the Reason Salvation Must Be Faith

[0:00] You can be turning to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3.

[0:16] I'm only going to give a recap of this chapter. Time-wise, we need to be careful. In this chapter, Paul has started his argument against the lie of having to keep the law. Especially circumcision.

[0:28] And trying to do that to be saved. He has argued that the Galatians were saved by faith alone. We looked at that in the first several verses of the chapter. And they had lived that way for a time before the lie of the Judaizers had come.

[0:41] It was real. And they knew it. Then he has pointed to Abraham. And went to show that he was saved by faith well over a decade before he was circumcised.

[0:54] And that was to point out to the Judaizers that circumcision wasn't any part of salvation. While Abraham was uncircumcised, he was given the promise that all the nations would be blessed through him.

[1:09] Indicating that the Gentiles would be saved by faith alone. All that was a positive argument. See this? You've experienced this.

[1:21] These have been blessings. This is what God has done. All that has been a positive argument. It was a positive argument to the Galatians about the Judaizers teaching.

[1:33] And so, thus was down through verse 9. Today, we're going to look at, look, we're trying to add what the Judaizers were suggesting will lead.

[1:46] We're going to see the opposite side of the argument. He's continuing with this. Okay, now I've told you the blessing about what has really already happened. Now I'm going to share with you the opposite side.

[1:57] What is going to happen if you try to add what these Judaizers are leading, suggesting for you to do. So, today we're going to start reading in Galatians 3.

[2:13] We're going to cover verses 10 to 14, but I am going to start in verse 9. Just so we get a little bit of the flow. I know there's a paragraph break in many of your Bibles, but the argument flow is here.

[2:30] Starting in verse 9. And it helps if I'm in chapter 3 instead of chapter 2.

[2:42] So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

[2:54] For it is written, Curse be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them. Now it is evident, no one is justified before God by the law.

[3:09] For the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

[3:25] For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.

[3:40] Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this passage. I thank you for the truths that it points out. Truths that warn us against trying to do what the Judaizers are doing.

[3:53] But truths that also encourage us. Because we'll see a beautiful picture of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit here.

[4:03] And what they've done for us. I pray that you would make that picture very bold. Make the truths of the scripture something we understand and hold to.

[4:14] And I pray that you would be glorified. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, we're going to cover this in four points.

[4:25] And I'm going to give kind of a summary statement or a question just to start each of these points. And we're going to cover verse 10, then verses 11 and 12, and then verse 13 and verse 14 separately.

[4:41] Now, they're working through an argument. And he's giving a couple of different points as we go through. But we'll address it in this way. So, the first thing I'd like to ask is what happens when we're trying to earn salvation by keeping the law.

[4:57] As Paul's dealing with what these Judaizers were trying to persuade the Galatians to do, he wants them to see, okay, if you follow these Judaizers, what happens?

[5:10] What do we think then? What's the result? And he answers my question, as if he was talking to me. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.

[5:23] For it is written, curse be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law to do them. So, in this argument, what happens when we try to earn salvation by keeping the law?

[5:34] First of all, Paul is going to argue that if you're relying on the works of the law for salvation, you're a curse. So, that's the first thing he's getting across to these people.

[5:46] And I'm sure they're like, whoa, wait a minute. A curse. That's God's law. I mean, wouldn't I be blessed if I kept God's law? Wouldn't that be the best thing I could do?

[5:58] Would be to try to keep God's law? And Paul's saying, if you're relying on the works of the law for salvation, you're a curse. You're a curse. How can this be?

[6:08] How can someone who's trying to use that which is good end up being cursed by God? What Paul does is he quotes the last verse of what Moses taught the people before they went into Canaan.

[6:21] Now, maybe you remember this. This is in Deuteronomy 27 and 28. This is not the actual event happening. This is Moses teaching Israel what they are to do once they do get in the land.

[6:35] And you can read ahead and find, I believe it's in the book of Joshua, where this actually takes place. And this whole blessing and curse is rehearsed.

[6:46] But Moses instructs Israel, when you get into the promised land, half of the tribes, and he assigns which ones, will be standing on Mount Ebal.

[6:56] And the other half of the tribes will be standing on Mount Gerizim. And Moses then lists out a bunch of blessings, saying, the people on, I think it's Mount Ebal.

[7:07] I may have them reversed, so I'm just going from memory here. But on one of the mountains, the people are to rehearse the blessings. If you keep my law, then you will be blessed here and in this way.

[7:19] And he lists a whole bunch of blessings. And it won't really help us to go through those today. It's very interesting, but it won't help us to go through them. The other mountain and the other half of the tribes were to rehearse curses.

[7:34] If you don't do this, or if you fail to do that, if you fail to keep this. And it's all in relation to the statutes, the commandments, and the moral law of God.

[7:44] If you keep them, you will be blessed in all of these ways. If you don't keep them, you'll be cursed in all of these ways. So, he quotes the end of that whole instruction that he gives.

[8:00] He quotes Deuteronomy 27, 26. And this is what it says. Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.

[8:13] And all the people shall say amen. If you go to the book of Joshua, you will find that that's exactly what they did. They, out of their own mouths, said, Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.

[8:26] And do you remember the book of Judges? Judges, in fact, you don't even start in Judges, you can start in Joshua. They did terrible. And all these people brought a curse upon themselves for not obeying all that God has said.

[8:43] Moses was reaffirming the Mosaic Covenant with Israel. He didn't call it the Mosaic Covenant. We call it the Mosaic Covenant. But he was reaffirming that covenant that God gave him. A covenant, Paul's going to talk about more in this book a little bit later.

[8:58] And we'll see what that is. It's meant to show us that we need a Savior. It was our tutor. It was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. We'll look at that later. Moses was reaffirming all that.

[9:10] And so he's giving all this instruction. And these people say out these curses, call these curses upon themselves. They say amen to them, call them on themselves and seal themselves to it.

[9:23] And Paul quotes that. Israel didn't keep that covenant. And so they brought those curses on themselves. And you can actually see in chapter 28, part of the chapter, God explains how that would be.

[9:37] And even goes into such things as what it's like to besiege a city. That would be part of the curses and how they would eat their own young. And all the stuff that went into it. It was a very awful situation.

[9:49] They would be cursed because of not keeping God's law. And so what Paul is getting at here is that trying to be saved by keeping the law is doomed to failure.

[10:03] Not only is it doomed to failure, it is something that will curse us. It will bring God's curse upon us. Why? Because just like the Israelites could not keep the law, so we cannot keep the law.

[10:19] You know, we hear people say, I think I'm going to heaven. I haven't killed anybody. Like that's the only standard. I mean, there are nine other commandments.

[10:31] And even that one, all of us have broken when Jesus explains that. That calls us to have the responsibility not even to hate people. And all of us have broken that. And all of us find ourselves being in a situation where we've broken God's law.

[10:46] We can't keep it. And we fail. And we fall under God's curse. Just like Israel fell under God's curse. And it was very evident that they fell under God's curse.

[10:58] Because you can see it cycle after cycle. You can go to the book of Judges and see where they went headlong into sin. And God judged them. And brought some of these curses on them.

[11:10] And they called out to God. And God relented. And they just went cycle after cycle after cycle. And the whole Old Testament is built that way. Where time would go on. They'd have a good king. And God would bless them.

[11:21] As the people sought the Lord. Time would go on further. And they'd follow their own ways. And fail to keep God's law. And it eventually got so bad.

[11:32] That God sent the northern part of Israel into captivity. And then roughly a hundred years later or so. The southern part of Israel went into captivity.

[11:43] And so all of Israel was in captivity. Why? Because they failed to keep God's law. And they were under the curse. And that was part of the curse that they were to face. When faced with keeping God's law before God to do them.

[11:58] Man fails. And he falls under the curse. And Paul's getting at the same thing. When it comes to trying to add the law to helping your salvation.

[12:11] You're not going to get aid in salvation. You're going to get a curse. And since every one of us have failed to keep God's law. We are all people under a curse.

[12:25] Salvation cannot be kept by keeping the law. He's given us the example that salvation is by faith. They had been saved by faith. Abraham had been saved by faith. That's the way all people, even the Gentiles, would be saved.

[12:37] And now he's going to the other side and saying, Law keeping. What about law keeping? Well, law keeping brings a curse. And when you fail to keep the law, which all of us do, we're under a curse.

[12:48] So trying to get to heaven by keeping rules doesn't help. It hurts. It makes matters worse. Not just a little worse. Tremendously worse.

[13:00] And the Judaizers came along promoting this reliance on keeping the law as part of salvation. That placed the Judaizers and whoever followed that under the curse.

[13:13] Of course, all of us were born sinners under that curse. But those who were believing the Judaizers, those people who had trusted Christ by faith, I'm not saying they can lose their salvation.

[13:26] And Paul's convinced that those who were truly trusting Christ would not fall prey to this eventually. They might follow it for a while. But as he warned them, they would turn from it and realize that they are only saved by faith.

[13:39] And that happens to Christians. That happens to Christians now. But as these people, these Judaizers are trying to get them to add these commandments, Oh, you must be circumcised.

[13:49] You must do that. You must do the other thing. This was putting them in a bad situation. It was going to cause those who hadn't come to faith yet, who swallowed the Judaizers thinking, to fall hook, line, and sinker into being cursed by God.

[14:06] Now, it doesn't mean that they couldn't come to Christ. They couldn't repent. They could. But what the Judaizers were saying was not, it was not even not just helpful.

[14:18] It was damnable. It was damnable. If anybody tells you, you must add anything to trusting Christ as salvation, that's a damnable heresy.

[14:30] You can't be saved by keeping the law. It only brings a curse. For the Galatians to go back and try to keep the law for salvation would have just been pushing them back into that which would make them accursed.

[14:44] Now, I've made the point. I'm going to expand on it just a little bit. For the sake of us understanding our true situation. The point is, every one of us were born relying on the works of the law.

[14:57] As I've mentioned before, that's the way we were made. Adam was initially to obey God's command. And God would establish him there in the garden. And whatever that would look like, he would live forever.

[15:12] But Adam disobeyed. We are born sons of Adam. We have his nature. And we are born people who want to obey God and earn our salvation.

[15:24] Because that's the way Adam is. But Adam sinned. So, it's no longer an option for us to do that. But we're still people who like to do that.

[15:36] I mean, as I mentioned, how many of us don't share the gospel and hear somebody say, Well, I keep the Ten Commandments. Most of them, do they? No. But what are they doing?

[15:47] They're trying to earn their way to heaven. None of us has been able to continually obey everything written in the book of the law. None of us has done even a poor job of it.

[16:04] In fact, all of us are guilty of breaking God's law. All of it. James 2.10 Forever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point.

[16:16] People say, at least I haven't killed anybody, or I've never killed anybody. And they're saying they're good because they've kept one out of ten. James says you're bad if you've broken one out of ten.

[16:28] You're guilty of all ten if you've broken one out of ten. Failing to keep all of God's law from the instant you were conceived to the moment you were...

[16:39] That's what you would have to do. You would have to keep God's law from the instant you were conceived to the point of your death, never once missing one dot or one jot or one tittle of any part of the law.

[16:53] Now, that still wouldn't help us because we're born with a sin nature. We have Adam's guilt. But if we didn't have that, that's what we would have to do. And people come along saying, You know, if you just obey the law, God will bless you.

[17:10] You're already cursed. We've already broken it. We're guilty of all of it. So keeping the law would not save us because we're unable to keep the law.

[17:22] And we're now under this curse. This curse that Paul refers to, the whole idea of the responsibility. Now, that passage in Deuteronomy 27, 26 was not the first instance where God called man to obey every single thing he ever commanded.

[17:46] That took place in the garden. So we've been guilty since the moment Adam fell. So we've been under a curse from the moment that Adam fell.

[18:00] So we're not to try to earn our salvation by keeping the law. It doesn't work. It's too late. And yet that's exactly what goes on.

[18:14] Every false religion boils down to somehow either earning your way into heaven or ignoring that God exists. That's just the way it is.

[18:28] And it can't work for us because we're under this curse. So the first thing is Paul's arguing that if we try to work to keep our salvation, or to get our salvation, we're under a curse.

[18:43] The second thing, he makes a statement in verses 11 and 12 that it's evident that no one is justified before God by the law.

[18:55] Now, he says it's evident. What does he mean by it's evident? Let me read those two verses again. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law.

[19:06] For the righteous shall live by faith, but the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. So Paul argues that two things are evident. First, the first evident thing is that no one is justified by the law.

[19:21] That's the argument he just finished. Because if we fail in one instance, which we did before we were born, if we fail in one instance, we're under the curse and there's no hope.

[19:33] So it's evident that no one is justified by keeping the law. Failure in one point brings the curse of God. The second evident thing, I don't think he really builds this one a lot, he's already made the argument, but it's evident.

[19:48] He wants you to see that this is a truth we can't get beyond. No one is justified by keeping the law. Just, there's no way around it. But the second evident thing he wants to point out is that God has declared that righteousness or that the righteous shall live by faith.

[20:05] And he quotes from Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 4. Habakkuk 2, 4 says, Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

[20:21] Now that verse is quoted in two other places in the New Testament. Romans 1, 17, which the book of Romans very much parallels. In fact, you could almost say there are some things that are different between Romans and Galatians, some different emphases, but the book of Galatians very much parallels the overall structure of the book of Romans.

[20:43] Romans is really the text if you want to go to to find out about all these things. Again, like I say, there are a little bit of different emphases in Galatians, but Romans is the emphases, and he uses that verse, Habakkuk 2, 4, at almost the very beginning, Romans 1, 17, for in it, in it the gospel, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.

[21:09] As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Now he changes it just a little bit from what we see in the book of Habakkuk, but it is to give us a better understanding of what is meant there.

[21:23] The writer of the book of Hebrews, whoever you think that is, in chapter 10, verse 38, uses the same verse, but my righteousness shall, my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

[21:40] He's quoted also that book of Habakkuk. And what is Habakkuk saying? Habakkuk is saying that righteousness is by faith.

[21:55] It's not by law. So the two things that Paul wants you to understand that are evident are that you can't earn your righteousness by doing the law, and the second thing is that God has said there's only one way for a person to be righteous.

[22:16] Now, there was a different way before Adam fell, but since Adam fell, there's only one way to be righteous. And I want us to understand what Paul is saying here.

[22:28] Paul is saying this way won't work the law. And God is saying, I have declared there is only one way to be righteous.

[22:41] He leaves no room for us to say, well, maybe if we keep the law, God says, there's one way to be righteous. And that's by faith.

[22:52] And it's faith in Christ. You need what many old writers have called an alien righteousness. You need a righteousness that's not yours.

[23:04] You need an alien righteousness. You also need someone to pay for your sin. You can't do this on your own. That is not something you can earn. It is something you get by faith.

[23:17] Only. That's the only way. So, Paul says there's two things that are evident. You can't work to get to heaven and that God has declared that righteousness only comes by faith.

[23:29] And Paul also argues, he goes on to say, the law is not of faith. And I think what he's getting at there is that you can't add the one with the other.

[23:42] And that's what the Judaizers are doing. They were trying to say, okay, yeah, yeah, you Christians, you need to be saved by trusting in Jesus. But you also need to keep the law. And that is what happens in a lot of churches today.

[23:57] Now, they won't say that that's what's happening and maybe they're not meaning that that's, they're not trying to mean that. But that's what comes across when they say, you need to be saved by faith and good Christians do this.

[24:12] And if you're faithful doing this till you get to heaven, then you'll be saved. And that's not what's going on. Paul argues that you can't add one to the other.

[24:24] In and of themselves, the law and faith are beautiful. Each of them is beautiful. The whole, there are many Psalms in the book of Psalms that speak of how beautiful the law of God is.

[24:36] It is beautiful. Why? Because it reflects God who's beautiful. It's a beautiful and great thing. And the gospel is beautiful because of the grace, the mercy, the wonder of what happened.

[24:52] But you can't put them together. The law is beautiful as it is and it brings a curse. The gospel, justification by faith is what brings salvation.

[25:08] There are not two parts to how you earn your salvation. There are two totally different ways of trying to seek salvation. Either you try to get there yourself or you depend on Christ.

[25:24] He goes on to say, the one who does them shall live in them. That's a quote from Leviticus 18.5. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules. If a person does them, he shall live by them.

[25:37] I am the Lord. And so Paul quotes this verse. Moses quotes this verse telling the Israelites that if you keep God's commands while you're in the land, God will bless you.

[25:53] Paul comes along and is saying, he's not, he's not trying to change the meaning, but Paul comes along and is saying that if you desire to be saved by keeping the law, you must obey every single one perfectly.

[26:06] And you can't do that. The law requires, this is a phrase that people use often, the law requires perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience to the law for one to be righteous.

[26:18] We've already mentioned this, I'll just quickly go over this. From the moment you're conceived to the moment you die, perfect, personal, perpetual. It has to be absolutely without any failings, it has to be something you do yourself, and it has to be continuously, no slip-ups, not one, not for an instant.

[26:41] Could you at any point cease to keep the law completely and expect to be saved? It can't be done. We're not only unable to keep the whole law, but we're guilty of breaking it, as I mentioned, for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point, has been guilty of us, guilty of all of it.

[27:01] So the law is good, and again we're going to deal with that. It shows us our sin, it shows us our need of Christ, but it cannot help us pay for our sins.

[27:13] It cannot help us get into heaven. It is something we only look at now to point us to Christ and our need of him, and there's a civil use of the law, and we're not going to deal with that here.

[27:30] That is to guide countries, right? Guide actions, right? But the third use being we look at it as Christians saying, if I'm going to do what God loves, what God wants me to do, I'm going to look to the law, because that reflects his character, and I can learn that from that, learn how to live from that.

[27:49] So, he goes on in verse 13 and mentions Christ and the curse, what's going on here? How does the work of Christ relate to the curse of the law?

[28:02] Let me read verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on the tree.

[28:13] Now, if we're not careful, this could be confusing. It's not, it's not meant to be. He starts out by talking about if you try to keep the law, because you break the law, you're under a curse.

[28:25] Here he says, well, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, and what's he getting at? He's talking about what the curse brings about. We're under the curse if we break it, but what does it bring about?

[28:37] How does that play out in our lives? And, first of all, it says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, and I want to make sure that we keep truths in our mind.

[28:52] One is Christ did nothing in himself to deserve the curse of the law. Christ was born without sin, lived without sin perfectly. He had that perfect, perpetual, personal, I got him out of different order, perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience to law.

[29:09] He did that. He was born without a sin nature. He was not born of Adam. So he was able to do this. So, sorry, at no point in his life did he do anything that God could say, you're accursed for what you've done.

[29:27] Totally without any guilt, Christ did not deserve the curse of the law. He was hung on a tree to display that our sin was placed upon him, and that that sin brought God's curse upon him.

[29:40] Okay, we kind of need to back up. Deuteronomy 21-23 is something that Paul is alluding to. He quotes part of it here, and he gets to the fact, he says, cursed is everyone who hanged on a tree.

[29:57] What's he getting at? Well, we'll read it in just a second. In Deuteronomy 21-23, we find that there are these situations where God instructs people to hang people on a tree.

[30:10] What's that all about? Well, that's about the fact that these people had committed some trespass of God's law, and they had done it in such a vile, open way that they deserved for everyone to know that they had transgressed God's law in a horrible way, and that God had placed his curse on them.

[30:36] Now, I thought about trying to go into what that curse would be, but I'm not going to try to do that right now, because I didn't think of it until too late. But God placed his curse upon them, and let me read the verse, and I'll explain what happened.

[30:51] Deuteronomy 21-23, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him at the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.

[31:02] You shall not defile your land, for the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance. Being hung on a tree was a sign to others that what this person had done was so vile in God's sight that he was put in a place of open shame.

[31:21] His dead body was nailed to a tree, was only to be there from whatever time he was killed until as the sun went down, he was taken down, and that was a sign this man was such a transgressor that God counted him accursed.

[31:37] He was so bad, look, he's a wicked, vile sinner. This one is utterly rejected and damned by God.

[31:48] And remember, we talked about how all of us have broken God's law, and all of us were under the curse. And I want us to see, this is not something to take lightly, this is not God saying, you know, I'm not very happy with you right now.

[32:07] As lawbreakers before God, God would hold us up in derision, I'm saying figuratively, God could hold us up in derision, and say, this is a vile lawbreaker, this person deserves the wrath of God, this person deserves eternity in hell, because he's been a lawbreaker.

[32:33] that's what we deserve. We deserve, every one of us deserves, God to hang us from a tree somewhere, and put a sign over our heads that says something to the effect, this is what happens to a lawbreaker.

[32:51] This person in my eyes is accursed. That's what we deserved. In fact, that was our position. position. How are we ever going to get out of that?

[33:05] How are we ever going to be in a position where we're no longer cursed? Well, praise God, the curse of the law was upon Christ, because our sin was upon Him.

[33:22] God took our sin. Those who would trust Him, He took our sin and placed it on Christ. He took our sin.

[33:36] And we deserved the curse of God, but because He took our sin, Christ also took the curse of God. Christ became a curse for us.

[33:48] He is the one that now, for all of you who trust Christ, all who would ever trust Christ, all who God at one point would say, this is a vile, wicked sinner. Look what God does to vile, wicked sinners.

[34:01] They deserve damnation in hell. God placed our sin upon Christ and then says, look at this vile, wicked sinner.

[34:14] Not His own sin, your sin, my sin. Look at this vile, wicked sinner. He deserves the damnation of God and He suffers it on the tree, the cross.

[34:30] And there Christ hung becoming a curse for us. He bore that punishment. Someone had to pay for being such a wicked, vile sinner who deserved God's punishment.

[34:47] Christ did. Christ took our curse. Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from being those who are a curse by God.

[35:02] This part of Galatians, all of the book of Galatians, was Martin Luther's favorite. He loved it. Of course, he loved Romans, too. And this phrase that we read earlier from Matthew 2, 4, was the very phrase that God used to bring Martin Luther to himself.

[35:24] But in Martin Luther's commentary, he makes, I'm going to read a longer quote. He quotes, I'm going to quote somebody, but he makes a statement about this whole idea of being a curse, of Christ being a curse.

[35:37] he was cursed for us. This is Martin Luther's words. The whole emphasis on this phrase, the whole emphasis is on the phrase, for us.

[35:53] For Christ is innocent so far as his own person is concerned, therefore he should not have been hanged on the tree. But because, according to law, every thief should have been hanged, therefore, according to the law of Moses, Christ himself should have been hanged, for he bore the person of a sinner and a thief, and not one, not of one, but of all sinners and thieves.

[36:28] For we are all sinners and thieves, and therefore we are worthy of death and eternal damnation. But Christ took all our sin upon himself, and for them he died on the cross.

[36:39] He's not acting in his own person now, he's not, and this is not saying he's no longer the son of God, but he's not acting as, it's not for his sin. I'll keep reading and you'll make sense.

[36:51] Now, he is not the son of God born of a virgin, but he is a sinner who has and bears the sin of Paul, the former blasphemer, persecutor, and assaulter, of Peter, who denied Christ, of David, who was an adulterer, and a murderer, and who caused the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of the Lord.

[37:15] In short, he has and bears all the sins of all men in his body, not in the sense that he has committed them, but in the sense that he took these sins committed by us upon his own body in order to make satisfaction for them with his own blood.

[37:37] God looked at Christ with your sin and my sin on him and said, my son, you are cursed.

[37:51] This is what happens to people who sin like this. And that was for you, and that was for me. How beautiful a savior we have.

[38:04] And we can never forget he bore our curse for us. Paul finishes the section here by what's said in verse 14, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.

[38:27] here is Paul saying, look, this wasn't just for Jews, this is for you Gentiles also. Now, all of us here, I'm not asking you to do this, but all of us here can say, amen, thank God.

[38:44] God, because of the work of Christ, the Gentiles received the same blessing as Abraham. He took our curse, we receive redemption and righteousness by faith.

[38:59] He took our curse, we receive the promised spirit through faith. He took our curse, because of the work of Christ, the Gentiles are saved and blessed in the same way Abraham was, by faith.

[39:19] Don't ever add what you think you can do to your salvation. It's all by Christ. Friend, do you know where you stand with God this morning?

[39:32] Are you trying to make yourself favorable in his eyes, hoping that you'll be good enough for God to make an exception for you? If you do, you don't have the right view of God.

[39:47] God is holy. He rightly condemns all who have not kept every single one of his laws perfectly. Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

[40:05] How are you doing with that? Do you think you've kept one of the ten? It won't make it. Do you think you've kept nine of the ten? It won't make it.

[40:17] Do you think you've kept 99% of the ten? It won't make it. We have been under a curse. Christ paid for that curse.

[40:29] none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside.

[40:40] Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.

[40:53] Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. In the way of peace they have not known.

[41:03] There is no fear of God before their eyes. There's nothing a person can do about that. No laws he can start obeying.

[41:16] No good works that you can hope to change your situation with. We're rightly accused for our sin. But there is hope. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

[41:30] That whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting or eternal life. God is willing to show love and mercy. But for his love and mercy to be extended to us it required that he place all our sin upon his holy perfect son.

[41:50] And that beloved son then be accursed for us. Christ was treated the way wicked rebellious people deserve to be treated. He suffered was forsaken by God and died in public shame under the curse of God to provide redemption for us.

[42:15] Friend if you don't know Christ that's your only hope. God has declared it so. He has said you are cursed if you try to work your way to heaven and he has said the only way a person can be righteous is by faith.

[42:30] If you desire to be redeemed from your sin and the curse of God then you need to turn from trying to save yourself and trust Christ and the work he did to redeem you. That is your only hope.

[42:43] But it is the most glorious hope because it's complete it's perfect it's sure it's done. It's a matter of you turning to it. Christian I hope in thinking about this it reminds you again of what Christ has done for you.

[43:03] You've been redeemed from the curse of the law by Christ becoming a curse for you. Everything you deserve to suffer Christ suffered in your stead.

[43:14] All that God had against you as a sinner Christ took and suffered for you. You've been redeemed by the work of Christ. That is love and grace beyond comprehension.

[43:29] We need to be people who praise God for his love mercy and grace every day. Tomorrow you'll get up. Maybe you'll wake up with a headache.

[43:41] Maybe your house I won't say it. bad things will happen to your house. Maybe some of the worst news in the world could come. But if you're trusting Christ the most glorious thing that ever could be done has been done for you.

[43:59] God's son took your sin and suffered for you. And he endured that curse for you. And I know I'm as guilty as the rest of us.

[44:12] I can get up and start feeling bad about my day and not think about the fact I am here today because the son of God took my sin and suffered in my place bore my curse and has given me a righteousness only because I trust him.

[44:30] It ought to make my mouth to be full of praise every moment. So it should be with all of us. This is our standing struggle.

[44:43] praise God for as much as he deserves it. Let's pray. Thank you father for your word.

[44:54] Thank you for the beautiful picture of what you have done. I can't fathom loving a people so much to place their sin on my own son.

[45:08] I can't fathom that. I praise you that you did it. Help us to never doubt your love. And I know that's one of the things that Satan does all the time.

[45:20] Help us not to doubt your love. Help us to know our standing comes because of the work of Christ. It's only by faith. I can't do anything to improve it. I can love him because he's done it.

[45:32] And I can know how to love him because of that law. I can't do anything to improve it. I pray that you would be with us. Lord, help us to be people who are full of praise.

[45:44] Who are only, always, only trusting in the work of Christ. I pray that you would make us to be careful about that. In Jesus' name. Amen.