chapter 3. We'll be looking at
verses 13 and 14. And the title of the message
this morning is, The Three States of every elect child of God,
or three states of the elect. Scott, you're typing that, that
would be better if you had a shorter title. The three states of God's
elect. And the three states are simply
this, cursed, redeemed, and blessed. These are the three states of
every believer, every true child of God, has experience in these
three states before God. These three standings, cursed,
redeemed, and blessed. And we will see these in our
text in verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. being made a curse for us for
it is written curse is everyone that hangeth on a tree that this
is why he was made a curse the purpose of him being made a curse
that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith. Now, as we've gone over this,
the Apostle Paul has made great efforts to show us the means
of our justification is through the faith of Jesus Christ. The faith of Jesus Christ. and
how this justification is received is only through faith in Jesus
Christ. And that the law, therefore,
is excluded. Merit is excluded. Works for
justification are excluded. Why? Because the law can only
curse. The law can only condemn. It
cannot save. And so now we come to this, we
look at this good work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He points
us now away from the law as a merit. He tells us there's no way for
you to be justified by the law. The law can only curse. He says
this is the way. That Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law. How? By being made a curse for
us. The Lord has written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And this is the result of his
being made a curse, that the blessing of Abraham might come
on us. And what is this blessing? That we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. Now, in these two verses, we
have revealed to us the three states of every believer. Cursed, He hath redeemed us from
what? The curse. The curse. Where were we? We were cursed
under the law. We are cursed. And what did He
do for those under the curse? He redeemed us. That's the second
state. And the third state is those
who are redeemed who experience the grace of God and believe
on the Son of God, we receive this, the blessings of God. The blessings of God. As we've
seen the Law. There is nothing wrong with the
Law, friends. There's nothing wrong with it
at all. Can you find one thing wrong
with the Law? No. The law is perfect. The law is holy. The law is just. And Paul says later, if it were
possible that we should be redeemed by the law, it should have been
that way. If it were possible. It's just
not possible. The law is holy and perfect and
good. And man should live in perfect
and absolute obedience to God. and all who continually, perfectly
live in absolute perfection according to the law in every precept,
in every ordinance, in every command. If you were capable
of doing that, you should then receive the blessing. So long as you never ever, in
deed, thought, or motive, disobey. But as soon as one sin is committed,
as soon as one transgression of the law has been committed, one evil thought, one lustful
desire, One failure to perform even the ordinances. I'm talking
about ceremonial ordinances, dietary ordinances, governmental
ordinances, any of these things. You forfeit the whole blessing
and become, listen, cursed. Cursed. The scriptures are very clear
concerning our sin. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We all have sinned and come short.
There is none righteous, no, not one. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God.
Paul says in verse, I believe verse 11, he says that's
evident. This is not debatable. That's just evident. It's clear. It cannot. The law therefore
then cannot justify you. It cannot bless you. It can only
curse you. And this is the first statement
of every elect child of God. We all have our conversation,
our experience in times past according to the lust of the
flesh, according to this sinful nature. We all had this experience. We were cursed. We were cursed. Now truly, it is the nature of
every son of Adam is cursed. It's sad to see this is not preached
in our day. That salvation is still, the
man is still somewhat capable of saving himself. This is the
lie of Satan that has permeated religion. Is that man was not
born dead, he was born half-dead. He was born bruised but not completely
dead. That his nature is not cursed. What does the Scripture say?
Wherefore, as by one man's sin he entered into the world, and
the result of that was death. Death was the result of sin.
And what did death do? Death passed. Death was not isolated
in Adam. Death passed upon all men, for
all have sinned. When? When Adam sinned, we all
sinned. He was a representative man,
and in him we all died as a representative man. Therefore the curse of God
that fell on Adam, death was the curse and death fell on Adam
and so then by nature death fell on us all. Death is the curse of God upon
sinners. You realize that the law is only
the revelation of this truth? That this truth happened when
Adam sinned. The curse fell long before the
law came. The curse is death. The soul
that sinneth, it shall what? Surely die. Surely die, it shall
die. And what does Paul say in our
text in verse 10? He said, Cursed. Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. If you are holy, if you're perfect,
if you're without sin or any deviation of the will and glory
of God, listen, you have nothing to fear of the law. You have
nothing to fear. But what does the Scripture say?
There's none of us that are without sin. Solomon says this, Ecclesiastes
7 and verse 20, There is not a just man upon the earth that
doeth good and sinneth not. The book of God declares to us
that we are all by nature born under the curse, under the condemnation,
and listen, it is a just condemnation. Men, I know that they kick at
this. They say, well, that's not fair. You know, you want
what's fair? For God to throw you in hell
the moment you're conceived. That's fair. That's just. That's right! Men don't like
to hear that. That's the truth. That's the
truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ, over in
John chapter 3, verse 18, He said, He that believeth on him
is not condemned. There's justification by faith.
He that believeth on him is justified, not condemned. But he that believeth not, listen,
is condemned when? Already. He's already condemned. This is the case. This is our
nature. By nature, we are condemned.
From birth, we are condemned. We are under the curse of the
law. Death, the sentence of death.
We're not waiting for the sentence of death. We are dead. The sentence
has already been carried out in our nature, and we are waiting,
yes, for the full execution of it. But it's already been there.
It's already condemned. Jesus said, I came not to condemn
the world. Why? It was condemned already. The moment Adam ate, we were
condemned. Cursed. Cursed. He that believeth
on the Son, John 3, 36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life, justification by faith. He that believeth not on the
Son shall not see life. Why? The wrath of God, listen
to this, abideth on him. That word ETH, remember it is
also past tense. It is present tense, and as long
as he continues in his unbelief, it is future tense. The wrath
of God, the curse of God abideth on you. We were by nature children of
wrath, the scripture says, even as others. Isn't that true? You
who were quickened by the Holy Spirit. We had our conversation
in time past and walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom we've
had, all of us have had that conversation. And we're by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. Because of Adam, our federal
head has sinned and dragged his whole race into it. And listen,
there's no escape. No one escapes this. No one but
Christ, because He was not of the seed of the man. He was of
the seed of the woman. He was God forever blessed and
holy. He could not sin. He could not
be tainted with sin. And when He took on the seed
of the woman, He escaped the corruption of our nature. None
of us escaped it. Not one of us escaped this curse
and corruption. If you really want to know why
men have no love to hear the preaching of the gospel of Jesus
Christ is because they don't see this. They don't understand
their nature. They don't know who they are
and they definitely don't know who God is. If they did, they
would come to hear it. They would have a need. And so when we were born dead
in trespasses and sin, we were born at enmity against God. And what the Scripture says in
Romans chapter 8 and verse 7, it says, because the carnal mind
is enmity against God. And what's the evidence of our
enmity? Because I tell you, people are going to say, well, I don't
hate God. I don't hate God. I love Him. I love God. What
do you mean, preacher, that I hate God? Well, the evidence of our
hatred for God is that none of us obey the law. That's evident. That's evidence of our corruption. Four, Paul says, it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That's how you know the
nature is corrupt. The evidence of this is man will
not come to Christ. That's the evidence of the cursed
nature, is that man will not come to Christ. No man can come
to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. Listen, if you do not believe
on Jesus Christ alone as all your salvation, If you in some
measure are still trying to merit God's favor and mix it with Christ's,
you hate God. Now hold your breath, throw a
temper tantrum, do what you must. You hate God. You hate salvation by grace,
which is the only means of salvation. You hate him and you're under
the curse. Because of sin, the curse of
the law, the curse of God is upon all of us by nature. The law is justice, friend. You
should know that. The law is blind justice. The law has no passion or emotion. That's what's ruling most of
our courts today, isn't it? Emotion. They judge based on,
there's the law, they broke the law, there's the sentence of
the law, and they say, well, you know, he didn't mean to.
That's not how God operates. That's not how this law operates.
It operates without pity. It doesn't care how old you are.
It doesn't care how learned or unlearned you are. It doesn't
care if you tried your best or not. The law is cold and indifferent.
And listen, it will never reverse its sentence. It will never go
back on its sentence. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. What about... No. Does it matter? Just as much as God is love,
God is justice. And so then what is this death?
What is this death? If the curse is death, what is
this death? Well this death involves the
wrath of God. It is the wrath of God upon the
sinner. This death involves shame and
guilt for our sin. It involves the darkness and
unrest in our souls. It shuts us out, unaccepted,
unwanted, unacceptable. It banishes us from all the worship
of God. It banishes us from the presence
of God. This is the curse of God. And
this death, which is the law declares as our rightful and
just wage, the wages of sin is what? Death. That's the wages. That's what sin earns. It earns
death. What kind of death? Spiritual
death. That's what I've been talking
about. When Adam sinned, we all died spiritually. This is part
of the curse. We died spiritually. We're all
dying physically. This death, this physical death
may be long process or it may be a short process, but it's
all part of the curse. And listen, eternal death is
part of the curse. Hell is part of this curse. One
man wrote about hell, he said, hell is the very presence of
God and His wrath without Christ, the mediator. Hell is the place
where men face God without a Savior. Hell is a place without anyone
to pay for the debt of your sins forever. It's a curse. How horrible is the eternal death
How horrible is this? May God, the Holy Spirit, even
now reveal the nature, that by nature, what we really are. Cursed. Cursed. From the sole of our
foot to the crown of our head is nothing but a curse. There's no soundness in it. No
goodness whatsoever. Cursed. Therefore, there's no
amount of work, no amount of religion to deliver us from this
curse. You can hide yourself away in
a monastery and you could give away all your possessions in
the name of God and you could do many good works. You can go to the poor and you
can feed them all. You can clothe them all. You
can build houses for them all. You can dress yourself in priestly
robes and know a lot of different languages. You can speak Latin
and Greek and Hebrew. None of this pays for the curse.
None of this delivers from the curse. None of this helps. None of this brings you out of
this curse. But God. You want to know who delivers
out of the curse? God does. God does. We have a gospel. A gospel that is able to save
the cursed. To deliver us from death. The penalty of the law. To deliver us. How? One way. I love it because the gospel
is so simple. You don't, you can't miss it.
There's only one Redeemer, there's only one way, there's only one
work that delivers us from the curse of the law. What does Eutecte
say? Christ hath... how? ...redeemed us. Our churches name Redeemer's
grace for a reason. Redeemer. I love that word. Redeemer. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse. This is a second state of everyone
who is a true child of God. They are not only born into the
curse, yet they are redeemed by Jesus Christ. All of the elect
of God are cursed, even as all of Adam's race, but now We see
the love of God displayed in full measure and glory. We see
the grace of God and the wisdom of God as to how to deliver us
from the curse and yet maintain His holy justice. It couldn't
be done any other way. It couldn't be done any other
way than this, redemption. Redemption. Look now to Jesus
Christ. And listen, no man could have
ever devised this. This is not in our nature. This is not in
our thoughts. Our thoughts completely. Man's
nature is always geared toward worse religion. Always. Look
at even all of the pagan religions of the world. Yet they are all
geared toward working to earn favor with their God. Why? Because that's man's nature.
He could have never thought of grace. He could have never thought
of grace. But now look at Jesus Christ,
who is appointed of God to be the Redeemer. Look at this one.
Look at Him. That's the first word in our
text, Christ. Christ. The whole Gospel points
to Christ. Everything points to Christ.
You can't go from one page to the other and not see Christ
in the Scripture. He is all the Scripture. Christ. Look at Him. He voluntarily agreed
to redeem His people. This was no forced act. This
was a voluntary act of love, of free mercy. And He came down
from heaven and took upon Him our nature, not the nature of
sin, the human nature in its full measure. He became fully
a man. He felt everything we feel, everything
we... He knew what it is to be a man
because he was one. The only thing excluded was sin. And in the place, you see, Adam
was a federal head. So Christ came also as a federal
head. And as Adam failed in a federal
head, Christ succeeded in that he obeyed the law in absolute
perfection. He honored the law of God perfectly. And then, as a spotless lamb,
he offered himself to God. Without spot and without blemish, and upon the cross, he suffered
the wrath of God for our sins. And by this death, the Apostle
declares this, I want you to see this word, second word in
our text, Christ what? Hath redeemed. redeemed. Behold the truth of
this great statement of Holy Scripture that Christ has already
redeemed. Already redeemed. He did not
make redemption possible. Now, listen, that is the religion
of modern man. That's the religion of this generation,
is that redemption was paid for only if you make it acceptable,
only if you make it effectual. No, that's not what the Scripture
says. It says He's already redeemed. He hath redeemed. He didn't make
it possible. He didn't make redemption possible
if you would just allow it or accept it. No, He did it. He
accomplished it. That's what this means. Christ
actually redeemed someone. This is good news. He actually redeemed someone. And so who did He redeem? Look
at your text. Hath redeemed us. Us. Now we know that Jesus Christ
did not redeem those who are not redeemed. If He redeemed those that are
not redeemed, they would be what? Redeemed. All those in hell are
what? Not redeemed. And so then, only us are redeemed. Us. He redeemed us. Who are the us? who are redeemed. Now that's
good. It's good that this redemption is from the curse of the law.
Who has he redeemed? Who has he bought? Who has he
suffered for? The elect. That's who it is. Those that God gave him. It says
this, but we are, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, but we are bound always
to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord.
Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. I remember a man, he said, if
you could just show me one scripture that says election is unto salvation. There it is. There it is. God hath chosen you from the
beginning, what? To salvation. Here's the means
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth
wherein you were called by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of Christ. These are the people that Christ
redeemed, His elect. Secondly, those who He prayed
for. Just before His crucifixion,
our Lord went out and prayed. And in John 17 and verse 9, listen,
He says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them that thou hast given
me, for they are thine." And verse 20 said, "...neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word." Those that the Father gave to Christ, He
redeemed. He redeemed. And those that the
Father gives him in the saving operation of grace he has redeemed. All that the Father giveth me,
Jesus said, shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me. That of all he hath given me I should lose nothing. Zero. Why? Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law. Now who are the elect? Who were
given to Him? Listen, very simply, those who
believe on Him. This is the evidence of our election
and redemption. Election and redemption and things
take place way long before we ever came into this world and
we were born under the curse. So how then should we know we
are redeemed from the curse? How then should we know we are
the elect of God except through faith? Go to John chapter 1. John chapter
1. Verse 12, "...but as many as received Him, to them gave He the right power
to become the sons of God." Now this word received What I understand
and have been taught about this word and see it in study is that
this word received, there are two words for it. One's passive. If you were to take a glass of
water and you fill the glass, the glass received the water
passively. There is another word for received
and that's the one here, which is one to take to yourself, to
receive, to take. Now take that glass of water.
I have some more. Here we go. If I were to take this and then
drink the water, I received it. Now why did I
do that? I was thirsty. Why would anyone receive Christ?
Because they need Him. They know they're cursed. And they know that only Christ
redeems. And they simply receive. That's the word. Received. Have you received Him? Then listen. He hath redeemed
you. Redeemed you. Faith, friends,
is the evidence. The evidence of our redemption. Now faith is not the cause. We
give no glory to faith. Cheryl was telling me about somebody
was talking to their doctor and their doctor kept talking about
his faith. He said, if I didn't have my faith, if I didn't have
my faith, my faith, my faith, what does that sound like? He's
trusting in his faith. I don't have any trust in my
faith. My trust is in the object of my faith. Christ hath redeemed
me from the curse of the law, and the only evidence is that
I have received Him. And this reception was not even
of my own. which were born, not of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, who gets
the glory even for my faith. It is God alone." And so faith
is the evidence. Have you believed on Christ?
Whosoever shall believe on Him is redeemed already. Already. Therefore, We rejoice, for Christ
hath redeemed His elect, His sons, those who believe on Him."
Now how? How? We know we were cursed. We know that Christ redeemed
us, but how did He redeem us? Here it is in your text. Go back
and look at it. Here's how. God doesn't leave us to the imagination.
redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse
for us. We were given to Christ from
eternity, born into darkness under the curse of the law, yet
God, who has purposed our salvation, pronounced Christ. Made Him a
curse for us. Made Him a curse. We who believe are redeemed by
Jesus Christ who has made a curse. See, now that Jesus' redemption
was accomplished, so as to release us from the curse of the law.
And listen, I want you to know this, He did it all by Himself.
If ever there was a person alone, it was Christ on the cross. Even in your most lonely state,
you have never been forsaken of God. Even the lost, in their
condition, walking upon the face of this earth, they have not
yet fully understood what it means to be forsaken of God.
They will, but they've not yet. Christ alone died to merit our
salvation by His redemption. Now redemption has necessarily
two parts, doesn't it? A price and deliverance. A price must be paid and deliverance
must be exercised. Otherwise, the redemption is
no good. The price. What was the price? The price of Jesus Christ must
pay was death. Death. So as we were given to
Christ, He came as our substitute and out of love for us. In order to ransom us, He paid
the price of being made a curse. Now what does that mean? Curse
of the law was death, and Christ became death. Paul says He was made sin for
us. That curse you bore was made
His very own. And I'm not talking about just
one cursed. All of His children's curse. He bare in his own body on the
tree and in those three hours Jesus Christ suffered all the
holy justice of God and when the law was exhausted. You ever
see, I remember when I tried to be a boxer one time, boy I
was exhausted. This guy, really good, and he
let me punch at him and punch at him until I was completely
exhausted. He knocked me out. I mean exhausted! That's exactly
what happened in law. The law was exhausted. It could
not ask for one more payment. One more drop of blood. When
he had exhausted it, Christ was not exhausted, for He cried with
a loud voice, it is finished. Redemption was accomplished by
Jesus Christ on that cross. And when He did that, He paid
the price. God says, deliver Him from going
down to the pit. Why? For I have found a ransom. I have found a ransom. Behold,
Jesus Christ is the price, and the price was fully paid. And anyone who would try to add
one cent, one work to his, defiles his sacrifice. It is of no value
to your soul if you add one thing to him. One thing. Who is this that cometh
from Eden with dyed garments of bosra, This is that is glorious
in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength.
Here it is, I that speak righteousness, mighty to save. mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel, and thy garments likened to tread in the wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press
alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I will
tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and
their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments. And I will
stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in
mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. Isn't that
something? Vengeance and redemption. Where
did that take place? Only at the cross. Only there
did God stamp out all His vengeance for us. On Him. On Him. And I looked and there
was none to help. I wondered and there was none
to uphold. Therefore, listen, mine own arm brought salvation
unto me. You see that? My own arm brought.
Salvation is what He purposed and salvation is what He brought
to Himself. It was His. It belongs to Him. And He brought
with that salvation us who were saved. He brought us with His
arm. My fury, it upheld me. I want you to see in this statement,
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. He did
it because He loved us. He pitied us. And He did it for His own glory.
His own glory. And what's the second part of
redemption? It's deliverance. That's what took place when you
believed. When you received Christ. That's the deliverance. That's
when deliverance took place. The price was purchased before
the deliverance. But the deliverance, no doubt,
came. It came at the appointed time.
It was like Gomer and Hosea. You know, he bought her out of
that whorehouse. And what did she do after he
bought her? She took off and went back to
a whore. But at the appointed time, he
took away everything from her. He said, I'll take her wine,
her oil, her mirth. I'll take her enjoyments. I'll take away her gods. And
what will I do? I will allure her into the wilderness
to do what? Speak comfortably to her. Isn't
that what He did with us? Isn't that how we were delivered?
We were delivered by Him speaking comfort to our hearts. What was
the comfort? Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. And what's the third state then?
Those of us who believe. Those of us who now receive Christ.
What is the third state and standing? Blessed. Blessed. That's what he says in our text.
That. Don't take away that word, that. That's very important.
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ. What is this blessing of Abraham?
Some think it's a... Don't laugh, because some people
really think this is serious. That the blessing of Abraham
is that those people over in Palestine are going to all get
together one day. and they're going to rebuild
Jerusalem, rebuild that temple. They're going to start up those
worship services again over in Jerusalem. They think it has
to do with his physical seed. That's what they think the blessing
of Abraham is. That's not what the Scripture says. What does
the Scripture say? Here's the blessing of Abraham.
Go back to verse 6 in your text. Even as Abraham believed God
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. There's the blessing.
There's the blessing. Righteousness. Righteousness. And if that's not enough, go
back to Romans chapter 4. Look at Romans chapter 4 with
me real quick. Romans chapter 4 verse 3. Now Paul says, what saith the
Scripture concerning Abraham's blessing? What saith the Scripture?
Isn't that the most important thing? I don't care what people
think. What does the Scripture say? Here it is. Here's the blessing. Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward, not reckon of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted to him for righteousness." Not Abraham's
faith, but rather the object of Abraham's faith is counted
to him for righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus Christ
is accounted to me for my own personal righteousness. There's
the blessing. There's the blessing. Verse 8, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now there's the blessing.
Isn't that what he just said? What says the Scripture concerning
the blessing or the reward of Abraham? Here it is. Abraham
believed God. He was counted in for righteousness.
What is this blessing? That God will not impute my sin
to me. Ever, never, never, never, never, never. Abraham believed on the seed.
Isn't that what he believed? He believed it so much that he
took his son in whom the promise, through the promise, the seed
should come. He took Isaac up there to that
mountain. And before he left, he said,
we're going up to worship and we'll come again. Why? Because he believed God was capable
of raising him from the dead. Because he knew in that boy was
the seed promised. And he believed God so much that
he'd kill his own son. And such is our faith in Christ,
who is crucified, and God raised from the dead, so that to us
who would believe, we are blessed with faithful Abraham. Go back to your text and see
the blessing again. He said that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit. How? Through faith. Is that how
you receive the Spirit? Through faith? Yes. Yes, that's
the promise and we received it. Have you received it? Do you believe on Christ? Are you redeemed? First of all,
were you cursed? If you were cursed, where did
you find redemption? Only in Christ. How do we receive
this? Through faith. Therefore, that
we should be blessed. Are you blessed? You are if you
believe. Why? You've been redeemed and
now you have the righteousness of God through Christ. Which
gospel we preach is not yea and nay, but what? Yea and amen. Sure and very sure. That's what this gospel is. Gospel
of the world is, yes, maybe, maybe, kind of, hope, I hope
so. Isn't that what most so-called
Christians say? Are you going to heaven? Well, gee, I hope
so. I know so. Why? Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law. How can you be sure? He was made
a curse for us. That I should receive the blessing
of Abraham, which is righteousness through the object of my faith,
Jesus Christ. I pray God give you comfort in
that. Bless you.