Let's turn in the word of God this morning to the Old Testament book of Leviticus and chapter 18 in particular. Leviticus chapter 18. Let's read the whole chapter this morning. Call your attention to verse 21 of this chapter for the sermon. This is God's word in Leviticus 18. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do? And after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do? Neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgments and keep mine ordinances to walk therein, I am the Lord. your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. I am the Lord. None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him to uncover their nakedness. I am the Lord. The nakedness of thy father or the nakedness of thy mother shalt thou not uncover. She is thy mother. Thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover. It is thy father's nakedness. The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. The nakedness of thy son's daughter or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover, for theirs is thine own nakedness. The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister, she is thy father's near kin's woman. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, for she is thy mother's near kin's woman. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother. Thou shalt not approach to his wife. She is thine aunt. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter-in-law. She is thy son's wife. Thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife. It is thy brother's nakedness. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter. Neither shalt thou take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to uncover her nakedness, for they are her near kin's women. It is wickedness. Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister to vex her to uncover her nakedness besides the other in her lifetime. And thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. Moreover, thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife to defile thyself with her. and thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech. Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord. Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith. Neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto. It is confusion. Defile not ye yourself in any of these things, for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you, and the land is defiled. Therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it. and the land itself vomited out her inhabitants. Ye shall keep my statutes and my judgments, and ye shall not commit any of these abominations, neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you. For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled. That the land spew not out you also, when ye defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves, therein I am the Lord your God. So far we read the holy and inspired word of God. I call your attention this morning in light of the occasion of baptism to verse 21 of Leviticus 18. In verse 21 of Leviticus 18, we read these words, and thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God this morning commands parents not to let their children pass through the fire to Molech. That is to say, the word of God this morning commands parents not to sacrifice their children to false gods. Upon reading Leviticus 18, verse 21, you may think for a moment, what in the world does this have to do with us today? What God forbids in this verse is the literal sacrifice of infants to false gods. What in the world does this have to do with parents today in 2018, in a society and culture in which we don't see around us false gods before whom people stand actually sacrificing literal infants to them? But then we remember that the Word of God in its entirety is applicable to the church, not just in the Old Testament, but the church throughout the ages. This Word of God is applicable to you and to me this morning as New Testament believers. This Word of God is applicable to you and me this morning in a very intimate way as it relates to not just an isolated example or two in our lives, but in a very profound way that affects really the whole of our life with our children. The command is negative. Don't do this. Don't sacrifice your children to the false god, Molech. And in that negative commandment, we see very clearly the positive calling from God. Don't sacrifice them to Molech. Instead, sacrifice them, give them to, consecrate them to Jehovah, who is their God. That's the confession that we heard taken in the one-word answer to the questions that were posed before the baptism of Charlotte. In the answer to those questions, these believing parents, along with you who have brought your children for baptism prior to this, made that very confession. You said before the church, I will not Sacrifice my children to false gods. Instead, I promise before God and the church to do this, sacrifice them and consecrate them to Jehovah, whose they are. I call your attention this morning to Leviticus 18.21, using as our theme, commanded not to sacrifice our children to Molech. Let's see in the first place the abominable sin that is forbidden in this text. In the second place, let's consider the covenant reason. why God would give this command. And then in the third place, let's see the positive calling that arises out of this text. Commanded not to sacrifice our children to Molech, the abominable sin, the covenant reason, and the positive calling. In Leviticus chapter 18, we come to a section in this book in which God gives commandments as it relates to the sins of the surrounding nations. To paraphrase verses two and three of this chapter, God is saying, do not walk in the ways of Egypt, where you just came from, and do not walk in the ways of the nations of Canaan and those that surround it where you will be going. Instead, walk in my way as your God. And then what follows in the rest of the chapter are specific sins that the nations that were in Canaan and around Canaan were guilty of that God forbids his people to walk in. When you read Leviticus chapter 18, it becomes very clear what the focus is on in this chapter. The focus is on all forms of sexual immorality and sin. Every form of sexual immorality is made clear as forbidden by God in this chapter. Incest, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bestiality, the grossest forms of sexual immorality prevalent among the nations of Canaan and around Canaan, God forbids, in this chapter. But then right in the middle of it is verse 21. And when you read the chapter and you think about verse 21 carefully, you notice pretty quickly that it seems out of place. All of the material before it and all of the material after it have specific reference to sexual sins. And then right in the middle of that, we read these words. Don't cause thy children to pass through the fire to Molech. To profane God's name, I am the Lord your God. One of the reasons that in the midst of this chapter on sexual sins we have this specific commandment is that undoubtedly the worship of Moloch and the activity of sacrificing children to Moloch went hand in glove with the very sexual sins that are described in Leviticus 18. We know that to be true of many, many false gods in the ancient times. Not surprising. because gods are but the fabrication of man's sinful heart, in order to allow them to do what they desire to do. And so many of the false gods of the ancient days were worshiped in and through the very practice of these sexual, immoral activities. And so in the context of sexual sin, which went hand in hand with the worship of and the sacrificing of children to Molech, God says, don't let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech. We need to delve into carefully what this is all about. What our verse is describing here is the sin of child sacrifice to a false god, identified in the text as Molech. Molech was the chief god of the Ammonites. The Ammonites were the descendants of one of the sons of Lot, who was impregnated by his daughter while he was drunk. One of their supreme gods was this god named Moloch. He goes by several names in the Bible, Malcolm or Melchim. and others beside that, but the most common name that we are familiar with is the name Molech. His name literally means king. He was the supreme deity of the Ammonites. The Ammonites were a people dwelling on the east side of the Jordan River just north of the Dead Sea. The main way in which Molech was worshiped was by means of child sacrifice. And the very image of Molech and how he was created was meant to facilitate exactly that abominable activity of child sacrifice. Moloch was represented with the head of a bull and the body of a strong man. And the most common way in which Moloch was depicted was with his arms stretched out in front of him in the position to receive something. And the very way in which they made Moloch was to facilitate that which is forbidden in this text. Moloch was often made of brass and he was hollow. And that would give the people the opportunity to light a fire underneath him in such a way that all of the brass that made up his body and particularly his arms outstretched would be absolutely burning hot. And it's difficult, I'll admit, even to describe what is forbidden in this text. So that with those burning, scorching hot arms, what they would do is take their alive infants and lie them on, lay them on the outstretched arms of Molech. so that they would touch his burning arms and either on his arms actually die, or from his arms as they are scorched be rolled off into a fire and a pit below that would consume them. And all the while, That child is screaming as you can only imagine. There are loud drums beating in order to drown out the cries and screams of the child. You cringe even to describe and hear described the activity of offering children to the false god of Molech. But repeatedly, in the Scriptures, God's people, the children of Israel themselves, are commanded not to do this. And beloved, this isn't the only place in which we read of this command not to do this. There's a fuller explanation. I didn't choose this as the text. I wanted to keep it focused on what we have in verse 18, but there's a fuller explanation of this in chapter 20. The first five verses. We'll read verses two and following. Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of thy seed unto Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. And I will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do in any way hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not, then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a-whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech from among their people." Not only are those who do this to be stoned and cut off, but those who know about it and don't forbid it, The same end is for them. We read in Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 31, these words, and this is a final warning, not to walk in the sins of the nations around Israel. And we get to verse 31, and what God does here is show that this is the Climax of it all. This is the heart of those sins forbidden to walk in by the people of God in the Old Testament. Verse 31, Thou shalt not do unto the Lord thy God for every abomination to the Lord which he hateth have they done unto their gods. And now here's the supreme example of it. For even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. Now when you read these warnings that God gave the children of Israel prior to entering into the land of Canaan, and that would be right there on the record all throughout their time in Canaan, you can say to yourself, would they really even need to hear that? How could they go down that deep such that they would actually offer their children in sacrifice to Molech? And then you continue to read Old Testament history and realize that the very people of God were guilty of this abominable sin. I don't have the time this morning to go through all of the examples, but let me take you just briefly through a stretch of the Old Testament so that we can see the need for this command then and the need for this command now. Let's start with Solomon. 1 Kings 11, verses 5, 7, and 8. What we read here is the fact that he, ensnared by his wives, served Molech. 1 Kings 11, 5, 7, and 8. For Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians, Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. Verse seven, then did Solomon build in high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. Solomon introduced Molech worship in Israel. Fast forward a bit in Old Testament history and you have Kings Ahaz and then his grandson Manasseh, both of whom we read not just that they worshiped Molech, but that they actually caused their child to be sacrificed to Molech. I'll read just the example of Ahaz, 2 Kings 16, verse 3. But he, Ahaz, walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire according to the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. His grandson Manasseh did the exact same thing, which necessitated his grandson Josiah to have as one of his main reforms in Israel the defiling of the place where Molech was worshipped. He had bones thrown into the very place that Molech was worshipped in order to attempt to cause the end of Molech worship in Israel. We know that that was in the Valley of Hinnom, which was really the dump outside of Jerusalem. It would later in the New Testament be one of the main types of hell. Gehenna refers to that dump outside of Jerusalem, and it was there that they practiced the sacrificing of children to Molech and Josiah, as one of his main reforms defiled that place by throwing bones into it, attempting to cause that to stop in Israel. But then you may think, okay, there's a couple isolated examples, and a couple isolated examples of the kings But then you read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and find all throughout those books multiple references to this sin as it was practiced, not just among a couple of kings or an isolated few. but this practice was among the people themselves. I'll go to one of the climactic passages in this respect, and that's Jeremiah chapter 32. Verses 32 through 35, quite a beautiful section in Jeremiah in which we read of God's faithfulness. But then there's this section in this chapter in which he explains why the Babylonian captivity was necessary. One of the sins that made Judah ripe for the captivity, was this very sin of causing their seed to pass through the fire to Molech. Jeremiah 32, verses 32 through 35. Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, princes, priests, prophets, men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they have turned unto me the back and not the face. Though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. But they have set their abomination in the house which is called by my name to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither came it unto my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. Not just Ammon, but Israel was guilty of this sin, and they needed to hear, therefore, at the beginning and all throughout their history, this command of God. We need to delve deeper now to explain what is going on here. To explain the abominable nature of this sin. When you read Leviticus 18.21, there are two things that quickly come to your mind as to what the sin is. As it relates to the parents who would have done this. It is idolatry, number one. God says, commandment number one, worship me as God alone and worship no other gods. To do this is to commit the sin of idolatry. And then number two, obviously, as it relates to the children whom they bring to Molech and cause them to pass through the fire unto their death. It's committing the sin of murder. I want to focus on the former of those two to get at what the essence of this sin is. If they would have done this, as we know they did, they were committing one of the grossest forms of idolatry. But now when we face the question of what is idolatry, we have to always remember That in the end, idolatry is not just not about worshiping the true God, and idolatry is not even about, for example, worshiping Moloch. Although on the surface, that's what it appears to be. But idolatry in the end is the worship of whom? Not God, Jehovah, not even Moloch, but it's the worship self. When Romans says that instead of worshiping the Creator, they worship the created, what it always comes back to is the singular creature of self. When anybody bows before an idol, whether it was a brass mullet in the Old Testament or any form of idolatry today, in the end, That man, woman, or child is engaged in the activity of self-worship. They are doing what they are doing in order, sinfully and selfishly, to please themselves. Now when you think about Molech and causing their seed to pass through the fire to Molech, what's the selfishness and sin in that activity? And you can summarize it in two ways. Number one, to get something that they want. And number two, to rid themselves of something they don't want. Both of which come back to the service of self. On the one hand, to engage in this activity would have been to get something that they wanted. They would have been deceived by the lie that went with the worship of all false gods in ancient times and still today. And that lie, that bold-faced lie, is this. Worship me as a false god, and in return, I will give you something. I will promise to give you something, peace, prosperity, pleasure. But the motive of worshiping that false god is always to get what that false god promises to give. And then when you think about Moloch a little bit more specifically, you can't deny the fact that that old man which rages with lust, had an opportunity to play itself out in every form of activity in the worship of Molech. Worship me in this way, and in the process of worshiping me in this way, not only will I give you what I promised to give you, but you can engage in that worship in every form of sexual immorality to the satisfaction of your sinful lusts. It's not about Molech. It's about self. But then we can't deny the fact that there's also, I believe certainly, this selfish motive to rid themselves of something they don't want. Why would they readily engage in the activity of taking their own children and placing them on those scorching hot arms to fall into the pit of fire to their death. One of the ways, conveniently, at this time in history, to rid themselves of the children that they didn't want. What does that come down to? Selfishness. and sin. Idolatry is always the service of self. And beloved, when you look at this commandment from that point of view, you see how the applications to the New Testament believer open up. What would they have been doing here? They would have been serving themselves by serving an idol, and in the process of serving themselves, it was to the hurt, ultimate death, of their very own children. So that when you think about the application, the application for the New Testament believer is not just the physical application of an actual baby put on an altar to a false god, but the application is deeper. The application is the sin of parents, selfishly and sinfully, to serve an idol, which in the process of serving that idol, causes the hurt, whether it is physical, spiritual, or emotional, to their children. When you see that, you see how this opens up applications to us as the church today. There are extreme forms. for the New Testament believer to be guilty of this very sin that God forbids in this text. Extreme forms that we have to say something about, but then we follow that, recognizing that there is an element in which we can all be guilty to one degree or another of this very sin. So let me start with the extreme. that we need to hear and then we'll get to some other things that speak to our everyday life that fall into place in light of the comments that I just made. Two forms in which this comes to expression in very extreme ways. One regarding their physical hurt and another their spiritual. We have to say something about abortion Causing, as parents, the actual death of children in the same way that they did here. What drives the abortion industry? What drives the abortion industry is the selfishness and sin of parents. That child's not wanted because he doesn't or she doesn't fit into my life the way that I want him or her to. The ultrasound and testing indicates a disability and that's not what I want in a child. Therefore, on account of the sin of selfishness, that child is aborted. that's prevalent in the world, but we know there's no sin in the world, not in some way found in the church and the temptation in the church, and so we have to say something about that this morning. The second extreme form of offering a child to Molech are the parents who very simply to the spiritual destruction of their children, offer them and sacrifice them to another God. They abandon Jehovah, they abandon the church, they despise the things of God's word, and they take their children with them to another God and to another religion and consecrate that child to them. Those are extreme forms of this, but now I want to hit home a little closer. And we go forth with this premise. Is there anything in our lives as parents in which selfishly and sinfully we are taking our children and putting them on the altar to a certain God, to their hurt, as it arises out of my sinfulness? Let me give three examples. Parents can be guilty of offering their sons and their daughters upon the altar of and to the idol of entertainment. The devil wants for nothing else than from a very young age to have the minds and the hearts of our children. And one of the ways in which the devil can gain access to the minds and hearts of our children, to their own spiritual hurt, is by having their eyes and their ears open to the productions of this world that fall under the category of entertainment. The idol and altar of entertainment. And that starts at a very young age. And we need to not be deceived here as Christians as to how powerful that is at a very young age in which the ideologies of this world are coming through in very clear ways in the productions that are meant for our two, three, four, and five-year-olds. And the company that has a monopoly on this and a fast track to the minds and hearts of kids is Disney. And let's not be deceived here that when certain characters are set forth, it is to push an agenda and cause kids to think certain ways. When the princess is dressed immodestly, is all about feminism and her rights, That's sending a message. And what happens when that princess is cast as a lesbian in the next go-around of the film? We need to be very, very careful about what we are setting our children in front of as it relates to the entertainment of this world. And that only increases and gets harder and harder as time goes on, and it gets deeper and deeper if we as parents allow our eight, nine, ten, our teenagers to sit in front of the filth of this world as they are placed, so to speak, on an altar to a God, a God of this world, setting forth all of the sexual immorality and all of the lust and the corrupted views of love and all of the rest that goes along with it. Parents are responsible. If at a young age, they put their children in front of this, and at an older age, allow them to be in front of this. Idol and God of entertainment. And here's the striking thing about it. What drives it? Why would a parent do that? Oftentimes, it's the sin of selfishness. There's nothing easier. There's nothing that gets me as a parent more what I want when my child is 3, 4, 5, or 6 than to put him in front of that God of entertainment so that I can do what I want to their hurt and to my self-gratification. I am running perilously out of time here. And I had two more specific applications. One to the God of materialism. Just think about this. Materialism, giving anything and everything to children or young people, often selfishly, because you want your child to like you and you think that that's the way. Or the God of prestige and power. It's a problem when our children grow up in homes in which they think that mom and dad care about this alone, that I'm best on the field, best in the classroom, best at work. And often driven by selfishness. It's not about the kid, it's about the parent of the kid for what they want. All of that to the hurt of kids arising out of the selfishness and idolatry of parents. I'm gonna leave it at that in terms of application, but now we need to get into the gospel of the text, and that gets us to the second point of the sermon, the covenant reason. Why would God give this command not to do this? I have as the title of the second point the covenant reason. The text says this in the second part. Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord. Just focus on that end. I am the Lord. I am the Lord who is to be worshipped alone. I am the Lord whose word always stands, this word. I am the Lord who gave the law, the sixth commandment, don't kill. or murder. But the title of the second point is a covenant reason. I am the Lord who is Jehovah. Jehovah, the faithful covenant God of you, Israel. Jehovah, who out of all of the nations of the world chose Israel to be his covenant people. Jehovah, whose promise of the covenant is not just for believers, but for believers and their seed. The covenant reason that we must never cause our children to pass through the fire to Molech is that these children are not our children, but these children are God's children. We read that in the form for the administration of baptism, the beginning of that second section, where we read very clearly, our children don't understand these things. But even though they don't understand them, just as they are without their knowledge partakers of the condemnation in Adam, so again are they received unto grace in Christ. as children received unto grace in Christ, so that Christ would say, let the children come to me, for of such is the kingdom of God, so that Christ, when he was on the cross, would die in order to save these covenant children. Beloved, that's the covenant reason for not ever sacrificing your children to a false god. The reason is that they are God's children, saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. Notice how the text says, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God. It would have been a profaning of the name of God when this was done, a defiling, a polluting of the name of God, generally speaking, because this was God's people. For these parents who were God's church, upon whom was the name of God, to take their children and put them on the arms of Molech would have been a defiling, a polluting of that name of God. But think about it in terms of the children. And I'll jump right to the sacrament this morning. Charlotte has on her the name of God. Baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You can't see it physically, but we all know. And our testimony to the world must be that this infant that I hold close to me and that I will raise has on her God's name. And it is to defile and pollute that name of God when we as parents Take our children and cause them to be sacrificed in some way to an idol, an idol of this world that is to their spiritual hurt and destruction. It is to profane the name of our God. And from that comes the very clear positive calling. The calling is don't sacrifice your children to Molech. The calling is to consecrate your children to God. And parents will only ever do this when two things are true for those parents. Number one, the parents themselves, you as parents, yourselves, know God. and believe in Jesus Christ. What is going to keep you from even thinking about an abortion when you are pregnant? Or from leaving the true church of Jesus Christ to worship a false god? Or for letting your child be influenced by the idol of entertainment, materialism, power, What is going to keep you as parents and myself as a parent from that? It's this. You love the Lord. And you know the Lord. And your driving motivation and purpose in your life out of your thanks for your own salvation, knowing the covenant promises of God, is to be faithful to His word. And so the whole of your life as parents is saying, I must bring my children to God. And then to know number two always, that in the end, the children God gives us are not our children. If that thought is in the front of our minds, It influences so much of how we think and what we do with our children. They're not mine. They're God's. They're my savior's, Jesus Christ's. Given to me? Yes. So that I might be an instrument in God's hands to raise them and nurture them in the Lord. But why? Am I not going to? leave the church, give them over to these idols. It's because God has given me the great responsibility to care for his child, and I know that that would hurt them, and I don't want to hurt them. But instead, all of the positive flows out of that. They're God's children. And so I'm going to be conscious of all of the decisions I make relative to my children so that they, by those decisions, are led to God. And I'm not going to hurt them deliberately by those decisions. And let me just state it, but not explain it. This drives, as we think about the beginning of the school year, our Christian education of our children. Because we know that if they were not educated in a Christian manner, it would be potentially a form of offering them to the ungodly, false gods of the world. But we sacrifice our children to Jehovah. Not because we want to, because they're God's, and we desire that they be nurtured and raised in the fear of God's name. And so yes, we look at a text like this and say there's much to learn, and may we learn, convicted of our sins, but also desiring to walk faithful to his word. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we're thankful for thy word. We're thankful for this word and we pray that it might have application to us as believers this morning. Keep us in the truth and keep us from this evil. For Jesus' sake do we pray, amen.