According to 1 Corinthians 13, verse 7, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. At least part of what that means is that for a believer in Jesus Christ, someone who is following Christ in His love, And in our relationships, we want to assume the best. We want to hope for the best about others. And we are ready to absorb the pain when something in the relationship does not turn out the way that we would like. And we can find some similar ideas in other places, like Colossians 3, verses 12 and 13. which says, so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Another place we find something similar, 1 Peter 4, verse 8, Keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Now those verses, as well as others that we can find in Scripture, tell us that as Christians, we should be able to put up with a lot, and just bear with each other in a lot of cases. We've been forgiven of so much by God, that we should be able to forgive and just overlook a lot of what other people may do against us. Sometimes there are just annoyances that happen because of differences in personalities, different preferences. I know that I probably annoy some of you sometimes. And I'm sorry about that. It's not intentional. Believe it or not, I don't try to be annoying, but I know it happens, and you generally bear it well. But as social awkwardness, different preferences, opinions, we are to graciously bear with, assume the best, and keep moving forward in unity for the love of the Lord and for the sake of the Gospel. And even with some doctrinal differences. I emphasize some doctrinal differences. We should be charitable. We should assume the best. And these kinds of doctrinal differences, I'm not going to list the ones because there can be many. I may miss some, may misrepresent some. I think you know what I mean. They can be discussed. They can be debated. And even if differences remain, and some doctrinal differences, It's not something to divide over. It shouldn't hinder fellowship. We can be gracious. We can just understand that none of us have everything figured out during this lifetime. And that is the case with some doctrinal differences. But there are some other doctrinal differences that we should not be okay with. Things that we cannot just let slide. we cannot just agree to disagree. There are some things that you cannot be wrong about and still have fellowship and unity as the body of Christ. Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 4, For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, You bear this beautifully. That was not a compliment. That should not have been the case. They should not have borne with that false doctrine. Of all the things that Christians should be charitable about, and tolerant of, and to just bear with. These things that Paul lists there in 2 Corinthians 11.4 are not those things. These are hills to die on. things of eternal consequence, things that are clearly taught in God's Word. As we've been studying the book of Galatians, Paul has been dealing with the professed believers in the churches of that region of Galatia about some things that cannot be compromised. The Judaizers had gone into those same places where Paul had been, and they were deceiving misleading the same people who Paul had taught the truth of the Gospel. They were trying to turn them away from the true Gospel that Paul had received directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. Trying to put them under the law. Now remember these Judaizers. They did not deny the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They didn't deny that it was very important for a person's salvation. to believe in the Lord Jesus, but they taught that that was not enough. You need Jesus, they would say, and you need to keep parts of the law in order to be saved. So far in chapter 3 of Galatians, Paul has shown them how that teaching does not align with their experience. When they trusted in Christ, apart from the works of the law, Then he began to show them how that teaching of the Judaizers does not line up with what is clearly taught in Scripture, first by the example of Abraham, who in verse 6, Galatians 3, believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Then the verses that we're looking at this morning. There are more specific examples of what the Bible actually says about this matter of salvation as it relates to the law. And it's serious. Eternal life or death. Serious. Verse 10. It's where we begin this morning. Galatians chapter 3 verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. Now for anyone who decides to go the route that the Judaizers were teaching, or any route of works or human merit for salvation, Paul says, they are under a curse. If you are going to trust in your performance to be saved, you have put yourself under a curse. And Paul gives the reason for that, for it is written, It's right there. It's in God's Word. You can look this up. Find it yourself. Quoted from Deuteronomy 27, verse 26, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. Several weeks ago, I think it was probably everyone with a moral address, I don't know what else may have been included, but we received a booklet in the mail, box holder, moral, the zip code. If you received one of those booklets a few weeks ago, several weeks ago, and you assumed it was junk mail and threw it away, good. The trash is exactly where it belongs. I looked through it enough to figure out what it was, what the purpose of it was. and then I ended up reading most of it because of how it related to some of the very things that we've been studying in Galatians from the Judaizers' side. This booklet was basically from Judaizers. The basic premise of the booklet is that the mark of the beast is to worship God on Sunday, whereas the seal of God is to worship God on Saturday. and not Sunday. I thought it was kind of interesting how they seem to say you don't worship God on Sunday. I don't think they're exactly saying that, but you worship God Saturday. You don't worship God on Sunday. And that's bad. We would say we worship God every day, right? But you're not supposed to do that on Sunday, according to this book. Now I'm not certain which group put this book out. I have some guesses. I didn't look into it all that deep. But whoever it was, seem to believe and teach that Sabbath-keeping is a salvation issue. Ultimately, those who follow Satan will go to church on Sunday, and those who follow God with all their heart will go to church on the Sabbath, which is the seventh day, Saturday. So, law-keeping, they say, is a salvation issue. but not all the law. Looking through the book, they had a chart and some different explanations that you don't have to keep the ceremonial law, just the moral law. The moral law, they say, is what you find in the Ten Commandments, and you have to keep that part for salvation. Most of the rest is ceremonial law. You don't have to keep that part. Now, one of the many problems with that is that the Bible does not make that distinction. The Bible does not divide up the law in that way. That's a man-made division. James said, James 2, verse 10, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. Now, if you put yourself in a position of law-keeping to make yourself acceptable to God, If you stumble in any one point of that whole law, you are guilty of being a lawbreaker. It's all one unit. You break one part, you break the whole thing. You're a lawbreaker. After the whole law of Moses was given to the Israelites, and then repeated to the Israelites in the desert before they entered the promised land. The conclusion was given in Deuteronomy. This is the conclusion to that whole law. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. Now notice some of the words used in this quote in Galatians chapter 3 verse 10. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by. If you're reading from a New King James, you see it says, continue in. Everyone, everyone who is under this law or puts themselves under it is cursed if they do not abide by or continue in, which means it must be constant. It must be consistent. There are no breaks. There are no timeouts. It's all day, every day, and this must be the case for all things written in the Book of the Law. Every single one of the somewhere around 613 laws in the Book of the Law. You cannot pick and choose the ones you want. It's every one of them. All things written in the Book of the Law. were to be kept by everyone constantly or they were cursed. Now in Deuteronomy 27 verse 26 it gives that curse for everyone who does not keep everything written in the law and then it gives the required response of all the people to this pronouncement of the curse and it was to be all the people shall say amen which probably should have been followed shortly after by Oh boy, we're in a load of trouble. Cursed is everyone who does not do everything in this law. Amen. Oh boy, we're in trouble. When Jesus was teaching about law-keeping in the Sermon on the Mount, the book of Matthew, He emphasizes that outward law-keeping didn't cut it. It had to be kept inwardly as well. Which means being inwardly, selfishly angry with someone makes that person just as much a lawbreaker as someone who outwardly, physically murders a person. According to Jesus in Matthew 5 verse 48, the standard for law keeping is perfection. Therefore you are to be perfect as you are Heavenly Father is perfect. So if you're going to go the route of law-keeping, or your effort to make you acceptable to God, those are the terms. You've got to keep everything in the law all the time. Every bit of it. Perfectly. Those are the terms. Now, even if you were determined that you're going to start today, and somehow you were able to keep all of those laws constantly for the rest of your life, what about yesterday? I'd say there's a really good chance that every one of us broke some Sabbath laws yesterday, along with several other laws. We've already failed. But even if we start today and we're able to do it perfectly, we've already failed yesterday, the day before that. So if that's the route you're going to take to try to get to God, if you're going to do it by the law, you've put yourself under a curse. Now that's a really good reason to not willfully put yourself under the law or to try to get to God by your works. But there's more. There's a logical reason. It's based on something that's very important that's stated in the Hebrew Scriptures. Look at Galatians 3, verse 11. Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident. For the righteous man shall live by faith. If they would study the Scriptures that they had available to them, they'd go to the synagogue, and pull out the scriptures, the scrolls, read and study what we call the Old Testament, they would find that it makes a lot of sense that a person cannot be justified by the law before God. Paul says it's evident. Just read God's Word. It's evident. Just weigh this out. It makes sense. You're going to see it if you read God's Word. He quotes Habakkuk 2, verse 4. the righteous man shall live by faith." It's evident because this is what Scripture says. The righteous man shall live by faith. Now earlier, back in verse 6, He had given an example of Abraham. Now, Abraham was considered righteous by faith. Now maybe someone could say, well, that may have been the case back then, but that was before the law was given. Maybe people were saved through faith back then because they didn't have the law. Now, because we have the law, it's been given. So to be justified, considered righteous, you've got to keep the law. Habakkuk was a prophet well after the law had been given. And according to God, in a message that he gave to Habakkuk, the person who is righteous, or who is justified before God, is the person who lives by faith. So it is true in Abraham's day. It is true in Habakkuk's day. The righteous man shall live by faith. In verse 12, Paul gives a contrast. What about the law? The righteous man will live by faith. What about the law? However, verse 12, is not of faith. On the contrary, he who practices them shall live by them." So a Jew who is under the law could have also had faith in God. Consider Habakkuk as an example. Habakkuk could have trusted God's promises He could have trusted that salvation came as a gift from God based on faith in Him, the promises that He has made, and he could have tried to live obediently to the law because it was the right thing to do. God gave that law. It was the right thing to do, to try to live according to that law. But the law itself is not lived out by faith. It's a list of do's and don'ts. If so, you look at your calendar and see, oh, it's almost Saturday. It's almost the seventh day, the Sabbath. I've got to get out my list that God gives in the law of things that I can't do. Make sure I don't do these things. You're making an opposites list of things that are okay. These are the things I can do on the Sabbath. These are things I cannot do on the Sabbath. It's lunchtime. Make lunch for your family. You can look at your list of things that are okay to eat and things that are not. And check labels and make sure what you're eating is okay. You're buying clothes for your family, check the labels, see what those clothes are made of. Some fabrics are okay and some were not. It's a feast day coming up. Okay, I'm told in the law that I've got to keep this feast day. I'll keep it and then check it off the list. There are worship practices that are not okay. You can have a list of those things that are not okay. You make your list. You check it twice. Do your best to not be naughty, but nice. If it wasn't December, I wouldn't have said that. It's one of those annoying things that I can do sometimes. I'm sorry. But it's not faith. The law is not of faith. If you study God's Word thoroughly and honestly, You're going to find it all over, the importance of faith for salvation. But you're not going to find law-keeping for salvation. It's not our performance. It's faith for salvation. As we continue studying God's Word, as you come into the New Testament, we find that the blessings of salvation come not from our performance, consistent with what we see in the Old Testament. It does not come from anything we do. But as we come into the New Testament and things become more clear about the object of our faith, we find that salvation, all the blessings, all the gifts come through Christ and what He has done. Consistent from what we see in the Old Testament. not based on what we do, it's all based on what Christ has done. Verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Now, the people of Israel, prior to the new covenant in Christ, they didn't have a choice. under the Old Covenant, the Law of Moses. They were cursed if they didn't keep all of it, 100%, all the time. And that's why faith was necessary to be righteous, not law-keeping. They couldn't do it. If a Gentile during that time desired to worship the One True God of Heaven, they came under the law also. Not for salvation, but because God commanded it. That's how it was supposed to be. If they didn't do the law perfectly, they too were under the curse. We could say, when they didn't do the law perfectly, they too were under the curse. If they wanted to be saved, it would be through faith. Not through their actions. Not by their efforts at keeping the law. But Jesus came, so no one would need to be under the curse of the law. He paid the price to redeem us, to purchase us out of the position of being under that curse. And he did it by becoming a curse for us. Paul quotes scripture again. It's a part of the law that was given to Israel. Deuteronomy 21 verse 23, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. In that context, we would find that it's not being hung on a tree that makes a person cursed. It's that they were hung on a tree because they were cursed. There in Deuteronomy, it's not specifically talking about crucifixion because that wasn't a thing yet. But in the law as it was given, it was more talking about someone being tied to a tree maybe for the purpose of stoning them or maybe it was after they had been stoned for some way that they broke the law that the required punishment was a death sentence and they were hung on a tree, they were tied to that tree for the rest of the day as a warning. This is what happens when you disobey God. This is what happens when you're under that curse. you break God's law. They weren't to leave them there overnight and defile the land, but for that day, people could look and see and be warned. Then Jesus came and became a curse for us. And because Jesus took the curse of the law in our place, the curse of not being perfect, not being able to work our way to God, And He was hung on a tree. He was put on a cross for everyone to see. This is what happens when God's wrath against sin is poured out on someone. Look at Jesus. In His case, He was the perfect Son of God. He was not there for sin of His own. But He took that wrath in our place. He took the curse in our place. when He shed His blood and died there on that cross. He was perfect. But He took the curse for us so we could be freed from the curse of being under the law that we could not keep. Verse 14, in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Now the Judaizers were busy trying to convince the Gentiles of Galatia that if they were to be saved, they had to become like the Jews, come under the law, be circumcised, like Abraham, like the rest of the Jews. But Paul's point is, that's wrong. Don't listen to them. Don't follow that way. Jesus came and died on the cross so all who put their faith in Him will receive the same blessing that Abraham received through faith. And when Abraham believed God, he received the blessing of salvation, the blessing of being considered righteous. And by faith, you too, anyone who believes, can receive the same blessing. It doesn't come through the works of the law. That brings a curse. Righteousness comes through faith. And that's the only way. You can't be wrong about that. Righteousness only comes through faith in Jesus Christ. We can't agree to disagree about that. We can't make compromises and try to find somewhere to meet in the middle on this. If you or anyone has any confidence in the flesh, if you have any confidence in your ability to do the right things to make you acceptable to God, whether that's specifically the Mosaic Law or any parts of that law, like Sabbath keeping, or by getting baptized, taking communion, joining a church, or just being a good person, unless you perfectly perform every little thing that God has said to do, all the time, from the time you were born till the time you die, with no exceptions, including loving God above all else, and your neighbor as yourself, all the time, with no exceptions, then you're under a curse, if that's the route you're going to take. But if your trust is fully and only in the finished work of Jesus Christ, through His death on the cross, His burial, His resurrection from the dead, then Jesus took that curse for you. He took the punishment of that curse for you, and you have been reckoned by God as righteous in His sight. And there are no other options. It's one or the other. Either you bear the curse of failing to keep the law, or Jesus bears it in your place. There's no other option I can give you. One or the other. I'd like to conclude with an illustration that I've used many times to illustrate many biblical truths. It's an illustration from Jesus. In Luke chapter 18. Turn there if you'd like. Luke 18, verses 9-14. Luke 18, beginning verse 9. And he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. Now he stopped there and he thought about where this man's trust was. He was a Pharisee. He tried hard. He looked good from the outside. He tried really hard to keep the law. Remember what we saw in Galatians is the result of that. That man was under a curse. Try as hard as he may, he didn't do it perfectly. He failed. No matter how hard he may pat himself on the back, he failed. Verse 13, But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, this man went to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. And what was the difference between those two men? One trusted in himself. One could only depend on the mercy of God. One had his hope in himself. The other had his hope in only what God could provide. The tax collector went home justified that day. The Pharisee started out under the curse, and he stayed there. He who humbles himself will be exalted. The humbling part of this is to trust in God's promise of mercy. Trust that God's got to do this. I can't save myself. I'm not good enough. The tax collector, considered righteous, the Pharisee, was under the curse. Let's think on these things.