Let us attend to two portions of God's Word, which is taken as a background for the text that we are looking at this Lord's Day, and that is found in Galatians 4 and verses 21 and following, but the two passages that I want to look at as preparation for that is found in the book of Genesis, and I want to take this passage that you probably know fairly
well about Abraham and the manner in which the promise is to be fulfilled. Abraham thought the promise could be filled naturally of fleshly means, and that the promise of the child that he would be the father of all the children of faith in all the nations would arise out of Hagar, the bond woman, and out of Ishmael, who became the father of all the Arab nations
actually and look at the problem we have got there. That was an illustration that the Apostle Paul is using, but in actual fact we can't reproduce true religion. It is supernaturally
brought about by God's hand alone, by the Spirit of God, and if we are just simply running the cultural gauntlet in religion, or if we are doing the things of the flesh, it might
be religion to you but not to God, and it is just a fabrication of the flesh. It is quite an unusual argument that the Apostle Paul raises here, because he actually uses
this as an allegory. Who knows what an allegory is? I know what an allegory is, but I studied this yesterday. An allegory is like a parable in a sense. What is a parable? It is an earthly
story with a heavenly meaning, isn't it? An allegory is something that is taken out of
real life, some act of God's providence, God's dealing with His people, and using that as
a picture to show a deeper spiritual truth, and that is what it is there. I understand
when you are working with Eastern people in religious things, they love to hear stories,
and they love to take stories and find pictures of revelation in the stories. If you are dealing
with Muslims particularly, they are far more reliant upon stories that have been passed
down from the fathers to the children, and things that God has done in the past as a
manner of teaching. We have a Greek background, far more reliant upon logic. If this is right,
then that must be right, that sort of thing, a logical sequence, and that is our culture,
but not for the Eastern mind. That is not so, and I will talk about that later on.
Well, David, would you like to help us out here? It is Chapter 16 and Chapter 17, but
not the earliest, some of the chapters there, going down to Chapter 17, yeah, the whole
two chapters. Let us open our Bibles to the portion of
Scripture that we are up to in the book of Galatians. We are up to Galatians Chapter
24 and verse 21. Last Lord's Day we were looking at the previous verses, and we were
urged to not turn aside to weak and beggly things,
and that is basically that which is the origin of the flesh rather than the spirit. Walking
back into Judaism, if you like, back into the law, rather than into the spirit where
the gospel is there, meeting our very need supernaturally.
Now here in this portion that we find the Apostle Paul having dealt so deeply of the
place of the law within the Christian's life, within the gospel, and he now establishes
the supernatural basis of the life, of that new life that we have in Christ. And it is
something that only God can do. It is something that is essentially that sovereign work of
God's grace that is able to work within the hearts of everyone that comes to faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, not to some kind of elite, select group of people. But everyone
who names the name of Christ can only explain their lives in terms of God, the God who lives,
the God who has entered into their lives. It is not something that has been culturally
borrowed from our parents, or something that we have been able to rise above the masses
of the flesh and somehow become an elite person because we are inwardly furnished with natural
gifts that others haven't got. If that was so, we would be like any other religion. But
we would be those that understood that this gospel that has come into our lives has turned
us away from our condition of death. When a person is dead, he is motionless. If I had
a person dead in the front here like this, it would be a pretty awful sort of sight,
sort of weird and a little bit uncomfortable with such a dead person. The thing that really
would get us stirred up and really would frighten us is if that dead person started to stir
the life again. That would be spooky, wouldn't it? But that is what has happened to us when
we became new creatures in Christ. That is what happened to us when we began to put our
faith in the One who had risen from the dead and we rise with Him from the dead. See, Christianity,
in the biblical sense of the word, is a life and death issue. It is a matter that only
God can bring dead people to life. Before that, we were walking corpses. We were people
that basically were separated from God and there is no life within us to be able to live
with God. We could live with this earth for three score and ten years if we are lucky,
we haven't been bowled over by a car or shot with a gun, or cause some kind of disease
has come upon us. But in and of the flesh there is a 100% mortality rate in the human
race, but not in the spirit. There is a select group of people that have risen from the dead
and walk with God both materially in this earth and also immaterially and eternally
with God in heaven. That is the point I want to raise today. The Christian life is something
that is utterly supernatural. It is above the natural order of things. And that is what
new life in Christ has given us. Now, the Apostle Paul develops this argument from a
very ancient work of God that goes right back some 4000 years into history. He says, Tell
me you who desire to be the law, he is speaking to the Galatians and people who want to live
it safe rather than live it by faith, do you not hear the law? You heard what the law says.
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond woman and the other by a
free woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born according to the flesh. Now if you
remember the story, Abraham who was nigh on 199 years old, he was right out of it. He was not
going to have any more children. And poor old Sarah was nearly, it was 99 years old. Not 199,
but both about the same age. And have you heard of anybody having a baby at 99 years old? No, no,
no. See how impossible it was, even in those days it was impossible. And then Sarah, his wife,
who is a very beautiful woman apparently, said look, according to the customs of the people
around us, if a man hasn't had his son from his natural wife, they would take their maiden that
they were very close to, they were part of the household, and he would have sex with her, and
have a child by the handmaiden. And that was the custom of the day. Because there is nothing more
shocking not to have children in those days. Nothing more important because the family name
was to be carried through the sons. And that was very important to them. And therefore they
followed the custom, he had a child, and the result of that child was, he loved him very
greatly, was Ishmael. And Ishmael was the leader of a great nation, 12 great nations in the end.
And he had also a free woman through the promise. Now the promise came from the covenant. A covenant
is that agreement between God and his people. And he said specifically that the promise would
have that kind of organic continuity from his own child. And it would come through his wife,
not through a bondwoman. And for this to happen, now that his wife was that old, it had to be the
hand of God to do it. The old man might have it in him, but the woman did not have it in her. It
was just out of the question. She was well and truly beyond the years of childbearing. And it
was impossible. But God said, I can raise children even from the dead. That's what he's saying,
basically. A dead womb even. I can produce this child. And the extraordinary thing was that she
did bear a son at her old age. And everyone around her was just sort of, wow. It was amazing.
Even laughed at her a bit. But when it came about, this was the most extraordinary thing. But it was
all bound up. Because the whole life of Abraham was bound up. He left the Ur of the Chaldees
according to the word of God, according to the promise. He kept his faith upon the God who had
led him out. He'd entered into a covenant with God. God said certain things that could only ever
be fulfilled by God. And one of those things was that he was going to have a child. And it had to
be supernaturally conceived. And it was supernaturally conceived. He did have a child,
and that child was Isaac. And he goes on, he says, all these things were symbolic
of a spiritual truth. He says, which things are symbolic? For these things are two covenants.
The one of Mount Sinai, which happens some 500 years later, when they entered into a covenant
here, and which gave birth to the bond, which is Hagar, that is the bond woman. And for this Hagar
is Mount Sinai. Now see the logic that's being used here? It's not the sort of logic we're
thinking of in the West as being sound logic. And we might say to ourselves, well,
this is really pushing the envelope a little bit. But not to them. This was cogent argument,
very theological, very carefully chosen words to explain the revelation of God,
and to convince his hearers that there is no doubt about what is God's intent here.
And he says, for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem,
which is now, and is in bondage with her children. So now he's bringing in another
symbol in. He's using Hagar, he's using Mount Sinai, where the law was given,
he is using Jerusalem, that Jesus himself wept over, oh Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem,
I would have gathered your children, but now you're under the judgment of God. He was speaking
about the physical Jerusalem that was under the judgment of God. And in AD 70 what happened to it,
it was completely obliterated. And only the people of God, the Jewish people have come back
since 1948. So it's a long period of God's judgment over that city.
And he says, but the Jerusalem that is above, that is the Jerusalem of God's people, that is
that city of God that came down from above, that he speaks about in the book of Revelation,
is a spiritual entity made without hands, built with a master builder that is God himself.
Now these earthly reminders, or these earthly symbols, refer to a greater reality in heaven
itself, called the New Jerusalem, if you like. So it's another symbol that he's bringing in here
to explain these things.
For it is written, Rejoice, O barren, referring to the old Jerusalem, you who do not bear,
break forth and shout, he's quoting from the Old Testament, actually he's quoting from Isaiah here,
you who do not labour, for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.
Now let me just recap here. There are two sons of Abraham, and Paul has been arguing for the right
use of the law. And very often we find in our own day that the law of God is either disregarded or
overused in a manner that's not appropriate. And he has said concerning these Galatian Christians
who he saw converted in Galatia as Gentiles, he said, I know that you came to know the Lord,
but some have come amongst you and have twisted the word and have led you back to Judaism.
You're going back to the law and you're using the law in a manner that is of the flesh rather than
of the spirit. And he goes on, he says, the source of life does not come from the law,
it comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, God himself. He said, if you put your faith in the law,
cannot possibly live according to it. But if you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is righteousness himself, which is what the law is trying to express, the righteousness of God,
he says, at this point, you will live because he's given you the life to be able to live
a righteous life that will not only do what the law requires, but do everything the law couldn't
describe that man could do. The spirituality of the law could be achieved. And to do this,
you need to be supernatural. You need to live above the natural. You need to live
with God in these things. Walk by the spirit, if you like.
Now, he has said that the law in chapter 3 and verse 10, the law declares the curse of God.
In other words, it can only act as a monument over the top of our grave. This man
lived and died. That's all I can say. And he lived and died according to the just standards of God.
And also, he's been pushing very heavily that all man's works of the law
fall short of the righteousness of God. Now, I know that many of you are a lot better than me.
Some of you have done very well, actually. But the fact is, you're not perfect.
Because the perfect standard of God's law is righteous. And any variation from that law
is a fracture in your life. And that's the point. I remember raising this at work with all my pagan
workmates. And they really get stuck into me. And it gives me wonderful opportunity just to
lay the law of God out. And I said, well, Richard, who can be saved when you speak like that?
And I said, with God, with man, it's impossible. But with all things are possible with God,
I say to them. They shake their heads, oh, too deep, sir. Too deep. And then they dismiss me
as being some religious crank. I say, well, I'll wait until next time you have a conscience
and you want to want some kind of word upon it. Now, the only thing I can say is that
now the only way in which to get righteousness is to trust in God. That's the only way.
To trust in God. Not trust in ourselves any longer, because we can't do it. But trust in God.
And trusting in God gives us the gift of righteousness. And Abraham is, by faith,
the manner in which he came to know faith. Well, he came to know faith by grace, didn't he?
By grace, the grace of God, the undeserving love of God toward us.
And so the law of God in this case has been added to us to increase the transgression,
to make us realize that we are sinners of sinners. And we must know that in our heart of hearts,
not some sort of intellectual thing, so generally, oh, I'm a sinner like everyone else.
But you come to a conviction in your heart that I've offended the holy God and his
righteous judgment should be poured out on my soul and on my life.
I'm in the hands of a God that I'm not right with. That's what it really says.
Now, coming to that conclusion, then there is only one way for us to flee to one who can help us.
And there is a one who has been provided for us that can help us. For anyone who comes
to Christ shall be saved. That's what it says. Quite easy, quite straightforward.
No is me or buts me. It is something that God unconditionally promises to anyone who comes.
Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not might be saved,
but shall be saved. And that's the promise that God himself places his whole integrity up against.
So the Galatians had believed in Christ, but the thing that was troubling the Apostle Paul
was that they had turned away and they had been bewitched.
And you should not obey that they should not obey the truth.
Now this is what legalism does. It enters into a congregation
and they fail to live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and their desire is to come under the law
again because somehow that is safe. It's safer to be in the routine of religious life rather
than living by faith that requires a lot of uneasy steps of faith that just makes us feel very
exposed. That's what life of faith is like. We feel very exposed. It's very adventurous,
but if you're not the adventurous type, the tendency is that we want to go into the routine
of safe old religion. And if we're not doing that, if we're doing that,
then the likelihood is that we've been turning away from the faith. Because walking with Christ
is a very nerve-wracking thing at times because we're not in control of it ourselves.
It is Christ that's in control of it. And therefore we find ourselves sort of shrieking
from that kind of precipice type of lifestyle and we try to take it safe.
And so we come to the religious norms of our church. And we come to church quite regularly,
but we don't do anything, we don't expect anything to happen in our lives spiritually.
Because we are legalistic. Now you can be legalistic at all ends of the church life.
Whether you're a Pentecostal, whether you're a stultified Presbyterian or a Baptist or whatever
it is, you can still be legalist because if you're not living by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you are not walking in the supernatural walk of God.
Paul employs this allegory to illustrate it because he says it is not the basis of
our kind of argument, but we find that Abraham is a central figure within the Jewish
identity. Being an Israelite means basically you are a child of Abraham.
And this was so with John the Baptist. Remember John the Baptist when the Pharisees and the
Sadducees came to be baptised. He says, you brood of vipers, who has warned you of the wrath to come?
Why do you want to be baptised and cleansed from your sin? And he said because we are the children
of God. He says God is able to raise the children of Abraham up from dust if he wants to.
You can't do anything about that. And so it's very heavily in the psychology of the Jewish people.
In chapter 8 of John's Gospel, Jesus encountered the same sort of thing. We are the children of
Abraham. He says you're not the children of Abraham because you don't live by faith.
If you live by faith like Abraham lived by faith, you would accept me and you would find who I
really was. If you're living by faith, you live by faith. You live by faith in your religion,
not in God at all. That's what he's saying.
And Paul insists of the denying outright that the Galatians were deserting the faith of Abraham
and they were living by another standard which he called the faith of Hagar and that you were
coming under the law, you were not living according to the righteousness of law which
the Spirit of God would have to complete in their lives. So this contrast that we have here is very,
very useful to us. Hagar, she was an Egyptian handmaiden and we saw that Sarah who was the
chosen wife of Abraham was barren but she was known as the free woman in this allegory.
And according to the ancient law, this whole thing would have been affecting the status
of her child, her son's status. So it's very important to realise that any child she got
from Hagar would have been not entirely the son of Abraham or the son of that covenant family
in that sense. Now Ishmael who was born accordingly to the flesh, in other words,
it was quite permissible and quite easy for this to happen and quite normal for this to happen
in the day and the culture that they lived in but it was basically man's solution to a very
difficult problem. It wasn't God's solution. God's solution was something that God only could do
and so in the fullness of time, according to the covenant, Isaac was born from the very loins of
of Sarah and she was completed in this whole thing. So we find that
Isaac was a miracle child, you know, to put it bluntly, the child of the promise
that it was described of in the scriptures. And it was the genuine fulfilment of the covenant
that they would find redemption in none other than what God revealed in this promised family.
So we find that the covenant under Sinai was a covenant of bondage,
to use these melding of of illustrations, but the new covenant in Christ would be cut in Calvary
upon the cross of Jesus Christ and that is described for us in Hebrews chapter 8,
if we read that later on. And then he sort of, with his kaleidoscope of of illustrations and
everything almost as though we can't even follow them ourselves, he then brings another thing in
about the city of God, Jerusalem. And we find that this city, though it had a purpose in God's
God's economy, was a city whose children were in bondage. But we find in the book of Revelation
that the new Jerusalem, that is the Jerusalem from above, we find that the bride of the Lamb's wife,
the great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven, is free.
Now that's the kind of argument that's not used to our thinking in a Western culture,
but it is taking the providence of God as he discloses and reveals his intentions to us
that is just as valid, in fact a probably more valid way of looking at the truth of God,
than using the idea of logic which is so Greek in its conception. There's nothing absolute about
logic either, but there's something absolute about the providence of God in Revelation.
In one sense this kind of argument weighs greater foundation to truth than even our view of logic.
Now the plea here is found in verses 27 and he says,
And then he goes on and he says,
So this is where the sting comes into the tail of his argument.
But we, now he's looking beyond the cross, this side of Calvary, and he draws this allegory out
and he says,
It is a staggering thing that when Jesus came in his earthly pilgrimage in the days of his flesh,
that he had no place within the superstructure and the whole religious makeup of Israel.
They had the law of God, they had the temple, they had the Jerusalem, they had the whole land.
They were people that were expressing what they knew as biblical faith.
And yet all that nation, except for a few, accepted Jesus indeed at the end.
They so persecuted Christ, they said crucify him, crucify him.
They didn't say let us consider his argument or let us consider what he is saying.
They said crucify him.
And if they chose to deal with the Son of Man or the Son of God in this way, how much more
who are born of the Spirit shall be persecuted by those inside the church that are under legalism.
I find within the Church of Jesus Christ today two kinds of people.
And it's often made very clear by the responses those people have to each other.
Those who are born again of the Spirit, those that seek to live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
those that take God's Word at faith's value and obey it, I tell you, you will be hounded
from pillar to post even by religious people inside the church because they hate what you stand for.
They are children of Hagar, they are children of the bondage and they cut us off.
And you'll be known by your love for the brethren.
Now this doesn't mean to say all the people that profess Christianity was inside the church.
There are the sheep and the goats in the church.
There are tares and wheat inside the church.
There are the children of Hagar and the children of Isaac inside the church.
And woe betide us if we have turned aside and joined ranks with the children of Hagar,
to use this illustration.
For me to even hold to some kind of biblical principle inside the church will mean that
I will have to defend it among those who are professing Christians.
And they will exclude me and exclude you if you are genuinely of the Spirit
and walking by the Spirit.
They will take you as being somebody who is narrow.
They will take you as being somebody who is some kind of bigot.
They will give you all sorts of terms.
They who are legalistic will call you legalistic.
They who hate the truth will begin to say that you who do have the truth
will talk you down and diminish you in any opportunity they have.
Such is this kind of separation.
God said, and the Lord Jesus said,
I did not come to bring peace, but I came to bring a sword.
And sometimes even those that are under our own household resent and hate the children of faith.
And you'll find that that is often the case.
Don't be disturbed when others who are professing Christians,
they might say we are more liberally minded than you.
We are those that, yes, we don't believe in the Word of God entirely,
particularly on the current issues, let's say, of women's ordination or of homosexuality.
I can't believe that we're debating that these days.
Or what kind of movies that we should be watching,
or whether we should be doing things that should be so antithetical to the world
that we decline to be involved in them.
They say to you, get a life.
I say to them, you ain't got life.
I say to them, you ain't got life.
That's why you want to bask in the inventions of this world rather than the glories of heaven.
And this is what was the case.
There was a conflict between the two women and the two children
who were inside the house of God.
And remember, in God's grace, the sign of covenant was applied not only to Isaac,
but also to Ishmael, in God's grace.
And yet, it'll be only the children of promise that will find the covenant blessings of God.
So, be sure.
Where do you lie yourself?
Where do we really hold our faith in our hearts?
The day will come when those who are genuine Christians,
you will reject if you have not really come to Christ.
You will do it in many ways.
Initially, you will become irritated with preachers that preach the truth of God and hold to the gospel.
And then one day, you will become so angry that you will disgrace yourself before God in the end
because of your opposition to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That happens.
That happens.
Pastors who are genuine evangelical Bible-believing pastors all over this country
have got so many wounds because of behaviour inside the church.
I have far better relationships with people in my pagan place of work that I work at each day.
They respect me, but I come inside the church and I find people that are so intent
on landing a few on me that it's amazing.
And this is the explanation for it.
We shouldn't be caught by surprise because the Christian life is a lie.
That is first and foremost a work of God.
We are the creation of God.
We are new creatures in Christ and anything less than that is merely a substitute
and therefore we need to avoid it.
And remember, the easiest way to resolve that is