“The wages of SIN is death” (ref Romans 6:23)

There is NO SUCH THING AS NEUTRALITY when it comes to sin and death!

If you just woke up after a 50 year sleep, you might not realize that America has promoted and advocated a culture of death since 1973, probably much longer than this, but with the overturn of Roe V Wade last Friday it should become quite evident.

Politicians such as Elizabeth Warren in her zeal for this culture of death and her anger, are now advocating that the government to use Federal lands in states where abortion would be illegal to set up abortion mills/murder factories. While an overwhelming number do support this demonic deathly idea.

Major corporations have immediately set up plans for women who work for them to actually pay them to travel to states where abortion/murder is still legalized. There is NO SUCH talk for life by these same companies, support for women in their pregnancies.

If these aren’t clear examples of the culture of death, let me give you one more. Upon the leaking of the decision to overturn Roe v Wade, pregnancy centers designed to help expectant mothers and churches which have helped expectant mothers for decades were burned down, defaced with obscenities, lives threatened, and the actual murder attempt on one of the SCOTUS judges. This was all due for the absolute zeal for the culture of death in this country.

You may have been naïve to believe or think the USA was a Christian nation in 2022. It might have been at one point in time, but it clearly has not been. Many who claim to be Christians either remain silent or are also angry at the overturn of the law which allowed mothers to murder their children. Or they say “that sin might be bad for me, but they might not see it that way”, so they believe remaining neutral on the sin of abortion is their way to justify it.

The culture of death can also be seen in anyone under the age of 50 who are vitriolic and angered at this SCOTUS decision. I ask you to REALLY think about this! They are actually mad that a law which could have snuffed out their own life in a second in the womb was overturned. Sadly 64 million human beings couldn’t say the same thing!

And let’s use some common sense, if the USA was a majority Christian nation, why in the world did Roe V Wade stay in place for 50 years? Why did it come to be in the first place? No! The devil’s hoodwink was to deceive Americans into believing murdering the life of the unborn was somehow sanctimonious, a virtue, a guilt free killing.

So if you were deceived, I am here to tell you that the Gospel MUST be presented in full truth! There are too many false churches and teachers in this country which either advocated, appeased, compromised, or remained silent on this culture of DEATH! As I said before, abortion is just one sin which condemns a sinner, it should never be tossed aside or taught as a guilt free sin. If you LOVE your neighbor as Jesus said, then TELL THEM THE TRUTH!! It might cost you a relationship, it might cost you a friendship, a career, SO BE IT! If you love God, you will hate the things He hates! There is NO MIDDLE GROUND here! Either you are for the culture of death or you are against it.

You cannot remain neutral in the face of evil and this culture of death!

On Friday, June 24, 2022 after almost 50 years of a court decision which legalized abortion nationally, that decision was overturned by 5 courageous judges. This was always predicted to send those who saw it as a right or choice into a highly bitter and angry outrage.

The problem some always have had with this debate was approaching this from a strictly religious standpoint. The argument was not going to be won by saying “the Bible teaches that it is murder”, when the vast amount of Americans don’t believe in God or use the Bible as their sole rule of faith. The decision by the Supreme Court was on the basic “right” which was never a Constitutional right, thus the original decision was always in error. The overturn was not on the basis of a “woman’s choice” or even the Bible’s proclamation that murder is evil, it was based on that “right” and who controls that “right”.

Personally, I never understood the “my body my choice” argument, and I was not always a Christian, honestly I have been one for just 11 years now. Before this point, I viewed it from a moral standpoint. The question for me was do you have the right to murder a person, and yes, the unborn person from a scientific standpoint was always a person. Something always seemed morally WRONG with this, as it was basically saying “my life would be inconvenienced, so I choose to murder my baby”. And I am NOT saying I am some morally righteous person all my life, because I am definitely a wicked wretched sinner which have committed many morally wrong things! But it doesn’t mean that question could not be asked “do I have the moral right to kill another human life because that person inconveniences me”.

The evil of the mindset can be summed up by Ana Navarro, a CNN contributor who said she could have only wished her special needs family members could have been aborted so that they would not have burdened her or her family. Put religion aside, is this a morally acceptable sentiment? Quite frankly, IT ISN’T no matter if you follow a religion or God! The morality from a basic humanity component fails! No one could ever convince me this is not purely about murder, it has nothing to do with “choice” or bodily autonomy and Navarro spoke the quiet part what this is really about, the free lawful murder of a human life.

If asked “why do you care about what I do with my body?” My response is, “I don’t, I care about the life that you want to kill, the one that gets thrown in the trash just like I would if one was held at gun point”.

The purely selfish aspect I never understood either, and again I was VERY selfish in many ways, but this was a bridge too far for me. Those who advocate for pro-choice have always said this is a choice which must be the woman’s because it is HER body. From a moral standpoint, what is the difference if you didn’t like one living with you, and it was your house, having the same choice to just kill that individual? For me, it never had anything to do with attacking a woman’s health or her bodily autonomy, it has EVERYTHING to do with that person being murdered in her womb. And the excuse always being “that life would greatly inconvenience mine” in the various talking points for abortion.

Sorry, but you don’t get to say “unless you help me financially and support me, I get to kill my baby guilt free.” This would be like someone running around holding others at gun point and demanding a ransom or they pull the trigger.

After my rebirth, the pro-life meaning for me personally brought on new meanings, however I understood that those new meanings could never convince those who defended the pro-choice sentiment. Unless they too were born-again, and if the Gospel did not change their heart, it didn’t matter how many biblical verses I could cite denoting the evil with abortion, the unbeliever would never care. It didn’t mean that I was not going to share the Gospel, because I have, it means that unless the sinner repented, they were not going to change their view based on the Bible’s edicts.

The over turn of Roe v Wade did not outlaw abortion, rather it gives each state’s elected representatives to decide on whether to outlaw it, to restrict it, etc. The extremists would have you believe different, because they desire unfettered and unlimited abortion. In my view, it does now force those in some states who made a living on abortion and pro-life all their life, to now ante up and either defend the murder of the unborn or actually defend life.

To the Christians reading this. I have said this even before my conversion, but I do not believe you can be a Christian and advocate for the murder of the unborn. It is antithetical to Christianity. Your sole job is to preach the Gospel to the lost, you are not their converters. But there can be no compromise, no appeasement to abortion in Christ’s church despite any highly charged emotional argument which is raised. Let’s face it, the tares among the wheat as Jesus taught, do expose themselves when they claim Christianity yet advocate for abortion. Or a church which doesn’t take a position on the question of abortion as to not offend its congregants, is also saying they are not of Christ.

To the one who may have had an abortion and were told they were going to hell? And believe now all hope is all lost? I am here to tell you that hope is not lost! Jesus promised that if you confess your sins and place your faith alone in Him, you shall be saved just like every sinner. Abortion is like every other sin which has separated us from God’s holiness, and the only way to rectify this is by the person and work of Jesus Christ! God demands that we repent, we turn away from our sins, and follow Jesus Christ.

I applaud all those believers and unbelievers for that matter who fought against this morally wrong “right” to abort a human life for the past 50 years. You stood in the breach of shame, sometimes to detriments of relationships, careers, friendships, and family. Just know God was with you!

A prevailing sentiment in a fallen society is the wrong idea that human love trumps God’s love. The God of Scripture for example is not tolerant of sin, but you are, thus you ignorantly believe your brand of love is much better than God’s love.

Take the case of Roe v. Wade being overturned just yesterday. A 50 year slog of unrepentance and murder finally extinguished on a national level. Some who actually view themselves as Christian call it unloving if a woman does not have the choice to murder her baby in her womb. God would call it sinful, but according to this false ideology, He just isn’t loving enough?

Tolerating sin is NOT God’s love! You aren’t being loving to a person living in open and unadulterated sin by just looking the other way and accepting of their lifestyle. You are actually pushing them off the cliff into eternal hell while claiming YOU should be saved? No! Sorry, God doesn’t work this way.

If you read the accounts in Scripture where Jesus confronted sinners, He never accepted their sins or just tolerated them. He rather spoke of JUDGMENT against those sins, and confronted more often religious people who thought they were just more loving than Him.

Satan and his minions have cast Jesus as this weak feeble minded sin appeaser. That He is tolerant, accepting, compromising and appeases sin in all forms. Look! God doesn’t throw sin into hell, but SINNERS! So that whole line of “hate the sin, love the sinner” is a misguided distortion. Yes, we are to LOVE other sinners, but that LOVE encompasses the brutal honest truth on SIN. You aren’t loving another sinner by ignoring the sin problem which has them on a path to eternal hell. Furthermore by tolerating sin, you are tolerating the crucifixion of Jesus because He went to the Cross for those sins.

Nor will they ever even entertain the Good News you share if you ignore their sin problem. Why should they? You don’t see it as a problem or issue, so why should they? And so I am making myself clear, I am NOT saying you should run around pointing out the sins of others WITHOUT explaining why it is a problem and WITHOUT the remedy they need which is the Gospel.

Here’s a useful exercise with others I employ.

I ask “have you sinned against God?” If the answer is “yes” (which it should be), I then tell them by this they are GUILTY of that sin, God has already rendered their judgment. So then I ask “how do you think you will get out of this judgment?”. The progression is to finally share with them the remedy, the Good News of Jesus Christ. I don’t care how many sins or what the sin is, just ONE sin puts all of us into a GUILTY judgment and the ONLY thing left is the sentence of “pardoned/forgiven/justified” which the gift is eternal life with God or “unforgiven” and the eternal punishment of hell .

Your love NEVER exceeds God’s love! Don’t fall into Satan’s trap! Tolerating sin, is to tolerate Jesus being spit on, mocked, and ridiculed repeatedly. He died for those sins you are tolerating!

Because false world religions have been around for long time and influenced by Satan, the prevailing thought by a casual person when asked about their prospects in the next life is they should be able to enter heaven because they are a “good person” overall.

The humanistic mindset is a false comparison which is “me vs other sinners”. You might think because you are a weekly church goer, a fine upstanding member of the community, that God is using your false comparison. When ALL ALONG the comparison was always YOU vs. AN ETERNAL HOLY GOD. That’s the comparison God is making.

With a false comparison as mentioned, the standard is also false. You might think “I am not like those serial murderers, adulterers, habitual liars, profane and perverted sexual deviants, cheaters, etc.” and then think “I am good”, but are you? You might be good to a sinful society, but when put up against an eternal holy God who never sinned, not even a sinful thought, absolutely perfect in every way, are you still good? NO! NOT EVEN CLOSE!

But you might protest now, “God is love, He isn’t doing that”, when all along He was! It is why those in Matt 7:21-23 Jesus said would be quite surprised when He said “I NEVER knew you”. The protest also is “if that is the standard who can be saved?”. The answer is those who place their faith alone in Jesus Christ and let me explain why.

God is love, this is the truth. By this love, there was only ONE WAY to quell His wrath based on your sins. A sacrifice by a perfect lamb was His condition. So by grace and mercy alone, Jesus left His eternal throne not on His behalf, but YOUR behalf. He loved you so much, that He was willing to subjugate His own deity and become man, incarnated, born of a virgin in a lonely stable, to live and then march to die on YOUR behalf! He took on God’s wrath so you would MEET God’s standard of perfection, of which Jesus is the ONLY one who did. He paid your debt of sin, not because you were worthy, but because He was worthy! No greater love than this as He said, to lay down one’s life for a friend. The question is are you His friend or His enemy?

His friends surrender to the truth I just wrote, His enemies protest against that truth. And yes, an enemy of His would believe they could somehow save themselves by meeting His standard of perfection by their inherent false “goodness”. I have spoken this truth many many times, and some scorn me, they scoff, and they mock because again the false comparison is them vs. me, when again it is always them vs. God.

I am not your Savior, nor would I ever claim to be your Savior. Jesus Christ is your Savior! If you continue to make a false comparison, you will sadly realize on your Judgment Day just how wrong that was and will regret it for an eternity in the pit of hell. There are no in-betweens with God. Your plea will be dismissed as soon as you try to make that false comparison.

Are you ready to surrender to the truth finally? Or will you go on being an enemy of Jesus thinking all the while you were His ally. Compare yourself to God now. When you do, you will discover a wretched, rotten, sinner who failed to meet God’s standard, and when you do, you will submit that there is just one way out of this mess, and it is through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Place your faith alone in Him and you shall be saved. Key word “alone”, not Him and others, not Him and yourself, not Him and your church, just Him alone!

Ephesians 4:22 “that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit”

If you have been born-again, you will realize a new life in Christ. This means you do have a former life. Business cannot go on as usual, meaning your former life is not to be lived or Paul wouldn’t have said “rid yourselves of the old self”. This means just because you have been born-again, a new life, that your former life goes off like a click. Sinful behaviors of your former life need to be rid of when they present themselves.

I often am presented with my former life at times, letters, items or photographs jog my memory. And the regret comes in quick. As time progressed the past 11 years, I look back and think “who is that person?” I lived a quite shameful self centered life, worldly in about every way, lustful in about every way while thinking as a Roman Catholic at the time “I am such a nice guy, a good person”. Upon the rebirth, the veil of my sins was shown by God and I never want to return to that former life! I shake my head at myself when the things of my former life are shown to me, I am completely ashamed of that former life actually. But I also appreciate and am humbled that God pulled me out of that DISGUSTING PIT by His grace alone, by nothing I did or I would STILL BE IN THAT DISGUSTING WRETCHED DARK PIT of my former life.

On Facebook, I will respond to someone at times “in my former life I would have” to indicate what I would have sinfully done honestly and to show a contrast of how now I behave in a new life. I do this to one, PROFUSELY thank God for my rebirth, and two as a witness to Jesus Christ, to His granted repentance.

I read old letters that were written to me in disgust for who I was. You see, God doesn’t erase our memories of our former life so that we appreciate our new lives all the more! I always find it odd when a Christian comes across as if they were never in that type of darkness or never lived a life of sin and then they are surprised when the person they are witnessing to views them as hypocrites. “If we say we have no sin” as 1 John 1 teaches us, we are deceiving ourselves. Every single Christian will have a former life!

And the flip side of the coin is the supposed Christian who claimed they were born-again, probably by a ritual such as baptism or by an altar call by a boasting pastor, yet continues to openly live in their life of sin, nothing new transpired. They have no shame, no regret for the sins they sent Jesus to the Cross for, they do not repent, they continue on, meaning there is NO former life, they are still entrapped in rebellion. The “lusts of deceit” are still very evident in this false conversion.

Praise God if you now have a FORMER LIFE! We regret the things of that former life, but if you do not have a former life, you do NOT have a new life in Christ! Don’t shirk the memories of that former life, it is the way you can RID yourself of that former life is by remembering those sinful things you were engaged in. Again, you will appreciate Jesus Christ all the more when you look back on that rotten wicked former life. The contrast will be clear if you have been born-again!

In light of the Uvalde, TX school shooting, I found this quote from Voddie Baucham in a past sermon VERY interesting. He was referencing the previous horrible school shooting in Newtown CT, but it still applies, just replace Connecticut with Uvalde.

“In the midst of this picture of the wrath of God, I think it is important to look at it in light of recent events in our own culture. Recently, all eyes have been turned to Connecticut. To the slaying of 28 people, 20 of whom were kindergarten aged children. And I am always fascinated at times like this, because in general we live in a culture that does NOT believe in the judgment of God or the wrath of God. In general, we live in a culture that rejects God BECAUSE of the idea of a wrathful God. We reject God, because we reject the idea of a God who judges sinners. But ALL OF A SUDDEN when something like this happens, we believe in evil again, and we believe in JUDGMENT again. Not because of that we believe what God has said, but because we find our own sensibilities violated. This is NOT because we value life (in this culture), but because these are CHILDREN who barely got a chance to get started in life. This is NOT because we have a sense of righteousness, but because it was a school where people ought to have felt safe. We live in a deadly, bloody, callous culture THAT DOES NOT VALUE LIFE. And does NOT believe in the wrath of God to come. And it is only out of CONVENIENCE and our own personal sense of anger, that we are calling out for any justice whatsoever. And interestingly enough, we ALWAYS call for justice just on the other side of the door. What do I mean by that? What I mean is you think the wrath of God and the justice of God is deserved by those only who are just a little more sinful than I am. Those who would do things that I NEVER would do, deserve the wrath of God. ‘Now me? I don’t deserve the wrath of God, those whom I know, those whom I love, those whom I respect they neither do deserve God’s wrath’. Only those who would violate MY sensibilities deserve the wrath of God. The reason we believe that is because ultimately we believe we ARE God, I set the standard, I draw the line. By the way, that is reason most people can make it through. Because the moment we realize the reality of God’s standard of guilt is, if I understand to what it means to be deserving of the wrath of God, if I understand that I thought and said and did things yesterday for which I deserve EVERY OUNCE OF THE WRATH OF GOD, what that ultimately leads me to is the question, WHO? Who can stand? And Scripture answers this question, and the answer is not “those who haven’t killed children”, the answer is not “people who have never committed adultery”, his answer is not “those who have never cheated on their taxes”, his answer does NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE HUMAN STANDARD OF BEHAVIOR. His answer has EVERTHING to do with the ultimate sovereignty of the Almighty God!” (end of quote)

So the answer to my question “who deserves the wrath of God?” is EVERYONE! If you reject this as Voddie explains, you will never understand the need for a Savior, Jesus Christ. You will continue to subjectively look at God and salvation as “I am deserving of His mercy” when absolutely NO ONE including that precious 1 year old baby deserves His mercy. We are sinners, black marks in His sight. God is not tolerant of sin, His wrath did not go away on sin.

To understand this more, what was the most loving and most wrathful thing God ever did? He put His Son Jesus Christ to death for you! You see, some get the loving part right, but neglect the WRATH God poured out on His Son to save His children from His wrath! It was OUR SIN which caused this wrath! And if you fail to believe this, well you fail to believe that Judgment has come, that you are GUILTY and the only way out of the mess is to place your faith in the one Savior, Jesus Christ, to save you. By this failure, the wrath of God remains on you!

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast. 

On about this day in my senior year of high school, I played my last high school baseball game. We were 2nd ranked in the entire state, and having been to the state tournament the two years prior our team was confident we’d return and possibly have a chance to win the championship.

Our first district playoff game was against the worst team (record wise) and we thought it would be a sure win. We weren’t concerned, as we looked far ahead to the state tournament. The game was close however, and we fell behind by a couple of runs with time running out. In the very last inning, we loaded the bases, I recall I was on third base, with probably the best hitter in the state at bat. He had bailed us out before, so all he had to do is hit a homerun as he did many times before and poof, what was lost was now won.

There were two outs as he strode to the plate. He watched the first pitch, STRIKE ONE, yelled the umpire. He then watched the second pitch, STRIKE TWO, yelled the umpire. I for one wasn’t worried as this guy was a great hitter and knew what he was doing. The next pitch came and again he watched it land in the catcher’s mitt, STRIKE THREE, YOU ARE OUT, yelled the umpire, and just like that our hopes and dreams were over. The worst team beat us, they also beat our best player, and we had to accept it.

This is the analogy I give when one thinks they are going to gain heaven by their good works. You can be the very BEST church attendee in the history of your church, and in the end you struck out! You can be a great upstanding member of your community, they wrote speeches about your kindness and moral goodness, and in the end you struck out!

The reason for striking out, is like my teammate I described, you could only watch as your life ended in defeat to sin as in the analogy because you placed your faith in the wrong person. You didn’t place your faith alone in Jesus Christ, the Savior and decided you would attempt to save yourself and you WILL fail in the end. Everything looked great from a worldly standpoint, and everyone expected you to be in heaven just as everyone expected my team to get into the state tournament once again, but now you are in eternal hell.

Your works WILL fail you! On Judgment Day, you will offer God all your works, STRIKE ONE. You will then plead with God that you were a good person. you tried to to keep the commandments and didn’t commit any serious sin, STRIKE TWO. Then you will claim you were part of a church and never missed a service, participated in sacraments and did much for your community and church, STRIKE THREE, OFF TO HELL YOU GO. Think I am wrong? Read Matt 7:20-23 and the account of the Pharisee and tax collector in Luke 18.

Whereas Jesus never failed, nor will fail you! So surrender your sins at His cross, give up trying to save yourself by your ineffective faulty “goodness”. If the church you attend teaches you to “try a littler harder” by your works, it is time to LEAVE that church, as there is just one way to heaven, by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone! That church, whether how good and holy you think it is, is just like that teammate I described, in the end they will fail you.

If you have been a Christian witnessing the Gospel to the unbelieving world, you probably know those times when the demons show up to attack your faith, attack God, and start accusing. A specific time to be ready for them would be the sad occurrences and tragedies which might befallen you.

They’ll basically come and say “where is your God? You see, I was right, you don’t have the faith you keep saying you have”, and all sorts of things such as this. Little do they care or understand that just because one has been saved by Jesus Christ, it doesn’t mean we are in our eternal Kingdom, we are still living in a fallen world and the rain still falls on us. That being a Christian doesn’t make you suddenly immune of the decrepit rotten diseases and things of this world. But what it does mean, is you are at peace knowing this is NOT your home, because you have been granted eternal life with Jesus, your eternal home which free from torment, disease, sadness, and sin awaits you.

I recall when my dog Leo came down with cancer in late 2019 and eventually perished in March of 2020, while receiving MUCH support from many I would have never expected it from, much of demon attacks and accusing came from those I didn’t expect it to come from. Some of this from my OWN FAMILY who are still indoctrinated in Roman Catholicism took that opportunity to have a party basically at Leo’s expense. And in this demon sense claiming that the Gospel I was now preaching and sharing was a bust because God was somehow punishing me. How WRONG they were and continue to be wrong!

Again, being put into the Kingdom will not give you immunity from a fallen world. Even Jesus wasn’t immune from the persecution, torture, the horrors, the utter depravity of this world. So what makes these demon minded people think it would be different for a saved Christian?

So, be prepared for these attacks. Preach the Gospel and the peace and rest that it brings! These demon minded sinners will be left to their babbling and wallowing, and will flee, or if it was God’s will serve notice to them that their attack failed miserably. That the tragedy didn’t break your faith!