2005 North American Bible Study MeetingDecember 25, 2005 EveningI will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.  Genesis 17:6-7Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of Godwhich He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.Romans 1:1-4One Who Will Come from Your Own Body Shall Be Your HeirGod called Abram, who was living in Ur of the Chaldeans, and led him to the land of Canaan. (see Genesis 12:1-5) Then He said to Abram, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it” (Genesis 12:7). Thereupon, Abram asked God, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”  Genesis 15:8Abram was asking how he would know that his heir would inherit this land.And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”  Genesis 15:17-21When God told Abram, “One who will come from your own body shall be your heir” (Genesis 15:4), Abram believed what He said. Then, when God said that He brought Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give him this land to inherit it, Abram asked for a sign. God told him to bring some three-year old animals and cut them in two, down the middle. Then a burning torch passed between those pieces. What does all this mean for us?When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make  nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”  Genesis 17:1-14God spoke to Abraham about His covenant. In Genesis chapter 15, an image appeared between the pieces of meat as a sign of this covenant. Then following an incident related in chapter 16, we come to chapter 17 in which we read how God changed the name of Abram to Abraham as He made His promise once more. The sign of the promise given to this man who had received a new name in this way was circumcision, the removal of the flesh of his foreskin. Here we are presented with a completely new image of Abraham. Also, Sarai’s name was changed to Sarah. God said she was to be a mother of nations.Strangely, these events that occurred in the course of Abraham’s life closely resemble events that have occurred within the history of mankind. Let’s examine these events, focusing on Genesis chapter 16, but referring also to chapters 15 and 17. First, let’s read Genesis chapter 15 verse 4.And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”This is what God said about the servant, Eliezer, whom Abraham had brought from Damascus, Shall not be him heir. Then He said to Abraham, “One who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Here we need to examine carefully an incident recorded in Genesis chapter 16. As the father of faith, Abraham went only where God led him. No fault could be found with him, and yet there was something in particular that happened. It was not that Abraham made a mistake in this situation. Let’s read Genesis chapter 16, from verse 1.Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.  verses 1-4The voice of Sarah is to be heard in this passage. She told Abraham that since the Lord had prevented her from having children, he should have relations with her maid to obtain a child by her. Abraham had a child in this way, and that child was Ishmael. Even though Ishmael was clearly Abraham’s son, the New Testament refers to him as having been born of a “bondwoman” (see Galatians 4:22-23). We need to consider whether the process of the birth of this bondservant was just an event within Abraham’s family or something that occurred within the history of the Israelites as well? Let’s think first about something that happened before this. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Genesis 2:8-9God spoke to the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). He said he would “surely die.” But then, the serpent—the most cunning of all the beasts which the Lord God had made—approached the woman and asked, “Has God indeed said, ‘You [plural] shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (see Genesis 3:1). God had definitely spoken to the man, but the serpent went to the woman, and used the plural form of “you” as he put this question. This is how this naive woman answered.And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”  Genesis 3:2-3Both the tree of life and the tree of knowledge were in the middle of the garden. Yet this woman said that God had said they were not to eat or touch the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. She also quoted God as having said, “lest you die,” when in fact, He had said, “you shall surely die.” Thereupon, the serpent cunningly assured her that they would definitely not die. He said God had told them not to eat this fruit because if they did, their eyes would be opened and they would become like him, knowing good and evil. When the woman looked at the tree, having heard these words, she found it was good for food and pleasant to the eyes and so she took of its fruit and ate it.But then a problem arose. Let’s turn to Genesis chapter 3 verse 6.So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.Both the woman and the man ate the fruit. Then their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked, and so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. When they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, they hid themselves among the trees of the garden. Then, God asked Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” and Adam replied, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (see Genesis 3:7-12). He gave this excuse, and thus he fell. As Adam listened to the words of the woman and ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the whole of mankind fell into sin. God clearly promised Abraham that “One who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” And the Bible says that “he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Then, as a sign that Abraham would occupy the land, a burning torch passed between the pieces of meat. Even so, when Abraham heard the words of the woman, Sarai, he listened to what she said and acted accordingly. Does that mean Abraham betrayed God? Or that he took God’s words lightly? This is not a matter of whether or not Abraham made a mistake; it is not a matter of laying the blame on any individual. As I said earlier, the events that would occur later in the course of history of Israel were shown in advance within the life of Abraham, and so it was necessary for these incidents to occur. In Genesis chapter 16, we read how Abraham listened to the words of the woman, and this led to the birth of a bondservant. The Son of Bondage and the Son of PromiseLet’s turn to Galatians. This passage is directly related to a passage in Exodus that we will be reading later.  Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.” Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.  Galatians 4:21-28It says that “Abraham had two sons.” These two sons were Ishmael and Isaac. Who is the bondwoman? It is Hagar. And the freewoman is Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Then, it says that he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh. Does this mean that Abraham’s son who was born of his wife was not born through her physical body? Did he just suddenly appear out of nowhere? Both were born through the physical body, but it says one was born according to the flesh, and the other according to the promise. If you remember, in Genesis chapter 16 verse 2, it says, “Sarai said to Abram.” The voice of a woman was heard. When Abraham listened to this voice and acted accordingly, the son that was born was a bondservant. Yet, as we find in Genesis chapter 17, God gave Abram the new name of Abraham, and Sarai the new name of Sarah. Then He told Abraham he was to be circumcised as a sign of the son that would now be born to him. This time, the sign was not the burning torch that passed between the pieces of meat, but one that remained on the actual person of Abraham. It was after these events that Isaac was born.This is a matter to consider historically and personally. Let’s first think about it as a matter related to ourselves as individuals. Think about the God you have believed and served until now, the Bible you have believed, and the actions you have carried out in the name of a religious life. What importance have you given to these things? Has this been the life that God has truly wanted of you? Or have you been confined in bondage your entire life? A person who has read the Bible, cannot help but think about this. There will definitely be people who think, “This bondservant born through Abraham seems to have nothing to do with me. It is quite possible that a bondservant was born to this old man who lived four thousand years ago, but what has that got to do with my life?” There will definitely be people who know the gospel but think this has no connection with their own lives. Yet, the Bible takes all these things and makes us reconsider them one more time. Whether or not you have come to realize the truth of the gospel, it is a matter of whether you are enjoying as you should the freedom that Jesus has granted you, or your heart is still in bondage even though you have realized the truth of the gospel. Because of this matter, some people criticize us, saying, “Those people claim it is acceptable to commit sins just as they please,” and, “They say that once a person is saved, he has been forgiven for his sins, so even if he commits all the sins he desires, he will still go to heaven.” This is true; once your spirit has definitely been born again, you will go to the eternal kingdom of heaven even if you commit sins. The Bible tells us, however, that we have been set free from the law of sin and death are to adhere to the law of the Spirit of life (see Romans 8:2). Those who have been born again through the word of God are to listen to and follow the voice of God. In certain respects, this is more formidable than the law. We are freed from the law, but it is our duty to be more vigilant when it comes to our own consciences. There is tremendous power in the blood that Jesus shed. The Bible tells us clearly that it is so powerful that it enables a born-again person to go to the kingdom of God even after committing a terrible sin. But the people who continue to live according to the flesh even though they are saved will be disciplined in the flesh. Darkness will arise in the lives. This is why the apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 7 of both the torment that arises when we live according to the flesh, and the joy we experience when we live according to the law of the Spirit, that is, when we follow the voice of the Spirit. If there are still people who claim, “Those people say that you can sin as you wish after salvation,” in the future, they will be held accountable before God for every word they have spoken. Those of you who have not yet come to realize the truth of the gospel, take a minute to consider yourself. You may have attached many different tags to yourself: “In the course of my life so far, I have served God diligently in my own way; I have believed the Bible in my own way; I have observed the law in my own way; I have been a diligent church-goer in my own way.” But now open the Bible and reflect upon yourself honestly before God. Ask yourself if you have been living the life of a bondservant, or the life of a true son. If you have not been freed through the law of liberty and through the words of the Bible, you are in a truly unfortunate and wretched situation. We can examine our own personal fate through passages such as this. Now let’s think about this from a broader perspective. In Galatians chapter 4 verse 24, it says, “which things are symbolic. For these [two women] are the two covenants.” Then it says, “the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar.” Let’s look carefully at what it says, next, verse 25: “for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is.” It is not immediately obvious what this means. It says that Hagar is Mount Sinai, and Mount Sinai corresponds to Jerusalem, but Hagar and Jerusalem are not at all related, are they? The apostle Paul wrote these words in a letter sent to people in the region of Galatia in Asia Minor, which is the location of present-day Turkey. This is why, as he wrote of Mount Sinai, he said it was “in Arabia.” In order to explain the location of the wilderness of Sinai on the western tip of the Arabian Peninsula which the Israelites

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