I was preaching for a small group
over in the state of Arkansas some years back. And after the
services, one of the brothers came to me and said, I used to
pray that California would fall off into the ocean. I'm going
to quit praying like that now. It has its faults. Literally. Once again, we're thankful to
be here. We have fond memories of our time with you before,
and it's always good to be with God's people. And I'm so thankful
and so honored that your pastor would ask me to stand here in
his room and in his stead as he's on vacation. You know, I
pastored for years there at Rescue, and I just wouldn't let anybody
Stand in the pulpit there. I made some mistakes early in
my ministry of allowing different preachers to preach and regretted
it. After I matured in the faith
more, I found out that this pulpit needs to be guarded and your
pastor does that. And so it's a great honor that
he would ask me to be here. And I'm so very, very thankful
for that honor. So if he would please turn to
Galatians chapter four, The Old Testament is all about Jesus
Christ. This is a hymn book, H-I-M, from
cover to cover. And the Old Testament is full
of types and pictures, and it's just wonderful to be able to
see different types of Christ in these Old Testament accounts. I think of Adam eating the forbidden
fruit. Some preachers have made the
statement that Adam and Eve were deceived. That's not true. Adam
was not deceived. He knew exactly what he was doing. And in this respect, he was a
type of Christ. Now we can only take a type as
far as it is intended, but we should take it as far as it is
intended. And when Eve was, when she was
deceived by Satan and ate the forbidden fruit, Adam knew that
the only way that he could be with his wife was to be made sin. He knew that. He went in with his eyes wide
open and he ate that forbidden fruit because of his love for
his wife. Now isn't that a type of Christ?
Our Lord Jesus knew that he was going to be made sin, he knew
from old eternity, he knew when he came into this world, that
he would be made sin, that there was no other way that he could
have his bride with him, except he go through that very awful
event that he went through, being made sin. He, he uttered My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He knew that when he was made
sin, God could not look upon sin and forsake him. He knew that. But his love for
his bride, his people, made him set his face like a
flint and nothing could have deterred him from going to the
cross. He loves us with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
he draws us unto himself. So these Old Testament types
are wonderful to ponder. Noah, his ark that he built pictured
Christ. There was only one door in the
ark, and all of God's chosen remnant during that time was
aboard that ark before God closed the door. And that's what we're
experiencing now as far as the ark of safety, which is Christ
our Lord. And there's not going to be a
closed door until the last one for whom Christ died is safe
in the ark of safety. Now, there's one event in the
Old Testament that seems to stand out so plainly because of the
way it's interpreted, or I should say, pictured in the New Testament. And that's Isaac, a child of
promise. And Isaac is mentioned, actually
I should word it this way, God's promise to Abraham is mentioned
several times in the New Testament, letting us know that that's one
event that applies to all of us that we need to ponder and
get some close thought to. Here in Galatians chapter four,
And this is an allegory, what we're about to read. And an allegory
is a story in which people, things, and happenings have a symbolic
meaning. And in this case, it's a spiritual
symbolic meaning. So in Galatians chapter 4, starting
at verse 21, the inspired Word of God reads this way. Tell me
ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But
he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he
of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory,
for these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is and
is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,
Rejoice thou barren, thou bearest not. Break forth and cry, thou
that prevailest not. For the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the 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. 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." Now, There's more
there than we could possibly cover in one message, but let
me just bring out this wonderful truth before you this morning.
We're heirs of promise. God's chosen people are heirs
of promise. And this promise that God made
to Abraham applies to all of us as far as God's promise to
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, a people which he, God himself,
has chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And
that old covenant And it's actually referred to as a new covenant,
but the covenant that God established in the Old Testament, that covenant was conditional,
not upon us, but upon what Jesus Christ would do. And he met all
the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace when he came
to this earth. And when he uttered those words,
and I mentioned in the Sunday school this morning, when he
uttered those words, it is finished. All of those things that God
required in that covenant of grace were accomplished by our
Savior for you and me, those who are heirs of promise. Now Abraham had two sons. He received a promise from God
himself that Sarah would have a son. And I know there are many
who teach that Abraham and Sarah were trying to help God out when
Sarah gave Hagar, her handmaid, to Abraham. But Abraham knew that what God
had promised, he was able also to perform. And we read this
in the book of Romans, the fourth chapter, that he did not stagger
at the promise of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. He did not stagger at the deadness
of Sarah's womb, but knew that God would accomplish what he
had promised him. So I don't believe he was trying
to help God out, but I do believe he took Hagar as his wife, and
she did have a son. His name is Ishmael. And Ishmael,
I think, was probably about 13 years old when Isaac was born.
But here's what we wanna do. We wanna consider God fulfilling
his promise in a way that just absolutely defies human imagination. There was no way, humanly speaking,
that Sarah could have a son. No way. She had ceased to be
after the manner of women. She was 90 years old. And I thought about this here
a couple of months ago. I was sitting there thinking about
this. Sarah, I don't think she knew when she conceived. And
when she started swelling, she might have suspected something,
but she'd never given birth to a child, she was going through
something that she wasn't sure what was happening to her at
first, but can you imagine how she must have felt when she felt
life for the first time inside her? And can you imagine the
joy when she shared this with Abraham, and he felt the little
baby kick in her. And he knew, Abraham knew, that
God was able to perform that which he had promised. And here
Sarah is with child. And it was absolutely impossible. humanly speaking, for her to
conceive. Now that's what we must consider
in this great unspeakable gift, eternal life through Christ our
Savior. It's just absolutely impossible
for us, humanly speaking, to experience the miracle of the
new birth. That's God's doings. Only God
can do that. And when we consider what our
Lord Jesus said to his disciples, he said, it is easier for a camel to go through
an eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter into
heaven. And his disciples They just absolutely were taken
back. If a rich man who could build
synagogues and help the poor do this and do that, if it's
impossible for them to be saved, they ask this question, who then
can be saved? And I wish every preacher would
lay these words to heart. Our Lord said, with men it is
impossible. Who then can be saved? With men
it is impossible. Now I know my Lord Jesus could
take that camel and stretch it out as far as it needs to be
stretched out to where that camel could go through the eye of a
needle, and it's referring to a sewing needle. I've looked
it up more than once. That camel could be taken through
the eye of that sewing needle and come out on the other side,
standing on all four legs and bleeding. But only God could
do that. And so it is with salvation.
Only God can do that. Man cannot perform the miracle
of the new birth. God himself does that under the
preaching of his gospel. when he sends the spirit of his
son into our hearts and we cry, Abba, Father. That's God's doings. Our Lord said, the wind blows
where it pleases. You can hear the sound, but you
cannot tell from whence it came or where it goes. So is everyone
that is born of the spirit. And that's a miracle of God's
amazing grace. Now, Hagar and Ishmael represented
the old covenant of works. They were products of the flesh,
in other words. That's exactly what they were
and they represent the old covenant of works which the whole human
race is under. Don't you know what the law says?
If we don't keep the whole law from the time we're conceived
in our mother's womb until we leave this world, then we are guilty of breaking
the whole law, but just one little part of the law. If we break
that, I can see a man standing before a judge having run a red
light. And he got a ticket, and he tells
the judge, all of those other lights were green. And I got to that one, it turned
red. And he said, I just couldn't, I couldn't stop. I had to keep
going. But I obeyed all of those others. I can hear the judge saying,
you're getting fined for running that one light. And that's the
way it is. If we break the law, one-tenth
of the law of God, then we're guilty of breaking the whole
law of God. So that old covenant of works
is over the whole human race. And we don't have any hope. of
standing before God, pleading our own righteousness in order
to enter into his glory. That won't work. You cannot mix
grace and works. Not at all. It's by grace and
grace alone. So Ishmael and Hagar represent
the old covenant of works and their products of the flesh.
And that's what we're seeing all around us. We have churches
on every corner back home. One's a Seventh-day Adventist,
another's a Mormon, another's this, another that. And they
all have different ways of deceiving the people into thinking that
they're going to glory by something they have done. And they hate
each other. They speak out against each other. but bring one preacher in the
area that's preaching the truth, and they'll all unite together
against that one gospel preacher. That's just the way it is. And
we're in a war, brethren. We're in an all-out war. And
we're not products of the flesh. We're products of God's sovereign,
amazing grace through his own eternal covenant of grace bestowed
upon us for the glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Now Hagar and Ishmael mocked
Sarah and Isaac. Hagar knew, she had to have known,
she was a woman, that it was impossible, humanly speaking,
for Sarah to have a child. She had to know that. Yet she
still mocked I don't know that Ishmael was old enough to know
the manner of women, but he was influenced by his mother and
he mocked. And that's the way it is with
false religionists. Children might not know the difference
between the doctrine of God's sovereign grace, the Calvinistic
doctrine that talks about the five points, and all of that
which gives God all the glory. They might not know the difference
between Calvinism and Arminianism, but their parents encouraged
them, and they mocked the same. And you know what? It doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter if those people understand or not.
They're all under the wrath of God and have no hope unless God
delivers them from that. But we, we are children of promise. We are children that God promised
to his son in the old eternal covenant of grace way back before
a star ever twinkled in the sky. Now Sarah was not about to put
up with the mocking of Hagar. And so she told Abraham, cast
her out and her son. He will not, Ishmael will not
be an heir with Isaac. And you know, that grieved Abraham. It grieved him. Ishmael was his
son. He wasn't the child of promise,
but Ishmael was his son. And it grieved him, but God,
He assured Abraham that what Hagar had said was, or what Sarah
had said, was of him. And so he assured Abraham that
he would take care of Hagar and Ishmael. And so they were cast
out. And it tells us that these people
who are playing games with God, who are trying to earn their
own salvation by their doings, they will not be heirs with those
that God has chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Now, How does this all apply to us? We'll look at that
28th verse of this fourth chapter of Galatians again. Now we brethren, are you with
me? Now we brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. Now we brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. The last verse of chapter three
of Galatians reads this way, and if ye be Christ's seed, and
if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according
to the promise. If ye be Christ, and when God
made the promise to Abraham, It was to Abraham and his seed,
singular, not seeds as of many. And that seed is Christ. If we
be Christ, then are we Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. And this is how this applies
to us. Think about Isaac just for a
moment. What did he do to be a part of
that promise? He wasn't even born. He had nothing to do with the
promise. He had nothing to do with the
fulfilling of the promise. At his own appointed time, God
enabled Sarah to conceive and Isaac was born. What did he have
to do with his physical birth? Nothing, nothing. This was all
according to what God had purposed and executed by God himself for
the glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and for our benefit so
that we can learn from this. Isaac came into this world, the
joint heir with Abraham. All of Abraham's substance was
given to his son Isaac. Now how does this apply to us?
We had absolutely nothing to do with the promise that God
the Father made to His Son in old eternity, nothing to do with
the fulfillment of that promise. Jesus Christ, like I said a moment
ago, met all the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace,
and we have been made heirs and joint heirs with Christ in fulfillment
of God's promise to His Son because He met all the conditions of
the eternal covenant of grace. We have a full inheritance reserved
in heaven for us. And God made those reservations.
That little church I was mentioning a while ago about that man who
said he used to pray that California would fall off in the ocean,
that was over in Arkansas. Well, there was a woman sitting
up in the front And I made this statement, and it's biblical. It's what Peter said over in
Peter. He said that we have an inheritance reserved in heaven
for us. And I said, God made those reservations. That's just what. It just never
dawned on her, I guess, that those reservations were made
by God. And I'll guarantee you on the
authority of God's Word that there will be no empty seats
in heaven. All of those that God reserved
to be in heaven are going to be there. according to His sovereign
power and His sovereign grace and His sovereign mercy for the
glory of His darling Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior.
Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. We just
read that. I wonder It's hard to wonder,
because we know that God has to reveal this. But I sometimes
wonder, when these people who are playing games with God, who
are meeting in assemblies like this, reading from the same Bibles
that we read from, when they come to these scriptures, I wonder,
what did they do with them? Our Lord refers to a people who
were given to Him by God the Father over and over and over
again. five times just in the 17th chapter
of John. And in the ninth verse of that
17th chapter of John, he says, I pray for them, not for the
world, but for them which God has given. So you can't read
that without knowing that's what it says. Back in the 10th chapter of John,
our Lord was dealing with some unbelieving Jews. And they said,
if you be the Christ, tell us, claim me. He said, I have told
you. And he said, the works I do bear witness that I've come in
my father's name. And I'm not quoting that exactly.
But he said to them, ye believe not, because you're not my sheep.
He didn't say, You're not my sheep because you don't believe."
He said, you believe not because you're not my sheep. Then he
said this, my sheep hear my voice and I know them when they follow
me and I give unto them eternal life and they will never They
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My
hand. My Father which gave them is greater than all, and no man
is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father
are one." So over and over and over again, our Lord Jesus referred
to a people who were given to Him by God the Father. And we're
that people. If God has given us faith to
embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior, that He's Jehovah
God, that He, like we read in Sunday school, by Himself purged
our sins, that He took upon Himself the iniquity of us all, and paid
the sin debt in full, washed us clean in his own precious
blood. If our hope is in him and only
in him. Brethren, we're heirs of promise.
God promised us to his son. That means something to me. And
God can't break his promise. God himself has promised a people
to his son. And can you imagine, can you
imagine God not fulfilling the promise to his son after he met
all the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace? That's just
nigh akin to blasphemy. God will never go back on his
word to his son. He is not going to lose any. that Jesus Christ purchased with
his own blood. Now let me take you over to Hebrews
chapter 6 and share some thoughts from the passage of scripture
that was read in the scripture reading to confirm what I've
brought before you. Hebrews chapter 6 Once again, our Lord Jesus finished
the works the Father gave him to do. He never failed, not in
one area. He did it all. He took care of
the whole sin debt for his people, just exactly as he was sent here
to do. He was born of a virgin. Do you
know why that is necessary? Man could not have had anything
to do with the birth of Christ. Then his blood would have been
tainted with sin. We are estranged from our mother's
womb, going astray, speaking lies. So we have to see Jesus
Christ in fulfilling all of that which is needed to take us to
glory, not only in what He did while He was in His mother's
womb, while He was being formed in His mother's womb, while He
came forth as a perfect, spotless Son of God, without sin, He had
no sin of His own. And here we are in need of a
perfect righteousness, and that's found only in Christ. Everything he did was perfect. Every thought he had was perfect. Every word he spoke was perfect. This is our righteousness if
our faith is in Jesus Christ. Can you imagine somebody wanting
a better righteousness than that which we have in Christ Jesus?
That's the perfect righteousness, the only righteousness that God
will accept, and that's in His Son. And when He gives us faith
to embrace Him, when we come out of darkness into His marvelous
light, rejoicing over what Christ has accomplished for us, we have
that righteousness imputed to us, which makes us accepted in
Christ, accepted in God's sight, and we don't dare mingle that
righteousness with any form of works that we think that we can
perform. That just ruins it all. One stitch
of man's doings in a robe of righteousness ruins the whole
robe. Now here in Hebrews chapter 6,
We read about this promise again, the promise that God made to
Abraham. Look at verse 13. When God made promise to Abraham,
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. So this is for us. This is to
help us understand this promise that we're talking about. God
made a promise to Abraham and There was no way that he could
swear by any greater, so he swore by himself. And this oath, this
oath is a promise that God cannot break, an oath that God cannot
break. Read on. He says in verse 14, saying,
Surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply
thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
So Abraham He heard the voice of God. God spoke to him, called
him out of the land of Ur, the Chaldees, and Abraham believed
God, and he went out, not even knowing where he went, and he
endured all through his walk after the Lord called him out.
He endured, and he went through a lot of trials. Abraham had
difficulties. He was a man like you and I.
He was human. He had faults. doubts, he had
misgivings, but he endured. He kept on keeping on. And after he had endured, he
obtained the promise. He saw all of what God had promised
him. He saw it all fulfilled. And
brethren, here we are, walking as children of light, and we
have problems, don't we? I have difficulties. I hurt. I hurt now more than I ever did
in my whole life. And it's not because I'm out roping cows or riding wild
horses. It's old age that's creeping
in on me. I know it. I know this. I suffered a couple
of heart attacks about seven months ago, and I've never really
fully recovered from that. But I'll guarantee you That was
no accident. There are no accidents with God.
Everything that we go through in this life was purposed by
God. Every trial, every difficulty,
every hill that's hard to climb, it's all ordained by God. All
things are working together for our good and for the glory of
the one who loved us and gave himself for us. There's a reason
why we're to do all things without murmuring. There's a scripture
that says, in everything give thanks, for this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. You know why? All things
are of God, that's why. God's in control of this. He
has purposed that there's not one thing happening in this life,
or ever happened in this life, or ever will happen in this life,
that God has not purposed for the good of his people and for
the glory of his darling son. So Abraham endured. Now we read
in verse 16, So we have this before us to give more light
on God's promise and His oath. And there was a time When men would shake hands and
swear what they were saying is true, and it was, that's all
gone. I'm telling you, everybody is
a liar. Everybody's saying, well, this
is what I swear. And they swear it to be true,
and it's a lie when they're saying it. But there was a time when
an oath was An end of all strife. It was a confirmation of what
the man was saying is true. So that was given to illustrate
this. Look at verse 17. Wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us. So God willing more abundantly
to show unto somebody the immutability of his counsel. Who is he willing
more abundantly to show it to? Heirs of promise. Heirs of promise. We, brother,
like Isaac was, are children of promise. So he's willing more
abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel. God's immutable. That means He
cannot change. His promises are immutable. They
can't change. His oath is immutable. It can't
change. God cannot lie. And He's willing
to show this to us, that we might have strong consolation, strong
encouragement to those who have fled to Christ for refuge. Those
who have by faith seen Jesus Christ as the only hope we have
to enter into heaven's glory, if we have fled to him for refuge,
God is telling us, here's a strong consolation. I cannot lie to
you. I cannot break my oath. He will
not do that. And we have this promise from
God himself that Christ Christ our Savior has taken care of
everything that's needful to take us all the way from that
ugly cesspool of iniquity that we delighted in wallowing in
all the way to heaven's glory. All of that which is needful
is found in Christ and only in Christ. What a hope. What a hope. It's Christ in us,
the hope of glory. What a hope we have. And brethren,
it's like an anchor of the soul, both steadfast and sure. Faith is the line that connects
this weak vessel to the solid rock, Christ Jesus, my Lord. Now, this little weak vessel, does tremble at times. And the
winds of adversity, the troubles of life, shake this little vessel
back and forth. But the rock doesn't shake. That's
a solid rock. the sure foundation. And that
faith that connects us to the solid rock is God's gift to every
one of his promised children. We have this promise from God
himself, that nothing, nothing could separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Nothing. I know a little
bit about anchoring a ship. I spent some
time in the Navy, and what the captain would do, or the officer
in charge, would have the ship drop the anchor, usually it was
in the front first, drop it all the way to the ocean's floor,
and then back the ship up, and then start tightening that anchor
until it gripped something solid. Then they'd go on back a little
bit more and drop an anchor from the rear and do the same thing.
Both the rear and the front of the ship was anchored to something
solid. But we still rocked. Waves came
through, the ship would rock. But the rocks weren't shaking,
and that's the way it is with our little frail vessels. Brethren,
we can trust the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our great high priest, made
after the order of Melchizedek, on his throne in heaven right
now, assuring us. that he pleads our case before
God Almighty, and nothing can take a child of God away from
the one who loved us and gave himself for us. Nothing. Until
they can move Jesus Christ off his throne and do away with him,
and that'll never happen. He's God Almighty. We're safe
in the arms of the one who loved us and gave himself for us. We can trust him. Trust him. Every step of our pilgrimage
journey, trust him. This world is not our home. We're
just passing through. Amen. May our Lord be pleased
to give us that blessed assurance, knowing that God cannot lie and
he cannot break his promise. We're heirs of promise for the
glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Thank you for the honor of allowing
me to preach this gospel to you. Thank you.