Covenant Theology: Blessings, Curses, and Sanctions: Promises Of The Law

Promises Of The Law - Part 6

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Covenant Theology

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2019-03-10

Synopsis: In this sermon, Pastor John Weaver continues his series on the promises of the law, focusing on the concept of sanctions—both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience—as revealed in Deuteronomy 28. He argues that God's sanctions are irresistible and inescapable, applying to individuals, nations, and all of history. Weaver contrasts God's law order, based on absolutes and leading to liberty, with man's law order, which leads to tyranny and slavery. He demonstrates from Scripture, particularly Lamentations and Zechariah, that the curses pronounced in Deuteronomy 28 were historically fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. The sermon concludes with a call to view world events through the lens of God's sanctions and a practical test from Malachi 3 regarding tithing.

[John Weaver] First Kings chapter 8 verse 56 that's our text that we have been using for this series on the promises of the law. And then we'll look at Deuteronomy 28. This is number 6 the series the promises of the law first Kings 8 in verse 56 Solomon is praying Dedicating the temple and he says blessed be the Lord that had given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he promised There's not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant So we're talking about the promises of the law now if you look in Deuteronomy 28 and We are going to read just a few verses beginning with verse 1, And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the

[John Weaver] Lord thy God, to observe and do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, And blessed shalt thou be in the field. And then all of these blessings go down to verse 13. Then verse 14, you have a cautionary warning. Now look at verse 15. But 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. Cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed shalt thou be in the field. And then, of course, the curses go on to the end of the chapter to verse 68.

[John Weaver] I want to just simply remind you of the main points that we've covered so far without me really taking time to review each message. I've pointed out the fact that it is absolutely impossible to unhitch from the Old Testament and also to unhitch from the law of God. So many people try to say, well, the Old Testament is no more, it does not relate to us anymore. Well, I want you to turn very quickly to John chapter one and look at verse 45. I said this, I do believe in the very first message. that without the Old Testament, you would have no idea who Jesus Christ really was. So in John 1 and verse 45, the Bible tells us this, Philip fighted Nathanael and sethened him. We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So they would not have known who Jesus was without the Old Testament because He talks about Moses and the prophets. So it is impossible to unhitch from the Old Testament or the Law of God.

[John Weaver] Without the Law we would know nothing about sin. I pointed that out very clearly from Romans 3 in verse 20, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. Without the Law we would not know anything about salvation, for Jesus Christ observed the Law and kept it perfectly and worked out a perfect righteousness for us. And then the Bible also teaches us that the Law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. And then last week I pointed out without the law there is no sanctification. So we would not know anything about sin or salvation or sanctification apart from the law. Today I want to show you we would not know anything about sanctions apart from the law. If you do not understand sanctions then you're not going to be able to comprehend what is going on around us in the world today. One thing for sure, as you read through the Bible we do indeed have promises in the Law. No one can disagree that these promises have been revealed.

[John Weaver] People may not like them, they may argue about them, they may try to dispute them, but the reality is they are there. And when we talk about the promises in this particular passage we are talking about sanctions. Because there are promises that have a positive effect and there are sanctions that also have a negative effect. And when we talk about the positive and negative, they are given to us under the terms of blessings and curses. You'll find these repeated.

[John Weaver] Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 and 29 particularly. All of the sanctions are listed there under blessings and curses. Now, in Deuteronomy chapter 28 through 34 sometimes is referred to as the farewell of Moses. The very first part deals with the positive sanctions. For instance, look at verses 1 and 2. He said, And it shall come to pass that thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do 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 on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. And so there you have the positive sanctions, the blessings promised for obedience.

[John Weaver] you will skip down to verse 15 you will see basically the same language in relationship to the curses. But it shall come to pass that 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." We have to understand that God is the Creator. He is not only the Creator, He is sovereign and therefore He controls His creation and He has the absolute right to issue sanctions. Positive sanctions, that is blessings, always follow obedience. Negative sanctions, that is curses, always follow disobedience.

[John Weaver] Let me make a statement and I'm going to prove it to you from Scripture shortly. God's sanctions are irresistible. By that I mean you cannot stop them. You cannot overthrow them. You cannot thwart them. You cannot nullify them. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to stop His sanctions. Moreover, sanctions come in a variety of forms. And oftentimes, people do not recognize that they're God's sanctions, and through their ignorance and unbelief, they attribute sometimes God's sanctions to what you and I would call luck, chance, fate, or fortune, or sometimes, like the weather forecasters who heretically pronounce weather as the act of Mother Nature. So God does indeed send sanctions even though many times people do not recognize them.

[John Weaver] Now there is another point that we must understand as I begin today and that is antinomianism. Antinomianism is one of the main problems we have in the Church today. It is a heresy. It is an ancient heresy. Nomos is the Greek word for law. An anti means against. Antinomian is someone who is against God's law. it is heresy for someone to posit that the Law of God has no meaning for us today. It has no application for us today, and it has no binding effect upon us today.

[John Weaver] The truth of the matter is man is either a covenant keeper or he is a covenant breaker. He is either in submission and obedient to God's Law, or he is disobedient and in rebellion to God's Law. When we talk about sanctions, You have to understand that every law order has sanctions. Every law system has sanctions, even humanistic law systems. There cannot be a law order without sanctions. Sanctions are a way of defending a law order. If there are no sanctions, law order or law system will very quickly dissipate and disappear. An unenforceable law is no law. If a law does not have teeth it is very quickly ignored.

[John Weaver] Now, let me tell you since I'm talking about law orders there are basically only two. You have God's law order and you have man's law order. There is a difference between them. God's law order is based upon absolutes. Thou shalt not do this. Thou shalt not do that. In other words, there are absolutes. This is right, and this is wrong. Humanistic law orders always lead to either tyranny, totalitarianism, or anarchy. The leading idea in a humanistic law order is self-assertion. Do as you please. Do what you will. Do whatever you desire. In other words, to them, everything is relative. There are no absolutes. And when you hear someone saying, well, everything is relative, then you need to ask them, are you absolutely sure about that?

[John Weaver] And when they say absolutely, they've just made an absolute out of a non-absolute. So, you can't get a, it's kind of like the atheist who was in a debate and he blurted out, thank God I don't believe in that, you know. Well he was an atheist but here he is thanking God. So, that's the way these people work. But anyhow, God's Law System is indeed an absolute.

[John Weaver] Now, When you consider law systems, you only have two choices. You have man's law system, or you have God's law system. There's no other alternative. Societies cannot exist without law. There must be a law order. So the question is not, will you have a law order? The question is, which law order will you have? you have God's law system, or will you have man's law system? Now, I want to show you the distinction between these law systems. I want you to hold Deuteronomy 28, we are coming back there. But I want you to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8. 1 Samuel chapter 8. This is the passage, 1 Samuel chapter 8, where Israel rejects God as their King and desires a man to rule over them.

[John Weaver] So let's begin reading with verse four, and we'll read through verse seven. I want you to note very clearly how they reject God. 1 Samuel 8, verse four. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel under Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.

[John Weaver] Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee. Look what God says, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. So what they were doing, they were choosing another king instead of God.

[John Weaver] I want you to note that when you change rulers you change law systems. Although we are supposedly a constitutional republic, supposedly, which we are not in reality, not anymore. But notice there is a difference between the Obama Administration and the Trump Administration. I mean and we are not talking about kings but we are just talking about obviously there is going to be a difference in rule. And so God is going to lay out for us and clearly show us what man's law system is going to be like.

[John Weaver] So if you will skip down to verse 9 and we will read through verse 20. God says, Now therefore hearken unto their voice, howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. God says, You wanted a man? Here is how he is going to rule over you. This will be his manner. Watch. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you.

[John Weaver] He will take your sons and appoint them for himself and for his chariots and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands and captains over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest. make His instruments of war and His instruments of chariots. And He will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and all of yours, even the best of them and give them to His servants. And He will take the tenth of your seed into your vineyards and give it to His officers and to His servants. And He will take the men's servants, and your maid's servants, and your goodly shunned men, and your asses, and put them to his work. And he will take the tithe of your sheep, and you shall be his servants.

[John Weaver] And you shall cry out in that day, because of your king which you shall have chosen you. And the Lord will not hear you in that day." Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles."

[John Weaver] I want you to understand, in God's law order, there is liberty and there is freedom. In man's law order, there is slavery and there is tyranny. God gives and man takes. And you notice all the 10% in here, you'll take the 10th of this and 10th of that. You know, even the Americans today would be happy if the feds only took 10%. But you notice each year, when we're enabled to work for ourselves, it gets further into the year. I think last year was in July. In other words, you work until about July just to pay the taxes that is inherent upon you. And then the rest of the year you get to work for your own upkeep is what it amounts to. So God is saying, you reject me and you choose man, then you're choosing slavery. And so they swapped and they swapped law orders.

[John Weaver] Now if you look in 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 12 you are going to see how that is stated very clearly. 1 Samuel 12 verse 12, And when you saw Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king. So, God was their King and they traded God for a man. Now, if you'll skip down to verse 19 you'll also see that they recognized their sin because here in verse 19 the Word of God says this, and all the people said unto Samuel, pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not for we have added under all our sins this evil to ask us a king. Wow!

[John Weaver] I find it interesting that so many people oppose God's law and fights against God's law, but they do not oppose or fight against man's law. They quickly and easily and readily submit to man when they will not submit to God. And what we have failed to realize and remember, one of the reasons God sent Israel into captivity for submitting to and obeying the laws of man. If you would turn right over in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 17. 2 Kings chapter 17 and look if you would please beginning there with verse 7. 2 Kings 17 and verse 7 here it is. For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods."

[John Weaver] Now let me just stop. Note the Bible says they feared other gods. What is the evidence that you fear another god? Watch. verse 8, and walked in the statutes of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel which they had made." When you trade gods you trade law systems. And so here the children of Israel refused to obey God but they are now obeying the statutes or the laws of the heathen. And then he also added of the kings of Israel which they had made and all of the kings of Israel were apostate.

[John Weaver] There was not one good king in the northern kingdom. All claimed to those golden calves that Jeroboam had made. And if you read on down you will see how wicked they became in verse 9, and the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God. And they built them high places in all their cities, from the Tower of the Watchman to the Fence City. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill and every green tree. And if you read on down you will see how wicked they became by following man's law order and man's law system.

[John Weaver] So let me just summarize it and put it like this. God's law order leads to blessing and to life. Man's law order always leads to curses and to death. And the truth of the matter is this, it would be absolutely wonderful if man's law order was brought into conformity to God's law order, but unhappily, not the case. And when there is a conflict between God's Law order and man's Law order then we have to take the attitude of Peter and the other Apostles in Acts 5 and verse 29 where he said, then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn back to Deuteronomy 28 because when you examine Deuteronomy 28 you will discover that positive sanctions, that is the blessings, are spelled out for us in the first 13 verses. Verse 14 is a cautionary verse, a cautionary warning. Then beginning in verse 15 all the way through verse 68 you have the negative sanctions or the curses. So I hope you notice that there are far more verses in this chapter that deal with the curses than deal with the blessings.

[John Weaver] So you're going to ask, why is that? Well, the answer is really quite simple. If you're obedient, you have nothing to worry about. Okay. You're disobedient what God is doing is expounding to you the greatness of these curses that are going to fall upon you And so you'd be wise to consider your way and repent now a Deuteronomy 28 verse 1 if you look at it promises national blessings shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken

[John Weaver] diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and 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." I hope you remember Psalm 33 and verse 12, blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord. Now, nations are made up of individuals. Cities, towns, fields, countryside. You cannot have a nation without having individuals. So, I want you to note, if you would please, verse 3, because verse 3 takes care of the city and the fields. He says, Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

[John Weaver] Now, I'm going to come back to verse 2 a little bit later. But notice, if you would, God is pronouncing His blessings upon the obedient, not only in the cities, but in the fields, in the country, agricultural centers as well. So when you look at verses 4-6 all of these blessings now are personal blessings. For instance look in verse 4, blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, that would be your children, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep, Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store, blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out." In other words, here you are and you are going to be blessed every which way you turn, going in or coming out, it doesn't matter. God says as long as you are obedient these blessings, these positive sanctions are going to fall upon you. Now, The rest of this passage concerning the blessings is a mixture between personal, societal, and national blessings.

[John Weaver] So let's look at verses 7 through 14. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessings upon thee in thy storehouse, And all that thou settest thy hand unto, he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The LORD shall establish thee a holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, and the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, and the land which the Lord sware to thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain, and to the land in its season, and to bless all the work of thine hand.

[John Weaver] And thou shalt lend unto many nations, thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail, And thou shalt be above only, thou shalt not be beneath, if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and do them." And then this warning, and thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day to the right hand or to the left to go after other gods to serve them. God has listed all of these positive sanctions, all of these blessings as long as we obey. Now, the negative sanctions begin in verse 15.

[John Weaver] I'm not going to read all of these. You can read them for yourself when you get home. But what I want to do right now is I want you to look again at Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 and 2. And then we're going to skip down to verse 15. So go back to verse 1, if you would. And it shall come to pass that thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." Now I want you to notice how he said, all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Now skip down to verse 15. 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."

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to see and understand that both the positive and the negative sanctions, let me say it another way, the blessings and the curses are both inescapable and irresistible. God said if you obey me all these blessings are going to come upon you and overtake you if you disobey me Then all of these curses are going to come upon you and overtake you So the Hebrew word for overtake is very emphatic. So if you're obeying God and God is blessing you so richly you say I've got so many blessings. I don't know if I can handle this I'm just gonna get away from them and you're running down the road as hard as fast as you can trying to escape the blessings of God God said those blessings will chase you down knock you down and fall all over you you can't outrun them but on the other hand if you're disobedient and And the curses of God start falling on you and you try to escape. God says those same curses will chase you down and fall on you.

[John Weaver] They'll overtake you. You can't escape them. You cannot resist them. They are there.

[John Weaver] Now, I'm sure that you want to understand it would take a long time for me to go through each one of these curses. The curses are basically the opposite of the blessings. they are amplified to a far greater degree. So, instead of me taking all of these curses I want to just take one and show you how the curse works out in time and in history. So, look if you would at Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 7 because here is a blessing If we are obedient, God promises this, the Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways. here your enemies are coming, they are charging as one man. They are solidified. They are in one rank. They are saying our rank is not going to be broken. But God said you will defeat them so thoroughly that they will flee seven different ways. Now, skip down if you would please to verses 25 and 26 of Deuteronomy 28.

[John Weaver] This now is the curse of it. Deuteronomy 28, verse 25,"'The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. Thou shalt go up one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And thy carcass shall be made into all the fowls of the air, and into the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.'"

[John Weaver] So now God says, if you disobey Me you are going out against your enemy in a unified rank. going to flee before them seven different ways. Moreover, you are going to be captured. Moreover, a lot of you are going to be killed. Your carcasses are going to fall on the earth and the birds and the animals will eat them. So, the blessing is protection. The curse is death and captivity.

[John Weaver] Ah, it gets even more detail. Skip down to verse 47 and let's read through verse 59. 47, through verse 59. God says, because thou servest not thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee.

[John Weaver] Now note, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness, and in one of all things, he, the enemy, shall put a yoke of iron upon my neck, until he have destroyed thee. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flyeth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed, which also shall not leave thee either corn, or wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kind, or flocks, or thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until the high and fenced walls come down wherein thou trustest, throughout all thy land. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, your children, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee in the siege, and in the straightness therewith, because your enemies shall distress thee.

[John Weaver] So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, His eyes shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children, which he shall leave, so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children, whom he shall eat. Because he hath nothing left him of the siege, and of the straightness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in all thy gates. tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eyes shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear, for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege, and straightness with thine enemy shall distress thee in the gates.

[John Weaver] 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, then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, of long continuance, and sore sickness, and of long continuance."

[John Weaver] Now let's just stop for a moment and think about this. The curse is, if you disobey, you're going to be absolutely defeated. You're going to be slaughtered. Some of you will be taken into captivity. Your cities will be destroyed. Your walls will be broken down. Your goods will be taken. You will have nothing to eat. You will actually be starving. And consequently, you'll turn to cannibalism, eating your own children, eating each other. So the question that you have to ask is this, did all of these things actually come to pass? Did these curses actually fall upon the Israelites?

[John Weaver] And the answer is yes. It was the prophet Jeremiah who witnessed the fall and the destruction of Jerusalem. That is why he wrote the book of Lamentations. Lamentations has five chapters. It is a funeral dirge over the fall of Jerusalem. And each of the five chapters views the fall from a different perspective. So I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Lamentations right after the book of Jeremiah and right before the book of Ezekiel Lamentations and let's begin reading with chapter 1 and I want you to see what Jerusalem was and what it became Because of God's judgment and God's curse upon it. So here it is. I Lamentations, chapter one, beginning there with verse one, and we'll read through verse 11. Watch.

[John Weaver] How does the city sit solitary that was full of people? Nobody in it now. How has she become as a widow? She that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces. How has she become tributary? Going into captivity. She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction and because of great servitude. She dwelleth among the heathen. She findeth no rest.

[John Weaver] All her persecutors overtook her between the straits. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are chief. Her enemies prosper. For the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her children are going into captivity before the enemy. and from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.

[John Weaver] Her princes are become like hearts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell in the hand of the enemy, and none did help her. The adversary saw her, did mock her sabbaths, Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore she is removed.

[John Weaver] All that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness, yea, she scytheth and turneth backward. Her filthiness is in her skirts. She remembered not her last in, therefore she came down wonderfully. She had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified himself. The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things, for she has seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. All her people sigh. seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul. See, O LORD, and consider, for I am become vile." Notice if you would how the Bible here speaks of the complete destruction of Jerusalem, the want and the hunger of the people. Any pleasant thing they had, they had to trade for bread. It gets worse.

[John Weaver] Look in chapter 2 beginning there with verse 8, Chapter 2 of Lamentations, verse 8. The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying. Therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament thy language together.

[John Weaver] Now look, her gates are sunk into the ground, no protection whatsoever. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles, that is, they've been taken captive. The law is no more, no one to enforce it, no one to preach it, teach it. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence.

[John Weaver] They have cast up dust upon their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. My eyes do fail with tears. My bowels are troubled. My liver is poured out upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Watch, because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, where is corn and wine? When they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mother's bosom. In other words, here are children starving to death, begging for food, and there's no food to give them.

[John Weaver] The apex of their suffering you will find in Lamentations chapter four, beginning there in verse six. Watch very carefully. Lamentations four, verse six, we'll read through verse 11. Lamentations 4 verse 6 for the punishment of the iniquity the daughter of my people is greater Than the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown as in a moment. No hand stayed on her I've preached on this text where Jeremiah says the punishment of Jerusalem was greater than the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.

[John Weaver] Now look what he says in verse 7, Her Nazarites were, that's past tense, were purer than snow, and were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was of sapphire. They were beautiful at one times. But now, verse 8, their visage is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. their skin cleaveth of their bones, it is withered, it has become like a stick, they are starving to death. They that be slain with a sword are better than they that be slain with hunger, for these pine away stricken through for one of the fields of the earth." So Jeremiah said, at least those that are killed with a sword die quickly. Those who are starving to death pine away and are destroyed. Ah, but look at verse 10, The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children.

[John Weaver] They were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. The Lord hath accomplished his fury. He hath poured out his fierce anger and hath kindled a fire in Zion and hath devoured the foundations thereof. Do you realize everything that God pronounced as a curse in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 actually happened to Jerusalem in time and in history? You cannot run the sanctions of God.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to look at another verse. I want you to turn to the book of Zechariah just over. Zechariah Malachi is next to the last book in the Old Testament. Look in Zechariah chapter 1. I want you to see what the children of Israel had to confess they had to acknowledge Zechariah chapter 1 and verse 6 Zechariah 1 verse 6 God says But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants and prophets, now look, did they not take hold of your fathers? Or literally, did they not overtake your fathers?

[John Weaver] They caught up with them. And they, that is the fathers, returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. We didn't get away. Sanctions or inescapable They are irresistible We cannot outrun either his blessings or his curses now Let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this Just as God has not abdicated his throne He has not nullified his law and There are sanctions involved, both positive and negative. And those sanctions, as I've just pointed out, are inescapable and irresistible. And it does not matter if those sanctions are applied to individuals, to families, to churches, to societies, to states, to nations. You cannot escape the sanctions.

[John Weaver] The second thing is this. We must learn to view what is happening in our world, in our nation, in our state, in our community, in light of these sanctions. If you want a good illustration, you pick any nation that hates God. You pick any nation that refuses to follow biblical truths. And you look at it. Look at India. Look at Africa. Look at China. Look at North Korea. All you're going to see is the judgments of God upon those individuals.

[John Weaver] You say, but wait a minute, Brother Weaver. judgments, these sanctions were given to Israel. That is true, but may I remind you God also judged Assyria. He also judged Syria. He also judged Egypt. He also judged a lot of countries. In other words you cannot sin against God and escape. If you really want to know what is happening in the world you have to view it in terms of God's sanctions for violations of His Law. Now, I want you to turn to one other passage. I want you to look in Malachi chapter 3, just over to the next book, Zechariah Malachi, Malachi chapter 3. If you want to know whether or not God's sanctions exist today, I'll give you a little test.

[John Weaver] and you can follow it and see for yourself. I want you to look in Malachi chapter 3 beginning there verse 8. Look what the scripture asks, will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, where have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Oh, because you've robbed God you haven't given to him what he deserves. Watch verse 9, you are cursed with a curse. You've robbed me, even this whole nation.

[John Weaver] Bring you all the tithes in the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, and you shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts."

[John Weaver] Now, look what God said. God said, if you want to test, prove me herewith. You tithe, you be obedient, you give God His glory, His demands. And by the way, you know what a tithe is. A tithe is nothing more Then God charging for the use of his earth We're his tenants And a tithe just simply recognizes That he is God and he deserves everything and then he gives us everything that we have And God says you can prove me If you don't you are going to be cursed with a curse. If you do you are going to be blessed. It is just that simple. So you can prove for yourself.

[John Weaver] And may I remind you of Proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 and 10. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thy increase. Listen, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. In obedience you always find a blessing. In disobedience you always find a curse.

[John Weaver] Now, Lord willing, next Sunday, I'm going to show you the positive sanctions where we're blessed, particularly as we obey. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee this day. We thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy, your goodness, your kindness. Help us, Lord, to love thee and to live for thee. We pray for these, Lord, that are facing surgeries this week and for those, Lord, who have special needs. We commit them into your hands and ask for your blessing and your help. In the name of Jesus Christ, whose name we pray, amen.

[John Weaver] so

Promises Of The Law - Part 6

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	iSfU4VdgQHg
Subject	Covenant Theology
Course	Covenant Theology: Blessings, Curses, and Sanctions: Promises Of The Law
Genre	Sermon
Date	2019-03-10
Dictation Name
Book	Book 005: Promises Of The Law — Chapter 6
Source Timed Segments	63

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and Review

Weaver reviews the series, emphasizing the impossibility of unhitching from the Old Testament or the law, and introduces the topic of sanctions.

First Kings chapter 8, verse 56, that's our text that we have been using for this series on the promises of the law. And then we'll look at Deuteronomy 28. This is number 6 in the series, "The Promises of the Law." First Kings 8 and verse 56, Solomon is praying, dedicating the temple, and he says, "Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant." So we're talking about the promises of the law. Now if you look in Deuteronomy 28, we are going to read just a few verses beginning with verse 1,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:1-14

"And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field."

And then all of these blessings go down to verse 13. Then verse 14, you have a cautionary warning. Now look at verse 15.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:1-14

"But 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. Cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed shalt thou be in the field."

And then, of course, the curses go on to the end of the chapter to verse 68.

I want to just simply remind you of the main points that we've covered so far without me really taking time to review each message. I've pointed out the fact that it is absolutely impossible to unhitch from the Old Testament and also to unhitch from the law of God. So many people try to say, well, the Old Testament is no more, it does not relate to us anymore. Well, I want you to turn very quickly to John chapter one and look at verse 45. I said this, I do believe in the very first message, that without the Old Testament, you would have no idea who Jesus Christ really was. So in John 1 and verse 45, the Bible tells us this, "Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." So they would not have known who Jesus was without the Old Testament because He talks about Moses and the prophets. So it is impossible to unhitch from the Old Testament or the Law of God.

Without the Law we would know nothing about sin. I pointed that out very clearly from Romans 3 in verse 20, "for by the Law is the knowledge of sin." Without the Law we would not know anything about salvation, for Jesus Christ observed the Law and kept it perfectly and worked out a perfect righteousness for us. And then the Bible also teaches us that the Law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. And then last week I pointed out without the law there is no sanctification. So we would not know anything about sin or salvation or sanctification apart from the law. Today I want to show you we would not know anything about sanctions apart from the law. If you do not understand sanctions then you're not going to be able to comprehend what is going on around us in the world today. One thing for sure, as you read through the Bible we do indeed have promises in the Law. No one can disagree that these promises have been revealed.

Sanctions Defined: Blessings and Curses

Sanctions are presented as positive (blessings) and negative (curses) promises in the law, particularly in Deuteronomy 28.

People may not like them, they may argue about them, they may try to dispute them, but the reality is they are there. And when we talk about the promises in this particular passage we are talking about sanctions. Because there are promises that have a positive effect and there are sanctions that also have a negative effect. And when we talk about the positive and negative, they are given to us under the terms of blessings and curses. You'll find these repeated. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 and 29 particularly. All of the sanctions are listed there under blessings and curses. Now, in Deuteronomy chapter 28 through 34 sometimes is referred to as the farewell of Moses. The very first part deals with the positive sanctions. For instance, look at verses 1 and 2. He said,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:1-14

"And it shall come to pass that thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do 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 on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God."

And so there you have the positive sanctions, the blessings promised for obedience.

If you will skip down to verse 15 you will see basically the same language in relationship to the curses. "But it shall come to pass that 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." We have to understand that God is the Creator. He is not only the Creator, He is sovereign and therefore He controls His creation and He has the absolute right to issue sanctions. Positive sanctions, that is blessings, always follow obedience. Negative sanctions, that is curses, always follow disobedience.

The Irresistibility of God's Sanctions

God's sanctions are described as irresistible and inescapable, often unrecognized by unbelievers who attribute them to chance or nature.

Let me make a statement and I'm going to prove it to you from Scripture shortly. God's sanctions are irresistible. By that I mean you cannot stop them. You cannot overthrow them. You cannot thwart them. You cannot nullify them. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to stop His sanctions. Moreover, sanctions come in a variety of forms. And oftentimes, people do not recognize that they're God's sanctions, and through their ignorance and unbelief, they attribute sometimes God's sanctions to what you and I would call luck, chance, fate, or fortune, or sometimes, like the weather forecasters who heretically pronounce weather as the act of Mother Nature. So God does indeed send sanctions even though many times people do not recognize them.

Now there is another point that we must understand as I begin today and that is antinomianism. Antinomianism is one of the main problems we have in the Church today. It is a heresy. It is an ancient heresy. Nomos is the Greek word for law. Anti means against. Antinomian is someone who is against God's law. It is heresy for someone to posit that the Law of God has no meaning for us today. It has no application for us today, and it has no binding effect upon us today.

Antinomianism and Law Orders

Weaver condemns antinomianism (opposition to God's law) and contrasts God's absolute law order with man's relative, humanistic law order.

The truth of the matter is man is either a covenant keeper or he is a covenant breaker. He is either in submission and obedient to God's Law, or he is disobedient and in rebellion to God's Law. When we talk about sanctions, you have to understand that every law order has sanctions. Every law system has sanctions, even humanistic law systems. There cannot be a law order without sanctions. Sanctions are a way of defending a law order. If there are no sanctions, law order or law system will very quickly dissipate and disappear. An unenforceable law is no law. If a law does not have teeth it is very quickly ignored.

Now, let me tell you since I'm talking about law orders there are basically only two. You have God's law order and you have man's law order. There is a difference between them. God's law order is based upon absolutes. Thou shalt not do this. Thou shalt not do that. In other words, there are absolutes. This is right, and this is wrong. Humanistic law orders always lead to either tyranny, totalitarianism, or anarchy. The leading idea in a humanistic law order is self-assertion. Do as you please. Do what you will. Do whatever you desire. In other words, to them, everything is relative. There are no absolutes. And when you hear someone saying, well, everything is relative, then you need to ask them, are you absolutely sure about that?

And when they say absolutely, they've just made an absolute out of a non-absolute. So, you can't get a—it's kind of like the atheist who was in a debate and he blurted out, "Thank God I don't believe in that," you know. Well he was an atheist but here he is thanking God. So, that's the way these people work. But anyhow, God's Law System is indeed an absolute.

Now, when you consider law systems, you only have two choices. You have man's law system, or you have God's law system. There's no other alternative. Societies cannot exist without law. There must be a law order. So the question is not, will you have a law order? The question is, which law order will you have? Will you have God's law system, or will you have man's law system? Now, I want to show you the distinction between these law systems. I want you to hold Deuteronomy 28, we are coming back there. But I want you to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8. 1 Samuel chapter 8. This is the passage, 1 Samuel chapter 8, where Israel rejects God as their King and desires a man to rule over them.

Israel's Rejection of God's Law Order

Using 1 Samuel 8, Weaver illustrates how Israel rejected God as king and chose a human king, trading God's law order for man's, leading to slavery.

So let's begin reading with verse four, and we'll read through verse seven. I want you to note very clearly how they reject God. 1 Samuel 8, verse four. "Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.

Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee. Look what God says, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." So what they were doing, they were choosing another king instead of God. I want you to note that when you change rulers you change law systems. Although we are supposedly a constitutional republic, supposedly, which we are not in reality, not anymore. But notice there is a difference between the Obama Administration and the Trump Administration. I mean and we are not talking about kings but we are just talking about obviously there is going to be a difference in rule. And so God is going to lay out for us and clearly show us what man's law system is going to be like.

So if you will skip down to verse 9 and we will read through verse 20. God says, "Now therefore hearken unto their voice, howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them." God says, "You wanted a man? Here is how he is going to rule over you. This will be his manner. Watch." And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, "This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself and for his chariots and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands and captains over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. And he will take the tenth of your sheep, and you shall be his servants.

And you shall cry out in that day, because of your king which you shall have chosen you. And the Lord will not hear you in that day." Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, "Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles." I want you to understand, in God's law order, there is liberty and there is freedom. In man's law order, there is slavery and there is tyranny. God gives and man takes. And you notice all the 10% in here, you'll take the tenth of this and tenth of that. You know, even the Americans today would be happy if the feds only took 10%. But you notice each year, when we're enabled to work for ourselves, it gets further into the year. I think last year was in July. In other words, you work until about July just to pay the taxes that is inherent upon you. And then the rest of the year you get to work for your own upkeep is what it amounts to. So God is saying, you reject me and you choose man, then you're choosing slavery. And so they swapped and they swapped law orders.

Now if you look in 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 12 you are going to see how that is stated very clearly. 1 Samuel 12 verse 12, "And when you saw Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king." So, God was their King and they traded God for a man. Now, if you'll skip down to verse 19 you'll also see that they recognized their sin because here in verse 19 the Word of God says this, "and all the people said unto Samuel, pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king." Wow!

Consequences of Following Man's Law

From 2 Kings 17, Weaver shows that Israel's captivity was partly due to obeying the statutes of the heathen, demonstrating that trading gods means trading law systems.

I find it interesting that so many people oppose God's law and fight against God's law, but they do not oppose or fight against man's law. They quickly and easily and readily submit to man when they will not submit to God. And what we have failed to realize and remember, one of the reasons God sent Israel into captivity was for submitting to and obeying the laws of man. If you would turn right over in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 17. 2 Kings chapter 17 and look if you would please beginning there with verse 7. 2 Kings 17 and verse 7 here it is. "For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods."

Now let me just stop. Note the Bible says they feared other gods. What is the evidence that you fear another god? Watch. Verse 8, "and walked in the statutes of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel which they had made." When you trade gods you trade law systems. And so here the children of Israel refused to obey God but they are now obeying the statutes or the laws of the heathen. And then he also added "of the kings of Israel which they had made" and all of the kings of Israel were apostate.

There was not one good king in the northern kingdom. All claimed to those golden calves that Jeroboam had made. And if you read on down you will see how wicked they became in verse 9, "and the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God. And they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill and every green tree." And if you read on down you will see how wicked they became by following man's law order and man's law system.

So let me just summarize it and put it like this. God's law order leads to blessing and to life. Man's law order always leads to curses and to death. And the truth of the matter is this, it would be absolutely wonderful if man's law order was brought into conformity to God's law order, but unhappily, not the case. And when there is a conflict between God's Law order and man's Law order then we have to take the attitude of Peter and the other Apostles in Acts 5 and verse 29 where he said, "then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men."

Detailed Examination of Deuteronomy 28

Weaver examines the blessings (verses 1-14) and curses (verses 15-68), noting the greater emphasis on curses and the personal, societal, and national scope of sanctions.

Now, I want you to turn back to Deuteronomy 28 because when you examine Deuteronomy 28 you will discover that positive sanctions, that is the blessings, are spelled out for us in the first 13 verses. Verse 14 is a cautionary verse, a cautionary warning. Then beginning in verse 15 all the way through verse 68 you have the negative sanctions or the curses. So I hope you notice that there are far more verses in this chapter that deal with the curses than deal with the blessings.

So you're going to ask, why is that? Well, the answer is really quite simple. If you're obedient, you have nothing to worry about. Okay. If you're disobedient what God is doing is expounding to you the greatness of these curses that are going to fall upon you. And so you'd be wise to consider your way and repent. Now, Deuteronomy 28 verse 1 if you look at it promises national blessings:

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:1-14

"shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken

diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and 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." I hope you remember Psalm 33 and verse 12, "blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord. Now, nations are made up of individuals. Cities, towns, fields, countryside. You cannot have a nation without having individuals. So, I want you to note, if you would please, verse 3, because verse 3 takes care of the city and the fields. He says, "Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field."

Now, I'm going to come back to verse 2 a little bit later. But notice, if you would, God is pronouncing His blessings upon the obedient, not only in the cities, but in the fields, in the country, agricultural centers as well. So when you look at verses 4-6 all of these blessings now are personal blessings. For instance look in verse 4, "blessed shall be the fruit of thy body," that would be your children, "and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store, blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out." In other words, here you are and you are going to be blessed every which way you turn, going in or coming out, it doesn't matter. God says as long as you are obedient these blessings, these positive sanctions are going to fall upon you. Now, the rest of this passage concerning the blessings is a mixture between personal, societal, and national blessings.

So let's look at verses 7 through 14. "The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessings upon thee in thy storehouse, and in all that thou settest thy hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The LORD shall establish thee a holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand.

And thou shalt lend unto many nations, thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail, and thou shalt be above only, thou shalt not be beneath, if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and do them." And then this warning, "and thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day to the right hand or to the left to go after other gods to serve them." God has listed all of these positive sanctions, all of these blessings as long as we obey. Now, the negative sanctions begin in verse 15. I'm not going to read all of these. You can read them for yourself when you get home. But what I want to do right now is I want you to look again at Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 and 2. And then we're going to skip down to verse 15. So go back to verse 1, if you would. "And

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:15-68

it shall come to pass that thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." Now I want you to notice how he said, "all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee." Now skip down to verse 15. "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."

The Inescapable Nature of Sanctions

The Hebrew word for 'overtake' is emphasized to show that both blessings and curses pursue and catch the obedient or disobedient.

Now, I want you to see and understand that both the positive and the negative sanctions, let me say it another way, the blessings and the curses are both inescapable and irresistible. God said if you obey me all these blessings are going to come upon you and overtake you. If you disobey me, then all of these curses are going to come upon you and overtake you. So the Hebrew word for overtake is very emphatic. So if you're obeying God and God is blessing you so richly you say, "I've got so many blessings. I don't know if I can handle this. I'm just gonna get away from them," and you're running down the road as hard as fast as you can trying to escape the blessings of God, God said those blessings will chase you down, knock you down, and fall all over you. You can't outrun them. But on the other hand, if you're disobedient and the curses of God start falling on you and you try to escape, God says those same curses will chase you down and fall on you.

They'll overtake you. You can't escape them. You cannot resist them. They are there.

Historical Fulfillment of Curses in Jerusalem's Fall

Weaver reads from Lamentations to demonstrate that the curses of Deuteronomy 28, including siege, starvation, and cannibalism, literally occurred in Jerusalem's destruction.

Now, I'm sure that you want to understand it would take a long time for me to go through each one of these curses. The curses are basically the opposite of the blessings. They are amplified to a far greater degree. So, instead of me taking all of these curses I want to just take one and show you how the curse works out in time and in history. So, look if you would at Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 7 because here is a blessing. If we are obedient, God promises this,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:15-68

"The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways."

Here your enemies are coming, they are charging as one man. They are solidified. They are in one rank. They are saying our rank is not going to be broken. But God said you will defeat them so thoroughly that they will flee seven different ways. Now, skip down if you would please to verses 25 and 26 of Deuteronomy 28. This now is the curse of it. Deuteronomy 28, verse 25,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:15-68

"The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. Thou shalt go up one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away."

So now God says, if you disobey Me you are going out against your enemy in a unified rank. You're going to flee before them seven different ways. Moreover, you are going to be captured. Moreover, a lot of you are going to be killed. Your carcasses are going to fall on the earth and the birds and the animals will eat them. So, the blessing is protection. The curse is death and captivity.

Ah, it gets even more detail. Skip down to verse 47 and let's read through verse 59. 47, through verse 59. God says, "because thou servedst not thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee.

Now note, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness, and in want of all things, he, the enemy, shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flyeth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed, which also shall not leave thee either corn, or wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down wherein thou trustest, throughout all thy land. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, your children, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee.

So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eyes shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children, which he shall leave, so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children, whom he shall eat. Because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eyes shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear, for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege, and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.

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, then the Lord 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." Now let's just stop for a moment and think about this. The curse is, if you disobey, you're going to be absolutely defeated. You're going to be slaughtered. Some of you will be taken into captivity. Your cities will be destroyed. Your walls will be broken down. Your goods will be taken. You will have nothing to eat. You will actually be starving. And consequently, you'll turn to cannibalism, eating your own children, eating each other. So the question that you have to ask is this, did all of these things actually come to pass? Did these curses actually fall upon the Israelites?

And the answer is yes. It was the prophet Jeremiah who witnessed the fall and the destruction of Jerusalem. That is why he wrote the book of Lamentations. Lamentations has five chapters. It is a funeral dirge over the fall of Jerusalem. And each of the five chapters views the fall from a different perspective. So I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Lamentations right after the book of Jeremiah and right before the book of Ezekiel, Lamentations, and let's begin reading with chapter 1 and I want you to see what Jerusalem was and what it became because of God's judgment and God's curse upon it. So here it is. Lamentations, chapter one, beginning there with verse one, and we'll read through verse 11. Watch.

"How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people?" Nobody in it now. "How is she become as a widow? She that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces. How is she become tributary?" Going into captivity. "She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction and because of great servitude. She dwelleth among the heathen. She findeth no rest.

All her persecutors overtook her between the straits. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are chief. Her enemies prosper. For the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her children are going into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.

Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell in the hand of the enemy, and none did help her. The adversary saw her, did mock her sabbaths. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore she is removed. All that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness, yea, she sigheth and turneth backward. Her filthiness is in her skirts. She remembered not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully. She had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified himself. The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things, for she has seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. All her people sigh, they seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul. See, O LORD, and consider, for I am become vile." Notice if you would how the Bible here speaks of the complete destruction of Jerusalem, the want and the hunger of the people. Any pleasant thing they had, they had to trade for bread. It gets worse.

Look in chapter 2 beginning there with verse 8, Chapter 2 of Lamentations, verse 8.

Scripture Reading — Lamentations 2:8-12

"The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying. Therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Now look, her gates are sunk into the ground, no protection whatsoever. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles, that is, they've been taken captive. The law is no more, no one to enforce it, no one to preach it, teach it. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence. They have cast up dust upon their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. My eyes do fail with tears. My bowels are troubled. My liver is poured out upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Watch, because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, where is corn and wine? When they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mother's bosom. In other words, here are children starving to death, begging for food, and there's no food to give them.

The apex of their suffering you will find in Lamentations chapter four, beginning there in verse six. Watch very carefully. Lamentations 4, verse six, we'll read through verse 11. Lamentations 4 verse 6,

Scripture Reading — Lamentations 4:6-11

"For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her."

I've preached on this text where Jeremiah says the punishment of Jerusalem was greater than the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Now look what he says in verse 7, "Her Nazarites were," that's past tense, "were purer than snow, and were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was of sapphire." They were beautiful at one time. But now, verse 8, "their visage is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is withered, it has become like a stick," they are starving to death. "They that be slain with a sword are better than they that be slain with hunger, for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field." So Jeremiah said, at least those that are killed with a sword die quickly. Those who are starving to death pine away and are destroyed. Ah, but look at verse 10, "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children.

They were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. The Lord hath accomplished his fury. He hath poured out his fierce anger and hath kindled a fire in Zion and hath devoured the foundations thereof." Do you realize everything that God pronounced as a curse in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 actually happened to Jerusalem in time and in history? You cannot run from the sanctions of God.

Confession of the Fathers in Zechariah

Zechariah 1:6 is cited to show that the fathers acknowledged God's words had overtaken them, confirming the irresistibility of sanctions.

Now, I want you to look at another verse. I want you to turn to the book of Zechariah just over. Zechariah, Malachi is next to the last book in the Old Testament. Look in Zechariah chapter 1. I want you to see what the children of Israel had to confess, they had to acknowledge. Zechariah chapter 1 and verse 6. Zechariah 1 verse 6, God says, "But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, now look, did they not take hold of your fathers?" Or literally, did they not overtake your fathers?

They caught up with them. "And they," that is the fathers, "returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." We didn't get away. Sanctions are inescapable. They are irresistible. We cannot outrun either his blessings or his curses. Now let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this: Just as God has not abdicated his throne, He has not nullified his law. And there are sanctions involved, both positive and negative. And those sanctions, as I've just pointed out, are inescapable and irresistible. And it does not matter if those sanctions are applied to individuals, to families, to churches, to societies, to states, to nations. You cannot escape the sanctions.

Applications and the Test of Tithing

Weaver applies the principle of sanctions to modern nations and individuals, and offers Malachi 3:8-12 as a testable example of blessings and curses related to tithing.

The second thing is this: We must learn to view what is happening in our world, in our nation, in our state, in our community, in light of these sanctions. If you want a good illustration, you pick any nation that hates God. You pick any nation that refuses to follow biblical truths. And you look at it. Look at India. Look at Africa. Look at China. Look at North Korea. All you're going to see is the judgments of God upon those individuals.

You say, but wait a minute, Brother Weaver. These judgments, these sanctions were given to Israel. That is true, but may I remind you God also judged Assyria. He also judged Syria. He also judged Egypt. He also judged a lot of countries. In other words you cannot sin against God and escape. If you really want to know what is happening in the world you have to view it in terms of God's sanctions for violations of His Law. Now, I want you to turn to one other passage. I want you to look in Malachi chapter 3, just over to the next book, Zechariah, Malachi, Malachi chapter 3. If you want to know whether or not God's sanctions exist today, I'll give you a little test.

And you can follow it and see for yourself. I want you to look in Malachi chapter 3 beginning there verse 8. Look what the scripture asks,

Scripture Reading — Malachi 3:8-12

"Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Oh, because you've robbed God you haven't given to him what he deserves."

Watch verse 9,

Scripture Reading — Malachi 3:8-12

"You are cursed with a curse. You've robbed me, even this whole nation."

"Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, and you shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts." Now, look what God said. God said, if you want to test, prove me herewith. You tithe, you be obedient, you give God His glory, His demands. And by the way, you know what a tithe is. A tithe is nothing more than God charging for the use of his earth. We're his tenants. And a tithe just simply recognizes that he is God and he deserves everything and then he gives us everything that we have. And God says you can prove me. If you don't you are going to be cursed with a curse. If you do you are going to be blessed. It is just that simple. So you can prove for yourself.

And may I remind you of Proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 and 10. "Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." In obedience you always find a blessing. In disobedience you always find a curse.

Closing Prayer

Weaver prays for the congregation, mentioning upcoming surgeries and special needs.

Now, Lord willing, next Sunday, I'm going to show you the positive sanctions where we're blessed, particularly as we obey. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee this day. We thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy, your goodness, your kindness. Help us, Lord, to love thee and to live for thee. We pray for these, Lord, that are facing surgeries this week and for those, Lord, who have special needs. We commit them into your hands and ask for your blessing and your help. In the name of Jesus Christ, whose name we pray, amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

The Irresistibility of God's Sanctions

Summary: God's blessings and curses are inescapable; they overtake the obedient and disobedient respectively, and cannot be thwarted.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'God's sanctions are irresistible. By that I mean you cannot stop them. You cannot overthrow them. You cannot thwart them. You cannot nullify them.' (06:51.9-07:57.1) and later, 'both the positive and the negative sanctions... are both inescapable and irresistible.' (27:47.4-28:51.6)

Contrast Between God's Law Order and Man's Law Order

Summary: God's law is based on absolutes and leads to liberty, while man's law is relative and leads to tyranny and slavery.

Evidence: Weaver explains, 'God's law order is based upon absolutes... Humanistic law orders always lead to either tyranny, totalitarianism, or anarchy.' (09:38.9-10:45.4) and 'In God's law order, there is liberty and there is freedom. In man's law order, there is slavery and there is tyranny.' (15:47.3-16:44.0)

Historical Fulfillment of Covenant Curses

Summary: The curses pronounced in Deuteronomy 28 were literally fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, as recorded in Lamentations.

Evidence: Weaver reads extensively from Lamentations 1, 2, and 4 to show the siege, starvation, and cannibalism, concluding, 'Do you realize everything that God pronounced as a curse in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 actually happened to Jerusalem in time and in history?' (34:11.5-42:37.1)

The Necessity of the Law for Understanding Sin, Salvation, and Sanctions

Summary: Without the law, we would not know sin, salvation, sanctification, or sanctions; the law is essential for comprehending God's dealings.

Evidence: Weaver reviews, 'Without the Law we would know nothing about sin... Without the Law we would not know anything about salvation... without the law there is no sanctification... Today I want to show you we would not know anything about sanctions apart from the law.' (03:19.7-04:29.7)

Antinomianism as Heresy

Summary: Opposition to God's law (antinomianism) is an ancient heresy that denies the law's meaning, application, and binding effect today.

Evidence: Weaver declares, 'Antinomianism is one of the main problems we have in the Church today. It is a heresy... It is heresy for someone to posit that the Law of God has no meaning for us today.' (07:57.7-08:41.4)

Sanctions as a Test of Obedience: The Tithe

Summary: Tithing is presented as a practical test of God's sanctions; obedience brings blessing, disobedience brings a curse.

Evidence: Weaver cites Malachi 3:8-12, 'God says you can prove me. If you don't you are going to be cursed with a curse. If you do you are going to be blessed.' (47:38.5-48:19.1)

Viewing World Events Through the Lens of Sanctions

Summary: Believers must interpret national and global events as manifestations of God's sanctions for obedience or disobedience to His law.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'We must learn to view what is happening in our world, in our nation, in our state, in our community, in light of these sanctions.' (44:35.1-45:29.2)

Key Arguments

Sanctions are inherent to any law order, and God's sanctions are absolute and inescapable.

Summary: Every law system has sanctions; without them, law dissipates. God's sanctions are irresistible and cannot be nullified.

Evidence: Weaver argues, 'There cannot be a law order without sanctions... An unenforceable law is no law.' (08:41.9-09:38.4) and 'God's sanctions are irresistible... There is absolutely nothing that you can do to stop His sanctions.' (06:51.9-07:57.1)

Rejecting God's law order inevitably leads to tyranny and slavery.

Summary: When Israel rejected God as king, they chose a human king whose rule was characterized by taking and oppression, illustrating the nature of man's law order.

Evidence: Weaver contrasts, 'In God's law order, there is liberty and there is freedom. In man's law order, there is slavery and there is tyranny. God gives and man takes.' (15:47.3-16:44.0) referencing 1 Samuel 8.

The curses of Deuteronomy 28 were historically fulfilled, proving the reliability of God's sanctions.

Summary: The detailed curses of siege, starvation, and cannibalism occurred exactly as prophesied in the fall of Jerusalem, as recorded in Lamentations.

Evidence: Weaver reads Lamentations 4:10, 'The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children,' and concludes, 'Do you realize everything that God pronounced as a curse... actually happened to Jerusalem in time and in history?' (42:05.6-42:37.1)

Antinomianism is a dangerous heresy that denies the ongoing relevance of God's law.

Summary: Those who claim the law has no meaning or binding effect today are promoting an ancient heresy that undermines the knowledge of sin, salvation, and sanctification.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'It is heresy for someone to posit that the Law of God has no meaning for us today. It has no application for us today, and it has no binding effect upon us today.' (08:41.9-09:38.4)

Obedience to God's law brings national and personal blessings, while disobedience brings curses.

Summary: Deuteronomy 28 outlines comprehensive blessings for obedience and amplified curses for disobedience, applicable to all areas of life.

Evidence: Weaver summarizes, 'God's Law order leads to blessing and to life. Man's law order always leads to curses and to death.' (20:12.5-20:56.6) and expounds the blessings in verses 1-14.

The tithe is a testable example of God's sanctions in operation today.

Summary: Malachi 3:8-12 presents tithing as a way to 'prove' God; obedience results in blessing, disobedience in a curse.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Malachi 3:10, 'prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,' and applies it as a test. (47:05.2-47:38.2)

God's sanctions are often unrecognized by the world, attributed to luck or nature.

Summary: People in ignorance and unbelief attribute God's sanctions to chance, fate, or 'Mother Nature,' failing to see His hand in events.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'through their ignorance and unbelief, they attribute sometimes God's sanctions to what you and I would call luck, chance, fate, or fortune, or sometimes, like the weather forecasters who heretically pronounce weather as the act of Mother Nature.' (06:51.9-07:57.1)

Scripture References

1 Kings 8:56

Context: Solomon's prayer dedicating the temple, affirming that not one word of God's good promise through Moses has failed.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14

Context: The blessings promised for obedience: being set on high, blessed in city and field, fruitfulness, victory over enemies, and being the head not the tail.

Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Context: The curses for disobedience, including defeat, captivity, siege, starvation, and cannibalism.

John 1:45

Context: Philip tells Nathanael they have found Jesus, of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, showing the Old Testament's necessity to know Christ.

Romans 3:20

Context: By the law is the knowledge of sin; without the law we would not know sin.

1 Samuel 8:4-20

Context: Israel rejects God as king and demands a human king; Samuel warns them of the oppressive nature of human rule.

1 Samuel 12:12, 19

Context: Israel acknowledges their sin in asking for a king when the Lord was their king.

2 Kings 17:7-10

Context: Israel sinned by fearing other gods and walking in the statutes of the heathen, leading to captivity.

Acts 5:29

Context: Peter and the apostles declare they must obey God rather than men when human law conflicts with God's law.

Psalm 33:12

Context: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, cited in connection with national blessings.

Lamentations 1:1-11

Context: Jerusalem's desolation after God's judgment: solitary, captive, mourning, with children starving.

Lamentations 2:8-12

Context: The destruction of Jerusalem's walls and gates, and children swooning from hunger.

Lamentations 4:6-11

Context: The punishment of Jerusalem greater than Sodom's; starvation leads to cannibalism among tender women.

Zechariah 1:6

Context: God's words and statutes overtook the fathers, who confessed that God dealt with them according to their ways.

Malachi 3:8-12

Context: God challenges Israel to test Him with tithes; obedience brings blessing, disobedience brings a curse.

Proverbs 3:9-10

Context: Honoring the Lord with firstfruits leads to barns filled with plenty and presses bursting with new wine.

Historical References

Destruction of Jerusalem by Babylonians

Context: Weaver cites the fall of Jerusalem as the historical fulfillment of the curses in Deuteronomy 28, witnessed by Jeremiah and recorded in Lamentations.

Israel's demand for a king (c. 1050 BC)

Context: The event in 1 Samuel 8 where Israel rejected God's direct rule and requested a human king, leading to the monarchy.

Assyrian and Babylonian captivities

Context: Weaver mentions that God sent Israel into captivity for obeying the laws of man, referencing 2 Kings 17 and the fall of the northern kingdom.

Judgment on other nations (Assyria, Syria, Egypt)

Context: Weaver notes that God's sanctions are not limited to Israel; He also judged Assyria, Syria, and Egypt for their sins.

Modern nations as examples of God's judgment

Context: Weaver cites India, Africa, China, and North Korea as nations that hate God and exhibit His judgments.

Comparison of Obama and Trump administrations

Context: Weaver briefly contrasts the Obama and Trump administrations to illustrate that changing rulers changes law systems, though not a direct biblical reference.

Important Quotes

God's sanctions are irresistible. By that I mean you cannot stop them. You cannot overthrow them. You cannot thwart them. You cannot nullify them. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to stop His sanctions.

Significance: This quote encapsulates the central thesis of the sermon: the absolute and inescapable nature of God's blessings and curses.

In God's law order, there is liberty and there is freedom. In man's law order, there is slavery and there is tyranny. God gives and man takes.

Significance: This succinctly contrasts the two law orders, a key argument for why God's law is superior and necessary.

Do you realize everything that God pronounced as a curse in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 actually happened to Jerusalem in time and in history? You cannot run from the sanctions of God.

Significance: This statement drives home the historical reliability of God's word and the inevitability of His sanctions.

Antinomianism is one of the main problems we have in the Church today. It is a heresy. It is an ancient heresy. Nomos is the Greek word for law. Anti means against. Antinomian is someone who is against God's law.

Significance: Weaver defines and condemns antinomianism, framing it as a critical error in the contemporary church.

We must learn to view what is happening in our world, in our nation, in our state, in our community, in light of these sanctions.

Significance: This is a direct application, urging believers to interpret current events through the biblical lens of sanctions.

If you're obeying God and God is blessing you so richly you say, 'I've got so many blessings. I don't know if I can handle this. I'm just gonna get away from them,' and you're running down the road as hard as fast as you can trying to escape the blessings of God, God said those blessings will chase you down, knock you down, and fall all over you. You can't outrun them.

Significance: This vivid illustration emphasizes the inescapable, pursuing nature of God's blessings for the obedient.

A tithe is nothing more than God charging for the use of his earth. We're his tenants. And a tithe just simply recognizes that he is God and he deserves everything and then he gives us everything that we have.

Significance: Weaver explains the theological basis for tithing as a recognition of God's ownership and a test of obedience.

Discussion Questions

How does understanding God's sanctions as 'irresistible' change the way you view both personal blessings and hardships?

Context: Weaver emphasizes that sanctions cannot be stopped or outrun (06:51.9-07:57.1).

In what ways do you see the contrast between God's law order and man's law order playing out in today's society?

Context: Weaver contrasts liberty under God's law with slavery under man's law (15:47.3-16:44.0).

Why is antinomianism considered a heresy, and how might it manifest in modern Christian thought?

Context: Weaver defines antinomianism as being against God's law and calls it an ancient heresy (07:57.7-08:41.4).

How should the historical fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28's curses in Jerusalem's fall affect our trust in the reliability of Scripture?

Context: Weaver reads Lamentations to show the literal fulfillment of the curses (34:11.5-42:37.1).

What are some practical ways we can 'prove' God's sanctions in our own lives, as suggested by Malachi 3?

Context: Weaver presents tithing as a test of God's promise to bless obedience (47:05.2-47:38.2).

How can we discern whether a national or personal crisis is a result of God's sanctions or simply natural occurrences?

Context: Weaver notes that people often attribute God's sanctions to luck or nature (06:51.9-07:57.1).

In what ways does the church today struggle with submitting to man's law over God's law, and how should we respond?

Context: Weaver cites Acts 5:29 and the example of Israel obeying heathen statutes (19:34.2-20:56.6).

Applications

View current events through the lens of God's sanctions

Summary: Believers should interpret world, national, and community events as manifestations of God's blessings or curses based on obedience to His law.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'We must learn to view what is happening in our world, in our nation, in our state, in our community, in light of these sanctions.' (44:35.1-45:29.2)

Test God's promises through tithing

Summary: Weaver challenges the congregation to prove God's sanctions by tithing, as Malachi 3:10 commands, to see if God will pour out blessing.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'God says you can prove me. If you don't you are going to be cursed with a curse. If you do you are going to be blessed.' (47:38.5-48:19.1)

Obey God rather than men when laws conflict

Summary: When human law contradicts God's law, believers must follow the apostolic example in Acts 5:29 and obey God.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'when there is a conflict between God's Law order and man's Law order then we have to take the attitude of Peter and the other Apostles in Acts 5 and verse 29... we ought to obey God rather than men.' (20:56.7-21:39.7)

Reject antinomianism and embrace God's law

Summary: Weaver implicitly calls the church to reject the heresy of antinomianism and recognize the ongoing relevance and binding nature of God's law.

Evidence: Weaver condemns antinomianism as heresy and argues the law is essential for knowing sin, salvation, sanctification, and sanctions (07:57.7-08:41.4; 03:19.7-04:29.7).

Recognize the inescapability of God's sanctions in personal life

Summary: Individuals should understand that their obedience or disobedience will inevitably bring corresponding blessings or curses that cannot be outrun.

Evidence: Weaver illustrates, 'if you're disobedient and the curses of God start falling on you and you try to escape, God says those same curses will chase you down and fall on you.' (28:51.6-28:59.2)

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Clean Transcript

Promises Of The Law - Part 6

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

First Kings chapter 8, verse 56, that's our text that we have been using for this series on the promises of the law. And then we'll look at Deuteronomy 28. This is number 6 in the series, "The Promises of the Law." First Kings 8 and verse 56, Solomon is praying, dedicating the temple, and he says, "Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant." So we're talking about the promises of the law. Now if you look in Deuteronomy 28, we are going to read just a few verses beginning with verse 1, "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the
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Lord thy God, to observe and do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field." And then all of these blessings go down to verse 13. Then verse 14, you have a cautionary warning. Now look at verse 15. "But 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. Cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed shalt thou be in the field." And then, of course, the curses go on to the end of the chapter to verse 68.
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I want to just simply remind you of the main points that we've covered so far without me really taking time to review each message. I've pointed out the fact that it is absolutely impossible to unhitch from the Old Testament and also to unhitch from the law of God. So many people try to say, well, the Old Testament is no more, it does not relate to us anymore. Well, I want you to turn very quickly to John chapter one and look at verse 45. I said this, I do believe in the very first message, that without the Old Testament, you would have no idea who Jesus Christ really was. So in John 1 and verse 45, the Bible tells us this, "Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." So they would not have known who Jesus was without the Old Testament because He talks about Moses and the prophets. So it is impossible to unhitch from the Old Testament or the Law of God.
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Without the Law we would know nothing about sin. I pointed that out very clearly from Romans 3 in verse 20, "for by the Law is the knowledge of sin." Without the Law we would not know anything about salvation, for Jesus Christ observed the Law and kept it perfectly and worked out a perfect righteousness for us. And then the Bible also teaches us that the Law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. And then last week I pointed out without the law there is no sanctification. So we would not know anything about sin or salvation or sanctification apart from the law. Today I want to show you we would not know anything about sanctions apart from the law. If you do not understand sanctions then you're not going to be able to comprehend what is going on around us in the world today. One thing for sure, as you read through the Bible we do indeed have promises in the Law. No one can disagree that these promises have been revealed.
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People may not like them, they may argue about them, they may try to dispute them, but the reality is they are there. And when we talk about the promises in this particular passage we are talking about sanctions. Because there are promises that have a positive effect and there are sanctions that also have a negative effect. And when we talk about the positive and negative, they are given to us under the terms of blessings and curses. You'll find these repeated.
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Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 and 29 particularly. All of the sanctions are listed there under blessings and curses. Now, in Deuteronomy chapter 28 through 34 sometimes is referred to as the farewell of Moses. The very first part deals with the positive sanctions. For instance, look at verses 1 and 2. He said, "And it shall come to pass that thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do 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 on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." And so there you have the positive sanctions, the blessings promised for obedience.
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If you will skip down to verse 15 you will see basically the same language in relationship to the curses. "But it shall come to pass that 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." We have to understand that God is the Creator. He is not only the Creator, He is sovereign and therefore He controls His creation and He has the absolute right to issue sanctions. Positive sanctions, that is blessings, always follow obedience. Negative sanctions, that is curses, always follow disobedience.
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Let me make a statement and I'm going to prove it to you from Scripture shortly. God's sanctions are irresistible. By that I mean you cannot stop them. You cannot overthrow them. You cannot thwart them. You cannot nullify them. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to stop His sanctions. Moreover, sanctions come in a variety of forms. And oftentimes, people do not recognize that they're God's sanctions, and through their ignorance and unbelief, they attribute sometimes God's sanctions to what you and I would call luck, chance, fate, or fortune, or sometimes, like the weather forecasters who heretically pronounce weather as the act of Mother Nature. So God does indeed send sanctions even though many times people do not recognize them.
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Now there is another point that we must understand as I begin today and that is antinomianism. Antinomianism is one of the main problems we have in the Church today. It is a heresy. It is an ancient heresy. Nomos is the Greek word for law. Anti means against. Antinomian is someone who is against God's law. It is heresy for someone to posit that the Law of God has no meaning for us today. It has no application for us today, and it has no binding effect upon us today.
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The truth of the matter is man is either a covenant keeper or he is a covenant breaker. He is either in submission and obedient to God's Law, or he is disobedient and in rebellion to God's Law. When we talk about sanctions, you have to understand that every law order has sanctions. Every law system has sanctions, even humanistic law systems. There cannot be a law order without sanctions. Sanctions are a way of defending a law order. If there are no sanctions, law order or law system will very quickly dissipate and disappear. An unenforceable law is no law. If a law does not have teeth it is very quickly ignored.
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Now, let me tell you since I'm talking about law orders there are basically only two. You have God's law order and you have man's law order. There is a difference between them. God's law order is based upon absolutes. Thou shalt not do this. Thou shalt not do that. In other words, there are absolutes. This is right, and this is wrong. Humanistic law orders always lead to either tyranny, totalitarianism, or anarchy. The leading idea in a humanistic law order is self-assertion. Do as you please. Do what you will. Do whatever you desire. In other words, to them, everything is relative. There are no absolutes. And when you hear someone saying, well, everything is relative, then you need to ask them, are you absolutely sure about that?
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And when they say absolutely, they've just made an absolute out of a non-absolute. So, you can't get a—it's kind of like the atheist who was in a debate and he blurted out, "Thank God I don't believe in that," you know. Well he was an atheist but here he is thanking God. So, that's the way these people work. But anyhow, God's Law System is indeed an absolute.
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Now, when you consider law systems, you only have two choices. You have man's law system, or you have God's law system. There's no other alternative. Societies cannot exist without law. There must be a law order. So the question is not, will you have a law order? The question is, which law order will you have? Will you have God's law system, or will you have man's law system? Now, I want to show you the distinction between these law systems. I want you to hold Deuteronomy 28, we are coming back there. But I want you to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8. 1 Samuel chapter 8. This is the passage, 1 Samuel chapter 8, where Israel rejects God as their King and desires a man to rule over them.
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So let's begin reading with verse four, and we'll read through verse seven. I want you to note very clearly how they reject God. 1 Samuel 8, verse four. "Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.
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Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee. Look what God says, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." So what they were doing, they were choosing another king instead of God.
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I want you to note that when you change rulers you change law systems. Although we are supposedly a constitutional republic, supposedly, which we are not in reality, not anymore. But notice there is a difference between the Obama Administration and the Trump Administration. I mean and we are not talking about kings but we are just talking about obviously there is going to be a difference in rule. And so God is going to lay out for us and clearly show us what man's law system is going to be like.
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So if you will skip down to verse 9 and we will read through verse 20. God says, "Now therefore hearken unto their voice, howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them." God says, "You wanted a man? Here is how he is going to rule over you. This will be his manner. Watch." And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, "This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you.
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He will take your sons and appoint them for himself and for his chariots and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands and captains over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. And he will take the tenth of your sheep, and you shall be his servants.
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And you shall cry out in that day, because of your king which you shall have chosen you. And the Lord will not hear you in that day." Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, "Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles."
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I want you to understand, in God's law order, there is liberty and there is freedom. In man's law order, there is slavery and there is tyranny. God gives and man takes. And you notice all the 10% in here, you'll take the tenth of this and tenth of that. You know, even the Americans today would be happy if the feds only took 10%. But you notice each year, when we're enabled to work for ourselves, it gets further into the year. I think last year was in July. In other words, you work until about July just to pay the taxes that is inherent upon you. And then the rest of the year you get to work for your own upkeep is what it amounts to. So God is saying, you reject me and you choose man, then you're choosing slavery. And so they swapped and they swapped law orders.
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Now if you look in 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 12 you are going to see how that is stated very clearly. 1 Samuel 12 verse 12, "And when you saw Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king." So, God was their King and they traded God for a man. Now, if you'll skip down to verse 19 you'll also see that they recognized their sin because here in verse 19 the Word of God says this, "and all the people said unto Samuel, pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king." Wow!
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I find it interesting that so many people oppose God's law and fight against God's law, but they do not oppose or fight against man's law. They quickly and easily and readily submit to man when they will not submit to God. And what we have failed to realize and remember, one of the reasons God sent Israel into captivity was for submitting to and obeying the laws of man. If you would turn right over in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 17. 2 Kings chapter 17 and look if you would please beginning there with verse 7. 2 Kings 17 and verse 7 here it is. "For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods."
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Now let me just stop. Note the Bible says they feared other gods. What is the evidence that you fear another god? Watch. Verse 8, "and walked in the statutes of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel which they had made." When you trade gods you trade law systems. And so here the children of Israel refused to obey God but they are now obeying the statutes or the laws of the heathen. And then he also added "of the kings of Israel which they had made" and all of the kings of Israel were apostate.
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There was not one good king in the northern kingdom. All claimed to those golden calves that Jeroboam had made. And if you read on down you will see how wicked they became in verse 9, "and the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God. And they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill and every green tree." And if you read on down you will see how wicked they became by following man's law order and man's law system.
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So let me just summarize it and put it like this. God's law order leads to blessing and to life. Man's law order always leads to curses and to death. And the truth of the matter is this, it would be absolutely wonderful if man's law order was brought into conformity to God's law order, but unhappily, not the case. And when there is a conflict between God's Law order and man's Law order then we have to take the attitude of Peter and the other Apostles in Acts 5 and verse 29 where he said, "then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men."
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Now, I want you to turn back to Deuteronomy 28 because when you examine Deuteronomy 28 you will discover that positive sanctions, that is the blessings, are spelled out for us in the first 13 verses. Verse 14 is a cautionary verse, a cautionary warning. Then beginning in verse 15 all the way through verse 68 you have the negative sanctions or the curses. So I hope you notice that there are far more verses in this chapter that deal with the curses than deal with the blessings.
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So you're going to ask, why is that? Well, the answer is really quite simple. If you're obedient, you have nothing to worry about. Okay. If you're disobedient what God is doing is expounding to you the greatness of these curses that are going to fall upon you. And so you'd be wise to consider your way and repent. Now, Deuteronomy 28 verse 1 if you look at it promises national blessings: "shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken
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diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and 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." I hope you remember Psalm 33 and verse 12, "blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord. Now, nations are made up of individuals. Cities, towns, fields, countryside. You cannot have a nation without having individuals. So, I want you to note, if you would please, verse 3, because verse 3 takes care of the city and the fields. He says, "Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field."
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Now, I'm going to come back to verse 2 a little bit later. But notice, if you would, God is pronouncing His blessings upon the obedient, not only in the cities, but in the fields, in the country, agricultural centers as well. So when you look at verses 4-6 all of these blessings now are personal blessings. For instance look in verse 4, "blessed shall be the fruit of thy body," that would be your children, "and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store, blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out." In other words, here you are and you are going to be blessed every which way you turn, going in or coming out, it doesn't matter. God says as long as you are obedient these blessings, these positive sanctions are going to fall upon you. Now, the rest of this passage concerning the blessings is a mixture between personal, societal, and national blessings.
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So let's look at verses 7 through 14. "The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessings upon thee in thy storehouse, and in all that thou settest thy hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The LORD shall establish thee a holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand.
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And thou shalt lend unto many nations, thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail, and thou shalt be above only, thou shalt not be beneath, if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and do them." And then this warning, "and thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day to the right hand or to the left to go after other gods to serve them." God has listed all of these positive sanctions, all of these blessings as long as we obey. Now, the negative sanctions begin in verse 15.
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I'm not going to read all of these. You can read them for yourself when you get home. But what I want to do right now is I want you to look again at Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 and 2. And then we're going to skip down to verse 15. So go back to verse 1, if you would. "And it shall come to pass that thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." Now I want you to notice how he said, "all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee." Now skip down to verse 15. "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."
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Now, I want you to see and understand that both the positive and the negative sanctions, let me say it another way, the blessings and the curses are both inescapable and irresistible. God said if you obey me all these blessings are going to come upon you and overtake you. If you disobey me, then all of these curses are going to come upon you and overtake you. So the Hebrew word for overtake is very emphatic. So if you're obeying God and God is blessing you so richly you say, "I've got so many blessings. I don't know if I can handle this. I'm just gonna get away from them," and you're running down the road as hard as fast as you can trying to escape the blessings of God, God said those blessings will chase you down, knock you down, and fall all over you. You can't outrun them. But on the other hand, if you're disobedient and the curses of God start falling on you and you try to escape, God says those same curses will chase you down and fall on you.
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They'll overtake you. You can't escape them. You cannot resist them. They are there.
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Now, I'm sure that you want to understand it would take a long time for me to go through each one of these curses. The curses are basically the opposite of the blessings. They are amplified to a far greater degree. So, instead of me taking all of these curses I want to just take one and show you how the curse works out in time and in history. So, look if you would at Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 7 because here is a blessing. If we are obedient, God promises this, "The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways." Here your enemies are coming, they are charging as one man. They are solidified. They are in one rank. They are saying our rank is not going to be broken. But God said you will defeat them so thoroughly that they will flee seven different ways. Now, skip down if you would please to verses 25 and 26 of Deuteronomy 28.
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This now is the curse of it. Deuteronomy 28, verse 25, "The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. Thou shalt go up one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away."
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So now God says, if you disobey Me you are going out against your enemy in a unified rank. You're going to flee before them seven different ways. Moreover, you are going to be captured. Moreover, a lot of you are going to be killed. Your carcasses are going to fall on the earth and the birds and the animals will eat them. So, the blessing is protection. The curse is death and captivity.
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Ah, it gets even more detail. Skip down to verse 47 and let's read through verse 59. 47, through verse 59. God says, "because thou servedst not thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee.
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Now note, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness, and in want of all things, he, the enemy, shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flyeth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed, which also shall not leave thee either corn, or wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down wherein thou trustest, throughout all thy land. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, your children, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee.
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So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eyes shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children, which he shall leave, so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children, whom he shall eat. Because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eyes shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear, for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege, and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
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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, then the Lord 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."
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Now let's just stop for a moment and think about this. The curse is, if you disobey, you're going to be absolutely defeated. You're going to be slaughtered. Some of you will be taken into captivity. Your cities will be destroyed. Your walls will be broken down. Your goods will be taken. You will have nothing to eat. You will actually be starving. And consequently, you'll turn to cannibalism, eating your own children, eating each other. So the question that you have to ask is this, did all of these things actually come to pass? Did these curses actually fall upon the Israelites?
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And the answer is yes. It was the prophet Jeremiah who witnessed the fall and the destruction of Jerusalem. That is why he wrote the book of Lamentations. Lamentations has five chapters. It is a funeral dirge over the fall of Jerusalem. And each of the five chapters views the fall from a different perspective. So I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Lamentations right after the book of Jeremiah and right before the book of Ezekiel, Lamentations, and let's begin reading with chapter 1 and I want you to see what Jerusalem was and what it became because of God's judgment and God's curse upon it. So here it is. Lamentations, chapter one, beginning there with verse one, and we'll read through verse 11. Watch.
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"How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people?" Nobody in it now. "How is she become as a widow? She that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces. How is she become tributary?" Going into captivity. "She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction and because of great servitude. She dwelleth among the heathen. She findeth no rest.
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All her persecutors overtook her between the straits. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are chief. Her enemies prosper. For the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her children are going into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.
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Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell in the hand of the enemy, and none did help her. The adversary saw her, did mock her sabbaths. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore she is removed.
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All that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness, yea, she sigheth and turneth backward. Her filthiness is in her skirts. She remembered not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully. She had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified himself. The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things, for she has seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. All her people sigh, they seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul. See, O LORD, and consider, for I am become vile." Notice if you would how the Bible here speaks of the complete destruction of Jerusalem, the want and the hunger of the people. Any pleasant thing they had, they had to trade for bread. It gets worse.
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Look in chapter 2 beginning there with verse 8, Chapter 2 of Lamentations, verse 8. "The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying. Therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
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Now look, her gates are sunk into the ground, no protection whatsoever. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles, that is, they've been taken captive. The law is no more, no one to enforce it, no one to preach it, teach it. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence.
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They have cast up dust upon their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. My eyes do fail with tears. My bowels are troubled. My liver is poured out upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Watch, because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, where is corn and wine? When they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mother's bosom. In other words, here are children starving to death, begging for food, and there's no food to give them.
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The apex of their suffering you will find in Lamentations chapter four, beginning there in verse six. Watch very carefully. Lamentations 4, verse six, we'll read through verse 11. Lamentations 4 verse 6, "For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her." I've preached on this text where Jeremiah says the punishment of Jerusalem was greater than the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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Now look what he says in verse 7, "Her Nazarites were," that's past tense, "were purer than snow, and were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was of sapphire." They were beautiful at one time. But now, verse 8, "their visage is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is withered, it has become like a stick," they are starving to death. "They that be slain with a sword are better than they that be slain with hunger, for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field." So Jeremiah said, at least those that are killed with a sword die quickly. Those who are starving to death pine away and are destroyed. Ah, but look at verse 10, "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children.
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They were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. The Lord hath accomplished his fury. He hath poured out his fierce anger and hath kindled a fire in Zion and hath devoured the foundations thereof." Do you realize everything that God pronounced as a curse in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 actually happened to Jerusalem in time and in history? You cannot run from the sanctions of God.
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Now, I want you to look at another verse. I want you to turn to the book of Zechariah just over. Zechariah, Malachi is next to the last book in the Old Testament. Look in Zechariah chapter 1. I want you to see what the children of Israel had to confess, they had to acknowledge. Zechariah chapter 1 and verse 6. Zechariah 1 verse 6, God says, "But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, now look, did they not take hold of your fathers?" Or literally, did they not overtake your fathers?
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They caught up with them. "And they," that is the fathers, "returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." We didn't get away. Sanctions are inescapable. They are irresistible. We cannot outrun either his blessings or his curses. Now let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this: Just as God has not abdicated his throne, He has not nullified his law. And there are sanctions involved, both positive and negative. And those sanctions, as I've just pointed out, are inescapable and irresistible. And it does not matter if those sanctions are applied to individuals, to families, to churches, to societies, to states, to nations. You cannot escape the sanctions.
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The second thing is this: We must learn to view what is happening in our world, in our nation, in our state, in our community, in light of these sanctions. If you want a good illustration, you pick any nation that hates God. You pick any nation that refuses to follow biblical truths. And you look at it. Look at India. Look at Africa. Look at China. Look at North Korea. All you're going to see is the judgments of God upon those individuals.
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You say, but wait a minute, Brother Weaver. These judgments, these sanctions were given to Israel. That is true, but may I remind you God also judged Assyria. He also judged Syria. He also judged Egypt. He also judged a lot of countries. In other words you cannot sin against God and escape. If you really want to know what is happening in the world you have to view it in terms of God's sanctions for violations of His Law. Now, I want you to turn to one other passage. I want you to look in Malachi chapter 3, just over to the next book, Zechariah, Malachi, Malachi chapter 3. If you want to know whether or not God's sanctions exist today, I'll give you a little test.
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And you can follow it and see for yourself. I want you to look in Malachi chapter 3 beginning there verse 8. Look what the scripture asks, "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Oh, because you've robbed God you haven't given to him what he deserves." Watch verse 9, "You are cursed with a curse. You've robbed me, even this whole nation."
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"Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, and you shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts."
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Now, look what God said. God said, if you want to test, prove me herewith. You tithe, you be obedient, you give God His glory, His demands. And by the way, you know what a tithe is. A tithe is nothing more than God charging for the use of his earth. We're his tenants. And a tithe just simply recognizes that he is God and he deserves everything and then he gives us everything that we have. And God says you can prove me. If you don't you are going to be cursed with a curse. If you do you are going to be blessed. It is just that simple. So you can prove for yourself.
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And may I remind you of Proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 and 10. "Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." In obedience you always find a blessing. In disobedience you always find a curse.
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Now, Lord willing, next Sunday, I'm going to show you the positive sanctions where we're blessed, particularly as we obey. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee this day. We thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy, your goodness, your kindness. Help us, Lord, to love thee and to live for thee. We pray for these, Lord, that are facing surgeries this week and for those, Lord, who have special needs. We commit them into your hands and ask for your blessing and your help. In the name of Jesus Christ, whose name we pray, amen.
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so
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T12:28:37Z

Promises Of The Law - Part 6

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

In this sermon, Pastor John Weaver continues his series on the promises of the law, focusing on the concept of sanctions—both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience—as revealed in Deuteronomy 28. He argues that God's sanctions are irresistible and inescapable, applying to individuals, nations, and all of history. Weaver contrasts God's law order, based on absolutes and leading to liberty, with man's law order, which leads to tyranny and slavery. He demonstrates from Scripture, particularly Lamentations and Zechariah, that the curses pronounced in Deuteronomy 28 were historically fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. The sermon concludes with a call to view world events through the lens of God's sanctions and a practical test from Malachi 3 regarding tithing.

Introduction and Review

Weaver reviews the series, emphasizing the impossibility of unhitching from the Old Testament or the law, and introduces the topic of sanctions.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:1-14

"And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field."

And then all of these blessings go down to verse 13. Then verse 14, you have a cautionary warning. Now look at verse 15.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:1-14

"But 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. Cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed shalt thou be in the field."

And then, of course, the curses go on to the end of the chapter to verse 68.

Sanctions Defined: Blessings and Curses

Sanctions are presented as positive (blessings) and negative (curses) promises in the law, particularly in Deuteronomy 28.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:1-14

"And it shall come to pass that thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do 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 on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God."

And so there you have the positive sanctions, the blessings promised for obedience.

The Irresistibility of God's Sanctions

God's sanctions are described as irresistible and inescapable, often unrecognized by unbelievers who attribute them to chance or nature.

Antinomianism and Law Orders

Weaver condemns antinomianism (opposition to God's law) and contrasts God's absolute law order with man's relative, humanistic law order.

Israel's Rejection of God's Law Order

Using 1 Samuel 8, Weaver illustrates how Israel rejected God as king and chose a human king, trading God's law order for man's, leading to slavery.

Consequences of Following Man's Law

From 2 Kings 17, Weaver shows that Israel's captivity was partly due to obeying the statutes of the heathen, demonstrating that trading gods means trading law systems.

Detailed Examination of Deuteronomy 28

Weaver examines the blessings (verses 1-14) and curses (verses 15-68), noting the greater emphasis on curses and the personal, societal, and national scope of sanctions.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:1-14

"shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:15-68

it shall come to pass that thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." Now I want you to notice how he said, "all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee." Now skip down to verse 15. "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."

The Inescapable Nature of Sanctions

The Hebrew word for 'overtake' is emphasized to show that both blessings and curses pursue and catch the obedient or disobedient.

They'll overtake you. You can't escape them. You cannot resist them. They are there.

Historical Fulfillment of Curses in Jerusalem's Fall

Weaver reads from Lamentations to demonstrate that the curses of Deuteronomy 28, including siege, starvation, and cannibalism, literally occurred in Jerusalem's destruction.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:15-68

"The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways."

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:15-68

"The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. Thou shalt go up one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away."

Look in chapter 2 beginning there with verse 8, Chapter 2 of Lamentations, verse 8.

Scripture Reading — Lamentations 2:8-12

"The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying. Therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Scripture Reading — Lamentations 4:6-11

"For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her."

I've preached on this text where Jeremiah says the punishment of Jerusalem was greater than the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Confession of the Fathers in Zechariah

Zechariah 1:6 is cited to show that the fathers acknowledged God's words had overtaken them, confirming the irresistibility of sanctions.

Applications and the Test of Tithing

Weaver applies the principle of sanctions to modern nations and individuals, and offers Malachi 3:8-12 as a testable example of blessings and curses related to tithing.

And you can follow it and see for yourself. I want you to look in Malachi chapter 3 beginning there verse 8. Look what the scripture asks,

Scripture Reading — Malachi 3:8-12

"Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Oh, because you've robbed God you haven't given to him what he deserves."

Watch verse 9,

Scripture Reading — Malachi 3:8-12

"You are cursed with a curse. You've robbed me, even this whole nation."

Closing Prayer

Weaver prays for the congregation, mentioning upcoming surgeries and special needs.

Promises Of The Law - Part 6

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	iSfU4VdgQHg
Subject	Covenant Theology
Course	Covenant Theology: Blessings, Curses, and Sanctions: Promises Of The Law
Genre	Sermon
Date	2019-03-10
Dictation Name
Book	Book 005: Promises Of The Law — Chapter 6
Source Timed Segments	63

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and Review: Weaver reviews the series, emphasizing the impossibility of unhitching from the Old Testament or the law, and introduces the topic of sanctions.
Sanctions Defined: Blessings and Curses: Sanctions are presented as positive (blessings) and negative (curses) promises in the law, particularly in Deuteronomy 28.
The Irresistibility of God's Sanctions: God's sanctions are described as irresistible and inescapable, often unrecognized by unbelievers who attribute them to chance or nature.
Antinomianism and Law Orders: Weaver condemns antinomianism (opposition to God's law) and contrasts God's absolute law order with man's relative, humanistic law order.
Israel's Rejection of God's Law Order: Using 1 Samuel 8, Weaver illustrates how Israel rejected God as king and chose a human king, trading God's law order for man's, leading to slavery.
Consequences of Following Man's Law: From 2 Kings 17, Weaver shows that Israel's captivity was partly due to obeying the statutes of the heathen, demonstrating that trading gods means trading law systems.
Detailed Examination of Deuteronomy 28: Weaver examines the blessings (verses 1-14) and curses (verses 15-68), noting the greater emphasis on curses and the personal, societal, and national scope of sanctions.
The Inescapable Nature of Sanctions: The Hebrew word for 'overtake' is emphasized to show that both blessings and curses pursue and catch the obedient or disobedient.
Historical Fulfillment of Curses in Jerusalem's Fall: Weaver reads from Lamentations to demonstrate that the curses of Deuteronomy 28, including siege, starvation, and cannibalism, literally occurred in Jerusalem's destruction.
Confession of the Fathers in Zechariah: Zechariah 1:6 is cited to show that the fathers acknowledged God's words had overtaken them, confirming the irresistibility of sanctions.
Applications and the Test of Tithing: Weaver applies the principle of sanctions to modern nations and individuals, and offers Malachi 3:8-12 as a testable example of blessings and curses related to tithing.
Closing Prayer: Weaver prays for the congregation, mentioning upcoming surgeries and special needs.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Sanctions are inherent to any law order, and God's sanctions are absolute and inescapable.

Every law system has sanctions; without them, law dissipates. God's sanctions are irresistible and cannot be nullified.

Weaver argues, 'There cannot be a law order without sanctions... An unenforceable law is no law.' (08:41.9-09:38.4) and 'God's sanctions are irresistible... There is absolutely nothing that you can do to stop His sanctions.' (06:51.9-07:57.1)

Rejecting God's law order inevitably leads to tyranny and slavery.

When Israel rejected God as king, they chose a human king whose rule was characterized by taking and oppression, illustrating the nature of man's law order.

Weaver contrasts, 'In God's law order, there is liberty and there is freedom. In man's law order, there is slavery and there is tyranny. God gives and man takes.' (15:47.3-16:44.0) referencing 1 Samuel 8.

The curses of Deuteronomy 28 were historically fulfilled, proving the reliability of God's sanctions.

The detailed curses of siege, starvation, and cannibalism occurred exactly as prophesied in the fall of Jerusalem, as recorded in Lamentations.

Weaver reads Lamentations 4:10, 'The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children,' and concludes, 'Do you realize everything that God pronounced as a curse... actually happened to Jerusalem in time and in history?' (42:05.6-42:37.1)

Antinomianism is a dangerous heresy that denies the ongoing relevance of God's law.

Those who claim the law has no meaning or binding effect today are promoting an ancient heresy that undermines the knowledge of sin, salvation, and sanctification.

Weaver states, 'It is heresy for someone to posit that the Law of God has no meaning for us today. It has no application for us today, and it has no binding effect upon us today.' (08:41.9-09:38.4)

Obedience to God's law brings national and personal blessings, while disobedience brings curses.

Deuteronomy 28 outlines comprehensive blessings for obedience and amplified curses for disobedience, applicable to all areas of life.

Weaver summarizes, 'God's Law order leads to blessing and to life. Man's law order always leads to curses and to death.' (20:12.5-20:56.6) and expounds the blessings in verses 1-14.

The tithe is a testable example of God's sanctions in operation today.

Malachi 3:8-12 presents tithing as a way to 'prove' God; obedience results in blessing, disobedience in a curse.

Weaver quotes Malachi 3:10, 'prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,' and applies it as a test. (47:05.2-47:38.2)

God's sanctions are often unrecognized by the world, attributed to luck or nature.

People in ignorance and unbelief attribute God's sanctions to chance, fate, or 'Mother Nature,' failing to see His hand in events.

Weaver says, 'through their ignorance and unbelief, they attribute sometimes God's sanctions to what you and I would call luck, chance, fate, or fortune, or sometimes, like the weather forecasters who heretically pronounce weather as the act of Mother Nature.' (06:51.9-07:57.1)

Scripture References

1 Kings 8:56: Solomon's prayer dedicating the temple, affirming that not one word of God's good promise through Moses has failed.
Deuteronomy 28:1-14: The blessings promised for obedience: being set on high, blessed in city and field, fruitfulness, victory over enemies, and being the head not the tail.
Deuteronomy 28:15-68: The curses for disobedience, including defeat, captivity, siege, starvation, and cannibalism.
John 1:45: Philip tells Nathanael they have found Jesus, of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, showing the Old Testament's necessity to know Christ.
Romans 3:20: By the law is the knowledge of sin; without the law we would not know sin.
1 Samuel 8:4-20: Israel rejects God as king and demands a human king; Samuel warns them of the oppressive nature of human rule.
1 Samuel 12:12, 19: Israel acknowledges their sin in asking for a king when the Lord was their king.
2 Kings 17:7-10: Israel sinned by fearing other gods and walking in the statutes of the heathen, leading to captivity.
Acts 5:29: Peter and the apostles declare they must obey God rather than men when human law conflicts with God's law.
Psalm 33:12: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, cited in connection with national blessings.
Lamentations 1:1-11: Jerusalem's desolation after God's judgment: solitary, captive, mourning, with children starving.
Lamentations 2:8-12: The destruction of Jerusalem's walls and gates, and children swooning from hunger.
Lamentations 4:6-11: The punishment of Jerusalem greater than Sodom's; starvation leads to cannibalism among tender women.
Zechariah 1:6: God's words and statutes overtook the fathers, who confessed that God dealt with them according to their ways.
Malachi 3:8-12: God challenges Israel to test Him with tithes; obedience brings blessing, disobedience brings a curse.
Proverbs 3:9-10: Honoring the Lord with firstfruits leads to barns filled with plenty and presses bursting with new wine.

Historical References

Destruction of Jerusalem by Babylonians: Weaver cites the fall of Jerusalem as the historical fulfillment of the curses in Deuteronomy 28, witnessed by Jeremiah and recorded in Lamentations.
Israel's demand for a king (c. 1050 BC): The event in 1 Samuel 8 where Israel rejected God's direct rule and requested a human king, leading to the monarchy.
Assyrian and Babylonian captivities: Weaver mentions that God sent Israel into captivity for obeying the laws of man, referencing 2 Kings 17 and the fall of the northern kingdom.
Judgment on other nations (Assyria, Syria, Egypt): Weaver notes that God's sanctions are not limited to Israel; He also judged Assyria, Syria, and Egypt for their sins.
Modern nations as examples of God's judgment: Weaver cites India, Africa, China, and North Korea as nations that hate God and exhibit His judgments.
Comparison of Obama and Trump administrations: Weaver briefly contrasts the Obama and Trump administrations to illustrate that changing rulers changes law systems, though not a direct biblical reference.

Important Quotes

God's sanctions are irresistible. By that I mean you cannot stop them. You cannot overthrow them. You cannot thwart them. You cannot nullify them. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to stop His sanctions.

This quote encapsulates the central thesis of the sermon: the absolute and inescapable nature of God's blessings and curses.

In God's law order, there is liberty and there is freedom. In man's law order, there is slavery and there is tyranny. God gives and man takes.

This succinctly contrasts the two law orders, a key argument for why God's law is superior and necessary.

Do you realize everything that God pronounced as a curse in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 actually happened to Jerusalem in time and in history? You cannot run from the sanctions of God.

This statement drives home the historical reliability of God's word and the inevitability of His sanctions.

Antinomianism is one of the main problems we have in the Church today. It is a heresy. It is an ancient heresy. Nomos is the Greek word for law. Anti means against. Antinomian is someone who is against God's law.

Weaver defines and condemns antinomianism, framing it as a critical error in the contemporary church.

We must learn to view what is happening in our world, in our nation, in our state, in our community, in light of these sanctions.

This is a direct application, urging believers to interpret current events through the biblical lens of sanctions.

If you're obeying God and God is blessing you so richly you say, 'I've got so many blessings. I don't know if I can handle this. I'm just gonna get away from them,' and you're running down the road as hard as fast as you can trying to escape the blessings of God, God said those blessings will chase you down, knock you down, and fall all over you. You can't outrun them.

This vivid illustration emphasizes the inescapable, pursuing nature of God's blessings for the obedient.

A tithe is nothing more than God charging for the use of his earth. We're his tenants. And a tithe just simply recognizes that he is God and he deserves everything and then he gives us everything that we have.

Weaver explains the theological basis for tithing as a recognition of God's ownership and a test of obedience.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does understanding God's sanctions as 'irresistible' change the way you view both personal blessings and hardships?

[Context]

Weaver emphasizes that sanctions cannot be stopped or outrun (06:51.9-07:57.1).

[Question]

In what ways do you see the contrast between God's law order and man's law order playing out in today's society?

[Context]

Weaver contrasts liberty under God's law with slavery under man's law (15:47.3-16:44.0).

[Question]

Why is antinomianism considered a heresy, and how might it manifest in modern Christian thought?

[Context]

Weaver defines antinomianism as being against God's law and calls it an ancient heresy (07:57.7-08:41.4).

[Question]

How should the historical fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28's curses in Jerusalem's fall affect our trust in the reliability of Scripture?

[Context]

Weaver reads Lamentations to show the literal fulfillment of the curses (34:11.5-42:37.1).

[Question]

What are some practical ways we can 'prove' God's sanctions in our own lives, as suggested by Malachi 3?

[Context]

Weaver presents tithing as a test of God's promise to bless obedience (47:05.2-47:38.2).

[Question]

How can we discern whether a national or personal crisis is a result of God's sanctions or simply natural occurrences?

[Context]

Weaver notes that people often attribute God's sanctions to luck or nature (06:51.9-07:57.1).

[Question]

In what ways does the church today struggle with submitting to man's law over God's law, and how should we respond?

[Context]

Weaver cites Acts 5:29 and the example of Israel obeying heathen statutes (19:34.2-20:56.6).

Applications

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