The Sanctity of Life; Tribute to Chuck Zimmerman

You know, we live in a world that is high-tech. And all of us, of course, have at our disposal phones. And those phones have incredible ability. Sometimes I think my computer and my phone are much smarter than I am. They predict what I'm going to say next, actually.

What I'm going to type in next. I hate that. I don't know about you, but I hate that when the computer suggests what I'm actually thinking. Before I do. Because it sometimes throws me off. It throws my gate off when a computer knows more than I do. You know, scientists predict that computers will reach a point, they're saying this, by the year 2100, where computers will transcend humans. They will get smarter than human beings. And some say before that. Actually, some are concerned about that. You know, some are concerned, in fact, that when AI comes into being, that this is going to be very dangerous for human beings.

You know, might very well have a robot walking down the street and end up killing somebody because of how they're programmed to react and to do. You know, they call this time, when computers transcend humans, they call that time singularity. You know, when computers, again, are as smart as human beings. I think I've mentioned this a number of times, and this was many years ago, that they were talking about how they could build a computer that had the intelligence of the human brain, but it would be the size of Texas.

So it's not very usable to have, and of course that was what, 20, maybe 30 years ago, that people were making that kind of statement. It's not that way anymore. Your little phone has as much computing ability as the computers that took men to the moon. So it has, in fact, much more than what computers were on the moon, the ships that went to the moon, when, in fact, the first man put his foot on the moon.

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Lab announced that the top speeds of its new Summit supercomputer is now double that of China. China, at one time, had the biggest supercomputer on the face of the Earth, and they held that record for quite a long time. But the United States now has double the capacity. We've lapped the Chinese when it came to computer ability. So this computer that we have is called the Summit, and it has speeds of 200,000 teraflops.

Now, how many of you know what a teraflop is? You know, it's not what happens when you jump off the diving board. But a teraflop is a speed of 1 million. You can wrap your mind around that. But they have developed a computer that has 200,000 of these teraflops. Basically, if I can describe to you, it would take 5.3 billion human beings to do what this computer does.

If they were able to do it all in just a split second. So we're talking about a computer being able to do what 5.3 billion people do. You know, your little calculator and all. But this thing can do much more than that. You know, this machine, this contraption that human beings has made, called the Summit, cost the United States 200 million dollars. Just for one.

Just one to build. It was built by human beings, and it is an awesome, awesome instrument. And even so, this computer is not smarter than a human being. It was designed by human beings. Human beings brought into being what is lacking and why they have not achieved AI in singularity as yet.

It lacks common sense. And it lacks intuition. You know, it's kind of like the guy was bragging about his gorilla. You know, how he could make these golf drives that were just 500 yards out. And he had his gorilla tee up, and sure enough, he hit that ball and it landed right next to the flag on the green.

And the guy said, that is amazing. This gorilla could be a wonderful, just a wonderful golf player. And then he takes the gorilla up, and he takes out his putter, and the gorilla hit it 500 yards more. So that's the way this computer is. A summit lacks intuition. It lacks common sense. But it was constructed. Here, think about this. This computer was constructed out of the finest materials known to man. Very expensive computer parts here that went into this. $200 million and a lot of money.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, in verse 7. Here was, of course, the time when God was beginning to bring man into being. Over here in chapter 2 and verse 7 of Genesis, it says, It says, In the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

In other words, God created Adam, not out of the finest materials known to man, not out of gold, not out of a silver, not out of all of these things, but God created Adam out of dirt.

And you know the basis on current monetary worth, the basic elements of a human body, your human body, would be around $4.50 or $3.50. Not $200 million, but $4.50 and $3.50. But you know what the most important thing that you have on your body is? The most valuable thing is your skin. It's worth $3.50. The rest is worth $1. So in essence, the very internal part of you and me is worth $1, a $1 bill. Now, if you can manufacture something to do what a human being can do, for $1, you're pretty good, aren't you? Pretty creative, isn't it? Pretty awesome. And so, you know, God's creativity brought, though, Adam into being, and not only was Adam able himself to have life and to do things, but he brought Eve along and now they could reproduce. What computer do you know that can reproduce? Can do what God has done for $4.50. That God has been able to do this. You know, I want you to think about that a Pablo Pagasso painting is considered, if you could sort of pick up one at a garage sale somewhere, it'd be pretty valuable.

The most expensive Pablo Pagasso painting was sold, it was over $100 million. So, if you're considering man, man's, you know, as a creation, a human being, wouldn't you agree, is a masterpiece? A human being is a masterpiece. It's more valuable than a painting. Humans can reproduce themselves, a computer cannot. Each human is a masterpiece of creation. It's of tremendous value.

The question I have, again, here for you today is what value do you place on a human life? Human life. There's a young couple in Arkansas who had five children, and she wanted her tubes tied, but the doctors refused to do so because she wasn't 21 yet. Imagine that, having five kids before you're 21 years of age. They started their family pretty young, as they say, while they were in school. How would you advise a mother who's pregnant with her fifth child based upon the following facts? Her husband has syphilis, she has tuberculosis, their first child was born blind, their second child died, their third was born deaf, and the fourth child had tuberculosis as well. Should the mother abort that child?

If you said yes, you just killed Ludwig von Tovin. Beethoven, I should say.

How would you advise a 13-year-old that was raped and considering abortion? If you said yes to abortion, you just killed Ethel Walters.

She was an American singer and actress, and Waters frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music on Broadway. In concerts, she began her career in the 1920s singing the blues. So you never know what somebody's going to accomplish in their life. You know, these kinds of decisions are made. I was listening to Rush Limbaugh the other day, and apparently there's a movie out about the subject of abortion. I was talking about one doctor that was into abortions quite a bit, and I see some of you shaking your heads. You know who I'm talking about. But there's a movie out about this. I have not seen it. I don't even know what the title of it is, but he was talking about it on his show about the evils of abortion. This doctor had, in fact, actually aborted children. They were aborted, and they were still alive, and he killed them. Wasn't in the womb. Apparently they've now tried him, and he's been convicted of a murder. But probably the biggest serial killer that has been known is this particular individual.

Know all of you. How do you know what Roe vs. Wade is? Would you raise your hands? I'd like to see how many. Oh, pretty educated. All of us. There was a time when if you said Roe vs. Wade, people would wonder, is this two ways you get across the Mississippi? But all of us are knowledgeable. But in January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court made a decision. The Court struck down abortion laws in all 50 states, deciding a woman's right to privacy gives her a right to abort her unborn child. In Court's opinion, an unborn child was not a person as defined by the Constitution and therefore not entitled to the right of life. Instead, the baby was nothing more than the property of the mother to choose whether the child lives or dies. Each year in the United States, 926,000 abortions take place, and 20% of the women with 65% when the women were seven weeks pregnant or more. The pro-life movement has successfully reduced the number of abortions, but they have not been able to end it. Still going on, as we all understand. Alan Gutmacher Institute estimates that since 1973, approximately 41 million babies have been aborted in the United States. Now think about that. What do we have? 300 million plus in the United States? 41 million babies that have been aborted.

That is 20 babies every 20 seconds of every day for 29 years, or 12% of Americans' current population. The report on the reason for abortions, here's the thing I think is quite interesting here. 66% got abortions because of financial instability. Here's another amazing statistic. 76% interfered with their lifestyle. It reminded me that years ago, there used to be a statistic that in Russia, that women there, on average, have about eight abortions in their lifetime.

I was saying most of it probably falls in the same category, interferes with the lifestyle. The truth is, the greatest single human tragedies that have occurred on this planet, and I think probably if I ask you what would have cost so many human lives upon the Earth, you'd all say war, wouldn't you? You think war, but not even war compares to abortions and the death that goes on as a means. In the United States, wars between 1775, and of course we all declare independence and celebrate it on July 4th, but in 1776, but since 1775, lost a war to the present 1.1 million Americans.

Holocaust claimed 6 million lives. Abortion is a modern-day Holocaust, a modern-day Holocaust that we see out here. Now, there are some ironies in our culture, in our society. To me, it shows our lunacy, that we don't really use our brains, and in that way maybe a computer will get smarter than we are, a whole lot faster than 2100. But it's ironic, in 1972, listen to this, brethren, the Supreme Court amended a bald eagle protection act by authorizing fines up to $500,000 in addition to jail time for destroying an unborn eagle in its egg. You think about that. That an eagle is more important than a human being. Here's another irony. I understand today, in all 50 states, if a pregnant woman is murdered, the suspect is charged with two counts of murder. That's ironic, isn't it, that we have this dichotomy in society that has been there again since Roe vs. Wade. So, brethren, in light of this as sort of an introduction, what are your beliefs concerning the sanctity of life? How do you think about life? The word sanctity means holiness, sacred or hallowed. Certainly, when God leaned down and he formed the man, God was involved in the process, this special process. God was doing something that had incredible importance to his plan.

We don't read the same thing about animals being created this way, that God's personal involvement in it. But we know, of course, God created the animal kingdom and all of that. In Genesis chapter 1, let's go to Genesis chapter 1 over here. Genesis 1, here in Genesis, is a recreation that we read about here.

That God is recreating things. He brings, of course, light, separates, of course, the darkness of the light, and sets the earth on its current axis that it has, of 22.5 degree tilt. So you have that in relationship to the sun, and of course he put the moon in its place and all those things. And then God put the plant kingdom on the earth, and then he put the animal kingdom.

And he made cattle, and after their kind it says it this way, as we read in the Bible. And all the animals were made according to their kind, according to their species. That God had this plan, and when the Bible talks about something in a certain way, it covers it in a certain way, that God created the animals after their kind. Well, when man was to be created, you know, this again led to the discussion of man here in chapter 1 and verse 26. Notice here. Then it says, and then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. In other words, let's make man after our kind. That we were not made after the animal kind. In fact, science wants to tell us that we're sort of animals. That we're just maybe a little bit more educated in terms of the animal kingdom. But no, it says, let us make man in our image, and according to our likeness. And it says, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea. So the animal kingdom, man was put over that. Over the birds of the air, over the cattle, and all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, and it says he created him male and female. Adam and Eve created in the image of God. And then God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and so do it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And so God created human means in his image.

God has ears to hear. Now God has a nose to smell, his eyes to see and hands to handle, and to touch, and legs to walk on, and feet. We're made in the image of God. He has a mind. And the Bible speaks of the mind of God. When God created man, he was reproducing himself, as we understand in the church. And ultimately God wanted to put his very character in this man, so that he could become a part of his divine family. And of course that has to happen as a result of character, holy righteous character, that God cannot create by divine fijade, just, you know, snapping his fingers. You know, what he did with Adam was an incredible feat, just created him. But this, the character that goes inside, it takes a bit more. It takes the cooperation of the individual to begin to think differently and to begin to think the way God does. Let's go to Genesis chapter 9 and verse 6 over here. Over in Genesis chapter 9 and verse 6, it is a condemnation, again, of violence and war, this statement over here, that was given, in fact, a man very early. But here we have it recorded in verse 6. It says, Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, he made man.

You see, violence, death, and war, all those things that we have in our society that we get used to.

You know, the Bible condemns because God created man. God put us on the earth. And of course, we have a commandment. The sixth commandment says, Thou shalt not murder. Or, as it says, kill. But the word means murder. Murder is premeditated taking of an innocent life. And, you know, of course, abortion actually is premeditated, is it? You have to think about it quite a lot, in fact, before such a decision is made.

When Moses made the excuse that he couldn't speak when God called him, you know, God said, Moses, Moses, who made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, and the seeing, or the blind? Have I not made them? says the eternal. Haven't I made them all?

So God could have actually changed Moses' ability to speak. If Moses had more faith, he believed. Over in Psalm 139, let's see again. You know, we need to, brethren, of course, I know the world doesn't think in terms of this, but we need to see the preciousness of life, of how valuable it is, and how special it is. We live in a time where, again, people are being dumbed down, and they're being molded and shaped into the ideology of the world, the way of thinking of the world. And sadly, you know, and I saw it happening, and I've seen it happen in the school system, where that is happening. The acceptance of alternate lifestyles and all the things that are going on in the liberal world that we live in, and, of course, the fact that life is cheap. That's being conveyed about this matter of a woman's right to choose, you know, with regard to her body, and the rise of abortions and all of that. But again, let's give thought to the realization, brethren, of the fabulous creation that God has made in a human being. Being begotten and born and growing up eventually, that person, no matter who they are, is a potential God in the family of God. In Psalm 139, here in verse 13, let's know this. Here David talks about this in verse 13, For you formed my inward parts. God was intimately involved. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You know, when you step back and look at the human body, you know, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. It's astounding, the human body. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you, David says. When I was made in secret and skillfully wrought, it says, in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in your book, they all are written, the day's fashion for me. When, as yet, there was none of them. You know, David looked upon God as being with him from the time he was conceived to the time he died. That God was there. That God was orchestrating. You think about your own personal life, that God is involved in your life on a daily basis. He's directing you. He's correcting you.

He's striving to cheer you up when you're down. And he's trying to make you humble when you're too proud. That's how much he's involved, rather than in the lives of all of us. In the human body, I've given sermons about how complex the human body is. But, you know, with science, with all of its ideas about how great they are, they ought to have that song for them. How great we are would be the title for them, because it is nothing but a bunch of vanity on the part of science. Science is very dark about much of what the body is. We don't know what the body is, and we don't know why we even have fingerprints. And all of us have different fingerprints.

That in itself just would be an astounding thing. All of us are like the snowflakes that fall out of heaven when it snows. All of us have blood types, but scientists don't know why. Why do you have a different blood type than maybe somebody else? They don't know why that is the case. They don't know why you have an appendix. That's why they're so quick about cutting that baby out, you know, when you have a problem with it. They don't even know why you yawn when you're tired. Just think about that. We do that every day. They don't know why. I know you probably, you're sitting there and you're saying, well, I know why. And you probably heard this is a reason. Well, it's because your brain lacks oxygen. How many of you heard that as a reason? Okay, so I'm not the only one here. But apparently that's not the only reason.

Maybe it's not even the reason. But there's so much that man does not know. He doesn't, he's not aware of. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 1. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, brethren. It is astounding, this human body. You think about it, and we had three of them, and still do, but, you know, we have three boys. And I'll tell you, it's hard to imagine that it wasn't all that long ago that our three boys were very small, and, you know, you carried them around everywhere they went, and they become the little human beings. They all have their personalities from the time they're born. And that's incredible. You know, we're just really thoroughly enjoying little George, our youngest grandson, just to get a kick out of him. Joan calls him Stinkerbink.

And I think she picked that up from me. I used to call Sean Stephen and Jonathan Stinkerbink, and, was it Melanie was saying to George the other day, you know, she says, your name is George. And he said, no, Stinkerbink. He likes Stinkerbink better. Jeremiah 1, verse 4, don't ask me what Stinkerbink means. It's one of the family things. But it says, then the word of the Eternal came to me, this is talking about Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1, verse 4, and we'll go down to verse 7. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Now, how many of you do you think God knew before we were born? I have no idea. But maybe he did. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I set you apart. Now, imagine that. From the time you're born, you're set apart for a purpose. That God had a purpose for Jeremiah. I had ordained you a prophet to the nations. Then I said, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth. But the Lord said to me, do not say I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you. And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the eternal. So God says, I'm with you.

I submit to you, brethren, if Jeremiah had a commission, a purpose from the womb, it's probable that you and I, being in the church today, had a purpose from the womb. It's possible, brethren, who could know what God's plan is, brethren, for each of us individually? You know, we won't know until it's done, will we? And maybe God will tell us about it in the future. He'll let us know. Here Jeremiah knew from his entire life that why he was, again, separated at the womb for a commission, a job to be a prophet to the nations. Let's go to Acts 17. Over in Acts 17, you have the people of Mars Hill, and they were, of course, always debating one another. They had monuments to all kinds of gods. The Greeks were very known for their multiple gods. And they even were superstitious. They had one to the unknown god, one that they didn't know, and that was a perfect end for Paul, to go and to talk to them on their an Athens on Mars Hill about the god they did not know about. But in talking about this incredible god, verse 24 will drop in and break into the thought.

But it says, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Of course, the Greeks had temples to their gods, as did the Romans. But it says, Nor is he worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything. God doesn't need anything from us, brethren. So God's way is a way of give. It's outgoing. Since he gives to all, it says here in verse 25, he gives to all life, breath, and all things. Every good thing comes down from the Father of lights, in whom is no variam of this or shadow of turning. That God gives to us, going on down through here. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.

So that they should seek the eternal, in the hope that they may grope for him and find him, though he's not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our be. As also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. We're the offspring of God.

Abortion is killing the offspring of God, every human being. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. Truly, these times of ignorance got overlooked and now commands all men everywhere to repent. So here Paul was preaching to the men on Mars Hill, the people on Mars Hill, to repent, to change the way they thought, to get rid of their false gods that misled them, and to look to the true God. Repentance means, brethren, to change direction where you're going in a wrong direction, you turn around and you start going the right direction. You start making right decisions. You begin to think correctly.

You know, sometimes in our past we've done the wrong things in our lives. We thought the wrong things and we practiced the wrong things. And, brethren, if we have sinned in the past, we need to put it behind us and leave it there because God forgives it. He puts it as far from us, as east as from west, and let's move forward in our thinking. You know, God has winked at, brethren, the insanity and the ignorance of human beings. He really has.

We've been pretty dumb as a people, as a species, if you want to put it that way. We've been pretty dumb the last 6,000 years. Every human being, again, is of value. We need to change the way we think about that, not necessarily us because hopefully we already think every human being is valuable and important. I'm talking about the world in general. The Bible says in Ephesians 2, verse 10, This word, workmanship in the Greek, means a thing that is made. We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And, you know, back in the book of Psalms, in Psalm 127, verse 3, It says, So every small child, every baby that is born is God's reward. It's God's heritage. It's not ours. I mentioned about that. I know before, that our children are not our own. We're custodians of our children.

You ever think that they're your own and you can dictate everything in their life? You probably have been rudely or soundly awakened from that thought. You know, they have to come to their own mind, don't they? But God can change a mind much easier than we can. Sometimes the only thing we can do to change our children's mind is to pray that God will change their mind, that God will bring them around. They'll maybe have a repentance of their life. I've been praying more and more when people were off the track that God would grant them repentance, that they would see that God would open their eyes so that they would be able to see what was happening in their lives and make that correction.

I always tell people, if you're ever in a hole or in a pit, stop digging. If you want to get out of your pit, don't keep digging. You can just get deeper. The thing is to fall on the side of the pit and say, God, get me out of here. Get me out of this place and get me on the right course in life.

You know, the sanctity of life is a worldview battle that is going on right now. And it is pitting scientific materialism against the biblical worldview, which holds that all human life is sacred.

You know, those that believe in the Bible believe that human life is sacred. It has a sanctity about it. That is from its earliest stages until the natural death of a human being. The biblical view places restrictions on what we do with a human embryo, for instance. Scientists and proponents of embryo research do not want these restrictions. They don't like you, by the way, if you are against the use of embryos to do research. Because they place science as the highest source of knowledge and morality. And they worship, so to speak, at the altar of scientism. It's like a religion. Like Buddhism or Muhammadism or Hinduism or any of those isms of religions today. scientism is a religion for people.

scientism is the belief that scientific investigation is the only means of knowledge. You know, that started in Genesis 3, didn't it? Let me find out for myself. That scientists can get answers to everything, including morality. Science believes human life is a collection of cells and genetic material that can be used for whatever is useful to a human being.

In fact, columnist Michael Kinsley, who hopes stem cell research will cure him of Parkinson's disease, immediately jumped on the findings about skin cells being reprogrammed to actus as stem cells. Skin cells, they apparently are now able to cause them to actus stem cells.

Insisting that embryonic stem cell research must still continue. He dismissed what he called, and I get this, and this is a quote, the intense minority, that's you, if you believe in the sanctity of life, the intense minority who believe that a clump of a few dozen cells floating in a petri dish has the same human rights as you or I. Quote-unquote there. Never mind the fact that he's also began his life as a clump of a few dozen cells.

Only he was allowed to live. While he and others believe we ought to exploit or kill other such embryos, supposedly for the greater good of everybody. Some are more equal than others, you know, as Orwell put it famously.

Kinsley proclaimed also, this issue will not go away. Not going to go away. He said, scientifically, it makes no sense to abandon any promising avenue just because another has opened up. Every year that goes by, science opens new doors. You see the emphasis he's making here? Science is the be-all, end-all, and morality and ethics must not hinder its march forward.

Ultimately, the desire, by the way of science, we must know, is for men and women to live forever. That's what they want. That's what they desire.

It is the ultimate of reductionism. Since we can know truth only through what can be determined by science, questions like love, altruism, and the like are out of bounds. They're impermissible for questioning or inquiring. So anything in the moral realm that should or ought to questions, as opposed to what is question or what is right, which is what science measures, never enters the equation. This view of science undermines the worth and dignity of human life. It reduces us to the sum of our material parts. It takes away the spirit of man that is within us. What distinguishes us as humans, who are able to think and reason, that we as God's people know. And consequently, we live in a world where life is considered cheap. Because of the violence, because of wars, because of diseases, because of abortion.

You know, this is, of course, one big example of that fact, of how cheap life is. Let's go to, again, Ephesians 6 over here. Ephesians 6.

Paul mentions over here, again, we've already touched on verse 10, but notice here, we'll read it again for emphasis, in Ephesians 6 verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Here we're shown, brethren, that what we are hearing in society, the way the world works, the way it thinks, is coming from darkness. And that's what we're wrestling with. And abortion is just one of the many things. It's just one of the many things that we see in this society that gets our thinking off track.

Every human being is important, brethren. Remember, God is the great potter, and we are the clay, and every person is valuable, even the unborn. That we don't know what they look like, we don't know what they're going to be like, but God knows them from their womb. 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 is a final scripture here. But in 1 Peter 2 over here, Peter mentions this about us, that we, of course, have come from the world out here where the thinking, the wrong kind of thinking, and as I've mentioned a couple of times here, insanity exists in the world, the way people think in the world. But in 1 Peter 2, notice what Peter says here, down in verse 24. You see, then, that a man is justified. I'm sorry, that I'm in chapter 2 of James. Well, let me get this right. 1 Peter 2, verse 24. Okay.

Here it says, Think about the glory of man here, the Jews.

Now, this is the word which, by the Gospel, was preached to you. So, you know, we may have made big mistakes, brethren, in our lives before. You know, but God wants us to realize, again, how valuable this human life is. God has redeemed us, brethren, from this. Somehow or another, I got my verse wrong there. Let's go back, go over to 2nd chapter here in 1 Peter. It is verse 24 and 5 there. I knew that one did not look right. But here in verse 24, speaking of Christ, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls. Like you say, we've made mistakes in the world, but, brethren, we've been redeemed from the world. It is important that we realize God is calling us to a better way of life. He's calling us to a better way of thinking. You know, God has bought us and he's pulled us back from the lunacy of this world that is willing, brethren, to sacrifice 40 million people just in the United States. 40 million, you know, fetuses, babies have been sacrificed on the altar of science. But God has pulled us back from that kind of lunacy. We live in a time when black is white and white is black. A lie is considered truth, and the truth is considered a lie. Brother, we have to guard against that to keep ourselves unspotted from the insanity of this world.

So, Mr. Zimmerman put this quote in the message that he had prepared. He said, a religious person will do what he is told no matter what is right. A spiritual person will do what is right no matter what he is told.

Well, brethren, hopefully all of us are motivated by the Holy Spirit. As I said, brethren, about this message, most of what I said today and what you heard is from my friend, Mr. Chuck Serriman. And I gave his sermon, his last sermon that he prepared just days before his death, I gave this sermon to you as a tribute to Mr. Zimmerman. I hope, brethren, that these words sink down, and you're thinking perhaps a little more clarified on this particular topic.