This content uses the biblical allegory of Abraham's sons, Ishmael and Isaac, to illustrate the fundamental spiritual conflict between living by the flesh (old nature) and the spirit (new nature), and between the law and grace, urging believers to stand firm in the freedom Christ provides.
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Our theme tonight is born free.
And we're reading from Galatians chapter
4 beginning at verse 19 through the end
of the chapter.
This has always been a fascinating
paragraph to me
because it shows how Paul reaches back
into the Old Testament scriptures
and finds some wonderful spiritual lessons.
lessons.
Galatians 4:E 19.
My little children
of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you.
I desire to be present with you now and
to change my tone for I stand in doubt
of you.
Tell me ye that desire to be under the
law, do ye not hear the law? For it is
written that Abraham had two sons,
the one by a bond made, the other by a
free woman.
But he who was of the bond woman was
born after the flesh, that is in the
course of nature.
But he of the free woman was by promise.
Now an allegory is a story
with two levels of meaning. Pilgrim's
progress is perhaps the best known
allegory in the English language
where people and events stand for
abstract truths.
For these are the two covenants,
the one from Mount Si bearing children
for bondage, who is Hagar.
For this Hagar is Mount Si in Arabia,
and answers to Jerusalem, which now is
and is in bondage with her children.
But Jerusalem, which is above, is free,
which is the mother of us all, that is
all believers.
For it is written, "Rejoice thou barren
that beareest not. Break forth and cry
thou that travalest not, for the
desolate hath many more children than
she who hath a husband.
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the
children of promise.
But as then he that was born after the
flesh Ishmamail
persecuted him that was born after the
spirit Isaac even so it is now.
Nevertheless, what sayith the scripture?
Cast out the bond woman and her son.
For the son of the bond woman shall not
be heir with the son of the free woman.
So then, brethren, we are not children
of the bond woman, but of the free.
Stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty with which Christ hath
made us free, and be not entangled again
Now, for some of you, this may be very
complex and mysterious, but those of you
who know your Old Testament scriptures
understand what Paul's talking about.
He's talking about two family problems
that Abraham had.
They're recorded back in Genesis 16 and
Genesis 21.
When Abraham was 75 years old, God
called him into a life of faith and
promised that he would have a great many descendants.
descendants.
10 years went by and uh he had no son.
And so his wife Sarah said to him, "Now
Abraham, God told you that you would be
the father,
but he didn't say that I would be the mother.
mother.
Why don't you marry Hagar, my maid, and
perhaps you can have the son by her?
Now, that was legal, perfectly legal,
but it wasn't scriptural. There are many
things in Chicago that are legal that
are not biblical. And so, he did. He
married Hagar. And when Abraham was 86
years old, Hagar gave birth to a son,
Abraham's firstborn son, and they named
him Ishmael.
Now, um, when Hagar discovered that she
was carrying a child,
Sarah became very jealous of her and
they had a fight and she threw Hagar out
of the home.
And God said to Abraham, "Now you bring
Hagar back. Let her stay here and let
her submit herself to Sarah."
So when Abraham was 86 years old,
Ishmael was born. Now, when Abraham was
99 years old, God came and
said,"Abraham, you should have waited
cuz Sarah is going to be the one to have
the son." About this time next year,
your wife Sarah is going to give birth
to a son. Sure enough, when Abraham was
100 years old
and Ishmael was about 14 years old,
Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Isaac means laughter
laughter
because Isaac brought such great joy
into their home.
Now we have a problem. When Isaac was
about 3 years old, he was weaned and
they had a big feast to commemorate his
weaning. And we read in the scriptures
that Ishmamail, who would now be a
teenager about 16 or 17, persecuted him.
I don't know what he said, but having
been around a lot of teenagers, I can
imagine what he said.
And Ishmael made things rough for little Isaac.
Isaac.
And uh Sarah said to her husband, "Throw
that woman out and tell her to take her
son with her." God said,"Abraham, that's
right." The first time Sarah said for
her to get out, that was wrong. But now
it's right. Let Ishmamail go and let
Hagar go because you can't have Sarah
and Hagar,
Isaac and Ishmamail in the same family.
Now, when you read all of this in
Genesis, it just looks like a couple of
family problems that they would have
written to Dear Abby about if she'd been around.
around.
But there's a lot deeper truth to it
than just family problems. It's an
allegory. Abraham stands for something.
Isaac does, Sarah does, Ishmamail does,
Hagar does.
Now, all of us know what Abraham
symbolizes in the Bible. In fact, uh
Paul has mentioned it several times in
Galatians. Abraham signifies faith. He's
the great man of faith. He's the father
of the believers. And so, when Abraham
is mentioned, you say faith.
Now he tells us what Sarah represents.
Sarah represents the covenant of grace.
And so when you see this very fine
couple, Abraham and Sarah, you have faith
faith
and grace. And of course, they gave
birth to a son. And Isaac stands for the
believer. Verse 28. Now we, brethren, as
Isaac was, are the children of promise. Ishmael
Ishmael
stands for the flesh.
His mother stands for the covenant of
law. And so here's the whole picture
before us. And we didn't make this up.
Paul told us this. Paul says Abraham
stands for faith. And Abraham's family
has Sarah and Isaac. Sarah stands for
grace. Isaac stands for the miracle of
the new birth, the new nature.
Throw out Hagar, who stands for law, and
her son Ishmael, who stands for the old nature.
nature.
So when you put it all together, you
discover something very interesting.
Paul is talking about the two basic
conflicts that you have in your life
every day.
If you're a Christian here tonight, you
have these two conflicts. Now, if you
aren't a Christian, you don't have these conflicts.
conflicts.
You've got a worse conflict. You're at
enmity with God. You're at war with God.
And boy, you don't want to stay at war
with God because you'll lose the war.
What are the two conflicts that we have
in our Christian life? The conflict
between the flesh,
the old nature, and the spirit, the new
nature. and the conflict between law and
grace and Galatians has been dealing
with this. Now Paul says to his friends
in Galatia who had become his enemies,
my little children. You see, he had
brought them into the family. He had
begotten them through the gospel and
he's treating them like little children.
He says, "Let me just tell you a story.
I can't explain these abstract truths to
you. You're such babies. Let me just
tell you a story about Abraham and Isaac
and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael. And
perhaps if I tell you this story, you'll
understand how foolish you are
to try to keep law and grace, flesh and
spirit in the same family. Can't do it.
Somebody has to go.
Now, let's look together at these two
basic conflicts in the Christian life.
First, Isaac and Ishmael, the conflict
between the flesh and the spirit.
When I'm out in conference ministry, I
always enjoy asking congregations
questions. Sometimes it's the answers
are very embarrassing.
For example, I'll often say, "Who's the
first king in the Bible?" And somebody
will stand up and say, "Saul." I'll say,
"You're wrong.
It's Adam.
God made Adam the first king in the
Bible. Which king took over after Adam?
Silence. Romans 5 tells us sin began to
reign and death began to reign because
of Adam's sin. Then I'll say something
like this.
Who was Abraham's firstborn son? Isaac.
Oh no. Ishmael.
Ishmael.
And Paul tells us here, there's a
tremendous contrast between these two
boys. If you want to understand the
flesh, your old nature, and the spirit,
your new nature, just get acquainted
with Isaac and Ishmamail. Look at their birth.
birth.
Ishmael's birth was done by the will of
man, by the will of the flesh. It was
not of God.
Sarah said to Abraham when he was 85
years old, "We had better help God out."
Mary Hagar. Hagar agreed to this. The
whole thing was man-made. The whole
thing was completely apart from the will
of God. Ishmamail was born of the flesh.
This is why the Bible tells us back in
Genesis, he was a wild man.
Ishmael was a wild man. I don't mean by
this he frothed at the mouth and broke
windows, but he was not controllable.
And I say to myself, you know what? When
I was born the first time, they could
have called me Ishmamail.
I went through Moby Dick some months
back. It's one of my favorite books. If
you've never read it, you ought to read
it. But I went through the book for this
purpose, just to mark all the scripture
references and all the scriptural
illusions in that book. There are more
than 100 references to the Bible in Moby Dick.
Dick.
In fact, you when you start the book, I
wonder how many high school students who
have to read Moby Dick choke on the
first sentence.
Call me Ishmael.
That's significant. When I was born,
they were going to call me Phillip.
And if I was going to be a girl, they
But I had a cousin whose name was Warren
uh he he liked that little nephew of
his. And so he they called my name
Warren. And you know what? They should
have called me Ishmail.
Cuz I was born with an old nature. And
it didn't take them long to find out I
had an old nature. And as I grew up, it
didn't take the neighbors long to find
out that I had an old nature. Didn't
take my kindergarten teacher long to
discover I had an old nature. And no
amount of discipline, no amount of law
could change that old nature. That's Ishmael.
Do you ever notice in your Bible that
He rejected
Cain and chose Abel. He rejected uh
the firstborn in Egypt. He rejected Esau
and chose uh Jacob. He rejected your
first birth. He rejected Ishmamail and
chose Isaac. God rejects the first
birth, Ishmael. Now, Isaac was born by
the power of God. Abraham was physically
dead. Here's a man who is 99 years old.
Here is a woman who's 89 years old. The
very idea that they should have any
children, that's why God waited.
God could have performed the miracle at
75. But people would have said, "Well,
Romans chapter 4 says, "God waited until
Abraham and Sarah were as good as dead
and then he performed a miracle in their
bodies and gave them new life." It's a
picture of what happens when you're born
again. Well, when you come to the point
when you're dead, slain by God, I can't
save myself. I can't do a thing for
myself. Oh, God, you have to do it.
That's why John says we are born
not of the flesh, the will of the flesh
or the will of man. We're born of God.
And so Isaac is a picture of that new birth.
birth.
There's a contrast in their births. I
want to ask you this question. How many
births have you had?
Oh, you say my first birth is really
good. If you knew my mother and father,
I don't know your mother and father,
and I'm not sure I want to, but I know
this much about you. If you've only been
born once, you're a sinner.
I know something else. If you've only
been born once, you're going to die
twice. You can die physically and you'll
die eternally.
There's a place called hell, which is
the second death.
The first death is a physical death. The
second death is a spiritual death, an
eternal death, separation from God. And
so I ask you point blank, how many
births have you had.
Now if you can say, I've had two births.
I know that I was born Ishmamail, but
praise God there. I believe the promise
like Abraham did. And one day God's
power went to work in my life. And I
trusted Jesus Christ and Isaac came
along. The joy came in and new life came
in. And I've been born again.
Now, if you can't say that you have been
born again, you better be able to do it
tonight. You better trust Jesus Christ
right now. So, there's a contrast in
their birth. There's a contrast in their behavior.
behavior.
You will never find Isaac creating
problems for Abraham and Sarah. Never.
He brought joy into their home. By the
way, Ishmamail didn't really show how
mean he was until Isaac came along. I
thought my old nature was bad before I
was saved. But man, when Isaac came into
my life and there was a new nature, oh,
my old nature began to fight. Did you
have that experience? You say, "I still
do. I do, too."
He talks about it over in Galatians
chapter 5 where the flesh lusts against
the spirit and the spirit lusts against
the flesh and these are contrary the one
Abraham said, "Isaac, get on the altar.
I'm going to kill you." He did it.
The new nature always obeys the father.
The old nature always fights the father.
And Ishmamail gave problem after problem
to to Abraham.
Let me drop this into your heart just to
think about on your way home. If you get
into a traffic jam or a long stoplight,
just think about this.
Abraham stands for faith.
Sarah stands for grace.
Isaac was born
by grace through faith. The same way you
were born.
For by grace are you saved through faith.
faith.
Ishmael wasn't born by faith. The works
of the flesh. Ishmael wasn't born by
grace. Hagar is the law.
And in their behavior, the two are
contrary. Isaac is submissive.
Ishmael is rebellious.
Isaac brings joy. Ishmael brings sorrow
and division. Wherever you find the
saints of God not getting along with
each other, somebody
has quit walking according to the spirit
and has started walking according to the
flesh. Always.
Whenever the saints of God in a home or
a Sunday school class or any church,
anywhere else, whenever the saints of
God are happily getting along with each
other in creative work and blessing,
it's because Isaac is in control.
Whenever the saints of God are having
problems with each other, and we've all
been through it, it's because Ishmamail
got in. He always caused trouble.
Now, there's a contrast not only in
their birth and in their behavior, but
there's a contrast in their blessing. I
don't want to go into this in too great
a detail, but I want to point it out to you.
you.
God did give blessing to Ishmael,
material blessing, lands and mountains
and things like that. But he never gave
But Isaac was given all of Abraham's
wealth and the spiritual blessings of
Abraham. Isaac was the heir. My new
nature is the heir of God and makes me a
joint heir with Christ. Because I have
the new nature within me. And if you're
saved, you have the new nature. We are
the heirs of God. Your old nature is not
going to give you any inheritance.
If you're living for the flesh, the
Bible says that which is born of the
flesh is flesh and always will be flesh.
But my friend, if you've been born
again, you've been born rich and you've
been born free.
Because Isaac was not the son of a bond
woman. Isaac was the son of a free
woman. Grace,
when you were born, you were born free.
You weren't born under the bondage of
the Ten Commandments. You weren't born
under the bondage of some religion. You
were born free. Abraham never had to
issue commandments to Isaac. As far as
the record is concerned, Isaac's great
joy was to obey his father, even unto death.
death.
Ishmael, that's a different story.
May I repeat for you something I have
often said.
The old nature knows no law.
The new nature needs no law.
When two people fall in love with each
other, you don't have to talk to them
about obeying.
Where there's love, there's the desire
to serve. When you have the new nature
within, there's the desire to serve.
Now, what does God do with Ishmael? He
throws him out.
You say, "But I still have my flesh."
That's right. I still have my old
nature. I do, too. Every once in a
while, it asserts itself rather voseiferously.
voseiferously.
But you said the old nature was cast
out. That's right. As far as God is
concerned, this old nature of mine is through.
Every time I reckon myself to be dead
indeed unto sin and alive unto God, that
old nature can't do anything.
You see, the problem is not God. The
problem is myself. God has told me,
look, as far as I'm concerned, that old
nature has been thrown out. As far as
I'm concerned, you've been dead to that.
As far as I'm concerned, I am crucified
with Christ. Therefore, reckon yourself
that way. believe what God says and act
The reason Isaac
brought such joy and such blessing to
the home was because he always stayed in
fellowship with his father. If you'll
keep this new nature within you in
fellowship with your father,
you and the Lord are going to have a
wonderful time together. And you're
going to find that that old nature,
though it will fight, though it will do
insidious things, though it will seek to
drag you down, you'll find that old
nature will be defeated
because the new nature
will be the stronger.
Paul says, "Make no provision for the
flesh to fulfill the lust thereof."
Do you remember the story that the
Indian told Dr. Ironside? You recall how
he used to work among our Indians in the southwest.
