In this world there are only
two types of people and only two types of religion.
Despite all the nations, all the multitudes, all the different
tribes, all the different colors, despite the multitude of religions
which have sprung up over time throughout this world, The variant
beliefs and superstitions, traditions, all comes down to there being
simply two seeds in this world, two great nations as it were,
two offspring with two religions. There is that birth, that offspring,
which finds its original father in the first man, Adam. And there is that birth, that
offspring, which has as its father, God the Spirit. There are either sons of God
or sons of the devil. And there are either those whose
religion comes from above, those who have tasted and known of
the grace of God, or those whose religion is from
below, who seek to appease their God through their own works and
their own efforts and their own will. For all the claims of all
the religions, everything distills down to this. Your religion either
depends upon your works, your wisdom and your will, by which
you seek unto righteousness and unto eternal life. Or your religion
is that by which you confess that you are but a sinner by
nature, with no righteousness, no ability, no wisdom. whose will is set against God
and that all your hope and all your salvation lies entirely
in what God has done for you by grace through his son the
Lord Jesus Christ. You're either born of the flesh
of Adam or you're born of God, born again. Now this point is
of course what Paul opens chapter four of Galatians with. That
those who believe in Jesus Christ as the Galatians had when they
heard the gospel and when by the power of God through that
gospel the spirit quickened them unto life, when he took them
out of the darkness and the death in which they were born, out
of the superstition and corruption of their heathen ways, out of
the darkness in which they lived, and brought them unto the light,
when he brought them to hear the sound of the truth as it
concerned Jesus Christ, when they were brought to see what
they were by nature, and the judgment which awaited them.
And when with rejoicing they heard of a Saviour, even the
Son of God, who took that judgment and swallowed it up, and in his
death upon the cross blotted out all their sins, that he might
deliver them from darkness into light, that he might bring them
into everlasting life. When they heard that, God gave
them faith to believe it. And when they believed it, they
discovered that not only were they sons of Adam by nature,
not only were they as all others, born physically in this world,
descended originally from the first man and the first woman
created by God, not only were they of natural descent, but
they came to discover as faith looked up unto God, their heavenly
Father, that they were now of spiritual descent. They were
sons of God, born of the Spirit. And God had sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into their hearts that they could now cry out,
Abba, Father. You see, there was a time when
they were as servants, natural men as all others. sinners under
the law, under the wrath of God, under the judgment of the law
of God which in its description of righteousness found them all
out to be wanting. As Gentiles they may have been
without any knowledge of the law of God, without any knowledge
of that law that was given to the Jews of old time. But their
conscience by nature told them right from wrong, and the work
of the law in their hearts condemned them. And by nature they were,
as it were, servants in bondage. But all the time, even in that
state, and before ever they were born, in God's eyes, they were
children of God. chosen in Christ from all eternity,
that in the fullness of time at his appointed hour, they should
come to hear the gospel, they should be born again, and that
they should discover that they had another birth, they were
of another offspring, another seed, that they were sons, but
they were sons of God. So though their end might be
the adoption of sons of a Heavenly Father. Though as they were,
they may be Lord of all, as Paul says in verse one. Nevertheless,
in their childhood, in that time before they came to hear the
gospel, in that time before God came upon them and brought them
to life, in as it were their childhood, they were as it were
servants, kept under the law of God, kept in bondage. await in that hour when God would
reveal what he had done for them. But there came a time for these
Galatian believers there came a time for these Galatians when
they should hear the gospel and when hearing they should believe
and they should come to know that they are sons. And yet at Galatia these who
were sons of God These who were no longer servants, these who
were no longer in bondage, had been influenced by this teaching
which came from Judea. This teaching which brought back
the law of God. This teaching which brought these
freeborn sons back into bondage. This teaching which said, well
you must not neglect God's law. You may be a son of God, you
may have believed in Christ, you should still live righteously.
And embracing what seemed right, in embracing what seemed wise,
they put themselves in bondage again. So Paul asks in verse 8 of chapter
4, how be it then Though you are a son of God, an heir of
God through Christ, though this is true of you, how be it then,
when you knew not God, and did service unto them which by nature
are no gods? But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, how now, how turn you again to
the weak and beggly elements, whereunto ye desire again to
be in bondage? Why are you doing this? You were
in bondage, you were in darkness, you were superstitiously serving,
undying idols of your own making. But you've come to see the darkness
of all these things. You've come to the light, you've
heard the gospel, you're born again. You're now known of God
and you know God. You have faith. Then why now
are you turning again to that which brings you back in bondage?
You observe days and months and times and years. You say I must
do this then and that another time. I must be careful about
this and careful about that. And you strive and you labour
in your own strength as though God isn't there to lead you aright. You put yourself in bondage.
I am afraid of you, Paul says, lest I have bestowed upon you
labor in vain. Brethren, I've preached the gospel
unto you, I've spent time with you, I've shown you the grace
of God. Is it all in vain? Have I spent
many hours preaching the truth unto you for you then to just
to put it all to one side and to turn again to this error? Brethren I beseech you be as
I am for I am as you are. I'm just the same as you. I am
a sinner saved by grace just as you. I'm a man just as you. And yet I'm not under the law
as you seek to be. You know how through infirmity
of the flesh I preach the gospel unto you at the first. my temptation
which was in my flesh ye despised not nor rejected but you received
me as an angel as a messenger of God even as Christ Jesus.
Where is then the blessedness you spake of? You had a great
love for me, you knew that I was just a man, you knew that I had
temptations in my flesh as you do, you saw my weakness You saw
my frailty and yet you received me as though I was an angel.
You received the gospel from me gladly. You rejoiced in it,
you loved it. Then what has happened? Where
is then the blessedness you spake of? For I bear you record that
if it had been possible you would have plucked out your own eyes
and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy
now because I tell you the truth now? These others they zealously affect
you but not well they would exclude you that you might affect them
and it's good to be zealously affected but only in a good thing not only when I am present with
you it's good that you should be zealous it's good that you
should strive for righteousness it's good that you should seek
to do what is right but it's not good if you embrace error.
My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be
formed in you I desire to be present with you now and to change
my voice for now I stand in doubt of you. So here from verse 8 to verse
20, Paul declares his great concern for these, for these children,
for these whom he has preached the gospel unto, for these whom
he has seen converted, brought to faith under his ministry.
He has a great burden, a great love for them. They are, as it
were, his children. Not that he brought them to life.
It is God through the gospel who brought them to life. But
as God's servant, as a preacher, he had such a labor, such a love
for his hearers, that he, as it were, travailed in birth.
He's had the pains of preaching, the pains of initially seeing
the hardness of people's face when he preached the gospel to
them. When you come and you preach this gospel to an evil and a
dark world, man's first reaction is to hate the message, to despise
it. You declare the truth of God
and the truth of man's rejection of God. You declare man's state
by nature, his enmity against God, the darkness in which he
is living. the hardness of his heart, the
corruption of his heart, his evil way. You declare the judgment
and the wrath of God to come upon such who remain in such
a state. And man's reaction is to look
upon you with hatred, to despise and to reject. Paul knew the
pain of going before those who would stone him, would have him
delivered up to the authorities as many others were, who would
have him put to death perhaps. He knew what it was to live in
days of great persecution where the preaching of the gospel could
be met with death. He knew the pain but he knew the joy in seeing
some who might initially reject have their eyes opened and come
to believe on Jesus Christ. The travail he went through,
the labour he went through, the perseverance he had to declare
the gospel, to preach it faithfully, to not be turned, to be not be
influenced by fear, by the fear of man, to not be influenced
by the means and the wisdom of man which might tell him to soften
his message down or to use this means or that means to win over
his hearers. He knew the travail of standing
fast in the truth and suffering for Christ's sake that his hearers
might hear the truth in purity and might receive it and might
believe it. And he came through that travail
to see believers come to life, to see those who were once unbelievers,
to see those who were once in darkness come to the light and
believe on Jesus Christ. He saw these sons of Adam, born
again from above. He saw the work of God, the work
of grace in them. He had travailed. And now he
comes to them again, as it were, having to start again. For they
turned from the grace of God in the gospel. They turned from
that which brought them unto life. They turned through this
subtle deception back to that from which they came. They had
been servants. They are now sons. And yet these
teachers had come back in again to make them servants once more. to subtly deceive them through
a way that seemed right but a way that led them away from life
back unto death. A way which promised life but
brought death. A way which promised righteousness
through the law but only stirred up sin in their hearts. A subtle
deception. And Paul looks upon these for
whom he had once travailed. And he says, have I bestowed
upon you labour in vain? Is it all for nothing? I look
upon you now and I hear what you're doing and I hear what
you're saying and I see the bondage you've put yourself under. You
think you're serving God and yet you've turned from the gospel.
You think this is the way to maintain righteousness. And yet
all I see in your hearts is more sin being stood up. All I see
in you is the pride of man. All I see in you is this judgmental
nature against those whom once you would have been full of forgiveness
for. Forgiving others as you yourselves
have been forgiven. I see this nature developing
in you that has ceased to be that which comes from the grace
in the gospel. and which is simply a stirring
up again of that which comes from the flesh. I stand in doubt
of you. So he uses a certain voice, a
stern voice, a voice of rebuke here in Galatians, a strong epistle. Who have bewitched you? Oh foolish
Galatians, have you suffered so many things in vain? Receive ye this spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith. What has become of
you? But he would love to change his
voice. He longs to receive them back again as those who have
turned from error back to the grace of the gospel. He longs
to correct them. He seeks, he travails again that
Christ may be formed in them. He travails again. He'll do everything
he can to deliver them from this terrible error, this terrible
error which they have embraced. Everything he can. Oh, can you
see his concern? Can you see his concern here? And can you see why he's so concerned? This is no trifling matter. Mixing law, mixing works with
the gospel in any shape or fashion is no trifling matter. And yet it's so easily done. So easily done. And so many believers
throughout history, even to this day, especially in this day,
stand just where these Galatians are. Just where these Galatians
are. deceived, bewitched, fooled. And Paul says of the Galatians,
and he says through this epistle unto believers today who have
mixed their works with the gospel. who have mixed works with grace,
who have turned back to the law, whether they seek to be justified
by it or sanctified by it, it makes no difference if you turn
back to the law or to works or to any legal corruption of the
gospel. The effect is the same, it brings
in darkness and death. And Paul, as it were, to this
generation, stands up with this same voice, says I stand in doubt
of you. Are you a child of God or are
you not? Were you truly born again or
were you not? Did you hear this gospel or did
you not? Where do you stand? Why are you
so deceived? If you are saved by grace if
when in darkness and death you could do nothing you could lift
up not one finger to save yourself if the work had to be entirely
of God as it had to be and as it was if that's how you began
if faith came through the if the spirit came through the hearing
of faith if life came when you heard the gospel by faith then
why do you turn back to the law? Why do you go back? The way you
started is the way you will finish. If it began by grace it will
be completed by grace. If grace is what brought you
out of nothing then now, now that you have been given faith,
it will continue to be grace. It will continue to be grace
which strengthens you, which leads you, which guides you.
If it is God that did everything to bring you to life, then do
you not think that he will do everything to bring you into
glory to come? What is this foolishness that
turns you to add something of your own to what he has done?
Why do you think you can mix these things? Why do you think
you need to mix these things? Tell me. Tell me. You that desire to be under the
law, do you not hear the law? Listen to it. You speak of it,
you speak of its need. You say the law must be our rule. The law must be our guide. You
bring your subtleties, you say oh we don't seek to be saved
by it, no we're not that foolish. But surely it's our guide, surely
it's that which will govern our pathway. We've got faith in Christ
but the law's gonna guide our life now that we look unto Christ. We have Christ but we must look
unto the law also to teach us how to walk. Well tell me then
you that know so much of the law. Tell me you that have such
wisdom in these matters. You that desire to be under the
law. Don't you hear it? Listen to the law, listen to
what it says, listen to what the Old Testament says, the entirety
of that law. Not just the law as it was given
at Sinai but the whole context, the whole giving of it. Listen
to the types and figures given in the Old Testament. Do you
not hear them? Do you not understand them? Do
you not know what was being told you from the beginning? These
Jews come to you These custodians of the law, these who are so
wise and so knowledgeable and they take you back to the Old
Testament, they tell you it's not all gone. Well do they know
what they're telling you? And do you understand what they're
telling you? Do you understand that Old Testament
that they'll take you back to? For that law, that Old Testament
in itself will tell you that salvation is by grace, not by
works. That there are two seeds, that
there are two suns, that there are two births, and that having
been born of that birth which is from above, you cast out that
which is from below. listen to the Old Testament,
listen to the law and learn. So here Paul again takes us back
to Abraham. He brought Abraham to our minds
in chapter 3. He reminded the Galatians there
that God justified Abraham not because of his works not because
of anything he had done, not when he was circumcised, but
before. Abraham believed God and it was
accounted to him for righteousness. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. He took them back to the beginning,
he took them back to their forefather. He took them back to that one
whom the Jews looked upon as their natural father from which
the nation of Israel had sprung. And he reminds them that it's
not your natural descent from Abraham which makes you a child
of Abraham. It's not whether you're of a
natural origin or a natural birth as these Jews prided themselves
in. but it's whether you have that
spiritual birth that Abraham had. For he was born from above
and he had faith which God gave him to hear the gospel, to look
to the gospel, to believe the gospel and to rest in the gospel.
And that's the birth that you have as a child of God. That's what makes you of the
faith of Abraham, of the seed of Abraham. That's what saves
you. not your natural descent so here
in chapter 4 he returns to Abraham and he brings them another reminder
of Abraham for they go into the law they speak of that law that
came from Sinai well do they not understand the covenant from
Sinai and do they not understand the covenant which comes from
Jerusalem above and do they not understand the pictures and the
types and the allegories of the Old Testament that distinguish
the two and make it plain that these two things are completely
separate that they have completely different roles completely different
ends they cannot be mixed. Let us consider what he says
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 bond woman
was born after the flesh 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. For this Agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and Antareth 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 have many more
children than she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. For 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 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. We read here of two sons with
two mothers And we read of two covenants
and two mountains. The one son is the son of promise. The other is the fruit of the
works of Abraham. These things are an allegory.
They really came about in Abraham's life. He had two sons, Ishmael
and Isaac. One by Hagar. one by Sarah as
promised by God when he gave Abraham that promise before ever
Agar, Bear, Ishmael under Abraham. One by promise, one by works. These things came about as an
allegory They weren't simply an historical matter, something
private to the life of Abraham. They were given right there at
the beginning, right at the start of the nation of Israel. Long
time, 430 years and more before the giving of the law at Sinai,
before Jacob and his children the 12 sons went down into Egypt
before they multiplied into a great nation before they were delivered
hundreds of years later from bondage in Egypt and were brought
out across the Red Sea before Moses went into the mount and
had this law given to him by God. Before any of these things
came to pass the whole thing was pictured in an allegory in
these two sons which Abraham had. And this allegory points
us essentially to two ways to heaven. The one son and the other son.
The one by promise and the other by works. Likened unto two covenants. One
from Sinai and one from Jerusalem above. One from Mount Zion. Two covenants, two mounts, two
ways unto God. Why mountains? Because the mountain
is the meeting place of heaven and earth. The mountain is that place, that
highest height upon this earth which you may go to reach as
it were unto heaven, and where heaven as it were comes down
and reaches unto earth. If you ever go into the high
mountains, often the clouds encircle the mountains. The skies, the
heavens as it were, come down and touch the top of the mountains.
The mountain is that picture of how heaven and earth meet. And here we have two mountains
in this allegory, two ways in which heaven and earth meet. Two meeting places between God
and man. two mounts, contrasted, for each
mount stands for a different way of reaching under God, a
different pathway, a different way of seeking to enter into
heaven, a different way of reaching under God. One through our own
strength, one by works, one through man and the other entirely by
God. For Sinai has to do with that
which is prescribed for man that he must do if he is to be delivered
from death. That he must do if he ever wishes
to seek God by his own strength. At Sinai God came down unto Moses
and said write these things down and take them before the children
of Israel. and tell them how they must be. And the Israelites when they
heard what Moses read out, those 10 commandments, the law, said
all that the Lord God has commanded we will do. And all that the Lord God had
commanded, they never did. For what the Lord God commanded
was an impossibility. for those who are born of Adam,
those who are sinners, those who are rebels by nature, those
like you and me, an impossibility to do. It promises righteousness. It promises, as it were, a means
of going up into heaven. But that covenant given at Sinai
was never given with the expectation that any should enter heaven
by its means. God gave it to show us our sin,
to prove us our sin and to show us that we will never get to
heaven through that mount and its covenant and its law. Yes, there was a covenant given
at Sinai as pictured in the allegory of
these two children and these two mothers as pictured by Hagar
and Ishmael figurative of Sinai and that covenant of Sinai a
covenant of works do this and thou shalt live don't do this
and thou shalt die thou shalt surely die Well none of us have
done anything of what that law commanded. Not consistently,
not every day. We might outwardly avoid doing
some of those things it prohibits but inwardly we break every sin
every day by nature. Covenant of works. You do and
this is the reward. But there's this other covenant
from another mount, Mount Zion which has no demand of works
on our part. This other covenant that recognises
that man is dead and he is lost and he has no strength and no
ability. another covenant where all the
conditions are met by God. For the covenant is made between
God and his Son and the Spirit of God. It's what God would do
to deliver those who are the recipients of the blessings of
this covenant. There is another covenant, a
covenant of grace, a new covenant A covenant which has nothing
to do with the works of man, but all to do with the grace
of God. All which is freely made known. That covenant which is
from Zion, Jerusalem above. Two covenants, two ways. The
one way never took anyone to heaven. The other way takes all
those who are saved. into everlasting glory with a
certainty for all its conditions are met by God and as God he
cannot and he has not failed. But before that law was ever
given at Sinai before the allegory of the mount before the mount
might be made known and its covenant made on that mount There was
this allegory of the two sons born unto Abraham of the bondmaid
and the free woman. This allegory long before which
pointed unto these two covenants and long before by which Abraham
learnt the terrible consequences of turning from the promise in
the gospel unto the works of man. For God had met with Abraham. God had called him out of Ur
of the Chaldees. God had made a promise to Abraham
that he would bear a son. He would have a seed and through
that son he would become the father of a great nation. And
that nation would have an inheritance to come, a great land which would
be theirs forevermore. He'd heard the gospel. This promise
was the gospel that God preached unto Abraham. And God promised
it unto him. God said unto Abraham, I will
do these things for you. I will do them. I will bring
them to pass. God expected nothing of Abraham. He simply called him to believe
it. He said, I will do this. and
Abraham believed and it was counted to him for righteousness. Before
ever Isaac was born, Abraham had heard the gospel promising
his birth. Before ever Ishmael was born,
Abraham had heard the gospel. He'd heard the gospel, he'd believed
the gospel, he knew the promise But having heard this heavenly wisdom
and this heavenly promise, when he spake to his wife Sarah of
what should come to pass, that she would bear a son, the wisdom of man began to enter
in. The wisdom of man. They began
to reason. They knew what God had promised.
They'd heard the gospel. They knew what God had promised
them in the gospel. They knew that they had an inheritance
to come. They knew that they would have
this great nation as an offspring. Abraham believed what God said. He knew that what God had promised
would come to pass. He had that faith that the gospel
wrought within him. It wasn't that he turned from
this. It wasn't that he suddenly doubted that God would be true
to his promise. It wasn't that he thought this
could not be. And it wasn't that he had never
yet heard the gospel either. He had heard the gospel. This
is as it were a believer here. who starts turning to wisdom
and starts thinking how can these things come to pass? God has
promised a son, but Sarah's past the age of childbearing. How
could she possibly be the one to bear the son? And yet I know that I will have
a son. And I long to see God's promise fulfilled. I long to
see these things come about. I long to see the will of God
fulfilled. I want to do what's right. I
want to walk right. I want to walk in righteousness.
I want to see the things of God prosper. I believe he's going
to give me a son and I long for this to come about. But it couldn't
possibly be by Sarah, could it? so they devised a scheme and
Sarah gave her husband her handmaid Hagar and said have a son by
Hagar perhaps she's the one to bear
the son of promise and so he did and so the son
was born and this must have seemed so reasonable They'd reasoned
it all out. They brought their own wisdom
into these things. It was so obvious, so elementary. It wasn't that they were ignoring
the will of God. To reason, to wisdom, this was
surely the way the promise would come about. It was common sense,
wasn't it? There was no question about it.
God had promised Abraham a son. Sarah was too old to bear one. There was this handmaid of Sarah's. As it were, it would still be
all official. It would still be Abraham's son.
It would still have the family line. She would be the means
of bearing it. They sought the fulfillment of
the promise. They sought the will of God.
This seemed to be the way to bring it to pass. Abraham and
Sarah's motives were good. He had a good motive, didn't
he? It wasn't that he simply turned aside unto his own things.
It wasn't that unbelief had simply rushed in in the gospel and he
just turned to his own ways and seeking his own things in this
world. unbelief had entered in, in the
sense that he ceased to rest by faith in those things which
seemed impossible. But he still believed in the
promise, it's just that he'd mixed things, he'd mixed his
own works with the grace of God in salvation. It wasn't that
he rejected grace, And it wasn't that he rejected the promise.
But having received the promise, having heard the gospel, having
experienced grace, he thought that surely God now wanted him
to be doing something. Surely they'd been given a brain,
surely they had wisdom to be used. And surely this was the way that
these things would come to pass. No, they hadn't turned completely
away from the things of God. They had a zeal for the things
of God. They had a zeal for the promise. Just like the Jews later
on, who with the law that God gave them to show them their
sin and to drive them unto Christ in the gospel. had stumbled at
that stumbling stone of Christ and him crucified just as they
stumbled and they sought righteousness through the law they had a zeal
as Paul says of them in Romans 10 I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God they're seeking after righteousness not complete
heathens, they're religious, they seek the will of God but
not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. They had a zeal. Abraham had
a zeal. But just as they went about it
the wrong way, Abraham here went about it the wrong way. He sought
righteousness, he sought the fulfilment of the promise. But
he did so according to natural reason, human wisdom. He turned
to the flesh, to his own input, his own reason, his own works. Faith was set to one side and
the will and the wisdom of man came to the fore. Isn't that so often the way?
You see the Galatian error throughout is not blatant. Though it's a grievous error
it's a subtle one, it's an easy one to be entrapped in. because
all those who embrace this error as the Galatians do are still
seeking to be righteous before God. They still want to live
right before God. They still want to see the fulfillment
of the promise. They've heard the gospel, they've
embraced the gospel, they've not thrown it completely to one
side. They've just introduced the wisdom
of man and their own works into the gospel. it's so easy to do well that's what Abraham did
and Ishmael was born of the bondwoman but he was not the son of promise and the consequence of Ishmael's
birth was devastating it brought untold trouble into the household
Hagar despised and mocked Sarah. She despised her because she
was barren. She rejoiced over her. Oh the
trouble that came in, this seemed so sensible, so wise and how
it backfired, how calamitous it was, how tragic. It seemed like it would bring
about the right thing but it only brought trouble. So too
with these two covenants of which these two sons are an allegory.
Sinai and its law seems like it will teach us and guide us
in righteousness. We like Abraham have heard the
gospel. We've embraced the promise. But should wisdom come into things? Should reason come into things
and should we turn to that law from Sinai? as a guide for our
life before God. It has such prospect it appears
like it will bring about righteousness but its effects are devastating.
Puts us straight back into bondage. It flourishes sin in the heart,
it stirs it up, it brings in strife, it brings in pride, it
brings in believers in the church who have turned back unto works,
who lord it over their brethren. who judge one another. It causes
the household of God to be full of strife, full of judging, full
of warfare, full of persecution. The peace which once reigned
amongst the people of God in that family ceases to be. And this pride and this judgmental
nature comes in. Agar laughs and mocks at Sarah
and her children. it's devastating don't be fooled
and don't treat it as a light thing the effects are gradual
When you turn back to works and the law, it's a gradual shift. You think you're walking by faith,
you think you're looking unto Christ. You think you're looking
to Christ and yet trying to keep, live right yourself at the same
time. But gradually, step by step,
hour by hour, day by day, week by week, year by year, your gaze
has ceased to look unto your savior. you're taken up entirely
with self and your own deeds and your own works and you become
increasingly judgmental of those who you feel walk not according
to the path that you feel they should walk by. Why are you not
living this way? Why do you not do these things? Persecution comes in. It's a
dreadful error with a dreadful consequence. but that son by
Agar was never the son of promise. And despite the tragedy that
came in, despite the sin of Abraham and Sarah in turning from promise
and the gospel unto their own wisdom, their own ways, unto
works, despite the consequence, where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Despite what they'd done, God
never gave Abraham up. He didn't say, look, I've promised
you this, but you've turned away from it. You've brought your
own wisdom in it. You thought you'd bring it to pass yourself
rather than resting in me and waiting for my timing. So go
away then. I'll have nothing more to do
with you. He didn't do that. He could have done. Abraham deserved
it, but God had set his love upon Abraham before ever Abraham
stumbled here. And God had made a promise and
he was sure to that promise. He promised Abraham a son by
Sarah. And Sarah, though barren, knocking
on a hundred, dead in the womb, brought forth that child. That
child of promise. That child of grace. That son,
ultimately, in the fullness of time, the picture of the seed,
that one seed to come, that son of God of the line of Abraham,
who would come and would die and would save his own and bring
in all those who were born of God. That woman, the free woman,
gave birth to the free son, the son of promise. Which things are an allegory
of those two covenants? There is a covenant from Sinai
and Agar is the picture of that covenant, the covenant of works. And there's another covenant,
that covenant of grace from Zion which is Antareph to Jerusalem
above, who is free, who is the mother of all believers. For
it's written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break forth
and cry thou that travailest not, for the desolate have many
more children than she which hath an husband. Sarah, though
barren all that time, in the end brought forth this child.
And that mother, that Jerusalem above, that the world and its
religion despises, that it mocks, that it ridicules, that it hates,
in the end. That Mother Above, that Gospel,
that Covenant, that Covenant of Grace brings forth a great
multitude of children. Sons of God, children of promise. Now we Brethren, as Isaac were,
are the children of promise. With what consequence? What's
Paul's conclusion? But as then he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit
even so it is now. What Abraham did brought in tragic
consequences, it brought in persecution. He that was born after the flesh
persecuted the true born son. And so those who are born after
the flesh today, those who have religion of this world, those
whose religion is in works, they hate and they persecute those
who stand fast in the grace of God. They hate those who preach
this gospel. They despise this gospel. Even today they do. antinomian
they call. It will only lead to sin they
say. How can you go that way? How can you say that you're not
under the law? You'll only bring in trouble.
They persecute those who are the children of the Spirit. Nevertheless
what sayeth the scripture? Abraham was told 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. The way to deal
with that trouble that came in the household was plain. There would be no peace whilst
the bondwoman and her son remained. They could not remain in the
same house. And the answer today is the same.
You cannot dally with the law and with works. It's either grace
or its law, grace or works, law or gospel, Adam or Christ, man
or God, your wisdom or God's wisdom, death or salvation. sin or righteousness there is
no righteousness through the law whatever the claim righteousness
is in the gospel so cast out the bondwoman the law and her
son her works for works the son of the bondwoman shall not be
heir with the son of the free woman works will not mix with
grace Brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, we are not
children of the law, we are not the fruit of the law, it begets
death. But if you know Christ, if you
know his gospel, then you are a child of God, a child of grace. And if you were born of grace,
you live by grace, you walk by grace unto the end. cast out
the bondwoman. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage.