Would you open your Bibles again
to Galatians chapter 4? Galatians chapter 4. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is by grace. And God's way of redeeming a
sinner and bringing them into glory is not a cooperation between
God and men. God saves sinners through the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But man's religion is
contrary to this. Man, by nature, believes that
they have to do something to make them acceptable to God. You think about when Adam and
Eve fell, what came natural to them wasn't to cry out for mercy
or cry out for God to save them for grace, they immediately tried
to find a way to cover their own nakedness. And we see that
in Cain as well. The first two religions that
man came up with is a religion of fig leaves and a religion
of fruits, their own labor. And that's what's natural to
man, but that's not how God saves sinners. And most of Christianity
today is Christ plus something. And people say, you know, well,
we believe in salvation by grace, but you find out that there's
something else too. You know, it's their church attendance,
it's their witnessing, their good works, their baptism, something
else. And here in Galatia, some had
come in and said, well, it's good that you believe in Christ,
salvation is in him, but now you need to be circumcised. And
now you need to keep the law of Moses. You know, you're not
under the ceremonial law, but the moral law is important for
you to keep. You're saved, but you need to
walk in a certain way to be sanctified. And Paul said, are you so foolish
having begun in the spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? But this is what is natural to
man. And Paul in this letter has been
declaring how salvation in its entirety is the work of God. And tonight I want us to look
at these two covenants, two births and two natures. So if I had
a title, it would be the two covenants, two births and two
natures. So let's begin reading there
in verse 21. Tell me ye that desire to be
under the law. Do you not hear the law? Have
you ever asked yourself that question? You know, why would
anybody want to be under the law? Why would anybody want this? If you turn back just a page
or two, to Galatians chapter 3 and verse 10. This is a summary
here. It says, for as many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Curse. That is all that
the law can do for a man is curse them. Because it's not you attempting
to keep the law. It's not a person doing their
best effort to keep the law. It's to do them. So why would anybody want to
be under the law when the only way you could be saved by the
law is if you could absolutely keep it perfectly? but and in
verse 11 it says but that no man is justified by the law in
the sight of god it is evident for the just shall live by faith
and that's really the key is being justified in the sight
of god that's what that's what matters is being just a man justifies
themselves in their own eyes but very clearly the scriptures
declare that no man is justified by the law in the sight of god
So here in our text, the Apostle Paul says, tell me ye that desire
to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? He's
not gonna repeat this argument again. He's already pointed this
out, that man can't keep the law. Now the Holy Spirit inspires
him to tell us an account in the Old Testament as an allegory
of the two covenants. So that's what I want us to see.
So let's go back Actually, let's read here on
verses 22 to 26. Tell me ye that desire to be
under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond made, the other by
a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory?
For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. Now, again, this teaches
us that all scripture is given to point us to Christ. This is
to teach us some aspect of the gospel. These events that took
place in the life of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar is not just
to give us a historical account, but to reveal Christ. So let's
go back and look at this. Turn back to Genesis chapter
16. Genesis chapter 16 and I'll give us a summary of a little
bit before this chapter Abraham was about 75 years old and he
was married to Sarah. He had been married to Sarah
for some time. We don't know how long they had
been married, but long enough to where the scriptures declare
that Sarah was barren. So I would imagine they had been
married, you know, not for a year or two years, but for some time
because it points out that Sarah was barren. So Abraham was 75
years old and he was married to Sarah when God called him. And the Lord appeared unto Abraham
and said, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred
unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee
a great nation. This is the first time God says,
I'm going to make of thee a great nation. At this time, he has
no children. And I will bless thee and make
thy name great. Abraham went into the land of
Canaan and he was there for some time and the Lord appeared unto
him again and said, unto thy seed, I will give this land.
So he gave him the promise again. And this time he told him this
land that you're in Abraham, your seed is going to inherit
this land. Now, several more years go by
and Abraham is rich in cattle. He's rich in silver and gold,
but still doesn't have a child. And so the Lord appeared unto
Abraham, and Abraham said, Lord God, what will thou give me,
seeing I go childless? Thou hast given me no seed, and
lo, one of my servant's children is mine heir. And the Lord told
him, this shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come
forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. So now we're
here in chapter 16. 10 years have gone by in the
land of Canaan now. And still no child. So chapter
16 beginning in verse 1. Now Sarah, Abram's wife, bare
him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian,
whose name was Hagar. And Sarah said unto Abraham,
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 and Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarah. This is what
basically what Sarah said, Abraham, it's not happening. This is just
not happening. We've been here for 10 years.
We've got to do something. This is up to us. We have got
to do our part to make God's promise come to pass. You see,
God's promised Abraham for the Messiah to come through your
seed, but it's just not happening. We've got to do something because
God needs our help. Read verse 3 and 4. And Sarah,
Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abraham
had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her
husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and
she conceived. And when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. My wife and I were
talking about this and I told her, I said, well, see, this
is really all Sarah's fault. That's what I told her, jokingly.
And she looked at me without a second. She said, Abraham should
have known better. Immediately is what she said.
Look at verse five. And Sarah said unto Abraham,
my wrong be upon thee. That's exactly what this Sarah
said, too. My wrong be upon thee. I have
given my maiden thy bosom. And when she saw that she had
conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between
me and thee. So here we have Hagar giving
birth to Ishmael. And we'll see here in a second
what this means in our allegory. But let's continue on in the
story, chapter 18. Now 13 more years have gone by. So if y'all are keeping track,
Abraham was 75 when he was called. He had been in the land of Canaan
for 10 years. Hagar and Abraham have the son. 13 more years go by. And here we are in verse number
nine. The Lord and two angels had appeared
unto Abraham. And this is the Lord, and this
is the Lord speaking. And they said unto him, where
is Sarah thy wife? And he said, behold, in the tent.
And the Lord said, and he said, I will certainly return unto
thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sarah thy wife
shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent
door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old
and well stricken in age, and it had ceased to be with Sarah
after the manner of women. That is, she had already gone
through menopause. Therefore Sarah laughed within
herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my
Lord, being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham,
Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child,
which am old? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according
to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah
denied, saying, I laugh not. For she was afraid, and he said,
Nay, but thou didst laugh. All right, one more place here
in chapter 21, beginning in verse one. And the Lord visited Sarah as
he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. This is always the case with
God. This is always the case with
God and only God can speak like this. I am God and there is none
like me. I have spoken it. I will also
bring it to pass. So you can just write this down.
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said and the Lord did unto
Sarah as he had spoken. Verse two, for Sarah conceived
and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which
God has spoken. And Abraham called the name of
his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bared to him, Isaac. All right, so let's turn back
to Galatians now. So Paul, the account that we
just summarized, Paul tells us that this is an allegory of the
covenant of works and grace. So let's think about this for
a moment and we'll start with just three things about covenant
of works, which is Hagar. The covenant of works is summed
up by you doing your part or having some part in salvation.
That's the summary of the covenant of works is you doing something.
having some part in your salvation. That's exactly what Sarah told
Abraham, right? She said, I'm not having any
kids. I'm not getting any younger. We need to do our part to make
God's promise come to pass. The Messiah is supposed to come
from thee. We can't just sit around. What we're going to do
is we're going to take Hagar, and you're going to go in and
have a child with Hagar, and that'll be my son. Doesn't that
just sound ridiculous to you? You're going to go into a Hagar
and then we'll call that son, my son. But that's exactly what
false religion teaches. You know, man is dead in trespasses
and sins, has nothing to offer God, can't redeem himself, can't
pay for his own sins, can't come to Christ, but somehow salvation
is dependent on something that you do. How could that be? This takes on many forms, right? This religion that we're talking
about of Christ plus something. But here's a couple of examples.
One of them is free will, man's free will. It's not in the Bible,
but it goes something like this. God loves everybody. Christ died
for everybody. And it's up to you to make your
decision for Christ. God wants to save you, but he's
not going to force it. That's salvation by works. There
is no hope in a message like that. There's no hope because
the Bible clearly teaches that man left to himself would never
come to Christ. You know, our Lord said, our
Lord said, search the scriptures for in them you think that you
have eternal life. And they are they which testify
of me. And ye will not come to me that you might have life.
There's man's will. You will not come. that you might
have life. In the very next chapter, our
Lord said, no man can come to me except the Father which has
sent me, draw him. So man doesn't have the will
or the ability to come. And so a message that relies
on you doing something, you making your decision for salvation,
there's no hope in that. Because God has to save us. We can't save ourselves. There's
no gospel in that. Another example is something
like this, you know, salvation is by grace, that's true, but
your walk, your personal sanctification is something that you need to
work on. And you need to pray more, you need to attend more
services, you need to quit doing this, you need to have a clean
life. And this one sometimes can be more subtle. It's where
the emphasis of the message is on. And at the end of the day,
that message has you looking within versus looking to Christ.
And so this form of false religion is sometimes a little bit more
subtle, but religion talks about a transformation. It talks about
progressively getting better, but the gospel is salvation today.
The gospel is salvation today and religion ends with the forgiveness
of sins. The gospel begins with your sins
are forgiven. Religion talks about a changed
life. The gospel talks about a new life, being born again. There's a difference. So first
of all, the covenant of works is summed up by you doing your
part or having some part in salvation. Second of all, think about this.
Hagar was elevated to a position that she was not supposed to
be in. Right? Sarah was Abraham's wife. The
law was not given as a means to generate life, right? Just as Hagar should have never
been given to Abraham for this purpose. Think about this. When Adam fell in the garden,
he was under the covenant of works. Adam was under the covenant
of works and perfect man was unable to keep the law. So when
God gave the nation of Israel the law, was he reinstituting
the covenant of works? No, no, it was never given as
a means to generate life. The Israelites misused the law
and put it in a position to supposedly give life, but that was not its
purpose. And the same was true of Hagar.
That was not her role. God, and listen, God never did
recognize Ishmael as a son, right? And that's the point. In Genesis
22, God told Abraham, take thy son, thine only son, Isaac. So Hagar was elevated to a position
that she was not supposed to be in, and that child was never
recognized as a son. And the third thing is Hagar
despised Sarah. And works religion despises grace
because it takes their hope away. If you're trusting in your works,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that declares that all
of our righteousnesses, all of our works are as filthy rags,
just totally takes the hope away of somebody who's trusting in
their own ability. And so Hagar despised Sarah and
works religion generates sons who mock children of grace. People
who are in false religion and are in some form, they're in
salvation by works, when you talk to them about the grace
of God and salvation in Christ, they mock you over that. Oh,
well, you just think you have all the answers. You think you
know everything. You think you're better than everybody. And that's
the complete opposite of salvation by grace. Ishmael mocked Isaac. So those are three things about
the covenant of works. Let's consider a few things about
the covenant of grace. In the covenant of grace, God
gets all the glory. God gets all the glory. You know,
Sarah had been through menopause. It was impossible for her to
have a child. It was impossible. So when Isaac
was born, do you think Sarah thought that it was through her
own strength? that she had conceived. You think
everybody was high-fiving Abraham and Sarah? Not a chance. Not a chance. God gets all the
glory, and in the covenant of grace, God the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit get all the glory and salvation. God the
Father elected a people before the foundation of the world and
gave them to his Son. God the Son agreed to be the
surety for said people and to do everything that was required
to save them. You know, God the Father has
always looked to Christ for everything that is required for my salvation.
Always. God the Father has never looked
to me. He has always looked to my surety. He's looked to my surety to pay
for my sin debt, to establish a righteousness that I couldn't
establish. on my own, to be my wisdom, my
sanctification, my righteousness, everything. God has always looked
to Christ for everything with regards to my salvation, with
regards to the salvation of his people. And, you know, just like God
visited Sarah in the exact right point in time, so is true of
the Holy Spirit when he comes and he applies the word to your
heart, gives us this new birth. So the covenant of grace, God
gets all the glory. Number two, Isaac was a child
of promise, not of the flesh. Sarah's flesh couldn't produce
life just like our flesh can't produce Life spiritual life. It takes God to give us life
The new birth is a new creation And so I wanted to spend a few
moments on this and the new birth and if you will turn with me
to these places Because this is this isn't I'm supposed to
say this is important, but it's all important but turn with me
to John chapter 1 and I want us to think about the new birth,
because the new birth being a new creation, only God can create,
and this really gives God all of the glory. John chapter 1,
beginning in verse 10, he was in the world, that is, God the
eternal son, the word of God, he was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto
his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. You know, it says they that the
world was made by him. He who created all things. He
came into this world. The world knew him not, you know,
some of them thought he was a good man. Some of them thought he
was a prophet, but they didn't know that he was the son of God.
And they didn't know him, but our text says that some people
received him. And verse 12 says, but as many
as received him. Do you know how you received
the Lord Jesus Christ? It says it here in our text,
if you look down to the end of verse 12, even to them that believe
on his name. To receive the Lord Jesus Christ
is to believe on his name. And why did some people receive
the Lord Jesus Christ? Why did some people believe on
him and others did not? Look at that in verse 13, which
were born not of the will, not of blood, nor the will of flesh,
nor the will of man, but of God. They believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ because they were born. That's why. So first of all, the new birth
is by the will of God and the new birth is the gift of God
through the word of truth. If you want to turn over to James
real quick and see this here. James chapter 1 verse 16. Do
not err my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights
with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning. God is light and in him is no
darkness no variableness and Why I like this verse right before
it talks about him begetting us is this, God does not change
his mind about giving life. God doesn't change his mind.
In the example of Abraham and Sarah that we're looking at,
did God change his mind about Isaac after they had schemed
up what to do with Hagar? No. And a person who God has
purposed to save in eternity that Christ died for on the cross
is going to be given life. And it's not based on things
that that person does. And this perfect gift that he
gives, he doesn't take away. So if you have been given life,
it's eternal life and you can't lose it. But what I wanted to
get to here is in. Verse 18 of his own will, begot
he us with the word of truth, so we're begotten with the word
of truth. God doesn't use a watered down
message to save his people. God uses the word of truth to
regenerate sinners. He uses the gospel. Does the
gospel declare that all men by nature are born sinners? It does,
so we preach it. Does the gospel declare that
all of our works are filthy rags and we have nothing to offer
God? It does. So we preach it. And does the
gospel declare that Christ died for sinners, for the ungodly,
not for righteous men and women, but for no count double dead
sinners? It does. Thank God it does. So do we have anyone here that's
ungodly? Because if there's anybody here
who's ungodly in the audience, I have good news. The gospel
is good news if you're in that category. And lastly, the new
birth is of incorruptible seed. Look over a page into Peter,
chapter one, verse twenty three. says, being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Not of corruptible seed. Our
first birth, our first birth was with corruptible seed, right? And the seed is corrupt, so we're
born corrupt and we live a corrupt life because the seed is corrupt. but the new birth is of incorruptible
seed." It says that right here, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible. And it remains incorruptible.
The new man is holy. His new birth, the new man is
holy, like we read in Ephesians 4 says, And that you put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. So this, this new man that, that
we are, if you're, if you've been born again, this new man
is holy. And this is so important. This
is so important because that which is born of the flesh is
flesh. And that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. The old man. never gets any better. Never. And I'm just as sinful
today as I was when I first came to Christ. I can say like Paul,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And at the same time,
I have an inner man that delights in the law of God. God is not working with the flesh. Let me try to illustrate this. When Sarah and I moved into our
new house, we had one of those Ninja blenders. And this Ninja
blender was dropped. And so it was broken during the
fall, this blender. And it has a lid with a glass
and a blade in it. And that top part was broken. And so Sarah thought that maybe
she would go online and buy a replacement, because there was something salvageable
on that blender. So turns out you can buy a new
blender and it's cheaper. So we ended up replacing it.
But here's the point. When we fell and we were broken,
God's estimation is that there's nothing salvageable. You see,
Sarah thought there was something salvageable in that blender,
and that's kind of how religion is. You've got something to work
with there. The flesh, there's nothing good. In our fall, if we were the blender,
it would have been the case, the motor, the whole thing was
destroyed. There's nothing to work with. God is not working
with our flesh. And God's estimation is every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually.
And so when we are born again, we're given a new nature, but
the old man doesn't go away. And so he's, and he stays with
us for the rest of our lives. So this can sometimes make our
experience in this world somewhat difficult. And I know I've run
out of time, but I'm just going to say these real quickly about
the new man. As an example, faith, for instance. The new man only believes God.
The old man never believes God. And that the new man believes
that Jesus is the Christ, you know, that's what the scripture
says, it says, do you, you know, if you believe that Jesus is
the Christ, you've been born again. And I'll move on because we're out
of time, but repentance. Repentance is primarily a change
of mind. When you have one nature, your
thoughts about God are very low. When you have one nature, your
thoughts about God are low. In summary, what the Lord said
is, you thought that I was altogether such as one as yourself. And
so our brains are constantly manufacturing idols. And by nature,
you think God can sweep sin under the rug, that he's unjust, he's
variable, not truly sovereign. But when you have a new nature,
you are in all of God. When you have a new nature, that's
where this fear comes from, reverence of God. You love his attributes,
his holiness, his righteousness, his justice, his wisdom, his
power. If you only have one nature, you don't think very much about
God. When you only have one nature, the old man, you don't think
very much about Christ. Christ is a Savior that maybe
can save, you know, it's up to you to do something. You don't
really think much about Christ. When you have the new man, he's precious to you. He's precious
to you. He's the victorious, conquering
Savior. He's everything that you need
and you want to be found in him. When you only have one nature,
you don't really think much about sin either. When you have one
nature, you have a worldly sorrow that worketh unto death, but
not godly sorrow that leadeth to repentance. Love. The new man loves God. The new
man loves God. The old man is enmity with God. And sin, the old man does nothing
but sin. The old man does nothing but
sin, but the new man delights in the law of God and does not
sin. And so finally, one more thing
on the covenant, Isaac was born free. If you've been born again, you've
been born free. Hagar, which represents the covenant
of works, was a slave all of her life. She was in bondage
and her son, her and her son were never free. And her son
was never the heir. And that's all that works religion
can produce is bondage. But if you've been born again,
you've been born free. What have you been born free
to do? Free to worship Christ. free to worship Christ. Before,
when you had one nature, you could not believe God. You could
not worship. But you've been born again. You've
been born free. Worship Him. Trust Him. Bill,
you're going to lead us in a song? Amen. Let's all stand.