Sibling Rivalry gone wrong ?
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading
Galatians 3:10-14
Good morning, everyone,
Before we dive deep into our passage for this morning we need a little of a refresher because it has been 5 weeks since we have been in the book of Galatians and I know we all could use a refresher from the Hussle and bustle of the Holidays. God’s word has one central theme that keeps beating us in the heads and I admit that we need this because we as humans are hard-headed.
We learned that there is one and only true God. He created everything out of nothing and even though the Apostle Paul uses the examples of wood, glass, and stone. I know that in a world where we have everything made out of smart materials, metal and plastic this seems distant but it is no different. We worship our cars, technology, our careers, and yes even books. Anything materialistic can be the idol that we as humans are worshipping the created item instead of the Creator.
We also learned that ministry is hard not because of the work but because people are hard and spreading the Gospel to those around us is not sunshine and roses. The Apostle Paul is showing his frustration because he has poured everything he has into the people of Galatia and then some.
The last point is that when we are doing the work of the kingdom then our struggles, temptations, and challenges will be high. we will be hit harder and faster because the enemy does not want us to do what we are doing to grow for the kingdom.
One thing that I will say is that this is one of the hardest passages in the book of Galatians and one that I wrestle with trying to understand.
Galatians 4:21
ESV
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
The Apostle Paul continues his thought that has been universal throughout the book of Galatians that the law does not save us but the lawmaker. The spirit of the law does not save us but God the supreme being that created everything out of nothing has saved us. The idea was that if you follow the law then you were good but the concept of the law had many angles because it showed them us how messed up we are, and no matter what we do we cannot save ourselves. Additionally, it was also to show that even if you follow what you believe is the letter of the law you are not doing the right thing. For example, you can tell your children that they cannot put a fork in the electrical outlet but if they do not understand that it is for their safety. The law was meant to be a guide post and the people of Galatia were not getting it. They were becoming so legalistic that they were told that you had to be circumcised to be saved but really this wasn't the reason for it and was entirely something different.
I am not sure if I am just weird but if you explain why it is not a good idea for me to put a fork in an outlet I won’t do it. if you state that I cannot do it. Okay? why? what is the spirit of the reasoning for this rule or this guidance?
The same thing goes for the regulations and laws that we have going on in the world. We learn more about what the Apostle Paul is trying to explain to us in the rest of this morning’s passage.
(Insert slide from Holman NT commentary)
The Author uses a story that we just covered recently about the story of Sarah and Hagar. Now before we go any further, we have to remind ourselves that this is an Allegory. Holman’s New Testament Commentary states the following about what an allegory is. “ An allegory is a spiritual or symbolic interpretation of a story that also has a literal meaning.”
The Apostle Paul is using a story that the people of Galatia would have known to reinforce and explain what he is trying to drill down inside of their hard-heated selves.
Galatians 4:22–23
ESV
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 promise.
If we are caught up in our reading we should have Read ( not giving anyone a hard time because I am behind but will not let that stop me from this precious time with my Creator.)
I digress
this story we read this story In
Genesis 16
where we read of the Conflict that was a triangle of issues from the very start. You have Father Abraham, Sarai, and Hagar. There was an increasing amount of pressure for offspring and Abraham was told by God that he would have more offspring than the stars in the sky.
Before we all tell ourselves that they were just dumb we have to comprehend that they were facing pressure more than a newly married couple to have children and start their family. I am not stating that it is right for them or us to take things into our hands. Our Heavenly Father had a plan and we do not have to the individual steps. These 3 individuals were trying to speed up the process and not have faith. The biggest struggle that we have as Followers is that when to have so much faith when things are going right in ourselves but as soon as we hit a pebble in the road or a pothole we start trying to do the solution ourselves.
So to sum up the story in Genesis because it is a long story and I know that I will have enough challenges with pronouncing names.
Sarai talks to Abraham and says hey I have an Egyptian servant that could help us with our desire and the promise God has made us. Sarai is going to use a Biblical version of a surrogate to ensure that they have children to start their family.
Sarai gives The Egyptian Servants Hagar to her husband to have children and the servant conceived. Now you would think that Sarai would be happy, but she was treating her mistress with contempt or badly.
Hagar runs to a spring in the wilderness because Sarai is not being so nice and has an angel talk to her to comfort her. Later in the story, we learn that Hagar bore a son and he is called Ishmael.
Now the story is about to get very intriguing because 14 years later Sarai is blessed with a son and he is called Isaac.
Now I know that the details seemed like I skipped some details but we know the general premise that the triangle of People tried to help God out with the blessing that was promised. He were wanting to do it in their timing and not in God’s. We have the backstory so we can return to the Apostle Paul who has commented in verse 23 that the son of the slave was born according to flesh and the son of the free woman was born through promise.
Verse 23 states something that can be very confusing but makes sense when you get deep into it. Sarai was promised to have children even though she was way beyond her childbearing years. (She was beyond old and not a good thing to say to women)
The worldly example would have been after a woman has had a full tub of Iligan. All of the female’s organs are taken out to the point that there is no way possible that the woman could have the joy of having another child. Then you have God telling your husband that you are going to have children even though you know that it’s not possible and that you will not be blessed with the joy and pleasures of being called a mother.
You come up with a plan that is going to help God along a little. You are going to have your husband deposit his seed into your maid or servant so that you both can become parents. Everything you think is going well but you become to have resentment, anguish, frustration, and many other emotions. Hagar has a son called Ishmael. (Ish-Mae-l).
14 Years later Sarah has a son and names him Issacs and fulfills the promise that God has made. The Apostle Paul lays it out that Hagar bears a son through traditional means, but Sarah has a son from a promise made. This is a Miracle because she was beyond old and Abraham was close to it. They were closer to death than living at this point but God kept his promise like he keeps his promise to us.
Now that we have laid it out that they were definitely at the point in their lives that they were going to be chasing toddlers at around 100 years old. Grand Parents Imagine chasing your grandkids around at this age? Do you think are you tired now imagine then ?? To quote Pastor Rich this is why you have kids when you are younger so you can play and chase them around.
Gal. 4:24-25
We have to remind ourselves of the definition that I read earlier. An allegoric is not a fairy tale or something that is not true. This was something that was known and the Apostle Paul is using it to help the people of Galatia to understand the significance of these two covenants or laws.
Before we dive deep into Mount Sinai and Arabia, we have to remind ourselves of something that is beyond Critical. The Apostle Paul understood the laws and grew up being very legalistic to the point that he and others were worshipping the law and the one that created the laws. It the importance for us to remember that before the New Testament and specifically the Apostle Paul your salvation was tied to the following of the law. the 613 laws that covered everything from how far you could walk to not working at all. Modern-day Jewish Believers cannot even turn on a light switch or operate an electric key card on a door on the sabbath because they have interpreted that it is considered work and against what they have been told. So Remember that Sarah is Free and Hagar is a slave. I know that I am beating this into your skull but is vital for us to understand that one is the old way and one is a new way that saves us.
Hagar is Mount Sinai and is the first-century city of Jerusalem. These individuals were enslaved to the law and the legalism that they grew up with every moment. The Apostle Paul is a weird stage with the people of Galatia because the concept that they did not have to earn their Salvation was still pretty new. The Author went through the same stages and until he was blinded on the road to Damascus he was killing Christians for sport and was very high up in the chain of command of the Religious sect of that time. The following of the law produces individuals that are slaves. Diolougious to the commandments that man had added to God’s Word. God did not give us the original 10 laws to make us slaves to it but to show us that we are slaves to ourselves. We are no better than anyone else and we are sinners deserving of death for a single lie. A single white lie, telling your spouse that their cooking is good when it isn’t ( just an example folks), speeding, or cheating on your taxes.
I mentioned on Wednesday night that I originally thought that a white lie was okay. What harm am I doing by just covering something up or sparing their feelings? However, God said meant that all sin is bad, for example, if I am angry with my neighbor I have murdered them in my heart. The spirit of the Judaizers was that they were trying to be good followers of God, but their hearts were not transformed. They were going through the motions thinking that if they followed this ridiculous number of laws they would be saved and okay. Everyone was chained and enslaved to the law in such a sense that they had taken the principle that we are so messed up that we can save ourselves.
In the year 2023, we are slaves to ourselves but for other reasons because no matter what we think that we can donate money, time, effort, or anything to show that we are good people plan. I love the word Sunday Christian because these same people will do everything that they are told to do on Sunday morning but on Saturday night they are drinking too much, doing things that they shouldn’t, they are cheating, stealing, murdering, and everything else.
The Apostle Paul uses the example of Hagar as Mount Sinai because it was a sacred place to the Jewish people but was the old way. It was the very mountain that Moses received the tablets before he was angry at the people for worshipping Golden Calves. This was a major significance and would be like us using the events of Hurricane Ian and Charley, September 11th, and Covid. We all know the details of these, and we know everything. Everyone has a story of where they were and the importance of it. It was not something that was disassociated with them because they lived it every day.
Dr. John MacArthur uses the example in his sermon on this topic to describe Mount Sinai as a place that was not very pleasant. I would like to add another example that this would be like Oakland California, Detroit, or Cook County. Do you have that very vivid image of crime, sin, and a not positive environment? When I was thinking about this, I had the image of walking through the cave of sorrows at the Creation Museum in Kentucky. You see images of the Jewish centration camps, atomic bombs, war, famine, and everything else.
You do not want to be on Mount Sinai’s side with Hagar because he stands for and is a slave. She is in slavery with her children and ourselves because without the mercy, grace, and forgiveness that comes from our Heavenly Father, we deserve everything we get and a trillion times more. I know the theme of Galatians is not touchy and feely but honestly, it doesn’t matter and I don’t care. God has to get us out of our comfort zone and shake us up a little.
How many people would admit that they are stubborn and need to experience things to become better?
Galatians 4:26–27
ESV
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.”
Sarah is referenced as Free and Grace. She is Jerusalem above or in a very fathe way that she is Heaven. She is the one that was chosen and given the gift of eternal life with our Heavenly Father Partying at the Marriage supper of the lamb. Remember that Sarah was promised by God to have grace given by the gift of being a mother. It was not possible, she was ancient and closer to the grave than raising children. But here is the thing Sarah was not just a mother to Isaac but the mother of more children than she could count. Abraham was told that he would have more children than the stars and this applied to Sarah. She deserved death but was given mercy and God fulfilled the promise.
Isaiah 54:1
The Apostle Paul is quoting from
Isaiah 54:1
that even though she was barren God supplied grace and mercy instead of following the law. The children of the barren one will be more than the one who has a husband. This was not meaning a literal woman but Israel that was treated like a red-headed stepchild that was thrown out of their country and mistreated. God has promised that he has us and that we do not have to supply a way to do his miracles. If God says that he is going to make you pregnant then it will happen. You do not have to come up with a plan to have your husband put a seed in your slave. Sarah should have been punished but by God’s Mercy and grace she was forgiven and the mother that started it all.
I know that we think that we need to pull ourselves by our bootstraps, but God provides and this goes straight to us in 2023 that God loves us enough to provide for us. We do not have to come up with a way to make God happen. He is God the Creator, sustainer of the earth. He can do anything that is not against his character and his love.
Galatians 4:28–31
ESV
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that 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.
So how do we interpret this because it can become very confusing? so, we need to break this down into some bite-size chunks.
Now you brothers like Isaac are children of Sarah who are destined to Go to Heaven.
Those who were born according to the flesh which is Mount Sinai is Haber whom The Apostle Paul is Referring to Ismael who was persecuting or mocking his older brother Isaac. We see this is
Genesis 21:8-9
Genesis 21:8–9
ESV
And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.
So Ismael is mocking his older brother and this reinforces the number of sibling conflicts and issues that were occurring. It was more than just Sarah and Hagar that were out for each other it was also the children. Who has Grown up in a step or divided family?
If the parents do not squash the issues of this side against the other there can be some major issues. Falling out, brutal hazing, and more than what you think when you hear about Pastor Rich and his sister. This was beyond mustard and mayo fights but was an all-out war against each other. They were at odds with each other. This was more than siblings but also goes to show that it is an entire group of people. The legalizers versus Followers of God. Those that feel they can earn their salvation through their works and those that know they cannot do anything.
No,w do you feel any connection to how it is now? What about us verse the world? Believers verse Unbelievers? We are children of God and do what is right but many times we are mocked, ridiculed, and thrown through trials and when we fall and make mistakes instead of mercy and grace from others we are judged because of our transgressions. I love the Facebook post that goes around that says that church is a hospital and it is so true. believers are messed up and we are works in progress and will continue to be until we are taken home.
Those that know God’s grace verse those that know God’s mercy to save us from what we deserve. We use the example of the good works we do for God and the dump trucks. The Judaizers thought that those good works and following the laws were what saved them and not the lawgiver.
The Apostle Paul keeps diving keep and continuing to pull from the First book of the Torah by quoting
Genesis 21:10
that says that those who are trying to be justified in keeping within the law need to be thrown out like a garage. They will be cast out of the presence of God beyond any measurement of time forever...
We see at the tail end of verse 30 that the son of the slave woman shall not inherit what the free woman has been given. The Judaizers, the world does not get what has been given to us. We did not do anything to earn this but were given grace through faith in our Heavenly Father. We have to remind ourselves that just because we have the world throwing mustard at us it doesn’t end. Our savior has a plan and we do not have to take it into our own hands.
So how can we apply what we have learned in a world that is messy, strange, and? Hard?
1.we can rest assured that God does not change his plan and we do not have to figure it out.
We do not have to figure out how we will be saved because it has been given to us. In the church world, we all look at the next big study, book, or item that will get people in the church but instead we just have to have faith. You cannot get your faith from a book, study, or music. God has given us the faith to believe in him no matter if we have the mud of the world on our faces or if it is something else.
We do not have to be anxious about what will happen because God has a plan that will provide. In an uncertain, time we start to think that we have to do everything on our own. We have a growing trend of people that are selling blood and plasma just so they don’t have to ask for help from someone. I am not saying that you freeload, but God got us and provides a way to make what he has promised to happen. We do not have a plan and if we did we would have messed it up. I know that if would have tried to follow my plan for my life I would be in a different place, extremely unhappy dreading time off instead of counting down the time to the next set of vacations.
We do not set the rules.
We as humans do not set the rules or Jesus Plus. We are not the Judaizers that state you have to follow 613 laws when God was trying to show us that we could never earn our Salvation. God wants to have a relationship with us and that is so much more than how many times I washed my fingers.
We are growing in his love
God loves us more than any word can understand or comprehend. Our love for him should be growing more and more each day. God loved us enough to have a plan A for our mess up when he knew that we would mess it up.
As everyone sets goals and resolutions if you are that type of person let’s start and continue with the one resolution that means more than anything.
A Stronger relationship with our Abba.
Let’s Pray