We're going to turn in God's Word to Deuteronomy 28, which is really the standard text for this series. Paul hasn't confined himself to this chapter, but it has become foundational to the whole thing. And I'm going to read various texts from the chapter. So please follow with me in the Word of God. Deuteronomy 28, verse 1. And 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. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep. Verse 12. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand. And thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail, and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt hearken, sorry, and thou shalt not be beneath. if that they hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe, to do them. And I shall 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. But it shall come to pass, if they will 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 upon thee and overtake thee. Cursed shall thy be in the city, and cursed shall thy be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thine kind, and the flux of thy sheep. Verse 23. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust. From heaven shall it come down upon thee until thy be destroyed. Verse 28. The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart. And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind grope within darkness. And thou shalt not prosper in thy ways. And thou shalt be only oppressed, and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee. Thou shalt betroth thy wife, and another man shall lie with her. Thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein. Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and thou shalt not gather the grapes thereof. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof. Thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored unto thee. Thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look and feel with longing for them all the day long, and there shall be no night in thine hands. So reads God's holy word. Let us all pray. O Lord, God Almighty, you are most excellent in power, and in glory, covering yourself with a garment of light and majesty, exalted into the highest heavens, calling all creatures to come and bow down before their maker and worship you. And Lord, we know that there is no way that such sinful creatures can approach except there were one who has gone in through the veil of his own blood and makes atonement for us even on the altar of God. The very things which were but a shadow upon earth have become a reality in the court of heaven as Jesus Christ Our comforter, our advocate makes intercession for us on behalf of the saints with his own precious blood. And Lord, you hear the prayers of your saints, the incense of their prayers right up through your nostrils, crying for justice, crying that they will be vindicated upon the earth. And Lord, we take up their cry upon earth ourselves. and pray that justice and righteousness may prevail. The Lord, as you might, cut the feet from underneath the wicked one who plies his trade to bring God's kingdom coming crashing. And yet we know, Lord, that his devilish plots are doomed to failure, Lord. Indeed, we know that they are already judged. The prince of this world is judged and has been cast out. And so, Lord, we come to one who is almighty, all-conquering, all-powerful, the God who's building his church and before whom the gates of hell cannot stand the pressure of the ever-expanding kingdom of your grace. We thank you, Lord, that we here this evening, by mercy, have been brought in through that narrow gate and been put on that straight path. Lord, you chose us, we never chose you. We give you, Lord, the glory from beginning to end, for you're the author and the perfecter. And everything in between, Lord, we put down to the working and the willing of the Holy Ghost. And Lord, we come tonight casting ourselves before you, praying, Lord, that the matters that we have been involved in these last months are not small matters. Lord, all of us are busy men and busy women, and Lord, if these matters were but the small things, the tithing of cumin and anise and mint and so forth, we probably would not be here. But Lord, the things we're about in these last weeks and months are the weightier matters. They concern your beloved church. They concern, Lord, her reputation amongst the nation. They concern your son whose standard has fallen, Lord, and is trampled on their foot by the pride and the wickedness of men. And, O God, we come humbly confessing our part in this, confessing the sin of our fathers and of ourselves, confessing, Lord, that we are the sons of the prophets, that we, Lord, are guilty of decorating their tombs, And yet, Lord, we know that many who have gone before us through their own ignorance, through their own disobedience, have had played their vital part in the downgrade of the church and the declension. And, oh, God, we cry out for ourselves that in wrath you might remember mercy, that you would not, Lord, forever turn your face away from us, but that, Lord, that you might stir yourself You might awake, O Lord, and you might hear us. And through our prayers and through our intercessions, that we might, Lord, have a part in our restoration again. Lord, help your servant who's amongst us tonight. Thank you for your gifts that you've endowed him with. We thank you for his ongoing ministry here at White Abbey from week to week. We thank you for the group of men and women you've gathered around him. And we pray, O God, that you might build them up in knowledge and in holiness and in righteousness after the image of their God. And the Lord, you might bless them in their community, a lake set on a hill. So, Lord, hear us and bless us, we pray, for Jesus' sake. Amen. Well, I'm glad to be able to invite Paul You know Paul's had a bit of a rough week this week, but we're glad he's been able to come and minister God's Word to us. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, John. Deuteronomy 28 contains God's covenant promises to his people. Blessing for obedience, cursing or chastisement for disobedience. God's people, as we know very well, were never saved by their obedience or by any good work. They were always saved by faith. Abraham was saved by faith. We are saved by faith, not by our good works. But the truth that our obedience to God proves the reality of our faith is a doctrine that runs throughout the Old and New Testaments. Obedience to God proves your faith is real and not a sham. And that is precisely why God expects His people to obey Him, to obey His Word. The principle taught in Deuteronomy 28 is a very simple principle. Obey me and be blessed, says God. Disobey me and be punished or chastised. And this theme continues right throughout the Old Testament and on into the New Testament, right to the book of Revelation. The covenant principle remains in force and is applicable for God's people always. I don't suppose there would be anyone in this building who would put themselves on the spot and say, that God does not expect His New Testament people to obey Him. Because anyone who would say such a thing has either never read the New Testament or else they have read it and not understood it at all. Because it is plainly taught everywhere that God expects His people to obey His Word. The doctrine of chastisement in the New Testament is founded upon this very principle. God expects obedience. Now, of course, the application of the blessings and chastisements differ. The application of them under the Old Testament, the Old Covenant people of God, they were a physical, geographical nation. and therefore the blessings and punishments were physical, geographical blessings and punishments primarily. But the New Testament or the New Covenant people are a spiritual nation and therefore the blessings and chastisements are primarily to be applied spiritually. Now we've already looked at a few of the principles taught in Deuteronomy 28, a few of the points taught that God says victory or defeat on the field of battle for God's people depends upon their obedience to God. Growth and permanency or else a dwindling in numbers for God's people depends upon their obedience to His Word. The ungodly's respect for God's people depends upon their obedience to God. And the self-governing authority of God's people depends upon their obedience to Him. Now, I want to give you a few more points tonight. We're still in Deuteronomy 28. And I believe that the New Testament Church in Northern Ireland is showing the symptoms of chastisement in every single area from Deuteronomy 28. God's chastening hand. Here's the first point tonight from Deuteronomy 28. Number 1. Chars of blessing or spiritual drought depend upon God's people's obedience to his word. You see that in verse 12 and verses 23 and 24. Verse 12, under the blessings section, if you obey me, the Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give rain unto thy land in his season. and to bless all the work of thy hand and so on. Now verse 23 and 24 in the chastisement section, if you don't obey God, the heaven that is over thy head shall be as brass and the earth that is under thee shall be as iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust. From heaven it shall come down upon thee until thou be destroyed. Now what's the meaning? The meaning is, rain or drought depends upon your obedience to God. In verse 12, God says to his people, if you obey my word, you will have rain in his season. And that Hebrew word means in the seasons. Now, they had two seasons of rain. There were the early rains and the latter rains. The rain in his season. The early rains came immediately after sowing the seed to cause a germination and then a growth. The latter rains came just before the harvest to give the last spurt of growth and the ripening. God's blessing will cause the seed sown to germinate and the seed that has germinated to grow, says God, if you obey my word. If you disobey my word, verses 23 and 24, the heavens over your head will be as brass, the earth will be hard as iron, and the rain you will have will be dust. No germination, no growth, but barrenness. Now, How does this apply, or how did it apply to God's Old Testament people? Well, that is what God exactly did. We know that. Haggai chapter 1 verses 10 and 11. Therefore the heaven over you is stead from Jew, and the earth is stead from her fruit, and I call for a drought. Because they disobeyed God. In the days of Elijah, you know also very well, a drought for three years, because God's own people were disobeying his word. Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, in Malachi 3, verses 10 and 11, Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts. If I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. Blessing, if they obeyed God, the rain would come, there would be showers of blessing, chastisement if they didn't. Now how does this then, is there any application for the new covenant people of God? Well what is the spiritual meaning of showers of blessing or drought and barrenness? Well I'm glad about this point. I'm glad about them all, but this one is so easy. Even the Old Testament tells us the spiritual meaning of showers of blessing or spiritual drought. In Isaiah 44 verse 3, listen to what it says. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. and floods upon the dry ground, I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy offspring." Showers of blessing are the outpouring of God the Holy Spirit in blessing God's people and in the salvation of sinners. Even the Old Testament says that. It gives us the spiritual obligation This word that we call revival, that is showers of blessing. And the opposite, or a lack of revival, no early rains to germinate the seed sown, the Word of God. It is not germinated in the hearts by the Holy Spirit. And then no latter reigns, little growth or stunted growth of the Christian or the godly. Now, 1859 is a long time ago. Where are the showers of blessing that God promises if his people obey him? Or is the field in which we are working and ploughing and sowing the seed of the Word of God, is the ground as hard as iron in Northern Ireland? Well, could it be that the spiritual drought, the withholding of the showers of blessing for 152 years, and it will be 153 years in a couple of weeks time. Could it be that the withholding of the showers of blessing is a sign of God's chastisement upon his people? Because our God is a God who delights to bless. Especially when you see coupled with the spiritual drought, coupled with it God's visible church disobeying his word more and more, sinning more and more. Spiritual showers of blessing, the sign of God blessing his people because of their obedience or else spiritual barrenness. Signs of God's chastising his people for disobedience. That's the principle. And that's the reality all around us. Second point. The retention of our children, or the losing of them to the ungodly, depends upon our obedience to God. Look at verse 4 of Deuteronomy 28. Verse 4, 18, 32 and 41. Verse 4, if you obey God, blessed shall be the fruit of thy body. What's that? It can only be one thing, it's your children. Verse 18, if you disobey God, cursed shall be the fruit of thy body. Verse 32, thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look and feel with longing for them all day long, and there shall be no might in thy hand, no strength to bring them back. Verse 41, thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not go But thou shalt not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity. What's the meaning? Well, the fruit of the body is blessed if you obey God, God's people. And it's not if you don't. The offspring, your children. Verse 32. Your sons and daughters will be given to another people. See, the Hebrew word, another people, it means a people that are not God's people. That's all it means. And God's people will look after their children, says God, with eyes. And their eyes will fill with longing for their children all day long. But there will be no might in their hand. And the Hebrew word means there will be no strength or influence to bring them back, you lose your children to paganism. That's what God says, very very plainly. Now, how did this apply to the old covenant people in Israel? It applied literally, it happened, didn't it? Because of God's covenant people's disobedience to the Word of God, They were invaded and they were exiled. The first exile happened in 722 BC. The Assyrian army came to the northern kingdom and demolished it and took them all away. And the second came to Judah in BC 698 BC and exiled the people. But I want to ask you something. It's something we so often pass over. Ask yourself the question, see in the Babylonian exile, who was taken? It was the young, wasn't it? The cream of God's people. Just look at Daniel. The ones that were left were the old people. It was the whole youth of Judah that was taken in exile. All their children, the princes, the entire youth. Daniel and there's many other Old Testament references to the exile. Now they were warned about this, that this would happen if they disobeyed God. They were warned about it 753 years before it happened. But still, they continued in their disobedience. And they lost their generations of children, literally, to the ungodly nations. God fulfilled His covenant promise in Deuteronomy 28. Now, does it have any application to the new covenant people? Well, all God's Word does. Look at the evangelical churches generally today in the Western world, in Northern Ireland. You must look and apply this generally. This was not written to individual people. This covenant here, this was written to God's people as a whole. A corporate body. This is not teaching that if you lose your children to the world, then you have automatically been disobedient as a person. And if you don't lose your children to the world, then that means you've been an obedient person. It's not teaching that individually. There are many notable exceptions simply because these are general principles for God's church as a whole. Don't forget that. And as a whole, in Northern Ireland, are the children of God's people staying with God's people in and after their teenage years? Is the average age of church membership in evangelical churches in our country going up or down? There is no question, sure there's not generally. It's quite obvious as to the answer. The average age is going up because it's more older people that now go to church than younger. And I'm not talking about excuses for churches that do totally unbiblical things to try and attract people in any old way. Those places very quickly lose any semblance of church at all. But the dropout rate among the children of God's people in the teenage years is phenomenal. Even those who profess Christ. Within the first year in secondary school, the statistic is Over 60% of professed believing teenagers deny the faith. 60% in the first year of secondary school. Now that means one thing and one thing only. God's people are losing their children to the ungodly. What are the reasons for that? Well there are many reasons. Much of this is because the teenagers are untaught in practical Christianity. And when they go to a big school, they're confronted with a skepticism and an evolutionary mindset and pop culture and existential philosophy where there's no absolutes. And they don't know how to defend their faith. And it gives them doubts, which usually remain unanswered by the churches. Oh, just believe the Bible and you'll be OK. That is not enough. You need to show how the Bible, how correct and logic and scientifically and morally right the Bible is, how much Christianity is a reasoned faith. Generations have been lost to the church. Because the churches haven't shown scripture to be logical. Some have avoided the issues altogether. Other churches have compromised for decades and generations to all the errors of modern society. And the young people think that the church doesn't have an answer. Because the church hasn't been giving answers. So they lose their faith. But by the way, we're talking about this principle here. I'll come back to it in a minute. Well, I'm rounding it off this point. It's not the church's fault. Totally. Primarily, it's not the church's fault when children are lost to the ungodly world. It's not the fault of the Church of Christ, primarily. The Bible doesn't say churches Bring everyone's children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. No, it says fathers. Bring your children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. Doesn't it? Has that been happening? The family altar. The family devotional time for Bible reading and prayer. Would most modern so-called Christian fathers even be capable of bringing up their children in that way? Most so-called Christian fathers have never even read the Bible over once. Most of them haven't even read a Christian book. Most of them know more about sport than they do about God. And the terrible thing is, most of them are quite happy to remain in their ignorance and stupidity. Would they even be capable of doing what God expects them to do, their family duty? Oh, but my children, they wouldn't be capable of learning those things, would they not? Let me tell you something, children are very, very capable. of doing all those things. They just need trained. Our little ones have been sitting through some sermons almost an hour long in this church since they were four. But you don't just pluck them from TV and expect them to sit there. They were trained. You don't send them out to children's church and there all of a sudden, when they become 12, expect them to sit. It has to be trained by fathers. And if that's not done, is it any wonder they're going to be lost to the world? If you said to any one of our wee ones, and I'm not boasting at all because I fail as a father, Oh, look at that video. It says the earth was made millions of years ago. You know what they'd say? They'd say, listen to that silly man. He doesn't know. Was he there? Was he there when it happened? They would know rightly. If they see an idiot flying at 50 in the 30 mile an hour speed limit, they'll say, look at that stupid man. Because I taught them to do that because he is a stupid man and he's risking people's lives. Isn't he? You try and cross the road in a 30 mile hour limit when some idiot's coming along at 50. Children are very capable. Fathers are to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But if that commandment of God, that New Testament commandment of God, is being neglected in Christian homes, then it is no wonder at all that God's people generally are losing their children to the world. And the cause is hypocrisy. The evidence in the church is plain in Northern Ireland. We're losing generations of young people to the ungodly world. Look at verse 32 of Deuteronomy 28. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look and feel with longing for them all the day long, and there shall be no might in thy hand. In every church prayer meeting in Northern Ireland, across this land, There are multitudes of parents and grandparents, and they pray with longing every week, feeling eyes looking for their children and their grandchildren who are lost to the world. And it's their burden all the day long, isn't it? But there's no might in their hands. Sure there's not. They don't have any influence. No strength to bring them back. If they say anything, it has no influence. Oh, you're just an old thuddy duddy. You're old fashioned. We don't believe those things anymore. You're an old timer. The world has changed. When you see such things on such a scale, it makes you think. Is it anything to do with the Sovereign God? If you're Arminian, you mightn't have to ask that question, but if you're Reformed, you have no excuse. Is it anything to do with the Sovereign God? Does God have a part in this? Or has he no control? He has a part. And when you see the covenant promise to God's covenant people, obey me and the fruit of your body will be blessed. Disobey my law and the fruit of your body will be cursed. That's God's promise. He promises that. When you see that hand in hand, coupled, To the blatant disobedience of evangelical churches to God's word, you have to ask the question, could it be God's hand of chastisement upon his covenant people like Deuteronomy 28 says it is? God says it is. Showers of blessing or spiritual drought depend upon obedience. The retention of our children or the losing of them to the pagan world depends upon our obedience. The showers of blessing are absent. The children, the youth are being lost. The way back is not more meetings, more trendy organizations. Because iniquity or disobedience is in the heart. And if that is in our heart, if that's in the hearts of evangelical Christianity, transgression of God's word is in the heart, then it says if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Repentance from sin and obedience to God's word and prayer is the need of the hour. I want to give you more points. The third point, God says, if you do not obey me, and if you notice in Deuteronomy 28, there's the positives, and then after verse 15, there's the negatives. And for the positives, there's usually a negative, positive, negative, blessing, cursing. But then after that, once you get probably to Verse 35 onwards, there's just more and more negatives. If you don't obey me, this will happen, that will happen. There's two-thirds negatives and only one-third blessings, if you want to think about it that way. So let's go into the more negatives now. If you do not obey me, says God, you, my covenant people, will be smitten with stupidity, ignorance, utter confusion, and spiritual blindness. 28 and 29. The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart, and thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind grope within the darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways, and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee." What's the meaning? Well, see, in that verse, the meaning of the word madness is craziness, actually. Mad. God's people, if you don't obey God, You'll go a wee bit mad, you'll be crazy in your mind. And the word blindness means, it's a present subjunctive apparently, God will make you blind. And the word blind means it's used of someone who walks, and I'm quoting now, in the darkness of ignorance. He'll make his people ignorant. Blind in knowledge, biblically, doctrinally. And the word astonishment means bewilderment, stupefication, confusion of mind. So what's God saying? He's saying to his people, if you don't obey my law, you'll be silly and crazy. You'll be ignorant spiritually and you won't know. And you'll be utterly confused in your mind. You'll be confused in your thinking. Now how did that apply to the Old Covenant people of Israel? Well they did many mad things, didn't they? Many times they made their sons and daughters to pass through the fire to pagan gods. They sacrificed their children to idols. Is that not mad and crazy? Times when they thought they could worship God plus other gods. Plenty of times in their history. Jeremiah. Let me read from the book of Jeremiah in chapter 2 verse 8. Let me read to you 8 to 13. The priests said not, where is the Lord? And they that handle the law knew me not. The pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after the things that do not profit. Wherefore, I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your children's children will I plead for Passover in the isles of Chittim and Sea, and send to Kedar, and consider diligently if there be any such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods, but my people? have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be ye very desolate, saith the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed themselves out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." It's mad! Imagine turning to false gods from the real God. It's madness. They were used to praying to the real God. And then they came to a point when they wanted to pray to wood and stone. Things that can't hear. Imagine you Christians, some of you Christians in your time and perhaps in my time as well, in your personal prayer life, have you not had times when you've had marvelous experiences of God answering prayer wonderfully, more than once? Now imagine after experiencing those things, turning away from God and starting to pray to a bit of wood or a piece of stone. that can't hear or see. It would be totally mad, after you had experienced the real God, to turn to a false God. But that's what they did. Their punishment of madness, craziness, they were looked, spiritual blindness or ignorance. God goes on to say, if you don't obey me, spiritually blind and ignorant, they won't know. They don't know what's wrong. They can't see it. It's obvious what's wrong. But they're ignorant. They don't know. They're blind as to why God is judging the church. They can't see it. You just have to look at Malachi. Malachi, let me turn to Malachi chapter 1. It repeats over and over and over. Malachi 1, 6 and 7. A son honors his father, a servant his master. If I then be a father, where is my honor? If I be a master, where is my fear? Saith the Lord, apostle unto you, priests that despise my name. And you say, wherein have we despised thy name? It says the same thing in the next verse. It says the same thing in chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. And this you have done, covering the altar of the Lord with tears and weeping and crying out, insomuch that He regards not your offering any more and receives not good at your hand. Yet you say, wherefore? Why? Why is this happening? They couldn't see it. They were blind. They were ignorant as to why God was judging them. And then God says in the Deuteronomy 28 verse, you'll be astonished. There'll be an utter confusion of mind it means. Very similar to spiritual blindness and madness. Because it all goes together. Doing mad, crazy things. Being ignorant. And being confused in your mind. Jeremiah preached to them, God's judgment is coming. The Babylonian army is going to come and destroy your nation and exile you. It is God that's doing this. But they were confused in their mind, weren't they? Why? Simply because they listened to the false preacher. She said, don't worry, there'll be no war. There'll be no exile. Peace, peace. God's happy with you all. All love, all grace. They were listening to the false creatures instead of Jeremiah. And then when the war did come, and the exile did come, and they were taken away and there was no peace, they were confused. They couldn't understand it. Because they were believing the wrong doctrine from the wrong prophets. And God punishes them by utter confusion of mind and ignorance as to what's going on. What about the New Covenant people? Any application? Madness and craziness, it's very easy to apply. Do many churches not do mad, crazy things? Wrestling of deacons before services instead of praise times, if there's any such thing as a praise time that is. People rolling about on the floor and barking like dogs. pushing other people over and then pretending it's God the Holy Spirit doing it. Aren't these things crazy? Show me from the Bible where these things happen like that. They are mad. They are symptoms of a confused mind. Spiritual ignorance and confusion of mind. A lack of discernment. Confusion as to what is right and wrong to do in church. A numbskull ignorance of biblical principles and practices. Well, God says he will smite his people with confusion of mind for disobedience. This is a punishment from God. Pure lack of discernment. confusion and thinking. On the 17th of September in the year 2006, a Radio 4 broadcast a worship service from Blackburn Cathedral. The choir sang a traditional Christian prayer, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, but mingled with the prayer was the words of the Islamic call to prayer called the Adhan. The Islamic creed written against the Trinity, against the Christian Trinity. The Adhan is a Muslim apologetic against Christianity. And it says, Muhammad is Allah's messenger. affirming that Muhammad is God's final revelation and not Christ. I quote now from Affinity Newsletter, such is the state of Christianity in Britain that a choir can sing during Sunday worship simultaneously Christ is Lord and words which specifically deny his Lordship. Now what is that? It is utter confusion of mind and stupidity. It is blindness. It is crazy. Verse 29 says, Thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind gropes in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways, and thou shalt only be oppressed. Thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind gropes in darkness. But noonday, when it's at its brightest and clearest, when there's the most light, they still won't see it. You can preach the clearest, simplest sermons, noonday obvious, as to why the church is in the state she is, but they still won't see it. If you don't obey me, you'll be spiritually blind and confused in your mind. It's happening visibly in our churches. It is God's chasing hand. Fourth and last point. If you do not obey me, says God, you will sow much and reap little. Verse 38 to 40. Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in, for the locusts shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worms shall eat them. Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil, For thine olive shall cast its fruit." What's the meaning? You will labor hard, God's people, he says. You will labor very hard. You will expend energy. You will plant lots of seeds. You will look after your vineyard. You will have many olive trees throughout all your coasts. But it will profit you very, very little if you don't obey Mises God. There will be little results. The pests will devour your fruit. Your work shall not prosper. Much work. Poor harvest. In proportion to the work you put in, there will be so little fruit. I did apply to the Old Covenant people. You know how I applied. Literally, physically, geographically. It happened. You read of it in Micah 6, verses 15 and 16. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap. Thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with the oil, and sweet wine, but thou shalt not drink wine. For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab. And you walk in their councils, that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach, my people." Why did they sow much and reap little? Because they kept wicked men's laws instead of God's law. Disobedience. Haggai is the same. Haggai chapter 1 verses 6 and 7. You have so much and bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough to drink. You eat, but have not enough. You drink, but are not filled with drink. You clothe you, but none of you is warm. You earn wages. Goes in a bag with hoes. Thus saith the Lord, consider your ways. When you sow much and reap little, consider your ways. Much work, little harvest. God says, consider your ways, your way of life, your disobedience. And that's what God did to his old coven people, literally. They worked hard for little profit. Now the prophets pointed it out to them. This is God speaking to you, return and obey the Lord. And they wouldn't listen because you see, They're spiritually blind now. They're confused in mind. It all fits together. They don't understand why it's happening. Much sowing, little reaping. God fulfilling his covenant promises. New Covenant people. Spiritual harvest. Sowing. Reaping. in the last century, just take the last hundred years from now, previous, was there ever more special events? Was there ever more special evangelistic efforts in the whole history of the church? Was there ever more big campaigns and gospel missions and mass so-called evangelism? So much evangelism So many sermons. So many books published. So much Bible studies. So many conferences. Much frantic activity. Much attempt to be relevant. Where's the fruit? Where is it? In proportion to the effort. In proportion to the sowing of the seed. in proportion to the activity. Has the harvest been great or little? Is there much to show or little? The statistics given by the London City Mission in the year 2005 taken over 19,000 churches in the UK The only evangelical churches growing in Britain in the year 2005 and the previous seven years were the black evangelical ones. Praise God, because they quite often stick to scripture, the black people in London. But even including their growth, evangelical Christianity declined in Britain 9% in seven years, up to 2006. The mixed denominations, the liberals and all, they declined 15%. And the white evangelical churches declined 17%. The most. White evangelicalism is now declining at its fastest. Why? Just chance. Because they're not relevant, perhaps? No. the covenant principle. But they're ignorant theologically, blind to the problem, confused in mind, making excuses for disobedience to God's word. Sowing much, reaping little, decline, chastisement. If the unsaved attend our meetings, now we count it a great victory, don't we? And it is in this day. They just have to attend and we're praising God. The other week at our meetings, we were in a prayer meeting in the Union and there was missions going on here and there and they were rejoicing saying, so great mission. So many unsaved attended. It was a great victory because unsaved came along. That's where we are. If one or two people get saved, we praise God and rightly so. But I want to ask you something. What would Robert Barry McShane think of us? Or Whitfield? Or Spurgeon? They would look at us and the thousands that they saw and they would say this, you know there's something wrong and it's to do with God. It's not human effort, it's to do with God. There's something wrong. And there is something wrong. The glory has departed. Ichabod. The felt presence of God is scarce. The felt presence, the special presence. Oh yes, his omnipresence is here of course. And it's not just the pew, sure it's not, it's the pulpits as well. Isn't it? Dr Peckham, the late Dr Peckham told us a story in college, he said, that there was a young man who went to Robert Murray MacShane's church after MacShane had passed on and he was talking to one of the old elders in Robert Murray MacShane's church and was being shown around by this elder and in the wee vestry he asked the old elder, the young man asked the elder, what was the secret of MacShane's power? This is as reported to me by Dr. Peckham. The old member told him, sit down there at the desk, put your head in your hands and weep." And then he brought him into the church building and told him to get up in the pulpit. He says, now put your head in your hands again and weep. That was the secret of his power. Would you have loved to hear George Whitfield preach? Would you? A woman was once asked, what do you remember most? about George Whitfield's preaching. I would have loved to hear him. The illustrations, the power, his exposition, the authority he declared. You know what she said? She said, what I remember most about Whitfield's preaching is being splashed by his tears as he preached. Now that is missing, isn't it? Not the tears, I'm not talking about that. But what that represents, a real burden for souls. A passion for the salvation of the lost is gone. That's real felt needs. Salvation from eternal hell that they will feel in their souls. And it can't be worked up, sure it can't. A heartfelt compassion only comes from God, comes from knowing the God of glory, and the splendor and beauty of heaven, and having some apprehension from the Bible, some understanding of the terror of hell. Have you and I ever really thought where lost souls will go? They could go to heaven because the gospel is to be offered to all, or they could go to hell and will go to hell, a place so horrible as to be beyond words. But really, really the burden is missing, isn't it? We have expended oh so much We have so much, we have studied much, we have preached so much, we have put in so much effort, but we have reaped so little. And it is God withholding His blessing because of disobedience to His Word among His covenant people. Do you think it has anything to do with God? You know what Calvin says about the passages that I've been talking about? Here's what Calvin says. Just as God has shown us earlier that we cannot prosper but by His grace and love which He extends to us and that He has chosen us as His children, so now He shows in the same way If there is any affliction, poverty or misery, it comes not by chance, but as the very punishments of God, sent by Him. Now, you don't hear many Reformed preachers preaching this today, but they say they're Calvinists. And therefore, when things do not fall out after our liking, We must fall to considering and examining our sins, our disobedience. If we are grieved at any manner of things, so that one is troubled with his household, or another loss of goods, or another some disease, another some vexation of mind, another a loss of something beloved, let us acknowledge it by saying, Lo, it is God who has lifted up His hand and holds it up still. And why? because we have offended him. The first point then, says Calvin, is that men may not deceive themselves when God visits them, but they must know that by this means they are made to understand their offenses to the end that they might humble themselves and bewail their sins. I've given you four points. Well, from Deuteronomy 28, we're going to move on in the weeks ahead and work this through. Showers of blessing or drought and barrenness for God's people depend upon their obedience to God. The retention of our children or the losing of them to the world depends upon our obedience. Thirdly, if you do not obey God, you'll be smitten with stupidity, ignorance, utter confusion of mind and spiritual blindness. And fourthly, you will sow much but you will reap little. Do you think that the little reaping has anything to do with the Sovereign God? He is sovereign. It's to do with disobedience to the Bible. Let us ask ourselves that question tonight on our own knees before God and he will give us the answer. Amen. Thank you for listening.