From Cursed to Blessed
Notes
Transcript
Cursed from the Beginning
Cursed from the Beginning
Welcome/Opening Prayer
Music Ministry
379 Take My Life, and Let It Be (1,2,3,6)
338 At Calvary (1,2,4)
Another in the Fire
Word of God - Galatians 3:10-14 [Phil]
Message - “From Cursed to Blessed”
I recall being with NBPD on a ride-along
We pulled someone over on IH-35 for driving 75 mph in a 55 zone
They said “Everyone is driving that fast, and they always do.”
The officer asked, “Do you always drive at their speed?”
The driver said “always”
The officer said “Since this isn’t your first time breaking the law, and I haven’t yet gotten a date and time for the previous infractions, I’ll only make this ticket for today.
You’ve been very fortunate to have gotten away with past speeding
Just don’t push your luck.
Tomorrow is uncertain.”
Truth be told
If a police officer follows you for 5-minutes
You have almost certainly done something worthy of being stopped
For some of us, maybe more like 10 seconds
How many times have you heard someone (child or adult) say they “didn’t do anything wrong”?
My response is “Oh, besides the lie you just told. We all do wrong things.”
Unless you believe we are capable of following all of God’s laws without failure, then we are cursed
Galatians 3:10 made that clear
if you rely on the law alone, then you are a under a curse
Romans 4:15 says
15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
There really is a connection
If you rely on the law alone, you will suffer the wrath of God
“If you play with snakes, you will get bit.”
The snake may not kill you, but you will get bit
And, just like in the example of being pulled over
That ‘everyone else’ is doing it is NOT a defense
Galatians 10 actually quotes Deuteronomy 27:26
Deuteronomy 27:26
26 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
Except that Galatians uses the word “abide” which connects means
ἐμμένω [emmeno /em·men·o/] v.
To persevere in anything, to hold fast, to be true to
This is also a reference to Matthew 5:19
19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
We should see that there is “NO relaxation” or “liberalization” allowed
We can try to find someone who will tell us the law means something else,
but that doesn’t make it true
ILLUSTRATION
I recall sitting in a city council meeting where a local business owner, very well thought of
He was asking the council to approve something that, in my non-attorney mind, was clearly NOT allowed by state law
The council ultimately did not do what he wanted
His last plea stuck with me
“If you will approve this, I will fill this room with attorneys in suits who will tell you how it’s legal.”
Something like that, anyway
Since I spoke out against approving this request
I was not longer on his Christmas card list and he pulled business from our company
This was state law, not God’s law
But how often do people search to find a pastor or church who will affirm what they believe or want to believe
Instead of teaching what God truly says?
Isn’t that the prosperity Gospel?
Isn’t that what happens when pastors teach that the Bible should be interpreted based on the culture today?
God’s law does not change because it is hard for us to follow
God’s law does not adjust because we are more sensitive to one group of people or another.
Ultimately there are two groups of people
Those who are Believers
and those who are not Believers, yet
Proved by Revelation 1:7
7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
I could spend weeks going through Scripture that supports that we cannot be justified, or saved, by the law or works
If I was a doctor and you had terminal cancer
I would not tell you all the things that wouldn’t work.
Why would I do that?
I would tell you what would work, right?
The second part of Galatians 3:11 tells us what is required
11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
It’s really quite simple
Maybe not easy, but simple
Here’s where the title of the message comes together
While we were originally “CURSED” because of our sin
now we are “Blessed” because of our faith
Just in case there is a math geek here
Sin = Cursed
Faith = Blessed
Or, if you studied the new math,
well I’ll let you figure it out
We believe that the Bible is the complete Word of God
So, all the Bible is true or we are in trouble
And many see a conflict here between the Law of God from the Old Testament and Paul’s writing
The Law was originally given to the Jews
so, Let’s look for a loophole
maybe we Gentiles are exempt-NO
Recall last week in Galatians 3:7-9
7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
8 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.”
9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
What is common between the people Israel and Gentiles is FAITH
Or more clearly
Faith is the bridge that connects the chosen people of Israel and us Gentiles
Through faith we are one people of God
That’s why Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
If the good things we do, our works, are done without faith
Doing those things can actually be worse than doing nothing at all
Because we are living a lie
As Habbakuk says,
you would be all “puffed up”
Living by and for the external
For what is seen on the surface
Never live for an illusion of goodness
Instead,
Live with faith in God,
Live FOR God
Even in the OT, people were saved by Faith, not works (Habakkuk)
Habakkuk was OT prophet writing to the the people of the southern kingdom of Judah
At a time when the Babylonians rose in power
No way could Judah physically rise up against the Babylonians
They had to wait on God to deliver them
Habakkuk didn’t differentiate between Jew and Gentile concerning righteousness
It came down to faith for all groups, all ethnicities
Likewise, the Galatians couldn’t deliver themselves from sin or eternal death on their own
They had to put their faith in God and the deliverance promised through Jesus Christ
So, why would God have given us “The Law” if God knew we could not fully comply?
The very question implies that we know something God does not
and we know that God is all-knowing
The law was NEVER intended to MAKE us righteous
The law gives us a way to live obediently under God’s rule
The law makes it clear that we are broken
the first step in getting fixed is knowing you are broken
In the case of the brokenness of sin, step two is to get help
We are broken, lost in sin and in need of help
Our brokenness is not something we can fix alone
And we don’t have to
We don’t call is “the Good News” for nothing
Our Lord is Our Redeemer
Our Lord is Our Redeemer
Jesus, Our Lord, is our redeemer
The entire purpose of Jesus coming to walk the Earth was to redeem the lost, the sinners, us
Galatians 3:13 (a)
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”—
This is a great example of why we need to read Scripture in context and not cherry-pick what we want
I would never want to say Jesus became a curse
Yet, when we read the full verse we see:
Galatians 3:13 (b)
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”—
That a hanged man is cursed by God is actually quoted from Deuteronomy 21:23
The curse of our sin became the curse that Jesus would have to die on the cross
That is exactly what the law of God says
And that is exactly what happened
Jesus provides a way for those who Believe in Him to avoid the penalty for brokenness
There was a price paid on the cross
more than temporary pain
This was a big deal
So you can see the full image
Jesus was fully righteous as He walked with us as a man
Jesus never sinned, unlike all other humans
The curse was really ours because it is us who should have been hung on the tree
Jesus gave His righteousness to each of us by going to the cross for us
This is not an endless offer made by Jesus
If we continue to reject Jesus then we are from the Devil
1 John 3:8
8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
We can’t claim to love Jesus then continue in our sinful ways
Jesus came to destroy the works of evil
not to facilitate our continued sin
So, turn from your sin or God will actively work to destroy what you are doing
Essentially,
The curse we were under, that we could never be “good enough”
was exchanged at the cross for the righteousness of Jesus
We must have to FAITH to believe in Jesus
If we fail to have FAITH then we will remain cursed
and not reap the blessings God has designed for us
Ultimately, God’s Law means what God’s law says
We are not allowed to contextualize it
We are not allowed to sanitize it
We are not allowed to soften it
We are not allowed to re-write it
For those who Believe
We have changed from Cursed to Blessed
And Next week we will start digging deeply into the blessing our our Salvation
AMEN
Closing Hymn/Invitation: O, How He Loves You and Me
Pastoral prayer/Benediction