Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. God is doing great things in the heart of a Christian faithfully submitted to the Savior. Philippians 2.13 tells us that it is God who works in us.
both to will and to work for his good pleasure. As followers of Jesus, our fruit filled life comes as the upshot of walking with and treasuring God. In Galatians 4, 21 through 31, Paul continues to draw a clear line between religion that simply follows rules. and a flourishing life in Christ. Just like the Galatians, our default setting today is to base God's acceptance and our spiritual status on our performance.
So how do we flourish in Christ? does God not give believers clear instruction to obey and follow? What does it look like? to walk with God instead of just following rules. Let's listen to this message from Galatians 4.
21 through 31. Good morning, church. I'm going to be reading from Galatians 4. 21 through 31 ESV. For those that'd like to look that up.
And it'll also be on the screens. Yeah. Tell me. you who desire to be under the law. Do you not listen to the law?
For it is written that Abraham had two sons. one by a slave woman, and one free woman. But The son of the slave woman was born according to the flesh. while the son of the free woman was born through promise.
Now this may be re interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, She is Hagar, and Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem. for she is in slavery with her children.
But The Jerusalem from 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.
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. But just as at that time he was born according to the flesh, Persecuted him who is 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. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I'm so grateful.
for this freedom. the freedom that you've gifted to us and to all who believe, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and accept Him as Saviour. Your provision for us is so simple So secure.
so complete My prideful heart can stumble sometimes. I stumble over such a humbling truth that there's absolutely nothing I can do. to earn my salvation. is completely done. Finished.
Gift it to all who accept you freely given, yet at so great a cost, to you and our Saviour. May we never forget the magnitude of what you've done for us. May our hearts remain in complete awe and wonder at so great a love as yours. that you have called us to yourself. You whispered our name.
Father, you created us in your image, and one of the ways that you set us apart from the animals is our minds. The ability to choose? Our wheels the ability to control our minds, our faults.
So now may we exercise that gift to your glory by focusing our minds completely on you. And your word. All the noise of our flesh, the chatter in our heads, those unfinished to-do lists, unsolved problems. All surrendered. We lay him down at the foot of the cross, Like Mary at the feet of Jesus, may we be completely engrossed in you.
Any word? and your message to us. May we be totally captivated by you. Please continue to bless Pastor Rich and his diligent pursuit of you. study in your word and communion with you in prayer and meditation.
Thank you for our earthly shepherd, his great love for you, And for us. Continue to strengthen him, protect him, guard him. And use him as your vessel to your glory. Don't let us forget to thank him for the service for all he does. I ask these things in the name of our precious Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Thank you, Debbie. Good morning, church. Well, this is an easy text. The title of today's sermon is Born According to the Spirit.
Paul's leading us into chapter five. It is our freedom in Christ that he is championing. New converts, churches that he had started, people had come, other teachers had come into these churches and said: if you're truly a follower of Christ, You have to keep this law code. And Paul says, no, that's not right. That's not how the gospel of grace works.
And so he begins: look at it with me in verse 21, Galatians 4:21. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law. You who desire to be under the law. Wait a minute. Stop there for just a minute.
Probably not too many of us. Are really concerned about keeping the whole law of Moses. You don't struggle with that, do you? Essentially, though, what he is talking about here. Is that we would believe that our relation to God is based upon performance.
That you struggle with. I know you do. We all do. We do it naturally. We all do it to varying degrees.
And this is what Paul is communicating to us. This is our freedom. Your relation to God is not based on performance. Aren't you glad for that? We need to learn this.
Now he's going to lead us through this passage today. using an illustration from biblical history. It's natural for us to think we have to perform. We all struggle with it, but we need to grow in grace. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This is our default way of thinking that we have to that our relationship to God is based on performance. That's our default thinking. That's natural thinking. Here's the good news: the more you grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. The more you will diminish your default way of thinking.
Okay. This is what Paul is calling us to through this letter that was written so long ago to a group of churches. And yet, because God is timeless, His truth is timeless. This is for us today, too. We're not struggling with the law.
But we do struggle with performance, thinking that it's my performance that keeps me in good relations to God.
Now he's going to use an illustration here. He calls it an allegory. 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, the son of the free was born according to the flesh. to uh through promise.
Now this may be interpreted allegorically. Let me tell you what he's not doing here. He's not giving us a key to all biblical interpretation.
Sorry. What he is doing is looking at the law. When he refers to the law, he's referring to the books of Moses. Genesis is considered part of the law.
Okay. The books of most of the Pentateuch. All of that he's referring to it as the law. And he he recognizes it as Get this. History.
It is history. Real things that happen to real people in real time in history. He's not saying that everything that's recorded in the Old Testament scripture, we just need to find its allegorical interpretation. That's not what he's doing here. He's simply using true historical factual events and using them as an illustration.
Allegorically, using them as an illustration for the point that he's driving home for the Galatian believers. And I think it's a very powerful point.
So, an allegory is a literary device to employ an analogy. to use a likeness And what is it? It's the back story of the Old Testament. The books of Moses.
So we have Abraham. Abraham is a real person. Out from the land of Ur, and God called him. And he goes up to Haran, And then God calls him and says, I want you to follow me. And Abraham says, Where are we going?
And the Lord says, I'm not going to tell you. But he went anyway. And so he led him to the land of Canaan. All right, and Abraham had a wife, her name was Sarah. They were childless.
God had made a promise to Abraham. Remember what that promise was? You're going to have a great nation. You're going to become a great nation. Here's the problem.
God's promise was that they're going to become a great nation. The problem is, they have no kids.
Okay, God, how's this going to happen?
So, in their weakness, Abraham thinks he can help God.
So, Sarah, his wife, has a household servant. And in the custom of that day and in their weakness, they think they can help God out.
So she gives her household servant to Abraham to bear her a child. And that becomes the heir. because they thought they needed to help God with his promise. You know what they're doing? They're acting according to the flesh.
It didn't work. That was a moment of weakness. And the child that comes from that union, his name was Ishmael. And God says that's not the air. That's not the one.
The Lord promised Sara that she would conceive and bear a son. She was well beyond the years of childbearing. It was a miracle child. It was a child of promise. In other words, here's the whole point he's making.
Isaac Who came from Sarah. was a supernatural birth. That's the contrast he's making. One was an act of the flesh, the other was a supernatural birth. That's the contrast.
It's very important to understand that though Abraham is considered the father of faith, we have to understand he didn't get everything right, did he? Aren't you glad to know that? Again, his relationship to God wasn't based on his performance. That's the whole point that Paul's making here. It's according to God's promise.
And so here we have two sons then, as he points out here in the text. There were two sons. One was a son that was born according to the flesh. That's natural, that's human performance. That's doing what you can do.
It's natural. And then there is the son that's born through promise. That's not natural. That's something that only God can do. And it's based on that birth, it is based on God's promise and God's power.
So he continues, there's two sons. There's in two sons, there were two mothers, right? There's two women, and he's allegorically using the analogy here. He's saying these women represent two covenants. The two covenants, Hagar.
The household servant. was in slavery, she was under bondage. That represents the law. That's what he says in here, Mount Sinai. Yeah.
He also says it represents the present Jerusalem. It's earthly and natural. In other words, it's what people do. It's the natural course of life. It's what man does.
But then he said there is Sarah in contrast. And Sarah represents The New Covenant. The new covenant. We'll see it. Look at Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 11.
But by faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. That's a powerful verse, isn't it? She considered him faithful who had promised. She, in this analogy, represents what he calls the Jerusalem above. That's what God does.
That's God's business. Sarah getting pregnant was God's business. And having Isaac And Sarah, unlike Hagar, who was In slavery and bondage, Sarah is free and fruitful. In other words, Sarah represents God's will and God's power. at work.
That's what's going on here.
Now, let's talk about a covenant. He talks about the women represent, the two women represent two covenants. What is a covenant? Covenant, testament. Work with me here, okay?
The first part of the Bible, there's two major parts of the Bible. The first part is called the Old. Then the other part of the Bible is called the new Old Testament, New Testament. You say, Rich, this is kind of feeling like elementary here. Testament.
Is a word that is synonymous with covenant. Same word, same meaning.
Okay? Don't divide the two. We could call it Old Covenant and New Covenant. That's how the scriptures are divided in that way. Very important to know that the old covenant points to the new covenant.
And then when Jesus... Yeah. And he was with his disciples, and it's the night that he was betrayed, the night before that he would be nailed to a cross for you and me. He took the cup and he said, This cup is what? The new covenant in my blood.
His death on the cross launched the new covenant. Meaning what? Supernatural birth. Supernatural birth. A covenant is a solemn agreement between God and men by which He makes them His people and promises to be their God.
That was true in the Old Testament, and it was specifically with the nation of Israel. If you were to know Jehovah, the God of Israel, you had to become one with Israel. In the New Testament, In the New Testament, we are Christians. We are the people of God. We are people in covenant with God.
That's why, as he said very clearly here, there is no longer Jew, Gentile, slave, free. Male. There is none of that. It's being in Christ. It's being in Christ.
All right, so the old covenant, look what he says, verse 25 here.
Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. What happened at Mount Sinai? They got the law. That's where they got the law of Moses. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem.
She is in slavery with her children. In other words, under the bondage of the law. Because what it's saying is the law of Moses, that covenant was a conditional covenant. What do I mean by that? God said to them in the law of Moses, and we studied this in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 26, 27, 28. If you keep the law, then you will have blessing. You will be fruitful. You will be productive. You will be prosperous.
If you forsake me and abandon the law, you will receive all the curses of the law. That's the Mosaic law. That's a conditional covenant. It's an if-then. That's what he means by that.
Now, look at verse 26. But the Jerusalem above is free.
Now he's talking about the second covenant. Represented by Sarah, who had a son of promise, a supernatural birth, the new covenant. Again, what did Jesus say? This is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus made the new covenant possible through his work of redemption.
And it is also The fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. Because God made a promise to Abraham: in you will all nations of the earth be blessed. What does that mean? Instead of Mount Sinai, He takes us now to Mount Zion. And what's on Mount Zion?
Across. And that's where You and I. had someone representing us To take upon himself the wrath of God that we deserve. Think about that. And because he took the wrath that we deserve.
and was and died and was buried, and then rose again, He conquered death. And then by faith, when we surrender ourselves in faith to Him, here's what happens: we get His righteousness, and we are raised to new life. That's a supernatural birth. We're born again. We're regenerated.
Born again and regenerate are pretty much synonymous terms. We're regenerated. In other words, life exists in us. If I am in Christ, life exists in me in a way that it did not exist before. I am in Christ.
I am alive in Him. Ephesians 2: you he has made alive. in Christ Jesus. The new covenant, therefore, is an unconditional covenant. Why?
Because Christ's work is done. He did it once for all. He's never going to have to do it again. He did it. And it's done.
And in that unconditional covenant, remember what a covenant is: a solemn agreement between God and men by which He makes his people, makes them his people, and promises to be their God. And this is an unconditional covenant. In this covenant, We have his forgiveness. We receive his righteousness and therefore have newness. We're born anew, born of God.
And then we also have His very presence with us. We have His very presence with us. That's the Holy Spirit. And we have all of this. By faith.
So he speaks of the Jerusalem above, verse 26, but the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother, for it is written. This is interesting. Let's talk about the Jerusalem above here for a minute. What is the significance of the Jerusalem above?
Well, first of all, let's look at 1 Kings 11, verse 36. The Jerusalem, yet to his son I will give one tribe that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem. Here's the key part here: the city where I have chosen to put my name. Jerusalem represents Where God puts his name. Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 22.
Hebrews 12:22. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering. Jerusalem is the place where God puts his name. That's how he's using this idea of Jerusalem here in this analogy. And there's precedent for that in the Old and the New Testament.
So, the presence of God, the place where God chooses to put his name, is the representation of the presence of God, the manifestation of his glory. Here's where that applies to us. Christians. In the New Testament, in the New Covenant. I want you to consider John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13.
Look at this. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become what? Children of God. Who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You see the contrast he's making there?
This is not a natural. Your conversion, your being in Christ, your being a Christian is not just you turning over a new leaf so that for the rest of your life you're going to try harder to be a better person. I'm going to say that again. Because that's how most people see Christianity. Your being a Christian is not you making a decision to turn over a new leaf and for the rest of your life try hard to be a better person.
That is not Christianity. If you think that's what Christianity is, you need to see me afterwards. I need to introduce you to Jesus Christ who came to save you. And he came to free you from that way of thinking. That's what our freedom is in Christ.
Your relation to God is not based on your performance. That is true of every other faith system in the world. but not true of the gospel of grace. The gospel of grace stands alone. This is the point that Paul is hammering home with this analogy.
Because we're talking about not human performance here, we're talking about a supernatural rebirth. That's the gospel of grace. We are. born of God. Think about that.
Christian, sitting here this morning, you are born of God. Staggering thought. The infinite sovereign of the universe. has created you. We're created in Christ Jesus.
And that's why he refers yet to another Old Testament passage, and this one is in Isaiah. It's recorded in verse 27. Look at verse 27 there. 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. What on earth is that talking about?
So we have to go back to some more Old Testament history.
Now, this is something very important to understand here. This is an interpretive reality here. As Paul writes this. He is assuming, he is assuming a knowledge of Old Testament history. And prophecy.
Here's the backstory to this: the Jews. Judah. Taken into captivity. 586 BC, 605, and then again 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar. into the Babylonian Empire.
The northern tribes of Israel had already been taken and scattered.
Alright, but then Judah remains. And Judah, from which we get the word Jews. They were taken into captivity to Babylon. According to the prophecy of Jeremiah. They would be in bapt in pr in captivity for 70 years.
And then They would return back. And you see that. fulfilled in Old Testament prophecy and history. They're taken into captivity and then they're brought back. And this is God's promise.
Now, who's writing this? Isaiah When did Isaiah live in? And serve and minister 700 BC.
So we're talking over a hundred and twenty. Years before this would become a reality. In fact, we're talking close to 200 years before the reality of this prophecy would be fulfilled. Isaiah wrote it. What is he talking about?
You look look what it says. O barren one who does not bear, break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. The children of the desolate one. The imagery here is. God constantly uses the analogy of a marital relationship for his relationship with his people.
And they were under a conditional covenant, and his people were unfaithful. And because of that, they receive the chastisement of God. In other words, God is saying, You don't want to trust me? You don't want to follow me? You'd rather worship a piece of wood?
You'd rather sacrifice your children in a fire to appease the god Baal? Or molech? You would rather do that than trust me? I created all things. I even created you.
And you know what God does? He stands back and He seconds the motion. And when his hand of protection is removed from his chosen people, in come the hordes of enemies who hate them. and want to take them. And as a result of that, He is Wife, his people are like an abandoned woman in the desert.
That's the imagery that's being presented here. A childless abandoned woman in the desert. And then, through this prophecy, through Isaiah, over two, almost two hundred years before. God is going to bring his people back. He's going to restore her.
His people, his wife, okay, he's going to restore her, and she will become a fruitful nation again. The whole point of this prophecy is to bring out The reality, to point to the reality of the barrenness of human strength. as opposed to the fruitfulness of God's Spirit. The barrenness of human strength. Versus the fruitfulness of God's Spirit.
That's verse 27. You humans, you di all this stuff you do on your own and you You think you're okay. You don't you say you don't need me. You create you take a tree. and you chop it down.
You cut it in half, half of it you carve and paint it and set it up and worship it, and the other half you chop it up and use it for firewood. I'm the one who made that. I'm the one who made you, and yet you choose to place and find your security and your satisfaction in this piece of wood that you've carved and painted. You know what the point of that is? We have a profound propensity to worship a God of our creation.
And that's where you mess up. That's where life messes up. And if you think our walk of faith in Christ means that my relation to God is based on my performance, listen to this. This is strong. If your relation to God is based on your performance, you are worshiping a God of your creation.
Because you've made him like you. Paul says that's not okay. Which is why he says, look at verse thirty with me. Cast out the slave woman and her son. The history of that is you had Sarah and Hagar Each of them has a son.
And they're both living under the same roof. That ain't gonna happen. Not okay. Cast out the slave woman. What are you saying here?
Let's bring this down to Today's application right here, okay, performance-based faith. is incompatible with grace-based living. Performance-based faith is incompatible with grace-based living. Grace-based living is living in the outflow. We're going to talk about that a whole lot more when we get into chapter 5.
Walking in the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit, being led by the Spirit. Functioning according to the Spirit. We serve by the new way of the Spirit, Romans 7:6, instead of the old way of the letter. But what he's doing is he's leading us through an introduction to this reality that he's going to be really hammering home in chapter 5. This is what it looks like to live in the gospel of grace.
And it has nothing to do with your performance in terms of your relation to God. We have to be very careful that we, when it comes to performance-based faith. and grace-based living that we don't conflate the two. You can probably finish this statement with me, can't you? being busy for God.
Is not equal to walking with God. Know the difference.
So many of you can give testimony to that. I can give testimony to that. I can be in my office and study and study and study and meet with people and do things and all this, and if I can be very busy doing all those things, it doesn't mean I'm walking with God. Walking with God is not about all the good things that you're doing for God. I'm starting to preach.
And I'm getting ahead of myself here, okay? Do not conflate the two. Performance-based faith. and graced-based living. They are incompatible.
Listen, it's a battle that you and I face constantly because we are naturally. Legalists. We naturally have a tendency to say, just tell me what I have to do. What do I have to do for God to be happy with me? We are not.
children of slavery. We are not children of slavery because children of slavery continually ask the question. or think about Th what I must do. Children of slavery, their MO for the day is what I must do. Conformity to an external standard.
He says, we are not children of slavery, but we are children of freedom. We are children of promise. Verse 28. We are born according to the Spirit. It says verse 29 there: just as that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit.
Ishmael. gave Isaac a hard time. Because Isaac was younger than him. He was his little brother. And you know how it goes?
The older brother always picks on the little brother. I know, I'm the youngest of four. But this is exactly what's going on in in the Galatian churches. Ishmael is giving Isaac A hard time. You have to be like me.
That's what he's saying. That's the analogy that Paul's making. And Paul takes Isaac. Under his arm and he says, Listen to me. No, you don't.
You do not have to be like Ishmael. You're a child of promise. You had a supernatural birth. You were born according to the Spirit. You have a power and a resource way beyond.
what he has. That's why he's introducing us to Chapter Five. I want you to notice. This is just a preview, okay? Walk in the spirit, and you will not gratify the selfish desires of the flesh.
Isn't that awesome? Here's the key. Here's the challenge for you and me. We need to know what he means by walk in the Spirit. Yeah.
It begins with knowing that you are born of the Spirit. It begins with knowing that you are the product of a supernatural birth. That being a good Christian is not up to your natural performance. It's God's work in you and through you. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Listen, that's not just Good, spiritual, speak, and biblical platitude. That's reality for the Christian. And it is up to us believers to know what that means. And how we live that. Chapter 5.
We're born according to the Spirit. We serve in the new way of the Spirit. We are products of supernatural birth. And instead of being preoccupied with what I must do. We become preoccupied with what God has done and is doing.
What God has done and is doing. I am created in Christ Jesus. two good works. I am born again. I am regenerate.
I am a new creation. There exists within me a newness of life. And so I can walk in that newness of life. All this, just simply to say this. You and I, listen to me.
Every other faith system demands that you be transformed by conformity. to an external code. The gospel of grace. informs you. that by faith you are transformed from the inside.
Out. We need to be aware of that. Again, the point that Paul is hammering home. I love what Paul says to the Philippian church, Philippians 2:13. It is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
I challenge you to do this along with Romans 7:6. Pin this somewhere in your house that you look every d Connect to your mirror, okay, 'cause you all look in the mirror every day. Or the dashboard of your car, or your refrigerator. We all go to the refrigerator. A man who thinks like I do.
It is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So right now I know what you're asking. I know what you're asking, so what must I do? Leading up to chapter 5, let me introduce you once again to the habits of regeneration. If it is God who is working in me, if it is Christ who is living in me, then it follows that what I must do is to draw near to God.
What I must do. Is abide in Christ. What I must do. is walk in the Spirit. What I must do Is let his word dwell in me richly.
I'm going to make you a guarantee this morning. If you Purpose. Faithfully by God's grace to be labor-intensive in those four things, I guarantee you this. That you will find yourself becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. and your default way of thinking about performance will become diminished.
Because you will be living in the outflow. of your communion with God. That's how transformation works by the gospel of grace. This is what Paul's hammering home. I'm looking forward to getting into chapter 5 with you.
Would you stand with me, please?
Okay. Father, we stand in awe. Of the beauty and the goodness. Of your grace. It's you, a holy God.
Would make us your own. We are self-preeminent rebels and we acknowledge that, Father. We are weak and limited. But thank you, Father, for the newness that is ours in Christ. Through faith.
Father, help us to know. the reality of that. to contemplate that and to walk in that. Because we are born of the Spirit. We are products of a supernatural birth.
Yeah. Free us, Father, from the drudgery of performance. To live in the freedom and the outflow. of our communion with you, our delight in you. our satisfaction in you.
Our pursuit of you. Our love for you. Father, you have. You have told us in your word that if we draw near to you, you will draw near to us. And so we ask that this morning, Father.
Rescue us. From our legalism. Free us in our hearts and our minds, Father. To walk with joy and freedom. Thank you, Lord.
for all that you have done. as the basis, as the foundation for this freedom for us. Thank you for the great promises of your word through which we become partakers of the divine nature. Wow. Father, we are your church.
And we long to be the church. And so we ask that this morning, Father, that you will Have your way in our hearts and our minds. And as we leave this place. We will be even more beautiful than we were before. That we will show.
Our world. The beauty of Christ. Thank you for this high privilege that is ours, Lord. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you for listening to this message from June 29th, 2025, titled Born According to the Spirit. Join us for the next message in the series next Monday. here at delightingrace.com.
