Amen. So thanks for coming tonight. We're in Deuteronomy chapter 28 and you know it's a
longer chapter and but you have to remember in this book you know this is basically this entire
book is Moses just giving his parting words before he dies before he passes away and Joshua
takes over and leads them in the promised land. So of course you know he's taking a lot of
time to really lay things out and chapter 28 is is really you know kind of a crescendo.
I mean we've been reading through Deuteronomy going through it verse by verse chapter by chapter
for several weeks now and we see a lot of you know warnings in the word of God. He alludes to
a lot of these curses that God will bring upon them and warns them and over and over
but chapter 28 I mean he just really lays it on thick and just reminds them of all these
terrible things that are going to come upon them and it starts there in verse one it says
and it shall come to pass if thou shalt harken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God
to observe and to do all his commandments which I command in this day that the Lord thy God
will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. So of course he starts out the chapter
reminding them of all the good things that God wants to do for them. You know it's not just
that God is sitting there just waiting for a chance to hammer these people or you know to
come down hard on them but God knows what is in man and he knows the man's nature so he
does issue this very stern warning that if they do go astray that God is going to chasten
them severely and we just read through it there I mean that chastening is no joke I mean
that is some serious judgment that God is bringing down upon them where they're going to
be groping in the noon day you know they're going to be blind wandering about even after God has
taken away all these things from them and given them physical diseases and sores then he's even
going to remove them to a far distant land where they're going to be a stranger they're
going to worship false gods and they're just going to be nothing but afraid. I mean this
is such a strong warning in the word of God and the irony is of course that is exactly
what happens these these exact things fall out onto these people in a few generations we know that
they're they are worshiping other gods they're not following after his commandments you know
and it just goes to show you that God's not bluffing then when God says hey this is what
I'll do you know if you get out of sorts you know that he went ahead and did that
you know he sent the uh the Assyrians you know he sent the Babylonians and he and he
besieged their cities and he took them captive these things happened so God's not you know
just bluffing up in heaven when he lays these things out he's not just trying to wax eloquent here
or or sound you know this isn't just a blustery speech by Moses this is what God does
when he chastens his people so but of course it starts out on a more positive note
right and I don't again don't want people to get the idea that that's all God is about
you know that he just wants to you know come down and drop the hammer on people because it
starts out there and saying if thou shalt hark and diligently voice the Lord thy God to observe
and to keep his commandments the verse two that all these blessings shall come on thee
so God's starting out saying look there's there's you can be on one of two sides with me
you know you could get at my good side or you can get my bad side and of course you know
it goes without saying that being on God's good side you know that's what's beneficial for
for us as individuals and as entire nations I mean God is speaking to the nation of Israel here
and of course we know that God can judge a nation the Bible says that all nations shall be
turned into hell that forget God but nations we have to remember are also composed of individuals
we can apply this as well to our own personal lives you know maybe God's not going to smite us
with the burning and the itch and all these things he might too but you know God will chasten
us in other ways as well you know we want to make sure as Christians that we're coming down
on God's good side you know I talked about this a little bit on my Sunday afternoon service
where I was talking about how you know some people have this mistaken notion as very popular
notion that's out there in Christianity today that God that there is no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus you know but that verse go on and says it says as I mentioned
that sermon to them that walk not after the flesh you know if we walk in the flesh and
do those things that are contrary to the word of God you know God is going to chasten us
that's just the way it is but that's not what God wants you know we have so we have to decide
in our life what side of God do we want to come down on and if you would keep something
there in Deuteronomy 28 and go over to Psalm 144 Psalm 144 so we could apply this to individuals
and even as entire as whole nations you know the Bible says in Psalm 133 blessed is a nation
whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance so the
nation that chooses the Lord you know they're going to be blessed those that are going to
follow after his commandments the nation that's going to follow him will be blessed
and also says in Psalm 146 happy is he that hath a God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the
Lord his God so we even might even be in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation today
but we can also solace ourselves in the fact of knowing that if we as individuals make
the Lord our God that even when a nation is being judged around us we could still be pleasing
to God we could still have the blessing of God in our life you know we could think about
some of the prophets you know Jeremiah and Isaiah of course those men suffered
but ultimately they love God and their outcome ultimately was good you know they had to go
through some suffering but even in the midst of this judgment that their nation was going
through God preserved them through that you're there in Psalm 144 look at verse 11 it says
rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children whose mouth speaketh vanity
and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood that our sons may be as plants grown up in
their youth that our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of
a palace that our garners may be full affording all manner of store that our shape sheep may
bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets excuse me that our oxen may be strong
to labor that there be no breaking in or going out that there be no complaining in our
streets you know this is the prayer that we ought to have and everyone would want that no one
in any nation would say no we don't want to prosper you know we don't we want starvation
we want sickness we want all these hard things to come we want to we want to live in a depressed
economy nobody wants that everyone would read that and say yeah that sounds like a good prayer
i would love to have all that but notice there at the end it says in verse 15 happy is the
people that isn't such a case yea happy is the people whose God is the Lord so that's kind of
the clause that's associated with this blessing you know we all a lot of people like the fruit
but they don't like the tree they don't want to have to you know do the work to get that
fruit you know and there's an if you're associated with the blessing of God if you
notice that in verse one it said and it shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken of the
diligently in the voice of the Lord thy God then the blessings come you know this is an
if and it even continues there in verse nine it says the Lord shall establish thee and holy
people unto himself as he has sworn into thee if thou shalt keep the commandments of the
Lord thy God and walk in his ways so if we don't walk in God's commandments if we don't
keep his ways then these blessings aren't going to apply to us you know and we we can't just
hope for these to come while we're living a wicked and sinful life or if you know a
nation cannot expect to have these blessings from God as it's you know practicing all sorts
of abominations as it's it's as it's practicing and promoting wickedness you know we can't just
sit back and expect God to just turn a blind eye and even people would even assume to go so far
and say well God's going to bless us anyway no he's not you know this is this is clear in
the word of God look at verse 13 and the Lord shall make the head and not the tail and
thou shalt be above above only and thou shalt not be beneath if thou hearken unto the
commandments of the Lord thy God there it is again you know we have to understand that
God's blessing is dependent upon whether or not we obey whether as individuals or even as entire
nations he said which I command this day to deserve observe and do and thou shalt not go
aside from any of the words which I command in this day to the right hand or to the left
to go after other gods and serve them so really what I also want to point out in this
chapter is is we got to notice this principle you know there's a blessing and there's the curse
there's the blessing for the obedience and there's the curses for the disobedience
and what that should show us in the word of God is there's no there's no breaking even with
the Lord there isn't like this middle ground where we're not being blessed but we're not
being cursed you know we're just kind of neutral with God he's just passively you know not
you know you know acting out on us for our good or for or bad that doesn't exist it's
either one or the other we're either living a life that's pleasing to God as individuals or
as nations or we're living lives that are displeasing to God we're either going to
we're either going to enjoy the the pleasures and the benefits of God's blessing upon us as
people as individuals and families and or as nations or we're going to experience the curse of
God as individuals and nations you know if we fail to keep God's commandments and and we
don't hearken unto his ways you know we're going to be cursed but if we do you know
we're going to be God is going to bless us and what this shows us is that God proactively
works against those that are disobedient to his word God doesn't just say oh shucks and turn
a blind eye when he sees his children misbehaving when he sees some wicked nation
he doesn't just you know turn a blind eye to that he proactively reaches out and touches that
nation and he reaches out and touches us as individuals and works in our lives
why to make us get right so that we'll quit doing those things that he are displeasing to him
and start to walk in newness of life so what also we can notice here is that because there is
you know there is no middle ground with God right but notice that you know God is trying
to motivate them before God gets in all these negative things that are coming he starts out
with the blessing and and if the blessings of God you know aren't enough to motivate you
you know maybe the curse of God will you know if God's blessing in your life isn't
enough to make you do right well then maybe it's going to take the negative reinforcement
to get people to do right the Bible says in James chapter 4 I'll read to you
the adulterers and adulterers says know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God whosoever therefore shall be a friend of the world is the enemy of God
so even we as believers as Christians if we start to adopt these worldly philosophies
if we pattern our lives after the world and not after the after the way God would have us to
pattern our lives we will actually make ourselves the enemy of God and God is not this
you know you could have a lot of people as your enemy right and maybe even be okay by and large
but if God's your enemy I mean that's that's that's some that's pretty heavy I mean I don't
know anybody I would rather have that I would want to be my enemy let alone God I mean if
anybody you could have is your enemy why would you want to make God your enemy but is that
not what I mean the James has written to believers I mean you go read chapter one and
it's brethren brethren brethren you know these things apply even to us we can't have this
mentality that oh we're saved and now God's just gonna you know ignore all of the sin and
all the disobedience in our life no God's not going to ignore it in fact God is going to
work in your life and we understand that God is gracious and long-suffering and slow to anger
but let's not push the envelope and find out where that line is with God where it turns
where it goes beyond just this chase this light chasing to where now God is really just
going to start coming down hard on us you know as individuals or even as nations in the
Bible says in Hebrews 10 it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God
and that's a very true statement I mean we love you know the statements that Jesus made about how
you know he has us in his hand and no man is able to pluck him out of his hand
and we love that but keep in mind also that that's God's hand that you're in
and now that you're in God's hand I mean he can do whatever he wants
with your life and if and if we are going to you know live a disobedient life a sinful life
it shouldn't surprise us when God starts to come down on us I mean we read that chapter
I mean that is a very fearful thing I mean there's things in there that if they actually
played out in our lives or in our nation I mean it would be a horror show but that's exactly what
happens I mean we read about that later in the history of Israel that stuff happened all those
things that it talked about but what I want us to notice here also is the ratio of
blessings to cursings you know you probably noticed that it kind of started out on that
positive note and then it just seemed like the whole rest of the chapter was just curse curse
curse curse curse and in fact you know the first 14 verses are all blessings but this is
you know over 60 verses long so the next 29 verses you know twice as many curses are then
given as blessings you know the first 14 it's just God's going to bless you if you do this
and this is what's going to go great for you and this is going to be good in your life
and then he gets to verse 15 and it's just like cursing cursing cursing cursing for the
next 29 verses and it's you know God's curse isn't something that we should just say
well you know I'll just deal with it you know I can just you know if God's upset with me
and God doesn't like the way I'm doing things you know I'll just take it I don't think we
really want that you know as individuals but especially as a nation you know and hopefully
everything that's going on right now will start to wake people up in this country
to what's going on because I do believe that what we're experiencing is the judgment of God now when
we read this what we're experiencing pales in comparison you know but I do believe it is you
know it's a warning shot it's God you know very you know gently reminding us that things
can get much worse than they are and here's the thing we don't want to get this attitude of
well whatever God does you know if he's displeased with me I can take it I'm sure
I can handle no you can't because when God curses an individual or a nation
I mean he curses every aspect of these people's lives there's not an area of their
life that we read about that isn't touched by the curse of God I mean he messes with
everything that's going on with their life where they can't they can't make a move
without running in to God's wrath I mean we'll just go through it real quick here look at
verse 17 cursed shall be thy basket and thy store cursed shall be the fruit of thy body
and the fruit of thy land and the increase of thy kind the flocks of thy sheep he's going to
mess with your food he's going to mess with your basket and your store right we kind of see
just a little bit of that right now right he's our baskets got messed with down there right
we're going down to the trader joe's and the whole foods and the grocery stores or whatever
you know and we're pushing our basket through our store and our favorite food item is gone
and he's kind of messing with now is it to this degree it's nowhere near to this degree
but God he messes when he God decides to come down on a people he messes with every
area of their life it's not like he's just going to focus in on this one thing
and then they could just go about their merry way about everything else he starts
out there in verse 17 messing with the the food you know the kind the the flocks of the
sheep now look at verse 20 the Lord shall send upon the cursing and vexation and root
and excuse me and rebuke and all that thou set us thine hand to do oh maybe God's messing with
my economy he's messing with my job you know but I'll just go do this instead well God's
going to mess with that too you know oh oh God's God's messing with the economy so we're
just going to put out a stimulus package well God can mess with that too and God's going to
God's going to judge every area of a people's life when he wants to look at verse 30 and he
gets real personal here thou shalt betrothed the wife and another man shall lie with her
thou shalt build a house and thou shalt not dwell therein thou shalt plant to vineyard and
thou shall not gather the greats thereof thine act ox shall be slain before thine eyes and
thou shall not eat thereof thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face
and shall not be restored thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies and thou shalt not have none
to rescue them thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people and thine eyes shall
look and fail with longing from them all the day long and there shall be no might in thine hand
the fruit of thy land and all thy labors shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up
and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always I mean what's left God's touching
everything here God's messing with every area of these people's lives their food their families
their raiment their houses everything when God comes down on a nation or a people he means
business and we can't get this attitude that well you know maybe this will go wrong
but you know we'll still be able to do this or that or the other thing no God's going to
touch all of it so that's one thing that's very frightening about the judgment of God upon a
nation or upon an individual that God will be against you at every turn not only that but
probably even more frightening that is the fact that God's curse is inescapable it's not like
you're just going to be able to say well you know God's judging me here so I'll just pack
up and move to another city and run away from my problems that's not going to work either
God can follow you everywhere you go look there in verse 16 curse it shall thou be in the
city and curse it shall thou be in the field oh it's not going too well here in the city
I guess I'll go out in the field well I'm cursed there too verse 19 curse thou shall be when
thou come in and curse shall thou be when thou goest out look there at the latter end of
verse 20 until thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly verse 21 the Lord shall make
the pestilence cleave unto thee you know this covid thing is pretty serious it's not
good a lot of people are dying you know it's really contagious but I don't think it's going
to be something that cleaves unto us this pestilence isn't going to be something that just
cleaves hopefully hopefully you know the everyone's right you know the the statisticians and the
people that you know study these these viruses and epidemics and all that that are telling us hey
we just got to get through this peak just get over this curve and then things will start to
flatten back out you know well what if what if God decided to do that just say well no it's
just going to clean to you this is the way it is from now on I mean can it get to that
point and that's what the bible is telling us and it's a strong warning from the word of God
that we see here due to deuteronomy 28 that when God decides to curse there's nowhere to run
there's nowhere to hide there's nothing that's going to prosper and if it's up to God he'll
just keep going and going and going look at verse uh look at there towards the end of ladder
verse 22 ladder and verse 22 they shall pursue thee and tell thou perish it's not that
you're going to oh they're going to run you off your enemies are going to run you off and then
God's going to pull them back no he's just going to let him keep chasing you until he gets every
single one of you and he goes on verse 23 and the heaven that is over thy head shall be brass
and the earth that is under thee shall be iron look at verse uh ladder and verse and we'll
start in verse 24 the Lord shall make the reign of thy land powder and dust from heaven
shall it come up on upon thee until thou be destroyed I mean he's saying look I'm just going
to keep judging you and judging you and judging you and judging you until there's until you're
just destroyed look down there at verse 44 verse 45 moreover all these curses shall come
upon thee and pursue thee and take and overtake thee till thou be destroyed when God decide put
gets it in his mind and he decides well I'm just going to judge these people severely
nobody's going to stop him I don't care how many stimulus packages they roll out I don't
care how many you know national guard units they call up how much they mobilize the military
when God has had enough with the nation he'll judge it and that's it and what we should take
away from this is that we as individuals you know even in the midst of that nation you know
we don't want to have a part in this I mean obviously we're all going to have to suffer to
some degree if this happened but we had we can at least have the the peace of knowing
that if we're right with God that God will in wrath remember mercy on his people
but you know this is some you know real negative preaching this is a real strong
warning out of the word of God but the fact that it starts out with God's blessing with
God saying look I'll bless you if you do this and I'll bless you here and I'll bless you there
and then goes into all these curses it tells me that God's preference is to have you know
is positive reinforcement I think God would prefer to bless people like that's God's desire
God wants to look down on a nation or an individual and see them following after his commandments
and living for him and doing what's right him being able to just open up the storehouses of
heaven open up the windows of heaven and just pour out a blessing upon them and that's what
we read about I mean God was going to make them very prosperous God was willing to make them just
just over just abound with blessings to be the head and not the tail that where every nation
would look at them and just be in awe and just be in wonder and that they would be a light
unto the gentiles that's what God's desire is God would rather use positive reinforcement
than the negative and the proof of that is that it starts out that way and the Bible says in
Romans chapter 2 I'll read to you from verse 3 it says and thinkest thou this oh man or that
judges them which do such things and do is the same that thou shall escape the judgment of God
or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering how do people
end up in a position where they are cursed in such a way is it because God's just some
you know uh maniacal you know vindictive uh God would just just hell-bent on punishing people
no he God is the Bible says he they despise the riches of his goodness and his forbearance
and his long suffering God has all those good things but it's man that despises that
man and for whatever reason decides he's going to despise God in spite of the fact that God
is willing to bless them more than they could ever imagine and God in turn just has to say
okay well if you don't want my blessing and you want to reproach me for who I am and for
what my word says well then you can have the curse instead you can go ahead and have the cursing
Bible says they're not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance you know a lot of
times I think in our lives yeah we know the chasing hand of God is there but you know I
think a lot of times God does show us grace I think you know if we mess up here and there
maybe we go through a season or something I don't think that just immediately means God's
just going to smack us down I think a lot of times God deals with his children by
showing them the good side hey I know you messed up I know you're not right but I still
love you and if you'll get this right you know we can you know the goodness of God is
what brings people back often but again there is that line that God has where we don't we
none of us wants to find out whether it is whether in our lives or in a nation excuse me
you know it should be the love of God towards us that should compel us to be obedient you know
the blessings aside I mean read about the blessings we say well I want that for my life
that should be our attitude but is you know beyond even that just the fact that Christ died
for us the love that God has toward us that the goodness of God should lead us to repentance
that alone should be enough to make us want to to do right not just avoiding the cursing
not just to have the blessing but just the understanding that God loves us and God is good
towards us the Bible says in Romans 5 8 God commended his love toward us and that while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us a very familiar verse that we use out so many all
the time but what's interesting about that is that word commended God commended his love
that's kind of like that word recommend you know if I were to ask you to play like a restaurant
hey can you recommend a good place to get you know a burger or something you know
burger or something you would say hey go to this place it's better than the rest right that's what
you're doing when you recommend something you're saying in my opinion this place is better than
any other place and that's what God is saying about his love God is saying that his love toward
us is better than anybody else's love and that's truth there is no other human relationship
that you can have on this earth that can compare towards the love that God has towards you
towards you the love that you have towards your children the love that your children have
towards you your spouses friends whatever the love that you can have out of those relationships
they pale in comparison with the love that God has towards us and God you know that alone
should be enough to bring people to a place of obedience do they want to please God where
they want to live for God but is that the case unfortunately not unfortunately in spite of that
fact there are people out there that despise the forbearance and the long suffering of God
and they do respite to the spirit of grace so then God has to turn around and reach into
his bag of tricks and say okay well if you don't want the love you don't want the blessing
you can have the chastening instead if you think I'm this and you think I'm that I'll just
go ahead and be that for you if you think I'm just this wicked just mean wicked evil vindictive
God I can play that part for you if the love that he has towards us isn't good enough
now that doesn't make that does that make God all those things of course not
you know these people they deserved everything that they got because unto whom much is given
shall much also be required they knew their Lord's will and did it not and were beaten
with many stripes they had they had the law they had the oracles of God they had the
testimonies of God they had Moses they saw the fire come down in the mountain I mean think
about things you read in the beginning of Deuteronomy all the things that just made them
accountable to God I mean to see the God split the Red Sea and lead them out out of the after
the plagues of Egypt and then the fire coming down from heaven and knowing all these things
wandering in the wilderness seeing all the many things that they saw the battles that were won
the earth opening up and swallowing false prophets and so on and so forth they had all these
testimonies they had God's word so when they decided well that's not for us anymore
God that's when God came down on them and God went ahead and punished them
so God you know he will punish and God punishes harshly you know because of the fact
that you know disobeying God it's not just this refusing to obey you know when we disobey
God as again as I'm going to keep saying it over and over again as a person or as a as an individual
or as a nation when we decide that we're going to refuse to obey God it's not just it's not
just simple disobedience it's actually despising the goodness of God it's us turning up our nose
and saying I don't need your blessing you know no thanks that sounds nice but I don't need it
that's it this it's a despising of God and that's why God I believe comes down so harshly
is because God's more than willing to just bless you beyond measure and when we turn up
our nose or just say you know you say oh talk to the hand God not interested you know
God's offended you know God God is is upset about that and he's not one who's just gonna you know
you know uh lick his wounds and and have hurt feelings over it he's gonna retaliate
he's gonna say no you're still gonna do what I want and if you don't want the blessing you
can do it because I won't you know you can do it out of fear of being cursed
God's gonna get what he wants out of people so you know that's why I believe God is coming
down so harshly there if you look there in verse 46 now Gwen there's a lot to go through in
this chapter it's a very long chapter it's hard to you know cover every single thing but I
believe there's just this general overarching principle in this chapter that we see of you
know we can come down on one of two sides of God the blessing or the curse you know we could
go in through each one of these curses and talk about them but I think the more important
thing to look to learn tonight is the fact that God isn't this one-dimensional figure that
God is is uh you know isn't just static that he's fluid that God interacts with us
as individuals and as nations so look at verse 46 and it says there and they shall be upon
me for a sign and a wonder and upon thy seed forever because thou serviced not the Lord thy God
with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things saying look I'm
gonna bring all these cursings upon you and they're going to be a sign and a wonder upon
thy seed forever people are gonna we look isn't that not the truth do we not look back
on the children of Israel and still read about the curses that are upon them forever
and they're assigned to us and they're a wonder to us I mean God's word he fulfilled that
we look back and we shake our heads and we go how could they do that how could they you
know worship you know Moloch and and and and how could they uh you know sacrifice uh their
their children and how could they worship the idols of stone and silver and wood and how
could they cast off you know how could they worship the queen and they had everything
and that's I mean God and God's saying look that will be assigned to everybody else that
comes after you you'll be a wagging of the head you're going to be a byword to all people
because in verse seven thou service not the Lord thy God with joyfulness you know sometimes
I think we get this idea in our heads that serving God is just this drudgery it's like
something that just has to be endured I gotta live for God now I gotta serve God and live
for God or he's gonna rain up and cloud on me I don't want God to just beat me down I guess I'll
go to church and read my Bible and pray and you know live a good life and try to just do
the right thing if I have to is that what God wants is that is that what the Christian life
is to us shouldn't be I mean it should be a joyful thing to live for God it should be a joyful
thing we should be able to rejoice in reading the Bible rejoice and knowing that we can pray
and be heard by the very God of heaven we can rejoice in the fellowship that we have in Christ
rejoice and and getting together for preaching and and going out and serving the Lord these
are things that we do with joy you know the the Christian life is not just this this burden
to be endured you know and some people you know they cast it in this light I've even heard
preachers in the past they just try to make living for God in this world like it's some kind
of just gauntlet that has to be run through I'm not saying that Christian life is just you know
you know a bed of roses until we get to heaven that you know life in and of itself has its
trials and tribulations but we can still go through it with joyfulness you know we can
rejoice in all things in Christ we can do it with gladness of heart for the abundance of
all things that's what he's saying here look I'm gonna go ahead and curse you because you
didn't want to serve me in light of the fact that I was going to give you an abundance of
all things you despise the riches of my grace you know it reminds me of you know I was trying
to think of an illustration and it reminds me of and this is not something that this is not
a personal illustration so don't get the wrong impression but you know I've heard this elsewhere
so I'm reusing it it reminds me of the husband you know his wife calls him and says hey
I just made this this delicious nutritious meal that is gonna you're gonna eat it you're
gonna be healthier for it and it tastes great come on home and have dinner and he says okay
and on the way he stops at Burger King and then he gets there and just I'm not hungry you know
he's just burping up a whopper and he's turning down this t-bone and asparagus and
mashed potatoes with the skins in it right and and all that good stuff that's kind of like
when we disobey God and when we say you know what I'd rather not have the blessings of God
I'm just gonna have my sin I mean imagine how that wife feels she went all that trouble
she made that delicious meal and then the husband just comes home and I'm full already
really why oh I stopped at Burger King and I ate trash you know I had just this this terrible
that doesn't even come close in nutritional value and it probably doesn't even taste as good
in fact it doesn't I know because I don't want to go off on it I had I had gone years without a
whopper when we moved out here I hadn't had Burger King and then after years I was just
like honey go get me a whopper and she went got me a whopper I couldn't even finish it was
it was so bad right but that kind of that's kind of the illustration that we can use with
God God you know he wants to just give us this blessing God just wants to furnish us
with all these great things just pour out this blessing and give us just an abundance of all
things but we think nah you know we're just gonna we're just gonna have our you know our
pittance over here with our sin we don't want to live for you we don't want your blessing
God's offended every bit as that wife would be you know the only difference is is God is
gonna you know there's gonna be some wrath I mean I guess the wife could do that too maybe
she'll start hiding your socks on yourself I don't know you know they got their tricks too
but you know if we just continue to reject God's goodness by disobeying don't you know God's not
just going to go sulk in the corner well they don't like me you know I want to do all these
nice things but they don't want anything to do with me God's not just going to go have
hurt feelings and feel bad about it God gets proactive and says oh okay you want to play
that game you know if a nation wants to just reject me and cast me off you know much like
this nation a nation that you know by and large was a you know quote unquote Christian
nation its founding whether they were all safe people or not they at least had biblical
principles that guided their lives throughout in every area of society where God was you know
God obviously just blessing this country and then to become what we've become now
to where we're just you know supporting and promoting the worst filth that there is
and just you know taking God out of every aspect of public life and that the world by and large
this nation by and large is not a Christian nation I don't care how many coins or money
you want to stamp with the name God on it that doesn't make you a Christian nation what
makes you a nation that's blessed by God is when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
follow this book and obey it and when we've gone from what we were to what we are God's not
God's not just going to go sulk in the corner about it God you know just like with Israel
he's not just going to go well guess I guess they don't want me I guess I'll go find somebody
else God's going to deal with that nation God's going to judge that nation to try to bring
them back you know we don't want God actively fighting against us and we don't have to
you know that's that's the great thing about this chapter it's it's the if right if you obey
the blessing but if you don't then the cursing the choices are is ours to make as a nation or as
a people and you know not being cursed by God that should be blessing enough right there
I mean just if God just does holds back his punishment I mean think about how much this
nation is worthy to be judged so much more harshly than it is it's worthy I mean all the
innocent blood through the warfare and the abortions all the filth and the smut and everything
that's just being propagated by this country and we get this little virus that comes through
I mean that's not even a tenth of what this nation deserves it's nothing you know people are
all upset because they have to go to the grocery store and wait in line well I don't know if
you notice in this in this here I mean this reads like a nightmare where people are eating
their children I mean we aren't even close to what these people experienced and quite frankly
you know I wonder if this nation doesn't deserve that this this this severe judgment
for everything that it's done so the fact that God isn't just right now just completely
coming down on this country you know and people are complaining about all these little
inconveniences and about money you know it could be so much worse and you know what God would
be perfectly just and making it a thousand times worse than it is right now so that alone
is blessing in and of itself the fact that God is still holding back you know you want to see
the silver lining through the the COVID crisis how about that that's all there is going on right
now how about that we're not being invaded by foreign enemies and being besieged and having
to hold up and the food stores are completely run out and we're all just covered head to toe
and in scabs and itches and mrods and everything else that's blessing and enough
right in the right there so really that you know this current pandemic is just a cakewalk
compared to what God could do and in fact what God has done as we read there look there in verse
48 he said therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies which the Lord thy God sent against
thee in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things not just you know
my favorite loaf of bread you know or my preferred food product you know that's that's
our great tribulation right now going to the grocery store you know having to see these
goofballs with all these crazy get-ups right that's actually kind of amusing
you know or we but we get there and our favorite thing isn't on the shelf
and that's that's what that's the big punishment right now are we in want of all
things no he said in verse 49 the Lord shall bring against thee and bring a nation against
thee from afar from the end of their earth as swiss as the eagle flyeth a nation whose tongue
thou shalt not understand a nation of fierce countenance which shall not regard the person
of the old nor show favor to the young and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle the fruit
of thy land until they'll be destroyed he also shall leave the nope neither either corn wine
or oil or the increase of thy kind or the flocks of thy sheep until he have destroyed thee
and he shall be sieged in all the gates until the high and fenced walls come down wherein thou
trustest throughout all thy land and he shall besiege thee in the gates throughout all the
land with which lord thy god hath given thee and thou shall eat the fruit of thine
own body the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters which the lord thy god hath given
thee in the siege and in the straightness wherein thine enemies shall distress thee
i mean that's i can't imagine a more horrific thing i mean every parent probably runs through
that scenario in their head where one of their kids is abducted or taken away or something like
that or some horrific thing happens to them but i mean this is this is some serious
business here you know and is this is this god just talking big is this god just you know
puffing up his chest no this is what god does god did this to these people
and you know that this should be a very strong warning to this country and all nations that
forget god that want to cast off the lord that want to just close the book and never look at it
again and just say that's not for me well there might be some things in there that you
should probably concern yourself about some things you might want to know about about who
god is and how he does things because this is some this is an aspect of god you're probably
not gonna you know this is not what you read about in sunday school but it's in the book
folks this is what god does when he judges nations it's he rolls up his sleeves and he
gets to work and he brings people to their knees so you know why don't we just get there
why why why what's the sense of of going through all this ourselves
you know or or just generally speaking why do we want to go ahead and just see what the judgment
of god is like in our own personal life let me just find out what god's going to do when he
chases me let me just continue to be disobedient and and to not care about the things of god
and let's just see what god's chasing hand is going to be like in my life do we really want
to find that out because as we just read it can get pretty severe with god when god sees fit
and he wants to just go ahead and lay it on heavy that's what he does he says in verse 54
so that the man that is tender among you and very delicate his eyes shall be evil toward
his brother and toward is the wife of his bosom and toward the remnant of his children which
he shall leave so he will not give any to the of them of the flesh of his children whom
he he shall eat i mean god's talking about just straight up cannibalism here this is what
he's going to bring upon these people and we and you say that's crazy but that's exactly what they
did and you say and then when it happens people want to shake their fists and say how
can god let that happen the question is how did you let that happen the question is how
did they let this happen to themselves it's not like god warned them you know years in advance
hundreds of years in advance it's not like they had the written word of god with them that
they could read this and know about it oh wait yeah they did and then you know that should
be a warning to us i mean we read about the things that are coming in revelation
we read about the judgments the chastisements that god will bring upon nations and we even
read about the things that god will do in our own personal lives and then we want to
just wonder when things go bad or or then we're caught off guard when god actually goes
ahead and judges us and get mad at him and say how dare he it's not like god didn't
give these people fair warning he told them exactly what would happen if they disobeyed
but they went ahead and did it anyway he says in verse 55 so that he will not give
to any of them the flesh of his own children who shall eat because he hath nothing left in
the siege and the straightness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee and all thy gates
the tender and the delicate woman among you which would not adventure to set the full
soul of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness her eyes shall be evil toward the
husband of her bosom and toward her son and toward her daughter and toward her young one
that cometh out from between her feet and toward the children she shall bear for she shall
eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege in the street wherewith thine enemies
shall distress thy thee and thy gates i mean god has the ability to just make a nation's
life and the people in it make their lives just a literal living nightmare i mean this is horrific
but this is what god says will happen to people to them specifically is that and you know
that these type of things happen and you know what we could take from it is that god chastens
you know god god's just not up in heaven just feeling bad for himself when we decide to
disobey you know god starts to do things in our lives now is it going to come to this in
our personal lives no i mean i mean that would be pretty severe wouldn't it but i mean what
we can learn from it is that is that god judges his people and that that judgment begins
in the house of god that god does chasing his children to some degree or another and you know
when god starts to do that in your life the last thing you want to do is stiffen your neck
the bible says him he that being off and reproof hardened his neck shall be suddenly be destroyed
and that without remedy i mean that's what we read about here in this chapter i mean those
those verses where he's saying look i'm going to give you the botch and the itch and this
and that of which thou canst not be healed it's not like god's just going to give you or
chasing you and then and you can just go make it all better on your own he's saying look he
was going to go ahead and smite them with these things and there was no cure it's permanent
we don't want to get there in our lives where we make such a mess out of our own
life that the consequences are permanent i mean even if we do eventually get right and get the
sin out or whatever it is and get right with lord you know there's still things that are
those consequences can still follow us for the rest of our life i mean god can just make our
lives a literal living nightmare where there's just just nowhere to run you know and we as a
nation we're nowhere near this i mean we're not doing these things you know today we're eating
you know chick fil a still open chipotle still open you know all the you know everyone people
are just you know smacking each other over toilet paper you know and everyone's losing their minds
we're nowhere near that but we you know we don't want but we don't want to find out what that's like
i mean we read about these things what did he say in verse 34 he said you're going to see
these things what did he say there's 34 so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes
which thou shalt see you know people did witness this you know king has a kyle you had
that the woman that they were in an argument hey we ate her kid the other day now it's time
to eat her kid and she's hit him and he rent his clothes and put sackcloth and ashes on
he didn't come down off the wall and say well let me sort that out for you where's that kid at
i mean drove him mad just these things if we actually witnessed this type of thing or lived
when this type of thing went down it would just drive people insane that's what god is saying
that that's what will happen that if these things play out it would just it would just be
i mean we can't even imagine what it would be like and what we're seeing right now is
and what we're seeing right now that this this covid this coronavirus crisis
you know is nowhere near this but does that mean it's not the judgment of god
no i believe it is the judgment of god but i believe it's just it's this it's god just
reaching down and going stop it it's not god taking off the belt you know and and and
bending the this country over his knee and laying into him it's got smack in their hand
and quite frankly this nation you know in my opinion deserves a lot more than what we're
getting because of everything that we've done you know this i don't even know you could liken
this onto a hand slap this is more like god just giving the child a very stern look
you know i had that with my dad i'd do something he'd just give me that look
and be like oh that's that's where that's where i feel we're at with this whole thing
i mean yeah it's gonna have severe consequences but is it anywhere near as severe what we just
read tonight nowhere near it and here's the thing you know if we can't handle this what
we're going through right now you know we don't stand a chance in the tribulation we won't stand a
chance when god really if we're wigging out and biting our nails and pulling our hair and
just fretting and anxious over this when god really finally does decide to to really let
this nation have it i don't i don't know how we're going to handle it if that's us
i mean it might just drive us mad he said in jeremiah if thou has run with the footman and
they have wearied thee then how canst thou contend with horses and if in the land of peace wherein
thou trustest they wearied thee how then will thou do in the swelling of jordan look if we're
all worried about bottled water and toilet paper and that's our big issue in this country and
we're all people are losing their minds what's going to happen when god really starts to judge
when it's not just a little smack on the wrist when god really starts to lay in
you know and this probably isn't the most encouraging sermon to preach at this time
but this is where i fell tonight i'm going chapter by chapter through this book
and that's how it all played out you know so that's where we're at so but what can we take
from this is that god's judgment doesn't come without a cause and that's good news
that's good news is because god you know what that tells us is god isn't just
up there he's not some kid with a magnifying glass burning ants if you know what i mean he's
not macabre he's not just you know torturing these people for no reason he's not judging
them just because you know it's it's his thing you know the curse causeless shall not come
and that's a good thing you know and now we can't control everything in our nation does
obviously but we as individuals you know we can be on the right side of god that's what this
chapter is about i believe is the blessing and the curse which one do you want
and that's the good news is that we have that choice in our life
despite whatever is going on around us we as individuals can be on the right side of the lord
or even if everything else is going wrong in the world god could still say well i'm going
to take care of you i mean we think about elijah you know when when everyone else is
worshiping bail and jezebel's out take his head off god took him and hit him and gave him
you know fed him with the ravens the meat from the ravens he still took care of
the people that were faithful and loved him so that's the good news
so as a nation or as individuals you know we have to decide which side of god we want to be
on in our life and we have to understand first of all in order to make that decision we have
to get it we have to understand really this is what i want to drive home tonight
is that there's no middle ground with god it's not just this gray area where you don't fall
into one of these categories you're either going to be on god's good side and experience the
blessing or you're going to experience god's curse you know there's no spiritual switzerland
with god you know i'm just i'm going to stay out of the fight no you're either
on his side or against him you know if we're not for him you know if jesus said they'd be
not for us they're against us so we want to make sure we're on god's side you know that
and that's good news that we can still have the blessing this is a very negative chapter
of course but remember how god opens it up reminding them of the goodness and and the
blessings of god that he is willing and able to pour out a blessing and to and to and to make
us just thrive and you know maybe not economically maybe not all the ways we would like
but god can take care of us you know and god you know will give us food and raiment and there
and we shouldn't worry you know god takes care of the fall of the air how much more are you
worth than many sparrows you know no matter how bad things get if we're right with god
we have nothing to worry about you know and that's something this nation needs to learn
ultimately and that's really who i think that needs this warning more than anybody is this nation
as a whole is that there's no middle ground with god god's not impressed with you know your
your your presidential day of prayer or you know whatever you know religious ceremony they
want to go through you know they need to learn as it says in psalm to kiss the sun lest
he be angry they ought to grab this book and embrace it let's god get angry and they should
learn that this is what ought to guide the affairs of man on earth and their decision
should be making should be based on this okay because if it's not well then they're now
they're opposed to it and now god's their enemy but that's the nation we don't have to
have that we can have god you know as our friend and blessing us no matter what this
nation does so let's do that you know let's be uh you know let's let's shine as lights in a
crooked and perverse nation as the bible says let's go and pray dear lord again thank you for
the entire word of god thank you for every line thank you for every chapter thank you for
showing us the good bad and the ugly lord it's it's it's the things that we need to know
it's the things that aren't being taught in so many pulpits across this country
and father i pray that you help us to read our bibles and help us to know these things for
ourselves and lord help us to understand that no matter what happens as long as we're right with
you as long as we're doing those things as individuals that please you we'll know that
all things will work together to them that love god to them that are called according to your
purpose lord i pray just keep us safe and help us lord to continue to look to
you in these times in christ's name we pray amen