Dedicated To The Men of God Who Preach the Word of God As It Is To Men As They Are

"Preach The Word"

The Church- "Our Mother"

 Text: Galatians 4:24-27

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. {covenants: or, testaments} {Sinai: Gr. Sina}

25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. {answereth to: or, is in the same rank with}

26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

Introduction:

As we study the Word of God there are two things we need to consider. There is the interpretation of a passage of Scripture and also an application of a passage of Scripture. The interpretation deals with what the author intended to express in the passage.

Let me first give you the interpretation of these verses of Scripture. In order to stress the difference between the Law and grace, Paul uses historical events as an allegory. I mean by that he treats the two mothers figuratively. He did not deny the literal meaning of the story of Abraham, but he emphacized that the story, especially the part about relating the two sons, had an additional meaning.

First the apostle pointed to two covenants. One was the Mosaic that originated at Sinai. Those under that legal covenant were slaves. As Hagar brought forth a slave so does the law. If you recall through the Abrahamic Covenant, who through it’s Messianic promise brought forth children who are free.

Then, Paul pointed to two Jerusalems. Hagar stood for the first century city of Jerusalem. It was a city enslaved to Rome and in slavery to the Law. Sarah on the other hand, compares to the Jerusalem that is above, the mother of all of the children of grace. It is a heavenly city which will one day come to earth and in Heb. 12:22 is now called "the city of the living God." It is a place where angels dwell, where God is, and where the spirits of just men made perfect are located.

Note: The Apostle John when he saw the heavenly city coming down (Rev. 21:2), he called it the "New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." The "New Jerusalem" John sees in a future day coming down is not the bride. The church is the bride. The city is prepared AS a bride. There is a big difference in "being a bride" and being prepared "as a bride." Before a wedding, much care is given to the appearance of the bride. This city Johns sees coming down to earth in a future day, is as well garnished and furnished as is a bride for a wedding.

I believe that is the interpretation of that passage of Scripture.

Now, I feel God would have me to make an APPLICATION of that passage of Scripture. I not going to interpret this reference to Jerusalem, the mother of us all, as the church, but I am going to make an APPLICATION of that statement and liken it to the church.

When we think of the church, we think of two main things.

First, the church visible. That is the local church. If you are saved and born of God, you are part of the local church. We can see the local church. The church is not so much a building or a structure, but you and I who are saved, are the local church. This building is the place where the local church meets from service to service. The local church is that part of the church that is not home yet.

By the way, I believe God leads saved people into a local church. It is there spiritual truths are given that we might grow, where spiritual worship is rendered that we might glow, and a challenge is issued that we might go.

Are you glad you are part of the local church? Do you appreciate what the Lord has given us here at Zion Hill Baptist Church? Do you do your part in identifying with the local church like you should, being present in her services when the doors are opened?

Secondly, the church is invisible. There is a part of the church today that we cannot see. Part of the body is already with the Lord in a better place and in a better country. Though we do not see them, the saints of God live on in another world when they die. The Bible pictures saints going to be with Christ when they die, and then one day coming back with Him to planet earth.

Many of us have departed loved ones who are a part of this church invisible. Because something is not seen, that does not mean it is not real. You cannot see God, but still He is real. You cannot see heaven, but it is a real, actual, literal place.

For a little while today, I am going to make an application of this passage in Ga. 4, applying it to the church. There are some wonderful truths when we see the church like a "mother."

Isa. 54:5 says, "For thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel."

Ro 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, [even] to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Every godly woman that is a mother, can show who is, or was her husband. Mothers are supposed to be married. Never be enticed into physical relations, before marriage, which can result in the birth of a baby born out of wedlock.

According to Romans 7:4, we are dead to the law by the body of Christ that we should be married to another. What is the Apostle Paul saying?

When we trusted Christ and were united to Him, we died to the Law, just as we died to the flesh. The Law did not die; we died.

Paul illustrates here from marriage. The Law did not die because God’s Law still rules over men. We died "to the Law" and it no longer has dominion over us. We are not "lawless", we are united to Christ, sharing His life and walking in "newness of life."

So, to be dead to the law does not mean we lead lawless lives. It means that the MOTIVATION and DYNAMIC of our lives does not come from the Law; it comes from God’s grace through our union with Christ. When we trusted Christ we died to the Law, but in Christ we arose from the dead and are "NOW MARRIED" (or united) to Christ.

Note:

I am right now, presently, here and now, married to the Lord Jesus Christ since I am part of his bride, the church, through faith in the blood of Christ. The marriage takes place the very moment your heart exercise faith in Christ as Lord and Savior.

At the moment of conversion, you were married to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Bridegroom, and we who believe are the Bride. It is the celebration that we are awaiting to take place. By the way, that will be in the sky. Henkle Little used to sing a song years ago called, "The Wedding In The Sky." It might be a little more correct to say, a "wedding celebration" in the sky. When all of the bride gets together in a perfect world with all of our heartaches, troubles, and sorrows gone forever, as we bask in the presence of our Heavenly Bridegroom, we are going to have a time!

One of the joys of being a woman to many is bringing forth children.

Note:

As I related recently in a message, to the Hebrew woman, it was a matter of reproach and humiliation if she could not have a baby. Rachel felt very strongly about it( Ge 30:1). There the Bible says, "And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die." She said that if she could not have children she had just as soon die.

The reason Hebrew women felt that way might have been because each Hebrew woman thought she might be the one who would bring the Messiah into the world. So, if she could not have children, then she definitely would not have a part in bringing the Messiah into the world.

All three of the mothers of the Hebrew nation, Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel were sterile. God intervened in each situation and they had children. That showed his favor and kindness to Israel.

To avoid the disgrace of barrenness, some of the wives of the patriarchs, gave their handmaidens to their husbands to bear children for them.

Have you been born again or born from above? We have all experienced a "natural" birth, but we have not all had a "spiritual birth" or a "birth from above."

If you are here today as a born again child of God, then the church had something to do with your birth. It is like a mother in that it gave you birth.

Some have picture the church like a "womb" that is designed to give forth spiritual children. That analogy is very true to the Scriptures.

I am born again because there was a local church that believe the Bible. It was taught in its Sunday School classes and preached from the pulpit in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. People in the local church gave testimony of how the Word of God had worked in their lives.

I owe my salvation to the Lord as He worked through His local church. We represent Christ today, for we are "bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh" (Eph. 5:30).

Have you noticed that all you have to do to get most folks upset is to say something bad about their mother? Some are ready to fight when you put their mother down, especially in a very strong way. We should stand up for our mother "the church." We should be offended when people say demeaning things about it and its leadership. It should arouse righteous indignation in us.

Isa. 66:8, "As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth children."

"Travail" pain or suffering torture

Zion speaks in the Scripture of Jerusalem. But, I want to apply that to the church. When the church "travails" she brings forth children. The church can travail in two main ways:

So many churches today have forsaken old time, Holy Ghost kind of preaching. We have substituted everything in the word for it.

So much preaching is dry that some people today will almost reach out for anything other that what they have.

I head about a church who was out of a pastor. A supply came in one Sunday to preach. A wasp was on the pulpit. He slapped his hand down one it and was stung. He let out a loud yell. A woman said, "That’s the kind of preaching we’ve needed around here for a long time." To her preaching was a noise.

Preaching is more than noise. It is content. It is more than raising the voice, and having content, it is preaching with the Holy Ghost and with power.

The Apostle Paul declared in 1Co 2:4, " And my speech and my preaching [was] not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."

The church travails as God’s servants do as Paul told young Timothy to do in 2Ti 4:2- " Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine."

How long has it been since you were so intense over a prayer requested that you moaned and groaned over it as you sought to take it to God? Our praying today is often so light and frivolous, and lacks often in intensity and fervor.

If the church will really begin to pray over the lost and the wayward today, we will see a lot of wonderful things happen.

At times one of the hardest things you will do is pray, because Satan hates to see the weakest of the saints on his or her knees in prayer.

Children are never born without birth pains. I have seen that first hand since my wife gave birth to four children. People are not going to get saved in great numbers by accident.

Illustration:

The early church prayed and sought God. Then thousands were saved at Pentecost.

IV. BESTOWS NOURISHMENT

1 Pet. 2:2 says, "Desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby."

We receive our spiritual nutrients from the church that keep us moving on in life. The Word of God is like milk to one in need of developing and becoming strong.

Trend today is away from bottle feeding and back to breast feeding for babies. Mother’s nourishment is better than any that they will ever receive in a can.

Note:

Doctors say that all the nutrients a baby needs is found in its mother’s natural milk. Her milk has antibodies in it that will fight off sickness and disease. The canned kind of milk that does not come from Mother may get a baby by but it is not as good as what comes from the baby’s mother. God fixed things that way in His infinite knowledge and wisdom.

You should come to church to get fed, not with what you want to hear, but with what you need to hear.

Some folks come to church:

1. To see who is there.

2. To build their reputation.

3. Just because someone expects them to come.

4. To find out what is going on at church.

YOU SHOULD COME TO CHURCH TO GET FED.

God has a table for you if you want it and will spread the table with what you need, but you must first desire to be fed. God puts an appetite in the hearts of His people for the Word of God.

That is the only thing that will truly satisfy.

The saints are nourished at the breasts of its mother; those are the Old Testament and the New Testament.

A good mother gives instruction to her children.

Pr 1:8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

1. About being honest

2. About friendships and company

3. About moral purity

4. About being a gentleman or a lady.

5. About how to deal with others.

Illustration:

Timothy had an excellent mother named Eunice. She brought him up in a very godly way, gave him a good education, and trained him in spiritual things. The Bible says from a child that he had known the Holy Scriptures that were able to make him wise unto salvation.

NOT ONLY ARE SAINTS FED BY THE CHURCH, THEY ARE TAUGHT BY THE CHURCH.

We do not teach superstitions, fables, myths, but the truths of God to our children.The church teaches:

How to live godly.

How to live toward others.

How to live toward God.

You should seek to speak well of your mother.

Why? She brought you into this world, took care of you when you did not know how to take care of yourself, and put food in your mouth and clothes on your back when you could earn any money to do so.It bothers me to see anyone get out and run their mother down.

I just cannot do that, even though there are some things about my mother I would probably change if I could, what good would I do to run her down and say bad things about here or any part of her.

Don’t criticize the church to me. It is my mother. It gave birth-nourished- instructed- and went through much pain for me.

If one could just see a child being born, it would make you appreciate mothers and what they go through more and more.

If you are running down God’s church, others should take it personal, because you are talking about their Spiritual Mother.

She cares for her own. She tries to be there for her little ones.

She holds them and cuddles them to her bosom. She loves every one of them in a very special way. You are loved here in this church.

A. Regardless of how much have in bank.

B. Regardless of how much land you owe.

C. Regardless of how fancy your clothes are.

D. Regardless of what kind of automobile you drive.

E. Regardless of how little or well known you are.

Love can flow among God’s people like liquid love.

A mother has the right to chastise and correct her children. It is not left all up to the man. When a child misbehaves a mother should not threaten the child with the father, she should take care of what she can herself. Both parents are to discipline.

The church can chastise with the rod of excommunication and putting people out of the family.

1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

After the first and second admonition of a heretic, she is to reject.(Titus 3:9,10).

A church is not to allow anything to go on in its midst. She has a responsibility to honor the Lord.

There are results of mothering. One of the greatest is to see her children become responsible and act like adults.

 Conclusion:

Are you glad you are a part of the church?

Is she your mother?

How are you treating your mother?

She has given us so much

Sermon From Tom Walker, D.D.

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