Good evening. It's a pleasure and a privilege to be back with you this year. It's good to be in the South. I live in Louisville, Kentucky. They think it's the South. It ain't the South, because they wouldn't say it ain't the South. And I know this by their tea, about what they call barbecue up there. We know better, don't we? So it's good to be here with you this year again. to talk about something near and dear to my heart, Baptist and covenant theology. And it's like, as Pastor Jake said, who would have thought it? It seems like such an unnatural union, but we know it's not. So take your Bibles, please, and turn with me in God's word to Galatians chapter four. We'll be looking tonight at verses 21 to 31, and really just a lot of Galatians, because you really can't deal with a little bit of Galatians, right? You have to deal with all the Galatians, because it's such an important New Testament book. So let us hear now the Word of the Lord, Galatians 4.21. Tell me, Paul writes, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born according to the promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother, for it is written, Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now. But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. So brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. Father, what a privilege it is to proclaim your word Father, to be transformed by your word. For God, we're not here tonight merely to study, to learn information. God, we're here to be transformed by the changing of our hearts and renewing of our minds. So I pray that you would be at work in us, Lord, even as we study your word, by the power of your spirit, do in us what you alone can do. We, your children, we, your chosen ones, we who are in Christ, God, I pray that you would work in us to make us holy, even as you are holy, to make us humble, to make us faithful, to make us wise. God, do in us what you alone can do. You promised to finish the good work you've begun in us, Lord. So Lord, I pray tonight you would guard me from error, that you would open our minds so we might see great things from your word. Father, you might build your church in us and through us, that the gates of hell might not overcome it. We pray all this in the strong name of Jesus Christ, our risen and soon coming Lord. Amen. So what if your church, you members of New Testament Baptist Church, what if your elders, Pastor Jake, Pastor Harry, What if they passed down a fiat that members couldn't take more than 1,999 steps on the Lord's Day? Because taking one more step would make you guilty of going on a long journey, and that is forbidden on the Lord's Day. What would you do? What would you think? What if they said you could not carry your Bible to church, since such heavy lifting would closely resemble work? Anything heavier than a dried fig is strictly taboo, they say. Or, what if they added a clause in the Constitution and bylaws of this church that members must not leave a radish in salt since that vegetable might become a pickle and pickle making is work? What if they practice church discipline only for such a flagrant offense of God's word? Well, you'd probably ask them, where do you find that in God's word, wouldn't you? I hope you would. What if they said you couldn't carry a pen on the Lord's day lest you be tempted to write with it? You carry a needle, lest you be tempted to sew. You're helping those who are sick with non-life-threatening maladies because that can wait till Monday. Looking in the mirror because you're moving dirt from your clothes, that's work. You get the picture. wouldn't, you probably wouldn't countenance such boorish legalism as that. There would probably be an elder's election here I'm guessing, or at least you'd check to see if they've taken leave of their senses, something like that. It's kind of obvious. Now these were things that were added to the law, the Torah by the Pharisees back in the day when they added some 653 or something laws to the law of God. And that's kind of obvious to us, isn't it? That's legalism. And I hear this word a lot, especially younger foreign folks now a lot, that that's legalism. Well, that's legalism, right? 2,000 steps on the Lord's day, well, that's legalism. We know that. But the legalism Paul is addressing here is not quite as obvious. Because legalism in our hearts, and I want us to think about that tonight, because we're here again to gain knowledge, right, about covenant theology and its Baptistic expression, but we're here to be transformed. And to think about our own hearts, what is legalism? That's what is the issue here. I mean, it's almost laughable to hear those things, right? But it's a reality for many Christians, and most of us, we have some legalists in us, because the Pharisees get a lot of ink in the New Testament, don't they? And so should our Lord. And that's because it's us. And so we need to hear this tonight, again, not just to learn. Now Galatians, the context here, Paul is confronting this great apostle over, another apostle over circumcision, Peter warning them of another gospel of legalism. He's adding, wanting to add circumcision to the gospel. And we know that adding anything to the gospel is no gospel at all, as we shall see. And so Paul speaks here of really two women, two mamas, I love mamas, right? Two women, two sons, two cities, and two covenants here. And so it begins with a question that says, tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you now listen to the law? You want to be under the law? Do you really want to be under the law? He said, I don't think you understand the law. I don't think you understand the gospel if you want to be under the law. That's what he's getting at here. And so he begins with Abraham's two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Good alliteration. That's a good, good, good Baptist sermon here, right? So we can remember that. Ishmael and Isaac. I like that. And Ishmael was born according to the flesh. Abraham thought God needed a little help. Baptist had been guilty of this, right? So he gave God a little help. And so he was born according to the flesh. But Isaac was born according to the promise. And of course the Old Testament can be summarized as promise, can it not? Promised and then fulfillment. That's the whole Bible, really. And so he says, this is to be interpreted allegorically. What is an allegory? Allegorically, should we interpret the whole Bible this way? Some have tried. There's been even a tradition in the early church. It was attempted. It wasn't highly successful, thankfully. But he says here, he gives us permission to think allegorical. What does this mean? Well, an allegory is a story in which specific people and places and events stand for deep spiritual truths. Probably an allegory that you're familiar with is the Pilgrim's Progress. If you've not read the Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, shame on you. Go out and read that and read it sometime after this conference this weekend. We don't have time this weekend, but read that book. It's fantastic. Probably my favorite book after the Bible. In The Program of Progress, Bunyan has names for Christian characters like Christian and faithful, hopeful, You travel to places like Doubting Castle. I love that. Ever been to Doubting Castle? I've been locked in Doubting Castle before. God brought me out. I may be there again someday. I am a pastor after all, so we'll see. No question I will. The Hill of Difficulty. So we know, we've been there, haven't we? We know what these things mean. What about here? I mean, Bunyan isn't writing history or geography. He was telling a story to make a spiritual point. It was fiction, but this is nonfiction. This is the Word of God. This is history. He's using history to tell a story, to tell an allegory. I mean, this story of Abraham's sons is not like Bunyan's tale. I mean, this is a story that happened in time and space and history. I mean, Isaac and Ishmael were actual sons of Abraham, and their mothers, of course, were real people. So Paul's allegorical interpretation here is based on the facts of their historical situation. So this is not giving us an inspired hermeneutic for the entire Bible, just here. I think it works really, really well. We can't outdo the Holy Spirit, can we? And there's an analogy between what God did for them and what he offers us. Because in God's eyes, there's really only two kinds of people in the world, and Pastor Jake kind of got at this, the sons of Adam and the sons of Christ, right? The sons of the promise. And so you're either an Ishmael or an Isaac. ultimately their story is about the Gospel of God's free, sovereign grace. That's what Isaac and Ishmael are up to. That's what the allegory is about, sovereign, free grace. And so to understand what Isaac and Ishmael represented helps us start with their mothers. He says, these two women are two covenants. One from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery, she is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. So kind of step by step here. So you have two brothers, Hagar and Sarah, with their two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Remember the alliteration helps us there. And they stand for two covenants, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. which correspond to two cities, the present Jerusalem and the Jerusalem above. So let's look at these. So the women are two covenants. So what is a covenant? I know Pastor Jake talked about this. My favorite definition of a covenant comes from the children's catechism. If I had my children here, I would ask them and embarrass them. They would hopefully say, what is a sacred covenant? And they would say, a sacred covenant is an agreement that God sets up with us and guarantees by His word, a relationship He sets up with us and guarantees by His word. That's simple, but it's true. Because God does it. God does it. Nehemiah Cox, this Baptist pastor from the 17th century who wrote a book that I think you're giving away here tonight, Covenant Theology from Adam to Christ, 1681, defined it this way. It says that covenant is a declaration of his sovereign pleasure, God's sovereign pleasure, concerning the benefits he will bestow on them, the communion they will have with him, and the way and means by which this will be enjoyed by them. Now notice God does all the acting. We get all the benefits. It's God's grace. That's what the beauty of covenant theology. God does it. We believe in sovereign grace, then covenant theology is not much of a stretch, even for Baptists, not just for Presbyterians or Anglicans, as you pointed out earlier. So we have this agreement that God sets up, relationship God sets up with us and guarantees by his word. God is the guarantor of the covenant. He does it, He makes it, He sets the terms, and He gloriously fulfills the terms, right? We're gonna look at that tomorrow through the writings of Andrew Fuller, how God is the surety of the covenant, that He sets the terms, but He keeps the terms because we can't keep the terms, right? We probably broke the terms today at some point, didn't we? We don't know, I don't think how sinful we really are. What were the terms of the covenant? the Ten Commandments. Are the Ten Commandments for today? Well, through Andrew Fuller tomorrow, that's beyond our sermon tonight, but we're going to see the Ten Commandments, I believe, are today. And it was with the weight of having a very small Bible, I think. of the Ten Commandments based on our principle of works and keeping it for fallen people with a kind of bondage. So if you, they're really people working their way to heaven and they're people who are in Christ, right? So you're one of those two, you're one of those two people, Ishmael or Isaac. So the question you have to ask yourself now and always is, which one am I? Which one am I? Am I a legalist? Am I trying to work my way to heaven even unwittingly? back in Galatians 3.2 Paul already explained, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. And so Hagar was the perfect woman to represent the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant meant slavery to the law and she herself was a slave. All of her children were slaves like Ishmael. So anyone in bondage to legalism is one of Hagar's spiritual children. Anyone who reduces Christianity to a list of do's and don'ts is like Ishmael. come to your door on Saturday peddling their literature, sons of Ishmael. Those who say, well, I've got my own religion. I've got my own way of doing things. I'm a good person. You know, I paid my taxes and I'm nice to my neighbors. Those nice people, they're sons of Ishmael, right? They don't need Christ, but they do. In verse 25, Paul gives the punch line. He says, now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children. When Paul mentioned Jerusalem, he's speaking not only geographically, but he's also speaking spiritually. Jerusalem stands for what? Well, God's people. Not so much a city, but a people. God's people. And of course, we know that that's us. In this case, it refers specifically to the Jews and to the Judaism of Paul's day. Paul probably mentioned Jerusalem, too, because this is where the Judaizers, the opponents of Galatians, come from. Those Jewish legalists wanted Christians at Galatia to add to the law, to gospel, in order to come under the mother church in Jerusalem. The Judaizers were Jews. But spiritually speaking, Paul considered them Ishmaelites. So what's going on here? This is shocking. I mean, calling a Jew a Gentile, referring to a citizen of Israel as an Arab. So it'd be shocking and offensive, right, to call them this. The Judaizers prided themselves on being the true sons of Abraham, the physical progeny of Abraham. They were the biological children of Abraham, but they were spiritually illegitimate sons and daughters because they weren't in Christ. Paul saw them as giving up the gospel and returning to the law so that they must be children of Hagar rather than the children of Sarah. So they were spiritual bondage. Spurgeon, we always gotta quote Spurgeon, right? No one says it like Spurgeon. I wish I could use the language this way, but Spurgeon, in a sermon on this passage, said, the poor sinner, trying to be saved by the law, is like a blind horse going round and round a mill, and never getting a step further, but only being whipped continually. The faster he goes, the more work he does, the more he is tired, such much the worse for him. The better legalist a man is, the more sure he is of being damned. The more holy a man is, if he trusts his works, the more he may rest assured of his own final rejection and eternal portion with the Pharisees. Hagar was a slave. Ishmael, moral and good as he was, was nothing but a slave and never could be more. Not all the works he ever rendered to his father could make him a free-born son. So no matter how good we are, if we're outside of Christ, we're in bondage. We're in bondage to works. This is why Jesus came. So we have the first woman, the first mama, Hagar, the second one, Sarah. Of course, she represents the new covenant. the Jerusalem above, and he says she is our mother here in verse 26. She is the mother of God's covenant children and is everyone who has faith in Jesus Christ. She is free and not in bondage to work's righteousness. Abraham's wife was the free woman, she was never a slave. Sarah represents the new covenant which is not a covenant of law but a covenant of promise. And the New Covenant God does not say, thou shalt not, thou shalt do this, thou shalt not do that. Instead He says, I will. I will be your God. This is what makes Christianity unique, isn't it? In such good news. We can't, but He does. That's just it. I will be your God. I will do it. I will redeem you from your sins. I will give you a new heart. Your heart is wretched. It rejects me. It loves the world. I will give you a new heart. I will do it. I will give you the free gift of eternal life. Have you ever gotten over the fact that you're a Christian? I mean, sometimes I think we get over the fact that we're saved, that God has done this for us. You know, worried about God being fair and all these things. And you know, as Pastor Jake said earlier, we don't want justice, do we? Not really. Not really. We want what's fair. We'd all be in the bottom of hell right now. But God has saved us. He's given us new hearts. He's made us the sons and daughters of Sarah. The new covenant is the gospel, which gives salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the new covenant doesn't match up with the present city of Jerusalem. He said, but the Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother. That's us. Jerusalem above. It's the people of God for all time. The Church of Jesus Christ. Paul doesn't say it's the Jerusalem to come. You'd almost expect him to say something eschatological here like it's the Jerusalem to come. No, he said the Jerusalem above now. We're the people of God. We're now in Christ. We're not waiting. We're waiting on the Second Coming, the full and final realization of all the new covenant blessings. But we're in Him now. We're God's new covenant people. And how glorious this is. Jerusalem above because the New Jerusalem is not just for the future God has started to build His eternal city now. I look out here tonight and I see evidence of this where Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. That's it. I'm seeing the church built here tonight. People are passing by here and they're wondering, what are they doing in there tonight? Friday night, shouldn't they be out doing something else, something fun? They're in there trying to bring their lives in line with a book that's 6,000 to 10,000 years old. It's counter-cultural, isn't it? The world will never understand the church. We're the eternal Jerusalem. Phil Reichen puts it, it's the new Jerusalem has replaced the now Jerusalem. The spiritual Jerusalem has superseded the earthly Jerusalem and the plan of God. promises of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant were not for Jews only but they are fulfilled in the Church of Jesus Christ. So, when we read the Old Testament when we're talking about, when you're talking about Israel they're talking about Israel the writers, he's talking about the Church. You can just bring it over, right? This is how we read the Bible. This is what we're getting a lesson in, how to put the Bible together. And this is liberating for those of us who weren't taught this. Growing up we've been in church for a long time. I had to overcome a lot of really bad hermeneutics of in order to really understand the Bible, it's really a lot simpler than I was taught to be. I don't need the charts and all that stuff, you know, you already talked about that, so we won't beat that up at all. We have freedom. If we belong to God's family in this way, we are free in Christ. Not free to sin, he's gonna go into that, not reading our freedom as an occasion for the flesh later in the book, but we're free. We're free from sin, not perfection in this world, of course, but free from sin. Don't you look forward to the day when we will truly, finally, and fully be free from sin? Boy, I can't wait for that great and glorious day. Anyone who repents and trusts in Jesus as Savior and Lord is a son or daughter of Sarah, a true child of Abraham. If we belong to God's family in this way, we are free in Christ. Citizens of the New Jerusalem, and enjoy the freedom of the eternal city. Because Jewishness has been redefined. Did you know if you're in Christ, you're a Jew? Where do you get that? Well, Romans 2. Just flip over to the left a little ways here, where Paul writes in Romans 2, 28 and 29, for no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God." So Paul, right here, redefines Jewishness, right? The circumcision of the Old Testament is fulfilled in the circumcision of the heart. That's the type and anti-type right there. That's it, right? It's circumcision of the heart. That's why he uses this language. So if you're in Christ, it's hard to understand. You're a true Jew. And so in the New Testament, the Gentiles, when he speaks of the Gentiles, it typically means unregenerate people, pagans, not always, but generally speaking. So Jewishness, which means freedom, where the true Jews, the church of Jesus Christ is truly Jewish in the spiritual sense. Now, of course, there's still an ethnic people of God, and there's promises for the end times, and that's debated, Romans 11, but that's beyond the scope of the sermon here. But what he's saying here is we're free. free from earning our salvation, seeing the law as a means of justification. I mean, Paul's allegory shows the difference between spiritual slavery and spiritual freedom. Those who try to justify themselves by keeping the law, by heaping up good works, are the slave children of Hagar. And they're just heaping up more and more condemnation, right? Because our righteousness is what? What does Isaiah call it? Our righteousness is as what? That's right, filthy rags. My best day. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but holy lean on Jesus name. My best day, my best frame of mind. It's just, it's just, it's worthy of condemnation. And I'm just heaping up condemnation as a means of righteousness for myself. No, we're entirely dependent upon the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. So we're free. We're free, he says here. But those who are justified by faith in Christ are God's free sons and daughters. When Paul thought about the joy of being free in Christ, it brought doxology. He burst into song. I think that's what's happening here in verse 27. He's singing. His heart is singing. He quotes Isaiah 54.1. Rejoice, rejoice, O barren one who does not bear. You're gonna bear. God's gonna do it. God has done it, right? God has a way of working in these barren wombs, doesn't He, all through Scripture. It's glorious. It's a picture of our regeneration. Break forth and cry aloud, and you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. What a glorious promise. We don't have to bear our own fruit. We can't, we're dead, right? We're like the dead womb. In Paul's song here, This praise is doubly appropriate. It relates to both Sarah and Jerusalem, both to the mother and to the city. I mean, the connection with Sarah, I think, is obvious. She was the barren woman who God blessed with a multitude of sons and daughters. God took that which is not and made it that which is, right? That's every one of us. God didn't choose you because you were a smart chap or chapette. He didn't. It's because of His mercy, right? We didn't look like much. I mean, the gospel doesn't look like much to the world, does it? But God does it. That's the covenant of grace, the new covenant. The now Jerusalem of Paul's day was barren because her children had been carried away into exile. But Isaiah promised that one day God would establish a new Jerusalem. which would be filled with far more children than the old Jerusalem could ever contain. And that goes on today as we're sons and daughters of Abraham. I mean, Isaiah's happy promises is being fulfilled this very moment, not in an earthly city. but in a spiritual city that spreads across the globe and reaches every tribe and tongue and nation and people. As men and women come to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as they come to faith through the preachers, pastors faithfully preaching the gospel in local churches, Lord's Day after Lord's Day after Lord's Day, God is doing His work. He's building His people. He's building His church. evangelists proclaim the good news to the lost as God works in hearts and draws them irresistibly to himself God is building his church he's doing his work he is setting sinners free as missionaries plant churches as they preach Christ and him crucified to those who walk in the darkness of tribal paganism and the jungles of Africa and South America and far more other far-flung places they become citizens of the new Jerusalem the praise and glory of God the Father We were once his enemies, we sing this in our church, and I love this, once his enemies, now seated at his table. Wow. Wow, let's never get over. Let's never, let's never cease to sing from our hearts what God has done, as Paul does here. And so you have, you have the two women, you have the two sons, you have the two covenants, and you have two ways to, the two cities and two ways to live. Verses 28 to 31. And as we look at this, we ask ourselves, which one of these do I really belong? It's very easy to be deceived. I mean, self-deceived. I think you could love good theology. I think you could maybe even go to seminary and be lost. Because you can love the things of God for all the wrong reasons. And I've actually asked myself that. You may have said, am I just, I love ideas, I love books, and ideas and thinking and looking sort of intellectually respectable. Is that what this is about? Let us hope not. There are two ways to live. I mean, to be a true child of Abraham is to be a son or daughter of God, which is the greatest privilege in the world and should always humble us. I have to remind myself of this every morning when I wake up. I am saved. I am in Christ. I'm no longer in Adam, my old covenant head. Now I'm in my covenant head, Christ. And so there's two ways to live, either by my righteousness or his righteousness. It's the greatest privilege in the world. I mean, it's not enough to claim Abraham as our father because he had two boys, and only one of those boys was free, right? Two sons of Abraham, but he wasn't truly Father Abraham to both of them. Biologically, yes. Spiritually, no. I think the better question is this, not who's your daddy, but who's your mama? Right? I think that's what this text is asking. Who's your mama? As we say here in the Real South. Paul wanted the Galatians to see that by the promise of God they were free sons and daughters of Sarah. Look at verse 28. Now you brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. Now remember what the promise was. was the promise God first gave to Abraham to all the nations. We bless through him as he speaks on Galatians 3.8. It was the promise of the Gospel. The promise of the coming Christ. The promise of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Those solos that we have right here behind us. That is the Gospel isn't it? It's the Gospel. To believe in the one whom God sent. That's the works, right? The work to do. Not to keep the law perfectly. To Not to avoid 2,000 steps on the Lord's day, but to believe in the one whom God sent. To rest all your weight on Jesus, on his death at Calvary and in the empty tomb. He rose from the dead on the third day. He warns them back in Galatians 3. Let's read verses 1 and 9. He says a very memorable passage here. He says, O foolish Galatians, and we could say, O foolish Mississippians, right? If we replaced gospel with anything else, or gospel plus anything else, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this, and here's the question. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Just as Abraham, father Abraham, believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. So God preached the gospel to Abraham and through Abraham thousands of years ago. How do we read the Bible? This is how we read the Bible, right? Abraham heard the gospel. Why should we read the Old Testament any other way? We'll get into that more tomorrow as we look at Andrew Fuller as a good illustration of a hermeneutical principle, I think. God preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham. That has always fascinated me. It's in the promise of the covenant. But also think of Genesis 22 when He asked him to sacrifice this covenant son, the promised one on the altar. Take him and kill him. Can you imagine what that must have been like? That's not a fairy tale. It's like Job. I think we are so used to Job we read that and think, boy that was terrible. And then we ask what's for lunch or something like that. We just yawn and move on. But no, no that really happened to Job and this really happened to Abraham. Go and sacrifice the son of promise. What? No, I didn't hear you right. I think I'm senile and old. He's an old guy, you know, sorry. I must have heard you wrong. No, but no, go and kill him. And of course, God, he has faith in God to supply a ram. And there's a picture of the gospel, right? So he's preaching the gospel. It is the promise here, but I often think of that as well. How gut-wrenching that must have been, but what a beautiful picture of the gospel we get there. And all through the story of Abraham, Now, Paul could call them brothers here because they were children of the promise. How do we know we're children of the promise? I mean, are you really? It's easy to sit in a conference on a Friday night in Mississippi and hear a couple of talks, right? That's easy, that's not hard. And it's not hard, I mean, to stand here, I love doing this, so this isn't hard for me, so how do we know? Well, I think we see one of the marks here of a truly born-again person will be persecuted. Now the prosperity gospel doesn't like that very much but we'll be persecuted. Verse 29, but just as at that time He who was born according to the flesh persecuted Him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. You catch that? The Son born the ordinary way was Ishmael. Of course, it was ordinary in manner of speaking, right? Isaac was born of the Spirit, and this is one of the clearest allusions in the Old Testament to regeneration. There's never been anybody saved who wasn't saved by regenerating the power of the Holy Spirit, okay? Whether looking to the promises to come or looking back on the cross, it's always the same way, one way for all people for all time. So it is also now, though. The Son born in the ordinary way, Ishmael, And this other son, the son of promise, born 14 years later, they were rivals. In Genesis 21, 8 and 9 we read, And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. They go, okay, he laughed. Big deal. Ishmael, 17 at the time, I've got a 17 year old in there, really can be really silly if you're 17, well, or half a 17 year old, you know what I'm talking about. If you're silly or 17, well, I'm sorry, but it's true. All 17 at one time, right? Ishmael, 17 at the time, but he wasn't just picking on his little brother. I've got two boys and my older son picks on the younger son, but that's not what's going on here. I know that's typical, but there's more to this, I think. I think he was treating him with contempt. He's persecuting him, persecuting the son of promise. And all the sons of promise and daughters of promise will be persecuted for all time. So it is now. That's the mark of a true Christian, right? It's not God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Well, He does, right? He does love you, He does have a wonderful plan for your life, but the world doesn't define it this way. Do we have a death wish? Are we crazy? Persecution? No, that's what's happening here, I think. I mean Christians should expect exactly the same kind of treatment that Isaac received from his big brother. So also it is now. It was happening in Galatia at the time of Paul's writing this letter. The sons of Hagar are persecuting the sons of Sarah. Jews are persecuting Christians and the Gentiles who came to faith in Jesus were being oppressed by the Judaizers. They wouldn't let them live by God's free grace. Persecution is the way to tell the difference between true and false religion, right? One of the distinguishing marks of real Christians, it's a real Christianity, is that God's people are willing to suffer scorn and ridicule and even physical suffering, undergo physical suffering, if they have to, to walk with God. I mean, look at Islam. Radical Muslims viewed 9-11 as an attack on America, yes, but a Christian nation. Now we know that's not true, but that's how they viewed it. It's an attack on Christianity, right? But that's not how we roll, is it? If you wanna be liked by everybody, then you'll probably never be a very good Christian, right? If it became illegal in this country to be a Christian, I've often asked myself, would I be arrested? Would I be found guilty in a court of law for being a Christian? if it became illegal. Now, has it come to that? I don't know if it will, but would I? Well, that's what we're to expect if we take the Bible seriously. Luther said, if someone does not want to endure persecution from Ishmael, Ishmael led him not claim that he is a Christian. Now, God may not call you to undergo grinding suffering, but would you be willing to if he did? I think that's the question. And it's easy to say that here tonight, right? Because, I mean, I've not been cut for the sake of the gospel. I mean, not really. I've had some church people mad at me, but if you're a pastor, I mean, that's just sort of part of the course. You know, that's really suffering. Maybe a little bit, but not really. What would I do? I mean, why can a Christian endure persecution? Why can't we? Why do we want to? Well, how can we take joy even when we're scorned and mocked and ignored and even beaten for our faith? It's because we know this glorious inheritance that's laid up for us. Look at verse 30. But what does Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. Ishmael never received his father's inheritance even though God asked him to give it to him in Genesis 17, 18. God blessed Ishmael in many ways but He never gave him the promise of salvation which was only for Isaac, the chosen covenant seed, right? Because the chosen covenant son is elect. God chose Isaac but not Ishmael. The day finally came when Sarah said to Abraham, cast out this slave woman of their son for the son of this slave woman shall not be an heir of my son, Genesis 21.10. This may sound harsh to our sort of politically correct 20 years. Sounds harsh to what it does. Cast him out? How could this be? But it was rightfully to be cast out because God's promise of saving grace was only for Isaac and God's eternal plan of redemption. God said to Abraham in Genesis 21, 12, whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you. For through Isaac shall your offspring be named. Through Isaac, not through Ishmael. Why does Paul use these sons and these women as an allegory? Because he's trying to tell the Galatians to drive out the Judaizers and their legalism from the church. I think we kind of sneer at legalism. It's popular. Of course, antinomianism is no better. We're going to talk about that a little more tomorrow. We kind of think, and everything's legalism. Holiness, I've heard holiness called legalism. Well, it's just legalism to preach holiness. But scripture says that holiness no one shall see the Lord, right? It's not legalism. Not legalism to preach holiness, is it? So they want to draw the Judaizers and the legalism out of the church. It's a challenge in that age and every age. By trying to place the Gentiles under the law, under circumcision, they prove that they themselves are actually spiritual slaves. then no part, no part at all in God's inheritance. Because if salvation comes by grace alone, then the church cannot tolerate salvation by works. Christ plus anything equals nothing, right? Nothing at all. Christ plus circumcision is hell. It's nothing, right? So it undermines grace. Freedom in Christ can be preserved only by abolishing bondage to the law. Now, not abolishing the law, again, I'm getting ahead of myself, we'll talk about that tomorrow, but abolishing the law of God, the moral law of God, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, as a means of salvation, right? We can never treasure up enough righteousness, not on our best days, just filthy rags. So we must stand firm against legalism in the church, but also in our own lives. And we Reform Christians, we're susceptible to this as well. Even if we have good theology, that's no guarantee of anything, is it? Unfortunately. It's irreducible. It's a good place to start. It's where we must start. But it's more than that. We must stand firm because it's a false doctrine of salvation. That's what Paul's driving at here. It's heresy, isn't it? Legalism, we don't think of it that way, I don't think sometimes, but it is. I mean, I think that's easier in our church than it is in our hearts, because we aren't Pharisees at heart. Because I like to check lists. I love to read my Bible every day, and no one knows it, I get up early and I do this and I pray, and sometimes I'll think, eh, it's good, got a good start to the day. And I subtly think God must be proud of me. I'm a pastor, I should know better. I've been walking the Lord for 42 years. But no, it's lodges in my heart. Just something that simple. But the Christian faith is not a list of do's and don'ts. I mean, no other religion will save us. I mean, Judaism, Judaism is deadly. Why? Because it stopped short of Christ. And any religion that stops short of Christ is deadly. It only brings condemnation. It can't save us. we're just going to get better, right? We'll come back as something better. We're just going to get better all the time, if we're good. Islam says we must worship Allah alone, but we believe he's a false god. Let's just not be cowardly and say that, right? Mormonism, the watchtower society, they can't save us no matter how much door-to-door evangelism we do. It will only condemn us. Of course, they're peddling another gospel. Roman Catholicism, with its blend of faith and works, cannot save us. This religion brings us into bondage. It's in the tradition of Ishmael, the sons of the slave woman, everyone who's entrapped in these kinds of religions. And they're all works-based, right? They're not grace. I mean, this is what makes the gospel so beautiful and so liberating. We can never do this for ourselves and we don't get what we deserve because Christ bore what we deserved in our stead. Only those who embrace what God has done for us in Christ Jesus may know the freedom he discusses here. Luther said, those who try to achieve the status of sons and heirs by the righteousness of the law or by their own righteousness are slaves. will never receive the inheritance, even though they work themselves to death with their great effort. For they are trying, contrary to the will of God, to achieve by their own works what God wants to grant to believers by the sheer grace for Christ's sake." So if we're working to curry favor with God, we're in spiritual bondage. If we want to be free, we only have to receive the gift of God's grace. And then, and only then, are we able to say with Paul what he says here in verse 31, we're not children of the slave, but of the free woman. So, the end of the matter is this, after all has been heard, there are only two ways to live, right? Either in bondage towards righteousness or free in Christ. This gets back to our identity. What is your identity? Is your identity primarily that you're a Christian? That you're in Christ? Or is it that you're a Christian who homeschools? I'm gonna bring this right down to where we live, okay? This is application stuff. I homeschool, okay, my family doesn't throw rotten tomatoes or good tomatoes at me. Is my identity bound up in that? Or maybe I'm a Christian and I've adopted and my identity's bound up in that. See, I think legalism for us, it's much more subtle. Legalism for most Christians, we're not going to fall into, I mean, we're not adding circumcision to the gospel, right? It's much more subtle than that. And dare I say even Christ plus, I'm going to say it, Reformed theology. I hope this, whatever you want to call it, this revival of Reformed theology among younger people. I used to be a younger person when I first embraced the Doctrines of Grace. I'm a middle-aged person now who has believed the Doctrines of Grace for a pretty long time. But I hope this is not just sort of a tempest in a teapot. I mean, I hope this is not something that's just kind of intellectually acceptable and sort of an intellectual form of Christianity that's just another idol. Because that gets at the root of our identity, right? Where's our identity? Paul Tripp calls it identity amnesia. Have we forgotten who we are? We're most primarily Christians, and have we gotten over that? That's why I ask you that, and I ask my congregation this about every two or three weeks. Are you still really, really happy that you're saved? I don't mean in kind of a silly, you know, or maybe I do, just it's okay to show emotion. I know reformed Christians, we're not good at that, I'm not good at that. It's okay to be happy in Jesus, to be free to be happy in Jesus, but are we? I like to call it history amnesia. We forget that we live beyond the cross and the new covenant or else we'll live a miserable life. Trying to live a life in bondage to the law will make you miserable. Miserable. I grew up in a much more legalistic kind of church. I was always trying to not just gain my salvation, subtly, but keep my salvation. I think I was trying to keep it. Now, we were Baptists. We'd be the ones saved, always saved. I was always trying to keep it, right? Boy, I felt the bondage. I felt the bondage. There was no free grace there. I was trying to do what God had already done for me, so I had this kind of history amnesia. I realized I kept forgetting I live on this side of the cross, and He's done it, and it is finished. He's died in my place and given me all the righteousness I will ever need, eternally, positionally, before the Father. Galatians 6, for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you. And I'll say this, if your identity is in Christ plus something else then Christ will be of no advantage to you. We have to search our hearts, don't we? Even if we think about covenant theology, we still search our hearts and root out those idols that get at the heart of who we are. Chapter 5, Paul puts it this way. I just keep reading Galatians. I'm sorry, this is a great book, so we've got to read a lot more of this. I'm almost finished. For freedom Christ has set us free. This is what he says next. this is where we'll land. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. I just read this. Look I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision or anything else plus Christ that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit by faith we ourselves eagerly await for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Is anything hindering you from obeying the truth? Is anything keeping you from Christ and the gospel? Are you adding to it? Let's search our hearts and repent and embrace this free race that's come in this new covenant so that we're no longer sons and daughters of the slave woman, but of the free and are citizens of the Jerusalem above. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this penetrating allegory that Paul has put before us here God, I ask you by the power of your Holy Spirit to help us to search our hearts, that we would add nothing to Christ, for we know that nothing can be added to Christ. We would rest in Him and Him alone. God, you give us grace to think of all the implications of being in the new covenant, of not being under the law, but under grace, and all that that means, Lord. I pray that that would give us the power through your Spirit to live, Lord, every day, to live our lives in a way that will glorify you and enjoy you forever as sons and daughters who are free in Christ. We thank you, Father, and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.