Well, good morning. I invite you to turn with me in your copy of the Holy Scripture again to Galatians chapter number 4 this morning. Galatians chapter number 4. Anytime that we approach the Scripture, we employ some important rules of hermeneutics or Bible interpretation. Among those rules of Bible interpretation, there are these important rules. First, we read the Bible grammatically. That is, words and sentences mean something. They mean something in their literary context. What is the subject? What is the object? What is the antecedent? What do the words mean in relationship to the other words? We read the Bible grammatically. We also read the Bible historically. The people and the places described in the text are people and places that are part of a historical context. What was the culture in that place? What were the manners and the customs at the time? What are the geography and the genealogies and such? We read the Bible historically. We read the Bible grammatically. We read the Bible historically. Third, we read the Bible literally. We accept that under the direction of the Holy Spirit of God, the human author wrote what he meant and he meant what he wrote. We do not suppose that the scripture text has a different meaning than what it says or that it says something different than what it means. Perhaps you've heard the quip, if the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense. And that's how we approach the scripture. We interpret the Bible grammatically, historically, literally, and we may find many different applications of a certain text, but there is always and only one interpretation of a given text. On the other hand, over the course of history, some have adopted a different method of hermeneutics or Bible interpretation. They have employed an allegorical method of interpreting the scripture, claiming that the Bible is to be understood allegorically. Now we're familiar with an allegory. An allegory is a work of fiction that represents an unrelated reality. For example, We're familiar with John Bunyan's book, Pilgrim's Progress. And in Pilgrim's Progress, each part of the story represents something else. And like fables and like parables, allegories are forms of imaginary literature that teach a moral truth. However, no Bible text is intended to represent something other than what it teaches. And to interpret the Bible allegorically assumes that the Bible always has been and is now fiction. And to understand it, one must discover the hidden deeper meanings in the text and the secret truths behind the text. And an allegorical approach to Bible interpretation, it really assumes that God has hidden his message to us secretly behind the text or underneath the text. And it's up to us to crack the code and solve the riddle. And of course, only pastors can do that, you see. And so this allegorical method of Bible interpretation really began with the ancient Greeks because the absurdity of Greek mythology and religion was incompatible with Greek science and philosophy. And so Greek mythology and religion had to create a way to accommodate Greek science and philosophy and they were under pressure to explain their mythology and to explain their religion to an ever-increasing intellectual culture. And so they reinterpreted the tales of their mythology and the bizarre teachings of their religion allegorically. And so consequently, Jews in Alexandria, Egypt also adopted the allegorical method of interpretation of the scripture in attempt to make the Old Testament text compatible with Greek science and philosophy. For example, here are some examples using allegorical method of interpretation of the Bible. Some have asserted that the Euphrates River You're familiar with the Euphrates River, you read about it in the Bible. You see, the Euphrates River is actually not a river, but it's the outflowing of good manners is the idea. Another example, the journeys of Abraham from Ur to the promised land in the Bible is just a picture of a stoic philosopher who left his old understanding of the world and came to his spiritual senses. is how they would describe or explain that. Another example, the two coins given by the Good Samaritan to the innkeeper for the care of the man that he found near dead on the road to Jericho there, those two coins really symbolize baptism in the Lord's Supper in some way. Or here's my favorite. Pope Gregory the Great claimed that Job's seven sons represent the twelve apostles, which the seven and twelve, I kind of missed the connection there. Job's friends represented heretics, his 7,000 sheep represented God's faithful people, and his 3,000 camels represented depraved Gentiles. And so when we interpret the Bible allegorically, it really opens up to any individual the creativity of his imagination and the arbitrary and the absurd Bible understanding. The message of the scriptures becomes subject to each one's creativity. and is used to serve each one's motives or purposes. So, the method of Bible interpretation that we would assert would be a grammatical, historical, literal, normal, or plain reading of the scripture. We're careful to interpret the Bible that way, of course, always with the aid of the Holy Spirit of God, for the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. But I give you all of that introduction because This morning we come to a scripture text, Galatians 4 verses 21 to 31, where we're presented with an interpretive tension. And many people will argue that even the Apostle Paul himself employed the allegorical method of Bible interpretation in Galatians 4 verse 24. My new King James reads, which things are symbolic. the King James version, which things are in allegory. Maybe you're carrying the ESV. Now this may be interpreted allegorically, or the New American Standard. This is allegorically speaking, or the NIV. These things may be taken figuratively. So what is happening now, after all that I just said, what is happening here in Galatians 4, verse 24, or in the larger pericope, verses 21 to 31, I will tell you, And I will then show you, in fact, I'll tell you this, I've written it for you there at the top of your notes, in Galatians 4, 21 to 31, Paul is illustrating a truth, not interpreting a text. Paul is illustrating a truth, and we appreciate illustrations. Illustrations unlock for us understanding because of comparison. And I submit that in this scripture text, Paul is illustrating a truth, not interpreting a text. And so from Galatians 4, verses 21 to 31, I prepared a message titled, An Old Testament Illustration. Let me pause for prayer, and then we'll get into the scripture text. God in heaven. We do once again acknowledge that you are God and God alone, that you are God above all gods, and Lord, we behold you on your throne, and Lord, it silences us in awe and wonder, and we worship you. And God, now as we come to the scripture text, we want to be careful and diligent to rightly divide the word of truth So we ask for your assistance and your aid just now so that we might understand what your spirit gave the Apostle Paul to write to the Galatian churches. For we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Galatians 4, verse number 21, tell me. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you hear the law? Very well, Paul says. You say you want to live according to the law, but do you even understand what it teaches? You want to live under the law, but when you hear it, you don't even know what it means. Verse 21. Number one in your notes, the problem here, what do we do with the Old Testament law? The only scripture that the Galatian churches would have had before receiving this epistle, this letter from the Apostle Paul, was the Old Testament. And their problem was they didn't know what to do with the Old Testament as Gentile Christians. They didn't know how a Gentile Christian was to read and understand, interpret the Old Testament when the Old Testament was written to the Jews, not to the Gentiles. And perhaps you've wondered that yourself. Perhaps you know that all scripture is profitable, but you feel that the Old Testament, well, that's different. That's not as profitable as the New Testament. We know that the things that were written before were written for our learning. But what can we learn from some of the Old Testament, like the book of Leviticus? What value does that have for the New Testament Christian? And that was the problem. The Gentile Galatian Christians felt that they should live under the law, but they didn't know what to do with it. Their solution then was this, a Gentile Christian should become a Jew. And then when one becomes a Jew, the Old Testament and all of its laws could be imposed upon the Jew. But Paul had a different solution to the problem. And he illustrates that solution by referring to a passage of scripture in the Old Testament, in their Old Testament. And listen to what he says in verse 22. He says, verse 22, for it is written. It is written, where is it written? In the Torah, in the law, in the Old Testament, specifically Genesis chapters 16 to 21, that is the passage. Number two, the passage. There's a problem, what do we do with the Old Testament law? How do we read it? How do we understand it? How do we interpret it? The passage, Paul says, it is written, verse 22 again, for it is written, what? What is written? That Abraham had two sons, The one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh and of the free woman through the promise. Abraham was the great granddaddy of the Jews. And as the great granddaddy of the Jews, Abraham had two wives. He had Sarah, a free woman, and Hagar, a slave woman. Each of those two women, those wives, bore Abraham a son. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, and Sarah gave birth to Isaac. In the historic record of the Old Testament, Genesis 16 to 21 there, it is written, all right, Two sons were conceived of different mothers. Is there any dispute regarding that historic fact? No, it's well established that two sons conceived of different mothers. However, letter B, two sons were conceived in a different manner, in a different matter. First, Hagar conceived and gave birth to Ishmael. Verse 23 says, according to the flesh, that as many years after God promised a son to Abraham, Sarah was still barren. And you know this biblical history. So Abraham, fearing that his chief servant, the chief servant of his house, Eleazar of Damascus, would become his heir, his only heir, Abraham took matters into his own hands and he fathered a son through Hagar, one of Sarah's female attendants. And the birth of that son, Ishmael, was according to the flesh. not according to faith in God's promise. It was years later then, when Abraham was 100 years old, Sarah was 90 years old, that Sarah supernaturally conceived and gave birth to Isaac. And she didn't conceive supernaturally in the same sense that Mary conceived supernaturally, but she conceived supernaturally in that it was beyond the natural ability of Sarah at the age of 90 to bear a child. And truly then, Isaac was the son according to promise. But now look at verse 24. This is where we must be careful. These things were symbolic, my new King James reads, or these things, perhaps in your English translation, these things are an allegory. The Greek term here is allegoreo. from which we think of allegory. Okay, what does the Greek term allegoreo mean? It means a comparison. These things are a comparison. And so the denotation of that, the strict definition of that allegory means comparison. Of course, today, our understanding of allegory is more than that. Is Paul saying that there is a deeper secret, unknown interpretation of the events that literally took place in Genesis 16-21? No, I don't believe so at all. Paul is using the two sons of Abraham as a comparative illustration, not as a point of interpretation. Let me repeat that again. I think this is critical to our understanding of this text. Paul is using the two sons of Abraham, Ishmael according to the flesh through Hagar, and Isaac by faith and the promise through Sarah. These two sons of Abraham are a comparative illustration, not a point of interpretation. And so I would like to call this illustration the parallels. the parallels. Paul is giving us a parallel and he's going to use two wives and two sons to compare to two covenants from two mountains. Paul is going to use Abraham's two wives and Abraham's two sons to personify the two covenants from two mountains, which he had been comparing and contrasting throughout this letter. Look at verse 24. While these things are symbolic, I'm going to say an illustration For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. All right, so here's the illustration. Letter A, Hagar illustrates bondage. In Paul's illustration, Hagar personifies the Mosaic covenant, the law, given where? At Mount Sinai. Hagar's son, Ishmael, is paralleled with the sons or the descendants of the Mosaic covenant, those who are under the law. In Paul's illustration, bondage was birthed at Mount Sinai in Arabia. Bondage was birthed when the law was given. Mount Sinai is the geographical location where the old covenant, the Mosaic law, was given to Moses. And in Paul's illustration, bondage continues on to Mount Zion. Where's Mount Zion? That's Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the geographical location where the Old Covenant was upheld. Jerusalem was the capital of unbelieving Judaism. Jerusalem was the home and the headquarters of those enslaved by a religious system of law. So Hagar illustrates bondage, verse 26. But the Jerusalem above is free. which is the mother of us all, for it is written, rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear, let's say, Sarah. Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for the desolate has many more children than the one who has a husband. And so Hagar illustrates bondage. Letter B, Sarah, illustrates freedom. The spiritual descendants of Sarah through Isaac live in the Jerusalem above and are free, because she is our mother if we live by faith in God's gracious promise given to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So I may have lost you here, but perhaps I can recapture your attention and your understanding right now. The question for the Galatians wasn't, who's your daddy? Because they would all answer, Abraham, Father Abraham. The question for the Galatians is, who's your mommy? Is it Hagar, or is it Sarah? The right answer, of course, being Sarah. Father Abraham, through the promise given Sarah and Isaac and unto us, so that the spiritual descendants of Sarah through Isaac live in the Jerusalem above, verse 26. Philippians 3 says our citizenship is in heaven. Think of the Jerusalem above from which we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me give you a cross-reference here. It's not in your notes, but you can write down Hebrews 12, and I've projected some of it there before you on the screen. Hebrews 12 says, you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest. What is that a reference to? That's an obvious reference to Mount Sinai. You see, we are not coming to Mount Sinai. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, because Sarah is our mother by faith and the promise. Who's your daddy? Nevermind that. Who's your mother? It is Sarah through Isaac. And we stand by faith in that promise. Verse 27, perhaps it's formatted in your English Bible, indicating a reference to the Old Testament. It's a quotation from Isaiah 54, verse one, where Isaiah intended to cheer the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Here again, Paul is using that Old Testament text to illustrate, understand the illustration that the barren womb would be fruitful as God promised, as a matter of God's grace and not a matter of works. Abraham's son Ishmael was according to the flesh, work of the flesh. But Abraham's son Isaac was a fruit of faith and the promise that God would give a son to Sarah even in her old age. And the parallels that are being made here between Abraham's two wives and the Galatians problem really then is going to become razor sharp in these final few verses. And I know I've plowed quickly and perhaps this is hard to follow, but I would title these final verses then the point. Okay, help us understand the big idea or the point of the passage. And the point is we've been learning over these last many weeks is faith over works, grace over law. Verse 28, now we brethren, as Isaac was, our children, of promise. We just sang, we will stand as children of the promise. If you look ahead to chapter five, verse number one, stand fast therefore. This is the theme of Paul's teaching to the Galatians. Gentile Galatian Christians stand as children of the promise through Sarah and Isaac, not through Hagar and Ishmael. Verse 28, now we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit. Okay, understand the illustration here. The one who was born according to the flesh is Ishmael. Ishmael persecuted the one born according to the spirit, that's Isaac, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but we are children of the free woman. We are children of Sarah, if you will. The point, here's the point. Letter A, we are children of promise by faith. Folks, if you could transport yourself back to the first century among the Gentile Galatian churches and understand the Jews also in that same time and place prided themselves as being sons of Abraham. And although they were sons of Abraham, they were not all sons of Sarah. They had the right father, but they had the wrong mother because the conception of Mother Hagar was a work of the flesh and not of faith. And it is only those who come to God through faith in Christ as the sons of Abraham through Sarah is what makes one a child of the promise. That's what verse 28 is telling us. We are children of the promise. We just sang that hymn, and we're gonna sing it again before we're dismissed. After I'm done teaching here, we stand as children of the promise. On the other hand, those who attempt to approach God by their own works, by law, are sons of Hagar and are under bondage. So here's the big picture, the point. All through this letter, Paul is pressing the point of faith over works, grace over law. You say, okay, pastor, we get the point, right? We've been saying that for weeks and weeks and weeks. We get it, okay, good. But there's more. In Paul's illustration here, letter B, those of the flesh persecute those of faith. Ishmael, the son of Hagar, this is the illustration. The son of Hagar, Ishmael, persecuted the son of Sarah, or Isaac. And since that time, would you believe it, that the ethnic descendants of Ishmael have continued to oppose the descendants of Isaac. Folks, I hope you're understanding the connection here. This is none other than the Arab-Israeli conflict. that has existed for centuries, millennia, and is even a point of conflict today. At the same time, the spiritual descendants of Ishmael, those under law, have continued to oppose the descendants of Isaac, those of the promise by faith. And that was the conflict even at issue here among the Galatians. The same was true for them. And those in bondage to the law were oppressing those without law. Are you hearing me? So what do we do when those of the flesh persecute those of the faith, when the legalist imposes their law-keeping on the children of the free woman? And this is probably more than you expect. But here's what I'm going to suggest from verse number 30. We are to remove and reject the legalist. Now, let me remind you of what happened back in the book of Genesis. This is Genesis, again, 16 to 21. And you're familiar with this history. Abraham loved Ishmael. Abraham did not want to expel Ishmael. However, Sarah's desire and God's directive was that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. You see, the two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, they were incompatible and had to be separated. Folks, I cannot imagine the human consternation that surrounded the decision to send Ishmael and Hagar away. Think of the familial devastation that that caused, the hurt. I can't imagine Abraham having to choose his one son over his other. However, let me tell you Paul's point. Paul was instructing the Galatian believers that those who were free from the old covenant law by faith in Christ, Paul was instructing them to cast out the legalist among them for their method and their message was not compatible with the gospel of grace through faith. So what do we do with this? What does this look like for the Fourth Baptist Church of Plymouth, Minnesota? Let me conclude with chapter 5 verse 1, and cheat ahead just a bit, steal from our study next week. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. A very few of us feel the obligation to the ceremonial and dietary laws of the Old Testament, and we're very quick to dismiss the legalism of work salvation that was characteristic of the Judaizers in Paul's day. However, we do fall into a trap of our own. We know that we've been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, but we feel then the obligation to somehow, in some way, maintain our salvation and achieve our sanctification through many different points of Christian conduct. For if or when we fail to live up to that human standard that we have set for ourselves or has been set for us, we feel guilty, we doubt our salvation, we worry that we're not acceptable to God, and we try to correct the problem according to the flesh, which is exactly the error of Abraham back in Genesis 16 to 21. So Paul is saying, get this illustration here. These are historical realities that happen, but they prevent a great parallel, a great comparison to what I'm trying to teach you as an apostle, Paul says, don't be entangled with that type of thinking, rest in the grace of God, stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. And I hope that illustration, that picture, that comparison or parallel is clear. Now, for those of you, those of us, I'll include myself, some of us are nervous right now that I am teaching an antinomian philosophy that is no law, no restrictions, no standards, right? Just wait, because the secret to standing fast in God's grace is walking in the Spirit. And that's what's forthcoming for us yet here in this epistle. The theme of the following chapters here in this letter, the emphasis now in our study going forward over the next few weeks, we must walk in the Spirit. But before we can do that, we need to learn this first. My charge to us this morning, stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. Never mind who's your daddy, who's your mother? It's Sarah through Isaac. Stand fast in that liberty and in that freedom. Let's pray. God in heaven, thank you so much. for this illustration, Lord, anchored in the reality of biblical history. And Lord, the circumstances of Abraham and Sarah, of Ishmael and Isaac, Lord, present for us a parallel, an understanding that law and grace are incompatible. Lord, we're thankful for the grace that was demonstrated for us on the cross of Calvary. Lord, may we stand fast by faith in the promise that you have given us. Lord, looking forward, we do want to walk in the Spirit. Lord, we do want to be holy as you are holy. But Lord, may that all be according to the promise, not according to the flesh. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.