At the Surrey Tabernacle, Borough Road
“This only would I learn of you, received you the Spirit by the word of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Galatians 3:2
THE apostle well knew that every sinner that was saved must be saved after the same manner, and by the same grace by which he himself was saved: and therefore, preached thus unto others that grace of which he himself was partaker. When he saw in the church any deviation from the gospel of the grace of God, he then felt that they were going on the downward road; he felt and saw that by degrees the gospel was departing from them, and something else was taking its place. And knowing, as the apostle did, the downward tendency in every sense of the word of poor fallen nature, he watched prayerfully and with great care over the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he uses, as you are aware, upon this matter of gospel purity in the commencement of this epistle one of the most solemn anathemas in the word of God; that even if an angel should pervert the gospel of God, to turn the gospel of God into another gospel, even if they themselves, the apostles, should turn around and preach another gospel, then they must be accursed; so important was the pure gospel, the pure grace of God, in the eyes of the apostles; and he well knew that it was the same in the sight of the great God. Hence, we find the apostle stirred up to the great solemnity of feeling and led to write this interesting epistle. I had some inclination to have taken three verses here; but I find that one will be as much as I shall be able this morning to get through; and moreover I have two or three subjects behind that I have not yet finished, and did not intend to preach on these words this morning, but my mind by circumstance was led to them; And therefore, I will by the Lord's help try to bring out what I think is fairly implied in the language of our text. And as to the division of our text, I think it may be divided under two main ideas. Here is first a solemn question, “This only would I learn of you, received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith.” And then, secondly there is a right conclusion; this right conclusion is suggested in the last clause, “the hearing of faith.”
Here is, first, then, a solemn question. “Received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” I will notice here in this part two things, in order to bring out, if possible, what is implied. There is, first, implied an unscriptural unition of things: and then, secondly, here is a questionable reception of the gospel; “I stand in doubt of you.” I think under these two we may bring out the chief meaning of our text. First, here is an unscriptural unition of things. And yet it is not a false religious unity that I shall this morning occupy your time upon; but I will rather describe what the true unity of the Spirit is. I think that will be the most profitable, and at the same time will bring out the meaning of the text and show that whatever does not accord with that unity which I am about to describe to you is not of God, “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to these two, it is because there is no light in them.” Now we have read this morning of brotherly love; but there must be in order to that brotherly love oneness of spirit; and there has been in all ages, and there will be down to the end of time a oneness of spirit with the people of God. Now then, what is this true unity? How shall we test it? for he that is joined to the Lord is in the secret. I will first take a scripture from the Old Testament, and then several from the New. Take the Old Testament; go to Jeremiah, and you read of a people that shall know the Lord, “they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them. They shall no more teach every man his brother, saying know you Jehovah.” There is a contrast you see, first to the false Gods; “no more say, know you Jehovah; for they shall all know me;” the true, eternal God, in distinction from the false gods. Secondly there is a contrast not only to our state of ignorance by nature, but also a contrast to the law of God, for God speaks there not in the law, he speaks there in the gospel, speaks in the new covenant; “they shall all know me from the least unto the greatest of them. And I will pardon their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.” So that they shall know the Lord in his absolute eternity, and shall also know him in the perfect, in the entire abolition of sin; that the remembrance of sin by the atonement of Jesus Christ is blotted out forever; that the creature has no hand in contriving this great plan, no hand in executing it, the whole of it is of the Lord from first to last. And then in the 32nd of Jeremiah, God says “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not turn away from them, to do them good.” So that we are to be brought to feel our need and see our need of this covenant, this abolition, entire abolition from sin; and God’s eternity and immutability; that I will not turn away from them to do them good. So that the Lord makes all that befalls his children here to do them good; whether it be bodily afflictions, loss of friends, or soul darkness, whatever it is; the Lord so manages, so overrules, and fulfills his own word, as to do them good. And then there is another side of this covenant; we must not lose sight of the other side, and it is this, “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” When the soul is thus brought into this unity of the blessed God, into this bond of the covenant, where such a one is free to all eternity from all sin, where the everlasting God is on his side, and that he will not turn away from him to do him good, but make all things work together for good for his good; if a temptation to apostatizing comes to such a one; if such a one be in his right mind, if such a one be in a sober mind, if such a one be sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, his answer will be, “Lord to whom shall we go? For you have the words of eternal life.” This, my hearer is the unity. And if you look at this great truth, God’s eternity, the entire absolution of sin, the Lord undertaking not to turn away from us to do us good, but to make everything work for good, and putting into our souls of supreme respect for his truth, so we shall not turn therefrom.
Nor does the Lord stop here; he goes on a little further; he not only shows that he will do us good, but the that he will rejoice to do us good. “Yes, I will rejoice over them for good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly;” this new covenant land, this land of eternal purpose, peace, and plenty, “with my whole heart, and with my whole soul.” Here you have then the unity; and anything contrary to this is deluding to the soul and insulting to the blessed God. This is what the Galatians at the first professed, and the apostle Paul preached this. You see this great truth of the new covenant scattered largely through the epistles; yes, this very truth of the new covenant is the life and theme, it is the river, the main river, that runs through the Bible, and especially through the epistles of the apostle Paul; there this river appears deeper and broader, perhaps, then in the writings of any of the other apostle, so that the Galatians received this, and ran well at the first.
But let us look at this unity in the New Testament; you will find that this unity of spirit, this real unity of spirit, is in the New Testament founded upon the same thing. I will take the 17th of John and lead you by it to the great truth of the people being originally given to Christ, as one truth essential to real unity of spirit; not losing sight of the scripture that I have just now quoted, that he that is joined to the Lord can be joined to the Lord only by his truth. The Holy Spirit will never join us to Christ but by the truth of Christ; the Holy Spirit will never join us to the blessed God except by the truth of God. Hence in the 17th of John we read, “You have given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.” Here then my hearer we may be brought to this great truth, that this great truth of our being eternally given to Christ is the ground of eternal life; “that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.” We must hold fast his truth. And if you are brought to understand this truth and hold fast, and feeling from day to day that you are in your heart, and thereby demonstrating from your own experience that if grace had not given you to the Lamb, nothing else could; that if the Lord in his sovereignty had not been pleased to have mercy as a matter of sovereign pleasure upon you, there could have been no mercy for you; this truth is essential to the real unity of the spirit, to the standing fast in that one spirit by which alone we can be safe, for we cannot be saved by any other spirit. Think not, friends that I am contending here for a mere creed. Let me here stop and gives way to a moment’s digression, just to say that we cannot be saved by a wrong spirit, for “if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his;” and if the spirit of Christ is the spirit of truth, and if it be truth it is new covenant truth; for “he,” says Christ, speaking of the Holy Ghost, “shall testify of me.” We cannot be saved by a wrong spirit, either our spirit is the spirit of bond children, we must be cast out, and cannot be heirs with the sons of the free woman. Any man that has not the spirit of adoption is not the child of God: if he has not the spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ. There is, then, a matter of vital, of essential importance, in the subject of which I am speaking this morning. Then further on in the 17th of John you will find that not only that our interest in eternal things is founded originally on the father’s gift of us to Christ, but our preservation by the Father is founded on the same thing. See what a firm foundation it is. “Holy Father, keep through your own name those whom you have given me;” not those that deserve to be, not those that have followed up the works of the law so closely that they are thereby entitled to some of the favors of the gospel; not a sentence of the kind. The ground of the Savior’s prayer stands on eternity, stands on God’s sovereignty. “Holy Father, keep through your own name those whom you have given me, that they may be one, as we are one.” So, then my interest in eternal things originates in this gift, my preservation originates in this gift. If I am not included in this gift I am not prayed for; and if Jesus Christ does not intercede for me, in vain would be the intercession of angels and of men; if I am not embodied in his intercession, then I must be eternally lost, for he intercedes for none but his own. “I pray for them, I pray not for the world, for them whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine, are yours and yours are mine; and I am glorified in them.” Then again in this unity we find that all the glory that is given to the people is to bring about this unity. “The glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one even as we are one.” So, then they are given to them; that they may be one even as we are one.” So, then they are one in the truth of the Father’s gift; they are one in the preservation, and they are one in the glory, “the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one.” “The glory which you gave me,” now what is that glory? That is the question, what is that glory that God has given to Christ, and that Christ has given to the people in order that they may be one, established in oneness with God, and in oneness of spirit with one another; so that with one heart and mouth, and voice they may glorify God.
What is the glory? In the seventh chapter of the book of the prophet Daniel there is given to Christ a kingdom; there it is, you see. “It is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” “The kingdom which my Father has appointed unto me have I appointed unto you.” There is the glory. What kind of the kingdom? “His dominion is an everlasting dominion.” First there is the kingdom; second there is the eternity of the dominion by that kingdom; “and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” True unity, then, is founded upon this covenant bond, founded upon the father’s original gift, and that our preservation in this, is on the ground of that gift; and that this glory which we have, is founded on the same; “the glory which you gave me I have given them.”
You see there are no ifs in the matter, and there is no offers in the matter. Just notice that it is all settled, and decisive from first to last! If’s and offers belong to the world and the bond children, not to the free children: yea and amen, that is their spirit.
Again, this unity of spirit will live not only in the reception of these blessed truths, knowing our need of them. But there is another view the Savior gives of it, that they are all made perfect in one! Here we have a beautiful allusion to the perfection of the Savior’s work. Now then give me the great truth of eternal election; give me the great truth of preservation on that ground; give me the great truths of sins entire, it’s mediatorial and sacrificial ablution, and that it is blotted from remembrance, to be remembered no more! That this God be my God. Here we are joined to the Lord, here we are of one spirit, and whatsoever is not in accordance with this, is not of God. But let me trace this unity of spirit a little further. The apostle Paul in the fourth of Ephesians gives us a beautiful representation of this unity of the Spirit. How do you think men try to do that? Why, by human organizations you are rather high in doctrine, we will have the prayer meeting at your chapel; you are rather lower than we, but nevertheless, we have a prayer meaning, and we will all intermingle. The last three or four years many churches have tried this, tried that, but now it is gone. Look at your great revival prayer meetings in London, they are dying, you see they are dying! Their prayers are not answered, and if you go now into the rooms where they meet, they do not brawl so loud as they did! No! Don’t make quite as much noise. Not quite so many of them. They are getting tired, poor fellows, and well they may be. They go there and brawl for an hour every day, with neither rhyme nor sense nor reason in it, it is all dying out together. All their aims and plans to bring about the unity of the spirit, why, that is the unity of the flesh, and the unity of man. To endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit, is to keep the truth in the love of it: and if I love the truth, I shall love the lover of the truth; and, if I prove that I am born of God, I shall love the same truth, to keep the unity of the spirit, is to keep the truth. It is that that has kept the churches together! What has kept us together so many years, and will keep us together in spite of hell and earth, until the time shall come for my soul to go home? Why, the unity of the spirit! “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit;” endeavoring to hold fast the truth and the life of it, in the order of it, in the practice of it, and the exemplification of it, and in that way that shall glorify him who is worthy to be praised.
If you keep the unity of the spirit, mind it must be God’s unity. There is no goodness or real pleasantness in dwelling together in unity, except it be the unity of God’s truth, the unity of his spirit, the unity of his love. And the apostle gives us a sevenfold oneness here, very beautiful. “There is one body, one church”: one body, only one. Ah, but, say some, there are a great many members, and you high doctrine people want to see them all the like. No, we do not, we never expect to see the hand as the foot, nor the foot as the hand, nor the hand, as the eye, nor the eye as the hand. Then, you do allow a little charity! Yes, sir. But while we know that the members differ, we do not expect one member to be at war with the other. If your two eyes were always at variance with one another, and when you looked at the object, one of your eyes declared it to be a mile off, and the other that it was scarcely 5 inches off; or, if one eye declared it was black, and the other that it was white, if your eyes were at war in that way, how in the world could you walk about, you would not know which way to go. Suppose one eye read everything upside down, and the other only partly upside down, why say you according to one eye it is so and so, but according to the other eye it is so and so, and you would be in everything confusion.
Now then, we admit there is considerable difference in the visual strength of different people, as there is individual powers of the real Christian; but we do not expect one man to make Christ one thing, and another man to make him another; one man to make the gospel one thing, and another man to make it another; and so, the gospel becomes torn all to pieces, and by-and-by the people become torn to pieces. Ah, say they, the cause of it all is this dreadful high doctrine: get rid of this high doctrine, and we shall all agree together. Just so. That is the old-fashioned plan; crucify Christ, and Pilate and Herod are friendly directly. So, we admit the differences of the members, but we contend for the harmony of the body, that there be no schism in the body, but one shall accord with the other; so that the body shall not be a monstrous body, but a mystic body, a glorious body; the church standing clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, under her head a crown of 12 stars. All this harmony, simply by the truth and spirit of the blessed God. And, says the apostle, “there is one Spirit.” He gives you the body first, and then the Spirit. And there is “one hope of your calling; one Lord;” namely, our Lord Jesus Christ; and there is “one baptism,” that is, one ordinance of baptism. Sprinkling is not baptism; immersion is baptism: there is one baptism, one ordinance of baptism. There is one baptism of the Holy Ghost: all baptized by one Spirit and made to drink into one Spirit. And there is one mediatorial baptism.
And then he gives us a fourfold representation of God the Father. “One God and Father of us all.” Where shall I go for a definition of that? “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” Ah, say you, I don’t know that they will believe that. Oh yes, they will: all the saved will believe it, can’t be saved without it. “They shall all know me, from the least unto the greatest.” “The Holy Ghost shall lead them unto all truth.” “Through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” Now what think you of this oneness? There is the body, there is the Spirit, there is the hope, there is the Jesus Christ, there is the faith, there is the baptism, there is the one God and Father of us all; “who is above all,” because their affairs are governed by his counsels; “and through all, and in you all,” so the time shall come when God shall be all in all. Thus then, the unity of the Spirit, the true unity of the Spirit is funded on God’s truth; this unity of spirit, is commenced by regeneration; and being brought to receive the truth in the love of it, whatever does not accord with this order of things is not of God.
But I come back to our text now. “Received you the Spirit by the works of the law,” received you the gospel, which is called the administration of the Spirit, by the works of the law? Now you know you did not; you know that you Jews at Galatia hated the name of Jesus Christ: you know that you all agreed with the rulers to put him to death; you were glad when you heard of it, if you were not at Jerusalem, you partook of the Jewish spirit; you know that you hated God’s eternal truth; you know that you were vile enemies; how came you to process the name of Jesus Christ? You know when I preached the gospel to you at Galatia, for the apostle had preached there, I met you in that state; your enmity was slain in you; your eyes were open, or you professed that your eyes were opened, and you saw your condition; you stood amazed that you were not cut down by the wrath of God; you acknowledged it was all mercy from first to last; you seemed to receive the truth; and seemed to run well, who did hinder you? We will come to that presently. You Gentiles at Galatia, why you were idolaters that is what you were; you were sunken in heathenism, and everything vile and revolting; your very existence was stained with everything revolting to the civilized mind, to say nothing about the Christian mind. And therefore, you know that according to the profession you then made, it was mercy that found you! That you received not the hope you professed to have by the works of the law, but by the grace of God. But how came they thus corrupted? I will tell you the principles or feelings that led to that corruption. There came some of the Jews who were what is called moderate; and said, now if you get to heaven, if you can get to heaven by this gospel, and if you can prosper and please God simply by faith, just what Paul has told you, dear, how very much better it would please him if you could but observe days, and months, and years, and be circumcised. Then see what a respectable thing it is to observe these occasional feasts; and then see how near you’re doing so it will bring you to the heathens; and then see that we shall be more respected? Hence the apostle was in the secret. They adopted this easy state, or this fashionable state of things, least they should suffer an intolerable prosecution for the cross of Christ. We shall be more fashionable; not only more respected, we shall be more popular. We must look at the conversions we shall bring about; why we shall convert hundreds and hundreds. Why, dear me don’t listen to that Paul; why, he rests the matter with the Lord, let us convert all the world, we will get them to observe a month first, why, that man is half converted then we will get him to observe the Sabbath day, two steps towards it; then we will get him to observe the great annual feasts, three-steps; and then we will get him to be circumcised, and the man is safe now: just do that, and believe in Jesus Christ, that is such a Jesus Christ as they preached. And so, they wrapped it up. Thus then, we shall be more respected; we shall have more conversions, we shall be stronger, we shall be wealthier, we shall get on better in the world. Look at the Laodicean church, see how well they are getting on, they were not above 70 or 80 miles from Galatia, if I recollect right; why they are all gentlemen, and they are all ladies, wonderfully well off. And how do you think they became so? Why, by being less narrowminded, adopting a few works of the law, and so amalgamizing matters; they are become quite respectable. Well, so they are. These are the principles. And so, it is in the day in which we live. My very heart trembles within me when I look at the shuffling and turning, and twisting, even of some ministers, just for the sake of a little popularity, worldly esteem, and respect. If we can obtain the patronage of so, and so, then we shall do something. That is the secret of it all. But the Lord has not yet spoken to the Laodicean church; they would take the Laodicea church in her worldly prosperity as a proof that they were right; but this epistle to the Galatians was written early; the epistle to the church at Laodicea was written perhaps pretty well 50 years after this. That us stop and hear what the Lord says to the Laodicea church. What will he say; why, of course he will speak highly of it; they had plenty of money, and all of them are happy and comfortable, their poverty is gone. And so, the Lord did say so, or rather he said they said so, “You say I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. All that is carnal! Nothing could be more offensive than a vital godliness to such people, nothing more offensive than the truth to such a people. “You know not that you are wretched, and miserable and poor and blind, and naked.” Did not know it; they were all smoothed down by carnal and worldly prosperity, and worldly fame. Jesus Christ came to accomplish ends infinitely beyond all that.
But there were some of them that were at Laodicea that God counseled to buy of him gold, that they might be rich; and white raiment, that they might be clothed; and their eyes might be anointed with eye salve, that they might see their real condition, and throw off their lukewarmness, and come forth in real earnestness of soul, and return to their original position, embrace the truth in the freeness of it, according to the apostles exhortation; “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free.” Now the apostle, in putting this question, put a question they could not answer in the affirmative: they could not say, “Well, we did receive it through the works of the law:” they could not say that: they must acknowledge that it was of grace. But then they had made several improvements since. So, it is in the days in which we live. I know I have not talent nor gift; I wish I had, to set forth the evilness of that spirit that is almost everywhere now. There seems such an unwillingness to suffer for the truth’s sake. If a person of some importance happens to meet you, who used to be very cordial with you, but owing to your decision for the truth, and your determination not to be beguiled by the cunning slight of men whereby they lie in wait to deceive, owing to this, he scarcely nods at you now.
You will very soon be convinced that their profession of universal charity is the profession of universal lie: they have charity for everyone except for those that love the truth. And so, it is everywhere, in private as well in public. I was coming along in a railway carriage the other day, and there was a gentleman in the compartment, only one besides myself, I was going to say; and he saw me, I suppose, and thought I was rather solitary, but I was really very comfortable. “Would you like to read this little book?” He said. And I took it, and there was the truth in it too, really; and I read it. He said, “do you like it?” “Well,” I said, “I do; I can't say much against it; I think this man really knows something of himself, of electing grace, and something of mediatorial perfection.” All he answered was, “a beautiful day, sir, isn’t it;” turned his head towards the window and said no more. I saw more in his book that he intended me to see, he didn’t know his own book: would not have handed it, if he had, depend upon it. Why, it’s like so many of the these halfway ministers: they will sometimes preach for quarter of an hour a good bit of truth; and some of the hearers in that part of the sermon get such a peep at the truth they can’t make the other part of the sermon go down; they are obliged to leave that sandy fullers earth concern, and go to where they can meet with pure bread, where they can have the waters without the foul, the green pastures without being trampled down, and God’s new covenant truth in all its beauty and all its glory. Never profess to love alike because it is a falsehood. Let us, the Lord enabling us, walk in the spirit of universal kindness to our utmost to all men; but for me to profess to have a Christian love to all that make a profession would be to profess a lie. Besides, these universal charity men when they are offended, they go further than ever we high doctrine people would go, we are ten times more pious, I was going to say, at the bottom then they are. Thus, then, their compromising at Galatia the apostle himself accounts for, least they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ, Lord, keep us bold in that, standing to no repairs, not giving any offense in our words or works, if we can possibly help it, walking as becomes the gospel; but for the truth which we hold, God will take care both of the truth which we profess, and of us who profess it; “them that honor me I will honor;” and you may depend upon it we are safe under the shadow of his wings. And if we are asked the question, “Received you the Spirit by the works of the law?” I trust hundreds of you could with one voice say, “ No, Lord; no, Lord; no Lord you were rich in mercy, and for the great love wherewith you did love us, when we were dead in sins, you did there and then quicken us together in Christ Jesus; and so far from our needing less grace now than we did then, we need more, much more: so far from our needing this new covenant gospel less, we need it more. We want to learn our poverty on the one hand, and the unsearchable riches of his grace on the other.” Thus, the apostle was set for the defense of the gospel. What are conversions if the conversions are not vital? What is my conversion if I am not converted to God’s truth? Any conversion short of that leaves the soul where it found it.
But, lastly, the right conclusion. All true unity, then, Christian unity, must be independent of man, man’s finger must not touch it, for he would pollute it; there must not be from a thread to a shoe latchet in the matter from man; all things are of God, “who reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.” Now the apostle winds up his conclusion with a fourfold argument each containing a whole sermon.
“By the hearing of faith.” It is a beautiful expression. Let me take, for example, the man at Lystra, to illustrate this. There was a cripple at Lystra, about 40 years old, and he heard the apostle preach, and he began to believe that Jesus Christ could heal him of his lameness, as well as save his soul; and the apostle “perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said, with a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet. And he leaped and walked.” It is the hearing of faith. That is the reason, one reason; there are moral reasons as well, but this is a solemn reason why we should bring our children under the truth, and our relatives and friends to hear the truth. Instead of that they sometimes come to take tea with you on a Sunday afternoon, “Well, I will not go to chapel because you are come.” The very reason you should go. That man does not think much of his religion; instead of going to chapel, or wherever he goes to hear the word, instead of laying man aside for that, he lays that aside for me. The best way is to go. Ah, but it is very uncourteous to leave them. Very much more uncourteous to leave the Lord. Ah, but they won’t think well of me if I do so. Well, it is better they should not think well of you, then that the Lord should not think well of you; I’m speaking now after the manner of men. I shall not do as people usually do, make an apology for these things, saying “Excuse these hints,” the pulpit is not the place to apologize; know nobody in the pulpit. Take the hints just as they are, not soften them, no.
The apostle winds up his conclusion with a fourfold argument. First, that “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” The Lord appeared to Abraham, declaring himself Abraham’s shield, and exceeding great reward, and that his seed, should be as the stars of heaven. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Then, “they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” That is one argument of faith; see how adapted it is to poor sinners.
Then the second is that “the Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached the gospel to Abraham, saying in you shall all the nations be blessed. So, then they which be of faith are blessed with Abraham.” In the natural, earthly sense we do not always see the children of parents blessed as the parents are; and vice versa of course; but here, in the eternal sense, the children are blessed just as the parents are, just as the patriarchs, the spiritual fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were blessed, so all the children that are in the same faith not only be the children of Abraham but be blessed with faithful Abraham. Then his third argument is that of the new covenant, “Though it be a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuls, or adds thereto.” Now the law was given 430 years after the covenant made with Abraham. Oh, how different, how widely different, the real purpose of the Lord being given as interpreted by man and as interpreted by the living God. Why, was the law given? I know very well I am right in saying it was given morally, or to be morally performed; I am aware of that; but when looked at as a spiritual law, then it was added because of transgression; that man by that law may be condemned, cut up, and destroyed from all their false hope; made to feel that they are carnal, sold under sin; the law is spiritual; and this is to make way for the coming in of the covenant that no man this annuls, nor can add thereto. It is a testamentary matter.
And then the last part of the argument is that in the fourth chapter, and I always think that part is a very solemn part, that where the free woman and the bondwoman are contrasted, as allegorically representing the two opposite covenants, the one at Sinai, and the other in Christ Jesus. And what is to be done with this bondwoman and her son? What a solemn conclusion that is. I know what I should have said if the Lord had said to me, “What will you that I do with this bondwoman? My answer would be, “Lord, convert her, and save her son. What will you that I do with her son? Lord convert him and save his soul.” that is what I should’ve said, for who can wish a fellow mortal lost? But notice the solemnities of God’s sovereignty, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.” The matter stood in this position, either the bondwomen and her son must be cast out, or else God’s truth must be cast out. God was not pleased to convert them, and as he was not pleased to convert them, he would not suffer his truth to be cast out. Therefore, solemn, and awful as it is, it is better to cast out the creature then it is to cast out the Creator: better to cast out the sinner that it is to cast out the Savior: better to cast out the false principles of the carnal mind than to cast out God’s truth. Thus, he winds up his argument with showing that if we can succeed in no other way, we must reject those that do not love the truth, rather than receive them at the expense of God’s truth. Buy the truth at any price: sell it at no price: the truth has made us free, keeps up our freedom, will be with us forever, and be our delight when time shall be no more.