The Glorious Exchange

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We are in Galatians, the freedom book. We're here in July 1st, which is, I don't know if this weekend or next weekend is Fourth of July weekend, because Wednesday is Fourth of July, so we're kind of equidistant from each one, but we celebrate freedom during this time, around Fourth of July, the freedom that our country shares and that we experience on a day-to-day basis. But today, we're going to be looking at the third chapter of Galatians, so if you have your Bible, you can open them up there, if not, you can go to the YouVersion Bible app. It's a free app that you can have on your smartphone, and we'll be looking at chapter 3, verses 10 through 14, and talking a little bit about that today, all right? So let's go ahead, and if you would, if you would stand as I read the word this morning, and I'll tell you what, why don't you guys read it with me? It's going to be, it's up on the board here, so let's start. Galatians 3, 10 through 14, for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything within the book of the law. Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith. On the contrary, it says the person who does these things will 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 hung on a pole. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit, the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Let me have a seat. So as we open this up, it's kind of like, how many of you have ever, ever kind of got yourselves in that position where you stand on some legalism? See Paul wrote this whole book of Galatians to the folks because of the danger of the false assurances that they were experiencing. Galatians is therefore then a reminder, it was a reminder to the Galatians, the church at Galatia, but it's also a reminder to us right here at Thrive that we are in constant danger of false assurances. Satan tempting us to take laws, rules, maybe God talk, church attendance, prayers at meals, committing gross sins to ensure we're under God's blessings. So we're adding, we're taking Jesus and we're adding something to him to come up with the blessing, a blessing from God or being satisfying to God. The Galatians were adding to the gospel at that time. Now they were adding parts of the law. Some of it had to do with food, with the foods they were eating. Our religious traditions stated how and what they could eat. Circumcision was another thing that was…that the Judaizers, the Jewish believers were telling new believers that this is…these are laws. Now that you're a Christ follower, now you have to take these laws and you have to start living these laws also to be in God's blessing. And so Paul was writing and telling the Judaizers that they're under God's curse. That as they're talking about this gospel, they're saying the gospel plus obedience to these laws is what you need to do. And so Paul was condemning that. If 2 Corinthians, Paul explains a little bit more in 2 Corinthians 13 when he's talking about the faith and only faith, he says, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you unless you, of course…unless, of course, you fail that test? So he constantly says over and over again, don't be foolish, don't try to add something to the gospel message that was preached. Jesus came and He died and He rose again and for you and for me, and that's all that's necessary. So we look at the works of law then. So then why works? Why works of the law? What does the Bible mean when it starts talking about works of the law? Well, there is no Greek word for legalism that's translated as legalism out of the Bible. Paul, when he refers to works of the law consistently in his writings, it's in a negative context. It's that reliance upon these efforts or a human effort in obedience that attains you a better standing or a good standing with God. So the works of the law were not necessarily works we do. The works of the law were given to us…the law was given to us to show us the need for a Savior, the need for…that we couldn't live a life…we couldn't be self-reliant on ourselves. So it was our effort to demonstrate our obedience to the law is to try to demonstrate our virtue to man and then also to God. Which brings us to the curse of the law. Paul wrote that for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as is written. Cursed is anyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. So the curse of the law. It's not because yo...