Is Sarah Orhager your mother? Now you can leave here tonight
knowing who's your mother is. Sarah and Hagar were both mothers.
Your mother is where you get your life from. And in these
two mothers, we see the two covenants. Sarah begat Isaac. Hagar begat
Ishmael. And this scripture tells us that
these are the two covenants. All of the world is divided into
two classes. either children of Hagar or children
of Sarah. Just like all the world is divided
into two classes, saved and lost. God's children, children of the
devil. Children of the flesh, children
of the promise. Now you and I are in one of these
two groups. And where we will spend eternity,
in heaven or hell, will be determined by who our mother is, Sarah or
Hagar. Now let me give you the story
first. All of these Old Testament stories
are given to illustrate some aspect of gospel truth. Do you
remember when the Lord said in John chapter 5 verse 39, you
search the scriptures and in them you think you have eternal
life and they are they, all of them, they are they which testify
of me. And every Old Testament story
testifies of some aspect of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is the story that God uses to give us the difference
between law and grace. Two principles could not be more
opposed, law and grace. And that's what is being taught
in this passage of scripture. This story is given to show the
difference between the two covenants, between works or God's promise,
between God's will or man's will. That's how significant this story
is. Now, would you turn to Genesis
12? This is when God first appears to Abraham. We'll come back to Galatians
4 after I give the story from the Old Testament. Verse one, now the Lord had said
unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred
and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee
and I will make of thee a great nation. He didn't have any kids
when this promise was made. I will make of thee a great nation
and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt
be a blessing. This covenant is renewed some
few years later in chapter 15. After these things, the word
of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram,
I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said,
Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and
the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram
said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born
in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that
shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Once again, the promise renewed. Now, 11 years pass. Still no child. That's a long
time. God made this promise 11 years
ago, and still no child. Abraham is now 86. He was 75
when God first appeared to him, but he's now 86. Chapter 16,
now Sarah, Abram's wife, bare him no children. She was barren. She couldn't have kids. And she
had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarah
said unto Abram, 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. Now, this was wrong. Anyway you cut it. But she was
saying God's promise is not going to come to pass unless we do
our part. There's something we need to do. I know God made this
promise, but there's something we need to do. I mean, we need
to be responsible. We need to do the right thing.
So here's my young maid, Hagar. You go into her and have a child
through her, and that will be the child through which God's
promise will come to pass. We're going to do our part to
make God's promise come to pass. And Abraham hearkened to the
voice of Sarah. And Sarah, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the
Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan,
and gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife. And when
he went in unto Hagar, she conceived. And when she saw that she had
conceived, Her mistress was despised in her eyes. All of a sudden,
she had something up over Sarah. She had been nothing but a handmaid,
but now she's the bearer of a child, and she despised her mistress. She looked down on her. She belittled
her. I can bear children, and you can't. And Sarah said unto
Abram, My wrong be upon thee. You know what she's telling Abraham?
You should have never listened to me. This is your fault. This
should not have happened. I've heard that a few times. I've given my maid into thy bosom,
and when she saw that she's conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The
Lord judged between me and thee. But Abram 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 fled from her face. You know, Sarah wasn't a milquetoast,
was she? I mean, she gave this woman a hard time and she ended
up having to leave. And you can go on reading in the chapter
how the Lord appeared to her and told her to go back. But
she wasn't going to have anything to do with Hagar or Ishmael,
the son. Now, chapter 18. 25 years have
passed. 13 years later, in Genesis 18, where
Abraham is now 99 years old, we read, beginning in verse 1,
or numbers 1, verse 9, And they said unto him, let's
start in verse one, let's go with that. And the Lord appeared
unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in
the heat of the day. And he looked up his eyes and looked, and lo,
three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran
to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the
ground. And he said, my Lord, he knew this was the Lord Jesus.
If now I found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from
my servant. Let a little water, I pray you,
be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the
tree. And I'll fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your
hearts. After that you shall pass on, for there you come to
your servant. And they said, do as thou said.
And Abraham hastened to the tent and to Sarah and said, make ready
quickly three measures of fine meal, eat it and make cakes upon
the hearth. And Abraham ran into the herd
and fetched a calf, tender and good. And he gave it unto a young
man and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter and milk and
calf, which he addressed and set it before them and stood
by them under the tree and they did eat. And they said unto him,
where's Sarah thy wife? And he said, behold in the tent.
And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to
the time of life. And lo, Sarah thy wife shall
have a son. And Sarah, remember she was 90
years old and she'd already gone through menopause. It was impossible
for her to bear a child. Now look at her reaction. Lo, Sarah thy wife shall have
a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent
door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old.
and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after
the manner of women. She'd already gone through menopause.
Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I'm waxed
old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also? And the
Lord said unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, shall
I of surety bear a child, which I'm old? Is anything too hard
for the Lord? At the time appointed, I will
return unto thee according to the time of your life, and Sarah
shall have a son. Then Sarah denied, saying, I
laugh not. For she was afraid. He said,
nay, but you did laugh. She did what we do. I didn't
laugh. I didn't laugh. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did.
Chapter 21, a year later. And the Lord visited Sarah, as
he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. You know, you can count on that.
You just write that down. He will do exactly as he said,
exactly as he has spoken. He came to her and, verse two,
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 Abram
was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him.
And Sarah said, God hath made me laugh so that all they that
hear will laugh with me. And she said, who would have
said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given children suck?
For I have 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 had been born unto Abraham, mocking."
Now, I am sure he was kind of upset because he's gone from
getting all the inheritance to nothing. He was Abraham's only
son. And now Isaac is the one who's
going to get everything. And you can imagine why he would
be upset with that, sit there mocking and so on. 10, 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. 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. Now
he was going to bless Ishmael, but not like Isaac. In Isaac
shall thy seed be called. Now let's go back to Galatians
chapter 4. That's the story. And I want you to underscore
this in your heart. All scripture testifies of Christ. All these Old Testament stories,
they're given to teach us some aspect of gospel truth. Now look
in verse 21 of Galatians chapter 4. Paul asks this question. Tell
me, ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the
law? Don't you hear what the law is
saying? Now, you know what I would have
done at this time? I would have quoted the Ten Commandments.
And I would have shown how all we've done is broken every one
of them. And we can't keep one of them. That's the way I would
handle this. And I think I can do that. I mean, what commandment
have you kept? Not one of them, not in your
heart you haven't. And if you have any honesty, you know that's
so. You haven't kept one commandment one time. Now that's what I would
have done. Don't you hear what the law is saying? It says all
you do is break it. But Paul used this story instead. to give us the difference between
law and grace and to let us know just what the law has to say. Do you not hear the law, verse
22, for it's written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid,
a young woman who was able to give birth, the other by a free
woman, But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the
flesh. There wasn't anything supernatural.
I mean, any birth is supernatural. I mean, you think about an egg
and a sperm joining together and creating life in a mother's
womb, and that's just an amazing supernatural thing. But that's
according to the course of nature. Sarah had already gone through
menopause. It was impossible for her to
have a child. Now, Hagar was of the childbearing
age. She could have a child. There
was nothing supernatural about her having Ishmael. But Hagar,
but, but, Sarah's son Isaac came for this one reason. God promised
it. And it was an absolute, complete,
supernatural miracle. And remember when Sarah laughed,
the Lord says, is anything too hard for the Lord? The Lord can
make someone have a baby who's already gone through menopause,
but this is a miraculous birth. So one was after the flesh, the
other was by the promise of God. Now look what he says in verse
23. But he who was of the barren woman was born after the flesh,
but he of the free woman was by promise, which things are
an allegory. This story is given to teach
us something else. It's not just a historical narrative
of miracles that took place. This is an allegory. Four, these are the two covenants. This is an allegorical teaching
of the two covenants, the Covenant of Law and the Covenant of Grace. Now, the Covenant of Works, I
want you to listen real carefully. There's only two covenants, and
we're born under the Covenant of Works or the Covenant of Grace.
That's our mom, Sarah or Hagar. The Covenant of Works makes salvation
in some way dependent upon you doing your part. Isn't that what
Sarah said, look, I can't, the promise is not gonna come to
pass unless we do our part. We need to do something. We need
to be active. We need to be proactive. We need
to, here's Hagar, we need to do our part. God's promise will
not come to pass unless we do our part. That's kind of like
Abraham. If he were, when he was told
to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering, he could have said,
If I do that, God's promise won't take place. I can't do that. I can't do that because God's
promise won't take place. That would really have been the
same unbelief that Sarah was practicing at this time. She
said, we need to do our part, and the covenant of works makes
salvation in some way dependent upon human works. Now, there's
the Ten Commandments. Here's my law. Keep it perfectly,
be saved, don't keep it, and you'll die. It was, but this
covenant of works was not just made with the Ten Commandments,
it was actually made with Adam in the garden. You remember,
God said, you can have anything here you want to eat. I'm giving
you one law, one law. Don't eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. You can have anything else, but you
can't eat of this tree. Now that's just one little law.
And we're talking about a man who had an innocent nature, a
man who didn't have a sinful nature like me or you, and he
couldn't be saved by law. Do you know no one can be saved
by law? given this great position of being in the Garden of Eden
and having anything he wanted, and everything was great, the
fall had not taken place yet. There's just this one tree that
reminds him that God's on the throne, that God has absolute
authority. And he says, hmm, he couldn't
keep that one commandment. And you know, you think, well,
I think I could have. No, you couldn't, because when
he did it, you did it. By one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men,
in that all have sinned. You think of the angels, the
ones that were fallen. Well, the ones that didn't fall
were called what? The elect angels in 1 Timothy
chapter 5. The only reason they did not
fall is because God prevented them from falling. All the rest
fell. Nobody could ever be saved by
law. I mean, you put Adam in that
condition that he was in, and what happened? He blew it. Now, this covenant of works takes
on so many different forms. Let me give you a few that you're
familiar with. Free will. Free will. That man's got a free
will. Bible doesn't say that, but men say it all the time,
man's got a free will. God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody,
God wants to save everybody, the Holy Spirit's calling everybody,
but it's up to your will as to whether or not you're going to
make that work. You see, it's up to you as to
whether or not what Christ did has any effect on you. You've
got to accept him or you're rejecting, but salvation is ultimately dependent
upon your will. You know what that is? That's
the old covenant. That's the covenant of works.
Most people believe that Jesus Christ shed His blood for everybody
and paid for everybody's sins, but there's something you need
to do to make what He did work for you. That's the covenant
of works. That's all it is. There's no
gospel in that. There's no grace in that. Somebody
that holds to progressive sanctification. You can become more and more
holy through your efforts of obedience and you can become
more and more like Christ and become less and less sinful through
your discipline and your Bible reading and praying and putting
down the flesh. You can become better. You can
become more pleasing to God. That's salvation by works. That's
all it is. You can call it grace if you
want, but that's not grace, that's works. Anything that is ultimately
dependent upon me is works. Somebody said, I believe in grace.
What do you mean by grace? Well, God offered me grace and
I accepted. So that's the difference between you and somebody else.
You accepted it and they didn't. You're still giving yourself
the credit. Can't do it. Can't do it. That is salvation
by works. That's making salvation ultimately
dependent upon you. Hagar, Abraham going into Hagar
represents every effort of salvation by works. That's man doing his
part. Now, the covenant of grace is
salvation dependent upon what Christ has done. And there are
no works you must first perform in order to be saved. Now, did
you hear that? No works, nada, nothing. I sure like that, don't you?
I sure like that. And that's grace. There are absolutely
no works you need to do before God will save you. It can be
summarized by these three words, which is actually only one word
in the original. It is finished. Do you know when the Lord said
that, I wasn't even born. I didn't have any works, good
or bad. But when Jesus Christ the Lord
said, it is finished, my salvation was finished. Now, you see how
no works enter in to this salvation. It's Christ doing it all. It is finished. David described it thusly, Although
my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant. Never had a beginning, it'll
never have an end. Yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. And you know what David
said about that? He said, this is all my salvation. Every bit of it. And it's all
my desire. It's the only way I want it.
I wouldn't want it any other way. Now, strictly speaking,
the covenant of grace was not made with a man. It was made with Christ. You
see, this first covenant was made with Adam. This second covenant
was made with Christ. The father said to him, I'll
give you a people, a bride on the condition that you keep the
law for them and then die for them to pay for their sins as
their substitute. And when he said, I will, the
father looked to him for everything. You see, Christ stood as what
the scripture calls assurity. A surety, a guarantor, a guarantee. He said, I'll be surety for him.
Said the same thing to his father that Judah said to Jacob, I will
be surety for him. I'll stand for him. Of my hand
shall I require for him. If I bring him not before thee
and set him before thee, let me bear the blame forever. Jesus
Christ took full responsibility for my salvation. Every bit of
it. He took full and complete responsibility. And the thing about him is he
can't fail. He can't fail. If he sets out
to do something, it's done. Now that is the covenant of grace. Covenant of works is salvation
dependent upon what I do. Covenant of grace is salvation
dependent upon what Christ has done. Those whose salvation is 100%
dependent upon Christ are the ones who have Sarah for their
mother. Now you can know right now whether Sarah is your mother.
Is your salvation completely 100% dependent upon Christ? You can't take that too far?
Then Sarah is your mother. If you look to the flesh in any
way, something you've done, you think I'm saved because of I
did this or I did that, Hagar is your mother. Now, which one's
your mother? Sarah or Hagar? Now, I'd like
to consider some contrast between Sarah and Hagar and Isaac and
Ishmael and then their ends. Now, the first thing that I would
notice, and this, when I say first thing, don't get scared.
I know I've already been preaching half an hour. It's not gonna take
very long. The first thing that I would
want us to consider is that Sarah was the original wife. Salvation has always been in
the covenant of grace. It's always been in the covenant
of grace. All of God's people have always
been in Christ. They've always been foreknown,
they've always been predestinated, they've always been called, they've
always been justified, they've always been glorified in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The covenant of grace has always
been God's way of salvation. Christ is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world according to Scripture, Revelation 13.
Now think of that. The Lamb literally having been slain from the foundation
of the world. Before there was any creation,
before there was any matter or material, before me or you were
ever around, there was a Savior before there was ever a sinner.
Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9 states
it like this. Here's the covenant of grace,
and there's not a more important verse of Scripture in all the Bible
than this. It says, He saved us, and He called us. Which came first? He saved us. He saved us. By grace are you saved. He saved us. And what's the evidence that
He saved us? He called us. He called us by the Gospel. But
the saving came first. That salvation has absolutely
nothing to do with my works, because according to the Scripture,
He saved us and called us, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace, which were given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. always the wife. But you know, Hagar bore the
first son. Even though Sarah was the first wife, Hagar bore
the first son. You know, Adam, when he first
came, his standing was in that first covenant, wasn't it? The
first man was under that first covenant, the covenant of works.
He was born with that one rule, don't eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. But any way you look at it, it
was still a covenant dependent upon his obedience or his disobedience. So he was the first son, but
you know, Hagar, was never intended to be a wife. She's the result of Sarah's fleshly
manipulation and scheming about how to try to get God's plan
to work. And yeah, she said, this is your fault, Abraham.
And it was. It was Abraham's fault. He should have known better
than doing that. He should have known not to do
it. But all Hagar, she was never intended to be the wife and just
like the law was never intended to save. Look in Galatians chapter
3. Is the law against the promises
of God? Verse 21, Galatians 3. Is the law against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law which
could have given life verily, righteousness should have been
by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin,
that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given
in the belief. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up under the faith which would afterward
be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
But after the faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Hagar was never intended to be
a wife. The law was never intended to
be used for salvation. Now, I think this is also interesting.
I read this. As soon as Hagar conceived, all
of a sudden she despised Sarah. You know, the law always despises
grace. It always despises grace. The reason being is grace takes
away the law's hope. If you're hoping in your works,
you're not going to like grace. You're going to say all kinds
of bad things about grace. You're going to say, well, that'll lead
to sin. That'll lead to indifference and apathy, and you won't witness,
and you don't have any motive for good works or holiness if
you believe that way. She despised, Hagar despised
Sarah and said all kinds of bad things about her. But you know,
Hagar never was free. She was always a bondwoman. And
Sarah never was a slave. She was always a free woman. You see, there's no freedom in
salvation dependent upon works, only bondage. The only freedom
there is is in grace. Now listen real carefully. Grace,
grace, grace. I owe nothing. That's freedom, isn't it? I owe
absolutely nothing, and I get to do what I want to do. Isn't
that what freedom is? Freedom is getting to do what
you want to do. Here's what I want. I want to
be found in Christ. I want to be with Christ. And
I want to be like Christ. That's what I want. What freedom
there is in that. But salvation by works, no freedom. No freedom, just waiting to get
damned, waiting to mess up, waiting for God to get you. That's the
only attitude that comes out of salvation by works. And Hagar
and her son were cast out. And God said, do what Sarah said.
They were cast out, and that's strong language. The son of the bondmaid shall
not be heir with the son of the free woman. Cast out the bondwoman
and her son. That's done with violence, the
scripture says. Isaac and Ishmael represent those
in the covenant of grace and those in the covenant of works,
which would be the saved and the lost. The lost are in the
covenant of works, the saved are in the covenant of grace.
Now Isaac by nature was not better than Ishmael. They were both
equally fallen, sinful human beings. They were born with depraved
natures. They were born dead in sins,
just like you and I were born. It's not that Isaac was better
by nature than Ishmael. And Ishmael was the oldest, wasn't
he? He's the oldest. My old man's older than my young
man, my new man, rather. My old man's 56. My new man,
well, he started whenever I was born again. But really, that
new man was known by God in eternity, so he's even older. But as far
as my experience goes, my old man is older and more practiced
than my new man. But here's the point. Ishmael
was born after the flesh. There was absolutely nothing
supernatural about his birth. I mean, it's amazing that Abraham
could father children, but it wasn't impossible. And he went
into a young woman, Hagar, and there was nothing supernatural
about the birth of Ishmael. He was born after the flesh.
He represents a salvation that's after the flesh. Now, if you
can do anything in your salvation, if you can do anything to promote
it, if you can do anything to make it happen, then you're born
after the flesh. That's all there is to it. You're
born after the flesh. If you're an Isaac, Your salvation came
solely because of the promise of God, solely because of a miraculous
work of the grace of God. Do you know that your salvation's
that way? I mean, do you really believe that? I do. See, Sarah's
my mom, not Hagar. And Ishmael mocked Isaac. Ishmael is about 13 or 14 years
old after Isaac is weaned and he begins to mock just like Hagar
despised Sarah. Well, Ishmael despised Isaac.
And he began to mock and make all kinds of statements about,
you believe that your way is the only way? Why, you arrogant,
presumptuous person. You think you're the only one
that knows the truth? You think the only people that are saved
are people that believe the way you believe? Why? That's ridiculous. That's so arrogant and carnal. Why, the stuff that you believe,
you don't give anybody any motivation for obedience. You don't give
anybody any motivation to witness and to preach and so on. If Christ
did it all and it has absolutely nothing to do with you, you're
not giving us anything to do. That's right. That's right. You heard it. Nothing for you
to do. Christ did it all. You rest in Him. And I tell you
what, if you really believe that, you want to honor Him. You want
to honor Him. That's the desire of your heart. Now, is your mother Ishmael,
I mean, Sarah or Isaac, are you an Ishmael or Isaac? Think about
this. Ishmael had no inheritance. Cast out the bondwoman and her
son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. As a matter of fact, God never looks at Ishmael as a son in
the first place. God doesn't. Remember what he said to Abraham?
Take now thy son. What's the next words? Thine
only son. Thine only son, Isaac, whom thou
lovest. Ishmael was never acknowledged
as a son by God. And he got absolutely no inheritance. Isaac had it all. Now, if your
mother is Sarah, all you have to do is rejoice. Look back in
Galatians 4.27, 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 had a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. Now if you're spiritually barren
and you can't produce life, don't you rejoice in this? Because
you know this is the only way you can have life, through grace. Now if you have ability, If you
have any spiritual ability, grace means nothing to you. You don't
even like it. But if you have no ability, oh
how you love the covenant of grace. The biggest fool alive,
who is he? That man or woman that desires
to be under law. That's the biggest fool alive. Let's pray. Lord, may we, every one of us,
be children of Sarah, children of the free woman, saved by your
promise, saved by your miraculous grace, saved because thy blessed
son said, it is finished. Oh, Lord, that we might be children
of Sarah. Lord, don't let us be children
of Hagar because we know there's no salvation in that. Bless this
message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen.