Thank you, Curtis Bradburn for that. Thank you as well for filling in for Pastor Ryan. Pastor Ryan is on vacation somewhere down in Alabama, down in that area on the seaside. I am sure that he and his dear family are gathered around some electronical device right now and are watching our worship service. So Pastor Ryan and family, we're glad that you're watching with us. Take your Bible, turn to Galatians 4, Galatians chapter 4. So since it's just us here, this morning, I want to ask you a question, and I'd like it if you'd be honest, okay? Whenever you're not honest in church, that's problematic on many levels, and really, if you won't admit to this, then maybe one of two things is true. Maybe you never read your Bible or you're prideful. One of those two things would be true, so I'm kind of telling you the answer right now. How many would say, how many of you have ever, ever, now don't raise your hand until I'm ready for it. How many of you would ever, Admit you're gonna admit this. Okay. Now I'm going to admit this right from the get-go How many of you would ever admit that sometimes you've been reading your Bible and you come to something that it just doesn't make sense? You're not sure exactly what it means. Something like, since your Bible is open to Galatians chapter four, something like this, verse 24, which these are an allegory, or an illustration, for these are two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai. That doesn't mean she was built like Mount Sinai, by the way. There's a representation here. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children. Kind of odd. In fact, I don't know how many times I've read that, and I've just kind of gone, huh, and got past it because I was looking for a blessing. Anyone ever do that? You read something odd in the Bible, and you just kind of go, huh, and you pass it. I'll tell you the honest truth. I have never preached on these specific verses a message in my entire life. You say, Pastor Monty, you've been preaching for 36 years as a pastor. Oh, I know, I know. Let me tell you something, folks. The Bible is a big book. The Bible is a big book. There are whole areas that I've never preached on. I've never done a verse-by-verse exposition through the book of Ezekiel, and some of you are glad of that. I've never really preached an exposition. You'd have to go through the whole book on the Song of Solomon. Never done it. Do you know why? It's a little too racy. Just kidding. I'm just kidding. I said that so the teenagers will have devotions in the Song of Solomon now. They'll turn immediately to it to see what Pastor Motti could possibly be referring to. So, as a pastor, you know, there are things. I think Dr. Bob Jones Sr. used to put it this way. He said preaching is like a keyboard on a piano. there are certain keys, like middle C, that you're gonna hit all the time. And then there are the really high ones and the really low ones, you might hit those occasionally. Well, this is a passage that I never fully understood the depth of Paul's argumentation until I really studied it out. And all of a sudden, the light went on as to what the Apostle Paul is doing in this passage. And it is really nothing short of brilliant. Now, I hasten to say this. that all of Paul's Jewish readers at the churches of Galatia, the ones who were particularly targeted by the Judaizers, those who were trying to place both Jew and Gentile back under the Old Testament law, that all of Paul's readers would have been instantly familiar with what he was doing in the passage. And again, to remind you, Paul, in the whole book of Galatians, is arguing strenuously against any level of return to the Old Testament law as authoritative for New Testament believers. If you go through this series and the one thing you get is this, you cannot make appeal to the Old Testament law. That is something that was temporary, it is set aside, and the argument theologically over and over again is that the Abrahamic Covenant supersedes the Old Testament law. But these Judaizers who were bent on changing doctrine, and by the way, not just bent on a few preferential opinions, but they were bent upon actually fundamentally changing the concept of the gospel. Paul argues strenuously against them because the gospel of the grace of God, the value of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was at stake in what he was saying. Those churches planted during his first missionary journey, they were prospering and thriving until a group of people came and said, not so fast, you Gentiles. You need to be circumcised. You need to follow the laws of Moses. Essentially, you can't be saved if you don't become a Jew. And to the Jews, they said, you better return to the Old Testament law and get back there as quickly as possible. You cannot please God apart from it. The problem with that, ladies and gentlemen, is a great error, and it threatens the gospel itself. Years ago, I was asked to do a funeral in a little town distant of Danville, toward the west, and I did not know the family well. I knew the lady who had passed away. She'd been a member of our church. She was a very good, good lady and knew the Lord as her savior. But the family asked me to do the funeral. I didn't know the family all that well. And so when I got there, there were a few people in the funeral home that had a chip on their shoulder toward me. You say, Pastor Monty, how do you know? You can tell. You can tell when you try to be friendly to people and they're not friendly, and I felt that, and a few of them, not all of them, but a few of them, they were merely tolerating my presence as a tipping of the hat to the lady who'd passed away and had asked me to do the funeral. So I got into the funeral. You say, Pastor Monty, what do you do when you're in a mixed audience, some people friendly, some perhaps the majority are not? What do you do? Here's what you do. You preach the gospel. And so with clarity in that funeral service, I preached the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. I gave the plan of salvation, that we are all sinners, that because of our sin we deserve death, that death is physical and death is spiritual, that ultimately it is divine judgment in hell. But then I explained that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I went into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I went into the gospel. I talked about how they needed to believe. I talked about how it's not good enough to be a good person, decent person, moral person. No one can live up to God's standards. That we must all throw ourselves at the feet of God's mercy. That we must all receive Christ as Savior. I summarized it all in Romans 10, 13, where the Bible says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I told him, I told him, I said, I don't care if you're a Baptist, a Methodist, a Catholic, a Pentecostal, I don't care what you are, there is one gospel and there is one way to heaven and that is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I made it crystal clear. And afterwards, I left. Three or four days later, I got a letter in the mail. It wasn't an email, it was a paper letter. I've learned something now in the new era that paper letters tend to be more negative than emails. How many know that? And especially since a paper letter, you had to make a lot of effort to write it. I received a paper letter in the mail. And it started out with these words. Pastor Monty, how dare you? Yes, it was from one of the disgruntled attendees of the funeral. You say, Pastor, do you get letters like this all the time? No, just kidding. Once in a while, once in a while. Pastor Monty, how dare you? How dare you speak on the topic of salvation? The letter went on to explain that I had no business speaking on the topic of salvation because salvation, the letter said, is a very, quote, Controversial topic. And the letter writer went on to say that people disagree. Happened to be a woman, the letter writer went on to say that her children, they were probably junior high age or something like that, her children came home and they were shell-shocked by the message. And they had so many questions. And she said, I had to calm them down because they don't think they're saved. And she said, you may have an opinion, this I'm paraphrasing now. She said, you may have an opinion about salvation, but that is not the opinion of our home. May I tell you something, ladies and gentlemen? Regardless of how passionately you feel about your position and your opinion, there is only one gospel, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible. She went on to say in her letter, she said, well, I know you're a Baptist, so you're just going to preach the Baptist way. What I'm preaching at you from the Bible is not the Baptist way, the Methodist way, the Catholic way, or any other denominational way. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is vital, and we have to get it right. Good news is this. So really good news, the book of Galatians clarifies in every verse what it means to get the gospel right. And so Paul made a lot of arguments. Last time we talked about an argument he made to the church, an appeal that he made to the church regarding his personal relationship with them. But now if you look at chapter four, verse 21, look what it says. Paul, addressing specifically those who wanted to turn the church back to Judaism, Paul said this, and I love the tone. Let me give you what I interpret to be Paul Stone. Tell me. I think he had a little attitude in those words. Tell me. Ye that desire to be under the law. Those of you who want to return to the Mosaic system, those of you who are insisting upon this, tell me. Ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Now the Greek word there for hear carries with it the idea of understanding. What he is saying is this. You desire to place yourself under something that you don't even understand. But brilliantly, Paul is now going to make his appeal to what is called the law. Now, in the passage we're going to look at, he's going to tell us a story of something that happened in Genesis. The story really takes place over a number of chapters of the book of Genesis, Genesis 16, all the way to Genesis 21. And he's going to make reference to that story, with the assumption, of course, that they understand this. Pastor Matti, is the book of Genesis part of the law? Yes, when Paul uses the word law, sometimes it is specific in regard to the Mosaic legislation. Sometimes it is a reference to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, or what our Jewish friends refer to as the Torah. And they would look at really your Jews in general divided the Old Testament into two things, the law and the prophets. If they were being more specific, they would divide it into three, the law and the prophets and the writings. So Paul is using common terminology and he says, listen, you people that desire to be under the law, tell me, do you really hear the law, do you understand it? And then verse 22, he's gonna go into the story. Now the story is from Genesis 16. And he says this, For it is written, the words it is written mean he's referring to scripture, Old Testament scripture. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by the bond made, the other by a free woman. He is referring to Genesis 16. Now to understand what he's getting at, you have to have at least a cursory familiarity with the story. I want you to think with me, I'm not going to make you turn there, but I want you to think with me back to the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 12, God had called Abram, at that point called Abram, later Abraham. God had called Abram out of the land of the Ur of the Chaldees. God in Genesis 12 verses 1 through 3 made a promise which is called the Abrahamic Covenant. That promise is in force today. We've already demonstrated that Paul said that that promise supersedes the Mosaic Law. The Abrahamic Covenant is still enforced today, and essentially, in the first giving of it, he said, I'm going to make of you a great nation. You're gonna have a land, and all peoples of the earth will be blessed in you. You say, Pastor, how do you know the Abrahamic Covenant is still enforced today? Because we are referred to as all peoples of the earth, all peoples of the world. We are blessed in Abraham. How are we blessed? We're here in this church. we're hearing about Jesus, the descendant of Abraham. That was both a promise and a prophecy, initially given in Genesis chapter 12. Then later on in Genesis 15, God expands this. He gives some details about the land and how large will be the land of Israel. Some more detail to this. And God says in Genesis 15, Abram, I'm giving you all of this. I'm your exceeding great reward. I am your promise. And then something interesting happens in Genesis 15. You read this and there's a sacrifice. And God says, Abram, make a sacrifice. And then the Lord God himself passed in a flame between the articles of the sacrifice, the animal sacrifice that was made. What was that? That was ratification, a blood ratification of the covenant of Genesis chapter 12. He repeats it in Genesis 15, and now he ratifies the covenant. But one of the key aspects of the covenant is this. Abraham, you're going to have a huge or in the words of the Donald, a huge family. It's going to be enormous. You're going to have so many kids, you're not gonna know what to do. Now, he was probably, in chapter 12, Abram was probably about 75 years old, and that's getting old, but remember back then, they lived a lot longer, and I imagine they're a lot more spry than some 75-year-olds. The promise given, approximately 75 years. about 10 years passed from Genesis 12 to Genesis 16. And now Abram, he told Sarai, he told her all about it. God made a promise, Genesis 12, God made a promise, Sarah, we're gonna have a kid, we're gonna have a kid. Genesis 15, God reiterated his promise, we're gonna have a child. But by Genesis 16, 10 years has passed. And Sarah's a little discouraged because, well, nothing's going to happen. Now at this point, all they knew as a revelation from God was that Abram would have children. And so Sarah gets an idea. Sarah thinks to herself, self? I'm getting pretty old. Not so sure I wanna have kids at this point. And I'm not so sure Abram, well, I'm just not so sure. Then she has an idea. She says, since I am barren, the Bible uses the word barren, that means unable to conceive a child. She says, since I'm barren, I think here's what I'll do. I want to keep Abram happy, and he's supposed to have all these kids, and it's obvious we're not having these kids. Since God never said that I was the one going to bear the kids, I've assumed that because I'm his wife, but I think what we could do is this. It's all Abram talks about anyway, so maybe I should just let Abram have intimate relations with my handmaiden Hagar. She was an Egyptian slave. She was right out of Egypt. If he gets together with Hagar, and if she'll have a baby, then she can have a baby in my place and that will be the promised heir. Now how many know that sounds weird? It does, to us as Westerners and in our, really weird. Did you know that that was really quite common? If a woman were barren in that time, and really all the way up to ages much beyond that, if a woman were barren, some of the laws of the land gave a man the opportunity to divorce her after 10 years. But of course Sarah didn't want that, and so she offered this handmaid. That was a very common thing. In other words, the handmaid would become a surrogate mother to this child. And because they didn't have inception, happened the old-fashioned way, and Sarath figured this'll be good enough. He'll have his heir, and that's how we'll fulfill the promise of God. Look at me, everyone. That was never part of the deal. That was never part of the covenant. Oh, it was legal. By the way, we even know this. It was legal by several ancient law codes, including the Hammurabi Law Code, which would have been well-known at that period of time. Though this was all legal, It wasn't the right thing. And it demonstrated Sarah's lack of faith. But Pastor Monty, you know, the Bible does say that Abraham hearkened unto Sarah, and he went ahead and had a little fling with the handmaid. He did. An interesting aside for you to study is the word hearken. Abram hearkened unto Sarah is the same word that is used when the Lord says, Adam, speaking to Adam and Eve, Adam! You sinned in that you hearkened, same word, same idea, same phraseology, you hearkened to the voice of your wife and you ate the fruit of the tree. So Abram has a little fling with Hagar, and Hagar was with child. She became with child. I don't like to use the word pregnant in the pulpit. I had an old preacher tell me that that's inappropriate, so I'll not use that word. Some of you are paying attention or laughing. The rest of you are like, what are they laughing about? When Hagar had this child, his name was Ishmael, the entire attitude of Sarah changed. Why? Because there was a power shift. Now, by the way, Hagar became Abram's wife, his second wife. A power shift happened, and so there was tension between the two women, and so finally Abram could take it no more, and he told Sarah, he said, he said, why don't you just return Hagar to slave status? No more my wife, but now slave status. And so that's what, that's exactly what Sarah did. When she did that, she spoke roughly to her. She's very mean toward this slave girl, who, by the way, had no choice in the matter to begin with. She was very rough with him. The baby was born, Ishmael was born, and she was going to flee away. She did flee, heading back to Egypt. And then later at Egypt, when she was on her way back toward Egypt, the Lord interrupted the whole thing. And the Lord says, listen, the child you're carrying is going to be the father of a great nation. He said, Hagar, return to Abram and Sarah, submit yourselves to them, but understand I'm doing something special with you. And so the angel of the Lord in Genesis 16 appeared to Hagar and instructed her to return to Abram and Sarah. He promised her a son, that would be Ishmael, promised that he would be the father of many nations. Did it come to pass? Yes, Ishmael is the father of all of the Arab peoples. That is the father of the Arab peoples. By the way, I'm gonna explain to you why we have the explosion in the Middle East we're having right now. I'll explain it right out of the Bible in a moment. But he also prophesied that there would be problems. In fact, why don't you turn there just so we can take a look. Genesis 16, this'll help you when you're watching the news to understand what's happening in our world today. Genesis chapter 16, the angel of the Lord, which is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. In Genesis chapter 16 and verse number 12, this is the Lord speaking to Hagar, talking about the child that she will bear. Well, back up to verse number 11. Genesis 16 verse 11, and the angel of the Lord said unto her, behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man. This is speaking of Ishmael now. And he will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. In other words, a wild man being nomadic, probably, being someone who is used to the outdoors, as the Arab people were in that time period. Some still are today. And he will be against every man and every man's hand against him. There's going to be an aggressive nature as part of their nature. It would be an aggressive nature. But then look at the end of verse number 12. The Bible says, speaking of Ishmael and his descendants, he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. Well, who in the world is that? At this point, Ishmael is an only child. Who are his brethren? Does he have siblings? No, not at this point, but he would. Well, who is his sibling? The most famous sibling, half-sibling of Ishmael is Isaac. You see, later on, God fulfilled his promise and Abram did indeed conceive a child, legitimately by his wife Sarah, and his name is Isaac. And to Isaac was given the promise of the Abrahamic covenant. When the Bible speaks of the patriarchs, folks, I'm going somewhere with this, pay attention. When the Bible speaks of the patriarchs, it is speaking of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so when little Jacob was born, Jacob and Ishmael were half brothers, but they could not have been more different. The descendants of Ishmael became the Arab peoples that populate the Middle East today. The descendants of Isaac are the Jewish people. And the prophecy is that Ishmael would be a wild man. His hand would be against every man and every man's hand against him, a natural aggression. And in this aggressive state, he would dwell in the midst of his brethren. Let me ask you a question. What nationalities surround Israel? Arab people, the descendants of Ishmael. Let me ask you this question. Do they get along? No, they never have. I've just demonstrated to you from one of the most ancient books of the Bible why we have the geopolitical conflict that we now have in the Middle East, both in Gaza and in Lebanon. It answers an awful lot of questions. But why in the world, I'm back at Galatians 4, why in the world would God, through the Apostle Paul, bring this up. He uses this story as an illustration. I want you to drop down to verse 22. Paul says this, Ford has written that Abram had two sons, the one by the bondmaid, the other by the free woman. The bondmaid is Hagar, the free woman, of course, is Sarah. The two sons we mentioned were Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac was born, pardon me, Ishmael was born through the works of the flesh, because Sarah told Abram, go hook up with my handmaid. Ishmael was born through the works of the flesh. Isaac is referred to as the son of promise. Drop down to verse 23. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. It was a natural birth by a relationship between Abraham and Hagar. But he of the free woman was by promise. Some time later, Isaac would be conceived, Isaac would be born, it would be the child of Abraham and Sarah, but it would be fulfillment of the promise given in Genesis 12 and Genesis chapter 15. So, you have two sons. Now, follow me. Paul said this is an allegory, this is an illustration. By the way, look this way, folks. Pastor Monty, we don't believe in allegorical interpretation. No, we don't. We take literal interpretation unless unless God gives us an inspired allegory. See, if you're an allegorical interpreter of the Old Testament, you can make it say anything you want. But when God says these things are given with a deeper meaning in the book of Genesis as an allegory, Paul's writing inspired by the Holy Spirit, we understand that the interpretation is, of course, correct. And so, there were two sons that were mentioned. But notice verse 22. Again, there were also two mothers, for it is written that Abram had two sons. The one by a bondmaid, that would be Hagar. The other by a free woman, that would be Sarah. There are two mothers. There is a connection to Hagar with bondage and slavery. Why? She was an Egyptian. She was a slave. Paul is using this. Why does he keep referring to this? Look at me carefully. Because the Mosaic Law can do nothing but enslave and condemn. The Mosaic Law did not have the power to deal with sin effectively. It had the power to point it out, but it couldn't deal with that sin effectively. And so it gave a sense of guilt because no one could keep the law perfectly. It pointed out sin because we wouldn't have known what sin even was without that law, but it didn't really give us an answer. And it enslaved us both to the legal system and to sin itself. And so in the picture, we have two women. We have a free woman, a woman at liberty because she had never been a slave, the legitimate wife of Abraham. And we have Hagar, the bondwoman. But now look at this. We also have two covenants. Look at verse number 24. Which things, which things, which things Isaac, Ishmael, Sarah, Hagar. Which things are an allegory for these are the two covenants? What? Oh yeah, the two women actually represent two distinct covenants. Now remember, Paul has dealt over and over again with the law. We could call that the Mosaic Covenant. And he has also dealt with the Abrahamic Covenant. His argument at this point is that the Abrahamic Covenant is superior and that it is an everlasting covenant, that the Mosaic Law was only temporary. He says, now these things are two covenants. The one from the Mount Sinai. What does that bring us back to in our mind? It brings us back to the Ten Commandments. It brings us back to Moses hearing the voice of God. It brings us back to his receiving at the hand of angels, the tablets of the law. It brings us back to the thundering and the fire and the fear of the people. It brings us back to that place where God established his legal covenant with Israel. He says, the one, Mount Sinai, Moses, the Ten Commandments, which gendereth or creates or tends toward bondage. And he says, this is Hagar. What? Yes, this is Hagar, because the law, listen carefully, required man's work. Do this, do this, do this, oh, oh, oh, oh, and don't do this, this, and this, over 400 commandments. And it's interesting, because Paul refers to that as the work of the flesh. Well, how does it relate to Hagar? Because Hagar, through the flesh, I'm being careful how I phrase this. Through intimacy, physical intimacy, that was only based on flesh, Hagar and Abraham had Ishmael. The keeping of the law is labeled in the Bible as a work of the flesh because it's something we do in our body. We do this, this, this, and this, and we don't do this, this, and this. And he says it's very similar to Abraham and Hagar in that they were going to fulfill somehow God's promise by a work of the flesh. And that is precisely what they tried to do. So this Hagar is Mount Sinai. Think of Moses and the Ten Commandments in Arabia. And answer, now here's where it gets weirder. And answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. The word answereth means that it is a similar, similar. Okay, so Hagar, and the law, we could connect those two things, both of them trying to accomplish everything for God by the work of the flesh. And now Paul says, but this all responds to Jerusalem, which now is. He's talking about, now follow me, folks, he's talking about the Jerusalem of his day. Well, why would he say that? because the Jerusalem of his day was under legalistic bondage to the Old Testament law of Moses. And he's saying ever since the law came, we have been bound. He says that Jerusalem today is in bondage with her children. Why? We're all bound because we have to obey this law but we can't obey this law and we do things that are wrong and we don't do things that are right and we violate and we're guilty and because we can't do it we're going to make more laws to keep us from breaking other laws and by the time of the first century it became a cornucopia, a panoply of laws that nobody could possibly keep. and the burden was extremely heavy and the bondage was real. Remember a moment ago I said there are two covenants, Paul said that. There is another one, look at verse number 26. But, but, this is a different covenant. The Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. What? So isn't it interesting? There are two Jerusalems. There is the Jerusalem, Paul said, which now is the first century Jerusalem. But he said there is a Jerusalem which is above. If you want to read in detail about the Jerusalem which is above, you're going to take your Bible and turn to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21 talks about the new Jerusalem that will one day come from God in heaven. Many of the things that God established in this world in the Old Testament time are actually pictures or patterns of something that is in heaven. For example, the tabernacle was built after the similitude of the tabernacle that is in heaven. We read all about that in the book of Hebrews. And so what Paul is saying is this, if you're a believer today, You're not a believer because you follow the Old Testament rules that has put Jerusalem and all her children in bondage. If you're a believer today, you are born from above. The word born again, by the way, can mean born from above. You are born from above by the Spirit of God. It is an entirely different city. Jerusalem enslaved to the laws. But Paul says the Jerusalem which is from above is free, which is the mother of us all. We are citizens of that Jerusalem. We are citizens and children of that Jerusalem. So, Pastor Mahdi, why is the picture here? Because Christians are born into God's family, listen, the family of Abraham through the line of Isaac by faith in Jesus Christ. Well, what happened to Ishmael's descendants? Ishmael's descendants, are still in bondage to pagan religion. May I be highly non-politically correct? The majority of Ishmael's descendants are in bondage to the pagan religion of Islam. Period. Can't believe you said that, Pastor Monty. Look, I'm going to tell you the truth whether you like it or not. Oh, and whether it goes for or against the current political climate. And that is a shame. It is a sad thing. We say that with a tear in our eye because of the deception of the false religion of Islam. The descendants of Abraham, scripture teaches, are descendants by faith. I don't have time, but for those of you who are interested, jot down this reference, Hebrews 12, verses 18 through 29. I'd like you to read that this afternoon. Book of Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 18 through 29. Explain everything I've just covered. Well, what is the summary of all this? Look at verse 28. Paul says to the Galatian believers who were being infiltrated by Judaizers who wanted them to return to the bondage of the law, he says, now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Promised in the Abrahamic covenant, yes, Abraham, in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise, but as then, He that was born after the flesh, referencing Ishmael, referencing the law keepers, referencing those in bondage. He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit. And there is that dualism that you find so often in the writings of Paul, the flesh and the Spirit. Well, who's born after the Spirit? Those of us who put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. When you get saved, you are free from the bondage of the law. You are believing on Jesus and the Bible says the Holy Spirit of God himself comes to live inside you. You are free from that bondage. Oh, Pastor Bonnie, I'm free from those rules. I can do anything I want. No! You're free because the Holy Spirit lives inside. And as you listen to Him, and as you follow Him, and as you're sensitive to Him, He will never lead you into sin. He will never lead you wrongly. But you don't need a list of rules anymore because you have been set free. Conflict exists between legalism, religion, the flesh, the Hagarites, if we could from this passage, and those who trust Christ by faith. If you look at verse 29, but as then he was born after the flesh, notice this persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so now nothing has changed. And then a final verse, and this is probably the most gripping, and I'm done. Later on, this conflict occurred between Sarah and Hagar. And essentially, Abram said, do whatever you want. And so the scripture records in Genesis, cast out the bondwoman and her son. Now notice this please. For the son of the bondwoman, represented here by the legalist, the one who's seeking salvation by good works or by keeping the law. The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. same family, same father, but they're not the same. The eternal destiny of those who hold to a religion based upon works is different from the eternal destiny of those who hold to Christianity based upon faith. And the son of the bondwoman, no matter how sincere the works, the law-keeping, the good deeds, the religious ritualism, no matter how sincere that is by the son of the bondwoman, That legalism will never get you to heaven. The son of the bondwoman will not be heir with the son of the free. Well, Pastor Monty, that means I ought to get in the right side of this family. And you can. How do you do that? When you understand that no matter how good you are, you can't make it to heaven. When you come to understand that no matter how you clean up your act and turn over a new leaf and pull yourself up by the bootstraps, it will not be enough. All the rule keeping in the world can never get you to heaven. You're a Hagarite. You're following a flesh religion. You're following a religion based upon personal accomplishment. And when you come to recognize that there is a God in heaven, the God of the promises of the book, who said, I will send a Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ, and you can't keep the rules good enough to be saved, but you can believe and trust in Him. In that moment, Scripture says, you become a child of Abraham by faith. And look at the summary statement, if you will, at the very end. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. And I end the message this morning by asking you, what family are you in? Well, Pastor, you know, my religious organization teaches that if I do X, Y, Z, and one, two, three, I'm good with God. That, ladies and gentlemen, is legalism. and you'll never be good enough, you'll never be consistent enough, you'll never live up to it enough, that's a problem. But what does the Bible teach? The Bible teaches that to become a child of the free woman, all of this is a picture of salvation, that you need to come to Christ by personal faith. Scripture says this, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And the scary part is this, No matter how sincere the legalist is, if he's depending on his own goodness to get him to heaven, he's not part of the family. And the bondwoman and the child of the bondwoman, they will not be heir with the free. It's up to you. You can be a child of Abraham by faith, by coming to Christ, the descendant of Abraham, by coming to Christ in personal faith and belief. And apart from that, you can never be heir to eternal life. That is the truth. There is one way to heaven. Jesus said in John 14, you believe in God, but believe also in me. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And I don't care who you are, what religious denomination, how you grew up, what your background, I don't care about any of that. If you don't come to Jesus, you're not in the right place. Pastor, I'm in a Baptist church. That doesn't make you in the right place. No, no, no, no, no. If you don't come to Jesus, you're not in the right place. But the good news is this. Jesus said this, him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Father, I pray that you'll take the message this morning, a rather enigmatic or maybe difficult passage because we're not as familiar as we should be. But I pray your spirit would take the message and help us to understand the great truth in this illustration that Paul gives us. Father, it's my burden that every person in this room would be a child of Abraham by faith, that they would be children of the promise, and if so, heirs by that promise. Maybe there's someone here who would say, Pastor, I'm in bondage to a religious system. I do, and I do, and I do, and I don't, and I don't, and I don't, and I'm just never sure it's enough. Lord, I pray the Holy Spirit would right now convict that person that they can have total freedom and deliverance if they'll simply come to Christ by faith. Use the message, I pray, in Jesus' name. Stand with me, please.