Birth by Divine Intervention

Galatians 4:21-31 Birth by Divine Intervention Introduction: Everybody on the planet has a birth story. Where were you born, what were the circumstances that surrounded your birth. Maybe you were a surprise, a honeymoon baby, maybe you’re an Irish twin. Maybe your parents struggled for years to get pregnant, maybe you were adopted by parents who couldn’t have children. Whatever the details that surround it, your birth came about by very natural causes, there wasn’t an angel involved in the announcement of your mother’s pregnancy or upon your birth. Your birth came about just like everyone else. Birth is the issue that Paul is dealing with in this section of this epistle. How were this Galatians born into the Family of the Messiah.? Was it by natural causes or supernatural? This takes Paul back once again beginning of this messianic family. All the way back to Abraham and his two wives and his two sons. Paul ties this all back into the two fundamental ways in which people approach God. Either we try to approach God through our own doing, whether it is our own work or righteous standard, that we follow or the divine Law - the focus is on us, and what we do. Paul contrast this with faith or trust in what God has done to approach us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, his Son. As a refresher: This letter addresses a social and racial division in the churches of Galatia. The first Christians in Jerusalem were Jewish, but as the Gospel spread out from that center, increasing numbers of Gentiles began to receive Jesus as the Christ. However, a group of teachers in Galatia were now insisting that the Gentile Christians practice all the traditional ceremonial customs of the law of Moses, as the Jewish Christians did. They taught that the Gentiles had to observe all the law and be circumcised for full acceptance and to be completely pleasing to God. Although this specific controversy may seem disconnected to us today, Paul addressed it with an abiding, all important truth. He taught that the cultural divisions and disunity in the Galatian churches were due to confusion about the nature of the Gospel - what Jesus had really done and accomplished in his sacrifice and resurrection. By insisting on Christ-plus-something-else as a requirement for full acceptance by God, these teachers were presenting a whole different way of relating to God from the one Paul had given them. It is this different Gospel that was creating the cultural division and strife. Paul forcefully and unapologetically fought the “different gospel” because to lose one’s grip of the true gospel is to desert and lose Christ himself. That means that everything was at stake in this debate. Tim Keller points out that the most obvious fact about the historical setting is often the most overlooked. “In the letter to the Galatians, Paul expounds in detail what the gospel is and how it works. But the intended audience of this exposition of the gospel are all professing Christians. It is not simply non-christians but also believers who need continually to learn the gospel and apply it to their lives…..The Gospel is not only the way to enter the Kingdom of God; it is the way to live in the Kingdom of God.” - Tim Keller For some reason most people you talk to both inside the church and outside the church, think that being a christian means that you do x,y and z. The emphasis is on what you do and don’t do. Unfortunately many so-called christians operate under what has been called “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” - which is: “God blesses and takes to heaven those who try to live good and decent lives - The central goal of life is not to sacrifice, or to deny oneself but to be happy and feel good about yourself - Though God exist and created the world, he does not need to be particularly involved in our lives except when there is a problem”. 1. Listen to the Law 1. “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?” 1. To be “under the Law” is to rely on the law for your standing with God..The problem is, that the Galatians, or the Judaizer’s for that matter, aren’t really listening to what the law is saying. The Law doesn’t offer life, it doesn’t offer salvation, it doesn’t bring the freedom that they think it does. Paul has already shown this to be true on a few counts but here he focuses on something new. 2. Slaves or Sons? 1. “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia;[e] she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 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.”28 Now you,[f] brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 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. 30 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.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.” 1. The Judaizer’s are arguing that they are true sons of Abraham, not just by birth but also, by their tradition of circumcision. Therefore, if these Galatians want to be apart of messiah, the Abrahamic blessing, then they must become Jews by circumcision, tradition and law abiding. 2. Paul agrees, this is one way in which one can get into the family of Abraham. But it’s not the only way, it’s not God’s way, nor the way that the Galatians truly want. 3. If you recall the story you know Abraham had two sons. One son was born by a slave girl and one by a free woman. And the son of the slave woman was born by the fleshly, natural, human way. But the son of the free woman was born by divine intervention. One came about the natural way that babies are made, by the work of two humans, the other by promise and divine intervention, by the work of God. 1. "Ishmael and Isaac were both sons of Abraham but were born in two different ways. Isaac was not born naturally but unnaturally. His father Abraham was a hundred years old and his mother, who had been barren, was over ninety. This is how it’s put in Hebrews 11:11 “By Faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.” Notice the word ”promised”. Ishmael was born according to nature, (by Abraham trying to fulfill himself what God had promised). But Isaac against nature, supernaturally, through an exceptional promise of God. 2. These two differences between Abraham’s sons, that Ishmael was born a slave according to nature, while Isaac was born free according to promise, Paul recognizes as an allegory. Everyone is a slave by nature, until in the fulfillment of God’s promise he is set free. So everyone is either an Ishmael or an Isaac, either still what he is by nature, a slave, or by the grace of God set free.” - Stott 3. So the point that Paul is making to the Galatians is that though this work driven, law submitting acceptance before God might seem so right to you and you might be convinced by these Judaizer’s that this is what the Law teaches, The picture is clear - the barren one has more children than the naturally fertile. The sons of Hagar, the ones who use human effort or what comes naturally to get to God, are not true sons, not heirs of the promise, but slaves, and in the end they are cast out. But those who come to God with nothing in their hands, no human effort for approval, are children of Promise like Isaac. 4. Paul sees this as that Great reversal that Isaiah speaks of in chapter 54:1 “ 5. “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.” -Isaiah 54:1 1. Works hold on to the Law which brings slavery. 2. Faith holds on to the promise which leads to sonship and freedom 3. Four kinds of people in the world 1. Law obeying, Law relying: These people are under the law, and are usually very smug, self-righteous and superior. Externally, they are very sure they are right with God, but deep down, they have a lot of insecurity, since no one can truly be assured that they are living up to the standard. This makes them touchy, sensitive to criticism and devastated when their prayers aren’t answered. This includes members of other religions, but here I am mainly thinking of people who go to church. These people have much in common with the pharisees of Jesus’ day. 2. Law disobeying, law relying: These people have a religious conscience of strong works-righteousness, but they are not living consistently with it. As a result of this, they armor humble and more tolerant of others than the “Pharisees” just mentioned, but they are also much more guilt ridden, subject to mood swings and sometimes very afraid of religious topics. Some of these may go to church, but they stay on the periphery because of their low spiritual self-esteem. 3. Law disobeying, not law relying: These are people who have thrown off the concept of the Law of God. They are intellectually secular or relativistic, or have a very vague spirituality. They largely choose their own moral standards and then insist that they are meeting them. But Paul in Romans 1:18-20, says that at a sub-conscious level, they know there is a God who they should be obeying. Such people are usually happier and more tolerant than either of the above groups. But usually there is a strong, liberal self righteousness. They are earning their own salvation by feeling superior to others. It is just that this is usually a less obvious kind of self-righteousness. 4. Law obeying, not law relying: These are Christians who understand the gospel and are living out of the freedom of it. They obey the law of God out of grateful joy that comes from the knowledge of their sonship, and out of freedom from the fear and selfishness that false idols had generated. They are more tolerant than number 3, more sympathetic than number 1, and more confident than number 2. But most christians struggle to live out number 4, and tend to see the world as a #1,#2, or even #3 person. But to the degree that they do, they are impoverished spiritually. 1. Tim Keller says this in His Study from 1 John on being sons of God, “Here is the way you can tell whether you are a Christian or just a moral person ... a Christian or a religious person. A real Christian is a person who says, "it is an absolute miracle that God's loves me. "It's just a miracle that I am a Christian." This is actually an acid test…There are two kinds of people that go to church: there's religious people and real Christians. And the way you can tell the difference is that a Real Christian is somebody who sees everything that comes as a gift. In other words a real Christian sees that you are totally in debt to God, but a religious person is someone who is working hard and making an effort and trying to be good, going to Bible studies and just saying "no" everywhere, and denying themselves a lot of pleasures, and so forth, and a religious person is someone who is trying to put God in their debt. That is the difference. A religious person is someone who is trying to save themselves through their good works. A religious person is somebody who thinks they are putting God in their debt since they have tried so hard. A Christian is somebody who sees themselves as in God's debt.” 2. To the degree that you behold the free grace of God, to the degree that you meditate on it and you let it become a holy fire in your heart, to the degree you experience and behold the love of God, to that degree you are going to find that to difficulties you will be able to say "oh well, my Father must have a purpose here because He loves me, and besides that, He does not owe me a good life. He owes me a far worse life than I've got." You can handle anything. And when good things come you will say "Behold! what a miracle" And the very fact you can get up in the morning and say, "I am a Christian. Who would have thought it?" There is a spirit of wonder about you, and if you have lost that you are slipping back into moralism, you are slipping back into thinking "well I guess what it means to be a Christian is just to do." Here is Christianity: 1. “And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood! Died he for me? who caused his pain! For me? who him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, should die for me?” -Charles Wesley 5. Conclusion: Works based acceptance before God can never produce the Abba cry! When we try by our own human strength and effort to please God, to receive his acceptance and approval, we never arrive at the righteousness God requires, and we never enter into the rest we think law keeping will bring. Law keeping cannot produce the Abba cry, that knowledge of God as loving father, who know us thoroughly and accepts no matter what we have done, and will never leave us or forsake us. Who remains faithful even when we are faithless. Law keeping or law submission only creates uncertainty, fear, a business type relationship. If you keep up your end, God will keep his..but it is up to you..it all weighs on you. -The weight of perfect goodness in every word, every thought, and every action…Remember even your best deeds are “accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections.” It will never bring you the relationship with God that your heart longs for and your soul needs. You’ll never go to your father in confidence that he loves you and wants what is best but you’ll go instead in fear, of judgment, for past sins, or heart motives, because of weakness, or doubt.. 1. Human effort says, I’m ok God, I just need another try. I will do better, I will try harder. 2. Faith says, God I cannot do it, you must do it. I need a new heart. - a divine intervention 2. “Create in me a clean heart, O God,and renew a right[b] spirit within me…” David knew that it wasn’t about doing better and trying harder, he knew that this isn’t what God required. God desires truth in the inward parts and that this can only come about by a divine intervention.. By God giving us new hearts by the working of his Holy Spirit, God creating life where there is only barrenness and slavery. 3. Prayer for Divine intervention: Lord come by your Holy Spirit and work in me that assurance, that if I have put my trust in the work of your son Jesus for my salvation I am your child. I am accepted, I am secure, and I am free. work in me that Abba cry, to call upon my Father in heaven who loves me, who wants good and blessing for me. Help me to walk in the freedom that your love, acceptance and security brings. 4.