Galatians chapter 3. And I want
you to take your Bibles and stay with me this morning for a few
minutes. Galatians chapter 3. If you need a Bible, you'll find
a pew Bible there in the pew. But I want you to go to some
Scriptures with me along in the message this morning. I just
have two passages, two verses of Scripture here to read in
Galatians chapter 3. And look in verse 13. and verse
14. Galatians chapter 3, verse 13
and 14. 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. Paul has been proving here why
men aren't saved by their own righteousness, by their own obedience,
why men cannot justify themselves. There's only one way that a man
can be justified and be righteous before God, and that's through
faith in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. And he's been proven that here
in these verses before my text. And he proves it in different
ways. Look here in verse 6. Even as
Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness,
it was imputed to him. Righteousness was given to Abraham
by his faith, or through his faith. Abraham did never seek
righteousness before God by his own obedience or by his own marriage. He sought it by faith in Jesus
Christ alone. I love that passage in Romans
chapter 4 where it said, What shall we say that Abraham, our
father as pertaining to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham were
justified by works, he as were of the glory, but not before
God. He might glory before you and
me, but not before God. For what saith the Scriptures,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. That's the first thing Paul tells
them. He goes all the way back to Abraham. And he says, how
was Abraham justified? How was Abraham a righteous man?
Through faith in the Son of God. And then he goes here to verse
8. Look at this in verse 8. Look
what he says, And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify
the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham,
saying, In these shall all nations be blessed. Not only was Abraham
justified by faith, but the scriptures predicted to Abraham that God
would justify the Gentiles, the heathen, through faith in Christ. That was the prediction that
came through, through faith. And then back in verse 7, and
then in verse 9, look at what he tells them. He tells them
in verse 7, the only way to be a spiritual child of Abraham
is through faith. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same and no other, are the true children
of Abraham. You may be Abraham's child if
you're a natural Jew according to the flesh, but that means
nothing, does it? To be a child of Abraham, you
must be a believer just as Abraham was. Then look what he says in
verse 9. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. They're blessed with righteousness. They're blessed with all the
blessings of God in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Who is? Those who believe. Those who
believe. And then in verse 10, He reveals
another truth to them that all through the Jewish history, even
up until the present time, those who sought righteousness by their
own merits and their own works were cursed. That God never gave
the law to make men righteous. They've always been righteous
one way, through faith. Look what he says in 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. Those who trust in their
own works for salvation. Those who seek to save themselves
by their own religious doings, they're cursed. And then in verse
11, he quotes from Habakkuk in the Old Testament, and he proves
something. That not only could we never
be justified by faith before God, but when we're justified,
we can never go back to the law and be more justified by what
we do. How does a justified person live? That person who has believed
in Christ to be justified, they believe God and He's given them
righteousness. How do those people live? Well,
He tells us in verse 11. 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 you know really what he's
saying there? And he went on to say in verse 12, and the law
is not of faith. He's saying here that you cannot
improve on that justification that comes through faith. You
can't say, well, I'll believe and I'll be justified and then
I'll go back to the law and I'll be more justified. Or you can't
say, I believe as Abraham did, and God has imputed righteousness
to me, and now I'm going back to the Lord. I'm going to be
more righteous. How does those who begin by faith, how do they
live? By faith. By faith. So he's got here, he's got here
Abraham that was before the law, that he was justified and made
righteous. And during the law, those who
actually depended upon the law, they're cursed because they couldn't
continue in all things written in the book of the law to do
them. Then after the law was given, all the way over in Habakkuk,
he tells us, if you're a justified man, how do you live? By faith.
By faith. So the Apostle Paul here is proven
that faith is the only way to be justified. Faith is the only
way to have righteousness. Faith is the only way to live. That's always been true. It was
true from the very beginning, and it's true today. God has
never changed the way He saves men and women. We live by faith. And you know what? When we live
by faith, we really live. If we have righteousness given
to us by faith, that's a real righteousness. Remember Abel when he offered
a sacrifice to God? Remember God bore witness that
he was a righteous man? Through faith. Through faith. It's always been through faith. How did Enoch walk with God?
How did he please God? By faith. Abraham was called
a friend of God. How so? He lived by faith. To live by faith connects us
to Christ, that unites us to Christ. Works, even the works
of a true believer, does not unite us to Christ. If works
would justify us, you know what we would do? We would brag like
everything would. If we could be saved by our religious
works, we would boast. Boy, would you look at me. Would
you look what a good person I am. I have free will and I've exercised
it. I have wisdom, I have power,
I have merit. Look at me. It's not works that
connects us to Christ. It's faith. Faith. That's what connects us to Him.
And when faith connects us to Him, then self is put down and
Christ is exalted. And we live and glory in Him. That's how the Apostle said it
in chapter 2 in verse 20. Look at this. I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. We just sang that, didn't we?
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. But the whole problem here with
these Galatian believers They professed faith in Christ. And
now they had earnestly believed that they had gotten beyond Christ.
We have gotten beyond Christ. They lost their felt need of
Christ. That's the most saddest condition
anybody could ever get in. To lose their felt need for Christ. Because what did that do for
them? Well, look in chapter 4 what it did for them. Look in verse
9. Look in chapter 4 and look in
verse 9. But now, after you have known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak
and beggarly elements whereinto ye desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years. I am afraid of you unless I have
bestowed upon you labor in vain." My goodness! that lost their
felt need of Christ, weren't living by faith, going back to
the law to better justify themselves. And that's why Paul spends such
time here in this book, reestablishing them in the faith of the gospel. I want to look at three things
quickly this morning, and I hope it will help us to be established
in the faith. All of us have a tendency to
leave Christ, do we not? I wish that wasn't so, but it's
so. The gospel is such a mystery
to us. Faith is such a mystery to us. We're always wanting to do something
to make ourselves more acceptable to God. Do something to justify
ourselves. So it's good this morning to
go back and remind us of verse 13 and verse 14. And I want you to give me your
attention for just a few minutes and let's look at three things
in verse 13 and verse 14. First of all, the need of redemption. You and I stand in the greatest
need of redemption. Redemption from what? Well, He
tells us here, doesn't He? Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. That's our need. The curse of
the law. Secondly, the way of redemption. How did Christ redeem us? He
said by being made a curse for us. And then thirdly, the effect
of redemption. He tells us that in verse 14.
In order that the blessing may come. You know there's no spiritual
blessing can come to us apart from redemption. So let's look
at these things. First of all, what is the curse
of the law that Paul intended here? What is that? He hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Let me say it as bluntly as I
can. It's the curse of the lawgiver
himself. That's what makes this so awesome,
what makes it so heart-wrenching. To be under the curse of the
law is to be under the curse of the lawgiver himself. When our government enacts laws
for us to live by, and we break those laws, we don't merely sin,
we don't merely commit a crime against some written statute.
If our government passes a law and we break that law, who's
our crime against? Is it just against something
written on a book? It's against society, isn't it?
It's against those who made that law and against the representatives
of that law. And even so, it is with the law
of God. The law written upon tables of
stone, even with the finger of God, could never harm us or bind
us or charge us. They were just words. Even when
God wrote them with His own finger, Moses broke them. Did he not? He broke them. What could those
two tablets do to anybody? Nothing. It couldn't harm anybody. The Law can command and threaten,
but it cannot execute the judgment that it threatens. But listen,
the Lawgiver can. The Lawgiver can. The Law is
of great force because of Him who gave the Law. A holy God,
a just God, a mighty God gave this Law. I want you to look
now. You can mark that place and I
want you to look in a couple of places with me. Look over
in Revelation chapter 20. If you have a few Bibles, you'll
find it on page 1353. What is the curse of the law?
It's to be under the curse of the lawgiver himself. This is
the last judgment. All the nations that were dead
were now being raised from the graves. All that were alive were
being called up to heaven to stand before the law giver. And look what happens. Revelation
chapter 20 and look in verse 10. And the devil that deceived
them, deceived the nations, was cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall
be tormented day and night forever and ever. And I saw a great white
throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and
the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and
the books were opened." Now that's the books of the law. Cursed
is everyone who continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. The books were opened, and another
book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were
judged out of those things which are written in the books according
to their works. But who judged them? Who pronounced
the judgment? The one who sat upon the throne.
God the Lawgiver. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in them, and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them, and they were judged every man according
to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire, this is the second death, and whosoever
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire. It wasn't just the written law
that called men up to judgment. It was God who wrote the law,
God who gave the law, God who sat upon His throne. He called
them all to account and He executed judgment. And I'm just saying
this to you this morning, when we read about the curse of the
law, it's not just what's written. that makes it so bad and evil
to break it, to live contrary to it. But it's because of Him
who gave it to start with. Him who wrote the law to begin
with. Turn to another place with me.
Look in Matthew chapter 25. I chose these two because it's
the final judgment. It's the day when men and deeds
stand before the lawgiver to be judged. And look in Matthew
chapter 25. And look in verse 31. Matthew chapter 25 and look in
verse 31. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall
sit upon the throne of His glory, And before him shall be gathered
all nations, and he shall separate them one from the other, as a
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep
on the right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. For I was a hungred, ye gave
me meat, I was thirsty, ye gave me drink, I was a stranger, ye
took me in naked, and ye clothed me. Sick, and ye visited me,
I was in prison, and ye came to me. Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee now hungred, and
fed thee, or thirsty, and gave you drink? When saw we thee a
stranger, and tucked thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? And
when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came to thee? And
the king shall answer and say to them, Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it to me. Then shall he say also unto them
on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And verse 46,
And these shall go away into everlasting fire, but the righteous
into life eternal. Now, did you notice the word
he used here? Depart from me ye cursed. Who cursed them? The Lord upon
His throne. He pronounced the curse, didn't
He? Why were they cursed? Because they were under the curse
of the law. And here the lawgiver executes
the judgment against lawbreakers. He accuses them, he convicts
them, he finds them guilty, and he enacts the verdict upon them
of everlasting punishment in the fire. Now what does this
tell us about this lawgiver? Doesn't this tell us that he's
holy? That he's holy? If the law tells
us one thing about God, the Lawgiver, it's that He is holy. Why does
He command man to love Him supremely? That's the first commandment,
isn't it? Why does He command man never to have any God before
Him? Never to commit idolatry. Never
to take His name in vain. Why does He command that? Because
He's holy. He can command nothing else.
He's of two pure eyes to behold evil and can never look upon
sin. Somebody says, Bruce, but we're
fallen. We're fallen creatures. Yes.
Is God going to compromise His holiness because we've fallen
into sin? He'll never do it, will He? He'll
never do it. The law reveals to us the holiness
God. Is this not the reason that we
see such threatenings in the Word of God? Listen to this. Listen to the lawgiver as he
threatens lawbreakers. He says, ìTo me belongs vengeance,î
saith the Lord, ìand recompense. Their feet shall slide in due
time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things that
shall come upon them make haste. If I whip my glittering sword,
and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my
enemies, and I will reward them to their face that hate me, saith
the Lord." That's threatening from the lawgiver. Listen how
he says it to Nahum the prophet in Nahum chapter 1. He begins
by saying, God is a jealous God. And the Lord revengeth. The Lord
revengeth. The Lord is furious. The Lord
will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His
enemies. The mountains quake at Him. The
hills melt in His presence. The earth is burned at His presence. Yea, the world and all that dwell
therein. That sounded like Revelation
20, didn't it, that I read to you? These are threatenings from
the Lord. And he goes on to say who can
stand before His indignation and who can abide in the fierceness
of His anger. His fury is poured out like fire
and the rocks are thrown down by Him. And listen how he speaks
to Malachi and closes the Old Testament. Behold the day cometh,
saith the Lord, that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud,
yea, and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble, and the
day that comes shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts,
that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." So when we
talk about the curse of the law, Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. He's not just talking about a
book somewhere that's written. That if you read through it,
you may find some things that's against you and opposed to you.
But he's talking about a living God. Being under the judgment
and threats of a living God. The wrath and curse of the law
giver. We're living in a day where you
mention anything about God's right over His creatures. Were
people opposed to that? It seems like the last year or
so I've had people in my own family. What right do you have
to tell me not to do this and not to do that? I may not have
any right, but God does. And our government may make laws,
but their laws are not supreme. God's law trumps all laws. God's command trumps all commands. And it doesn't matter if we're
a pauper or a king on His throne down here, everybody is subject
to the law of the lawgiver. The mighty Pharaoh sat upon His
throne and Moses went in to Him and said, Thus saith the Lord,
Let my people go. And Pharaoh said, Who is the
Lord? That's a good question, isn't it? Who is the Lord that
a man like me should obey Him? I will not let the children of
Israel go. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see who's the lawgiver.
We'll see when His threats turn to blows. This generation is asking the
question, what right does God have to command me to obey Him
in anything? What right does He have to command
me what to believe, what to think, what to say, what to do, where
to go? What right does He have to command
me to abstain from anything that I want to do? What right does
He have to tell me to follow that which is good and wholesome? Do you know what right He has
to tell you that? Because He made you. He's your
Creator. He's your Sustainer. He is your
holy lawgiver, and He has that right. And that's why we see
such threatenings in the Word of God against those who break
His holy law. Here's what Charles Spurgeon
said on the statement. He said, We may wink at sin,
yes, even harden our hearts till we laugh at it and take pleasure
in it. But he said, Oh, let us not think
for a moment that God is such a one as we are. Let us not suppose
that sin can be beheld by Him without indignation coming from
Him. The Most Holy God has written
warnings in His Word which plainly inform us how terribly He is
provoked by iniquity. Beware ye that forget God, lest
I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you. Therefore
thus saith the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, O I
will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies. Vengeance belongeth to me, saith
the Lord. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of a living God. And I'm just saying this morning,
when we read about the curse of the law, it's evident that
it means the curse of the lawgiver. But the law of God is made up
of more than threatenings. He is a just God that will finally
take vengeance in His own time and in His own way. And haven't
we seen that already? We've seen that in those angels
that used to be holy and lived there in heaven in the presence
of God and who sinned against God. And what did he do? He executed
judgment upon them. And the Bible says he cast them
down and put them in chains of darkness to the judgment of the
great day. Look at our two parents that
were holy people, upright the way God created them, but they
sought out invention. They disobeyed what God told
them to do. And He sent them with shame and
guilt out of the garden, didn't He? Look at Cain with his countenance
all fearful and cast down. Look at him as he flees from
God's presence. Why? Because God cursed him because
he was disobedient to what God told him to do. Look at the old
world. God sent a flood and destroyed
the old world. And look at Sodom and Gomorrah
on a beautiful sunny morning when fire fell down from heaven
and devoured the whole cities of the plains. And God made them
an example by destroying them. We see it all over, don't we,
that God is not only a God who threatens lawbreakers, but He
executes His threats in time and in His own way. There were
three mighty men stood up against the prophet of God one day, Korah
and Dathom and Abiram. They stood up and said, Moses,
you're not a prophet of God. We're just as much a prophet
as you are. Who is God that He just called you to preach to
us? And God said, Get away from those
men. Get away from their families
and their tents, because I'm going to execute judgment upon
them. And there they were with their children, their families,
and their neighbors, and their tents, and suddenly God opened
up the earth. And they went down alive into
the pit. Somebody said, Would God do that?
He has! Is God serious about His threatenings?
Yes. Because He's already given us
example after example where sometimes He threatens no longer, but He
comes to blows. He executes His threats. And
that's what it means this morning to be under the curse of the
law. It means to be under threatenings
from God Himself. We hear so much today about the
love of God. And oh, we thank God for that.
Oh, my goodness. Thank God for His everlasting
love that He has for His people in Jesus Christ. We don't hear
much about the judgment of God, do we? We don't hear much about
His holiness and His hatred for sin and His threatenings. But that's what it means to be
under the curse of the law. Now, here's a question. Who is
under this curse? Who is under this curse? Well,
first of all, The Jews were under it. That's who he's speaking
about here first and foremost in verse 10 when he says, Cursed
is everyone who continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. Who had the book of the law?
The Gentiles didn't, but the Jews did. You remember when the
law was given in Exodus chapter 20. He said, Thus saith the Lord
that brought you out of the land of Egypt. And then he proceeds
to give them the law and tells them to obey it. First of all,
the law was given to the Jews on tablets of stones written
down where they could read it and obey it. But you know something? They didn't. They didn't, did
they? Stephen accused them of that.
Even our Lord accused them of that. Stephen said, You received
the law by the dispensation of angels. None of you kept it?
And boy, the bones are littered from that time up into this present
time of the Jews that died under the curse of God's holy law. I was watching Schindler's List.
I came on and I'd recorded it and just went through. Maybe
you've watched some of it, but it has some of the real footage
in it. Can you imagine six million Jews
murdered? Somebody said, couldn't have
God stopped that? Brothers and sisters, listen,
and please don't misunderstand me. That was God's judgment. Your house is left unto you desolate. You're going to be scattered
among all nations. You're going to be slaughtered.
You're going to be oppressed. Why? Because you're lawbreakers. You're lawbreakers. I was watching and reading and
seeing some live videos of where the Jews just lined up and they
were shooting them. Just shooting them, walking up,
shooting them in the back of the head. Two hundred of them,
just shooting them. Nobody ran. Nobody fought back. And they've asked the questions,
why didn't they at least fight back? Sometimes taking them into
the gas chambers, there were just four or five guards with
rifles taking hundreds of Jews into the gas chamber. And yet
they marched right in there. And somebody said, why didn't
they fight back? When the judgment of God comes,
it comes irresistible. It leaves you no strength. It
leaves you no will to fight back. The Jews were under the law and
they were cursed of the law giving. But not just them, every man, every person in this
whole world that is born and lives his natural life, lives
and most of them die under the curse of God's law. They may
not have the Bible, They may not have a little plaque with
God's Ten Commandments on it, but you know something? God has
put His law in their conscience. They know better than many of
the things that they do. Their thoughts condemns them.
Their conscience convicts them. Don't you dare do this, but you
do this. Why? Because that's God's law,
and God's going to hold you accountable. Men know that it's a sin against
God to murder. They know it's a sin to rape.
They know it's a sin to defraud and cheat and lie. Men know that. Men know that they shouldn't
take God's name in vain. That's why most of them refrain
from doing it when they're around decent society. Their conscience
convicts them. They know these things. And you
know something? They're under the curse. Who
else is under the curse? This is the most amazing thing,
but this shows our depravity. Some people put themselves under
the curse. That's what happened to these Galatians. Are you so
foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? You're going back to the law?
How foolish are you, he said. You desire to be under the law? Do you not hear the law? What
does the law say? Cursed, cursed, cursed. Is there anybody here this morning
that wants to be under the law? Well, I don't do. I absolutely
don't. But listen, everybody that's
not in Christ, everybody that's not been redeemed is under that. Let Him live like He will. Let
Him do like He will. Thank, believe, say, go. Let Him live His own life. When
He dies, He'll die under the curse of the lawgiver. There
is but one way to be delivered from the curse of the law, and
that's to be redeemed. Redeemed from the curse. And that brings us quickly to
the second thing. He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? Being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone who hangeth on a tree. Boy, the Bible has a lot to say
about the tree, doesn't it? It has a lot to say about the
cross. On the tree is where we were
redeemed from the curse of the law. You know what Peter said
took place? on that tree. He Himself bare
our sins in His own body on the tree. You look yonder to the
tree on the cross of Calvary, outside those old walls of the
city of Jerusalem. God lifted the sin from all His
people, from all His chosen from all who would ever be saved.
He took their sins from them and put them in His Son. Now don't ask me how that happens.
You have to be God to do that. But we know this, if He leaves
them on us, we'll answer for it. And we'll perish because
of it. So to save us, to redeem us,
He took the sins that were ours, belonged to us, and we had committed,
and He put them on His Son on the cross, and He borrowed them
just as if He had committed those sins Himself. They became His. And now He answers for us. Now
it's not us who are punished. Now it's not us who are cursed. Now it's not us whom God must
afflict, but it's His own dear Son who hangs guilty upon the
cross of Calvary. Brothers and sisters, you know
this. I'm preaching to the choir this morning. But the cross is
not some vain, weak attempt to do something. It's not just a
way that God shows His general love for humanity. And since
they see this general love, He is hoping and praying now that
they'll do something for Him. No, the cross is about something
that took place, actually happened. Somebody altogether outside of
us redeemed us from the curse of God. That's why I can't get over the
cross. I can't get over substitution. He was made a curse for us. My goodness, I don't know what
all that even means. How far can you take that? Doesn't
that in some way or another say that He was made what I was? Everything that cometh on somebody
in hell, the entire wrath of God, He must now bear it. The anger, the wrath, the indignation. Listen to Lamentations chapter
1 and verse 12. Here is the Lord Jesus speaking
from the tree. When they kept coming around
Him and looking at Him and smiting upon their chest. Is it nothing
to you that pass by? Behold, and see, if there be
any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."
God has afflicted me. Why? He has our sins. God looks upon us and He is angry. He is indignant. And he said,
I'm going to afflict sin. I'm going to punish it. We esteemed
him stricken and smitten and afflicted of God. God afflicted
him. Listen to these passages. My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me? My strength is dried up like
a poster. My tongue cleaves to my jaws.
You have brought me into the dust of death. Oh my God, my
soul is cast down within me. Deep calls unto deep as the noise
of thy water falls. All your waves and your billows
have gone over me. I am counted like them and with
them that go down to the pit. I am a man that has no strength.
You have brought me into the lowest pit, in darkness into
the deep. Your wrath lie hard upon me,
and you have afflicted me with all your ways. I am shut up.
I cannot come forth." And he could not come forth until the
law had been satisfied, until justice had been satisfied for
our sins. If mercy was going to come to
us and save us, All the obstacles had to be removed out of the
way. God cannot forgive sins until
He first punished the sin. So upon the cross of Calvary,
Jesus Christ took everything out of the way so the blessing
could flow to us. And that's my final point that
I have. the effects of redemption. He tells us in verse 14, in order
for the blessing to come, that the blessing promised to Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Can you imagine the Holy
Spirit coming to us and convicting us of sin and then just leaving
us? and say in effect, I've not come
to save you. I've just come to warn you of
what's coming. And then we pine away in our
guilt until we finally perish. Wouldn't that be awful? Why doesn't
He do that? Because Christ has made a curse
that the Holy Spirit might come to us and not only convict us
of our need, of our lostness, but reveal Jesus to us. Open
to us this fountain for our guilty conscience. Put within our hearts
faith in all His graces. And give us grace and give us
strength and give us hope and joy and peace and put a song
in our hearts. Now the blessing. All the blessings
declared in the Gospel of God's free and sovereign grace can
freely come to us. Mountains of sins can be forgiven. Revelations of God's love in
Jesus Christ. Adoption and the spirit of adoption.
The peace that passes all understanding. Grace to sustain us in every
situation. Mercy to help us in the time
of need. The God-given assurance that
all things are working for our good. All spiritual blessings
that comes in this life can now freely flow to us because Jesus
was made a curse for us. And you know not only the blessings
of this life, but blessings of that life that stick up. Larry
read it this morning to us there in chapter 4, when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son. to redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because you're sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your heart, crying, Father, Father. Now you're no
more sons. You're no more servants, but
you're sons. And if a son, what are you? You're heirs. Heirs of God. What a blessing. Can somebody stand up this morning
and elaborate on that? What it is to be an heir of God?
I've often said this. My dad left me a little bit of
money when he died. I was one of his heirs. But it's
gone. It's gone. You spend it, you
know. Oh, what will it be to be an heir of God? You'll never
spend that. You'll enjoy that for all eternity.
And how does that come to us? How does such a blessing come
to us? Look at the cross. Look at the cross. Brothers and
sisters, in the cross of Christ, there's where you'll find God's
smiling face. And I'm telling you, you don't
want to face God apart from the Christ of the cross. Because
there's nothing there but wrath. There's nothing there but just
indignation. If you're without Christ, look
to Him. Believe on Him. Quit trying to save yourself,
self-salvation, self-righteousness. Well, damn your soul. Look away
from yourself, outside of yourself, to Him bleeding, groaning, being
made a curse, and look to Him and say, He's my Savior. He's
my Redeemer. I'm free from the law. Oh, happy
condition. Jesus has bled and now there's
remission. Free from the law. That's where
you are if you're in Christ. And God will never curse you
again. Thank you for your kindness and
thank you for your patience. Let's pray.