Father we thank you for your word this morning, and I pray that you would speak to your people through it Lord in spite of me Lord, I pray that through your spirit that you would demonstrate to us more of who you are that you would Reveal yourself to us Lord and we know that that's your desire. That's what you want to do You're not hiding and we thank you for that and father we We come now and we recognize that in each of our lives We have ears that are stopped up in some ways and eyes that don't see well in some ways Lord and we are asking for just a little bit bigger Field of sight and that we might hear better and Lord we get in the way of those things because sometimes when we listen to your word We want to hear what we want to hear. I'm going to pray that you would guard us from that this morning Lord Thank you for your graciousness to let us come together It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen You turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 4. That is where we are. Some of you haven't been here before, so the rules are like this. You can interrupt me. You can say something. If you raise your hand and you're sitting toward the back, I will probably ignore you, but it's only because I didn't see you. Well, Galatians 4, we're going to begin where we left off last week, in verse 16. We'll talk about that a little bit more, and then we'll go further, Lord willing. Galatians 4, 16, Paul says, And we talked about that last time. Now, we know, just as a recap for us briefly, that Paul has labored and toiled, and he has rebuked, and he has pleaded with the Galatian believers that they would stop thinking that they would be acceptable to Christ by obeying the law. That there was something that they could do to add to Christ's perfection in what he had done so that they would be more perfect in God and be more acceptable to God. And Paul has labored and pleaded and begged, don't think that way because if you think that way you have no part in Christ. That's what he is saying. Well, when Paul comes then to this verse, before he gets here, we studied this last week, he gives his personal testimony in terms of his relationship with the Galatian believers. And even in physical ailment, how it is that they loved him and they treated him as though Christ himself had come and delivered the message of the gospel to him. He reminds them of that, their love for him. But then these false teachers, these Judaizers, had come in and they had turned them away from him. And now Paul, who was their father in the faith, who had worked and labored among them, now Paul is being considered their enemy. And this is what he asked, Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? And this verse strikes me because if you have walked this walk for very long at all, you will get yourself into a situation where telling someone the truth makes you their enemy. If Christianity does not ever put you in the position of being at odds with someone, then you should question whether or not what you have is Christianity. It'll do that. It'll be the greatest blessing in some people's lives that you're around, but it will also be some of the greatest curse in terms of relationship because telling people the truth always draws a line, right? Because in our world, we don't want to think of truth as being objective. Truth is something for you, and what is true for you may not be true for me. And when we assail that, and we say, no, there is objective truth, and it's found in Jesus Christ, and it's revealed in the scriptures, when we do that, then it causes problems. And the Lord Jesus told us that it would, right? So, we understand that. So, when we tell people the truth, it can cause us issues. But what kinds of issues? Well, I want to be clear, and I don't want to belabor this too much, but at the same time, this is not just a matter of, I'm out on the street, or I'm downtown, and I'm talking to somebody, trying to talk to somebody about the Lord, and they don't like it, and they don't want to hear it. It's that, but in this case, of course, it's far different than that, because these are people that Paul lived with. He spent years and months with them, even when he was very sick. And when he would get to where he wasn't so sick anymore, then he would preach the gospel to them. And there were a lot of response there in different places there in that province of Galatia. It wasn't just a matter of being persecuted a bit for evangelizing on the street, but it was an issue of spending his life with these people and then them turning on him. Paul is concerned about these folks. He's concerned about these folks. But we're going to look in the next few verses, we're going to understand how he's concerned about these folks, and we're going to understand it in the right way. Paul is concerned in the right way. What do I mean by that? Well, let me set up the next few verses. The first thing is this. He is a human, and so there's natural hurt that there is rejection of the gospel and rejection of the labor that he put there with these people, right? There's going to be some of that, but that's not the primary thing. The primary thing is that they rejected Christ. The primary thing is that the glory of God is at stake, and that a false gospel is being proclaimed among these people, and therefore it's going to be spread. And that's his first concern. Not that he's not emotional about it. But I find in my own life a lot of times what happens is when I spend time with someone and I try to disciple and I try to bring them up into truth, when we work with people in the church and then what happens is that they turn on us, that becomes a very personal thing, almost to the point that it's personal for me and I may be more concerned about their rejection of my relationship than I am about their rejection of Christ. That's dangerous. Because then it becomes about personality. And these next few verses are about that. Verse 17. They, that is those false teachers, they make much of you for no good purpose. They want to shut you out that you may make much of them. What is this making much business in the ESV? I don't want to listen to that. But I know what it is. Okay. Making much. This is a little bit hard to get a handle on, but what we'll say is that attention is what this is about. Human attention. Perceived concern that someone is lavishing upon people. The idea that someone is coming and paying a specific amount of attention to a particular group and trying to build them up and things. And what Paul is telling us in verse 17 here is that these folks, they're making much of you. They're acting like that they love you. They're acting like they're concerned about you. They're spending a lot of time with you. But it's not for a good purpose. Why? Because they want to shut you out. Well, that's not a good purpose, but why do they want to shut you out? So that you can make much of them. All of you have been placed in different spheres at times, but we're all to be in discipleship sorts of relationships, and you may find that in the church, and you may find that in your jobs, and you'll certainly find that in your families, and you may find that one-on-one with people. And the thing is, is that from the outside, when we look at those things, they can look really good. And in fact, they should. But sometimes, we can enter into ministry for the wrong reason. We can enter into ministry because look at me. I have so many people on my discipleship list. Look at this progress that this brother or sister has made based on my tutelage, my ability to teach them and their following along. And this is really dangerous, particularly when you have someone who are telling someone the wrong things, right? So these folks are affirming all of the things that these Galatian believers want to believe anyway, right? Because everybody wants, everybody's got this little legalist running around inside of them, so this is easy work. Do you understand that the false teachers, any kind of false teacher has an easier job than you'll ever have if you're going to teach the truth? You do understand that, right? You may never, it might not have occurred to you, but teaching false things, by definition, that's going to appeal to a person's flesh. That's what false teaching does, that's what false gospels do. So when you, when someone is telling you something like, come to Jesus and you'll get rich, and he'll fix your life, and he'll fix your marriage, and he'll fix your health, you'll get money, all of those things, is that like hard to sell? It's not hard to sell. It's easy to sell. It's a lie, but it's easy to sell. These guys are coming and they're saying, look, we're going to have this symbiotic relationship. It's going to work like this. We're going to pay a lot of attention to you, and we're going to stroke you, and we're going to tell you what good people you are, and we're going to give you some rules to follow, and if you follow them, we're going to pat you on the head and tell you how good you are. And for doing that, you're going to turn right around, and you're going to tell us what great teachers we are, and you're going to provide our living for us, and you're going to give us a high exalted place within the community. You're going to do all those things. That's what this is. That's what this is. Paul contrasts that in verse 18 by saying, it is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you. What is he saying? There's a difference between someone having a godly concern and a desire to glorify the Lord in a relationship with another person. and making much of a person and going after them and seeking their well-being, then there is flattery and entering into relationships so that you can get something for yourself. And the way that we know that is the end of this is not only when I'm present with you. Paul says, act like what I said was worth something when I'm gone. Right? It's like what all parents want, right? Parents train their children. They want them to behave a certain way. They want them to believe things. But the test of that is not when mom and dad are sitting there watching the kid, right? And there's going to be immediate consequences or immediate steering away from whatever's bad because they're right there with them. But what they're trying to do is they're trying to train their kids so that when I'm not there, you do what you're supposed to do, right? I mean, that's the idea. Paul's saying, you guys, it's good to have these relationships. It's good to have these discipleship relationships. And fellowship is all through the scripture, so we're not going to take anything away from that. But there can be a twisting of that and a sickness. And what Paul's addressing here, so we've been dealing with law and false gospel and all that stuff now. He comes to here and Paul's not here because God's called him other places. God's called him to do other things. He can't just stay there with the Galatians forever because God has other things for him to do. But the Galatians, rather than relating to Christ through his word, rather than encouraging each other in the truth, have bought into false teaching, because we've got guys in here who sound really good, and they come in and they make a lot of... they pay a lot of attention to them, and they give them compliments, and they say, you know, you guys are just awesome, you just need to do these other few things in order to be perfect for Christ. Look, we need affirmation and we need encouragement, and I want to be clear about that. But the way that you will know, as this ESV translation puts this, whether you are being made much of for a good purpose or whether you are making much of someone else for a good purpose, is that when the time comes, that not only is there encouragement, not only are there loving words said, and there should be a lot of that, but when it's necessary, there's also rebuke and there's also challenge involved. Because that's what fellowship does. We can't be a club of people who sit around telling each other how wonderful we all are because that's not going to help anybody. And besides that, we know it's not true. Yeah? Paul says, go back to where you were. Go back to where you were. Now, 19. My little children, for whom I am again in anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, I wish that I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. This phrase, my little children, give you a little bit of a quiz. You can think about this. My little children, what disciple talks like that? Good. John talks like that. He says that a lot. Paul doesn't talk like that very often in his epistles. He doesn't. In fact, I think this is the only place. He is so concerned about these people and so concerned about the ravages of this false gospel, that again, he is pleading with them. And you see, sometimes I myself miss this point. I can become really, really frustrated and angry with somebody who I've spent a lot of time with, or a group of people who I've spent a lot of time with and poured a lot into, and yet they won't do anything with it. And I can become pretty hard about that. And the Lord needs to work in my life. He needs to work in our life, because it's real easy to cut people off. Paul eventually gets there in some circumstances in Scripture. But in this case, he's not again offended predominantly because they have rejected him. Okay? And that's important. You have to get yourself out of the way to be able to do this gospel ministry thing very well. Because if everything is about you, the offenses that come will be so significant that you won't be able to get past them in order to do your job. You gotta let it roll off. And that's our example. Not that it didn't personally hurt Paul that his relationships were broken. He was a man. But at the same time, this was about far more than just a broken human relationship. And as he is in anguish for these people. What does he mean? I'm again in anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Gosh, there's a lot that we can say about that. Let's start this way. This is not I've got this wonderful message. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Pray this prayer after me and come into Christ and we'll dunk you and you can get wet and everything will be cool. This is not that, right? These people already are wanting to do things like that. That's the problem in Galatia right now. That's the problem. Paul, even in writing this letter, is laboring and grieving and toiling and working for these people. And I think, though it's not explicitly said here, I think that a great deal of his labor for these Galatian Christians is going to be on his face before God in prayer. I think that's where that starts. Because Paul recognizes, even though I am Paul the apostle, I'm not God and I can't save anybody. And so he is laboring over these people, saying what he can say, telling the truth, risking personal relationships, and at the same time pleading with God to give him wisdom, pleading with God to use his spirit to work in these people's life until Christ is formed in them. And there's a reality there so that false gospels don't sway them anymore, and so that they don't run to and fro with every wave of doctrine that floods over them, but that they get solid in the joy of Christ. That's what he's wanting. And sometimes we just look at this transaction whereby someone is saved as just the signing of a card or the jumping through of a hoop. When the reality here is that sometimes it doesn't, a lot of times it doesn't work that way. There's work that has to be done. When you read the old Puritans, when you read the old revivalists, they would work and they would plow and they would deal with people. They would continue to deal with people now God can't save someone quickly. I'm not saying that that's impossible but what I'm saying is is that a set of words or Affirmation of an idea or intellectual assent to something is not equal to salvation Paul recognizes that He wants Christ to be formed in them. He wants this to be the real deal. And then 20, he says, I wish I could be there with you now to change my tone, because I'm perplexed about you. Literally, I am at my wits end. I have thought of everything. I have cried the tears. I have begged God. I have stayed up, communing with God, being concerned about you people. I don't know what's left. I wish I could be there to deal with you face to face. That's what he's saying. Now, what do we learn there? Well, there are several things, but for us, I think the biggest thing is that Becoming involved in people's lives is necessary for gospel ministry. And the pains and the joys and everything that goes with that has to be on a personal level. It would be nice if we could just hand somebody a tract and say, go do what you want to do with it. Sometimes that may be all the opportunity we have with someone, but if someone is interested, if someone is hungry, we have to stay with that situation. And it's not sometimes easy. It can be really beautiful, but it's not sometimes easy. And the concern that Paul demonstrates for these folks is the same concern that we are going to have to demonstrate for those people who we are giving the gospel to. When we do the Backyard Bible Club thing, I'm not saying that it's easy to go those five nights and get the kids together and plan some games and some refreshments and do the Bible teaching. That's not easy. And I commend all of us for doing that, but the hard work is yet to come if we're going to do that right. And some of that hard work is going to be personal one-on-one stuff, and some of that hard work is going to be some of you guys in your closet about these things. And the issue is that Paul cares that much about these folks. Now, we just want to have that attitude. We want God to work that out in us so that we have that attitude. I can be so hard sometimes that the reality is, well, you heard the gospel, you didn't want it, I'm moving on. There's a time to move on, but let's be sure that we're not moving on because we don't care and because we don't want to get involved. All right, we have to shift gears for verse 21, because Paul is, after dealing with the Galatians on his personal level, and after pleading with them once again and telling them about his heart, it's amazing to me, he shifts gears here, and now he's going to get hard again. Not hard in the sense that he doesn't care about them, but he's going to go right back to his point. And his point, we're going to deal with these scriptures verse by verse, but I'll just remind you, his point is that salvation is by faith. That the reality is, is if we boil it down to the nth degree, God is holy, and you're not, and you need to be rescued. and that your sanctification works the same way that your salvation worked, that those two aren't any different, that it's all dependent upon Christ and His work in us. And so when he comes to 21 and he starts this again, he says, tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you listen to the law? And he's talking to a specific group of people. He's talking to these Galatian believers who have bought into this false gospel that not only do we have to believe in Christ, but we have to follow the law. We have to do the ceremonies, and we have to do the feasts, we have to do the dietary stuff, circumcision, all of that. We have to do those things. Tell me you who want to obey the law. But now we have to ask the question, when we look at that first verse, Do we fit in there? In other words, is that to us? Now, I know in the general sense all of Scripture is to us, but I mean personally. Tell me, you who want to obey the law. So, are there any of us here who want to obey the law? Are there any of us here who want to be justified before God on the merit of what we ourselves are able to do? I would say yes, yes, all of you, to some degree. Right? Why is that? Because based on the scripture that we know, right, that doesn't make any sense. Maybe it doesn't make any sense, but the reality is that's just how we are. We want to earn it. We want to be the folks who can say, God, when you look at me, you ought to love me a little more than the guy standing next to me because of how I perform. Really, that's how we are. And you say, well, I don't know about that. Well, OK. Let's come at it another way then. There is a certain standard of morality that you hold yourself to, and if for the most part you meet that standard of morality, then you think that God should be happy with you. There's a certain way that you treat your family, treat your husband, treat your wife, and you think that if you meet that standard, then God should be happy with you. And if you don't, then it's a problem. See, we missed something. I've been waiting till here to deal with this, and so we may just finish four this morning, but it's this. It's difficult for us to get a handle on, how is it that this works then? How is it that if I'm supposed to look like Christians and they'll know me by my fruit, And all of those things, how does that work at the same time that it says that I'm not saved by any of that stuff? How does that work? Well, we've talked about that again, but we need to make that clear. Because we don't want to be these people that he's asking this question to. You who want to obey the law. So how does that work? And it works like this. There are several categories of folks, but let's just bring it down to a couple or three. There are people who obey the law and rely on the law. So there are people who do their best to do what they're supposed to do based on the New Testament. They don't cheat, lie, steal, don't cuss, all that kind of stuff. They do those things and they rely on that in order to make themselves acceptable to God. And you usually can tell if you're one of those because you're usually fairly arrogant, at least in some areas of your life, and you're usually pretty judgmental with all of the folks who don't meet the standard that you have created. Then there's another group of folks who they don't keep the commandments, but they still rely on the law. And these folks are a contradiction to themselves because they believe that in order to be acceptable to God, they have to keep the law, yet they know they don't. These are usually fairly guilty folks, honestly. And what happens with them is that in any case, again, where they do sort of measure up, or at least better than someone else, they're judgmental. But also the issue is that these are the folks who just think that there's this cosmic scale in heaven. And if more of my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, then God will accept me. And I'm always kind of worried about that. So I break the law down in such a way so that it says less than it really says. And then there's Christians. And we all can have some of those two in us. And then there's Christians. Christians are people who want to obey the law, but they don't rely on it. Notice how I termed that. They want to obey the law. I don't mean the Jewish ceremonial law and those things. We're talking about moral law at this point. They don't rely on it. They have a father-son, father-daughter relationship with the God of the universe and they love him and therefore they want to do what it is that would please him. they recognize that they can't do anything that would actually make them acceptable to him because he's so great and he's so glorious and he's so wise and he's so awesome and they wouldn't even approach it like that but they just want to be near him and they want to be like him and for the joy of those things they want to do what it is he wants them to do. You see the difference? There's a bunch of difference there. They don't rely on it, because they know that even in their best trying, that it merits them nothing, that Christ has all the merit that there ever has been in the universe, and if anything else, or anyone else has any, it's because He gave it to them. And so the reality is this. If you're a believer, understand that, yes, we can tell that you're a believer because you love the Lord so much that you want to think like he thinks. You want to hate the things he hates. You want to love the things he loves. When you fall, you respond to that in repentance and faith. But you don't rely on your performance before God. Now, the problem in the Galatian church is that these other two things had entered in, right? Oh, they talked about faith. This is the problem with false teaching, by the way. They use our words, but they don't mean the same thing that we mean when we say them. Yes, you have to believe in Christ. Certainly we believe that Christ died for our sins. All of these false teachers would have said that. But you're not a true believer. You're not going to reach the highest echelons of heaven if you don't obey the law. If you don't obey the law. So, we ask the question that we started with again. Tell me, verse 21, you who desire to be under the law. Don't desire to be under the law. Get a clear picture of that. Don't want anything for yourself. that you earned, because all you have earned is an eternal hell. But what Christ has earned for you, that's what you want to focus on. Now, tell me you who desire to be under the law. You do not listen to the law. And then he goes into this whole thing. So let's just read it. 22, 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 to the promise. Now, this may be interpreted allegorically. By the way, I find that odd, because this is really not an allegory. But anyway. I think this is a translation issue. I mean I get what he's what's being said here, but It's just a picture that God has shown Paul out of the scripture This is not in any sense a story that was told to mean something else. It always meant this you know, I mean so These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar, 25. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. And 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. And you brothers, verse 28, now you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. Let's stop there. So you know the story. God told Abraham, you're going to have a son. I'm going to make your descendants as many as the sands on the seashore. Even though Abraham was an old man and his wife was an old woman and they were well past childbearing age. And besides that, Sarah had been barren her whole life. You're going to have a son. Well, in the process of time, Abraham wavered in his faith. and listened to his wife who told him, basically, I'll just paraphrase the whole thing, this whole thing is impossible and besides that it seems to be taking a long time. So let's work this out another way and maybe God will bless it. So you take my handmaiden, my slave girl, Hagar here, you take her and have a son with her and maybe that would be the son that God would be pleased to bless. In other words, God told me he had a plan, but he didn't seem to be working it out too good, so I'm going to help him a little bit. The child of the flesh in that scripture. This is Ishmael, child of flesh, child of Hagar. Yet nonetheless, God does keep his promise to Abraham, and Sarah does bear a son, and his name is Isaac. Child of Promise. So, throughout all this portion of the text, what we need to be thinking about is, what's of the flesh, what's of the promise, the law, what I can do, all of my moral superiority, all of my willpower, all those kinds of things. Not that God didn't give me willpower, but still, all of those things that I am able to do to justify myself before God, that's all on the flesh side. The promise side is this is what the Lord of the universe has said and therefore he will do it. And I don't have anything to do with that except that I'm the beneficiary of that promise. So he's saying here. When we go through this, let's go back up to 22. Abraham does have these two sons. We've told the story. The one born according to the flesh and the one born according to the promise. Then when we get here, we see that this would have offended 25. That's what I was looking for. This would have been very offensive. You get what Paul is saying here. This doesn't impact us the same way that it would have impacted some of these Jewish folks. But if you tell Jewish people, Jewish believers, that the reality is that the law you follow What I'm going to compare that to is the slave woman and her child that Abraham has that wasn't part of the promise. That's what I'm going to compare you to. You need to understand that that's very offensive to these kinds of folks. Right. This was not something that they would have just read and said oh yeah I get that. Yeah OK I get that. Wait what are you saying about me. You know that would have been the response. You can't you can't talk like that about me. It's just like in Jesus's time. said we are the children of Abraham. And what did the Lord tell him? God could raise up out of these rocks children of Abraham. But they were really really tight on We need to be Jewish. Of course, I've said this a time or two, but I'll just mention it again today. There are movements within evangelicalism and Christianity who are attempting to bring some of this Jewishness back. And I'm certain that there are brothers and sisters within those movements. But I will also tell you that they are very dangerous. Stay away from them. Because what happens is when you start getting to the place where you're doing pretty good because you trust Christ, but you need to do these other things, it's dangerous. Right. So you're from Mount Sinai and the other and also the present Jerusalem. So he's saying all the Jews in Jerusalem they're children of the flesh not children of the promise. The Jerusalem above is free. She's our mother. He quotes the scripture out of Isaiah where it says that This barren woman is going to have more children than her who has a husband. It's important for us to understand that God's means for accomplishing His purposes in us don't generally come out of our ability to do things. So He uses our talents and gifts, don't get me wrong. But we have to always understand that first of all salvation is a miraculous supernatural thing But then secondarily or we shouldn't even say it that way in addition to that the Christian life is a supernatural thing Stuff happens in Christian in the Christian life That shouldn't happen Normally right you understand that I mean this is not something that comes out You can follow A to B to C to D if we just do these things. I mean, that's kind of law thinking, right? If I do this and I get this out, you know, it's all the whole, when you work on computers, it's garbage in, garbage out. we can do some of that we can follow some of those lines but mostly the reality is is that if if we being who we are in the flesh can be changed in such a way so that God can use us to bring glory to himself that's supernatural that's that's not a small thing that's a big thing so 28 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. Flesh will always persecute spirit. Flesh will always persecute spirit. What does that mean? Supernatural work of God in a brother's life or a sister's life. will always be challenged by people who are in the flesh, who are not experiencing that supernatural work. Mostly because they're afraid of it and they don't understand it, but then also because it challenges their ability to think, well, I'm a Christian and have you ever been accused of this? You're trying to act like I'm not saved. Don't say nothing about your salvation. I was off over here talking to this guy. And I just came back and I tried to tell about how it was I was talking to this guy and what the Lord taught me through that. And now you come at me with, you're trying to act like I'm not saved? I didn't say anything about you. The reality is, is what happens there is that God working in someone's life, it challenges that flesh thing. They don't like that. And of course, we can be on the other side of that, too, right? So you can be walking in your flesh, and you can see God working in a brother or a sister, and God raising them up a little bit and getting some glory out of their life, and you can say, ah, you're not all that. You don't know. You don't know. I mean, you've not been through anything. And worst, worst, is that it's a principle in Scripture, worse for our flesh anyway, it is a principle in Scripture that God always uses the weakest, most pitiful thing in order to accomplish His purpose, right? And that always irritates people who want to live in the flesh and obey the law. It will always irritate them. It's think of the parables that Jesus told many of them. Many of them referred to this right. Particularly you know you talk about those two sons the one who went and spent all his inheritance and he comes back and the father welcomes him with open arms but that that son who had been there the whole time doing exactly what he was supposed to do taking care he's mad and won't come in and doesn't want anything to do with it. That's law. That's flesh. That's what that parable is about. so 30 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 now I gotta be honest when I read the scripture When I read there the story in Genesis, this account of Ishmael and Hagar, I don't know about you, but I just have to be honest. I read that account and say, this doesn't look very fair to me at all. I mean, I do get the part about Abraham not believing in God and listening to his wife and doing the wrong thing. But how in the world is that Ishmael and Hagar's fault? And why does that have to look that way? This is why it has to look that way. See, everything has its fulfillment in Christ. Everything has its fulfillment in Christ. And it has to look that way because Paul, thousands of years later, is going to make the point that the child that was created out of flesh, the child that was created because of human devices, is cast out. You want to be the children of promise. You want to be the children of, God did a work. I didn't have anything to do with it. God is still doing a work. And even in spite of me, he's giving glory a lot of the time. That's the way that I want to look at it. We want to be the children of promise. And God says that we are. So this brings up The last thing that we'll say for this session, and it is this. Are you a child of promise? Are you a child who is free in Christ? Or are you a slave? Does Christianity feel more to you like bondage and like a bunch of rules that you have to obey? Or is it the most joy and peace and satisfaction and love that you've ever experienced in your life? And the thing is, the difference in the way that you will look at it shows you just about where you're at. And even in our own lives, the reality is that sometimes we kind of fall in and out of this thing, right? But through God's grace, we're always brought back to you. I'm here because I want to be, not because I have to be. I come and be with brothers and sisters and sing and hear the word of God, and I preach the gospel, and I share, and I pray, and I'm in the word, and all those things. Not because it's going to make me more acceptable to God and a really good person, but guess what? I do it because I like it. God has changed my heart, given me a new nature, and I like it. And that is so foreign to most people. So you are not, when you're preaching the gospel, this is what the Judaizers made their mistake. This is where the false gospel was. You're not trying to get all of these sinful people who don't desire these things, these godly things, to start doing them, right? Because that's just dumb. They're not going to, and eventually they'll just break away from it anyway. We want God to supernaturally change their heart so that they love these things. That's the difference. That's the difference. Let's pray. Father, we ask as the service goes on today that you would receive glory. Lord, we thank you for our time this morning. Lord, my prayer for my own life and for my brothers and sisters is that we would be honest about where we are in this thing. Father, we have such a tendency to just coast and to float and to live on habits and things. Lord, I pray that you would guard us from that. Give us the joy that comes from knowing that you've worked in our lives and where we need to be challenged, Lord. I pray that you would do that as well. And Lord, we're thankful. It's in the matchless name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.