As our culture has embraced the culture of death, how should Christians respond? With such a tragic reality, is it enough to simply pray, or is there more Christians ought to be doing? What is the role of the Church in responding to the killing of babies in abortion mills?

Good afternoon. Think of your Bibles and open to Luke chapter 10. The gospel according to Luke chapter 10. I want to begin reading in verse 25 and read together through verse 37. Luke 10 25 through 37, loving our pre-born neighbors.

And the lawyer stood up and put Jesus to the test saying, teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law? How does it read to you? And he said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Jesus replied and said, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him and when he saw him he felt compassion and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them.

And he put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, take care of him and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers hands? And he said, the one who showed mercy toward him. Then Jesus said to him, go and do the same.

As we consider the chaos of the cultural society, the cultural situation that we find ourselves in, I think if most of us are honest at any level, we never would have really predicted that we would actually be living in a society where killing infants is promoted, even celebrated, and that the dismembering of them and marketing them would be financially profitable. Yet at the same time, though we find it surprising that we've woken up this morning in this society, why would we not assume that we were actually on the fast track to a post-Christian America? Especially, especially if we take an honest assessment regarding the state of evangelicalism in our country in recent decades. We must realize that the current state of our situation is not a result of a few rash decisions among a handful of rogue politicians. We must realize that the current state of our situation is not the re a change that simply happened overnight.

We did not go to bed in a righteous land last evening and wake up in what seems like a nightmare. I want to consider a couple of other issues to help shine light on the actual state of Christianity in our country over the previous couple of decades. Christians have pretended to fight to keep prayer in school. Some of you that are older remember these fights while the average church was spending less than a half an hour in prayer between all the weekly services combined. The time would have been better spent gathering together and praying that the schools would close rather than trying to keep prayer in school.

Self-proclaimed Christians spent time and energy and resources making a big deal about keeping plaques of the Ten Commandments displayed in government buildings while at the same time we had long before removed that law of God from the rule of our lives and the rule of our churches. With regard to caring for the preborn, with regard to the issue of abortion in our land, we must be determined to not act like those Christians of previous generations and allow it to one day be said of us. Well, they voted conservatively. They had a pro-life bumper sticker. They donated time and resources to the crisis pregnancy center.

Those things are fine, but the culture in which we live demands that something more must be done. Proverbs 24 11 deliver those who are being taken away to death. And those who are staggering to the slaughter, oh, hold them back. That's us, church. Deliver those who are being taken away to death.

Hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter. As Christians in our country, we have been too silent and too passive for far too long as millions upon millions of little lives have been snuffed out while still in the womb of their mother. It's been mentioned already. A mother's womb has become the most dangerous place on planet earth for children. We are slaughtering them right from the place of the greatest safety.

61 million and counting. We can't wrap our minds around that figure. Nearly half of all pregnancies in our country end in abortion. Just look around. Every third or fourth person aborted.

It is an awful atrocity in our land. It is an outright attack on God and his will, his word, and his ways. He himself, God Almighty, is the creator of life. But sin has corrupted us to such a degree that we are in a culture that is in love with death. The question came up during the Q and A quoting the statistic of the rise of suicide among younger individuals.

It's because we're a culture in love with death. We have no respect for life, no respect for the giver of life. We've bought into the lie that it's just the right to choose and it's not simply the right to choose. It is an attempt to overthrow God, to usurp him as the rightful king, the one who says this one will be born and this is when they'll die. We're playing God.

This is not the first time though in history that things have been so bad. It's not the first time in history that we as mere mankind have attempted to topple heaven's regime. And it may not be the last time, but oh, what if it were? What if it was the last time that things were this bad because we responded appropriately? I wanna look with you at a past situation of God's people who are incurring difficulties, not unlike what we're dealing with, in an attempt to learn from their reactions and their responses in their day.

In case you're unconvinced that the crisis is a reality, Just since I've been standing up here, another 20 lives have been taken. Two every minute, every 30 seconds in our country, another baby in their mother's womb is slaughtered. And it just keeps on happening. Let's look at Exodus chapter one together. If you like having a direction and like having notes, I'll tell you exactly where I'm headed here in Exodus.

Verses one through seven, the death of a dynasty, verses eight through 14, dark days, verses 15 and 16, dutiful deception, verses 17 to the end, pardon, 15 and 16 is death demanded, versus 17 and following is dutiful deception. And then chapter two, verses 23, 24 and 25, desperate desires. If you don't like alliteration, I have no apology. I was Baptist before I got saved." That's kind of a Presbyterian thing to say, but it was true for me as a Baptist. Exodus 1, 1-7.

"'Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob. They came each one with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were 70 in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt. Joseph died. And all his brothers and all that generation, but the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty so that the land was filled with them.

Such kind providences had been evidenced in the lives of Jacob and Joseph. And these kindnesses from God were expressed in the midst of judgment. We know it was a time of judgment from the Lord, but they wouldn't be in Egypt. Consider how they got there, why they ended up there. Yes, it was the Lord who was keeping them there, but what required them to go?

You have to back up to Genesis 43 and see that the famine was severe in the land. Why would there have been a famine in the land? Well the psalmist tells us, Psalm 105 16, that God called for the famine in the land. Why would there be a famine? They weren't short on rain.

They weren't short on sunshine. Why is there a famine? Because it's the judgment of God. God was judging them for their sin. Many of the circumstances that the people of God were dealing with were a result of Egypt's sin towards them, but not all of them.

This famine that they were experiencing was in their homeland as well. The point for us is this. The spiritual climate that we live in today, where there's mass murder of innocent babies, that spiritual climate is a direct result of our disobedience. It is a completely wrong assumption if we think that the lack of flourishing in our churches today is because of how secular society has become, or how left the media is, or how outspoken liberals are. The church of Jesus Christ failing to live godly in this present age has given way for these things.

And not only that, too many who claim Christ had begun begun following in the ways of their wickedness. The present spiritual state of our land is a direct result of our disobedience. Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation, but not without leaving a lasting impact. They were fruitful, they're seven. They increased greatly, They multiplied.

They were exceedingly mighty. However, merely outpopulating the enemy was insufficient. Egypt had once seemed like a promising place to mature into a godly nation, but it quickly grew into a place of bondage for the people of God. Let's pick up reading again, verse eight through 14. Now a new king rose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

He said to his people, behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them or else they will multiply, and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and depart from the land. So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor, and they built for Pharaoh's storage cities, Pithom and Ramses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread out. So they were in dread of the sons of Israel.

The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor vigorously, and they made their lives bitter with hard labor and mortar and bricks, and did all kinds of labor in the field, and their labors, which they rigorously imposed on them." So there's a new king in the land, and he says, Joseph who? I don't know this man whose family and nation has received kindness upon kindness because he actually saved our nation. I don't know him. What I do know is that we are in danger of losing our land to this group of people. And so they oppress them.

It's called in verse 10, come let us deal wisely with them. That is, let us Enslave them and oppress them. Let us force them to do burdensome labor. Now in the kind providence of God, this oppression is likely what preserved the purity of God's people. If Pharaoh would have just taken a hands off approach and left them alone, it's likely that they would have blended right into the Egyptian race.

We're in danger of that happening in our country, taking advantage of the freedoms that we have and using it as licentiousness. And so many who claim to be Christian are just blending right in with the rest of society. The people of God after all didn't really mind being in Egypt. They were content there. They had adopted many of the local superstitions and idolatries.

But in the kind providence of God, they were oppressed, and the more they were afflicted, verse 12, the more they multiplied, the more they spread out. The hand of God is evident even in the harsh dealings of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's strategy was failing, so he switched from slavery to slaughter. Look at verse 15 and 16. "'Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shipra, and the other was named Puah.

And he said, when you're helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall Put him to death, but if it is a daughter, then she shall live. This Pharaoh was clearly anti-Israel. He was anti-life, anti-sons. He was rejecting God's promises that he had made to his people. He paid no attention to the covenant that God had made with Israel.

He had commanded them, be fruitful and multiply. He had promised them, I'll make you into a great nation. And he ignored all of that. He would go on and reject God's plan for his people to have a land of their own later in the story. He was anti-God.

He was anti-life, anti-people of God. Not altogether unlike Herod during the days of Jesus's birth who was very much anti-Christ. When Herod the king heard this he was troubled Matthew 2 and all Jerusalem with him gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born because he wanted to go and get rid of this one who has come to be king. So that's the command from the King of Egypt to the Hebrew midwives. Verse 17, the dutiful deception of these heroic women.

But the midwives feared God and did not do as the King of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, why have you done this thing and let the boys live? The midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them." So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, he established households for them. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, every son who is born, you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter, you are to keep alive.

Dutiful deception on the part of the Hebrew midwives, righteous deception. It was a righteous choice for them to not kill the babies as they were being born. Righteous because God himself says, you shall not murder. They knew that God was the creator of life. They didn't have the right to take it.

They were unwilling to participate in the killing of innocent human beings. This is relevant for us. We are people who seek to live based on God's commands. The sixth commandment clearly states you shall not murder. Exodus 20 verse 13.

We as a culture are guilty of 61 million murders. We claim to be wiser. We claim to be better educated. Yet we have destroyed human life like no other generation, like no other culture. The issue that we're dealing with is not an issue of when life begins.

Those who hate life don't care when life begins. The issue is a complete disregard for life altogether because it's a disregard for the author of life. It's not a biological issue that the media attempts to convince us that it's a question of when life begins. It's not a biological issue. It's very much a theological issue.

The question is not when does life begin? The question is what is life and who gives life because God is the author, the originator and the giver of life. Abortion therefore is murder and not just late term abortions. It's important that we don't fall into that modern mantra that's being chanted out there. The morning after pills, the baby starved to death and the womb In the midst of the first trimester, the baby is shredded into pieces as they're vacuumed out.

In the second trimester, the baby's limbs are severed from the body in the womb, then removed and pieced back together on the stainless dish before being sold at a profit. In the third trimester, the baby is poisoned in the womb and then labor is induced to rid the dead or dying infant from conception to birth. Killing the baby is murder. When life is taken from the preborn among us, it's not a simple war against the babies. It is outright war against the God of heaven.

The God who says, you shall not murder. That command from God Most High is for us. We shall not murder. What does it mean, you shall not murder? Well, there's a sin being forbidden unquestionably.

The taking of life. You must not take another person's life. But not only is there a sin forbidden, there's a duty implied. And the duty is this, to preserve life, to fight for life, yours as well as others. And this is one of the distinctions that I'm hoping to make this afternoon because being anti abortion does not automatically equal being pro-life.

Being for life or pro-life is not even our ultimate goal. The command in the Bible is to fight for it, to fight, to preserve it at all cost. When it comes to the physical taking of a life, most everyone in here, if not all of us will measure up rather well. I've never killed a soul intentionally, but when we consider what is included in the sixth commandment, oh friend, I fear that, that the guilt within might begin to mount against us. These four words, you shall not murder only two in the original.

Is it not crystal clear? No murder, but could there be more intended? The Heidelberg catechism serves us well. What does God require in the sixth commandment? The question asks, I am not to dishonor, hate, injure or kill my neighbor by thoughts, words or gestures and much less by deeds.

Next question regarding the sixth commandment. But does this commandment speak only of killing? By forbidding murder, God teaches us that he hates the root of murder, such as envy, hatred, anger, and the desire of revenge, and that he regards all these as murder. Next question in the Catechism. Is it enough then that we do not kill our neighbor in any such way?

Answer, no. When God condemns envy, hatred, and anger, he commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to show patience, peace, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness toward him, to protect him from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies. Now, in case you think I'm reading too much into this or the Heidelberg guys were reading too much into this how do we know that more is meant by the sixth commandment Jesus has done our homework for us Matthew 5 you had heard You have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. You have heard, But I say to you, what they had heard was also written in the word, but they were taking it at face value only and making no attempt at actually applying it to their lives.

Jesus explains this issue of no murder. You shall not murder in such a way that we're all left kind of looking for an escape from the guilt incurred as a result of his exposition. The Pharisees were experts at misconstruing the view of God's law, the rightful view of God's law, which resulted in a false understanding of this commandment. They limited the command to the actual intentional taking of life. Again, I suppose we all do pretty well with regard to that standard, that pharisaical standard.

But it's not Christ's standard. What about the answer to the catechism question, to protect our neighbor from harm as much as we can and to do good even to our enemies? When the Hebrew midwives refused to kill the little boys that were being born, and they offered the excuse to Pharaoh, the covert Infanticide that he had instituted becomes outright gender selective genocide in verse 22 It's no longer just talking to the Hebrew midwives secretly getting them to snuff out the lives of the baby boys as they're being born But it is then commanding all his people Exodus 1 22 saying every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive. Covert infanticide becomes outright gender selective genocide. Pharaoh's sin once hidden, now exposed, Initially a command to the midwives, now to everyone.

He commanded all the people. Sin has a natural tendency to grow like this, not only in severity, but in boldness as well. This is clear in the recent events, by recent I mean the past year or so, with regard to abortion in our country. It was promoted as safe, legal, and rare. And now we live in a time when late term, even post birth, abortion is promoted and celebrated.

That the sin has festered up and burst forth. It's, it's bold, it's severe, it's in our face. And my fear is that we're still sitting by, just watching it happen, wondering how it's going to go away, expecting maybe some conservative politician will be worth his salt and do something about it. That's not what the people of Israel did in the days of Exodus. There was a death of the dynasty, followed by even darker days.

Death was demanded, resulting in dutiful deception from the heroic Hebrew midwives. And if you turn over to chapter two, verse 23, now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died again, and the sons of Israel sighed because of their bondage, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning. He remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He saw the sons of Israel and God took notice of them.

The response of God's people was that the desperate desires of their heart, they sighed because of the bondage and the misery. They groaned within, and they cried out to him. They cried out for help, and God heard them. He remembered his covenant with them. He saw his children.

He took notice of them. Not just from a distance. Chapter three, verse seven, the Lord said, I've seen, I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I've given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their suffering, so I've come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians. Now behold, he says, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me.

Furthermore, I've seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. This is the right response of the people of God. My concern is that it has not been our response. After 400 years of miserable bondage in the midst of terrible oppression as the result of horrific genocide among the most vulnerable in their society. When hope and more Moses turned to disappointment, we overlooked that part.

You're familiar with it at the beginning of chapter two When days are dark and deliverance seems to be only a dream, then the people of God sighed and groaned and cried out for help. What will it take for us? Do we not live in a world ravaged by sin? Do we not live in a culture that is in bondage to sin? Have we not been made even more aware in recent days of the genocide that's happening all around us?

Have we not found that our days are spiritually dark? Does deliverance not seem to be so distant? Friends, should we not be at the end of our attempts to bring about change in our own strength by outpopulating the enemy or outwitting them in our dealings or politically out strategizing them. What will it take for us to sigh and grown and cry out to God? This is all we really need for him to hear us, for him to remember his covenant with us, for him to see us in our affliction and to take notice of us, to intimately acquaint himself with us again, to draw near and to be our help.

There's no hope in a multi-generation strategy. Joseph died in the whole generation with him. Who is Joseph? There's no hope in a different national ruler. He was unknown in chapter one verse eight.

Joseph was chapter 20 chapter two verse 23 brings about another new king. Same old results. They sigh again. We can appoint all the so-called conservatives we want. It will not suffice.

It's not a political problem. It's a theological problem. It's a problem with us as God's people. There's no lasting hope in a mere human leader. Moses blew it from the outset, delaying the deliverance for 40 years, and he blows it again by not making it into Canaan in the end.

But though there is no hope in out populating the enemy with a multi-generational strategy, though there's no hope in outwitting them in our dealings and hoping in a national ruler, though there's no hope in politically out strategizing them in a mere human leader, there is immense hope in God. A God who orchestrates all things in our lives so that we might cry out to him. And not just crying out to him, but also obeying him. You shall not murder. So the parable that we read in the beginning, Luke chapter 10 reveals for us what is intended by this sixth commandment.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half dead and that's not the worst thing that happened to him that day. The worst thing that happened to this man was that these other two fellows didn't take the time to save his life. There's no question that the robbers that he fell among that stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half dead are guilty of breaking the sixth commandment. But this priest and this Levite, they're guilty as a result, not of what they do, but what they fail to do. Along with not taking life unjustly, we are expected to guard and protect it as well.

You shall not murder must mean for us as Christians that we fight for the life of our preborn neighbors. The civil penalty for murder is death, physical death. The penalty for breaking God's law, even the one regarding murder, is eternal death. Jesus says if you hate someone, you're committed to murder. It is as wrong for you and me to hate the person who's carrying out the abortions as it is to perform them in the first place.

Only restraining and renewing grace will enable anyone to keep the sixth commandment. This lawyer that stands up, putting Jesus to the test, asking the question, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, what does the law say about that? He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. Here's the command love God who is lovely and love others who are anything but lovely.

But this lawyer with a head full of accurate knowledge, a head full of wonderful knowledge, has a heart full of wickedness. And he says, Who is my neighbor? He's not really asking who his neighbor is, right? He's asking, be more precise, Jesus, exactly who do I have to love and who do I not have to love? Who is it okay to hate?

That's what he wants to know. His response should have been, oh, help me, Lord. Help me love the unlovely in my life. But rather than admit anything lacking in himself, He sought to justify himself by getting Jesus to clarify exactly who was not his neighbor. And it's not surprising because in the Jewish tradition, the neighbor of the Jew is the Jew only.

To a Jew, the non-Jew is a non-neighbor. How convenient. Do you define neighbor like the Jews of old? Are your neighbors people that are only like you in your mind? Are you only required to extend generosity and charity and love to people that are like you?

The preborn among us are our neighbors. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus, in essence, is saying to this expert in Jewish culture and law, I don't care about your tradition, the law of God trumps it. Jesus used a parable to answer the lawyer. The parable of the good Samaritan.

To the Jew, there's no such thing. Good Samaritan, it's an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. The Samaritans were half breed heretics to the Jews. That's it. But Jesus tells the parable.

The priest comes by, the man's lying, left for dead. If he's dead, I'm unclean if I touch him, I'm of no value. The Levite, what if he's just mere bait and he's just trying to set me up and he's going to rob me and take advantage of me? He just walks by. But the Samaritan, compassion, caring, he comes to him, He bandages his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, puts them on his donkey, takes them to an inn, covers all the costs.

This is what loving our preborn neighbors looks like. It's not passive impressions, but active obedience that we're called to. It's Christian kindness, which translates to costly sacrifices of time and money and resources. Which of these three, Jesus asked, do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers hands? Which of these proved to be a neighbor?

The question is not who is your neighbor, the question is will you be a neighbor? Jesus is not promoting some kind of universal brotherhood here but he's demanding a universal neighborhood and that we love our neighbors. The lawyer answered, the one who showed mercy to him, the one. He's too arrogant to even mention the Samaritan in a positive fashion, the one. And Jesus says to him, go and do the same.

He's already answered in verse 28, you've answered correctly when he answered the answer to the question, what is written in the law, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said, you've answered correctly, do this and you'll live. And now he offers the parable of the good Samaritan to his question, trying to be sure that he can skirt around this obligation of loving his neighbor. So he answers again correctly the one who showed mercy to him, the Samaritan. And Jesus said, go and do the same.

And may I say to you here today, do this and you'll live. Go and do the same. These are tiny, innocent, image bearers in the wounds of their mom, created to be a blessing to their family, and we are guilty of robbing them of the life that God gave them. We have sat on the sidelines for too long as a church in our land. May God help us to take up the fight and to extend energy and effort and resources, whatever the cost to save the lives of these little ones, and to do so by proclaiming the good news of the gospel, proclaiming that Jesus came to save people from their sins.

The gospel is the only sufficient tool that will accomplish the victory that is necessary at the abortion clinic. We must promote the good news that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even sinners who are guilty of snuffing out the life of the little one that God's given them. Now, It would be almost unfathomable in a group this size if people had not been a part in some way of an abortion in their past. The last thing I want you to hear from me is any type of condemnation based on that. The blood of Jesus is sufficient for any and all sin.

Don't hear the exhortation to fight for the life of the preborn as a condemnation for something that you've adequately dealt with at the cross. I'm trusting that you've done that. If not, go there with it. He stands ready to save. He is sufficient to save even from the heinous crime of murder.

May God help us as his people to hear him to do this and live, to go and do the same. May he help us as his people to see the reality of the situation and to not trust in the arm of the flesh, but to cry out to him and trust him to draw near and grant all that's needed to accomplish his will in and through us for the sake of his glory, for the sake of the babies, and for the sake of his church. Let's pray. God, will you hear our prayers and be our help. You've answered your people time and again.

You are so faithful. Oh God, hear us and come again, we pray. Take up the field of battle on behalf of us, your people, on behalf of the little ones, our preborn neighbors, God want you fight and help us fight for the sake of their lives. In Jesus' name, amen.