Well, as you're turning in your
Bibles to Galatians chapter 4, we have before us the story of
Ishmael and Isaac, Hagar and Sarah. And if there's one thing
that is extraordinarily evident on the surface of the Scriptures,
it is possible, as Nicodemus and others did, to go a long,
long way in religion and look to be very zealous and seem to
know the Word of God and seem to be part of the covenant community
of God and be lost. Lost. I went to India as a missionary,
a zealous missionary. I was given free access, free
tuition and other things at one of the big Bible colleges in
Sydney. I was leading men's Bible study
groups and doing all sorts of other things. I was an elder
and on the school board. I was as busy as you could be. And I didn't know the Gospel. The great, great mercy of the
Lord in the lives of people is to open their eyes, to show them,
to show them what they are and to show them who the Lord Jesus
is and how He saves sinners. Someone has described preaching
as describing and showing people God's way of salvation. Such is laid out before us in
the scriptures of the deceitfulness of the heart of man. And there's nothing more deceitful
to men than to be religious. Satan loves for his servants
and for his minions to be religious and to be zealous in religion. And as we see in the book of
Galatians, there was a servant of God, blessed of the Lord. Here he is in a situation that
should cause us to tremble. Here he is in the book of Galatians
defending himself, defending his character, defending his
gospel, The great heresy of the Galatian
letter that Paul is dealing with is the heresy of progressive
sanctification. It's all very well for you to
acknowledge that Jesus has paid the penalty for your sins, but
now you can get rid of the presence of sin in your lives by going
back to the law and doing and doing and doing. We have, sadly,
borne witness to people who have told us that they've got rid
of nearly all the sins out of their lives. Only a couple left. Just the occasional slip-up. Not so. Not so with God-bought
people. The Scriptures are just full
of pictures again and again of the fact that the real Church
of God is the remnant church, and it's in the midst of a huge
religious world. So Jerusalem is pictured in the
Scriptures as both the Jerusalem above, which we'll read about
in Galatians 4 in a minute, which is the genuine, the real church
of God, just as Israel is pictured as the Israel of God, and Israel
is pictured as all those people that came out of Egypt. But sadly
they died in their hundreds and hundreds of thousands in unbelief
and in rebellion against God. I love what Zephaniah says, it's
very, very instructive in Zephaniah 3 verse 12. He says about Jerusalem
in judgment, he says, and about his people in there, he says,
I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor
people. So in the midst of a world of
successful and boastful Christianity, religion, I'll leave in the midst
of that Jerusalem an afflicted and poor people and they shall
trust in the name of the Lord." In fact, that word trust can
be translated refuge. They shall take refuge in the
name of the Lord. They'll take their refuge in
who God is as he describes himself in the volume of the book and
as he describes and as he's revealed, particularly in the Lord Jesus
and him crucified. I leave in the midst of that
religious world a meek and humble, afflicted and poor people." Such
in a sense is the spirit of Paul as he writes this letter, as
he wrote in Romans 9. He writes with tears streaming
down his face as he thinks about the destiny of people that he
cares about and loves. If you turn to Galatians 4 verse
21, we'll read to the end of the chapter. And he asks a question
of them, as he has throughout this book. And he says, tell
me you that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the
law? Tell me you desire to be under
what you believe God has proclaimed for you to do. Haven't you heard? Haven't you heard it? For it
is written, He goes to this remarkable story which is so familiar, that
Abraham had two sons, one by the 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 promise. Which things are an allegory?
For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai which
gender us, which produces, gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and answer us to the Jerusalem which now is. and is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all." The us there is a
reference to Paul and the brethren that he is writing from, and
the brethren in the Galatian Church who will respond by the
grace of God. She's the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice thou
barren that bearest not, and break forth and cry thou that
travailest not. For the desolate has many more
children than she which has a husband." Sarah was seemingly desolate,
unable to produce. But she's the one that will have
many more children. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are children of promise. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. Even so has it always been. Cain persecuted his brother Abel. It will happen in this world
until the Lord Jesus comes back again. It is part of the heritage
of the saints of God. 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 bondwoman. but of the free. We looked a little while ago
in verse 27, and in verse 22, Paul begins his discussion by
saying, it is written, it is written, in verse 30, he says
the same thing, doesn't he, in a sense, what saith the scripture? Paul bases all of what he says
about God and what he says about man on the Scriptures. It's always based on the Scriptures. Only when the Spirit of God takes
His Word and makes it living and active in the hearts of His
people do they ever respond to the Gospel. And I do quote that
verse from 1 Peter 1.23 Because it's become a verse that's
been quite remarkable, and I think in my own experience, in my own
life, it's the same, and I trust it's the same for many of you,
is that the Word of God, the Word of God was a book of rules
and do's and don'ts, and the Word of God was able to be used
for us to bring people under some sort of bondage. But when
the Gospel comes, when the Gospel comes, All of a sudden, the Word
of God becomes a completely different book altogether. We see that
it's a book about Him. We see that it's a book. A book
from God about an eternal covenant. A book from God about eternal
everlasting promises. You see in verse 25 of 1 Peter
it says, the Word of God endures forever. All this world passes
away and the Word of God endures forever. And this is the Word
which by the Gospel is preached unto you. What Peter is saying that without
the Gospel, the Word of God is never preached to you. That's exactly where Nicodemus
went in religion, didn't he? You think about Nicodemus. It
says in John 3, he was the teacher of Israel. Now we mustn't think
that they were ignorant people, they were extraordinarily intelligent
people and they spent their whole lives studying the Old Testament
and memorising it and knowing it and doing it. And Nicodemus
was the teacher of Israel. Brilliant, brilliant man. And he didn't have a clue about
a single word. He could recite it. Many of those
people could start at Genesis 1-1 and just keep reciting and
keep reciting for hours and hours and hours and hours and get it
perfect. and they didn't have a clue about
a single word of it. We are totally dependent upon
God to have any understanding of His Word, to have any understanding
of who we are, to have any understanding of the world that we live in. Only the Word of God, only the
Word of God identifies the bondwoman. What a great command, what a
strong command. You are to cast out, says God,
you are to cast out the bondwoman and her son. Tough, tough thing. Cast them out. Expel them. and it will happen. It will only
happen as the Gospel takes root in the lives of God's people.
So the Galatian heresy is the heresy that surrounds us all
the days of our lives in all of this religion. As I said,
it teaches a progression You can be free to some extent from
the presence of sin in your life if you go to the law and your
works and your effort. It's only grace. Paul has shown
us that it is only grace. How is the bondwoman going to
be cast out of this Galatian church? He was actually saying
that there is now going to be a division in this church. The
children of Sarah and the children of Hagar are going to be separated. They are going to be divided
by the Gospel. They are going to be divided
by who God is. and how He works in the lives
of His people. They're going to be separated
by Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And as much as it's strong language
and as much as it was a strong thing in the life of Abraham,
it's not something that the children of God have to trouble themselves
about doing, because as with so much of God's commands, they
are actually His promises. The bondwoman is to be cast out
when she arises in our lives, the bondwoman is to be cast out
when she arises in our churches, the bondwoman is to be cast out. Eventually the bondwoman will
be cast out, out from the presence of God in Heaven. You see one
of the errors isn't it, is that people think that when there's
perceived sin in the life of someone, what they need to do
is to have some rules. If you can just sort of put a
hedge around this person, and if we can just get alongside
them and tell them some do's and don'ts and do's and don'ts.
See, the solution, the biblical solution to the perceived sin
in the life of the believer is not more law, but it's more grace. It's hearing more about the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's seeing Him. It's seeing
Him through the eyes of faith, suffering the wrath of God, hanging
on that cross, bleeding and dying. If the Gospel of Him, the Gospel
about Him, doesn't work in the hearts of people. No sets of
laws and rules are going to do it. So the law, according to
the scriptures, according to what is written, it is the power
of sin. It is the law of sin and death.
It is administration of death. To go back to the law is to go
back under it. to put yourself under it. Imagine
living underneath all of that law. It sits above you. It sits above you and all it
ever does is condemn 100% of your life. Always. It condemns every thought, every
action. It even condemns your best desires. You have never kept them, brothers
and sisters. And what it demands What it demands
is death. And when it has death, it is
satisfied. That's why I love what Paul says
in Galatians chapter 2. He says, I through the law am
dead to the law. The law demands my death. The law demands the death of
every one of Adam's children. And when the law's got death,
the law is satisfied. The law has my death in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because He and I were one. I was crucified
with Him. If I'm a believer, I was crucified
with Him. The law and its threatenings
and its punishments are done. It has nothing else to say. You
might as well go up to the cemetery up there at Nowra and read out
a list of charges against someone buried in one of the graves up
there. You could find a bunch of them, couldn't you, if you
knew some of them? It's as meaningless as that.
To go back to the law. is to turn away from the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is as simple as that. So the answer to the abuse of
the Gospel is more Gospel, more of the Gospel of grace, more
of preaching His faithfulness, His eternal love for His people,
His sin-bearing death, His perfect righteousness. And God, by His Spirit, will
cause His people to flee. I can't read all of them, but
I have pages if I wish to write them all out. But everywhere
in the Scriptures where you encounter an instruction from the Lord
regarding false teaching of any sort whatsoever, Anything that
denies the person and the character and the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, anything that denies the gospel of free and
sovereign grace in him, anything that denies that, God just has
one word to people. He doesn't say walk away, he
says flee. Everywhere he says flee. He only has one word. Flee means
to leave in terror that you might be caught up in it. Come out
of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sin, that
you receive not of her plagues. My people, go out in the midst
of her, and deliver every man his soul from the fierce anger
of the Lord." Again and again and again, there's hardly a book
in the Scriptures where God doesn't say to His people, just please.
Don't stay and debate or ever join with them in any religious
activity whatsoever, just flee. Come out of her, come out of
her, my people, that you not be a partaker of her sins. And he's talking about her religious
doctrines, her religious ceremonies and her blasphemies. Come out
of her and be not a partaker of her sins that you receive
not of her plagues. You see, it is the judgment of
God. It is the judgment of God on proud, arrogant people. who will not bow to what this
word says. It is the judgment of God to
bring false religion into this world. Please don't think because
you see false religion and please don't think because this is the
day of small things. It's always been the day of small
things. Please don't think that God's not sitting on His throne.
Absolutely. And please let us never think
that God sends people to judgement without them being fully 100%
responsible for their sins. So the Galatian Church is now
in a very serious situation. You can imagine what it was like
when this letter from Paul was read out. What an extraordinary scene it
must have been. Those people that had come in
from Jerusalem, that put people back under the law, they were
there as the leaders of that church. That's how they got to
be influential over all of these people. That's how they got to
entice them. They weren't immoral people.
They weren't wicked people. In fact, one of the problems
we have so often is that we think the Pharisees were wicked and
evil people in their morality and in their behaviour. They
were self-righteous. But if you'd been in Nicodemus's
house, you would probably have been amazed at how delightful
he was to his wife, and how nice and warm he was to his friends,
and how much he loved his grandkids, and how generous a host he was. That's why Paul says again and
again in this letter, as it is written, as it is written, as
it is written, if we are going to see and find out who the bond
woman is, we must go to the Word of God and not look through the
eyes of our flesh. cast out the bondmen, come out
from among them. There is no question that as
believers we want to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. We want to bend over backwards
to get along with God's saints. We want to make allowances for
their faults and their failings and for the offences that they
cause us. And we never want to alienate
or refuse to graciously embrace someone who is a child of God.
But enemies of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ are not brethren. The prophet rebuked Jehoshaphat
as he came back from helping out Ahab. All he did was help
out Ahab to go to the battlefield and get killed. But then he came
back and the prophet said to Josaphat, should you help the
ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? We just have a strong, strong
word from our God, don't we? All religion, as I keep saying,
denies that salvation is of the Lord from Alpha to Omega. Anyone that denies that all spiritual
life is by free and sovereign grace, and that spiritual life
is somehow enhanced and improved by our activities, is no longer
living under grace, is no longer living in a way that honours
the Lord Jesus Christ. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. We are called upon just to separate
ourselves from all worship that is in any way falsely describing
and proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ. You do them no good. You do them no good by compromising
with them. You do them, nor yourself nor
the Lord, no good by joining with them and thinking that by
getting alongside them you can help them. Go out of her, deliver
every man his soul. There is in this world, as promised
in the scriptures, just so much corrupt religion. God says, do
not be equally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light
with darkness? And what concord has Christ with
Belial? That's 2 Corinthians 6. Or what
part has he that believeth with infidel? And what agreement has
the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the
living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them. I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Therefore come out from among
them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you. And I will be a father unto you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. You see, that's what sanctification
in so many ways is in this life, isn't it? It's God working in
the hearts of His people to reveal Christ in them, the hope of glory. They are the heirs, the promised
children. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh. He's talking about religious
activity, fleshly religious activity which is happening in this Galatian
church. From all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of the Lord. Corrupt worship. Corrupt worship
comes from a corrupted gospel. You see, if you really, really
believe the gospel, then the gospel, the true gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. It's the power of God unto sanctification. It's the power of God unto glorification. It is the power of God. But corrupt
worship proliferates. You see, you don't need the Spirit
of God to make a decision for the Lord Jesus, but you must
have the Spirit of God to be born again. You don't need the
Spirit of God to reform your life. Alcoholics Anonymous and
non-smoking groups and millions of other groups around the world
are reforming people's lives, dietary and otherwise, health-wise,
but you do need You must have the Spirit of God to be regenerated.
You don't need the Spirit of God to make a profession of faith,
but you need the Spirit of God working in your life to get faith.
You don't need the Spirit of God to learn a creed or to be
passionate in defending a creed. Ask Simon, but you do need the
Spirit of God. to learn the Gospel. You don't
need the Spirit of God to stand up and testify, but you do need
the Spirit of God to bow down and worship. You don't need the
Spirit of God to be devoted to religious activity and service,
but you do need the Spirit of God to sit at the Master's feet
and just hear His Word. You don't need the Spirit of
God even to be baptised in water, but you need the Spirit of God
to be baptised into Christ. You don't need the Spirit of
God to recite a prayer, but you need the Spirit of God to pray. You don't need the Spirit of
God to observe the Lord's Supper, but you do need the Spirit of
God to commune with Christ and remember Him. So let's go back
to our text in Galatians 4 in light of all of that. We have
this simple command, simple command from the scriptures, simple command
which is, as we've read earlier in Genesis, the words of Sarah to Abraham,
but then they become the words of God to Abraham. It's a simple
command. And of course, as I said earlier,
one of the wonderful things about the Gospel of free and sovereign
grace is that the commands of God are the promises of God. You see, you have no idea that
there is a bond woman. until the Spirit of God has moved
in your life, you have no idea that you're under that bondage. You actually think, you can actually
think that it's liberty, you can actually think that it's
salvation. You see, the bondwoman Hagar
was productive, wasn't she? The bondwoman Hagar was responsible. She actually had risen to a place
of some considerable prominence in a very, very large community
of people. She was Sarah. Sarah was as a
queen, and she was the queen's handmaiden. You don't get to
those places when you have as many servants as Abraham has
without being really attractive and productive and obedient. But the bondwoman is revealed,
as we saw in Galatians, the bondwoman is revealed in her enmity against
grace. against God's promises, God's
provision, God's providence and God's glory. She becomes an enemy
to Grace. She becomes an enemy to Sarah
when she becomes productive. It was when she saw that she
was pregnant, she then despised Sarah. and her son's enmity rises when
he sees the child of promise." Ishmael mocked Isaac. In fact the Hebrew describes
it as Ishmael not only mocking but Ishmael leading others to
mock Isaac. And we have in Genesis those
chapters that we read so often, Hagar, She fled to Mount Sinai. She fled on her way back to Egypt. Twice she fled to Mount Sinai. But if we go back into Genesis,
we'll see that something is very interesting in terms of Abraham's response. Abraham loved Ishmael. Ishmael was a genuine son of
Abraham. And twice we read that Abraham
called out to the Lord on behalf of Ishmael. In Genesis 17, 18
it says, O that Ishmael may live before thee. Abraham was quite
happy to have Ishmael as his heir. And in Genesis 21, verse
11, we read, After Sarah had said, cast out
this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall
not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And verse 11, and
the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight. It was very grievous in Abraham's
sight. Casting out of the bondwoman
is not something that's easy, it's grievous. It's casting out
something that is close to us. Casting out the bondwoman is
a picture that what has to be cast out is that which is the
product of your own flesh. Isn't that how Paul described
it in Philippians 3? He listed all of the great attributes
that he had, his natural attributes, his historical attributes, his
attributes by birth, his attributes by his works, all of his brilliance. And he says all of that is done,
done, done. It only became done to him and
it was only cast out of his life when the Lord Jesus came in,
when the Lord Jesus was revealed there. You see, Abraham only responded
in casting out Hagar and her son when God spoke. It's only when God speaks that
you will see the bond woman for who she is, that you will see
the bondage that they have brought you under. It's only when God
speaks, in verse 12 of Genesis 21, and God said, unto Abraham. Let it not be grievous
in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman.
In all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice. For in Isaac shall your seed
be called. It comes back to what we read
in Zachariah 4 and we see in so many other places in the scripture.
Until the word of God comes as a word from God to you and into
you and over you, drawing you to Christ, showing you the Lord
Jesus in you, enlightening you, forcing you gently but firmly
away from this world and into the arms of life, only when the
Word of God comes. Can that heart of stone be broken? As Jeremiah said, is not my word
like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks
the rock in pieces? God's word. So you have no idea
there is a bond woman. You'll have no idea that you're
in bondage. Ephesians 2.3 is interesting,
isn't it? It says, we all had our conversations in time past
in the lust of our flesh. He's talking about his religious
activities in time past in the lust of our flesh. And then what
it says is remarkably fulfilling. Not only did you have the desires
of our flesh, but you actually fulfilled them. So religion is
fulfilling, fulfilling the desires of the flesh. And that's the
critical message, isn't it, in all of this. It's only when God
takes this word and it becomes spirit and life to you, will
you know that there is a bondwoman, will you know what it is for
the bondwoman to be cast out. And the remarkable thing is,
But our text reveals to us that rather than us having to cast
the bondwoman out, the Gospel itself casts the bondwoman out. Because they cannot live in the
household of faith, they cannot abide where their righteousness
is nothing and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is all.
They cannot abide a gospel that says that they cannot make themselves
righteous in any way, shape or form. The gospel causes an abandonment
of all free will, works, religion, And it causes those who have
their faith and have their trust in anything other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Gospel exposes that. And what do they do? What do
they do when the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Gospel, who is the
Eternal Covenant Himself, when He was revealed, from the very
moment of his being revealed in his baptism. There was enmity
around his birth, but there was enmity for three and a half years. He proclaimed himself to be God
and God's salvation and all that happened was that there was this
division between humanity. There were those who were broken
hearted who, like the thief on the cross, acknowledged that
what they had earned in their life was for them to be hung
naked and nailed to a cross and die. And at the same time, The three
from the cross acknowledged that the Lord Jesus Christ had done
nothing wrong. You see, it's an acknowledgement,
isn't it, of what we really are. You cannot trust yourself and
trust Christ. You cannot trust your works and
trust Christ. You cannot try to make yourself
more holy. You must abandon Babylon. You must be drawn out from under
the bomb woman. And only sovereign grace will
do it. Cast out the bomb woman, for
the son of the bomb woman shall not be heir with the son of the
free woman. There is no inheritance with
the children of God for those who are children of the bondwoman.
We are not children of the bondwoman. We are not children of Mount
Sinai. We are not children who go back
to that earthly Jerusalem. That earthly Jerusalem with all
of the trappings of religion, an enormous temple, an amazing
priesthood, universities and Bible colleges and missionary
organisations, all of that was in Jerusalem. And you could have
your own denomination. You could pick and choose which
one you wanted to. There were thousands of synagogues.
You could go to whichever one you like. You could choose a
happy, clappy one. You could choose a rigid, formal
one. You could choose one that did a whole bunch of good works.
You could choose one that was motivated by politics. You could
choose one that let you be ascetic so that you could hide yourself
away from the world so that you wouldn't be polluted. Your holiness
wouldn't be polluted by those wicked people out there. That's
religion, isn't it? We are not children. The heirs of God, brethren,
are not children. I love that word heir. It's a beautiful word, isn't
it? People become heirs because of what someone else does. My
kids are heirs. They were heirs of mine before
they even knew. They'll probably get absolutely
nothing. What if a fuse cracks the left
eyeball? There is, aren't there? I love
telling the story of Lisa's grandfather who left not his estate to his
children, he left some things to his children, but he left
his estate in its entirety to his grandchildren. And there
is a Bible passage that says we are to care for our children's
children. But nevertheless, at that stage
he didn't have, he had four children, not one of them was married.
He didn't even know that he was going to have grandchildren.
He didn't even really know that he was going to have an inheritance
to give them. I wouldn't have a clue what it is. It might be
just peanuts, but it doesn't matter. The principle is remarkable,
isn't it? Those ten, there were ten grandchildren born of those
four children. But those ten grandchildren all
inherited exactly the same. They inherit because he made
a promise 70 odd years ago. He made a promise. He made a
covenant, didn't he? and all of those children. So
one might end up being incredibly successful and a multi-millionaire
and be esteemed in society, and the other one profligate and
end up on drugs and in jail, and they get exactly the same. They get exactly the same. Because
they are the beneficiaries of a covenant, an inheritance, See,
we heirs are born of God. Like Isaac, they're born of God's
promises. They're born of God's free grace.
They're born because of a miraculous intervention into their lives.
They are born. Born again. They are born. Christ in them, the hope of glory. They are a new creation. They're
not a remastering of the old one. They are born from above. They are born as a result of
an eternal covenant. A promise that God made. A promise
that God made to His Son in eternity. A promise that He, our dear and
blessed Saviour, would take full responsibility in that covenant
before this world began, before there was a breath on this earth,
he made a promise, didn't he? He made a promise to his father,
I will bring them all home to you. All of you have given me. I'll lose not one of them. I'll
bring them home. I'll make them holy. I'll make
them perfect. I'll take them out of Egypt. I'll take them out of Babylon. They'll be mine. They'll be mine."
And he gives a new life, a new life that loves God's Word and
finds it refreshing and challenging and convicting and finds it living
and active. Isn't it remarkable? I spend
a whole bunch of my time, and so do you, I trust, reading a
book that's some bits of it are nearly 4,000 years old. It's
a remarkable book, isn't it? Paul wrote this letter to the
Galatians 1950 or 60 years ago, and if you were leaning over
his shoulder, it was as fresh as a daisy. It speaks exactly
about what's happening in this world, right now, right here,
in this town, in this country, in this world, and it speaks
with clarity and poignance. through that word becoming life
for us. There is a new life, isn't it,
that loves God because He first loved us. There is a new life
that worships in spirit and truth and can't stand worshipping with
falsehood and can't stand the compromise that's so much involved
in so much religion in this world. The Father seeks those who worship
Him in spirit and truth. I love the fact that everything
our God ever wishes to do, He does. He never has any unfulfilled
desires. He never wants for something
He doesn't have. This is His universe. We are
His people. He seeks, John 4, those who worship
Him in spirit and truth and He causes those people, His heirs,
to have no confidence in the flesh. The bondwoman and her
son are to be cast out and the bondwoman is revealed and her
son is revealed in one other thing, is that where they go
to find their companionship. See, the bond woman is very happy
to go back to Egypt. Where did she get her son for
Ishmael, her wife for Ishmael? Ishmael's wife was from Egypt,
from this world and from its religion, prepared to compromise,
prepared to fellowship with them. Heirs, heirs according to the
promise. I'd just like you to turn in
Hebrews chapter 11 and I'll just finish very quickly. I just want
to make a couple of points out of a verse that really struck
me this week as I was looking at it. Go and read it again and you'll
see that Sarah and Abraham were able to produce this child of
promise by faith, by faith. It talks about them being heirs,
being heirs. But these all died in faith,
having not received the promises. They didn't see them fulfilled
in their time, but like us. But they did see them. They did
see them afar off. Do you see afar off the Lord
Jesus coming back to gather His own to Himself? Do you see the
promise of the new creation? Do you see the promise of Him
being our wisdom and our sanctification? The promise of Him being our
righteousness? The promise of Him ruling all
things? We see it afar off. They were persuaded. They were
convinced of it. So they put their trust in what
God had promised. Persuaded of them. And then the
next word is lovely, isn't it? They embraced them. They embraced them. And they
confessed. that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. Strangers and pilgrims to its
religion and to its ways. Cast out by God's free and sovereign
grace. Heirs according to the promise. Embracing, confessing. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You.
We thank You that Your Word speaks so powerfully and truthfully,
Heavenly Father, and it speaks so wonderfully, prophetically
and so insightfully. about this world that we live
in. Our Father, we do thank you that your word is true. We do thank you that you are
a God who cannot lie. And we thank you, our Father,
that all the promises, all the promises that you have made are
yes and amen in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, we pray that
You would get great glory by Your Son being honoured in our
lives as we just look to Him and look away from our flesh. We just look to Him and Him crucified. Look to Him as bearing all of
our sins and bearing them away forever. And now there is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Oh, our Father,
what an extraordinary thing it is that You robe sinners like
us in the very righteousness of God. We pray, Heavenly Father,
for those who are here who don't know you or might hear this in
the Dharma, that they might hear your voice and your words of
warning and your calls of love. and they'd come fleeing like
chickens under the wings of a hen, that our lives might be found
hidden with Christ, hidden in God. Our Father, we pray that
you would cause your Son to be worshipped amongst us and as
we come and take these Elements that remind us of His body and
His blood, that we would be caused by Your Grace, Heavenly Father,
to spend much of our lives contemplating Him. Him in the garden, sweating
blood, Him on the cross, bearing the infinite wrath that our sin
deserves. and Him rising triumphantly and
sitting now gloriously, our Father, and all who are one with Him. are perfectly righteous, perfectly
unblameable, perfectly holy. O our Father, we pray that we
wouldn't want to touch the perfect sacrifice and to add anything
to it that you might cause us to bow and worship, and to have
hearts that are breaking with gratitude and thankfulness to
your dear and precious Son. Bless us, Heavenly Father, for
Christ's sake. Amen.