Turn to Genesis chapter 21. Genesis 21. Let me read from verse 9. Well, let me just start in verse
8 down to verse 14. And the child grew, that is Isaac,
and he was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast
the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar,
the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore
she said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son, for
the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even
with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous
in Abraham's sight because of his son. Abraham loved that son. This was a great trial for Abraham
to have to cast out Ishmael. I'm sure in his mind, he's thinking,
none of this is Ishmael's fault. This is not, it's like, Sarah,
this is not their fault. This is, this is something we,
you know, we created this problem. But Sarah was, she was just angry
over Hagar, her son, over Hagar's son making fun of Isaac. And you know where she, where
Isaac got, Ishmael got that from, remember when Hagar became pregnant,
Sarah saw that she was despised in her eyes. Our kids pick up,
our kids pick up on things, they pick up on attitude. And he was
just carrying his attitude right on. And Thain was very grievous
in Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said to Abraham,
let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad. "'and
because of thy bondwoman, "'and all that Sarah hath said unto
thee, "'hearken to her voice, "'for in Isaac shall thy seed
be called. "'And also of the son of the
bondwoman, "'I will make a nation, because he is thy seed.' "'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. Now, we know how
this all began. Sarah and Abraham trying to move
along the purpose of God, the promise and purpose of God. Sarah
has Abraham to go into Hagar. She becomes pregnant. She has
this child, which is Abraham's child. And it just turned out
to be a problem right from the beginning. Right from the beginning. And here, after Sarah has Isaac,
the promised son, and they have this feast for him, to honor
him. Abraham is, this is my son. This
is my son. And Ishmael, no doubt, is jealous. He's jealous, he's envious, because
Isaac is getting all the attention, and it's evident, it's evident
that he is the favored son, and he starts to make fun of him,
taunt him, cause him trouble, and Sarah just gets, you know,
this is the mother, she just gets upset, this is her son,
this is her son, that God gave her a special son, on a promise. Now, that's the story. And you wonder, why did God let
all this happen? Turn over to Galatians chapter
four. Now the story, we're going to
pick this story back up now, and we're going to see that this
story, this event has a purpose. It has a purpose, and there's
a story in this, there's a gospel, there's a gospel message in this
story, in why God let this happen. Now, at that time, Abraham, Sarah,
and all the people involved in this, they didn't understand
and know that this was gonna be a gospel story come out of
this. So you, Now you look over in, like I said, Galatians chapter
four, look at verse 21. Now we're going to have an allegory. Paul is going to take this allegory
and he's going to preach a gospel from it. He's going to point
out the difference between this bond woman and Sarah, who's the
free woman and the promised son, And the son who was just an ash,
he was just born from flesh. He's just flesh, that's all he
was. Now the allegory is taking people, places, and things and
giving their symbolic meaning. There's truth here to be had. Now Paul over in Galatians, you
know the story of the Galatians. Someone had come in and tried
to turn them from the gospel. Someone came in and preached
another gospel. Paul said, which is not another.
And he said, if anybody comes preaching another gospel, let
him, even if it's an angel from heaven, let him be a curse. Now, listen, let's pick up verse
21. We don't have time to look at all of this, but look in verse
21. Paul says, now tell me. You that desire to be under the
law, you want to go back under the law, you want to go under
the ceremonies, you want the old priesthood, the old sacrifices,
do you not hear the law? Do you not hear what the law
demands? See, the law demands perfection. The law demands that you do everything
perfectly. Don't you leave anything, not
right down to the jot and tittle don't you leave anything out
now you sure you want to be under the law you sure you want to
are you sure you wanted salvation to be by works and not by grace
tell me you that want to be justified that's what he's saying you that
want to be justified by the law for it is written it is written
in the scripture i just read it to you that Abraham had two sons, the
one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. Now if you notice,
Hagar is never said to be the wife of Abraham. She's always
the bondwoman. She's always the slave. She's
never free. She's never the wife. She's always
the slave. And the slave will never produce
an heir of heaven. under the bondage of the law
will never inherit the kingdom of God. And never will. Ishmael's
birth was natural. It was all flesh. That's all
it was. Right from the get-go, it was nothing but flesh that
conceived the ideal of it. And it was nothing but flesh
that was conceived. It was just all flesh. That's
all it was. The scripture says, flesh and blood shall not inherit
the kingdom of heaven. But now Isaac was a son by promise. Isaac was a son by a miracle.
It took a miracle of God. It took the work of God for Isaac
to be born. Abraham and Sarah were way past
the age of childbearing. God had to miraculously, and maybe I don't know if this
is the best way to put it, but he had to miraculously reverse
nature. because they were way past the
age of bearing children. His conception was supernatural.
It was the work of the spirit. Their ability to have children
was gone, but God's ability was not gone. God's ability to save is never gone. God can save whom
he will, when he will. No one is past God's ability
to save. He can say. But here he says here, back in
verse 22, it's written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman
and the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. As I said, that was all flesh,
that conceived that boy from start to finish, it was all flesh.
But he of the free woman, Isaac, That was by promise. God promised
Abraham he's gonna have a son. And then a year before this happened,
before she had this, God, the Lord came and he said, this time
at the time of life, this time next year, Sarah's gonna have
a son. Abraham's a hundred years old. Sarah is 90 years old. But God's promise is gonna stand,
right? God's promise is gonna stand.
He promised them a son. They're gonna have a son. You're
gonna have a heir. But he of the free woman is by
promise. You know that everyone here that believes, every person
here that believes the gospel, you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. You are a son by promise to the Lord Jesus Christ. God
the Father promised you to God the son before the world began. You are children of promise as
Isaac was. And you know that your birth
being born of God had nothing of flesh in it. There's nothing
natural about it. It's a supernatural work of God
in your birth. And he says in verse 24, which
things are an allegory. For these are the two covenants.
They represent, what he's saying, these two, Sarah and Hagar, they
represent the two covenants. The covenant of works that came
from Mount Sinai and the covenant of grace, which is from heaven. These represent, he said, the
two covenants. Hagar represents that covenant
of works and it leads to bondage. It leads to bondage. You see
here, for these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai with
genders or leads to bondage. It can, it can produce nothing
but bondage. Hagar was never free. She was always the slave, always
the servant, always. Ishmael born by a woman of bondage. It leads to bondage. That's all
the law can do. If a person wants to... Listen,
there's more of this in us than we realize. There's more of a
legalistic spirit in us than we recognize. It's the air. There's times you just feel like
you gotta do something. It's the air. It's the air. It leads to bondage. We're all
born with such a legalistic spirit about us, which is Agar. For this, Agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia. She represents the law, the bondage,
and the servitude that the law demands. That's what she represents. And I thought as I read this,
they didn't see this when this was going on. Abraham and Agar
and Sarah, they didn't see all this. But the Lord's hand was
in this, even though what they did was sinful. What Sarah and
Abraham did was sinful. Yet God took that. He allowed
that and took that to preach the gospel to us here in our
day in that situation. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and answers to Jerusalem, which now is the Jerusalem right
now. that is over there in the Middle
East is under bondage, is under bondage. And you know what he's
saying here? He's saying that this, this, uh, the Jerusalem
that now is, they are the children of Hagar. They are the ones,
they are under bondage. They didn't want to let go of
the law. That was, they held onto that with a death grip.
They didn't want to let go of that old priesthood. When the
Lord came, they rejected him. They wanted nothing to do with
him. They wanted nothing to do with him as the high priest.
They wanted nothing to do with him as a sacrifice. Nothing to
do with him as the son, the promised son, the seed of the Lord, the
promised seed that was to Abraham. They wanted nothing to do with
him. They wanted to cling to that old covenant of works, of
earning salvation, of earning acceptance before God by what
they did through their ceremonies Their sacrifices? You know, if
you go and read in the Gospels, it speaks of the Jewish Passover. You know, it used to be called
the Lord's Passover. Back when it was instituted, it was called
the Lord's Passover. You start reading it in the Gospels,
by the time it got to that point, it was called the Jewish Passover. Instead of the Lord's Passover. Anyway, for this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia and answers to Jerusalem, which now is, and
is in bondage with her children. They're not free. They're not
free. They still reject Jesus Christ.
Go over and try to preach the gospel. Go over to that Arab
world and try to preach the gospel. They'd cut your head off. But you go over and preach Moses.
Go over and preach the law. Go over and just preach all those
ceremonies and types and pictures, and you'll get along just fine.
Go over and preach works, and you'll get along just fine. But
Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother
of us all. Let me read to you what I got
out of Henry's commentary on that. He says here, Paul describes
the covenant of grace in Christ, our mediator, our representative,
our sin offering. The messianic kingdom of Christ
is from above. It's from the kingdom of heaven.
When our Lord spoke of the kingdom of heaven, when he spoke of the
kingdom of God, he wasn't speaking of some earthly physical kingdom. He was speaking of the new Jerusalem,
which is above, which is the church. The righteousness is in his obedience,
not ours. It's redemption is in his sacrifice
and satisfaction, not in the obedience or the, or the, not
in the ordinance of the tabernacle, which they, they serve daily. It's access to the throne of
God is through Jesus Christ. Our great high priest, not that
old priesthood. They did not want to let go of that old priesthood.
That's the thing Paul was dealing with in Hebrews. Many of them was wanting to draw
back, draw back to that old priesthood, draw back to the old sacrifices,
draw back to the temple. They wanted to draw back. But you and I know, we know by the grace of God, that
we cannot be saved by anything that we do, we cannot be saved
by any law that we keep, we cannot be saved by any ordinance, we
cannot be saved any other way than by Jesus Christ alone. And we know that the covenant
that God has made with us in Christ is a covenant of grace,
all of grace, not one thing at any given time that I do or can
do ever enters into my acceptance with God." Aren't you glad of
that? Seriously, aren't you glad of
that? The thing we understand that
the Jerusalem that now is he's speaking of, and those who are
under legalism, the thing we understand that if salvation
were not all of grace, we wouldn't make it. We wouldn't make, we
can't keep one command. Adam was given one command. One. Now listen, Adam was given
one command and it was given to him when he was in that perfect
state and he couldn't keep it. We are in a sinful state, a wretched
state. You go read all those commands.
Adam couldn't even keep one in a perfect state. Why would I
think, other than just being dead in trespasses and sins,
why would I think that I could keep all the ordinances and all
the commands of God? Here's another thing they didn't
understand. They did not understand the depth of the commandment. Thou shalt not commit murder. And they thought, well, I've
never killed anyone, so I'm okay. Then the Lord comes along. The Lord comes along and he says,
to hate your brother without a cause is to commit murder. Oh, now that's different. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
I've never committed adultery. To look upon a woman. to lust
after her is to commit adultery. It's guilty. You know, everything
starts in the heart. This is one thing we have to
understand. Every sin, every sin starts in the heart. Now
I may not bring it out into action because of trouble. And I'm like,
I don't want to get in trouble. I don't want to get locked up.
I don't want to get caught. I don't want to, you know, and that's why, that's why people
A lot of people, what's called law-abiding citizens, because
they don't want to get in trouble. It's not because it's not in
them. They just don't want to pay the price. But then the Lord comes along
and he says, you know, hate your brother without a cause. You
know, look at what he does. He gives the spirituality of
the law. And whenever the Lord saves a person, that slaves us.
Because you realize guilty. You realize that I'm guilty. I'm guilty of that. I don't know if you've ever done
it. I have. I've been reading. I read through Leviticus here
lately. I've read through Deuteronomy. And I've read through some of
these, a lot of these commands and stuff. And I'm telling you,
I'm thinking, I'm glad salvation's all a grace. You go read it. Take some time to go read through
those books. All those things you think you're going to find
some thankful salvation, all of the grace of God can never
rest on me at any given time, ever, ever. In verse 27 in Galatians 4, for
it is written, rejoice thou barren that bearest not. Break forth
and cry thou that travails not, for the desolate have many more
children than she which has a husband. Sarah, Sarah was barren for 90
years, 90 years. God had closed up her womb. She was not going to have, she's
not going to have one son until God, until God says so, until
God, until it's time, until it is time for her to have That
son, that promised son. I mean, God's gonna open her
womb at 90 years of age. She's gonna bear a son. And who would have thought? She
says earlier back in that chapter, who would have thought? Who would
have said to Abraham, you're gonna have a son at this age? I mean, when it looked like there
was no way possible that this elderly woman is gonna have a
son, now listen, Look at all that over there in the Arab world,
where'd that come from? All that came out of Abraham, Abraham
and Hagar, and then Abraham and Sarah. All that came from there. Isaac had Jacob, and then from
there it branches off, and just look at that over there. When you look at Jesus Christ,
the promised seed of the woman, the promised son, that's one
person. That's one person. But through
him, through him now, heaven is populated with a people, the
scripture says, that can't be numbered. That can't be numbered. Now we brethren, as Isaac was,
in verse 28, are the children of promise. I am preaching this
morning, and I believe this, I believe this, I am preaching
this morning to children of promise, children of God. I'm preaching
to children of God. What a privilege and what a responsibility to be the undershepherd of God's
children. Now you don't leave your children
with just anyone, do you? You don't. You don't just drive
down the road, knock on the door and say, would you keep him for
a few hours? You don't do that. No, you don't
do that. You never leave your children
with anyone except someone you have complete confidence in.
I'm not saying God has complete confidence in me. I'm not saying,
but I'm just saying, I am saying that there is a real privilege
in what I'm doing here, as well as a real responsibility. There's
a real privilege in feeding the Lord's children, being the under shepherd. You
know, we have to take that seriously because we brethren, as Isaac
was, are the children of promise. You're children of promise. You're
children of promise. You're God's children. But now
listen, as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted
him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. It will not
change. That doesn't change. The flesh
lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. There'll
always be a battle. There'll always be a battle between
legalism and free grace. Always. And Satan is so subtle. Satan is so subtle. And Paul
said they'll come preaching another gospel and Paul said they'll
preach another Jesus. Who wants to save you if you'll
let him. He loves everybody. And he wants to save you. Now
if you'll just let him, if you'll take the first step. Satan is so subtle. And then
when you talk about free grace, and when you talk about God choosing
a people, Christ dying for that people, they get so upset. I'll tell you why they get upset.
Because it offends that legalistic spirit that they have. And we
gotta do something. God's done all he can do, now
you've gotta do the rest. And there's something you've
gotta do, you've gotta do the rest, you've gotta do something.
He's done his part, now you've gotta do your part. Your part
is accepting him. Your part is... Brother, my part
is the sinning part. He's the savior, I'm the sinner.
Henry said one time, he did the saving, I did the sinning. And there'll always be a conflict
in you. There will always be a conflict,
a battle in you. over free grace and works. You'll battle that as convinced
as you are of it. There'll be time. There'll be
times it'll rear its ugly head. And it'll always be there, even
so it is now. It doesn't go away. Nevertheless,
what says the scripture? Cast out the bond woman and her
son. Don't give in to her. Abraham just says it was very
grievous to him. He's very grievous to him. You
know, we saw last week in the message, in Matthew, he said,
I didn't come to send peace, but a sword. And a man's foes
will be those of his own house. And you know, the mother against
the daughter and the son, father against each other. But grace and works can't mix. And
except to agree, they can't walk together. Now you can't have
all what you call denominations out there. It's gonna all come
in here and we're all gonna just worship today. We're all just
gonna worship together and get along. No, you're not. Now you
can take a lie and do that. Now if you're gonna believe a
lie, preach a lie, then we all can get, you know, we all can
get in the same room. But now the truth is gonna divide.
It's gonna divide, it's gonna cast out. Cast out the bond woman
and her son. FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN,
THOSE WHO GO AFTER SALVATION BY WORKS, SHALL NOT BE HEIR WITH
THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN. HOW MANY IN THAT DAY, THE LORD
SAID THERE'LL BE MANY IN THAT DAY, WILL SAY TO ME, LORD, LORD,
WE PREACHED IN YOUR NAME. WE CAST OUT DEVILS. WHAT ARE
THEY SAYING? WE. WE. WE. IT'S A WE WE GAME. WE WE WE. We cast out that we
preach in your name. We did many mighty works. We
did. That's works. That's nothing
more than a legalistic spirit. That's all it is. That's legalism. We did this. We did that. Not
one of them said, not one of them said, Lord, did you not
die for me? Did you not put away my sins? Does your righteousness not cover
me? Am I not? Am I not made the righteousness
of God in you? Not one of them said that. They
said, we did this, we did that. Remember when the Lord said,
I was in prison, you visited me not? And they said, you know,
they were saying, well, when did we ever see you like this
and not do it? And the believer said, Lord,
when did we ever see it? When did this ever happen? He
said, when you do it the least of these, you do it unto me. And they will not be heirs. They
might be your moral neighbor. They might be the best neighbor.
They may be the, she may be the best mother that's in town. I'm
telling you. And this is where, you know,
there's one person comes to my mind that we know, Vicki and
I know, and I told Vicki, I said, she would be the hardest person
for me to ever tell the gospel, to ever sit down and witness
to because she is such an outstanding person. Her character is just, to me,
from me being around her, is almost flawless. But yet I know
that what she believes is not the gospel. It's just nothing
more than we, we, we. I love that. But the scripture
says, it doesn't matter if she's the best mother in town, If she's not born of God, she's gonna perish. She's gonna
perish. If I made the statement concerning
this person that she's gonna perish, there'd be some people
that'd pull my eyes out. But it's so. It's absolutely
so. So then, brethren, we are not
children of the bondwoman, We're not children of works, we're
children of grace, but of the free. That's why you say, we're
not of works, we're of grace. We're born of God, born of the
power of God, the spirit of God, the grace of God. The grace of God. I titled the message, The Allegory. The Allegory.