Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neibert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Neibert. Before I read the text for this
morning's message, there are two goals I have in preaching
this message. I want us to see what law means
and what grace means. Wouldn't it be a blessing if
you and I can have a God-given understanding of law and grace? Now, the second thing that I
would like to point out is this passage of Scripture is key to
understanding the Old Testament. Now, many people never preach
or rarely preach out of the Old Testament, and they don't think
of it as gospel. They call it the Old Bible, and
they use it for character studies and sometimes looking at the
stories as myths. But these historical events in
the Old Testament are given to teach us the gospel of Christ. Now, they literally happened. These are historical events.
They're not myths. They're not illustrations. They
are literal historical events and they are given to teach us
of the gospel. Now, I want us to read from Galatians
chapter 4 where Paul comments on what took place in Genesis
chapter 16 and Genesis chapter 21 about the birth of Ishmael
through Hagar and the birth of Isaac through Sarah. Listen to the New Testament commentary
on this. He says in verse 21 of Galatians
chapter 4, tell me ye that desire to be under the law, do you not
hear the law? For it is written, Abraham had
two sons, the one by a bondmaid, a slave, and the other by a free
woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. There was nothing supernatural
about his birth. But he of the free woman was
by promise This Isaac was born because God promised he would
be born. Sarah had already gone through
menopause, and it was impossible, physically impossible for her
to have a son, but God promised she would. That's why she did. Now, look what Paul says next
in verse 24, which things are an allegory. Now, they really
happened but they're an allegory given to teach us some aspect
of gospel truth. Which things are an allegory?
For these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai which
genders to bondage is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai. Hagar represents the law. and answers 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." Now,
Paul tells us, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the
story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael are an allegory
given to teach us of the two covenants, the covenant of law
the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace. Now, I want to go back into Genesis
chapter 16, and let me set up a few things historically about
this passage of Scripture. God had appeared to Abraham in
Genesis chapter 12, and he told him to get out from his kindred
and his country, go into a land that I'll show you, and I'll
make of you a great nation. Now, he had a wife that was barren
up to that point. She'd never had a child. They
were in their 70s. But God says, I'm gonna give
you a child, and through that child, through that son, through
that heir, all the nations of the earth. shall be blessed."
Now, 16 years later, still no child. Now, that's a long time. God made this promise, but the
promise had not yet come to pass. Chapter 16, Genesis, verse 1,
and Sarah, Abram's wife, bear him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian,
a slave from Egypt. They no doubt had acquired her
when they were in Egypt in Genesis chapter 12 and brought her back
with them, whose name was Hagar. And Sarah said unto Abram, Behold,
now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. Now it's true
the reason she had not born any children was because of the Lord,
but that does not mean that's going to continue. She was going
to bear a child, but I guess she was tired of waiting. And
she said, obviously, the Lord is restraining me from having
children. So we need to do something. I
know the Lord made a promise that we'd have children. Obviously,
it's not happening through me. God's promise will not come to
pass unless we do our part. We need to do something. in order
to ensure that God's promise will come to pass. Now there
is law. You're going to see that more.
Law is us doing something. So she said, I pray thee, go
in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children
by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice
of Sarah, just like Adam hearkened to the voice of his wife. What
Sarah told him to do was wrong. What Sarah told him to do was
sinful. It involved sexual sin. Somebody
says, well, was it sexual sin back then? Yes, it was. If it's
sexual sin today, it was sexual sin back then. He was to be faithful
to his wife, Sarah, and he was not to go in to another woman,
but Sarah said, this is the way we'll obtain children. You go
into my slave and we will obtain children. And Sarah, Abram's
wife, took Hagar and her maid, the Egyptian, after Abraham had
dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband
Abraham to be his wife. And when he went into Hagar,
she conceived. Now, there was nothing supernatural
about this. She was a young man, or I mean
a young woman, but she conceived. She was with child. Now, she
had been a slave all of her life. She had been probably in her
own mind an insignificant nobody all her life. And now, all of
a sudden, she has the heir in her womb. She has Abraham's child. And I have no doubt that she
felt empowered by this. She felt like, oh, I'm somebody
now. So what happened? Her mistress was despised in
her eyes. She looked at Sarah and said,
you're bare and I'm not. I'm the one who has the child. I'm somebody. I'm more important
than you. I'm more significant than you. You know, that statement, power
corrupts, is so true, isn't it? She became corrupted through
thinking that she was now important. Verse 5, and Sarah said unto
Abram, My wrong be upon thee. Abraham, you shouldn't have done
this. I know I told you to, but that doesn't mean you should
have done it. You knew it was wrong when you did it. I don't care
if I did tell you. My wrong is upon you. This is your fault. I've given my maid into thy bosom,
and when she saw what she had conceived, I was despised in
her eyes. The Lord judged between me and
thee. You know that this is wrong." And Abraham knew it was wrong,
and we see that from this response. But Abraham said unto Sarah,
Behold, thy maid is in thy hand. Do to her as it pleaseth thee.
And when Sarah dealt hardly with her. She was mean. She was cruel. She made it to where Hager had
to run away. She made it very hard on Hager. Now, in this story, we have unbelief. We have sin. We have cruelty. It's a sad story. It's pretty
much what life is. and 13 years pass. Now, before we get into Genesis
21, let me tell you what happened in Genesis 17 and 18. God told
Abraham, Ishmael is not going to be the heir. You're going
to have a child through Sarah, the legitimate wife. And Abraham
said, oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. And then again
in chapter 18, the Lord appeared again to Abraham. He said, this
is not your heir. About this time next year, Sarah
is going to have a child. And that child is going to be
the heir. And Sarah heard that, and she
laughed. And she said, shall I have pleasure being old? And
the Lord said to Abraham, why'd Sarah laugh? And she denied.
She said, I didn't laugh. And then the Lord said, is there
anything too hard for the Lord? I don't care if she is 90 years
old. I don't care if she has gone through menopause. Is anything
too hard for the Lord? He created the universe from
nothing. He created Adam from the dust of the earth. Is anything
too hard for the Lord? The answer to that is no. And then in chapter 21, Verse
1, And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord
did unto Sarah as he had spoken. And Sarah supernaturally has
a child. This is a miracle. a true miracle
that only God could do because of God's promise. For Sarah conceived
and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which
God had spoken to him, And Abraham called the name of his son that
was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham
circumcised his son, Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded
him. And Abraham was a hundred years old. when his son Isaac
was born unto him, just as God said. And Sarah said, God hath
made me to laugh, so that all that hear me will laugh with
me. And she said, who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah
should have given children suck? For I born him a son in his old
age. And the child grew and was weaned.
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 born
into Abraham, mocking. Now let's put yourself in the
place of Hagar and Ishmael. Hagar thought her son was going
to be the heir. And Ishmael thought he was going
to be the heir. And they went 13 years like this,
thinking that they were somebody. And now all of a sudden, Isaac
is born of Sarah. And Ishmael is no longer the
heir. Isaac is the heir. God said,
in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And Hagar, in her own mind, has
lost her importance because now Sarah has the child, the heir. And we read that Ishmael stood
mocking, making fun, saying smart-aleck things with regard to this young
man. And here's what Sarah responds. Wherefore she said unto Abraham,
Cast out this bondwoman and her son. For the son of this bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. Kick her out
of the house and kick him out of the house. They're going to
have nothing to do with us. And the thing was very grievous
in Abraham's sight because of his son. He loved Ishmael. And
God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight,
because of the lad, and because of the bondwoman, in all that
Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice. For in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. And he was called upon to kick
them out." Now here we have gone over this literal historical
event, and like every other literal historical event in the Gospel,
in the Old Testament, it's given to teach us the Gospel. Now, I want to go back to Paul's
commentary in Galatians chapter 4 about this event. Now, beginning in verse 19 of
Galatians chapter 4, he says, My little children, of whom I
travail in birth again, Until Christ be formed in you, I desire
to be present with you now and to change my voice, for I stand
in doubt of you. I question whether or not the
Lord has really done a work of grace in your heart. Now, what
made him question the Galatians like this? Well, he tells us,
tell me you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear
the law? You say you want to be under
it? You say you want to try to keep its commandments? Do you
not hear what the law says? Now, if I were Paul, what I would
have done next is give the Ten Commandments. Surely you can
see that you can't keep the Ten Commandments. And most people
would say, well, I can't keep the Ten Commandments perfectly.
I know I can't be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. Most people
would. There's been a few, no doubt, that have thought they've
kept them, but not many. But I would have gone to the
Ten Commandments. But that's not what Paul goes to when he
says, tell me you that desire to be under the law. Don't you
hear what it says? He takes us back to this story. For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, and the other by a free woman. He who was of the born woman
was born after the flesh. There was nothing supernatural
about the birth of Ishmael when Abraham went into Hagar. The other by a free woman, he
of the free woman was by promise. This was a supernatural birth
that came only as a result of the promise of God because God
sovereignly willed it. Verse 24, which things are an
allegory. This is so important, which things
are an allegory, for these are the two covenants. The one covenant
made in time, the covenant of works, Hagar and Ishmael. He actually says Hagar is Mount
Sinai. Hagar is law. Now, what's the
point? Listen real carefully. What Hagar,
what Sarah said was, Abraham, we need to do our part. God's
purpose will not come to pass unless we do our part. That, my dear friends, is law. That is contrary to grace. Now that's what Sarah was standing
for at this time when she had Abraham go into Hagar and they
had Ishmael. That represents salvation by
law. God's promise will not come to
pass unless we do our part. Now this is an allegory. Now
let me say this before I go on talking about that. You know,
in every Old Testament story, it's a literal event that took
place. Let me give you an example. Most of you have heard of the
story of David and Goliath. David, the young man, slaying
Goliath, who was 10 feet tall, had a 20 foot long spear. And David came at him with a
slinging stone, sunk the stone into his head, killed him, cut
his head off. So all of Israel defeated the
Philistines. Now, that's a literal event that
truly took place. But here is what it represents. Israel stood in the victory of
David or they were defeated in the defeat of David. And this
is given to teach us the gospel. I stand or fall in Christ. If Christ is victorious, I'm
victorious. All of God's people are victorious. If Christ loses, I lose. All of God's people lose. Adam,
he wasn't a mythical event. He's the first man God created.
But he too is given as an allegory to teach us something of the
gospel. In Adam, all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive. You see, these Old Testament
stories are given to teach us the gospel. In Adam, everybody
dies. No one can be saved. In Christ,
everybody Christ represented shall be made alive. They'll
all be saved. So these are just a couple of
examples how all of these historical events that are taking place
in the Old Testament are given to illustrate the gospel. Now, in this story of Abraham,
Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac. We have Sarah saying, God's promise,
I know He made this promise, that it won't take place unless
we do something. We need to do something. Now, God's promise is going to
take place. It did take place, but Sarah
went ahead of this and she said, we need to do something. And
that is law. Now, let me bring that into today. The message that's preached in
our day is God loves all men without exception. Jesus Christ
has died for the sins of all men without exception. God, the
Holy Spirit calls all men without exception. God loves all men
without exception and sincerely offers his salvation to all men. But as to whether or not you'd
be saved, it depends on what you do with that. If you don't
accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and let Him into your
heart, you won't be saved, even though God does love you, even
though Christ did die for you, even though God the Holy Spirit
did call you. You will not be saved unless you do something,
unless you do your part to make what he did work for you. Now that is the message that's
preached in our day. Salvation dependent upon man. Salvation conditioned upon man's
obedience. Yes, God loves you. Yes, Christ
died for you. Yes, God wills your salvation. Yes, the Holy Spirit is calling
you. Yes, God offers you salvation. But as to whether or not you're
saved, it's up to you. It's what you do. Now, my dear
friend, that is no different than saying you can only be saved
if you keep the Ten Commandments perfectly. That is salvation
by law. That is salvation by works. Now,
let me try to give you something to think about. Judas Iscariot was not saved.
The Lord said he was a son of perdition. He even called him
a devil. Peter was saved. He was somebody
that Christ loved. He was somebody who believed
the gospel. Judas was not saved. Peter was saved. Now let me ask
you a question. If God willed the salvation of
Judas and Peter, and yet Peter is saved and Judas is not, yet
God willed the salvation of them both. What does the will of God
have to do with salvation? Absolutely nothing. It's what Peter did that Judas
did not do that saved him. If God loves Judas and Peter
with the same love, and Peter is saved and Judas perishes,
what does the love of God have to do with salvation? If you
loved them both, and one's saved and one's not, that means his
love didn't save anybody. It's what Peter did that Judas
did not do. It's called salvation by works.
Listen to this. If Jesus Christ paid for the
sins of both of these men on Calvary's tree, if he died for
the sins of Peter and he died for the sins of Judas, and Peter
is saved and Judas is lost, What does the blood of Christ have
to do with salvation if he shed it for them both and one's saved
and one's lost? The answer is nothing. Salvation
is found in what Peter did that Judas did not do. Law is do. Do something. Do something to
make what God did work for you. Grace is not salvation conditioned
upon what you do. Grace is salvation conditioned
upon what Christ has done. Salvation are by works. His works. His works. You see, when Christ
said, it is finished, the salvation of all the elect was accomplished. Now, Isaac was completely supernatural. His salvation is the work of
God. It's not a cooperative effort
between God and men. It is the work of God alone. It's a supernatural birth. That's
how we have Isaac. Not like Ishmael, who was a child
of the flesh, but Isaac was a child of promise. Verse 27 of Galatians
4, for it's written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not,
that you can't produce life. 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. But as then he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so it is now. Everybody who believes works
will hate the message of grace. They will disagree. They will
persecute. They will say, I don't believe
that. Nevertheless, what saith 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. Grace and
works cannot coexist. They are mutually exclusive. They can't be brought together. They are at complete disagreement. Paul put it this way in Romans
chapter 11, verse six, and if by grace, and there he's talking
about election, the election of grace. And if by grace, then
it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's
no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. Now here is what Paul is saying.
It's either all of grace. or it is all of works. The two cannot be mixed." Now,
that's what Sarah was doing. She was saying, God's done His
part, but it won't work unless we do our part That's a mixture
of works and grace, and it cannot be done. It's either all of works
or all of grace. There is no middle ground. The command of Scripture is,
cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. This is Todd
Nybert, praying that God will be pleased to make himself known
to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To receive a copy of the
sermon you have just heard, send your request to todd.neibert
at gmail.com or you may write or call the church at the information
provided on the screen.