Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us this morning. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
Galatians. This is Paul's epistle or letter
to the churches of Galatia in Asia Minor. And these churches
obviously were founded upon the gospel of God's grace through
Jesus Christ as preached by the Apostle Paul. But it also had
been infiltrated with false preachers who were trying to bring believers
back under the Old Covenant law. These were Judaizers. They were
Jewish. They claimed to be Christian,
claimed to believe in Christ, but they would say that even
though you're saved by grace, you must keep the law of Moses
in certain aspects of it in order to really be saved, to really
be righteous. And that's a false gospel. Paul,
in his opening to the book of Galatians, in Galatians 1, he
said, if they come preaching any other gospel than that which
we have preached, let them be anathema. They're cursed. They're
under the judgment of God. And so he illustrates this whole
situation by going back to the old covenant with Abraham and
Abraham and his wife, Sarah, and his maidservant, Hagar, the
Egyptian. And he illustrates the situation
and how vital it is under the two covenants. And that's the
title of the message, two covenants. And I'm going to begin in verse
19 of Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter four, two covenants,
verse 19. Now Paul, when he was preaching
to these people, he was so concerned and so desirous that they'd be
found to be true believers. You know, anytime a believer,
or let's put it this way, anytime that a professing believer, somebody
who claims to believe the gospel, gets off track, goes awry and
gets sidetracked with false doctrine, the first thing that we should
do is try to recover them. Paul deals with that over in
Galatians chapter 6 when he's actually dealing with behavior
there, that a believer who gets overtaken in some great sin,
scandalous sin, that we're not to bang them over the head with
the law, but we're to recover them graciously in a way that's
consistent with the gospel. And so this is what he's doing
here with this false doctrine. He's telling them the danger
that they're in. And obviously it's like any situation,
some would listen to Paul because they were true believers and
they had the presence of Christ within them by the Holy Spirit
and by his word to which he would not let them go to the point
of apostasy, But there would be others who would not listen
to Paul and fall away from the gospel. And that's apostasy. Now they professed to believe
it then they fell away and turned against it and went the way of
legalism and self-righteousness and unbelief. Now let me make
this clear because this is something that you need to see. One of
Satan's greatest lies that comes under the head of false Christianity
is that a person can be saved by grace, but then because of
their behavior or sinfulness, they can lose that salvation.
That is a lie. and it is a false gospel. And
I don't care how many people believe it, it's just a lie.
You say, well, you're a Baptist, you believe once saved, always
saved. If God saves his people by his grace through Jesus Christ,
they will always be saved. They cannot perish. And so when
they do things that are wrong or they get sidetracked, they're
to be recovered. by the preaching of the gospel,
the assurances of grace to follow Christ. And if God has given
them a new heart in the new birth, that's what they will do. They'll
be brought to godly sorrow over their sinfulness, and they'll
be brought to repentance that is a godly repentance. not legal repentance, a fear
of hell and promises of reward. So it is once saved, always saved
if you're saved by God's grace. Now, a lot of people say, well,
that gives people an excuse to sin. And I'm going to deal with
that in some future messages because it doesn't give people
an excuse to sin. Grace, the grace of God is the
power to save sinners from our sins and give us a heart desiring
to obey the Lord. a repentant heart, a penitent
heart, a contrite heart that causes us to want to follow God. That's what grace does. But anyway.
When Paul is dealing with these people who had gotten sidetracked
and got brought under, these false preachers, false Judaizers,
trying to bring them under the law, here's what he says in verse
19. Listen to this. My little children
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. He says in verse 20, I desire
to be present with you now. He was not with them at this
point in time. He wanted to be there with them
and to change my voice. In other words, I don't like
having to admonish you. and to correct you. I want to
be in pure fellowship and the joy and peace that comes from
believing. He says, and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt
of you. One of the other translations
says, Paul says, for I'm perplexed for you. And what it is, is like
I said, a professing believer. One who claims to believe in
Christ, the true Christ of the Bible, in the glory of His person,
and in the power of His finished work, His righteousness alone,
washed in His blood, washed from all our sins in His blood, and
justified in His righteousness imputed. Not a false gospel of
salvation conditioned on sinners, not decisional salvation, all
right, or freewillism. But a person who professes to
believe the true gospel of the glorious person of Christ and
the finished work of Christ, when they get sidetracked and
get off on false doctrine, get confused, and Paul says, I stand
in doubt of you. Are you really a true believer
or not? And this book, Galatians, and
other passages of scripture, is written to bring them to repentance
over their legalism and their false doctrine, recovering them. That's what he's seeking to do.
Now, if they're truly saved, they will be recovered because
God won't let his people go. Understand that. Paul said, I
know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. And
what have I committed unto him? My whole salvation is committed
to Christ, conditioned on Christ, who fulfilled and met every condition
to secure my salvation unto glory. so that I stand before God washed
in His blood and clothed in His righteousness. I cannot, if I'm
in Christ, if I'm truly saved, I'm one with Christ in the eyes
of God's law and justice, and I cannot be charged with my sins. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? I cannot be condemned. Who can
condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for us. I cannot be lost because
He is my propitiation. I cannot be lost because He's
given me His Spirit. I've been born again by the Spirit
and given a new heart, a new mind that desires to follow God. I'm still a sinner, but I'm a
sinner saved, kept by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace.
And so he says, what I want in my admonishment towards you is
that Christ be so formed in you, settled in you, ensconced in
your heart and your mind and your affections, your will, your
conscience, that you cannot be drawn away from looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And so he says
in verse 21, now listen to this. He says, tell me you that desire
to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Don't you hear
the law? These preachers, these false
preachers, and there's false preachers today that do the same
thing now. They'll say, well, you're saved
by grace, but you've got to keep yourself saved by your works. My friend, that's deadly doctrine.
That's a lie, that's a false gospel. God's, listen, Christ
is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is, all the
promises of God, of blessings of salvation, are in Him, yea,
and in Him, amen. He doesn't save us by grace and
then put us out there on our own because we're not saved,
we're not kept by our works. We're saved and kept by the grace
of God. And that does not give true believers
an excuse for sin. And let me tell you this, anybody
who takes that blessed doctrine of the eternal security of the
saved, that's what it is. Anybody who takes that doctrine
and uses it as an excuse to live like the devil, they're not saved. They're a walking inconsistency. It's like an old song I used
to sing. They're a walking contradiction,
partly truth and partly fiction. And that's what they are. A true
believer is a child of God, a disciple of Christ. Now, we'll mess up.
And we'll get sidetracked sometimes. That's why the Bible tells us
to be good stewards of the grace of God. It tells us to study,
to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that needeth not
to be ashamed. But you see, even believers,
saints, sanctified by God the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, those who are set apart, They're still sinners and they
still have struggles with the flesh. And I'm gonna be talking
about that in upcoming messages too. And sometimes we just don't
do right. David was a good example of that. Not an example to be followed,
King David. But he was brought to repentance
and sorrow Godly sorrow over sin by the preaching of the gospel
and the assurances of salvation by grace. The prophet Nathan
came to David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and she
had a child and the child died. The prophet Nathan came to him
and Nathan didn't tell him, now David, what you did was okay
and just go on living like. No. He said, listen. Listen, first of all, he told
him, he says, your sins are forgiven. because the ground of forgiveness
is the blood of Jesus Christ. But because of what you did,
there's gonna be a sword in your family, and there's gonna be
trouble in your family. There's consequences, but you're
not condemned. Somebody asked me one time, said,
well, are there consequences to all of our sin? Well, maybe
in a way you could say that, but if we had to suffer consequences,
over all our sins, even in thought and in motive, we wouldn't be
able to hold our heads up if we're truthful. But this is the
case. He says, tell me you that desire
to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Don't you hear
what the law says? The law says, and Paul, he wrote this back
in chapter three, verse 10. Listen to what he says here.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Do you hear that? If salvation
or any part of it is conditioned on your keeping the law, whatever
law it is, the Ten Commandments, the law of love, if it's conditioned
on that, you're under a curse. And it's the curse of spiritual
death and depravity. He says, for it is written, cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. If salvation at any time,
in its beginning, in its continuance, in its glorification, if it's
conditioned on your law keeping, do you know what you have to
do? You have to keep the law perfectly. And you're already
behind. So am I. You see, for sinners
to be saved, sin has to be canceled out on a just ground, and the
only just ground is the blood of Christ. The iniquities of His people,
His sheep, God's elect, it was laid on Him. He became responsible
for my sin debt, and He paid it in full by the price of His
suffering unto death. And in order to be saved, to
be justified before God, I've got to have a perfect righteousness
that can only be found in Christ, the glory of His person and the
power of His finished work. Christ is the righteousness of
God. And to those who are brought
to believe in Him by God-given faith in the power of the Spirit
and the new birth, He is the Lord their righteousness. Paul
said it in Philippians chapter three, he said, all that I may
know him and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith or
the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the righteousness that is given
by faith, God-given faith. And so he says that's the case.
Well, think about it. Now, the law, the law of Moses,
which was given to the Hebrew children through Moses on Mount
Sinai. There's the Ten Commandments,
but it wasn't only the Ten Commandments. There was a ceremonial law, the
law of the priesthood and the altar, the tabernacle, all of
that. There were dietary laws. There
were a bunch of laws given for that nation to be guided providentially
and temporarily, all of that. It was given to that nation beginning
at Sinai. That's the old covenant. That's
the law that he's, when he talks about two covenants here, we're
gonna see that that's what he's talking, one of them that he's
talking about. And that old covenant law was
never, never given by God to those people in order for them
to be saved. Because that law showed the impossibility
of being saved, of any sinner being saved based upon their
works. Romans chapter 3, the apostle
spoke of that when he said, by deeds of law shall no flesh be
justified in God's sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. And that's why the law was given.
It was given to that nation. There were several reasons it
was given. It was given to that nation to keep them together
and providentially God used it to bring the Messiah, Christ,
through that nation over that 1500 year period according to
the flesh. Christ was born in his humanity
of the tribe of Judah of the nation Israel. And God gave them
that law, that law covenant, and kept them together until
Christ was born. And when Christ died on the cross,
that law was over, abolished by way of fulfillment, as indicated
when he gave up the ghost when he died. He said it's finished,
and then he died, and the veil in the temple was torn in two
from top to bottom. signifying that the way into
the holiest of all was for every sinner, Jew or Gentile, who comes
to the Father through Christ, pleading His blood and righteousness
alone. And of course, we know that the
unbelieving Jews, the unbelieving priests of that time, they sewed
it back together and tried to keep the law going. And eventually,
God destroyed the temple and the nation in AD 70. and signifying
that it's over. Well, there were still false
preachers who were trying to bring that law back on believers. So listen to this. And Paul's
saying, I'm travailing birth until Christ be so formed in
you that you cannot be moved off of him. Your eyes are to
be focused on Christ. So he says in verse 22, for it
is written that Abraham had two sons. The one by a bondmaid,
now that bondmaid is Hagar or Agar, and the other by a free
woman, that was Sarah, Abraham's wife. And the reason he puts
it that way, here's bondage and here's liberty. One covenant
represents bondage, that's the law covenant, the old covenant. Salvation conditioned on sinners,
that's bondage. And Sarah represents liberty,
the liberty of the gospel. That is, obeying God not because
you're afraid He's going to cast you out of the family, but obeying
Him based upon the freeness of His grace in Christ. And it says
in verse 23, but he who was of the bondwoman was born after
the flesh. The birth of Ishmael was just
like any other person's birth. where the man and the woman come
together and she gets pregnant and has a baby. And that was
the way it was. But he of the free woman was
by promise. Now you know about the birth
of Isaac. Abraham and Sarah had been promised
a son, and they didn't have any children all the way up until
their old age. Abraham was about 100, and Sarah
was close to that, way past the age of childbearing. And you
remember, that's why Ishmael come about, because Sarah convinced
Abraham to go into his bondmaid, Hagar, and have a child with
him. But that was a child of the flesh. But Isaac was a miracle child. He was born of the power and
the promise of God when Abraham and Sarah could not have children.
But they had one, and it was a miracle child. And it was through
Isaac that the line of Christ came through as
it went on. And so it was by promise. God
made a promise to Abraham. that in him all nations of the
earth would be blessed. Well, how were all nations of
the earth going to be blessed through Abraham? Because the
Messiah, the Christ, was going to come through him and Sarah
having a child down the line, and Abraham had Isaac, and it
goes right on through, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all the way
through till Christ, and Christ would be the Savior of God's
chosen people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
So that's what he means by promise. It's the promise of the gospel.
Salvation conditioned on Christ, who by himself as the surety,
the substitute, and the representative, and the redeemer of his people
would fulfill all conditions for their salvation. And he says
in verse 24 of Galatians 4, which things are an allegory, a story
that has symbols, types, and pictures, For these are the two
covenants, or the two testaments. In other words, Hagar represents
the covenant of works, that which comes from the works of man,
which was Ishmael, an unbeliever, and Sarah, representing the covenant
of grace, which is salvation conditioned on Christ. And so
the two covenants. He says the one from Mount Sinai,
that's the Mosaic law, the old covenant, which gendereth to
bondage, which is Agar." Do you realize that people today who
believe that salvation is conditioned on them in any way, to any degree,
at any stage, that's bondage. Salvation is not conditioned
on me. It's not conditioned on my works.
It's not conditioned on my will. It's all conditioned on Christ.
And if he died for me, what's going to happen? I'm going to
be saved. I'm going to be brought under
the gospel and given the gift of faith through the new birth.
Salvation is by grace, for by grace are you saved, through
faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus, unto, not because of, but unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So he
says in verse 25, for this Agar, Hagar, is Mount Sinai in Arabian. and answereth to Jerusalem, which
now is." Now, what shape was Jerusalem in when Christ came
and when Paul was, it was dead. It was an abomination that brought
about desolation. And so he says, that's what Jerusalem
now is. And it's because of the bondage
with her children. The Pharisees and the Sadducees,
the scribes, they all preach salvation by the law, salvation
by works. Paul wrote about that in Romans
9. He said Israel, they were following after righteousness,
but they didn't attain it. Why? Because they sought it not
by faith, but by works, by the law. What is it to seek righteousness
by faith? It's to seek it in Christ. And
if you seek it in Christ, you'll find it. And so, but we know
that men by nature will not seek it in Christ. God brings them
to do that. And so he says in verse 26, but
Jerusalem which is above is free, spiritual Jerusalem, heavenly
Jerusalem. John spoke of it in the book
of Revelation, which is the mother of us all, the mother of all
believers. We're members of a heavenly spiritual
nation, spiritual Israel, spiritual Jews. Paul spoke of that in Romans
two. He says in verse 27, 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. Speaking of Sarah
there, Sarah was barren and she couldn't have a child. But Hagar
and other women, they had many children. But he says, for the
desolate hath many more children than she which hath the husband.
Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then he that was born
after the flesh, Ishmael, persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the
scripture, verse 30, 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 then brethren, we are not
children of the bondwoman, but of the free. So what he's saying
is that salvation by works and salvation by grace cannot exist
together. One cancels out the other. So
what do you want? The liberty of the gospel or
the bondage of the law? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's liberty. And Paul later
on says, stand fast in that liberty and don't be entangled again
with the yoke of bondage, that yoke of the law. Are we to be
obedient? Are we to follow God's word?
Yes, but as free people in Christ. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.