The Church of Eleven22 - Bewitched: The Foolishness of Trying to Earn Your Salvation: Be Free - Wk 7

Episode Date: May 19, 2024

In week 7 of the BE FREE series, Pastor Ryan Britt goes through Galatians 3:1-9, 4:21-31 as well as the story of Abraham's life in Genesis. Just as Abraham did, we all sometimes become bewitched by our immediate desires and forget what should always be #1 most important thing- our relationship with Jesus. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com   To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people worldwide, go to https://coe22.com/donate or text 'donate' to 441122.

Amen. Amen. What a powerful testimony. She just said the words, I'm free. Only Jesus can do that. I'm free. That's what we're here contending for every weekend. That's what we're here celebrating.

Every weekend is the freedom that only comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the last 12 years as a church, we have been a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And nobody has done what Jesus has done. And nobody can do what Jesus can do. for the last six weeks we've been studying the book of Galatians in the New Testament. We're going to continue that today. So if you have a Bible, you should grab it and open it up to Galatius chapter 3. If you don't have a Bible, I would highly encourage you today to be holding one.

There's a pretty blue Bible right in front of you. And you can grab the Bible. And if you don't own one, you can have this Bible. It's our gift to you. I'm Pastor Britt. I'm excited to open and teach God's Word for us this weekend. We're going to be in Galatians 3. And so as you're making your way there, let me just say,

to all the parents who dedicated their kids this weekend. Really, really cool. Good, good for you, man, to be committed to raising up one more generation in the gospel and to be committed to doing so in the local church and in a partnership with the local church. That's a significant step. And so, man, good for you. We celebrate you into the grandmas and grandpas and extended family and friends who came out. We welcome you.

We're so glad that you're here with us. Many years ago, I was at a pastor's conference, and I was absolutely. question, Pastor, what is one of the most difficult theological concepts that you've ever wrestled with? Like, what is something from the Bible that you've found challenging through the course of your ministry? And for a second, I thought, well, maybe the answer is some of the, like, in-times prophecy stuff, or maybe it's the mysterious ways that the spirit works. But then, just in this real moment of clarity, I just kind of spurted out the word grace. I said grace. has been one of the most challenging concepts for me to get my head around over the last 20 years.

And I grew up in a tradition where you would hear people say things like this. They would say, Jesus died for you, boy, the least you can do is live for him. And I'm not exactly sure what they intended, but I know what I heard. What I heard was, you better earn, earn, earn, you better do, do, do, you better do, you better try, try, that it's up to you to earn the gift that you've been given, to pay it back. And this was the world that I lived in for many, many, many years. And so I never really understood the true heart of grace. Grace is far more than something for nothing.

It's far deeper than that. It's far wider than that. The beauty of the gospel of grace, the truth of grace is this, that the gospel of grace is the most liberating truth in the entire world. That it is completely freeing and it brings completely. freedom. And so today we're going to talk about grace. Dallas Willard once said that grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. The grace is not opposed to effort is opposed to earning. In Christianity, grace is not just where the conversation starts. Grace is the entire conversation.

It is the whole thing, beginning, middle, and end. Grace is the entire story. You see, grace is not like it's an exercise of neutrality or that my relationship with God is built on mutual respect, that God is searching his eyes to and fro across the world and he looks and he sees Ryan Britt and he goes, he's not that bad a guy. So he has a little respect for me and he sees that I have a little respect for him and he's like, based on our mutual respect, then Brigg gets a pass. That's not how it works. And it's certainly not based on the idea that good enough is good enough, that somehow I've done some good enough things to outweigh the less than good enough things and that there's a balancing act at work that if I can do just good enough, then it outweighs

the bad things that I've done. And then, based on my good works, I will have a right standing with God. That's not the testimony of grace at all. Grace is not mutual respect or good enough is good enough. The best acrostic definition of grace I've ever heard is this. God's riches at Christ's expense. God's riches at Christ's expense. Do you have any idea how rich you are if you were in Christ Jesus? You want love?

It's unconditional. You want mercy? It's lavish. You want forgiveness? It's total. You want adoption? It is certain. Do you have any idea how rich

you are if you're in Christ Jesus. Here's the thing. Grace is an inexhaustible resource that is given as a gift from God to his children, but it isn't cheap. Grace is not cheap. It's incredibly expensive on the part of Christ, and this is where it gets hard to get your head around. Grace is incredibly expensive on the part of Christ, and it is completely free to me. It is completely free to me. This is the challenge that I've had with grace over the years. Galatians chapter three is where we're going to pick up in verse one. And what Paul is doing is he's arguing for the completely free gospel of grace compared to the gospel, the works based righteousness that's being preached in the Galatian Church. When you study Galatians, you'll read the word law

more than 30 times, and you'll read the word faith more than 20 times. And this is the problem that Paul's addressing. There are false teachers who have crept in the Glacian Church, and they have convinced people that you're not saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone, that you're saved by things that you do. And so sure, you want to have faith in Jesus, that's fine, but you also have to be circumcised. You also have to eat certain foods and not eating certain foods, and you have to participate in certain festivals. And if you don't do of these things, then you're not really a Christian. And Paul is saying this is complete hogwash. This is not the gospel or the message of Jesus Christ. And he's defending the position of

the gospel of grace through the entire work, the entire book of Galatians. We're in week seven of that study, and we pick up in chapter three, verse one. Just to let you know, Paul gets real spunky right out of the gate. He's talking trash and he's being serious about it. He says this in verse one. He says, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. What Paul is saying is that some of y'all, you don't lost your mind. You don't lost your mind. And this very serious business, that's why he's using serious words.

I mean, John chapter 10 verse 10, we've been studying for almost two years as a church, and it says that the thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Well, how does he do that? Well, primarily through deception, through truth suppression. Well, what truth is it that the enemy does not want you and I to buy? believe. He does not want us to believe that God loves us and that Jesus is the proof. Because if we believe that God loves us and that that is a free gift to us, God's love for us, if we really believe that God loves us, that it changes everything about everything. He does not want us to believe

that God loves us and Jesus is the proof. And he does not want us to believe that God has made a promise to his children and that he always keeps his promises. My wife and I have been married for about 18 years. And it's going pretty good. It's going pretty good. When we first got married, we got married in a little chapel on Lookout Mountain. And I remember standing down at the altar and the piano player began to play Canon and D and everybody stood up and turned their eyes toward the door and the door is open. And at the end of this long, narrow aisle, my bride to be was standing there. And I just remember being at the altar, having this real sense of gratitude because I realized what a gift I was being given in this woman. And she comes down and all the eyes

are fixed on her and then we find ourselves face to face and we're holding each other's hands. And it comes time in the ceremony where we're going to take our vows. And both of our fathers are ministers and so they were co-officiating the wedding. And we stand in front of each other and we look each other in the eyes and we make a promise. We say things like, I take you to be my wedded wife. I choose you, that I will stand beside you. I will love you as Christ loved the church. I will comfort you in sickness and in health that until there is no more breath in my lungs, I will holy and solely and only be yours. I make this promise to her, and then she makes the promise back to me. We leave, we go on our honeymoon, all this great. Now, how long do you think,

it took before I began to get flexible on parts of my promise? How long do you think it took before I began to negotiate terms in order to rearrange the information to do something that I wanted at any given time? Well, in the case of the promise that I made that I will be with you in sickness and and health, it took about a year. And the only reason it took a year is because my wife doesn't get sick much and it wasn't tested in that first year. But I had booked this day of golf.

And let's just be clear. I love golf. I love it. I love it. Like, I'm not talking about a little bit. When I book a day of golf, I don't go out and just play 18 holes and then go sit at the bar and tell half lies to my buddies. No, no, no, no.

I play from sun up to sundown as God would have it. There have been many days in my life where I've played more than 60 holes of golf in one day. I might do it tomorrow under the glory of God. You know what I mean? I'm into it. So I book a day of golf. And my wife, me and a buddy are going golf. at my favorite golf course. And my wife's like, hey, I'm going to come out and go with you. And I'm

like, yeah, that's cool. She's like, I probably just play 18 and then I'll come back home. No problem. We lived about an hour from where this golf course was at the time. So we get in the car, we go out to the golf course. Me and my buddy tee off. He hits a good one. I hit at 3.30 down the middle as always. And then I don't know why you laughing. We pull up the ladies' teas and my wife hits. She rares back. She's got a beautiful swing. And as soon as she hits the ball, she lets go of the club, she drops to her knees in pain and she grabs her neck. She had herniated a disc in her neck. Not good. Not good. I get out of the car and I'm like, cart and I'm like, baby, are you all right? And it takes her a second and we kind of get her up. We get her into the cart and we sit there and

just to see if the pain dissipates and she's like, man, there's just no way I can keep going. I need to go home. And I'm like, no problem. So we drive the cart back toward the cars and I get close-ish to the cars. And as we get near the car, and as we get near the car, I walk around to her side, I help her get out of the cart, and then we're heading toward the car. Now, here's the question. Which door do you think I opened for my wife to get into? You would say, Pastor Britt, you made a promise in sickness and in health. But no, no.

I go straight to the driver's side door. I open it right up. I help my wife get in. And she's like, I don't know that I can actually. look over my left shoulder and I literally said, don't worry about it. That's what they made mirrors for. I closed the door. Off she goes. God's honest truth. I get in the cart. I'm driving back toward the fairway. I say a prayer for my wife. I'm like, Lord, would you please just help her get home safely and feel better? Pull out on the course, look at my buddy. My buddy's like, everything

all right. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know. We'll see. Um, she's just, She's going to be fine. She's going to be fine, I'm sure. And he's like, where is she? And I was like, she's driving home. My buddy looks me in the face, and he goes, have you lost your mind? And it was in that moment I realized what I had done. It never even crossed my mind to do anything else.

I was completely bewitched by my own desires. There was something that I wanted in that moment more than the most important thing in my life. and this is how we often treat promises. We treat them as though they're flexible, as though they can bend, as though there's some wiggle room in them. But it's really, really good news that God is not like us. This is not how God treats his promises.

He is completely unwavering. He is completely inflexible when it comes to the promises that he's made. God is a God of covenant. And this is what that means. It means that he makes promises that he pursues until he completes it. and he never forgets what he has promised. Paul is saying to the Glacians, you are a fool. You have forgotten or you have at worst abandoned the promises of grace.

He continues and he gets sarcastic. He says, let me ask you this. 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? Paul is asking the question, where did this whole? things start with you or with God. Having begun by the Spirit, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 3 says, no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. It is God who started our

salvation. It is God who gives us our salvation. It is God who will sustain our salvation for all of eternity. Paul is asking this question. Whose life do you really want, whose hands do you really want your life in? Yours or gods? Whose hands do you really want your eternity in? Yours? Or gods. He continues, he said, did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, does he who supplies the spirit to you work miracles among you, or do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Let me recap quickly where we are in Galatians 3 before we deep dive the life of Abraham. So far in Galatians, this is what we've learned. We've learned that salvation,

comes to sinners by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Salvation comes to sinners by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And the finished work of Jesus Christ is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, showing us that we need the gospel. And then he overthrows our will with God's love and overcoming our will with God's love through Jesus. He makes us born again or born of the soul. Spirit is what John chapter 3 says. And this act of grace is completely a miracle. The entire thing

is completely a miracle and it is 100% a work of grace from God. Paul introduces us to this man, Abraham. And he continues pointing at Abraham and he says this, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture for seeing that God would justify 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. These false teachers in the Galatian church,

they're called Judaizers. And they believe that because they were in the genetic lineage of Abraham, that it gave them special favor with God. And so they thought because of who their granddaddies, granddaddies, granddaddies was that somehow that meant that they were, they got all of God's riches and all of God's rights because of Abraham. And Paul saying that is not how it works. It's the modern day equivalent of saying, like, the idea that because I was born into a

Christian home, that inherently makes me a Christian. Well, being born into a Christian home doesn't make us a Christian any more than being a Florida gator makes certain that you're going to wear jeans shorts. I mean, the chances that you'll wear jeans shorts are higher because you're a Florida gator, but it's not certain. right you still have to put the shorts on you know what i'm saying so being born into a christian i'm kidding guys it's nothing but love we love you because i'm a bulldog and we're winning natties lately and so it's nothing but love and so being born into a christian home doesn't inherently

make us a christian Christianity is something that happens to the individual by grace through faith when we put our trust in jesus christ paul points at abraham and he says hey abraham is the original and the case study for salvation by grace. So what we're going to do over the next few minutes is we're going to follow Paul's lead, and we're just going to deep dive the life of Abraham. And so get your pretty blue Bible out and go to Genesis chapter 12, okay?

Genesis chapter 12, and you're going to need to get your page flipping fingers ready. My pastor growing up would have called this a rainmaker sermon, and because the idea is that so many people are flipping pages as we go that it sounds like it's raining in here. So let's do our best, all right? Genesis chapter 12 we're going to pick up in verse one we first meet a man named Abram side note I'm going to say the word Abraham and I'm going to say the word Abraham it's the same person and I'm going to be talking fast and I'm going to get it confused many times throw a brother some grace all right we meet Abram at the end of chapter 11 and Abram is a Chaldean which means that he's a pagan he's a moon worshipper he's not following in the god of Noah or Enoch or Methuselah he is a complete pagan and in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, this is where we pick up. It says, now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country

and your kindred, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So two things. In verses 1 through 3. One, God gives Abram a. a command, also known as a law. He says, leave your country, leave the land that you grew up in, leave your father's house, and leave your kindred. And God gives Abram a promise. He says, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and I will make your name great. One,

question number one, who started the conversation, Abraham or God? God did. Who initiated the relationship, Abraham or God? God did. Question number two. Do you see the words if and then anywhere in Genesis chapter 12? God does not say if you leave, then I will make you a great nation. He says, leave and I will make you a great nation. This is not a transactional relationship from God's side. So verse four, so Abraham went as the Lord had told him, comma, and lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Iran, and Abram took Sarah, his wife, and lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions they had gathered, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. What was the command from God? Leave your land, leave your kindred, and leave your father's house. Abraham and Sarah are married to become one. She goes with him. Who else went with him? Lot, who is his brother's son, his nephew? Leave your father's house. Did Abraham obey God? God. No. I mean, kind of, but not really. He went in the direction that God pointed, but he did not go as God stated. And here's the challenge that humans find themselves with the law, is that at best,

we are kind of not really law abiders. At best, we are kind of not really promise keepers. Right? Especially if you consider the sermon on the mountain, Jesus said things like, the fullest extent of the law, the fullest extent of God's command are things like this, that if you act angrily toward your brother, it's as if you committed murder, or if you have a lustful thought in your mind, it's as if you're committing adultery. At best, we are not really kind of law abiders. Go with me down to verse 8. So they leave the land of Heron, and they're heading toward this new land. They stop in a place called Bethel, and it says this at the end of verse 8. And there, Abraham built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

What is Abram doing? Abram builds an altar to the Lord. Did God tell Abram to build an altar? No, this is a pagan practice. Every religion in the world builds temples and builds altars and builds things for God. Ultimately what Abram is doing is saying, God, I want you to be happy with me.

I want to get out of you, what I want to get out of you. Therefore, I'm going to do some things for you. I want you to see me doing things out of respect for you and then maybe you will bless me. Then maybe you will be happy. Verse 10 and 11, it says we pick up. Now there was famine in the land. Is famine a good thing or a bad thing?

It's a bad thing. Now there was famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was severe in the land. Did God tell Abram to go to Egypt? No, he did not. Abram just sees a problem. He says, I got this.

He doesn't even ask God. Like, Yahweh, where do you want me to go? No, he just takes matters into his own hands and he heads towards Egypt. Okay? When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarah, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance. And you go, oh, Abe, you're such a sweetheart. Now, this is where it gets just pastoral warning. It gets super weird from here.

I mean, weird. We're going to get into it. Here we go. He says, I know that you are a woman beautiful. beautiful in appearance. First 12. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife, then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake. When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman was very beautiful. And when the princess of Pharaoh saw her,

they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And for her sake, he dealt well with Abram. And he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys and female camels. Abe going into the land of Egypt, gives his wife away, convinces his wife to lie and to go and have sex with other people so that Abraham doesn't get hurt. And then he profits off of it. Do you know what this is called?

Trafficking. So so far where we are in our story with Abraham, how's he doing on the works front? Is he doing good? Is he holding up his end of the bar? Is he pursuing holiness and doing everything God said to the letter of the law exactly the way that God said it? Absolutely not. Let's skip over to chapter 13.

At the beginning of 13, Pharaoh catches up with Abraham's deception. And four, what I believe is for the sake of Sarah, he doesn't kill him. He actually lets them leave. And then he lets them keep all their stuff. And so Abraham leaves Egypt loaded. And he's got his wife back, and they're moving toward back in the direction that God had pointed. and Abraham and his nephew, Lott, it gets all sideways, one gets passive aggressive, the other gets greedy.

They separate. We pick up in verse 14 of chapter 13. It says this, the Lord said to Abram, after Lott had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, north, south, east, and west. For all the land that you see, I will give to you into your offspring forever. I will make your offspring of the dust of the earth so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. God, resists. states the promise. I'm going to give you land. I'm going to give you generations of kids. Pay attention. You can trust me. I'm going to do this thing.

Abram, what does he do in verse 18? So Abram moved his tent and there he built an altar to the Lord. Abe is in a transactional relationship to God. He is not in a trusting relationship with God. Now we all have transactional relationships. We go to work. We do the thing that we got hired to do. We get paid. This is a transaction. We go to the bank.

We put that money in the bank. We can then go spend to that money in all different kinds of ways. These are transaction. Transactional relationships are fine in the right context. However, God never designed family to operate on transactional relationships. And he certainly did not design his family to operate on transactional relationships. Go with me to chapter 15. Chapter 15.

Now, chapter 14 is one of my favorite chapters in all of the Bible. We meet a king by the name of McElzadek. It's awesome. I have no time to get into it. We deep dive it on the deepened podcast. We'll see you there. Chapter 15, picking up in verse 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.

Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, oh, Lord, what will you give me for I continue childless? And the air of my house is Elie Azar of Damascus. But Abram said, behold, you have given it. me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir. So here we are. God states the promise again in verses 1 through 3. God says, I'm going to do this thing and you would think Abraham would be pumped about it. But he's not. He looks at God and goes, God, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? I have no kids. You have not held up your end of the bargain from my seat

right now. I don't trust you. This is verses 1 through 3. Abrams says, all I've got is this this guy that is going to end up taking over everything from my family. Verse four, and behold, the word of the Lord came to Abram and said this, this man shall not be your heir, your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and he said, look toward heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them. And then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. Verse six, and Abram believed the Lord. And God counted it to him as righteousness. This is significant. God says, let's go outside.

Look up at all these stars. You see that moon hanging there that you used to worship? I put it there. I know all the stars by name. I hung them there. I'm the one that keeps them going all day and all night. I want you to count all these stars. That's how many kids you're going to have.

That's how many generations are going to come through you. And Abraham's looking up at that sky and you know he's like, this is an impossible thing. Exactly. Exactly. See, you do not really trust God until you realize that you're up against the impossible. And we are. We cannot forgive our own sins. It is impossible. We can try to pay for our sins. It would just cost all of eternity. We cannot forgive our own sins. And we cannot do enough good things to make ourselves righteous before God. We cannot put ourselves in right standing before God.

It is completely impossible for us to do this. And this is the beauty of the gospel of grace. Romans chapter 6, verse 23, says, For the wages, for the cost, or for the payment for sin, is death. But the gift, but the gift, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. not through good works and try hard and do enough. It is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Abraham's, this is impossible.

But then he says, Abraham believed. He looked and says, but I believe you can do it. If you said it, I believe it. This word believe is the Hebrew word, Amman, Amman. It's where we get the Greek word and the English word, amen. What it means is fixed. It is certain. It is sure.

Abraham is saying, you have said it, let it be so. God sees Abraham's faith, and then God counts that faith to him as righteousness. It does not say that Abraham earns his righteousness. It says, no, God counts it to him as righteousness. Pastor Jobi preached on this all week last week. Abraham believed and God counted it as righteousness. Abraham did not earn it. Earn it, God counted. Ten years later, go with me to chapter 16, verses 1 through 4. Now Sarah, Abraham's wife had born him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. Sarah said to Abraham, behold now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarah. So after Abraham had

lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Sarah, Abraham's wife, took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram, her husband as a wife. And he went into Hagar and she conceived. and when she saw, Sarah saw that Hagar had conceived, she looked on Hagar with contempt. Question, who saw that going bad? I mean, what are the odds that's going to end up in a positive situation? This is a terrible situation. Sarah says, I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of waiting.

Abram, let's take this into our own hands. We got this. We can't trust God's destiny for our life. We've got to take control. I don't know what you're walking through today, but let me just. just remind you and let me encourage you this, that God is always on time. That God is always on time and everything he does is good. Sarah gets tired of waiting.

And so she convinces Abraham, probably didn't have to work too hard to have a child with his servant, Hagar. Often the hardest place to trust God is in the waiting. But you can trust him. Chapter 17, verse 15, we pick up. And God said to Abraham, As for Sarah, your wife, you shall not call her Sarah, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her.

I will bless her and she will become the nations, kings of peoples shall come from her. And then Abram fell on his face and laughed and said, shall a child be born to a man who's a hundred years old, were 25 years past leaving her on? And shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear her child, and Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. And God said, no, but your wife Sarah shall bear your child. you a son and you shall call his name Isaac and I will establish my covenant, my promise, the same promise I gave to you with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring. God's feeling in the blanks

of the details and the promise he made to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. He's saying, I didn't promise you and Hagar would have a son. From him, all nations would be blessed. No, he said, you and Sarah would have a son. And you're going to call him Isaac. It was never God's plan for Ishmael to be the line from which the Messiah would come. It was always God's plan for it to be Isaac. Go with me to Genesis chapter 21. Genesis 21 verses 1 through 3. Let's read it together. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said. And the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. God did it. God did it. You have an old man, he's unhelpful. You have an old woman,

she's infertile. God visits Sarah, she gets pregnant, she has a miracle baby. Isaac, the son of the promise. Now, Isaac begins to grow up, and they have a party. It's called a weaning party. I don't even know what that means. Sounds weird, but they had a party. And at this party, Ishmael, Isaac's older brother, the son of Hagar, begins to make fun of Isaac. And Sarah sees this and she goes nuclear, right? She goes all like Instagram blasting the teachers, like bad tweeting the principals. She just goes nuclear. And they kick, they cast out Ishmael and Hagar.

They leave. This is where we pick up in Galatians chapter four. Go back with me to Galatians. I got to hurry. Y'all are slowing me down. Galatians chapter four. This is what Paul's saying. He's deeper diving the story of Abraham and Isaac and Hagar and Sarah and Ishmael.

He says this in verse 21. He says, tell me you who desire to be under the law. Do you not listen to the law? To you who desire to be under the Old Testament covenant, do you not remember what happened to Abraham? That's what he's saying. So do you not remember? He says, for it is written, Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, one by a free woman. But the son of the slave, but the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, according to the I got this.

According to the, you're not going fast enough, God, and according to the, I want what I want, and I want it now. That's what it means, according to the flesh. While the son of the free woman was born through promise, this is Isaac. Now, this may be interpreted allegorically. These 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 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. 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. It's getting technical, but hang with me. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

We preach the gospel to you in such a way that it looked as if Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified as what Paul said. You were so compelled by the message of the gospel of grace that you realize that your salvation, your life is completely a miracle of God. You received that and you believed it, but for some reason you've abandoned it. You were children of the 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. There are two women. There are two women. There are There are two covenants. Sarah, Hagar, law, grace. There are two cities, present Jerusalem, where the Judaizers come from, who are deceiving and oppressing people with the works of the law. And then there is the new city, the new Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ is seated on the throne, where he's preparing a place for all of his family, and it is completely a gift of grace that will come to his church.

There's two cities. And then there's two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. It is an allegory. It's a word picture. What Paul is saying is that there's two paths. There's one that leads to shame, one that leads to guilt, one that leads to death, one that leads to separation. And there's another path, one that leads to salvation, one that leads to freedom, one that

leads to life because it leads to Jesus Christ. It leads to Jesus Christ. Ishmael is a picture. He is a son of, God, I got this. He's a son of God, you need my help. He's a son of God, you're not moving fast enough for me. Let me take my life into my own hands. I want what I want and you should give it to me now.

And Paul says, no, because of grace, we cast that way of life out. We cast that thinking out. He says, Ishmael and Isaac, they don't inherit together. What is earned by the flesh and what is given by grace from the spirit do not lead to the same places. Ishmael is the result of I got this. And the truth is, me and you, all of us, we all have Ishmael. in our life. We all have things in our life that are the fruit of us doing things when we want to do them apart from God. We all have Ishmael's in our lives. We all have things we've done on our

apart apart from God and there is no way for us to undo it. Things that we've done that there is no way for us to undo it. But the good news of the gospel of grace is this. Listen to me. The good news of the gospel of grace is this for anyone that is in Christ Jesus. God chooses not to recognize us by our Ishmael's, but by His Isaac. Do you hear what I'm saying? God chooses not to recognize us by our Ishmael but by His Isaac. He chooses not to, he chooses to recognize what he has done on our behalf through Jesus Christ. He recognizes His work through Jesus Christ, not my sin. He recognizes his miracle, not my mess. Me, go to this, Matthew chapter one, flip there quickly with me, and we'll close with this.

Matthew chapter one, starting in verse one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, make no mistake, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, the promise, the law, all of it is pointing to one man. And his name is Jesus Christ. He is the entire point. Beginning, middle, and end, it is all his. verse one the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham verse two Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac the father of Jacob skip down to verse 17 so all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations and from David to the deportation

to Babylon 14 generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, 14 generations. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 20 says this, for all, for all the promises of God find their yes in Christ Jesus. He is the complete fulfillment of all of God's promises. That all of God's promises find their yes in Christ Jesus. That is why through Jesus Christ we utter our amen to God for his glory. God's riches at Christ's expense.

Let me ask you some questions. Who started the conversation between Abraham and God? Abraham or God? God did. Who initiated the relationship? Abraham or God? God. Who kept their word completely?

God did. Who never stopped pursuing the relationship with Abraham? God. who gave Abraham an inheritance that he did not earn God who gave Abraham what Abraham did not deserve in forgiveness and counting him as righteous Abraham did not deserve that God gave it to him who gave him that the Lord did so here's the real question who gets all the credit God does God gets all the credit God gets all the credit why Why would God go through all this trouble with this nomad pagan and turn him into the Father of Faith?

Why would God forgive him and give him right standing? Why would God bless him so richly with his protection and his provision? Why would God do the impossible for Abram? Well, the answer is this. It's because it made him happy to do so. It's because it made him happy to do it. It makes God happy to save people. It makes God happy to redeem people.

people. It makes God happy to include people in his plan for humanity. It makes God happy to love people into loving him back. It makes God happy to have a people all for himself that are soaked in his grace. Listen to me, church. It makes God happy for the world to have Jesus Christ. It makes God happy for his people to have their king. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2 says, that we look to Jesus, who is the founder and the perfector of our faith. He starts it, he sustains it, he finishes it. It's all Jesus all the time. It's all grace all the time.

We look to Jesus, who is the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame. What was the joy set before Jesus Christ? It was so compelling that he was so in love with that he would choose to walk the road of the cross, to pay the complete price for sins, to live the life, we could never live and then do the impossible when he rose from the grave three days later. What we could never do for ourselves, what for us is impossible is possible for God. And when we receive the free gift of grace through Jesus Christ, what was impossible for us now becomes possible because of Jesus Christ.

God leads Abraham outside and he says, look to the stars, man. He says, look up at the stars. Look at what I'm going to do. The invitation of us today is to not look at the stars, but for us to look at the cross and the empty a tomb. We don't look at what God's going to do. We look and say, this is what God has done. And Abraham believed, he looked at God and he said, amen, and so do we. We look at the cross and the empty tomb and we say, it is fixed. Sins forgiven, it is sure. Righteousness credit, it is reliable. It is trustworthy. God made a promise to his people and all of God's promises have found their yes in and through Christ Jesus. And all of God's people with joy bursting out of their hearts, they say, amen, amen, unto the glory of God.

So we're going to respond the way that we always do. We're going to sing, and we're going to sing these words. Amen. We're going to sing our amen back to God. Let it be so. You have done it all, and we receive it by grace. We're going to sing. We're going to pray. Maybe you're here and there's parts of your life where you're trying to live and I got this. You're trying to walk in a, God, you're not moving fast enough. God, you're not doing the thing that I need you to do in the time that I need you to do it. And today, you would just realign yourself under the grace of God. And you would say, you would say, God, I trust you. Grow my faith. Overcome me with your grace. And so we're going to sing. We're going to pray. We'd invite you to come and pray at the altars, put your body in the

posture that you want your heart to be in. And we're going to bring our first and best through ties and offerings because God gave us his first and best in and through Jesus Christ. Let me pray for us and then we'll respond. Father, we love you. We thank you that you are a gracious giving God and that it makes you happy for us to love you. And that we did not love you first. You first loved us. And so we receive and we believe your love by grace. And so, Father, we pray that you would expand our minds and our hearts and our life's capacity to walk in grace and to understand what it means to be a child of grace sealed for all of eternity. But most of all, we thank you for Jesus.

We thank you that he is the yes and amen. We thank you that you are, Jesus, the fullest measure of the promise of God, fully revealed. It is finished. It is fixed. It is sure. It is certain. We give you all the glory. We give you all the credit.

We give you all the honor because you deserve it. And it's in Christ's name we pray. And all God's people said, amen. Would you stand with me as we respond?