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Thank you, Joshua, and welcome to your new role for right now as our Interminister of

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Music until Paul is returned to us in August.

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Right now would you open your Bible with me please to the book of Galatians in the fourth

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chapter as we continue our study in the book of Galatians.

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We'll begin reading today in verse 21.

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Warren Wiersbe writes of his mother who remarked about children,

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"...when they're little they step on your toes, but when they're grown they step on

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your heart."

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I'm sure Paul would identify with that in regard to his spiritual children in Galatia.

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He had given birth to them spiritually on his first missionary journey, but here again

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as we see in verse 20, or verse 19 rather, he agonizes over their rejection of him and

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his message of grace.

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He was not so much agonizing over their personal rejection of him so much as he was concerned

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that Christ was yet unformed in them.

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Since Paul had left them, you see, another gospel had come to town.

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Another gospel had appealed to them.

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Forms of this other gospel are still evident in our world today.

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That other gospel is the notion that somehow God is pleased when we contribute something

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toward our salvation.

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The idea is that we need to do something to please God in addition to believing on Christ.

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The false teachers among the Galatians taught law keeping as an addendum to grace.

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They were law preachers, whereas Paul was a grace preacher.

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Let me see if I can illustrate the difference to you in a little story about a college student

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who wanted desperately to go to a major university.

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It offered just the course of study that would prepare him for the future, but it was a university

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that was private and the tuition was way out of his reach.

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But in order to try to go there, he investigated and found that he could take a couple of jobs,

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one on campus and one off of campus, and by working a number of hours every week he could

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contribute toward the tremendous need financially that he would have.

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His parents weren't able to do anything to help him.

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He also found out that he could take out loans.

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Woe be to the college student who finds that out.

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And he found that he could take out enough loans to make up the difference between what

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he would earn and what he needed.

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However, by the time he would graduate from the university, he would be so in debt that

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it would take him many, many years to work himself out of that college debt.

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Then one day he received a letter from the university.

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The university said, we understand that you're coming here as a student and we have decided

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to give you a free education.

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You will not have to pay the tuition costs.

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You will not have to pay room costs.

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We will give you your board without charge.

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We're waiving all of the fees that normal students have to pay.

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Your education will be totally without charge.

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This is not because of your academic standing.

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It's not because your parents are alumni of our school.

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It is merely because we have selected you for this privilege.

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But the student said to himself, that's nice, but I'm going to work anyway and I'm going

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to take out those loans even though I don't need it.

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You would say, well, what a foolish student.

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He wouldn't need to work all of those hours and rob himself of study time.

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He wouldn't need to take out those loans that will obligate him for half of the rest

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of his life because he has a free education coming.

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And you would be right.

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He would be foolish to do that.

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You see, that's something what the Galatians were doing.

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The Galatians had received free salvation through the grace of God by faith alone.

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And now someone had come along offering them Plan B, which said, you've also got to work

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for it.

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And it was putting them under obligation and in bondage.

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And yet they had fallen for that message.

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That's why Paul is so upset with them.

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He finds it necessary first to defend himself and his ministry as he did in chapters one

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and two.

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And in chapters three and four he writes a defense of the gospel of grace, telling them

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and us that God's good gifts to his people are out of his kindness alone, that we do

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not need to try to earn them.

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He completes this section of his letter in which he's defending the gospel with an argument

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that is drawn from a picture in Genesis.

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He draws an analogy from the very law that the false teachers had appealed to in their

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teaching.

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He goes right to the law that they were using to undermine his message and he shows the

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Galatians and us that even in that law that they were misusing and abusing, there is a

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picture of God's blessing that comes to those who believe on his promises.

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It is evidence of God's grace even in the time of the law.

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What he's going to tell us in this text that we're about to read is that spiritually speaking

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there are two mothers and two families in the world.

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Spiritually speaking there are two mothers and two families in the world and you belong

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to one or the other.

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That's why I've titled today's message, Who is Your Mother?

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Verse 21 says, Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

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He says, I want to tell you something that the law says.

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Listen to me.

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It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.

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But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh and the son by the free woman

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through the promise.

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As we examine this text this morning we notice first that Paul goes back to talk about the

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historical situation.

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He recalls circumstances from the life of Abraham recounted in the law, which speaks

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to his very point that faith in the promise of God brings God's blessing.

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There are two characters, or several characters rather, two sons and two mothers that he points

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to.

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He speaks about the bondwoman and her son and the free woman and her son.

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Now because of our study in Genesis a few months ago all of you know exactly what Paul

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is talking about here, right?

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The bondwoman is the slave that Abraham and Sarah acquired in Egypt.

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Her name was Hagar.

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You remember that Sarah, Abram's wife, was barren.

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It was a great source of pain and agony in her soul.

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When it became apparent in her old age that she was not to have children, despite the

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promise of God that she would, she connived and arranged with Abraham to go into her slave

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as the custom of the day was.

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Hagar became a surrogate mother, as it were, for Sarah.

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Hagar bore Ishmael.

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Abraham at this time was 86 years of age when Ishmael was born.

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As Paul points out, he was born according to the flesh, that is, he was born by human

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actions.

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He was born by an act of desperation and unbelief and scheming.

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On the other hand there is the free woman.

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The free woman, of course, is Sarah, Abram's wife.

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Sarah who had no children but who desperately wanted them.

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And when it came time in life that both she and Abraham were clearly beyond the point

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of having any children between them, God reiterated His promise that they would have a child and

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His name should be Isaac, which means laughter.

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There were several laughters there in the book of Genesis, as you recall.

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Some was of unbelief and some was of joy in the fulfillment of God's promise in Isaac.

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When Isaac was born, Abraham was 100 years old.

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And so what we have in this historical account is a mother who has a son by natural birth

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and another mother who has a son by supernatural birth.

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The first birth was the result of human effort and scheming.

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The second birth was beyond human effort.

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It was when Abraham and Sarah were totally beyond the possibility of childbearing that

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the second son was born totally as a gift of God's grace because Abraham believed the

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promise of God.

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Now the Apostle Paul, in leading us further in this discussion, is going to give us the

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allegorical interpretation of this.

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Usually we avoid allegorical interpretations of the Bible.

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If you want to get on the fast track to false doctrine, begin interpreting the Bible allegorically.

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We believe rather in the literal interpretation of the Bible.

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But here the Apostle Paul is led by the Holy Spirit to interpret that historical event

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we've just described allegorically, to find metaphors in there.

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And so we pick up the reading in verse 24.

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He says, this is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants.

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One proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves, she is Hagar.

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Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem for she

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is in slavery with her children.

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But the Jerusalem above is free.

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She is our mother.

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For it is written, rejoice, barren woman who does not bear.

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Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor.

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For more are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband.

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And you, brethren like Isaac, are children of promise.

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But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according

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to the Spirit, so it is now.

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And so the Apostle Paul draws upon this historical situation we've described to form an analogy,

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a spiritual lesson that he wants to teach.

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There are two mothers in the allegory.

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They represent, says Paul, two covenants.

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We would say it this way.

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The one mother, Hagar, represents the covenant of the law, which is accomplished by works,

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fulfilled by works.

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Sarah on the other hand, the free woman, represents the covenant of promise, which requires faith

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in the promise to achieve its results.

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Regarding Hagar and the covenant of the law, that law that was being preached to the Galatians,

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regarding the covenant of law it produces children who are, he says, slaves like Ishmael.

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Ishmael was the son of Abraham and yet he was the son of a slave woman and was therefore

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a slave himself.

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The Apostle Paul relates this to the present Jerusalem, that is the city of Jerusalem with

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all of its Jewish ritual and religion there.

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And he says those who are in Jerusalem who practice the Jewish religion under the law

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are slaves.

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They are in bondage to a system that does not bring life to them.

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It only brings condemnation because the law does not have power in itself to give life,

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only to give obligation.

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It has brought them, he says, not into freedom but into spiritual bondage.

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Paul's obvious point here is that those who adopt the law come under its obligations to

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keeping the rules of the law.

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They can be made right with God through the law if they keep it perfectly.

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They have to start out perfectly keeping the law and every day of their lives they have

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to perfectly perform the law in order to ultimately be right with God.

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But every day of that process they are in bondage to the obligations of the law.

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They are slaves to its precepts and its statutes.

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On the other hand there is Sarah who represents the covenant of promise or faith.

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And he says it too produces children.

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Those are the children who are of promise like Isaac was the child of God's promise.

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And he says this covenant, this woman, this free woman represents to us Jerusalem above.

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Not Jerusalem the city on the earth and the Jewish religion, but rather that Jerusalem

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above where Jesus is.

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And he says we are citizens of that Jerusalem, the heavenly city.

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And as citizens of that city we are free in God's grace.

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We are not in slavery.

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Describing this freedom he quotes from Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 1.

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That chapter in Isaiah is a promise of children that will be gathered to exile Jerusalem in

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that day.

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But Paul here seems to apply it to the in gathering to the heavenly Jerusalem of many

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children of promise.

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They are not the result of works to the law, but rather of faith in God's promise.

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And the point that he's making is that this woman, this free woman, is the mother of those

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who believe on the promise of God and receive his grace.

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And so that is his basic analogy.

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That's the way he allegorically interprets that Old Testament text.

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He is showing here the superiority of grace.

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He is showing how much more fruitful believing in God's promise is than putting oneself

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under the obligation of the law is.

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For that leads to slavery, whereas faith in the promise of God leads to freedom.

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He goes on to draw out the analogy a little more.

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We could go back and read it.

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We don't have time.

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In Genesis chapter 21 it describes that day when Isaac was just a little toddler around

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the household and his older brother, Bahagar, Ishmael, was mocking him.

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He was ridiculing him.

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He was making fun of his younger brother.

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This greatly distressed Sarah.

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And she said, that kid has to go.

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He is not going to make fun of my son.

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Abraham was torn up because they were both his sons.

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And then God spoke to Abraham and said, send away Bahagar and Ishmael.

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He says, I will bless him.

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He is your son.

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I will bless him.

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I will make him a great nation.

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But Sarah is right.

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The two of them cannot live together.

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And you see how the Apostle Paul relates that to law and grace.

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He says, just as the child of the law, of works, Ishmael, persecuted the child of promise,

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Isaac, it is still true today.

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He says, these law preachers among you persecute me as a grace preacher.

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And he says, in essence, they and I cannot coexist.

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The message they have that brings you under obligation is so fundamentally flawed and

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different from the message of grace that I have preached that they cannot live in the

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same church that I have founded and that I am a part of.

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And he goes on to say, just as Ishmael was cast out, he says, law and works cannot coexist

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with promise and faith, and those law preachers have to be cast out.

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You have to get rid of them.

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You can no longer listen to them.

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That is his point here, very strong point that Paul is making in this allegorical interpretation

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of what happened in Abraham's life.

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In verse 31, he brings a personal application.

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He says, so then, brethren, we are children not of a bondwoman, but of a free woman.

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He says, Galatians, you who profess faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, don't

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you understand that you are not slaves to the law?

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You are not children of the bondwoman, of the law, of Mount Sinai, of the Jewish religion

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in earthly Jerusalem.

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That is not your spiritual heritage.

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He says, you are children of the free woman.

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You are children of the promise of God in Christ Jesus.

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You are the heir of his blessings that come to you merely by faith and apart from works.

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He says, there are two sets of children.

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The one set of children keep the law and try to earn their way to God.

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The other children see God's gift and receive it by faith.

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Dear folks, today there are still two spiritual families in the world.

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There are those, and I would call them the many, who attempt to do good works and earn

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righteousness with God.

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And then there are those who forsake their self-righteousness, recognizing that it is

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totally unacceptable to God, and who trust in God's promise of the gift of righteousness

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through faith in Jesus Christ.

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Which family are you in?

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Who is your mother?

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Are you a child of promise, or have you placed yourself under the obligation of law keeping,

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of doing your best?

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The story is told about a guy who dies and goes to heaven where he meets Peter at the

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pearly gates, of course, don't they all?

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Before he can enter, Peter gives him a few questions to answer.

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He has to accumulate a hundred points before he can go in.

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So Peter asked, how often did you go to church?

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He replied, well, I went every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, and every Wednesday night

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to prayer meeting.

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Peter said, that's good, that's one point.

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He said, one point, wow, I figured that'd be worth more than that.

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Peter asked, well, did you give any offerings?

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He said, oh yes.

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He said, I gave 10% of my income every week.

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Well, said Peter, that's good, that's worth three points.

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What about anything else?

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The man said, well, offhand, I can't think of a whole lot, but I mostly did what I thought

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I was supposed to do, to be a good person.

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Peter said, well, we'll give you five points for good behavior.

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Can't you come up with anything else?

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By this time, the man was completely flustered.

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He couldn't think of anything else to tell Peter.

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So he finally cried out, it looks like that no one can enter heaven but by the grace of

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God.

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Peter said, a hundred points, come on in.

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You see, that is exactly the point.

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If we try to earn it by being good, keeping the law, we're only under obligation that

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we can never fulfill.

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We're like that college student who'll be paying off loans, who'd been robbed of his

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education because he couldn't study, he had to work.

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How wonderful that God has given us entrance into heaven, tuition paid, paid by Jesus in

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full.

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All we have to do is receive it.

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Have you received it?

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Are you a child of promise because you believe God's promise in Christ?

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Before we go, there are just a couple of other things I want to say to you.

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We live in a day of escalating false religion.

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That's your challenge.

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We live in a world that is bound to proclaim that there is something that we can do to

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impress God.

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We need to be aware of compromise with it.

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There are lines that have to be drawn and some battles that are worth fighting in a

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world of tolerance.

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I greatly fear that the evangelical church, as worldly as it is, is going to be compromised

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by the teaching of tolerance in our society so that we are going to begin accepting people

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who believe in faith plus works as being a part of God's family and a part of God's

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kingdom.

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We have to see, as Paul did, that the message of faith alone and faith plus works are fundamentally

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different messages, two different gospels.

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We have to expect that there will be persecution from religion that appeals to man's fleshly

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nature and his pride.

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For man likes to think that he can do something surely to please God.

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So you and I live in a day of escalating false religion.

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It's a challenge to us.

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Like the Apostle Paul, we must be sold out to the message of grace, for that is the gospel

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that brings life and freedom.

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The other does not.

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The second thing I want to say very quickly is that you and I are called to live in the

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liberty of God's grace.

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That is your birthright.

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It was the Galatians' birthright, and yet now they were coming back under the law in

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its obligations.

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But I want to encourage you to do, if you are a child of promise, a child of the free

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woman, to enjoy the grace that has freed you from obligation to the law.

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Don't abuse it, but don't allow legalists to rob you of it either.

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Understand that you have been born into a family of freedom in Jesus Christ.

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You say, well, what does all of that mean?

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See you in two weeks.

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We'll talk some more about it.

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Let's pray.

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Father, we thank you for the marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, the wonderful grace of Jesus,

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who paid the full price for us so that we might have all that we need in Him for this

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life and for the life to come.

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I pray that you will give us great jealousy for this message of grace.

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And Father, if there be someone here today who has perhaps for the first time understood

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that it's not his or her works, that it truly is a free gift that you simply give to those

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who will receive it, oh, help them to do it now.

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May your grace open their hearts that they may see that message and believe on the Lord

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Jesus Christ and be justified, be declared right with you through that faith.

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We commit this message to you today and our thoughts and our lives.

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Help us to live as children of grace who have been set free from bondage.

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In Christ's name I pray, amen.