Amen. In your Bibles tonight, Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. I'm happy to preach and excited to preach through the book of Galatians. And I understand as we get into the epistles that sometimes you kind of dig in and kind of wade through some deeper water. But it's important as a church that we rightly divide the word of truth. We're to preach the whole counsel of God, and I'm excited to preach this passage of Scripture. And there's an emphasis, a recurring emphasis, as we come to the book of Galatians on the matter of we're saved by grace, through faith in Jesus, and not the works of the law. Now, in a church like ours, you'd think, well, do we really need to talk about that so much? And I'm going to answer this question with a big, fat yes. Because it is something that the devil loves to put in the hearts of people, religious people, that they can somehow work their way to heaven. And we think that, in my mind, it's been beat into my head since I was just a boy that you're saved by grace through faith, not of works, and lest any man should boast, and I say amen, hallelujah. But you don't have to go very far, even with folks who have spent a lot of time in churches similar to ours, who have removed in their mindset the fact that their salvation and their eternal destiny and their forgiveness of sin is rooted solely in the work of Christ and faith in Jesus and there's lots of people who live in bondage to this notion somehow that maybe if I'm good enough I'll be able to go to heaven when I die. I want you to know that we don't have to live under that type of pressure because first of all you and I do not have in us the ability to be good enough to pay the price for our sins therefore we must have a Savior, the Christ, who paid the price for our sins, who we trust, who covers our sins, who saves us from the penalty of sin, which is death and hell forever. And we come here to Galatians chapter 4, and in many ways, in many angles, we watch the Apostle Paul work with the Galatian churches and encourage them that their salvation is not the byproduct of their good works. And their salvation is not the byproduct of them keeping the Old Testament law. But their salvation is the byproduct of simply trusting in Jesus, who died on the cross, was buried, who rose again, who paid the price for their sins, and would give them eternal life through faith in Him. And we just see Him coming from different angles and telling the same story and making the same case with different methods. And in our method tonight, He's going to use an Old Testament Bible story to show to the Galatian Christians and us tonight that salvation is by grace through faith and not the works of the law. Let's read this passage of scripture together. We'll begin in verse number 21. Ten verses together, 21 to 31. The Bible says in Galatians 4, 21, Tell me ye that desire to be under the law. Do ye not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. But he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory? For these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice thou barren, that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest not. For the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren of Isaac, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free." Now I want you to read with me verse number 30 and I know that as we read this series of verses that it can we can get lost in some of the wordage, and we can get lost in what in the world does that mean. But I want you to know that we can understand and apply this text, and I think you'll be able to make some sense of it here in just a moment. Look at the Bible, it says in verse 30, what saith the Scripture? And Paul's going to quote a verse of Scripture from the book of Genesis. He says this, cast out the bondwoman, and her son. Cast out the bond woman and her son. Now the message is titled just that tonight. Cast out the bond woman and her son. What in the world does that mean? And I'm going to share it with you in just a moment. Cast out the bond woman and her son. If I were going to just give you a very quick summary of cast out the bond woman and her son, Paul the apostle is telling the churches in Galatia, he says, I want you to stop thinking somehow that the law is going to save you. And I want you to trust in Christ and Christ alone. He says, cast out the bondwoman and her son. I think we'll understand as we consider and look at these things together here tonight. Cast out the bondwoman and her son. Let's just start with an introduction here in verse number 21. As Paul welcomes and begins this new section and kind of new angle to the same message of, you're not under the law, you're under grace. He begins by saying, verse 21, tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? He begins with this notion, he's like, tell me, I'm asking you a question. You say you want to be and desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? You know, we don't have to go far to find folks who they think that they say things like, well, my religion is the Ten Commandments. Now, I'm going to tell you, the Ten Commandments are great. But I'm going to tell you, if you think somehow that your goal in life is to keep the Ten Commandments so you can please God, you've got another thing coming. We mention this often, I know, but it's so foundational in the Christian faith. The Ten Commandments are God's law, and God demands them, and God expects them, and we should not transgress the Ten Commandments in so many ways. But the Ten Commandments are not And keeping the Ten Commandments is not the way that you and I are going to find peace with God and salvation. As a matter of fact, when you start to study the Ten Commandments and the deeper you study the Ten Commandments, the next thing you know, you're studying the Ten Commandments and you realize, oh my lands, I'm guilty of breaking all the Ten Commandments. What do I do now? It's not a matter of, I'm trying my best and God's going to be happy about that. Now that bothers some folks, but I'm just going to tell you. works and doing your best is not what God wants. Now, we should give Him our best shot. And it's good to be good. But how many of you are like me? You try to be good and you know you can't. And so, folks have this idea that, you know, I'm going to try to keep the Ten Commandments, that's my religion. Do you not hear the law? The law If you pay attention to the law and you say, I'm keeping the law, that's my religion. You must not be listening to the law and reading the law that I'm reading because I'm gonna tell you something, I can't keep it. I'm a sinner. I have a sin nature. I can't keep it. He says you desire to be under the law, but do you hear the law? Does your faith make sense? Oh, I love this statement. Does your faith make sense? Does your faith, your philosophy, does your doctrine, does your relationship to Jesus, does it make sense? Something I love about being a Bible preacher is I get the opportunity to present logical, reasonable things from God's Word. Does your faith make sense? Let me tell you something that doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to think that somehow you can be good, and like you're being good, it's like stepping up a ladder. Every time you have a good day, you step up a ladder a little bit closer to God. And every time you have a bad day, you step down a ladder a little further away from God. And what you hope for is that you've had enough good days at the end of your life, and you've made your way up the ladder, and somehow, we don't know exactly where, but there's a rung on the ladder that's just right, and God says, okay, that's good enough. I'm going to tell you something. You desire to be under the law. You say, I'm just going to try to be good and I'm going to go to church on Sunday occasionally. I'm going to go to church on Sunday night occasionally. I'm going to go to church on Wednesday night occasionally. I'm going to try to read my Bible every now and then. I'm going to give a little money in the offering plate. Those things are good and fine, but I'm going to tell you something. They have never saved a sinner from the condemnation of their sin. And the Apostle Paul wants these folks to know, hey, look, you tell me that you desire to be under the law, but do you hear what you're saying? What you have to say does not make sense. And so he leads from an introduction to an illustration. And we move from the introduction to the illustration, and he says, let me just remind you of a story that you'll probably be familiar with. He gives us a Bible story that He is confident that the Galatians would know the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac. And the story of Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael. What's that story? I'll tell you a little bit about it so we can begin to understand this passage of scripture. So Abraham, his name literally means father of many nations. That's a great name, isn't it? The only problem with being Abraham, when Abraham is very old, he's out in town and someone comes up to a distinguished looking fellow named Abraham. They meet each other on the street and one guy asks Abraham, what's your name? He says, my name's Abraham. And he says, oh man, that's wonderful. Your name is father of many nations. That's my name. He says, how many kids you got? And Abraham has to say, zero, zero. It's like being a tall kid. It's like being, I've never experienced this, but it's like being a tall kid. Everywhere you go, you're a tall kid and you walk in places and people look at you and they say, do you play basketball? The worst thing is being a tall kid that doesn't play basketball because everybody asks do you play basketball and you have to look at them and say, no. But Abraham, everywhere he went. What's your name? Abraham, father of many nations. What a great name. How many kids you got, Zero? Why is your name Abraham? Because God promised that I was gonna have a son, I was gonna have children, I was gonna have heirs, and I'm gonna have a family that is innumerable like the sand in the sea. How old are you? Old, almost as old as Alta. By the way, she had a birthday this past week. Happy birthday. You only get to pick on people like that that really love you and you love back. Really old. He was old. No kids. And so God had promised that he was going to have son, and he would have heirs, and he would have this great nation, and the promise of salvation was going to come through Abraham, but Abraham's old, he don't have no children. So Abraham and Sarah, they kind of get their heads together. I think Sarah may be leading the way, but Abraham doesn't take the lead, and we've got a big mess on our hands because Sarah says, you know what, I'm getting old, and you're getting old, We don't have any children and God's promised that he's going to give us seed. And you know, maybe God just wants us, Abraham, here's what you need to do. I've got a handmaid, her name's Hagar. You just need to go in unto her and she can have a baby in my stead and that'll be great. Except it won't be great. It's not great. You know what they were doing? Abraham and Sarah, they said, you know what? Instead of doing this God's way, let's do it our way. Let's do it the way of the flesh. Let's do it the way that we can do it ourselves. Let's work together. Me, Abraham, and Sarah, you my wife, and your handmaid, Hagar. Let's the three of us work together and we'll work out our own salvation. You two can get together, Sarah says, and I'll claim the child since she's my handmaid and she belongs to me. And we'll work out our own salvation. We'll work out our own Redeemer. And God can work through what we've worked on to accomplish His great redemptive plan. Do y'all see a problem with that? Well, there's a big problem with that. But Paul, when he's talking to the Galatian Christians, he says, I've got to make an illustration. I've got to tell you guys a story. I've got to remind you of something. Abraham and Sarah and Hagar got in on this. They wanted to do God's work their way. And instead of receiving salvation by grace, through faith, miraculously, through the working of God, they said, huh, we'll work out our own salvation. And Abraham goes into Hagar, Sarah's handmaid, and the byproduct is Ishmael. And guess what? Man's way to God is not acceptable. It's not acceptable. But God still in mercy has a plan. Guess what God does? Though Abraham's body was basically dead and Sarah's body was basically dead by means of reproduction, God miraculously works. Sarah in her old age bears a son, Isaac, the son of promise. It was a miraculous work from the hand of God to provide salvation His way. a free woman, Sarah. God's chosen Abraham and Sarah miraculously produce the boy named Isaac. And Isaac is the instrument that God would use to bring about ultimately a Savior. He paints this picture and gives this illustration and we begin to talk about it. Look at what the scripture says. I've given you a long introduction for these next few verses. Verse 22, Paul says the Galatians who are wanting to work out their own salvation. He says, it is written that Abraham had two sons. What were their names? Ishmael and Isaac. The one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. Verse 23, but he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh. What happened? How did Ishmael come about? Sarah and Abraham, I mean Sarah and Abraham and Hagar got together and they said, huh, maybe we can get to God our own way. The bond woman was born after the flesh, but the free woman Sarah was by promise. Verse 24, Paul says, I want you to know something, the way I'm interpreting this passage of Scripture is in an allegory. I want to show you some things and some types and some things that this represents in our thinking, which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants, two different promises. He says, one's the Old Testament covenant, one's the Old Covenant, one's the New Covenant, one is from the Mount Sinai. What significantly happened at Mount Sinai? That's where the Ten Commandments were delivered. He said the law, the one covenant from Mount Sinai, gendereth, it produces bondage, which is agar, hagar. Verse 25, For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." Basically, he wants us to know that the byproduct of the flesh did not produce the covenant of mercy and grace that we have through Jesus Christ. He says the work of the flesh cannot produce the righteousness of God. Do you understand that? He says it produced Ishmael. It produced the Israeli-Arab conflict. It produced bondage. But, verse 26, look at it. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free. Now this takes our attention away from the world, the flesh, the old covenant and takes us to Jerusalem which is above. It takes us to the new covenant. It takes us to the mindset of a new Jerusalem. It takes us to Jesus. The Bible says in verse 27, for it is written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not. Break forth and cry thou that travailest not. For the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband. What does that mean? Well, we know that Ultimately, it's a whole lot better to be Sarah than it was to be Hagar. We also know that it's far better to be a Christian than it is to be a person who is trying to work their work, the works of the law. There's an emphasis here that there would be more Christians than Jews, and it's true. There would be more people who put their trust in Jesus than the works of the law. But it's better to trust in Christ. He says it's better to trust in Christ. He says here's the illustration. Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael. That's not God's way. That's the work of the flesh. Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac. That's God's way. That's the work of promise through faith in Christ. Here's the illustration. Now, he says, let's make the application. Verse 28. He says, now, we, brethren. He's speaking to the Galatian church because the Galatian church, though they were saved by faith in Christ, they were beginning to take back up this idea that they could work their way to heaven. And they must do the works of the law. We brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. He says, look, you're the children of promise. Don't fall prey to doing and living a fleshly work of religion. He says, we brethren, as Isaac was, we're the children of promise. Isaac was a product of faith. Not works. When you put your trust in Jesus as Savior, you're a product of faith and not works. Let me tell you something, I'm so thankful that I can't work to get myself saved and I can't work to keep myself saved. Hallelujah. I'm a child of promise. My hope is in Christ, in Christ alone. I'm sealed, I'm saved. by trusting in Jesus. Verse 29, but as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Now this is kind of fascinating. This is like a little addendum there. Some folks want to take verse 29 and immediately go to the fact that There is the Ishmael, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and certainly there is great persecution in that world. But also, what we need to do is we need to take this not just to that spot, but we need to make the application where Paul is making the application. Paul is letting the church at Galatia know that the legalist who want to work out their own salvation. The legalists who want to work for their salvation. The legalists who want to impose the law. He says, I want you to know something. These people, these legalists, they are meaner than junkyard dogs. That's the Cody Sturgill version. He says they persecute Christians who want to trust in Christ and Christ alone. They want to impose on you their religious rules. They want to impose on you something that doesn't work. They want to put you in bondage. He said, I don't even know them. The legalists are oppressive people. And just like there was persecution against the promised, there's persecution today against the folks who are trusting in the promise. It just happens. Don't let the persecution stop you from trusting in the Savior. Stop doing what's right because it gets hard. Don't do that. Hey, keep trusting the Lord. Keep believing God. Keep living for His glory and you'll be glad you did. He says it's tough. Even so now, you're being persecuted for believing that salvation is by grace through faith and you don't have to keep the law. You're being persecuted for standing up for what's right. Just keep it up. It's okay. God is faithful. He says, verse 30, nevertheless, even though it's not easy, nevertheless, what saith the scripture? He says, even though it's tough and you're in a situation where you're going against the grain of the people that are trying to put you in bondage to the law and tell you that you can work your way to heaven, he says, nevertheless, You need to do what the Bible says. He says, what's the Bible say? He says, nevertheless, what saith the scripture? Verse 30, look at it with me. Cast out the bondwoman and her son. What does Paul say? He says, here's what you got to do. He says, you've got to throw out the bondwoman. You've got to just cast it out. You've got to cast it out of your life. You've got to get this out of your life. You've got to get this out of your thinking. You've got to remove this from your theology. You've got to just get rid of it. You cannot work your way to heaven. You can't keep the law and please a righteous God. The Ten Commandments are not a good religion. Cast out the bondwoman. Cast out the bondwoman. and her son, just say no to the works of the flesh, the religion of the flesh, and say yes to the promise of God. What's the promise of God? Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. What's the promise of God? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. What's the promise of God? God sent not His Son in the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. What's the promises of God? What are we to embrace? We cast out the works of the law. I hope I'm being good enough. Cast out the bond on your son and take God at His word. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have everlasting life. I don't know about you, but God's way is better. God's way is better and God's message to his people is really simple. Cast out the bondwoman and her son for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free. You see what it says there? The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free. Now look, you keep the law and do your religious stuff and he says you do it as well as you possibly can. You may get an attaboy from your peers, but you will not inherit the promise that God has promised of everlasting life. Verse 31, so then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman. That's good news. The good news is that I don't have to save myself. We're not children of the bondwoman. born because of the good deeds. I'm not born in the family of God because of my good works. I'm not born in the family of God because of my religion and keeping the law. We're not children of the bondwoman. I'm not a child of the bondwoman. She has nothing to do with me. But, look at what the Bible says in verse 31, the last four words, but of the free. Pastor Cody, why are you going to heaven when you die? I'm going to tell you why. Because I'm trusting in the promise of God. I'm trusting in Christ who paid the price for my sins. I'm trusting in Jesus. Jesus is the Messiah. He's the ultimate byproduct of the promised seed of Abraham. We have Christ. And through faith in Christ, we have everlasting life. So if you're tempted to put on the works of religion and think somehow you'll please God by keeping a list of do's and don'ts, God's word to you on a night like tonight is cast out the bondwoman and her son. We're children of the free. Hallelujah. Let's pray.