Good morning. We continue our study of the book of Galatians. And as we start out, each time we start out, we want to start with prayer. So let's do that. Lord, thank you for another opportunity to open your word. Thank you for your grace. And that makes it possible for even us to understand what we're reading. and what you've given us in your word. And so I'm asking now that as we're spending this time together, that Father, you'd help us. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. As I was thinking about this, week and what I was going to talk about as we're looking in the book of Galatians. If you'd have your Bible open to Galatians chapter 3 and we're going to be going from verse 10 to verse 14. But what keeps coming up is the word curses. Okay, curse or curses. And it caused me to think about, thinking back to a cartoon that I enjoyed. If you'll notice, many times you're hearing me preach, I'll bring up old TV shows, I'll bring up pop culture items, I'll bring up sports, I'll bring up music. And cartoons was a big part of my life as a kid. Growing up, especially Saturday mornings, we loved to get up early before we'd go out to play. watch cartoons and this one is a cartoon that I really enjoyed. So take a look at Dudley Do-Right. Don't you love that name? Dudley Do-Right. He was a Canadian Mountie, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I am half Canadian and I heard stories about them as I was growing up and because my mom grew up in Canada. And also having this cartoon that was a fun way of looking at life. And there were different characters in Dudley Do-Right. Just think about that name first of all. Dudley Do-Right. So this is a person that wants to do right. And what you'll see... as you would take the time to watch the cartoon is you'd see a guy that was constantly messing up. And that sure sounds like the Christian life trying to do right in our own strength. He was always coming across a guy named Snidely Whiplash. And Snidely Whiplash would actually be stopped by Dudley Do-Right, sometimes by mistake. Dudley would want to save Nell, and somehow he would do that. Then Snidely Whiplash would always say, curses foiled again. And he was frustrated by the fact that this guy kept stopping him from doing what he wanted to do, which was all evil. When you think about the whole idea of curses, let's look at that scripture today. Let's take a look at that scripture today. So take a listen as we start out with the reading of Galatians chapter three, beginning at verse 10. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. You would think in our culture today that with the emphasis of God being love, God being love, God being love, that some of these individuals that are always talking about that, and God is love, but he's also a bunch of other attributes. And this God of love that is being perpetrated or conveyed in our culture on a regular basis is just part of the aspects of God. There are curses throughout the Bible, curses throughout the Bible. In fact, C.S. Lewis wrote this, he said, in some of the Psalms, the spirit of hatred which strikes us in the face is like the heat from a furnace mouth. There are at least, and this is, that's the end of the quote there with C.S. Lewis, there are at least 39 Psalms that incorporate curses in them. Now that's a lot of cursing. If we're not careful, we would go, I don't want to talk about that. But why would God have that in there? Why would God have that in there? I think there's a purpose to it. And so as we're working through this message together, let's see in these few verses that we're going to be doing today, let's see what the Lord is trying to teach us when he's talking about the whole idea of a curse. Point number one, look at the scripture. Look at the scripture. You see, any person who believes that they may be made righteous in God's sight by keeping the law is cursed. If someone stays in that mindset, they're going to stay lost, ending in eternal condemnation. Take a look at verse 10 with me again. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Okay, so he's quoting Deuteronomy 27, verse 26. Now this is the last of the 12 curses that are mentioned on Mount Ebal. There was two mountains that when the time came, the law was set up, there was Gerizim and there was Ebal and they would face one another and six tribes would go on Gerizim and six tribes would go on Ebal. Okay, so we've got this mounted situation once again and they're up there and they're going back and forth and from Gerizim are the blessings. If you follow the law, these are the blessings that you will get. From evil come the cursing. Let me read to you some of these that we're saying. Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen. So this curse would be said, And then after that is said, all the people, so we're talking thousands, tens of thousands of people, saying in unison, amen, okay, which means so be it. After we get done praying, in Jesus' name I pray, and so we're going through the axis of Jesus' name, amen, so be it, okay? He says, cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother, and all the people shall say amen. So you see that these people on eBall are saying that out loud and then all of the people are saying, we agree. We agree, and it goes down list after list, and it's listing different things. And then we get to verse 26, and it says, So after all these things are listed, and in case you missed anything, everybody is cursed if you don't follow, and all the people say amen. You think about that. He's covering all of the bases. And so, a curse is put on these people. A curse if they don't obey every aspect of the law. And this was constantly happening. God, Moses, would you just go meet with God? We'll let you go and represent us. And whatever you bring back, this is what the people of Israel say, whatever you bring back, we will do. And they couldn't do it. You see, one who is cursed because he does not keep all the law. That word abide is a present tense verb. If a person does not continually keep all things in the law, all of the time, that one is cursed. And the Old Testament law will not and cannot justify but it can condemn. See that even in the book of James chapter two and verse 10. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. And so this is what they've been handed. So this could be very frustrating if you're reading this and you're going, what is God doing here? God has these high expectations for us. We have to be perfect. If we want justification before God, if we want eternal salvation, if we want forgiveness, we have to be perfect before God, okay? So you see how he's setting the bar? He's setting it up extremely high, okay? And remember, this isn't just a Old Testament thing. Jesus comes along in the New Testament. He says, if you've heard it said, that if a man thou shalt not commit adultery, he says, if you even look upon a woman in lust, you've committed sin in your heart already. And so don't make the mistake of making the Old Testament God this mean, angry person and then Jesus comes along and he's just nice and he doesn't have any expectations for us. No, he's constantly putting things out. In fact, Jesus puts out curses sometimes. Why can he do that? Because he is God. And so this Old Testament law, it's not some religious cafeteria where we can pick and choose the things we like. And that's what seems to happen. It would be like this. I'm going down the street. I'm driving down the highway. I'm going above the speed limit. And though I look in my rearview mirror and I see those lights light up and that police car follows me and I have to pull over He pulls over, and I'm just waiting there. I'm getting the license and registration, getting everything ready. But in my mind, I'm thinking, I've got something I'm going to say to him. And so I roll down the window. I say, hello, officer. Yes. Do you know why I stopped you? Well, I think it's because I was speeding, and I was speeding. But just so you know, I've been faithful to my wife. I haven't killed anybody. I didn't steal anything. And he'd look at me like, that has nothing to do with why I stopped you today. But that's what people do with God. They say, I'm good with these things that I'm good in. But they're discounting the fact that there's, he could point after thing, after thing, after thing, but let's say we just had one that he points out. And we would go, but I'm good in all these other areas. And he goes, that's not what matters. You have to be good in it all if you want to keep the whole law. And so it's not a cafeteria. It's not our choice. And many times what happens is people choose what they're best at to focus on and not realize, oh, I've fallen short in other areas. So that's verse 10. Let's look at verse 11 as he goes on. Now, it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith." So now he quotes Habakkuk 2 verse 4 to prove justification must be by faith. And that says, and this is the beginning of the verse, he says, behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him. but the righteous shall live by his faith." Now, you remember the story of Habakkuk, what was going on there? Habakkuk was a holy man. He was watching what Israel was doing. He was completely frustrated by their sinfulness. He wanted something to be done about this. He was so sick of the sin that was going on in his nation. And so he's crying out to God, when are you going to do something? When are you going to take care of this? basically answers him and he says to him, Habakkuk, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. You may not like it, but I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to take this group of people, the Chaldeans or the Babylonians, and I'm going to use them to judge my people. And Habakkuk is like, what? They're worse than us. They're worse than us. All things, what are you picking them for? And God is basically, God doesn't have to answer to Habakkuk for any of this. This is what I'm going to do. And when Habakkuk is at his lowest, God points him again to the truth of the gospel before we even get the gospel. The gospel for Habakkuk is your saved by grace through faith. Trust me. Believe me. I know what I'm doing. I'll take care of this. But you have to put your faith and trust in me, not in your goodness, not in the goodness of the people of Israel, not in keeping the law, but it's the just shall live by faith. The righteous shall live by faith. And so, You see how Paul's handling this with the Galatians. He's quoting the Torah and the prophets to back his point. And he's making sure that Habakkuk understands and the Galatians understand that God has always been one who saves by grace through faith. Let's continue on. He goes on in verse 12, but the law is not a faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them." So any attempt to keep the law is contrary to faith. The Old Testament law and the New Testament grace are contrary systems. You must choose one or the other. Okay, remember, there's only two ways that people attempt to gain acceptance with God, justification with God. One is by human achievement and one is by divine accomplishment. And so, who are you going to pick, Galatians? Who are you going to rest in? Are you going to rest in your goodness or are you going to rest in the goodness of God who took care of it? Are you going to do or are you going to realize that it's been done? You either rely upon yourself or you rely upon Jesus Christ. And I want to encourage you today in your walk as Christians, who are you relying on today? Are you trusting in yourself and your goodness? Are you going to be Dudley Do-Right? Or are you going to be a person that understands that God has done right and taken care of it? Point number two, Look at the situation. Look at the situation. Christ, verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. And so, Jesus Christ died on the cross to redeem us from the curse of the law. That word redeem is a word ex agaradzo. And it means this, you purchase something at the marketplace and take it out and make it yours. Now, I want you to understand the beauty of this statement. And when this was written back in the day, cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. So, we have Back in the day, how did the Jews have capital punishment? They stoned people. They took rocks and they would line somebody up and they would take these rocks and they would throw them at this individual. And I've been to Israel, there are rocks everywhere, okay? And so, stones, and they'd keep stoning them until they were dead. And what would happen is, after that was all done, then they would take that person as a picture of somebody that is condemned before God, condemned before the people of God, and they would put them on a tree as, hey, children, hey, community, take a look. This is what happens to somebody that doesn't follow the principles of God's Word. We've been in agreement, there's been a just ruling here, and that's how that person dies. Isn't it interesting that that verse is in the Bible way back then, way before we get to Jesus? And so time goes by, and so this is written back in the Torah, back in the Pentateuch, time goes by, and who comes to power when Jesus is alive? Rome. How does Rome take care of criminals? How does Rome execute criminals? They put them on a cross. They crucify them on a cross, on a tree. God knew, way back then, who was going to be in power. He knew how his son would die, the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world, the one that would bleed, the one who would be cursed for us. Because cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree. Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. And Jesus did that for us. Now, how did he do this? Well, he became a curse for us. It's interesting that when we come to John 3 and it talks about the verse that we were famous to look at is John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. But the verses before that, it says, as Moses raised the serpent in the wilderness, And so that serpent was put on a staff, and all they had to do, those people had to do was look at it. And for years, that would confuse me as I would, why wouldn't it be a lamb if it's ultimately going to be a picture of Christ? But it's a serpent because it's a picture of sin. Christ became sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21 says, For our sake, He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Isn't that good of God that he did that? I'd like you to take a look at this video, take a listen to this gentleman talking about what the Romans said concerning crucifixion. Hi, I'm Stephen M. Miller. I write books about the Bible. I think most folks know that the Romans crucified people. They crucified people they thought threatened the Roman way of life, and they did it to send a message. Don't mess with Rome. Crucifixion wasn't just a slow and painful way to die. It was shameful, reserved for the worst offenders. The Bible talks a bit about what it was like to go through a crucifixion. Soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters. They stripped him, spit on him, grabbed a stick, and struck him. Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. Hailed, King of the Jews, they rocked him as they slapped him across the face. Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull, Golgotha. There, they nailed him to the cross. Bible writers weren't the only ones talking about crucifixion. So did the Romans, in gritty detail. I don't think many people know what the Romans had to say about crucifixions they saw with their own eyes in the days when Jesus was alive. He was whipped until his bones showed. Each criminal who goes to execution must carry his own cross on his back. 16 men were paraded out, chained together by the foot and neck, each carrying his own cross. The executioners added this grim public spectacle to the punishment as an extra deterrent to anyone thinking about committing the same crime. Some hang their victims upside down. Some impale them through the private parts. Others stretch out their hands onto forked poles. Is there such a thing as a person who would actually prefer wasting away in pain on a cross, dying limb by limb, one drop of blood at a time, rather than dying quickly? Would any human being willingly choose to be fastened to that cursed tree, especially after the beating that left him deathly weak, deformed, swelling, with vicious welts on shoulders and chest, and struggling to draw every last agonizing breath? Anyone facing such a death would plead to die rather than mount the cross. Reliable witnesses saw the man being dragged to the cross while crying out that he was a Roman citizen. And you, Veres, confirmed that he did cry out that he was a Roman citizen, yet you sent him to a most cruel and shameful death anyhow. Every day, Roman soldiers caught 500 Jews or more. The soldiers, driven by their hatred of the Jews, nailed them to crosses. They nailed them in many different positions to entertain themselves and to horrify the Jews watching this spectacle from inside the walled city of Jerusalem. In time, the soldiers ran out of wood for crosses and room for crosses even if they had found more wood. Romans didn't just write about crucifixion. They reported the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus actually shows up in Roman history books and letters written during his own century. There was a wise man called Jesus, a good person who could work wonders. He attracted many followers, Jews and non-Jews. Pilate, at the request of our leaders, sentenced him to death by crucifixion. Nero, blamed the fire that destroyed much of Rome. On a group of people he found so disgusting that he ordered them tortured in horrifying ways. They were Christians. They got their name from Christus, a man who suffered the ultimate penalty at the hands of a procurator, Pontius Pilate, when Tiberius was emperor of Rome. The fact that Jesus lived and was crucified isn't just a story in the Bible, Christian scholars say. It's written into Roman history. Our last point is point number three, look at the Savior. Look at verse 14. It says, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles. so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. You see, Jesus Christ died on the cross in order to make it possible for all people to be justified by faith, just like Abraham was justified by faith. The blessing of justification promised to Abraham could not come to the Gentiles by way of that which is physical because we're not Jewish. The blessing of justification could come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ through faith. That's how we get into relationship with God, by faith. That's how we grow in God. That's how we are sanctified in God. It's all by grace through faith. What are you banking on today? What are you resting in? What are you trusting in? Many of you right now are sitting down as you listen to this. When you sat down in that chair, did you check constantly that it's okay, that it's safe? If the chair proved itself to be unworthy of you sitting on it, unable to hold you, then you might have a question. But I'd venture to say the couch that you're sitting on, the lazy boy chair that you're sitting on, the chair that you're sitting on, you just sat down. You had faith and trust in that chair. You're resting in it completely. That's what Christ is saying to you and me today. Are you putting your faith and trust in me? So what are you resting in? What are you trusting in? I like how John R. W. Stott said something concerning faith. He says, faith is laying hold of Jesus Christ personally. There's no merit in it. It is not another work Its value is not in itself, but entirely in its object, Jesus Christ. I mean, I want to encourage you today to be a person that if you haven't yet put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, He alone saves, not your good works. If I were to ask you, why would God let you in heaven today? And you would say to me, I'm a good guy. You just ask anybody, I'm a good guy. That's the wrong answer. Biblically, that's the wrong answer. It's, have you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His finished work on your behalf? Rest in that. And Christian, those of you that are struggling in your walk right now, have you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ in your walk today? What are the functional saviors that you are putting in His place? Rest in Him. Trust in Him. Let's pray. Father, once again, we're so grateful for you and this picture, this idea of the curse. We had to hear this bad news. We had to understand that there was a curse put on your son. That there's a curse that is tied to the law. That when we look at the law, it just shows us our sinfulness. It makes us aware of our sinfulness. And I'm asking you today, God, that we would be people that would understand that there's good news though. The good news of the gospel is this, the curse, how evil and sad and hard that is, how bad that is, Jesus took that upon himself. And I can be clean. I can be free because of what he did. It takes away any pride. It takes away any reliance on my own goodness. Thank you, Lord, because that's exhausting. I cannot be deadly do-right. Thank you that you and your Son and the Spirit of God have done right, and we're trusting in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.