The Marks of Gomorrah (Abortion, Sodomy, Divorce)

The Marks of Gomorrah (Abortion, Sodomy, Divorce)

November 05, 2006

Pastor Matt Black

Midweek Service

Isaiah 10:1-2

The title of tonight’s message is “The Marks of Gomorrah and the Legislation of Sin”. Open your Bible to Isaiah 10:1-4, “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; 2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! 3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? 4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.”

Introduction: We call ourselves a Christian country, but I’m afraid we are looking less and less like Geneva, and more and more like Gomorrah! Dear friends, now is the time to PRAY for our country! Now is the time to beg God for revival! Our fellow citizens understand God to be one who will sit by without judgment. Who will grant the most vile impunity. Who will acquit the wicked. Who requires no ounce of true holiness, only good intent. Habakkuk said that God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (Habakkuk 1:13).

Mark #1: Unrighteous laws. The first mark of an unrighteous country is legistlation to protect sinful behavior. God hates it when sinful behavior is protected by civil legislation, (verses 1-2) “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness [TROUBLES] which they have prescribed; 2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people,” America is now the “ME” country. Self idolatry has replaced Christianity and godliness. Humility has been replaced with arrogance, skepticism, and rage. We are marked for destruction if we don’t turn! Our self-idolatry is just as rampant as it was in Israel in the days of Isaiah. When you look at verses 1-2 of our text, it is shocking because this prophecy could have been written to 21^st century America! Look again at verse 1, ““Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees”. These are unrighteous laws that protect the practice of sin. Israel had Moloch, and what do we have? Abortion.

I. Abortion.[1] The laws of the United States of America protect the right of mothers to murder the unborn. I know those are strong words, but they are the truth.

A. Effects of abortion on the American family.

1. Sociological Damage on families.

In 2002, 1082 American children died from violent assault. 2347 died in car accidents that same year. 32,867 died from disease.

In the United States alone, abortion kills nearly 4,000 innocent human beings…EVERY SINGLE DAY. 25,000 a week. 109,000 a month. 1.3 million every year. Since 1973, over 40 Million children have lost their lives to abortion, leaving untold millions of women to silently suffer the pain and regret of what was supposed to be a simple ‘choice.’ Media outlets, news channels, newspapers, and magazines have covered this up. They will not deal with the biological, scientific facts, and the political and financial ramifications of abortion in our country.

2. Moral Damage on the family.

Again our text says that this ungodly nation decrees unrighteous laws and they are the kind of people that “turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people”. Our country is turning aside the needy from judgment, or that is to say “justice.” We are not giving those in need what is just and right. When a scared child comes into a doctor without her parents and is pregnant, our country teaches her

v to lie to her parents and friends and church and society

v to steal if she needs to since an abortion costs about $764 on average

v to murder! All of the great composers and presidents and artists and scientists—they were all where those who are aborted were—in their mothers womb—shaped and designed by God! But our country calls it being “pro-choice.” A choice! The truth is, in our country we have some very anti-choice laws against rape, murder, assault, theft, speeding, drunk-driving and even smoking! Don’t do drugs, don’t drink and drive. Say no! But say yes to choice! Say yes to the murder of unborn children.

Mark Dever, a Baptist theologian, writes of “Robert George, professor of politics at Princeton University.” He said theat George “wrote not long ago on the question of whether it is morally legitimate to kill an abortion doctor. He cleverly decided to adopt the language of moral ambivalence found among pro-choice advocates and then to apply the same language to the question of killing abortionists, a practice that is universally rejected.

George writes with tongue in cheek and demonstrates the absurd duplicity of the pro-choice position-

"I am personally opposed”, he says, “to killing abortionists. However, inasmuch as my personal opposition to this practice is rooted in a sectarian (Catholic) religious belief...I am unwilling to impose it on others who may...take a different view. Of course, I am entirely in favor of policies aimed at removing the root causes of violence against abortionists. Indeed, I would...support mandatory one-week waiting periods, and even non-judgmental counseling, for people who are contemplating the choice of killing an abortionist...I believe in...respecting the rights of conscience of my fellow citizens who believe that the killing of abortionists is sometimes a tragic necessity--not a good, but a lesser evil. In short, I am moderately pro-choice."

George is using is not serious, of course—he is using irony. Do not misunderstand him. But he sees no moral difference between an abortion and the murder of an abortionist. Both are murders of fully-formed human beings.

This is shocking hear an essay like this because of its absurdity. We would never think of defending the right to kill a fully formed human being—at least outside of the womb. But our country legislates the right to kill fully formed human beings inside the womb.

I heard a woman this week speaking of the right that women have to choose to abort their baby if they care to. She was defending partial birth abortion.

Do you know what the partial birth procedure is? I will be discreet, but the difference between infanticide and abortion is three seconds and three inches. A partial birth abortion occurs when the baby’s entire body has been delivered. I’ll say it again. The difference between infanticide and partial birth abortion is 3 seconds and 3 inches.

3. Financial Damage on the family.

Abortion is robbing our country of its children! It is a very lucrative FOR PROFIT business! From of the 1.31 million children taken by abortion this year, the abortion industry has taken in over 1 BILLION dollars. That is a one with NINE zeros behind it. I tried to put that number in my calculator, but it was too long!

Look at your darling child next to you. How much is he or she worth? The abortion clinic is willing to take abort a child for $764.

Do you know who’s paying for abortion on demand in this country? You are!! In just a little over a week, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments in two cases involving the constitutionality of Congress’s ban on partial-birth abortion. The Plantiff in the case is Planned Parenthood. That name is actually an oxymoron. They are trying to keep people from being parents and not planning it at all! In the last two years, Planned Parenthood has received over $500 MILLION dollars in your money—taxpayer money! This money is allocated from Congress. Now listen to this. Congress last year passed a law banning partial birth abortion, and Planned Parenthood takes the money that Congress has given them, and sues Congress saying the ban is unconstitutional! Planned Parenthood uses our tax dollars to promote, advertise and market the benefits of abortion, including partial-birth abortion. Last year, Planned Parenthood performed almost 250,000 abortions.[2]

4. Psychological effects of abortion.

The regional director of Suicides Anonymous testified to the Cincinnati City Council like this: "This Cincinnati group has seen 5,620 members in 35 months. Over 4,000 were women of whom 1,800 or more had had abortions. The highest suicide rate is in the 15 to 24 age group. There is a direct linkage between suicide attempts and [abortion]." (Quoted in Abortion, by Paul Fowler, p. 195)

B. The only answer to abortion.

You may be here tonight as the mother of a child you have aborted. You may the father who has agreed to it. I want you to know that no one is cut off from Christ because of past sin—even the sin of abortion. Christ is the answer to abortion! “Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds!” (Romans 5:20). There is no sin that Jesus cannot forgive!

Beverly Smith McMillan opened the first abortion clinic in Jackson Mississippi. After a life-changing conversion to Christ she resigned. She confessed, "The good news that makes the Gospel so relevant today is that God forgives. I know from personal experience that the blood of Jesus can cover the sin of abortion." (Fowler, Abortion, p. 198).

I’ve just highlighted one area of legislation that is protecting sinful, selfish, and abominable behaviour in our land.

II. Sodomy. What else is being protected? Sodomy! It is amazing that this Tuesday, thirteen states will be voting on marriage initiatives defining that marriage is between a man and a woman. It is the height of tragedy and sadness that we even have to have a law to protect even what nature itself teaches us! Our citizens are in anarchy against the law of God. America is governed in freedom because she was willingly submissive to the Law of God. If her citizens will not submit to the Law of God, freedom will disappear. Only God fearing people can handle the responsibility of freedom.

Remember well what Alexis de Tocqueville said:

"America is great because America is good.
If America ever ceases to be good,
she will also cease from being great."

Sodomy is not simply a choice of life style. It is a high crime against this society at large, and your family in particular. Who is it that these laws are protecting? These are the people that abuse children that do that which nature itself forbids. They are the people that destroyed Rome—and they are the people that will destroy America!

Remember our history! When America was being settled, the American heartland was made up of a collection of God-fearing people many of them drawn from the Reformation. The separatist Pilgrims were there. And the Puritans were there as well with their zeal to create a "nation under God". They took their faith, and the integrity that came along with it, very seriously. They did not limit their faith to the inside of the church. They are the reason we have the freedom we have today. They legislated righteousness. We are legislating the “unrighteous decrees” that protect sinful behaviour.

How about another sin we are legislating?

III. Divorce.[3] No fault divorce is another sin that is protected by legislation in our country. Listen again to Isaiah 10:1-2, ““Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; 2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!” The most significant enemy of marriage is divorce. The most direct threat to the family is divorce on demand. If our society is to endure, this must be reigned in, but it may be too late. no-fault divorce laws emerged in the United States during the 1970s and quickly spread across the nation. Even though only nine states had no-fault divorce laws in 1977, by 1995, every state had legalized no-fault divorce. These new divorce laws did not really remove fault from the context of divorce, but they did create unilateral and involuntary divorce, so that one spouse may end a marriage without any agreement or fault by the other. In effect, no-fault divorce means that the courts now assist the violator of marriage vows. Any spouse can now demand a divorce for any reason and be assured that the courts will award the divorce--and will often grant disproportionate favor to the party seeking the divorce.

Isaiah doesn’t name divorce, but these verses are descriptive at least and applicatory to what happens in divorce:verse 2: and to take away the right from the poor of my people that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!”

Divorce makes women widows! It makes children fatherless! It destroys our society!

God says in Romans 7:1-3, “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,)how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Conclusion: We need to pray for revival in our hearts and in America now more than ever! If America ceases to be good, it will be because Christians have stopped evangelizing every creature. The greatest revivals of all time took place in conditions such as these. May God’s people wake up and see the need for Holy Spirit sent revival, or it will be too late!

[2] The suit is being filed by the ACLJ and can be researched at: http://www.aclj.org/TrialNotebook/Read.aspx?id=420