Unmasking the Spirit of the Age, Righteousness and the Unborn

Jeremiah 22. Follow along, please. As I read beginning in verse one, thus says the Lord, go down to the house of the King of Judah and speak there this word, and say, hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord, do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. Today we're going to complete our series of teachings on unmasking the Spirit of the Age. For the past four Sundays, we've been endeavoring to address the role of the church in our culture. In this day, our goal has been to reveal the subtle ways, the deceptive ways, in which Satan has sought to infiltrate into the hearts and minds of people and move them into a position of not being able to receive the grace of God and move in the fullness of life. And how we have come to see church, the erosion in one generation of what has stood for hundreds of years, the values that we as a people hold dearly have gone literally almost out the door in one generation. We, in week number one, talked about the spirit of the age, and I defined that. Not simply in terms of some sort of a mystical thing that you can't put a finger on or can't define, but in terms of the kind of jargon that's thrown about today in the name of freedom. And we said that the spirit of the age was total autonomy, complete independence and freedom from any type of restriction masked in the names of things like rights and liberties and choice. In week number two, we talked about the truth of God's word being the foundation of all that man would do versus man's own ideas about things and the way in which man would set up his own standards and his own definitions of what is culturally acceptable. Last week we talked about the way in which the church would fight the battle against the spirit of the Age. And we talked clearly about the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are spiritual for the tearing down of strongholds. And I trust how many of you had a good week of praise. Just being reminded in your spirit that praise is that which destroys the devices of the enemy. I trust that you do that church, it's so vital, it will make all the difference between being oppressed and put down and defeated versus those who can walk and enjoy its victory. Now today we're going to be addressing in conclusion the role of the church and manifesting before the world the essence of who God is. Righteousness. That the role of the church in this day is more than survival, but it's the preserving of all that's true and the transforming of all that is evil. You know, I don't believe at any time more than right now, religion has become a topic in our culture. Isn't that true? Did you see the full page ad that was taken out concerning the heritage in the Pittsburgh Press? And it was a positive ad affirming that we have a strong foundation of spiritual values. And then contrast that to the editorial and Friday's Post Gazette where it has four thugs dressed up as terror, violence, hatred and intolerance and called united in the name of religion. You see much of what's happening publicly about religious things, beloved is not beneficial. I don't think it takes a lot of discernment to sense that the voice of the media and the public for the most part is not positive toward religion. But we don't stand for religion, do we? We stand for a living God. And we're not here to cram religion down anyone's throat. We're here to share a life giving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and church. If we could only learn to stand with one voice. If the church of Jesus Christ could just learn what it means to be united instead of divided. If the church could learn to speak collectively on key issues, it would make such a difference, we would see such a transformation. But instead all that we see is one group of so called believers hurling accusations many times in the public forum against another group. The church doesn't even need the world to stir it up. The church stirs itself up against one another and so often it's destructive. We need to learn to stand for that which God says is a key, a central issue. And if nothing else, I believe that God stands for righteousness. Righteousness. In Psalm 119, 137, the Scripture says, righteous art thou, O Lord, and right in all thy judgments. In Psalm 33:5 it says the Lord loves righteousness and justice. In Jeremiah 33:15, Jesus is referred to as our righteous branch. You see, it's in the nature of God to be righteous. It's who he is. He is our righteousness. Jeremiah tells us he is our righteousness. His nature is to be righteous and beloved. The scripture that we just read this morning tells me very clearly that the church. The church is to be that righteousness. The church is to demonstrate that righteousness. And referring to those who sit on the throne of David and the peoples of that throne, what do we say? We're saying the church. Aren't we the fruit of David's offspring? And I want to submit to you that if the church will stand for righteousness, then the nation will stand. Okay. We're way off, Gene. Okay. Yeah, let's wait on that. Okay. We have a lot. I'm still getting to that part of it. That's okay. These guys have so many overheads up here, they're not sure which one is next. And I'll have to lead you through those. The church has to stand for righteousness. And if it does, then the nation will stand. Do you believe that? Does the Bible say that righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to any people? Proverbs 14:34. What is our call then? Our call as a church is to be responsible. Jesus said, you're to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. What does salt do? It preserves and brings out flavor. What does light do? It illumines, it reveals. It exposes. It confronts darkness. You know what I think the worst charge against the church is today? It's not extremism, as Jerry Falwell is so often accused of, although parts of that are unfortunate. It's not radicalism, as the church up in New Hampshire was accused of being a Christian community. Up there, 112 kids were abducted from their parents and forced to stay apart from them for a while while this Christian community was investigated. Turns out it was just a group of people that loved the Lord, not a cult at all. You know what the worst accusation against the church is, as far as I'm concerned? Irrelevancy. The church is irrelevant. The church doesn't matter. And I want to submit to you this morning, beloved, in the next few minutes, that the church must stand against the spirit of the age or become irrelevant. Now, the first point, brother. How does the church manifest righteousness? 1st Peter 2. 9 says that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation called to show forth the works of him who called us from darkness into everlasting light. How does the church show righteousness or the character of God? How does it do that? You know, one way that we don't stand for what's right. How many of you have been following what's happening in India this week? You see there's religion rising up and in self righteousness returning. Hate for hate and evil for evil. That is the way that Satan would want us to respond to those who are standing for the spirit of the age. You know, Jonathan Edwards said something fascinating about the second awakening. He says that if Satan cannot discredit an awakening by a direct frontal attack. In other words, if he can't stop the church by just standing in its way, then what he'll do is to attempt to seize the wheel of this ship and push it in the direction in which it's going, but push it so hard so as to drive it into the rocks and cause it to be destroyed by its own impetus. If he can't beat us, in effect, he'll join us and try to propel us right past the spirit of the Lord. Do you see what I'm saying? It'll take the spirit, the righteous spirit of God and so infiltrate that with extremism that it will cause it to go right past what God would have it to do. And that's a danger in this current day in which we live. What we need to do church is to show love and holiness because those are the two chief characteristics of our God, love and holiness. Love without holiness is sentimentality. I just love everybody, no matter what. I just love everybody. That's not God's way. God is love and he loves, but he's also holy. And holy means that he is entirely different in who he is. He is separate from man in his perfection, untainted by sin. Holiness without love, though, is harsh judgmentalism. Holiness without love is an impossible standard that no man can live under. And I submit to you that this is impossible in the flesh. It's impossible to blend love and holiness. I don't know a man that can do it. What happens to you when you hear some of the rationalizations of the spirit of the age? You know, people who say, I'm tired of these religious people trying to impose their beliefs on me, you know, or people that say you can't legislate morality. You ever hear that? We've been doing that since the foundation of man. What is a law, but it's a moral standard that's been adopted by people and yet that's waived as some sort of excuse for just doing our own thing. And I want to get angry. Don't you I just. Sometimes I just want to get angry at what I hear coming over the TV set. And yet God says, no, that's not my way. Only by the spirit of the Lord Jesus said. Jesus came. The Bible says, full of what in John 1, grace and truth. Beloved, would you just ask the Lord to fill you with those two qualities, grace and truth? That was the Lord Jesus. And secondly, love and holiness are only possible if we accurately perceive that there is some truth that is more central than other. There is higher truth. There is a hierarchy of truth. For example, we could debate, but I think the Bible basically teaches that God created the heavens and the earth in seven days. That's a truth. But that is not as high a truth is that rather, it's not as high a truth as Jesus rose from the dead. You see, that's a central truth. We can't do anything without that. And what the church needs to do is see that there are certain truths for which we must stand in righteousness. And this is the second point I want to make, brother. The church needs to learn to manifest righteousness by marking clear priorities. It's one thing for us to talk about acid rain and toxic waste dumps, Church, and it's yet another thing to talk about human life. And I want to do that for a few minutes this morning. I want to address the issue of abortion and the church and standing for righteousness. Before I do that, I want to look over the congregation and I want to see in the spirit every person here that somehow has been personally affected or involved in an abortion. And though what I'm going to say is the truth of the word of God, I don't want anyone here to receive the slightest tinge of condemnation. Because I want you to know, dear sister, that Jesus loves you regardless of what you have done or even are thinking about doing. And that he offers you freedom and full forgiveness. And, dear brother, who may be responsible for such an act, God loves you too. And I would in no way want to diminish the significance of that love and acceptance. But nonetheless, I need to speak the truth to you this morning, church, about this issue, because I think it's a clear, clear priority in righteousness. I believe this is the kind of thing that Jeremiah was talking about in chapter 22. For through the ages the church has always stood in this matter of abortion. Tertullian in the third century wrote clearly that the church was opposed to abortion. John Calvin, listen to this. The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being. And it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life and which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light. The church has spoken for centuries about its stand on abortion. But in this day, beloved, in this day against the spirit of the age, the church largely has become silent. You see, we believe in a personal God. We believe in a God who says that you and you and you and me, we're created in his image. That we reflect something divine in just who we are, that we are different from animals and other species of life because we're created in the image of God. And when we allow one of these little ones to be killed, that we are making a statement about our conviction concerning the nature of God and his image in man. The reason why abortion has been accepted at large in our culture is because it reflects the erosion of the conviction that man is created in the image of God. And so they're dying. Church. And that's really the right word for it, Detectable life ceases to exist. 4,000 per day, they tell us. At least 50 of them, at least 50 per day are viable, that is to say, would survive outside of the womb. It's an irony, isn't it, that Velma Barfield gets such attention that her one life receives all kinds of support and all kinds of public outcry, save Velma Barfield, who killed four people. And yet in that same day, nearly 4,000 unborn children will die. In 1973, when abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court of this country, it was said that it was in order to speak for the rape victim and those who were victimized by incest, or perhaps for the mother whose health was endangered. But church. 97% of all abortions are not, repeat, not of this category. 97% of all abortions are simply by choice. 3,800 per day by choice. What does that mean to us? All American soldiers that died in all wars in which we've participated amount to 1,152,000. We will kill one and a half times that many babies this year, you say, well, what about the nuclear freeze movement? A total of 75,000 people died in Hiroshima, directly and indirectly. We'll kill that many babies in 18 days. 15 million since 1973, two and a half times the number of Jews that died in the Holocaust in Germany. But the church largely, and I'm talking here folks, about those of us who sit here today, we've remained largely silent. In fact, we've remained, if we said anything, we've been divided. Did you know that 1200 Protestant clergymen signed documents in support of the legalization of abortion? Do you know that many mainline denominations today stand on the side of, quote, pro choice? I want to give you four reasons why I think the church has been silent, brother. Alright? The first one is that it's an enormous spiritual battle church. I believe we've totally missed Satan's strategy in this. And as I was preparing the teaching, know what the Lord told me about this, why there's such an outpouring of death right now. Do you recall what happened when the Messiah came in the Book of Matthew? What did Herod do? He killed the babies. And I believe that this outpouring of death on children is a reflection of the enemy's desire to fight back against God, against the outpouring of his spirit in this day. It's an enormous spiritual battle. We've underestimated it. Number two, it's an unseen battle. It's an invisible thing. We don't, we hardly ever have any visible evidence of what's going on. It's interesting that in Nazi Germany when people were asked, why didn't you say something when you knew what was happening? And they always said, well, we didn't know what was happening. We thought that it was, but we had no real proof. We didn't see anything. And yet, out of one of the histories of that age, it says good Germans, like many good Americans today, attended church regularly, yet were cold in their faith and were caught in the idolatries of materialism and egotistical social advancement. Deceived, they could neither see the smoke from the crematoriums or in fear looked away and convinced themselves that these things were not as evil as they seemed to. And somehow their consciences were seared. And dutifully they served the therapeutic state without protest. And we don't see it, folks. We know that there are abortion mills, but they're named nice names like Family Planning center and Women's Health Services. And so we choose to look the other way. And the church is also silent because, number three, the war is silent. We never hear the cry of a little one being wrenched apart from his mother. There's no pleading, no argument, no reporters to take pictures. And so we're able to put it out of our minds. And the fourth thing and perhaps to me the most distressing is that it's the law. We argue in 1973, the Supreme Court made a decision, made a ruling that a woman's body was her private concern and that she could treat her body as she so pleased. In effect, it was her right to do so. But what about the child's rights? The 14th Amendment of the Constitution says that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without the process of law. And the only thing the Supreme Court could do to make that decision was to declare the fetus not a person. That's not a person you have in there. That's blobular tissue. No, the fetus isn't a person. But somehow it becomes a person at some point. And in their own self serving way, the Supreme Court justices says, well, when those trained in the philosophies of medicine and theology and so on come to a consensus, then we'll be able to make a more determinate decision. But in the meantime, they're killing church. What is that within you? What does the Bible say is within you? You did form my inward parts and you knit me together in my mother's womb. You knew me right well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret. Human life begins at conception. God speaks to Jeremiah and says, now the word of the Lord came to me before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born I consecrated you. And I guess for me, perhaps the most convincing scripture is when the Lord Jesus still in his mother's womb, when Mary meets Elizabeth and she exclaims, filled with the Holy Spirit, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord shall come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And the word babe in the Greek is the word, the same word that's used for infant child, A baby. The Bible says that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. John was while yet in the womb. What is it if it's not a person? And when does it become a person? Is it the first trimester or the second? Or the third Church? The Supreme Court is wrong. And the Supreme Court has been wrong in the past about the same issue of personhood. In 1857, you know what the Supreme Court decided? Black people were chattel was the word back then. Useless property. No rights to those people either. And so they were killed or enslaved. And I submit to you church that when a society in which Christians have a voice legislate laws that are immoral and contrary to God, the church not only has a right to change them, but a responsibility to change them. And how we mark this priority now of righteousness is so important to us, it's so vitally important. We can no longer escape and say, well, I don't really know about it. And I've heard other opinions and what about the person who doesn't have the money to raise the child and all those things that we hear and we try to escape it. Gene, would you put up Proverbs 24, Please, brother, would you read this scripture with me? Proverbs 20:4. Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering towards slaughter. If you say, but we knew nothing about this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Just leave that up a minute. Just leave it up a minute. God knows and we know and we have a responsibility. I hope that you don't interpret what I'm saying today as a one shot emotional appeal to get involved by someone who is simply frustrated in seeing the church get out and do something. That's not it at all. I believe that God cares enormously about the church's stand on this central issue. I believe that God wants this church to corporately come to a position that will make a difference. And I want to conclude this morning with four things that you can do. All right, four things. First of all, you can pray, because unless you pray church, we won't get anywhere. This spiritual battle will not be won by good wishes, but the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Matthew 16:18 says, I keep making the appeal, pray, pray, pray, and I'm going to keep making it because it's the only way we can stand. Number two, we have an organization in the community, North Way Christian Action Ministries, that is geared to mobilize people to do something not just about abortion, but about all these issues that concern us, and principally abortion. 2% of those who attend regularly at North Way have expressed an interest in that ministry. And after the service this morning, there's a table right over there. I want you to go over there and say, I want to pray about this. Put my name down and contact me. 2%. The third thing that you can do is with your finances, you can support the expression of our church and the establishment of a crisis pregnancy counseling center in conjunction with other churches. We want to reach out and help women who have an unexpected pregnancy, who need understanding and concern and help and homes. Do you know that abortion is a billion dollar industry every year, multiple billions of dollars? And the church needs to fight that with its own resource. And the fourth and final thing you can do is you can vote. You can vote and let your voice be heard. Let's pray together. Our Father, I'm mindful today that this is a subject. That causes all of us much pain, Lord. But I pray that that pain would translate to comfort for those who are reeling from guilt, that by your spirit, Lord, you'd reveal that redemption, full and free, lies in Jesus. And that secondly, Father, that that pain would translate into conviction that we would be a church that mobilizes for righteousness sake. We bless you, Father Church. I just want you to keep your head bowed and your eyes closed. And I want you just to hear the song that Phyllis and Mike are going to share. It was written by a woman, Annie Herring, who herself suffered through, I think, several abortions and cried out to God, found salvation, and realized that we had a responsibility.