We are children of promise to live free Galatians 4 21-31

You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to

encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to

the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses

you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way

today. And if you need prayer for

healing or breakthrough? Want to find out more about

Omega? Get to our website or Facebook

page through the links below. So we continue with our study on

the Book of Galatians, chapter 4, verses 21 to 31, 21 to 31.

Galatians 4:21–31

Now in this yeah, I would like to ask this general question

again. Has anybody come having read

this passage? Ah, good.

All chocolates will go. Very good.

Please somebody take the I see improvement.

That's really good. Now tell me somebody, was it

easy? Easy to understand.

Very easy to understand. Yeah, that is good.

Well, I know the Bible is not a simple book.

And this passage is more complicated, very complicated,

because it goes against the common sense.

It goes against the common sense because you do not tell somebody

who is been rejected and who is looked down upon as the no, That

person is you. You look down on somebody and

say no, no, no, That person is you.

You don't like to be compared like that, isn't it?

So that's what Paul is actually doing here.

Now, what he says here is that the words he uses here, Where is

that? Yeah, I'm going to get the wrong

place. Yeah, 21 to 31 who I'm looking

into first. I said that's wrong, so why

don't I see it? So sorry for chapter 4 was 21

onwards. Tell me, you who want to be

under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?

Basically he is arguing. You know, in the previous

message we have talked about why these people want to go back to

Jewish laws, practicing the Jewish laws, and he was telling

them please don't do it, please don't do it.

He was giving many reasons. And now he comes with one final

reason why they should not go back to Jewish system.

So he says, tell me, you know, it's just engaging them in kind

of a dialogue. Tell me, you who want to be

under the law, are you not aware that what the law says for his

return, that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and

the other by the free woman? His son by the slave woman was

born in the ordinary way, but his son by the free woman was

born as a result of promise. Ah, that's really beautiful.

It's very, very beautiful. This story is very, very simple,

common. Every Jew knows the story, but

the meaning that Paul is bringing out is not what they

had in their mind for 1500 plus years.

I would say even 2000 years, 2000 years, they knew the story,

this they grew up around the story.

But Paul says hey, you think you know it?

No, I am going to give a different meaning to it.

So he reinterprets what is a common knowledge.

He gives a new meaning and then he says what does he say here?

These things may be taken figuratively.

For the women represents 2 covenants.

In another class it says they are allegories.

What is an allegory? Allegory is an extended metaphor

that you can compare many things.

It is more, it is a metaphor. You know this is one of those

things. And do we have freedom to

allegorize everything? It is good we should have some

kind of a broad guidelines about how to allegorize things,

particularly with when it comes to studying the Bible.

When something is allegorized from the Old Testament and is

talked about in the New Testament, it gets a sanction

already because the Holy Spirit has used that particular apostle

or that particular disciple to do it.

We cannot just take a particular in the first few centuries.

There are few people like Oregon and you know another guy and who

were allegorizing everything. I will give an example.

They will say the Good Samaritan story.

When they talk about the Good Samaritan story, the four legs

of the donkey or the four gospels and he gives 2 coins.

Now one is the Old Testament, another New Testament.

Already you are laughing. Why it is not right is not

right. So we don't allegorize

everything. We need to have some boundaries

to do it. And the boundaries is the Bible

itself is the boundary. And Paul here goes out of his

way to explain and allegorize and he says these are two people

there, two women and their children are allegories for us.

They stand like stories. But then I want to tell you what

the deep meaning is, is what Paul is trying to say here.

But before I go launch further into it, I want to give an

illustration about what is the power power of the word promise.

Do you see there in verse? Why do I struggle every time?

Galatians 4 There it says by, but his son by the free woman

was born as a result of a promise.

Everybody say promise. What is a promise?

What is a promise? We break promises, do we?

It's very common for us to break promises.

But when God makes a promise, it is never broken.

When God makes a promise, it never fails.

It will come to pass. Whatever he says, he will come

to pass. So question is we have to hear

from God is more important not assume he has spoken now so many

times Christians have one big problem is they guess I think

God has said it yes to this matter.

And then after down the line, after a few months and years,

they say, oh, it's not working. So very what's wrong.

What's wrong is you assumed God spoke when he has not spoken.

That's why you're disappointed now.

So This is why we need to learn to hear God, cultivate the habit

of hearing God. And the promise is never going

to fall to the ground. From the book of Genesis to

Revelation, every promise has been kept and fulfilled.

And that is what is going to happen when he, he is going to

come back and we are going to be raised up with new bodies.

We are going to meet Him in heaven.

And if he is going to come down and we are going to reign, what?

What? All these things are promises

but yet to be fulfilled. But promise is coming out of the

character of God. It is His nature.

And when it is, when you hang it on His nature, upon His

unchangeable, faithful nature, that promise is definitely going

to happen. It will never, it will never

become a mirage. You know something that looks

like water. It is not water.

It is never like that. It is never.

You go and drink and you are not satisfied with your thirst.

It is not going to happen. If it is God, it will come to

pass. But if it is not God, it may

pass by you. That is the reason why we need

to learn to receive promise from God, from God.

And when you stand on it, even though it does not make sense,

you stand on it, He will fulfill it because that is the nature of

a promise. The nature of a promise is it

will not make sense when you are standing on it.

Think of you, think of Abraham at the age of 75.

God says, OK, leave your people, your country, come show, follow

me. I will show you.

I will take you where I want to take you.

I will bless you. I will give you the land.

He starts following him and then after a few years he's still not

having children. He talks about it to God.

God said, no, I'm going to give you a son.

And then still he doesn't have a son.

And wife says, I know what what he means.

Take my servant and you will have a son.

And that servant, when she bears son, there will be my son.

And that's what God had in mind. Where does it come from?

From the flesh, not from the Spirit of God.

And Sara started the problem and even today we have big problem

because of that. So suppose your friend of

Abraham, you met him when he was 87.

Let us say let us go little back 84 when he was 8485.

Hey, did you say God told you you are going to have a son?

Yeah, 10 years are over. What are you talking about?

Why does it take 10 years for God to give you a son after 86?

He has one son through Hega and then he loves him so much for

nearly so many years. And then again God comes on the

scene when he was 99. I am going to bless you.

Don't talk about it, Sir. He was a said.

He was a said to God. God, please don't talk about it.

I waited for so long, 24 years. What are you talking about?

And you are his friend. You would have gone to Abraham

and said you I doubt whether you are really following God.

Who is your God 24 years, you don't have a son.

I tell you, this is the nature of a promise.

Is this that you must have patience to possess the promise?

Say I need to have patience, to possess the promise.

I'm telling you, my friends, this is my experience.

I have gone through it and we have started Omega.

Not because I want to start a church.

You ask my wife, you ask my people.

I even don't buy a magazine because I don't want to waste my

money. I'm that kind of a guy.

Once I make a decision, I never do it.

I said I won't write a book. I don't want to start an

organization, don't want to start a church.

But why do we start a church? Because of what?

A promise? In the year 2000, He gave me a

vision, but I did not start a church immediately.

God spoke, Let's start a church. That's not my way of doing

things. We take our hands off.

When God promises, He fulfills. He makes it happen not because

you want to do it. He wants to do it.

He will do it. That's what he did.

After 20 years, 2020, we have Omega.

Omega, you know I am. I am telling you the few things

just to get the inside of who where you belong to.

You belong to Omega. You must say thank you God for

making me part of Omega. Why we don't do things here on

my own decision. God is the leader.

He is the one who guides, including the name.

I did not decide upon it. I was just praying.

And one day he says many people have not many churches, but this

one will be called last one. To understand if it took us long

time, but then when we the time came, we said, OK, let's call it

Omega. Let's call it Omega.

He is the last one. Jesus is the last one.

So this is the place where you belong to.

I want you to know this is where you belong to.

And the promise is God's promise and we will possess it.

We will see the revival in the city through Omega.

Why? It is His promise, not my word,

is not my imagination. It is His promise.

If it was valid for Abraham to wait for 25 years to get a son,

we will wait if it takes 25 years to see the revival.

But we are based on our life is based on the promise, not a

guess work. So, you know, individualize, We

can have promises from God. Hang on, hang on, hang on.

Why? If it is God, it will come to

pass. If it is God, it will come to

pass. I was thinking about this word

promise. I said I don't know why I

hovered on that word and studied more.

And the more I said, I said it is rooted in the nature of God,

is rooted in the character of God.

And that will not fail. And you, if you had seen me

yesterday when I was thinking those things, and if you had

touched me, I would have been like become like a stone.

Why that was making me strong. When you think the thoughts of

God, you will not be the same. You will be changed because you

are thinking the thoughts of God.

OK to now he takes this common figure.

Ishmael is rejected and he was sent away along with the mother.

So the basic problem that we need to understand here is the

keyword key thought do that helps us to understand this

passage is a son's position is determined by the status of the

mother. The mother was a slave, son is a

slave and the mother is free. The son is free.

Am I communicating because Hagar was a slave?

Ishmael cannot be a free son, cannot be a free son.

Abraham loved him, not one day, not one year, almost 1415 years.

And then God says throw him out. How painful that would be.

There comes a time we have to let go the most dear things, but

the decision is not ours. We have to let God decide.

If God says get rid of the woman, slave woman, you get rid

of the slave woman and her son. So now you take that example of

something that is negative and Paul says the whole nation of

Israel are thinking they are the children of Abraham, children of

Abraham and Sarah. And he is now telling them, hey

guys, you think you are the children of Abraham and Sarah?

No, no, no, you belong to Hagar and this Jerusalem belongs to

Hagar. The present existing Jerusalem

is Hagar. Why is he saying that?

When you are a son of promise, the promise is fulfilled by the

power of the Holy Spirit, who fulfills the promise is the Holy

Spirit. Power of the Holy Spirit

fulfills the promise. And here is son Isaac born to

Sarah by promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And he says to the Christians, you are those people who belong

to Sarah. Hallelujah, we are say we are

children of Sarah or children of Abraham through Sarah, children

of promise basically, and we are free.

It simply means we are free. We are not like Ishmael who is

in a slave in slavery. We are Born Free into this.

This is really good, good stuff, but we do not have the freedom

to allegorize as we like. But if the apostle has done it

because he had revelation to talk about it, I will tell you

something. I will tell you about it.

How much powerful is what Paul did?

It is two things. It is two things.

Imagine, imagine the Old Testament Tabernacle or think of

the temple built by Solomon. You got the three compartments,

outer court, inner holy place, most holy place.

It is like just tearing that wail and letting you see the ark

of God. It is something that's not going

to happen at all. And what Paul is doing is he is

doing so violently, staying off the wail and making you to see

into the Holy of Holies, to get a glimpse of the holiness of

God, to get a glimpse of the glory of God.

Gospel is the glory of God. You cannot believe in the gospel

and not partake in the glory of God because it is the power of

God. It is in the Old Testament you

had high priest wearing a E4, EPHOD E4.

If my pronunciation is wrong, pardon me.

So what is the E4? He had something on which you

had 12 Stones, 33334 rows of three, I think.

Whatever, Numbers 1212, Yeah, 12 anyway.

But when he wants to find out the mind of God, he wants to

check out the will of God. He will use the effort to find

out whether it is God's will or not in some matter.

For example, during the time of Solomon, when they wanted to

check out some of the priests, whether they really belong to

the priestly line or not. I think after Solomon's time,

and they were waiting for a priest who knows how to use that

effort, because not everybody knew.

It's the privilege of the priest.

But how does it happen? He wears the effort.

What is he trying to do? He is bearing the 12 tribes,

names of the 12 tribes on his heart before God with his

ministering. I tell you, this is how a pastor

should be. A pastor should carry the church

on his heart before God. And when matters are coming

before God and you are waiting there in the presence of God,

ask a question, is this happening?

Is this right or wrong? And the effort will shine with a

brilliant light. And then the then he knows it is

yes and is a they had they are actually Orim and Tamim as well.

And one shines is yes, one shines.

It is no something like that. What Paul was doing here is he

is shining the light on that effort, which is lifeless and

is, you know, this things if it is difficult, don't worry, you

just keep it aside. What I'm teaching sometimes, you

know, some, some people have told me already that I sometimes

speak at a graduate level or postgraduate level.

So it's something like that. So don't worry, but stray in

your mind to understand these things.

This is the privilege of children of God to grow into the

knowledge of God, to understand the deep things of God.

This is a call for each Christian.

And we can improve our capacity to understand the spiritual

things by thinking about it, meditating upon meditating upon

it and pursuing it. We can grow into it.

And here is a glimpse into the Holy of Holies.

Here is a glimpse into the heart of God is a glimpse into the

character of God you are. Born Free.

You are Born Free. If that sinks into your whole

heart, job is done. That's all we need to know.

You are Born Free. So he took this.

These things we were taken figuratively for the women

represent 2 covenants. 1 covenant is from Mount Sinai and

best children who are to be slaves.

This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai

in Arabia and corresponds with the present city of Jerusalem.

This is just that one sentence we need to understand is he is

changing the meaning of what is, what is held, what is understood

by common masses. He is saying, guys, you don't

understand it. You have to understand

differently. You are thinking you are free,

but you are not because the Jerusalem at that time when Paul

was writing was under the power of Roman rule, it was not free.

So he was saying it is like present Jerusalem, you are not

free. You are not free, but if you are

a if you are a believer, when you believe in Jesus Christ, you

are of the Sarah and you are Born Free.

Amazing. So he goes forward again, and he

quotes from Isaiah 54 verse one be glad or bear a woman who

bears no children. Break forth and cry aloud.

You have no labor pains because more of the children of the

desolate woman than of her who has a husband.

It is again difficult to understand.

It is again difficult to understand why it is difficult

to understand Isaiah when he was talking about it.

He is talking about be glad of barren woman who is a barren

woman. The Israel in captivity is

compared to barren woman. Israel in captivity is compared

to a barren woman because comparing it to the status of

Sarah before she had a child, she was barren.

So longing for a child she has grown old.

No power to conceive and no power to deliver.

It is 90 plus years. It is impossible for a woman to

bear and deliver a child at that age.

But what he is saying is OK, you are like this barren woman who

bears no children. Break forth and cry aloud.

You who have no labor pains, you have not gone through it.

I don't think he means C-section because more of the children are

the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.

So who is this the one who has husband?

Hagar, because she had a child through the natural means.

But Sarah has delivered a son by promise.

So what he's saying is you, you are going to have more children

than the one who are husband. Now think, look at the world

today. How many Christians are there in

the world? How many Christians believers

are there in the world? They all belong to Sarah because

your children will be more than the one who had husband.

That is who belong to the old covenant, who belong to the, I

mean the Jewish people, handful of people today only few

millions, but you have got hundreds of millions of

believers all over the world and that is the fulfillment of

Isaac. 54 verse one. Now you brothers like Isaac are

children of promise. What a powerful words they are.

You are like Isaac, a child of promise.

No one chooses to be saved by himself.

It's God who chooses you. He looks at you and He has

determined to save you before the foundation of the world.

He set His love upon you and saves you.

I tell you, this is mystery. It's amazing to me.

When I look into my whole life, it's amazing to me.

I have so many relatives, hundreds of them, but I am not

in touch with anyone because they don't like to connect with

me because I'm a Christian. Basically, they don't like me.

They don't visit us, we don't visit them.

It's very simple. When you believe in Christ,

something happens to you and that sometimes turns you against

other people as well. I'll tell you one story about a

soldier who was ferocious, a fighter, and anybody picks a

quarrel with him that will he will beat him till they are

dead. So he had such a reputation, but

one day he wandered into the Chapel where the preacher was

preaching the gospel and this man got converted.

He believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, Lord, I'm so sorry, I make you my Lord, come into my

heart. Then after a couple of months,

he was having food in a mess. When he was sitting at the table

eating food, there were people who were afraid of him before to

fight him because they knew he was powerful.

He will beat them to death. They were afraid of him.

But after these two months, one of them says, I will check it

out whether he has become really a Christian or not.

So he took the hot soup bang he throws on his chest.

So the hot soup lands on his chest.

It burned him. And then what did he do?

He got up, tore his upper garment and wiped off his chest

and then looked at the people, bunch of people who were trying

to cause trouble. This is what I am called.

This is what happens when I when I become a Christian.

This is what happens to a Christian, and I'm happy about

it. And they were stunned to see the

transformation. He was like a lion before, and

they thought when he threw the soup, the lion is going to rise

up from inside, but he was like a lamb.

The gospel brings transformation, and that's very

powerful transformation. And we are the children of

promise. We ought to be like the lamb,

not like the lion that is not dead.

So here the children promised at that time, the son born in the

ordinary way persecuted, the son born by the power of the spirit.

But there's also a tussle going on the the Son of a slave is

persecuting son born by the Spirit by promise.

And this thought carries on into his writing.

In chapter 5, he talks about how there's a tussle going on inside

the heart, how the spirit lusts after the flesh and flesh lusts

after the spirit. There is a King James language

and he gives you the list of things that are come out of the

flesh and he gives you a fruit of the Holy Spirit and gives you

a list. And he expands his idea further

in the next chapter. We will wait for it at that

time, but this is just a glimpse.

So there should be a place and time when we should get rid of

the slave woman and her son. The key is very, very simple.

Listening to the voice of God is the key.

Listening to the voice of God is the key.

Whatever God said to Abraham, he just did it.

God says offer your son as a sacrifice to me, Isaac, He did

not say, let me go and talk to Sarah.

God told me to kill our son. Offer him as a sacrifice.

What you would have said you're out of your mind.

I thought you are a great man, my great husband, but today you

are a mad guy. Why will God tell you to

sacrifice him? And he himself has given you the

son. I do not think Abraham must have

considered her. You are just took the fire, pot

of fire and some wood and few servants set on told the son let

us go and offer the sacrifice and he says, oh you have got the

fire, we had the wood, where is the Lamb?

God will provide. See that is a mark of a man who

he has got. There is a mark of a man who he

has got. I wish we all are men and women

who hear the voice of God and obey him, because that is the

only time you will see revival. We ask, We want revival.

So many times these days I am hearing this question, why is

Omega not growing? Why will it grow when we are not

serious about it? Everyone must be serious about

it. Pray about it.

Agonize. God, I'm going to this place.

I want to see your glory manifested.

I want this gospel to impact the city.

I just don't want to warm the chair for 30-40 minutes and come

home. No, I want to know you.

I want to know the power of resurrection.

I want to know the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.

If there is that kind of a hunger in you, this church will

multiply. It's not one, one person.

It doesn't depend on one person. And we have not grown to that

stage where we can pray and hear God and be guided by him, be

directed by him. If you know, there's a man

called, I think Larry Cunningham.

Cunningham, he wrote a book. God, Is it really you?

If you can find it in the second hand book stall, find it and

read that book. They make decisions because they

hear from the Holy Spirit. Not one person.

All of them pray together, fasting and praying until they

hear God and they it has to be verified by at least two people.

There can be 100 people praying, but what one says God is saying

should be confirmed by one more. Until then they pray and then

they decide do it. What God says they do it.

I tell you, I was so impressed by that model.

We are nowhere nearer to practicing it.

Nowhere nearer anyway. That is how we should be.

So they were thrown out basically.

Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but

of the free woman. We are children of the free

woman, and that is he. He makes a powerful statement in

chapter 5 verse one and he says it is for freedom that Christ

has set us free. Stand form then and do not let

yourself be burdened again by yoke of slavery.

Don't go back to Jewish system, don't go back to Passover, don't

go back to circumcision. Don't go back to doing all

things in the Old Testament. God has set you free from it.

Don't go back. It's very simple but very

powerful way Paul has brought the arguments.

And if some of you want to catch up with what really Paul was

saying in this chapter, you can listen to our podcast.

The previous versions previous messages explain more of Paul's

heart. So now it's time for us to pray.

Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord, thank you Lord.

Before I close, I think I have something here.

This is from he talks about Hagar and Sarah and the

covenants. And this is again, a little bit

deeper truth. When I say deeper, just by

listening once, we may not understand it.

You may have to read or hear more than once.

So please feel free to listen to the podcast again when you go

home to understand what I'm reading it out here.

This is from Warren Wisbe, a great pastor and teacher.

And he said Hagar was not married again.

She was thrown out, but she didn't marry again.

God never gave the Law to any other nation or people,

including His church. For the Judaizers to impose the

Law on the Galatians Christians was to oppose the very plan of

God. In Paul's day, the nation of

Israel was under bondage to the Law, while the church was

enjoying liberty under the gracious rule of the Jerusalem

which is above. Judas wanted to wed Mount Sinai

and the heavenly Mount Zion. But to do this would be to deny

what Jesus did on the Mount Calvary.

Hey, God is not to be married again.

Hey, God is not to be married again.

We don't go back and create the Old Old Testament system again.

We can try to change them. This must fall, for we cannot

change either the law or the old nature.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and we might add, it

always will be flesh. God did not try to change

Ishmael and Hagar either by force or by education.

Neither can you and I change the old nature and the law.

We cannot change our old nature. We cannot change the law by our

own effort. It is a work of the Holy Spirit.

We badly need the work of the Holy Spirit.

Very deep work in our heart. I do not have much time to talk

about the heavenly Jerusalem, which is coming down from here,

from the sky, from heavens. Maybe I'll try to cover in the

next message, somehow fit in. So let's just bow down our heads

and pray. Father God, this morning we

praise you, we praise you, we praise you for your word.

Your word is established in heavens and Your word is

eternal. Your word is unchanging.

We thank You, Father, You are God and you are on the throne,

and we are humans. We are trying to do a little bit

of things that we can do, but we need your power to believe You.

We need your power to obey You. We need Your power to do what

You want us to do in the short time, to the glory of Your name.

So bless each one of us. Bless each one of us that we may

pursue with a passion, we pursue with that hunger and thirst

which will not bindle away with time, will keep growing with

time. And help us, Lord, to know You

and to see You as you are, and to worship in spirit and truth

and to obey you. Bless these words to the glory

of Your name. In Jesus mighty name we have

asked, Amen. Thanks for joining us at Omega.

If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, or simply to

find out more, please head to our website or Facebook page in

the links below.