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Now I want to preach tonight about cursing, and I'm going to start with this chapter because I think this chapter is one of the best illustrations that I can show you of what cursing means and what a curse is, but I'm going to show you a ton of scriptures tonight of what cursing is and what it means. Let me just quickly explain to you the story here. There are some other laws at the beginning of chapter 5, but beginning in chapter 11, the Bible says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and saying that if any man's wife go aside and commit a trespass against him, and a man lie with her carnally, and be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither should she be taken with the manner, and the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled, or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled, then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest. I'm not going to reread the whole thing that I just read, but basically, the Bible's explaining here that there are cases where a man would become jealous of his wife, and he is basically suspecting or feeling that perhaps she has committed adultery and sinned against him by committing adultery with another man, and the spirit of jealousy comes over. Now first of all, let me say this. Jealousy is not a sin in the Bible. Now a lot of people say, Oh, jealousy's bad. What a lot of people are thinking of when they say jealousy is what they're actually thinking of as envy. We say the word jealous a lot, but what we really mean is envious or envy, because envy is when you look at someone else's success and you wish that you had it. Enviousness is kind of like covetousness, wishing that you had someone else's stuff, being jealous of someone else's things. That's not really what the Bible means when it says the word jealousy, and to show you that the word jealousy is not a sin, the Bible even says that God's name is jealous, and he says, I, the Lord God, am a jealous God, and he's explaining that in the context of that he doesn't want other people worshipping other gods besides him. He wants you to only worship him. The Bible says, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Well, it's the same thing when you're married. You're only supposed to be for that one person. He doesn't want to share you with someone else, and vice versa. She doesn't want to share her husband with someone else. That's why in the wedding vows that we do, and that most people do in a traditional wedding, they say to have and to hold from this day forward, and you say that I swear to keep me only unto her so long as we both shall live. You're basically saying that I'm not going to share my wife with others, and she's not going to share me with others. So jealousy is not a bad thing. For a husband to demand that his wife be only for him alone and not for another, there's nothing wrong with that at all. That's why at the end of the chapter, if you look at the final verse in verse 31, it says, Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity. If he has the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he feels that there's evidence or some kind of a reason to believe that his wife has been unfaithful to him and committed adultery, that's okay, but he just brings his wife unto the priest. And he brings him to the priest, and he puts this oath of cursing upon her. And what the Bible is saying here is that there's been no witness, there's no evidence, so it's not for sure that she's committed adultery. He just feels that she's committed adultery. So he brings him to the priest, and basically what they do is they go through this ceremony, they do an offering unto the Lord, and then basically they take up the water of the tabernacle, and then they take some of the dust of the floor of the tabernacle and they put it in the water. It's basically water with a little bit of dirt in it. So they give her this water, and she drinks this bitter water. But really, getting dirt in your mouth isn't really going to kill you or necessarily make you sick. When we were kids, we always got dirt all over our mouth and everything. And so that's normal, he drops up the dirt, pick it up and eat it, whatever. But anyway, so she's got this dirt in the water, and she drinks the water, and basically they put this curse upon her. Look at verse 21. I'm sorry, let's go back and start with verse 19. It says, the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee... So he's basically saying, look, if you're innocent here, if you've done nothing wrong, he says, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to unclean this with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that caused the curse. But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thy husband, then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing. And the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot and thy belly to swell, and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy belly to swell and thy thigh to rot. And the woman shall say, Amen, Amen. What he's saying here is that he gives the water and he pronounces the curse upon her and says, look, if you're innocent here, you know, basically I'm praying for you, then everything will be fine, you will not have a problem here, but if you have committed adultery, if you have been unfaithful to your husband, then I pray that God will send a horrible disease into your body from this water that you're drinking right now, that it will cause your belly to swell, your thigh to rot, and basically that you're going to die this painful death of disease. And then the woman says, Amen, Amen. Because supposedly she's claiming to be innocent, right? So she says, yeah, that's right, if I did that, then okay, let that stuff happen. And if not, then I'll be blessed instead of cursed and this water will not do me anything wrong. Go to the end of the chapter, it says in verse number 27, when he had made her to drink the water, that it shall come to pass that if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell and her thigh shall rot and the woman shall be a curse among her people. And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean, then she shall be free, and watch this, and shall conceive seed. Because the Bible says that children are a blessing for God. So instead of her being cursed and getting a horrible disease, instead she's blessed and she conceives seed and has a child, and then that's her husband's way of having his mind set at ease, by just putting it in God's hands and the priest will make this curse and this blessing, and if she's innocent, everything will be fine, and if she's guilty, God will make sure that she's punished for her trespasses and for her actions. Now, this is obviously, you know, a good way to deal with it, because God is the one who came up with this, and God's ways are perfect, and the law of the Lord is perfect, and so we can see how this works, but what I want to talk about tonight is what is a curse, or what are cursings? And a lot of people misunderstand the word curse today, and a lot of times the way that we use words in our vernacular is not necessarily what they mean in the Bible, sometimes we use words wrong. For example, a lot of people will take words that are four-letter words, and they'll say that's cursing, you know, and if they hear somebody's cursing, that means that they used a four-letter word, you know, or they used a word that's on the banned word list or whatever. And what's funny is that some of those words are actually in the Bible, but basically the world tells you, oh, you know, you can't say that word. Like, for example, the word bastard is a word that is used throughout the Bible, and people will tell you, hey, that's a bad word. Well, the Bible says every word of God is pure, and even some people will make hell a bad word, and then a cuss word, so-called. And the word cuss is just short for curse. It's just a slang word for cursing is cussing. It's the same word. So a lot of people misunderstand and they say, you know, if you use the word hell or damn or bastard, those are biblical words. They have biblical meanings, and they're used throughout the Bible. People will say if you use a bad word, that's cursing. That's not really what the Bible teaches about cursing. I'm going to show you what cursing is. Let's go back to Genesis chapter 3, because we're going to go back to the first time that cursing is mentioned. A lot of people will also mix up taking God's name in vain with cursing. Now, taking God's name in vain is definitely sinful. It's one of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And a lot of times people are blasphemous for taking God's name in vain, which is a very bad sin. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're cursing. Cursing is the opposite of blessing. In Numbers chapter 5, we saw a woman that has maybe committed adultery, maybe she hasn't. Well, if she hasn't, then God's going to bless her, meaning that good things will happen to her, such as she's going to give birth to a child, she's going to conceive seed. If she has committed the awful sin of adultery, then bad things are going to happen to her. Cursing, just in a nutshell, let me just give it to you briefly. The definition of cursing is wishing bad things to happen to somebody, or saying that you want bad things to happen to someone else. That's what cursing is. And blessing is saying that you want good things to happen to someone, or causing good things to happen to someone else. That's blessing. That is the definition of blessing and cursing, and we'll see it throughout the Bible to get a more clear definition. And by the way, this shows you what a bad sin adultery is in God's eyes. Because a lot of people will make light of it, they'll call it having an affair or something, give it a kind word. No, the Bible calls it adultery, and God said that a woman who commits adultery, and obviously the same goes for a man who commits adultery, it's a wicked sin, but the Bible says that she deserves to have her belly swell, thigh rot, and to have this horrible disease come upon her. And even she was supposed to say amen to that, because that is a really bad sin, and we need to take it seriously and keep ourselves pure and stay faithful to our wife or husband respectively. But in Genesis chapter 3, let's look at the first curse in the Bible. We're going to look at a ton of curses in the Bible. Look at Genesis chapter 3 verse 14. This is the first curse ever in the Bible. It says in Genesis 3, 14, this is God speaking unto the serpent, or Satan, in the Garden of Eden. He says, the Lord said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, ye tempted Eve, if you remember, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. So you see how God is pronouncing something bad to happen to the serpent? Hey, these are bad things that are going to happen to you. You're going to be cursed. Look at the next curse in the Bible, verse 17. This is where Adam is cursed for sending and eating up the trade of knowledge of good and evil. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and is eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. What does that mean, that the ground is cursed? Does that mean that somebody said blankety blank blank to the ground? No. He says cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. And he's going to explain in verse 18 what that curse is. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and that the dust shalt thou return. So the curse that's placed upon Adam is that God curses the ground for Adam's sake, that it would bring forth all kinds of thorns and thistles, making it very difficult for him to make any food grow. Of course we need food to survive. And he's going to need crops to be planted in order to feed his family. And God says it's going to be very difficult. You're going to have to work very hard by the sweat of your face, because I'm going to curse the ground and cause it to bring forth all these thorns and thistles. And in the sweat of your face, you're going to struggle just to be able to feed your family because of the fact that you've saved. Now go to Genesis chapter 5 the next time cursing is mentioned. Genesis chapter number 5. Now this is when Noah is born. And of course Noah's father's name is Lamech. And it says in Genesis chapter 5 verse 28, And Lamech lived 182 years, and begat his son. And he called his name Noah, saying, This name shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. Now that's an interesting verse. What does he mean by that when he says, This name shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed? Well flip a few pages to the right in your Bible of Genesis 8, and you'll see why Lamech was actually prophesying or predicting something that would happen in the future. Because you see, God cursed the earth because of Adam's sin, to where it brought forth all these thistles and thorns and it was so hard for them to give anything to grow. Well if you remember, after approximately 1,656 years, after Adam, God sent the flood, right? And he destroyed mankind from off the earth. Except he just saved only Noah, and Noah brought his wife and his three sons and his three sons' wives. So eight people got on the ark and they were spared the destruction when God destroyed the whole rest of the earth. Well when Noah gets off the ark after the flood is over, he makes an offering under the Lord. Go if you went to Genesis chapter number 8 verse 20, it says, Noah and Noah built an altar under the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite anymore everything living as I have done. While the earth remained at seed time and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter and day and night are not seeds. Now many people think, hey, we're still living under that same exact curse that Adam was under where the ground brought forth all the thorns and thistles. But in reality, if you look at it, when Noah got off the ark, that curse was actually lifted. So yes, today obviously weeds grow and thorns grow, but it's really not that hard to get things to grow today. Now in the days of Adam and Adam's descendants, it was much harder. The ground was cursed. Now the ground does not have that same curse upon it because with Noah, God looked at it and said, look, I know man's evil. I'm not going to curse the ground anymore. I'm going to allow the natural process of seed time and harvest, summer and winter to take place. But you can see from these curses what the definition of cursing is. Cursing is when bad things are going to happen to you and God is wishing bad things upon you or someone else is wishing bad things or causing bad things happen or pronouncing doom and destruction upon you, whereas blessing is the opposite, good things being pronounced on you. Let's skip some of these for a second. Go to Leviticus chapter 24. And while you're turning to Leviticus 24, this is the third book in the Bible, Genesis X and Leviticus, let me just give you some other curses in the Bible. In Genesis 9, because I'm just giving you all the cursing, in Genesis 9, Canaan is cursed because Ham sins against his father, looks upon his father's nakedness and so forth when he's drunk. And so Noah actually curses Canaan. And boy, that curse stuck with Canaan, didn't it? Canaan and his descendants lived a life of doom and destruction and eventually were wiped out mostly by the children of Israel. So God cursed Canaan. Then in Genesis 12, God puts a curse on anyone who would curse Abraham. In Genesis 27, God puts a curse on anyone who would curse Jacob. In Genesis, at the end of the book of Genesis, Jacob puts a curse on Simeon and Levi's anger because of them wiping out a whole town because of one man's sin. In Exodus, the Bible tells us not to curse your parents and not to curse the ruler of thy people. Look at Leviticus 24. The Bible says in Leviticus 24 verse 10, And the son of an Israelitist woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel. And this son of the Israelitist woman and a man of Israel will stroll together in the camp. And the Israelitist woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses, and his mother's name was Shalomith, the daughter of Devri of the tribe of Dan. And they put him in war, that the mind of the Lord might be showed to them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that is cursed without the camp, and let all that heard them lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, here's the key, Whosoever cursed his God shall bear his sin, and he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death. And all the congregation shall certainly stone him, as well the stranger as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death. So this guy, he's fighting with another guy. He's striding with an Israelite. And he's half of another nation. So he's got other gods that he's messing with. And so he's going to fight with this Israelitist guy, and so people start to say things in anger. And he blasphemes God, and he curses God. And he's basically saying, it doesn't say exactly what he said, but it's basically as if you were to say, down with God, or just something bad, he's cursing and saying something bad about God, like something bad is going to happen to God. Or that he wants something bad to happen to God. So he curses his God, and they bring him, and they say, for cursing God, you be put to death. Now, did you know, and a lot of people will be surprised by this, did you know that in the United States of America, on this continent, before it was America, when it was just the colonies, when it was just the separate colonies, actually, that law was in place in this country, that if you blaspheme God, you be put to death. Now, people, it's funny, because you preach the Bible, and sometimes even if you just preach that murderers should be put to death, as the Bible says, that a murderer should be put to death. The Bible says that adulterers should be put to death. The Bible says that sodomites should be put to death. The Bible says that, the Bible says that, you know, all different things, you know, kidnapping, that they should be put to death. They act like you're nuts, or you're crazy, or you're a dummy. Let me read for you, this is from a history book. Okay, listen, this is interesting, I just want to read this to you because it's interesting. This has to do with New Haven, Connecticut. Now, that was one of the early colonies. This is going back to 1639. So if you know history a little bit, you know that our country declared independence from England in 1776, right? And then, of course, the Constitution in 1787. But this country was already filled with people long before that. People started coming in the early 1600s, and the Americas were populated with people all throughout the 1600s and the 1700s, and they had governments. They just had individual governments. Like, they weren't all united. Massachusetts was a certain colony, and they had their own government, their own rules. You know, Connecticut was there with the New Haven colony, and there was the, you know, Virginia was there, and there were all different colonies with different governments and different rules. Well, listen to this. This is from a history book about New Haven, Connecticut, their judicial system. This is going back to 1639. And I'm quoting this author named Leonard Bacon, this history book. It says, notice how great a change in respect to the inflicting of capital punishment, capital punishment is a death penalty, was made by adopting the Hebrew laws instead of the laws of England. Because remember, these people have come from England, right? And they decided, you know what? England's justice system is a little bit messed up. Let's go with God's law. Let's go with the Hebrew laws of the Bible. By the laws of England, more than 150 crimes were till quite lately punishable with death. Did you hear that? So in 1639, just shortly before that, in England, there were 150 crimes that had the death penalty. Now, is that biblical? No. The Bible has the death penalty for certain crimes, you know, murder, rape, adultery, but it doesn't have the death penalty on 150 different crimes. But in England, it's like, you know, you have forgery, death penalty. You know, you write a bad check, death penalty. I mean, I'm serious. Go back and research it. You know, stealing, death penalty. I mean, they have the death penalty on armed robbery. They have the death penalty on 150 different things. That's not biblical. And so it says that, you know, in England at the time, or around that time, there were 150 crimes punishable with death. By the laws which the New England colonists adopted, you know, those in Connecticut and that area, the bloody catalog was reduced to 11. And listen to the list. These are the laws that they, these are the crimes they still place with death penalty. Murder, treason, perjury against the life of another. That's where you try to get someone else executed by lying under oath. That's biblical. So we've got murder, biblical, treason, perjury against the life of another, kidnapping, bestiality, sodomy, which is homosexuality, being gay, adultery, blasphemy in the highest degree, so straight out of Leviticus 24, idolatry, witchcraft, and rebellion against parents. Did you hear that? Those who were punished with the death penalty in this country. And they said, hey, we're going to tone things down from England where they're just putting you to death for too many things. Let's go with the Bible's law. So you look at the roots of our country and, you know, I'm not insane for preaching that the death penalty is biblical. These people were saying, let's do everything the Bible said about it. Let's do it. And they did it for hundreds of years. These laws were on the books. Of course, once it became the United States, things were changed a little bit, but even when it became the United States, a lot of these things were still punished by the death penalty. Murder, you know, and there were many more. I don't know all the history on it, but isn't that interesting? And then it says, the greatest and boldest improvement which has been made in criminal jurisprudence by any one act since the Dark Ages was made by that which our colonial fathers, when they determined that the judicial laws of God, as they were delivered by Moses and as they are offense to the moral law, shall be accounted of moral equity and generally bind all offenders and be a rule to all the courts. So this used to be considered normal. I mean, it was like, okay, God said that these people should be put to death, you know, that should be the law of life. Now obviously we today as Christians, we live under the laws of our land. We don't run this country, have you noticed? We're not running things. Obviously we abide by the laws of land. I'm not saying we're going to take it upon ourselves to set up this rule of law and we're going to start having tribunals and putting these people to death. Obviously that's the government's job. In 1639 they had a righteous government with righteous laws. Today we have an unrighteous government with unrighteous laws. Anyway, that was kind of a sidetrack of the sermon, but I just wanted to point that out to you. Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter seven. Deuteronomy chapter number seven. Deuteronomy seven. And in Deuteronomy chapter seven, and while you're trying to, I'll catch you up on the book of Numbers. Of course we saw in Numbers five, we already went through that cursing. In Numbers 22 through 24, Balaam, the false prophet, is paid money to curse the children of Israel, but God does not allow him to curse the children of Israel. Instead he blesses them, saying how they're going to flourish and multiply and thrive and win all their battles. A curse would have been that they would lose their battles, that they would be destroyed, that they would not thrive. Look at Deuteronomy seven verse 26. Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thy house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it. But thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it. For it is a cursed thing. Go to Deuteronomy 11. So God's saying that there are things that are cursed, and if you bring these cursed things into your house, God's going to curse you for bringing that thing into your house. I can think of a lot of dirty magazines and dirty movies and dirty CDs and wicked pictures and wicked images that people can bring into their house. Probably a lot of what's coming on the television is just a curse coming into your house. There's a lot of things that God curses and that God hates, and God says, you better hate that stuff and get it out of your house or you'll be cursed by bringing it in. He says in Deuteronomy 11.26, Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. See, those two things are opposites, aren't they? A blessing and a curse. A blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and a curse if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God. But turn aside out of the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which you have not known. And so the curse is there for those who sin against God and break His commandments. Bad things are going to happen to you. Simply put, if you do wrong, bad things are going to happen to you. If you do right, good things will happen to you. That's the blessing and that's the curse. That's the same thing as when Adam sinned and he was cursed. We are cursed when we sin against God. Bad things happen. Look at Deuteronomy 27. God has a whole list of cursings here in Deuteronomy 27. Deuteronomy 27.14 says, And the Levites shall speak and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice. And by the way, that's why I preach loud. Too many quiet preachers. And you say, well, you know, he's a self-spoken. Self-spoken guys don't belong in the pulpit. Not everybody's called to preach. Not everybody's called to be a pastor. And we don't need some softy behind the pulpit. We need a loud-voiced preacher. God says to cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet. And when these men of God, these Levites, were pronouncing the curses on sin, they were supposed to do it with a loud voice. Like this. And not, oh, you shouldn't do this. Don't do it. Be careful what's in. Be careful. Watch out. You've got to be loud about it. He says in verse 15 with a loud voice, Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsmen, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen. Now that's just like the Amen that the woman said in that whole adultery situation. Remember how she would say Amen to the curse? Basically they're saying, look, we're praying that bad, this is what the curse is, we're praying that bad things will happen to anybody who tries to hide a bunch of idolatry in their house. And everybody says, Amen. That's right. Does everybody understand what the curse is? He says in verse 16, Cursed be he that's set at light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that removed his neighbor's landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that perverted the judgment of the stranger, fatherless and widow, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lieth with his father's body, because he uncovered his father's skirt, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen. Boy, I get so sick of people saying, Oh, you need to get out of the Old Testament. You know, we're in the New Testament. None of that stuff applies. Are you saying that it's okay to lie with your mother-in-law? Are you saying it's okay to marry your sister? Are you saying that it's okay to make graven images and curse God? No. God's laws in the Old Testament are perfect laws. We should learn from them. Obviously, there are changes in the New Testament that are specifically laid out. But don't throw out the Old Testament. This is important stuff here, and it hasn't been changed or repealed. No, it is still a sin to lie with your mother-in-law. And people say, Well, if it's not repeated in the New Testament, it doesn't apply. I guarantee you that law still applies. And this is the only place in the Bible that's going to tell you that. It's spelled out to you in that way. And nowhere in the New Testament does it tell you not to marry your sister. But I guarantee you that God condemns marrying your sister. And all God's people said, Amen. Curse it be ye that marries his sister. All right, Amen. But anyway, it's this ridiculous doctrine that people teach. But look at verse 24. Curse it be ye that smiteth his neighbor secretly, and all the people shall say, Amen. Curse it be ye that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. That's like a hit man. He takes money to kill somebody. And all the people shall say, Amen. Curse it be ye that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen. Go to Deuteronomy 28, 15. Now, I'm not going to read this for sake of time. I've preached whole sermons on this chapter. But in Deuteronomy 28, God lays out all the curses. He explains what it means to be cursed. First in Deuteronomy 27, he says, Okay, these are all the people that were cursing. And then in chapter 28, he explains, Okay, here's what that curse means. And he says in Deuteronomy 28, 15, I'm not going to read the whole thing for sake of time. Let's just read the first few verses just to kind of get the flavor of it, just to get the understanding of it. In Deuteronomy 28, 15, let me get there. It says, But if 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 have commanded thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Curse it shall thou be in the city, and curse it shall thou be in the field. Curse it shall be thy basket and thy store. Curse it shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep. Curse it shall thou be when thou comest in, and curse it shall thou be when thou goest out. Go to verse 22. Here's a colorful verse. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew, and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. Now if you remember, God repealed the general curse on the ground when Noah got off the ark, but there are still times throughout the Bible where he curses specific areas with drought, famine, destitute earth, thorns, but just not a generalized curse on mankind in that way. So anyway, I'm not going to read the whole chapter for sake of time, but he talks about how their kids are going to go into captivity, their fruit trees are all going to cast off their fruit before the time, their crops are going to be destroyed, everything's going to go bad. These are bad things that God is saying are going to happen. That's what cursing means. If you go earlier in the chapter, God lists all the blessings, and he says in verse 11, the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, and the fruit of thy body, and of the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware of thy fathers to give thee, and he explains all these good things are going to happen to them, how God's going to bless them. That's the opposite of being cursed. Let me skip some of this for the sake of time. Go to Psalm 37. I've got everything in my notes, every cursing, but I'm going to skip on it every second time. But anyway, some other cursing, if you remember is that the city of Jericho, remember when the walls fell down, when they marched around? God cursed the city of Jericho, and he cursed everything in it, except Rahab the harlot. She was saved because she believed. The Bible says in Hebrews 11 she believed, and therefore she was not slain with the rest of them. God put a curse on Jericho, and everything in it was cursed. Remember Achan tried to seal some of that stuff, and he brought some of that cursed stuff into his house? He ended up being cursed, and him and his whole family died. But if you remember, Joshua cursed Jericho. When they had defeated Jericho, he said, cursed be the man that riseth up and buildeth Jericho. He shall, and I'm paraphrasing, it's not in my notes, but he said he's going to lay the foundation of it in his first born son, and he's going to set up the gates thereof in his youngest son. And then way later, thousands some years later, somebody did rebuild Jericho. It's recorded in the book of the kings, and he explains how that guy who built Jericho, his children died. Just like Joshua pronounced the curse upon them, that their children would die if they rebuilt the city of Jericho. So that's what cursing means. It's when bad things are brought upon you. Psalm 37 verse 22 says, for such as be blessed of him, talking about be blessed by God, shall inherit the earth, and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. Go to Proverbs. Go to Proverbs chapter 24. I'll read for you from Proverbs 3. The Bible says the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just. Proverbs 11 26, he that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him, but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it. Proverbs 20 20, who shall curse him, his father or his mother? His land shall be put down in obscure darkness. Verse 24 of Proverbs 24, He that saith unto the wicked, thou art righteous, him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him. Now what does he mean, the people shall curse him? When he says that him that saith to the wicked, thou art righteous, him shall the people curse. That means people are going to say, man, I hope that guy drops dead. That's a curse. I mean, if I say to you, hey, I hope you drop dead, that's cursing you, right? If I say to you, hey, you know, live long and prosper, you know, I'm basically saying a blessing to you. If I say, man, I hope things go, hey, have a great day, right? God be with you. God bless you, my friend. That's a blessing. Boy, I hope that you'll, you know, you know, succeed at your, I hope things are going good for you at your job. That's a blessing. Hey, I hope you get fired. That's a cursing. Does everybody understand? I mean, I follow this throughout the Bible. That's consistently what it means, start to finish. And, you know, saying to someone, hey, drop dead. Or some people will say, go to hell. You know, that's a curse. A blessing would be saying something like, you know, hey, I hope you have a great lunch today, or, you know, have a great week, have a good weekend, okay? That's a blessing. And look at what the curse is about. I just kind of randomly turned to this because I just have a list of all the different curses. But he says, if he can say unto the wicked, thou art righteous, him shall the people curse, nation shall abhor him, or hate him. Now, we have a lot of people who will look at the wicked and say to them that they're righteous. You know what I mean? Like, I remember I was looking at the, I think it was like some kind of a Republican thing or something. I don't know, this is going back a long time. And they're asking these candidates, this is like, I think this is in the last election or something. They're asking them, like, what do you think about, you know, the homos or something? And they say, like, they're good people. You know? But it is a sin, but we're all sinners. You know, it's kind of like Joel Osteen. I think Joel Osteen said that. And I think it was Huckabee. This was in the last election, back in like 08. And this guy Huckabee, I guess he was a Baptist pastor that was running for president back in 08, right? Who knows what I'm talking about? 2008 Baptist pastor, he's running for it. And he said, you know, he said, you know, I'm not saying that they're wicked or anything. I'm not saying that they're bad, you know? It's just a sin. But we're all sinners. I'm a sinner too, you know, we're all sinners. And basically, we have a lot of people today that will say about the homos, they're good people. Who's ever heard somebody say, like, hey, they're good people, they're whatever. You know, and this is what he's talking about. Saying to a really wicked person, hey, you're righteous. You're good. You're a good person. God says, no, you know, you're going to be cursed for even saying that. Bad people are good. And the Bible says that there would come a day when we call good evil and evil good. Now, it's bad when you call good evil, but it's also bad when you call evil good. And so don't ever look at some wicked person and say, he's a good guy. He's a really good person. You know, I know that, you know, I mean, I know Adolf Hitler did a lot of bad, you know, stuff, but he was a good guy. I mean, that's stupid. You know, I mean, I know Stalin has some problems, you know, with all those 50 million people that he killed and everything, but he was a good guy. But, you know, we shouldn't look at the wicked and say, hey, they're good, they're righteous. God bless them. Wrong. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself, but let's get into the New Testament here. Let's get out of the Old Testament. Let's spend the rest of the sermon in the New Testament. What does the New Testament say about cursing? Well, you're not going to believe this, but in the New Testament, cursing means the exact same thing in the end of the Old Testament. And these things follow through. Let's look at Mark 11. And I'm in a hurry here. I don't have a whole lot of the New Testament, but Mark 11. Actually, I do have a lot of the New Testament, but I'm just going to skip some of it. But Mark 11, verse 13. Do you remember the famous story where Jesus curses the fig tree? This is where Jesus actually curses the fig tree. This is one of the miracles that Jesus performed. It says in Mark 11, 13, and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came and happily he might find anything thereof. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, here's his curse, no man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it. Now, Jesus sees a tree in the distance. He's hungry. He says, hey, let's get some figs. He goes over to the tree, hoping to find some figs. He gets there and it's just leaves, no figs. So he gets upset at the fig tree and curses it and says, you know, basically, let no man eat fruit of thee forever. If you don't have any fruit for me, then just die. Okay? Look what happens in verse 21. And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, because they come by the fig tree again the next day. They walk by the same tree. Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursest is withered away. And Jesus answered and saith unto him, have faith in God. And he explains to him how God is powerful and God can do a lot bigger things than just cursing that fig tree. And that that was a pretty minor miracle that he said, you know, he cursed the tree and the tree withered away and died. So you see, cursing means the same thing. Go to Matthew 26, just a few pages backward in the Bible. Now in Matthew 26, Jesus is on trial for his life. He's going to be crucified the next day, right? And it's the middle of the night and they've got Jesus on trial. Well, Peter followed afar off. He didn't want to be too close to Jesus, but he's trying to see what's going on with Jesus. So he follows Jesus and he gets to the outer courtyard. John had some connections, the apostle John, he had some connections. He was able to get him into the courtyard to get pretty close to where the trial was happening. So Peter is there and he's warming his hands at the fire with those that are outside of the courtyard. And if you remember one of the servants come to him and says, hey, weren't you with him? Because it's kind of the news that everybody's talking about how Jesus is on trial. So they say, hey, wait a minute, this guy was even one of them. And Peter says, no, no, that was Pete. He lies because he's ashamed and he's afraid. What's going to happen to him? Is he going to end up in the slam home? So he says, oh no, that wasn't me. And then somebody else asks him and he says, I know not the man. Nope, not me. Now the third time somebody comes to him, and remember Jesus had predicted that three times he would deny him. The third time, look what it says about the third time, verse 74. Chapter 26, verse 74. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. Now I've heard some people take this and say, well, you know, the reason that he began to curse and to swear was because he was trying to seem worldly. So he was trying to fit in with them so they'd think, oh, this guy's not with Jesus because listen to his mouth. You know, that's what I've heard people say about this. But really what this is, if you read the Old Testament a lot, the cursing and swearing is something that happens all the time in the Old Testament. And this is where when they really want to swear, because what does it mean to swear? Okay, let me explain. Again, people will say like swear words. Okay, that's not what this is about. When the Bible talks about swearing, this is like when you go to court and you put up your right hand and you say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. And you swear an oath that what you're saying is true. Okay. Well, that's what Peter's doing here. He's swearing. I do not know Jesus. Now is that true? No, he's a liar. He knew Jesus, of course. He's his disciple. He's one of his closest disciples. But in this moment of a lack of faith and a sinful moment, he begins to curse the world. You say, what about the curse and swear? Well, all throughout the Old Testament, literally scores of times, you'll see people, when they really want to swear to something, and as soon as I say this out of my mouth, they're going to be like, oh yeah, I'll write that out of time. Whenever they really want to swear to something, what would they say? The Lord do so to me and more also. Right? If I don't do this and that. Who knows what I'm talking about? If you don't put up your hand, you don't read the Bible. I mean, it says that in the Bible. Over and over and over and over. They say, you know, the Lord do so to me and more also if I don't do this or if what I'm saying isn't true. And you'll see that in the Bible tons of times. Because they put an oath of cursing. Just like that woman who was being suspected of adultery is swearing, hey, I didn't commit adultery. And if I did, then amen. Let my belly swell and my thigh rock because I didn't do it. That's what these people are saying. Well, if I don't do what I said I would do, if I'm not telling the truth here, then the Lord do so to me and more also. Now, Job cursed and swore. And again, we're not saying that he cursed a blue streak. When he cursed and swore, Job said that if he had, this is one of the curses that Job put on himself. He said that if he had been unfaithful, if he had lusted after other women or done that, he listed a bunch of sins. If he did this, then he says, then let my wife grind unto another and let these other bad things happen to me. So he's basically putting a curse on himself that, hey, if I'm not telling the truth here, then let my wife commit adultery on me. Because he's saying, what I'm saying is true. Now, I'm not going to go into the fact of the whole cursing and swearing thing because really, the Bible tells us we shouldn't swear oaths like that. What we should do according to the Bible is just let our yea be yea and our nay be nay. The Bible says, whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. He says, swear not at all. Let your yea be yea, let your nay be nay. He said we should not swear by heaven because it's God's throne. We shouldn't swear by the earth because it's his footstool. We shouldn't swear by Jerusalem because it's the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy hand because thou canst not make one hair white of black. But let your communication be yea, yea, yea, nay, nay. Whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. The Bible also says, but above all things, my brethren swear not. Neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your nay be nay, lest you fall into condemnation. So the Bible teaches us in the New Testament, hey, don't say stuff like that. Just do what you say and do. Just tell the truth. Just say yes, no. You don't have to give these elaborate curses. You go to court, God, so do me and more. Also, if what I'm saying is not true, judge. Your honor, let my thigh rot. We should not do that. The Bible says we should just tell the truth and just be honest and we don't have to do all that. But you understand here what it means when it says, then began he to curse and to swear. He's basically putting an oath on himself of cursing if what he's saying isn't true. Pretty stupid thing to do because what he's doing is lying and he's putting these curses on himself. Who's he cursing? He's not cursing Jesus. He's not cursing the people he's talking to. He's cursing himself if what he's saying is not true. That's what I believe that means because if we let the Bible interpret the Bible, we see scores of times in the Old Testament where that type of cursing and swearing are coupled together in one. Now, let's go to what the Bible says in Luke chapter 6 verse 28. Luke 6 28, this is a common theme in the New Testament. I think it's mentioned about at least four or five times God spells this out where he tells us basically that we should bless those who curse us. It's a common thing that Jesus taught and here's where he taught it in Luke chapter 6 in the Sermon on the Mount. It says in Luke 6 28, bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. See that in Luke 6 28? In Romans 12 14, it says almost the same thing, you don't have to turn there. Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not. So the Bible says that we should not return cursing for cursing but rather blessing. So that means if we're, let's say we're driving down the road and we do some maneuver traffic that someone else is not real pleased and they say to us, hey, go to hell. Is that a blessing or a curse? That's a curse, right? Now, should we say, same to you, pal. We're supposed to say, hey, God bless you. It's funny, my dad used to always, whenever I was riding around with my dad, you know, somebody would honk at him and they'd be waving at him but with only one finger and they'd give him the one finger salute or they'd be yelling at him and creeping out and my dad every time would do the same thing. Whenever people would yell at him and scream and honk a horn or cuss at him or you know, again I'm wrongly using the word cuss but and then they would, you know, flip him off or whatever. He would always do the same thing. He would just smile real big and go, hi, hi. And it made him so mad. It made me mad. And my dad would just say, oh, it's just so much more fun to just, you know, just to do that. It just gets him really worked up, you know. Instead of just getting mad, you know, back at him. He's just, uh, you know, and then they'd get really mad, you know. They didn't know what to do. So, what God is saying here is that when people curse us, we should bless them in return. This is like where the Bible says, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he may be the son of the wise on the evil and on the good and send the brain on the just and the unjust. So basically if somebody does you wrong, right, and somebody harms you in some way, you should bless that person in return. The Bible says, be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good, okay. Now, if you put this in a practice in your life, a lot of people who are your enemies will eventually become your friends if you bless those who curse you, okay. I had a guy one time in a job that I worked at and this guy just, uh, he always was the rudest guy. He was always a jerk. You remember my sermon this morning? Okay, he needed that sermon, okay, the one about complaining. This guy was always complaining, always negative, always just the glass is half empty and he was just the biggest pain in the neck to everyone in the whole company but he was really, really good at his job so that's why he stayed around and made good money because he was so good at his job, very good but horrible attitude. Every day just complaining and just, I mean to the point of ridiculousness, the point where it was like a joke, it was like a parody of something. It was just so negative to be around this guy and this guy treated everybody like dirt, me included, okay. Well, one time I walked up to the guy and I just asked him a question. It was just a totally innocent, it was just a nice question, just, hey, you know what I do? And the guy just said, you stupid, blanky, blank, you know, in front of this other worker, right, and he just totally mouthed off to me and just ripped and I had done nothing, it said nothing and it was so ridiculous and the guy standing next to him just saw how ridiculous it was and I was facing there, I just said, hey man, I'm sorry and I just walked away and from that day forward, that guy was so nice and I was the only person he was nice to because he felt so bad that he had just laid into me for no reason and that I just was nice and just took it and then like, and then that day at lunch, I think I gave him a soda or something and said, hey man, how you doing, you know, and he just felt so bad that from then on, that guy treated me great, you know, and that guy was really nice to me. I had another guy in the same company, same type of thing, he flipped out, he blew up and I just kind of kept my cool and took it and eventually he and I became great friends and then we became close friends and I was able to give him the gospel, he didn't get saved but I gave him the gospel and was able to try to be the best witness unto him that I could. So the bottom line is, everybody that's your enemy today isn't going to be your enemy for the rest of your life necessarily because sometimes you can overcome evil with good by blessing those who curse you, you know, hey, somebody at work treats you bad, do something nice for them and God says you'll eat coals of fire on their head, doesn't that sound lovely, but anyway, if they're wicked, then yeah, they'll just eat coals of fire on their head by blessing or maybe they'll realize the error of their ways and turn around and become your friend and be nice to you and then you've made an ally, you know, and especially when you're a child or a teenager, you know, you have enemies for such petty reasons, don't you? Just some dumb thing on the playground and that person's just your mortal enemy, you know, for the rest of your life and I remember I had this kid, he was my mortal enemy and we were just enemies, we hated each other, we got in fistfights and we were just enemies, you know, this is when we were just young kids, I mean, we're like, you know, 9, 10, 11, 12, okay, just enemies. Well, later on, you know, many years went by and I started going to a new church when I was 17 and there he was in the youth group and he was the only person I knew in the youth group, so I walked up to him, hey, how you doing? And we were just right away just great friends. Hey, we know each other from childhood and instantly all that stuff on the playground, he was like, hey, this is water under the bridge, man, let it go, you know, and we got along great, so you never know, you don't want to burn your bridges with people that are your enemies because later on, you know, you might patch things up and things will go well, so you got to be careful what you say and God's telling us, look, we don't need to just, every time someone does us wrong, we got to pay them back, you know, vengeance belongs to the Lord, if somebody does you wrong, do good under them and if they continue to be evil, God's just going to punish them even more and heap coals of fire on their head and you ought to do good to those that hate you and that's a good way to deal with your enemies and not to just hate people because they hate you. You know, I've been treated poorly or brutalized by people and I prayed for them to get saved, you know, and I'm not perfect, obviously, you're not perfect, we've all had, you know, wrong thoughts in our heart toward people, cursing in our heart toward people that we shouldn't have and, you know, we look at that and I've had people do me really wrong and I prayed for them to get saved and I say, God, you know, I'm angry at this person, I'm angry at what they've done to me, but God, I still don't want them to go to hell, you know, I mean, forgive them, it's like when Jesus said, forgive them, Father, they know not what they do and I prayed for people to get saved, that's the best blessing you could pray on someone, I pray that they'll be saved and go to heaven, I pray that God, I pray, hey, that some church would send somebody to go knock their door and give that person the gospel, you know, that person that done me wrong, that person who done me dirty. Now, the Bible also says in James 3, verse 8, you ought to turn there, but the tongue can no man tame, it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison, they're with blessfully God, even the Father, and they're with cursed wee men which are made after the similitude of God, out of the same mouth precedes blessing and cursing, my brethren, these things ought not so to be. Now, that being said, we should bless our enemies, bless those that curse us, even if somebody tells us to go to hell or drop dead or jump in a lake or go fly a kite or whatever else, you know, we're supposed to bless them in return, but a lot of people misinterpret this as bless everyone and never curse anyone, that's not biblical, go to 2 John, go to 2 John and put your finger in 2 John and go to Galatians 1, Galatians chapter 1 and 2 John, should we bless our enemies? Yes, should we bless those who curse us? Yes, should we do good to those that hate us and despitefully use us and persecute us? Yes, think about the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul was persecuting Christians, right? But wait a minute, later on he got saved, later on he became a great guy, so you know, it would have been better not to curse him, but rather to bless him and pray for God, open his eyes, you know, that he would see that he doesn't know what he's doing, help him to get saved and so forth, because some people that are your enemies today can be your friends tomorrow, but there are some people that we should not bless, because you know, you don't want to just get all bless happy and just want to bless everybody, okay, because there are some people that we should not bless, in fact, there are some people it's a sin for you to bless, did you know that? Let's look at it in the Bible, in the New Testament, look at 2 John, it says in 2 John, verse 7, For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath built the Father and the Son. Look at verse 10, If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. For he that bideth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. So the Bible says here that if somebody comes to you preaching a deception, a false doctrine, another gospel, you know, this would be like the Jehovah's Witnesses come to your door, right? Are they bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ? Are they bringing the truth? Are they bringing the doctrines of Christ? No. They're coming to your house and bringing a doctrine. Look down at your Bible. Should we receive them into our house? Should we say come on in? No. He says receive them not in your house, but look, neither bid him God speed. God speed is a blessing. That's saying, hey, God be with you. That's what that means. God bless you. We shouldn't say to them, hey, have a great day. God bless you. God be with you. God speed. He says, if you do, you're partaker of their evil deeds. I don't want to partake in the evil deeds of the Mormon missionaries on their tricycle, you know, coming to your door. I don't want a part of that. Okay, that is not God's word. And by the way, they're causing people to go to hell because they're bringing lies and false doctrine to them where the people who believe in that doctrine are going to go to hell someday. That's not a joke. I mean, that's not a small thing. And God says, hey, when somebody cuts you off in traffic and flips you off, you know, when somebody at work says, you know, blankety blank you and go to blank, you know, and say all this stuff to you. That's one thing when you have enemies. That's one thing when somebody eggs your house and spikes your tires and beats you up on the playground and all this stuff. You know, those are things where they're harming you. He says forgive them. Somebody hurts you, forgive them. Somebody steals from you, forgive them. Somebody beats you up, forgive them. Somebody rips you off financially, forgive them. Bless them. Let God deal with them. Let God be vengeance. But wait a minute, what about the one who's bringing lying false doctrine that's not harming you? I mean, the Mormons don't harm me when they come to my door. They're not going to unsave me. They're not going to reach into my chest and take the Holy Spirit out of me because the Bible says that I'm sealed with the Holy Ghost until the day of redemption. The Bible says that he'll never leave me nor forsake me. The Bible says I have eternal life and I shall never perish. But you know what? They are going out and causing lost souls to become twofold more the child of hell than themselves. And we should not say have a great day or God be with you or God bless you because we shouldn't want anything to do with that evil deed. Go to Galatians 1, you'll see the exact same thing. Look at Galatians 1 verse 8. But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you. This is the same thing we saw in 2 John. People coming to your house praying a false gospel. He says if they're coming to you, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, then that which he has preached unto you, let him be what? Cursed. He says don't bless them, curse them. He says as we said before, so say I know again if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then that you have received, let him be accursed. So I just wanted you to see that there is a biblical time to curse and there are people that should be cursed. Not your personal enemies, not people that curse you, but rather the most evil, wicked people. Obviously a person like Adolf Hitler, you're going to curse him. You're going to say I hope that guy dies and falls over dead. People got angry at me for rejoicing when Ted Kennedy died. I rejoiced. Thank you. And I rejoiced when Superman died. Not in the comic book, but what's the guy? Christopher Reeve. I said praise God. I don't care if his little billboard, pass it on. Or whatever the little moralizing billboard. You know when Christopher Reeve died, I said it's about time that guy died. And whenever, who was the other one I mentioned? I'm sorry. Ted Kennedy. When Ted Kennedy died I said it's about time that guy got brain cancer and died. I can't believe you'd say that. Those are wicked people murdering. You know Christopher Reeve is pouring tons of money into murdering babies. Did you know that? Because he's got to walk again. He's got a disease where he's in a wheelchair. So he wants to abort babies and harvest body parts out of them to help him walk. That's evil. That needs to stop. And I said, and you know what, I'm not the only person who thinks that way. You're the only one who thinks that way. I remember I had people texting me. Stinking Ted Kennedy's in hell. When Michael Jackson died somebody was like Michael Jackson's finally in hell, a child molester. And he was a child molester and he got away with it. Because he had so many millions of dollars he could pay for all the attorneys and everything. He got away with molesting. Look, instead of feeling sorry for Michael Jackson because his nose fell off or whatever, why don't you feel sorry for all the kids that he's molested? It's funny how messed up Christians are today. They don't care about all the children that he's molested. They just want to go buy a CD and they get sad when he died. And nothing made me more angry than all the people, you know we live in this technological age where everybody just spills their guts on Facebook. I remember when Michael Jackson died all these so-called Christians, oh Michael Jackson died, isn't that sad? It's like delete from friends, delete from friends, delete it, delete it, block this person, report this content, report this as offensive. You know I'm not going to be friends with somebody who's on there sad that Michael Jackson died. I'm sad about the kids that he molested. I'm sad that he's a pervert. I'm sad that he's a role model to our nation and he's the weirdest, ugliest person I've ever seen in my life. And I was rejoicing with Michael and I, hey, I've got a bunch of tech, you know how I found out that he died? People were texting me saying the child molester finally went to hell. So it looks like I'm not alone on this. There are still 7,000 men who haven't bowed the knee to bail. And so look, we shouldn't just bless every wicked person. We shouldn't bless those who hate the Lord. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 19, 2, do not bless those who hate the Lord. Look it up, I don't have time to turn there, okay? This sermon is long enough. Look it up on your own time. Read your Bible. 2 Chronicles 19, 2. And so we don't want to get too bless happy. Should we curse our enemies? No. Should we curse Michael Jackson? Yes, okay. Let's move on. I'm almost done. Turn if you would to Galatians 3. You're in Galatians 1, just go a few pages to the right of your Bible. And look, I'm sorry, but no, I did not feel sorry for Michael Jackson because he's so pumped full of drugs that he fell over dead. And Ted Kennedy was one of the most wicked people. Talk about an adulterer. I mean, he should have been put, if he would have been living in, and he's from New England, he's from Massachusetts. If he would have been living in Massachusetts in the 1600s, they would have burned him at the stake, my friend, a long time ago, for being an adulterer and a blast femur and a sorcerer and a weirdo. He would have been put to death a long time ago. He's lucky that he was born in the 21st century. Actually, he's not lucky because he went to hell anyway. And as Ted Kennedy, the man who murdered his girlfriend that he was committing adultery with, and everybody knew it, but he got away with it. He got away with murdering his girlfriend. And he's in the Senate of the United States, passing laws over us to take our money and confiscate it and do whatever with it. I'm sorry, but when he died, no, I did not shed a tear. I, you know, cracked open a bottle of Martinelli's apple juice and, you know, freeze God. Amen. Alright, there's still some sane people in the world. Alright, Galatians chapter 3, let me hurry up and finish here, I'm almost out of time. Galatians chapter 3 says, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, and we already read this from Deuteronomy 27, cursed is everyone that continueeth not in all the things that are written in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is justified by the law on the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith, and the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Now watch this, this is key. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now let me explain, this is the last place I want to go, I want to explain this important passage. But before I do, let me quote you two verses here, because hell is a curse. The Bible says in Matthew 25, 41, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 8 says, But that which beareth thorns and fires is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. So going to hell is obviously a curse, not a lesson. Now, the Bible says that those who are of the works of the law are under the curse. In the Old Testament, God placed a curse in Deuteronomy 27 on anyone who would not obey the whole law, right? He said anybody who will not obey all the laws of the Bible is cursed. Now, let me ask you something, is there anybody on this planet who has ever obeyed all the laws besides Jesus? No. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, that curse is on us, okay? Because we've broken God's laws, all of us. That curse is upon us that will eventually be the punishment of hell, that curse. But, the Bible says that Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hang on a tree. So when Jesus Christ hung on the cross, the Bible says he himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree. So every sin you've ever done and every sin I've ever done, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, it was as if Jesus had done those sins. He was made a curse for us. He took the curse upon him of being hanged on a tree. It was actually a cross, but obviously crosses are made of what? Wood. So that's why it was called a tree. And when he was hanging on the cross, he was made a curse for us. He took our punishment for us, which redeemed us from the curse of the law, but were justified by faith alone. The Bible says in Galatians 3, that no man is justified by the law on the side of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Of course, we know salvation is by believing on Christ. It's by faith, it's how it works. Now what Paul says in Galatians 5 is that, just turn there, I know that was the last page, but just click one page over, go to Galatians 5. It says in Galatians 5, the old eye Paul said to you, verse 2, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again that every man that is circumcised, that he's a debtor to do the whole law. He's saying, look, if you think circumcision is going to save you because you obeyed that part of the law, he's saying, well now you better obey the whole law, because you're under the curse of the law. If you're trying to be justified by the law, trying to be justified by obeying God's laws, you're under the curse of the law that says you're cursed if you don't do everything in the book of the law to do it. Well that's going to get everybody. So the only way to be saved, it's not by following God's laws. Now does God have a law against fornication? Yes. Does God have laws against lying and stealing? Yes. But just because you stop lying and stealing, that's not going to get you saved. Just because you turn over a new leaf, turning from your sins, and you're going to start obeying God's laws now, that's not going to get you saved. Not unless you do the whole law. You're under that curse, because you have not done all the things that are written in the book of the law to do them, and no one has. That's why salvation is only through Jesus Christ, because he's the only one that can redeem us from the curse of the law. Because he was made a curse for us. He took our curse upon him. He took our punishment upon him. And the last verse is this. Remember how I showed you the first time cursing was mentioned? And then we followed it through the Bible. We started skipping stuff around once we got past Deuteronomy for the sake of time. But I took you through every curse pretty much in Genesis through Deuteronomy. Well you know the last time cursing is mentioned in the Bible is in Revelation 22-3. You don't have to turn there. The last chapter in the Bible, when God creates a new heaven and a new earth, and everything's new, and every bad thing is gone, and everything is great, and we're living with Jesus Christ for all eternities. He says in verse 3, there shall be no more curse. No more curse. It'll be gone. Every curse will be done, and we will live a life of nothing but blessing for all eternity. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word dear God. Help every single person here to learn and understand what a blessing is and what a curse is. So much misunderstanding today about what words mean. Help us to use words for their proper meaning. And God also just help us to bless those who curse us. And often it's easy for people to make us mad and do us wrong and for us to just fly off the handle and say harmful things other than just because they said bad stuff to us. Help us to not curse them in return, but to return blessing for cursing. And help us not to be hateful toward our enemies, but to bless them and curse us. And in Jesus' name we crave it.