of the truth.

Loving people.

Doing acts of mercy. I Want to point us to our heroes. I Just did a message on this. Hopefully it'll go up soon. I hope it'll bless you guys. I just want to say this quickly John the Baptist. Yes, get the app.

Ask the average person say is John the Baptist a hero. Yeah. John Baptist is a hero. Is he awesome. Yeah, he was awesome. See from God. Yeah, what kind of things the Bible say about John the Baptist. Well, Jesus said a lot About him.

Jesus actually said of those born of a woman. No one's greater than John the Baptist. That's a pretty good accolade. That's an amazing trophy to hang around your neck right greatest born of women right here.

That's me, right? So pretty good guy in God's eyes. Jesus says it's the greatest right here John the Baptist. Well. What John the Baptist do? Well John the Baptist did a couple things. John the Baptist told the truth to the religious authorities who broke breaking covenant with God.

He confronted them told them to repent. He according to the Gospels called the people of God to show that they actually had repented by demonstrating it through justice. Mercy repentance. Genuine repentance.

And John the Baptist actually spoke the law of God to the governing authority of his day. What did he say to the governing authority of his day? Well, he said. That's government business. John the Baptist said we see there's two kingdoms here.

I'm sorry, if anyone's offended by that. He said well, there's a church realm over here and there's the government realm over here and there's not really supposed to be any intersection with them.

No.

John the Baptist actually brought the law of God to bear on the governing authority of his day. And he said it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. What not lawful according to who the law of the day know according to God's law?

And so what got John the Baptist the greatest of men born of women. What got him killed? It was his mouth. You see here's the thing about Godly troublemakers in history and I'm of course borrowing this from my friend Douglas Wilson.

Here's the thing about troublemakers in history. Godly troublemakers is that we love them. We think they're amazing, but we love them where they are safe.

Back there.

You see the thing about godly troublemakers that Christians we love them. We say this is an amazing man of God. Luther Calvin Zwingli. You got all these amazing heroes in history. You got Wycliffe and these giants of the faith.

Right at Athanasius, right? These are Athanasius. It's an amazing man of God. There was a statement about Athanasius. It was Athanasius contra mundum. Athanasius against the world at his time. He was like one of the only people standing for the Trinity in his day.

So much corruption and false teaching to come in and Athanasius Fights against it as like one of the sole people fighting for the Trinity in his day. Athanasius contra mundum and you go what a hero. And in his day they wanted him dead.

You see we love our heroes. Where they are back there where they're safe. You see the thing about godly troublemakers is they do just that they cause trouble and they don't cause trouble because of their behavior.

They don't cause trouble because of malice. They don't cause trouble because they're engaging in works of the flesh. They cause trouble because they're telling the truth. And brothers and sisters. I want to say that we must tell the truth.

We have to tell the truth. My heart's desire is that God would raise up people who would not be safe. My heart's desire is that God would raise up people who would live lives of godly missionary sacrifice.

Who would not be safe. Who would be risky? People ask the question, of course. Is this a ministry that's.

Safe.

And the answer is.

Nope.

The Witness of John the Baptist and Godly Troublemakers

Yeah, I was talking to some brothers just a little bit ago. It's awesome talking to you guys, by the way. It's so encouraging to hear your stories and as we only talk for a few seconds and We're talking about the fact that abortion male ministry is the ugliest most awful most difficult Horrible thing you could ever choose to do.

I'm really selling this right now, aren't I? It is ugly and horrible and hostile and unsafe and glorious and majestic and beautiful and powerful and amazing and Right, but know this that when you go to that abortion mill to tell the truth You will be told you are number one a lot.

You will have things thrown at you. You may get your face punched in you may die.

Okay.

Well, by the way, here's the thing the world's understand. Why are Christians so willing to die? For Truth justice. For the faith. For the gospel. Why Christians so willing to die? How come why why. I think I My only stab at it is it's because they already have.

That's all the way Christians can be willing to engage in things that are this stupid. Right this risky and this ugly right? Why would you do it? Well because you've already died. You've already died and if you've already died and risen again, then you know what Jesus says.

You'll never die. If you believe in him you'll never die and so that's why we engage in these kinds of ministries. I want to say this quickly just just a couple points to remember. We're gonna have a long weekend of a lot of talk.

So mine's right now talking about foundations. We must live like God commands us. We must live lives that look like we've died. We must live lives that tell the truth that are bold that are loving that are merciful that are respectful we must do what God commands us in terms of What he commands us to do with the unborn and that is rescue them and we must remember that we are not neutral.

Stop pretending to be. We're not neutral. Stop pretending to be. When I talked to the vice president of national right to life. It was abundantly clear you guys can watch that on YouTube. It was abundantly clear that the heads of the pro-life movement are not concerned With abortion being called murder with it being stopped immediately and They're not concerned about standing on scripture to engage in the fights that much is clear.

I was On the phone with a very very well-known head of a Christian lobbyist group person that's very well known especially in Arizona and I asked her if she'd be a part of what we're doing and She told me she wouldn't.

And I asked her why and she said I could not be a part of what you are doing because you are calling abortion murder. She said I have too many Christian sisters Who have had abortions and I cannot call abortion murder.

It'll hurt their feelings. So here's the head of a Christian lobby group Who's fighting in this fight for the pro-life movement listen. She will not call it murder and she is not fighting to end it now.

I said, well, what's your what's your what's your path? Where are you going with this? What do you want to do? And she said well, we want to do is see Roe vs. Wade overturned. What we need to do is we need to appoint pro-life judges Onto the Supreme Court and then they will reverse Roe vs. Wade.

Are you forgetting about how Roe v. Wade started?

Right.

How's it working out for us by the way and When we actually do fight that way when we say Roe vs. Wade has to be overturned. What we are doing is Actually contradicting the laws of our nation. Our nation isn't set up that way.

Praise God for Geneva and John Calvin. Presbyterians, there's your pass. Okay. Thank you for your form of government. Okay, that's the only time I'm saying it. Okay. But what does our what are what are our founding documents say they say what who makes laws who makes the law in our nation Congress.

So why would we actually contradict our own system of law and government in order to fight against abortion? Why don't we do what's actually right? What our founders said we ought to do what the Christian worldview would demand of us and that's actually end abortion immediately the state level like tomorrow.