Well, there was a man who lived in another country most of his life, and one of the laws in that country was that he and along with the other citizens, had to be inside in their home by 6pm every night or they could face prosecution. Well, later on, the man moved to the United States, and he decided to go out one night and see the city, see what was going on, look at the lights, look at the infrastructure. And all of a sudden he found himself far away from his home, and six o'clock pm was encroaching upon him, and he began to panic, and so he flagged down a person and said, Can I get a ride back to my house? I'm so far away I'm going to get arrested if I don't hurry up and get back. The man, realizing that he was not from that country, probably because of his accent, said, Sir, you don't have anything to worry about here. You're now in the United States. Let me assure you that the United States does not arrest people for being out past six o'clock. Obviously the man at that point was relieved, but the stranger reassured him, you don't have to worry about that law anymore. You're under a new law. You're under a new document. You see this man knew that he was in the United States, but he had not cast off his obedience to the laws of his old country, and so he was still being controlled by what no longer had jurisdiction over him. You see where I'm going with this. He was a free man, needlessly bound to the rules and regulations of a former life. When we get to Galatians chapter four today, we're going to be in verses 21 through 31 we see Paul using an allegorical example, tying back to the Old Testament to Genesis, 1617, and 21 where it talks about specifically Sarah Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac, the Old Covenant versus the New Covenant. God's plan versus what God's plan was not. And so if you will, stand with me as we honor God by the reading of His Holy Word. Galatians, four verses, 21 to 31 and Paul writes to the church in Galatia, tell me, you who desire to be under the law. Do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through a promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children, but the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, rejoice, oh barren one who does not bear, break forth and cry aloud. You who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate loved one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. Now, you brothers like Isaac are children of promise. But just as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit also it is now. 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 her son of the free woman. So brothers, we are not children of the slave but children of the free woman Father, help us to remember that each and every moment of our life that we are no longer bound to our sin, to the law, to work for our salvation, but we are free in your Son, Jesus Christ, and the price that He paid on the cross and as in his name that we pray amen. You notice on your listening guide, I don't have any points. This morning, we're going to work through this verse by first and tear this apart and look and see what this means, what this meant to the church at Galatia, what this means to the church. In Byron today. And so the big idea is, if you don't walk away knowing anything else or learning anything else from this message, this is what I want you to know all of you who are under the sound of my voice watching on live stream, this is this. Is it? This is what these verses mean. God's giving of his son means our freedom in Christ. Freedom something that we kind of take for granted living in the United States of America, right? But we have freedom in Christ if we have confessed with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. We are saved. We are free. We are free from the law, we are free from sin, and we are no longer slaves. And so as we dive into this passage, we're going to break it down verse by verse and see this distinction between the law, bondage, and living under Grace freedom. In verse 21 Paul writes, do you not understand the law well? This is a rhetorical question to to us. Yeah, we understand the law, but we know that Jesus came to fulfill the law. And Paul had already stated in Galatians four, four and five that we were in a couple couple weeks ago, Paul had already stated that God sent His Son to redeem those who are under the law, the Jewish people. But this implication is that by putting themselves under the law through circumcision, food laws, observing the calendar, the Galatians would be rejecting God's gift and missing the purpose of the law altogether. You see, God has given us a gift in His Son, Jesus Christ. And as Christmas fast approaches us, when someone offers us a gift, we're not going to reject it, are we? We accept it, we're not going to say, Oh, you gave me a you gave me an Apple computer. I think I'm going to keep using my PC, which, you know, is crazy. For those of you who like PCs, Apple is the way to go, Alright, those of you who have absolutely no clue about technology have no clue what I just said, and that's okay. That's okay. But in verse 21 he says, Do you not understand the law? In verse 22 he references this story that we studied several months ago in Genesis, Genesis, 1617, and 20. In chapter 21 the story of Abraham and how he had two sons. And there's no doubt, there's no doubt, remember, there's no doubt in all of history that both Ishmael and Isaac were both sons of Abraham. However, one of them inherited the covenant blessing, and the other was simply a successful man by the world standards, but we see how close these two were together. They were born in the same society. They called the same great patriarch father, and they traveled the same encampment with him. Yet Ishmael was a stranger to the covenant, while Isaac was the heir to the promise of God. And in verse 23 there are two phrases that that he uses that you need to write down. And these two phrases are, number one according to the flesh, and the second one is, according to the promise, what he's saying and according to the flesh is well. In Abraham's own strength, when Abraham grew impatient, you know, God had promised him to make him a great nation. Look at the stars. Count em. That's how many your descendants are going to be. Well, Abraham's the other than that, hasn't even had one child. So he gets impatient. He falls into the flesh. He ends up taking Hagar and having a son by her Ishmael. So in his own strength, he tried to do what he thought God could not do. But then he uses the phrase. Paul uses the phrase according to the promise. And when we hear that phrase according to the promise, let it be known. Let it ring in our ears, in the power of God. You see, Isaac was born after his father and his mother had ceased to be capable of becoming parents, they were older, way older, but he was born and the power of God, he was born according to God's promise and. Can we get down to verse 24 I don't know how many of you really paid attention in English class. He says, Okay, I'm going to I'm going to speak allegorically now. Well, what does that mean? What does allegorically mean? Hang on one second. Sorry, John. I'm not cold, but it was blowing in my microphone, so I was having to, I was having to do this, but I'd rather sweat than have to deal with that. What does allegorically mean? Okay, I'm glad you asked. An allegory is a story. It's a poem. It's a picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden message, a hidden meaning. So instead of Paul risking that the Galatians might miss what he's trying to say here, using the example of Abraham and his two sons, he point blank, explains to them what they need to take back from this illustration. And when he starts speaking allegorically, he talks about the women are the two covenants, Hagar and Sarah, two covenants. The first covenant for which Hagar stands is the covenant of works. Many believe that this covenant was given on Mount Sinai, amidst the wind, fire, smoke. However, I'm going to submit to you this morning that this covenant was giving given a long time before that, in a place that we know, called the Garden of Eden in Genesis 227, where God said to Adam, in the day that you eat from it the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall surely die. I believe that that's where the covenant really took off early on in creation. As long as Adam did not eat of the tree but remain spotless and sinless, he would live. And so Hagar stands for the covenant of works the law, and Sarah, on the other hand is the covenant of grace. Covenant of grace not made with God and man. Like the law. The law was a covenant between God and man. The covenant of grace was a covenant between God and who. Jesus, Christ. You see, it wasn't made with God and man. It was made with God and Jesus Christ. You see, the gov, the covenant of works, church, family. It says, hey, people do this and peacefully appease God, hopefully. But I'm here to tell you today the covenant of grace between God and Jesus, who we are the benefit beneficiaries of the covenant of grace. Says, Hey, Jesus, do this, and my people will live the difference in these two covenants. Rest on this right here. One was with man, the other was with Christ. One was a conditional covenant, conditional on Adam's standing right, standing with God. The other is a conditional covenant with Christ, but as perfectly unconditional with us, because Jesus paid it all. Can you imagine maybe y'all ever growing up by your kids, or whoever, the massive set of the Encyclopedia Britannica? I mean, like 40,000 tons of books that now look at that, you hardly see that right. Can you imagine, though, in the entitle Encyclopedia Britannica, which is a 30 volume set, the number of words that it took to write that must have been an awesome number, but but even more amazing is this that it only took 26 letters, 26 letters to write a 30 volume set. The authors did not have to go outside of the alphabet to assemble this massive collection of knowledge. It provided for them everything that they needed in one task, church, family, Jesus Christ Himself says, I am the Alpha and I am the Omega, the beginning and the end and we. Not have to go outside of him for anything that we need. He paid it all with a covenant of grace between him and his father. The covenant He has with God is everything, everything for all situations. And in verse 2925 we get to Paul talking about linking Hagar, a slave with the idea of enslavement to the law represented by Mount Sinai, where Yahweh gave his law to the Israelites in Exodus chapter 20. What does he mean by this? Why? Why is he linking Hagar, a slave, to this idea of the law being presented on Mount Sinai? Sinai? Well, notice this, Hagar was never intended to be Abraham's wife, right? Never intended to be Abraham's wife, and she should have never been anything but a servant to Sarah. Likewise, the law was never intended to save you. It's never intended to save me. It was only designed to be a servant of the covenant of grace. You see, when God delivered the law on Mount Sinai, it was an IT WAS apart from his idea that any man would ever be saved by it. The law was not meant to save but to satisfy. God never convinced that man could attain perfection by the law, and he says in verse 2025, for she Hagar is in slavery with her children. And then verse 26 he continues, but the Jerusalem above is free, talking about Sarah. You see, Hagar was a slave. Case you missed that. Hagar was a slave Ishmael, her son, Abraham's son. Through her, he was moral and he was good, and even at that, he was nothing but a slave and never could be anything more than a slave because he was born to a slave woman. It's the cultural times back then, nothing that Ishmael did or could ever do to or for his father could make him a free born son, but Sarah was never a slave. Never she might have been taken prisoner by Pharaoh, but she was not a slave. Then Abraham, her husband might sometimes deny her, but she was still his wife. So this allegory, the story that Paul is using the covenant of grace, might have seemed in jeopardy at this point in history, but it was, but it never was in real hazard. It never was in trouble. But you know, just like this fiasco between Hagar and Sarah and Ishmael and Isaac Abraham, sometimes we as Christians, under the covenant of grace may seem to be captives and slaves ourself, but we are still free because of the blood Jesus Christ used to pay our pardon. Don't let Satan convince you that you have to do anything. Your name has been written in the Book of Life possessed by God, the Father, as paid in full in the blood of Jesus, Christ and Satan doesn't have his hands on that book and will never have his hands on that book, and your name can never be erased from it. So don't let him convince you otherwise, because he says in verse 2728 you are children of a promise if we are God's children, it's it's not by our own strength, nothing that you could do, nothing, that you could say, nothing you could earn. It's not in your own strength you're God's children. But it is by the grace of God and the promise of God that we are what we are God's children. You see in the remaining in remaining on the cross, Jesus was saying there was nothing in all God's universe he could do to provide redemption for all he believed, for all who believed. This is the promise, I'm sorry I misread that, that Jesus would do everything within his power to provide salvation for everyone in the universe, for all who believe in church. This is the promise that gives us the grace of God to become children of God. The children of the promise. Oh, in verse 29 he Jesus, who was born according to the flesh, persecuted sorry. He Ishmael, who was born according to the flesh persecuted him. Isaac, who was born according to the Spirit. You see back in Genesis, Sarah found Ishmael, the the son of the slave Hagar, mocking Isaac. Ishmael showed how much he hated Isaac. He gave him personal blows and assaults and but there was a superior power to check him so that he could get no further than mocking. And when, when Paul uses brings this story back to the attention of the church at Galatia about the mocking that Ishmael gave to Isaac, he brings it back to them in a current situation, when he says, and it is now, your version may say, as it is now Church, let this story of Ishmael mocking Isaac the covenant of works, mocking, the covenant of grace. Let it serve as an indication of what we as Christians may expect, since we possess the God given life and or heirs to the promise, what is it that we expect? You know, those who are under the bondage of the law, who are not saved, they just can't love those who are free, born by the gospel, who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, and in some way or the other, they they soon will display that hostility toward a true believer. I'm not talking about hostility between the world and the church. I'm talking about that which exists between church people and those who are born of God. You see, church hurt, church issues, church problems, bickering. That's a real thing, mocking, that's a real thing and and I would argue that 99% of the time when those things come up, that those people who are causing church hurt either have forgotten the reason that we exist as a church, or they were never saved in the first place. They were never born of God. You see, true believers of Christ have suffered bitterly from the cool, cruel hatred of those who profess to be their very own brothers and sisters in Christ. So what do we do about this? Well, that's exactly what Paul is brings to the attention of the Galatians in verse 30, he says, but what does scripture say? Never do anything outside of the operation of Scripture. By the way, go to Scripture and see how scripture tells you to handle situations. He says, Well, what does the Scripture say? Does he say, make a compromise and be friends? No. Does he say, let Isaac and Ishmael live in the same house and share the same bedroom? No. He says, Scripture says, Cast out the slave woman and her son. Oh, gosh, that's harsh. You saying that people that that cause disturbances in the church, that continue to be hostile toward person after person after person that they need to be cast out of the church. That's what Scripture says. And see Jesus lays out a process for what we would call church discipline today, that when people who are not aligning themselves with the covenant of grace bring issues with the covenant of grace, they need to be dealt with. He says, Cast out the slave woman and her son, Isaac and Ishmael lived together for a time. The self promoter Ishmael and the believer Isaac in the promise. They may be members of the same church for years. They may be sitting next to you this very day, but they do not agree and cannot be happy together. Why? Because their principles are essentially opposed. You see, as the believer grows in grace and enters upon his spiritual adulthood, he or she will disagree more. And more with selfish church members, and it will ultimately be seen that the two have no fellowship with one another, because one's going to grow in Christ, and one's going to continue to grow selfishly. And as grievous as as parting may be, as church discipline and things like that may be, this is God's will. You see, church family oil and water will never mingle, neither will the natural man's religion of the world agree with that which is born of the promise and sustained by the promise, their parting will be the outward result of a serious difference that always existed. You can't mix worldly selfishness with the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So what happens to those like Ishmael, who are self promoters that need to be cast away? What happens? Well, Ishmael was sent away, but he got over it real fast. If you read his account, he found greater freedom with the wild tribes of the country that he ended up, where he soon became a great man. He prospered much and became the father of many different princes. He was in his element in the world. He had honor. He gained a name for himself. Now, often it happens that the religious, the religious man, the self promote motor, the church member who doesn't really know God. That causes hostility and problems. This person has many excellent habits and ways about him or her, and often times they have a desire to shine, promote themselves, they go into society, and they're appreciated and become very notable people. But let me remind you of a few words of wisdom. The world is sure to love its own. The love of the world will love its own. So that's what happens to people like Ishmael. What happens to people like Isaac, who are heirs to the promise believers, Christians, who are intentionally seeking God, to follow Him and to build up the church? Well, Isaac, Isaac experienced certain affiliations that Ishmael never knew about, and he was mocked. He was even laid on the altar for sacrifice by his own father, heir to the promise, huh? Nothing of the sort happened to Ishmael. You know, church, outwardly, and in this present life that you and I live, the heir of the promise did not and does not appear to have the best of it, do we? It's troubling, nor should this be expected. And Jesus said in John 1633, in this world, you will have trouble. He didn't say you're going to have blessings and and finances and fine clothes and cars and houses and all these you're going to have trouble. If you identify with me in the covenant of grace, you will have trouble. So in this present light, the air of the promise, we don't appear to have the best of the best. We shouldn't expect this either. Since we who choose our heritage in the future not the present. We choose the future, not the present. We have agreed and accepted trial in this present. And he closes out in verse 31 by saying, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. Church. This verse, in and of itself, summarizes Paul's argument in this section, based on this allegorical reading of Genesis 1617, and 21 through faith. Hear me say this, through faith, Christians are children of a promise, of the promise, just like Isaac, Christians inherit God's blessing to Abraham, apart from the law and hallelujah. For that, you gotta worry about the law. You get it without the law because of Jesus Christ. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to bring. The lamb up here once a year for sacrifice. You don't have to make sure that on certain days you don't use certain items. If you ever look at some of the Jewish people, I follow one of them on Tiktok, they talk about the things that they can and they cannot do on the Sabbath, and many of their appliances have a Sabbath mode that keeps them from using any electricity and so on and so forth. On the Sabbath, they have to prepare their meals beforehand. Talk about legalism, but you Christian, you don't have to do that anymore. You inherit God's blessing to Abraham, apart from the law through the blood of Jesus Christ. So let me ask you this as I close this morning, are you Isaac, currently? Are you Ishmael? Ishmael gained the world but lost the promise. Isaac gained the promise and lost the world. And those of us who are like Isaac, we, we are the children of the promise. We, we can't envy those who are heirs to this current life, even when their luck seems easier than your own right, you'll always be tempted to envy and be grieved by the prosperity of the wicked. But when you let yourself fall into this envy, you fall back from and even begin to doubt your spiritual choice, thinking things of, well, do I regret my decision to be saved? Do I regret the New Covenant? Moreover, how absurd is it for us to envy those who themselves need salvation through Jesus Christ. Why would you want to be like that when you have everything in Christ, the life of Isaac with its sacrifice than than that of Ishmael, with its sovereignty and wild freedom, is far better than anything this world has to offer. One day, all of this worldly greatness will soon be ended and leave nothing behind. As believers, we are nowhere near unhappy, right? We should be filled with joy, if, in this life we only had hope, if all we had was hope, we would be miserable indeed. And what do I mean by that? We have the promise. We don't have hope. We got the promise. We have a guarantee, an absolute, and it lights up our whole life and makes us truly blessed because of what Jesus did. You see God's smile seen by the faith in us gives us fullness of joy. Hallelujah. Put the believers life at the greatest possible disadvantage, paint it in the darkest colors, take away from it the only comfort but necessity. Not only comfort, but necessities. And even then, the Christian at his worst is far better than the worldly person at their best. So let Ishmael have the world. Let the world have itself. Give him as many worlds as he wants, and we will not envy him, but we still have a job, and that job is to take up our cross and to be strangers and foreigners in a land with God, with God, as all of our forefathers were. You see this, this promise, though it seems far off to others, by faith we realize and embrace and in it, we find heaven in the promise abiding with God and with His people. We count our lot far better than that of the greatest and most honored of the children of this world. But let me tell you something. Church, Jesus is coming again. He may call you to leave this world before he comes again. But then again. Scripture tells us that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night we don't. Know, even Jesus doesn't know when, only God, the Father, knows when it's going to be. So the prospect of Jesus's Second Coming and our own eternal glory and fellowship with Him, if you are a believer in the prospect of Jesus's Second Coming, or you being called home to be with him. This should be enough to make us content while we wait for him. So we don't worry about the Old Covenant. Don't worry about works and what we can do and can't do. We focus on what Jesus has done you.