Harper, David: Every Action Has It's Consrquences

Good morning. Pleased to be here. Uh, I'm very jealous of you and this assembly for the building you've got next door. Was overlooking in it, and uh, boy, we'd sure like to have something like that, uh, where we are. So if you want to build another one, uh, East Freedom's looking for, uh, some funds. But it's really a- it's nice to see that. There's going to be a lot of, uh, you're going to enjoy a lot of uses for it, uh, and you'll, uh, I'm sure you will enjoy it very much. I'd like you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter twenty seven. We're going to look at an older story, or part of that old story of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, uh, certainly needs to be told often and well. But this is part of that plan of redemption and part of the story, and we want to look at, uh, some verses in chapters twenty seven and twenty eight of the book of Deuteronomy. And we're going to break in, we're not going to read all of these, obviously. Uh, we might get done in time to close the meeting, but we're going to read a few of them representatively to see what, uh, is here and to think about them and to challenge our own hearts and challenge our own thinking as we apply them to ourselves in our day and age. Starting at verse eleven, and Moses charged the people the same day, saying, these shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people when ye are passed over the Jordan, Simeon and Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal for the curse, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall answer and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice, and then we start, cursed be every man that maketh a graven or molten image, and he goes down and records the cursing, or the judgment that's going to come if certain things happen. Verse twenty six is the verse that is quoted by Paul in Galatians. Cursed be he that confirmeth not the words of this law to do them, and all the people shall say amen. Now, in chapter twenty eight, we have an exposition of the blessing and the cursing. Verses one through fourteen give an exposition of the blessings, reading at verse one, And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. And so on, down to verse thirteen. And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail, and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath, if thou shalt hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do them. Verse fifteen starts the section of judgment or curses that are going to come upon them if they disobey and do not hearken. Verse fifteen, and it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Verse twenty, The Lord will send upon thee cursing, discomfiture, and rebuke in all that thou puttest thy hand unto to do, until thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly, because of the evil of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me. Verse twenty five. The Lord will cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. Thou shalt go out one way against them, and thou shalt flee seven ways before them, and thou shalt be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth. Verse thirty six: The Lord will bring thee anew, and thy king, whom thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation that thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone, and thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples whither the Lord shall lead thee away. And he goes on and speaks of that kind of judgment. Verse forty seven, Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies that the Lord shall send against thee in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in want of all things, and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he have destroyed thee. Verse fifty eight, If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God, or Yahweh thy God, then the Lord Yahweh will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses and of long continuance. And he goes on to finish the chapter with these curses. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, these are solemn words that we have read. And as we think back over the history of Israel, we see them played out, uh, in the story of the redemption of Israel and indeed our own. Uh, we pray this morning that you would help us to understand the ways and the means of our God and Savior. And as we understand how he has dealt with the nation of Israel, may we make the proper application to ourselves. These are serious words, and we pray that you would illuminate our heart to profit from them, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Every action has its consequence. Said generally, all actions have their consequences. And I think that those of you who are older understand that, don't you? Every action has its consequence. Now I could back up, I think, and say that every thought has its consequences, because, as we read, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And we read that the tree, likened to us, will bear forth fruit after its kind, won't we? A good tree will bear forth good fruit, a bad tree will bear bad fruit. So I could back it up to our thoughts, but I really want us to think about our actions today, recognizing that our actions originate in our soul, in our mind, in our thoughts. Every action has its consequence. As we read, uh, verse chapters twenty seven and twenty eight, uh, you might be thinking what possible positive thing is this guy going to say about these chapters? Uh, what edifying thing is here? Well, I think that what we see here is one of the principles that we ourselves experience in our own lives as people living on this planet. Every person who lives today experiences that universal rule that every action has its consequence, don't we? We all know that, and yet I would submit to you that in our society today that we have a tendency to deny that fact. Many people around us seem to think that we can sin, we can do those things that are wrong, that are deplorable, and do it with impunity. Oh, it doesn't really matter. Doesn't affect anybody else. I would submit to you, and you think about it, I remember, uh, somebody saying this, uh, several years ago, that every sin that we commit in thought, in word, in deed, every sin that we commit has an effect on someone else. You might say, oh no, that's not, that's not true. I responded that way. That's not true. I mean, I can do things by myself, and nobody sees me, and you can't see me, and no one can pass judgment on me, and it doesn't affect anybody else, doesn't it? You might think, well, I can look, to use a pretty horrid sin, I can look at pornography over and over again, and it really is only me that's doing it, and it doesn't affect anyone else, doesn't it? What about your relationship to your wife? What about your relationship to others, how you look at other people, how you deal with other people? And I believe that it's true that every sin that we commit has its effect on someone else. It's not just upon ourselves. Every action has its consequence. In this book of Deuteronomy, this book is, uh, is very interesting. I've been studying this now for about three months, I think, uh, trying to think through the issue that of what is my relationship as a believer in this day, right now, what is my relationship to the law? It's a complicated question in some senses. Uh, there are different views as to how we relate to the law. Uh, some say, well, we have no, nothing to do with it. Doesn't Paul say that we're under law, not under, we're not under law, but under grace? Indeed, he does. But Paul also says that these things were written for our admonition, that we might learn from them. Paul also quotes in, uh, and most preachers don't like to talk about this too much because it sounds self-serving, but Paul in First Corinthians nine, as well as in First Timothy, quotes an obscure verse in Deuteronomy chapter twenty five, justifying the fact that men who preach the gospel should live of the gospel. And he uses a verse that has nothing to do, at least I wouldn't think so if I didn't have Paul telling me, has nothing to do with the support of the Lord's servants. He says, doesn't the law say that thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn? And then in First Corinthians nine, he says something else. He says, now, was the Lord only concerned for oxen when he wrote this? Or was he not te- teaching this or giving this for you and for me, that we might learn to have hope in the work that we are doing? I found that fascinating. Never really thought about it much until these last few months, but found that the Old Testament really has an application to us, doesn't it? Paul said so, not only there, but he said so in a lot of places, in First uh, Corinthians nine and Romans fifteen, just to name you a few. And yet there's that relationship between the law and grace that is distinct, isn't it? So that's an interesting thing. But what we have in Deuteronomy is the book of the law, and Paul uses it and says that God wrote this, especially those particular verses and all of the law, for us. They reflect the personality of God, and it's up to us to make the correct application. Now, in this book, it's a legal treatise. It's a treaty, actually, and it's a treaty that is very similar to other treaties found in the ancient Near East. Uh, and these treaties are very interesting. It would, it would probably profit me to, uh, expound the, uh, similarities between those treaties, but it'd be pretty barren for you. So we're not going to talk about those. But it does justify our, as evangelicals, contention that Moses wrote this book. Because now, just in the last thirty years, we have found, our archaeologists have found numerous treaties that were written exactly in this time period and are very, very similar to this particular book of Deuteronomy. So the liberal contention, if you read, and it's still an assumption by many in the professing church today, that Deuteronomy was written in the time of Josiah, that these priests wrote it and then hid it, and then it was found as if it were an old document, and it really wasn't, doesn't reflect, uh, it reflects only the time of Josiah, and really Moses didn't write it. It's just written in the form. Somebody wrote it as if Moses would have written it. Not so, not so at all. And so what we have in a treaty, you have a lot of different parts, but in every treaty there is a whole big sit- big long section of stipulations. What is required of these people who are the subjects of this particular king? And there's a lot of stipulations to the treaty. And Deuteronomy has the same in chapters five through chapter twenty six. But then comes a section which describes what's going to happen to you if you don't obey, and what's going to happen to you if you do obey the stipulations of these treaties? And it's very much like all the other treaties that we find in that period of time. The blessings that come if you are obedient, and the judgment that comes if you disobey. And we see that happening, don't we? Didn't the king make a treaty with Assyria and then rebelled, and Assyria came and destroyed the northern ten tribes? Didn't, uh, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah make treaties with Nebuchadnezzar and broke them? And Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed them. Judgment, curses if you disobey. God is our king. He was the king of Israel, and he made a treaty with them, which is unilateral by virtue of the fact that he redeemed them out of Egypt. He says, you are now my people, and these are the stipulations, and they agreed to do them. They said, we will do them, we will do all of them, and what we have read are the things that will happen if they obey, and what will happen if they disobey. A few observations, just at the outset. One is that Paul quotes verse twenty six, which we have read, cursed be he that conformeth, confirmeth not the words of this law to do them. Paul quotes them in Galatians to say that every one of us is condemned because none of us have done all the words of the law. And he's primarily talking to Jude, uh, Jews who have become Christians, but it's true of all of us, but especially true of the Jews, that every Jewish person has disobeyed one at least, not just one, but many. But he said, if you have not done everything in the law, then you are cursed. But the great thing is that Christ, Jesus Christ, became a curse for us. Him who knew no sin was cursed that we might not have to endure this judgment. Great application, isn't it? This is written for us, and Paul applies it to us. And we could take a long time to, uh, to understand, to reflect upon the fact that every one of us is sinners. Every one of us has broken the commandments of God. But Jesus Christ took that curse upon himself so that we might not have to live under that curse. That's great. What liberty we have. We've been acquitted when we were guilty. Great thing. Now, to note that is not in passing, to note that is not to, to for us to take this out of its context, though. This is in a particular context of Israel. I'm reminded of the danger of taking verses and sections out of their context. It can be, uh, a mistake. It can be disillusioning. It can be dangerous, and it can be downright destructive. Let me illustrate just how that can be in a secular incident. I've just seen a, uh, a videotape by, uh, Wall Builders. I don't know if any of you heard of Wall Builders. It's a group of, of Christians who are trying to demonstrate that in the First Amendment, not just that, but this is the one I saw. In the First Amendment, the, the founding fathers wanted religion to be part. In fact, they said that if religion is not part of our constitution and our government, we will be destroyed. And not only that, in Virginia, they had to all belong to the Anglican Church if they were going to be in parliament or in government of any kind. But yet today it's said that, well, Thomas Jefferson was a deist, and these people, they, they in the Constitution understood that there's a separation between church and state. Many of you probably don't, I, I, I used to think the separation of church and state is written in the Constitution. It's not written in the Constitution. Do you know where it came from? It came from a letter by Thomas Jefferson in eighteen oh two to a group in Connecticut who had written to ask him about the fact that they had heard a rumor that the congregational church was going to become the state, the national church, you know, the governmental church of choice, and they were writing to, uh, rebel on that. They were Baptists in Connecticut at the time, and Thomas Jefferson wrote back to say, no, the congregation, there is no, there is not going to be any national church, and that's exactly what he meant when he said there is a separation of church and state. In the context of the question that was asked, is the congregational church going to become the national church? He said, absolutely not. There is a separation between church and state. Church there meaning a national church. Today, starting in the late forties, our government has said that the definition of church there is not a national organization, a national, uh, denomination, but a church now is any public religious quote or right or what any religious observance. That's taking it completely out of its context. Do you understand the destruction that has come to our country because of that, that misapplication and misinterpretation of what Thomas Jefferson said in eighteen oh two in a letter, a private letter? Well, it can be destructive, can't it? The context here is in the context of Israel, who is already redeemed. If you would read these two chapters and say, well, see, there's blessings and curses, salvation for the Israelite comes through being obedient, doesn't it? By works. No, it doesn't. The context here is that Israel as a nation was already redeemed, weren't they? They had already come out of Egypt. They had already been ransomed from the, uh, slavery that they experienced in Egypt. They are now God's people. And an understanding of these kind of covenants parallels our relationship to God individually. God made a covenant to Abraham, and that covenant was unconditional, wasn't it? It was a unilateral covenant, and it was made to Abraham saying that I'm going to bless you and your seed, and I'm going to give to them a land, and there's nothing you can do. It's yours. It's going to be yours. Well, Abraham never had that land, did he? He didn't experience it, but it was in the future, and it was promised, and God promised it unconditionally. And you can see it as you look at the, the form of the covenant and the ritual that they went through in the splitting of the, uh, the animals. But God also made a covenant to Moses after they were redeemed out of Egypt. And in Exodus nineteen, he makes the covenant to these people, and he says, if you will obey this covenant, if you will do all the things that are written in this law, then you will be my people. You will be a chosen people, a chosen possession of mine. And that's a great thing, isn't it? But it was conditional, wasn't it? The relationship is that Israel as a nation had the land of Israel given to them forever. It's absolutely certain, and it's going to be theirs forever. But the enjoyment of that land depends on what? Their obedience, doesn't it? Their walk, what they do. They are responsible for the enjoyment of that, of those blessings that come to, have come to Israel. Now you might say, well, that's, you know, good and proper for Israel. How does that relate to me? Here's how it relates to you. You may not know Jesus Christ as your savior today. I don't know all of you. And it's likely in a group of this gathering that some of you may not. Your salvation is only contingent upon the grace of God giving you a gift. You acknowledge that Jesus Christ became a curse for you. You accept the fact that he died in your stead, simply by grace, and you receive the gift. For by grace have we been saved, through faith, not of ourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast. We are saved by grace. There's nothing we can do about it, is it? We simply accept it. We can't work for it. You can't do anything. You can't join the church. You can't do good works and become a child of God. You accept it by grace through faith. Paul says in Titus, it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but it's according to his mercy that he saved us. It's not by works. So they say, well, what does that have to do with me? Well, that's true, isn't it? And Jesus himself says, my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them life for ten years, and then you renew it. Isn't that right? No, I give unto you eternal life, and you shall never perish. That's the unconditional part of the covenant. Israel as a nation parallels our experience as an individual in this level. It's unconditional. Salvation is ours, but for you to enjoy your salvation and the blessings that come from it, it requires your obedience, doesn't it? And that's the parallel, isn't it? Don't mistake the context here. All Israelites were saved and justified just like you and I by faith. Paul says that. He quotes from, from Abraham and says he was justified by faith. David says the same in Psalm thirty two. Habakkuk says the same in Habakkuk chapter two. Justification is by faith. Now, their faith was not in a risen Savior. It was looking forward to it. Our faith is in Jesus Christ, who died, was buried, and rose again for our justification, and I accept it simply by faith. It's, it's given to me forever. But every action I commit, everything that I do after I'm be- I'm a sa- I'm a bel- after I'm a a child of God has its consequences. Every action has its consequences. Well, look at verse in chapter twenty eight, and there's another observation I want to make, and that is the uh character of the law, I think, is reflected in the length of the blessings and curses. Notice that there are fourteen verses that describe the blessings. If you hearken, that means if you hear it and obey it, then these things are going to happen. And he, he speaks about them in fourteen verses, but starting verse fifteen and going through, actually probably through, uh, chapter twenty nine and verse one, you have the curses. Over three times as much length in describing the curses if they disobey. And I think that reflects the character of the law, doesn't it? The law condemns. The law was there to show us our sin. The law is there to show us our need of a savior. It's a tutor. It's like, it's a paidagogos. It's a, uh, that's the term for a schoolmaster or a tutor, one who has control over students and is responsible to take them to school and back. Responsible for their activities. That person is responsible to get them there. The law is responsible to get us to the place where we acknowledge our sin and our guilt, and it takes us in our minds to the fact that we need a savior. But now that we're saved, now that we have accepted this plan, you know, the blessings now are ours if we obey. How does that parallel our experience in the New Testament? Turn to First Timothy chapter four. In First Timothy chapter four, Paul is giving some directions to Timothy, and really to all of us, isn't he, by extension? To all of us. And he is, uh, exhorting Timothy to be a good minister of Christ Jesus in verse six. And in verse seven he says, but refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself unto godliness, for bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is and the life which is to come. Bodily exercise is profitable for a little. I, we all understand that. It is profitable, but it's only profitable for a little because it's temporary. And, uh, you know, the older you get, you know, the more you see that, uh, exercise can't do it all, but it's good to exercise. But godliness, to exercise ourselves unto godliness is profitable not only for what is temporarily here and now, it brings you a, an enjoyment of your salvation now, doesn't it? An enjoyment of the peace that passes all understanding, an enjoyment of every aspect of our salvation if we exercise ourself unto godliness. It has promise of the life now, but also of that which is to come. It's far more profitable, isn't it? Every action has its consequence, though, and in the physical realm, I experienced that this summer. Uh, in July, we had a picnic at our assembly, and uh, we were playing softball game. And I used to play a lot of softball. You have a softball team here still, didn't you, this summer? Yep. Uh, and I, as a young fellow, uh, went out and played softball very hard, enjoyed it, played probably too hard. I always thought it was very interesting, and uh, it was a fast pitch church league that I played in for quite a few years, and uh, I always found it interesting that in these church leagues there was so much complaining and ranting and raving at the umpire. Wow, it was tough. You know, yelling and screaming by all these Christians out there playing softball. Oh, those were the days. But I was in this softball game, it was a pickup game, and we were all playing, and I made a sudden move. I was playing, uh, and went to tag a person and lunged for him much more quickly than I'm normally used to moving, and pulled a muscle. And, uh, that pulled muscle stayed with me for six weeks. Every action has its consequence. I wasn't ready for that. I should have exercised myself before. I should have stretched and warmed up, no doubt. But everything you do has a consequence, doesn't it? We all experience that in every area of life. In the positive realm, if you are obedient to the word of God, you will experience the blessing of God. May not be in temporal things. Sometimes we think that. You listen to a number of, uh, of, uh, radio and TV preachers, you might come to the conclusion that if you're, uh, very godly and send me some money, then you will experience God's blessing. And, uh, doesn't often happen that way. Sometimes it does. In our society, I think we look at that, and material prosperity is the blessing of God. May not be. And in the Old Testament days, the psalmists especially understood, if they thought about things, they understood that sometimes those who live godly really don't experience the blessing of God right now. In Psalm thirty seven, Psalm forty nine, Psalm seventy three, you'll find that the problem these men encountered and dealt with was the fact that sometimes those ungodly people do well. Sometimes they have prosperity. Sometimes they have good health. Sometimes they have things so much better than we do, what benefit is it to us to be a believer and to obey our, our God and to deprive ourselves of these things? If that's what they get out of it, what's wrong with me for you doing the same as they? And Asaph understood. He said, I, I thought, you know, these things, but when I went into the house of God, the temple of God, I considered their latter end. That every action has its consequence, doesn't it? It may not be immediately right now, but it has its consequence. Don't we see it nationally? I've mentioned that, that nationally, we Christians, who ought to have been a voice for right and for justice, have been silent the last forty years, haven't we? We've been silent. The Christian community, I speak as the community at large, and in just our situation in this country, have been characterized by a pusillanimous spirit. We have been feckless. We have been cowardly. We have not stood up to what is wrong, and we need to do that. But because we have not, we are reaping the consequences in our society today. In our local churches, don't we see the same thing? Because elders are, are afraid to discipline open sin. What happens to that assembly? The consequences come, don't they? In our families, don't we experience that? We parents who are afraid to train our children and to discipline them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, don't we experience the consequences of our action or our inaction? We do, don't we? In every area of life, individually, every action that we commit, everything that we do has its consequence. And that's a universal truth. You might say, well, I'm saved, and I'm really, that's all I'm concerned about. I'm going to heaven, and let me alone. Let me live as I want. Let me enjoy the pleasures of, of this world. Let me enjoy the materialism that we have. And you see those who are poor, those who are in genuine need, you say, the Lord will take care of you. You know, the Lord will bless you and do nothing about it. We're, we're not any different than, uh, those, uh, who passed by the Good Samaritan, are we? Turn to first, uh, uh second Corinthians chapter five, just to point out to you and to all of us who are born again, who know Jesus Christ as our Savior, we look... We look with anticipation to the judgment seat of Christ, Christ, most of us. But I want you to know that all your actions as a believer do have their consequences, and notice what it says. Verse nine, Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing unto him, that's to our Savior. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Because we're going to receive everything that we have done in the body, whether it's good or bad. I'm not sure what that's going to be like. I don't really know, but I take it there it's positive and negative, isn't it? You're going to receive, receive bad for bad. Now, that's not, that's not punishment for our sins judicially. We're in heaven, folks. When we go to be with the Lord, we're absent from the body and present with the Lord, but we will be judged as stewards, aren't we? And most of you know that. All of your actions have their consequences and our inaction, because don't we know that to him who knoweth to do good and doesn't do it, to him it is sin, isn't it? You might say, well, that's true, but I'm going to take my chances. And some of you who don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior have the idea that God grades on a curve, don't you? You know how that goes in, in school nowadays? We're afraid to fail people and to have standards and say you've got to pass and you've got to accomplish these standards, so we grade on a curve. And so the class, you have, uh, standard deviations, and the middle is the fifty percentile, and, and so we sometimes have the idea that if you're in the upper fifty percentile, you do a little better than everybody else, that you're going to get in heaven. God doesn't grade on a curve. You commit one sin, you're guilty of all. But as stewards, we're going to be standing before the judgment seat of Christ. You ask me, what does all that mean? Well, I don't know. I, I can't describe the judgment seat of Christ, the Bema seat. I really, uh, know that it's going to be bad. It's going to be a bad experience if you've done nothing to enhance your building down here. If you've built with wood, hay, and stubble, that fire that burns it all up is going to be painful. I can guarantee that. And you will be saved so as by the skin of your teeth. How about the means of accomplishing this? Well, I, I especially like the text in Philippians, which says, work out your own salvation. That's, that's as believers, isn't it? Work out your own salvation. Why? How can we do it? For it's God who works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He is the one who works and gives you the will to accomplish it and accomplish his purposes, but you have to step out by faith. It's faith there, folks. Sanctification is by faith. Understanding that God is the rewarder of them who diligently seek to please him. And I do want you to turn to this in closing, to Galatians chapter six, which is the universal text of, uh, sowing and reaping. And I, uh, try to remind myself, it's painful to do, it's painful to think back on all the things that I've done and recognize they do have their consequences. Uh, I see it in my kids. I don't know how it works, but they do things and make the mistakes that I made, and I'm not sure why, but they do. My own actions seem to be reaping consequences. But notice what we r- we see here. If you think in your mind, as a non-Christian, that God is really, you know, he's up there perhaps, but he's not really going to judge me because I'm a pretty good person. I go to church, I do lots of things that are good. I'm not like the, uh, you know, the derelict, the child abuser, the pedophile, the murderer. I'm not like those people. I'm a pretty good guy. I want you to notice what it says in verse seven. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. He will not be mocked. If you think you can sin with impunity, you can't. It says, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Now, now remember, Paul here is talking to the Galatians, who are professed believers. They're professing Christians here. For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. And then the exhortation which I want to leave with you is this, and to me as well, because I tend to get discouraged, don't you? You think that, uh, you know, that, that you're all alone and people don't agree with you, and you have, uh, you know, people that don't have the same, uh, convictions that you do, and it's frustrating. I know how that is. Verse nine, and let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good to all men, especially them that are of the household of faith. May you, uh, understand the application of this principle that every action has its consequence. To the Israelites it did in blessing and cursing nationally. Tonight we're going to look a little bit at some of those consequences and some individuals that lived in a time that was very negative under the judgment of God, yet were faithful to him. And sometimes I see that in relation to our country, uh, in relation to sometimes our local churches. You have some local churches, and you can't do anything about it. They've turned away in some ways from, from the obedience to the word of God. What do we do? How do we conduct ourselves individually in that context? But let us all not grow weary in well-doing, because we shall reap if we faint not. Let's pray. Our Father, we come to you thanking you for all scripture, because it's inspired, it is God-breathed, and it's profitable. And I pray that you would help us as we have considered, uh, this, uh, fairly obscure text in Deuteronomy, yet understand that the principle that underlies this charge, the charge to Israel to be obedient, and the warning as to what will happen if they're disobedient, that we would make the application to ourselves, understanding that to enjoy the blessings of our salvation in this life and in the life to come requires a godly spirit, self-sacrifice, becoming like our Lord Jesus Christ. May we not have a feckless spirit and shy away from the direction that Paul gave, uh, that those who live godly lives will indeed suffer persecution. May we, with courage, stand up and be counted among those who are faithful, like Daniel, like the three, uh, Jewish boys in Babylon who stood up and were faithful to you, and you blessed them for it. Help us to have that confidence, and I would again pray that if anyone here does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior, may they clearly understand they can do nothing for it, that they must receive salvation as a free gift that is given solely by the grace of God. But may they understand the solemnity of the fact that because of their sin, they stand in the judgment of God to experience eternal punishment. And may not that not be the case for anyone here today. And may we, as we live a life in a world that is ungodly and seeming to progress farther down that road to, uh, of ungodliness, that we would stand tall and with courage, uh, reflect Jesus Christ to those around us. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.