Before we read Galatians chapter 3 verses 10 through 18, which will be the subject of our study this morning, I would like to, first of all, just set where we are in its context and then read it. I know that's a little bit different than our normal pattern. But what you have with Galatians as you're looking at 3 verse 11, where are you in this argument that the Apostle Paul is? Well, first of all, the first two chapters define the battle. The battle that Paul was engaged in for the believers in the churches in Galatia. And he explains that there's a terrible thing that's crept into the churches in Galatia. And then he explains how he tells the stories of how he waged war against this pernicious idea that works can save you. And so he tells the story, first of all, of his going to Jerusalem. and dealing with the Apostles there. And then he tells the story of going to Antioch and doing the same thing, and actually rebuking Peter to his face. And when you come to the end of chapter 2, and even on into chapter 3, the Apostle Paul is continuing this whole argument. Chapters 3 and 4 really form the theological argument. So that's where you are right now. Paul has said, there's a battle that needs to be waged, There's another gospel that's being preached. And now he's beginning to very systematically unpack the issues from the Scriptures. And that's where our focus will be here today. And what is all this about? It is all about the extolling of the grace of God. The book begins with the revelation of the grace of God. And if you turn to the very last verse, go ahead and turn there, chapter 6, verse 18, you'll see that the Apostle Paul He ends the book with what really is the heart of everything that he has to say in the book where he says, brethren, I want us to just be very sort of slow and deliberate about reading this last verse, because I pray that this is the legacy of this sermon this morning, that we would see all of what we hear in this context and also understand that it's this verse that really frames and summarizes the whole book of Galatians. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. And so he's speaking to brothers who have drifted away, who have sort of lost their way. And then he brings them back to the principle that they are together as a family of people and that this doctrinal principle that he's arguing for should prevail in their churches. So the people in Galatia had been bewitched by a false gospel. And the Apostle Paul is attacking that. Now, when we get to chapter 3, I'd like us to go back to where we were last week and pick up the story because the Apostle Paul continues a line of argumentation from where we left off before. We saw last week how the Apostle Paul brings what I'm going to call a withering interrogation. He asks five questions. You know, he starts with who has bewitched you? Who? Who is it? He wants them to identify who has brought this doctrine. And so there's this withering interrogation of five questions that he asks. And the intent of those questions is to help them to wake up. to the grace that met them at their salvation, that really it's God who rescues sinners, and that people cannot earn their salvation. So, he begins with these five questions, and then he gives us a graphic example, an example from history, and that is the example of Abraham, and he picks that up in verses six through nine. He uses Abraham as a historical illustration of the point that he's trying to make through the five questions. So that's where we are now. He's asked five questions that are designed to shatter any hope that you have in your flesh to save you. And then he gives an example of Abraham, that Abraham was justified by faith alone. And then he continues on. And if you look at your outlines, you'll see where we're going with this. He presents a text in Deuteronomy chapter 27. It's a text that we're somewhat familiar with as we've been going through our studies in Deuteronomy. But what the Apostle Paul does is he goes back to Deuteronomy to give an example of what he's talking about here. And so he gives a vivid text. And then he gives the testimony of an Old Testament prophet in verse 11. In Deuteronomy we find a prophecy of the cross of Christ there. And the Apostle Paul here in Galatians 3 refers back to it again. And he makes a connection. What you heard in Deuteronomy is what you need to know now. And so the illustration from Deuteronomy is given regarding the cross. And then there's the promise of an unbreakable covenant in verses 15-18. And what Paul does is he takes a common human construct, a covenant or a contract, and he makes that an example for the Galatians so that they can see that the faith of Abraham and the law are not contradictory and faith was not nullified by the law. And that's what he does. And he's saying God made a contract with Abraham And that is not taken away by the law. Because the Galatians wanted to take it away, basically. So that's where we are. So I want you to see, Paul is piling up argument after argument after argument as he does so well. Isn't it amazing? Remember when we were in Romans, how we noticed how Paul has a way of adding a line. He goes here, he goes there, he goes all over the place to pull his argument together, to hang it together. And he always goes to Scripture. He's always proving his arguments from the Old Testament. So that's what the Apostle Paul is doing. Now, so the Galatians, who were the Galatians? These were not Jews. They did not understand the Old Testament law. They were saved. The Apostle Paul came into their region and he preached the gospel and they were converted. But they didn't know the Old Testament law. But there were some who crept in, some who came in later. And they began to try to bring into bondage those Galatian believers into the ceremonial law, particularly circumcision. And they were saying, you know, if you're saved, you'll be circumcised. And the Apostle Paul is contradicting that and saying, no, that is not true. And what was happening to the Galatians was that they were blind to two things. And these are two really critical things that all churches in all eras have to struggle with because it is a struggle. Because the struggle was here, we know that it is a struggle everywhere. The devil works in the same way. Maybe he uses different colors and different nuances to the way that he works. But really, he works the same way in pretty much every culture. And here, what he's done with these Galatian believers is that he has worked so that they would have a blindness to the proper use of law. They had a blindness to the proper use of the law. And as we go on, next week particularly, we'll see the proper use of the law. Paul, in his letter to Timothy, Paul in his letter to really all the churches in Romans, he talks extensively about the proper use of the law. So next week we'll begin to draw, we'll use what Paul says about the use of the law, and we'll draw from lots of places in Scripture. There's difficulty in understanding the law. They were blind, or perhaps maybe becoming blind to the proper use of the law and were confused. The second thing is that they were blind to the power of the resurrection, that upon the cross all of their sins were nailed and that all of their sins, past, present and future, and they had lost a sense of the power of the resurrected Christ and what he did on the cross. Those are the two things that they were getting confused about. The comprehensive work of the cross and the proper use of the law. So that's what's happening to them. And here's what Paul is doing. He's proving the bankruptcy of man's righteousness. And he's exposing the pride of man that says, I'm circumcised. I'm good. I'm good enough. And he is exalting the grace of God. And I pray that this morning, as we work through these various arguments that Paul brings to us, that God would come and help us. That He would use these words among us now to exalt the grace of God. That He would use it to destroy all of our pride. That He would show us the reality of our sinfulness, which is what He is really attempting to do. That what would happen among us is that we would lose all confidence in the flesh. Lose it all. And that we would have all of our hope in the competence of God in Christ toward us. So what Paul is doing here in Galatians, from beginning to end, is he is making much of Christ and he's making little of man and his righteousness. That's what he's doing. And so I pray that this will happen to us today, much will be made of Christ among us. And that we'll see somehow with new eyes how much He has done for us in bringing us His Son. And so Paul gives this withering interrogation to people who think that God owes them something for their righteousness. And then he gives an example of Abraham. And then in verse 10, look at verse 10, What you see in verse 10 is the word for. And Paul uses a term that is designed to connect what has just come with what he's now going to say. So you have to see this as a whole. He's continuing. He's just piling them up. And our intention here is just to try to go slow enough so that we can understand what these arguments really are and what they mean. So here the Galatians have believed something that is not true. So Paul says for and then he continues on and he brings a text, a very vivid and terrifying text out of the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 27. And so he says, 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." Notice two things here in this verse. One, he's speaking about a certain kind of person. He sort of created, it's not a mythical person because they're running all over the churches in Galatia. But he's talking about a kind of person and it's the kind of person who is of the works of the law. He's using the term of or out of. And what he means is there's a kind of person whose life comes justification. whose status before God comes out of the works of the law. This is the legalist who thinks he's good because he's able to keep the Ten Commandments. He's like the rich young ruler whom Jesus asked him a question and the rich young ruler says, I've kept all the law for my youth. I've kept them all. He was wrong. He was this kind of person. He was of the works of the law. He did not even understand the law at all. He did not understand the condemnation that the law brought to him. He thought that if he outwardly kept the law, then he was righteous. But this is the kind of person that he's talking about. People who think that by outwardly keeping the law, they're righteous. And he's putting a finger really in a terrible misunderstanding of the law. So he's speaking of the legalist. And really, he's talking about how God condemns those who think they're able to keep all the law. He's condemning the legalist who trusts in His works, who has a sense of self-righteousness, that if they do this list of things, whatever it might be, whether it's the 624 laws that are found in the Old Testament, or whatever law you might want to find, there are hundreds and hundreds of commands and laws in the New Testament as well. God doesn't stop making laws in the New Testament. He continues to define and clarify the heart of the matter of His will for mankind by continuing to define laws. So Jesus Christ never stops defining His law. But what He does say here, there are people who think that they're justified out of the law. So He's talking about a certain kind of person. And then He brings an illustration out of the book of Deuteronomy to explain how silly this is. That anyone could possibly think that keeping even one law would save them. And so he's trying to destroy all of your hope in your law keeping and telling you that you are under a curse. So he says, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. And now he quotes Deuteronomy. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things. Notice that all things. That's very important to his argument. all things which are written in the book of the law, and to do them." And so, what Paul is saying here is that the law demanded that you keep all of the laws. You remember, as we were going through Deuteronomy, how many times does Moses say, keep all my commandments? He says it over and over again. Keep them all. You have to keep them all. That's what Moses is saying. And here now, Paul is quoting that, that the Apostle is quoting what Moses said, that you must keep of the law and So what he's saying is that the law demands that you keep every law The law says you have to keep every law and so in turning back to this text in Deuteronomy chapter 27 What you find there in verse 8 in? 27 verse 8 he says therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today you shall keep every commandment And then in verse 13, he says, and it shall be that if you earnestly obey my commandments, which I command you today to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, then and he says, I'll bless you. And then in the beginning in verse 19, he says, and you shall teach them to your children. And then finally, in the last verse, in verse 32, he says, and you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and the judgments which I set before you today. And that's the verse. that the Apostle Paul quotes. He's quoting verse 32. Verse 32 is a summary of the whole chapter. He starts out saying, Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Obviously, as we've seen in Deuteronomy, Moses is not calling for just a religion of law. He's calling for a religion of the heart. And he begins with that, and he continues on explaining all these things, and then he ends it in verse 32. And that's what Paul's quoting here. So I want you to see what Paul's doing. He's going back and he's quoting a summary verse in Deuteronomy chapter 27 to prove his point. What's his point? His point is that in the Old Testament times, perfect obedience was required. And he's saying, and guess what? In New Testament times, perfect obedience is required. but there's only one who's obeyed all the laws, and that is Christ. And you can only trust Christ. You cannot trust yourself, because you are obligated to obey every law of the Old Testament. But you can't. And Moses knew that as well. And that's why he prophesies of the cross here that we read about as well in this passage. So, what Paul is saying is that If you believe that you're justified by the law, then you need to go back and read Moses. Because Moses told you that you're not justified unless you obey every single law. That's what Paul is saying. If you think you can be justified that way, go back to Deuteronomy, because you can't do it. It's impossible. And he's telling the Galatians that they cannot find salvation by getting circumcised. And so he's going back to prove this. So what you find here is this dual pattern in Scripture, and you find it almost everywhere in Scripture, where on the one hand, God gives two things that are necessary, and one doesn't cancel out the other. First, obey the whole law of God, every point, every jot and tittle. The second part is it can't save you. Those two things are true. You obey the law, but you have to understand First of all, that you cannot obey the whole law. You might think that you can obey the law regarding murder, and then you have hatred in your heart, and you've found you've broken it. You may think that you've obeyed the law regarding the Sabbath, and then your mind wanders during the Sabbath, and you don't dedicate that day to Him. You don't use His words and work in His ways, because you can't. And so, what hope do you have in this world? You only have one hope, and that hope is Jesus Christ. Because you're obligated to obey every law. But if you base your salvation on that, your history, you are lost. And that's the point that Paul is making. So Paul goes, first of all, to this text in the Old Testament to prove that you cannot be justified by the law. Because the law demands that you obey every law. And you can't obey every law. That's his argument. So let's close that argument out now and let's move to the next one. Then he gives the testimony of an Old Testament prophet in verse 11. And then in verse 12, he gives another testimony of Moses from the law in the book of Leviticus. So here Paul is constantly quoting the Old Testament to prove his point of the grace of Jesus Christ. So in verse 11, he says, but that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live. by faith." This verse is one of the most significant verses in Galatians. There are a few of them. The last verse, this verse, and then in chapter 2, this same principle that the just shall live by faith are also so critical. you might say that the theme of the book of Galatians is receive the grace of Jesus Christ. Or you might say that the just shall live by faith. That would really get the heart of this book. If you want to teach your children what the book of Galatians is all about, either one of those statements will show you what it really means. So, he's actually quoting an Old Testament prophet. He's quoting Habakkuk 2.4. And it reads, Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, The just shall live by his faith. So Paul goes back to the prophets. He first goes to the law, and then now he goes to the prophets. How often have you seen him do this in your experience here in the teaching in this church? In the book of Romans, he does this constantly. He'll go back to the law, the prophets, the Psalms. He's picking from all of Old Testament scripture. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And it is profitable. And Paul is demonstrating that right now. He's demonstrating the perfect unity and sufficiency of Scripture. That every single word of Scripture is a word of Jesus Christ. Paul is quoting Christ Himself all the way through. And as he quotes the Old Testament, he is quoting Jesus Christ Himself. And so now, as he quotes a prophet, he is also quoting one of Christ's prophets. And the prophet says, there are two kinds of people. There are the proud, who believe that they can buy God's favor with their works. And then there are the just, who live by faith. The proud, though they keep the law so nicely, in so many ways, outwardly, they will burn in hell forever. but the just shall live by faith." So he goes to the Old Testament prophet here. You know, this statement, the just shall live by faith, of course was the battle cry of the Protestant Reformation as the Roman Catholic Church had added one thing after another that men might be saved. Martin Luther's brother tells a story of Martin. He was ill for quite some time. He went to Italy and he stayed there. And while he was there, While he was staying in Italy, this phrase, the just shall live by faith, was dogging him. And so he went to Rome and he visited the church, St. John Lateran. And the pope had offered an indulgence for the sins of anyone who would mount the staircase in that church. because they claimed that the staircase in that church was the identical staircase that came from the judgment hall of Pontius Pilate. And they claimed that Jesus Christ's blood was shed on the stair steps going up. So the Pope said, I will absolve you of your sins if you mount the staircase of St. John Lateranus. So Martin Luther went and he went up the steps like all the other pilgrims crawling one step at a time and kissing each step and the spots of blood that were allegedly the blood of Christ. as his brother knelt and went up the staircase, was kissing the blood-stained stairs. But he said, yet the law is not of faith. The man who does them shall live by them. And he quotes this, and he quotes, the just shall live by faith. So Martin Luther's brother says that when he was climbing those stairs, He was reminding himself that the just shall live by faith, not by the works of the law, not by kissing the staircase of the court of Pontius Pilate, because Christ's blood was shed there. What the Apostle Paul is doing here, he's quoting an Old Testament prophet. And the words of that prophet will ring in the ears of true believers forever, until Christ comes again, that the just shall live by faith. And then he moves on and he quotes Leviticus chapter 18. Now look at this very carefully. Look at verse 12. Yet the law is not of faith. So he's making a distinction between the law and faith. And he's saying they're two separate things. They're not the same thing. The law is not of faith. So when you think about the law, you're trying to teach yourself what God says about the law. One thing you need to know is that they are two different things. They're not the same at all. And so He says, the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. And that's the quote from Leviticus chapter 18, verse 5. If you look at the context of this statement in Leviticus chapter 18, what you find is that the context is that of a people who've been redeemed out of Egypt. They've been rescued from their destructive worldly life, and now they live by the law of God. It's stated in a positive way. Right in this verse, you have the distinction of the law and faith. And he's saying, yes, you should live by them, He says, the man who does them shall live by them. That's a good thing, but it's not the same as faith. And that's what he's saying here in verse 12. The thrust of Leviticus 18 is, don't go back to Egypt. Obey the law of God. Follow God. Don't let the law of Pharaoh be your guide. Let the law of Almighty God be your guide. But, Paul is interpreting that and saying, but don't think that it justifies you. So Paul is using Leviticus 18 to prove actually two things all at once. That the law is not of faith, but the law should not be abandoned in everyday life. That it cannot save you. So again, he's just continuing to pile up these evidences. And they all say this, don't rely on obedience for your salvation. Obey the laws, but don't trust in them. And then, fifthly, he brings a picture of the redemption of Christ on the cross. So Paul is just continuing to layer in one evidence after another, one argument after another. He's saying the same thing. He's repeating himself. And he's repeating himself because we need the repetition. Because our human pride so often grips us, and we think that if we're able to keep the law, we're so much better than someone else, or we're perhaps able to buy God's favor. If I do this, God will like me better. Not true. The just shall live by faith. So then, Paul brings a picture of the redemption of Christ on the cross, and he quotes Deuteronomy 21. So now we're back to Deuteronomy. Here, in just these first 10, 11, 12, and now in 13, most of the words come from the Old Testament in this text. And so he's doing it again now. In verse 13, he says, Christ has 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 upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith. So Deuteronomy. 21, if you recall, is about a scene where someone is guilty of a crime punishable by death. They will hang on a tree as part of their punishment. It was designed to expose the cursed status before the whole community, but it was required that the body not stay there overnight, but that it be taken down before nightfall. And so you find this pattern being followed in Scripture in Joshua 10, verse 26, when Joshua defeated five Canaanite kings and he hung them, he took them down before nightfall. When the seven sons of Saul were hung in 2 Samuel 21, the same thing happened. And the same thing happened with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In John 19, verse 31, the text says explicitly that He was taken down before nightfall. This was the pattern that was followed. And so, it's a picture of someone hanging on a tree. And it's interesting, you know, how gospel writers go out of their way to use the word tree often when they speak of the crucifixion of Christ. And so, it pictures the substitutionary atonement of Christ. That he hung on a tree and he took all the curses of the law against us. into His own body. He absorbed them. He took them all into His own body as He hung on the tree. And here, Moses is giving this illustration that will finally be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. That our sins were nailed to a tree. All of them. And all of the curses of the law fell on Christ. And that's what that means. When Paul says that That Christ has redeemed us from the curses of the law. There are two things. Notice the word redeemed and then curses. Those are two important words in the sentence. First of all, there are the curses. The hundreds of thousands, millions, millions of laws that we've broken in a day and in a month and in a lifetime. That Christ has taken the curses for every one of our law breakings. upon himself. And it's enormous when you think about it, that the gospel was so clear to Moses that he would speak of it. He would, first of all, say that you have to obey the whole law or else you cannot be saved. And he would also acknowledge that the just shall live by faith. Moses was after Abraham, and he understood that to be delivered from the curses of the law meant that all of your violations were paid for. And they were paid for by the act of redemption. Another really important word. Everybody needs to understand what the word redemption means. To redeem means to buy back. It means to pay for and buy back a slave and make Him free. So as the curses of the law were laid upon Christ, there was a purchase that was made. He purchased our freedom by taking all of the curses upon Himself. And He redeemed us from the curse of the law. You know that song? There's a beautiful hymn that I love to sing of what wondrous love is this. What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul. What wondrous love is this, O my soul. What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul. for my soul." To bear the dreadful curse for my soul. That song is written out of this text here. And Christ bore the dreadful curse, and it was a dreadful curse. We've read the curses of Deuteronomy. They are the curses for all who break the law, but Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. The curse of the law is not annulled. It's laid on Christ. And Christ alone. So, he gives a picture of the redemption of Christ on the cross. That He took all of the curses of the law upon Himself. And then in verses 15-18, he makes the argument that there is a promise of an unbreakable covenant that secures all of these things. And so he defends now, again, the completeness of the Bible. He defends salvation by grace and the covenant that was made to Abraham. And so he begins by saying this, brethren... Notice he calls them brethren. I speak in the manner of men. So, he's now going to give a human example. He's going to bring something out of normal everyday life. A contract. an agreement that men make when they buy something, or they determine to do something together, and each has various responsibilities. That's what he's speaking of here, just the human matter of making a contract. I speak in the manner of men, though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. So what Paul is saying is, this example that I'm going to give you here, can be understood by just thinking about a contract. Once you make a contract, you can't add to it and you can't annul it. You can't take something back and you can't put something on it. You might walk away and think, I forgot about that. You can't change it. You might appeal it and if the brother agrees, that's a beautiful thing, but if he doesn't, sorry, you've sworn to your hurt. And that happens all the time. So the Apostle Paul is giving this whole illustration of a man's covenant and that you have to keep it. And then he says now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made. So, Paul is saying that there is a covenant made, there is a contract enacted with Abraham and that that promise of Abraham is not taken back. Remember, you have to understand biblical history to understand what's being said here. Abraham, 2000 B.C. The Law, approximately 1400 B.C., right? So, there are many years that span this distance. The promise of salvation by faith was given to Abraham. And then, many, many years, hundreds of years later, the Law was given. And so, what Paul is saying is that what was given to Abraham is not annulled. Faith is not annulled by the Law that came hundreds of years later. The contract remains that the just shall live by faith. Abraham believed God in 2000 B.C. and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. And he was made righteous by faith, not by the works of the law. The centuries passed and then the law was given through Moses. But the law doesn't annul the promise of faith. In other words, salvation was never by the law. It was always by faith in the Old Testament. The Jews misunderstood it. The Jews began to say that you were justified by the works of the law, and Jesus attacked them for it. Jesus said, no, you misunderstand the law. You have obliterated the right meaning of Scripture. And so, when Jesus speaks to the Pharisees as if they're justified by the law, He's really correcting them. Because the Jewish view of the law was wrong at the time when Christ came. The Jews weren't doing the right thing. They did believe they were justified by the law. And so what Paul is saying is that justification by faith was established through Abraham and it was not annulled by the law hundreds of years later. So he's giving a historical analysis of this. And so he's saying that justification by faith is irrevocable. And that faith always overrode the law and the law never justified. And so then he says in verse 16, now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made, he does not say and to seeds. This is how seriously Paul viewed the Old Testament. Whether it was singular or plural, it made a difference. The authority, the inspiration of Scripture is down to whether it's plural or singular. Every word of God is pure. And here, he reminds the Galatians that there was one seed. Because the Galatians were saying, no, there's a way of salvation for the Gentiles and a way of salvation for the Jews. And Paul says, no, there's one. There's only one way of salvation. So he's attacking the Judaizers who think that you're saved by your genealogy. And he's saying the seed is Christ. So, if you are Christ, you are of Abraham's seed. So, there's one eternal seed that bears fruit to eternal life. It's the seed of Abraham, which is Christ. So, when God speaks to Abraham and uses the term seed, we now know what he means. He means justification by faith in Christ. That's what he means when he uses that term. And then he uses the word promise. This word is a prominent word in the book of Galatians. It appears eight times. But there's a promise, it's unbreakable, that survives for all eternity. And that is the promise of faith. You cannot earn a promise. You can only trust in a promise. And so here, the Apostle Paul is trying to make something very clear. And that is salvation was never by the works of the law. At the same time, men always want to try to make themselves acceptable. They always want to feel good about themselves by what they do and whether they can keep the law or not. But the problem is, it's impossible because men don't have the option to keep this law or that law. They're obligated to keep every single law. And that's impossible. And so, where is the hope? Where is the hope for mankind? It's the hope of a man who hung on a tree and who absorbed all the curses of the law for all the lawbreakers who would repent of their sins. And by his stripes, we would be healed. So here we find in Galatians chapter 3, in this section, The fact that man is only justified by faith. And that all of the curses that we deserve for our sins are laid on Christ. And I really pray that this morning we would see how good God has been to us. Because we are lawbreakers. And we can never stop breaking the law. And so we have to run to Christ. Let me just close with two things. Here's why you should know and obey the law of God and seek to obey it with all of your heart. Because the more law you know, the more grace you'll experience. You should seek to know every jot and tittle of the law as Jesus Christ urged us to do. And as we know the law more, we see the sweetness and the goodness of the heart of God. We find ourselves being condemned by it. We see what great sinners we are. But we also see what a great Savior we have. If you don't love the law of God, you will never love the Savior like you could. You will see how gracious He's been to you. You'll make more of Him. You'll feel that He is greater than He ever was before, the more you know of the law. But you have to understand that you're not justified by the law. You're justified by faith in Jesus Christ, who took all the curses of the law that you deserved, as He hung on a tree. And let me just say this last thing. And when you think of the fact that you're obligated to obey every law and you have not been able to do it, how merciful is God? How merciful is God? I must take that a step further. If God is so merciful toward you in all of your breakings of the law, how merciful should you be toward your brother? toward your wife, toward your husband who breaks the law all the time. And sometimes it affects you. If we've been brought such a great salvation, we should be ministers of that salvation to one another as well. Would you pray with me? Oh, Lord, we're so thankful that you have given us the law to show us our sin. and to give us a vision of the greatness of Jesus Christ. Oh, I pray that His greatness would be so felt here today, and that we would carry the sense of all of His mercies with us, that we would make so much of Him and so little of our own righteousness. In Jesus' name, Amen.