Deliver Those Who Are Being Taken Away to Death

So this morning, as David said, we're going to be starting a sermon series on what it means for us to defend the unborn. And some of you may be wondering, well, why are we talking about this? And my answer is, you come for the next eight weeks and you'll understand why. And so please do come, please do be attentive, and please do be in prayer for this work. It's not a comfortable thing to talk about, that's why we don't talk about it. You know how in your family when there's the problems that are old and they're from your childhood, whether they're with your siblings or with your parents or your grandparents, we all know that there's trouble there in various ways. And it never gets talked about. And the reason it doesn't get talked about is because it's uncomfortable and because it's nasty and because nobody wants to have to process and engage in that kind of stuff. And abortion is the same way. It's the sort of thing that's so awful, that's so atrocious.

that's so wicked that we go, we just can't talk. Who wants to talk about that? Who wants to think about that? And yet God cares about the orphan. He cares about the fatherless and the needy, the defenseless. And so it's our place to learn what God says about these things so that we can seek faithfulness on our parts and to seek to glorify God as we understand what actually goes on around us. And so that's what we're going to be... learning about over the next eight weeks, two months, through the end of July. This morning's scripture text is Proverbs 24, verses 11 through 12. The sermon title is Deliver Those Who Are Being Taken Away to Death. And the goal of the sermon this morning is simply to get us to acknowledge and to not bury again the knowledge that we have.

You know, sometimes I go in and wake my kids up in the morning and they're sleeping. You know how kids, when they want to sleep, they pull the cover over and they hide. They try to cover up. And you come in and you say, honey, it's time to get up. And you'll see the foot twitch or something. And you know they're awake, but they're hiding. They're covering. And so what's the good father do? Maybe that's what you do with daughters, but with sons, you just pull the blankets off. I said, get up. Out of bed. Make your bed. Get dressed. Let's go. That's what happens in my house on Sunday mornings anyway. And it's not okay for my kids to go back to sleep. You understand that, right? They cannot go back to sleep. They have to get up. And that's what this sermon series, especially this morning, is meant to do. It's the covers being pulled off, and it's time to get up. Wake up. Life is happening. You need to be engaged in it. You can't hide anymore. That's the point this morning.

As I said, our text is Proverbs 24, verses 11 and 12. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word? This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. Deliver those who are being taken away to death and those who are staggering to slaughter. Oh, hold them back. If you say, see, we did not know this. Does he not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does he not know it? This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So there are three things in this text that we're going to focus on. The first is deliverance. The second is death. And the third is a warning that we're given. And so first, deliverance. The passage starts saying, deliver those who are being taken away to death. God's word is written, Well, it has application to everyone, but it's written to God's people and it's meant to instruct them. And so what we find here is a command to do something. And the first thing we have to see is who is supposed to do this. And the answer is we are supposed to do this. We are being told, deliver those who are being taken away to death. This is Christian work. This is not work that if we fail to do, someone else will step in and do.

So much of the talk of abortion and ending it is not seen as the church's work, but rather whose work. Whose job is it to stop abortion? The Republicans? Oh, but more generally, we think that this issue is processed in the government. We think this is the government's work. But the government is not who's in view here. We are the ones who are in view here. We are called to deliverance, to deliver those who are being led away. This is Christian work. And if you were to study church history, you would find that this work of loving children, caring for the fatherless and the needy and the oppressed and those who no one else loves is work that Christians have always done. And so this is our work. Deliverance is something that we are called to. And if it's something that every Christian is called to, that means that it's the church's work. Some of you guys may have heard of Francis Schaeffer. And this is what he had to say about abortion clinics. He says,

Every abortion clinic should have a sign in front of it saying, open by permission of the church. Open. This clinic is open by permission of the church. Because he understood that it was our place, the church's place, Christian's place, to stand against this wickedness. It's not primarily the government's. They have a place. They have authority and responsibility before God to execute justice. And so they're not without responsibility in this regard. But I'll tell you, abortion in our land, if you want to see it ended, it will never end. It will never end politically. It can't be ended politically. Because abortion is the fruit of wicked, sinful man's hearts. And you can't legislate away a man's desire to sin. You can penalize it, and that's appropriate.

But the government can't change a man's heart. Jesus Christ changes man's heart. Jesus Christ sends his Holy Spirit into our hearts to renew us. The government can't do that. And so we have work to do in this regard. This is our work. And so when we look around at our day and we look at what's going on with regard to the slaughter of the unborn, We have to see that we have a place in this work. We have responsibility here. We are called to deliver those who are being led away to death. One thing I want you to know, I don't want to turn this sermon into a history lesson about abortion, but in 1973, when abortion was legalized nationally, the year before that, there were already states that had legalized abortion.

And if our goal is simply to take it away from the federal government and kick it back to the state governments, you do realize there are plenty of state governments that are going to say, it's okay by us. And then what are you going to do? The other thing you ought to know is that the year before it became legal nationally, there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000 abortions. And so I don't want you living in the delusion that thinking that when we get laws that that say no to abortion, or when we get laws even that criminalize abortion, because it was criminal before. It didn't stem the tide. It didn't stop the desire. People still killed their own children. A law won't prevent that. The grace of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can prevent that. And so that's why our work, we are integrally involved, need to be in this work. This is the church's work. For much of this battle over the last 40 years or so,

The church has largely been silent. I'm painting with somewhat of a broad brush here. I'm not saying that there haven't been faithful churches or that there haven't been faithful Christians. There have been. But largely, the church has neglected this work, this mission field. And you think, well, how'd that happen? How can you say that the church for the last 40 years hasn't been engaged or has been silent with regard to this issue? And I say, okay, how do you fight abortion? How do we fight abortion? What does it mean to be pro-life? The common answers you will get is it means it has to do with laws. It has to do with how we vote. And it has to do, and then you'll get an answer, something amounting to, well, I would never have an abortion because I'm a Christian. Is that a part of being pro-life? Is that a part of, is that one way to engage the battle? Yes. You should actually vote for good legislation. And we can talk for a while about what constitutes good legislation, but we won't here.

for good legislation. You should also not kill your own children. Absolutely. But that work barely scratches the surface of gospel ministry as it relates to abortion. What's a single person supposed to do? They're not going to have kids, presumably. What's someone beyond childbearing you're supposed to do? What are men supposed to do? Men don't have babies. Is there any work for the vast majority of us? And we live as though, no, not really. If I can vote, if I vote, I can vote for it. And if I'm married and of childbearing years, I can be sure not to take the lives of my own children. But after that, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. And that's the failure of the church is we don't know what we're supposed to do. We don't know how to engage other than to say, I'm not going to do it myself.

We've been content to be pro-life, but our conviction has been just that. It's been just our conviction. We're a pro-life church. But what's that look like? What does it mean to be pro-life as a church? It means that we vote for laws that are good, and it means that we don't kill our own babies. But is that all it means? Where is deliverance in that? Is there any deliverance in that? There are those who are being taken away to death. And they're the ones who are being delivered. And so if you have a commitment in your own home and in your own heart to not kill your own children, there's no one in your context to deliver from death because they're not being led to death. And yet the scripture calls us to deliver those who are being led to death. And so clearly there's other people who are being led to death and we have an obligation to God and to them to engage, to step up, to not sit idly by and say, well, I would never do that myself.

We need to learn what that looks like in action. What does it look like to be pro-life? What does it look like to be anti-abortion? Are you willing to be anti-abortion or just pro-life? Pro-life is positive. But anti-abortion says, okay, well, what's it mean to be anti-abortion? That's not the sort of thing you can just hold as a personal conviction. It requires action. That's over the next eight weeks the sort of thing that we're going to be getting into. What does it look like to engage this work? Today, so far, what I want you to see is it is our work to engage. We are to deliver those who are being led away to death. That's our calling. And it's not sufficient to do it inside these four walls because the temptation isn't largely being acted upon within these four walls. And so we have to go out to where it's happening and we have to engage it in that place. You might think, well, what's it mean to deliver? What's it mean to deliver those who are being taken away to death? And I say,

It's pretty straightforward. In some other context, if you saw someone who was in the act of being killed or harmed, you'd understand what deliverance meant, wouldn't you? It would not mean I would never do that to another person. It would mean engagement. Taylor did something one time a couple of years ago. I don't remember Taylor. You know what I'm going to talk about? So Taylor went to the... Motor Speedway. And how many? Three or four guys beat up one guy? More? Seven or eight? I don't remember. Anyway, all this group of black guys surrounded this other black guy, and they just beat the tar out of him. They were like looking, the cops were running their things, and they descended on this man, and they proceeded to beat him up. There's Taylor in his cowboy boots. Bunch of black guys fighting.

What's Taylor to do? Where are the police? No police. What's Taylor to do? What'd you do? Say it. Go ahead. And did what? Yeah, speak up. What'd you do? So what he did was got in the middle of these guys and started pulling them off and holding them. And he's one guy. The guy is still getting beat up. Taylor's only got two hands, right? But how many of us, if we saw that sort of problem, our inclination would be to engage. And do something. That's what it means to deliver. I thought he was nuts. And I told him so. What did you do? Why would you do that? But that is love for your neighbor. That is saying, there is harm being done and there is something I can do. And he acted. What does it mean to deliver from death? Well, it doesn't mean don't ever be in a place where there is death.

It would be very easy for Taylor to having had that experience or for you to hear that that happened at the Indianapolis 500 to come away and go, my kids will never go to the motor speedway because things like that happen. And I say, you're teaching your children cowardice and lovelessness. And I'm not saying we'll throw your kids into every dangerous situation there is. I'm not saying that either. All I'm saying is if you avoid the places where deliverance can actually be done, you're failing. If you never find yourself in the place where you can fulfill this work, contribute in some way, you've done that intentionally. You've went, there's the problem, there's the danger, I am going to go over here. I'm going to avoid that. And you know, you'll never have to deliver it, anyone, because you'll never have the opportunity to. But it's not because there's not death happening and deliverance needed, it's because you've You've made a principle of not being in a place where you can do the work. So what does it mean to deliver? It means go to the place where people need delivering. In some way and at some time, be there. Why do people kill their children? I want you to consider this question. Why do people kill their children? There are answers to this question that the world would offer us about why people kill their children. They kill their children because the child is unwanted. They kill the children because...

They can't afford it. They kill their children because it would upset their life in some way or their goals in the future. They kill their children because they don't want those children born into an awful environment where they're not loved. They kill their children because they're defective in some way. They kill their children because mom's too old and there might be danger. These are the sorts of answers you get to why do people have abortion? Why should it be legal? And I want to submit to you that there's one reason people kill their children. Just one, they hate God. That's it. People who kill their children hate God. And there's no way around it. And if you were to go down to an abortion mill and you were to be there and listen to the things that are said in that place, you would find two things. One, you would find that the people who are there killing their babies understand that what they're doing is wicked in God's eyes. They know it. They're not ignorant.

They're not ignorant that it's wicked. They're not ignorant that it's a baby. They know exactly what they're doing and they know exactly who told them that they ought not to do it. And they're flipping him off and saying, I don't care what you have to say. I am going to do what I want to do. Abortion is a manifestation of hatred for God. Who in our land doesn't know that what is inside of a woman's womb is a baby? There was a time when there was some ignorance surrounding that decades ago, but no more. The work of pro-life ministry is not to get people to understand it's a baby. They know that. They know it has a heartbeat. They don't care if it feels pain. They have no value for human life. That child is meant to serve them in their minds, and if it doesn't serve them in the ways that they desire, they say, away with it. Better for you to die than for me to be inconvenienced or for you to live a difficult life. Abortion is rebellion against God the Father Almighty.

Those who kill their children know what God says about it and they're doing it. They see the relationship between their actions and God. That's the first thing you'll see at the mill. You know the other thing you'll see, most likely, is that the people who are there protesting are unwilling to acknowledge that. They're unwilling to say, what you're doing is a sin against God. This is a sin problem. You have a bigger problem than killing your babies. What you have is a holy God who's made you in everything that is. And you're rejecting him. The goal when you do this sort of ministry is not simply to save babies. Oftentimes, if you get into this ministry or if you're engaged with people who do it, they'll tell you the vast majority of people who show up at the clinic go through with it. And so if your goal is simply to save babies and you go, well, we're failures if we aren't down there and we aren't saving babies all over the place, I say you've misunderstood what's actually going on. The problem here is a problem of sin. It's a problem of rebellion.

against God, their father, and their creator. They're rejecting him. And they're not only rejecting him in this area, their life is marked by their rejection and hatred of God. And so they need much more than simply to save their children's life. That does need to happen. But they need far more than that. Abortion is a symptom of a heart that is opposed to God. And so if the problem that underlies the wickedness of abortion is hatred for God, then what the people who are in favor of it, what the people who do it need is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what they have to have. It's not sufficient to go down and say, well, we want to help. We want to take care of your baby. We'll pay for these things. We'll adopt your children. Does all that need to be said? Yes, and much, much more. Because those parents...

need to be forgiven of their sins. And that child that needs his physical life saved needs his soul saved as well. So what does it mean to deliver them from death? It means, first, be in the way, be in the place, in some way and at some time where it's happening. And the second is for you to realize what you're actually dealing with. You're not simply dealing with abortion. Abortion is a fruit. Abortion is a symptom. There is no way in this world for a Christian to justify the slaughter of a child, of an innocent child. And by innocent, I don't mean not sinful. I mean that we are all sinners and that there are things in this world that are worthy of death, and that child has done nothing to be worthy of having their life taken from them, except by God and his wisdom. He's able to do that, but man is not able to.

There are things people can do that are worthy of death. They deserve to be put to death. But living in your mother's womb is not one of them. And so delivering those from death, get yourself in a place where it's happening and support the gospel, the work of calling them to repentance. That's the entry point to deliverance. There's much, much more that can be done and that needs to be done. But that is the first step. You can never deliver if you won't be in a place where there are those being led away to death. So who are you to deliver? Well, it seems obvious. You're to deliver the baby. That's the goal. That's one of the things you want. God actually cares about that child's life. He doesn't simply say, go down there and preach the gospel. Go down there and talk to them about Jesus. Go down there and do that. He actually says, deliver them. They're going to be killed. Actually care about their life the way I care about their life.

and work to save it. He actually values human life. And we as Christians must also value human life. The reason I said earlier that this is Christian's work is because, and no one else will do it, is because Christians are the only people who understand that every man, woman, and child that has ever been conceived is made in the image of God. And that when you kill them, you destroy it. And God explicitly tells us you may not. destroy my image. You must protect it. You must support it. You must uphold it. You must defend it. This is the sixth commandment. And Christians are the only ones who have that conception of what a man, what a human being is. They go, oh, you're a human being. You are made in the image of God. You therefore are worthy of care and love and protection.

Because you are made in the image of God. It's not because you're a good person. It's not because you're old enough. It's not because your skin's the right color. It's not because of your socioeconomic status. None of that has to do with it. You are worthy of protection because you are made in the image of God. Period. Full stop. That's it. Only Christians understand that. And so we're to deliver those who are being taken away to death. It's a silent death. It's a death that you can choose to ignore. It's a death that's not right in front of your face. When Taylor was at the IMS, there was danger, harm, right in front of him. There was noise that attended what was going on. But abortion's not that way. It's silent. The child has no voice. It can't call out. It can't say, please don't kill me. I'd really rather live in an awful situation than to have you tear me apart limb from limb. It doesn't have voice for that.

And so we, if we're not conscientious, we can turn our ears away from it. We don't hear it, but God hears it. None of it goes by God's ear. When Cain killed Abel, there was no one around to deliver Abel. And so Cain's wicked desire was fulfilled. He killed his brother. But when God comes to Cain, what does he say to him? He says, your brother's blood cries out to me. Spilt on the ground, the evidence, the fruit, what no one could hear, I heard. And I see it still. And so it's our place not to ignore what doesn't draw our attention naturally. A conservative estimate since 1973, a conservative estimate of how many children have been killed is 60 million American children. 60 million. How many people live in Indianapolis?

I don't know. What is it? 60 Indianapolises. Gone. Gone. People. Souls. Gone. Not here. And it's silent. You don't hear it. And yet God hears it, and he sees it, and he calls us to deliver those who are being led away to the slaughter. Sometimes those who are being led away to the slaughter make a ruckus. But in this instance, it's silent. And you have to tune your ears to hear, to see. what God hears and what God sees. You can't turn your eye away from it. Everything in you will want to turn your eye away from it, will want to ignore it, will want to not have to bear it. But you don't have the ability, the privilege, really the shame of ignoring it. It's shameful to ignore it. It's loveless to ignore it. And that's not our place as Christians. Our place is to hear and to act. And so we're to deliver those.

who are being led away to their death, their silent death. Psalm 82, verse 3 and 4 says, Vindicate the weak and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. Job 29, 16, and 17, Job's describing himself, and he says, I was a father to the needy. I investigated the case which I did not know. I broke the jaws of the wicked and snatched the prey from their teeth. And so we're to deliver those who are being led away to death. We're also to deliver those who are staggering to the slaughter. Oh, hold them back. Hold them back. Who else needs to be delivered? You know who else needs to be delivered? The parents. The mothers and the fathers. Because when they walk into that clinic, they will have a living child. And when they walk out, they will be murderers. That is how God sees it. And it doesn't matter how our political scheme sees it or how your heart responds to me saying they are murderers. If they kill their children, they will stand before God as murderers.

who did something that God didn't even conceive of because it was so wicked. The parents need deliverance. They're staggering off in their ignorance. You say, what ignorance? And I say, they're lied to. Those who kill babies want to kill babies, and they lie so that they can do it. They lie to the parents. Now, can they lie that it's just a clump of gray cells? No, they can't really get away with that anymore. What do they lie about? They lie about the gestation age. Very, very common. You remember the story David told you last week about the baby that was saved? And the clinic told them what? They said the baby's six weeks old. So that happened a week ago yesterday, right? We're down there, we're preaching, and a couple decide to not murder their child. Praise God. And then that man contacts David the next day, and he says, you know, since we decided not to kill our baby, we went to the doctor. And you know what the doctor told us?

The doctor told us that my wife's actually 13 weeks along, not six weeks along. And it turns out that that baby that I thought was the fruit of her adultery is actually my child. They'll lie to them. Those who love to shed innocent blood don't have any shame about them. You think they won't lie? Why would they lie about the gestation period? Because they know that people who have a six-week-old child are more likely to kill their baby than someone who has a 13-week-old child. That's why. It's really that simple. And so what do they do? They lie about it. Why do crisis pregnancy centers and life centers and these sorts of things, why do they offer ultrasounds? So that they can show you what it looks like, they can show you the heart beating, and they can tell you how old the child is. Because the clinic will lie to you. Because they're presuming that if they can get you convinced that it's small enough and insignificant enough, you won't act upon your conscience, which is, this is murder.

And you'll go through with it, and you'll pay them to do it. These parents stagger off to slaughter their own children. They become murderers, not just in their hearts, but actual real-life murderers. It's not just the abortionist that's a murderer. The parents are murderers. What should happen to them? What do you want to happen to the abortionist? You want them to be treated like they're murderers, right? You want them in prison because they're murderers, right? What do you want for the parents? Can we say that if they're murderers, they should be treated like murderers? Can we say that we don't want them to kill their babies and therefore we ought to be in the place and deliver them so that they don't do it? This is our work. This is our place. This is what we've turned a blind eye to and what we can turn a blind eye to no more. Our work is to hold them back. Oh, hold them back. Keep them from doing what they're about to do.

Protect the one who can't speak for himself. Hold them back. I got asked a question this last week, not about abortion, but the question that was asked of me is by a man who's gone to church his whole life, and his question was, if God is sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing, completely capable of effecting whatever it is his will is on the earth, why does it matter what I do if he's already predetermined what will be? Why does it matter what I do? Why do I have to do anything? And in that context, what he was saying was, if God's already determined if I'm going to go to heaven or hell, why does it matter what I do? Because I can't change his opinion. I can't change his judgment. So why does it matter what I do? And I look at the man and I say, do you believe in heaven and hell? Do you believe in it?

He said, I'm not sure, which did not surprise me one bit. I'm not sure. And then I said to him, heaven and hell are real places. Heaven is something that you cannot conceive of. The glory and the beauty and the wonder and the joy inexpressible that will exist in heaven for all eternity, you can't even do it justice with words. And hell is the opposite. It is the most awful, miserable, painful, dreadful place that ever could be. And I asked him, I said, how can you sleep at night not knowing which one you're going to? How can you sleep? He says, I sleep very well. And I felt sorry for him. I thought, you're so blind. I wish I could help you. I wish I could help you to see. And if you take that logic and you apply it to abortion, and you say, God's already determined who's going to live and who's going to die. Where's my role in that? I say to you, where is the child?

from last Saturday at, if the protesters aren't there. He's dead. He's dead. And it's that simple. They were at the door of killing their child. And he's alive because there were brothers and sisters in Christ who were down there and who loved them and who loved God and who called out to them. And God moved. We may not be callous in our understanding of God that he's sovereign and he's... He's omnipotent. He's powerful. And he's all knowing that. And it's all predetermined. And yet, for us to say, well, it doesn't matter, we have to also believe that God is distant. That he doesn't care. That he doesn't love his creation. You understand how unnatural it is for a father or a mother not to love their child? To look at their child who's weak or who's struggling or who's hurt and just, if a parent could look at them and say, whatever, whatever, and just walk away, you'd say, this is monstrous. For a parent to have a child,

that they don't love. And I say, the reason that you think that's monstrous is because God has made us and he's engaged with us and he loves his creation. He is not distant. He is not a far off. And yet he's a God of means. He calls on his people. Could he have created and ordered a world in such a way that we really were little robots and nothing that we did mattered? Yes, he could have, but he didn't. He chose to allow sin in this world, to send his son to save people from sin, and then to call those people made in his image to do his will. And the reason he did it that way is because he receives more glory in that economy. And so he's a God of means. He says, this is my desire. This is my will. This is what you ought to do. All the while, knowing the limitations that we have because we're created, he then meets with us and gives us his Holy Spirit.

and words to speak, and faith to be able to do what he commands us to do. He uses his people, and even not his people when you read scripture, to accomplish his will. Because he's made all of them. And so we may not look at this sort of situation and say, God's sovereign and it's going to be what it's going to be no matter what I do. Because when you actually engage in real life, you realize that's not how it all plays out. God actually uses us, uses means, to accomplish his will. And so our work is to hold them back. We engage by faith, trusting God to work through us as we obey his word. When you go to the clinic, what you're going to find is a lot of stuff going on. You're going to find preaching going on. You're going to find conversations going on. You're going to see people praying. You're going to see people holding signs. You're going to see people standing there not saying or doing anything, except standing there as a witness against it, standing in unity with the other people who are there.

You're going to see other people who engage in this fight by donating money, donating needs, things that people need to take care of babies. Before I was full-time as a pastor, I worked as a commercial painter. And one of the things that we did when we were slow was we painted the life centers, a couple of them around Indy. It was something that was on my boss's heart, something he wanted to do. And so we bought the paint. We supplied the labor. It was free for them. We wanted their facilities to be presentable because they don't have any money to paint stuff. And so we thought, this is what we can do. We've got time. We're going to come in and we're going to do it. And so I was at one just north of downtown on Meridian. And this place has this huge room of stuff that people need. Everything you could imagine needing for a baby. There's clothes and there's diapers and there's food and there's strollers and there's wipes and there's all kinds of stuff. Things for mom, clothes for postpartum moms. All kinds of stuff. Where did it come from?

It came from Christians, from godly people donating those things, giving to them, engaging in this battle by saying, you know what? It actually is, this is how it works. When a mom is on the verge of killing her child because she doesn't feel like she can provide for it, being able to say to them, we can give you the stuff that you need to take care of this child, that actually is the world to that mom because she doesn't see the way forward. The man's gone. She's got a baby. She doesn't have any money. And she's going, I can't even put diapers on this baby's bottom. And they come to a place that says, no, yes, you can, because we'll make sure you have diapers to put on their bottom. How'd they get those diapers? How'd they get those wipes? How'd they get those clothes and those toys and those strollers and those car seats and all that stuff that a mom who's scared out of her wits doesn't know how to get? They got them from people who were loving their neighbor and were engaged. The church that I came from, an ascending church that sent me up here,

There's a young man in that church. He's probably, I guess he's 16 now. One of the families in the church adopted him. His parents were going to kill him. And they were out there and they were witnessing and said, please don't. We'll take care of your, we will take your baby. And the people actually took him up on it. And now this young man, I think he's about 16. He's alive and well and was adopted. That's the sort of, that's engagement. That's what Christians do. Some of you guys are called to adopt these babies. Some of you aren't. Some of you are supposed to be at the clinic and some of you are supposed to be praying and some of you are supposed to be donating money and some of you are supposed to be buying diapers and some of you are supposed to be out when you're garage sailing buying all that clothing for 10 cents or a quarter a piece that you don't want and take it to your life center. That's what you're supposed to do. These are some of the ways you can hold them back. You can show by your love that there is a way forward for them that doesn't include killing their child and having to live with the guilt of that for the rest of their life.

Ephesians 5.14 says, Awake, sleeper, awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. To this point, that's what I've been trying to do. I've been trying to get you to wake up. I've been trying to get you to see there is a lot to be done. There is a place for you in this work. Every single one of you. You children, there's a place for you in it. Do you have any idea what a witness it is to have children down at an abortion mill? There's work for every person here to do. And the temptation that you're going to face is, It's so overwhelming. It sounds hard. It sounds dangerous. It sounds miserable. It sounds discouraging. It sounds like a waste of my time. We wouldn't actually say that, but you actually think it. You think, if most of the people kill their babies, why should I go down there and waste my time? These are the sorts of things that run through our minds. And so we come to verse 12, and it says, if you say, see, we did not know this. If you claim ignorance, if you claim ignorance and say, I didn't know, the rest of the passage says, oh, yes, you did.

God knows what you know. He knows what you know. He knows what you know better than you do. We did not know this. Does he not consider it who weighs the hearts? Does he not consider what you say? Does the God who made you not know? Does he not know it who keeps your soul? And will he not render to man according to each man's work? God warns us away from acting in ignorance, to maintaining ignorance. He knows what we know and he'll judge us according to our knowledge. If we lie to ourselves and we think that maintaining ignorance will be a shield to us before God, we've deluded ourselves. If the people at the clinic who go in there and knowingly kill their own children know what's going on, do you actually think that you're going to be able to stand before God and claim ignorance? I didn't know. It's insane. You know. You know what's going on. You can't bury your head. You can't pull the covers back over your eyes.

You may not. You cannot. God warns us away from it. Willful ignorance or perpetual naivety is sin. Solomon says, I think in Proverbs 6, he says, I was sitting in my house and I was watching these young men walk by in the street. And how does he describe the young men? He describes them as lacking sense. And then he goes on to say what lacking sense gets them. Lacking sense leads them to the house of the adulterous woman. And it destroys their soul. So what got those men into the destruction of their soul? Their naivety. So what did Solomon do? He wrote for them not to be naive. I see a young man doing something foolish. It's going to end in destruction. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to tell him not to. I don't want him to be naive. Now, have you ever had a conversation with a young man and you're trying to tell him something wise and he's kind of going like this? And you kind of get the impression that they don't want to hear what you're saying?

That young man or that young lady is cultivating ignorance. That's called willful ignorance, and it's sinful. We're called in Scripture to grow up in every way into Christ who is our head. We're told that we're given apostles and preachers and teachers and evangelists and all the rest to train us and to do their work until we attain to the maturity of a full-grown man. Paul tells us that when he was a child, he used to think like a child, reason like a child, and act like a child. But when he grew up, he did away with childish things. The ignorance and the naivety suit young children. And it's our place as parents or those who are older brothers and sisters to train them out of that naivety and that ignorance, to not leave them in it. And yet when you come to the issue of abortion, if you try to behave like a child and go, I didn't hear.

I didn't know. I wasn't sure what I should do. And so I didn't do anything. You're lying to yourself. You're deceiving yourself. And it's not the sort of thing you're going to want to give an account to the Lord for on the day of judgment. Don't cultivate naivety. He'll render to each man according to his work. Another thing I want to say about claiming ignorance, one of the things that must attend this ignorance is faithlessness. You cannot claim ignorance by faith. When someone is ignorant and they speak about their ignorance with faith, what it sounds like is, how could I have not known? Why didn't I know? I'm going to go investigate the cause which I don't know. I'm going to learn. I'm going to grow. I'm going to pursue knowledge and maturity. That's what faith does when it discovers ignorance. Claiming ignorance if it's not done by faith says, see?

We didn't know this. I didn't know. Because if I had known, I would never have done what I did. Claiming ignorance means that we think the cause is hopeless. I can't do anything because there's really nothing to be done. It's going to be what it is. It's going to go down how God wills for it to go down. I've got other things to do. More particular things. More fruitful things. No one actually repents down there at the abortion mill. No one actually chooses life. God won't do anything down there through me because ultimately he doesn't care. That's what's down in the dirt. Those are the roots of apathy. You don't think God cares. You think he's distant. You think he's far off. That if he has more important things to do, so do you. Because if he actually cared about it, he'd just end it. And if he doesn't just end it, then clearly he doesn't really care about it. And I say, no, no. No, no, no. The God that we serve is a good God. He's a loving God.

He's engaged in his creation, maintaining it, renewing it, redeeming it, and he does all of that work through his church. Those are the means that he uses most regularly. That's us. That's you and that's me. God is good and he gives us work, and then he meets us in the work to work out his secret will in us, in our own hearts, and through us for the benefit of others. So we must hear this warning against faithlessness and unbelief. And we must turn to God in faith and seek his face, petitioning to act in mercy through us. Through us. Have you ever spoken to somebody, not about abortion per se, but about something, and you just had, I mean, you spoke by faith, but your faith was like a mustard seed. You just didn't have any confidence that they were going to listen. Has anyone ever listened? Has anyone ever said, came back and said, thank you. I'm glad you loved me enough to tell me that.

And I didn't like that you said that at the time, but God's made it clear to me that you were right. Thank you for loving me. That's gospel ministry. That's what happens. Satan would have you believe that everything you say and do is of no consequence. But having been engaged in ministry now for a couple of years, I see from my own experience that's not true. The things that people have said to me about my life, my own soul, my marriage, and my children actually are helpful to me. And the things that I've said to other people, have been helpful to them. And so don't believe a lie. Don't believe the lie that what you say and what you do is of no consequence. You're here because you have work to do, that God has given you. And you'd be best served to be about it, to do it. You'll never find any better joy than when you're in the will of God doing what you know you should be doing. So hear the warning against faithlessness and unbelief and turn to God in repentance and trust him to work through you, to change you and to work in you and through you.

So what is the application of this? The first is, if it's not clear by now, it's wake up and don't pull the covers back over your eyes. Don't do that. You may not do that. It is not pleasing to God for you to ignore this. Don't think for a second that you can go on as though there aren't thousands of babies killed every single day in our land. Because there are. Don't go back to sleep. The second application. This sermon series is going on for two months. Some of you have been to an abortion mill before. Some of you haven't. The application is sometime over the next two months, if you want this sermon series to be fruitful to you, more fruitful to you, go to the abortion clinic. Just once. Just one time in the next two months. Go down there on a Saturday morning. You can talk to Daniel. You can talk to David. You can talk to John Klug. These guys are most regularly down there. Just talk to them and say, is the clinic open this Saturday? Because it's not open every Saturday.

But they'll be able to get you the information and just go down there. You don't have to say anything. You don't have to hold a sign. You don't have to do anything. Just go down there and put yourself in the place of deliverance. Put yourself in a place where when you see cars pull in, you know what they're there for. And you won't be able to go back to sleep. You won't be able to. You won't be able to ignore it. So go once in the next two months. And you'll find that God will use it to change your heart. You can't go to that place and act like life's just normal and fine and I'm going to go do this later today and what's for dinner and I got that for work next week. When someone's down there preaching or calling out to real people who are walking in who are pregnant and who are about to not be anymore, all that other stuff will fade away as it should. So go to the clinic once in the next couple of months. If you're afraid to do it, I understand. It's a spiritual battle to get yourself down there.

And I don't despise you for saying I'm afraid to do it. It's hard. I don't know what I'll do. I'm afraid I'll go nuts. Some of you men think you'll go crazy if you go down there. Get yourself arrested. Do something absolutely inappropriate. Talk to me. Talk to David. What you do needs to actually honor Jesus Christ, not bring dishonor on his name. If you're scared, you're no different than me or anyone else who's been down there. You'd be strange if you weren't. Just come talk to us. We understand. Talk to our wives. They've done the work. And you'll see, you'll understand, your heart will understand what I'm talking about, not just your brain. If you have any other questions about it or concerns, I'm available to you. David, it's available to you. Don't hesitate to talk to us about it. This is not something that we can be willfully ignorant of anymore. You need to find your place in this work. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for giving us life and breath. And we pray, Father, that you would help us to be your instruments of mercy to give life and breath to others. Calm our fears, Father, and increase our faith. Build your kingdom in us and through us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.