The Curse
Galatians - Freedom! • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsThe curse that condemns, the curse of the self, that curse that saves.
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Curses
Curses
When you think of the word curse what do you think of?
Many people think of a curse word.
A forbidden word.
A bad word.
I don’t want to know which curse word you are thinking about right now.
But many people associate a curse with just a single word.
Some of us think about stories.
They think of fairy tales.
A wicked witch who puts a curse on a handsome prince.
My favorite curse comes from Shakespeares’s Macbeth.
There are 3 witches who tell of a curse upon Macbeth.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
second witch
Fillet of a fenny snake
In the cauldron boil and bake.
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blindworm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
The words crack me up.
Since Macbeth is a tragedy, this curse doesn’t work out well for him.
Today we read of another curse.
But this isn’t a curse that is brought about by some witch.
It’s not something that is brought only upon a couple people, or a handsome prince.
This is a curse that affects all people.
This is the deadliest of curses.
It’s the curse of the those created in the image of God having that image shattered.
Let’s read about the deadliest of curses.
Please open your Bibles to
Read .
Curses aren’t really mentioned in the New Testament very much.
But they are found in the Old Testament.
We often think of a curse as something that turns a prince into a frog, or a a princess into an ogre.
But a curse is much worse than a physical deformity, a handicap, or changing the way you look.
A curse is the opposite of a blessing.
It’s the opposite of a blessing.
The word itself is almost the exact opposite of the word Gospel or good news.
It’s bad news.
In the book of Numbers, Balaam is hired by the Moabites to curse the Israelites.
To speak bad news upon them.
When Goliath stood before David in the field of battle, Goliath cursed David.
“Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.”
That’s bad news.
We don’t like bad news.
We like good news.
We like blessings.
We love blessings from God.
I love hearing of the good things that He does.
But God can also pronounce curses, or bad news.
Think for example of the first time a curse is mentioned.
, Eve hands Adam the forbidden fruit, and Adam eats it.
There’s a curse.
What’s the curse?
Snakes are cursed.
Satan is cursed and told that one day an offspring would crush his head.
The curse is a change in man’s status before God.
He is still in God’s image, but the mirror has been shattered.
It’s as if you went to the Mona Lisa, and took a knife and cut right through the canvas.
That painting is still the Mona Lisa, it’s just ripped.
Adam’s is still the image of God, only now it’s tarnished.
It’s as if a knife went through that image.
Adam now is a sinner.
God is angry with the wicked.
That sin deserves God’s justice.
Adam’s work is cursed.
There will be thorns and thistles.
He will have pain.
Childbirth is cursed.
Childbirth will be painful.
And even worse, death is coming for Adam.
But it’s not just Adam who is facing this curse.
All of us are facing this curse.
How do we know of this curse?
It begins with a Cursed Law.
It begins with a Cursed Law.
You see it 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 the things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”
Paul is arguing against a group called the Judaizers.
These Judaizers said you must obey the Law in order to get to heaven.
They thought that their obedience to the Law is what made them worthy to enter God’s heavenly throne.
And Paul is saying it’s actually not that at all.
He’s saying, the Law isn’t here to save.
The Law isn’t here to make you worthy.
Actually, the Law does something completely different, it shows how we are not worthy, or not good.
It exposes our sin.
Instead of the law bringing righteousness, which is what the Judaizers said, it actually brings a curse..
says, “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.”
If you fail to perfectly obey the law you are cursed.
Every part of your life is cursed.
You cities, your produce, what you make, what you eat, your children, your flocks, your efforts and your rest.
It’s all cursed.
What’s the theme there?
Disobedience to the law brings with it a curse.
There are some who think they need this law.
They are the adventurist, the thrill seeker, the person who doesn’t like boundaries.
They like being told, “You can’t do that.”
Because as soon as they hear, they can’t do something, what do they do?
They try and do it.
The Law says, “Do this and live.”
If you want the law you must obey it perfectly, your whole life.
But if you don’t do obey it perfectly … you are cursed.
Some people hear that and they instantly think of a challenge.
They are like the adventurist, the thrill seeker, the person who doesn’t like boundaries.
They are the adventurist, the thrill seeker, the person who doesn’t like boundaries.
They don’t like being told, “You can’t do that.”
Because as soon as they hear that they can’t do something, what do they do?
They try and do it.
It’s as if they see the Law as a dare.
“I dare you to be perfect.”
The problem with this is there is no mercy with the Law.
It does one job … points out your sin, exposes your sin.
Shows you where you have failed.
When talking to the Romans, Paul said, “… if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’”
The law has an ugly side to it, it has no mercy.
Let me try and help you understand this.
A man may strive to perfectly obey the law.
And suppose he obeys perfectly for 20 years.
20 years there is a pattern of perfect obedience.
But in the 20th year he breaks the law, he is now a lawbreaker, a sinner.
And being a lawbreaker, a sinner he now falls under the law’s curse.
It doesn’t care about the 20 years of perfection.
A man may have never stolen something in his life.
And now he’s 40 years old and he steals something, something small.
Those previous 40 years of honesty won’t excuse him of his crime.
He is now a thief.
A man may commit murder at the age of 40, those 40 previous years of no violence are quickly erased because of that one sin.
He can’t say, “But what about my good behavior before that murder?”
I grew up watching Bill Cosby on TV.
He would appear on Sesame Street.
A kids show with puppets.
I learned to count and my ABC’s from Sesame Street.
I learned about sharing and being kind to people from Sesame Street and when Bill Cosby would show up as a special guest.
Do any of you remember his educational show called Picture Pages.
He had this pen that made musical sounds.
It was a show designed for preschool age kids.
I loved that show.
Then there was the Cosby Show, a wholesome family show.
Bill Cosby played the lovable doctor, Cliff Huxtable.
And now he’s in jail for some pretty terrible crimes.
He’s going to spend the rest of his life in jail.
He will die in jail.
Those wholesome years prior are completely erased by his evil actions.
Being on Sesame Street, Picture Pages and the Cosby Show, don’t help him.
In fact, they are now useless.
Their goodness is now erased by what he has done.
They are cursed.
says, “… all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags ...”
I doubt you’d let your children watch an episode of Sesame Street with him on it.
Even if it was a wholesome episode … because his work is now cursed.
The law brings with it a curse.
The law has one job … expose sin, then punish it.
It doesn’t discriminate.
It doesn’t care that Bill Cosby had a family image for decades prior.
Where there is sin … there is a punishment.
says, “For the law brings wrath ...”
Before we get proud of ourselves and think, “Well, good thing I’m not Bill Cosby”, we can use that same thinking on ourselves.
Because the law is on us.
says, “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.”
You are a soul, created and owned by God.
You know the Law.
And if you were judged by the Law, you would be condemned by that law.
How many times have you lied?
How many times have you used the Lord’s name in vain?
How many times have you looked at someone with lust?
How many times have you coveted?
The Law condemns us.
And years of honesty don’t erase that sin.
That’s why in it says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”
The standard that God is calling for is perfection.
One sin mars your own pursuit of perfection.
Again think of Mona Lisa.
How many slices with a knife does it take to ruin that image?
Just one.
And just one sin shatters your own standing.
If you have sinned even once, you are cursed.
But this actually applies to all people.
People sometimes object.
They say this is good for those raised in Judeo-Christian cultures, or who have been raised around Christianity, but what about those who were raised far away.
What about those who have never heard of God’s Law?
Even those who have never heard of God’s Law, or who have never heard of the 10 Commandments.
To the person who’s never heard the Gospel.
Even those who have never heard of God’s Law, or who have never heard of the 10 Commandments.
So what about the person who is completely separated from Christianity?
What about the hypothetical person who is in some unreached tribe in the Amazon?
says, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”
And this actually applies to all people.
All people, regardless of where they are, have a conscience, and in that conscience, God has put a knowledge of right and wrong.
Even those who have never heard of God’s Law, or who have never heard of the 10 Commandments.
That means no one has to tell you it’s wrong to lie, because that knowledge is in us.
says, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”
No one has to tell you it’s wrong to steal or murder because that’s in us.
You may think it’s okay to lie to others, but you don’t want me to lie to you.
And if I attacked you, you wouldn’t be happy with me.
You’d say it’s wrong.
God has put knowledge of His law within the very DNA of people.
And no one perfectly obeys that Law.
We have broken His law as revealed in Scripture, and we have broken His law as revealed to us in our conscience.
This means all people are under the curse of the law.
All people have a conscience, and in that conscience, God has put a knowledge of right and wrong.
They either know the law because they’ve been taught it, or they know the law because it’s in their conscience.
That means no one has to tell you it’s wrong to lie, because it’s in us.
Either way, the law is there.
No one has to tell you it’s wrong to steal or murder because it’s in us.
And all have broken it.
says, “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Where there is sin, there is the curse of death.
That is the cursed law.
That is the Cursed Law.
Suppose you’ve looked at the Law, and you don’t like it.
All you see is a bunch of “Thou Shalt Nots”.
It depresses you.
It angers you.
And you say
There is also a Cursed Faith.
There is also a Cursed Faith.
Look at verses 11-12 again.
“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.”
What Paul is doing, is he is comparing faith and the law.
He says the righteous shall live by faith.
Why is that?
Because the righteous person, realizes he could never obey it on his own.
And our faith is that Jesus went before us.
Our faith is Jesus will carry us to the end.
But some people see this as a weakness.
They want to join Frank Sinatra in his anthem and sing, “I did it my way.”
They are right, it is a weakness.
It is a weakness to say I can’t do it.
It’s a weakness to say there are some things that I cannot do.
And so they do all that they can to show no weakness.
This is like the rich young ruler in .
Read .
Expound on text.
This man thought he had no weakness.
And in the end he walked away sad.
But the best news in this story is actually the most despised.
“What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
That’s good news.
It means if we are going to go to heaven, then we need God to do something for us.
If we are going to have this curse removed, we need God to do it.
Good faith says, I need someone else.
, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Bad faith, says I can do it on my own, and walks away sad.
Essentially, what happens is rather than have faith in Christ, the proud man puts his faith in himself.
Even those who have never heard of God’s Law, or who have never heard of the 10 Commandments.
says, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”
Because he doesn’t want to show any weakness.
All people have a conscience, and in that conscience, God has put a knowledge of right and wrong.
That means no one has to tell you it’s wrong to lie, because it’s in us.
Because he doesn’t want to show any kind of need.
When my dad was a police officer he used to tell me stories of pulling over people who were drunk driving.
No one has to tell you it’s wrong to steal or murder because it’s in us.
He’d give them a basic sobriety check.
Stick their hands out touch their nose.
He’d tell them to say their ABCs.
And they’d do anything to try and convince my dad they weren’t drunk.
They’d try to impress him.
So instead of saying the ABC’s like a normal person - a, b, c, d, e, f, g ...
They’d try and say them backwards.
Like what drunk person could possibly do that.
They’d end up saying, “z, y, x, w, 3, 2, 1 ...”
As if that proved they weren’t drunk?
He’d then tell them to walk along a parking line in the parking lot.
All they had to do, was put one foot in front of the other, walk to one end of the line, and come back.
The way he described it, they were trying to do the pummel horse in the olympics.
They’d carefully walk to one end, all the while, they looked like they were on a ship that was rocking on the seas.
They’d make it to the end, and instead of just turning around, they’d do this acrobatic move.
They’d jump in the air, and give a spin, trying to careful land their feet on the line.
Usually by this point they just fell over, and it was clear that they were drunk.
They put their confidence in themselves, rather than just say the truth, “I am drunk” and they fooled no one.
Verse 12 Paul says, “But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”
You either acknowledge your own weakness and trust in Christ, or you have to go all out and trust only in yourself.
Such a person has probably been burned by others in the past.
“That’s why he says, “The one who does them” - thats the law and works, “The one who does them shall live by them.”
Paul says you can’t have both.
Been let down by others.
“But the law is not of faith ...”
The two are in opposition to each other.
One says I can’t.
The other says, I can.
They’re mutually exclusive.
You can’t say, “I can’t do something” and “I can do something” at the same time.
Make up your mind.
And ultimately, trusting in yourself is a cursed faith.
says, “Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.”
God doesn’t want your second best.
God isn’t saying do all you can, then come to me.
He says you are cursed if you trust in yourself.
In fact its a turning away from God.
You are making yourself an idol, because you are not trusting in Him.
This cursed faith is probably the greatest danger affecting people.
We have generations of people who have been taught that they can do anything they set their minds to.
They can be anything they set their minds on.
They can be anyone they want to be.
We must be the most confused of all generations.
And even worse, we have a cursed faith in ourselves.
Because men have risen in opposition to God, making themselves out to be God, and put themselves under a curse.
says, “I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”
Man has fooled themselves into thinking they are flawless, little gods.
And yet, the Lord says in the Psalm, you shall die like any prince.
Isn’t that interesting.
The most famous, rich and powerful people die … just like the most unknown, poor and weak.
We all end up in a box and buried.
Death does not discriminate.
But even worse is if your faith is in yourself … you have a cursed faith.
In , Jesus describes what he will say to those under this cursed faith, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
This curse is worse than any fairy tale curse.
The curse is not a lifetime of looking like an ogre or a frog.
It’s not looking like a beast.
It’s not sleeping in a glass coffin.
This curse is an eternal Hell.
Hell is not where Satan rules.
Hell is a place of torment built to punish Satan and his angels.
And the cursed human finds himself as equals with Satan in Hell there.
As we look at this passage we see that there is a cursed law and a cursed faith, then in verse 13 something very surprising, a Cursed Christ.
As we look at this passage we see that there is a cursed law and a cursed faith, then in verse 13 something very surprising, a Cursed Christ.
Curses Christ
Curses Christ
“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”— “
What we see is that we are a cursed people.
We are cursed for disobeying the law.
We are cursed for living on our own strength.
And this curse results in God being opposed to us.
, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
The curse calls for our death.
But do you see what happened?
First Christ redeemed us.
The word redeemed is an ugly word.
It’s used to describe selling a slave.
A transfer of money to purchase another person.
Christ redeemed us.
He purchased us.
We belonged to that curse, and He bought us.
How did He buy us?
By … becoming that curse.
Jesus put Himself under the demands of the law.
says that the wages of sin is … death.
says the soul who sins shall … die.
The curse called for death.
Then Paul quotes from , “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God…”
We have sinned.
The penalty for our sin was death.
Not just any death, but death by hanging.
And hanging on a tree was a sign of being cursed by God.
And Jesus was cursed for us.
He received our sin.
God’s hatred at sin was directed at Jesus.
He was hung on a tree, the cross, to show that curse.
Does this rattle your mind at all?
Who is Jesus?
None other than the innocent, spotless, lamb of God.
The one who was prophesied to come in .
Angels announced His birth.
He never sinned.
He was kind to the oppressed.
He was a friend to the lonely.
He was a physician to the sick.
And now He is called cursed by God.
Something is off here.
That offends me.
All of God’s hatred towards sin was directed at Jesus.
All of His justice that sin called for was directed at Jesus.
And why did it happen?
Verse 13 says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
Twice we see the word “us” in that verse.
That’s you and I.
Why was He cursed?
Why was He hung on a tree?
For us.
That’s you.
That’s me.
Am I offended at Jesus becoming a curse?
Yea.
And yet, that action happened.
And it happened for us.
He was a substitute.
He took on the curse we deserved.
says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus was in our place condemned.
He became a curse … so that we would not be cursed.
God’s wrath was given to Him … so that we would have life.
Everyone wants to go to heaven.
But we forget what it took to get us there.
God doesn’t just forgive.
He cannot simply forget that a sin took place.
That is unjust.
When you hear of a criminal who committed violent actions getting off scott free, you are offended.
It gets you angry.
Because justice was not accomplished.
If God is just, He can’t simply forget sin.
God didn’t simply forget the sin, and he doesn’t just overlook the penalty you deserve.
Spurgeon said, “He did not forgive the sin without punishing it, but He exacted the full penalty without the abatement of a solitary jot or tittle. Jesus Christ our Savior, drank the veritable cup of our redemption to its very dregs. He suffered beneath the crushing wheels of divine vengeance the same pains and sufferings that we ought to have endured. He bore our sins that He might bear them away by the fact of bearing them Himself. This is the central doctrine of the Gospel.”
He was cursed so you would have life.
Don’t read this line - A final warning on these things.
Don’t read this line - A final warning on these things.
Think back on Israel.
They left Egypt and followed Moses.
Moses was given the Law, and the Law was passed on to Israel.
But in the end Moses could not take them into the Promised Land.
An entire generation was given the Law and died following that Law.
The next generation followed Joshua.
Joshua who’s name means “Yahweh saves”.
Joshua led the nation into victory.
He lead them into the Promised Land.
And what do you know … the name Joshua is an older Hebrew version of the name Jesus.
So who are you following?
Moses had the law, and it ended in death.
Joshua, who’s name means Yahweh saves”, brought them into the Promised Land.
If you want life, then it’s Jesus we follow.