So this is Galatians chapter
four, part two. Last time we finished down through
verse 21, so we will start there, and Lord willing, we will get
to the end of the chapter. But first, in way of review,
I want to look at a few points that we discussed to bring us
back up to speed as we were in the first part of this chapter
4 of Galatians, but we actually started out last time in Galatians
chapter 1, where the reason for Paul's letter to the church in
Galatia was made clear. In verses 6 and 7 of chapter
1, Paul got right to the point by saying, I am astonished that
you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live
in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel,
which is really no gospel at all. Now Paul is saying something
pretty profound here. You are so quickly deserting
the one who called you. They are deserting, turning away
from the one who called them, who of course is Christ himself.
He was the gospel, the good news that they had received, but were
now turning to a different gospel, which was no gospel at all. There
is no good news in the law. Yet they are turning their back
on Christ himself and turning to a gospel devoid of Christ. And that is the main theme of
the book of Galatians. But Paul refers constantly to
a group called the Judaizers who are attempting to convince
them that legalism is the key to their justification. Paul's
argument to them that he presents several times throughout the
letter is that to reject his faith alone Christ alone, gospel
was to reject Christ himself. Paul goes on chapter three to
ask you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? That is what
brought about the title to our last study, only the foolish
fall for this. In verse three, Paul asks, are
you so foolish after beginning by the means of the spirit, are
you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Paul reminds them
that they had with joy and great appreciation accepted his preaching
of the truth of the gospel, of God's grace in Christ, and how
they had understood the power of the cross, how it was a great
symbol of not only Christ's substitutionary death, but also his victory over
sin, death, and freedom, but also his victory over sin, death,
and then the freedom he had bought for all of God's elect. He was
astonished that they were so quickly turning back to the bondage
of the law. And then as we moved on to chapter
four, we saw an illustration of under the law, a male child
was groomed by guardians and taught by tutors until a time
appointed by the child's father where he would then reveal that
the son was of age to take up his position as heir and inherit
their portion of the family estate, and this was all determined by
the father. What was important to see here
was, number one, the father's sovereignty in determining the
set times for predetermined events to take place. We then looked
at how that applied to Christ, how at the fullness of time,
the set time determined in the council halls of eternity, God
revealed his son to us. as verses four and five say there
in chapter four. But when the set time had fully
come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption
to sonship. This is the earlier talk about
when the young male was born, the father would determine a
time when he would be considered a heir Here we see how God has
set his time when he would send his son to redeem those under
the law. So not only did we see God's
plan as he set his time revealed in his son, but also through
the son, we saw there was a predetermined plan to redeem those under the
law so that we might receive adoption to sonship, making us
heirs of God in Christ. And so it is with each of us.
As Paul testifies in chapter one of Galatians, but when God
who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
was pleased, Paul was pleased to reveal his son to me, there
was a time set by God to reveal his son to Paul. And also when
he would reveal his son to each of us, his elect, each at their
appointed time. And that revelation of his son
in us reveals so much more as Paul explains in Romans chapter
8. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he
also called. Those he called, he also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. And certainly, one of the favorite
verses of sovereign grace believers is from Ephesians where Paul
says, for he chose us and him before the creation of the world
to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined
us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with
his pleasure and will. All these verses and so many
more declare how before the foundation of the world God determined to
create a people, all sinners, hopeless and wanderers in a vast
desert to redeem by the precious blood of his only begotten son. And by the new covenant where
he declared, I will be their God and they shall be my people
and I will forgive their weakness and will remember their sins
no more. Just a bit of the new covenant
found in Hebrews 8, but it is the covenant that Paul speaks
of in Galatians when he speaks of this promise to all of Abraham's
seed, the children of the promise. As Paul will say when we get
to verse 28 of the study this morning, he identifies who the
children of the promise are. Now you, brothers and sisters,
like Isaac, are children of the promise. This morning we will
be picking up with verse 21 of Galatians 4. This morning's study
is titled, Hagar and Sarah, Who is your mother? Paul is continuing
his case to the Galatians, arguing that law and grace just don't
mix. Here, Paul begins a new line
of thought as he continues to explain why Christians should
not add the works of grace to the law, should not add the works
of the law to their given faith in Christ, just in the hopes
of being saved. So I'd like to read here starting
in verse 21 and then down to the end of the chapter. Tell
me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of
what this law says? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free
woman. His son by the slave woman was
born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman
was born as a result of a divine promise. These things are being
taken figuratively. The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai
and there's children who are to be slaves. This is Hagar. Now, Hagar stands for Mount Sinai
in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem
because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem
that is above is free and she is our mother. For it is written,
be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child. Shout for
joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor. Because more
are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband. Now you, brothers and sisters
like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according
to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what
does Scripture say? Get rid of the slave woman and
her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance
with the free woman's son. Therefore, brothers and sisters,
we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman."
So Paul starts out in verse 21 by asking the simple question
here, Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not
aware of what the law says? So Paul is continuing to address
those in the church who are being deceived by the works of the
Judaizers, who are telling them that their faith in Christ was
not enough. Paul, up to this point, has been
pleading with them to think about these things, to remember what
they were before they heard the preaching of the gospel. He commented
on how they had received his message so enthusiastically,
but now were seemingly turning their backs to both the message
and him. He turns the tables on them by
asking them for an answer to the question, you who want to
be under the law, tell me, do you not hear what the law says? Turn with me to Romans, if you
will, in Romans chapter 3. Do you hear what the law says?
Do you not understand that the law brings only death? Have you
read the law? Do you truly understand what
it says? It says in Romans 3, we'll be looking at 19 and 20,
Paul gives a summation of the law, and anybody who understands
what these two verses say should absolutely fear where their adherence
to even just a jot or a tittle of works as part of their salvation,
where that would leave them. or you might even say where the
law would desert them. They would still be in Lodomar,
a place in the Old Testament seen as a barren, desolate wasteland. Spiritually, it represents a
feeling of being lost, empty, and far away from God. Paul is
asking, do you understand that is where the law leaves you?
but in Christ you are delivered from such bondage and hopelessness
and are declared righteous in God's sight. So reading Romans
3, verses 19 and 20, now we know that whatever the law says, it
says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may
be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore,
no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of
the law, Rather, through the law, we become conscious of our
sin. So Paul again is asking them,
do you hear what the law says? Do you really want to be held
accountable to God based on your standing in the law? The only
thing the law brings is a consciousness of sin. And what does the Bible
say about the wages of sin? The wages of sin is death. We
see the two opposing covenants at war with each other. They
are complete polar opposites. The wages of what the old covenant,
the law brings, is death, but the new covenant of grace in
Christ brings life. Again, two totally different
outcomes for each of the covenants. The main point of these few verses
is that anyone who has known the freedom that is in Christ,
but then would even contemplate going back to the imprisonment
of the law, well, what he says in verse 20 should have been
enough to disavow them of any such notion. Therefore, no one
will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the
law. Rather, through the law, we become
conscious of our sin. Any attempt to mix law and grace
together for justification will assure you that you will have
no standing before God. Go with me now, if you will,
a few books away to Colossians chapter 1. This is coming from
a letter written to the Colossian believers, but it has a message
that Paul says is a message he has preached throughout his ministry,
meaning we can be certain this is something that the Galatians
have also heard. So Colossians 1, verse 21, once
you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because
of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's
physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight
without blemish and free from accusation. If you continue in
your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope
held out in the gospel, this is the gospel that you heard
and has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of
which I, Paul, have become a servant." Here in Colossians, Paul is speaking
to the church of Colossae. But when he says, this is the
gospel you heard and has been proclaimed to all who are under
heaven, it is logical to believe that he has preached that same
thing to the Galatians. This is the gospel they heard
but now are rejecting. Now, Norm has said several times
when speaking about Christ and the two on the road to Emmaus,
how great it would be to have that message so we could hear
it and read it ourselves. Beginning with Moses and all
the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the
scriptures concerning himself. But then the realization came,
we do have that message. Right there in the Bible that
we hold in our hands, in the same light, wouldn't you want
to know what the message Paul was that spoke here, the gospel
message that they had heard and been proclaimed to every creature
under heaven? Well, just like the message Christ
gave on the road to Emmaus, we have that message right in our
hands every time we pick up our Bibles. It's the same message
that even to this day is proclaimed throughout the world. And you
know what? Just like in Paul's time, people
are still rejecting it, and will be rejecting it until the set
time, the set time that we spoke of many times in the first part
of the study, the set time that Christ returns in all His glory
to establish the new heavens and earth. But then the good
news, the gospel will continue to be preached and will go out
to all God's elect that have not yet entered the fold. That's
why God has appointed preachers and teachers and those that lead
home Bible studies and also each one of us, as God provides the
opportunity for us to spread the gospel to friends, families,
and neighbors. That's why we are always encouraged
to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks
you to give the reason for the hope that is in you. We are sinners
saved by grace. We are sinners who at one time
were at enmity with God, but God sent his one and only son,
Christ, who, while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for
us. By his death, we are made holy
and we are reconciled with God. And the message is, it is Christ
who did it, not Christ and something else, not Christ and any part
of the law. And by not doing what so many
churches of the day do, muddying up the waters by mixing law and
grace, you just might be used by God to really make someone's
day. So back to Galatians 4, verse
22. Let's pick up reading again there
in verse 22. For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free
woman. His son by the slave woman was
born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman
was born as a result of the divine promise. It's interesting to
note the first four words of the verse, for it is written. Paul is not just laying out a
story of his own making, He is referring to God's words given
to Moses, which gives such credence to what he is saying. These are
the words written down by Moses himself, given to him by God.
Here, Paul, he is going back in time to the story of Sarah
and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael. I'm not going to go into great
depth here, because there are so many sermons that could come
just from this story itself. It begins in Genesis chapter
15 and goes through Genesis chapter 21. If you're not familiar, it's
a good story to read, so you can go back in those chapters
and read it. It's a wonderful story. I hope, though, that it's
okay that I'll just be doing a brief summation of the main
events that take place over those seven chapters. I know I'm preaching
to the choir here, but as elementary as this may seem, there are people
teaching at seminaries and preachers preaching in pulpits that do
not know the significance of this Abrahamic covenant, nor
of the significance of Hagar, and Sarah, Ishmael, and Isaac.
To many, it's just biblical history. And any story about the pictures
of Christ are all made up figments of overactive imaginations. Just
a short story to illustrate my point, a speaker that spoke at
one of our summer camps way back in the early 90s. A preacher
who was named D.J. Warren had several years prior,
while attending seminary somewhere, found himself attending a lecture
where the learned professor bringing that lecture emphatically stated
that all those teaching about those supposed pictures of Christ
in the Old Testament, they were all just wrong. The Old Testament
is just history of the time before Christ. There was nothing of
Christ presented there. Well, what then went through
Brother DJ's mind was a bit of wisdom and some wise words as
he declared to himself, I knew that I was lost, but that professor,
he was loster. Now you'd have to know DJ and
he was a black preacher and they have their own, but that's what
he put, I knew that He was lost, but I was lost, or that he knew
that he was lost, but the professor, he was lost. I don't know about
Brother D.J.' 's spiritual condition at that time, but he had more
wisdom than the professor did. And that professor, he likely
just needed to get right with God. But back to verse 22, God
had made a covenant with Abraham called the Abrahamic covenant.
One of the promises to Abraham was that God would give him a
son to be named Isaac, so that Abraham would have an heir. But
in fact, Isaac was going to be much more than that, as an extension
of the promise God made with Abraham was that his offspring
would be like the stars in the sky, too numerous to count, and
it would be through Isaac, his child of promise, that his offspring
would be reckoned. Sarah, Abraham's wife, was about
86 years old, while Abraham was 96 at the time of the promise.
Sarah and Abraham both believed it impossible for them at their
advanced age to produce a child. They even laughed at the thought
of having a child at their ages. But they believed it enough to
get impatient while waiting. So Sarah arranged for Abraham
and her bond servant, Hagar, to be together as husband and
slave wife. And through that union, they
would produce a child. So Sarah and Abraham could start
their family with their son. Hagar did conceive and had a
baby son, which they named Ishmael. But then sometime later, when
Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100 years old, lo and behold,
God gave them the son of the promise. They named him Isaac,
just like the Lord had instructed Abraham. Isaac was the promised
child, but also a miracle child. Turn with me if you would like
to Romans chapter 4. Abraham by this time had now
aged to be 100 years old and meaning he was likely as good
as dead as far as producing a child goes and Sarah's womb at 96 was
most certainly dead. So let's read along in Romans
4 starting with verse 18. Against all hope, Abraham, in
hope, believed, and so became the father of many nations. Just
as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be. Without
weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as
good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and that
Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through
unbelief regarding the promise of God. but was strengthened
in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that
God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was
credited to him as righteousness. So is it any wonder as to why
four years earlier, both Abraham and Sarah had laughed at the
idea of having a child, even though it was promised to them
by God? But when that child came to be, Abraham knew that this
was the promised child from God. This child Isaac could only be
because of God working a divine miracle in Sarah. Looking at
how all this fits into the allegory that Paul is developing here,
we see Hagar is the slave woman mentioned in verse 22 and Sarah
is the free woman. Ishmael the son of Abraham and
Hagar was born of the flesh to the slave woman And Isaac, the
son of the free woman, Sarah, was born as a result of a divine
promise, the promise that God had made Abraham back in Genesis
15. Hagar and Ishmael represent the
law and Mount Sinai and the present city of Jerusalem during Paul's
time. Sarah and Isaac, on the other
hand, represent the promise and the new Jerusalem, the city that
is from above. Genesis reveals that the relationship
between Hagar and Sarah was not good. Hagar mistreated Sarah
because she had done something for Abraham that Sarah could
not do. And that was to give Abraham
a child. Ishmael looked down on his younger
brother Isaac and pretty much bullied him, believing that since
he was Abraham's firstborn son, he would be the one is seen as
special. That is all important to the
story. As we continue on, it all fits in with the reality
that grace and works do not work together and they cannot reside
together in the same spiritual realm where the promise had been
born. Looking at verses 24, 25, and
26, we will see that Paul is building the allegory about Christ
and the law from the two sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. Turn with me, if you will, to
Acts chapter 15. Paul is aware that the false
teachers were saying that the Old Testament scriptures required
that the Gentile Christians must follow the law in order to be
saved. In Acts 15, you can read how
Paul and Barnabas argued with those Jews who were teaching
and insisting that Gentile believers must be circumcised or they could
not be part of the family of God. In other words, they could
not be saved. Peter, who was also there, and
we'll pick up reading here in verse 10, Peter, who's also there,
asked, now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the
necks of Gentiles A yoke that neither we nor our ancestors
have been able to bear. They were not able to keep all
the rules of the law. No, we believe it is through
the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are. It goes on to tell us that a
council was called together and they eventually determined that
requiring Gentiles to follow the law would be an unnecessary
burden, especially when it came to circumcision. Paul here again,
though, is arguing that it is not the law or any part of the
law that saves. It is only in Christ alone. In
verse 24, he continues his allegory. In verse 24 of Galatians chapter
4, reading at verse 24, which things are an allegory? For these
are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gives
birth to the bondage, which is Hagar, Now Hagar stands for Mount
Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem
and is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free,
which is the mother of us all. Now Paul's allegory has moved
on to the two covenants. He wants to remind them of the
difference between attempting to obtain salvation by works
opposed to accepting it on the basis of faith alone. We have
him now speaking of the covenant that gives birth to bondage,
which is represented by Hagar. She is the bondwoman who represents
Mount Sinai, where God presented Moses the law chiseled into stone. Also, Mount Sinai corresponds
to the present city, Jerusalem. He then goes on to say that she,
along with her children, are in bondage. This is represented
by Ishmael. They are in bondage because of
their continued adherence to the law, making them slaves to
sin. But, and when there is a but,
that means there's a change coming. But believers, they do not share
in that bondage because they are the drusum, that is above,
which is free and is the mother of us all. Sarah represents this
mother, being the mother of the promised son, Isaac. And moving
down to verse 27, And through to the end of the chapter, we
can see what it means to be a child of the free Jerusalem from above. For it is written, be glad, barren
woman, you who never bore a child. Shout for joy and cry aloud,
you who are never in labor, because more are the children of the
desolate woman than of her who has a husband. Paul is quoting
directly from Isaiah chapter 54 in verse one. He connects
this prophecy from Isaiah to this allegory of Abraham's wife
Sarah. She waited and waited and finally
gave birth to a free son of her own, just as God had promised. Isaiah was prophesying about
Israel's future after captivity in Babylon, who will then, after
the captivity is over, begin to have many children. This,
of course, is all symbolic. as it is pointing to the promised
seed, Christ, the head of the church, and all his descendants.
This refers back to God's promise to Abraham that his offspring
would be like the stars in the sky, too numerous to count. Sarah never had another child,
but she was the mother of Isaac, the child of promise, who through
him Abraham's offspring would be reckoned. She is referred
to as the mother of the church, which shines like the stars in
the sky, and then verse 28 says, now you, brothers and sisters
like Isaac, are children of the promise. Paul wants the believers
he's talking to to recognize that they are the children of
the desolate woman, like Isaac, children of the promise. In fact,
Christians become children of God by the very same promise
God gave to Abraham and fulfilled in Isaac. Verse 29 of Galatians
chapter 3, Paul declares, if you are Christ, then you are
Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. The Gentiles
are not the natural descendants of Abraham, but as Paul is stating,
our connection with Abraham is a spiritual one. Again, verse
28 says that we, like Isaac, are children of the promise.
Neither Abraham or Hagar had anything to do with our physical
birth. So being a true descendant of
Abraham is only possible because of our relationship with Christ,
which is foreknown by God our Father before the world began. Mike read this earlier today,
but I'm just going to paraphrase it here. But Paul tells us in
Romans, It is not the children by physical descent who are God's
children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded
as Abraham's offspring. It's a little farther down where
Mike was. We are by God's grace siblings with Isaac, just as
we are all siblings of Christ, if indeed we are in him. He was
the promised seed, and our inheritance in that comes by being in him. Now moving on to verse 29 of
our text, we read, At that time, the Son born according to the
flesh persecuted the Son born by the power of the Spirit. It
is the same now. Ishmael was a teenager at the
time Isaac was but a toddler, and he constantly mocked Isaac. Upon seeing that happening, Sarah
got very upset at Ishmael and demanded of Abraham that Hagar
and Ishmael be completely removed from the family ensuring that
Ishmael would never be a part of Abraham's inheritance. Continuing
on with his allegory, Paul points out that the persecution of Christians
went on even during Abraham's time and was continuing at the
time he's speaking to them, which is why he says it is the same
now. They were being persecuted for
their faith, being singled out because they weren't like them. That persecution could strike
fear into even the most prominent of Christians. Both Peter and
Barnabas gave in to their fears. Barnabas allowed them to convince
him he should be circumcised, and Peter, who had had no problems
eating with the Gentiles before the men from James arrived, during
that time he would only eat with the Jews. Paul scolded both of
them, and that's found in Galatians chapter two. Paul scolded both
of them, turning their backs on the brothers and sisters in
Christ. In a spiritual sense, we each deal with that battle,
even today, as there is the continual battle of the spirit and the
flesh. Just look over to the next chapter,
chapter five of Galatians, and then in verse 17, chapter five
and verse 17, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit,
and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict
with each other so that you do not do the things that you wish,
but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The
Spirit and the flesh are completely contrary to each other, and if
we could only walk at all times wholly in the Spirit, we would,
but the flesh continually gets in the way. We know we can't
live that sinless life, no matter what our desire. That's what
Paul is saying in Romans 7 and I am paraphrasing here as well
as speaking about Mike. The good that I want to do, I
don't do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. But he goes on to finish that
thought with a very important answer to his dilemma, oh wretched
man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks
be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I'm sure we have all
heard one version or another of the old story about someone
saying to a believer, well, if I believed what you believe,
I would be living it up with no concern ever about sin. The most appropriate response
to this person would be, no, you wouldn't, not if you believed
what I believe. The fact is, we have been given
a new nature in Christ, and that nature is opposed to sin. Does
that mean we don't sin? Of course not. Speaking for myself,
maybe I shouldn't admit it, I would lose count about five breaths
after waking up every morning. But as it is not our desire to
sin, it is our desire to be like Christ. We are led by the Spirit,
His Spirit, and in Him there is no sin. And our new nature,
again, is to be like Him, to be in Him, to be like Him. brings
a very special reward when the day comes when we stand before
God, our righteous judge. We will not hear those words,
depart from me for I never knew you. Instead, those in Christ
will hear, well done, good and faithful servant. Again, thanks
be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is the Christ and
he is the righteous one. Oh, the sufficiency of Christ
over sin is clear. Christ, who is sitting on the
throne at the right hand of the Father, is our propitiation,
our atonement for all our sins, for all believers of all time
and throughout the world. Yes, we sin, but praise God,
he has provided for us an advocate who is also our refuge from the
consequences of our sin. He's also a refuge from the consequences
of of the law, which points to our sin, convinces us or makes
us aware of our sin. Then going on to verse 30, I'm
going to read 29 and 30 together so we can have the context. At
that time, the Son, born according to the flesh, persecuted the
Son, born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. Then verse 30, but what does
scripture say? get rid of the slave woman and
her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance
with the free woman's son. We already did our brief look
at the troubled history between Hagar and Sarah and also Ishmael
and Isaac. It resulted in Hagar and Ishmael
being banned from the family of Abraham, leaving Ishmael excluded
from sharing any of the inheritance with Isaac. What does Paul say
to us? He says, get rid of the slave
woman and her son. They represent the law. Remember,
Hagar represented Mount Sinai, and she and her children, represented
here by Ishmael, correspond to the present city of Jerusalem,
where she and her children are in slavery. Slavery to what? They are held captive to the
law and are in bondage to their sin. So why is Paul saying get
rid of the slave woman? He is telling those who are being
swayed by the religious con artists to throw them out, get rid of
them, get rid of their silly ceremonies, Sabbath days, circumcision. They cannot share just like Ishmael
and his descendants in any part of God's kingdom. Salvation is
of the Lord and nothing else can ever be mixed in. In the
same way, we are to cast out the bondwoman and her son. But
remembering that this is an allegory, there is no physical force that
can be used. The only place we cast them out
is in our minds, thoughts, and our hearts. And how do we do
that? The only way we can do that is by the Spirit. Always
remember that He is the author and the perfecter of our faith.
And it is He who began a good work in you, and He will carry
it on to the completion until the day of Jesus Christ. That
is what we do, is wait on Him. A few weeks ago, we sang the
hymn, Jesus Paid It All. As the song clearly reveals,
it is not a debt we can pay on our own. It is through Christ
and Him alone that the debt has been paid, the victory has been
won. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be on guard. Beth and
I were talking about heart checks earlier today. That doesn't mean
that we shouldn't be on guard. and make sure, as the Bereans
did, that the gospel preaching you might hear throughout your
life is the true gospel message. And what is the true gospel message?
It is the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. And by His
death on that cross, He suffered on our behalf. He paid the debt
and set us free. At the cross, He paid the price
that provided for us, our justification, our sanctification, our reconciliation,
our salvation. He provided for us our freedom
in Christ. It's in His righteousness that
we are made pleasing unto God. There is no other way. There
is no other mechanism. And what do we do? Just be there. And God even makes sure of that. Way back before the world was
ever formed and in the council halls of eternity, the great
three-in-one purposed and planned God's plan of redemption for
His people. his deliverance from the law
for his people. He wrote all the names of his
elect into the Lamb's book of life. And then at the fullness
of time, he sent his son to die on the cross for all the father
had given him. And then the day will come for
all his people as it pleases him. He will reveal his son to
all he has appointed to each on their own set day. And what
did you do on your day? Just be there. Christ did it
all. Now the last verse of chapter
four, verse 31. Therefore, brothers and sisters,
we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free woman. A short
and simple verse, yet it says so much. Paul is dotting the
final I and crossing the final T. He is being very blunt. We are not children of the bondwoman. In fact, we are told to cast
out the bondwoman. Way back in Genesis, Abraham
cast out the bondwoman and her son because he believed God. We cast them out by believing
God. It is by his spirit you receive
the adoption to sonship, and it's by the same spirit that
we are children of the free woman. Paul's overall message has been,
and it very much applies to us today, you can't be the children
of both. You can't be children of grace
and the children of law at the same time. So the question is,
who is your mother? Are you a child of the law or
are you a child of grace? Is Hagar your mother or Sarah
your mother? This question is important because
this divide has brought us the likes of Cain and Abel, It has
brought us Isaac and Ishmael. It has brought us Joseph and
his brothers, David and Goliath, and so many others. None of them
could reside together. It was either one or the other.
So is it Moses or is it Christ? Again, they do not mix. Moses
gave us the law. Christ has given us grace and
freedom. There are many churches out there today that want to
mix them up. But what does Paul say? He says,
get rid of the bondwoman. And that brings us to the end
of the study. Actually, there was something I want right here.
That brings us to the end of the study. But I did want to,
I was taken by the second verse of the call to worship that we
sang at the early part of the morning. And I like to read the
second verse because it really fits in here. This refuge for
sinners God's love did ordain and Jesus the lamb from eternity
slain. In Christ the Redeemer, who lived
and who died, God's law and his justice are now satisfied. That was just fitted so perfectly
with the message that I brought here. But in conclusion for the
study, I would like to once again go back to Galatians chapter
one. In Galatians chapter one, I want
to read the, starting there in the middle of verse two, Galatians
1, in the middle of verse 2, where it says, to the churches
of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God the Father and
our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he
might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will
of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. So wrapping this up, we can ask
and answer two important questions in just these few verses. Who
did it? Christ did it. He did it all. He gave himself up for our sins
and delivered us from the evils of this age. And who gets the
glory? It's God, the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit who receive all the glory. So thank you for giving
me the opportunity to look a little bit at the book, chapter four
of Galatians. Brother Mike?