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[0:00] In Galatians 4, starting in verse 12, and we'll go down to verse 31, which gets us through the end of chapter 4. Paul here, he writes, he says, I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.

[0:14] You have done me no wrong, but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time. And that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition, you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself.

[0:28] Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

[0:39] They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, not only when I am present with you.

[0:49] My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. But I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?

[1:04] For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son of the free woman threw the promise. This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants, one proceeding from Mount Sinai, bearing children who are to be slaves.

[1:22] She is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponding to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free.

[1:33] She is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear. Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor. For more numerous are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband.

[1:44] And you, brethren like Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so it is now also.

[1:55] But what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free woman.

[2:09] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. God, we do thank you for those who have paid the ultimate price to allow us to be here this day. Those who have given their lives. God, we thank you for the opportunity to experience the freedoms that we celebrate and rejoice in.

[2:24] Lord, I thank you that we have the privilege of reading your word and hearing your word openly and publicly. Lord, I pray that it would be more just than a collection of information, but Lord, that it would be life transformation based upon the truth that we see and the truth that we hear.

[2:39] Oh, Lord, we pray that by the power and presence of your spirit, you would move in our midst. And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. I want you to see before Paul moves into the application of this great truth, because truth without application is just uselessness, right?

[2:54] There always has to be application that goes along with truth. And Paul will do that. He will begin to apply this in Galatians 5 and 6. But before he moves to the applications, he just gives some observations concerning this.

[3:06] Because the matter of law and grace is really a major ordeal. Because here's the thing. You cannot be saved by grace and live by law. You cannot be saved by grace, that is, in faith in Jesus Christ alone, and live by a legalistic standard of do this and don't do that.

[3:23] And you cannot be saved by the law, period, and try to live by grace. You need to be all in on one or the other. And what was going on is Paul was writing to a church that was kind of being pulled in two different directions.

[3:35] And Paul here is giving some remarks to show them that they are actually going in two different directions. Because law and grace do not go together in the life of the believer. Law and grace are totally opposite ends of the spectrum.

[3:48] And he wants to show it to us in three ways. He gives just three observations that show us that there is a difference between law and grace. You say, well, I'm saved by faith, but I want to be sure that I do all the right things.

[4:00] Well, my friend, then you're discounting some of the price, or you're discounting all of the price that Jesus Christ gave for you. I want to make sure that I do the right things, too. And the only way I know that I'm doing the right thing is if I'm trusting in the right person, right?

[4:11] Not trusting in my own efforts, not trusting in my own ability, but I'm completely surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Each of those words make a big difference, by the way, because if he is my Lord, then now he has control over my life and he tells me what I can do.

[4:27] And if he is my Savior, then I no longer have to worry about the eternal security of my life because he's already redeemed me. But the only way that I can be sure I'm living the right life is if I'm surrendered to the right person and if I'm trusting in the right person.

[4:41] There are a lot of individuals who struggle with this. Well, I'm trusting Jesus and I'm doing my best. Well, I just want to go ahead and tell you, your best will never be good enough. I'm going to do my best and Jesus will pick it up from there.

[4:53] No, that's not the way it works because your best will never be good enough. Your best and my best will always fall awfully short and it is not trusting in ourselves. If there is any part of our lives in which we are trusting in our ability, then my friend, that is a part of our life we have not surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

[5:09] And Paul says he is either lord of all or he is not lord at all. Because you cannot say you're coming to him by faith, trusting in grace and trying to live a legalistic standard and making sure you're doing the right stuff.

[5:24] Because you cannot say, Jesus, I'm going to take it from here. Now, I know there's some danger here because some of us are saying, well, so pastor, you're just telling me I can go out and do everything I want to do and I can do anything I want to do. You're giving me a license to sin.

[5:36] Now, wait a minute, my friend. I said that if you're trusting in Jesus as your lord and savior, then all of a sudden you can't do anything because he's lord of your life. Lord means ownership, master, ruler, right?

[5:48] He is a determining factor, which means that if I'm trusting in grace and if I'm trusting in Jesus, then he all of a sudden dictates everything I do. And what I want to do here is just let you see these observations that Paul gives and hopefully free us because this is how it happens.

[6:05] This is the danger of legalism and law. I know strong believers. I know people who have been in church for a long time and they've struggled with these things the same way as even new believers.

[6:20] The danger in this is if we see the law, the rules and the list of do's and don'ts, and we read them in the Old Testament, they have a place. We'll get to that. And I know I'm pushed a little bit for time this morning, but it's a good time to hear it, and I want you to understand this.

[6:33] The danger is this. Satan always likes to highlight the rules we can't keep and to use that as a reminder that we're not good enough. Satan likes for us to see the laws and the standards where we mess up and where we fall and where we short.

[6:49] And if we're trusting in our own ability, then we're definitely going to see where we are unable or our inability, and we're going to see where we stumble, we're going to see where we fall, and we're going to see where we mess up, and then we're going to live with this thought that surely God does not love me because I'm not good enough.

[7:06] Surely I haven't made it well enough, and surely I haven't done enough. And Satan loves to take even believers in Jesus Christ into that lie and to hold them there because while he cannot snatch you out of the hand of the Father, Romans chapter 8, right?

[7:19] There is nothing that can take us out of the hand of the Father, neither height nor depth nor powers nor principalities of the air nor spiritual forces of darkness, by the way, that's Satan. Neither you nor me because if Satan can't snatch you out, you can't jump out.

[7:30] I hear people say, well, nothing can take me out of there, but I can jump out of there. Yeah, right. I mean, let's just be honest. You're not that strong, right? You are eternally secure in Jesus Christ because he has put you in the hand of the Father.

[7:40] And while Satan cannot take you out of the hand of the Father, he sure can render you useless in the hand of the Father. And the greatest way to render a believer, a born-again believer, a born-again child of God useless in the kingdom of God, is to allow that believer to begin thinking more of themselves than they do anyone else.

[7:59] And the greatest way for you to think more of yourself is for you to say, I keep messing up and I keep falling short and look at what I can't do and look at all these laws I keep breaking and looking at all this standard. And you say, well, those are good things.

[8:09] I need to be worried about what I'm doing and what I'm not doing right. But guess what? You're still thinking about you. And now all of a sudden you've taken a good thing that is the standard of holiness and made it a bad thing because you're thinking more of yourself than you're thinking of anyone else.

[8:25] And we see this in three manners of observation. Number one, we see the observation of personal testimony. Paul says, I beg of you, my brethren, become as I am because I became as you are. The first testimony Paul alludes to here or speaks of is the testimony of his own life.

[8:41] Think about this just for a minute. Paul is a great man. This is probably one of the first books which Paul wrote. One of the earliest writings of Paul is the book of Galatians. And he probably wrote it sometime after his first missionary travels.

[8:52] Now, Paul, we know later, would write that he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. As to the law, blameless. He understood what it meant to live by legalization. He understood what it meant to live by a strict code of ethics.

[9:05] He was a man who would have had major portions of the Old Testament memorized, including the book of Deuteronomy. He was one who would not walk over a number of steps on the Sabbath day. He would not carry anything heavier than a coffee cup on the Sabbath day.

[9:18] He is a man who made sure he did everything the right way all the time. And he made such a hard life for himself. He held himself to this high code of ethics.

[9:29] And Paul says, my testimony is this. I met someone on Damascus Road that told me I didn't have to worry about all that because he had already taken care of it. My testimony is this. Paul is writing to Gentile believers here, right?

[9:40] He's writing to the church at Galatia. By the way, the Galatians had never been Jewish. They were Gentile. He was writing to this place in Galatia who never had all these legalized, legal standards that Paul lived by.

[9:52] If they wanted bacon, they could eat bacon. It didn't matter if it was kosher or not, right? If they wanted sausage, they could eat sausage. Anybody eat sausage this morning? It's good stuff. I'm so thankful for the freedom we have in Jesus Christ, right? We understand this.

[10:03] Paul says, as to the Sabbath, they didn't even know what the Sabbath was. They didn't care. They would carry anything they wanted to on the Sabbath. They would go as far as they wanted to go on the Sabbath. Paul says, so you know what my testimony is?

[10:14] My testimony is I have become like you. I left the suppression of a legal standard and found the freedom of Jesus Christ. My life is that I've become like you.

[10:27] And now I'm living. This is a man who knew what it was like to live right and wrong. He knew what it was like to live under this hand of condemnation. He says, my brethren, I have become like you. I'm living in freedom.

[10:39] If I want bacon, I eat bacon. You say, well, what difference does that matter? To a Jew, it mattered a lot, right? If I want to worship on a Saturday, I'll worship on a Saturday.

[10:50] If I want to worship on a Sunday, I'll worship on a Sunday. Paul says, I can worship on Monday just as much as I can worship on Saturday. That's freedom for a Jew because they were told there was only one day a week they could do things, right?

[11:01] Now, all of a sudden, Paul says, I have found this liberty. It is the observation of personal testimony. And then he goes on. He says, by the way, remember when I first came to you.

[11:11] By the way, you ever want to know what grace is? You ever want to know what grace really is? For those of you who really know who Jesus Christ is, and you know that he's your Lord and Savior, if you want to know what grace is, you have to do what Paul here does.

[11:25] He says, remember when I first came to you. I did not come to you because I planned to come to you. I came to you because I was sick. Now, we don't know. Some people say, oh, his eyes were messed up. That's a saying, by the way, that you would have plucked your own eyes out and given them to me.

[11:36] That's just a saying of his day, saying you would have done anything for me. More than likely, Paul on his, and it might have been his eyes. We don't know. But Paul, on his first missionary travel, became sick.

[11:47] And he became sick, and he hadn't planned on stopping in Galatia, but he became so sick, he had to stop in Galatia, right? And he says, so I came to you, and I wasn't in my best condition. I wasn't the best pastor, the best preacher you would ever hear.

[11:59] It was pretty rough. He says, and I just didn't look good physically. History shows us that Paul was not a very good figure to look at. Some people say he was kind of stooped over. He was not really appealing.

[12:09] He was kind of almost hideous to look at. History says he wasn't the most handsome of fellas, right? And sometimes God uses broken vessels to do the most beautiful work, and we understand that. I'm so thankful for God who creates us in his own image and not worried about creating us in the image of everyone else.

[12:24] It's a good place you should have said amen because the young people need to hear that. It doesn't matter if we're created in the image of everyone else. We're created in his image, which means sometimes that image is full of imperfections because he likes to take our imperfections and magnify his glory, right?

[12:37] You say, is he imperfect? No. We are cracked, broken vessels that he begins to glow out of. And Paul says, and I came to you. You didn't want to look at me. I didn't look real good. But the message I preached to you, you received it.

[12:49] And Paul said, all of a sudden, this joy came in your life, this worshiping attitude. He said, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given that to me. You know what that is? That is the excitement of newfound conversion.

[13:01] You want to know what grace is? Go to the moment you are saved. I mean, when you really knew, not when you thought you were, but I mean, I'm talking about when you knew that you knew that you knew that God loved you enough to send Jesus Christ to die for you, and he died for you so that you would be accepted by him.

[13:18] And you knew the price that Christ paid for you. And you knew the price that he gave for you. And he did it even if you were the only one on the planet that needed it, that he loved you that much. He paid the price.

[13:29] And there was nothing else you needed to do other than believe in that. At that moment, you know what grace is. And at that moment, I'll tell you, you'll pluck out your eyes and give it to someone if they need it, because now that grace is doing something new inside of you.

[13:43] It is this testimony. But you know what happens? All of a sudden, that relationship begins to be taking place by religion, because you're excited. Let's just step on our toes every now and then a little bit, okay?

[13:56] You're so excited to get some of us uncomfortable, so we begin to put rules on you. Don't do that too much. Don't get too carried away there, new believer. Don't get thinking God's going to change the world through you there, new believer.

[14:06] Just calm down, you know. I mean, yeah, it happened to me about 40 years ago or 50 years ago or whatever our testimony is. Just calm down. I used to be excited about that too, and I used to get carried away about that too. My friend, listen, don't ever let the flame of a newfound conversion die in your life.

[14:23] If you look at your life and you are less excited today than you were the day you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then there are a number of things you need to cut out of your life. Because I want to tell you, his grace is as great today as it was on that day.

[14:37] And Paul says, I want you to go back and think about what it was like in your life the moment you knew Jesus loved you. Think about the excitement you had. And listen, you had that excitement.

[14:48] Paul was doing it to the church at Galatia, and I'm doing it with you. You had that excitement before you knew anything about the rules of do's and don'ts in church life. Honestly? I mean, when I came to Christ, I was such a new believer.

[15:03] I had grown up around church. I knew nothing about Southern Baptist doctrine. I knew nothing about church covenants. I knew nothing about the Baptist faith and message. I knew nothing about all these things that the Southern Baptist church, which I love, holds so dear.

[15:15] I knew nothing about church covenants. I knew nothing about any of this stuff. I mean, if you were to talk to me about Constitution and bylaws, if you were to talk to me about all this, I'd be like, I have no idea. All I know is that Jesus Christ died for me, he loved me, and he cares for me, and he died so that I could live eternally with him.

[15:29] And that was enough. And that's grace. And that's mercy. And Paul says, your testimony was this. You were more excited the moment you understood Jesus loved you than you were excited the moment you thought people expected things from you.

[15:47] Isn't that the testimony of us all? You want to see what the difference is between law and grace? See what the life of the new believer looks like when they understand Jesus loves them?

[15:58] And then see what that believer's life looks like in a few years when they think people expect things that is law, legalism, from them. May we never get to that point.

[16:09] Because that's dangerous ground. You say, well, pastor, don't you have an expectation for me? Yes, I do. I expect you to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

[16:23] That's it. That's what I expect. And if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and all your strength, then you will love your neighbor as yourself.

[16:34] And if you do those two things, Jesus says all the law hinges on these things. And if you do that, I want to tell you, I don't have to worry about anything else you're doing. Because if everything you do is being fueled by your love for your God and love for your Savior, and is also being directed by your love for your neighbor, then, my friend, we don't have to talk about anything else.

[16:52] There's no other expectation. That's it. It is this observation of personal testimony. Number two, not only do we see the observation of personal testimony, we see the observation of a desired outcome.

[17:02] Paul is really here contradicting himself with the other teachers. And it's not the outcome of the people individually, it's the outcome of the leaders of the people. Paul here says, I beg of you, brethren.

[17:14] So we understand this, that Paul is pleading his heart's case. He's like, you know, I have a desire. There is something I want in you. There is something I long to see come from you. He says, be as I am, for I have become as you are.

[17:25] But then he goes on down to verse 15. He says, where then is this sense of blessing you have for you? I bear you witness that if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

[17:42] Look at verse 17. They, who is they? They is the other teachers who followed Paul. They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.

[17:53] By the way, we need to go ahead and see here. Every cult can claim this verse. Every false practice, every cult, every, every desire.

[18:07] You can look at this right here. It is the, the, the observation of desired outcome. You say, what do you mean? Well, let's flesh it out a little bit here. Paul says, I'm begging you.

[18:18] I have something I want to see. I want to see formed in you. And what is that that Paul wants to see formed? Oh, you say, although they would become like him. No, that's not it. You have to read the rest of the verses. I'm not going to take you through them all. But he says, finally, I'm giving birth to you once again, until I, what, see Christ formed in you.

[18:34] Paul says, with those who I am in labor again, until I see Christ formed in you. Paul's desire was this. Paul says, I'm begging you to look more like Jesus Christ.

[18:46] I'm begging you, and I'm laboring for you, and I'm working among you, and I'm encouraging you, and I'm writing you, because I want to see Jesus Christ in you. You accepted me as you would have accepted Jesus Christ, and I want others to accept you as they would accept Jesus Christ, because here's this.

[19:05] You are Christians like Jesus. That's what it means, to be Christ-like, right? He says, and I'm laboring until I see Christ formed in you. That's his observation.

[19:16] Now, the observation was the other ones, the ones who came in and said, well, it's good enough to put faith in Jesus Christ, but be sure you do all of these things as well. Now, there's danger there. Why? Because he said, they're trying to shut you out.

[19:28] Shut you out from what? Shut you out from the glories of Jesus Christ, from the free gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Why? So that you would seek them. You see that?

[19:40] Cults usually find their following from believers, not non-believers. I don't know if you've ever noticed that. Most people who, well, I mean, we can speak about it, really in truth, a number of years ago, the largest segment of the LDS faith came from Southern Baptist churches.

[20:01] Now, that has since transitioned in the last few years, but for a number of years, the population in the LDS church, and I do classify that as a cult, we're not going to get into it why, came from Southern Baptist churches.

[20:16] They said, you know a little bit of Jesus, we want to tell you how to make it the rest of the way. They thought they were like Paul Harvey, right? We want to tell you the rest of the story. And there's danger there with any cult, with any false practice. By the way, even some, what they call Christian churches, it doesn't have to be necessarily a cult, is that if someone begins to tell you this list of do's and don'ts, and do this and don't do that, and this legalism, it is all this desire.

[20:36] You need to follow me because I alone know how you should act. And now all of a sudden, you become dependent upon that individual. When Paul says the desired outcome that he has is that Christ would be formed in them, but the desired outcome of the false teachers is that they would follow them.

[20:54] I'll just be honest with you, and I'll just put it real clear. I don't want you following me. I don't want you to become like me.

[21:04] Paul says, I want you to be imitators like me, or imitators of me, as I imitate Christ. Now, I do have a desire for that. As I imitate Christ, I want you to imitate Christ too.

[21:15] But I do not want you to become imitators of me. I've met some who say, I just want people around me, I'm not here. One of the scariest statements I've ever heard is I heard someone, well, when I leave here, I just want there to be a lot of little me's running around.

[21:27] That scares me to death because I know how messed up I am. There are a number of things in my life I do not want you to imitate, and I do not want you to mimic, and I do not want you to follow.

[21:38] Now, as I follow Christ, I want you to follow Christ. As you follow Christ, I want to follow you as you follow Christ. That's iron sharpening iron. But my desire, my desired outcome is not that you would all look like me, because if you all look like me, we're going to all be in trouble.

[21:52] Right? The world doesn't need any more of me. It just really doesn't. It doesn't need any more of you either. You know, we've got that kind of cornered in. We are who we are, and we're each fearfully and wonderfully made.

[22:04] Wonderful too, but we're also fearful. There are issues with every one of us. Paul says, I don't want you to be more of me and to follow me. He said, I want you to be more of Christ and follow Christ.

[22:16] But when you look at false teachers, what you see is whatever the teacher is, that is what the followers are also. And the followers all of a sudden become copycats of the leader.

[22:27] And now all of a sudden we see this observation of law become more like me, or grace become more like him. We see the observation between law and grace.

[22:41] Number three, and finally, we'll make it quickly because my voice is beginning to leave me. Some of you said a silent hallelujah right there, but that's okay. This is probably one of the most difficult passages to understand, but we'll see it here.

[22:54] We see the observation of historical portrayal. The observation of historical portrayal. Paul says, tell me. Essentially, he says, what's going on with you?

[23:05] Why do you want to become children of the law instead of children of grace? Now, Paul does something which we can do quite often in Scripture, and that is we can use an Old Testament truth and see the type or the picture that that truth is displaying for us.

[23:17] By the way, I just want to say as a side note here, I am thankful for Galatians chapter 4, verses 22 through 31. You know why I'm thankful for Galatians chapter 4, verses 22 through 31?

[23:29] Because when I read the Old Testament, I scratch my head and I say, why in the world did Abraham and Sarah ever come up with this idea of Hagar? Anybody ever do that? Who thought that was a good idea?

[23:43] Who didn't see that train wreck coming? Why in the world is it even there? Well, good news, the Bible is the best commentator on the Bible. God's going to show us through the writings of Paul why in the world it's even there.

[23:54] Right? He's going to show us why that even happened. He's going to show us the reason for its inclusion, not just to show us that Abraham was messed up and forgiven. Sarah was messed up and forgiven.

[24:05] Hagar, you know, that's a different story. We get a lot of great truths from Hagar, but we see this here. This observation of law and grace. Paul says, Now, do you not even know that by Abraham there were two sons, one of the law and one of grace?

[24:20] You say, what grace? What law? Well, grace is a promise, right? Trusting in a promise. There was one that was the son of promise and one was the son of works. We don't have to figure out how Hagar became pregnant because that was works.

[24:32] That was law. All law is is man's work, man's ethic. And it is man trying to work out what God has already promised to do. All law is is man trying to work out what God has already promised to do.

[24:46] How do we know that? Because of the historical portrayal we see in Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. And I just want you to see some things very quickly. I don't have time to get into it in detail here, but we see that there are two children and the two children represent two standards.

[24:59] One corresponds, as Paul would say, with Mount Sinai. That is the law. That's where the law was given, which is in Arabia. The other one corresponds with the promise of God, that God was going to bring things about, which is the Jerusalem of heaven.

[25:11] One was born of a slave and maintained slavery. One was born by a promise and was born in freedom. One was the son of a bondwoman. The other one was the son of a free woman. And he begins to have the two here, and he's put them in comparison.

[25:23] Now, we don't have the freedom to go to every story we find in the Old Testament and use it as an allegory to show us things. Because I could take you to the Old Testament, and all of a sudden we could use it as an allegory that we can expect donkeys to talk or bushes to burn but not be consumed.

[25:36] And that's not true at all. But Paul here, by being moved by the Spirit, shows us the allegorical truth that this story contains. And I'm thankful for it. But I want you to see just a few things very quickly as we pass through there.

[25:49] Number one, I want you to see that the promise came before the law. The believers in Galatia responded by faith in Jesus Christ, and were trusting in the promise of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

[26:04] And the teachers that came behind him would have said, Oh, that's all good, but that's something new. That's that new finagled religion that Paul is speaking about. Let us tell you about the law. We've had the law for years, and Paul says, Wait, wait, wait, wait, back up. The child of promise was promised way before the child of works ever came about.

[26:20] Works was just man's impatience with God's promise. By the way, I want you to understand that salvation by faith in Christ alone was given long before and ever standard of conduct was ever given. In Genesis 3, 15, you have the promise that God will restore and redeem and renew man on his own.

[26:37] The promise preceded the law. We see also the observation here that the law was just man's impatience with God's promise. We see that the law is not freeing, rather it is binding.

[26:49] He is a son of a slave. Therefore, the law is a slave. By the way, legalism is slavery, right? If I give you a list of do's and don'ts, you are enslaved to that list of do's and don'ts.

[27:04] This is the weight that so many people feel is because they are held bondage by legalism. That's the son of Ishmael. He was never to be heir. We see here, finally, this great observation that law and grace cannot coexist because it says, what does the Scripture say?

[27:20] Cast out the bondwoman and her son. Law had to leave because grace, that is promise, was going to reign. My friend, I know I'm putting a lot of stuff out there and I'm putting it together very quickly for the sake of time, but I want you to understand this picture here, the historical picture we see in the Old Testament is that man can try to work things out on their own, that is, the works of the law.

[27:45] And it may look good for a while, but then law is going to reach the point where all of a sudden promise, the promised child comes in and, you know, law was doing its work until the child of promise came up and all of a sudden the law got mad and began to argue with the child of promise.

[27:59] Remember that? And when they weaned Isaac, all of a sudden now, Ishmael began to have some problems with that, started mocking him and then Sarah's like, we can't have this. Why? Because law and grace cannot coexist.

[28:13] Either you're trying to live your life by a legalistic standard called works and your only inheritance is slavery or you will cast those works, the best you can do aside and trust in the child of promise, which is Jesus Christ and you become an heir in the household.

[28:32] But we see from this historical picture that law and grace cannot coexist. Only one can live in your house at a time and either you're trying to do your best and you're working to maintain your salvation and you're working to earn your salvation and you're working to be good enough or you have cast all of your works aside and you're trusting in the promise of forgiveness.

[28:58] Now that trust will be displayed in a unique way. Your only trust will be like, it's not what I'm doing, it's what he's done. It's not how good I am, it's how great he is.

[29:10] It's not how much I deserve, it's how much he gives. It's not the effort I put forth, it's the death he died and the promise he extends.

[29:22] So all I'm doing is I'm accepting that promise and I'm casting aside my works. My friend, I hope you see in these observations concerning law and grace, you are either living in law and being a slave to that law or you're living in grace and rejoicing in the freedom that comes from grace.

[29:40] Let's pray. Lord, I thank you so much for this day. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you as we've looked at these observations and we've seen them, oh God, that they would ring true within each one of us.

[29:53] Lord, I pray that it would be that which searches our hearts and minds. Lord, may you show us exactly what it is we're trusting in, what it is we're leaning on for our eternal security.

[30:04] Lord, may we forsake the work of the flesh and cling to your work on the cross for your glory and for your majesty. We ask it all in Jesus' name.

[30:15] Amen. Amen.

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