Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter
15. The title of my sermon this morning
is The Children of Promise, and in a little while we are going
to be going once again to the book of Galatians. But I have
a number of readings that I want to take the time to read before
you this morning, and I trust you'll be patient with me as
I go through a number of things. I want to give us an overview
of the context of the passage in Galatians, so that we know
the story that is being referred to. and we've seen it, as it
were, from the beginning to the end. So there's a couple of chapters
that we're going to read from, from the book of Genesis. So Genesis chapter 15, and I want to read the first
six verses here in Genesis 15. After these things, the word
of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abraham said, Lord God, what
wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of
my house is this Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me
thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. And behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that
shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad,
and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be
able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall
thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord,
and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now look over
at chapter 16. Chapter 16, and we'll read from
verse one. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare
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 Abram hearkened to the voice
of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took
Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years
in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband Abram to be
his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and
she conceived. And when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto
Abram, My wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid into thy
bosom. And when she saw that she had
conceived, I was despised in her eyes. the Lord judged between
me and thee. But Abraham said unto Sarai,
Behold thy maid is in thy hand, do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with
her, she fled from her face. And the angel of the Lord found
her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain
in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid,
whence camest thou, and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I
flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the Lord
said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself
under her hands. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall
not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son,
and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy
affliction. And he will be a wild man, and
his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against
him. And he shall dwell in the presence
of all his brethren. And she called the name of the
Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me. For she said, Have
I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore, the
well was called Bir Lacharoi. Behold, it is between Kadesh
and Bered. And Hagar spake, I'm sorry, and
Hagar bare Abraham a son, and Abraham called his son's name,
which Hagar bare Ishmael. I'm going to read that verse
again. And Hagar bare Abraham a son, and Abraham called his
son's name, which Hagar bare Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore
and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. Okay, into chapter 17 now. And when Abram was ninety years
old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I
am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.' And Abram
fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me,
behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of
many nations. Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham. For a father
of many nations have I made thee. and I will make thee exceeding
fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come
out of thee, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee
and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting
covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. Verse 15. And God said unto Abraham,
as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but
Sarah shall her name be. And 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. Then Abraham fell upon his face
and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born
unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah that is
ninety years old bear? And Abraham said unto God, O
that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy
wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name
Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have
heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him, and
will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve
princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish
with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time
in the next year. And he left off talking with
him, and God went up from Abraham. Chapter 18. And the Lord appeared unto him
in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in the heat
of the day. And he lifted up his eyes, this
is Abraham, and looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when
he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed
himself toward the ground and said, My Lord, if now I have
found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy
servant. Let a little water, I pray you,
be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the
tree. And I will fetch a morsel of
bread and comfort ye your hearts, that after that ye shall pass
on. For therefore are ye come to
your servant.' And they said, So do as thou hast said. And Abraham hastened into the
tent unto Sarah and said, Make ready quickly three measures
of fine meal needed and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham
ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave
it unto a young man, and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter
and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before
them. And he stood by them under the
tree, and they did eat. And they said unto him, Where
is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly
return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sarah
thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent
door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old
and well-stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after
the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within
herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my
Lord being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham,
Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child
which am old? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? At the time of appointed, I will
return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall
have a son.' Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not, for she
was afraid. And he said, Nay, but thou didst
laugh. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. We're not entirely finished yet
with our readings, but I want to draw your attention to something
that is important here in this passage particularly, for it
is clear, it is very clear in these verses, in these passages
that we have been reading, that it is the Lord Jesus Christ that
is speaking to Abraham. And this occasion, when God spoke
to Abraham and the Lord spoke to Abraham, particularly here
in Genesis chapter 18, when these three men came and sat and spoke
and dined with Abraham in his tent on the plains of Mamre,
is one such occasion which we talk about as a pre-incarnation
visitation of Jesus Christ to his people. Do not imagine that the story
of Jesus begins when he was born as a little baby into the world. Our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,
has been guiding and preserving, directing and speaking, planning
and managing the affairs of His people throughout the history
of the world. We're in Genesis chapter 18 here,
right at the very beginning of the history of God's dealings
with men and women in this world. The book of Genesis means the
book of beginnings. And here at the beginning, the
Lord Jesus Christ is present with his people, speaking to
them, and they know it. They know that this is the Lord
that is speaking to them. I'm gonna go a little step further,
and I'm going to say that they know that this is the eternal
word who is speaking to them. I'm going to go a little bit
further still and say that they know that this is the Lord Jesus
Christ that is speaking to them. In John chapter eight and verse
56, we discover that the Pharisees and the scribes were giving Jesus
a hard time. They were contradicting him and
they were arguing with him and they were saying all manner of
things against him. Some of the rudest, most insulting
things that could be said to a person. And in John chapter
8 verse 56, the Lord speaks to them and he says, your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. Do you know that Abraham saw
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as a man into this world
to redeem his people from their sin? And Abraham rejoiced to
see it. It may well be that as they sat
over their milk and their meat and their little cakes that Sarah
provided for them and enjoyed time together, that part of the
looking forward to the prophetic vision that Abraham had was granted
to him by the Lord Jesus Christ on an occasion like this. Be
that as it may, Abraham saw the day of the Lord Jesus. And of course, the Pharisees
said, well, that's just silly. How can that possibly be? This
is what they said to him. You're not yet 50 years old. How could Abraham have seen your
day? How did Abraham spend any time
with you? You're not 50 years old, and
hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. We're talking about God here.
We're talking about the eternal God. We're talking about this
one who was with his people right from the beginning. I want to ask you a question. Have
you seen the Lord Jesus Christ? Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. Have you seen the Lord Jesus
Christ? Has the Lord Jesus Christ gladdened
your heart? Has the Lord given you a cause
to rejoice in your own heart, in your own life's experience?
Have you seen the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you seen what he
has done? Have you seen that one who has
accomplished the redemption of his people who died on the cross
to save a sinner like you? And have you had that gladness
in your soul knowing that this one who died for sinners died
for me. Oh, the sadness and the sorrow
and the weightiness that comes from an appreciation of our sin. If you have seen your sin in
anything like the light that you ought to have seen your sin,
oh, you would be glad to see the Lord Jesus Christ. You would
rejoice to see Jesus. And here's why you would rejoice.
In John chapter eight, again, verse 36, it says this. You would
see the sun, and if the sun therefore shall make you free, ye shall
be free indeed. Freedom. I know Americans like
to talk about freedom, but this is real freedom. This is freedom
that transcends anything that you can ever imagine for yourself
in this world. This is freedom from guilt. Freedom from sin. Freedom from
the dominion of sin. Freedom from the dominion of
Satan. Freedom from the lusts of the
flesh which would humble and hobble and constrict and captivate
and constrain us and bind us and lead us into bondage. Freedom
from the law. That is freedom from striving
to have to do things to please God in the hope that He might
have pity on us. Because why? We have seen that
the Lord Jesus Christ is our liberty. We have peace and freedom
in him. If the son therefore shall make
you free, he shall be free indeed. Back to Genesis please. Back
to Genesis. Flick over a couple of pages
and we're in chapter 21. Chapter 21. And we're going to
see at this stage the conclusion of this little narrative here
from the book of beginnings. Genesis chapter 21, and I want
to read from verse one. There's a lovely line right in
the opening sentence of this chapter. And the Lord visited
Sarah as he had said. There you are. See, the Lord
never lets us down. When the Lord says he's going
to do something, you know what? Sarah and Abraham ought not to
have needed to be told three or four times that this was going
to happen. And I understand the weakness
of the flesh and the limitations of our faith. But if the Lord
says it once, that ought to be good enough for us. The Lord
visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as
he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare
Abraham, a son in his old age, at the set time of which God
had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of
his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son
Isaac being eight days old as God had commanded him. And Abraham
was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made
me to laugh so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, who would have
said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given children suck? For I have born him a son in
his old age. And the child grew and was weaned.
And Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar
the Egyptian. Remember her? 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 this bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing
was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, let
it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because
of thy bondwoman. In all that Sarah hath said unto
thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. We've read this narrative of
Hagar and Sarah of Abraham, of the boy Ishmael, and now of the
child Isaac. We have read of God's promises
that were perfectly fulfilled. And we have an account here in
this story of man's weak, fleshy efforts at self gratification
and self fulfillment. We could this morning and not
without profit draw some helpful spiritual applications from the
story of Sarah and Abraham's efforts to do God's work for
him by their own strength and will. Sarah says to Abraham,
I'm an old woman. How can I bear you any children?
Here's this lovely young Egyptian girl. Why don't you go into her? Why don't you sleep with her? Why don't you bear children with
her? And I will claim them as my children. And this can be our heirs. Abraham thought that was a good
idea. I wonder why. because of the flesh, because
of the natural desires. He had been told by God that
a son would be given. He had been told by God that
a promise had been made, and yet he took it into his own hands
to facilitate that promise, just in case God was a little bit
slow in coming around, or perhaps he'd forgotten. He's got a lot
to do after all, looking after the world and everything. We always need to be very careful
to draw the lessons of men's mistakes in scripture, because
they are given to us so that we don't make those same mistakes. God help us. And if you felt a little bit
sorry for this girl, Hagar, and I confess I do, I do. If you feel a little bit of pity
for this girl, some sympathy, then I don't think that that's
entirely inappropriate. Because although she was just
a slave girl, although she was just a bondwoman, a servant,
she was used and she was misused by Abraham and by Sarah for their
own ends against God's will. She was sinned against by these
two. And we could think about that
story this morning and we could draw some applications and they
would do us good. But we're in Galatians. And I
want to draw from this story that lesson which the Apostle
Paul gave us, which is more wonderful still and speaks to us of the
way in which God's promise had its fulfilment and what had to
be done. You see, it took the Apostle
Paul, by direction of God the Holy Spirit, to show us the real
significance of these truths, these events, and he calls it
an allegory. The Apostle Paul calls this an
allegory. Not to say that it didn't happen
or that it's not true historical facts because it certainly is. But he is calling this story
about Abraham and Sarah, Ishmael and Isaac, Hagar the Egyptian,
bondwomen, an allegory because it has a hidden meaning. It is
a hidden meaning which on the surface you wouldn't necessarily
be able to discover. But it reminds us how the sins
of men are overruled to accomplish and fulfill the grace of God. Did you hear what I said there? The sins of men and women are
overruled to accomplish and fulfill the purposes and grace of God. Look with me at Galatians chapter
four. Galatians chapter four. And verse 21. Tell me, ye that desire to be
under the law, Do ye not hear the law? For 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. Okay, we've seen that, haven't
we? But he of the free woman was by promise. which things
are an allegory, for these are the two covenants, the one from
the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, or
Hagar, for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth
to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all. 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. Now we brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. There's the title of our sermon
this morning. The children of promise. But
as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that
was born after the spirit. Remember we heard about that?
How Ishmael mocked Isaac in the day that he was weaned? He that
was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith 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 are not
children of the bondwoman, but of the free. OK. That's been quite a lot of
reading this morning. Thank you for your patience and
your attention. But what is the Apostle Paul
showing to these Galatians and what is he teaching us here?
Well the first thing I want us to notice is this, that he is
making a contrast between works and flesh and this has been his
argument right from the very beginning. He can't believe that
these foolish Galatians are going back to works, going back to
law, going back to try and please God by the things that they do
when they know They know because they had heard it and they received
it joyfully, that our acceptance with God is not based upon what
we do, but is based upon what Christ has done. and we look
to the cross for all of our acceptance and all of our peace and happiness
with God. We're not going to be happier
because of the things that we do to please God. We're going
to be happiest Because we see in the person of Jesus Christ,
the accomplisher of everything that was needful for the salvation
and deliverance of his people. And this has been Paul's argument
right from the start. And I want you to know this. This contrast between the works
of the flesh and the gift of promise, it's the doctrine of
scripture. It's not made up. We're not imagining
this or thinking that this would be a good theory. This would
be a good story to tell. This will teach us some good
moral lessons. This is a very doctrine of scripture.
This is a revelation of God concerning himself, concerning what we are
to believe of him. And Paul is explaining what the
Scriptures teach to these Gentile believers. It's taught in the
Scripture, he says. This is an allegory. The story about Abraham and Sarah
and Hagar, it's an allegory. It's teaching us something profound
about the way that you're living your life right now. And this
crazy idea that you've got to go back under the law at the
direction of these Judaizers, these people that have come to
teach you about law from Jerusalem. We believe what the scriptures
say. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse
11 it says this, now all these things, that's talking about
everything that is written in the Old Testament particularly,
but we'll extend it to the whole of the Bible, it's the same point. Now all these things happened
unto them for examples and samples. that and they are written for
our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. When
we look at the Old Testament scriptures, when we look at all
of scripture, it's there as an example for us, for our learning
and for our guidance. These two sons, Two sons by two
mothers are a picture, says Paul, of two testaments, two covenants,
two promises, as it were, although promises isn't the right word
to use, two covenants. And Hagar was an Egyptian slave
girl. Sarah was the mistress of the
house. They lived at the same time. They lived in the same
place. They both had the same husband,
but they had entirely different status. These two covenants are what
we call works and grace. It's to do with a demand for
obedience or the promise of a gift. The one is of nature, and of
flesh, and of bondage, and of obligation, and of doing. And it says, if you obey, you
will prosper. If you obey, you will live. If
you obey, you will get good things. And that obedience drives us
and forces us and constrains us, confines and traps us. If you disobey, you will suffer.
Whereas the other is a covenant of grace, of mercy. It is spiritual and it is free
and it is received entirely by promise. So what the Apostle
is telling us is that these two people, Hagar and Ishmael, Sarah
and Isaac, are representing two completely different worldviews,
two completely different lessons that God revealed over time. There's this lesson, which is
to do with works obedience, by which we will prosper if we're
good, we will suffer if we're bad. And this lesson, which has
to do with the promises of God to do us good on the basis of
the works of another, a perfect substitute. And these two covenants
are set before us. And Ishmael, we see, was the
offspring of a fleshy union. Abraham went into this girl Hagar. They had a child. God never told
him to do that. He had a wife. What are you doing,
Abraham? You know better than that. Isaac, he was a gift from God. Now I'm not saying that there
was any difference in the natural way in which Isaac was born,
except for the unlikeliness of the age of the people involved. Nevertheless, Isaac was born
by that natural procreation, but he was promised before he
was born, when nobody thought it possible, when it was against
everything that people could possibly conceive of. There,
that child was promised and he was born. And one of the verses
that stood out in Genesis chapter 18 to me as I read it was verse
14. And it says this, is anything
too hard for the Lord? Do you remember what Sarah did
when she was hiding behind the tent door? What was she doing
behind the tent door? You know what she was doing?
She was listening in to the conversation that her husband was having with
these three visitors outside the door. She was having a little
listen in to what it was that was being said. And do you know
what she heard? She heard that she was going to have a baby.
In nine months time, your wife Sarah is going to have a baby
and she couldn't constrain herself. She laughed. She laughed when
she heard that. And then she had the gall to
deny that she laughed. The Lord said to her, do you
think anything is too difficult for me? Do you think anything
is too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed, I will
return unto thee according to the time of life and Sarah shall
have a son. So here we have this contrast
between flesh, the works of the flesh and the gift of promise.
And it's taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. Nicodemus was a man who
came and visited the Lord when the Lord's ministry was unfolding,
right at the beginning of his ministry, in fact. And Nicodemus
thought that you could please God by your works. He was a Pharisee
and he made a great study. His life's study was to please
God by the things that he did. And I believe that Nicodemus
truly believed that if you could be good enough, God would be
pleased with him. And he tried. He thought his
personal obedience was going to be received by God, acceptable
to God. But he didn't realise that he
was doing it in a natural, fleshy kind of a way. And heaven is
taken by those who are spiritual. So the Lord Jesus Christ had
to tell him in John chapter 3 in verse 5, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, that
water speaking of the gospel there, except a man is born through
hearing the gospel by the work of the Holy Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. not all the good works that you
like, not all the good behavior that you can possibly achieve,
not all the obedience to the law that you can possibly do,
except you're born again, you're not going to enter into heaven.
It has to be through hearing the gospel and the power of the
Holy Spirit applying those truths to your heart. That which is
born of the flesh is flesh. How was Ishmael born? He was
born of the flesh and it's fleshy. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit and this is what the apostle Paul is picking up on. So he says as he goes down this
allegory that is before us. He shows us that there is a Jerusalem
which is now and there is a Jerusalem which is from above. This is a contrast, he's keeping
that contrast going. There's a distinction here. The
apostle is showing that they might look the same, but they're
totally different. Someone might say to you when
you're thinking about religion or faith or believing in God,
they might say, you know what, I believe that all roads lead
to God. Or that all religion is worthwhile. Or that all Christian religion,
as long as it's Christian, as long as it's from the Bible,
all Christian religion is acceptable. Or maybe they're a little bit
narrower and they say, well, no, okay, not all religion, but
all evangelical religion. Surely that's got to be right. Surely that'll be okay. All evangelical. Well, what about all Baptist
religion then? Paul says there are two Jerusalems. There are two cities of God. One is works and one is spiritual. Let me put it this way. There
are two people singing hymns. Two hymn singers. One is fleshy and one is spiritual. Can you tell which one's which? There are two preachers. Oh,
and they're passionate. And they're giving it all that
they've got. They're speaking from the heart. And one is fleshy and one is
spiritual. There are two baptized people. There are two people taking communion. One is in bondage and one is
free. And which is which? Which is
the flesh and which is the spirit? I think the Apostle Paul is making
an absolutely striking assertion here. I was going to say allegation,
but actually it's not an allegation. It's an assertion because it
comes with Holy Spirit authority. He says, Jerusalem which now
is, He's talking about the Jerusalem of his day. All right, he's talking
about the Jerusalem of his day. He's talking about what was going
on in Jerusalem. Now that's where Peter was, and
that's where James was in Jerusalem. And it would be nice to think
that what Paul is referring to here is the Pharisees and the
scribes that we hear talking about Jesus during his earthly
ministry. But Paul was aware of something
more sinister. Paul was aware, listen to me
here, because this is important. Paul was aware of something more
sinister that was happening in Jerusalem. And that is the reason for this
faithful man's emphasis to these Galatians and to these Gentile
churches. The Christian church was born
in Jerusalem, Jerusalem which now is. The family of new believers
were first in Jerusalem. but it had been infiltrated by
works religion. That early church, that apostolic
church had been infiltrated. Fifth columnists had got in there. False teachers, almost from the
very start, had got in amongst the church there in Jerusalem. And believe me, Satan is a master
counterfeiter. Those hymn singers, those people
taking communion, those people who have been baptized, how do
you know which one is of the flesh and which one is of the
spirit? If you look at Acts chapter 21
with me, please. I need to prove what I'm saying
here. Acts chapter 21. Look at verse 17. So Paul's writing here and he
says, No, sorry, it's Luke, Luke that's
writing. He's talking about himself and Paul and others going up
to Jerusalem. So this is Luke, the writer of
the book of the Acts. When we were come to Jerusalem,
the brethren received us gladly. And the day following, Paul went
in with us unto James, and all the elders were present. And
when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things
God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. Okay, he's talking
there about the amazing things that had been happening amongst
the churches of the Galatians and Ephesus and Philippi and
the different places where he went. Verse 20, And when they
heard it, they glorified God and said unto him, Thou seest,
brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe,
and they are all zealous of the law. What? And they are informed of thee.
that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles
to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise
their children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it
therefore? The multitude must neat come
together, for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore
this that we say unto thee. We have four men which have a
vow on them. Take them and purify thyself
with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave
their heads, and all may know that those things whereof they
were informed concerning thee are nothing. but that thou thyself
also walkest orderly and keepest the law. As touching the Gentiles
which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe
no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things
offered to idols and from blood and from strangled and from fornication. Then Paul took the men, and next
day purifying himself with them, entered into the temple to signify
the accomplishment of the days of purification. until that an
offering should be offered for every one of them. Hm. Hm. Gonna hold this together. My friend Paul, he knew better
than that. He knew better than that. But for the fear of man, for those elders, for those thousands
of believers that were passionate for the law, Paul shaved his head and took
a vow. That wasn't right. And he knew
it wasn't right. Do you know why he is so adamant
in his letters? Do you know why he calls himself
the chief of sinners? Do you know why he is so strong
about these things? Why he had to withstand Peter
to his face was because he knew that he himself had been bewitched
by this argument, by these people. Look at Galatians chapter two,
verse 12. Just flick back over a couple
of pages. Here's what he says to the Galatians.
This is what happened to him. He was at Antioch. For before that certain came
from James, right? That's from Jerusalem. That's
from these people, James. He did eat with the Gentiles,
but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing
them which were of the circumcision. Now the whole of Acts 15 could
be read in this context, and also Acts 18, verse 18. So if you're taking notes, note
those down if you want a little bit more information. But the
point is that this is Jerusalem which now is It was bringing works, it was
bringing fleshiness, it was bringing ritual, it was bringing ceremony,
it was bringing all of these laws back into the liberty which
was in Christ. And the church at Jerusalem,
probably because there were so many Jewish people there, had
begun to be infiltrated by this works religion. And that's the reason why I believe
that Antioch became the center of the early church evangelism,
particularly to the Gentiles. Because Jerusalem wasn't capable
of doing the job properly. Even although the Lord's people
had started in Jerusalem, even although there was a kernel there
which didn't succumb to this, because they did agree in Acts
15 that these things were not necessary for the Gentiles, yet
they believed that there was a continuing value of them for
the Jews. They hadn't got their doctrine
straight. They didn't see the purity of
the gospel. And I'm fearful that that's exactly
what we still see. We have today Jerusalem which
is now, we have Jerusalem which is now all over America, all
over Britain. And its contrast is Jerusalem
which is from above. The true church of Jesus Christ,
the free church that's not constrained by the fleshiness of ceremony
and ritual and doing, but sees that there is a beauty in the
liberty, in the being set free which comes from Christ. The
true church is a congregation of the free. Those that are free
from servitude of sin, those that are free from the dominion
of sin, and those that are free from the world in its efforts
to suck us in. We talk about the world, the
flesh and the devil, free from the yoke of the law, from the
spirit of bondage. That's what it is to be free
indeed. The true church has the spirit
of God. It has the spirit of adoption.
We have that free spirit. And He makes us free that possess
and enjoy Him, that have discovered Him and found Him to be our Lord. And where He is, there is true
liberty. And it's that spirit of liberty
that the Lord Jesus Christ sends to His people at their conversion. And yet we see from this Jerusalem
that now is, and even from an example of the great apostle
Paul, it's a liberty that we must hold on to. And we must
be earnest and sincere and we must be aware. We must have knowledge,
truth, The truth is we must always be being brought back to Christ
because the flesh will constantly draw us away as it did even amongst
the apostles and the leaders of the Jerusalem church. As it
did even to Paul himself. You know what the lesson is there?
You need to look beyond Paul. You need to look at Christ. Because
Paul was just a man as well. And he was, until the Lord took
him into glory, he was still a man of the flesh. He was still
a man who knew what it was to have the passions of the old
man rise up in his soul. And I don't know why he did it.
I don't know if it was a fear of man. I don't know whether
he thought, this will give me an opportunity to preach to these
people the truth. But he took that vow. He shaved
his head and he was waiting for seven days. Do you know what
happened? We didn't read the rest of the chapter. But those
seven days never came to a conclusion. There was a disturbance in the
city and Paul had to flee the city. So the seven days never
came. You know what that means? That
means that the Lord preserved him. Despite himself, the Lord
preserved him. we must always look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm going to be quick here. I'm
sorry if it's taking too long but I did want to do all that
reading at the beginning and I'm aware that we need to get
through these passages. There's also a conflict which
is before us here and we discover that as Ishmael mocked Isaac,
so the flesh will mock the spiritual. We who are the children of promise,
we who are the spiritual sons, there will always be that mockery
goes on against us by the flesh. And that might be the world and
the devil and all of that, although I suspect that the devil doesn't
mock us as much as he tries to deceive us. But other church
groups will mock us. Those who say you're not preaching
the proper gospel, you're not doing the right things, you're
not living the right way, you're not engaging with the society
in the proper methods, you're not living out Christ with your
good works and your charity. They're setting themselves up
as the way that Christianity should be, and they're mocking
the purity of the gospel and the purity of the preaching of
the gospel. There will be that fleshy assault,
that persecution, that maligning, that mockery of that which is
spiritual. And they will take example, and
they will take advantage, and they will endeavor to exploit.
Basically, Ishmael was a teenager abusing an infant. That's what
he was doing. And that's what the world does
to the church. That's what the whole of this
world is doing to the church. It's a bad teenager abusing a
child. And the presence of these Judaizing
troublers here amongst the Galatian churches was that bad teenager
abusing the child. That's what they were doing.
They were deceiving, they were manipulating, they were exploiting,
they were saying, you found out about the gospel, well, let us
tell you the fullness of the gospel. You've heard from Paul,
let's add a little bit onto the back of that and show you where
to find your true peace. They were abusing that young
child, that young believer that was the Galatian church. They
were diluting, they were corrupting the true gospel. Well, the Lord
Jesus Christ told his people in John 15, If ye were of the
world, the world would love his own. But because ye are not of
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you. Acts 14 says, confirming Paul
went out and about, confirming the souls of the disciples and
exhorting them to continue in the faith. Paul had to go out
amongst these churches and exhort them, plead with them. Not in
a... a please-please kind of way,
but to exhort them to hold fast the faith. Don't get perverted,
don't get distracted. Confirming the souls of the disciples
and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must,
through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. So what
is the apostles' advice in this situation then? Well, it's very
simple. The false has to be expelled.
Ishmael had to go. Hagar had to go. Abraham loved
that boy. The flesh loves the flesh. He had known Hagar for over a
decade. She was his wife. Think about
what that means, men. And she had a child to him. And they had to go. They had
to leave. Cast out the bondwoman and her
son. We cannot tolerate the dilution
of the gospel. We cannot tolerate the undermining
of faith. There comes a time when we have
to have a necessary separation. We have to exclude that which
is inappropriate. We have to reject it. We have
to say there's no intermingling here. Cast out the bondwomen. They
will not agree. They cannot walk together. Amos
says, can two walk together except they be agreed? No, they cannot.
not grace and works. They'll just never work. If you're
looking for justification, peace with God, the pleasure of God,
the gratitude of God, the pleasure of God from anything that you
do, then it'll never be yours. It cannot happen. That's the
bondage of the flesh. That's the bondage of the law.
If you're looking for justification, for sanctification, for spiritual
comfort, for assurance, these blessings, these rights, they
are inheritances by promise. They are privileges of God upon
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They cannot be earned. They cannot
be merited. And we cannot tolerate worshipping
with people who believe they can. It just doesn't work. There's a danger if we don't
separate. Later Paul is going to remind
the Galatians that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. because it grows and it ultimately
spoils the purity of the gospel truth that we first believed. Let us not trifle with these
errors. Let us not endeavour to accommodate
compromise or to permit the poisoning of self-righteousness to take
hold and build up in our hearts or in our minds or in our Christian
understanding. The false teachers must go. And
the false teaching must be rooted out. The bondwoman and her son
must be cast out. And that was the great burden
of the apostle amongst these Galatians. He wanted to see Christ
formed in them. That was what he says. He wanted
to see these young believers experience Christ in their life
and the fruitfulness, the blessedness, the joy of knowing Christ and
the liberty that comes from him. And that's why Peter, the other
apostle, says in 2 Peter 3, verse 18, grow in grace and in the
knowledge, that is the faith, of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. More grace, deepening faith,
greater assurance, greater usefulness. an increased view of the sufficiency
of Christ. The Lord says to Peter, I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. That's our role, friends. When we're converted, when we've
understood faith, when we've grasped the meaning of the gospel,
when we know what it is to see Christ and to be in Christ and
to come to Christ and discover the liberty that is in Christ,
when the Son has made us free indeed, then strengthen thy brethren. Paul began this passage by asking
You who want to be under the law, do you hear the law? Do you hear it? Do you hear the
law? It's a fearful and a harrowing
sound. It blasts out condemnation. It screams judgment. It is relentless
in its punishment and in its holy retribution. It raises holiness
to the level of a crushing yoke upon the shoulders of those who
go under it for sanctification, for righteousness, for peace
with God. Paul asks, do you desire to be
under the law of bondage and servitude or the gospel of liberty
and peace? May our blessed Saviour teach
us the true gospel of full and free salvation. May he release
us from the yoke of works and the curse of the bond slave. May he lead us into the liberty
of sons and the sweet rest of complete justification, sanctification,
and imminently our glorification, and the sure and certain inheritance
of the children of promise. Amen.