Children Of The Promise

Galatians 4:7-8 Wherefore thou art no more a SERVANT {doulos}, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, YE DID SERVICE {douleuō} unto them which by nature are no gods.

The Christian Is Happy In Loving God

We’ve been studying how God gave us the Law through Israel, not to save us, but to lead us to Christ Who then saves us. The Law is a wake up call. It is described as:

Schoolmaster or Teacher (paidagōgos)
Tutor (epitropos) or Administrator
Governor (oikonomos) or Household Manager

Before we knew God, He gave us the Law to mature our minds, to teach us that we are all sinners in need of the Savior. The purpose of the Law was to

Galatians 3:24-26 … bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Before we were saved, we served as slaves false gods. The reason Galatians was written was to warn the Church to not follow the pathway of Israel. They created idols – like golden calves – and then worshiped these things. There are a number of golden calves in the Church today. God tells us:

1 John 4:1 (KJV) Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

We test what we have heard by the Word of God. Before we were saved by faith in Christ, born again, we …

Ephesians 2:2-3 (ESV) … walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

We followed the crowd and the darkness. We were slaves to sin and darkness. The devil wants the Church to be like the world. He creeps into the Church as he crept into the Garden of Eden, and brings a pseudo-truth, a twisted version of what God’s Word has actually said. Have you ever heard

God just wants you to be HAPPY.

That sounds nice to our flesh, but it is nowhere in the Bible. If you look up the word “HAPPY” in the King James, you will only find it 25 times. Do you know what God uses the word “HAPPY” in context with? “HAPPY is the people, whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 144:15). When Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, He said “HAPPY are you if you do these things”( John 13:17). God says “He that has mercy on the poor is HAPPY” (Proverbs 14:21). Or “HAPPY is the one who finds wisdom” (Proverbs 3:13). Or “HAPPY is the person who endures suffering” (James 5:11). If you are a child of God, your happiness comes from being the best child of God you can be. Children of God are not under the Law of God, but God indwells us. We can only be happy when we are walking in the light with Jesus. The Scripture says:

1 Timothy 6:8-12 (KJV) … having food and {clothing} let us be therewith content. 9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil … 11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

You Must Do Thus To Retain Your Salvation

Galatians 4:9-11 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.

If you are a child of God, you are no longer a chattel slave – you are a son of God. You are “KNOWN OF GOD”. Why would you want to turn back to the rituals and feasts of the Law? These things were, as we are told in

Hebrews 10:1 (ESV) … a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

The Pharisees had taught the Galatians that they had to return to the Law of God. They had to follow the shadows. Paul said “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years”. Under the Law, Israel observed weekly Sabbaths with all their restrictions. They observed these Sabbaths so they would not be cut off from Israel. The Law leads a person to do a thing – or else suffer the consequence. Under Grace, we observe a Sabbath, but do so because we love God our Father. For instance, should Christians worship God on Saturday or Sunday? The Apostle said:

Romans 14:5-6 (ESV) One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

What we do, we do not because we MUST do it. This is the heart of the slave. We do what we do because WE LOVE THE LORD. This is the heart of the son.

Galatians 4:12-16 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. 13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. 14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15 Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. 16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

When Paul preached the Gospel of Christ to the Galatians, he preached “through infirmity of the flesh”. No preacher is perfect. Paul was not perfect. Paul had trouble with his eyesight – we don’t know exactly what. But we do know that Paul had other believers who wrote Scripture as he dictated to them. Though Paul was imperfect (as all God’s people are), the Galatians loved him for preaching the Gospel. They would have, if possible, “plucked out their own eyes” in love to Paul for sharing the Gospel with them. But once he left and the Pharisees came in with their lies about keeping the Law, now Paul was being regarded by suspicion.

Galatians 4:17-18 They zealously affect you, {zēloō} but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. 18 But it is good to be zealously affected {zēloō} always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

The Pharisees infected the Church at Galatia with “a burning desire, a zeal to pursue a thing” (zēloō). Paul says “it’s good to have a burning desire for a good thing – but they gave you a burning desire for the wrong thing”. Paul does not want the Church to go back to the Law.

He wants the Church – every Christian – to have Christ formed in them.

Galatians 4:19-20 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, 20 I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

This is what every Godly Pastor wants for the Church. Paul said – and this is almost comical – that he is like a pregnant woman in the throes of having a baby. Now, we know men can’t have babies. But Paul is using this to describe what the Galatians are putting him through. He preached Christ crucified to this Church. He preached the whole Gospel of salvation. Paul preached:

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (ESV) that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures …

Paul preached:

Romans 10:9-13 (ESV) … if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

When a person REPENTS and RECEIVES the Gospel, God RECEIVES that person. The Spirit of Christ comes to us, and causes us to be born again. When the Galatians took a “U” turn and headed back toward the Law for salvation, it made Paul doubt they were ever born again. He pictures himself as a person in labor, straining that they would be delivered, that they would be born again of the Spirit of God. Paul says in verse 20, “ I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.”

Which Son Are You?

Paul now describes the difference between the Law and Grace using the Law of God, a story that was written in the Torah, the Book of Genesis.

Galatians 4:21-23 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

This story is told in Genesis chapter 16. Abraham was 75 years old when God called him to salvation (Genesis 12:1-3). God promised Abraham a son, though God did not tell him when he would have the boy. After 10 years passed, and Abraham still had no son, his wife Sarai had Abraham go into Hagar, Sarai’s Egyptian slave, to get her pregnant. This was a bad idea, but Paul now uses the two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, to describe the Law and Grace. “Abraham had two sons”. One was the son that Abraham worked for. He circumvented the will of God, for God told Abraham:

Genesis 12:2 … I will make of you a great nation

God would do the work. Abraham was passed child bearing age. Sarai was past child bearing age. What God promised was impossible. But “What is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27, NIV). God would bless Abraham by Grace. Abraham neither earned nor deserved this. God just asked that Abraham follow Him, albeit imperfectly, no matter where the Lord led. But after ten years Sarai got impatient. Her slave, an Egyptian named Hagar, was of child bearing age. So Sarai talked Abraham into bedding Hagar – and she got pregnant!. We are told:

Genesis 16:16 (ESV) Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

He went in to Hagar at 85, and now at 86 he has a child. Or does he? Another 13 years pass, and still Sarai has no child. So Abraham goes to God in prayer. We read:

Genesis 17:17-19, 21 (ESV) Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. … 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

Abraham offered Ishmael to be his heir, but God said NO! “Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac”. God promised a child to Abraham by Sarah. He did not ask Abraham to help Him by going to Hagar. “He who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise”.

Galatians 4:24-26 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Though what Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah did were real events, Paul tells us that these things happened as an “ALLEGORY” {allēgoreō} or a figure of what was to come. There are two mountains where God addresses His people. There is Mount Sinai, the mother of the Law of God. Sinai answers to the “Jerusalem which is above”, the Heavens in which our Father now resides. Israel was only led to Mount Sinai or Hagar after God’s people repeatedly rejected His love and Grace. But …

Jerusalem WHICH IS ABOVE is free,
which is the mother of us all

All born under the Law are born to a slave woman, Hagar. Though God blessed Hagar (as He blesses everyone), Hagar was not the mother of Isaac, the child of promise. Her child was the child of the flesh. Hagar corresponds to the Jerusalem of Paul’s day. It is under Roman enslavement. It is under enslavement to the Law.

But the child of Promise, Isaac, came from Sarah and Abraham. This child is from not earthly power, but from the Jerusalem which is above, God’s Heaven. God lives in this Heavenly Jerusalem right now. The children of Hagar trust the earthly Jerusalem and the Law of God for their salvation. They are enslaved by that Law. When Israel came to Mount Sinai, they feared for their lives. We read about this contrast in:

Hebrews 12:12-24 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. 18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain {Mount Sinai}, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

We who are saved are not saved by Mount Sinai, but by the Heavenly Jerusalem. Our Father lives in that place. At the end of time when God creates a new Heaven and a new earth, the Bible says that …

Revelation 21:2-3 (ESV) … I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Galatians 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

Hagar could have a child, but her child was not the child of the New Covenant. Sarah could not have a child – it was impossible – but God made it possible. Sarah is a picture of salvation by faith in Christ. Those who were “barren”, the lost, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ were saved.

Galatians 4:28-31 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Those who are “self saved”, the children of Hagar, the children of the flesh will always persecute the children of promise. Right after Hagar had Ishmael, it wasn’t long before she mocked Sarah for her inability to have a child. Sarah had been trying for 25 years – but Hagar goes in to Abraham and has a child on her first encounter.

But her child was NOT the child of Promise,
and it did not count!

The self righteous, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes will always hold themselves up as better than the Gentiles because they keep the Law perfectly. I’ve seen this in various places:

Church of Christ: If you don’t belong to a Church of Christ congregation, you’re not saved.
Catholic Church: If you’re not Catholic, you’re not saved.
Pentecostals: If you don’t speak in tongues, you’re not fully saved.

But this mentality goes all through the Church today, even in Baptist Churches. Beloved, salvation is not something YOU achieve. Salvation is something that Christ achieves for you. When you REPENT and RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God makes you a son or daughter of promise. Ishmael, the son of the flesh had no inheritance of Abraham. Isaac, however, was the inheritor to the Abrahamic promises.

If you are saved by Grace, you will lovingly serve your Heavenly Father. You want to magnify Him. You want to glorify Jesus. I have often said, “I will not chase you”. Why should I? If you are born again, you love Jesus. If you are a child of Promise, you love the Lord. You do not serve God because you fear you might not check a box somewhere, and end up in hell. I do not serve my God for fear of hell. I serve my God because I love my God. I hope you do, too.