Galatians 3:13  By Paul Thompson

As I said before it is a pleasure to be here this evening and to bring the Word of God
to you.
It's also a fearful and terrible responsibility to have to stand before the Lord and preach
His Word.
But we pray that it will be the Lord's Word that will speak to us tonight and no man.
And our reading is taken from the book of Galatians and we're reading from chapter three
verses one to fourteen.
Galatians chapter three verses one to fourteen and if anybody cannot understand the version
I'm reading from I'm reading from the King James Version.
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
This only would I learn of you.
Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith.
Are you so foolish?
Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Have ye 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 yet
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith, even as Abraham believed God and
it was counted to him for righteousness.
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
And the Scriptures foreseen 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 every one 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 him shall live in them.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.
For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham
might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith.
May God bless the reading of his Holy Word.
I thought that it would be good to bring the Gospel to you this evening.
And it's traditional in Baptist churches to preach the Gospel on Sunday evening.
And it's a wonderful tradition, and I hate to break with tradition.
And the book of Galatians, in a wonderful way, sets forward the Gospel.
And Paul wrote to the Galatians because they had the same problem that we have today.
And that is that we try and justify ourselves before God by our works, rather than as the
passage says, relying on faith, faith from God.
Paul is writing to the Galatians, and they were not only Jews, but they were Gentiles.
And he was writing because of a particular concern that he had.
And he mentions this concern in chapter 2, from verses 11 to 16.
And I'll just quickly paraphrase it.
And he says that he spoke to Peter, and he withstood him to his face, because some of
the apostles had slipped back under the way of the Old Testament law.
And they began to teach and say that you needed to be circumcised to be a Christian,
and you needed to obey the Jewish laws.
And Paul was aware that this was not the Gospel.
And so he was very quick to withstand them and to declare the true Gospel to them.
And so in a sense it's in this light that he is writing to the Galatians, and the heart
of this message is the message of the Gospel, the message of freedom, that we are not justified
by the law or by trying to fulfil the law, but we're justified by faith in Jesus Christ.
Now the passage that I'd like us to concentrate on this evening is verse 13 of chapter 3.
Christ has 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.
And in a sense this is the heart of the Gospel message in this chapter, if not the whole
book.
Now as we're just taking one verse out of the whole book, it's important that we set
it in context, that we don't take it out of context with the whole verse.
And so I'll just very briefly outline each chapter to you.
Chapter 1 and 2 deal with the Gospel, its origin, not by human means but by divine origin
and its independency.
Chapter 3 and 4 deal with God's vindication, both from the Scriptures, the Old Testament,
the life, and the testimony of people like Abraham.
And chapter 5 and 6 is the application, the liberty that we have and the fact that we
can stand firm because of God's Gospel.
And so our immediate context is the example of Abraham, or God's covenant with Israel,
and that's found in verses 114 of chapter 3.
Let's just bow a brief word of prayer, shall we?
Father we thank you again this evening that you have given us your word.
Father we thank you that your word is truth, your word is life.
And Father we look to no man this evening but we look again to the gracious work of
your Holy Spirit.
Father we ask that he might take the word of God and apply it to our hearts, that Lord
he might truly reveal to us what is the mind of Holy Scripture, that Lord we might see
above all else the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified this evening.
All we pray is in Jesus' name, Amen.
When I see you start to nod off or head towards the door, I'll know that we need to finish
by 8 o'clock.
Three basic headings tonight, the law of God, the curse of the Lord, and Christ having redeemed
us from the curse of the Lord, and we'll deal with them in that order.
Firstly then, what is the nature of the law?
Well the nature of the law reveals the character and the nature of God, and the apostle, don't
turn to it, says in Romans chapter 7 and verse 12, therefore the law is holy and the commandment
holy and just and good.
Now we ask the question, who gave the law, where did the law come from?
Let's all turn to Exodus chapter 20, shall we?
And Exodus chapter 20 is a very well known and familiar passage to us, and we read in
chapter 1, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out
of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, thou shalt have no other gods before
me, thou shalt not make unto thee any grave and image or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters upon themselves.
And he proceeds to go on and give a revelation to Moses of the Ten Commandments, and I'm
sure that we're all familiar with the Ten Commandments and the fact that the Ten Commandments
are the holy law of God, and we've seen what the apostle says in an earlier chapters to
the Romans, he says that the law is holy and the law is good.
Now we ask the question, what is the duty that God requires of us?
And God requires of us that we be obedient to his revealed will, which of course is the
law of God, and that's the rule of conduct that we are to live by, and Paul summarises
the Ten Commandments in Mark chapter 10, and we will quickly read that, sorry, Mark
chapter 10 verse 19, thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not
bear witness, he fraud one another, on with thy mother and thy father.
And Jesus is here speaking to the rich young ruler, and the rich young ruler says to him,
master all these things I have observed from my youth, and Jesus says to him, one thing
you lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, thou shalt
have treasure in heaven, and come and take up thy cross, and follow me.
So we see in the New Testament that Jesus uses the law that was given in the Old Testament,
and he uses it when he's preaching the gospel to the rich young ruler, and he speaks directly
to the sin and the rich young ruler's life, and that was that he had to give up everything
he had, and take up his cross and follow God, because he was guilty of breaking the law
of God.
We ask a further question then, what is the purpose of the law?
And the apostle speaking again from his own experience, now don't turn to it, in Romans
7 and verse 7, he says, what shall we say then, is the law sin, God forbid, nay I had
not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said thou shalt
not covet.
So what the apostle is saying here is that the law shows us our sinful state before God,
and it would be quite right if we were to ask the question, what is sin?
If the law shows us our sin, what is sin?
Then 1 John 3 verse 4, 1 John 3 verse 4, it says, whosoever committeth sin transgresses
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law, or in other words, sin is going
out of the way of the law, sin is moving to one side, sin is breaking the law of God.
Why do we sin?
Well we sin because our first parents sinned, and sin began way back there in Genesis chapter
3, and you remember the story, God spoke to Adam and to Eve and he gave them a commandment,
and he said, if you touch of the fruit of the tree, you shall surely die, and in a sense
that was a law wasn't it, that if they were to touch the fruit of the tree, they would
surely die, and what happened says in verse 6, and the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was desired to make you
wise, so she took of the fruit and did eat, and gave it to her husband and he did eat,
and the eyes of them were both opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sowed
big leaves together and made aprons, and then they heard the voice of the Lord walking in
the call of the night, and Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord.
Why did they hid themselves?
Because they had sinned against what God had said, and they were guilty of disobeying and
breaking God's law, and we ask the question then, does Adam's sin affect me, did what
Adam did back there, affect my life today in 1978 in Brisbane, and the apostle again
writing to the Romans says to them in Romans 5 and verse 18, that night is the offence
so also is the free gift, for ever through the offence of one, that is Adam, many be
dead, much more the grace of God and the gift of God which is by one man, Jesus Christ.
So in other words, when Adam sinned, we sinned, when Adam died, we died, and what does it
say in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2, we are dead in trespasses and sins, and so the result
of the fall of Adam and Eve was as it says in Romans chapter 5, therefore as by one man
sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that
all have sinned, that's the reason why we die, and there's a lot of confusion today
isn't there, why people die, and the bible is up to date as today's newspaper, the bible
tells us the reason we die is because of sin, and it's a wonderful comfort to know as a
Christian that although we will die physically, we will never die spiritually, we will never
be separated from God because of what Jesus Christ has done for us, now time is running
away so we will have to speed up.
Quickly what is the curse of the law, what is the apostle referring to when he says this,
the law, the curse of the law is doom or condemnation, it is the wrath or the anger
of God, and the law expresses that, in other words Paul was not making up new doctrine,
he was expressing what God had said to his people and in particular he has in mind the
curses and the blessings given to the children of God on Mount Evil as found in Deuteronomy
chapter 27 and in particularly verse 26, curses be he that confirmeth not all things of this
law to do them, and all the people said Amen, and he goes through a whole lot of curses
in chapter 27 concerning the law of God and the punishment that God would bring upon people,
these people who had broken his law, who then is under the curse of the law is a question
that we should ask, and it's obvious from our verse that we are either under the curse
or we have been under the curse, and tonight as the people assembled here there will be
two groups of people, there will be those that Christ has redeemed through the cross
and there will be those that will be still under the curse of God, and may it be that
the word of God tonight may show us clearly our position before God, whether we have been
redeemed by Christ or whether we are still under the curse, the wrath and the condemnation
of God's holy law, and according to verse 10 of Galatians chapter 3 it says, for as
many as are the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is every
one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
In other words, if I cannot fulfil the ten commandments completely as an unbeliever,
I am guilty before God of breaking his law.
Now if I am a believer, if I am trusting in the work of Christ upon the cross, the scriptures
say that I am no longer under the law of God.
The law of God has not been abolished, but a new law has been established in my heart,
the law of faith.
So we see that those who are under the curse of the law of God are those who have not continued
to do all things that are written in the law of God.
And so God is completely just in punishing those who have not fulfilled the law of God.
Thirdly, let's consider what Christ has done for us, and Christ has redeemed us from the
law.
Christ has brought us back as a slave would in the market.
He has paid the price for your sin and for my sin, and the redemption of Christ was prophesied
in the Old Testament.
And the Old Testament prophets, and in particular Isaiah, set forward in Isaiah chapter 53,
and they like to turn to it, Isaiah chapter 53 in verses 5 and 7, Isaiah prophesies concerning
the redemption of Christ, what Christ would do upon the cross, and verses 5 to 7 say that
he was wounded for our transgressions, for our sins.
He was bruised for our iniquity.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and his stripes we were healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone has turned in his own way.
The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is done.
So he opened not his mouth.
So we see the prophecy of the work of Christ on the cross foretold by the prophets of God
in the Old Testament.
So Christ's work upon the cross was nothing that happened by accident, but that it was
planned in the purposes of God.
And in a sense we might illustrate it in the form of a courtroom scene, and God is the
judge, and God stands in the dock, and you are brought into the dock because you have
broken the holy law of God, and you are guilty of breaking that law, and God sentences you
according to his law, and he finds you guilty.
But then when he is about to pronounce the punishment, say you are a murderer, and the
law, the judge, the Lord God is about to say, I sentence you to death by hanging, or the
gallows, or the electric chairs, Christ runs in, and he says, stop the proceedings.
I will stand in the place of this man.
I will take the full punishment for his sin, and the judge says, OK, my only begotten Son,
you may take the price and the penalty for this man's sin.
And so in effect that was what Christ did for you, and what Christ did for me upon the
cross.
He stood in our place, and we asked, question, how did Christ redeem us?
How did he buy us back?
Christ redeemed us, first of all, by making us satisfaction, or by satisfying the demands
of God's holy law.
And he did this by way of satisfying God's justice.
Now God has said that he will punish sin.
God has said that there will be a great judgment, which the Lord Jesus Christ will judge every
person who is not the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he will judge those who are outside of Christ according to the law of God, and those
that have not fulfilled the law of God, those who have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,
believed on his work on the cross, will be judged, and the word of God says they will
be sent to hell.
They will come under the condemnation and the wrath of God.
But praise be to God that Jesus Christ has stood in our stead, has taken that punishment
upon himself.
And so we see that Christ has redeemed us by becoming a high priest for us.
Now you remember the function of the high priest in the Old Testament was to go into
the tabernacle, and particularly into the holy of holies, and to make atonement for
the people of God.
He was purified and he was holy, and so he would go into the holy of holies once a year
and make an atonement for the people sinned.
And you remember that a lamb was slain and slaughtered and he took the blood of the lamb
and he sprinkled it upon the mercy seat.
And you will remember that in the mercy seat was the law of God.
The law of God that the people of God have broken.
And wonderfully once a year the priest sprinkled the blood upon the top of the mercy seat,
and when God looked down, what did he do?
He passed over them.
He passed over their sin.
He didn't look upon their sin because they had broken the law, but he looked upon the
blood.
And therefore the blood made satisfaction to God and his wrath and his justice was appeased.
And therefore the people of God were not under his condemnation.
So Christ acted as a high priest.
And there are many verses that we could look to, we haven't got time, there's some wonderful
verses in Hebrews, the book of Hebrews I commend for your reading, chapter 10, chapter 8, and
chapter 9, and particularly the book of Hebrews, there are other verses in scripture too.
Now finally concerning what Christ has done, Christ has redeemed us by offering himself
as a sacrifice, as the Old Testament sacrifices were looking forward to the New Testament
sacrifice of Christ upon the cross.
And so Christ offered himself to God.
And as we said, he offered himself to God to appease the wrath and the justice of God
by shedding his blood upon the cross and his blood and his blood alone appeased the
wrath of God and he cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Because at that precise moment Christ was separated from his Father, he went, we are
told, three days into hell to bear the punishment and the wrath of the God, the wrath of God,
the wrath of sin, he went to hell, he bore the indignation, the embarrassment of his
Holy Father in taking upon himself the sins of the world and what a wonderful thing the
cross is and what a wonderful thing Christ did for us on the cross.
When we should have been nailed to that cross, when we should have been under the wrath and
under the judgment and under the condemnation of God, Christ took it all upon himself on
the cross.
And so the apostle can write to the Romans in chapter 3 and he says, Romans 8 chapter
3, for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending
his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh that the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after
the Spirit.
In other words, Christ was born under the law, Matthew chapter 5 tells us, he fulfilled
every tittle and every commandment of the law and by fulfilling every commandment of
the law, he was therefore not guilty of disobeying God's law but he became sinful man and therefore
he was able to identify with our trespasses, with our sin and breaking God's law and the
God-man upon the cross as sinful man yet as God.
The wonder of the incarnation, the wonder of the cross stood in our stead, took the
law of God and the punishment that we deserve and satisfied the demands of God.
Finally then, the verse in Galatians concludes with the words, Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on the tree that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
Now who are the Gentiles?
We're the Gentiles sitting here tonight, we're the ones that God has graciously grafted in
and what is that promise?
What is that blessing?
That blessing is that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith and would
it be the God that there may be some, maybe one even here tonight who has seen that from
the word of God you are guilty of breaking the law of God, that you are under the condemnation
of God, that the curse of God is upon you and that it can be rectified in no other way
than in you exercising faith in Jesus Christ and entrusting his work upon the cross to
save you because unless you trust on the Lord Jesus Christ, unless you believe in what he
has done for you on the cross, you will surely leave here tonight with the curse of God upon
your head, the judgment, the wrath, the condemnation of God and it would be a terrible thing if
I didn't tell you the terrible position you would be in tonight if you left here and were
not trusting in the finished work of Christ upon the cross and this is in essence the
Gospel isn't it that set out for us that Christ has done what we could not do and Christ has
made divine satisfaction and what did Christ say to Nicodemus in that evening when Nicodemus
came to him he said in John chapter 36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on
him. So the command is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and God is giving you an opportunity
tonight if you have not already believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to believe on him
to trust in what he has done on the cross. Ephesians 2 8 and 9 says that for by grace
we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is a gift of God not of works
that anybody should boast. So faith is a gift that God promises to give us when we ask him.
God also says that we are to repent of our sin. Repentance is a change of mind towards
God and towards what we have done and Jesus Christ said the time is fulfilled the kingdom
of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel and the time is tonight. Today
is the day of salvation if you have not trusted in Jesus Christ have you have not repented
of your sin I plead with you tonight to not put your head upon the pillow before you make
your peace with God. Ask God to forgive you your sin trust him that he has died in your
place that he has taken the wrath and the condemnation of the law for you. And so Jesus
Christ commands all men everywhere to repent and to believe on him. And so I trust that
if you are not trusting in the work of Christ tonight you will go back to the scriptures
you will search your heart and the life of God's word and that you will make your peace
with God. Should any have any questions concerning the way of salvation the deacons brother Max
or brother Ron will be happy to answer any questions you may have tonight or should by
the grace of God you make your peace with God I'm sure the pastor will be happy to speak
to you during the week give him a ring and he will explain to you further the gospel
the way of salvation and may it be that God may speak to hearts tonight and we thank him
again for his holy word and for the everlasting gospel which is the power of God unto salvation
Amen.