If you will, let's open our scriptures
tonight to the book of Leviticus, chapter 20. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, 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 his 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 any ways 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." Recently, I've been
reading and studying through the book of Leviticus. Its name
was given to it because it contains the laws and the ordinances connected
with the Levitical priesthood. Remember of the 12 tribes of
Israel, it was the tribe of Levi that God chose to bring to be
his priest, rather Aaron being the first of the high priest.
There's only three historical events recorded in this book
of Leviticus. Most of it gives what Matthew
Henry called, and I quote, laws concerning sacrifices and offerings,
meats and drinks, diverse washings and other peculiarities by which
God set that people apart for himself and distinguished them
from other nations, all which were shadows of good things to
come, which are realized and superseded by the gospel of Christ. Now, as I've been reading through
the book, I've come across several passages of scripture And I thought
I'd like to preach from that passage and come across another.
And I thought I'd like to preach from that passage. And this is
the latest one. And I pray the Lord will bless
the words that the thoughts that I have for us tonight. First
of all, what is meant by man giving his seed unto Molech? What does that mean? is the name of a false god. And
in the scriptures, in the Old Testament, this false god, his
name is spelled four different ways. In this passage, it is
L-E-C-H. It's also spelled L-O-C-H, Moloch. It's also spelled Milcom, M-I-L-C-U-M. and Malcolm, M-A-L-C-A-M. And this god, false god, was
worshipped especially by the Ammonites. Now the Ammonites
were descendants of Lot by one of his daughters. You remember
the incestuous relationship that Lot had with two of his daughters. The Ammonites descended from
that, and also the Moabites descended from that. And men worshipped
this god by offering human sacrifices. That's the way Molech was worshipped,
by offering human sacrifices, and in particular, infants. Infants. The image, from what we know
at least, the image of the idol, the false god, was made of some
kind of metal and it was heated. There was fire put in it some
way and the metal was heated and then the body of a child
that had recently been slain was placed in the arms of that
false god, that idol. Now, some believe that sometimes
even living infants were placed in the arms of that idol and
were sacrificed and burned to death. And that is what is meant
here by the scripture saying a man giving his seed, that is
his child, unto Molech. I want you to notice the word
again in verse two. Again, again. For the Lord, if you look back
just a few pages to chapter 18 and verse 21, the Lord had spoken
of this before. 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. Now, he had given this
commandment before, but now he repeats the commandment. The
Lord, you notice it says, he has profaned my name. If a person,
and of course he's speaking especially to Israelites, but not just to
Israelites as we read in that first passage, but a man who
would offer his seed unto Molech, God says, profanes my name. Neither shalt thou profane the
name of thy God. I am the Lord. The Lord gives men and women,
husbands and wives, children. And he gives us children to raise
for his glory, for his honor, to bring them up. As the scripture
says, in the nurture and in the admonition of the Lord. The proverb says train up a child
in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not
depart from it. When God here says I am the Lord,
to profane the name of the Lord. And if anyone did this, if anyone
was guilty of this, they were guilty of profaning the name
of the Lord, and God makes it clear when he says, I am the
Lord, God will avenge this iniquity. God will avenge this sin. If you look back to chapter 20,
we see that this was a capital offense. And if any man caused
or gave his seed unto Molech, he shall surely be put to death,
and put to death in the worst form, that is by stoning. Man would be stoned. It always had to be in the mouth
of two or three witnesses. Remember that. That had to come
before there was capital punishment. There had to be at least two
witnesses that testify that this man is guilty. I know he's guilty. I saw him. He's guilty and he
deserves to die. And those two witnesses, remember
this too, they were the first ones to cast the stone. They
were required to cast the first stones at this particular person
who was guilty. If the magistrates, God said,
now if the magistrates, if the civil rulers, if they wink at
this sin, they hear that someone's offered their son or their daughter
to Moloch, and they don't do anything. They let it slide,
they kind of act like, Well, we don't know anything about
it. Well, God says that he will take it upon himself to deal
with the man. If the civil rulers, if they
will not do it, God will do it. He said he would set his face,
set his face against him and his family to cut him off. Set his face against him. Notice
that in verse five. Then I will set my face against
that man. If the leaders won't do it. You
see, all power, the apostle Paul tells us in the book of Romans,
is ordained of God. And we have civil rulers. And
I thank God for them, don't you? Without the civil rulers that
we have, this world itself would be turned into a hell. I mean,
men need authority to rule over them. And God has ordained these
men, and the scripture says that the civil ruler does not carry
the sword in vain. In other words, he, the civil
ruler, is to carry out the law. The laws, like in this case,
the man's supposed to die, then the civil rulers are to make
sure that that takes place. I think, and I don't have this
in my notes, this is free now, but I just think in our country
right now, we're seeing the results of where the laws are not enforced
like they once were, and what are we turning into? A nation
of havoc, of pandemonium, where the strongest, rule and take
advantage of the weakest. No, there must be laws for men. Fallen man, remember, fallen
man needs laws to govern us. And in this case, if a man did
this, he was to be put to death. So that's my first point. What
is meant by a man giving his seed under Molech? We all understand
what that means. He sacrifices one of his children
to this false god. All right, the second question
is this. Was this a useless law? Was this
a useless law? Was there no need for this law?
Surely, and this is what I wrote down, surely no man No human
being would do something this awful, especially no Israelite. No son
of Abraham would be so fallen, so depraved that he would give
one of his children, sacrifice one of his children. Was this
a useless law? The laws that God gave unto this
nation, remember we read this in Deuteronomy chapter four,
and what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments
so righteous as all this law? No nation under the heavens had
ever received the laws to govern a nation like God gave to Israel. They were just laws. Righteousness. Righteousness. You know, it says that sin is
a reproach to any nation, but righteousness exalteth a nation. And this nation was given statutes
like no other country ever had. No other nation ever had just
laws, righteous laws. Surely this wouldn't be necessary.
Well, I want you to look with me in Psalms 106. Psalms 106. And let's go down to verse 34. This is sort of a rehearsal.
I assume David is the author of the psalm, and this is a rehearsal
of the history of the nation of Israel. Verse 34, they did
not destroy the nations. That was God's command, wasn't
it? And remember, God told Abraham
that when his descendants would come into the land, it would
take place at a particular time, and God said, because the iniquity
of the Ammonites was not yet full. Now, what we're talking
about tonight, a man offering his seed to an idol, is part
of the iniquity that filled the land. These six nations These
six nations that God said He would drive out. If the Israelites
would just follow Him, He would drive these nations out of the
land of Canaan. And they would inherit it. They
were to do their part. There's no doubt about that.
But they didn't do it. That's what the psalmist here
says, right? They did not destroy the nations. You say, well, how
can it be right? You know the command was to destroy
man, woman, boy, and girl. How could that be right? How
could God do that? We're talking about men and women
who were guilty of iniquity, of sin, to such a degree. The iniquity of the Amorites
was not yet full, but when that cup filled up, then it was judgment
that God brought upon them. It wasn't like they were innocent.
You say, well, what about the children? Well, children always
suffer because of their parents. Now that's just so. Here's a
man who he works on a job and he spends most of his paycheck
in liquor and things like that and doesn't take care of his
family. The children suffer. And that's
just true. And I'm going to say something
more about this in just a minute. We see this when God gave the
Ten Commandments. Yes, children, in one sense of
the word, they are innocent. They're not innocent before God.
We know that. But they do suffer because of
the sins of their parents. God said he would visit the iniquities
of the parents upon the children to the second and third generation. Let's read on here in Psalm.
They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded
them, but were mingled among the heathen
and learned their works. What was one of their works?
To offer their children to Molech. They learned their works and they served their idols,
which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons
and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even
the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed
unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Was this a useless law? We might
think like that, but no. This was a necessary law to give
to the nation of Israel. And we see they didn't heed it,
and they fell into doing the same things of the heathen that
were in the land. Now I want you to go to 2 Chronicles
with me. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 33. We'll begin reading in verse
1. 2 Chronicles chapter 33, verse
1. Manasseh. Now who is Manasseh? Manasseh is the son of Hezekiah. Remember Hezekiah was a king
of Judah, a descendant of David, and now his son, Manasseh, He
comes to the throne at 12 years of age when he began to reign. And he reigned 50 and five years
in Jerusalem. Now that was a long reign, 55
years. But did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord. Like unto the abominations of
the heathen. What was one of the abominations
of the heathen? They offered their children to
Molech, their seed to Molech, whom the Lord had cast out before
the children of Israel. For he built again the high places
which Hezekiah, his father, had broken down. Those altars and
high places where they worshiped false gods. His father Hezekiah,
a good king, a godly man, had broken those places down. But
now his son is on the throne and he He builds these things
again. He reared up altars for Balaam,
made groves and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served
them, worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets,
all of them, the hosts of heaven. Also, he built altars in the
house of the Lord, whereof the Lord has said, in Jerusalem shall
my name be Forever and he built altars for all the host of heaven
and the two courts of the house of the Lord and you imagine that
Where Solomon had built that beautiful? Temple with the courtyards
Around it and here this wicked King comes to the throne and
he puts altars to false gods in the courtyards and the very
place of worship to the true and living God and Now notice
this, and he caused his children to pass through the fire in the
valley of the son of Hinnom. Also, he observed times and used
enchantments and used witchcraft and dealt with a familiar spirit
and with wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight
of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And he set a carved image,
the idol, which he had made in the house of God. Set up a false
idol in the very house of Jehovah. Of which God had said to David
and to Solomon, his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which
I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put
my name forever. Neither will I anymore remove
the foot of Israel. from out of the land which I
have appointed for your fathers so that they will take heed to
do all that I have commanded them according to the whole law
and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses. So Manasseh
made Judah, now watch this, this king made Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem to err and to do worse to do worse than the heathen
whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the
Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not
hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon
them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which
took Manasseh among the thorns, bound him with fetters, and carried
him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction,
he sought the Lord, his God, and humbled himself greatly before
the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him, and he was entreated
of him. Oh, what a God we serve, right?
What a gracious God we serve. And he was entreated of him,
and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem
and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord,
He, was God. You notice where it tells us
Manasseh offered his children unto Molech was in the valley,
in the valley of Hinnom, verse six. He caused his children to
pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. Now from that word, or those
words there, that phrase, son of Hinnom, we get the Greek word
Gehenna. That's the word that the Lord
Jesus Christ used most often when he spoke about Hel, that
valley of Hinnom, a place of fire, a place of suffering, and
a place of clamor, Hel. Now, here's the third part of
my message. What are some truths to see when
considering this law, this law that God gave here in Leviticus
20? Well, I have four things I want to mention, and all of
them are very, very important. First of all, idol worship is
devil worship. That's what it is. We saw that
in the Psalm we read just a minute ago. In Psalm 106 we read, yea,
they sacrifice their sons and their daughters unto devils. Idol worship is devil worship.
When you read, this is what I meant a few minutes ago, when you read
the Ten Commandments as they're given in the 20th chapter of
Exodus, and remember the Apostle Paul said concerning one of them
was the first commandment of promise. Honor thy father and
thy mother. But you cannot help, when you
read those commandments, you cannot help but notice the second
commandment, which forbade making any image of anything in heaven
or earth, idolatry. It forbade that. You cannot help
but notice that those who practice that, it says there, who hate
God. Who hate God. Idol worship is
devil worship, and idol worship is the product of hating God. Now, you and I know tonight that
idol can be anything. We think of an idol, a statue,
or something we see people bowing down to. Yes, those are idols,
no doubt about it. This was an idol. this Molech,
in which they placed their infants in its heated arms. Yes, this
was an idol, but an idol may be anything that comes between
the Lord and our souls, anything. Remember, Paul called covetousness,
which is idolatry, he said. Yes, idol worship is devil worship
and idol worship is condemned in the word of God. You cannot
make anything to resemble God. He is invisible and the invisible
God became visible when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. They that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth, not through idolatry. A second truth
that comes to my mind is, natural men, I mean men apart from the
grace of God, it just seems that natural men know that forgiveness
of sins must come by sacrifice. There must be a sacrifice to
put away sin. Just seems like no matter when
a tribe, this doesn't happen anymore, I'm sure, but back in
the last century when tribes were discovered that nobody knew
about in various dark places of the earth, but yet they found
that no tribe was ever discovered that did not have a code of morality
and there were certain laws against certain things, and to appease
whatever God they worshipped, they believed there had to be
a sacrifice. There had to be a sacrifice.
Natural men just seem to know that. It just seems to be inherent
in us that to offend the Holy Lord God, our God, our Creator,
that For us to be reconciled unto Him, for our sins to be
put away, there must be a sacrifice. A sacrifice that He will accept. And that sacrifice, it seems
men know, must be precious. It must be costly. Psalm 49 in
verse eight says, for the redemption of their soul is precious. What could be more precious than
a man's children. What could be more precious to
a man than his children, and yet willing to offer his children
in sacrifice to appease a dunghill God? That's what the commentators
call these dunghill gods. You know what a dunghill is?
That's what all gods are. other than the true and living
God, Jehovah, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn
with me to Micah. Look over with me to Micah, one
of these minor prophets. Chapter six, if you will, Micah
chapter six. And verse 6, Micah 6, verse 6, wherewith shall
I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall
I come before him with burnt offerings and with calves of
a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall
I give my firstborn for my transgression? The fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul? Those questions are asked, but
now here's the answer. He hath showed thee, O man, what
is good. And what doth the Lord require
of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God? Now Robert Hawker, as far as
I'm concerned, he explains that last verse better than any other
commentator that I've ever read. He said this, if we explain verse
eight under the terms of the gospel, the meaning will be plain. To do justly, that's what he
requires of us, to do justly. We confess that in ourselves,
We are nothing but sin and justly deserve the wrath of God. That's
the first thing he requires of us, to do justly. Secondly, to
love mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ is himself. God's mercy to sinners and in
himself and his blood and righteousness. comprehends the whole mercy of
salvation. That's what he requires of us
to do justly, to love mercy, and third, to walk humbly with
God. Daily, as we go through this
life, confessing our sinfulness and our need of grace. Grace every day. A fourth thing
that I would mention is what a yoke of bondage. When you read
this law here in Leviticus and read a few chapters here, what
a yoke of bondage. The Lord Jesus Christ has freed
us from. That's what Peter called it,
wasn't it? In that council that they had
at Jerusalem, the law. of Moses, a yoke of bondage. I mean, there's so many different
ways you could become unclean and so many things you had to
do. You had to watch everything you
did. I mean, what a yoke of bondage
has the Lord delivered us from? The law of Moses. We're not under
that law. That law is good and righteous
and just, no doubt about that. But I'm so thankful today that
Christ has made us free. Where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. He that the Son shall make free
is free indeed. What a yoke of bondage you see
as you read through Leviticus. And the last thing, the fourth
thing, how truly amazing is the grace of the Lord. How truly
amazing is the grace of the Lord. We saw that Manasseh was guilty
of not only this sin, but so, so much more. He caused his children
to pass through the fire and made Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem to err and to do worse than the heathen that the
Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. And yet we read, that
in affliction he prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord was entreated
of him. Amen. Oh, what hope for sinners. What a testimony to that verse
in Romans 5 in verse 20. But where sin abounded, and it
did in Manasseh, didn't it? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. We sing that hymn, sometimes
wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching the most defiled, by its transforming
power, making him God's dear child, purchasing peace and heaven
for eternity, and the wonderful grace of Jesus. reaches me. Amen? If you can say that tonight,
the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. May the Lord bless
these thoughts.