the Book of Exodus and Chapter 21. Exodus and Chapter 21. I told you at the close of service this morning that I would be dealing with the subject of abortion this evening. A lot could be said on the subject. It is a very emotionally challenging emotionally charged subject. People on either side of the position, those who are either pro-abortion or against abortion, each of them are, for the most part, are very deeply rooted in their convictions. And it is something that can easily, and I have seen it incite great emotion in people. I mentioned to you, there is a bunch of literature up here on the front pew. Ms. Pat and I for a number of years supported a group called the Human Life Alliance. And it is a very good pro-life organization. that puts out a Christ-centered, very balanced approach to the subject of abortion, and their material is here. Very well written, very well done. All of this is free. Take any of it that you want to. Give it out at work. Give it to friends. We had a lady in Tennessee. I would order literature for her, and she would put it out at the public library. She worked as a librarian, and she would put it out in the public library. Got a little bit of backlash for it, but not a whole lot. But anyway, there's a bunch of material right here, and you're welcome to take any of it that you'd like to, if there's something that you see that you'd really like. In particular, they put out a magazine that is specifically targeted for young teenagers, for boys and for girls. And the issue I have is, gosh, it's about three or four years old, but they continue to put that out. And if it's something that you would like, We could help you round that up, dealing with some very practical issues, including abortion. But anyway, I pray as we get into this this evening, I just say this as we begin. This is the kind of subject that can consume you if you allow it to. If you get in it and it reaches so far down deep into us, this subject does, it's easy to get consumed with it. Be very honest with you, in my own ministry, I had to step back away from it. I had gotten into it, and that may sound strange to you, but let's see if I can make it make sense. I had gotten into it several years ago, very, very deeply involved, going to pro-life rallies, going to abortion clinics, involving myself in different things. We have been involved in some peaceful rallies, things like that. some of the vivid pictures that are available of of the unborn who have been aborted. These things just a graphic and they can reach out and get a hold of you. And if you're not careful in what was occurring with me is I was focusing too much on one subject. And while abortion is an incredibly important and solemn subject. It is in and of itself symptomatic of a bigger problem. You understand that it is abortion is in and of itself just one of the symptoms. It's really not what's wrong. What's wrong is we live in a sin cursed world. And this may sound backwards to say this and I'm for any legislation that hinders and slows abortion. I'm for that. But the cure is not a reversal of Roe v Wade. The cure is the power of the gospel. That is the real cure. This is a spiritual issue, and it needs to be fought with spiritual armor. I'd love to see Roe v Wade overturned. I really would. Um, but mankind will find ways to do evil, no matter what you legislate, if the heart is not changed. And so it comes down to a matter of the gospel comes back to the power of the life changing good news of Jesus Christ. So as we proceed this evening, I want to take a balanced approach. And so I said, I stepped back simply because I got me in so deep that I felt like I was, you know, working it in almost every sermon, and it was just becoming a big part of of my ministry and I sort of had to pull back away from it to get a little better broad eye view of it. But in Exodus chapter 21, I want to set a principle out for you. This is what this is. In Exodus chapter 21, we're going to read what God thinks about the unborn. In Exodus chapter number 21, we begin reading with verse number 22. If men strive, and herd a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. In this short civil law, we see God's position on the unborn. What we have read together, and I'm not suggesting that We go back under this civil law of Israel. That's not what I'm suggesting, but what I am saying is that when you look at this and you read this, what you will see is God in his word and in the law that he gave to Israel made protective rules for the unborn. In verse 22, if men strive, if there are two men fighting, And they herd a woman that's pregnant or with child so that her fruit depart from her. Or in other words, she has a premature delivery. It is not her due date, but because of these men who are fighting, they hit her or they hurt her in some way and it forces her into labor. That's exactly what is being talked about right here. It forces her into labor. And what it says in verse number 22, and if no mischief follow. In other words, if she goes into labor, the baby is born and everything is fine, then the father can levy a fine on the man or the men that injured his wife. can force them, that's what it says, the woman's husband will lay upon them as pays the judges determined. This man can request that the judges in Israel force that man or the man who injured his wife to pay a fine. And that is only though if she gives birth and everything's fine with the baby. However, verse 23 says, and if any mischief follow, In other words, if something happens to that child, any time after that, if the child is stillborn, if it is so early in her pregnancy that the child is not viable, that's the language that we would use today. If the baby's born blind, if the baby is born without hands, whatever that it is, the civil law in Israel was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. And that means that if that child dies at birth, then the life of that man or the men who was involved in that fight or that argument, their life is to be taken. And I reiterate by saying to you that I'm not suggesting that we go back under the civil law of Israel. I'm not saying that. But can you not see in this where God says, I care about the unborn? I make provision for those that are not yet been birthed. I provide law and rule and safety to protect them. And so I will say, and I say this very, very early on, life begins at conception. Life begins at conception, period. My father used to say this. If it's not a life, why do you have to kill it? I think that is a very good question. God is the giver of all life. And in his word, he declares that inside the womb of a mother is to be a place of safety and security for the unborn. Old Testament laws protected that, and I have a number of verses that we will mention and go through that points our mind to understanding that God teaches through his word that there is a human being, a child there. I don't care whether that young one is two weeks old or is 22 weeks old. It makes no difference. There is life there. God saw fit in his word to provide protection for the unborn. I have a very difficult time, and like I said, I have preached on this a number of times. I have been to abortion clinics, sat in a parking lot and prayed, and police run me off. I've been in this. And so I don't mean to be cold or intolerant, and I know that people have different positions. But I'll never understand. I just will never understand someone who would identify themselves as a Christian but is not adamantly pro-life. I absolutely do not understand that. I've had conversations with people who will say things, well, I'm pro-life, but I don't think it's our job to tell others what they can do. How foolish is that? How silly is that? Well, I'm pro-life, but go on. You can just like it, lump it, Skip it or jump it when I step in the voting booth if that person is not adamantly and clearly pro-life. I will not vote for period I Don't care if they have a D by their name or an R by their name you understand. I don't care it disturbs me that they are so-called Christians who care more about their wallet and About the economy and immigration than they do on the matter of abortion If everyone that identified themselves as Christian voted pro-life, then Clinton would have never set foot in the White House. Obama would not set foot in the White House. I've got some information right here on President Obama's position and work on abortion, and it is ungodly. But it's no worse than Clinton. Bush was able to enact a few laws. I wish more would have been done, but Bush was able to enact a few laws. At least they banned partial birth abortion. Anybody here know what partial birth abortion is? It is hideous. It is hideous what they do. And one of the first things that Clinton did when he took foot in the White House was to reverse the ban on partial birth abortion. And you get mad if I don't, I don't understand somebody that says, well, I'm a Christian, but these sort of things, you know, they're personal matters. And we, you know, it's not for us to decide for others what they do. Man, what's wrong with you grow a backbone, have some conviction about you. People will say, well, if you're against abortion, then just don't have one. But don't tell me what to do. You know how I relate that? I relate that to somebody saying, well, if you're against domestic abuse, then don't beat your wife, but don't tell me what to do. People say, well, I'm personally against abortion, but I don't think we can tell others what is morally right for them. That's about like saying, well, I'm personally against slavery, but I don't think we can tell others what's morally right for them. Well, I think abortion should remain legal, otherwise, Otherwise, it could endanger the mother. That's about like saying I think child pornography ought to be legal. Otherwise, it could endanger the life of the child. I can be here all night. And I don't like your subject. I don't like it. But there's no such thing as a safe abortion. The Gutenmacher Institute who for a long time worked hand in hand with Planned Parenthood and don't even, they're one of the most wicked organizations on the face of this planet. Planned Parenthood is. The Guttmacher Institute calls abortion a common event and said that the root cause of all abortion is unintended pregnancy. You wanna know what the root cause of abortion is? Sin. That's the root cause of it. God in his word declares life in the womb is sacred and it should be treated as such. I realize not everything is as cut and dry as we'd like to make it. And I have been told, well, buddy, you don't have a uterus, so mind your own business. I've been told that very, very plainly and a little more poignantly, if you understand what I'm saying. Did you whip the person? No, I did not. And I understand that sometimes, not every pregnancy is a result of someone not taking care of themselves. Sometimes people Young and let me just get it out. Sometimes young ladies are raped. Sometimes there are things that happened to them that is beyond their control. It happens. Sadly, it just happens. Carefully and lovingly, I say, but an abortion in such case only produces two victims. And there is emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual long-term effects to abortion and in particular to those who have a pregnancy as a result of a violent crime We're learning more and more in fact one of the we're learning That abortion leads to breast cancer That's just some of the things that we're learning as we see that. This is an unnatural act and Let me offer here, let me try to give some good, on a positive note, cautiously positive, number of abortions in America is going down. In 1990, I believe, America ran about 1.6 million abortions a year. That number now is down to a little less than 1.1 million abortions a year. I believe 2012 was the last numbers that I could find, but 2012, 1.058 million children were aborted that we know about in America. 88,167 children a month, nearly 3,000 a day, 120 children an hour in America. By the time I started this and the time that we leave tonight, 250 children will have been aborted in America. The number is declining, that's good news. It's not necessarily great on some of the reasons behind it, because the morning after appeal that is being handed out now doesn't garner, won't include necessarily the number of abortions in this. Medical abortions that are performed are not necessarily recorded here in every case. And so it is somewhat good news and some of it relates to sex education that's taking place in the school and the ability of middle schoolers now to get hands on free birth control. And that has led to fewer teen pregnancies, but or at least a fewer number of abortions among teen pregnancies. But in the state of Georgia, 2012 28,000 over 28,000 abortions were performed. 57% of them on black women, 24% of them on white women. The largest age group in which abortions are performed are on women ages 20 to 24. And then second behind that are women ages 25 to 29. The Gutenmacher Institute, who I mentioned to you a few moments ago. I gave you some good news, now can I come back behind it with some depressing news? Globally, folks, there is a holocaust that's taking place around us. And if I stand here and spend the next 30 or 40 minutes talking about this, And you walk out this door and you never give it another thought, I have failed and we have failed. One of the great reasons why this Holocaust is taking place is because too many of God's children have sat silent on this subject and done nothing. I don't mean to be smart or hard, but when's the last time you thought about abortion? When's the last time you prayed about it? When was the last time you involved yourself in any capacity to help stem this tidal wave of cold-blooded murder? God forbid any of us actually took the time to sit down and write a letter, made a phone call, It's easier just to sit around and grope at the darkness, right? To sit around and say, well, everything is going to hell in a handbasket around us, and there's nothing we can do about it. When have we tried to do anything about it? Globally, it is estimated since 1980, and that's when they even really began to try to keep global records. Since 1980, it is estimated that there have been between 1.3 and 1.4 billion abortions globally. Don't tell me that's not a holocaust. Do you realize that amounts to 148,000? Somebody may have to check my math, but I believe I'm right on this. Nearly 150,000 children a day that are aborted globally. Somebody might ask President Obama if he and his children would have been, his two daughters would have been born in China, which one of them would he wanted to keep? Cuz he only allowed to have one. I'm not gonna do it. And I don't even know that I would suggest that you do it. The methods by which abortions are performed are just ghastly. It's brutal. The way they treat the unborn. If you wanna find out, you find out. I just put it like, if you wanna find out, you can find out. It's not hard. I will say it like this and I'll move on. And I'm not trying to say this for shock value. The unborn are crushed and vacuumed. They are burned alive. They experience fetal pain. They know pain. And the way they're treated, I don't know how many of y'all have ever heard of the silent scream. If you could watch the video called The Silent Scream, it was a man who was performing an abortion on a woman. And in the video, the child, I don't even like saying fetus, that's how careful, the child actually tried to move away and he had to follow. the child in the womb in order to kill it. And he said the child, you could see the child as he has the ultrasound machine making sure he gets the right part of the body to kill the baby. You could actually see the child as if it were screaming for help. If you've never read Unplanned by Abby Johnson, go buy that book and read it. Unplanned by Abby Johnson, I believe is her name. Read Norma McCorvey's book, One by Love. Norma McCorvey is Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade. You realize Roe v. Wade, the whole thing, was based on a lie? Norma McCorvey, who was an anti-God atheist, confessed lesbian, drug addict, alcoholic, was just a patsy in the hand of the feminist movement. who lied under oath and said that she'd been gang raped and wanted the right to have an abortion. But it was a complete lie. She admits that it was a lie. But she was instrumental, and all she was was really a patsy in the hand of the movement. In 1973, when the US struck down the abortion, the laws governing abortion in all 50 states, the entire thing was based on a lie. And Norma McCorvey, who was Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, Norma McCorvey was saved a few years later. You ought to read her book, On One By Love. Read her testimony in that book. That Benham Brothers, that book that you're reading right now, they're the ones that were instrumental in her conversion. Read the poem she has entitled Empty Playgrounds. You have any idea the amount of guilt that this woman has had to deal with? And the only thing that she's found any help with is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. She found forgiveness. At 16 weeks, the body is fully formed. Fingerprints and toe prints can be seen. The child has both fingernails and toenails. The baby is about five inches long. moves around in the womb, has the ability to grasp and has been seen clutching the umbilical cord, sucking its thumb at 16 weeks. And yet you can walk into most abortion clinics in America and for $500 you can kill that child. You know at the abortion clinic in Tennessee, you can go on their website of all the vile things. You can go on the abortion clinic's website. for the, you know the one I'm talking about, in Tennessee, and print a $50 off coupon for your abortion online. Have you ever heard of such things? At 16 weeks, the child makes facial expressions. Their genitals are fully formed. In case of a girl, her uterus is developed and her ovaries are already in their proper place. Child can blink at 16 weeks. And unless the law is changed in D.C., Connecticut, and Maine, a minor can walk in and have an abortion without even alerting her parents. A 13-year-old girl can walk into an abortion clinic in D.C., Maine, Massachusetts, maybe even other, I'm sorry, Maine, Connecticut, and have an abortion now without parental consent. Georgia is one of the more conservative states, and that's a good thing, I suppose. In Georgia, prior to an abortion, a woman has to receive counseling. There's a 24-hour waiting period. She has to be made aware of alternatives, and minors have to have parental notification. Now, that's the law in the state of Georgia. And that's better than nothing, I suppose. It would be great if there was one smooth stone that could destroy the giant of abortion. But probably if abortion is ever, and that's a great big if, if abortion is ever outlawed in the United States, or at least becomes more and more rare, It'll be the death of a thousand lashes. You understand what I mean? It'll not be one swift legal movement. Different states right now are pushing forward different laws to try and slow things now. There's a huge what's called a personhood movement. where, in particular, National Right to Life, another good organization. You want to spend some money, give some money, National Right to Life, Georgia Right to Life, Human Life Alliance, some of these other places. Personhood movement, where they're seeking legislation to acknowledge that the unborn is a person, and as a person has constitutional rights, and so that's That's a big push. And I'm not unsympathetic. I can't imagine. Somebody says, you don't have a uterus. You're right, I don't. And I can't imagine what it would be to be 13, 14 years old and pregnant. I can't imagine that. And so what we must do as Christians is we must do more than simply stand up and jump up and kick and holler and carry on against abortion. We must be involved in other forms of help in telling the young, There are, you have good choices. There are pregnancy centers where you'll go and receive free care. If you'll carry full term, they'll take the child. They'll see to it the child is adopted into a good home. There are alternatives out there. There are people who will open their home and then If you're young and unmarried and pregnant, there are organizations out there that will open their home. You can go and live with them. They'll pay your medical expense. Anything to save the life of that child. And those are good things, and those are things that we must do more than just simply getting in a pulpit and busting out on abortion. How do we overcome evil? What does the Bible say? How do we overcome evil? With good. We're not to be overcome with evil, but we overcome evil with good. I've been tempted, I tell you, I got into this and you see all these vivid portraits of baby parts and these things that makes you want to go out there and strap a bomb to your chest and blow up the local abortion clinic. Figure I'd be like one of them, it's a good way to go. But we don't overcome evil with evil, we overcome evil with good. Not all pregnancies are a result of promiscuity. Things happen, but don't let people tell you, well, what about all these abortions that are a result of rape and incest? A huge minority, depends on who you look at and what kind of statistics they wanna say, but less than, much less than 3%, probably less than 1%, but less than 3% of pregnancies are a result of rape or incest. It's not the majority by any means, it's not. What can I do? You pray. This is a $400 million a year corporation business. It's what it is. If anybody's been involved at all or seen at all what's going on with Planned Parenthood, this is a business. They are taking fetal parts and selling them. I don't know how many of you've watched any of those videos. It is disgusting. They're taking the pieces that remains of the board. And the videos and the way that these, I don't know how callous can people become just digging through the parts of children, easily identifiable parts, just rifling through them and picking them up as if it's nothing. How callous can you become? Planned Parenthood, which is an anti-Christ organization, is profiting off of the death of the unborn, selling parts of children, organs of the unborn. It's almost overwhelming. But you can pray. You can pray. That's what I mean. Number one, we ought to pray. We ought to get involved, call, write. We ought to vote. We ought to vote pro-life. You ought to support good organizations. You want some ideas of who you can? I'll give you a list of some ideas. But then, finally, and probably most importantly, we have to share the gospel. There is forgiveness. For anyone who has been on any side of the abortion process, from the nurses, to the doctors, to the young ladies, there is forgiveness to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. I said it this morning. There's no sin so bad that God cannot forgive. No sinner so low that his grace cannot reach down and grab. Let me just give you a couple things and some scripture verses here. And it matters to me, Bible language, okay? Genesis 16-11, and don't turn there. I'm going to give you a number of them. Just follow me for a minute. Genesis 16-11. Genesis 16-11. The angel of God speaks to Hagar and says, Thou art with child. God's word recognizes a pregnant mother as being with child. In Exodus 20 verse 13 it says, Thou shalt not kill. Like it or not, abortion is murder. It is simply killing the unborn. Proverbs 6.17, God's Word says that God hates those that shed innocent blood. Can anybody tell me whose blood would be more innocent than the unborn? Psalms 139 verses 13 through 16 declares that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Jeremiah 1 verse 5 says, Before I formed thee in the belly and the womb, I knew thee. God recognizes that, in this case of Jeremiah, that he was a person before he even fully formed his body in the womb. Romans 9-11 says, for the children being not yet born. Children being not yet born. In Genesis 25-22 it says, the children struggled within her. Jacob and Esau. God recognizes, we must recognize the sanctity of human life inside the womb. I want to read something to you that was written by one of our congressmen. When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I've often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates. You are there alone standing before God. And a terror will rip your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world, but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world. And they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, spare him because he loved us. And God will look at you and say, not did you succeed, but rather did you try? Congressman Henry Hyde wrote those words. The guilt I think we must bear is a failure to try. Dark and difficult subject, but there's glorious light in the Lord Jesus Christ. Forgiveness and peace.