01 Sep 2024 pm: The Father Who Fights For His Children

preaching to us, and we are in the book of Leviticus this evening, and we have plenty of

visitor bibles at the sides, at the back, so if you don't have a bible with you, please do

grab one of the visitor bibles. And that's page 104, if you're using one of those visitor bibles.

Leviticus 25, and we're reading just the very last verse of chapter 25 and then through into

chapter 26. So Leviticus 25 and verse 55.

For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought

out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. You shall not make idols for yourselves

or erect an image of yourself. You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image of yourself.

You shall not make a bridge or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to

bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary.

I am the Lord. If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then

I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees

of the field shall yield their fruits. I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall

yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruits. I will give you your

rains in their season, and the land shall yield their fruits. Your threshing shall last to the

time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing, and you

shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land securely. I will give peace in

the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful

beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. You shall chase

your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred,

and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

I will turn to you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will confirm my covenant with

you. You shall eat old, store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new.

I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of

I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you,

and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of

the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke,

and made you walk erect. But if you will not listen,

to me, and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors

my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I

will do this to you. I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the

eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate

you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And if in spite of this,

you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again, sevenfold for your sins. And I will

break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron, and your earth like bronze,

and your strength like iron.

Shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land

shall not yield their fruit. Then, if you walk contrary to me, and will not listen to me,

I will continue striking you sevenfold for your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts against

you, which shall bereave you of your children, and destroy your livestock, and make you few in number,

so that your roads shall be deserted.

And if by this discipline you will not turn to me, but walk contrary to me,

then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant.

And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you,

and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your supply of bread,

ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven, and shall dole out your bread again by weight,

and you shall eat and not be satisfied. But if in spite of this you will not listen to me,

but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I will discipline you sevenfold

for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters,

and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters,

And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars

and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols.

And my soul will abhor you.

And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate.

And I will not smell your pleasing aromas.

And I myself will devastate the land so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it.

And I will scatter you among the nations.

And I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation,

your city shall be a waste.

Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbath as long as it lies desolate while you are in your enemy's land.

Then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

As long as it lies desolate, it shall have rest,

the rest that it did not have on the Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.

And as for those of you who are left,

I will send faintness into their hearts and the lands of their enemies.

The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight.

They shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.

They shall stumble over one another as if to escape a sword, though none pursues.

And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies,

and you shall perish among the nations.

And the land of your enemies shall eat you up,

and those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity,

and also because of the iniquities of their fathers, they shall rot away like them.

But if they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me,

and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them,

and brought them into the land of their enemies,

if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled,

and they make amends for their iniquity,

then I will remember my covenant with Jacob,

and I will remember my covenant with Isaac,

and my covenant with Abraham,

and I will remember the land.

But the land shall be abandoned by them,

and enjoy its Sabbath while it lies desolate without them.

And they shall make amends for their iniquity,

because they spurn my rules,

and their soul abhorred my statutes,

yet for all that,

when they are in the land of their enemies,

I will not spurn them,

neither will I abhor them,

so as to destroy them utterly,

and break my covenant with them,

for I am the Lord their God.

But I will for their sake,

remember the covenant with their forefathers,

whom I brought out of the land of Egypt,

in the sight of the nations,

that I might be their God.

I am.

I am the Lord.

These are the statutes and rules and laws

the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel

through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Well, amen.

May God bless his word to us.

Good evening, all.

Please keep your Bibles open at Leviticus 26

as we go through.

Let's go through this rather somber chapter together.

Do you know, through the highs and lows of parenting,

one of the things I find consistently most difficult

is discipline.

Time and time again, when a little one misbehaves,

it gets to a point where something needs to be done.

Whatever form that takes,

whether it's the naughty step,

taking away privileges, or grounding them,

or anything in between,

it never comes easy.

As it's often the case,

it's not what we want to do as parents.

We want to give them good things,

to bless them, to show them kindness.

But, as any good parent will tell you,

there is good reason for this discipline.

We don't do it because we enjoy or relish it.

Far from it.

Anyone who does enjoy or relish discipline

has lost the big picture,

and is probably the last person who should be doing it

as they're likely to lash out in anger.

But we discipline because we love our children.

And any normal parent knows that.

Our kids may not understand that

and feel like we're fighting against them,

that even we hate them.

But we know ourselves that we are fighting for our children

as we discipline them.

As we hear in the book of Proverbs,

whoever spares the rod hates his son.

But he who loves him is diligent to discipline.

We do it precisely because we love them

and want to bless them.

Good and measured discipline

always comes from a place of love,

wanting to avoid greater harm further down the line.

And here we have a chapter in which God's fatherhood

is center stage.

That's his role here.

He's not a punisher of his people,

venting his frustration,

but he's shown to be the father of his children,

raising them to bless them

and to bless them.

And enjoy good and hearty life in his name.

So what kind of father is he?

Well, he is the father who loves to bless his people

and loves to be with his people,

to be generous to them,

to protect them and grant them all they need

in this life and the next.

He's not stingy, not grumpy,

not reluctant to give his people anything good,

but is full of grace and love,

which he makes known through his blessings.

He's the father of his children,

and he's the father who truly knows

how to give good gifts to his children

and who loves doing so.

And he does so through this pattern of blessings and curses,

where obedience brings blessing

and disobedience brings curses.

And as we go through this passage together,

it's helpful to have two vistas of fulfillment in mind

of how this applies to Israel then

and to us as the church today.

Israel as a nation,

are the first people we need to consider.

The Lord is the God of Israel.

This covenantal agreement was given directly

to the people of God,

and this was how they were to relate to him,

with obedience bringing blessings

and disobedience bringing curses.

This sets the pattern for the rest of the Old Testament era.

But secondly, we need to consider us today as the church.

Today, God is the Lord of the church,

and we need to consider how we might experience

and expect to see the Lord's blessing

if we walk with him,

or how the Lord might discipline us

if we as a widespread group deny him

and worship the idols of this day instead.

We are not a nation state like Israel,

so can't expect to see exactly the same blessings and curses

as was true for Israel then,

but we will see a pattern of how the Lord might interact

and bless his church today.

We need to keep these in mind

as we go through this passage,

because our obedience matters,

and the Lord cares about how we respond to his grace.

Sometimes we might think to ourselves

that our obedience doesn't really matter at all

because, well, the world keeps spinning,

and we presume that God's going to bless us anyway.

But this passage makes clear that the blessing of God

is tied to our treatment of his law,

revealed in the scriptures for us.

So we'll split our passage into three sections,

seeing firstly blessings, then discipline,

and the final word goes to hope.

So we'll see firstly, looking at verses 1 to 13,

the blessing of obedience.

And here we see that obedience to the Lord

brings Edenic bliss,

found chiefly in knowing and loving and serving him.

This whole chapter is bookended in God's grace, and it's a great blessing.

This whole chapter is bookended in God's grace,

and it's a gracious work of salvation,

almost enveloping it in grace.

He is the God who, last verse of chapter 25,

has redeemed them from slavery,

and that's echoed in 2645.

He's redeemed them from slavery, rescuing them from Egypt.

And he reminds Israel of this, because this covenant,

yes, it is conditional, but it is rooted in grace.

We'll misunderstand this completely if we lose sight of that.

If we think that this is conditional alone,

then we may begin to think that our obedience earns blessing.

But that ignores the fact that we have been saved by God's grace in the first place.

This is conditional, yes, but it's always rooted in grace.

And the Lord begins by reminding Israel what they are saved for.

That's what you see in verses 1 and 2.

They function as a summary of the Ten Commandments,

beginning this agreement with some of the laws,

given at Mount Sinai, focused on the Lord's worship.

Verse 1, don't worship any idols.

And verse 2, worship the Lord instead.

And there's a sense in which these commands are representative of the rest of the Ten.

But in another sense, these are the front door to all the commandments.

And obedience to them indicates where a person's trust is.

Worshiping the Lord on His day, as part of His people,

and worshiping no one else,

shows where a person's loyalty is, and who they belong to.

Then the covenant conditions come.

And in these blessings, the Lord paints a picture of Eden,

recalling language used in the Genesis account,

to give His people an emotive picture of what life lived in obedience to Him is like.

So if you, verse 3, walk in God's ways,

observe and do His commandments,

well, blessings will follow.

And this isn't setting the bar too high.

The Lord is not setting an impossible standard,

but is asking for a true, repentant obedience,

where the people of God listen to and do His will,

and repent, say sorry, when we sin against Him.

Then, verse 4 and 5,

you will have more than enough food to eat.

The rains will come, crops will grow,

and your plate will never be empty.

Verse 6,

there will be peace in the land.

You'll dwell securely, and no one will make you afraid.

No wild beasts, no war in your nation.

Verses 7 and 8,

your enemies, well, they will be terrified of you.

And you'll defeat them, even when overwhelmingly outnumbered.

War tactics go out the window.

Five of you will overcome a hundred.

A hundred will chase away ten thousand,

with the result never in doubt.

Verse 9,

you will be fruitful and multiply,

echoing both the Eden command,

and the covenant the Lord made with Abraham.

Verse 10,

you'll have even more food than you need,

having to throw out the old store.

There's almost more coming,

and it's getting hard to find space to put it.

But all of these are just preambles

to the blessing of verses 11 to 13.

This is the key promise, verse 11.

I will make my dwelling,

a dwelling among you,

and my soul shall not abhor you.

And I will walk among you,

and will be your God,

and you shall be my people.

Again, there is one picture

that the Lord is giving his people here in their minds,

and that is Eden.

As the Lord and his people live together at peace,

with the Lord himself even going for walks

in the cool of the day

to have a conversation with his people.

The tabernacle would stand,

they'll be his residence,

but he wouldn't be confined to it,

but walking around freely,

enjoying the company of his people.

But this is here as a reminder

that the Lord God is the source

of all of these other blessings.

They are not merely the predictable patterns

of weather systems,

or political movements,

or army strategy,

but the blessing of the Lord

shining upon his people,

working his way through

through these means that he uses.

We so often reduce everything in our created world

to these neutral terms,

like weather patterns and political change,

decisions we make.

But the Lord was clear with Israel

that he was responsible for all these blessings.

And he's given them these blessings

that they might, end of verse 13,

walk tall, chin up,

heads held high.

They're not slaves.

They don't have to be victims anymore.

They're not to have a victim mentality,

but they are free men and women

walking tall

because they have been redeemed by the Lord

and are able to live like they were always destined to.

No longer crushed by their oppressive

Egyptian taskmasters,

but free to obey the Lord

and walk tall with him.

And what a world that would be to live in.

And for Israel,

for brief moments in their history,

they did experience something like this.

Particularly at the height of David and Solomon's reign,

they knew the peace, security,

and abundant blessing that came

from trusting and obeying the Lord.

Now this doesn't mean that if we are faithful,

then everything will be wonderful and easy for us

and we will face no troubles.

Of course that's not the case.

And very sadly,

this passage,

is a favorite haunt of preachers of the prosperity gospel,

saying that if you have faith and do God's will,

then all your earthly desires,

all your earthly dreams will come true.

And now that doesn't account for reality

of life in a fallen world.

And crucially,

it doesn't treat the passage fairly.

Because this passage is not addressed

individually to each individual Israelite,

promising to solve all their problems,

but to the corporate group,

to everyone.

To the whole people of God,

to show a trend towards blessing.

Showing that the Lord's favor is on his faithful people.

The Bible is quite unashamed about that,

that there is a kind of blessing and good order

that comes from living faithfully as believers.

As people who listen to and do the commandments of the Lord.

Why not read the commandment to honor your parents,

which comes with a blessing.

Or read the book of Proverbs,

which is full of blessings that will come if you obey the Lord.

And isn't that what Jesus means when he says,

don't be anxious saying,

what shall we eat,

or what shall we drink,

or what shall we wear?

The Gentiles seek after all these things

and your heavenly father knows that you need them.

But,

seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And all these things shall be added to you.

The greatest blessings we ever could have,

the blessings that really matter,

the blessings we really need,

are found in listening to the word of God

and doing his will.

Because that is the path to a life well lived.

The Lord's law is the way to the life of blessing.

And so what Moses wants Israel to do is clear.

He wants them to choose blessing.

Don't choose curses.

He paints this picture,

he paints this picture of Edenic bliss

so that the people will be running towards it,

desiring the fruit of faithful obedience to the Lord.

Desiring the blessing of God himself.

And next we'll turn to the consequences for disobedience

as we look at the kindness of discipline

in verses 14 to 39.

And here we see that the Lord of creation

will use everything at his disposal.

To draw his people back to the path of salvation.

There are a series of escalating curses

that follow if Israel continues in her disobedience

and refuses to listen to the Lord,

repenting of her sin.

Verse 14 he says,

But if you will not listen to me

and will not do all these commandments,

if you spurn my statutes and your soul abhors my rules

so that you will not do all my commandments

but break my covenant,

then I will do this to you.

And what is clear from that description

is that this is not painting a picture

of one individual Israelite person sinning

and being punished.

Instead, this is congregation-wide sin

for the people of God,

flagrantly sinning to his face.

Verse 14, they won't listen to him.

Verse 15, they hate him

and break the covenant.

Verse 21, they walk contrary to,

they walk against the Lord's ways,

instead embracing the ways of this world of this age.

Verse 30, there is rampant idolatry.

Verse 40, treachery against God,

spanning generations, generational sin.

This is serious and sustained,

nationwide sin against the Lord,

where they are taking his blessings for granted

and repeatedly, time and time again, saying,

no, I don't want to listen to you.

I want to go my own way.

And so, God's response to this sin is carefully measured.

He's not lost his rag,

but is carefully ensuring that the discipline fits the sin.

There are, broadly speaking, five curses that follow,

which mirror the blessings of covenant obedience

in verses 3 to 13,

but turns them all on their head,

showing that walking away from the Lord

means walking away from his blessing.

So firstly, there's the curse of disease and defeat

in verses 14 and 17.

When Israel first refuses to listen to the Lord,

instead of chasing away their enemies easily,

their enemies will eat of their crops and rule over them.

Verse 18 to 20, there is the curse of drought.

If this continues and they still will not listen,

instead of the rains coming in their seasons,

the heavens will be like iron and the earth like bronze,

with no food to eat.

Verses 21 and 22, there is the curse of wild beasts.

If this continues and they still will not listen,

instead of the wild beasts being away from them,

they will freely roam the land

and attack their children and their livestock too.

Verses 23 to 26, there is the curse of devastation.

If this continues and they still will not listen to the Lord,

instead of knowing peace,

their enemies will rule over them

as the Lord delivers Israel right into their hands.

Verse 27 to 39, the curse of desolation and exile.

If this continues and they still will not listen,

if this continues and still,

still they will not listen,

instead of walking among them in love and grace,

the Lord will walk against them in fury.

He will smash their idols to pieces and even their temples,

and he'll devastate the land so the enemies think of it as not worth fighting for.

What was all this fuss about?

He will evict them from the land,

delivering them into the hands of their enemies.

And then the land of promise will finally get its rest from them.

It will be allowed to recover and breathe

after the sin that Israel have polluted it with.

And any who are left will be utterly ruined.

Verse 36, they are so demoralized

that even the sound of a driven leaf

will make them run away.

Instead of chasing down their enemies,

verse 37, they will be haunted by the ghosts of war,

escaping enemies who are entirely imagined.

And this all leads to verse 39,

which is a desperate note.

And those of you who are left

shall rot away in your enemies' lands

because of their iniquity,

and also because of the iniquities of their fathers.

They shall rot away like them.

The people of God,

His special treasured possession,

picked out of all the peoples of the earth,

left to rot in some Gentile country,

away from the Lord's presence,

away from His garden,

just like Adam and Eve,

banished from Eden under the curse for their sin.

All the blessings of the Lord's presence have been taken away,

and we are meant to feel the pain of these curses.

It makes for uncomfortable reading

that makes you bristle, doesn't it?

But we need to feel this pain.

And so what are the key lessons from this section?

First one is that the Lord will not be mocked.

The Lord is unashamed to take ownership of this

and state that He is responsible for Israel's discipline

and will not be mocked.

If His people continue in sin,

He will act against them in discipline,

as He is not the God of presumptuous grace

who will let His children run riot around Him,

but who will lovingly discipline them

in the hope that they repent.

Secondly, the Lord disciplines with measured purpose,

because this is discipline, it's not punishment.

The Lord is not flying off the handle at His people,

and He certainly doesn't enjoy this.

That's why this punishment escalates

in the way He outlines in the text,

because it's only after years and years and years and years

of the Lord pleading with Israel and them ignoring Him

that He will send these curses.

And Israel's history is littered with examples of that,

of the Lord sending messengers to plead with the people

so that they would return.

That's what the prophets were,

covenant enforcers

who were sent to plead with the people

so that they might repent and avoid the disaster

that was heading their way,

so that the next step of discipline would not come,

and that they would not be exiled out of the land,

away from God's presence on earth,

and more importantly,

so that they would not be out of God's presence forever,

exiled in the eternal lake of fire.

The Lord was disciplining them

so that they would not end up separated from Him

forever.

The stakes are high.

So the discipline is designed to help them realize that.

And thirdly,

the Lord disciplines out of love.

Discipline of the Father shows love for the Son.

He fights for His people

even as He fights against them.

These acts of discipline are a mercy

as they are,

they are tasters of what is to come,

as the people continue to be hard-hearted,

obstinate, stiff-necked people

refusing to turn to the Lord.

But the Lord will not give them up without a fight.

He loves His people enough to be honest with them,

to plead with them,

to make the first move

so that they would repent.

And when do the people we live among

most feel the pull towards the Lord?

Well often, isn't it,

that they know they need Him

because they have gone through loss or pain.

There are many people in the kingdom,

probably many of us in this room,

whose Christian story starts with

loss, grief, or pain.

Perhaps you might be able to think of what it was

that drew you to the Lord in the first place

and know that it was a place of difficulty,

of a source of comfort or security taken away.

And you were crying out for help.

You finally realized your state.

It may even have been a mess of your own making

that drove you to your knees.

And yet, it was there

that the Lord spoke to you.

It was there in the mess of sin and loss

that He softened your heart,

that you responded in humility and repentance

and sought His blessing.

There is a kindness

to the pain that may come to us

from the hand of the Lord.

C.S. Lewis spoke of how our Western world

has become deaf to God,

that as we chase more and more pleasure

in a time of prosperity and abundance,

we have ignored God.

He writes,

but pain insists on being attended to.

God whispers to us in our pleasures.

He speaks to us in our conscience,

but He shouts to us,

but He shouts to us in our pain.

It is His megaphone to rouse the deaf world.

While what we call our own life remains agreeable,

we will not surrender it to Him.

What then can God do in our interest

but make our own life less agreeable to us

and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?

It is just here

where God's providence seems at first

to be most cruel,

that He most deserves praise.

Sometimes the kindest thing that the Lord can do

is give us a little pain now

to avoid eternal pain

that comes from separation from Him.

And friends, if we begin to sin

and fail to worship the Lord,

worshiping the idols of this world

and inviting them into the church,

the Lord may in His kindness

take away our blessings

so that we might be humbled

and see our need to repent.

The church in Scotland

could dwindle away into nothingness

if she welcomes in and worships the idols of the day.

God can take away His blessings,

and we would do well not to point fingers at others

and their perceived unfaithfulness,

but to look at our own hearts, examine them,

and confess the sin that lies in our own lives.

Perhaps we are uncomfortable

with the idea that the world is not neutral,

that the Lord acts in history and in the present day

to bless or to curse.

Or we find it quite easy to read of this in the Old Testament,

but the idea that it may happen now to Christ's church,

well, that doesn't sit well with us.

We don't like the sound of that.

But here it is clear

God is responsible both for blessings and curses,

for these acts of nature, of politics, and of war.

The Lord is actively at work in our world,

and His blessings and curses are being played out

in a multitude of ways.

Consider the church in Corinth,

who Christ Himself sent sickness and death to,

because they despised the Lord's Supper,

pleading with them to repent.

And when it comes to pain,

isn't that true for the church in Ukraine right now?

The church are facing war and famine

in terribly difficult circumstances.

And yet, according to the Slavic Gospel Association,

the church in Ukraine is growing.

They're in the business of planting more churches

as the Lord shouts to that country in their pain.

But that's not to say that every disaster

is to be attributed to some sin.

The Lord doesn't want us playing some cruel guessing game.

That's exactly what Jesus explained

when asked about a local disaster in Luke chapter 13,

when the Tower of Siloam collapsed, killing 18 people.

Jesus said it's not for us to apportion blame,

because they weren't worse sinners than anyone else,

even than those in Jerusalem and God's covenant people.

But He wanted His heroes to look at this event

so that they also would not perish.

Every act of God, whatever it means to them,

is a kind and stark reminder

that we are sinners who will one day die

and must choose life.

We must choose blessing that only comes

from knowing the Lord.

The Lord uses these curses

because He loves His people.

He's not punishing them,

but is urging them towards repentance.

He is shouting to them in their pain,

making it clear that they need to listen

to His words of warning and walk in His ways.

But how could a people, after all this sin,

after generations of continued deliberate sin,

how could they ever find hope?

Well, that's what we'll see in our final section,

in verses 40 to 46,

the final word of hope.

And here we see that the Lord shows grace to the humble,

to those who genuinely confess their sin,

are brokenhearted,

and repent towards Him.

And the great shock of this section

is that it exists at all,

because this comes after generations of Israelites

have spurned the Lord and turned away from Him,

after they've denied and ignored Him

for decades, centuries even.

Surely the Lord would be done with them.

Surely He'd be tired of them after all this time

and move on,

pick a different nation,

bless someone else.

They're clearly not grateful for it.

And yet,

He is patient,

long-suffering,

and steadfast in His love.

Just like the parable of the prodigal son,

which in many ways mirrors the curses we see here,

as he ended up amongst the Gentiles,

jealous even of pigs for what they had.

But when he repented,

well, our father delights

when one of his lost children returns to him,

humbly asking forgiveness.

He gets the fattened calf out

and prepares it for everyone.

Because just as in Eden,

the curse is not the final word.

Just as hidden amongst the curses

for sin given to Adam and Eve,

the serpent crusher was promised.

And so grace is promised to Israel,

and so grace is promised to us.

And so grace is promised to us.

No matter how disloyal and disobedient Israel would be,

the Lord would never go back on His covenant promises,

and He grants His people hope.

These Israelites who had been exiled,

well, they'd even gone so far

as to make themselves like the Gentiles.

Verse 41,

with their uncircumcised hearts.

They were just like the nations around them,

reveling in their sin and under the curse.

So what is the answer to their curse?

Where is the hope?

Verse 40,

confess,

repent.

And verse 42,

trust that the Lord remembers His covenant.

If they confess their sins,

they may cry out to the Lord for grace,

appealing to Him to remember His promise

to let grace always have the final word.

They could have assurance the Lord would hear them

because of His covenant promises.

He would remember His covenant with Jacob,

with Isaac, with Abraham, and the land.

And when the Lord remembers His covenant,

He always acts in grace.

Not cheap grace.

Verse 41,

amends must be made first.

And verse 43,

the land will be given the Sabbath rest

that the Lord promised it.

And we stand on this side of the cross,

where His covenant in Christ stands firm too.

Grace wasn't cheap for Him either.

The price had to be paid.

The blood shed by Him

stands as an eternal reminder,

an everlasting plea

for grace

from our Father in heaven.

That is the plea we need to give.

And the Lord in His grace

will hear it,

even though we don't deserve it.

For verse 44,

for all that,

when they are in the land of their enemies,

I will not spurn them.

Neither will I abhor them

so as to destroy them utterly

and break my covenant with them.

For I am the Lord their God.

The Lord will not forget His people.

Not because they're worthy.

Not because of anything good that Israel had done.

But the certainty of His promise

rests entirely on Himself

and His covenant.

For He is the Lord our God.

He is the covenant God

who is true to His word of grace.

Always pleading for repentance

that they might return to Him

and know blessing

and life in His name.

That's why God's grace

always gets the last word.

And why even His discipline,

even His curses,

are full of grace.

Israel experienced that

throughout their history

with prophets preaching

judgment to a rebellious Israel,

yet always offering grace to the humble.

Think of the prophet Amos

who, after eight whole chapters

of covenant, curses and judgment,

declares that

I will restore

the fortunes of my people Israel.

I will plant them on their land

and they shall never again be uprooted.

Or the prophet Micah

who, after giving three cycles of judgment to the people,

declares that

the Lord does not retain His anger forever

because He delights

in steadfast love.

He will again have compassion on us.

He will cast all our sins

into the depths of the sea.

He will show faithfulness to Jacob

and steadfast love to Abraham.

Or take the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi.

The day is coming,

burning like an oven,

when all the arrogant

and all evildoers

will be destroyed.

But for you who fear my name,

the sun of righteousness

shall rise with healing in its wings.

The message of the Lord

throughout the prophets,

throughout His covenant enforcers,

His covenant preachers,

was constant.

There is a judgment coming,

so choose life.

Confess your sins,

believe and trust God

to remember His covenant,

for His grace gets the last word,

He will forgive the sin of the humble.

He will forgive the sin

of the brokenhearted.

He will forgive the sin

of the repentant.

And it is the same message today

from the God of the covenant.

After all the curses

promised in Revelation,

the Lord promises blessing

to all who trust in Him.

And the new creation,

when we are with Him forever,

not with even a whisper

or an echo of the curse remaining,

but only the blessings

won for us by Christ,

only the goodness of God

radiating out unfiltered

as we enjoy Him forever.

For He is the God of the covenant

who loves to bless His people.

And for us today,

if we want to enjoy those blessings,

it all starts with listening.

Listening to the voice of our Father

as He offers us blessings or curses

week after week,

in word and in sacrament.

That's what Israel failed to do

time and time again.

And it's at the beginning

of all these curses,

if still you do not listen.

So friends, let us choose blessing

and choose life

by listening to the voice of our Father

and walking faithfully with Him.

Listen to the voice of your Father

as He speaks to you.

Listen to the voice of your Father

as He calls you back from your sin.

Listen to the voice of your Father

as He wants to bless you.

It's God's grace to us

that He has given us His word.

And in it we find these warnings of curses

that will fall upon us

if we are disobedient,

both now and forever.

That that word is not given to condemn us,

but to warn us and save us.

Because the curse does not get the last word.

The church of Christ is to listen to His word

as Christ stands before you

and offers His blessing

both now and forever.

And that listening

is to be followed by keeping that word.

Because listening to the Lord

leads to walking in His ways

as those who trust and obey Him.

That's what our Heavenly Father longs for.

His people with Him,

walking with their heads held high,

knowing they have been cleansed

by the blood of Christ.

Because that's what we are saved for with Him.

To enjoy Him and His blessings

both now and forever.

And we do so

by listening to His word of grace

and walking faithfully in it.

Let's pray.

Father God,

we praise You for who You are.

That You are the God of the covenant

who remembers His promises

and acts upon them.

And we thank You that those promises

are true today.

That anyone,

that any sinner in this room

with a humble heart who seeks Your grace

may know that life

is in Your name.

Please help us to live in response

to the grace You have shown us

by walking in Your ways,

by trusting that Your way

is the way of blessing.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.