Why is our world afflicted with the novel coronavirus? We live in a culture that only sticks naturalistic explanations for such things. And so the world talks about, you know, did this virus come from an animal? Did a scientist manufacture it? There's all this speculation about where this novel coronavirus came from. Why is our world afflicted with the novel coronavirus? Is it simply a matter of chance? Is it a matter of someone's evil intention? Why is our world afflicted with this virus? Well, our culture seeks naturalistic explanations. God has revealed in the Bible the ultimate reason why such things occur. The ultimate reason why God brings such things to pass. Or, I'm sorry, the Bible reveals that it is that God brings such things to pass. Isaiah 45, verse 7. The Lord says, I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. The ultimate reason why anything happens in this world is that God brings it to pass. God is in sovereign control over all things. He is fulfilling His purposes. And He even uses evil things to accomplish His purposes. He forms light. He creates darkness. He makes well-being. He creates calamity. He is the Lord who does all these things. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 says that God works all things according to the counsel of His will. In our series on the book of Deuteronomy, we come to a passage that warned God's chosen people, Israel, of His curses, that they would suffer as a nation if they were unfaithful to their God. Now, if our culture experienced the curses that we are going to read of in this passage, our culture would take each of these curses, and they would give it a naturalistic explanation. They'd say, well, this happened because of this, and because of this, and they would leave God completely out of it. But this chapter, Deuteronomy chapter 28, clearly teaches that the things that happen to us in this life, whether positive or negative, ultimately come from the sovereign hand of a God who is holy and who is personal. That the things that happen to us in life, whether positive or negative, have purpose. They have meaning that is found in God Himself. The One who has sovereignly ordained them. The One who has sovereignly purposed them to come to pass. And will use them to accomplish all of His will. Our sermon text is important for understanding the Old Testament. And our sermon text is important for understanding the Gospel. The heart of the Bible is the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Good news that centers in Christ's death for sins and his resurrection on the third day. The good news of God's provision of salvation, the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this sermon we are headed toward the gospel. And what we will see about the curse of God in Deuteronomy 28 will help us to understand the gospel, which is where we're going to end today. But before we get to the gospel, we have to understand the main ideas in our text concerning the curse of God. Now, the passage before us, which is verse 15 through verse 68 is a long passage. So because of the length of this text, I will only read it as I explain it. I want to first speak of the context of the covenantal curses that we will find in our text. The context of the covenantal curses. Then I want us to look at the curses themselves, as we look through this passage. And thirdly, I want us to look at the significance of these curses. And to find the significance of these curses, we will connect this with the New Testament. So let's begin with the context of the covenantal curses. Hold on to this chapter, and turn back to chapter 4. In chapter 4, there was a preview. of our text, a preview of the Covenantal Curses. Chapter 4, verse 25. Verse 25 reads, When you father children, and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, Stop right there. Notice that we have a warning here of what will happen to Israel if God's people act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, by worshipping, by serving an idol made by the hands of man. In other words, What is warned of is what will happen if Israel turns away from the Lord. If they turn away from His covenant. Verse 26 he says, If they do this, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. This is a summary of the curses that we will study today in the 28th chapter. Our text will amplify on these four verses that I just read to you. But understand that the curses are not the end of the story. Look at the next verse, verse 29. But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey His voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that He swore to them." What we see here is in the Lord's mercy there will be a remnant chosen by God who will repent after the time of cursing. and that the Lord will restore His people after the curse has been suffered. Now, this restoration will be amplified in the 30th chapter. So turn with me to chapter 30, starting at verse 1. We want to bracket the curses that we will study with what has been said before, and what will be said afterwards. Chapter 30 verse 1 it says and when all these things come upon you the blessing and the curse That's the curse that we're going to study today when all these things come upon you the blessing and the curse which I have set before you and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you and Return to the Lord your God you and your children and obey his voice and all that I command you today With all your heart and with all your soul then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you And He will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. if your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven. From there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and you may This is what the Lord promises He will do. For a remnant He will choose by grace after the time of cursing. It's important to keep this context in mind as we study our text. It tells us that the destruction warned of in our text will not be the end of Israel. The destruction warned of in our text will not nullify God's promises of blessing and salvation. These curses, as they will unfold in the future, will not frustrate God's plan, but will be part of God's overarching plan to magnify His glory and to bring salvation to Israel and to all the nations in the fullness of time. That is the context of our passage. So let us look at the curses themselves. Let's turn to chapter 28. These curses in our text correspond to the blessings earlier in the chapter. Last week we studied the blessings in chapter 28 verse 1 through verse 14. And now the curses are the direct opposites of the blessings. I want you to look at how the blessings section started in verse 1 of chapter 28. Verse 1, And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. And then the blessings are articulated. And then go down to the end of the blessing section, look at verse 13. Verse 13, And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, And you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them. And if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them." This last verse highlights one of the Lord's most fundamental commandments. That His people would not go after other gods to serve them. that we would not have any other gods before the Lord's face, but that we would be faithful to the Lord our God, that we would serve Him and Him only. The Lord's covenant promised blessing if His people would be faithful to Him. Now the curses are just the opposite. Look at verse 15. But if you will not obey the voice, of the Lord your God, or be careful to do all His commandments and 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. And these curses continue all the way through verse 68. The curses are almost five times longer than the blessings. Which is fitting. For the book of Deuteronomy clearly teaches that Israel will choose this road. Israel will choose the road of forsaking the Lord. They will choose the road of going after other gods. They will choose the road of forsaking the Lord's covenant and they will suffer the curse. that is warned of in this text. So it is fitting that the curses are five times longer than the blessings. Just as Israel would be blessed by the Lord in all places, and in all that they did, at all times, if they were faithful. So we read here that they would be cursed by the Lord in all places, in all that they did, at all times, if they were unfaithful. To be cursed by the Lord means to be judged by the Lord. And God's curse is far from mild. Look at verse 20. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and frustration and 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. Notice that God says that he will curse his people until they are destroyed and perish. And this idea of being destroyed and perishing is repeated throughout our whole text. This is what the Lord instructed Israel to do to the Canaanites in chapter 7 verses 23 and 24 as the Lord's judgment. They were to utterly destroy the Canaanites. They were to cause the Canaanites to perish. as they would be God's instrument of judgment, God's instrument of wrath upon the wicked Canaanites. But God warns His people that the judgment that He has ordained to be poured out upon the Canaanites will also be poured out upon His people Israel if they are not faithful to the Lord. If they go after other gods, their end will be the same as the Canaanites. They too will suffer the curse of God. We see in Deuteronomy chapter 28 that the Lord's curse would greatly reduce Israel until only a remnant was left. As we study this text we see that is what is meant by Israel being destroyed and perishing. That the Lord would greatly reduce Israel until only a remnant was left. The details of this destruction are coming later in this chapter. Now as we continue, the Lord's curse unfolds in seven sections. We have seven sections now that elaborate upon the general description of the curses that we have read. In the first of these sections we see that the Lord's curse would include disease and drought. It would include disease and drought and we see this in verses 21 through 24. Look with me at verse 21. 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." What does this word pestilence mean? Pestilence is plague, as New King James translates it in this passage. To understand pestilence, think of an infectious disease as contagious as the coronavirus, but even more deadly than the coronavirus. That's the idea of pestilence or plague. It's something like the bubonic plague. It continues on in verse 22. 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. We see here in verse 22 that the Lord will curse their bodies and their crops. He will curse their crops with things such as blight. The word blight in English means anything that kills or withers plants. Verse 23, and the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. In other words, Israel will not be able to grow crops. The heavens will be bronze. Meaning that the rain will be completely shut off. And the earth will be iron. Meaning that the ground will be so hard that it cannot be broken up to receive the farmer's seed. Verse 24. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed. Instead of rain, dust and sand will permeate the air as the wind stirs it up. Just get this picture in your mind. No rain. The ground completely hard as iron. Nothing can be grown. Instead of moisture in the air, you just have the dust and the sand being kicked up and swirling and choking you. In the second section, we find that the Lord's curse will include defeat, disease, and futility. Defeat, disease, and futility. And we see this in verses 25 through 34. Look at verse 25. 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 the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth and there shall be no one to frighten them away." We see here that the Lord will curse Israel by causing them to be defeated and killed by their enemies. and that the sight of their numerous dead bodies will be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Rather than receiving respectable burial in anticipation of the resurrection, their dead bodies will be eaten by birds and by beasts. What a horror! Verse 27, The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch of which you cannot be healed. One of these curses upon the body would be the boils of Egypt. This refers to the sixth plague that you read of in the book of Exodus when Pharaoh refused to let God's people go. God judged Pharaoh and Egypt with ten plagues. And the sixth plague was boils. upon the bodies of all the Egyptians. Now, Israel, they were spared from the plagues when they were in the land of Goshen, when they were under God's protection in the land of Israel during that time of plague. But God will remove His protection and He will replace His protection with wrath. with curse and he will afflict the people of Israel with the very boils that God had afflicted their oppressors, the Egyptians. Under the curse he will afflict their body in all these different ways laid out in verse 27. Verse 28, the Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind. What will this result in? We find the result of this madness, this blindness, this confusion. We find the result in verse 29. 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. In the next verse, verse 30, we see that the Lord's curse will make everything they do futile. Everything will be made futile. Look at verse 30. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. Meaning another man will violate 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. In fact, under the Lord's curse, everything will be taken from them. Look at verse 31. 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. We see here that the Lord will curse them with the combination of incurable diseases, insanity, and being defeated by an enemy who will take from them everything of value, so they have nothing left. That's the second section. In the third section, we find that the Lord's curse would include exile and futility. There is overlap in these different sections. And so we find futility again, but we find also exile. exile and futility in verses 36 through 44. Look with me at verse 36. 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. You see here that in judgment the Lord will hand them over to their treacherous desires. Their treacherous desires have been to worship idols, to worship other gods. So God will hand them over to their evil desires. They will serve other gods of wood and stone in foreign places where the Lord will bring them. You will bring you and your king, whom you sent over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known." Verse 37, And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples, where the Lord will lead you away. God's people would become a proverb, meaning a classic example of extreme misfortune. We see here in verse 37 that Israel would be so cursed by the Lord that they would become an object of ridicule among other peoples. Verse 38, you shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locusts shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worms 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, that is, drop off prematurely. 41, 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." Again and again we have reversals of the blessings. The blessings were that God's people would be the head and not the tail. But the curse is they'll be the tail and not the head. It speaks of sinking even lower than the sojourner. Sojourners were normally part of the lowest level of society. People who were from other nations. And because they could not make a living in their nation, they had come to Israel to work for a period of time. They were part of the lowest level of society. But the Lord's curse will take so much away from Israel that they will sink below the level of the sojourner. And they will find themselves borrowing from the sojourner. Borrowing from the poor. That's the third section. In the fourth section of the curses, we see that the Lord's curse would include destruction by another nation. Destruction by another nation. There is a progression from section to section. We're going deeper and deeper under the curse of God. We find destruction by another nation in verses 45 through 51. Look with me at 45. 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. There shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever." Prior to this, the ten plagues against Egypt had been signs and wonders from the Lord. But here, the curse that God would inflict upon his people, the curse would be a sign and wonder against them. and against their offspring forever. Like the ten plagues against Egypt, these curses against Israel would be so severe that they would be indelibly engraved in Israel's memory. That they would forever be a witness to the truth that the Lord and His covenant cannot be flaunted. They'll never be forgotten. So extreme are the curses. Verse 47, 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. And the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst and nakedness and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. Throughout the Bible, we see that the Lord's judgments always fit the crime. And so it is here. Because Israel does not serve the Lord, they will be cursed with serving their enemies. Because they did not serve the Lord with joy, because of His abundant provision, they will be cursed by serving their enemies in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and lacking everything. The Lord is not capricious in His judgments. His judgments match the offense. We read in these verses that the Lord will put a yoke of iron on their neck. In the ancient Near East, a yoke was a common metaphor, a signifying submission to another. You'll frequently read of yokes in the Bible, and understand that whenever you come across the word yoke, it typically is going to be used to speak of some form of submission. Of course, the picture is of an animal, a domesticated animal, a work animal, like an ox, that would have a yoke placed around its neck, and would sit on top of its shoulders. And so the yoke would enable the master to direct the ox, and the ox would have to serve the master, to place the yoke upon that ox. And so it was well known in that day that yoke spoke about submission. And so here the curse is the Lord is going to put an iron yoke on the neck of his people after they are deported to another nation. Meaning that the Lord is going to make them servants to their enemies. They're going to be going back into bondage. They were under a yoke in Egypt. They were in bondage in Egypt to Pharaoh. And God's curse is going to place them under a yoke again. They're going to be under the yoke of other nations. They'll be made to serve their enemies. And this will be a servitude described as an iron yoke. Iron is heavy. Iron cannot be broken. This is a servitude that will weigh them down. And from which they will not be able to break themselves free. Verse 49, 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. The Lord says this nation will swoop down upon Israel like an eagle. It speaks of the suddenness, the speed, and the power of the attack. Certainly, if you learn about how the Assyrians attacked the Northern Kingdom and took them captive. It totally fits this description. But it also describes what Babylon would do to Israel. A nation will come, will swoop down upon them like an eagle. Verse 50. A hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young Carrying out the Lord's curse, this nation will be ruthless with Israel. They will show no mercy to non-combatants. No mercy to the weak. They will swoop down. A hard-faced nation. They will show no respect to the old. They will show no mercy to the young. Verse 51, It shall eat the offspring of your cattle. This is this nation who will come against them. This nation will 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. In other words, this hard-faced nation will take all Israel's produce and livestock. They will leave them with absolutely nothing. That's the fourth section. The fifth section of these curses speaks of the Lord's curse including military siege. We find this in verses 52 through 57. Look closely with me at verse 52. They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. Notice that phrase there, in which you trusted. What did Israel trust in? They trusted in the work of their own hands. They trusted in their own walls, rather than trusting in who? Rather than trusting in the Lord, their God. This reflects the heart of Israel's unfaithfulness. Instead of trusting in their Lord who had redeemed them out of bondage in Egypt, they trusted in the work of their hands. They worshipped created things rather than the Creator. This was the heart of their, or would be the heart of their unfaithfulness. Verse 52. 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." Siege warfare was horrific. All cities in that day were surrounded by walls for protection from enemies. In a siege, the enemy army surrounded your city. Preventing anyone from going in or out. Preventing anything from going in or out. The purpose of siege was to slowly starve the city. They wouldn't let any food come in. They wouldn't let anybody go out and get food. The purpose of the siege was to slowly starve the whole city. A siege could last for years. Now, during this time of siege, the enemy army sometimes would attempt to use a battering ram to break down sections of the wall. Now, what would the citizens do as they were slowly starving to death? Look at verse 53. 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 siege will be so severe. The famine that is caused by the siege will be so severe. People will be so near death as they are starving. that they even will begin to eat their own children. They will resort to cannibalism. Now, this is not hyperbole. This is not exaggeration. When we read 2 Kings 6, we have a record of how Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, besieged Samaria, which was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. How Ben-Hadad besieged Samaria in the days of Elisha. And this narrative tells us of something horrific. It tells of two women who ate one of their sons. And the mother who gave up her son for the two of them to eat together. They made an arrangement that the other mother was going to give up her son the next day for the two of them to share together in a meal. Horrific! But then that second woman was not willing to do that. People do horrific things when they are desperate. Look at verse 54. The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces. 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 your towns." We see here that men under the curse of God will be so desperate that they will eat their own children and not even share with the rest of their family that they have left. Even the man who is the most tender, the man who is the most dignified, the man who normally would be the farthest from even thinking of such a thing, even he will do so. Not just the men, look at verse 56. 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 be grudged 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. We see here that even the most dainty of women who would never think of touching the ground with bare feet will do this very thing. After they give birth, they will secretly eat their afterbirth, the placenta, and then they'll proceed to eat their newborn child. What do you feel when reading such things? You're horrified when you read of fathers and mothers being in this state that they even eat their own children. You're horrified. You are repulsed at the thought. And this is rightly so. We ought to be horrified. We ought to be repulsed as we read these words. We should be repulsed at the thought of God's curse. And we should be just as repulsed. at the thought of the unfaithfulness of God's people that would bring upon them such judgment from God. God's judgments reflect the seriousness of the offense. They reflect the nature of the offense. We should shudder at the thought of committing covenant treachery against God. We should shudder at the thought of worshiping another god. We should shudder at the thought of serving an idol. We should shudder at the thought of falling away from the true and living God. And these curses are meant to teach us to shudder at the thought of such unfaithfulness to God. The warning of God's curse is gruesome. And it reflects the horror of forsaking our Redeemer. That's the fifth section. In the sixth section of the curses, we find that the Lord's curse would include the diseases of Egypt. The diseases of Egypt. And we find this in verses 58 through 63. Look with me at verse 58. 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 sickness grievous and lasting." He says he will do this 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. The Lord's most fundamental requirements of his people include that we would fear his glorious and awesome name. God is supremely glorious. That's what's meant by his glorious name. It speaks of the glory of God himself. He is supremely glorious. Think of how in Exodus chapter 33 verse 18, Moses asked the Lord, please show me your glory. And the Lord's response in verse 20 was, Moses asked to see the Lord's glory, and God said, If you were to see the fullness of my glory, you would instantly die. You cannot bear a complete vision of my glory. That is how glorious God is. God did reveal something of his glory to Moses. God did enable Moses to commune with the Lord on the mountain. God spoke to Moses face to face. Not meaning he saw the fullness of his glory, but God personally spoke to and revealed himself to Moses there on the mountain. And every time that Moses came back to the people from speaking with God, what was his face like? His face was radiant. His face was glowing. What was it reflecting? It was reflecting the face of the one that he had just spoken with. It was reflecting the glory of God. It was giving Israel a picture of how glorious God is, that even His glory would be reflected for a period of time after Moses would be with the Lord on Moses' face. Psalm 19 verse 1 speaks of the glory of God, saying that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. The stars, the sun, the moon, Everything in the heavens above declares the glory of God, declares the One who created it. Why is this universe that we live in so vast? If you go to the museum that Answers in Genesis have, they have a planetarium. If you watch that planetarium show, they give you a good sense of how the size of the universe is so large that our minds cannot even come close to comprehending how vast this universe is that God created. They start with talking about how far away the moon is from the sun, and then how far away the closest planet is from the earth, and how far away the sun is, and then they move to other stars, and then to other galaxies, and so forth. And you realize there is no way to get your mind around the almost infinite dimensions of this universe. Why did God create a universe so vast? Where it's so many light years from one side of the universe to the other. Why so vast? because the heavens declare the glory of God. Any universe smaller than that would not adequately convey the glory of God. The great vastness of this universe declares something of the infinite vastness of our God, the infinite glory of our God, who brought all the galaxies into being with just speaking the word. God is supremely glorious. And God has revealed even more of His glory and redemption. Think of Ephesians chapter 1, that great chain of redemption. Where it speaks about how God chose us before the foundation of the world by His grace. It moves on to speaking about redemption through Christ and then the gift of the Holy Spirit. And all along that whole chain of redemption it continues to bring us back to the glory of God. Every aspect of redemption reflects and declares the glory of God. When you look at the cross of Christ, you look at the work of atonement, you see the glory of God as God is displaying His justice, His wrath, His love, His mercy, His grace. Yes, the heavens declare the glory of God, but God has shown even more of His glory in redemption. He is supremely glorious. Our text here says, In verse 58, 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. He is both glorious and awesome. Glory and His awesome nature fit together that God is awesome. It means that when anyone truly beholds him, the truth of who he is instills great awe and fear in the individual. Throughout the Bible, whenever God has revealed himself to people, we see that they fell down on their face before him in a posture of deepest worship. Think about Isaiah. He's given the vision of God in God's holiness. What is Isaiah's reaction? I'm a man of unclean lips. God is awesome in his nature, in his being, which means when we truly behold him, the truth of who he is instills great awe and fear in our heart toward him. So the Lord's most fundamental requirements of his people include that we would fear his glorious and awesome name. What would be the evidence of such reverential fear toward God? In the Bible, the evidence of such reverential fear toward God is obedience. If you fear God, you will obey Him. The curse of God is for those who refuse to fear Him. Verse 58 again. 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." Again, he mentions the diseases of Egypt. He says, of which you were afraid. The various things that Israel witnessed the Lord plague Egypt with. When He redeemed Israel, the Lord will take those same diseases and He will inflict them upon His wayward people. If God's people do not fear His glorious and awesome name, the Lord will treat them like He treated Egypt when Pharaoh resisted the Lord's command. Verse 61. 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." Israel should shudder. We should shudder at the thought. That's the fifth section. In the sixth section, we see that the Lord's curse would include scattering among the nations. Scattering among the nations. We find this in verses 64 through 68. Look with me in verse 64. 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. The Lord had delivered Israel out of slavery in Egypt. And He had told them never to go back to Egypt. Never to go back to the land of bondage. But in judgment the Lord will bring them back to the place of bondage. He says in verse 68, the Lord will bring you back in ships. which means that they would be brought back to Egypt forcibly by the hands of men. God directly brought them out of Egypt with His right hand, but in God's providence, in His working in His curse, He'll work through men, and other men will bring Israel back to Egypt in ships. Here Egypt is figurative, describing what was stated back in verse 64, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other. It will be a very broad scattering among the nations. But it is described in verse 68 as a return to Egypt because Egypt And so it's speaking of returning back to that condition, to that position, a position of enslavement and bondage to other nations. Now when you think the Lord's curse could not get any worse, it does. Look at the second half of verse 68. And there, that's in Egypt, you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer." There will be no buyer. The Israelites will have no value in the eyes of others. They will be left with nothing, and they will be utterly helpless. These are the curses of the Lord's covenant. The Lord had redeemed Israel in His great grace. In His great grace, when Deuteronomy was written, the Lord was preparing to give Israel the promised land. And the Lord communicated in His covenant, in the book of Deuteronomy, His good and righteous requirements for His people that would enable them to reflect their Redeemer as a light to the nations, as they would live in the land of blessing. And the people had affirmed that they would obey all that the Lord their God commanded. And the Lord promised to bless them if they would be faithful to Him. But He warned them, in our text, of these curses, if they would forsake Him. There are a couple of things that have been emphasized in these curses that we have studied. The first thing that is emphasized are the three words, the Lord will. The Lord will. If you look in our text, many of the paragraphs started with those words, the Lord will. Look at verse 20. The Lord will send on you curses. Look down at verse 25. The Lord will cause you to be defeated. And on and on it goes. The Lord will. The Lord will. The Lord will. There's 45 times in the book of Deuteronomy where we find these words, the Lord will. 24 of them, that's over 50%. 24 of them are in this chapter. 6 of them are in the blessings. 18 in the curses. It's very clear here, the curses will be the Lord's doing. When you disobey the Lord, you have the Lord to deal with. To forsake the Lord is to make yourself His enemy. So that's the first thing that stands out. The Lord will do these things. The second thing that is emphasized in our text are the words, until you are destroyed and until you perish. In nine different verses in our text, we found words like that. The Lord would curse them in this way, until you are destroyed, until you perish. We see here that these curses are not about loving, corrective discipline of individuals. On Thursday night, we studied Romans chapter 5, verses 3 and 4. They speak of why the Christian is to rejoice in our sufferings. It's because our Heavenly Father intends our sufferings to grow us and to mature us. He is correcting us. He is refining us. He is purifying us. It's fatherly, loving discipline. But these curses have nothing to do with loving, corrective discipline of individuals. They are about people being destroyed and perishing under God's fierce judgment. People being destroyed and perishing under God's fierce wrath. What these curses foretell is analogous to God destroying mankind with the worldwide flood. In the days of Noah, God saw that the intentions of man's heart were only evil continually. And so he judged the world. He judged mankind with a flood. He saved a remnant by grace. He saved Noah and his family. But the rest of the world was destroyed. And so we have it in his curses. Deuteronomy says the Lord is going to restore a remnant chosen by grace. But the great majority of Israel will be destroyed. The great majority will perish. These curses did come to pass. You can read in 2 Kings 17 of how these things came to a head in the northern kingdom of Israel, the northern 10 drives, how the Lord brought the king of Assyria against the northern kingdom. The king of Assyria, he besieged all the cities in the northern kingdom. Finally, the capital, Samaria, three-year siege in Samaria. And He conquered them. And He took them exiled. He spread them throughout His kingdom. You see these curses come to pass. Also in 2 Kings 25, with the southern kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah, as the Lord brings Babylon against them in a progression, several phases of it. Babylon again besieges all the cities of Judah. Finally, they take the capital city, Jerusalem. They end up destroying the city, and taking people like Daniel, and many other Israelites captive to Babylon, and putting many others to death. You see, these curses in the Old Testament come to pass. They're not feeble warnings. God meant what He said. God always means what He says. God's always faithful to His word. His people, for such a long period of time, were going after other gods. For such a long period of time, they were worshipping their idols. For such a long period of time, they were forsaking the Lord. And in God's forbearance, He did not bring these curses to pass immediately. But He sent Israel prophets. He sent them deliverers. There were so many times when God rescued them out of the hands of their enemies. And then for a period of time there might be a little bit of repentance. A little turning back to the Lord and His covenant. But Israel would fall back into deeper and deeper idolatry. Deeper and deeper false worship. The Lord had showed great forbearance, great mercy, great kindness in not bringing these curses to pass right away upon Israel, though they deserved it from almost the beginning. You read in the book of Judges, the next generation that was in the land, they didn't know the God who had brought them into the land. They didn't know the God who had redeemed them out of Egypt. They didn't know these things. They had completely turned away from Him. God brought these curses to pass after much forbearance. Now understanding the passage that we have studied this morning will help you to understand many of the Old Testament prophets. We should be reading Isaiah, we should be reading Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and so forth. As you read the Old Testament prophets, understanding this passage that we have just studied will help you to understand the Old Testament prophets. Because the Old Testament prophets, they repeatedly rebuke Israel for not obeying the Lord's commandments that are given in the book of Deuteronomy. And the prophets warn of the curses that we have just studied. The prophets, then when the Lord begins to bring his curses upon Israel, the prophets then explain to Israel why these things are happening. That it is the curse of God. That it is because Israel has transgressed the law of God as given in the book of Deuteronomy. And the prophets call Israel to repentance. The prophets foretell a time when the Lord will restore a remnant after the curse has been suffered. To understand those prophets. Those are usually the hardest books for us as Christians to understand and to study. But if you get Deuteronomy clearly understood in your mind, then you will be able to much better understand the Old Testament prophets. They're powerful books. Well, having looked at the curses, let us finally consider the significance of the curses. The significance of this passage that we have studied this morning. The curses teach us that God is supremely holy. The curses show us that as a holy God, He is not indifferent to disobedience. They show us that He hates rebellion. He hates wickedness because He is absolutely pure. Because He is altogether worthy of our full obedience and heartfelt worship. This is why the Lord warned Israel of the curses in Deuteronomy chapter 28. This is why God cursed the world when in Adam we fell into sin. Because God is holy. He's not indifferent to sin. He hates rebellion. He hates transgression because He is supremely holy. He cursed the world when in Adam we fell into sin and that's why we get sick and die. That is why there is a corona outbreak Coronavirus outbreak. Because God has cursed the world. God has cursed the world because of our sin in Adam. Our rebellion in him. Why? Because he's absolutely holy. This is why the Lord warned Israel of the curses in Deuteronomy chapter 28. Because he is holy. And God is no different today. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is just as holy today as in the book of Deuteronomy. In the book of Isaiah, we read that God is holy, holy, holy. And we find the exact same thing in the New Testament. In Revelation chapter 4 verse 8, where we have a scene in heaven and the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, who are full of eyes all around and within. Day and night they never cease to say, quote, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. God has just as much a hatred of sin and rebellion today as he did in the days of Moses. He is supremely holy. The curses remind us of God's holiness. The curses also teach us that it is not enough to call yourself one of God's people. It's not enough to call yourself one of God's people. There's many people today who call themselves Christians. It's not enough to call yourself one of God's people. We see in this text that if you are one of God's people, He must truly be your God. You must truly be committed to Him. You cannot call yourself a Christian and just live like the world. Israel could say, I'll be okay because I'm an Israelite. Deuteronomy 26 says no. You're not going to be okay simply because you're an Israelite. If you are not faithful to the Lord from the heart, you will perish. You will be destroyed. And so it is with us. In Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 through 23. We read of our Lord Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount when He wrote, or when He said, On that final day there will be many people who say, Lord, Lord, Just as like in the days of the curse upon Israel, there would be many who would say, I'm an Israelite. The Lord is my God. There'll be many people on that final day when Jesus returns who will say, Lord, Lord, I'm a Christian. I'm a follower of Jesus. So many of them will hear those words from the Lord Jesus. Away from me, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. That there must be an inward commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ that matches those words, Lord, Lord. And there's not an inward commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Those words, Lord, Lord, mean nothing. Just like for the Israelites, if there was no inward commitment to their Redeemer, Their claim to be an Israelite didn't do them any good to save them from the curse of God. Merely calling yourself a Christian will not shield you from the divine wrath that is to come when Jesus Christ will return. The person who by grace has received a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ through repentance of sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that person will obey Christ's commandments. That person who has been given a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That person who has been united with Christ in His death and resurrection. That person who has received the Holy Spirit. That person who has been adopted as God's Son. That person who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, born from above. That person will obey Christ's commandments. That person will follow Jesus Christ as his Lord or her Lord. Not perfectly. Not without struggle. but they will follow Christ. They will seek to obey Him. There will be a change of life brought about by the Spirit of God. So the life of God is being formed in that person. Christ is being formed in that person. Don't deceive you. If you think that you are a Christian, but you live just like the world. If you live just like the world, you're not a Christian. If you live just like the world, then What God warns for you is the same as what He warned of Israel. The very curse of God. The language in our text of being destroyed, the language of perishing, points us to the same terms in the New Testament. In the New Testament we find these same terms about being destroyed, about perishing. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians. Chapter 1. Let's start at verse 7. In verse 7, the Apostle Paul writes these words, "...and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." So this is speaking about Christ's second coming. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, so this is future, in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, Because our testimony to you was believed. Now notice what this text says will be the punishment. For all those who have not been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9 says they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction. The word destruction that we have in our text of the curses. Now with the word eternal put in front of it. They will suffer eternal destruction. This is not speaking about annihilation. This is not saying that the person is going to go out of existence, that their soul is going to go out of existence. Because the Bible teaches clearly, in multiple passages, the eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. And the Bible never contradicts itself. What does this mean, the punishment of eternal destruction? It speaks of the eternal loss of everything worthwhile in life. It speaks of eternal ruination. It speaks of utter loss of your well-being. This is the curse that God will inflict upon the wicked. The curse that He will inflict in eternity upon all who have not been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches this is what every one of us deserves. This is what I deserve. This is what you deserve. We all deserve eternal destruction at the hands of a holy God. We find the same terms elsewhere in the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 39 says, But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. As believers, we are of those who have faith and preserve their souls. But those whose faith is not in Christ, they will be destroyed. Turn over to another passage, Matthew chapter 16. Matthew. chapter 16. Our Lord Jesus speaks in chapter 16 starting at verse 24 about what it means to be his follower. And he speaks of the eternal destiny of an individual. Then Jesus told His disciples, If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person according to what he has done. Notice in verse 25 that Jesus warns of losing your life in eternity. This is that eternal destruction that Paul spoke of. He says there in verse 25, whoever would save his life will lose it. You can try to save your home, you can try to save your money, you can try to save the life that you have in this world. But Jesus says, whoever would save his life will lose it. We'll lose it in eternity. We'll lose all that they hold precious. All that they hold dear. And then notice in verse 26 that Jesus warns of forfeiting one's soul. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? That's that eternal distraction, forfeiting your soul. What did it profit Israel? To go after other gods. To go after the gods of the Canaanites. What did it profit them to go after other gods and forfeit their souls? profited them nothing. And what would it profit you, my friend, to gain the whole world? To gain all the wealth of this world? All this world has to offer? What would you profit if you gained the whole world, yet forfeited your soul in eternity? It would profit you nothing. So, since eternal destruction is what you and I deserve from a holy God for our sin, our rebellion against Him. Where is hope to be found when you have the whole section in Deuteronomy of curses upon the one who forsakes the Lord and is not faithful to Him? And none of us would be faithful to the Lord apart from the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Where is hope to be found? Understand, my friend, that there is no hope to be found in your own works. The Bible is clear. Ephesians 2, verse 8. For by grace we as believers have been saved through faith. In this, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, lest no one can boast. We don't have any works in which we can truly boast before God. We don't have any works that we can truly stand before God, acceptable to Him. We cannot find any hope in our works. We also cannot find any hope in our hearts. Jeremiah 17.9 speaks of the condition of the heart that has not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah 17.9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? The intentions of man's heart are only evil continually according to Genesis chapter 6. There's no hope to be found in your works. There's no hope to be found in your heart. There's no hope to be found in yourself. There's hope to be found in only one person. The Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to John chapter 3. Our last passage this morning. John chapter 3. The glorious gospel truth here. John chapter 3, I'm going to begin reading at verse 13. Verse 13, the text says, No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. Jesus is speaking here. He refers to Himself as the Son of Man. No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. He descended in His incarnation. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. God cursed Israel in a smaller way than the Deuteronomy curses when they were in the wilderness. grumbling against God, complaining against Him. God sent fiery serpents against them. People were dying from the fiery serpents. But the Lord told Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole and to raise it up. God promised that anyone who would look to that bronze serpent would be healed and they would live. The serpent, a symbol of curse. Jesus says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. As that symbol of curse was put up, so Christ, He would be lifted up upon a tree, upon a cross. He would be lifted up as the very object of God's curse. God the Father would curse His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One, the Righteous One, who obeyed all the law of God perfectly in our place. The Father would curse the Son in our place. He would be lifted up. He would suffer the curse. that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. Verse 16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. God the Father accepted Christ's sacrifice there upon the cross. The divine wrath was satisfied by our Lord Jesus Christ. He was buried. And on the third day, the Father raised the Son from the dead, declaring that the Father had accepted Christ's payment, that it was a complete payment, a complete atonement for our sin. The Father raised His Son in victory. Jesus Christ is alive today, as Lord, as Christ, to save all who come to Him in faith. The promise of the Scriptures, the promise of the Gospels, that whoever believes in Him Whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, whoever believes in Him and His finished work should not perish. There's that word perish that we had all throughout our text. The warning was that God's people would perish if they were not faithful to Him. That was the curse, they would utterly perish. But here's the good news of the Gospel, that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as one's personal Lord and Savior will not perish. Will not perish in eternity, but will have eternal life. Friend, have you received the free gift of eternal life that is found in Jesus Christ and in Him alone? If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, Christ calls you to repent of your sin and to come to Him in faith. to submit your heart, to submit your life to Him, to follow Him the rest of your days. The Bible promises eternal life to all who would believe in the Son. Stop trusting in your works, stop trusting in the supposed goodness of your heart, and put your full trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Jesus today. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today, you will be saved. Beloved brethren, rejoice in the gospel. In studying the curses, we have been studying the wrath of God. We have been studying a description that pales in comparison to the eternal wrath of God, but gives us some of a sense of the wrath of God that we deserve for our sins against a holy God. We're reminded of our sins from which we have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, think of what a wonderful salvation has been given to us by the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That we have been saved from that curse. Think of the horror of those words that we read. Think of the far worse horror of the eternal wrath of God. Rejoice, brothers and sisters, in the Lord's salvation. Rejoice that He, by His grace, by His mercy, has saved us from the wrath that is to come, has saved us from the curse. and has given us the gift of eternal life, the gift of a relationship with Jesus Christ. The enmity has been removed, the condemnation has been removed when we have been reconciled to God, brought to God to fellowship with Him and to worship Him and to serve Him as His Spirit now has taken up residence within us and is transforming us and growing us. How can we live the life that God requires of us? a life of worship to Him, service to Him, faithfulness to Him, is by the Spirit of God, who is given to the believer with a heart that's been made new by the Spirit of God. As a believer, it depends not on our own strength, it depends on the power of the Spirit day by day. And brothers and sisters, understand that we have the greatest news to tell. Brothers and sisters, Let me encourage you to ask your Heavenly Father to direct you in reaching out with the gospel. The world around us is in fear of a virus that ultimately is part of God's curse upon the world. And we have been entrusted with the good news of what God has provided to save people from His eternal curse. So let us say to God, here I am. Send me. Show me how I am to go about spreading this good news. of salvation in Jesus Christ with others at this point in history, at this point in our lives, unto his glory. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this passage. Use it in our hearts for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.