Galatians is where we are today.
This book is all about the opposition, the opposites of man's works
and God's grace by Christ's work. And if you look at the flow of
the argument through the book, it's repeating It's providing
several different supporting arguments to pursue that one
theme. Not man's work, but God's grace
through Christ's work to God's glory. And so the Apostle begins
the book of Galatians. He starts by greeting the Galatians
and then he tells them that the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to
him directly and gave him the gospel of his grace. He goes
on to show that throughout his missionary journeys he preached
and taught the gospel in opposition to the Jews and also to the salvation
of the Gentiles. Even the opposition of many of
them. And then he showed later on in chapter 2 that he went
to Jerusalem to settle this whole issue of works versus grace. It came up because the Judaizers
who tried to convert others to the Jews religion tried to convince
them that they needed to be circumcised. Do something outward. That way
we can put our mark on you, show that you are one of ours, and
so have some kind of a victory and gain praise of men. Hold
it over men and then control men by what we do to convince
them that they have to do what we say in order to be right with
God. But Paul wouldn't submit to that, not for a moment. He
and Titus and the brethren that were with him And they greeted
the apostles, and the apostles also gave them the right hand
in Christian fellowship. They completely agreed with the
doctrine that Paul was preaching to the Gentiles, that salvation
was not by what man did, but by what Christ did, and it came
to us by the grace of God. And even though Peter preached
the same thing, and even though he argued against the Judaizers
in the book of Acts, chapter 15, when Peter came to Antioch,
he did something that, by his actions, contradicted everything
that he believed and said. Because he had a relapse, he
fell in his sin. Paul, alone, stood up and corrected
him by that again. He showed that we who are Jews
by nature, and not like the Gentiles as we consider them to be sinners
without law, we're not justified. We've learned that we're not
justified by the works of the law. Why would we put the law
on them? We're justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, by His
own obedience and righteousness, His blood, that we look to as
all of our salvation through this faith that He gives. So
that takes us up to the 16th verse of chapter 2. And then
Paul shows that the case for works is so weak because it makes
the horrible consequence that if our salvation could be by
something we do, then Christ died for nothing. God killed
his son for nothing. And all that Christ did failed
to accomplish anything. That's verse 21 of chapter 2.
And he goes on in chapter 3 to tell the Galatians that they
were foolish for thinking that they needed to listen to the
Judaizers and begin to do something to add to what Christ had done.
And he argues from their experience in their receiving the Spirit
of God so that they could believe on Christ. And he tells them
they didn't receive the Spirit through the preaching of the
law. They didn't receive it through what they did. They received
it entirely by grace. And they were foolishly going
back to what they left. They were thinking that having
been saved by grace, justified by grace, they could be perfected
by their own works. And that's in verse 3 of chapter
3. They had suffered persecution
for believing Christ, but Paul asked them if they suffered that
persecution in vain. And he also reminded them in
verse 5 of chapter 3 that God worked miracles among them and
did signs, not by works, but by grace, by His Spirit. And
then, since the Judaizers argued that the Galatians and the Gentiles
needed to keep the law, Paul takes them back to the one the
Judaizers claimed as their father, to Abraham. And he mentions Abraham
because Abraham was counted righteous by God and declared to be so
before he was ever circumcised. That's a complete shutting down
of this argument that the Judaizers are raising. And it also shuts
down all arguments that we could be justified or even sanctified
by what we do in any way. Because circumcision was just
a single act that really represented doing things by our efforts to
be right with God. And so he gives this summary
in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 6. He begins there where he says,
And so that statement is taken from scripture from Genesis chapter
15 and verse 6. The Judaizers would have taught
the Galatians that they needed to be circumcised and keep the
law of Moses because Abraham was circumcised and because Moses
commanded the Jews to circumcise their children in the law. If
you read in the Gospel of John, chapter 7, And in verse 22, Jesus
says this. He's answering the Pharisees.
In verse 21, He said to them, I have done one work and you
all marvel. That work was raising this man
who couldn't walk and telling him to carry his bed. In verse
22, Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, not because
it is of Moses, but of the fathers. In other words, God gave it to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob before Moses. And you on the Sabbath
day circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receives
circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken. Are
you angry at me because I have made a man every whit hole on
the Sabbath?" So you see, the Judaizers would have said Moses
required us to be circumcised in order to keep the law. You
have to keep the law. That was the argument. But Paul
says in Galatians 3.6 that Abraham was justified before he was circumcised. His justification was not by
his own efforts to keep the law, not by his circumcision, because
that followed his justification. It was by the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ in shedding His blood to take our sins away
and to provide for us a perfect standing before God's law. And
it was to Christ that Abraham looked in faith, by God-given
faith. He looked in faith to Christ. He looked to Christ from whom
he would receive that testimony to himself from God that he was
righteous in that look. That's the way we know our justification.
How do we know it? How do we know that what Christ
did is for me? God gives you that look to Christ.
He causes you to rest, to venture your eternal soul upon the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him only. And you come to God that way.
You don't look for something from yourself. You don't think
about what you're going to do in order to appease or to please
God. You look away from yourself to
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Abraham did. And
God says here in Galatians 3 verse 6 that it was counted to him
for righteousness, his faith, the one he believed. And the
work that that one whom he believed did was his righteousness before
God. The object of his faith, the
one who gave him that faith, that's the one that was counted
to Abraham for righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ. It's like
the illustration I keep giving over and over of something substantive
like ice. But Jesus gave one. He says if
you build your house on sand, then the storms come, your house
will fall. But if you build it on the rock,
when the rains come, it won't fall. The rains are God's judgment.
The only foundation that can be laid is Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. If we build our house, our salvation,
and our eternal state before God on what we can do, that's
sand and it will be destroyed when God's judgment comes. But
if we look to the Lord Jesus Christ and come to Him, to come
to God by Him only, and depend upon what God thinks of His righteousness
in coming to God, we receive God's testimony to ourselves
by faith that our sins have been washed away by His blood. That
faith, that faith is God's gift and the one we believe is counted
as our righteousness. And so he says in verse 7, Know
ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham. We have the same object of faith.
We believe what Abraham believed. We believe the one Abraham believed.
We don't rest on our circumcision or our keeping of the law of
Moses. Like Abraham, we rest entirely
upon what God thinks of His Son. And if you can get that in your
heart, then it's God's doing, His operation to convince you
of that. All who look to Christ as Abraham
did, not to the same degree, but to the same object. We don't
all have the same measure of faith. To every man is given
a measure of faith. But we all have the same object
of faith. We all believe the same thing.
There's one faith. Ephesians chapter 4. One faith. One Lord. One baptism. One Father. One Lord Jesus. One Spirit. There's
only one object of our faith. We all believe the same thing,
that we're saved by God's grace because by God's grace He did
something in His Son and He receives us and considers only His Son
in receiving us. And so we go on in verse 8. We
have the same faith. He says, "...they which are of
faith, the same are the children of Abraham." Not those who are
circumcised, not those who keep the law, but those who believe
God as Abraham did. Verse 8, "...and the scripture,
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be
blessed." Now, the words, in thee shall all nations be blessed,
is taken from a couple of places in scripture. One place is in
Genesis 22. In Genesis 22 verse 18, after
Abraham had offered up Isaac and God had withheld him from
killing his son, God gave him those words. He said, "...in
thee and in thy seed shall all nations or families of the earth
be blessed." When he said that in Genesis 12.3, he just said,
"...in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." But
he had not yet explained what he meant when he said, "...in
thee." And later in chapter 22, verse 18, he did explain it.
And that's quoted in Acts chapter 3 and verse 25, if you want to
turn to that. He says, Peter preaching to the
Jews, After the Lord Jesus had ascended to heaven, He says in
verse 25, So there it is. All the kindreds, all the families,
all the nations. Not every individual in every
nation, but in every nation there would be those that God would
bless because of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is that seed
of Abraham. And this teaches us something
about circumcision. Let me take just a little bit
of a diversion here to talk for a moment again about circumcision.
When it speaks of the Bible of a man's seed, it means that when
the man gives fertilization in the process of bearing children
with his wife, that that seed that comes from the man is viewed
as the son who would be born. It's spoken of his seed, his
son, because of the reproduction process. Who is Abraham's seed
that would be born through whom God would bless all nations?
It was the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know that from verse
16 and verse 19 of Galatians 3. You know that's true. in Christ,
all the nations would be blessed. So why did God have Abraham circumcise
himself and his children? To show that his seed, the Lord
Jesus Christ, would be cut off for our sins. You see, the one
through whom God would bring his son into the world through
the process of reproduction through Abraham, that circumcision of
Abraham represented Christ being cut off for our sins. And then
our hearts are circumcised when God applies the circumcision
of Christ to us. So by faith we look to our own
circumcision in the circumcision of Christ. You see the process
there? And so Abraham and all those
were circumcised in order to point forward to the Lord Jesus.
After Christ came, it was fulfilled. Why would they be circumcised
then? We have the fulfillment of it. We are the true circumcision. Philippians 3 verse 3. But in
any case, it was in Abraham's seed, the Lord Jesus Christ,
that all nations would be blessed. And God made that clear in Genesis
22 and Acts 3 verse 25 and other places. And so it goes on in Galatians
3 verse 9, So then they which be of faith are blessed with
faithful Abraham. All who believe, as Abraham did,
are blessed in Christ. How was Abraham blessed? Well,
remember what David said, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin. He was blessed because God counted
Christ's satisfaction and fulfillment of God's law to Abraham as his
righteousness. His sins were forgiven. They
were washed from him because they were removed before God.
Like in Leviticus 16, the high priest made atonement and all
of our sins are removed. God is satisfied. Atonement has
been made to God for our sins. Therefore we are clean before
God. The scapegoat is driven away because the high priest
who represented Christ to come, laid his hands on the scapegoat
himself, the Lamb of God, and confessed over that scapegoat
all the sins of the children of Israel, all the elect, and
put them on the head of the goat, Christ, and drove him away into
a land not inhabited. That place where Christ said,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And our sins were
put away and God remembers our sins no more because a full remission
of them has been made. Payment to God for our sins in
the death of Christ was made. And so that's what he's speaking
about. He's saying that was Abraham's righteousness. All who believe
Christ are justified with that righteousness, just like he was.
They not only believe Christ, but in believing Christ, they
receive something. They receive the Spirit of God.
Now, we can't feel the Spirit of God, can we? I know that I
used to wonder. It's a mystery. The Spirit of
God is a mystery. But no man can know the things
of God but the Spirit of God, and He has to reveal them to
us. Remember how many things the Lord Jesus said that when
He would go to heaven, He says, it's expedient for you that I
go away. If I don't go away, then the Comforter can't come.
But if I go, I will send Him. So the Spirit of God is the Comforter. And He's also called the Spirit
of Truth, who would guide us into all truth. He would take
the things of Christ and He would make them known to us. He reveals
what is true about Christ and therefore of God Himself, the
Father, to us. That's the work of the Spirit
of God. And in so doing, He comforts us. So the ministry of the Spirit
of God is also given to us, not only in birthing us, in giving
us life, and giving us faith in Christ, but through that faith,
Through believing Christ, we see from God's Word, by His own
testimony, that we are also therefore the sons of God and blessed with
all blessings with Christ. That's the ministry of the Spirit
of God. To comfort us, to teach us the truth. We have an unction
from the Holy One. We don't need a man to teach
us these things. Because the Spirit of God teaches
us. Sure, God uses men. But what we know in our heart
is given to us by the Spirit of God Himself. And that's in
1 John chapter 2. And so I'm just skimming over
that right now. So let's go on to verse 10 of
Galatians 3. He says here, For as many as
are of the works of the law are under the curse, 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. Now, where is that spoken
of in Scripture? Paul refers to it, but it turns
out it was spoken of in the book of Deuteronomy. So I want to
turn back to Deuteronomy with you just briefly here. Deuteronomy,
in chapter 27. In Deuteronomy, chapter 27, at
the very end of the chapter, he says, "...cursed be he that
confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them, and all
the people shall say, Amen." Those are Moses' words to the
people of Israel. What does Deuteronomy mean? Have
you ever wondered that? There's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy. Genesis means the beginnings.
Exodus means that they left Egypt. They were redeemed out of Egypt.
Leviticus means the priesthood was given to the Levites. And
numbers was the numbering of the children of Israel as they
came through the wilderness going into the land of Canaan. Deuteronomy,
what does that mean? Well, it means the second giving
of the law. Why was it necessary for Moses
to give the law twice? Well, the first time Moses gave
the law, there were all the children of Israel that were in the wilderness
at Sinai that didn't believe God and did not go into Canaan,
who were over 20 years old. And God said because they didn't
believe Him, they would all die in the wilderness. And so their
children, who were under 20, were the ones who, about to go
into Canaan, just before they went into Canaan, God gave them
the law again. The second giving of the law
through Moses. So the book of Deuteronomy is
Moses, now who is like 80 years old. He's rehearsing what he
had already said in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers to the
children of Israel as they were in the wilderness. And he's telling
their children just before they go into Canaan. And he's reiterating
it. Look back at chapter 11. He says
in verse 26, again, these are the children that survived their
parents, their unbelieving parents in the wilderness, and they were
about to go into Canaan. And Moses sets before them the
law of God. Verse 26, Behold, I set before
you this day 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 it shall come to pass, when
the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land, whither
thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessings
upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal. Those mountains
are on the other side of Jordan, on the Canaanite side of Jordan.
Now turn back to chapter 28 of Deuteronomy. This is like a dramatization,
if you will, of the giving of the law and the blessings and
the curse. And so Moses has six tribes go
to one mountain, Gerizim. Six tribes go to another mountain,
Ebel. And on Gerizim you are supposed
to pronounce the blessings and on Ebel the cursings of the law.
This is a massive dramatization of the seriousness of what God
has said here. You've got to do what, Moses
said. You've got to keep these commandments. Verse 1 of chapter
28. It shall come to pass, if thou
shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
to observe and to do all his commandments, which I command
thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high
above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall
come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken, or listen,
unto the voice of the Lord thy God. And then he goes on with
the blessings. Blessed shalt thou be in the
city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall
be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and
the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind, or thy
cattle, the cows, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be
thy basket, and thy store, Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest
in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. And the
Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to
be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee
one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command
the blessing upon thee in the storehouses, and in all that
thou settest thine hand unto. And he shall bless thee in the
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. And the Lord shall establish
thee in holy people to himself, as he hath sworn to thee. The
next word is if. If thou shalt keep the commandments
of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. And all the people
of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the
Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make
thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the
fruit of thy cattle, in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which
the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall
open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto
thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand.
Thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow, and
the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail, and thou
shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath, if thou
hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I
command thee this day to observe and do them. And thou shalt not
go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day,
to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve
them." Don't depart. Don't leave these words. This
is your life. That's what Moses is saying here.
He said it just like that in another place. That's the blessing.
That's the blessing of the law. If you do everything, all the
time, without fail, you're blessed. What does it mean to us? It means
we're in a horrible situation. We're in a terrible, terrible
situation, doesn't it? Why? Because we're sinners. We
are sinners. The law can only bless the righteous. The law can only bless the man
who completely does all of the law, all the time. It's not enough
to do some of the law all of the time, or all of the law some
of the time. Neither of which we can do. You
have to do all of the law all of the time. And not only do
it all, but do it perfectly, continuously, without fail. You
have to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,
and your neighbor as yourself, sending others before you, and
sending God before all others. And if you depart at all from
this, then you are not blessed. What's the consequence? What
does it mean? What is the consequence of this law? Without exception,
we are under the curse. That's what it means. Under the
curse. There's no possibility that we
can escape it. And so you see here what the
law does. It requires from us an individual, on an individual
basis, the man that does these things. That man will be blessed. But if the man does not, then
that man is cursed. And that is the pronouncement
of God's law. It's not possible to escape the
judgment of the law. What is the curse? It is the
judgment of God upon a people. A judgment of His bringing evil
upon them because of their sins. And that's the curse that comes
upon all who fail to keep the law. Now, the law brought a blessing
upon the obedient, but because we're all sinners, there's no
possibility of that blessing, is there? No possibility. And
so what does the law do? It's like looking down a hot
road on a summer day. And at the end of the road in
the distance on the horizon, it looks like there's water out
there. Look at that water. It's just a mirage. It's just
a vain illusion of something that you need but you can never
attain. It's like looking for a pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow. You'll never find it because you can never get to
the end of the rainbow. The further you walk, it just keeps moving
around. It's an illusion. The law gives
a sinner a vain hope, a futile hope. It holds out hope to a
sinner, but it can only curse a sinner. So there's really no...
It's in principle, under the law there's both a blessing and
a curse, but in reality there's only a curse. And that's why
He said at the end of Deuteronomy 27, be he that confirmeth not
all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall
say, Amen." And so in verse 10 of Galatians 3, So this adds
to the argument that I mentioned Paul is doing in the book of
Galatians. He's making this argument, not man's works. Not man's merit. Not what man
can earn from God. But what God gives out of His
grace on the basis of Christ's work. What God thinks of Him.
Not what He thinks of us. That's the message of the Gospel.
And it's the greatest message that a sinner ever heard. And
so, He's now saying that the Law itself makes this abundantly
clear. Not only all these other arguments
that Paul had brought in. Christ's revelation to him of
the Gospel directly. His own appeal to sinners with
that Gospel in his heart by the Spirit of God to the Galatian
nations. And the success, how the Spirit
of God blessed that Gospel so it wasn't by the law. And his
standing up against all the opposition to the Gospel. Even against the
Apostle Peter and Barnabas and all that followed them. And his
declaration that us Jews have learned that we're not justified
by the law. And the consequence would be that Christ died in
vain. All those things are added up. And now he says even the
law. Abraham was justified not by
works, but by the grace of God. By looking to Christ. And here
he says, as many as are the works of the law are cursed. Because
the law says they are. So the law itself forbids a sinner
to trust in the law. And then he goes on, in verse
11, and he pulls out another example. He says, "...but that
no man is justified by the law and the sight of God, it is evident."
And he quotes here a verse from Habakkuk chapter 2. So turn back
to now Habakkuk. Look at Habakkuk chapter 1 verse
1. The burden which Habakkuk, the
prophet, did see. O LORD, how long shall I cry,
and thou wilt not hear? Even cry out unto thee of violence,
and thou wilt not save? Why dost thou show me iniquity,
and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are
before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention.
Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth.
For the wicked doth compass about the righteous. Therefore wrong
judgment proceedeth." So what is he saying here? He's saying
everything is upside down. It seems like the judgment is
coming against us. The wicked are prospering against us. Verse
5. Who are the Chaldeans? They are
the Babylonians. They ruled, remember what they
did to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and all those people?
They made them bow down to their idols. These were idolatrous
people. They were wealthy. They were
strong. They were proud people. They trusted in their gods. Now,
turn to chapter 2. So Habakkuk is lamenting the
fact that the Chaldeans were brought by God Himself against
Israel. This seems upside down. Why is
God bringing the wicked against this nation? This wicked people. He's going to say something about
this in verse 1 of chapter 2. Habakkuk says, And the LORD answered me, and
said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon the tables that
he may run, that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an
appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie.
Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come.
It will not tarry." Here it is. We're waiting, and here it is.
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but
the just shall live by his faith. So who were these proud people? Their soul was lifted up in them.
The Chaldeans represented man's works, religion. They were proud,
a proud people. They boasted in their strength
and their intellect. and their gods, the works of
their hands, their accomplishments, and they were a cruel people.
They persecuted God's people. Who are they? The seed of Abraham,
the children who believed what Abraham believed. And the Lord
says in this prophecy of Habakkuk, the just, unlike the proud, who
trust in their strength, shall live by faith. Now, turn back
to Galatians chapter 3. And we see the quotation in the
context here. Another argument is brought.
He says in verse 11, It's evident. It's plain now. Remember the
Chaldeans? Those proud people? They weren't
justified. Who were? Those who looked to
Christ. The just shall live by faith.
And then he goes on, and the law is not of faith. The law
is not of faith. What is he saying? The law is
one thing, faith is another. In fact, they're total opposites
of each other. What does the law say? If you
do, you will live. If you do not, if you fail to
do, you will die. What does faith say? Well, think
about what the law says a little bit more. What does the law say? If I do what God says to do,
if I... It's not enough just to hear
about the law, or to understand the law, or even to approve that
the law is right, or even to make an effort to keep the law.
You actually have to do all that the law says. But what does the
law say to that person who comes to God by the law? Who attempts
to come to God by the law? There's an assumption that that
person is making in the presence of God. And what is that? That there's something godly
about me and there's something about what I do that God will
look upon and therefore owe to me the blessing that He promised. Isn't that the attitude of those
who are under the law? I am godly. God will look upon
my works and he will receive me for my work's sake because
I'm a righteous man. That's the fundamental attitude,
isn't it? Isn't that what Cain did? He
brought his offering from the ground. God's going to accept
me because I labored for this. Man, I sweat. The sweat of my
brow over this cursed ground and I brought forth something
that God can accept. The cursed ground of man's heart
sinful man, proud man, like the Chaldeans, like those who trust
in their works, as we all did and do sometimes. They try to
bring forth something. We try to bring something that
will either appease God and take away His wrath, or please Him
and earn His favor. That's the attitude of those
who are under the law. And God says, no, no. The law
is not of faith. And Abraham was justified by
faith. So he not only builds on what
he said in Habakkuk, but he refers to Leviticus chapter 18 in this
verse. He says, "...and the law is not
of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them." So
look at Leviticus now. Leviticus chapter 18. The law is not of
faith, he says. What is the law, say? Well, this
is the principle that I just described to you. The law says,
basically, you come to God with the premise that you're godly
and that God's going to owe you something by what you do. By
your efforts, you're eventually going to get there. That's the
vain hope that you have. That's at least what I, as a
sinner, understand the law to say, so I keep flogging the log. I keep beating my flesh and trying
to get something that God will accept out of it. Look at this
in Leviticus chapter 18. In verse 1, the Lord spake to
Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say to
them, I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land
of Egypt wherein you dwelt, shall you not do? And after the doings
of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall you not do?
Neither shall you walk in their ordinances, not their laws, but
you shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances to walk
therein. I am the Lord your God. You shall
therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man
do, he shall live in them. I am the Lord." There's the law.
If you do it, you'll live. Now turn to Romans chapter 4.
That's what the law says. And the law is not of faith.
What does faith say? The publican and the Pharisee
came to the temple in Luke 18. Keep turning to Romans chapter
4. And remember the Pharisee? He trusted in himself that he
was righteous. That's the starting point, where
the law takes you. He trusted in himself that he
was righteous. God, I thank Thee. I'm not like other men are. I
tithe, I do all these things, I don't commit adultery, I'm
not like this publican over here. That's where the law takes us.
All those that are under the law. are like that, but the law
is not of faith. Look at Romans chapter 4. This
is what faith says. Verse 4. This is what Abraham
learned, and this is what Abraham believed, because that's what
he's talking about. In fact, let's read that. Verse 1. What
shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to
the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory. He has something to boast
about, but not before God, because no one can boast before God.
For what saith the scripture? This is what the scripture says.
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Verse 4. Now, to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. God owes me. That's the attitude. Of course,
you're right. He does owe you, but because
you're a sinner, the debt that he owes you is death. But you
think in your vain mind that he owes you some reward." Verse
5. But to him, this is what faith
says, but to him that worketh not. What's the starting point
of faith? I cannot produce, I cannot fulfill
God's requirements. Not only that, he goes on with
the starting point of faith. He says, to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him, that justifies the ungodly. He doesn't start with an attitude,
well I'm godly and I'm going to do right and God's going to
accept me and bless me. He says the very opposite of
that. No, I'm ungodly. God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. That's what faith says. And that's
not the attitude of the law. That's not what the law says.
The law is not of faith. Faith says, I'm ungodly, I start
there, I'm a sinner, I can't do anything. And God's law will
not accept anything I do because I'm a sinner. I'm only cursed.
So back to Galatians chapter 3, the law is not of faith. But
the man that doeth them, that's what the law says, shall live
by them, and good luck with that. And then he gives the way that
we escape this curse, the way that we enter into life. And
here is the final message. We'll have to stop here. We won't
be able to complete this, but I just want to give it to you
by reading it here. Thank God Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For
it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree. Why
would the Lord Jesus Christ hang on a tree? because he was cursed. Why would he be cursed? The Lord
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than the heavens. Without sin he did
no sin, in him is no sin. Why would he be cursed? because
He stood in our place as our substitute. He took our place
under the law. He was born of a woman, made
under the law. He took our place under the law
we had broken. That's grace. That's amazing
grace. God, as I said in the bulletin,
the Father, as it were, took his sword of judgment and justice
and he plunged it into his own son because he laid our sins
that called for the curse on us. He laid those sins on Christ
and he brought the curse that we deserved on his son. Substitution. And the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled,
He endured that curse. He bore our sins in His own body
up to the tree. And our body of sins was put
to death in His death. He made satisfaction for them
because the curse is removed from us. A full payment to God's
justice has been made. Satisfaction, a full remission
for our sins. And we are free. Redemption has
been purchased. We're free. We're free from the
curse of the law. Because our sins, which brought
the curse upon us, have been remitted by God. And God will
not remember our sins anymore. This is the blessing of Abraham.
This is what David was talking about. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sins. Because he imputed their
sins to Christ, and Christ took them away. Christ has redeemed
us. He actually did it. There's success
here. He fulfilled the mission he was
given to do. He obtained, by his one offering,
he obtained an eternal redemption. Never needing to be offered again
because he obtained it and it was eternal. We really are free
from our sins. We really are free from the curse
of the law. God's wrath has really been taken
away. We stand before God, in the presence
of God, fully justified. because of what he finds in his
son. God considers only Christ and he receives all from Christ.
And look at Ephesians 5 verse 2. Walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. God did not spare His
Son. God did not spare His Son. And
in not sparing His Son, Christ did not spare Himself. He gave
Himself. And God received what Christ
did, the willing, free, voluntary sacrifice of Himself, in total,
under our sins, in satisfaction, in fulfillment of God's law,
The Lord Jesus did that all by Himself, the Son of God, who
is God over all. God the Father did not spare
God the Son, but delivered Him up for us all. It's amazing. That's grace, isn't
it? There's no brighter display of
God's grace than this. Nothing greater. It's all done. It's all done. What do we need
to do? What do we need to do to add
to it? What do we need to do to accept it? Nothing. It's done. God tells us about
it. The king has already received the payment. Christ already made
the payment and the king has already received it. And now
he signs the proclamation. fully paid, all sins remitted,
and he sends the declaration from his throne by his messengers,
and he declares it to us. And when Abraham heard that,
he said, that's it. That's all. That's everything.
And he laid everything down, because he knew that Christ was
all that God had provided, all that God receives for sinners.
It's amazing. Amazing grace. I wonder if we know Christ's
work in redemption. Are we taken up with the person
and the work of Christ? Do we turn these things over
and over in our minds? As you go through your life,
from week to week, from month to month, has God made this issue
the issue with you? And have you found satisfaction,
as God has, in the death of Christ? So that you can say, that's enough. If God has received Christ from
the dead in justifying his people, that's enough for me. What else
can I do? I'm a sinner. Under the curse,
I can't do anything. God has done this for us. Christ
has done this for us. Nothing need be added more to
it. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for all you've
done. Thank you for the Lord Jesus. Thank you that his work
has obtained an eternal redemption. Full payment has been made and
received and now declared. Our sins are forgiven. Help us,
Lord. We're such sinners that we even
are reluctant to believe this because it would require us to
lay down everything and worship God and rejoice in Christ Jesus. And we just find it impossible
of ourselves to do this. We know you have to convince
us that Christ is everything and cause us to rejoice and have
peace and find peace in this faith that you must give. So
we pray, Lord, give us this faith, this gift of your grace. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.