Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB00009B
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00:07 Welcome back to our study of the book of Galatians.
00:10 Before the break Mark, we were talking about this idea 00:12 drawn out by the apostle Paul in Galatians of the 00:16 two covenants, so we spent some time talking about the 00:19 old and new covenants. 00:20 We were in the book of Hebrews 8 where we discussed 00:24 the new covenant that was given to Israel. 00:27 Given to Israel, but given to all of us because we are 00:31 part of spiritual Israel. 00:32 As we look at that we recognized that the problem with 00:37 the old covenant was with the people. 00:39 The people have made promises that they weren't able to 00:42 keep, the problem was never with the agreement God had 00:45 given the law, because the law is at the heart of the 00:48 new covenant as well. 00:49 - that's right, it's interesting that some people say 00:51 the mistake was that those people said all that the 00:52 Lord spoken we will do, they should have never said that. 00:55 That was the problem! That is not what we find. 00:57 The problem was they said that and stayed apart from God. 01:01 We will look at that more in just a moment. 01:03 What I would like to do briefly to bring us into our 01:06 next section is to look back to Deuteronomy 5 to show 01:10 God's intent was never what the children of Israel were 01:14 doing in the old covenant. 01:16 Let's go to Deuteronomy 5:28 where Moses is recounting 01:21 this experience the children of Israel went through. 01:25 Beginning with the Ten Command- ments and the old covenant. 01:29 It says, "then the Lord heard the voice of your words 01:32 "when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me; I have 01:34 "heard the voice of the words of this people which they 01:37 "have spoken to you. " And they said all that the Lord 01:39 has said we will do. And this is what he says about it. 01:41 - he says it right before in verse 27. - right. 01:44 Oh yes, that's right, we didn't read that part. 01:47 "27. You go near and hear all that the Lord our God 01:50 "many say, and tell us all that the Lord our God says 01:53 "to you, and we will hear and do it. " 01:54 So Lord heard all of that and it says in the middle of 01:58 verse 28, "they are right in all that they have spoken. " 02:02 Then he says in verse 29 and this is the key "oh, that 02:05 "they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me 02:09 "and always keep all My commandments, that it might be 02:12 "well with them and with their children for ever!" 02:14 God wanted to bless them, He wanted to give that to them. 02:18 He knew that they didn't have the heart in them to do 02:21 what they were promising to do. 02:22 Only if they came close to Him and found the Spirit of God 02:25 to enter into their experience could they have that heart. 02:28 That is absolutely true so we are coming back to 02:31 Galatians 4:22, and again we read this before and we are 02:35 reviewing it, "for it is written that Abraham had two 02:39 "sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. 02:44 "But he who was up a bondwoman" that was Ishmael, 02:47 "was born according to the flesh. " Remember the devising, 02:50 the plan of Abraham and Hagar and Sarah? 02:53 They work together, even though God had promised that 02:55 Abraham would have a child and intended for Sarah to 02:58 be the mother of that child. 02:59 They thought maybe God wants us to work it out and they made 03:02 their own plan instead of submitting to God's plan. 03:04 So it was of the flesh, it was their own plan. 03:07 It says, that child Ishmael "was born according to the 03:11 "flesh, and he of the free woman through the promise, which 03:14 "things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: 03:16 "the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, 03:20 "which is Hagar - for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, 03:23 "and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, 03:26 "and is in bondage with her children. " 03:29 Now that is a powerful statement right there and it is 03:31 offensive in fact to a lot of people. 03:33 Paul stated in his day the same goes today that 03:36 the nation of Israel is not equated to the new covenant, 03:40 the old covenant to bondage and not salvation 03:43 agreement or covenant at this point with God. 03:47 Then it says, "26. But the Jerusalem above is free, 03:52 "which is the mother of us all. For it is written: 03:56 "rejoice, old barren, You who do not bear! Break forth 03:59 "and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate 04:02 "has many more children than she who has a husband. " 04:05 So the whole idea we are getting here is there are these 04:08 two covenants and he equates them to these experiences. 04:12 You have Hagar the slave girl of Abraham who has a son 04:15 Ishmael and those correspond to the old 04:20 covenant given at Sinai. 04:22 You have Sarah who was promised the child Isaac in an 04:26 impossible situation where they had to put faith 04:29 in the promises of God. 04:31 Isaac's birth equates to a new covenant and the Jerusalem 04:38 above which is the mother of us all. 04:39 That's right, and you can see here the apostle Paul is 04:42 simply using another illustra- tion to draw out the same 04:45 truths he has been doing. 04:46 He talked about the slave verses the son, and now he's 04:49 talking about these two covenants. 04:51 They are touching on the same issue of the flesh 04:53 and the spirit and we will talk more about that 04:56 in a future episode. 04:57 Right now we will touch on a for a moment, this idea 05:00 that Ishmael was born of the flesh. 05:03 This is symbolically talking about the fact that we 05:07 cannot of the flesh, without being born again, without 05:12 union with Christ, we cannot produce anything good. 05:16 Even what we do outwardly that is good has wrong motives. 05:20 So many people think that they are a good person and 05:23 that is the natural thought some of them but the reality 05:26 is that the motives give us away. 05:29 It makes me think of the words of Jesus to Nicodemus, 05:32 that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born 05:34 of Spirit is spirit, the spirit can't produce the flesh, 05:37 the flesh can't produce the Spirit. 05:39 In Isaiah 64:6 I think it where it says, all our 05:43 righteousness's are as filthy rags. 05:45 The best we can do, even when we are doing our very best 05:50 without that changed heart of humility, love and that 05:54 which is unselfish, the best we can do is filthy rags. 05:58 So this idea of the old covenant that is described here, 06:02 is related to this Sinai experience where they made an 06:07 attempt to fulfill God's requirements without 06:10 union with Christ, which is totally futile. 06:13 Jesus makes this point in John 15 and I thought we should 06:16 look at that briefly. 06:18 John 15:5 Jesus was speaking to His disciples and He said, 06:24 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me 06:29 "and I in him, bears much fruit for without Me you can do 06:34 nothing. " So He is the vine and the only way for us to 06:38 have anything truly good produced out of us, is to have 06:43 an intimate union. 06:44 You think about a vine and branches they are connected. 06:46 The life of one flows into the other. 06:49 More than that though, the life of the branch doesn't flow 06:51 into the vine, it's a vine that gives life to the branch 06:54 or the branch can't exist. 06:55 That was his point, if you are not connected with Me, 06:58 you can do how much? - nothing - absolutely. 07:01 Absolutely nothing. So here we have this picture of the 07:04 old covenant where it is a futile attempt to fulfill 07:07 God's requirements when we are not connected to Christ. 07:11 There's lots of people who go to church, they live a good 07:14 moral life, they don't have devotional time. 07:17 They don't spend time in prayer and pleading for purity 07:21 oh their soul, they don't spend time reading the word 07:23 and allowing the Lord Jesus to speak to their heart and 07:26 point out those rough spots drawing them into union 07:29 with Him, it's a futile attempt. 07:32 They may be going through the motions, others may look 07:35 at them as sincere Christians, but the reality is that 07:38 lack of vital life force from Christ is causing them 07:41 to only have filthy rags. 07:43 Jim the reality is, I've been there, you've been there, 07:45 you used to think you are good person and I thought I 07:47 was a good person before I came to Christ. 07:49 The reality is our standard of righteousness is very 07:53 low and we may put on our act, and we may think we are 07:56 good people, but the fact is we have issues that God 07:59 allows to come into our lives to test our character 08:02 and to prove us and show that we are not made up to what 08:06 we would be. 08:08 We may have something happen we just blow up and lose 08:10 our temper and say things we regret and then we say, 08:12 I don't know what happened I'm usually a pretty patient 08:15 person, but the fact is and what is being revealed is 08:17 my heart is corrupt. 08:19 You know when you think about it this happens often times 08:23 from a sense of self-confidence. 08:25 We begin to do what's right and making good choices and we 08:29 are close to Christ and then we leave off spending time 08:33 with Him and gradually, I've had it happen in my own 08:37 experience, those old traits of character, that flesh starts 08:41 to come out and I start acting out what I use to act 08:45 out, but I had since moved past because I did not have 08:49 that union with Christ. 08:50 So that is the vital principle that is 08:52 being spoken of here. 08:53 Well let's look further in Galatians Chapter 4:28 08:57 for a moment, it says, "now we, brethren, as Isaac was," 09:01 "are children of promise. But, as he who was born 09:05 "according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born 09:07 "according to the Spirit, even so it is now. " 09:10 I mean if you look at the different examples in the Bible, 09:13 you will find, take Jesus and the Pharisees. 09:16 Jesus was born of the Spirit and the Pharisees persecuted 09:21 Him, they couldn't stand how principled and loving 09:24 Jesus was. - He exposed their iniquity. - exactly! 09:28 If they couldn't stop Him from teaching they had to 09:32 ultimately crucified Him, or urge for His crucifixion. 09:35 They had to get rid of him so that conviction would be 09:37 removed, the same thing happened from a story we mentioned 09:40 in a previous episode of Cain and Abel. 09:42 Abel was just doing what was right, but just being around 09:46 that bothered Cain and he persecuted him because it was 09:50 pointing out his lack, his weakness. 09:53 You may find that sometimes and I know my own experience 09:55 that sometimes you come in the presence of someone who is 09:58 not a Christian and they feel a little awkward. 10:01 You are not trying to do anything to bring any 10:04 condemnation but there is a sense of awkwardness they feel 10:08 and maybe a little bit of envy and what have you because they 10:12 know that they are not exactly where the Lord wants them 10:14 to be, that conviction is being given to them so they 10:16 might turn to Lord. 10:18 They tell themselves they are good people all the time 10:21 until they come into contact with somebody who is good, 10:23 not because of their goodness, but they have been 10:26 transformed by Christ and it is evident. 10:28 - Yeah, that is right, it's exactly right. 10:30 What we want to go ahead into verse, you asked me Jim 10:33 about this and it really hits me to continue on is 10:36 in verse 30 where he says, "nevertheless what does the 10:39 "Scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for 10:42 "the son of the bondwoman shall not be in heir with the 10:45 "son of the free woman. " 10:46 The whole idea is that just as Hagar gave birth to a slave 10:49 child, she couldn't give birth to anything else because 10:51 she was a slave. 10:52 So the flesh gives birth to fleshly reasoning. 10:56 What the Bible is saying here is the flesh can't have part 11:01 in the salvation experience, flesh has to be removed. 11:04 So the bondwoman is like flesh, the son has all the 11:07 devisings of the flesh, all those human excuses we make. 11:11 For example, I think of the types of things that people do 11:14 when for example the Scripture calls upon them to forgive 11:18 somebody and they say, I know I should forgive them, but 11:21 you don't know what they have done to me. 11:24 Or somebody marrying outside of the faith, I know 11:28 I shouldn't marry outside the faith, I know that is what 11:31 God says, what the Bible teaches, but the person really 11:33 seems interested and they might be willing to study. 11:36 We make excuses, even though God is clear about what 11:40 His will is, we choose to do it in our own way and yet 11:44 still profess to be following Him. 11:46 We put our reasoning above His reasoning. 11:49 So Lord is saying cast out the bondwoman, cast out 11:52 those reasoning's, those excuses we so often give. 11:55 I want to go back and close with this passage here in 11:58 verse 27, or 26 and 27 because this is powerful. 12:01 The apostle Paul says, "but the Jerusalem above is free, 12:05 "which is the mother of us all. For it is written: 12:08 "rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth 12:11 "and shout, you are not in labor! For the desolate," 12:14 speaking of Sarah, "has many more children than 12:17 "she who has a husband. " 12:19 - that's right and he is quoting actually right from 12:22 Isaiah 54 where are he says, "Sing O barren you who have 12:25 not borne" like Sarah she was barren, 12:28 "break forth with singing and cry aloud 12:31 "you who have not labored with child! For more are the 12:33 "children of the desolate than the children of the 12:34 "married woman, says the Lord. Enlarge the place of 12:36 "your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of 12:39 "your dwellings; do not spare: lengthen your cords, and 12:41 "strengthen your stakes. " We are expanding the house here 12:43 "For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and 12:46 "your descendents will inherit the nations, and make the 12:49 "desolate cities inhabited. " 12:51 So Sarah, by giving birth to Isaac, she was desolate but 12:55 been through God's promise Isaac was born and through 12:59 Isaacs line Christ came and through all these not only 13:03 Jews but Gentiles who believed in Christ so it's in time 13:06 to enlarge the tent because all are welcome into the 13:09 family of God. 13:10 This is a powerful truth and we just hope that you too 13:13 will be willing to accept Christ and enter into 13:16 the family of God. |
Revised 2014-12-17