One of the most disturbing events recorded in the Bible is found in 2nd Kings, chapter 6.
This disturbing event involves the choice made by two pragmatic pro-choice women.
According to Funk & Wagnall’s Dictionary:
“Pragmatism is the philosophical doctrine that thought or ideas have value only in terms of action, and that results _____ are the sole test __________ of the truths _______ of one’s beliefs.”
In other words pragmatism says, “If you have a decision to make, only consider how the immediate results will benefit you.”
Listen to God’s word as we read, 2nd Kings, chapter 6, beginning in verse 24.
24 Now it came about after this, that Ben-hadad king of Aram Samaria
25 There was a great famine in Samaria; and behold, they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.
26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”
27 He said, “If the Lord does not help you, from where shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?”
28 And the king said to her, “What is the matter with you?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’
29 “So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”
Why does this disturb you?
These women were hungry to the point of starvation.
If they ate their sons, they would not be hungry for a couple of days.
They were simply pragmatic.
The pragmatist believes that, “If you have a decision to make, only consider how the immediate results will benefit you.”
They made their choice based entirely on their desired results.
These women never considered God’s commands when they made their choice.
To the true pragmatist a choice is right if it produces the desired results for the chooser.
Today these women would call themselves “pro-choice”.
Their choice was about their bodies, ____their needs, ______ their desires, _____ and their welfare.
Today if we criticized them for their choice, they would accuse us of “making war on women”.
The two poor hungry women simply made a pragmatic decision.
The second woman was even more pragmatic. She had no problem with lying.
The first woman felt no obligation to protect her son. And yet she was incensed by the other woman’s betrayal.
She complained to the king about this breach of contract.
She was a pragmatist who made the mistake of trusting _______ another pragmatist.
Neither woman considered justice or mercy for the first woman’s child. He was boiled and eaten.
If you tried to protect the little boy; they might say you are ‘being insensitive to women’s issues’.
Have you no compassion. These poor women had an ‘issue’ with hunger.
Today, in America
Every abortion choice is a pragmatic, unmerciful and unjust choice.
The choice is always made for some perceived benefit to the woman making the choice.
Jesus teaches us to behave differently.
A truly Christian woman would lay down her life for her child.
Jesus said in Matthew 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus also said in Matthew 16:25, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
A righteous woman would never sacrifice her child for her own welfare. She would show her child mercy, justice and faithfulness. She would not be a pragmatist.
So is it always a sin to be pragmatic?
When faced with a choice, every human being should consider the expected consequences of the choice.
Suppose you were thinking about jumping off a building.
You would be stupid to not consider the expected results.
It is logical to consider the expected results of every decision.
But to make a choice considering only the expected results is a great sin.
To ignore mercy, justice, and faithfulness is to ignore the weightier matters of God’s Law.
It is not a sin to consider the expected results of a decision.
It is a sin to let our own desires overrule our mercy for others.
It is a sin to let our own desires overrule justice for others.
It is a sin to let our own desires overrule our faithfulness to God.
There is a distinct contrast ____ between pragmatism _____ and perfection.
We Christians ___ all know ____ that Jesus is perfection.
He is perfect ____ and He is working perfection in us.
It is Jesus who requires us to put justice, mercy, and faithfulness before our own needs and desires.
We learn this from Matthew 23:23.
In Matthew 23:23 Jesus chided the Pharisees for their pragmatic behavior. They were concerned about their own selfish desires and how they appeared to other people. They made pretence of righteous behavior while living corrupt lives.
Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.” (Matt. 23:23)
Jesus expressed grief _____ and denounced the scribes and Pharisees for putting on an act of righteousness.
He accused them of being meticulous about the minor points of God’s law
while forgetting about the more burdensome requirements of God’s law.
They gave 1/10th of the sweet smelling stuff to God.
But; they ignored the hard requirements of God.
They neglected to live out those more difficult things that God requires us to do.
It’s easier to go to church and drop your tithe in the plate than it is to make the right decisions about the more difficult problems of life.
It’s easier to act righteous than it is to put someone else’s needs ahead of our own.
It’s easier to go to church every Sunday than it is to stand up for the weak and helpless every day.
The greatest sin of many Christians is neglecting God’s more burdensome commands.
We have millions of people in America
- They set aside God’s requirements that they are to stand up for justice.
- They forget about God’s requirements to extend mercy to those who are victims of the unmerciful.
- They don’t want to make the hard choices that may cost them something, or may cause their lives to seem more difficult.
- They simply don’t want to be inconvenienced by someone else’s needs.
- They have so little faith ____ that God can supply all their needs, ____ that they neglect the weightier requirements of God’s law.
Jesus told a parable about a man, who was mugged, stripped, and left half dead by some robbers.
Jesus made the point that it was a priest and then a Levite who passed by the wounded man.
These religious actors could not be bothered by this victim of injustice.
It would be an inconvenience to them to help.
Doing what God wanted them to do was just too difficult.
So they crossed the road and passed on by on the other side.
Then a hated, half breed Samaritan came by and showed mercy to this victim of injustice.
He did the hard thing, and it cost him something.
He knew it would cost him something and he was willing to pay whatever it cost.
He had enough faith in God’s sufficiency to meet his needs that he did not hesitate to extend mercy to this victim of injustice.
Are some American Christians like the priest and the Levite?
Every day in America
The one place ____ on this earth ____ where a person should be the safest ______ is the most dangerous place in America
How does this continue happen?
How does America
Ten million Christians know about these babies and have passed by on the other side of the road.
They are too busy be concerned.
It would be an inconvenience to come to a baby’s aid.
It might cost them something to save her life.
It just requires too much effort to learn which politicians want to save the babies and which politicians want to kill the babies.
It is just more burden than these ‘Christians’ can bear.
It could cost them half a day to register to vote.
It could cost them a couple of hours to actually vote.
Voting for righteous leaders is just too big a burden.
God’s requirements for justice and mercy and faithfulness are just more than they are willing to do.
Let someone else save the babies. Just wander across the road and pass by on the other side.
Go to church.
Sing a couple of songs.
Pray for the babies, if we remember.
Drop the tithe in the plate.
Go home feeling righteous. Our weekly requirements have been fulfilled.
For 41 years ___ millions of Christians have been passing by on the other side.
50 million babies have died an unjust and unmerciful death.
The Christians could have stopped this slaughter 40 years ago.
Over the years some of us have tried. But too many haven’t.
Some day those who were too busy to care _____ will stand before the judgment seat of Christ ____ and He may ask, ___ “What is that blood on your hands?”
How will you answer?
Will you say, “Lord I was too busy.”?
Will you say, “I was confused.”?
Will you say, “Lord it was just too big a burden.”?
How about, “Lord, it just really wasn’t my business what other people do.”?
Maybe you can say, “Lord, religion and politics don’t mix. Didn’t you say that your kingdom is not of this world?”
Maybe you can say, “Lord, I didn’t know that a fetus was a baby.”
Or maybe you can just blame the unrighteous judges and the pragmatic politicians.
Or you could just say, “Lord, I just believed that every woman has a right to choose what happens to her own body.”
“You know; like those two starving women who boiled and ate the baby in 2nd Kings, chapter 6.”
“I mean, they were just saving their own bodies.”
There are lot things you may say; ___ but before you speak, ____ remember, _____ “God hates all liars.”
I’ll tell you what you can’t say.
You can’t say, “My preacher never warned me.”
Maybe you can say, “Lord, the preacher just kept preaching about abortion until I just got tired of hearing it.”
“I just wanted to hear smooth things.”
“I didn’t want to hear the truth.”
Well, I’m here to tell you the truth.
Here is the truth.
Democrats lie about almost everything; but, they tell the truth about one thing:
- They are in favor of killing babies.
- They are pro-abortion and they make no bones about it.
They do use deceptive phrases to confuse the facts.
Democrats call this abortion by many names:
· Women’s rights,
· Women’s health,
· A woman’s right to choose,
· Pro-Choice,
And anyone who stands up for these little helpless victims of injustice is called an extremist by the Democrats.
We are accused of “making war on women”; when in fact, the Democrats are making war on babies.
I’m telling you today, that if you vote for Claire McCaskill you will soon stand before Christ with blood on your hands.
If you vote for Barack Obama, you are as guilty as he is.
If you don’t bother to vote against McCaskill and Obama, then you will be crossing the road and passing by the thousands of babies you could have saved, if you had simply cared enough to save them.
Most politicians are pragmatists; they only care about winning the next election.
Pragmatists only consider how the immediate results will benefit them.
For the pragmatist, lying is no problem.
For the pragmatist lying is the smart to do.
For the pragmatist lying is the right thing to do.
True pragmatists don’t care who dies, as long as it isn’t them.
The true pragmatist doesn’t care who gets boiled and eaten.
They only care about how the results of their choices will benefit them.
We have a unique politician running against Claire McCaskill.
His name is Todd Akin. He believes that a baby has the right to live even if he or she was conceived as a result of rape.
His clumsy attempt to explain his position embarrassed the more pragmatic politicians of the Republican Party.
They are so concerned about winning this election that they have cowered under the attacks that the Democrats have made against Todd Akin.
The Republican pragmatists have all attacked Todd Akin with more vigor than the Democrats have.
The Republican Party has cut off their financial support from Akin.
He has been bombarded by many Republicans to withdraw from the race; so the party can choose a more pragmatic candidate.
So,
- attacked by the Democrats,
- attacked by the press,
- attacked by the media,
- and attacked by his fellow Republicans,
Todd Akin has refused to give up. He is a Christian, standing up for the weightier requirements of God’s law.
That is never a popular position with pragmatists.
Never in the history of elections have the Christians of Missouri
If we Christian citizens can elect Todd Akin, _________________ against the wishes of _____ :
- the Democrats,
- the press,
- the media,
- and the more pragmatic Republicans,
We can send a message ____ that the corrupt politicians will be afraid to ignore in the future.
This year we could turn America
You can’t trust pragmatic politicians; but you can encourage them to do the right thing ____ by showing them ____ that killing babies _____ will result in their losing their positions of power.
This election will decide what happens next.
For years pro-life Christians have fought pragmatic Republicans in the primaries and fought Democrats in the general elections.
This election we have a chance to prove that justice, and mercy, and faithfulness can win.
Now is the hour.
We can win against those who make war on babies.
Here are three action items for today’s message:
- Before October 10th make sure every Christian you know is registered to vote.
- On November 6th go vote for the babies.
- On November 6th call every Christian you know to remind them to go vote pro-life.
There has never been a more distinct choice in an election than there is in this one.
Elections are always filled with lies, half truths, and deception.
The pragmatists have created an intentional maze of confusion.
But God will help us sort through the maze.
You can tell the pragmatists by whether or not they honor Jesus.
Listen to the first 6 verses of 1st John Chapter 4:
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Evelyn & I have been fighting for the babies for many years.
Sometimes we have been discouraged by the callous lethargic attitudes of those who call themselves Christians.
But progress has been made. More people today describe themselves pro-life today than they ever did before.
This year we can move America
Time is short; but, we can do it.
Because, greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
