Okay, well, we're back in Galatians, the second half, from verse 21 down to verse 31, and I've given the title of this message, The Children of Promise, which is in this passage, as we'll see shortly, verse 28, The Children of Promise.

Now, as I keep saying, and as I, you know, you say, well, you keep repeating yourself. Well, it's a subject that needs to be constantly repeated, because we're very prone to forget what God has revealed. But the whole Bible message, the message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is this. If I could summarize it, it's this. That before time began, God chose a multitude of people out of all of Adam's race of humanity, he chose them, and he chose them only, a multitude though they be, but it's them only, to be qualified for his eternal kingdom, to be qualified to enter his eternal kingdom.

You know in this world, There are nations, kingdoms, and you have to be qualified to enter them and stay there. You can't just breeze in as you like, although a lot of people try, but you have to be qualified. This is about the qualification for the kingdom of God. And how is it achieved? it's achieved by God uniting that people of his choice with himself in the person of his son, the manifestation, the word of God, the revealing of God. And not only uniting with him, but qualifying them by the redemption. Redemption is payment, the payment of the penalty for sin that separates people from God. Christ, God in Christ, would come and with his own precious blood as a man, a perfect man, he would pay the price to the justice of God. for the sins of these people, so that they would be qualified for his eternal kingdom.

And he came, when the fullness of the time was come, it says in verse 4 of chapter 4, when the time was just right, God sent forth his son made of a woman, so that he who was God was made man, that he might redeem men, that he might redeem those out of mankind. that he's chosen.

And this message of the Bible, as I said, from cover to cover, this message of the Bible is the narrow path to eternal life. It's the path from the vanity of earthly life. And we know that this life is vain. It's got all sorts of ups and downs, but it's vain. The man who had more wisdom than any other apart from the Lord Jesus Christ was King Solomon, who prayed for wisdom when he came to the throne of Israel, and God gave him great wisdom, but at the end of it all, when you read his book Ecclesiastes, vanity, vanity, all is vanity. I've done the very best things that this life, this earth, this world can offer. I've had the greatest riches that this life and world can offer, but it's all vanity. If you don't have God, it's vanity.

It's that journey from the vanity of earthly life, cursed by sin, to the bliss of heaven, as we know in Revelation chapter 21. Look, you know what this life is like, but John in the vision sees heaven. He sees the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a bride prepared for her husband. And it says, look, the tabernacle of God is with men. God's living with his people, as he said throughout this book, that he will. And he will dwell with them. God will dwell with them. And they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with them and be their God.

And listen to this, listen to this. In this world, in this valley of the shadow of death, in this veil of tears, it says, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. That's the glorious prospect. That's the journey to that life. You know, in this life, all, without exception, fear death and aspire to eternal life. If they're being honest, people say, no, I don't fear death. Oh, yes, they do. When it comes down to it, all people, all, without exception, fear death and aspire to life eternal. But how to enter in is the question.

In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said this. He said in verse 13 of Matthew 7, enter ye in at the straight gate. That's the restricted gate, the narrow gate. He said, enter ye in to the kingdom of God. Enter ye in at the narrow gate, the straight gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many there be which go in thereat.

Look at the world around us. Look at the crowds of people going about their business at this festive season. Look at them with no thought for God, even though they make a little bit of a religious fuss in some quarters. It's a broad way, but where does it lead? It says here, it leads to destruction. And he says in verse 14, because straight, narrow, restricted is the gate, and narrow is the way. Not broad like the world's way. Narrow is the way, which leads to life. Isn't that where we want to go? Narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it. Few there be that find it.

How to be numbered with the few that find life? You see, earthly life is complex, isn't it? It's filled with joy at times and grief at others. It's filled with times of plenty and times of shortage. It's filled with times of health and times of sickness. with strength and frailty, with times of comfort and ease, and times of pain and hardship, with times of happiness and sadness, with times of hope and times of despair, and all of it ends in death.

For as it is said in Hebrews 9.27, it is appointed to man, all of us without exception, to die once and then the judgment. Judgment as a sinner under the justice of God and as a sinner standing before God, naked before God, to be condemned for eternal separation. But there is a promise. There is a promise of eternal bliss that we read in Revelation. How do I find the way to it? Where is the solid ground on which to rest my soul? My body will die, but my soul will go on. Where is the solid ground to rest my soul? Where is the good news of the way to eternal life?

It's in this book. World out there, going about your business, ignoring these things, it's this book. This book has the key, the key to eternal life. God reveals his spiritual truth of that way to eternal life, and he does it in accounts of history with the Israel nation in the Old Testament and the world empires around them. He reveals it in history. He reveals it in poetry, in the Psalms and the wisdom books. He reveals it in pictures in the Old Testament. He reveals it in allegories, which are stories of an earthly nature but with another meaning, a spiritual meaning. a moral meaning. He reveals it in parables as the Lord Jesus in his earthly ministry often said, the kingdom of heaven is like unto, and they told a story. And it's revealed in explicit apostolic gospel doctrines such as we have in the epistles of Paul and John and the others, Peter. It reveals this, that God in Christ is the way to that eternal life. He is the way, he said it. Thomas said to him, how can we know the way? He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. If you want to come to the Father and find eternal life, you must come by me.

So how do we understand the scriptures? You say, this is a big book, and it's very confusing, and it's very hard to get your head around. But John 5, 39, he said to the Jews, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And that is right. If you want eternal life, you must search the scriptures. They are they, these words that speak of me.

And in Luke chapter 24, one of the most profound things, the risen Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples, he said to them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled. All things, what things? The things which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms, because what were they about? He says, concerning me. and he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.

The hope of one, is this you? Are you confident of eternal life, of the path to eternal life? The hope of one who is confident of eternal life is built, as we'll sing at the end in the last hymn, is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness for cleansing from sin. It's built on nothing more than that. It's built on only that, Jesus' blood and righteousness.

So then, in these verses from verse 21 to 31 at the end of Galatians chapter 4, Paul uses an allegory of Abraham, an allegory of Abraham, and two sons, his first two sons, and their mothers, because they were by two different women, to illuminate, to show, to paint the picture, to show us as to how God deals with all people, all people that have ever lived. God deals with all people that have ever lived in just one of two ways.

Because, this is my first point, there are two covenants, two covenants. I know that various theologians will tell you, oh, well, there was the covenant made to Noah as well, and there was the covenant of this, that, and the other, but don't get confused by that. Fundamentally, it comes down to two covenants. There are two covenants, only two covenants.

Verse 21, says Paul, arguing with these Galatians, trying to persuade these Galatians to get rid of the false teachers that had come in to divert them from the gospel. The false teachers had come in and said, the gospel's okay, but you've got to obey Moses' law if you want to be right with God and if you want to go to heaven. And they were desiring to put themselves back under the law. They were desiring to put themselves back under the Ten Commandments and the right of circumcision and all of these other things that were in the Old Testament as mere pictures but which were then fulfilled.

Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, to be under the Ten Commandments, do you not hear the law? Don't you hear, number one, what those Ten Commandments really say and how you can never ever come anywhere near it?

But not only that, Don't you hear the whole Mosaic law? Don't you hear all of the Mosaic law of righteousness, of sin, of blood redemption? Because you read those books of Moses. It's not just about thou shalt not, it's about this is what you must do to be right with God. About the blood sacrifices, about the lamb, about the priesthood, giving you access to God through the priesthood, through the scapegoat taking away the sins of the people, of being accepted on the day of atonement though they were sinners.

You see, it's all there, it's all there. Do you not hear the whole law of sin, of blood redemption, of priestly intercession, religion in their day, the Galatians' day, and in our day, limits the rule of life to Ten Commandments and says that if you believe God, then you must submit yourself to the law of God, the law of Moses, the Ten Commandments as your rule of life.

But even then, they dilute them to their very best efforts. The law requires perfection. but they dilute them to just do your very best, see what you can do. They claim to keep the law. As I've told you before, there was one eminent church man said to me, but we keep the law, don't we? And I was a young man and I didn't have the presence of mind there and then to say to him, do you think that you keep the law? Honestly, do you? Of course we don't keep the law. We cannot keep the law. It's their own diluted version of the law that they keep.

It's not what it says in verse 10 of chapter 3, as many as of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. And that goes on and on and on with no escape, with no release.

God, our creator, the source of all life. God, the righteous judge, deals with all people according to one of two covenants.

Look in verse 24. Which things are an allegory? For these are the two covenants. What are? Well, look, verse 22. It is written, it is written in the scriptures, and we read it earlier in Genesis 17. It is written in the scriptures that Abraham had two sons, The one by a bondmaid, and the other by a free woman.

But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. But he of the free woman was by the promise, by the covenant, by the promise of God. Which things are, here's the word, an allegory, a picture story, a story which is true. I believe it literally happened exactly as the scripture tells it. But its purpose in the revelation of God is to reveal spiritual truth.

He said, they're an allegory. These women and their sons, both the sons of Abraham, They're two covenants. They picture, they represent two covenants. The one covenant from the Mount Sinai, where the law was given, which gendereth to bondage, which causes bondage, which is Agar. When you see Agar without an H, but it's just because it's a translation from the Greek rather than from the Hebrew, which is Agar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai.

She represents Mount Sinai, and the covenant given at Mount Sinai in Arabia. And it answereth to, it is in the same rank with, is the marginal reference. It equates to Jerusalem, and it doesn't mean the pile of stones in the Middle East which is still there to this day, but it means the Judaism which it represented, which is now and is in bondage with her children.

Bondage to what? Bondage to obedience to that law. You must continue to obey it perfectly. And you must never ever, you don't ever get a day off from keeping it perfectly. You must keep it perfect. God will not accept you unless, see, it's in bondage, which is in bondage.

This Agar is Mount Sinai, which is in bondage with her children, but Jerusalem above, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all.

So then, God deals with all people on the basis of one of two covenants. A covenant is a will. You know, we talk about a last will and testament. It's a promise. It's a promise documented, but it's a promise that is dependent on stipulated conditions being fulfilled. There are things that have to be fulfilled for the covenant to be enacted, for the covenant to deliver its promise.

The first covenant revealed in time is the covenant of works that was made between God and Adam. in the Garden of Eden, at creation. And it was made with Adam and all his descendants, because all his descendants were in him. And that covenant of works, do this and live, is more fully revealed at Mount Sinai in the days of Moses, several thousand years later.

What does the covenant promise? That first covenant, that covenant of works, what does it promise? It promises life. It promises happiness. Okay, that sounds good. But on what condition? If, and it's an enormous if, if he, Adam, and all that were in him, you and me, if he perfectly met God's righteous, holy standard, and he promised life, but at the same time, it threatened death if he fell short.

Do you know what the word sin means? It's a term from archery. When you fire your arrow at the target and it digs into the ground before hitting the target, the arrow is said to have sinned. It falls short, for all have fallen short of the target. We do not meet the righteous requirements of God. And he says, in the day concerning that stipulation in Eden, not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, in the day that you eat thereof, because he'd forbidden that they eat it, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.

Cursed is everyone that is under that law. Cursed is everyone who does not keep that law perfectly. By birth, as children of Adam, we are all under that covenant. And we're all bound to break it because of the weakness of the flesh. That's what it says in Romans chapter 8 verse 3. The law was weak because of the flesh. The flesh is weak. So that by the very best efforts to keep it, and those that think they do keep the law, have they not read this, Galatians 2 verse 16, by the works of the law, by the things that you try to do to be right with God, by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight. No flesh shall be declared righteous and sinless and thereby accepted by God for citizenship of his kingdom.

But God has revealed another covenant. That was the first one, the covenant of works. He's revealed another covenant. not made with all mankind without exception, but made for a multitude chosen out of mankind before time began. And I stress that. The first covenant was made between God and Adam and all the human race. Do this and live, fail to do it and die. The second covenant, which was actually the eternal covenant, was made for a multitude of people. It was made for a people chosen out of mankind before time began.

It's called the covenant of grace. And it was made in eternity before time. Between who? God and man? No. No. No. It was made, it was covenanted in the Godhead, the triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was made between the persons of the one God. In the one Godhead, there is only one God. You shall worship the one true God. There is only one God, but He is manifested in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And those three persons, before time began, in a mystery that we, with our puny minds, can never understand, Those persons made a covenant to save a people chosen out of mankind. They agreed that mankind in general should fall in Adam, but that a multitude of them, chosen by God, should be redeemed from the law's curse, should have their sins paid for under the law's curse by Christ, God himself, in the person of his Son, the God-man.

The covenant of works, the covenant of law, says to people, Obey God perfectly, or else surely die. The covenant of grace says Christ has done everything. One says do, the other says done. The one says you must do, the second, the covenant of grace, says Christ has done. He has done everything needed for the elect multitude. And we don't know who they are, and we don't know whether you are amongst them or not. All we know is that you're amongst them if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

He's done everything, Christ has done everything for the elect multitude that they might live eternally on the basis of justice satisfied. And that is the confident hope of every true believer. And as I've said already, it's built on nothing more or less than the blood and righteousness of Christ, without the need to obey the law perfectly in the flesh, because we cannot do it.

So one says, do this and live, fall short and die, the other says, Christ has done all, has fulfilled every requirement of divine justice, so that the fallen sons of Adam, united to him from eternity, that they should live. It's two mutually exclusive covenants. You can't have a bit of one and say, I'll get the benefits of that, but I'll also have a bit of the other one as well for my own comfort. No, they're mutually exclusive. You cannot have them together. They will not be tolerated together.

That is why in verse 30 of Galatians 4, God says through the scripture, he says, cast out the bond woman with her son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. You see, that's a pretty cruel and unreasonable thing. But in terms of the spiritual truth it portrays, it cannot be in that hymn that we sang.

Jehovah has decreed none but the chosen seed shall ever be counted free. Not one shall ever possess the promised land of bliss, but Abram's lawful family. And these shall all be freed from bondage, guilt, and dread, and bliss immortal, bliss and joy. Beyond the grave, the land of promise have, and live with God eternally.

That was pictured in that hymn. These are two mutually exclusive covenants, and you can have no mixture of them, though the majority of what calls itself Christianity in this country, in the day in which we live, does exactly that. It strives out of its way to mix those two covenants, and they cannot be mixed. They cannot be mixed. They're mutually exclusive.

And so, God by inspiration of Paul the Apostle, via these verses, 21 to 31, gives us an Old Testament allegory, a picture story. It really happened, but it reveals truth. God has revealed the truth of his covenants in this allegory. Verse 24, these are the two covenants. Which things are an allegory? For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, and the one which is the new Jerusalem above, which is the mother of us all.

The Jews revered Abraham as their father. They trace everything back to Abraham, their father. Paul uses Abraham's experience, and we saw in Genesis 17, when Stephen read it to us earlier, we saw how Abram was his name, but he was called Abraham by God because he was to be the father of many peoples, many peoples, nations. Paul uses Abraham's experience of these two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, and their mothers, Hagar and Sarah, to open the truth of God's saving grace. God had called Abram out of the world of Ur of the Chaldees. and the false gods that were worshipped there, for the true God was not worshipped there. They were idolaters. We read that in Joshua. Joshua, as they're taking possession of the promised land, he says, think about where you've come from. You've come from a man who was an idolater. His family were idolaters, they worshipped idols, but God spoke to him and called him.

And God called him and promised him a land. The land wasn't the kingdom of God, but it pictured the kingdom of God. I guess you could say when King David was on his throne and there was great prosperity and there was no threat from any enemies and everybody was living safe under the rule of King David, that that was as near as you would get on earth to the kingdom of God on earth that God was in the midst of his people in the temple well in the tabernacle at that time it was Solomon that built the temple but at that time was was when it was the promised land pictured God's kingdom

and that from him from Abraham God promised would come the promised seed of the woman Genesis 3 15 Immediately after the fall, God promises in the curse on Satan, on the curse that they would go and that they would die and they would live as a result of sin from then on, but he promised to send the seed of the woman to crush Satan's head, which was God himself, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem those that are under the law. That in that seed, capital S, would arise innumerable spiritual children. that by that seed, capital S, would be the people of God, the bride of Christ, the church of Christ, the people of God from all nations, not just physical descendants of Abraham, for as we've already seen in this epistle, those who are of the same faith of Abraham are the children of Abraham. If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise it says at the end of chapter three.

But Abraham was old. How could a man as old as that? And Sarah, who was 90 years old, she was an old woman. She was way past the years of being able to bear children. And God had promised that, no, Abraham, you will have a son by your wife, Sarah. And they doubted God's promise. And they devised a fleshly way to have children. So they're saying, well, there's just no chance. I mean, God's made this promise that there's gonna be a great nation, but it cannot, Sarah says, it cannot possibly come from me. There's no way that I'm having any babies now at my age. I'm far too old. I'm 90 years old. No way that that's going to happen.

But Abraham could still father a son. And so, oh, says Sarah. Well, there's my maid who was the slave girl, who was the servant girl, the Egyptian girl, Hagar. She says, Why don't you and Hagar get together and have a son? And this is how God's promise will be fulfilled. And when Abraham was 86 years old, you read that at the end of chapter 16 of Genesis, when he was 86 years old, Ishmael was born. Ishmael was the son of the bond woman. And they thought that it would be in him that God would fulfill his promise. But in Genesis 17, as was read to us earlier, In verse 15, God said to Abraham, Sarah thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah, and I will bless her and give thee a son also of her, and I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed. How can this possibly be? He said in his heart. Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old, and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear a child? And Abraham said unto God, We've already got a son. We've got a son by Hagar. We've got Ishmael. And no doubt he was a difficult child, because by this stage he was 13 years old. Oh, that Ishmael might live before. Oh, that he might be the one.

And God said, no. Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son indeed, and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. Ishmael, I have heard you about him, I will bless him, I will make him fruitful, he will be a great nation, but my covenant shall I establish with Isaac, which Sarah, ninety years old, shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. So God promised that it wouldn't be Ishmael, it would be this son.

And in Genesis 21, the first five verses, and we won't read it now for the sake of time, Isaac was miraculously born to a woman who was 90 years old. She might have even been 91 by then. He, Isaac, was the son not of the slave woman, but he was the son of the free woman. He was the son of promise, because God had promised. He wasn't the son of fleshly means, he was the son of the promise of God.

And despite Abraham's weak flesh, and despite him doubting God, and despite him in his life number of times, trusting in the arm of flesh, you know, he lied about Sarah being his sister so that he wouldn't get killed, he went down into Egypt to trust the arm of flesh when things were getting tough, using a fleshly way to achieve God's promise, yet Abraham believed God would give him a son. And more, and more than that, he believed that God would give him his, God's son, the seed of the woman, to crush Satan, to fulfill the law, to make him righteous for that kingdom.

Abraham's two sons and their mothers symbolize God's two covenants for dealing with mankind. The son of Hagar, Hagar and her son Ishmael, symbolizes the covenant of works, which leads to inescapable bondage. But Sarah and her son Isaac, the free woman, who wasn't a slave, the free woman, that was fulfilled by promise, because it was impossible by flesh. You know, it says in the scriptures many times, You know, the camel going through the eye of a needle. It's impossible with man. But with God, all things are possible. This was by the promise of God.

The covenant given at Sinai is pictured by Hagar and Ishmael, her son. The covenant of works, which leads to inescapable bondage, because you can never fulfill it, you can never satisfy it. It represents the law given at Sinai. It's in the same rank as Judaism, the earthly Jerusalem. But Sarah, the free woman, verse 26, Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Jerusalem above is not a city. People who these days try to interpret the scriptures in the light of what is happening with the modern-day state of Israel in the Middle East, and the modern-day city of Jerusalem, that pile of literal stones there in the Middle East from which news reports seem to come every other day, they confuse the two together. That is just purely, that's got nothing to do, apart from the fact that it results from the history, but The scriptures talk about the Jerusalem which is above. The Jerusalem which is above is that new Jerusalem, which John saw in his vision in Revelation 21, coming down out of heaven as a bride prepared for her husband. Let's just read it. just to be sure what it says.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Because at this stage of the book of Revelation chapter 21, all the other visions are fulfilled, all are completed. But now he sees a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.

This is the people of God. This is the church of God. This is the bride of Christ, the spiritual Jerusalem. That's what she, Sarah, and Isaac represented, the church which is the bride of Christ, the mother of all spiritual children of the grace of God, verse 27.

Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest not. For the desolate, the desolate, the barren, the one who doesn't bear, has many more children than she which has an husband.

That's quoting Isaiah chapter 54 verse one. It's talking about the fact that whilst in terms of the flesh and the human will, it seems like nothing can come from it, but in the purpose of God. The children of promise are born. She has many more children than she which has a husband

It's what it says in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10 Christ came to bring many sons to glory to bring many sons to glory because We're not come to the covenant of works, which condemns, but we've come to Mount Sinai, and to the city of the living God, and to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus,

love it how it puts it like that don't you you know we're talking about God who spoke at Sinai and they were terrified and that's not where we come where do we come and to Jesus and to Jesus Savior and to say to the Savior who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling his blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel

Abel's blood cried out for vengeance, for justice. The blood of Christ cries out for justice, because He has taken away the sins of His people. This is the promise of the covenant of grace.

God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we read of Him in, again, prophetically in Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 18, where He says, behold, I and the children, He, God the Father, has given Him. It says in John 17, In that prayer of Christ, he prays to his father. He acknowledges that the father has given to him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to who? To as many as the father had given to the son.

Behold, I am the children he has given me. so that he leads those people into heaven. Behold, I and the children he has given me. And, you know, I love to quote Psalm 24, where it says, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors. Going into heaven, into that eternal kingdom, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. He's the one who's done, he's fought Satan, he's defeated him. And it says again, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is he? The Lord of hosts.

Behold I and the children he has given me. All who are children of Abraham by faith are what it says in verse 28. We, brethren, you believers, if you believe the same, if you believe this gospel, By sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise, the promise made in the covenant of grace to save a multitude and to take them to be with God forever.

And just as Ishmael mocked Isaac, there, verse 29, he that was born after the flesh, Ishmael persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. You know, that works religion mocks the religion of truth, the religion of God. It mocks it. It persecutes the free heirs of God in Christ.

But all you children of promise, here's what this message is saying. Don't give heed to them whatsoever. This is what Paul was saying to these Galatians. These false teachers, these Jewish teachers coming in at that time, and anybody else who tells you that you have to add to what Christ has done, pay no attention to them, don't have anything to do with them.

The bondwoman and her son had to be cast out of Abraham's household. Only Isaac could be the heir, and only the children of promise, the promise of God in the covenant of grace, can be heir of the kingdom of God.

So all who strive in any degree to possess the promise of God by legal obedience in the flesh, we'll hear some shocking, dreadful words when it comes to that day. Depart from me. But didn't we do all these wonderful religious things in your name? Depart from me. I never knew you.

Do you believe God? Do you believe God? Do you trust his word? Do you look to his word, what should I do? Or do you look to tradition? Do you look to what people have taught us down the years? No, look to what this book says. What saith the scripture?

Do you rest in Christ's accomplished redemption? then you're brethren of Christ and one another, together, children, verse 31, children of the free woman.

So then brethren, brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free woman, saved by grace alone, made righteous in Christ, who is made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. What more could we need? What glorious liberty? Amen.