 We are, again, walking through the letter to the Galatians, and tonight's sermon title is called A Tale of Two Suns, A Tale of Two Suns, and we see that in other places in Scripture too. I thought I would borrow that. A Tale of Two Suns, Galatians chapter 4, verses 21 to 31, and I thought we'd read that together to start and then we'll pray. Galatians 4, 21 through 31, the Bible says, 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 bond woman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman 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 baron, 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, but as he who was born according to the flesh, then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bond woman and her son, for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we praise you, Lord God, that we, through faith in Christ, our spiritual seed of Abraham, our children of the free woman, Lord, thank you for the salvation that you've provided through faith, and I pray, Lord, that you would protect us, God, from the insidious work of the wicked one, to lure us away to a salvation by works or to a legalism, or trying to obtain a right standing with God through human achievement. When it's been done in Christ, when he has secured the promise, fulfilled the promise, we praise you and thank you, Lord, for your grace and mercy to us. Please Lord, protect us from error, protect us from this slippery slope, this dangerous trap, this wicked ditch that these Galatians were just walking through, and praise you and thank you for the words here in Scripture to help us guard against that, Lord, to warn us against it. Please help us apply these words to our heart and mind. Help us to learn this, Lord, it up, just a deep heart level so that we can be on the lookout for it, and praise you and thank you, Lord, for this teaching and this time together. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right. A Tale of Two Sons. This is Galatians 4, verses 21 to 31. Basically, this teaching, through Galatians here, what Paul is doing is with the Galatians, setting up the fact, just making it as clear as it is possible to be made clear in as many ways as he can make it clear, the fact that living under the law is an impossible way to live the Christian life. It's an impossible way to live the Christian life because it is a life without Christ. How can you live the Christian life apart from faith in Christ? Answer that question. You can't. This is impossible. And here, these Galatians, wanting to go back under the law again, wanting to live their Christian life without Christ, without faith, without victory over sin, the object here is they simply wanted to keep a bunch of rules. They wanted salvation. They wanted right standing with God again to be placed under their own purview, placed under their own effort, placed under what they were doing. They simply wanted to, in their mind, probably what they were thinking and what many legalists think is, well, this spirituality thing is easy. I just got to do this, that, and the other thing, and I'm spiritual. And they wanted to, in essence, put themselves back under that bondage, put themselves back under that slavery of just rulekeeping, legalism, and regulation in order to be right with God. Legalism is basically keeping someone on a leash. Legalism is keeping someone in bondage. It places a yoke on them that keeps them from Christ, keeps them from faith. Legalism will kill your spiritual life. Legalism will suck the joy out of your spiritual life. Legalism will pull you away from Christ, take your eyes off of Christ, put your eyes on your own performance, and will slay you. Because it puts you back under the law, which kills. Acts 2 Corinthians 6, I think it is, it says, or 3, it says the letter kills, right? It slays the person. It focuses on rules and regulations in your life rather than focusing on Christ. It's also, it takes your rules and regulations that you try to impose and build up in your own life to be right with God and to live the Christian life, and it imposes them on others. It takes the rules that you think you must abide by in order to be right with God, and it says, well, if I'm doing it, it's good enough for me. What's good enough for you too? And you need to be doing it also, and it places the yoke of bondage, the yoke of slavery that is on your shoulders, and you, going the kindness of your heart, just take that yoke and you put it on someone else. And bless your heart, that's just the wrong thing to do. You can't do it. That is enslaving someone else. It's putting someone else into bondage. And basically what this all means is that living under rules and regulations that way with your focus off of Christ is living as though Christ had never died. Back in Galatians 2, verse 21, it says, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. You live as though the law is the way to be saved, as though your law-keeping, as though your human achievement, your human effort, your keeping of rules and regulations is the way to be right with God, and this will destroy you. And Paul knew this well. He is so perplexed, so, again, in birth pains over these Galatians because they're slipping into this trap. In their minds, in their heart, in their behavior, they're slipping back into this idea of, I've got to do these laws to be right with God. Now the moral law of God is still binding on Christians today. We know that from Scripture. It is binding on Christians. But law-keeping as a means of salvation is damnable heresy. If law could have been given that would have given life, then certainly life would have come through the law, and Christ would have died in vain. But life, eternal life, does not come through keeping the law, does not come through regulations. That is, legalism. Now Paul recognizes this in this situation with the Galatians. He sees this as a spiritual war, and he sees these Judaizers. He even sees the propensity or the tendency in the Galatians to trend toward this heresy. He sees that as the spiritual enemies, right? These Judaizers wanted to set their own bar for what is spiritual. They wanted to set their own standard for what is right with God, and it has nothing to do with Christ, nothing to do with God's program for salvation. That's just a wicked spot to be in. It's a wicked heresy. To take anyone's focus off of Christ and put faith in your own human effort is anathema as Paul said in Galatians 1. It is to be cursed. It is another gospel, which is really not another. It is heresy. And so here, Paul again, now in verses 19 and 20, we looked at last week, he's perplexed by them. 19 says, my little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone for I have doubts about you. Paul is perplexed over them in 19 and 20, and he's going to basically in the next section here from 21 to 31, he's going to just try another way. He's just going to another way of explaining it, okay? You haven't gotten it to this point, and it's still, you're still tied up over this. I just, I need to explain it another way. It's similar like to this morning in Acts 14, when it talks about how Paul and Barnabas so spoke in such a manner that a great multitude believed, and we talked about their manner of speaking and their effectiveness in their speaking. Here it's just Paul trying to be effective, okay? Another way of explaining this. We've been going through these facts. He's been giving the same result of his argument through the passages we've already looked at, but he's given that argument in multiple ways, and here in 4, 21 to 31, he's going to try again. Just another way to look at this. And he begins in verse 21 now with a question. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? This is a personal question, and he's basically asking them this. If you desire, you who desire to be under the law, do you not know what the law says? Listen, I don't think you understand what you're asking for here, and Paul is about to explain it to him. The irony of this is that the Galatians wanted to live under the law, but if they actually understood what they were desiring, understood what they were asking, they would see their great error, and they would run from it. But they don't understand what they're asking. They've got their heads tied up over this. They're in big trouble here, but Paul wants them to see their error. As we said, the moral law here is still binding, but what's being spoken about here under the law, and he's referring to this law here as the ceremonial law, as the ritualistic law, all of the dietary laws, the sacrificial system, the yoke of keeping these rituals in order to cover sin. He's talking about that kind of law. He's talking about the priesthood, the sacrifices, the ceremonies, the dietary laws, all of these laws that went away in Christ and are no longer binding. They were fulfilled in Christ. Now that, what they're wanting to do is they're wanting to place themselves under the judgment of that law. Now we went through that when we took a look at Acts 13, and we looked at the sacrificial system. That system, or that method of lawkeeping, that entire ritual, that entire ceremonial law is crushing. It is continuously crushing. It takes all of their mind, their energy, their intention to monitor that and to maintain it. It's, I can't eat this, I can eat that. I can't touch this, but I can touch this. I can do this, I can't do that. And in order to establish a right relationship with God, these Judaizers are convincing the Galatians that they have to be under that kind of system to be right with God. Now as a disciple of Christ today, you can fall into this same trap. It's not like you're going to run out and try to sacrifice an animal, or try to keep the Jewish calendar, or circumcision, or any of those kinds of laws. We do this in fundamentally a lot of different ways as disciples of Christ. And in a lot of cases, what that means simply is that in taking your eyes off Christ, you begin looking at lawkeeping for your own righteousness. And you start trying to establish righteousness by your own lawkeeping. We've looked at that many times before, but now that can't be done apart from faith in Christ. What the ceremonial system, we've talked about this, was intended to do was to show the Israelites, to show the Jewish people just how wicked and apart from God they were, how holy God was, and how far the chasm was in between. It was to be a constant reminder of sin. That's what the law is intended to do. The law is intended to be a constant reminder of sin, separation from God, and the judgment that comes from that. But that's the reality. When you understand the judgment that comes by the law, the judgment that hangs over the head of every person because of condemnation under the law, and it should cause you to flee to Christ. You don't flee the condemnation that is under the law by in vain continuing to try to keep the commandments that are in the law, you flee to Christ. You don't flee the wrath of God that hangs over your head because of condemnation that comes through the law by lawkeeping, by trying to do better, trying to work harder, trying to obey more. That is heartless. It is godless. It should send you to Christ. And what these Judaizers were basically trying to convince the Galatians to do was to say, okay, if you want to be right with God, then the very law that condemns you, you need to place yourself further into that law, further into that lawkeeping, further into that mindset, just try harder, I guess, and maybe one day you'll be right with God. Basically, that's what it's doing. It puts them farther under condemnation, farther under judgment. What Paul is trying to convince these Galatians is that that simply is not the way to go. Christ has settled this. It's been fulfilled in Christ. Christ fulfilled the law. There is no more lawkeeping that needs to be done from that standpoint in terms of four-year salvation. Salvation simply is going to come through faith in the finished work and the person of Jesus Christ. It can't be done by the law. The law does not save. The law doesn't sanctify. You do the law and focus on the law. By default, you're not under Christ and the law has no faith, no power. It's only in your own flesh. If you are under the law, then all of your effort, if you're under the law, all of your achievement, if there is any and there isn't, all comes through your own flesh over from your own effort, from your own power, and there simply is no power in your flesh to accomplish what these Judaizers would have the Galatians accomplish, which is right standing with God based on lawkeeping. This is legalism. When someone falls into legalism, they begin looking at the laws as their refuge. They begin looking at the law, at the moral law of God as their hope. If I can do this, then I'm right with God. If I can do this, then I'm sanctified by God. If I can do this, I'm spiritual. If I don't do this, I'm not spiritual without ever looking to Christ, and it is a fatal, fatal mistake. That's what these Galatians were doing. This is the, in Scripture, sort of our first look, if you will, through Galatians at this horrible error. We're going to see it when we get to Acts 15 also. It's just something that we've got to be on guard against. And Paul is just, he is working here, coming up with, again, another example to try to help them understand this, and he's going to present it this way. In verse 22, he sets up an allegory, and I want us to see this, verse 22. Ford has written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond woman, the other by a free woman. Now, right off the bat, in verses 22 here, and in 23, but he who is of the bond woman was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise. Okay, he sets up an allegory, a story. Now, it's this allegory that he's going to set up is related to Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac. We're also going to see Mount Sinai pulled in there. He's going to use the Old Testament scripture to support his allegory here to try to explain to these Galatians that they're doing the wrong thing. And it's based on these examples in the Old Testament. Now, this is a good, just by way of exhortation encouragement here, a good reason to take a look at scripture as a full, complete overarching scope. It's not a series of random, sort of unrelated accounts, Genesis, sort of unrelated to Exodus, sort of unrelated to Hebrews, sort of unrelated to anything else in the New Testament. Scripture is an overarching account, an overarching story, a grand scope of God's redemptive history from beginning to end, all culminating in Christ. And so it really helps to look at the entire thing as a grand scope, as one large overarching story that all fits together, all of the pieces fit together. It all harmonizes together. That's the way we've got to look at it. And this is an example. Paul is going to take these Old Testament, this Old Testament example, and he's going to use it here to make a point. Here, back in Galatians 4, this one son, born by a, by a bond woman, the other by a free woman, but he was of the bond woman, was born according to the flesh, this year, born of the flesh is not according to promise. This born of the flesh simply means according to natural processes, right? You understand? Born of the flesh means natural processes. It's not only natural processes he's talking about here, this of the flesh is also speaking of, of the flesh of Adam, if that makes sense. And we'll talk about that in a more, in a, in a minute. But now there's also here, the free woman. The free woman has a son through promise. These two things are contrasted. One is of the bond woman by natural processes, according to the flesh. The other is by the free woman, according to the spirit of God, and it is according to promise, and it is a supernatural, miraculous work of God. We're going to see that more in a moment. Freedom here, right off the bat, in contrasting the two, you've got a bond woman, slavery, and you've got a free woman, freedom. Freedom here is going to be set up as coming through promise and not through the flesh, okay? It's going to come through promise. And it only comes, we're going to see now, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look really quickly forward at Ephesians 2. Freedom here only comes through promise. From the bond woman, you get death. It is death, barrenness. There is no life that comes through the bond woman. Freedom, life only comes through the promise, through the spirit of God, through the supernatural work of God. We see that shown for us in Ephesians 2, starting in verse one. Now this is, you were once dead in flesh, born of Adam, verse one, and you, he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the courts of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath, just as the others. In other words, you were under the bond woman. You were born in Adam. You were born of the flesh. But this is where freedom comes. This is where life comes. This is being born of the promise. This is being adopted, if you will, into the family of the free woman. Look at verse four, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ for by grace, you've been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ. Jesus that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That is being born of the free woman. That is being born of promise. That is no longer in the dead, barren wilderness womb of the bond woman. That is now being born of promise, being born by the supernatural, miraculous work of God. Now we see this. We'll take a look now at Genesis to set up or look through exactly the context for Paul's allegory here. Go back to Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 12. And let's just step through this. So you see the context here. Genesis chapter 12, we want to read through this so that when we get to this section of the text, you'll be able to see and understand the context of what Paul's talking about. Genesis chapter 12, we have now the Abrahamic covenant. Look at verse one. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That's the covenant. It's an important, a couple of places. Two, it says, I will make you a great nation. And in verse three there, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed, Abraham was promised descendants. He was promised offspring. Okay, this is the promise of God that he would make Abram a great nation. And that in Abram and in his descendants, all the nations of the earth would be blessed, but now flip over to Genesis 16, Genesis 16. And look what happens. Now, this is the promise of God. Is God faithful? Amen. God is faithful. God keeps his promise. He does not go back on his promise, but somehow here Abram is, Abraham is, is doubting a little, all right? In verse, chapter 16, verse one. Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had born him no children and she had an Egyptian maid servant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, see now the Lord has restrained me from bearing children, please go into my maid. Perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. It reminds you a little of the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, right? And both of them deceived, both of them sinning, but Sarai sort of leading the way here. Verse three, 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 10 years in the land of Canaan. So he went into Hagar and they're going to take matters into their own hands, right? They're going to do this their own way. And I want you to understand that the comparison or the connection here, this doing it their own way, they're taking this into their own hands is connected to human achievement, human effort, law keeping. We'll see that connection as we go forward. Verse four, so we went into Hagar and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived her mistress became despised in her eyes. Sarai said to Abram, my wrong be upon you. I gave my maid into your embrace and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me. So Abram said to Sarai, indeed your maid is in your hand. Due to her as you please, when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. Look at chapter 17, verses one here, verse one. 17 one, when Abram was 99 years old. Now, way beyond childbearing age, right? But God is a God who keeps his promise and that's why this is going to be set up so clearly that Isaac is the child of promise and all those who come to by faith to Christ are also children of promise. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am almighty God. Walk before me and be blameless and I'll make my covenant between me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly. There it is again, right? 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. Now he took matters into his own hands with Hagar here. He's doubting. It's a lack of faith. That's all there is to it. A lack of faith in God's promise. So he takes matter and matters into his own hands. But here God is just reiterating the promise to him. Look at verse five. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called 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 King shall come from you. So there's the promise again. Look at verse 15 verse 15. Then God said to Abraham, as for Sarah, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarah, but Sarah shall be your name and I will bless her and also give you a son by her. Then I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples shall be from her. Then Abram fell on his face and look at his response here and he laughed and he said in his heart, shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old and shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? Abraham is saying, I'm old, but man, she is really old. Is she going to be able to have a child? 18. And Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. Then God said, no, Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I've heard you. Behold, I've blessed him and I'll make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget 12 princes and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year, continuing to set up Isaac as the child of promise with Abraham and Sarah getting older and older and older, right? And still God is going to keep this promise. This is simply, there's no explanation for it in natural terms. This is the miracle of God. This is the supernatural work of God in the child of promise Isaac. Flip over to Genesis 18 and look down at verse 11. 18 verse 11. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I've grown old, shall I have pleasure in my Lord being old also? And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I surely bear a child since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied it, saying I did not laugh for she was afraid. And he said, no, but you did laugh. Look at chapter 21, chapter 21. And look at verse one and here it is. And the Lord visited Sarah and he said, and he, as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken for Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him exactly as God had said it would happen, that's how it happened. This is a child of promise. Verse three, and Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old as God had commanded him. Now when Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him and Sarah said, God has made me laugh and all who here will laugh with me. She also said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children for I have borne him a son in his old age. Look at 21 eight here. Now this is the fulfillment of promise. This is God's word being kept. God being faithful. Verse eight, so the child grew and was weaned and Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. This was a common practice when the child was going to be weaned. They held a feast. They honored that and here Ishmael is going to be a part of this ceremony. He's going to be at the feast and look what happens. Verse nine, Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian whom she had borne to Abraham scoffing scoffing. The scoffing was directed at Isaac. Therefore, she said to Abraham, cast out this bond woman and her son. For the son of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac. The matter was very displeasing in Abraham's sight because of his son. But God said to Abraham, do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bond woman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice for in Isaac, your seed shall be called. Here Ishmael now has a rival in his own household. And as he's weaned Ishmael and Hagar, they mock, they mock Isaac, the child of promise. And so now there's a rival set up. Go back to Galatians 4. Now simply from an Old Testament perspective, looking at this passage of Scripture, these passages are, they're just testimonies of God's faithfulness. They're giving this account of God establishing his promise with Abraham. But when looking through it, through the overarching scope of the story of redemptive history, Paul sees that there's more to it than that. There's a symbolic meaning to this. And now the New Testament frequently does that. There are several examples of that. One that comes to mind immediately is when we were talking about this afternoon, is the example that is given by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9, 8, talking about how ministers of the Gospel should earn their living by the Gospel. And he uses the Old Testament text of not muzzling an ox while he treads out the grain. OK, so Paul can do that. The Holy Spirit, who is the author of Scripture, can do that. They look back at these Old Testament stories, the Old Testament texts, and they apply those texts in a current context. And that's done for our admonition. It's done for our instruction. That comparison, the comparison we're about to see here set up in Galatians 4 is not therefore arbitrary. It's not arbitrary. The same author of those passages of Genesis is the same author of Galatians 4. It's the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit can do that. We can't always do that. We'll talk about that in a minute. That's for the Holy Spirit to do and the Holy Spirit does that. But now, using this story, these accounts in Genesis, Paul is now going to set up a contrast here in Galatians 4. And this contrast starts off with a contrast between a bond woman and a free woman, the slave and the free, OK? Slavery and freedom. But it's also here, Hagar contrasted with Sarah. Mount Sinai contrasted with the heavenly Jerusalem. We'll see that in a moment. Contrasting Ishmael with Isaac, the son of the flesh and the son of promise. Bondage under the law, bondage to sin and freedom that is through faith in Christ. It's setting up the contrast between God's salvation and damnable anathema, damnable heresy. And it's setting up a poisonous corrupt, false spirituality with true inward heart holiness. Salvation is that is that is of the Lord. Salvation that transforms the heart that gives regeneration, that makes one alive in Christ with a false spirituality that only brings death. But now, those are the contrasts that are set up through this account. But it also here, woven into this, you see connections, you see Ishmael connected with the flesh, not only the natural processes of giving birth in the flesh, but also the flesh, meaning our natural state in Adam. So Ishmael is connected with the flesh, which is connected with Hagar, a bond woman who's connected with Mount Sinai, right? The thundering death mountain. We'll look at that in a moment, too. And that's connected with the Jerusalem of Paul's day, who Paul here says is in bondage with her children connected to slavery to the law and therefore slavery to sin in all of that. Ishmael, the bond woman, Hagar, Mount Sinai, all these connections leading to the point that all of that is salvation through human effort, salvation through works of the law, salvation by human achievement. OK, but now in contrast, the other connections are Isaac connected to Sarah, Abraham, God's promises in the Abrahamic Covenant, the heavenly Jerusalem, the work of the spirit, freedom from the law and freedom from sin that only comes through faith in Christ, the inheritance, the grace and mercy of God, salvation through repentant faith alone in Christ alone, who fulfilled the law perfectly. And that is it's salvation through repentance and faith. It's simply God's gospel, Christ's gospel. And so these are the connections. These are the two contrasts that are set up. Abraham and Sarah's attempt to take matters into their own hands, to do things on their own was simply a lack of faith. And this is going to set up that lack of faith as representing human effort, human achievement by keeping works of the law. It's going to set up this and Paul is praying that it does in the minds of the Galatians as the heresy that it is, as the legalism that it is, as the lawkeeping that it is. By contrast, the birth of Isaac in no way could be so, excuse me, associated and no way could be associated with anything to do with human effort or human planning. There was no way. And God went through painful efforts. I mean, he painstakingly demonstrated that. There was simply no way that Isaac could have come about by anything natural, by anything related to human effort at all. It was all according to the work of God. And that's the exactly the way that that God wanted to do that. In doing that, again, this is not an arbitrary connection here. Paul's allegory in Galatians 4 with the Genesis passages. In doing that, the Holy Spirit perfectly sets this up as our admonition. It perfectly sets this story up. And we'll see that in a moment. The point is, the point of all this is that salvation will never come through works. Salvation will never come through human effort, never come through human achievement. It's accomplished in Christ, in Christ alone. And we have to turn from our sin and put our faith alone in Christ to inherit the promise. But now let's look at... He sets up the allegory there in those first couple of verses. But now look with me at verse 24. And let's see this worked out. Verse 24. These things, this analogy here, the Bond woman and the free woman, these things, he says, are symbolic. That word is literally a legareto. It means allegory. This is an allegory. 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. Now, this is, Paul sets up an allegory. It says these things here in verse 24 are symbolic. Literally, that word means allegory. It's basically an allegory is assigning a meaning to the biblical text that does not fit with its historical context. It's, in essence, it's an extended parable. You have parables in Scripture, the parable of the dragnet, the parable of the wheat and the tares, right? Parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep. Those are parables that have one singular point. The parable is told to make a point. When an allegory is told, an allegory is far more expansive, far more detailed in that and may have many points, many comparisons, many contrasts. Here, what Paul is about to set up is an allegory. And these are detailed and complex examples. One example of that would be, for example, Isaiah 5 and the disappointing vineyard, right? That disappointing vineyard is an allegory. There are several components to that. It's rich. I encourage you to read that. There's a lot that goes into that, making multiple points. Another allegory would be John 15 that we looked at this morning, that is an allegory, the vine and the branches, right? Those are not simply parables making one point, but more allegorical with several connections implied in the allegory itself. Now, this is not spiritualizing the text. Spiritualizing the text is when someone, not the Holy Spirit, and not Paul, goes into Scripture and they assign symbolic meaning to points in the text that aren't clearly stated that way by Scripture. This was done, this is surprisingly, when you look at church history, this is really common. It's even common today in a couple of theological systems to go into the biblical text and assign a spiritualized or allegorized meaning to the text that's not clearly stated. Paul here clearly states that this is symbolic and knowing that Paul and the Holy Spirit here, authoring this passage of Scripture, they can do this, but you can't. We're not to go into Scripture and spiritualize. That's not for us to do. We, when we read Scripture, are to take a literal, grammatical, historical interpretation of Scripture. What the Scripture clearly says is what the Scripture clearly says. As the old saying goes, if the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense or you get nonsense, right? We're to take a literal, historical, grammatical interpretation of Scripture. But this allegory here is interesting because it forms a connection. It's going to form a connection from Hagar to Mount Sinai to present-day Jerusalem to these Judaizers to our current-day legalists. And we'll see that. All of this is slavery. And this is simply, this allegory here is just a fresh way to look or a new way, a new perspective here. Another way to explain this that Paul is taking to look at the liability that comes when you place yourself under the law, the judgment that comes when you place yourself under the law. Now, this would have stripped the gears of the Judaizers, no doubt. The standard Jewish perception was that life, that the pathway to life came through the law of God. The pathway to liberation, to freedom, came through the law of God. And Paul is saying the exact opposite. The law demands obedience, but it doesn't give any power or any enablement to obey, to keep its precepts. The law slays. It doesn't bring life. The letter of the Bible says kills. Here, you follow the path of the covenant of Mount Sinai. And if you're her son, you are a slave to the law. If you're a son of Hagar, you're a slave. You're in bondage. And this corresponds to present-day Jerusalem in slavery, as it says with her children. Now, this spiritual bondage, setting up the bond woman with Mount Sinai. These things, verse 24, are symbolic for there are two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. Now, this is spiritual bondage. And if you know from the Old Testament, where Mount Sinai was, where was it? It's in the wilderness, right? It's in the wasteland. It is out in the desert. And it represents wilderness. It represents desert. It represents Sarah's barren womb, or Hagar. Yes, Sarah's barren womb. It represents barrenness. OK, it represents desert. It represents spiritual bondage. It represents death. No inward change, no heart holiness, no power from God. It's just the desert, all right? But in verse 27, it says, but the Jerusalem, I'm sorry, verse 26, but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. That mother of us all there is an interesting phrase, but literally means Jews and the church. It wasn't going to say that the the church is the mother of us all. Jews are going to be saved, too. In one day, Jews and the church will be in heaven. And so Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is above is mother to us all, Jews and the church combined. And this is contrasted with Mount Sinai in the sense that this is freedom. This is life. This is Christ. This is God's presence. Look at Hebrews 12. Let's take a look at that. Hebrews 12. This is where you want to be. This is what we want to inherit. This comes through promise by faith in Christ. Hebrews 12 and look at verse 18. And this contrasts the two. Here's Mount Sinai and our promise. Look at verse 18. For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with that may that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the words should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born who are registered in heaven to God, the judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. And that is the heavenly Jerusalem. That's the heavenly city. That's the Jerusalem that's above has contrasted with Mount Sinai. That is simply bondage and fear and judgment and condemnation. But that heavenly city comes through faith of Christ. That's where we want to be this link here. Look at back at Galatians. I'm sorry, Galatians four and this goes on this link here. Interestingly enough, in verse 27, this is a quote from Isaiah 54 one. This link here links. The promise with basically with Sarah's barrenness that this promise comes through her who was barren and it sets up that defines the fact again that this is through the promise of God, the faithfulness of God and not anything to do with human effort. Verse 27 says, Ford 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. And once again in Paul's explanation of this, using this quote from Isaiah 54, he's saying again, this is all through promise. Salvation has to come through the promises made to Abraham through faith in Christ. It cannot come through human effort. The human effort was Hagar. It was Abraham and Sarah through a lack of faith, no faith at that point, taking matters into their own hands and through human effort trying to achieve the promise. But this Paul saying basically, listen, if you're a child of promise through Sarah, when she was barren, then you have every cause for rejoicing because you are a child of promise just as Isaac was. And just as Isaac was a child of promise, everyone who comes to Christ by faith is now of the seed of Abraham, a child of promise just as he was. And this is again, just setting up the fact that it's got to be through faith alone in Christ alone. So now therefore, because of this, these Christians in Galatia should rejoice because they are a fulfillment of promise. You see how this comes down through the centuries from Abraham, Sarah and Isaac through the centuries now to these Galatians, these Galatian believers as children of promise, just as Isaac was all the way down through the centuries to us. And the fact that we can be children of Abraham, children of promise, born of supposedly barren Sarah by the miraculous work of God, it's an amazing thought. They are the true children. That's what Paul is trying to get across to them. They are the true children of the Lord. If you come through Hagar, Mount Sinai, bondage, law, sin, law keeping, legalism, then you're not a true child of the Lord. True children of the Lord come through the promise, come by faith in Christ. In three, chapter three, Galatians three, verse 26. It says, we've read this, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there's neither junior Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. That's not Abraham's seed through Hagar. That's Abraham's seed through Sarah, through the child of promise and your heirs, it says, according to the promise. Now back in Galatians four, look at verse 28. Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of the problem, of the promise, children of the problem, the children of the promise. So this is Paul now, he takes, takes you through the allegory, takes you through the contrast between slave and free, between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, right? Takes you through bondage to sin, bondage to the law, putting yourself under that crushing weight of keeping the law to try to be right with God, to faith in Christ. He sets us up in this allegory, and then he simply applies it immediately to the Galatian believers to try to get them to understand. He needs to apply it to us too. This is for our admonition. We need to understand this. This is always something we need to keep in the front of our mind that the Christian life is always through repentant faith in Christ. You turning from your sin by faith, turning from living for yourself by faith to Christ, who through faith in Christ gives us the victory. This is not according to the flesh. It's not according to human effort, human achievement. So he simply applies it in verse 28. Now we, brethren, talking to these Galatian believers, just as Isaac was, we are children of promise. So because they've come to Christ originally by faith, he categorizes them as children of the promise, categorizes them as the spiritual seed of Abraham. Now these Judaizers who were assaulting them, they would have wrestled you all day long to say that they were the spiritual seed of Abraham. They were the seed of Abraham. They were, because they were descendants, physical descendants of Abraham, were children of the promise. And so now think about this for a second. Paul is calling the Galatian Gentiles, spiritual seed of Abraham, children of the promise, categorizing them that way. What does that mean as far as the Judaizers go? How is he categorizing them? You see, and they would have instantly figured this out. Verse 29, but as he who was born according to the flesh, then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, even so it is now. So now he's equating the Judaizers who think that they are sons of Isaac. And he's saying, no, your sons of Ishmael, your sons of the bond woman because of your insipid, heretical focus on the law for salvation, you are in slavery, you are in bondage. You are as present day Jerusalem is with her children. You're still in slavery to the law. I need to come by faith to Christ. So verse 29 now, but as he was born according to the flesh, then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, even so it is now in the, I'm sorry, the Judaizers trying to persuade the Galatians away from faith in Christ. It's characterized by Paul here as persecution. Ishmael persecuted Isaac. He scoffed and he mocked. It was persecution. What the Judaizers are doing to these Galatian believers is in trying to get them to keep the law again to be right with God to keep the law for salvation. It's equated by Paul here is persecution. He persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, even so it is now listen, Galatians, these Judaizers are persecuting them persecuting you. So what do you do with that? How are you supposed to respond? Nevertheless, verse 30, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bond woman and her son for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. The Galatians, their mother is heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that's above the heavenly city. They are men of the spirit. The Judaizers here in Paul's eyes and in his condemnation of them here, they are spiritually dead. They're spiritually dead and they want to impose slavery to the law. So what do we need to do with that? You're to resist it. You're to cast it out. If you have a tendency toward legalism, you cast out that bond woman. You get away from that. Run her out of town. If you have someone in your life influencing you like these Judaizers were influencing the Galatians, influencing you toward legalism, toward lawkeeping, you cast out that bond woman, cast out Hagar. You can call them Hagar. Hagar, get away from me. Cast out Hagar, cast out Ishmael. You resist that. You don't want to be under slavery any longer. There's no bondage in Christ. There's no slavery in Christ. It is all freedom, freedom from the law. Now again, you keep the law, the moral law of God. If you're a Christian, but all of that lawkeeping flows completely out of faith in Christ. It should have proven to you clearly in your unconverted state that it is impossible to keep a law of God. Impossible. That should be really clear for anyone who's a disciple of Christ. When you were lost, all the law did was just show you your sin and the exceedingly sinful sinfulness of it. When you came to Christ by faith, by repentance, that should be very clear to you now. The only hope of keeping any of the law of God or obeying Christ at all comes strictly and only through faith in Christ. And in that way, God gets the glory. Christ gets the glory for your obedience for living a life that's pleasing to him, but it doesn't come through law. You have to cast out the slave woman, cast out the bond woman, cast out Hagar. If you put yourself under slavery to the law, you will never inherit the promise. That's what Paul is trying to convince these relations of now he's just in back again in birth pains over them because they're going to miss out if they keep continuing down this path, putting themselves under slavery, they will with Ishmael inherit what Ishmael inherited. But if they will turn back from that and again focus on Christ, turn from their sin, focus on Christ, live the Christian life by faith in Christ and the obedience in the fruit that just comes out of that as a natural outpouring of your regenerated nature, then they will inherit the promise. The point of all this and the point that Paul is trying to get to these Galatian believers here is simply don't place yourself under that slavery. Don't place yourself under slavery. You've got to dig legalism out of your life. Dig legalism out of your thinking. If you find yourself focusing on law as your hope for being right with God and all of its many even subtle variations of that and you need to learn how to spot them, you're in bondage and you need to put your eyes back on Christ in Christ is your hope in Christ is the promise fulfilled in Christ is your inheritance. And then one day we're going to we're going to be in the heavenly city together really quickly with just the minutes we have left turn to Revelation 21. This is our inheritance. We have Christ. Why? Why would you put yourself under slavery again in bondage to lawkeeping? Exercise faith in Christ. Revelation 21 and look at verse two. Relation 21 verse two, then I John saw the holy city knew Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. It's not on an awesome thought. I mean the tabernacle of God with the men and we'll be in the presence of God. It's an awesome thought. Verse four, and he'll wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. And he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, right for these words are true and faithful. Look at verse 22. But I saw no temple in it. Speaking again of the new Jerusalem for the Lord God almighty and the lamb are its temple. We get Christ in the presence of God in the presence of Christ for all eternity. Verse 23, the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God illuminated it. The lamb is its light and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There shall be no night there and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter into it. Anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the lamb's book of life. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the lamb in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore 12 fruits. Each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There shall be no more curse. But the throne of God and of the land shall be lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun. For the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever. That's just an awesome, awesome thought. That's the heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem is above. That's your inheritance. Why would you place yourself under legalism? I mean, think about that. All of that is simply and only and completely comprehensively in Christ. And so it's just it's easy to fall into that trap. I mean, just something about our flesh that just wants to, you know, head that direction, but it is so foolish. This is all Christ. It's all been done by Christ, accomplished in Christ. It's only in Christ. So turn from your sin, you know, turn from that sin of legalism. If you tend toward that, turn from focusing on law and focus on Christ and then obey him, submit to him as Lord. You live for him. You obey his commands because you love him, because you have a grateful heart, because there's affection for Christ in your heart and you want to serve him as your master, but don't put yourself under slavery to the law, keeping law as your focus, focus on Christ. And then we just, we get this inheritance. We have eternity with Christ and the presence of God forever worshiping him in the heavenly Jerusalem. It's just an awesome thought. Let's pray. Father in heaven, God, thank you for these promises or thank you for just declarating your word about this issue of legalism and of law keeping and that system of the world religions of trying to keep laws and do good to be right with you when that's just simply impossible. We, Lord, understand our flesh and we know, Lord, that salvation comes only from turning from that, turning from our sin, turning from our self-indulgence, our self-righteousness, trying to establish a righteousness of our own effort and turning from that sin to Christ, just trusting Christ alone for salvation. Praise you and thank you, Lord, for just clear teaching in Scripture, a clear gospel. Thank you for that great salvation or thank you for your grace and your mercy that made that possible. We praise you and thank you, Lord, for the inheritance that awaits and what a glorious time that will be with John, Lord, we cry out to you, Lord, come, come quickly. We praise you with Jesus' name. Amen.