PRESIDENT’S DESK: The Highest Court

By Lloyd Sweatt, President
Mississippi Baptist Convention

December 1 is an important day! Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, along with a legal team from the Attorney General’s office, will take an important legal case to a higher court – the U.S. Supreme Court.

On that day, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on a Mississippi law that will challenge their 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that created a constitutional right to free and unfettered abortion everywhere in the country. That decision has resulted in an estimated 62,000,000 abortions in our nation – and our state has been part of that number.

The group from the Attorney General’s office will defend a law styled, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, before this higher court consisting of nine individuals, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and associate justices:
— Samuel A. Alito Jr.
— Amy Coney Barrett.
— Stephen G. Breyer.
— Neil M. Gorsuch.
— Elena Kagan.
— Brett M. Kavanaugh.
— Sonia Sotomayor.
— Clarence Thomas.

My reason for writing this article is to ask you to take this issue to an even higher court consisting of only one member: God, seen in His Son, Jesus Christ, and active among us in the Person of The Holy Spirit. This is the ultimate court of any land, any nation, any principality. The one Judge who sits on this court will judge us all. Prayerfully consider these verses from His Word:
— Psalm 9:8 — And He shall judge the world in righteousness, He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
— Psalm 96:13 — Before the LORD: for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.
— Psalm 50:4 — He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people.
— Isaiah 3:13 — The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.
— Daniel 7:9-10 — I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, Whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousands of thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

The higher court, the Supreme Court, will use legal precedent to make an eventual ruling. The highest court, where Our Lord rules and reigns, also uses precedent as found in His Word:
— Psalm 139:13-16 — For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
— Isaiah 44:24 — Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;
— Jeremiah 1:5 — Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
— Luke 1:15 — For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.

May we as Mississippi Baptists be faithful to take this issue to the highest court, the one in Heaven, by:
— Asking the Lord to use Lynn Fitch and her team as a voice to uphold the abortion law passed by our Legislature in Mississippi.
— Praying that the Lord God will speak to the members of the Supreme Court.
— Allowing that we, as God’s people, will be able to observe our Lord do amazing things before us.

May our “light so shine among men that they see our good works and glorify our God which is in Heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Sweatt is pastor of Meadowood Church, Amory. He may be contacted at lloydmbc@gmail.com.