Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Abortion – Not a Safe Truth to Tell part 3

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Welcome and Opening Prayer

Well, welcome back to Daniel and Manette, who arrived back safely. We’re going to hear from them next week. They’re going to get an opportunity to share. So I’m actually looking really, really forward to that. Let’s go ahead and turn in the Word to Proverbs. While you’re turning there, let’s turn to Proverbs 24. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you that you took care of Daniel and Manette and their kids, and that was a great trip, and that the Cooks were greatly encouraged. We continue to pray for the Cooks, that your Word would go forth through them. Work out some of the different details, Lord, for housing and for setting some different things up, Lord, so that they can continue the work there. We thank you, God, for their willingness and their heart to serve. We pray that much, much, much fruit would come from their efforts, Lord, which is in part our efforts, God. So bless the work that is going on through them, Lord. We pray, God, that your Word would continue to go forth, not just from this church, but all the churches, Lord, that seek you and follow you, that we would endeavor to reach those at the farthest ends of the earth, that missionaries would go, people would be sent, and you would use them, lives to be changed, for churches to be built, for disciples to be made, God. So continue your work, Lord. Continue your work in us. Help us to be, Lord, receptive to what you have for us today. We want to be a people that assemble together, that hear your Word, and then put it into practice. So help us to receive your truth today, Lord. We pray that you would be glorified in our midst. We know that you will be. Lord, thanks for the privilege of singing to you how amazing and how awesome you are. Continue to bless the rest of our service, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Abortion Is a Justice Issue

This is kind of a part three, and I feel like I’m supposed to continue to speak on that topic, so this will be part three, but we’re going to take a little bit broader look and really talk about justice, because the issue of abortion is a justice issue. Yes. So God is a God of justice, and here’s what it says. You can look in Proverbs 24, verse 23. It says:

These also are sayings of the wise. Partiality in judging is not good.

(Proverbs 24:23)

So really sticking with the verse, it’s kind of been our theme verse the last couple of weeks, from Proverbs 12:10: “The mercy of the wicked is cruel.” I’m going to say that a few times today, because we’re going to see that in a few instances. But when we talk about God being a God of justice, the idea is this: that he has rules and that he has standards and he wants them followed. He wants justice to prevail. So when we talk about justice, there’s two things that we’re warned about. Look at Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus 19, verse 15 says:

You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

(Leviticus 19:15)

So we see two things there. One, you can’t be partial to the poor, but you actually can’t be partial to the rich. So it’s a two-way street. You have to be impartial regardless of class. Some people might have a tendency to lean one way, depending on your upbringing. Some people might have a tendency to lean another way, again, depending on your upbringing, your own personal experiences. It doesn’t matter. We are supposed to judge impartially. Why might some favor the rich? Well, it could be because maybe they’ll get influence, maybe they’re intimidated, maybe they fear what people will think, maybe they think they’re richer, better, maybe they’re selfish motives, they hope to get something in return. President Trump earlier this week pardoned a number of former NFL players for various crimes they had committed. And I read the article and I thought to myself, well, would he have pardoned these [audio unclear]

You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

(Deuteronomy 16:19–20)

So over and over and over and over again, we see this theme of justice. There’s no word added in front of it like social justice. No, we just need justice. And if we’re following justice, we’ll get all flavors of justice properly rolled out. In Exodus 23, listen to this, it says:

You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

(Exodus 23:1–3)

Again, you can see you can’t favor the rich, you can’t favor the poor, but notice here in this passage in Exodus, it’s not just judges, but it’s also the witnesses that had to be upright. You have to tell the truth and you have to be willing to stand alone. Again, listen to what it says. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil. The crowd might be saying one thing; you have to be willing to stand alone. And even if you just think of our Savior, right? I mean, how many times was the crowd against him? How many times? Over and over and over we see that in his life. He still stood alone.

A man who is a judge, whose wife had an affair, walked out on him, took the kid, took him to the cleaners—he’s going to have a really hard time and really have to work hard in divorce cases when he’s judging what is good and fair for a woman that’s before him, especially if he thinks that she’s in error or she’s wrong in this particular situation. Which way is he naturally going to lean? He’s going to probably put himself in the shoes of the man. He can’t do that. That’s being partial. He has to remain impartial. A woman who is a judge, whose husband cheated on her and was verbally abusive to the kids, and she divorces him—she’s going to have to work hard in divorce cases when she’s judging what is good and fair for maybe a husband that’s before her who seems rash and irascible. Which way is she naturally going to lean? To favor the woman. But she can’t. She has to be impartial. And guess what? Every one of us has a story and has a history. And if we’re honest, we will realize that when we hear other people’s stories, we will relate to some of those people in the stories better than others. And sometimes, if we’re not careful, we judge situations based on our own personal experience of what we’ve already gone through. And it’s like we insert ourselves into the story when that’s not our story. It might be completely different. We are called to be impartial. This is why, you know, Lady Justice, right? She’s holding the scales of justice. What’s she wearing? She’s got a blindfold. What’s the idea? Impartial. Impartial. So while we might not wear a black robe, we still participate in judgments, and we have to be impartial in our judgments.

Mercy for the Victim, Regardless of Truthfulness

There’s really two ways for the pendulum to swing when it comes to justice, and both ways really illustrate “the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” The first is this: mercy for the victim regardless of their truthfulness. Mercy for the victim regardless of their truthfulness. The victim in all cases, truthful or otherwise. We saw this about seven or eight years ago; it became really strong with the “Believe All Women” slogan. If a woman made an accusation, it was to be believed and no pushback was to be given whatsoever on her accusation. Why? Because she’s a woman. Is that impartial? No. So if a woman made it, no questions were to be asked. Why? That’s compassionate. Compassion is loving. How mean of us to question if someone’s story is actually true. In the history of mankind, have people ever made false accusations before? Our very Savior was falsely accused, not just on the night of betrayal, but many, many, many times falsely accused.

Some of this stems from the weaponization of empathy. Now we went through a book on it, but [audio unclear] elevating subjective feelings over objective truth, ultimately leading people, including Christians sadly, to affirm sin, validate lies, or support destructive policies. She argues that this distorted empathy is weaponized by people to manipulate others into adopting unbiblical positions under the guise of being loving or compassionate. Some examples that she gives that we’ve already covered some: abortion, focusing on a woman’s desire for an abortion while ignoring the life of the unborn child; gender and sexuality, affirmatively supporting gender transition or same-sex marriage; immigration, prioritizing the feelings of illegal immigrants over the laws and safety of the host country and its citizens. So she distinguishes this from biblical compassion, which she argues is rooted in truth, seeks to protect the vulnerable, and sometimes requires telling difficult truths rather than simply validating feelings. So here’s the thing. It’s not truth at all costs in this situation. No, it’s the convenient truth at all costs. It’s the politically correct truth at all costs. It’s the cherished truth at all costs.

Some of you are a little bit younger, but how many of you remember the story of the Duke lacrosse team? Do any of you? It’s not that old. 2006. The story, here’s the story. The Duke lacrosse team is having a party. A woman later that was at the party claims that three of the Duke lacrosse players raped her in the bathroom of the place where the party was going on. The whole world goes crazy. It goes even crazier because the Duke lacrosse players were white and this lady was black. And they’re claiming innocent. They’re claiming we did not do that. And so as the year goes on, it is in the media every single day, over and over and over again. But as they start to investigate, what happens? The story starts to fall apart. But the prosecuting attorney, I believe in North Carolina, was so bent on believing the narrative of the young lady that he circumvented the law and withheld evidence and made up false truths. Because he believed the narrative so much, he thought in order for justice to be done, this is what justice requires. Towards the end of the year, the charges had been downgraded, and within about, I think, a year, year and a half, all the charges had been dropped. And that prosecuting attorney actually spent a spell in prison. So not this past Christmas, just a couple months ago, but the year before that, the young lady finally admitted that she made the whole story up—made it up, ruined these guys’ lives. They canceled the rest of the Duke lacrosse season. The coach was fired. Families were humiliated. The mercy of the wicked is cruel. It’s this upside-down justice that the accusers are always believed, regardless of what the evidence says, and regardless of whether there even is evidence.

Mercy for the Culprit, Not the Victim

On the flip side, we sometimes see the exact opposite. Mercy for the culprit, not the victim. In this scenario, it doesn’t actually matter what they’ve done. It doesn’t matter how bad the crime. We have to have empathy for the criminal, and there can be a host of reasons: because of their abusive upbringing, because the system is against them, because they just need to be given a real chance, because they didn’t know any better, because society failed them, because they never had a real chance to succeed, and on and on and on. But this isn’t mercy. One person said this: one of the greatest lies in our culture at the moment is that allowing lawlessness is compassionate, enforcing the law is cruel. When you favor the guilty, guess who is punished? You might think no one, but that’s not true. The innocent are punished. When you favor the guilty, you punish the innocent. Proverbs 18:5, it says:

It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice.

(Proverbs 18:5)

Mercy to the wolves is cruelty to the sheep.

Lex Talionis and Fitting Justice

In the Old Testament, we have what’s called, or what the Latin is called, the lex talionis. Have you heard of that before? The lex talionis. It’s the law of retribution or the law of retaliation. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. It’s a biblical concept. What does it do? Well, one, it prevents blood feuds or excessive retaliation. It ensures that punishments fit the crime exactly. No more, no less. Which actually isn’t the case in Islam, all right? If you’re a thief in Islam, guess what they do? Cut off your hand. You steal a loaf of bread and they cut off your hand. Does the punishment fit the crime? No. So with the lex talionis, the idea is that the punishment fits the crime. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Now this is done through judges and courts. We’re not talking about private vengeance, what Jesus is addressing in the Sermon on the Mount. We’re talking about judicial justice. So you read the Old Testament. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. He doesn’t change. Those laws he gave Israel, those reflect his heart. Those reflect his nature. And what do we see? The guilty are punished. The innocent are protected. What do we see today? Well, we see at times misfit judges. We see compromise judges. We see judges with their own twisted definition of justice. Even this past week, a judge—a jury had given a sentence to a young man of 65 years for doing just some very heinous things. And the judge, addressing the man, you know, you stand up and you receive the verdict, right? And she’s going through some of these things. You didn’t have the best upbringing. And he’s like, that’s not true. I mean, he’s like talking back. You’re kind of supposed to be quiet while you’re receiving your sentence. But he’s talking back to her. And she’s like, and I want to give you an opportunity. He’s like, I don’t care. Like this whole thing, she’s like trying to help him out. And he’s like, you send me to prison, I’m going to do the same thing to those people in prison. And she reduced his sentence by half. The mercy of the wicked is cruel.

[audio unclear] poverty or hardship or unwanted burdens. So people feel sorry for the pregnant woman. But where’s the concern for the baby? The mercy of the wicked is cruel.

Children Are Image Bearers

Listen, children aren’t burdens to bear. Yes, they can wear you down. They can be a lot of times. I get that. But they’re not burdens to bear. They’re God’s creation. [audio unclear] So we hear in Psalm 139:

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

(Psalm 139:13–14)

[audio unclear]

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

(Psalm 127:3–5)

Why won’t he be put to shame? Because he’s going to have his five boys right there ready to go. So they’re not inconveniences to be disposed of at will. They’re image bearers. Ending innocent human life is never merciful. You know, Down syndrome children—you ever met Down syndrome children? They’re some of the happiest children you’ll ever meet. Some of them are the most outgoing you’ll ever meet. Like, they don’t know an enemy. Everyone’s a friend. Yet a diagnosis by a doctor that a pregnant woman’s baby might have Down syndrome often ends in the baby being aborted. Listen, image bearers are image bearers. An extra chromosome doesn’t change that. Image bearers are image bearers. The image doesn’t change because of more or less melanin. Image bearers are image bearers. It doesn’t change because of unusually low IQ. There’s a young man in Belize that is in the village of Libertad, and he clearly has a mental infirmity. And of course we’ve been going for about 15 years now. But he loves hanging around us. He’s probably in his 30s now, I’m not actually sure. But he can’t speak at all. He can kind of like grunt and different things. But it’s almost like he’s got this radar, because whenever we show up there, there’s Ben. And what do we do? We love on him. We care for him while we’re there. We give him food, he likes that. But he’s an image bearer. He is an image bearer, just as valuable as you or me.

Real Mercy at Reach

Recently, a young lady came into Reach, and she was abortion-minded—Reach, the pro-life organization that we support. She told her life group that she was pregnant. Guess what their response was? “We’ll love you either way.” Now, what does that communicate? A statement like that. It’s do what you want, right? It’s whatever you decide, we won’t judge. Whatever you decide, it’s not a big deal. Whatever you decide, it really doesn’t have consequences one way or the other. But let’s be honest, when you say “we’ll love you either way,” what you’re saying is if you choose this egregious thing to do, it’s not a big deal. Now that’s different than someone coming and confiding in you that they had an abortion and you saying to them, hey, I still love you, and let me walk with you and let me get you help and let’s walk through what it looks like to receive forgiveness from Jesus and bring about healing. That’s different, because just think of it this way. You go to your life group, you say, I’m thinking of robbing a bank. “We’ll love you either way.” No, is that what you would say? Please don’t. Okay. You say, don’t, don’t rob the bank. Are you out of your mind? You go to your life group: I’m thinking of committing adultery. “We’ll love you either way.” No, you wouldn’t say that. You’d be like, don’t do it. You’re going to destroy your [audio unclear]. She felt so loved by everyone there that it was clear that she just didn’t want to leave. Like her appointment’s over and she’s kind of lingering around and she’s kind of talking to people. Well, if you know of her backstory—I have permission to share—if you know her backstory, like her mom basically cared nothing for her and had never shown her a true motherly love. And so, what is this lady experiencing, maybe for the first time? Agape love. And for some, that’s very attractive, right? That aroma of Christ—now it repels some, but some it attracts. And now this young lady was in a situation where her mom is of an older age and her mom requires daily assistance. And so now this young lady is having to try to practice an agape love towards her mom, from her mom who never gave it to her. And as she was walking out the door she’s like, I might have to keep the baby just to keep seeing you all. Now, not the greatest reason to keep the baby, right? But that’s how much love she felt. That she wanted a reason to keep coming back. That’s how impacted she was by them. That’s agape love. Now, brothers and sisters, that’s real mercy. That’s real compassion. That’s real love. They told her the truth at Reach. They told her the truth. They didn’t mince words. They didn’t say just do what you want, but they were still kind and gracious and compassionate, and guess what? It made a difference. You can pray for her. You don’t have to compromise to be able to show someone you love them and care about them.

The Mercy of the Wicked Is Cruel

Listen, people buy lies all the time. Elon Musk, he tweeted this out two weeks ago: “Whoever said money can’t buy happiness really knew what they were talking about.” Like, one of the richest people in the world. It’s like, Elon, you know, King Solomon would like to have a word with you. Ecclesiastes 5:10: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money.” Yeah, so people say money doesn’t buy happiness. Now, most poor people are like, well, I’d be willing to give it a shot. But it’s lies, right? It’s lies. The same with gender-affirming care for minors—really gender-affirming care for all, but gender-affirming care for minors. These puberty blockers damage the body in ways it can never recover. Imagine being stuck in a perpetual state of prepubescence. That’s pretty messed up. Chopping off healthy body parts is not merciful. But we supposedly have learned men and women. They have doctorates and they’re perfectly willing to do that. The mercy of the wicked is cruel. It’s a rejection of God’s created design for male and female. Where does the world show its mercy? All the wrong places. As I said, mercy to the wolves is cruelty to the sheep. We don’t pet the wolves.

Speak the Truth

All of this makes it all the more important that the church shows itself merciful, truly merciful. One, we need to speak the truth. Jesus tells us in John 7, “judge with right judgment.” So we need to speak the truth. When I was filling out the forms to get into physical therapy, because I had the shoulder surgery, I was filling out the forms. And one of the questions was, do you think you could run a mile? I was like, right now, I’ve got the shoulder sling on, and you want to know if I can run a mile. Who could possibly, that’s trying to get into physical therapy, answer yes to that? Come on. So I was like, no. Then the next question: do you think you could run five miles? I’m like, if I said no to the one, I definitely can’t do the five. I was like, no. Then the next question: do you think you could run 10 miles? I was like, the number of people I know that can run 10 miles is like probably less than the number of fingers on my hand. Like, what kind of question is this, right? Then it gets all—you know, so I’m answering, I’m answering. Then it gets down to what pronouns do you go by. They had like a long old list. Like they were proud of their little pronoun lists. And one of the options was “other.” So I just clicked “other” and I just put in the line, “Really?”

And I actually started going to therapy. I actually asked—I’m like, I’m just going to bring this up to my therapist. Like, you know, so I started with the mile thing. And I’m like, you know, one of the questions was like about my pronouns. She’s like, yeah, I saw what you put. I’m like, good. I’m like, the only way—listen, the only way to get back from the lunacy is to push back with normalcy. Normalcy doesn’t return on its own. It doesn’t return on its own. So if people ask—if I’m at the doctor’s office or whatever and they’re like, what are your pronouns?—I just say, I don’t play that game. That’s my short answer. I know other people have more polished answers, and that’s fine. I think you should have an answer, and you shouldn’t just be like, he/him or she/her—like, that’s playing the game. So if you want to take the biology route or whatever, that’s totally fine, but I think you should have an answer, and you’re going to be asked it at some point. But I just say, I don’t play that game. It is a game, and I’m not playing. But we need to be ready. Speak the truth. We need to speak the truth.

Walk Out the Truth

Then we need to walk out the truth. We need to be people who are slow to judge. Slow to judge. I’m reading a book right now. It’s on justice. I actually didn’t really use much of the material for this sermon, but it’s a great book. And it’s on justice. And it’s really focused on us individually, acting as judges throughout our life. And it kind of focuses on when we hear different information, we think that we can read a news article, and we can have all the facts at hand, and we can make the judgment right then and there. No, we do have a thing in this country, right, called innocent until proven guilty, right? That’s actually from the Bible. Did you know some countries don’t have that? Like, actually quite a few. No, it’s innocent until proven guilty. And we judge people guilty because we read an article on the internet or because someone whispered something to us. And oftentimes we won’t even be in the best position to ever fully, truly judge a situation, because we won’t have all the information at hand. If you just listen to one side and then you draw your conclusions, then you’re being partial. You’re being a partial judge, so to speak, and the Bible says that’s wrong.

So we need to make sure we walk out the truth. One of the most damaging things for believers is gossip. It’s gossip. You talk about whatever tears apart a church—usually somewhere, you trace it back, it’s going to be gossip. People whispering about stuff. And a lot of times, they don’t even know half the truth. But they still whisper. Proverbs calls it that dainty morsel that we’d love to eat. But it’s wrong. So image bearers don’t do that. They say no to gossip. They turn it down. They shut it out. It’s why there’s the Proverb—I think it’s Proverbs 18. It says, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” Even maybe sometimes, if you’ve ever watched some of them law shows or whatever, you’re like, oh, wow, that person looks guilty. And then they bring it in and they’re—oh, now they look innocent. You’re like, every time the other attorney stands up, you’re back to guilty, right? Well, no, they’re presenting evidence. But yeah, would you ever want—if you were being accused of a crime, would you ever want the prosecuting attorney to be the one that only spoke? But if we’re truthful, that’s kind of how we walk out our daily lives when we listen to other people whispering about other people. Because usually we don’t get the benefit of hearing both sides. Even when we get the benefit, we don’t usually have all the information at hand. Not fully. So we need to walk out the truth. We need to be impartial judges. We need to realize that some situations, we just don’t have the information to judge. We might not ever. We have to be okay with that.

Proclaim the Gospel

Levi, who spoke here a few weeks ago, president of Reach, he saw issues at Thrive, and he spoke up. And it cost him his job. But guess what it didn’t cost? His integrity, his conscience. If we’re going to return to any semblance of sanity, it will be because people speak up. Many, many, many people have been duped by the lies of society. Guess what they need? The gospel. The gospel is meant for such a time as this. The gospel is meant for such as these. Every single one of us at one point was a God-mocker. We didn’t want God. We didn’t care about him. We were number one in our own lives. We put ourselves first. And what happened? God was gracious to put someone in our path. God was gracious to send someone to speak the truth to us. If you grew up in a Christian home, that’s likely your parents or the youth pastor. But some of us got saved later in life. And that message came through who? Other believers. And some of us owe a debt of gratitude to some people that in one sense we won’t ever be able to fully repay. They were gracious and caring and compassionate and merciful and spoke. And they spoke the truth. So here we are today, right? So you combat the lies of the enemy by declaring the truth. The truest truth, the biggest truth, is the gospel truth. That’s what changes lives. That’s what changes hearts. That’s what has people hear that truth, right? And then they say, Lord, have mercy on me. We all need that mercy. And God offers that freely.

If you’ve had an abortion, God is gracious to forgive you by the blood of his Son Jesus. What does that require on your part? Repentance and trust. If you sin, you have to repent of that sin. So it includes repentance. But he will bring healing. Healing and repentance, like, they go hand in hand. So if that is you, God offers forgiveness today to you. It’s available. And we can help you walk through that, because you need healing as well. But God is gracious to forgive even some of the worst of the worst of sins. Moses, right? He murders the Egyptian. Look how the Lord used him. He was gracious. God forgave him. What about us? Well, we need to speak the truth. We need to walk the truth, and we need to be willing to proclaim the truth in all its forms. Let’s be faithful to do that. Amen? Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus. It’s through him that we are forgiven of all sins, past, present, future. Lord, help us to walk before you in truth, speaking the truth, walking in the truth. Lord, I pray for anyone here, Lord, who needs forgiveness from you today, that you would give it to them, that they’d [audio unclear]. Strengthen us to walk in your ways, to convict us of our sin, to show us truth from error. Lord, help us to be salt and light in this dying generation. Help us to speak truth, Lord—to be bold for you, to be gracious to others, and to walk in the manner in which you’ve walked. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.