Galatians chapter 4 this morning. I pray this will be a blessing
to you as it was to me looking into this passage of Scripture.
This is a passage I've wanted to preach on for a while. You can't always just preach
on something when you want to. But I believe that The Lord has
given me something to say this morning. I was talking to Melinda
last Sunday, I think it was. She had taught the little children
from this passage recently, and I mentioned to her that I was
also studying it. And I thought to myself, how
the Lord works out things like that. Of all the passages in
the Word of God, We're studying along the same lines, and He
brings those things together. And I'm grateful that He does.
There are times for certain messages, aren't there? The Lord said to
His disciples, one time, I have many things to say to you that
you can't bear now. I'll say them to you later, but
not now. And I don't get involved in that. I think it would be
presumptuous and foolish of me to try to figure out when to
preach a certain thing. But the Lord can do that, can't
he? He can cause something to be timely, a message to be timely. I can't tell you how many times
I've preached and had one of you come up to me and say, we
were just talking about that the other day. The Lord's able
to do that. He brings a word in season. and I'm grateful that he does.
Galatians chapter 4 verse 21, Paul is speaking to these Galatian
believers concerning the law and what its true purpose is
in the economy of God's grace to his people. And he asks a
question, tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, That's all
of us by nature. We're going to talk about that.
We desire to be under the law. Why would we do that? Why would
we desire that? We'll see that in a moment. But
Paul says, don't you hear the law? If you desire to be under
the law, I question whether you've heard it or not, whether you
know what the law is truly saying. The Lord Jesus in teaching on
the law spoke this way, you've heard it said, this. And here's how it is. We think
we hear the law. We think that we read the law
of God and say, thou shalt not steal. And say, well, I don't
do that. But the Lord said, if you covet
anything, you've already stolen in your heart. Do you hear the
law? Thou shalt not commit adultery. I've never cheated on my wife.
If you've looked on a woman to lust after in your heart, you've
already committed it. Do you hear the law? Thou shalt
not kill. Well, I've never murdered anybody.
Is that right? The freeways would be covered
with blood, wouldn't they? He said if you hate somebody,
if you're angry against somebody without a cause, you've murdered
them in your heart. Does thou hear the law? There are two religions in this
world. I'm going to say it again for the record. There are two
religions and only two religions in this world, law and grace. They go under many names and
denominations. The one has many disguises designed
to make it appear more true to scripture. There are only two,
law and grace. I say law first because we're
all born under this bondage. And so it comes first in our
experience, doesn't it? Law. The gospel finds every man,
every sinner in bondage and under the law. Galatians 5.1, stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. And
in that context, he's talking about the yoke of bondage being
under the law as a means whereby to please God. saying, I can
keep God's law and He'll be pleased with me. That's a yoke of bondage.
It's a lie. It's a deception that we have
by nature, thinking that we can measure up to God's law. Natural man is not only under
the law, but he loves it. I want you to notice the language
here. Paul said, ye that desire to be under the law. This is
not an intellectual decision that we make to be under the
law. To desire it means literally to will it, to love it, to delight
in it, to take pleasure in it. We take pleasure in being under
the law. So remember that as we think
about this. Our hearts are bound to this
thing of being under the law. Why? Why would you be under the
law? Now, I want to answer that question.
First of all, because we're proud. We're proud robbers of the glory
of God. When Naaman's servants, remember
Naaman the leper in 2 Kings chapter 5? It says in verse 13, his servants
came near and spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet
had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?
How much rather than when he said unto thee, Wash, and be
clean, simply just wash and be clean. Well, I'm not going to
do that. If he'd have given you some great thing to do, you would
have done it. Why? They put their finger on that
man's problem there, didn't they? Pride. If he could, by making
some heroic, noteworthy effort, have been made clean, by completing
some momentous task, Then he could have had some satisfaction
in a sense of accomplishment. Well, look what I did in order
to be made clean. But to simply wash in the river,
to go down into that river and wash is basically just standing
there while the water carried all of his corruption away. 2 Chronicles 20, 17, the Lord said
this, through his prophet, you shall not need to fight in this
battle. children of Israel going down to war. And God said, you
won't need to fight. Well, wait a minute. We're going
to war. How are we going to go to war?
How are we going to make battle without fighting? Stand you still
and see the salvation of the Lord with you. Oh, Judah and
Jerusalem, fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them
for the Lord will be with you. Well, I can't take any credit
in that. Exactly. Exactly. That's how God saves
a sinner. Romans 3, 27. Where is boasting
then? It's excluded. It's excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but
by the law of faith. Paul just answered our question
right there with that verse in Romans 3. Did you hear it? Why
would we be under the law? Because boasting is not excluded
by the law of works. That's why you desire and I desire
by nature. We love it. We take pleasure
in being under the law because boasting is not excluded by that
law, but by the law of faith it is. And we won't have that
by nature because we can't boast in it. And then secondly, this idea
of doing nothing, it offends our intelligence. And I use the
word intelligence sarcastically, because we don't have any by
nature. The wisdom of this world is foolishness, but we don't
get it. This idea of free grace, we don't get it, do we? We just
don't get it until God sheds light upon our hearts. How can anything be accomplished
by us doing nothing? Naaman said, how's a man going
to get clean by washing in a muddy river? Where I came from there
were better rivers than this river. How can a man dying on
a cross give life to sinners? It doesn't make any sense to
us, does it? Here's what we think. We got on God's bad side by doing
bad, but we'll just get back in His favor by doing good. That
makes sense, doesn't it? But there's a problem. There's
none that doeth good. No, not one. So our reasoning
is faulty. Oh, but we're nonetheless determined
to come to God that way on the basis of services rendered. No
sinner will come to God any other way without God's grace. Despite
the fact that the only service that we've ever rendered to God
was spitting on his son and killing his son. That's what we've done
for God. But it makes sense because it
makes sense to us and we get glory thereby. We desire to be
under the law. Now in the following verses,
we're given an allegory, a figure in Galatians chapter four, something
that represents and illustrates something else. And in it, the
covenants of law and grace are represented in picture and type
in order to teach us the difference. There's a great difference between
these two covenants. A covenant of law and a covenant
of grace. Two religions. There have never
been more than two. And there have never been two
more diametrically opposing concepts than law and grace. They are
opposites. They are opposites in a greater
sense of the word than has ever been used in any other context. opposites look at verse twenty
two for it is written that abraham had two sons the one by a bondmaid
the other by a free woman but he who was of the bond woman
was born after the flesh but he of the free woman was by promise
you recall this story god had promised abraham a son by sarah
his wife even though both of them were far beyond the age
of having children. It was impossible as far as the
flesh is concerned. And that's exactly why God did
it that way. Exactly. But time went by and
the promised son had not come. So Sarah and Abraham, they conspired
together to help God out a little bit. God's promised a son. We're
supposed to have a son. We're going to have to figure
out a way that we can have a son. And so Sarah's handmaid Hagar
bore Abraham a son, but he was not the son that God had promised.
He was born of the flesh, a natural birth, and it was done by the
conspiring of the flesh, by the efforts of the, by the wisdom
of the flesh. He's the product of Abraham and Sarah's attempt
to reason out a solution to the problem. And he's a product of
their unwillingness to wait on the promise of God. Now, when
God made this promise of a son to them, he didn't say, if you
can figure out a way as old as you are to have a baby, then
I'll give you a healthy baby. Here's what he said in Genesis
17, 19. And God said, Sarah, thy wife
shall bear thee a son indeed. you think he anticipated their
unbelief indeed she will bear you a son indeed and you shall
call his name Isaac they figured out another way and they named
it something else and I will establish my covenant with him
for an everlasting covenant and his seed after him now these
two women Sarah and Hagar and the births of their sons represent
the two covenants." Back to our text. Verse 23 again, "...he who was
of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free
woman was by promise, which things are an allegory, a picture, a
figure, a story to represent truth. For these are the two
covenants, The one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage,
which is Hagar. Mount Sinai is where God gave
his law. It's the covenant of law. And
it gendereth to bondage because that law, it puts a yoke on us. It requires us to do what God
commands and not do what he commands not to do. and that's Hagar she
represents the law for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and
answer 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 of God's people for it is written rejoice thou
barren that bearest not break forth and cry thou that travailest
not for the desolate hath many more children than she which
hath a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise." We're born not by the device
of the flesh, not by the wisdom of the flesh. We're born not
of blood, not of him that willeth, not of him that runneth, but
by a miracle of God. We're born from above. Unless
except a man be born again, that's born from above, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. You're not going to figure it
out. You're not going to make a stairway to heaven. You're
not going to devise a way to get to God. It's going to have
to be by a promised miracle of His grace. And that's us, Isaac. As Isaac, we're 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. Cain murdered Abel. Why? Because God accepted Abel and
his offering. and rejected Cain and his offering,
because it was an offering of works and not blood." You see
that? All through the Word of God,
these are opposed. These are compared and opposed
to one another. Law, the covenant of law, and
the covenant of grace, the gospel. Nevertheless, what saith the
Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. She had to go, didn't
she? In the context there in the Old
Testament Hagar and Ishmael had to go. They couldn't live together. The two cannot exist. They can't
coexist, law and grace. They cannot be blended. They
cannot be mixed. They cannot have fellowship because
they do not agree. They are opposites. 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. children of
the free. Now these two women as I said
they represent the two covenants. In the covenant of law God said
to the Israelites this do and live. Here's how you can please
me and have fellowship with me and have favor with me and walk
perfect in my sight. Do this this and this and don't
do this this and this. All of the things that God gave
in his law. Do this and live. And, of course, they broke that
covenant. The Israelites, the people, broke that covenant. There was never any question
of them not breaking that covenant. Never. The Scriptures are clear
all through that God never gave that covenant with the intention
of it being kept and those under it obtaining life and favor thereby. Galatians 3. Turn back a few
pages there. Galatians 3 chapter 21. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. Is the law a bad
thing because it can't save us? No. Paul said we love the law
of God after the inward man, but I can't be saved by the law.
By the deeds of the flesh, by the deeds of the law shall no
flesh be justified in God's sight. And I've got to be justified
in His sight. I've got to be perfect and holy
and blameless or I can't be with God. And that can't happen by
law. God forbid, if there had been
a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. If God could give a law that
we could keep, then salvation would have been by the law. But
the problem is we hate God. We're not going to obey God.
It doesn't matter what He gives us to do because we hate Him
and we think we're God. And it doesn't matter what God
would have told Adam to do. Don't eat of that tree. if it
would have been a different tree if it would have been anything
God's authority is what was despised on and rejected on that day it
wasn't because it was a good-looking apple or whatever it was it was
the authority of God and whatever law had been get would have been
given it would have been broken if there had been a law that
could have saved us God would have saved us by the law but
the scripture has concluded all under sin sin is breaking God's
law, disobeying God, that the promise, God concluded all understand
why, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given
to them that believe. It's a gift, it's a free, it's
by not, our unfaithfulness to the law condemns us and damns
us. His faithfulness to the law is
given to us by faith. His righteousness is given to
us by faith. that them that believe to them
that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law. Shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. It doesn't say the law was our
rule of life. It doesn't say the law was the
means whereby God, you know, let us know his will, taught
us how to live. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. God's purpose all along has been
to bring a people to Christ and the law's purpose was to show
us our need of Him and drive us to Him. Is that what he said? That we might be justified not
by the law but by faith. By believing by the means of
God-given faith whereby we lay hold of Him who kept that law
perfectly. which we never could. But after
that faith has come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster. The law doesn't condemn us anymore
because Christ has kept the law. Our conscience is clear, not
because we've obeyed or measured up, but because He did. And we're
not under that schoolmaster anymore. In the very giving of the terms
of that law covenant, God gave instructions on how to build
the mercy seat. He didn't intend for us to keep
that covenant. He said, here's what you do and don't do, and
now build a mercy seat. Build an ark and put a mercy
seat. Mercy is for lawbreakers, which we are. The covenant of
the law was conditional. This do and live. If there's
going to be life, there's going to have to be some conditions
met. some obedience, some do's and
some don't do's. The blessing was contingent upon
obedience. They that are under the law shall
live by the law by the doing of it, not by taking our best
crack at it. It's got to be performed perfectly
in the sight of God. And so it was conditional. The
covenant of grace, on the other hand, is completely unconditional. Unconditional. This covenant
was made known unto Abraham. Here's what God said to Abraham.
Turn to Hebrews 6 and chapter 13. I said that in our experience
the covenant of law came first because we're born under the
law. And we're born desiring to be under the law because we
think we can do pretty good. You know, we can measure up. The covenant of grace was first.
Listen to Hebrews 6.13. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless thee. Now, where's the
condition there? If you do this, I'll bless you?
No. I'm going to be blessing somebody,
and when I do, I'm going to bless you. While I'm blessing, I'm
going to bless you. And look at the rest of it. And
multiplying, I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. What did Abraham do? Nothing. He waited for God to give him
what he said he would give him. That's our part in the covenant
of grace. Just endure. Just wait. Hang upon his mercy. and hope and trust that what
God said He would do, He'll do it. He said, I've spoken it.
Shall I not do it? That's the God that we rest in.
We trust in Him. He said in blessing, I'm going
to bless you. Now, our part in this covenant is just to wait.
All of the conditions of the covenant, if they can be called
conditions at all, are fulfilled by Him. We're just waiting on
Him, looking to Him, resting in Him. Let me show you that
in another place. Hebrews 8. Turn to Hebrews 8. verse six. Now, these are the
two covenants, Hagar and Sarah. Hagar, she bore the son Ishmael. How? By the wisdom of the flesh,
by the devices of the flesh. We're going to have to have a
son, God said, so we'll figure out, you know, something that
makes sense, you know. They're not going to happen.
You're too old, Sarah, to have children. We're going to have
to figure this out. Yeah, they did. And they had
to go. They couldn't live. They couldn't
live there. But look at Hebrews 8, 6. But
now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, who Christ, by how
much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was
established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had
been faultless... Okay, so there's a first covenant,
and then there's a better covenant. If that first covenant had been
faultless, then no place should have been sought for the second.
For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the day is
come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel 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,
That's the covenant of law. When he took them by the hand
and led them out of Egypt, he said, Moses, come on up into
this mountain. And he started saying, thou shalt and thou shalt
not. And the law was given. Well,
he said, this new covenant is not going to be like that covenant.
Why? Because they continued not in my covenant. What was wrong
with the old covenant? Us. We continued not in it. How is this new covenant going
to be different from the old? It's not going to be up to us
to continue in it. It's not going to depend on us
continuing in it. He said, They continued not in
that covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord. Here's the new covenant. I will. Not thou shalt, I will. I will. I will. I will put my laws into
their mind. I'm not going to establish my
laws and say, if you can figure out my laws, my ways. No, I'm
going to put them in your mind. And I'm going to write them in
your heart. Not here it is out here. If you
just take the first step or get to it or establish or find a
way. Make your way, you know. I'm
going to write them in your heart. And I will be to them a God. And I'm sure hoping they'll be
my people. No, they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord. You're not going to know him that way. No man can teach
you who He is. You're not going to find out
who He is. Canst thou by searching find out God? For all shall know
Me. How are they going to know? Because
I'm going to write My Law. I'm going to put it in their
mind and I'm going to write it on their heart. His Law is His
Word. It's not just the Ten Commandments.
The Law of God is His Word, His testimony. For all shall know Me. Everyone
that I make this covenant with. they're going to know me from
the least to the greatest. And I'll be merciful to their
unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities, their destroying
of that old covenant, their failure to measure up to that old covenant.
I'll remember no more because this covenant's new and it has
all to do with what I'll do, not what they need to do or should
do or ought to do. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness."
They're not going to be righteous. They're not going to make a decision.
They're not going to do anything for God, but I'm going to have
mercy on them anyway. Is that what he said? And their
sins and their iniquities, the fact that they hate me and despise
me, and the fact that there's none good, no, not one, and the
fact that they've shook their fist in my face since the day
they were born, I'll remember no more. Mercy. That's the covenant I'm interested
in. Mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. Look at verse 22 again of our
text. What is the difference between
these two covenants? What's the difference that's
cited here in verse 22 of Galatians 4? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bond made and 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 flesh and promise
one is of the flesh the pride of the flesh the so-called strength
of the flesh it depends upon the arm of the flesh Christ said
it's the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing nothing
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, corrupt, depraved,
impotent, cursed flesh, but the other by promise. The one covenant
is waiting on the flesh to do something good, to do everything
good, because you have to be perfectly good. The other depends entirely upon
the promise of God. If God does what He promised
to do, then this covenant, whatever this covenant has to do with,
it'll be fulfilled. That's the only condition. If God does what he says he'll
do. Promise. No wonder Paul asked that question. You that would be under the law,
you that want to go back and be under that covenant of law
before God, nobody has ever measured up to. Paul said in another place,
you Israelites, you put a yoke of bondage upon people that you
nor any of our fathers were ever able to bear. And that's what
preachers are doing this morning. They're putting a yoke of bondage
on people. If you'll just make a decision, if you'll just do
what Adam didn't do in the garden, if you'll just do right, if you'll
live the Christian life and say these things and pray this prayer
and do something, to make yourself pleasing in the sight of God.
That's a yoke of bondage that no man has ever been able to
bear. Ye that would be under the law.
Don't you hear the law? The law says God's done all He
can do. Now it's up to you. It's up to
you. It's available there if you do
what you're supposed to do. That's law. But the gospel promise
Says this, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come. And come without
any money and buy. Without money and without price. If any man thirsts, let him come
unto me and drink. Are you thirsty? He that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. Lay that burden, that yoke of
bondage, at the feet of Christ. Believe on Christ. Trust Him.
Rest. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You've broken that first covenant to pieces. You've broken God's
law. Is that you? You were born speaking
lies, the condemnation and wrath of God upon you. You've broken
the law of God. Come to Him that didn't. that
kept it in every jot and tittle. You don't have any money, no
prize to offer God for your sins? Come to Him that did, that gave
His soul an offering for sin. You have no refuge from the wrath
of God? Come to Him who is the refuge,
the city of refuge. You don't have any covering for
your nakedness, your shame, the fig leaf not working, not covering
you like you thought it would? come to him whose righteousness
is the best robe." The promise of God through the gospel of
Christ. The promise excludes the flesh.
One is by the flesh, the other by promise. The promise excludes
the flesh. Notice that in the text here.
God didn't promise Isaac to Abraham and Sarah when they were in their
twenties. If this baby is going to be born, it's going to have
to be a miracle of God. The flesh is excluded. And if
you're going to be saved, if you're going to be righteous
in the sight of God, if you're going to have the favor and blessing
of God, it's going to take a miracle of His grace. The flesh profiteth
nothing. So you see the difference in
these two covenants. The one is after the flesh and
the one is by promise. Salvation is not just a prediction
on God's part. If Abraham and Sarah had had
Isaac when they were in their twenties, it would have been
natural to the flesh, a birth just like any other birth, that
God just predicted would happen. And some say that God's electing
grace is that way, that He just predicts that it's going to happen.
that him say it is not that he saved some and not others he's
just foreseeing who would believe you know and electing those who
would believe that's not what happened here he didn't just
predict the birth of Isaac he caused the birth of Isaac and
he is the cause of the salvation of all of his people he makes
it happen he brings about that miracle of grace in the heart No, God, in the case of every
saved sinner, He performs that miracle, but not in the case
of every sinner. Only His people, His electing
grace is His preordained determination to do so. And the law, He uses
His law as a means of grace. Is that amazing to you? We broke
his law to pieces. We spit in his face and nailed
him to a cross. And yet that very law that we
broke, the God that we despised, we're haters of God's law by
nature. But you know, there's something
that we hate even worse than the law. By nature, we hate his
grace even worse than we hate his law. Despisers of free grace. Why? Because we can't boast in
it. and it doesn't make any sense to us. We desire to be under
the law. Don't you hear it, Paul said?
The law can do nothing but condemn you before God. All it can do
is show you what a sinner you are. Unless you're so deceived
that you look at God's law like I suspect, I suspect that people
that put the Ten Commandments in their driveway or hang them
on the wall and say, that's my rule of life. I just suspect
that they believe they're doing pretty well. But the Lord Jesus
Christ exposes that. He exposes that in His Word.
The iniquity of our hearts. We've broken His law in every
aspect of it. And we've done so all of our
lives. But by the gracious promise of God, there is hope for a sinner. Not through the flesh, but by
the promise of grace. By grace, through faith in His
Son. What's the difference? Life and
death? The glory of God? Because man's
boasting is only excluded by that law of grace. My eternal
security? Because if I did something to
measure up and to gain God's favor, What's to keep me from
doing something to lose his favor? It's not according to what I
do or don't do, but by the promise of God. He said, I'll have mercy.
And that mercy is in his son. Let's bow in prayer.