As we continue in the letter of Galatians, where Paul has reminded us so many times there's no other gospel,
there's no other good news other than the good news that we are saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and not by our works.
And then he comes to this passage here, talking about the family of Abraham.
And so we're going to think this morning about the gospel family tree for a few minutes.
Paul has already in chapter 3 used the story of Abraham, the example of Abraham to make the point that it was never God's intention to save people by the law.
He called Abraham by a promise 430 years before the law.
And he never changed his intention that we're always saved by promise and not law.
Paul, in chapter 3, he talks about Abraham demonstrating the fact that it was never God's intention that the law would save us.
It was always on the basis of grace and promise and covenant.
And so now he's going to return to the family tree of Abraham to teach some important lessons on the topic of grace and promise.
So Galatians chapter 4 and at verse 21, let's read and hear God's word together.
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
For it is written 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 the result of a promise.
These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants.
One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves.
This is Hagar.
Now, Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem because she is in slavery with her children.
But the Jerusalem that is above is free and she is our mother.
For it is written,
Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children.
Break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labour pains,
because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
At that time, the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.
It is the same now.
But what does the scripture say?
Get rid of the slave woman and her son,
for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.
Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
This is God's word.
Now, as we look around us today, we discover that tracing our family history,
tracing our family trees is becoming a big deal.
In fact, it's becoming big business.
There are now a variety of DNA testing companies that you can send a sample away to.
They can help you trace your origins and roots.
You can employ a DNA detective.
If you don't know who your family is, if you want to find distant family members,
there is the business of archive research, which grows all the time.
It's made its way into popular culture with TV shows like Who Do You Think You Are?
Where celebrities are brought in and they meet with experts who can help them trace their stories.
Sometimes those stories can be really surprising, really shocking to those who are involved.
But why is this big business to us?
It's because family matters to us.
Family connects us to people and to places.
Family gives us that sense of roots and having a shared identity.
Family is important for a sense of belonging.
Now, central to the whole letter of Galatians is a question,
who are the children of God and how can I become a child of God?
And in the background, Paul, who's writing the letter,
is reacting time and again to false teachers who've been saying,
On the one hand, because we are Jewish people and because we're keeping the law,
we are God's children.
Because of our family tree that we can trace back to Abraham,
we are in God's family.
And on the other hand, they were saying to people who weren't Jewish,
well, you're believing in Jesus, yes, but you also need to become Jewish.
You need to take on Jewish rituals and ceremonies.
You need to be keeping the Jewish law if you really want to be saved and be a child of God.
And so Paul is reacting to that and he's going to say,
that's the wrong way to think about it.
We're saved by grace.
We become children of God by God's loving kindness,
not because of who we are and what we've done.
And he's going to use Paul, Paul's going to use Abraham's family tree in order to teach that.
He's going to give us a warning to say,
don't rely on your family, don't rely on your own moral goodness.
And he's going to give hope.
He's going to say, because it comes as a free gift,
there is good news for anyone who is willing to listen.
So our big question, how can I be a child of God?
Now, boys and girls, let me speak to you for a few minutes.
Sometimes in our families, we are very like our brothers and sisters.
Sometimes you're twins and then you're really, really like,
you know, sometimes we have the same interests.
We like doing the same kind of stuff together.
Other times we're quite different.
Sometimes people wonder, are they actually in the same family because they're so different?
Well, today in our story, Paul is going to tell us about two brothers who are in Abraham's family.
One's called Ishmael and one's called Isaac.
And their stories are very, very different as we're going to think of it.
And Paul says, we can actually think about these two brothers
and think about them standing for two different ways to try and know God.
One is the wrong way and one is the right way.
So he's going to talk about this boy, this man called Ishmael.
And he's going to say, Ishmael stands for the wrong way to try and know God,
which is all about us thinking, well, if I try and be really, really good,
then God will accept me.
God will welcome me.
So if I try and be really good in my family,
if I try and be good at school,
go to church and read my Bible, keep the rules,
Paul's saying, actually, that's not how we are saved.
That's not how we become a child of God.
Because God's standards are higher than ours.
So boys and girls, if I was to ask you,
are you good at jumping?
Probably quite a few of you, if you're quite sporty,
say, yeah, I'm pretty good.
I'm probably better than some people in my class.
So you'd have your own idea.
Here's what good at jumping looks like.
Maybe you could jump as high as this table.
Maybe you could jump as high as my head.
Maybe.
But if I said to you, here's what I think being good at jumping is.
Can you jump high so you can touch the roof?
That's a different standard, isn't it?
That's an impossible standard.
We could never get there.
Even with a trampoline, we couldn't get there.
And what Paul is going to remind us,
he reminds us in this letter again and again,
we cannot be good enough for God's perfect standard.
It's too high for us.
So there needs to be another way.
There needs to be another way for us to be children of God.
So there's a right way.
And that takes us to the other brother, not Ishmael, but to Isaac.
Isaac was the son of a promise.
He came as a gift from God.
And for anyone to be in the family of God, it comes as a gift of God.
It comes as a gift of his kindness.
And what we need to do is not trust in our own goodness.
It's to trust in Jesus.
It's to trust that where we couldn't match God's perfect standard,
Jesus can and Jesus did.
And he did it for us.
And then he died to forgive our sin, to wash our sin away,
to bring us to God.
So as we listen to the Bible story, sometimes in our head,
we think, I just need to be a really good boy.
I need to be a really good girl.
And Paul is saying, no, you need to trust in Jesus.
You need to receive the promised grace from God.
So let's remember that, boys and girls,
as we work our way through our Bible passage here.
Two things I want to say.
The first is it's important to know your family history
in spiritual terms.
Now, who is Paul speaking to at this precise moment in his letter?
Look with me at verse 21.
He says, tell me, you who want to be under the law.
So he's writing to a whole church,
but then he's writing to a group of people within the church,
this group that want to be under the law.
In other words, they want to rely on God's law for their acceptance.
He's writing and speaking to a group of people who are tempted to say,
I need Jesus and I need the law.
So they're tempted to that way of thinking.
Now, he says to them positively in verse 28 that they are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
In verse 31, therefore, brothers and sisters, he'll say,
you're children of the free women.
You already have all these wonderful things.
So he's warning them, don't go back to an old way, to a bad way of thinking.
And to help them with that, he uses the story of Abraham again.
So verse 21, are you not aware of what the law says?
First five books of the Bible, sometimes known as the law.
Book of Genesis is where we find the story of Abraham.
And he's going to use that story to show them that being under the law,
it is to be in slavery.
And he's going to point them back to God's way of grace.
So in verses 22 and 23, we get a summary of two branches of Abraham's family tree.
And boys and girls, you'll find on your worksheet,
there's these details that you can fill in so that we can help to track with what Paul is saying.
Let's read verse 22 again.
For it is written that Abraham had two sons,
one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
So there are two mothers.
We only get the name of one of them in this passage.
Her name is Hagar.
She's the slave woman.
And then Abraham's wife is Sarah,
described here as the free woman.
So this is taking us back to the story that we find beginning in Genesis 12,
all the way to Genesis 21.
And in that section, we find time and time again,
God made promises to Abraham and to Sarah,
promising that they would have a child, that God would bless them,
that they would become a great nation,
and that one of their seed would be the source of blessing for the whole world.
Those were promises to Abraham and to Sarah in particular.
But as time passes in the story in Genesis,
Abraham and Sarah are old and getting older,
and Sarah can't have children.
And so we get to this point in Genesis chapter 16,
where Sarah comes up with a new plan.
She says to Abraham,
I can't have children,
so why don't you take my slave woman,
Hagar,
and start a family with her?
So we end up in Abraham's family tree.
We have two mothers.
We have Hagar, the slave woman,
and we have Sarah, the free woman.
And then we have two sons.
Verse 23.
His son by the slave woman
was born in the ordinary way,
but his son by the free woman
was born as the result of a promise.
So his son by the slave woman,
again, is not given a name here,
but we know in the Bible that this is Ishmael.
And Paul says he's born in the ordinary way
because he's the project of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar
coming together, having this discussion,
working out how to get a son,
born in the natural way,
representing human effort.
But then there's this other child mentioned,
the child who's born as the result of the promise,
and this is Isaac,
who is the son of Sarah.
And he's not born in an ordinary way.
He's born in an extraordinary,
in a supernatural way,
because his birth comes
as a result of God's kindness,
as a result of God's faithfulness
to that promise that he'd made
as a result of God's gracious provision
to Abraham and to Sarah.
So Isaac comes as a gift of grace
in response to that promise
that they'd received.
So here is Paul,
and he's tracing out these two different branches
of Abraham's family tree,
but why is he doing it?
What point is he making here?
Well, he's trying to remind
these Christians who are tempted
to go back under the law
and to become Jewish.
He's saying being a child of God
is not about physical DNA.
It's not about our biology.
It's not about the family
that we belong to.
And nor is it about human effort.
It's not about human effort
at law keeping.
Rather, enjoying God's freedom
is a gift to receive by faith.
It's the message he's been bringing
to us again and again
in the book of Galatians.
Now, why is he making the point?
He's making the point, remember,
these are people who are free in Christ,
but they're tempted to go back
towards slavery.
He's making the point
to say to them
that by trusting in Jesus,
they're already adopted
as children of God.
He's saying to them,
don't forget,
that's already yours.
That's your status.
Let's remind ourselves
of Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5.
He says,
when the time had fully come,
God sent his son Jesus,
born of a woman,
born under law,
to redeem those under law
that we might receive
the full rights of sons.
Verse 7,
you're no longer a slave,
but a son.
And since you're a son,
God has also made you an heir.
You don't need anything else
if you're trusting in
the Lord Jesus Christ
for your salvation
and your acceptance
from God.
But this passage
stands as a reminder to us
that even as Christians,
we stand in danger
of what we might call
legalism,
relying on the law
in order to be accepted
by God.
If I do this thing,
and if I don't do that thing,
then God will love me more.
He will value me more highly.
Or if I keep this list of things
that I must do,
then God will surely accept me.
And on the other hand,
if I do badly,
if I fail,
then perhaps God will love me less.
Perhaps God will want nothing
to do with me.
And we become very insecure
or very proud and judgmental
or despairing
when our sense of salvation
is rooted in
what we are doing
and how we are performing.
And so Paul is reminding them
that the gospel of grace
gives us freedom from that.
The knowledge that because
we're in Christ,
we are fully loved
and accepted.
Let's think about it this way.
Boys and girls,
when it's your birthday time,
do you find your parents
coming with a sheet of paper
and adding up your list
of good things and bad things?
Do they say,
oh wow,
you did really well
helping with the dishes
and you're really kind
and helpful.
Oh, but
you did that thing wrong
and that thing wrong.
Therefore,
I was going to give you this gift,
but now
it didn't quite make the good.
We don't do that.
We give
out of grace
and out of love
and out of kindness.
And we need to recognize
that God is far more generous
and loving towards
His children.
And we have this invitation
to joy
and freedom
and security
in Christ
if we are in Him.
Because if we are in Him,
we enjoy God's perfect gift,
His perfect love.
And it's when we are resting in that,
when we are trusting in that,
then we have also the freedom to obey.
He's going to start talking about
because you're free,
you get to obey
out of thankful hearts,
not because you're afraid
that you'll be judged,
but because you want to please
your Father.
So know your family history.
All of us
are either
an Ishmael
by nature
in slavery
to sin
and far from God
or we are
an Isaac
by God's grace
set free.
Which family tree
do we belong to
and which family tree
do we want to be
part of?
And we need to understand
that it all depends
on how we respond
to Jesus,
the King,
to Jesus,
the Lord and Savior.
Do we turn from sin?
Do we trust that He forgave sin?
That He has the power
to deal with the power
and the penalty of sin
to give us new life,
to bring us to God?
And as Christians,
how can we avoid
this danger of legalism
that some of the Galatian church
was falling into?
Again, it's about knowing
your family history.
Live with freedom and joy
because you know
that you're living
in light of the promise
and grace
and because of Jesus'
finished work
on your behalf.
Take a gospel
DNA test.
What am I trusting in
for my salvation?
Am I trusting in Jesus alone
or am I tempted to think
it's Jesus plus
my efforts,
plus
my law keeping?
If we're trusting
in Jesus alone,
we're told we're a child
and an heir of God,
we're in God's family
with all the freedom
that that brings.
So know your family history
and also know your family story.
In verses 24 to 31,
Paul moves away
from a straightforward
family tree
and he begins to use allegory.
He uses this family tree
to stand for spiritual truth.
He's continuing
to build his argument
that we trust in grace
and promise
and not effort
and law.
So he's going to say
these families represent
different realities.
First of all,
the two families represent
two different covenants.
So look with me
at verse 24.
And we find that's
exactly what he says.
These things may be
taken figuratively
for the women
represent two covenants.
One covenant
is from Mount Sinai.
So that's the covenant
of law at Mount Sinai.
But then there's
another covenant.
There's the covenant
of promise.
Verse 28,
Now you brothers
like Isaac
are children
of promise.
So as I was saying
just before we started
reading the Bible
that in Galatians chapter 3
Paul had already said
promise comes first.
Promise was always
the only way
to be a child of God.
And in actual fact
the law's purpose
is to lead us
to see our own sin
and to see why
we need Jesus
as Savior.
And so
Hagar and Ishmael
represent
living under the law
whereas Sarah
and Isaac
represent living
under the covenant
of promise.
And he goes further
and he talks about
two places.
Verse 25,
Now Hagar
stands for Mount Sinai
in Arabia
and corresponds
to the present city
of Jerusalem
because she is
in slavery
with her children.
So there's the physical
city of Jerusalem
in verse 25
and then verse 26
there's the Jerusalem
that is above
which is free
or the heavenly Jerusalem.
So one is a place
filled with slaves
marked by slavery.
The other is filled
with children of God
who are enjoying
freedom.
And that points us
to these two conditions
that Paul is driving towards.
So one is slavery.
One covenant
verse 24 again
is from Mount Sinai
and bears children
who are to be slaves.
Verse 26,
But the Jerusalem
that is above
is free
and she is
our mother.
Now,
we maybe don't get
the sense of this
but there is a real
shock factor
in what Paul
has just said.
So remember
he's speaking
against
these false teachers,
these Judaizers
who are so proud
of their family tree,
so proud
of their DNA,
so proud
of their law keeping,
believing that
that made them
children of God.
And he turns
and he says
to you
spiritually
you are slaves.
You think
you are free,
you think
you're children
of promise
but because
you're not trusting
in Jesus
spiritually
you're slaves.
Jerusalem is described
as a city
full of slaves
because by and large
they had rejected Jesus.
They decided
we don't need Jesus,
we'll continue
to trust
in our own righteousness,
in our own efforts
at law keeping
and so they rejected
Jesus,
God's Savior.
So Paul says
to them
when you trace
your family story
spiritually
you discover
a nasty surprise.
I was reading
about some
of the highlights
of that TV show
Who Do You Think You Are?
I think it's been on
for 10 seasons
and one of the
most surprising,
shocking moments
for one of the guests
was when
Ainsley Harriet,
you know the TV chef,
he was on
finding out
about his family history
and he discovered
that his great,
great grandmother
when she was just
two years old
in Trinidad
was sold
into slavery.
And so there was
a real shock
for him
discovering
that he was
descended
from this slave woman
who he'd known
nothing about.
Paul wants
to shock
his readers
to say to them
look if you continue
on this path
that the false teachers
are recommending
your family story
will be about slavery.
You will make
yourself slaves
if you walk away
from Jesus
and his grace.
To the legalist
he's saying
you think you enjoy
promise and privilege
because you're
Abraham's children
but because you
reject Jesus
your father
is Ishmael
not Isaac.
To rely on
our own ability
rather than
the supernatural
grace of God
is to remain
in slavery
is to remain
under judgment
and this should
stand as a
warning
to us.
I don't know
how many of you
have done
the series
called
Christianity
Explored
but in one
of those sessions
there is a question
that is asked
why should God
let you
into heaven?
And there are
various people
who come up
on the screen
and they present
answers that
ultimately
are not good enough
but answers
that many people
rely on.
I'm a good
person.
I give to
charity.
I try and obey
the law.
I've never been
to prison.
I read my
Bible.
I pray.
And what Paul
teaches, what the
Bible teaches
is that any
answer that
begins because
I, it is
doomed to
failure.
The only way
into God's
presence, the
only way to
know and enjoy
God's love is
because Jesus.
Because Jesus
loved me.
Because Jesus
gave himself for
me.
Because Jesus
died in my
place and for
my sins.
So he gives a
warning about
slavery and
then he gives
the promise,
the reminder
of freedom.
Almost the
flip side to
Ainsley
Harriet's story
is the story
told by C.S.
Lewis in
The Horse and
His Boy.
I don't know
how many of
the boys and
girls have read
through some of
the Chronicles of
Narnia.
Well, in The
Horse and His
Boy, which I
think is the
third one in
the series, the
story begins with
a boy called
Shasta.
And Shasta was
being raised by a
really mean
fisherman who was
basically keeping
him as a slave and
he thought this
man, this horrible
mean man was his
dad.
But then he goes
on this adventure,
he runs away from
home, goes on
and it turns out
he's actually a
prince.
He's actually a
son of the king
living as a slave.
But actually, he
had this glorious
freedom.
And Paul is
saying, look, you're
wanting to go back
to slavery but you
have this glorious
freedom to enjoy.
That's what he's
saying to us as a
church.
The opposite of
slavery is freedom
and the opposite of
human effort is
God's initiative,
God's power,
God's grace and
that's represented
by Isaac's family
tree.
So in verse
29, at that
time, the son
born in the
ordinary way
persecuted the
son born, how?
Born by the
power of the
spirit.
So here is a
reminder that
Isaac was a
gift from God.
There is grace
in evidence here.
And Paul also
parallels this with
the story of
Israel.
That's why he
quotes in verse
27 from Isaiah
chapter 54.
These are words
spoken to
exiled Israel,
feeling abandoned,
feeling small,
feeling weak and
helpless.
Here is hope for
them that God
would restore them
by his grace and
would expand their
family.
Here is promise
that God's kingdom
will be much
bigger than
anybody ever
imagined.
So Paul uses
the story of
Isaac and he
uses the story
of Israel to
bring hope.
Hope.
Because it's all
about Jesus,
anyone can
become a child
of God.
It's not
restricted to
those who have
the right family
pedigree.
It's not about
our human
family.
It's not about
our background
and circumstances.
It's not about
our ability or
morality.
It's all about
faith in Jesus,
trusting in who
he is as the
son of God and
what he has
done in
coming to
rescue us
from our
sin to bring
us to God.
It's really
important for us
to notice how
he closes off
his discussion
of these two
family trees.
Verse 29,
we read about
Ishmael
persecuting
Isaac.
And Paul says
at the end of
verse 29,
it's the same
now.
That these
false teachers
are persecuting
those who are
trusting in
Jesus.
And then
verse 30,
what does the
scripture say?
Get rid of
the slave woman
and her son,
for the slave
woman's son will
never share in
the inheritance
with the free
woman's son.
So in Abraham's
family, under
Abraham's roof,
there was fighting
and there was
tension.
There were two
families, two
brothers who
couldn't live
under the same
roof.
Ishmael was
persecuting his
younger brother
Isaac.
And there is this
reminder, only
the child of
promise would
receive God's
spiritual inheritance,
not Ishmael.
And then Paul
applies the story
to the church and
says that in the
same way, you
cannot have
existing in the
same place a
theology that
rests on grace
and a theology
that rests on
human works.
One of them
must go so
that grace alone
is left to
stand.
And so we
must be really
careful in our
churches to
preserve the
gospel of grace
to defend it
from legalism
which is always
a danger that
we face.
Which family
story is
ours today?
Are we under
law?
Thinking it's
all about do
better, try
harder and in
the end I hope
that God might
accept me?
Or are we
under Christ
where it is
true security
because we're
resting on his
finished work,
his precious
promises to
us so that
we can know
that we are
God's children
because only in
Jesus is there
freedom to enjoy
God's promise.
Only in Jesus
can we become
children of God
through what
Jesus came to
do for us.