Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on James 1:22. The main subject of the sermon is how James’ command to be doers of the Word and not hearers only obligates us to protest abortion.
Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on James 1:22. The main subject of the sermon is how James’ command to be doers of the Word and not hearers only obligates us to protest abortion.
– SERMON TRANSCRIPT –
For myself, I was enjoying the testimony. I would still be sitting there and listening to it, but I do appreciate Ryan’s ministry. Thank you. But Tony, what an incredible, powerful, powerful testimony.
I was struck by what Ryan said earlier than that as he was talking about how evangelical churches are celebrating, and then he changed to mourning and about this issue, the sanctity of human life, and I wrote out in hand this morning as I was preparing this sermon, thinking more about it. That’s exactly how I begin. And I thought it was ironic that he ran into that kind of strange little difficulty as he was talking about this. The Christian life is a strange mixture of celebration and sorrow. Is it not? We are constantly rejoicing and sorrowful. The Scripture openly says it, “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” I liken that to that statement, ’cause it gives you the sense that sorrow is temporary, rejoicing isn’t. And that is true. Some day the sorrow will be gone, and He’s going to wipe every tear from our eyes. Meanwhile, if you’re healthy, you’re going to weep. And you’re going to be sorrowful. We’re told to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.
Are you supposed to do that at the same time? You come to church on Sunday, and there’s a category of rejoicing people and then there are the category of the mourning people, and if you really care, you’re gonna do both in this course of a healthy Sunday. Jesus said paradoxically, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.” If you know anything about the word blessed in the Greek language, it means happy, joyful, makarios. Blessed, happy are the mourners. It’s just, it’s the mystery of faith that we are… Our eyes are open and we see the world and the visible and the invisible, the universe as it really is, and the universe as it really is, begins with God seated on His throne, and that is the best news there could ever be, because God is good and He’s ruling, and He sent His Son, and through Him, we can have a completely forgiven perfect relationship with Him, and that is good news. John Piper had it right, God is the Gospel, he is the good news. And yet our eyes are open to realize what sin has done in this world, what it’s done in my heart, in my family, in my life, in my community. What it’s done in my nation, in the world that we’re living in. It’s awful, it’s worse than we can imagine. And so if you have faith, you’re gonna be both rejoicing and mourning all the time.
Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, and so we celebrate the gift of life. We celebrate the sanctity, the sacredness of human life. It’s a good thing that God created man, male and female in His image, that’s a good thing. At the same time, we mourn the culture of death that we permit here in this country. We are guilty, we are responsible for 38 years of legalized abortion in America because we just let it happen, and we don’t do what it takes to stop it. Abortion is a lie, and we, the pillar and foundation of the truth, the church, has not told enough truth to overturn the lie, not yet. I do believe some day, the God of peace will crush satan under our feet, and I look forward to that.
I was talking to Matthew Hodges this week about a particular aspect of abortion, a particular aspect of it had to do with a racial aspect, the fact that this is the biggest problem facing the African American community, and he showed me a link that made it just incredibly obvious how devastating it is in the African American community. Since 1973, the second leading cause of death among African Americans is heart disease, 2.2 million, third leading cause of death is cancer, I think it’s 1.8 million, and down from there, I can’t remember the whole list, AIDS is on there, traffic accidents, other illnesses are listed, gang-related violence, other things like that. By far, the number one is abortion at 13 million human beings. As a matter of fact, if you take the others and the next I would guess, ’cause the list stopped after seven or eight causes of death, and you just because of just statistically ’cause by then you’re down to 75,000, 70,000, and the gap between 13 million and 2.2 million is so huge that you could add the next 20 causes of death and you still wouldn’t get up to abortion. It’s horrible.
Another statistic I heard this week that 41% of all the babies conceived in New York City are aborted. I mean that’s just… And you know this isn’t a problem just “out there.” Eighteen percent of the babies that are aborted in America today are done so in the hands of women who claim to be part of Bible-believing evangelical churches. That’s what they would put on a survey. That’s a quarter of a million babies, 250,000, it’s not just “out there.” And so we have to learn ourselves the sanctity of human life, and then tell it to the world. It’s a church problem before anything else. We need to get this straight ourselves.
I. How Deep is Your Pro-Life Commitment?
Now, I believe, as I’m preaching to you, that a huge percentage of you would claim openly to be pro-life, I would hope 100%, but I’m not so naïve as I think 100%, but I think something really high, a high percentage of you would say, “Yes, I am pro-life and do not buy the whole abortion thing, I don’t buy the whole pro-choice thing. I’m pro-life. I vote pro-life. I’ll check that in a box on a survey. I hate pro-abortion, logic and rhetoric and that whole way of thinking. I may have even spoken up for pro-life a couple of times. I may have been to a PSS banquet. I might have even written a check. But my question to you today is, “Are we hearers only or doers in this issue?” That’s my question. And really, it goes quickly to this one issue of sacrifice, “How much have you or I sacrificed to be pro-life in America?” Some people make it the focus of their entire life and ministry, it’s what they do. Tony is choosing to do that. Praise God for that. Some people see it on a par with slavery, the slavery issue of the… Of 19th century America, they see it at that level. I personally call it the most profound civil rights issue of our day, absolutely a civil rights issue. The question is, “What are we willing to sacrifice to be pro-life?”
Randy Alcorn, President of Eternal Perspective Ministries, pro-life is a major plank in his ministry. He’s got a number of things he’s doing, but that is a huge part of what he does. He’s written a number of books on it. He was active, I think, in Operation Rescue, I’m not sure, but he was active in actively blockading abortion clinics in Oregon. And so he was tried and convicted. And in May of 1990 an envelope came to his home and basically said… In the envelope was a writ of garnishment for all of his wages. The reason for it was that he had refused to pay the small financial settlement because he’d be writing a check to an abortion clinic and he refused to do it. So he at that moment decided to go without a paycheck the rest of his life, and he’s living by faith in that regard, he made a sacrifice for pro-life. My question. The text question, James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says.” That’s the text that I feel the Lord gave me for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.
II. Basic Biblical Principles on Sanctity of Human Life
And the question is, then, “Are we pro-life hearers only? Are we doers? What are we willing to sacrifice?” So what I wanna do for you now briefly, is to just tell you what the Word says about this. I don’t think this is gonna be new to you. I think you’ll know these 10 basic principles that God gives us on this, so I don’t have to belabor them, I’m just gonna tell you what they are, just to remind you. Ten basic principles on the sanctity of human life. Number one, God is creator, king and judge of all the earth. Start there. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1:1. This is God’s world that we live in. Psalm 24:1-2, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” And in Genesis 18:25, Abraham says, “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” Well, He will do right, He is the judge of all the earth.
Secondly, all human beings are created in the image of God, and therefore human life is sacred, unique and sacred. Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him male and female, He created them.”The image of God is still in place, though marred deeply by sin, we are still in the image of God. And so therefore, James 3:9 says that if we even insult or curse, our brothers were damaging the image of God, we’re slandering the image of God with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, he says, and with it, we curse men who have been made in God’s likeness.
Sanctity of human life, though, isn’t just taught in the Bible, we live it every day. I don’t even mean just we Christians, we human beings, just kind of know that human life is different. For what other form of life would rescue teams plow through the rubble of Port-au-Prince, Haiti looking for survivors, that the magnitude of the effort is a testimony to the sanctity of human life. Or rejoice the world over when 33 Chilean miners are rescued from a hole in the ground, half a mile down below the surface of the… They’ve been down there for two months, everybody just rejoicing when they were brought up. Sanctity of human life causes surgical teams to labor over a single individual trying to do anything and everything they can do to save that person. Causes searchers to scour over miles of undulating empty waves looking for the survivors of a shipwreck or a plane crash. Causes unimaginable grief at the loss of a single toddler. I read about recently in Syracuse, New York, the victim of a shooting in gang-related violence a little toddler. Sanctity of human life is there, we can’t deny it.
Thirdly, human beings are commanded to be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 1:28, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the Earth, and subdue it. Rule over it.’” That command was reiterated after the flood with Noah, still there.
Fourth, human life begins at conception. This is the whole point. This is where we disagree with our pro-choice neighbors and co-workers and family members who are themselves created in the image of God, and who might be elect and who might be… You might see those individuals come to Christ as we can persuade them, but this is where the rubber meets the road, this is where we get to it quickly, human life begins at conception. That’s what we believe. And that’s what the Scripture teaches. To me, the strongest passage on this remains, Luke 1:43-44, where Elizabeth filled with the spirit is greeting Mary with these incredible words: “But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb, leaped for joy.” Game, set and match, friends. John the Baptist, pre-born, leaping for joy, only persons leap for joy. That’s a human being in there.
And even more significantly, Elizabeth calls Mary “the mother of my Lord.” She was at that moment carrying Jesus just a few weeks after his conception by the Holy Spirit. Mary was already granted sweetly the title mother of my Lord. And so personhood is given by Almighty God. It’s nothing I can give to you. I can’t give you or grant you personhood or take it from you. Hitler couldn’t take personhood from the Jews or the gypsies of the Slavic race, though he called them sub-human, he couldn’t take it from them. He could murder them, but he couldn’t take their personhood away, ’cause it was given by God. And personhood has nothing to do with your geographical location. I am no more of a person on a mountaintop than I am in a valley or in a cave. And that baby is no more of a person, a few inches down the birth canal than a few inches back. It’s got nothing to do with your location on the Earth. Personhood is a whole issue.
Fifthly, all children, all children are a blessing from God. God blessed them. Genesis 1:28, and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Psalm 127, “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him, like arrows in the hands of a warrior, sons are born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.” Blessing.
Number six, satan hates all human beings and wants to murder them. He’d like to kill us all. He doesn’t have some favorite human beings and others that aren’t… He’ll use people, people can be sons of the devil, but he hates us all. John 8:44, “Jesus said to his enemies, ‘You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth because there is no truth in him.’” He’s a murderer. Revelation 12:4 says, “the dragon,” that’s satan, “stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.” In context, this is definitely Jesus, but I just picture that frequently, the dragon there in front of the woman about to give birth.
Number seven, human beings are forbidden from taking life. Exodus 20:13, “You shall not murder.”
Number eight, God’s people are commanded to rescue the perishing and care for the needy. All you have to do is look at our text. Look at verse 27 in James 1. We’ll talk more about it in a moment. “But religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: To look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” And Proverbs 24:10-12 says this, “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength? Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering toward 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?” Rescue people who are perishing.
Number nine, Judgment Day is coming when we will have to give an account for every careless word we have done Matthew 12:36. Revelation 20 is the clearest depiction of Judgment Day. In verse 12, “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
And this one’s my favorite. Number 10, grace is available through Jesus Christ to all sinners who repent and believe in Him. Oh, how I need that word today. Oh, how I need it and so do you. “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ, Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst,” said the Apostle Paul. I never forget when preaching on abortion that I may be speaking to someone who’s had an abortion, or a man who compelled a woman to have an abortion, or a doctor who performed an abortion, or a nurse who assisted in abortion, or a political activist who actively raised money for pro-choice causes, or any of those things. That I might be talking to people who had some point in their lives committed act of sin in this area. I’ve never forgotten it. The grace of God is available through Jesus Christ for you. God sent his son into the world. He died on the cross, his blood was shed for sinners like you and me. And all we have to do is fall down in tears before Him and say, “Save me, Lord, the sinner. Be merciful to me, oh God, the sinner,” and He will forgive you. Completely forgive you.
I was witnessing to somebody this week, talking to them about grace, and I said, “Grace is 100% forgiveness for all of my sins, and I’ve come to that conclusion because I realize that 99% forgiveness will do me no good at all. I need it all forgiven. All of it. And it is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Come to Jesus, fall at his feet and trust in Him, see in his wounds, in the blood that he shed, see in his death your atonement for your sins. You are guilty and I am guilty. That’s what we are.” Or I should say, if you’re a Christian, that’s what you were. But now you’re washed, you’re clean, you’re holy, you’re righteous in Jesus, simply by faith. Okay. So that’s the Word of God.
III. James’s Warning: “Hearers Only” Are Self-Deceived
But it says in our text, “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror, and then after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does.”
Let me tell you, my greatest fear and concern for this local body, for this church, First Baptist Church, is that you will, or have already, developed a taste for good doctrine, good preaching and teaching for good books, for good podcasts, for good Scripture teaching flowing in your ears and in your mind because you love it and it’s orderly and beautiful and all that, but that we will come short of living it fully for the glory of God. That’s my fear that we will be hearers only and not doers also. Oh God, deliver us from that. I’m praying that God would use Tony’s testimony, use the elders leadership, that he’d use our own repentance to deliver us from being hearers only of the Word and not doers, also of it. It’s my concern. I believe that the 10 things I’ve listed this morning wouldn’t be shocking to any of you, I don’t think there’s anything on there that would say… I don’t know, I don’t think I’d agree with that.
You believe these things. You’ll be blessed Jesus said, If you do them, if you live according to these truths, and James likens the law of God to a mirror that you’re supposed to gaze intently into, and as you gaze into the law of God you’re gonna see two things. As you gaze intently into the perfect law that gives us freedom, you’re going to see two things, you’re gonna see yourself as you really are, and you’re gonna see Jesus as he really is. You’re gonna see yourself as a sinner who has violated the commands of God. You have not honored your father and mother. You have not kept your heart from defiling anger, murderous even anger toward your neighbors. You’ve not been free from lust. You have coveted your neighbor’s goods. You’re a law breaker. You’re convicted by it, you see yourself there, but you also see in the law a perfect reflection of Jesus’s righteousness, He lived it perfectly, he never committed a single sin, He is holy and righteous and good. And that’s the righteousness he offers me by faith. That’s what you get when you look intently into law. You’re supposed to keep doing that and not forget though. Are we merely listening to the Word and so deceiving ourselves? Ryan quoted it, in James 2, “So What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such a faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. And if one of you says, him, Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well-fed, but does nothing about his physical needs. Now, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead.”
I believe that most American Christians who would assent to the 10 things that I said earlier, do very little by the way of sacrificial action to live up to those things in this area of abortion, and here there is a great danger of self-deception. The greatest danger on self-deception is that you aren’t truly justified, you’re not actually genuinely a Christian. That’s why James wrote chapter two, so that we could see what kind of faith saves us, it’s a faith that leads to a life rich in good works. That’s what he’s getting at there. That danger of self-deception on the issue of how stands it with my soul and God, am I truly saved? Am I really forgiven? Or am I going to hell? The most acute verses on this is in Matthew 7 in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father, who is in Heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ And then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; away from me, you evildoers.’”Oh, be not self-deceived on the issue of your soul, be sure that you are genuinely born again through faith in Christ, and that that faith is alive and producing good fruits.
But you know, there’s a second kind of self-deception, it just has to do with the kind of life that we’re living, and we think that we’re pro-life, but we’re really not… You know, in the end, we think that we’re evangelistic and we’re really not… We think that we’re missions-minded and we’re really not… We think that we care about the poor and needy and we really don’t… We are self-deceived in that regard, the only way you can tell is just look at your works, look at your life, what are you doing, that’s how you can tell if you really are evangelistic or missions-minded or care about the poor and needy or pro-life. And so James makes it very plain, do what it says. Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. “Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror. And after going away, immediately, forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do it. Not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does.”
IV. James’s Exhortation: Do What It Says
Okay, I get it, James. I think I get what you’re saying. I can be obtuse, I can be like a brick, but I get it. James is telling me I need to live out what I say I believe, it needs to affect my life, and so he gives us a vision of what it should look like, and he uses this word religion, verse 27, “Religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” So he uses this word religion. Now, when I was first a new Christian with Campus Crusade for Christ in college and all that, I learned right away that religion was a bad word, it was kinda like a bad thing. It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship, I remember hearing all that kinda thing. And I thought, “Wow, James didn’t get the message. He actually uses the word here, he uses the word positively…” Apparently, it is a religion.
What is religion? I guess religion then is an organized pattern of lifestyle done to please the deity. Ever heard of organized religion? You know, I prefer disorganized religion, I don’t know what the alternative is. We’re going to be doing some religion, even atheists do some religion. It’s just an organized pattern of life done in reference to these spiritual things, so I wanna know I want my religion organized, I don’t know about you, but I want it organized by the Word, Amen? So let’s have an organized religion here, and let’s let James tell us what it is, and He uses three keywords: acceptable and pure and faultless.
V. James’s Vision: Pure, Faultless, Acceptable Religion
Let’s start with the word acceptable. Religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless. What is accepted? It means God is pleased with it, God is going to take it, he will receive the sacrifice from your hands throughout the Old Testament. It’s very plain. You don’t get to choose what to bring God. God chooses what you should bring him, if you bring him what he chooses, he will be pleased with you and accept what you offer. If, on the other hand, you make it up yourself, he will not accept it, or you. We learn that right away with Cain. Remember Cain offered an unacceptable sacrifice. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. So there’s religion that’s acceptable. Well, he’s gonna tell us what is acceptable, and here he says, it’s pure. Religion that our God Father accepts as pure, pure means unalloyed it’s not mixed with human elements, it’s not mixed with idolatrous, wicked elements. It’s pure, it’s heavenly, it’s coming down from God to Earth. That’s the pure religion that we want. It’s God-centered religion. And faultless means religion that He will not find fault with you for bringing like he found fault with Cain. And so he defines it in two senses. Protective service to widows and orphans, and purity from the world. These are the two things he gives us. Widows and orphans are vulnerable, they are needy with ongoing needs for provision and protection in this world, and so you want a religion that I accept, it’s pure and faultless, then take care of people who are broken and needy in the world who of stripped of protection, take care of them. I’ll accept that.
And secondly, purity. Keep yourself from being polluted by the world. The world is Satan’s masterpiece. And by that I mean that world system: lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, boastful pride of life. That world corrupt system, it’s his genius masterpiece that leads the inhabitants of the Earth into idolatry and away from the true religion. God accepts it as pure and faultless when you stand firm against that and you will not be defiled by the world. Now, I think that abortion, this text is perfect for the issue of abortion, even though widows and orphans aren’t directly issue of abortion at the same time, they are the most needy, and the women who are there, they’re behaving a lot like widows at that point. Many of them are saying, “I have no one to take care of me.” That’s specifically why Tony started House of Hope, because he wanted to be able to give tangible material help to a woman who said, “I have no one to care for me during this time.” So women care for women in crisis pregnancies and concern for the babies they are carrying fits, I think, this verse perfectly.
And concerning the pollution of the world, do you realize how wrapped up in the world the whole pro-choice mentality is? And how wrapped up in the world Christians who don’t agree with it, but who do nothing about it, are? In other words, we care too much what people think about us, we care too much what our suite mates think and what our professors think and our bosses and co-workers and relatives think, and so we don’t say what we really believe, and that’s worldly. It’s worldly to care more about man than God, and so I don’t wanna get polluted by the world.
VI. Application: Let’s Do the Word, Not Merely Listen to It!
So what applications can we take from this? What do we do? Well, what I did do is I actually went through the 10 points and gave multiple bullets under each of them. The Lord led me, turns out wisely, now to write out four different ones right before I walked in here. First and foremost, just hear what Tony was saying about the compartments of his life and how he wanted an integrated Christian life. He didn’t want mediocrity in his Christian life.
Okay, what do I want for First Baptist Church? I want Acts, chapter two at the end of the chapter for this church. “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and the Lord was adding to their number daily, those were being saved.” Ryan and I, as we left Tony that day, we both said when we see the waters of this baptismal tank moved every week with people who are being converted, people who are being saved, that you all are leading to Christ and that I’m leading to Christ, and all that, I’ll just “thank you, Jesus,” ‘cause I know only God can do this, and you know what? It’s occurred to me that will never happen if we keep doing kind of institutional door-to-door type things, we have to step into the misery and brokenness of the world that surrounds us and meet the Christians at their… non-Christians, sorry, at their point of greatest need and share the gospel with them, and we’ll see people converted, and it isn’t going to happen without sacrifice. It’s going to be messy, it’s going to be difficult. I see it almost like a very worldly expression, but I feel like there’s a glass ceiling over FBC and we can see another way of living, we can see a better kind of church life there, but we can’t get there.
Why, ’cause it takes a certain amount of force to break through, and that force is called sacrifice, and we won’t break through, we will never break through unless we sacrifice. So I’m not standing here saying you need to do that kind of sacrifice in pro-life ministry. I don’t think so. I think the body of Christ has a lot, there’s so many issues, so much brokenness, so many things we could be doing. But I tell you this, we can’t do any of it without that level of sacrifice. That’s all I’m saying. So don’t take from Tony Hernandez, “I need to go into pro-life ministry,” if you’re not called to do that. Take from Tony Hernandez, “I need that level of commitment and sacrifice to do what God’s calling me to do.”
Number two. This is terrible and convicting. I sat in the House for Hope with Ryan and with Tony and listening and there was just one question… practical question. Always practice, I’m practical. Practical… I’m gonna be… I’m practical, practical. Okay, so we meet these ladies, they are unwed moms. We help them bring their babies to term. Then what? “Tony, what’s the…” I asked him, “What’s the exit strategy?” And the Lord convicted me as the words are coming out of my mouth. This is what I felt the Lord was saying to me, “Andy, that is the wrong question, and I’m so glad you asked it, because it exposes your heart. You know what it shows me about you? That you wanna write a quick check, do a quick little pro-life ministry, do something quick. Check the box and move on. You don’t wanna get messy, you don’t wanna be inconvenienced, you don’t want it affecting your life at all. You wanna know how short a time can I look after a lady and be happy about how that went… Went great. Send them off, everything is great, and their entire extended family came to Christ and they write about us generations to come.” I want the happy ending and I don’t wanna pay the price, and you know… it came right out of the text. Widows are still widows a year from now, orphans will be called orphans until they can provide for their own needs. Clearly, that was a long-term ministry, it wasn’t something you did for a few days or a few hours… “Yeah, I do an orphan ministry.” “Really, what do you do?” “A couple of hours every year I put into that. It’s really been a big part of my life.” Well, I can tell…
Now, George Müller cared for 10,000 orphans, 10,000. And my third application is coming right from this book, George Müller: Delighted in God. Five years after he began his orphan ministry, he wrote about why he did it, and this was so convicting for me. I read this at 10:33 this morning, and I said, This is making… And I don’t usually bring books up and read them from, but I want you to hear this is George Müller speaking about why he got involved with orphans. “The chief end,” says Müller, “for which the institution was established, is that the Church of Christ at large might be benefited by seeing manifestly, the hand of God stretched out on our behalf in the hour of need, in answer to prayer. Simply put, we needed to be needy, and so we did orphans. Our desire therefore is not that we might be without trials of faith, but that the Lord graciously would be pleased to support us in the trial that we might not dishonor Him by distrust. This way of living brings the Lord remarkably near, he is as it were morning by morning, inspecting our storehouses, that accordingly he may send help. Greater and more manifest nearness of the Lord’s presence I have never had.” Listen, “Then when after breakfast, there were no means for lunch, and then the Lord provided the lunch for more than 100 persons, or when after lunch, there were no means for dinner, and yet the Lord provided the dinner and all this without one single human being having been informed of our need. Just in answer to prayer.”
I could read on, but basically what he says at that point is we needed to be needy, we needed to learn how to trust God every single day for things that we knew we couldn’t provide, so we need, friends, ministries that will make us needy, that will break us that will make us cry, that will make us hurt, that will turn our lives upside down, we need that kind of ministry. If not, we will come short of the good works God had for us to do. So finally, application, get involved, with Tony, if you feel led. He’s gonna be here at the front of the church after the services over, just during that mingling around time, come and tell him you’ll pray for him. Come and tell them that you’d like to go with him to the abortion clinic. I’m making a commitment before you now, I will go to the abortion clinic with Tony. If you wanna come with me, email Tom Knight and say, I wanna go with you, Andy, to the clinic. Okay, first of all, it’s probably gonna be early in the morning, my experience in Brookline, Massachusetts, hardest ministry I ever did.
I promise you there, I promise you’ll get scared, I promise that you’ll have a sense that you’re face-to-face with Satan himself. You might get yelled at. You will see depths of depravity that you have never seen, and you will get a chance to share the gospel in one of the hardest situations. As a matter of fact, another ministry, Reb Bradley, he goes around with his son, he does all kinds of ministries, they wanted to go to that place in South Dakota where the bikers go every year, that biker place where all the Hells Angels go and they’re gonna go share the Gospel. These people are amazing. And he asked his 16-year-old son, Reb Bradley did, he said, “Son, are you nervous to go with these motorcycle people?” He said, “Dad, if we can do the abortion clinic, we can do anything.” Abortion clinics is the hardest ministry I’ve ever done in my life, but come with me. Come with me and watch. Come and God might call some of you in, I think Tony’s greatest desire is that we’d start a similar ministry right here. There are all kinds of kind of vacant homes right near us that we could see God do those kind of things. Maybe God’s putting a vision in your heart. In any case, whether you’re called to pro-life or whatever you’re called to, it’s only gonna be by sacrifice that you’ll be fully fruitful to the Lord.
Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this day, thank you for the Word of God, thank you for everything that you do, that you have done in our lives. Thank You for grace. Thank you, oh Lord, that you have covered all of our past failings. You’ve covered our silence when we should have spoken. You’ve covered our cowardice. Oh Lord, you’ve covered women who’ve gotten abortions. You’ve assured them that they are forgiven, that their conscience is cleansed, that you love them, and that you couldn’t love them anymore than you do. You’ve assured in the same way any who have actively sinned in this area. But Lord, for the rest of us who have perhaps only passively sinned, but still sinned in this area, you’ve forgiven us, to thank you for that grace. And now God, give us new effusions of grace, make First Baptist Church a way station of grace and mercy in a dying world, help us to be the place where shouts of joy and tears of lamentation go very appropriately flowing from the spirit, from the Word of God through our eyes and our mouths… Oh, Lord, make us alive. Help us to be that kind of a church in Jesus name, Amen.
Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on James 1:22. The main subject of the sermon is how James’ command to be doers of the Word and not hearers only obligates us to protest abortion.
– SERMON TRANSCRIPT –
For myself, I was enjoying the testimony. I would still be sitting there and listening to it, but I do appreciate Ryan’s ministry. Thank you. But Tony, what an incredible, powerful, powerful testimony.
I was struck by what Ryan said earlier than that as he was talking about how evangelical churches are celebrating, and then he changed to mourning and about this issue, the sanctity of human life, and I wrote out in hand this morning as I was preparing this sermon, thinking more about it. That’s exactly how I begin. And I thought it was ironic that he ran into that kind of strange little difficulty as he was talking about this. The Christian life is a strange mixture of celebration and sorrow. Is it not? We are constantly rejoicing and sorrowful. The Scripture openly says it, “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” I liken that to that statement, ’cause it gives you the sense that sorrow is temporary, rejoicing isn’t. And that is true. Some day the sorrow will be gone, and He’s going to wipe every tear from our eyes. Meanwhile, if you’re healthy, you’re going to weep. And you’re going to be sorrowful. We’re told to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.
Are you supposed to do that at the same time? You come to church on Sunday, and there’s a category of rejoicing people and then there are the category of the mourning people, and if you really care, you’re gonna do both in this course of a healthy Sunday. Jesus said paradoxically, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.” If you know anything about the word blessed in the Greek language, it means happy, joyful, makarios. Blessed, happy are the mourners. It’s just, it’s the mystery of faith that we are… Our eyes are open and we see the world and the visible and the invisible, the universe as it really is, and the universe as it really is, begins with God seated on His throne, and that is the best news there could ever be, because God is good and He’s ruling, and He sent His Son, and through Him, we can have a completely forgiven perfect relationship with Him, and that is good news. John Piper had it right, God is the Gospel, he is the good news. And yet our eyes are open to realize what sin has done in this world, what it’s done in my heart, in my family, in my life, in my community. What it’s done in my nation, in the world that we’re living in. It’s awful, it’s worse than we can imagine. And so if you have faith, you’re gonna be both rejoicing and mourning all the time.
Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, and so we celebrate the gift of life. We celebrate the sanctity, the sacredness of human life. It’s a good thing that God created man, male and female in His image, that’s a good thing. At the same time, we mourn the culture of death that we permit here in this country. We are guilty, we are responsible for 38 years of legalized abortion in America because we just let it happen, and we don’t do what it takes to stop it. Abortion is a lie, and we, the pillar and foundation of the truth, the church, has not told enough truth to overturn the lie, not yet. I do believe some day, the God of peace will crush satan under our feet, and I look forward to that.
I was talking to Matthew Hodges this week about a particular aspect of abortion, a particular aspect of it had to do with a racial aspect, the fact that this is the biggest problem facing the African American community, and he showed me a link that made it just incredibly obvious how devastating it is in the African American community. Since 1973, the second leading cause of death among African Americans is heart disease, 2.2 million, third leading cause of death is cancer, I think it’s 1.8 million, and down from there, I can’t remember the whole list, AIDS is on there, traffic accidents, other illnesses are listed, gang-related violence, other things like that. By far, the number one is abortion at 13 million human beings. As a matter of fact, if you take the others and the next I would guess, ’cause the list stopped after seven or eight causes of death, and you just because of just statistically ’cause by then you’re down to 75,000, 70,000, and the gap between 13 million and 2.2 million is so huge that you could add the next 20 causes of death and you still wouldn’t get up to abortion. It’s horrible.
Another statistic I heard this week that 41% of all the babies conceived in New York City are aborted. I mean that’s just… And you know this isn’t a problem just “out there.” Eighteen percent of the babies that are aborted in America today are done so in the hands of women who claim to be part of Bible-believing evangelical churches. That’s what they would put on a survey. That’s a quarter of a million babies, 250,000, it’s not just “out there.” And so we have to learn ourselves the sanctity of human life, and then tell it to the world. It’s a church problem before anything else. We need to get this straight ourselves.
I. How Deep is Your Pro-Life Commitment?
Now, I believe, as I’m preaching to you, that a huge percentage of you would claim openly to be pro-life, I would hope 100%, but I’m not so naïve as I think 100%, but I think something really high, a high percentage of you would say, “Yes, I am pro-life and do not buy the whole abortion thing, I don’t buy the whole pro-choice thing. I’m pro-life. I vote pro-life. I’ll check that in a box on a survey. I hate pro-abortion, logic and rhetoric and that whole way of thinking. I may have even spoken up for pro-life a couple of times. I may have been to a PSS banquet. I might have even written a check. But my question to you today is, “Are we hearers only or doers in this issue?” That’s my question. And really, it goes quickly to this one issue of sacrifice, “How much have you or I sacrificed to be pro-life in America?” Some people make it the focus of their entire life and ministry, it’s what they do. Tony is choosing to do that. Praise God for that. Some people see it on a par with slavery, the slavery issue of the… Of 19th century America, they see it at that level. I personally call it the most profound civil rights issue of our day, absolutely a civil rights issue. The question is, “What are we willing to sacrifice to be pro-life?”
Randy Alcorn, President of Eternal Perspective Ministries, pro-life is a major plank in his ministry. He’s got a number of things he’s doing, but that is a huge part of what he does. He’s written a number of books on it. He was active, I think, in Operation Rescue, I’m not sure, but he was active in actively blockading abortion clinics in Oregon. And so he was tried and convicted. And in May of 1990 an envelope came to his home and basically said… In the envelope was a writ of garnishment for all of his wages. The reason for it was that he had refused to pay the small financial settlement because he’d be writing a check to an abortion clinic and he refused to do it. So he at that moment decided to go without a paycheck the rest of his life, and he’s living by faith in that regard, he made a sacrifice for pro-life. My question. The text question, James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says.” That’s the text that I feel the Lord gave me for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.
II. Basic Biblical Principles on Sanctity of Human Life
And the question is, then, “Are we pro-life hearers only? Are we doers? What are we willing to sacrifice?” So what I wanna do for you now briefly, is to just tell you what the Word says about this. I don’t think this is gonna be new to you. I think you’ll know these 10 basic principles that God gives us on this, so I don’t have to belabor them, I’m just gonna tell you what they are, just to remind you. Ten basic principles on the sanctity of human life. Number one, God is creator, king and judge of all the earth. Start there. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1:1. This is God’s world that we live in. Psalm 24:1-2, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” And in Genesis 18:25, Abraham says, “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” Well, He will do right, He is the judge of all the earth.
Secondly, all human beings are created in the image of God, and therefore human life is sacred, unique and sacred. Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him male and female, He created them.”The image of God is still in place, though marred deeply by sin, we are still in the image of God. And so therefore, James 3:9 says that if we even insult or curse, our brothers were damaging the image of God, we’re slandering the image of God with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, he says, and with it, we curse men who have been made in God’s likeness.
Sanctity of human life, though, isn’t just taught in the Bible, we live it every day. I don’t even mean just we Christians, we human beings, just kind of know that human life is different. For what other form of life would rescue teams plow through the rubble of Port-au-Prince, Haiti looking for survivors, that the magnitude of the effort is a testimony to the sanctity of human life. Or rejoice the world over when 33 Chilean miners are rescued from a hole in the ground, half a mile down below the surface of the… They’ve been down there for two months, everybody just rejoicing when they were brought up. Sanctity of human life causes surgical teams to labor over a single individual trying to do anything and everything they can do to save that person. Causes searchers to scour over miles of undulating empty waves looking for the survivors of a shipwreck or a plane crash. Causes unimaginable grief at the loss of a single toddler. I read about recently in Syracuse, New York, the victim of a shooting in gang-related violence a little toddler. Sanctity of human life is there, we can’t deny it.
Thirdly, human beings are commanded to be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 1:28, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the Earth, and subdue it. Rule over it.’” That command was reiterated after the flood with Noah, still there.
Fourth, human life begins at conception. This is the whole point. This is where we disagree with our pro-choice neighbors and co-workers and family members who are themselves created in the image of God, and who might be elect and who might be… You might see those individuals come to Christ as we can persuade them, but this is where the rubber meets the road, this is where we get to it quickly, human life begins at conception. That’s what we believe. And that’s what the Scripture teaches. To me, the strongest passage on this remains, Luke 1:43-44, where Elizabeth filled with the spirit is greeting Mary with these incredible words: “But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb, leaped for joy.” Game, set and match, friends. John the Baptist, pre-born, leaping for joy, only persons leap for joy. That’s a human being in there.
And even more significantly, Elizabeth calls Mary “the mother of my Lord.” She was at that moment carrying Jesus just a few weeks after his conception by the Holy Spirit. Mary was already granted sweetly the title mother of my Lord. And so personhood is given by Almighty God. It’s nothing I can give to you. I can’t give you or grant you personhood or take it from you. Hitler couldn’t take personhood from the Jews or the gypsies of the Slavic race, though he called them sub-human, he couldn’t take it from them. He could murder them, but he couldn’t take their personhood away, ’cause it was given by God. And personhood has nothing to do with your geographical location. I am no more of a person on a mountaintop than I am in a valley or in a cave. And that baby is no more of a person, a few inches down the birth canal than a few inches back. It’s got nothing to do with your location on the Earth. Personhood is a whole issue.
Fifthly, all children, all children are a blessing from God. God blessed them. Genesis 1:28, and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Psalm 127, “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him, like arrows in the hands of a warrior, sons are born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.” Blessing.
Number six, satan hates all human beings and wants to murder them. He’d like to kill us all. He doesn’t have some favorite human beings and others that aren’t… He’ll use people, people can be sons of the devil, but he hates us all. John 8:44, “Jesus said to his enemies, ‘You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth because there is no truth in him.’” He’s a murderer. Revelation 12:4 says, “the dragon,” that’s satan, “stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.” In context, this is definitely Jesus, but I just picture that frequently, the dragon there in front of the woman about to give birth.
Number seven, human beings are forbidden from taking life. Exodus 20:13, “You shall not murder.”
Number eight, God’s people are commanded to rescue the perishing and care for the needy. All you have to do is look at our text. Look at verse 27 in James 1. We’ll talk more about it in a moment. “But religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: To look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” And Proverbs 24:10-12 says this, “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength? Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering toward 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?” Rescue people who are perishing.
Number nine, Judgment Day is coming when we will have to give an account for every careless word we have done Matthew 12:36. Revelation 20 is the clearest depiction of Judgment Day. In verse 12, “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
And this one’s my favorite. Number 10, grace is available through Jesus Christ to all sinners who repent and believe in Him. Oh, how I need that word today. Oh, how I need it and so do you. “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ, Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst,” said the Apostle Paul. I never forget when preaching on abortion that I may be speaking to someone who’s had an abortion, or a man who compelled a woman to have an abortion, or a doctor who performed an abortion, or a nurse who assisted in abortion, or a political activist who actively raised money for pro-choice causes, or any of those things. That I might be talking to people who had some point in their lives committed act of sin in this area. I’ve never forgotten it. The grace of God is available through Jesus Christ for you. God sent his son into the world. He died on the cross, his blood was shed for sinners like you and me. And all we have to do is fall down in tears before Him and say, “Save me, Lord, the sinner. Be merciful to me, oh God, the sinner,” and He will forgive you. Completely forgive you.
I was witnessing to somebody this week, talking to them about grace, and I said, “Grace is 100% forgiveness for all of my sins, and I’ve come to that conclusion because I realize that 99% forgiveness will do me no good at all. I need it all forgiven. All of it. And it is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Come to Jesus, fall at his feet and trust in Him, see in his wounds, in the blood that he shed, see in his death your atonement for your sins. You are guilty and I am guilty. That’s what we are.” Or I should say, if you’re a Christian, that’s what you were. But now you’re washed, you’re clean, you’re holy, you’re righteous in Jesus, simply by faith. Okay. So that’s the Word of God.
III. James’s Warning: “Hearers Only” Are Self-Deceived
But it says in our text, “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror, and then after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does.”
Let me tell you, my greatest fear and concern for this local body, for this church, First Baptist Church, is that you will, or have already, developed a taste for good doctrine, good preaching and teaching for good books, for good podcasts, for good Scripture teaching flowing in your ears and in your mind because you love it and it’s orderly and beautiful and all that, but that we will come short of living it fully for the glory of God. That’s my fear that we will be hearers only and not doers also. Oh God, deliver us from that. I’m praying that God would use Tony’s testimony, use the elders leadership, that he’d use our own repentance to deliver us from being hearers only of the Word and not doers, also of it. It’s my concern. I believe that the 10 things I’ve listed this morning wouldn’t be shocking to any of you, I don’t think there’s anything on there that would say… I don’t know, I don’t think I’d agree with that.
You believe these things. You’ll be blessed Jesus said, If you do them, if you live according to these truths, and James likens the law of God to a mirror that you’re supposed to gaze intently into, and as you gaze into the law of God you’re gonna see two things. As you gaze intently into the perfect law that gives us freedom, you’re going to see two things, you’re gonna see yourself as you really are, and you’re gonna see Jesus as he really is. You’re gonna see yourself as a sinner who has violated the commands of God. You have not honored your father and mother. You have not kept your heart from defiling anger, murderous even anger toward your neighbors. You’ve not been free from lust. You have coveted your neighbor’s goods. You’re a law breaker. You’re convicted by it, you see yourself there, but you also see in the law a perfect reflection of Jesus’s righteousness, He lived it perfectly, he never committed a single sin, He is holy and righteous and good. And that’s the righteousness he offers me by faith. That’s what you get when you look intently into law. You’re supposed to keep doing that and not forget though. Are we merely listening to the Word and so deceiving ourselves? Ryan quoted it, in James 2, “So What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such a faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. And if one of you says, him, Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well-fed, but does nothing about his physical needs. Now, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead.”
I believe that most American Christians who would assent to the 10 things that I said earlier, do very little by the way of sacrificial action to live up to those things in this area of abortion, and here there is a great danger of self-deception. The greatest danger on self-deception is that you aren’t truly justified, you’re not actually genuinely a Christian. That’s why James wrote chapter two, so that we could see what kind of faith saves us, it’s a faith that leads to a life rich in good works. That’s what he’s getting at there. That danger of self-deception on the issue of how stands it with my soul and God, am I truly saved? Am I really forgiven? Or am I going to hell? The most acute verses on this is in Matthew 7 in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father, who is in Heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ And then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; away from me, you evildoers.’”Oh, be not self-deceived on the issue of your soul, be sure that you are genuinely born again through faith in Christ, and that that faith is alive and producing good fruits.
But you know, there’s a second kind of self-deception, it just has to do with the kind of life that we’re living, and we think that we’re pro-life, but we’re really not… You know, in the end, we think that we’re evangelistic and we’re really not… We think that we’re missions-minded and we’re really not… We think that we care about the poor and needy and we really don’t… We are self-deceived in that regard, the only way you can tell is just look at your works, look at your life, what are you doing, that’s how you can tell if you really are evangelistic or missions-minded or care about the poor and needy or pro-life. And so James makes it very plain, do what it says. Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. “Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror. And after going away, immediately, forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do it. Not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does.”
IV. James’s Exhortation: Do What It Says
Okay, I get it, James. I think I get what you’re saying. I can be obtuse, I can be like a brick, but I get it. James is telling me I need to live out what I say I believe, it needs to affect my life, and so he gives us a vision of what it should look like, and he uses this word religion, verse 27, “Religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” So he uses this word religion. Now, when I was first a new Christian with Campus Crusade for Christ in college and all that, I learned right away that religion was a bad word, it was kinda like a bad thing. It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship, I remember hearing all that kinda thing. And I thought, “Wow, James didn’t get the message. He actually uses the word here, he uses the word positively…” Apparently, it is a religion.
What is religion? I guess religion then is an organized pattern of lifestyle done to please the deity. Ever heard of organized religion? You know, I prefer disorganized religion, I don’t know what the alternative is. We’re going to be doing some religion, even atheists do some religion. It’s just an organized pattern of life done in reference to these spiritual things, so I wanna know I want my religion organized, I don’t know about you, but I want it organized by the Word, Amen? So let’s have an organized religion here, and let’s let James tell us what it is, and He uses three keywords: acceptable and pure and faultless.
V. James’s Vision: Pure, Faultless, Acceptable Religion
Let’s start with the word acceptable. Religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless. What is accepted? It means God is pleased with it, God is going to take it, he will receive the sacrifice from your hands throughout the Old Testament. It’s very plain. You don’t get to choose what to bring God. God chooses what you should bring him, if you bring him what he chooses, he will be pleased with you and accept what you offer. If, on the other hand, you make it up yourself, he will not accept it, or you. We learn that right away with Cain. Remember Cain offered an unacceptable sacrifice. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. So there’s religion that’s acceptable. Well, he’s gonna tell us what is acceptable, and here he says, it’s pure. Religion that our God Father accepts as pure, pure means unalloyed it’s not mixed with human elements, it’s not mixed with idolatrous, wicked elements. It’s pure, it’s heavenly, it’s coming down from God to Earth. That’s the pure religion that we want. It’s God-centered religion. And faultless means religion that He will not find fault with you for bringing like he found fault with Cain. And so he defines it in two senses. Protective service to widows and orphans, and purity from the world. These are the two things he gives us. Widows and orphans are vulnerable, they are needy with ongoing needs for provision and protection in this world, and so you want a religion that I accept, it’s pure and faultless, then take care of people who are broken and needy in the world who of stripped of protection, take care of them. I’ll accept that.
And secondly, purity. Keep yourself from being polluted by the world. The world is Satan’s masterpiece. And by that I mean that world system: lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, boastful pride of life. That world corrupt system, it’s his genius masterpiece that leads the inhabitants of the Earth into idolatry and away from the true religion. God accepts it as pure and faultless when you stand firm against that and you will not be defiled by the world. Now, I think that abortion, this text is perfect for the issue of abortion, even though widows and orphans aren’t directly issue of abortion at the same time, they are the most needy, and the women who are there, they’re behaving a lot like widows at that point. Many of them are saying, “I have no one to take care of me.” That’s specifically why Tony started House of Hope, because he wanted to be able to give tangible material help to a woman who said, “I have no one to care for me during this time.” So women care for women in crisis pregnancies and concern for the babies they are carrying fits, I think, this verse perfectly.
And concerning the pollution of the world, do you realize how wrapped up in the world the whole pro-choice mentality is? And how wrapped up in the world Christians who don’t agree with it, but who do nothing about it, are? In other words, we care too much what people think about us, we care too much what our suite mates think and what our professors think and our bosses and co-workers and relatives think, and so we don’t say what we really believe, and that’s worldly. It’s worldly to care more about man than God, and so I don’t wanna get polluted by the world.
VI. Application: Let’s Do the Word, Not Merely Listen to It!
So what applications can we take from this? What do we do? Well, what I did do is I actually went through the 10 points and gave multiple bullets under each of them. The Lord led me, turns out wisely, now to write out four different ones right before I walked in here. First and foremost, just hear what Tony was saying about the compartments of his life and how he wanted an integrated Christian life. He didn’t want mediocrity in his Christian life.
Okay, what do I want for First Baptist Church? I want Acts, chapter two at the end of the chapter for this church. “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and the Lord was adding to their number daily, those were being saved.” Ryan and I, as we left Tony that day, we both said when we see the waters of this baptismal tank moved every week with people who are being converted, people who are being saved, that you all are leading to Christ and that I’m leading to Christ, and all that, I’ll just “thank you, Jesus,” ‘cause I know only God can do this, and you know what? It’s occurred to me that will never happen if we keep doing kind of institutional door-to-door type things, we have to step into the misery and brokenness of the world that surrounds us and meet the Christians at their… non-Christians, sorry, at their point of greatest need and share the gospel with them, and we’ll see people converted, and it isn’t going to happen without sacrifice. It’s going to be messy, it’s going to be difficult. I see it almost like a very worldly expression, but I feel like there’s a glass ceiling over FBC and we can see another way of living, we can see a better kind of church life there, but we can’t get there.
Why, ’cause it takes a certain amount of force to break through, and that force is called sacrifice, and we won’t break through, we will never break through unless we sacrifice. So I’m not standing here saying you need to do that kind of sacrifice in pro-life ministry. I don’t think so. I think the body of Christ has a lot, there’s so many issues, so much brokenness, so many things we could be doing. But I tell you this, we can’t do any of it without that level of sacrifice. That’s all I’m saying. So don’t take from Tony Hernandez, “I need to go into pro-life ministry,” if you’re not called to do that. Take from Tony Hernandez, “I need that level of commitment and sacrifice to do what God’s calling me to do.”
Number two. This is terrible and convicting. I sat in the House for Hope with Ryan and with Tony and listening and there was just one question… practical question. Always practice, I’m practical. Practical… I’m gonna be… I’m practical, practical. Okay, so we meet these ladies, they are unwed moms. We help them bring their babies to term. Then what? “Tony, what’s the…” I asked him, “What’s the exit strategy?” And the Lord convicted me as the words are coming out of my mouth. This is what I felt the Lord was saying to me, “Andy, that is the wrong question, and I’m so glad you asked it, because it exposes your heart. You know what it shows me about you? That you wanna write a quick check, do a quick little pro-life ministry, do something quick. Check the box and move on. You don’t wanna get messy, you don’t wanna be inconvenienced, you don’t want it affecting your life at all. You wanna know how short a time can I look after a lady and be happy about how that went… Went great. Send them off, everything is great, and their entire extended family came to Christ and they write about us generations to come.” I want the happy ending and I don’t wanna pay the price, and you know… it came right out of the text. Widows are still widows a year from now, orphans will be called orphans until they can provide for their own needs. Clearly, that was a long-term ministry, it wasn’t something you did for a few days or a few hours… “Yeah, I do an orphan ministry.” “Really, what do you do?” “A couple of hours every year I put into that. It’s really been a big part of my life.” Well, I can tell…
Now, George Müller cared for 10,000 orphans, 10,000. And my third application is coming right from this book, George Müller: Delighted in God. Five years after he began his orphan ministry, he wrote about why he did it, and this was so convicting for me. I read this at 10:33 this morning, and I said, This is making… And I don’t usually bring books up and read them from, but I want you to hear this is George Müller speaking about why he got involved with orphans. “The chief end,” says Müller, “for which the institution was established, is that the Church of Christ at large might be benefited by seeing manifestly, the hand of God stretched out on our behalf in the hour of need, in answer to prayer. Simply put, we needed to be needy, and so we did orphans. Our desire therefore is not that we might be without trials of faith, but that the Lord graciously would be pleased to support us in the trial that we might not dishonor Him by distrust. This way of living brings the Lord remarkably near, he is as it were morning by morning, inspecting our storehouses, that accordingly he may send help. Greater and more manifest nearness of the Lord’s presence I have never had.” Listen, “Then when after breakfast, there were no means for lunch, and then the Lord provided the lunch for more than 100 persons, or when after lunch, there were no means for dinner, and yet the Lord provided the dinner and all this without one single human being having been informed of our need. Just in answer to prayer.”
I could read on, but basically what he says at that point is we needed to be needy, we needed to learn how to trust God every single day for things that we knew we couldn’t provide, so we need, friends, ministries that will make us needy, that will break us that will make us cry, that will make us hurt, that will turn our lives upside down, we need that kind of ministry. If not, we will come short of the good works God had for us to do. So finally, application, get involved, with Tony, if you feel led. He’s gonna be here at the front of the church after the services over, just during that mingling around time, come and tell him you’ll pray for him. Come and tell them that you’d like to go with him to the abortion clinic. I’m making a commitment before you now, I will go to the abortion clinic with Tony. If you wanna come with me, email Tom Knight and say, I wanna go with you, Andy, to the clinic. Okay, first of all, it’s probably gonna be early in the morning, my experience in Brookline, Massachusetts, hardest ministry I ever did.
I promise you there, I promise you’ll get scared, I promise that you’ll have a sense that you’re face-to-face with Satan himself. You might get yelled at. You will see depths of depravity that you have never seen, and you will get a chance to share the gospel in one of the hardest situations. As a matter of fact, another ministry, Reb Bradley, he goes around with his son, he does all kinds of ministries, they wanted to go to that place in South Dakota where the bikers go every year, that biker place where all the Hells Angels go and they’re gonna go share the Gospel. These people are amazing. And he asked his 16-year-old son, Reb Bradley did, he said, “Son, are you nervous to go with these motorcycle people?” He said, “Dad, if we can do the abortion clinic, we can do anything.” Abortion clinics is the hardest ministry I’ve ever done in my life, but come with me. Come with me and watch. Come and God might call some of you in, I think Tony’s greatest desire is that we’d start a similar ministry right here. There are all kinds of kind of vacant homes right near us that we could see God do those kind of things. Maybe God’s putting a vision in your heart. In any case, whether you’re called to pro-life or whatever you’re called to, it’s only gonna be by sacrifice that you’ll be fully fruitful to the Lord.
Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this day, thank you for the Word of God, thank you for everything that you do, that you have done in our lives. Thank You for grace. Thank you, oh Lord, that you have covered all of our past failings. You’ve covered our silence when we should have spoken. You’ve covered our cowardice. Oh Lord, you’ve covered women who’ve gotten abortions. You’ve assured them that they are forgiven, that their conscience is cleansed, that you love them, and that you couldn’t love them anymore than you do. You’ve assured in the same way any who have actively sinned in this area. But Lord, for the rest of us who have perhaps only passively sinned, but still sinned in this area, you’ve forgiven us, to thank you for that grace. And now God, give us new effusions of grace, make First Baptist Church a way station of grace and mercy in a dying world, help us to be the place where shouts of joy and tears of lamentation go very appropriately flowing from the spirit, from the Word of God through our eyes and our mouths… Oh, Lord, make us alive. Help us to be that kind of a church in Jesus name, Amen.
