Thank you for that. Let's go to that passage he read
to us, the book of Galatians chapter 3. Let's again ask God's blessings. Lord, we bow before you once
again this evening and ask that you would send your Spirit to
take the things that we have before us this evening and Lord,
seal them to each of our hearts. We so desperately need the presence
of God the grace of God, and indeed the power of God. Lord, reveal to us your Son and
the excellence of his work of redemption, and that he, by his
bloody death upon the tree, has finished that great work of redemption. Take us, O Spirit of God, and
lead us in the things of the Savior this evening and His crucified
work. For Jesus' sake we ask. Amen. This is a magnificent portion
of Scripture, that which our brother read to us, especially
in verses through 14, we have breathtaking truths that if you
and I are blessed by the Spirit of God to grasp these things,
to understand them, to lay hold of them, then it will end any
doubts we have of our salvation, and we will have a blessed assurance
that the Lord Jesus indeed is our Savior. For in this glorious
truth of the substitutionary redemptive work of the Savior,
all of the law's demands, all of its threats, all of its curses,
and all that it requires of me, in our Savior and in His death, has been satisfied. Several things
are said before us in these powerful verses, and I'm just going to
take a couple of minutes here to set before you things that
are especially noteworthy from verses number 10 through 14. And I'll make eight kind of statements
that rather summarize what this is about. And then I'm going
to go back in and kind of dig into the second chapter, which
leads into this. And I want to set before you
the tree of cursing. Our Lord Jesus, I've been talking
about him from the book of Revelation chapter 22 as being the tree
of life. And the reason he is the tree
of life to us is because he himself died and he hung upon the cross
of cursing. I noticed these statements, and
I'll just go back into chapter 3 again, re-reading some of the
verses that our brother read to us. First of all, those who
seek to be saved by legal obedience. What do you mean by legal obedience,
Jim? By works, by something that you
do. by some contribution you make,
by you trying to keep all of the laws of God, those who seek
any salvation or salvation by any means of doing Something
you've got to live a life of perfection. That's what God's
law demands. Now look at verse number 10.
For as many as of the works of the law are under the curse,
for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them. And if you seek acceptance with
God, you seek the forgiveness of your sins, you seek God's
salvation, you seek righteousness by legal obedience, by works
that you do, then this is what God's law says, you gotta be
perfect. That's what it says. Secondly,
it's obvious that anybody who endeavors to do that and they
don't live a life of perfection, they're under the curse of God.
That's what he says. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them. So here's what's involved. You
wanna do something? Keep all of God's laws. And the
laws of God are many, and the laws of God are demanding, because
it demands not only outward obedience, but inward obedience as well.
The law of God examines your motives, it examines your thoughts,
it examines your will, it examines your words, it examines your
life, and it demands perfection, and anything less than perfection,
God's law curses you. And what is the curse of the
law? Death. That's what it is. Now here's the third statement. It is obvious from the word of
God, that no one is ever accepted or justified or forgiven or righteous
upon the basis of legal obedience by doing the will of God. You
can't do that. There's no salvation there. Look
at verse 11, for, but that no man is justified by the law in
the sight of God. Now that's what's important.
We're not talking about before the eyes of men. Because before
the eyes of men, men are not the judge. This is to be justified
in the sight of God that no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God. It is evident. It's obvious to
anybody who has any degree of understanding whatsoever. Therefore, here's a fourth statement,
those who are justified, those who are forgiven, those who are
declared to be righteous by God have ceased endeavoring to please
God and they just believe the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
he says here. The last statement of verse 11.
The just, that is the justified ones, they live by faith. By faith. They embrace the Son
of God. They look to him for all things.
We believe that. What does faith do? Well, faith believes the record
that God has given of his Son. Faith believes who he is. He's
God and he's man. Faith believes what he did. He
died for sinners. He died that God might be just
and justify the ungodly. Faith believes the Lord Jesus
finished that work of redemption. That's what faith does. Faith
rests in him. Hold your place here and turn
to Acts chapter 13. Let me show you a couple of verses
over here in Acts chapter 13. Here's the apostle Paul. He's
preaching the gospel in the synagogue of Athens, or excuse me, of Antioch,
Pisidia. Well, what's his message? I'll
summarize his message. It's gonna read two verses, but
I'll go ahead and kind of summarize his message here in Acts chapter
13. Number one, he says, Christ came. That's verses 24 through 27.
Christ came. And then he says in verses 27
through 29, he says, Christ died. Thirdly, he said in verses 30
through 37, Christ arose. And then he says, fourthly, in
verses 38 and 39, he says, Christ saves. And I wanna read 38 and
39 to you. Acts 13, 38. Be it known unto
you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, all that believe. Do you believe? Well, all who
believe are justified from all things. from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. It isn't those who work that
are justified, it's those who believe. That's the message. Not those who labor, not those
who strive, not those who try to keep the law of God, but those
who look to Christ Jesus for all things, those are the ones
that are justified. Those are the ones that are saved.
No wonder, therefore, this great apostle stresses faith in the
Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
is what he said to that Philippian jailer. You see, while forgiveness is
a benefit that comes to the sinner, as a result of the substitutionary
work of Christ Jesus, and while it is free to us, it did come
at great cost. It was by the Savior's death.
Forgiveness cost you nothing. Forgiveness cost him his life,
his blood. And through him, we're justified
from all things. Justified is a legal word. And only God, the judge, can
pronounce us to be righteous, because that's what, to justify
is to make somebody righteous, is to declare they're righteous.
They're right with God, they're holy. They're perfect, they're
forgiven. We'll go back to the text then,
in Galatians chapter three. Now here's another statement
I want to make. This law of God, if you want to be accepted by
God on the basis of your works, understand this, God's law does
not require faith. Law doesn't have anything to
do with faith. Law demands perfection. That's
what it demands. And look what it says here in
verse 12. We're up to verse 12 now. And
the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them, he shall live in them. God's law doesn't say, well,
do the best you can and believe Christ and you'll be okay. No, law doesn't have anything
to do with faith. Doesn't have anything to do with
faith at all. The law of God says be perfect. The law of God
says obey and live. Doesn't say anything about faith.
And it says disobey and die. Well then, how is anyone ever
to be saved since we cannot keep God's law? We cannot live up
to the stipulations of all the commandments of God. How can
anyone be saved? By the redemptive work of the
Lord Jesus. And that's what verse 13 is about.
Look at it again. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Well, how did he do that? By
being made a curse for us. He was cursed in our stead. As
it is written or for it is written in the book of Deuteronomy, cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. You see, he was cursed for us. When our Lord, when He hung upon
the cross of Calvary, it was because our sins were made His. Put to His account. He bore our
sins in His own body on the tree. All of our iniquities were made
to meet upon Him, Isaiah 53 and verse six says that. He was accounted
guilty in the sight of God in our stead, though He had no personal
guilt of His own. Our sins were charged to him. They were reckoned to him, and
therefore he was cursed by God. And we know the curse was removed
by his death. And he was taken down from the
cross, from that tree, as God's law demanded. And redemption,
therefore, was sure. He had accomplished the work
that God gave him to do. Now, this needs to be addressed. What does it mean to be cursed
by God? Well, it means to be cut off
from God. Was he cut off from God? He said, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? He was cursed by God. God cut
him off. Because the guilt that was on
him was our guilt. That sin which he bore was our
sin. The iniquities that we had committed
were made to meet on him. Now look at a passage with me
in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 21. Deuteronomy chapter 21. And after you get there, I wanna
say something to you, but I'm gonna wait till you get there
before I say it, because I don't want you to miss it while you're
hunting for the reference. Deuteronomy chapter 21. That portion of scripture that
we're studying in the book of Galatians was written about 1,500 years after this portion that
we're looking at in the book of Deuteronomy. God had Moses
write this 1,500 years before our Lord Jesus died upon the
cursed tree. This is what God said, Deuteronomy
21, 22. If a man have committed a sin
worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang
him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the
tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. And here is
the powerful statement For he that is hanged, that is hanged
on a tree, not hanged by the neck now, but hanged on a tree. John Gill says, they fastened
a pole in the ground and then they affixed a cross pole or
board to it. And then the one was affixed
to that tree. And being affixed to that tree,
it announced, this man is cursed by God. He has been cursed by
God. God said, do it. And then take
him off, take him off the tree and bury him that day. For he
that is hanged is accursed of God. And you must do this that
the land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
for an inheritance. You see, 1,500 years before our
Lord Jesus died, God put a brand upon this kind of death. And this is a reference to the
sin atoning death of our Savior. And I made this statement to
you before, and if you don't mind, I'll repeat it again. There
were many ways by which a man could be executed back in those
times, by stoning, by being cut asunder, by being beheaded, but
only one had this curse affixed to it. the one who's hanged on
a tree. And God put it that way because
he knew way in the future, hundreds and hundreds of years in the
future, his own darling son would be affixed to a tree, the object
of the curse of God, which was necessary in order to save us. And then go back to the text
in Galatians 3. What was the result of our Lord
Jesus being made a curse for us? Well, it's stated in verse
14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. You see, God had made, had given
his word and he made an oath, a promise to Abraham that he
would bless through Abraham seed all the nations of the earth. And no blessing is going to come
to anybody except by our Lord Jesus being made a curse for
us. Now here's what the Apostle Paul
is showing to the Galatians in this part of his book. That salvation
is in no degree, is in no way by works. That's the reason he
began this portion of scripture, Galatians chapter three, verse
one. Oh foolish Galatians. Oh foolish Galatians, who had
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ
hath been evidently set forth crucified among you. Who cast
a spell over you? who has led you astray to think
that you can be saved by your works. When the message you heard
from me, and I'm speaking as if I was the Apostle Paul now,
the message you heard from me was life, justification, righteousness,
Acceptance and salvation is all in Christ Jesus. Believe Him.
He says, who bewitched you? Who led you astray? Who manipulated you like this? And we know it was the false
teachers who said, yes, believe Jesus Christ. Oh, they preach
Jesus Christ. He died on a cross. Believe Him
and live by the law. and you'll be saved. And Paul
said, that's not right. They're casting a spell over
you. Who's bewitched you? Have you
become foolish? Have you deserted the truth of
the gospel? And you're adding to this legalism
now? Go back into chapter two. Let
me show you a few things back here. And this is very vital.
Look at chapter two, verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified,
again, justified, legal, wording, declared righteous, accepted,
forgiven, perfect, knowing that a man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we
have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by
the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. How do we
know that? Nobody can be justified by the
law. Well, we know it from the law
itself, from what it demands. It demands perfection. And we know it because the Bible
says only in Christ Jesus are we made holy and righteous. And
we know we've got to be justified by the grace of God and the blood
of the Lord Jesus. Now look at verse 17. He says,
but if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also
are found to be sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? God forbid. God forbid. Paul
is defending still the gospel of free grace. Because there
were some people who were saying that faith is indeed necessary
to justification, but there must be also obedience to God's law. And here's what he's saying.
If I profess to believe on the Lord Jesus for my justification,
for my acceptance with God, and for my righteousness, and then
I add to that my obedience as a necessary condition, then I
have just proved I'm still in sin. I'm still an unbeliever. For that person who seeks to
please God and be accepted by His works, you know what he's
doing? He's just sinning against the Lord. You're just looking
down upon the death of the Lord Jesus. If you, by your efforts,
endeavor to be accepted by God and righteous with God on the
basis of your works, you put yourself in competition with
our Lord's substitutionary sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. You're
in dangerous territory. This is what the apostle is saying. Look at that phrase in verse
17. If while we seek to be justified by Christ, we also ourselves
are found sinners. He's saying the person who is
not content to be accepted by God upon the basis of the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ to his death, he's trying to earn God's
favor by works. And all he's doing is just more
ungodliness. You see, it's ungodly to seek
salvation by your efforts. The only right thing to do is
to look to the Savior that God appointed. Well, look at verse
18. He says, for if I build again the things which I destroyed,
I make myself a transgressor. The apostle Paul had denounced
legalism as a means of justification. And he's saying this, well, if
I go back to that, I'm just becoming a transgressor. Verse 19, he
says, for I through the law am dead to the law that I might
live unto God. For those who believe the Lord
Jesus, we need to understand this. We are absolutely dead
to God's law. Now we love the law of God. It's
good, it's perfect, it's holy. But we're dead to the law of
God. It has nothing to do with the believer. You hear that? Those of you who are children
of God, you must hear this and you must enter into this. The
law of God has nothing to do with the believer, not in justification,
not in righteousness, and not in sanctification. It has nothing
to do with you at all. We're dead to the law and the
law is dead to us. because the law of God is thoroughly
satisfied with the death of the Lord Jesus. Let me illustrate it this way. When our Lord Jesus died upon
the cross of Calvary, all parts of his natural body died when
he was hanged on the cursed tree, right? All parts of his body. His heart stopped beating, it
died. His brain stopped all activity. He was brain dead. His lungs
stopped breathing. What blood was still left in
his body, It didn't surge through the body anymore. Every part
of his physical body died on the tree. Agreed? Certainly you
agreed. Every facet of him died. Why? because all the parts of
the body were parts of one body. And the one body died. Death
claimed the whole man, Christ Jesus. Even so, and if you can
get a hold to this, this will help you. Our Lord Jesus is the
head of a spiritual body, his church, his people. Some call it his mystical body. All the members of his spiritual
body. And when he died, all the members
of his spiritual body died too. Why is that? Because of our eternal
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been one with Him from
old eternity when God the Father put us in the Son of God. When
He came into this world and He obeyed the law of God, we were
in Him. We obeyed it. And when he died
under the curse of the law, guess what happened to all the parts
of his body, his mystical body? We all died too. You with me? We all died too. We all satisfied
the law of God. You see, the law of God, let
me see if I can simplify this so that everybody here, no matter
what spiritual level you're on, you can grasp this. The law of
God demands one of two things. It's really simple. The law of
God demands either perfection or death. That's it, that's all. There's nothing else. There's
no other position. The law of God says, be perfect
or die. Render full obedience to me or
death is the consequence. And the only thing that will
ever sever yours and mine relationship to the law of God is death. That's all. But you see, We were in the Lord
Jesus when He died. The law of God doesn't have anything
more to do with us. Because it got what it demanded. It got perfection from His life. And it got death in His death. And in His life we got perfection. And in his death, we paid the
penalty of breaking the law of God. So the law of God has no
feud with us, has nothing to do with us. In fact, the scripture
says the law of God's not made for a righteous man. If we could ever get a hold to
that, And really the basis of that is our eternal union with
the Son of God. And note this. When He arose
again, because of our justification, all parts of His body arose,
right? His brain began to function again. And His heart began to beat again.
His lungs began to breathe again. He could walk, he could talk,
all of those things. His whole body was alive. And I tell you, when he arose,
we arose in him. And all of his people are alive,
alive unto God. Now, notice, again, I'll read
verse 19. For I through the law am dead
to the law, I'm dead to it. Don't you fear its curse? No,
I'm dead to it and it's dead to me. Doesn't have anything to do with
me. I've already paid its penalty
in my savior. So then he says in verse 20,
I am crucified with Christ. I was there. 2,000 years ago,
I was there. I was in Him. A member of His body. Nevertheless, I live. Yet, not I, but Christ liveth
in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and he gave himself for me. I live on account of him. I live
because I'm in him. That's the reason I live. And then he says this in verse
21, I do not frustrate the grace of God. He's kind of summing up everything
he said in the last few verses. I don't frustrate the grace of
God. I don't violate the grace of God. I don't do away with
the grace of God. For if righteousness, listen,
you gotta be righteous. I don't care who you are. I don't
care what men may say. God demands righteousness. And
you're gonna be righteous or you're gonna perish. and you
can't manufacture it. There's only one who is made
of God to be to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that's Christ Jesus. He says, if righteousness
comes by the law, then Christ is dead and vain. You see, people,
a lot of well-meaning people Embrace this. People who think
they can, by their works and by their efforts, they can be
accepted with God. There are two very dangerous
things that they all of a sudden are denying. Number one, the
necessity of the grace of God. And number two, the necessity
of the death of the Lord Jesus. Hey, if you can do something
to win God's favor, You don't need the grace of God. You've
just nullified any need for the grace of God. Ain't no use in
singing amazing grace anymore. Just sing amazing me. My amazing
works. And if you can, by your efforts,
make yourself righteous with God, you don't need the blood
of the Lord Jesus. What you're saying is he died
in vain. He didn't need to. I can pull
myself up by my own bootstraps. I can do the best I can. God
save me. No, you can't. It's an awful thing. It's an
awful thing to try to earn God's favor by your works. Because
you're saying in essence. You don't say it out loud. People
who believe this don't say these things out loud. They still talk
about Jesus and they still talk about grace, but really they
frustrate the grace of God. They nullify any need for grace. And I'll guarantee you from most
of the pulpits today, the message that went forth really was anti-grace
and anti-Christ. I guarantee you that. Because
that comes natural to men. And it started with Adam and
Eve sewing the fig leaves together to make an apron. And it's manifested
more fully in Cain's effort to worship God without a blood sacrifice. And you know what God put upon
that man? A curse. He put a curse upon
him. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things that are written in the law to do them, be perfect or die. Well, I can't be perfect,
but I've died to the law. Do you see that? This is so critical. I've died to the law. It's finished
with me. You say, but isn't the law used
in sanctification? Let's be careful here too. No,
no, the law of God has nothing to do with the believer. Well,
don't you believe in progressive sanctification? No, I do believe
in continual sanctification, but not progressive sanctification
by something I do. Let me ask you this, for those
of you who may have a little difficulty with sanctification,
with holiness, okay? Holiness. Have you gotta be holy to see
God one day? Have you gotta be holy to go
to heaven? Anybody? Yeah, right? You gotta be righteous
to go to heaven? Yes. Do you have to be holy to
be saved? Do you have to be righteous to
be saved? Do you have to be sanctified
to be saved? To enter into glory? Yes. Then
I'll guarantee you that which you need to enter into glory
has got to be all of God. It's got to be all of God. Examine
your theology, examine your doctrine in this light. Does it give all
glory to God? If it doesn't, you got the wrong
doctrine. It's really that simple. It's
that simple. So what does the law of God demand? Perfection. or death, that's
it. Well, I've died to the law in
Christ Jesus. Now I want you to go back with
me and I'll close. Go back to that passage in Deuteronomy
21. It's a very interesting portion
of scripture and I just read you the last two verses of the
context. Now let me read all of the context. Deuteronomy chapter 21. Look
at verse 18. Remember, this is God's law. This is God's law. If a man have
a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice
of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they
have chastened him, will not hearken unto them, then shall
his father and his mother lay a hold on him, bring him out
to the elders of the city, and unto the gate of his place. And
they shall say unto the elders of the city, This, our son, is
stubborn, rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He
won't do anything we tell him to do. And he's a glutton, and
he's a drunkard. He's just absolutely a lawbreaker. Do you know who I see in reading
that? I see all of us. We are before God, stubborn and
rebellious sons and daughters. And God's law says, kill him, kill him. And so, verse 21, all the men
of the city shall stone him with stones that he die. Here's the penalty. Here's the
penalty of breaking God's law. Death. Say, that's pretty tough, isn't
it? Hey, the law is hard. The law is unbending, unyielding,
it's strict, it won't bend over. Be careful of what, some people
will say this about the law of God, that it reveals the whole
character of God. No, it doesn't. It doesn't reveal
the whole character of God because there's no grace. The law of God doesn't know it.
There's no grace in the law of God. There's no mercy in the
law of God. There's no forgiveness in the
law of God. You go to the law of God and
say, I'm sorry I broke you. The law of God is unfeeling. You must die. But I'm sorry.
Well, the wages of sin is death. You got to die. You've got to
die or a suitable substitute has got to die in your step. And so then the last statement
there at verse 21, the men in the city shall stone him with
stones that he die. So shalt thou put evil away from
among you and all of Israel shall hear in fear. I hear, don't you? You hear? I hear what it says. And I fear, I fear the Lord. This is the strictness of His
law. And to keep on going, if a man has committed a sin worthy
of death, and he'd be put to death, they've stoned him already,
he's already put to death, you'll hang him on a tree as a spectacle,
as a witness, this man is guilty. He's guilty. He's got death and
that's exactly what he deserved. And I'm gonna tell you this,
when our Lord Jesus died upon the cross of Calvary, he was
accursed by God. And because all of the sins of
all of his people were made to meet on him, he got exactly what
he deserved. in our state. Isn't that amazing? He got what he deserved. He received
the curse of God's law. God's law cursed him. He's accursed
of God. And there was nothing to do with
him except kill him. And that's what the law of God
did. And when he died, We died. And when he was raised, we were
raised. No more curse. No more curse. Now you can have
the law if you want it. You go ahead and hang it on your
wall. But every time you look at that
law, remember, It curses you. It curses you. And the law demands
of you perfect obedience, or the law says, I'm gonna kill
you. I don't want anything to do with
the law. I love the law of God, it's perfect, it's good, it's
holy. It exposes my sinfulness, but I've already died to it.
in Christ Jesus, and I've been raised again in Him to live forever. Ain't that a beautiful gospel
lesson? Wow. Like I say, if the Spirit of
God teach that to you, it'll help you. And it goes back to
our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, bless the word that's
gone forth this evening. We're so very grateful that you
have given to us an understanding of the gospel of substitution
and satisfaction. And those words, Christ died
for our sins according to the scripture. And he was buried
and raised again the third day according to the scriptures.
Those are such sweet words to us. For when he died, we died. We're dead to the law of God.
And when he was raised again, we were raised in him. And even when he ascended, we
ascended with him. right into the paradise of God. Oh, most holy Father, thank you
for such matchless grace upon poor, feeble worms of the dust,
who deserve nothing but death and judgment in hell, but lo
and behold, through Christ and his substitutionary sacrifice,
We have been lifted up from the dunghill of sin and were made
to sit among the very princes of his people. This is so wonderful,
Lord. Thank you. We bless you and we
honor you. For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen.