Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of Galatians in
the New Testament, Paul's letter to the churches of Galatia from
chapter three. And my main text this morning
is verse 13, where it speaks of Christ, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. So the title of the message is
Redeemed from the Curse. Redeemed from the curse. Well,
he says in verse 13 of Galatians 3, Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now, first of all,
exactly what is this referring to, the curse of the law? Well,
the law of God was laid down to Adam in the Garden of Eden. And of course, Adam, before he
fell into sin and death, he had perfect, uninterrupted communion
with God, fellowship with God. And you'll remember in Genesis,
chapters two and three, where it talks about all of this, the
Lord mentions two trees, that he set within the garden. One
was the tree of life, and that represented the life that he'd
given to Adam. And then another one was the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he told Adam, he
said, now Adam, you can eat of every tree of the garden, even
the tree of life, because Adam was a living being and he had
life. But he said, but of this one
tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you cannot
eat. And he said in Genesis chapter two, in the day that you eat
thereof, thou shalt, you shall surely die. Literally dying,
thou shalt die. In other words, to disobey God
in the eating of that tree would bring the curse of death. And
that's what he's talking about. The law of God represented in
his commandment of that tree, But it also represents all of
God's commandments. Adam was never to disobey God
from his viewpoint. And that tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. I know people in Sunday school
lessons sometimes and in cartoons and stuff, they talk about Adam.
Eve bit the apple. I don't know if it was an apple
tree or not. I don't care. It doesn't matter. He couldn't
eat it. Whatever fruit it had, he couldn't eat of it. And that
tree represented something much bigger than just a piece of fruit.
It was not an arbitrary thing or an unreasonable or unjust
matter. That tree represented the sovereign
right that only God has to say what's right and what's wrong. And that's what Adam rebelled
against. Adam's sin was not just eating
a piece of fruit. That represented his sin. His sin was trying to be like
God. His sin was trying to raise himself
up higher than he was and should have been to say, I can make
my own judgments of what is right and what is wrong. I can determine
for myself And the way he did that is he took sides with his
wife who had already eaten of the fruit against God. So that's
Adam's sin, and that brought the curse of death. And it's
called the curse of the law because the law demands death when its
precepts are broken. The wages of sin is death. Now, as you know, the Bible teaches,
and this is what a lot of people don't understand, that when Adam
fell into sin by his disobedience, we all fell in him. Adam was
a representative person. And he represented the whole
human race. And over in the book of Romans,
it tells us that, Romans chapter five, spells it out plainly in
verse 12. It says, listen to this, Romans
five and verse 12, wherefore, As by one man, sin entered into
the world. Now, it doesn't say by one man,
only the possibility of sin entered into the world. By one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, there's the curse. And
he says, and so death passed upon all men. Now since the fall
of Adam, all men, all people, born of Adam, they are going
to die. Now, that's the truth. It doesn't
matter if you live as long as Methuselah. 969 years, they say. The oldest
man that's recorded in the Bible. But the last thing it said about
Methuselah, and he died. or whether you're stricken down
in childbirth, a person dies in childbirth. That's the result
of sin entering into the world, and death by sin. But now look
on at Romans 5.12, it says, and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. Well, we all have sinned. But
literally, that would read this way. And death passed upon all
men for all sinned. That's what it would literally
read. When did I sin? I sinned when
Adam sinned. He was my representative. The old theologians call it federal
theology, the federal head. He was a representative. And
so we all fell in Adam. We're all brought into sin and
death by Adam. And as a result of our fall in
Adam, ruined by the fall, We are born, the Bible says, spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. And what that means is we have
physical life, but we don't have spiritual life. We're totally
dead to the things that glorify and honor God, especially in
salvation. And that includes our whole being,
our thinking, our motives, our goals, Our choices. Now even in spiritual death,
we can make choices between human morality and human sin, as we
see it. But what we won't do by nature,
the natural man, is we will not believe God's way of salvation.
We will not come to Christ. We won't do it. We'll always
choose opposite. We'll choose negative. We'll
choose not to. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse
14, the natural man, that's as we are born naturally, fallen
in Adam, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them, they're spiritually discerned.
The Bible says in John 6, 44, Christ said this, no man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. and
I'll raise him up again at the last day. And how does the father
draw his people? Well, somebody talked about the three
R's of salvation. We're ruined by the fall. And
the only way that can be overturned, the only way that we can be saved
from that curse of the fall is to be redeemed by the blood. Redeemed by the blood of Christ,
and that's what Galatians 3.13 says here. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Now, man cannot work his way
out from under this curse. He can't do it. He cannot, listen,
he cannot choose his way out of it. He's got to be redeemed
out of it, and the only one who can redeem him is Christ. And
then as a result of the redemption of Christ, then we have to be
regenerated by the Spirit. That's the new birth. Remember
what Christ told Nicodemus in John three and verse three. He
said, you must be born again because your first birth was
under the law, under death, sin and death, born dead in trespasses
and sins. So you must be born again. or
you cannot see, you don't have spiritual eyes to see or spiritual
ears to hear. The kingdom of God can't do it. Man won't do it. And that's the
reason man can't do it, he won't do it. He has no capacity, he
has no desire for the things that glorify and honor God in
Christ. Well, look back up in verse 10
of Galatians 3. Now listen to how this message
flows forth. He says, verse 10, for as many
as are of the works of the law, are under the curse. Now, what
does it mean to be of the works of law? It's talking about sinners
who are trying to be saved by their works, by their law keeping, by trying
to make themselves righteous by their efforts, by what they
do. Salvation conditioned on sinners. Now, if that's what you're doing,
the Bible says you are right now under the curse sin and death,
the curse of the law. And it's written, he says, for
it's written, and he refers back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter
27, where a man was condemned under the law and hanged. He
says, and he'll go on to verse 11 for this. He says, cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. In other words, the law
requires the perfection of righteousness. You say, well, you know, somebody
says, well, I'm trying to keep the 10 commandments and I've
kept nine of them. Oh my, then you're under the
curse. You haven't kept any of them
really, but if that's what you think, you're under the curse.
Because cursed is everyone that continued not in what? All things
which are written in the book of the law to do that. The law
requires perfect obedience. And where perfect obedience is
not given to it, where sin enters the picture, the law requires
death. And so what do we conclude from
that? We'll look at verse 11. He says, but that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just,
the justified, shall live by faith. So, nobody can be saved,
can be forgiven, can be made righteous by their law keeping,
by works of the law. Again, what is it to be justified?
It's to be forgiven of all my sins. is to be declared righteous
before God. How can that happen? Not by keeping
the law. Listen, we've all sinned and
we come short of the glory of God. You know, people quote that. That's Romans 3.23. But they
really don't understand what it means. You say, well, I know
I've committed some sins, all right? And they'll quote Romans
6.23, that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But do you understand
what Romans 3.23 really means? When it says, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Now here's what it means,
put it in this context. It means that man at his best,
God is worse. When we see men at their worst,
men and women at their worst, we know, I mean, we don't have
any problem saying, well, we're sinners, or there's me at my
worst. Don't have any problem saying
I'm a sinner at my worst. But what about my best? And what
Romans 3.23 really teaches us is this, that man at his best,
man at his best, still falls short of the perfection of righteousness
that the law requires. That's what he's telling us.
So when you hear that, oh, I know I've sinned, I know I've committed
this and that, okay, you have and I have, but at your best,
at my best, we still fall short. The word sin there in Romans,
it's the most common word in the New Testament for sin and
it means to miss the mark. We don't come up to snuff, we
don't measure up. We don't even out with what God
requires on the scales. The scales are tipped against
us. And what is the mark? What is the standard? Christ
is. I quote this verse all the time in Acts 17, 31, that God
is going to judge the world in righteousness by that man whom
he hath ordained in that he hath given assurance unto all men
in that he hath raised him from the dead. You see, If I don't
have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and
justice, then I'm under the curse and I'm doomed forever. So no
man is justified by the law in the sight of God. Now the reason
he says in the sight of God is because there's a lot of people
that appear really good and righteous to us, but the reality is is
how they stand before God. If you're seeking to be saved
by your words, by being a good person, you're under the curse.
You appear righteous unto men, the Pharisees did, Christ said
that. They appear righteous unto men, but inwardly they're full
of dead men's bones and spiritual death. So he says the just shall
live by faith. Who are the just? That's the
justified. And how are sinners justified? By God's grace based
upon the blood and the righteousness of Christ. And how do they live? by faith, by God-given faith. That doesn't mean that they believe
and then they're justified. It means that when God justifies
them and imputes righteousness to them, he will bring them to
life and give them faith to believe, and that's how they live. And
what is it to live by faith? Let me give you this. Living
by faith is not just living believing something, sincerely or hardly
or whatever. Living by faith, first and foremost,
is living a life looking to and following the Lord Jesus Christ.
Looking to Jesus Christ, run the race of grace, looking to
him who is the author and the finisher of our faith. Pleading
his blood for all salvation, for all forgiveness. Pleading
his righteousness imputed to me for my justification. And
living by faith is living by the word of God, because this
is where we find Christ. This is where we look to him.
So he says in verse 12, this is Galatians 3, 12, and the law
is not of faith. The law and grace do not, works
and grace do not mix. The law doesn't require you to
believe it, the law requires you to do it. Do and live, disobey
and die. But the man that doeth them shall
live in them. If you're going to be saved by
the law, you better keep it perfectly. And you, listen, you're already
behind because we fell in Adam. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
I had a man tell me one time, he said, I don't believe that
we become sinners until we commit the first sin. I said, well,
have you ever known any human being in the history of man who
didn't commit a sin? We've all sinned. Why is that?
It's because of what we are by nature. That's fallen human nature,
ruined in Adam by the fall, born dead in trespasses and sin. So
how do we get out of this mess? Now, we're talking about the
curse, redeemed from the curse. How's that happen? Verse 13.
the Son of God incarnate, the God-man, the surety of his people,
having all their sins imputed, charged to him, the substitute
of his people. How was he a substitute? Look
at it. Christ hath redeemed us. He bought us. He bought his people. The us, there's not everybody
without exception. If you're, listen, if you're
part of the us here, you've been redeemed, you cannot be lost. You cannot perish, you're redeemed.
He paid the debt, he paid the price. That's what redemption
means. If the price is paid, God cannot require it from you.
He's a just God and a savior. So redeem from the curse of the
law. All right, now how did he do
it? As the surety of his people, having their sins imputed to
him, He was made flesh and dwelt among us in order to substitute
himself in their place. This is real substitution. What does it say? Being made
a curse for us. Now how was he made a curse?
Well, look across the page again. We looked at this last week,
but I want you to see it again. Galatians four and verse four.
It says, but when the fullness of the time was come, when God's
appointed time, God sent forth his son, That's the deity of
Christ. Second person of the Holy Trinity.
Made of a woman. That's the humanity of Christ,
the sinless humanity. He who knew no sin was made sin. How was he made sin? The sin
debt of his people was imputed, charged to his account. And so
he was made of a woman, made under the law, responsible to
be made under the curse. All of the salvation of his people
who were sinners, who were cursed by the law, who fell in Adam,
who have committed multitudes of sins, who cannot work a perfect
righteousness, all of their salvation Was conditioned on him all the
responsibility to keep the law and satisfy its justice was put
upon the Lord Jesus Christ He was made under the law now. Why
did he do it verse 5 of Galatians 4? To redeem them that were under
the law He paid the price Jesus paid it all He didn't leave any
part of it for me to pay. I Most people today, they think,
well, he died for you, but it's no good unless you endorse the
check with your faith, kind of. Unless you feel, no. He redeemed
us from the curse of the law, the scripture says, and look
at Galatians 4 and 5, in order that we might receive the adoption
of sons. The adoption of sons, the children
of God. It's the adoption of grace and
we're adopted into God's family based upon the redeeming work
of Christ, based upon the blood of Christ, based upon the righteousness
of Christ, not based upon our faith. You see, I wasn't adopted
into God's family because I believed. I believed because I'd already
been redeemed by the blood, chosen of God, justified in Him, redeemed
by the blood. and then regenerated by the Spirit.
Look at verse six of Galatians four and verse six. And because
you are sons, now don't miss this, not in order to become
sons, but because you are sons, thou, because of that, because
of your redemption, by the blood of Christ. Because of that, and
because you are adopted into his family based upon that redemption,
God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. That's regeneration and conversion,
wherein God gives us life from the dead, spiritual ears to hear,
spiritual eyes to see, new life, new heart, you must be born again,
and gives us faith to receive him. And we're brought into that
special covenant gracious relationship with God, whereby we can say,
Abba, Father. You see, God's law is not against
us. And so when he says over here,
Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.
That's what he's talking about. Christ died for my sins. He was
made a curse. He was made sin. How was He made
a curse? Was there some kind of a transformation? No. He came to this earth to
die. And having our sins imputed to
Him, He went to the cross, suffered, bled and died, suffered alienation
from the Father. Remember on the cross, He said,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? All of that was
based upon Him being made a curse. him being brought under the law,
him being made sin by the imputation, the accounting, the charging
of the debt of the sins of his people to him. He calls them
his sheep. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He said, the sheep will hear
my voice and they'll come to me. He said, I know them, they
know me. So look at verse 14, now all of this he says, Well,
back in verse 13, he says, for it's written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. What he's doing is he's using
an Old Testament law issue to show that when Christ hanged
upon that tree, the cross, that that was typified back under
the law where a man committed murder and he was hanged on a
tree, he was cursed. And he says 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.
Now what is the blessing of Abraham? Well, it's salvation by the grace
of God. It's justification based upon
the righteousness of Christ imputed. Remember back in Romans chapter
four when the apostle was explaining how Abraham was justified before
God? And he says, it's not by works.
No, sir. He's written that Abraham believed
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. What did he
believe? He believed God's promise of righteousness by the promised
Messiah. And he illustrates that with
David, King David, who wrote Psalm 32. And he says it this
way, in Romans four and verse six. He said, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. Remember what Paul wrote about
those who are trying to be saved by the law. There are people
who claim to believe salvation by grace, but they place salvation
at some point, in some way, to some degree, conditioned on sinners,
upon what they do, what they choose, whatever. And he says
they claim to believe grace, but they frustrate it, they make
it void. And he said in Galatians 2.21, I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, by works, then
Christ is dead and vain. You who think salvation is conditioned
on you and you've met those conditions of your own free will or your
own goodness, you actually say that Christ died in vain. And
if you look back over here, the blessing of Abraham in Galatians
3.14, Abraham was a sinner saved by grace, and he says that that
blessing of salvation by grace, that blessing of justification
by the blood of Christ, justified by the righteousness of Christ,
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. What his point
is is this. Gentiles and Jews are saved the
same way before God. They're justified the same way.
God didn't save the Jews by their works, and now the Gentiles by
grace. No, it's always been by grace. Abraham was a great sign
of that, and he said that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith. That's the new birth. and the
promise of the Spirit, the Spirit who would come and preach Christ,
reveal Christ, reveal who we are, our sins, who God is, a
just God, and who Christ is, a Savior. And my friend, that's,
listen, Christ redeemed his people from the curse of the law. And
if you're redeemed from that curse, there's no possibility
that you could perish in your sins. I hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.