Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.
The accuser is called Satan, and all of the forces of darkness are in a spiritual battle against God's Beloved. But for those that love God, the temptation is not to turn totally away from God, but is to distort the essence of the Gospel that you live. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Galatians, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month made to Alan Wright Ministries.
So as you listen to today's message, you can go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.
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Here is Alan Wright. This goes far to explain what happens when you invite the system of law in an intimate way into your household. It will turn and look with contempt upon you. So Hagar is now looking down on Sarah. Verse 6, Abram said to Sarah, Behold, your servant is in your power.
Do to her as you please. And so what happened then was Sarah just began to deal harshly with her. So you've got this huge conflict of Hagar, who has conceived this child, and Sarah, she just realizes that Hagar is now looking down with contempt and Sarah just feels worse about herself. She brought in Hagar to be the solution to her deepest longing, but instead she wound up being persecuted by the one that she brought in. She brought in Hagar with the hopes of solving her inward angst, but now she's more frustrated, angry, and despondent than she was before. And now she's just got conflict.
She introduced this conflict by bringing Hagar in. And at chapter 17, verse 5, I pick up the story. God said to Abraham, As for Sarah your wife, you shall not call her Sarah, but Sarah shall be her name, and I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. So God's reaffirming that Sarah's going to have a son in her old age.
I'll bless her, and she shall become nations, kings of people shall come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who's a hundred years old? So here's this man who believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he thought he was doing the right thing by bringing in Hagar because at least he was going to have a son even though it wasn't through Sarah. And now the Lord comes back and says, No, I really meant it was going to be through Sarah. And Abraham just laughs at the prospect. And he said to God at verse 18, Oh, that Ishmael might live before you.
And what He's saying there is He's making this big concession. It may not be perfect, but at least it's a son. There's no way. I can't see right now Sarah having a son.
And this must have been what you were talking about. We'll just settle for Ishmael. And God said, No, verse 19, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, which means laughter. You just laughed, and I'm going to give you a son through your old wife.
And when that baby comes, name him Laughter so you can remember how hilarious this whole thing is. You want to settle for Ishmael as your descendant, but I've got something far better. You see, a lot of people, a lot of Christians, they just come into the kingdom, and at first their hearts are all aflutter with the fact of being saved, but then when we don't hear the gospel correctly, we start thinking that it's all about my self-effort in order to live a righteous life. And God's saying, No, I've got something way better than that. Joy unspeakable. I want your life to be fueled by laughter, the joy of the Lord to be your strength.
The motivational force of your life, not to be under a tyrant called the law, but to be free according to promise. It is an extraordinary promise. And so the promise is given, and Abraham at chapter 21, verse 5, was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me.
Everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children, yet I've born him a son in his old age? Abraham was 100, and Sarah was 90, and they got a baby boy named Laughter. Every time they'd see that little boy, they'd just start giggling, What kind of God is this? And the child, verse 8, grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar, that's Ishmael, the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, laughing. But this word for laughing is not the kind of laughing like joy, this is the laughing like mocking. This is like contempt and derision. And she saw that this older brother, who's probably about 14, was looking on this toddler and this young one, and he's mocking.
He's not an older brother who's excited about this feast in honor of his younger brother. And so she saw this, and she said to Abraham, verse 10, Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the thing, verse 11, was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. See, you've got to remember, Ishmael was Abraham's son. It was not according to God's promise, it wasn't God's perfect plan, but it was still his son. He'd been living in our household for 14 or 15 years. And now Sarah's saying, get rid of him.
It's a hard thing to ask of your husband. And yet this is what happens. Abraham, he's displeased with this. And he asked the Lord about it. And God, in Genesis 21, 12, said to Abraham, Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you. For through Isaac shall your offspring be named. In other words, God endorsed Sarah's proposal to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. If you're just reading the story, it should be bothersome.
It doesn't even sound fair at all, does it? Sarah invited Hagar into this mix. She's the one that called on Hagar to be the surrogate mother. And now she wants to just kick her out and kick out the son of the slave woman as well. And God said, do what she says.
Paul grabs this image and says, This real piece of history is demonstrating, teaching us something symbolically. Hagar and Sarah were in conflict. And so it was that their children were in conflict. Ishmael and Isaac. And what was Ishmael doing?
He was mocking and taunting and laughing at the child of promise. And the message seems to be shouted at us. There is no mixture possible between law and grace. You can't have a gospel that is grace but has law sneaking in.
Because if it does, it will not only erode your gospel, it will laugh at your gospel. For when things don't look right, and it doesn't look like you've done a good enough job, and when you failed or when you had folly or when there is something that feels futile in your life, the law will always come mocking, saying, Look at you. You haven't been able to keep yourself righteous in the least little bit. How could you be blessed when you made a decision that bad? How could you ever be blessed when you failed at that relationship?
How could you ever think that God is going to bless you now? And as long as you have any bit of the law in your thinking, you will entertain that voice. And the message that Paul is saying to the Galatians is he's taking this image of Sarah and Hagar and he's saying in the same way that Sarah said, Get rid of the slave woman and her son. You've got to look at the Judaizers that are trying to lead you down a path of legalism and get rid of them. And get rid of all thinking that is slave thinking. Get rid of the slave woman and you'll get rid of the fruit of her womb. See, we try to attack our sins as individual sins by our own self, will, and power. And it doesn't work. You're not going to conquer your impatience by saying, I'm just going to be more patient.
That's Hagar-Ishmael thinking. You're not going to overcome lust by saying, I'm just going to make these promises and you're not going to. What he's saying is you've got to do something more than that.
You've got to get rid of a system of thought that is based on law because what it does is it makes you always feel like a failure and incites worse sin because you live with angst. You're living like a soccer player in Iraq and I want you to live like a volleyball player looking for a third gold medal. Live by the promise and you will work hard but you'll work hard and you'll live strong not because of fear but because of faith.
It's all the difference in the world. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. I don't want to pressure my kids and I sure don't want to shame them but I do want them to try hard and be all they can be.
That's the desire of every well-meaning parent. For over a decade, Alan Wright has been teaching all over the nation about the toxic effects of shame and the amazing power of the gospel of grace to heal and set free. Now, for the first time, Alan has been joined by his wife Ann to produce a video series about shame-free parenting. It's called Good News for Parents, raising grace-filled kids in a pressure-filled world. The eight DVD video sessions are chock-full of humor, deep gospel insight and loads of practical advice.
Use them for personal growth or with your spouse and they're also perfect for use in your small group. The DVD album comes with a detailed step-by-step study guide as well. When you make your gift this month, we'll send you the DVD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and start raising kids by the power of the gospel. Call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.
Here once again is Alan Wright. Lloyd Ogilvy, the one I heard say it many years ago, doing my will by human power is humanism. Doing God's will by my power is empty religion. But doing God's will by God's power is the abundant Christian life. A lot of people, well-meaning Christians, are trying to do God's will but do it by their own power. That's what Hagar symbolizes in the family of Abraham. As soon as Hagar, the symbol of legalism and human effort, was invited into the bedroom, as soon as the legalism and human effort was invited into a place of prominence in the household as if it was going to produce real life, as soon as Sarah invites the law to be the means by which they will seek their destiny, Hagar starts to despise Sarah and when Ishmael, who is 14 years older than Isaac, sees his little brother, he mocks him. Law hates grace and religion hates relationship.
Thus the Pharisees despised Jesus Christ. Don't try to win the battle at the surface of the dilemma. Win the battle by the gospel, which replaces law with grace. There has been an amazing story that has been woven like a theme through humanity and is portrayed in the scriptures between an older brother like Ishmael and a younger brother. It started with Cain and Abel. Cain the older, Abel the younger, and Abel makes an offering to the Lord and the Lord's pleased with Abel's offering and the big brother, instead of being excited for his little brother that he's experienced this blessing from God, he gets angry, despises his brother and kills him. The older, who feels entitled and feels like, what did I do wrong?
I didn't do it right? He gets mad and he kills the one that received grace. So then the Abraham story comes along and you've got Ishmael, this older brother, who's a symbol of the law and self-effort, and here comes Isaac who is just a miracle.
He's just a miracle of grace. And Ishmael despises Isaac. And then Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau. And Jacob is the younger and Esau realizes that the favor of God is on Jacob when Esau felt so entitled because he was the older. And yet when he didn't get his entitlement, he despised the one who had received grace.
Do you see? Jacob then has these sons and his youngest is Joseph until later Benjamin is born and the older brothers, Reuben and Simeon and Levi and the others, when they see that there is grace that is being lavished upon Joseph, the older brothers, they despise him and they try to kill him and send him on his way. See this story that just goes through? The one who is the older, who thinks I'm entitled, I deserve, I'm the one that should get blessed, but I'm looking and here is grace that is just being received in an unmerited way by my undeserving younger brother gets mad instead of being excited about the grace that is shown. What should an older brother do? An older brother should be excited when there is grace that is lavished upon his little brother or his little sister, you know? And yet there is this story that goes through. So Jesus then comes and he tells his, what I think is the best story ever told and he tells this man he had two sons and the older was really dutiful and he stayed at home and he kept all the laws and the rules but the younger went off and squandered everything in a wild living and when the younger came back the father lavished the younger with this unmerited favor and just poured out grace upon him.
They killed the fatted calf and they had this big feast. Here's this feast, it just reminds me of the feast that Abraham was having when Isaac was weaned and now there's this great feast and the older brother, he can't be excited for his baby brother at all. He won't come into the party, he despises him, he hates him. The law hates unmerited favor.
It wrecks the system. And what we need somewhere in this story is for there to appear on the landscape an older brother who yes is righteous, who yes does keep the law, but doesn't despise the younger who can't keep the law, who doesn't despise the younger one who receives such lavish grace. If we could only have a big brother who'd finally get excited about unmerited lavish grace poured out upon the younger siblings. If only... And Jesus comes, the firstborn of all creation and He lives a sinless life and He goes to the cross and there He is wrongly executed and as He bears the sin of the world, He says, Father, forgive them. I want these to be my little brothers and sisters and I want them to receive lavish unmerited grace.
Nothing would excite me more than to have my baby brothers and sisters get the grace that they never could have earned for themselves. Thus, Paul can say to the Galatians, you are not children of the slave woman. You didn't come down that line. You weren't born out of the elder brothers that hated the younger. You were born of promise. You were born of freedom.
You were born as an heir. Here is the extraordinary good news of the Gospel. Paul says you are not Ishmael, you're Isaac.
You're not a mocker, you're laughter. Believe the Gospel. If you can see in the story of Isaac how much Isaac was a miracle supernaturally born, all the more you, Christian, are a miracle supernaturally born. Not of human decision or of the flesh, but born of God. You are not a son or daughter of the slave woman, but of the free woman. You are an heir. And if an heir, just as God promised to build a nation through Isaac, God will build a kingdom through you. So get rid of the slave woman and be an Isaac. What I'm saying, beloved, is that you could play soccer like an Iraqi national star because you're threatened and afraid.
It might have the appearance of you're spending every bit of your energy trying to do what's right, but inwardly you're anxious. And today you can overthrow that tyrant. It's like Sarah. She brought in Hagar. It's a mistake.
But if she brought her in, she could send her out. You know that's the way it is with your idols also. You're the one that set it up so you could tear it down. What it is to say is that you're not an Iraqi player playing for fear of Saddam. You're Kerry Walsh who's like, I got so much promise of gold on me.
I'm not even going to wear any silver. My invitation to you is let there be so much promise of heaven on you that you don't even have time for the things of the world. You are Isaac, and that is the gospel. Allen Wright and today's teaching, Getting Rid of the Slave Woman. A series on Galatians and Allen Wright is back here in the studio in a moment with us for additional insight on how this applies to our lives and today's final words.
Stay with us. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Allen Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Allen Wright's daily blessing.
It's free and just a click away at pastorallen.org. I don't want to pressure my kids because I don't want to shame them, but I do want them to try hard and be all they can be. That's the desire of every well-meaning parent. For over a decade, Allen Wright has been teaching all over the nation about the toxic effects of shame and the amazing power of the gospel of grace to heal and set free. Now, for the first time, Allen has been joined by his wife Ann to produce a video series about shame-free parenting. It's called Good News for Parents, Raising Grace-Filled Kids in a Pressure-Filled World. These DVD video sessions are chock full of humor, deep gospel insight, and loads of practical advice.
Use them for personal growth or with your spouse, and they're also perfect for use in your small group. The DVD album comes with a detailed step-by-step study guide as well. When you make your gift this month, we'll send you the DVD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and start raising kids by the power of the gospel. Call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Allen, this is really about vision and keeping your eyes on your calling, your true identity, and what Jesus has done for you.
You're standing with God. Yes, yes. And hear the urgency. Get rid of the slave woman. Get rid of slavery in your life. Get rid, cast it out. This is the fervor that spiritually what we're saying here is the pieces of shame, the little bits of law, everything that leads you into a mentality of slavery and fear, spiritually speaking. Get rid of that and instead embrace only the purity of the gospel. It is that important. And what a vivid, vivid picture because it is, Daniel, in the end, the difference between freedom and slavery. And so it's my prayer for every single listener today that by the power of the gospel, that by the power of the grace of the Lord Jesus, that you will be set free. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.
