Ishmael or Israel?

What’s Holding us Back?

A pastor was talking with a young man out in town. He asked her what church she went to. The man looked at the pastor and said, “I don’t go to any church.” The pastor asked him why and the young man replied, “I don’t go to church because they are all filled with hypocrites and sinners.”

To which the pastor replies, “It’s okay, there is always room for one more.”

We continue with our sermon series on the early church. We have been going through Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia. From what Paul is hearing they have gone back to their old ways. Some of these new believers probably began going back to their old pagan ways while others were buying off on the idea of needing to become Jewish to become a Christian. They are looking back on their lives and trying to go back. The thing about life is that we cannot go back. My kids still miss Newport News, but I like to remind them that even if we were to go back there, it would not be the same. I had a similar experience when I lived in England for three years. Growing up in the military is weird, so I was already used to moving. When we got across the pond, things were different and me along with the majority of my peers wanted to get back home to the US. Now, we didn’t waste all of our time pining about being overseas, but at the same time, it prevented us from understanding what a great opportunity we had in front of us, of which were many. This move was particularly different because it was the first time we were moving back to the same house in the same neighborhood into the same room I had before we left. We made it back and there were maybe two of my friends from third, fourth, and fifth grade that were still around and they were incredibly different. All that to say, the past is in the past, things change. If we put ourselves in the past, it prevents us from moving forward or it at least prevents us from being fully present in the present.

The other issue here is that the Galatians are putting their faith back into the old rituals and old ways. Some were retreating to their pagan roots and others were retreating to the Jewish standards. They were going back to a ritualistic kind of faith. The thing about God is that He is less concerned with the ritual than He is the relationship we have with Him. Rituals have no real power. We have rituals that we observe here. We observe The LORD’s Supper at least once a quarter. We observe that ritual because it is important to remember what God has done for us. The ritual in and of itself does not atone for our sins. When we take communion we are reminded that Jesus is the One that atones for our sins. The Galatians are putting more importance on circumcision than they are on knowing God. Rituals won’t save us. Only God can do that. I think one reason that we like to have the rituals and the legalistic mindset is because it keeps us in control, but we will look at that a little bit later in the sermon.

We looked at how Paul preached to the Galatians because of his disability, not in spite of it. Paul did not use his disability as an excuse to stay home and not go anywhere. Though, that excuse probably would have been acceptable to the other believers if he had just decided to stay home. Paul was going to let nothing get in his way from preaching the gospel. He did not let his weakness stop him from traveling, instead he relied on God’s power and God’s grace to get him where he was going and to give him the strength he needed to do God’s will.

What’s our excuse?

When is the last time we made an excuse to tell someone about the Gospel or to help at an outreach event? When is the last time we went out of our way to do what God has told us to? What I find in life is that it is easier to make excuses not to do something God told us. It’s easier to just not do it and come up with an excuse on why we didn’t do it since God has such grace for us. I mean, we wouldn’t miss work without fear of reprisal would we? We wouldn’t decide not to pay our taxes or follow the laws of man. It’s a matter of priorities. Is God our priority or do we prioritize something else? Paul didn’t use his disability as an excuse. He relied on God and made it out to Galatia where he established the churches that are now suffering with the legal issue. Now Paul is upset because it looks like his work might have been in vain. He wishes he could be there with them so they could see his face as he tries to plead with them. Just as Paul relied on God, we can too!

Today we are going to look at two covenants that were established by Abraham’s two sons. If you have your Bibles, please turn them to Galatians 4:21–31

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. But the one by the slave was born as a result of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born through promise. These things are being taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery—this is Hagar. Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, childless woman, unable to give birth. Burst into song and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate woman will be many, more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband. Now you too, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as then the child born as a result of the flesh persecuted the one born as a result of the Spirit, so also now. But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a coheir with the son of the free woman.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave but of the free woman.

Paul continues to use Abraham to prove his point. He has been skirting around Genesis 21 for a while, this chapter deals with the birth of Issac. It is no surprise that he continues talking about Abraham. Jewish folks knew a lot about Abraham, but the converted Galatians were pagans before becoming Christian, so they woudl not have known much about Abraham. As a result, the circumcision Jews were using this Scripture to bolster their argument for circumcision. So Paul is taking this piece head on. The fact is that the Galatian converts would not have known any better, they would just trust what these legalistic folks were telling them. They trusted, but did not verify. It’s a big problem, because the circumcision Christians are taking the Scripture out of context to make their argument. This has been a problem throughout history. This is a photo of an indulgence. Back before the Protestant reformation, the Bible was written and read in Latin. The only people authorized to have the Bible and read it were the priests. Lay persons were not able to read the Bible. That was one thing that Zwingli and Luther had a problem with, so the reformation was launched.

However, since the majority were ignorant of the Bible, they just trusted what the pope and priests were telling them. The Crusades were funded on indulgences. I know that many Renaissance artists tried to paint a different picture of the Crusades, saying that the knights were simply going in search of new land and they were doing it for the glitz and glamor. The fact is, the majority of those knights went bankrupt because they had to take their entire entourage with them and they had to pay for it themselves. Why would they do that? Because the pope made the proclamation that if a knight would go on the Crusades, his indulgences were paid in full.

What is an indulgence? I’m so glad you asked. An indulgence was a fee a person paid to the church to take away their sin. That’s right. People paid a fine to get rid of their sins. If the leadership at the time had been honest about Jesus and His atoning work, then folks would not have paid into the indulgences. There was no money in it, though. There are so called pastors out there that use the same kind of tactics to fleece their congregations. Part of the problem comes to not knowing what the Bible says. If I ever got behind this pulpit and told you all that God wants to bless you, but before He will bless you, He says you have to send seed money to the pastor so he can buy a boat, I would hope that you all would call me out for it. As believers it is up to us to know what is in the Bible inside and out so that we aren’t duped. A long time ago, we looked at the temptation of Jesus. The devil tempts Jesus and Jesus refuses those temptations by quoting Scripture. Then the devil attempts to justify sinning by using Scripture. Jesus refutes it with more Scripture. It is important we take everything in the right context lest we be led down the wrong path. The same thing happens today. There are a lot of folks out there that take Scriptures out of context to make the Bible say what they want it to say. If we are ignorant of the Bible, then it is easy for us to fall into the trap. I have heard some people within the progressive Christianity movement make some arguments in favor of their brand of heresy. What does that mean for us? It means we need to know the Scripture and we need to know what context we are dealing with when it was written. The best way to ensure that we know we are not taking things out of context is to read the chapter the verse is contained in. Then read the chapter before it then the chapter after it. Look for repeated words to see what the theme is within these three chapters. From there it is important to look at the cultural norms at the time, then we cross the principlising bridge to determine what it means in our modern context. One such book that really needs a lot of contextualizing is that of the song of Solomon. The book is a long love letter between husband and wife. There are all kinds of images used in that book to pay one another complements. One of my favorites is Song of Solomon 4:1 How beautiful you are, my darling. How very beautiful! Behind your veil, your eyes are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead. When Dania asks me about her hair before she goes to school in the morning, if I respond that her hair is like a flock of goats, she is not going to see that as a complement. She won’t because our culture is very different than that of the Israelite kingdom.

We went over the life of Abraham a while back when we were working through Genesis at the Thursday night Bible study. Abraham was a good man, but he had his flaws. One such flaw is that he did not trust God well enough.

God promised Abraham a lot of good things. He promised him wealth, land, and descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky. Abraham did not doubt God’s provision and promise that He made, but he essentially says it is pointless since his servant is the one that will get all of these things. Genesis 15:2 “But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Abraham is worried about longevity here. He is playing the long game. What is the point in having all of this stuff if he isn’t going to have anyone to pass this on to. God explains that it won’t go to Eliezer’s house. Instead, it will go to a person that comes from his own body. That makes Abraham happy. He is so excited that he goes home to tell his wife Sarah about it. Sarah is old and feels she’s beyond her child bearing days. So, she gives her concubine Hagar to Abraham so that he can have a kid with her. Abraham does not do the right thing. He does not act faithfully. He is well within his right as far as the Ancient Near East is concerned. That was a common practice back then. Just because it was common and accepted by the Ancient Near East world, does not mean that it was acceptable for Abraham to go through with it. Of course, we have the same problem today, don’t we. The world tells us that certain things are okay and so then the church has to make a decision, will they go along with this sinful thing that the world calls okay or will it stand against it? Just because the world says it is okay does not mean that God says it is okay. He is the One that sets the standard, not us or our worldly governments.

Anyway, Abraham goes along with the plan when in reality, he should have responded with, “Oh no, babycakes you are my wife and when God says He is going to give me an heir, that heir is going to come from you.” If Abraham had gone that route, things would be a lot different today than they are. Instead, Abraham discounts what God can do and decides to take Hagar. Really what it comes down to is a lack of faith. Neither Sarah nor Abraham have faith that God is going to give them a son. So they take matters into their own hands. It’s that control thing again. They want the control of it. Sometimes God is going to send us on a path and He is going to tell us to trust Him, and we need to put our faith in Him. If we don’t have faith that God will deliver on the promise, does that show we have faith in Him? Or do we have something else. So Abraham takes Hagar and they conceive a son and everyone is happy, right? I mean, Sarah put this plan in motion, so she has to be pretty happy that Abraham is a father now and her plan has come to fruition. That’s how it happens, right? Abraham is super happy too because there is peace in the camp because now he has his son, he has his wife, he has his concubine. That’s not what happens, though. Now, this will come as a big shock to you, but after Hagar conceived, everyone was miserable. Sarah despised Hagar since she is carrying Abraham’s son. Hagar is emboldened because she has a leg up and begins treating Sarah with contempt. Sarah complains to Abraham and odds are he probably gets some complaining from Hagar as well. I can only imagine what was happening in Abraham’s household. He must have learned first hand what Proverbs 21:9 “Better to live on the corner of a roof than to share a house with a nagging wife.” meant. (Now, as an aside, gentlemen, when you are having an intense fellowship with your wife, do not whip out that Scripture. It won’t go well for you.

Anyway, Sarah puts the blame on Abraham for the predicament. To Abraham’s credit, at least he didn’t say, “Wait a minute, this whole thing was your idea.” Instead, he gives Hagar back over to Sarah and Sarah does what most jealous people would do, she makes Hagar’s life miserable. The treatment is so bad that Hagar finally decides to flee.

Hagar is then found by the Angel of the LORD by the spring on the way to Shur. He asks her why she has come from and where she is going. She responds that she is escaping her cruel mistress. Then the Angel of the LORD tells her to go back and submit to her mistreatment. Genesis 16:10–12 “The angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your cry of affliction. This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will settle near all his relatives.””

Hagar is obedient. She goes back to her mistress and deals with the mistreatment. It is not Abraham or Sarah that are obedient in this narrative, instead it is the concubine Hagar that is. Eventually she gives birth to Ishmael. God was true to His word. Muslims trace their lineage back to Ishmael. We also see that Ishmael is today at war with his brothers. We wonder why there is so much unrest in the Middle East, it all goes back to this moment in history when Abraham and Sarah decide to go the worldly way instead of going with God’s original plan.

Eventually, Sarah does get pregnant with Isaac and he grows into a great nation. His descendants will become the Israelites and they too will be a great nation.

Getting back to the Galatians, Paul asks them since they are under the law, would they rather be under the covenant given to a slave or to a free woman. Hagar was not free, she was owned, but God still made a covenant with her and He delivered on it. We see His promise fulfilled today. So there is that covenant, but then there is the covenant made with a free woman.

Flesh vs. spirit.

So we have this conflict between Ishmael and Isaac. Paul is using allegory here. Ishmael represents the flesh since he was born of the flesh. He was not the son of promise. Ishmael was brought about because Abraham and Sarah thought they knew better than God. Do we run into that problem where we think we know better than God? What happens when God gives us a promise, but then we decide that there can’t possibly be any way that He will be able to make it happen? We mess it up. We get involved and try to do it ourselves. It’s the flesh trying to do something that God has to do. Even after Sarah is upset with Hagar and Hagar is showing contempt for Sarah, when God sends visitors to see Abraham and Sarah, they tell her that she is going to have a child and she still doesn’t believe it. Genesis 18:14 Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.

Nothing is impossible for God. He spoke existence into being ex nihilo. That means it came from nothing. There was nothing, there was void. God brought everything we see into existence by saying the words. If He can create the light and the dark, the sun and other heavenly bodies, if He can create the earth, the seas, the mountains, and everything that lives on this earth from nothing, then why would we doubt His ability to deliver on a promise? Why would we expect the flesh to be able to save us? The flesh is bent on sin. Later, we are going to get into the fruits of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. The flesh does not save us, the Spirit does. The Muslim faith, which traces its lineage back to Ishmael has the tenet that as long as the believer is 51% good, then he or she will enter into paradise. It’s a works based religion. As Christians, we know that the moment we commit any sin, we are condemned. The moment we commit a sin, we are at 0% and there is no way that any of our good acts will add to that failing grade. The only way to be righteous enough to enter heaven is to know Jesus and put our faith in Him. One day, we will meet with the LORD. Deuteronomy 4:24 “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” The LORD our God is a consuming fire. One day, we will meet Him and see His holiness. The only way to be prepared is to know Jesus. So if you are here this morning and have been relying on something else to get you into heaven, come to Jesus. He is the only One that guarantees an eternity in heaven. We can’t save ourselves, only Jesus can do that. Let’s stop trying to do what only God can do.