If you want to turn in your Bibles
to Galatians chapter 4, we're going to continue our message
there. I've entitled today's message,
My Works or Christ's Work? I think that's really the main
question of the book of Galatians and throughout the Gospel. Is
it our works or is it Christ's work? And the way I phrase it,
it's a question because that's what the truth presented in Galatians
presses upon us. Is it our works or Christ's work
that we trust? I hope you trust Christ's work
alone. Not a mixture, but His work alone. Before we begin, I want to ask
the Lord to be with us. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would reveal to us by your grace the Lord
Jesus Christ in his person and in his work and that we would
be enabled by this God-given faith to hear him and cling to
him and lay hold upon him for eternal life and live upon him.
And you would indeed bring us to glory and with a sweeter,
nobler song, then we will sing your power to save. No doubt
about it, because Christ is our all. He is our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption, and it's in him that we've been
glorified. And so we thank you, Lord, that
the Lord Jesus is everything to us, because he's everything
to you for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Galatians chapter 4. I want to first read here through
this simple text of scripture in Galatians 4 verses 19 through
the end of the chapter. We've gone over this material
before but I felt like we hadn't addressed it by itself and so
I want to do that today. And I want to also draw out some
of the general themes of the gospel. One of the things that
occurred to me as I was studying for this and thinking about this
chapter and also other places in scripture is that as we read
the Bible and as we hear the gospel and understand the gospel,
the Bible actually becomes a smaller book. And I say that because
in understanding the Gospel we see that the Bible really is
all about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that simplifies
significantly for our understanding. But that's really significant.
I mean, it's not just simplification, but that's a single theme. And
it's a theme we love to hear and we live upon it. And we'll
see that more clearly as we read through this. But I want to just
read first here from Galatians chapter 4, verses 19-31. Paul continues his plea with
the Galatians and with us. He says, My little children,
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.
So he's comparing his labor in the gospel towards them as the
work God gave him to do in order that they might be born and that
in that birth Christ would be formed in them. And I'll expand
on that in a minute. Verse 20, Paul continues, he
says, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my
voice, for I stand in doubt of you. He was doubting because
the way they were behaving, they were going about listening to
the Judaizers and he's going to explain why that's so deadly.
Verse 21, here's the explanation, the further explanation. He had
been giving this explanation throughout the book and now he
draws from the Old Testament. 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, and the other
by a free woman. The one by the bondmaid, the
bondmaid was Hagar, the son born to Hagar was Ishmael. The free
woman was Sarah, the son born to Sarah was Isaac. Verse 23. Paul continues, he says, 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. In other words, Agar
represents the covenant given at Mount Sinai, the law covenant.
Or this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth, or corresponds
to, Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children.
So he's drawing a picture here, a comparison between the woman,
Hagar, and the city, or really the religion, of the Jerusalem
on earth. And those who are disciples of
that religion, who are the followers, who are the adherents, those
who hold to that religion as their hope, they're called the
children of that Jerusalem. They're in bondage with their
children, just like Ishmael was in bondage. He was a slave just
like his mom. Verse 26, But Jerusalem which
is above is free, which is the mother of us all. Jerusalem which
is above, as we know from several places in Scripture, such as
Hebrews chapter 12, 22 through 24 and Revelation 21, that Jerusalem
which is above is the church of the living God. Verse 27,
For it is written Regarding that mother, that city, that place
from which we're born, he says, for it is written, Rejoice thou
barren that bearest not, break forth and cry thou that travailest
not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which
hath a husband. Outwardly, the nation of Israel
appeared to be God's people. But in actuality, Christ was
not married to them. He was married to the church.
And so that's what this verse is talking about. Verse 28, 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 these two boys, Ishmael and
Isaac, could not be allowed to stay together because one of
them was the heir, the other one was the slave. And he's not
going to make this slave to be around the heir. So cast him
out and his mother. So then brethren, we are not
children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Now I want to just
pick up a couple of verses in chapter 5 as well so you get
the connection between 5 and 4 now, and we'll talk about this
more in the future. But look at this, the first few
verses of chapter 5. In consideration of this truth,
which is being taught here by the Old Testament allegory of
Hagar, Ishmael, Sarah, and Isaac, the Apostle says this, Stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. We
know from other texts of scripture that we've been redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb. And we've been told by the Spirit of God
that we are the sons of God, therefore we've been made free
as sons and not as slaves. So stand fast in that liberty.
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you not a little, but nothing. For I testify again
to every man that is circumcised that he's a debtor to do the
whole law, not just part of it, but the entire thing. You're
either fully in or you're fully out. of these covenants. You're either fully in the covenant
of works or you're fully out of the covenant of works. You're
either fully in the covenant of grace or you're completely
outside of the kingdom of God. Christ has become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are
fallen from grace. And that's why he said to them,
I stand in doubt of you. In verse 20. For we We who believe through the Spirit,
not of our own strength or our own flesh, wait expectantly for
the hope of righteousness, the reward of Christ's righteousness.
We do this by faith. We wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith, and all of that is through the Spirit of God. Our
faith, our hope, looking to Christ, is all the work of the Spirit
of God. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything,
nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love." Now,
the Judaizers had been talking to the Galatians about the necessity
of also keeping the Law of Moses in order that they might be completed
or perfected according to that law and receive the blessings. And of course, some people would
have said that if you trust Christ alone, you're forsaking the law,
and that's called anti-law or anti-Gnomeanism. But the opposite
is true. If you hold to the law, you're
under bondage and fear and the threat of the curse of the law,
and always striving to gain a reward by your own obedience. But faith
sees everything done by Christ, and therefore faith responds
in love. Faith works by love. That's the
result of this faith in Christ, is it produces love in us by
the same spirit that gave us faith. Verse 7, you did run well. Who did hinder you that you should
not obey the truth? Obeying the truth was believing
Christ. Disobeying the truth was turning
from Christ to these other things and trusting something other
than Christ. This persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth a whole
lump. A little bit of works pollutes
the entire lump of bread. Pollutes our faith. It's no longer
by grace, it's by works entirely. Verse 10. I have confidence in
you, through the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded,
but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever
he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I
yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. To preach that our salvation is in Christ alone offends those
who try to gain salvation by their own works. And that offense
of preaching the cross of Christ causes persecution to those who
hold to Christ only. Just as Ishmael mocked Isaac,
verse 12, I would that they were even cut off, which trouble you."
That's a brutal way of referring to it, but Paul is saying cut
off. They want to talk about circumcision,
just cut off completely then, you that trouble these Galatians. Cut off from everything. For
brethren, I have been called, I'm sorry, you have been called
unto liberty. Only use not your liberty for
an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve one another. You
see the emphasis here? They were concerned about keeping
the law, but this is the only way the law is kept, looking
to Christ. And the result of that law-keeping
of Christ produces in us love to God and love for one another.
Verse 14, For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in
this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and
devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one
of another. This I say, then, walk in the Spirit, or look to
Christ, by God's grace, and you shall not fulfill the lust of
the flesh. And then he lists all these things
that are the lust of the flesh. It's a long list here. Fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, and so on. Heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and all these things. That's the result of trusting
a salvation that depends in some way on you and living that way.
But the fruit of the Spirit, verse 22, is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law. So here's the result. You either
look to Christ and you bear fruit to God, or you look to yourself
and you bear this vile fruit of the flesh. If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous
of vain glory, provoking one another and envying one another,
which was the Judaizers' way. They envied Paul. They provoked
the Galatians to try to live after the flesh and to live by
their own works and trust themselves. But I want you to think back
now with me with what we read in Galatians chapter 4, verses
19 to 31. Here, Abraham had two sons by
two different women. The first son was born to Hagar. Hagar was a slave. Her son that
was born to her had no inheritance. Though he was called the son
of Abraham then, later God said that he would bless Isaac, his
only son, and so God never considered Ishmael Abraham's true son. Last week, The title of the message
was, All Israel Shall Be Saved. The fact that in history Abraham
had two sons by these two different wives is a description of the
entire nation of Israel and really all men in general. Because within
the nation of Israel there were those who were born only after
the flesh, like Ishmael was. And there were those who were
also not only born after the flesh, but born after the Spirit,
as Isaac was. But even outside of Abraham's
descendants, there are those who are born of the Spirit. And
so all men can be divided into these two categories. Those who
are enslaved and those who are free. Those who are free by the
blood of Christ and by the work of the Spirit of God in our hearts
showing us Christ, or those who are in bondage because they trust
something of their own works. Now, God had promised Abraham
that he would have a son by Sarah. And you remember that Abraham
at first was confused because God had withheld Sarah from having
children and yet God promised that Abraham would have a son,
which was Isaac. And so Isaac was the promised
son. But Abraham and Sarah together, it seems like in Genesis 16 verse
2 and following, Sarah actually suggested to Abraham that maybe
the Lord wants us to have a son by my slave girl, Hagar. And so Sarah and Abraham agreed
and Sarah took her slave and gave her to Abraham to be his
wife. And Abraham had a son by Hagar. So if you think about it, Abraham
and Sarah understood God's promise that God would bring the Lord
Jesus Christ into the world and that God would bless the Gentiles,
justifying them by the righteousness and the obedience of Christ unto
death, by his sin-atoning death on the cross. They understood
that and they believed that and they saw that promise would be
fulfilled in their own son after the flesh. which was a son of
promise, therefore he was born after the Spirit. But even though
they believed that, they fell in unbelief when Sarah gave Abraham
Hagar to be his wife. And this is the lesson being
taught here. Abraham, a believer, and Sarah, a believer, actually
trusted that God's promise would be fulfilled as God had promised,
but that they needed to do something in order to help God, in order
to do their part to make that promise come to fulfillment.
And this is what the Judaizers were saying precisely. The Judaizers
were saying that the Galatians needed to do something in order
to make Christ's work perfect. They needed to keep the law,
be circumcised, and keep the ceremonies, and the feast days,
and so on. They basically needed to live under that Old Testament
covenant of works which God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai. But
that was false. In fact, if you look at this
text of scripture here, He says in verse 24, he says, which things
are an allegory. In verse 24 of Galatians 4, which
things are an allegory. And what that means is, an allegory
is that God, when he wrote the account in Genesis, when he gave
us that account in Genesis, he had a gospel truth in mind during
that whole recording of that account, that history, and he
wrote it in order to teach this truth that he's telling us now,
which was told to us and revealed to us by the Apostle Paul in
God's time. So God arranged for and recorded
in scripture the sin of Abraham and Sarah and the result of that
sin which was Ishmael and the status of Hagar as a slave and
the same status of her son Ishmael as a slave. And all of that to
teach a very important truth, a big truth. And so Paul is guided
by the Spirit of God with the wisdom God gave to him in order
to unfold to us the Old Testament way of teaching the gospel in
this account here. Abraham lived by faith and yet
in this case he lived according to the flesh. And it was a sin,
it resulted in sin. And God is teaching us, you cannot
obtain the promises of God in Christ by something that you
do, by trusting in your works, or by trying to help God in the
process. And this is the most difficult
thing for us to possibly learn. That we're absolutely and utterly
dependent upon the work of God in salvation from beginning to
end, and that God must do it all by His grace. Now, Isaac
is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's also a picture
of us. When I say a picture, I mean
that God uses his life to teach us the spiritual truths of the
Lord Jesus Christ and our own selves. In the case of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Isaac is a picture of him because, remember, Isaac
was the son of promise. He was born to Abraham when neither
Abraham nor Sarah could have children. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ was the son of promise, wasn't he? He says in Isaiah
9.6, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince of
Peace, the Everlasting Father. And many other scriptures promised
the Lord Jesus Christ would come. And he would come to those who
were born of Abraham. He would be born as Abraham's
seed. Because he was the son of Abraham,
the son of David. After the flesh, as it says in
Romans chapter 1 and so many other places. And so Isaac was
the son of promise because the Lord Jesus Christ was the son
of promise. Isaac's birth was a miracle.
He was born out of the dead womb of Sarah. Christ's birth was
a miracle. He was born of a woman by the
Spirit of God. And so Isaac was born of the
Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ was born
of the Spirit. And remember later in his life,
when God had told Abraham, take your son now, your only son Isaac,
in Genesis 22, and offer him up as a sacrifice on the mountain
I will show you, Mount Moriah. And so when Abraham got there,
in Genesis 22 verse 7, Isaac, his son, who was carrying the
wood, and his father carrying the fire and the knife, Isaac
asked his dad, he said to his father, he said, behold now here's
the wood, and the fire for the sacrifice, but where is the lamb?
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for
a burnt offering. Genesis 22 verse 8. And so Isaac
submitted to his father willingly when his father bound him and
put him on the altar. It's as if he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb was led to the slaughter, Isaac submitted himself to his
father in his own offering that he would be offered up according
to God's will. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
offered himself willingly to God. He came into this world
to do that. To be born, he was born to die. He says when he comes into the
world, he says, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but
a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God.
And so he did that will. And as Isaac was on that altar,
God commanded Abraham. He had drawn the knife to plunge
it into Isaac and kill him, take the life of his son. And God
withheld Abraham and he said, Abraham, Abraham. do not take
your son's life and so Abraham received Isaac back as it were
from the dead Hebrews chapter 11 says so that he received him
back from the dead and that was a figure Hebrews 11 again look
at this in Hebrews chapter 11 in verse 17 by faith Abraham
when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received
the promises The promises of justification by faith in the
righteousness of Christ, that Christ would come into the world
and do that. And he saw his own salvation tied up in Christ,
who would come through his Son. He knew that God was going to
justify him by the work, the death, and the obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when he offered up his Son,
he knew that God's salvation, his own salvation, was tied up
in his Son's life. And so he offered him up in obedience
to God. And it says, of whom, verse 18,
it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called a counting,
Abraham, considering or accounting that God was able to raise him
up, his own son, even from the dead, from whence also he received
him in a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Isaac represents
the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't he? The son of promise born miraculously
out of the dead womb of Sarah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the son
of promise born by the spirit of God from a woman. And then
also offered up willingly, laying his life down for us, and then
taking it again when he rose from the dead. But Isaac is also
a picture of ourselves. Because Isaac was a son of promise. And look at this in verse 28
of Galatians chapter 4. He says, 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. So Isaac was a son of promise.
And you know in Romans chapter 9, in verse 8, what it said there
when the Apostle Paul asked this question, what happened in Israel?
Since so few in Israel are saved, did God's word fail? And the
answer was, not at all, because they're not all Israel, which
are of Israel. And then in verse 8 he said,
the children of the promise are counted for the seed. And he
refers to Isaac. So we, brethren, are the children
of the promise, as Isaac was. In other words, God, before we
were born, in fact before the world began, gave us to the Lord
Jesus Christ and promised then that he would save us by the
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we're
called the children of promise. Our names were written in heaven,
Luke chapter 10 verse 20, in the Lamb's book of life, Revelation
13 verse 8. And God ordained the Lamb to
shed His blood before the foundation of the world for us. 1 Peter
1 verse 20. And so therefore, we were redeemed
by the precious blood of Christ according to God's promise. A
promise made in a covenant between God the Father and God the Son
that He would save His people by the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Fulfilling all conditions of
that covenant on our behalf. And so this is all taught here
in these verses. But look back here in Galatians
chapter 4 because I want you to see that Isaac is also a type
of us or a picture of us. He teaches us how God saves us. How was Isaac saved? Well, first
he was a child of promise. God promised him. God promised
to Abraham he would be saved and that through him, both Abraham
and Isaac, the Lord Jesus Christ would come and they would be
justified by Christ's righteousness, cleansed by his redeeming blood,
and therefore be considered the children of God. be given His
Spirit. But how is it that we are made
the children of God according to Scripture? Now I want you
to think with me here because it says in Galatians 4.29 that
Isaac was born of the Spirit or after the Spirit. And so we
also are children not only of promise but the children of the
Spirit of God and therefore children of God. Remember what happened
in John chapter 3? Remember that account? A man
named Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews, came
to Jesus by night. You remember? And he came to
Jesus and he started out and he said to Jesus, We know you're
a teacher come from God because no man can do these miracles
that you do except God be with him. And then immediately the
Lord Jesus Christ, revealing what was in Nicodemus' heart,
said, Verily, verily, truly, truly, A man cannot see the kingdom
of God unless he's born again. So Jesus told him, except a man
be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. And so what
was Nicodemus' state? When Jesus spoke to him then,
when he first came to Jesus that night, he was blind to the kingdom
of God. He couldn't see it. He could
not understand spiritual things. And Jesus went on to say, except
a man be born of the water and the spirit, you cannot enter
the kingdom of God. So he was not only blind to it,
but outside of the kingdom of God. And then Jesus said in verse
6 of John 3 that that which is born of the flesh is flesh. In
other words, if you're born of a woman, guess what? You're just
flesh. And that's exactly what Ishmael
was. He was born of the flesh, and therefore he was only flesh.
And so Jesus said, you have to be born of the Spirit. Nicodemus
had only been born of the flesh. Nicodemus could not see the kingdom
of God. He had not entered. He was outside
of it. He was only flesh. He had only been born of his
mother. He was one of the sons of Abraham after the flesh, but
he was not yet a son of Abraham after the Spirit. And of course,
Nicodemus heard all this and he didn't understand where he
was coming from. He did not know what Jesus was talking about.
Why? Because he was not yet born of God. He couldn't see spiritual
things. He was spiritually non-existent. In nothingness, like the earth
before it was created, he had no spiritual existence. He was
dead in sins. He was spiritually dead. He needed
life. He needed to be created a spiritual
person. But he couldn't do that. Can
we? Can we make ourselves? Can we
birth ourselves? Did we have anything to do with
our physical birth? Did we bring it about? Or did
we help in the process? Were we in the process of our
physical birth helping mom? No. Mom was doing all the work. And even much less do we have
anything to do with our spiritual birth. We're dead in sins and
we have no spirit. We're born of the flesh only.
And so Jesus tells Nicodemus what's necessary and what he
did not have. And doesn't that surprise us
that God would tell us what's necessary and what we don't have? What can we do about it? If it's
necessary that I'm born of God and I can't bring it about, why
are you telling me? You see what I mean? But it's
necessary that God also humble us because in our pride, our
natural pride, we think the opposite. Like Abraham and Sarah, we think
we've got to do something in order to make God's promise come
about. And so what you'll find is that
even in the book John chapter 3, When Jesus is telling Nicodemus
all these things, first you're blind, you're outside, you're
only flesh, you cannot produce this, it's the spirit that must
do it, and he blows like the wind, you cannot direct him,
you cannot initiate him, you cannot impede him, he acts sovereignly,
and he left him there. Well then, Nicodemus said, how
can these things be? How can I make it happen? How
can I start this process? What recipe do I follow? There's
nothing you can do because you're dead in sins. You must be created
in Christ Jesus by the work of God. You must be raised from
spiritual death to spiritual life by the resurrecting power
of God. But Jesus didn't stop there.
And that's what's significant. And I'm telling you these things
without reading them from John chapter 3, hoping that you'll
go back and you'll remember this in your own reading or in your
own recollection of what it says there. But Jesus didn't stop
there because then is when Jesus said to him, I've spoken to you
earthly things and you believe not. In other words, he was yet
an unbeliever. How can you believe if I tell
you heavenly things? If you haven't understood the
earthly things, and you might wonder what's that, It had to
do with things like the serpent in the wilderness being lifted
up. Nicodemus had no clue. Why was that? Why did Abraham
have a son by this bondwoman? He didn't have any clue. He didn't
understand those things. Those were the earthly things
and many more. How was the world created by the Word of God? Out
of nothing. Nicodemus was spiritually clueless. unbelief and not only that but
Jesus told him to make it make him even more humbled by what
he said he says I've told you and you didn't believe I came
here the Son of God came to the earth in as a man and told you
these things and you still don't believe he was in bad shape wasn't
he but here's the good news Nicodemus' condition was no less worse than
ours. We are just like him, spiritually
without existence, spiritually dead in our sins, born of the
flesh only, needing to be born of the Spirit and incapable of
contributing one thing to it. But then the Lord Jesus continued
and he told him the gospel. He told him that as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness on the pole, remember, the children
of Israel had been bitten by serpents, they were dying, there
was no remedy, no medicine, there was nothing anyone can do, they
were going to die. And they cried to Moses, Moses, do something! And Moses asked the Lord, and
the Lord told him, take a serpent of brass, make a serpent of brass,
and how do you do that? Well, you take the brass, and
you heat it up, and you hammer it, and you shape it, and then
you fasten it to this pole. Do that, God told Moses, and
hang it on the pole, and you tell the children of Israel,
whoever has been bitten and is dying, look to that serpent on
the pole, lift it up, and in looking you will live. Now Moses,
Like in Genesis chapter, where we're just reading here, this
is an allegory. Moses was preaching the gospel and what did Moses
say? He was speaking of Christ. He
was speaking of Christ and him crucified. But Jesus is the one
who was preaching to Nicodemus when he told him this. And so
we see in Christ's work with Nicodemus that he was doing the
very thing that must occur to us. The Lord Jesus Christ must
preach the gospel of his own person and work and his office
as our mediator, who was lifted up according to the will of God,
and by that lifting up as a substitutionary sacrifice for us, paid all that
God's justice required and fulfilled God's law to the very jot and
tittle in his own obedience unto death. And he points sinners
to that. And Nicodemus now, having no
ability to do one thing to get himself out of the deadness of
his spiritual non-existence. He hears those words. And Jesus
said, whoever believes, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, whoever believes on the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, has everlasting life. Now, up to that point, Nicodemus
had only a fleshly life, a life that was going to soon end. But
when Jesus spoke that, He said, if the one looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ, in that look of faith, sees Him and His crucifixion
as all of their salvation, that one already has everlasting life. In other words, the new birth
occurs under the hearing of Christ and Him crucified, and in hearing
that, The Spirit of God opens our hearts, operates on us, and
gives us that faith in hearing the gospel. And hearing and believing
the gospel is the evidence that we've been born of God and therefore
have the eternal inheritance of eternal life by the righteousness
of Christ. That's the way Isaac was born.
It was a miraculous birth by the Spirit. He was a child of
promise given to Christ in the eternal covenant of God's electing
love. And so we see this here. But
in Galatians 4, now I've taken that diversion to John chapter
3, and we could bring out so many things. Remember what Jesus
said in John 6, 63? He says, the words that I speak
unto you, what are they? They are spirit, and they are
life. Because when we hear the gospel,
And when by God's grace he applies it to our hearts and we're convinced,
yes, just like Nicodemus, I am lost and I have no power. It's necessary, I can do nothing
about it. Christ did it all. And can you
imagine how Nicodemus must have felt when he heard those words? Are you kidding? I've been living
my life trying to produce something that would make God accept me. Something that would take away
my sins. I've had this fear that none of it would work. And now
I'm told the Lord Jesus tells him his condition. You're blind
and outside the kingdom of God. Disobedient and unbelieving.
And he hears that all is done by Christ. He had to take his
place with a serpent, bitten, dying, murmuring, unbelieving
Israelites and look to Christ. And in that look, something happened
to Nicodemus. It's called liberty. He saw the
Lord Jesus Christ and in him he saw all of God's pleasure
and delight with himself because Christ stood as the mediator
in his place. He took the load of our sin and
bore it before God and endured the curse and satisfied God and
therefore rose and ascended and was seated in glory and took
that place of our Savior, the King of glory. And so Paul is
trying to bring us back now, the Galatians and us, to the
fact that Abraham and Sarah were tempted and actually fell in
their unbelief in relying on what they could do to make God's
promise work. And he says it doesn't work.
You cannot mix works with grace. You cannot mix grace with works.
The two are incompatible. They exclude one another. They're
mutually exclusive. And so, he tells the Galatians
this, and he tells them with great force, he says, Hagar,
this bondwoman, corresponds to two things. The old covenant
of works, the covenant God gave to Moses that says, do this,
don't do that, and only if you do this and don't do that, you
live. It made life dependent on our
own personal obedience And Paul says, that's Hagar. That's bondage. That's fear. And that will end
in no inheritance. And she had a son. Remember,
Abraham tried to do his part. Just going to step over here
and try to bring the promise. God's going to do this, but I
just need to help a little bit. That's what we do when we think
that our spiritual progress is somehow dependent on what we
do in our flesh rather than brought about by the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ in us. Another chapter that explains
the difference between the law and the gospel. Verse 1, it says,
do we, Paul the apostle and other apostles, do we begin again to
commend ourselves? Do we write a resume for you? Or need we, as some others, epistles
of commendation to you? Do we need a letter of recommendation
from somebody else for us? Or letters of commendation from
you? Do we need you to tell how great we are? Of course, the
answer to all these is no. Well, then what is your resume?
What is your letter of recommendation? What is the commendation from
us? Here it is. You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known
and read of all men, for as much as you are manifestly declared
to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written, not
with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables
of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart, The apostle preached
the gospel. God wrote the gospel on their
hearts. The law is fulfilled in Christ
and Him crucified. And out of their hearts what
was produced? The fruit of the Spirit. They
looked to Christ and they loved out of that faith. And so he
says in verse 4, And such trust have we through Christ to God.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of
ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. It's not something
we produce, not of our flesh. It's all of God. Verse 6. What
has God done? How has he made us ministers?
He says this, who also made us able ministers of the new covenant,
the New Testament, not of the letter, not of that outward letter
that talks about outward sacrifices and laws to keep and what man
must do and not do, but the spirit, not the letter, but of the spirit,
for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. And he goes
on. But look at verse 18 of the same
chapter. Verse 17 says, Now the Lord is
that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Liberty because why because we
see God has received us for Christ's sake what could be more liberating
than that? We're absolutely Justified sanctified made holy and perfected
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what do we do? Verse 18
we all with open face not trying to hide But beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord we look into the gospel. That's
the glass the mirror We are changed into the same image which is
Christ crucified, the one we see in the gospel, from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. How are we sanctified
then? Looking to Christ. We look to
Christ and Him crucified. How were we born of God? Well,
God gave us and opened our heart and showed us Christ. How do
we live? I live by the faith of the Son
of God, you see. It's all about Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And we live by faith in Him.
And Paul is saying, don't do as Abraham did. He brought forth
his Son of the flesh. Don't seek salvation or perfection
during your life or trying to become a good Christian. in order
to become holy by what you do. You look to Christ your holiness.
You look to Christ your sanctification, your justification, and your
glorification. He's your all in all. In Him
we are complete. And He has the fullness of the
Godhead dwelling in Him. What else do you need? God has
accepted Him. He excludes all boasting and
all participation in our part in the sense that we contribute
nothing. We receive everything. This grace, this faith, the love
we have is the fruit of the Spirit. Everything is of God. And so
we can live in freedom and liberty because of this. And it's only
then do we truly love God. Only then are we going to live
as Isaac did, a child of promise, born of the Spirit, and made
part of this new Jerusalem. So just one more comment here.
He says in verse 26, but Jerusalem which is above is free, which
is the mother of us all. Now I said that Jerusalem above,
according to Revelation 21 and Hebrews chapter 12, is the church
of the living God. And verse 27 of Galatians 4 says,
For it is written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break
forth and cry thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath many
more children than she which hath a husband. The desolate
in history was Sarah. She had no children. Hagar was
the one who had children. What happened? This seems all
upside down. That's what happens when you
follow the works of the flesh. But the promise of God is that
Jerusalem, which is above, would have many more children than
she which hath a husband. Because on earth, that heavenly
Jerusalem is the church of the living God, they're born of the
Spirit, and the Lord Jesus has given the gospel to that church,
and it's through the gospel preached by our mother, the church, The
apostles, the prophets, all the preachers God has sent over time,
his word, he wrote it in the epistles of the New Testament,
the gospel of Jesus Christ, throughout the scriptures. When he applies
it to our hearts, that's the work of the Spirit, but he does
it through the ministry of the word. You're born again. Not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God. You must
be born of water and of the spirit by the word of the gospel. And
James 1.18 says, being begotten of God of his own will by his
own word. It all has to do with Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ preached
himself to Nicodemus. The Lord Jesus Christ gave the
spirit to Nicodemus in order that he might believe and live
to God. And so, through the preaching
of the gospel, all of God's people are born, and there's many more
born that way. Because there's, to God, because
there's none born out of the physical nation of Israel, or
out of any of the works of our flesh, or the following of that
covenant of works. And so he tells us, cast out
the bondwoman and her son. I'm not going to allow that mother
and that son to have a place with my son, Sarah said. No,
cast them out. That was God's will. In other
words, for us, we have to cast out everything that competes
with Christ in our heart. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank
you for your mercy towards us that you would so free us from
the bondage of our sin, the wrath of God that we deserve. our own
blindness and bring us into your kingdom out of free grace by
the power of your spirit in showing Christ to us and giving us this
faith and eternal life. We know that it is all through
his righteousness and we pray, Lord, that you would take glory
to yourself for all you've done to save us from our sins and
teach us how throughout scripture you're pointing us to the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God on the throne of glory who deserves
all praise. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.