Galatians chapter 3, we're going to see how by the Spirit of God, the Apostle Paul was given grace to teach us from the Scripture and by our own experience that we're not justified or sanctified by our own works, but by the work of God, by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness for us and by the work of the Spirit of God because of that. And I want to look at that today with you. I've entitled this message, All of Grace, because it truly is all of grace. Let's pray. Dear Father, we thank you that you've given to us this mercy and grace on the account of the Lord Jesus and his blood and righteousness to call you our Father. We pray, Lord, that you open your word to us today and apply it to our hearts. And that you would exalt our Savior in our eyes and help us to worship him. Grant us this faith to see and lay hold, to taste and handle, and to take and eat and drink of the Lord Jesus. In his sin-atoning death, in his name we pray. Amen. I want to read from chapter 2, verse 17. But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, that is what we seek, isn't it? To be justified by Christ. I pray that you might get a hold of that simple phrase. We seek to be justified by Christ. In Galatians 2 verse 17. That's what we come to God for. To be found in Christ. To be justified by Christ. We can't do it. God has to do it. It is God that justifies, isn't it? Romans 8 verse 33. It is God that justifies. But He does it out of grace found in Himself, not out of works found in us, or worth. And He does it because of the merit found in His Son. So we seek to be justified by the merits of Christ. But if we do seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? If others think we're sinners because we seek our justification in Christ alone, or if we ourselves try to add something to Christ and so make ourselves sinners, Christ isn't the minister of that sin. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. It's my fault. Trying to mix works with grace. For I, through the law, am dead to the law." What an astounding truth that is. God's law, which curses me justly for my sin, is the cause of my death in order that I might live by the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? That which was my enemy, the demands and curse of God's law on me because of my sin, has become the tool in God's hand to put me to death and raise me again with Christ. I through the law am dead to the law that I might live to God. Here's how. Here's how I died. Here's how I rose. I am crucified with Christ. That's my death. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. He is my life. He is the resurrection and the life. And the life which I now live in the flesh. I don't live it by the works of the law. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That is the ministry of the Spirit of God in our lives. To point us to Christ. It says in Romans 5.5, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. He loved me and gave himself for me. That's the work of the Spirit of God. Verse 21, I do not frustrate the grace of God. To frustrate means to despise it. It means to reject it and cast it away. To deny it. To make it empty and void and meaningless and of no profit. Unnecessary. I don't frustrate God's grace. Here's why Paul stood alone and opposed Peter's actions to correct Peter and all those who followed him. And here's why Paul stood alone to correct the Galatians. And here's why the Spirit of God has given this to us now. Because of the consequence of trusting something of ourselves in our acceptance and favor and blessing from God. He says, I don't frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then there's this horrible consequence, then Christ is dead in vain. And he claimed that salvation is a result of something men do, is to despise, it is to reject, to cast away, to make unnecessary, to trample underfoot, as it were, as it says in Hebrews, the blood of the Son of God. That's a serious thing. It's a frustration of the gospel, of the grace of God. It's a frustration of it because it declares that righteousness comes by the law rather than by Christ alone. If we could just get that in our heart. We can only get it there by the Spirit of God. He has to put it there. But the scripture declares it so plainly. Isn't it amazing that so much time is spent in the book of Galatians trying to surgically remove the error that the Galatians were beginning to embrace. He spends the entire book trying to remove from them the stupidity and the God dishonoring, blaspheming doctrine of salvation by works. And yet the book of Romans is spent doing this as well. And in the book of Acts, Peter said, we believe that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. And Hebrews, and Ephesians, and we could go on and on. So much of the Bible is written to prove our helplessness under our own guilt and corruption before God, and our utter necessity on the grace of God in Christ. And that it's His righteousness alone, His blood alone cleanses us from our sin, and His righteousness alone can justify us before God. Because the consequence is so horrible, if it's anything but that. If it's possible for righteousness to come by something that I do. then think about the consequence. The triune God has utterly failed. God the Father gave His Son, delivered Him up to judgment and death without accomplishing anything by doing it. And He did it needlessly. He slayed His own Son without cause. What a horrible thing that would be. And the Son of God gave Himself and failed to see the satisfaction of His own labors. What a God dishonoring thing that is to deny that Christ is God. Is to deny that He is the Son of God. Is to deny the witness of the Spirit of God concerning Christ and His accomplishments. Concerning the conviction of our unbelief in sin and the righteousness that He established and the justice satisfying judgment that God accomplished when He slew His Son. Is to deny the triune God. And especially to deny the Son of God. It's a horrible thing. And that's why Paul comes down so hard and so heavily upon this, to counter this lie. It's a cherished lie, though, isn't it? It's a cherished lie, so many in our day, and we ourselves held tenaciously to this fact. We can't think otherwise. It's in our spiritual deadness, if you will, our spiritual DNA. The false gospel that teaches that some thought, or some attitude, or action, or remorse, or reform, or a desire, or sincerity, or words, or actions on my part, my will to decide, or choose, or accept, all these things somehow put what God has done into effect for me. But that's not the way it works. My faith is the gift of God. It comes because of Christ. And so Augustus, top lady who wrote Rock of Ages and other songs, he said this, Every religion except one puts you upon doing something in order to recommend yourself to God. It is the business of all false religion to patch up a righteousness in which the sinner can stand before God. But it is the business of the glorious gospel to bring near to us, by the hand of the Holy Spirit, a righteousness already worked out and a robe of perfection already made wherein God's people, to all the purposes of justification and happiness, stand perfect and without fault before His throne. That's what grace does. That's what the gospel says. The sinner's only hope before God is God's free, sovereign, effectual, immutable, saving grace in Christ. And so we begin verse 1 of chapter 3, O foolish Galatians! Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? To not obey the truth is to not believe Christ. It's to believe the lie and to go about to establish my own righteousness by what I do. Coming to God thinking that if I get better, God will somehow think better of me. instead of looking to Christ as a poor, empty-handed sinner and coming to Him that way alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Galatians were, as people, put under a spell. Someone had come in and seduced them, like a harlot seduces a man, and put them under the spell by enticing them by their own pride in order to establish their own righteousness before God, just by a little thing, by circumcision. And I'm not going to explain what the physical act of circumcision is. I'll leave that for the parents to explain to their own children. But circumcision has a spiritual implication. And let me just give it to you briefly in Colossians chapter 2. It says that we were circumcised in the circumcision of Christ by the putting off of the body of our sins in the death of Christ. So our circumcision at the first is our death with Christ and our sins being cut off. in the seed, the one who was the promised seed, who came through Abraham. He was circumcised in death when our sins were laid upon Him and He was crucified for them. And then the Spirit of God circumcises our heart when He gives us faith. And that faith is itself the seal of this new covenant to us. The Spirit of God is given to us and He gives us that faith. And these two things together, our circumcision in the death of Christ and our circumcision by the Spirit of God in our heart, producing faith in us, fulfills that Old Testament type of circumcision. But the Galatians were completely hoodwinked by the Judaizers. Because they thought that if they could do something, they would have some confidence before God that depended upon what they did. They would go about to begin to fulfill God's law. And that would give them some standing before God and make it a little bit better for them. especially compared to their peers, but nothing could be further from the truth. It actually only condemns us more when we trust ourselves in some way. We have to trust Christ alone. So he says, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? That's what preaching the gospel is all about. It's to set forth Christ, crucified among you. To explain what it means. To show that it was God's will, what He accomplished by it. And what we ought to do because of it. To look to Him and come to God by Him. This is setting forth Christ and Him crucified. It's to set Him forth before the eyes of sinners. And then leave to the Spirit of God to quicken sinners to life and to bless His people by that. He says in verse 2, this only what I learn of you. He appeals now to what they experienced. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? When you heard the gospel, was it the law that was preached? And did you believe that you would be made right with God, your sins put away and given a right standing by something that you did? Or was it declared to you from the gospel that it is Christ that died? And therefore every answer has been given to God by Him and He's your only hope. And you heard it and you believed it by the power of the Spirit of God. It was by that hearing of faith. By God's grace you saw with spiritual eyes and embraced with spiritual hands the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. You laid hold on Him and you clung to Him with a life grip given to you by God. And that was God's work. You said in your heart, it's mine. I'm a sinner. I have nothing. But look what God has done. And in a moment, you were convinced that if God accepted Christ, He accepted you for Christ's sake. And that was all of your hope, all of your joy and peace. And you knew then, this was God's work. It was by the hearing of faith. And so he says in verse 3, Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Did you begin by grace, by standing on the blood and righteousness of Christ, enabled by the Spirit of God to believe this, and now are you trying to be perfect by your own flesh, by your own works? That's a foolishness. In other words, you're justified by Christ and you're sanctified by Christ, by His grace, by the work of His Spirit in your heart. Have you suffered so many things in vain? All the things you've suffered in believing Christ, was it for nothing? If it be yet in vain, perhaps it is for you. Verse 5, He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you. Does he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Does God work miracles among you by His Spirit, because you do something, or because of His own sovereign will and grace? Think about the miracle of God pouring down fire from heaven on the sacrifice. Elijah prayed and God consumed the stones and the water and the wood and the sacrifice and everything was burned up. Was it because the people believed? Of course not. It was because God would turn their hearts again. And so it was by the hearing of faith, that's the answer. And then he goes on, he says, even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And so now he's not going to just appeal to their experience of God's grace by his spirit when they heard the gospel. But he's going to appeal to Abraham because the Judaizers were trying to convince them to keep the law. To become like the Jews. And so he says, okay, consider Abraham the father, the physical father of the nation of Israel. Now I want you to think just a little bit with me about the history. What do you know about Abraham and his children? Who was Abraham's first son? The one that was born first to Abraham. It was Ishmael, wasn't it? And then Isaac. And then after Isaac and Ishmael were born, God told Abraham to circumcise his son. Everyone in Abraham's house had to be circumcised. And so he did. He circumcised Ishmael. And he circumcised Isaac. The sign of circumcision was put upon Ishmael and Isaac. That should have taught the people something, shouldn't it? Because Ishmael wasn't given the promised land, was he? Was Ishmael given the promises that God gave to Abraham? Was he given the gospel? Well, he heard it, undoubtedly, in the tent of Abraham. But he was the son of the bondwoman, remember? He was not the son of the free. And so he was actually a picture of those who were outside of God's saving grace. And Paul uses him in Romans 9 to prove he was not one of God's elect. But the child of promise was Isaac. Both circumcised, both born to Abraham, only one was given the promise. Isaac. that should have taught the Jews something. It's not by circumcision, it's not by keeping the law, but they didn't get it. And then there was Esau and Jacob. Esau and Jacob both circumcised, both twins of Rebekah and Isaac. And therefore you would think that the Jews would learn by this. Two boys, Esau and Ishmael, both circumcised, both born to Abraham, and yet they were outside of the promises. They weren't given the promises. God gave the promises to Isaac and to Jacob. And so they didn't learn it. They did not learn it. Because they didn't understand the truth that Paul, the apostle, calls here from Genesis chapter 15 verse 6. He says, "...even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." He believed God. What was the distinction? What was the difference that God made between Abraham and all the others from the Ur of the Chaldees? God gave him this grace of faith. He believed God. And what did he believe? Well, we're going to find that out here in the next two verses. Because everything hinges on this. He says, "...he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, not circumcision, not keeping the law, the same are the children of Abraham." It doesn't matter whether you're circumcised, whether you keep the law, whether you were even born to Abraham. The point is, physical relations have no bearing on your relation to God. Your relation to your parents doesn't make you a child of God. It doesn't bring you into a covenant. Nor were the Israelites who were born to Abraham under some special covenant that guaranteed that the nation, as a nation, was going to all be saved. It didn't. There's only one thing that made a difference. It was God's electing grace in Christ. That's the teaching from Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Esau. All the way down through the ages until the nation of Israel was cast off in AD 70. And God brought the gospel to the Gentiles. And that's what's happening here in Galatians. It's not the children of the flesh, but the children of the promise that are counted for the seed. And that, for some reason, that truth is so hard to penetrate the minds of people in this age because there's two views that seem to dominate Christianity. It's either the view that somehow the nation of Israel is going to re-emerge as a nation and God's blessings are going to be poured out on that nation because they're related to Jacob through physical birth. That's not the case. And the other one is that God's covenant through Moses was a covenant of grace. The law was somehow a covenant of grace. And because they circumcised their children, therefore we have to baptize our children. Both are wrong. And both are taught against in the scripture. And so he says here, Abraham believed God. Period. And it was counted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham." And listen, and here's what happened back then. And the scripture, the scripture, which is the Word of God written. It's the will of God revealed. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen Gentiles. through faith, preached the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. What did God say to Abraham? In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Genesis chapter 12 verse 3. That's what God said. And Paul takes that verse of scripture and he puts it here in this letter. And he says, that was the gospel preached by scripture to Abraham. And what does it mean? What was that gospel? It's the same gospel that Paul preached. It was THE gospel. The gospel. And what was it? That God would justify the heathen through faith. That's what he's saying here. How does God justify the heathen? Well, what did he say in the promise? Let's go back to Genesis 12, verse 3. It's really quoted here, but I just want you to see it there as well. Genesis 12, verse 3. I'm just going to read verse 3, because it's the end of the verse that's quoted. I will bless them that bless thee. And curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." All families means all nations according to Galatians chapter 3 verse 8. The heathen. All nations. All Gentiles. Jews and Gentile nations would be blessed in Abraham. But he doesn't just say in Abraham. He says in thee and in thy seed. That's what he says in Galatians chapter 3, verse 8. He says, in thee shall all nations be blessed, but later on he says, in verse 16 and following, he talks about his seed. So what was his promise? That in Abraham, through his seed, remember what God promised Adam and Eve when he spoke to the serpent? He said, the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. The seed of the woman. What was the seed of the woman? Well, according to Genesis 12.3, it would be Abraham's son. After several generations, one would be born to Abraham, called his seed. That's who he's speaking about. Through his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. What was the blessing? That God would justify the heathen. How would it come about? Through their law keeping? No, through their faith. And so what God is saying in that promise that God made to Abraham is that it was a promise made before to Abraham. But it was really a promise being made to Christ because He was the seed that would come. Look at Galatians 3 verse 16. He says, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds, as of many, But as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ." So there you have it. The seed through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what was the promise? That God would justify the heathen through the Lord Jesus Christ. And how would this come about? Well, look at verse 17. And this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. The promise to Abraham that he would justify the heathen through faith by Jesus Christ was a promise that was part of a covenant. And that covenant was openly made with Abraham way before the law. 430 years. But it was made with Christ long before that. Because it's called the everlasting covenant. In 2 Samuel 23.5, David refers to it. He said, "...he hath made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things and sure." And this is all my salvation, all my desire, all my hope. In Isaiah 55.3 he said it. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Because God had reiterated this covenant through the Old Testament. Had expanded on it and revealed more of it. But it was established in the beginning with Christ the Lord. And the promise was given to God. God the Father made a promise to his son saying to him in that covenant that on the payment of his blood in ransom that he would redeem his people and he would justify them. His blood would justify the heathen and they would receive that justification through faith. And that was the gospel. That's the gospel, the same gospel that Paul preached. Hebrews 13.20 says, "...through the blood of the everlasting covenant." That's Christ's blood. In Matthew 26.28, when Jesus gave the cup to His disciples at the Last Supper, He said, This cup is the New Testament in My blood. The New Testament is that covenant revealed and ratified and put into force, formally approved, and the blessings of it brought forth. Because of the blood of Christ. Because it all hinged on the condition that Christ shed his blood. That's the promise God made to Abraham. He made it to Abraham. God knew what was compacted in that promise. And Abraham understood it. It had to do with Christ. It had to do with him. And so in John chapter 8 and verse 56, Jesus said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it and was glad. And so Abraham understood. The promise God is making here is that He would bring His people from far, from all nations of the earth, and He would bless them. He would bring them into His very presence in His court in heaven, and He would declare them righteous in His sight because of the righteousness of His Son, and the blood of His Son, which would take away their sins. Abraham believed God. He believed what God said concerning his son. And isn't that what Jesus said in John 5 24? Verily, verily, I say to you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. And we know that life can't come until there's righteousness. Galatians 3.21 says, Is the law against the promise of God? No. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. The law can't give life because the law can't give righteousness. But if there had been a law that could have given life, then righteousness would have come by the law. And so Jesus is saying, if you hear the word of my Father, The word that he spoke to Abraham, the word of how Christ by himself would purge our sins and establish our righteousness by his own obedience in his own death. And believing God, as Abraham did, you have everlasting life. You already have it. And so he says in Galatians 3.6, Even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, he believed the Son of God, the Word of God, the One who has made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. When he raised his knife to slay his own son Isaac on the altar, he had told him before, he said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb. That same lamb that Abel offered. That same lamb that was the same animal whose skins covered Adam and Eve. The same lamb that had been offered all through the ages, pointing to the one who would come and take away their sins. And so Abraham understood it. In fact, he saw in Isaac, when he was going to plunge that knife into his son, he saw the resurrection of Christ. And he received him back in a figure, God says. Because God withheld him from slaying his son and he received Isaac back from the altar as God received his son back from the grave. And so justified his people because he received full satisfaction in his blood for their sins. An atoning sacrifice that cleansed them from their sins because it made satisfaction to God in justice. That's what Abraham believed. He saw Christ, He saw His day, and He rejoiced. And that rejoicing is the joy that comes in believing. Believing that Jesus Christ is my acceptance and my all before God. Joy doesn't come any other way. Not God-given joy. The joy of the Gospel is in believing Christ and Him crucified. And so in believing Christ, Believing what God said about his son. Believing the testimony of God. That's believing the gospel, isn't it? Believing God. God's testimony of his son is God-given faith. God gives us that. And when we see it, and when we believe him, then God says, we have the righteousness of the one we believe. God counted the righteousness of Christ to be Abraham's own righteousness. Because he was the one Abraham believed. The Lord Jesus Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith and he's the object of our faith. I live by the faith of the Son of God. We're justified by the faith of the Son of God. It's not anything from us. It's all that's His. All of His obedience in death. And that's what Abraham believed. And so, when we speak, and when the Scriptures speak of justification by faith, we're speaking about faith's reception of the finished work of Christ. Reception, not contribution. Not completion, but reception of it. We don't make it happen. We don't make Christ work, work for us, because we believe. God gives us faith because Christ died. Because His purpose to save us, as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. And so faith comes to us by the gift of God, by the gift of His grace, through the Spirit of God, because Christ died. And that faith then enables us, by the power of God's Spirit, to receive what's true in heaven. What's already been completed. Our faith doesn't change our legal status before God. Faith does not justify us before God. Faith allows us to receive the fact that we are justified by the blood of Christ. Faith did not take away my sins, did not fulfill God's law, but faith receives Christ who did. It's so important. What was counted to Abraham was the one he believed. Not his act of faith, but his object of faith. And I've given that example many times before. I still like it. The example of the thick ice. I've never been ice fishing. I'm sure that if I went, I'd be concerned. Walking on that ice, listening to it crack under my feet. Wondering if it was going to hold me up. And it's not my conviction of the ice's thickness that holds me up, but it's the actual strength of the ice, isn't it? It's the object of our faith that God counts to us for righteousness, not the strength of our faith. Faith is never perfect. Faith is always growing, has to increase. And faith is temporal, it ends in this life. But Christ's righteousness goes on forever lasting. And so, he is the one who is counted. And do you want it any other way, really? Do you want your own sincerity somehow to enter into the equation? God forbid that we would ever think that way. That's what we were delivered from. That's what we repented from. That's what we feared all of our life, is that somehow our salvation depended upon us and we tried to produce. What we thought God would accept from us, and we found we couldn't produce it. And then we found that Christ was the one God considered, and Him only. And we trusted Him. We said, this is wonderful. And that was by the Spirit of God. And so, know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith, not of circumcision, not of law keeping, but they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Verse 10, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Here's what the law says to you. If you're of the works of the law, if you're trying to keep the law, then you're under a curse. When God gave the law, look at Exodus chapter 19. In verse 4 he said, "...you have seen..." This is the Lord speaking to Israel. "...you have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself." He didn't do anything, God just did it. Verse 5, "...now therefore, if..." What does if mean? Here's a condition it's following. There's something that you have to do or something that has to happen. In this case, it's your own obedience. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. He's speaking to the nation of Israel. He put a condition on this. If you do this, I will do that. And that's called a covenant. God says it's a covenant. If you keep my covenant. If you keep it, then you'll receive the blessing. But if you don't, then you're not going to receive anything in this covenant, except the curses. And so in Galatians 3, he quotes scripture again. He says, "...as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written..." And he quotes Deuteronomy 27-26, "...cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." So you have to actually do. You have to keep the law, not just make an effort out of it. You have to do it all the time. You have to do the whole law, not just a part of it. If you want to be circumcised, then you have to look at the whole law and do the whole thing all the time. And if you don't, because you're in that covenant now, You've agreed, this is what you want to be under, then the curses of the law are on you. Cursed is everyone that does not continue in all things written in the book of the law to do them. That's what the law says. Is that what you want? It said, verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident. Not only does the law say that, but Habakkuk says, the just shall live by faith. And verse 12, and the law is not of faith. But here's what the law says in Leviticus. That the man that doeth them shall live by them. If you want to live, the law says you gotta do. Do and live. That's what the law says. Don't do and die. And then Galatians chapter 3 verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. How did he do it? We were under the curse. I, through the law, am dead to the law. The law cursed me. Christ stood up for me. He stood up in eternity. He agreed to be my surety. He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He gave Himself for us. In Ephesians 5.25, He loved the church and gave Himself for it. That He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word. He gave Himself in His life's blood. He took our sins and came under the law. In Galatians 4.4 he says, When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. That's why he came. To take our place before God, under God's law. To bear every obligation the law laid on us, and to bear every curse the law brought on us because of our sin. And by paying with his own life in blood, that ransom payment satisfied God and God released us from that curse. Our sins were taken away because God received full payment for them. And God took away the curse of the law from us. Christ did that. It says in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12, "...neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood." Jesus Christ entered once into the holy place, into heaven itself, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Christ's work was a real, actual salvation. He obtained it, and it was eternal. He offered himself once, and by that one offering, he forever perfected those that God the Father gave him to save. One offering, offered once, eternally obtained our redemption. He actually did something. Something was accomplished in history. In Christ's history, not yours, in His history. God looked upon His Son, received from Him full satisfaction, and said, My people are free. Their sins are removed. They're cleansed by the blood of Christ. And in Leviticus chapter 16, where the Day of Atonement occurs, in verse 30, he says this about what the high priest did. And Jesus Christ is the high priest who laid his own hands on his own head and confessed our sins over himself. and owned them as his, but he made atonement for them on that one day. It says on that day, Leviticus 16 verse 30, on that day shall the priest make atonement for you to cleanse you. That means all your sins are purged, washed, taken away from you. You're whiter than snow. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. That you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. Now that's where the justification takes place. Before the Lord, when Christ shed His blood, when He had by Himself purged our sins, then He sat down. As early as when Christ was justified, we were justified before God. In the decree of God, He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and as long as we were God's elect, nothing or no one could lay anything to the charge of God's elect. But here in Leviticus 16.30, anticipating what Christ would fulfill in Hebrews 1.3, He says He would make us clean by His own blood. And then He says in verse 31 of Leviticus 30, And it shall be a Sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls by a statute forever. So they were supposed to rest. They were supposed to enter into the rest because the high priest obtained a full cleansing of their sins. And so Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. God put him there. It was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God that wicked men, by their wicked hands, crucified God's Son. God did it. God offered up His Son. He delivered His own Son up the judgment. In Romans 8.32 it says, "...he that spared not his own son..." He didn't spare him. He didn't spare him from one bit of the judgment that was deserved for our sins. "...he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" That's what he did. A finished work. This is Christ set forth, evidently crucified among us. God is telling us he hung his son upon a cursed cross. And all who look to him, like the serpent lifted up, have eternal life. Because they themselves have been given this grace to look. And so he says, In verse 14, the last verse we're going to look at, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. What is the blessing of Abraham? Justified by the blood and righteousness of Christ. And then he goes on, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. the promise of the Spirit through faith. And I really should take a lot of time to develop this. I won't take it this week. Maybe I'll do more on it next week. What is the promise of the Spirit that we receive through faith? This has given me a lot of puzzlement as I've considered this over the years. How do we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith? Somehow we do something and then God gives us His Spirit. Is that the way it works? Not according to Jesus. Remember he told Nicodemus, you can't see the kingdom of God unless you're born from above. But he says in John 1 that as many as received him, which he explains, even to them that believe on his name, to them gave he the right, the authority, the God-given warrant to be called the sons of God. The promise of the Spirit is that the believer in Christ, the one for whom Christ died, is given the Spirit of God not only in the new birth, at which point the believer didn't have faith, but when he's born of God, he's given faith to look to Christ and Him crucified as all of his salvation. But then in the believer's life, the Spirit of God seals to him and confirms to the believer that he's God's own. That he's the adopted, born son of God. So that when he looks to Christ as all of his salvation, then God, by his Spirit, applies, in looking to Christ, the promises that he gave in Christ. And all the promises are ours, for whom God delivered up his son. And one of those main promises is that we are the sons of God. And so, later in Galatians 4, he says, "...because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, whereby we cry, Abba Father, my Father." It's the Spirit of God who seals us. He seals us by confirming in our hearts... by showing us Christ, and showing us that in looking to Christ, as we read through all of the scriptures in the New Testament, and we hear the Gospel preached, the manifold blessings of God are given to us for Christ's sake. And the Spirit of God teaches us that they're yours. Not for what you've done, but for what Christ has done. And let me read this one scripture to you to give you an example of this. We'll give you many more next week. But in Ephesians chapter 3, listen how the Apostle prays for the Ephesians in this way and along these lines. We have the Spirit of God. If any man does not have the Spirit of God, he's none of his, right? Romans chapter 8 verse 9. We've been raised in our spirit from death to life. Romans 8 verse 10. The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But here in Ephesians 3, listen to what he says. For this cause, in verse 14, Paul the Apostle praying for all of the Church of God, not just the Ephesians. For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. And here's his prayer, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. And what is the result of that strengthening with might by His Spirit in the inner man? That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, because remember the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, Romans 5.5. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, this is all by the Spirit, With all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God? Now that's a huge, huge prayer, isn't it? And so he says, now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Paul the Apostle prays that you might be given the Spirit of God, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. You might be able to comprehend with all saints what is the height and breadth and length and depth of the love of God in Christ. We depend on the Spirit of God, don't we? We would not be able to say, my Father, in our heart... Unless God's Spirit did that for us. And the only way we can do that by the Spirit of God is believing Christ. It's by faith. And so God confirms to us the promise, not only of our justification in Christ, but all the blessings which were determined to be ours when He gave us to Christ. It's an amazing salvation. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would, according to your promise, your eternal will, in the Lord Jesus Christ, your only begotten Son and our Savior, that you would give us this grace of your Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to convince us not only of our sin in Christ accomplished, finished righteousness, and judgment accomplished in His death, but also our blessings in Him. That you would not deliver up your Son for us, without also giving us all things with Him. And so let us lay hold on this eternal life and run this race, not timidly, not hesitatingly, not with doubtings, but with assurance, with confidence, with God-given faith, with love in our hearts to you by your spirit, that we might bear the fruit of our sonship and your own spirit living in us, not by the works of the law, but by your own spirit of grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.