Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 15, which is page 878. And consider these three short questions and answers, which are, you remember, they are portions of the Apostles' Creed now opened up for some more explanation. So the language should be familiar to us. Let's read responsibly these three questions and answers. It says, Lord's Day 15, what do you understand by the word suffered? that during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race. This he did in order that by his suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, he might deliver us, body and soul, from eternal condemnation and gain for us God's grace, righteousness, and eternal life. Why did he suffer under Pontius Pilate as judge? So that he, though innocent, might be condemned by an earthly judge, and so set us free from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us. And finally, is it significant that he was crucified instead of dying some other way? Yes, by this death I am convinced that he shouldered the curse which lay on me since death by crucifixion was cursed by God. This is our confession of faith. Let's turn now to Galatians 3. Galatians 3 in the New Testament. Galatians 3. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Galatians three beginning at verse 10, verse 10. And we'll read there to verse 14. Listen to the word of our God, it says, for all who rely on the 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 to 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. This is God's holy word. Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we work our way through some of these pillar truths of the Apostles' Creed, We come now to the suffering and condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus. And without confessing these and without proclaiming these, we are not the Christian church and we can't be saved. These are critical, core, central, pillar teachings of Christianity, and it's important for us to regularly return to them, regularly think them through, and sort of work around all the edges of them, and that's what's happening in this passage. It's very fascinating. But our passage in Galatians offers not only an explanation of the significance of our confession, but also a practical question about where believers must stake their spiritual welfare. Can we rely on keeping rules, keeping the law and its works is the burning question here. And the answer is no. It brings a curse. And to presume that we could find a way other than faith in Jesus Christ would be a disaster. It would be a cursed business for us to put our spiritual hopes in mere law-keeping. And it takes some, you know, some understanding in God's word to process what the apostle here is teaching us. You know, I thought the law of God was good. Don't we read it every Sunday and are like, so how can he say the law is a curse and keeping the law is cursed. And so, you know, so we, we have some, some things to, to understand in comparison, you know, what's going on when the apostles, you know, put next to each other, faith and works. This is an important part of their teaching to open up the way that we're saved. Well, if anything, this passage in this part of our confession shows us the, as it were, the degree of heat that it takes to justify a man in God's sight. And that might help us understand why the law is by itself not sufficient. All claims have to be put to the test And we've all thrown things in the fire. Maybe this is a nice time of year to sit by the fire pit or to have a campfire. And you toss in a marshmallow, or you toss in maybe the leftover hot dog that you didn't want, or the paper plate that it was on. Or maybe then you throw in a can or a bottle and see it melt or change color. And we've all thrown things into the fire and watched how long. It took for them to melt and become distorted. And not much that we ever throw in would come out unscathed, right? If it goes into the flames, most of it is ruined, it melts, it's scarred, it's scorched. I learned something interesting from Fable's project this week, that the element boron burns green when you burn it, and that's what's usually green in your fireworks or whatever. Fascinating. I'm interested in lighting anything on fire. I don't know about you, but I've always been interested in it. Nevertheless, even a little campfire is enough to prove to us this point, that You know, that everything has its melting point, even things that are not necessarily so flammable, they're very damaged and destroyed in the flames. And here you have the teaching from the apostle, which is difficult and damaging. regarding the law, that to rely on our own law-keeping obedience, it burns up in the flames as fast as it touches. It is extremely flammable, not stable, not reliable, and that our law-keeping by itself, apart from faith in Jesus, is cursed. This is a major theme of the New Testament, very critical. Our lawful obedience is less like precious metal and more like marshmallow that burns. It's not strong enough, it's not pure enough, and it's not going to hold up against the measure of God's judgment. So relying on the law is no reliance at all, it's no refuge. On the contrary, God's word shows us who and what can stand the heat. That is that Christ suffered severe condemnation as our only atoning sacrifice to gain the complete salvation for all who believe. Christ suffered condemnation and curse for complete salvation for all those who believe. And those who put their faith in Him, they have that true obedience that can't be got by law-keeping. So we want to talk about Jesus as a suffering Savior, as the innocent for the guilty, and the curse of the cross. There's no doubt that if we're looking for clean, easy, low-commitment, manageable religion, we should shop elsewhere than Jesus. An honest reading of the scripture shows us that he's a suffering Savior, that he's a cross-carrying Savior, and that he demanded of his followers that they share in cross-bearing, that they share in suffering. And he explicitly taught, you will suffer if you're gonna be a disciple of mine. You'll suffer like I suffered. This was the way that he taught. Any other reading of him is dishonest. So the fact is that without willingness to suffer and to follow him on that cross-bearing suffering pathway, you cannot be his disciple. And these are his exact teachings. This is not like missing the mark or interpreting him down a very skewed pathway. This is his direct teaching. You can't be his disciple if you will not suffer with him. You can't have him. Maybe you remember the line from Handel's Messiah. I think about that sometimes. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That's sort of a musical rendition of Isaiah. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but in a very musical way that I can't even really reproduce. You don't get that name, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, if you one time saw someone suffer on TV, or if you watched grief from like row 11F, you know, at the top of a stadium watching someone else, you get that name because you suffered yourself. Jesus suffered humiliation and trouble simply by laying aside the glory of heaven to become human. His whole life on earth was a difficult life and down a troubled pathway. So that it says about Jesus, even the birds and the wild animals, like the foxes, they had a place to call their own. They had the security of a nest or of a hole in the ground that was their den. And Jesus had no such security. And the Bible teaches about his life that he was, as it were, uncomfortable all the time and suffering constantly. in order to be the savior that we know. We can't live as spiritually immature people who can only be happy if we have unmixed lives, so that we need all of our untarnished joy ducklings in a row, and anything out of place keeps us awake at night, makes us discontent, maybe even makes us contemplate Abandoning the faith, quitting, being overcome, as it were, by evil, overcome by suffering. We can't think that way, and that's an immature way of thinking, because Jesus always drank down joys and sorrows as a mix. Jesus was, at the same time that he embraced the tax collector and the sinner and the prostitute and the sick and the lowly, at the same time that he embraced them, he's backstabbed by others who slandered him for doing so. Every time he did anything, he was insulted and slandered and threatened. so that he did God's good work and had the joy of it, while at the same time was hated and hounded even to death by his enemies. His life was a mix of deep joys and sorrows. And he was there to minister to broken hearted people and he shared with them in their broken heartedness to help them. And he was there to minister to the sick and the dying and he mixed with them and shared their sorrows and their griefs. He had a heart of compassion for the masses who he said were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd and he came there to be their shepherd and to shoulder their burdens. He associated with the lowly and the messy people and was hated for it. And many Christians today are not willing to do the same. And the question of the scripture is, are they Christians at all? if they can't follow him down this pathway. Can they really be his disciples? Can we be his disciples? If Jesus loves the lowly, the poor, the weak, and associates with them, but we are not willing, not able, not wanting to do so. Jesus suffered and kept going, and he labored while he hurt, and he lived with suffering all his life, and showed us that God will not despise those who do the same. God is not disgusted by our tears. He's moved by them. And He doesn't ignore our pain. He understands it fully through Jesus. God measures and rewards those who are strained and stressed in His service. He regards them. He pays attention to them. and he knows the value of their sacrifices for his sake, even if no one else says thank you, even if no one else cares. He understands the integrity of the righteous, if no one else values it, and the modesty and the chastity of the pure, even if no one else values it, and so on. He sees all of it. It really matters. If we've learned anything from meditating on the Gospels, it is that Jesus' troubles amplified, and they increased, his sufferings increased as he neared the climax of his crucifixion and death. So the language, I think, of our confession is good, that especially at the end of his life, he suffered. It was true all of his life, but it's a fast sort of crescendo to the end of his life. And he famously sweat blood in the garden as a sign of the intensity of his situation and of his anguish. And at that time, he proved that he was physically and emotionally pressed, you know, in the oil press, as it were, of the garden, and then went on friendless and alone, abandoned even by his closest companions to the cross for our sake. This is very powerful. And at that time, we learned what kind of sufferings God had in mind for the Savior, unthinkable, so that the disciples were baffled when he would say, you know, I must suffer and die and rise again. And they couldn't comprehend that this would happen to God's Savior. Hebrews 12 later teaches about it, right? As an encouragement to believers, When you follow Him, remember His sufferings, you have, according to Hebrews 12, not yet gone to the point of bloodshed. But Jesus went all the way there and beyond, even to death. And His intense suffering on the cross was to show us that He has been tried by God's fiery anger. And that makes all little campfires look like nothing. You know, a fire that you can sit by is one thing, but the fire of the very holy God and His judgment, that's something else entirely. And Jesus endured all of it for us. We need to believe the gospel that the awful death of Jesus is the true measure, the exact cost the required remedy for the sin of the whole human race. Not less, not more than the suffering and death of God's only son, Jesus, on the cross. This is the plan of salvation. This is what God has commanded should be preached to the nations, that only his suffering and death, only the shedding of his blood and the crucifixion of his body could atone for our transgressions. Only His brokenness and torment in our place could remove the curse. By what He endured, we know that God's wrath is satisfied. That's what we believe. When He declared, it is finished, we can be sure that it is finished, it's done. The temple curtain torn and access to God opened through him. This is why that's mentioned in the form for communion, the reminder of our entrance into the Holy of Holies. It's a reference to that moment of his crucifixion and death when the curtain is torn. The moment where God confirmed that his sacrifice was enough, that his sacrifice has opened the way for us into God's holy presence, that's confirmation. Knowing Christ crucified, we can have a better way of thinking than sort of the tired excuses that come with almost law-keeping. the way that Paul describes here. Those who put their faith in the law, the law curses them. It doesn't justify them, it curses them because they don't measure up, they don't make it. And we can be done with tired excuses that are, they're related exactly to Galatians 3 and the idea of law keeping but always apologizing for why God should accept our obedience at a discount, why he should accept imperfection That is law keeping that's never quite perfect. The kind of excuses that we have, hoping and pretending that we can quench God's wrath. I don't really have the time. My life is busy. My family is needy. My job is demanding. All these excuses melt. You know, I do it better than other people, you know, so that everyone around me, well, I do better than them. I serve more, I give more, I help more people, I pay more money, whatever. All of these melt. They're no match for the perfect righteous requirement of God. An excuse is never atoned for anyone. But faith in Jesus completes this, you know, this critical exchange. None of these excuses, right, have ever made any atonement, and ignorance is, you know, the shield that many hold up. I didn't know, or my friend didn't know, or that, you know, how do these people know? My child didn't know. Or they heard, but they don't care to know anymore. God holds us responsible for our sins, and his gospel calls us to repent and believe in Jesus. See how Paul points to this next best option, which is no solution. That even when we know the law, that is, we know what pleases the Lord, we can't do it perfectly. And then the law, this good thing, becomes our curse. Because the perfect law shouts, they didn't make it, they didn't do it, right? It's not enough. The law consumes us with the curse. It doesn't save us. Only faith in Jesus saves. Believing that he has suffered and atoned for my sins and for yours. We believe it's sealed to us in our baptism It's confirmed and strengthened over and over at the table. We believe and take great comfort in this thought that he's taken the wrath of God and swallowed it all down, like sometimes the wrath of God is pictured in the Psalms and Proverbs and the Old Testament as drinking down the cup of his wrath, and Jesus drains all of it for us down to its bitter dregs. He's taken all the wrath of God and swallowed it This is the intense suffering of Jesus and the absorption of the wrath of God. All of God's wrath is spent on him. Every trace that of that punishment, that curse, our debt is gone. In the second and third parts of this Lord's Day, it's important to see that Jesus has opened the way for freedom and grace, righteousness and life, more than just external suffering. Paul now rests his great argument for faith in this very important work of Jesus on atonement, proven by his condemnation, an awful cross, that Jesus becomes the curse. There are compelling stories out there about about men and women who were innocent, but jailed for crimes they did. The most recent ones that I hear have to do with sort of DNA evidence exonerating people. I was in jail for a decade, and then they were able to confirm that it was someone else or it was not me by DNA. That was sort of a big development in my life. you know, in investigation techniques. And the chances are, not only have we heard real stories about it, we see, you know, movies and shows about someone who's wrongfully, you know, wrongfully punished. They didn't do the, you know, didn't do the crime, but now they, you know, they're blamed and they have to, you know, maybe be imprisoned or, you know, bear some punishment. But we're talking about substitutionary atonement. You know, this is sort of the, the theological term related to Jesus condemned for us and Jesus dying on the cross for us. Substitutionary atonement. It's not just a matter of wrongful suffering, right? Like, oh, they made a mistake and they blamed me. It's no mistake in the scripture. And that's maybe the most scandalous of all. that Jesus willingly took our curse on himself and our death on himself. Though innocent, condemned by Pontius Pilate according to the design of God for our salvation, to show that he would go to death under the verdict guilty, so that we the guilty, rightfully under that verdict, could be exonerated in God's court. There's a picture that God is showing us. Why does he have to be condemned by a judge, except that we can have supreme confidence and assurance, this is the deliverer, this is the Savior. who can take the guilt of guilty people and lift it off of them with certainty because he puts it on himself. And he himself is condemned, though innocent. He didn't get what he deserved. He took on himself what we deserve, substitute. And we confess it's so clear what kind of faith we hold, not just the inspiring story of a good man, but the story of Christ who gave us every good and took our every ill on himself. God sanctioned a substitute to take our place and Jesus willingly obeyed, willingly stepped in and took away our condemnation. And the cross testifies and confirms that God has accepted this arrangement for true atonement. Why does he have to die on the cross? Why not some other way? People die in all kinds of ways. But the awful curse goes to Jesus and the freedom goes to us. Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. He becomes the curse for us, says the apostle. And this is to confirm that people who were formerly cursed by God can be sons and daughters of Abraham by faith. It's an incredible thing that he's teaching. The curse of the cross, as sure as he carried the wood on his already torn flesh on his back, as sure as he carried the cross, our curse is lifted by him. It's a picture of the condemned man under the spiritual weight of God's curse, is Jesus stumbling his way to be crucified, carrying his own cross. The curse of the cross, as sure as he carried it, is lifted from our back and put on his. This is the one-to-one exchange that God has put in front of us for our comfort. It's not a perfect rule, but the only true friend, as we've said more than once, the only true friend, they say, is the one that helps you move, the one that helps you lift a couch, the one that would help you lift a fridge. Jesus lifts off of our shoulders this weight. And we've maybe been in that position where it's like, oh, if it wasn't for a good friend, there's no possible way that I'm going to go do this job, like anything to get out of this. But the true friend is there to help with the cleanup. The true friend is there to help with the ugly job. The true friend is there to assist in crisis and trouble. And we have Jesus who shouldered the curse that was ours. At the proper time, Jesus comes to make salvation for those who were hopeless, those who were in darkness, those who were lost. He does the heavy lifting for us and makes our trouble and our curse his care. When we read the scripture, our investigation should show us the clear saving work of a suffering Jesus. You know, when a flood, you know, hits an area, you know, floods your basement, you know, it's easy to see exactly how high the water went. You can tell where water damage is in your house, you know, in your basement, or maybe in your first floor, terrible. We've had some storms like that. You know, you can see exactly how high up the damage is, and it's devastating. Jesus lifted the curse all the way off of us and bore it to the cross and buried it. Just how high the watermark really was, well over our heads, is the brokenness, the curse, the damage, and the trouble of our sins. And Jesus lifted the curse all the way off of us. and carried it as his own burden and buried it in the grave. The eyewitnesses and the apostolic message, it proves to us that our faith is on solid footing. Our curse is lifted by Him or it remains. It never just goes away. It never just washes away. That damage doesn't go, you know, in the same way that a water-damaged home, like a flood-damaged home doesn't fix itself. The damage is there until it's, you know, gutting a house is a terrible business, right? To have to cut it all out and haul it all away and redo everything is no small task. Our curse doesn't go away. Someone has to cleanse it. Someone has to renovate. Someone has to fix the damage. So many have tried to DIY that project and failed. So many have tried to move that curse by law-keeping, but the gospel shows the real means of grace. And this is so important for us, that God told us exactly what he planned to do. He showed us the kind of Savior we needed, and though it seemed impossible that he could work salvation this way, He sent him to suffer. He sent him to die, to be buried, and only then to rise again. And it's finally become clear what maybe through the ages was baffling to the disciples. You know, we know there's a Messiah. We know that God will work salvation. But now we see plainly that Christ has done everything that was necessary and accomplished all. suffering through the sufferings, shouldering the curse and the shame, and delivering us from all of it. And we cling to Jesus by faith against all of the evil of this world, against our own sins, even against the power of death, the Christ who suffered and was condemned and crucified for you and me. Only through Him is there life. Only through Him is there a future. Only through Him is there a family in Abraham for us. Amen, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, Lord, even today we have tasted at your table of the truth of Christ in His death, in His atoning work, and the power of His salvation that is through Him and no one else. Lord, we pray that we would flee to him and put our faith in him and have a strong foundation, no longer relying on empty works, no longer relying on the works that cannot save. But instead, Lord, we pray that we would eat and drink of him, feed on him, know him in his righteousness, and have confidence, everything of his. Now, Lord, you have given to us his life, his future, Lord, his reign, and the wealth, and the blessings, and the perfection of his kingdom. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.