With regard to the scriptures,
it is always important that we know that whatever that scripture
is, it has something to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And
if we don't have that settled, we're not really going to understand
anything. The Lord spoke to those two on
the way to Emmaus and it says, beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures, the things
concerning himself. Now he didn't read every passage
from the Old Testament, you know that, but he let them know that
all scripture is given to speak of himself. He said in John 5.39,
you search the scriptures and in them you think you have eternal
life and they are they, which testify of me. Now the passage
I've just read before you in Genesis chapter 25 is the names
of the 12 sons of Ishmael. And I know ahead of time, when
I read that passage of scripture, that it has something to do with
the gospel of Christ. Now, if you told me, you wanna
know the names of the 12 sons of Ulysses S. Grant, I'd probably
say, no, no. Now, if you're a Civil War buff,
you probably are interested in knowing, but if you're the average
Joe like me, no. But here, God gives us the names
of the sons of Ishmael. Now, do you remember who Ishmael
is? I believe God saved him. His
name means God hears. And if you read Genesis chapter
21, the scripture says the Lord was with him. Now that's a pretty
powerful testimony that the Lord had done something for him. But
what does he represent? That's what I want us to consider
before we look into these boys' names. What does Ishmael represent? Well, you remember when God made
a promise to Abraham, you're going to have a son through Sarah,
your wife. And some 10 years pass and Sarah
says God's promise will not come to pass unless we do our part. It's not happened. So here's
what we need to do to enable God to bring his promise to pass. Here's my servant, Hagar. You
go into her and we'll have a child through her. And that will be
my child. And we will enable God's promise
to come to pass. Now we know from Galatians chapter
four, as a matter of fact, turn there, let me read these words
to you. All this story represents is
salvation by law. Abraham doing his part to enable
God to fulfill his promise that represents salvation by works. There are two views, would you
call them, of salvation. God doing his part and me doing
my part. The other view is God doing it
all. You know, people talk about,
perhaps when you were in school, you took a class in comparative
religions and you're supposed to compare the religions and
see the similarities and see the dissimilarities and try to
I can teach that class real quick. There's only two religions. Two. You and God cooperating, a joint
venture between you and God to where you're gonna reach this
higher plane, or Christ does it all. It's that simple. Only two religions. Now look
here in Galatians chapter four, how Paul speaks of this event
that took place in Genesis chapter six. And I want to remind you
that this, um, lets us know about what I was saying initially about
every scripture, uh, teaching the gospel. If I was reading
Genesis chapter 16 without any understanding of the gospel,
I would think it's just one of those weird old Testament stories
that probably aren't applicable today. I don't know what was
going on, but. It had to have some importance. I don't know
what it is, but I certainly wouldn't say this represents law and grace.
I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it unless God the
Holy Spirit lets us know that this story represents law and
grace. And this lets us know that everything in the Old Testament
represents law and grace. Every single one of these stories
without exception, every sacrifice, every list of names has something
to do with law and grace. Now look in Galatians chapter
four, verse 21. I love Paul's question to the
Galatians. Tell me you, the desire to be
under the law. Do you not hear the law for it's written and notice he
doesn't. refer to the Ten Commandments,
he refers to this event of Ishmael being brought about by Abraham
doing his part in order to make the promise of God come into
effect. For it's written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by bondmaid, the other by free woman. But
he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh. There
was nothing supernatural about this birth. But he of the free
woman was by promise, by God's promise. It was an utterly supernatural
birth. Which things are an allegory? And you can say that about every
Old Testament story. It's an allegory. Now it actually
happened. It's a historical event that took place just as the Bible
records, but it's given to teach us something of law and grace,
something of the gospel. Which things are an allegory,
for these are the two covenants. These two boys, Isaac and Ishmael,
represent the two covenants, law and grace. Which one from
Mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, is Hagar. Hagar, that woman that Abraham
went into to help God make sure his promise takes place, but
it wouldn't take place unless I do my part. What does Paul
call this? He says, this is Mount Sinai.
This is law. This is Mount Sinai. This is
the Ten Commandments. Now understand this about law.
Law is this, if any part of your salvation is dependent upon you. Now, let me tell you how far we're
to take that. When salvation begins insofar as our experience
goes, it doesn't come because of an act of our will. Of His own will begat He us through
the Word of truth. Salvation begins with God alone. Now, let's talk about our experience
of salvation from then until our death. I want to honor the Lord in my
life and in my conduct and in my attitude. I want to glorify him. I wanna
live in a way that glorifies him. I don't want to sin. I do not want to sin. All of that being said, in my
experience of grace, if I look at what I do as the reason behind
any growth I have, Let me give you a scripture.
Here's what we have to say with regard to the middle of our experience. It's God that worketh in you,
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now, in my experience,
if anything is dependent upon me, it's not gonna happen. I
know that. I know that for sure. But thank
God for that scripture. It's God that worketh in you,
both to will and to do his good pleasure. You know, that takes
all the pressure off right now, doesn't it? What a blessed thing that
is. And at the end, when I die and
I stand before judgment, there's only one life that will count,
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal life that I'm
just, I won't have anything to glory in. You see, every aspect
of salvation is Him doing it all. Ishmael represents us doing
our part. And if any part of your salvation,
beginning, middle, or end, is dependent upon you doing your
part, you won't be saved. That's law. That's Mount Sinai.
That's all it is. And that's what the scripture
teaches. It's not just this preacher's opinion. That's what the scripture
teaches. Thank God for the religion of
Isaac, the religion of God's promise. But the religion of
Ishmael is man doing his part. Now, God the Holy Spirit gives
us the names of these 12 sons of Ishmael, and every one of
these names shed light on the religion of Ishmael. The religion
of Ishmael represents work's religion. And I want to name
each one of these sons of Ishmael, and you're going to be shocked
by how clear this is. Verse 13, and these are the names
of the sons of Ishmael. By their names, according to
their generations, the firstborn of Ishmael Nebajoth. Nebajoth. You know what that
name means? Heights. A high place. I'm going to read a passage of
scripture to you from Isaiah chapter 14, speaking of Lucifer. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in
thy heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the Mount
of the congregation in the sides of the North. I will ascend above
the heights of the cloud. I will be like the most high."
Now, what does that remind you of? Remember in the garden, Satan
coming to our first parents? Right now, you're in a low place. You're programmed to be innocent, it's in your nature,
and you're not like God at all. But if you eat of this fruit,
you'll know good and evil, and you'll make the choice of the
good over the evil. I have no doubt that is the way
of temptation he was using. And that will make you like God. You'll get a promotion. You'll
be up high, like God. Brought to new heights, in reality,
independent from God. That's how serious this is. This first boy talks about heights,
you'll be like God. You'll be in a higher position.
What does the Lord tell us to do? Take the lowest seat in the
house. Who so exalts himself shall be
abased. And he that humbles himself and
takes that low spot shall be exalted. The name of the second
son is Kedar. His name means dark. Dark. Now, if you would turn
on the average, say, religious radio station, or if you go into
the average church in Lexington, Kentucky, or anywhere else in
Central Kentucky, would you ever even hear this addressed? How God can be just and justify
the ungodly. Would that even be brought up?
It's not an issue, it's a dull and unimportant subject left
for theologians to debate. That's no true concern for the
character of God. But do you know this Bible is
all about, listen to me carefully, this book, is about how God can
be just, absolutely just, inflexibly just, and yet justify somebody
who is unjust. That is the message of this book. Darkness gives us no light on
that. God is light and in him is darkness,
no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, Now, most people, when they read
of that passage of scripture, if we say we have fellowship
with him and practice sin in secret, we're liars and we don't
do the truth. Well, nobody ought to practice sin
in secret. I'm not justifying that, but
that doesn't have anything to do with what that passage is
saying. The Lord said, I am the light of the world. And in the context of him saying
that, he looked at that woman who was taken in adultery. There was no doubt about her
guilt. And he said, woman, where are
those thy accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I. Go and sin no more. Now, why did he not condemn her
when she was guilty? Because she wasn't guilty. Because
she stood before God, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight,
and there was nothing to condemn her for. Now that is the light
of the gospel. You know, other religions don't
even deal with something like this, how God's character can
be vindicated and how he can forgive sin. Other religions
all have something to do with you and God cooperating to get
you up to a higher spot. That summarizes every other religion.
You know, Ishmael, Ishmael is in the Quran. He is the great,
great, great grandson of Muhammad, you know, and they look at him
as one of their founding fathers. They use him. Israel works darkness,
darkness as to how God can actually be utterly just and yet accept
me and make me perfect in Christ Jesus in a way that honors his
justice. The third boy's name in verse
13 is Adbil, Adbil. And his name means chastened,
the cause of grief. The cause of grief. Now what I thought about is,
Genesis chapter six, verse five, that verse of scripture that
so aptly states our condition. God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. But Ewan says after that, it
says it repented the Lord that he made man and it grieved him
at his heart. Now somebody says, how do you
reconcile that with all of this being according to God's purpose? I'm not trying to, it's just
what the Bible says. And I'm just fine with stating
anything what God says. God looked at what happened to
Adam. He looked at what happened to
the wickedness that came as a result of that. And the scripture says
it grieved the Lord at his heart. And it repented him that he made
man. And he said, I'll destroy man
from off the face of the earth. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Now, sin, me and you don't really
understand it. We really don't. But God hates
sin, it's in front of his character. Sin is against the Lord, that's
why it's so bad. It's against the Lord. That's,
what did David say when Nathan came to him and confronted him?
He didn't say just, I've sinned. He said, I've sinned against
the Lord. What did he say in Psalm 51? Against thee and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. That's why sin's so grievous.
It's against the Lord. God hates sin because of the
religion of Ishmael, has its foundation, hatred for God and
a desire to have the glory due only to him. Anything that does not give God
all the glory is Ishmael, the religion of Ishmael. Now the
fourth in verse 13, Mipham. And all that name means is sweet
odor, spice, or perfume. Now, I don't know a lot about
perfume, but I would say the reason behind it is either to
make yourself smell better or to cover up something that smells
bad. That's simple enough, isn't it?
either to make yourself more attractive, more appealing to
the flesh, or to cover up something that smells bad. It's also used
to refer to spices. What do we use spices for? To
make food taste better. Maybe to cover up something that
doesn't taste so good, and you put enough spice on it, and it'll
be okay. That happens quite often. But the fact behind this, this
perfume or spice, It's an appeal to the flesh. That is the religion
of Ishmael. It's an appeal to the flesh.
It's not an appeal to the glory of God. It's not an appeal to
vindicate God's attributes. It's not an appeal to the scripture.
It's trying to market the gospel and present it in such a way
that it's more appealing to the flesh. That's what it does every
time. I think of what Paul said in
1 Corinthians 1, 18. He said, God sent me not to preach
the gospel, NOT SENT ME NOT TO BAPTIZE, BUT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL,
NOT WITH WISDOM OF WORDS. NOT TRYING TO DRESS IT UP AND
MAKE IT MORE APPEALING TO THE FLESH AND MAKE IT TASTE BETTER
TO THE FLESH OR SMELL BETTER TO THE FLESH. THAT IS THE RELIGION
OF ISMAEL. VERSE 14, THE NEXT SON'S NAME
IS MISHMA. THAT WORD MEANS A RUMOR. A RUMOR. the thing heard, a rumor. The religion of Ishmael is a
rumor and nothing more. A rumor concocted by men. It is not founded in the word
of God. It's a rumor. You've all heard this, but it
needs to be thought again. These have been called the five
watchwords of the Reformation. I dislike calling them the five
watchwords of the Reformation, because they've been the five
watchwords of Genesis, of the New Testament, and the very idea
of calling them the five watchwords of the Reformation is no, this
has always been the truth, scripture alone. Not scripture and, scripture
alone. Christ alone. Not Christ and,
Christ alone is our only grant. Anything else, just a rumor.
Grace alone. From the beginning to the end,
from election to glorification, and everything in between. Grace
alone. This is not the watchword of
the Reformation. This is the watchword of Moses.
This is the watchword of Abraham. This is the watchword of Abel. Why did he bring the more excellent
sacrifice? He brought what God told him
to. And he knew what it represented. Faith alone, you're not to look
within yourself to find evidence whether or not you're saved.
Do you look to Christ? That's the issue. Do you look to Christ
alone? Not Christ and God's glory alone. Anything else is a rumor, is
a rumor made by men with some wicked end. And then we read
in verse 14 of Duma. And his name means silence. Silence. This is a little bit stronger
than a rumor. Rumor, you got words, wrong words. Silence,
you have no word at all. No word from God in the religion
of Ishmael. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Now listen to this. It is not
possible for someone to be saved in the religion of Ishmael because
there is no word from God. None at all. Utter silence. And if you think someone can
be saved in this, if I think someone can be saved in this,
Me and you are Ishmaelites. If we think somebody can be saved
in Ishmaelite religion and come to a knowledge of God and come
to be saved and come to bow the knee to Christ, we're Ishmaelites. Now I've got an example of what
I'm trying to talk about because I never will forget this. I was
listening to a message on the radio at the time. He was on
the radio here for many years, R.C. Sproul. And in this message
on the radio, he made this statement. He said, Charles G. Finney, he's a preacher from
150 or 200 years ago. He said, Charles G. Finney is
the arch heretic. He's the problem behind everything
we've got going on now. And he's the guy that introduced
altar calls and stuff like that. He introduced all these things
that people use on a normal basis that weren't even heard of in
the first 1800 years of the church. And after he made this statement
about Charles G. Finney being the arch heretic,
he made this statement next. Billy Graham believes everything
Charles Finney says. But I'm not, here's what he said
next. I'm not saying Billy Graham is
a false prophet. Many people are saved under this
man and God uses his preaching greatly. Now that was spoken
by an Ishmaelite. I don't care what he said. That
is nothing more than the religion of Ishmaelite. God doesn't use
error. Why should he? Somebody says
he can't find anybody to preach the truth. Do you have any idea
how ridiculous that sounds? You think God can't save somebody
and reveal the gospel to them and cause them to preach the
truth? In the religion of Ishmaelite, there is nothing but silence. No word from God. Now the seventh
name in verse 14 is Mesa. Mesa. That name means burden. What a burden there is in the
religion of Ishmael. What a burden. You'll remember
how the Lord rebuked the Pharisees, the descendants of Ishmael. They
bind heavy burdens, grievous to be born, and lay them on men's
shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of
their fingers. They say, and they do not. They tell you to keep the law,
but they don't keep the law. It is pure hypocrisy. Nothing more. Aren't they sincere? Sincerely wrong. I will. Grant that, but I don't think
that's sincerity. I think that's hypocrisy and
nothing more. Expecting out of somebody else
what they will not touch themselves with a 10 foot pole. That is
the religion of a burden. And what a burden it is if salvation
is dependent upon me doing my part. That's a burden I can't
bear. The religion of Ishmael is the
religion of burden, heavy burden. And then the eighth name in verse, um, 14 is Mesa. No, that's burden. I'm sorry.
The next one's Hedar. Hedar. We've already done Mesa.
Hedar, verse 15. Hedar means mighty and fierce. Now, what's that? Well, the Ishmaelites
can seem very meek and very humble and very nice and very sweet,
no doubt about that. They can present themselves in
a very positive way, but they're fierce, ravenous wolves who gnash
their teeth at the gospel and will fiercely oppose any opposition
to their religion. I don't care how nice they are,
when you touch on their hope being wrong hope, you see how
they act. It will be with, Fierceness. They're descendants of Nimrod,
the mighty hunter who founded Babel. They build a tower to
reach heaven. Salvation by works. And then
the ninth name in verse 15 is Tima. That word means simply
desert. Desert. It's a desert. There
is no life in this religion. It is a desert. Nothing but death, spiritual
death. You see, the Lord said, that
which is born of the flesh is what? Is flesh. It can never
rise above its source. That is the religion of Ishmael,
man doing his part. It is a desert. There is no life
in it. The 10th name is Jeter. Jeter means enclosed. Enclosed. What that is a reference to is
the fact that there's no true liberty in the religion of Ishmael. And the scripture says, the Lord
is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty. There's liberty, freedom. Anytime I think of freedom, there's
two things that are paramount in my mind. If I owe anybody
any money, I'm not free. The only way I'm free is if I
am debt free. If I owe anybody anything, there's
an element of freedom I don't know anything about. And the
second idea that comes to me of liberty
is When you're free, you get to do what you want to do. You're
doing what you want to do. It's kind of like, how often
do you look forward to your vacation? Because on your vacation, you
get to do what you want to do. That's what you're thinking.
I don't have to go through the grind. I get to do what I want to do.
Now, in the gospel, in the gospel, there's absolute freedom because
all your debts are paid. every single one of them. I mean,
you owe nothing. You stand before God accepted
in the Beloved, perfect in Christ Jesus. You know, you may have
You probably do have sin on your heart right now, wishing you
hadn't committed that and bringing it down. There's been thoughts
about, well, baby, I'm not saved, man. You know in Christ Jesus,
I don't care what you think, you're perfect. And when God
looks at you, he doesn't look at you as if you're perfect,
he looks at you as perfect because you are perfect in Christ Jesus.
That's what justification is. It's standing before God without
guilt. And we really get to do what we wanna do. You know what
I'm doing right now? What I want to do. That's what
I want to do. Ishmaelite religion has very
unhappy people doing what they really do not want to do. But in the gospel, all debts
are paid and you're free to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what you want to do. What do you want to do more than
anything else in this life? Follow Christ. That's so, I can say
that to every believer, that's what you want. You want to follow
the lamb, with us however he goeth. That's the religion of
the gospel, the religion of Ishmael is burden. And then in verse
15, the next to the last is naphish, naphish. And that means refreshment. You say, well, what's bad about
that? It's up to you to refresh yourself. You rededicate yourself. You swear to never commit that
sin again. You do whatever it takes, you
think, to keep you going. You rededicate your life. You
refresh yourself. But you know, there's no refreshment
in that, is there? It doesn't last. It's not real, but the
gospel refreshes. The gospel itself. You know,
every time we hear the gospel, we're refreshed and cleansed
once again. That's one of the precious things
about hearing the gospel. That's what the Lord's talking
about when your feet are washed. You know, you're already clean, but
your feet get dirty every day, don't they? And you need to hear
the gospel and how refreshing the gospel is. And then the last
name is Ketamah. That name means original. Original. What is the driving force behind
the religion of Ishmael? Original sin. Now that's a term
most people have heard. What is it? When Adam sinned,
I sinned. Now don't think, well, when Adam
sinned, how can it be fair for God to charge his sin to my account? Well, for one thing, we're always
in trouble when we start saying, how can God be fair? You and
I do not have the ability to sit in judgment upon God and
say, well, I don't think that's fair. Oh, watch out. But the fact of the
matter is the scripture says, wherefore by one sin, wherefore
by the... Romans 5.12, let's turn there
because I'm drawing a blank. Verse 12, wherefore is by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. That does not mean that the moment
Adam ate of the fruit, he began to physically die. He did die
spiritually. Death by sin. So death passed upon all men,
for that all have his sin charged to their account. Doesn't say
that, does it? It says all sinned. When Adam
sinned, Todd and Ibert sinned. When Adam sinned, put your name
in that. You were doing it. You did it. That is the original
sin, and that is the cause of death. Original sin is behind
the religion of Ishmael, not the grace of God, not the life
of God, but original sin. Instead of heights, take the
lowest seat as a sinner needing his mercy. Instead of darkness,
the light of how God can embrace you in a way that glorifies his
justice. Instead of grievousness, loved
of God. The gospel doesn't need us to
perfume it or put spice on it. As a matter of fact, all that
does is hide it. We're to preach the gospel as it is in its naked
simplicity. We don't have a rumor in the
gospel, we have God's word, don't we? We don't have silence, we have
God speaking. And oh, the burden of the gospel
is like this. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. My yoke is easy and
my burden is light. As a matter of fact, you feel
nothing of it because he bore all the burden. Life as opposed to a desert.
Liberty as opposed to in clothes. God keeping as opposing to refreshing
yourself. And here we have the original
righteousness. God's righteousness. I like the
religion of the gospel a whole lot more than I like the religion
of Israel. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would be pleased to bless your word. How we thank you for your word.
Lord, it's so glorious. Lord, we really believe that
this is your word, that it's inspired by you, that it's without
error, and how we thank you for your word. Bless this message
for your glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.