As I mentioned in my announcements earlier, this is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. It is a day when we pay special attention to the fact that over 50,000,000 innocent people have been killed in our country, in the past 37 years. In other eras and in other countries we could have pointed at particular leaders who were responsible for killing their own people: Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, etc. But in our country there is no particular person to point a finger at.
The Apostle tells us that when people rebel against God and decide to do what is right in their own eyes he gives them over to all sorts of lusts and depravity. Killing is the usual result of those lusts and depravity and is the fruit of living apart from God.
When I am reminded of this terrible sin I usually get very angry and wonder how I can be involved in stopping this monstrosity. Of course we should pray. God is ultimately the only one who can stop this travesty, but isn’t there something else?
Then I read further in the passage I just alluded to I am reminded that this sin is a national sin. The nation is sinning. We are members of this nation. God views us as a corporate entity with leaders and people, all participating in the sin of the nation together. If the nation has been killing babies, somehow we are all involved in it too. Rebelliousness and worldliness is an entity with the terrible sins on one end and the lesser sins on the other end. But it is more like a conveyor belt than like a simple spectrum. This is because God does not let our sin sit there all by itself. All sin, not dealt with, moves along toward the more serious end. To make things worse, a person committing sins on the light end cannot say they are not participating in the sins on the ugly end. This is because they are all part of the same rebellious beast.
This is the weekly exhortation and so I would like to exhort you to listen to this text as I read it and see if you are joining in with the sins of the nation by participating in one or some of these “lighter” sins: “They [the people at the core of our culture of death] were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Rom 1:29-32).
If you want to do something about Abortion, do something about your participation in the industry. Stop being worldly. Stop being edgy—flirting with being worldly. Stop participating in the things and people of the world. Stop admiring them, praising them, supporting them with your time and money. Instead, love God. Pursue righteousness, holiness, godliness. Ask God, no—beg God to make you more like Christ. Implore him to give you a heart that runs wholly after him. Admire God, Praise God. Support him and his work with your time and money.
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