The Consequences of Disobedience
Notes
Transcript
Order of Service
Order of Service
Welcome
Welcome
Prayer
Prayer
Hymn -
Hymn -
Notices
Notices
Prayer Meeting - 7:30pm
Friday 7pm - Online
Sunday Morning 11am & 6pm
Tithes & Offerings - £
Main Prayer
Main Prayer
Hymn -
Hymn -
Reading
Reading
“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed. “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away. The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless. A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see. The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. “The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. “All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. “They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you. And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left, so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns. “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. “And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and the sights that your eyes shall see. And the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”
Sermon
Sermon
Not necessary to look at each section in detail
We will consider four themes
A Serious Warning
A Serious Warning
Moses knows the reality of a pagan life, and knew the temptations and gangers which would confront them
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
God is not a God of threats and curses
The people stand on teh short of the Jordon, awaiting entry into the promised land of all of God’s blessings and promises being fulfilled
God is a God of Justice
Sin is always wrong and does not go unpunished
God’s own people are chastised when they walk in disobedience to Him
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
It is due to God’s Mercy that the Bible has the warnings it does
Be sure you sin will find you out
But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.
Temptation is very real
The temptations of Canaan were very different from those of Egypt
Indwelling sin and the subtlety of Satan mean that there is always a need for serious warnings to belivers as well as to unbelievers
People always create false claims of faithlessness of God to justify sinfulness
The Nature of the Curses
The Nature of the Curses
Human experience in a fallen world: illness, drought, famine, war, and frustration at the way things turned out
Obedience receives blessings
Disobedience forfeits those blessings
It is a terrible thing to turn against God
far worse than those who never knew of God’s Love
Consequences of disobedience
Best efforts would come to nothing
“The Lord will send on you .… frustration in all that you undertake to do” (v20)
There is a a sense of deterioration through the passage
There was a sense of things getting better and better under God’s Blessings
Here is the opposite
A downward spiral. which sadly was to become reality in Israel’s history
Just as God’s Blessing one the people would be a witness to the nations
So would the consequences of disobedience
“You shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth” (v25)
“You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away” (v37)
If they were wise, the nations around might learn from this.
If God would not tolerate evil in his own people, how would they fare if they continued in idolatry, immorality and violence
For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
The reasons for Judgement
The reasons for Judgement
Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,
Problem 1: Ingratitude
God would be putting them into a land which had all they needed, and in which they would find rich provision
Their hearts ought to overflow with thanksgiving to him and be full of joy in what they had
Years later, God speaks to them through Jeremiah...
And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.
“If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,
Problem 2: Carelessness in attending to God’s Law
God is awesome; he deserves the deep respect and reverence of all men and women
Israel had proof of God’s greatness
when he sent the pagues upon Eygpt
in the way be brought them through the red sea
in the provision of manna and water
in they way their clothes and sandals did not wear out
they had seen is greatness and glory when they had trembled at the foot of Mount Sinai
How foolish and blind of them to think they could play fast and loose with God
How foolish of Christians also!
The Danger of Apostasy
The Danger of Apostasy
As the passage draws it conclusion the picture grows dakrker and we see the possibility of Israel breaking covenant with the LORD altogether
This would result in God plucking them off the land altpgether (v63)
The LORD would do the unthinkable - send them back to Egypt, breaking his promise to them never to do that
Even worse they would offer themselves as slaves, but no one would want them
They would find themselves rejected by God and man
Not everyone in Israel truely believe in the LORD
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
There was always a remnant chosen and saved by Grace
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
The possibility of turning right away from God entirely was real
but some would always be preserved and would enter into God’s promise
even if they might suffer with the rest for a time and also be chastised for their own sins
The New Testmanet shows that the possibility of apostasy is still real - Judas Iscariot
There would be those who come under the sound of the gospel and make what appears to be a genuine profession of faith, yet in the end turn finally away from God
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
Warnings against this...
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
God will keep those who are his ...
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
No temptation will truely overtake a true believer
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Hymn -
Hymn -
Q&A
Q&A
Hymn -
Hymn -
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Doxology
Doxology
