men, Deuteronomy chapter number 28, we have these blessings and cursings based upon whether
the children of Israel are going to obey the commandments of the Lord or not.
And obviously, this is very applicable for us today, even though we are not the Old Testament
nation of Israel, the Bible clearly tells in the New Testament that these things are
written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
And so these things are just as relevant to us today as they were to the Israelites.
They're just relevant to us in a little bit different of a way.
But still, it is true that if we, as born-again Christians in 2024, if we disobey God's commandments,
we can expect to have these type of curses come upon us in this lifetime.
And if we obey the voice of the Lord, we can expect to be blessed in a similar way to what
we see here in Deuteronomy 28.
You know, it's funny, we were just out soul-winning just literally minutes before the service,
and we were talking to this guy who was a Mormon, and he just kept coming back to, as
he was hearing that salvation was by faith, he kept coming back to this thing of the,
well, what's the point of the commandments then?
You know, what's even the point of even obeying God?
What's even the point if you're just saved by believing in Jesus?
And he just, we would explain it to him, and then he would just ask again, well, what's
even the point?
And then finally we broke it down to him in great detail, and then he said, okay, I get
it now.
But the thing is, a lot of people who are not saved will ask that same question, won't
they?
Like, well, if you're saved by grace or faith, then what's even the point of serving God?
So I have a list of four things that I always bring up to people, and I brought up all four
of these things to this guy at the door just minutes ago.
I said to him, I said, well, number one, the reason why I'm still going to keep God's commandments,
even though I'm saved no matter what, and I could never lose my salvation, number one
is because I love God.
So I want to, right?
We don't only do what's right when we're being forced, but we should want to serve God.
Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments.
So number one, I want to do what's right.
I want to please God because I love God.
But number two, the other reason is that God said, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
So therefore, if I go out and live a life of sin, I can expect God to chasten me severely
in this life.
And so if I want to avoid the chastisement of God, then I'm going to keep the commandments
of God.
It's not that I would go to hell because there's nothing I could do to go to hell because I'm
saved.
I have eternal life.
No man is able to pluck me out of God's hand.
Nothing could separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
And so I'm saved forever.
I'm not worried about that, but I am kind of worried about some of the things that God
could do to me in this life, sort of like the list of things that we just read in Deuteronomy
28.
You don't want those things to happen to you.
And then I told him, I said, well, number three reason why I'm still going to keep God's
commandments is that I want to earn rewards in heaven.
Jesus said, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according
as his work shall be.
And so although salvation is not by works, works do earn us rewards in heaven.
So that's another good reason.
And then number four reason is for other people.
It's about other people because for me, it's not just enough that I'm going to heaven.
I want to bring other people to heaven with me.
And if I'm out living a life of sin, well, then I'm not going to be an effective witness
of Jesus Christ.
People aren't going to take my message seriously.
Not only that, if I'm living a life of sin, I'm not going to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And I'm going to be more effective if I'm filled with the Holy Spirit.
And so therefore, I want to live a good Christian life and keep God's commandments so that I
can be used by God to reach other people with the gospel.
So it's about loving God.
It's about avoiding chastisement.
It's about earning rewards.
And it's about reaching other people with the gospel because in my life, well, no matter
what I do, I'm going to heaven so nuts to everybody else.
No, I want to get other people saved too.
So my life matters.
What we do matters.
So that's the point to answer this gentleman's question.
So Deuteronomy 28, we have in verse number 1, it shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken
diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments,
which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations
of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto
the voice of the Lord thy God.
So here's the positive side, right?
Now notice the first 14 verses of the chapter, we're talking about the positive side.
And then the negative side takes us all the way to verse 68, right?
So the negative section is 54 verses long.
The positive section is 14 verses long.
So the negative section is approximately four times as long, almost four times the length.
And this is typically the way the Bible works.
There's a lot more negative because the stick tends to work a little better than the carrot
for most people.
You got the carrot and the, you know, you could call this sermon tonight, the carrot
and the stick, you know, but we got 14 verses of carrot and 54 verses of stick.
Both are there, you know, we can think about both.
But the first part is about the blessings.
All these blessings shall come on thee verse two and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken
unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
Blessed shalt thou be in the city and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, talking about having children.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy ground, right?
That's planting crops, growing produce, the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine.
Is another word for cattle or cows and the flock of thy sheep.
Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest
out.
The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face
and on and on it goes.
So let's stop and talk about this for a second.
You know, I said that the New Testament Christian also is being promised the same thing as far
as if we obey we're going to be blessed by God.
Well that's what the New Testament teaches, okay?
Because Jesus Christ himself taught and said that if you give up things for Christ, for
my sake and the gospel, if you give up houses and lands, if you make sacrifices of friends
and family and things that you give up for Christ, sort of like the apostle Paul, he
gave up his old past life in Judaism and all the accolades that he had in Judaism and he
forsook those things and he counted them but dung that he might win Christ, okay?
What things were gained to me?
He said those I counted lost for Christ.
So he suffered the loss of all things, he said, so that he might gain Christ.
So the Christian life, you end up sacrificing some worldly things, some worldly pleasures
or worldly accolades or glory or money or whatever.
Jesus said that for those things that you sacrifice for Christ that he will repay you
in this lifetime a hundred fold and in the life to come, eternal life.
So you got eternal life in the world to come and even right now God is going to reward
you a hundred fold.
That's in the New Testament and of course Paul's epistles bear out the same thing and
about God cursing people that are disobedient, blessing those that are obedient.
This is definitely a true story and so we need to understand the relevance here in Deuteronomy
28 to our own lives that if we want to be blessed, if we want everything we touched
turned to gold and we want our family to be blessed, we want to be healthy and successful
and prosperous and want to do well, then we better keep God's commandments.
Now there's a false teaching out there called the prosperity gospel or the health and wealth
gospel and here's the thing about that is that there is a lot of truth in the prosperity
gospel or the health and wealth gospel but the problem is that it's a good doctrine that's
being twisted and perverted.
So make no mistake about it, the health and wealth gospel, the prosperity gospel is garbage
but of course the most effective lies take something that's really true and mix in something
false and then the whole thing's false.
So we don't want to overreact to the prosperity gospel which I think sometimes Baptist maybe
has overreacted to the health and wealth gospel and then they go too far in the other direction
and ignore the true story that God is going to bless you if you keep God's commandments.
Now here's where the health and wealth gospel gets it wrong and these are such important
points that basically they're just totally wrong when you have this much error.
The big error that they make is having an attitude that basically as a Christian this
is always going to hold true 100% of what you do will be blessed when you're doing right.
You're going to be healthy 100%, you're going to be rich and all these things are going
to go perfectly in your life.
That's not what the Bible is saying.
First of all what we need to understand is that the Bible is teaching that in a general
you will be blessed and we have to understand that when we're dealing with proverbs or passages
like this we're speaking in generalities and the exception proves the rule and so the problem
with the prosperity gospel mentality or the health and wealth gospel mentality is that
then they would look at someone who gets a terrible disease or a sickness and say oh
well you guys are over in the second half of Deuteronomy 28 so you must be disobeying
the commandments of God.
This is the exact mistake that Job's three friends made.
They had no evidence that Job had done anything wrong but yet they come to Job and say well
you must be living in sin because look how bad things are going for you.
How could all this bad stuff be happening to you unless you did something wrong?
And of course we know from the narrator of the book that the Holy Spirit inspired author
of Job says that Job is blameless.
I mean you know he fears God, he eschews evil, he's a perfect and upright man so no he's
not in sin but the three friends made the mistake of assuming well because God blesses
those who keep his commandments therefore anybody who's keeping his commandments is
always going to be blessed.
They're always going to be healthy and prospering and rich and that is not true, that's false.
What we need to understand is that we will go through trials and tribulations as Christians
even if we're doing all the right things bad things will still happen but in the end we
are blessed.
So mark the perfect man, it says the end of that man is peace.
The Bible says take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for
an example of suffering, affliction and of patience.
Behold we count them happy which endure.
You've heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is
pitiful and very merciful and so what's the latter end of Job?
He's blessed double what he had before.
He was already super blessed in the end he's doubly blessed but does he go through trials
and tribulations?
Absolutely and even Christ's promise that says oh you're going to get repaid a hundredfold
in this lifetime everything that you sacrifice for Christ he says you're going to receive
a hundredfold houses and lands and brothers and sisters all the different things he says
with persecutions.
So you're going to get all these wonderful blessings with persecutions and in the world
to come eternal life.
So again just because God is going to bless you and give you all these wonderful you know
earthly blessings in this lifetime it doesn't mean you're not going to go through persecutions,
it doesn't mean you're not going to go through hard times, trials and tribulations but when
you I'll put it this way when you get to the end of your life first of all you're going
to have tons of blessings along the way with persecution so your life's going to be a mix
but then when you get to the end you're going to end up blessed you're going to say okay
you know I'm glad that I served God because my life ended up the right way.
You know whereas a lot of people get the end of their life and they have a lot of regrets
and they're not ending up where they wanted to be and so you think about a guy like Stephen
you know Stephen is killed as a younger man he's stoned to death and he's serving God
he's righteous but that's not a curse of God because being a martyr is actually a blessing
and so Stephen gets to have a whole chapter in the Bible, people like myself are still
being named after him and so he's a super famous guy that everybody loves and names
their kid after right mom my mom's here tonight so she named me that.
So the point is that when we when we look at these blessings want to understand that
if you serve God your life here on this earth forget heaven and hell for a second your life
here on this earth is going to be way better if you serve God than if you don't period.
You're going to be better financially you're going to be healthier you're going to have
better relationships you know and you will find God continually making whatsoever you
do prosper.
I mean what does the Bible say blessed is the man that walketh not and counsel the ungodly
nor stands in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the swordful but his delight is
in the law of the Lord and in his law that he meditate day and night and he should be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season
his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper so there's a lot of
truth in that.
Again where does the health and wealth gospel get it wrong?
Well first of all they're de-emphasizing the gospel gospel which is escaping hell and going
to heaven that's the main thing salvation through Jesus Christ.
The main thing God does for us is not in this life it's mainly saving us so that we have
eternal life.
Number two they ignore the fact that these things don't hold true one hundred percent
of the time but rather it's a generality.
Serve God get blessed.
Serve God everything you touch turns to gold.
Disobey God everything you touch turns to crap.
It's basically just in general that's true but there could be instances where your life
is going down the toilet for a minute like Job and it's because you're going through
trials and tribulations but if we look at the big picture of Job's life Job is super
blessed and at the end of his life he looks back and is glad that he served God because
everything he gets a whole book of the Bible named after him for crying out loud.
So it's important that we understand that distinction and then the other thing is that
the other massive problem with the prosperity gospel type teaching is that they glorify
the idea of being rich and the Bible says that people who desire to be rich fall into
temptation and a snare.
They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root
of all evil and so when you have these prosperity preachers that are wealthy and they've got
all this flashy jewelry and expensive suits I mean look the Bible even says that women
should not adorn themselves with gold and pearls and broided hair and costly array.
How much less a man?
How much less a man of God?
How much is a pastor?
I mean if God is saying hey we don't want the women to be clothed in a bunch of fancy
clothes expensive clothes putting on of apparel costly apparel the gold the pearls all these
things if he doesn't want the women to do that he wants them to be in modest apparel
how much more should a pastor be modest in his apparel and that means we don't need to
have some Armani suit and Louis Vuitton and all this fancy garbage okay.
The men of God throughout the Bible the preachers they put on a rough garment a rough garment
not some silky little fabric right but actual durable rough clothing we shouldn't wear expensive
clothes my friend in fact none of us as Christians should wear expensive clothes I don't care
if you're a pastor or a layman I don't care how much money you make you shouldn't wear
expensive clothes there I said it because the Bible literally says to put on modest
apparel therefore you shouldn't be wearing expensive clothes I shouldn't be wearing expensive
clothes that's what God said in the Bible okay but so you got a bunch of pastors wearing
expensive clothes they're disobeying the Bible you know and they're teaching things which
they ought not for filthy lucre's sake okay and here's something you can take to the bank
rich preacher false prophet you take that to the bank okay and let me tell you something
because you will not find a godly man preaching the word of God being wealthy now unless unless
this would be the only exception would be if he made his money in some other way you
know if he let's say he was a businessman and made a huge amount of money just in business
and then became a preacher or he's making money on the side or something and he's by
vocational but here's the thing you're not gonna get up and actually preach the word
of God and and and and and be faithful to God's Word and be a millionaire or urges you
know and and again for people who are listening to this recording I'm speaking in the year
2024 when a million dollars was a lot of money okay cuz now we talk you know like multi-million
dollar homes you know pretty soon we're all gonna be living in multi-million dollar homes
pretty soon we're all gonna be millionaires because a million dollars isn't what it used
to be okay so just you know for reference we're talking 2024 money but but here's the
thing about that is that you know let's say I'm a pastor of a church right you know no
matter how big the church gets like whether the church is running forty or four hundred
or four thousand or forty thousand right it's not like you just keep increasing your salary
relative to that does everybody understand what I'm saying now I look I do believe that
a pastor should get paid a good salary you know the Bible says let the elders that rule
well be counted worthy of double honor especially they who labor in the word and doctrine for
scripture saith thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn and the laborer
is worthy of his hire and so we shouldn't put a pastor on a starvation diet slave wages
pay him in chicken feet okay but at the same time he should never be getting wealthy and
so when you have pastors that are getting paid on the order of half a million dollars
a year I mean that's that's a ridiculously high amount of money and I'm not I'm not sitting
here gonna judge and nitpick people but come on that's just stupid nine hundred thousand
dollar a year salary I mean give me a break that's absurd that's not double honor you
know that's like you know I don't know quintuple honors you know giving them some massive amount
of money you know I don't know any words beyond that it's a that's a heft that's a
hextuple whatever I'm just saying like like that's absurd and yet you do have these pastors
that are doing what making six hundred thousand dollars a year nine hundred thousand is absurd
amounts of money okay just take it to the bank they're false profits fact because first
of all and here's the thing yeah if we wanted to we could just take all the offerings and
just write me a gigantic paycheck even at our church's size right now but guess what
that's not we're gonna do because we want to spend the money sending people on missions
trips to Timbuktu we want to be doing missions want to be winning souls want to be putting
the money that comes in into the work of the Lord okay now obviously I've got to eat my
family's got to eat I need to have a house to live in a vehicle to drive I need to have
my physical needs met so I'm not sitting and worrying about money I can worry about the
word of God and prayer and deal with that but at the same time you know it's not just
oh the church doubled in size double the salary no that's not how it works because it seems
like pastors of really big churches think that somehow the salary just keeps going up
based on the size of the church you know whether you're pastoring four hundred people or eight
hundred people you know does the salary really need to change you know because you probably
just have more staff helping you and you're probably doing a similar work and again I
would say I've never seen an example of a righteous preacher who was wealthy except
for I can think of one guy who was like a businessman who made a lot of money in business
there's no listen there's no limit to how much money you can make in business okay you
go out with your electrical and plumbing and whatever business and computer business
and you go out and make millions of dollars and more power to you okay but when I'm getting
up and preaching God's Word and say okay now pay me millions no no I'm pastoring a really
big church pay me millions no it doesn't work that way does everybody see what I'm saying
hey I want in my life and you should want in your life in general when it comes to finances
the middle path because what does the Bible say give me neither poverty nor riches right
I don't want to be starving I don't want to not be able to pay my bills I don't want to
be struggling and living hand to mouth but at the same time I don't want to be wealthy
either I have zero desire to be wealthy I don't want but I don't want to be poor either
I want to be middle class and that's all you should want you should be happy with that
you should be satisfied with that and not think about money all the time so again the
prosperity gospel the preachers of this they're flying around in private jets wasting money
just flushing money down the toilet on their multi-million dollar jet their multi-million
dollar mansion vehicles stupid clothes ridiculously expensive clothes put on a rough garment and
call it a day all right let's get back to the passage here I just wanted to kind of
explain that philosophically but the Bible says in verse number uh uh let's look at verse
nine the Lord shall establish the unholy people unto himself as he has sworn unto thee if
thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord by God and walk in his ways so are the Israelis
right now a holy people unto God right now are they I mean are they walking in his ways
are they keeping his commandments do they even believe in him they if you don't have
the son you don't have the father so uh looks like they're not a holy people anymore because
there's a big if there isn't there verse 10 all people of the earth shall see that thou
are called by the name of the Lord they shall be afraid of thee and the Lord shall make
thee plenteous and goods in the fruit of thy body in the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit
of thy ground in the land which the Lord swear unto thy fathers to give thee and what does
it mean when it says hey I'm gonna make people afraid of you basically this means they're
afraid to mess with you right because we all want to be safe we don't want to be attacked
or uh you know assaulted well God in the days of Solomon put the fear of Israel in all the
nations around Solomon so he just kind of left him alone and he ended up having peace
and that's what we want we just want to be left alone we want people to be scared to
mess with us and I think that's what he's getting at here he says uh in verse number
13 the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail thou shalt be above only thou
shall not be beneath if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God
which I command thee this day to observe to do them and thou shalt not go aside from any
of the words which I command thee this day to the right hand or to the left to go after
other gods to serve them so he's saying look two things here really number one don't turn
aside from the commandments of the Lord to the right or the left number two don't go
after other gods okay because you could even while not going after other gods you could
still turn aside from the commandments of the Lord you can say oh I'm still worshiping
Jehovah God but then you're disobeying the commandments of the Lord and there's plenty
of preaching in the Bible against that in the prophets and so what does this mean don't
turn to the right hand or to the left is that there could be a tendency sometimes to turn
away from the commandments of the Lord to something more loose and more permissive than
what God has commanded but there could also be a tendency to do what to turn to something
more radical and more strict than what God has commanded and going overboard and that's
what the Jews in Christ day had done specifically the Pharisees right where they had taken a
lot of God's commandments overboard so they turned away from the commandments of the Lord
maybe they didn't turn to the left but they sure turned to the right didn't they and they
were like ultra right wing radical overboard taking God's commandments and taking them
way beyond what he ever intended okay and that's where rabbinical Judaism is at today
too and what's funny is there are basically two kinds of Jews if we were to just oversimplify
you've got the really liberal Jews who are like reformed Jews and they're super watered
down in their beliefs and then you have like the orthodox Jews and a lot of Christians
think like oh the orthodox Jews they're the real ones but it's it's not that the orthodox
Jews are real to the Bible the orthodox Jews are real to the Talmud so your liberal Jews
don't care as much about the Talmud orthodox Jews care about what the Talmud says and they're
gonna follow the Talmud's teachings and then the ultra orthodox are ultra Talmud is what
they are so ironically the liberal Jews are actually probably closer to the Bible than
the orthodox Jews because the Talmud is trash it's so ultra to the right of God's word the
other ones are are so far to the left of God's word they're both way far from what God's
doing but but Christians have a tendency to look at the ultra orthodox and say well that
you know they're they're not far from the kingdom of God they're like almost saved folks
they are just as far as the liberal Jews because one of them's way too ultra orthodox to the
Talmud which is not the Bible and the other ones are way too loose with the Bible they're
both very distant from the Bible one of them's going to the right one of them is going to
the left so even good Commandments even good rules and good ideas can be taken too far
like for example female modesty we believe in female modesty you know I've been preaching
for years I'll continue to preach that the Bible teaches that you should have your loins
and your thighs covered meaning that skirts should go down to the knee right you should
wear at least a knee-length skirt you wearing a short skirt right that's not biblical that's
not modest that's inappropriate the miniskirt is not a godly garment according to the word
of God because it does not cover the loins and the thighs okay showing your buttocks
in public the Bible talks about that as nakedness but you see a bunch of girls today and what
do they do they go down to the water park and there's a couple of butt cheeks right
there just right right out there in the open right is that biblical so so we would tell
our young ladies and our older ladies for that matter put some clothes on be covered
be modest right hey wear a skirt that's to the knee or longer but don't be wearing a
short skirt don't be wearing the booty shorts don't be dressed like a hoochie mama but rather
wear modest apparel in the sense that it's not expensive and also modest in the sense
that you're not drawing attention to yourself showing off your body and also getting naked
because look you can't just put a hat on your head and say hey I'm not naked because I'm
wearing this hat you got to cover what God said to cover in order to not be naked so
you know again cover the loins and the thighs cover the buttocks and so short shorts short
skirts all that stuff is out just even just from a nakedness perspective right so look
we believe in and look a lot of people would even say that we're radical for saying hey
women should be in skirts and dresses and they should be knee length and man's shorts
man I thought this was you know I didn't think this was ever coming back because man in the
1970s it was a thing but thankfully my whole life in the 80s and 90s shorts were long well
now all of a sudden last couple years we've got a bunch of dudes in short shorts and you
know it's back and so let me say this men you need to wear shorts that reach down to
your knees don't go out of here in these little colorful short shorts they look like boxer
shorts it looks like you're in your underwear out there in the short shorts no wear and
look I'm not against shorts I'm not against shorts as long as they go to the knee it's
biblical it's a biblical garment if it goes to the knee right so shorts that reach down
to your knee amen as men right women skirt down to the knee or longer great okay but
can these even these good biblical teachings just reasonable sound doctrine and look by
the way if I walk down the street wearing a t-shirt and shorts that go down to my knee
does anybody think that I look out of place or weird or crazy or radical no now sometimes
I'll do it on a cold day and I get some looks but the point is you know that's a normal
outfit and guess what does anybody think anything of a woman in 2024 walking down the street
in a knee in a knee length skirt and a modest boss nobody guess what unsaved people atheists
are dressing the same way I could literally go to a university campus or a high school
or just a grocery store and I guarantee you we could find all kinds of people who are
atheists agnostics that are that are just they just happen to be wearing a knee length
skirt and a shirt because it because guess what that's that's a normal outfit in our
society so God's not telling you hey put on a prairie dress so you can stand out like
a sore thumb it's okay to fit in as far as not trying to stand out because part of being
modest is you're not trying to draw attention to yourself and so nobody's telling you to
dress weird but guess what God does have some things to say in the word of God about the
way we dress and so we should dress in a way that honors God nobody's telling you to dress
weird or dress like a freak no we're just telling you to dress in modest apparel but
do you that's a good doctrine but here's how a good doctor could be taken too far Islam
right where you have people getting more radical than what God said and saying well you have
to wear a mask over your face you know you have to wear the hijab and making them wear
these dresses that go down to the floor and making them wear the hijab and and and just
a little sometimes there's literally just a little slit for their eyes and that's all
you see you're like hey baby nice eyes because I mean they're basically just they're just
like they're just like a cone they're just like this black flowing they're just like
a walking tent it's just like a black tent with two eyes okay you know that's going too
far that's overboard modesty right or what you see with like Amish and Quaker Mennonite
types where they wear these just super baggy unflattering prairie dresses where they have
rules it's it's not that they just happen to really like that fabric they just they
went to the fabric store and it just yes this is for me no those Colts and that's what they
are Mennonites Amish Quakers those Colts literally have rules that say you need to use this particular
floral print you must be out of style like you cannot be in style at all you have to
wear this and guess what they walk through the airport and ironically they're not modest
because everybody's looking at them they're standing out hey look at me look how righteous
I am look how godly I am why because you when you you get so modest that eventually you're
immodest again you know what I mean like it takes you back full circle like it's like
a wheel of modesty and it's like this is where you're supposed to be you turn to the
left hand you're getting naked you're immodest you turn to the right hand and you just start
getting overly modest and then you're so modest that you're not modest anymore because now
it's like hey look at me how modest I am you know it's just the point is we don't want
to turn from God's commandments to the right hand or to the left you know at the end of
the day we need to figure out what is God's standard what does the Bible say what does
God expect and that's what we need to teach and preach not saying oh yeah well I'm gonna
go even more radical you think you're modest well let me show you how modest I can be well
then now you're not being modest are you and so there are always people who could take
a good doctrine too far and get too radical with it to the point where it just kind of
becomes ridiculous right we should rather seek to and you know clothing is just one
example we could pick other subjects you know we could we could say okay uh not drinking
that's a good doctrine right don't drink alcohol and again that's a whole sermon of itself
I'm not gonna delve into all that but not drinking alcohol being a teetotaler is a good
doctrine it's a good lifestyle it's the right way to live your life you know but then you
could get an overboard radical view that says well you know I can't take any medicine
you know I if I go to the doctor with a broken leg I can't take any narcotics because I gotta
be the Bible says I gotta be sober so therefore I can't use those type of medications even
if you know I have you know a knife sticking out of me but what does the Bible say you
know the Bible does say give wine unto him that's ready to perish you know give strong
drink on him that's ready to perish give wine unto those that be of heavy hearts and it's
a little bit of its tongue-in-cheek like yeah give it to people that are losers or screwed
up or whatever but I do believe that that's part of why God put that on this earth is
because before narcotics were invented sometimes you know when you're out at sea and you got
to get your legs sawn off you know they probably would give you alcohol to drink to the point
where you drink until you black out and then they'll chop off your leg and believe me when
you're drinking until you black out so you can get your leg chopped off your eyes aren't
beholding strange women in your mouth not uttering perverse things you're getting your
leg chopped on but just as I would say that that's a legitimate use of alcohol I mean
look I'll be honest with you I've never drunk in my life more than you know what I'd get
in like a NyQuil or something I don't know what it's like to be buzzed I don't know what
it's like to be drunk I've never experienced that I don't know what beer tastes like smells
like piss but I don't know what it tastes like but the bottom line is this that if I
were in a situation where I were out to sea on some ship or something and I had to get
my legs sawed off I'd be like all right give me that drink let's go and I would hit that
drink as hard as I could before you know what I'm saying because because I think that's
a legitimate use well guess what there's a legitimate use for narcotics but should
they be used recreationally no just as I would say that alcohol should not be used recreationally
even though alcohol could have legitimate purposes on this planet right you should not
use alcohol recreationally you shouldn't use narcotics recreationally you shouldn't use
drugs and here's the thing I you know I'm it's so bizarre to me sometimes when people
be like well you know I don't drink but if I wasn't saying anything about marijuana right
it's like hello you know you obviously have to extrapolate a little bit because God's
not gonna spell out every stupid thing you could possibly think of and say don't drink
and don't do peyote and don't snort cocaine and don't shoot up on heroin you know if he
says look not on the wine when it's red he doesn't also have to say look not on the sprite
when it's purple lean drink scissor you know he doesn't have to sit there and and come
at you with every possible stupid substance you could put in your body to warp your mind
okay you're supposed to be smart enough to realize okay don't use alcohol don't use drugs
but does that mean that if I am having surgery you know I can't be medicated or put under
you see what I mean you know you could you could get a radical view that just says well
I can't even take an Advil I got to be sober you know that that's going too far okay because
God does seem to make allowance for someone who's literally dying or or you know in a
horrible state to be medicated okay now don't be like well I'm sad I got to get medicated
you know obviously you could probably get a marijuana prescription for pretty much any
reason you know or you could probably get a cough syrup prescription and you know you could
hit the lean drink purple stuff scissor Memphis mud whatever but the point is hey God is telling
you be sober so be sober but again use wisdom to say I'm gonna not turn aside to the right
hand or to the left I'm not gonna then turn around and say well you know no painkiller
can ever be used because it could make you not as you know clear thinking and you know I look
hey I'll take NyQuil I'm it does that mean that I'm not it and I haven't taken NyQuil in probably
20 years but I'm saying like does it mean I'm not a tea toddler because the cough syrup at my house
has alcohol in it because it'd be like impossible to get drunk with it I'm not sitting there making
a dirty sprite with it I'm basically just drinking the what's it called old Indian bark does that
bark in the name or no oh yeah old Indian cherry bark this is what we this is what we do for cough
syrup old Indian cherry bark and you know what it's got alcohol in it but I'm not like well I
can't take this you know because it's so little alcohol it's not gonna inebriate me obviously you
know I don't get carded when I buy it that's because I look like I'm in my 40s but you know
no one's gonna get carded buying that stuff I wouldn't think I'm sure if you're 18 they'll
tell you cough syrup am I right about that who here has bought cough syrup and you're under
21 all right melody's been stocking up anybody else all right now slow down on that cough syrup
nice so we don't want to turn to the right hand or to the left so the Bible says in verse 15 so
that's verse 14 now we get into the curses and I'm just I'm not gonna spend a lot of time in this
we're almost done with the sermon I just want to hit a few highlights with the curse because
we already read the whole thing before the sermon anyway it says in verse 15 but it should come to
pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his
commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day that all these curses shall come
and overtake thee and a lot of this is analogous to the blessings instead of blessed in the city
blessed in the field it's like cursed shall be in the city cursed shall be in the field so the
first few verses are a little bit of a repeat but then he gets into the new material because of
course there's four times as much of it and so we get into all these various cursings I want to just
hit a few highlights verse 22 the Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with a fever
and with an inflammation and with an extreme burning and with the sword and with blasting
and with mildew and they shall pursue thee until thou perish now you know just the mention of these
painful health problems the fever the inflammation the burning this should scare you to realize that
God can really put you in a lot of pain and suffering in this life and even if we're never
gonna go to hell as Christians you know in many ways life can become a living hell when you're
just in excruciating pain even in this world I don't know about you but I have experienced some
excruciating pain in my life and and it's it's no fun I mean it makes you know what and every
time I've ever been in a situation where I experienced excruciating pain you know what I
did I I stopped and thought to myself I need to live for God because I want God to bless me
because God can literally do this to me whenever he wants God can literally just snap his fingers
and I'm in this pain that I'm in right now and man it it it puts the fear of God into me I
remember even having that thought even as a child just going through severe pain as a child and just
thinking wow God could really hurt me even in this world even besides heaven and hell wow I
better get my act together you know how'd you like to have some extreme burning inflammation
I mean that sounds miserable yeah right and then and then we get into more of that kind of talk
later in the chapter where he talks about the scab and itch and the botch and and all these
different things I mean you know if you're actually wise and and and thinking about this
you should stop and think you know what that could be me if I don't mind my P's and Q's and
I better keep God's Word you know and when you see people just committing all kinds of wickedness
you know what it tells me that there's no fear of God before their eyes if I see unsaved people
just out just living a wicked life then I'm just like well it's because they don't believe in God
they just think there's no consequences they think nothing bad is gonna happen but then when
I see a Christian who I do believe is saved out living a sinful life hurting people harming
people doing stupid things not following God's commandments I just think to myself this guy
doesn't fear God this woman doesn't fear God like like aren't you because I'm thinking to myself I'd
be afraid to do that stuff you know and I and I mean you know when I was a teenager man there are
all kinds of temptations when you're a teenager I was too scared to go out and live the life of sin
when people were doing that stuff because I'm just like I don't know what God's gonna do to me
because I knew what the Bible said I knew this passage I knew other passages and I didn't want
to experiment with the you know oh you know it's normal to experiment yeah we'll experiment with
an extreme burning experiment with the itch experiment with the fever experiment with the
inflammation experiment with the scab experiment with the botch of Egypt you know you don't want
that stuff and I'm telling you you can be in so much pain you say well if I'm in pain I'll just
take a painkiller here's the thing about painkillers they weren't great for short-term pain they don't
work well for long-term pain because guess what they stop working after a while you build up a
tolerance and guess what then you get addicted and you take more and you take hardcore drugs
and the more hardcore the drug the more addictive it is and then you go down a downward spiral and
it could literally kill you I mean let's face it prescription opioids are dangerous you know now
short-term sometimes you have to hit that stuff again it's a legitimate use but man you want to
get off that stuff as fast as you can you know the most painful experience of my entire life was
what's known as dry socket I was taking a max dose of Advil max dose of Tylenol and a max dose of
oxycodone and I was still writhing in pain and sleeping like three hours a night because the
pain was so intense I just couldn't even sleep I was miserable it was torture it was the worst
thing I've ever experienced in my life it was worse than being tasered and being tasered hurts
pretty bad and I've done both and let me tell you and I'm not talking about those ones we take out
soul winning because those are a joke we taser ourselves with those for fun I mean we just play
with don't do that it was a joke I was kidding don't do that but you know those things are
nothing the ones that the police use that actually have little barbs that go into you and pump you
with 50,000 volts those are pretty painful still not as bad as dry socket okay and so you know dry
socket man it was torture but I took that oxycodone for six days only for six days and then I got off
it let me tell you some even in those six days I experienced horrible side effects that I don't
want to go into but I experienced some unpleasant side effects okay even just and I you know what I
thought to myself anybody who's taking this stuff recreational he's an idiot because I'm just like
this is bad and then and then even after only taking for six days I experienced withdrawal
symptoms for the first few days after getting off of it after taking it for only six days so that
stuff is super addictive and by the way I never experienced any euphoria whatsoever it never felt
good I never look I've broken bones and gotten hurt and gone to the hospital and I've been
injected with morphine and I've been injected with something stronger than morphine I forget
what it was called and I've taken oxycodone and everything and you know what I never it never made
me feel good it never put me in a good mood I never experienced any euphoria at all it just
took the pain away that's all it did but apparently apparently for some people it gives them feelings
of euphoria I don't know if it's genetic I don't know why some people are somehow getting high with
this stuff or whatever but I never experienced it but I thank God that I didn't experience it
because the thing is the more high people feel when they take the stuff the more addictive it
becomes to their body and so you know I feel like it's a blessing that I never experienced any good
feeling because now I'm not like whoo I want to feel that again you know I never felt anything
thank God now for me that my most radical drug right now is a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch that's
how I get high okay and it's super addictive but anyway but the point is that you know you you
don't want to have God disciplining you or cursing your life because he could put you in
long-term pain and long-term pain is miserable because you're either not able to take medication
you just you're just suffering or you're you're on drugs long-term and they're just ravaging your
kidneys or giving you all kinds of other side effects and you're just getting constipated and
you're just I don't know what else these drugs do to you but it's bad and then you keep having
to escalate it and then you end up you know prematurely dead boy it happened to so many
thousands or millions of people in the was it called the opioid epidemic or something that
happened what 10 20 years ago or whenever that was whatever I'm talking about the point is though
Deuteronomy 28 these curses that can come upon you they could include even smiting your physical
body with things like emerods right were mentioned you know if you're not sure what that is just put
an H on the front of it and see if you can figure it out but I don't want it he talks about how
other people are gonna use you and abuse you and you're gonna you know lose financially and you're
children and your friends and it's all gonna go to hell in a handbasket but I I want to just go
straight to the ending because we're out of time but it's such a classic ending here to this
chapter it says in verse 67 in the morning thou shalt say would God it were evening I mean your
life is just so miserable you wake up in the morning and you you wish the day were already
over and then at even thou shalt say would God it were morning you're just trying to you know it's
just like I just got to get through the night and look when you're in a lot of pain when you got the
itch the burning the inflammation the fever headaches you can't sleep would God it were
morning you wish that you could just look at the clock and you made it through the night and you
survived the night with some sleep but then you wake up in the morning like I just got to get
through the day look is that how you want to live I just got to get through the day oh I just got
to get through the night oh I just gotta survive hey that's how miserable God can make you if you
just totally spit in his face and do whatever you want you know so you young people you think like
oh my parents are so strict and I can't wait to get out on my own and do my own thing and I'm just
gonna be free as a bird well you know what have fun with your freedom when you're itchy and
burning and have a headache and scab and a bunch and instead of well-set hair baldness
right I mean look that's what the Bible says you think I just made that up right now because I
didn't it's an Isaiah what chapter 3 it's in a bunch of places actually that's it's a theme
that God likes to bring up the point is that you will live a better life following God's word even
if it's restrictive even if there's certain things you're not allowed to do even if he's
saying hey you know you're only gonna be with one person physically like you know when you get
married and it's gonna be you know till death do us part you're only gonna lie with that one person
you know that's what God is commanding and if you say well that's too restrictive I want to get out
and so my wild oats well enjoy the inflammation and folks you know that's real hey you want to
be horrified and shocked look up the statistics on STDs in America it will blow your stinking
mind in fact I'm gonna do it right now I don't even care I'm doing it right now let's check this
out what percentage of Americans have an STI so CDC's latest estimates indicate that 20% of the
US population approximately one in five people had an STI on any given day in 2018 that's just
saying pick a day in 2018 April the 25th one out of five people have the itching burning
inflammation scab whatever symptom they have not just an STD in their body but they have a sexually
transmitted infection right now one out of five people out there so I wonder if you say well that
means that if I go out so my wild oats if I if I hop in the sack with some chick they're not you
know at least I got a four out of five check no no because the chick that's hopping in the sack
with you she probably has a 90% chance of carrying an STD cuz she hopped in the sack with somebody
else before you're not the first one you see what I'm saying the person the people who don't have
these STDs lifetime are the people that are getting married they're not the ones that you're
picking up at the bar so it's not like oh one out of five of these but first of all if one out of
five of the people at the bar had it that'd be scary enough but here's what you have to understand
is that the people at the bar they're the they're the one out of five they are the one out of five
see what I'm saying but but remember that's on any given day how about lifetime you know like
like like how about just how many people get STDs or are carrying STDs in their lifetime somebody
already have it pulled up I don't know it's it's I'm doing this on the fly but I'm just looking at
like I don't know it's just a lot of millions and millions of people I know I've seen a statistic
that says that said that like 25% of people because because you know we said one in five
Americans but if you go to New York City that goes up like one in four they'd have an STI right now
like today okay KFF poll most Americans are unaware of how common STIs are among adults
and that rates are rising well you know that's why I'm here to educate you about this yeah well
we all need to we all need to google this again when we get home to get a little more detail I
don't really have the time to delve into but that should already be scary and horrifying enough you
know and that's just the infection today you walk into that bar half the people in there are
probably carrying some infectious disease right but you go ahead and just go around and so your
wild oats have fun and by the way here's the thing you say well I don't you know I'm willing
to take that chance well guess what if you're a Christian who sat in faith forward Baptist Church
or listen to sermons from faith for Baptist Church you know do you think God is gonna probably be
more likely to punish you then the person who didn't know better or I mean everybody knows
better but then the person who didn't hear this kind of clear preaching and this kind of warning
and whatever because unto whom much is given of him shall much be required and the servant that
knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes whereas the one who
didn't know his Lord's will and did it not well he'll be beaten with few tribes you still get
beaten but you getting beaten more when you knew better and when you're raised by Christian godly
parents and you just went out and just slept with that one person STI for you congratulations
you just got an inflammation folks this stuff is real and I don't care if this was written you know
over 3,000 years ago or whatever it's as relevant as today's newspaper and so you do not want to
disregard the commandments of God you say well I'm saved I'm going to heaven okay well how do
you want your life to be for the next 50 years young people what do you want your life to be
like the next 60 years you want it to be a living hell or you want to be blessed and enjoy and happy
let's probably have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this chapter Lord to warn
us and Lord God I pray that we would all take heed and and take heat under your commandments
and and do those things which are pleasing in your sight Lord help us not to disregard your
law and your word but help them to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path
and in Jesus name we pray amen