The Lord visited Sarah as he
had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. Sarah
conceived and bare Abraham's son in his old age, at the set
time in which the Lord had spoken to him. Now down to verse 9. So Sarah had Isaac, and they
had a feast for Isaac, and it says that Sarah saw the son of
Hagar, the Egyptian, Ishmael that is, but she had borne unto
Abraham, mocking Isaac. 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, with Isaac. And the thing was
very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. And now go
with me to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians 4. And nearly this
whole chapter is devoted to that story there. Galatians 4 explains
what that story is all about. Hagar and Sarum, Ishmael and
Isaac. And Paul writes in verse 22, Galatians 4, it is written that
Abraham had two sons, one by a bondmaid, the other by a free
woman. 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.
One, Mount Sinai, the law of which gender is bondage, which
is Hagar. So he says this is an allegory,
a representation, a figure, a likeness of something, something else. Hagar represents the law. And there's nothing more important
that we could understand than this. And I hope the Lord will
make it more than just doctrine. Hagar represents the law. Sarah
represents grace. And we read there where it says
that son Ishmael was born of the flesh. The two got together
and decided to have a son. And they had one. And we're going
to see. God says, cast him out. And then
God said, now I'm going to give you a son. A miracle son. A son
of promise. A gift of God. A miracle of God's
grace. Isaac. Isaac. Sarah represents
grace. Isaac represents Christ, the
Son of God, and that person whom Christ is in. Nothing more important
to understand than the difference between law and grace. Law and
grace are like oil and water. They do not mix. They are opposites. So many people try to mix them.
So many people try to compound what cannot be compounded. You
cannot get water and oil to mix. You can't do it. It will not
work. Neither will law and grace. Listen to what Paul said. He
said, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. There
are chosen people according to God's sovereign electing grace.
He said, if it's by grace then. If salvation is by grace, it's
no more works. Otherwise, grace is not grace.
It can't be both. It's one or the other. One or
the other. It's no more grace. But if it's
of works, then it's no more grace. Or work is not work. In other
words, if I give you something, I do it. I bestow something on
you. You have nothing to do with it.
I get the praise, right? I get the thanks. I did it. I did it of my will, my choice,
my pleasure. You just received it. You had
nothing to do with it. I'm the one that did this. But
now if you did something to earn that, and I give it to you as
a reward, you do this, do this, and I'll give you this. That
works. Nothing could be clearer. It can't be both. Salvation is
either by the grace of God, 100% from the choosing of a people
to the final glorification of those people, 100% by the work
of God. And grace is not an offer. It's
an act of God. It's an act of God upon someone,
for someone, in someone. Simple story. Two women. And
this is why this happened. This is why this story took place. Everything our Lord said bears
witness of Him. The reason there were two women
named Hagar and Sarah and two sons named Ishmael and Isaac
was to show us Christ and the gospel of God's grace. All right? Simple story. Two women, two
covenants. Two sons who are the products. of those covenants, or two people,
two men, two women. It could be Isaac and Ishmael
who are the product of one of those covenants. And it's very
simple, yet it's hidden. Like the parables. We're going
to look at a parable in the next hour. And the Pharisees said,
this is too simple. And they resented it. But they
didn't understand. And very few people understand
the difference between law and grace. Everyone saved by grace
does. All right, two women. Hagar,
verse 22, it says here in Galatians 4, it says, verse 22, it's written,
Abraham had two sons, one by a bondmaid and the other by a
free woman. One woman was a bondmaid, and
the other woman was a free woman. One is in bondage, one is free. Verse 25, Hagar is Mount Sinai
at Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage
with her children. Jerusalem now, Israel now, still
believes and trusts in keeping the law. They still believe and
trust in the law of Moses, Mount Sinai, and they actually think
they're keeping the law. As do many people in the United
States of America. People in the bondage of religion,
law, legal religion, they actually think they keep the law. Look
at verse 21. And this whole book of Galatians
is about this. Verse 21, he says, Tell me ye
that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? No,
I don't. I can't. The law is a curse,
he said in chapter three. It's a curse. If you don't do
every point of the law, if you trust in your keeping the law,
if you don't do every point of the law, you're an offender. To offend in one point is to
be guilty. Don't you hear the law? The law says, this do and
live. That's what the law says. Do
this and you'll earn heaven. You'll live. God will accept
you. But we can't. And our Lord, in
the Sermon on the Mount, says He magnified the law. He blew
it up to see what it really required. And He says, you've heard it
said by them of old time thou shalt not kill?" He said, I say
of you, if you look with anger, if you hate, you're guilty. To look with lust, you're guilty
of adultery. And so on and so forth. And that's
why Paul said, I used to think, Paul said, I used to think I
was blameless concerning the law, because I'd never done any
of these things. But you see, when I found out, when the commandment
came, When I found out the law was spiritual, when I found out
the law required of me perfection in thought, not just deed, but
in thought, in motive, in the heart, that God looks on the
heart, he said, I died. The commandment slew me, it killed
me. The commandment that said, this
do and live, he said, it killed me. I couldn't do it, so I died. The God made with Adam in the
garden was this. He said, this do and live. Do
this and live. If you don't, you'll die. You'll die. That's serious, isn't
it? That's serious. And that law
still demands perfection. God hasn't changed His law. Christ
said, I didn't come to destroy the law, but to do what? Fulfill
it. Why? Show us how. Oh no, you
don't understand. You don't understand. You don't
understand why Christ came. And if you do, if we can understand
this, rather believe in our hearts, know why He came, believe that
He did that for us, oh, it will give us great peace. Great peace. So Hagar represents the law.
She's a bondmaid. She's a slave. Those who are
under the law are under the bondage of the law, bound by the law
to keep it under threat of death and destruction. That's serious,
isn't it? You that desire to be under the
law, don't you hear it? Sarah now, verse 22, a free woman. Free woman. Jerusalem, which
is above, is free, the mother of us all. I speak out to the matter of
men, though it be a man's covenant, but if it's confirmed, no man
disalloweth it or addeth thereunto. If I make an agreement with,
say, John Caesar here, he and I made an agreement, a covenant,
seal it, ratify it, you can't change it. We made this covenant. All right? And you can't add
anything to it. Now Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. We've been going through this,
remember? God came to Abraham, made a covenant with him, but
he didn't say to seeds, verse 16, as of many, but as of one,
and to thy seed, which is Christ. So what God was saying to Abraham
back there in chapter 12 and on and on, he's talking about
the covenant he made with Christ. The covenant in verse 17. And
this I say, the covenant that was confirmed before of God in
Christ, the law 400 years and 30 years later cannot disavow
it or make the promise of no effect. The law doesn't change
that covenant. It can't alter it one bit. In verse 18, if the inheritance
is of law, it's not of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Long before the law, Abraham, was promised eternal
life in Christ. So were we chosen in Christ before
the foundations were. This wasn't made with man. This
covenant God made in the beginning, long before the world began,
wasn't made with man. There was no man around but Christ. And he made this covenant with
Christ and said to Christ, This do, and they shall live. The
covenant of works was with Adam and said, You do this, O man,
and you will live. Well, God made a covenant with
Jesus Christ before the world began and said, You do this,
Christ, and that man will live. God and Christ made an agreement,
a covenant before the world, before anybody was born. Children
being not yet born, either having done any good or evil, God made
this covenant with Christ that he would be the surety of an
everlasting covenant, that he would come, and we'll look at
chapter 4, verse 4. And he talks about bondage, verse
3. We're in bondage on the elements of the world. But when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. Who?
Everybody. Everybody's born under the law.
Whatsoever things the law saith, Romans 3, 19, it saith that then
they're under the law. What does it say? Guilty. That's
all the law says. The law will never say you've
done a good job. Even if we've done all that's
required of us, we're still unprofitable servants. The law will never
say thank you. No, no. The law is like a blind
horse in an old sorghum mill. Some of you are old enough to
remember they would tie a horse to a big rod and it would go
round and round grinding that sugar cane. into sorghum or into
syrup, you know. And it'd go round and round.
Or meal or grain of any kind. They'd do it that way. Still
do it in some kind. Round and round. Never getting ahead. Always
just going round and round. And the Master just keeps driving
it. Just keeps driving it. Just keeps driving it. Just goes
round and round and round. And that's the law. Those that
try to keep the law, you're not going to make one step towards
God. Not one. And we're going to see
in a minute The contrary, God is going to say to everyone that's
doing that, you can't come out. Because it goes much deeper than
ignorance. Much deeper. It's antichrist. We'll see that in a minute. But
the covenant with man, God made with Adam, was conditional. The
covenant God made with Adam, He said, was conditional. You
get to live if you do this. But he didn't do it. And we're
born dead in sin. We're born unable to keep one
law. In fact, we break it the minute
we're born. And so God made a covenant with
Christ. He met the conditions. Now there
are no conditions for us. This is such good news. There
are no conditions. You say, but you've got to repent.
Yeah, but He gives that. Whoever Christ met the conditions
for, He gives those. He gives repentance. He gives
faith. He gives works. It is God that
worketh in us, both the will and do of His good pleasure. It's grace or it's not works.
It's not works. It can't be both. It's not, you
know, Christ did His... This is what religion is saying.
God did His part, now you do your part. Christ did all He
can do, now you've got to do something. And the two of you
together are going to get you into heaven. That's anti-Christ. It goes much deeper than ignorance.
It's putting yourself and your will and your decision and your
faith on a par with the Lord Jesus Christ. And God hates that. God sent His Son to this earth.
They didn't want him. And religion, you know, they
don't want his righteousness. They like their own kind. That's
what Cain got mad at. The very first murder on earth
was committed by a religious man. Cain, he liked his works.
Look what I've done. He thought God would like him.
Was he sincere? Yes, he was sincere. His brother Abel kept telling
him, Cain, you know good and well, our parents taught us it's
blood, the blood of a lamb, blood of a substitute. He didn't like
that. He liked what he did better.
He didn't like the thought of, you know, everything he did didn't
account for nothing. He didn't like that. You mean
everything I ever did doesn't account for nothing? Nothing.
Why? Christ gets the glory. Who gets
the glory here? That's what this is about. It's
antichrist to try to share his glory. And I'll tell you how serious
it is in here in Galatians chapter 2, verse 21. Here's what he said,
I don't frustrate the grace of God If right, and many do, most
do, some claim to believe grace and preach grace, and yet there's
a mixture of works and law. I'll tell you how you can tell.
Who's getting the glory? Who are they telling you to look
to? Are you looking within to try to find some evidence that
you've done something? Then that's law. Look how serious it is. If righteousness
comes by the law, then Christ is dead and vain. If you can
sanctify yourself, Christ is dead and vain. Christ said, I
am come that they might be sanctified. He said, I sanctify myself that
they might be sanctified. And he prayed to the Father,
sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. God does that.
He has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
If you can sanctify yourself, you get some of the glory, don't
you? If you're sanctified and you do it yourself, then you
can say, I did it and he didn't do it. Aren't you proud of me?
No, I'm not. Kick him out. That's what God's
going to say. Kick him out. He's not giving my son all the
gold. That's how serious it is. That's how serious it is. You
think this was hard? Most people would think this
is hard. God kicked out Hagar and Abraham's son. Abraham was great then. God said,
no, it's the right thing to do. Why? Because that's what these
represent. One time when our Lord took Peter,
James, and John up on the mountain to see His glory, the glory of
Christ coming to be made under the law, to keep that law, to
fulfill that law. That's His glory. Christ being
made sin for us. That's His glory. Christ going
to the cross and be crucified, made a curse for us. That's His
glory. Christ doing all the work. It's His glory. He took them
up to show them His glory. And Moses and Elijah appeared
there. Remember? Moses represents the
law. Elijah the prophet. And what did they talk about?
What did Moses and the law talk about? Christ said, Moses wrote
of me. To him give all the prophets
witness. And they talked about the death He should accomplish.
What Christ should accomplish on Calvary's tree. The death
of death. The fulfillment of the law. The sting of death stung
Him. Now, we're not under the law. This is His glory to redeem us
from under the bondage of the law. This is His glory. He's
called the Redeemer. He's like Boaz of Old who met
the law. That nearer kinsman said, take
your shoe off. If you can't redeem them, I will."
And he can't. And he spit in his face. He gets
the glory for doing what he did, not only for helpless sinners,
but for rebels that didn't want him. He even had to reconcile
us to himself. He gets the glory. Anyway, he
took Peter, James, and John up on that mountain. And after it
was over, Peter, bless his heart, Remember what Peter did? He said,
let's build three tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah,
and one for Jesus, you. He didn't call him Jesus. But that's what men do. They
put these things on a par with the Lord Jesus Christ, equal
to it. Yes, Christ came. Yes, salvation is by grace. But
there ain't no but to it. If you put anything beside Christ,
it's anti-Christ. Even the law. It's that serious. That's how
important it is. It's how important it is. And our God from heaven,
when Peter said that, spoke out loud, rebuking Peter, this is
my son. They all said, we beheld his
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. come to save His people from the law. Save His people
from sin. God said, this is My Son. Not
Moses. Not Elijah. They can't save you. They wrote of Him. Hear Him. Don't build a tabernacle for
anybody. Don't even build one for Christ
because He is your tabernacle. He's everything. Where are we? Hagar. Sarah. Okay, Sarah, Sarah,
listen to this. In Adam, Scripture says, in Adam
all die. The law. Or kill us all. Sold at sin,
but surely die. But in Christ. Here is salvation
in two words. In Christ. That's what Paul said. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness
which is of the law. but that righteousness which
is by faith of Jesus Christ. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Old Paul said, I want to be found
in Him, in Christ. In Christ shall all be made alive.
All in Christ made alive. Oh, my. My, my, my. Sarah was the original wife of
Abraham, right? She was the original true wife.
She's the only true wife. Sager was not. She's a bondwoman.
The covenant of grace was the first covenant. That's right. We already read that in Galatians
3. The covenant that was made before of God in Christ. Before Abraham. Before the law.
Error says this. Religious error says this. God
made a covenant with Adam and that didn't work. God made a
covenant with Abraham, and that didn't work. God made a covenant
with Moses. He got the Mosaic covenant. He
got the Levitical law. He got dispensation. In other
words, they were saved this way, and they were saved this way,
and they were saved this way, and they were saved that way. And
God said, that's not so. Nobody's saved but one way. By
grace are you saved. Not if it works. Unless any man should boast. If Abraham had whereof to boast,
Paul wrote, then he can. But he doesn't. Where is most
and most seen excluded? Most seen excluded. We're all saved. If anybody's
saved, they're saved one way, and that's by Jesus Christ who
is the way, the truth, the life. Christ was the firstborn. Christ is called the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. Christ was God's elect
before Abraham, before Moses, before Adam, chosen in Christ. God's people are all chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world, given to Christ,
considered in Christ like unborn children in a mother's womb.
That's what we were. Long before Adam stood in the
garden, Jesus Christ stood as our covenant head. That's right. Hagar was never intended to be
Abraham's wife. No, sir. Just a bonsai, just
a servant. The law wasn't given to give
life. Look at verse 21 of chapter 3.
Verse 21. Is the law against the promises
of God? God forbid. If there had been a law given
which could have given life, verily righteousness should have
been by the law. But what was the law given for?
Verse 19. It was added because of transgressions. To do what? To show us our transgressions. To show us our sins. To show
us the exceeding sinfulness of sin and what it would take to
save us. To show us the righteousness
of the law, the holiness of God, what God requires, and you can't
do it. That's what the law. And those
that are trying to be under the law, they don't understand it.
They don't see it. We have people in our community, you know, the
German Baptists who think they keep the law. And I've been reading
through Deuteronomy, and I've been reading all those laws that
they think they keep. And they have a pick and choose.
Well, we can do this right here and wear our beards a certain
way. We wear our garments a certain way. But we can't do this, so
we'll just wipe that out. We can't do this and that and
the other. That doesn't apply to us. What do you mean? Who's
to say which law you can keep and can't keep and should keep
and shouldn't keep? It's God's law. And He said to offend in one
point, you're guilty of it all. So that's Antichrist. That's the spirit of Antichrist. The law wasn't given to give
life. There's a schoolmaster, he said, to bring us to Christ,
to drive us to Christ. If God ever shows us spirituality
of the law, the strictness of the law, shows us our sin and
our guilt and our utter helplessness and rebellion, He will make us
run to Christ, not climb Mount Sinai, but run to Christ. The
law is like a sheepdog, rounding up God's sheep, rounding them
up and nipping and biting, so you will get to Christ fast. Get back in that fold. Hagar
never was free. She will always be in bondage.
The law will never free anybody. Hagar was a slave and Ishmael
was born a slave. No matter how good a boy he might
have been, he was never freeborn. He never will be freeborn. God
said, kick him out. He's not going to inherit one
thing. Ishmael didn't inherit one dime from Abraham. Not one. Abraham gave it all to Isaac.
And we don't inherit anything from God because of anything
we do. No matter how moral or how upright innocent, we may think, Christ
is the one. He's the heir. If you inherit
anything, it will be through Him. You'll be a joint heir with
Him because of Him, because He gave it to you. It didn't matter
how moral or how obedient Hagar and her son were. God said, cast
them out. It doesn't say they did anything
wrong, except Do you remember back when Hagar despised her
mistress? Do you remember when Hagar back
there, when Sarah couldn't have any children, and Hagar got all
puffed up and thought, huh, I can. That's religion. That's legal
religion, works religion, free will religion that says, look
at us, look at what all we've accomplished. Look at you little
peons there. You can't do anything, can you?
You're right, we can't do anything. And everything you've ever done
is going to be burned up. You're going to be cast out. If that's
the way you feel, you're going to be cast out. And then Ishmael
made fun of Isaac. You know, Ishmael, these two
sons, Ishmael was the oldest. Ishmael was the firstborn. Wasn't
he? He was bigger. He was stronger. He was louder. He was prouder. And Isaac, this meek little boy,
Isaac Abraham, had a feast for his son when he was weaned. He was 4 or 5 years old. He had
a feast. And Ishmael, about 15 or 18 or however old he was,
started poking fun at that little brat, that little mama's boy.
Looked at him. That's when Sarah said, you get
that woman and her son out of here. And religion. Who has to despise
a day of small things? Religion does. Who despises God's
people? Legal, free will. Who despises the gospel of God's
grace? Free will people. Who despises God's sovereign
grace? Self-righteous people do. Why
do people hate sovereign grace so much? God chooses whom He
will, saves whom He will, has mercy on whom He will. Because
men have a righteousness that they've worked hard for and they're
not going to give it up. They're not going to give it
up. They like it. And for God to say that they won't enter
in, that they'll be cast out, that's not fair. Ishmael probably
said something like this. He said, We're both Abraham's
children. That's what Ishmael said. He shouldn't love that
boy more than... We're both sons of Abraham. No
sir. Not God's sons. Not God's son. We don't make ourselves a son
of God like Hagar and Abraham did. God makes us a son, born
of God. He gets the glory. Like Isaac,
son of promise. Israel may have said this, we're
both Abraham's children. We're both loved. We're both
heirs. I'm just as good as he is. Well,
this much is true. You're just as bad as he is.
And if you get in, it will be by grace. And religion says God
loves everybody. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't.
Salvation is by man's free will. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. It's
by free grace. Well, it's just a matter of interpretation
of doctrine. No, it isn't. It's the truth. Who God is. what God does and
who gets the glory. Salvation by promise. Salvation
by sovereign election. Salvation by sovereign mercy.
Salvation by sovereign grace. Again, salvation by Jesus Christ
coming and doing what He did for His people. That's salvation. Any variance from that is man. It's man. It's man. And God will
not share His glory. Check them out. Kick them out.
It's hard, isn't it? Men think it's hard. It's too
hard. I don't agree with them. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter. You know, Ishmael represents
the old man in us. He's the firstborn. Isaac was
second. The old man is older, isn't he?
He's stronger. He seems to be stronger. He's
full of pride. George Whitefield said we're
all born legalists. We're all Armenians. He said
we're all born Armenians. that we've got to do something
to earn heaven. And only when Isaac's born, we
understand. Only when a new creature is born.
And then there's a battle. Only when there's a new creature
will there be a battle between Ishmael and Isaac. The old man
and the new man. There's got to be a new one for
there to be a conflict. And that old man will persecute
the new. But thank God that new one is
going to inherit. Well, God said, cast her and
him out. Man's works cannot compete with
Christ. The Jews, as I said, were proud
of their law-keeping. They were proud of it. And they
hated the Son of God. Can you imagine? And they said
they did what they did in the name of God and Christ. Said they were waiting on a cry.
No, they weren't. No, they weren't. They were just
proud of themselves. And they hated Christ. It's the
same today. The same today. Man's will, man's works, man's
pride is open rebellion against God's sovereign mercy and grace.
Open rebellion. And those who love their own
righteousness, those who love what they've done as opposed
to calling it filthy rags. You see,
God's people call everything, every good thing they've ever
done, filthy rags. They dare not trust the sweetest
bread. They wholly lean on the Lord
Jesus Christ thing. If you ask Isaac, where did you
come from? He said, a miracle. A miracle
of God's grace. And so it is with every one of
God's children. They love free grace. They love righteousness and purity.
They love it. They love it. And I tell you
this, from God's promise, none of them will be cast out. None
that trust in Him will ever be desolate. That's what the Scripture
said. It doesn't matter how sinful. Isaac cannot be cast out. Sarah's
free. She's born free. He's born free.
They can't be cast out. The son's a son. But the non-woman,
cast her out. The non-son, cast him out. Can't come in. Not going to compete
with my son. Okay, I hope I didn't muddy the
water. But it's vital. Law of grace. Me and Christ? Oh, no. Man's will? God's will? Christ righteous,
I righteous, which is it? It's gotta be one. Okay.