I Will Set My Face Against That Man

pursuit of God doing something for them, forgiving them, providing for them, protecting them. They wanted his blessing in every way on their life. And the way they demonstrated that was through sacrifice. And their sacrifices were costly to them, which is to say that those who offered them were making a sacrifice. They were going to go without. And all throughout scripture, the things that they're told to sacrifice are the best stuff they've got. Not the dregs, not the leftovers, not the lame, not the diseased, the best. You give the best so that it's clear to you as you offer it that you're giving your best stock, your best seed, your best food to the Lord. Because you trust him to provide those things back to you in abundance. And so they make their sacrifices because of their devotion and their allegiance to God in their pursuit of his blessing.

Now this idea of sacrifice in pursuit of blessings isn't unique to Christianity. People make sacrifices to their God in pursuit of their blessings all the time. When you're on Amazon or you're standing in the aisle at the store and you're looking at the price and you're going, am I willing to pay this much for that thing? You're making a decision with regard to sacrifice. Am I willing to sacrifice this much money, give it away, in return for this item? And so sacrifice in pursuit of blessings is all through us. And this was true even of Moloch. They had a desire. The people had a desire. And you might wonder, what was it that they desired? The Lord had just brought them out of Egypt.

By a great and mighty hand, parted the Red Seas, completely obliterated the Egyptians, feeds them from heaven and gives them water out of a rock. What could they possibly want? What did they want when they hit the Jordan River and saw the Canaanites? They didn't want to go fight. What did they want when they had manna? Meat. I don't want you to think that these people, even though God was providing for them, were without desire. They weren't. Time and again, if you read in the first five books of the Bible, you find them grumbling and complaining. God hasn't provided. God hasn't given. We'd rather go back to slavery and bondage. They're not what you would consider content people. And those who aren't content will always be open to betraying their God. And this is why the Moloch worship would be so dangerous to them. They would go into the land. Now, you remember this land was a land flowing with milk and honey. It was a good land. This was the report that they brought back.

To Moses, this is a good land. It's abundant. There's giants there too. But it's clearly a land full of blessing. It's the kind of place you'd want to live. So why was that land abundant? Why was it filled with abundance? Well, it wouldn't have been too far of a jump to assume that it was because of the worship of the God of that land. That the Israelites would stand there looking over and seeing abundance and going, Their God gives them things that our God doesn't give us. Here we have been eating manna, and look at what they have. They serve a different God. It must be a better one. I'm convinced that this is one way of articulating the temptation that they would have faced as they went into there. And one of the primary foundation stones of them giving their children to Moloch is thinking, this God gives what our God withholds.

What are the sacrifices he requires to have the things that they have? It's atrocious what people will do, what we will do in pursuit of our lusts and our desires. Do you remember when Abraham and Sarah were promised a child? They were old and she was barren. What did they give to have a child? Sarah gave her maidservant to her husband. She said, I want you to commit adultery so that we can have a child. What about Saul when he was gone out to meet? The Philistines in battle and Samuel says, go and I'll come in seven days. And Saul's scared. The people are worried. Samuel's running late. Except he's not running late. It's a test of Saul's faith. What does Saul do? Well, he can't wait. So he offers the sacrifices so they can go into battle to see whether the Lord will bless them. And as soon as he's done it, Samuel shows up and says, what is this thing that you've done? The result of that particular sin on Saul's behalf was the removal.

of the kingdom from his house, all because he wanted power. And do we need a better example than Adam? What did Adam want? What did Eve tell him? What did the serpent tell her? In the day that you eat of it, you'll be like God. And what did he do? Cursed every one of his children for the rest of creation, because he wanted to be like God. And we can look at it and we can scoff at it in our hearts and go, Adam, what a fool. Saul, what a fool. Abraham, what a fool. Israel, what fools. Are we that different? Do we not do foolish, foolish things, wicked things in pursuit of the things that we want? And at the same time think that we're justified in doing it because the Lord hasn't provided it, because we're tired of waiting, because we've become convinced we can't live without it.

This is what would have been going on. And this is why there's such a terrible warning given to the people of Israel not to kill their own children. Because the offering of their children up to Moloch was an act of worship and it was an act of idolatry. It was them turning away from their God and saying, you haven't given and you haven't provided and you won't sustain. And we're going somewhere else. The Lord says, I'll set my... I will also set my face against that man, the one who offers his child up, and will cut him off from his people. And then he gives the reason why. Because he has given some of his children to Moloch. But that's not all. He says what the result of that will be. And it's the defilement of his sanctuary and the profanation of his name. That man who does such a thing has turned away from me. I'm their God. They've covenanted with me. And in this act of worship, they have forsaken their place in their relationship to me. And I'll have none of it.

says the Lord. Because they come into my house and they come to worship me, but their hands are covered in blood. And they've not been content with what I've given and what I've withheld. To the extent that they would offer their own children to the fire. And so the warning of our passage is not simply a warning against child sacrifice as though that is wrong. It is wrong. By itself, it's wrong. But it happens in a context. It happens in pursuit of something else. And so we need to learn that every God, The true living God and all false gods, all idols, require sacrifices. That is how you demonstrate your allegiance and your devotion to the God that you serve. It's an intrinsic requirement of any system of belief. There will always be rules. And when those rules are broken by those who follow that God, when something has gone wrong, blood has to come. Sacrifice has to be made.

The worshiper has to offer something to his God to get what he wants. Do you remember Elijah when he was up on the mountain after he came out of hiding with the prophets of Baal? And there's been this drought for three and a half years. No water. And they take these animals and they cut them up. And they build a fire. And Elijah says, you guys go first. Let's see whose God is real. Call down fire from heaven and let's see whose God answers. And what do the prophets of Baal do? They dance around. They whoop it up. They sing and holler. And what else do they do when their God's not answering? They cut themselves. They're petitioning their God with their own blood. Answer us. This is our sacrifice. Prove to them who you are. Every God requires blood because every God requires sacrifice. It's just a matter of what blood, whose blood, how often, and under what terms.

And so what I want you to see is that when you are thinking about or aware of abortion, what I want you to see is that it's an act of worship. Now, anyone who's had an abortion would not say that, but they're wrong. What you see in this text is that the people of Israel are being cautioned against worshiping another god, and in the process of doing that, killing their own children. And so when you see that there is a sacrifice, an offering, Blood. As a Christian, you ought to go, where's the God that requires this? Where is it? What is it? What do they want? Those who are willing to do such horrific things, what do they want? What are they afraid of? What are they running away from? What are they scared of? So what is it? Abortion is child sacrifice. It's the intentional murder of your own child. And I'm contending to you this morning that Scripture teaches us that when these things happen, it's always done as an act of worship.

of some false God. Our God doesn't require this. Our God is, it's abhorrent to him. He hates it. The hands who shed innocent blood. So you have to consider what is the God? Who is the God? Who demands this? There's something you have to have fixed in our minds as Christians. And it's that every society is religious. Every society is religious. Meaning every society has a God or a pantheon of gods. Every society worships, is what I mean to say. And every society adheres to the rules of their God. So if you want to know what the God is, one of the ways you can figure it out is by going, what do you get? What do those who would offer their children in our society get by doing it? Or what do they avoid by doing it? If you were to take your own child, and offer them, what do you get in return? We would say nothing. We'd say, no, I mean, you get nothing good, but people do it because they want something. What do they want? Perhaps more education, freedom. Say again? They don't want responsibility. That's right. One of the things that all of these things that you're describing are a part of, under an umbrella. And it's that the God of our nation is no longer the God of the Bible.

Our nation was founded by, for the most part, godly Christian men. This is no longer the case. We're not led by God-fearing men. But one of the things that we understand and you understand in your bones as a Christian is that you're dependent on God for everything that you have. Everything that you have. And it's very easy to become accustomed to everything that you have and not remember or give thanks to God for providing it to you. But every one of us is dependent. Every good thing that we have has come to us from our God. And that dependence is scoffed at in the same way that the Israelites would have scoffed at their dependence on God. They couldn't have or be or possess without God's provision, without his care, without him going before them and preparing their way. And it's common to the human condition for us to fight against this dependence and to go, I will not be dependent. I want autonomy. I want, as Tim said, freedom. But more than freedom, what I want

When you say freedom, it's a nice word because it doesn't really have much of a definition these days. But what you mean is, I want freedom from the consequences of my actions. That's what it's meant. I want to be able to do what I want without the consequences of it. And we could look at many areas in our society and say, this is really what the driving force is. I want to be able to do what I want without having to pay for it. Is it college? We can get you free college. Is it health care? We can get you free health care. Is it more money? We can get your children out of the way. Have you guys ever heard these studies that talk about how to avoid poverty? What are the couple things that you're supposed to do, three things you're supposed to do? If you want to avoid poverty, just do these three things and you're what? 75% of the people who do this don't ever end up in poverty. Do you know what they are? Finish high school. Get married before you have children. And what did you say? Michael? No child out of wedlock.

Was there only two or is there three? The third one is, and work. Yeah, right. Work. That does help. That's it. If you want to avoid poverty, which is sort of the base desire of every American, finish high school, get a job, and don't have a baby before you're married. Now, how do you go about not having a baby before you get married? Now, there are different answers to this question, right? The Christian answer is get married. That really is the Christian answer. Don't have sex until you're married and get married. But the answer of our society is a different answer. Go out, explore, see what's around, get yourself an education and probably some diseases, and then get married when you feel like it. And if you don't like it, get rid of it. So what happens when people have sex? Babies happen.

So what's the number one way to ensure you'll be in poverty the rest of your life? Have a baby out of wedlock. You almost guarantee that you'll be poor and that you'll struggle the rest of your life. Well, that doesn't make you very autonomous now, does it? And there's not much freedom in that system. But the God of our day has an answer for that. And it's simply to kill your child. They're in the way. Get rid of them. They stand between you and what you want. So remove them. Now, if you were to ask, just go out on the street and ask somebody, do you want to be poor the rest of your life? Do you want to live in poverty? Would anyone say yes? Maybe, but no, right? Nobody would want to live under those terms. They'd say, okay, well, you know these three rules will keep you from living in poverty. How likely is that person to stop having sex before they're married? They're not. They're not.

I want you to see in our society that this issue of abortion is not new, but it's as if there's a building being built. And we're examining the second or third story of it, and we're going, look at this mess, look at this broken part up here. But it's built on things that have gone before. So what's gone before? Well, it used to be that there was societal pressure not to divorce. That if you got married, Wasn't anybody going to encourage you to leave your spouse? No matter how hard it got or how tough it was, you didn't like each other or what have you. They'd say, no, you said for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, you can't step out now. And there were consequences for those who stepped out anyway. Adultery became acceptable. I mean, it's not acceptable. If you went and asked someone in our society, is it okay to commit adultery? They'd say, no. You say, well, but what if my wife's a real?

miserable woman. Well, what if my husband never comes home and talks to me? Well, how ought a Christian respond to that kind of question? You tell me, what should I say to someone who comes to me and says, my wife's a miserable woman and all she does is this and that and the other. What should I say to him? Well, it's okay. I'm sorry. You realize that's the wrong thing to say. What I'm going to say to him is you need to be faithful to your wife and you need to love her and care for her. God has promised you many good things, but an easy life and an easy marriage is not necessarily one of them. And you know one of the biggest determining factors of your marriage getting better or worse? You know what it is? You. Now step up and go love your wife. That's what I would tell him. What about fornication? How does society feel about that? Premarital sex. Go for it. Please go for it. We encourage you to go for it. Something's wrong with you if you don't go for it. This is our society's...

disposition toward these things. And these are the things that have come before abortion. And not only have the consequences of these things been removed, but the shame of these things and the guilt associated with them have been removed. Can you imagine what your grandparents would have said to someone if they had said, I left my wife because she was miserable? What would your grandparents have said? What a terrible person you are. How dare you? Shame on you. What would they say to the one who's committed adultery? What would they say to the one who's been fornicating? What would they have said to the one who's gotten pregnant out of wedlock? What they would have said was, don't you dare kill that baby. You've made a choice. You step up and you take care of that baby. Are you guys familiar with the term shotgun weddings? Do you know what a shotgun wedding is? For those of you who don't know what a shotgun wedding is, it's the Christian answer to,

that produces a baby. You're going to get married now. You've made your choice. You were willing to go to bed. You're now going to get married. And we say, that's not right. You can't force people to do that. You just can't do that. And I say, well, what are we going to do instead? Kill the baby? Our society would say yes. And the Christian must say no. So the Israelites were tempted, would be tempted, and not only tempted, but committed. This terrible, terrible sin. This is not an old problem. And this is not a problem that you and I are exempt from. So the question comes to us, what are we going to do about it? What does it mean to be the salt of the earth regarding this issue? Are we to be silent? Are we to be accommodating of other people's beliefs and practices? They're gods, really. What are we to do? First a negative, and then a positive. The first, the negative is, you may never.

Under any circumstance, any circumstance, choose to kill your child. You may never do it. If you've done it, you're guilty of the sin of murder and often the sin of idolatry. I don't say this to say that there's not mercy or forgiveness for the sins that we commit. And yet just because God offers mercy and forgiveness and grace doesn't ever mean that we can become presumptuous of it. and think that we can sin that grace may abound. I can tell you, you will never ever ever want to have to confess that you've killed one of your children and you need forgiveness for it. You'll never want to do it. There will be nothing more terrible to you than to have to say things like that. And this sort of sin will drive a terrible wedge between you and God. So don't you ever do it. Under any circumstance, you may not. So that's the negative.

Negative commands, as we talked about in Sunday school a little bit, are hard to obey because you're just told not to do something. Okay, I won't do it. So as we learn more and more and more of what we're not supposed to do, we end up feeling like to be a Christian means to stand very still and to do nothing. And yet that's not the case. What's the opposite of child sacrifice, of abortion, as you see it represented in this text? Well, first, it's to trust God with your life and everything that you have. And everything that you lack, or you think you lack, you trust God. And you say, but it's not fair. And I say, what you have before you is heaven and hell. What they had before them was Egypt and the promised land. Don't choose Egypt. Don't choose slavery and bondage. Don't return to your sins. Trust God.

You say, I don't know how it's going to work. And I say, it's all right. You don't have to know how it's going to work. Your obligation is not to untie the knot. Your obligation is to walk by faith. God will work it out. And he will provide for you. So first, you have to trust God. Because that's the first thing that's going to keep you from looking for some provision somewhere else. It's to say, my God provides. Just like Abraham did on the mount with his son. The Lord provides. Second, and more particularly, you must love children. You have to love them. And to love them doesn't simply mean to have them. To love a child, to love children means far more than that. It means to have them. It means to raise them. It means to train them. It means to nurture them and protect them and to enjoy it. Many of you moms might say, well, it's not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Say, well, I'm sorry you didn't know it wasn't hard. I'm confident it will get harder.

But I'm also confident that it'll be worth it. And if you want the day when your children will rise up and call you blessed, then you have to put in the work. That's not a natural outcome of having kids. That's the outcome of God blessing your efforts as parents to love them and to disciple them. Another way of saying it is you all need to be fathers and mothers. Every one of you. You say, oh, I'm not married. And I say, okay. What did you need when you were six? What did you need when you were eight? What do the six and eight-year-olds around you need?

Are you able to provide it for them? Are you able to come alongside their parents and help them? Are your children the only ones who will receive the privilege of having your love and affection? Or will you love and care for other children that aren't your own? You see some kid with a runny nose, will you wipe it? That's how simple I'm talking, like how low the bar is. Twice I've been at a park with Vanessa recently. There's been a lot of rain, right? You know the big holes that go underneath swings? Our kids aren't allowed to play in all the water that collects in there. And I've sat at the same park twice. And I've watched other kids halfway up to their knees in the water with their nice shoes on because their parents aren't standing right there watching them. And I didn't say a word. And I think it was wrong for me not to say anything because I know that no parent's going to be happy about that. I sat and laughed and chuckled. That's what I did. But I think it was a failure.

I think I should have said to that child, don't do that. Your mother and father would not appreciate you. Take your shoes off and then go play in the water. That's all that needed to be said. Take your socks and shoes off, roll your pants up, go jump in the puddle. But I decided I'd just sit there and laugh and chuckle at the coming frustration for the parents when they realize what their children have done. So be fathers and mothers, both physical and spiritual. Rejoice in your love for children. It's nothing to be ashamed or silent about. Our society would have you think that it is. That you ought to hide your love for children. And that you ought to pay a lot of attention to how hard it is. But that's not what God says. God says children are a blessing. They're a heritage. They're a gift from the Lord. And so you ought to rejoice in them the way that you would with any other gift or blessing. And when other people look at you and you're out in the store and they go, it's jealousy. They wouldn't call it jealousy, but it's jealousy. When you hear things like, you wait until they get older.

It's because they see that you enjoy your kids and they're telling you don't enjoy them because they're going to make your life miserable later. And you tell them, I'm going to do everything in my power and have been to prevent that. I hope that my kids don't make my life the sort of hell that yours was. Who do you love more? Do you love your kids or do you love what the people at the grocery store have to say or at the park? You also should speak on behalf of the unborn as the Lord gives you opportunity. Note in our text that this was said to the sons of Israel as also to anyone who was in the land of Israel.

which means that they had an obligation to speak to those who weren't Israelites. That in this land, as you pass through, or you hadn't left yet, you can't do this. The command here was literally for them to take the Canaanites, who practiced this child sacrifice, and stone them. Because this land was the Lord's. It wasn't simply a law for his people, it was a law for the land. And so we have obligation as God's people to speak not only for ourselves and in our own life and our own building, but in this city and in this state and in this country. I want to end by reading to you a passage from 2 Corinthians chapter 6 about the distinction or the difference between Christians and unbelievers. So that it's fixed in your mind that you're not one in the same. You don't serve the same gods, they don't require the same sacrifices, and you may not have anything to do with them. But to love them,

and minister to them and call them to faith in Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 6, 14-18 says, Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out of their midst and be separate. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. This is our work. This is what it means to be Saul as regards this issue. Let's pray.