Roe v Wade: What Has Changed?

It's an honor to be here, and it truly is a pleasure to stand alongside these brothers and sisters for the fight that we're in together.

If you would, take a look at your Bibles, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, hopefully most of you have this memorized.

I wanted to start this discussion laying this truth down as the foundation of our fight.

Hear now the word of the living and the true God. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Thus far is the reading of God's holy word.

Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you'd bless this time we have together as we open your word and we think and meditate upon your truth.

We pray, Lord, you would speak today through your word that you, Lord, would transform our hearts, our minds, and Lord, our actions.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the salvation that we have in you, the gift of eternal life, the gift of eternal life through faith in you.

We thank you that you'd save sinners like us. Lord, we recognize that you're our only hope.

Lord, we look to you and your righteousness alone, and Lord, we just ask that you would bless us, grant to us the strength and the perseverance,

Lord, to continue to proclaim your excellencies and your gospel and your truth in the world and,

Lord, above all, in this context. As we pursue this, we beg of you,

Lord, to establish justice and do it in your name. Do it because of you.

Do it for your glory. Lord, we don't care to be remembered. Lord, we pray,

Lord, even that people would forget us, forget our names, remember you and your glory.

We pray, Lord, for the future and the children who write stories about how you used your church to save these children by your gospel.

We ask that you would leave a legacy through the labor that we do together, together in unity, centered around Christ and the gospel.

In Jesus' name, amen. So I think it's important to start this discussion with that.

It's difficult in a stand -alone talk to talk about everything, and Brian stole most of what I wanted to say.

But I think it's important to lay this down. Where is all this coming from? Why the distinctions?

You keep hearing people talk about the pro -life establishment, the pro -life leadership, the pro -life industry.

Why the distinction? And I think this is the essence of it, Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

You can muster so many other scriptures, so much more from the word of God to express really the same point, but the foundation is there.

That's it. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore.

So the go, therefore, is based upon that assertion from the

Lord Jesus after the resurrection, the promised resurrection, after he fulfilled all righteousness, after he dies for the sins of his people, he says in the context where it didn't really appear so, he says all authority in heaven and on earth has been, past tense, given to me.

Not might be, will be, someday it has been given to me, and we have to confess to this, be humble enough to admit to it, from the disciples' perspective at the ascension, it couldn't have possibly, visibly displayed before them, that's true.

I mean, they're under the boot of Rome, Rome's in charge. Caesar thinks he's God. You have to confess

Caesar as Lord, as Caesar, as ultimate, and so when Jesus says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, it didn't look like it, didn't appear to be that way, and I'm sure,

I'm very confident, and this became very clear during that first generation of believers when they were killed by Rome and continued for hundreds of years afterwards the persecution against Christians, Caesar would have had something to say to the

Christians when they went around saying that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Do you understand that that is a political statement?

So many Christians today are so fearful, we have the gospel over here, we have the Christians over here, and we've got politics over here.

If politics is about the legislation of moral principles, then politics is something the

King of Kings has something to say about. There is nothing outside of the realm of Christ's authority.

And it's interesting, in the first century, Christians are being killed for what? For not being willing to say,

Kaiser Kyrgios, Caesar is Lord. Understand something, it was the state that executed

Jesus, and the charge being brought against Jesus was that He was the King, that He's the

Mashiach, that He's the one that's the ruler. That's what the Jews believed, Mashiach is going to rule the nations,

He's going to have all authority. So when they're bringing Jesus up on these charges, know this, that they're saying,

He's saying that He's the one with authority, Caesar. Pontius Pilate, don't you understand his claims?

That Jesus was claiming to be King. So our Savior Himself, our

Lord Himself was in conflict with another ultimate, another claim to ultimacy.

And if you read the book of Acts, you will plainly see that the early church is in conflict because of what they claim about Christ and His authority.

It is ultimate, it is overall. And we live in the context of a very weak evangelism that has abandoned historic orthodoxy and historic

Christian principles. We don't understand our heritage, we don't understand the Bible, and so we don't understand what apparently

Viceland and others have picked up on, and that is that we want to win the entire world to Jesus Christ.

It's interesting, people say, what's this Christian nationalism? First of all, I don't really know what that means, and so I'll be careful, but if the idea is that we want to win every nation to the

Lord Jesus Christ and teach them to obey Jesus, I'm sorry, we've been saying that for 2 ,000 years.

Everywhere we go, it's not like you've picked on something radical and new, that is the mission of the

Messiah, it was His last words at the ascension, go, get the nations, all of them, because all authority is mine, baptize them and teach them to obey

Jesus. So what's the distinction here? When we talk about the issue of the pro -life establishment, pro -life -ism, the pro -life leadership versus this concept of abolition over here, what we're really describing is simply this.

We must be the church of Jesus Christ in conflict with the issue of abortion.

That's the essence of it. That's what this is about. This is the Christian church standing on the word of God, standing on the law word of God, standing on the gospel, pointing to Christ, coming into conflict with the issue of abortion.

That's the essence. We're not special, this isn't some new thing we're trying, this is the church coming into conflict with abortion.

That's all this is. This is those who stand on this word as the truth, as ultimate, saying these are the standards, this is the savior, this is the king, and this is how we fight.

That's what this is. The essence of this fight is Matthew 28, 18 through 20. It's the same thing that Christians brought into every nation since the ascension of Christ.

We come into the world, we preach Christ and his forgiveness, his salvation, and we point the culture we're coming into to God's standards.

And Christianity, everywhere it went, the church of the living God, everywhere it went in the history of the church abolishes injustice where we go.

For example, the issue of slavery. How is slavery, this wicked practice of slavery that we had in this nation, how was it ever abolished?

The same way it was abolished in every nation that the church of the living God went into. Through the message of the word of God.

That's how it was ended. That's how it was ended. And so that's how we are approaching this, so we have to start there as the foundation, okay?

Are you ready? Yes? You guys look tired. Wake up, okay? Isn't this a beautiful building?

Isn't it beautiful? Something to think about here, I pointed this out to the pastor yesterday.

You can see the remnants of the old way of thinking of Christians in history when you see things like this.

When you see things like, I've seen in Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland, you see the remnants of the old

Christian vision where they would establish and build churches. And sometimes they were building these churches with their own hands in a community knowing, knowing that they would never worship in that building.

They knew that it would take generations. They were laying foundations, they were making it beautiful, and when they built their buildings, they were building it in such a way that it would testify to the glory and creativity, the beauty of God, but they were also building them in such a way that it looked like they planned to be there a while.

Isn't it interesting? You almost don't even need microphones in this room. I don't need a microphone! Brian certainly doesn't, good grief.

But Christians ought to have the mindset that, no, we're here to establish, we're here to establish and grow the rule of Christ in the world.

And even moments like this, this building testifies to that sort of a thing. Christians that plan here, plan to be here for the long term.

Now listen, we have to ask the question, what's changed? What's changed? Okay, so Dobbs happens, we work together with, he's not here right now,

Bradley, and a number of other organizations to file that amicus brief in the case.

If you haven't seen the brief, I really strongly urge you to read that.

That is a Christian attorney responding to the injustice of Roe versus Wade.

It was totally unique, and I look forward to the day, maybe watching from heaven or something, where hundreds of years from now, we've got

Christian homeschoolers and Christian schoolers actually doing reports on this thing called

Roe versus Wade, and there was this brief filed by a Christian attorney and Christian organizations and churches that said this, and it was so different than the other things that were being argued in that case.

It argued for the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. It argued for the absolute authority of the law word of God, and it called the church to repent of the, sorry, called the court to repent of the evil.

It's a phenomenal thing, you need to read it, but we argued in that case that Roe versus Wade was evil, it was injustice, it was the height of injustice, and it needed to be overturned.

We argued for that. We wanted it to go away, because I have to tell you this, if you're new to this, we ourselves have gotten bills into numerous states across the country.

We've worked together with brothers and sisters in other states who have gotten bills in themselves. We've been fighting this fight for a long time, and not only do you have to deal with the worldview issues, the foundational issues, the false doctrine issues, you have to overcome those, you have to argue against those, you have to preach

Christ and God's word, but we had to deal with the fact that you had cowardice amongst legislators, people fearful of the supreme being, sorry, court, the court, fearful to do their duty before God and their citizens, to do their duty before God and their citizens, fearful, so fearful they said, well,

I know that that bill is true, I know that it's consistent, I know that it's right, but we can't, we can't, because Roe versus Wade, now of course, we were saying years and years ago that Roe versus Wade is not law.

It's not law. We were arguing with legislators, it's not law, that's not how our system of government works.

What does our Constitution say? It says Congress creates law in our nation. It is a court opinion, and the court is not infallible.

There is a transcendent law above the court that the court must yield to, and as Pastor Brian brought up, it's been displayed in American history a number of times, in Dred Scott versus Sanford, the

Supreme Court, if you haven't seen it, read it, it is shocking, the evil things that were said about our black brothers and sisters.

The Supreme Court ruled on that, not people, property, return them, and praise

God for northern states that said, that's evil, never, and they defied the

Supreme Court. It's happened in our history. It's the right thing to do.

Lex Rex, the law is king. The government doesn't make itself king and decree from on high what is absolute.

The law is king. That's what the Christian church gave to this nation. So we would argue with the legislators, no, you just, as legislators, as the government in your state, you need to obey

God rather than men, and you need to resist that evil ruling for the cause of justice, do what is right.

And we had to deal with cowardice amongst the legislature, where they said, no, Roe versus Wade is the law of the land.

Interesting, isn't it, how the pro -life establishment actually was training pro -life legislators to accept the lie that Roe versus Wade is law.

We were saying, no, it isn't. No, it isn't law. It's not law. And amazingly, during Joe Biden's campaign, he was asked about the potential of Roe versus Wade being overturned before he was a resident

Biden. And what he said at this town hall to this lady was that his goal was to codify

Roe versus Wade and make it the law of the land. Isn't it interesting that the Democrats, the leftists, the pro -aborts understood that Roe wasn't actually the law of the lands, and the pro -life legislators and establishment was training their legislators to believe that Roe was law.

You know who didn't believe that? Joe Biden. Joe Biden's White House press secretary,

Kamala Harris, and guess what? The Democrats themselves. While we were in Louisiana, while we were there, in the background of us, while we were there on the ground together, praying and fighting and working with Danny McCormick and all that we were doing to let people know that it was going on, in the backgrounds, the

Democrats were actually working to actually pass a law via federal law that actually codified

Roe versus Wade as law. So isn't it interesting? We're in Louisiana. We're telling the legislators, it's not law.

You can resist it. Do like Dred Scott versus Sanford. Do that sort of thing. Be courageous. It's not the law of the land.

And legislators are going, well, isn't it the law of the land? And on the news, on the news, while we were there saying that, the

Democrats are actually having votes trying to pass it as law, the law of the lands.

Isn't it amazing? But what's changed? Well, Dobbs, it's overturned.

Okay. But here's what we said before the overturning of Roe versus Wade.

What did we say? We said abortion is murder. Abortion is the unjustified taking of human life.

It is the unjustified taking of human life. And you understand something, brothers and sisters, not in any way haughty, this is just the way things are.

This is God's world. It is incontrovertible. What is in the womb, not only according to Scripture, is uniquely created by God, it's the image of God, but what is in the womb, and this is incontrovertible from the very moment of conception, is human life.

It is incontrovertible. This cannot, you cannot get over this argument. It is incontrovertible.

What's in the womb from the moment of conception is human life, unique human life from the moment of conception.

Abortion is the unjustified taking of human life. Pro -life abortion is murder, biblically, legally, in our state statutes, it's murder.

So what's changed? Well, no, we've been saying that the whole time. That's what we were saying before, the overturning of Roe versus Wade.

What did we say then? We were saying to pro -life legislators and to the pro -life establishment this, that partiality is a sin.

Partiality is a sin against God. This is another one of those texts, and John Speed brought it up on the panel.

It's been said many times before, you could bring up a number of verses, a host of verses to demonstrate that God is opposed to partiality, that it's an abomination.

One of the most famous verses, and I'd like to get the one in that we remember because it is something that is so familiar to us, is in James.

James, such an amazing, amazing work of scripture.

James chapter 2, again, you know this, you're familiar with this. He says, my brothers, verse 1, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and you say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there, or sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him, but you have dishonored the poor man?

Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into the court?

Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? Here it is.

If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.

But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Powerful point, right? Royal law, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Interesting, because James talks about how

God despises partiality and he uses it in such a way that it's sort of low level.

Think about it, low level partiality, right? It's the rich guy versus the poor guy, right?

That temptation to sort of treat the rich a little better and the poor a little less. Amazing how he talks about the violation of God's law that exists in the simple, you sit here and you sit here, that kind of partiality.

Hated by God, not loving your neighbor. How much more does God require of his people when it comes to the lives of pre -born children?

Partiality is a sin. That's what we've been saying. Partiality is a sin. Unequal weights and measures are an abomination to God.

Unequal weights and measures are an abomination to God. Before the overturning of Roe versus Wade, we were saying to the establishment, to pro -lifers, to the leaders, to the industry, we were saying unequal weights and measures are an abomination to God.

Proverbs 20, 10. By the way, this is throughout the Old Testament.

Unequal weights and measures, God hates, God calls an abomination. That's what we were saying the whole time.

We were saying to pro -life legislators, we were saying, look, the bills that you're putting in are bills of permission.

Understand that. That we would say when Roe versus Wade is overturned, your state is going to have to deal with the fact that you have bills of permission that say you can kill these children but not these children.

You can kill them under these circumstances but not these circumstances. You can kill them using these tools but not these tools.

We were saying these are unequal weights and measures. You're saying that this child has no value and can be dismembered, disemboweled, and decapitated because of reason

A, B, or C. You see, the bills were an abomination to God.

And here's what I want to say. I want to hang on this because it's important. Oftentimes in our day, you still have many

Christians who will say, many Christians who will say, that sexual behavior cannot be accepted.

The person engaging in it needs to turn to Christ for forgiveness and salvation. And God specifically calls that particular sinful sexual choice,

He calls it, toevah, an abomination. Christians many times in our culture today will see the pride parades, they'll see it in the streets, and Christians will respond and say, no, you don't understand, we love you.

But God specifically addresses this and He calls this act, He calls it an abomination.

We try to highlight the brokenness of the situation and the sexual sin by saying God calls it explicitly an abomination.

You know what else He calls an abomination? Unequal weights and measures. Same word. Unequal weights and measures,

God calls an abomination just like those sexual sins. And so we were saying before the overturning of Roe versus Wade that God despises unequal weights and measures.

We were saying, if you put a bill in that says you can kill the child who is 10 weeks and older, or under, sorry, under, but you can't kill them if they're older, what you're doing is unequal weights and measures because they are all human.

In my state, when we put our bill of equal protection in, when we first did it, we had many co -sponsors and a lot of support because people did what they do in Louisiana.

They saw the bill and they said, hey, those are all our presuppositions, right? They said, human life from conception, hey, that's what

I ran on, I took money for that. That was my platform. Human life from conception, all human life is sacred, all human life needs to be protected, right?

In Louisiana, they said, yeah, that's our bill. Until the pro -life industry comes in and talks them out of it, which is what happened in my state in Arizona.

We put the bill in, we had support, and then all of a sudden, Kathy Herod comes in, the leader of the pro -life establishment in my state.

She came in, talked the legislators out of passing the bill. She said, don't pass it. And when we did our rally in Arizona, she actually was tweeting that she could never support a bill that would criminalize a mother, finish the sentence, a mother who murders her child.

It's emotional manipulation. She said, we believe in the pro -life establishment, the pro -life movement, we believe that both mother and baby are victims.

So she told our legislators, don't pass that bill, pass mine.

And hers, you probably heard me say before, hers said, you cannot kill a child in Arizona for the express reason that it has a genetic abnormality.

And I told Kathy this, and she had no way to refute it. I said, do you realize that that bill means nothing?

Because the bill says you can't kill your child in the womb in Arizona for the express reason that it has a genetic abnormality.

You know how you get around it? You just simply say this, oh, I'm not killing it because it has Down syndrome, I'm killing it because I hate it.

That's fine. She put into a bill, she said, you have to give your child a proper burial after you kill it.

She celebrated this. She actually did something that most of the legislators,

I'm convinced, had no idea they didn't even read the bill. She slipped in repeal of 13 -3604.

It was a standing Arizona law, it was standing the entire way through Roe vs. Wade, and that law said that it was a criminal act in the state of Arizona for a mother to kill her child in the womb.

Kathy Herod, the leader of the pro -life establishment in my state, decriminalized abortion in Arizona for the mother.

She decriminalized abortion for the mother. Unequal weights and measures.

We were saying before the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, we were saying that God says in Proverbs 17 -15 that those who acquit the guilty and condemn the righteous are both equally an abomination to the

Lord. Did you catch that? We all recognize that when we walk into a court, every human in the image of God feels this.

When you walk into a court where justice is about to be delivered, we recognize that when there is an innocent man or woman who is condemned by the court, that is evil, it is an injustice, and we need to fight against that.

Righteous people, innocent people, should not be condemned. That's understood.

But did you hear the verse, Proverbs 17 -15? It says those who acquit the guilty and those who condemn the righteous are both equally an abomination to God.

What does the pro -life establishment do? We were saying it to them before the overturning of Roe. We were saying you're acquitting the guilty.

That's injustice. God hates it. And more so, as Pastor Brian said, you are robbing mothers and fathers of the gospel because you are saying to them, you don't need

Christ in this, sweetie. You're a victim like your baby. You should not feel guilt. You should not feel shame.

You do not need to flee to Christ to be cleansed. Brothers and sisters, that teaching is false doctrine, and it is heresy.

Understand that. Christians seem to be more motivated when you throw out the word heresy.

We need to be very careful how we use heresy. Sometimes Christians are just not very gracious with each other.

We love to just sort of like, it's a sack of heresy. We throw it around, heresy, heresy, heresy. No, this is true.

This doctrine that the woman who murders her child in the womb is actually heresy. From a biblical perspective, biblical orthodoxy and historic

Christian orthodoxy, did you know that abortion has always been a thing?

And do you know that abortion and abortifacients were a large part of the Roman Empire? Did you know that it went in and out of favor with the

Roman government? There were times where it was approved and other times where it was actually not approved of. So, Christians came into the world in the context of abortifacients and abortion.

And did you know that the Christian church actually formulated creeds and confessions against the issue of abortion, calling it murder?

From the earliest days of the Christian church, Christians had to fight against the issue of abortion. And you can just do a survey of the first five centuries of the

Christian church. When they were dealing with the issue of women who kill their children in the womb, they called it murder.

And they knew she needed Christ for it. And I have to confess something. If you read some of the stuff they were doing to oppose abortion in the early church,

I have to confess, in some ways, I think they went kind of far. They would even have things where they would exile the woman and say, yeah, you can be forgiven, but you can't come back to church for 10 years.

Not saying I agree with that, but what does it show you? That the Christian church had a fundamental commitment to the preservation of life in the womb, and they said, you need

Christ for that sin. You need Christ for that sin. So, in the pro -life establishment, pre -overturning of Roe was saying that she's a victim.

We were saying, you are robbing women of the gospel, and you will never, ever, get this, ever, never, ever end abortion and establish justice for the pre -born with that doctrine that the mother who willfully murders her child is not guilty and is herself a victim.

Same thing goes for the father. If you say he has no guilt in it whatsoever, no gospel for him there.

You know what's amazing? I'll just do this as an aside. I've been a pastor for many, many years, and I've sat face -to -face with more women that I can remember who are in Christ now and have had abortions, sometimes multiple abortions.

I know one woman who had five abortions. She's in Christ. I've forgotten how many women

I've ministered to with the gospel and encouraged with the forgiveness they have in Christ, and I can tell you that these women feel the grief and the shame and the brokenness, and these are women who love

Jesus. And they still have to deal with what they know they did.

And then it comes down to, no, sister, it's finished. You are washed. You are cleansed.

He took it all. There's nothing left. He'll never condemn you. He'll never lose you. He'll never forsake you.

And the pro -life establishment tells me, a minister of the gospel, that everything I tell these women who have turned to Christ from the sin of abortion, everything

I tell them about their hope they have in Christ and the forgiveness they have is wrong because she is a victim and in no need of the gospel.

We were saying pre -overturning of Roe that acquitting the guilty is an abomination.

We were saying pre -Roe and the overturning of Roe that God's judgment will fall on those who make unjust laws and oppress the fatherless.

Isaiah chapter 10, if you haven't read it, go read it. Isaiah 10, God speaks specifically to the issue of unjust laws and decrees, and he says, woe to those for their iniquitous decrees who oppress the fatherless.

God has something to say to people who write sinful laws and establish injustice.

God hates it. Allow your Christian worldview to be comprehensive, brothers and sisters.

We need to believe every word of the word of God, every word of it. And God has something to say to that injustice.

He hates the iniquitous decree, the kind of decrees, are you ready, that make fatherless children pray.

And these regulatory bills given by the pro -life establishment are the kind of bills that explicitly make fatherless children pray.

They make them pray. So we were saying before the overturning, which we needed to happen, that you cannot write iniquitous decrees that make these fatherless children pray.

It's a sin against God, and you'll answer for it. One thing that I have,

I hope this benefits you. One thing that I've thought about in terms of talking to brothers and sisters who might just be inconsistent, we were all inconsistent coming into this.

So just understand that this is not haughty. This is renewal of the mind, stuff that's taking place in God's church.

One thing I've tried to say, to touch the conscience and the spirit of a brother or a sister who might be inconsistent on this area.

And they say, yeah, but shouldn't we just save any that we can? Like, yeah, that bill is idolatrous.

It's evil and it's unjust. But maybe we should just go ahead and approve of it. We'll just approve of it.

Maybe we'll write them ourselves just to save any lives. What I've often said is this.

On the last day, because there is a day of judgment coming. On the last day, if that bill is presented before God, will

God hate that bill or will it be pleasing to him? And brothers and sisters, if the bill is unjust and has unequal weights and measures, if it is a bill that acquits the guilty, let's just say it like it is.

God hates it. And he will condemn it and he will judge it on the last day.

And so brothers and sisters, God's church should never compromise in an area like this where God actually says of this bill, he hates it and he calls it an abomination.

Should we support bills of unequal weights and measures, bills that acquit the guilty that God hates?

Never. Never. Jesus said, those who are, you're either with him or against him.

You're either going to gather with him or you're going to scatter. There's no neutrality with Christ and God's law is the standard.

It's the standard. We were saying before the overturning of Rovers' Way that God rejects the worship that comes from a people who accept and refuse to turn from injustice.

And a people who will not correct oppression. Get this, I'm going to give you those passages to go review later.

Spend time in them. Isaiah chapter one, go read that passage. It is shocking. God telling his people that he's weary of their prayers.

He's weary of all the sacrifices. They're doing all the religious things and God tells them he doesn't want any of their worship.

And why? Because they have bloodstained hands. Because they will do nothing about the injustices around them.

And so he says to them, cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Correct oppression.

Bring justice to the fatherless. Now here's a Christian theology exam.

Are we all awake now? Yes? Okay, ready? Is God immutable? There's a couple of you like, big word, what?

Okay. Immutable means unchanging. It's one of the foundational truths of the

Christian message and the Christian worldview. God is not like you and I. God is immutable.

God is unchanging. If God says in Isaiah chapter one that he is weary of the worship and prayers of his people, they've got bloodstained hands.

He doesn't want the corporate gathering and all the religious stuff. While all this is going on and is accepted,

God is immutable. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's the same. He does not change, he says.

Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Why? Because he doesn't change. If God hates the religious service that is seeped in blood, in Isaiah chapter one, he hates it today.

He hates it today. And we were saying before the overturning of Roe that God rejects the worship of a people who will tolerate these sorts of things.

That's our God, like it or not. The greatest commandments we were saying is this, love

God, love neighbor. And we were saying before the overturning of Roe that this entire fight is a love

God, love neighbor issue. Now the pro -life establishment will gladly say, yeah, it's a love your neighbor issue.

We're saying you're forgetting something. There's two great commandments. One is to love

God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the other is to love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

And the establishment says yes to part two, but no to part one. We're saying you can't fight this battle without fidelity to God.

Which God? The true and living God. There's only one God. The triune God of scripture.

And we were saying this fight must be not just a love your neighbor fight, it's a love God fight.

And there can be no neutrality because neutrality is a myth anyways. No neutrality.

You must love God and you must love neighbor and there can be no neutrality. So you cannot be, we were saying, like the establishment and say, you know, we're not

Christian organizations. You know, there's Christians among us, but, you know, we're not fighting this fight as Christians.

We're not doing it because the Bible. We're not doing this preaching, you know, repentance and faith or anything like that.

We're just doing this because of biology, that it's human from conception. That's evil.

Okay, can we say it like it is? That's evil. It's evil to say, you know,

I'm kind of ashamed of Christ here. I'm not saying it's because I'm a Christian. I'm not saying it's because of Christian commitments or anything like that at all.

It's not because Christ is king. It's just, you know, it's because biology and all. Question, are we living in a society today that shows you that they do not give a damn about biology?

Isn't it obvious to everybody? You can say, excuse me, the genitalia doesn't speak to what you're professing.

And what do they say about that? Oh, the biology is meaningless because it's on the inside.

Do we see that? We live in a culture and society that is so rebellious to a holy God that they do not care what is the objective truth.

Because listen, abortion isn't about that. Abortion is a moral issue. It's a sin issue.

And when the establishment says, we can't make it about Christ, we'll just make it about biology. It's like this, guys, have you even bothered to read the statements from the

Planned Parenthood doctors and scientists and professionals where they acknowledge on record that it's human from conception, but they still believe that a mother and a father have the right to execute the child in the womb?

They do not care about the biology. They don't care about it in the womb, and they don't care about it with the 10 -year -old boy that wants to turn into a girl.

They do not care because the issue is what it always was before the overturning of Roe versus Wade.

It's sin, and the answer is Christ. It's the only way. We were saying that before the overturning of Roe versus Wade.

We were saying that Christ has all authority, that this issue is a gospel issue. It must be because of Jesus.

We were saying Lex Rex, the law is king. It's the transcendent law of God that should be the reference points.

Lex Rex, God's law is supreme. We were saying that knowledge starts with the fear of God.

Don't we love that? You see, we do that as Christians. Isn't it interesting how, if you're like me, you'll read verses for, you know, for years and years, loving

Jesus and loving his word, and you'll read verses, and sometimes, like, you'll read it a thousand times, and it just goes right over your head.

Like, you don't really, like, contemplate the implications of that one verse.

You'll even have it memorized and never actually think about, like, where does this go? What's it actually mean?

Proverbs 1 .7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

You know, from a philosophical perspective, people who love philosophy, and I agree with my teacher, my hero of the faith,

Greg Bonson, we need more Christians who love wisdom. That's what philosophy means. Philo and Sophia, love of wisdom.

We need more Christians that love wisdom. But philosophically speaking, you understand how radical that is?

That's audacious. That is bold. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and correction, or wisdom and instruction.

Okay, so look, ready? Are you ready to take the implications? God's word says, from God's own mouth, that without reverence, submission, and awe before the true

God, no knowledge is really possible. So you want to remove

God, his word, and his authority from the question about knowledge in the issue of abortion?

These are terrifying words, aren't they? Sometimes Jesus, he says things at times where you're like, oh, so beautiful and amazing, and other things that kind of shock you to your core, like that's absolutely terrifying.

Whoever's ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of.

We cannot fight the good fight in this world being ashamed of Jesus and expect any results.

Here it is. You can't expect a Christian outcome, if that's what you're aiming for, you can't expect a

Christian outcome without explicitly appealing to Christian standards. You want a world that looks like this?

You want a world that looks Christian? You're not going to get it. You're not going to get that outcome without explicitly appealing to Christian standards because, as we all know, finish it.

Ready? Finish it, theological exam. Here it is. Faith comes by hearing, and you want the world to believe?

You want the world to see? How's God do it? Through barbecues and baseball games?

Popcorn at the door? How's God do it? Through really impressive worship services?

How's God bring faith in people? How does he open their eyes? The word of God.

You're not going to get people to hate the murder of children without giving to them the word of God that can actually convict them of their sin.

We keep trying to run around the edges of this. We keep trying to rearrange furniture in a burning house, right?

We keep just trying to play around the edges. Maybe if we just do this in a pragmatic way. Maybe if we just do it in a practical way and just be very winsome.

Maybe we'll actually see people want to change their mind and their hearts. The answer ultimately is this.

You need your heart and mind changed. And that's only going to come through the spirit of God.

And he only works through the gospel. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. You rob people of the gospel message and the word of God, there's no transformation.

You realize that if we had an entire world that was so -called conservative or Republican, it'd still be a world of lost conservative and Republicans if it was devoid of Jesus.

I'm not in that game. I don't care about conservative parties and the Republican Party. I'm not in that game.

I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. I want him glorified and him magnified. I want his truth to prevail.

That's the fight that we should be fighting. Not this unbelievably flexible and weak,

Christless conservatism. What's it done? Nothing.

Nothing of any real value for the kingdom of the Messiah. OK, here we go. How much time do

I have? Am I time's up? I've got like two pages left. OK. I'm just kidding.

Actually, I'm not kidding. I really do have two pages. But I won't do it.

Am I time's up? You guys, Brian, if you're ever there again, you just be time out. Do we have a 30 -minute break?

Bradley got super nervous just now. He goes, we do. OK, I'll try to do this fast.

Lay down the foundations that are the important elements of this, right? So what's changed post

Dobbs? That's the question. Here's what we've been saying. So Dobbs happens.

The overturning of Roe versus Wade happens. And so people have asked the question, oh, wow, what's changed?

And the answer is, in substance, nothing. That's probably been said a lot today, right?

In reality, nothing, except for the fact that we, because of God's grace, have now removed the argument that has led to so much cowardice with the legislators.

We can't, because of Roe versus Wade, great, that's out of the way now. So now do your duty. That's a good thing.

Praise the Lord. We're not saying we agree with everything that happened with the overturning of Dobbs in terms of the argumentation and all the rest.

We're not saying that. But we love the fact that God often strikes straight blows with crooked sticks. I love that.

But it's out of the way now. So now what's changed? Guess what our message is. Exactly the same.

It's exactly the same. During Roe, the establishment, the pro -life establishment, said, ready, we're not

Christian. They said, this isn't about scripture. They said, this isn't about the gospel.

They said, let's just get what we can. Let's just get what we can.

They said, no equal protection. We will never support a bill that is an equal protection bill for children in the womb.

We will never do it. They said, we will never punish the mother or the father who willfully kills their child in the womb.

So here's the thing. Dobbs, overturning of Roe, what do they say now? Same exact thing.

The same exact thing. You know one of the things that was so striking, and I was like, I hope everybody's watching.

Please, God, open our eyes. I hope everybody's watching. Is that Roe falls, and then immediately, for like two, three weeks afterwards, you see major pro -life organizations arguing for the same regulatory bills.

Roe's out of the way, and they're still arguing for the same regulatory bills.

Here's the deal. It was never about Roe. It was about their worldview. It was about their doctrine. It was never about Roe.

They will never work to establish complete justice for the pre -born because they acquit the guilty.

They believe in unequal weights and measures. And can I just say it from the pulpit here? They are cowards, many of them.

And of course, you know I'm not speaking about every pro -life Christian, because I would say that most

Christians who are pro -life just instinctively, and they just thought that's our team, they don't even know this conversation is taking place.

It's kept from them. It's kept from them. They'll never end it. They'll never end it.

They'll say, and they're lying, that abortion is ended in every state.

OK, you move into those states, you say, what's that look like in a state like Louisiana? What's it look like in a state that could have established justice, didn't?

What's it look like in a state with no abortion mills? Abortions are over in our state. No, no, you've actually put into law that mothers and fathers can kill their children with impunity in your state.

All you did is that you made abortion in your state DIY. Do it yourself.

And they've actually told them from the floor on the day of the vote in Louisiana, they told mothers from the floor that they can kill their children with impunity because they said they never wanted a mother to ever face any criminal charges for murdering her child in the womb.

That's where we're at. So brothers and sisters, we must establish equal protection for all humans from conception.

Equal protection is the goal. We are seeing so much fruit, but brothers and sisters, we have a long way to go.

It has not been established. Yes, glory to God that we have states where you have abortion mills closing.

Praise God for that. But mothers and fathers are still killing their babies. They're still killing their babies.

And we need to establish equal protection for all children in the womb. And Pastor Brian told you about what took place in Louisiana.

I'm sure we'd love to just tell you more and more stories about the background of what was going on in those states.

But I want to give you some encouragement. Dennis is here. He's my partner. He's my brother in Christ.

I love this man. He works with Action for Life, Red State Reform. We've been working with numerous states to establish bills of equal protection.

And so please be in prayer. Because as of right now, and I know I'm going to forget some, we are working in Georgia, Louisiana.

We are working in Alabama, Arizona, South Dakota, Idaho, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

Bills of equal protection. We just were in Georgia last week meeting with two legislators, one senator, one house representatives, to put a bill of equal protection into Georgia.

We're hoping that it goes in the beginning of the session. That's in January. And we're going to have Georgia up. We're going to have

Louisiana up. We're going to have bills of equal protection. So here's what I want to say to you. And I know I'm running over time. And I'm sorry, Bradley, but not really.

Here's what I'm going to say. I was thinking of like, what do

I want to get across from my own heart to us? And honestly,

I think, if you want to hear me give you the message on the hope we have of what Christ promises he's going to do in the world,

God putting all of God's enemies under the feet of Jesus, I could do that.

But I think there's enough out there on that. Can I just say to you very personally right now, I know that Brian and I and Bradley and I and Dennis being involved in Louisiana and the other states, we really need you to know this.

Aside from all the foundational things that have to be true for us to move forward, and you've got to be able to reason in this way and reason through these arguments, the one thing that was such a tremendous blessing to us in Louisiana was the unity that we had together.

The unity that we had together. If you didn't know it, the last decade has been moments of great fruit in this fight.

Great fruit, great unity. But at the same time, it's sinful people who love

Jesus that are trying to do something massive and that's beyond them. And sometimes that creates conflict.

And if you didn't know this, sometimes Christians fight and disagree. And one of the glorious things about Louisiana was that we had leadership and representatives from most of the major abolitionist organizations together.

I had people that drove all the way from Oklahoma to Louisiana, like through the night, just to join us to worship

God in the Capitol and to be there for the vote. People who were ready to hand stuff out to start getting in conversations.

I got to stand side by side with brothers that five, six years ago, you wouldn't imagine would actually be working together.

Not that there was hate for one another, but maybe even like distrust of one another and not really sure where they're at, those sorts of things.

But the unity that we had on the ground in Louisiana is something that was so beautiful to witness, and it was one of the greatest parts of this fight.

The bill, the historic bill, as Brian said, the historic bill, the first bill since Roe versus Wade that actually was equal protection, that called at the image of God, that was immediate abolition, that passed a hearing.

They have been successful at killing every bill so that it doesn't get passed a hearing. Ours passed the hearing and went to the floor, and then everybody showed up, drove, sacrificed.

We're together that day, worshiping God together in the Capitol, singing songs to Jesus in the

Capitol. You won't catch the pro -life establishment doing it. That's what it looks like when you let the church in.

It's about worship. It's about Christ. It's about God's law. And it was an amazing thing to see that unity.

So I'm gonna encourage you with this. I'm not a veteran in this fight. There's veterans and heroes like Rusty Thomas.

They've been doing this far more than us. I don't know everything there is to know about this, but I will tell you my experience over the last decade of being in this fight.

One of the things you have to put down and be quick to do it and be ready to do it is put down pride in your heart, in your life, in your mind.

Be willing to look past differences between you and a brother or sister next to you in this fight.

Be willing to outdo each other with honor. Be willing to shut your mouth. Stop gossiping.

Stop slandering. Stop trying to bring somebody down. Be willing just to stay quiet and maintain unity.

Why? For the glory of Christ and for the good of these children. I say it often to our church at Apologia.

I say it often. It's interesting to me, and I'll end with this. I really mean that, okay.

It's interesting to me when you read the Apostle Paul and he's dealing in Corinth with a very difficult church.

Church planning in the first century and all this collision of different tribes coming together for the first time and worshiping the one true

God. Jews are like, ew, can't do that and don't do that. It's just a really difficult situation.

We're now mixing everyone together, all the tribes, tongue, peoples, nations are coming together. You're like, oh, this comes with some dramatic consequences.

I don't like doing that and eating that food. I don't like holding to that day and that practice.

Paul, essentially, his message over and over and over to the church, over and over, is don't destroy your brother.

Do what you do to the glory of God. If you're gonna eat that food, eat it to worship God. If you're not gonna eat it, don't eat it to the worship of God.

Essentially, I say this to our church all the time, Paul's response in the first century to conflict within the church over the adiaphora, the side issues and the things that don't really matter, ultimately, his response is this, shut up.

That's a 21st century Jeff Durbin translation. His response is essentially that, shut up.

Quiet, close your mouth. Stop fighting over those things because those are the sorts of things that will destroy our unity together and let's be honest, if we're not together on this, we're only delaying the cause of justice.

And so I just really wanna encourage you as somebody who's actually watched all of this and even seen relationships heal throughout this process and that unity come together,

I see now that God is blessing us with fruit and a unity that never existed before.

We have states with bills of equal protection going in. We have so many more people now that are saying, absolutely, that's the way to do this.

What we don't need is pride. What we don't need is backbiting. What we don't need is conflict. We need to be the kind of Christians that say, hey, we're together in all the essentials.

Why don't we just be quiet? Why don't we just serve the Lord together and let's accomplish this thing? How about this?

Let's end the injustice upon these pre -born children and then let's go have a fight over baptism over coffee.

How's that sound? Good? Okay, we're right anyways. So, you know, we're patient, okay?