Turn with me to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. Last Sunday morning I brought a message to you titled, Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael. That was for the Sunday morning message. And I started that message by telling you that it was a key story in the scripture. Do you remember me saying that? I told you that it was a key to understanding the scripture. And a key to understanding the gospel. And that's what I want us to understand, the gospel. I want us to understand the gospel. Everybody knows the word. Do we know what it is? Do we know what it means? Really? Really? Religion is not the answer. Well, that means religion. That's not the answer.

I told you that the story that we looked at there of Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, that was a key to understanding the scripture, a key to understanding the gospel, And it is, I want to reiterate that it is. It's a critical account. I just cannot stress enough how critical that account in the scripture is. And because it is my desire at the moment, this is really what I feel led to do, it's my desire to focus on some of the whole stories in the Bible, stories that you heard as a child, stories that you learned in Sunday school.

We finished up the book of Matthew last year. We were in Matthew for four years. And it's very common, once I start a book, if there's many chapters to it, we'll be in it for years. Sometimes we'll be months and months in one chapter. And you take a story or you take a situation and you just dissect it and you look at everything. Well, right now I feel led to look at the whole story, the big picture. That's what we've been doing. And sometimes we end up covering a lot of ground. with a lot of information.

And I knew last Sunday morning, I knew that that message had a lot of information in it while I was studying it. Kept trying to figure out how do I make it shorter? How do I make it simpler? And I knew that it was a lot of information while I was preaching it. In my mind, I was thinking this is a lot. This is a lot of information. And from the moment I stepped out of the pulpit and all last week till this moment right now, the thought has been in my mind that I want to make sure the core message was made clear enough.

It's that important. It's that important. In doing it this way, we are hitting the high spots of a story, and I'm fine with that. I'm okay with that. We're acknowledging that's what we're doing, and I'm fine with doing that as long as the core message is still made clear enough.

So because this account and this message is so critical, I'm telling you, just in case anyone goes to meet God this week, just in case, I'm telling you this is so critical. I'm telling you this is so, if you've ever gotten a hold of something, get a hold of this. Because it's so key to understanding what God said his way is and what he will accept for our salvation. I want to give a summary of last week's message for this Bible study.

I want this to be very brief. A lot of times when I say this is going to be short, it's really long. And I will admit that because I think my notes are brief, maybe that will give me a little bit of opportunity to expound on this. It'll probably be regular time. I don't know. But it's my desire to be very, very brief. I want to be very to the point. I pray it will be very clear. I'm titling this a summary.

Ishmael and Isaac. Now look with me at Genesis chapter 12 Genesis 12 verse 2 it says and this is the Lord speaking to Abram he said I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. The seed of Abraham. It represented God's blessing to him. All right, that's what God said he was gonna do. He said, I'm gonna make of thee a great nation, and I'm gonna bless you. And it's going to be a blessing. The seed of Abraham represented God's blessing to him.

It represented salvation. That's the spiritual representation of the whole thing. It represents salvation. We read last week in Galatians 3 where it said the seed of Abraham is Christ. The seed of Abraham is Christ. He is salvation. He is the blessing. He is the only way that God will accept us. So God's grace to Abraham was in promising him a seed. That was God's grace and favor to Abraham, promising him a son and a seed. All right, now turn with me to Genesis 16. Verse one.

Now Sarai, Sarah, Abraham's wife, bear him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarai, and Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abraham had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abraham to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. Now I believe, maybe not everybody, but I believe most everyone understands that this child conceived with Hagar represents the works of the flesh.

Hopefully we know that, we gathered that from the last message. It represents salvation. By man's decision, they decided, okay, this is what we're gonna do. All right, God said we're gonna have a seed and it's a spiritual representation of God said we're gonna be saved. God said that there's a kingdom, there's a, okay. And so they said, I tell you what, this is what we're gonna do, let's do this. A decision was made and that's what this represents. Salvation by man's decision.

It represents salvation by man's effort, salvation by man's involvement. That's what this child by Hagar represents. And the child that will be conceived, you know that the story goes on that the Lord said Sarah's going to have a son, not Hagar, Sarah. The child that will be conceived by Sarah represents the promise of grace. God's grace. And what that means is salvation without man's decision.

We don't decide to be saved. People say, now, are you going to make your decision? It's like a man just out drowning in the middle of the ocean, halfway between here and England. And somebody's saying, well, there's no ship, there's no helicopter, there's nothing like that, but are you going to make your decision to be saved? And that guy says, yes, I decide to be saved. All right, what good does it do? You can make decisions till you're dead, but we can't decide to be saved.

And that's what Isaac represents with Sarah. It represents salvation without man's decision, salvation without man's efforts, Salvation without man's involvement. And here's the reason why. By the time Sarah conceived, it was 25 years after. She was already old when God made this promise. And then God waited 25 years. She was so far past childbearing age. What happened in Sarah was something that only God could do. With man, it was impossible. That's how salvation is. Now, I believe we all understand that. I believe we have that. I believe we got that.

Verse 4, Genesis 16, verse 4, says that Hagar conceived And then the next few verses go on to say that the Lord spoke with Hagar. He talked with her. And I look at verse 13. And she called the name of the Lord that spake with her. Thou God, seest me, you see me. For she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me? God sees me. All right, now verse 15 says, And Hagar bare Abram a son, and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. His name means God shall hear. God sees and God hears.

That's the law. That's the law. There is nothing that gets past God's law. No sin goes undetected. God sees it all. People think I'm good if I keep it all inside here and it doesn't come out. Nope. God sees it all. God hears it all. Even the unspoken things of the heart. God sees it all. God hears it all. Now hold your place right here and turn with me to Galatians 4. We read this last week. Galatians 4 plainly declares what we just said right there, okay? Look at Galatians 4 verse 25.

It says, for this Agar, which is Hagar, is Mount Sinai. Hagar, and I probably should have maybe backed up and read where it tells you that the story of Sarah and Hagar is an allegory. It's a picture. It's a spiritual picture. And what it's saying is Hagar and her son represent Mount Sinai. Now, really try to dial into this.

They don't just represent Abraham's sin of unbelief. You know, here's what everybody thinks. Well, you know, Abraham, the scripture says Abraham believed God, but really he didn't believe God. God said he was going to have a son and he got tired of waiting, so it was a lack of faith. that he decided to go to Hagar. No, they don't represent Abraham's sin of unbelief. They don't represent Abraham's insufficient works in his flesh. Well, Abraham tried to do what he thought God would be happy with, but it was just insufficient. Man just can't do it. That's not what they represent.

They represent God's holy law. God's holy law. God came down to Moses on Mount Sinai and gave him the law. You tell me, is the law good or bad? Good. Is the law sin or wickedness? I mean, is the law sin or holiness? Holiness. All right, God came down on Mount Sinai and he gave Moses the law, the holy law of God.

And, oh, if God would open our eyes, you beg God to open your eyes and your hearts to this. I'm telling you, I have said maybe five or six times in my life, this could be the most critical message I've ever preached in my life. In my heart right now, this one stands on top. I'm just telling you, ask the Lord to open your eyes to this, okay?

Hagar and Ishmael do not represent, oh, Abraham shouldn't have done that. They do not represent Abraham's sin. Ishmael was not rejected as a picture of man's sin being rejected. They represent the holy covenant of God's law. Look at verse 22. This is where it says, it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise, which things are an allegory, Now watch this, for these are the two covenants. God gave the covenants. God gave the covenants. These are the two covenants. The one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai. Now let me just try, and I'm gonna be the full amount, just so you know. And hopefully it's not muddy in the water from last week. But right now, let me just try to quickly explain why this is so important.

Flip back to Genesis 17. Genesis 17 is where God told Abraham, I'm now going to give you the son I promised through Sarah, your wife, and Isaac will be his name. Okay, Sarah's gonna have a son. This is the one I was speaking of. All right, now look at verse 18. Genesis 17, verse 18. And Abraham said unto God, oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. Now this is why Everything I'm saying here, well, everything God has written here is so important.

In religion. All right, religion is everywhere. Every person who got in a car and drove here this morning passed religion, religion, religion, religion. Religion's everywhere. In religion, and anytime I say religion, I mean false religion. I do not want to be in religion. I want to be in Christ. So in false religion, men, and that means men and women, they are holding up the law to God saying, here it is.

Here it is. Here is my fruit for you. Your law said, okay, this is what your law said, you know, fruit of the spirit. Okay. Fruit. Let it be this. Let my blessing and my acceptance be in this. Surely you will accept your own law. You wrote it. I'm going to plead your law. This is your law, not my law. This is yours.

Surely you'll have and accept your own law for my blessing. when men and women are called out of false law religion. Law religion is false religion. And when men and women are called out of false law religion to grace. And people claim grace all the time who have no idea what grace is. But this will tell us, this will tell us when the truth of God's blessing and God's salvation and what God will accept, what God will actually accept when that truth comes to men and women, they cannot fathom it not somehow being attached to God's law.

And they say, Lord, surely this is what will make you happy. Let it be the law, your holy law. But God said, no, it's not going to be my law. It's going to be my grace. God said this. Your acceptance and your blessing will only be by my grace. Yes. I'm the one who gave the law. Yes. The law is holy, but your acceptance will not be by my law. Only by my grace. All right.

That is confusing to people. That is so when people first come to hear this truth, and they're trying to rationalize, now what is sovereign grace? Or you know, you got free will law, and you got this, and how do you, all right, it's so confusing to people. Turn over to chapter 21. Genesis 21 verse nine.

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar," that's Ishmael, the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. She saw Ishmael mocking Isaac. Verse 10, "'Wherefore,' she said unto Abraham, "'Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.'" Now watch this, and the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. All right, now listen, Abraham was grieved over this because he loved Ishmael just like all of God's people love his law. You understand that? All of God's people love his law. All of God's people say, I don't want to cast out his law. I don't want his law to die in the wilderness. We say with David, I love thy law.

Verse 12. But God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad." Or spiritually speaking, we could say because of the law. And because of that bondwoman, in all that Sarah hath said unto thee. He said, don't be grieved by what grace has said to you. Don't be grieved. Verse 12, he said, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. God said, just listen to grace, because in grace is your salvation. In grace is the only hope of your blessing. Verse 13, and also of the son of the bond woman, I will make a nation because he is thy seed. My law will be sustained. It will be kept. It will not be diminished.

It will thrive and grow, but you need to realize that it will not be the source of any blessing that comes to you. And not only will it not bring any blessing, it will be the source of contention and strife with grace, which is your blessing. You can't have both. You can't lay hands on both. And it's because of your sin. That's the reason why. In glory, we will lay hands on both. But right now, because of your sin, you can't. You can't.

Verse nine again, Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore, she said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. Verse 14, and Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of water and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder and the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And that's what all of God's people will be caused to do with the holy law of God that they love and respect. They will let it go. They'll let it go, realizing it cannot bring a blessing to them, only a curse. because of their sin.

You know, you hear about God's sovereign grace, and the first thing that people want to know is, are you against the law? No. Do you hate God's law? No. I love the law, but I have to let it go. I have to let it go. Because of my sin, all that it can justly do is bring curse to me. The law says, the wages of sin is death. I have to let it go.

And all of God's people will let go of it knowing that grace is their only hope before God. That's the only hope we have. Knowing this too, that if we don't let it go, we're denying grace. That's what grace said. And if we don't let it go, we're denying grace.

That's what I want to make so clear this morning. That's the point. Probably I'll think on it all week and come back next week with summary part two I think I can say it this way and make it clearer. But let me leave you on this, on this word. Okay. To not let go of the law and to hold up the law before God and to say, surely this is what you will accept from me.

That is a denial of grace. It's a denial of grace, and it's a denial of all the spiritual blessings of God in Christ, who is the true seed, the only seed, the only hope, the only salvation. Brethren, we are not the children of God by the bondwoman of the law. We're the children of God by the free woman of grace. By grace we are saved. God's free and sovereign grace, Christ, which is Christ. Now, I went way over, so we'll have a...