If you want to follow me in my
text this afternoon, I'll be reading from Galatians chapter
3. It's a joy to be here. Appreciate
your pastor. Appreciate your former pastor.
And on your last two pastors, love and appreciate both of them.
Gospel preachers. In Galatians chapter 3, and I
want to read beginning here in verse 10, down through verse
14. Galatians chapter 3 and verse
10. 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. 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. 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 hangeth on a tree. that
the blessing of Abraham, the blessing that God promised to
Abraham, might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The Apostle Paul was attempting
to beat these Galatians off the works of the law, self-salvation. He had come here and he had preached
the gospel to them before this, they had received it, These self-righteous
legalists had come down from Jerusalem attempting to turn
them from Christ back to the law. We're saved by Christ, but
we must now be converted to the Jewish way of living, the strict
lifestyle that the Jews lived, to be circumcised and to keep
holy days and all of this. The Apostle Paul writes this
epistle in an attempt to beat them off from the works of the
law. and to bring them back and to
have Christ formed in their hearts, in their conscience. So he begins
in chapter 1, there around verse 6, and he begins to do that. Cursing all other Gospels that
is preached. And he continues all the way
through this epistle. rebuking these false apostles,
these false teachers that have come among them, and seeking
to bring these back to the pure gospel of the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he gives us four things here
in verses 10 through verse 14 that I want to emphasize to you
this afternoon. This is the gospel. And I say
emphasize these things. So often we read so quickly. We read chapters and we should
really read slowly and read words. And these four things I want
to emphasize to you today will not only convict, if God be willing,
the lost and make them feel and know their need of Christ, but
it will make the believers, it will lead them to get a firmer,
grip upon the Lord Jesus Christ. So these four things that I want
to give to you, first of all, in verse 10, it's this. The curse
of a broken law. Where's society at today? They're
under the curse of a broken law. And here's how the Apostle says
it. He makes this general statement here in verse 10. Look at it
again. for as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse." That's just a general statement
that he made. He said if you're seeking in
any way, shape, or form to justify yourself before God, if there's
one hair's breadth of your works wrapped up in your salvation,
then he said you're cursed. He doesn't get particular. He says, as many. As many. A person may be a Catholic, he
may be a Baptist, he may be a Church of God, a Church of Christ, but
as many, whoever he is, as many as are of the works of the law,
they are under the curse. But here, in the last part of
this, Notice he gets more particular. Look how he says this. He proves
this general statement by scripture that he quotes over in Deuteronomy
chapter 26, chapter 27 and verse 26. Notice how he does this. The apostle is always proving
his doctrine by scripture. Everything he received was by
direct revelation. But he wants us to know the things
that Christ is teaching him now, no way contradicts the Old Testament
Scripture. So he says everybody that's under
the works of the law are under the curse. And he proves it by
Scripture. But notice what he does when
he proves it by Scripture. He gets very particular. He don't
say as many anymore. But look what he said. For it
is written, cursed is everyone Everybody, each and every soul
is cursed. He goes from as many to each
and every one. Each person is cursed who does
not continue in all things written in the book of the law to do
that. Now He's going to give us here two, He's going to make
us see these two, reasons that it's utterly impossible for any
man to be saved by works. He's going to give us two reasons,
two proofs of that. Look what he says first of all
in the last portion of verse 10. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
Him. For a man to be saved by works,
he must know what works that God requires him to do. Where would he go to find out
what God requires him to do to be justified? He has to go to
the book. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things which are written in the book. For me to be saved
by works, I have to know what the book says I have to do. Is
there anybody here this afternoon that knows everything that's
required of a man to be saved? I'd say the best of us know very
little of what God requires of him to be saved. But if we're
going to be saved by works, first of all, we have to know. Cursed
is everybody who continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do Him. I don't have any idea, everything
that God requires of a man. But if a man wants to know, this
book tells him, doesn't it? And when we have knowledge of
all things that's written in the book, there's something else
required of us, and that is to do it. He first must know, and
then, he says here, he must do it, or he's cursed. This brings us to something else,
doesn't it? Not only does a man have to have perfect knowledge,
but I tell you, he has to have a perfect heart. He has to have a perfect mind.
He has to have perfect affections, perfect desires. He has to have
a perfect will, a strong will. You remember that scribe that
came to the Lord Jesus one day, and he asked the Lord Jesus what
was the great commandment in the law? And the Lord said, it's
this, listen he said, Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all
your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. To know what to do is one thing. To be able to do it as God requires
is something else altogether. He would take a perfect trust,
would it not? He would take a perfect love.
He would take a perfect will, a strong will, a strong heart,
a strong soul to do everything perfectly that God requires of
you and me to do. Because it's impossible, it's
impossible to know and then after you know, to do it with all your
heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. It's not enough to have preferences. It's not enough to have personal
convictions. All of us have personal convictions. It's not enough to walk in the
light that we have. That's not enough. It's not enough
until we know from the book what God requires and then do it with
all our hearts. I was reading Adam Clark. He lived a couple hundred years
ago. He was a commentator. Armenian commentator. Rank Armenian. And I was reading him on 1 Timothy
chapter 1 where Paul said, the law is not made for a righteous
man, but for the lawless. And Mr. Clark said that meant,
and this may be what he said, he said it literally says, the
law does not lie against a righteous man. The law is not against a
righteous man, a believer. But then he gave his reason why
the law was not against a righteous man. He said because a righteous
man never transgresses the law. Brothers, let me ask you. Sisters,
let me ask you just a pointed question. Do you break the law? Are you a lawbreaker? Have you loved God perfectly? Have you obeyed Him perfectly? Have you ever had a thought that
was beneath His glory and His dignity? I would say this. There's not
a one of us that have yet did that one time in our life. I tell you, I admire Adam. We
look back as our first father came from the hands and breath
of his creator and how holy he was. There was a man that could
do what God commanded him to do. God made him that way. But Adam failed in it. You and
I are not what we used to be. We're fallen now. We live, we're
born and we live and we die with these fallen natures and none
of us are capable of knowing and then doing what God commands
us to do. I say unto you, I have never
met a man that confessed and been honest about it that not
one time he reached this pinnacle that he loved God as God required
him in his law to love. If you're here tonight and that's
you, I tell you, you're a unique person. You're so unique that
the Bible knows nothing about you. Because the Bible says all
of us have sinned. There's not a just man upon this
earth that doeth good perfectly and continually and never sins. And think of this, if we ever
did reach this point, that we could love God as the law commanded
us to do, You have to continue. It's not
enough to do it one time. Cursed is the man who does not
continue every moment, every hour of every day, every year
of his life. What if we could come to this
point, one time, that we reach that place, we perfectly understand
God and His will and His ways and His laws, and we reach that
pinnacle with all our beings and all our strength, we love
Him. And we could continue that way. That's just supposed we
could do that. But what about all that life that we lived up
until that time? What about all those sins that
were following us? We're not what we used to be.
And Paul said, listen, until you've reached the place that
you've kept the law of God perfectly, he said, you can't be justified
by it. And here you and I are, brothers
and sisters, looking around us at our co-workers. We listen
to them on radio preach. We come and hear them in the
pulpits. We talk to our neighbors. And
you and I are surrounded with a humanity that is cursed under
this broken law. Paul gives another reason in
verse 11 why we cannot be justified by the works of the law, not
only because of the strictness of the law and our utter inability,
but God never purposed to save a man that way. Some will say,
if God had not purposed to save us by our good works, then why
did He give us the law? Well, there's different reasons,
but listen to what Paul said. Look in verse 11. But that no
man is justified 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 these things shall live in them. He said it's
impossible to be saved by religious works, by law keepers, because
God intended all along. to save through faith. We have
a good example of that here in verse 6. Look in verse 6. Even
as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Paul takes this quote from Genesis
chapter 15 and verse 6. You're familiar with that. The
Lord appeared to Abraham and he said, Abraham, I'm your reward. I'm your shield. And Abraham
said, Lord, what will you give me? What are you going to give
me? I don't have a child. And the Lord said to him, He
said, I'm going to give you a son. And I'm going to so prosper him
that I'm going to make your seed, your posterity as the stars of
heaven. And it was on a clear night and
he said, Abraham, look up into the sky. And you see all those
stars? If you can count those stars,
then you can count your Prosperity you can count your children And
you know what the very next verse said Abraham believed in the
Lord He believed in the goodness of the Lord. He believed in the
faithfulness of the Lord. He believed in the grace of His
Lord. He believed in the Lord and the
Lord counted that to Him for righteousness. And here Paul
comes and says that's the very way that God had purposed to
save all along. And God sent His blessed Son
and met all the demands of this law that was upon us and cursed
us. And God raised Him from the dead
and set Him at His right hand. And now God turns to us and He
said, Here is life. Here is salvation. Here is righteousness. Believe Me and be saved. And when we do that, we find
out. That's the very way God had purposed it all along. So
first, what do we have? Men are under this broken commandment.
They're under this broken law and they're cursed. Don't that
need to be emphasized in our day? I think that needs to be
emphasized. We're fallen. We live among a fallen humanity,
but God has not relaxed His requirements. A fellow called some guy to fix
his roof, put a new roof on his house, and he come dog drunk.
He come drunk. He couldn't get up on the roof.
That guy ran him off. What did you do him that way
for? I hired him to put a roof on. But he's drunk, he couldn't.
Was that my fault? Our inability does not excuse
our responsibility. Oh, I'm falling now. Why are
we falling? Sin. And God is not going to lax His
standard, is He? If we're under the law, we're
under the curse. Secondly, here's the second thing
the Apostle Paul wants to emphasize to them, and it's this, the substitutionary
death of the Son of God, bearing the curse of His people. Look
in verse 13. 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. In verse 10 we read,
everyone that's cursed, cursed is everyone that continueth not.
And then we see here the end of that curse. What's the consequences
of not continuing in everything that God requires us to do? Cursed
on a tree. Cursed on a tree. You and I have
not continued. So hear Jesus, the blessed Son
of God, hangs cursed in our stead. Here's what we earned. Here's
what we deserved. To be cursed of God upon a tree. But now the Son of God, Paul
tells us, He stands here and He suffers that curse. He endears
that curse. Yea, He's made a curse in our
place, in our stead. Oh, I tell you, when you and
I watch the Son of God come into this world from the womb of His
mother, and we hear Him say, Lo, I come, I delight to do Thy
will, O my God. And we watch Him as He grows
up, twelve years old, and His heart is filled with the knowledge
of God's will. Twelve years old. I'm 62 and
I know so little. He's 12 and he knew God perfectly. He knew what his Father had sent
him for. I must be about my Father's business. You're 12 years old. How do you
know the Father's business? Because I know His mind. I know
His heart. I know His will. I know Him perfectly. I know His law. I know what it
requires. I know what kind of heart it
takes to keep it. And you watch Him every step
of the way as He lives His life, as He goes in and about, in and
out among His family, doing His work until He begins His ministry
and He begins to preach and healing all that was oppressed of the
devil. And everything He does, every motive He had, every word
He speaks, the Father looks upon Him and says, I'm well pleased
in you. My heart is wrapped up in you. This is what I meant for humanity
to be. To love me, to honor me in all
their motives, in all their words, in all their deeds. And that's
all He did all of His life. Oh, He knew the mind of God.
He knew the will of God. And He lived it. Don't you admire
Him? Oh, in his life! Peter, that
knew him better than anybody. He said, I'm telling you, there's
no guile in his mouth. He knew no sin. He could not
sin. He was the holy thing. From his
mother's womb to the tomb, he was that holy thing. But you
know, that's not enough, is it? That's not enough. Somebody had to burn. The curse
of that broken law. It had been offended. It had
cursed because of disobedience. And now the penalty must be born. That's what He's doing on the
cross. That's why He's made a curse. He's made a curse for us. And
there He hangs. And there justice stands before
the cross with His sword drawn high, frowning upon Him. And
the sun hides. And the angels flee. And the
Father Himself turns His face away. And justice begins to examine
And what it finds is horrifying. With that omnipotent eye, it
sees every sin of every age, of every elect person. And where does it find this sin?
No longer on them. But it sees it in that one hanging
on the tree. He discovers all sorts of sin. And what does he do? He begins
to smite. He begins to smite. Oh, he finds
Peter's sin of denial. He smites it. He punishes it
to death. He searches until he finds that
Samaritan's woman's sin of adultery and he smites it and he punishes
it to death. And what does the Lord Jesus
do? He groans. Oh, he says, my sin. Oh, you've
known my sin. My foolishness. You know my foolishness. He takes this and he makes them
his own. And justice says, you've owned
them. Now stand responsible. And he
smites him. And he smites him. And he smites him, Don, until
there's no sin left to be smitten. Justice searches out every crack
and every crevice. Every sin that's been put upon
the body and in the soul of God's Son, hanging upon the cross,
and just a smite until one tremendous blow, He kills the humanity of
the Son of God. But just about the time He kills
His humanity, the sword reaches His divinity, and He drops it
to His side, dripping in blood, and says, There's no more wrath left in
me. I'm satisfied. It's finished. I'll never curse
again. The payment that I demanded has
been paid, and it's been paid in full. Christ was made a curse. Oh, brothers and sisters, is
that not so? Is there anybody that has any
legitimate concerns about it all that's not satisfied? God is satisfied. The Holy Spirit
is satisfied. Christ is satisfied. Saints in
heaven is satisfied. Are you satisfied? Oh, He said it's finished. Christ
was made a curse. Christ was made a curse. Oh,
who can begin to enter into the depths of that? Everything that
we were, He was made. Everything that was ours became
His. Everything we deserved, He bought. Christ was made a curse. Well, thirdly, that leads us
to this. A complete redemption from the
curse. See what He says? In verse 13,
the first part of that, Christ hath redeemed us. Brother Don said last night,
when you read a statement like this, take it for what it says. And carry it just as far as your
faith can carry. How far do we carry this statement,
brothers and sisters? Christ hath redeemed us. Hopefully, hopefully, maybe,
we'll have to wait and see. Christ by His being cursed made
it possible. Oh, that's where we get in trouble,
isn't it? If He only made it possible,
brothers and sisters, then take your free will. Take your works
of the law. Do the best that you can. But if He finished redemption,
if He accomplished redemption upon the cross, if every sin
that He bore was punished in Him, then throw all your doing
down and cast yourself upon Jesus Christ and say, He's done it
all. He's done it all. I'll simply
embrace His fullness into all my emptiness. He's done it all. I'm satisfied. Aren't you satisfied? Oh, you're satisfied. I can tell
some of you are satisfied. It's on your faces. You just
want to see Him more, don't you? Brothers and sisters, if I thought
for a minute that Jesus Christ could be cursed for a man, then
that man would be cursed too. I'd quit preaching. I'd quit preaching. If I believed
for a minute that the devil in hell will lift up one single
soul for whom Jesus Christ bore their sins. I'd be so ashamed
to preach. Can you imagine the devil finding
one soul in hell for whom Jesus Christ died? Oh, wouldn't he
use him for a trophy? He'd hold him up. Look what I've
got. Look what I've got. Don't this take the edge off?
He would say. Oh, I've got one for whom the
Son of God died. He bled. He shed His blood. And
I got Him. I got Him. It'll never happen. Oh, the shame that would fill
heaven. The tears that would be shed
in heaven. There's something more important
than our salvation. Did you know that? That's the glory of God's Son.
Let me perish in hell before He'll lose His redeeming glory.
And if He lost one for whom He died, we could not read this
passage of Scripture. He hath redeemed us. He's not redeemed everybody,
but He's redeemed us. Bless His name. Lastly, look
at this one. In verse 14, Paul tells us that
every blessing flows to sinners through this redemption, through
this blood. If sin was punished there at
the cross, you know something? It's going to be forgiven in
time. If sin was purged at the cross,
and the Bible says it was, the conscience is going to be purged
in time. Every blessing that God has for
a poor, elect sinner is going to come to that sinner through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here He tells us in verse
14, when He says that Christ was made a curse for us, that
He might redeem us from the curse of the law, Then he tells us
the reason that the blessing that God promised to Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. And what is that
blessing? That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. You know if you
have the Spirit of Christ in your heart, you've got every
blessing. You've got every blessing. The
seed of it's there, isn't it? He's the earnest of our inheritance. You can't have the Spirit of
Christ and not be forgiven. You can't have the Spirit of
Christ and not have life. You can't have the Spirit of
Christ and not be justified, not be righteous. If you have
the Spirit that bears witness with your spirit, your children
of God, then you're blessed. You're blessed. Look what he says in chapter
4, and I'll look at this and we'll close. Look in chapter
4 of Galatians. In verse 4, Paul goes back to
what he's been talking about in chapter 3. But when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, that's what we're talking about, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons, and because your sons God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, Father,
Father, Father. Wherefore, you are no more a
servant, but a son. And look at this, and if a son,
then an heir of God through Christ. That's the blessing. That's the
blessings that's coming to all of God's elect through the blood
of Christ. We're made sons. We receive the
spirit of adoption. And because you're sons, you're
heirs of God. The Father put everything into
the hands of His Son. He said, I love my Son and I've
given everything unto Him. And the Bible turns right around
and says that you're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. All that belongs to Jesus Christ,
brothers and sisters, belongs to you. Isn't that amazing? And it all comes through this
precious blood. He paid for it all. He's the channel to which it
all, you say, I feel so unworthy. We are unworthy, but that has
nothing to do with it. He's worthy and we're heirs of
God. Can you imagine that? Just think
on that. Heirs of God. Everything that
God can make. And what can the All-Wise God
and Almighty God make? A new heaven and a new earth?
What will it be like? Who knows? But you're going to
inherit it. Everything that God can make,
it's going to be yours. So freely through Christ. But
you know I think this means more than just inheriting everything
God has. I think it means inheriting God
Himself. Don read my scriptures last night.
I had a bunch of scriptures. He just kept on. I thought, well,
he surely won't quote another one of them. He just kept on
quoting my scripture. Listen to this. Listen to this. The children of God will inherit
God. Listen to Psalm 16.5. The Lord
is the portion of mine inheritance. My poor dad died, bless his heart.
He left us and the kids everything he had. I can't speak for the
rest of my kids, but it didn't take me long to spend all of
mine. You inherit God. All that God
is, that is all that He's able to communicate of Himself to
you through His Son, Come thou into the joy of the
Lord. Inherit my joy. Filled with the
joy of the Lord. Filled with peace. Filled with
love. Can you imagine what it will
be to be filled with the Spirit of God? I know what it is just a little
bit for Him to bear witness with my spirit. I know what it is
to be utterly weak and Him come to my heart and strengthen me,
give me strength to get by. And to just have a small amount
of Him, the strength, the joy, the peace, what will it be like? To be filled not only in your
new soul, but a glorified body. To be filled with the Spirit
of God. The fullness of God. To inherit
God. What in the world will that be
like? Heirs of God. And where did we
start? We started as just poor cursed
sinners. Under the curse of a broken law.
Then we saw ourselves redeemed in the Beloved. And all these
blessings coming to Him, coming to us through Him. Bless His
name. Bless His name.