We pray for blessings, we pray for peace. Comfort for family, protection while we sleep. We pray for healing, for prosperity. We pray for your mighty hand to ease our suffering. All the while you hear each spoken need, but love us way too much to give us lesser things. What if your blessings come through raindrops? What if your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near? And what if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, your voice to hear. We cry in anger when we cannot feel you near. We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love. As if every promise from your word is not enough. All the while you hear each desperate plea, and long that we'd have faith to believe. What if your blessings come through raindrops? What if your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near? And what if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win we know. The pain reminds this heart, this is not, this is not our home. It's not our home. What if your blessings come through raindrops? What if your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near? What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst? This world can't satisfy. And what if trials of this life, the rain, the storms, the hardest nights are your mercies in disguise?

Thank you, Doug and Ashley, for that wonderful song and encouragement. Good morning to everybody. Looks like winter's going to come this week, so if you're not ready, you've got a few days. It's coming.

I wanted to reiterate for the Thanksgiving dinner, if anybody would like to give a testimony or if they want to share scripture or a song, please let us know. We're just going to be informal in that and have our own people. We're not going to have set entertainment, but Jake's taking care of the songs and music and then there'll be opportunity if you'd like to do something like that.

Well, we're continuing our study in the book of Galatians, and last time we were in the book of Galatians a couple weeks ago, we began to study this marvelous passage in Galatians 4:21 to 31, an incredible illustration by the Apostle Paul in his attempt to make clear to the believers there by contrast between law and grace, between life by the letter and life by the spirit, between the bondage of the law covenant versus freedom in Christ by faith in a new covenant, their need to hold fast to their confession, to the gospel that they had believed and to reject the false teachers.

Paul's appealing to the believers to reject those teachers, those who would place the law of Moses on them as a rule of life, and he's asking them to hold fast to the gospel they had received when Paul first came to them. Well, they had heard the gospel message through Paul's ministry and had come to faith. They had been growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Paul said they were running well, but someone came in with false teaching, these legalistic Jews from Jerusalem called Judaizers because they wanted to Judaize the Gentile believers. They wanted to require them to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses as a way of life, a way of sanctification.

In Galatians 3:1, Paul said, “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” 

We discussed last time that this heteros, this different gospel that these teachers were preaching was not void of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ nor of faith in Him, but it was an adding of works of law to grace and faith. And this is the exact same message we see in mainline Christian denominations today. And I like to describe this again as a sort of progressive justification, I hope you understand that.

Biblically, under the true gospel that Paul preached, justification happens in a moment of time, instantaneously, when the heart turns to the Lord. When you turn from religion, from self-righteousness, from law-keeping, to Christ alone and place your faith in Him alone and what He accomplished on the cross in our place, you are saved, you are justified. And God wants us to know that we are saved. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 5:13, “I write you these things so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe on the name of the Lord Jesus.” And in Romans 8, Paul says, “Those whom He justifies, He also glorifies.” We have present possession, eternal life.

But for the mainline Christian denominations today and for the Judaizers here in Galatia, there is no knowing. There is no confidence of salvation. In fact, some teach that to say that you know that you are saved is the sin of presumption. You can never know if you are saved because justification is a lifelong process whereby you are seeking to atone for your sins by good works and sacraments and penance. Jesus did not accomplish your salvation fully and finally on the cross, but you must contribute your good works and suffering to, I quote from their doctrine, “what was lacking in the cross of Christ.” You must keep the law, participate in religious rituals, and seek to please God, hoping that your works are good enough to earn a spot in heaven. But this is bad news. It's bad news for religious people. Your works are not good enough. Your sacraments can't save you. Jesus paid it all. 

Jesus satisfied the wrath of God for my sins and yours and those of the whole world, and God showed that He was satisfied by raising Jesus from the dead. And He tells us so clearly in His Word that the only way that we can be righteous, remember Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, “You must be perfect as God in heaven is perfect in order to enter the kingdom of heaven,” the only way that we can be righteous, the only way we can be justified and know that we have eternal life is to receive His very righteousness by faith in Jesus alone in His substitutionary death in my place for my sins on the cross of Calvary. He said it is finished. And He paid the debt for my sin.

The Judaizers preached Christ. They preached faith in Christ. But they also said that you must keep the law of Moses to be saved. And Paul said, “Anyone who preaches another gospel, let them be anathema, cursed to hell.” This is the Galatian heresy. And it is the heresy that still consumes myriads of people today, keeping them from the true gospel and salvation through faith in Jesus.

So in our text this morning, we pick up where we left off in Paul's illustration of the law, Sinai, bondage versus grace, Zion, freedom from sin and death and hell through faith in Christ. And up to this point in the letter, Paul has spoken plainly, clearly, forcefully concerning the gospel and the place of the law in the life of the believer. But here he goes deep with an Old Testament illustration to try one last time to make his salient vital point clear, that the law is not the way to life, nor is the law the way of life. Salvation is by grace through faith alone in Jesus alone from justification to sanctification to glorification.

The hymns that we sang this morning, I noticed some of the wording there, the people that wrote those hymns, even though it may have been hundreds of years ago, understood this perfectly in Rock of Ages when it says, “save from wrath and make me pure,” right? It's the blood of Christ, it's His sacrifice, it's His life in us, it's His grace that saves me from His wrath and it's His grace that makes me pure. 

Look at our text with me in Galatians 4:21, please. Galatians 4:21, “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise. Which things are symbolic? For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, 'Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear. Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.' Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what does the Scripture say? 'Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.' So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free."

We have five points on your outline this morning. First, do you hear the law? Second, a divine illustration. Third, flesh versus spirit. Fourth, religious persecution. And fifth, cast out the bondwoman. We studied our first couple of points last time and touched on the third, but I want to spend a little time in review before we move on. 

Paul starts by saying, “You who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?” And we've gone over the germane Scriptures many times in recent months in the course of our studies, but it's clear in passages like Matthew 5, Romans 7, 2 Corinthians 3, 1 Timothy 1, and many more, that the law is no longer binding as a rule of life for the believer, that we do not live by the law, but that we live by the Spirit. And we have discussed how some in Christian circles attempt to make these passages and this book of Galatians only about the ceremonial and civil laws of Israel, but I do not think they have any basis in the Scripture for doing this. 

We've seen in every one of these passages where Paul teaches that we're no longer under the law, that the law is not the way of life or the way to life, that he mentions the moral law specifically. And even here in our text in this illustration, Paul uses Sinai as his representation of the giving of the law, as does the author of Hebrews in chapter 12. He uses images like the law engraved on stones in 2 Corinthians 3 when he says we are no longer ministers of the letter, but of the new covenant, and we find no sufficiency in ourselves, but our sufficiency is wholly and totally from God. 

He calls the law a ministry of death, of condemnation. He says that the law can only bring wrath. In Romans 7, he mentions "thou shalt not covet" as the law that killed him, brought death to him, the law that we have died to and are no longer under, the letter by which we no longer live, but now we bear fruit to God by the Spirit. The law demands perfection, but it gives no power to keep it; it only demands that we keep it perfectly. Thus, the law can only bring wrath because we cannot keep it perfectly. 

Remember in Galatians 3, which is mentioned in other places as well in the Scriptures, “If there could have been a law given which could have given life, then surely righteousness would have been by the law.” But the problem was... dwelled in us and dominated us and controlled us so that we could not keep the law. That's why in Romans 8 it says what the law could not do and that it was weak in the flesh, God did. 

You who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Look at Paul's conclusion to his teaching in chapter 4 beginning at Galatians 5:1. Galatians 5:1 he says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing, and I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love.” 

If you choose circumcision, if you choose the law, Sinai, the Ten Commandments as your way of life, then Paul says you are required to keep the whole law. This would seem to sit in contrast to a division of the law into civil, ceremonial, and moral. You are either under law or under grace according to Romans 11:6. The two are mutually exclusive. If it is of grace, Paul says, then it is no longer of works. My friends, it's not that we do not highly regard and value and desperately seek after holiness in our lives. It's not that we are antinomian as we are accused by some. We are not against the law. Paul was not against the law. The law is good if one uses it lawfully for what God intended. And the fact is that it was never intended to provide a way of sanctification to holiness. God has a much better way: grace, faith, regeneration, Christ's life in us. 

Turn over to 1 Timothy 1 with me, please. 1 Timothy 1 at verse 3. Paul's writing to Timothy in Ephesus. He's having some issues down there as the pastor. He has some legalists there as well. And Paul says in verse 3, “I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine.” And he says no other doctrine referring to the gospel of grace. Only teach the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ, no other doctrine. Nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. 

How are we gonna have edification? Growth in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, from sincere faith. The purpose of the commandment of the gospel from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be the teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, manslayers, fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. 

Timothy, teach them grace. And later in Titus he says that grace teaches us to deny ungodliness. Teach them grace, don't start putting law on them and getting them all tangled up again in that yoke of bondage. The way to holiness is by grace through faith in Jesus alone, abiding in Him, believing Him, loving one another as New Command, New Covenant commands. This life is based in regeneration, what God has done in salvation in us, and His life and power lived out through us as we walk by faith, as we are filled with the Spirit, as we let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly.

I've told you the story before about when the three young Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door, young men, and I asked them, “What must I do to please God? What do I have to do to get to the good place?” And he started to recite the Ten Commandments to me. “You must keep the law,” he said. So I asked them, “How's it going for you? How are you doing with that, keeping the law?” “Well, I'm trying.” No, you didn't say you had to try. You said you had to keep the law. I wonder sometimes if we don't need to ask the same question to some of our Christian brothers today, those who desire to be under the law as a rule of life. 

“Do you not hear the law?” Paul said to the believers there in Galatia, “Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”

And Paul gives us a divine illustration here in our text to try to really drive home his point one more time. Verse 22, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise.” Paul's been talking about that all the way through this epistle in Galatians 3 especially. Flesh, works, law versus promise. He says, “Which things are symbolic? For these are the two covenants, the old and the new, Sinai, the new covenant, the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage which is Hagar, for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children, but the Jerusalem above is free which is the mother of us all.”

Well, God made a promise to Abraham. He promised him a great nation from his loins as the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea, but the problem was Abraham had no children. And this promise was the promise of the Christ through his seed as we've seen so clearly in Galatians 3. God made the promise to Abraham and Sarah when they were very old. Remember Abraham was a hundred and Sarah was ninety when the promise was fulfilled. So the promise was given and Abraham believed God. 

I want you to go back to Romans 4 with me because that's such an instructive passage, Romans 4 verse 13, as Paul discusses this. He writes, “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect.” Look at verse 14. What's the message here from the Judaizers? What's the message that we hear today from so many that call themselves Christians? That yes, it's faith, but it's also law. What does Paul say here? “If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath, for there's no law, there's no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Who contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be.'” 

Now look at Abraham's response in verse 19, “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform.” 

The point in Paul's illustration in our text is that Isaac came by supernatural grace, by promise, but there was a great deal of time that passed between the promise and the realization of that promise. And in that time, Sarah doubted. She doubted so much so that she convinced Abraham to have a child with her Egyptian slave Hagar, and that child was Ishmael. 

Verse 23 of our text, it says, “But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise.” And these two things are symbolic of the Old and the New Covenant. I hope you're seeing this, I hope you're excited about this. Are you following Paul's illustration? 

When Sarah doubted the promise of God, she sought to bring about the will of God through the works of the flesh by her own effort. She sought by her own works, by her flesh, to bring about the will of God rather than by his grace through promise. She sought to bring about the will of God through natural means, rather than God bringing about his will through supernatural means. And Paul says Hagar is Sinai in this illustration, is the Law of Moses, the Old Covenant, and represents bondage. This is the very message of law in the Christian life. 

Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Are you trying to accomplish holiness in your life by your own efforts, your own means, by law-keeping? Or are you trusting in the supernatural promise and provision of the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit as you walk by faith? 

Turn over to Ephesians 3 with me, please. Ephesians 3:14. I want you to see God's plan for bringing about fruit in our lives and glory for Himself. Ephesians 3:14, Paul says, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” 

Here we see God's plan for his glory in the church by Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit imparts strength to our inner man. Where does this come from? Out of the riches of his glory. God's bank account. Okay? By his grace. He imparts strength to our inner man by faith. Christ dwells in our hearts. How? By faith. We are rooted and grounded in love. Jesus has settled down at home in us and is fully functional through us, living his life in and through us as we walk by faith. 

And we see the supernatural fruit of the Spirit, which is love, manifest in our lives. Love for God, love for men, which is the fulfillment of the whole law. And who is it that is able to accomplish this fruit of holiness in our lives? Now to him, now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us. And in this, he gets all the glory.

Is the will of God accomplished by our power, by the flesh as we seek to keep the law, or is it accomplished by his supernatural power and life in us as we look to him, abide in him, and seek his face? That's the point of Paul's illustration with Sarah and Hagar here. Ishmael was a product of the flesh, seeking to accomplish the will of God by the law, by works, by the flesh. But Isaac was the child of promise, by God's supernatural means. That's why he waited until they were 100 years old. There's no question, right? Sarah laughed. It was by grace, it was by God's power that Isaac came, the promise came, and the lineage came, and Christ came. 

The application to the Christian life is obvious. The application to the law as a rule of life for the Christian believers is obvious. We cannot be made perfect, mature, sanctified by the law. 

Now let's consider our next point in our text, religious persecution. This is really interesting. Verse 28, “Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.” 

Well, Paul makes an amazing statement here, so poignant and so undeniable, yet so condemning. Hagar represents Sinai, and the offspring of Hagar, Ishmael represents the flesh, self-righteous religion. And what does Paul say here? From this very time, it is the son of the bondwoman that persecutes the son of promise. And he says, it is to this day, we could say that day throughout history. Who is it that persecuted the sons of promise, the true believers, those who stand in grace? It's the legalist, it's the religious man. 

This was true in Paul's day, it was the legalist Jew who held the Word of God, who was of the chosen nation of Israel, to whom belonged the covenants and the promises, as Paul says in Romans 9. It was the Pharisees and Sadducees that sought the life of Jesus. It was the Judaizers who relentlessly pursued Paul and wanted him dead. 

And this was true of the Roman Church all through the Dark Ages, persecuting, burning at the stake, drowning the true believers, called heretics, because they did not seek righteousness by baptism and law-keeping. And what about the Reformation? Read of the persecution of the Anabaptists, the Waldensians, the Dantetists, the true church that existed through that time. The false church, particularly those who named the name of Christ, has been the greatest persecutor of the true church throughout history. 

And even in the Muslim sphere, we have seen the sons of Ishmael persecute the children of promise. Paul says, “But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.” And as we look forward, Revelation 18, and we look at, it's going to be established religion that is the great persecutor of the true church. Fascinating. 

Well finally, we see the conclusion, the application of Paul's illustration here in our last point, cast out the bondwoman. Verse 30, “Nevertheless what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” 

The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. The one who seeks justification by the works of the law, even though he preaches the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, even though he says a lot of holy things and quotes the Bible, even though many of them are just very nice people, the one who seeks justification by the works of the law will perish in the lake of fire. You who seek to justify yourselves by the works of the law have fallen away from the principle of grace, Paul says. 

So the son of the bondwoman will not be heir. Romans 9:30, Paul says, “Why didn't the Jews find righteousness? Because they sought it by the works of the law, but the Gentiles found it, why? Because they sought it by faith.” Remember, it was not just that the false gospel is leading the lost on their way to hell. This false gospel was also confusing, troubling those who were believers who were already justified by grace through faith in Jesus alone. There was confusion in the church. 

Do you see any confusion in the church today concerning this? Do believers understand that those who teach faith plus works are false churches, false teachers, ministers of Satan? Do the believers in the evangelical church today understand that those who are trapped in these false churches, these false doctrines, need to hear the truth, need to be evangelized? And how many true believers have become confused about the Christian life by this message of law and works for salvation or for sanctification? 

Paul wants to be clear about the gospel; he wants to reject and condemn the false teachers. But his great concern in this letter, now listen, wake up, wake up, his great concern in this letter is for true believers to get the true gospel and its implications in the Christian life straight. 

And what is his exhortation here? “Cast out the bondwoman.” What is the bondwoman? Hagar, Sinai, the law, the Old Covenant, and it represents bondage. Cast out the bondwoman and rather stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. How has He made us free? He's made us free from law and sin and death and now we can live in righteousness and holiness and we can be a witness to the world and show the transforming power of the gospel and bring glory to God. 

Praise the Lord, He's made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Paul said earlier in the epistle, “If I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. How did He make us free? By grace through faith. Stand fast in grace. Live by the supernatural power of God's grace and promise. 

You know, they had a meeting about this up in Jerusalem and the great Apostle Peter came to the same conclusion as Paul here in Galatians 5:1. In Acts 15:10 he said, “Now therefore why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” Remember, it was Peter who had become confused along with Barnabas because of the false gospel and Paul had to withstand him to his face because he was to be blamed. 

One of the greatest statements in this letter is found there in chapter 2. Remember that issue, Peter and Barnabas were fellowshipping with the Gentiles, they were having a great time enjoying the grace of God and their freedom in Christ and their common bond with the Gentile believers, but when the Judaizers came and started preaching law, Peter and Barnabas withdrew themselves from the brethren. And Paul says in verse 14, “When I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, when men seek to put the law on the believer as a way of life, a rule of life, that man is not being straightforward about the gospel.” 

He's clouding things up, trying to mix the old with the new. The old has become obsolete. For the believer, the law has served its purpose in leading us to faith in Jesus. We are no longer under a tutor. We now live by the Spirit, under grace, experiencing righteousness by the life and power of Christ in us, by the very power that raised him from the dead. By faith, the just shall live by faith. 

I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me by faith. Don't seek to put yourself under the law for holy living. It was never intended for this purpose. Cast out the bondwoman and embrace the new covenant truth of who you are in Christ, of the great and profound mercies of God found in the truths of your regeneration and death with Christ, to sin and law and death itself, and present your bodies a living sacrifice to God, which is your reasonable service. 

My friends, believe Jesus and love one another and stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the gospel, we thank you for grace, we thank you that you designed the only way for man to be saved, for you to remain just and be the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Thank you that Jesus took the full penalty for our sins, the sins of the world, and that through faith in Him we can receive your righteousness and be fit for heaven. 

And thank you that you have caused us to become alive, that you've regenerated us and made us new in our spirit, and that you yourself live in us to empower us. Thank you that we're new men and we can live new lives for your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.