Thank you, Joshua, and welcome to your new role for right now as our Interminister of Music until Paul is returned to us in August. Right now would you open your Bible with me please to the book of Galatians in the fourth chapter as we continue our study in the book of Galatians. We'll begin reading today in verse 21. Warren Wiersbe writes of his mother who remarked about children, "...when they're little they step on your toes, but when they're grown they step on your heart."
I'm sure Paul would identify with that in regard to his spiritual children in Galatia. He had given birth to them spiritually on his first missionary journey, but here again as we see in verse 20, or verse 19 rather, he agonizes over their rejection of him and his message of grace. He was not so much agonizing over their personal rejection of him so much as he was concerned that Christ was yet unformed in them. Since Paul had left them, you see, another gospel had come to town.
Another gospel had appealed to them. Forms of this other gospel are still evident in our world today. That other gospel is the notion that somehow God is pleased when we contribute something toward our salvation. The idea is that we need to do something to please God in addition to believing on Christ. The false teachers among the Galatians taught law keeping as an addendum to grace. They were law preachers, whereas Paul was a grace preacher.
Let me see if I can illustrate the difference to you in a little story about a college student who wanted desperately to go to a major university. It offered just the course of study that would prepare him for the future, but it was a university that was private and the tuition was way out of his reach.
But in order to try to go there, he investigated and found that he could take a couple of jobs, one on campus and one off of campus, and by working a number of hours every week he could contribute toward the tremendous need financially that he would have. His parents weren't able to do anything to help him. He also found out that he could take out loans. Woe be to the college student who finds that out.
And he found that he could take out enough loans to make up the difference between what he would earn and what he needed. However, by the time he would graduate from the university, he would be so in debt that it would take him many, many years to work himself out of that college debt. Then one day he received a letter from the university. The university said, we understand that you're coming here as a student and we have decided to give you a free education.
You will not have to pay the tuition costs. You will not have to pay room costs. We will give you your board without charge. We're waiving all of the fees that normal students have to pay. Your education will be totally without charge. This is not because of your academic standing. It's not because your parents are alumni of our school. It is merely because we have selected you for this privilege.
But the student said to himself, that's nice, but I'm going to work anyway and I'm going to take out those loans even though I don't need it. You would say, well, what a foolish student. He wouldn't need to work all of those hours and rob himself of study time. He wouldn't need to take out those loans that will obligate him for half of the rest of his life because he has a free education coming. And you would be right. He would be foolish to do that.
You see, that's something what the Galatians were doing. The Galatians had received free salvation through the grace of God by faith alone. And now someone had come along offering them Plan B, which said, you've also got to work for it. And it was putting them under obligation and in bondage. And yet they had fallen for that message. That's why Paul is so upset with them. He finds it necessary first to defend himself and his ministry as he did in chapters one and two.
And in chapters three and four he writes a defense of the gospel of grace, telling them and us that God's good gifts to his people are out of his kindness alone, that we do not need to try to earn them. He completes this section of his letter in which he's defending the gospel with an argument that is drawn from a picture in Genesis. He draws an analogy from the very law that the false teachers had appealed to in their teaching.
He goes right to the law that they were using to undermine his message and he shows the Galatians and us that even in that law that they were misusing and abusing, there is a picture of God's blessing that comes to those who believe on his promises. It is evidence of God's grace even in the time of the law. What he's going to tell us in this text that we're about to read is that spiritually speaking there are two mothers and two families in the world.
Spiritually speaking there are two mothers and two families in the world and you belong to one or the other. That's why I've titled today's message, Who is Your Mother? Verse 21 says, Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? He says, I want to tell you something that the law says. Listen to me. It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.
But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh and the son by the free woman through the promise. As we examine this text this morning we notice first that Paul goes back to talk about the historical situation. He recalls circumstances from the life of Abraham recounted in the law, which speaks to his very point that faith in the promise of God brings God's blessing. There are two characters, or several characters rather, two sons and two mothers that he points to.
He speaks about the bondwoman and her son and the free woman and her son. Now because of our study in Genesis a few months ago all of you know exactly what Paul is talking about here, right? The bondwoman is the slave that Abraham and Sarah acquired in Egypt. Her name was Hagar. You remember that Sarah, Abram's wife, was barren. It was a great source of pain and agony in her soul.
When it became apparent in her old age that she was not to have children, despite the promise of God that she would, she connived and arranged with Abraham to go into her slave as the custom of the day was. Hagar became a surrogate mother, as it were, for Sarah. Hagar bore Ishmael. Abraham at this time was 86 years of age when Ishmael was born. As Paul points out, he was born according to the flesh, that is, he was born by human actions.
He was born by an act of desperation and unbelief and scheming. On the other hand there is the free woman. The free woman, of course, is Sarah, Abram's wife. Sarah who had no children but who desperately wanted them. And when it came time in life that both she and Abraham were clearly beyond the point of having any children between them, God reiterated His promise that they would have a child and His name should be Isaac, which means laughter.
There were several laughters there in the book of Genesis, as you recall. Some was of unbelief and some was of joy in the fulfillment of God's promise in Isaac. When Isaac was born, Abraham was 100 years old. And so what we have in this historical account is a mother who has a son by natural birth and another mother who has a son by supernatural birth. The first birth was the result of human effort and scheming. The second birth was beyond human effort.
It was when Abraham and Sarah were totally beyond the possibility of childbearing that the second son was born totally as a gift of God's grace because Abraham believed the promise of God. Now the Apostle Paul, in leading us further in this discussion, is going to give us the allegorical interpretation of this. Usually we avoid allegorical interpretations of the Bible. If you want to get on the fast track to false doctrine, begin interpreting the Bible allegorically.
We believe rather in the literal interpretation of the Bible. But here the Apostle Paul is led by the Holy Spirit to interpret that historical event we've just described allegorically, to find metaphors in there. And so we pick up the reading in verse 24. He says, this is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants. One proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves, she is Hagar.
Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free. 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 are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband. 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. And so the Apostle Paul draws upon this historical situation we've described to form an analogy, a spiritual lesson that he wants to teach. There are two mothers in the allegory. They represent, says Paul, two covenants. We would say it this way. The one mother, Hagar, represents the covenant of the law, which is accomplished by works, fulfilled by works.
Sarah on the other hand, the free woman, represents the covenant of promise, which requires faith in the promise to achieve its results. Regarding Hagar and the covenant of the law, that law that was being preached to the Galatians, regarding the covenant of law it produces children who are, he says, slaves like Ishmael. Ishmael was the son of Abraham and yet he was the son of a slave woman and was therefore a slave himself.
The Apostle Paul relates this to the present Jerusalem, that is the city of Jerusalem with all of its Jewish ritual and religion there. And he says those who are in Jerusalem who practice the Jewish religion under the law are slaves. They are in bondage to a system that does not bring life to them. It only brings condemnation because the law does not have power in itself to give life, only to give obligation. It has brought them, he says, not into freedom but into spiritual bondage.
Paul's obvious point here is that those who adopt the law come under its obligations to keeping the rules of the law. They can be made right with God through the law if they keep it perfectly. They have to start out perfectly keeping the law and every day of their lives they have to perfectly perform the law in order to ultimately be right with God. But every day of that process they are in bondage to the obligations of the law. They are slaves to its precepts and its statutes.
On the other hand there is Sarah who represents the covenant of promise or faith. And he says it too produces children. Those are the children who are of promise like Isaac was the child of God's promise. And he says this covenant, this woman, this free woman represents to us Jerusalem above. Not Jerusalem the city on the earth and the Jewish religion, but rather that Jerusalem above where Jesus is. And he says we are citizens of that Jerusalem, the heavenly city.
And as citizens of that city we are free in God's grace. We are not in slavery. Describing this freedom he quotes from Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 1. That chapter in Isaiah is a promise of children that will be gathered to exile Jerusalem in that day. But Paul here seems to apply it to the in gathering to the heavenly Jerusalem of many children of promise. They are not the result of works to the law, but rather of faith in God's promise.
And the point that he's making is that this woman, this free woman, is the mother of those who believe on the promise of God and receive his grace. And so that is his basic analogy. That's the way he allegorically interprets that Old Testament text. He is showing here the superiority of grace. He is showing how much more fruitful believing in God's promise is than putting oneself under the obligation of the law is. For that leads to slavery, whereas faith in the promise of God leads to freedom.
He goes on to draw out the analogy a little more. We could go back and read it. We don't have time. In Genesis chapter 21 it describes that day when Isaac was just a little toddler around the household and his older brother, Bahagar, Ishmael, was mocking him. He was ridiculing him. He was making fun of his younger brother. This greatly distressed Sarah. And she said, that kid has to go. He is not going to make fun of my son. Abraham was torn up because they were both his sons.
And then God spoke to Abraham and said, send away Bahagar and Ishmael. He says, I will bless him. He is your son. I will bless him. I will make him a great nation. But Sarah is right. The two of them cannot live together. And you see how the Apostle Paul relates that to law and grace. He says, just as the child of the law, of works, Ishmael, persecuted the child of promise, Isaac, it is still true today. He says, these law preachers among you persecute me as a grace preacher.
And he says, in essence, they and I cannot coexist. The message they have that brings you under obligation is so fundamentally flawed and different from the message of grace that I have preached that they cannot live in the same church that I have founded and that I am a part of. And he goes on to say, just as Ishmael was cast out, he says, law and works cannot coexist with promise and faith, and those law preachers have to be cast out. You have to get rid of them.
You can no longer listen to them. That is his point here, very strong point that Paul is making in this allegorical interpretation of what happened in Abraham's life. In verse 31, he brings a personal application. He says, so then, brethren, we are children not of a bondwoman, but of a free woman. He says, Galatians, you who profess faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, don't you understand that you are not slaves to the law?
You are not children of the bondwoman, of the law, of Mount Sinai, of the Jewish religion in earthly Jerusalem. That is not your spiritual heritage. He says, you are children of the free woman. You are children of the promise of God in Christ Jesus. You are the heir of his blessings that come to you merely by faith and apart from works. He says, there are two sets of children. The one set of children keep the law and try to earn their way to God.
The other children see God's gift and receive it by faith. Dear folks, today there are still two spiritual families in the world. There are those, and I would call them the many, who attempt to do good works and earn righteousness with God. And then there are those who forsake their self-righteousness, recognizing that it is totally unacceptable to God, and who trust in God's promise of the gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Which family are you in? Who is your mother?
Are you a child of promise, or have you placed yourself under the obligation of law keeping, of doing your best? The story is told about a guy who dies and goes to heaven where he meets Peter at the pearly gates, of course, don't they all? Before he can enter, Peter gives him a few questions to answer. He has to accumulate a hundred points before he can go in. So Peter asked, how often did you go to church?
He replied, well, I went every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, and every Wednesday night to prayer meeting. Peter said, that's good, that's one point. He said, one point, wow, I figured that'd be worth more than that. Peter asked, well, did you give any offerings? He said, oh yes. He said, I gave 10% of my income every week. Well, said Peter, that's good, that's worth three points. What about anything else?
The man said, well, offhand, I can't think of a whole lot, but I mostly did what I thought I was supposed to do, to be a good person. Peter said, well, we'll give you five points for good behavior. Can't you come up with anything else? By this time, the man was completely flustered. He couldn't think of anything else to tell Peter. So he finally cried out, it looks like that no one can enter heaven but by the grace of God. Peter said, a hundred points, come on in.
You see, that is exactly the point. If we try to earn it by being good, keeping the law, we're only under obligation that we can never fulfill. We're like that college student who'll be paying off loans, who'd been robbed of his education because he couldn't study, he had to work. How wonderful that God has given us entrance into heaven, tuition paid, paid by Jesus in full. All we have to do is receive it. Have you received it?
Are you a child of promise because you believe God's promise in Christ? Before we go, there are just a couple of other things I want to say to you. We live in a day of escalating false religion. That's your challenge. We live in a world that is bound to proclaim that there is something that we can do to impress God. We need to be aware of compromise with it. There are lines that have to be drawn and some battles that are worth fighting in a world of tolerance.
I greatly fear that the evangelical church, as worldly as it is, is going to be compromised by the teaching of tolerance in our society so that we are going to begin accepting people who believe in faith plus works as being a part of God's family and a part of God's kingdom. We have to see, as Paul did, that the message of faith alone and faith plus works are fundamentally different messages, two different gospels.
We have to expect that there will be persecution from religion that appeals to man's fleshly nature and his pride. For man likes to think that he can do something surely to please God. So you and I live in a day of escalating false religion. It's a challenge to us. Like the Apostle Paul, we must be sold out to the message of grace, for that is the gospel that brings life and freedom. The other does not.
The second thing I want to say very quickly is that you and I are called to live in the liberty of God's grace. That is your birthright. It was the Galatians' birthright, and yet now they were coming back under the law in its obligations. But I want to encourage you to do, if you are a child of promise, a child of the free woman, to enjoy the grace that has freed you from obligation to the law. Don't abuse it, but don't allow legalists to rob you of it either.
Understand that you have been born into a family of freedom in Jesus Christ. You say, well, what does all of that mean? See you in two weeks. We'll talk some more about it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, the wonderful grace of Jesus, who paid the full price for us so that we might have all that we need in Him for this life and for the life to come. I pray that you will give us great jealousy for this message of grace.
And Father, if there be someone here today who has perhaps for the first time understood that it's not his or her works, that it truly is a free gift that you simply give to those who will receive it, oh, help them to do it now. May your grace open their hearts that they may see that message and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be justified, be declared right with you through that faith. We commit this message to you today and our thoughts and our lives.
Help us to live as children of grace who have been set free from bondage. In Christ's name I pray, amen.