Alright, turn back with me now
to the book of Romans, the 9th chapter. Romans chapter 9. I want to talk to you a little
while this morning about the children of the promise. Here in chapter 9 on that subject,
children of the promise, that's what the believer is. He's a
child. of promise, or the child of the
promise. Everything that this book has
to say, everything it has to say from Genesis to Revelation, is by way of promise. It's by
way of promise. He said, the woman's seed. What was that, John? That was
a promise. all throughout the Old Testament,
one right after the other, promises, promises, promises. Turn with
me over to 2 Peter chapter 1. Everything that this book has
to say in the way of the believer and concerning the salvation
of his soul comes by way of promise. You will find it from the beginning
of the book all the way through. all the way through. Even the
coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, he said,
this is that which he promised. You know what he said? The promise.
He told them, he said, you go to Jerusalem and you tarry there
until the promise comes. The promise. Everything that
God has for the believer comes to him by way of promise. Now,
look here in 2 Peter 1, verse 2. This is Paul's greeting to
the people, and he said, Grace and peace be multiplied unto
you through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. Now, this is how faith comes.
You'll find the Apostle Paul. You'll find the Apostle John.
You'll find the Apostle Peter. Whenever they greet men, whenever
they're talking about the faith of God's elect, they're going
to talk about this knowledge of God and this knowledge through
Christ. Because that's where faith is
born. Faith is knowing. Faith ain't
a feeling. Faith is not an experience. Faith
is knowing. Knowing. Brought to know something
that you didn't know before. Brought to see something that
you never saw before. Born again, Peter says over in
his other book, he says, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. Grace and peace comes to us through
the knowledge of God. He said this is eternal life
over in John 17. This is eternal life, that they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
sent. So you see where Peter is going
with this? He is talking about knowledge. Look at verse 3, 2
Peter 1. According as his divine power,
authority, Godhead, hath given unto us all things that pertain
unto life, and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue." Through the knowledge of God,
that's what he stated back there in verse 1. And through the knowledge
of Christ, verse 2, to see the glory of Christ and the virtue
of his person. Now, watch this in verse 4, "...whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises." that
by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." The
children of God are children of the promise. Now, in 2 Peter
chapter 1 verse 4 that I just read you, he uses the word in
its plural sense, and he says, Great and precious promises. Promises, plural. But in Romans
chapter 9, he uses the word singular, and he calls us children of the
promise. You take all the promises in
the Scriptures, all the promises, the promises of predestination
and election, the promises of justification, the promises of
a calling, the promises of the sending of the Spirit, all those
promises, and you hang them on a chain and put them around the
neck of Christ. and he is the promise. You see
what I'm saying? Peter is talking about all these
promises that God gave us. They are all in Christ who is
the promise. He is the promise. Now, turn
with me to Galatians chapter 3. All of the promises of God
are contained in the one promise, which is Christ. All of these
promises, sanctification, wisdom, redemption, justification, reconciliation,
all these things, all kinds of promises, all in the one promise. Listen to this over in Galatians
chapter 3. Now, what he's dealing with here
in Romans chapter 9, I just read it to you a few moments ago,
is his heart's desire and prayer to God. He had a burden of heart
for the natural for his natural kinsmen, for these folks who,
he said, I bear them witness over in chapter 10, they have
a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge. They had all these
things, and he names them here in Romans 9. He names the covenants
and the promises and all these things that was all given to
Jews. God didn't have a prophet that
was a Gentile. They were all Jews, every one of them. And
you can just go on and on and on throughout the Old Testament.
And you see that he didn't go over to the Hittites and establish
a temple. Who did he give the temple to?
The tabernacle to? The Ark of the Testament to?
Who did he give those to? He gave them to Israel. And that's
what Paul said. This burden goes out to them.
They had all these things. They had the oracles of God.
Over in Romans chapter 2, he said, What benefit did they have? I guess it's chapter 3. I'll
get it right in a minute. First part of chapter 3, he said, well,
what benefit did Israel have then? If they're in the same
boat that the Gentiles are in concerning darkness and idolatry,
what benefit did they have being a Jew? He said, much of a way.
But chiefly because unto them was given the oracles of God,
the voice, the outward speakings of God. God came down and revealed
Himself in a particular way to this one little nation. And they
sinned against a greater light than the Gentiles. And that's
why he told them that their curse would be worse than those folks
down there in Sodom and Gomorrah. Because they had greater light.
The more light you have, the greater the sin. You might have been at home and
never even thought about these things. Today you're here and
you're hearing these things. You walk away from these things
today and your sin is way greater than it was before you came through
that door. I'm telling you the truth. Children of God, they're children
of the promise. All these promises, election
and all these things. Now, listen to this over in Galatians
3, verse 16. Here's the beginning. Here's
the old fountainhead of Israel. Now, to Abraham and his seed
were the promises made. These promises that Paul began
this chapter talking about. You see it back here in Romans
9, who are Israelites, verse 4, 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. You see that? Now, to Abraham
and his seed. Talk about Israel. were the promises
made. Now listen, he saith not unto
seeds as of many, but unto thy seed which is Christ's. That's
where these promises are. They're in him. They're in him. And when I sit in my study and
I begin to read and I try to let whatever prejudices I think
about and see and become involved in, I try to put those things
out of my mind and read the Word of God until he impresses something
on my heart. And I couldn't help but being
impressed by this scripture here in Romans chapter 9 where he's
talking about children of the promise. And I don't want to
ever get up here, but I do know this. When I sat in darkness,
that man of God got up behind that pulpit, and he might as
well preach to me. Everybody else could have went
home. That man talked to me. And I'm so glad today that he
did. But right at that time, I was
hot. I thought, now somebody, somebody
got a hold of this preacher and told him everything that we'd
been doing. At one point, I said, Brother Mahan, I said, I think
you come down there during the week and peek in the window to
see what we're saying. He could quote us word for word
what we said, what we believe. Well, I get up here this morning
and preach. I don't want you to feel like
I'm putting my finger in your eye, because I haven't drawn
my sights on you. But if God draws His sights on
you, I can't do anything about that. I can't do a thing about
it. And I don't expect when I get
up here for you to take everything I say and retain everything I
say and take it all home. I wish you could. I hope you
do. I hope you go home and pursue it further. I hope you go home
and milk it for all you can get out of it. But you know, actually,
when God begins a work of grace in a man's heart, He takes this
tiny seed of truth and He sparks an interest. A grain of corn or whatever it
is. And you go out there and you put it in that garden. And
you wait two or three days and you keep going out there and
looking. You keep going out there and looking. Finally, one day,
you see that little bit of green come up out of the ground. And
it begins to unfold. That's that seed. God puts an
interest. He doesn't teach me all this
stuff just like that. As soon as I was born again of
God, I've learned these things over years and years and years.
But I tell you, he put one little grain of interest in there. You know how Henry Mayhem was
born again? He sat in a meeting, pastor in
a church, and Brother Ralph Barnard came there to preach. And for
whatever reason, he said, I'll never know till the day I die
why that man called on me. But he said he pointed right
at me and he said, young man, can you quote Romans 8.28? And he said, Yes, sir. I think
I can. He said, Well, quote it. And he stood up and he said,
All things work together for good to them that love God. And
he sat back down. And he said, Barnard just sat
there like this looking over his glasses. And he said, Don't
you know the rest of it? And so he stood back up and he
said, All things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. And he said that
old man screamed and blew the back doors off that place, and
he cried, Purpose! God does things on purpose. And from that one seed of faith,
he raised up one of the greatest ministers of our day. From that
one little grain of truth. And that's my hope this morning.
I hope that you get a hold of this one little grain of truth.
Children of the promise. Children of the promise. Jesus Christ is the promise of
God. He's given to his children. You
go through the scriptures and you find children of God and
children of disobedience. Children of the light, children
of the day, children of the night. Children of the light, children
of the darkness. What separates men from men, and people from
people, and religion from religion, and truth from deceit is the
promise of God. It's the promise of God. God
took a people and put them in Christ. And when he put them
in Christ, he sanctified that people and separated them from
every other son of Adam. They're different. Their lives
are different. They're different before they're
saved. God has a prevenient grace that goes out into men before
they're saved. He watches over you. I should
have been killed a thousand times before God sent me the troops.
Why wasn't I? Why wasn't I? My dad one time,
he was old and he didn't see too good, and we were letting
him drive, Kind of late spring and been raining and the trees
were just lush and green and these old trees where it rained
on them was kind of hanging down and this old maple tree just
hid that stop sign. He went right through it and
when he did we went right out into the middle of a four lane
highway and we got hit from both sides. Now they could have hit
us straight on, but they didn't. They hit us kind of like that
and we just went spinning. Why didn't they hit us straight
on? Paul said, Who maketh thee to
differ one from another? Who maketh thee to differ? You just look up one day and
hear the truth? Is that what happens? Then you
look back over your life. It's the hand of God. You're
here this morning because you're children of the promise. The
gospel goes out because He promised from eternity, and He's not going
to back up. He's not going to change. He's
not going to be altered. This thing is going to go all
the way. And I've got confidence down here in the backwoods of
Arkansas with this little group that God is going to do something
because He promised that He would. And I'd rather have His Word
than yours, wouldn't you? You'd rather have His Word than
mine. We're going to get into that just a little bit later. Come with me to Matthew 11. I want you to see that what I'm
saying is according to the Word of God. Then you do with it what
you will. Listen to this over Matthew 11,
verse 16. He sent John. I don't need to
go over that. I just preached that in Sunday
school. I taught you that. What he was sent here to do.
the light he was set to point to. He made those declarations. And then the Lord came, and he
began to preach. And finally, the Lord turned
to these Jews here in verse 16, and he said, Whereunto shall
I liken this generation? Now, what he's talking about
is this generation of unbelieving Jews. That's what he's talking
about. They were pleased with nothing.
You couldn't please them. Couldn't please them. He said, Do you like unto
children sitting in the markets, calling to their fellows and
saying, We've piped unto you, and you've not danced? We mourned unto you, and you've
not lamented. He said, I preached to you the
good news. I preached to you the promise.
You weren't affected. You didn't rejoice. You didn't
dance. You didn't celebrate. I sent you the bad news, all
flesh is glass. You wasn't moved, you didn't
mourn, you didn't repent. Unaffected by the word of God,
good or bad. He said for John King, neither
eating nor drinking, he was a separationist. That's what they claimed to be.
That's what them Pharisees claimed to be, separationists. Well,
John came. He was a separationist. He lived
out in the wilderness. He didn't wear their clothes.
He didn't drink their wine. He didn't eat their food. He
didn't visit with them. He didn't do any of those things.
He stayed out there. He did one thing. He pointed
to the light. He pointed to the light. He pictured
the light in his baptism. His whole ministry was about
the light. He said, I sent John to you. I sent John to you. He didn't eat, he didn't drink,
he's a godly man. And then verse 19, the Son of
Man came eating and drinking, and they said, Behold, a gluttonous
man and a winebibber. You couldn't believe it. You
couldn't believe it. What was it that made them upset?
What they said. What they said. See, God had
the same message as Christ. Same message. Same message. They was upset over... The reason
you can't satisfy a religious man is because you're spitting
on his religion all the time. You're talking about a promise
that he doesn't know anything about. You're talking about a
light that he can't see. You're talking about glory he
can't enter into. And he said, just listen to what
he says, "...but wisdom is justified of her children." That's to who
the wisdom is sent. It's sent to children. That's
who hears the promises. That's who receives the promise.
That's who justifies the wisdom of God in Christ. He said, the
soul is Christ, and the good seed, he said, are the children
of the kingdom. Ain't that what he said? Just
go through there. You find it just over and over.
All these things that he did, all these parables that he talked
about, he keeps calling their attention to children, to children. The little children come and
they said, you're going to have to go away. Get away from him.
You're bothering. This is the master. Get away. He said, suffer
the little children to come unto me for such is the kingdom of
God. Except you become as one of these,
you ain't going to enter in. This whole thing is about children. It's about sons, sons of God,
children of the promise. They were chosen, predestinated
to the adoption of children. Paul said, by Jesus Christ to
himself over in Ephesians chapter 1. Oh, as he chose an eternity in Christ
and blessed his whole house in Christ and gave to them according
to the riches of his grace out of the treasure of his own person
all things that pertain unto life and godliness in Christ.
And over in John chapter 1, I hope to get into that next week, as
many as received him To them gave He the power to become sons
of God. That's what happens when you're
born again. God sends His Spirit down and turns on the light.
And all of a sudden, you start crying, Abba, Father. He wakes
you up to the fact that you're a son. You're a son. Children of the promise. Now,
let's go back to Romans 9 and let me see if I can point out
a few things here might stir our hearts up to worship. The first thing here, and this
is probably as far as I'll get this morning, is the difficulty.
There is a difficulty set up here. When Paul finishes naming
off these people and naming off all these promises, all the promises
of God were given to Israel, all these promises were given
to them, the covenants, the prophets, The Word of God, all these things
given to him. And when Christ came, he was
born a Jew. But they rejected him, didn't
they? They rejected him. He came into
the world and they said, we don't want anything to do with him.
They couldn't find anything in common with him. Everything that
they thought and imagined about the living God was contrary to
this man. Everything. Well, now, Paul said, don't that
make the Word of God of none effect? Ain't that what people
are going to say? Ain't that what people are going
to say? Don't people tell you when you preach election, now,
you're making the sacrifice of none effect to these folks out
here. Ain't that what they're saying? What are you going to
do about these promises of God? What are you going to do? Paul,
he was in the same boat we're in. He was preaching to the same
people we preach to. Same nature. They had the same
nature that they have today, the same questions, the same
arguments, the same everything. And he said, not as though the
Word of God was of none effect. It's not of none effect. I tell you, you go through the
Old Testament, you can see the prejudice of God concerning Israel,
especially down there in Egypt. He said he sent fire mingled
with hail, and it fell on every living soul. It fell out there
in the field, and it killed the beast and the farmer, and it
killed the servants of the king. It just fell and began to smoke
every green thing on the face of the earth, except in Goshen. Who was in Goshen? Israel. Ain't nothing fell over there.
It was just green and pretty. Ain't no hail fell over there.
And all these curses of God that fell on Egypt, none of them went
to Goshen. You can see the prejudice of
God in Israel all throughout the Old Testament. They were sons of Israel, and
Jacob blessed these twelve sons, these twelve tribes. God raised
them up to be a great nation. And Paul said, To them pertaineth
the adoption." God called them His children. They were children
of Israel. Children of Israel. And they
had the glory. They had the ark of the testament.
They had the oracles of God. They had the covenants and the
giving of the law and the service of God and the promises. They
had a prophet. All these prophets, Moses, Ezekiel,
all these prophets. And he said, they are the fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, all down through time. All these
men, they had all these, the prophets, and of whom as concerning
the flesh Christ came. And you find all these promises,
these promises that men take for granted today, these promises
that they say are universal promises and apply to all men. This affection
that they say is a universal affection, a universal love.
Smile, God loves you. They just spit that out at random
to fit every man, woman, and child in the universe. You won't
find that in the Old Testament. I'm telling you, when that high
priest got ready to enter into the Holy of Holies and make atonement
for their sins, Their names, the names of the twelve tribes
of Israel, was inscribed on his breastplate and on his shoulders. And he bore them up before God. Those Hittites, he didn't make
atonement for them. Them Georgiansites, Canaanites,
and all the otherites, he didn't make atonement for them. Who
did he make atonement for? Israel. Israel. And you keep finding those promises
of God throughout the Old Testament. They're to Israel. To Israel. To Israel. Well, he came. Israel wouldn't have
anything to do with him. Doesn't that make the promises
and the covenants and the Word of God of none effect? Doesn't
it make it of none effect? Paul said it doesn't. He said
it doesn't. But religion says that it does.
I've listened to them take these very things, these very things
I'm talking to you about this morning, and say, well, even
in Israel, God gave these promises, but those promises were of no
effect because they turned their back. Have you ever heard them
say that? I've heard them say it. Take these precious promises
that God gave in the Old Testament, and because Israel rejected the
Christ, say that these things were done in vain. These promises
were made in vain, and they were all dependent on whether or not
Israel. So now, today, the same thing they try to apply. You
see where I'm going with this thing? They try to apply it. That's your unbelief. It makes
the efficacy of the sacrifice just a failed attempt. We live
in a world of established religion. We live in a day when this world
rejects and gives its approval that all these organized denominations
represent and identify themselves with the living God. That's what
they say. That's what they say. But they all agree on one thing
in common. Like Israel of old, they cannot
find anything in the Lord Jesus Christ to identify with the promise
of God. They just can't do it. They're
not just wrong on a few points. They've missed Him. They've missed
Him. Brethren, the difficulty in the
appearance of Israel to the world. Now watch this over here in Romans
9.6. Not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are
of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. What this
world identifies as Israel is not the Israel of God. I'd like
for you to turn with me back again to the book of Galatians.
Just put a marker there or something. We'll probably spend the balance
of our time right here in Galatians. The Jews had a history. They had famous men. Abraham.
You go down here and just go door to door. Do you know who
Abraham was? Oh, yeah. Everybody knows him.
They had famous men. They are still famous today.
These men have been dead for 4,000 years. They are still known
today. These were famous men. They had
undeniable impact on the world. They went into Canaan with a
handful and took over. God delivered them out of Egypt.
They didn't have a weapon in their hands. He said, so complete
is my delivery of you out of bondage, out of the bondage of
Egypt. When you leave, you're not only going to have a great
wealth, you're not only going to take all the spoils of Egypt
with you, but not even a dog is going to bark at you when
you leave. Read it. Not even a dog is going to...
He's just going to sit there and wag his tail and watch you
walk out of town. That's power, isn't it? That's
God's deliverance. That's God's deliverance. These
Jews had a history. They made an impact, undeniable
impact on the world. They had visible evidence by
the way of prophets and law and priesthood and services, and
God would bless them in the battle. They went into Canaan with a
handful and booted out those nations. They didn't have a weapon
in their hand when they left Egypt, but God drowned those
Egyptians in the sea and the stuff washed up on the beach.
And they just went out and picked up the swords, picked up the
weapons, everything they needed, laying right there on the beach.
They didn't have to make anything. They didn't have to invent anything.
You see what I'm saying? They had a history. And people
look back over that history and it's undeniable. Their impact
on the world, their moral tenor of life, all these things made
a worldwide impact. Two thousand years has passed
since our Lord came on this earth. Try to get somebody, anybody,
to say something negative against Israel and watch what happens.
Don't say nothing against Israel. Why not? Oh, you'd be talking
about God. You'd be talking against God.
Huh? Now, I'm going to show you in
a minute where I'm going with this thing. What happens today
when you stand up and say something about religion? Huh? They've been around now for 2,000
years, and they've had special impacts on the world, and they've
had all these special things. And you can't deny they go down
here and they build hospitals in His name, and they visit the
sick, and they do all these things, and they seem like good folks.
And you say something negative about it, uh-oh, you're talking
against God now, huh? You're talking against God. Can you see the parallel? Look
here in Galatians chapter 3. Paul said, he therefore that
ministered, verse 5, to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles
among you, talking about the Spirit of God. Does he do that
by the works of the law? Some of you sat in religion over
the years. They got up and they preached
the Ten Commandments at you, and they said, you've got to
do this, and you have to do that, and they threatened you with
the law, and they threatened you with hell, and they told
all these things, and they throwed the law at you and beat you over
the head with it for years and years and years. Did it ever
affect the change in you? No. No. It didn't affect the
change at all. That's what he's saying here.
Did all your days and experiences under the law, under the teaching
of it and the threatening of it, under the promise of it,
ever bring about an inward change of mind and heart? Or did that
change in power and motive come by the carrying of faith? Do
you see where he is going with this? Now listen, verse 6, Even
as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, Counted to him as an obeyed law. Counted to him as a law honored
and loved and fulfilled. He believed God. Know ye therefore, verse 7, that
they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. Now, stay with me. Verse 8, And the Or seeing, having
this in mind when they were written. If I had time this morning, I'd
show you that on the book of Peter. These old prophets, they
inquired, he said, of what people and what time these things that
were given to them to write, who this was for, and to whom
it was revealed that not unto them, but unto us were these
things given. That's what he's talking about
right here. The scripture foresaying, having this in mind when it was
written, that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations
be blessed. So they which be of faith are
blessed with faithful Abraham. Turn one page over to chapter
4. Galatians chapter 4, verse 22. Abraham had two sons. You all know the story. God promised
him he was going to bless all the nations of the world. I just
read it to you over here. Abraham. God gave him the promise,
John. Here it is. Well, time went past. And some more time went past.
And they started getting old. And Sarah said, well, I'll tell you what we better
do. I've got this handmaid named Hagar. Maybe this is how God
is going to work this thing out. I'm going to give you her to
be your wife, and you take Hagar, the servant girl, and you go into her, and God
will use her seat. And so He did. And a boy was
born, his name was Ishmael. He had two sons. Now Abraham
had a lot of sons, but Paul is calling two of them out. He's
talking about Ishmael and he's talking about Isaac. Now watch
this. Abraham had two sons. The one
by bondmaid, a servant girl. You go back and read it in the
Old Testament. She was sold into bondage. sold into bondage because
of a debt she couldn't pay. That's what she was doing there.
She had to work off the debt. And she could never do it. All
right? Because of a debt she couldn't
pay. The other, he said, by a free woman. Now, he of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. Abraham and Sarah talked it over,
reasoned it out. The only logical way we can do
this for me to give you Hagar." So Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham
to be his wife, and she had a son whose name was Ishmael. Ishmael's
relationship to Abraham was solely based on the flesh. He had a
fleshly inheritance, he had a fleshly name, he had a fleshly relationship,
he had a fleshly love. Ishmael. His coming into being
was because of fleshly reasoning and logic, his being was the
result of man's will. I'm going to have a son. Don't
wait on Thomas, I'm going to have his son. Verse 23, But he
of the free woman, Sarah, by Thomas, was against all hope. God waited till he was past the
age and she was past the age, and they were both past the passion.
You can read about it over there in Genesis. It was against all
reason, against all logic, against everything in nature. Nothing
to go on but the word of God. He said, verse 24, which things
are an allegory. Do you see that? They happen
for a reason. For these are the two covenants,
the covenant of the law, depending on your obedience. Human reasoning
and the flesh and the covenant of grace ordained, ordered up
in all things and sure. Now, he said, The one from Mount Sinai gendereth
to bondage. That's Hagar and her son Ishmael.
Gendereth to bondage. Now, watch this and listen close.
Verse 25. Agar, or Hagar, is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and it answereth, and what that means is it's connected
to. That's what answereth means.
It's connected to. It's right beside. Right beside
Jerusalem. Jerusalem is here. Over here
in Arabia is Mount Sinai. Geographically connected. That's
what he's pointing out here. joined to Jerusalem, which now
is and is in bondage to her children. Geographically, it's joined to,
and is in a metaphorical sense, a picture of that union of natural
religion. It's forever united with the
law, and I don't care what it is. It don't have to be even
a Christian religion. There's only two religions in
this earth, works and grace. I'm telling you the truth. Works
and grace, that's all it is. I don't care what they worship.
They can worship a frog for all I care, it doesn't matter. But
whoever worships that frog, their righteousness depends on something
they do. You ask them. You read about
it. I don't care what religion it is. But you especially see
it in evangelical Christian religion. It's a picture of the union of
natural religion. It's all based on law, which
at its best leaves you in bondage with your children. That's what
he tells us. You see what he's saying here? It leaves them with a debt they
cannot pay. I don't care who Hagar was and
who she married. She was sold into slavery and
she's in bondage. It never gets any better, it
never delivers, it never receives the promises of God. Verse 26,
But Jerusalem, which is above, that is joined with Christ in
an everlasting union, quickened together with him, and raised
together with him, seated with him in the heavens. Do you see
the difference? free from the law, free from
death, free from judgment, free from condemnation, free from
the bondage of a fallen nature and the curse of Adam. Jerusalem
above is free," and he said, she's the mother of Saul. All that believe. The church elect in Christ by
the everlasting promise of God is the mother of all them that
believe. Now listen to this, verse 28. Now we brethren, as
Isaac was, are children of the promise. But as then, he that
was born of the flesh persecuted him that was born of the Spirit,
even so it is now. He's jealous of the inheritance.
He's jealous of it. He tries to take it by his own
power. and he is willing to do anything to get it. Nevertheless, what
says 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. In verse 7 he says, Neither because
they are the seed of Abraham, as Ishmael was, are they all
children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise. Those given to him, blessed in
him, born of him, justified by him, glorified with him, are
counted for the seed. Now, what's the conclusion of
these things? Well, I'm going to move on down
to verse 16. I read to you a while ago all
these things that he said. He talked about Rebekah and Isaac
and all these things. Here in verse 16 he says, So
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. God gives the promise. God keeps
the promise. God makes the promise known.
children of the promise. And then down in verse 23, he
said, And that he might make known the riches of his glory
on the vessels of mercy, which he had aforeprepared unto glory,
even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles. May God be pleased to reveal
that to our hearts.