For our first hour, we're going
to be in Galatians chapter four. Lord willing, we'll close out
Galatians chapter four today. And then second hour will be
in Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter four. As Paul further asserts his correction
for the church at Galatia regarding their needing evidence of salvation
or doing part for salvation, he's correcting that thought,
that ideal. As he continues to do so, he
says, one glorious truth to you and I, that comforts the Lord's
people. And it's the title of the message.
It's all of grace. It's all of grace. That's the
title. Everything pertaining to God being good to you and
I, anything pertaining to God giving us anything other than
destruction, wrath, justice, judgment, is because of grace
alone. There is no other reason and
that grace is found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
elect, his sons, chosen sons and daughter, they're complete
in Christ in every way, all by grace, all by grace. Every reward Every reward that
the Lord gives, every benefit that the Lord gives, your standing
with God is all by grace. Everything that the Lord gives
to his people is by grace. It's because of the substitutionary
finished work of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it
can only be given freely by grace. It's all by grace. Even our inheritance,
brethren, our inheritance is all by grace. Did you know that?
The Lord said that he saved us to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, which fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. That's
all of grace as well. A lot of men believe that they're
standing with God and they're that there's levels or bigger
rewards in heaven for some because they've done more. Some people
do less, I've done more, so I deserve more. I'll remind you of the
parable. The Lord went out to found laborers to work in the
field. He said, I'll pay you a penny
to do that. And he got the laborers there. They went there first
thing in the morning, they worked. Then around noontime, he found some
more and brought them in. And then about an hour before
quitting time, he found some more and brought them in. And
at the end of it, he gave them all the same wage. And you can
imagine that upset the ones that worked all day long, because
it didn't seem like that was fair. And he said, I've given
you exactly the same wage. the same payment as I promised
you I would give you. And what is that payment? What
is that a picture of? It doesn't matter whether you have been
called by His grace and been in church your entire life believing
this gospel, or if you're 99 years old on your deathbed and
the Lord reveals Himself to you, you're still gonna get the same
reward. Because that reward is not based on what we do or don't
do. That reward is based on the merits
of Christ and it's given freely by grace. What is that reward?
It's Christ himself, isn't it? That's our reward. That's our
hope. Lord, give me Christ. That's what I need. I don't need,
men would talk about having a crown, having jewels on the crown, and
having a, it's just, the crown of righteousness is salvation.
It's a metaphor. We're not gonna get a crown.
No, he has the crown. He's the one that, he crowned
us with his glory. He crowned us with his righteousness.
There's no, he is the reward, the eternal reward of his people.
And if you're the Lord's, that's enough. That's more sufficient. That's more than enough. Salvation, this is the last thing
I say before I'll read this text, but salvation, the Lord's free
gift of salvation to his chosen people that was earned by the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, it's given freely
all by grace alone. It's all by grace. Let's read
this, Galatians 4, 27 through 31. For it is written, rejoice thou
barren that barest 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. 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 bond woman and her son, for the son
of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free
woman. So then brethren, we are not children of the bond woman,
but are the free, but of the free. I was gonna title this message
cast out the bond woman, but I liked all all by grace better,
all by grace better. Because cast out the bondwoman
sounds like that's a work that you have to do. How do you cast
out the bondwoman? Well, you look to Christ. Well,
how do you look to Christ? All by grace. So that's how I
arrived at that. Being the elect of God, his chosen
people, all by his grace, were the children of promise, the
children of the free woman, the children of the new covenant,
not the old covenant of works. And this is the issue that the
Galatians deal with, and actually several places in scripture deals
with this, but this is specific. They are going back to the law
and therefore they're in bondage. He's calling it bondage. They're
going back to the law and therefore becoming guilty of the whole
law. We just read last week, you that want to be under the
law, do you not hear the law? Do you not hear what it says?
It says condemnation, that's what we titled that, what does
the law say? All it can say is guilty, guilty. And the Lord Jesus Christ says,
no, come unto me and I'll give you rest. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Don't do the works of
the law and try to please God. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. Now because we are his sons,
because we have been made to be his sons, we no longer have
a schoolmaster. We no longer have a schoolmaster. We never, you remember the allegory
that they gave about the schoolmaster being for the children because
they were under the law. The law was a schoolmaster bringing
them to Christ, but the law could never give them Christ or reveal
his glory. It could only show them God's
holiness. It could only show them their insufficiency to keep
it. But now we're free from the law of death. We are free unto
the law of love, the law of love. What is that? Well, we look to
Christ and love him because he first loved us. That's what it
means. If you are a son of God, a child
of God, then you are one chosen in Christ before the world begins.
That means you have been redeemed, you have been bought, you have
been purchased, you have been washed. There's nothing further
to be done to establish righteousness on your behalf before God. Christ
did it all. And what do I mean by all? I
mean all of it. Everything God required, Christ
fulfilled. Whether it was the law's demands,
whether it was the wrath of God that he had to endure, whether
it was the demand of justice upon him, whether it was the
perfect life, the sinless life that he lived, whatever, anything
that was required, everything that was required, Christ Jesus
completely, successfully did for his people. Therefore, you're not under the
law. You're not under the law. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. We're not under the law any longer.
And the glorious truth about that is, is nothing and no one
can ever do anything to change that. That means nobody else
can do something to change your standing with God, and you can't
do anything to change your standing with God. That's comforting.
Because I see myself, I know myself, and if I could mess it
up, I would. But it's not by works of righteousness that we
have done. It's according to his mercy. It's according to
his grace. It's according to his love. There's our hope. There's our hope that he keeps
us by his power. He calls us by his grace. Well,
he saves us by his grace. He calls us by his grace. He
keeps us by his grace. It's all By grace, by grace you
are saved through faith in that not of yourself, it is the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. This is what
Paul is continuing to repeat over and over in different ways
to these people in order to get them to understand, leave the
law be, leave it alone, don't approach it, don't try to do
it, leave it alone. I love that this truth is unchangeable
because it's God's truth. If it was mine and your truth,
and he gives it to us freely by his grace, But it's God's
truth. That means it can't be changed. We have an unchangeable God. He has unchangeable truth. Scripture's
clear on that. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He doesn't change. He said, I
am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. That's our hope. He doesn't change.
Can you imagine serving a God that would just be Theoretical,
but a God that could change. How horrid would that be? Because
one day he may be mad at you, or you can do something to upset
him so he don't want you anymore. Our God's not like that. He's
sovereign and holy and true and just and good. And everything
he required, he fulfilled in the person of Christ. Everything
he required, Christ fulfilled on the cross. This is God's truth
about how he saved his elect before the world began. And his
elect are free from the curse of the law, free from the bondage
that men put them under. Because you start preaching the
law, somebody's going to like hearing that, thinking that they're
doing what they need to do in order to go to heaven, in order
to please God. But the truth of the matter is, is you and
I can't do anything in this flesh, in and of ourself, There's pleasing
unto the Lord. Now, if you look to Christ, the
Lord's pleased with that. But what does that mean? You're
looking at him through the eyes of faith. You're looking at him
through the eyes of faith. He's telling us that the bondage
here is severed by the finished work of Christ. And he says,
cast out the bond woman. For the bond woman and the woman
of promise, their sons can't be heirs together. They can't
be heirs. It's either by grace or it's
by works. It's either by the law or it's
by the Lord finishing it. It's that simple. How do we cast
out the bondwoman? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
as all of our acceptance before God. That's how, that's how.
Turn with me to Romans chapter eight. I quote quite a few of these
verses all the time, but I wanted to show these to you because
he's dealing with the same thing. Romans 8 verse 1 we're going
to read 11 verses. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. A man or a woman reads that,
the first thing they're going to think is, OK, I need to walk
according to the Spirit. That's what the natural man would
think. But Paul doesn't say you have to do this or you have to
do that. He tells us what walking to the Spirit is in these verses
that we're going to read. Verse two, for the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. For what the law could not do
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is no subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. I want to stop there for a second.
What is he saying? Because right now he's talking
about the law, Then he's talking about walking according to the
spirit, not the flesh. Well, if you approach God in
the flesh, by what you do, by your works, it's going to be
the works of the law. And he's saying, no, you can't
do that. There's no flesh that can glory
in his presence. The flesh is enmity against God.
They that are in the flesh cannot please God. This is what he's
saying. He said, you must be spiritually minded. What does
that mean? How do I be spiritually minded? Does that mean I need
to see myself getting better? I need to start acting more churchy? Do I need to start acting like
clean up my life and make sure I'm a good example and all these
things? That's morality. And there's
nothing wrong with having good morals. It's just terrible to
have them for righteousness because it's not true. That's the problem
with men as we see things and think that that means something
doesn't mean anything in God's eyes. He said, no, be spiritually
minded. What does it mean to be spiritually minded? Look to
Christ. Look to Christ. Don't look at.
That's the point. Spiritually minded means that
you have the Lord's Spirit has been given to you. And that's
what he says. Well, let's just read that. Verse 10, and if Christ be in
you, the body is dead because of sin. Oh, I missed verse nine. I'm sorry, but ye are not in
the flesh, but in the spirit. So now he's telling us we already
are in the spirit. Do we see that? You're not in
the flesh, but you're in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. So to be spiritually minded
is not seeing yourself get better. It's not trying to be spiritually
minded. It's literally looking to Christ
as all your acceptance before God. It's to look to Christ in
everything, that he's all. That's what it means to be spiritually
minded. It doesn't mean that you're walking down the street
and you're trying to act spiritual. No, no, we don't do that. I don't
even know what that means. We look to Christ. We look to
his finished work. We're no longer carnally minded
thinking we can do something to please God. See, that's the
issue here. Being carnally minded means I've gotta do something
as part or evidence of my salvation. That's the problem in Galatians.
That is carnally minded and it's enmity against God. Spiritually
minded means that you're looking to Christ as all of your wisdom,
all of your righteousness, all your sanctification, all your
redemption, all your justification before God. That is spiritually
minded. That's the difference. Well,
how is it? How is it that we do that? How do we look to Christ? Well,
that's all by grace, isn't it? That's all by grace. This is
why we're free from the law. We're free from the penalty of
our sin. We're free from the, because he took our sin unto
himself and he put it all away. He fulfilled every jot and tittle
of the law. We're free from the law. So don't be carnally minded. The Lord said, you're not your
own, you're bought with a price. Don't try to please God by being
or by doing. Please God by resting on Christ
alone. God's pleased with that. He's
pleased with his son. And if he enables you to rest,
he's given you faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now go back to Galatians 4 with
me. Look, we'll read our text again,
27 through 31. "'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. "'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.
"'So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, "'but
of the free.'" The free woman here, The free woman is, well,
it's represented by Sarah. It's represented by Sarah. Sarah
is said to be from above, from above. So what do you think that
means? The church, it's the Lord's church. The glorious bride of
Christ adorned with his righteousness, crowned with his glory. That's
who the free woman is, is the church of the Lord. It's his
bride, it's his bride. And everyone that is born again,
is born from above, born out of the church, meaning out of
the gospel. The Lord births his people into
the glorious family of God, into the bride, if you will. That's
what all the church makes up. Actually, the literal translation
in John 3, when the Lord told Nicodemus, you must be born again,
John 3, 3, literally translates, you must be born from above. That's the literal translation.
It's in the margin. If you have a Bible, it has margins. That's
the literal translation. You must be born from above,
not born by the will of the flesh because that's not from above.
That's here on earth, not born by the will of man because that's
not from above. That's here on earth. That's
in the flesh. No, we have to be born from above
by his spirit, by his choice, by his power. That's how we are
born again. Nicodemus did not understand
when the Lord said, you must be born again. He asked him,
he said, how can a man, when he is old, enter into his mother's womb
a second time and be born? He was carnally minded, wasn't he?
Why? Because the Lord hadn't given
him faith at that point to believe Christ. At least it would appear
that way. We do know that the Lord did
give him faith eventually. He was one that helped take the
Lord off the cross. That was amazing, isn't it? But you must be born from above. So what'd the Lord tell him?
Well, how do you enter into your mother's womb a second time and
be born? He said, the wind bloweth where it listeth and thou cannot
tell from whence it comes and whether it goes. So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit of God. What does that mean? The Lord does it. You can't do
it, the Lord does it. And how does he do it? All by
grace, all by grace. He said, you must be born from
above. This is the work of God. It's not the work of man. This
is the operation of the Holy Spirit. He regenerates his chosen
people, his sinners who are dead and trespasses in sin. The scripture
says he makes them new creatures in Christ Jesus, new creatures,
completely new creatures, bearing his holy nature in the inward
man. You say, well, I can't see that
nature. It's on the inward man. It's spiritual. We can't. But
everything that's alive has a spirit. So if you have the spirit of
God in you, you have a new nature on the inside. That's just how
it is. This is why God's people are
not barren. When it says barren in verse
27, for it written, rejoice thou barren, that barest not, break
forth and cry thou that travailest not for the desolate, hath many
more children than she which hath a husband. No, the Lord's
people are not barren because we produce his fruit. All by
Him, He is the vine, we are the branches. We produce His fruit
by faith. Now we don't look to that fruit,
we don't see that fruit. We look to Christ, but everything
the Lord requires, He provides even in His people, even in His
people. We do, we produce the fruit that
He is pleased with. One of the scriptures says that
we're, His people are ordained unto good works. What does that
mean? That means the Lord's already purposed for you to do good works.
We just don't ever look at them, we don't see them. Because if
we start seeing them, then we'll say, okay, well, I've been doing
this and you've been doing that, so that means I'm better than you. Am I right?
Somebody would start bragging about what they do and pointing
fingers at somebody that doesn't do that. And that's not of the
Lord. That's why the Lord has left blinders upon us to ourself.
You know what he left us? Seeing that we are the sinner
and that he is the Savior and that it's his fruit and he gets
all the glory. If anything good comes out of us, it's him and
he gets all the glory. That's what we're made to see.
And how does he do that? All by grace. All by grace. Now, brethren, we don't look
to ourself. We become prideful. We look to
the author and finisher of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, all by
grace. Now, Paul ends this chapter by comparing being born by the
spirit and by the flesh. That's Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael,
as you know, was conceived not by the command of the Lord, it
was by the hand of Abraham and Sarah and the handmaid. Sarah
did not believe God and said, well, here, my handmaid, so you
can have the son, because I can't give you a son. And the Lord,
and Abraham, you heard me say this either last week or the
week before, which it amazes me that Abraham says unto the
Lord, Lord, just take Ishmael, let him be the heir. Like, you're
gonna negotiate with God, you understand? That was my thought
when I saw that. No, you can't negotiate with
God, he has a purpose. He has a purpose. We need to
remember that in our lives too, when the Lord, If the Lord closes
the door, seek his face. Don't try to push through it.
You might not want what's on the other side. Abraham got in
a situation where now he has a son finally that he loved,
but when the time came for God to give him the child of promise,
he had to cast that other son out because it was of the flesh. And he said it was hard on Abraham. It made him sorrowful was the
word that he knew we could imagine. And they're still fighting overseas
for that land. They still say they both want
to own it, don't they? Well, Paul's going back to the
two covenants again, the law and grace, bondage and freedom.
He's going back to works and rest. And there can be no mistake,
cast out the bondwoman. cast out the bond woman because
they cannot, that bond woman and the free woman, the children
of them, they cannot be heirs together. The Lord will not allow
us to mix law and mix grace. They don't mix. They don't mix. You know what he'll do for his
people? He'll make us cry out, it's all of grace. It's all by the Lord's grace
that we are what we are. So Paul said in one place, I
believe it was Paul, he said, by the grace of God, I am what
I am. The law no longer has dominion
over the elect. The law no longer has dominion
over the elect. Cast out the bondwoman. How?
Look to Christ. How do we receive anything of
the Lord? All by grace, but it comes through
Christ, doesn't it? All the blessings of God are
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not the will of the flesh,
it's only by the will of God and his purpose, his determined
counsel. that we look to Christ. It's by his grace that we look
to Christ. Looking to Christ is a gift. Everybody can't do
that. Only the Lord's people can do
that because they're looking with their natural eyes. They're
trying to find evidences in their natural state. They can't see
spiritually because they're spiritually dead. Until the Lord comes to
them and says, live, they'll never be able to see him. Somebody
told me the other day, they said, ever since I found Jesus, And
I thought to myself, I asked him, I said, where'd you find
him? He said, well, it was at this church. And I thought in my mind, I didn't
say it, but I thought, well, first of all, I didn't know he
was lost. Second of all, you can't find him. The scripture
literally says his ways are past finding out. We can't find him. He has to find us. He's not lost,
we are. We are. Now in closing, I want to give
us an allegory, well, it's a story of the Lord. And I want to be
so clear here. If I haven't been clear, I want
to make sure I'm as clear as I can be here. What do I mean
all by grace? I want to be as clear as I can
be. When I say all by grace, I mean it is absolutely 100%
all by grace that God's people are saved. It's not one thing
that we do. It's not one thing that we don't
do. It's all by grace and all for his glory. And we love it
that way. We love it that way. I want to be as clear as I can
on this. I want you to think about the thief on the cross,
the thief on the cross. He's there with the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has been
beaten. He's been spat upon. His beard has been picked out.
He's been the cat of nine tails. They hit him 40 times and that
tears flesh off the body. I mean, he was mutilated, crown
of thorns, his head's bleeding. I mean, he was mutilated. And
yet there was a man, one to his right and one to his left, two
men, and one was mocking him, saying, if you beat Christ, then
get us down from here. The other one said, you don't
know what you're talking about. He said, we deserve to be here
because of our sin. We deserve to be here. We're
guilty, but not this man. This man's done nothing amiss. And
he says these words to the Lord, remember me. when you come into
thy kingdom. Remember me when you come into
thy kingdom. And you know what the Lord said?
Today you will be with me in paradise. What theology did that
man know? What doctrine did that man know? What work had he done? Did he pray the sinner's prayer?
Did he kneel? He couldn't kneel, he was nailed
to a tree. If God would require one thing,
what could he have done? Nothing. Nothing, because God
does not require one thing from you. Did he give Jesus his heart? No. No. He needed a new heart. That's the problem. That's our
problem, isn't it, by nature? Remember me when you come into
your kingdom, today you will be with me in paradise. He saw
God by faith. Why? God gave him faith because
of his grace. All by grace. That's how that
man was saved. And we have the utmost confidence
of He is one of the men that you know is in glory, without
a doubt, because the Lord said it. There's two or three for
sure, maybe some more. One was the one that the Lord said, and
the Lord looked upon him, and loving him came to him. Well,
he's in glory. The Lord only loves one way,
and it's a perfect love. He loves his people. The Lord
don't love everybody, he loves his people. So if he loved him,
that means he's in glory as well. My point is, when he said, remember
me, When you come into your kingdom, the Lord said, today you'll be
with me in paradise. What could he have done? What
could he have done to please God in any way at that time?
Aren't you glad he doesn't require something from you? Doesn't require
anything from you. As a matter of fact, he gives
you that which he requires of you. It's called faith. You're
saved by grace through faith. And what does faith do? Faith
always looks to Christ because it comes from Christ and it always
glorifies the Lord. He gets the glory in all of it. If there would have been one
requirement the Lord required of this sinner, he would have been
hopeless to obey, but God only saves one way, not two, not three,
one way, all by grace. We are saved by grace, we are
called by grace, we are kept by his amazing grace. Don't look to self, don't attempt
to work to please God, look to Christ who did please God. You
and I can't please God, Christ did. Come to Christ. How is it
possible if you do come to Christ? It'll be all by grace, won't
it? It'll be all by grace. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take these words and bless it to our understanding.
In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.