And the reason why I'm doing this is not just so you have the broader context, but there's something I want you to observe as we go through this text. I want you to notice that in the first five verses, Paul here talking about how they received the Spirit. And then in verses six through nine, He brings forward the example of Abraham and the blessing that Abraham received in being justified by faith. Then he moves on to verse 10 and talks about the curse of the law. And then, starting with verse 13, he covers those same themes in reverse order. so that in verse 13 he talks about how Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law and then how We as believers have received the blessing of Abraham, that's referring to justification, and then just as he started with the matter of the receiving of the Spirit, that's how he ends, verse 14. I hope that's going to be helpful as I work through the sermon this evening, even though the text is verses 13 and 14. O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Therefore, he who supplies the spirit to you, and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Therefore, know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham before saying, In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not a faith. The man who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. You may be seated. Let's pray. Our Father, we come and ask you now in this part of our worship to please abundantly bless the proclamation of your word. Father, the truths that we will consider this evening are not new truths. They're old truths. But they're precious truths. And we ask, Father, that we would never, never consider the redeeming work of Christ as simply another doctrine that we believe, but that we would see His redeeming work as that which should be used by the Spirit to desire us to want to be more like our Redeemer. We pray, Father, that Your Word would be proclaimed in power, and that it would be received by those who hear it in power. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Concerning the book of Galatians, Martin Luther said this, The epistle to the Galatians is my epistle. To it I am, as it were, in wedlock. It is my Catherine. Now, if you don't know who Catherine was, Catherine was Luther's beloved wife. his dear wife and the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians was very dear to the heart of Martin Luther because it's a book in which the doctrine of justification by faith is clearly presented. The book of Galatians has been described as the battle cry of the Reformation. In the first two chapters of Galatians, the Apostle Paul defends the doctrine of justification by faith by explaining that it did not start with him, it did not originate with him, it originated with Christ himself who revealed the gospel to him. That's in chapter 1. And in chapter 2, he points out that what he was preaching, justification by faith alone, was confirmed by Peter, James, and John, the Jerusalem leadership when he went there and shared with them the gospel that he had preached. In this chapter, He is defending the doctrine of justification by faith, and he shows that it's based on the redemptive work of Christ. Particularly, we see that in verse 13. As I already stated, he starts off by demonstrating that These believers, these Galatian believers, had to have been justified by faith because when they believed, they received the Spirit. And then he goes on, he says, and as a way of even further reinforcing that they had to have received this blessedness of justification by faith alone, he points them to Abraham. And then, to refute any idea that a person could be justified by the works of the law. He says, no, the law can't bring about justification. All the law can do is bring about a curse. And it's Christ who redeemed us from the curse of the law. We were redeemed from the curse of the law. And then Paul points us to two purposes for that redemption. The first is that we would receive the blessing of Abraham. That is referring to the blessing of justification by faith alone. But something else I think is often overlooked is there's a second purpose that Paul gives us. And these aren't all the purpose of redemption, but these are two very key purposes of redemption. But the last one, the second one, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Paul tells us in verse 13, that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. These words has redeemed, mean to be delivered by paying a ransom. It literally means, the word literally means to buy out of, to buy out of, and the specific reference here is that he redeemed us, he bought us out from underneath the curse of the law. Now, let me finish about what I'm going to say here before you start scratching your head. When he says here, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, I believe the primary reference there is to the Jewish people. Look at the flow of the text again. Christ redeemed us, who are Jews, from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. for is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we, now he's referring to Jewish and Gentile believers, might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Who were the earliest believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? Who was that? It's Jews. It was Jews. It was quite some time, but we don't know exactly how many years it was before the Lord officially opened the door to the Gentiles. And we find that, of course, in Acts chapter 10. Now, we understand that when Paul says here, and he's talking primarily, I'm saying Jews, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. That doesn't mean that that doesn't include us. It does. We've all been, if we're believers, we've been redeemed from the curse of the law. But I think Paul here is thinking more in terms of the historical context here. But again, it does include every one of us that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile. And he became a curse for us. He became a curse in our place. When it says here, having become a curse for us, this is telling us how it is that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. I don't know what translation you may have in front of you, It would have been helpful if the translators of the New King James had put it this way, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by having become a curse for us or even because of becoming a curse for us. Here we find in those words, having become a curse, that's how he redeemed us from the curse of the law. He became a curse. The law had no claim against him. The Lord Jesus had not in any way at any time violated any commandment found in the law. I find it difficult to understand how one could fully satisfy all the demands of the law in one's lifetime. Are you following? Maybe it's because I'm a sinner, and I know that we all struggle with sin, but the concept is that there was never a time that in any way Christ failed to obey His Heavenly Father. Fully, completely, entirely obeyed the law. And by the way, that perfect righteousness, if you're a believer, is regarded by God the Father to be your perfect righteousness. When it says here that He became a curse for us, it means He became a curse in our place. The preposition that's there, the translated for, does frequently carry the idea of substitution, or in the place of, and even though there's many other places where it's understood, and it would mean simply for the benefit of, that's not the sense of it here, nor in other scriptures, because it's quite clear that the scripture presents to us that our Savior died the place of his people I know you heard that this morning you're hearing it again this evening and guess what you will undoubtedly hear it when I come back and preach other times he died in the place of his people this is abundantly clear in Matthew chapter 20 verse 28 where Jesus said that he did not come to to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And the word there translated for is one that clearly does mean in the stead of or in the place of. There's something else that I think we as God's people and as reformed believers, as Presbyterians, It's good for us to be able to defend our understanding that redemption is a particular redemption, that Christ did not die for the sins of everyone. His redemption was particular. A text that brings this out so wonderfully is Revelation chapter 5 and verse 9, where the saints in heaven say to Christ, And you have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. That statement could not be made if all were redeemed. God's elect were redeemed out of every tribe and tongue and people. and nation. God passed over others, but if you're a believer, He didn't pass over you. His love for you is particular. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He had you individually in mind when He suffered in your place. When Paul said, When he spoke of Christ who loved me and gave himself for me, when he said that, do you think he meant that Christ loved him and him alone? No. No, he didn't mean that. Who loved me. Did he mean that he was a part of a group of people that God loves and he was a part of that group? And so we could say that, so, no, no. He is affirming in that statement that Christ loved him and gave himself for him because that love and that redemption was particular. You weren't loved. I've got to think about how I put this. You are not loved because you are redeemed. You understand? You are not loved because you've been redeemed. You are redeemed because you were and you are loved. God loved you. That is why He redeemed you. That's why Christ became a curse. And Paul demonstrates, he proves this from scripture, that Christ became a curse. He quotes from Deuteronomy 21, verses 22 and 23, there where he writes, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. According to Jewish law, If a man was executed for a capital offense, he was to be hung, it's actually his corpse, was to be hung on a tree or on a post. He would be suspended by his hands, and it was a means of showing that that criminal was accursed by God. The way I've heard it explained, the man was lifted between heaven and earth to show that he was lifted up from the earth to show that he was rejected by men. But he was suspended between the two to show he was also rejected by heaven as well. The Jews did not invent crucifixion. You probably know that. The Romans weren't the ones who invented it either. It was actually the Phoenicians. The Romans are accredited with perfecting crucifixion, making it an agonizing form of capital punishment. But I think you know, because I have emphasized it, and I'm probably not the only one, that it was not the physical suffering of Christ that was the most agonizing. It was His bearing the infinite wrath of his heavenly father. What does it mean that the law was a curse? What is the curse of the law? Well, some have explained that the curse of the law is summed up in the statement found in Ezekiel 18 verses 4 and also verse 20, the soul whose sins shall die. I believe that that's true, but we need to understand that in its full implications. The soul whose sins shall die. The curse of the law refers to God's intense displeasure against sin and sinners. We were in a presbytery meeting and somebody asked one of the candidates for licensure if the statement was true that God hates the sin but loves the sinner. I knew how I would answer that question, and I knew how I would defend it. When the candidate said that he believes you could not make that distinction, there were some men in the presbytery that raised their eyebrows and were very surprised by that answer. Until one of the wiser brethren in the presbytery got up and said, look, it's not the sin to get sent to hell. It's the sinner. We need to understand that God does have a wrath against sin. Psalm 55, the psalmist says to the Lord that you hate all workers of iniquity. We need to understand that. We need to understand the seriousness of sin. We need to understand the seriousness of our own sin before a holy God. We sang this evening about the Lord's chastisement against his people when they sinned. But we need to also be mindful that people who are in hell today suffering the wrath of a holy God and that's why we should seek to persuade sinners to flee from from their sin and flee to the Lord Jesus Christ the scriptures repeatedly talk about God's wrath against sin we saw that actually in Romans chapter 1 verse 18 this morning Listen to John 3.36. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Sinners are not waiting for the wrath of God to be poured out on them in the lake of fire. there will be, of course, an intense reality of that fact. Those who are outside of Christ are under the wrath of God. I think we need to remember that when it comes to seeing our friends and our neighbors and our co-workers. This is already what they're under. Christ did suffer the incomprehensible wrath of God that was due to you. Due to me. What did you and I owe God? An eternity in the lake of fire. An eternity in the lake of fire. If you think about the eternity and the suffering of the lost in the lake of fire for all of eternity, and you realize that on the cross what Christ suffered, there has to be some point of similarity here, some point of context. I mean, do you understand what I'm saying? The intensity of their suffering has to somehow come give us some idea of what Christ suffered on the cross. My point is that your redemption was extremely costly. The cross shows us the great offense the great offense of our sin against God. But, of course, it also then demonstrates the great value that God has placed upon your soul, that Christ has placed upon your soul. You are valuable to your Savior. You are valuable to your Savior because of what He suffered. The ancient historian Valerius recorded an account of a lawyer named Zalucas who decreed that anyone found guilty of adultery would have his eyes put out and when his own son was found guilty of adultery the people sought his pardon and the people were relentless in their appeals and say Lucas desire to find a lawful means to pardon his son and he demonstrated that he was a just lawgiver and a merciful father by first putting out one of his own eyes and then taking out one of the eyes of his son. Valerius wrote that account simply to show a father's love for his son. Yes, Zeleucus took half the penalty of his son upon himself. But understand this, there's no way that Christ could have taken half of your penalty. Do you know why? Because there's no such thing as half an eternity. There is no such thing as half of an eternity. Christ could only suffer for you in the sense of all or nothing. All or nothing. And He suffered it all. suffered it all. You've heard me say this before, you will probably hear me say it again. That the only people who have any concept, any comprehension of what Christ suffered on the cross, yes, those who are suffering in hell today. They have some concept, they have some comprehension, but understand that even what they would understand would be very, very small compared to what he actually suffered because of the intensity of it in those few hours that he hung on the cross. Are you redeemed this evening? Have you truly trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone for salvation? Do you have a head full of scripture, but you still have a heart full of sin? Are you moved when you hear about the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Or is this just another item on your checklist of orthodoxy. Are you thankful that you've been purchased at such an awful cost? Christ redeemed everyone who believes in Him from the curse of the law. but he also then the apostle goes on to the first of the two purposes of redemption verse 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus as I mentioned before This blessing of Abraham, and believe me, it's rather interesting, there are people that speculate, well, maybe it's this blessing he's referring to, or maybe it's this. The context makes it clear that the blessing of Abraham is being justified, and justified by faith alone. That's why I wanted you to understand the structure of the text, and how Paul is tying all those themes together, those three themes, and covers them in reverse order in verses 13 and 14. notice that what makes it even more abundantly clear as you will look at verse 6 just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness therefore no no that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham and the scriptures foresee that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preach the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying in you, all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. I'm not saying that there isn't a fullness of the Abrahamic blessing for God's people to enjoy. There is. But in this context, he is clearly pointing us to this whole matter of Abraham being justified and that God then would, when he preached the gospel to Abraham, made it clear that all of the nations, all people of all nations would be justified by faith. The very idea here, see, that Paul's getting at, verse 8, the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith shows that it would be I was going to use the word ridiculous. Maybe that is a good word. Ridiculous. For these Judaizers to then come in and say faith isn't enough. That faith isn't enough. It is enough. Understand this. It's not your faith that saved you. It's not your faith that saved you. That's the problem with Arminianism. It's not your faith that saved you. It's Christ who saved you. We've got too many people who have faith in their faith rather than faith in Christ. The blessing of Abraham is yours, if you have believed in Christ, because Christ became a curse for you and redeemed you from that curse. He goes on to the next purpose. There in the next part of verse 14, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. I love this. He adds, through faith. Through faith. He's already made it very clear that we're justified by faith. Now he says we receive the Spirit by faith. What's his point here? When we believe we were justified and at the same time we received the Spirit. Those go hand in hand. If a person claims to have the Spirit of God, But they do not believe in justification by faith alone. They don't know that they ain't got it. When you have people who do strange things in a worship service, They might speak in tongues. They might do what appears to be healings. They may do all kinds of things. But if they deny the doctrine of justification by faith, what's going on is not the product of the Holy Spirit. And I'm afraid we don't put enough emphasis as believers upon the work of the Spirit. Christ redeemed you and He redeemed me. So that you and I could receive the promise of the Spirit. And what He means by that is not that we would receive this promise. No, not that we would just merely receive the promise. He means that we would receive the Spirit who is promised. The Spirit who was promised. As I already mentioned, he closes with this whole matter of receiving the promise of the Spirit through faith. I believe that he, again, is pointing us to the fact that when people believe and are justified, they also receive the Spirit of God. This means that a true believer, someone who is genuinely justified, someone who has Recognize their position in Christ. The Spirit is operating in that person's life. It has to be true. It has to be true. Are you redeemed? Redeemed from the curse of the law? Are you thankful that you are justified? Are you thankful that you have received the Spirit. There is a need for all of us to be reminded of our obligation to offer thanksgiving to God for His saving mercy. There is a sinful tendency within men and women not to be grateful to God. In Romans chapter 1, Paul writes about the moral decline of the human race. In verse 21 he wrote these words. Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful. This is what characterizes unbelief. A lack of gratitude for God. There was Ship that was sinking. This was several several years ago on Lake, Michigan The name of the ship was a steamship ship by the name of Lady Elgin and There was a young man by the name of Spencer who rescued 17 people from the cold waters of Lake, Michigan The effort, the extreme effort required in the rescue of those 17 people in those chilling waters of Lake Michigan ruined Spencer's health. Years later, when he was an old man, a reporter asked him if he had received any expressions of gratitude from those he had rescued. And his answer was, not one. Not one. Do you remember when the Lord healed those ten lepers? Did they all come back thanking Christ for that healing? No, just one. Just one. But gratitude is one of those things that does, at least should, characterize God's people. When Benjamin Franklin was a boy, his family was going hungry and a neighbor gave them a barrel of pork. And for several days, Benjamin's father offered a prayer of thanksgiving before each meal when the pork was served. Well, finally, young Benjamin Asked his father why you would not do just to ask a blessing over the whole barrel and let the Thanksgiving end at that. Well, the the answer should be obvious. It's because the Lord is pleased. For us to offer our Thanksgiving to him often. And this evening. As you partake of this holy meal, thank the Lord that He redeemed you from the curse of the law, having become a curse for you, in order that you might receive the blessing of Abraham and receive the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Our Father, how thankful we are that You redeemed us. And we know that You redeemed us not to make us lovable. You redeemed us because You loved us before You redeemed us. How thankful we are. Lord, help us to be truly thankful for all that You've done for us through Your Son, the Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.