Difference between revisions of "Ten Properties of the Curse"
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Latest revision as of 23:42, 4 March 2020
Ten Properties of the Curse upon Non-Lovers of Christ.
1. To be Anathema , or accursed—when Maranatha, or when the Lord shall come—will be to be cursed with a dreadful curse! This is more general, and the following properties will show it to be so dreadful—so dreadful, as will make your joints to tremble, your knees to knock together, your faces gather paleness—for you will be cursed by God himself!
As to be blessed by God is the greatest blessing—so to be cursed of God is the sorest curse! A great emphasis is laid upon those words, where God calls a people, "the people of my curse!" Isaiah 34.5. When the church prayed against her enemies, it was a sore petition: "Give them sorrow of heart, may your curse be upon them!" Lam. 3.65.
If the devil should curse you—yet God may bless you.
If men should curse—yet God might bless you; as David prayed, "They may curse—but you will bless!" Psalm 109:28. As if he had said, if I have God's blessing—I will not fear wicked men's cursings; for when they curse—God can turn it into a blessing. "However, the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam—but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you!" Deuteronomy 23:5.
The form of the rash and wicked speech of ungodly men, much given to cursing—shows it to be a dreadful thing to be cursed of God—when they say: "May the curse of God fall upon you!"—they mean the sorest, the heaviest, the greatest curse—by the curse of God! But though men might wish you so accursed—yet you might be far from it. But if you do not sincerely love the Son of God—then the curse of God will overtake you, and lie upon you, and then you will be accursed indeed! O now love Christ indeed, that you might then escape the curse indeed; which else will be a curse indeed—heavy indeed, and indeed eternal and intolerable.
2. To be Anathema when Maranatha, accursed when the Lord comes—will be to be accursed totally . All unrepentant sinners shall lie under this curse—his body shall be cursed, and his soul shall be cursed. The curse in this world falls upon all who are disobedient and rebellious: "However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today—then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you! You will be cursed in the city—and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in—and cursed when you go out!" Deuteronomy 28:15-19
"If any man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ—let him be Anathema! Maranatha." 1 Corinthians 16:22
Oh you non-lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ—when the Lord comes, you shall be cursed in all you are!
You shall be cursed in your BODY, and all the parts thereof:
cursed shall be your eyes—which were as windows to let vanity into your heart;
cursed shall be your ears—which hearkened to the enticements of sinners, but not to the commands and calls of God;
cursed shall be your hands and feet—which acted wickedly, and carried you on in ways of sin.
You shall be cursed in your in your SOUL, and in all the powers and faculties thereof!
Cursed shall be your understanding—which never was enlightened with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Cursed shall your will be—which never made choice of Christ for your Savior and your Lord.
Cursed shall your conscience be—which did not effectually stir you up to look after, and to hasten to, Jesus Christ.
Cursed shall be all your affections—which you shall be constrained to confess that love which was set upon the world and sin, which should have been better placed upon Christ, was cursed love.
Those desires which ran out after vanity, which should have been upon the wing in moving after Christ—were cursed desires.
Those delights which were fetched from the creature, and from sinful objects—were cursed delights.
That hatred which you had to Christ and His ways, which should have risen against sin—was cursed hatred.
Thus where the love of Christ does not rule in the heart, sin is spread all over—so then the sinner shall be cursed all over.
In this life, spiritual curses upon the soul are the heaviest curses, as blessings on the soul are the best of blessings. When men will not be persuaded to love the Lord Jesus, but will love their cups, and their lusts, and their profits, and pleasures, better than Christ. But after long wooings of grace, and entreaties of mercy, after many strivings of the Spirit, and calls of conscience, and waitings of patience—they will love their sin, and not Christ, the world, and not Christ; God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, may give them up to these vile and cursed affections, and say to them, as Christ cursed the fig—tree on which there was no fruit, "May fruit never more grow on you!" Mark 11.13-14, 20-21.
Lost sinner, will you not love me? Then will never repentance will never be found in you; then pardon be will never bestowed on you. Will you not love me! Then . . .
let him love his swearing still;
let him love his filthy unclean doings still;
let him remain under hardness of heart to his dying day.
What should I do with him? My ministers have begged him to give me his love—and he will not; my Spirit has striven with him—but he will not. What, will he not love me! No, then let him love what he will. This is a great curse upon the soul of a sinner while Christ defers his coming. "He who is unjust—let him be unjust still; and he who is filthy—let him be filthy still!" Rev. 22.11. Some have had great God-given abilities, and with them they have not loved Christ—and Christ has cursed them. Some have performed many duties, and were outward professors, but all this while they prayed, and heard, and received—they did not love Christ, and Christ has cursed them, and they are turned profane. Some are given to swearing, to immorality, and drinking. It is not only their sin, but the curse of God upon their souls, that he has given them over, because they have refused to love his Son.
"But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels!" Psalm 81:11-12. "Ephraim is joined to idols—let him alone!" Hosea 4:17.
My Spirit—let him alone!
My ministers—let him alone!
My ordinances—let him alone!
Conscience—let him alone!
All let him alone!
He is stubborn, willful, and perverse; his heart is joined to his profits, and to his pleasures. Let him alone—let him take his course, and walk in the foolish imagination of his own evil heart—a heavy curse in this life.
But when, Maranatha, the Lord comes, these curses on the soul shall be settled, fixed—and never removed. This was the man who never loved me; now, let him never repent—except it be with a vain, empty, self-tormenting repentance. Now, let him be without holiness forever, and without love to me forever.
3. To be Anathema, when Maranatha, shall be to be cursed with a bitter curse, without any ingredient of the least blessing to allay or mitigate the bitterness of it. Then he shall have . . .
sorrow—without joy,
mourning—without mirth,
darkness—without light,
pain—without ease,
misery—without mercy,
all evil—without the least good, and
all this without end, and therefore without hope!
This cup of cursing, because it shall be so pure without mixture, shall be so exceedingly, so inconceivably bitter! "He will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever! They have no rest day and night!" Revelation 14:10-11
A bitter cup—a bitter curse; more bitter than the water of jealousy that caused the curse, which a woman drank who had given her love to another man, and had sinned against her husband; the water was bitter water, and the curse a bitter curse; "for it made her belly to swell, and her thigh to rot, and she was a curse among the people!" Numbers 5.27.
This bitter curse, at the coming of Christ, shall embitter your thoughts, your soul, your very being, and make you cry out, "Oh this is a bitter place! This is a bitter state! This is a bitter condition, exceedingly bitter! My loving of the world and sin was not so sweet—as this is bitter; that seemed to me once as sweet as honey—but this is more bitter than gall.
But here is my woe, which makes it still more bitter—the sweet is gone—and the bitter remains! The sweet will never return—and the bitter will never be gone! I put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter—but now I cannot: the bitter is so bitter, that I cannot put it for sweet, nor imagine it to be so. Oh! never thought the sweet delight I took in what I loved, would have brought upon me this bitter curse, or me to these bitter torments!