It isn't a history of the world. There are certainly ample history
books about the existence of this world. Most of them are
wrong about its origin, but there are a lot of history books and
several of y'all are certainly more knowledgeable of the history
of men than I am. The Word of God is not a history
book, but all of the historical events in it are accurate. There are no inaccuracies of
history in the Word of God. But all of the historical events
that are recorded in the Word of God, and granted, the Spirit
of God could have put any number of historical events in the Scriptures. But the ones that he has put
in, and it's particularly here in the book of Genesis, the ones
that the Spirit of God led Moses to write about, they have something
to do with redemption. They've got something to do with
salvation. Everything, not only in Genesis,
but throughout the Word of God, conveys and illustrates the message
of God's salvation and the redemption of folks like us by the Lord
Jesus. And so every event, the Spirit
of God in His infinite wisdom He was very selective in the
ones that he chose, the events that he chose, the historical
things that he puts in the Word of God. He's very picky about
that, of course, because the ones that he puts in here, they
tell a story. Not just an accurate recording
of an event. But they tell something spiritual. Now, lots of times, you and I,
as we read the Word of God, and we read of these things that
have happened in the Book of God, we don't have light enough
to understand what that spiritual lesson is. And that's one of
the things we're constantly learning. We're always having our minds
and our eyes opened to old truths in a new way. Things that we
haven't ever seen before. Now, of course, the Word of God
opens up, and I'll give you some illustrations here, and these
are very basic. These are things that you know
of. The Word of God opens up with creation. That is an accurate
rendering of those six days that our God spoke everything into
existence. And we fully believe that those
six days were 24 hour days. I don't think there's any question
about that. But there's more in the first
and half, the second chapters of Genesis than a mere recording
of physical creation. It's a picture of spiritual creation. It's a picture of the grace of
God. It's a picture of God working
in the center to will and to do of His good pleasure. The
earth was without form and void. That's us by nature. And then
God did something. God spoke. And in the Word of
God, there's authority. There is great power in the Word
of God. The written Word of God and that
One who is the incarnate Word of God. Let there be light, is
what God said. And this is what happened when
you and I were born again in the Spirit of God. We were in
pagan darkness. We may as well have lived in
some country that has no Bible because the Bible was not a book
of understanding to us. It wasn't a book that we had
any real knowledge of. And for many of us, the Bibles
we did have, I remember seeing my grandparents had marriage
licenses in the front of it and the family tree. Oh, don't do
anything with that Bible. That's a family Bible. That's
how we trace our heritage and things of that nature. And that's
what Bibles were used for. You look at them and there's
obituaries. Burial records as well as birth
records. All of those sorts of things.
And this is a really good book. It's the good book. That's what
we'd say. It's the good book. But then God opened the good
book to us with His illuminating grace. And then we saw this is
about redemption. This is about salvation. This
is about God's work. Not just God's literal work in
this world, but God's spiritual work in the hearts of people
who didn't deserve anything from Him except death and judgment
and hell. And then, of course, we move
along in the second chapter. At the end of the second chapter,
you have marriage. Well, that's an historical event
when God gave to Adam a help meat. It's a wonderful gift from God.
Well, so we didn't move on from that. Now wait a minute, we don't
want to move on from that until we understand what is the picture
of redemption here? Has salvation figure in here?
There's got to be something. Since everything in the Word
of God has a spiritual lesson, everything, like I said, whether
we understand it or not, since the Word of God is a spiritual
book, Therefore, teaching us and illustrating for us spiritual
lessons and realities in the history of redemption and reconciliation
and righteousness. Well, what is this? Okay, God
creates a helpmeet for Adam. Well, this marriage, how does
that fit in? How do we understand that? And
we know because Christ is the bridegroom. And God gave Him
a bride. And just as the Lord opened up
the side of Adam and took a rib, God put him in a deep sleep.
And out of Adam came another life. Another life. And that's the picture of our
Lord Jesus. God put Him in the deep sleep
of death. And from His death came forth
life for us. Spiritual life and everlasting
life. Adam's fall? That's historically
accurate. It shows us our need of salvation,
but then the Lord's mercy to our fallen parents as He takes
animals and kills them and skins them. We say, that's a beautiful
story how God did that. Yeah, but what do we learn from
that? Don't we learn the doctrine of
substitution? And don't we learn of the doctrine
of the sacrifice? The sacrifice of the innocent
for the guilty? If the guilty are going to go
free, then an innocent victim's got to die in their stead. There's
our shivering parents. And they've got a fig leaf apron
that they've made with their own hands. And that's another
picture. Your works won't save you. They
wither and die and leave you stark naked before a holy God. You don't want to meet God in
your nakedness. You want to be covered. You've
got to have the righteousness of the Son of God. And we understand
that. We see that. Abel and his lamb. And people
read that and they say, well, that's an interesting story,
Cain and Abel. Yeah, I read that in a Bible
story book. Yeah, what the Bible storybooks
don't tell you is Abel's lamb pictured the Lamb of God who
died for sinners. And Abel, he represents those
who believe in salvation by sacrifice, by the grace of God. Whereas,
that sacrifice, that offering Cain brought, He brought what
He had done with His own hands. I grew these. I made these. I planted these bushes, these
plants over here. I did it! I did it! And here's
the results of what I did! And God said, I'm not going to
have anything to do with it. And you better learn a lesson
there, and I better too. And those of you who are watching,
God's not going to accept even the best that you can do. If
you go ahead and try to bring Him your best watermelons and
your tomatoes and green beans and all the rest of it, He's
not going to have anything to do with that. God demands blood. Blood. Death. That's what He looks for. And of course, knowing the ark.
And you know, on and on and on I could go. I'd take up all of
our time tonight and just keep on preaching on this as we go
through the Old Testament. But this is the situation in
the story before us this evening. The story of Hagar and Sarah
and Ishmael and Isaac. Abraham and Sarah, God promised
them a seed. an heir, a son. God promised them several times
this. Look back in Genesis 17, 16. This is where God said to Abraham,
I'm going to change your wife's name now to Sarah. Now look at
17, verse 16, and I will bless her. Don't you love the Lord's
wills? I will. I will. I will bless her and give thee
a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her and she
shall be a mother of nations, kings of people, shall be of
her. God said that's what I'm going
to do. Look at verse 19. God said, He said to Abraham,
Sarah thy wife, she shall bear a son indeed. Thou shalt call
his name Isaac. And I will establish My covenant
with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.
There's somebody coming after him. And we read in the book
of Galatians that the Lord said seed, not seeds. Seed as in one. Oh, this seed. He's going to
be great. And Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the saints of God in the Old Testament, and all of
the saints of God as they passed away in the New Testament right
up to the very last one who has recently died, whoever that would
be in the whole wide world, They all go to be with that One who
is the seed. Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus. Look at chapter 18, verse 10. The Lord said, I'll certainly
return unto thee according to the time or the season of life. and lo, Sarah thy wife shall
have a son." She shall have a son. Look at verse 14. Is anything
too hard for the Lord? Here's what the Lord said. At
that time appointed, I will return unto thee and according to the
time of life. And Sarah shall have a son. But years go by. she couldn't become pregnant.
And so when Abraham, he's about 86, about 85 or 86, he takes,
at Sarah's insistence, he takes in Hagar to be his second wife,
as it were. She's an Egyptian slave. And
the result of their union was a son by the name of Ishmael. Ishmael was born when Abraham
was 86 years old. The reference is Genesis 16 verse
16 on that if you want to make good on it. Ishmael, you need
to understand, this is important, he was a product of the flesh. Just natural. Natural. Just natural, child-bearing. And things went along really
good for a lot of years. I'm sure Abraham bragged about
Ishmael. He said, have you seen my son?
Have you seen my son Ishmael? Well, he favors you but he don't
look much like Sarah. Well, Abraham still loved that
boy. But then the Lord paid Abraham
and Sarah a visit and reiterated the promise. And so we read in
our text here in chapter 21. Look at verse 1 again. And the
Lord visited Sarah. I love that word visited. I've
always enjoyed word studies. The word visited here means He
intervened on the behalf of Sarah. You see, this pregnancy of Sarah
was nothing short of a miracle. What happened? The Lord intervened. The Lord intervened. He intervened
on her behalf. If you read, you can go back
to chapter 18, but you can read in Romans 4, verses 17-21, Hebrews
11, verses 11-12, that her womb was dead, and Abraham, as far
as fathering a child, he's dead. But it says in Romans 4, he didn't
consider his own flesh though dead, he believed God. Now, if they had gone to a fertility
clinic or something, that, well, we want to have a child, the
doctors would just laugh. You've got to be kidding me.
Miss Sarah, you're nearly 90 years old, and Mr. Abraham, you
haven't reached 100. Now, this is an impossibility. Why don't you all consider adoption?
There's no possibility. This just can't happen. And you
see, that's the way it is with the deadness of a sinner. There's
no possibility of life there. Not spiritual life. Born in sin. Born in ignorance. Born in depravity. born physically alive, they spanked
him on the behind, and the baby cries, and we say it's a new
life there. Yeah, there's new physical life,
but there's a total absence of spiritual life. And that baby
will be dead spiritually all of his life and throughout eternity
unless God intervenes. God's got to intervene. And I
know what the free will Armenians say, God will not violate a man's
will. If He doesn't, you'll perish.
That's just the truth of the matter. If He doesn't, If He
doesn't violate your so-called free will, if He doesn't intervene,
if He doesn't visit with His sovereign, free, effectual grace,
the sinner dies forever. It's like Mary. When Gabriel,
the man who stands before the Lord, Gabriel, whom I believe
is a picture of our Lord Jesus, he portrays the Savior. He's
the man who stands in the presence of God. Gabriel came to Mary
and said, you've got to have a son called His name Jesus. He's the Son of the Highest.
Mary said, this can't be! It can't be! I've never known
a man! The angel Gabriel said, the Spirit
of God is going to come over you, overshadow you. And where there was once emptiness
of any life in your womb, I'm going to create life. Oh, see,
that's a picture of what the Lord has to do for us. I tell you, when it comes to salvation,
we sure are totally dependent upon the Lord, aren't we? There's no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. You preach these things to people
and it's amazing that some people, they still don't get it, but
they never will get it. unless the Lord's pleased to
take the Word of God and show them what it really says. I just started Bible college. I thought I knew a few things.
Of course, the older I get, the more I realize I really don't
know much at all. It's who you know. But, you know,
I went to Bible college and I could quote a bunch of verses of Scripture
and I knew dispensationalism and all that kind of stuff. And somebody put into my hand
a copy of A.W. Pink's Sovereignty of God. I
looked at it. A year before that, actually
it wasn't even a year before that, the summer before I went
to Bible college, I preached. I preached every Friday. I worked
at J.D. Bassett Plant. Worked in the
furniture factory. And every Friday during lunch
hour, I'd preach. I was zealous. I didn't know
anything, but I was zealous. I thought I knew something. But
there was an old black man. I'll see him in glory, I hope.
I believe I'll see him in glory. And perhaps the Lord, if it's
His will, the two of us can hook up again. But I preached. He said, young fella, come over
here. And I went over. He's sitting
on a Coca-Cola crate. Remember those old wooden Coca-Cola
crates they used to sit on? Young folks don't remember that.
Of course, there ain't too many young folks in here tonight.
But no offense. But anyway, he's sitting there.
And he said, you know anything about the election of Grace? I said, what are you talking
about? He said, you know, God's got a people, but he has saved
them by the blood of Jesus. And I said, well, this salvation
is for everybody, because the blood of Jesus was for everybody.
He said, now, son, that's not right. Well, I didn't, I thought,
this is the biggest heretic I've ever met in my life. I go away
to Bible college, and I begin to learn something. Of course,
that book, if you got a copy of it before they deleted some
chapters, it's just filled with Scripture references. I began
to read those, Ron, and I thought, where have I been? All these
verses in the Bible and I didn't remember reading any of them.
Now, sure enough, I didn't use them to quote to get a free trip
to camp. And it's like the light began
to shine into my darkened heart. And I learned some doctrine,
and I'm thankful for it. The Lord had to teach though. That's what the Lord does. Let
me tell you something. This woman Hagar, she represents
the covenant of works, which is the efforts of the flesh. whereas Sarah, she represents
the covenant of grace. You say, well, where did you
get that from? Oh, I'm so glad you asked that.
Look at Galatians 4. Galatians 4. Now I began this
message by saying that each event that is recorded in the Word
of God, while certainly historically accurate, yet there's a spiritual
meaning to them. And this is the case with the
event that we're studying this evening. Galatians 4. Now you know about the problem
in Galatia. Some legalists arose, Judaizers,
Paul calls them, and they were endeavoring to mix law and grace. Not only in salvation, but also
in the lives of believers. They sought to put the children
of God back under law. Okay, Galatians 4, verse 19. Notice how tenderly Paul writes
to these people in Galatia. He's very firm, but he has a
tenderness to him. My little children, of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ is formed in you. I desire to be present with you
now and to change my voice. For I stand in doubt of you.
I'm going to have to scold you a little bit. He says, you tell
me. you that desire to be under the
law. Do you not hear the law? Don't you hear what the law says?
If you want to be under the law, be it for salvation or sanctification,
what you think is sanctification. Do you hear what the law says? You've got to keep it all. You
want to do something for your salvation? You've got a rough
road ahead of you because you've got to keep all the law. You
want to be a legalist? You've given up grace. You've
just pushed grace to the side. So he says, tell me, ye that
desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it
is written, now comes the spiritual application of what we are studying
over here in Genesis 21. For it is written that Abraham
had two sons. The one by a bondmaid, and of
course that's Ishmael, the other by a free woman, that's Sarah. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. Just the natural process of bringing
a child into the world. But he of the A free woman was
my promise. Which things are an allegory? Real things happen, but they
picture something else. So when you read that back there
in Genesis 21, like we're studying tonight, those were real events. Those things really happened. But they're teaching us a spiritual
lesson. They're an allegory. For these
are the two covenants. What are the two covenants? Grace
and works. Grace being the older of the
two. And works. For these are the two covenants.
The one from Mount Sinai. That's the covenant of works,
which gendereth to bondage. It leads to bondage. It ties
you up. It binds you. Which is agar. That's just another different
spelling for agar. For this agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia. Oh, now I see. I see who she
pictures now. This is the law of Moses given
at Mount Sinai. And answer it to Jerusalem, which
now is and is in bondage with her children. Jerusalem still
under bondage, under the law. The Pharisees, the Sadducees,
teaching the law. Obey the law, obey the law. Legalists. It keeps people in bondage. There's
no freedom there. But Jerusalem which is above
is free. That's the church of our Lord
Jesus. She's free. Which is the mother of us all.
For it is written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not. Pray
for that cry. Thou that travailest not. For
the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
we're the children of promise. You know what we are? We're miracle
sons and daughters. That's what we are. There's nothing
natural about our new birth. about us being in the Kingdom
of God, about us being sons of God, about us being redeemed
and saved by the grace of God. There's nothing natural about
it. We're the children of promise. Because in the covenant of grace,
God gave us to the Lord Jesus, and our Savior said, I promise
to save them all. And really, the covenant of grace
is a covenant of promise. It's the last will and testament
of our Lord. And it's sure. He died and He sealed His last
will and testament with His own blood. And then He came back
from the dead to see to it that everybody whose names are in
the last will and testament of our God receive the salvation
that He ordained for them. You can write your last will
and testament. Maybe some of you got your last will and testament.
And you die? That's when a will's enforced.
Well, it could be, though, that somebody will, you know, they'll,
what do you call it, contest the will. And it may be that the millions
that you've got won't go to the individuals that you think, that
you hoped they'd go to. But our Lord Jesus in His last
will and testament, He ordained, He appointed salvation for all
of His elect. He died and sealed His will with
His blood. But He came back from the dead
and nobody is going to contest His will. And He ever lives to
see to it that every name written down in the Lamb's book of life
receives an incorruptible inheritance. reserved for them in glory. See, we, brethren, as Isaac was,
we're children of promise. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
so it is now. Little Isaac, growing up, gets
to be about three years old. He's walking around like three-year-olds
do, getting in everything, you know. And here comes Ishmael. Now, he's a 17-year-old smart
aleck now. And he doesn't have any love
for little Isaac. You think you're going to take
my place, big boy? I'm the firstborn around here. He mistreats Isaac and he mocks
him. And his mother sees. Oh, moms
see, don't they? Moms see what goes on. And she
goes to Abraham and says, you cast that woman out of here.
You understand me? I don't know whether Abraham's
been henpecked there or not, but I tell you what, he listened
to her because God said the same thing to him. God said, remember
what Sarah told you to do? Yes, Lord. Well, get out there
and do it. Put her out. Put that boy out. He can't live in the same house
with the promised son. You see, Isaac, he represents
one who is saved by grace. He's a child of promise. And
Ishmael, he represents a self-righteous Pharisee. He's a worksman. That's what
he is. Here are the two covenants. And
you know what? Things went along okay until
Isaac was born. And things go okay with us. until that new man is formed
in us and in the flesh. Who do you think you are? I was
here a long time before you were. And you know what? In a sense,
every day we've got to cast out the bondwoman and her son. You
don't want to be on the law. rules and regulations. I hear people every once in a
while throw that word out, antinomian. No law against the law. I'm not
against the law of God. I'm just telling you, the law
of God doesn't have anything to do with a righteous man. I
love the law of God. But it has nothing to do with
me. My Savior fulfilled the law. and he died under the penalty
of it because my sins deserve the penalty of the law which
is death. Our Lord Jesus has borne that.
Law doesn't have anything to do with me. I love the law of
God. Don't you try to put me in bondage.
Try to put me back under the law. That's what Peter said over
there in Acts chapter 15. Why tempt ye these brethren? to put a yoke on them, we couldn't
even bear ourselves. Leave them alone. That's what
he said. Leave them alone. And I say to the works mongers,
and I say to those who think we're still under the law of
God, don't try to put us in bondage. I'm just not going to stand for
it. That's why Paul says this. Look in chapter 5 and verse 1.
of Galatians. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And don't be entangled
again with the yoke, the servitude, the slavery of bondage. And here's how serious it is.
Paul says, Behold, listen to me. That's what that means. You
better listen to me. He's using his stern voice now.
Now listen to me. I, Paul, say unto you that if
you be circumcised, this will surely help me in God's
favor. God will smile on me a little
bit more. If I'm more obedient to Him,
if you take that attitude, Christ will profit you nothing. And he says this, and I'm going
to have to quit because my time is gone, but go back to the end
of chapter 2 of Galatians. And I'll kind of pick up on this
again next Wednesday night and then go into the next section,
but this is what he says here in chapter 2 of Galatians. Look at verse 16. knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
He said, I've already cast all that off. Now, if I bring it
back on me, I'll be a transgressor. He says this in verse 19, For
I through the law am dead to the law. How am I dead to the law? Through
the Lord Jesus in His death. in His death, that I might live
unto God." He says, I'm crucified with Christ. It's one of my wife's
favorite verses. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave Himself for me. And here's the statement I want
to get to and I'll quit. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. I do not violate the grace of
God. I do not do away with the grace
of God. For if righteousness, if it comes
by the law... Christ died for nothing. That's how serious this is. He
died for nothing. If you can do something to win
God's favor, why in the world did God nail His Son to a tree? Why did God pour His wrath out
on His Son when all you had to do was do the best you can to
be saved? Because you can't do the best
you can, and even if you did, it ain't going to be good enough.
He had to kill His Son. Christ had to die. I'm not going
to violate the grace of God. I'm not going to do away with
the grace of God. I'm going to keep on preaching grace, grace,
grace! Oh, God's free and sovereign
grace. That's how we're saved. That's how we're sanctified too.
We grow in grace as the Lord gives us the ability. Well, I'll
pick back up on this a little bit next Wednesday and we'll
keep on going. I want us to follow Hagar as
she goes out into the wilderness and I'll show you what God mercifully
did for her. Lord, bless the Word that has
gone forth tonight. And we rejoice in the free and
sovereign, effectual grace of our Lord. Thank You for the work
that You've done within us. And we're thankful that He who
hath begun a good work in us will perform it and perfect it
to the day of Jesus Christ. Lord, keep us from going back
under bondage to the law. May we stand fast in the liberty
of blessed freedom. and we have in Christ Jesus.
Not freedom to sin. No, not that at all. But freedom
to love Him and follow Him, not out of threats to us if we don't,
or the promise of rewards as though we were mercenaries if
we do. We seek to follow and obey out of the greatest law
there is, the law of love. The love of Christ constrains
us. Bless these. tonight, and Lord,
continue to teach us, and we ask You again to bless the service
in the morning. These things we ask for Jesus'
sake. Amen.