Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #5 of Genesis, chapter 16 and we are going to read Genesis 16:4-6:

And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: JEHOVAH judge between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.

We are continuing to look at these two women and the covenants they represented:

• a type and figure of the Gospel of grace; and
• a type and figure of the gospel of works, the endeavor to keep the law of God to obtain righteousness.

If someone listening for the first time heard me say that these two women are a type and figure of two covenants and heard what I said about each one, he or she might shake the head and quickly say, “There goes EBible Fellowship, spiritualizing again.” And, yet, this is what the Bible says and, therefore, it is what God says about these two women, in Galatians 4:23-26:

But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The child that each of these women would bear would typify those born of one or the other of these two covenants and as it says in verse 23, “But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.” The one of Hagar was of the flesh and the one of Sara was by promise.

Ishmael, the one born of Hagar, was “after the flesh.” Remember what the Lord Jesus said in John 3:3-7:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

When we read this passage in John 3, we tend to think that when Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” He was speaking of physical birth. Every human being is born physically in to the world. We understand that when He speaks of being born of the Spirit, it has to do with salvation. However, when the Bible says we are “born of the flesh,” it does not necessarily mean our physical birth. Again, it says in Galatians 4:23: “But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh.” It is true that Ishmael was born naturally into the world, but then it says of Isaac, “but he of the freewoman was by promise.” Isaac also was born naturally into the world, but God is not focused upon their natural birth, but what their births picture. In the case of Ishmael, it has to do with being born of a mother in bondage, a mother that identifies with mount Sanai in Arabia or the law of God. The children of Hagar, like Ishmael, are “after the flesh” because they are attempting to obtain righteousness with God through the keeping of the law of God or through the keeping of good works. They are trying to obtain their own righteousness, based on their own effort or work.

In the other case, it is righteousness by Christ. It is faith of Christ. Salvation by Christ is the one born “by promise” and the one born by Spirit and that Spirit is God. It is the one born of God and not of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, not of works, lest any man should boast.

This is the distinction God is making with these two women and we know there are two gospels, ultimately. One is the true Gospel of the Bible and the other is a gospel that adds some element of “works” and it will violate the law of God on some point because man’s works do violate the law of God. These are the two gospels and both produce offspring or children. They both conceive, as it were, children. You see, when Hagar conceived she looked at Sarai as competition and she saw that Sarai had not conceived any children. God has a very definite timetable for His program of “times and seasons” that identify with His salvation program. God waited patiently over the entire Old Testament era of over 11,000 years in which only very limited numbers of people became saved. God waits for the proper time and season to fulfill His Word to produce “children” and to bring forth that spiritual fruit.

Both wives were married to Abram and, therefore, both have relationship to God, as pictured by Abram, and they dwelt together in the same house. One woman was barren, but the other woman quickly conceived. It seemed almost instantaneous, did it not? Sarai gave her to Abram to wife and the next thing we know, she was with child. One thing that does reveal is the “speedy” nature of the gospel of works.

In the day of salvation when God was saving people, what did the Bible instructed sinners to do? The Bible instructed us to go boldly to the throne of grace and cry out to God: “Dear Heavenly Father, have mercy upon me!” We would cry out like blind Bartimaeus. Or, we would cry out like the publican, beating his breast and crying out, “God, be merciful unto me, a sinner!” He could not even lift up his eyes to heaven because he knew he was unworthy and had nothing in him that deserved salvation or that would cause God to save him. It was all by the grace and mercy of God. Again, let me stress that I am speaking about when it was the day of salvation and the door was still open, especially during the second part of the Great Tribulation when the Latter Rain was being poured out and there was a great and effectual door open in salvation. God instructed people, “Here is the manner you may approach unto me and humbly come to me, as it were, in sack cloth and ashes, crying out for mercy.” And, perhaps, God would have saved that person. Salvation is of the Lord. It is not of man and it is not due to any effort or work on man’s part. It is not attained through a formula, like crying out for mercy or by doing these steps and beseeching the Lord and then you are saved. No – the true Gospel program has an element foreign to our modern apostate church. It is the element of “waiting upon the Lord,” as it says in Psalm 123:1-3:

Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon JEHOVAH our God, until that he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O JEHOVAH, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

In the day of salvation, we cried to God for mercy and then we waited. We waited a day, a week, a month, a year, five years or however long, continuing to approach Him and beseech Him, but waiting upon Him to save us, as it says in Psalm 130:1-4:

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O JEHOVAH. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, JEHOVAH, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

Why should God be feared if He has forgiveness? You would think it would say, “There is exceeding wrath with thee, that thou mayest be feared,” and, yet, it says, “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” This is because He was the possessor of grace and mercy and it was completely in His hands regarding whom He would have mercy upon and whom He would have compassion upon. But on others, He would not have mercy and He would not have compassion. God is sovereign. He is like a Governor that possesses the power to pardon a death row inmate. The time is running short and the death row inmate has continued to write letters to the Governor. They would be very humble and very respectful because he knew full well that the power to save him was in the hands of the Governor. So, the inmate would fear the Governor and fear that the Governor may not grant him favor, so he tries to go the Governor to beseech him. There is a fear of the power and authority that is in the possession of the Governor. And that is why God was to be feared in the day of salvation, because He controlled salvation itself and He could bestow it upon whom He so desired or willed and He could withhold it from others and, therefore God was to be feared.

It goes on to say in Psalm 130:5-8:

I wait for JEHOVAH, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in JEHOVAH: for with JEHOVAH there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

There was a waiting upon the Lord for mercy, which is a completely alien idea to the churches today. “What is there to wait for? Who waits anymore?” Well, maybe in their crusades, you have to wait in line to go down to the front and be dipped in water and to say you accept Christ and for them to exclaim, “Hallelujah! Now you are a child of God!” Maybe you must wait a few minutes for that, but they know nothing about waiting upon God. These verses disprove the free will gospel and proves it is a counterfeit. It is a false gospel. It is a gospel that has no one waiting upon God. No – there is no need to do so because it is not a gospel of waiting upon God. The free will gospel is a gospel that is waiting upon men. You see, they bring the gospel to men and then they wait for the man to decide when and where he will be saved: “Will you accept Christ? Will you be saved today?” The person is sitting back like they are God and they have the power and authority and they are the ones that determine their eternal destiny.

Well, we do not have to go on about it. It is clear as it can be on the pages of the Bible that this is a horrible and deceitful false gospel that never saved a single person, but what it did do was to enable people within that covenant of works (and accepting Christ is a work of faith) to “conceive” quickly or to produce spiritual offspring. I use the word “spiritual” to identify it with gospel offspring. They produce “professed Christians” and they produce babes that have signed up as Christians through their acceptance of Christ. Also, they multiply quickly. Remember that Elkanah had two wives and one wife had children, but Hannah had none. It is the same kind of spiritual picture because the false gospel can multiply quickly. The free will gospels can become “mega churches” because they literally have thousands of people that were supposedly born again through those ministries. And, really, they have been “conceived,” in a sense, and the language of the Bible allows for that kind of idea. Yes – they have been conceived or born, but they are born of the bondwoman and, therefore, born after the flesh. It is a fleshly gospel. It is a gospel that caters to the natural man and it produces “flesh.” The Bible says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and it is not the Gospel of God the Spirit that produces spiritual offspring, the children of promise. Those in the flesh are descendants, in the Biblical sense, of the covenant of Hagar and they are bondservants.

Galatians, chapter 4 is really an “eye opener” regarding a great deal that God has written in the Bible, as He says in Galatians 4:24:

Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

The word “gendereth” is Strong’s #1080 and it is the same word as “born” that appears in Galatians 4:23:

But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh…

So, there are two covenants. There was one from mount Sinai that “begets” or is “born” in child birth to bondage, which is Hagar. Then it says in Galatians 4:25:

For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

You see, they are still “in the flesh” and what is in the flesh cannot please God. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” so they are not entering in to the glorious kingdom. They are not going in to the way of the new heaven and new earth, where they will live forever. They are going to die a “professed Christian” and they are going to die with the idea that they had become saved, but they are going to die and perish in their sins because they were only born after the flesh. They were never born again and Jesus said, “Ye must be born again,” and it is not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. You must be born again of the Spirit.

So, we can see in Genesis 16 why Hagar despised her mistress Sarai. She is saying, as it were, “That covenant cannot produce children. Look, they have been trying for years and no children.” And Hagar had come along and (for all we know) she laid with Abram one night and a little while after she is experiencing “morning sickness.” She is pregnant with child, so she thinks her “gospel” is superior. On a spiritual level, she thinks the gospel of free will is superior to the Gospel of election that these people talk about, but they do not show any fruitfulness. Look at all the successful gospels that are out there in this church and that church. And they have crusades and they fill whole stadiums with people. Are they teaching election? Are they teaching, “Do not come down the aisle and accept Christ. You must wait on the Lord. Go home and cry for mercy, but it may be that God will not save you”? Thinking back to the day of salvation and the true Gospel, do you think that kind of gospel would fill stadiums? No – no – it is not attractive. It is not alluring. It is not appealing to the flesh because it gives me no choice. “It gives me no option. There is no work to perform. What kind of gospel is that?” You would not fill stadiums with that kind of gospel. You would not even fill a church with that kind of gospel. That is the kind of gospel that drives people away. No wonder the Lord reveals to us that Hagar looked upon her mistress and despised her.

Just in case you think I may have gone too far with this allegory regarding the covenants, look at Luke 18:9:

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

Then it says of the Pharisee in Luke 18:11-12:

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

What is he saying? He is saying, “I keep the law on point after point. I am righteous because I keep the law of God.”

Then it says of the publican in Luke 18:13-14:

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Do you see? The Pharisee trusted in himself that he was righteous and he despised others. And Hagar represents that kind of gospel or covenant, in which people trust in their own good works and it naturally leads to despising others, especially despising publicans and sinners.