There's never a time that I need
to be nearer to our Lord than when I stand in this pulpit.
But I need him to be near to me. That's that's the need, isn't
it? Lord, be near to me. I want to
be near to him, but I want him to be near to me. Open your Bibles with me if you'd
like to Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three, I'm
gonna read five verses. Paul's continuing his message
that he's been delivering to them, their offense unto the
Lord of going to the law for righteousness. Now he's gonna
actually tell us what the law actually does if kept. If you
attempt to keep it, what does it actually do? It puts the curse,
puts a curse on us. We're under the curse of the
law. You that try to keep the law,
you're under the curse of the law. This is the message that
he's telling them. Why is that? Well, the law was never given
to justify anyone. The law was given to give knowledge
of sin. Knowledge of sin. Let's read
Galatians 3 verse 10 through 14. For as many as are of the
works of the law are under the curse. 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 his sight, 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 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. These Judaizers are holding to
the law, holding to this lie, holding on to a tradition in
their mind. It was a man-made tradition, by the way. Even though
Abraham was circumcised, as we know, but it was done as a covenant.
The Lord said, this is a token for you, a token, not as part
of righteousness. But the Judaizers are saying
that they were justified. Abraham was justified because
of his circumcision. That's what they're saying. And
they're saying, if you don't become circumcised, you're not
justified. You're not a believer. You don't
have salvation. And Paul's correcting this ideology. He's getting right to the heart
of it. You know how foolish traditions of men are, don't we? Men carry
on some really foolish traditions. And we don't say that boastfully,
that we don't have those. We say, but for the grace of
God, there go I. We'll be called up in vain tradition,
just as so many others we see. These Judaizers believed that
their keeping of the law meant they were justified. Because
of this, they were the true sons of Abraham. That's the issue
here. They thought, or what they're preaching and teaching is that
if you're not circumcised, you're not a true son of Abraham. Only we that have been circumcised
are a true son. See the righteousness in that,
the self-righteousness? That's what we are by nature.
That's what we do. It's what we think if the Lord leads us to ourself.
Paul says that those that look to Christ by faith are the true
sons of Abraham, not what's seen on the outside. We know in another
place it says for what's seen on the outside is temporal, but
what's seen, what's invisible, what's not seen, that's eternal.
We look to those things which are eternal, not seen by this
natural eye. He tells us that it's not, it's not your bloodline. It's not your creed. It's not
your works at all that makes you a son of Abraham. It's if God gives you faith.
That's why it's called the father of the faithful. He was the very
first one that we read about how God made a covenant with
him, covenant of grace. He showed him the covenant of
grace, gave him the token for it. He's saying, those of you
who are saved are saved just like Abraham. Cause he, we just
heard a few minutes ago or the first hour that God preached
the gospel to Abraham. That's where he heard was through
the Lord himself. And so, preaching of the gospel,
what the Lord does, is he causes a dead dog sinner to become alive,
to become new, a new creature. And gives faith, and that's what
the operation of that new creature is, is faith, and always looks
to Christ, always looks to Christ. Not to what's seen on the outside,
but what's seen on the inside. He says, if you try to keep the
law, you're cursed by it. That simple. We can't keep God's
law. And you notice he says, if we
don't continue in all, curses everyone that continue with not
in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do
them. That means keeping one law just curses you, you'd have
to keep every single law. And I got, there's a lot more
than 10, a lot more than 10. but we'd have to keep every single
law perfectly all the time from the time that we were born to
the time that we die and never committed one sin if we were
going to be saved of our own righteousness. That's an impossibility
because we're born in sin. David said, and sin did my mother
conceive me. What does that mean? That just
means everything we do is sinful. That's what that means. Everything
we do is sinful and going to the law is just reviving the
curse. That's what Paul said. When the
law came, sin revived and I died. I died, because that's all the
law can do is declare you're dead in trespasses and in sin. You have trespassed against God.
So we naturally think, well, let me try to fix that. Let me
try to fix that. And we go to the law to try to
fix it. You know what that's called?
Iniquity. Iniquity. And so what's the message here?
The message is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all. not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy. It was his choice,
his doing that saved his people from their sin. If we try to
keep God's law, it's iniquity. That means judgment remains.
Justice must be satisfied. God will not acquit the guilty.
He tells us clearly. That word acquit means call something
innocent that's guilty. He's not gonna say, oh, just
turn a blind eye. Several of you have children
or you have been around children in a sense of a disciplinary
figure. And there may have been a time
that you showed mercy. They were guilty, and you were
like, you know, I should probably pop your bottom or something.
I'm just not gonna do it right now. Maybe I didn't feel like it,
and you didn't do it. Not God. If you're guilty, what
does the scripture say? The wages of sin is what? Death. That's the penalty. That's the consequence. And there's
no getting around that whatsoever in and of ourself. There's nothing
we can do to change that statement, to change that judgment. God,
His justice will be satisfied. It will be satisfied. We're cursed because of our sin.
This is why God's chosen people are made to live by faith in
Christ, the faith of Christ, not by sight. Everything we see,
everything we produce is sinful in and of ourself. It's not by
the deeds of the law that we live. because he just told it.
Romans backs up, Paul wrote to Romans the same thing. Romans
3 says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. Look in verse 11 and 12, but
that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident.
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. When it says it's not of faith, you can also say
it's not, that it's what you're doing is
by sight, what you see, you're looking, they're looking to an
experience, they're looking to the outward, God looks upon the
inward, God looks on the heart of the matter, doesn't look on
the exterior, doesn't look on the exterior. There's unmistakable
evidence that no flesh is justified by the law, the law is By sight,
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. That word
for is because, did you know that? I probably told you that
before. Christ is the end of the law because righteousness
was wrought, was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross when he endured the wrath due us, when he became the curse. The curse that we should have,
that we were, that we are by nature. He being made a curse
for us. I've titled this message, The
Curse of the Law. I don't know if I, I don't know if I said
that, but anyways, that's what this is all about. This curse
that he had to become. He had to become in order for
you and I to believe, in order for you and I to be saved. Notice
how Abraham receives this faith. It's the same way God's people,
all of us receive. Look at verse eight. I've already mentioned
this once. The scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith preached before this gospel unto Abraham saying,
indeed shall all nations be blessed. God preached the gospel to him.
And Abraham was saved the same exact way we are. All the elect
of God are saved the exact same way. Somebody said, well, I was
reading a hymnal one day and I saw something I never saw before.
No, that's not salvation. Salvation comes how? By the gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ because it is the, that's singular, the
power of God unto salvation. That's the only way, the preaching
of the gospel. Abraham heard the gospel. God gave him ears
to hear, eyes to see. It's the work and operation of
God, not by what we do. He's the first cause. He's the
last cause. He's everything in between. He's everything in between. He's
the only cause. You just say it that way. He's
not just the first cause and the last cause. He's the only cause of
salvation. To work, here's the message,
brethren. This is what Paul's stressing.
Here's the message. as evidence or any part, is to
be under the curse of the law. Under the curse of the law. And
it's to be found guilty, that's what that means. It's to be found
guilty once again before God. Your sin is still present if
we go to the law for righteousness, if we go to the law for justification.
The good news is, he was made a curse for his people. He bore that sin on the cross
of Calvary, putting it away. That's the good news of the gospel.
So here's the message. There's nothing we can do to
fix our circumstance, but God, who is rich in mercy, sent forth
his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem them
that were under the law. He came to literally, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. That's the good news of the gospel.
We don't go to the law anymore. Do you know what the law says?
Guilty. We flee to Christ who says, perfectly righteous because
of his work, because of his blood, because of his sacrifice. Those who are guilty must suffer
God's wrath. Justice must be satisfied. Think of it like this. Now, man's
standard in our court system, there's really no such thing
as true justice in this life. But our court system, you have
an individual that's broken the law. They stand a trial. The
judge says, I have found you guilty. Now here is the punishment
for that guilt. No judge is going to say, I found
you guilty, but we're not going to do anything about it this
time. We're going to acquit you this time. We're going to say
you're innocent, even though you were found guilty, so you don't have
to serve the sentencing. That doesn't even happen in our
court system, does it? There might be a judge that sits
on there that's a, well, a dishonest judge. Dishonest judge. He may
lie because he likes the person. You know what I'm saying? It's
a crooked judge. But if he's if he's really trying to judge
rightly, he's not going to say, yeah, you're guilty, but we're
gonna let you go. Just don't let it happen again.
That's never gonna happen. What makes us think God the sovereign
creator of this universe, the one that inhabits eternity, the
one that said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased
and yet took the sword of justice because sin was upon him and
executed his own son. What makes us think that he is
going to acquit you and I because of what we do, when all that
we can produce is what he hates. He hates sin. He hates the workers
of iniquity. He's not going to let us by.
He's not going to just turn a blind eye. It's not going to be, oh,
I was really nice. I was good to people. You know, I tried
to do my best and the Lord's going to accept me. No, he's
not. No, he's going to say, depart from me, you that work iniquity.
I never knew you. What about those that preach false gospel
and they are missionaries? And it's sad. All these people
that go around declaring an untruth. They're gonna say, Lord, and
the Lord even says this, Lord, in that day, they're gonna say,
Lord, Lord, we've done all these things in thy name. We've cast
out demons. We've done this. Judas cast out demons. Think
about that. We've done all these things. What does the Lord say
to that? Does the Lord say, okay, you're
good enough. You're as good as my son. That's
how good you gotta be. You're as perfect and righteous
and holy as I am on your own. That's what we have to be. No,
he's gonna say, depart from me. Apart from me, I never knew you.
I never knew you. To go to the law is to go to
the curse of the laws, to be cursed before God, to be cursed
before God. The Lord says this, the soul
that sins shall surely die. The soul that sins shall surely
die. He will not let sin go unpunished.
So what is our hope? What is our hope? The interjection
of our Savior and his gospel. The interjection of the gospel.
Look at verse 13. Christ hath, and I love that
word hath, that is past tense, this has already happened, it's
done. 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. And here's the reason, that the
blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. What's the promise of the Spirit? It's eternal life.
It's eternal life. It's to no longer be dead and
trespasses it in sin, but to be made one with God and one
with Christ. It's the promise of eternal life. This is why
He died. This is what He did. And who
did He do it for? He did it for His people. Call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. The scripture says, He, God,
hath made Him, Christ, sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was made the cursed,
cursed thing that we are. He bore our sin in his own body
upon the tree that we might be made perfect, that we might be
made perfect in him, by him. This is why he gets all the glory.
This is exactly why he gets all the glory. If we go to the law
for, anything, and we were actually able to accomplish something
good by it, and the Lord be pleased with it, our flesh would glory
in that. Our flesh would glory in that.
Would not glory in the cross, but Christ is who we glory in. Christ is who we glory in. Paul
said the same thing. He said, glory in the cross of
Christ, the finished work of Christ. This is what Abraham
was taught on Mount Moriah. We looked at that the first hour,
so I don't have to completely rehash that, but I would remind
us, because of those maybe listening later on, we got some people
out today, the ram that they found, they found the ram caught
by his horns, that was his strength, and they found the thorns or
the curse from Genesis chapter three, that's a picture of Christ
bearing our curse as our scapegoat, as our surety, as our substitute,
pleasing the Father. God poured out all of his wrath,
all of his judgment. I love the thought that when
he says, the Lord said this, he says, I know the thoughts
I have for you. Talking about his people, his
chosen people, he said, those are not thoughts of wrath, not
thoughts of judgment, not thoughts of war, but of peace and love. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished. Now did God, did God spare his
son? I've already said this, I'm gonna
say it again, reiterate it. Did God spare his son when that
sin was upon him? When he was made to be sin? Scripture says in Romans 8.32,
he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up freely,
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us All things, all things. By his sacrifice, we've
been given all things freely by his grace. By his death, we
have been made righteous. His people's been made righteous.
By his blood, we've been justified. By his finished work, we've been
sanctified. He did it all. This is what Paul
is telling the Galatians. He says, don't go to the law.
You're under the curse. Christ became the curse so that
we don't go to the law anymore. But going back to the law is
to say, I'm as good as God. I'm as good as God is. I'm as
holy, I'm as righteous, I'm self-sufficient. We are self-sufficient creatures,
aren't we? We are, as far as physically.
Physically, we think of self a lot. We think of, you ask somebody,
what's your favorite color? They have a favorite, that's
their favorite color. Favorite candy bar, favorite, they're all about
self. It's just how we are by nature, just by nature. When
it comes to the things of the Lord, it's all about Him. It's
all about Him. That's why He said to be carnally
minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. What's
carnally minded? Worrying about your bills, worrying about fixing
your car. That's not carnally minded. Carnally
minded is talking about going to the law for righteousness,
going to the law for justification. To be carnally minded is death.
You're under the curse. But to be spiritually minded,
what does it mean to be spiritually minded? Does that mean I read
more scripture and I come to church more? Is that spiritually
minded? No, we look to Christ. That's spiritually minded. We
look to our savior. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We think on him. To be spiritually minded is to
say whatever God has said, truth, Lord, that's what we say. Truth,
Lord, whatever you said, truth. Truth, I am a dog. And we beg
for crumbs, don't we? We just continually beg for crumbs. Brethren, the lie is that we
can do something to fix our sin problem, that we can take the
place So Christ was our substitute on the cross, but to say that
we can do something to fix our sin problem is actually saying
that we are the substitute for Christ. Do we see that, how scary
that is? Going back to the law literally says to the Lord, I
am my own sacrifice. I am my own offering. I am the
substitute to your substitute. God will not have that. God will
not have that. Somebody might say, well, We
don't believe that. We believe Christ is all. Well, why preach righteous living?
People preach on righteous living all the time. Why don't we preach
man has a choice in salvation? Choice is a work. We understand
that? Choice is you do something. You made a choice. No, we rest. Resting's not a work. We believe
that's by faith. That's a gift of God. That's
not a choice we make either. Men even make faith a work, won't
they? They'll say, put your faith in Jesus. The Lord ain't looking
for your faith. He's looking for the faith that
Christ gave you freely by his grace. He's pleased with that
faith. God is not a respecter of persons.
Peter was talking in Acts. I like how it words it. It says,
and Peter opened his mouth and spoke. I don't know why the Lord
made it like that, but I just love that. He opened his mouth
and spoke. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.
If God needed your help or my help in salvation, we'd be, well,
we'd be God, wouldn't we? I mean, we'd be, if he needed
our help in salvation, We would be the God. We would be the one,
the deciding factor in salvation, the one that would make the blood
effectual, the one that would make the atonement effectual,
the one that would make us justified, the one that would make us sanctified,
the one that would make us righteous, the one that would make us glorified.
We become God at that point, if God needs me to do one thing
in salvation. I'm glad the Lord said this is
a faithful saying worthy of all expectation. Christ Jesus came
into the world to do something, not try to save sinners. Lord don't need my help. He has
his son and his son accomplished the salvation of his people.
He accomplished it. We see Abraham believed God.
How? By what he saw. By faith. This is the opposite of going
to the law. The law operates in the realm
of the carnal. The law operates in the realm
of sight. Faith operates in the realm of
spiritual things. Faith is the gift of God by sovereign
grace. And unless I have faith, I can't
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But if I find myself believing,
that means the Lord's given faith. That's what that means. It's
not a choice that I made. It is the gift of God, lest any
man should boast. Look at verse 13 and 14 again.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. We'll probably
look at this next Sunday again because there's, there's a who,
who, a what, a why, and a how right here in these two verses.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us, and for it is written, curse 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. Why was Jesus Christ made a curse? To give you a decision, or to
give me a decision? Or was it to please the Father,
to satisfy the law's demands, to satisfy justice and judgment? Why was Christ made a curse? So that you and I could be made
the righteousness of God in Him, all by His doing. So that His
chosen people might be saved from sin, might be saved from
the guilt of the law, might be saved from the demands of the
law, might be saved from the judgment and the justice, all
that comes with the law. How do we do that? Look to Christ.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the promise is here. That's what the promise is, is
that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Don't do anything.
Don't move a muscle. Look to Christ and live. You
can only be received this This promise can only be received
by faith. It's not something physical that we receive. It's
by faith alone. Faith. And I want to, every time
I speak on faith, I try to say this because I want to be as
clear as I can be. Faith, you always have to ask,
where does it come from? Who gets the glory for it? Where
does it come from? Who gets the glory for it? And,
um, Well, it comes from Jesus Christ.
He produced it and He bestows it freely by His grace. Where
does it come from? Who does it look to? That's the other one.
I was struggling there for a minute on that. I didn't write this
down. Who does it look to? That's really important because
if my faith doesn't look to Christ all the time, that's not saving
faith. Who does it look to? Does it look to me or does it
look to Him? That's faith given of God. Where does it come from?
It comes from Him. Who does it look to? It looks to Christ.
Who gets all the glory for it? Do I get any glory for it? Does
he get all the glory for it? That's saving faith, that's saving.
That's the difference between saving faith and going back to
the works of the law. The law points to me, faith points to
Christ. The law examines myself to try
to justify myself. Faith looks to Christ as our
justification. Let's read this one more time,
and then I'm gonna have us turn to Ephesians in closing. Verse
10 says, for as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that 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. You that are under the sound
of my voice, whether it's through Streaming, which I'm thankful
for that service, but to go back to the law in any way is to go
back under a curse. The curse of God. The curse of
the law. The curse of death. No, flee
to Christ. Flee to Christ. How do we do
that? Look to him through faith bestowed. Don't move a muscle.
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. We're just committing
iniquity when we go back to the law. The good news is is the
just The just shall live by faith. That's the justified ones. We're
not just in and of ourselves. That's the ones God justified
and we're called the just because he's the just and justifier.
We don't live like that. We don't live by going back to
the law. We don't look to the law as anything but what it is. It's a mirror for sure. It shows
us exactly what we can't please God. They that are in the flesh
can't please God. Last thing I wanna say before
we turn to Ephesians is this. There is now, therefore, no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. What does it mean to walk after
the flesh. A lot of people talked about Back in religion, that
was righteous living, that was living frivolously, that was
doing all kinds of immoral acts, different things like that, not
coming to church, missing church. It was just doing different sins
is what all that meant. That's according to the flesh.
No, walking according to the flesh. is walking according to
your own righteousness, desiring a righteousness outside of Christ.
And how do we do that? Naturally, we go to the law to
do that. And all we're doing is putting ourself under the
curse. So how do we walk to the spirit? The exact opposite. We're looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of faith. That's who we're looking to.
We're believing on him and his finished work alone as all of
our hope of salvation. We believe that his work is finished
and he succeeded at the right end of the father. And if he's
not, we have no hope. That is walking by the spirit. If you can see it, it's not walking
by the spirit. If you can see it, it's not walking
by the spirit. Now in closing, let's turn to Ephesians chapter
four. Go to the law is to walk after
the flesh, to seek self-righteousness. Look at verse 17 through 24 with
me. This I say, therefore, in testifying the Lord that ye henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their own mind.
What is a vain mind? You could say that that's someone
that seeks after riches or different things like that, but a vain
mind is somebody that thinks about themselves, thinks about
themselves. They think they have a righteousness. This is a spiritual book. This
is talking about other Gentiles that have righteousness in and
of themselves. Don't think that way anymore. Don't think that
way anymore. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that
you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of
their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart. Now there's a cause and effect.
We heard cause and effect this morning. There's another one.
What's the cause that the Lord's blinded their heart? They're
alienated, their understanding's darkened. God did that. That's
the cause and effect right there. who being past feeling have given
themselves over to lasciviousness to work all in cleanness and
greediness." There's nothing more greedy. There's nothing
more greedy, spiritually speaking, than a man having his own righteousness.
Isn't that greedy? Isn't that selfish? I want the
glory. That's all the way back in the
garden. That's what it started out with.
It was about me. It was about pride. It was about self. That's what
this greediness is here. but ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him
and have been taught by him as the truth is in Christ that you
put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit
of your mind and that you put on the new man which after God
is created in righteousness and true holiness. This, that's the
difference right there. You go to the law, you're under
the curse, they're blind, your heart's darkened, but in Christ
Jesus, you're a new creature in Christ. A new creature that
lives by faith, moves by faith, looks to Christ by faith alone
as all your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The just shall live by faith.
The justified of the Lord shall live by faith. His people free
from the curse of the law, free in Christ alone, because Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take these words and bless it to our understanding.
In Christ's name, amen.