Who's Gonna Represent You? - DuPont Campus

Good morning, good morning everybody. So glad that you're here. Uh,

if you are visiting today or it's your first time to the GraceWorks Church,

welcome. We're so glad you're here. Um, we are

going through a book study in, in the book of Galatians,

so we find ourselves finishing out chapter 2 today and getting

into chapter 3. Uh, and so there's not— I'm not

gonna do a whole lot of introduction, uh, because I think it'll It'll

play out as we continue to look at it. We having trouble here,

or is it me? Let's see here.

Perfect. Galatians. And we've titled this book study

Christ Lives in Me. And Paul was getting

a hold of these churches in Galatia where he had planted the churches.

He loved the churches. He got to know people. And, and he hears

a few years later that there are some people coming in and And they're

trying to change the gospel. They're trying to change what being a Christian was

really all about. And Paul's addressing those things. And so the last few

weeks we've been looking at some of those, uh, things that the Judaizers

were trying to bring in, telling people that were Gentiles that they

needed to become Jews basically to be saved,

to follow Jesus. And Paul was like, no, that is not the case.

You don't have to be circumcised. You don't have to do all the Jewish things

to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And so this is

the continuation of that. We're going to start reading in chapter 2,

verse 15, and then read through chapter 3,

verse 14. So if you have your Bible with,

uh, I would tell you to open that thing up and be ready to take

notes. Whatever the Holy Spirit prompts you, make some marks in there. If you have

something on the phone, great. If you don't have a Bible, we have some Bibles

back on our Grab a Bible table. You could take one of those. Let that

be a gift from us to you today. We believe that everybody should have a

copy of God's word. So let's get started today,

starting in chapter 2, verse 15. We ourselves are Jews

by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that

a person is not justified by works of the law but through

faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed

in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ

and not by works of the law, because by works of the

law no one will be justified.

But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ,

we too are found to be sinners— were found to be sinners—

is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not.

For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

For through the law I died to the law so

that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in

me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by

faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself

for me. I do not nullify the grace of God,

for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ

died for no purpose.

Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly

portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only

this: did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or

by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish?

Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected

by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things

in vain, if indeed it was in vain?

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among

you do so by the works of the law, or by hearing with

faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was

counted to him as righteousness.

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of

Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles

by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to

Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be

blessed. So then those who are of faith

are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

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. If you were noticing As we were reading along,

there are a lot of quotations. So today, if you're interested in like

cross-references and quotations, I'm going to be giving you guys some scripture

references that you can jot down and then maybe go and check out this

next week. We will talk about them, but we won't necessarily go

there. But Paul was pulling from scriptures a

lot of the things that we're going to talk about today. So I just wanted

you to kind of have that heads up. As we look at

this, this basically chapter's worth of verses,

we know that Paul is making a case for a gospel based

on faith in Christ alone,

that works are something that come after salvation,

but they don't save you in any way. And so becoming

a Jew and being circumcised, which is one of the things that these Gentiles

were being told they needed to do, Paul was making sure that they understood

this will add nothing to your salvation. And,

and so when I read through this passage, uh, I've read it before,

I've preached it before. I love these verses.

Um, what I see is kind of a courtroom scene

playing out. And so today we titled this, this,

uh, sermon that we're gonna do today, uh, who's gonna represent

you? Are you going to represent yourself by your

works, the things that you've done, the things that you've accomplished?

Or are you going to allow Jesus Christ to stand there

for you on your behalf,

which is what he's offering and what, what salvation really is all

about? So if you think about it, if I were to die

today, do I want to go to heaven and stand before God and try

to make a case based on all the things that I've done or not

done? Or do I want to lean on the cross of

Christ? Do I want to say I'm here because Jesus died on

the cross? He took all of my sin, and in

exchange he gave me his righteousness. That is

the beauty of salvation. When we talk about being a Christian,

it's understanding that It's a willingness to say

that I am not enough. I cannot do this on my own. I need

Jesus. Then as we walk the path

of discipleship, we do things and we don't do things not

for salvation, but because we love God.

And that's what Paul wants to make sure we understand today.

So let's dive in. We got a lot of verses to look at, and I

want to get through this this morning. We see here Paul's

starting out. It's kind of a continuation of the conversation he had

with Peter. If you've been here the last couple of weeks, uh, you know about

this confrontation that happened between Paul and Peter.

Peter had distanced himself, refusing to eat with Gentiles,

non-Jews, after he already knew that

that was okay to do now. It didn't make them unclean

to to eat with a Gentile. Peter knew this. Peter had

done this, and then Peter stopped doing this. And Paul,

he called him to task. Remember last week he had some harsh words

for him? Well, I think this kind of continues on in that he's,

he's been talking about that situation, and now he wants to make the case

as for what salvation really is and what it isn't.

There are 3 absolutely vital terms that Paul introduces verse

16 as we get started today. We see the concept of justified,

which works right into the courtroom scene, right? Works of the

law. Okay, because again, we're talking about the

law or faith. And that's the third

thing we see, is the faith that we can have, that we can place in

Jesus Christ. Now, all are gonna be repeated, and they're gonna form a foundation

for for every argument that he makes, really not

just here but throughout the book of Galatians. So it's important that

we understand what Paul means by each term. So we're going to quickly look at

all of those this morning. Justified is the

first thing that pops up here. You can kind of see in the light blue

there, it crops up 6 times today

in our passage. It's the central concept for

Paul's argument that justification happens

through faith. Now, in the legal sense

of this word, they're being declared not

guilty or righteous or innocent

because what Jesus did— God the righteous judge,

the one who had the right to judge you and I for what we have

done, in our rebellious, sinful nature is

taking into consideration of sorts what Jesus said.

He said, I will take the punishment. I will take the punishment for

this sin and die. My blood will be shed,

and then I will give that to those who can't help themselves.

And so God is seeing us as justified

because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Martin Luther called our justification an alien

righteousness. It does not come from within.

We cannot make ourselves righteous. We can't

repair on our own a relationship between us and

God. It comes from outside of us entirely, right? It must.

Come from the outside to everyone, Jews and

Gentiles alike. So the 2 groups that we see, the Jews and the

Gentiles, um, they're on the same ground.

God has leveled the playing field. I've heard it said before, I've probably

even used it before, at the foot of the cross it is a

level ground, it is a level playing field. We are all the same because

no matter how good you are or or how bad you've messed

up. We all have sinned and fallen short of

the glory of God. The bar has been set and

none of us can reach it, but Jesus can,

and he willingly brings you along. It's beautiful.

So neither of us, neither group, Jews nor Gentiles,

can be justified by the works of the

law. And that's where he goes to next. The Gentiles can't

be justified by the law because they don't have it. The Jews

can't because it's impossible to obey the entire law.

Now, Paul states this foundational concept 3 times in

verse 16. So unless we're throwing out the

book of Galatians, this is an important concept that all of us need

to hear and understand. We hear it in other places in Scripture,

But we need to understand that the works of the law, the works of the

law, the works of the law fall short.

God's law, it did govern all aspects of

Jewish life back in the day. That's all that

they had. But Paul says that

no one will be justified by the law. No one will

be declared not guilty by keeping the

law. Well, why does he say that?

Because nobody can. Nobody can keep the law. We all know of the

Ten Commandments. Even if this is the first time you've stepped into a church building

ever, you've heard of the Ten Commandments. You probably even could recite a few of

those 10, right? Well, we fail in keeping the

Ten Commandments, yet God's law was 600

613 laws total that

we find in Scripture. So we know the 10, but there's another

603. And he's gonna talk

about this more, this idea, this concept of the heavy burden of

the law, and that Jesus came to take that and to give

you a yoke. Yes, but he says, my yoke is easy and

my burden is light, because Jesus again is gonna

do all the hard work. God planned it from

the beginning. We are not designed to

represent ourselves. How many of you seen, uh, whether on the news or,

or now with all social media, somebody's saying, I'm going to represent myself

today here in court, and they just— it just goes sideways?

We're not, we're not capable of doing that. We go and we get a lawyer,

and that lawyer's been trained and knows what to do. And even then Sometimes

they do a great job and sometimes they don't because they're human. Well,

we in our life can't

represent ourselves. Mark Miller can't stand before

God's throne and say, I didn't yell at my wife very

often, right? I didn't speed all

the time. I didn't— and start listing off all these

accomplishments that we think that we did. And,

you know, I'm 54, so let's say 30 times I've started reading

the Bible in January and made it through February

1st, you know, like that sort of thing, right? Like, we can't do it on

our own. We can't do these things on our own. And yet we get

to stand there being represented by

the one who was declared innocent.

That can justify us. So let's

move on here. The third thing we had talked about is this idea it's not

the law, but it is faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ

is righteous and innocent, but he paid the full price for

our sin. He's the perfect advocate to

represent us. Ultimately, we're not justified by

our works. But by faith.

So faith— what is faith? It's dependent, active trust.

It's what you and I have been called to live in.

The object of the faith, though, is the important thing.

We can't just put our faith in anything.

We need to put our full faith in Jesus Christ,

and we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.

And what he has done for us.

Any method of salvation,

anyone explaining Christianity to you and how to become saved

that veers from Jesus Christ, faith in him alone,

in his works alone, freely given to

you because he loves you, is,

is Someone who is moving away from

the central issue of the gospel.

We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone.

He is the only worthy object of our faith.

Any, like I said, any other method, any other religion

that adds to that is working with faulty,

a faulty foundation. We talked about that a couple weeks ago.

You can't add anything to the concrete if you're just a little bit short because

it'll make the entire foundation,

right, not as solid, as firm a

foundation as it needs to be. You'd never build your house with

concrete mixed with something else. You need it to be mixed

the right way. Paul is building his case here.

For this faith that is active and dependent on

Jesus Christ. Paul states

it here that we

know it, we believe it. Everything that

he's been talking about here, that he says we know these things,

they've been proven true for us. I can't save

myself. By trying to be a good person. Or in this day, I can't save

myself by trying to do all the works of the

law. We can't find

Jesus Christ in the purest state

in other religions that add other requirements.

Because if you add to Jesus Christ, you're diluting

the strength of the salvation provided. And so we have

to know that if it requires human effort,

human endeavor, it,

it's something that has been compromised. And we need to,

as believers, be able to stand up and say, no, that's not true.

Let me show you what the scriptures say about faith and salvation.

And we need to make sure that we're always pointing people towards

faith in Christ alone.

Let's continue on here. Paul established that both Jews and

Gentiles are justified in Christ. Peter,

again, like we had said, he, he, he was eating with the Gentiles and then

he stopped doing that. And Paul,

he, he's trying to make this argument still to the readers,

the same argument that he made to Peter And he

takes it to this illogical conclusion here. He says,

is Christ the one causing you to sin?

Is Christ then a servant of sin? Is he the one that's causing you to

sin? He's told you that you can do something. Would he take

you to a place that would cause you to do something that was wrong?

Certainly not, right? So he said, certainly not.

It translated, God forbid. Like, this is,

this is an emphatic no.

God would never take you to that place.

Rebuilding the divide between the Jews and the Gentiles would

be rebuilding a system of slavery to the law.

The Jews prided themselves on being Jews because they

kept the law of God and no one else was worthy or

able to, even though they weren't either, or even it

wasn't available to them. And, and the,

the Jewish people had a sense of pride about that.

Paul wants us to understand that that objection,

that Christ has put a law out that allows

us to not eat with Jews, he's the one who said not to do

it— the Judaizers were trying to push that also,

and Paul's saying no, that won't stand up here

in court.

Requirements of the law also,

depending on the laws that were broken, required us

to pay a price. And that's what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

Once Jesus died, Paul was freed from the law. He was

dead to it. Right. And so we need to understand

that concept when we place our faith in Jesus Christ,

our work for salvation, our effort to please God,

it ends on the salvific part.

And now the good works that we do,

the growth that we have in our spiritual lives and in

our lives, that's because we love Jesus.

We're grateful for the salvation provided.

And Paul wants us to understand that we are dead to our old selves and

alive in Christ. And in verse 19, uh, he works

into that. For through the law I died to the law so

that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ.

The very start there of verse 20, Paul tells

us we have been crucified with Christ. And if

we process this through, not just these few words, but the concept throughout

the New Testament especially, what he's saying is when Christ died for

our sins on the cross, 4 things were

nailed to the cross. So for those of you who

would claim to be Christians, who have placed your faith in Jesus Christ,

you would understand these. Uh, the physical body of Jesus was

nailed to the cross. Most of us here, even if you're just

seeking, probably wouldn't say that didn't happen. You'd be like,

yep, I believe that that happened. There was a public announcement nailed

to the cross above his head that said, Jesus of Nazareth,

the King of the Jews. Most of us understand that the

debt of all sin was heaped

upon Jesus Christ on the cross. So on the cross that

day, those 3 things we know for sure: his physical body, the public announcement,

The debt of all sin. But the 4th thing that Paul wants us to realize

and understand that I think sometimes you and I forget is that we have

been crucified with Christ. Us.

The first 3 things I think are readily accepted,

but do you and I understand the weight and the necessity of

the concept that you and I died with

Christ? Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no

longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the

Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

And brothers and sisters, we need to understand that we are crucified.

We are dead, not just to the law,

but we no longer live. We're willingly giving

up our lives to live in Christ Jesus.

And I think if we understand that and we live in that and we believe

that, it brings us to a place in our lives that we find joy

that we never thought would be available in this life here

on earth. Christ lives in us.

This is a key verse in, in all of

Galatians, but I would say in Scripture. Understanding verse

20 there is so important for us.

Do you view yourself crucified,

dead, but made alive in Jesus Christ?

Because that's what Paul's arguing here. I love it. I see all 4

of those there. I hope that you do too, because it's so

important for us to know that Christ lives in us.

When we, when we die to ourselves, we are raised alive

in Christ. It's Christ who lives in me.

When we encounter faith by Jesus Christ, we are attached

to his works by the judge,

by God the Father. I've talked about it

before. If I were to die today and stand before God,

I would literally say to him, if I, if I could even speak, if he

said, Mark Miller, why should I let you into heaven? I would say Because

the blood— of the blood that was shed on the cross by Jesus

Christ and freely given to me for the forgiveness of sins.

It's all about him, and I'll

never tire of saying that. His life, his works, his death,

his burial, his resurrection, his eternal destination,

heaven— all of those things have been given to us.

But we have to die to ourselves. We don't get to keep a little bit

of what we like. I really like to do this, and I know God's

not a big fan of it, but man, I'm not giving this up. That doesn't

save you or keep you out of heaven.

But we have been called to put our old self to death and

live in Christ. The faith Paul talks about in verse 20

is in God, who through that faith gives

us a new life. Not our

life, but Christ's life in and through me.

If this is true in our lives, we must allow God to

put to death our selfish actions and

our selfish thoughts. His life,

not ours. So brothers and sisters,

and I will call you brothers and sisters, we are called to do this actively.

And some of you may need to do it. You might be holding on to

some of that stuff because you don't realize the depth of

your salvation found in Jesus Christ.

Paul says it's no longer I who live. And as

we grow in Christ, we got to walk away from our selfish thoughts

that once dominated our lives and

say, no, I want to live for you. I want to live in you.

I want to live through you. You can make

my joy complete. And most of us know when we're chasing

things of the world, they always leave us wanting more or

not satisfied, no matter what it is.

If it's money, you make some money, you just want more money.

And when you've reached that amount, you want to add another zero to it,

right? It's always going to leave you wanting.

It's the same thing in the area of, of, of,

of anything you put it to. If you're chasing

satisfaction, self-satisfaction through anything but God and

what God designed, you will find disappointment in

the end. Moving into a life living

in the flesh by faith,

right? We, we can find a new life given to us by

the Son of God who loved us and he gave

himself up for us. It's such a beautiful

concept and a beautiful verse. Verse 21 is really

important. If we are found righteous by the work that we

do to accomplish the law,

if that's our standard of measure,

Paul says that then Christ died for no purpose.

If you or I could save ourselves, why would Jesus have needed

to have gone to the cross? He would have said, this is a standard,

live up to it. If you don't, you're on your own, right?

Like that just— it doesn't work.

And Paul says if that was the case, Christ would have died for no purpose.

If we could be found right in the law by obeying the law

and not by grace alone, we would by our actions say

that Christ's death does not matter. It was

for nothing. I don't need Jesus. I can

do it on my own. But we know from the last few weeks that Paul

is emphatic that we cannot have a

gospel of grace muddied with

works. That's the beauty of Galatians and

really of all the New Testament. It's Jesus Christ. He's done the work and

he freely offers that free gift of salvation to you. It's beautiful.

Chapter 3, O foolish Galatians. Foolish does not

mean unintelligent. Foolish seems to mean the Galatians,

they were emotionally and spiritually careless. They allowed

these Judaizers to come in and to knock them off course.

I love to think of it as a train, like it's going down the track,

right? It gets bumped off, the wheel comes off the rail. It doesn't look pretty.

There's sparks flying everywhere and disaster is imminent, right?

And, and, and they've come in and they become careless, bewitched,

mesmerized. There's something appealing To them,

right? We would ask why. Why is there something appealing about leaving a gospel

of grace and going back to the old works, the works of the

law? He asked the Galatians

only this, right? I love how Paul starts out there.

Uh, where are we at here? Let me ask you only this. And then that

would be one question, right? But then he asks like, I don't know, 8 or

10 of them. So we're going to try to get through these quick here.

He proceeds with a number of questions. And here we

see in, in these verses here the first mention of Holy Spirit.

And Holy Spirit plays an important part in Galatians and in the life

of the believer. When someone believes in Jesus, they receive

God the Holy Spirit. God actually dwells

in the believer. Again, I think that's a concept sometimes that's

lost on people who are Christians. That every time we

make a decision, every time we do something, every time we look one way or

that way, God is inside of us.

Holy Spirit dwells inside of us.

And Paul thinks that's really important.

So the rhetorical question he asks, did you receive

the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing

with faith? Of course they didn't receive the Spirit by following the

law. They couldn't. And we're told that the Holy Spirit is a gift of

salvation. God gives us himself in

the form of the 3rd person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit,

to indwell us. The Spirit is not a merit badge,

right? This isn't— we're not in the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scouts trying to

earn badges, and if we've done enough or do enough and we're good

enough, we get a badge. Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit is always given. He's given to the believer. He's He's never earned.

If you could earn the Holy Spirit by following the law, you wouldn't need

the Holy Spirit. Did you get

that? If you could earn the Holy Spirit by being good enough,

you're good enough to not need the Holy Spirit.

But Paul doesn't make that argument. He knows that that is not the case.

That's not the case.

Paul continues on saying, having been begun by the Spirit,

are you now being perfected by the flesh? Is this somehow part God and

part us? The Galatians began in the Spirit.

They believed, they received the Holy Spirit. They were declared righteous

and perfect before God. They were opponents of

trying to be perfect. They were willing to say God is enough.

Because how can you get more perfect than perfect? So when someone

comes in and says, yes, you have the gift of the Holy Spirit and

you, you have the salvation in Christ, but you need to do these things also,

that's like heaping a false perfection on top of perfection.

You're saying that Jesus' work is insufficient. You need

just a little bit more. And that's not

Christianity. God saved us through

faith in Jesus Christ, his sacrifice secured by

the Holy Spirit. Did you suffer so many things in vain,

if indeed it was in vain? Paul continues to ask these probing

questions. He wants the church to think.

Paul thought he could ask one question, but there's a lot of them coming here.

If they suffered persecution— Paul did—

at the hand of opponents, This is a— it's

a difficult word that he's giving him. This experience that he's talking about,

Paul is hoping and praying what the Galatians have experienced

and gone through was not in vain, that their faith was

grounded, that what they've seemed to have forgotten, they haven't

forgotten. We tend to forget. We're human

beings, right? We know something, we believe something,

And then we act a different way that's flying contrary

to what we believe. You and I do that.

We know things, we believe things, and then we

act in a way against that. And Paul's saying, don't— why

are you suffering these many things? Why are you having

these experiences? Why are you willing to consider a

salvation that costs you works when

you know that you can't do that?

He asks another question. Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and

works miracles among you do so by the works of the law or by hearing

with faith? He's going to continue to just go

over this until the Galatians get this.

Does God— right, because he's the one who supplies the Spirit and

works miracles amongst the Galatians there,

work by works of the law or by faith?

Again, Paul's asking these questions over and over so that we'll think about it.

If it were by the law, it would seem like we've done

enough good that now God would owe us, right? So Paul's

talking about this miracle. We don't know for sure if it's a specific miracle or

just miracles in life in general, right? We don't know exactly what

he's saying there, but the readers would have understood Did somehow you

earn that miracle? The goodness of God that's being lavished upon you

or I, somehow I've earned that? If I do

enough good, God will give me a blessing? And of course,

we know the answer to that. You don't do 7 righteous acts to

earn one blessing or one miracle.

The only way that you and I can accomplish anything in this world of

positive If you believe what the scriptures say, it's by the

Holy Spirit working in and through us. Because if not, we just wanna take care

of ourselves. You wanna act righteously?

You're living in Jesus Christ. That's the life he has for

you. The good news of Jesus Christ was spreading.

The Holy Spirit's been given, right? They were seeing miracles

happen day to day. And,

and, and, and Paul wants them to understand you're not earning these miracles.

These are the gift that's continuing on Paul's ministry,

right? When he's going around, we see story after story, Book of Acts through

the letters. It's punctuated by miracles of healing,

him not dying when he should have, raising someone from the

dead. But Paul didn't earn those things.

The Holy Spirit worked through Paul, and that's what Paul really wants

us to understand. He brings up an example here at the end. He introduces Abraham,

right? He's like, I'm gonna give another example, kind of that courtroom thing. This is

exhibit, right? Exhibit A. 3 major world religions

trace their roots back to Abraham: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

Paul is fighting where Judaism— where Judaism has drifted

Right where Islam finds itself, that those are

righteousnesses that are built on works. And Paul's

fighting against that. He's saying, no, no, righteousness by faith alone.

Abraham's story in the 10-second form. He's a

pagan, probably living in someplace that's now the current Iraq

area. God speaks to him. He promises he's going

to make him a blessing. He's going to bless him. He's going to give him

a huge family. He's going to make him a great nation. And here Paul

quotes— so if you're taking notes today, he quotes Genesis 15:6 here,

Genesis 15:6

where Abraham believes God,

right? He believes God.

Abraham had a son Isaac, who had a son Jacob, whose name

was changed to Israel. These are the children

of Israel. Abraham believed God.

And it was counted to him as righteousness. It doesn't say that Abraham

followed all the rules. It doesn't say that Abraham did all

the things necessary to earn God's blessing.

He simply believed. Moving on to verse 7 there.

Being a son of Abraham was a Jew's very

identity. Know then that it is those of faith who

are the sons of Abraham. They looked back,

even the Jews who were relying on works looked back and said,

Father Abraham. And yet you and I today,

sitting here in DuPont, Washington in 2026,

can look back, if you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ,

to Abraham as our father,

as our spiritual father, as our first example.

God followed through on his promises.

Paul sees the foreshadowing in scriptures of God's promises

and, and that promise of blessing all the nations,

not just the Jews but the Gentiles also, and he pulls that in.

Abraham did obey, but that was his faith being

worked out. When God said to Abraham, you need to move, Abraham moved.

Because again, you're never going to hear me argue that placing your faith in Jesus

Christ, receiving the free gift of salvation, that's all you need to do.

I'll see you when you get to heaven, right? Like, that's never

going to be the argument. I want you to understand that

salvation happens that way,

but we've been called to live an incredible life. And each

one of us, our life looks a little bit different, and that's the beauty As

Christians, we get to walk by faith alive in

Jesus Christ and in his plan for you.

So Abraham did obey, but it was, it was his faith being worked

out. Abraham didn't do anything to earn the blessing that he

received. Saul is trying to prove this case.

He's trying to make an example, and this is one of the best examples he

could bring up, if not the best. And Abraham was

blessed by God because he believed God.

The last few verses we're going to look at quickly here. For all who rely

on works of the law are under the curse. Curse is mentioned

here 5 times in the next few verse— verses.

Paul's quoting Deuteronomy 27:26

Deuteronomy 27:26

here. Right. He wants to make the

case, right, that, that Christ

on the cross took the curse that would have fallen onto us.

And he makes that case as he works through this. He makes it logically.

He starts out there, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all

things written in the book of the law and do them right. He brings that

up. Because Paul's

logic is to take the Old Testament and prove

that it was finished in Christ.

And so Paul wants us to understand that he

is not just tossing out the Old Testament, but that it all

works together as it flows through.

If you rely on yourself, if you're representing yourself,

Your works are cursed. Why? Because everyone

who doesn't abide in all of the law falls short.

They're cursed. That's all you can say, right?

No one can do it. And that's what he's saying

here. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.

If you're going to rely on your works, you're going to fall short.

That's why then Paul says Now it is evident that no

one is justified before God by the law.

Again, keeping that, that legal picture in your mind,

you will not be found not guilty or innocent

by the works that you have done. It's impossible. We can't represent

ourselves before God.

So if we can't be justified by our works, what hope is

there then? Well, Paul's building this case on logic,

and logic would say, if I can't represent myself, then I'm going to have

to put my faith in someone that I can.

The righteous shall live by faith.

That's what he says there. The faith that you express in

Jesus Christ as your Savior, that is

what allows you to receive his righteousness and

to be called righteous. It's the faith, it's not your

works. We want to continue to live in that

faith and grow to look more like Jesus each day,

but it's not based on our works.

Paul says he lives in faith, he lives by that

faith. The righteous shall live by faith,

and that's what you and I are called to. The one who does them shall

live by them. Paul says, that's what I'm gonna do.

I think that quote is from Leviticus 18,

early part of that chapter. The, the one who does them

shall live by them. God's law is not

evil. That's not what you're hearing me preach this morning. The things that we're

called to do in the Old Testament that, that Jesus actually

makes even harder in some ways. In Matthew 20,

or Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount, he calls

us from not just not murdering, but to not hating people, right?

He calls us from not committing adultery to not lusting

after someone else. So Jesus is even calling us to

a stricter lifestyle, but again, not to save us.

And Paul is saying here in Leviticus, He's summing it up. The one who

does them shall live by them. But again, we're living by

them to please God, not to be saved.

God's law is not evil. It's good. It's the perfect standard,

but it's impossible to keep. And you and

I can't say, I can keep the law. I don't need Jesus.

I can do this on my own. Only Christ did.

He's the only one who lived a perfect life.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a

curse for us. This is the end.

This is what Christ did on the cross for you and I. Christ redeemed us.

He bought us back from death to life,

right? Not only is, is Christ representing me,

but he actually becomes the defendant.

In that conversation I'm having with God, Jesus is standing

next to me and saying, you know what Mark Miller

has done, and I will take the punishment for

him. He becomes the curse

for us. We're redeemed. The word that they use here in Galatians

was commonly used in the old— or in that day in the marketplace.

And a lot of times it was the price that was paid for a slave

to be taken out of slavery. You would pay a redemption price

and then that person would go free.

That's what Jesus did for you and for

I. He took the curse. He became the curse for us.

And that's the only legal way for you or I to be declared by

God innocent. The curse is very real

for you and I, and yet Jesus

took that curse. He became the curse for us.

From the book of Deuteronomy, Paul quotes again Deuteronomy,

uh, I think 21: Cursed is anyone who is hanged on a tree.

This text explains and it talks about in

that day Anyone who had committed a capital punishment would

be killed, hung on a tree, so that people would see them and say,

I don't want to do that, right? And so

it was, it was an embarrassment for the family. There was shame, there was

guilt involved in that. It was offensive.

The Jewish people did this for, for a reason. But imagine how

offensive Christianity was in those early days to a Jew who

who had lived by the law and understood that cursed is any man who hung

on a tree. And Jesus, this supposed Messiah,

hung on a tree for you and for me.

And yet you and I, through the help of Paul here in the book of

Galatians, know that Jesus Christ became the curse for us.

He paid the price. So understanding all of that,

instead of being embarrassed or being shame-filled because of how Jesus

was treated and ultimately died, we can boast Paul

says he will boast in a crucified Christ.

Why, we might ask, or we might ask ourselves,

because Jesus Christ paid the price as

the perfect sacrifice that

you and I could never be. We receive from him

That salvation, we receive the blessing, God's blessing promised to Abraham,

the promise of the Spirit through faith, this not guilty verdict,

it all comes to us through Jesus Christ.

We're declared innocent so that in Christ Jesus

the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that

we might receive the promise, promised Spirit through faith.

You and I receive salvation because

of what Jesus Christ did alone.

That is the good news. That's what Paul wants us to

understand, that Jesus Christ came to represent you

and I before the Father. He paid the price. He was the curse.

He redeemed us from sin,

and he's given that to you this morning. Father God, we thank you for this

passage. We thank you for an opportunity to look into your word

and to see the beautiful gospel message

explained. We thank you that Jesus Christ

willingly came to this earth to suffer and to die,

knowing exactly what was going to happen. And he died for

our sin according to your plan and to

your work. Father God, we want to come

before you this morning maybe with a

clearer understanding that we need to place our faith in

Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

That everything that you allow us to do beyond that

is us putting to death our old self and living fully

in Christ. Help us to be Christians that want to look like

Jesus more and more each day. And it's in his name we pray.

Amen. During this last time of worship, the communion tables will be open in the

back. If you came prepared and

ready to take communion, those elements are in the back there. During the

last song also, there'll be somebody that'll walk up and down the middle aisle here.

If you came prepared to worship through giving,

that could be an opportunity. We do also have the giving box back on the

back table. If you're new or newer, haven't decided that Graceworks is your church home,

please let that go by. We're not looking for your money this morning. We're just

glad you came to worship with us. Stand if you're able and let's worship God

this morning together.

Man of sorrows, Lamb of

God, by his own

betrayed. The sin

of man and wrath of God

had been on Jesus laid.

Silent as he stood accused,

beaten, mocked, and scorned.

Bowin' to the Father's

will, he took a crown of

thorns. Oh, that rugged

cross, my salvation,

where your love poured out over

me. Now my soul cries

out hallelujah,

praise and honor unto

thee.

Sent of heaven,

God's own Son to purchase And

reconcile the very ones

who nailed him to that tree.

Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation,

where your love poured out. Over me.

Now my soul cries out,

hallelujah! Praise and

honor run to thee.

Now my debt is paid,

it is paid in full.

By the precious blood that my Jesus

spilled. Now the curse of sin

has no hold on me. Whom the

Son sets free, oh, is free

indeed. Now my debt is paid,

it is paid in full. By the

precious blood that my Jesus spilled.

Now the curse of sin has no

hold on me. Whom the Son sets

free, oh, is free indeed.

For that rugged cross,

my salvation bore. Let your

love pour out over me.

Now my soul cries out hallelujah,

praise and honor unto

thee.

The stone is rolled away.

Behold the empty tomb.

Hallelujah, God be praised.

He's risen from the

grave. All the rugged

Big cross, my salvation,

where your love poured out over me.

Now my soul cries out, hallelujah!

Praise and honor are to thee.

Praise and Wonder unto

thee.

He is not confined, he confounds.

He will not resign, he resounds.

He is not restrained, O hear the sound.

Oh, hear the sound!

The rocks are falling,

the broken calling to the God who

moves the mountains.

The earth is shaking, the weary

waking to the God who moves the

mountains. God who moves the mountains.

He is not surprised, he surrounds,

he cannot be stopped. He astounds,

he is drawing near. Oh, hear the

sound, oh, hear the sound.

The rocks are falling, the broken calling

to the God who moves the mountains,

God who moves the mountains. The earth is

shaking, the weary waking to

the God who moves the mountains. God who

moves the mountains, the earth is

standing. We say move,

you say watch what you can

do. You say trust and

then you prove you're the God who moves

the mountains, God who moves the mountains.

You say speak and And we say

move, you say watch what

you can do. You say

trust and then you prove you're

the God who moves the mountains,

God who moves the mountains.

The rocks don't fall in, the rope The

broken falling to the God who moves the mountains,

God who moves the mountains. The earth is

shaking and we are really waking

to the God who moves the mountains, God who

moves the mountains. The rocks are falling,

the broken falling. To the God who

moves the mountains, God who moves the

mountains. The earth is shaking,

the weary waking. To the God who moves

the mountains, God who moves the

mountains.

Blessed be

your name in the land that is plentiful,

where your streams of abundance flow.

Blessed be your name,

blessed be your name when I'm found in

the desert. Though I walk through

the wilderness, blessed be

your name.

Every blessing you pour out,

I'll turn back to praise.

When the darkness closes in, Lord,

still I will say, blessed be the name of

the Lord. Blessed be your name.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Blessed be your glory.