But to turn back to Genesis 21, Lord willing, this evening I'm
going to bring a message entitled The Message of Galatians. And
I hope to be able to give the message of that book. Now, with
regard to the message of any book, it's Christ and Him crucified.
We realize that. But no ifs, ands, and buts. I hope that's what this is tonight.
the message of Galatians. I've entitled this morning's
message, Cast Out the Bondwoman and Her Son. Verse 8, And the child grew,
speaking of Isaac, and was weaned And as I have read, you were
weaned at three to four years of age at that time. So that's
how old Isaac was. And Abraham made a great feast
the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar,
the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking." Now,
Ishmael was probably 16 or 17 years old at this time, and he
looked at his little brother and began to mock. You know,
this is really not unusual. Probably none of you guys have
ever done this, but in most families where there's brothers, the older
brother mocks the younger brother, don't they? Like I said, I'm
sure none of you all have done it, It happens quite a bit. And this 16 or 17 year old boy
saw his little brother and the festivities that were around
him and he mocked, he made fun of him. Now, go back to chapter
16. Now Sarai, Abraham's wife, bare
him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian,
whose name was Hagar. And Sarah said unto Abraham,
Behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee,
go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children
by her. And Abraham hearkened to the
voice of Sarah, and Sarah Abram's wife took Hagar, her maid, the
Egyptian, after Abraham had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan
and gave her to her husband, Abram, to wife, to be his wife.
And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw
that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes." Now,
this is the birth of Ishmael. And at this time, Ishmael is
about 17, 16, 17 years old. And He sees this party thrown for
his little brother, and he began to mock. Now, turn back to Genesis
21, verse 10. Now, Sarah saw the son of Hagar,
the Egyptian, which she had born into Abraham, mocking. She saw
this. She saw this teenage boy mocking
and making fun of her son. Wherefore she said unto Abraham,
cast out this bondwoman and her son, get rid of them. They're
gone. But the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. That's strong
language, isn't it? Haven't you ever felt sorry for
Ishmael and Hagar when Sarah treated them like this? Cast
them out. And this is not just get rid of them. Get rid of them. They're gone. I want them out
of here. I don't want to see them. This
son of a bondwoman, now remember this was Sarah's idea in the
first place, go into Hager. But now she says get rid of her,
get rid of her son. He's not going to have any inheritance
at all. with my son, with Isaac." And
that's strong language. And like I said, I have felt
sorry for Ishmael. I felt sorry for Hagar. Sarah was a hard nose
with these people. Cast them out. Get rid of them. Verse 11, and the thing was very
grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. This was his son.
She's telling me to just throw my son out of the house and not
have anything to do with him anymore? That word grievous is
a word that's generally translated evil and wicked. I guarantee
you Abraham was thinking, my wife is wicked. She's evil, this
is ridiculous. I mean, she has no right to do
this. As a matter of fact, I feel quite sure Abraham wouldn't have
done it just because she said it. He wasn't gonna cast out
his boy. But God speaks in verse 12, and
God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight
because of the lad and because of thy bondwoman. In all that
Sarah has said unto thee, hearken unto her voice. Do what she is
saying to do. For in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. And there's a New Testament commentary
on this, which you turn to Galatians 4. That's a hard story, isn't
it? I mean, Sarah, she's a hard nose. Kick him out of the house, kick
her out of the house. I don't care what happens to him. I just
don't want him here. Cast him out. I look in Galatians chapter
4. Verse 28, Paul says, now we brethren, as
Isaac was, are the children of promise. Unlike Ishmael, we're
like Isaac, we're believers, the children of promise. But
as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that
was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what
sayeth the scripture? Cast out. the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman." There's no connection between them. So then,
brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the
free. Now, Paul tells us that this
story is an allegory. It is something that actually
took place. It's a historical event. But
it's given to teach us something of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now look up in verse 21. Let me just read these verses
to get back to verse 30. Tell me you that desire to be
under the law. Do you not hear the law? Among other things, Paul's saying
that's crazy if you desire to be under the law. It's crazy. Don't you hear what the law says
to you? For it is written, verse 22,
that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, Hagar, the
other by a free woman, Sarah. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. There wasn't anything supernatural
about his birth. But the other was by promise. The reason Isaac was born was
because God promised he would be. And it was a miraculous birth. Which things are an allegory? Now, I would have never read
these passages of scripture on my own and thought, well, this
is an allegory to teach us of the gospel. I just thought it's
one of those strange stories in the Old Testament. But Paul
tells us this is an allegory to teach us something of the
gospel. For these are the two covenants. These two boys represent
the two covenants, the covenant of works and the covenant of
grace. The one from the Mount Sinai
which genders to bondage is Hagar. Now, Hagar represents salvation
by works, and this is very important for us to get a hold of what's
being said here. Hagar said to Abraham, God promised
a child, but it hadn't happened. Obviously, we need to do our
part for God to do His part. God's promise is not gonna come
to pass unless we do our part. It's obviously not working for
me, so you go into Hagar. Abraham said, okay. They did
their part, and now they have a son. That's salvation by works. If salvation is dependent upon
you doing your part, you believe in salvation by works. That is law. But this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and answers to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage
with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free. You know, we trace our
salvation to above, don't we? Above. For it's 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. The reason we are children is
because God promised we would be. That's it. Salvation by the
promise of God. But, verse 29, As in, he that
was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit.
Now he's talking about Ishmael mocking. And here he calls it
persecution. He that was born after the flesh
persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it
is now. Now Paul understands that this
mocking is symbolic of persecution. That's what he calls it. Persecution. Now put yourself in Ishmael's
place. He thought he was the heir. He'd
gone all his life thinking he was the heir. And now all of
a sudden his little brother is the heir and his little brother
gets everything and he gets nothing. Now do you reckon he was thinking
that's not fair. I'm the firstborn. That's not
fair. I do not like it like this. So he looked at his little brother
and he mocks him. And Paul interprets that as persecuting
him. Now, put yourself in Ishmael's
place. If he would have got some of
the inheritance, he probably would have been okay. But the
fact of the matter is, he gets no inheritance. He gets nothing,
and he's kicked out of the house. Let's translate that. If I preach the gospel, election by the Father, redemption
by the Son, regeneration by the Holy Spirit, that's the gospel.
the work of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. If I preach the
gospel and still leave somebody who rejects the gospel some inheritance,
well, you're still saved. Even if you reject this. I'm
okay, you're okay. You're still saved. Even though
you reject this, you still have some inheritance. Nobody's gonna
persecute me. Nobody's gonna disagree with
me. I'm okay, you're okay. But if I say this is the gospel,
And if you don't believe this gospel, you get nothing. You're not saved. You're kicked
out. No inheritance goes to you. That's when trouble comes. That is when trouble comes. That's
when people, I don't know how many times I've heard people
say to me, are you saying I'm not saved? I didn't say that.
I didn't say it, but you know, If you don't believe the gospel,
you're nothing. It is that simple. And that is
when the persecution takes place. Nevertheless, what sayeth the scripture? Cast
out the bondwoman and her son. Now the word cast out here is
even stronger than the word in the Hebrew. Cast out with the
notion of violence, drive out, expel, reject with contempt,
to cast off as excrement. That's what the word means. Now
that's strong language, isn't it? Cast out. the bondwoman and their son. This is God's command. Grace
and works cannot be mixed. The one excludes the other. They
cannot dwell together. Now turn with me to Romans 11
for just a second. Keep your finger there in Galatians
4 and turn to Romans 11. Verse five. Even so then at this present
time also there is a remnant, a small number who believe according
to the election of grace. I love that term. The election
of grace. And if by grace, if elections
by grace, and it is, God made a gracious choice of a people
before time began to be saved. Thank God for that. Now, if election's
by grace, if salvation is by grace, then it's no more of works. Listen, if you don't believe
in election, you don't believe grace. It really is that simple. If you don't believe in election,
you don't believe grace. If by grace, then it's no more
of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
Don't call it grace, but if it be of works, it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. There are no hybrids in the kingdom
of heaven. It's either all of grace or it's
all of works. Verse 31, back to Galatians chapter
four. So then, brethren, here's, How
we conclude this, so then brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman,
but of the free. Now, the chapter division is
man-made. Remember that, men made these
chapter divisions. And this is not the best place
for chapter division, in my opinion, because the thought is being
carried on when he's talking about casting out the bondwoman
and her son. Well, here's what this means.
Verse one, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. Stand fast, don't be moved, stand
firm, be grounded in the liberty. Oh, what a word, in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. You remember in John chapter
8 when the Lord said, you shall know the truth and the truth
shall make you free? Now, it's not your knowledge of the truth
that makes you free. The truth is a person. You'll know the
truth. He said, I am the truth. And it's the truth who will make
you free. And he went on to say in that
same chapter in verse 36, if the son shall make you free,
You shall be free indeed. It's not just talk. If I make
you free, you really are free. Now what is freedom? There's
two things that come to my mind when I think of freedom. Number
one, being debt free. Not owing anything. Having no
obligations at all. I like that. Debt free. Nothing I have to come up with.
Debt free. And the second thing I think
of when I think of freedom, what came to my mind is, what do you
do on vacation? You do what you want to. Everybody
loves vacation because you don't have to work. You get to do what
you want to. You get to go where you want
to go. Now that's what freedom is. It's
being debt free and getting to do what you want to do. I love this statement. Trust
Christ and do what you want to. Trust Christ only and do what
you want to. You're free. You've been set
free. You know, only the gospel does
that. Your want to is to follow Him.
Your want to is to know Him. Your want to is to be like Him.
Trust Christ and do what you want to do. That's what you want.
That's the glory of the gospels. You get to do what you want to.
Stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free. And
don't be entangled in that yoke of bondage, salvation by works. I love what Peter said, why tempt
ye God to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither
we nor our fathers was able to bear? We believe that through
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we should be saved, even as they. Liberty. Now the Lord is that
spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Romans 8.21 of the glorious liberty
of the children of God. Now cast out, treat with contempt
any form of salvation by works. Cast it out. The son of the bondwoman
is not going to be heir with the son of the free woman. Now
let's go on reading verse 2. Behold, Now, remember, this is
about casting out the bondwoman and her son. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Christ is either going to be
all in salvation or he's going to be nothing at all. Cast out
the bondwoman and her son. Christ is either all in my salvation
or he is nothing at all. If I add anything or subtract
anything to him that negates all saving benefits from Christ,
Christ will profit you nothing. If you have think your works
have anything to do with your salvation in any way, to any
degree, you don't have any of the benefits
of Christ. This is a true story. I hope
this will illustrate this. There was a wealthy art collector,
very wealthy, had a vast amount of artwork worth all kinds of
money. And his son had been killed many
years before in the war. It was his only son, and he was
killed in the war. And years later, as this man
dies, he is going to have all of his artwork auctioned off. He dies and it's all to be auctioned. And everybody was excited about
this because there's very rare opportunity to get art of this
quality. And so they begin the auction. And it begins with a
picture of a, I mean, a portrait of a man nobody knew, just a
young man. What do you get for this? Nobody
said anything. But an old man who used to work
for this man recognized who it was. It was the man's son. And
he said, well, I'd like to have that painting. And he gave a
small amount, and it was his. And they waited for the next
painting, the one of value. And all of a sudden, the auctioneer
said, auction closed. Auctions closed. And everybody
was shocked. He said, the one who buys this
painting of my son has it all. If I have Christ, I have it all. All he had was that one painting
of Christ. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
He that hath the son hath life. He that hath not the son of God
hath not life. If you have the son, you have
it all. If you do not have the Son, you
have nothing. That's what he's saying. If you
be circumcised, if salvation is dependent upon something you
do, that's not just talking about physical circumcision. If you
think that there's something that you must do before God can
do his part, you can forget Christ. He will profit you nothing. Let's go on reading verse three. For I testify again to every
man that's circumcised, that he's a debtor to do the whole
law. If any part of salvation is dependent
upon you doing something before this can be done, it's all dependent
upon you. You're a debtor to do the whole
law. As we've already seen, it's either
all grace or all works. And listen to this, God will
meet you on the ground you want. If you want to come, In all grace,
he'll meet you there. What mercy. And if you want to
come on the footing of your works, he'll meet you there too. And
that's something you don't want to do. I testify again to every
man that circumcised that he's a debtor to do the whole law. Verse four, Christ is become
of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by law, you are fallen from grace. Now you take the law route, and
remember, law doesn't just mean the Ten Commandments. It means
if you think your salvation is dependent upon you doing something
before God can do something for you, you can forget Christ. Christ
has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by law, you've fallen from grace. Now, if you ever heard that term,
they fell from grace. Somebody falls into some kind of sin.
They say, well, they've fallen from grace. No, they haven't.
You have. If you even think something like that, you're the one that's
fallen from grace. Grace is their only hope. You're the one that's
fallen from grace. Verse five, four, we Through
the Spirit, now this is what people who are led of the Spirit
do. This is what people who are regenerated do. We, through the
Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Now listen to what he's saying.
Here's what people who are led of the Spirit do. Here's what
people who are born of the Spirit do. Here's what people who are
born again do. They wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith. Now hope, what a man see, Paul
said, Romans 8, what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for it?
I have a hope of perfect righteousness. I don't see it. But I look by
faith to Christ as why I'm gonna be righteous in God's sight.
That's waiting for the hope of righteousness by faith. Look
what he says in verse six. Four, remember this is all about
casting out the bondwoman and his son. Four, in Jesus Christ. Oh, there's not a more important
phrase in the scripture than that, in Jesus Christ. All of
God's blessing, all of God's mercy, All of God's grace, all
God has for the sinner, all God has for me or you is in Jesus
Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly blessings in Christ. For in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision. All my efforts avail nothing. In Christ Jesus, circumcision
avails nothing, nor does uncircumcision. Somebody says, well, I realize
circumcision doesn't have anything to do with it. You know how much
that avails with God? Nothing. Nothing. What you do or what
you don't do, that's what that comes down to, what you do or
what you don't do, that has no wait with God at all. What does? Verse 6, For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love. Now, hear this real carefully. Law never works by love. Law never produces love. If I give you something you need
to do, all you're going to do is resent God. That's it. Somebody says, not me. Yeah,
you do. Yeah, you do. Law never produces love. The only thing that produces
love is faith in Christ. You see by faith that all God
requires of you, you have. And you know what you do? You
love him in return. Faith always works by love. Faith
worketh by love. Now Paul says to the Galatians
in verse seven, you did run well. I mean, there was a time when
you seemed to believe this. You did run well. Who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? You see, if I don't
look to Christ only, that's called disobedience. The only obedience
is the obedience to the truth, the obedience to the gospel,
that's believing the gospel. This persuasion that you're holding
on to, this persuasion, cometh not of him that calleth you,
now that's a very sobering statement. Is there something that I believe
that didn't really come from God? That's what he says to these
people, this thing you're holding on to. refusing to cast out the
bondwoman and her son, it didn't come from God. It didn't come
from Him that called you. Verse nine, a little leaven,
leaveneth the whole lump. If you put, if I put one work,
one thing dependent upon me in salvation, I don't care what
it is, one thing, the whole thing becomes of works. Now I preached
a message, and I think this will illustrate what I'm saying. I
preached a message a few weeks ago on spirit willing, flesh
weak. The spirit is willing, the flesh
is weak. And I talked about the two natures. Every believer has
two separate natures, the spirit and the flesh. And I've heard
people use that and say, well, you have two natures and the
one you feed is the one that'll grow. And I made the statement,
that's foolishness. And somebody wrote me and said,
how is that foolishness? I've heard that all my life and
I thought that. I thought if you feed the new
nature, that's the one that will grow and have the upper hand.
If you feed the old nature, that's the one that will grow and have
the upper hand. And I wrote him with this reply. That is no different than having
a good demon or a bad demon and a good angel on your, a bad demon
on this shoulder and a good angel on this shoulder and they're
whispering in your ear, both trying to get you to go the way
we want you to go and which one are you going to listen to? That's
just not so. Besides, that makes your growth
dependent on the one you decide to feed. Now, I don't want any aspect of my
salvation to be dependent upon my decision, do you? I'm in trouble
if it is. No, I look to His grace for all
things. Which one are you going to feed?
Lord, have mercy on me. That's my only response. Lord,
let me be found in Christ. Give me grace. Give me grace
to look to thy son only. Give me grace to cast out the
bondwoman and her son. Salvation is of the Lord in every
aspect. A little leaven, you put a little
works in salvation, you make the whole thing of works. Now Paul says in verse 10, I
have confidence in you through the Lord. that you will be none
otherwise minded, but he that troubles you and brings salvation
by works into your mind, he that troubles you shall bear his judgment."
God's going to judge him. He's not going to have mercy
on him, whosoever he be. And then he says in verse 11, and
I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, now people were saying, well,
Paul preaches circumcision. Paul said, well, if I do, Why do I yet suffer persecution? If I'm preaching circumcision,
I won't be being persecuted. Why do I yet suffer persecution
then is the offense of the cross ceased. If I said salvation is all of grace, but
if you reject it, you're still saved. Nobody's going to be persecuting
me. I'm okay, you're okay. If that's
my position, nobody's gonna be persecuting me. And when I do
that, then the offense of the cross is ceased, the scandal
of the cross. Are you saying that you stand
before God holy and perfect and it has absolutely nothing to
do with anything you've done? Yes, I am. Why, that's scandalous. I tell you what, the biggest
scandal I know of is me standing before God perfect in Christ. The scandal, the offense of the
cross. Henry Mahan brought a message
entitled The Offense of the Cross, and he had these four points.
I want to close with us thinking about this. The cross, first
of all, offends men's dignity. because it addresses all men
as sinners and nothing more. Romans 3, 22 and 23 says, there's
no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Now I see a lot of different
people in here. There's many differences between us, but I
know there's no difference here. We're all sinners. We're all
sinners. We're all sinful people. What about my dignity? You don't
have any. Not before God. You take the
most moral man and the most immoral man on the face of this planet
and before God, there's no difference. Do you believe that? Defense of the cross, it offends man's pride because
it declares a salvation that's all of grace and there's nothing
a man can be proud about except what Christ did. You have nothing
to be proud of. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. It is shut out. There's nothing for you to be.
If you're saved, if I'm saved, I'm a trophy of grace. Christ
did it all. He did it all. And I like it
that way. Thirdly, the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. offends men's wisdom because
it declares a salvation by revelation when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me. This is not something you can
figure out. You're in God's hand. You're not going to know him.
You're not going to know the gospel unless he's pleased to
make himself known. Completely dependent upon revelation. I don't care how smart you are.
I don't care how well you think you know the scripture. You're
totally dependent. You're shut up to revelation.
I'm shut up to revelation. That offends men's wisdom. And the cross offends men's love
of self because it calls upon us to deny self, to take up our
cross, this confession of salvation by Christ, and to follow Him. That's the offense of the cross. Now, if my message doesn't offend
the natural man, I'm not preaching the gospel. The offense of the cross has
ceased. This bondwoman and her son will
raise their ugly heads in us as long as we have this old man.
And what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman. Cast out salvation by works in
any way. Cast out the bondwoman and her
son. That son of the bondwoman is
not going to be there with the son of the free woman. That's God's Word. And you stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you will enable by your grace each one of us to cast
out the bondwoman and her son and to look to Christ only. In
his name we pray, amen.