Open your Bibles if you would
to Galatians chapter 3. Today and next week we'll be
looking at verse 13 and 14 of this wonderful chapter. I want
to spend again two weeks upon this, these two verses, actually
verse 13 more so, because there's so much packed in here. But today
we're going to look at perfect substitution. Perfect substitution. how the Lord's work of redemption
on Calvary's cross and the saving of our souls as God's people
is a work of perfect substitution. Absolutely perfect. Nothing to
be added to, nothing to be taken away. It's absolutely perfect. When he redeemed his people on
the cross, it was a perfect work of substitution in the room and
place of his people, chosen sinners, saved by the grace of God. And
remember this, as we go through this book, remember the setting
of this book is law and grace. Law and grace. Paul is writing
to show that we are saved by grace through faith and that
not of ourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. And no one, not one of us, Not
one of us can be justified by anything we do. No one in this
world can be justified before God by something they do, perform,
act, say, think. No one can be justified by that
at all. We can only be justified in and
through Christ alone, by faith alone, by God's grace alone. So let's read the context of
our verse today, starting in verse 7, we'll read to verse
14. Know ye, therefore, that they
which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
In the scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying,
In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be
of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, 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. So note there that many As many as are of the works of
the law, trying to justify themselves by something they say, do, according
to the law of God, are under curse. For it is written, now
hear this, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of law to do them. Well there
we see all of mankind cursed by the law of God. But that no
man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident,
for the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. And now look at
this. Now we saw earlier there in verse
10 that the law curses everyone. But look at this. Paul is writing
to the saints at Galatia. He says, 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. Why? That the blessings of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. My oh my. Isn't that wonderful? Let's read verses 13 and 14 again.
We'll see here the perfect substitution of our Lord Jesus Christ right
here in this verse. Christ, look at this, hath. He
did it. When did he do it? 2,000 years
ago. He's already redeemed us. We're already redeemed. We were
redeemed before the Lord, before the Holy Spirit regenerated us.
We were already redeemed. Christ hath redeemed us. So that
means the work's already done, right? was done, if Christ has
already redeemed us, then the work of redemption is already
done. Now the Holy Spirit goes out,
what is he doing through the preaching of the word? He's drawing
all those who Christ redeemed and giving them grace and faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 the tree, that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. So what's he doing? He's continually bringing forth
the work of God as opposed to law works. It's all of grace. Christ is the one who's redeemed
us. See, it's already done. He did it. And it's the Holy
Spirit we see here that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith. Remember Christ promised that
he'd send the Comforter? He promised, right? And he's
come. And he's with every believer. He's in us. It's amazing. Absolutely
amazing. Not one may ask, We who are the
redeemed of God, why is perfect substitution necessary? One might
ask that. Well, you know, that would probably
have been a question I might have asked if I had even known
about substitution. I never heard about it except
for, you know, in hockey games and sports games, but never ever
thought of it applying to the salvation of one's soul when
I was dead in trespasses and sins, and I really didn't care
then, to my shame. But now, This is such a precious,
precious doctrine. This is so precious. Christ hath
redeemed me. Every believer can say that.
Christ hath redeemed me from the curse of the law. He made
a curse for me. And the reason why perfect substitution
is necessary is because we can't save ourselves. Not one of us
can save ourselves. Not one human being upon this
earth can save themselves. And contrary to popular opinion,
the Bible declares that there's none good, no, not one. The world
says, well, they're a good person. No, there's none good. And I
know it's contrary to popular opinion, because that's popular
opinion, right? A guy can be a God-hater, or a girl can be
a God-hater. And then when they die, all of
a sudden, well, they were really good. Well, not in God's eyes. Not in God's eyes. And if people
say to us, well, how can you say that? I'll say, what I usually
say is, take it up with God. Take it up with God. It's in
the Bible. Take it up with, you're arguing with God. You're not
arguing with me. You're arguing with God. My, oh my. My oh my. And we can never fully
comprehend this wonderful salvation that we have in Christ. So people
who proclaim that all one has to do is be good to be saved,
they're deceived. They're actually deceived. They
don't know what they don't know. And I was thinking about this
yesterday. They don't know the depths of their own sinfulness,
just like I didn't know the depths of my own sinfulness until God
revealed it to me. And so for you too, right? And
I still, even though we're saved now, I still don't think we understand
the depths of our depravity and our sinfulness. We have a little
glimpse of it and we're just on our face. But you're talking
about a holy and righteous being who cannot have any sin in his
presence. He makes us holy, beloved. Isn't that amazing? He takes
sinners who he can't normally have in his presence because
we're a bunch of sinners, and he makes us holy in Christ. That's
amazing. And we can say we're still not
good, right, because we're sinners, but yet we're saved and redeemed
by the grace of God. Made holy by Christ in his perfect
righteousness. We so fell in Adam. We so fell
in Adam, our father, that we are absolutely ruined to be in
the presence of God. That's how deep and devastating
the fall was. Oh my. And sin permeates all
through us, in our hearts, in our minds, in our thoughts, in
our actions, in our deeds. From the top of our head, Job
wrote, to the bottom of our feet. And again, someone will say,
I don't believe that. Well, take it up with God. Because it's
in the scriptures. In the book of Romans chapter
3 it says there's none good, no not one. There's none that
understand it. There's none that seek it after
God. All together gone out, out of the way. My oh my. And I'll tell you what, some
may say I don't believe that. Well, one day they're going to
face God. If he leaves them in their sin,
they're going to face God and they're going to find out just
how holy he is. My oh my. We're all headed towards death.
I was watching a show this week and there was a veteran from
Iraq and they had a picture of a sign that said, is today the
day? It's on a military base in Iraq. It was on a military
base in Iraq and it said, is today the day? And they were saying that sign's
up there to remind each soldier that walks into that base to
be alert, because today could be the day of their death. Today could be the day of their
death. Death can come at any time. Oh, that we might be mindful
of the truth of that sign. Mindful of the truth. Some say,
I have all the time in the world to come to Christ. And one of my dear loved ones
said to me, well, I'm still young. I've got so many things to experience. Well, why is that stopping you
from coming to Christ? You know, it's your pride and
your sinfulness. My, oh, my. Remember that sign. Is today the day? Here before
us in this text is a death that was all according to the divine
counsel and foreknowledge of God. This death in our text is
planned and purposed. It's the death of a perfect substitute. And it tells us what he accomplished.
Christ hath redeemed us. He accomplished that, beloved.
He redeemed our eternal souls before we ever were. My oh my. And what's he redeemed us from?
The curse of the law. Every son and daughter of Adam
who's born into this world is under the curse of the law. We're
born under the curse. My oh my. The law has a demand
on us, rightfully. And here in our text is a death
that was all according again to the divine counsel and foreknowledge
of God that Christ died for the sins of his people willingly.
He willingly gave his life. The perfect man dies for who?
Sinners. Sinners. A number that no man
can number. A remnant, yes, but it's a number that no man can
number. My oh my. Now we do not know what day will
be our last upon this earth. And sinner friend, death for
any of us may come in 2023, It may come in a few years, we don't
know. We have no idea of that date,
do we? But look at this wonderful verse.
Flee to the Savior. Flee to the only Savior of sinners.
Look at this wonderful verse. The great substitute of sinners.
Dying in the Roman places of lost sinners. And this verse shows us that
the Lord Jesus Christ in Him alone is the only Savior of sinners. It says, 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, that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. Praise be to God. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's wonderful. I'm ashamed to say I don't appreciate
this wondrous salvation as much as I should. This is incredible. This is absolutely amazing. We
can't fully comprehend it, but oh, Lord, give us grace to appreciate
this more and more. It's wonderful. This is truly,
as Scott Richardson said, the best news that we'll ever hear
in our life. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Oh my! May God the Holy Spirit,
may he give us the grace to grasp this in our innermost being.
We are no longer under the curse of God's holy law because Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. He did it. We could never do it for ourselves.
And he did it. And he did it on the cross, not
just for you and I, beloved, but for a number that no man
can number, a remnant that God the Father gave him out of all
mankind. My, it's absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. And those
who are enjoying the blessings of Christ's redeeming work are
not looking to the law of Moses. We don't look to the law of Moses.
We don't look to anything in ourselves, do we? We look to
Christ and Him alone. That's who we look to. He's our
Redeemer. Again, Adam, our federal head,
plunged us into condemnation when he broke the law of God
that was given to him in the garden. The Lord said, don't
eat out of that one tree. Just that one tree. Oh my! And the serpents say, that's
God's sin. Putting doubt in their minds.
Putting doubts in their minds. You ever heard Satan go, do you
think you're really saved? Putting doubts in your mind.
That's when we go, I'm looking to Christ and Him alone. I cast
myself upon you, Lord Jesus. How many times do we do that
all the time, don't we? Oh, my! My, oh, my. The broken law makes us lost
sinners, and what the law once does, it cannot undo. So we're
lost. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We've broken the law of God. It can't be undone by us. But the great substitute can
die in our place, can't he? And he has. Remember, Paul's
writing this to believers. He says, Christ hath redeemed
you. Here they are, living on earth like we are, doing their
normal stuff, and they receive this letter from Paul. They're
being bewitched by the Judaizers, and they receive this letter
from Paul, and it says in it, Christ hath redeemed you. You're
already redeemed. There's nothing you have to do.
You don't have to do any law works. You see how that ties
into the whole subject, too? Christ has done it all. He's
done it all. It's finished. There's nothing
left to do. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. That's why earlier on he said,
curse is everyone that continues not in all the things of the
law to do them. The written law of God that was
given to Moses made the offense to abound, making us aware of
our sin against our maker. That's what the law does. It
makes us, it shows us that we're sinners in desperate need of
Christ. That's what it does. My oh my. And if we could present
ourselves before God perfectly holy and without sin, then we'd
have nothing to fear. But we cannot. We can't do it. We can't do it. We're sinners
again from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. And
the Holy Spirit has made that evident and clear in the Bible,
hasn't he? There's none righteous, no not
one. Right? The whole world has become guilty
before God. That's in Romans 2. In Romans
chapter 3, I believe. The whole world is guilty before
God. But praise be to God, this verse for believers is wonderful.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Oh, it's
absolutely wonderful. My oh my. I can't imagine anyone
foolish enough to think that they can stand before God with
enough good in them to outweigh their bad, because that ain't
gonna happen. If that could happen, then why
did Christ come to this earth and die? Well, Christ was sent
because we can't save ourselves, right? We're lawbreakers. So he fulfills the law perfectly.
There's a perfect substitution in his life. He fulfills the
law perfectly in his life. And then he redeems us from the
curse of the law at Calvary's Cross. It's absolutely amazing. It leaves you breathless. There's no good in any unregenerate
sinner. There's no good in us either
as believers. If we do anything good, it's
by the grace of God. It's God working in us. Can't
even lay claim to that. Not that we would, eh? Our Lord Jesus Christ said in
John 3.18, he that believeth on him, the Son of God, is not
condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. Why? Because of the curse of
the law, right? Because he hath not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God. You know, we come into this world
on death row. An old grace preacher said that.
I like that. Gene Harmon said that. We come into this world
on death row. My oh my. We're not waiting to
find out if we're guilty. We're already guilty. The law
already has us condemned. See, that's why this is such
good news. Because we were on death row, beloved. And Christ
has saved us. The law of God stops the mouths
of every sinner. So that the whole world is guilty
before God. But listen to the good works
of the gospel. There is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus. Put your name in there. There
is therefore now no condemnation for Dave, who walks in Christ. And Wayne either. Isn't that
wonderful? It's wonderful. Yeah, it's absolutely
wonderful. My oh my. Well, one might ask,
how? How can one who's condemned by
the law not be condemned now? How can that be? Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law. There it is. There's
the answer. Right? Being made a curse for
us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree, that the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. There's the answer. Scripture gives us the answer
every single time. Will says, well, no, you gotta
be good. No, the Bible says there's none good. Somebody says, well, I can live
by the law. No, the Bible says you can't live by the law. You
can't justify yourself by the law. And then it gives us the
answer. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. By His perfect
substitution in life and in death, the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed
us. And He's redeemed us with His precious, precious blood,
right? That was shed for the ransom price of our souls is
the precious blood. Because in the Old Testament,
right, when they sacrificed that lamb, it was the blood, right?
Without the shed and the blood, that's why Abel's offering had
no blood. That's why it was rejected. Cain,
I'm sorry, yeah, thank you, brother. That's why Cain's was rejected
and Abel's was accepted. Abel bought the proper sacrifice
and Cain bought the fruit of his hands. And there was no blood. Therefore, there's no remission
of sins, the scripture says. So Christ sheds his blood, why?
For the remission of our sins. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. He made a curse for us. Oh my,
why? that the blessings of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. The soul that's in it,
it must die, the law demands, right? So the perfect, sinless,
spotless Lamb of God dies in the room and place of his people.
Christ hath redeemed us. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. And he paid the ransom price
in whole, everything fully paid, Paid in full. There you go, the
old stamp, man. I remember that, I'll never forget
that as a kid, eh? Paid in full. Man. And that means there's no debt
left. That means there's nothing. So if Christ hath redeemed us,
we're redeemed. We're free. We're free. We were
in a restaurant yesterday, and we heard these religious folks
talking. And I'm not gonna get into what they were saying, but
it was... I looked at Vicki and I said, isn't it wonderful to
be free? Isn't it wonderful to not be
in the bondage of having to do this and having no more shackles?
No more shackles. We're free, beloved. We're absolutely
free. We're going to look at that in
chapter 5. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free and be not again entangled with the yoke of bondage.
We are free, beloved. And that freedom there is liberty. In the Greek. Oh, and what liberty
we have. Oh, what liberty. But you know
something? God's people don't use that liberty
to sin, do we? We don't say, well, I can do
whatever I want now. No, that's antinomianism. We don't do that.
We don't do that. We repent of our sin, don't we?
We grieve over our sin. We seek to serve the Lord now.
We're a bunch of sinners, yes. Yeah, but we hate sin. Oh my,
we hate it. And when our Lord Jesus Christ,
when he was hanging on that cruel cross, he was made a curse for
us, as scripture brings forth today. The curse of God the Father
fell upon him, which is the curse of the law. The wrath of God
fell upon him. He's perfect still. He's sinless. And he's the perfect substitute.
See what I mean for our title? The work is a perfect work of
substitution. Because that wrath, that my wrath,
that was due me, and all the elect of all the ages, all of
us, fell upon Him. And He just bore it all. So that,
you know why? Think of this too. All those
who were in the ark, not a drop of that rain fell upon them,
did it? Never came through that pitch, which pictured the blood
of Christ. That pitch, they were sealed
in by the blood of Christ. Not a drop of rain, which pictured
God's wrath. Not one drop fell upon them.
We're in the ark of safety, beloved. That's Christ. And not a drop
of God's wrath is going to fall upon us. Not even a drop will
kill us. Imagine a drop of God's wrath,
oh my, my, not a drop's gonna touch us, beloved. We're safe,
safe, safe in Christ and Him alone. Why? Because Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse for
us, for as written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on the
tree. Oh, beloved, now His perfect righteousness is imputed to us.
Our sins were imputed to Him, and He bore all that. All that
was demanded of the law for our sins, He bore it. And then His perfect righteousness
is given to us. The great transaction. My, and
He's the perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God dying there. The
very one that all those Old Testament pictures pictured. All those lambs, all the death
of all those lambs, pictured this magnificent death. And when
his blood was shed, it redeemed our souls, beloved. My, oh my. The curse, think of this, and
I want us to live in this. The curse of God's wrath The
curse of the law has been removed from all those who were represented
by Christ Jesus on Calvary's cross. All who by faith trust
Him and rest in Him. When a convicted criminal is
executed for his crimes, law and justice cannot do anything
else to that criminal. Right? They're gone, right? Christ
wasn't no criminal, though, but we were. We broke God's law. We're lawbreakers. And there's the perfect, sinless,
spotless Lamb of God dying in our place, the perfect substitution,
given His life, given His life for you and I, sent by the Father. to do the will of God. And the
will of God was that he would die in our room and place, beloved,
at the exact time and according to the foreknowledge of God,
the Father. That's amazing grace, isn't it?
My, oh my. And our dying Savior met the
law's demands. The last demand of the law is
death. And our Lord dies in our room
and place, the sinless one. How? By his perfect substitutionary
work. He dies in our room and place,
beloved. Therefore the law of Moses, the
law of God has no claim on you or I, beloved of God. Now it's
holy, we love it. It's holy because it shows us
how holy God is. But it also shows us our guilt,
doesn't it? But it has no claim on us. It's being paid in full. It's like we, it's like Christ's
work was so perfect, it's like we fulfilled the law. But he
did it in our place. Isn't that amazing? Remember,
just as if I've never sinned. My, isn't it wonderful? It's
wonderful, isn't it? So we see in this verse, then,
the perfect, redeeming, substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ
that delivered his chosen people. We could never deliver ourselves
from our sins. Christ hath redeemed us from
all of our sins, beloved. Every single one. So much so
that God says, says, Sister Barb, I don't remember your sins no
more. And mine too. Brother Dan, he doesn't remember.
Dave, he doesn't remember. He looks at us and says, I don't,
I don't even remember your sins. My son's work was so perfect.
So absolute. So God honoring. And he says,
I don't remember your sins anymore. What a work. What a Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh my, verse 10 says, for as
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For
it is written, cursed is everyone that continues, not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. Well,
the man Christ Jesus, from the womb of the Virgin Mary to his
dying words on the cross, it is finished. He kept God's holy
law perfectly for his people. Perfectly, absolutely perfect. There was nothing that wasn't
fulfilled. Kept absolutely perfect. He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. And all the iniquities of God's
promised children were laid on the perfect substitute, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the curse of God that was
pronounced on the whole human race by the law of God was transferred from God's people
of Abraham and fallen to the Redeemer. So for all of God's
elect, it says here, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law. The wrath of God fell on him. The law of God said,
I must demand justice, and it took justice out in our Savior.
And now think of this. I want to close with this. Think
of this. Think of this. This is absolutely amazing. He absolutely extinguished the
wrath of God, so much so that there's not even smoke coming
from the fire of the wrath of God. It's gone. So we will never, ever face the
wrath of God. Never. all because of the perfect
substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ in Him alone. Hallelujah! What a Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord!