I'm very keenly aware of the
fact that I'm here today to preach to you who soon must meet God
in judgment. Eternity bound sinners who soon
must meet the holy Lord God in judgment. Perhaps a bit more aware than
I might otherwise be, because last Sunday night I got a call
from my oldest sister, Jean. Many of you have met her. She
told me that our youngest sister's youngest child had hanged herself. She'd been in prison for the
last couple of years and not likely ever to get out. She committed suicide Friday
night. And in hell suffers the just
right wrath of a holy God that you must suffer if you meet God
outside Christ. Immediately, obviously, I was
crushed with anguish for my sister, her family, and for her child
in hell. I was overwhelmed at the same
time with unspeakable gratitude to God for his free, sovereign, distinguishing
grace upon me. of all the members of my earthly
family, I should be in prison or in hell and would be in prison
or in hell had not God by his grace stepped into my life, stopped
me in my mad rush to damnation arrested me by His grace and
given me faith in His Son. That's what I want for you. That's what I want for you. Those are the things that have
been on my mind all week. The next day I began preparing
this message. I believe the Spirit of God has
given me a word for you. Turn with me for Will to Galatians
chapter 3. The title of my message is Cursed,
Redeemed, Blessed. redeemed, blessed. These are three states of existence
in which all of God's elect live. We were cursed. We have been
redeemed. We are blessed. Cursed, redeemed,
blessed. Galatians 3.13. 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, 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 read the text as it stands. Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, our
Savior, God's darling Son, has completely, fully, effectually
redeemed us. He's redeemed us from the curse
of the law. He did this by being himself
made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. He did this. He was made a curse
for us. He died under the wrath of God
in our stead, redeeming us from our sins and from the curse of
the law for this purpose. that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles, that is come on God's elect scattered
among all the nations of the world through Jesus Christ. And this gift, this blessing
of Abraham is brought to us by God's free grace that we might
receive the promise of the spirit through faith, through faith
in Jesus Christ. The law of God is holy. and just
and good. But the law can never produce
good in us. It cannot save. It cannot justify. It cannot give life. It cannot
sanctify. It cannot make us in a righteous.
It cannot bless. The law is administration of
death. Just death. It genders bondage,
only bondage. The law exposes sin, identifies
sin. It declares guilt. It curses
and condemns. The law cursing and condemning
the guilty constantly ministers death. It genders bondage, but
never liberty. It condemns, but never blesses.
If we're to be saved, If you're to be saved, justified, made
righteous before God, and blessed of God, there is no blessing
of God else than this. Understand me now. There is no
other blessing of God but this. Everything outside this is God
heaping wrath upon you. Everything outside this will
be your everlasting damnation. Everything outside this will
cause you misery in hell. There is no blessing but only
a curse from God outside the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. God Almighty saves sinners by
Christ from the broken law that we have broken, the broken law
that condemns us, the curse of his broken law, and the justly
fully deserved wrath of God upon all who violate his law. Now,
I want to show you these three things from our text. First,
our text speaks of God's elect as a people. who were once under
the curse of the law. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
I'm going to tell you something. I want you to listen to me. If
you're living in a refuge of lies, I want Bobby to destroy
it before you meet God. Are you listening to me? If you've
never been cursed, you've never been saved. If you've never been cursed,
you've never been saved. All God's elect are a people
who were once under the curse of the law. You see, this is
the state of nature, the state of condemnation for all Adam's
race by nature. The curse of the law is God's
sentence upon the guilty. It is the utterance of his holy
anger. God speaks in accordance with
His holy law. He always speaks in accordance
with His holy law. The curse of the law is God's
curse. It is the proclamation of God's
damnation. It is written in the law, the
soul that sinneth, it shall die. Back up to verse 10 here in Galatians
3. Cursed. Cursed. Is everyone that continueth not
in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them? Cursed. Cursed are you who try
to live a good life. Cursed are you who go to church
and read your Bible. Cursed are you who live a morally
upright life. Cursed are you who endeavor to
treat all men good and live by the golden rule. Cursed! For
cursed is everyone who does not keep every precept of the law
perfectly. And you don't come close. Brother
Don, are you saying good works won't do me any good? None at
all. None at all. Are you saying that a man who
lives a good, moral, upright, religious life will meet God
in judgment and go to hell just like a profligate infidel? Exactly the same. You mean my
good feelings about God and my good feelings about Jesus won't
make any difference? None at all! Curse it! Curse it! Curse it! Is every one that continueth
not all the time from your first breath to your last breath and
all things written in the book of the law to do them. If you're
holy, Perfectly holy without sin or any deviation of any kind
from the will and glory of God revealed in this book You have
nothing to fear from God Nothing to fear from his law but if there's
any sin any deviation any missing the mark any iniquity any transgression
any Any fault, any failure, any weakness of character, any weakness
of heart, any defilement of nature, any! You're cursed. You understand
that? Cursed. Cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law.
And that means you're cursed, for there is none that doeth
good, no, not one. There is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Oh, my soul. If you had any understanding
of what I'm saying, any at all, you'd tremble in your soul where
you sit. But I can't make you to know
you're cursed. I can't convince you. I can't. All the argument in the world
won't convince you. You can go out and commit murder in the
morning and you'll still think you're good. You won't be convinced
you're cursed. You'll still think you're better
than other folks. Every woman in here could become
a prostitute tonight and you'd still think you're doing good.
You still think there's something good in you. I can't convince
you of your guilt and your sin. Can't be done not by a man. Not
by a man. I could terrify you, but I can't
convince you of anything. Will you hear God speak? He that
believeth on Christ is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. Condemned already. Because he
hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Condemned because of this condemnation. Light is coming to the world.
And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil Christ the light of the world that lights every man
coming into the world giving him the light of nature and of
conscience So that he's condemned in his soul. He's guilty and
he knows it but it won't come to the light and you who Hear
the gospel of God's free grace you you have the Word of God
Most of you got several copies laying around the house and never
bothered to open it and read it. Because you love darkness rather
than light. You hear the gospel preached,
faithfully declared, but you love darkness rather than light.
And you're condemned. Because we're all born sinners,
we're children of wrath by nature. Wrathful children, God-hating,
wicked, vile wretches under a conscious sense of guilt and wrath because
of a conscious sense of our sin. Turn to Romans chapter one for
a moment. I was asked the other day, older
couple, very, very nice people about, well, what about the heathen
who never heard the gospel? I said, they're lost. And they responded, you don't
mean that. You don't mean that. Well, why else would we send
missionaries to them? If they're saved, go bomb them before they
learn anything. They're lost. How can that be? Because they
refuse to walk in the light that God's given them. And the same
is true of you. You who believe not. Romans chapter
1 verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now somewhere you ought to write
in the margin of your Bible if you haven't done this already. That
word hold means suppress. They hold down. Hold down. Hold it down. Some of you have
been listening to me preach for 30 years and you've been holding
down everything you hear. Hold it down. Well, the natural
man holds down what he knows by nature, by reason, by creation. He holds it down and he screams,
I don't believe in God. I don't believe in heaven. I
don't believe in hell. I don't believe in eternity. And the
louder he screams, the more he's trying to hold down what he knows
is so. Hold it down. You mean there's
no such thing as an atheist? No. No, they're just folks who
pretend they are. And by that they try to silence
their own guilty consciences. Because, verse 19, that which
may be known of God is manifest in them. Is manifest in them. God was manifest in the flesh,
Lindsay read to us earlier. Manifest. God openly appeared
in the flesh. And that which may be known of
God has openly appeared to all men by nature. Read on. For the
invisible things, for God has shown it unto them, for the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.
What things? These things that may be known
by nature and are known by nature. They're being understood by the
things which are made. His eternal power and Godhead. That's the reason no matter where
you go in history, no matter how barbaric the tribes, no matter
how learned or unlearned, all men have a sense of God, a God
consciousness, and do something to make sacrifices to God and
appease God. You have seen on the History
Channel, Discovery Channel, whether Larry had been down there with
me in New Mexico, I don't think. Did you go see some of the ruins
while you were in Mexico, though? The Mayan ruins. climb up on those
high pyramids they've got down there. And you know what they
did there? They sacrificed young virgins.
If they couldn't arrest, if they couldn't capture yours, they
sacrificed their own daughters to atone for sin. Oh, nobody
would do that. Oh, you get a sense of guilt
and you will. You get a sense of hell and you will. You see,
men know that God is holy, that God demands righteousness, that
God will punish sin because God's law is written on their hearts
by nature. Man, by nature knows that adultery
is wrong, and fornication is wrong, and murder is wrong, and
stealing is wrong, and all those things. Men by nature know that.
That's when they make laws everywhere in society, in any society against
such things, and demand punishment. And yet they refuse to walk in
the light of that which God has revealed by nature. The cause
of sin, the curse of the law, the curse of God is upon all
men by nature. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The law is justice. And justice
is blind. Those images of the lady with
the balances got a blindfold on. The reason for that is justice
is blind. Now, what men pretend is justice
is not blind. If you think justice is blind,
watch what happens with Jonathan Edwards when they get done. If
you think justice is blind, If you think justice is blind, watch
a rich fellow and a poor fellow get arrested for the same crime
and see which one gets off. If you think justice is blind,
no, justice as we practice it is not blind. But God's justice,
Skip Gladfelter, is blind. It gives no consideration to
your age or your circumstances or your learning or your ignorance. It gives no consideration to
your environment. He gives no thought to any external
excuses that men may raise. Justice says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. And with cold, passionless determination
and doggedness, justice says, you must die. The wages of sin
is death. Thou shalt surely die. What is that death that's passed
upon all men because all have sinned? What is that death that
the law of God coldly, without passion or feeling, justly pronounces
upon the guilty? It is a death that involves the
fury of God's wrath. It's a death that involves shame
and bondage, darkness and unrest. The dead are shut out, unaccepted
and unacceptable. Death is banishment, exile, deprivation
of good, deprivation of happiness, deprivation of life. This death. This death that the law requires
to be a just wage for our sin, that which is right and just
for you, that which is right and just for me, to suffer at
the hands of God is spiritual death. When Adam sinned in the garden
and we sinned in Adam, we suffered spiritual death. So that man created body, soul,
and spirit, suffered death in his spirit. He has no life toward
God. No life in union with God. No life in communion with God. No knowledge of God. No perception
of anything about God that's right. He's dead, spiritually
dead. This death is death to all things
spiritual and to all things truly living. The sentence of death
involves the suffering and death of this physical body. Bob had that rotting leg cut
off Thursday. We've watched him suffer with
it for years and we've hurt for him. That rotting leg was cut
off. You know why it was rotting?
Because it's a body that had lived to serve sin and rebel
against God, just like yours. You know why your body is rotting
with age and soon must die? Because with these bodies, we
have served sin. And sin must be punished. And
God will punish these bodies with physical death. And what
a long, torturous process that is. Children are born spiritually
dead. And you think, oh, they're getting
on in life now. Look at our children and grandchildren.
Getting old. Man, my daughter's middle-aged
now. Is she gonna live to be 80? She's middle-aged now. Getting on in life. Well, sort
of. Getting along in death. You're going to the grave, Don
Renari. This body, strong as it appears
now, is as frail as dust in the air. You're going to the grave
because that's right! It's right that sinners die. It's right. But this death is
also eternal death. John describes it, Revelation
20, verse six, as the second death. A death of body and soul forever. suffering the fury of God's just
anger and wrath forever. Because it's right. Because it's right. Are you listening
to me? Are you listening to me? If you
go to hell, it'll be right. If you go to hell, it'll be right.
It'll be right. God is the judge of all the earth
who must do right. And he does right. I'll weep
for you. My heart will break for you as
I preach your funeral. But if you go to hell, I won't
question God. It'll be right. It'll be right. And I won't pretend otherwise.
It'll be right. What is hell? Thank God I don't have any idea. Your worst imaginations haven't
come close. The fire of hell, somebody says,
is it real? It's worse than that. I don't doubt at all. Real fires
for real bodies in real hell. But the fires of hell are more
than a flame that you feel with your fingers. It's a flame in
your soul. A burning in your conscience. Darkness forever with no light. Guilt forever with no relief. Increasing guilt because of increasing
sin. Forever you'll go to hell cussing
God and forever cuss God. Forever crying, no God, no God,
no God. Pouring out his wrath upon you
all the more exceedingly. Spend eternity in hell with myriads,
totally isolated and alone. No companion, no company. Shut
out from God, shut out from light, shut out from life. And I don't have any idea what
that is. It's everlasting death. Such
dying that men will cry that they might be permitted to die.
and never die. That's the state of all men by
nature. That's where you were, my brother, when God snatched you out of
the pit by his grace. That's where you were, my sister,
when God intervened in your life. and gave you life and faith in
Jesus Christ. Cursed. But blessed be God. Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law. Our Redeemer is the Son of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, our near kinsman who became bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh, who willingly came here to redeem
us because of his honor for God and his law, his righteousness
and his truth, because of his great love for us. He willingly
came here as our substitute. He is able to redeem because
this man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, this holy man, this man who knew
no sin and did no sin, this man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is
himself God Almighty, God in the flesh. And his Godhead gives
merit and efficacy to all his humanity and to all his work.
Oh, is that good news or what? Now watch this. Christ hath redeemed
us. When he died upon the cursed
tree, our Lord Jesus actually redeemed somebody. Here Paul
says he redeemed the people called us. I take that to mean that
he did not redeem those people who were not redeemed. He did
not redeem those people who go to hell anyway. Oh, no. To suggest
such a thing is to declare that what Christ came to do, He failed
to do. It is to declare that He is a
failure, not God. But Christ hath redeemed us. Who? Who are these us He's redeemed? They're God's elect. They're
God's elect. He came here to redeem those
chosen of the Father. These who are called us, they
are those sinners in this world for whom the Lord Jesus prayed.
There are some for whom he prayed those who shall believe on me
and some for whom he refused to pray He said I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou has given me Who are these
us for whom the Lord Jesus died us whom he redeemed turn to John
chapter 6 I'll show you John the sixth chapter Those that Christ redeemed are
those the father gave him to redeem before the world began
in electing love. And those the father gives him
in the saving operations of his grace and effectual calling.
John chapter six, verse 37. Look at the Savior's words. All
that the father giveth me. Most of last night through the
night, I kept waking up praying for you. calling your names before
God, praying that God might be pleased to give you to His Son
today. That's present tense. Giveth. Oh, may God now give
you to His Son in the saving operations of His grace. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. I bid you come to
Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus. If
the Father gives you to Him right now, you'll come to Him. And
Him that cometh to me, whoever you are, whatever you've been,
whatever you've done, whatever you are, Him that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. They'll never be lost, Tom, for
any reason. Not by any means. Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out for I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me and
this is the will of him that sent me this is the father's
will which has sent me that of all watch this now which he hath
given me that took place a long time ago they were all given
to him at one time in the past in eternity before the world
was made given into his hands I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
Him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth
on Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the
last day. Who are these us? They are the
men and women, the sinners in this world, who believe on the
Lord Jesus, who receive Him. You trust Him. This old woman asked me the other
day, she said, how can I know that I'm one of God's elect? I said, trust Him. Trust Him. And then she didn't seem to hear
me. She said, how can you be sure you're one of God's elect?
I said, I believe on the Son of God. I believe on the Son
of God. I trust the Lord Jesus. He that
believeth that Jesus is the Christ, he's born of God. And I know,
David Colbert, that I'm chosen and redeemed because God's given
me faith in his Son. I wouldn't have it if he hadn't
chosen me and redeemed me. How did the Savior redeem us?
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. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God,
was made sin for us. And when he was made sin, he
was justly cursed. God's darling son. God's darling son. Fully deserved the hell he suffered
upon the curse tree. It was right, Larry, for him
to suffer. It was right because he was made sin. He was made sin. It is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. You find that in Deuteronomy
21. Quite literally, the passage
falls, quoting, reads, he that is hanged upon the tree is the
curse of God. This word redeemed means to deliver. To deliver by price and to deliver
by power. It has the idea of deliverance
of lawful captives. Our Lord Jesus delivered us from
all that which the law subjected us. He delivered us from all bondage
and exile and imprisonment and shame. and misery, and darkness,
and woe, and wrath, and death, and hell. From all the claims of justice,
He delivered us completely and freely. He delivered us by a
lawful and just purchase. There was a heavy price on our
heads. The law demanded satisfaction
and Christ gave it. He coined the ransom money in
his own precious blood and paid our ransom price. Our Lord Jesus
took our place, bore all our sin and bore all our guilt, endured
all our curse and satisfied all the wrath and justice of God.
And He did it all by Himself. When He was made sin for us,
the curse that was ours fell on Him, and He was made the curse. Made the curse. And God Almighty,
in all the fury of holy justice, poured out all His curse upon His Son, and now I have
none." No curse, no condemnation. As Hosea went down and purchased
Gomer, So our Lord Jesus purchased us with the silver of his sweat
and the gold of his blood. Redemption from the curse of
the law is deliverance by Christ crucified. Deliverance by a penal
substitute. Deliverance by the crucified
lamb of God. So that now in Christ Jesus,
there is no condemnation and no possibility of any condemnation
to them that believe on the son of God. Redemption makes us just and
righteous and makes it a just and righteous thing for God Almighty
to declare us just and righteous. It is now just for God to justify
the ungodly. It's fact. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, brings the law over to our side. It brings the law over to our
side. The law that said concerning
Don Fortner, damned, damned, forever damned, to hell he must
go. That very same law now says concerning
Don Fortner. Righteous! Righteous! Righteous! Forever life he must have. Justice demands it. For there
is no sin in him. No sin upon him. No guilt as
his. Christ took it all and put it
all away. And he did this. That we might
receive the blessing of Abraham. Look at our text. 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. The blessing of Abraham Now you've heard all your life
about God's blessing on the Jews. Well, I'm here to tell you it's
even better than you ever heard. Better than you ever heard. You
see, the Jews are not Abraham's physical seed. They're just outward
Jews. They are just typical of another
people. Abraham's seed are those who are Christ, who is Abraham's
seed. The blessing of Abraham is God's
blessing through Abraham's seed upon all the nations of the earth.
That is upon his elect wherever they're found in all the earth.
We receive now the blessing of Abraham through Jesus Christ
because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And
the blessing of Abraham is not a temporary blessing of land
over in Palestine. It's an everlasting blessing
of grace upon a new heavens and a new earth. It's everlasting
salvation. This blessing of Abraham is received
through Jesus Christ. Read on. That we might receive
the promise of the Spirit. The promise of the Spirit. The
seal of the Spirit. You were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise after that you believed. That is, believing
on Christ, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of
promise. Now, some folks say that's the
second work of grace. You know better. You know better.
No, no. That's God's work and grace in
you. working grace in you so that he seals to you all his
covenant blessings. He comes and causes you in your
heart to lift your heart to heaven. Oh, I pray you can right now.
Look God in the face and cry, my father. Oh, God is my father. I know it because
the seal of the spirit. He testifies it, giving me faith
in his son. The seal of the spirit was symbolized
in the Old Testament by circumcision. That's what circumcision portrayed.
Circumcision was a cutting of the flesh. The new birth is circumcision
made in the heart without hands by God, the Holy Spirit. Circumcision
was a painful thing. And the new birth is a painful
thing. The first thing you find in the new birth is conviction.
A sense of guilt. You find yourself a sinner before
God. And that's a painful thing. Circumcision
was an identifying mark. The Jews were known as Jews as
God's covenant people by circumcision. And God's elect are known when
God puts a mark in them. And the mark he puts in them
is the new birth, his son, Christ Jesus formed in you by the spirit
of God. And the mark in the flesh was
permanent. It was permanent. And that mark
in the flesh called circumcision was a mark of promise. I'm one
of Abraham's sons. That means I'm going to Canaan.
I'm one of Abraham's sons. That means Abraham's inheritance
is mine. Abraham been dead a long time ago. But God promised him
something. And God promised it to me as
his son. Now listen to me. I'm one of
Abraham's son. That means I'm going to Canaan.
I'm going to glory. The inheritance is mine. How
do you know? Look at the very last thing.
Through faith. Through faith. Through faith. Through faith. You mean our faith
makes us Abraham's sons? No. But you'll never know you're
one without faith. You mean our faith makes us righteous?
No. Christ did that. But you'll never
have righteousness without faith. You mean faith causes us to have
the Spirit of God? No. Having the Spirit of God
causes you to have faith. But having faith is fruit of
the Spirit, evidence of life. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I bid you then, come
to Christ. Oh, come to Christ, come to Christ,
come to Christ. And go to glory. Come to Christ
and life eternal is yours. Believe on the Son of God and
you have escaped the wrath of God and you have life everlasting. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. God help you to believe. Amen.