Two Paths | Galatians 4:21-31 | Pastor Jake Brown

This morning's passage of scripture is from Galatians 4, verses 21 through 31.

Galatians 4:21–31

Galatians 4, 21 through 31.

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 the 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, 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 the promise.

But just as at the 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.

This is the word of God.

Yes or no?

Beach or mountains.

Left or right.

Alabama or Auburn.

Intentionally left yours out, Chris.

Coke or Pepsi.

No, I don't even have a joke if you hit Pepsi.

Two paths.

If you've listened to that passage, if you read over that passage, some of you are thinking, I'm so glad I'm not the one who has to preach this.

Because there are some things in there that you just look at and you say, what on earth is this getting at?

I want to encourage you that Paul's main point here is pretty simple.

He wants us to see there are two paths.

And he's going to spend a lot of time contrasting the two.

You see the word two and the word one often in it.

So don't get lost in the forest because you're staring at one specific tree.

Okay, hopefully we can see how it all fits together.

We started with some one of the other questions.

This passage presents Hagar or Sarah, flesh or promise, slave or free, law or gospel.

We're going to look at it today in three points that all start with two.

I know, trying to confuse you with the numbers.

Two sons, two covenants, two inheritances.

Two sons, two covenants, two inheritances.

Verses 21 through 23, we will see two sons.

The passage begins Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

I love that Paul points out that this is a matter of desire.

Our natural disposition is to want the law.

We want rules to follow and make, we feel like it makes our lives easier.

If I just gave you a list and said, if you do these three things the rest of your life, you'll get to heaven, some of you would shake my hand and take that deal and say, Yes, I like this church.

That's not what the gospel gives us.

Paul's been pleading with the church in Galatia.

They have people who've come in who are Judaizers, who are trying to bring back the Mosaic law, specifically circumcision, but food laws, and we learn calendar laws in a passage.

They're trying to add to the law to say, this earned your salvation.

Not that it's for your good since you've been saved, but that you need to do this in order to be saved.

And for us, with our modern sensibilities, we're like, oh, that's not that big of a deal.

They probably have the right heart.

This passage makes it really clear.

It's a big deal.

It's two totally separate paths.

So when Paul starts with this question, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

He's posing a very pointed question.

The law condemns.

The law will not save you.

The law is also good and is fulfilled in Christ.

But for we who are sinners by nature and by choice, when we hold ourselves up to the law, we fail.

Verse 22, for it is written that Abraham had two sons.

We've already talked about Abraham's son in Galatians.

Y'all remember us singing Father Abraham had many sons.

If you were here a few weeks ago, you remember that?

We're not going to rehash it today.

Here, he had two sons, not many sons.

Two sons.

One by a slave woman, and one by a free woman.

So the slave woman he's talking about was Hagar, her son was Ishmael, the free woman, Sarah, or depending on which passage you're in, it's still Sarai, and her son Isaac.

Slave and free.

If you are totally unfamiliar with Genesis or with Abraham and Sarah, let me just give you kind of the cliff notes version.

Abraham was a pagan, called out by God to leave everything, and he said, Go to where I'm going to show you.

And Abram went.

And he has his wife Sarah, and the Lord says, I'm going to bless your seed or your generations or your posterity.

He's going to bless through his family lineage.

Do we understand?

The problem is Abraham was old.

And I don't mean like an uncomfortable, like we're married, we're not sure how old is too old to have kids.

I'm talking like elderly by any of ours, probably older than all of us in this room, kind of old, like not having kids, right?

Earthly-wise, we're like, that's just not happening.

He's too old.

No way.

So Sarah, Abram's wife, actually comes to him.

I know I'm saying Sarah, Sarah, Abraham.

Just know that I'm talking about the same people when I say this.

She comes to him and says, Hey, take my servant Hagar and have a baby with her.

That's how we'll have a baby because I'm too old to do this.

She's young.

We can have a baby this way.

This is how we will fulfill God's promise.

Do we see the problem already?

When we take it upon ourselves to fulfill the promises of God?

If we're honest, we've done this probably in our lives before.

We set up our lives exactly how we want them.

We make all of our choices.

And then we consult God later.

No one's ever done that, just me.

Okay, all right.

We'll talk about honesty later.

We have a propensity to say, thank you for the direction, God.

I've got this.

So Abraham did.

And they had the son Ishmael.

And he says to the Lord, bless Ishmael.

And the Lord said, No.

I promise you and Sarah a child, and you will have one.

Now remember, as all this time is passing, what's happening?

They're only getting older.

It's becoming less likely by human standards that this is actually going to happen.

Some of you are like, man, we're only in two verses today.

Stick with me, because knowing this story is going to be important to understand the context of this whole thing.

Eventually, Sarah is with child.

And she gives birth to a child named Isaac.

Does anybody know what it means?

He laughs.

The Lord laughs at our plans.

And it's great because when he's telling Sarah, she laughs at God and he says, I heard you laugh.

She says, I didn't laugh.

He says, No, no, but you did laugh.

And it's one of my favorite things.

The Lord's like, Be quiet, Sarah, I heard you laugh.

And then they name this kid, He Laughs.

Because the Lord laughs at our little plans.

Have you ever watched a kid like build a sand castle or play with little green army men?

Do kids still do that?

I hope they do.

Or whatever they're playing with, like they're in this whole world and checked out of ours.

They don't know what's on the news.

They don't know what happened at your job that day.

It can seem silly.

How much more?

A sovereign God over all things, who knows all of history, knows every hair on your head, who cares for you deeply, who has never failed to keep a promise.

When he makes a promise to his people and brings it about, of course he laughs.

And he gives the son of the promise, Isaac.

You see, the promise to Abraham was always going to continue through promise.

It's not so much that it's just Abraham's physical lineage.

For many of us in here, that's good news because we're not culturally Jewish.

Some of you might be, very few of us in here are.

If the gospel is only for those who are culturally Jewish, those of us who aren't are in trouble.

But it's through the promise for all.

Verse 23, that the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

See?

I just told you that.

Again, Abraham tried to bring about God's promises through his own efforts, his own works.

But God delivered on his promises even when they were impossible for humans.

Already in Galatians, we saw this is Galatians chapter 3, verse 29.

Galatians 3:29

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring.

Heirs according to promise.

If you've turned away from your sin, you've trusted in Jesus, the promises to Abraham are yours in Christ.

That's not some big geopolitical statement that it's here to offend people.

That's a Bible.

It's right in front of us.

Folks, when Jesus came and lived without sin, what we could never do with our own lives, and willingly went to the cross.

He didn't just die to say, all right, all the people who were born through Abraham's lineage are going to be okay.

That's not what happened.

He went to the cross and poured out his blood so that it wouldn't be up to our bloodline whether or not we're with God forever.

It would be according to his blood.

His blood was shed for us for our sins in our place.

And he was dead three days, and he defeated sin and death through his resurrection.

And he is alive now and forevermore.

And he welcomes all of us as children of God if we will but turn away from our sin and trust in him.

I don't know all of your stories here.

I can't know all of your stories here, but I know some of them.

And I know some of you may struggle with, how can I really be saved, or how can I know that I'm saved?

And if we continue to look at our own lives and say, Am I saved?

Or are my works good enough?

We're going to continually say, no, they're not.

Hopefully we have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

Hopefully we have good works that are coming from salvation, but never good works for salvation.

Our hope, our assurance is in Christ and in his work.

And it's done.

What did he say at the cross?

It is finished.

It's finished.

Now we live getting to follow God's rules.

We get to know him.

It's not that we have to do certain things or we don't make it.

We're trusting in Christ and salvation is in him alone.

And that's good news for every one of us.

Two sons Ishmael, Isaac.

One of the flesh, one of the promise.

Next we see two covenants, verses 24 to 27.

Now, this may be interpreted allegorically.

Pause there, because that's a big word.

Some of your translations may not use the word allegorically, but it's a fair word here in the ESV.

An allegory is a story in which the characters represent something else.

They have deeper meanings.

For example, Orwell's Animal Farm is an allegory.

If you're not as well read as that, maybe Dr.

Seuss's the Lorax.

Yeah?

Allegory.

Allegory.

Paul here gives us insight into the true story of Hagar and Sarah.

This can raise some questions about like, do we read the Old Testament this way?

Can we just make it all allegory?

It's wise for us to be cautious about that.

But there is some precedence in church history that this is one way.

What we can be confident in is what we have here in Galatians is God breathed just like the rest of Scripture.

So there's no need for us to say, well, Paul might have been reading the scriptures wrongly here.

No, he was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

This is God's word.

This is telling us one way that this story can be understood.

All right, continuing on there.

Can be interpreted allegorically.

These women are two covenants.

Two covenants.

One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery.

She is Hagar.

So your two covenants are Sarah and Hagar.

She's being related to Mount Sinai.

This feels like it's like a pop quiz, and you're like, if I'm not a church person, I'm so lost.

What is Mount Sinai?

It's like, is it near Everest?

Like, have we no more about that?

If you're where I'm from, you're like, it's Mount Sheha.

I don't know.

Mount Sinai is where the law was given.

Okay?

That's where Moses went up.

Given the tablets, it's very important in Christian history, in Jewish history, and the Old Testament.

That mountain a lot happened.

It would seem like saying Hagar's with Mount Sinai that you're like, okay, so that's the good one, right?

That's the one we want to be part of.

But Paul is making a different point here.

Look at verse 25.

Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia.

She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

Woo! That gets sticky, doesn't it?

If you're here and you're a Christian, you're like, this is one passage I'm not gonna read with my non-Christian friends, because like how do I explain all this?

Um, y'all, there is slavery present in the Bible.

It is never just condoned by God to say this is a good thing.

Let's say that.

Often, when slavery is in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, um, it is not the same as what we would say as like chattel slavery from the United States, okay?

It's a different concept.

We're not gonna get all into it right now.

But the point here that Paul's trying to drive is the slavery to the law.

So let's focus on that more so.

The slavery to the law.

So if she's Mount Sinai, and this corresponds to present Jerusalem, this would have been the time that Paul's writing, so roughly 2,000 years ago, coming up on 2,000 years ago.

He's saying at that time, most of the people in Jerusalem were slaves to the law.

They had not turned to Christ, and they were trying to do their best to keep the law to be made right with God.

Now that is a strong word to use, slavery, but Paul's doing that intentionally.

He wants you to see it's a problem.

It's not good for us to say, I'm just gonna keep the law and hope that that's the best I've got.

Y'all, there's better news than that.

The gospel is better news than that.

The gospel is you can be saved, even though you haven't kept the law, and then we have the law to guide us and help us to live to glorify God once we are saved.

So Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, represents present Jerusalem, her children are in slavery.

Verse 26.

But the Jerusalem above is free.

And she is our mother.

If I stood before you and just said, would you rather be a slave or be free?

Pretty obvious answer.

Like, is this a trick question?

Going for free.

Um, you know, the why has our United States flag hanging above us.

We didn't put that there, so if you're weird about that being in a worship service, this is the why, and we're just glad to be here.

Um but we live in a free country, praise the Lord.

But if I said to you, Do you want to be free or do you want to be a slave?

I just don't think we'd have a lot of signups at the slave table.

It seems so clear and obvious.

And yet remember, back in verse 21, the Galatians, and we have a desire for some reason to keep coming back under the law.

There's something in us that tries to relate to God based on rules and not on grace.

It feels too good to be true.

But it is true.

This is the Jerusalem above, which is such a beautiful picture.

Because Scripture tells us that when Jesus returns, Jerusalem will be coming down from heaven.

The new Jerusalem he's bringing with him.

That's a beautiful picture.

This is the Jerusalem he's talking about.

It's the free one.

She is our mother talking about Sarah.

If we can say we're heirs of Abraham, we are also heirs of Sarah and the promise.

Verse 27 says, 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, some of you are like, that's such a weird poem for Paul to break out into.

He's quoting the Old Testament.

This is Isaiah 54, 1.

At that time, Isaiah was speaking to Israel in exile.

They were looking and saying, Oh no, Lord, what's going to become of us?

And the Lord makes this promise to the barren one, saying, Hey, to your eyes, it looks like my people cannot continue.

But he says, There's going to be more of you than not.

It's a beautiful promise.

If you're here and you've wrestled with wanting children, not having them, I want to say, I understand this could be a very complex passage for you.

So I'm sorry for that.

My heart genuinely goes out to you.

This is meant to be allegorically, and speaking of our salvation is one encouragement I would have to you.

My other one would be that the Lord sees you.

And a theme throughout Scripture is that He cares for the barren and those who want children.

And I want you to hear that today.

Here, Paul is quoting Isaiah, though, to point out that God is still working supernaturally to bring many sons to glory.

Though the city of Jerusalem had not turned to Christ, God was going to grow his people, even among the Gentiles, which, by the way, remember, that's us.

So if the two covenants are Hagar and Sarah, it's the law and the promise.

We want to be children of the promise.

We want to see God bring about something that we can't do ourselves.

Something that's been fun about being part of a new church.

Is I have people ask me now, because they see that the Lord is growing this church.

And they'll ask me, like, how did you do this?

I'm like, we didn't.

We didn't.

Y'all, we've prayed, we've asked God, we we've sh we strive to be faithful.

But so many of you who are here, even as members, think of the seeming coincidences of your timing of being here.

It's not coincidence.

It's providential.

It's it's God giving growth.

We plant and water the word.

Who gives the growth?

It's God.

This is him doing something that shouldn't be humanly possible.

It's one thing to just get a bunch of people together and say, we're gonna sing good music, you're gonna have somebody talk and have a TED talk or whatever.

It's something else to say we're gonna start a church and try to follow the Bible.

And for God to draw people to himself, and it's really neat to be part of.

So two sons, two covenants, two inheritances where we're gonna land here.

Verse 28.

Now you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

In Christ, we are like Isaac.

We are the sons of Abraham.

And some of you, again, if you're women in here and you're like, I'm not a son, it's meant to say we are the ones who will inherit Abraham's promises.

So it's good news that we're all called sons here.

We will misapply this entire passage if we apply it to everyone and not to Christians.

This is addressed to brothers multiple times.

This is addressed to churches multiple times.

Verse 29 says, But just as that, as at that time he was born according to the flesh, persecuted by him, or persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

So we're saying at that time, when Isaac was born, Hagar and Ishmael persecuted Isaac.

They didn't like him.

They made fun of him, they mocked him.

Paul is saying, these Judaizers are mocking me.

Doubting his apostleship.

They're saying it's a different teaching, that they need to follow the law.

Potentially today, if you're preaching the gospel according to the scriptures, people who are legalists and say we want to follow the law, you must follow the law, are not going to like when we say salvation is by grace.

How crazy.

That's an offensive message.

It should be good news to us if we recognize that we are sinners, who have no other way to be saved.

If God doesn't save sinners, we don't have hope.

If he only saves those who are good enough, we're not making it, folks.

But the good news is, God saves sinners.

There's grace to those who are far from God.

And if that's you today, you say, I'm far from God, I don't want anything to do with him.

The Lord's not done with you.

You're not here by coincidence.

You're not hearing this by coincidence.

And I pray that one day you will hear this gospel and turn from your sin and trust in Jesus and find freedom and promise and life in him.

Because many of you here have.

You know the joy, you know the hope, you know the peace that only comes because salvation is by grace through faith in Christ.

Verse 30 says, 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.

This is a hard part of this passage as well.

Because you say, Man, Hagar got mistreated here.

The Lord recognizes that and gives grace to her.

You can go back to Genesis and read that.

And these words that are being quoted here are actually from Sarah telling Abraham, hey, she can't stay now that Isaac's here.

She can't stay.

What Paul is implying to the church in Galatia, these churches in Galatia, is that they should rid themselves of people who are trying to make works part of the gospel.

Now that's really offensive.

Because we're like, man, that sounds so narrow.

I would pose to you, though, that a gospel of works is actually more narrow than a gospel of grace.

A gospel of works is extremely exclusive because it says only if you meet these check marks can you be saved.

And none of us can check those boxes in reality.

A gospel of grace says what you need to be saved is recognizing that you're a sinner and looking to Christ.

Well, we're all sinners, so we can all do that part.

And Christ is the sufficient savior for all who will turn to him.

It's actually very welcoming.

It's very inclusive to have salvation by grace.

It just sounds exclusive when we contrast it to other beliefs.

I don't know what backgrounds you all come from.

Maybe you come from a church where you felt like legalism was the banner being waved.

That's not who we want to be here.

It doesn't mean we won't do it at times.

We'll fail.

We're not a perfect church.

This is your first time here.

Welcome.

We're imperfect.

But we have a perfect Savior.

And it's worth agreeing with His word that salvation is only through the promise.

It's only by grace.

Because that's actually better news for us and for all people who will hear it.

We are saved by God's grace.

Verse 31 says, So, brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman.

In Christ, we are descendants of Sarah.

We've been born again into the promises of Abraham.

We've been born again into freedom.

This is God's word.

And if you're sitting there and you're confused and you're like, man, this woman's hard to follow.

I don't.

Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael and Isaac, like what man, what is the Lord trying to get at here?

I want to encourage you with just a few encouragements.

One, it's God's word, so it matters.

We don't want to dismiss it.

We read together earlier all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable.

That includes this.

Number two, Paul is making these contrasts and these clarifications because eternity is at stake.

A gospel of works is no gospel at all.

Works only have the power to condemn us.

Romans 1 tells us the gospel is the power to save.

It's not just a difference of opinion.

It's a difference of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Number three, if you've never heard this, my encouragement to you is repent and believe.

Turn away from your sin, turn away from your own efforts, trying to save yourself by being good enough.

Let go of all that.

Throw yourself at the mercy of God in Christ.

Find salvation in Him.

And if you have, I want to remind you, you are saved by grace and you will be saved by grace.

It's not your law keeping or law failing that will save or condemn you.

If you are in Christ, you are not condemned.

You are sons and daughters of the King.

You are children of the promise.

He knows you by name.

And he's glad to welcome you as family.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for clarifications on things that we may downplay or be confused about.

God, we thank you that you show us.

Sometimes we split up law and gospel, and our desires lead us to want the law.

God, break those desires in us.

Help us see the beauty of freedom in Christ.

Help us to trust your promises over our own works and our own efforts.

And give us boldness to be clear that this is the good news of Jesus Christ as your word proclaims it.

Give us confidence and salvation, not because of who we are or what we've done, but because of who Jesus is and what He's done for us.

Impress this good news upon us through your Holy Spirit.

Encourage our hearts to cry out, Abba Father, thank you for making us your children.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.