Okay, brethren, in Galatians
4, Paul starts out here and he says, Tell me, ye that desire
to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? Now,
is there anybody here this morning who entertains the idea of coming
to holy God and standing before Him on the basis of some obedience
of your own, some obedience to the law or some works that you've
performed or some ceremony or tradition you've held to or something
of that nature. Do you want to come to God and
stand before Him to try to be accepted of God based on some
merit in you? God's holy. He's holy. He's holy. Now I want you to
understand that those who were bewitching the Galatians, they
weren't claiming to be denying that salvation is by Christ Jesus. That's not what they were doing.
Whenever the Lord Jesus told us that in the last days there
would be false teachers come, that if it were possible, they
would deceive the very elect, They're not coming and telling
you to live a life of immorality. That's not what they're doing.
That's not what these folks were doing. These folks were coming
and saying, it's okay to believe on Christ and we're righteous
in him. But now there's something you
have to add in addition to what Christ has done. That's the message
by which millions are being bewitched in our day. Paul's declaring that God only
receives those that He has made righteous and holy in Christ
Jesus. That's the only ones He received,
the ones that He has made righteous and holy. Let's begin here in
verse 22. For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, The one by a bondmaid, this was Hagar. She was the bondmaid
of Sarah. This was the bondmaid, and she
gave birth to a son named Ishmael. The other by a free woman, that
was Sarah. That was Abraham's wife, his
first wife, Sarah. She gave birth to Isaac. But
he who was of the bondwoman, that child born of the bondwoman,
was born after the flesh. Abraham got tired of waiting
on God and he decided he would do something to bring forth a
child. And this was Abraham's works. He brought forth this child by
his work. Alright, but he of the free woman
was by promise. God did this in a way so that
we have no doubt that God did this. Sarah couldn't have children. She was I think 100 years old,
99, Abraham was around 100 years old or older. They couldn't have
children. Her womb was shut up. This was
a miracle of God's grace. God gets all the glory for this.
This is all by grace. Now verse 24, he says, Which
things are an allegory? An allegory is a story. where
the ones, the characters used in this story are used to picture,
they're used to typify, they're used to symbolize other things. That's what it was. Alright,
verse 24. He said, for these are the two
covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, that
is Jerusalem below, and is in bondage with her children. But
Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of
us all. Now let's just stop right here
for a minute and look at this point. The first thing that these
two wives represent are two covenants. It says it plainly there. Read
it. These are the two covenants. Now you know what a covenant
is? A covenant is a contract that's made between two or more
parties in which certain promises are made based on specific conditions
having been fulfilled. God only deals with sinners upon
the basis of covenant. That's the only way he deals
with sinners, is on the basis of covenant. Now there's only
two covenants in the scriptures. If you listen to what men in
our day call new covenant theology, you find out it's not theology
about the new covenant, it's new theology is what it is. And
if it's new, it's not true. There's only two covenants. He
says, these are the two covenants. There is the everlasting covenant
of grace, the New Testament. The everlasting covenant. And
there's the covenant of works. That's the two covenants, okay?
Now that's who these two women represent. They represent two
covenants. All right? Let's go back to the
beginning. Before God made the world, God
made an everlasting covenant of grace. Now this covenant of
grace was not dependent upon those that were going to be the
beneficiaries of it. It wasn't dependent upon them.
The work of magnifying the law of God, of honoring it, was given
to the hands of God the Son, Christ. He gave him this job
to do. And He would come forth in this
work of redeeming His children from the curse of the law, justifying
them of all their sins. This work was given to Christ
to do. Now, the covenant is between
God and man. You understand that? So Christ
is going to have to come and be made flesh. He's going to
have to come and fulfill the end of the covenant as a man
for all the men that He represented. So he's fulfilling that end of
the covenant, which is perfectly fulfill the law in every jot
and tittle. Walk righteously before the law
of God. Never sin ever. Righteous, holy, perfect. And
then he had the responsibility of justifying his brethren from
all their sins. Now when God allowed Adam to
sin in the garden, that wasn't out of God's control. It was
all serving the purpose of this covenant coming in of works,
of Adam sinning, and of, as we saw this morning, of Christ coming
and not just putting away one transgression, but putting away
a multitude of transgressions. So it magnifies the grace and
glory and righteousness of God. We understand something of who
God is by all this thing that God has done by allowing sin
to enter in. You understand that? It doesn't
make God the author of sin. Adam's responsible and we're
responsible for our sin. But it wasn't out of God's control.
Nothing. God's a sovereign God. He's absolutely
sovereign over all things. All right? So Sarah represents
that everlasting covenant of grace that was made before God
ever made the world. And God promised Christ, too,
after He did this, He promised He would exalt Him as the God-Man. This is how God was going to
make man one with Him. God's Spirit He's the invisible
God. He's gonna make man one with
Him. So His Son comes and takes human flesh as a man and does
this whole work. And God the Father, as promised,
glorified Christ and brought Him back into heaven's glory
as the God-man. There's a man in glory. Brought
Him back into glory. And this is how we're made one,
God's elect people, are made one with God in Christ. Okay? So Sarah represents that covenant. Now, let's look at a few things
here. She was Abraham's first wife. Sarah was Abraham's first
wife. Now, the everlasting covenant
was the first covenant. It's new to us, and it came second
to us in time, but it was really before. It was the first covenant,
just like Sarah was the first wife. And then Sarah here is
called the free woman. The everlasting covenant is a
covenant of free grace. It's a covenant not based on
the merits of men. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. It's of God that shows mercy.
God chooses whom he will. He said, I'll be gracious to
whom I will. I'll be merciful to whom I will. He does that. God does that. So this is free. Can he not do with his own what
he will? He's God. You and I have a hard time with
somebody coming into our property and telling us what to do with
our property, don't we? Well, he's God. He can do with
his property what he wants to do with it. He's God. So then
the next thing is God promised a seed through Sarah. That's
what He promised, a seed through Sarah. Isaac, that promised seed
that was coming, God told Abraham when He made that covenant with
him, He said, I'm going to bless you and make a people of you
out of all the nations of the earth in thy seed. Now look back
at Galatians 3.16. and you'll see who that seed
typified. Galatians 3.16, Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He said, Not into seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. You see that? You see, before
God made that covenant with Abraham, God already made that covenant
with Christ. And He's the seed in whom God's going to bless
all Abraham's true children, spiritual children, whether they
be Jew or Gentile, the elect of God from the four corners
of the earth. They're going to be born of this one Christ, Jesus. That's perfected by Him. Now,
Sarah represents that covenant through whom Christ the promised
seed came. That's who she represents. The
Hebrew writer said, by so much was Jesus made a surety of a
better testament. A better testament. established
on better promises. You know why they're better?
You know why it's a better testament? God didn't leave anything for
his children to do. He gave it all into the hands
of his son. That's why it's better. For that old covenant of works,
it didn't make anything perfect, but the bringing in of a better
hope did. Christ came and by his one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are justified. He did that. So when he made
this covenant now with Christ, has what he calls the book of
life. That's what it's called, the book of life. And he wrote
the names in that book of life of all the children he's going
to save that he gave to Christ and entrusted to Christ. He wrote
their name in that book. And when Christ Jesus shook hands,
as it were, and agreed to become surety for those people. God
never looked to those people to do anything. He looked to
His Son, to His Son only. That's why when Adam sinned in
the garden, God didn't wipe this whole, just fold this whole thing
up, because He wasn't looking at Adam. He was looking at Christ.
He was looking at Christ. And when he shook hands or became
surety like that, God never did look at him. I said to you Thursday
night, we consider a surety ship to be, you gonna buy a car and
one of your kids gonna buy a car and you get your dad to go down
and he cosigns with you. So that if you don't make the
payments, he'll make the payments. That's not how Christ is a surety. God never even looked to his
people to do anything. He put it all in the hands of
his son, every bit of it. Now he's called the Book of Life
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That means when
he entered into that churdiship engagement, he was slain before
God. And God knows the end from the
beginning. The works were finished from
before the foundation of the world. It was a done deal. It
was never, no way it could be frustrated. It's going to happen.
So before God's children ever became sinners, Christ stood
as the surety of His children. And all those children of promise,
God's elect, were blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ
when God put them in Him. How many spiritual blessings
do you think that is? It's all of them. They had all
spiritual blessings sure in their surety in Christ before the world
began. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, before the world began, in Christ,
according as He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. Was Christ holy then? Was Christ without blame then?
So was His people when He put them in Him. That's part of those
spiritual blessings. And He blessed us with all of
them then. Romans 8 says, Whom He did foreknow, He also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
His Son might be the firstborn among many brethren. This whole
thing has more to do with God and His Son than it has to do
with me and you, brethren. It's about God glorifying His
holy name in the person of His Son, setting His Son up for all
the world to see. This is what it has to do with.
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called, whom He called,
them He also justified, whom He justified, them He also glorified. Those are all spiritual blessings,
and He gave them to us in Christ when He put us in Him. What shall
we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He didn't spare his own son. He came and he fulfilled
everything he said he would. He delivered him up for all the
elect of God. Shall he not with him freely
give his children everything we need? Give us everything. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
makes intercession for us. We, who can be against us? That's
what the scripture says. All right, now that's that first
covenant, Sarah. All right, let's look at the
second covenant. The other covenant is that covenant God gave at
Mount Sinai. All right, Hagar represents the
covenant God gave at Mount Sinai. the covenant of works. Now watch
this, verse 24. He said, Which things are an
allegory, for these are the two covenants, the one from Mount
Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. That's Hagar. Verse 23 says, Ishmael, who was
of the bond woman, was born after the flesh. That law at Sinai,
it was an earthly, fleshly covenant. If you go read the law that Israel
was under, you will find that it says, this do and live. It never did give a promise of
everlasting life. It only gave a promise of temporal
life and temporal blessings in this earth based on the condition
that they would fulfill their end of that covenant. And they
never did. They never did. They never did
even fulfill those things just for temporal blessing. Look at verse 24. The covenant
from Mount Sinai genders to bondage. It genders to bondage. Bondage
puts you in chains. It puts you in shackles. It makes
you a slave. It was given to show God's children
our sin and our transgression in Adam. What we saw this morning.
The magnitude of our own sin. The law entered that the offense
might abound. The law was given that so it
speaks to whoever is 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." It accused
of sin, it pronounced guilty, it threatened death, and it kept
sinners in bondage. That's what it did. But now let
me show you something. But just as Sarah remained Abraham's
first wife, even though Hagar entered in and Abraham married
her, That everlasting covenant, that
eternal covenant, stood ordered and sure even when the covenant
of works entered in. It was ordered and sure even
when that covenant of works entered in. You get what I'm saying?
Even though Hagar enters in the picture, here's Sarah, his first
wife, and even though Hagar enters in, and he marries her and has
this other child, He never stopped being married to Sarah, ever.
She's his first wife. So when that covenant of works
entered in, that everlasting covenant that was before the
world was made in Christ, didn't alter it, change it one iota,
not one bit. You mean even when we sinned
and fell in Adam, didn't change anything in that covenant that
he'd already done. Let me show you that. Galatians
3, 15. Brethren, I speak after the manner
of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed,
no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now if you and me make
a covenant with each other, And we got it inked out, and what
we're going to do, nobody else can disannul that. It's between
us, isn't it? Nobody can change it. Alright?
Now, to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said,
not to seeds as of many, but as of one, to thy seed which
is Christ. That's who this covenant was made with first. It was with
Christ. And then he made this covenant with Abraham, this everlasting
covenant of grace. He made it in the heart of Abraham.
This I say, now watch this, that the covenant, the everlasting
covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ to Abraham,
the law, that covenant of works, which was 430 years after God
made that promise to Abraham. It came 430 years later, the
law of Mount Sinai. It cannot disannul that it should
make the promise, the everlasting covenant God made with Abraham.
It can't make that promise of no effect. For if the inheritance
be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to
Abraham by promise." Now understand that God promised him. You know
what you're hearing when you hear the gospel preached? You're
hearing the promise of God. You're hearing the Word of God
go forth. That God, He's ordered His covenant in all things. And it's sure. It's not yes and
no. It's not yes and maybe. It's
yes and amen. All the promises of God are yes
and amen in Christ Jesus because He left it to Him. And now He
made this covenant in Abraham's heart. He's born of the Spirit
of God. Believers have always been saved through faith in Christ.
Always. He created him anew, and Abraham
believed God. He saw Christ's day, Christ said. He saw my day. He believed God.
Now let me give you something to think about. Abel, Enoch,
who walked with God, pleased God. Noah, who was a preacher
of righteousness, Scripture said. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. You know
what they all had in common? None of them had the Ten Commandments. He was given 430 years after
God made the promise to Abraham. Well, if Abraham didn't have
the Believer's Rule of Life, how'd he make it through this
world? He did have the Believer's Rule of Life. He had the law
of faith written in his heart. The just shall live by faith. He trusted God. He followed God. He walked where God led him.
He was led of the Holy Spirit of God. And whatever God commanded
him, that's what he did, because it was his delight to serve God.
It was his delight to serve him. Now that law that came all that
430 years later did absolutely nothing to that everlasting covenant
that's been made with Abraham. Nothing. All right? Now Hagar
was a bondmaid. She served Sarah, the first wife. That was what a bond maid did.
Her job was to serve Sarah, the first wife. That's what Hagar
did. She was a bond servant. Alright,
you know what that covenant of works was? It was a handmaid. It was to serve that everlasting
covenant of grace for God's elect people. Look back at Galatians
3 again, look at verse 21. Is the law then against the promises
of God? Is that covenant of works against
the promises of God? God forbid. If there had been
a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ. There's another place where I
was talking about, be sure you mark in the King James translation
is good on this. When it says the faith of Christ,
it's talking about Christ's faithfulness. It's talking about His work.
it's given to us the promise by the faith of Christ and it
might be given to them that believe. Now here's our faith, we believe
it, we trust it. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore the law was our He
was a bondmaid. He was a schoolmaster. That's
what it was. To bring us unto Christ, to shut us up, to declare
us guilty, to shut our mouths, to drive us to Him that we might
be justified by faith. But after that faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster." You see that? For a year, all
the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, he's speaking
to those he believed to be believers. He said, for as many of you have
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And there's neither
Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither
male nor female, for you're one in Christ Jesus. You see, Christ
takes away these distinctions between us, between all these
things that we use to build up walls between each other, Jew
and Greek, bond and free, male and female. And men like to do
this, men like to take the law now, and bring the law back in,
and say, now, if you work hard enough, If you work hard enough,
you'll live on the fine side in glory. And they just build
those walls right back up. I'm done with that. I'm done
with the distinctions of class and race and ethnicity and all
these things in Christ Jesus. That middle wall of partition
has been broke down. God, in His grace, makes us one in Christ. You know what my reward's gonna
be in glory? Christ, Jesus, my righteousness. You know what
His reward's gonna be in glory? Me. Read the scripture. We're His inheritance and He's
our inheritance. That's all I want. I just wanna
see Him. I wanna spend time with Him.
I wanna observe Him and know Him and that's all I want. This says in glory the streets
will be made out of gold, because it won't be worth anything. It'll
be as common as dirt. You'll see people fighting, well
you do see people fighting over dirt. But it'll just be coming. That's all it'll be. So I don't
build those, when you start talking about threats of punishment with
the law or promises of reward, you turn a man into a legalist.
You turn him into a, he's a mercenary now. He starts doing what he's
doing not out of love, not because he's constrained by the love
of God, because now he's got something he's striving after.
Oh, I can get that if I go after. That's just how we are. That's
just how we are. All right, now let's read on
here. Turn to Galatians 4 and let's look at verse 4. When the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a
woman, made under the law. He had to do for us what we couldn't
do, to redeem them that were under the law. There was a price
to be paid. That's what redemption is, a
purchase price. He's our kinsman redeemer. There
was a purchase price to be made to get his elect children out
from under that law. And for the law to say, I got
nothing else to say to them. And He did that, He paid that
price, His own blood, that we might receive the adoption of
sons. That we might be brought into
the experience of this grace and understand it, know it. And
because you are sons, now did you catch that order? Because
you are sons, not to make you sons, because you are sons. God
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. What does he mean by that? Verse
7, Wherefore thou art no more a servant, you're not in bondage
anymore, you're not a slave anymore, but a son. And if a son, then
an heir of God through Christ Jesus. And he says, Howbeit when
you knew not God, you did service unto them which by nature are
no God. And he says, now, but now after
that you know God, or rather are known of God, how turn you
again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire
again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years. I'm afraid of you, Paul said,
lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. You understand? When he brought us out from under
that bondage and broke all the chains and opened the prison
door and made us free in him, it'd be the height of ignorance
for us to run back and say, no, but there's something I gotta
do to add to what he's done. Now there's a huge difference,
brethren, in faith which works by love, faith which is constrained
by the love of God and delights in the law of God and the inward
man. I delight in the law of God for several reasons, but
these three reasons especially. It shows me the depth of my sin. And when I see the height and
breadth and length and depth of that law, over 600 precepts
in the law, most all requiring you to die if you don't keep
them. We won't start boasting about keeping the law. We're
going to start killing some people. Because that's what's required
to keep it. If your brother or sister don't keep it, you got
to kill them. But God fulfilled it. He fulfilled the precept.
And then he died. He was crucified for us. He fulfilled it in precept and
penalty. And when I see the breadth and length and height and depth
of it, I see the breadth and length and depth and height and
breadth of his love for me. That's what I see. In that law,
I see His righteousness and how holy and righteous He is. How
good He is. How much grace abounds towards
me. Yeah, I delight in it. And I
see everything about it is holy, just, and good. I'm convinced,
brethren, if we could live just like all those 613 precepts are,
I mean every bit of the law, civil, ceremonial, moral, if
we could live it, we'd be in heaven. We would. It'd be a perfect place, an absolute
perfect place. That's how good the law is. It's
the righteousness of God. It had a light in it. I just
can't keep it. And I'm not going to pretend
I can. I can't. I can't. I've never once, there's
no man in the history of this world that's ever kept the Sabbath
except for my Sabbath. He kept it. He kept it. And in
him I'm resting. I'm completely resting. I've
entered into His rest. I've ceased from my own works.
Completing it. All right, now let's go on. Now
here's the second thing, and I'll hurry. These two women represent
two kinds of religion. Back at verse 25, Galatians 4.25.
This Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and she answers to or
she represents Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with
her children. She represents all those people
that are still in religion at Jerusalem. going, trying to still
keep the law and having this zeal for God, but it's not according
to knowledge. They don't understand that Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. They're
going about to establish their own righteousness. Paul said
there's priests that are offering oftentimes the same sacrifices
that can never take away sin. But this man, after he offered
one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expect until his enemies be made his footstool,
because by that one offering, he perfected his people forever.
That's what he did. Now that Jerusalem, it represents
that bondage, brethren. It says here, Agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia. That's outside of the land of
promise. That wasn't in the land of promise. That was outside
of the land of promise where Mount Sinai was. It wasn't in the land
of promise. Her children are serving earthly
Jerusalem, earthly priests, earthly altars, earthly dead letter religion.
Well, that don't apply to us today. Nobody's trying to offer
bulls and goats today. Oh, yes, they are. Yes, they
are. It's their son and daughter they're
trying to throw through in the fire. If I can just get him saved,
God will be thankful for me doing so much to try to get my son
and my daughter saved. Don't you do anything to try
to get your son and daughter saved. You declare the truth
to them and you wait on God to save them. Nothing can be doubly
just worse than for somebody to be lost and now think they're
righteous. That's twice dead, twice dead. It's harder to meet with somebody
and get to them to hear the gospel who thinks they're righteous
by something they've done, by their baptism. People talk, you
know, baptize when they're infants and say, we'll baptize them into
the covenant because family relationship. I wish we could do away with
that garbage. There's only two covenants. It's the covenant
of works and it's the covenant of grace. That's it. Because
you are a believer, that don't mean your son and your daughter's
got any leg up on anybody else. If God chose them, he chose them.
But if he didn't, he passed them by. And that's just how it is.
Just because I'm called by God and trusted, I'm his, doesn't
mean my children have any benefit whatsoever. other than the fact
that they'll be raised up under the sound of the gospel. But
other than that, it takes God's grace, it's His choosing, it's
His doing, it's His calling. You see, brethren, everything
about this gospel brings us to fall at His feet and thank Him
for His mercy, praise Him for His mercy, and beg Him for His
mercy. You see that? She's in bondage. This one is to sin, to Satan,
to law, to death. That's works religion. Now you
be sure you hear me. Listen closely. Sinners are not
justified, sanctified, preserved, or entitled to heaven on the
basis of works. That's not so. Not so. Nothing we do before our conversion
or after our conversion is going to be our basis for inner glory.
By the obedience of one. by the obedience of one. Now look, Sarah represents the
true church of God. Verse 26, but Jerusalem which
is above is free which is the mother of us all. You know what? After the Hebrew writer said
there in Hebrews 12, he said, run the race with patience, looking
that's set before you, looking to Jesus Christ to offer and
finish your faith. And he said, now, when you're
chasing, the Lord's making you to be partakers of His holiness.
So he said, so lift up the hands that hang down and make straight
paths for your feet. Follow Christ. Follow Him. Keep
your eye on Him. I told you about my grandfather
used to tell me he would take his tiller, you know, and he'd
be tilling in his garden with that tiller. And he just had
these straight rows. I mean, they were just perfectly
straight. I couldn't get it. I started gardening when I was
about 14 years old. And I took my tiller and I went
and I'd watch behind me, you know, and I'd look behind me.
And when I got finished and got to the end, I was trying to make
it as straight as I could. And when I got to the end and
looked back, that row was just like this, just crooked as it
could be. And I went down and I said, how are you making those
rows as straight as you're making them? He said, look way down
there at the end of that garden. He said, you see that pine tree
down there? He said, I put my eyes on that tree and I do not
look back. I do not take my eyes off that tree. And he said, son,
if God makes you put your eyes on Christ, don't ever take them
off. You take them off of him and start looking back and trying
to make sure you're running a straight path. He said, it's going to
be crooked as it can be. But if you keep your eyes on
Christ, you'll run a path set before you." And that's why he
says, lift up the hands that hang down. But then he goes on
in that chapter in Hebrews 12 and he said, because you haven't
come to the mount that burned and trembled and quaked. It was
on fire where they trembled and jumped back and said, we've got
to have a mediator, Moses. You've not come to that mountain.
You've come to Mount Zion, heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living
God, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to the judge of
all, to Christ Jesus, the mediator whose blood speaks better things
than that of Abel. It says, see that you refuse
not Him that speaketh. I've given you that illustration
before of how my father used to give me a big list of things,
just like you've got the letter of the law, you know. And I'd
go down the list trying to do everything he gave me. And he
always gave me too big a list. I couldn't get everything done
that he gave me to do before he got home. And as soon as he
got home, he'd take that list out of my hand, put it in his
pocket, and take off. And I didn't look at the list
anymore. I just started following him. Everywhere he went, followed
him. That's the spirit of being led
by the spirit of grace. I don't have to look to the law
to know not to commit adultery. I see my husband. I see how he
loved me. I see how he laid down his life
for me. I see how he was faithful to me. I see how he did everything
for me. And that's my only constraint I need to make me want to, I
love my wife, to love her and cherish her and lay down my life
for her. I'd like to go back to the Lord and say, now let
me see, let me make sure here that I'm doing this right. I
look to it now to see pictures of Christ and I look to it now
to see things that he's done for me and rejoicing. Mount Zion,
that's that heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all. Saved by
free grace. All right, verse 27. For it's
written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not. You see, I
didn't travail. You didn't travail, brethren.
He's talking about childbirth here. I didn't travail to bring
forth children. Christ did. Christ travailed. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and be satisfied. As soon as that Isaiah 53 is
over, Isaiah 54 begins and says, Rejoice, seeing thou that bearest
not, that had no children, break forth and cry thou that travailest
not. For the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath a husband. Jerusalem has a husband. Works religion has a husband.
It's the law. And they're married to that husband.
And if that husband is not dead to them and they become dead
to that law, it is unjust for them to even try to bring Christ
into the picture. They got to be dead to that law
and that law's got to be dead to them so that now they're free
to be married to another. And that's what Christ has done
for his people and he makes us married to him. And now for the
first time ever, by his spirit working in us, we really start
bringing forth fruit unto God now. Whereas before, all we brought
forth was dead works, dead fruit. That's all it was because we're
trying to be saved by it. All right. Now, At the end of
that, I've got to show you this. Let's go to Isaiah 54. You'll
want to see this. Isaiah 54. This is what he says to us. This is
what he's saying to, this is the church of God he's speaking
to. This is true of us individually. This is what he says to us. Watch
this. Isaiah 54.4. Fear not. For thou shalt not be ashamed.
This is the same chapter where it says, break the singing, O
barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth in the singing. This
comes after what Christ has accomplished in Isaiah 53. Now he says, verse
4, Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed. You're not going
to be confounded. You're not going to be disappointed
or confused. Neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not
be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame
of your youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of your
widowhood any more." Paul said, I forget what's behind me. I forget it. Just forget it.
It's better off being forgotten. Don't dwell on your past sins.
Don't go back and try to look at this and that and that and
try to determine, was I saved then or wasn't I saved then?
That's taking your eyes off of Christ, and you'll end up in
all a bad crooked row when you do that. Keep your eye on Christ.
Paul said, forgetting those things that are behind and reaching
forward. I keep going, pressing towards the mark of the prize
of the high calling of God. I'm looking at Him. I don't want
to be found having my own righteousness. I want to be found having the
righteousness which is by the faith of Christ. That's the righteousness
I want to be found in, in Him. So he says here, don't forget
all that passed. And he says, for your maker is
your husband. Look at that. For your maker
is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be
called. And look where he ends in verse 17. No weapon that's
formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise
against you in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage,
the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness
is of me, saith the Lord. That's what he said. That's the
church of God. That's a whole lot better than
that works religion junk. All right, here's the third thing.
Let's go back now to Galatians 4. And I promise you, I'm almost
done. Isaiah 4, I mean Galatians 4.
Galatians 4. These two sons represent two
kinds of people in religion. The two wives represent two covenants. The two places where they all
represent two kinds of religion. And these two sons represent
two kinds of people in religion. Verse 22 says, for it's written,
Abraham had two sons, one by a bondmaid, the other by a free
woman. And he who was of the bondwoman was born after the
flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Ishmael was born
after the flesh. Works. He did something. You
ever hear a preacher say, let me tell you how to be born again?
If you tell me how to be born the first time, how you can have
something to do with being born the first time, I'll tell you
how you can be born again. It ain't so. God's gonna have to do it. That's
how He does it. Now look, Isaac was born of the
free woman by promise. Verse 28 says, Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are children of promise. You see that? You got
one who thinks he's done it himself. You got the other one who says,
I'm just a child of God's promise. He's done it. He's done it all.
All right now, let me see here. Look down now at verse 29. So
what's going to be the result of this? Paul was never called
an antinomian until God saved him. As long as he was a Hebrew
of Hebrews and a Pharisee of Pharisees and has touched the
law blameless outwardly, a whited sepulcher, everybody loved him.
But when he began to say that the believer's not under the
law, we're under grace, and he began to preach the free and
sovereign grace of God, the finished work of Christ, the completion
a believer has in Christ Jesus, all his old cronies turned thumbs
down on him, and they started calling him a lawless, antinomian
rebel. They said he's preaching against
this holy place, and against the law, and against our traditions,
and against our customs, because that was their refuge! And he
was tearing it all down with the gospel. And they didn't like
him anymore. And that's why they didn't like
Christ when he came. Because he said, if I hadn't
come, they would have had no cloak for their sin. You see,
when I say sin's keeping a man from God, it's not the outward
immoral sins that are keeping us from God. You know what's
keeping a sinner from God? Your righteousnesses. Sinner
don't come to God because they don't think he needs to be saved.
A man that's out there in the water and he just thinks he's
got a little hole in his boat and he can stop it up, he don't
call for the rescue vessel when it's going by. He don't need
them. That's why we think we're righteous. We think we got something
about us that's righteous. It takes God to make us see that
we're not. What we don't want to bring to
the light and be exposed as being evil deeds is not those things
that men equate with being done in a back alley somewhere. It's
those things that are being done in the pew and in the bullpen.
That's what's keeping men from Christ. Alright, now look here. Verse 29, so what can you expect?
But as then, he that was born after the flesh who persecuted
Him that was born after the Spirit. Even so it is now. Even so it
is now. The legalist is going to mock,
he's going to persecute the children of God. Galatians 6. Galatians
6.12. Here's where's the problem. As
many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to, and you just fill in the blank. You just fill in the
blank. Whatever they're constraining
you to do, Why are they doing it? Only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. only lest they stand
up on their hind legs and tell the truth that Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. He gave it. He fulfilled it.
He magnified it. He honored it. He fulfilled everything
required of his people in the covenant of works, and because
he did it, he makes this everlasting covenant of grace in our hearts,
and we have nothing whatsoever to do with the law anymore. I'm
dead to it, and it's dead to me. did that man those folks
in the graveyard. Our civil laws had nothing else
to say to him. All right, watch this. For neither
they themselves who are circumcised, or doing whatever it is they're
constraining you to do. They're not keeping the law either. But
they desire to have you do whatever it is they want you to do. So
they can glory and what they got you to do. That's why they're
doing it. But God forbid, that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. I'm dead to
them, and they're dead to me. They do not affect me whatsoever.
Let religion do what it wants to do. Let them build their big
cathedrals. Let them do whatever they want to do. They ain't affecting
me. I'm dead to them, and they're dead to me. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature." Being made new in the Spirit, having Christ formed
in you. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon the Israel of
God. That's the rule I'm under. That's
the rule I'm under. Faith which works by love. But what's going to be the end?
Back to verse 30. We'll end with this. Nevertheless,
what says 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. Nobody's coming to God in their
work. It just is not going to happen. We are the circumcision. We're the true Jew. We're the
true Israel. We're the true church of God, which worship God in
the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh. That's us. You want to know our
creed? We worship God in the Spirit,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the
flesh. So here's the conclusion, verse
1. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. Every man that's circumcised,
he's a debtor to do the whole law. Whatever it is you gotta
do to be accepted of God, not only that, but you're gonna have
to do everything. Everything. Christ has become of no effect
to you, whoever you are that's justified by the law. Oh, but
I'm not trying to be justified by the law. I'm just trying to
make myself holy by it. Yes, you are. You're trying to be
justified by it. You're trying to come to God
and say, look what I did. That's right. All right. If I believe like that, I'd live
like I want to. If I could live like I wanted
to, I would never sin again. If I
could live like I wanted to, I would never sin again. But
if your thought is, if I believe like that, I'd live like I wanted
to, your heart is telling off on you that you ain't serving
God right now. Your heart's telling off on you
that you're doing what you're doing because you're trying to
earn something with God. That's true. I've seen it happen.
I've seen folks come out from under the yoke, come in and start
hearing nothing but the gospel of Christ preached. And when
they're not constrained to observe a Sabbath day anymore, they quit
showing up. You know what that means? When
they were there because they were constrained to be there,
they wasn't there. They wasn't there. Their body
was there, but their heart wasn't there. You draw near me with
your body, but your heart's far from it, the Lord said. But when
God's people are born anew, we don't serve him because we have
to. We serve him because we want to. That's a big difference.
All right, amen.