Precious feet of a baby at 10 weeks gestation
You shall not murder.
~ God
When Jesus was in the womb His pre-born cousin John leapt for joy over His presence. The Savior was incarnate at conception. He was a person, a living human being, in His mother Mary's womb. If we all saw the pre-born infants as precious human beings, the way God does, we would demonize the pre-meditated murder of children. Who else is behind the shedding of innocent blood, but the murderer-from-the beginning?
As we loved, reasoned with, pleaded with & offered help to over a dozen aborting mothers today I realized how each of us Christians has a voice to bring to the lost women and men at the killing place. We are all different, with varying backgrounds, personalities and gifts of the Lord. Some of us are apologists, some are evangelists, some, like me, are prophetically motivated. We are blessed to serve with Christians who are teachers, exhorters, givers, leaders, followers, merciful and servants. I love watching the Holy Spirit use everyone as they yield themselves to the Lord and reach out to the perishing in Jesus' Name.
"Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering:
or he that teacheth, on teaching;
Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation:
he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity;
he that ruleth, with diligence;
he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness ... "
Romans 12:6-8
In entering the mission field of abortion clinics, Christians can use the gifts and callings which God has given to them. Each of us is obeying the Great Commission, to seek and save the lost. The Savior gave us all our marching orders:
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." ~
Matthew 28:19-20
God established His Law and told His people to teach them to their children and their children's children for instruction in righteousness. The Lord Jesus send us forth to make disciples, teaching them to obey His precious Law. The Bible says that the Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, bringing knowlege of sin, light to the eyes and is a tutor to Jesus Christ. Psalm 119:1 declares: "Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.." The Sixth commandment, "You shall not murder" is given to us by God to be obeyed. When we speak to our aborting neighbors we are to bring them the command; "Shed not innocent blood in this place". We are to give them spiritual food and thoughts and questions and answers as they wrestle, with utter futility, against God in their rebellion. Thomas Watson noted the wisdom of the proverbs when he wrote: "Better are the reproofs of a friend, than the kisses of a harlot." Although we are tempted, as a professing Christian we met today, to comfort and support a woman who is dead-set on murdering her baby, God shows us that is not true friendship. We are to share the mercy and truth of the commandments. That is how to truly love our neighbor. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." Proverbs 27:6
Scripture reveals hat the problem of sexual sin and murder are problems of the heart. The commandment helps to identify the core dilemma of a crisis pregnancy is a moral failure, 'sin'. Even before a mother pays to have her poor little one dismembered or delievered into the toilet, she has hated her baby in her mind and thoughts and she has already become a murderer of the heart. Aborting mothers and fathers find that they have energy and enthusiasm and determination to sin against their conscience, which tells them that murder is wrong. The moral Law of God identifies this problem and brings to light that they are in rebellion against their Creator, who will be their Judge at their death.
Since we are so unfamiliar with using the Law and being forthright when we address aborting moms and dads, I have taken the liberty of taking some powerful excerpts from a biblical treatise on God's Law written by Thomas Watson. The following is taken from Watson's wonderful book: The Ten Commandments.
Enjoy this precious gem of God's grace and may the Holy Spirit apply these truths to your soul and mind that you might see yourself in truth and bring the Word of the Lord to the ungodly abortion-minded people around you, in faithful obedience to Christ ...
For Life & Eternity,
Patte Smith
The Ten Commandments
Obedience
‘Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God, and do his commandments.’ Deut 27: 9, 10.
What is the duty which God requireth of man? Obedience to His revealed will. It is not enough to hear God’s voice, but we must obey. Obedience is a part of the honour we owe to God. ‘Obey the voice of the Lord God,’ and do His commandments. Obedience without knowledge is blind, and knowledge without obedience is lame ...so, if knowledge does not bring forth the child of obedience, it will die. ‘To obey is better than sacrifice.’ 1 Sam 15: 22...God disclaims sacrifice, if obedience be wanting. ‘I spake not unto your fathers concerning burnt offerings, but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice.’ Jer 7: 22 ... He looked chiefly for obedience — without which, sacrifice was but devout folly. The end why God has given us His laws, is obedience. ‘Ye shall do my judgements, and keep Mine ordinances.’ Lev 18: 4.
What is the rule of obedience?
The written Word. That is proper obedience which the Word requires; our obedience must correspond with the Word ...To seem to be zealous, if it be not according to the Word, is not obedience, but will-worship...
Obedience must be extensive, it must reach to all God’s commands. ‘Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all Thy commandments.’ Psa 119: 6... True obedience runs through all duties of religion, as the blood through all the veins...
Whence is it that men do not obey God? They know their duty, but do it not.
(1) The not obeying God is for want of faith...Satan’s master-piece, his draw-net by which he drags millions to hell, is to keep them in infidelity; he knows, if he can but keep them from believing the truth, he is sure to keep them from obeying it.
(2) The not obeying God is for want of self-denial. God commands one thing, and men’s lusts command another; and they will rather die than deny their lusts ...
Obey God’s voice. This is the beauty of a Christian.
What are the great arguments or incentives to obedience?
(1) Obedience makes us precious to God, his favourites. ‘If ye will obey My voice, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people;’ .. My portion, My jewels, the apple of Mine eye. Exod 19: 5.
(2) There is nothing lost by obedience...Let us obey. God. ‘If thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord, to do all His commandments, blessed shalt thou be in the field: blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.’ Deut 28: 1, 3, 5. To obey is the best way to thrive...Christ ‘became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.’ Heb 5: 9. While we please God, we please ourselves; while we give Him the duty, He gives us the dowry.
(3) What a sin is disobedience! It is an irrational sin. We are not able to stand it out in defiance against God. ‘Are we stronger than He?’ Will the sinner go to measure arms with God? 1 Cor 10: 22. He is the Father Almighty, who can command legions. If we have no strength to resist Him, it is irrational to disobey Him. It is irrational, as it is against all law and equity. We have our daily subsistence from Him; in Him we live and move. Is it not just that as we live by Him, we should live to Him? that as He gives us our allowance, so we should give Him our allegiance?
It is a destructive sin. ‘The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that obey not the gospel.’ 2 Thess 1: 7, 8. He who refuses to obey God’s will in commanding, shall be sure to obey His will in punishing. While the sinner thinks to slip the knot of obedience, he twists the cord of his own damnation, and he perishes without excuse. ‘The servant which knew his lord’s will, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.’ Luke 12: 47. God will say, ‘Why did you not obey? you knew how to do good, but did not; therefore your blood is upon your own head.’
What means shall we use that we may obey?
(1) Serious consideration. Consider, God’s commands are not grievous: He commands nothing unreasonable. 1 John 5: 3. It is easier to obey the commands of God than sin. The commands of sin are burdensome — let a man be under the power of any lust, how he tires himself! what hazards he runs, even to endangering his health and soul, that he may satisfy his lusts!... ‘They weary themselves to commit iniquity;’ and are not God’s commands more easy to obey?...
God commands nothing but what is beneficial. ‘And now, Israel, what does the Lord require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and to keep His statutes, which I command thee this day, for thy good?’ Deut 10: 12, 13. To obey God, is not so much our duty as our privilege ... He bids us repent; and why? That our sins may be blotted out. Acts 3: 19. He commands us to believe: and why? That we may be saved. Acts 16: 31. There is love in every command: as if a king should bid one of his subjects dig in a gold mine, and then take the gold to himself.
(2) Earnest supplication. Implore the help of the Spirit to carry you on in obedience. God’s Spirit makes obedience easy and delightful... if God’s Spirit quicken and draw the heart, it is not hard to obey. When a gale of the Spirit blows, we go full sail in obedience. Turn His promise into a prayer. ‘I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes.’ Ezek 36: 27. The promise encourages us, the Spirit enables us to obey.
The Sixth Commandment
‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Exod 20: 13.
In this commandment is a sin forbidden, which is murder, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ and a duty implied, which is, to preserve our own life, and the life of others.
...We must not injure another in his body. Life is the most precious thing; and God has set this commandment as a fence about it, to preserve it. He made a statute which has never to this day been repealed. ‘Whose sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.’ Gen 9: 6. In the old law, if a man killed another unawares, he might take sanctuary; but if he killed him willingly, though he fled to the sanctuary, the holiness of the place would not defend him. ‘If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.’ Exod 21: 14
...To shed the blood of a near relation aggravates the murder, and dyes it of a deeper crimson.
...It should be for a lamentation that this land is defiled with blood. Numb 35: 33. How common is this sin in this boasting age!..Some make no more of killing men than sheep. ‘In thy skirts is found the blood of the poor innocents.’ Jer 2: 34. ...May not the Lord justly take up a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because ‘blood toucheth blood’? Hos 4: 2.
Beware of having your hands imbrued in the blood of others...To deter all from having their hands defiled with blood, consider what a sin murder is. It is
(1) A God-affronting sin. It is a breach of His command, and trampling upon His royal edict. It is a wrong offered to God’s image. ‘In the image of God made He man.’ Gen 9: 6. It is tearing God’s picture, and breaking in pieces the King of heaven’s broad seal...The man-slayer destroys God’s temple; and will God endure to be thus confronted by proud dust?
(2) It is a crying sin...The voice of blood cries to Heaven. There are three sins in Scripture which are said to cry. Oppression. Psa 12: 5. Sodomy. Gen 18: 21. Bloodshed. This cries so loud, that it drowns all the other cries. ‘The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.’ Gen 4: 10. Abel’s blood had as many tongues as drops, to cry aloud for vengeance. This sin of blood lay heavy on David’s conscience; though he had sinned by adultery, yet, what he cried out for most was, this crimson sin of blood. ‘Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God.’ Psa 51: 14. Though the Lord visits for every sin, yet He will in a special manner make ‘inquisition for blood.’ Psa 9: 12. If a beast killed a man it was to be stoned, and its flesh was not to be eaten. Exod 21: 28. If God would have a beast stoned that killed a man, which had not the use of reason to restrain it, much more will he be incensed against those who, against both reason and conscience, take away the life of a man.
(3) Murder is a diabolical sin. It makes a man the devil’s first born, for he was a murderer from the beginning. John 8: 44. By saying to our first parents, ‘Ye shall not die,’ he brought death into the world.
(4) It is a cursed sin. If there be a curse for him that smites his neighbour secretly, he is doubly cursed that kills him. Deut 27: 24. The first man that was born was a murderer. ‘And now art thou cursed from the earth.’ Gen 4: 11. He was an excommunicated person, banished from the place of God’s public worship. God set a mark upon bloody Cain. Gen 4: 15. Some think that mark was horror of mind, which, above all sins, accompanies the sin of blood. Others think it was a continual shaking and trembling in his flesh. He carried a curse along with him.
(5) It is a wrath-procuring sin. 2 Kings 24: 4. It procures temporal judgements...Vengeance as a bloodhound pursues the murderer. ‘Bloody men shall not live out half their days.’ Psa 55: 23. It brings eternal judgements. It binds men over to hell... Let all impenitent murderers read their doom in Rev 21: 8: ‘Murderers shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’ We read of ‘fire mingled with blood.’ Rev 8: 7. Such as have their hands full of blood must undergo the wrath of God. Here is fire mingled with blood, and this fire is inextinguishable. Mark 9: 44. Time will not finish it, tears will not quench it.
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