Galatians chapter 3, let's begin
reading here in verse 6. Galatians 3 and verse 6. Even
as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness,
know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham. And the scripture 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. 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 might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith, even as Abraham believed God."
Abraham. I looked up his name, and it's
listed 285 times in the Bible. His name is mentioned more times
in the Bible than anybody else. Of course, the Lord's name. He's
the most popular man in the Old and the New Testament. Very highly
spoken of. Very often spoken of. Abraham. The first time we read of circumcision
in the Scriptures, God gave it to Abraham. Circumcise the flesh
of your foreskin. He did it as a token. First man
that was ever circumcised, Abraham was the man. He was the father
of a great nation. Father of many nations. I have
made thee a father of many nations. He is the father of the Jewish
nation. You look, the Lord told him one
day, at the sands of the sea. If you can number the sand that's
by the sea, you've dismembered your earthly inheritance, your
children. Look up in the sky and behold
the stars. If you can number the stars,
you can number your children. I made of you a great nation,
a great nation. He was called the friend of God. James quoted Isaiah 41 and 8. Thou, Israel, art my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend. That's what God said about him. He's my friend. I tell you, if
God says you're my friend, you're somebody, aren't you? You're
somebody. And Abraham was a faithful man.
That's what the Scriptures called him here in the verse I read
to you. He's a faithful man. He's the father of the faithful.
Obedient man. Feared the Lord. Followed the
Lord fully. Take thy son, thine only son
Isaac, and offer him for a burnt offering. And as far as we know,
Abraham never flinched. Never flinched. It took him three
days to get there. And he never flinched. Raised
the knife. Well, James said he offered him,
didn't he? James said he offered his only son upon that altar. He offered him in his heart.
I tell you, he followed the Lord fully. He's a great man, a believer
of the Lord. And where's Abraham at today?
You know where he's at today? He's seated in the kingdom of
God. He's with the Lord. He's at rest. Many shall come
from the east and west and sit down with Abraham in the kingdom
of heaven." I tell you, he's a great man. A great man of God. A lover of the Lord. A friend
of God. And he was a man who was mightily blessed. The Lord
said, I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless thee. I'll
make your name great. I'll bless them that bless you.
And I'll curse them that curse thee. I'll multiply you exceedingly,
and I'll bless you. I will bless you. He's a great
man. How was this man saved? How was
this man justified? Where did he get his righteousness?
He's a righteous man. Where did he get his righteousness?
How was he cleared from all charges that could ever be brought against
him? Well, we're told right here in this verse I read to you.
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. That's how he was justified.
That's how he was counted righteous before God. He believed God. What saith the Scripture? Abraham
believed God. Now if he's justified by works,
he had world to glory. And I'm telling you, he had some
works. But he wasn't justified by those
words, was he? He had justified before you and me. He had justified
before Isaac and justified before his servants. When he said, I
believe God, they said, we know you believe God. We know you're
a believer of God. Everything he did, he did because
he believed God. But that wasn't the way he had
justified before God by what he did, but who he believed.
I believe God. Look over here with me where
that's written as. Here in Galatians chapter 3 and verse
6, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Look over here in Genesis chapter 15 where Paul quoted that from. He quotes it twice and I want
to show you both places. He quotes this here and he quotes
it again over in Romans and he makes a point with this. Here
in Genesis chapter 15, here is where Paul got that from. Genesis 15, and look here in
verse 1. After these things the word of
the Lord came unto Abram in a vision. Abraham. His name later was changed
to Abraham. And the Lord said, Fear not,
Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram
said, O Lord God, what wilt thou give me? seeing I go childless,
and the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, to me
thou hast given no seed, no child, and no one born in my house is
my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, But he that
shall come forth of thine own body shall be thine heir. And
he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven,
and tell the stars, if you be able to number them. And he said,
So shall thy seed be. And look in verse 6, And he believed
the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Lord,
I believe you. I don't have a son, but if you
say I'm going to have one, I believe you. I don't have any grandchildren,
but if you tell me my children are going to be as the stars
of heaven, I believe you." And the Lord said, you're a righteous
man. Faith makes a man righteous. And here in the 17th chapter
now, look here in the 17th chapter, The Lord speaks of a covenant
that He makes with Abraham in the 17th chapter. He spoke basically
the same thing. I'll be a God to you, and I'll
bless you, and I'll make of you great nations. And then He comes
over here in verse 9. And God said unto Abraham, Thou
shalt keep my covenant. Therefore thou and thy seed after
them, their generations. This is my covenant. which ye
shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee. Every
man, child, among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise
the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant
between me and between you." So he circumcised him. But let
me ask you this question. Which came first? Was he counted a righteous man? And then circumcised? Or was
he circumcised and counted a righteous man? I say that because that's
what Paul's question was. Look over here in Romans chapter
4. Look here what Paul says. Let's
begin here in verse 1 and read it. Here's what Paul said. He
makes a point of this. For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath wore off to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
works not, but simply believes on him that justifies the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David describes the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now look at verse 9. Paul said,
Comest this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, upon
those who have been circumcised, or upon the uncircumcision also?
For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
How was it reckoned to him? When he was in circumcision or
in uncircumcision? Well, we read it differently.
In the fifteenth chapter, he believed the Lord and he counted
it to him for righteousness. In the seventeenth chapter, he
said, now you'll be circumcised. So Paul said, when was it reckoned
to him? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. So how
was Abraham counted righteous? How was he justified? By faith,
wasn't he? Abraham believed the Lord. He believed God, and he counted
to Him for righteousness. Now look in verse 20 of chapter
4 there. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief. I read that promise to you. You're
going to have a son, and your seed is going to be as the stars
of heaven. He was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform,
and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. It
wasn't written for his sake alone that it's imputed to him, but
for us also, to whom it shall be imputed. You can have righteousness
too. You can be justified too, just
like Abraham was, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. So how was Abraham justified?
How was he made righteous? He believed God, and it was counted
to him for righteousness. Now look back over in our text
again, verse 7. Know ye therefore, that they
which are of faith, those who are justified by believing God,
just like Abraham, those who have righteousness by believing
for it, the same are the children of Abraham. Well, this had to be a blow to
these Jews. And I've often said what Martin
Luther often mentioned in his commentary on the Galatians,
that Paul not only had an eye to encouraging and correcting
these believers, but he had an eye to these false teachers too. These Judaizers that came down
here, these Jews, teaching legalism, keeping the law. He had to make
it a point of cutting off their arguments. And their argument
was this, we're children of Abraham. That was their argument before
the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus said, I speak
that which I've seen with my father, and you do that which
you've seen with your father. And remember what they said to
him? Abraham's our father. And he said, if you were the
children of Abraham, you'd do the works of Abraham. What did
Abraham do? He believed God. He believed
me. He rejoiced to see my day. You
despise me. And you don't believe me. You're
not of your father Abraham. He's not your father. You're
not his children. Only those who are of faith are the children
of Abraham. And verse 7 made the Jews mad.
They said the only way to be a child of Abraham is to be born
in his lineage. That's the only way you can be
a child of Abraham. That's what Paul trusted in before he was
converted, wasn't it? He said, I can trace my lineage
all the way back to Benjamin. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
Benjamin was the son of Jacob, and Jacob was the son of Isaac,
and Isaac was the son of Abraham. And that's what I was trusting
in, he said. And they said the only way to be a child of Abraham
was to be born in his lineage, and to be circumcised, and to
keep the law that God gave to the twelve tribes there upon
Mount Sinai. And Paul sweeps all that away.
Sweeps it all away. And he said, who is the child
of Abraham? Those who believe as Abraham
believed. Those who believe in the Lord, they are the children
of Abraham. And John the Baptist, I looked
at this the other day, and I never had saw this before. But you
know what's amazing? It's amazing how the Scripture
is just one truth, and you find that truth in places you'd never
dream. You know, you think of John the
Baptist. And you wouldn't think of him talking about this, but
he did. The Pharisees came to his baptism
and he was talking about this morning. And he called an old
generation of vipers, who's warned you to flee from the wrath to
come. And he said, don't you fellows begin to think within
yourselves and say, we're children of Abraham. And what was he doing? He was doing the very same thing
that the Apostle Paul was doing. He was cutting them off. from
trusting in being the natural seed of Abraham. He said it won't
do you any good. It won't do you a bit of good
to be born a Jew and trace your lineage back to Abraham. To be
a child of Abraham, you have to be a believer. Those which
be of faith, those are the children of Abraham. And what made those Jews so mad?
They found out they was going to have to count everything lost
and be saved the same way the Gentiles were. And they could
not endure that. We're going to have to be saved
by faith in Christ. That's the only way to be saved.
Boy, that's good news for a poor sinner, eh? That's good news
for a guilty sinner. What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That's not
good news for the self-righteous, but it's good news for poor sinners. In verse 8, the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham, saying unto him, Thee shall all nations
be blessed. The Jews had a problem with salvation
by faith. A lot of people do. But here
was their problem with it. They said, what are we going
to do with the law? What are we going to do about circumcision?
What are we going to do about all these ceremonies? God gave
these to us, and now you tell us we're just going to throw
them away and God's going to change the way in which He justifies
people and saves people? And Paul says to them, go back
430 years before the law, before it was ever given. And you'll
find there how God purposed to justify sinners all along. And
therefore he gives in verse 8, the Scriptures foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen through faith. That's God's purpose. He never intended to save anybody
by the law, did He? God never has intended to save
a single man by the law. It's impossible to save men that
way. That's why Christ had to come. And here in verse 9, so then
they which be of faith are blessed. They which be of faith are blessed.
What are they blessed with? Well, they're blessed with forgiveness
of sins. They're blessed with life eternal.
I believe in Christ, that's a lie. They're justified from all things
from which you cannot be justified by the law of Moses. They have
a righteousness given to them and they have the Spirit of adoption
in their hearts. And it's all by faith and not
by words. Now look over here with me in
chapter 9 of Romans. Old Galatians chapter 3 and look
in Romans chapter 9. Boy, I tell you, you know, we don't
hear about this much even today, do we? I mean, really, really
settle the issue. How does a man justify? And you
just start talking to people. You start talking to religious
people and corner them up here. How are you justified? If God
is holy, and you and I are sinners, and the law demands perfection,
how are you and I justified with God? And boy, see if you can
just... You won't find one in a hundred
people that will say it's by faith alone. It's by faith in
Christ. They cannot stick there. Yeah,
but we've got to do our part. We've got to do something. You
just can't make faith everything. But that's what Paul is proving
here. Faith justifies us. Faith in Christ justifies us.
And people can't believe that and they stumble at it. Now look
here in Romans chapter 9. Look in verse 30. What shall
we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed
not after righteousness, yet they've attained to righteousness.
Even that righteousness which is of faith, just like Abraham,
believe God. But Israel, the Jews, which followed
after the law of righteousness, they've not attained the law
of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. So it's by faith. It's by faith. Just like Abraham believed God.
It's by faith. And those who are blessed, those
who believe are blessed. They're blessed people. Just
as God said, Abraham, I'm going to bless you. And that's the
way God has purposed to save all along and justify. It's by
faith. Now here in Galatians chapter
3, beginning in verse 10, Paul's going to prove to us from these
verses that nobody can be saved by the works of the law, and
he proves it by Scripture. I want you to notice that. Paul
wasn't preaching his personal convictions or some silly notions
that he had cooked up in his head or his opinion, but he quoted
Scripture. You notice there in the beginning
of verse 6, he just kept quoting Scripture, quoting Scripture,
and quoting Scripture. Here in verse 10, here's the
first proof he offers that men cannot be saved, cannot be justified
by keeping the law. And look what he says. For as
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. All
of them. As many. For it is written, Cursed
is everyone. It don't matter who he is. Everyone. without any respect to the person.
The law doesn't look upon a man and see who he is before he judges
him. He sees what he is, what he's done. If he's a righteous
man, a perfect man, he bears witness to that. If he's ever
sinned in one jot or one tip, he curses him. Everybody, anybody,
the Pope, yes, yes. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. Paul is telling us right here
a man cannot be saved by the law. Why? The demands of the
law are too strict. They are too binding. Cursed
is everyone who continueth not in all things. He's not saying here men are
cursed because they don't keep their personal convictions. But they don't keep the law.
It's too strict. It's too binding. I've asked
people. I've asked all kinds of people
this. You keep the law. And you know
the answer I get out of self-righteous people. I almost always get this
answer. No, I don't. But I try. And that's
what they rest in. That's where the hope is. I don't
keep it. Nobody's perfect. But I try.
That's not what the law requires. It requires perfection. When
a man's born into this world, the law looks upon him and says,
you're what I require of you. Don't you fail to keep one jot
or one tittle which is written in the book. And if you don't,
you're cursed. And you not only keep it when
you're a baby, you continue to keep it all the days of your
life until your last breath. All things which are written
in the book. Not my heart, not my personal
opinions and convictions, but what's written in the book. I
don't even know everything that's written in the book, do you?
Then I'm cursed if I'm looking to the law. Peter said, it's a burden which
neither we nor our children, our fathers, were able to bear.
And boy, this made the Jews so mad. The Lord Jesus told them,
He said, you don't keep the law. Stephen told them, you don't
keep the law. They gnashed on him with their
teeth. But that's a fact, isn't it? Why can't men be justified
by keeping the law? It's too strict. It's too binding. And secondly, Paul gives another
reason here. When it comes to justification,
faith and the law are two opposing principles. One is based upon
doing, and one is based upon believing. And these things will
not mix. You cannot mix them. Look what
he says in verse 11. Verse 11 and 12, look what he
says. 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 look what he quickly adds,
and the law is not of that. The man that doeth them shall
live in them. See those two different principles?
Faith is based upon believing what God said. Believing. Believing. Justification by faith is based
upon believing. Justification by the law is based
upon doing. And you can't mix those two.
Faith is not of the law. The law is not of faith. Now
the Jews, some of those Jews in Acts 15, they said, we'll
compromise with you. We'll accept your faith
if you'll accept our law. That's what they said. And we'll
compromise and we'll all be satisfied. There rose up certain of the
set of the Pharisees which believed, saying, You must be circumcised
and keep the law of Moses. See what they tried to do? They
said, Let's mix this. Let's mix them together. You
say you must be justified by faith. We say you must be circumcised
and keep the law of Moses. So let's unite. Let's mix them
up. And we'll both be satisfied.
Paul said, You can't do that. You can't do that. Because the
Scripture says, the just shall live by faith. And the law is
not of faith. You're either justified by doing,
or you're justified by believing. But you can't mix them up. And
that's what everybody's wanting to do today. Just mix this up. There's no difference in our
God and your God. There's no difference in our
Christ and your Christ. There's no difference in our
gospel and your gospel. Let's just all get together and
have peace. Ain't that what they're telling
us? Thirdly, Paul proves this, that
we can't be justified by the law. Here in verse 13. The law is not a bunch of personal
convictions. are traditions, are commandments
of men that you and I need to observe to win God's favor. But the law is God's strict rule,
God's just commandments that you and I must be redeemed from. It's not something we can keep
to win God's favor and to be justified and to be saved. It's
something, if we're going to be saved, we have to be redeemed
from. I'll make this statement. I hope
I'm not misunderstood. But the law is not something
I can keep to be saved. But if I'm saved, it's something
I must be redeemed from. I can't keep it. And you can't keep it. So we must be redeemed from it.
If we don't, we'll perish. It'll curse us. I don't care,
folks, who we are. I don't care what we've accomplished
in this world. The law is no respective person
and he'll curse us and cast us into hell. It has no respective
person. Men will stand there on the Day
of Judgment and say, Have we not done this? And have we not
done that? And the Law will look upon them
and say, Have you been perfect? Has your life upon this earth
been perfect and complete? If not, you stand condemned of
God and worthy of hell's heat. The Law is not something we can
keep, but it's something we must be redeemed from. And how are
we redeemed from it? He tells us here 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
every man that hangeth on a tree. Now when the Scripture says Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law, it's not saying here
that He merely gave His life. It's more than that. It's more
than he'd just given his life. He could have come to this earth
and gave his life while he was in the cradle. He could have finished his earthly
ministry and went somewhere and laid down on a bed and went to
sleep if all it was was just given his life. He redeemed us
from the curse of the law being made a curse. When I look upon that, I see
more than just Christ dying. Just Christ giving Himself a
sacrifice for our sin. Some say that can't be. Some
say all that happened is Christ merely offered Himself to God
as a sacrifice. We know He did that. But when
we read this, that He was made a curse, that's more than just
giving His life, isn't it? There's something involved here.
more than just die. He was made a curse. Listen to
this. Some said, I can't receive that,
but listen how wonderful this is. The Word was made flesh. How can that be? The Word was God and the Word
was made flesh. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son made of a woman. That's mysterious too. God being
made flesh, born of a fallen woman, born of a sinful woman,
and yet not tainted with sin? Never ceased to be what He was,
and yet became something He was not before? That's a mystery
to me. But the Scripture said He was
made. We see Jesus, who was made a
little more than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death." He was more than just dying. He could have fallen asleep. You and I won't taste death. We'll go to sleep. But he never
went to sleep. He tasted death. There is something
to that. He suffered death. He tasted
death. There is more in that than just
that he died. God hath made him to be sin for
us. God hath made Christ to be a
curse for us. Why were we cursed? Because we were lawbreakers and
the law cursed us. Were we really cursed? Were we really cursed? Cursed
is everyone who continueth not. Had you not continued? No. Then
you were cursed. Then He was made what we were. to deliver us in a just manner,
he must be made what we were. This couldn't be that God looked
upon him and treated him as if he was accursed. The Bible doesn't
say that. Cursed. He was made a curse. Look over with me in a few passages
of Scripture. Look over here in Psalms chapter
40. These are familiar Scriptures,
but look here. And I want to read you just a paragraph from
Luther's commentary on this verse. Look here in Psalms chapter 40. If you read up here in verse
6, you'll see who this is speaking of. And you compare this To Hebrews
10, sacrifice and offerings thou didst not desire. Verse 7, Then
said I, Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will on my God. That's
the Son of God speaking. And look what he says in verse
10. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared
thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy love
and kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold
not thy tender mercies from me, O Jehovah. Let thy loving kindness
and thy truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have
come past me about. Look at this. My iniquities take
hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more
than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart felleth me. Is this
the Son of God speaking? How could He possibly say, mine
iniquities have taken hold upon me? They are more than the hairs
of my head. We know that He was without sin.
He did no sin, He had no sin. And here He says, mine iniquities. Well, it was our iniquities.
And He took them to Himself. The Scripture says the Father
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And it's obvious to look
at Scripture like this, that God counted Him guilty. That
He was suffering the guilt and the punishment of that sin. Look
here in Psalms chapter 69, just over to your right. If you look at this passage,
you'll see here that it's the Son of God speaking. Look here what he says. Look in verse 4. They that hate
me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. They that
would destroy me, be in my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away. O God, Thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sins are not hid from Thee. Let not them that wait
on Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for My sake. Let not
those that seek Thee be confounded for My sake, O God of heaven,
because for Thy sake I have borne reproach. Shame, shame hath covered
My face." He suffered shame. He suffered guilt. He was guilty. And it had something to do with
being cursed. He was cursed. If you read that
passage over in Deuteronomy 21, where Paul quoted this verse
from, Cursed is everyone who hangeth on a tree. You go over
there and you read that and look what it says. He that hangeth
on a tree is accursed of God. He is accursed of God. I'm just saying when the Lord
Jesus died on that cross, it was more than just laying down
His life. It was that, but it was more.
He was made sin in some mysterious way. He was cursed under the
law with our sins in Him. Let me show you one more verse
of Scripture, and then I'll read you a passage from Luther. Look
over here in Lamentations chapter 1. Isaiah, then go to Jeremiah,
and then Lamentations. Look in chapter 1. And here now
we're getting to this of what it means to be cursed. Lamentations
chapter 1 and verse 11. All her people
sigh. They seek bread. They have given
her pleasant things for meat to relieve her soul. See, O Lord,
and consider, for I am become vile. Now look in verse 12. Is
it nothing to you, all ye that pass by around this cross? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith Jehovah
the Lord God hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."
Now there is something about entering into what it is to be
a curse. God was angry with him. God's wrath fell on him. God
dealt with him in our place, everything that belonged to us.
Our sins were laid on him. He felt the shame of them, the
guilt of them, and God punished him for those sins. He was made
a curse for us. Why? To redeem us from the curse
of the law. We can't be saved at the expense
of the law.