WWUTT 1762 The Righteous Shall Live By Faith, Part 1 (Galatians 3:10-14)

The Bible tells us, in numerous places, Old Testament and New, the righteous shall live by faith.

We are saved not by our works, we're saved by faith in Jesus Christ. When we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ, that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our series in the Book of Galatians.

This is a sermon series that I preached on a few years ago. And so now we're up to Galatians chapter 3, verses 10 through 14.

This is part one of a sermon entitled, The Righteous Shall Live by Faith. I'm going to begin by reading from the text out of the

English Standard Bible. Galatians chapter 3, starting in 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.

Let us pray. Our wonderful God and Savior, we thank you for this beautiful morning and the gorgeous weather, reminding us that spring is here.

And through the change of seasons, we know that our God is making all things new.

And so you are doing this even in the lives of your children. The old is passed away and the new has come.

And we have been instructed day by day to renew our thinking to the pattern of our

Savior, being made in His image. And so I pray that our thinking this morning would be conformed to yours, based on what we have heard from you in your word, in your law, which reveals to us the character of God.

Though we are reading here that it is by grace through faith that we receive salvation and not by the works of the law, may we not fear the law, but rather understand it rightly in how it is to be handled, and yet still cherished and revered by all men, especially those who are your children.

But all men may stand in awe of the word of the Lord. Teach us these things as we embark on this study today, and may they be written on our hearts and minds that we may dwell on them in the days to come.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.

So some of you know, I believe I mentioned this last week, that early on Sunday morning

I've been going down to the jail and witnessing to a young man there. I wish that I could do this another day of the week.

I wish it didn't have to be Sunday morning. But however they work out their schedule of visitation and things like that, this is the only day that he can receive visitors, and the jail will receive visitors as early as 8 a .m.

So that's the time that I've got to go run down to the jail, spend half an hour there, and then

I've got to come here and get things ready. So sharing with the young man this morning, knowing the text that I was coming into because it was what

I went to bed reading last night, it's what I woke up this morning thinking about as I was getting ready, and I'm talking to this young man this morning across the glass from me about the law.

And I said to him, Now you're a lawbreaker, correct? That's why you're in there.

And of all the occasions that I share the gospel and an understanding that we've broken

God's law and we need a Savior to redeem us, it is the easiest to explain this to somebody in jail.

So this conversation, which I have with a lot of people, it's a little easier to have with somebody who's across the glass from me who's going to go back into a jail cell when we get done talking.

So I'm saying to this young man, You know that you are here because you have broken the law. But really in this sense, there's no difference between me and you.

For as we read in Romans 3 .23, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We have all broken God's law. And that makes everyone who has broken

God's law, which is everyone, an enemy of God. We're guilty of treason.

Having committed treason against the high throne of heaven. We have said to the

God of the universe that my way is better than your way. And no one has any excuse.

No one can say to God, I didn't know your law. So how did

I know that there was a law that existed for me to be broken? As it stands in our own

American system, nobody can make such an excuse. If you go blowing through a red light and a cop pulls you over and hands you a ticket, you can't look at that officer and say,

Well, I did not know that this law existed. You're still going to get a ticket. Matter of fact, you might lose your license if you say you don't know that such driving laws existed.

And you are, therefore, driving illegally. So all have sinned.

And all are worthy of a sentence worse than being put in jail for a few months. But we are worthy of death.

Eternal separation from an eternally holy God. Punished for all eternity in hell.

But God is gracious to us and He did not leave us dead in our sins and our transgressions.

We were helpless to keep the law and thus attain righteousness by our own merit.

And yet God did not leave us in that state, but sent His son Jesus to die on our behalf.

And as I'm sharing the gospel with this young man, I said to him, It would be the same as if you go to your hearing.

Well, it wouldn't be the same as if. Drawing an example. If you go to your hearing before the judge,

And the judge tells you all the things that you're guilty of. And I even asked him, what are you in here for?

What are the things that the judge is going to say, this is what you've done wrong? And he told me, because I want to bring to his mind that he has done wrong and that's why he's here.

And I said, the judge is going to lay out all of these things and what if there was somebody who stepped forward and said,

I'm going to take this for him. I've never committed a crime before. I've never been in jail for anything.

But I'm going to do this for him. So if you would be so kind, judge, as to let him go, I'm going to take his sentence for him.

That's what Jesus did for us. But on a much more serious scale.

Because you have God in heaven taking on human flesh. And living perfectly for us.

Kept the law in every way. Where we fail at it at every point.

James 2 .10, whoever breaks one law or stumbles at one point is guilty of breaking all of it. And Paul is saying here in Galatians chapter 3, that we were powerless to keep the law.

So though we have sinned at every point, Jesus Christ kept the law perfectly.

Died for us. Took our sins upon himself.

Gave us his righteousness. Conquered death. For our sake, he did these things.

So that all who believe in him will not perish. But our sins are forgiven. In the book of John, the last words recorded of Jesus are...

And the book of John is the book that I've been encouraging this young man to read. The book of John, the last words of Jesus are, it is finished.

In the Greek, it's tetelestiai. Paid in full. And Jesus has paid the price for our sins.

So that on the day of judgment, when we stand before the great judge of all men, we will hear from him, well done good and faithful servant, instead of depart from me you worker of lawlessness.

Because those who believe in Christ by faith, have had their sentences paid for in the precious blood of Jesus.

And so we come to understand that gospel again as we approach the text this morning.

In Galatians chapter 3, the sermon entitled, The righteous shall live by faith.

This is no doubt a statement that you've heard before. When we went through Romans a couple of years ago.

It's in Romans 1 .17, the righteous shall live by faith. We come to that here in verse 11.

And we'll talk about that once again this morning. But the apostle Paul is sure to remind us that it is the man of faith who receives the promises of God.

First given to Abraham, the man of faith. Galatians 3 .9, that was a passage we looked at this week.

And then in verse 10, contrasting with the one who has faith versus the one who tries to accomplish righteousness by works.

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 does them and do them.

Let's look at verse 10 again. I want to break this down into three parts. With this first statement that Paul makes in verse 10.

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

How do I want to explain this? For all who rely, that's first.

On works of the law, that's the second part. And under a curse, that's the third part. So let's break this first statement down into understanding these three sections of it.

For all who rely on works of the law. Who are all? Verse 10, who is all?

Now perhaps you've heard the statement said before, all means all, and that's all all means.

That's a common refrain. Whenever we see all, it means everyone. Well, that's not really true.

There's always a context. Every word has a context. I can say the word bat to you. What pops into your mind?

Well, it could be either a flying mammal or a wooden stick that you hit a baseball with.

Either one of those could be a bat. You've got to know the context to know which bat I'm talking about.

The word all is like that. What are we talking about in context with the word all? Are you using that very specifically and saying that it means all people?

And all people in what group? Are we talking about a specific group? Are you using all in the exaggerated sense?

Like you're saying it as though you mean everybody, but not really. You're just talking about a great number of people hyperbolically.

Well, in this particular case, we can actually receive the word as meaning everyone.

Every single person. Galatians 3 .10, for all who rely on works of the law in order to attain righteousness, in order to be justified by God.

Every single person who relies on works of the law is under a curse.

Now, the interesting thing about this, though, when we read that, all who rely on works of the law, that's every single person at some point.

Everyone at some point relied on works of the law. And we were therefore under a curse.

Do you understand what I mean by that? So all who rely on works of the law. Well, we might say as Christians, as believers here, well, that's not us.

That would be somebody else who's trying to keep the law in order to attain righteousness. But I tell you that every single person who has ever lived, this description applies to at some point in their lives.

Before we came to faith, we were among those who are relying on works of the law. Every single person does this.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. Is that making a little bit more sense now?

Consider these words from Charles Spurgeon. Note well the persons spoken of.

As many as are of the works of the law. Now, of course, he's quoting from the King James. As many as are rather than all.

In the English Standard Version, we have for all who rely on works of the law. Perhaps a little bit more descriptive in the

King James in the way that that's worded. As many as are of the works of the law. And that would be everyone who is not a follower of Jesus.

As many as are of the works of the law. Spurgeon goes on. That is, all you who hope by works of the law to commend yourselves to God.

We are all of the works of the law by nature. Because it is our bounden duty as creatures to keep the law of our

Creator. I gave you the example in my opening of knowing the law as a driver, right?

You have to know the traffic laws. You break a traffic law, you will not be able to say to the officer that pulled you over,

I did not know such a traffic law existed. As American citizens, as people who are living on American soil, we have a bounden duty as American citizens to keep

American laws. And if we break those laws, we cannot say that we did not know such a law existed.

For in order to keep justice in this country, in order to keep civil order, the person who breaks the law at any point will be guilty of having broken the law.

And you will not be able to say, as a law breaker, that look at all the other wonderful good things that I have done.

Why are you going to hold this one thing against me? Let's say, for example, that you have a man who has murdered a child.

Let's be more specific about the scenario. He was drunk at the wheel. A child wandered into the street.

He made no attempt to stop at all. And he ran the child over, killed the child.

And so now he is guilty of manslaughter, having killed a child, being a drunk driver.

Let's say also that this man was a wealthy individual and given much money to the community.

This man goes and stands before a judge. And the judge says, I have every intention of throwing the book at you.

And the rich man says, why though? Why are you going to throw the book at me when

I've only committed this one crime? I was drunk behind the wheel.

I ran over a kid. But do you realize, judge, how much money I've given to this community?

I've paid for these education programs. I've provided this many scholarships.

I've built this many playgrounds. I have helped children get to school and paid for school lunches and school backpacks and school supplies.

Look at all the wonderful good things that I have done for children in my community.

And now you want to send me to jail? Isn't that actually going to harm way more kids?

And you're not going to be able to bring this other kid back to life. So surely you can see how much good

I have done for the community. And therefore, there's no reason to throw the book at me. Yeah, I killed one kid, but I've done so much good for every other child.

How is that judge going to respond? Now, I hope that we would think that that judge is going to give that man a life sentence.

He actually deserves to be on death row. But the way that those laws have become so lax in our country now,

I doubt anybody would be put on death row for such a crime as this. So he's going to end up getting life in prison.

20 years minimum, whatever that would happen to turn out to be. But he is going to try to give this man the maximum sentence that he can, which is what the judge means when he says,

I'm going to throw the book at you. Now, that's what we would expect to have happen.

Regardless of what this man has done, he killed a child. He deserves to go to prison so that justice may be served and continue to be served on American soil.

But let's say this judge said to the man, well, you're right. I mean, you killed a child.

You got drunk. You ran over him. You killed a kid. But I can't dispute all the good that you've done for all these other kids.

I mean, you've probably saved many more lives than this one child that you have killed.

So you know what? Yeah, sure. We'll let this one slide. But don't do it again.

What if the judge responded to this man that way? I don't think any single one of us would call that man a good judge.

We would say the bench has been corrupted. Justice has been perverted in this particular case because the judge did not throw the book at this man.

It doesn't matter what this man has done, what good he has accomplished, and how generous he has been in other areas.

He committed this crime. And so he is going to get the maximum sentence.

And where he has failed at one part, he is guilty of breaking all of the law.

Does that kind of make sense? So we have a bounden duty as American citizens to keep

American laws. So surely you can recognize that from general revelation.

Therefore, as Spurgeon says, everyone who has been made in God's image, who are image bearers of our

Creator, who are meant to be worshipers of God, who owe

Him everything because of the life and breath that we've been given by God, we have a bounden duty as His creatures to keep the law of our

Creator, just as we as American citizens are obligated to keep American laws.

So everyone who has been made by God, and that's every single person, has an obligation to keep the law of our

Creator. That's the point that Spurgeon has made. Therefore, as many as are of the works of the law is all who hope by the works of the law to commend themselves to God.

Spurgeon goes on. He is our benefactor, our king, our

Lord and God, and He has claims upon us which we ought not to disown.

He has set forth those claims in the Ten Commandments. And these are binding on all of us without exception.

Because we have disobeyed the law and denied His just claims, our violation of the law has brought us under penalty, which is described here as being under a curse.

So now you have a clearer picture, a better understanding of what Paul means when he says, all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

That is everyone. That is every person who is not relying upon Christ for righteousness, but relying upon themselves.

Every single one of us, before Christ, are attempting to try to justify ourselves by our own righteousness.

And it cannot be done. For every point at which we fail at keeping the law, we are guilty of breaking all of the law.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .tt

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