In your Bibles tonight, Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3, and I'm excited about preaching tonight and preaching from the book of Galatians. But I'll tell you something, it is a repeated theme. As we work our way through the book of Galatians, the theme is repeated. And part of me has this notion, I thought, you know, do we need to keep repeating the same theme, the same theme over and over again? And I'm going to tell you what the Lord's been working in and how the Lord's been working in my heart. If God's Word finds it important to repeat the theme of salvation is by grace, through faith, and not by works, then who am I to judge that it doesn't need to be repeated? And I think we need to follow the Lord and follow His Word. And I've been thinking about it. I've been thinking about repeating this theme, and it's got a different light and a different emphasis, but the theme that we're not saved by works of the law like circumcision, but we're saved by faith in Christ. I've been thinking about this fact and this truth, and I'll have you know something, that there are masses of people who claim to be Christians who have the idea that somehow their works are the thing that's gonna take them to heaven. I've had conversations just in the last week where folks say, I hope I've been good enough that God will let me go to heaven. And I want to say, if I've got the opportunity, I want to say, you can't be good enough to go to heaven. And when we come to the book of Galatians, we meet up with a group of people. The Galatians were in an area, there were several churches of the churches of Galatia. And these churches, they had fallen prey to the flesh's desire to exalt religious exercise and the works of the law above simple faith in the finished work of Christ and the grace that God gives us when we trust Him in faith. And we come to chapter 3. We'll look tonight at the first 14 verses. And I want to share with you this message. It's a great truth. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. I want you to know that Christ and Christ alone has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Let's read together God's word beginning in verse number 1. The Bible says, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth? before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth and crucified among you. This only would I learn of you. Received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain, He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 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 are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. through faith. Folks, I'm thankful I can tell you on the authority of the Word of God that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. The law condemns us and curses us to condemnation and judgment, but Jesus Christ completed, fulfilled the law and became the sinless sacrifice that you and I could have salvation and eternal life. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Let's look at this text together and I want to bring some things to your attention. Number one is this. Don't be foolish. You cannot be saved by keeping the law. Don't be foolish. You cannot be saved by keeping the law. The Bible says in verse 1, O foolish Galatians. I think that Paul is trying to make a very important point. He says it's foolish for the Galatians to think that somehow They can start trusting Jesus through faith and finish their faith with some type of law-keeping and working. He says, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth? Now, I want you to understand something. It's easy to become bewitched, fooled. It's easy to get sucked into religious exercise and religious behavior and religious rules as a substitute for simple faith in Jesus Christ. We are not saved by keeping the law. It's a foolish thing and we need to beware and we need to ask the Lord to check our spirits and check our hearts See if perhaps we have integrated into our own faith some notion, idea that we're working our way to heaven. You're not. Paul says it's foolish. Who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth? Now, Paul's very plain, and it's been very plain, that the truth is the only gospel message, and there's one gospel message, is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of the world. He says, Who's bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? He asks a question before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you. He says, who's bewitched you? The very people who, right before your eyes, you saw Jesus, you witnessed Jesus, you even witnessed Him be crucified. He says, how in the world could you who are first-hand witnesses to the work that Jesus did on the cross of Calvary, how could you be fooled? I'll have you know that the folks who witnessed Jesus and were part of the first century church origination of faith through Christ and Christ alone in this beginning of the church age. If they could be fooled into thinking that somehow you need Jesus plus works, then we can be too. But you remember, don't be foolish. You can't be saved by keeping the law. Paul continues in verse 2, he says, this is only what I learned of you. He says, I've got a question, you've got to tell me something. I want you to think about this, and I want to see what your answer is. He says, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Here's the question. He said, did you get saved? He's talking to the church. He's talking to people whose lives had been transformed as they repented their sin and trusted in Christ. He said, did you receive the Holy Spirit as the byproduct of your faith? doing the law, keeping the law, doing the work? Or did you receive the Holy Spirit when you put your trust in Christ and Christ alone for your soul salvation? Well, the answer is very simple. The Galatians had to take a step back and answer the question. The question was, did you receive the Spirit of God? Did you have a change of life? Did you become a new creature when you did the works or when you Believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, man is saved when we put our trust in Christ and Christ alone, not when we do some religious deed. At our church, we have two ordinances. We have the ordinance of the Lord's Supper and the ordinance of baptism. And we do not ever want these things to be confused as some form or some action, some religious act that you can work and do in order to receive Christ as your Savior. There are folks who believe that when you take the bread, in our case, the Welch's grape juice, You receive the literal blood and the literal body of Christ. That's the receiving of Jesus. But that's not the case at all. You're not saved by taking communion. You're not saved by observing the Lord's Supper. We're not saved by any religious act or work. It doesn't make sense. Salvation doesn't come when we take the wafer and the wine. Salvation doesn't come when we dip in town water in a baptistry. Does that mean these things are irrelevant? No, God's called us to do it, and He's made it really plain. He says, look at it, this do in remembrance of me. Why does He want us to do it? If He wants to do it in order to be saved, He would say, do this so you don't die and go to hell. But he said, do this so that you don't forget the reason we're meeting as a church is because Jesus' body was broken on the cross and his blood was shed. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And do this baptism because we want to be a picture of the fact that Christ died on the cross for our sins when the water crosses our body. And you'll be buried with Christ in baptism. When you go under the water, it's a picture of Christ's death and his burial. When you come out of the water, it's a picture of Christ's resurrection. We don't get in the baptistry in order to redeem our hell-deserving souls. We get in the baptistry to let folks know that we have been redeemed by faith in Christ and Christ alone. Now, don't be foolish, Paul says. Galatians? He said, did you get saved? Did you get the Holy Spirit? Did God change your life when you kept a holy day? Did God change your life when you observed the act of circumcision? Did God change your life when you didn't eat pork for a week? Did God change your life when you went to the Temple on a Saturday? Did God change your life when you offered a dove for a sacrifice? Did God change your life when you kept the Lord? Did God change your life when you repented of your sin and trusted in Christ? And every saved person in the churches of Galatia would have to answer that question with a resounding, God changed my life when I believed. And Paul says, I want to make a point to you. You're being foolish if you think somehow religious works produce salvation. May God help us not to fall into the trap that the things we do are the things that reconcile us to God. May we not fall prey to the trap of thinking. May we not be bewitched into thinking that if we go to church every Sunday then maybe God won't condemn me to hell and maybe God will love me and send me to heaven or if we teach Sunday school or help in Bible school or if we tie their income and look these things are good and fine but they are not the means by which God's people are born again and we need to know it I want no person who spend any time at Chilhowee Baptist Church to be under the bondage of thinking that maybe they have not worked hard enough or been good enough to go to heaven. I want all of the people that are under the preach of God's word at the July Baptist Church to know that there's no works that I can do to make me good enough to go to heaven, but Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. And I'm trusting in Christ, and Christ is the reason I'm going to heaven. And because Christ is faithful, and has forgiven my sin, and saved my hell-deserving, because of Jesus, Christ hath redeemed me from the curse of the law. Don't be foolish, you can't be saved by keeping the law. Verse number 3, he says, Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the flesh? He asks another question, the last question. Did you get saved? Did you receive the Spirit when you were doing the works of the law or believing on Jesus? And they said, believing on Jesus. He said, are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? He said, are you so foolish to think that you got saved by faith in Christ, that now that you've got saved by faith in Christ, it's like, thank you Jesus for saving my soul, I'll take it from here. How foolish are we? To think that somehow Jesus saves us, but then we've got to work, work, work, work, work, work, work. We've got to work to keep our salvation. You don't have to work to keep your salvation. I want you to know something. If Jesus changed your life and saved your soul, you'll want to serve him. And when you don't serve him, your father in heaven will chase in you like a rebellious child. And every time he does, you need to praise him and thank him for being a loving father. But I want you to know if you can't work to get your salvation, you can't work to keep it. And Paul says, now, oh foolish Galatians, are you that foolish to think that somehow you can begin in faith, trusting in Christ, but then you can take over from here and continue in the works of the law? Don't be foolish, you can't be saved by keeping the law. The Bible says in verse four, have you suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain." What's he asking? He says, look, Galatians, all this law-keeping stuff that you're adding, all the extra biblical bondage that you have applied to your Christian life, you've suffered in vain. I'll have you know something. Being a Christian, a Bible-believing Christian, is a very freeing thing. God's people have liberty. God's people have peace. God's people do not have to walk around beat down afraid that God is condemning them all the time. God's people can live free in the love and care and faithful forgiveness of Jesus Christ. But religious people, religious people feel guilt that they don't do enough or fear that they can't do enough. Don't be foolish. You can't be saved by keeping the law. Verse 5, look at it. He says, He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? He says, look, think about me for a minute. He says, I've been ministering to you. I've been working miracles among you and God's done it. He says, do I do that? Through faith in Christ? Or do I do that through the works of the law? The answer was simple and right. Don't be foolish. You can't be saved by keeping the law. Number two, Abraham was saved by faith and not the works of the law. Now this is something for you to think about for a minute. How was Abraham declared righteous before God? Oh, oh, oh, I know, I know. Abraham, he must have been really faithful to keep all the sacrifices. Abraham must have been really good about always going to the temple on Saturday. He must have been really good about not walking X amount of steps on Sabbath Saturday. And he must have done things really, really right and well. I got something to tell you. Abraham lived and died and was counted righteous before God, before the law ever existed. Do you know that Abraham, not one day of his life, lived it knowing that the law was there? Abraham never lived a day knowing that there was anything such as the Ten Commandments. By the way, I've got to get a little pet peeve out here. Some people say their religion is keeping the Ten Commandments. Can't do it. How was Abraham declared righteous? How was Abraham saved from the penalty of sin? And Paul's like, I'm glad you asked because I want to share that with you. And Paul begins to describe it and discuss it with us because Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, not the works of law redeemed us from the penalty of sin. Abraham was saved by faith, not the works of the law. Look what the Bible says in verse 6. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. How did Abraham, how was Abraham categorized? When Abraham was called by God to sacrifice Isaac, he took Isaac, his only son, the son of promise, and he became willing to offer him, believe in God and knowing that God himself could raise him from the dead if he needed to. When Isaac and Abraham are on their way for Isaac to be sacrificed, Isaac says, Dad, I see the wood and the fire, but where's the lamb? And Abraham wisely says, God will provide himself a lamb. Now look, how was Abraham saved? Abraham was not saved by keeping the law. Abraham was not saved by sacrificing. He didn't. Abraham never followed through with the law that God had given him to sacrifice his only son. He didn't have to. Abraham believed that God would do what he said he would do and God would keep his commandment and God would keep his promise. And Abraham said, I don't know how he's going to do it, but I know he will. And God said, Abraham, believe me. And it was accounted to him for righteousness. How was Abraham saved? Was Abraham saved by the works of the law? No, Abraham was saved by faith in God. Abraham was saved by faith, not by the works of the law. It continues in verse number seven. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Folks, we're in the same line as Abraham. We're going to heaven the same way Abraham did. We're trusting in Christ. The Bible says in verse eight, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen. Who are the heathen? The heathen are the Gentiles. You and I, most of us here, are heathen. And a lot of you would say amen about that. 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 are blessed with faithful Abraham. Folks, Abraham was saved by faith, not the works of the law. I'm happy I can tell you tonight that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Number three, the law curses you. What does the law do for us? Is the law something to be kept? I'm just telling you, there are people who have sat in church pews their entire lives, and I'm not being critical or condescending to those people. But there are people who've sat in church pews and heard preaching their whole life who still somehow think that keeping the Sabbath and honoring your father and your mother is the way that you go to heaven, but it is not. I'm going to tell you, the Bible says, children, obey your parents and the Lord. This is good. You should do that. The Bible says, thou shalt not kill. I highly recommend it. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Yes, very important. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Don't be a bunch of liars. That's right and good. But I'll have you know something. We're all guilty of disobeying the law. The law does something. When you really start studying the law and applying it honestly to your life, You know what you do? You begin to realize, oh my word, I'm a sinner. The law curses us. The law condemns us. And the Bible says in verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. He says, if you've decided that I'm going to live by the works of the law, you're under the curse. You're under the curse, the Bible says, because for it is written, this is so important, verse 10, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Now what's the scripture say? The scripture says, if you don't keep all of the law, then you are condemned, my friend. How many of you have kept all the law? I'm going to tell you what happens. If you start this idea that you keep the law, what you have to do in order to justify your actions is you have to start making changes and addendums and you've got to twist the word to fit you and fit you so that you can justify your breaking the law and call it in your mind that I didn't break the law. It's called Phariseeism. And you know what the Pharisees did? The Pharisees, they decided we can keep the law, we can keep the law, we can keep the law. And so they kept, anytime that they had a law that was kind of like, I don't know if I can keep that one, they would change and manipulate the law. And they would say things and they would make their own little rules and regulations and make it so that they could break the law without having to admit that they broke the law. And the honest people in the Jews' religion, when Jesus started to come on the scene and John the Baptist started to preach, the honest people, they had sat back and they had understood the law and heard the law, and they realized that I've not been keeping the law. And so when John the Baptist came and preached this message and said, hey, look, you need to repent because you're sinners, the king of heaven is at hand. Honest people, honest seekers of God, they humbled themselves and they repented and they said, I can't keep the law. I need a savior. And here comes Jesus. I want you to know that the law curses you. If you don't keep all, every bit of the law, you are a failure. And the law curses and condemns you. The Bible says this in verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It's evident. He says the most obvious thing when you start thinking about it is no man is justified by the law. It's evident. And he says, because for the just, the justified, the just shall live by faith. Can I tell you something? Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The law condemns us. It keeps on, one more emphasis in verse number 12, on the law curses you. The Bible says this, and the law is not of faith. The law keeping, law keeping is not of faith. But the man that doeth them shall live in them. The scripture just wants us to know that if you think somehow you can keep the law, you can try and live and try and live and try and live and still no man will be justified by the deeds of the law. The law curses you. It leads us to our last point. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. I'm so thankful that he did. Look at the scripture, it says in verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. What did Jesus do? Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law. Jesus, we needed somebody. Now look, you look at the law. Now the law is right. The law represents the righteousness of God. The law represents what God requires and demands for a man or a woman or a boy or a girl to be righteous. But when you've tried for a moment to keep the law, you realize that you can't. But Christ did. And Christ can redeem you from the curse of the law. He said, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Look at the next phrase in verse 13. Being made a curse for us. Guess what? The law condemns us. It curses us. But Jesus was made a curse for us. Jesus who never sinned. He didn't break the law. Jesus became our curse and took our curse. It says this in verse 13, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Maybe write this in the margin of your Bible, Deuteronomy 21 verse 23. It gives us an insight into the law, the Old Testament law, that any person who is crucified, that person was cursed. That person was cursed. And Jesus, when He hung on the cross, He took our curse for us. Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. What do we get? The same faith that Abraham had has come on all of us that have put our trust in Christ. through faith in Jesus. The Bible says that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. How are you saved? The ordinances of the church? Nope. How are you saved? Clean living? No. Giving, serving, becoming the hands and feet of Jesus. I like that statement, but I'm going to tell you something. If you try to serve people into heaven, you will come up short. How are you saved? Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. How are you saved? Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look, don't be caught up in the religion of the flesh that says religion makes you good so you can go to heaven. No. Determined to have biblical, Christ-honoring faith that says you're a sinner. There's no amount of good works that can redeem you. But Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Put your trust in Christ and Christ alone. Let me tell you something. When you get Jesus, you're going to want to serve him. You're going to want to serve other people. But you need faith in Christ followed by works motivated by the indwelling Holy Spirit and not works hoping that somehow Jesus will be impressed with you. Jesus loves you. It's not because you're perfect. Jesus loves you because He loves you and needed to redeem you. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.