Good morning. All right, let's
go to Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter four. Now the last time that we were
here, we were looking at verse 21. Paul says, tell me, ye that
desire to be under the law, Do ye not hear the law? You know,
there's an appeal to our flesh to look to the law, and to look
to religion, and to look to that outline that they give you, and
they just tell you what to do. You don't have to think about
it. Just do what they say. Put your head down and do it,
and you feel like that part of your life is taken care of. And so it appeals to the flesh. It appeals to that which has
no spiritual life, that which cannot hear, cannot see, does
not live, will not come to the Savior. He's dead in trespasses
and sins, and so he looks at the law and thinks that he has
life. and he doesn't hear the curse of the law, which says,
if you don't do this perfectly, every jot, every tittle, every
aspect of the law, you will die in your sins. You will die the
eternal death and you will suffer forever. And so there's an appeal
because the flesh cannot hear the truth. It cannot hear what
the law says. And so Paul, having said that,
gives us an allegory. He gives us an allegory. He gives
us an example to help us understand what the law is saying and to
help us understand what free grace is declaring to us, what
the Lord declares in his son, Jesus Christ, in the salvation
that he's provided freely by his son, apart from the works
of the law. Now, an allegory will make use
of people or things, and it'll describe happenings, what's going
on. It'll describe that in the allegory
in order to symbolically show us and to make a point, to drive
a point home to us that we should know and better understand what
the scriptures are saying to us. And in this case, Paul makes
use of Abraham. The Jews, Israel, loved Abraham. They looked to him as their spiritual
father. And so Paul makes use of the
fact that Abraham had two sons by two different women. One was a bondmaid. meaning that
she was a servant girl. Her name was Hagar. She was a
servant girl, she was in bondage, and she represents the covenant
which God gave to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. That's
where the Ten Commandments, engraved in stones, was given, at Mount
Sinai. And Hagar represents that covenant. And her child is the fruit of
that covenant. And the other is Abraham's wife,
Sarah. And Sarah is free. She's free-born. Free to do what she would do. She is free and she represents
the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace. And her
child is that which is born of the covenant of grace. That which
is freely given by God, according to promise. And regarding these
two sons, there's two professions, two professions being made here.
Ishmael is that legalistic profession. He's the legalist and he pictures
dead letter professors whose hope is carnal. His hope is carnal,
it's built on the flesh, its confidence is in the flesh. It's
looking to what it does and what it produces and brings forth
and brings to God, expecting to receive a reward for what
he's done, for his good work, for his efforts, for his labors.
The other is Isaac, and Isaac is a man of faith. and he pictures
the children of promise. He pictures that one who is born
of the spirit of God, and he walks by faith. He walks by the
spirit, by faith, looking to and trusting the word of God,
the promises made to him. So let's go now to verse 22,
Galatians 4.22. Paul says it's written, that Abraham had two sons, the
one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. When we come
to the Lord, and we're trying to please him by the law, and
we're trying to please him by what our church tells us to do,
by the religious service that they outlined for us, and they
said, well, you come here when the doors are open, and you read
your Bible with us, and you pray with us and sing the hymns, or
you light a candle, or you do this or that, whatever it is
that they outline, man thinks this is what God would have him
to do, that this is the way of life, this is salvation, this
is what God has given me to do, and I'm doing it, and so I expect
that everything between me and the Lord is good. But the scriptures
tell us that what we do in this flesh under the law, looking
for a righteousness by the law, the scriptures tell us that's
done in bondage. That's done in bondage. That brings forth no fruit that
is pleasing or accepted by the true and living God. It brings
us no value. No value. It's done. It doesn't
earn us or obtain anything for us with the Father. And so God
is not pleased with our works, nor will he receive our works. And the Lord is making this known
to his people. He's declaring it plainly in
the scriptures. He's repeating it often in the
scriptures, throughout the scriptures, that we would hear this truth,
that we would know that it's not by the works of the law that
we're saved. It's not by the things that we
do or don't do that we please God. We are accepted with the
Father through Jesus Christ, His Son. And so he tells us in
the scriptures, therefore, by the deeds of the law, by the
the charter of your church, there shall no flesh be justified in
God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. When you
hear the law and you see what the law says and the perfection
that it demands, perfectly, consistently, never failing, never coming short,
you see, wait a minute, I'm a sinner. I'm not keeping this law perfectly.
Lord, how can I be just with you? How can I be received and
accepted by you, Lord, because I'm looking at the law, and I'm
trying to do what the law says, and I keep coming up short. And I'm afraid. I'm afraid. That's hearing the law. That's
crying out, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, save me. Show me
your salvation. Lord, be gracious to me, a sinner. Have mercy upon me, Lord. And
we're told the law is not a faith. It's not a faith. It's doing. It's doing. Whether you understand
it or not, you're trying to come to God in the law. It's about
doing it and doing it perfectly. And if you don't, you've agreed
to the curses of it, which is eternal damnation. because the
law is unto faith, and the man that doeth them shall live in
them. Galatians 3.12. So Abraham, he
believed God. God gave him promise. He promised
him an inheritance. He promised him a seed to receive
that inheritance, but Abraham erred. He was in error when he
tried to force, when he tried to affect or accomplish the promise
of God. He heard the promise that God
gave him, and he believed it, but then he erred. He went astray
by trying to bring forth, bring to pass what God had promised. He trusted in his flesh, and
he turned to his flesh to make it happen, and that's exactly
what man does every time he turns to the law. He hears the promises
of God, he reads what God says in his son, And yet, he thinks
that he's now got to go to the law. And he's got to bring to
pass, make happen what God has promised by his works under the
law. Now, turn over to Genesis 16. Genesis 16, we'll just look at
two verses. The first two verses of Genesis
16. We know that God promised Abraham
that he would have a son, and yet when God made that promise,
Abraham and Sarah were both very old. And while Abraham could
have kids, Sarah could not. She was well past the age of
bearing children. It just was not possible for
her, according to the flesh, to have children. So in Genesis
16 verse 1, now Sarah, Abram's wife, bear him no children. And she had a handmaid. They
already knew the promise. They already knew she had a young
woman who was her handmaid, an Egyptian whose name was Hagar. And she was of childbearing age. There was nothing special about
her ability to bear children. She was a young woman in the
prime of bearing children age. And Sarah said unto Abram, Behold,
now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee,
go in unto my maid, it may be that I may obtain children by
her. She saying, Go to the woman of
bondage, and it might be that I'll bear fruit there in bondage.
I'll bear fruit by that woman of bondage." That's how we're
going to bring to pass what the Lord has promised to you. And
Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarah. And so when we look
at this, We see this is exactly what I do. This is exactly what
I do in my flesh. I know the promises of God. I
hear his promise of grace and mercy in his son, Jesus Christ. But when I look at my flesh,
and I don't see things as I think I should see them, and it's just
going too slow, and I got to make this happen. If I'm going
to bring the blessings of God to pass for me, in the flesh,
I turn to the law. And I turn to works to try and
effect the promise of God to me. Here's promises, but something's
not working, so I gotta make this happen. I gotta bring this
to pass. Well, that's the exact corruption,
that's the exact defilement that God delivers and must deliver
his people from. And he makes us to see over and
over again, this is what I am in the flesh. Faithless, unbelieving,
constantly turning my eye from the truth of God and His dear
Beloved Son who gave His life for me, who promises me life
and promises to provide all things for me, and I turn from looking
to Him and trusting Him to the things that I'm doing in order
to affect some righteousness in my flesh, that I might gain
the blessing of God, that I might bring it to pass. And we've got
to be delivered from those dead works of the flesh and having
confidence in the flesh. What would happen if suddenly
you start doing the things that you think you should do, reading
your Bible faithfully every morning and every night, saying your
prayers faithfully, coming to services every time the door
is open, doing as much as you can, and then all these blessings
started coming your way as a result. It would not be long at all before
you had confidence in this flesh. I got, I figured it out. I've
got it going all together now. This is exactly what God has
been doing. He gave me his promises, but he was holding back until
I did my part. And that's what we would say
in the flesh. And if we're God's people, he'll humble us and bring
us to see, no, it's not because of your work. It's not because
of your will, it's not because of your efforts, it's because
I'm gracious, to whom I will be gracious and compassionate,
to whom I will be compassionate in my Son. And we want to bring
forth good works, we want to do that which is right, we don't
want to live in sin. But we cry out to the Lord, begging
Him for mercy. Turn over to Romans 7, Romans
7, and let's look at verses 4 and 5. Paul here tells us plainly that
in Christ, we that are Christ's, he says, wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Christ has become all things
to us. He's become everything to us.
He's not only obtained eternal forgiveness for our sins, but
he's obtained life. He is our life. He's obtained
our righteousness. He is our righteousness. And we're delivered from that
dead body. We're delivered from that law.
And we have no part or inheritance in it any longer. We're not looking
to the law for a righteousness. We have the Spirit of God whereby
we know how to walk, how to please our God, looking to Christ in
faith, trusting Him, waiting upon Him to fulfill all His word
to us. He says, you're dead. You've
become dead to the law by the body of Christ. that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should in Christ, by Christ, bring forth fruit, bring
forth children, good works, unto God. those fruits of the Spirit,
faith, love, joy, peace, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, long-suffering
with your brethren. And so these words are spiritual
words and they are accomplished by the Spirit of God in us. Now, then he says, verse 5, for
when we were in the flesh, and that's all we knew, thinking
that this was our righteousness by the flesh, the motions of
sins, which were by the law, did work in our members. And
what did they do? They brought forth fruit unto
death. No life was produced. Nothing
eternal was gained in our efforts. and what we tried to do to please
God. So in Christ, we're delivered from that bondage, which is Hagar. And we're delivered from trying
to work of righteousness by our works, by our flesh, by the law,
by the law. And we're delivered from that
dead fruit religion, which does not profit and adds no value,
brings nothing to God, brings no fruits to God. We live in
Christ and feed upon him, and by him we bring forth fruits
unto the praise and glory of our God. looking to him. And so God worked a miracle in
making Sarah to conceive by Abraham. God worked a miracle. It wasn't
the flesh's work. It was long beyond the flesh's
ability to conceive. And so God is the one who brought
forth, who made Sarah to conceive by Abraham. And it shows there
the power of God. This is exactly how God saves
us. This is how He brings forth the
new man, which is born of the seed of Christ, that looks to
Christ, walks by faith, cannot sin. All it can do is believe
God. It cannot offend God. It cannot
not believe. He trusts God. That's the new
man, which is born in us of the Spirit of God. whereby we look
at our flesh and we say, I don't like at all what I see in my
flesh. But I cannot cease to believe
on Christ and trust Him and hope in His righteousness, which He's
promised me in His word. Lord, keep my heart. Keep me,
Lord. Don't let me be turned astray.
Don't let me fall away. Deliver me from my fears and
doubts and worries, Lord. Keep me in Christ. And so the
Lord is teaching his people that we are children of faith. He's
using this allegory to show us that we are children of faith
made alive by the promise of God in Christ. And we come by
faith and believing the promises which God has made to us in his
son. Now look back at Galatians 4 in verse 23. But he who was of the bond woman,
Hagar, was born after the flesh. But he of the free woman was
by promise." And so any righteousness that we build, any righteousness
that we think we've gained under the law is the product of bondage. It's born under bondage. It's
like Ishmael. And like Ishmael, your fruit,
your righteousness, is of bondage. Just like Israel was born in
bondage, out of bondage. It's not free, it's under a heavy
yoke. It's laboring under that yoke
of the law, and it's heavy, and we're unable to bring forth anything
pleasing to God. In fact, if you look at Galatians
3, verse 10, We're told there that as many as of the works
of the law are under the curse. For it's written, cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. And so when Ishmael came forth,
he was always a child born in bondage, born of the flesh, forced
by the flesh, done by the flesh. And that never changed, did it?
Ishmael was always a child of the flesh. Ishmael was always
born in bondage and remained in bondage and had no part in
the inheritance of Abraham. It never changed. And that's
why Christ said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. You must
be born from above. You must have that miraculous
birth which is not of your flesh and can only be by the grace
of God, by the power of God. That which raised Christ from
the dead is the power which raises us from the dead, which gives
us life, spiritual life to believe the word of God and to trust
him and to continue walking in that faith not being turned to
the left or to the right, but trusting that God, who made his
promise to us, shall fulfill it completely and entirely by
his power, by his grace, by his glory in Christ. And he's not
looking to this flesh. to bring to pass those promises,
to make them effectual to us. He's not looking to our flesh
at all. And so God promised Abraham a
seed, and he gave him Isaac, the seed of promise, according
to the promise of God. And that's how you and me are
going to know God. That's how we're born again. That's how
we walk. live and have our being in Christ. It's all by grace, all by him
giving us faith which looks to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's free
sovereign grace wrought by the blood shed of Christ, by the
blood of Christ who gave his life to put away our sin and
to obtain life for us and he gives it to us. He works it in
us. And so this is what the Spirit declares to us through Hagar
and Sarah and Ishmael and Isaac. Look there now at verse 24 and
25. Which things are an allegory? Galatians 4.24. These things
are an allegory. God has given us a story. It's a true historical fact that
happened, but we see here in Abraham and in Sarah and Hagar
and Ishmael and Isaac, we see here that God is saying to us,
you're not gonna deliver yourselves by the law. You're not gonna
bring to pass or affect the promises of God for you. You're not gonna
make it happen. I'm gonna make it happen, the
Lord says, all by my grace in Christ. give him freely because
I will be merciful." That's what he's showing us here. For these
are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai which gendereth
to bondage, which is Hagar. This is trying to come to God
through the righteousness of the law. For this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, where those 10 commandments were given, and
it answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, the Jews who are under
the law, under the 10 commandments, and is in bondage with her children. And so what Abraham did was the
equivalent of what People do, calling themselves Christians,
saying that they believe Christ, but are trying to go to the law
to affect that righteousness, to bring it to pass, to obtain
that inheritance with God, that God promised. They're trying
to obtain it now by the works of the law, and they don't see
anything wrong with it. They don't have any problem.
They're not stumbling over that at all, because they're not hearing
it. They're not hearing what the law says. but you that believe
Christ is all your acceptance with God, you're born according
to the promise of God. You're trusting his promise. And that is not of your flesh,
it's given to you. That faith which trusts him is
given to you. That's a gift of his spirit. You that trust Christ and confess
Christ and have no other hope but Christ, that's the result
of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon you. Because it's
by the Spirit that we trust Christ and confess Him and stay right
there in Him. Being turned, not any other way,
but looking to Christ. For we through the Spirit, Paul
said, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Galatians 5, 5. We
wait for that hope. Lord, I'm having trouble. I'm struggling. I'm weak, Lord. Save me. Have mercy upon me.
Call out upon him, Abba, Father. Breathing out by the Spirit,
save me, Lord. Keep me. Forgive me. Turn my
heart. Keep my eyes set upon your Son.
This is the gospel of Christ, and it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. And we don't know how to bring
that to pass, but thanks be to God, he does. And he causes us
to walk by faith. And he'll show us our sin, he'll
show us our folly, he'll show us our foolishness in trying
to bring to pass a righteousness just like Abraham did. And he
doesn't cut us off, just like he didn't cut off Abraham, but
was merciful to Abraham, healed him. And still, in spite of his
rebellion, still brought to pass the promise that he gave to him.
and giving Isaac brought to pass. That was Romans 1, 16 and 17.
So anyone coming to God through the law is not an heir of God
any more than Ishmael was an heir of Abraham. Realize that? Anyone coming to God in the law
is no more an heir of God than Ishmael was an heir of Abraham. It's the same thing. He was born
in bondage. All our works in the flesh are but bondage, and
they don't inherit the blessing. But those who are of faith, believe
in Christ, they are justified of Christ. They are justified
before God and righteous before God and accepted by God in Christ. And they do show that they are
heirs according to the promise. Paul continues this in Galatians
4.26. He said, but Jerusalem, which
is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. All the children
of God are people of faith. They're all born of the Spirit.
We don't come through different paths. through different religions. We don't come through different
false religions and somehow obtain the promise of God. He brings
all His people through the one way, through the gate, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's going to humble us. He's
going to break us of our confidences in this flesh of false religions. He's going to bring us low in
ourselves to see and to behold that God has made promise and
He fulfills it in His Son Jesus Christ. Believe Him. Believe
Him. Trust him, his word is faithful
and true. All his people are born of Christ
and washed in the blood of Christ and made free in him. Now Galatians
4.27, for it's written, rejoice thou barren that bearest not,
break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate
hath many more children than she which hath a husband. That
comes from Isaiah 54 verse one, And what it's saying is that
one who had confidence in the flesh and married the law, thinking
that this is how I'm going to produce much fruit. I'm going
to bring forth an abundance of fruit unto God, being married
to the law. The scripture says that one is
desolate, that one has nothing. But you who trusted the promise
of God, you that looked to Christ and stayed upon him and weren't
turned from him, you that had nothing in yourself, nothing
in your fruit, he says you are very fruitful. You'll bring forth
much fruit. Though you were desolate in the
flesh and had no confidence in the flesh, you bring forth much
fruit, trusting God. It's by his power. It's unto
the praise and glory of the Father. And so he teaches us that. He
makes us to see the very truth of that. He says, I was found
of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me. That's what he does for his people.
We were in darkness. We were blind. We were deaf.
We were lame. We were unable to do anything.
And yet God and mercy drew us out and called us, even though
we weren't even looking for him. But those who think they got
a corner on God and think they know the truth, and they look
to the law for their righteousness, and they think, this is how I'm
going to bring to pass the fruit which God demands of me, God's
gonna say, oh, you knew I was an austere man. You knew that
I looked for fruit where I sowed not, and yet this is how you
came to me. This is what you tried to do
to affect righteousness. And then they'll be held accountable
to have fulfilled all the works of the law. And not doing it,
they'll come under the curses of it. Now, verse 28. And actually,
I'll just read Romans 10, 21. But to Israel, who is yet in bondage as Hagar
and her children, as we see in Galatians, he saith all day long
I've stretched forth mine hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying
people. That's what you that are in the
law and trust in law for righteousness, that's what the Lord is saying.
You're not hearing me. You're not hearing the promise
that I've given to my people and my son. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said to the Jews, if you believe not that I am he, you
will die in your sins. you will die in your sins. If
you don't believe me, that I'm the Christ and that I'm the salvation
God has provided, you shall die in your sins. Trying to work
righteousness, thinking that you've done right, you'll die
in your sins. So in conclusion, verse 28, now
we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Like Isaac, This hope that we
have, this righteousness we have is of Christ, promised to us
by God and committed us, gave us into the hands of Christ to
fulfill all righteousness for us. And like Isaac, we were not
born out of the strength of the flesh. but out of the power of
the spear, that same resurrection power which raised up Christ
raises us up from the dead. And like Isaac, we are heirs
according to the new birth, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Now in verse 29, but as then
he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born
after the spirit even so it is now. And that's what we see in
the scriptures. We are heirs of God, joint heirs
with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him. that those who
are of the law will persecute you. They'll point out your flaws,
they'll point out all the folly that you're trusting in, your
foolishness, make you to feel and to know that you're nothing
before God, that you're gonna come up short, and they persecute
you, they trouble you, because they don't believe God who sent
Christ. They confess him with the mouth,
but they have no confidence in him. and they persecute the people
of God, trying to put you to shame for believing Christ and
trusting Him for all your righteousness. That's the persecution we receive. But God says all those work mongers,
all those legalists, all those who trust in their works, they're
going to inherit eternal death, not the promise of life in Christ. So then brethren, verse 31, We
are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. And so in the
Lord Jesus Christ, we are born of free grace, free indeed. Amen. Let's pray, and then we'll have
another service in a few minutes. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy and your grace, which is shown to us abundantly
and freely. and your son, Jesus Christ. Lord,
we thank you for your mercy and grace. We thank you, Lord, that
you do not deal with us according to our sins. With that, Lord,
you've given your promise, and in spite of us, you bring the
promise of your free grace and your salvation in Christ. You
bring it to pass. Lord, we thank you for your mercy
in showing us our sin. We thank you for your grace in
showing us the sufficiency of Christ. And Lord, we thank you
for the faith which you've given to us, whereby we look to him
whom you send and trust him for all our righteousness. Lord,
we pray that your spirit would be upon us, that you would fill
our hearts and turn our hearts and minds upon your son, Jesus
Christ, for this next service. We pray this in Christ's name,
amen. All right, so we'll take 15 minutes,
brethren, and then we'll come back for the regular worship
service.