Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning comes from Galatians chapter four, verses 21 through 31. See if I can spit that out. Galatians four, verses 21 through 31. If you're using one of the Bibles supplied under the seat in front of you, you'll find that on New Testament page 149. Finishing Galatians four this morning. It is sometimes difficult, more difficult than at other times, to rescue a drowning person. I'm glad not to know this by first-hand experience, but I was trained in this. I know others who have been trained in this. Sometimes when the one who jumps into the water and swims out to where a person is in distress and evidently at risk of drowning, the one at risk of drowning will make things worse by seeking to cling to their savior in a way that is unhelpful. kicking them and pinning the arms to the side, and the one who is trained to save them can feel like, I wish you were unconscious, because the dummy I practice with is always unconscious, and it's a lot easier than this. If you would just go limp, it would be easier to save you. In fact, the training goes so far as to say sometimes you need to push this person away from you and see if you can get them to listen to you because they are in danger not only of drowning themselves, but you along with them, which won't do anyone any good, right? And so this panicked attempt to save the self is counterproductive, flailing about and dragging the Savior down with. You who want the lifeguard to save you, do you listen to the lifeguard? When they tell you, calm down, just relax. Let me do the work. I've paraphrased verse 21 there. For us, Paul is writing to those who are in somewhat of a panic to be saved. flailing about for anything to grasp hold of by which they might pull themselves up into God's favor. And he says, you who desire to be saved by the law, do you listen to the law? Because it will tell you how to be saved. And it's not by scrambling to save yourself. Before we read the passage together, let's go to God in prayer. Our Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all praises be to you in adoration. Grant that we should trust in your word and obtain by it true consolation. While we wander here below, until that day when we shall sing your praises yonder. We pray it in Christ's name. Galatians chapter four, beginning at verse 21, reading through the end of the chapter. 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 promise. Now this is 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, O barren one who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than those 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, so 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 the son of the free woman. So brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. Thus far, the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word. May he add his blessing to the reading and to the preaching of it. Paul opens with this admonition to listen to the law. He has had this report that these believers, Gentile believers in Galatia, are tempted by those who have come from Jerusalem to trouble them. They are tempted to give in to that teaching and to convert, to become Jews. Obviously, they can't become ethnically Jewish, but they can become religiously Jews and give over and submit themselves to the law of Moses. He says then to them, you who desire to be under the law, to bring yourselves under that administration, which you never were under before because you were not born to it, and now you're gonna voluntarily bring yourselves under it. Have you heard it? This thing you're gonna bring yourself under? Do you know what it says? He admonishes them, first of all, to listen to the law. The first thing that occurs to me that might be important for us to, as a question, for us to answer, is what does he mean by the law? Because the law can mean different things in different places. Sometimes the law refers to, quite narrowly, the legal requirements. Well, those things that you have to obey. But sometimes it really refers to the whole of the scriptures, as the New Testament writers have it, so to us the Old Testament. The whole of the Old Testament can be referred to as the law. Or sometimes just a division of the whole of the scriptures, and that would be the Pentateuch, the books of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament. The other two major categories then being the Psalms and the Prophets. What he means here, when he says, do you not listen to the law, is evidently to the books of Moses, to the Pentateuch. Do you listen to what Moses wrote? In other words, those of you who want to come under Moses, have you read what Moses wrote, those first five books? I say that because what he then refers to is narrative about Abraham's life. Doesn't appear so much in the legal requirements passages, but his narrative story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael and Isaac, all of these things appear in the law that he wants us to listen to. The law, that is the Pentateuch, teaches, according to Paul, Paul's gospel. That's what he's getting at. You want to come under legal restrictions that are written in the law? Have you listened to the law? Because it teaches you not to do that. So that would be rather counterproductive, even hypocritical. He's encouraging his readers, them and us, not to be under the law. When he says you who desire to be under the law, there he's speaking then of the legal restrictions, the law of Moses. The Judaizers, for lack of a better term, he doesn't refer to them as such in the book of Galatians, but that seems to be their message, is that you must become a Jew. The Judaizers quite obviously prided themselves on being sons of Abraham. And so Paul says, ah yes, but Abraham had two sons. Let's think about that for a moment. This, of course, was well known to the Judaizers, who naturally identified themselves with Isaac, from whom they were descended. They would have said, well, yes, but we are the children of Isaac, not the children of Ishmael. Ishmael was the result of desperate, flailing, counterproductive human effort, wasn't it? Oh no, what is going to happen? Look how old we are getting. The promise of God is obviously impossible. What are we going to do? How about something immoral? Maybe that will help. That is, Ishmael is the result of works. According to the flesh, Paul says in verse 29. Isaac, on the other hand, was the result of supernatural divine intervention. According to promise, Paul calls it. Born by the Spirit, he says here. That is, Isaac is the product of God's work where human flesh was of no help. It's the whole reason they had panicked earlier. It is according to divine promise, that is, Isaac comes by grace. And here's the contrast that Paul has been making all along and is just making by another way here. The contrast between works and grace, between the flesh and the spirit, between works and faith. So the law, That is this historical narrative that Moses wrote down for us concerning Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael and Isaac. It teaches the priority of God, the priority of His promise, the priority of God's work, not yours. The efficacy of God's work. as opposed to the heartache and the sorrows and the difficulties associated with inventive human effort. He writes to people that know this history really well. What happens when they try to make this work themselves? Not only does it not work, Abraham pleads with God, oh, the Ishmael might stand before you. God says, no, that is not what I said. It is not what I'm going to do. Your way is not my way. I am not going to bless it. I'll bless Ishmael because of you, but that's not where the promises are going to be fulfilled. Not only is that the case, but also there's all kinds of problems that result from it. I mean, these Judaizers, how do they feel about the Ishmaelites? They hate them. Oh, that Ishmael had never been born. Joseph was sold to who? Ishmaelites, who brought him and sold him into slavery in Egypt. I mean, they're just no good from start to finish. They know that, they feel that. This is what comes of inventing your own way. So that the law, Paul is showing, the reader here, the law teaches us that God's people are to look for blessing, they are to look to God in order to be counted righteous, in order to inherit according to the promise. In fact, he notes in verse 30, with respect to inheritance, it's been a major theme for some weeks now, this inheriting the promises given to Abraham. This panicked attempt by Abraham and Sarah involving Hagar in it, she didn't have much choice, to help achieve God's purpose. What happens with respect to inheritance? It doesn't come there. The slave woman and the son of slavery are cast out. Why? Because he will not inherit with the son of promise. That way of trying to attain to the inheritance doesn't work, won't work. God will ensure that it doesn't work. That, Paul says, is what you should have heard had you listened to the law. Prioritize God's work and his promise. Now, he also indicates we need to listen to the prophets, not only to the law, but also to the prophets, specifically to Isaiah in verses 24 through 27. In verse 24, Paul says, now this is interpreted allegorically. I'm slightly changing the way I have it here because the ESV translates it, now this may be interpreted allegorically. It doesn't make a big difference, but that's just a mistranslation. The Greek says this is translated, and they thought maybe that wouldn't make sense to us, or I don't know why this slight change to it, but Paul is referring to the writing of Isaiah. He's not saying you could if you wanted to, he's saying Isaiah did. interpret this allegorically. This is interpreted allegorically. By whom? Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which text he quotes from Isaiah 54, verse 1, as his 27th verse. For it is written, rejoice, O barren one who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband." What Isaiah is doing there is writing figuratively about the city of Jerusalem. As he wrote, it was then soon to be barren, like Sarah. He's writing about a city as though it were a woman, and he knows that his reader will call to mind this same history that Paul is making use of. Sarah was long barren. She was 90. And he's writing about Jerusalem by this figure, while Babylon, the mother of Israel's slavery, prospered. like Hagar, who despised her mistress. Remember, when Hagar saw that she had conceived, she despised her mistress. And so Isaiah's taking that and applying it in a figurative way to Jerusalem. Israel was soon to be taken into exile into Babylon, and Jerusalem would be left barren. That's like Sarah, the one to whom the promises were made is barren, while Babylon, who has enslaved the people of God, seems to prosper. But the tables would turn, wouldn't they? Just like they did with Sarah and Hagar. The proximate fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy was the return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile. But that return from exile was both instrumental for and indicative of the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through him and that he would be the father of many nations. Right? Israel coming back to Jerusalem was part of the historical necessity of bringing forth the Messiah who would fulfill the promises made to Abraham. They also indicated that that promise would be fulfilled. So if we listen to Isaiah, we get that same history made use of to make that same point, that God will save, God will redeem, God will fulfill his promise. It looks like Babylon has all the power now, but rest assured, God will restore. Now I noted that the Judaizers, of course, naturally think of themselves as the children of Isaac and not of Ishmael. So in addition to listening to the law and listening to Isaiah, we need to listen to the categories. Verses 24 through 28. Ishmael and Isaac may be looked at as categories here. but not genetically, rather covenantally. Paul's categories for Ishmael and Isaac are covenantal categories. And indeed, he focuses relatively little attention on the two sons. Rather, he says that these are two women, and the two women, verse 24, are two covenants. There is a slave woman. and there is a free woman. The slave woman in the one column corresponds to the covenant that came from Mount Sinai. That's the covenant that was administered through Moses, the covenant that was a covenant of law, and a covenant of works. And that is set over against then, though she is not named, Sarah. who is the wife of Abraham to whom the promises were given. So that over against the covenant of law is this covenant of promise. Then there are the children. The children born in slavery and born to slavery and the children of promise. One more contrast of Jerusalem's. These correspond to the present Jerusalem, as opposed to not the Jerusalem that will be, but the Jerusalem that is above. Interesting, isn't it? The contrast is not so direct. How forcefully offensive is Paul here? These who have come from Jerusalem to trouble the Gentiles. He says, now let's pay attention to the law. Look how Isaiah wrote about it. We have two women here, one's a slave, one's free. The slave woman represents a covenant that came from Mount Sinai. It's interesting, it's possible that he's referring here in verse 25 when he says, now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. There might be a play on words there. The name Hagar, In Arabia, that word means rocky or rocky place. Mount Sinai is a very rocky mountain and was, in fact, called by the Arabs, by way of preeminence, the rock. It's possible he's drawing the connection there between her name, Hagar, And the fact that the Arabs on the Sinai Peninsula refer to Mount Sinai as the rock, just saying that's who she is. She's Mount Sinai, from which comes this covenant of law. She bears children of slavery. Here's the last piece of, here's the last thing in this column of slavery and law and condemnation, Jerusalem. The Jerusalem that is presently. And he contrasts that with the Jerusalem above. There's a reason it's above and not the Jerusalem that is to come. It's also already extant in the present, it's just not here, it is above. He quoted from Isaiah 54. Of course, we are familiar with the chapter that immediately precedes that, Isaiah 53. Just a short couple of verses from it, verses four and five. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. The work of God for us. And the book of Hebrews lays much stress on the superiority of Christ. He is, in chapter eight of Hebrews, the superior high priest. And why? What makes him superior? Because he ministers in the true temple, not just the one that's a copy. Hebrews 8, verses 3 through 6. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. That is, they have to be Levites, which Jesus was not. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises." It's a better covenant, better promises, a better priest who ministers where? In the true temple, the one that is above, the one in Jerusalem is just a copy of. That's where the Levites minister. It fits with what was shown to John in the Revelation, 21 verse 2. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Now he mixes metaphors. This is the new Jerusalem, the city of God that comes down from God to his people. Not building it, we're just receiving it. And then he likens this to a bride that is adorned for her husband. And who adorns the bride? Who makes her beautiful and presents her to the bridegroom? Ephesians 5, 25 through 27, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Back to Isaiah 53. that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." So I've strung these together so that we can notice. From Isaiah, it's the suffering servant who accomplishes, who brings us peace. From Hebrews, it's Christ, who is the high priest, making sacrifice for his people in the heavenly temple, that heavenly temple that is part of the, from Revelation, new Jerusalem that is not built on earth by his people, but rather descends from above, having been adorned, according to Ephesians, by the washing and adorning of Christ, who presents his church to himself. In none of this are the recipients seen as slaves, as workers, as contributors. Rather, we are recipients and beneficiaries. We are heirs who receive an inheritance. Those are the categories that Paul lays out here, again, from the teaching of the law. Last, we listen to Paul, verses 28 through 31, as he makes application of this. In verse 28, Paul says, now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. Again, remember these Judaizers would identify themselves as children of Isaac. Paul has implied, no, you're sons of Ishmael, you're sons of Hagar, sons of slavery, as you submit yourselves to the law and hope to save yourselves by your works. That's all in line with Ishmael. Again, the category's not ethnic, it's not genetic, it's covenantal. And he addresses now these Gentile believers in Galatia, now you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. And you may have a different translation there. Perhaps your translation of verse 28 says, now we brothers, like Isaac. Sometimes I like to slow down and just pay attention to a textual issue, just so that when you hear the world suggesting that the New Testament is not reliable, Because there are more discrepancies among different texts than there are words in the New Testament, so you can't trust it, it would be good to have some idea, on a practical level, of what those discrepancies look like. What are we talking about? There's one here. There's actually very little evidence for the word you. Very few manuscripts have the Greek word for you. Now, you, brothers, like Isaac. our children of promise. The vast majority say we. Now the difference in Greek is one letter, the Greek is either hoomase or haemase. One letter looks like our English u, the other one looks like a lowercase n. So it's just the first letter in the word flipped upside down. And that's what makes the difference between Hēmēs and Hūmēs. One is you, one is we. Now, if Paul wrote, you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise, there's a real pastoral stress here, as he wants to address them very specifically and say, Here I've laid out general principles. I've laid out some teaching from the law. Now I just want to tell you, you are children of promise. I want to say very directly, I want to address your doubts and tell you, you are children of promise. That would be a good thing to say. That'll preach, as we say. If he wrote, we, Well, he's still saying that, isn't he? He's including them, but now he's included them with himself, who is a Jew. Now he's laying more stress on the fact that Jew and Gentile alike are children of promise through faith in that promise. It's faith in the promise that really matters, not whether you're a Jew or a Gentile. I'm a Jew, you're Gentiles, we together are children of promise. That'll preach. For the meaning of his argument and for the text, it makes how much difference in your estimation? Not much. Not much. And either will accord perfectly well with Paul's argument in the immediate context and with the teaching of the whole of scripture. So is it really a problem? Not really. Don't be overawed by assertions that there are all these textual variants and we don't know what the New Testament said. The vast majority of these discrepancies are of this kind of a nature or even less. Many of them are simply misspellings that are obviously misspellings. This way it makes sense, that way it doesn't make sense. or other things that are, it's really clear, it's really obvious that we can tell what happened. This manuscript has a line missing because two lines start with the same word and the copyist just skipped a line. Pretty clear that that's what happened in this one. And so we do know what the New Testament says. We need not be concerned about that. And I've already given them something of a exegesis of verse 28 there as Paul addresses the Galatians. Here's what you are. Here's what we are. We are like Isaac. We belong in that second category, children of promise. We are free. We are part of the covenant of grace because of God's promise and God's work. We're not born of Moses under the law. From Sinai, not according to the works of the flesh, not slaves, no, we're free, we're born. Through no effort of our own, nor any effort of your parents, it's the grace of God. And then he goes on from verse 28 in most of what's left in this chapter here to parallel the whole book of Hebrews, or much of it. to tell the Galatians, you can expect persecution. Don't be surprised by that. This is how it always goes. Those who are sons of slavery, those who pride themselves in the law, they have to find people to look down their noses at so they can feel good about themselves. And when you're not obeying the law like they think that you should, you're a convenient target. They're gonna look down their noses at you. They're gonna tell you you're wrong. They're gonna tell you you're not saved because you're not like them. And if they have it within their power, they're gonna make life difficult for you. Don't be surprised by that. Ishmael did it to Isaac because he was older and stronger and he could mock him. It's happening now with these Jews. who don't like it that you're being included without submitting to all of the Mosaic laws. Don't give in to their persecution. Not only should you expect persecution and not be surprised by it and not be discouraged by it and not be doubtful of your salvation because of it, but you should also know that The persecution actually serves as evidence that you are sons. They wouldn't hate you so much if you were just run-of-the-mill Gentiles who are pagans. They don't persecute them. They persecute you because you are included, because you are sons of promise, because you are sons like Isaac. Now Paul will move immediately to application. The chapter division here is poor. It really doesn't belong. Sometimes that suggests that we're moving on to a new idea now and Paul just isn't here. The first few verses in chapter five are integral to what he has to say here, but We can only fit so much into each week's sermon. This week we'll just get a little bit of a preview of what we'll be looking at next week as Paul applies this. Paul gives instruction not to give in to the pressure. Pressure to do what? Pressure to take matters into your own hands. His application is, do not even hear the suggestion. What suggestion? Namely this, you must do your part. Oh, we hear that in so many different ways. I immediately thought of three that I've heard in my recent or not so recent history. I taught on the solos of the Reformation at camp this past summer. And during the lesson on Sola Fide, by faith alone, I had a student who was respectful. He didn't want to disrupt class, but he wanted to make it clear that he disagreed with me that faith is a gift. That this is something that God gives to us. He specifically wanted to argue that faith must be our contribution. I mean, otherwise, God just does everything. We don't do anything at all. Right, exactly. That's exactly what I'm saying. I was not able to convince him. Faith is not the gift of God. It is our contribution. We must do our part. It was recently reported to me that someone heard from a friend, I am an Arminian and proud of it. I thought, well, there's the problem, isn't it? It's rare that someone will accidentally, you know, say the offensive part out loud. Your pride is the problem. That's the issue here. That's why you're an Arminian, it's because you're proud. Probably the most direct I've ever seen was on the marquee of a church building that I drove past when we lived in Mobile, Alabama. You know, with the movable letters they can put on the sign? It said, God has done his part, now you do yours. Don't panic is what I will say instead. Don't panic. Don't start flailing about desperate to do enough, to be enough, to get yourself out of danger. It's counterproductive. You're trying to drag the Savior down with you and he won't go. As one of the most forceful verses in scripture, at least to my mind, will say when we look at next week, Galatians 5 verse 2, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. You can't mix and match. It's one or the other. But it's easy to panic in this world, isn't it? It's easy to find ourselves a bit flustered, consumed, even, with things that alarm us. We're not even always aware that it's happening to us. And it doesn't always happen, or maybe almost never happens for you, in ways that are overtly religious, or dare I say, idolatrous. But let me ask you to let panic alert you to possible idolatry in your heart. Alert you to the possibility that the attitude that you have is that God can be trusted to forgive me my sins and save my soul, but fill in the blank. What about a husband? How am I ever going to find somebody? When is that ever going to happen? I trust God. I know my sins are forgiven. I know I'm going to go to heaven. But what about this? What if I fail the final? Just look at what's happening to this country. What about that? What about my grandchildren? What if it's cancer? Those things, I think, seem perfectly rational to us, which is a sign of our danger. That it seems perfectly rational to us to say, yes, I trust God, absolutely, no question. I know I'm saved. He who did not withhold his own son from me will not withhold from me anything that is good for me." Yes, absolutely. But what I'm really concerned about, whatever this is. I mean, think of Abraham's concerns. Don't they sound exactly like that? I trust God, absolutely. How could you doubt that I trust God? I left my home because he just said to. Go to somewhere, I'll show you when you get there. I did that. But I don't have any children. There are real concerns in this life. I'm not saying there aren't. And we are called to responsible action. We'll probably talk about that next week. But for now, let's just admit how easy it is for us to become like Peter on the Sea of Galilee. Taking our eyes off the Savior out of concern for the storm that rages around us. And what happens? It's counterproductive. We focus on the storm and the storm threatens to swallow us. and will swallow us if we don't look again to the Savior Jesus knows. And God is in control. And all things must be subservient to your salvation. All things work together for good to them that love God, or rather are loved by him. And nothing can separate us from the love of God. to labor with confident eyes fixed firmly on him is good." Peter on the sea, God commanded him to come, right? Peter said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. Jesus commanded him to come. Peter did not say, cool. He took off his clothes, he stepped out of the boat, and he walked. To labor with confident eyes fixed firmly on him is good. To distrust him, even without noticing, and even begin to panic about the things that are concerning all around us, becoming desperately afraid and energetically self-reliant, Well, that's just utter foolishness and the sin of unbelief. You brothers are, like Isaac, children of promise. Therefore, let us trust in the promise. Heavenly Father, thank you for your great goodness to us. A goodness that is beyond our desert, more than we can understand. A goodness that is deeper and richer and sweeter than we will know in this life. A goodness that more than covers over all of these things that concern us. Wouldn't Paul write to the Corinthians? These present afflictions are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. They seem so immense and so horrible. They can fill all our vision. We ask that you would fill all our vision instead. Your glory, your honor, your trustworthiness, and the glory of your promised inheritance that is already ours and that we cannot lose. Make us testaments to your grace as we live amidst the persecution of this world of sorrows. We pray it for your glory and our good. In Jesus' name, amen.