Hello again, and good to be with you. It's been a little while. We're continuing our studies in Deuteronomy chapter 28, and we'll be reading selected verses from there. Deuteronomy 28, first of all, verse 15, then verse 21, 22, 27, and 20 to 29. But Deuteronomy 28 verse 15, which comes at the end of the blessing section. And it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee." Down to verse 21 and 22. One of the chastisements is this, the Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until he have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. The Lord shall smite thee with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and extreme burning and with sword and blasting and mildew." Sir, I think I'm doing the wrong reading. I am. My apologies. We read verse 15. Let's read verse 28 and 29 instead. 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 in 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. And then skip down to verses 38 to 40. Same section. 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 his fruit." Amen, and God will bless the reading of that portion or those verses of his inspired word. Deuteronomy 28 teaches a biblical principle that flows all the way through Old and New Testament, where God says to his people, obey me and you'll be blessed, and there's certain symptoms of that blessing. Disobey me and you will be chastened or punished or cursed, the word is used, and there are various symptoms of the chastisement upon his people when they disobey him. And so far, we've looked at a number of things. We've seen from the passage that victory or defeat for the people of God depends upon their obedience to the Lord. Their growth and permanency or their dwindling in numbers depends upon their obedience to the Lord. The ungodly's respect for God's people, their self-governing authority also depends upon obedience or disobedience. The showers of blessing or spiritual barrenness depends upon the obedience of the children of God. And one that we looked at not so long ago, the retention of our children or the losing of them to the world depends upon our obedience to the Lord. And God then continues, after all those which are both in the passage, the positive and the negative, he continues on with many more negatives for disobedience. And the last time I was here, The teaching was, if you do not obey me, the diseases of the world, the diseases of Egypt, will cling to you. Tonight we deal with two more negatives from Deuteronomy 28, and we will not always be in Deuteronomy 28. We will go to other verses in the Old Testament later on in weeks ahead, and also the New Testament, proving this principle. But my first point tonight is this. from verse 28 and 29 of Deuteronomy 28. God says to his people, if you do not obey me, you will be smitten with stupidity, ignorance, utter confusion, and spiritual blindness. That's what he says to his people. Let's read verse 28 and 29. the Lord shall smite thee with madness." Imagine him saying that to his people. The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart, and thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind grope in the darkness. and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways, and thou shalt only be oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man will save you." Let's look at the meaning of those words. It's shocking, isn't it? The Lord shall smite thee with madness. The Hebrew word means craziness, things that are crazy, as if the person's lipped, a wee bit touched in the head. what the Hebrew word means. Madness and blindness. Now, apparently in the Hebrew, the word blindness is a present subjunctive. It actually should be translated, God will make you blind. It's used of men who, according to Wilson, one of the commentators, This word is used for men who walk in the darkness of ignorance, and that's a quote. That's the meaning of the Hebrew word. Blind in knowledge, ignorant doctrinally. So the Lord will smite them with madness if they disobey Him, blindness or ignorance, and astonishment of heart. And the Hebrew word astonishment means literally, and I'm quoting from the Hebrew dictionary, bewilderment, stupefication, or confusion of mind. So when you put those words together, what a chastisement that is from the Lord that he's saying to his people in the Old Testament. If you don't obey me, you will start doing silly, crazy things, you will be ignorant spiritually, you won't know, you'll be the darkness of ignorance, and you'll be utterly confused in your mind, confused in your thinking. Now, how did that apply to the Old Testament people of God, the Old Covenant people? madness and crazy things. Did they ever do that? Many, many times. This people that knew the true and living God, the Bible records for us that there came a time in their history when they made their sons and daughters to pass through the fire. They sacrificed their own children. Madness. Crazy. There were times when they thought they could worship other gods as well as Jehovah, the true and living God. Madness. For example, I take you to the book of Jeremiah and chapter 2, and I will read verses 8 to Jeremiah, God speaking through Jeremiah says, Jeremiah 2 verse 8. The priest said not, where is the Lord in capitals, Jehovah? And they that handle the law knew me not. The pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. Wherefore, I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your children's children will I plead. Pass over the isles of Chittim and See, send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be any such thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are no gods? They're false, small g. Has any nation changed their gods, which are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate, saith the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken the fountain of living waters and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Imagine. knowing the true and living God, and then turning to false gods. They were used to praying to the real God. They had a special presence in the temple. And then they changed from that, God says, and they started praying to wooden, stone, and fake gods. That's madness. It's utterly crazy. Imagine, as believers, doing that. Christians, you know what it's like to pray. You've prayed throughout your life, and some of you, in answer to your, God has answered some of your prayers dramatically. You've seen answers to prayer. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes it's no, sometimes the answer is wait. But some people, we've seen dramatic answers to prayer as believers. Now imagine experiencing that and knowing the Lord and then deciding, now I'm going to turn around from that now and I'm going to start to pray to a bit of wood in the corner of my living room or a bit of stone. How mad and foolish would that be? Wouldn't it? And you know rightly somebody carved a bit of wood, and you carried it in with your own hands and put it on the coffee table. And then you get down on your knees and say, oh God, you're my God. How utterly crazy and mad. Once you've experienced the true God, to turn to false ones, well, that's exactly what they do. When they disobeyed the Lord, They were overcome with craziness and madness in their mind. And that's what they did. And God gave, let them do. And their punishment was they were madness, they were crazy, they were stupefied and confused in their mind. And then the next thing, the spiritual blindness of ignorance. Not what it said, that was the second of the three things. Blindness means used of men who walk in the darkness of ignorance. Spiritual blindness or ignorance was another chastisement, and they're all connected in these verses. Ignorance is found in the half of verse 29. When God's people started doing these foolish things, And when judgment started to come upon them, they didn't know what was wrong. Sure they did. They couldn't see it. They were ignorant. They didn't have the knowledge of what was going on. They were ignorant and blind as to why God was judging them. And we see this over and over in the Old Testament. Look at the last book in the Old Testament, which is the book of Malachi. I'll give you a few examples of their confusion of mind, their blindness, their ignorance. Malachi 1, verses 6 and 7. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I then be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, "'Where is my fear?' saith the Lord of hosts. "'Unto you, O priests that despise my name.' "'And ye say, wherein have we despised your name?' "'How have we despised you?' "'They don't even know.'" Look at the next verse. "'You offer polluted bread on my altar, "'and you say, wherein have we polluted thee?' In that you say, the table of the Lord is contemptible. Look over at chapter 2 in Malachi verse 13 and 14. Look at their confusion of mind, their ignorance. Chapter 2 verse 13 and 14. And this you have done again. covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying out insomuch that he regards not the offering any more, nor receiveth it with goodwill at your hand. Yet you say, Wherefore? Why? Why is God not receiving? Yet you say, Wherefore? because the Lord has been a witness between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant." You see, he didn't accept their sacrifices, he was telling them, and they said, well, how have we offended you? They were totally ignorant of what they were doing wrong. They were ignorant in their minds. They couldn't see it. They were spiritually blind and ignorant as to why God was doing what he was doing to them. They didn't even know why God wasn't happy. So ignorant and blind they were in their minds. And then the other bit in the same verses, the same section, God says he would make them ignorant in their minds. but he would also give them over to astonishment and utter confusion of mind. It says in verse 29, this is very similar to spiritual blindness and madness because they all go together. It's the same curse, doing mad, crazy things in ignorance and confused in mind. It all goes together. For example, Jeremiah preached He preached to them God's judgment, didn't he? The whole book of Jeremiah is God wooing the people to come back. There's judgment coming. The exile's coming unless you turn from your sins. The Babylonian army's gonna come. He's gonna destroy Jerusalem and exile you. And this will be God's doing. This is what Jeremiah preached. But God's people were confused in their mind, weren't they? Why? Well, simply because, as Jeremiah tells us many times, they were listening to false preachers, false prophets, who said, don't worry about it, there'll be no war. There would be no exile. Peace, peace, when there is no peace. And God's people were listening to these false preachers, these false speakers. And they would preach, peace, peace. God's happy with you. Don't listen to negative Jeremiah. There's not going to be any war or exile. And instead, God's people, instead of listening to Jeremiah, they listened to the false preachers instead of God's prophet. And then when the war did come, and when they were exiled, and when they had no peace anymore, they were utterly confused in their thinking, weren't they? Because they were believing the wrong doctrine from the wrong preachers. It led to them utterly being confused in their mind, and God punishes them by utter confusion of mind, His own people. Crazy things, ignorance, and confusion of mind is a punishment of God that is threatened in Deuteronomy 28 upon His Old Testament people if they do not obey His Word. Now, how does that apply to the New Covenant people, the New Testament church? Madness and crazy things. Are there any New Testament churches do that? That's a symptom of chastisement. Do not many churches do unbiblical, silly things? You know, there are churches today, even in the United Kingdom, and before, you know, in lots of churches, they have a time of singing before the service starts, and then the service starts, and on it goes. Well, in some churches, they don't have singing, they have wrestling bouts before the service starts to entertain the goats. It's crazy, isn't it? Madness. In some churches, they have people rolling on the floor. In other, they're barking like dogs, and they say it's an experience of the Holy Spirit. Madness. Crazy. In some churches in particular, they push people over with their hand, and then they pretend it's God, the Holy Spirit. They're being slain in the Spirit. Crazy. Madness. Aren't these things mad and crazy that go on in some churches? New Testament churches? I wonder why that is. Or is there spiritual ignorance and confusion of mind in any New Testament churches? Is there a lack of discernment? Is there, in many churches and among many believers, Confusion in thinking as to what is right and what is wrong in the church. Confusion of mind and ignorance of biblical doctrine and biblical principles. God says he would smite his disobedient people with ignorance and confusion of mind if they disobey him. It's a punishment from God. Let me give you an example of a pure lack of discernment, or a pure example of confusion in thinking in a church in the United Kingdom not so many years ago. There are many examples, but I don't want to give too many. Now, here's a fact. On Sunday the 17th of September in the year 2006, Radio 4 broadcast a worship service—and I put worship in inverted commas. See, they broadcast a worship service from Blackburn Cathedral in England. And during that broadcast, the choir sang a traditional Christian prayer. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy." This is reported by Radio 4, okay, the secular world. The choir recited or sang this Christian prayer, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, but mingled with the prayer In their singing, then they sung a part of the prayer, then they sang something else. Mingled with the prayer also were the words of the Islamic call to prayer, the adhan. Now, the adhan is the Islamic creed that was written as an apologetic or an argument against the Trinity. It was actually an apologetic written against Christianity. by Muslims, okay? And it says, Muhammad is Allah's messenger, affirming that Muhammad is God's final revelation and not Christ. That's the teaching of the Adhan, okay? But in this so-called Christian church, they were singing, God have mercy, Christ have mercy, mixed with the Adhan, which says the exact opposite to Christianity. Such is the state of Christianity in Britain that a choir can sing, this is a quote, during a Sunday worship service, simultaneously, Christ is Lord, and words which were specifically written to deny His divinity and sonship in the same song. You tell me, what is that? It's utter confusion of mind, spiritual ignorance and darkness. That's what it is in the visible church in the United Kingdom. They are totally confused in their mind. Look at verse 29 of Deuteronomy 28. And thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind grope in the darkness. Blindness. Noonday. He says, if you don't obey me, you'll be so blind and confused. At noonday, at the brightest time of the day, when there's the most light, they'll still grope as if they're blind in darkness. God's people, they still won't see it, even when it's noonday bright. And you can preach to these Disobedient churches that are under God's judgment, and they're confused in their mind, and they're blind, and they don't understand what's going on, and you can preach the clearest, simplest sermons, noonday obvious, and they still don't see it. Ignorant, confused, and blind. It's one of the curses of God upon his people for disobeying his word. So that's the first point. If you do not obey me, you will be smitten with stupidity, ignorance, and utter confusion of mind and spiritual blindness." And it's happening visibly before our eyes in our country and in the churches of our country. It is God's chastening hand. The second point tonight is this. God says, if you do not obey me, you will so much and reap little." That's verse 38 to 40. I've already read it. I'll read it again. Thou shalt carry much seed into the field, and shalt gather but little in, for the locust will consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, but shalt neither drink 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 the olive shall cast his fruit. What's the meaning of the words? Well, it means this. God said to his Old Testament people, you know, if you don't obey me, you're gonna work very hard, you're gonna labor very hard, you're gonna expend lots of energy sowing and planting and plowing, you'll plant lots of seeds, you'll look after lots of vineyards, you'll work really hard, you'll manage the olive trees throughout all your coasts, but it will profit you virtually nothing. little results. Pests will devour your work, your work shall not prosper. Much work, but the harvest is very poor. In proportion, little fruit for their labor." Now, how did that apply to the Old Testament people? It literally, physically, geographically happened to them, didn't it? You can think of examples yourselves. It happened. It says in the Old Testament in the little book of Micah. Micah chapter six, verse 15 and 16. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap. Thou shalt trade the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with the oil, and sweet wine, but thou shalt not drink the 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 inhabitants thereof a hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people." What's God saying there? He's saying to his people, you've kept the ways of wicked kings. You've obeyed their words and their laws and not my laws. You have been disobedient. Look at just over a couple of pages to Haggai, chapter one, verses six and seven. And because of this, you have sown much and bring in little. You eat. and you have not enough, you drink but you're not filled. With drink you clothe you, but there's none of you warm, and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You see, they put in much work. There was little harvest. And God says to his people, consider your ways in verse seven. And it means their way of life, their disobedience to him. And that's what God literally did to them physically. They worked hard. They had little profit. And the prophets came along, all the minor prophets, they came along and pointed it out to them in very clear terms. This is why it's happening. You're disobeying the Lord. You worship other gods. You sacrifice your children. This is why it's happening. It's judgment. This is God speaking to you. And the minor prophets said to them, return and obey the Lord. All of them. But God's people didn't listen. They didn't see it. They were blind and confused in their mind. It all fits together. They were sowing much and reaping little, and God is fulfilling His covenant promise. You sow much, but there'll be little profit. How does that apply to the New Testament church? Well, of course, spiritually in principle, the spiritual harvest, the work work of the Lord, sowing and reaping, as the parables say in the Gospels. Now, in the last century—and this one, brothers and sisters, but especially in the last one—I ask you this, was there ever more, more special evangelistic events? in the whole of church history? Was there ever more big campaigns and gospel missions? Was there ever more mass evangelism attempted by the visible church than in the last century in the Western world? So much evangelism, so many sermons, so many Bible studies and conferences, much frantic activity The church trying to be relevant, putting in a lot of effort. But I ask you this, where's the fruit? In proportion to the effort, in proportion to the sowing, in proportion to the frantic activity and all that's went on, and there has been so much effort, has the harvest been great or little? Is there much to show or little? Here's the statistics from a census taken, and it's a while ago, I couldn't find a more recent one. A church census was taken in the year 2005. It was taken in over 19,000 churches in the United Kingdom. It was in the London City Mission magazine, and it ran over a period of seven years, I believe it was, this census. And the result of the census around 19,000 churches was this. The only evangelical churches in those seven years, up to 2005, the only evangelical churches growing in Britain were the black-led churches. They were the only ones that were growing. Praise God, they stick to the Scripture. But even including the growth of the black churches in the UK, the evangelical church declined 9% in those seven years, up to 2005. The mixed denominations, the liberals and so on, they declined 15% in those seven years. And the biggest decline was the white evangelical churches, which declined 17% in those seven years, up to 2005. So the white evangelical churches were declining the fastest and the most then. I would say it's far more now, because that's a long time ago, 20 years ago, 2005. Why all this decline? Well, there's this covenant principle, you see, that God makes in the Bible to his Old Testament people and shows it even in the New Testament. Why the decline? Ignorant theologically, blind to what's going on and the real problems, confused in mind, making excuses for disobedience to God's word. That's the churches and their leaders, isn't it? So much. Reap little. Decline. Chasten. If the unsaved attend a church meeting nowadays, it's a great victory, isn't it? And it is. I'm not being sarcastic, it is. It is a victory, in a sense. And if one or two people get saved, become Christians, get converted, my, it's a real blessing. It's a great victory. Unrightly so, and it is. Even if one person gets saved, it is. But I want to ask this. What would Robert Murray McShane think? What would Whitefield think? What would Spurgeon think? They saw thousands They would look at the current state of things in the churches in the UK, and so little conversion. You know what they'd think? They'd think, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. And there is something wrong. The glory has departed. The revealed special presence of God is scarce. And it's not just the pew. In fact, I don't blame the pew anywhere near as much as the pulpits. I heard the late Dr. Peckham tell a story once about a man who had visited Robert Murray MacShane's church in Dundee in Scotland after MacShane had died. But there was still an old man, a caretaker in the church, and he showed this young man around this famous church building where all the revival had happened and so many people were converted. And in the vestry, the young man said to this old man who had known McShane and been there in the glory days, this young man said, what was the secret of Robert Murray McShane's power? And the old man said to the young man, he says, sit down in that seat behind the desk and pray and weep. And then he said, and then get up from behind that desk and get up into that pulpit in the church and preach and weep for the souls of the lost. You ever hear the story about Whitfield? One woman was once asked, the women and the children, when Whitfield preached, there were so many, up to 30,000, the women and the children would sit in close to the pulpit, the lectern, in the open air, and then the crowds were beyond. And one of those women that had heard Whitefield preach so many times, she was asked, questioned afterwards, and people were wanting to know, after Whitefield had died, her experience of George Whitefield. And they asked her this question. What do you remember most about George Whitefield's preaching? You know what she said? What I remember most was being splashed by his tears as he preached. And that's it. And that's what's missing. Not the tears, but what's behind them. the broken heart, the burden for the lost, a real burden for souls, a passion for the salvation of those who are lost. That's real felt needs, not fake ones. Real felt needs that salvation is salvation from sin and from an eternal hell. Those men felt it in their souls, and so little preachers do today. It seems. You can't judge them, but it seems that way. And it can't be worked up, can it? A heartfelt concern and a passion for the lost comes from the Lord. From knowing the God of glory, and knowing something of the beauty from the Scriptures and the glory of heaven to which we're going when we're converted, and knowing also something of the horrors and the terror of the Bible teaching of hell, where the lost will go. I ask myself and you, have we really ever thought that much of where the lost will go? They could go to heaven. but only through trusting Jesus Christ, or they could go to hell, a place so horrible that the words used in Scripture cannot describe it adequately. They're like symbolic. It uses symbol because the reality is far worse. The real, real burden in the modern church for the lost is missing, and we have expended much We have sown much in the churches in the UK. We have studied much and preached much and reaped so little fruit. Why? Well, it says in Deuteronomy 28, that's the principle. Is there disobedience in churches? Do they disobey God all the time and accept all sorts of nonsense? Yes. Well, if you don't obey me, you'll sow much and reap little. It's God who withholds the blessing and the harvest. It's God that withholds the compassion. It's because of disobedience among God's covenant people. So I ask you in the light of things, the sowing much and reaping little in the Western world, and I know your answer because you're all Reformed here, is it anything to do with God or is it just chance? It's everything to do with God. God is in control. Listen to John Calvin in his sermon on Deuteronomy, his sermon, sermons, plural, one of his sermons on Deuteronomy 28. This is how he applies it, the great John Calvin. So then, just as God showed earlier that we cannot prosper except by his grace and love, which he extends to us in that he has chosen us as children and will also accept our service, Deuteronomy 8.18 in earlier sermons and Deuteronomy 28 in brackets, so now he shows in the same way that if there is any affliction, poverty, or other misery, They do not come by chance, but they are the very punishments of God sent by him. And therefore, when things do not fall out after our liking, we must fall to considering and examining our sins." And he's talking about the churches, not individual. If we are grieved in any manner of thing, so that one is troubled with his household, another with loss of goods, and another with some disease or some vexation of mind, and another with loss of something he loved? Let us acknowledge it, saying, Lo, it is our God who has lifted up his hand and holds it up still, and why? Because we have offended him. The first point then 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." So what Calvin's saying is just what I'm saying. If things are not going well for the churches, and they're disobeying him. It's weird to look at, the church would look at themselves and think, am I, are we disobeying the word? Because this could be a chastisement of God. That's the great John Calvin, so I'm not taking it out of context. That's what he says. God says, as I conclude, obey me, or if you disobey me, sorry, first point, you'll be smitten with ignorance, confusion, and spiritual blindness. And secondly, you will sow much and reap little. Dear ones, and I'm finished now, do you think that the little reaping has anything to do with God and disobedience to the Bible by the New Covenant Church? Let us all ask that question on our knees tonight when we are in prayer. I finish with these verses. God says in the book of Haggai, Is it time for you, O ye that dwell in your sailed houses? On this house lies waste, the temple. Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have so much and bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough to drink. You drink and are not filled with drink. You clothe you, but there's none of you warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it in a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build this house, and I will take pleasure in it, saith the Lord. I will be glorified in it, saith the Lord. You looked for much, and lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why, saith the Lord of hosts, because my house, because of my house that is waste, and you run every man to his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stead from dew, and the earth is stead from her fruit. And I call for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon the cattle, and upon the labour of thy hands. Then, Zerubbabel, the son of She-atah, May the Lord bless you and thank you for listening tonight. Amen.