Turn to Genesis chapter 21, and
we'll read out of also Galatians chapter 4. This will be the scriptures
for our lesson this morning. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father, thank you for your mercies. Thank you for bringing
us here together again this week. Thank you for this day and this
hour. Give unto us the spirit of worship. Enable us this morning
to listen and to learn and to worship. Forgive us our sins,
Father, for Christ's sake. Bless thy children. Bless us
this morning with your presence. Those among thy children who
are sick, whose hearts are heavy, whose bodies ache, we pray for
them. Pray you to bless. Pray you will
give them comfort. Lord, help us to look to you
at all times, in all situations. Help us this morning. In Christ's
name we pray and amen. Now I'm going to read The Scriptures
from Genesis 21, I'm going to read the first 12 verses, and
then we will go over to Galatians 4, and I'll read some Scriptures
there. You know, if the Lord blesses His Word, and He's promised
to bless His Word, you and I will have more understanding than
all the comments I could ever make. You know, I have learned
this, and you have too, in reading the Scriptures, that you'll be
reading the Scriptures, and you'll see it. You'll see it, you say,
I understand, I see it. That's the Lord blessing his
word when he gives us sight and gives us understanding. But now
here in Genesis 21, and the Lord visited Sarah as he had said,
and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived
and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which
God had spoken to him. God's always on time. He's always
on time. You see, Sarah, I'm getting ahead
of myself. She didn't wait on the Lord. And this is how we
ended up with Ishmael. But God's always on time. And
Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom
Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised him,
his son, Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was a hundred years
old when his son, Isaac, was born unto him. And Sarah said,
God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh
with me. And she said, who would have
said unto Abraham, who would have thought or said to Abraham
that Sarah should have given children suck? For I have born
him a son in his old age. And she was old too. She was
old. And the child grew and was weaned
and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar. the Egyptian, which she had borne
unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham,
Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son. even with Isaac. And the thing
was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. And
God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight
because of the lad and because of thy bondwoman. And all that
Sarah has said unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. Now I can just imagine this going
on, this turmoil, This having Ishmael, Ishmael making fun of
Isaac. And Sarah says, I'm not going
to have that. We're not having that. And this Isaac is, she
said, he's going to have, he's the son. He's my son. He's, he's
the son of the true wife of Abraham and all this turmoil is going
on. And Abraham and Sarah don't have a clue that the Bible is
being written. that this story is for us all
this is going on is for us is for our understanding and to
prove that turn over to Galatians chapter 4 in Galatians chapter 4 let me
start reading in verse 21 this is why all this happened Abraham
didn't know that he didn't him and Sarah didn't know that they're
just they're just being themselves and but they're fulfilling God's
purpose in this in this situation that they were in but now here
look in verse 21 tell me ye that desire to be under the law do
you not hear the law do you not hear what the law says Word is
written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid,
the other by a free woman, Sarah. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. He was not a child of promise. He was a child of the flesh. Sarah said, Abraham, you go in
to my handmaid, because I'm old, She was gonna move the process
along of having a son. She said, this handmaid, she'll
be the one who will have the son. She's much younger and able. But he who was of the bond woman
was born after the flesh. God didn't promise this one.
But of the free woman was by promise. Isaac was by promise. Which things are an allegory.
This is the reason this happened. these are the two covenants the
one from mount sinai which genders to bondage which is hagar agar
or hagar for this agar is mount sinai in arabia in answers to
jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children
you know they've you remember when our lord came along that
the Pharisees were always upset because he was not keeping the
Sabbath like they said and he was breaking their law which
they said he was breaking which he wasn't it was his law he's
keeping his law but Jerusalem which is above is free which
is the mother of us all for it is written rejoice thou barren
that bears not break forth and cry thou that travailest not,
for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath
a husband. Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of
promise. We are, all of us are Isaacs,
we're all Isaacs, children of promise. God promised us to his
son. He promised us, we are children
of promise. We're not Those who believe are
not children of the flesh. Flesh didn't produce you. God
did. God did. But as then, he that
was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the
Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. So then brethren, we are not
children of the bond woman, but of the free. There's two things
being taught here. It's the opposite. There are
two opposites being taught here, law and grace. One is either
all of works or all of grace. One is through the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who kept the law
for us in our place. And you and I are sons of promise
to him. We are sons of promise. Now in learning the gospel, we
have to learn the spiritual difference between law and grace. One is
of works, one is all of grace, and they don't mix. We can't
mix at all. And Paul uses Sarah and Hagar
here in Galatians 4 as an allegory. An allegory is a story. It's a story. It's using these
two characters and it gives us a picture of the real, of the
real children of God and those who are not the real children
of God. Remember Paul said in one place, not all Israel is
Israel. Not all those who claim to be
Israelites are true Israelites. All true Israelites are those
who believe God. Those are the true Israelites.
Those are the true Jews. Now I read you the story here
that God had promised Abraham a son, and time goes by, And
this son is not born, so Sarah takes it into her hand, her hands,
I should say, and she takes her servant, Hagar, and she said,
Abraham, you go into her, and he does, and Ishmael's born.
And Ishmael mocks Isaac, because law and grace can't mix, they
can't live together. You can't have a mixed crowd
in here. You cannot have, in this group, of those who hold to the law
and those who hold to grace. One of them's got to go. They
can't walk together. Those who are of works, those
who are of grace, they cannot walk together. How can two walk
together except they agree? And there cannot be two more
opposing parties And those who believe salvation by works, even
though they say they believe it by grace, but they always
add something to it. God has done all Christ has done
all he can do. God's done all he can do. Now
the rest is up to you. That's works. That's salvation
by work. But grace says this Christ has
done it all. Jesus Christ is all my wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He's all of it.
And it's all of grace. Now, if it's all of grace, it
means this. I had no part in it. I had no part in accomplishing
salvation. I had no part in any way, shape
or form or at any time in accomplishing my salvation. As Paul said in
Galatians, I believe it's over here in Galatians 3. Look here
in Galatians 3, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath
been evidently set forth crucified among you? This only would I
learn of you, receive you the Spirit by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith. What was going on when God saved
you? When God saved you, you say God saved you. I say God
saved me. What was happening when God saved
me? Was the law being read, or was Christ being preached? Christ
was being preached. That's what was going on when
God saved me. Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? God
has saved you by His Spirit. Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? Are you going to perfect salvation
by your obedience? No. We start by the grace of
God through faith in Christ, and that's exactly how we run
the race, and that is exactly how we finish it, by grace through
faith in Christ, looking to Him, trusting Him at all times. Now, listen, Hagar was never
intended to be the wife of Abraham. We don't read of her being Abraham's
wife. We read of her being a bondwoman.
servant a servant and Ishmael was never called the seed he
was never called the promised seed that's Isaac that's who
he is Hagar was the servant of Sarah and the law was never given
it was never given it was never intended to save anyone when
God gave the law Mount Sinai it was never intended to save
you know what it was intended to do to serve. That's all Hagar ever was, a
servant. It was given to serve. The law
of God was given to serve. Now what do I mean by that? It
was given to reveal sin and shut us up to Christ. The law was
our, Paul called it here in Galatians, let me see if I can find it,
Galatians 3, 21, if I wrote the right place down. Let me start
reading verse 21. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid, for if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. If the law could have been given,
God would have gave it. and we'd have righteousness by
the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin. You see, the law condemns all
of us, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. But before faith came, and let
me read it this way, but before Christ came, We were kept under
the law, shut up unto the faith, which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. If you keep things in the right
place, they work, don't they? It's like the home. You keep
the home in the right order, husband and wife and children,
and you keep that in the right order, it works. And it works
for God's glory. And the law glorifies God if
it's kept in the right place. God did not give it for anyone
to try and seek salvation by. It's a schoolmaster. What is
a schoolmaster? Well, a schoolmaster is not my
father. A schoolmaster is a teacher. You know, you and I went to school.
We went to school, and we'd have a teacher, and they'd put a lesson
on the board or give you a lesson, and you would study the lesson.
But that teacher was just there to do that, to teach. The law
was given to teach. But fallen man always gets it
wrong. Fallen man, false religion, always
gets it wrong. If the Lord was to leave us to
ourselves, we would get it wrong every time. Every time we'd get
it wrong. The law is our schoolmaster,
listen, to bring us unto Christ, to shut us up to Christ. That's
what the law does. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not.
When you go and you go back in the Old Testament and you read,
you read the law, you read the Ten Commandments, you read the
other laws that God's given, thou shalt not do this and this
and this, and you know what happens? It won't be no time and you'll
say, I'm guilty. I've done that. I've done that. The law says don't, you know,
don't commit adultery. Well, here's what fallen man
and false religion, here's what we don't understand. Here's what
we never, we would never get this unless the Lord told us
this. Because this is how far reaching the law is. You see,
the law is spiritual. It reaches to the heart. Christ
said, I say to look on a woman or a man, woman look on a man,
it works both ways. To look on, to lust after him,
that's adultery already. Everybody in this room is guilty
of that. Everybody. Everybody in this
world is guilty of that. To hate your brother without
a cause is murder. You see this on the news all
the time. Somebody's shooting somebody all the time. Murder
happening all the time. But when God saves you, you realize
that you committed murder. You've hated your brother without
a cause. You've hated your neighbor without
a cause. There's people you've hated without
a cause. That's the spirituality of the
law. You can't be saved by that. You cannot be saved by the law
because the law, listen, The law, here's the law, God, here's
how strict it is. You know, we have a speed limit
out here. I don't know, let's say 45 out here on this road.
As long as you stay about 10 miles an hour under it, nobody's
gonna pull you over. They're not gonna pull you. Five
miles over, six miles over, you're not gonna get pulled over. I
tell you what, God's law, if you go a tenth. I mean, if it
just barely goes over, you're guilty. And you're going to pay
the penalty. That's how strict God's law is.
God's law is so strict, you can't even have a thought of sin and
you're guilty. Just to have a thought of sin, you're guilty. You're
done. It's over. You know, when Eve
stood there and looked at that tree and she began to look at
it and began to think that was sin. When Adam began to, when
he thought of sin, you see the thought of foolishness is sin.
How foolish a thought could it be to disobey God when God said
and gave one law and said, don't eat of that tree. For in the
day you eat of it, you shall surely die. And when Adam thought of it,
he had already fallen because the fall had already taken place.
It was just the action was a revelation of what was going on on the inside.
You see, what we do on the outside is a revelation of what's going
on on the inside. And you can't even have a thought
of sin, and you're doomed. Well, doesn't
that make Christ precious? How much more precious is the
Lord when you really understand sin? That for every, he died
for my sins, for every thought, for every foolish thought I,
and that can't even be numbered. that can't even be numbered.
The very wickedness of sin, that can't even be measured. We can't even measure it. And
yet he put it away. That's why salvation by works
can never happen. We can never please God by what
we do, because there's so much sin in everything we do. Even
Even in our best days, our best, you know, man at his best state
is altogether vanished. When is a man at his best state?
When? When he's calling on God? Is
that not his best state? When he's praying, preaching,
reading the Word? You can't read the Word without
sin. You can't read the Word without your mind drifting away
on something else. That's sin. That's sin. You can't sit here and listen
to the Word of God preached and let your mind drifting away.
And I got a strain at it to keep my mind on task as I even stand
here and preach. There are much so much sin in
me that if it wasn't for the Christ, this message would be
a mess. It would be a mess. Oh, you know,
I always I think of the Lord and in this way, I don't know
if this is a what you call a proper thought, I don't know. But I
think of him as the great filter. You know, you drink your water
over here. If you knew where that came from,
you'd probably have a hard time drinking it. I have, you know,
I worked in a machine shop, and I've done motors from the water
plant. And you see what goes through
there? But by the time it gets to you,
it's filtered. Our worship this morning is accepted
of God because it goes to Him through Christ. We worship God
where? In Christ. He makes what we do
here this morning accepted, not just acceptable, accepted. Our
prayers, our praise, our singing. This morning we're going to sing,
let's sing unto him. And yet we will struggle to do
that. We will struggle to do that and
are keeping our minds on it and actually singing to him whom
we can't see. Not with these eyes. We do by
faith. But faith is not perfect. But
listen, let me get back to this. I kind of got off there a little
bit. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. That's how we're justified, cleared
of all guilt. Only a guilty person can appreciate
the doctrine of justification. Only a criminal can appreciate
the doctrine, the truth of being justified, because I know I'm
guilty. Every one of you know you're
guilty of sin, you know it. But you know what? Before God,
we have no sin. We're justified in Christ, not
by works, not by doing it, but by faith, by believing God. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. He didn't believe in God or a
God, he believed God. But after that faith has come,
and I wrote over that, but after that Christ has come, we are
no longer under a schoolmaster. We've left it. We don't need
it no more. We don't need it. We don't need
the ceremonies. We don't need the types. We do not need the
pictures. We do not need anything right
now, but the word of God and the Holy Spirit to open our eyes
and our understanding. to Christ for ye are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus the Pharisees the Jewish
nation over there for the most part for the largest part of
them they believe they were children of God because of their heritage because of their connection to
Abraham but what they really are are a bunch of Ishmaelites
There are a bunch of people under bondage. That's who they are.
Over there right now, in that country that despises Jesus Christ,
is a bunch of not Israelites, they ought to call themselves
what they really are, Ishmaelites. They're a bunch of Ishmaelites. And they hate salvation by grace. They hate the fact that you and
I are allowed in the fold. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring in. That's me and you.
That's us. You're all the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female,
For ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then
are ye Abraham's seed, promise seed. You're a bunch of Isaacs.
You're a bunch of Isaacs. And you're heirs. Can you believe that? Can you
really believe that? You are heirs of the promise. Someday. Not too long from now, even for
the youngest, not too long from now, all those who believe. This
message is directed toward those who believe. Someday we are gonna
stand in glory. We're gonna walk on a new earth
because we are heirs of the promise. Heirs of the promise. Isn't that
good news? Abraham, Sarah, all this going
on at that time, it looked like one of these soap operas on television
going on. This soap opera going on, and
this, you know, Sarah trying to move things along, and Abraham
doing what she wanted him to do, and then has this ishmael,
and he's mocking Isaac, and all of this. is for us, that you
and I could actually understand the difference between the two
covenants, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, that
you and I could actually understand that we are heirs according to
the promise and not heirs according to our works. Isn't that something? I look at that and I think, I
think I'm glad all that happened. Because you see how clear it
is? It's clear to those, the scripture says, who understand.
This is so clear to me that there is no way of being saved by any
works whatsoever in any way, shape or form. My salvation and your salvation
and all the salvation of all of God's elect is totally, totally
on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. as totally according to that
covenant made between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three of those involved in
that covenant in saving us. That's good news. Good news is
that God has saved me by grace and it never depends on me. That's
good news. All right.