Let's open our Bibles again to
Galatians chapter four. The title of the message this
morning is Cast Your Works Out. Cast them out. Now, Paul wrote
this letter to the churches scattered throughout Galatia to make this
one point that every believer is free from the law in Christ. The law has nothing to do with
the believer in Christ. And you'll never be truly free
from the law until you surrender your all to Christ. You surrender
everything to Him. You trust Him completely, alone,
without any works of your own. Once you surrender to Him in
that way, you'll enjoy freedom from the law. Now a believer,
the law has nothing to do with the life of a believer. Nothing.
The law is not our rule of life. The believer's not governed by
the law. The believer's not motivated by the law. The believer is governed
by and motivated by love or motivated by Christ's love for us and our
love for him. And that's the gospel that Paul
preached to the churches at Galatia when he traveled through that
area. But after Paul left, he was a missionary. He moved on,
you know, he established pastors and elders and he moved on. And
after he left that area, false prophets crept in, Judaizers
crept in, and they came in and they denied that gospel that
Paul preached. Now they didn't come in to the
churches and say this openly. They didn't openly say that Christ
is not the only Savior. They didn't openly say salvation
is not only found in Christ. They didn't openly say that forgiveness
of our sin is only in the blood of Christ. They wouldn't come
in and outright say Christ is not enough Everybody'd see through
what they were doing. But what they did say is this,
that faith in Christ will keep the Mosaic Law. They said faith
in Christ will also look to the law as our rule of life. And
people today, this very same error in doctrine is alive and
well in our day. People say the same thing. They
pick out certain laws and ceremonies that they want to keep. They
don't ever want to keep the whole law. They just pick out certain
ones that they like. That's what these men in Galatia
did. They just picked out circumcision. They picked out something, you
know, that was their favorite, you know, and they made that
their rule of life. And men today do the same thing.
They make the law. They think the only way they
can control the congregation is by threats of the law. You
all got to keep the law. I want you to listen to me. That's
a lie. It's a lie that sends men and
women to hell. It's so sad. Faith looks to Christ
alone and never to the law. Faith always looks to Christ. Faith looks to Christ as our
righteousness. Faith looks to Christ who kept
the law for us because we can't keep it ourselves. And because
Christ obeyed the law, because he put our sin away through the
blood of his sacrifice, Christ has made his people free from
the law. And that free from the law means
this. The law doesn't have anything to do with the believer, and
the believer doesn't have anything to do with the law. Now, I'll
illustrate that in this way. Luke, did you know there's a
law on the books in the state of Ohio? You're not allowed to
beat Michaela. Did you know that? Do you care about that law? Have
you ever one time bothered to look up and see the details of
that law? You never have, have you? Because
you're motivated by law. You treat your wife the way you
treat her because you're governed by love. Not by what you have
to do, but out of love. Isn't that right? You're not
even motivated by fear. Michaela, she's a black belt
in judo or something. She could break your neck. But you're not
motivated out of fear for that. You don't care if she knows how
to break your neck. Because you're motivated by love. Not fear. Not the law. And that is exactly
the way a believer is free from the law. Who cares what the law
says? You're free from the law. You
know, the law said you have to tithe, you have to give 10%.
Believers motivated out of love. Probably give more than that.
I mean, you give what the Lord's given you, it's given out of
love, isn't it? That's the believer's relationship
to the law. The law is only given to those
who don't love God. So the believer's free from the
law. Now the subject of the message is this, the believer has to
be constantly vigilant to cast out our works of the law and
trust in Christ alone, which is what Paul is telling us. May not understand it at first,
but this is what he's telling us in verse 30 of Galatians chapter
four. Nevertheless, what sayeth the
scripture? Cast out the bond woman and her
son for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. Now, that was a horrible experience
for Abraham. You know, we read these stories
in the Old Testament, and especially when we have some understanding
of the spiritual significance and the spiritual picture of
him, sometimes we forget this story happened to real people.
This was a horrible experience for Abraham. He loved Ishmael. Now, Ishmael was rotten. He loved
Ishmael. And this casting him out was
like a knife in Abraham's heart. Ishmael was Abraham's firstborn
child. And Ishmael was not born till
Abraham was an old man. And that child being born Abraham's
old age made him love that child even more, made him appreciate
him and love him more, almost like a grandparent in a way,
you know. But God came to him and said,
Abraham, you cast Ishmael and Hagar out. Put them out. Give
them a jug of water and put them out. Well, do you feel sorry
for them? Do you feel sorry for Abraham?
Do you feel sorry for Hagar and Ishmael? Why would God tell Abraham
to do such a thing? Well, let's see if we can't find
out from God's word why that happened. God told Abraham to
cast out Hagar and Ishmael for this reason. to give us a picture
of the gospel, of casting out our works and trusting in Christ
alone. See, that's what Paul tells us
back up here in verse 21 of Galatians 4. Tell me ye that desire to
be under the law. Do you not hear the law? You
who desire to be under the law, you who desire to have the law
as your rule of life, don't you hear what the law says to you? Do you hear that? The law says
do and live. The law doesn't say do your best
and live. The law says do and live. Do perfectly and live. Do perfectly forever and live. And sin one time and die. That's what the law says. The
law requires absolute perfection. Now, do you really want to be
under that law that requires perfection? We have this saying,
nobody's perfect. Do you hear that? Nobody's perfect,
yet we want to be under the law. Why does somebody that freely
says, I'm not perfect, want to be under the law that requires
perfection? The law doesn't know anything
about grace. The law doesn't know anything about forgiveness.
The law doesn't know anything about mercy. The law knows only
wrath for those that break it. Why do you want to be under that
law? And Paul illustrates this truth
with an Old Testament picture of Christ. He calls this story
that we just read an allegory. Now, an allegory, it's a story,
and it's just a story that teaches us a more important spiritual
truth. And that's every event, just for your information, in
the Old Testament. Every event, every story in the
Old Testament is an allegory. It's a picture of Christ. Now,
we don't always have New Testament commentary on it like we do this
one, but every event in the Old Testament is always a picture
of Christ, a picture of salvation in him. And we'll see those as
the Holy Spirit enables us. But anytime we read any scripture,
I promise you, we have not seen the true meaning of it until
we see Christ in that scripture. If that's so. And God gave us
this allegory and he spelled it out in very clear terms what
it means. So we would have this message to preach, that believers
are free from the law. We're free from the law because
of salvation by grace in Christ Jesus. Verse 22, for it's 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.
Now everybody here knows the story of Abraham and his two
sons very well. God promised Abraham. He said,
Abraham, you're going to have a son. Abraham went out and prayed.
He said, I don't have an heir. My servant's going to be my heir.
And God said, you look up at the stars and count them. So
shall your seed be. And Abraham thought, how's that
going to be? I don't have a son. I don't even have a son. God
said, I'm going to give you one. Abraham was an old man at that
point. And God said, Abraham, I'm going to give you a son.
He was probably 80 years old or something at that point. And
he thought, well, I don't know how that's going to happen. Well,
it's gonna happen by promise. It's gonna happen because God
promised it. Whatever God promises, He'll do. And Abraham and Sarah
believed God. They believed God was gonna give
them a son. They sure did. But over time, no son. And Abraham and Sarah
fell victim to human logic. And they thought, well, God said
that we'd have a son, God must want us to help him out to accomplish
his purpose. So I'll tell you what we'll do.
Abraham, Sarah said, you marry my slave, Hagar. Abraham did. He went into Hagar. Hagar's a
young woman, full of strength, physical strength of life, and
she bore Abraham a son. They named him Ishmael. But Ishmael
was not the son God promised, was he? No. Ishmael, what was
he a product of? Ishmael was a product of human
strength. Ishmael was the product of human
reasoning. Ishmael was the product of man
trying to help God out and help God accomplish his purpose. You
know what Ishmael is? He's a mixture of grace and works.
He's a mixture of God's promise, but our works having to help
God out. Ishmael was born after the natural course of life, not
by God's promise. Ishmael is a product of man's
attempt to mix grace and works, and it's a disaster, wasn't it?
Ishmael is a disaster that still affects the world today. Well,
about 13 years later, after Ishmael was born, you know how Abraham
loved that boy. He showed him how to take care
of the sheep and farm. He taught him how to hunt. He
taught him how to fish. They spent time together. Oh,
Abraham loved that boy, 13 years old. Then God came to Abraham
again. He said, Abraham, now it's time. I'm going to fulfill my promise.
Sure enough, about a year later, Isaac was born of Sarah. Isaac was God's son of promise. Isaac was purely the product
of God's power and God's grace when man had none. Isaac could
not be born of Abraham and Sarah's power. They were both too old
to have a child. It was biologically impossible
for Sarah to have a child, but she did because of God's promise. He, God will fulfill every promise. They had a child anyway because
of the mercy and grace and promise of God. And that story is given
to us as a picture of salvation. With men, salvation's impossible,
isn't it? But with God, all things are
possible. Salvation is accomplished by Christ alone, by his power
alone, by his grace alone, by God's purpose alone, without
any help at all from him or me. Well, now there are two sons
living in Abraham's house, aren't there? Those two boys. The first
son was born of a slave. He's Abraham's son, but you can't
get around this fact. He's always going to be a slave.
His mother was a slave. That's his nature. He was born
a slave and he'll never be Abraham's true heir. It's an impossibility.
Ishmael was a slave by birth. That's his nature. And that's
an allegory. Paul tells us how this story
is an allegory. Everyone who's born under the
law is a slave to the law because of their birth in Adam. That's
our father, Adam. We're born with his nature, slaves
to the law. But Abraham had another son.
That son was born of the free woman, wasn't he? Isaac was born
free. And Isaac will always be free. He born free, he can never be
made a slave. And I don't care what happens.
Isaac, the free son, Isaac's gonna be the heir. I don't care
what happens. Isaac's gonna be the heir. is
gonna get everything. Now, this is an allegory. What's
that allegory? What is this spiritual truth
that's being taught to us? That everyone who's born again,
everyone who's been born again by God's grace, by the Holy Spirit,
will always be free in Christ. Wayne, they can never be made
a slave. They'll always be a son. Everyone born again by grace
in Christ will always be an heir of God. They'll always be there
in joint heirs with Christ. Read on verse 24. Paul says,
which things are an allegory. For these are the two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai, which gender at the bondage, which
is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and answer it to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage
with her children. Now here are the two different
mothers and these two mothers represent two opposite covenants. two opposing covenants, and their
sons represent the people who are living under those two covenants.
And it's important that we understand these two covenants because God
deals with every man, every woman, every child, every son of Adam
in one of these two covenants, always. He'll either deal with
us in the covenant of the law or the covenant of grace. Hagar,
she represents the covenant of the law. Hagar was a slave. So I don't care how many children
she has. All her children are going to be slaves. That's the
law. And I know Abraham married Hagar,
but she was, they had a weird way of looking at that. You know,
she's like a secondary wife. She's not the true wife. She
doesn't have all the rights and benefits that Sarah had. She
doesn't have them. She's not Abraham's true wife.
They can call her what they want to call her, but she's still
a slave. She can't get away from that.
And all of her children can never be anything more than what she
is. They're slaves. They can never be the heir. Now
that's an allegory. I know people in the flesh think,
well, that's not fair. That's not really the point. This is an allegory. This is
the point. This is a picture of everyone
who's trying to please God by what they do. Now, think about
it. Think about this yourself, because
we're all guilty of it. Have you ever thought God will
be more happy with me if I do this? So and so don't do this,
but I do this. Will God be more happy with me?
We've made ourselves a slave to the law. Everyone who does
that, everyone who operates that way, everybody who tries to come
to God that way, makes them a slave to the law. And they'll always
be a slave because they think Christ is not enough. And if
you think Christ is not enough and you've got to work, brother,
your work's never going to end. You'll always be a slave. If
you do any work, I don't care what it is, any work, in order
to have a righteousness or in order to improve your righteousness,
what you've done is you've made yourself a slave to the whole
law. You can't say, I like this one
law better. I like this law of You just pick
one of the Ten Commandments. I like that law. I'm going to
keep that. And if I do, it makes me better. What you've done is
you've obligated yourself to the whole law. Now, Paul says,
I say to any man, if you're circumcised, if you're circumcised in order
to please God, you've made yourself a debtor to the whole law. And
if you're a slave, you're not a son, are you? If you do any
work to improve your standing with God, to make yourself a
better Christian, all you've done is made yourself a slave
and not a son. I want to tell you how serious
that is. If you do any work, if you think you can do some
work in order to improve your standing with God, you know what
you've done? You've made the death of God's own son of no
effect. That's serious business. That's
serious business. And this can be the hardest thing
for a man to be able to tell the difference between grace
and words. And it can be the hardest thing
because everything we think by nature is wrong. All you who
believe, you know this is so, you're still carrying around
that old nature. His logic, his reasoning, his ways are all still
alive and well, aren't they? Everything that man thinks, that
old man thinks, wrong, just 180 degrees from the truth. It's
wrong. What the natural man thinks is very religious, you know what
God says it is? It's blasphemy. That's how wrong
it is. So someone says, now this is
even a believer now, because this is the nature we're still
carrying around with us. We think, well, You know, I should
just never miss a service. Every time those doors are open,
I'm going to be there. I'll never miss a service. And, you know,
how many ever Sundays in a row I'm there. And if I do that,
God's being more pleased with me. Wait a minute. Did you just make a work out
of worship? We can make a work out of anything, can't we? Oh,
no. Now, listen, we ought to be in
a worship service so we can be fed, so we can be instructed.
This is where Christ meets with his people. But don't do it to
gain God's favor now. Because if you do, you've made
yourselves a debtor to the whole law. We're saved by grace through
faith in Christ. We're saved by Christ alone,
not because of anything we do, even if it's a good thing. I'll
give you another example. Believers tend to think this
sometimes. We think, well, you ought to be a moral person. I'm
going to be the most moral person at work. I'm going to be the
most moral person on my block, you know, If I do that, God's
gonna be more pleased with me than this, you know, wretched
neighbor of mine over here. Now, wait a minute, you just
made it work. I'm being a moral person. Salvation is trusting
that Christ did it all. Faith always trusts that Christ
did every work required. Faith trusts there's no work
left for me to do. Christ did it all. Now, if you're
a believer, if you're a child of God, ought to be a moral person. You ought to be, by all means,
be a moral person, but never to make God happy with you, ever.
You should be holy as your father, which is in heaven, is holy because
you love your father. See, that's out of reverence
for him, not because you're trying to get something from him. See,
that's the difference between a son and a slave. The son serves
out of love and reverence and respect for our father. The slave
serves out of fear, out of duty because of what he has to do.
So, that's the only two covenants. We're either gonna rest completely
in Christ as sons or we're gonna be a slave and not a son at all. That's Hagar, the covenant of
works. Now let's look at Sarah. She
represents the covenant of grace. She represents salvation and
eternal life given by the promise of God and the grace of God,
verse 26. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all. For it's 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. Now the Jerusalem that Paul refers
to here is New Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem. It's a spiritual kingdom,
and everybody that lives in that kingdom is free. Christ rules
there, he reigns there, and they're free. People who live in this
spiritual kingdom, they have salvation given to them freely.
They trust Christ without any works of their own. They're free
because the Son made them free. You listen, if the Son will make
you free, you're free indeed. You're free from all your works
of the law. That's what Sarah represents.
Sarah was always a free woman. Sarah was never a slave. She's
always free. And Sarah's children then have
to always be free. They could never be slaves. They're
born free. And Sarah's son, because she's
the free woman, is going to be the heir. He has to be the heir
of everything that Abraham owns. That's what God's grace produces.
This is an allegory. God's grace produces children
who are born free. When you're born again, you're
born free. You're born an heir of God, in
a joint heir with Christ. And these children of grace,
they're born by God's promise. They're born by the eternal promise
of God. In eternity past, the father
and the son, they entered into a covenant. And the father promised
the son, I'm gonna give life to everyone I give you. Son agreed,
he's gonna go purchase it. He's gonna go give it to him.
But the father promised, These people are going to have life.
These people I've chosen. God always keeps his promise.
Now they're born dead. They're born sorry. They're born
not looking like much. They're born like thinking we
want to kick them out of the house. But God said no. By his power and by his grace,
he's going to fulfill his promise. He's going to cause them to be
born again. And when they are, they're going
to be heirs They're born into this world barren and spiritually
lifeless. They're born dead in sins, but
now they're given life in Christ. Freedom. Life you can never lose. Now, what's your reaction to
that? I tell you, well, let's break forth
into singing. Joy, thanksgiving. These singing people They serve
God out of love as his sons and daughters, never out of fear
or out of duty. Now, those are the two covenants,
the covenant of works, covenant of law, covenant of grace. Now,
Paul says, you tell me, which one would you rather be under?
Tell me, do you want to be a son or a slave? Which one would you
prefer? You want to be a child of Hagar,
who will always be a slave? Or would you rather be a son
of Sarah, be a joint heir with Christ? Do you hear what the
law says? Do you hear what grace in Christ
says? It ought to be an easy answer,
shouldn't it? See, those are the two covenants. Now I want
to look at the children who are born under those covenants. Isaac
is a picture of believers. He's a picture of every child
of God, and Ishmael's a picture of everybody else, everybody
who's under the law, verse 28. Now, we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. Nothing's changed. Isaac is a
picture of believers. He's the child of promise. He
is the child God promised Abraham many years before he was born.
And every believer is a child of promise, just like Isaac was.
God promised in eternity, years before it ever happened, God
promised us that we'd have spiritual life, eternal life in Christ
Jesus. Here's another way of a believer,
just like Isaac. God promised Isaac would be born.
And when he was born, everybody knew that's a miracle. All Abraham's
neighbors, everybody knew him. Everybody knew him and Sarah.
They said the birth of that baby is a miracle. Because human strength
couldn't make it happen. Human strength could not make
that birth happen. Only God could do it. And that's
the way it is for a believer. When you're born again, It's
a miracle. Oh, a miracle of God's grace.
Just even more miraculous than the birth of Isaac. It takes
the power of God. It takes the grace of God to
make it happen. Human logic, human preaching,
our enthusiasm in preaching can't penetrate the heart and make
a sinner be born again. But the preaching of grace does.
The preaching of Christ does. God does that by his power and
by his grace. Here's another way. Isaac is
just like every believer. When little baby Isaac was born,
Abraham's outside of that tent pacing back and forth, you know,
and he hears Sarah and Aaron labor and think, how can this
woman, 90 years old, bear this child? You know, it's going to
kill her. He's nervous. He's pacing around out there. And here's
that baby crying. And they call Abraham in. They
put that baby in his arms, in his hands. There's a man. who's never been
on this earth before. Abraham's holding him in his
hand. Ishmael's still outside playing, doing whatever he was
doing. Isaac was not Ishmael. Isaac was not Ishmael remodeled.
Isaac was a new baby who was never here before. He'd never
been on this earth before, never been to Abraham's house before.
Isaac was not Ishmael improved. Isaac's not Ishmael 2.0. Isaac
was a brand new baby, Brand new baby born from a completely different
birth in a completely different way. And that's the new birth. That's the new birth every believer
experiences. The new birth is the miraculous
birth of a brand new man, a spiritual man who's never been here before. He born from a completely, in
a completely different way, from a completely different nature,
from a completely different seed. And he's the opposite. He's not
the new man. He's not the old man remodeled.
No, he's not the old man who's fixed up and propped up and somehow
made more, you know, knowledgeable. And he's not the old man. He's
not that old dark man filled with light. No, the old man is
still darkness. He's still in darkness. He's
still in unbelief. He's still in sin. The new man
is a brand new distinct man who's born the opposite of that old
man in every single way. That's Isaac. That's the children
of grace. When Isaac was born, there was
still another son, wasn't there? There was that son that was there
first. Just like our flesh is here first, the Spirit's born
later, isn't it? That first son, Ishmael, was
still there. And I want to tell you, Ishmael's a son too. He's
Abraham's son just as much as Isaac is Abraham's son. But Ishmael
is unchanged. When Isaac was born, nothing
changed about Ishmael. He's still the product of man's
strength. He's still the product of man's
wisdom, not the child of God's promise. He's still a mixture
of grace and words. All right. How does that affect
the way we preach the gospel? I want to point this out because
it's very important. This is what we know. We believe this
from God's word. God promised to save the people.
He's going to save them. And he promised to do it through
the preaching of the gospel. And that, I hope, is why we're
so dogmatic to preach this gospel, to preach Christ and Christ alone,
so that God would be glorified. We want to tell the truth so
that God's glorified, don't we? And we also desire to see God's
people saved. We desire to see God's people
fed. And the only way that's going to happen is if we preach
Christ. The only way you're going to be blessed is if me or one
of these men who, you know, Phil and I'm gone, the only way you're
going to be blessed is if we preach Christ. Well, all right,
we believe that, don't we? God's gonna save his people through
the preaching of the gospel. We gather together, we get a
building, we call a pastor, we organize, and we have a worship
service. And we go on week after week
after week after week, doing this, preaching the gospel, preaching
the gospel. We believe God. Abraham and Sarah believed God.
They believed they were gonna have a son. We believe God. He's
gonna save his people through the preaching of the gospel.
All right, Frank, how long are you gonna keep doing that? if
you don't get any results? If you don't think you're seeing
any results, what if, oh, you go years, you never have any
baptisms, it's just, are you wasting your time? How long are
you gonna keep doing that? Are you gonna be tempted eventually
to compromise? Change the message a little bit
so that people like it better, so more people come? Are you
willing to preach the gospel and then maybe try to talk some
people into doing something, trying to kind of pull at them
a little bit to get them to make a decision? Maybe they just need
a little nudge so you can help God accomplish His purpose to
save His people. Be careful. If we do that, you
know what we're going to do? Gee, we're going to give birth
to Ishmael. Then we've got a disaster on our hands. Now we've mixed
grace and works and we've got a disaster. I want to tell you what's worse.
Two things. Rob God of His glory. We've robbed
Christ of getting all the glory and salvation. And we've given
some poor wretch of a sinner a false hope. God forbid. Isaac was born by the power of
God because God kept his promise. And you mark it down. All God's
children are going to be born. He's going to keep his promise.
He's going to do it through the preaching of the gospel. But
Ishmael's still around. He was born a slave and he's
always going to be a slave. He was born because Abraham and
Sarah decided they had to try to help God out to keep his promise.
And those two very different ways a child was born, by promise
and a mixture of grace and works, produced two very different sons
who will never get along under the same roof. Ishmael is the
child, he represents the child born under the covenant of the
law given in Mount Sinai. Isaac represents the child born
under grace by the promise of grace given in Christ Jesus.
Those two covenants can never mix, never. And the two children
produced by those two covenants can never mix. That's what Paul
tells us in verse 29. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now, nothing's changed. Nevertheless, what sayeth
the scripture? 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're not
children of the bondwoman, but of the free. See, now after we
look at those verses before, now verse 30 starts to make a
little sense, doesn't it? You know, from what we gather,
Everybody thought Ishmael was a fine young man, handsome, strong. He was good at all the things
that he did. But when did Ishmael's true colors
come out? His true colors came out when
he saw Isaac's going to be there. Oh, now everything's different. See, Ishmael always thought,
and Hagar did too, she's raising Ishmael thinking, boy, one day
Ishmael's going to get it all. He's going to be the heir of
everything Abraham has. He's going to be the ruler. All
this is his. And then that baby is born of
Sarah. And Hagar thought, uh-oh. This is not good for Ishmael. And they weaned that son. And
Ishmael saw this party thrown for Isaac. And that's when he
started persecuting Isaac, when he saw Isaac was gonna be the
heir of everything Abraham had. So Ishmael, that mixture of grace
and works, had to be cast out. He had to go because grace and
works cannot mix. He's always gonna be mocking
Isaac. He's always gonna be trying to
do things to Isaac. Now that's true, it's necessary,
but in a human way, That was very, very, very hard for Abraham
to do. He could understand it. He could
understand why it had to be done. But Ishmael is the son that he
loves. And this is going to be very
painful for him. And Sarah said, you better cast
him out now. He's not going to live with my
son. Oh, that was crevious to Abraham. But you know what the
Lord said? Abraham, you listen to Sarah.
Listen to her. Sarah's preached a mighty good
gospel message to you. You listen to them. They've got
to go, Abraham. You see, there could never be
peace in Abraham's house as long as that mixture of grace and
works and the mixture of God's promise was there. Never could
there be any peace in his house. There'll be constant strife.
Now, this is an allegory. What's an allegory of? There'll
never be peace in our house. The house of this flesh, there'll
never be peace in our house. until we cast out our works. Quit trusting in them and trust
in Christ alone. Those works will always persecute
God's promise. They'll always be opposed to
God's grace in Christ. So there'll never be any peace
in our works of righteousness, our mixture of grace and works
and grace. Can't be. You can't rest in Christ
and serve the law at the same time. It's an impossibility. We can only have peace in Christ
alone, in He who finished the work for us. And we've got to
be careful about this now. We think, I've sinned. I wish I hadn't done that. I
shouldn't have done it. If I'm honest, I didn't mean
to do it. I've sinned. I need forgiveness. But before
I go ask God for forgiveness, this is what I'll do. I'm going
to, whatever sin I committed, I won't commit that sin anymore
for a while. I'll live more moral, you know, for a while. And then
I'll come to God in prayer. And because I've been doing better,
he'll accept me and he'll hear me. Wait a minute. That's bringing
your mixture of works and grace into the house. Cast it out. Get rid of it. Cast it out and
trust Christ alone. Trust that there's forgiveness
in his blood alone. Trust he's enough. Then we think,
you know, I see these, these are my brethren, my sisters.
They do some things wrong. I'm not going to do those things
wrong. I'm going to be more religious than them. And God's going to
love me better. He loves me. He's going to give me, even if
he doesn't give me something in this life, maybe he'll give
me a bigger house in glory or something. You know, I'll get
to be closer to the big house or whatever we think. Now, wait
a minute. You know what you've done? You've
just brought Ishmael back into the house. He didn't come in
uninvited, you invited him when we do that, you know. You brought
Ishmael into the house, you brought yourself back into captivity,
cast it out. Didn't Saul of Tarsus had all
that? He did, all those religious ceremonies, all that religious
doing, all that moral upbringing and moral life, Saul of Tarsus
had every bit of it, didn't he? You've got nothing on Saul of
Tarsus. He did it outwardly, blame him. What did the Apostle
Paul say? See, there's Saul of Tarsus,
Ishmael, Apostle Paul, Isaac. What did the Apostle Paul say
all that was? He said, I count it but dung. These things start
entering your mind, a mixture of grace and work, something
you've got to do to make God more pleased with you. You cast
them out just as quickly, just with as much surety and hatred
as you'd cast out a pile of dung in the middle of your living
room floor. Cast it out. God said, cast out the bond woman
and her son. The allegory means this. You
cast out your works of righteousness. Quit trusting in them. And believers
do that, don't they? We cast those things out. We
do. I trust Christ. I can say like Peter said, Lord,
you know all things. You know I love you. Lord, you
know all things. You know I trust you. But we're
still going to have to cast those works out again. Because you
know what? When you're not looking, They're
going to come in the back door. They're going to climb in the
window. And there they are again. You're going to have to cast them out
again. You're going to cast them out and they're going to come
back. You're going to cast them out and they're going to come back.
You have to keep casting them out. It's a constant process
as long as you live on this earth. And your works of righteousness,
Ishmael, are going to keep coming back. And you know the last time
they'll come back? The last time they'll ever come
back is at your funeral. They'll even come into your funeral.
then there'll be no more. But until then, those works of
righteous, they ask me, are you going to keep coming? He's going
to whisper in your ear. You're a sinner. You deserve to die. That's all that thought. God
knows your heart. You deserve to die. You better
get to work now. You say that's true. I do deserve
to die, but I'm trusting Christ. He died in my place. He died
in my substitute. The law is going to say, You
haven't done enough. You're not good enough to deserve
God's love. You better get to work so you're good enough for
God to love you. You say, that's true. I'm not. But I'm trusting
Christ that he loves me in the beloved. I'm accepted in the
beloved. And you're going to keep that
up until this flesh dies. You know, the very last time
Ishmael ever showed up? Abraham's funeral. He showed up at Abraham's funeral.
You can read about it in Genesis 25, Isaac and Ishmael buried
Abraham. He even showed up at his funeral. I'm telling you, Ishmael's got
to go. Our works of righteousness have
got to go, and they've got to go completely. You put them out,
and when you put them out, don't you send them with anything.
Don't you give them a thing. Because if you do, If you give
place to your works of righteousness for even a moment, you know what
that old man is going to say? You cast him out and don't you
give me anything. Ishmael, when he found out he
was going to be cast out, Ishmael would have been content with
a little old tent at the back of the property. Abraham said,
nope, you've got to go. I'm giving you nothing. Get out.
He's got to go. Otherwise, he's going to take
credit for what he's got. He cannot have any inheritance. Your works can't have any inheritance.
Cast them out. Because Christ is going to get
it all. Christ is going to get all the glory. He's going to
have all the preeminence. And believers are going to get
it all. They're going to get everything God has. They're going
to inherit it all through union with Christ. Let me show you
that in Genesis 25. Verse 5, and Abraham gave all
that he had unto Isaac. Isaac's the heir. Isaac got it
all. But unto the sons of the concubines,
which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and he sent them away
from Isaac his son, while he yet lived eastward into the east
country. Now he gave them gifts, but they
could never have an inheritance. And when he gave them gifts,
he sent them away. away from his son, Isaac. And
our Lord gives many earthly, fleshly gifts to those who are
under this covenant of law, doesn't he? He gives it to them while
they're on this earth, but they're just gifts. They'll never get
an inheritance. They'll never get an inheritance
from God because Christ gets it all. And everybody who's in
Christ gets it. Gets it all because they're joint
heirs with Christ. So you see, this is the point
of the message. The only way we can enjoy freedom
and peace in Christ is by casting out Ishmael. Casting out all
of our works of righteousness and just trusting Christ to save
us all, to do it all by Himself. So let's cast out our works of
righteousness and trust Christ. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank You. How
we thank You for Your Word. We thank you that you've given
us some light on this matter of casting out our works, that
quit trusting in the things that we can do, and how we beg for
faith to look to Christ and to trust Him and Him alone. He's
all we need for perfect, complete, eternal salvation. And Father,
how we thank you for such a great Savior How we thank you for such
a great salvation as proclaimed in your gospel. Father, I beg
of thee that you cause your word as it's been preached this morning
to go in power, to bring glory to the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to instruct the hearts of your people, to call those
who are still in bondage to the law, to call them out, to come
out of that awful bondage to freedom in our Lord Jesus Christ. Cause your word, we pray, to
reach the hearts of your people, to comfort us and encourage us,
to strengthen us, to quit trusting in ourselves and anything we
can do and rest in Christ, in Christ alone. I would thank you
for perfect peace, resting and trusting in him. Father, we pray
that you would also this week bless your word as we have our
Bible school Father, bless these teachers as they prepare in a
very special way. Give them the message. Give them
the ability to teach our children in clear and simple terms. And we pray you bless these little
ones. Bless the ones that would gather
together. Give them a ready mind and a
heart that would receive the things that you'd have us to
be taught through your word, we pray. We thank you for all
the many times in the past you've blessed these classes. Father, we're thankful. Very carefully, reverently, we
ask, would you do it again? Would you continue to bless?
Would you continue to call out your people? We understand. We ask great blessings, but we
ask these great blessings from a great God and a great Savior. We believe fully you're able
and we ask if you'd be merciful. Would you bless your word as
it goes forth, we pray. Bless us through the remainder
of this day. We give thanks for all things in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.