I'd like to begin in John chapter
8. I want to read two verses, verse
23 and 24. This is our Lord speaking to
the Jews. And Christ said unto them, Ye
are from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not
of this world. I said therefore unto you, that
ye shall die in your sins. For if ye believe not that I
am he, ye shall die in your sins. If you come to God in the law
of Moses, you cannot come in Christ. If you would come to
God in Christ, you cannot come in Moses' law. The Jews heard
Christ and they rejected Him. They rejected their Messiah,
the promised Messiah in their scriptures, they rejected Him.
They refused to hear Him and instead they continued in their
vain religious works. They continued in the religion
of the flesh. That is, they were trying to
make a righteousness for themselves under the works of the law. And
they counted that as their righteousness before God. Now, going over to
our text, we're going to be in Genesis chapter 21. And we saw how this passage,
we saw last week that this passage gives us an allegory of the two
covenants, the two covenants. And we saw how, we saw the casting
out of the bondwoman and her child last week. We saw the casting
out of the bondwoman and her child, that picture of those
who would come by the covenant of works. covenant of the law. And Paul told us in Galatians
4.25, he says, for this Hagar, she's the bondwoman, is Mount
Sinai in Arabia. She's outside of the covenant
of grace, and answereth to, or stands with, and resembles Jerusalem,
which now is, and is in bondage with her children. All those
who come to God by the works of the law are the children of
bondage. They are Ishmaels. They're children
of bondage. They seek life with God in the
covenant of works. And that's pictured for us here
in the scriptures with Hagar, the bond woman, the bond servant
to Abraham and his children. So those who come to God in the
law trying to work a righteousness for themselves, trying to obey
God by the law, and come to God in the obedience of the law,
they are in bondage with the children of the Jews. They're
in bondage just like Jerusalem and Israel today, and all them
who would come to God in the law. Now when Abraham obeyed
God and he cast out that bondwoman and her son, we see we're given
a very stark picture of the gruesome end, the ghastly end of those
who would come to God by the works of the law. It's not a
pretty sight. It's death. It's eternal death
and ruin. You that would come to God by
the law, you shall die in your sins. You don't believe that
Christ is the Christ, that he is the Messiah, the Savior of
God's people. Now in Genesis 21, verse 10,
Sarah said unto Abraham, this is where we pick up, Sarah 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. She's saying there that the son
of the bondwoman shall not be co-equal, shall not be a co-heir
of the inheritance of my son Isaac, the freeborn son. She
shall not have a part in that inheritance with my children.
And so the son of the bondwoman, what the Lord's teaching us here,
is that the son of the bondwoman, those that would come to God
by the works of the law, they have no part in the inheritance
of God's children. One isn't coming their way and
another coming by a different way, and God's receiving them
all. No, there's only one way to God. That's through Jesus
Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. He brings us to the
Father, and there's not another way. There's not another way. And so those who spend and strive
and labor by the law, they're in bondage. They're slaves. They're slaves. And they shall
not inherit eternal life with the children of God, heaven born
of his grace. It's not going to happen. Now,
Isaac is a free born son. He's not born in bondage. He's
not in bondage. He is the son, the son of promise. And he's called the son of promise. And we're told in scriptures
by Paul in Galatians 428, we brethren, as Isaac was, are the
children of promise. All who come to God by faith
in Jesus Christ for all their righteousness, they inherit the
blessing. They inherit eternal life. their
children of promise as Isaac was. Their children of promise. Now we're told that Abraham was
very reluctant. He was very reluctant to send
Hagar and Ishmael out. He didn't want to do it. And
his wife Sarah told him to do it. Now Sarah is, remember this
is an allegory. It's true, but it's an allegory.
And Sarah is a figure of the covenant of grace. This is what
the covenant of grace tells the people of God. This is the covenant
of grace and what she told Abraham to do in this allegory is as
the covenant of grace says to you and gives you instruction
and says don't come to God in the law. You'll have no part
in the inheritance with God. She instructs all the children
of faith in this way cast out the bond woman and her son. She
shall not have part of the inheritance with my children. Verse 11, they
were told there, and the thing was very grievous in Abraham's
sight because of his son. It was very grievous. Ishmael
was precious to Abraham. Abraham loved Ishmael. Remember
when God reminded Abraham, declared that promise again to Abraham,
saying that in Isaac, that Sarah shall have a son, and in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. He said, oh, that Ishmael might
live before you forever. He loved Ishmael. He wanted Ishmael
to be counted as the promised seed, and that the promised seed
should come through him. That's what he wanted, and God
refused it. God rejected Ishmael. God would not have that. Why?
Why would God refuse Ishmael? Because Ishmael was the fruit
of the flesh. Ishmael was the fruit of the
flesh. And that's what Abraham wanted. And God said, no, you'll
have no part with the children of promise. You see by nature,
we as men and women by nature, we're very proud of our works.
We like our precious works, our good works. Why? Because we count
them as our inheritance. We count them as our righteousness. These are the things that we
call good works. And the longer we've been with
them, Abraham was with Ishmael for quite some time, about 13,
14 years. And the longer we've been with
them, the more precious they are to us. the more we look at
them and count them as our inheritance, our right to the inheritance
of God. These are our righteousness.
And so the longer that we've been with them and depending
on them and counting on them and hoping in them, the harder
it is to let those things go in the flesh, in the flesh. They're a great attachment to
us, but We shall not be partakers of God's inheritance because
of these works. We shall not be partakers of
God's inheritance because of these works. Now, in Genesis
21 verse 12, 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. Harken
unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called." God
convinced Abraham that what Sarah said, he should do it. Remember, Sarah is a picture
of the covenant of grace here. She said, get rid of him. Get
rid of that bondwoman and her son. She's a picture of the covenant
of grace, and that's what we hear in the gospel. Don't come
to God in your works. Don't come to God with your works
of righteousness that you've worked in your flesh by the law.
Don't come in these things. Get rid of them. And God convinces
us in the heart that what you're hearing in the gospel is the
truth. Believe it. Do what she says. Do exactly what the covenant
of grace tells you to do. It's the right thing to do because
the promise of God is not fulfilled unto us in the works of the law. It's fulfilled to us in Christ. inheritance of eternal life is
given to us in Christ, not the works of the law. And we see
this expressed by the Apostle Paul, Philippians 3 verses 7-9,
after he rattles off a whole list of those works and those
things that a man in the flesh counts as his righteousness.
He's of the tribe of Benjamin, he's a Hebrew of the Hebrews,
he's a Pharisee of the Pharisees, this man's got it all going on.
all these things that a man has confidence in. And he says, verse
7, what things were gained to me? This is after he heard the
covenant of grace, after God taught him in the heart to hear
this. He said, those things that were
gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. I sent them
away. Just like Sarah told Abraham,
I sent the bondwoman and her son away. I cast her out. I don't
want to come to God in those things. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things. And you count them but dung that
I may win Christ. That's what the Lord is saying
to Abraham. Count Hagar and Ishmael but dung. They're dung. They have no part in the inheritance.
And be found in him. I want to be found in him, in
Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. Anything that you are holding
on to, keeping back as your backup plan of righteousness, that in
case Christ fails, if you're holding on to anything, in case
Christ fails, Don't hold on to anything. If Christ can't save
you, there's nothing you or I can do to save ourselves. If Christ
can't do it, you're not going to do it. I'm not going to do
it. Give everything to Christ. Cast all your care, all your
hope on the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. He is the very
righteousness of God's people. We hold on to all kinds of silly
things. If you've got a DNA test, 23andMe,
which I wouldn't do, but if you have it, and it says you're 25%
Hebrew, or you're 85% Hebrew, or you're 100% Hebrew, crumple
it up, throw it away. Throw it away. That's not your
hope. That's not your hope. If you've got nice little baloney
curls like a Hasidic Jew, and you think that makes you something,
shave them off, and don't grow them back again. Get rid of them.
If you've got a few really good works that you think of and you
say, that's my righteousness. I'm holding on to these things
because I know these were good works. That was an experience
of experiences. This is my righteousness. Forget
it. Forget it. Don't hold on to anything
but Christ. Cling to Christ and beg him to
cling to you. Beg him to hold on to you because
that is the righteousness of the child of God. That is our
righteousness. Holding on to the law is like
chaining yourself to a boulder and catapulting it out to the
deep sea. You're going to sink to hell.
You're going to sink down and be dead in your own righteousness
clinging to those things. Our righteousness, the hope of
the believer, is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. Nothing
more. Nothing more. He is the righteousness
of God's people. Now, we're told In Genesis 21,
verse 14 through 16, and Abraham rose up early in the morning,
and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar,
putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered
in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the
bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And
she went and sat her down over against him a good way off, as
it were a bow shot, for she said, let me not see the death of the
child. And she sat over against him and lift up her voice and
wept. Now you think about it. You're
getting ready to go on a journey into the wilderness. And what
are you putting together? A little bread and a bottle of
water? That's some very slim pickings.
That's a very scant amount of provisions for a wilderness journey,
to go through the wilderness for you and your son. Now remember,
this is an allegory. It's history. It happened. This
is factual. But you and I, we hear this in
the allegory. And this is picturing, Hagar
and her son are picturing the covenant of works. which Adam
failed to do. And when he fell, we all fell
in him. We died in trespasses and sins
in that very hour. We died spiritually. And so all
who would venture out to find life, to find God, to find righteousness
and acceptance with holy God under the law of Moses in the
covenant of works by this flesh, you shall have leanness of soul. You shall have very little. Very
little. Nothing that shall get you through
the wilderness. Nothing that will keep you and bring you safely
to the arms of God. This is what this world's religion
provides by the flesh. Very, very light provision indeed. A little bread and a mere bottle
of water. One little bit. That's a starvation
diet. That's a death march. That's
not going to get you to where you're going. Not at all. Not
in the wilderness. And it reminds me of the prodigal
son. The prodigal son, before he came to himself, before the
Lord came to him and revealed to him, where are you? What are
you doing? What do you think you're doing?
And we're told that he would fain have filled his belly with
the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him.
This world is content with the husks of religion, the empty,
dead husks of religion, what the swine eat. That's not what
the children of God eat. We're not going to get our calories
from that. We're not going to be spiritually fed and nourished
with the husks of religion, the empty, dead religion of this
world. And we're told here that Abraham
put it on her shoulder. and on the child. You put it
on her shoulder and the child and sent her away. If you come
to God in your works, all the weight rests on your shoulder.
Your shoulder. You bear the whole of it if you
would come to God in the works of the law. Whatever you can
scrounge up by your flesh, the whole of your salvation rests
right here on your shoulder. And you have no help. No help. No attendant. Abraham didn't
give them any servant. No attendant went out with them.
Why? Because it pictures the law.
The law gives us no attendant. The law doesn't lift a finger
for us. The law gives us nothing. It
does not help you. It doesn't make you righteous.
You either are righteous, you either bear it and do the whole
of it, or you do none of it. But it's not giving you any help. There's no beast of burden that
went out with Hagar and Ishmael, nothing to ease the load of guilt
and sin that we bear in our works in this flesh. Nothing lifts
that burden, nothing at all. It rests entirely on our shoulder. And the child, the fruit that
we're so proud of and boast of today and so confident in and
our self-glorying shall die. It shall die. It shall perish
in the wilderness. We shall watch it die. Just like
Paul said in Romans 7, 5, that fruit that we bring forth by
the works of the law is fruit unto death. It's fruit unto death. It'll perish. And we shall perish
with it in the wilderness. And there was a time, all right,
there was a time in religion when we were puffed up and fattened
ahead and built up by our works And we brought forth fruit, we
thought, by the works of the law and by our strength in religion. We brought this forth. And what? We looked at our mistress Sarah,
those of grace, and we despised them. We despised them. She was despised in her eyes,
just like Hagar, when she conceived, despised Sarah. That is of grace. She despised it. And we despise
the grace of God and those who hoped in the grace of God and
those who spoke of the grace of God. They need God's grace. You got the law. Buck up. Pull your boots up with your
bootstraps. Do what you got to do. Do like me. Be like me. Just do it. It's so easy. Just
believe, they would tell us. Just believe. What's so hard
about it, we would ask mockingly. of those that were afflicted,
troubled, those that cried out to God for grace and mercy. Why? Because it seemed so easy
to bring forth righteousness whenever we wanted to by the
works of the law. Those of grace, they couldn't
do what you could do with such ease under the law. And we mocked
them and despised them, right? Ishmael, that Ishmael-born fruit
there, mocked and persecuted Isaac, the son of promise. Persecuted
him, made fun of him. All the Isaacs made fun of them.
That is, until you were cast out. Until God brought you low
in yourselves and showed you that you cannot save yourselves
by your works. Your strength is not sufficient.
Your righteousness is insufficient. You cannot save yourselves. And they were cast out. And that's
the way of dead letter religion. It despises those who are afflicted.
It despises those who look to God and trust God and cry out
to God, Lord, save me. Have mercy on me. Lord, keep
me. My heart of this flesh, it wanders. Its eye looks at vain, dead things
of this world. Lord, save me. Have mercy, Lord. Give me your spirit. Fill me
with your grace. Lord, keep me. Turn me. Save
me, Lord. Help me, Lord. And those of religion
despise them who wait upon God in faithfulness. And this world's
religion mocks them and persecutes them and troubles them for their
faith. Because they hope in God? Because
they hope in the Lord Jesus Christ? And trust him, the scriptures say, the gospel
says, the spirit of the word says to us that they who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall not be ashamed. You that
would cast off your works and cast off the law of Moses as
your righteousness and will put that behind you and cast that
aside and come in Christ and his righteousness alone, our
God tells us you shall not be ashamed. for trusting in Him. And sinners know what it is to
trust God because we know we have no righteousness of ourselves,
nothing to boast in. And we are casting everything
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And your God promises you, you
shall not be ashamed who trust Christ and Christ alone. Paul
said it this way in Galatians 5.5, we through the Spirit wait. for the hope of righteousness
by faith. We wait on God. We trust him.
We're not looking to the law. We're not looking to shadows
and types and pictures in themselves as our righteousness. We're looking
to what they picture, which is Christ. They speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so those who are of the law
despise them who are of faith because the will worker can bring
forth fruit whenever he wants to. He just goes to the law and
picks something out and says, yeah, this will do. This is my
righteousness. See, I can keep it. I can keep
the law for righteousness. They who are of the law persecute
them of faith because the will worker feels stronger. He's been
around longer. Ishmael was older than Isaac.
That is, in the flesh. In the flesh, he thinks he's
the better son, while those of faith who are but a remnant.
according to the election of grace. And they're small in stature,
and they're naive to the ways of this world. But they of this
world shall be reduced to great distress. There's a day when
they shall be brought to great distress. They despise mercy
now, but one day they're going to know the value and the worth
of mercy, the mercy of God. And they're going to cry out
to God for that mercy in that day. But you who call upon him,
This day, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall find
mercy, you shall have it, and you shall be received of God,
of holy God. Our Lord said to the Jews, if
ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. They rejected Christ. Don't reject
Christ for your own righteousness. You need Christ. You shall not
endure the wilderness. You don't have the provision
that it takes to get through the wilderness. Now, this is
an allegory between the two covenants of works and grace. And they
teach us this. What we saw in verse 9 and 10
teaches us that we cannot come to God in both grace and works. Can't do it. We must come to
God in Christ alone. But these closing remarks on
the casting out of Hagar and Ishmael are given to teach us
our want of God's mercy, our need of God's mercy, our need
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're given all his mercy is
given in Jesus Christ alone and were not to despise the gifts
and the mercies of God the way Hagar and Ishmael did for a time
before they were cast off and then knew how precious the grace
of God is. God is able to break hardened
sinners. He's able to break our heart.
He's able to humble us and bring us low in ourselves to see, I
can't do it. I don't have what it takes. That's
a grace of God. It hurts when it comes upon you.
It troubles the flesh. It brings us low in ourselves.
Putting your face in the dirt before God is something we can't
do and won't do until God breaks us and does it for us. And when
he brings us to Christ, it's grace. It's his grace and mercy
that does it, and afterwards we thank God for it. We're thankful
to God for what he did. We see that God is able to do
it even for the biggest hypocrite and the biggest persecutor. He
did it for Saul, who we call Paul the apostle. He knocked
him off his high horse, brought him low, put his face in the
dirt, and blinded him, showing him that he is blind by nature,
and then gave him sight by the light of Christ. So Hagar and
Ishmael, what we find as we read, and we won't look at it all now,
but they were spared of this cruel death that their sins deserve. They were brought low. That's
a picture of all those who would come to God in their own righteousness,
which is all of us. They were brought low, but the
Lord did have mercy. He heard their cries. And in
verse 19, Genesis 21, 19, God opened her eyes, and she saw
a well of water. And she went and filled the bottle
with water and gave the lad drink. This should give hope to every
sinner who mocked God, who despised God for his grace and mercy in
the Lord Jesus Christ, who persecuted Christ and his people, who would
not hear the gospel. This should give every comfort
to the sinner who now knows, I need that mercy. I need that
grace. I cannot come to God in my own
works of righteousness. Lord, save me. Save me. All who come to him as a broken,
humble sinner, because he did it, and looking to Christ and
crying out to Him, they shall find mercy. They shall find grace
to help in time of need. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
fountain of blood, open for sinners. open for sinners, to heal the
sinner, to give them forgiveness, to wash them of their sins, to
purge us of those vain, idolatrous hopes that we have by nature. Christ delivers us. His blood
cleanseth from all sin. He is the one who meets every
need, and He gives His people that hope, fixed in Him of that
eternal inheritance with Him forever. He is our hope, our
life, our righteousness. Let go of your false vain hopes,
your works of the flesh according to the law. Let them go. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Amen. Let's pray. Gracious Lord, we
thank you for your grace, for your power that conquers the
hearts of rebels like us. Lord, we thank you for this grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Forgive us, Lord, for our sins.
Forgive us for our hope and trust in the vain works of this flesh
under the covenant of the law or whatever it is that we're
holding on to, plus Christ, Lord. Open our hand and cast it from
us. Let us hear your word. Let us
believe your word. Let us be. Make us, Lord. Make
us obedient to the faith. of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
trust Him and Him alone, Lord. We ask this in the name of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.