Turn back with me to Galatians
chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. Begin our reading in verse 10.
I've entitled this message, Cursed,
Redeemed, and Blessed. Cursed, Redeemed, and Blessed. The apostle writes, for as many
as are of the works of the law are under the curse of the law. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God 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. 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. And he gives the benefit,
the cause, the reason, the result of Christ's offering. He said
that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. As we've gone through this, we've
seen that the Apostle tells the Galatian church here how foolish
they were. Again, I've told you that word
means thoughtless. They were thoughtless. These
Judaizers had come in and believed that Christ, that you should
believe on Jesus Christ, that that was necessary, that Christ
offering his blood was necessary, but that their salvation was
not yet complete except they be circumcised. And he tells
them that they are foolish and they have not obeyed the truth.
And then we went over last week how He asked this question, they
received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith. You that claim to receive the Spirit, how did you receive
Him? Did you receive Him by your obedience to the law? Or by the
preaching of the gospel, by the receiving of Christ's righteousness
through faith? How? This was a rhetorical question. Anybody that received the Spirit
understands this. It was not by our obedience.
We did not receive the Spirit based on our obedience to God,
but rather by the grace and power of God through the work of the
Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to us and by faith, which is
a grace. We received Him. We received
Him. And then He says, Are you so
foolish and thoughtless Begin in the Spirit, verse 3. Having
begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?
In other words, is this something that Christ begins and you finish? Did Christ begin your salvation
and then you, by some measure of your work in the flesh, do
you finish this? He said, are you so foolish to
think that? Have you suffered so many things
in vain, if it yet be in vain? In verse 5, He therefore that
ministereth the Spirit to you, and worketh miracles among you.
He's not talking about the preacher, he's talking about God. God ministers
the Spirit unto you. I don't. I declare Him unto you,
but I do not minister Him. That's the work of God. The miracle
of our salvation, who did that? That was God who did that. Now
how does he do it? By what means does he perform
this? By the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith? Again, another rhetorical question.
You that believe, understand that it was by the preaching
of the gospel, the Spirit of God used it, applied it to your
hearts in power, in regeneration, in the new birth and gave you
faith. And so then he says, how did
you receive the Spirit? Verse 6, even as Abraham. Even as Abraham believed God
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. That's how we
did it. That's how the Lord did this.
Even as He did it to Abraham. You and I that are saved, we
are saved in the same way, by the same means, through the same
object of faith as Abraham. God preached to Abraham the gospel
and Abraham through the power of the Holy Spirit believed the
gospel and God said this, it is counted to him for righteousness. That's how we were justified,
not by the works of the law, by the hearing of faith. Anyone
who seeks to be justified by faith And yet in one point returns
to the law, Paul now confesses this, that he's under the whole
law. He's under the whole law. Verse
10, he says, as many as are of the works of the law are what?
Under the curse. Under the curse. Why? Because that's all the law
can do. The law cannot bless you. The law cannot bless you. The law can only condemn you. Why? Because it is written. This
ends all debate about the subject. I know this. People want to debate this. I
have no need to. Why? It's written. This is written. God wrote it. This ends all debate
about it. Curses everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. Not just to give lip service
to them. I think the law is great. Well,
of course the law is great. I think the law is good. Of course
the law is good. But the law does not want your
sentiment. It demands your obedience. I was reading in James, and it
said James uses this term, the law of liberty. He's not talking
about the law of Moses. That's not a law of liberty,
is it? That's a law of bondage. What Paul calls the law of sin
and death. He said looking into the perfect
law of liberty, but he goes on to say this, that if a man is
guilty of one point in the law, he is guilty of the whole law.
Why? Because the law is not divided, friends. You cannot, in our generation,
they magnify the Ten Commandments and say, that's the law. And
then they neglect every other precept and ordinance given in
the law. Paul here demands this, that
if as many as are under the works of the law, you are under the
whole law. If you desire to obey the Ten
Commandments for some measure of your salvation, then you better
go to Jerusalem, knock down that mosque, build a temple, find
you a high priest and start making sacrifices. Why? It's what the
law demands. We know this, that God put an
end to that, didn't he? God put an end to all that. Why? Because Christ is the fulfillment
of the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. to everyone that believeth. Therefore,
the conclusion is evident. Paul said, no flesh shall be
justified by the law in the sight of God. Now listen, by your attempt
to obey the law of God, you might be justified before men. Men
might look at you and say, well, man, that's a holy guy. You might
try to justify yourself before men, but really, who cares if
you're justified before men? if you are not justified before
God. Paul says no man's justified
by the law of God, but we who are justified by faith, we're
not lawless, we're not without a law. Paul said, look at what
he said, he said, well by the No man is justified by the law
and the sight of God. That's just clear. That's just
evident. What's the law then for the justified? What is the rule of our life? Well, here it is. For the just
shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith.
When the Spirit of God comes, He gives us faith. This is how
the experience of this salvation begins. It is through faith.
We are given the gift of faith to believe on Jesus Christ. Therefore,
when we believe on Christ, is it a one-time thing? Is faith
a one-and-off? No. We continually believe, daily
believe, trusting, in Christ, looking to Christ. This is what
Paul meant as putting off the old man and his deeds. We have
to continually put him away. Why? Because the flesh is always
clamoring to find some glory for himself. And so therefore,
we are constantly living and to be trusting in Christ by faith,
and we're going to finish this by faith. We begin this by faith,
we walk by faith, and we're going to finish this by faith. So the just shall live by faith.
This is the law of the believer. And so our faith is of constant
perpetual grace. Therefore we have no confidence
in the flesh. We look not to the law or to
our works in any measure to make us acceptable with God. I don't know if I told you this
before, but I remember listening to a preacher that believed that
obedience to the law made you more acceptable to God. And he
said, and one man asked him, well, what happens to the ones
who aren't as, you know, obedient? He said, well, they just get
into heaven by the skin of their teeth. But you that obey the law, you
that sanctify yourself, you get in, you get a better Reward. That's not taught in the Word
of God. I don't care who you are. It's not taught in the Word
of God. So we don't, by any measure or
works, make ourselves acceptable to God, but only and always looking
to the perfect, flawless, victorious work of Jesus Christ. And so
then we are living by faith is completely opposite of living
by law. Then what he said, he said in
verse 12, the law is not a faith. If you're living by the law,
you're not living by faith. If you're looking to your obedience
to the law in some, in any measure to prove your acceptance, Now
listen, I'm telling you, we all struggle with this. We want to
know that we are accepted. And our flesh desires to look
at something that we have done or are doing right now as proof
of our acceptance. And Paul said this, that's not
living by faith. The law is not of faith. In other words, these two are
diametrically opposed and cannot be mixed. Cannot be mixed. Well, there's the introduction.
I've got plenty more of that, but I'm going to go ahead and
skip down to this verse here. Let's look now at verse 13. I
want you to notice three things. These three things in my title
in this verse. First of all, Christ has redeemed
us from what? Curse. This is my first point,
is this, that every one of God's people understand this. We were
by nature cursed. We were cursed. But notice this,
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse. That's the second
state of every believer, is this, that we are redeemed. We are
redeemed how? Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, how being made a curse for us, for it is
written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on the tree. And the
third state then of everyone who is a believer in Jesus Christ
to whom the Spirit comes is blessed. You are blessed. This is not
ambiguous. You are blessed. I don't feel
blessed. Don't care. You are blessed. that he did this, that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Through faith. In these two verses we have revealed
these three states, cursed, redeemed, and blessed. As we have seen,
the law is just, the law is good, and it demands holy perfection.
continual perpetual perfection. If a person were possible for
a person to live perfectly without any sin, then you could say the
law is a means by which we could achieve the acceptance of God. But consider this, that in the
very moment one's sin is found, One sin, all of a man's righteousness
means nothing. Think about it. If you lived
a thousand years and all thousand years you perfectly obeyed the
law of God and one sin entered in, all of that thousand years
is erased and you are now cursed. You are now cursed. Therefore the law can do nothing
to us seeing we have sinned. The law can do nothing to us
but curse us. It cannot bless. I think of that nearer kinsman. Remember Ruth and Boaz? Boaz
said, you have a nearer kinsman than me. And I have to, he has
to deny this, this marriage to you before I can take it. And
you remember, he said this, how can I defile mine inheritance? To marry that Moabitess would
defile his inheritance. He's a picture of the law. The
law could not bless us. The law could not save us. Therefore, I want you to see
this first, that we are truly, by nature, every son is cursed. You're under the curse. You know Romans 5.12 very well.
Wherefore, by one man's sin entered into the world. And what came
with that? Curse. I thought of that. You know when God gave that promise,
He said, In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
You notice He didn't say if. He didn't say, If you eat this,
then you will surely die. No, He said in the day you do
it, you're going to do it. In the day you do it, you will
surely die. And our Father did. He was cursed
with death, and this death passed upon all men. Why? For all have sinned. Consider
the greatness of Adam as our representative. That he actually
murdered his entire race. Adam was not deceived. Eve was
deceived. Adam knew perfectly well what
he was doing. And as soon as he sinned, you
sinned. I sinned. Therefore, the scripture is concluded,
Ecclesiastes 7.20, there is not a just man upon the earth that
doeth good and sinneth not. There's not one. There's not
one. When Jesus Christ came into the
world, he said, he that believeth on him is not condemned. You see, a man is justified by
faith, what Christ is telling you. He said, you believe on
me, you are not condemned. We'll get to that in just a minute.
But he that believeth not is condemned, what? Already. See, Christ didn't come to condemn
the world. He said, I came not to condemn the world. Why? It
was already cursed. It was already condemned. You
and I came into this world cursed. Cursed. We were by nature children of
wrath, haters of God, even as others. Because our federal heads
sinned against God, this curse of death passed upon us all. None have escaped this curse. And the evidence of this curse
is our natural hatred of Christ. Now listen, a man will believe
anything but Christ alone. You can take some really, I've
seen some really intelligent people, some very smart, logical
people. and you look at their religion
and it is the most stupid thing you'd ever see in your life.
You'd never believe that these people would do this. Normally, during the day, they're
sane people. But you put them in a religious
setting, they're jumping over the pews and yelling out nonsensical
words and stuff like that. They'll do anything but believe
on Christ alone. Christ alone is so simple. You
don't jump over a pew. You don't speak some kind of
foreign tongue. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. Very simplistic thing. And yet
they despise that. But this is because they cannot
believe. Man is so cursed, so ruined,
that he has no ability to believe. Jesus said, no man can. No man can come unto me, except
the Father which has sent me draw him. And so the scriptures
conclude this, that the natural mind is at enmity against God. It's at enmity against God, and
this is a proof. It is not subject to that law.
That law that is so perfect, that law that is so holy, This
is the evidence we hate God, is that we by nature despise
His law. We despise it. Some people say,
well, I don't hate God. Listen to me. I want you to understand
this. If you claim to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ as your righteousness and your salvation, but you seek
to add one thing you've done to his work, you hate him. You are claiming his work is
not sufficient that you have to add your work to it. This
is despising the grace of God. This is what God says to all
who are under the curse, the soul that sinneth it shall die.
The wages of sin is death. This is the end result of the
curse. It is death. Death. When our fathers sinned, it brought
spiritual death. When our fathers sinned, men
began to physically die. And if you remain under this
curse, listen, You will be subject to eternal death. Eternal death. Friend, hell is a very real place.
It is. It is a place that is totally absent
of love and mercy of God. The only thing of God that dwells
in hell is justice. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Why? Because he's cursed. He's
cursed. May God the Holy Spirit reveal
this to us, that by nature we are cursed. Why? Because this
is the first means of the Spirit to give life. This is the first
means of the Spirit in every one of His elect to show us that
we were cursed. Listen, if you did not know of
your curse, you would never seek to be redeemed. Only those that are cursed need
redemption. Do you know that you're cursed? I know. Everything that God says
about me is true. Yet here is the hope of everyone
the Spirit gives life to. Listen to this. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. All of the elect were cursed
even as all of the other of Adam's race, but now we see the love
and mercy of God. We see the grace and the wisdom
of God as to how He could deliver me from the curse. Do you ever
desire to know the love of God? Now listen, something good happens
to us, say, man, God loves us. No, that's not how you tell God's
love. Man, something bad happened. God, He might not love me. You
can't tell the love or hatred of God based on your circumstance. Herein is love manifest, that
God sent His only Son to redeem you from the curse of the law. And yet how in the wisdom of
God could God deliver us and yet still be holy? You that are sinners, are you
really guilty? Then how could God be just to
deliver you? God will not show mercy at the
expense of His justice. That's what men want, isn't it?
Men want God to be merciful, but just not justly. How can God be just in the justifier
of the ungodly? Look now then to Jesus Christ,
He who was appointed of God to be our Redeemer. God says in
Isaiah, Behold My Servant. This is always the object of
every message because this is what God desires for every one
of us to look to. Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in
whom my soul delighteth. Look to Him, because when He
comes, He shall not fail in His work, nor be discouraged. Look
to My servant. And what was His work? What was
the work of Christ? What was the purpose of God for
sending Christ? It was to redeem His people from
the curse of the law. He came down from heaven. He took upon Him the form of
a servant, being made in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. He was made under the
law, that law that we could not obey. Christ was, when He came
into this world as a man, He subjected Himself to that law. And then he obeyed it. Amazing. I have an imagination of what
that looks like. I just don't really know. But he obeyed it
in every way. You ever seen that? Have you
ever seen it in your experience of life? Ever seen somebody obeyed
it? We haven't. And I thought about that. Do
you realize now why they were so mad at him? Wouldn't you be,
if you had a brother or sister or somebody in your family that
was perfect, never did anything wrong, wouldn't that kindly upset
you? Yeah, you'd be mad at him all
the time because it only made you look bad. But he didn't do it in any way
as evil, but he did it because that's his nature. He was perfect. And then he offered himself upon
the cross as a sacrifice for sins. And by his death, the apostle
declares, listen, he hath redeemed. He hath redeemed. This is the
glory of the gospel, is that Christ didn't try to do anything.
He didn't try to make anything possible. If you make something
possible, it's possible it fails. All right? Well, maybe it might succeed,
but it's possible it might fail. Christ didn't do anything to
make anything possible. The text says, listen to the
glory of this, Christ hath redeemed us. Hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law. He's done it. He actually redeemed
us. When He died upon Calvary's tree,
He redeemed us. Now what is it? Who did He redeem? He redeemed us. Who is this? The us in this is all those that
God chose to redeem. Now listen, I know this. Christ
redeemed everybody God purposed for Him to redeem. I mean, you can't say it's successful
if that isn't so. I know He redeemed everybody
God purposed for Him to redeem. And you know what? He did not
redeem everybody God purposed not to redeem. He redeemed His
elect. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 says, We
are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you,
chosen you for this purpose, to salvation. He chose us to
be redeemed. So He redeemed the elect. Listen,
He redeemed all those that Christ prayed for. In John 17, Jesus
said this, I pray for them, I pray not for the world. That's something,
isn't it? People get hung up on that. God
so loved the world. And they say, well, man, that
means everybody without exception. So if I take that logic and I
apply it to that scripture, then it says this. He prayed for no
one without exception. That should be foolish to think
that. No, because he said this. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world. See, there's a distinction here
made. Who are them? But for them that thou hast given
me, because they're yours. All yours that you gave me, I
pray for them, and no one else. That's who He redeemed. All those
that were given to the Father, John 17, verse 20. Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them which shall believe on me through
their work. Isn't that wonderful? He was
talking about you and me. Can you get it in your mind,
in your heart, that he was actually thinking of you? I pray for you. He said, Scott,
I pray for you. I pray for you because you're
going to believe. I pray for you because I redeemed
you. I bought you. I bought you. Oh, wonder of wonders. God the Father gave all of his
elect to Christ to redeem before the world began. And those whom
the Father gives, he will come in a saving operation of grace
and give them faith. Jesus said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Remember, I said this, and I
keep saying it again, the church is always full. No one's missing. Got that? No one's missing. If
somebody has not yet come, there is an appointed time that they
will come. There's never a gap. There's never a space in this
church that's not always full. All that He gave me, I'm going
to redeem them, and they will come to me. of all that the Father
giveth me, I shall lose." How many? How many will he lose?
What did he say? He said, nothing. I will lose
nothing. So how many will he lose? He will lose nothing. And those
who believe on him, these are the elect. These are those that
Christ prayed for. These are the ones that Christ
said should come to me. Who? Those that come to Him.
Have you come to Him? Do you believe on Him? As many as received Him. Don did this. I thought it was
great. You know what it means to receive? It's like this. That's it. I was thirsty. and
I received the water. Did I make the water? Did I do
anything to deserve nothing? Nothing. Who gave me the ability
to even drink that water, huh? God did. How much more in the
spiritual realm? God gives us life, and life comes
with faith. And we believe, and we receive
Him as many as received Him. To them gave He the right to
become the sons of God, which were born, not of blood, nor
the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. So all those that the Father
chose, all those that He gave to Christ, Christ prayed for
them, Christ redeemed them, and they shall believe on Him. And
all who believe on Him, listen to this, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Now listen, are you redeemed? If you believe on Him, listen
to me, you are redeemed. You are redeemed. Why? Because He hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. He had bought us. And the evidence
then of this is faith. Faith in Christ. And so then
we go back to that text, even as Abraham believed God. It was
counted to him for righteousness. So it is with us. In Romans 4,
16 it says, therefore, it is of faith, what? Righteousness. Righteousness is of faith. And that by grace. What's that? Faith. Faith is
of grace. For what purpose? To the end,
the promise might be sure to all to see. You see, if anything's
left up to you, it's not sure. If any part of this redemption,
any part of this righteousness, any part of this salvation is
left up to us, it is not sure. Listen, if faith were left up
to you, would it be sure? How sure are you of your faith? Be honest with yourself. How
sure are you of your faith? If faith was left up to you,
to the power of your own will and determination. Is that sure? Not, is it? But behold this,
because Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.
He has given us everything we need, even our faith, so that
it might be sure to all the seed Therefore we rejoice, for Christ
hath redeemed his people from the curse of the law. Now how? How did he do this? Look what the text says. He redeemed
us. Praise God. I'm glad he's redeemed
us, but what does that mean? How'd he do it? He redeemed us
by being made a curse for us. being made a curse for us. We who believe are redeemed by
Jesus Christ because He was made a curse. He was made something
that He was not. Was He ever under the curse?
When He was coming to this world, He was not under the curse. He
was made of the seed of the woman. He was not of the seed of Adam.
He was not a descendant of Adam in that He inherited the curse
like we did. But He was the seed of the woman,
created by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. And He
came forth not under the curse. But in order to redeem us, He
Himself must be made a curse. Made a curse. See now that Jesus' redemption
was accomplished so as to release us from the curse. He was going
to make us something that we were not. To make us something
that we were not, He had to be made something that He was not.
He had to bear our curse. And He did this alone. No one
else is mentioned in our redemption. He alone is our Redeemer. And
the thing from which we were redeemed is the curse, death.
Now for redemption, there's two parts of redemption. If anybody's
going to be redeemed, there's two parts for it. you must be,
a price must be paid. When we redeem something, a price
must be paid. That's the first part of being
redeemed. The second part is deliverance. If you pay the price,
if the person is being held captive and you pay the price, if the
judge is just, the second part is he must be delivered. If the
price is right, the price is paid, then he must be delivered. What was the price? The price
was death. The price was death. Here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to pay the price,
to be the propitiation for our sins. So as we were given to
Christ, He came as our substitute, and out of His love and mercy,
He paid the price for our sins. He became a curse. The curse of the law is death,
so Christ endured the full measure of God's justice without mercy.
I can't imagine what that is. But consider the greatness then
of His death. What we could not do for an eternity
of suffering, Christ did for all His people in three hours. In three hours, our Lord being
made a curse, suffered an eternal death, what would
cost us an eternity. He did it for all the sins of
all His people in three hours. But consider the great cost.
that he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And God
in strict justice poured out his wrath without mercy. And because of Christ's suffering,
the scripture was fulfilled. He saw the travail of his soul
and was satisfied. This is how He delivered me from
being a curse. He made, He made a curse. He suffered the curse. The full
measure of God's wrath. And what's the end result? Go
to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, one of my favorite
passages of Scripture. Hebrews 10. Christ here speaking
in verse 9, He said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He came
to redeem us, that was a will of God. And what did this redemption
do? He said, I take it away the first
that he may establish the second. He fulfilled the first. He obeyed
the first. He satisfied the law, which was
the first. Why? That he may establish the
second, which is a covenant of grace. A covenant of grace. I came to do thy will, by the
which will we are sanctified. We are made holy by the will
of God, through the offering of the body of Christ, once. We are sanctified by the will
of God, sanctified by the blood of Christ, once. And every high priest standeth
daily, ministering often the same sacrifices, which can never
take away sin, but this man, After He had offered one sacrifice
for sins, He sat down. He finished the work. He redeemed
us. What does this mean? He paid
the price. That's what He did. He paid the
price. And He sat down not just anywhere,
He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He sat
down at the right hand of God. Expecting till His enemies be
made His footstool, for by His one offering He hath perfected. forever them that are sanctified. This is speaking of the work
of the Holy Spirit. You that are sanctified by the
Holy Spirit. We just read that in 2 Thessalonians.
He says, Beloved of the... He said, We give thanks unto
God always for your brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Listen, through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. You
that believe on him, listen, your price of your curse has
been paid in full. What do you owe? Surely I know this. I owe him
everything I've got. You know what that pays for?
Nothing. Oh, were it possible to give
every moment of every minute of every thought of every affection
of my heart to him, he deserves it. But I dare not trust any of that,
if I could, as any part of my salvation. Why? Because that didn't pay anything. My redemption was paid by the
blood of Jesus Christ, and he hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. And what's the second part of
this? Deliverance. Everyone who is redeemed must
be delivered. Why? The justice of God demands
it. If you were to be charged for
a crime and someone come and pay the fine, but they didn't release you,
would that be justice? You know, everyone knows it's
not just in that. I like this one. Christ said
it this way. He said, Other sheep I have of this fold, them I also
must bring. Listen, God said he must do something. That's pretty important, isn't
it? Why must he deliver us? Why? Because he redeemed us. Justice demands deliverance. demands it. He has provided for us the righteousness
of God and he has provided redemption for us and justice demands this. Listen to what God said, deliver
him from going down to the pit. Why? I have found a ransom. Deliver him. So what's in the
result of this? Everyone Christ redeemed will
be blessed. Look back at your text, we were
cursed, we were redeemed by Christ's offering, and now what does he
say? He said that, this is the reason
he did it, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit. through faith. He did this so
that he should call us to himself. I got an illustration of Gomer
and Hosea. You remember? He bought her.
Bought that prostitute. That's us. Christ bought me. And you remember
what she did? She went a-whoring after her
lovers. That's us by nature. He had bought
me But what was my life? My life was spent going after
the things of this world, the lust of my flesh. And yet, like
Hosea, Hosea just kept putting all of her provisions at her
door every day. And then what God did for you?
Provided for you all of your rebellious life. And then there was an appointed
time where he said, that's enough. And remember what he started
doing? He started taking away all that stuff. And then what he
did to you? The things of this life had lost their luster. The
sin that I so enjoyed became a thorn in my flesh. The God
that I worshipped became nothing but vanity. I had no joy, no
peace. I was cursed. But listen to what Hosea did,
because this is a picture of what God does for us. to his
blast. He said, therefore, behold, I
will allure her. Notice that. He didn't say, I'm
going to yell at her, scream at her. I'm going to beat her.
She deserved it. There's no doubt about it. She
was a horrible woman. They said, I'm not going to do
that. I'm going to allure her to a very solitary place. And
then I'm going to speak comfortably to her. God tells his preachers to say
to his redeemed, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the
Lord. Speak comfortably unto Jerusalem
and tell her this, her warfare is finished. For I have received double for
all her sins. He has received double payment
for all her sins. Therefore, you who are redeemed,
you are blessed." I don't always feel blessed. Sometimes I still feel cursed. I feel the guilt. I feel the
shame. But my feelings of this matter
have nothing to do with it. I want to feel blessed. But whether
I feel blessed or I'm not, that does not interfere with this.
I am blessed. I'm blessed with the same blessing
of Abraham. What is that? The righteousness
of God, which is of faith. As Abraham believed God and he
was counted to righteousness, verse 9, so then they which be
of faith are blessed, are blessed. We are blessed with faithful
Abraham. We are blessed with faithful
Abraham. Now was this blessing based on our works, our obedience
to the law? Would our obedience to the law
add to this blessing? No. No. We are blessed because we who
were cursed have been redeemed from the curse. The price has
been paid for all my sins. And I right now have the righteousness
of God which is of the faith of Jesus Christ. He merited it,
he earned it, and yet by grace he has given it to me. It's mine. And nothing can take it from
me. Name something that can take
that from me. If I had something to do with it, sure, it could
be removed. I didn't have anything to do with it. He purposed it,
He did it, He gave it, and He keeps it. Are you not blessed? May God help us to see that we
are. I pray He blesses to you. Let's stand and be dismissed
and pray.