Genesis chapter 16. We'll read the first several
verses together and then talk about it a bit. Now Sarah,
Abram's wife, bare him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian,
whose name was Hagar. And Sarah 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 Sarah. And Sarah
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 Sarah 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 judge between
me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarah, Behold,
thy maid is in thy hand. Do to her as it pleaseth thee.
And when Sarah dealt heartily with her, she fled from her face. Now knowing what we know, that
God had promised Abraham a son, Abraham and Sarah. We read this
passage of scripture here with some sadness, don't we? But also
by God's grace, I pray, we learn some important truth You won't
be able to read God's word long without a reminder of the sinfulness
of man, the best of men. And don't forget when we read
this, and Paul reminds us in first Corinthians chapter one,
doesn't he? And we won't forget if the Lord is pleased. He continually
reminds us that God has mercy on the foolish and on the weak
and on the base. When God chose the nation of
Israel as a top of His elect in the scriptures, and that's
exactly what He did, the earthly nation of Israel is typical of
His spiritual Israel, His heavenly Israel. When He did choose them,
He chose a stiff-necked and rebellious people. Well, aren't all people
that way? Yeah, but especially Israel. Especially. They were characterized
and identified by God as stiff-necked and rebellious. That's who God
chooses. And knowing at least a little bit about ourselves,
it shouldn't surprise us too much here that Sarah and Abraham
felt as though God needed their help. That's just simply what
this is. God has made a promise and he's
going to need us to help him get it done. And I know that
sounds ridiculous. If you asked them, does God need
your help? They'd probably say no. And yet,
you see, doctrinally, we understand some things. But how we act sometimes
tells a different story, doesn't it? Oh, we believe God is sovereign.
We believe that He worketh all things after the counsel of His
own will. Do you always act like it? Or do you ever murmur just
a little bit and complain? If God's on the throne, who are
you complaining against? Abraham and Sarah knew up here
that God didn't need them. And yet, look at what they did.
What a lesson for us now. When God found Abraham, where
did He find him? And how did He find him? That's
the kind of people God chooses. And we see it here, don't we?
We see it when we look in the mirror. And looking into the
Word of God is like looking into the glass, isn't it? We see ourselves
as we are, at least to some extent. The Lord reveals our wicked,
our foolish, just foolish. And see again something else
here. And this is something that wouldn't be real popular a whole
lot of places. See here the woman's susceptibility
to be the instigator of evil. We saw it in the garden. We see
it here. Abraham didn't wake up and say, hmm, I think I'll
go in to Hagar. Don't think I'm picking on the
women though. We're getting to the good part
in a minute, men. But we do see this, don't we?
And ladies, are we not to heed the warnings of the word of God?
Job's wife said, why don't you just curse God and die? Well,
thank you for the input, Mrs. Job. We appreciate that. All
right, well, while we're heeding warnings, men, learn this here
again. The responsibility to lead, the
responsibility for your family, the responsibility before God
in your family and in the relationship with your wife is yours. To make sure that you lead your
family, your wife, your children in God's will and God's way lies
with you, the man. And we see that here too, don't
we? And who's the bigger fool here? I'd say it's a tie, wouldn't
you? But the responsibility lies with
the man. Nothing happens if Abraham says,
no, Sarah, we'll wait on God. That's what we'll do. If he says
that, nothing happens except God is honored in worship. Now,
this inconsistency in Abraham here is a reminder also of the
two natures that we believers are. And you notice I didn't
say we have two natures. We are two natures. It's what
we are. And I say inconsistency because
Abraham believed God. The passage that we just got
through studying is used in the New Testament as an example of
faith. of unwavering, steadfast faith. I wouldn't use this one here
as that example, would you? If I wanted to give an example
of steadfast, strong faith in God, I wouldn't go to the beginning
of Genesis chapter 16. So there's an inconsistency.
Why? Well, there's an old man and
a new man. That's why. And they are at war
with one another. The spirit warth against the
flesh and the flesh against the spirit. The Lord Jesus said in
the Garden of Gethsemane there, when they couldn't watch with
Him even for an hour now, the Son of God is going to die for
their sins, and they couldn't watch and pray with Him for one
hour. And He said, the Spirit is willing. There is that which
we would do that we do not. The Spirit's willing, but the
flesh is weak. And that's what we're seeing
here. A reminder again, and we see it all through the Word of
God. My brother taught it this morning in the Bible class. All
through the Word of God we see examples of this. The two natures
of the believer. In chapter 15, we see Abraham
walking after the Spirit. In chapter 16, we see him falling
in the flesh. In 15, we see that the spirit
indeed is willing. In 16, we see that the flesh
indeed is weak. I, like Abraham, I'm fully persuaded
that what God has promised, he's able also to perform, aren't
you? Abraham was, and yet he did this stupid thing in chapter
16. He was fully persuaded that God is able to do what he says
to do, but I also, like Abraham, by my actions prove often that
I'm faithless and foolish enough to think that God needs my help.
And like Sarah, all of us are just dissatisfied with waiting
on God, aren't we? The flesh will not wait on God. And I'll tell you something else
this does. When we see the inconsistency in Abraham, when we see him faithful
one minute and falling the next, when we see the strength of the
Spirit that God has given him and the weakness of the flesh,
the inconsistency, hot one minute, cold the next, you know what
it does? It makes us say, thank God for the one who did always
those things that pleased the Father. There's my righteousness
right there. When chapter 16 begins, Let me
ask you a question. At the beginning of chapter 16
here, the situation is God has promised them a son. And Abraham
said, my only heir is, it looks like he's going to be my servant,
one of my household. And God said, no, I'm going to
give you a son. One born of your own bowels is
going to be your heir. What needs to happen at the beginning
of chapter 16? What's needful? What needs to be done? Absolutely
nothing. Nothing needs to be done. Just
wait on God to do what he said he would do. Nothing. Waiting
is to do nothing. That's what waiting is. It's
waiting on God to do what he said he would do. We see what
Sarah and Abraham did, but what did they need to do? Absolutely
nothing. They could have gone on enjoying
the favor of God. God said, in blessing I will
bless you, and hadn't he kept that promise? He had already
gotten Abraham out of the mess that he got himself in in Egypt.
God had proven he was with him. He blessed him in every way that
a man can be blessed. Gave him everything he needed
and delivered him from trouble and protected him and showed
Abraham that his guiding hand and his protective hand was upon
him and blessed him with great riches. He had abundance in this
world. They could have gone on just
enjoying the favor of God, worshiping God, praising God for His promises
and for His goodness to them. Will we be satisfied with that?
What needs to be done? A real good pastor friend of
mine told me real recently that a family left the church there
where he pastors because they said they needed to go somewhere
where there was something for them to do. How sad that is. How sad that is. I'll tell you
where I need to go. I need to go somewhere where
somebody's talking about what God did and what he's going to
do. What needs to be done by us.
Not a stinking thing, that's what. God does not need you. Do you understand that? And he
does not need me. the gospel, just enjoying the
favor of God, the worship of God, the praising of God for
his mercy and goodness in Christ. He said, my house will be called
a house of prayer. It's a place to come and worship
God, to thank God for what he's done, not to do something for
him. So many have made it a den of
thieves. His mercy and his goodness in Christ is not enough for most
people. It's just not enough. Being in the one place, God help us to learn this, just
being here in the one place out of 10,000 around here where God's
gospel is preached is just not enough for some people. It's
just not enough. We got to do something. And see this here,
too. There's a lot in this, isn't
there? See this here. Learn this, too. Let's learn
this. By God's grace, may He teach us this, that God who gives
faith tries faith. He tries faith. Now, I know we
agree with that, and yet things happen in our lives and it blindsides
us, doesn't it? We don't see it coming. Why not?
Do you see what happens in the life of the believer from his
book? The God who gives faith will
try it. Expect it! When God tries your
faith, see it as an opportunity to glorify Him in a trouble,
in trial, in whatever it is. That's when He's glorified. It's
when you obey Him when it's hard to obey Him. Because you know
He did that. You know that's His strength
and power. You know that's I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. He gets the glory there. When
there's trouble. When nobody expects you to worship
Him. That's the time to worship Him.
When nobody in this world doesn't expect you to sing His praises.
When you're in prison like Paul and Silas. And nobody, what in
the world? What are you doing over there?
I'm singing the praises of Christ. When nobody expects you to do
it. That's the time to do it. That's what honors Him right
there. He tries faith for His glory. Not for yours. Not mine. He does it for His glory. Expect
it. Perhaps you're being tried in
some of these ways that Abraham was tried right now. Let's see
if you are. Let's look at it a little bit.
Let's talk about four different ways in which Abraham was tried
in our recent studies here that you'll remember if you've been
here. First of all, and even if you hadn't, you know these
things. We've seen these things in God's
word. Now let's learn from them. These things are written for
our learning. That's what Paul said, didn't he? These things,
these Old Testament, these men were raised up by God to be our
examples. Isn't that what Paul said? And
these things were written for our learning. First of all, God
told Abraham, I want you to leave your father's house and I want
you to go, go where? I'll let you know. Would that
try you? Would that test you a little
bit? Let me ask you this, what will you do when you have to
choose between your family and God? Is that plain enough for
you? Because I guarantee you, you're
going to have to sooner or later in something, somewhere, sometime,
you will have to choose between them and God. If you're a believer,
I just about guarantee you that. I don't know that for a fact
in every case, but I know so many people that have had to,
that I'm just pretty sure you're going to have to at one time
or another. You're going to have to choose.
You don't always have to, but sometime you're going to have
to. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Most
people wouldn't even offend their family a little bit by going
to worship while they're in town. Oh, you know, they came to see
and we better not go worship God. Do you know the best thing
you can do for them is to go worship God and show them that
God's more important than they are? You reckon they need to
know that? Sometimes, somewhere, somehow you're gonna have to
choose between God and your family. Abraham was given an extreme
case of that. Don't you think? Get up and go. And some of them went with him.
And that's not what God said, but you don't find them with
him for long. God took care of that, didn't he? Somehow or other.
Get up and leave them and go where I tell you to go. What
are you gonna do when God says that? When you say, Lord, now
I'm gonna follow you, I'm gonna worship you. But my old daddy,
you know, he's old and I need to stay with him a while until
he dies and I'll bury him and then I'll follow you full time.
What are you going to do when Christ says, let the dead bury
their dead? You come follow me now. Do it right now. What are
you going to say then? What am I going to say then?
What are you going to say when they make fun of you and say
you hate your family or you wouldn't move up there and just leave,
you know, leave your family? You're going to say, by God's
grace, I love you, but I'm going to do what God said to do. That's
what you're going to say. if the Lord's in it, if the Lord
blesses you. If not, if he leaves you to yourself
in your flesh, you're going to just read your name here in Genesis
16, doing something stupid, because that's what you'll do without
his grace, and I will too. And then when Abraham got where
God sent him, there was a famine there. Surely God didn't mean
for this to happen. He wouldn't have made me get
up and leave my family and go somewhere and then starve to
death. God wouldn't do that. So what he must have meant was
for me to go down to Egypt. That's what he meant, because
they got plenty to eat down there. What are you going to do when
it comes down to personal loss and worshiping God or not worshiping
God? What are you going to do when
it comes down to trusting God or doing what's best for yourself?
We see what Abraham did. We see what we're going to do
if God leaves us alone. We know what we'll do, won't
we? We'll get us a good job whether there's any gospel there or not.
We got to make a living, don't we? There's famine unless I got
to have a good job. No, you don't. You got to worship
God. And he said, I'll add these things to you. What are these
things? You think God can't give you food and raiment? He gave
you the job over there where there's no gospel. Perhaps he
did it as a trial. You reckon? Can I ever learn
that? Will God ever teach me? To see
it coming. To know when it's me instead
of Abraham. I see what he went through. Can
I see it coming my way? These things were written for
my learning. Will I learn them? God help me. God help me to learn
them. What are you going to do when
there's prosperity in Egypt? Egypt is the world. And there's
not any where God's favor is. What are you going to do? No
earthly temporal prosperity? Seem like perhaps where God's
favor is. What are you going to choose?
Then thirdly, after being established for a while in Canaan where God
sent him, a strife arose. There was a dispute. How will
you react? How will you conduct yourself
when there's a strife between you and your brother or sister
in Christ? How are you going to conduct
yourself? Are you going to stand up for your rights and get ugly? Abraham passed this one. We see
God's favor and mercy upon him in this one, don't we? Because
he was able, by God's grace, to say, you do what you think
is right, and I'll go from there. You take what you want, and I'll
take what's left. That's grace right there, that's
grace. Now here, in our text, the fourth thing, perhaps the
most difficult trial of all. Can Abraham just simply trust
God and do nothing? The hardest thing in the world,
usually for us to do, is nothing. A thousand years is as a day
with God. Wait on Him. Wait on Him. Can
Abraham resist leaning on the arm of the flesh? And more to
the point, can you? Can I? Can we resist that? You
see these different ways, and there are others. We're just
skimming the top, in which Abraham was tried. And think of the other
examples in the scripture where God's people were tried. God
always tries the faith that he gives. The trial of your faith,
Paul said, is precious. I guarantee you God's gonna try
it. Expect it. Learn from what he's taught us
in his word. And don't jump up and say, oh,
I'll do better than that. I know better than that. Better
ask him for strength and mercy, because unless he gives it, nobody
will fall as hard as we will. Now, aside from the practical
application, obviously, here that we've talked about, there
are spiritual teachings here in this text that we must see.
And by the way, you can't separate them. You can't separate the
practical and the spiritual. Paul, in his epistles, he would
establish the doctrinal truth of God's grace in Christ. And
he'd say, now, you who believe this, act like it. Walk worthy
of the calling. You can't separate them. But
this passage of scripture here is referred to, as I'm sure you
know, in the New Testament. Let's look at a couple of passages
of scripture, and then we'll just take a few minutes here.
First of all, turn to Romans chapter 9, and let's look at
this together just for a little while. This is a passage that
we could preach a whole series on and not exhaust the teachings
of it, but let's just get an overall, I guess, glimpse of
it here this evening. In Romans 9-1, Paul said, I say
the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption,
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the service of God, and the promises, every outward advantage, God
taught them His Word, He gave them His Law, He gave them the
commandments that pictured Christ, the ceremonial law, all of the
bloodshedding that pictured His Son, all of these advantages
to point them to Christ, His Word to point them to Christ,
these types and pictures to point them to Christ, His promises
of His favor in Christ. And he said also in verse five,
and whose are the fathers? These men that we're talking
about, Abraham and Moses, and these men that God raised up
to preach his word, to lead them in the worship of God in Christ. And of whom as concerning the
flesh, Christ came. He promised that he would through
this seed that he would give Abraham, through his son Isaac,
that Christ would be born. He said seed and not seeds, and
that seed is Christ, and all the nations of the earth will
be blessed in him. who is overall God-blessed forever. Amen. So why this heaviness, Paul?
Why this continual sorrow? If God blessed the Israelites
with all these outward advantages, then what's the reason for all
the sorrow? Because in spite of them, They did not believe
on Christ because they had every imaginable advantage from God.
God showed them in every way he could show a sinner, his son,
and they rejected him. They despised him. He said to
them, you will not come to me that you might have life. they
said crucifying his blood be upon us and our children they
despised the son of god that he set forth before their eyes
from the beginning in all these different ways and so paul said
i'm heavy about it i'm heavy about it but then look at verse
six not as though the word of god hath taken none effect God
has promised to bless his people. He said, I'm sorry because they're
lost. I'm heavy because they're not saved. That my heart's desire
and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved. They
have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.
But he said this, I'm not sorrowing as though God's promise to his
people is made void by the nation of Israel's unbelief. I'm not
sorrowing in that sense. Not as though the Word of God
have taken none effect. When God has promised that He
would bless His people Israel, that His favor would be upon
them, He said, I'll forgive your iniquities. I have not beheld
iniquity in Jacob. I've found no sin in them. And
all the promises of God, all the Word of God to His people,
I don't sorrow as though it's of none effect. by this because
they don't believe and because they reject Christ and they'll
go to hell for it. That doesn't mean God's not true
to His promise. Well, how can you say that, Paul?
For they are not all Israel which are of Israel. The nation of
Israel rejecting Christ on a wholesale scale, just almost with very
few exceptions, they rejected Him. That does not make God's
promise to His people Israel void. How? God said, I'm going
to bless Israel, and they're not blessed. You're not talking
about that Israel. That's what Paul said. They are
not all this promised favor Israel that are of the nation of Israel.
Some of them are, but not all. Not all. And so we get this clear
explanation. God promised He would bless and
save His people Israel, and yet they're not saved. Oh, yes, they
are. He hath not cast off His people whom He foreknew. That
Israel, the one elect, chosen, and precious, that Israel will
be saved. Absolutely. Every one of them.
Every one of them. But earthly Israel, they're superstitious,
they're idolatrous, they're lost, Christ-hating rebels. That's
what they are. And this is the explanation.
They are not all Israel, which are of Israel. There are two
Israels. And when God said to Israel,
I'll be your God and you'll be my people. And I'm going to write
my word on your hearts. And I will be merciful to your
unrighteousness and your sins and your iniquities will I remember
no more. When he says that, he's not talking
to earthly Israel. He's talking to spiritual Israel.
And not all of the nation, the earthly nation of Israel, are
of this spiritual Israel. That's exactly what he said there
in verse 6. Now look at verse 7, Romans 9.
Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all
children. Just because you're born of the
lineage of the Jewish Nation that didn't mean your children
of the promise that the promises of God to his people Israel apply
to you don't think that But in Isaac shall thy seed be called
that is they which are the children of the flesh Israelites according
to the flesh These are not the children of God. And when he
says, you'll be my children, I'll be your God, you'll be my
people. He's not talking about the children of the flesh, but
the children of the promise are counted for the seed. And only
them, only them. For this is the word of promise,
at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. Not your
handmaid, the one that's the servant in your hand. He's not
going to be your heir. Your son, Sarah's son is going to be your
heir. And in him shall all the nation of the earth Be blessed.
This is the word of promise. In other words, what Paul is
saying so clearly here, not those who are naturally born Israelites
after the flesh, but those who are born by a miraculous work
of God's grace, like Isaac. Those are God's children. John
1 12, as many as received him to them, gave he power to become
the sons of God. to them that believe on his name,
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God, born of God, like Isaac. Ishmael was born after the flesh.
They just did what people do to have babies, and they had
a baby. That's natural. God has arranged it that way,
but it's a natural birth, not Isaac. That birth's a miracle,
so is yours, your second birth. A miracle of God's grace. And
that's why Paul is setting this up as an example, as an allegory,
as an illustration of the promise of God being fulfilled. Not made void, it's not of none
effect. God's promise is in full force
and it will be fulfilled in Christ. All of his children will be born
and will be blessed and he will remember their iniquities no
more. All the blessings of the covenant will be theirs and not
a single one of them will be able to forfeit those blessings. They will all receive them. His
promise will be in full effect to his people Israel. Now this
lesson is learned from Genesis 16. This is the example given
here. When God promised this son, that Sarah's going to have
a son, He's teaching here that God's children are born by a
miracle of His grace, His true children, His spiritual children,
not by the flesh. And we see that the flesh Just
like Abraham and Sarah here, they plotted to help God, you
know, to give God a little fleshly assistance here. Don't you see
that in this religious world? Oh, I know God's going to save
his people, but we got to get somebody saved. You know, they're
not going to get saved unless we get them saved. Really now,
can God save them? He said, is my hand shortened
that it cannot save? Does he need you to do something?
Does he need you to lead people down some kind of a Roman road
or some foolishness like that? or to take them through the five
easy steps of sin. No, that's the flesh. It is the
spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing,
nothing. Not by walking in an aisle, not
by making a decision, not by man's will, not by man's works,
but by God's grace and power. not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. That's
how his children were born. And that's what he teaches there.
Now turn to Galatians four, and we'll look at this briefly and
see this other place in the new Testament where Genesis 16 is
referred to a Galatians four 22, for it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bond made the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. In what sense? Well, they weren't
satisfied waiting on God to fulfill his promise, so they acted according
to the flesh. Just like we said earlier, Abraham
acted in the spirit in the chapter before. acted in the flesh in
chapter 16. And this was just a natural child
that was born. But he of the free woman was
by promise. God promised that something is
going to happen that can't happen. And he was able to perform that.
He was able to do what he said he would do. Verse 24, which
things are an allegory. They're an illustration. They're
an earthly story, an example of spiritual truth, a simple
picture, an earthly picture that shows heavenly spiritual truth. These things are an allegory.
The fact that they had two children, one born of the bond woman, one
born of the free woman. These things are an allegory,
for these are the two covenants. The one from the Mount Sinai.
The son that was born of the bondwoman pictures the covenant
that was given on Mount Sinai, which said you have to do something
in order to gain the favor of God. That's what they did. God's
promised this is what God will have to happen, so let's do something
in order to make that happen. That's what happened at Sinai.
That covenant was given. You do this and don't do this
and you'll live and you'll have my blessing in my favor. I look
at it again, verse 24, the one from Mount Sinai, the middle
of the verse, which gender to bondage. That's why the son of
the bond woman is the one who pictures the Mount Sinai covenant. Because all that covenant can
do is put you in chains, put you in God's prison house. And
you don't want to be in God's prison house. And I don't either.
Which is Hagar, the bond woman. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is. And is in bondage
with her children. That's the Jerusalem which now
is. The earthly Jerusalem. And they're
in bondage. They hate the Son of God. They
killed the Prince of Life, with a few exceptions. There are a
few of the free people in there, mixed among them. But generally
speaking, the earthly nation of Israel, the children of bondage. That's that Jerusalem. But there's
another Jerusalem. Look at verse 26. But Jerusalem
which is above. Those children, they're not in
bondage, they're free. They're free. That's why the
son of the free woman pictures them in that covenant. Jerusalem,
which is above, is free. That's talking about a people,
not a city, not a location. That's talking about a people.
His holy people, Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all. For
it is written, verse 27, rejoice thou barren that bearest not
break forth and cry thou that travailist for the desolate shall
have for the desolate hath many more children than she which
hath and husband. How is that going to happen?
By God's power not yours. Now we brethren verse 28 as Isaac
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. Nevertheless, what sayeth the
scripture? Cast out the bond woman and her son. Somebody got
to go and it ain't gonna be God's children. For the son of the
bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.
You're not going to inherit with God's children. You remember
the rich young ruler? He came and said, what must I
do to keyword inherit? How can I be an heir with the
children of promise? Well, not being one of the children
of promise. The only way you can inherit
what they inherit is to keep the law. Isn't that what the
Lord told him? He said, you know the law, thou
shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt not,
thou shalt not. Problem is you can't inherit
that way. And he said, oh, okay, well, I guess I'm in. I've kept
all these from my youth up. And the Lord said, all right,
let's find out. In a sense, that's what he said.
He said, let's start at the beginning. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Go sell all your gods and come follow me. Let's see
if you've kept the law. Let's see if you can inherit
with the children of promise. Can't do it. Can't do it. Now
we are the children of promise. Verse 29, but as then he that
was born after the flesh persecuted him. Let's skip forward. Verse
31. We read verse 30 already. The
bondwoman's son shall not be heir with the son of the free
one. So then brethren, we're not children of the bondwoman.
But of the free? How? Why? Because we weren't
born after the flesh. We were born by the power and
grace of God. That's why. We're children of
promise. When God produced us, he did
the impossible. He performed a miracle of grace
and begot us again into a lively hope. by his power and almighty
grace. And so we're children of the
free. These two covenants. What is a covenant? Listen to
this definition and see if this helps. A covenant is an agreement
entered into between two or more parties in which promises are
made. And these promises are contingent
upon certain conditions. At Mount Sinai, God made a promise.
I'll bless you. You'll have my favor. You'll
live before me and all will be well. But there are some conditions
that have to be met. You're gonna have to do exactly
what I say, always what I say, only what I say, perfectly what
I say. Not gonna happen, never did happen.
Didn't give it thinking it was gonna happen. He gave it to drive
us to Christ, didn't he? That's why he gave it, to show
us our need that all the world may shut their mouths and stand
guilty before God. That's why he gave that covenant.
But then, by God's grace, there was another covenant made. At
Sinai, the covenant was between God and the people, God and you,
in which God promised His blessing contingent upon obedience to
His law. Not a best effort, but perfect,
constant, incessant obedience to His law. And as Paul said
here in Galatians, that gendereth to bondage. That results in you
being guilty and condemned before God and put in prison, just waiting
to go to hell. Thank God there's another covenant.
There's another covenant. And this one was between God
and his son. It's between God and his son. Well, aren't we in on it, Chris?
Yeah. How are we in on it? We're in his son. We're counted
for the seed because Christ is the seed and we're in him. We're
the children of promise. This covenant was between God
and his son and those in his son. This covenant was made with
Christ and us in him. In this covenant, God has promised
every blessing that he's able to bestow. Think about that for
a minute. How good of an imagination do
you have? Every blessing of God. How well do you know this book
and can conjure up in your mind the promises of God? Oh, I wish
I knew it better. It'd mean even more to me. Every
blessing of God that is his to give is ours. But there are conditions. There are not any for you. But
there are conditions. The blessings of God in Christ
are contingent upon the Lord Jesus Christ coming down here
as my representative and living a perfect spotless life, keeping
the first covenant. In other words, he got to keep
the first one. He's born under the law, made
under the law, wasn't he? That he might redeem them that
are under the law. So there's one of the, there's one of the
conditions. And the other one is this, The blessings of this
second covenant are contingent upon his perfect life and his
sin atoning death as God's lamb. What's our part in the covenant?
Well, we by God's grace are in Christ and are therefore benefactors
of that covenant. recipients of all the blessings
of that covenant without you and I fulfilling a single condition. Because Christ fulfilled the
conditions of that covenant and he did it for us, now God can
come to me like he did Abraham and say, in blessing, I'm going
to bless you. Surely I will bless you." He didn't say, if you do
this, if you do... Christ already did it. There's
nothing for you to do. Can we do nothing? Nothing is
the hardest thing in the world to do. Both speaking about earthly
things and in spiritual things, it's the hardest thing in the
world to just do nothing and bow, receive Christ, own Him
as our righteousness, our sin offering, the one who upon whose
shoulders hangs this covenant. God laid help upon one who is
mighty. In the first covenant, it was
up to us. In the second, it's up to Christ,
and we just benefit from it. Because of Christ and what he
did for us, God can now just say, Abraham, I'm going to bless
you. Not because of what you do, because
of what your Savior did. I'm going to bless you. It comes
to all of his people because Christ has fulfilled the terms
of this new covenant. It says to them, I'll be your
God and you'll be my people. You'll be my people. You see
what Paul was saying when he said, not as though the promise of
God is of none effect. God's promise to his people is
going to come true. I'm going to be your God, and
you're going to be my people, because the terms of the covenant
of grace are met, fulfilled by Christ. In Hebrews 8, you know
this passage of scripture, and let's turn over there one more
time and rejoice in it together. These are the terms of this covenant,
and to us, There were conditions met in this covenant of grace,
met by Christ. With regard to you and I, it's
an unconditional covenant. We call it an unconditional covenant
because there are no conditions for us to meet. Look at Hebrews
8 again, verse 7. For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then no place should have been sought for the
second. If you could have done and not done what God said do
and don't do, there wouldn't have been any need for a second
covenant. Oh, but verse eight, for finding fault with them,
he saith, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel. This is the same covenant
that he made with his son. He just letting you in on it.
He said, the day's coming when I'm going to tell you about it,
because when he made it with him, he made it with us in him.
And with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by
the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they
continue not in my covenant and I regarded them not, saith the
Lord. This covenant is not going to be like that one. In what
sense? Well, we know what that covenant was. It all hung upon
us then and up on our shoulders was the entire weight of it everything
was contingent upon your performance in what sense is this one different
well look at verse 10 this is the covenant that i will make
with the house of israel after those days saith the lord i'll
put my laws in their mind if no there's no if there is not
a single one and i'll write them in their hearts they're going
to know my word they're going to rejoice in my truth my gospel
and i will be to them a god And they shall be to me a people
if, no, it's just going to be that way. You see how it's different
than the first one? You regarded not my covenant
before, but in this one, there's nothing for you to regard not.
You're just going to get it. You're just going to receive
his blessing because Christ died for you. And they shall not teach
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know
the Lord. In the old covenant, they had to pass down, this is
what God said. You know why you're not gonna
do that? It's not that we won't teach our children the truth
of the gospel, that's not what he's saying, but what he's saying
is this, how you're gonna find out about me is not from a man,
but I'm gonna teach you who I am. You're gonna know me. How are
we gonna know you, Lord? They shall all be taught of God,
the prophet said. They shall all be taught of God.
That's how we find out about him, not because of the preacher,
because of God. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you, Peter, but my father, God's gonna teach. He said, ah,
for all shall know me. They're all gonna know, you're
all gonna know me. The children of promise are gonna
know me. The children of the covenant, they're gonna know
me because Christ bought it for them. Christ obtained it for
them. Christ bestows it upon them.
Verse 12, for I will be merciful. You find that for me in the first
covenant. You find anything in the first
covenant for me that has anything to do with mercy. Oh, God said,
you broke the first one. You regarded not my covenant,
but I'm going to have mercy on you. That's why we call it the
covenant of grace. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. You find me an if anywhere in
there. You find me anywhere in there
where you're going to do anything, I'm going to receive. In that
he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Aren't you
glad? Free from the law. Oh, happy
condition. Jesus hath bled and there's remission.
Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
King David said, although my house be not so with God, yet
he hath made with me. You think of the condescending
grace. He didn't make this covenant
with my family, David said, but he made it with me. He made with
me an everlasting covenant. And it's ordered in all things
and sure it's not contingent upon me. It's not waiting on
me to perform. It doesn't expect anything of
me. It's already been proven that I can't deliver anything.
It's already ordered by God in all things and sure. And David
got to thinking about that and he said, this is all my salvation.
What he did is all my salvation and it's all I want. It's all
my desire. Amen. Let's bow in prayer.