Sarah & Hagar

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. This is what we're going to be looking at this morning to finish up Galatians chapter 4. And that's the title of the message, The Bondwoman and the Free Woman.

Galatians 4 and the Bondwoman and the Free Woman

Mark already read the scripture reading, so we'll let that kind of sink in for a little while. But for additional context, let's turn to Genesis chapter 21. Because that's what Paul is referencing, this story in Genesis 21.

We'll look at that in just a couple minutes. But what have we seen so far going through the book of Galatians? And if you're new to the ministry here at Morse Corner Church, we believe in expository preaching.

It's the job of a pastor to preach the word. And it's obviously the job of a Bible teacher to teach the Bible. So instead of coming up with some thing that I dreamed up during the week, we stick to the Bible.

We try to stick to the Bible and go verse by verse and explain what the word of God is trying to communicate. So, so far going through the book of Galatians, we've been seeing kind of the same theme. And it's all about the gospel.

What is the gospel? How is the person saved? How does a person get to heaven? It is by faith alone in the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection the third day. Trusting in him and in him alone.

And through Galatians, we've seen Paul versus the Judaizers. Paul is preaching the gospel. The Judaizers are preaching a perverted gospel. So we've seen Paul versus the false teachers. Law versus grace.

The true gospel versus the false gospels. Faith alone versus salvation by faith plus something else. Faith plus works. Faith plus circumcision. So up until this point, that's really what the whole book has been about.

Things are going to change a little bit when we get to chapters 4 and 5 because we're going to start to get into some of the application. But as of this moment in Galatians 4, Paul is still laying out his case.

He is still laying out his argument. And that's kind of the way Paul thinks. And we should think this way too. We should think consistently. And when trying to convince somebody, we should think through what we're going to say.

This is how Paul writes. He works through logical arguments in his mind and then it comes out in the text. You know, if this is true, then this. If that's true, then this. And he'll address questions that have come up or might come up.

Paul also uses illustrations. That's what we saw here with Hagar and Sarah. So he uses illustrations and Bible stories. And then he comes to his conclusion based on what? His opinion? No, he comes to conclusions based on scripture.

Just a personal note before we get into this more. This is why I think Paul's epistles are my favorite books of the Bible. I know what I'm supposed to say. I'm supposed to say the gospels are my favorite books.

But I think for me, Paul's epistles are my favorite books of the Bible because they are the most applicable to New Testament Christians. And this is also the way I think through issues. I try to work through things in my mind and I try to anticipate what somebody might say.

I try to anticipate what the objections might be. You know, it's almost like a game of chess. You know, how many of you play chess? Okay. Two. Two or three of you. Well, hey, I could use an illustration with checkers, I suppose.

You all know how to play. Everyone knows how to play checkers. But, you know, if I move my rook here, they're going to move their bishop here. And if they do that, then I'm going to do that. You have to think a few steps ahead, right?

Well, that's what Paul does. That's what I try to do. I try to stay a few steps ahead and think through things. Paul is always three moves ahead of his opponents. So just let me give a quick summary of Galatians 4, 21 through 31, because I know that Mark was reading through that, and some of you are probably like, what does this mean?

What does this have to do with anything? Okay, so Galatians 4, 21 through 31, Paul is speaking about the two covenants. Right? Paul is using, what are the two covenants? The old covenant of the Mosaic law, the new covenant of grace in Jesus Christ.

Paul is using the Old Testament story of Hagar and Sarah as a prophetic allegory. Abraham and his wife Sarah had no children. The Lord then came to Abraham and promised to him that he would not only have a son, he would make of Abraham a great nation, which he did.

But he told Abraham, you will have a son from your own body. That child of promise was who? Isaac. So Abraham and Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Isaac's birth, because Sarah was an elderly woman at the time, she was barren even when she was younger, Isaac's birth was a miracle.

Just like Jesus's birth was a miracle. And the scripture says when God made that promise to Abraham, the scripture says that Abraham believed God, even though it was impossible, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Have you ever read something in the Bible? And the thought in your mind was, that's impossible. How is that possible? But you know, if you believe it, if you believe God, that's faith. That is how you are accounted before God.

That's how you are counted righteous. So many years with Abraham and Sarah, many years went by, but guess what? No son, no son. So Abraham and his wife, Sarah, instead of being patient, and it must not have been easy, but instead of resting in the promise of God, they started to say, maybe we need to do something.

Maybe we didn't hear God correctly. Maybe we have to add our works, so to speak. Well, that was their first mistake. Instead of trusting in God's promise, they thought they had to do something. And you know what happened?

Abraham had a child with Sarah's maid servant. I mean, brilliant idea, guys. That's a great idea. And it just made, of course, everything worse. So they came up with this plan, Abraham and his wife. It was actually Sarah's idea, wasn't it?

Which is even that much more incredible. To have a servant or to have a baby with the maid servant, Hagar. So Hagar conceives and gives birth to Ishmael. Later on, of course, God's promise was fulfilled and Isaac was born miraculously.

But now there's a conflict. Now there's a conflict and it's obvious, right? And Abraham was a wealthy man who would be his heir. Ishmael or Isaac? Well, who was the legitimate wife? Hagar or Sarah? It was Sarah.

So it's Sarah and her son, Isaac. He is the child of promise. So you have these two women, the free woman, the legitimate wife, Sarah, and the other woman, Hagar, the bond woman. Sarah is a picture of New Testament Christians.

Hagar is a picture or a symbol of the Jews who did not believe in Jesus and are still under bondage under the law, okay? So that's what's happening here. Look at Genesis 21 verses one through 12. We'll read this account.

Genesis 21, one through 12. And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him.

And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, called him Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, and God, as God had commanded him.

Now Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made me laugh and all who hear will laugh with me. I'm sure a few did, right? Verse seven, she also said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children for I have born him a son in his old age.

So the child grew and was weaned and Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, who had been born to Abraham scoffing. Okay, so who's scoffing now?

Ishmael, Ishmael sees this and he's scoffing. Therefore, Sarah said to Abraham, cast out the bond woman with her son for the son of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac. And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham's sight because of his son.

But God said to Abraham, do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bond woman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice. For in Isaac, your seed shall be called.

Isaac was the son of promise. He was the chosen son. Now that statement, see if you've been paying attention as we've been going through Galatians. That last statement for an Isaac, your seed shall be called.

Galatians says, Paul says in Galatians, who's the seed of Abraham? It's in Isaac, your seed shall be called. Who's the seed of Abraham? Christ is the seed of Abraham. Galatians 3 16 tells us the seed singular is Christ.

And if we were to go to the new Testament in Luke 3, we would see that Jesus himself descended from Isaac. So this is the line, Abraham and Sarah gave birth to Isaac and then Jacob and then Judah and on and on it goes right down to Jesus.

So Jesus would come through the child of promise through Isaac. Okay, you're all with me so far. All right. So now that we have that background established, let's go back to Galatians 4 and take a closer look at it.

We'll go through verse by verse and try to explain what's happening. And again, I've titled the message, the bond woman versus the free woman. Sarah versus Hagar. Sarah is a picture of New Testament Christians saved by the gospel.

Hagar is a picture of those who are in slavery under the law, the unbelieving Jews. I was going to title it the two covenants. And again, of course, the two covenants are the old covenant and the new covenant.

Which one are we under? The old covenant or the new covenant? New, right. We are under grace. We are under the new covenant. The old covenant, if I can just illustrate it this way, the old covenant of the law says, do.

You know, thou shall not do this or thou shall do this. The new covenant, just not that there are no rules any longer, but the new covenant basically said, it's already been done. Jesus fulfilled the law.

We are not working our way to try to get into God's good graces. Jesus did that work that brought us into a right relationship with God. The law could never do that. Okay, nothing you can do could ever make God love you, you know, because God already loves you.

He has loved you through Christ. You understand that as a parent, right? And maybe there are some people who grew up in homes where you felt like you had to do things in order for your parents to love you, which would be very, you know, sad, but good parents love their children, no matter what their children do.

They're not always pleased with their children, right? They discipline their children, but you understand that love for your child. You love them because, not because of what they do. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Moores Corner Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, moorescornerchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.