Two Sons, Two Mothers, Two Covenants

[0:00] And he reminded them of the love they had for him. Talked about, remember how he was sick? He'd gotten there. They had taken care of him, nursed him back to health, and put up with the ugliness of his affliction.

[0:12] And Paul just was amazed at the love that they had for him. He said, you were willing to pluck out your eyes and give them to me if you could, and if it had done any good.

[0:23] And, of course, they couldn't, but still they had that willingness. And he's saying, what happened? Where's this love you had for me? And by virtue of establishing that love, why is it that you've turned against me?

[0:38] Not only were they at that point speaking ill of Paul. He's not a good apostle. He's maybe not even an apostle. He speaks terribly, and they said all kinds of things. Why are you turning against me?

[0:48] You loved me. You saw me as an angel of the Lord. You saw me as a representative of Christ. You treated me as if I was that special ambassador. And it's all gone.

[1:01] What happened? Now, let me just say this. The last thing he mentions to them is I want you to know that the Judaizers are just using you.

[1:17] They're just using you to make a name for themselves. So, today we're going to see how Paul turns the Judaizers' argument, the argument of being related to Abraham.

[1:29] That was their big thing. We're related to Abraham. And we can prove that because we've kept the law. And we're circumcised. And so, we're related to Abraham. And so, Paul takes that argument, and he shows them that they've wrongly applied that argument.

[1:47] And how they should be trusting Christ without works for their salvation. So, Galatians chapter 4, verses 21 to 31.

[1:58] If you could follow along as I read. Now, this may be interpreted allegorically.

[2:29] These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia.

[2:43] She corresponds to the present Jerusalem. For she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free.

[2:54] And she is our mother. For as it is written, for it is written, Rejoice, O barren one that does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor.

[3:05] For the children of the desolate one will be more than the one who has a husband. Now, you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

[3:18] But just as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who was born according to the spirit. So, also it is now.

[3:30] But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.

[3:41] So, brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for these words.

[3:55] I thank you for the way that Paul put them together, drawing example from the Old Testament. Thank you for what we can learn about ourselves. Thank you for the warnings that it gives us.

[4:06] I pray that you would be with us. Give us ears to hear. And, Lord, that your spirit would attend both the giving and the receiving of your word today. In Jesus' name. Amen. So, as we start this section, he starts out with a challenge.

[4:26] And this is verse 21. And again, he says, Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? And that's such an odd statement.

[4:36] You who desire to be under the law, you don't listen to the law? I mean, obviously, they would have said, Well, we desire to be under the law, so we hear it all the time. And that's exactly what we want to do. And yes, we listen to the law.

[4:48] And Paul has made a play of words here that they would have gotten. That's a little bit harder for us to see.

[5:00] But here he's challenging the people of Galatia. Let me just set this stage. You're going to find that he sounds like he's addressing the Judaizers. But he's not really addressing the Judaizers.

[5:12] They're there. But he's addressing the Galatians. And he speaks as if to you, to you, to you. And then as he walks through these ten verses, that you begins to be us.

[5:27] And then it begins to be brethren. I mean, it's like, wait a minute. You were accusing them of being unbelievers almost. And now you're getting closer.

[5:39] Paul's laying down an argument that he thinks will cinch their wrong understanding of the law. And if they proceeded in their wrong understanding of the law, they would be reprobate.

[5:55] They would be trying to earn their salvation, and they wouldn't make it. It reminds us of the fact that all of us can get caught up on something. And if we pursue that thing, and we live in that thing, and we die in that thing, we could end up being reprobate.

[6:12] But Christians do get caught up in things. And here, what the Galatians are caught up in, it's awful. It's heretical. And yet Paul, as a wise shepherd, goes to them, and he's laid out this argument.

[6:26] And I mentioned last time, did the Galatians ever turn back? And I said, I don't know. And as I studied this, I think the answer is yes, for most of them.

[6:39] Because his tone changes as he goes through. And as he's laying out this argument, what looked like something that they were dead set for, and would have been ashamed to have turned against, he lays his argument out so wisely, as he begins to leave a door open for them.

[7:00] And allows them room in understanding what he says, to be joined with him. And then he continues his argument, and lays it out in such a way that he calls them brothers.

[7:15] Making it easy for them. He's not making them crawl up a hill of nails, to be able to come back to him. He's laying the truth out, and making it as easy as possible, for them to come back to him.

[7:28] And so he's careful with his choice of words, and so he addresses them. And he says, you who believed what the Judaizers have taught, have you understood, what it was to be under the law?

[7:41] So, I'm going to break it down just a little bit. I have to be careful, we don't spend too much time with this. He says, first of all, you who desire to be under the law. The word law in the first part there, first part of this verse, is different from the word law in the last part of this verse.

[7:58] Okay? So in the first phrase, Paul is saying, you who desire to live under the civil and ceremonial law. You who want to keep all the, you know, be circumcised, keep these days, all the different things.

[8:12] He's saying, you who want to live under that civil and ceremonial law, have you heard the law? He's challenging those who have chosen to follow all that the Judaizers have taught, have you really listened to the law?

[8:29] Now, the thing is, and it's hard for us to see it here, he changes the word law. What was the civil and ceremonial, now Paul challenged them to ask, if they've listened to the books of Moses?

[8:44] And this is not an odd thing. Jesus did the same thing. You have the law and the prophets. What was he speaking about? He wasn't speaking about the ceremonial and civil law.

[8:56] He was speaking about the first five books of the Old Testament. We call it the Pentateuch. And so, Paul's laying out this argument, he says, okay, all you guys who want to follow the civil and ceremonial law, have you read the first five books of Moses?

[9:13] Have you paid attention to what is being taught there? And so, in this next couple of verses, he lays out a historical sketch, a scene from the book of Genesis.

[9:26] Genesis. The Judaizers had made much of being physically related to Abraham. And so, Paul shows us that we can, what we can learn from the life of Abraham if we will listen to the law.

[9:44] And he's referring to the idea of the whole five, first five books of the Old Testament. So, he begins in verse 22, mentioning that Abraham had two sons.

[9:59] Now, surely the Judaizers knew that. But he's setting up a comparison, a comparison that he will build on. And it's important for them to see, oh, remember, Abraham had two sons.

[10:13] And right now, they're grabbing their lapels and they're puffing their chest out and they're saying, yes, we know. We're sons of Isaac. And they're boasting in their keeping the law and having done everything right.

[10:28] But Abraham, he goes on to say, Abraham had two sons. He says, one by a slave woman. Now, he doesn't mention her name yet. But one by a slave woman.

[10:39] It was a woman who was born a slave, who remained a slave even after bearing Ishmael to Abraham. Abraham. And Ishmael remained a slave, having been born to a slave woman, unless Abraham would have adopted him as his heir.

[10:58] People all the time had concubines, second wives, but it was the first wife's child that would be the heir. If another wife had a son that would be the heir, they'd have to be adopted to that position.

[11:14] We've talked all about that in the book of Galatians. But Abraham had a son by a slave woman. But he also had one by a free woman.

[11:26] And again, the Judaizers are probably puffing their chest out there. And he says, now that one was never a slave. Again, he doesn't mention, in fact, he never mentions Sarah's name.

[11:39] I don't believe at all in this. Most, he doesn't mention it near as much as Hagar. But he says, this one, the second son was born of a free woman. She was never a slave.

[11:53] She bore Isaac. Isaac was not, nor would he ever be a slave. Not in Abraham's household.

[12:05] And he was born to be the heir of Abraham. And they're all going, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know what you're saying. That's, that's, but their slavery and their freedom are important issues.

[12:19] As we'll see later in this passage. The Judaizers would have claimed to have been born of the free woman. But Paul's making the argument, and this is where he's going to do this as we go in the next steps or two.

[12:32] He is making the argument that the Judaizers were not born of the free woman. they were born of the slave woman. And he's going to make that case.

[12:46] They thought their physical, physical connection was the true connection to Abraham. But that's not the case. In verse 23, Paul goes on to say, but the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

[13:10] Now, what's he getting at there? Well, Israel, Ishmael, was born according to physical capacity. If you go back, we don't have time for you to do this, but if you were to go back to Genesis 16, verse 4, you would see in the first part of the verse, and he, Abraham, went into Hagar and she conceived.

[13:29] What happened? How was Hagar born? Or Hagar. How was Ishmael born? You know, when a mommy and daddy love each other, it was normal.

[13:43] It was the way all children are born. Abraham was not too old. Certainly, Hagar was not too old. And the normal way of things being done happened and Ishmael was born.

[14:01] He was born according to physical capacity. He was born according to fleshly choices. This is two verses before what I read. This is Genesis 16, 2.

[14:14] And Sarah said to Abraham, Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant that it may be that I shall obtain children by her.

[14:24] And Abraham listened to the voice of Sarah. And of course, you may have heard about the whole practice that if a man did not have an heir through his wife, that at that time he could take a concubine and that one could be adopted in to be the heir.

[14:37] And that's what Sarah had proposed. Okay, I know God promised that we would have an heir. And the assumption would be that it would be through her.

[14:50] But God hasn't worked and so, well, you know, you're getting old and I'm past, so I'm speaking as if I was Sarah.

[15:01] So, you know, I know, I think what we ought to do is you ought to take Hagar. We'll make this decision and you will father a child through her and of course, in Genesis, you know that Sarah says, well, then the baby will be upon my knee and it will be called mine as if I had it.

[15:22] But that wasn't the case. It was a fleshly choice. No one said to Abraham, I'm speaking from God or any messenger from God, no one said to Abraham, Abraham, God's having a, it's terrible to say this, God's having a little trouble.

[15:41] And if you could just help out by taking Hagar as your wife, that would help a lot. But that, that was not the case. So, Ishmael's born by physical capacity.

[15:54] He's born as a result of physical choice. Isaac, though, Isaac was different. Isaac was born according to promise. I'll read a verse in just a second that says that.

[16:09] He was born according to promise. God said, I will give you a son. And then, of course, I will give you a son through Sarah. She will bear a son.

[16:22] So, it was according to promise. This is a big point in this passage. It was according to promise. But not only was it born according to promise, it was born according to the miraculous power of God.

[16:34] Genesis 21, verses 1 and 2. The Lord visited Sarah as he said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he promised.

[16:46] And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Ishmael, well, normal things happen.

[16:58] Isaac, a 90-year-old woman, way past having, she was already past having children when Ishmael was born 12 years earlier.

[17:15] And, but not only that, the Bible says it wasn't just that Sarah was past age, Abraham was past age. And Abraham knew it, and Sarah knew it.

[17:27] And she said it back to God when God promised her, shall my husband do this? And so, Isaac was born according to promise of God, born according to the miraculous power of God, born in response to faith, Romans 4, 19.

[17:44] He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, and when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

[17:58] Hebrews 11, 11 and 12, by faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

[18:09] Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of the heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

[18:21] Isaac was a miracle. Isaac was born according to promise. Isaac was born in relation to faith.

[18:33] And so we go down to verse 24. Now this may be interpreted allegorically. I'm going to stop there. I'm not going to go into it a lot. Some of you are in this situation.

[18:44] You know what I'm going to get at. And some have ridiculed the Bible at this point, saying, he said, he says, this is an allegory. And if you're learned about this stuff, you know that we would say, this isn't an allegory.

[19:03] An allegory is like Pilgrim's Progress. A whole made up story that's meant to teach truths. And what, is Paul wrong here? No. He's using some of the practices of the day and they defined allegory much closer to what Paul's using here.

[19:21] So, if somebody says to you, oh, the Bible's not trustworthy, no, they don't know what they're talking about. So, he says, now, this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants.

[19:36] So, we've set up this contrast. We have Hagar and we have Sarah and we have Ishmael and we have Isaac. And now, Paul's saying, now, look at the women. These women are two covenants.

[19:48] One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now, there's nothing unusual here. And the Judaizers wouldn't have had any problem with this, what Paul is saying.

[20:04] They might have been impressed or surprised at some of the length he goes and things he connects with it, but they wouldn't have had any problem with what Paul says here.

[20:15] He says, Hagar's from Mount Sinai. she represents the covenant given at Mount Sinai, which is righteousness according to obedience of the law.

[20:28] Wait a minute. There's some clouding here. There's some things going on where the Judaizers might have said, oh, wait a minute. We like Mount Sinai.

[20:41] We like the law. She's from Mount Sinai. She represents the covenant given at righteousness by the law. But Hagar also may have been from that area.

[20:53] It doesn't matter whether she was from it or not. But when Abraham and Sarah cast her out, where'd she go? Paran. It's the very territory that Mount Sinai is in.

[21:06] And all the Ishmaites lived in that area around Mount Sinai. So, she's from Mount Sinai. She's bearing children for slavery.

[21:19] Now, Paul has made this connection. He says, now, Hagar was a slave, therefore her son would have been a slave. But Paul's making a bigger connection. You have to think back to what he said already.

[21:30] She and her son were slaves, and what they represent bears out slavery. If you were to keep your place here and look back to chapter 3, and verse 22, it says, but the scripture imprisoned everyone under sin, so the promise by faith might be given to those who believe.

[21:51] And then chapter 4, the first seven verses, the heir as long as he's a child is nothing different from a servant, but he goes on in the same way, when we were children, we also were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

[22:05] He's making this connection, keeping the covenant of Moses as a way of salvation, is being in slavery. And these Judaizers, I think these Judaizers are beginning to sweat.

[22:21] Wait a minute. You're saying that Hagar is connected with Mount Sinai, that doesn't compute. That her children are slaves.

[22:35] well, we don't like that. But the law imprisons all under sin. All who are sons of Hagar are slaves to sin. And all of us were in that position before we knew Christ, but Paul's making this, giving them this understanding that we can learn as we look at the whole books of Moses, that those under the law were slaves.

[23:04] And then he says that Hagar corresponds to present-day Jerusalem. This must have just fried him. Because he's saying, yes, and Hagar, the slave woman, whose son was a slave, who was not of the messianic line, that one is associated with the capital of Israel.

[23:28] Oh, they looked at the capital of Israel as being, rightly, Zion, but yet at that point it was full of anything but people who were of Zion.

[23:40] Jerusalem at that point was full of people who wanted to say, I'm going to keep the law and that will make me righteous before God. And so Paul's making this line saying, because you have chosen to be under the old covenant, because you've tried to earn your way to salvation, you are bound as slaves under that old covenant.

[24:01] And all of those, the majority, now I know there are Christians in Jerusalem, but the majority of people in Jerusalem at that time, they are all slaves to sin, they are all trying to get to heaven by keeping the law.

[24:16] It's not a very great situation. And then, now that was Hagar, but now we'll speak of Sarah.

[24:27] Now he doesn't mention her name, it's by inference, it's by, he quotes some scripture in a minute, and I know in the scripture that's quoted it doesn't mention Sarah, but if you go back a couple chapters, you'll see that it does mention Sarah, and as God builds hope back for Israel after they have been carried away in captivity, he sees Jerusalem as being barren, and all the children taken away, and he has likened them to all being Sarah's children because they were God's people, and they're all carried away, and so this reference is to Sarah, it's obvious, you can see it from the text, if you know the story in the book of Genesis, it's obvious he's referring to Sarah.

[25:17] But Paul goes on to say that this Sarah represents the new covenant, the means of gaining righteousness by faith, by faith in Christ.

[25:31] This woman, Sarah, represents not only the new covenant, but represents the Jerusalem that is from above. Wait a minute, where's this new Jerusalem?

[25:43] What's he talking about? He's talking about, it refers to the body of Christ, the church. church. He's saying this Sarah, this new covenant, relates to those who are the bride of Christ.

[26:00] This mother, Paul is saying, and here's where he's beginning to change the pronouns, he's saying this Sarah is our mother.

[26:13] Who's our? It's all those who are trusting in the work of Christ by faith, allowing or, I shouldn't say allowing, but depending on him to do the work.

[26:25] That's our mother. And it's our mother as prophesied. And I mentioned Isaiah 54. He quotes Isaiah 54.

[26:36] He quotes it from the Septuagint. He doesn't quote it from the Hebrew Bible. And so the last two words are a little different. This is the quotation that Paul puts in here.

[26:47] Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than those who have, who has a husband.

[27:01] And you say that, that's a little odd for Sarah because she did have a husband and she did end up bearing. So how can you say this relates to Sarah?

[27:13] And well, as I mentioned, and we don't have time to go back and walk through it. But Isaiah 51 begins a section where God does address Sarah, but he's speaking of the descendants of Sarah and how God is giving the people, his people hope that they're going to come back.

[27:34] And they looked now at being totally desolate. desolate. And it talks about the idea that being a widow is because God put off his people because of their sin.

[27:46] He let them go into captivity, but he's going to bring them back. And so he's using this and it refers to Sarah and Jerusalem. So God promised a day when the barren city would be full of descendants.

[28:02] That's not in a millennial future. Okay. That's not what he's referring to. He's referring to the fact that he is building his church and he is bringing his people together.

[28:18] And someday, and we can get this and we can understand this from the book of Revelation, the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven, that holy city, place where God's people dwell.

[28:33] And we will be in God's presence for eternity. Just like the high priest could walk into the Holy of Holies once a year, but he did it with fear and trepidation.

[28:45] We as Christ's bride will be with him in an eternal Holy of Holies. And we'll be in his presence, but comfortably accepted.

[29:01] Because we're in his presence, not based on who we are or what we bring. We're in his presence because of what our Savior has done and what he has brought. And so he's saying, that's the woman we're associated with.

[29:16] This new covenant is a fulfillment of that promise that's back in Isaiah 54. All right. There's probably, I mean, even from what I read, there's a lot more that can be said about that, but going on.

[29:33] Verses 28 to 31, he gives an interpretation. Now you brothers like Isaac are children of promise. It's changed again. It wasn't just our.

[29:44] Now he refers to them as brothers. He's not ostracizing them. He's not pushing them away, saying you are not. It's as if he understands them changing their thinking and understanding that they were wrong and that they were not to be trusting in what they were trusting in.

[30:03] And so from this point on, he establishes, he builds on what it is to live free as we're in Christ. So he's made this turn saying, brothers, brothers, you brothers like Isaac are children of the promise.

[30:23] So as he's looking at the church in Galatia, figuratively speaking, and in his mind is picturing all the people that's there and maybe the Judaizers are there. But in his mind, he's looking at that church and saying brothers and may, you know, if the Judaizers were on this side and the rest of the people were on that side, he'd be addressing the believers who were trusting Christ.

[30:46] Say you brothers are the children of the promise. You're not in slavery. I'll get ahead of myself. I better go to my notes.

[30:58] You're the children of the promise. You are in the covenant of grace. You are free from the condemning power of the law.

[31:09] And you don't have to keep one stitch of the law to make yourself acceptable before God. Because you have been born the same way Isaac was.

[31:23] God did a miraculous thing. God brought about your birth. He did all that was necessary. Now he had to make it so Sarah could have and conceive and bear children again and then be able to labor and deliver that child.

[31:40] God had to do that. God had to make Abraham able to father children again. And he does that, not in that sort of physical way. He made it so that we could be the spiritual children by all the work that Christ has done.

[31:53] His coming in humility. His suffering. His living a perfect life for us. And then submitting to the wrath of the father as he's placed on the cross.

[32:04] And then dying for our sins. But rising again. To seal that victory to us. And ascended to heaven where he is now in time working to bring all these people to himself.

[32:17] Those he's given. So you're in the covenant of grace. You're free from the condemning power of God. And you will receive an inheritance. So he's looking at these people.

[32:32] And if he was pointing to the Judaizers. They thought they were the sons of Abraham. Because they had kept all of the law of Moses. But they had failed to look at what the picture of the Old Testament in those five books painted.

[32:47] And that was it was by faith that that people were brought into that covenant. Even as far back as Abraham. Even as far back as Adam and Eve.

[32:58] Noah in there in between. And others. It was never anything different. The Judaizers had twisted God's law. They had twisted what they thought God had said into a way of getting people to follow them.

[33:14] And so he's reminding them brothers. You're children of the promise. Your birth was supernatural. You have been provided to be an heir.

[33:27] Not on your own doing. It was all God's doing. God has done it all. So brothers. Live in what God has provided you. And that's such an important thing today because.

[33:39] I don't get ahead too much of my applications. But that is so important. People will try to set standards on Christians and saying. You have to do this before you can be a Christian.

[33:50] No. It's the work of Christ. What we do after becoming a Christian is out of obedience and love not to earn anything. He goes on in verse 29.

[34:02] Which I thought is just an interesting way of putting it. He says. But just as at that time. He who was born according to the flesh persecuted him was born according to the spirit.

[34:14] So now it is. So also it is now. What's he saying? Just like Ishmael made fun of Isaac. These Judaizers are persecuting you.

[34:28] He wants them to see what they're doing. He wants them to have a right understanding of these Judaizers. This isn't just. Oh yeah. I think this might be a great thing to do. This is them foisting something upon them that was unbiblical.

[34:46] And he goes on. He says. But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.

[35:00] So he's getting at those who are sons of Ishmael are causing you trouble. They're trying to get you to turn from the true way.

[35:12] They're trying to make you trust the law. They're jeopardizing your spiritual future. Getting at in verse 31 that you should cast them out. In verse 30. Now this doesn't mean that we can dispose.

[35:27] You know what I mean by dispose? It doesn't mean we can kill anybody. And that's not what's getting here. We don't dispose of anybody who's teaching falsely. Cast them out.

[35:39] It's not disposing of them. Paul is telling the Galatians that the church should not listen to the Judaizers. In fact not just not listen to them. Deal with them. Deal with all who would pervert the gospel within the church.

[35:56] Elders have a responsibility of protecting the church from false teaching. And when false teaching arises. We don't just simply say. Well you have your beliefs and we have ours.

[36:11] That's not what we're to do. We're not to allow false teaching to hurt those we watch for. We have a responsibility to deal with those kinds of things.

[36:22] You can pray for us. I mean sometimes it's the same old same old. And sometimes we can see it. Sometimes it's something tweaked in a different way. And we're like. Whoa what are they getting at?

[36:35] But we're to put them out. We're not to put up with any who would try to corrupt the gospel. We're not to allow anyone to persuade us to go back to law keeping. So in a proper way.

[36:48] Drive them out of the church and out of each of our lives. Bible speaks of this in other places. One's a heretic. After the first and second admonition.

[37:00] Excommunicate them. Deal with them. Put them out of the church. So you should remember that you are not children of the slave. But of the free woman. You're never required to serve the law for salvation.

[37:13] You'll be free. We are free to be guided by the law. To serve Christ out of love. But not to earn anything. A couple of quick applications. One. By the way.

[37:27] Both these are things that I saw. I'm just going to give credit. Tim Keller pointed out both of these. And I thought they were amazing. I will quote him in a minute. But they're his applications. First of all.

[37:38] God shows grace to the barren helpless. Who trust him to do as he promised. Now. This is not an application from the whole of the story. This is Tim Keller looking at people.

[37:52] And he pointed out Sarah. God was so gracious to a barren helpless woman. She in that society was nothing. Because she couldn't have children.

[38:05] But God gave her a son. I should stop. Let me just stop. I don't want anybody going away with the wrong thinking. If you're childless in this society.

[38:15] We don't consider you as nothing. Okay. Totally different thinking. The Bible teaches us that that should not be the way we think. I just don't want anybody going away and saying. Oh I didn't have a kid.

[38:26] So. No. Not at all. In fact. There's teaching in the New Testament. It talks about sometimes God does that for a particular reason. Anyway. The grace God showed Sarah.

[38:39] God gave her a son. Though old. And past childbearing years. Through whom would come the promised seed. But just backing up. And just looking at a person.

[38:50] In the account of the story. We see God as being gracious. Imagine. Maybe some of you have felt this. Imagine a life. Of wanting a son.

[39:02] Or wanting a child. And never having one. And then imagine. In that life. God came to you one day. And said. Your son. Will be.

[39:13] The seed. Or will lead to the seed. And you get to be. Well I'll use today's ages. 40. 50.

[39:25] 60. 70. How downhearted. And how downcast would you be. And yet God in his mercy.

[39:36] Met her need. Now God doesn't always do things this way. Please don't say that I'm guaranteeing you this. Or guaranteeing you that. I just want you to see that God is a merciful God.

[39:47] This woman had a longing. Sometimes God fills that in another way. But he met this woman's need. Through grace. The barren helpless.

[40:00] Mary. This one's not Tim Keller's. Mary. She never had a son. Or no. Sorry. God gave her a son. Though she had never known a man.

[40:11] I'm just this maid. But God showed grace to her. And allowed her to be the one through whom. All the nations of the world would be blessed. Those.

[40:24] Who know their helplessness. And need of a savior. Can have. The son. Who provides atonement. Atonement. Righteousness. In eternal life.

[40:35] All I'm wanting you to see here. Is there a God. Who's in heaven. It's just like the call to worship this morning. And some of the things we saw. As we. We read down through. That.

[40:46] And discussed other things. How God has this heart. Towards people. And even the one hymn. Where Christ comes on. Down. And takes on flesh. Calls us brothers.

[40:56] And yet. When he ascends back to the throne. He doesn't forget us. He's not leaving us behind. To say. Sorry guys. I got a better life. Forget you. But here.

[41:08] He. He knows our need. He met that need. God. Is gracious. Beyond. Our. Thoughts. And understanding. I want you to see also.

[41:21] This is also. Tim Keller's. We should see that. Ishmael. Ishmael's. Persecute. Isaac's. Ishmael's.

[41:32] Persecute. Isaac's. Those seeking salvation by the law. Persecute those seeking salvation by grace. Now not everyone. But many.

[41:46] How many people. Like it. When we tell them. You know. Trying to get to heaven by keeping the law. Is going to send you to hell. I don't like that at all. Tim Keller says.

[41:57] Why is this? Because the gospel is more threatening to religious people. Than non-religious people. Religious people are very touchy. And nervous about their standing with God.

[42:09] Their insecurity makes them hostile to the gospel. Which insists. That their best deeds are useless before God. One of the ways we know that our self image is based on justification by Christ.

[42:22] Is that we are not hateful. And hostile to people who differ from us. One of the ways we know that our self image is based on justification by works.

[42:33] Is that we persecute. Well then. That's telling. We should expect persecution from those who are trying to earn their way to heaven.

[42:47] But we need to know the truth. So that we're convinced. So that when we're persecuted by Ishmael. We do not. We're not moved. We're not cast aside.

[42:57] Cast out the slave woman and her son. We should be very careful not to let false teachers have any place in the church. We should not allow false teachers to teach or have influence in the church.

[43:11] I won't go any further. I spilled my application in the middle of the message. And so. We do need to be careful. It's one of the reasons we as pastors are careful about the books we put out here.

[43:28] We're careful about what we encourage you to read. We're careful about what we sing. We don't want to sing untruthful things.

[43:39] I come to the garden alone. He walks with me and I'm so full of untruths. Things you can't hold on to. So we try to be careful so that that law keeping or or sentimentalism or or worthless things aren't put in front of us.

[43:57] The Galatians saw themselves as sufficient to judge what the Judaizers were teaching. But they failed. They saw themselves. Oh, yeah, these guys sound pretty good.

[44:10] And they swallowed it hook, loin and sinker. But they failed. Some learned that they had failed to judge properly and were in danger of making shipwreck of their faith.

[44:23] So it's also our responsibility to be careful. If you hear something different, something you do not normally hear from the elders. By the way, I'll preface this by saying the elders don't think that the people in the pew are ignorant.

[44:36] We just realize our responsibility. But if you hear something different, something you do not normally hear from your elders.

[44:49] Ask. Ask, ask, ask. Don't you remember telling your kids that when they were young? Ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask. Ask. Don't think that asking is a sign of weakness or immaturity.

[45:03] It's a sign of wisdom. And we as elders do not assume we know everything. We hear strange things.

[45:14] And what do we do? We ask. Sometimes it's friends. Sometimes it's people who are theologically, you know, like professors and stuff like that.

[45:26] Or whatever. There is safety of mutual wisdom. I just want you to see these people thought that these, the Galatians thought that the people coming in were okay.

[45:39] Yeah, they look good. But they didn't ask. Brothers and sisters, we ought to rejoice in the unbelievable, gracious way, unbelievably gracious way God has provided for our salvation.

[45:52] I want you to keep that in mind as we think about what these people were pushing at the Galatians. Remember, he did all the work. It is by grace. It is free to us. It is according to his promise.

[46:04] God has done miraculous things or miraculous thing after miraculous thing throughout all of human history to bring about the salvation he has provided.

[46:16] So rejoice. Think back through history and think, I can't imagine. What Sarah went through. But yet, that was part of what happened to provide salvation for us.

[46:29] And rejoice in that. Let that be part of your morning devotions or where you go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And it's amazing, God, that you worked in a 90-year-old woman to have a child so that I could have a redeemer.

[46:48] Let that be part of how you worship the Lord. Friends, which woman are you related to? If you're here to get to heaven by keeping God's law, if you try to get to heaven by keeping God's law, you're in bondage.

[47:06] And we'll be put out like Hagar and Ishmael. But if you put your trust in the work of the seed of Abraham, then you will have the work of Christ in his life and on the cross to pay for your sin and make you acceptable before God.

[47:21] Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I pray that you would be with us. Lord, may we rejoice in what we have. May we be careful to keep pure what we have.

[47:34] And I pray that you would make us to watch for one another. Lord, if there's one here today who doesn't know how they're going to ever be good enough to make it to heaven, I pray that you would open their eyes to the work that Christ has done for them.

[47:54] And bring them to yourself today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.