In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal story of how he realized he was lost and disobedient to his parents. Despite being involved in church activities and memorizing scripture, he had lied and deceived his parents. The speaker emphasizes the importance of keeping God's commandments and honoring parents as a sign of being a child of God. He recounts a moment of brokenness and repentance where he sought forgiveness from God and his mother, and experienced the assurance of God's forgiveness. The sermon highlights the need for genuine commitment and passion to please God, rather than just going through religious motions.

When the human family was rather small in number, when they were confined perhaps to the Tigris-Euphrates area or to that part of the world we know now as the Near East, we must remember that the number of demons, or angels than my judgment, angels that fell to Lucifer, a fixed number, not being multiplied, not being increased, were confined to the area where men worked. And so you would find that every little hill or field or valley or river would have its owner. And Baal worship consisted of the placating or the satisfying of the evil spirit that was in control of a given location. So as the Israelites had come across the Jordan and into the land, they had displaced some of the people that were there, and they'd taken over the fields. And I can imagine someone who lingered from among the people, we know that that was the case in certain instances at least, and I can see one of these men of the land walking by and he sees an Israelite toiling in the field that once he'd owned, and he says, you know, when I had that field, I had a much bigger crop than you do. Why is that? Are you a better farmer than I am? No, no. But you see that pile of stone? Yes, I've wondered about that pile of stone. Well, you see, there's an owner of this field, an invisible personality, an evil spirit. And your problem is, you see, that's what he used to do to me when I didn't sacrifice to him, when I didn't pray to him. Look at that. See how spotty that grain is and how withered it is here? That's what he does. But if you want a better crop, all you need to do is to go down there and just sprinkle the blood of a chicken and put it on those rocks, because that red there, that black, that's blood from the chickens I killed. And you put that down in the evil spirit, well, your field will fry. Oh, you'll be amazed what'll happen. Well, he's been forbidden to worship and serve other gods. But you know, his wife wants some new pots, wants some new copper kettles. And she's been talking to him about some, some, another oxen. And if he just could get grain through all the field, the way it is in part of the field, then, so the next year, it just happens. Now, he didn't do it deliberately. It just happens that a knife falls on a chicken right by that pile of stone. And he holds it up, and the blood sprinkles. Now, he wasn't doing it, but he just, just wanted to see, you know, a little. And to his amazement, the grain grows, and it's even. And the bugs and the grasshoppers aren't there. And the crop, people say, what did you do with the land? Well, no, no, I just, I'm just learning how to farm this field. But somebody comes and says, well, what really did you do? Well, you see that pile of stones down there? Now, they served Jehovah, they worshiped Jehovah, but they served the gods of the land. They compromised. Why? Because they wanted things. They wanted things. What's the other thing? The lust of the flesh, that's the gratification of the appetite. What's the lust of the eye? Things that can be seen and handled and felt and counted and weighed. This was the reason why they broke the commandment. Because it was going to be the means by which they could acquire the things that they lusted for, and they longed for, and they wanted. And so, they worshiped Jehovah, but they served, they feared the gods of the land, and brought on them judgment from God. Then we find something else. Down along the years, another form of worship comes in, and that, the worship of Moloch. Now, the word Moloch is another Arabic, Semitic word. The radicals are M-L-K. In the Arabic that I spoke in the Sudan years ago, we had the word Moloch. Moloch meant king. And I recall when King Farouk went for the opening of Parliament in Egypt in 1945, we were at the American University, and we were all out there at the gate because the parade was going right past the gate there of the fence of the American University, and all of us were glued to it. On the other side were the throng of the Kyrenes, the citizens of Cairo. And as they could see the beautiful Arabian horses with the uniformed riders coming, all the same color and same size, and prancing so proudly, and then the gilded royal coach, the people took up a cry, Moloch Kabir! Moloch Kabir! Great King! Great King! Well, that's the word Moloch. Just another form of it. The worship of Moloch. We have little evidence of it from archaeology and some writings. The Moloch was generally represented by a statue, a statue that would probably be twenty, thirty feet high, usually if possible carved out of one rock, but sometimes made out of a variety of rocks fitted together. And it was a figure of a royal figure seated on a throne or on a royal stool, and his hands would be out across his thighs and his fingers together, and thus the thighs and the arms would form a basin. Carved up through the rock was a channel, and down behind was a place where they could put the skins of large goats or small cattle, and they could run a bellows and force the air up, bring it down and fill it and then force it up. And they put a charcoal fire up there in the lap, and then the worshippers would come. This was done by the people of the land when Israel went in. It was there. But what did they do? They served Jehovah, and they worshipped and feared the gods of the land. So what did they do? Here would be an Israelite. He had the things he wanted, and somehow he found a way to compromise with the word of God that said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. And so now he wanted position. He wanted power. Power over his fellows. Power! Because that was the ultimate satisfaction. He'd already gratified his appetite. He'd already acquired things, and what was left? The pride of life. Position. Now what would he do? His wife, who would share his ambition, would agree with him. And they'd just be out walking with these Israelites, these Jews, and they'd take their little baby, maybe on the eighth day of his life, the twelfth day, when he was very young, their firstborn son. And they'd just happen to be walking by on the day of worship of Moloch. And they would have on a disguise so they'd have on the dress of the people of the land, or they wouldn't go with their Israelitish robes. They'd identify. And so they'd walk down, carry the baby. And they would be alive, and they'd just happen to get in the line, that's all. And they weren't really intending to do anything terribly serious. You know, it was just what was being done. And so she'd say, Well, what about it? And she'd say, Well, look what it's done for them. And so they'd come to their place that they were in line. And the mother would hand the little baby that she's supposed to love, eight days ago, their firstborn son, or their son as it might have been another. And the father would stand there, he's been watching his other father's cane. And he'd look into his son, and whatever love there was would be lost in his vanity and his pride and his ambition. And so then this father would take his little child as the youngster does a basketball. And he would throw the child up, hoping the trajectory was such that the child would land right in that basin of flame. That's what it meant to make their children pass through the fire. Now, what we have, what we have is the fact that these people had a name to live. Oh, they were of Israel, but they were dead, because they didn't keep his commandments. Oh, they went through the motions of serving Jehovah, but they feared and they served the gods of the land. Now, what does our text tell us? It tells us by this, we know that we are the children of God because we keep his commandments. How do you know that you're a child of God? Because you've turned to God from idol to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven. Now, what does this mean? This means, young people, that when you have been come forward, you've been signed a card, you've been talked to, perhaps you've even been baptized. But like my Jim, of whom I told you last Sunday night, you'll find that there is no inclination or commitment nor purpose nor passion in your heart to please God, and that you dishonor your parents. That's one of the commandments. Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother. God used that commandment to prove to me that even though I was a church member, I was lost. Do you hear me? I was lost because I lied to my parents, I disobeyed my parents, I deceived my parents, and yet I prayed in Sunday school, I recited scripture verses, I earned the Bible memorizing, and God used his law to show me I was lost, that I had dishonored my parents. Because the law is the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. And I'll never forget, three weeks after I had received the Lord Jesus Christ, we were getting up at three in the morning because of drowse. Our horses couldn't stand the awful heat, the dry weather and the heat. So we'd get up at three and go out into the cornfield and cultivate till six, then come in and milk the cows and get back in the field by seven and have to get out by nine thirty or ten at the latest, or the horses would have died of exhaustion. And this particular day it was eight fifteen or so, my horses were panting, I just had to let them stand, and I was, my water bottle was empty so I took it off the back of the cultivator seat and went up to fill my water bottle and soak the burlap that had been sewed around it in the water tank so I'd have some cool water to drink. And my mother came out of the kitchen door and out of the porch and she saw me and she said, Oh Sonny, I'm so glad to see you. I'm so glad to see you. I've got some errands for you. Well, for every, for several days I'd been getting up at two thirty and getting out in the barn and harnessing the horses in the dark and I was about fourteen years of age and doing a man's work along with my father and the hired man trying to keep that corn from withering, trying to stir the dirt around it a little. And I did something I hope none of you understand. I sassed my mother. And she looked at me and grew back a little and she said, But all I want you to do, and I sassed her again. And then she said, But, but I need your help and I sassed her a third time. And she looked at me as though I'd hit her with a horse whip across the face. And she said, Sonny, I thought you were a Christian. And she turned and walked back in the house. I put my bottle down on the top of the cow tank and I went out into the mangers, climbed up into the hay and found a valley in the hay. And I threw myself down and I sobbed like a baby. And I said, Oh, God, I promised you I'd never do this again. I promised you that if you would save me, I'd never dishonor my parents again. And I've done it. And I don't know whether it's unsaved me or what it's done, but, oh, God, I hate it. And I started to sob. And somehow in the midst of that brokenness, I heard the strains of an old camp meeting song. Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin, the blood of Jesus whispers peace. And I knew he'd forgiven me. I knew he'd pardoned me. And I knew that somehow I was his child. And I dried my tears and I got up and I went down and I found my mother and I asked her to forgive me. And I did the errand she wanted. And I filled my bottle and walked back to the horses. And it had been less than 20 minutes. And I went back sorry and wiser. But I knew two things. I knew one, I'd been born of God because I hated sin. And I wanted to please God and I wanted to keep his commandments. And I knew I'd carried into the Christian life a traitor that would betray me if I gave it half a chance. That traitor was me. And so he says, if you love me, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. My commandments are not grievous to you. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar. And the truth is in him. Whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. Let me ask you today, what do you have that great confirmation? That you want to please God? That it's the passion of your heart to please God? That you've committed your will to please him? Or do I talk to some people tonight that were like me, that were church members, that knew all the answers, and they had everything but a new heart and a new life and a new nature and a new spirit? I think I'm talking to both. I think some of you here just like me. And I'm saying to you tonight that God, in his sweet and tender love, is wooing you. You know your own heart. You know your own love. And so I'm speaking to you that by God's wisdom and light to your old spirit, you say, oh, I have to be honest with me. I'm like you were. I'm like your son Jim was. I've got all the answers and I know all the words, but I don't have reality. I don't have reality. And I must have it. I'm asking you tonight to do something about it tonight, because this is the time to do it now. Now is the accepted time. Then I'm talking to you, the rest of you, or some of you at least, that were like me. You know you've been born of God, but there's come into your life that which has grieved him, and you hate it. You do want to please him. And you don't have a haymow that you can go to, but the Spirit of God has shown you the thing in your life that grieves him. Well, why don't you make this all to your haymow tonight? And you get alone with him. And you tell him how much you hate the thing that's crept into your life, and come in, because the purpose of your heart is to keep his commandments, and you haven't done it, and you want to. And then there are some that say, well, I've dealt with that, but oh, that I could have victory, that I could know how I wouldn't have to grieve him. Can you help me? And I think we can. We can. Because God has given us provision. He's faithful. He's not going to let us be tempted above what we're able. But will the temptation make a way of escape? We'll be able to bear it.