to take your Bibles and turn
back to Genesis chapter 16. Genesis chapter 16. We're going
through this precious book, verse by verse. And now we've come
to the 16th chapter. I want to tell you just a little
something. I had prepared this message,
these first six verses, that I read a moment ago concerning
Sariah telling Abram, because of her barrenness, she wanted
to give her handmaid, Hagar, to Abram that a son, a seed,
might be born into their family. And having prepared that message,
after I prepared it, I came to the church this morning and felt
impressed to preach, Lord willing, preach the message that I've
prepared for tonight, preach it Sunday morning. But I've prepared
another message pertaining to this passage and a passage that
I'm about to read in Genesis chapter 21 concerning this situation
that we just read. Now we read concerning Saria
giving Hagar to Abram. He took her to wife and she conceived
and whenever she conceived Hagar despised Saria. And we'll deal
with that, Lord will, I'll deal with that part Lord willing.
But it was the issue of her conception, being with child. Now I want
you to turn in your Bibles to chapter 21 of Genesis and I'd
like to read the first 11 verses and then afterwards We'll get
into the message for the evening. Genesis chapter 21 verses 1 to
11. 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. And Abraham called the name of
his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son
Isaac, being eight days old as God had commanded him. And Abraham
was 100 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 that Sarah should have given children suck?
For I have born him a son in his old age. And the child grew
and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast
in the 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." Now, tonight I want
us to look, Lord willing, as I said, I'll look at those first
six verses, Lord willing, this Sunday morning. We'll deal with
them in their verse-by-verse order. But tonight I want us
to look at the trial of Abram, and may the Lord instruct us
according to the Lord's glory and for our good, and I want
us to consider the particulars of this two passages that we've
read, but I want us to look at something that had the Spirit
of God never revealed to us the meaning of those two passages,
Genesis chapter 6 verses 1 to 6 and Genesis 21 verses 1 to
11. Had the Spirit of God never told us and explained to
us what was actually happening, our hearts would have never entered
in to the depth of what we just read. I want us to realize that
we're going to read out of Galatians 4 in just a minute concerning
these passages and it sets forth two covenants. A covenant of
works and a covenant of grace. A covenant that is established
by a man trying to obey God by his own works and deeds, which
is only bondage, and a covenant that declares total and absolute
liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ. A covenant of grace. I want you now to take your Bibles
and turn with me to Galatians chapter 4. And we're going to
stay here for a few minutes, probably the rest of the service.
And I just want us to look and see what the Lord has to say
about this passage of Scripture that we've read. Now what's been
set forth in these passages is what's called an allegory. And it's explained. An allegory
is a story, a true event. A true event that explains or
sets forth a spiritual meaning. And it's about these covenants
that we read about. And a covenant is an agreement
between at least two or more parties with all the stipulations
placed in the covenant, the covenant based upon the fulfillment of
both parties' parts to do what they say that they're going to
do to fulfill the promise. It's a covenant. Now, Galatians
chapter 4, And I'm going to begin in verse 21. Here's what we really read. We
just read a story. Two passages of scripture. One
of them was about a woman that was buried. Her name was Sarai. She was buried. And God had given
Abraham a promise. Said, I'm going to give you seed
and your seed is going to be a blessing to all the nations.
Look up at the stars, it's going to be, if you can number the
stars, that's how many, it's going to be the number of your
seed. If you can number them, that's how many you're going
to have. And you're going to have this promise, I'm telling
you it's going to be. And Sarai, they talked, sure,
and she's explaining something to Abram. She said, I'm barren. I'm barren. And being barren,
I don't perceive how we're going to have a nation, a seed. Now I do have this handmaid.
I do have her. She's an Egyptian and I would
tell you that I'm willing to give her to you for wife. He took her for wife. He married
her. And the scripture says ten years
went by. He was in Canaan. And he hearkened,
he listened. It wasn't like it just probably
happened overnight, but he mulled it around a long time. And he
did. He took her. He took Hagar and
she was found to be with child. And as soon as she was with child,
there was friction. There was a battle that started
going on between Hagar and Saria. Because Hagar got the child.
And Sara, thinking in her mind, this is how The seed that God
has promised is going to come about. This is the way it's going
to be done. I'll give my handmaid to Abram and he'll have a seed
through her which will actually be my child, Sarai's saying,
because she's my handmaid to be my child. And that's the way
we'll do it. That's the way it will be done.
Well, then we read over in Genesis 21 that God made good on His
promise like He always does. And he gave Sarah a child, a
child according to promise. And as soon as Isaac was weaned
and she saw Ishmael mocking him, she told Abraham, she said, I'm
not going to have this. This is going to be cast out.
So there's where we are. Sarah and Abram's attempt to
have a child by a handmaid, and God ended up giving her a promise.
Now, knowing that, Galatians chapter 4, starting in verse
21, the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Galatia, and
he says, Tell me ye that desire to be under the law. Do ye not
hear the law? Now, he said, You that seek to
be justified by the works of the law and seek acceptance with
God by your own ability, your own cunning, your own will, your
own mind. Do you not hear what the law
says? Do you not see that the law never
compromises when it comes to peace or pardon with God, but
rather declares all men guilty because of our inability to hear. You that are saying, and it's
like this today. Everyone that's saying, now I
want to be, I want to get saved. Or people will ask somebody,
how many people here wants to get saved tonight? Raise your
hand if you want to get saved. This is pretty common language
in a lot of circles, believe me. And of course there will
be some that will raise their hand as opposed to going to hell. If you have a choice, if he wants
to get saved, he'll raise his hand. If you want to get saved, all
you have to do is, you know, if you want to come down to the
front after service or come down while we're singing, I'll lead
you in a prayer, and this is all you have to do. And they'll
tell them, give them a few little rules and regulations, and then
they'll explain to them that they're saved. That's all there
was to it. And it's just, it's something
that they did. That's the works of the law.
Something that you do in order to be saved. And Paul says you that desire
to be under the law. You're wanting to be under the
law. Do you hear what the law says? I want you to take your
Bibles. Look at Romans 3, 19 to 20. Romans 3. 19 to 20. Now we know that what
thing soever the law saith It says to them who are under the
law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin." This is the purpose of the law. The law was never given for obedience
unto salvation. The law was given to, number
one, show the perfection of God and His holiness. Number two,
our inability to keep it. There's nothing wrong with the
law. We talk about the law sometimes as if it's bad. It's not bad.
The law is good, holy. The law is good. As I've said
before, what part of love the Lord your God with all your heart
and all your mind and all your soul? What's wrong with that?
There's nothing wrong with that. What's wrong with loving your
neighbor as yourself? What's wrong with do not kill?
What's wrong with do not steal? There's nothing wrong with it.
It's right. It's right. Here's the problem.
We can't do it because of the weakness of our flesh. But everybody,
as a general rule, and their brother, as they say, that is
found in these assemblies is telling people, this is all you
have to do in order to be saved. There's only two messages, either
salvation by works, which they say it's not works, and it is,
or it's salvation by grace. So you that desire to be under
the law, do you hear what the law says? It says it back in
Galatians 4, 22-23, for it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the
one by a bondmaid, 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 promise. We just read that. We read that
in Genesis 16, Genesis 22. It was going to be two kids,
two boys. One of them was won totally by
the works of the flesh. I mean, by natural generation.
Sarai said to Abram, look, I'm barren and so to make good on
God's word that you would have an heir, take my handmaid and
we'll have a son, we'll have a seed with her. And therefore, God's word will
come to pass. That's the way we'll do it. Here's
what Paul wrote, as it's written. Abraham had two sons, one by
bondmaid, the other by free. He who was of the bondwoman was
born after the flesh, after the will of man, after man's ability. A man thinking that he could
do something for God. But he of the free woman was
by promise. That's by grace. So he said, Abraham had two sons. Ishmael and Isaac, one born by
Hagar, another born by Abram's wife, Sarah, and the son born
of the servant Hagar was said to be born of the flesh, of the
will, the works of man, born by man's thoughts, man's will,
man's work. But the son born to Sarah, the
free woman, was born according to God's promise. by grace, by
His will, by God's power. And then verses 24-25 said, now
these things are for an allegory, that historical event that had
a much higher spiritual truth. These things are an allegory,
for these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai which
gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, for this Agar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and
is in bondage with her children. Where it says it answereth, what
it means is it gives a good answer, this is a good illustration.
I'll explain exactly what it is when it says to Jerusalem
which now is. He said these two women Sarah Hagar, he said these two
women is said to be, these are an allegory. And the thing is
when we read that account, had I just read that account, and
I'm sure it would be like this with you, had I read that account
I would have seen, I would have tried to see the truth in what
was going on and the struggles and all that kind of stuff, but
I would have never come to the conclusion that the relationship
between those two women and Abraham and those two boys was set forth
by God to be a picture, an allegory to preach the difference between
attempted salvation by works of man and of the flesh and true
salvation by the grace of God. I'd have never gotten that out
of it. But this is what the Spirit of God said that this whole situation
was about. These two women and their two
sons represent two Jerusalems, I'll show you in just a minute,
there's two Jerusalems and two covenants. Two distinct and never
to be reconciled covenants. One is a covenant of works, one
is a covenant of grace. One covenant, that covenant represented
by Hagar having a son by Abram was a covenant that was represented
by the one made between God and man. A good, it was a good, good
covenant. An honorable covenant. It was
the law that was given on Sinai. That's what he just read. We
just read, which things are an allegory for these are the two
covenants, the one from Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage. That's when God gave the law.
He gave Moses the law. And he wrote it. He wrote those
10 commandments on tablets of stone with his finger. The finger
of God wrote those on Mount Sinai and he gave them to Moses to
give to the people. And he said this is a covenant. But it was a covenant that gendereth
to bondage. Why? Because they couldn't keep
it. They couldn't do it. There's the law, and the law
doesn't change. The law is good, but I can't
do it because of the weakness of my flesh. This covenant that was given
on Mount Sinai to Moses, that one that was represented by Hagar. Hagar. That's what that relationship
between Hagar and Abraham and Sarai represented. It was that
representation of that covenant that was given on Mount Sinai. It was works you do and live. And that was the same covenant
illustrated in the garden when God told Adam He said, Of every
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for
in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. You know
what God told him? Obedience is life. Obedience is life. Disobedience
is death. That's the covenant that gendereth
to bondage. And this is what that relationship
with Hagar and Abram was represented with. This is that covenant which
a man, because of his dead heart, thinks he can do, and everybody
and their brother, again, is telling people. This is what
you have to do to be saved. I'm telling you, do you hear
what the law says? You're telling people do this
in order to, you know. What they're saying is you have
within your power by doing something, something. You can, I mean you
can take something like faith and you can say all you have
to do is believe. And you're resting in your faith now. Now
faith now has become a work. Without faith it's impossible
to please God, but when faith becomes a work, And you know
what I'm talking about. When faith becomes a work, it's
bondage. What men are saying is this,
by your own self, by your work, by your will, you can make yourself
an heir of God. And a joint heir with Christ
by your own ability. Now that's a pretty tall order.
You can make yourself an heir of God, what? By doing something,
no? And by doing something in order
to be saved, what you're doing is you're revealing your inability. And believers do admit to good
works. There's no doubt about that.
Believers do admit, but these works are evidences. of our salvation. They're not the source of it.
So again, the allegory concerning Hagar sets forth and declares
that a sinner's freedom from the bondage of sin and eternal
death is totally, their freedom from death is totally according
to their ability to keep God's holy and righteous law. That's
what they're saying. When you say, all you have to
do is this. Let me say something. All you
have to do is do something like this, but there better not be
one infraction. And it better have never happened
before. If it already happened before,
too late. Too late. If you ever sinned before, whatever
you think you just did in order to be saved by this act, It's
not going to work. By the deeds of the law, no man
is going to see God. So this covenant, it allows for
no deviation. It's got to be absolutely perfect
righteous obedience in word, in thought, in deed. This is
the covenant that was given on Mount Sinai. And the scripture
says this was the allegory. concerning the covenant of works. Whenever Sarah said to Hagar
and said to Abram, I want you to take my handmaid and we're
going to help God. God said there's going to be
an heir. We're going to make one. We're going to make one.
That's what they were saying. We're going by our own ability. We're going to produce an heir. God said you're going to have
it, and he will have it, and you will have it. You see, do
you hear what the law says? Do you see the ridiculousness
of this? Concerning the law, keeping of
the law, James 2.10 says, for whosoever shall keep the whole
law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all. Now that
covenant According to the scriptures that we just read, it is a covenant
that gendereth or produces bondage. Bondage. Always under the bondage
and the terror of God's law. I've told you this before, but
it just came to my mind again, so I'll mention it again. I can
distinctly remember. Whenever I felt as though, and
I was just listening to what I was being told, and I would
walk down the aisle, I'd give my hand to the preacher. And
one time I remember, the first time I ever came down, I remember
I was nine years old. And I came down because my cousin
went down. And I didn't want him getting
saved and me not getting saved. And so he went down, so I went
down. And so we both shook the preacher's hand, and I was baptized. But soon after, I began to think,
you know, I think I just went down because I was going down
because Larry went down. And so I started feeling guilty
about it. And so then I was trying to work
up more sincerity. I was trying to really, I want
to really, really, really, I want to mean it. I want to mean it
like I've never meant it. So I went down again, you know.
And I, again, but you know what that produces? Bondage. Bondage. Was I ever sincere enough? Did
I ever really mean it like I should have? Was I really pleasing to
God? It's bondage. It's always the
terror. Always trying to keep that faithfulness,
but never able to do it. I told you about praying. I want
to pray. I want to seek the Lord. I have
a desire to seek the Lord. And the first thing I know, I'm
thinking about stuff that just doesn't even matter. I'm thinking,
how did I get there? It's just bondage. There's nothing
wrong with the law. It's me. I'm the problem. I cannot produce myself to be
an heir of God, an heir to life eternal because of the weakness
of myself. That's the covenant that's represented
by Hagar. And it's the covenant, the scripture
says, that describes Jerusalem, which is now. That's in verse
25. This Hagar is Mount Sinai in
Arabia and answereth. It's a picture. It's a picture.
It answereth. It shows what it's like concerning
Jerusalem, which is now. The Jews who desired and thought
that they could seek and please God by their works, by sacrifices. That's Jerusalem which is now. But the scripture says in verse
26, but Jerusalem which is above, there's another Jerusalem. Not
the Jerusalem which is now, which is in bondage, the scripture
says, last part of verse 25, with her children. And that's
what the law is, it's bondage. It's trying to keep it. I love
the law of God. Again, my problem is me. I can't
keep the law. But Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all. Now, the Spirit of
God now is going to describe this other covenant. The one
with Hagar, that was one that was given on Mount Sinai, the
law. But this other describes the
covenant of grace, which is according to the promise of God in Christ
Jesus. Now that covenant set forth through
Sarah, who the scripture says was barren. Remember that's what
it said in chapter 16. She was barren. And she couldn't
produce an heir according to her own ability. And this covenant
is the covenant of promise based not upon our obedience, but His
obedience. What a difference! One covenant
which gendereth bondage is a covenant that God gave on Mount Sinai
that said, you do this, here's the law, here's the law, you
do this and you live. And I can't, I can't. Trying to keep the law, I have
no hope. But here's another covenant, a covenant of grace, a covenant
of mercy set forth. And this covenant of grace, again,
was made not between Jehovah and men, born in Adam, as God
told Adam, or as God gave the law on Mount Sinai, you give
this to the people, here's the law. But this covenant is made
between God and God. Jehovah and His only begotten
Son, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, that covenant that declares,
do this, O Christ, obey me, my Christ. Satisfy me and my broken
law, O Christ, in all that you represent, all that I've chosen
in you, all for whom you have established righteousness by
your perfect obedience to me, that righteousness that is imputed
to them, all of that righteousness that is theirs now in you, all
that you live for and die for, shall live. There's the difference. Here's the allegory. Sarah is
a picture of the covenant of grace. How's that? She was barren. She was barren. What could she do? Nothing. She couldn't produce an heir.
She couldn't. Oh, the covenant of works said,
you know, do this and take her, that's flesh, and there's the
heir. God said, that's not the heir. That's not the heir. The
heir is according to promise. Look at verse 27, an amazing
passage of Scripture. For it is written, Rejoice thou
barren that bearest not. Let me just say this, rejoice
you that God has shown you that we're barren and we can't do
it. We're without strength. Rejoice
thou barren that bearest not. Break forth and cry thou that
travailest not for the desolate That's us, that's Sarah, hath
more children than she which hath an husband, meaning Hagar
that had Abram to be her husband to try to produce an heir. You
that are barren, you that are without strength, you that have
been made to know your inability to satisfy God, you be glad. Be glad God's taught you something.
Be glad that God has shown you something of your inability.
Just think, I'm sure when all of this was going on, Abraham
and Agar and Sarah probably had no earthly idea. They were, I
mean, in their minds, I don't doubt for a second. They were
going through a very troublesome time in their life. How would they ever have known
that the Spirit of God had allowed them to go through that? The
Spirit of God would not allow Sarah to have children. Wouldn't
allow her until later, later, later in her life. Didn't let
her have kids for this reason. to display through these scriptures
the glory of God in giving children by promise, by God's power, by
God's will, by God's ability. Rejoice. Rejoice, for the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the church by promise of many more,
the scripture says, a number that no man can number. Verse 28, now we brethren, as
Isaac was, are the children of promise. Doesn't that rejoice
your heart? I'm so thankful that God would
call me out of the darkness of my sin and unbelief and my ignorance. He didn't leave me where I was.
I'm telling you, I reeked. I reeked of it. Reeked. Proud. Proud. Oh, we're not. Isaac was promised to Abram. And all of God's sheep were promised
and given unto the Lord Jesus Christ in electing grace, conceived
and born by the Spirit of God, not according to their ability,
but rather by the power of Almighty God. Made to be according to
promise, heirs of God. born of God, not by the will
of the flesh. 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. Whenever, we read just a while
ago, whenever Ishmael, son of the flesh, mocked the son of
promise as as Ishmael did to Isaac, as Hagar did to Sarah,
so do those that trust in themselves, that they're righteous. They'll
mock you. They'll make fun of you. They'll
laugh at you. They despise others who rest
only in the Lord Jesus Christ for righteousness and salvation
with Him totally according to God's covenant, to show mercy.
They'll mock you. They'll laugh at you, they'll
tell you, you're nuts, you're not saved, you've got to... No, no you don't. Salvation is
of the Lord. Salvation is by the grace of
God. Verse 30, 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. Now, we see
this truth. We just read this truth. And
Lord willing, when we get to chapter 21, we'll take those
scriptures. But, you know, works and grace, they can't stay together.
They're just like oil and water. They're contrary one to the other. It's either salvation by law
and works, or it's salvation by the grace of God. And the
bondwoman and her son, just as they were cast out from the presence
of Abraham and Sarah, does two things. Number one, a believer
comes out from among them. The Lord is pleased to save one
of His own and they're in the midst of a place where the gospel
is not being preached. They're out of there. I'm not
going to listen to that. But how about these old, the
old baggage that we had with ourselves? Paul said, you know,
over in Philippians 3, he said, you know, I was Hebrew of the
Hebrews, you know, I was circumcised on the right day. He said, I
count all that but done, cast it out. I have no confidence
in the flesh, cast it out. Verse 31, so then brethren, we
are not children of the bond woman, but of the free. Brethren, we know because God
has given us a heart to believe Him. We believe Him. What's the foundation of our
hope in Christ? I believe Him. Abraham believed
God. Faith in Christ, not faith as
a work, but faith as the evidence of life, salvation, faith that
was given to you. We're the children of God, we're
not children of the bondwoman, we're children of the free, and
the Lord has given us a good hope in Him who is our hope. He's the promise, He's the assurance
of our peace and acceptance with God totally. on His imputed righteousness
to us. I believe. I believe. I believe
Him. I believe when He went to the
cross. I believe He knew me. He said, I know my sheep. I call
them by name. Somebody said, do you think He
actually knew Marvin Stoniker? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. He said, I know my sheep. I know
them. And that gives me great comfort to know when he died,
he died for me. He died for me. I pray God bless
this to our hearts for his glory and our good. Amen.