Introduction Part One: Give Thanks With Me

I want to begin with a financial update from 2017. You may remember that we talked about the apostle Paul’s paradigm for giving in 2 Corinthians 8. We prayed this year that grace would come down, joy would come up, and generosity would flow forth. That prayer was answered in a big way this year.

We had budgeted for $10.7 million. Actual giving was almost $11 million. We raised about $250K more than we budgeted. And there was more of a surplus because we underspent the budget. And there was an added grace of generosity that further blew us away because an additional $800K came from people who had a heart to give special designated gifts for the South Campus.

How should we respond to all of this grace we have witnessed? First, we should be overflowing with thanksgiving. Second, we should beware of becoming complacent in 2018. Our Fill These Cities: 25 x ’25 giving initiative covers 25 months. We just completed the first half.

If the Vikings game taught us anything, it taught us that if you have a 17-point lead at half time, don’t become complacent so you need to throw a Hail Mary at the end. We don’t want to have to throw a Hail Mary and need another Minnesota miracle this coming December.

One additional encouragement: You really should come to the January Quarterly Strategy Meeting to see a two-minute video of a drone flying over the South Campus building. By the middle of this next week, we are told that the entire shell of the building should be up. That is amazing.

Introduction Part Two: Grieve With Me

January 22 is the 45-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Over 60 million unborn babies have been aborted in our nation since 1973. If we look worldwide, 1 billion, 442 million unborn babies have been aborted since 1980.

In order to move forward, I want to look back. It was Edmund Burke who said, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” The lessons God has for us are found in Deuteronomy 12:29–31.

Outline:

1. God’s Judgment (v. 29)
2. God’s Warning (vv. 30–31a)
3. God’s Reason (vv. 31b–c)

The main point is don’t follow the path of judgment. The logic for the three points is as follows: “When this happens (point 1), don’t do this (point 2), because of this (point 3). 

1. God’s Judgment (v. 29)

“When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land …”

God carried out a holy war against the nations for their sin. God used Israel to judge the nations, not because Israel was so pure, but because the nations were so evil. This point was made with prophetic clarity already to Abraham in the first book of the Bible in Genesis 15:13–16.

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

What is the warning they are to heed when these things happen?

2. God’s Warning (vv. 30–31a)

“Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way.”

Verse 31 shows that this warning unpacks the first commandment: Have no other gods before me. God says, “You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way” (v. 31). What way? Verse 30 pictures a process that leads to a pitfall. The Israelites will inquire about the gods of the nations. They will try to discover how these nations served or worshiped their gods. But then you have the stunning—no, suicidal—statement. Why would they want to know these things “that I also may do the same” (v. 30)?

Wait a minute. This is nonsense—literally—it does not make any sense. This is suicide. You saw them get destroyed for their sin. You carried out the judgment. You are a firsthand witness of it. Why would you want to follow them and learn about their false gods so you can copy them and become the same as them? This is suicidal insanity. If you become the same as them you will suffer the same fate as them. Don’t do that! Watch out! Take care!

3. God’s Reason (v. 31b-c)

“For every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.”

The underlying reason for the warning not to worship the true God in “that way” (i.e., these false ways) is that the Lord hates those things. Doing those things as part of the “worship of the Lord God” means you are lying about God and what he wants. He does not want those things. He hates them. Those nations did things for their gods that the One True and Living God hates with all of his infinite heart.

Exhibit A: One of the things they do that is most detestable to the Lord is that they burn their children in the fire. These nations do that for their gods. What kind of bloodthirsty, depraved god would want babies to burn? “Do you think I am like that? Are you going to compare me to Molech?” Leviticus 20 has already referenced this abominable god and warned the Israelites in the strongest possible way.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.”—Leviticus 20:1–5

What kind of God was Molech? Molech was the chief god of the Ammonites. He was a bloodthirsty deity of incredible cruelty. His statue had the head of a bull with arms outstretched to represent the receiving of children to be sacrificed.

The Point: The main point is don’t follow the path of judgment. Another way to say it is: Don’t play on the train tracks. You just saw some kids play on the train tracks, and they got run over. Why would you copy that?

But the insanity of all of this is that they did. They watched the train of judgment hit the nations and then a little while later they started playing there too. Child sacrifice becomes a tragic tale in Israel’s history: 

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.—2 Kings 16:2–3

The sad fact is that they failed to heed this warning.

“For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.”—Jeremiah 7:30–33

Why does God say that he did not command the burning of their children in the fire—no, he goes even further, “nor did it come into my mind”? It didn’t come into my mind is like another level of detesting. Not commanding would be, “I did not tell you to do it.” Not having it enter your mind is like saying, “I would never even think of such a thing!”

Child sacrifice profanes God’s holy name by lying about what God is like. This is bearing false witness at its worst. What is your God like? What does he love? He loves it when you sacrifice your children to him. What unthinkable blasphemy against who God really is.

Transition: Child Sacrifice in Ancient History

The abomination of child sacrifice rears its ugly head in various places in history. The Phoenicians, Israel’s neighbors to the North practiced child sacrifice. Phoenecian settlers then brought it to Carthage. It became notorious in Carthage. Archaeologists have discovered more than 20,000 burial urns filled with charred remains of babies. Some try to link the Ammonite god Molech with the chief god of Carthage, often called “Saturn,” or “Cronus.” One scholar of antiquity says the following:

There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a gaping pit filled with fire. (Diodorus Siculus)

The ancient historian Plutarch (1^st-century Greek historian) describes the scene in a little more detail:

The whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums so that the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people.

The moral clarity of Christianity on child sacrifice, infanticide, and abortion was forcefully clear from the start. Listen to the early church father, Tertullian, who lived in Carthage (155–240 A.D.).

For us murder is once for all forbidden; so even the child in the womb, while yet the mother’s blood is still being drawn on to form the human being, it is not lawful to destroy. To forbid birth is only quicker murder. It makes no difference whether one take away the life once born or destroy it as it comes to birth. He is a man, who is to be a man; the fruit is always present in the seed. (Tertullian)

Today’s Insanity

Every state in America has strict laws that provide protection for animals. Animal cruelty is a big deal, and it should be. If you heartlessly kill a kitty, the law is against you and you will be punished. And you should. But what does not make sense is that you can kill an unborn baby, and our law has nothing to say against you.

But we are talking out of two sides of our legal mouths. In 38 states laws provide protection for babies in the womb: these laws are called fetal homicide laws. Matt Chandler poses this problem in a very stark way:

If you’re a pregnant woman and you get in your car to drive toward the abortion clinic and, as you’re driving there, a drunk driver hits the car you’re in and kills your baby, he is charged with homicide, with involuntary manslaughter. He is arrested, prosecuted, and will go to jail.

But if you make it to the abortion clinic, for a fee, a doctor can take a vacuum pump and suck a baby with brain and nerve endings to pieces out of your womb. That’s a seared conscience. That’s madness. (Sermon on sanctity of life, Village Church 2014)

Today, some people have even stopped arguing about whether the unborn child is child or a human life. Some people who know the child is a child are still saying it is OK to kill them in the womb. Chandler quotes from Mary Elizabeth Williams, who wrote an article on January 23, 2013, called “So What If Abortion Ends Life?” Here is her case for the legality of abortion.

Yet I know that throughout my own pregnancies, I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was carrying a human life inside of me. I believe that’s what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn’t make me one iota less solidly pro-choice.

What possible reason could she give? Here it is:

Here’s the complicated reality in which we live. All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.

Translation of Her Argument: I know there is a child in my womb, but I matter more.

This is the ugliness of selfishness on display. Where do we get the power to decide who is superior and who is inferior? How do we decide who has more value and who has less value?

The Similarities Between Child Sacrifice and Abortion

There are many parallels between child sacrifice and abortion.

First, in both practices, parents actually kill their own children.

Second, both child sacrifice and abortion sacrifice children in exchange for something that they value more. It is a little unnerving to read about how many self-serving reasons there were to sacrifice your children. If they wanted some special favor from this false god, they would vow one of their children and burn it as a sacrifice to the deity in exchange for success in something. But child sacrifice also served some practical selfish functions. One reason was to consolidate family wealth. If there were many children, then the inheritance would be divided into many pieces.

There is also evidence that men would consort with female priests at the temple. The children born to the female priests would then be sacrificed to the false gods. Perhaps that explains the puzzling fact that child sacrifice is mentioned in a list of sexual sins in Leviticus 18 like incest, adultery, homosexuality, and bestiality. In other words, child sacrifice offered a convenient way to dispose of the children who were the consequences of these immoral practices.

Sometimes the upper class families would purchase children from poor families to sacrifice them. Sometimes child sacrifice would happen as a plea deal with the false god: A disabled child in exchange for the hope of a healthy child. Two inscriptions at Carthage even show that occasionally the parents would sacrifice a defective child hoping to later receive a healthy one as a substitute. In one inscription a man named Tuscus says that he gave Ba’al “his mute son Bod’astart, a defective child, in exchange for a healthy one.”

Why do people get an abortion? Some doctors today will almost automatically assume that if you will have a baby with disabilities that you should abort them. Some see abortion as a way to escape the unwanted consequences of sexual activity. Abortion is sacrificing a child on the altar of advancement. It could be career advancement, it could be relationship advancement, it could be financial advancement.

This is true of all oppression. St. Augustine said it this way: We use what we are supposed to love and love what we are supposed to use. In other words, things like money we are supposed to use for the cause of love—we are not supposed to use people in order to get money. The disordering of love can be seen in so many forms of oppression. Slavery used people to get financial prosperity. Rich people take advantage of the poor (use them) to get something they love (money). The #MeToo movement is another example that has shown how people use people to get something they love (sex and power). Domestic abuse puts such a high premium on control (love) that it would use and abuse a spouse just to maintain it. You use and abuse people and the bottom line argument is, “They don’t want that, but what I want matters more. 

Are you willing to look at your life and see if you are using people in your life to get things that you love? People have value not as a commodity that can get you things you really want. They have value because they are made in the image of God. He is supremely valuable.

Conclusion

What should we do? First, repent. Some need to repent for having gone through the process of abortion. Some need to repent for pushing someone to get an abortion. Some of us need to repent for looking the other way. Leviticus 20:4–5 reminds us of this reality:

 “And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people …”

This call to repent is good news. Knowing who the true God really is gives you every reason to repent. You know that he is holy and does not wink at sin. And you know that you can repent for your sins because he is merciful and has provided a sacrifice for sins. There is a sacrifice sufficient to forgive and cleanse. The shedding of innocent blood can only be forgiven by a greater sacrifice—the shedding of the innocent and infinitely valuable blood of Jesus. Perhaps the most surprising thing of all is how God responds to sinners who have done things that he hates—he sent the Son that he loves. He doesn’t demand a sacrifice from people before he will give them something. He gives himself in the sending of his Son—a sacrifice for all of our sins and wickedness. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from every reason that God has to judge us.

The apostle Paul persecuted God’s people and happily approved of their murder. But the oppressor met Jesus. When sin and grace meet, grace wins. The Savior is stronger. Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. Paul said he was the chief of sinners and God made an example out of him—of Jesus’ perfect patience and perfect redemption. You can’t out-sin the grace of Christ. It covers you and washes away every stain.

Second, we need to pray. Knowing who God really is means you have every motivation to pray. Once we see God’s heart, we need to pray in accord with it. We are praying for something to end that God hates. We are praying in accord with his will and heart.

Third, we need to act. Don’t look the other way and close your eyes to this horror and do nothing. This obedience will flow from our worship. Knowing him becomes a means of obedience. The sacrifice of Christ forever changes us. People become like what they worship. The people who worshiped “Saturn” became like him. According to the myth of the false god Saturn, he swallowed up his first five children because it was said that one of them was going to dethrone him. He killed his children to save himself. When people worshiped Saturn, they tried to please him by imitating him.

God gave his own Son to rescue us. Is there something similar that happens when we receive Jesus and give our lives to worship this God? Yes. We have hearts set on rescue because we are made in the image of the Rescuer.

I believe that this insanity will end. Some of our kids and grandkids watch a movie like hidden figures and wonder why black people had to use a separate rest room. They don’t have a category for it. They just know it is wrong. Why would someone do that?? One day, our grandchildren or great-grandchildren will look back at these days and think we were barbarians.

I am pleading with you to not play on the tracks of God’s judgment. God has provided a sacrifice. The Son of God came and took on flesh and stepped in front of us on the tracks as our Substitute—he took the blame and bore the wrath and stopped the train. Death is defeated. Heaven is opened. Run to him. Don’t test him by following the path of judgment. Don’t test him. Worship him.

Sermon Discussion Questions